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Name: Class: Date:

Chapter 08: Arrays

True / False

1. You can declare an array variable by placing curly brackets after the array name.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 394

2. When an application contains an array and you want to use every element of the array in some task, it is common to
perform loops that vary the loop control variable from 0 to one less than the size of the array.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 402

3. When you want to determine whether a variable holds one of many valid values, one option is to use a do…while loop
to compare the variable to a series of valid values.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 414

4. When using parallel arrays, if one array has many possible matches, it is most efficient to place the less common items
first so that they are matched right away.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 417

5. Many programmers feel that breaking out of a for loop early disrupts the loop flow and makes the code harder to
understand.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 418

6. To initialize an array, you use an initialization list of values separated by commas and enclosed within curly braces.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
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POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

7. When you create an array variable, memory space is automatically reserved.

a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 395

8. When array elements are passed by value, a copy of the value is made and used within the receiving method.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 423-424

9. Since an array name is a reference, you are able to use the = operator for assigning and the == operator for
comparisons.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 424

10. When returning an array reference, square brackets are included with the return type in the method header.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 426

Multiple Choice

11. After you create an array variable, you still need to ____ memory space.
a. create b. organize
c. reserve d. dump
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 395

12. When you declare or access an array, you can use any expression to represent the size, as long as the expression is
_____.
a. a variable b. enclosed in brackets

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Chapter 08: Arrays

c. an integer d. a list
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 396

13. Languages such as Visual Basic, BASIC, and COBOL use ____ to refer to individual array elements.
a. ( ) b. [ ]
c. { } d. < >
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 395

14. A(n) ____ is an integer contained within square brackets that indicates one of an array’s variables.
a. postscript b. subscript
c. variable header d. indicator
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 395

15. When you declare an array name, no computer memory address is assigned to it. Instead, the array variable name has
the special value ____, or Unicode value ‘\u0000’.
a. empty b. null
c. false d. zero
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

16. In Java, boolean array elements automatically are assigned the value ____.
a. null b. ‘\u0000’
c. true d. false
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

17. When you create an array of objects, each reference is assigned the value ____.
a. null b. ‘\u0000’
c. true d. false
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

18. You use a ____ following the closing brace of an array initialization list.
a. . b. ;
c. : d. ,
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ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

19. Providing values for all the elements in an array is called ____ the array.
a. populating b. declaring
c. filling d. irrigating
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

20. When any ____ type (boolean, char, byte, short, int, long, float, or double) is passed to a method, the
value is passed.
a. array b. dummy
c. element d. primitive
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 424

21. The length ____ contains the number of elements in the array.
a. box b. field
c. area d. block
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 403

22. A(n) ____ loop allows you to cycle through an array without specifying the starting and ending points for the loop
control variable.
a. do…while b. inner
c. enhanced for d. enhanced while
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 403

23. If a class has only a default constructor, you must call the constructor using the keyword ____ for each declared array
element.
a. default b. new
c. first d. object
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 408

24. Comparing a variable to a list of values in an array is a process called ____ an array.
a. validating b. using
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c. checking d. searching
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 415

25. A ____ array is one with the same number of elements as another, and for which the values in corresponding elements
are related.
a. cloned b. parallel
c. property d. two-dimensional
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 415

26. When you initialize parallel arrays, it is convenient to use ____ so that the values that correspond to each other
visually align on the screen or printed page.
a. tabs b. indentation
c. spacing d. dashes
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 417

27. When you perform a ____, you compare a value to the endpoints of numerical ranges to find the category in which a
value belongs.
a. range match b. sort
c. reference d. search
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 419

28. It is a good programming practice to ensure that a subscript to an array does not fall below zero, causing a(n) ____.
a. array dump b. runtime error
c. conundrum d. compiling error
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 420

29. Individual array elements are ____ by value when a copy of the value is made and used within the receiving method.
a. sorted b. passed
c. received d. stored
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 423-426

30. When any primitive type variable is passed to a method, the _____ is passed.

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a. value b. reference
c. location d. memory
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 424

31. When a method returns an array reference, you include ____ with the return type in the method header.
a. { } b. ( )
c. < > d. [ ]
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 426

32. Which of the following println statements will display the last myScores element in an array of 10?
a. System.out.println(vals[0]); b. System.out.println(vals[1]);
c. System.out.println(vals[9]); d. System.out.println(vals[10]);
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 396-397

33. Which of the following statements correctly declares and creates an array to hold five double scores values?
a. integer[] scores = new double[5] b. double[] scores = new integer[5]
c. double[] = new scores[5] d. double[] scores = new double[5]
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 397

34. Which of the following statements correctly initializes an array with an initialization list?
a. int[] nums = {2, 4, 8}; b. int[] nums = (2, 4, 8);
c. int nums = [2, 4, 8]; d. int nums() = int{2, 4, 8}
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

35. In which of the following statements is the value of myVals null?

a. int myVals = "" b. int [] myVals;
c. myVals = int[null] d. int[null] = myVals
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

Completion

36. A(n) ____________________ is a named list of data items that all have the same type.
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Chapter 08: Arrays

ANSWER: array
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 394

37. When you declare or access an array, you can use any expression to represent the size, as long as the expression is a(n)
____________________.
ANSWER: integer
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 396

38. When you declare int[] someNums = new int[10];, each element of someNums has a value of
____________________ because someNums is an integer array.
ANSWER: 0
zero
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

39. An instance variable or object field is also called a(n) ____________________ of the object.
ANSWER: property
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 403

40. When any primitive type is passed to a method, the ____________________ is passed.
ANSWER: value
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 424

Matching

Match each term with the correct statement below.

a. array variable
b. reference type
c. elements
d. int
e. Java object names
f. length
g. foreach loop
h. reference types
i. return
REFERENCES: 394
424
395
399
399
403
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Chapter 08: Arrays

404
399
426

41. Numbered beginning with 0

ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1

42. An array field

ANSWER: f
POINTS: 1

43. An enhanced for loop

ANSWER: g
POINTS: 1

44. Declared in the same way you declare any simple variable
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1

45. A nonprimitive object

ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1

46. A primitive type

ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1

47. Represent computer memory addresses

ANSWER: e
POINTS: 1

48. A statement used to return an array from a method

ANSWER: i
POINTS: 1

49. Hold memory addresses where values are stored

ANSWER: h
POINTS: 1

Subjective Short Answer

50. Describe a situation in which storing just one value at a time in memory does not meet your needs.
ANSWER: At times you might encounter situations in which storing just one value at a time in memory does not
meet your needs. For example, a sales manager who supervises 20 employees might want to determine
whether each employee has produced sales above or below the average amount. When you enter the first
employee’s sales value into an application, you can’t determine whether it is above or below average
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because you don’t know the average until you have all 20 values. Unfortunately, if you attempt to assign
20 sales values to the same variable, when you assign the value for the second employee, it replaces the
value for the first employee.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 394

51. What is a subscript and how are the array’s elements numbered?
ANSWER: A subscript is an integer contained within square brackets that indicates one of an array’s variables, or
elements. In Java, any array’s elements are numbered beginning with 0, so you can legally use any
subscript from 0 to 19 when working with an array that has 20 elements.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 395

52. What does an array’s name represent and what value does it hold when declared?
ANSWER: Array names contain references, as do all Java object names. When you declare an array name using
only a data type, brackets, and a name, no memory address is assigned to it. Instead, the array variable
name has the special value null. When you declare int[] someNums;, the variable
name someNums has a value of null.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

53. When working with arrays, why is it beneficial to use a loop with a declared constant equal to the size of the array?
ANSWER: It is convenient to declare a named constant equal to the size of the array and use it as a limiting value in
every loop that processes the array. That way, if the array size changes in the future, you need to
modify only the value stored in the named, symbolic constant, and you do not need to search for
and modify the limiting value in every loop that processes the array.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 403

54. When using an array with all elements used, why would a programmer use a loop control variable from 0 to one less
than the size of the array? Give an example.
ANSWER: When an application contains an array and you want to use every element of the array in some task, it is
common to perform loops that vary the loop control variable from 0 to one less than the size of the array.
For example, if you get input values for the elements in the array, alter every value in the array, sum all
the values in the array, or display every element in the array, you need to perform a loop that executes
the same number of times as there are elements.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 402

55. How would you use a method that belongs to an object that is part of the array? Use an example and demonstrate with
Java code.
ANSWER: To use a method that belongs to an object that is part of an array, you insert the appropriate subscript
notation after the array name and before the dot that precedes the method name. For example, to display
data for seven Employees stored in the emps array, you can write the following:

for(int x = 0; x < emps.length; ++x)

System.out.println (emps[x].getEmpNum() + " "
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+ emps[x].getSalary());
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 408

56. Why would you use spacing when initializing parallel arrays?
ANSWER: When you initialize parallel arrays, it is convenient to use spacing so that the values that correspond to
each other visually align on the screen or printed page.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 417

57. How would a programmer perform a range match when writing an application that takes into consideration different
discount rates for customers? Give an example.
ANSWER: Create two corresponding arrays and perform a range match, in which you compare a value to the
endpoints of numerical ranges to find the category in which a value belongs. For example, one array can
hold the five discount rates, and the other array can hold five discount range limits. If you only use the
first figure in each range, you can create an array that holds five low limits:

int[] discountRangeLimit= {1, 13, 50, 100, 200};

A parallel array can hold the five discount rates:

double[] discountRate = {0, 0.10, 0.14, 0.18, 0.20};

Then, starting at the last discountRangeLimit array element, for any numOfItems greater than or
equal to discountRangeLimit[4], the appropriate discount is discount[4]. In other words, for
any numOrdered less than discountRangeLimit[4], you should decrement the subscript and
look in a lower range.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 419

58. What is different about passing an array to a method rather than passing a primitive type to a method?
ANSWER: Because an array name is a reference, you cannot assign another array to it using the = operator, nor can
you compare two arrays using the == operator. Additionally, when you pass an array (that is, pass its
name) to a method, the receiving method gets a copy of the array’s actual memory address. This means
that the receiving method has access to, and the ability to alter, the original values in the array elements
in the calling method.With a primitive, the method gets a copy of the variable's value, not the address of
the value, so the original value cannot be altered by the method.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 424

