EDITION DE LUXE OF THE COMPLETE
WORKS OF
WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT,
EDITED BY JOHN FOSTER KIRK.
WITH THIRTY ILL USTRA TIONS ON STEEL.
IN FIFTEEN VOLUMES.
VOLUME VII.
two Aunbreb anb Aift Coiop}s printeb.








H ISTORY
OF THE
CONQUEST OF PERU.
















HISTORY
OF THE
CONQUEST OF PERU
By WILLIAM  H. PRESCOTT
"Congestae cumulantur opes, orbisque rapinas
Accipit."
CLAUDIAN, In Ruf., lib. i. v. I94.
"So color de religion
Van a. buscar plata y oro
Del encubierto tesoro."
LooPE: DE VEGA, El Nuevo Mundo, Jorn. I.
EDITED BY JOHN FOSTER KIRK
VOLUME I.
PHILADELPHIA
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.




Copyright, 1847,
BY WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT.
Copyright, 1874,
By J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
Copyright, 1874,
BY WILLIAM G. PRESCOTT.
Peru-Vol. I.
Lilphincott's Press, Philadelhia.




PREFACE.
THE most brilliant passages in the history of Spanish
adventure in the New World are undoubtedly afforded
by the conquests of Mexico and Peru,-the two states
which combined with the largest extent of empire a
refined social polity and considerable progress in the
arts of civilization. Indeed, so prominently do they
stand out on the great canvas of history that the name
of the one, notwithstanding the contrast they exhibit
in their respective institutions, most naturally suggests
that of the other; and when I sent to Spain to collect
materials for an account of the Conquest of Mexico I
included in my researches those relating to the Conquest
of Peru.
The larger part of the documents, in both cases, was
obtained from the same great repository,-the archives
of the Royal Academy of History at Madrid; a body
specially intrusted with the preservation of whatever
may serve to illustrate the Spanish colonial annals. The
richest portion of its collection is probably that furnished by the papers of Mufioz. This eminent scholar,
the historiographer of the Indies, employed nearly fifty
years of his life in amassing materials for a history of
Spanish discovery and conquest in America. For this,
as he acted under the authority of the government,
A*               (V)




vi                 PREFACE.
every facility was afforded him; and public offices and
private depositories, in all the principal cities of the
empire, both at home and throughout the wide extent
of its colonial possessions, were freely opened to his
inspection. The result was a magnificent collection of
manuscripts, many of which he patiently transcribed
with his own hand. But he did not live to reap the
fruits of his persevering induStry. The first volume of
his work, relating to the voyages of Columbus, was
scarcely finished when he died; and his manuscripts,
at least that portion of them which have reference to
Mexico and Peru, were destined to serve the uses of
another, an inhabitant of that New World to which
they related.
Another scholar, to whose literary stores I am largely
indebted, is Don'Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, late
Director of the Royal Academy of History. Through
the greater part of his long life he was employed in
assembling original documents to illustrate the colonial
annals. Many of these have been incorporated in his
great work, "Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos," which, although far from being completed after
the original plan of its author, is of inestimable service
to the historian. In following down the track of discovery, Navarrete turned aside from the conquests of
Mexico and Peru, to exhibit the voyages of his countrymen in the Indian seas. His manuscripts relating
to the two former countries he courteously allowed to
be copied for me. Some of them have since appeared
in print, under the auspices of his learned coadjutors,
Salva and Baranda, associated with him in the Academy;
but the documents placed in my hands formed a most




PREFA CE.                  vii
important contribution to my materials for the present
history.
The death of this illustrious man, which occurred
some time after the present work was begun, has left a
void in his country not easy to be filled; for he was
zealously devoted to letters, and few have done more
to extend the knowledge of her colonial history. Far
from an exclusive solicitude for his own literary projects, he was ever ready to extend his sympathy and
assistance to those of others.  His reputation as a
scholar was enhanced by the higher qualities whichf he
possessed as a man,-by his benevolence, his simplicity
of manners, and unsullied moral worth. My own obligations to him are large; for from the publication of
my first historical work, down to the last week of his
life, I have constantly received proofs from him of his
hearty and most efficient interest in the prosecution of
my historical labors; and I now the more willingly pay
this well-merited tribute to his deserts, that it must be
exempt from all suspicion of flattery.
In the list of those to whom I have been indebted
for materials I must also include the name of M. Ternaux-Compans, so well known by his faithful and elegant
French versions of the Mufioz manuscripts; and that of
my friend Don Pascual de Gayangos, who, under the
modest dress of translation, has furnished a most acute
and learned commentary on Spanish-Arabian history,securing for himself the foremost rank in that difficult
department of letters, which has been illumined by the
labors of a Masdeu, a Casiri, and a Conde.
To the materials derived from these sources I have
added some manuscripts of an important character from




viii                PREFA CE
the library of the Escorial. These, which chiefly relate
to the ancient institutions of Peru, formed part of the
splendid collection of Lord Kingsborough, which has
unfortunately shared the lot of most literary collections,
and been dispersed, since the death of its noble author.
For these I am indebted to that industrious bibliographer Mr. O. Rich, now resident in London. Lastly,
I must not omit to mention my obligations, in another
way, to my friend Charles Folsom, Esq., the learned
librarian of the Boston Athenaum, whose minute acquaintance with the grammatical structure and the true
idiom of our English tongue has enabled me to correct
many inaccuracies into which I had fallen in the composition both of this and of my former works.
From these different quarters I have accumulated a
large amount of manuscripts, of the most various character and from the most authentic sources; royal grants
and ordinances, instructions of the court, letters of
the emperor to the great colonial officers, municipal
records, personal diaries and memoranda, and a mass
of private correspondence of the principal actors in
this turbulent drama. Perhaps it was the turbulent
state of the country which led to a more frequent correspondence between the government at home and the
colonial officers. But, whatever be the cause, the collection of manuscript materials in reference to Peru is
fuller and more complete than that which relates to
Mexico; so that there is scarcely a nook or corner so
obscure, in the path of the adventurer, that some light
has not been thrown on it by the written correspondence of the period.  The historian has rather had
occasion to complain of the embarras des richesses; for




PRERFA CE.                   ix
in the multiplicity of contradictory testimony it is not
always easy to detect the truth, as the multiplicity of
cross-lights is apt to dazzle and bewilder the eye of the
spectator.
The present History has been conducted on the same
general plan with that of the Conquest of Mexico. In
an Introductory Book I have endeavored to portray the
institutions of the Incas, that the reader may be acquainted with the character and condition of that extraordinary race before he enters on the story of their
subjugation. The remaining books are occupied with
the narrative of the Conquest. And here the subject,
it must be allowed, notwithstanding the opportunities
it presents for the display of character, strange romantic
incident, and picturesque scenery, does not afford so
obvious advantages to the historian as the Conquest of
Mexico. Indeed, few subjects can present a parallel
with that, for the purposes either of the historian or
the poet. The natural development of the story, there,
is precisely what would be prescribed by the severest
rules of art. The conquest of the country is the great
end always in the view of the reader. From the first
landing of the Spaniards on the soil, their subsequent
adventures, their battles and negotiations, their ruinous retreat, their rally and final siege, all tend to this
grand result, till the long series is closed by the downfall of the capital. In the march of events, all moves
steadily forward to this consummation. It is a magnificent epic, in which the unity of interest is complete.
In the " Conquest of Peru," the action, so far as it
is founded on the subversion of the Incas, terminates




x                   PREFACE.
long before the close of the narrative. The remaining
portion is taken up with the fierce feuds of the Conquerors, which would seem, from their very nature, to
be incapable of being gathered round a central point
of interest. To secure this, we must look beyond the
immediate overthrow of the Indian empire. The conquest of the natives is but the first step, to be followed
by the conquest of the Spaniards-the rebel Spaniards-themselves, till the supremacy of the crown is
permanently established over the country. It is not
till this period that the acquisition of this transatlantic
empire can be said to be completed; and by fixing the
eye on this remoter point the successive steps of the
narrative will be found leading to one great result, and
that unity of interest preserved which is scarcely less
essential to historic than dramatic composition. How
far this has been effected in the present work must be
left to the judgment of the reader.
No history of the Conquest of Peru, founded on
original documents and aspiring to the credit of a
classic composition, like the "Conquest of Mexico"
by Solis, has been attempted, so far as I am aware, by
the Spaniards. The English possess one of high value,
from the pen of Robertson, whose masterly sketch
occupies its due space in his great work on America.
It has been my object to exhibit this same story in all
its romantic details; not merely to portray the characteristic features of the Conquest, but to fill up the outline with the coloring of life, so as to present a minute
and faithful picture of the times. For this purpose, I
have, in the composition of the work, availed myself
freely of my manuscript materials, allowed the actors




PREFA CE.                  xi
to speak as much as possible for themselves, and especially made frequent use of their letters; for nowhere
is the heart more likely to disclose itself than in the
freedom  of private correspondence.  I have made
liberal extracts from these authorities in the notes,
both to sustain the text, and to put in a printed form
those productions of the eminent captains and statesmen of the time, which are not very accessible to
Spaniards themselves.
_M. Am6d~e Pichot, in the Preface to the French
translation of the " Conquest of Mexico," infers from
the plan of the composition that I must have carefully
studied the writings of his countryman M. de Barante.
The acute critic does me but justice in supposing me
familiar with the principles of that writer's historical
theory, so ably developed in the Preface to his " Ducs
de Bourgogne." And I have had occasion to admire
the skilful manner in which he illustrates this theory
himself, by constructing out of the rude materials of a
distant time a monument of genius that transports us
at once into the midst of the Feudal Ages, —and this
without the incongruity which usually attaches to a
modern-antique. In like manner I have attempted to
seize the characteristic expression of a distant age and
to exhibit it in the freshness of life.  But in an essential particular I have deviated from the plan of the
French historian. I have suffered the scaffolding to
remain after the building has been completed.  In
other words, I have shown to the reader the steps of
the process by which I have come to my conclusions.
Instead of requiring him to take my version of the
story on trust, I have endeavored to give him a reason




xii                 PREA CE.
for my faith. By copious citations from the original
authorities, and by such critical notices of them as
would explain to him the influences to which they were
subjected, I have endeavored to put him in a position
for judging for himself, and thus for revising, and, if
need be, reversing, the judgments of the historian.
He will, at any rate, by this means, be enabled to
estimate the difficulty of arriving at truth amidst the
conflict of testimony; and he will learn to place little
reliance on those writers who pronounce on the mysterious past with what Fontenelle calls "a frightful degree
of certainty,"-a spirit the most opposite to that of
the true philosophy of history.
Yet it must be admitted that the chronicler who
records the events of an earlier age has some obvious
advantages in the store of manuscript materials at his
command,-the statements of friends, rivals, and enemies furnishing a wholesome counterpoise to each
other,-and also in the general course of events, as
they actually occurred, affording the best commentary
on the true motives of the parties. The actor, engaged
in the heat of the strife, finds his view bounded by
the circle around him, and his vision blinded by the
smoke and dust of the conflict; while the spectator,
whose eye ranges over the ground from a more distant
and elevated point, though the individual objects may
lose somewhat of their vividness, takes in at a glance
all the operations of the field. Paradoxical as it may
appear, truth founded on contemporary testimony would
seem, after all, as likely to be attained by the writer of
a later day as by contemporaries themselves.
Before closing these remarks, I may be permitted to




PREFACE.                  xiii
add a few of a personal nature. In several foreign
notices of my writings, the author has been said to be
blind; and more than once I have had the credit of
having lost my sight in the composition of my first history. When I have met with such erroneous accounts,
I have hastened to correct them. But the present occasion affords me the best means of doing so; and I am
the more desirous of this as I fear some of my own
remarks, in the Prefaces to my former histories, have
led to the mistake.
While at the University, I received an injury in one
of my eyes, which deprived me of the sight of it. The
other, soon after, was attacked by inflammation so
severely that for some time I lost the sight of that also;
and, though it was subsequently restored, the organ was
so much disordered as to remain permanently debilitated, while twice in my life, since, I have been deprived
of the use of it for all purposes of reading and writing,
for several years together. It was during one of these
periods that I received from Madrid the materials for
the "History of Ferdinand and Isabella," and in my
disabled condition, with my transatlantic treasures lying
around me, I was like one pining from hunger in the
midst of abundance. In this state, I resolved to make
the ear, if possible, do the work of the eye. I procured
the services of a secretary, who read to me the various
authorities; and in time I became so far familiar with
the sounds of the different foreign languages (to some
of which, indeed, I had been previously accustomed
by a residence abroad) that I could comprehend his
reading without much difficulty. As the reader proceeded, I dictated copious notes; and when these had
B




xiv                 PREFA CE.
swelled to a considerable amount they were read to me
repeatedly, till I had mastered their contents sufficiently
for the purposes of composition. The same notes furnished an easy means of reference to sustain the text.
Still another difficulty occurred, in the mechanical
labor of writing, which I found a severe trial to the
eye. This was remedied by means of a writing-case,
such as is used by the blind, which enabled me to commit my thoughts to paper without the aid of sight,
serving me equally well in the dark as in the light.
The characters thus formed made a near approach to
hieroglyphics; but my secretary became expert in the
art of deciphering, and a fair copy-with a liberal
allowance for unavoidable blunders-was transcribed
for the use of the printer. I have described the process with more minuteness, as some curiosity has been
repeatedly expressed in reference to my modus operanand
under my privations, and the knowledge of it may be
of some assistance to others in similar circumstances.
Though I was encouraged by the sensible progress
of my work, it was necessarily slow. But in time the
tendency to inflammation diminished, and the strength
of the eye was confirmed more and more. It was at
length so far restored that I could read for several hours
of the day, though my labors in this way necessarily
terminated with the daylight. Nor could I ever dispense with the services of a secretary, or with the
writing-case; for, contrary to the usual experience, I
have found writing a severer trial to the eye than reading,-a remark, however, which does not apply to the
reading of manuscript; and to enable myself, therefore,
to revise my composition more carefully, I caused a




PREFACE.                   xv
copy of the "History of Ferdinand and Isabella" to
be printed for my own inspection before it was sent to
the press for publication. Such as I have described
was the improved state of my health during the preparation of the "Conquest of Mexico;" and, satisfied
with being raised so nearly to a level with the rest of
my species, I scarcely envied the superior good fortune
of those who could prolong their studies into the evening and the later hours of the night.
But a change has again taken place during the last
two years. The sight of my eye has become gradually
dimmed, while the sensibility of the nerve has been so
far increased that for several weeks of the last year I
have not opened a volume, and through the whole time
I have not had the use of it, on an average, for more
than an hour a day. Nor can I cheer myself with the
delusive expectation that, impaired as the organ has
become from having been tasked, probably, beyond its
strength, it can ever renew its youth, or be of much
service to me hereafter in my literary researches.
Whether I shall have the heart to enter, as I had proposed, on a new and more extensive field of historical
labor, with these impediments, I cannot say. Perhaps
long habit, and a natural desire to follow up the career
which I have so long pursued, may make this, in a
manner, necessary, as my past experience has already
proved that it is practicable.
From this statement-too long, I fear, for his patience-the reader who feels any curiosity about the
matter will understand the real extent of my embarrassments in my historical pursuits.  That they have
not been very light will be readily admitted, when it




xvi                PREEA CE.
is considered that I have had but a limited use of my
eye in its best state, and that much of the time I have
been debarred from the use of it altogether. Yet the
difficulties I have had to contend with are very far
inferior to those which fall to the lot of a blind man.
I know of no historian now alive who can claim the
glory of having overcome such obstacles, but the author
of "La Conquete de l'Angleterre par les Normands;"
who, to use his own touching and beautiful language,
"has made himself the friend of darkness," and who,
to a profound philosophy that requires no light but
that from within, unites a capacity for extensive and
various research, that might well demand the severest
application of the student.
The remarks into which I have been led at such
length will, I trust, not be set down by the reader to
an unworthy egotism, but to their true source, a desire
to correct a misapprehension to which I may have unintentionally given rise myself, and which has gained
me the credit with some-far from  grateful to my
feelings, since undeserved-of having surmounted the
incalculable obstacles which lie in the path of the blind
man.
BOSTON, April 2, I847.




GENERAL CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
INTRODUCTION.-VIEW OF THE CIVILIZATION OF THE
INCAS.
BOOK II.
DISCOVERY OF PERU.
BOOK III.
CONQUEST OF PERU.
BOOK IV.
CIVIL WARS OF THE CONQUERORS.
BOOK V.
SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTRY.
APPENDIX
(xvii)








CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
BOOK  I.
INTRODUCTION.-VIEW  OF THE CIVILIZATION OF
THE INCAS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.-SOURCES OF PERUVIAN CIVILIZATION.-EMPIRE OF THE INCAS.-ROYAL
FAMILY.-NOBILITY.                          3
Extent of the Peruvian Empire......   4
Its Topographical Aspect....... 5
Unfavorable to Husbandry......           6
Natural Impediments overcome                  7
Source of Civilization......   8
Children of the Sun......            9. 
Other Traditions......                 I
Their Uncertainty......                 I
Conquests of the Inca.....s   I6
City of Cuzco..I7
Fortress of Cuzco......                18
Its remarkable Structure....... I9
Queen of the Inca......                 21
Hleir-apparent......                       22
Order of Chivalry......              23
Ceremonies of Admission......    24
Inca a Despot........        26
His Dress........ 27
Intercourse with the People..27
Progresses through the Country...... 28
Royal Palaces.....   29
(xix)




xx                       CONTENTS.
PAGE
Their gorgeous Decorations..30
Gardens of Yucay.                                          3I
All closed at the Inca's Death...                   33
Obsequies of the Incas.33
Their Bodies preserved..34
Produced at Festivals.                                    35
Inca Nobles..... 36
Their exclusive Privileges.37
Curacas....38
Inca Nobility the highest...     ~ ~..    39
CHAPTER II.
ORDERS OF THE STATE.-PROVISIONS FOR JUSTICE.-DIVISION OF LANDS.-REVENUES AND REGISTERS.-GREAT
ROADS AND POSTS.-MILITARY TACTICS AND POLICY  ~  43
Name of Peru                                               44
Divisions of the Empire.                                  45
Tribunals of Justice.                                      46
Character of the Laws..47
Simple Administration of Justice..48
Threefold Distribution of Lands..                 50
Division renewed yearly......   51
Agrarian Law..52
The Land cultivated by the People                          53
Appropriation and Care of the Llamas.                     54
Woollen Manufactures                                       55
Labor in Peru.                                            56
Registers and Surveys by Government.   57
Rotation of Labor......                                   58
Magazines of Products and Manufactures.                   59
Taxation borne wholly by the People.           62
No Room for Progress.......  62
No Pauperism.....63
Monuments of Peruvian Industry.....                     64
Great Roads...... 64
Suspension Bridges......                                 66
Caravansaries, or Tambos...... 68
System of Posts.                                          69




CONTEVNTS.                     xxi
PAGE.
Relays of Couriers......                           70
Military Policy of the Incas......    72
Conquests in the Name of Religion...           72
Peruvian Army......                               73
Arms and Armor......                               74
Military Quarters and Magazines.....           75
Lenient Policy in War......                   77
Religion of the Conquered Nations.....          78
Disposition of the Conquered Territory.....   79
Quichua Language......    8
Mitimaes......82
Unity of Purpose in Peruvian Institutions           84
Domestic Quiet their Aim...85
Religious Character of Peruvian Wars                86
Singular Harmony in their Empire...... 87
CHAPTER III.
PERUVIAN RELIGION. - DEITIES.-GORGEOUS TEMPLES. -
FESTIVALS.-VIRGINS OF THE SUN.-MARRIAGE.         88
Religion of the American Races..88
Peruvian Notions of a Future Life..             9
Embalming and Burial...                    92
Idea of God.....  93
Worship of the Sun..95
Inferior Deities....  96
Temple of the Sun at Cuzco..99
Its Richness and Splendor... Ioo
Temples of inferior Deities...   oI
Utensils and Ornaments of Gold...  0
Proofs of ancient Magnificence..                Io3
High Priest..                                    I05
Sacerdotal Order..                       I05
Duties of Priests.                                 Io6
Festival of Raymi... Io6
Human Sacrifices rare.                             Io8
Sacred Flame I..
Religious Ceremony... 
Virgins of the Sun..113.  I I3




xxii                 CONTENTS.
PAGE
Convents.                                         113
Brides of the Inca.. 
Marriage universal.  I6
Provisions for Marriage..  I7
CHAPTER IV.
EDUCATION. - QUIPUS. - ASTRONOMY. - AGRICULTURE. -
AQUEDUCTS.-GUANO.-IMPORTANT ESCULENTS.   120
Education in Peru........                   20
Seminaries and Amautas.......                   2I
Quipus and Quipucamayus..122
Method of transmitting History.24
Various Symbols of Thought......                   I25
Quipus the poorest........    I25
Traditional Minstrelsy.......                 I27
Quichua Dialect........127
Theatrical Exhibitions.......         I28
Division of Time........  I29
Regulated by the Equinoxes.....         I30
Little Progress in Astronomy.......   I3
The Inca's Care of Agriculture......    133
System of Irrigation........ 134
Aqueducts........  35
Terraces on the Sierra.......              I36
Guano........                                    138
Substitute for the Plough.......              I39
Fairs.....I140
Variety of Products......            I4I
Indian Corn.....           42
Cuca........ 143
Potatoes.........  44
CHAPTER V.
PERUVIAN SHEEP.-GREAT HITNTS.-MANUFACTURES.-MECHANICAL SKILL. —ARCHITECTURE.-CONCLUDING RE.FLECTIONS... I46
Advantages for Manufactures..                     47
The Llama.                                        I47




CONTENTS.                       xxiii
PAGE
Alpacas..49
Huanacos and Vicufias..                                149
Great annual Hunts.                                    150
Voollen Manufactures..                                  52
Division of Mechanical Labor...    53
Extraordinary Dexterity in the Arts        1. 54
No Use of Iron.......  55
Gold and Silver..                               156
Architecture a Test of Civilization.....            157
Peruvian Architecture......                             58
Houses....... 6o
Their Simplicity of Construction.....               6I
Adaptation to Climate......                            i6
Comparison between the Inca and Aztec Races..  63
In Policy and Religion.....    64
In Science.....            i65
Peruvian and Eastern Empires....     I67
The Incas perfect Despots....        68
Careful of the People..70
No Free Agency in Peru....                          I70
No Idleness or Poverty...                          17
Influence of Government on Character... I74
Life and Works of Sarmiento..                 I77
And of Polo de Ondegardo.....   181
BOOK II.
DISCOVERY OF PERU.
CHAPTER I.
ANCIENT AND MODERN SCIENCE.-ART OF NAVIGATION. -
MARITIME DISCOVERY.- SPIRIT OF THE SPANIARDS.POSSESSIONS IN THE NEW WORI.D.-RUMORS CONCERNING PERU.....  18?
Introductory Remarks...  I87
Progress in Navigation..93




xxiv                   CONTENTS.
PAGE
Early Voyages of Discovery...   92
Discovery of America... 93
Romantic Expectations I.94
Northern and Southern Adventurers.. 95
Extent of Discovery...    96
Balboa reaches the Pacific.. I97
Colonial Policy..                                      98
Pedro Arias de Avila... 200
Foundation of Panam..                     201
First Southern Expedition.            202
Rumors respecting Peru..                              203
CHAPTER II.
FRANCISCO PIZARRO.-HIS EARLY HISTORY.-FIRST EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH.-DISTRESSES OF THE VOYAGERS.
-SHARP ENCOUNTERS.-RETURN TO PANAMA.-ALMAGRO'S EXPEDITION.204
Francisco Pizarro's Early Life.205
He goes to Hispaniola.6. 206
Various Adventures.206
He accompanies Pedrarias to Panam..                207
Southern Expeditions.......  208
Almagro and Luque........ 209
Their Union with Pizarro.......    10
First Expedition for Discovery......  2II
Pizarro takes Command of it......   2I2
Enters the River Bir......  213
Distresses on Shore......                              213
Pursues his Voyage along the Coast. 24
Heavy Tempests........ 214
Puts back and lands......                              214
Great Sufferings of the Spaniards.....              215
Montenegro sent back for Supplies.....              217
Indian Village........   218
Great Distresses during his Absence.....            220
He returns with Assistance.   220
Uncertainty of the Spaniards.......  221I
They proceed farther South.                            221




CONTENTS.                          xxv
PAGE
Traces of Cannibalism.. 222
Pizarro reconnoitres the Country.223
Fierce Conflict with the Natives.                        224
Danger of Pizarro.225
He sends back his Vessel.                                226
Adventures of Almagro.227
He joins Pizarro.                                        228
Returns to Panam.229
CHAPTER III.
THE FAMOUS CONTRACT.-SECOND EXPEDITION.-RUIZ EXPLORES THE COAST.-PIZARRO'S SUFFERINGS IN THE
FOREST.-ARRIVAL OF NEW  RECRUITS.-FRESH  DISCOVERIES AND DISASTERS.-PIZARRO ON THE ISLE OF
GALLO......230
Almagro coolly received by Pedrarias...         230
Influence of Fernando de Luque..... 231
Narrow Views of the Governor......    232
His subsequent History......        234
Pizarro, Almagro, and Luque......235
Famous Contract for discovering Peru.....    236
Religious Tone assumed in it......   237
Motives of the Conquerors....                237
Luque's Share in the Enterprise..                         238
Preparations for the Voyage......   239
Insufficiency of Supplies....              240
Sailing of the Armament...                     24I
Almagro returns to Panama......    241
The Pilot Ruiz explores the Coast......  242
Indian Balsas..,,.          243
Signs of higher Civilization....... 244
Returns with Indian Captives......  245
Pizarro's Journey into the Interior.                     245
Frightful Difficulties of the March                       246
Almagro returns with Recruits.....                247
They continue their Voyage..... 248
Thickly-settled Country.                            249
Gold and Precious Stones......  250
Peru.-VOL. I.-c           2




xxvi                     CONTEIVTS.
PAGE
Warlike Aspect of the Natives. 25I
Deliberations of the Spaniards....             252
Dispute between Pizarro and Almagro.                     253
The latter returns to Panami..254
Pizarro remains at the Isle of Gallo                      255
His Followers discontented......255
Send home a secret Letter...... 256
CHAPTER IV.
INDIGNATION OF THE GOVERNOR.-STERN RESOLUTION OF
PIZARRO.-PROSECUTION OF THE VOYAGE.-BRILLIANT
ASPECT OF TUMBEZ.-DISCOVERIES ALONG THE COAST.
-RETURN  TO  PANAMA. -  PIZARRO  EMBARKS  FOR
SPAIN........  258
Pizarro ordered to return......259
He refuses...                        260
His bold Resolution.                                    260
Thirteen adhere to him.......        26I
Pizarro's heroic Constancy.                              262
Remove to the Isle of Gorgona.   264
Efforts of Luque and Almagro.                            26,5
Succors sent to Pizarro.                     266
He continues his Voyage.......                      267
Enters the Gulf of Guayaquil.....                        268
Lands at Tumbez......                                     269
Kind Reception by its Inhabitants..           270
Visit of an Inca Noble.                               27I
Adventure of Molina.                                   272
Pedro de Candia sent on Shore......                    274
Kindly treated by the Natives....            *275
Reports of the Riches of the Place.                     275
Joy of the Spaniards..               277
Pizarro again steers for the South                        278
Tossed about by Tempests.....                        278
Touches at various Points of the Coast  2. 79
Splendid Accounts of the Peruvian Empire.. 279
Arrives at the Port of Santa.....       28
Homeward Voyage.....   282




CONTENTS.                      xxvii
PAGE
Lands at Santa Cruz....             282
Entertained by an Indian Princess..  282
Continues his Voyage to PanamA.                     284
Joy and Triumph of his Associates.          284
Coldness of the Governor..                            285
Pizarro goes as Envoy to Spain. 287
Notice of Garcilasso de la Vega.....    288
His Life and Writings.. 289
Character of his Works..                         29
BOOK  III.
CONQUEST OF PERU.
CHAPTER I.
PIZARRO'S RECEPTION AT COURT.-HIS CAPITULATION WITH
THE CROWN.-HE VISITS HIS BIRTHPLACE.-RETURNS
TO THE NEW WORLD.-DIFFICULTIES WITH ALMAGRO.
-HIS THIRD EXPEDITION. — RICH INDIAN BOOTY.BATTLES IN THE ISLE OF PUNA.                        297
Pizarro in Spain..   297
Gracious Reception at Court..            298
Relates his Adventures to the Emperor                  299
His Capitulation with the Crown...3C
Dignities conferred on him....            30
Provisions in Behalf of the Natives..          304
Grasping Spirit of Pizarro..                          305
He visits his Birthplace.. 307
The Pizarro Family....    308
His Brother Hernando..... 308
Obstacles to the Expedition....     3Io0
Sails and crosses to Nombre de Dios                    311.  I
Almagro greatly discontented.....   3II




xxviii                 CONTENTS.
PAGE
A Rupture with Difficulty prevented. 313
Expedition fitted out at Panad....      314
Pizarro's final Voyage to Peru....        315
Driven into the Bay of St. Matthew....       315
Lands his Forces....                                  316
Plunders an Indian Village.....   3I7
Division of Spoil....                              318
He marches along the Coast...   319
Sufferings and Discontent of the Spaniards.   320
They reach Puerto Viejo...           32
Joined by Reinforcements..                          321
Cross to Isle of PunA.                                322
Conspiracy of its Inhabitants.....               323
They attack the Spanish Camp...    324
Arrival of De Soto with Recruits...           325
CHAPTER II.
PERU AT THE TIME OF THE CONQUEST.-REIGN OF HUAYNA
CAPAC.-THE INCA BROTHERS.-CONTEST FOR THE EMPIRE.-TRIUMPH AND CRUELTIES OF ATAHUALLI'A. 327
The Inca Huayna Capac.327
His Apprehensions respecting the White Men.      329
Prognostics of Trouble in Peru....       329
Atahuallpa the Inca's Son..      33
Shares the Empire with his Brother Huascar             332
Causes of Jealousy between them..                335
Commencement of Hostilities...                   336
Huascar's Forces defeated...                     337
Ravage of Cafiaris.... 337
Atahuallpa marches on Cuzco..                      338
His Victory at Quipaypan..                            339
Capture of Huascar..                                  340
Accounts of Atahuallpa's Cruelties..                  34
Reasons for doubting their Accuracy...      342
Atahuallpa's Triumph..                                344
His Want of Foresight..                               344




CONTENTS.                      xxix
CHAPTER III.
PAGEI
THE SPANIARDS LAND AT TUMBEZ.- PIZARRO RECONNOITRES THE COUNTRY.-FOUNDATION OF SAN MIGUEL. —
MARCH INTO THE INTERIOR.-EMBASSY FROM THE INCA.
-ADVENTURES ON THE MARCH.-REACH THE FOOT OF
THE ANDES.346
Spaniards pass over to Tumbez.                      346
The Place deserted and dismantled.347
Its Curaca captured.....                348
Pizarro reconnoitres the Country.350
His conciliating Policy.351
He founds San Miguel.352
Learns the State of the Kingdom.                   354
Determines to strike into the Interior               355
His probable Intentions..                       355
Boldness of the Enterprise.....       356
Marches through the Level Country....    357
Hospitality of the Natives....          358
Discontent in the Army.....   359
Pizarro's Expedient to quiet it.....            359
Reception at Zaran...... 36I
Envoy from the Inca....                 362
Courteously received by Pizarro.....  363
His Message to the Inca....          364
De Soto's Expedition...... 364
His Accounts of the Indian Empire....             365
March towards Caxamalca.....        367
Contradictory Information....          368
Emissary to Atahuallpa..                        369
Effective Eloquence of Pizarro.....             37I
CHAPTER IV.
SEVERE PASSAGE OF THE ANDES.-EMBASSIES FROM ATAHUALLPA.-THE SPANIARDS REACH CAXAMALCA.-EMBASSY TO THE INCA.-INTERVIEW WITH THE INCA.DESPONDENCY OF THE SPANIARDS.                     373
March over the Andes.373
c*




XXX                   CONTEArTS.
PAGE
Fearful Passes of the Sierra.                        374
Toilsome and Dangerous Ascent..374
Mountain Fortresses..                      375
The Army gain the Summit..376
Indian Embassy..... 377
Lofty Tone of Pizarro..                          378
Return of the Spanish Envoy..                     379
Different Accounts of Atahuailpa..380
Bold Descent of the Cordilleras..               380
Beautiful Valley of Caxamalca.                      38I
Imposing View of the Peruvian Camp..        381
Entrance into Caxamalca..                           382
Description of the City.                             383
De Soto sent to Atahuallpa..385
His Interview with the Monarch..388
Haughty Demeanor of the Latter                       389
His Reply to Pizarro.....                           389
Soto's Exhibition of Horsemanship.....   390
Gloomy Forebodings of the Spaniards..... 39I
Courage of Pizarro.....                           392
Daring Plan for seizing the Inca.....  393
Reasons for its Adoption.....       394
CHAPTER V.
DL)ESPERATE PLAN OF PIZARRO.-ATAHUALLPA VISITS THE
SPANIARDS.-HORRIBLE MASSACRE.-THE INCA A PRISONER.-CONDUCT OF THE CONQUERORS.-SPLENDID
PROMISES' OF THE INCA.-DEATH OF HUASCAR.. 397
Disposition of the Spanish Troops.              397
Religious Ceremonies.....  398
Approach of the Inca.....                          399
Designs not to enter the Town.....             40I
Disappointment of the Spaniards.....    40
Atahuallpa changes his Purpose.,..    402
Leaves his Warriors behind.....    402
Enters the great Square.....        403
Urged to embrace Christianity.....    405
He rejects it with Disdain......      406




CONTENTS.                        xxxi
PAGE
General Attack of the Spaniards....    408
Bloody Massacre of the Peruvians...             409
Seizure of Atahuallpa..                       411
Dispersion of his Army... 4I2
Demeanor of the Captive Monarch...   44
His probable Designs... 4I4
Courteously treated by Pizarro.....                  415
Indian Prisoners...... 418
Rich Spoils of the Inca......    419
Magnificent Offer of Atahuallpa......  42
Accepted by Pizarro......    42I
Inca's Mode of Life in Captivity...... 423
Refuses to embrace Christianity.....       424
Assassination of his Brother Huascar.....             425
CHAPTER VI.
GOLD ARRIVES FOR THE RANSOM.-VISIT TO PACHACAMAC.
-DEMOLITION OF THE IDOL.-THE INCA'S FAVORITE
GENERAL.-THE INCA'S LIFE IN CONFINEMENT.-ENVOYS' CONDUCT IN CUZCO.-ARRIVAL OF. ALMAGRO. 428
Slow Arrival of the Ransom......   428
Rumors of an Indian Rising... 429
Emissaries sent to Cuzco..430
City and Temple of Pachacamac..             430
Hernando Pizarro's March thither..43I
Great Road of the Inca;...,.                    43I
Herds of Llamas..                                    433
Rich Cultivation of the Valleys... 433
Hernando's Arrival at the City.                          434
Forcible Entry into the Temple...    435
Horror of the Natives..435
Destruction of the Indian Idol... 436
Small Amount of Booty.... 437
Hernando marches against Challcuchima.. 438
Persuades him to visit Caxamalca.             439
Interview of Atahuallpa with his General...   440
The Inca's absolute Authority.                          44I
His Personal Habits and Appearance... 44I




xxxii                    CONTENTS.
PAGE
Return of the Emissaries from Cuzco                       442
Magnificent Reports of the City...... 443
They stripped the Gold from the Temples.                 444
Their Insolence and Rapacity.....   444
Return with Loads of Treasure.                           445
Almagro arrives in Peru........ 445
Brings a large Reinforcement.....       445
Joins Pizarro's Camp.                  447
Superstitious Bodings of Atahuallpa...         448
CHAPTER VII.
IMMENSE AMOUNT OF TREASURE.-ITS DIVISION AMONG
THE TROOPS.-RUMORS OF A RISING.-TRIAL OF THE
INCA.-HIS EXECUTION.-REFLECTIONS... 450
Division of the Inca's Ransom...              450
Hernando takes the Royal Fifth to Spain.         452
His Jealousy of Almagro.....          452
Enormous Amount of the Treasure.....453
Difficulties in its Distribution.....       455
Shares of the Pizarros...  457
Those of the Soldiers.....                           457
Exclusion of Almagro and his Followers                    458
Preparations for the March to Cuzco.....    459
The Inca demands his Liberty.....      460
Equivocal Conduct of Pizarro.....       461
The Interpreter Felipillo.                                462
The Inca charged with exciting Insurrection               463
His Protestations of Innocence....    463
His Apprehensions..... 464
Fears and Murmurs of the Spaniards..                    465
They demand the Inca's Death....     465
He is brought to Trial..... 466
Charges against him.                                    466
Condemned to be burnt alive.....  468
Some protest against the Sentence..                      468
The Inca entirely unmanned...              469
His earnest Entreaties for Mercy..                      470
Led to Execution......... 47




COWNTENTS.                      xxiii
PAGE
Abjures his Religion....           472
Perishes by the Garrote..                                472
His Character and Appearance....               473
Funeral Obsequies..... 474
Return of De Soto..... 475
His Indignation and Astonishment.           476
Reflections on the Inca's Treatment.....                477
Responsibility of Pizarro...... 478
Motives of Personal Pique.....    48
Views of Chroniclers respecting the Execution. 48 X
CHAPTER VIII.
DISORDERS  IN  PERU.-MARCH  TO  CLrZCO.-ENCOUNTEI
WITH  THE  NATIVES.-CHALLCUCHIMA  BURNT.-ARRIVAL  IN  CUZCO.-DESCRIPTION (  F  THE  CITY.TREASURE FOUND THERE.                                   483
Authority of the Inca in Peru..                  483
Effects of Atahuallpa's Death.                          484
New Inca appointed by Pizarro..                                85
March to Cuzco.486
Formidable Mountain-Passes..                    487
Tedious and painful Route....    438
Conflict with the Indians..                              489
Pizarro halts at Xauxa..                                 490
De Soto sent forward..                                   490
Furiously assaulted in the Sierra...          49
Fierce Battle with the Indians..                        49I
Apprehensions of the Spaniards....   492
Arrival of Succors..                                     493
The Peruvians retreat....               49
Challcuchima accused of Conspiracy....       495
Death of the Inca Toparca..                              496
Rich Vale of Xaquixaguana.... 497
Trial and Condemnation of Challcuchima. 497
Burned alive before the Army....        498
Spaniards arrive at Cuzco..                  500
Entrance into the Capital...                         5o
Its large Population.... 




xxxiv                   CONTENTS.
PAGE
Gorgeous Edifices                                          503
Its massive Fortress..,..... 504
Temple of the Sun..505
Plunder of the Public Buildings....  o6
Amount of Treasure secured......    507
Its Division among the Troops.... 508
Its Effect upon the Spaniards...    509




ILLUSTRATIONS.
PORTRAIT PREFIXED TO VOLUME FIRST.
I HAVE not found it easy to procure an authentic portrait of Francisco Pizarro. There are some very old prints of him; and among
them, one in Thevet's collection, published in Paris, in I580; but it is
probably not the most ancient. I know not how far the likeness can
be depended on. An artist who has made the comparison informs me
that it was probably from one of these ancient prints that the portrait
of Pizarro which hangs up in the royal gallery of Versailles was
originally taken. I have been furnished with copies of both the print
and the painting; but, not confiding in their authenticity, I sent to
Lima, where, in the viceregal palace, the portraits of the Peruvian
viceroys were preserved, in an unbroken series, from Pizarro to
Pezuela, who closed the long train on the breaking out of the War
of Independence. A full-length copy was painted for me in oils from
the original, by one of the best artists in the capital. But, if the copy
does justice to the original, one can hardly doubt that this latter was
the work of one of the rude followers of Pizarro, who understood the
use of his lance much better than that of his brush. The features
have little expression, and the person is rigid. The Conqueror is
represented in a civil costume,-the capa y espada of a Spanish cavalier of the early part of the sixteenth century. The cloak is of dark
velvet; and on both the cloak and the doublet is embroidered the
scarlet cross of the knightly order of St. James. In his hand is a
letter, which the painter might have spared, since the subject of his
pencil could neither read nor write. Perhaps it was to intimate that
he could do so, that the cunning artist introduced the letter,-by way
of flattery to his commander.
( xxxv)




xxixvi              ILL US TR4 TIONVS.
PORTRAIT PREFIXED TO VOLUME SECOND.
This print is taken from a portrait of Gasca, that hangs up in the
sacristy of the church of Santa Maria Magdalena, at Valladolid;
which was founded and liberally endowed by the President. A copy
of this picture was made for me by Don Valentin Carderera, an artist
well known by his beautiful illustrations of the ancient monuments of
his country, and to whose pencil I have been greatly indebted on
several occasions. The portrait of Gasca, in his judgment, though of
a later date than the subject of it, bears all the marks of authenticity.
The sedate and modest expression of the countenance is in harmony
with his character. The mitre and the coat of mail intimate the opposite vocations to which he was called in the course of his eventful
career. This painting has not, to my knowledge, been before engraved. In the same church of Santa Maria Magdalena is a marble
monument, raised over the remains of the President, with his effigy,
arrayed in his pontifical robes, reposing on the top of it. The whole
work is executed in the best style of art. But the image of death
does not furnish the most suitable subject for the illustration of a
man's life.
ARMS OF PIZARRO.
The stamp on the back of the volume represents the arms granted by
the Emperor Charles V. to Pizarro. The centre of the shield is occupied with the ancient arms of his family, in which the common slatestone is introduced as emblematical of the family name. Pizarra, in
Castilian, means a slate. The Conqueror of Peru was allowed to
quarter his own arms with those of his sovereign, and we see the
spread eagle holding in his talons the pillars of Hercules, with the
motto, inscribed on them, Plus ultra,-which Pizarro did as much as
any other Spaniard to verify. Below is a city of silver seated on a
mountain, and the border of the shield is garnished with figures
representing small camels,-the llama of Peru, and a legend bearing
these words, " Caroli Ccesaris auspicio, et labore, ingenio, ac impensa
Ducis Pifarro inventa et pacata." In the lower part of the escutcheon
is the figure of an Indian prince, designed for Atahuallpa; while the
heads of seven chiefs of the Inca race, held together by a chain,
denote the triumphs of Pizarro. It is the same number of heads
which, in like manner, decorated the, scutcheon of Cortes,-though
with more significance. Other symbols intimate the rank of marquis,
to which the Conqueror was raised.








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BOOK FIRST.
INTRODUCTION.
VIEW OF THE CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
Peru.-VOL. I.-A  I








CONQUEST OF PERU.
BOOK I.
INTRODUCTION.
VIEW OF THE CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
CHAPTER I.
PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.-SOURCES OF PERUVIAN CIVILIZATION.-EMPIRE OF THE INCAS.-ROYAL
FAMILY. -— NOBILITY.
OF the numerous nations which occupied the great
American continent at the time of its discovery by the
Europeans, the two most advanced in power and refinement were undoubtedly those of Mexico and Peru.
But, though resembling one another in extent of civilization, they differed widely as to the nature of it; and
the philosophical student of his species may feel a
natural curiosity to trace the different steps by which
these two nations strove to emerge from the state of
barbarism and place themselves on a higher point in
the scale of humanity. In a former work I have endeavored to exhibit the institutions and character of
the ancient Mexicans, and the story of their conquest
by the Spaniards. The present will be devoted to the
(3)




4         CIYILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
Peruvians; and if their history shall be found to present less strange anomalies and striking contrasts than
that of the Aztecs, it may interest us quite as much by
the pleasing picture it offers of a well-regulated government and sober habits of industry under the patriarchal
sway of the Incas.
The empire of Peru, at the period of the Spanish
invasion, stretched along the Pacific from about the
second degree north to the thirty-seventh degree of
south latitude; a line, also, which describes the western
boundaries of the modern republics of Ecuador, Peru,
Bolivia, and Chili. Its breadth cannot so easily be
determined; for, though bounded everywhere by the
great ocean on the west, towards the east it spread out,
in many parts, considerably beyond the mountains, to
the confines of barbarous states, whose exact position
is undetermined, or whose names are effaced from the
map of history. It is certain, however, that its breadth
was altogether disproportioned to its length.'
The topographical aspect of the country is very remarkable. A strip of land, rarely exceeding twenty
leagues in width, runs along the coast, and is hemmed
in through its whole extent by a colossal range of
mountains, which, advancing from the Straits of MagelI Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 65.'-V-Cieza de Leon, Cronica
del Peru (Anvers, 1554), cap. 41.-Garcilasso de la Vega, Commentarios Reales (Lisboa, I609), Parte I, lib. I, cap. 8.-According to the
last authority, the empire, in its greatest breadth, did not exceed one
hundred and twenty leagues. But Garcilasso's geography will not
bear criticism.
* [In regard to the real authorship of the work erroneously attributed by Prescott to Juan de Sarmiento, see infra, p. 178, note.-ED.]




