"Yes," answered Charles; "I saw it this morning, when I was saying my geography lesson to mamma; I had to say all the countries in South America, and Peru was one of them."
"Well, this country was once governed by a king who was called an Inca, and his name was Atabalipa; but although he was a king, he knew neither how to read nor write, for reading and writing were arts that were not known in America at that time."
"What are arts, papa?"
"Arts are those things which men have taught themselves to do by their own skill and invention; making tables and chairs, is an art; Printing is an art, and a very clever art it is; building is an art; and reading and writing are arts; but at the time I am speaking of, there were very few arts known in America, for it was mostly inhabited by savages; and even in Peru, where they were not savages, they were quite ignorant; they had no books, and would not have known how to read them if they had, and they thought they were the only people in the world besides the savages."
"Then, I dare say, they thought themselves very clever fellows," said Charles, "for all they could not read or write; for you know, papa, if they thought there was nobody in the world but them and the savages, they would not know there were any people cleverer than themselves."
"No, I have no doubt they were quite satisfied with themselves, my dear, and not without reason, for they had taught themselves many useful things; but at last they found out that there were people in the world who were cleverer than they were as you shall hear. There was a Spanish soldier, named Pizarro, who happened to hear that there was a great deal of gold and silver to be found in Peru; so he thought he would go there, and try if he could not make himself rich. Pizarro was a fierce, cruel man, but he had been brought up in total ignorance; for his mother was a very poor woman, and could not afford to send him to school, therefore he had never learned to read or write. However he could fight, and so he took a number of other soldiers with him, and went to Peru, where the people were so surprised at the sight of him and his men, who were not like any men they had seen before, that they were afraid; therefore the Spaniards very easily conquered them, and robbed them of their gold, and at last took the Inca prisoner, and kept him confined in a small room, where he would have been very unhappy; but that he was very much amused, by observing how many things the Spaniards knew that he had never before heard of.
"He was astonished to see that they could tell the hour of the day by their watches, and thought the Europeans must be very wonderful people indeed, to make such clever things; but what pleased him more than all, was the art of writing. He could not imagine how one person could know what another meant by looking at a few black marks, and he thought that men who could do this, must be far superior to the Peruvians, and therefore felt a respect even for the common soldiers who guarded him; for he saw that they had more knowledge than he had, although a king.
"Now Pizarro was the general of the soldiers, and of course the greatest man among them; and he had also become very rich by conquering the Peruvians, and plundering their towns, that is, taking away all the gold and silver he found: and Atabalipa supposed that, as he was the chief of the Spaniards, he must be the cleverest of them too; but one day he happened to find out by accident, that Pizarro could neither read nor write, and this discovery made him think so meanly of his conqueror, that from that moment he treated him with great contempt, saying that Pizarro, though a general, could not be a person of any consequence in his own country; since his common soldiers were better taught than himself."
"Thank you, papa," said Charles, "that is just such a story as I like, and I see that it is of no use to be rich and great, if we are not wise also."