59. How can you use the enhanced for loop?

ANSWER: You can use the enhanced for loop to cycle through an array of objects. For example, to display data
for seven Employees stored in the emps array, you can write the following:
for(Employee worker : emps)
System.out.println(worker.getEmpNum() + " " + worker.getSalary();

In this loop, worker is a local variable that represents each element of emps in turn. Using the

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enhanced for loop eliminates the need to use a limiting value for the loop and eliminates the need for a
subscript following each element.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 408

60. When populating an array with an initialization list, you do not need to use the new keyword or provide an array size.
Explain why this is the case.
ANSWER: When you populate an array upon creation by providing an initialization list, you do not
give the array a size because the size is assigned based on the number of values you place in the
initializing list. Also, when you initialize an array, you do not need to use the keyword new. New
memory is assigned based on the length of the list of provided values.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

61. Why is the length field a good option when writing a loop that manipulates an array? What programming error is
common when attempting to use length as an array method?
ANSWER: The length field contains the number of elements in the array. If you modify the size of the array and
recompile the program, the value in the length field of the array changes appropriately. When you
work with array elements, it is always better to use a named constant or the length field when writing
a loop that manipulates an array.
A frequent programmer error is to attempt to use length as an array method, referring
to xxx.length(). However, length is not an array method; it is a field. An instance variable or
object field such as length is also called a property of the object.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 403

62. While you can provide any legal identifier you want for an array, conventional rules are typically followed. List and
describe the naming conventions for naming arrays.
ANSWER: Java programmers conventionally name arrays by following the same rules they use for variables:
Array names start with a lowercase letter.
Use uppercase letters to begin subsequent words.
Additionally, many programmers observe one of the following conventions to make it
more obvious that the name represents a group of items:
Arrays are often named using a plural noun such as salesFigures.
Arrays are often named by adding a final word that implies a group, such as salesList.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 394-395

63. int[] multsOfTen = {10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60};

The above code creates an array named multsOfTen. Describe how array sizes are determined when using an
initialization list and how memory is assigned.
ANSWER: When you populate an array upon creation by providing an initialization list, you do not give the array a
size—the size is assigned based on the number of values you place in the initializing list. For example,
the multsOfTen array just defined has a size of 6. Also, when you initialize an array, you do not need
to use the keyword new; instead, new memory is assigned based on the length of the list of provided
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values.
In Java, you cannot directly initialize part of an array. For example, you cannot create an array of 10
elements and initialize only five; you either must initialize every element or none of them.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

64. The following statement declares an array:

int[] scoreArray = {2, 14, 35, 67, 85};
final int INCREASE = 3;

Create a loop that will add INCREASE to every array element. Use the length field in the loop that will contain the
number of elements in the array.
ANSWER: for(sub = 0; sub < scoreArray.length; ++sub)
scoreArray[sub] += INCREASE;

POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 403

65. public class CostArray

{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
double[] costs = new double[3];
costs[0] = 5.00;
costs[1] = 7.00;
costs[2] = 9.00;
System.out.println(costs[3]);
}
}

Once the above code is compiled and executed, an error message is generated. Explain the error message that will result
and explain the reason for the error.
ANSWER: An out-of-bounds error is generated when the code is compiled and executed. The last executable line in
the code is an output statement that attempts to display a costs value using a subscript that is beyond
the range of the array: System.out.println(costs[3]). The program will run successfully
when the subscript used with the array is 0, 1, or 2. However, when the subscript reaches 3, the
ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException error is generated. The message indicates that the subscript
is out of bounds and that the offending index is 3.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 399

66. String[] countyNames = {"Clark", "Delaware", "Madison"};

Using the above statement, what will be the value of countyNames[0], countyNames[1], and
countyNames[2]?
ANSWER: countyNames[0] will hold the value “Clark”
countyNames[1] will hold the value “Delaware”
countyNames[2] will hold the value “Madison”
POINTS: 1
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REFERENCES: 408-409

67. Write the statement to create an array named studentScores that will store five integer value student scores.
Initialize the array using an initialization list with the values 70, 85, 92, 67, and 76.
ANSWER: int[] studentScores = {70, 85, 92, 67, 76};
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 400

68. Using just one statement, declare and create an array that will reserve memory locations for 10 scores values that
are type double.
ANSWER: double[] scores = new double[10];
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 395

69. Write the statement to declare an array of integers that will hold studentScores.
ANSWER: int[] studentScores;
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 394

70. double[] studentScores;

double studentScores[];

Are both of the above statements valid for declaring an array variable? Why or why not?
ANSWER: You declare an array variable in the same way you declare any simple variable, but you insert a pair of
square brackets after the type. To declare an array of double values to hold studentScores, you can
write the following:
double[] studentScores;

In Java, you can also declare an array variable by placing the square brackets after the array name, as in
double studentScores[];. This format is familiar to C and C++ programmers, but the preferred
format among Java programmers is to place the brackets following the variable type and before the
variable name.
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 394

71. String[] countyNames = {"Clark", "Delaware", "Madison"};

What will be the value of countyNames[0].length(), countyNames[1].length(), and

countyNames[2].length()?
ANSWER: countyNames[0].length() will have a value of 5
countyNames[1].length() will have a value of 8
countyNames[2].length() will have a value of 7
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 409

72. public static int[] sampleArray()

{
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Chapter 08: Arrays

int studentScores = {72, 91, 83};
____
}

Using the above code, write the statement that will return the array name.
ANSWER: return studentScores;
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 426

73. Write the statement to declare an array variable named studentScores with type double. Write a second
statement to create an array of 10 objects of type double.
ANSWER: double[] studentScores;
studentScores = new double [10];
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 395

74. double[] studentScores = new double[3];

studentScores[0] = 93;
studentScores[1] = 77;
studentScores[2] = 85;

Write a println statement to display the last element of the studentScores array.
ANSWER: System.out.println(studentScores[2]);
POINTS: 1
REFERENCES: 396

Cengage Learning Testing, Powered by Cognero Page 14

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that Charles shed tears at the recital of such great sufferings so
nobly supported. Compelled to leave Spain, he recommended Pizarro
to the Council of the Indies; and after some delay, the famous
Capitulacion or agreement was drawn up and signed by the queen.
By this document Pizarro received right of conquest and discovery in
Peru as far as two hundred leagues south of Santiago, was made
governor, captain-general, Adelantado and Alguaçil Mayor for life,
with a salary of seven hundred and twenty-five thousand maravedis,
and various immunities and privileges. Almagro was appointed
commander of the fortress of Tumbez; Father Luque got his
bishopric; Ruiz was named grand pilot of the Southern Ocean;
Candia received command of the artillery; and on the eleven others
who had remained on the island with Pizarro, the rank of hidalgo
was bestowed, besides the promise of municipal dignities in Peru,
when it should be under the Spanish rule. From this statement, it is
apparent that Pizarro either did not attempt, or failed in his
endeavours, to procure for Almagro and Ruiz the offices he had
promised to solicit for them, and which, on the contrary, were all
heaped upon himself. This treachery, or want of success, was the
cause of bad blood between him and Almagro. Pizarro’s conduct in
the affair has been variously represented by different writers. His
kinsman, Pedro Pizarro, vindicates him from the charge of unfair
dealing. “And Don Francisco Pizarro petitioned in accordance with
what had been agreed with his companions; and in the council he
was answered that the government could not possibly be divided
between two persons, for that had been done in Santa Marta, and
one of the two had killed the other.” And Pedro, who is a bit of
partisan, and has a natural leaning to his cousin and commander,
further states, that Pizarro, in honourable fulfilment of his promise,
pleaded urgently for Almagro, till he received a rebuff, and was told,
that if he did not ask the adelantamiento for himself, it should be
given to a stranger. Whereupon he applied for it, and it was granted
him in addition to his other dignities. He was also made a knight of
St Jago; and in the armorial bearings which he inherited by the
father’s side, were introduced the black eagle and the two pillars
emblazoned on the royal arms. A ship, a llama, and an Indian city
were further added; “while the legend announced that under the
auspices of Charles, and by the industry, the genius, and the
resources of Pizarro, Peru had been discovered and reduced to
tranquillity.” A premature announcement, which many subsequent
scenes of bloodshed and violence sadly belied. As regards the good
faith kept by Pizarro with Almagro and his other companions, and
the degree of sincerity and perseverance with which he pressed their
claims at the court of Spain, Mr Prescott is justly sceptical; and much
of the conqueror’s after-conduct compels us to believe that in such
solicitations it was one word for his friend and two for himself. It is
less interesting, however, to trace his dissimulation and double-
dealing, and the dissensions resulting from them, than to accompany
him upon his final expedition to the empire of the Incas.

Although, by the articles of the capitulacion, Pizarro was bound to

raise, within six months of its date, a well-equipped force of two
hundred and fifty men, it was with less than three-fourths of that
number that he sailed from Panama in January 1531. Careful to
secure an ample share of the profits of the enterprise, the Spanish
government did nothing to assist it, beyond providing some artillery
and a few military stores. Pizarro must find the funds and the men,
and this was no easy matter. To obtain the latter, he repaired to his
native town of Truxillo in Estremadura, where he recruited a few
followers. Amongst them were four of his brothers—three
illegitimate like himself, and one legitimate, Hernando Pizarro, a man
of talent and energy, but of turbulent and overbearing disposition,
who cut an important figure in the Peruvian campaigns. “They were
all poor, and proud as they were poor,” says Oviedo, who had seen
them, “and their eagerness for gain was in proportion to their
poverty.” Consequently the New World was the very place for them.
Many, however, who listened eagerly to Pizarro’s account of the
wealth to be obtained there, hesitated to seek it through the avenue
of perils by which it was to be reached. As to money, those who had
it were loath to invest on such frail security as Peruvian mines; thus
proving themselves wiser in their generation than many in more
recent times. Cortés, it is said, assisted Pizarro to the necessary
funds, which he would hardly have raised without the aid of the
Mexican conqueror; and the stipulated six months having expired,
the newly-made governor of Peru cut his cables, and in all haste left
the shores of Spain, fearing that if the incompleteness of his
preparations got wind, the Spanish crown might recede from its
share of the contract. At Panama, recruits were as reluctant and
scarce as in Spain; and at last, impatient of delay, he started on his
expedition with only one hundred and eighty men and twenty-seven
horses. Their equipment, however, was good; they were well
supplied with arms and ammunition, and, above all, sanguine of
success. Before their departure, their banners and the royal standard
were blessed by a Dominican monk, and the soldiers took the
sacrament.