PHI'SICAL ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.
lan, reaches its highest elevation-indeed, the highest
on the American continent-about the seventeenth
degree south,' and, after crossing the line, gradually
subsides into hills of inconsiderable magnitude, as it
enters the Isthmus of Panama. This is the famous
Cordillera of the Andes, or "copper mountains," 3
as termed by the natives, though they might with
more reason have been called "mountains of gold."
Arranged sometimes in a single line, though more
frequently in two or three lines running parallel or
obliquely to each other, they seem to the voyager on
the ocean but one continuous chain; while the huge
volcanoes, which to the inhabitants of the table-land
look like solitary and independent masses, appear to
him only like so many peaks of the same vast and
magnificent range. So immense is the scale on which
Nature works in these regions that it is only when
viewed from a great distance that the spectator can in
any degree comprehend the relation of the several
2 According to Malte-Brun, it is under the equator that we meet
with the loftiest summits of this chain. (Universal Geography, Eng.
trans., book 86.) But more recent measurements have shown this to
be between fifteen and seventeen degrees south, where the Nevado de
Sorata rises to the enormous height of 25,250 feet, and the Illimani
to 24,300.*
3 At least, the word anta, which has been thought to furnish the
etymology of Andes, in the Peruvian tongue, signified " copper."t
Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 5, cap. I4.
* [It is now known that the Andes nowhere attain the elevations
here mentioned, and the height of Sorata and Illimani, as stated by
the latest authorities, is 21,286 and 2I,I49 feet respectively.-ED.]
t [But this etymology has not been generally accepted, and it is in
fact highly improbable. The real derivation, as Humboldt remarks,
is "lost in tle obscurity of the past."-ED.]
I*




6          CIVILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
parts to the stupendous whole. Few of the works of
Nature, indeed, are calculated to produce impressions
of higher sublimity than the aspect of this coast, as it is
gradually unfolded to the eye of the mariner sailing on
the distant waters of the Pacific; where mountain is
seen to rise above mountain, and Chimborazo, with its
glorious canopy of snow, glittering far above the clouds,
crowns the whole* as with a celestial diadem.4
The face of the country would appear to be peculiarly unfavorable to the purposes both of agriculture
and of internal communication. The sandy strip along
the coast, where rain rarely falls, is fed only by a few
scanty streams, that furnish a remarkable contrast to
the vast volumes of water which roll down the eastern
sides of the Cordilleras into the Atlantic. The precipitous steeps of the sierra, with its splintered sides
of porphyry and granite, and its higher regions wrapped
in snows that never melt under the fierce sun of the
equator, unless it be from the desolating action of its
own volcanic fires, might seem equally unpropitious to
the labors of the husbandman. And all communication between the parts of the long-extended territory
4 Humboldt, Vues des Cordilleres et Monumens des Peuples indigenes de l'Am/rique (Paris, x8Io), p. xo6.-Malte-Brun, book 88.
-The few brief sketches which M. de Humboldt has given of the
scenery of the Cordilleras, showing the hand of a great painter, as
well as of a philosopher, make us regret the more that he has not
given the results of his observations in this interesting region as minutely as he has done in respect to Mexico.
* [Chimborazo (2I,420 feet), formerly supposed to be the highest
peak of the Andes, is surpassed by several summits in Peru, and by
Aconcagua, in Chili (23,200, or, according to Captains Fitzroy and
Beechey, 23,9Io feet), the highest elevation in South America.-ED.]




PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.   7
might be thought to be precluded by the savage character of the region, broken up by precipices, furious
torrents, and  impassable  quebradas,-those  hideous
rents in the mountain-chain, whose depths the eye of
the terrified traveller, as he winds along his aerial pathway, vainly endeavors to fathom.5  Yet the industry,
we might almost say the genius, of the Indian was sufficient to overcome all these impediments of Nature.
By a judicious system of canals and subterraneous
aqueducts, the waste places on the coast were refreshed
by copious streams, that clothed them in fertility and
beauty. Terraces were raised upon the steep sides of
the Cordillera; and, as the different elevations had the
effect of difference of latitude, they exhibited in regular
gradation every variety of vegetable form, from the
stimulated growth of the tropics to the temperate products of a northern clime; while flocks of llamas-the
Peruvian sheep-wandered with their shepherds over
the broad, snow-covered wastes on the crests of the
sierra, which rose beyond the limits of cultivation. An
industrious population settled along the lofty regions
of the plateaus, and towns and hamlets, clustering
amidst orchards and wide-spreading gardens, seemed
suspended in the air far above the ordinary elevation
of the clouds.6 Intercourse was maintained between
s " These crevices are so deep," says M. de Humboldt, with his
usual vivacity of illustration, "that if Vesuvius or the Puy de D8me
were seated in the bottom of them, they would not rise above the
level of the ridges of the neighboring sierra." Vues des Cordillires,
P. 9.
6 The plains of Quito are at the height of between nine and ten
thousand feet above the sea. (See Condamine, Journal d'un Voyage. l'lquateur (Paris, 1751), p. 48.) Other valleys or plateaus in this
vast group of mountains reach a still higher elevation.




8        CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
these numerous settlements by means of the great roads
which traversed the mountain-passes and opened an
easy communication between the capital and the remotest extremities of the empire.
The source of this civilization is traced to the valley
of Cuzco, the central region of Peru, as its name implies.7 The origin of the Peruvian empire, like the
origin of all nations, except the very few which, like
our own, have had the good fortune to date from a
civilized period and people, is lost in the mists of fable,
which, in fact, have settled as darkly round its history
as round that of any nation, ancient or modern, in the
Old World. According to the tradition most familiar
to the European scholar, the time was when the ancient
races of the continent were all plunged in deplorable
barbarism; when they worshipped nearly every object
in nature indiscriminately, made war their pastime,
and feasted on the flesh of their slaughtered captives.
The Sun, the great luminary and parent of mankind,
taking compassion on their degraded condition, sent
two of his children, Manco Capac and Mama Oello
Huaco, to gather the natives into communities and
teach them  the arts of civilized life.  The celestial
pair, brother and sister, husband and wife, advanced
along the high plains in the neighborhood of Lake
Titicaca to about the sixteenth degree south. They
bore with them a golden wedge, and were directed to
take up their residence on the spot where the sacred
emblem should without effort sink into the ground.
They proceeded accordingly but a short distance, as
7 "Cuzco, in the language of the Incas," says Garcilasso, "signifies
navel." Com. Real., Parte I, lib. x, cap. x8.




SOURCES OF PERUVIAN CIVILIZATION.  9
far as the valley of Cuzco, the spot indicated by the
performance of the miracle, since there the wedge
speedily sank into the earth and disappeared forever.
Here the children of the Sun established their residence, and soon entered upon their beneficent mission
among the rude inhabitants of the country; Manco
Capac teaching the men the arts of agriculture, and
Mama Oello8 initiating her own sex in the mysteries
of weaving and spinning. The simple people lent a
willing ear to the messengers of Heaven, and, gathering
together in considerable numbers, laid the foundations
of the city of Cuzco. The same wise and benevolent
maxims which regulated the conduct of the first Incas9
descended to their successors, and under their mild
sceptre a community gradually extended itself along
the broad surface of the table-land, which asserted its
8 Mama, with the Peruvians, signified " mother." (Garcilasso, Com.
Real., Parte I, lib. 4, cap. I.) The identity of this term with that
used by Europeans is a curious coincidence. It is scarcely more so,
however, than that of the corresponding word papa, which with the
ancient Mexicans denoted a priest of high rank; reminding us of the
papa, " pope," of the Italians. With both, the term seems to embrace
in its most comprehensive sense the paternal relation, in which it is
more familiarly employed by most of the nations of Europe. Nor was
the use of it limited to modern times, being applied in the same way
both by Greeks and Romans; " IHafra fiXe," says Nausikaa, addressing her father, in the simple language which the modern versifiers have
thought too simple to render literally.
9 Inca signified king or lord. Capac meant great or powerful. It
was applied to several of the successors of Manco, in the same manner as the epithet Yupanqui, signifying rich in all virtues, was added
to the names of several Incas. (Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 4I.Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. 17.) The good qualities
commemorated by the cognomens of most of the Peruvian princes
afford an honorable, though not altogether unsuspicious, tribute to
the excellence of their characters.
A*




lTo        CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
superiority over the surrounding tribes. Such is the
pleasing picture of the origin of the Peruvian monarchy, as portrayed by Garcilasso de la Vega, the descendant of the Incas, and through him made familiar
to the European reader.'~
But this tradition is only one of several current
among the Peruvian Indians, and probably not the one
most generally received. Another legend speaks of
certain white and bearded men, who, advancing from
the shores of Lake Titicaca, established an ascendency
over the natives and imparted to them the blessings of
civilization. It may remind us of the tradition existing
among the Aztecs in respect to Quetzalcoatl, the good
deity, who with a similar garb and aspect came up the
great plateau from the east on a like benevolent mission
to the natives. The analogy is the more remarkable
as there is no trace of any communication with, or
even knowledge of, each other to be found in the two
nations. "
lo Comrn. Real., Parte I, lib. I, cap. 9-I6.
xx These several traditions, all of a very puerile character, are to be
found in Ondegardo, Relacion Segunda, MS.,-Sarmiento, Relacion,
MS., cap. I,-Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. Io5,-Conquista i Poblacion del Piru, MS.,-Declaracion de los Presidente 6 Oydores de la
Audiencia Reale del Peru, MS.,-all of them authorities contemporary
with the Conquest. The story of the bearded white men finds its
place in most of their legends.** [Such legends will not be considered "puerile," nor will their
similarity with those of remote races seem inexplicable, when they are
viewed in their true light, as embodying conceptions of nature formed
by the human mind in the early stages of its development. Thus
considered, " the very myths," as Mr. Tylor remarks, " that were discarded as lying fables, prove to be sources of history in ways that their
makers and transmitters little dreamed of." The Peruvian traditions




SOURCES OF PERUVIAN CIVILIZATI ON. II
The date usually assigned for these extraordinary
events was about four hundred years before the coming
of the Spaniards, or early in the twelfth century.x2 But,
however pleasing to the imagination, and however popular, the legend of Manco Capac, it requires but little
reflection to show its improbability, even when divested
of supernatural accompaniments. On the shores of
Lake Titicaca extensive ruins exist at the present day,
which the Peruvians themselves acknowledge to be of
older date than the pretended advent of the Incas, and
to have furnished them with the models of their architecture.'3   The date of their appearance, indeed, is
12 Some writers carry back the date five hundred, or even five hundred and fifty, years before the Spanish invasion. (Balboa, Histoire
du PNrou, chap. i.-Velasco, Histoire du Royaume de Quito, tom. i.
p. 8I.-Ambo auct. ap. Relations et Mdmoires originaux pour servir
r 1'Histoire de la D6couverte de l'Amdrique, par Ternaux-Compans
(Paris, x840).) In the Report of the Royal Audience of Peru, the
epoch is more modestly fixed at two hundred years before the Conquest. Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.
23 " Otras cosas ay mas que dezir deste Tiaguanaco, que passo por
no detenerme: concluyedo que yo para mi tengo esta antigualla por
la mas antigua de todo el Peru. Y assi se tiene que antes q los Ingas
reynassen con muchos tiempos estavan hechos algunos edificios destos: porque yo he oydo afirmar a Indios, que los Ingas hizieron los
edificios grandes del Cuzco por la forma que vieron tener la muralla
o pared que se vee en este pueblo." (Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap.
Io5.) See also Garcilasso (Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 3, cap. I), who
given an account of these remains, on the authority of a Spanish
seem, in particular, to deserve a closer investigation than they have
yet received. Besides the authorities cited by Prescott, the relations
of Christoval de Molina and the Indian Salcamayhua, translated by
Mr. Markham, are entitled to mention, both for the minuteness and
the variations with which they present the leading features of the same
oft-repeated nature-myth.-ED.]




I 2        CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
manifestly irreconcilable with their subsequent history.
No account assigns to the Inca dynasty more than
thirteen princes before the Conquest. But this number
is altogether too small to have spread over four hundred
years, and would not carry back the foundations of the
monarchy, on any probable computation, beyond two
centuries and a half,-an antiquity not incredible in
itself, and which, it may be remarked, does not precede
by more than half a century the alleged foundation of
the capital of Mexico. The fiction of Manco Capac
and his sister-wife was devised, no doubt, at a later
period, to gratify the vanity of the Peruvian monarchs,
and to give additional sanction to their authority by
deriving it from a celestial origin.*
ecclesiastic, which might compare, for the marvellous, with any of the
legends of his order. Other ruins of similar traditional antiquity are
noticed by Herrera (Historia general de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano (Madrid, I730),
dec. 6, lib. 6, cap. 9.) McCulloh, in some sensible reflections on the
origin of the Peruvian civilization, adduces, on the authority of Garcilasso de la Vega, the famous temple of Pachacamac, not far from
Lima, as an example of architecture more ancient than that of the
Incas. (Researches, Philosophical and Antiquarian, concerning the
Aboriginal History of America (Baltimore, I829), p. 405.) This, if
true, would do much to confirm the views in our text. But McCulloh
is led into an error by his blind guide, Rycaut, the translator of Garcilasso, for the latter does not speak of the temple as existing before
the time of the Incas, but before the time when the country was conquered by the Incas. Corn. Real., Parte I, lib. 6, cap. 3o.
* [This theory of the origin of the story is scarcely more plausible
or philosophical than that of Garcilasso de la Vega, who conjectures
that Manco Capac " may have been some Indian of good understanding, prudence, and judgment, who appreciated the great simplicity
of those nations, and saw the necessity they had for instruction and




SOURCES OF PERUVIAN CIVILIZATION. I3
We may reasonably conclude that there existed in
the country a race advanced in civilization before the
time of the Incas; and, in conformity with nearly every
teaching in natural life. He may have invented a fable with sagacity
and astuteness, that he might be respected; saying that he and his
wife were children of the Sun, who had come from Heaven, and that
their Father had sent them to teach and do good to the people...
The belief in the fable of the Ynca's origin would be confirmed by
the benefits and privileges he conferred on the Indians, until they at
last firmly believed that he was the Child of the Sun, come from
Heaven." (Markham's trans., i. 94.) Mr. Markham pronounces
" all this sensible enough," and it at least indicates the true spirit, if
not the right method, of investigation. But a wider comparison of
popular traditions has led to a general rejection, in such cases as the
present, of the idea of conscious invention-whether as idle fable or
designed imposture-to account for their origin. The only question
in regard to such a story is whether it is to be considered as purely
mythical or as the mythical adaptation or development of an historical
fact. In this instance Dr. Brinton takes the latter view, asserting that
Manco Capac was " a real character," " first of the historical Incas,"
" the Rudolph of Hapsburg of their reigning family," who " flourished
about the eleventh century," and to whom " tradition has transferred
a portion of the story of Viracocha," the Peruvian deity. (Myths of
the New World, I79.) Mr. Tylor, on the other hand, after noticing
the legend of the Muyscas, a neighboring people, in which Bochica
and Huythaca are evident personifications of the sun and moon, says,
" Like to this in meaning, though different in fancy, is the civilizationmyth of the Incas..... In after-ages the Sun and Moon were still
represented in rule and religion by the Inca and his sister-wife, continuing the mighty race of Manco Capac and Mama Oello. But the
two great ancestors returned when their earthly work was done, to
become, what we may see they had never ceased to be, the sun and
moon themselves." (Primitive Culture, i. 319.) It would not be inconsistent with a full acceptance of this theory to consider all such
myths as veiling the real existence of men of superior endowments, to
whom civilization must everywhere have owed its earliest developments; but to link them with the actual history of these personages
would require very different evidence from what exists in the present
or any similar case.-ED.]
Peru.-VOL. I.            2




14         CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
tradition, we may derive this race from the neighborhood
of Lake Titicaca; 4 a conclusion strongly confirmed by
the imposing architectural remains which still endure,
after the lapse of so many years, on its borders. Who
this race were, and whence they came, may afford a
tempting theme for inquiry to the speculative antiquarian. But it is a land of darkness that lies far beyond
the domain of history.!5
z4 Among other authorities for this tradition, see Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 3, 4,-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 3, cap. 6,Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.,-Zarate, Historia del Descubrimiento y
de la Conquista del Peru, lib. I, cap. ro, ap. Barcia, Historiadores
primitives de las Indias occidentales (Madrid, 1749), tom. 3.-In
most, not all, of the traditions, Manco Capac is recognized as the
name of the founder of the Peruvian monarchy, though his history
and character are related with sufficient discrepancy.
I5 Mr. Ranking,
"Who can deep mysteries unriddle
As easily as thread a needle,"
finds it "highly probable that the first Inca of Peru was a son of the
Grand Khan Kublai" I (Historical Researches on the Conquest of
Peru, etc., by the Moguls (London, I827), p. I70.) The coincidences
are curious, though we shall hardly jump at the conclusion of the adventurous author. Every scholar will agree with Humboldt in the
wish that " some learned traveller would visit the borders of the lake
of Titicaca, the district of Callao, and the high plains of Tiahuanaco,
the theatre of the ancient American civilization." (Vues des Cordill~res, p. x99.) And yet the architectural monuments of the aborigines, hitherto brought to light, have furnished few materials for a
bridge of communication across the dark gulf that still separates the
Old World from the New.*
* [The regions mentioned by Humboldt were visited in 1847 by a
French savant, M. Angrand, who brought away carefully-prepared
plans of many of the ruins, of which a description is given by Desjardins (Le Perou avant la Conquete espagnole), tending to confirm the
conclusions drawn from previous sources of information, that a civili



EMPIRE OF THE INCAS.                      IS
The same mists that hang round the origin of the
Incas continue to settle on their subsequent annals;
and so imperfect were the records employed by the
Peruvians, and so confused and contradictory their
traditions, that the historian finds no firm footing on
which to stand till within a century of the Spanish
conquest.!6   At first, the progress of the Peruvians
16 A good deal within a century, to say truth. Garcilasso and Sarmiento, for example, the two ancient authorities in highest repute,
have scarcely a point of contact in their accounts of the earlier Peruvian princes; the former representing the sceptre as gliding down in
peaceful succession from hand to hand through an unbroken dynasty
while the latter garnishes his tale with as many conspiracies, deposization, superior to that of the Incas, had passed away long before the
period of the Spanish conquest. A work announced as in the press,
by Mr. Hutchinson, formerly English consul in Peru, may be expected
to give the fruits of more recent explorations. But it may be safely
predicted that no discoveries that may be made will ever establish the
fact of a communication at some remote period between the two hemispheres. It may be doubted, indeed, whether the whole inquiry, so
persistently pursued, has not sprung from an illusion. Had the Eastern Continent been discovered by a voyager from the Western, it
would perhaps have been assumed that the latter had furnished those
swarms which afterwards passed through Asia into Europe, and that
here was the original seat of the human family and the spot where
culture had first begun to dawn. Mr. James S. Wilson's discovery,
on the coast of Ecuador, of articles of pottery and of gold, "in a
stratum of mould beneath the sea-level, and covered by several feet of
clay," proves, according to Murchison, that " within the human period
the lands on the west coast of equatorial America were depressed and
submerged; and that after the accumulation of marine clays above
the terrestrial relics the whole coast was elevated to its present position." If, then, the existence not only of the human race, but of
human art, in America, antedates the present conformation of the
continent, how futile must be every attempt to connect its early history
with that of Egypt or of India!-ED.]




I 6       CIVIL IZATION  OF THE INCAS.
seems to have been slow, and almost imperceptible.
By their wise and temperate policy they gradually won
over the neighboring tribes to their dominion, as these
latter became more and more convinced of the benefits
of a just and well-regulated government.  As they
grew stronger, they were enabled to rely more directly
on force; but, still advancing under cover of the same
beneficent pretexts employed by their predecessors,
they proclaimed peace and civilization at the point of
the sword. The rude nations of the country, without
any principle of cohesion among themselves, fell one
after another before the victorious arm of the Incas.
Yet it was not till the middle of the fifteenth century
that the famous Topa Inca Yupanqui, grandfather of
the monarch who occupied the throne at the coming of
the Spaniards, led his armies across the terrible desert
of Atacama, and, penetrating to the southern region
of Chili, fixed the permanent boundary of his dominions at the river Maule. His son, Huayna Capac, possessed of ambition and military talent fully equal to
his father's, marched along the Cordillera towards the
north, and, pushing his conquests across the equator,
added the powerful kingdom of Quito to the empire
of Peru.17
tions, and revolutions as belong to most barbarous and, unhappily,
most civilized communities. When to these two are added the various
writers, contemporary and of the succeeding age, who have treated
of the Peruvian annals, we shall find ourselves in such a conflict of
traditions that criticism is lost in conjecture. Yet this uncertainty as
to historical events fortunately does not extend to the history of arts
and institutions which were in existence on the arrival of the Spaniards.'7 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 57, 64.-Conq. i Pob. del Piru,
MS.-Velasco, Hist. de Quito, p. 59.-Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.



EMPIRE OF THE INCAS.                      I 7
The ancient city of Cuzco, meanwhile, had been
gradually advancing in wealth and population, till it
had become the worthy metropolis of a great and flourishing monarchy. It stood in a beautiful valley on an
elevated region of the plateau, which among the Alps
would have been buried in eternal snows, but which
within the tropics enjoyed a genial and salubrious temperature. Towards the north it was defended by a
lofty eminence, a spur of the great Cordillera; and
the city was traversed by a river, or rather a small
stream, over which bridges of timber, covered with
heavy slabs of stone, furnished an easy means of communication with the opposite banks. The streets were
long and narrow, the houses low, and those of the
poorer sort built of clay and reeds. But Cuzco was
the royal residence, and was adorned with the ample
dwellings of the great nobility; and the massy fragments still incorporated in many of the modern
edifices bear testimony to the size and solidity of the
ancient.'8
Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 7, cap. I8, 19; lib. 8, cap. 5-8.The last historian, and, indeed, some others, refer the conquest of
Chili to Yupanqui, the father of Topa Inca. The exploits of the two
monarchs are so blended together by the different annalists as in a
manner to confound their personal identity.:8 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 7, cap. 8-zII.-Cieza de Leon,
Cronica, cap. 92.-" El Cuzco tuuo gran manera y calidad, deuio ser
fundada por gente de gran ser. Auia grandes calles, saluo q era
angostas, y las casas hechas de piedra pura c6 tan lindas junturas, q
illustra el antiguedad del edificio, pues estauan piedras tan grades
muy bien assentadas." (Ibid., ubi supra.) Compare with this Miller's account of the city as existing at the present day: " The walls
of many of the houses have remained unaltered for centuries. The
great size of the stones, the variety of their shapes, and the inimitable
2*




I 8        CIVILIZATION  OF THE  IiNCAS.
The health of the city was promoted by spacious
openings and squares, in which a numerous population
from the capital and the distant country assembled to
celebrate the high festivals of their religion. For
Cuzco was the "Holy City;"'9 and the great temple
of the Sun, to which pilgrims resorted from the farthest
borders of the empire, was the most magnificent structure in the New World, and unsurpassed, probably, in
the costliness of its decorations by any building in the
Old.
Towards the north, on the sierra or rugged eminence,
already noticed, rose a strong fortress, the remains of
which at the present day, by their vast size, excite the
admiration of the traveller.' It was defended by a
single wall of great thickness, and twelve hundred feet
long on the side facing the city, where the precipitous
character of the ground was of itself almost sufficient
for its defence. On the other quarter, where the
approaches were less difficult, it was protected by two
other semicircular walls of the same length as the preceding. They were separated a considerable distance
from one another and from the fortress; and the interworkmanship they display, give to the city that interesting air of antiquity and romance which fills the mind with pleasing though painful
veneration." Memoirs of Gen. Miller in the Service of the Republic
of Peru (London, I829, 2d ed.), vol. ii. p. 225.'9 " La Imperial Ciudad de Comco, que la adoravan los Indios, como
a Cosa Sagrada." Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 3, cap. 20.Also Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.
X See, among others, the Memoirs, above cited, of Gen. Millel,
which contain a minute and very interesting notice of modern Cuzco.
(Vol. ii. p. 223, et seq.) Ulloa, who visited the country in the middle
of the last century, is unbounded in his expressions of admiration.
Voyage to South America, Eng. trans. (London, I8o6), book vii, ch. 12.




EYMPIRE OF THE INCAS.                     I9
vening ground was raised so that the walls afforded a
breastwork for the troops stationed there in times of
assault. The fortress consisted of three towers, detached from one another. One was appropriated to
the Inca, and was garnished with the sumptuous decorations befitting a royal residence rather than a military
post. The other two were held by the garrison, drawn
from the Peruvian nobles, and commanded by an officer
of the blood royal; for the position was of too great
importance to be intrusted to inferior hands. The hill
was excavated below the towers, and several subterraneous galleries communicated with the city and the
palaces of the Inca.2x
The fortress, the walls, and the galleries were all
built of stone, the heavy blocks of which were not laid
in regular courses, but so disposed that the small ones
might fill up the interstices between the great. They
formed a sort of rustic work, being rough-hewn except
towards the edges, which were finely wrought; and,
though no cement was used, the several blocks were
adjusted with so much exactness and united so closely
that it was impossible to introduce even the blade of a
knife between them.22 Many of these stones were of
a2 Betanzos, Suma y Narracion de los Yngasi MS., cap. I2.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 7, cap. 27-29.-The demolition of
the fortress, begun immediately after the Conquest, provoked the
remonstrance of more than one enlightened Spaniard, whose voice,
however, was impotent against the spirit of cupidity and violence.
See Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 48.
X Ibid., ubi supra.-Inscripciones, Medallas, Templos, Edificios,
Antigiiedades, y Monumentos del Peru, MS. This manuscript, which
formerly belonged to Dr. Robertson, and which is now in the British
Museum, is the work of some unknown author, somewhere probably
about the time of Charles III.,-a period when, as the sagacious




20         CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
vast size; some of them being full thirty-eight feet
long, by eighteen broad, and six feet thick.23
We are filled with astonishment when we consider
that these enormous masses were hewn from their native
bed and fashioned into shape by a people ignorant of
the use of iron; that they were brought from quarries,
from four to fifteen leagues distant,24 without the aid
of beasts of burden; were transported across rivers
and ravines, raised to their elevated position on the
sierra, and finally adjusted there with the nicest accuracy, without the knowledge of tools and machinery
familiar to the European. Twenty thousand men are
said to have been employed on this great structure, and
fifty years consumed in the building.25 However this
may be, we see in it the workings of a despotism which
had the lives and fortunes of its vassals at its absolute
disposal, and which, however mild in its general character, esteemed these vassals, when employed in its
service, as lightly as the brute animals for which they
served as a substitute.
scholar to whom I am indebted for a copy of it remarks, a spirit of
sounder criticism was visible in the Castilian historians.
23 Acosta, Naturall and Morall Historie of the East and West
Indies, Eng. trans. (London, I604), lib. 6, cap. I4.-He measured
the stones himself.-See also Garcilasso, Corn. Real., loc. cit.
24 Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 93.-Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.Many hundred blocks of granite may still be seen, it is said, in an
unfinished state, in a quarry near Cuzco.
5S Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 48.-Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.
-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 7, cap. 27, 28.-The Spaniards,
puzzled by the execution of so great a work with such apparently inadequate means, referred it all, in their summary way, to the Devil;
an opinion which Garcilasso seems willing to indorse. The author of
the Antig. y Monumentos del Peru, MS., rejects this notion with
becoming gravity.




ROYAL  FfAMILY.                     2I
The fortress of Cuzco was but part of a system of
fortifications established throughout their dominions by
the Incas. This system formed a prominent feature in
their military policy; but before entering on this latter
it will be proper to give the reader some view of their
civil institutions and scheme of government.
The sceptre of the Incas, if we may credit their historian, descended in unbroken succession from father
to son, through their whole dynasty. Whatever we
may think of this, it appears probable that the right of
inheritance might be claimed by the eldest son of the
Coya, or lawful queen, as she was styled, to distinguish
her from the host of concubines who shared the affections of the sovereign.2 The queen was further distinguished, at least in later reigns, by the circumstance
of being selected from the sisters of the Inca, an
arrangement which, however revolting to the ideas of
civilized nations, was recommended to the Peruvians by
its securing an heir to the crown of the pure heaven-born
race, uncontaminated by any mixture of earthly mould.27
26 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 7.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte
I, lib. I, cap. 26.-Acosta speaks of the eldest brother of the Inca as
succeeding in preference to the son (lib. 6, cap. 12). He may have
confounded the Peruvian with the Aztec usage. The Report of the
Royal Audience states that a brother succeeded in default of a son.
Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.
97 "Et soror et conjux." According to Garcilasso, the heir-apparent
always married a sister. (Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 4, cap. 9.) Ondegardo notices this as an innovation at the close of the fifteenth century. (Relacion Primera, MS.) The historian of the Incas, however,
is confirmed in his extraordinary statement by Sarmiento. Relacion,
MS., cap. 7.*
* [" The sister-marriage of the Incas," remarks Mr. Tylor, "had in
their religion at once a meaning and a justification,"-as typifying,




2 2       C1 VILIZA TION  OF THE  INCAS.
Illn his early years, the royal offspring was intrusted
to the care of the amaufas, or "wise men," as the
teachers of Peruvian science were called, who instructed
him in such elements of knowledge as they possessed,
and especially in the cumbrous ceremonial of their
religion, in which he was to take a prominent part.
Great care was also bestowed on his military education,
of the last importance in a state which, with its professions of peace and good will, was ever at war for the
acquisition of empire.
In this military school he was educated with such of
the Inca nobles as were nearly of his own age; for the
sacred name of Inca-a fruitful source of obscurity in
their annals-was applied indifferently to all who descended by the male line from the founder of the monarchy.28 At the age of sixteen the pupils underwent a
public examination, previous to their admission to what
may be called the order of chivalry. This examination
was conducted by some of the oldest and most illus-.
trious Incas. The candidates were required to show
their prowess in the athletic exercises of the warrior;
in wrestling and boxing, in running such long courses
as fully tried their agility and strength, in severe fasts
of several days' duration, and in mimic combats, which,
although the weapons were blunted, were always attended with wounds, and sometimes with death. During
28 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. I, cap. 26.
namely, the supposed relation of the sun and moon, like the Egyptian
Osiris and Isis. (Primitive Culture, i. 26I.) It may, however, indicate also different ideas from those of our race in regard to consanguinity. See Morgan, Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the
Human Family (Smithsonian Contributions).-ED.]




ROYAL FAMILY.                     23
this trial, which lasted thirty days, the royal neophyte
fared no better than his comrades, sleeping on the bare
ground, going unshod, and wearing a mean attire,a mode of life, it was supposed, which might tend to
inspire him with more sympathy with the destitute.
With all this show of impartiality, however, it will
probably be doing no injustice to the judges to suppose
that a politic discretion may have somewhat quickened
their perceptions of the real merits of the heir-apparent.
At the end of the appointed time, the candidates
selected as worthy of the honors of their barbaric
chivalry were presented to the sovereign, who condescended to take a principal part in the ceremony of
inauguration. He began with a brief discourse, in
which, after congratulating the young aspirants on the
proficiency they had shown in martial exercises, he reminded them of the responsibilities attached to their
birth and station, and, addressing them affectionately
as "children of the Sun," he exhorted them to imitate
their great progenitor in his glorious career of beneficence to mankind. The novices then drew near, and,
kneeling one by one before the Inca, he pierced their
ears with a golden bodkin; and this was suffered to
remain there till an opening had been made large enough
for the enormous pendants which were peculiar to their
order, and which gave them, with the Spaniards, the
name of ore/ones.'9 This ornament was so massy in the
29 From oreja, " ear."-" Los caballeros de la sangre Real tenian
orejas horadadas, y de ellas colgando grandes rodetes de plata y oro:
llamaronles por esto los orejones los Castellanos la primera vez que
los vieron." (Montesinos, Memorias antiguas historiales del Peru,
MS., lib. 2, cap. 6.) The ornament, which was in the form of a
wheel, did not depend from the ear, but was inserted in the gristle of




24        CIVILIZATION  OF THE INCAS.
ears of the sovereign that the cartilage was distended
by it nearly to the shoulder, producing what seemed a
monstrous deformity in the eyes of the Europeans,
though, under the magical influence of fashion, it was
regarded as a beauty by the natives.
When this operation was performed, one of the most
venerable of the nobles dressed the feet of the candidates in the sandals worn by the order, which may
remind us of the ceremony of buckling on the spurs
of the Christian knight. They were then allowed to
assume the girdle or sash around the loins, correspond
ing with the toga viriLis of the Romans, and intimating
that they had reached the season of manhood. Their
heads were adorned with garlands of flowers, which, by
their various colors, were emblematic of the clemency
and goodness that should grace the character of every
true warrior; and the leaves of an evergreen plant were
mingled with the flowers, to show that these virtues
should endure without end.30 The prince's head was
further ornamented by a fillet, or tasselled fringe, of a
yellow color, made of the fine threads of the vicufia
wool, which encircled the forehead as the peculiar insignia of the heir-apparent. The great body of the
Inca nobility next made their appearance, and, beginning with those nearest of kin, knelt down before the
prince and did him homage as successor to the crown.
it, and was as large as an orange. " La hacen tan ancha como una
gran rosca de naranja; los Selfores i Principales traian aquellas roscas
de oro fino en las orejas." (Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.-Also Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, cap. 22.) "The larger the hole," says
one of the old Conquerors, "the more of a gentleman I" Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.
30 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte i, lib. 6, cap. 27.




ROYAL   AMIL Y.                   25
The whole assembly then moved to the great square of
the capital, where songs and dances and other public
festivities closed the important ceremonial of the
huaracu.3 3
The reader will be less surprised by the resemblance
which this ceremonial bears to the inauguration of a
Christian knight in the feudal ages, if he reflects that a
similar analogy may be traced in the institutions of
other people more or less civilized, and that it is natural
that nations occupied with the one great business of
war should mark the period when the preparatory
education for it was ended, by similar characteristic
ceremonies.
Having thus honorably passed through his ordeal,
the heir-apparent was deemed worthy to sit in the
councils of his father, and was employed in offices of
trust at home, or, more usually, sent on distant expeditions to practise in the field the lessons which he had
hitherto studied only on the mimic theatre of war.
His first campaigns were conducted under the renowned
commanders who had grown gray in the service of his
father, until, advancing in years and experience,- he
was placed in command himself, and, like Huayna
Capac, the last and most illustrious of his line, carried
the banner of the rainbow, the armorial ensign of his
house, far over the borders, among the remotest tribes
of the plateau.
The government of Peru was a despotism, mild in
31 Gareilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 6, cap. 24-28.-According
to Fernandez, the candidates wore white shirts, with something like a
cross embroidered in front I! (Historia del Peru (Sevilla, I57I), Parte
2, lib. 3, cap. 6.) We may fancy ourselves occupied with some chivalrous ceremonial of the Middle Ages.
Peru.-VOL. I. —B       3




26         CIVILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
its character, but in its form a pure and unmitigated
despotism.  The sovereign was placed at an immeasurable distance above his subjects. Even the proudest
of the Inca nobility, claiming a descent from the same
divine original as himself, could not venture into the
royal presence, unless barefoot, and bearing a light
burden on his shoulders in token of homage.3" As the
representative of the Sun, he stood at the head of the
priesthood, and presided at the most important of the
religious festivals.33  He  raised  armies, and  usually
commanded them in person. He imposed taxes, made
laws, and provided for their execution by the appointment of judges, whom he removed at pleasure. He
was the source from  which every thing  flowed,-all
dignity, all power, all emolument. He was, in short,
in the well-known phrase of the European despot,
"himself the state." 34
32 Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. iI.-Sarmiento, Relacion,
MS., cap. 7.-" Porque verdaderamente a lo que yo he averiguado
toda la pretension de los Ingas fue una subjeccion en toda la gente,
qual yo nunca he oido decir de ninguna otra nacion en tanto grado,
que por muy principal que un Sefior fuese, dende que entrava cerca
del Cuzco en cierta sefial que estava puesta en cada camino de quatro
que hay, havia dende alli de venir cargado hasta la presencia del
Inga, y alli dejava la carga y hacia su obediencia." Ondegardo, Rel
Prim., MS.
33 It was only at one of these festivals, and hardly authorizes the
sweeping assertion of Carli that the royal and sacerdotal authority
were blended together in Peru. We shall see, hereafter, the important
and independent position occupied by the high-priest. " Le Sacerdoce et l'Empire 6toient divisds au Mexique; au lieu qu'ils 6toient
rdunis au Perou, comme au Tibet et b la Chine, et comme il le fut h
Rome, lorsqu' Auguste jetta les fondemens de l'Empire, en y reunissant le Sacerdoce ou la dignitd de Souverain Pontife." Lettres
Amdricaines (Paris, 1788), trad. Frang., tom. i. let. 7.
34 " Porque el Inga dava a entender que era hijo del Sol, con este




ROYAL FAMILY.                      27
The Inca asserted his claims as a superior being by
assuming a pomp in his manner of living well calcu.
lated to impose on his people. His dress was of the
finest wool of the vicuna, richly dyed, and ornamented
with a profusion of gold and precious stones. Round
his head was wreathed a turban of many-colored folds,
called the Zlautu, with a tasselled fringe, like that worn
by the prince, but of a scarlet color, while two feathers
of a rare and curious bird, called the coraquenque,
placed upright in it, were the distinguishing insignia
of royalty. The birds from which these feathers were
obtained were found in a desert country among the
mountains; and it was death to destroy or to take them,
as they were reserved for the exclusive purpose of supplying the royal head-gear. Every succeeding monarch
was provided with a new pair of these plumes, and his
credulous subjects fondly believed that only two individuals of the species had ever existed to furnish the
simple ornament for the diadem of the Incas.35
Although the Peruvian monarch was raised so far
above the highest of his subjects, he condescended to
mingle occasionally with them, and took great pains
personally to inspect the condition of the humbler
classes. He presided at some of the religious celebrations, and on these occasions entertained the great
nobles at his table, when he complimented them, after
titulo se hacia adorar, i governava principalmente en tanto grado que
nadie se le atrevia, i su palabra era ley, i nadie osaba ir contra su
palabra ni voluntad; aunque obiese de matar cient mill Indios, no
havia ninguno en su Reino que le osase decir que no lo hlciese."
Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.
35 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. I, cap. 22; lib. 6, cap. 28.Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. II4.-Acosta, lib. 6, cap. I2.




28         CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
the fashion of more civilized nations, by drinking the
health of those whom he most delighted to honor.A
But the most effectual means taken by the Incas for
communicating with their people were their progresses
through the empire. These were conducted, at intervals of several years, with great state and magnificence.
The sedan, or litter, in which they travelled, richly emblazoned with gold and emeralds, was guarded by a
numerous escort. The men who bore it on their shoulders were provided by two cities, specially appointed
for the purpose. It was a post to be coveted by no
one, if, as is asserted, a fall was punished with death.37
They travelled with ease and expedition, halting at the
tambos, or inns, erected by government along the route,
and occasionally at the royal palaces, which in the great
towns afforded ample accommodations to the whole of
the monarch's retinue. The noble roads which trav-6 One would hardly expect to find among the American Indians
this social and kindly custom of our Saxon ancestors,-now fallen
somewhat out of use, in the capricious innovations of modern fashion.
Garcilasso is diffuse in his account of the forms observed at the royal
table. (Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 6, cap. 23.) The only hours of eating were at eight or nine in the morning, and at sunset, which took
place at nearly the same time, in all seasons, in the latitude of Cuzco.
The historian of the Incas admits that, though temperate in eating,
they indulged freely in their cups, frequently prolonging their revelry
to a late hour of the night. Ibid., Parte I, lib. 6, cap. I.
37 " In lectica, aureo tabulato constrata, humeris ferebant; in summa,
ea erat observantia, vt vultum ejus intueri maxime incivile putarent, et
inter baiulos, quicunque vel leviter pede offenso hasitaret, e vestigio
interficerent." Levinus Apollonius, De Peruvise Regior is Inventione,
et Rebus in eadem gestis (Antverpiae, 1567), fol. 37.-Zarate, Conq.
del Peru, lib. I, cap. Ii.-According to this writer, the litter was carried by the nobles; one thousand of whom were specially r'eserved
for the humiliating honor. Ubi supra.




ROYAL FAMILY.                       29
ersed the table-land were lined with people, who swept
away the stones and stubble from their surface, strewing
them with sweet-scented flowers, and vying with each
other in carrying forward the baggage from one village
to another. The monarch halted from time to time to
listen to the grievances of his subjects, or to settle
some points which had been referred to his decision by
the regular tribunals. As the princely train wound its
way along the mountain-passes, every place was thronged
with spectators eager to catch a glimpse of their sovereign; and when he raised the curtains of his litter
and showed himself to their eyes, the air was rent with
acclamations as they invoked blessings on his head.38
Tradition long commemorated the spots at which he
halted, and the simple people of the country held them
in reverence as places consecrated by the presence of
an Inca.39
The royal palaces were on a magnificent scale, and,
far from being confined to the capital or a few principal
towns, were scattered over all the provinces of their
vast empire.40 The buildings were low, but covered a
38 The acclamations must have been potent indeed, if, as Sarmiento
tells us, they sometimes brought the birds down from the sky l " De
esta manera eran tan temidos los Reyes que si salian por el Reyno y
permitian alzar algun patio de los que iban en las andas para dejarse
ver de sus vasallos, alzaban tan gran alarido que hacian caer las aves
de lo alto donde iban volando a ser tomadas a manos." (Relacion,
MS., cap. Io.) The same author has given in another place a more
credible account of the royal progresses, which the Spanish reader
will find extracted in Appendix No. I.
39 Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte I, lib. 3, cap. I4; lib. 6, cap. 3.Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. x, cap. ii.
40 Velasco has given some account of several of these palaces situated in different places in the kingdom of Quito. Hist. de Quito,
tom. i. pp. 195-I97.
3*




30    CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
wide extent of ground. Some of the apartments were
spacious, but they were generally small, and had no
communication with one another, except that they
opened into a common square or court. The walls
were made of blocks of stone of various sizes, like
those described in the fortress of Cuzco, rough-hewn,
but carefully wrought near the line of junction, which
was scarcely visible to the eye. The roofs were of
wood or rushes, which have perished under the rude
touch of time, that has shown more respect for the
walls of the edifices. The whole seems to have been
characterized by solidity and strength, rather than by
any attempt at architectural elegance.4!
But whatever want of elegance there may have been
in the exterior of the imperial dwellings, it was amply
compensated by the interior, in which all the opulence
of the Peruvian princes was ostentatiously displayed.
The sides of the apartments were thickly studded with
gold and silver ornaments. Niches, prepared in the
walls, were filled with images of animals and plants
curiously wrought of the same costly materials; and
even much of the domestic furniture, including the
utensils devoted to the most ordinary menial services,
displayed the like wanton magnificence! 42 With these
4' Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 44.-Antig. y Monumentos de
Peru, MS.-See, among others, the description of the remains still
existing of the royal buildings at Callo, about ten leagues south of
Quito, by Ulloa, Voyage to South America, book 6, ch. ii, and since,
more carefully, by Humboldt, Vues des Cordill~res, p. 197.
42 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 6, cap. I.-" Tanto que todo
el servicio de la Casa del Rey asi de cantaras para su vino, como de
cozina, todo era oro y plata, y esto no en un lugar y en una parte lo
tenia, sino en muchas." (Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. Ix.) See
also the flaming accounts of the palaces of Bilcas, to the west of




ROYAL FA4MILY                      3T
gorgeous decorations were mingled richly-colored stuffs
of the delicate manufacture of the Peruvian wool, which
were of so beautiful a texture that the Spanish sovereigns, with all the luxuries of Europe and Asia at their
command, did not disdain to use them.43 The royal
household consisted of a throng of menials, supplied
by the neighboring towns and villages, which, as in
Mexico, were bound to furnish the monarch with fuel
and other necessaries for the consumption of the
palace.
But the favorite residence of the Incas was at Yucay,
about four leagues distant from the capital. In this
delicious valley, locked up within the friendly arms of
the sierra, which sheltered it from the rude breezes of
the east, and refreshed by gushing fountains and streams
of running water, they built the most beautiful of their
palaces. Here, when wearied with the dust and toil
of the city, they loved to retreat, and solace themselves
with the society of their favorite concubines, wandering amidst groves and airy gardens, that shed around
their soft, intoxicating odors and lulled the senses to
voluptuous repose. Here, too, they loved to indulge
in the luxury of their baths, replenished by streams of
crystal water which were conducted through subterraneous silver channels into basins of gold. The spaCuzco, by Cieza de Leon, as reported to him by Spaniards who had
seen them in their glory. (Cronica, cap. 89.) The niches are still
described by modem travellers as to be found in the walls. (Humboldt, Vues des Cordill/res, p. 197.)
43 "La ropa de la cama toda era de mantas, y fregadas de lana de
Vicuffa, que es tan fina, y tan regalada, que entre otras cosas preciadas de aquellas Tierras, se las han traido para la cama del Rey Don
Phelipe Segundo." Garcilasso, Comrn. Real., Parte z, lib. 6, cap. z.




