Among the rumors which circulated among the ambitious adventurers of the New World, one of the most dazzling was that of a rich empire far to the south, a very El Dorado, where gold was as abundant as were the common metals in the Old World, and where precious stones were to be had, almost for the picking up. These rumors fired the hopes of three men in the Spanish colony at Panama, namely, Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro, both soldiers of fortune, and Hernando de Luque, a Spanish priest. As it was primarily from the efforts of these three that that astonishing episode, the Spanish conquest of Peru, came to pass.

The character of that empire which the Spaniards discovered and undertook to conquer may be briefly sketched. 

According to the traditions of Peru, there had come to that country, then lying in barbarism and darkness, two "Children of the Sun." These had taught them wise customs and the arts of civilization, and from them had sprung by direct descent the Incas, who thus ruled over them by a divine right. Besides the ruling Inca, whose person and decrees received an honor that was almost worship, there were numerous nobles, also of the royal blood, who formed a ruling caste. These were held in great honor, and were evidently of a race superior to the common people, a fact to which the very shape of their skulls testifies.  Click here to read more.

Deep within the Andes mountains of Peru lies an ancient Inca city that remained undiscovered until centuries after it was apparently abandoned.  

Here was a powerful citadel tenable against all odds, a stronghold where a mere handful of defenders could prevent a great army from taking the place by assault. Why should any one have desired to be so secure from capture as to have built a fortress in such an inaccessible place?

The builders were not in search of fields. There is so little arable land here that every square yard of earth had to be terraced in order to provide food for the inhabitants. They were not looking for comfort or convenience. Safety was their primary consideration. They were sufficiently civilized to practice intensive agriculture, sufficiently skillful to equal the best masonry the world has ever seen, sufficiently ingenious to make delicate bronzes, and sufficiently advanced in art to realize the beauty of simplicity. What could have induced such a people to select this remote fastness of the Andes, with all its disadvantages, as the site for their capital, unless they were fleeing from powerful enemies. Click here to read more.