fire, and the Spaniards were forced out and all massacred.

Tupac Amaru had no power to check these and other excesses with which the insurrectionary career of the Peruvians was stained. At the head of a large army, he occupied the highlands, from which he despatched parties to make incursions against the enemy. Had he confined himself to this mode of warfare, he would probably have succeeded in wasting their forces by a constant series of harassing attacks, and in this manner the revolt of the Peruvians might have been brought to a successful issue. But, either from want of sagacity, or an inability to restrain the ardent and adventurous spirit of his followers, he allowed himself to be forced to a pitched battle in the open plain, where the superior numbers of his men could avail nothing against the arms, the discipline, and the skill of European troops. At Tungasuca the Peruvians encountered an army of sixteen thousand Spaniards, and, at the end of an obstinate conflict, were entirely defeated, leaving the field of battle covered with their dead.

Tupac Amaru, after escaping from the field where his army had been routed, was made prisoner by the Spaniards, together with his wife and family. He was immediately put upon trial and tortured to compel him to disclose his accomplices. "I have only two accomplices," was his reply, "myself and you: you, in robbing the people, and I, in endeavoring to prevent you." It is needless to say, that he was condemned to death. The mode of his execution is characteristic of Spanish justice in America. His

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wife, children and kindred were first put to death before his eyes. After this, his tongue was plucked out by the hangman, and he was then torn asunder, limb from limb, by four wild, horses. Thus fell the brave and heroic leader of the Peruvians, in their first attempt to throw off the yoke of the Spanish tyrants. Since the foundation of the empire of the Incas, Peru has no nobler name than Tupac Amaru.

It does not fall within the limits of this work to record the whole history of the Peruvian insurrection, which abounds with events of the deepest interest. After a bloody struggle for two years, during which one third of the entire population of Peru perished by the hand of violence, the revolt was suppressed. Twenty years afterwards the historian Funes saw the plains of Sicasica and Calamaca, for forty miles in extent, covered with heaps of unburied bones, lying in the plains where the wretched Indians fell, to bleach in the tropical sun. The tyrannical oppression of this unfortunate race was renewed with additional severity, and continued till the general revolt of Spanish America early in the present century.

QUETZALCOATL.

THE earliest traditions of the American Indians present us the names of certain remarkable personages, to whom they referred the origin of their civilization. Their histories are all more or less obscured by fable, and a sceptical inquirer might assign their existence to the regions of mythology. While the inhabitants of the western continent are still in their original state of barbarism, these mysterious persons arise among them, and, by the exercise of some unknown influence, acquire such a degree of power over their minds as to turn them from the savage state, and implant in their communities the germ of civilized life. These important events are not always detailed with distinctness, and the real facts are often embellished with accounts that are allied to the marvellous. Men with beards and with clearer complexions than the rest of the people, make their appearance among the mountains of Anahuac, on the plain of Cundinamarca, and in the elevated regions of Cuzco, without any indications of the place of their birth. These strange beings, bearing the title of high priests, of legislators, and of the friends of peace and the arts, are received with veneration by the natives, who submit implicitly to their authority. Manco Capac is the lawgiver of Peru. Bochica presents himself on the high plateaus of Bogota, where he acquires authority among the Muyscas; but of this individual we have hardly any

distinct account, beyond the simple fact that he came from the savannas that extend along the east of the great mountain ridge of the Cordilleras.

Quetzalcoatl, who performs a similar part among the tribes which afterward constituted the Mexican empire, is said to have appeared first at Panuco, on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, clothed in a black sacerdotal robe. He was a white and bearded man, and became high priest and chief magistrate of Tula. He established a religious sect, the members of which, like the fanatics of Hindostan, inflicted on themselves the most cruel penances. He introduced the custom of boring the lips and ears, and of lacerating and mangling the body. He led the life of a hermit, and his chosen place of retirement was the volcano of Catzitepetl, where he walked barefooted on the prickly leaves of the agave. The reign of Quetzalcoatl was the golden age of the people of Anahuac. All the classic fables of the Saturnian times are imitated in the descriptions of this period. Men and animals. lived in peace; the earth, unassisted by the labor of man, brought forth the most fruitful harvests, and the air was filled with multitudes of birds, admirable both for the melody of their songs and the magnificence of their plumage. But this delightful state of things was not of long duration. The great spirit, Tezcatlipoca, offered Quetzalcoatl a cup of drink, which rendered him immortal, but at the same time inspired him with a desire for roaming. He had heard of a distant country, called Tlapallan, and set out in search of it. With his departure all things began to deteriorate.