32        CIVILIZATION  OF THE INCAS.
cious gardens were stocked with numerous varieties of
plants and flowers that grew without effort in this temperate region of the tropics, while parterres of a more
extraordinary kind were planted by their side, glowing
with the various forms of vegetable life skilfully imitated
in gold and silver! Among them the Indian corn, the
most beautiful of American grains, is particularly commemorated, and the curious workmanship is noticed
with which the golden ear was half disclosed amidst
the broad leaves of silver, and the light tassel of the
same material that floated gracefully from its top.44
If this dazzling picture staggers the faith of the
reader, he may reflect that the Peruvian mountains
teemed with gold; that the natives understood the art
of working the mines, to a considerable extent; that
none of the ore, as we shall see hereafter, was converted into coin, and that the whole of it passed into
the hands of the sovereign for his own exclusive benefit,
whether for purposes of utility or ornament. Certain
it is that no fact is better attested by the Conquerors
themselves, who had ample means of information, and
no motive for misstatement. The Italian poets, in
their gorgeous pictures of the gardens of Alcina and
Morgana, came nearer the truth than they imagined.
Our surprise, however, may reasonably be excited
when we consider that the wealth displayed by the
Peruvian princes was only that which each had amassed
44 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 5, cap. 26; lib. 6, cap. 2.Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 24.-Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 94.
— The last writer speaks of a cement, made in part of liquid gold, as
used in the royal buildings of Tambo, a valley not far from Yucay I
(Ubi supra.) We may excuse the Spaniards for demolishing such
edifices,-if they ever met with them.




ROYAL FAMILY.                      33
individually for himself. He owed nothing to inherit
ance from his predecessors. On the decease of an Inca,
his palaces were abandoned; all his treasures, except
what were employed in his obsequies, his furniture and
apparel, were suffered to remain as he left them, and
his mansions, save one, were closed up forever. The
new sovereign was to provide himself with every thing
new for his royal state. The reason of this was the
popular belief that the soul of the departed monarch
would return after a time to re-animate his body on
earth; and they wished that he should find everything
to which he had been used in life prepared for his
reception.45
When an Inca died, or, to use his own language,
"was called home to the mansions of his father, the
Sun,"46 his obsequies were celebrated with great pomp
and solemnity. The bowels were taken from the body
and deposited in the temple of Tampu, about five
leagues from the capital. A quantity of his plate and
jewels was buried with them, and a number of his
attendants and favorite concubines, amounting sometimes, it is said, to a thousand, were immolated on his
tomb.47 Some of them showed the natural repugnance
to the sacrifice occasionally manifested by the victims
45 Acosta, lib. 6, cap. I2.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. b,
cap. 4.
46 The Aztecs, also, believed that the soul of the warrior who fell in
battle went to accompany the Sun in his bright progress through the
heavens. (See Conquest of Mexico, book I, chap. 3.)
47 Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.-Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 6.-Four thousand of these victims, according to Sarmiento,-we may hope it is an
exaggeration,-graced the funeral obsequies of Huayna Capac, the last
of the Incas before the coming of the Spaniards. Relacion, MS., cap. 65.
B*




34    CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
of a similar superstition in India.  But these were
probably the menials and more humble attendants;
since the women have been known, in more than one
instance, to lay violent hands on themselves, when restrained from testifying their fidelity by this act of
conjugal martyrdom. This melancholy ceremony was
followed by a general mourning throughout the empire.
At stated intervals, for a year, the people assembled to
renew the expressions of their sorrow; processions
were made, displaying the banner of the departed
monarch; bards and minstrels were appointed to chronicle his achievements, and their songs continued to be
rehearsed at high festivals in the presence of the reigning monarch,-thus stimulating the living by the glorions example of the dead.48
The body of the deceased Inca was skilfully embalmed, and removed to the great temple of the Sun
at Cuzco. There the Peruvian sovereign, on entering
the awful sanctuary, might behold the effigies of his
royal ancestors, ranged in opposite files,-the men on
the right, and their queens on the left, of the great
luminary which blazed in refulgent gold on the walls
of the temple. The bodies, clothed in the princely
attire which they had been accustomed to wear, were
placed on chairs of gold, and sat with their heads inclined downward, their hands placidly crossed over
their bosoms, their countenances exhibiting their natural
dusky hue,-less liable to change than the fresher coloring of a European complexion,-and their hair of raven
black, or silvered over with age, according to the period
48 Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 62.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte
x, lib. 6, cap. 5.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 8.




ROYAL FAMYIL.                        35
at which they died! It seemed like a company of
solemn worshippers fixed in devotion,-so true were the
forms and lineaments to life. The Peruvians were as
successful as the Egyptians in the miserable attempt to
perpetuate the existence of the body beyond the limits
assigned to it by nature.49
They cherished a still stranger illusion in the attentions which they continued to pay to these insensible
remains, as if they were instinct with life. One of the
houses belonging to a deceased Inca was kept open and
occupied by his guard and attendants, with all the state
appropriate to royalty. On certain festivals, the revered
bodies of the sovereigns were brought out with great
ceremony into the public square of the capital. Invitations were sent by the captains of the guard of the
respective Incas to the different nobles and officers of
the court; anid entertainments were provided in the
49 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I,
lib. 5, cap. 29.-The Peruvians secreted these mummies of their
sovereigns after the Conquest, that they might not be profaned by the
insults of the Spaniards. Ondegardo, when corregidor of Cuzco, discovered five of them, three male and two female. The former were
the bodies of Viracocha, of the great Tupac Inca Yupanqui, and of
his son Huayna Capac. Garcilasso saw them in I56o. They were
dressed in their regal robes, with no insignia but the 11autu on their
heads. They were in a sitting posture, and, to use his own expression, "perfect as life, without so much as a hair or an eyebrow wanting." As they were carried through the streets, decently shrouded
with a mantle, the Indians threw themselves on their knees, in sign of
reverence, with many tears and groans, and were still more touched
as they beheld some of the Spaniards themselves doffing their caps, in
token of respect to departed royalty. (Ibid., ubi supra.) The bodies
were subsequently removed to Lima; and Father Acosta, who saw
them there some twenty years later, speaks of them as still in perfect
preservation.




36         CIVILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
names of their masters, which displayed all the profuse
magnificence of their treasures,-and " such a display,"
says an ancient chronicler, " was there in the great square
of Cuzco, on this occasion, of gold and silver plate and
jewels, as no other city in the world ever witnessed."S"
The banquet was served by the menials of the respective
households, and the guests partook of the melancholy
cheer in the presence of the royal phantom with the
same attention to the forms of courtly etiquette as if
the living monarch had presided! 5'
The nobility of Peru consisted of two orders, the
first and by far the most important of which was that
of the Incas, who, boasting a common descent with
their sovereign, lived, as it were, in the reflected light
of his glory. As the Peruvian monarchs availed themselves of the right of polygamy to a very liberal extent,
leaving behind them families of one or even two hundred children,52 the nobles of the blood royal, though
50 " Tenemos por muy cierto que ni en Jerusalem, Roma, ni en
Persia, ni en ninguna parte del mundo por ninguna Republica ni Rey
de el, se juntaba en un lugar tanta riqueza de Metales de oro y Plata
y Pedreria como en esta Plaza del Cuzco; quando estas fiestas y otras
semejantes se hacian." Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 27.
5x Idem, Relacion, MS., cap. 8, 27.-Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.It was only, however, the great and good princes that were thus honored, according to Sarmiento, "whose souls the silly people fondly
believed, on account of their virtues, were in heaven, although, in
truth," as the same writer assures us, " they were all the time burning
in the flames of hell"! " Digo los que haviendo sido en vida buenos
y valerosos, generosos con los Indios en les hacer mercedes, perdonadores de injurias, porque Ai estos tales canonizaban en su ceguedad por
Santos y honrraban sus huesos, sin entender que las animas ardian en
los Ynfierios y creian que estaban en el Cielo." Ibid., ubi supra.
s2 Garcilasso says over three hundred! (Com. Real., Parte I, lib.
3, cap.:9.) The fact, though rather startling, is not incredible, if, like




NOBILITY.                        37
comprehending only their descendants in the male
line, came in the course of years to be very numerous.53 They were divided into different lineages, each
of which traced its pedigree to a different member of
the royal dynasty, though all terminated in the divine
founder of the empire.
They were distinguished by many exclusive and
very important privileges; they wore a peculiar dress,
spoke a dialect, if we may believe the chronicler, peculiar to themselves,54' and had the choicest portion of the
public domain assigned for their support. They lived,
most of them, at court, near the person of the prince,
sharing in his counsels, dining at his board, or supplied from his table. They alone were admissible to
the great offices in the priesthood. They were invested
with the command of armies and of distant garrisons,
Huayna Capac, they counted seven hundred wives in their seraglio.
See Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 7.
53 Garcilasso mentions a class of Incas por privilegio, who were
allowed to possess the name and many of the immunities of the blood
royal, though only descended from the great vassals that first served
under the banner of Manco Capac. (Com. Real., Parte I, lib. I, cap.
22.) This important fact, to which he often refers, one would be glad
to see confirmed by a single authority.
54 "Los Incas tuvieron otra Lengua particular, que hablavan entre
ellos, que no la entendian los demos Indios, ni les era licito aprenderla, como Lenguage Divino. Esta me escriven del Peru, que se ha
perdido totalmente; porque como pereci6 la Republica particular de
los Incas, pereci6 tambien el Lenguage dellos." Garcilasso, Com.
Real, Parte I, lib. 7, cap. I.*
* [An analysis of fifteen words preserved by Garcilasso has led to
the conclusion that the supposed secret language of the Incas was
only a dialect of the common tongue. Meyen, Ueber die Ureinbewohner von Peru, cited by Brinton, Myths of the New World, p.
3I.-ED.]
Peru.-VOL. I.            4




38        CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
were placed over the provinces, and, in short, filled
every station of high trust and emolument.55 Even
the laws, severe in their general tenor, seem not to
have been framed with reference to them; and the
people, investing the whole order with a portion of the
sacred character which belonged to the sovereign, held
that an Inca noble was incapable of crime.56
The other order of nobility was the Curacas, the
caciques of the conquered nations, or their descendants. They were usually continued by the government
in their places, though they were required to visit the
capital occasionally, and to allow their sons to be educated there as the pledges of their loyalty. It is not
easy to define the nature or extent of their privileges.
They were possessed of more or less power, according
to the extent of their patrimony and the number of
their vassals. Their authority was usually transmitted
from father to son, though sometimes the successor
was chosen by the people.57 They did not occupy the
highest posts of state, or those nearest the person of
the sovereign, like the nobles of the blood. Their
3s " Una sola gente hallo yo que era exenta, que eran los Ingas del
Cuzco y por alli al rededor de ambas parcialidades, porque estos no
solo no pagavan tributo, pero aun comian de lo que traian al Inga de
todo el reino, y estos eran por la mayor parte los Governadores en
todo el reino, y por donde quiera que iban se les hacia mucha honrra."
Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.
56 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. I5.
57 In this event, it seems, the successor named was usually presented
to the Inca for confirmation. (Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.) At other
times the Inca himself selected the heir from among the children of
the deceased Curaca. "In short," says Ondegardo, "there was no
rule of succession so sure, but it might be set aside by the supreme
will of the sovereign." Rel. Prim., MS.




NOBILITEI                     39
authority seems to have been usually local, and always
in subordination to the territorial jurisdiction of the
great provincial governors, who were taken from the
Incas.58
It was the Inca nobility, indeed, who constituted
the real strength of the Peruvian monarchy. Attached
to their prince by ties of consanguinity, they had common sympathies and, to a considerable extent, common
interests with him. Distinguished by a peculiar dress
and insignia, as well as by language and blood, from
the rest of the community, they were never confounded
with the other tribes and nations who were incorporated into the great Peruvian monarchy.  After the
lapse of centuries they still retained their individuality
as a peculiar people. They were to the conquered
races of the country what the Romans were to the barbarous hordes of the Empire, or the Normans to the
ancient inhabitants of the British Isles.  Clustering
around the throne, they formed an invincible phalanx
to shield it alike from secret conspiracy and open insurrection. Though living chiefly in the capital, they
were also distributed throughout the country in all its
high stations and strong military posts, thus establishing lines of communication with the court, which
enabled the sovereign to act simultaneously and with
effect on the most distant quarters of his empire.
They possessed, moreover, an intellectual pre-eminence, which, no less than their station, gave them
authority with the people. Indeed, it may be said to
58 Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte x, lib. 4, cap. Io.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. Ir.-Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.-Cieza de Leon,
Cronica, cap. 93.-Conq. i Pob. del Firu, MS.




40         CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
have been the principal foundation of their authority.
The crania of the Inca race show a decided superiority
over the other races of the land in intellectual power; 59
and it cannot be denied that it was the fountain of that
peculiar civilization and social polity which raised the
Peruvian monarchy above every other state in South
America. Whence this remarkable race came, and
what was its early history, are among those mysteries
that meet us so frequently in the annals of the New
World, and which time and the antiquary have as yet
done little to explain.*
59 Dr. Morton's valuable work contains several engravings of both
the Inca and the common Peruvian skull, showing that the facial angle
in the former, though by no means great, was much larger than that
* [The wildest speculations on this point have not been those of
early writers, unguided by any principles of philological or ethnological
science, and accustomed to regard the Hebrew Scriptures as the sole
fountain of knowledge in regard to the origin and diffusion of the
human race. Modem research in matters of language and mythology,
while dispelling many illusions and furnishing a key to many riddles,
has opened a field in which the imagination, equipped with a quasiscientific apparatus, finds a wider range than ever before. The discoveries of the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg in regard to the origin of
the Mexican civilization have been matched by those of a Peruvian
scholar, Dr. Vincente Fidel Lopez, who, in a work entitled Les Races
aryennes du PNrou (Paris, I871), has brought forward a vast array of
argument to prove that the dominant race in Peru was an offshoot of the
great Indo-European family, transplanted at some remote period to the
American soil, and not connected by blood with any of its other occupants. This theory is based on a comparison of languages, of architectural and other remains, and of institutions and ideas. The Quichua language, it is admitted, differs in form from all the recognized
Aryan tongues. Like the other American languages, it is polysynthetic,
though Dr. Lopez, who makes no distinction between the two terms,
calls it agglutinative, classing it with the dialects of the Turanian
family. But many philologists hold that there must have been a period




NOBILITY.                          4I
in the latter, which was singularly flat and deficient in intellectual
character. Crania Americana (Philadelphia, I829).*
when the oldest Aryan tongues were destitute of inflexions and employed the same modes of expression as the Chinese and other monosyllabic languages. There is therefore a "missing link," which is
supplied by the Quichua, this being agglutinative in form but Aryan
in substance. The latter point is established by the identity of its
leading roots with those of the Sanscrit: that is to say, there are kas,
tas, and vas, with meanings capable of being distorted into some
similarity, in both. The argument in regard to architecture, pottery,
etc., is of a more familiar kind, having been long since adduced in
support of various conjectures. The mythological hypotheses are
more amusing. Dr. Lopez holds, with M. Brasseur, that all myths
are identical; but while the latter insists that their common significance is geological, the former contends that it is astronomical. A
single example will illustrate the method by which the author establishes his points. The most ancient Peruvian deity, as Dr. Lopez
believes, was Ati, the representative of the waning moon, identical
with the Ate of the Homeric mythology. Another step brings us
to Hecate,-properly'EE-t&r,, of or by Ate,-and a third to Athene
-Ati-inna-and Minerva, both names signifying the same thing, viz.,
force de la lune. Lest it should be supposed that such conjectures
have sprung from the remoteness and isolation in which, as Dr.
Lopez complains, the Peruvian scholar is placed, it may be proper
to mention that he has been anticipated and even outstripped in his
leading ideas by some German savants, who, by a similar etymological
process, have identified both the Peruvians and the Aztecs as Celts.
"Aber woher kamen diese Kelten?" asks one of these enthusiastic
explorers. "Denn dass es Kelten gewesen sind, kann nicht mehr
zweifelhaft sein." And he answers his own inquiry by showing the
probability that they were Irish, "the last pagan remains of that people," who rescued their old druidical worship from the inroads of
Christianity, and having carried it across the ocean,-whether stopping
at Greenland on the way or not he is unable to decide,-planted it on
the Andes, "that is to say, the beautiful land, from an, pleasant, beautiful, and der, land."  Frenzel, Der Belus oder Sonnendienst auf den
Anden, oder Kelten in America (Leipzig, I867).-ED.]
* [It seems extremely improbable that Dr. Morton should have
been able to obtain any well-authenticated crania of the Incas
4*




42         CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
" With the exception," says Rivero, " of the mummies of the four [?]
emperors which were carried to Lima,... and the remains of which
it has been impossible to discover up to this day, the sepulchres of the
others are unknown, as well as of the nobility descended from them."
(Peruvian Antiquities, Eng. trans., p. 40.) The same writer asserts
that all the Peruvian crania figured in the work of Dr. Morton belong
to those of the three races which, according to him, constituted the
general mass of the population, the Chinchas, the Aymaraes, and the
Huancas. The crania of all these races are, he further states, distinguished by an osteologic anomaly: the presence, namely, of an interparietal bone, of a more or less triangular form, perfectly distinct in
the first month after birth, and subsequently united to the occipital,
the suture being marked by a furrow which is never obliterated and
which is easily recognized in all the crania.-ED.]




CHAPTER II.
ORDERS OF THE STATE. -— PROVISIONS FOR JUSTICE.DIVISION OF LANDS.-REVENUES AND REGISTERS.GREAT ROADS AND  POSTS.-MILITARY TACTICS AND
POLICY.
IF we are surprised at the peculiar and original features of what may be called the Peruvian aristocracy,
we shall be still more so as we descend to the lower
orders of the community and see the very artificial
character of their institutions,-as artificial as those of
ancient Sparta, and, though in a different way, quite
as repugnant to the essential principles of our nature.
The institutions of Lycurgus, however, were designed
for a petty state, while those of Peru, although originally intended for such, seemed, like the magic tent in
the Arabian tale, to have an indefinite power of expansion, and were as well suited to the most flourishing
condition of the empire as to its infant fortunes. In
this remarkable accommodation to change of circumstances we see the proofs of a contrivance that argues
no slight advance in civilization.
The name of Peru was not known to the natives. It
was given by the Spaniards, and originated, it is said,
in a misapprehension of the Indian name of "river."'
I Pelu, according to Garcilasso, was the Indian name for "river,"
and was given by one of the natives in answer to a question put to him
by the Spaniards, who conceived it to be the name of the country.
(Com. Real., Parte i, lib. i, cap. 6.) Such blunders have led to the
(43)




44    CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
However this may be, it is certain that the natives had
no other epithet by which to designate the large collection of tribes and nations who were assembled under
the sceptre of the Incas, than that of Tavantinsuyu, or
"four quarters of the world."' 2  This will not surprise
a citizen of the United States, who has no other name
by which to class himself among nations than what is
borrowed from a quarter of the globe.3 The kingdom,
names of many places both in North and South America. Montesinos, however, denies that there is such an Indian term for " river."*
(Mem. antiguas, MS., lib. I, cap. 2.) According to this writer, Peru
was the ancient Ophir, whence Solomon drew such stores of wealth,
and which, by a very natural transition, has in time been corrupted
into Phiru, Piru, Peru / The first book of the Memorias, consisting
of thirty-two chapters, is devoted to this precious discovery.t
2 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I,
lib. 2, cap. II.
3 Yet an American may find food for his vanity in the reflection that
the name of a quarter of the globe, inhabited by so many civilized
nations, has been exclusively conceded to him.-Was it conceded or
assumed?:
* [This statement would appear to be correct, and Garcilasso's
etymology must be rejected on that, if on no other ground. More
probable derivations are those given by Pascual de Andagoya,-from
Bird, the name of a province first visited by Gaspar de Morales and
Francisco Pizarro,-and by Father Blas Valera-from the Quichua
word Pirua, a granary. Garcilasso's objection, that the spelling Piru
was a later and corrupt form, would, even if well founded, be of little
moment.-ED.]
t [A recent writer, forgetting, as Montesinos seems also to have
done, that Peru was not the native name for the country, suggests its
connection with Persia-itself a mere corruption-as an argument in
support of the Aryan origin of the Quichuans — ED.]
t [This comparison, which seems quite out of place, might be supposed to imply that the Peruvian word translated "four quarters of
the world" bore a similar meaning to that conveyed by the English
phrase. But Garcilasso himself explains it as indicating merely the




ORDERS OF THE STATE.                      45
conformably to its name, was divided into four parts,
distinguished each by a separate title, and to each of
which ran one of the four great roads that diverged
from Cuzco, the capital or navel of the Peruvian monarchy. The city was in like manner divided into four
quarters; and the various races which gathered there
from the distant parts of the empire lived each in the
quarter nearest to its respective province. They all
continued to wear their peculiar national costume, so
that it was easy to determine their origin; and the
same order and system of arrangement prevailed in the
motley population of the capital as in the great provinces of the empire. The capital, in fact, was a miniature image of the empire.4
The four great provinces were each placed under a
viceroy or governor, who ruled over them with the
assistance of one or more councils for the different
departments. These viceroys resided, some portion
of their time, at least, in the capital, where they constituted a sort of council of state to the Inca.s The
4 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte x, lib. 2, cap. 9, Io.-Cieza de Leon,
Cronica, cap. 93.-The capital was further divided into two parts, the
Upper and Lower town, founded, as pretended, on the different origin
of the population; a division recognized also in the inferior cities.
Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.
5 Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.-Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte I, lib.
four cardinal points, by which divisions of territory, as well as architectural arrangements and even social organizations, were so commonly regulated among primitive nations. The extent to which this
was carried in America, and the consequent importance and sacredness attached to the number four, as exemplified in many myths and
traditions, have been pointed out with great fulness of research and
illustration by Dr. Brinton, in his Myths of the New World.-ED.]




46        CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
nation at large was distributed into decades, or small
bodies of ten; and every tenth man, or head of a
decade, had supervision of the rest,-being required to
see that they enjoyed the rights and immunities to
which they were entitled, to solicit aid in their behalf from government, when necessary, and to bring
offenders to justice. To this last they were stimulated
by a law that imposed on them, in case of neglect, the
same penalty that would have been incurred by the
guilty party. With this law hanging over his head,
the magistrate of Peru, we may well believe, did not
often go to sleep on his post.6
The people were still further divided into bodies of
fifty, one hundred, five hundred, and a thousand, each
with an officer having general supervision over those
beneath, and the higher ones possessing, to a certain
extent, authority in matters of police. Lastly, the
whole empire was distributed into sections or departments of ten thousand inhabitants, with a governor
over each, from the Inca nobility, who had control
over the curacas and other territorial officers in the
district. There were, also, regular tribunals of justice,
consisting of magistrates in each of the towns or small
communities, with jurisdiction over petty offences,
2, cap. 15.-For this account of the councils I am indebted to Garci.
lasso, who frequently fills up gaps that have been left by his fellow
laborers. Whether the filling up will, in all cases, bear the touch of
time as well as the rest of his work, one may doubt.
6 Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.-Montesinos, Mem. antiguas, MS.,
lib. 2, cap. 6.-Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-How analogous is the
Peruvian to the Anglo-Saxon division into hundreds and tithings! But
the Saxon law which imposed only a fine on the district in case of a
criminal's escape was more humane.




PRO VISIONS FOR  7USTICE.               47
while those of a graver character were carried before
superior judges, usually the governors or rulers of the
districts. These judges all held their authority and
received their support from the crown, by which they
were appointed and removed at pleasure. They were
obliged to determine every suit in five days from the
time it was brought before them; and there was no
appeal from one tribunal to another. Yet there were
important provisions for the security of justice. A
committee of visitors patrolled the kingdom at certain
times to investigate the character and conduct of the
magistrates; and any neglect or violation of duty was
punished in the most exemplary manner. The inferior
courts were also required to make monthly returns of
their proceedings to the higher ones, and these made
reports in like manner to the viceroys: so that the
monarch, seated in the centre of his dominions, could
look abroad, as it were, to their most distant extremities,
and review and rectify any abuses in the administration
of the law.7
The laws were few and exceedingly severe. They
related almost wholly to criminal matters. Few other
laws were needed by a people who had no money, little
trade, and hardly anything that could be called fixed
property. The crimes of theft, adultery, and murder
were all capital; though it was wisely provided that
some extenuating circumstances might be allowed to
7 Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.-Ondegardo, Rel. Prim. et Seg.,
MSS.-Garcilasso, Comrn. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. II-I4.-Montesinos, Mem. antiguas, MS., lib. 2, cap. 6.-The accounts of the Peruvian tribunals by the early authorities are very meagre and unsatisfactory. Even the lively imagination of Garcilasso has failed to supply
the blank.




48         CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
mitigate the punishment.8 Blasphemy against the Sun,
and malediction of the Inca,-offences, indeed, of the
same complexion,-were also punished with death.
Removing landmarks, turning the water away from a
neighbor's land into one's own, burning a house, were
all severely punished. To burn a bridge was death.
The Inca allowed no obstacle to those facilities of communication so essential to the maintenance of public
order. A rebellious city or province was laid waste,
and its inhabitants exterminated. Rebellion against
the " Child of the Sun" was the greatest of all
crimes.9
The simplicity and severity of the Peruvian code
may be thought to infer a state of society but little advanced, which had few of those complex interests and
relations that grow up in a civilized community, and
which had not proceeded far enough in the science of
legislation to economize human suffering by proportioning penalties to crimes. But the Peruvian institutions must be regarded from a different point of view
8 Ondegardo. Rel. Prim., MS.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib.
4, cap. 3.-Theft was punished less severely if the offender had been
really guilty of it to supply the necessities of life. It is a singular
circumstance that the Peruvian law made no distinction between fornication and adultery, both being equally punished with death. Yet
the law could hardly have been enforced, since prostitutes were assigned,
or at least allowed, a residence in the suburbs of the cities. See Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 4, cap. 34.
9 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 23.-" I los traidores entre ellos!lamava aucaes, i esta palabra es la mas abiltada de todas quantas pueden decir aun Indio del Pirfi, que quiere decir traidor a su Sefior."
(Conq. i Pob. del Pirui, MS.) " En las rebeliones y alzamientos se
hicieron los castigos tan asperos, que algunas veces asolaron las provincias de todos los varones de edad sin quedar ninguno."  Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.




PRO VISIONS FOR  _JUSTICE.                49
from that in which we study those of other nations.
The laws emanated from the sovereign, and that sovereign held a divine commission and was possessed of
a divine nature. To violate the law was not only to
insult the majesty of the throne, but it was sacrilege.
The slightest offence, viewed in this light, merited
death; and the gravest could incur no heavier penalty.bo Yet in the infliction of their punishments they
showed no unnecessary cruelty; and the sufferings of
the victim were not prolonged by the ingenious torments so frequent among barbarous nations.x"
These legislative provisions may strike us as very
defective, even as compared with those of the semicivilized races of Anahuac, where a gradation of courts,
moreover, with the right of appeal, afforded a tolerable
security for justice. But in a country like Peru, where
few but criminal causes were known, the right of appeal was of less consequence. The law was simple, its
application easy; and, where the judge was honest, the
case was as likely to be determined correctly on the
first hearing as on the second. The inspection of the
board of visitors, and the monthly returns of the tribunals, afforded no slight guarantee for their integrity.
zo,, El castigo era riguroso, que por la mayor parte era de muerte,
por liviano que fuese el delito; porque decian, que no los castigavan
por el delito que avian hecho, ni por la ofensa agena, sino por aver
quebrantado el mandamiento, y rompido la palabra del Inca, que lo
respetavan como d Dios." Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib.. 2,
cap. I2.
-I One of the punishments most frequent for minor offences was to
carry a stone on the back. A punishment attended with no suffering
but what arises from the disgrace attached to it is very justly characterized by McCulloh as a proof of sensibility and refinement. Researches, p. 36I.
Peru. —VoL. I, —c       5




50        CIVILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
The law which required a decision within five days
would seem little suited to the complex and embarrassing litigation of a modern tribunal. But, in the simple
questions submitted to the Peruvian judge, delay would
have been useless; and the Spaniards, familiar with
the evils growing out of long-protracted suits, where
the successful litigant is too often a ruined man, are
loud in their encomiums of this swift-handed and economical justice."
The fiscal regulations of the Incas, and the laws respecting property, are the most remarkable features in
the Peruvian polity. The whole territory of the empire
was divided into three parts, one for the Sun, another
for the Inca, and the last for the people. Which of the
three was the largest is doubtful. The proportions differed materially in different provinces.  The distribut
tion, indeed, was made on the same general principle,
as each new conquest was added to the monarchy; buthe proportion varied according to the amount of
population, and the greater or less amount of land
consequently required for the support of the inhabitants.'3
12 The Royal Audience of Peru under Philip I I.-there cannot be
a higher authority-bears emphatic testimony to the cheap and efficient administration of justice under the Incas: " De suerte que los
vicios eran bien castigados y la gente estaba bien sujeta y obediente;
y aunque en las dichas penas havia esceso, redundaba en buen govierno y policia suya, y mediante ella eran aumentados..... Porque
los Yndios alababan la governacion del Ynga, y aun los Espafioles
que algo alcanzan de ella, es porque todas las cosas susodichas se determinaban sin hacerles costas." Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.
e3 Acosta, lib. 6, cap. I5.-Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte I, lib. 5,
cap. I.-"' Si estas partes fuesen iguales, o qual fuese mayor, yo lo he
procurado averiguar, y en unas es diferente de otras, y finalmte yo




DIVISION  OF LANDS.                   51
The lands assigned to the Sun furnished a revenue
to support the temples and maintain the costly cere..
monial of the Peruvian worship and the multitudinous
priesthood. Those reserved for the Inca went to support the royal state, as well as the numerous members
of his household and his kindred, and supplied the
various exigencies of government. The remainder of
the lands was divided, per capita, in  equal shares
among the people. It was provided by law, as we
shall see hereafter, that every Peruvian should marry
at a certain age. When this event took place, the
community or district in which he lived furnished him
with a dwelling, which, as it was constructed of humble
materials, was done at little cost. A lot of land was
then assigned to him sufficient for his own maintenance and that of his wife. An additional portion was
granted for every child, the amount allowed for a son
being the double of that for a daughter. The division
of the soil was renewed every year, and the possessions
of the tenant were increased or diminished according
to the numbers in his family.4"  The same arrangement
was observed with reference to the curacas, except only
that a domain was assigned to them corresponding with
the superior dignity of their stations.'5
tengo entendido que se hacia conforme 4 la disposicion de la tierra y
t la calidad de los Indios." Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.
4 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I,
lib. 5, cap. 2.-The portion granted to each new-married couple, according to Garcilasso, was a fanega and a half of land. A similar
quantity was added for each male child that was born, and half of the
quantity for each female. The fanega was as much land as could be
planted with a hundred-weight of Indian corn. In the fruitful soil of
Peru, this was a liberal allowance for a family.
5I Ibid., Parte I, lib. 5, cap. 3. —It is singular that, while so much




52         CIVILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
A more thorough and effectual agrarian law than this
cannot be imagined. In other countries where such a
law has been introduced, its operation, after a time,
has given way to the natural order of events, and,
under the superior intelligence and thrift of some and
the prodigality of others, the usual vicissitudes of fortune have been allowed to take their course and restore
things to their natural inequality. Even the iron law
of Lycurgus ceased to operate after a time, and melted
away before the spirit of luxury and avarice.   The
nearest approach to the Peruvian constitution was
probably in Judea, where, on the recurrence of the
great national jubilee, at the close of every half-century, estates reverted to their original proprietors.
There was this important difference in Peru; that not
only did the lease, if we may so call it, terminate with
the year, but during that period the tenant had no
power to alienate or to add to his possessions. The
end of the brief term found him in precisely the same
condition that he was in at the beginning. Such a
state of things might be supposed to be fatal to any
thing like attachment to the soil, or to that desire of
improving it which is natural to the permanent proprieis said of the Inca sovereign, so little should be said of the Inca
nobility, of their estates, or the tenure by which they held thenh.
Their historian tells us that they had the best of the lands, wherever
they resided, besides the interest which they had in those of the Sun
and the Inca, as children of the one and kinsmen of the other. Hle
informs us, also, that they were supplied from the royal table when
living at court. (lib. 6, cap. 3.) But this is very loose language. The
student of history will learn, on the threshold, that he is not to expect
precise, or even very consistent, accounts of the institutions of a barbarous age and people from contemporary annalists.




DIVISION  OF LANDS.                53
tor, and hardly less so to the holder of a long lease.
But the practical operation of the law seems to have
been otherwise; and it is probable that, under the influence of that love of order and aversion to change
which marked the Peruvian institutions, each new partition of the soil usually confirmed the occupant in his
possession, and the tenant for a year was converted into
a proprietor for life.
The territory was cultivated wholly by the people.
The lands belonging to the Sun were first attended to.
They next tilled the lands of the old, of the sick, of
the widow and the orphan, and of soldiers engaged in
actual service; in short, of all that part of the community who, from bodily infirmity or any other cause,
were unable to attend to their own concerns. The
people were then allowed to work on their own ground,
each man for himself, but with the general obligation
to assist his neighbor when any circumstance-the burden of a young and numerous family, for examplemight demand it.'6 Lastly, they cultivated the lands
of the Inca. This was done, with great ceremony, by
the whole population in a body. At break of day they
were summoned together by proclamation from some
neighboring tower or eminence, and all the inhabitants
of the district, men, women, and children, appeared
dressed in their gayest apparel, bedecked with their
little store of finery and ornaments, as if for some
great jubilee. They went through the labors of the
I6 Garcilasso relates that an Indian was hanged by Huayna Capac
for tilling the ground of a curaca, his near relation, before that of the
poor. The gallows was erected on the curaca's own land. Com.
Real., Parte I, lib. 5, cap. 2.
5*




54        CZIVrLIZA TION  OF THE  INCAS.
day with the same joyous spirit, chanting their popular
ballads which commemorated the heroic deeds of the
Incas, regulating their movements by the measure of
the chant, and all mingling in the chorus, of which the
word haii, or "triumph," was usually the burden.
These national airs had something soft and pleasing in
their character, that recommended them to the Spaniards; and many a Peruvian song was set to music by
them after the Conquest, and was listened to by the
unfortunate natives with melancholy satisfaction, as it
called up recollections of the past, when their days
glided peacefully away under the sceptre of the Incas.'7
A similar arrangement prevailed with respect to the
different manufactures as to the agricultural products
of the country. The flocks of llamas, or Peruvian
sheep, were appropriated exclusively to the Sun and to
the Inca."8  Their number was immense.  They were
scattered over the different provinces, chiefly in the
colder regions of the country, where they were intrusted to the care of experienced shepherds, who
conducted them to different pastures according to the
change of season. A large number was every year
sent to the capital for the consumption of the court,
and for the religious festivals and sacrifices. But these
were only the males, as no female was allowed to be
t7 Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte I, lib. 5, cap. I-3.-Ondegardo, Rel.
Seg., MS.
18 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-Yet sometimes the sovereign would
recompense some great chief, or even some one among the people,
who had rendered him a service, by the grant of a small number of
llamas,-never many. These were not to be disposed of or killed by
their owners, but descended as common property to their heirs. This
strange arrangement proved a fruitful source of litigation after the
Conquest. Ibid., ubi supra.




REVENUES AND REGISTERS.                   55
killed. The regulations for the care and breeding of
these flocks were prescribed with the greatest minuteness, and with a sagacity which excited the admiration
of the Spaniards, who were familiar with the management of the great migratory flocks of merinos in their
own country.'9
At the appointed season they were all sheared, and
the wool was deposited in the public magazines. It
was then dealt out to each family in such quantities as
sufficed for its wants, and was consigned to the female
part of the household, who were well instructed in the
business of spinning and weaving. When this labor
was accomplished, and the family was provided with a
coarse but warm covering, suited to the cold climate
of the mountains,-for in the lower country cotton,
furnished in like manner by the crown, took the place,
to a certain extent, of wool,-the people were required
to labor for the Inca.  The quantity of the cloth
needed, as well as the peculiar kind and quality of the
fabric, was first determined at Cuzco.  The work was
then apportioned among the different provinces. Officers appointed for the purpose superintended the distribution of the wool, so that the manufacture of the
different articles should be intrusted to the most competent hands.et They did not leave the matter here,
but entered the dwellings, from time to time, and saw
19 See especially the account of the Licentiate Ondegardo, who goes
into more detail than any contemporary writer concerning the management of the Peruvian flocks. Rel. Seg., MS.
-o Ondegardo, Rel. Prim. et Seg., MSS.-The manufacture of cloths
for the Inca included those for the numerous persons of the blood
royal, who wore garments of a finer texture than was permitted to any
other Peruvian. Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte i, lib. 5, cap. 6.




56         CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
that the work was faithfully executed. This domestic
inquisition was not confined to the labors for the Inca.
It included, also, those for the several families; and
care was taken that each household should employ the
materials furnished for its own use in the manner that
was intended, so that no one should be unprovided
with necessary apparel.2z  In this domestic labor all
the female part of the establishment was expected to
join. Occupation was found for all, from the child
five years old to the aged matron not too infirm to hold
a distaff. No one, at least none but the decrepit and
the sick, was allowed to eat the bread of idleness in
Peru. Idleness was a crime in the eye of the law, and,
as such, severely punished; while industry was publicly
commended and stimulated by rewards.2
The like course was pursued with reference to the
other requisitions of the government. All the mines in
the kingdom belonged to the Inca. They were wrought
exclusively for his benefit, by persons familiar with this
service and selected from the districts where the mines
were situated.23  Every Peruvian of the lower class was
- Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.-Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 15.
2 Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte x, lib.
5, cap. II.
23 Garcilasso would have us believe that the Inca was indebted to
the curacas for his gold and silver, which were furnished by the great
vassals as presents. (Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 5, cap. 7.) This improbable statement is contradicted by the Report of the Royal Audience, MS., by Sarmiento (Relacion, MS., cap. I5), and by Ondegardo
(Rel. Prim., MS.), who all speak of the mines as the property of the
government and wrought exclusively for its benefit. From this reservoir the proceeds were liberally dispensed in the form of presents
among the great lords, and still more for the embellishment of the
temples.




RE VENUES AND REGISTERS.                    57
a husbandman, and, with the exception of those already specified, was expected to provide for his own
support by the cultivation of his land. A small portion of the community, however, was instructed in
mechanical arts, —some of them of the more elegant.kind, subservient to the purposes of luxury and ornament. The demand for these was chiefly limited to
the sovereign and his court; but the labor of a larger
number of hands was exacted for the execution of the
great public works which covered the land. The nature and amount of the services required were all determined at Cuzco by commissioners well instructed in
the resources of the country and in the character of
the inhabitants of different provinces."
This information was obtained by an admirable regulation, which has scarcely a counterpart in the annals
of a semi-civilized people. A register was kept of all
the births and deaths throughout the country, and
exact returns of the actual population were made to
the government every year, by means of the quizpus, a
curious invention, which will be explained hereafter.'s
At certain intervals, also, a general survey of the country was made, exhibiting a complete view of the character of the soil, its fertility, the nature of its products,
24 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 5, cap. 13-i6. —Ondegardo,
Rel. Prim. et Seg., MSS.
2s Montesinos, Mem. antiguas, MS., lib. 2, cap. 6.-Pedro Pizarro,
Relacion del Descubrimiento y Conquista de los Reynos del Peri,
MS.-" Cada provincia, en fin del afo, mandava asentar en los quipos,
por la cuenta de sus nudos, todos los hombres que habian muerto en
ella en aquel aflo, y por el consiguiente los que habian nacido, y por
principio del afio que entraba, venian con los quipos al Cuzco." Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. I6.




58        CIVILIZATION  OF THE  INCAS.
both agricultural and mineral,-in short, of all that
constituted the physical resources of the empire.2
Furnished with these statistical details, it was easy for
the government, after determining the amount of requisitions, to distribute the work among the respective
provinces best qualified to execute it. The task of
apportioning the labor was assigned to the local authorities, and great care was taken that it should be
done in such a manner that, while the most competent
hands were selected, the weight should not fall disproportionately on any.**
The different provinces of the country furnished
persons peculiarly suited to different employments,
which, as we shall see hereafter, usually descended
from father to son. Thus, one district supplied those
most skilled in working the mines, another the most
curious workers in metals or in wood, and so on.28
The artisan was provided by government with the materials; and no one was required to give more than a
stipulated portion of his time to the public service.
He was then succeeded by another for the like term;
and it should be observed that all who were engaged
in the employment of the government-and the remark
applies equally to agricultural labor-were maintained,
26 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. I4.
27 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-Sarmiento, Rel., MS., cap. 15." Presupuesta y entendida la dicha division que el Inga tenia hecha
de su gente, y orden que tenia puesta en el govierno de ella, era muy
facil haverla en la division y cobranza de los dichos tributos; porque
era claro y cierto lo que t cada uno cabia sin que hubiese desigualdad
ni engafio." Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.
28 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 15. —Ondegardo, Rel. Seg.,
MS.