Anchoring after thirteen days’ sail in the Bay of St Matthew,

Pizarro landed his men and marched along the coast. He at first
intended not to disembark till he reached Tumbez, of whose riches
and fertility he entertained a pleasant recollection; but, baffled by
winds, he altered his determination. He had, perhaps, better have
adhered to it. True, that the emeralds and gold found at Coaque
encouraged his followers, and enabled the politic adventurer to
make a large remittance to Panama, to dazzle the colonists and
induce volunteers. But the sufferings of the Spaniards on their march
through those sultry and unhealthy regions, were very great.
Encumbered with heavy armour and thick cotton doublets, they
toiled wearily along beneath a burning sun and over sands scarce
less scorching. Fortunately, they were unmolested by the natives,
who fled on their approach. They had enough to do to combat
disease and the climate. “A strange epidemic broke out in the little
army; it took the form of ulcers, or rather of hideous warts of great
size, which covered the body, and when lanced, as was the case
with some, discharged such a quantity of blood as proved fatal to
the sufferer.” Mr Prescott recognises in this horrible malady—which
he says made its appearance during the invasion, and did not long
survive it—“one of those plagues from the vial of wrath, which the
destroying angel who follows in the path of the conqueror pours out
on the devoted nations.” Conquerors and conquered, however,
suffered from it alike; and as to its having speedily become extinct,
we suspect that it is still well known in Peru. The verrugas, described
by Dr Tschudi in his valuable and delightful narrative of Peruvian
travel, and which the natives attribute to the noxious qualities of
certain streams, is coincident in its symptoms with the disease that
afflicted Pizarro’s followers, diminishing their numbers and impeding
their progress. The arrival of one or two small reinforcements filled
up the vacancies thus made in their ranks, and the march was
continued until the adventurers found themselves opposite the island
of Puná, upon which Pizarro resolved to pitch his camp, and there
plan his attack upon the neighbouring city of Tumbez. Between the
Tumbese and the men of Puná there was a long-standing feud, and
the former lost no opportunity of exciting Pizarro’s suspicions of the
islanders. Having been informed that ten or twelve chiefs were
plotting against him, he seized and delivered them to their rivals,
who forthwith cut off their heads. A battle was the immediate
consequence; and the handful of Spaniards defeated several
thousand Puná warriors, mowing them down with musketry and
sabre. As was by no means unusual in those days, the Christians
received encouragement from heaven. “In the battle,” says
Montesinos with laudable gravity, “many, both of our people and of
the Indians, saw that in the air there were two other camps—one
led on by the archangel St Michael with sword and buckler, the other
by Lucifer and his myrmidons; but no sooner did the Castilians cry
victory, than the demons fled, and from out of a mighty whirlwind
terrible voices were heard to exclaim—‘Thou hast conquered!
Michael, thou hast conquered!’ Hence Don Francisco Pizarro was
inspired with so great a devotion to the holy archangel that he
vowed to call by his name the first city he should found, fulfilling the
same, as we shall presently see.” These angelic interventions were
common enough both in the Moorish and American wars of Spain,
and have been commemorated by many artists, whose paintings, for
the most part more curious in design than skilful in execution, are
still to be occasionally met with in the Peninsula. Pizarro was twice
favoured with such celestial succours; the second time at the fight,
or rather massacre, of Caxamalca, when certainly he required little
aid against the panic-stricken hordes, who fell, like grass before the
mower’s scythe, under the fierce sabre-cuts of the martial Spaniards.
Nevertheless, “a terrible apparition appeared in the air during the
onslaught. It consisted of a woman and a child, and at their side a
horseman, all clothed in white, on a milk-white charger,—doubtless
the valiant St James,—who, with his sword glancing lightning, smote
down the infidel host, and rendered them incapable of resistance.”
Thus gravely and reverently deposeth the worthy Fray Naharro, who
had his information from three monks of his order present in the
fight.

The arrival of Pizarro and his band upon the coast of Peru,
occurred at a moment most favourable to their projects of
appropriation. The country had just emerged from a sanguinary civil
war, in which many of its best warriors had perished; the throne of
the Incas was occupied by a usurper, who, to cement his power, had
shed the blood of hundreds of the royal family, his own brethren and
relatives. These events had been thus brought about:—The warlike
Inca and conqueror of Quito, Huayna Capac, forgot, on his death-
bed, the sagacity that had marked his reign; and, in direct
contravention of the fundamental laws of the empire, divided his
dominions between Huascar, his legitimate heir, and Atahuallpa, a
pet son whom he had had by one of his numerous concubines. The
old Inca died, and, for five years, his two successors reigned,
without quarrel, over their respective territories. Then dissensions
arose between them; war broke out; and in two great fights, one at
the foot of Chimborazo, the other on the plains of Cuzco,
Atahuallpa’s troops, veterans grown gray under his father’s banner,
were completely victorious. Huascar was taken prisoner and shut up
in the fortress of Xauxa; his rival assumed the borla or scarlet
diadem of the Incas, and, using his victory with little moderation, if
Garcilasso de la Vega and subsequent Spanish writers are to be
believed, butchered, with circumstances of great cruelty, all of the
Inca blood upon whom he could lay hands. Mr Prescott, however,
doubts the veracity of Garcilasso, the son of a niece of Huayna
Capac and of a Spanish cavalier, who arrived in Peru, soon after its
conquest, in the suite of Pedro de Alvarado. His origin, and
familiarity with the Peruvian tongue, should ensure the correctness
of his statements; whilst his relationship, by the father’s side, with a
family illustrious in letters as in arms, seems to guarantee his literary
capacity. But Garcilasso was sadly given to romancing; and his pages
exhibit, amidst much that is really valuable, great exaggeration and
credulity. If we could implicitly credit his statements of Atahuallpa’s
atrocities, our sympathy with the Inca, betrayed, dethroned, and
finally murdered, by the Spaniards, would be materially lessened.
The triumph of the usurper occurred only a few months previous to
the invasion of Peru by Pizarro, in the spring of 1532.

After the battle of Puná the Spaniards were greatly annoyed by

the enemy, who kept up a desultory and harassing warfare, and they
welcomed with joy the arrival of a strong reinforcement under
Hernando de Soto, the future discoverer of the Mississippi. With a
hundred fresh men and a supply of horses for the cavalry, Pizarro did
not hesitate to cross to the mainland. The inhabitants, although
previously on the most friendly terms with the Spaniards, opposed
their landing, but with no great energy; and a charge of horse drove
them to the woods. At Tumbez, however, a grievous disappointment
awaited the invaders. With the exception of half-a-dozen of the
principal buildings, the city was razed to the ground; and of the rich
spoils the Spaniards had reckoned upon, not a trace was left. The
adventurers were greatly discouraged by this discovery. “The gold of
Peru seemed only like a deceitful phantom, which, after beckoning
them on through toil and danger, vanished the moment they
attempted to grasp it.” They lost heart in this search after an
intangible treasure; and Pizarro, fearing disaffection as a
consequence of inaction, hurried them into the interior of the
country. At thirty leagues from Tumbez, he founded, in conformity
with his vow, the city of San Miguel; and, after waiting several weeks
for further reinforcements and receiving none, he left fifty men for
the protection of the new settlement, and marched with the
remainder in search of the Inca, proclaiming every where, as he
proceeded, the religion of Christ, the supremacy of the Pope, and
the sovereignty of Charles the Fifth.

And here, as much, perhaps, as at any period of his career, we are

struck by the genius and activity of Pizarro, and by his wonderful
ascendency over a band of restless desperadoes. Within five months
after landing at Tumbez, he had made an extensive tour of
observation, established a friendly understanding with the Indians,
parcelled out lands, cut timber, and quarried stone; founded a city,
and organised a municipal government. A church and a fortress—
always the two first edifices in a Spanish-American town,—a
storehouse and a court of justice, strongly, if not elegantly built, had
already arisen. Strict discipline was maintained amongst the
Spaniards, who were forbidden, under heavy penalties, to molest or
ill-treat the natives; and, most astonishing of all, Pizarro succeeded
in persuading his rapacious followers to relinquish their shares in the
gold and silver already collected, which was sent, after a fifth had
been deducted for the crown, to pay off the ship-owners and those
who had supplied stores for the expedition. After the settlement of
these preliminaries, he struck boldly into the heart of the land. His
army (the name is a mockery, applied to such a force) consisted of
sixty-seven cavalry and one hundred and ten infantry, amongst
whom were only three arquebusiers and twenty crossbowmen. With
this paltry troop he dared to advance against the powerful army
which he had ascertained was encamped under command of
Atahuallpa, within twelve days’ journey of San Miguel. We read of
subsequent events and scarcely wonder at a mob of timid Peruvians
being dispersed by a handful of resolute men, mail-clad, well
disciplined, and inured to war, but in numbers as one to a hundred
of those opposed to them. Pizarro, however, had no assurance of the
slight resistance he should meet; he could know but imperfectly the
resources of the Inca; he was wholly ignorant of the natural
obstacles the country might oppose to his progress, and of the
ambuscades that might beset his path. His dauntless spirit paused
not for such considerations. And, scanty as his numbers were, he did
not fear to risk their diminution, by a proposal resembling that of
Harry the Fifth to his troops. Those who had no heart for the
expedition, he announced to his little band, on the fifth day after
their departure from San Miguel, were at full liberty to return to the
city. The garrison was weak, he would gladly see it reinforced, and
any who chose to rejoin it should have allotted to them the same
share of land and number of Indian vassals as those Spaniards who
had remained in the settlement.
 —“He which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart: his passport shall be made,
And crowns, for convoy, put into his purse.”

