time divided the inheritance of the Children of the Sun. Atahuallpa, who was a young man of boundless ambition and warlike character, not content with having deprived the rightful heir of half the dominions which ought in justice to have been his, next laid claim to the other half also, and in consequence several years of sanguinary civil wars devastated the country. By the time Pizarro and his feeble force landed at Tumbez with a view to the subjugation of the empire, Huascar, the rightful monarch, had, however, succumbed; and the usurper, having encircled his brows with the royal borla, exercised as absolute sway as any previous Inca over the extended empire, the whole of whose resources were at his command to check the invasion of the white men.

Atahuallpa was at Caxamalca-the present Caxamarca-at the head of an army of 60,000 well-appointed troops, when Pizarro, with a force numbering 177 men-of which sixty-seven only were cavalry, three arquebusiers, and about twenty cross - bowmen -commenced his expedition across the country to beard the lion in his den. The hostile intentions of the Spanish commander were, however, carefully concealed; strict discipline was maintained in his little army, and the hospitality he claimed as a peaceful envoy from a foreign monarch was therefore cheerfully granted. But as the Spaniards drew nigh to headquarters, and interchanged messages with the sovereign, it became more and more evident to them that their ultimate objects were suspected, and that they ought to be prepared for all contingencies; and when Pizarro at length beheld the white pavilions of the Peruvian camp covering the ground for a space of several miles; when he saw the admirable discipline of the troops, and the many other evidences of the high state of civilisation of the country, and the power of the monarch, he became convinced that a bold stroke of genius only could save him and his companions, and render future success possible. To seize the person of the Inca in the very presence of his own army was the plan projected by the dauntless and unscrupulous Spaniard, and executed by him with singular boldness and success. The results of this audacious step must indeed have far surpassed Pizarro's most sanguine expectations, for the wheel which set the mechanism in motion being withdrawn, the state was paralysed at one fell blow, and the mighty empire lay prostrate at the feet of a few foreign adventurers. As long, indeed, as the Inca lived, though a captive, the bond which held the state together was not quite dissevered, for his wishes, transmitted to his people through his captors, were still revered by them as law. But after the cruel policy of Pizarro had induced him to put his unhappy captive to death, and the Peruvians saw that the power of the Children of the Sun was passed away for ever, then the beautiful fabric reared with so much care fell to the ground by its own weight; and the people passed without resistance from a state of pupilage to a state of slavery. Little more than ten years after Pizarro's first landing every vestige of the elaborate system which we have described had disappeared; and the state to which the country was reduced is thus eloquently described by Mr Prescott :—

"The kingdom had experienced a revolution of the most decisive kind. Its ancient institutions were subverted; its heaven-descended aristocracy were levelled almost to the condition of the peasant; the people became the serfs of the conquerors; their dwellings in the capital were seized

and appropriated; the temples were turned into stables, the royal residences into barracks for the troops; the sanctity of the religious houses was violated. . . . . Intoxicated by the unaccustomed possession of power, and without the least notion of the responsibilities which attached to their situation as masters of the land, they (the Spaniards) too often abandoned themselves to the indulgence of every whim which cruelty or caprice could dictate. Not unfrequently, says an unsuspected witness, I have seen the Spaniards, long after the conquest, amuse themselves by hunting down the natives with bloodhounds for mere sport, or in order to train their dogs to the game! The most unbounded scope was given to licentiousness: the young maiden was torn without remorse from the arms of her family to gratify the passion of her brutal conqueror; the sacred houses of the Virgins of the Sun were broken open and violated, and the cavalier swelled his harem with a troop of Indian girls, making it seem that the crescent would have been a much more fitting symbol for his banner than the immaculate cross. But the dominant passion of the Spaniard was the lust of gold. For this he shrank from no toil himself, and was merciless in his exactions of labour from his Indian slave. Unfortunately Peru abounded in mines which too well repaid this labour, and human life was the item of least account in the estimate of the conquerors. Under his Incas the Peruvian was never suffered to be idle, but the task imposed on him was always proportionate to his strength. He had his seasons of rest and refreshment, and was well protected against the inclemency of the weather; every care was shewn for his personal safety; but the Spaniards, while they taxed the strength of the native to the utmost, deprived him of the means of repairing it when exhausted. They suffered the provident arrangements of the Incas to fall into decay; the granaries were emptied; the flocks were wasted in riotous living; they were slaughtered to gratify a mere epicurean whim; and many a llama was destroyed solely for the sake of the brains, a dainty morsel much coveted by the Spaniards. So reckless was the spirit of destruction after the conquest, says Ondegardo, the wise governor of Cuzco, that in four years more of these animals perished than in 400 in the times of the Incas. The flocks, once so numerous over the broad table-lands, were now thinned to a scanty number, that sought shelter in the fastnesses of the Andes. The poor Indian, without food, without the warm fleece which furnished him a defence against the cold, now wandered half-starved and naked over the plateau; and many an Inca noble roamed a mendicant over the lands where he once held rule; and if driven, perchance by his necessities, to purloin something from the superfluity of his conquerors, he expiated it by a miserable death.'