REVENUES AND REGISTERS.                    59
for the time, at the public expense.9 By this constant
rotation of labor it was intended that no one should
be overburdened, and that each man should have time
to provide for the demands of his own household. It
was impossible-in the judgment of a high Spanish
authority-to improve on the system  of distribution,
so carefully was it accommodated to the condition and
comfort of the artisan.30 The security of the workingclasses seems to have been ever kept in view in the regulations of the government; and these were so discreetly
arranged that the most wearing and unwholesome labors, as those of the mines, occasioned no detriment
to the health of the laborer; a striking contrast to his
subsequent condition under the Spanish rule.3x
A part of the agricultural produce and manufactures
was transported to Cuzco, to minister to the immediate
demands of the Inca and his court. But far the greater
part was stored in magazines scattered over the different
provinces. These spacious buildings, constructed of
stone, were divided between the Sun and the Inca,
though the greater share seems to have been appropriated by the monarch. By a wise regulation, any
deficiency in the contributions of the Inca might be
29 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I,
lib. 5, cap. 5.
Y30 Y tambien se tenia cuenta que el trabajo que pasavan fuese
moderado, y con el menos riesgo que fuese posible.... Era tanta la
orden que tuvieron estos Indios, que a mi parecer aunque mucho se
piense en ello seria dificultoso mejorarla conocida su condicion y costumbres." Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.
3x "The working of the mines," says the President of the Council
of the Indies, " was so regulated that no one felt it a hardship, much
less was his life shortened by it." (Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap.
I5 ) It is a frank admission for a Spaniard.




60         CIVILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
supplied from the granaries of the Sun.3 But such a
necessity could rarely have happened; and the providence of the government usually left a large surplus in
the royal depositories, which was removed to a third
class of magazines, whose design was to supply the
people in seasons of scarcity, and, occasionally, to
furnish relief to individuals whom sickness or misfortune had reduced to poverty; thus in a manner justifying the assertion of a Castilian document, that a large
portion of the revenues of the Inca found its way back
again, through one channel or another, into the hands
of the people.33 These magazines were found by the
Spaniards, on their arrival, stored with all the various
products and manufactures of the country,-with maize,
coca, quinua, woollen and cotton stuffs of the finest
quality, with vases and utensils of gold, silver, and
copper, in short, with every article of luxury or use
within the compass of Peruvian skill.34 The magazines
32 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte i, lib. 5, cap. 34.-Ondegardo, Rel.
Prim., MS.-" E asi esta parte del Inga no hay duda sino que de todas
tres era la mayor, y en los depositos se parece bien que y6 visite
muchos en diferentes partes, 6 son mayores e mas largos que n6. los
de su religion sin comparasion." Idem, Rel. Seg., MS.
33 "Todos los dichos tributos y servicios que el Inga imponia y
l!evaba como dicho es eran con color y para efecto del govierno y
pro comun de todos, asi como lo que se ponia en depositos todo se
combertia y distribuia entre los mismos naturales." Dec. de la Aud.
Real., MS.
34 Acosta, lib. 6, cap. Is5.-" No podre decir," says one of the Conquerors, " los depositos. Vide de rropas y de todos generos de rropas
y vestidos que en este reino se hacian y vsavan que faltava tiempo
para vello y entendimiento para comprender tanta cosa, muchos depositos de barretas de cobre para las minas y de costales y sogas de
vasos de palo y platos del oro y plata que aqui se hallo hera cosa
despanto." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.




RE VENUES AND REGISTERS.                    6r
of grain, in particular, would frequently have sufficed
for the consumption of the adjoining district for several
years.35  An inventory of the various products of the
country, and the quarters whence they were obtained,
was every year taken by the royal officers, and recorded
by the quoZucamayus on their registers, with surprising
regularity and precision. These registers were transmitted to the capital and submitted to the Inca, who
could thus at a glance, as it were, embrace the whole
results of the national industry and see how far they
corresponded with the requisitions of the government.'6
Such are some of the most remarkable features of the
Peruvian institutions relating to property, as delineated
by writers who, however contradictory in the details,
have a general conformity of outline. These institutions are certainly so remarkable that it is hardly
credible they should ever have been enforced throughout a great empire and for a long period of years. Yet
we have the most unequivocal testimony to the fact
from the Spaniards, who landed in Peru in time to
witness their operation; some of whom, men of high
judicial station and character, were commissioned by
the government to make investigations into the state
of the country under its ancient rulers.
35 For ten years, sometimes, if we may credit Ondegardo, who had
every means of knowing: " 13 ansi cuando n6 era menester se estaba
en los depositos e habia algunas vezes comida de diez afos..... Los
cuales todos se hallaron lilenos cuando liegaron los Espafioles desto y
de todas las cosas necesarias para la vida humana."  Rel. Seg., MS.
36 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-" Por tanta orden e cuenta que
seria dificultoso creerlo ni darlo a entender como ellos lo tienen en su
cuenta 6 por registros e por menudo lo manifestaron que se pudiera
por estenso." Idem, Rel. Seg., MS.
Peru. —VoL. I.          6




62        CIVILIZA TION  OF THE INCAS.
The impositions on the Peruvian people seem to have
been sufficiently heavy. On them rested the whole
burden of maintaining not only their own order, but
every other order in the state. The members of the
royal house, the great nobles, even the public functionaries, and the numerous body of the priesthood, were
all exempt from taxation.3 The whole duty of defraying the expenses of the government belonged to the
people. Yet this was not materially different from the
condition of things formerly existing in most parts of
Europe, where the various privileged classes claimed
exemption-not always with success, indeed-from
bearing part of the public burdens. The great hardship in the case of the Peruvian was that he could not
better his condition. His labors were for others, rather
than for himself. However industrious, he could not
add a rood to his own possessions, nor advance himself
one hair's breadth in the social scale. The great and
universal motive to honest industry, that of bettering
one's lot, was lost upon him. The great law of human
progress was not for him. As he was born, so he was
to die. Even his time he could not properly call his
own. Without money, with little property of any
kind, he paid his taxes in labor.38 No wonder that the
government should have dealt with sloth as a crime.
It was a crime against the state, and to be wasteful of
time was, in a manner, to rob the exchequer. The
Peruvian, laboring all his life for others, might be compared to the convict in a treadmill, going the same dull
37 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 5, cap. 15.
38," Solo el trabajo de las personas era el tributo que se dava, porque
ellos no poseian otra cosa." Ondegardo, Rel. Primn., MS.




RE VENUES AND REGIST'ERS.                    63
round of incessant toil, with the consciousness that,
however profitable the results to the state, they were
nothing to him.
But this is the dark side of the picture. If no man
could become rich in Peru, no man could become poor.
No spendthrift could waste his substance in riotous
luxury. No adventurous schemer could impoverish his
family by the spirit of speculation. The law was constantly directed to enforce a steady industry and a sober
management of his affairs. No mendicant was tolerated
in Peru. When a man was reduced by poverty or misfortune (it could hardly be by fault), the arm of the
law was stretched out to minister relief; not the stinted
relief of private charity, nor that which is doled out,
drop by drop, as it were, from the frozen reservoirs of
"the parish," but in generous measure, bringing no
humiliation to the object of it, and placing him on a
level with the rest of his countrymen.39
No man could be rich, no man could be poor, in
39 " Era tanta la orden que tenia en todos sus Reinos y provincias,
que no consentia haver ningun Indio pobre ni menesteroso, porque
havia orden i formas para ello sin que los pueblos reciviesen vexacion
ni molestia, porque el Inga lo suplia de sus tributos." (Conq. i Pob.
del Piru, MS.) The Licentiate Ondegardo sees only a device of Satan
in these provisions of the Peruvian law, by which the old, the infirm,
and the poor were rendered, in a manner, independent of their children and those nearest of kin, on whom they would naturally have
leaned for support; no surer way to harden the heart, he considers,
than by thus disengaging it from the sympathies of humanity; and no
circumstance has done more, he concludes, to counteract the influence
and spread of Christianity among the natives. (Rel. Seg., MS.) The
views are ingenious; but in a country where the people had no property, as in Peru, there would seem to be no alternative for the supernumeraries but to receive support from government or to starve.




64       CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
Peru; but all might enjoy, and did enjoy, a competence. Ambition, avarice, the love of change, the
morbid spirit of discontent, those passions which most
agitate the minds of men, found no place in the bosom
of the Peruvian. The very condition of his being
seemed to be at war with change. He moved on in
the same unbroken circle in which his fathers had
moved before him, and in which his children were to
follow. It was the object of the Incas to infuse into
their subjects a spirit of passive obedience and tranquillity,-a perfect acquiescence in the established
order of things. In this they fully succeeded. The
Spaniards who first visited the country are emphatic in
their testimony that no government could have been
better suited to the genius of the people, and no people
could have appeared more contented with their lot or
more devoted to their government.40
Those who may distrust the accounts of Peruvian industry will find their doubts removed on a visit to the
country. The traveller still meets, especially in the
central regions of the table-land, with memorials of the
past, remains of temples, palaces, fortresses, terraced
mountains, great military roads, aqueducts, and other
public works, which, whatever degree of science they
may display in their execution, astonish him by their
number, the massive character of the materials, and
the grandeur of the design. Among them, perhaps
the most remarkable are the great roads, the broken
remains of which are still in sufficient preservation to
ettest their former magnificence. There were many
of these roads, traversing different parts of the king4o Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 12, I5.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. Io.




GREAT ROADS AND POSTS.                     65
dom; but the most considerable were the two which
extended from Quito to Cuzco, and, again diverging
from the capital, continued in a southerly direction
towards Chili.
One of these roads passed over the grand plateau,
and the other along the lowlands on the borders of
the ocean. The former was much the more difficult
achievement, from the character of the country. It
was conducted over pathless sierras buried in snow;
galleries were cut for leagues through the living rock;
rivers were crossed by means of bridges that swung
suspended in the air; precipices were scaled by stairways hewn out of the native bed; ravines of hideous
depth were filled up with solid masonry: in short, all
the difficulties that beset a wild and mountainous
region, and which might appall the most courageous
engineer of modern times, were encountered and successfully overcome. The length of the road, of which
scattered fragments only remain, is variously estimated
at from fifteen hundred to two thousand miles; and
stone pillars, in the manner of European mile-stones,
were erected at stated intervals of somewhat more than
a league, all along the route. Its breadth scarcely exceeded twenty feet.4' It was built of heavy flags of
4' Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS. —" Este camino hecho por valles ondos y por sierras altas, por montes de nieve, por tremedales de agua
y por pefia viva y junto a rios furiosos por estas partes y ballano y
empedrado por las laderas, bien sacado por las sierras, deshechado,
por las pefias socavado, por junto v los Rios sus paredes, entre nieves
con escalones y descanso, por todas partes limpio barrido descombrado, leno de aposentos, de depositos de tesoros, de Templos del
Sol, de Postas que havia en este camino." Sarmiento, Relacion,
MS., cap. 60.
6*




66        CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
freestone, and, in some parts at least, covered with a
bituminous cement, which time has made harder than
the stone itself. In some places, where the ravines
had been filled up with masonry, the mountain-torrents, wearing on it for ages, have gradually eaten a
way through the base, and left the superincumbent
mass —such is the cohesion of the materials-still spanning the valley like an arch!42
Over some of the boldest streams it was necessary to
construct suspension-bridges, as they are termed, made
of the tough fibres of the maguey, or of the osier of
the country, which has an extraordinary degree of
tenacity and strength. These osiers were woven into
cables of the thickness of a man's body. The huge
ropes, then stretched across the water, were conducted
through rings or holes cut in immense buttresses of
stone raised on the opposite banks of the river and
there secured to heavy pieces of timber. Several of
these enormous cables, bound together, formed a
bridge, which, covered with planks, well secured and
defended by a railing of the same osier materials on
the sides, afforded a safe passage for the traveller. The
length of this aerial bridge, sometimes exceeding two
42 " On avait comblM les vides et les ravins par de grandes masses
de ma9onnerie. Les torrents qui descendent des hauteurs apres des
pluies abondantes avaient creuse les endroits les moins solides, et
s'etaient fray6 une voie sous le chemin, le laissant ainsi suspendu en
l'air comme un pont fait d'une seule piece." (Velasco, Hist. de Quito,
tom. i. p. 206.) This writer speaks from personal observation, having
examined and measured different parts of the road, in the latter part
of the last century. The Spanish scholar will find in Appendix No.
2 an animated description of this magnificent work and of the obstacles encountered in the execution of it, in a passage borrowed from
Sarmiento, who saw it in the days of the Incas.




GREAT ROADS AND POSTS.                  67
hundred feet, caused it, confined as it was only at the
extremities, to dip with an alarming inclination towards the centre, while the motion given to it by the
passenger occasioned an oscillation still more frightful,
as his eye wandered over the dark abyss of waters that
foamed and tumbled many a fathom beneath. Yet
these light and fragile fabrics were crossed without
fear by the Peruvians, and are still retained by the
Spaniards over those streams which, from the depth or
impetuosity of the current, would seem impracticable
for the usual modes of conveyance. The wider and
more tranquil waters were crossed on balsas-a kind
of raft still much used by the natives-to which sails
were attached, furnishing the only instance of this
higher kind of navigation among the American Indians.43
The other great road of the Incas lay through the
level country between the Andes and the ocean. It
was constructed in a different manner, as demanded by
the nature of the ground, which was for the most part
low, and much of it sandy. The causeway was raised
on a high embankment of earth, and defended on
either side by a parapet or wall of clay; and trees and
odoriferous shrubs were planted along the margin, regaling the sense of the traveller with their perfumes,
and refreshing him by their shades, so grateful under
the burning sky of the tropics. In the strips of sandy
43 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte i, lib. 3, cap. 7.-A particular
account of these bridges, as they are still to be seen in different parts
of Peru, may be found in Humboldt. (Vues des CordillUres, p. 230,
et seq.) The balsas are described with equal minuteness by Stevenson. Residence in America, vol. ii. p. 222, et seq.




68        CIVILIZA TION  OF  THE INCAS.
waste which occasionally intervened, where the light
and volatile soil was incapable of sustaining a road, huge
piles, many of them to be seen at this day, were driven
into the ground to indicate the route to the traveller.4'
All along these highways, caravansaries, or tambos,
as they were called, were erected, at the distance of
ten or twelve miles from each other, for the accommodation, more particularly, of the Inca and his suite
and those who journeyed on the public business. There
were few other travellers in Peru. Some of these buildings were on an extensive scale, consisting of a fortress,
barracks, and other military works, surrounded by a
parapet of stone and covering a large tract of ground.
These were evidently destined for the accommodation
of the imperial armies when on their march across the
country. The care of the great roads was committed
to the districts through which they passed, and under
the Incas a large number of hands was constantly employed to keep them in repair. This was the more easily
done in a country where the mode of travelling was
altogether on foot; though the roads are said to have
been so nicely constructed that a carriage might have
rolled over them as securely as on any of the great
roads of Europe.45 Still, in a region where the ele44 Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 6o.-Relacion del primer Descubrimiento de la Costa y Mar del Sur, MS.-This anonymous document of one of the early Conquerors contains a minute and probably
trustworthy account of both the high-roads, which the writer saw in
their glory, and which he ranks among the greatest wonders of the
world.
45 Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap.
37.-Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. i, cap. II.-Garcilasso, Com. Real.,
Parte I, lib. 9, cap. 13,




GREAT ROADS AND POSTS.                     69
ments of fire and water are both actively at work in
the business of destruction, they must, without constant supervision, have gradually gone to decay. Such
has been their fate under the Spanish conquerors, who
took no care to enforce the admirable system for their
preservation adopted by the Incas.  Yet the broken
portions that still survive here and there, like the
fragments of the great Roman roads scattered over
Europe, bear evidence to their primitive grandeur,
and have drawn forth the eulogium from a discriminating traveller, usually not too profuse in his panegyric, that "the roads of the Incas were among the
most useful and stupendous works ever executed by
man.X X 46
The system of communication through their dominions was still further improved by the Peruvian sovereigns by the introduction of posts, in the same manner
as was done by the Aztecs. The Peruvian posts, however, established on all the great routes that conducted
to the capital, were on a much more extended plan
than those in Mexico.  All along these routes, small
buildings were erected, at the distance of less than
five miles asunder,47 in each of which a number of run46 " Cette chaussie, bordde de grandes pierres de taille, peut etre
comparee aux plus belles routes des Romains que j'aie vues en Italie,
en France et en Espagne..... Le grand chemin de l'Inca, un des
ouvrages les plus utiles et en meme temps des plus gigantesques que
les hommes aient ex6cute."  Humboldt, Vues des Cordilleres, p. 294.
47 The distance between the post-houses is variously stated; most
writers not estimating it at more than three-fourths of a league. I
have preferred the authority of Ondegardo, who usually writes with
more conscientiousness and knowledge of his ground than most of his
contemporaries.




70         CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
ners, or chasquis, as they were called, were stationed to
carry forward the despatches of government.48 These
despatches were either verbal, or conveyed by means
of quzius, and sometimes accompanied by a thread of
the crimson fringe worn round the temples of the Inca,
which was regarded with the same implicit deference
as the signet-ring of an Oriental despot.49
The chasquis were dressed in a peculiar livery, intimating their profession. They were all trained to the
employment, and selected for their speed and fidelity.
As the distance each courier had to perform was small,
and as he had ample time to refresh himself at the stations, they ran over the ground with great swiftness,
and messages were carried through the whole extent
of the long routes, at the rate of a hundred and fifty
miles a day.  The office of the chasquis was not limited
to carrying despatches. They frequently brought various articles for the use of the court; and in this way
fish from the distant ocean, fruits, game, and different
commodities from the hot regions on the coast, were
taken to the capital in good condition and served
fresh at the royal table.5~ It is remarkable that this
48 The term chasqui, according to Montesinos, signifies "one that
receives a thing." (Mem. antiguas, MS., cap. 7.) But Garcilasso, a
better authority for his own tongue, says it meant " one who makes an
exchange." Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 6, cap. 8.
49 " Con vn hilo de esta Borla, entregado t uno de aquellos Orejones, governaban la Tierra, i proveian lo que querian con maior obediencia, que en ninguna Provincia del Mundo se ha visto tener 4 las
Provissiones de su Rei." Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. 9.
so Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. I8.-Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.
-If we may trust Montesinos, the royal table was served with fish,
taken a hundred leagues from the capital, in twenty-four hours after




GREAT ROADS AND POSTS.                    7I
important institution should have been known to both
the Mexicans and the Peruvians without any correspondence with one another, and that it should have
been found among two barbarian nations of the New
World long before it was introduced among the civilized nations of Europe.5'
By these wise contrivances of the Incas, the most
distant parts of the long-extended empire of Peru were
brought into intimate relations with each other. And
while the capitals of Christendom, but a few hundred
miles apart, remained as far asunder as if seas had
rolled between them, the great capitals Cuzco and
Quito were placed by the high-roads of the Incas in
immediate correspondence. Intelligence from the numerous provinces was transmitted on the wings of the
wind to the Peruvian metropolis, the great focus to
which all the lines of communication converged.  Not
an insurrectionary movement could occur, not an invasion on the remotest frontier, before the tidings
were conveyed to the capital and the imperial armies
it was drawn from the ocean I! (Mem. antiguas, MS., lib. 2, cap. 7.)
This is rather too expeditious for anything but'iwi s
s5 The institution of the Peruvian posts seems to have made a great
impression on the minds of the Spaniards who first visited the country;
and ample notices of it may be found in Sarmiento, Relacion, MS.,
cap. I5,-Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.,-Fernandez, Hist. del Peru,
Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 5,-Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS., et auct. plurimis.
-The establishment of posts is of old date among the Chinese, and
probably still older among the Persians. (See Herodotus, Hist.,
Urania, sec. 98.) It is singular that an invention designed for the uses
of a despotic government should have received its full application only
under a free one. For in it we have the germ of that beautiful system
of intercommunication which binds all the nations of Christendom
together as one vast commonwealth.




72       CIVILIZATION  OF THE INCAS.
were on their march across the magnificent roads of
the country to suppress it. So admirable was the machinery contrived by the American despots for maintaining tranquillity throughout their dominions! It
may remind us of the similar institutions of ancient
Rome, when, under the Cwesars, she was mistress of
half the world.
A principal design of the great roads was to serve
the purposes of military communication. It formed
an important item of their military policy, which is
quite as well worth studying as their municipal.
Notwithstanding the pacific professions of the Incas,
and the pacific tendency, indeed, of their domestic institutions, they were constantly at war. It was by war
that their paltry territory had been gradually enlarged
to a powerful empire. When this was achieved, the
capital, safe in its central position, was no longer
shaken by these military movements, and the country
enjoyed, in a great degree, the blessings of tranquillity
and order. But, however tranquil at heart, there is not
a reign upon record in which the nation was not engaged in war against the barbarous nations on the frontier. Religion furnished a plausible pretext for incessant aggression, and disguised the lust of conquest in
the Incas, probably, from their own eyes, as well as
from those of their subjects. Like the followers of
Mahomet, bearing the sword in one hand and the
Koran in the other, the Incas of Peru offered no alternative but the worship of the Sun or war.
It is true, their fanaticism-or their policy-showed
itself in a milder form than was found in the descendants of the Prophet. Like the great luminary which




MILITARY TACTICS AND POLICY.              73
they adored, they operated by gentleness, more potent
than violence.52  They sought to soften the hearts of
the rude tribes around them, and melt'them by acts of
condescension and kindness. Far from provoking hostilities, they allowed time for the salutary example of
their own institutions to work its effect, trusting that
their less civilized neighbors would submit to their
sceptre, from a conviction of the blessings it would
secure to them. When this course failed, they employed other measures, but still of a pacific character,
and endeavored by negotiation, by conciliatory treatment, and by presents to the leading men, to win them
over to their dominion. In short, they practised all
the arts familiar to the most subtle politician of a civilized land to secure the acquisition of empire. When
all these expedients failed, they prepared for war.
Their levies were drawn from all the different provinces; though from some, where the character of the
people was particularly hardy, more than from others.53
It seems probable that every Peruvian who had reached
a certain age might be called to bear arms. But the
rotation of military service, and the regular drills,
which took place twice or thrice in a month, of the
inhabitants of every village, raised the soldiers generally above the rank of a raw militia. The Peruvian
army, at first inconsiderable, came with the increase
of population, in the latter days of the empire, to be
very large, so that their monarchs could bring into the
field, as contemporaries assure us, a force amounting to
S " Mas se hicieron Sefores al principio por mafia, que por fuerza."
Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.
S3 Idem, Rel. Prim., MS.-Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.
Peru.-VoL. I.-D       7




74       CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
two hundred thousand men. They showed the same
skill and respect for order in their military organization as in other things. The troops were divided into
bodies corresponding with our battalions and compa.
nies, led by officers, that rose, in regular gradation,
from the lowest subaltern to the Inca noble who was
intrusted with the general command.s4
Their arms consisted of the usual weapons employed by nations, whether civilized or uncivilized,
before the invention of powder,-bows and arrows,
lances, darts, a short kind of sword, a battle-axe or
partisan, and slings, with which they were very expert.
Their spears and arrows were tipped with copper, or,
more commonly, with bone, and the weapons of the
Inca lords were frequently mounted with gold or silver.
Their heads were protected by casques made either of
wood or of the skins of wild animals, and sometimes
richly decorated with metal and with precious stones,
surmounted by the brilliant plumage of the tropical
birds. These, of course, were the ornaments only of
the higher orders. The great mass of the soldiery
were dressed in the peculiar costume of their provinces, and their heads were wreathed with a sort of
turban or roll of different-colored cloths, that produced
a gay and animating effect. Their defensive armor
consisted of a shield or buckler, and a close tunic of
quilted cotton, in the same manner as with the Mexicans. Each company had its particular banner, and
the imperial standard, high above all, displayed the
glittering device of the rainbow,-the armorial ensign
54 Gomara, Cronica, cap. 195.-Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.




MILITARY TACTICS AND POLICY.   75
of the Incas, intimating their claims as children of the
skies.55
By means of the thorough system of communication
established in the country, a short time sufficed to draw
the levies together from the most distant quarters. The
army was put under the direction of some experienced
chief, of the blood royal, or, more frequently, headed
by the Inca in person. The march was rapidly performed, and with little fatigue to the soldier; for, all
along the great routes, quarters were provided for him,
at regular distances, where he could find ample accommodations. The country is still covered with the remains of military works, constructed of porphyry or
granite, which tradition assures us were designed to
lodge the Inca and his army.56
At regular intervals, also, magazines were established, filled with grain, weapons, and the different
munitions of war, with which the army was supplied
on its march. It was the especial care of the government to see that these magazines, which were furnished
from the stores of the Incas, were always well filled.
When the Spaniards invaded the country, they sup55 Gomara, Cronica, ubi supra.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap.
20o.-Velasco, Hist. de Quito, tom. i. pp. I76-I79.-This last writer
gives a minute catalogue of the ancient Peruvian arms, comprehending
nearly every thing familiar to the European soldier, except fire-arms.
It was judicious in him to omit these.
56 Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. rII,-Sarmiento, Relacion,
MS., cap. 6o.-Condamine speaks of the great number of these fortified places, scattered over the country between Quito and Lima, which
he saw in his visit to South America in I737; some of which he has
described with great minuteness. M~moire sur quelques anciens
Monumens du Perou, du Tems des Incas, ap. Histoire de l'Acad6mie
Royale des Sciences et de Belles-Lettres (Berlin, 1748), tom. ii. p. 438.




76         CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
ported their own armies for a long time on the provisions found in them.57 The Peruvian soldier was
forbidden to commit any trespass on the property of
the inhabitants whose territory lay in the line of
march. Any violation of this order was punished
with death.58 The soldier was clothed and fed by the
industry of the people, and the Incas rightly resolved
that he should not repay this by violence. Far from
being a tax on the labors of the husbandman, or even
a burden on his hospitality, the imperial armies traversed the country, from one extremity to the other,
with as little inconvenience to the inhabitants as would
be created by a procession of peaceful burghers or a
muster of holiday soldiers for a review.
From the moment war was proclaimed, the Peruvian
monarch used all possible expedition in assembling his
forces, that he might anticipate the movements of his
enemies and prevent a combination with their allies.
It was, however, from the neglect of such a principle
of combination that the several nations of the country,
who might have prevailed by confederated strength,
fell one after another under the imperial yoke.  Yet,
57 " E ansi cuando," says Ondegardo, speaking from his own personal
knowledge, " el Sefior Presidente Gasca pass6 con la gente de castigo
de Gonzalo Pizarro por el valle de Jauja, estuvo alli siete semanas i
lo que me acuerdo, se hallaron en deposito maiz de cuatro y de tres
y de dos aftos mas de Ig D. hanegas junto al camino, e alli comi6 la
gente, y se entendi6 que si fuera menester muchas mas n6 faltaran
en el valle en aquellos depositos, conforme A la orden antigua, porque
i mi cargo estubo el repartirlas y hacer la cuenta para pagarlas."
Rel. Seg., MS.
s8 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Cieza de Leon, Cronica,
cap. 44.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 14.




MILITARY TACTICS AND POLICY.   77
once in the field, the Inca did not usually show any
disposition to push his advantages to the utmost and
urge his foe to extremity. In every stage of the war,
he was open to propositions for peace; and, although
he sought to reduce his enemies by carrying off their
harvests and distressing them by famine, he allowed
his troops to commit no unnecessary outrage on person
or property.  "We must spare our enemies," one of
the Peruvian princes is quoted as saying, "or it will
be our loss, since they and all that belongs to them
must soon be ours." 59 It was a wise maxim, and, like
most other wise maxims, founded equally on benevolence and prudence. The Incas adopted the policy
claimed for the Romans by their countryman, who
tells us that they gained more by clemency to the vanquished than by their victories.6~
In the same considerate spirit, they were most careful to provide for the security and comfort of their
own troops; and when a war was long protracted, or
the climate proved unhealthy, they took care to relieve
their men by frequent reinforcements, allowing the
earlier recruits to return to their homes.6' But while
thus economical of life, both in their own followers
and in the enemy, they did not shrink from sterner
measures when provoked by the ferocious or obstinate
59 " Mandabase que en los mantenimientos y casas de los enemigos
se hiciese poco dafio, diciendoles el Sefior, presto seran estos nuestros
como los que ya lo son; como esto tenian conocido, procuraban que
la guerra fuese la mas liviana que ser pudiese.", Sarmiento, Relacion,
MS., cap. I4.
60 ", Plus pene parcendo victis, quhm vincendo imperium auxisse."
Livy, lib. 30, cap. 42.
6 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 6, cap. I8.
7*




78       CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
character of the resistance; and the Peruvian annals
contain more than one of those sanguinary pages
which cannot be pondered at the present day without
a shudder.  It should be added that the beneficent
policy which I have been delineating as characteristic
of the Incas did not belong to all, and that there was
more than one of the royal line who displayed a full
measure of the bold and unscrupulous spirit of the
vulgar conqueror.
The first step of the government after the reduction
of a country was to introduce there the worship of the
Sun. Temples were erected, and placed under the
care of a numerous priesthood, who expounded to the
conquered people the mysteries of their new faith and
dazzled them by the display of its rich and stately
ceremonial.6' Yet the religion of the conquered was
not treated with dishonor. The Sun was to be worshipped above all; but the images of their gods were
removed to Cuzco and established in one of the temples, to hold their rank among the inferior deities
of the Peruvian Pantheon. Here they remained as
hostages, in some sort, for the conquered nation, which
would be the less inclined to forsake its allegiance when
by doing so it must leave its own gods in the hands of
its enemies.63
The Incas provided for the settlement of their new
conquests, by ordering a census to be taken of the
population and a careful survey to be made of the
country, ascertaining its products and the character
62 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 14.
63 Acosta, lib. 5, cap. X2.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 5,
cap. I2.




MILITARY TACTICS AND POLICY    79
and capacity of its soil.6' A division of the territory
was then made on the same principle with that adopted
throughout their own kingdom, and their respective
portions were assigned to the Sun, the sovereign, and
the people. The amount of the last was regulated by
the amount of the population, but the share of each
individual was uniformly the same. It may seem
strange that any people should patiently have acquiesced in an arrangement which involved such a total
surrender of property. But it was a conquered nation
that did so, held in awe, on the least suspicion of
meditated resistance, by armed garrisons, who were
established at various commanding points throughout
the country.6s It is probable, too, that the Incas made
no greater changes than was essential to the new
arrangement, and that they assigned estates, as far as
possible, to their former proprietors. The curacas, in
particular, were confirmed in their ancient authority;
or, when it was found expedient to depose the existing
curaca, his rightful heir was allowed to succeed him.66
Every respect was shown to the ancient usages and
laws of the land, as far as was compatible with the
fundamental institutions of the Incas. It must also be
remembered that the conquered tribes were, many of
them, too little advanced in civilization to possess that
attachment to the soil which belongs to a cultivated
nation.? But, to whatever it be referred, it seems prob64 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 5, cap. 13, 14.-Sarmiento,
Relacion, MS., cap. 15.
65 Sr'miento, Relacion, MS., cap. I9.
66 Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. II.
67 Sarmiento has given a very full and interesting account of the
singularly humane policy observed by the Incas in their conquests,




80        CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
able that the extraordinary institutions of the Incas
were established with little opposition in the conquered
territories."
Yet the Peruvian sovereigns did not trust altogether
to this show of obedience in their new vassals; and,
to secure it more effectually, they adopted some expedients too remarkable to be passed over in silence. Immediately after a recent conquest, the curacas and their
families were removed for a time to Cuzco. Here they
learned the language of the capital, became familiar
with the manners and usages of the court, as well as
with the general policy of the government, and experienced such marks of favor from the sovereign as would
be most grateful to their feelings and might attach
them most warmly to his person. Under the influence of these sentiments, they were again sent to rule
over their vassals, but still leaving their eldest sons
in the capital, to remain there as a guarantee for
forming a striking contrast with the usual course of those scourges of
mankind, whom mankind is wise enough to requite with higher admiration, even, than it bestows on its benefactors. As Sarmiento, who
was President of the Royal Council of the Indies, and came into the
country soon after the Conquest, is a high authority, and as his work,*
lodged in the dark recesses of the Escorial, is almost unknown, I have
transferred the whole chapter to Appendix No. 3.
68 According to Velasco, even the powerful state of Quito, sufficiently advanced in civilization to have the law of property well recognized by its people, admitted the institutions of the Incas "not only
without repugnance, but with joy." (Hist. de Quito, tom. ii. p. I83.)
But Velasco, a modem authority, believed easily,-or reckoned on his
readers' doing so.
* [Sarmiento never visited America, and, as already mentioned, was
not the author of the work here referred to. See infra, p. I78.-ED.]




MILITARY TACTICS AND POLIC Y.    8 
their own fidelity, as well as to grace the court of the
Inca.69
Another expedient was of a bolder and more original
character. This was nothing less than to revolutionize
the language of the country. South America, like
North America, had a great variety of dialects, or
rather languages, having little affinity with one another. This circumstance occasioned great embarrassment to the government in the administration of the
different provinces with whose idioms they were unacquainted. It was determined, therefore, to substitute
one universal language, the Quichua,-the language of
the court, the capital, and the surrounding country,the richest and most comprehensive of the South
American dialects. Teachers were provided in the
towns and villages throughout the land, who were to
give instruction to all, even the humblest classes; and
it was intimated at the same time that no one should
be raised to any office of dignity or profit who was unacquainted with this tongue. The curacas and other
chiefs who attended at the capital became familiar with
this dialect in their intercourse with the court, and, on
their return home, set the example of conversing in it
among themselves. This example was imitated by
their followers, and the Quichua gradually became the
language of elegance and fashion, in the same manner
as the Norman French was affected by all those who
aspired to any consideration in England after the Conquest. By this means, while each province retained
its peculiar tongue, a beautiful medium of communication was introduced, which enabled the inhabitants of
69 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 5, cap. 12; lib. 7, cap. 2.
v*




82        CIVILIZATION.  OF THE INCAS.
one part of the country to hold intercourse with every
other, and the Inca and his deputies to communicate
with all. This was the state of things on the arrival
of the Spaniards. It must be admitted that history
furnishes few examples of more absolute authority than
such a revolution in the language of an empire at the
bidding of a master."
Yet little less remarkable was another device of the
Incas for securing the loyalty of their subjects. When
any portion of the recent conquests showed a pertinacious spirit of disaffection, it was not uncommon to
cause a part of the population, amounting, it might be,
to ten thousand inhabitants or more, to remove to a
distant quarter of the kingdom, occupied by ancient
vassals of undoubted fidelity to the crown. A like
number of these last was transplanted to the territory
left vacant by the emigrants. By this exchange the
population was composed of two distinct races, who
regarded each other with an eye of jealousy, that senrved
as an effectual check on any mutinous proceeding. In
time, the influence of the well-affected prevailed, supported as they were by royal authority and by the silent
working of the national institutions, to which the
strange races became gradually accustomed. A spirit
70 Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte I, lib. 6, cap. 35; lib. 7, cap. I, 2.
-Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 55."Aun la Criatura no hubiese dejado el Pecho de su Madre quando
le comenzasen i mostrar la Lengua que havia de saber; y aunque al
principio fu6 dificultoso, 6 muchos se pusieron en no querer deprender
mas lenguas de las suyas propias, los Reyes pudieron tanto que salieron con su intencion y ellos tubieron por bien de cumplir su mandado y
tan de veras se entendi6 en ello que en tiempo de pocos afios se savia
y usaba una lengua en mas de mil y doscientas leguas." Ibid., cap. 2I.




MILITARY TACTICS AND POLICY.   83
of loyalty sprang up by degrees in their bosoms, and
before a generation had passed away the different
tribes mingled in harmony together as members of the
same community.7" Yet the different races continued
to be distinguished by difference of dress; since, by
the law of the land, every citizen was required to wear
the costume of his native province.7'  Neither could
the colonist who had been thus unceremoniously trans
planted return to his native district. For, by another
law, it was forbidden to any one to change his residence without license.73  He was settled for life.  The
Peruvian government prescribed to every man his local
habitation, his sphere of action, nay, the very nature
and quality of that action. He ceased to be a free
agent; it might be almost said that it relieved him of
personal responsibility.
In following out this singular arrangement, the Incas
showed as much regard for the comfort and convenience of the colonist as was compatible with the execution of their design. They were careful that the
mitimaes, as these emigrants were styled, should be
removed to climates most congenial with their own.
The inhabitants of the cold countries were not transplanted to the warm, nor the inhabitants of the warm
countries to the cold.74" Even their habitual occupa71 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte
2, lib. 3, cap. Ii.
72 " This regulation," says Father Acosta, "the Incas held to be of
great importance to the order and right government of the realm."
Lib. 6, cap. I6.
73 Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.
74 "Trasmutaban de las tales Provincias la cantidad de gente de
que de ella parecia convenir que saliese, d los cuales mandaban pasar, poblar otra tierra del temple y manera de donde salian, si fria fria,




84        CIVILIZATION  OF  THE INCAS.
tions were consulted, and the fisherman was settled in
the neighborhood of the ocean or the great lakes,
while such lands were assigned to the husbandman as
were best adapted to the culture with which he was
most familiar.75 And, as migration by many, perhaps
by most, would be regarded as a calamity, the government was careful to show particular marks of favor to
the mitimaes, and, by various privileges and immunities, to ameliorate their condition, and thus to reconcile
them, if possible, to their lot.76
The Peruvian institutions, though they may have
been modified and matured under successive sovereigns,
all bear the stamp of the same original,-were all cast
in the same mould. The empire, strengthening and
enlarging at every successive epoch of its history, was
in its latter days but the development, on a great scale,
of what it was in miniature at its commencement, as
the infant germ is said to contain within itself all the
ramifications of the future monarch of the forest.
Each succeeding Inca seemed desirous only to tread in
the path and carry out the plans of his predecessor.
Great enterprises, commenced under one, were continued by another, and completed by a third. Thus,
while all acted on a regular plan, without any of the
eccentric or retrograde movements which betray the
agency of different individuals, the state seemed to be
si caliente caliente, en donde les daban tierras, y campos, y casas,
tanto, y mas como dejaron." Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. I9.
75 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.
76 The descendants of these mitimaes are still to be found in Quito,
or were so at the close of the last century, according to Velasco, distinguished by this name from the rest of the population. Hist. de
Quito, tom. i. p. 175.




MILITARY TACTICS AND POLICY           85
under the direction of a single hand, and steadily pursued, as if through one long reign, its great career of
civilization and of conquest.
The ultimate aim of its institutions was domestic
quiet. But it seemed as if this were to be obtained
only by foreign war. Tranquillity in the heart of the
monarchy, and war on its borders, was the condition
of Peru. By this war it gave occupation to a part of
its people, and, by the reduction and civilization of its
barbarous neighbors, gave security to all. Every Inca
sovereign, however mild and benevolent in his domestic
rule, was a warrior, and led his armies in person. Each
successive reign extended still wider the boundaries of
the empire. Year after year saw the victorious monarch
return laden with spoils and followed by a throng of
tributary chieftains to his capital. His reception there
was a Roman triumph. The whole of its numerous
population poured out to welcome him, dressed in the
gay and picturesque costumes of the different provinces,
with banners waving above their heads, and strewing
branches and flowers along the path of the conqueror.
The Inca, borne aloft in his golden chair ot the
shoulders of his nobles, moved in solemn procession,
under the triumphal arches that were thrown across the
way, to the great temple of the Sun. There, without
attendants,-for all but the monarch were excluded
from the hallowed precincts,-the victorious prince,
stripped of his royal insignia, barefooted, and with all
humility, approached the awful shrine and offered up
sacrifice and thanksgiving to the glorious Deity who
presided over the fortunes of the Incas. This ceremony concluded, the whole population gave itself up
Peru.-VoL. I.      8




86       CIVILIZATION  OF THE INCAS.
to festivity; music, revelry, and dancing were heard
in every quarter of the capital, and illuminations and
bonfires commemorated the victorious campaign of the
Inca and the accession of a new territory to his empire."
In this celebration we see much of the character of
a religious festival. Indeed, the character of religion
was impressed on all the Peruvian wars. The life of an
Inca was one long crusade against the infidel, to spread
wide the worship of the Sun, to reclaim the benighted
nations from their brutish superstitions and impart to
them the blessings of a well-regulated government.
This, in the favorite phrase of our day, was the " mission" of the Inca. It was also the mission of the
Christian conqueror who invaded the empire of this
same Indian potentate. Which of the two executed
his mission most faithfully, history must decide.
Yet the Peruvian monarchs did not show a childish
impatience in the acquisition of empire. They paused
after a campaign, and allowed time for the settlement
of one conquest before they undertook another, and
in this interval occupied themselves with the quiet administration of their kingdom, and with the long progresses which brought them into nearer intercourse
with their people. During this interval, also, their
new vassals had begun to accommodate themselves to
the strange institutions of their masters. They learned
to appreciate the value of a government which raised
them above the physical evils of a state of barbarism,
secured them protection of person and a full participation in all the privileges enjoyed by their conquerors;
77 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 55.-Garcilasso, Com.,Real.,
Parte I, lib. 3, cap. II, I7; lib. 6, cap. i6.




MILITARY 7ACTICS AND POLICY.    87
and, as they became more familiar with the peculiar
institutions of the country, habit, that second nature,
attached them the more strongly to these institutions
from their very peculiarity. Thus, by degrees, and
without violence, arose the great fabric of the Peruvian
empire, composed of numerous independent and even
hostile tribes, yet, under the influence of a common
religion, common language, and common government,
knit together as one nation, animated by a spirit of
love for its institutions and devoted loyalty to its sovereign. What a contrast to the condition of the Aztec
monarchy, on the neighboring continent, which, composed of the like heterogeneous materials, without any
internal principle of cohesion, was only held together
by the stern pressure, from without, of physical force!
Why the Peruvian monarchy should have fared no
better than its rival in its conflict with European civ.
ilization will appear in the following pages.




CHAPTER III.
PERUVIAN RELIGION. —-DEITIES.-GORGEOUS TEMPLES. —
FESTIVALS.-VIRGINS OF THE SUN.-rMARRIAGE.
IT is a remarkable fact that many, if not most, of
the rude tribes inhabiting the vast American continent,
however disfigured their creeds may have been in other
respects by a childish superstition, had attained to the
sublime conception of one Great Spirit, the Creator
of the Universe, who, immaterial in his own nature,
was not to be dishonored by an attempt at visible
representation, and who, pervading all space, was not
to be circumscribed within the walls of a temple.* Yet
* [This statement represents what is still, probably, the common
belief-based on the representations of the early missionaries and of
many subsequent explorers-in regard to the religious ideas of the
aboriginal races. The subject has, however, undergone of late a more
critical investigation, in connection with the general inquiry as to the
development of religious conceptions, and of monotheism, considered
either as an original intuition or as the latest outcome of more primitive beliefs. Dr. Brinton, who considers that the intuition of an unseen power-" the sum of those intelligent activities which the individual, reasoning from the analogy of his own actions, imagines to be
behind and to bring about natural phenomena"-is common to the
species, traces this conception in the American mythologies, especially
those in which the air, the breath of life, appears as the symbol of an
animating or creative Spirit. Yet he adds, " Let none of these expressions, however, be construed to prove the distinct recognition of
One Supreme Being. Of monotheism, either as displayed in the one
personal definite God of the Semitic races, or in the dim pantheistic
(88)




PER UVIAN RELZIGION.                   89
these elevated ideas, so far beyond the ordinary range
of the untutored intellect, do not seem to have led to
the practical consequences that might have been expected; and few of the American nations have shown
much solicitude for the maintenance of a religious
worship, or found in their faith a powerful spring of
action.
But with progress in civilization ideas more akin to
those of civilized communities were gradually unfolded;
a liberal provision was made, and a separate order in*
stituted, for the services of religion, which were conducted with a minute and magnificent ceremonial, that
challenged comparison, in some respects, with that of
the most polished nations of Christendom. This was
the case with the nations inhabiting the table-land of
North America, and with the natives of Bogota, Quito,
Peru, and the other elevated regions on the great
Southern continent. It was, above all, the case with
the Peruvians, who claimed a divine original for the
founders of their empire, whose laws all rested on a
sense of the Brahmins, there was not a single instance on the American continent.... The phrases Good Spirit, Great Spirit, and similar ones, have occasioned endless discrepancies in the minds of travellers. In most instances they are entirely of modern origin, coined at
the suggestion of missionaries, applied to the white man's God."
(Myths of the New World, p. 52.) Mr. Tylor finds among various
races of North and South America, of Africa and of Polynesia, the
"acknowledgment of a Supreme Creator," yet always in connection
with a system of polytheism, of which this belief is the culmination.
(Primitive Culture, 2d ed., vol. ii. p. 332.) It may be doubted, however, whether it is possible to arrive at any certainty in regard to conceptions so vague in themselves and so liable to be moulded into definite shapes by the mediums through which they are communicated.ED.]
8*




90         CIVILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
divine sanction, and whose domestic institutions and
foreign wars were alike directed to preserve and propagate their faith. Religion was the basis of their polity,
the very condition, as it were, of their social existence.
The government of the Incas, in its essential principles,
was a theocracy.
Yet, though religion entered so largely into the fabric
and conduct of the political institutions of the people,
their mythology, that is, the traditionary legends by
which they affected to unfold the mysteries of the universe, was exceedingly mean and puerile. Scarce one
of their traditions-except the beautiful one respecting
the founders of their royal dynasty-is worthy of note,
or throws much light on their own antiquities or the
primitive history of man. Among the traditions of
importance is one of the deluge, which they held in
common with so many of the nations in all parts of the
globe, and which they related with some particulars
that bear resemblance to a Mexican legend.'
I They related that, after the deluge, seven persons issued from a
cave where they had saved themselves, and by them the earth was
repeopled. One of the traditions of the Mexicans deduced their descent, and that of the kindred tribes, in like manner, from seven persons who came from as many caves in Aztlan.* (Conf. Acosta, lib. 6,
cap. I9; lib. 7, cap. 2.-Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.) The story of
the deluge is told by different writers with many variations, in some
of which it is not difficult to detect the plastic hand of the Christian
convert.
* [A similar tradition is found in some Sanscrit legends. "This
coincidence," remarks Dr. Brinton, "arises from the mystic powers
attached to the number seven, derived from its frequent occurrence in
astrology." (Myths of the New World, p. 203.) Yet the evidence he
adduces will hardly apply to the American myths. —ED.]




