Note 124 — THE PLATEAU, OR TABLE-LAND, OF CAXAMARCA, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCA ATAHUALLPA, AND THE FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN, From the Ridge of the Andes.

p. 410—“Captivity of Atahuallpa.”

The captive Inca was, at his own desire, a short time before he was put to death, conducted into the open air, for the purpose of seeing a large comet, described to have been of a greenish black hue, and nearly as thick as a man’s body; (“una cometa verdinegra, poco menos gruesa que el cuerpo de un hombre,” Garcilaso, p. ii. p. 44). This comet, which Atahuallpa saw shortly before his death, (therefore, in July or August, 1533), he supposed to be the same comet of evil omen, which had appeared at the death of his father Huayna Capac, and was certainly identical with that observed by Appian.^[SE] The comet was seen by Appian, on the 21st of July, standing high in the north, near the constellation of Perseus; and it appeared like a sword held by Perseus, in his right hand.^[SF] The year in which the Inca Huayna Capac 430died, is considered by Robertson not to be satisfactorily determined; but the investigations of Balboa and Velasco shew, that the event must have occurred about the end of 1525. The statements of Hevelius (Cométographie, p. 844), and of Pingré (vol. i. p. 485), obtain additional confirmation from the testimony of Garcilaso. (p. i. p. 321,) and the traditions preserved among the Amautas (“que son los filosofos de aquella republica”). I may here add the remark, that Oviedo is certainly incorrect in stating in the yet unpublished continuation of his “Historia de las Indias,” that the name of the Inca was not Atahuallpa, but Atabaliva. See Prescott’s Conquest of Peru, vol. i. p. 498.