Learning that the Inca ruler, Atahuallpa, was encamped with his army among the mountains, Pizarro sent an embassy to request a meeting with him. It was agreed that they meet at Caxamalca, a strongly fortified city among the sierras. On arriving at the city, the Spaniards found it evacuated. Soon after taking up their quarters there, Atahuallpa arrived and established his camp a short distance outside the city.
Pizarro at once sent word to Atahuallpa to come into the city and sup with him, but asked that, in order to show his faith in the white men and his own good intentions, he should leave all weapons behind. After much persuasion Atahuallpa accepted the invitation and entered the city, with several thousand of his followers, unarmed.
When fairly within the enclosure, a priest approaching the Inca ruler made a harangue about Christianity and demanded that he should submit to the authority of the Spanish king.
"By what authority do you demand such submission?" replied the monarch with flashing eye.
"By this holy book which I hold in my hand," answered the priest.
Then snatching the volume from the hand of the priest, Atahuallpa scornfully threw it on the ground, saying, "What right have you in my country? I will call you and your companions to an account for the indignities heaped upon me."
Picking up the book, the priest forthwith went to Pizarro and reported the conduct of the Inca, saying, "It is useless to talk to this dog. At them at once; I absolve you."
Immediately Pizarro raised his handkerchief for the preconcerted signal, the firing of a gun. Thereupon his soldiers, infantry and cavalry, rushed from their places of concealment upon the defenceless Indians, slaughtering them unmercifully right and left.
The discharge of the arquebuses and cannon, with their smoke, and the charge of the cavalry paralyzed the unsuspecting natives, and the attack became a horrible massacre. Not until thousands of the Indians had been killed and the Inca ruler had been captured did darkness cause the Spaniards to desist from their bloody work. So sudden and terrible had been the onslaught that the haughty monarch himself seemed stunned by the effect.
Realizing the irresistible power of the white men with their wonderful weapons and horses, the natives gave up for a time all thoughts of resistance. In fact, they regarded the Spaniards as superior beings endowed with preternatural gifts.