They Pronounced Atahualpa
Guilty, And Condemned Him To Be Burnt Alive.
Friar Valverde prostituted
the authority of his sacred function to confirm this sentence, and by his
signature warranted it to be just.
Astonished at his fate, Atahualpa
endeavoured to avert it by tears, by promises, and by entreaties that he
might be sent to Spain, where a monarch would be the arbiter of his lot.
But pity never touched the unfeeling heart of Pizarro. He ordered him to
be led instantly to execution; and, what added to the bitterness of his
last moments, the same monk who had just ratified his doom, offered to
console, and attempted to convert him. The most powerful argument Valverde
employed to prevail with him to embrace the Christian faith, was a promise
of mitigation in his punishment. The dread of a cruel death extorted from
the trembling victim a desire of receiving baptism. The ceremony was
performed; and Atahualpa, instead of being burnt alive, was strangled at
the stake."
Ruminagui, one of the captains under Atahualpa, who had fled with five
thousand men from Caxamarca, as already related, having arrived in the
kingdom of Quito, seized the children of Atahualpa, and made himself
master of that country as if he had been the lawful sovereign. A short
time before his death, Atahualpa had sent his brother Illescas into the
kingdom of Quito, with orders to bring his children from thence; but
Ruminagui not only refused to deliver them up, but even put them all to
death.
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