PERUVIAN RELIGION.                       9I
Their ideas in respect to a future state of being deserve more attention. They admitted the existence of
the soul hereafter, and connected with this a belief in
the resurrection of the body. They assigned two distinct places for the residence of the good and of the
wicked, the latter of which they fixed in the centre of
the earth.   The good, they supposed, were to pass a
luxurious life of tranquillity and ease, which comprehended  their highest notions of happiness.   The
wicked were to expiate their crimes by ages of wearisome labor. They associated with these ideas a belief
in an evil principle or spirit, bearing the name of.upay, whom they did not attempt to propitiate by
sacrifices, and who seems to have been only a shadowy
personification of sin,* that exercised little influence
over their conduct.2
2 Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.-Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. 123.
-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. 2, 7.-One might suppose that the educated Peruvians-if I may so speak —imagined the
common people had no souls, so little is said of their opinions as to
the condition of these latter in a future life, while they are diffuse on
the prospects of the higher orders, which they fondly believed were to
keep pace with their condition here.
* [Dr. Brinton, citing with approval the remark of Jacob Grimm,
that" the idea of the Devil is foreign to all primitive religions," denies
that such a conception had any existence in the American mythologies,
and contends that " the qupay of the Peruvians never was, as Prescott
would have us believe, the shadowy embodiment of evil, but simply
and solely their god of the dead, the Pluto of their pantheon, corresponding to the Mictla of the Mexicans." It is certain that many
myths of the American Indians, in which a good and an evil power
are opposed to each other, owed this idea to the later introduction of
the Christian notions of Satan, or to the misconception of narrators




92         CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
It was this belief in the resurrection of the body
which led them to preserve the body with so much
solicitude,-by a simple process, however, that, unlike
the elaborate embalming of the Egyptians, consisted
in exposing it to the action of the cold, exceedingly
dry, and highly rarefied atmosphere of the mountains.3
As they believed that the occupations in the future
world would have great resemblance to those of the
present, they buried with the deceased noble some of
his apparel, his utensils, and, frequently, his treasures,
and completed the gloomy ceremony by sacrificing his
wives and favorite domestics, to bear him company
and do him service in the happy regions beyond the
clouds.4 Vast mounds of an irregular or, more fre3 Such, indeed, seems to be the opinion of Garcilasso, though some
writers speak of resinous and other applications for embalming the
body. The appearance of the royal mummies found at Cuzco, as
reported both by Ondegardo and Garcilasso, makes it probable that
no foreign substance was employed for their preservation.
4 Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.-The Licentiate says that this usage
influenced by the same belief. Yet Mr. Tylor, while admitting the
skill with which many of these legends have been analyzed by Dr.
Brinton, and the general force of his criticism, maintains that "rudimentary forms of Dualism, the antagonism of a Good and Evil Deity,
are well known among the lower races of mankind," and, after reviewing the evidences of this conception in various stages of development,
makes the pregnant remark that "the conception of the light-god as
the good deity, in contrast to a rival god of evil, is one plainly suggested by nature." (Primitive Culture, i. 287-297.) It is therefore
among the sun-worshippers that we might especially expect to find the
instinctive conception of a power of darkness, as the representative
not merely of death but of the evil principle. This dualism is, accordingly, the distinguishing feature of the Zoroastrian religion, and its
existence in that of Peru cannot well be questioned on the sole ground
of inherent improbability.-ED.]




DEITIES.                        93
quently, oblong shape, penetrated by galleries running
at right angles to each other, were raised over the
dead, whose dried bodies or mummies have been found
in considerable numbers, sometimes erect, but more
often in the sitting posture common to the Indian
tribes of both continents. Treasures of great value
have also been occasionally drawn from these monumental deposits, and have stimulated speculators to
repeated excavations with the hope of similar good
fortune. It was a lottery like that of searching after
mines, but where the chances have proved still more
against the adventurers.5
The Peruvians, like so many other of the Indian
races, acknowledged a Supreme Being, the Creator
and Ruler of the Universe, whom they adored under
the different names of Pachacamac and Viracocha.6
continued even after the Conquest, and that he had saved the life of
more than one favorite domestic, who had fled to him for protection,
as they were about to be sacrificed to the Manes of their deceased
lords. Ibid., ubi supra.
5 Yet these sepulchral mines have sometimes proved worth the digging. Sarmiento speaks of gold to the value of Ioo,ooo castellanos
as occasionally buried with the Indian lords (Relacion, MS., cap. 57);
and Las Casas-not the best authority in numerical estimates-says
that treasures worth more than half a million of ducats had been found
within twenty years after the Conquest, in the tombs near Truxillo.
(CEuvres, ed. Llorente (Paris, I822), tom. ii. p. I92.) Baron Humboldt visited the sepulchre of a Peruvian prince, in the same quarter
of the country, whence a Spaniard in I576 drew forth a mass of gold
worth a million of dollars I Vues des Cordill/res, p. 29.
6 Pachacamac signifies " He who sustains or gives life to the universe." The name of the great deity is sometimes expressed by both
Pachacamac and Viracocha combined. (See Balboa, Hist. du Perou,
chap. 6.-Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 2I.) An old Spaniard finds in the popular
meaning of Viracocha, " foam of the sea," an argument for deriving




94         C;I VILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
No temple was raised to this invisible Being, save one
only in the valley which took its name from the deity
himself, not far from the Spanish city of Lima. Even
this temple had existed there before the country came
under the sway of the Incas, and was the great resort
of Indian pilgrims from remote parts of the land,-a
circumstance which suggests the idea that the worship
of this Great Spirit, though countenanced, perhaps, by
their accommodating policy, did not originate with the
Peruvian princes.7*
the Peruvian civilization from some voyager from the Old World.
Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.
7 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS.,
cap. 27.-Ulloa notices the extensive ruins of brick, which mark the
probable site of the temple of Pachacamac, attesting by their present
appearance its ancient magnificence and strength. M6moires philosophiques, historiques, physiques (Paris, I787), trad. Fr., p. 78.
* [Not only this inference, but the facts on which it rests, are strenuously disputed by Mr. Markham, on the ground that Pachacamac "is
an Ynca word, and is wholly foreign to, and unconnected with, the
coast language." It was the name, he says, given by the Incas to
the coast-city, when they conquered it, "for some reason that has not
been preserved, possibly on account of its size and importance." " The
natives worshipped a fish-god there under a name now lost, which
became famous as an oracle and attracted pilgrims; and when the
Yncas conquered the place they raised a temple to the Sun on the
summit of the hill commanding the city." " But they never built any
temple to Pachacamac, and there never was one to that deity, except
at Cuzco." (Reports of the Discovery of Peru, Introduction, xivxx.) There seems to be here much more of assertion than of argument or proof. The statement that there was a temple to Pachacamac
at Cuzco is a novel one, for which no authority is adduced, and it is
in direct contradiction to the reiterated assertions of Garcilasso, that
the Peruvians worshipped Pachacamac only " inwardly, as an unknown
God," to whom they built no temples and offered no sacrifices. For
the statement that the Incas " erected a temple of the Sun" at Pachaca



DEITIES.                         95
The deity whose worship they especially inculcated,
and which they never failed to establish wherever their
banners were known to penetrate, was the Sun. It was
he who, in a particular manner, presided over the destinies of man; gave light and warmth to the nations,
and life to the vegetable world; whom they reverenced
as the father of their royal dynasty, the founder of
their empire; and whose temples rose in every city
and almost every village throughout the land, while
his altars smoked with burnt-offerings, —a form of
sacrifice peculiar to the Peruvians among the semicivilized nations of the New World,8
8 At least, so says Dr. McCulloh; and no better authority can be
required on American antiquities. (Researches, p. 392.) Might he
not have added barbarous nations, also?
mac (p. xix), we are referred to Cieza de Leon, who says that "they
agreed with the native chiefs and with the ministers of this god or devil,
that the temple of Pachacamac should continue with the authority and
reverence it formerly possessed, and that the loftiest part should be
ret aside as a temple of the Sun." That the temple had existed long
prior to the conquest of the place by the Incas is asserted by all
authorities and attested by the great antiquity of its remains. Garcilasso asserts that its builders had borrowed the conception of Pachaca.
mac from the Incas,-a less probable supposition than that of Prescott,
and equally rejected by Mr. Markham, though the statement of the
same author that " the Yuncas placed their idols in this temple, which
were figures of fishes," seems to be the chief foundation for his own
account of the worship practised by the people of the coast, respecting
which he admits that little is known. What is known of it with any
certainty comes to us from Garcilasso de la Vega and Cieza de Leon;
and both these authorities represent the temple and worship of Pachacamac as having existed in the valley of that name previous to the
conquest, or rather peaceful subjugation, of the province by the Incas,
and their sanction of this religion, in conjunction with that of the Sun,
as the result of a compromise. —ED.]




96         CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
Besides the Sun, the Incas acknowledged various
objects of worship in some way or other connected
with this principal deity. Such was the Moon, his
sister-wife; the Stars, revered as part of her heavenly
train,-though the fairest of them, Venus, known to
the Peruvians by the name of Chasca, or the "youth
with the long and curling locks," was adored as the
page of the Sun, whom he attends so closely in his
rising and in his setting. They dedicated temples also
to the Thunder and Lightning,9 in whom they recognized the Sun's dread ministers, and to the Rainbow,
whom they worshipped as a beautiful emanation of their
glorious deity.'~
9 Thunder, Lightning, and Thunderbolt could be all expressed by
the Peruvians in one word, IZappa. Hence some Spaniards have
inferred a knowledge of the Trinity in the natives! "The Devil stole
all he could," exclaims Herrera, with righteous indignation. (Hist.
general, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 5.) These, and even rasher conclusions
(see Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 28), are scouted by Garcilasso, as inventions
of Indian converts, willing to please the imaginations of their Christian teachers. (Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. 5, 6; lib. 3, cap. 2I.)
Imposture on the one hand, and credulity on the other, have furnished
a plentiful harvest of absurdities, which has been diligently gathered
in by the pious antiquary of a later generation.
Io Garcilasso's assertion that these heavenly bodies were objects of
reverence as holy things, but not of worship (Com. Real., Parte I,
lib. 2, cap. I, 23), is contradicted by Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.,Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.,-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 4,
cap. 4,-Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. I2I,-and, I might add, by
almost every writer of authority whom I have consulted.* It is con* [" Mr. Prescott gives his high authority in support of the Spanish
historians Ondegardo, Herrera, and Gomara, and against Garcilasso
de la Vega, in this matter [the worship of lightning and thunder as
deities]. Yet surely, in a question relating to the religion of his ancestors, the testimony of the Ynca... is worth more than that of all




DEITIES.                         97
In addition to these, the subjects of the Incas enrolled among their inferior deities many objects in
nature, as the elements, the winds, the earth, the air,
great mountains and rivers, which impressed them
with ideas of sublimity and power, or were supposed
in some way or other to exercise a mysterious influence
over the destinies of man.,5 They adopted also a notion, not unlike that professed by some of the schools
of ancient philosophy, that every thing on earth had
its archetype or idea, its motter, as they emphatically
styled it, which they held sacred, as, in some sort, its
tradicted, in a manner, by the admission of Garcilasso himself, that
these several objects were all personified by the Indians as living
beings, and had temples dedicated to them as such, with their effigies
delineated in the same manner as was that of the Sun in his dwelling.
Indeed, the effort of the historian to reduce the worship of the Incas
to that of the Sun alone is not very reconcilable with what he elsewhere says of the homage paid to Pachacamac, above all, and to
Rimac, the great oracle of the common people. The Peruvian mythology was, probably, not unlike that of Hindostan, where, under
two, or at most three, principal deities, were assembled a host of inferior ones, to whom the nation paid religious homage, as personifications of the different objects in nature.
xx Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.-These consecrated objects were
termed huacas,-a word of most prolific import; since it signified a
temple, a tomb, any hatural object remarkable for its size or shape,
in short, a cloud of meanings, which by their contradictory sense
have thrown incalculable confusion over the writings of historians and
travellers.
the Spanish historians put together, Cieza de Leon alone excepted."
(Markham, translation of Garcilasso (I869), vol. i. p. Io3, note.)
"The sun, moon, and thunder appear to have been the deities next in
importance to Pachayachachic; sacrifices were made to them at all the
periodical festivities, and several of the prayers given by Molina are
addressed to them." Markham, Rites and Laws of the Yncas (I873).
Introduction, p. xi.-ED.]
Peru.-VOL. I.-E          9




98         CIVILIZATION OF THE, INCAS.
spiritual essence."2  But their system, far from  being
limited even to these multiplied objects of devotion,
embraced within its ample folds the numerous deities
of the conquered nations, whose images were transported to the capital, where the burdensome charges
of their worship were defrayed by their respective
provinces. It was a rare stroke of policy in the Incas,
who could thus accommodate their religion to their
interests.'3
But the worship of the Sun constituted the peculiar
care of the Incas, and was the object of their lavish
expenditure. The most ancient of the many temples
dedicated to this divinity was in the island of Titicaca,
whence the royal founders of the Peruvian line were
said to have proceeded. From this circumstance, this
sanctuary  was held  in  peculiar veneration.   Every
thing which belonged to it, even the broad fields of
12 " La orden por donde fundavan sus huacas que ellos llamavan d
las Idolatrias hera porque decian que todas criava el sol i que les dava
madre por madre que mostravan A la tierra, porque decian que tenia
madre, i tenian 16 echo su vulto i sus adoratorios, i al fuego decian
que tambien tenia madre i al mais i a las otras sementeras i a las
ovejas iganado decian que tenian madre, i a la chocha ques el brevaje
que ellos usan decian que el vinagre della hera la madre i lo reverenciavan i llamavan mama agua madre del vinagre, i a cada cosa adoravan destas de su manera." Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.'3 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-So it seems to have been
regarded by the Licentiate Ondegardo: " E los Idolos estaban en aql
galpon grande de la casa del Sol, y cada Idolo destos tenia su servicio
y gastos y mugeres, y en la casa del Sol le iban i hacer reverencia los
que venian de su provincial para lo qual e sacrificios que se hacian
proveian de su misma tierra ordinaria 6 muy abundantemente por la
misma orden que lo hacian quando estaba en la misma provincia, que
daba gran autoridad 6 mi parecer 6 aun fuerza 6 estos Ingas que cierto
me caus6 gran admiracion." Rel. Seg., MS.




GORGEOUS TEMPLES.                       99
maize which surrounded the temple and formed part
of its domain, imbibed a portion of its sanctity. The
yearly produce was distributed among the different
public magazines, in small quantities to each, as something that would sanctify the remainder of the store.
Happy was the man who could secure even an ear of
the blessed harvest for his own granary!t 4
But the most renowned of the Peruvian temples, the
pride of the capital, and the wonder of the empire,
was at Cuzco, where, under the munificence of successive sovereigns, it had become so enriched that
it received  the name of Coricancha, or " the Place
of Gold." It consisted of' a principal building and
several chapels and inferior edifices, covering a large
extent of ground in the heart of the city, and completely encompassed by a wall, which, with the edifices,
was all constructed of stone. The work was of the
kind already described in the other public buildings
of the country, and was so finely executed that a Spaniard who saw it in its glory assures us he could call to
mind only two edifices in Spain which, for their workmanship, were at all to be compared with it.'s Yet'4 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 3, cap. 25.
i5 " Tenia este Templo en circuito mas de quatro cientos pasos, todo
cercado de una muralla fuerte, labrado todo el edificio de cantera muy
excelente de fina piedra, muy bien puesta y asentada, y algunas piedras
eran muy grandes y soberbias, no tenian mezcla de tierra ni cal, sino
con el betun que ellos suelen hacer sus edificios, y estan tan bien labra:
das estas piedras que no se les parece mezcla ni juntura ninguna. En
toda Espafia no he visto cosa que pueda comparar a estas paredes y
postura de piedra, sino i la torre que lHaman la Calahorra que estA
junto con la puente de Cordoba, y i una obra que vi en Toledo,
cuando fui t presentar la primera parte de mi Cronica al Principe
Dn Felipe." Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 24.




00oo      CIVILIZA TION  OF THE  INCAS.
this substantial and, in some respects, magnificent
structure was thatched with straw!
The interior of the temple was the most worthy of
admiration. It was literally a mine of gold. On the
western wall was emblazoned a representation of the
deity, consisting of a human countenance looking forth
from amidst innumerable rays of light, which emanated
from it in every direction, in the same manner as the
sun is often personified with us. The figure was engraved on a massive plate of gold of enormous dimensions, thickly powdered with emeralds and precious
stones."6 It was so situated in front of the great eastern portal that the rays of the morning sun fell directly
upon it at its rising, lighting up the whole apartment
with an effulgence that seemed more than natural, and
which was reflected back from the golden ornaments
with which the walls and ceiling were everywhere incrusted. Gold, in the figurative language of the people,
was "the tears wept by the sun,"'7 and every part of
the interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates
and studs of the precious metal. The cornices which
surrounded the walls of the sanctuary were of the same
costly material; and a broad belt or frieze of gold, let
into the stone-work, encompassed the whole exterior
of the edifice.'8
z6 Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.-Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 44,
92.-" La figura del Sol, muy grande, hecha de oro obrada muy prima.
mente engastonada en muchas piedras ricas." Sarmiento, Relacion,
MS., cap. 24.
7: " I al oro asimismo decian que era lagrimas que el Sol llorava."
Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.
X8 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 24.-Antig. y Monumentos del
Peru, MS. —" Cercada junto A la techumbre de una plancha de oro de




GORGEOUS TEMPLES.                    xox
Adjoining the principal structure were several chapels
of smaller dimensions. One of them was consecrated
to the Moon, the deity held next in reverence, as the
mother of the Incas. Her effigy was delineated in the
same manner as that of the Sun, on a vast plate that
nearly covered one side of the apartment. But this
plate, as well as all the decorations of the building,
was of silver, as suited to the pale, silvery light of the
beautiful planet. There were three other chapels, one
of which was dedicated to the host of Stars, who
formed the bright court of the Sister of the Sun; another was consecrated to his dread ministers of vengeance, the Thunder and the Lightning; and a third,
to the Rainbow, whose many-colored arch spanned the
walls of the edifice with hues almost as radiant as its
own. There were, besides, several other buildings, or
insulated apartments, for the accommodation of the
numerous priests who officiated in the services of the
temple. Z9
All the plate, the ornaments, the utensils of every
description, appropriated to the uses of religion, were
of gold or silver. Twelve immense vases of the latter
metal stood on the floor of the great saloon, filled with
grain of the Indian corn;20 the censers for the perpalmo i medio de ancho i lo mismo tenian por de dentro en cada bohio 6 casa i aposento." (Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.) "Tenia una
cinta de planchas de oro de anchor de mas de un palmo enlazadas en
las piedras." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.
-9 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 24.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte
x, lib. 3, cap. 21.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.
so " El bulto del Sol tenian mui grande de oro, i todo el servicio
desta casa era de plata i oro, i tenian doze horones de plata blanca
que dos hombres no abrazarian cada uno quadrados, i eran mas altos
9*




102        CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
fumes, the ewers which held the water for sacrifice, the
pipes which conducted it through subterraneous channels into the buildings, the reservoirs that received it,
even the agricultural implements used in the gardens
of the temple, were all of the same rich materials.
The gardens, like those described belonging to the
royal palaces, sparkled with flowers of gold and silver,
and various imitations of the vegetable kingdom.
Animals, also, were to be found there,-among which
the llama, with its golden fleece, was most conspicuous,-executed in the same style, and with a degree
of skill which, in this instance, probably, did not surpass the excellence of the material.2
If the reader sees in this fairy picture only the
romantic coloring of sorrne fabulous El Dorado, he
que una buena pica donde hechavan el maiz que havian de dar al
Sol, segun ellos decian que comiese." Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.The original, as the Spanish reader perceives, says each of these silver
vases or bins was as high as a good lance, and so large that two men
with outspread arms could barely encompass them! As this might
perhaps embarrass even the most accommodating faith, I have preferred not to become responsible for any particular dimensions.
21 Levinus Apollonius, fol. 38.-Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte I, lib.
3, cap. 24.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-" Tenian un Jardin que los Terrones eran pedazos de oro fino y estaban artificiosamente sembrado de maizales los quales eran oro asi las Cafias de ello
como las ojas y mazorcas, y estaban tan bien plantados que aunque
hiciesen recios bientos no se arrancaban. Sin todo esto tenian hechas
mas de veinte obejas de oro con sus Corderos y los Pastores con sus
ondas y cayados que las guardaban hecho de este metal; havia mucha
cantidad de Tinajas de oro y de Plata y esmeraldas, vasos, ollas y
todo genero de vasijas todo de oro fino; por otras Paredes tenian
esculpidas y pintadas otras mayores cosas, en fin era uno de los ricos
Templos que hubo en el mundo." Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap.
24.




GORGEOUS TEMPLES.              103
must recall what has been said before in reference to
the palaces of the Incas, and consider that these
"Houses of the Sun," as they were styled, were the
common reservoir into which flowed all the streams of
public and private benefaction throughout the empire.
Some of the statements, through credulity, and others,
in the desire of exciting admiration, may be greatly
exaggerated; but in the coincidence of contemporary
testimony it is not easy to determine the exact line
which should mark the measure of our skepticism.
Certain it is that the glowing picture I have given is
warranted by those who saw these buildings in their
pride, or shortly after they had been despoiled by the
cupidity of their countrymen. Many of the costly
articles were buried by the natives, or thrown into the
waters of the rivers and the lakes; but enough remained
to attest the unprecedented opulence of these religious
establishments. Such things as were in their nature
portable were speedily removed, to gratify the craving
of the Conquerors, who even tore away the solid cornices and frieze of gold from the great temple, filling
the vacant places with the cheaper, but-since it affords
no temptation to avarice-more durable, material of
plaster. Yet even thus shorn of their splendor the venerable edifices still presented an attraction to the spoiler,
who found in their dilapidated walls an inexhaustible
quarry for the erection of other buildings. On the
very ground once crowned by the gorgeous Coricancha
rose the stately church of St. Dominic, one of the most
magnificent structures of the New World. Fields of
maize and lucerne now bloom on the spot which glowed
with the golden gardens of the temple; and the friar




I04       CIVILIZATION  OF THE INCAS.
chants his orisons within the consecrated precincts once
occupied by the Children of the Sun.22
Besides the great temple of the Sun, there was a
large number of inferior temples and religious houses
in the Peruvian capital and its environs, amounting, as
is stated, to three or four hundred.23 For Cuzco was
a sanctified spot, venerated not only as the abode of
the Incas, but of all those deities who presided over
the motley nations of the empire. It was the city beloved of the Sun; where his worship was maintained
in its splendor; " where every fountain, pathway, and
wall," says an ancient chronicler, "was regarded as a
holy mystery." 4  And unfortunate was the Indian
noble who, at some period or other of his life, had
not made his pilgrimage to the Peruvian Mecca.
Other temples and religious dwellings were scattered
over the provinces, and some of them constructed on
a scale of magnificence that almost rivalled that of the
metropolis. The attendants on these composed an
army of themselves. The whole number of functionaries, including those of the sacerdotal order, who
officiated at the Coricancha alone, was no less than four
thousand.2s
2 Miller's Memoirs, vol. ii. pp. 223, 224.
23 Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 8.-" Havia en aquella
ciudad y legua y media de la redonda quatrocientos y tantos lugares,
donde se hacian sacrificios, y se gastava mucha suma de hacienda en
ellos." Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.
24 " Que aquella ciudad del Cuzco era casa y morada de Dioses, 6
ansi n6 habia en toda ella fuente ni paso ni pared que n6 dixesen que
tenia misterio." Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.
25 Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.-An army, indeed, if, as Cieza de
Leon states, the number of priests and menials employed in the famous
temple of Bilcas, on the route to Chili, amounted to 4o,o0o I (Cronica,




SACERDOTAL ORDER.                       o05
At the head of all, both here and throughout the
land, stood the great High-Priest, or Villac Vmu, as
he was called. He was second only to the Inca in
dignity, and was usually chosen from his brothers or
nearest kindred. He was appointed by the monarch,
and held his office for life; and he, in turn, appointed
to all the subordinate stations of his own order. This
order was very numerous. Those members of it who
officiated in the House of the Sun, in Cuzco, were
taken exclusively from the sacred race of the Incas.
The ministers in the provincial temples were drawn
from the families of the curacas; but the office of
high-priest in each district was reserved for one of the
blood royal. It was designed by this regulation to
preserve the faith in its purity, and to guard against
any departure from the stately ceremonial which it
punctiliously prescribed.6
The sacerdotal order, though numerous, was not distinguished by any peculiar badge or costume from the
rest of the nation. Neither was it the sole depository
of the scanty science of the country, nor was it charged
with the business of instruction, nor with those parochial duties, if they may so be called, which bring the
cap. 89.) Every thing relating to these Houses of the Sun appears
to have been on a grand scale. But we may easily believe this a
clerical error for 4000.
26 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 27.-Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.
-It was only while the priests were engaged in the service of the temples that they were maintained, according to Garcilasso, from the estates
of the Sun. At other times they were to get their support from their
own lands, which, if he is correct, were assigned to them in the same
manner as to the other orders of the nation. Com. Real., Parte i,
lib. 5, cap. 8.




106      CIVILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
priest in contact with the great body of the people,as was the case in Mexico. The cause of this peculiarity may probably be traced to the existence of a
superior order, like that of the Inca nobles, whose
sanctity of birth so far transcended all human appointments that they in a manner engrossed whatever there
was of religious veneration in the people. They were,
in fact, the holy order of the state. Doubtless, any of
them might, as very many of them did, take on themselves the sacerdotal functions; and their own insignia
and peculiar privileges were too well understood to
require any further badge to separate them from the
people.
The duties of the priest were confined to ministration in the temple. Even here his attendance was not
constant, as he was relieved after a stated interval by
other brethren of his order, who succeeded one another
in regular rotation. His science was limited to an
acquaintance with the fasts and festivals of his religion,
and the appropriate ceremonies which distinguished
them. This, however frivolous might be its character,
was no easy acquisition; for the ritual of the Incas involved a routine of observances as complex and elaborate as ever distinguished that of any nation, whether
pagan or Christian. Each month had its appropriate
festival, or rather festivals. The four principal had
reference to the Sun, and commemorated the great
periods of his annual progress, the solstices and equinoxes. Perhaps the most magnificent of all the national
solemnities was the feast of Raymi, held at the period
of the summer solstice, when the Sun, having touched
the southern extremity of his course, retraced his path,




FESTIVALS.                  I o7
as if to gladden the hearts of his chosen people by
his presence.  On this occasion the Indian nobles
from the different quarters of the country thronged
to the capital to take part in the great religious celebration.
For three days previous, there was a general fast, and
no fire was allowed to be lighted in the dwellings.
When the appointed day arrived, the Inca and his
court, followed by the whole population of the city,
assembled at early dawn in the great square to greet
the rising of the Sun. They were dressed in their
gayest apparel, and the Indian lords vied with each
other in the display of costly ornaments and jewels
on their persons, while canopies of gaudy feather-work
and richly-tinted stuffs, borne by the attendants over
their heads, gave to the great square, and the streets
that emptied into it, the appearance of being spread
over with one vast and magnificent awning. Eagerly
they watched the coming of their deity, and no sooner
did his first yellow rays strike the turrets and loftiest
buildings of the capital than a shout of gratulation
broke forth from the assembled multitude, accompanied
by songs of triumph and the wild melody of barbaric
instruments, that swelled louder and louder as his bright
orb, rising above the mountain-range towards the east,
shone in full splendor on his votaries. After the usual
ceremonies of adoration, a libation was offered to the
great deity by the Inca, from a huge golden vase, filled
with the fermented liquor of maize or of maguey,
which, after the monarch had tasted it himself, he
dispensed among his royal kindred. These ceremonies completed, the vast assembly was arranged




o108      CIVILIZA TION  OF  TIHE' INCAS.
in order of procession and took its way towards the
Coricancha.27
As they entered the street of the sacred edifice, all
divested themselves of their sandals, except the Inca
and his family, who did the same on passing through
the portals of the temple, where none but these august
personages were admitted.28 After a decent time spent
in devotion, the sovereign, attended by his courtly
train, again appeared, and preparations were made to
commence the sacrifice. This, with the Peruvians,
consisted of animals, grain, flowers, and sweet-scented
gums,-sometimes of human beings, on which occasions a child or beautiful maiden was usually selected
as the victim.  But such sacrifices were rare, being
reserved to celebrate some great public event, as a
coronation, the birth of a royal heir, or a great victory. They were never followed by those cannibal
repasts familiar to the Mexicans and to many of the
fierce tribes conquered by the Incas. Indeed, the conquests of these princes might well be deemed a blessing
to the Indian nations, if it were only from their suppression of cannibalism, and the diminution, under
their rule, of human sacrifices.29
27 Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 27.
-The reader will find a brilliant, and not very extravagant, account
of the Peruvian festivals in Marmontel's romance of Les Incas. The
French author saw in their gorgeous ceremonial a fitting introduction
to his own literary pageant. Tom. i. chap. I-4.
28 ", Ningun Indio comun osaba pasar por la calle del Sol calzado;
ni ninguno, aunque fuese mui grand Sefior, entrava en las casas del
Sol con zapatos." Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.
29 Garcilasso de la Vega flatly denies that the Incas were guilty of
human sacrifices, and maintains, on the other hand, that they uni



FESTIVALS.                         og9
At the feast of Raymi, the sacrifice usually offered
was that of the llama; and the priest, after opening
formly abolished them in every country they subdued, where they had
previously existed. (Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. 9, et alibi.) But
in this material fact he is unequivocally contradicted by Sarmiento,
Relacion, MS., cap. 22,-Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.,-Montesinos,
Mem. antiguas, MS., lib. 2, cap. 8,-Balboa, Hist. du Perou, chap.
5, 8,-Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 72,-Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.,
-Acosta, lib. 5, cap. I9,-and I might add, I suspect, were I to pursue the inquiry, by nearly every ancient writer of authority; some of
whom, having come into the country soon after the Conquest, while
its primitive institutions were in vigor, are entitled to more deference
in a matter of this kind than Garcilasso himself. It was natural that
the descendant of the Incas should desire to relieve his race from so
odious an imputation; and we must have charity for him if he does
show himself on some occasions, where the honor of his country is at
stake, " high gravel blind." It should be added, in justice to the Peruvian government, that the best authorities concur in the admission
that the sacrifices were few, both in number and in magnitude, being
reserved for such extraordinary occasions as those mentioned in the
text.*
* [In a long note on the passage in Garcilasso relating to the subject, Mr. Markham asserts that "the Yncas did not offer up human
sacrifices," and, complaining that "Mr. Prescott allows himself te
accept Spanish testimony in preference to that of the Ynca" Garcilasso, examines the evidence adduced, and rejects it as proceeding
from credulity, prejudice, and ignorance. Several of the objections
he alleges would require detailed consideration if the question had not
since been definitively settled by his own publication, in an English
translation, of an important and trustworthy account, by Christoval
de Molina, of the rites practised by the Incas. From this it appears
that, while the ordinary sacrifices consisted of the "sheep" and
"lambs" of the country, the great festival called Ccapacocha or Cachakuaca was celebrated with human sacrifices, both at Cuzco and at the
chief town of each province. The victims consisted of children, male
and female, aged about ten years, one or two being selected from
each lineage or tribe. Some were strangled; "from others they took
out the hearts while yet alive, and offered them to the huacas while
Peru. VOL. I.              Io




I I  CVIL IZA ZTION OF THE INCAS.
the body of his victim, sought in the appearances
which it exhibited to read the lesson of the mysterious
future. If the auguries were unpropitious, a second
victim was slaughtered, in the hope of receiving some
more comfortable assurance. The Peruvian augur might
have learned a good lesson of the Roman,-to consider
every omen as favorable which served the interests of
his country.30
A fire was then kindled by means of a concave mirror
of polished metal, which, collecting the rays of the sun
into a' focus upon a quantity of dried cotton, speedily
set it on fire. It was the expedient used on the like
occasions in ancient Rome, at least under the reign of
the pious Numa. When the sky was overcast, and the
face of the good deity was hidden from his worshippers, which was esteemed a bad omen, fire was obtained
by means of friction. The sacred flame was intrusted
to the care of the Virgins of the Sun; and if, by any
30 " Augurque cum esset, dicere ausus est, optimis auspiciis ea geri,
quae pro reipublicae salute gererentur." (Cicero, De Senectute.)This inspection of the entrails of animals for the purposes of divination is worthy of note, as a most rare, if not a solitary, instance of
the kind among the nations of the New World, though so familiar
in the ceremonial of sacrifice among the pagan nations of the Old.
yet palpitating." The bodies were interred with the other sacrifices.
"They also had a custom, when they conquered and subjugated any
nations, of selecting some of the handsomest of the conquered people
and sending them to Cuzco, where they were sacrificed to the Sun,
who, as they said, had given them the victory." (Fables and Rites
of the Yncas, pp. 54-59.) Mr. Markham describes the narrative of
Molina as supplying "more than one incidental corroboration of the
correctness of Garcilasso's statements," but omits to notice its incidental contradiction of them on this very important point.-ED.]




FESTIVALS.                      I I I
neglect, it was suffered to go out in the course of the
year, the event was regarded as a calamity that boded
some strange disaster to the monarchy.3' A burnt-offering of the victims was then made on the altars of the
deity. This sacrifice was but the prelude to the slaughter of a great number of llamas, part of the flocks of the
Sun, which furnished a banquet not only for the Inca
and his court, but for the people, who made amends at
these festivals for the frugal fare to which they were
usually condemned. A fine bread or cake, kneaded
of maize flour by the fair hands of the Virgins of the
Sun, was also placed on the royal board, where the
Inca, presiding over the feast, pledged his great nobles
in generous goblets of the fermented liquor of the
country, and the long revelry of the day was closed at
night by music and dancing. Dancing and drinking
were the favorite pastimes of the Peruvians. These
amusements continued for several days, though the
sacrifices terminated on the first. Such was the great
festival of Raymi; and the recurrence of this and
similar festivities gave relief to the monotonous routine
of toil prescribed to the lower orders of the community.32
In the distribution of bread and wine at this high
festival, the orthodox Spaniards who first came into
the country saw a striking resemblance to the Chris31 " Vigilemque sacraverat ignem,
Excubias divfim aeternas."
Plutarch, in his life of Numa, describes the reflectors used by the
Romans for kindling the sacred fire, as concave instruments of brass,
though not spherical like the Peruvian, but of a triangular form.
32 Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 28, 29.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte i, lib,
6, cap. 23.




I 12    CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
tian communion;33 as in the practice of confession
and penance, which, in a most irregular form indeed,
seems to have been used by the Peruvians, they discerned a coincidence with another of the sacraments
of the Church.34 The good fathers were fond of tracing
such coincidences, which they considered as the contrivance of Satan, who thus endeavored to delude his
victims by counterfeiting the blessed rites of Christianity.35 Others, in a different vein, imagined that
they saw in such analogies the evidence that some of
the primitive teachers of the gospel, perhaps an apostle
himself, had paid a visit to these distant regions and
scattered over them the seeds of religious truth.36 But
33 " That which is most admirable in the hatred and presumption
of Sathan is, that he not onely counterfeited in idolatry and sacrifices,
but also in certain ceremonies, our sacraments, which Jesus Christ our
Lord instituted, and the holy Church uses, having especially pretended
to imitate, in some sort, the sacrament of the communion, which is the
most high and divine of all others." Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 23.
34 Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 4.-Ondegardo, Rel.
Prim., MS.-" The father of lies would likewise counterfeit the sacrament of Confession, and in his idolatries sought to be honored with
ceremonies very like to the manner of Christians." Acosta, lib. 5,
cap. 25.
35 Cieza de Leon, not content with many marvellous accounts of
the influence and real apparition of Satan in the Indian ceremonies,
has garnished his volume with numerous wood-cuts representing the
Prince of Evil in bodily presence, with the usual accompaniments of
tail, claws, etc., as if to re-enforce the homilies in his text! The Peruvian saw in his idol a god. His Christian conqueror saw in it the
Devil. One may be puzzled to decide which of the two might lay
claim to the grossest superstition.
36 Piedrahita, the historian of the Muyscas, is satisfied that this
apostle must have been St. Bartholomew, whose travels were known
to have been extensive. (Conq. de Granada, Parte I, lib. I, cap. 3.)
The Mexican antiquaries consider St. Thomas as having had charge




VIRGINS OF THE SUN.                    I 3
it seems hardly necessary to invoke the Prince of Darkness, or the intervention of the blessed saints, to account for coincidences which have existed in countries
far removed from the light of Christianity, and in
ages, indeed, when its light had not yet risen on the
world.   It is much  more reasonable to  refer such
casual points of resemblance to the general constitution of man and the necessities of his moral nature.37
Another singular analogy with Roman Catholic institutions is presented by the Virgins of the Sun, the
"elect," as they were called,38 to whom I have already
had occasion to refer. These were young maidens,
dedicated to the service of the deity, who, at a tender
age, were taken from their homes and introduced into
convents, where they were placed under the care of
certain elderly matrons, mamaconas, who had grown
gray within their walls.39 Under these venerable guides
the holy virgins were instructed in the nature of their
of the mission to the people of Anahuac. These two apostles, then,
would seem to have divided the New World, at least the civilized portions of it, between them. How they came, whether by Behring's
Straits, or directly across the Atlantic, we are not informed. Velasco
-a writer of the eighteenth century l —has little doubt that they did
really come. Hist. de Quito, tom. i. pp. 89, go.
37 The subject is illustrated by some examples in the " History of
the Conquest of Mexico," vol. iii., Appendix No. I; since the same
usages in that country led to precisely the same rash conclusions
among the Conquerors.
38 " Llamavase Casa de Escogidas; porque las escogian, 6 por
Linage, 6 por Hermosura." Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte I, lib. 4,
cap. I.
39 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-The word mamacona signified
"matron;" mama, the first half of this compound word, as already
noticed, meaning "mother." See Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I,
lib. 4, cap. I.
Io*




I  4      CIVILIZA TION  OF  THE  INCAS.
religious duties. They were employed in spinning and
embroidery, and, with the fine hair of the vicufia, wove
the hangings for the temples, and the apparel for the
Inca and his household."' It was their duty, above all,
to watch over the sacred fire obtained at the festival of
Raymi. From the moment they entered the establishment, they were cut off from all connection with the
world, even with their own family and friends. No
one but the Inca, and the Coya or queen, might enter
the consecrated precincts. The greatest attention was
paid to their morals, and visitors were sent every year
to inspect the institutions and to report on the state
of their discipline.4' Woe to the unhappy maiden who
was detected in an intrigue! By the stern law of the
Incas, she was to be buried alive, her lover was to be
strangled, and the town or village to which he belonged was to be razed to the ground, and "sowed
with stones," as if to efface every memorial of his existence.42  One is astonished to find so close a resem40 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.
4' Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.
42 Balboa, Hist. du PNrou, chap. 9.-Fernandez, Hist. del Peru,
Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. II.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 4, cap.
3. —According to the historian of the Incas, the terrible penalty was
never incurred by a single lapse on the part of the fair sisterhood;
though, if it had been, the sovereign, he assures us, would have " exacted it to the letter, with as little compunction as he would have
drowned a puppy." (Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 4, cap. 3.) Other
writers contend, on the contrary, that these Virgins had very little
claim to the reputation of Vestals. (See Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y
Conq., MS.-Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. I2I.) Such imputations
are common enough on the inhabitants of religious houses, whether
pagan or Christian. They are contradicted in the present instance by
the concurrent testimony of most of those who had the best oppor



VIR G INS OF THtE SUN                 I 15
blance between the institutions of the American Indian,
the ancient Roman, and the modern Catholic! Chastity and purity of life are virtues in woman that would
seem to be of equal estimation with the barbarian
and with the civilized.-Yet the ultimate destination
of the inmates of these religious houses was materially
different.
The great establishment at Cuzco consisted wholly
of maidens of the royal blood, who amounted, it is
said, to no less than fifteen hundred. The provincial
convents were supplied from the daughters of the curacas and inferior nobles, and occasionally, -where a
girl was recommended by great personal attractions,
from the lower classes of the people.43 The " Houses
of the Virgins of the Sun" consisted of low ranges of
stone buildings, covering a large extent of ground,
surrounded by high walls, which excluded those within
entirely from observation. They were provided with
every accommodation for the fair inmates, and were
embellished in the same sumptuous and costly manner
as the palaces of the Incas, and the temples; for they
received the particular care of the government, as an
important part of the religious establishment.44
Yet the career of all the inhabitants of these cloisters
was not confined within their narrow walls. Though
Virgins of the Sun, they were brides of the Inca, and
at a marriageable age the most beautiful among them
tunity of arriving at truth, and are made particularly improbable by
the superstitious reverence entertained for the Incas.
43 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Garcilasso, Com. Real.,
Parte I, lib. 4, cap. I.
44 Ibid., Parte I, lib. 4, cap. 5.-Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 44.




16      CIVILIZZA TION OF THE INCAS.
were selected for the honors of his bed and transferred
to the royal seraglio. The full complement of this
amounted in time not only to hundreds, but thousands,
who all found accommodations in his different palaces
throughout the country. When the monarch was disposed to lessen the number of his establishment, the
concubine with whose society he was willing to dispense returned, not to her former monastic residence,
but to her own home; where, however humble might
be her original condition, she was maintained in great
state, and, far from being dishonored by the situation
she had filled, was held in universal reverence as the
Inca's bride.45
The great nobles of Peru were allowed, like their
sovereign, a plurality of wives. The people, generally,
whether by law, or by necessity stronger than law, were
more happily limited to one. Marriage was conducted
in a manner that gave it quite as original a character
as belonged to the other institutions of the country.
On an appointed day of the year, all those of a marriageable age-which, having reference to their ability
to take charge of a family, in the males was fixed at
not less than twenty-four years, and in the women at
eighteen or twenty-were called together in the great
squares of their respective towns and villages, throughout the empire. The Inca presided in person over the
assembly of his own kindred, and, taking the hands of
the different couples who were to be united, he placed
them within each other, declaring the parties man and
wife. The same was done by the curacas towards all
45 Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I,
lib. 4, cap. 4.-Montesinos, Mem. antiguas, MS., lib. 2, cap. Ig.




