himself by arms from so long a captivity, and he died with a courage becoming so magnanimous a prince.

Another time they burned, in one and the same fire, four hundred and sixty men alive at once; the four

Indian prisoners

Spaniards.

burnt alive by the hundred being of the common people, the sixty the principal lords of a province, mere prisoners of war. We have these narratives from themselves; for they do not only own it, but boast of it and inculcate it. Could it be for a testimony of their justice, or their zeal to religion? Doubtless these are ways too differing and contrary to so holy an end. Had they proposed to themselves to extend our faith, they would have considered that it does not amplify in the possession of territories, but in the gaining of men; and would have more than satisfied themselves with the slaughters occasioned by the necessity of war, without indifferently mixing a massacre, as upon wild beasts, as universal as fire and sword could make it; having only, by their good-will, saved so many as they intended to make miserable slaves of, for the work and service of their mines; so that many of the captains were put to death upon their place of conquest, by order of the King of Castile, justly offended with the horror of their conduct, and almost all of them hated and disesteemed. God did meritoriously permit that all this great plunder should be swallowed by the sea in transportation, or by civil wars, wherewith they devoured one another, and the most of the actors in it were buried upon the place, without any fruit of their victory.

That the revenue, though in the hands of so parsimonious and so prudent a prince,1 so little answers the expectation given to his predecessors of it, and of that first abundance of riches which was found at the first landing in those new discovered countries (for though a great deal be fetched thence, yet we see 'tis nothing in comparison of what might be expected), comes from this, that the use of money was there utterly unknown, and that consequently their gold was

1 Philip II.

found all collected together, being of no other use but for ornament and show; as furniture reserved from father to son by many puissant kings, who always drained their mines to make this vast heap of vessels and statues, for the decoration of their palaces and temples; whereas our gold is always in motion and traffic; we cut ours into a thousand small pieces, and cast it into a thousand forms, and scatter and disperse it a thousand ways. Only suppose our kings should thus hoard up all the gold they could get in several ages, and let it lie idle by them.

the Mexicans.

Those of the kingdom of Mexico were in some sort more civilized and more ingenious than the other nations were in those parts; therefore did they judge, as we do, that the world was near its period, and looked upon the desolation we brought amongst them for a certain sign of it. They believed that the existence of the world was divided into five ages, and into the life of five successive suns, The opinions of of which four had already ended their time, and that which gave them light was the fifth. The first perished, with all other creatures, by an universal inundation of water; the second, by the heavens falling upon us, which suffocated every living thing; to which age they assign the giants, and showed bones to the Spaniards, according to the proportions of which, the stature of men amounted to twenty hands high; the third by fire, which burnt and consumed all; the fourth, by an emotion of the air and wind, which came with such violence as beat down even many mountains; wherein the men died not, but were turned into baboons ; what impressions will not the weakness of human belief admit! After the death of this fourth sun, the world was twenty-five years in perpetual darkness; in the fifteenth of which a man and a woman were created, that restored the human race; ten years after, upon a certain day, the sun appeared newly created, and since, the account of their years takes beginning from that day; the third day after his creation, the ancient gods died; and the new ones are since born

from day to day. After what manner they think this last sun shall perish, my author knows not; but their number of this fourth change agrees with the great conjunction of stars, that eight hundred and odd years ago, as astrologers suppose, produced great alterations and novelties in the world.

The magnificent

Quito and Cusco.

