NONE of us have forgotten about the Children of the Sun, and the city of Cuzco founded by the Golden Hearted, or of his ruling over them as Manco-Capac, the powerful one. He went into their country which we call Peru before he had ever seen Mexico, but the Spaniards came to the ancient city of Tenochtitlan before they knew anything about Cuzco. It was not long after the death of Montezuma until the Spaniards heard about the riches of the Children of the Sun, and they were determined to find that country.
The Aztecs did not help them any because they no longer looked upon them as sent from Heaven but as ruthless destroyers borne along on the backs of fierce animals swift as the wind, and carrying weapons in their hands that scattered death and destruction everywhere. The Aztecs learned to hate the Spaniards bitterly, and when we came to study their history we shall know why. Even their own historians do not pretend to deny that they fell upon the poor Aztecs sword in hand and robbed them of all the treasures they had, besides taking their lands away from them.
Some say that Francisco Pizarro was a cousin of Hernando Cortez who conquered the Aztecs, but all agree that he was an ignorant swineherd, who could neither read nor write, and whose parents were not respectable. While he was not actually a convict he belonged to the low class, and the men going with him to search for the new El Dorado among the Children of the Sun, were really no better. Cortez had some hidalgoes, cavalliers and knights with him because men of good family often came to the Americas on the first voyages after Columbus, but Pizarro collected a band of cut-throat adventurers who were just as greedy and ignorant as he was. All the exploring they did was simply to search for gold, and they did not care what methods they used to get it. The simple natives with their naked defenseless bodies, and bows and arrows were no match for men covered with steel armor, mounted on horseback and armed with guns and cannon. Balboa had already found the Pacific Ocean, and Pizarro knew that the Children of the Sun lived in that direction, so he rigged out a vessel and sailed along the coast trying to find them. At the first place he landed the natives said to him:
"Why do you not stay at home and till your own land instead of roaming about to rob others who have never harmed you?"
But the savages wore some heavy gold ornaments, and Pizarro asked eagerly:
"Have you more of this?"
"Yes, we have a little more," they said, and as they were weighing some of the metal their chief struck the scales with his fist, scattering the nuggets all over the floor.
"If this is what you prize so much that you are willing to risk your lives to attain it, I can tell you of a land where they eat and drink out of vessels of gold, and where there are great quantities to be had for the asking."
"Where is this rich country?"
"It is ten days journey toward the south and is ruled by the Child of the Sun."