MARRIAGE.                       "7
persons of their own or inferior degree in their several
districts. This was the simple form of marriage in
Peru. No one was allowed to select a wife beyond the
community to which he belonged, which generally
comprehended all his own kindred; 46 nor was any but
the sovereign authorized to dispense with the law of
nature-or, at least, the usual law of nations-so far as
to marry his own sister.47 No marriage was esteemed
valid without the consent of the parents; and the preference of the parties, it is said, was also to be consulted; though, considering the barriers imposed by
the prescribed age of the candidates, this must have
been within rather narrow and whimsical limits. A
dwelling was got ready for the new-married pair at the
charge of the district, and the prescribed portion of
land assigned for their maintenance. The law of Peru
provided for the future, as well as for the present. It
left nothing to chance. The simple ceremony of marriage was followed by general festivities among the
friends of the parties, which lasted several days; and
as every wedding took place on the same day, and as
there were few families who had not some one of their
members or their kindred personally interested, there
46 By the strict letter of the law, according to Garcilasso, no one
was to marry out of his own lineage. But this narrow rule had a most
liberal interpretation, since all of the same town, and even province,
he assures us, were reckoned of kin to one another. Com. Real.,
Parte I, lib. 4, cap. 8.
47 Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 9.-This practice,
so revolting to our feelings that it might well be deemed to violate the
law of nature, must not, however, be regarded as altogether peculiar
to the Incas, since it was countenanced by some of the most polished
nations of antiquity.




8 I  CIVILIZA 7'IO    OF  THE  INCAS.
was one universal bridal jubilee throughout the empire.48
The extraordinary regulations respecting marriage
under the Incas are eminently characteristic of the
genius of the government; which, far from limiting
itself to matters of public concern, penetrated into the
most private recesses of domestic life, allowing no man,
however humble, to act for himself, even in those personal matters in which none but himself, or his family
at most, might be supposed to be interested. No
Peruvian was too low for the fostering vigilance of
government. None was so high that he was not made
to feel his dependence upon it in every act of his life.
His very existence as an individual was absorbed in
that of the community. His hopes and his fears, his
joys and his sorrows, the tenderest sympathies of his
nature, which would most naturally shrink from observation, were all to be regulated by law. He was
not allowed even to be happy in his own way. The
government of the Incas was the mildest, but the most
searching, of despotisms.
48 Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib.
6, cap. 36.-Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.-Montesinos, Mem. antiguas,
MS., lib. 2, cap. 6.
[The precise nature of the Peruvian religion does not seem to have
been much elucidated by the discussions it has undergone in recent
years. The chief source of perplexity lies in the recognition of a
Creator, or World-Deity, side by side with the adoration of the Sun
as the presiding divinity and direct object of worship. Mr. Tylor
speaks of this as a " rivalry full of interest in the history of barbaric
religion;" and he takes the view that the Sun, originally " a subordinate
God," " the divine ancestor of the Inca family," " by virtue of his nearer
intercourse and power," gradually " usurped the place of the Supreme




PERUVIAN MYTHOLOGY.                        II9
Deity." (Conf. Primitive Culture, Ist edition, vol. ii. p. 307, and 2d
edition, vol. ii. p. 338.) But the facts cited in support of this theory
are too slight or too questionable to form a sufficient basis for it. The
reported speech of one of the later Incas, in which the doctrine that
the Sun is " the maker of all things," or himself " a living thing," is
condemned, and he is compared to " a beast who makes a daily round
under the eye of a master," " an arrow which must go whither it is
sent, not whither it wishes," may be regarded as, what Mr. Tylor
indeed calls it, "a philosophic protest," and as nothing more. The
forms of prayer collected by Molina from the lips of certain aged
Indians, addressed conjointly to the Creator, the Sun, and the Thunder, prove, if any thing, that the supremacy of the first-mentioned
person in this singular trinity was an article of that " state church"
which, according to Mr. Tylor, organized the worship of the Sun and
raised it to predominance. As to the statement, on Mr. Markham's
authority, that the great temple at Cuzco was originally dedicated to
Pachacamac, this seems to rest merely on a tradition related by Molina,
which attributes the enlargement of the temple and the erection of a
golden statue to the Creator to the same Inca who is represented as
having denied the, divinity of the Sun. In fact, the whole of this
evidence better accords with the view taken by M. Desjardins, who
considers the Inca referred to-Yupanqui according to most authorities-as having introduced the worship of Pachacamac at Cuzco,
where before the Sun had been worshipped as the Supreme God.
(Le Perou avant la Conquete espagnol, p. 94.) " But these notions,"
he remarks, " of an immaterial, infinite, and eternal God could not
easily penetrate the minds of the multitude, who adhered to their
ancient superstitions." (Ibid., p. Io03.) That the complex character of
the Peruvian mythology proceeded chiefly from the union under one
government of several different races, and the tolerance, and to some
extent the adoption, by the conquerors of various local or -tribal religions, is a point on which all who have given the subject any close
investigation concur. (See Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. I76,
et al.) Hence the variety and conflicting character of the traditions,
which cannot be constructed into a system, since they represent diverse
and perhaps fluctuating conceptions.-ED.]




CHAPTER IV.
EDUCATION.- QUIPUS.  ASTRONOMY.-AGRICULTURE.AQUEDUCTS.-GUANO. —IMPORTANT ESCULENTS.
"SCIENCE was not intended for the people; but for
those of generous blood. Persons of low degree are
only puffed up by it, and rendered vain and arrogant.
Neither should such meddle with the affairs of government; for this would bring high offices into disrepute,
and cause detriment to the state."'  Such was the
favorite maxim, often repeated, of Tupac Inca Yupanqui, one of the most renowned of the Peruvian sovereigns. It may seem strange that such a maxim should
ever have been proclaimed in the New World, where
popular institutions have been established on a more
extensive scale than was ever before witnessed; where
government rests wholly on the people, and education
-at least, in the great northern division —of the continent-is mainly directed to qualify the people for the
duties of government. Yet this maxim was strictly
conformable to the genius of the Peruvian monarchy,
and may serve as a key to its habitual policy; since,
I " No es licito, que ensefien i los hijos de los Plebeios, las Ciencias,
que pertenescen a los Generosos, y no mas; porque como Gente baja,
no se eleven, y ensobervezcan, y menoscaben, y apoquen la Republica: bastales, que aprendan los Oficios de sus Padres; que el Mandar, y Governar no es de Plebeios, que es hacer agravio al Oficio, y
h la Republica, encomendarsela b Gente comun." Garcilasso, Com.
Real., Parte I, lib. 8, cap. 8.
(I20)




ED UCA TION.                  121
while it watched with unwearied solicitude over its
subjects, provided for their physical necessities, was
mindful of their morals, and showed, throughout, the
affectionate concern of a parent for his children, it yet
regarded them only as children, who were never to
emerge from the state of pupilage, to act or to think
for themselves, but whose whole duty was comprehended
in the obligation of implicit obedience.
Such was the humiliating condition of the people
under the Incas, while the numerous families of the
blood royal enjoyed the benefit of all the light of
education which the civilization of the country could
afford, and long after the Conquest the spots continued
to be pointed out where the seminaries had existed for
their instruction. These were placed under the care
of the amautas, or "wise men," who engrossed the
scanty stock of science-if science it could be called
-possessed by the Peruvians, and who were the sole
teachers of youth. It was natural that the monarch
should take a lively interest in the instruction of the
young nobility, his own kindred. Several of the Peruvian princes are said to have built their palaces in
the neighborhood of the schools, in order that they
might the more easily visit them and listen to the lectures of the amautas, which they occasionally re-enforced
by a homily of their own.2 In these schools the royal
pupils were instructed in all the different kinds of
knowledge in which their teachers were versed, with
2 Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte I, lib. 7, cap. io.-The descendant
of the Incas notices the remains, visible in his day, of two of the
palaces of his royal ancestors, which had been built in the vicinity
of the schools, for more easy access to them.
Peru.-VoL. I.-F       II




122      CIVILIZA TION  OF THE INCAS.
especial reference to the stations they were to occupy
in after-life. They studied the laws, and the principles
of administering the government, in which many of
them were to take part. They were initiated in the
peculiar rites of their religion most necessary to those
who were to assume the sacerdotal functions. They
learned also to emulate the achievements of their royal
ancestors by listening to the chronicles compiled by
the amautas.  They were taught to speak their own
dialect with purity and elegance; and they became
acquainted with the mysterious science of the quipus,
which supplied the Peruvians with the means of communicating their ideas to one another, and of transmitting them to future generations.3
The quipu was a cord about two feet long, composed
of different-colored threads tightly twisted together,
from which a quantity of smaller threads were suspended in the manner of a fringe. The threads were
of different colors, and were tied into knots. The
word quizp, indeed, signifies a knot.   The colors
denoted sensible objects; as, for instance, white represented silver, and yellow, gold. They sometimes also
stood for abstract ideas. Thus, white signified peace,
and red, war.  But the quipus were chiefly used for
arithmetical purposes. The knots served instead of
ciphers, and could be combined in such a manner as
to represent numbers to any amount they required.
By means of these they went through their calculations
with great rapidity, and the Spaniards who first visited
the country bear testimony to their accuracy.4
3 Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte I, lib. 4, cap. Ig.
4 Conquista i Poblacion del Piru, MS. - Sarmiento, Relacion,




QUIPUS.                       I23
Officers were established in each of the districts,
who, under the title of quipucamayus, or "keepers of
the quipus," were required to furnish the government
with information on various important matters. One
had charge of the revenues, reported the quantity of
raw material distributed among the laborers, the quality
and quantity of the fabrics made from it, and the
amount of stores, of various kinds, paid into the royal
magazines. Another exhibited the register of births
and deaths, the marriages, the number of those qualified to bear arms, and the like details in reference to
the population of the kingdom. These returns were
annually forwarded to the capital, where they were
submitted to the inspection of officers acquainted with
the art of deciphering  these mystic  records.   The
government was thus provided with a valuable mass of
statistical information, and the skeins of many-colored
threads, collected and carefully preserved, constituted
what might be called the national archives.5
But, although the quipus sufficed for all the purMS., cap. 9.-Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 8.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I,
lib. 6, cap. 8.
5 Ondegardo expresses his astonishment at the variety of objects
embraced by these simple records, " hardly credible by one who had
not seen them." "En aquella ciudad se hallaron muchos viejos oficiales
antiguos del Inga, asi de la religion, como del Govierno, y otra cosa
que no pudiera creer sino la viera, que por hilos y nudos se hallan figuradas las leyes, y estatutos asi de lo uno como de lo otro, y las sucesiones de los Reyes y tiempo que governaron: y hallose lo que todo
esto tenian a su cargo que no fue poco, y aun tube alguna claridad de los
estatutos que en tiempo de cada uno se havian puesto." (Rel. Prim.,
MS.) (See also Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 9.-Acosta, lib. 6,
cap. 8.-Garcilasso, Parte I, lib. 6, cap. 8, 9.) A vestige of the quipus
is still to be found in some parts of Peru, where the shepherds keep the
tallies of their numerous flocks by means of this ancient arithmetic.




I24      CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
poses of arithmetical computation demanded by the
Peruvians, they were incompetent to represent the
manifold ideas and images which are expressed by
writing. Even here, however, the invention was not
without its use. For, independently of the direct representation of simple objects, and even of abstract
ideas, to a very limited extent, as above noticed, it
afforded great help to the memory by way of association. The peculiar knot or color, in this way, suggested
what it could not venture to represent; in the same manner-to borrow the homely illustration of an old writer
-as the number of the Commandment calls to mind
the Commandment itself. The quipus, thus used, might
be regarded as the Peruvian system of mnemonics.
Annalists were appointed in each of the principal
communities, whose business it was to record the most
important events which occurred in them.  Other
functionaries of a higher character, usually the amautas, were intrusted with the history of the empire, and
were selected to chronicle the great deeds of the reigning Inca, or of his ancestors.6 The narrative, thus
concocted, could be communicated only by oral tradition; but the quipus served the chronicler to arrange
the incidents with method and to refresh his memory.
The story, once treasured up in the mind, was indelibly
impressed there by frequent repetition. It was repeated
by the amauta to his pupils, and in this way history,
conveyed partly by oral tradition and partly by arbitrary signs, was handed down from generation to generation, with sufficient discrepancy of details, but with
a general conformity of outline to the truth.
6 Garcilasso, ubi supra.




QUIPUS.                    125
The Peruvian quipus were, doubtless, a wretched
substitute for that beautiful contrivance, the alphabet,
which, employing a few simple characters as the representatives of sounds instead of ideas, is able to convey
the most delicate shades of thought that ever passed
through the mind of man. The Peruvian invention,
indeed, was far below that of the hieroglyphics, even
below the rude picture-writing of the Aztecs; for the
latter art, however incompetent to convey abstract
ideas, could depict sensible objects with tolerable accuracy. It is an evidence of the total ignorance in which
the two nations remained of each other, that the Peruvians should have borrowed nothing of the hieroglyphical system of the Mexicans, and this, notwithstanding
that the existence of the maguey-plant, agave, in South
America might have furnished them with the very
material used by the Aztecs for the construction of
their maps.7
It is impossible to contemplate without interest the
struggles made by different nations, as they emerge
from barbarism, to supply themselves with some visible
symbol of thought,-that mysterious agency by which
the mind of the individual may be put in communication with the minds of a whole community. The
want of such a symbol is itself the greatest impediment
to the progress of civilization. For what is it but to
imprison the thought, which has the elements of im7 Garcilasso, ubi supra.-Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.-Sarmiento,
Relacion, MS., cap. 9.-Yet the quipus must be allowed to bear some
resemblance to the belts of wampum-made of colored beads strung
together-in familiar use among the North American tribes for commemorating treaties, and for other purposes.
l-*




1 26     CIVILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
mortality, within the bosom of its author, or of the
small circle who come in contact with him, instead of
sending it abroad to give light to thousands and to
generations yet unborn! Not only is such a symbol
an essential element of civilization, but it may be assumed as the very criterion of civilization; for the
intellectual advancement of a people will keep pace
pretty nearly with its facilities for intellectual communication.
Yet we must be careful not to underrate the real
value of the Peruvian system, nor to suppose that the
quipus were as awkward an instrument in the hand of
a practised native as they would be in ours. We know
the effect of habit in all mechanical operations, and
the Spaniards bear constant testimony to the adroitness
and accuracy of the Peruvians in this. Their skill is
not more surprising than the facility with which habit
enables us to master the contents of a printed page,
comprehending thousands of separate characters, by a
single glance, as it were, though each character must
require a distinct recognition by the eye, and that, too,
without breaking the chain of thought in the reader's
mind. We must not hold the invention of the quipus
too lightly, when we reflect that they supplied the
means of calculation demanded for the affairs of a great
nation, and that, however insufficient, they afforded
no little help to what aspired to the credit'of literary
composition.
The office of recording the national annals was not
wholly confined to the amautas. It was assumed in
part by the haravecs, or poets, who selected the most
brilliant incidents for their songs or ballads, which




QUIP US.                     1 27
were chanted at the royal festivals and at the table of
the Inca.8 In this manner a body of traditional minstrelsy grew up, like the British and Spanish ballad
poetry, by means of which the name of many a rude
chieftain, that might have perished for want of a chronicler, has been borne down the tide of rustic melody
to later generations.
Yet history may be thought not to gain much by this
alliance with poetry; for the domain of the poet extends
over an ideal realm peopled with the shadowy forms of
fancy, that bear little resemblance to the rude realities
of life. The Peruvian annals may be deemed to show
somewhat of the effects of this union, since there is a
tinge of the marvellous spread over them down to the
very latest period, which, like a mist before the reader's
eye, makes it difficult to distinguish between fact and
fiction.
The poet found a convenient instrument for his
purposes in the beautiful Quichua dialect. We have
already seen the extraordinary measures taken by the
Incas for propagating their language throughout their
empire. Thus naturalized in the remotest provinces,
it became enriched by a variety of exotic words and
idioms, which, under the influence of the court and of
poetic culture, if I may so express myself, was gradually
blended, like some finished mosaic made up of coarse
and disjointed materials, into one harmonious whole.
8 Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib.
2, cap. 27.-The word haravec signified " inventor" or " finder;" and
in his title, as well as in his functions, the minstrel-poet may remind
us of the Norman trouvere. Garcilasso has translated one of the
little lyrical pieces of his countrymen. It is light and lively; but one
short specimen affords no basis for general criticism.




128        CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
The Quichua became the most comprehensive and various, as well as the most elegant, of the South American
dialects.9
Besides the compositions already noticed, the Peruvians, it is said, showed some talent for theatrical exhibitions; not those barren pantomimes which, addressed
simply to the eye, have formed the amusement of more
than one rude nation. The Peruvian pieces aspired to
the rank of dramatic compositions, sustained by character and dialogue, founded sometimes on themes of
tragic interest, and at others on such as, from their
light and social character, belong to comedy.10 Of the
execution of these pieces we have now no means of
judging.* It was probably rude enough, as befitted an
9 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-Sarmiento justly laments that his
countrymen should have suffered this dialect, which might have proved
so serviceable in their intercourse with the motley tribes of the empire,
to fall so much out of use as it has done: " Y con tanto digo que fu6
harto beneficio para los Espafioles haver esta lengua, pues podian con
ella andar por todas partes en algunas de las quales ya se vi perdiendo." Relacion, MS., cap. 2I.-According to Velasco, the Incas, on
arriving with their conquering legions at Quito, were astonished to find
a dialect of the Quichua spoken there, although it was unknown over
much of the intermediate country; a singular fact, if true. (Hist. de
Quito, tom. i. p. 185.) The author, a native of that country, had
access to some rare sources of information; and his curious volumes
show an intimate analogy between the science and social institutions
of the people of Quito and Peru. Yet his book betrays an obvious
anxiety to set the pretensions of his own country in the most imposing
point of view, and he frequently hazards assertions with a confidence
that is not well calculated to secure that of his readers.
=o Garcilasso, Com. Real., ubi supra.
* [Dr. Vincente Lopez speaks of two specimens of this dramatic
literature, preserved, in an altered form, by Spanish tradition,-the
Apu-Ollanlay and the Uska-Paukar. The latter, he says, contains




ASTRONOMY.                      129
unformed people. But, whatever may have been the
execution, the mere conception of such an amusement
is a proof of refinement that honorably distinguishes
the Peruvian from the other American races, whose
pastime was war, or the ferocious sports that reflect the
image of it.
The intellectual character of the Peruvians, indeed,
seems to have been marked rather by a tendency to
refinement than by those hardier qualities which insure
success in the severer walks of science. In these they
were behind several of the semi-civilized nations of
the New World. They had some acquaintance with
geography, so far as related to their own empire, which
was indeed extensive; and they constructed maps with
lines raised on them to denote the boundaries and localities, on a similar principle with those formerly used
by the blind. In astronomy they appear to have made
but moderate proficiency. They divided the year into
twelve lunar months, each of which, having its own
name, was distinguished by its appropriate festival."
They had, also, weeks, but of what length, whether of
seven, nine, or ten days, is uncertain. As their lunar
it Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-Fernandez, who differs from most
authorities in dating the commencement of the year from June, gives
the names of the several months, with their appropriate occupations.
Hist. del Peru, Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. Io.
entire r8les which are evidently of Spanish and Catholic origin. To
the former he is inclined to ascribe a greater degree of genuineness;
though its authenticity has been altogether denied, and its composition
ascribed to Dr. Valdez. (Les Races aryennes du Perou, pp. 325329.) An English translation of it has been published by Mr. Markham, under the title of " Ollanta, an Ancient Ynca Drama (London,
187I).-ED.]




130       CIVILIZATION  OF  THE INCAS.
year would necessarily fall short of the true time, they
rectified their calendar by solar observations made by
means of a number of cylindrical columns raised on the
high lands round Cuzco, which served them for taking
azimuths; and by measuring their shadows they ascertained the exact times of the solstices. The period of
the equinoxes they determined by the help of a solitary
pillar, or gnomon, placed in the centre of a circle,
which was described in the area of the great temple
and traversed by a diameter that was drawn from east
to west. When the shadows were scarcely visible under
the noontide rays of the sun, they said that c" the god
sat with all his light upon the column." "2  Quito,
which lay immediately under the equator, where the
vertical rays of the sun threw no shadow at noon, was
held in especial veneration as the favored abode of the
great deity. The period of the equinoxes was celebrated by public rejoicings. The pillar was crowned
by the golden chair of the Sun, and both then and at
the solstices the columns were hung with garlands, and
offerings of flowers and fruits were made, while high
festival was kept throughout the empire.  By these periods the Peruvians regulated their religious rites and
ceremonial and prescribed the nature of their agricultural labors. The year itself took its departure from
the date of the winter solstice.'3
a12 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. 22-26.-The Spanish
conquerors threw down these pillars, as savoring of idolatry in the
Indians. Which of the two were best entitled to the name of barbarians?'3 Betanzos, Nar. de los Ingas, MS., cap. i6. —Sarmiento, Relacion,
MS., cap. 23.-Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 3.-The most celebrated gnomon
in Europe, that raised on the dome of the metropolitan church of




ASTRONOMY.                       I 3
This meagre account embraces nearly all that has
come down to us of Peruvian astronomy. It may seem
strange that a nation which had proceeded thus far in
its observations should have gone no farther, and that,
notwithstanding its general advance in civilization, it
should in this science have fallen so far short not only
of the Mexicans, but of the Muyscas, inhabiting the
same elevated regions of the great southern plateau
with themselves. These latter regulated their calendar
on the same general plan of cycles and periodical
series as the Aztecs, approaching yet nearer to the system pursued by the people of Asia. 4
It might have been expected that the Incas, the
boasted children of the Sun, would have made a particular study of the phenomena of the heavens and
have constructed a calendar on principles as scientific
as that of their semi-civilized neighbors. One historian, indeed, assures us that they threw their years into
cycles of ten, a hundred, and a thousand years, and
that by these cycles they regulated their chronology.!5
Florence, was erected by the famous Toscanelli-for the purpose of
determining the solstices, and regulating the festivals of the Churchabout the year I468; perhaps at no very distant date from that of the
similar astronomical contrivance of the American Indian. See Tiraboschi, Historia della Letteratura Italiana, tom. vi. lib. 2, cap. 2, sec. 38.
14 A tolerably meagre account-yet as full, probably, as authorities
could warrant-of this interesting people has been given by Piedrahita,
Bishop of Panamd, in the first two Books of his Historia general de
las Conquistas del nuevo Regno de Granada (Madrid, i688).-M. de
Humboldt was fortunate in obtaining a MS., composed by a Spanish
ecclesiastic resident in Santa Fe de Bogota, in relation to the Muysca
calendar, of which the Prussian philosopher has given a large and
luminous analysis. Vues des Cordilleres, p. 244.
5I Montesinos, Mem. antiguas, MS., lib. 2, cap. 7.-" Renov6 la




132       CIVILIZATION  OF THE INCAS.
But this assertion-not improbable in itself-rests on
a writer but little gifted with the spirit of criticism,
and is counterbalanced by the silence of every higher
and earlier authority, as well as by the absence of any
monument, like those found among other American
nations, to attest the existence of such a calendar.
The inferiority of the Peruvians may be, perhaps, in
part explained by the fact of their priesthood being
drawn exclusively from the body of the Incas, a privileged order of nobility, who had no need, by the assumption of superior learning, to fence themselves
round from the approaches of the vulgar. The little
true science possessed by the Aztec priest supplied him
with a key to unlock the mysteries of the heavens, and
the false system of astrology which he built upon it
gave him credit as a being who had something of divinity in his own nature.  But the Inca noble was
divine by birth. The illusory study of astrology, so
captivating to the unenlightened mind, engaged no
share of his attention. The only persons in Peru who
claimed the power of reading the mysterious future
were the diviners, men who, combining with their
pretensions some skill in the healing art, resembled
the conjurers found among many of the Indian tribes.
But the office was held in little repute, except among
the lower classes, and was abandoned to those whose
computacion de los tiempos, que se iba perdiendo, y se contaron en
su Reynado los afios por 365 dias y seis horas; A. los anfos afiadi6 decadas de diez afios,, cada diez decadas una centuria de Ioo afios, y t[
cada diez centurias una capachoata 6 Jutiphuacan, que son Iooo aftos,
que quiere decir el grande afio del Sol; asi contaban lbs siglos y los
sucesos memorables de sus Reyes." Ibid., loc. cit.




ASTRONOMY.                       I33
age and infirmity disqualified them for the real business
of life.'6
The Peruvians had knowledge of one or two constellations, and watched the motions of the planet
Venus, to which, as we have seen, they dedicated altars. But their ignorance of the first principles of
astronomical science is shown by their ideas of eclipses,
which they supposed denoted some great derangement
of the planet; and when the moon labored under one
of these mysterious infirmities they sounded their instruments, and filled the air with shouts and lamentations, to rouse her from her lethargy. Such puerile
conceits as these form a striking contrast with the real
knowledge of the Mexicans, as displayed in their
hieroglyphical maps, in which the true cause of this
phenomenon is plainly depicted.'7
But, if less successful in exploring the heavens, the
Incas must be admitted to have surpassed every other
American race in their dominion over the earth. Husbandry was pursued by them on principles that may be
truly called scientific. It was the basis of their political institutions. Having no foreign commerce, it was
agriculture that furnished them with the means of their
internal exchanges, their subsistence, and their revenues. We have seen their remarkable provisions for
_6,, Ansi mismo les hicieron sefialar gente para hechizeros que tambien es entre ellos, oficio publico y conoscido en todos,.. los diputados para ello no lo tenian por travajo, por que ninguno podia tener
semejante oficio como los dichos sino fuesen viejos e viejas, y personas
inaviles para travajar, como mancos, cojos 6 contrechos, y gente asi A
quien faltava las fuerzas para ello." Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.'7 See Codex Tel.-Remensis, Part 4, P1. 22, ap. Antiquities of Mexico, vol. i., London, I829.
Peru.-VoL. I.           12




I 34      CIVILIZA TION  OF THE  INCAS.
distributing the land in equal shares among the people,
while they required every man, except the privileged
orders, to assist in its cultivation. The Inca himself
did not disdain to set the example. On one of the
great annual festivals he proceeded to the environs
of Cuzco, attended by his court, and, in the presence
of all the people, turned up the earth with a golden
plough, —or an instrument that served as such,-thus
consecrating the occupation of the husbandman as one
worthy to be followed by the Children of the Sun.z8
The patronage of the government did not stop with
this cheap display of royal condescension, but was
shown in the most efficient measures for facilitating
the labors of the husbandman. Much of the country
along the sea-coast suffered from want of water, as little
or no rain fell there, and the few streams, in their short
and hurried course from the mountains, exerted only a
very limited influence on the wide extent of territory.
The soil, it is true, was for the most part sandy and
sterile; but many places were capable of being reclaimed, and, indeed, needed only to be properly irrigated to be susceptible of extraordinary production.
To these spots water was conveyed by means of canals
and subterraneous aqueducts executed on a noble scale.
x8 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. I6.-The nobles, also it seems,
at this high festival, imitated the example of their master.' Pasadas
todas las fiestas, en la ultima llevavan muchos arados de manos, los
quales antiguamente heran de oro; i echos los oficios, tomava el Inga
un arado i comenzava con el a romper la tierra, i lo mismo los demas
sefiores, para que de alli adelante en todo su sefforio hiciesen lo mismo,
i sin que el Inga hiciese esto no avia Indio que osase romper la tierra,
ni pensavan que produjese si el Inga no la rompia primero i esto vaste
quanto / las fiestas." Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.




A QUED UCTS.                     I 35
They consisted of large slabs of freestone nicely fitted
together without cement, and discharged a volume of
water sufficient, by means of latent ducts or sluices, to
moisten the lands in the lower level, through which
they passed. Some of these aqueducts were of great
length. One that traversed the district of Condesuyu
measured between four and five hundred miles. They
were brought from some elevated lake or natural reservoir in the heart of the mountains, and were fed at
intervals by other basins which lay in their route along
the slopes of the sierra. In this descent a passage was
sometimes to be opened through rocks,-and this without the aid of iron tools; impracticable mountains were
to be turned, rivers and marshes to be crossed; in short,
the same obstacles were to be encountered as in the
construction of their mighty roads. But the Peruvians
seemed to take pleasure in wrestling with the difficulties
of nature. Near Caxamarca a tunnel is still visible
which they excavated in the mountains to give an outlet
to the waters of a lake when these rose to a height in
the rainy seasons that threatened the country with
inundation.'9
Most of these beneficent works of the Incas were
suffered to go to decay by their Spanish conquerors.
19 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 2I.-Garcilasso, Com. Real.,
Parte I, lib. 5, cap. 24.-Stevenson, Narrative of a Twenty Years'
Residence in South America (London, I829), vol. i. p. 412; ii. pp.
173, 174.-" Sacauan acequias en cabos y por partes que es cosa
estrafia afirmar lo: porque las echauan por lugares altos y baxos: y
por laderas de los cabe9os y haldas de sierras q estan en los valles: y
por ellos mismos atrauiessan muchas: unas por una parte, y otras por
otra, que es gran delectaci6 caminar por aquellos valles: porque
parece que se anda entre huertas y florestas lienas de frescuras."
Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 66.




136      CIVIL IZA TION  OF THE INCAS.
In some spots the waters are still left to flow in their
silent, subterraneous channels, whose windings and
whose sources have been alike unexplored. Others,
though partially dilapidated, and closed up with rubbish and the rank vegetation of the soil, still betray
their course by occasional patches of fertility. Such
are the remains in the valley of Nasca, a fruitful spot
that lies between long tracts of desert; where the
ancient water-courses of the Incas, measuring four or
five feet in depth by three in width, and formed of
large blocks of uncemented masonry, are conducted
from an unknown distance.
The greatest care was taken that every occupant of
the land through which these streams passed should
enjoy the benefit of them. The quantity of water
allotted to each was prescribed by law; and royal overseers superintended the distribution and saw that it was
faithfully applied to the irrigation of the ground.'
The Peruvians showed a similar spirit of enterprise
in their schemes for introducing cultivation into the
mountainous parts of their domain. Many of the hills,
though covered with a strong soil, were too precipitous
to be tilled. These they cut into terraces, faced with
rough stone, diminishing in regular gradation towards
the summit; so that, while the lower strip, or anden, as
it was called by the Spaniards, that belted round the
base of the mountain, might comprehend hundreds of
acres, the uppermost was only large enough to accommodate a few rows of Indian corn.2  Some of the
2o Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Memoirs of Gen. Miller,
vol. ii. p. 220.
s Miller supposes that it was from these andenes that the Spaniards




HO YAS.                      137
eminences presented such a mass of solid rock that
after being hewn into terraces they were obliged to be
covered deep with earth before they could serve the
purpose of the husbandman. With such patient toil
did the Peruvians combat the formidable obstacles
presented by the face of their country! Without the
use of the tools or the machinery familiar to the European, each individual could have done little; but acting
in large masses, and under a common direction, they
were enabled by indefatigable perseverance to achieve
results to have attempted which might have filled even
the European with dismay.22
In the same spirit of economical husbandry which
redeemed the rocky sierra from the curse of sterility,
they dug below the arid soil of the valleys and sought
for a stratum where some natural moisture might be
found. These excavations, called by the Spaniards
hoyas, or "pits," were made on a great scale, comprehending frequently more than an acre, sunk to the
depth of fifteen or twenty feet, and fenced round
within by a wall of adobes, or bricks baked in the sun.
The bottom of the excavation, well prepared by a rich
manure of the sardines,-a small fish obtained in vast
gave the name of Andes to the South American Cordilleras. (Memoirs
of Gen. Miller, vol. ii. p. 219.) But the name is older than the Conquest, according to Garcilasso, who traces it to Anti, the name of a
province that lay east of Cuzco. (Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap.
II.) Anta, the word for copper, which was found abundant in certain
quarters of the country, may have suggested the name of the province,
if not immediately that of the mountains.
2 Memoirs of Gen. Miller, ubi supra.-Garcilasso, Com. Real.,
Parte I, lib. 5, cap. I.
12*




I38       CIVILIZA TION  OF THE INCAS.
quantities along the coast,-was planted with some
kind of grain or vegetable.23
The Peruvian farmers were well acquainted with the
different kinds of manures, and made large use of
them; a circumstance rare in the rich lands of the
tropics, and probably not elsewhere practised by the
rude tribes of America. They made great use of guano,
the valuable deposit of sea-fowl, that has attracted so
much attention of late from the agriculturists both of
Europe and of our own country, and the stimulating
and nutritious properties of which the Indians perfectly
appreciated. This was found in such immense quantities on many of the little islands along the coast as
to have the appearance of lofty hills, which, covered
with a white saline incrustation, led the Conquerors to
give them  the name of the sierra nevada, or "snowy
mountains. "
The Incas took their usual precautions for securing
the benefits of this important article to the husbandman. They assigned the small islands on the coast to
the use of the respective districts which lay adjacent
to them. When the island was large, it was distributed
among several districts, and the boundaries for each
were clearly defined. All encroachment on the rights
of another was severely punished. And they secured
the preservation of the fowl by penalties as stern as
those by which the Norman tyrants of England protected their own game. No one was allowed to set
93 Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 73.-The remains of these ancient
excavations still excite the wonder of the modern traveller. See
Stevenson, Residence in South America, vol. i. p. 359.-Also McCulloh, Researches, p. 358.




A GRICUL TURE.                139
foot on the island during the season for breeding,
under pain of death; and to kill the birds at any time
was punished in the like manner.24
With this advancement in agricultural science, the
Peruvians might be supposed to have had some knowledge of the plough, in such general use among the
primitive nations of the Eastern continent. But they
had neither the iron ploughshare of the Old World,
nor had they animals for draught, which, indeed, were
nowhere found in the New. The instrument which
they used was a strong, sharp-pointed stake, traversed
by a horizontal piece, ten or twelve inches from the
point, on which the ploughman might set his foot and
force it into the ground. Six or eight strong men
were attached by ropes to the stake, and dragged it
forcibly along,-pulling together, and keeping time as
they moved by chanting their national songs, in which
they were accompanied by the women who followed in
their train, to break up the sods with their rakes. The
mellow soil offered slight resistance; and the laborer,
by long practice, acquired a dexterity which enabled
him to turn up the ground to the requisite depth with
astonishing facility. This substitute for the plough
was but a clumsy contrivance; yet it is curious as
the only specimen of the kind among the American
aborigines, and was perhaps not much inferior to the
wooden instrument introduced in its stead by the
European conquerors.25
It was frequently the policy of the Incas, after pro24 Acosta, lib. 4, cap. 36.-Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte x, lib. 5
cap. 3.
25 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte i, lib. 5, cap. 2.




140      CIVILIZATION  OF THE INCAS.
viding a deserted tract with the means for irrigation
and thus fitting it for the labors of the husbandman, to
transplant there a colony of mitimaes, who brought it
under cultivation by raising the crops best suited to
the soil. While the peculiar character and capacity
of the lands were thus consulted, a means of exchange
of the different products was afforded to the neighboring provinces, which, from the formation of the country, varied much more than usual within the same
limits. To facilitate these agricultural exchanges, fairs
were instituted, which took place three times a month
in some of the most populous places, where, as money
was unknown, a rude kind of commerce was kept up
by the barter of their respective products. These fairs
afforded so many holidays for the relaxation of the
industrious laborer.26
Such were the expedients adopted by the Incas for
the improvement of their territory; and, although imperfect, they must be allowed to show an acquaintance
with the principles of agricultural science that gives
them some claim to the rank of a civilized people.
Under their patient and discriminating culture, every
inch of good soil was tasked to its greatest power of
production; while the most unpromising spots were
compelled to contribute something to the subsistence
of the people. Everywhere the land teemed with evidence of agricultural wealth, from the smiling valleys
along the coast to the terraced steeps of the sierra,
which, rising into pyramids of verdure, glowed with
all the splendors of tropical vegetation.
26 Sarmiento, Rel., MS., cap. Ig.-Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte I,
lib. 6, cap. 36; lib. 7, cap. I.-Herrera, Hist. gen., dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 3.




IMPORTANT ESCULENTS.                    14I
The formation of the country was particularly favorable, as already remarked, to an infinite variety of products, not so much from its extent as from its various
elevations, which, more remarkable even than those in
Mexico, comprehend every degree of latitude from the
equator to the polar regions. Yet, though the temperature changes in this region with the degree of elevation, it remains nearly the same in the same spots
throughout the year; and the inhabitant feels none of
those grateful vicissitudes of season which belong to
the temperate latitudes of the globe. Thus, while the
summer lies in full power on the burning regions of
the palm and the cocoa-tree that fringe the borders of
the ocean, the broad surface of the table-land blooms
with the freshness of perpetual spring, and the higher
summits of the Cordilleras are white with everlasting
winter.
The Peruvians turned this fixed variety of climate,
if I may so say, to the best account, by cultivating the
productions appropriate to each; and they particularly
directed their attention to those which afforded the
most nutriment to man. Thus, in the lower level were
to be found the cassava-tree and the banana, that
bountiful plant, which seems to have relieved man
from the primeval curse-if it were not rather a blessing-of toiling for his sustenance.27  As the banana
2 The prolific properties of the banana are shown by M. de Humboldt, who states that its productiveness, as compared with that of
wheat, is as I33 to I, and with that of the potato, as 44 to I. (Essai
politique sur le Royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne, Paris, 1827, tom.
ii. p. 389.) It is a mistake to suppose that this plant was not indigenous to South America. The banana-leaf has been frequently
found in ancient Peruvian tombs.




142       CIVILIZATION  OF THIE INCAS.
faded from the landscape, a good substitute was found
in the maize, the great agricultural staple of both the
northern and southern divisions of the American continent, and which, after its exportation to the Old
World, spread so rapidly there as to suggest the idea
of its being indigenous to it.28  The Peruvians were
well acquainted with the different modes of preparing
this useful vegetable, though it seems they did not use
it for bread, except at festivals; and they extracted a
sort of honey from the stalk, and made an intoxicating
liquor from the fermented grain, to which, like the
Aztecs, they were immoderately addicted.29
The temperate climate of the table-land furnished
them with the maguey, agave Americana, many of the
extraordinary qualities of which they comprehended,
though not its most important one of affording a material for paper. Tobacco, too, was among the products of this elevated region. Yet the Peruvians differed from every other Indian nation to whom it was
known, by using it only for medicinal purposes, in the
form of snuff.3~ They may have found a substitute for
28 The misnomer of bHi de Turquie shows the popular error. Yet
the rapidity of its diffusion through Europe and Asia after the discovery of America is of itself sufficient to show that it could not have
been indigenous to the Old World and have so long remained generally unknown there.
29 Acosta, lib. 4, cap. I6.-The saccharine matter contained in the
maize-stalk is much greater in tropical countries than in more northern
latitudes; so that the natives in the former may be seen sometimes
sucking it like the sugar-cane. One kind of the fermented liquors,
sora, made from the corn, was of such strength that the use of it was
forbidden by the Incas, at least to the common people. Their injunctions do not seem to have been obeyed so implicitly in this
instance as usual.
30o Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. 25.




IMPORTANT ESCULENTS.                     I43
its narcotic qualities in the coca (Ery/hroxylum Peruvianum), or cuca, as called by the natives. This is a
shrub which grows to the height of a man. The leaves
when gathered are dried in the sun, and, being mixed
with a little lime, form a preparation for chewing,
much like the betel-leaf of the East.3z With a small
supply of this cuca in his pouch, and a handful of
roasted maize, the Peruvian Indian of our time performs his wearisome journeys, day after day, without
fatigue, or, at least, without complaint. Even food
the most invigorating is less grateful to him than his
loved narcotic. Under the Incas, it is said to have
been exclusively reserved for the noble orders. If so,
the people gained one luxury by the Conquest; and
after that period it was so extensively used by them
that this article constituted a most important item of
the colonial revenue of Spain.32  Yet, with the soothing charms of an opiate, this weed so much vaunted
by the natives, when used to excess, is said to be attended with all the mischievous effects of habitual intoxication.33
3' The pungent leaf of the betel is in like manner mixed with lime
when chewed. (Elphinstone, History of India, London, I84I, vol. i.
p. 33I.) The similarity of this social indulgence, in the remote East
and West, is singular.
3- Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.-Acosta, lib. 4, cap. 22.-Stevenson,
Residence in South America, vol. ii. p. 63.-Cieza de Leon, Cronica,
cap. 96.
33 A traveller (Poeppig) noticed in the Foreign Quarterly Review
(No. 33) expatiates on the malignant effects of the habitual use of the
cuca, as very similar to those produced on the chewer of opium.
Strange that such baneful properties should not be the subject of more
frequent comment with other writers I I do not remember to have
seen them even adverted to.




44    CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
Higher up on the slopes of the Cordilleras, beyond
the limits of the maize and of the quinoa,-a grain
bearing some resemblance to rice, and largely cultivated by the Indians,-was to be found the potato, the
introduction of which into Europe has made an era
in the history of agriculture. Whether indigenous to
Peru, or imported from the neighboring country of
Chili, it formed the great staple of the more elevated
plains, under the Incas, and its culture was continued
to a height in the equatorial regions which reached
many thousand feet above the limits of perpetual snow
in the temperate latitudes of Europe.34 Wild specimens of the vegetable might be seen still higher,
springing up spontaneously amidst the stunted shrubs
that clothed the lofty sides of the Cordilleras, till these
gradually subsided into the mosses and the short yellow
grass, pajonal, which, like a golden carpet, was unrolled
around the base of the mighty cones, that rose far into
the regions of eternal silence, covered with the snows
of centuries.35
34 Malte-Brun, book 86.-The potato, found by the early discoverers
in Chili, Peru, New Granada, and all along the Cordilleras of South
America, was unknown in Mexico,-an additional proof of the entire
ignorance in which the respective nations of the two continents remained of one another. M. de Humboldt, who has bestowed much
attention on the early history of this vegetable, which has exerted so
important an influence on European society, supposes that the cultivation of it in Virginia, where it was known to the early planters, must
have been originally derived from the Southern Spanish colonies.
Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 462.
35 While Peru, under the Incas, could boast these indigenous products, and many others less familiar to the European, it was unacquainted with several, of great importance, which, since the Conquest,
have thriven there as on their natural soil. Such are the olive, the grape,




IMPORTANT ESCULENTS.                    I45
the fig, the apple, the orange, the sugar-cane. None of the cereal
grains of the Old World were found there. The first wheat was introduced by a Spanish lady of Truxillo, who took great pains to disseminate it among the colonists, of which the government, to its credit,
was not unmindful. Her name was Maria de Escobar. History, which
is so much occupied with celebrating the scourges of humanity, should
take pleasure in commemorating one of its real benefactors.
Peru.-VOL. I.-G          13




CHAPTER V.
PERUVIAN SHEEP.-GREAT HUNTS.-MANUFACTURES. —
MECHANICAL SKILL. -ARCHITECTURE. - CONCLUDING
REFLECTIONS.
A NATION which had made such progress in agriculture might be reasonably expected to have made also
some proficiency in the mechanical arts,-especially
when, as in the case of the Peruvians, their agricultural economy demanded in itself no inconsiderable
degree of mechanical skill..Among most nations,
progress in manufactures has been found to have an
intimate connection with the progress of husbandry.
Both arts are directed to the same great object of supplying the necessaries, the comforts, or, in a more refined condition of society, the luxuries, of life; and
when the one is brought to a perfection that infers a
certain advance in civilization, the other must naturally
find a corresponding development under the increasing
demands and capacities of such a state. The subjects
of the Incas, in their patient and tranquil devotion to
the more humble occupations of industry which bound
them to their native soil, bore greater resemblance to
the Oriental nations, as the Hindoos and Chinese, than
they bore to the members of the great Anglo-Saxon
family, whose hardy temper has driven them to seek
their fortunes on the stormy ocean and to open a commerce with the most distant regions of the globe. The
( 46)




PERUVIAN  SHEEP.                  147
Peruvians, though lining a long extent of sea-coast,
had no foreign commerce.
They had peculiar advantages for domestic manufacture in a material incomparably superior to any thing
possessed by the other races of the Western continent.
They found a good substitute for linen in a fabric
which, like the Aztecs, they knew how to weave from
the tough thread of the maguey. Cotton grew luxuriantly on the low, sultry level of the coast, and furnished them with a clothing suitable to the milder
latitudes of the country. But from the llama and the
kindred species of Peruvian sheep they obtained a
fleece adapted to the colder climate of the table-land,'"more estimable," to quote the language of a wellinformed writer, "than the down of the Canadian
beaver, the fleece of the brebis des Calmoucks, or of
the Syrian goat." z
Of the four varieties of the Peruvian sheep, the
llama, the one most familiarly known, is the least valuable on account of its wool. It is chiefly employed as
a beast of burden, for which, although it is somewhat
larger than any of the other varieties, its diminutive
size and strength would seem to disqualify it. It carries a load of little more than a hundred pounds, and
cannot travel above three or four leagues in a day.
But all this is compensated by the little care and cost
required for its management and its maintenance. It
picks up an easy subsistence from the moss and stunted
herbage that grow scantily along the withered sides
x Walton, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Peruvian Sheep
(London, I8II), p. II5. This writer's comparison is directed to the
wool of the vicufia, the most esteemed of the genus for its fleece.