Precisely similar to the proclamation of the hero of Agincourt was

that of the conqueror of Peru. He preferred weakening his force,
already far too feeble, to retaining the discontented and
pusillanimous. The contagion of bad example had more terrors for
him than the hosts of Atahuallpa. And he “would not die in that
man’s company who feared his fellowship to die with him.” Only nine
of his one hundred and seventy-seven followers availed themselves
of the permission, thus boldly accorded them, to retrace their steps.
With the residue Pizarro resumed his march.

As the Spaniards advanced, their difficulties and uncertainties

increased. Rivers impeded their progress, and they had to construct
bridges and rafts. They passed through well-built towns, where they
saw large magazines of military stores and rations, and along
handsome paved roads, shaded by avenues of trees, and watered by
artificial streamlets. The farther they penetrated into the country, the
more convinced they were of its resources and civilisation, far
beyond any thing they had anticipated, and the more sensible they
became of the great temerity of their enterprise. When they strove
to learn the Inca’s intentions and whereabouts, the contradictory
information they obtained added to their perplexity. The Inca, it was
said, was at the head of fifty thousand men, tranquilly awaiting the
appearance of the eight-score intruders who thus madly ran into the
lion’s jaws. This was discouraging enough. And when the Spaniards
reached the foot of the stupendous Andes, which intervened
between them and Caxamalca, and were to be crossed by means of
paths and passes of the most dangerous description, easily
defensible by tens against thousands, their hearts failed them, and
many were of opinion to abandon the original plan and take the road
to Cuzco, which wound along the foot of the mountains, broad,
shady, and pleasant. Pizarro was deaf to this proposal. His eloquence
and firmness prevailed, and the Andes were crossed, with much toil,
but without molestation from the Peruvians.

It is difficult to understand the Inca’s motives in thus neglecting

the many opportunities afforded him of annihilating the Spaniards.
His whole conduct at this time is mysterious and unaccountable,
greatly at variance with the energy and sagacity of which he had
given proof in his administration of the empire, and wars against
Huascar. Nothing was easier than to crush the encroaching
foreigners in the defiles of the Cordilleras, instead of allowing them
to descend safely into the plain, where their cavalry and discipline
gave them great advantages. Perhaps it never occurred to
Atahuallpa that so trifling a force could contend under any
circumstances, with a chance of success, against his numerous army.
In their intestine wars, the Peruvians fought with much resolution. In
the battle of Quipayan, which placed the crown of Peru on
Atahuallpa’s head, the fight raged from dawn till sunset, and the
slaughter was prodigious, both parties exhibiting great courage and
obstinacy. And subsequently, in engagements with the Spaniards,
proofs of Peruvian valour were not wanting. After the death of
Atahuallpa, on the march to Cuzco, more than one fierce fight
occurred between Spanish cavalry and Peruvian warriors, in which
the former had not always the advantage. When Cuzco was burned,
and siege laid to its fortresses, one of these was valiantly defended
by an Inca noble, whose single arm struck the assailants from the
ramparts as fast as they attained their summit. And when, several
ladders having been planted at once, the Spaniards swarmed up on
all points, and overpowered the last of his followers, the heroic
savage still would not yield. “Finding further resistance ineffectual,
he sprang to the edge of the battlements, and, casting away his
war-club, wrapped his mantle around him and threw himself
headlong from the summit.” Relying on the bravery of his troops,
and considering that the Spaniards, although compact in array, and
formidable by their horses and weapons, were in numbers most
insignificant, it is probable the Inca felt sure of catching and caging
them whenever he chose, and was therefore in no hurry to do it,
but, like a cat with a mouse, chose to play with before devouring
them. This agrees, too, with the account given in an imperfect
manuscript, the work of one of the old conquerors, quoted by Mr
Prescott. “Holding us for very little, and not reckoning that a
hundred and ninety men could offend him, he allowed us to pass
through that defile, and through many others equally bad, because
really, as we afterwards knew and ascertained, his intention was to
see us, and question us as to whence we came, and who had sent
us, and what we wanted ... and afterwards to take our horses and
the things that most pleased him, and to sacrifice the remainder.”
These calculations were more than neutralised by the decision and
craft of the white man. Established in Caxamalca, whose ten
thousand inhabitants had deserted the town on his approach, Pizarro
beheld before him “a white cloud of pavilions, covering the ground
as thick as snow-flakes, for the space apparently of several miles.” In
front of the tents were fixed the warriors’ lances; and at night
innumerable watch-fires, making the mountain-slope resemble, says
an eyewitness, “a very starry heaven,” struck doubt and dismay into
the hearts of that little Christian band. “All,” says one of the
Conquistadores, “remaining with much fear, because we were so
few, and had entered so far into the land, where we could not
receive succours.” All, save one, the presiding genius of the venture,
who showed himself equal to the emergency, and nobly justified his
followers’ confidence. Pizarro saw that retreat was impossible,
inaction ruinous, and he resolved to set all upon a cast by executing
a project of unparalleled boldness. The Inca, who, very soon
assumed a dictatorial tone, had ordered the Spaniards to occupy the
buildings on the chief square at Caxamalca, and no others, and had
also signified his intention of visiting the strangers so soon as a fast
he was keeping should be at an end. The, square, or rather triangle,
was of great extent, and consisted of a stone fortress, and of large,
low, wide-doored halls, that seemed intended for barracks. Upon this
square Pizarro prepared to receive his royal visitor.
 On the appointed day, Atahuallpa made his appearance, at the
head of his numerous army, variously estimated by Pizarro’s
secretary and others there present, at from thirty to fifty thousand
men. These halted at a short distance from the town; the Inca
began to pitch his tents, and sent word to Pizarro that he had
postponed his visit to the following morning. The Spanish leader
deprecated this change of plan, and said that he fully expected
Atahuallpa to sup with him; whereupon the Inca, either from good
nature, or lured by the prospect of a feast, entered the town with a
comparatively small retinue. “He brought with him,” says Hernando
Pizarro, in a manuscript letter, “five or six thousand Indians,
unarmed, save with small clubs, and slings, and bags of stones.” In
fact, it appears from all accounts that very few of them had any
arms at all. Upon a throne of gold, borne on an open litter, by
Peruvian nobles in a rich azure livery, the Inca came, and paused in
the square. Not a Spaniard was to be seen, save Fray Vicente de
Valverde, Pizarro’s chaplain, who, by means of an interpreter,
addressed the royal visitor in a homily which, to judge from the
multiplicity of subjects it embraced, can have been of no trifling
length. Beginning with the creation of the world, he expounded the
doctrines of Christianity, talked of St Peter and the Pope, and finally,
with singular coolness, requested his astonished hearer to change
his religion, and become a tributary of the Emperor. Naturally
offended at such presumptuous propositions, Atahuallpa answered
with some heat, and threw down a Bible or breviary which he had
taken from the friar’s hand. The friar hurried to Pizarro. “Do you not
see,” he said, “that whilst we waste our breath talking to this dog,
the fields are filling with Indians? Set on at once! I absolve you.”
Slay! Slay! mass or massacre. The old cry of the Romish priest,
covetous of converts. The sword in one hand, the crucifix in the
other; abjuration of heresy, or the blood of heretics. In Smithfield
and the Cevennes, on the dread eve of St Bartholomew, and amidst
the gentle sun-worshippers of Peru,—such has ever been the maxim
of the ministers of a religion of mercy. In this instance the appeal to
violence was not unheard. Pizarro waved a scarf, a signal gun was
fired from the fort, the barrack doors flew open, and, armed to the
teeth, the Spaniards sprang into the plaza, shouting the fierce slogan
before which, in Granada’s sunny vega, the Moslem had so often
quailed. “Santiago y à ellos!” St James and at them! was the cry, as
the steel-clad cavalry spurred into the crowd, carving, with trenchant
blade, paths through the confused and terrified Indians; whilst
musketry flashed, and two falconets, placed in the fort, vomited
death upon the mob. The exit from the plaza was soon choked with
corpses, and the living, debarred escape by the bodies of the dead,
could but stand and be slaughtered. The square was soon converted
into a shambles.

“Even as they fell, in files they lay,”

slain in cold blood, and innocent of offence. At last “such was the
agony of the survivors under the terrible pressure of their assailants,
that a large body of Indians, by their convulsive struggles, burst
through the wall of stone and dried clay which formed part of the
boundary of the plaza!” And the country was covered with fugitives,
flying before the terrible sweep of the Spanish sabre.

“The Marquis,” says Pedro Pizarro, “called out, saying, ‘Let none
wound the Inca, under pain of his life!’” Atahuallpa was to be made
prisoner, not killed. Around him a faithful few, his nobles and court,
fought desperately to protect their sovereign. Unarmed, they
grappled with the Spaniards, clung to their horses, and tried to drag
them from their saddles. The struggle was of some duration, and
night approached when, several of the palanquin-bearers having
been slain, the litter was overturned, and the Inca fell into the arms
of Pizarro and his comrades. He was carefully secured in an adjacent
building, the news of his capture quickly spread, and the whole
Indian army disbanded and fled, panic-struck at the loss of their
sovereign. The number that fell that day is very variously stated.
“They killed them all,” says one authority, a nephew of Atahuallpa,
on whose testimony Mr Prescott inclines to place reliance, “with
horses, with swords, with arquebuses, as though they were sheep.
None made resistance, and out of ten thousand not two hundred
escaped.” This is probably an exaggeration. Other accounts state the
number of dead as far smaller, but there appears ground to believe
that four or five thousand fell. The example was terrible, and well
suited to strike the Peruvians with terror. But the extermination of
the whole Indian army would have been of less importance than the
single captive Pizarro had made, and whom, agreeably to his
promise, he had to sup with him when the fight was done. Deprived
of their sovereign, and viewing with a superstitious awe the
audacious stranger who had dared to lay hands upon his sacred
person, the Indians lost heart, and were no longer to be feared.