MARFREDA; OR, THE ICELANDERS.

THE day is closing fast, my Marfreda; it is time that you should hang up the lamp in the badstofa (principal apartment), and that we prepare the evening meal.' These words were addressed by an elderly female to a young and beautiful girl. The scene was a farmhouse in the north-eastern part of Iceland. The girl had been standing for some time at the door of the house, looking out upon the widely-extended landscape which lay before her, quickly fading from her view as daylight died away. 'Not yet, dear mother,' she replied, as she took another anxious glance; 'not yet it is not so late as you suppose. I can still see the tall summit of Herdubried, and even the smoky column ascending from it; and look, it is only now that the reindeer are going home to their lair in the distant valley. How beautiful they are!' She stood apparently gazing on the progress of a large flock of these magnificent animals, and it was a sight which might well claim admiration even from one who had so often witnessed it. They were more than fifty in number, and were under the guidance of a noble stag which led the van, and which, as they marched slowly across the plain, now and then turned round his stately head to inspect the state of his troops. A footstep was heard in a thicket near the dwelling. 'Is that Semund?' cried the young girl; but she was answered by an elderly man who approached the door.

'No, sweet Marfreda, not Semund, but his father. And why, my child, do you stand here exposing that slight form to the harsh wind of night?'

I was looking at the reindeer, father,' she replied, colouring slightly, and pointing towards them. The old man's eye followed the direction of her hand.

'Yes, a noble sight it is, and reminds me of what is said of the wild ass in Job: "Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwelling; the range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing." But come in, my child-the darkness and cold increase.'

'So I have been telling her until I am weary,' said the elderly female, advancing and helping her husband to fasten the house-door; 'but Marfreda has been standing there listening to the melancholy warbling of the plover till its last note died into silence. Have you not, my child?'

'No, mother, I heard it not,' answered the maiden, as she followed the venerable couple to the large apartment where the whole family, including No. 91/ 1

domestics, were assembled to spend the long evening.

'No, mother; I was listening for the voice of Semund: it is time he had returned.' The mother looked rather anxious at this remark, but busied herself in household matters; the other members of the family settling to their wonted employments.

A winter evening in an Icelandic family presents a scene interesting and pleasing. The master, mistress, and young girl whom we have just introduced to our readers, seated themselves at the inner end of the large apartment, the remainder of which was occupied by their servants and assistants in the work of the farm. Marfreda placed herself before an embroidery-frame, and seemed busily employed in working a bedcover with wreaths of flowers-an art in which her countrywomen are adepts: the other females were knitting or spinning with the distaff. One or two of the men were busy in making necessary instruments of wood and copper, and one was even engaged in the work of a silversmith: there being no manufacture carried on as a trade, the peasants are all ingenious, and fabricate such things as they require. One was engaged in writing; and the master, who was also clergyman of the district, had placed himself near the lamp, which was suspended in the middle of the room, and prepared to read aloud one of the Sagas, or historical compositions of the Icelanders, which are numerous; but the Sira Hialte Erlandson had not proceeded far in his legend when his wife, after some ineffectual efforts to attend to it, interrupted him by saying: 'Marfreda, you have been all this evening uneasy at our Semund's delay in returning, and a thought has just occurred to me which perhaps accounts for this anxiety: tell me, dear child, have any new tidings troubled you?' The old man laid down his book. 'Have they, Marfreda ?' he inquired with a look of alarm.