[ 48    CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
and the steeps of the Cordilleras. The structure of
its stomach, like that of the camel, is such as to enable
it to dispense with any supply of water for weeks, nay,
months together. Its spongy hoof, armed with a claw
or pointed talon to enable it to take secure hold on the
ice, never requires to be shod; and the load laid upon
its back rests securely in its bed of wool, without the
aid of girth or saddle. The llamas move in troops of
five hundred or even a thousand, and thus, though each
individual carries but little, the aggregate is considerable. The whole caravan travels on at its regular pace,
passing the night in the open air without suffering
from the coldest temperature, and marching in perfect
order and in obedience to the voice of the driver. It
is only when overloaded that the spirited little animal
refuses to stir, and neither blows nor caresses can induce him to rise from the ground. He is as sturdy in
asserting his rights on this occasion as he is usually
docile and unresisting.=
The employment of domestic animals distinguished
the Peruvians from the other races of the New World.
This economy of human labor by the substitution of
the brute is an important element of civilization,
inferior only to what is gained by the substitution of
machinery for both. Yet the ancient Peruvians seem
to have made much less account of it than their
Spanish conquerors, and to have valued the llama, in
2 Walton, Hist. and Descrip. Account of the Peruvian Sheep, p. 23,
et seq.-Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte I, lib. 8, cap. I6.-Acosta, lib.
4, cap. 4I.-Llama, according to Garcilasso de la Vega, is a Peruvian
word signifying " flock." (Ibid., ubi supra.) The natives got no milk
from their domesticated animals; nor was milk used, I believe, by
any tribe on the American continent.




GREAT HUNTS.                     I 49
common with the other animals of that genus, chiefly
for its fleece. Immense herds of these "large cattle,"
as they were called, and  of the "smaller cattle," 3
or a4pacas, were held by the government, as already
noticed, and placed under the direction of shepherds,
who conducted them from one quarter of the country
to another, according to the changes of the season.
These migrations were regulated with all the precision
with which the code of the mesta determined the
migrations of the vast merino flocks in Spain; and the
Conquerors, when they landed in Peru, were amazed
at finding a race of animals so similar to their own in
properties and habits, and under the control of a system
of legislation which might seem to have been imported
from their native land.4
But the richest store of wool was obtained, not from
these domesticated animals, but from the two other
species, the huanacos and the vicuflas, which roamed
in native freedom over the frozen ranges of the Cordilleras; where not unfrequently they might be seen
scaling the snow-covered peaks which no living thing
inhabits save the condor, the huge bird of the Andes,
whose broad pinions bear him up in the atmosphere to
the height of more than twenty thousand feet above
the level of the sea.5 In these rugged pastures, "the
3 Ganado major, ganado menor.
4 The judicious Ondegardo emphatically recommends the adoption
of many of these regulations by the Spanish government, as peculiarly suited to the exigencies of the natives: " En esto de los ganados
parescio6 haber hecho muchas constituciones en diferentes tiempos 6
algunas tan utiles e provechosas para su conservacion que convendria
que tambien guardasen agora." Rel. Seg., MS.
s Malte-Brun, book 86.
T3*




150       CIVILIZATION  OF THE INCAS.
flock without a fold" finds sufficient sustenance in the
ychu, a species of grass which is found scattered all
along the great ridge of the Cordilleras, from the equator to the southern limits of Patagonia. And as these
limits define the territory traversed by the Peruviau
sheep, which rarely, if ever, venture north of the line,
it seems not improbable that this mysterious little plant
is so important to their existence that the absence of
it is the principal reason why they have not penetrated
to the northern latitudes of Quito and New Granada.6
But, although thus roaming without a master over
the boundless wastes of the Cordilleras, the Peruvian
peasant was never allowed to hunt these wild animals,
which were protected by laws as severe as were the
sleek herds that grazed on the more cultivated slopes
of the plateau. The wild game of the forest and the
mountain was as much the property of the government
as if it had been enclosed within a park or penned
within a fold.7  It was only on stated occasions, at the
great hunts which took place once a year, under the
personal superintendence of the Inca or his principal
officers, that the game was allowed to be taken.
These hunts were not repeated in the same quarter of
the country oftener than once in four years, that time
might be allowed for the waste occasioned by them to
be replenished. At the appointed time, all those living
in the district and its neighborhood, to the number, it
might be, of fifty or sixty thousand men,8 were dis6 Ychu, called in the Flora Peruana 7arava; Class, Monandria
Digynia. See Walton, p. I7.
7 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.
8 Sometimes even a hundred thousand mustered, when the Inca
hunted in person, if we may credit Sarmiento: " De donde haviendose




MANUFACTURES.                     51 I
tributed round, so as to form a cordon of immense
extent, that should embrace the whole country which
was to be hunted over. The men were armed with
long poles and spears, with which they beat up game
of every description lurking in the woods, the valleys,
and the mountains, killing the beasts of prey without
mercy, and driving the others, consisting chiefly of the
deer of the country, and the huanacos and vicufias,
towards the centre of the wide-extended circle; until,
as this gradually contracted, the timid inhabitants of
the forests were concentrated on some spacious plain,
where the eye of the hunter might range freely ovei
his victims, who found no place for shelter or escape.
The male deer and some of the coarser kind of the
Peruvian sheep were slaughtered; their skins were
reserved for the various useful manufactures to which
they are ordinarily applied, and their flesh, cut into
thin slices, was distributed among the people, who
converted  it into  charqui, the dried  meat of the
country, which constituted then the sole, as it has
since the principal, animal food of the lower classes
of Peru.9
But nearly the whole of the sheep, amounting usually
to thirty or forty thousand, or even a larger number,
after being carefully sheared, were suffered to escape
and regain their solitary haunts among the mountains.
The wool thus collected was deposited in the royal
ya juntado cinquenta 6 sesenta mil Personas 6 cien mil si mandado
les era." Relacion, MS., cap. 13.
9 Ibid., ubi supra.-Charqui; hence, probably, says McCulloh, the
term "jerked," applied to the dried beef of South America. Researches, p. 377.




152       CIVILIZATION  OF  THE  INCAS.
magazines, whence, in due time, it was dealt out to the
people. The coarser quality was worked up into garments for their own use, and the finer for the Inca; for
none but an Inca noble could wear the fine fabric of
the vicufia.zT
The Peruvians showed great skill in the manufacture
of different articles for the royal household from this
delicate material, which, under the name of vigonia
wool, is now familiar to the looms of Europe. It was
wrought into shawls, robes, and other articles of dress
for the monarch, and into carpets, coverlets, and hangings for the imperial palaces and the temples. The
cloth was finished on both sides alike;" the delicacy
of the texture was such as to give it the lustre of silk;
and the brilliancy of the dyes excited the admiration
and the envy of the European artisan.~2  The Peruvians produced also an article of great strength and
durability by mixing the hair of animals with wool;
and they were expert in the beautiful feather-work,
which they held of less account than the Mexicans,
from the superior quality of the materials for other
fabrics which they had at their command."3
xo Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., loc. cit.-Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap.
8r.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 6, cap. 6.
xx Acosta, lib. 4, cap. 4I.
x2 " Ropas finisimas para los Reyes, que lo eran tanto que parecian
de sarga de seda y con colores tan perfectos quanto se puede afirmar."
Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 13.
~3 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-" Ropa finissima para los
sefiores Ingas de lana de las Vicunias. Y cierto fue tan prima esta
ropa, como auran visto en Espafia: por alguna que alla fue luego que
se gano este reyno. Los vestidos destos Ingas eran camisetas desta
ropa: vnas Dobladas de argenteria de oro, otras de esmeraldas y piedras preciosas: y algunas de plumas de aues: otras de solamente la




MECHANICAL SKILL.                    153
The natives showed a skill in other mechanical arts
similar to that displayed by their manufactures of cloth.
Every man in Peru was expected to be acquainted
with the various handicrafts essential to domestic comfort. No long apprenticeship was required for this,
where the wants were so few as among the simple
peasantry of the Incas. But, if this were all, it would
imply but a very moderate advancement in the arts.
There were certain individuals, however, carefully
trained to those occupations which minister to the
demands of the more opulent classes of society. These
occupations, like every other calling and office in Peru,
always descended from father to son.'4 The division
of castes, in this particular, was as precise as that which
existed in Egypt or Hindostan. If this arrangement
be unfavorable to originality, or to the development
of the peculiar talent of the individual, it at least
conduces to an easy and finished execution, by familiarizing the artist with the practice of his art from
childhood.'s
The royal magazines and the huacas or tombs of the
Incas have been found to contain many specimens of
curious and elaborate workmanship. Among these are
vases of gold and silver, bracelets, collars, and other
manta. Para hazer estas ropas, tuuier5 y tienen tan perfetas colores
de carmesi, azul, amarillo, negro, y de otras suertes, que verdaderamente tienen ventaja i las de Espafia." Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap,
II4.'4 Ondegardo, Rel. Prim. et Seg., MSS.-Garcilasso, Corn. Real.
Parte I, lib. 5, cap. 7, 9, I3.'s At least, such was the opinion of the Egyptians, who referred to
this arrangement of castes as the source of their own peculiar dexterity
in the arts. See Diodorus Sic., lib. x, sec. 74.
G*




154    CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
ornaments for the person; utensils of every description, some of fine clay, and many more of copper;
mirrors of a hard, polished stone, or burnished silver,
with a great variety of other articles made frequently
on a whimsical pattern, evincing quite as much ingenuity as taste or inventive talent.x6 The character of
the Peruvian mind led to imitation, in fact, rather than
invention, to delicacy and minuteness of finish, rather
than to boldness or beauty of design.
That they should have accomplished these difficult
works with such tools as they possessed is truly wonderful. It was comparatively easy to cast and even to
sculpture metallic substances, both of which they did
with consummate skill. But that they should have
shown the like facility in cutting the hardest substances, as emeralds and other precious stones, is not
so easy to explain. Emeralds they obtained in considerable quantity from the barren district of Atacames,
and this inflexible material seems to have been almost
as ductile in the hands of the Peruvian artist as if it
had been made of clay.17 Yet the natives were unz6 Ulloa, Not. Amer., ent. 2I.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq.,
MS.-Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. II4.-Condamine, MWm. ap. Hist.
de l'Acad. Royale de Berlin, tom. ii. pp. 454-456.-The last writer
says that a large collection of massive gold ornaments of very rich
workmanship was long preserved in the royal treasury of Quito. But
on his going there to examine them he learned that they had just
been melted down into ingots to send to Carthagena, then besieged
by the English! The art of war can flourish only at the expense of
all the other arts.
17 They had turquoises, also, and might have had pearls, but for the
tenderness of the Incas, who were unwilling to risk the lives of their
people in this perilous fishery I At least, so we are assured by Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 8, cap. 23.




MAECHANICAL  SKILL.                 I55
acquainted with the use of iron, though the soil was
largely impregnated with it.'8 The tools used were of
stone, or more frequently of copper. But the material
on which they relied for the execution of their most
difficult tasks was formed by combining a very small
portion of tin with copper.x9 This composition gave
a hardness to the metal which seems to have been little
inferior to that of steel. With the aid of it, not only
did the Peruvian artisan hew into shape porphyry and
granite, but by his patient industry accomplished
works which the European would not have ventured to
undertake. Among the remains of the monuments of
Cannar may be seen movable rings in the muzzles of
animals, all nicely sculptured of one entire block of
granite.2o It is worthy of remark that the Egyptians,
the Mexicans, and the Peruvians, in their progress
towards civilization, should never have detected the
use of iron, which lay around them in abundance, and
that they should each, without any knowledge of the
other, have found a substitute for it in such a curious
composition of metals as gave to their tools almost the
temper of steel; 2 a secret that has been lost- or, to
-8, No tenian herramientas de hierro ni azero." Ondegardo, Rel.
Seg., MS.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 4.'9 M. de Humboldt brought with him back to Europe one of these
metallic tools, a chisel, found in a silver-mine opened by the Incas
not far from Cuzco. On an analysis, it was found to contain o.94 of
copper and o.o6 of tin. See Vues des Cordill~res, p. II7.
= " Quoiqu'il en soit," says M. de la Condamine, " nous avons vu
en quelques autres ruines des ornemens du meme granit, qui repr&e
sentoient des mufles d'animaux, dont les narines perc6es portoient des
anneaux mobiles de la meme pierre." Mom. ap. Hist. de l'Acad,
Royale de Berlin, tom. ii. p. 452.
~2 See the History of the Conquest of Mexico, Book I, chap. 5.




Ic56     CIVILIZA TIONA  OF THE INCAS.
speak more correctly, has never been discovered —by
the civilized European.
I have already spoken of the large quantity of gold
and silver wrought into various articles of elegance and
utility for the Incas; though the amount was inconsiderable, in comparison with what could have been
afforded by the mineral riches of the land, and with
what has since been obtained by the more sagacious
and unscrupulous cupidity of the white man. Gold
was gathered by the Incas from the deposits of the
streams. They extracted the ore also in considerable
quantities from the valley of Curimayo, northeast of
Caxamarca, as well as from other places; and the
silver-mines of Porco, in particular, yielded them considerable returns. Yet they did not attempt to penetrate into the bowels of the earth by sinking a shaft,
but simply excavated a cavern in the steep sides of the
mountain, or, at most, opened a horizontal vein of
moderate depth. They were equally deficient in the
knowledge of the best means of detaching the precious
metal from the dross with which it was united, and
had no idea of the virtues of quicksilver-a mineral
not rare in Peru-as an amalgam to effect this decomposition.22 Their method of smelting the ore was by
means of furnaces built in elevated and exposed situations, where they might be fanned by the strong breezes
of the mountains. The subjects of the Incas, in short,
with all their patient perseverance, did little more than
penetrate below the crust, the outer rind, as it were,
formed over those golden caverns which lie hidden in
the dark depths of the Andes. Yet what they gleaned
- Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, ilb. 8, cap. a5.




ARCHITECTURE.                     157
from the surface was more than adequate for all their
demands. For they were not a commercial people,
and had no knowledge of money.23 In this they differed from the ancient Mexicans, who had an established currency of a determinate value. In one respect,
however, they were superior to their Amerima  riwrals,
since they made use of weights to determine the quantity of their commodities, a thing wholly unknown to
the Aztecs. This fact is ascertained by the discovery
of silver balances, adjusted with perfect accuracy, in
some of the tombs of the Incas.24
But the surest test of the civilization of a peopleat least, as sure as any-afforded by mechanical art is
to be found in their architecture, which presents so
noble a field for the display of the grand and the beautiful, and which at the same time is so intimately connected with the essential comforts of life. There is no
object on which the resources of the wealthy are more
freely lavished, or which calls out more effectually the
inventive talent of the artist. The painter and the
sculptor may display their individual genius in creations of surpassing excellence, but it is the great monu.
ments of architectural taste and magnificence that are
stamped in a peculiar manner by the genius of the
nation. The Greek, the Egyptian, the Saracen, the
Gothic,-what a key do their respective styles afford
23 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 5, cap. 7; lib. 6, cap. 8.Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.-This, which Bonaparte thought so incredible of the little island of Loo Choo, was still more extraordinary
in a great and flourishing empire like Peru,-the country, too, which
contained within its bowels the treasures that were one day to furnish
Europe with the basis of its vast metallic currency.
24 Ulloa, Not. Amer., ent. 2I.
Peru.-VoL. I.-14




t58       CIVILIZATION  OF THE  INCAS.
to the character and condition of the people!  The
monuments of China, of Hindostan, and of Central
America are all indicative of an immature period, in
which the imagination has not been disciplined by
study, and which, therefore, in its best results, betrays
only the ill-regulated aspirations after the beautiful,
that belong to a semi-civilized people.
The Peruvian architecture, bearing also the general
characteristics of an imperfect state of refinement, had
still its peculiar character; and so uniform was that
character that the edifices throughout the country seem
to have been all cast in the same mould.25  They were
usually built of porphyry or granite; not unfrequently
of brick. This, which was formed into blocks or
squares of much larger dimensions than our brick, was
made of a tenacious earth mixed up with reeds or tough
grass, and acquired a degree of hardness with age that
made it insensible alike to the storms and the more
trying sun of the tropics.'6  The walls were of great
thickness, but low, seldom reaching to more than
twelve or fourteen feet in height. It is rare to meet
with accounts of a building that rose to a second story.27
25 It is the observation of Humboldt. " I1 est impossible d'examiner attentivement un seul edifice du temps des Incas, sans reconnoitre
le meme type dans tous les autres qui couvrent le dos des Andes, sur
une longueur de plus de quatre cent cinquante lieues, depuis mille,
jusqu'. quatre mille metres d'6lvation au-dessus du niveau de
l'Ocean. On dirait qu'un seul architecte a construit ce grand nombre
de monumens." Vues des Cordill~res, p. I97.
26 Ulloa, who carefully examined these bricks, suggests that there
must have been some secret in their composition,-so superior in
many respects to our own manufacture,-now lost. Not. Amer., ent.
20.
27 Ibid., ubi supra.




ARCHITECTURE.                     159
The apartments had no communication with one
another, but usually opened into a court; and, as they
were unprovided with windows, or apertures that served
for them,* the only light from without must have been
admitted by the doorways. These were made with
the sides approaching each other towards the top, so
that the lintel was considerably narrower than the
threshold, a peculiarity, also, in Egyptian architecture.
The roofs have, for the most part, disappeared with
time. Some few survive in the less ambitious edifices,
of a singular bell-shape, and made of a composition
of earth and pebbles. They are supposed, however,
to have been generally formed of more perishable materials, of wood or straw. It is certain that some of
the most considerable stone buildings were thatched
with straw.  Many seem  to have been constructed
without the aid of cement; and writers have contended
that the Peruvians were unacquainted with the use of
mortar, or cement of any kind.28 But a close, tenacious mould, mixed with lime, may be discovered filling
up the interstices of the granite in some buildings; and
in others, where the well-fitted blocks leave no room
for this coarser material, the eye of the antiquary has
as Among others, see Acosta, lib. 6, cap. Is.-Robertson, History
of America (London, I796), vol. iii. p. 2I3.
* [According to Mr. Markham, the palaces of the Incas " had small
square windows, and deep recesses of the same size, at intervals;"
and he adds, " It has been stated that the ancient Peruvian buildings
had no windows. This is a mistake. Amongst other instances, I may
mention the occurrence of one in the palace of the Colcampata, at
Cuzco." Cieza de Leon, Eng. trans., Introduction, p. xxix. See also
Rivero, Antiquities of Peru, p. 233.-ED.]




I60       Ci VILIZATION  OF  THE  INCAS.
detected a fine bituminous glue, as hard as the rock
itself.29
The greatest simplicity is observed in the construction of the buildings, which are usually free from outward ornament; though in some the huge stones are
shaped into a convex form with great regularity, and
adjusted with such nice precision to one another that
it would be impossible, but for the flutings, to determine the line of junction.   In others the stone is
rough, as it was taken from the quarry, in the most
irregular forms, with the edges nicely wrought and
fitted to each other. There is no appearance of columns or of arches; though there is some contradiction
as to the latter point. But it is not to be doubted
that, although they may have made some approach to
this mode of construction by the greater or less inclination of the walls, the Peruvian architects were wholly
unacquainted with the true principle of the circular
arch reposing on its key-stone.30
29 Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.-Ulloa, Not. Amer., ent. 2I.-Humboldt, who analyzed the cement of the ancient structures at Cannar,
says that it is a true mortar, formed of a mixture of pebbles and a
clayey marl. (Vues des Cordill~res, p. II6.) Father Velasco is in
raptures with an "almost imperceptible kind of cement" made of
lime and a bituminous substance resembling glue, which incorporated
with the stones so as to hold them firmly together like one solid mass,
yet left nothing visible to the eye of the common observer. This
glutinous composition, mixed with pebbles, made a sort of macadamized road much used by the Incas, as hard and almost as smooth as
marble. Hist. de Quito, tom. i. pp. 126-I28.
30 Condamine, Mem. ap. Hist. de l'Acad. Royale de Berlin, tom.
ii. p. 448.-Antig. y Monumentos del Peru, MS.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 4.-Acosta, lib. 6, cap. I4.-Ulloa, Voyage
to South America, vol. i. p. 469.-Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS.




ARCHITECTURE.                   i6 I
The architecture of the Incas is characterized, says
an eminent traveller, "by simplicity, symmetry, and
solidity." 3' It may seem unphilosophical to condemn
the peculiar fashion of a nation as indicating want of
taste, because its standard of taste differs from our
own. Yet there is an incongruity in the composition
of the Peruvian buildings which argues a very imperfect
acquaintance with the first principles of architecture.
While they put together their bulky masses of porphyry
and granite with the nicest art, they were incapable of
mortising their timbers, and, in their ignorance of iron,
knew no better way of holding the beams together than
tying them with thongs of maguey. In the same incongruous spirit, the building that was thatched with
straw and unilluminated by a window was glowing with
tapestries of gold and silver! These are the inconsistencies of a rude people, among whom the arts are but
partially developed. It might not be difficult to find
examples of like inconsistency in the architecture and
domestic arrangements of our Anglo-Saxon and, at a
still later period, of our Norman ancestors.
Yet the buildings of the Incas were accommodated
to the character of the climate, and were well fitted to
resist those terrible convulsions which belong to the
land of volcanoes. The wisdom of their plan is attested
by the number which still survive, while the more modern constructions of the Conquerors have been buried
in ruins. The hand of the Conquerors, indeed, has
fallen heavily on these venerable monuments, and, in
31 "Simplicit6, symetrie, et solidifY, voila les trois caractbres par
lesquels se distinguent avantageusement tous les 6difices pruaviens."
Humboldt, Vues des Cordillres, p. II5.
14*




162    CIVILIZA TIONV OF THE INCAS.
their blind and superstitious search for hidden treasure,
has caused infinitely more ruin than time or the earthquake.32  Yet enough of these monuments still remain
to invite the researches of the antiquary. Those only
in the most conspicuous situations have been hitherto
examined. But, by the testimony of travellers, many
more are to be found in the less frequented parts of the
country; and we may hope they will one day call forth
a kindred spirit of enterprise to that which has so suc32 The anonymous author of the Antig. y Monumentos del Peru,
MS., gives us, at second hand, one of those golden traditions which,
in early times, fostered the spirit of adventure. The tradition, in this
instance, he thinks well entitled to credit. The reader will judge for
himself.
" It is a well-authenticated report, and generally received, that there
is a secret hall in the fortress of Cuzco, where an immense treasure is
concealed, consisting of the statues of all the Incas, wrought in gold.
A lady is still living, Dofia Maria de Esquivel, the wife of the last
Inca, who has visited this hall, and I have heard her relate the way in
which she was carried to see it.
" Don Carlos, the lady's husband, did not maintain a style of living
becoming his high rank. Dofia Maria sometimes reproached him,
declaring that she had been deceived into marrying a poor Indian
under the lofty title of Lord or Inca. She said this so frequently that
Don Carlos one night exclaimed,'Lady  do you wish to know
whether I am rich or poor?  You shall see that no lord nor king in
the world has a larger treasure than I have.' Then, covering her eyes
with a handkerchief, he made her turn round two or three times, and,
taking her by the hand, led her a short distance before he removed
the bandage. On opening her eyes, what was her amazement! She
had gone not more than two hundred paces, and descended a short
flight of steps, and she now found herself in a large quadrangular
hall, where, ranged on benches round the walls, she beheld the
statues of the Incas, each of the size of a boy twelve years old, all of
massive gold! She saw also many vessels of gold and silver.'In
fact,' she said,' it was one of the most magnificent treasures in the
whole world " "




CONCL UDIANG REFLECTIONS.                  I63
cessfully explored the mysterious recesses of Central
America and Yucatan.*
I cannot close this analysis of the Peruvian institutions without a few reflections on their general character
and tendency, which, if they involve some repetition
of previous remarks, may, I trust, be excused, from my
desire to leave a correct and consistent impression on
the reader. In this survey we cannot but be struck
with the total dissimilarity between these institutions
and those of the Aztecs, —the other great nation who
led in the march of civilization on this Western continent, and whose empire in the northern portion of it
was as conspicuous as that of the Incas in the south.
Both nations came on the plateau and commenced their
career of conquest at dates, it may be, not far removed
from each other.33  And it is worthy of notice that, in
America, the elevated region along the crests of the
great mountain-ranges should have been the chosen
seat of civilization in both hemispheres.
Very different was the policy pursued by the two
33 Ante, chap. i.
* [In the foregoing remarks the author has scarcely done justice to
the artistic character of the Peruvian architecture, its great superiority
to the Mexican, and the resemblances which it offers, in style and
development, to the early stages of Greek and Egyptian art. The
subject has been fully, and of course very ably, treated by Mr. Fergusson, in his Handbook of Architecture. The Peruvian pottery,
which Prescott has passed over with a mere incidental mention, might
also have claimed particular notice. Its characteristics are now more
familiar, from numerous specimens in public and private collections.
For a description of these interesting relics, and a comparison with
other remains of ancient ceramic art, see Wilson, Prehistoric Man,
chap. I7.-ED.]




164      CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
races in their military career. The Aztecs, animated
by the most ferocious spirit, carried on a war of extermination, signalizing their triumphs by the sacrifice of
hecatombs of captives; while the Incas, although they
pursued the game of conquest with equal pertinacity,
preferred a milder policy, substituting negotiation and
intrigue for violence, and dealt with their antagonists
so that their future resources should not be crippled,
and that they should come as friends, not as foes, into
the bosom of the empire.
Their policy towards the conquered forms a contrast
no less striking to that pursued by the Aztecs. The
Mexican vassals were ground by excessive imposts and
military conscriptions. No regard was had to their
welfare, and the only limit to oppression was the power
of endurance. They were overawed by fortresses and
armed garrisons, and were made to feel every hour that
they were not part and parcel of the nation, but held
only in subjugation as a conquered people. The Incas,
on the other hand, admitted their new subjects at once
to all the rights enjoyed by the rest of the community;
and, though they made them conform to the established
laws and usages of the empire, they watched over their
personal security and comfort with a sort of parental
solicitude. The motley population, thus bound together
by common interest, was animated by a common feeling of loyalty, which gave greater strength and stability
to the empire as it became more and more widely extended; while the various tribes who successively came
under the Mexican sceptre, being held together only by
the pressure of external force, were ready to fall asunder
the moment that that force was withdrawn. The policy




CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.            i65
of the two nations displayed the principle of fear as
contrasted with the principle of love.
The characteristic features of their religious systems
had as little resemblance to each other. The whole
Aztec pantheon partook more or less of the sanguinary
spirit of the terrible war-god who presided over it, and
their frivolous ceremonial almost always terminated
with human sacrifice and cannibal orgies. But the
rites of the Peruvians were of a more innocent cast, as
they tended to a more spiritual worship. For the worship of the Creator is most nearly approached by that
of the heavenly bodies, which, as they revolve in their
bright orbits, seem to be the most glorious symbols of
his beneficence and power.
In the minuter mechanical arts, both showed considerable skill; but in the construction of important
public works, of roads, aqueducts, canals, and in agrieulture in all its details, the Peruvians were much superior. Strange that they should have fallen so far below
their rivals in their efforts after a higher intellectual
culture, in astronomical science more especially, and in
the art of communicating thought by visible symbols.
When we consider the greater refinement of the Incas,
their inferiority to the Aztecs in these particulars can
be explained only by the fact that the latter in all probability were indebted for their science to the race who
preceded them in the land, —that shadowy race whose
origin and whose end are alike veiled from the eye of
the inquirer, but who possibly may have sought a refuge
from their ferocious invaders in those regions of Central America, the architectural remains of which now
supply us with the most pleasing monuments of Indian




i 66       CIVILIZA TION  OF  THEE  INCAS.
civilization. It is with this more polished race, to
whom the Peruvians seem to have borne some resemblance in their mental and moral organization, that
they should be compared.   Had the empire of the
Incas been permitted to extend itself with the rapid
strides with which it was advancing at the period of
the Spanish conquest, the two races might have come
into conflict, or perhaps into alliance, with one another.
The Mexicans and Peruvians, so different in the
character of their peculiar civilization, were, it seems
probable, ignorant of each other's existence; and it
may appear singular that, during the simultaneous continuance of their empires, some of the seeds of science
and of art which pass so imperceptibly from one people
to another should not have found their way across the
interval which separated the two nations. They furnish
an interesting example of the opposite directions which
the human mind may take in its struggle to emerge
from darkness into the light of civilization.*
* [Professor Daniel Wilson, commenting on this passage, remarks
that, " whilst there seems little room for doubt that those two nations
were ignorant of each other at the period of the discovery of America,
there are many indications in some of their arts of an earlier intercourse between the northern and southern continent." (Prehistoric
Man, 2d edition, p. 285.) This supposition is connected with a theory
put forward by the learned writer in regard to the aboriginal population of America. Rejecting the common opinion of its ethnical unity,
he considers the indications as pointing to two, or possibly three, great
divisions of race, with as many distinct lines of immigration. He conceives " the earliest current of population" from "a supposed Asiatic
cradle land" "to have spread through the islands of the Pacific and
to have reached the South American continent long before an excess
of Asiatic population had diffused itself into its own inhospitable
northern steppes. By an Atlantic Ocean migration, another wave of




CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.                     i67
A closer resemblance-as I have more than once
taken occasion to notice-may be found between the
Peruvian institutions and some of the despotic governments of Eastern Asia; those governments where
despotism appears in its more mitigated form, and the
whole people, under the patriarchal sway of the sovereign, seem to be gathered together like the members
of one vast family. Such were the Chinese, for example, whom the Peruvians resembled in their implicit
obedience to authority, their mild yet somewhat stubborn temper, their solicitude for forms, their reverence
population occupied the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores, and so
passed to the Antilles, Central America, and probably by the Cape
Verdes, or, guided by the more southern equatorial current, to Brazil.
Latest of all, Behring Straits and the North Pacific Islands may
have become the highway for a northern migration by which certain
striking diversities of nations of the northern continent, including the
conquerors of the Mexican plateau, are most easily accounted for."
(Ibid., p. 604.) " The north and south tropics were the centres of two
distinct and seemingly independent manifestations of native development," but with " clear indications of an overlapping of two or more
distinct migratory trails leading from opposite points." (Ibid., p. 602.)
It is to be remarked that the novelty of this theory consists, not in any
new suggestion to account for the original settlement of America, but
in the adoption and symmetrical blending of various conjectures, and
the application of them to explain the differences of physical characteristics, customs, development, etc., between the savage and civilized
or semi-civilized nations scattered over the continent. The evidence
offered in its support does not admit of being summalszed here. Elab.
orate as it is, it will scarcely be considered sufficient to establish the
certainty of the general conclusions deduced by the author. On the
other hand, his arguments in disproof of a supposed craniological
uniformity of type among the American aborigines appear to be
irresistible, and to justify the statement that " the form of the human
skull is just as little constant among different tribes or races of the New
World as of the Old." (Ibid., p. 483.) —ED.]




I68       CIVILIZATION  OF THE INCAS.
for ancient usage, their skill in the minuter manufactures, their imitative rather than inventive cast of mind,
and their invincible patience, which serves instead of
a more adventurous spirit for the execution of difficult
undertakings.34
A still closer analogy may be found with the natives
of Hindostan in their division into castes, their worship
of the heavenly bodies and the elements of nature, and
their acquaintance with the scientific principles of husbandry. To the ancient Egyptians, also, they bore
considerable resemblance in the same particulars, as
well as in those ideas of a future existence which led
them to attach so much importance to the permanent
preservation of the body.
But we shall look in vain in the history of the East
for a parallel to the absolute control exercised by the
Incas over their subjects. In the East, this was founded
on physical power,-on the external resources of the
government. The authority of the Inca might be compared with that of the Pope in the day of his might,
when Christendom trembled at the thunders of the
Vatican, and the successor of St. Peter set his foot on
the necks of princes. But the authority of the Pope
was founded on opinion. His temporal power was
nothing. The empire of the Incas rested on both. It
was a theocracy more potent in its operation than that
34 Count Carli has amused himself with tracing out the different
points of resemblance between the Chinese and the Peruvians. The
Emperor of China was styled the son of Heaven or of the Sun. He
also held a plough once a year in presence of his people, to show his
respect for agriculture. And the solstices and equinoxes were noted,
to determine the periods of their religious festivals. The coincidences
are curious. Lettres Amdricaines, tom. ii. pp. 7, 8.




CONCLU)DING REFLECTIONS.             I69
of the Jews; for, though the sanction of the law might
be as great among the latter, the law was expounded
by a human lawgiver, the servant and representative
of Divinity. But the Inca was both the lawgiver and
the law. He was not merely the representative of
Divinity, or, like the Pope, its vicegerent, but he was
Divinity itself. The violation of his ordinance was
sacrilege. Never was there a scheme of government
enforced by such terrible sanctions, or which bore so
oppressively on the subjects of it. For it reached not
only to the visible acts, but to the private conduct, the
words, the very thoughts, of its vassals.
It added not a little to the efficacy of the government that below the sovereign there was an order of
hereditary nobles of the same divine original with himself, who, placed far below himself, were still immeasurably above the rest of the community, not merely by
descent, but, as it would seem, by their intellectual
nature. These were the exclusive depositaries of power,
and, as their long hereditary training made them familiar with their vocation and secured them implicit deference from the multitude, they became the prompt and
well-practised agents for carrying out the executive
measures of the administration. All that occurred
throughout the wide extent of his empire-such was the
perfect system of communication-passed in review, as
it were, before the eyes of the monarch, and a thousand
hands, armed with irresistible authority, stood ready in
every quarter to do his bidding. Was it not, as we
have said, the most oppressive, though the mildest, of
despotisms?
It was the mildest, from the very circumstance that
Peru.-VoL. I. —H      5




170      CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
the transcendent rank of the sovereign, and the humble,
nay, superstitious, devotion to his will, made it superfluous to assert this will by acts of violence or rigor.
The great mass of the people may have appeared to
his eyes as but little removed above the condition of
the brute, formed to minister to his pleasures. But
from their very helplessness he regarded them with
feelings of commiseration, like those which a kind
master might feel for the poor animals committed to
his charge, or-to do justice to the beneficent character
attributed to many of the Incas-that a parent might
feel for his young and impotent offspring. The laws
were carefully directed to their preservation and personal comfort. The people were not allowed to be
employed on works pernicious to their health, nor to
pine-a sad contrast to their subsequent destinyunder the imposition of tasks too heavy for their
powers. They were never made the victims of public
or private extortion; and a benevolent forecast watched
carefully over their necessities, and provided for their
relief in seasons of infirmity and for their sustenance
in health.  The government of the Incas, however
arbitrary in form, was in its spirit truly patriarchal.
Yet in this there was nothing cheering to the dignity
of human nature. What the people had was conceded
as a boon, not as a right. When a nation was brought
under the sceptre of the Incas, it resigned every personal right, even the rights dearest to humanity. Under
this extraordinary polity, a people advanced in many
of the social refinements, well skilled in manufactures
and agriculture, were unacquainted, as we have seen,
with money. They had nothing that deserved to be




CONCLUDING REELECTIO.VS.
called property. They could follow no craft, could
engage in no labor, no amusement, but such as was
specially provided by law. They could not change
their residence or their dress without a license from the
government. They could not even exercise the freedom
which is conceded to the most abject in other countries,
-that of selecting their own wives. The imperative
spirit of despotism would not allow them to be happy
or miserable in any way but that established by law.
The power of free agency-the inestimable and inborn
right of every human being-was annihilated in Peru.
The astonishing mechanism of the Peruvian polity
could have resulted only from the combined authority
of opinion and positive power in the ruler to an extent
unprecedented in the history of man.  Yet that it
should have so successfully gone into operation, and
so long endured, in opposition to the taste, the prejudices, and the very principles of our nature, is a strong
proof of a generally wise and temperate administration
of the government.
The policy habitually pursued by the Incas for the
prevention of evils that might have disturbed the order
of things is well exemplified in their provisions against
poverty and idleness. In these they rightly discerned
the two great causes of disaffection in a populous community. The industry of the people was secured not
only by their compulsory occupations at home, but by
their employment on those great public works which
covered every part of the country, and which still bear
testimony in their decay to their primitive grandeur.
Yet it may well astonish us to find that the natural
difficulty of these undertakings, sufficiently great in




1 72       CIVILIZATION OF THE INCAS.
itself, considering the imperfection of their tools and
machinery, was inconceivably enhanced by the politic
contrivance of the government. The royal edifices of
Quito, we are assured by the Spanish conquerors, were
constructed of huge masses of stone, many of which
were carried all the way along the mountain-roads from
Cuzco, a distance of several hundred leagues.35 The
great square of the capital was filled to a considerable
depth with mould brought with incredible labor up the
steep slopes of the Cordilleras from the distant shores
of the Pacific Ocean.36 Labor was regarded not only
as a means, but as an end, by the Peruvian law.
35 " Era muy principal intento que la gente no holgase, que dava
causa a que despues que los Ingas estuvieron en paz hacer traer de
Quito al Cuzco piedra que venia de provincia en provincia para hacer
casas para si 6 pa el Sol en gran cantidad, y del Cuzco Ilevalla a Quito
pa el mismo efecto,... y asi destas cosas hacian los Ingas muchas
de poco provecho y de escesivo travajo en que traian ocupadas las
provincias ordinariamte, y en fin el travajo era causa de su conservacion." Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.-Also Antig. y Monumentos del
Peru, MS.
36 This was literally gold dust; for Ondegardo states that, when
governor of Cuzco, he caused great quantities of gold vessels and
ornaments to be disinterred from the sand in which they had been secreted by the natives: " Que toda aquella plaza del Cuzco le sacaron
la tierra propia, y se llev6 a otras partes por cosa de gran estima, 6 la
hincheron de arena de la costa de la mar, como hasta dos palmos y
medio en algunas partes, mas sembraron por toda ella muchos vasos
de oro e plata, y hovejuelas y hombrecillos pequefios de lo mismo, lo
cual se ha sacado en mucha cantidad, que todo lo hemos visto; desta
arena estaba toda la plaza, quando yo fui t governar aquella Ciudad;
6 si fue verdad que aquella se trajo de ellos, afirman 6 tienen puestos
en sus registros, paresceme que sea ansi, que toda la tierra junta tubo
necesidad de entender en ello, por que la plaza es grande, y no tiene
numero las cargas que en ella entraron; y la costa por lo mas cerca
esta mas de nobenta leguas ti lo que creo, y cierto yo me satisfice,




CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS.                    1 73
With their manifold provisions against poverty the
reader has already been made acquainted. They were
so perfect that in their wide extent of territory-much
of it smitten with the curse of barrenness-no man,
however humble, suffered for the want of food and
clothing. Famine, so common a scourge in every
other American nation, so common at that period in
every country of civilized Europe, was an evil unknown
in the dominions of the Incas.
The most enlightened of the Spaniards who first
visited Peru, struck with the general appearance of
plenty and prosperity, and with the astonishing order
with which every thing throughout the country was
regulated, are loud in their expressions of admiration.
No better government, in their opinion, could have
been devised for the people.  Contented with their
condition, and free from vice, to borrow the language
of an eminent authority of that early day, the mild
and docile character of the Peruvians would have well
fitted them to receive the teachings of Christianity,
had the love of conversion, instead of gold, animated
the breasts of the Conquerors.37 And a philosopher
porque todos dicen, que aquel genero de arena, no lo hay hasta la
costa." Rel. Seg., MS.
37 " Y si Dios permitiera que tubieran quien con celo de Cristiandad,
y no con ramo de codicia, en lo pasado, les dieran entera noticia de
nuestra sagrada Religion, era gente en que bien imprimiera, segun
vemos por lo que ahora con la buena orden que hay se obra." Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 22. —But the most emphatic testimony to
the merits of the people is that afforded by Mancio Sierra Lejesema,
the last survivor of the early Spanish Conquerors, who settled in Peru.
In the preamble to his testament, made, as he states, to relieve his
conscience, at the time of his death. he declares that the whole population, under the Incas, was distinguished by sobriety and industry; that
15*




74    CIVILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
of a later time, warmed by the contemplation of the
picture-which his own fancy had colored-of public
prosperity and private happiness under the rule of the
Incas, pronounces " the moral man in Peru far superior
to the European." 38
Yet such results are scarcely reconcilable with the
theory of the government I have attempted to analyze.
Where there is no free agency there can be no morality.
Where there is no temptation there can be little claim
to virtue. Where the routine is rigorously prescribed
by law, the law, and not the man, must have the credit
of the conduct. If that government is the best which
is felt the least, which encroaches on the natural liberty
of the subject only so far as is essential to civil subordination, then of all governments devised by man the
Peruvian has the least real claim to our admiration.
It is not easy to comprehend the genius and the full
import of institutions so opposite to those of our own
free republic, where every man, however humble his
condition, may aspire to the highest honors of the
state,-may select his own career and carve out his
such things as robbery and theft were unknown; that, far from licentiousness, there was not even a prostitute in the country; and that
every thing was conducted with the greatest order, and entire submission to authority. The panegyric is somewhat too unqualified for a
whole nation, and may lead one to suspect that the stings of remorse
for his own treatment of the natives goaded the dying veteran into a
higher estimate of their deserts than was strictly warranted by facts.
Yet this testimony by such a man at such a time is too remarkable, as
well as too honorable to the Peruvians, to be passed over in silence by
the historian; and I have transferred the document in the original to
Appendix No. 4.
38 " Sans doute l'homme f.loral du Perou 6toit infiniment plus perfectionne que l'Europeen." Carli, Lettres Americaines, tom. i. p. 215




CONCL UDING REFLECTIONS.            I 7 5
fortune in his own way; where the light of knowledge,
instead of being concentrated on a chosen few, is shed
abroad like the light of day, and suffered to fall equally
on the poor and the rich; where the collision of man
with man wakens a generous emulation that calls out
latent talent and tasks the energies to the utmost;
where consciousness of independence gives a feeling
of self-reliance unknown to the timid subjects of a
despotism; where, in short, the government is made
for man,-not as in Peru, where man seemed to be
made only for the government. The New World is
the theatre on which these two political systems, so
opposite in their character, have been carried into
operation. The empire of the Incas has passed away
and left no trace.  The other great experiment is
still going on,-the experiment which is to solve the
problem, so long contested in the Old World, of the
capacity of man for self-government.  Alas for humanity, if it should fail!
The testimony of the Spanish conquerors is not uniform in respect to the favorable influence exerted by
the Peruvian institutions on the character of the people.
Drinking and dancing are said to have been the pleasures to which they were immoderately addicted. Like
the slaves and serfs in other lands, whose position excluded them from more serious and ennobling occupations, they found a substitute in frivolous or sensual
indulgence. Lazy, luxurious, and licentious, are the
epithets bestowed on them by one of those who saw
them at the Conquest, but whose pen was not too
friendly to the Indian.39 Yet the spirit of independ39 " Heran muy dados g la lujuria y al bever, tenian acceso carnal




76        CIVILIZA TION OF THE INCAS.
ence could hardly be strong in a people who had no
interest in the soil, no personal rights to defend; and
the facility with which they yielded to the Spanish
invader-after every allowance for their comparative
inferiority-argues a deplorable destitution of that
patriotic feeling which holds life as little in comparison
with freedom.
But we must not judge too hardly of the unfortunate
native because he quailed before the civilization of the
European. We must not be insensible to the really
great results that were achieved by the government of
the Incas. We must not forget that under their rule the
meanest of the people enjoyed a far greater degree of
personal comfort, at least a greater exemption from
physical suffering, than was possessed by similar classes
in other nations on the American continent,-greater,
probably, than was possessed by these classes in most
of the countries of feudal Europe. Under their sceptre
the higher orders of the state had made advances in
many of the arts that belong to a cultivated community.
The foundations of a regular government were laid,
which, in an age of rapine, secured to its subjects the
inestimable blessings of tranquillity and safety. By the
con las hermanas y las mugeres de sus padres como no fuesen sus
mismas madres, y aun algunos avia que con ellas mismas lo hacian y
ansi mismo con sus hijas. Estando borrachos tocavan algunos en el
pecado nefando, emborrachavanse muy a menudo, y estando borrachos todo lo que el demonio les traia at la voluntad hacian. Heran
estos orejones muy soberbios y presuntuosos.... Tenian otras muchas
maldades que por ser muchas no las digo." Pedro Pizarro, Descub.
y Conq., MS.-These random aspersions of the hard conqueror show
too gross an ignorance of the institutions of the people to merit much
confidence as to what is said of their character.