As to pomp and magnificence, in relation to which I engaged in this discourse, neither Greece, Rome, causeway betwixt nor Egypt, whether for utility, difficulty, or state, can compare any of their works with the road to be seen in Peru, made by the kings of the country, from the city of Quito to that of Cusco (three hundred leagues), straight, even, five-and-twenty paces wide, paved, and inclosed on both sides with high and beautiful walls, and along these, on the inside, two clear rivulets, bordered with a beautiful sort of a tree, which they call molly. In which work, where they met with rocks and mountains, they cut them through and made them even, and filled up pits and valleys with lime and stone to make them level. At the end of every day's journey are beautiful palaces, furnished with provisions, vestments, and arms, as well for travellers as for the armies that are to pass that way. In the estimate of this work I have reckoned the difficulty, which is particularly considerable in that place; they did not build with any stones less than ten feet square; and had no other means of carriage than by drawing their load themselves by force of arm, and knew not so much as the art of scaffolding, nor any other way of standing to their work but by throwing up earth against the building, as it rose higher, taking it away again when they had done it.

The last king of

a

Let us return to our coaches. In their place, and that of all other sorts of carriage, these people caused themselves to be carried by men, and upon their shoulders. This last king of Peru, the day that he was taken, was thus carried upon staves of gold, sitting in a chair of gold in the middle of his battle. As many of his chairmen as were killed, to make

Peru carried in chair of gold to the midst of the

field of battle.

him fall (for they wanted to take him alive), as many others took their place, so that they could never beat him down, what slaughter soever they made of those people, till a horseman, seizing upon him, brought him down.

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE INCONVENIENCE OF GREATNESS.

SINCE we cannot attain to greatness, let us revenge ourselves by railing at it; and yet it is not absolutely railing against anything to proclaim its defects, because they are to be found in all things, how beautiful or how much soever to be coveted. Greatness has in general this manifest advantage, that it can grow less when it pleases, and has very near the choice of both the one and the other condition, for a man does not fall from every height; there are several from which one may descend without falling. It does, indeed, appear to me that we value it at too high a rate, and also overvalue the resolution of those who, we have either seen or heard, have contemned it, or displaced themselves of their own accord; its essence is not so evidently commodious that a man may not, without a miracle, refuse it. I find it a very hard thing to undergo misfortunes, but to be content with a competent measure of fortune, and to avoid greatness, I think a very easy matter; 'tis methinks a virtue to which I, who am none of the wisest, could without any great endeavour arrive. What then is to be expected from them that would yet put into consideration the glory attending this refusal, wherein there may lurk worse ambition than even in the desire itself and fruition of greatness? Forasmuch as ambition never

behaves itself better, according to itself, than when it proceeds by obscure and unfrequented ways.

Montaigne was never ambitious of very high preferment.

I incite my courage to patience, but I rein it in as much as I can from desire. I have as much to wish for as another, and allow my wishes as much liberty and indiscretion; but yet it never befell me to wish for either empire or royalty, or the eminence of high and commanding fortunes; I do not aim that way; I love myself too well. When I think of growing greater, 'tis but very moderately; and by a compelled and timorous advancement, such as is proper for me, in resolution, in prudence, in health, in beauty, and even in riches too; but supreme place, or mighty authority, oppresses my imagination, and quite contrary to the other,1 I should perhaps rather choose to be the second or third in Perigord, than the first at Paris; at least, without lying, the third at Paris than the first. I would neither dispute, a miserable unknown, with a nobleman's porter, nor make crowds open in adoration as I pass. I am trained up to a moderate condition, as well by my choice as by fortune; and have made it appear, in the whole conduct of my life and enterprises, that I have rather avoided, than otherwise, the climbing above the degree of fortune in which God placed me by my birth; all natural constitution is equally just and easy. My soul is so sneaking and mean, that I measure not good fortune by its height, but by its facility.

But if my heart be not great enough, 'tis, on the other hand, open enough to make amends, by freely laying open its weakness. Should any one put me upon comparing the life of L. Thorius Balbus, a brave man, handsome, learned, healthful, understanding, and abounding in all sorts of conveniences and pleasures, leading a quiet life, and all his own, his mind well prepared against death, superstition, pains, and other incumbrances of human necessity; dying at last in battle with his sword in his hand, for the defence of his country,

1 Julius Cæsar. See Plutarch, in Vitâ.