'Not much, father,' she replied. Nothing but that some masses of ice have floated towards our coast: a neighbour from the next farm told me so.' 'And they came not empty, I suppose?' inquired the anxious mother. 'No, mother; a bear, an immense bear, came on one of them, and landed on our coast not far from Lake Myvatu, where Semund went this morning to fish.' A silence followed: the usual placidity of the father's countenance had given way to a slight expression of uneasiness; the mother clasped her hands and looked upwards, as if invoking protection for her son; Marfreda bent her head over the embroidery, and a few tears fell upon the flowers she wrought. Various stories of bears—those ferocious visitors from Greenland that too often are borne to their coast upon masses of floating ice-were recited by various members of the household. The time for supper was gone by; but still the meal was deferred in hope of the wanderer's return, and increased anxiety again produced silence, when a knock at the door, and the voice of Semund desiring admittance, dispelled their fears. He soon entered, and with him a stranger, whose appearance and dress at once announced him to be a foreigner.

'Her se Gud!'—' May God be in this place!' said the young Icelander, the salutation usual in the country, which was answered with The Lord bless thee !'.

'I bring you, father and mother dear,' he rejoined, 'a stranger from the distant shore of England. I have promised him a kind welcome, and such entertainment as is in our power to bestow.'

'Welcome!' resounded on all sides.

The venerable pastor took the stranger's hand and led him to the bright wood-fire, seating him on the best chair, the cushions of which, embroidered and filled with the soft down of the eider-duck, presented an appearance of comfort to a weary traveller. The matron, on hospitable thoughts intent,' soon brought him a cup of coffee; and having quaffed a beverage that could not have been excelled in Turkey, he seemed much refreshed, and addressing his kind entertainers in their own language, which he spoke tolerably well, he returned thanks for their hospitality. He was a young man, not much above the common height, but with an air of dignity and elegance that bespoke him to be of gentle blood—an advantage his entertainers could appreciate, as there are no people more tenacious of genealogical descent than the natives of this solitary island. His handsome features denoted intelligence, and were radiant with an animation strongly contrasting with the calm, thoughtful expression characteristic of those around him. He was beginning to enter on an explanation of his unexpected appearance, when the Sira Hialte interrupted him, saying: 'Not yet for the present we are satisfied with the pleasure of knowing you are here; when you are refreshed you can explain how you came. Supper is ready. Marfreda, forget not your share in the duty of administering to the comfort of our guest.'

The young maiden, who had been in the background conversing with Semund, now moved forward, and suddenly stood before the stranger. She was a beautiful and graceful-looking girl, her eyes of deep blue; a profusion of brown hair was confined by the faldur, or white turban worn by Icelandic women; her cheek was covered with blushes, and her eyes cast timidly downwards. Still there was a slight curl about her short upper lip which denoted something of spirit and dignity within. Over her blue dress she wore an apron bordered with black velvet, and a bodice of red, with tight sleeves, the seams of which were covered with stripes of velvet; and in front two borders of the same, elegantly ornamented with five or six silver clasps and lace embroidery; round her swan-like neck was a ruff of black velvet nicely embroidered with silver. The visitor almost started when this bright vision appeared before him: but his surprise increased when she immediately dropped on one knee, and laying a pair of slippers near his feet, attempted to take off his shoes, torn and soiled as they were by his walk over lava rocks. It was in vain, however, to remonstrate against a rite of hospitality so incompatible with the respect due to the gentle sex he was assured that it could not be dispensed with, and was obliged to submit. In a few minutes the whole family were seated at the supper-table; and after the pastor had asked a blessing, they commenced their primitive repast of smoked mutton-served up on a large pewter dish -and boiled rice and milk, with cakes made of wild corn, which grew plentifully among the sand and ashes that cover the ground around a volcanic mountain not far distant. A preserve of blue-berries with rich cream closed the entertainment, the only beverage being blanda, a kind of whey mixed with water. When supper was ended the pastor returned thanks, the whole family, with clasped hands and serious countenances, appearing to join in his devotion. They then resumed their former employments, the stranger being reseated in the chair of state.