in a fashionable and cold-hearted world, kindness and attention, when we are sick, beget lasting affections, and the impression is deeper and more lasting when their attentions flow from the philanthropy of strangers, who act neither from the ties of kindred, or nation, or from any hopes of notoriety or reciprocity. The heart of Don Diego was too full for words;-he promised them that he would return, and be their friend during life. The stranger's horse, which the young Peruvian had secreted in the woods, during the sickness of Diego, and fed him in privacy, for fear that he would be destroyed by the natives, who were not accustomed to the sight of such an animal, was now brought to the garden gate. Turning to Nuna, he said, "We shall soon meet again." "" 'Never," was the reply. Atahualpa, by this time, is acquainted with all. He will take us to the temple of the sun, and you destroy." "My dear friend," said Diego, "if you have no other fears, dismiss them; the emperor dares not touch me, and shall not injure you; the Spaniards have terrible instruments of death, the Inca understand the art of war."

he will

cannot hurt them, and they Mounting his charger, he All were glad to see him,

soon reached Pizarro's camp. except Pizarro, who had contemplated the capture of Atahualpa, and he feared that the high Castilian blood of Don Diego Chocolato would mantle his cheek at any appearance of perfidy. Diego gave a general account of his illness, and of the kindness he had experienced from the Peruvians, but did not mention names, or precise places.

In a few days it was rumored that Atahualpa had

made his preparations, which were wonderfully magnificent, to visit the Spanish camp. He soon made his appearance, when the outrage took place which we have recounted.

Diego, with eight or ten Castilians, whose lofty feelings of honor would not permit them to join the slaughter of defenceless men, did not act in the work of death with Pizarro and his assassins; but while he was turning away from the bloody spectacle, the young Peruvian rushed towards Diego, with vengeance in his looks, and gave the information that Nuna Nina and Tanta Ashla had been dragged from their father's residence, and were now in the Acllahua; that this was done by the emissaries of the emperor, and that the good old cacique and his wife were in the prisons of Quito, for having shown mercy and kindness to one who had profaned the ground sacred to the cultivation of the Incas, and shot the sacred bird. In an instant Diego and his Castilians were on a gallop towards the city; and on reaching the golden doors of the temple, broke them into a thousand pieces with their battle-axes, and were at once in the midst of the virgins, who were all kneeling before the image of the sun, and with downcast eye chanting in solemn accents a hymn of propitiation; for the roar of Pizarro's cannon, and the discharge of musketry, were reverberating with tremendous echoes among the mountains near Quito, and filling the city with affright. When the priestess lifted up her eyes, she thought the Castilians were demigods, sent from the sun to protect them, and they changed the song to one of thanksgiving

8

and praise. Diego, with a lover's glance, saw his adored Peruvian, with her sister, kneeling in the outer row of the vestals, for they had not as yet taken the vows. He took the fair ones by the hand, and led them forth, while the young Peruvian explained to the virgins the reason of the forcible entry into the house of the stars. The prisons were near, and in a few moments, bars, bolts, and doors, were shivered into atoms, and the cacique and his wife were on their way to the Spanish camp.

Spanish honor and love would not admit of delay, in such a case, and Don Diego Chocolato was married after the rites of the church, to Nuna Nina, a descendant of the Incas, before the sun had gone down on that day's massacre,—and in a few days Tanta Ashla became the wife of Francisco Davila, a brave and worthy Castilian. These were the first marriages between the Spaniards and Peruvians. When Diego entered the Acllahua, he was surprised at the composure of Nuna. She seemed as serene as if she had been an inmate of the house for years. She appeared an emanation of a lovely morning sun, free from all clouds-and followed her deliverer as if she expected him as a bridegroom. He ventured after a few days to allude to the circumstance;-she smiling, made him this answer, "I knew you were coming to relieve me, my sister, and father, and had no doubts on my mind about the whole affair. I told the priestess of the sun, all that was to take place, and she believed so far as to delay the religious ceremonies of the vows. She consulted the oracles of Acllahua, and their responses were such that she dared

not insist on the ceremonies of the virgins of the sun at the usual time. I had told her of the noise of the cannon, of the captivity of Atahualpa.

"This fortitude arose from a vision the sun suffered me to receive. I will, for your satisfaction, relate it. On the evening of the day you left us, Atahualpa sent us to the Acllahua. I looked at the moon our mother, and praying with all the agony of my soul to be relieved from the solemnities of the religious vows or the embraces of the emperor of Quito, I fell into a profound sleep, with my eyelids wet with tears, and my heart palpitating with grief. The good mother of the Incas, Coya Mama, came to me on a bright and golden throne, and said to me, Daughter, be of good cheer, your inclinations are not to be violated. All will be well with you, but Oh! my country. With the mother of the Incas, you still are safe. I was at once transported to the highest point of the Andes, and not only the whole surface of the kingdom of the sun was before me, but all the civilized world rose up to my view.

"The children of the sun," she continued,

are soon

to be sunk into the shades of night, and the Incas only to be a subject of tradition, perhaps of history. The emperor Atahualpa, for his crimes, is to suffer death without regret or honorable mention. He was your enemy, but he is no longer to be found. Cast your eyes on either ocean; all must submit to the invaders. They will rule. The children of the sun will be commingled with this new race. Repine not at this; it is the will of The Un

known God, who is greater than the sun; to him you must bow. The Acllahua will soon be destroyed; the purity of the vestals cannot control the fates;-they will be scattered and forgotten, and a solemn race of friars, monks, and chanting nuns will take their places. It must be so. The last groans of the virgins of the sun are now sounding in my ears. Other nations are to be interested in the fate of the Peruvians, and particularly the tribes around us." She then pointed to a small island in the northeast, at almost a sightless distance. It seemed but a speck in the horizon. It was a very little spot; they had many boats ready for adventures. The GREAT HARRY with her great castles, was floating in the waters, and her warriors were harnessed for the fight. "That small island,” said Coya Mama, "is to be the greatest nation on the great waters, that the sun even looked down upon." She said, look again. The Great Harry was not to be seen; but a virgin queen, a priestess of the sun, was seen in mortal fray, with an hundred ships, and was victorious. Her enemy was scattered, sunk, or disappeared;-the gods assisted them, she said. She directed my attention to the immeasurable wilds of the north. The forests were thick and tall; and here and there a red man was wandering with his bow to kill his game. I was directed to look again, and here and there a settlement had been made by white men, who were driving the red men from the sea-shore. They grew like the small clouds which hover over the Andes to a mighty one, and in one vast storm was pouring down on the red men. "Leave them,"