The capture of the Inca, although so important and beneficial in

its results, occasioned Pizarro some embarrassment. He was anxious
to march upon the capital, but feared to risk himself on the roads
and mountains with the Inca in his keeping; and as he could not
spare a sufficient guard to leave behind with him, he was compelled
to wait patiently for reinforcements. Atahuallpa, who did not want
for penetration, but in the words of an old manuscript, “was very
wise and discreet, a friend of knowledge, and subtle of
understanding,” soon found out that the Spaniards were at least as
eager to accumulate gold as to disseminate their religion. He offered
to buy his liberty, and a room full of gold was the prodigious ransom
he proposed. The length of the apartment he engaged to fill is
variously stated. The most moderate account makes it twenty-two
feet. Hernando Pizarro says it was thirty-five. The width was
seventeen feet, and the gold was to be piled up as high as the Inca
could reach, which was about nine feet from the ground. A smaller
room was to be filled twice with silver. Pizarro having accepted, or
allowed his prisoner to infer that he accepted, this very handsome
price for his liberty, the captive sovereign took measures to collect
the stipulated treasure. Palaces and temples were stripped of their
ornaments, and from distant parts of Peru gold was sent to complete
the Inca’s ransom. The agreement was that it should not be melted,
but piled up in the room in whatever form it arrived, which gave
Atahuallpa some advantage. Goblets, salvers, vases, and curious
imitations of plants and animals, were amongst the heterogeneous
contributions that soon began to rise high upon the floor of the
Inca’s prison. “Among the plants, the most beautiful was the Indian
corn, in which the golden ear was sheathed in its broad leaves of
silver, from which hung a rich tassel of threads of the same precious
metal. A fountain was also much admired, which sent up a sparkling
jet of gold, while birds and animals of the same metal played in the
waters at the base.” But the greedy conquerors grew impatient, and
thought the gold came too slowly, although on some days a value of
fifty or sixty thousand castellanos was added to the store. Rumours
of a rising of the Peruvians were spread abroad, and Atahuallpa was
accused of conspiring against the Spaniards. These, and especially a
strong reinforcement that had arrived under Almagro’s orders,
became clamorous for the Inca’s death. They had already divided all
that had arrived of his ransom, equivalent to the enormous sum of
three millions and a half sterling, besides fifty thousand marks of
silver. At last the Inca was brought to trial on the most absurd
charges, “having reference to national usages, or to his personal
relations, over which the Spanish conquerors had no jurisdiction.”
Thus, he was accused of idolatry and adultery, and of squandering
the public revenues, since the conquest of the country by the
Spaniards! His death, in short, was decreed, and his butchers were
not very nice about the pretext. It was found expedient to get rid of
him; and under such circumstances a reason to condemn is as easily
found as a rope to hang. Some few honest and humane men there
were in the court, who rejected the false evidence brought before
them, and denied the authority of the tribunal. But their objections
were overruled, and they had to content themselves with entering a
protest against proceedings which they justly held to be arbitrary
and illegal. Father Valverde was not one of those who leaned to
mercy’s side. A copy of the sentence, condemning Atahuallpa to be
burned alive, was submitted to him for his signature, which he gave
with alacrity, convinced, he said, that the Inca deserved death. Why,
it is hard to say, at least at the hands of the Spaniards. But the
whole of the circumstances connected with his mock trial and
subsequent execution are a disgrace to the conquerors of Peru, an
eternal blot upon the memory of Francisco Pizarro. To avoid the
flames, Atahuallpa embraced Christianity, and was executed by
strangulation, after being duly baptised and shriven by the clerical
scoundrel Valverde. Previously he had begged hard for his life,
offering twice the ransom he had already paid, and guarantees for
the safety of the Spaniards. “What have I done, or my children,” said
the unfortunate monarch, “that I should meet such a fate? And from
your hands, too,” added he to Pizarro—“you, who have met
friendship and kindness from my people, with whom I have shared
my treasures, who have received nothing but benefits from my
hands.” Adding hypocrisy to cruelty, Pizarro affected emotion. In its
sincerity we cannot believe, or that he could not, had he chosen,
have saved Atahuallpa. “I myself,” says Pedro Pizarro, ever his
cousin’s eulogist and advocate, “saw the Marquis weep.” We believe
Pedro lies, or was mistaken, or that the tears were of the sort called
crocodile’s. We have no faith in the tenderness of the stern and iron-
hearted conqueror of Peru.

Although the Inca’s ransom had not been made up to the full
amount promised, Pizarro had acquitted his prisoner, some time
previously to his death, of any further obligation on that score. With
respect to this ransom, Dr Tschudi gives some interesting particulars,
doubtless true in the main, although exaggerated in the details. “The
gold which the Inca got together in Caxamarca and the
neighbourhood, was hardly sufficient to fill half the room. He
therefore sent messengers to Cuzco, to complete the amount out of
the royal treasury; and it is said that eleven thousand llamas, each
bearing a hundredweight of gold, really started thence for
Caxamarca. But before they arrived, Atahuallpa was hung. The
terrible news ran like a lighted train through the whole country, and
reached the Indians who were driving the heavily laden llamas over
the uplands of Central Peru. Panic-stricken, they buried their
treasures upon the very spot where the mournful message was
delivered to them, and dispersed in all directions.” Eleven thousand
hundredweight of gold! If this were true, the cruelty of the
Spaniards to their prisoner brought its own punishment. The buried
treasure, whatever its amount, has never been recovered, although
numerous researches have been made. Either the secret has
perished with its possessors, or those Peruvians to whom it has been
handed down, persist, with the sullen and impenetrable reserve that
forms a distinguishing trait in their character, in preventing their
white oppressors from reaping the benefit of it.

With the death of Atahuallpa, the principal danger incurred by the

Spaniards in Peru—that, namely, of a combined and simultaneous
uprising of the nation—may be said to have terminated.
Subsequently, it is true, under the Inca Manco, a terrible insurrection
occurred: an Indian army, the boldest, best equipped, and in all
respects the most formidable that the Spaniards had seen, boldly
assailed them, burned Cuzco, and beleaguered them in the citadel.
At one time Pizarro felt the greatest uneasiness as to the possible
result of this last effort for Peruvian independence. Seven hundred
Christians fell in the course of the struggle. But there were still
sufficient left to reduce the insurgents, and inflict a terrible
chastisement. Lima had been built, and fortified posts established.
And serious as this uprising was, there hardly seems to have been a
probability of the extermination of the Spaniards in Peru, or of their
expulsion from the country, at any period subsequent to Atahuallpa’s
execution. The throne vacant, the rights of succession uncertain, the
ancient institutions of the country fell to pieces, and anarchy ensued.
Peruvian generals gathered their armies around them, seized upon
provinces, declared themselves independent, and were beaten in
detail. Difficulties and hardships were still in store for the
conquerors; privations, and painful marches, and sharp encounters;
but they were strengthened by reinforcements, cheered by success,
and urged on by their thirst of gold, which was irritated rather than
assuaged by the rich booty they had made. After crowning with his
own hands a brother of Atahuallpa, selected in preference to Manco,
the legitimate heir to the throne, as more likely to be a docile
instrument in his hands, Pizarro marched upon Cuzco, the much-
talked-of metropolis of Peru, with a force that now amounted to
nearly five hundred men, one-third of them cavalry. After a sharp
skirmish or two, in which the Peruvians displayed much spirit and
bravery, the conquerors entered the capital. They were disappointed
in the amount of booty found there. Their expectations must have
been outrageous, for the spoil was very large. The great temple was
studded with gold plates; its gardens glittered with ornaments of the
same precious metal. In a cavern near the city they found a number
of pure gold vases, and ten or twelve statues of women, as large as
life, some of gold, others of silver. The stores of food, and of
manufactures for clothing and ornament, were very numerous and
considerable. And there were women’s dresses composed entirely of
gold beads; and “in one place they met with ten planks or bars of
solid silver, each piece being twenty feet in length, one foot in
breadth, and two or three inches thick.” But the rapacious Europeans
were not content, and some of the inhabitants were barbarously
tortured to compel them to reveal their hidden stores of wealth. Gold
lost its value, and the commonest necessaries of life rose to
exorbitant prices. A quire of paper was worth ten golden dollars, a
bottle of wine fetched sixty. And the inherent Spanish vice of
gambling was carried to a prodigious extent. Many of the conquerors
thus lost the whole of their booty. One man had received in his share
of spoil a golden image of the sun. “This rich prize the spendthrift
lost in a single night; whence it came to be a proverb in Spain,
Juega el Sol antes que amanezca, ‘Play away the sun before
sunrise.’”

With the capture of Cuzco, or very soon afterwards, the unity of

Spanish conquest in Peru may be said to have ceased. Previously to
that event, all were subordinate to Pizarro; none claimed
independence of him; he kept his men together, and with his whole
force—excepting the small garrison at St Miguel—pushed forward
into the heart of the land. It was by far the most romantic and
adventurous period of Spanish operations in the empire of the Incas.
But now other cavaliers of fortune, good soldiers, and men of
experience in American warfare, turned their attention to Peru,
eager to share its treasures and territory. Amongst these, the
governor of Guatimala, Pedro de Alvarado, one of Cortés’ officers,
was conspicuous. Early in 1534, he landed in the Bay of Caraques, at
the head of five hundred men, “the best equipped and most
formidable array that had yet appeared in the southern seas.” They
marched towards the rich province of Quito, which they believed to
be still unexplored; but suffered frightfully on the road; and on
emerging, with greatly diminished numbers, from the Puertos
Nevados, a terrible mountain passage where many of the troopers
were frozen in their saddles, they had the mortification to discover
the hoof prints of Spanish chargers, proving that they had been
forestalled. Benalcazar, governor of San Miguel, had entered the
province with one hundred and forty men and some native
auxiliaries. He had been met by the Indian general Ruminavi; but
the son of the Moor was more than a match for the Peruvian, and
after some well-contested fights, the standard of Castile waved over
Quito’s capital. Almagro, who had heard of Alvarado’s landing, soon
joined Benalcazar, and together they marched to oppose their
intruding countrymen. At one time a battle seemed imminent, but
matters were finally compromised, Alvarado receiving one hundred
thousand pesos de oro, and re-embarking his men.

Amongst the conquerors themselves, dissensions soon broke out.

Charles the Fifth, to whom Hernando Pizarro had been sent to give
an account of events in Peru, and to submit specimens of its riches
and manufactures, had received the envoy most favourably. He
confirmed his previous grants of land to Francisco Pizarro, extending
them seventy leagues further south, and empowered Almagro to
discover and occupy the country for two hundred leagues south of
that. Disputes about boundaries, imbittered by the rankling
recollection of former feuds, soon occurred between Pizarro and
Almagro; and though a temporary reconciliation was effected, a civil
war at last broke out, where both parties fought nominally for the
honour and profit of the Spanish king, and in reality for their own
peculiar behoof and ambition. “El Rey y Almagro!” “El Rey y Pizarro!”
were the battle-cries on the bloody field of Las Salinas, in the
neighbourhood of Cuzco, where, on the 26th April 1538, Almagro fell
into the hands of Hernando Pizarro, who, from their very first
meeting, had bitterly disliked him. “Before the battle of Salinas, it
had been told to Hernando Pizarro that Almagro was like to die.
‘Heaven forbid,’ he exclaimed, ‘that this should come to pass before
he falls into my hands!’” After such a speech, Almagro’s fate scarce
admitted of a doubt. He was brought to trial, on charges that
covered two thousand folio pages. Found guilty, he was condemned
to death, and perished by the garrote. He was to have been
executed on the public square of Cuzco; but public sympathy was so
strongly enlisted on his side, that it was thought more prudent to
make an end of him in his dungeon. The chief apparent movers of
his death, Hernando and Gonzalo Pizarro, were amongst the
principal mourners at his funeral—thus aping the hypocrisy of their
brother Francisco, who had paid similar honours to his victim
Atahuallpa. The Marquis himself was on his way to Cuzco during
Almagro’s trial, of which he was cognizant. He lingered on the road,
and upon reaching the river Abancay he learned his rival’s death.
The old farce was played over again. He shed tears, for whose
sincerity none gave him credit. Speedily forgetting this mockery of
wo, he entered Cuzco in triumph, richly dressed, and with clang of
martial music. There can be little doubt of his having secretly
instigated and entirely approved the execution of Almagro. The
testimony of all the impartial historians of the time concurs in fixing
its odium upon him.

But the crimes of this great conqueror and bad man were destined
to meet punishment. By the sword he had risen—by the sword he
was to perish; not on some well-fought battle field, with shouts of
victory ringing in his ear, but in his palace hall, by the assassin’s
blade. In his own fair capital of Lima, the City of the Kings, the gem
of the Pacific, which had sprung up under his auspices with
incredible rapidity—for Pizarro seemed to impart his vast energy to
all about him—a score of conspirators, assembled at the house of
Almagro’s son, plotted his death. It was on a Sunday in June 1541,
at the hour of dinner, that they burst into his apartments, with cries
of “Death to the tyrant!” A number of visitors were with him, but
they were imperfectly armed, and deserted him, escaping by the
windows. His half-brother, Martinez de Alcantara, two pages and as
many cavaliers, were all who stood forward in defence of their chief.
They soon fell, overpowered by numbers, and covered with wounds.
But Pizarro was not the man meekly to meet his death. Alone,
without armour, his cloak around one arm, his good sword in his
right hand, the old hero kept his cowardly assailants at bay, with a
vigour and intrepidity surprising at his advanced age. “What ho!” he
cried, “traitors! have you come to kill me in my own house?” And as
he spoke, two of his enemies fell beneath his blows. “Rada, (the
chief of the conspirators) impatient of the delay, called out ‘Why are
we so long about it? Down with the tyrant!’ and taking one of his
companions, Narvaez, in his arms, he thrust him against the
Marquis. Pizarro, instantly grappling with his opponent, ran him
through with his sword. But at that moment he received a wound in
the throat, and reeling, he sank on the floor, while the swords of
Rada and several of the conspirators were plunged into his body.
‘Jesu!’ exclaimed the dying man; and, tracing a cross with his finger
on the bloody floor, he bent down his head to kiss it, when a stroke,
more friendly than the rest, put an end to his existence.”

Great indeed have been the changes wrought by three centuries

in the world beyond the Atlantic. The difference in the manner of
foundation of the English and Spanish empires in America is not
more striking than the contrast offered by their progress and present
condition. The English, Dutch, and other northern nations, were
content to obtain a footing in the new-found lands, without
attempting their conquest. Settled upon the coast, defending
themselves, often with extreme difficulty, against the assaults of
warlike and crafty tribes, they aimed not at the subjugation of
empires, or, if visions of future dominion occasionally crossed the
imagination of the more far-sighted, the means proposed were not
those of armed aggression and sanguinary spoliation, but the
comparatively slow and bloodless victories of civilisation. Far
otherwise was it with the warlike and ambitious Spaniard of the
sixteenth century, when, with a mixture of crusading zeal and
freebooting greed, he shaped his caravel’s course for distant El-
Dorado. Not with a log-house, in the wilderness was he content; it
suited not his lofty and chivalrous notions to clear land and plough
it, and water the stubborn furrow with his forehead’s sweat. For him
the bright cuirass, the charging steed, the wild encounter with tawny
hosts, reminding him of the day when, after eight hundred years’
struggle, he chased the last Saracen from Iberia’s shores. For him
the glittering gold mine, the rich plantation, the cringing throng of
Indian serfs. One day a cavalier of fortune, with horse and arms for
sole possessions, the next he sat upon the throne whence he had
hurled some far-descended prince, some Inca demi-god, or feather-
crowned cacique. And at the period that a few scanty bands of
expatriated malefactors, and of refugees for opinion’s sake, flying
from persecution to the wilderness, toiled out a scanty and laborious
existence in the forests and prairies of North America, and alone
represented the Anglo-Saxon race in the New World, Spain was in
secure and undisturbed enjoyment of two vast and productive
empires. To-day, how great the contrast! The unwieldy Spanish
colonies have crumbled and fallen to pieces, the petty English
settlements have grown into a flourishing and powerful nation. And
we behold the descendants of the handful of exiles who first
colonised “the wild New England shore,” penetrating, almost
unopposed, to the heart of the country that Montezuma ruled, and
Cortés was the first to conquer.
 CROSSING THE DESERT.
Several years ago, just before the Palmerstonian policy had
involved all Asia, from Scinde to Syria, in war and anarchy, a young
Englishman of family and fortune, named Sidney, remained at Cairo
in spring after all his countrymen had departed for Alexandria in
order to avoid the Khamseen winds. The month of April was well
advanced in all its heat; and it disputes with May the opprobrium of
being the most detestable month of the year from Rosetta to
Dongola. The society of Misr the Kaherah (victorious) offered no
resources beyond the shabby coffee-houses and the apparitions of
Indian travellers. But at that time only a few Griffins and Nabobs
were occasionally seen. There was nothing to resemble the hordes
which now pass through Cairo in their bi-monthly emigrations, like
flights of locusts devouring every thing that comes in their way, from
the bread on the table-d’hôte at the Hotel d’Orient to the oranges
and melons piled up like ammunition at the sides of the streets.
Now, indeed, it may truly be said of these locusts, as it was of the
plague of old. “Very grievous are they. Before them there were no
such locusts as they; neither after them shall be such.”

Mr Sidney, in order to escape from the habitual desolation of the

Esbekieh, and avoid witnessing the fearful voracity of his
countrymen, passed a good deal of his time in a coffee-house in the
Mouski. His apology to himself for this idle and unprofitable life was
his wish to improve his knowledge of colloquial Arabic. His studies in
Arabic literature had been pursued with some industry and profit
during the winter, under the guidance of Sheikh Ismael el Feel or the
Elephant, so called from his rotundity of carcass and protuberance of
proboscis. The love of French brandy displayed by this learned
Theban had induced the European consuls to regard him as an
oracle of Mohammedan law, and a striking proof of the progress of
civilisation in the East. The Elephant repaid their esteem by
unbounded affection for their purses and an immeasurable contempt
for their persons. Sidney, however, had lost the friendship of the
literary Elephant; for the learned Sheik, supposing that he was about
to quit Cairo with the rest of his countrymen, had thought fit to
absent himself, taking away as a keepsake a splendid new oriental
dress just sent home from the tailor.

One day as Sidney was musing on the feasibility of crossing the

desert at this unfavourable season, in order to spend his Easter at
Jerusalem, two strangers entered the coffee-house in which he was
seated. As no Indian mail was expected, he could not help
examining them with some attention. One was a little man, not of a
very prepossessing appearance, with a pale face and a squeaking
voice; the other was a stout Scotsman, at least six feet two inches in
height of body, and who, before he had swallowed a cup of coffee
and smoked a single sheesheh, indicated that he was of a
corresponding height of mind, by reminding his companion that he
was a literary man. The strangers, after throwing a scrutinising
glance at the inmates of the room, continued their conversation in
English. The pale-faced man spoke as a foreigner, though almost as
correctly as a native, and with a fluency perfectly marvellous. The
tall Scotsman seemed not quite satisfied with the degree of
familiarity he assumed even in a Caireen coffee-house.

“Well, Mr Lascelles Hamilton, it is very true I am going to

Jerusalem, and so is Mr Ringlady; but I thought you said you
intended to go to Mecca, when you joined us at Alexandria in hiring
a boat to Cairo.”

“My dear Campbell,” (here Mr Campbell gave a wince, which

showed that he was very ungrateful for the endearment,) “I can’t go
to Mecca for three months yet; my Arabic won’t have the pure
accent of the Hedjas in a shorter space of time. I mean, therefore,
to go round by Jerusalem, join the tribes beyond the Dead Sea, and
work my way by land.”
 This was enough for Sidney. He determined to join the party; and
was moving out of the coffee-house to take his measures for that
purpose, when Aali Bey—a young Osmanlee dandy, who had passed
a few months at Leghorn to study European diplomacy—made him a
sign that he wished to speak in private. Aali’s story had so long a
preface, and was so crammed with flattery and oriental
compliments, that Sidney became soon satisfied it would terminate
in an attempt to borrow money, if not in robbery and murder. He
was nevertheless mistaken; for Aali, after many vain endeavours to
shorten his preface, at last stated his real business. It proved
deserving of a long-winded introduction, and amounted to a
proposition to Sidney to assist in affording Aali an opportunity of
carrying off his bride, the daughter of the celebrated Sheikh Salem
Abou Rasheed, from Cairo to Syria. Sheikh Salem was a man of
great influence at Nablous; and he had been detained by
Mohammed Ali as a kind of hostage with all his family, as he was
returning from the pilgrimage to Mecca by the easy route of Cosseir
and the Nile.

The affair seemed too serious even for the thoughtless Sidney to
engage in without some consideration; and he attempted to
persuade Aali that his escape was impossible, and that he had better
live contentedly with his bride at Cairo, more particularly as it was a
very bad season for a lady to think of crossing the desert. Aali,
however, informed him, that he was not married, nor indeed likely to
be, unless the marriage took place at Gaza; for Sheikh Salem had
offered him his daughter Fatmeh, on the condition of escorting her
and her mother to Gaza, where the marriage would take place in
presence of the Sheikh of Hebron, and other relations of the family.
Aali conjured Sidney by every saint, Mussulman and Christian, to aid
him in his enterprise, which would raise him to the rank of a chief in
Syria. As it appeared that Sheikh Salem had really put some supply
of cash at the disposal of the young spendthrift, and Sidney knew
well with what difficulty an Oriental parts with the smallest
conceivable fraction of coin even to men more prudent than Aali, he
now deemed it necessary to let the young Osmanlee know what he
had just heard concerning the movements of an English party. It was
arranged that Sidney should learn all he could about the new
travellers, and inform Aali in an evening walk in the Esbekieh.

Sidney, on finding the travellers resided at the Hotel d’Orient,

joined the table-d’hôte that day. The party consisted of four persons:
Sidney; the pale-faced, squeaking-voiced Mr Lascelles Hamilton; the
tall Caledonian, Mr Campbell; and a gentleman with a mellifluous
voice, and an air which said, Look at me and listen. This gentleman
was Mr Ringlady—the celebrated Mr Ringlady, a middle-aged lawyer,
innocent of briefs, who had written some works on jurisprudence.

For a short time the Britons of the party looked at Sidney’s

Egyptian dress with the supercilious disdain which enables
Americans to recognise the inhabitants of the old country, while they
are engaged in advertising their own nationality in earnest
endeavours to keep their bodies in equilibrium on a single leg of
their chairs. The voluble Mr Lascelles Hamilton, however, soon
placed every body on a familiar footing. He lost no time in
ascertaining Sidney’s name and country from the waiter, and then
launched forth.

“I hear, Mr Sidney, you have been five months at Cairo; I am sure

you have found it a delightful place. For my part, I have not been
five hours; but I could-stay five years, for I have seen five wonders.”

“As I have not been so fortunate in my five months’ residence,”

said Sidney, “you must tell me the wonders you have seen, before I
give you my opinion of its delights.”

“First, then, the donkey on which I made my entry into the city of
Saladin, ran away with me. No horse could ever do that, so think I
entered Cairo riding on Old Nick! Second, I did knock down two
ladies, each one as large as three donkeys and myself, and they did
not scream. Third, my donkey did pitch me into the middle of the
street, and nobody did laugh. Fourth, I did see Ibrahim Pasha pay
his whole household in loaves of sugar—a year’s wages, all in loaves
of sugar. And fifth, I do see four Englishmen sit down to a good
dinner in Cairo in the month of April, without one of them being on
his way to India.”

Mr Ringlady, who had been watching impatiently during this long

speech for an opportunity of displaying the mellifluous voice of
which he was so proud, in contrast to the harsh squeak and
discordant accent of Mr Lascelles Hamilton, now gave a specimen of
his professional turn of mind by remarking in his silvery tone, that he
believed the fifth wonder was not quite a perfect miracle, for one of
the party was a native of Scotland; and then added, glancing his eye
obliquely from Mr Lascelles Hamilton to Sidney, “and perhaps all of
us may not have been born in Great Britain.”

The little man saw the innuendo was directed against him and his
accent; so, with the ease of a man of the world, he turned the tables
on his assailant by replying in a very innocent tone—

“Yes, indeed, I did suppose you were an American. But it is no

matter: we all count as Englishmen at Cairo. I was myself born in
India, at Lahore, where my father was a general of cavalry.”

The lawyer had also hurt the feelings of the literary Scotsman,
who fancied his accent was a pure stream of English undefiled. So
that he had a wish for revenge, which Mr Ringlady afforded him an
opportunity of gratifying by saying with great dignity,—

“My name is Ringlady; it is an old English name well known in our

country. Mr Campbell, who is so profoundly acquainted with the
history of Britain during the Norman period, must be well acquainted
with it.”

To this appeal Campbell replied very drily: “I assure you I never

heard it before I had the honour of meeting you on board the
Oriental.” Thus dispersing the county reputation in Norman times
and the fame of the works on jurisprudence at one blow.
 It was evident that it would be a rich treat to cross the desert with
this party; so Sidney led the conversation to that subject. In a short
time it was arranged that they should come to a final decision on
their plans next morning at breakfast.

Sidney communicated this resolution to Aali in their evening walk,

and ventured to predict that the decision would be for immediate
departure.

At breakfast next morning, it was accordingly determined to quit

Cairo in three days. The literary man considered that it was his duty
to employ that time in writing a description of Cairo and the
Pyramids on the spot. The party, however, did not succeed in
completing their arrangements in less than a week. Mr Ringlady
procured the most celebrated Dragoman remaining at Cairo, by
paying him enormous wages, and giving him full power to lay in
what provisions and take what measures he considered necessary
for crossing the desert with comfort. The Dragoman hired was
named Mohammed; and he commenced by purchasing double the
quantity of stores required and sending half to his own house, as he
said his new master looked like a man who would change his mind,
and it would be satisfactory, should he return suddenly to Cairo, to
find every thing ready for proceeding up the Nile. Mr Campbell and
Mr Lascelles Hamilton arranged to hire a servant together, as far as
Jerusalem. Sidney was attended by an Arab from Guzzerat, who had
been with him for some time, and who, from being a subject of the
East India Company, or an Englishman, was in less danger of
suffering any inconvenience than a native from the part he was
going to take in Aali’s enterprise. He was as black as a coal, but he
spoke of Abyssinians, Nubians, and others, a shade lighter than
himself, as “them d—n black fellows.”

It was necessary to make a written contract with the sheikh of the

camels for a journey from Cairo to Gaza, and this document required
to be prepared at the English consulate. The scene at signing the
document was a singular one. After much wrangling, during which
the officials of the consulate stoutly defended the cause of the
camel-drivers, who brought forward, one after another, nearly a
dozen new pretensions, as pretexts for additional extortion, though
the terms had been already arranged, the patience of Sidney and
the exertions of Achmet el Khindee brought the negotiation to an
end, and the treaty was signed. Then the chancellor of the English
consulate stepped forward, and, rubbing his hands with great glee,
exclaimed, “Now, gentlemen, you have concluded your bargain; let
us hear what backshish you are going to give the sheikh?” As this
question appeared to imply too close a sympathy between the
feelings of the chancellory and the amount of the backshish, Mr
Sidney quietly observed, that as he supposed the amount did not
require to be registered in the archives of the British consulate, it
could be settled at Gaza. Scenes of this kind are constantly repeated
at all the trading consulates of the Levant; yet it is prudent for
travellers not to enter into the desert, nor even to ascend the Nile,
without a written contract at the consular office. Even should they
pay something more than they might otherwise do, the surplus
serves as an insurance against native fraud and open robbery, as the
people recommended by the consulate are at least well known and
of Arab respectability.

At the latter end of April, long before daybreak, the party quitted
the Hotel d’Orient, mounted on donkeys, to join the camels at El
Khanka. At the hour of departure, Mr Lascelles Hamilton was no
where to be found; but a waiter, roused from sleep, at last informed
the travellers that he had left word that he would join them on the
road. This event rather discomposed Sidney, who feared that the son
of the Indian general of cavalry, in spite of his agreeable manners,
universal knowledge, and incessant volubility, might have opened
communications with Mohammed Ali to cut off the retreat of Aali. It
was certain that all Mr Lascelles Hamilton said could not be received
according to the letter, or it would be difficult to understand why he
was not governor-general of India, or at least ambassador at St
Petersburg.
 The camels were found at El Khanka, kneeling on the verge of the
desert, near the mosque, at the entrance of the place. The donkeys
and the donkey-boys were here dismissed, and the party soon
moved onward with the slow monotonous and silent motion of a
fleet of desert ships. The baggage, the dragomans, and the singular
Mr Lascelles Hamilton, had proceeded to Belbeis to prepare the tents
and refreshments; but Aali was found at Khanka, waiting to join
Sidney, as the report had been left at Cairo that he was going to
Jerusalem as his travelling companion.

The difficulties and dangers of the flight of the fair Fatmeh were
now to commence, and Sidney felt that he might be embarked in a
perilous enterprise. The plan concerted with Aali was this. Sheikh
Salem had sent forward his wife and daughter in a takterwan, or
camel-sedan, to Belbeis. Fresh dromedaries were to be found there
for the whole party, with which it was proposed to reach Saba Biar in
a single day, where horses were to be in waiting. In the mean time it
had been announced at Cairo that the whole party was to take the
route by Salahieh, and the camels had been hired for that road.

The shades of evening were falling over the renowned city of

Belbeis as our travellers approached. High mounds, crowned by
dusky walls, set in a frame of waving palm-trees, gave the landscape
a splendid colouring; but even the obscurity could not veil the fact
that the once renowned city had shrunk into a collection of filthy
huts, huddled together on mountains of rubbish.

The tents were found pitched to the north-east of the city, and the
camp presented a most orderly appearance. The three tents of the
travellers were ranged in a line—the magnificent tent of Mr Ringlady
in the centre; behind, stood the cooking tents, and in a semicircle in
the rear, the kneeling camels were disposed in groups, side by side.
The whole arrangement testified the spirit of order Achmet had
imbibed with his Indian education at Bombay. At a short distance to
the north, the takterwan of the ladies was seen with a large caravan
of dromedaries.
 “Weel, Mr Lascelles Hamilton,” exclaimed Campbell, on scrambling
off the back of his kneeling conveyance—the fatigue of a ten hours’
ride, in a dreadfully hot sun, having brought all the beauties of his
accent to the tip of his tongue—“Weel, Mr Lascelles Hamilton, I say,
ye have played us a pretty trick, mon.”

“My dear friend, I forgot to tell you yesterday, that I was forced to
ride round by Tel el Yahoudi, the last great city of the Jews—a race I
honour for their obstinacy and their wealth. They are destined to
return to Palestine, when it shall be their lot to recover it, from this
place. I promised my friend Benjamin the Banker to bring him a relic
from the place, and report if it be a suitable purchase to prepare for
the conquest of Syria. I have bought him a bronze goose and a
serpent of clay, undoubted antiques; and I shall send him an original
report.”

There was not much society among the travellers that evening. Mr
Ringlady had his dinner served in his magnificent tent in solitary
dignity. Lascelles Hamilton and Campbell were soon heard snoring
from fatigue. Sidney and Aali, however, were too anxious about the
success of their project to think of sleep until they had held a long
consultation with Sheikh Hassan, the Kehaya of Sheikh Salem Abou
Rasheed, and the guide of the takterwan and its escort. Poor Aali
had absolutely so little control over the movements of his bride that
he hardly dared to turn his eyes in the direction of the cumbrous
sedan, which concealed the sacred treasures of the harem.

Sidney, Aali, and Hassan walked to a solitary palm-tree of unusual

bulk, standing far from the grove which now marks the utmost limit
of cultivation: a proof, among many others around Belbeis, that in
the days of its renown, the waters of the Nile were conducted far
into the desert, and fertilised whole districts now baked into solid
clay. When they were seated under the tree, safe from intruders,
who could not approach unseen, Aali commenced the conversation.
 “Hassan, we are now safe out of Misr, with one day’s start of any
pursuers, for your departure cannot be known. Are you sure all is
right at Saba Biar, and that we can reach it to-morrow? The
takterwan is not fatigued?” This seemed to be the nearest approach
Aali could make, according to Moslem etiquette, to an inquiry after
his bride’s health; so Sidney listened to the answer of Hassan with
considerable curiosity. But, alas! for romance even in the deserts of
Arabia. Hassan replied in the most matter-of-fact tone:—

“We have fresh dromedaries here, and they are excellent. We shall
proceed like Beddauwee to-morrow. But can the Ferenks keep up
us?”

“Never mind the Ferenks,” said Sidney: “persuade the Tergiman

Mohammed to get the dromedaries along, and their masters must
follow.”

“Is the Ferenk who came on before, thy friend?” said Hassan to
Sidney. “He is a wondrous man, and doubtless a learned.”

“He is a wise man,” quoth Sidney, “though he seemeth somewhat

mad; but he will not be the first to lag behind.”

“But,” interrupted Aali, “how have you arranged, Hassan, with the
camel-drivers to change their loads and let us proceed with the
dromedaries without exciting suspicion?”

“It was hard work,” said Hassan, “and it has occupied all day. I
began by increasing their loads with the assistance of the Tergiman
Mohammed, who stands our friend in this business. I had bundles of
straw and sand ready, which I pretend are smuggled goods.”

“Thou art very prudent, O Hassan!” exclaimed Aali.

“We had a long dispute,” continued Hassan, lighting a fresh pipe.

“The sheikh of my dromedaries made a private offer to take the
baggage of the Ferenks for half the price they pay to Abdallah, and
to share in an adventure of beans—and then the matter only
required time.”

“Thou art very active,” again exclaimed Aali.

“I should have found that no prudence and no activity could have

brought matters to a conclusion this evening,” said the
straightforward Hassan, “had the Ferenk Sheitan, with a voice like a
Kisslar Agassi, and a tongue like a wind-mill, not helped me through.
He quarrelled first with one sheikh then with another; drew a
pocket-pistol with seven barrels, and killed seven crows, swore he
would go back to Alexandria and bring El Kebir2 himself to hang the
sheikhs and ride with him to El Arish; and in short, frightened them
into an agreement;—for Mohammed Tergiman says he is a Ferenk
Elchi in disguise, and as we all know that Ferenk Elchees are always
mad, I believe he is right.”

This last axiom of the prudent Hassan, concerning the unequivocal

symptoms of madness displayed by all Ministers Plenipotentiary and
Ambassadors Extraordinary, rather astonished Sidney, who was
aware that Hassan could not have read the printed certificates of the
fact presented to the Houses of Parliament from time to time in the
form of blue books. It was announced as a fact generally known in
Africa and Asia, from the sands of Sahara to the deserts of Kobi. As
there was no time for investigating the organs of public opinion by
which European statesmanship had been so unhappily condemned,
Sidney deferred the inquiry until he should reach Gaza, where he
proposed, if not forestalled by his literary companion, to extract from
Hassan valuable materials for a work on public opinion in the deserts
of Arabia, with a view of its influence on the ultimate settlement of
the Eastern question. He only asked Hassan, for the present, if the
Ferenk Kisslar Agassi, as he called him, spoke Arabic. Hassan replied
without hesitation—

“Better than I do; he speaks like a learned Moolah.”

 This statement shook Sidney’s faith both in the judgment and the
veracity of Hassan. At the same time it decided him on keeping a
closer watch over the proceedings of Mr Lascelles Hamilton. He had
seen enough of diplomatic society to know that he might have been,
or be, a minister plenipotentiary; but still he could hardly give him
credit for speaking Arabic as well as Hassan, having heard him
pronounce a few common words. Whether he was the son of the
general of cavalry of the king of Lahore, as he himself asserted, or a
German Jew, as Mr Campbell declared with equal confidence, Sidney
pretended not to decide.

The party at the palm-tree at length retired to rest. Sidney,

wearing the Egyptian dress, had adopted the native habits in
travelling, and attempted to sleep on a single carpet spread on the
sand. The attempt was vain. The excitement caused equally by
fatigue of body and mind, and the unusual restraint of his clothes,
drove sleep from his eyelids; while one train of thought followed
another with all the vividness and incoherence of a morning dream.
He fancied he saw Mr Lascelles Hamilton rush into the tent of Mr
Ringlady and cut off his head, and then, suddenly transformed into a
minister of the Prince of Darkness, in full uniform, with a proboscis
like an elephant, and a green tail like a boa-constrictor, deliver up
the whole party, Fatmeh included, to Mohammed Ali in person.

Jumping up in alarm at this strange vision, he saw to his

amazement his companion, Aali, sitting very composedly; while
Achmet was engaged in staining his face of a bronze colour, so dark
as almost to emulate the ebon hue of El Khindi’s own skin.

“What the d—l are you about, Achmet?” shouted Sidney in

emphatic phrase. “Why are you going to make Aali’s face as black as
your own?”

Achmet grinned and replied,—“Very good against the sun, Mr

Sidney; me make Aali look a true Beddauwee,—neither white like a
boiled golgas, (he meant a yellow turnip) nor sooty like them d——n
black fellow. You like, me paint you too.” Sidney, who was quite
content to look in the desert like a boiled turnip, turned his back on
the painter; and the incident having dispersed his dreams, he fell
into a profound sleep.

Long before daylight, the whole party was roused by the

indefatigable Hassan. After the usual squabbling, yelling, singing,
and bellowing of camels, the caravan was put in motion. They left
Belbeïs without the literary Mr Campbell putting his foot within the
circuit of the renowned city. Daylight found the party moving forward
at what is a very rapid rate of travelling in the desert, whenever half-
a-dozen dromedaries are together. They were actually proceeding at
the rate of four miles an hour; now the average log of a fleet of
camels rarely exceeds two and a half under the most favourable
circumstances.

The ground over which they advanced was a flat surface of hard
clay, covered with round rough brown pebbles, apparently polished
by torrents, and flattened into the soil by some superhuman roller.
Far to the right, a range of mountains bounded the horizon; in front,
the view was terminated by a gradual elevation of the plain marked
by drifts of sand; while some miles to the left, the green valley of
the Nile, far as the eye could reach, was skirted by a forest of palm-
trees, whose feathered leaves were waving in the breeze. The scene
offered no great variety, but it was singularly impressive. Few
persons find that the deserts, even of Arabia Deserta, are precisely
what they figure to be the quintessence of desert scenery. Where
there is sand, a few scraggy shrubs are very often to be found; or
else a constant succession of high mounds or hills, disposed in
various directions and forms, take away from the monotony of the
view. Where the plain is flat and extensive, it is generally covered
with strange and beautiful pebbles; and when it rises into
mountains, they are grand and rugged in form, and coloured with
tints which render the memory of Mount Albano, and of Hymettus,
like the timid painting of a northern artist, trembling at the critics,
who have rarely seen a sunbeam.
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