SARMIENTO.' 77
well-sustained policy of the Incas, the rude tribes of
the forest were gradually drawn from their fastnesses and
gathered within the folds of civilization; and of these
materials was constructed a flourishing and populous
empire, such as was to be found in no other quarter of
the American continent. The defects of this government were those of over-refinement in legislation, —
the last defects to have been looked for, certainly, in
the American aborigines.
NOTE.-I have not thought it necessary to swell this Introduction
by an inquiry into the origin of Peruvian civilization, like that appended to the history of the Mexican. The Peruvian history doubtless suggests analogies with more than one nation in the East, some
of which have been briefly adverted to in the preceding pages; although these analogies are adduced there not as evidence of a common origin, but as showing the coincidences which might naturally
spring up among different nations under the same phase of civilization. Such coincidences are neither so numerous nor so striking as
those afforded by the Aztec history. The correspondence presented
by the astronomical science of the Mexicans is alone of more importance than all the rest. Yet the light of analogy afforded by the institutions of the Incas seems to point, as far as it goes, towards the
same direction; and as the investigation could present but little substantially to confirm, and still less to confute, the views taken in the
former disquisition, I have not thought it best to fatigue the reader
with it.
Two of the prominent authorities on whom I have relied in this
Introductory portion of the work are Juan de Sarmiento and the
Licentiate Ondegardo. Of the former I have been able to collect no
information beyond what is afforded by his own writings. In the title
prefixed to his manuscript he is styled President of the Council of
the Indies, a post of high authority, which infers a weight of character and means of information that entitle his opinions on colonial
topics to great deference.
These means of information were much enlarged by Sarmiento's




1 78                      SARMIENTO.
visit to the colonies during the administration of Gasca. Having con.
ceived the design of compiling a history of the ancient Peruvian institutions, he visited Cuzco, as he tells us, in I550, and there drew from
the natives themselves the materials for his narrative. His position
gave him access to the most authentic sources of knowledge, and from
the lips of the Inca nobles, the best-instructed of the conquered race,
he gathered the traditions of their national history and institutions.
The quipus formed, as we have seen, an imperfect system of mnemonics, requiring constant attention, and much inferior to the Mexican
hieroglyphics. It was only by diligent instruction that they were
made available to historical purposes; and this instruction was so far
neglected after the Conquest that the ancient annals of the country
would have perished with the generation which was the sole depositary
of them, had it not been for the efforts of a few intelligent scholars,
like Sarmiento, who saw the importance, at this critical period, of cultivating an intercourse with the natives and drawing from them their
hidden stores of information.
To give still further authenticity to his work, Sarmiento travelled
over the country, examined the principal objects of interest with his
own eyes, and thus verified the accounts of the natives as far as possible by personal observation. The result of these labors was his work
entitled " Relacion de la sucesion y govierno de las Yngas Sefiores
naturales que fueron de las Provincias del Peru y otras cosas tocantes
d. aquel Reyno, para el Iltmo. Sefior Dn Juan Sarmiento, Presidente
del Consejo R' de Indias."-*
* [It is singular that Prescott should have fallen into the error of
supposing this language to indicate that the work was the composition
of the person whose name appears in the title. Sefior Gayangos, in a
letter to Mr. Squier which that gentleman has kindly communicated
to the editor, says, " It is evident to me that this Relation was written
-perhaps by order of Don Juan Sarmiento, president of the Council
of the Indies-for him, and not by him, as stated by Prescott;" and
he points out the improbability of Sarmiento's ever having visited
America, as well as of his having used the deferential tone in which
the author of the manuscript addresses certain members of the Royal
Audience, persons far inferior in rank to an ecclesiastic of high position
holding one of the first offices in the kingdom. The mistake was so
far fortunate that the doubts suggested by it seem to have led to an
investigation, with the result of determining the real authorship of this




SARMIENTO.                             79
It is divided into chapters, and embraces about four hundred folio
pages in manuscript. The introductory portion of the work is occupied with the traditionary tales of the origin and early period of the
Incas; teeming, as usual in the antiquities of a barbarous people,
with legendary fables of the most wild and monstrous character. Yet
these puerile conceptions afford an inexhaustible mine for the labors
of the antiquarian, who endeavors to unravel the allegorical web
which a cunning priesthood had devised as symbolical of those mysteries of creation that it was beyond their power to comprehend.
But Sarmiento happily confines himself to the mere statement of traditional fables, without the chimerical ambition to explain them.
From this region of romance Sarmiento passes to the institutions
of the Peruvians, describes their ancient polity, their religion, their
progress in the arts, especially agriculture, and presents, in short, an
elaborate picture of the civilization which they reached under the
Inca dynasty. This part of his work, resting, as it does, on the best
authority, confirmed in many instances by his own observation, is of
unquestionable value, and is written with an apparent respect for
truth, that engages the confidence of the reader. The concluding
portion of the manuscript is occupied with the civil history of the
country. The reigns of the early Incas, which lie beyond the sober
province of history, he despatches with commendable brevity. But on
the three last reigns-fortunately, those of the greatest princes who
occupied the Peruvian throne-he is more diffuse. This was comparatively firm ground for the chronicler, for the events were too
recent to be obscured by the vulgar legends that gather like moss
important Relation, and of clearing up, at the same time, another
mooted and not less interesting point in regard to one of the chief
authorities for early Peruvian history. Sefior Gonzalez de la Rosa, a
learned Peruvian, is able, according to a recent statement (London
Athenaeum, July 5, i873), " to prove that the manuscript in question is
really the second part of the'Chronicle of Peru' by Cieza de Leon,
hitherto supposed to be lost." The evidence promised has not yet
been adduced. It consists, no doubt, chiefly of those internal proofs
which are in fact sufficient to put the matter beyond question, and
which will find more appropriate mention in connection with Prescott's account of the life and writings of Cieza de Leon, infra, vol. ii.
book iv., chap. g.-ED.]




I 80                    SARMEiVTO.
round every incident of the older time. His account stops with the
Spanish invasion; for this story, Sarmiento felt, might be safely left to
his contemporaries who acted a part ir. it, but whose taste and educa-:ion had qualified them but indifferently for exploring the antiquities
ind social institutions of the natives.
Sarmiento's work is composed in a simple, perspicuous style, with3ut that ambition of rhetorical display too common with his countrymen. He writes with honest candor, and, while he does ample justice
to the merits and capacity of the conquered races, he notices with
Indignation the atrocities of the Spaniards and the demoralizing tendency of the Conquest.  It may be thought, indeed, that he forms
too high an estimate of the attainments of the nation under the Incas.
And it is not improbable that, astonished by the vestiges it afforded
of an original civilization, he became enamored of his subject, and
thus exhibited it in colors somewhat too glowing to the eye of the
European. But this was an amiable failing, not too largely shared by
the stern Conquerors, who subverted the institutions of the country,
and saw little to admire in it save its gold. It must be further admitted that Sarmiento has no design to impose on his reader, and that
he is careful to distinguish between what he reports on hearsay and
what on personal experience. The Father of History himself does
not discriminate between these two things more carefully.
Neither is the Spanish historian to be altogether vindicated from
the superstition which belongs to his time; and we often find him
referring to the immediate interposition of Satan those effects which
might quite as well be charged on the perverseness of man. But this
was common to the age, and to the wisest men in it; and it is too
much to demand of a man to be wiser than his generation. It is
sufficient praise of Sarmiento, that, in an age when superstition was
too often allied with fanaticism, he seems to have had no tincture of
bigotry in his nature. His heart opens with benevolent fulness to the
unfortunate native; and his language, while it is not kindled into the
religious glow of the missionary, is warmed by a generous ray of
philanthropy that embraces the conquered, no less than the conquerors,
as his brethren.
Notwithstanding the great value of Sarmiento's work for the information it affords of Peru under the Incas, it is but little known, has
been rarely consulted by historians, and still remains among the unpublished manuscripts which lie, like uncoined bullion, in the secret
chambers of the Escorial.




ONIDE GARD O.                        I 8 I
The other authority to whom I have alluded, the Licentiate Polo
de Ondegardo, was a highly respectable jurist, whose name appears
frequently in the affairs of Peru. I find no account of the period
when he first came into the country. But he was there on the arrival
of Gasca, and resided at Lima under the usurpation of Gonzalo Pizarro. When the artful Cepeda endeavored to secure the signatures
of the inhabitants to the instrument proclaiming the sovereignty of
his chief, we find Ondegardo taking the lead among those of his profession in resisting it. On Gasca's arrival he consented to take a commission in his army. At the close of the rebellion he was made corregidor of La Plata, and subsequently of Cuzco, in which honorable
station he seems to have remained several years. In the exercise of
his magisterial functions he was brought into familiar intercourse with
the natives, and had ample opportunity for studying their laws and
ancient customs. He conducted himself with such prudence and
moderation that he seems to have won the confidence not only of his
countrymen but of the Indians; while the administration was careful
to profit by his large experience in devising measures for the better
government of the colony.
The Relaciones, so often cited in this History, were prepared at the
suggestion of the viceroys, the first being addressed to the Marques
de Cafiete, in 156I, and the second, ten years later, to the Conde de
Nieva. The two cover about as much ground as Sarmiento's manuscript; and the second memorial, written so long after the first, may
be thought to intimate the advancing age of the author, in the greater
carelessness and diffuseness of the composition.
As these documents are in the nature of answers to the interrogatories propounded by the government, the range of topics might seem
to be limited within narrower bounds than the modern historian would
desire. These queries, indeed, had particular reference to the revenues,
the tributes,-the financial administration, in short,-of the Incas; and
on these obscure topics the communication of Ondegardo is particularly full. But the enlightened curiosity of the government embraced
a far wider range; and the answers necessarily implied an acquaintance
with the domestic policy of the Incas, with their laws and social habits,
their religion, science, and arts, in short, with all that make up the
elements of civilization. Ondegardo's memoirs, therefore, cover the
whole ground of inquiry for the philosophic historian.
In the management of these various subjects Ondegardo displays
both acuteness and erudition. He never shrinks from the discussion,
Peru.-VoL. I.           i6




I82                    ONDEGARDO.
however difficult; and while he gives his conclusions with an air of
modesty, it is evident that he feels conscious of having derived his
information through the most authentic channels. He rejects the
fabulous with disdain; decides on the probabilities of such facts as he
relates, and candidly exposes the deficiency of evidence. Far from
displaying the simple enthusiasm of the well-meaning but credulous
missionary, he proceeds with the cool and cautious step of a lawyer
accustomed to the conflict of testimony and the uncertainty of oral
tradition. This circumspect manner of proceeding, and the temperate
character of his judgments, entitle Ondegardo to much higher consideration as an authority than most of his countrymen who have
treated of Indian antiquities.
There runs through his writings a vein of humanity, shown particularly in his tenderness to the unfortunate natives, to whose ancient
civilization he does entire, but not extravagant, justice; while, like
Sarmiento, he fearlessly denounces the excesses of his own countrymen, and admits the dark reproach they had brought on the honor of
the nation. But while this censure forms the strongest ground for
condemnation of the Conquerors, since it comes from the lips of a
Spaniard like themselves, it proves, also, that Spain in this age of violence could send forth from her bosom wise and good men who refused to make common cause with the licentious rabble around them.
Indeed, proof enough is given in these very memorials of the unceasing efforts of the colonial government, from the good viceroy Mendoza
downwards, to secure protection and the benefit of a mild legislation
to the unfortunate natives. But the iron Conquerors, and the colonist
whose heart softened only to the touch of gold, presented a formidable
barrier to improvement.
Ondegardo's writings are honorably distinguished by freedom from
that superstition which is the debasing characteristic of the times,-a
superstition shown in the easy credit given to the marvellous, and this
equally whether in heathen or in Christian story; for in the former
the eye of credulity could discern as readily the direct interposition
of Satan, as in the latter the hand of the Almighty. It is this ready
belief in a spiritual agency, whether for good or for evil, which forms
one of the most prominent features in the writings of the sixteenth
century. Nothing could be more repugnant to the true spirit of
philosophical inquiry, or more irreconcilable with rational criticism.
Far from betraying such weakness, Ondegardo writes in a direct and
business-like manner, estimating things for what they are worth by the




ONDEGARDO.                           183
plain rule of common sense. He keeps the main object of his argument ever in view, without allowing himself, like the garrulous chroniclers of the period, to be led astray into, a thousand rambling episodes
that bewilder the reader and lead to nothing.
Ondegardo's memoirs deal not only with the antiquities of the nation, but with its actual condition, and with the best means for redressing the manifold evils to which it was subjected under the stern rule
of its conquerors. His suggestions are replete with wisdom, and a
merciful policy, that would reconcile the interests of government with
the prosperity and happiness of its humblest vassal. Thus, while his
contemporaries gathered light from his suggestions as to the present
condition of affairs, the historian of later times is no less indebted to
him for information in respect to the past. His manuscript was freely
consulted by Herrera, and the reader, as he peruses the pages of the
learned historian of the Indies, is unconsciously enjoying the benefit
of the researches of Ondegardo. His valuable Reiaciones thus had
their uses for future generations, though they have never been admitted to the honors of the press. The copy in my possession, like
that of Sarmiento's manuscript, for which I am indebted to that industrious bibliographer Mr. Rich, formed part of the magnificent
collection of Lord Kingsborough,-a name ever to be held in honor
by the scholar for his indefatigable efforts to illustrate the antiquities
of America.
Ondegardo's manuscripts, it should be remarked, do not bear his
signature. But they contain allusions to several actions of the writer's
life, which identify them, beyond any reasonable doubt, as his production. In the archives of Simancas is a duplicate copy of the first memorial, Relacion Primera, though, like the one in the Escorial, without
its author's name. Mufioz assigns it to the pen of Gabriel de Rojas,
a distinguished cavalier of the Conquest. This is clearly an error;
for the author of the manuscript identifies himself with Ondegardo,
by declaring, in his reply to the fifth interrogatory, that he was the
person who discovered the mummies of the Incas in Cuzco,-an act
expressly referred, both by Acosta and Garcilasso, to the Licentiate
Polo de Ondegardo, when corregidor of that city. Should the savans
of Madrid hereafter embrace among' the publications of valuable
manuscripts these Relaciones, they should be careful not to be led
into an error here by the authority of a critic like Mufioz, whose
criticism is rarely at fault.








BOOK SECOND.
DISCOVERY OF PERU.
I6*       ( i85 )








BOOK II.
DISCOVERY OF PERU.
CHAPTER I.
ANCIENT AND MODERN SCIENCE. -ART OF NAVIGATION. —
MARITIME DISCOVERY.-SPIRIT OF THE SPANIARDS.POSSESSIONS IN THE NEW WORLD.-RUMORS CONCERNING PERU.
WHATEVER difference of opinion may exist as to the
comparative merit of the ancients and the moderns in
the arts, in poetry, eloquence, and all that depends on
imagination, there can be no doubt that in science the
moderns have eminently the advantage. It could not
be otherwise. In the early ages of the world, as in the
early period of life, there was the freshness of a morning existence, when the gloss of novelty was on every
thing that met the eye; when the senses, not blunted
by familiarity, were more keenly alive to the beautiful, and the mind, under the influence of a healthy
and natural taste, was not perverted by philosophical
theory; when the simple was necessarily connected
with the beautiful, and the epicurean intellect, sated
by repetition, had not begun to seek for stimulants in
the fantastic and capricious. The realms of fancy
were all untravelled, and its fairest flowers had not
been gathered, nor its beauties despoiled, by the rude
( 87)




I88          DISCO VER Y OF PERU
touch of those who affected to cultivate them. The
wing of genius was not bound to the earth by the cold
and conventional rules of criticism, but was permitted
to take its flight far and wide over the broad expanse
of creation.
But with science it was otherwise. No genius could
suffice for the creation of facts,-hardly for their detection. They were to be gathered in by painful industry; to be collected from careful observation and
experiment. Genius, indeed, might arrange and combine these facts into new forms, and elicit from their
combinations new and important inferences, and in
this process might almost rival in originality the creations of the poet and the artist. But if the processes
of science are necessarily slow, they are sure. There
is no retrograde movement in her domain. Arts may
fade, the Muse become dumb, a moral lethargy may
lock up the faculties of a nation, the nation itself may
pass away and leave only the memory of its existence,
but the stores of science it has garnered up will endure
forever. As other nations come upon the stage, and
new forms of civilization arise, the monuments of art
and of imagination, productions of an older time, will
lie as an obstacle in the path of improvement. They
cannot be built upon; they occupy the ground which
the new aspirant for immortality would cover. The
whole work is to be gone over again, and other forms
of beauty-whether higher or lower in the scale of
merit, unlike the past-must arise to take a place by
their side. But, in science, every stone that has been
laid remains as the foundation for another.  The
coming generation takes up the work where the pre



ANCIENT AND MODERN SCIENCE.   I89
ceding left it.  There is no retrograde movement.
The individual nation may recede, but science still
advances. Every step that has been gained makes the
ascent easier for those who come after. Every step
carries the patient inquirer after truth higher and higher
towards heaven, and unfolds to him, as he rises, a wider
horizon, and new and more magnificent views of the
universe.
Geography partook of the embarrassments which
belonged to every other department of science in the
primitive ages of the world. The knowledge of the
earth could come only from an extended commerce;
and commerce is founded on artificial wants or an enlightened curiosity, hardly compatible with the earlier
condition of society.  In the infancy of nations, the
different tribes, occupied with their domestic feuds,
found few occasions to wander beyond the mountain
chain or broad stream that formed the natural boundary
of their domains. The Phoenicians, it is true, are said
to have sailed beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and to
have launched out on the great western ocean. But
the adventures of these ancient voyagers belong to the
mythic legends of antiquity, and ascend far beyond
the domain of authentic record.
The Greeks, quick and adventurous, skilled in mechanical art, had many of the qualities of successful
navigators, and within the limits of their little inland
sea ranged fearlessly and freely. But the conquests
of Alexander did more to extend the limits of geographical science, and opened an acquaintance with
the remote countries of the East. Yet the march of
the conqueror is slow in comparison with the move.




Igo            DISCOVER Y  OF PERU.
ments of the unencumbered traveller. The Romans
were still less enterprising than the Greeks, were less
commercial in their character. The contributions to
geographical knowledge grew with the slow acquisitions
of empire. But their system was centralizing in its
tendency; and, instead of taking an outward direction
and looking abroad for discovery, every part of the
vast imperial domain turned towards the capital as its
head and central point of attraction.   The Roman
conqueror pursued his path by land, not by sea. But
the water is the great highway between nations, the true
element for the discoverer. The Romans were not a
maritime people.  At the close of their empire, geographical science could hardly be said to extend farther
than to an acquaintance with Europe,-and this not its
more northern division,-together with a portion of
Asia and Africa; while they had no other conception
of a world beyond the Western waters than was to be
gathered from the fortunate prediction of the poet.'
Then followed the Middle Ages; the dark ages, as
they are called, though in their darkness were matured
those seeds of knowledge which, in fulness of time,
were to spring up into new and more glorious forms
I Seneca's well-known prediction, in his Medea, is perhaps the most
remarkable random prophecy on record. For it is not a simple extension of the boundaries of the known parts of the globe that is so
confidently announced, but the existence of a New World across the
waters, to be revealed in coming ages:
" Quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat tellus, Typhisque Novos
Detegat Orbes."
It was the lucky hit of the philosopher rather than the poet.




ART OF NA VIGA TON.              191
of civilization. The organization of society became
more favorable to geographical science. Instead of one
overgrown, lethargic empire, oppressing every thing by
its colossal weight, Europe was broken up into various
independent communities, many of which, adopting
liberal forms of government, felt all the impulses
natural to freemen; and the petty republics on the
Mediterranean and the Baltic sent forth their swarms
of seamen in a profitable commerce, that knit together
the different countries scattered along the great European waters.
But the improvements which took place in the art
of navigation, the more accurate measurement of time,
and, above all, the discovery of the polarity of the
magnet, greatly advanced the cause of geographical
knowledge.  Instead of creeping timidly along the
coast, or limiting his expeditions to the narrow basins
of inland waters, the voyager might now spread his
sails boldly on the deep, secure of a guide to direct
his bark unerringly across the illimitable waste. The
consciousness of this power led thought to travel in a
new direction; and the mariner began to look with
earnestness for another path to the Indian Spice-islands
than that by which the Eastern caravans had traversed
the continent of Asia. The nations on whom the
spirit of enterprise at this crisis naturally descended
were Spain and Portugal, placed as they were on the
outposts of the European continent, commanding the
great theatre of future discovery.
Both countries felt the responsibility of their new
position. The crown of Portugal was constant in its
efforts, through the fifteenth century, to find a passage




192          DISCO VERY OF PERU.
round the southern point of Africa into the Indian
Ocean; though so timid was the navigation that every
fresh headland became a formidable barrier, and it was
not till the latter part of the century that the adventurous Diaz passed quite round the Stormy Cape, as he
termed it, but which John the Second, with happier
augury, called the Cape of Good Hope. But, before
Vasco da Gama had availed himself of this discovery
to spread his sails in the Indian seas, Spain entered
on her glorious career and sent Columbus across the
Western waters.
The object of the great navigator was still the discovery of a route to India, but by the west instead of
the east. He had no expectation of meeting with a
continent in his way, and, after repeated voyages, he
remained in his original error, dying, as is well known,
in the conviction that it was the eastern shore of Asia
which he had reached. It was the same object which
directed the nautical enterprises of those who followed
in the Admiral's track; and the discovery of a strait
into the Indian Ocean was the burden of every order
from the government, and the design of many an
expedition to different points of the new continent,
which seemed to stretch its leviathan length along
from one pole to the other. The discovery of an
Indian passage is the true key to the maritime movements of the fifteenth and the first half of the sixteenth
century. It was the great leading idea that gave its
peculiar character to the enterprise of the age.
It is not easy at this time to comprehend the impulse
given to Europe by the discovery of America. It was
not the gradual acquisition of some border territory,




MARITIME  DISCO VER Y.                I93
a province or a kingdom that had been gained, but
a new world that was now thrown open to the European. The races of animals, the mineral treasures, the
vegetable forms, and the varied aspects of nature, man
in the different phases of civilization, filled the mind
with entirely new sets of ideas, that changed the
habitual current of thought and stimulated it to indefinite conjecture. The eagerness to explore the wonderful secrets of the new hemisphere became so active
that the principal cities of Spain were, in a manner,
depopulated, as emigrants thronged one after another
to take their chance upon the deep.2 It was a world
of romance that was thrown open; for, whatever might
be the luck of the adventurer, his reports on his return
were tinged with a coloring of romance that stimulated
still higher the sensitive fancies of his countrymen and
nourished the chimerical sentiments of an age of chivalry. They listened with attentive ears to tales of
Amazons which seemed to realize the classic legends
of antiquity, to stories of Patagonian giants, to flaming
pictures of an El Dorado where the sands sparkled
with gems and golden pebbles as large as birds' eggs
were dragged in nets out of the rivers.
Yet that the adventurers were no impostors, but
dupes, too easy dupes, of their own credulous fancies,
is shown by the extravagant character of their enterprises; by expeditions in search of the magical Foun2 The Venetian ambassador Andrea Navagiero, who travelled
through Spain in 1525, near the period of the commencement of our
narrative, notices the general fever of emigration. Seville, in particular, the great port of embarkation, was so stripped of its inhabitants,
he says, " that the city was left almost to the women." Viaggio fatto
in Spagna (Vinegia, 1563), fol. IS.
Peru.-VOL. I.-I        I7




1194         DISCOVERY OF PERU.
tain of Health, of the golden Temple of Doboyba, of
the golden sepulchres of Zenu; for gold was ever
floating before their distempered vision, and the name
of Castilla del Oro, Golden Castile, the most unhealthy
and unprofitable region of the Isthmus, held out a
bright promise to the unfortunate settler, who too frequently, instead of gold, found there only his grave.
In this realm of enchantment, all the accessories
served to maintain the illusion. The simple natives,
with their defenceless bodies and rude weapons, were
no match for the European warrior armed to the teeth
in mail. The odds were as great as those found in any
legend of chivalry, where the lance of the good knight
overturned hundreds at a touch. The perils that lay
in the discoverer's path, and the sufferings he had to
sustain, were scarcely inferior to those that beset the
knight-errant.  Hunger and thirst and fatigue, the
deadly effluvia of the morass with its swarms of venomous insects, the cold of mountain snows, and the
scorching sun of the tropics, these were the lot of
every cavalier who came to seek his fortunes in the
New World. It was the reality of romance. The life
of the Spanish adventurer was one chapter more-and
not the least remarkable-in the chronicles of knighterrantry.
The character of the warrior took on somewhat of
the exaggerated coloring shed over his exploits. Proud
and vainglorious, swelled with lofty anticipations of
his destiny and an invincible confidence in his own
resources, no danger could appall and no toil could tire
him. The greater the danger, indeed, the higher the
charm; for his soul revelled in excitement, and the




SPIRIT OF THE  SPANIARDS.           3I95
enterprise without peril wanted that spur of romance
which was necessary to rouse his energies into action.
Yet in the motives of action meaner influences were
strangely mingled with the loftier, the temporal with
the spiritual. Gold was the incentive and the recompense, and in the pursuit of it his inflexible nature
rarely hesitated as to the means. His courage was
sullied with cruelty, the cruelty that flowed equallystrange as it may seem-from his avarice and his
religion; religion as it was understood in that age,the religion of the Crusader. It was the convenient
cloak for a multitude of sins, which covered them even
from himself. The Castilian, too proud for hypocrisy,
committed more cruelties in the name of religion than
were ever practised by the pagan idolater or the fanatical Moslem. The burning of the infidel was a sacrifice
acceptable to Heaven, and the conversion of those who
survived amply atoned for the foulest offences.  It is a
melancholy and mortifying consideration that the most
uncompromising spirit of intolerance-the spirit of the
Inquisitor at home, and of the Crusader abroadshould have emanated from a religion which preached
peace upon earth and good will towards man!
What a contrast did these children of Southern
Europe present to the Anglo-Saxon races who scattered themselves along the great northern division of
the Western hemisphere! For the principle of action
with these latter was not avarice, nor the more specious
pretext of proselytism; but independence,-independence religious and political. To secure this, they were
content to earn a bare subsistence by a life of frugality
and toil. They asked nothing from the soil but the




r96         DISCOVERY OF PERU.
reasonable returns of their own labor. No golden
visions threw a deceitful halo around their path and
beckoned them onwards through seas of blood to the
subversion of an unoffending dynasty. They were content with the slow but steady progress of their social
polity. They patiently endured the privations of the
wilderness, watering the tree of liberty with their tears
and with the sweat of their brow, till it took deep root
in the land and sent up its branches high towards the
heavens; while the communities of the neighboring
continent, shooting up into the sudden splendors of a
tropical vegetation, exhibited, even in their prime, the
sure symptoms of decay.
It would seem to have been especially ordered by
Providence that the discovery of the two great divisions of the American hemisphere should fall to the two
races best fitted to conquer and colonize them. Thus,
the northern section was consigned to the Anglo-Saxon
race, whose orderly, industrious habits found an ample
field for development under its colder skies and on its
more rugged soil; while the southern portion, with its
rich tropical products and treasures of mineral wealth,
held out the most attractive bait to invite the enterprise of the Spaniard. How different might have been
the result if the bark of Columbus had taken a more
northerly direction, as he at one time meditated, and
landed its band of adventurers on the shores of what
is now Protestant America!
Under the pressure of that spirit of nautical enterprise which filled the maritime communities of Europe
in the sixteenth century, the whole extent of the mighty
continent, from Labrador to Terra del Fuego, was ex



RUMORS CONCERNING PER U.            19 7
plored in less than thirty years after its discovery; and
in I52I the Portuguese Maghellan, sailing under the
Spanish flag, solved the problem of the strait, and
found a westerly way to the long-sought Spice-islands
of India,-greatly to the astonishment of the Portuguese, who, sailing from the opposite direction, there
met their rivals, face to face, at the antipodes. But
while the whole eastern coast of the American continent had been explored, and the central portion of it
colonized, —even after the brilliant achievement of the
Mexican conquest,-the veil was not yet raised that
hung over the golden shores of the Pacific.
Floating rumors had reached the Spaniards, from
time to time, of countries in the far west, teeming
with the metal they so much coveted; but the first distinct notice of Peru was about the year I5II, when
Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the discoverer of the Southern
Sea, was weighing some gold which he had collected
from the natives. A young barbarian chieftain, who
was present, struck the scales with his fist, and, scattering the glittering metal around the apartment, exclaimed, "If this is what you prize so much that you
are willing to leave your distant homes and risk even
life itself for it, I can tell you of a land where they
eat and drink out of golden vessels, and gold is as
cheap as iron is with you." It was not long after this
startling intelligence that Balboa achieved the formidable adventure of scaling the mountain-rampart of
the isthmus which divides the two mighty oceans from
each other; when, armed with sword and buckler, he
rushed into the waters of the Pacific, and cried out, in
the true chivalrous vein, that "he claimed this unknown
17*




198           DISCOVERY OF PERU.
sea, with all that it contained, for the King of Castile,
and that he would make good the claim against all,
Christian or infidel, who dared to gainsay it"!3 All
the broad continent and sunny isles washed by the
waters of the Southern Ocean! Little did the bold
cavalier comprehend the full import of his magnificent
vaunt.
On this spot he received more explicit tidings of the
Peruvian empire, heard proofs recounted of its civilization, and was shown drawings of the llama, which,
to the European eye, seemed a species of the Arabian
camel. But, although he steered his caravel for these
golden realms, and even pushed his discoveries some
twenty leagues south of the Gulf of St. Michael, the
adventure was not reserved for him.  The illustrious
discoverer was doomed to fall a victim to that miserable
jealousy with which a little spirit regards the achievements of a great one.
The Spanish colonial domain was broken up into a
number of petty governments, which were dispensed
sometimes to court favorites, though, as the duties
of the post, at this early period, were of an arduous
nature, they were more frequently reserved for men of
some practical talent and enterprise. Columbus, by
virtue of his original contract with the crown, had
jurisdiction over the territories discovered by himself,
embracing some of the principal islands, and a few
places on the continent. This jurisdiction differed
from  that of other functionaries, inasmuch as it was
hereditary; a privilege found in the end too consider3 Herrera, Hist. general, dec. I, lib. io, cap. 2.-Quintana, Vidas de
Espafioles celebres (Madrid, I830), tom. ii. p. 44.




RUMORS CONCERNING PERU.             I99
able for a subject, and commuted, therefore, for a title
and a pension.  These colonial governments were
multiplied with the increase of empire, and by the
year I524, the period at which our narrative properly
commences, were scattered over the islands, along the
Isthmus of Darien, the broad tract of Terra Firma,
and the recent conquests in Mexico. Some of these
governments were of no great extent; others, like
that of Mexico, were of the dimensions of a kingdom;
and most had an indefinite range for discovery assigned
to them in their immediate neighborhood, by which
each of the petty potentates might enlarge his territorial sway and enrich his followers and himself. This
politic arrangement best served the ends of the crown,
by affording a perpetual incentive to the spirit of enterprise. Thus living on their own little domains at a
long distance from the mother-country, these military
rulers held a sort of vice-regal sway, and too frequently
exercised it in the most oppressive and tyrannical manner,-oppressive to the native, and tyrannical towards
their own followers. It was the natural consequence,
when men originally low in station, and unprepared
by education for office, were suddenly called to the
possession of a brief, but in its nature irresponsible,
authority. It was not till after some sad experience
of these results that measures were taken to hold these
petty tyrants in check by means of regular tribunals,
or Royal Audiences, as they were termed, which, composed of men of character and learning, might interpose the arm of the law, or at least the voice of
remonstrance, for the protection of both colonist and
native.




200           DISCOYVERY OF PERU.
Among the colonial governors who were indebted
for their situation to their rank at home was Don Pedro
Arias de Avila, or Pedrarias, as usually called. He
was married to a daughter of Dofia Beatriz de Bobadilla, the celebrated Marchioness of Moya, best known
as the friend of Isabella the Catholic. He was a man
of some military experience and considerable energy
of character. But, as it proved, he was of a malignant
temper; and the base qualities which might have passed
unnoticed in the obscurity of private life were made
conspicuous, and perhaps created in some measure, by
sudden elevation to power; as the sunshine, which
operates kindly on a generous soil and stimulates it to
production, calls forth from the unwholesome marsh
only foul and pestilent vapors. This man was placed
over the territory of Castilla del Oro, the ground
selected by Nuniez de Balboa for the theatre of his
discoveries. Success drew on this latter the jealousy
of his superior, for it was crime enough in the eyes of
Pedrarias to deserve too well. The tragical history of
this cavalier belongs to a period somewhat earlier than
that with which we are to be occupied. It has been
traced by abler hands than mine, and, though brief,
forms one of the most brilliant passages in the annals
of the American conquerors.4
But, though Pedrarias was willing to cut short the
glorious career of his rival, he was not insensible to
4 The memorable adventures of Vasco Nufiez de Balboa have been
recorded by Quintana (Espafioles celebres, tom. ii.) and by Irving in
his Companions of Columbus. It is rare that the life of an individual
has formed the subject of two such elegant memorials, produced at
nearly the same time, and in different languages, without any communication between the authors.




RUMORS CONCERNING PERU.    20I
the important consequences of his discoveries.  He
saw at once the unsuitableness of Darien for prosecuting
expeditions on the Pacific, and, conformably to the
original suggestion of Balboa, in 1519 he caused his
rising capital to be transferred from the shores of the
Atlantic to the ancient site of Panama, some distance
east of the present city of that name.5 This most
unhealthy spot, the cemetery of many an unfortunate
colonist, was favorably situated for the great object
of maritime enterprise; and the port, from its central
position, afforded the best point of departure for expeditions, whether to the north or south, along the wide
range of undiscovered coast that lined the Southern
Ocean. Yet in this new and more favorable position
several years were suffered to elapse before the course
of discovery took the direction of Peru. This was
turned exclusively towards the north, or rather west,
in obedience to the orders of the government, which
had ever at heart the detection of a strait that, as was
supposed, must intersect some part or other of the
long-extended Isthmus. Armament after armament was
5 The court gave positive instructions to Pedrarias to make a settlement in the Gulf of St. Michael, in obedience to the suggestion of
Vasco Nutiez, that it would be the most eligible site for discovery and
traffic in the South Sea: " El asiento que se oviere de hacer en el
golfo de S. Miguel en la mar del sur debe ser en el puerto que mejor
se hallare y mas convenible para la contratacion de aquel golfo, porque
segund lo que Vasco Nufiez escribe, seria muy necesario que allf
haya algunos navios, asi para descubrir las cosas del golfo; y de la
comarca del, como para la contratacion de rescates de las otras cosas
necesarias al buen proveimiento de aquello; 6 para que estos navios
aprovechen es menester que se hagan alla." Capitulo de Carta escrita
por el Rey Cat6lico 6 Pedrarias Ddvila, ap. Navarrete, Coleccion de
los Viages y Descubrimientos (Madrid, I829), tom. iii. No. 3.
I*




202            DISCOVERY OF PERU.
fitted out with this chimerical object; and Pedrarias
saw his domain extending every year farther and farther
without deriving any considerable advantage from his
acquisitions. Veragua, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, were
successively occupied; and his brave cavaliers forced a
way across forest and mountain and warlike tribes of
savages, till, at Honduras, they came in collision with
the companions of Cort6s, the Conquerors of Mexico,
who had descended from the great northern plateau on
the regions of Central America, and thus completed
the survey of this wild and mysterious land.
It was not till 1522 that a regular expedition was
despatched in the direction south of Panama, under
the conduct of Pascual de Andagoya, a cavalier of
much distinction in the colony. But that officer penetrated only to the Puerto de Pitias, the limit of Balboa's discoveries, when the bad state of his health
compelled him to re-embark and abandon his enterprise at its commencement.6
Yet the floating rumors of the wealth and civilization
of a mighty nation at the south were continually reaching the ears and kindling the dreamy imaginations of
6 According to Montesinos, Andagoya received a severe injury by a
fall from his horse, while showing off the high-mettled animal to the
wondering eyes of the natives. (Annales del Pens, MS., afio 1524.)
But the Adelantado, in a memorial of his own discoveries, drawn up
by himself, says nothing of this unlucky feat of horsemanship, but
imputes his illness to his having fallen into the water, an accident by
which he was near being drowned, so that it was some years before he
recovered from the effects of it,-a mode of accounting for his premature return, more soothing to his vanity, probably, than the one
usually received. This document, important as coming from the pen
of one of the primitive discoverers, is preserved in the Indian Archives
of Seville, and was published by Navarrete, Coleccion, tom. iii. No. 7.




RUMORS CONCERNING PERU.              203
the colonists; and it may seem astonishing that an
expedition in that direction should have been so long
deferred. But the exact position and distance of this
fairy realm were matter of conjecture. The long tract
of intervening country was occupied by rude and warlike races; and the little experience which the Spanish
navigators had already had of the neighboring coast
and its inhabitants, and, still more, the tempestuous
character of the seas,-for their expeditions had taken
place at the most unpropitious seasons of the year, —
enhanced the apparent difficulties of the undertaking
and made even their stout hearts shrink from it.
Such was the state of feeling in the little community
of Panama for several years after its foundation. Meanwhile, the dazzling conquest of Mexico gave a new impulse to the ardor of discovery, and in I524 three men
were found in the colony in whom the spirit of adventure triumphed over every consideration of difficulty
and danger that obstructed the prosecution of the enterprise. One among them was selected as fitted by
his character to conduct it to a successful issue. That
man was Francisco Pizarro; and, as he held the same
conspicuous post in the Conquest of Peru that was
occupied by Cortes in that of Mexico, it will be necessary to take a brief review of his early history.




CHAPTER II.
FRANCISCO PIZARRO.-HIS EARLY HISTORY.-FIRST EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH.-DISTRESSES OF THE VOYAGERS.-SHARP ENCOUNTERS.-mRETURN TO PANAMA.ALMAGRO' S EXPEDITION.
I524-1525.
FRANCISCO PIZARRO was born at Truxillo, a city of
Estremadura, in Spain. The period of his birth is
uncertain; but probably it was not far from  I47I.  He
was an illegitimate child, and that his parents should
not have taken pains to perpetuate the date of his birth
is not surprising. Few care to make a particular record
x The few writers who venture to assign the date of Pizarro's birth
do it in so vague and contradictory a manner as to inspire us with
but little confidence in their accounts. Herrera, it is true, says positively that he was sixty-three years old at the time of his death, in
154I. (Hist. general, dec. 6, lib. Io, cap. 6.) This would carry back
the date of his birth only to I478. But Garcilasso de la Vega affirms
that he was more than fifty years old in I525. (Com. Real., Parte 2,
lib. I, cap. I.) This would place his birth before I475. Pizarro y
Orellana, who, as a kinsman of the Conqueror, may be supposed to
have had better means of information, says he was fifty-four years of
age at the same date of I525. (Varones ilustres del Nuevo-Mundo
(Madrid, I639), p. I28.) But at the period of his death he calls him
nearly eighty years old Il (p. I85.) Taking this latter as a round
exaggeration for effect in the particular connection in which it is used,
and admitting the accuracy of the former statement, the epoch of his
birth will conform to that given in the text. This makes him somewhat late in life to set about the conquest of an empire. But Columbus, when he entered on his career, was still older.
(204)




FRANCISCO  PIZARRO.                  205
of their transgressions. His father, Gonzalo Pizarro,
was a colonel of infantry, and served with some distinction in the Italian campaigns under the Great Captain, and afterwards in the wars of Navarre.   His
mother, named Francisca Gonzales, was a person of
humble condition in the town of Truxillo.2
But little is told of Francisco's early years, and that
little not always deserving of credit.  According to
some, he was deserted by both his parents, and left as a
foundling at the door of one of the principal churches of
the city. It is even said that he would have perished,
had he not been nursed by a sow.3 This is a more discreditable fountain of supply than that assigned to the infant Romulus. The early history of men who have made
their names famous by deeds in after-life, like the early
history of nations, affords a fruitful field for invention.
It seems certain that the young Pizarro received little
care from either of his parents, and was suffered to grow
up as nature dictated. He was neither taught to read
nor write, and his principal occupation was that of a
swineherd. But this torpid way of life did not suit
the stirring spirit of Pizarro, as he grew older, and
listened to the tales, widely circulated and so captivating to a youthful fancy, of the New World. He
shared in the popular enthusiasm, and availed himself
of a favorable moment to abandon his ignoble charge
and escape to Seville, the port where the Spanish ad2 Xerez, Conquista del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 179.-Zarate,
Conq. del Peru, lib. x, cap. I.-Pizarro y Orellana, Varones ilustres,
p. I28.
3 " Naci6 en Truxillo, i echaronlo  ]la puerta de la Iglesia, mamd
una Puerca ciertos Dias, no se hallando quien le quisiese dar leche.'
Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. I44.
Peru.-VoL. I.          i8




2c6            DISCO VERY OF PERU.
venturers embarked to seek their fortunes in the West.
Few of them could have turned their backs on their
native land with less cause for regret than Pizarro.4
In what year this important change in his destiny
took place we are not informed. The first we hear of
him in the New World is at the island of Hispaniola,
in 15Io, where he took part in the expedition to Uraba
in Terra Firma, under Alonzo de Ojeda, a cavalier
whose character and achievements find no parallel but
in the pages of Cervantes. Hernando Cortes, whose
mother was a Pizarro, and related, it is said, to the
father of Francis, was then in St. Domingo, and prepared to accompany Ojeda's expedition, but was prevented by a temporary lameness. Had he gone, the
fall of the Aztec empire might have been postponed
for some time longer, and the sceptre of Montezuma
have descended in peace to his posterity.   Pizarro
shared in the disastrous fortunes of Ojeda's colony,
and by his discretion obtained so far the confidence
of his commander as to be left in charge of the settlement when the latter returned for supplies to the islands.
The lieutenant continued at his perilous post for nearly
two months, waiting deliberately until death should
have thinned off the colony sufficiently to allow the
miserable remnant to be embarked in the single small
vessel that remained to it.5
4 According to the Comendador Pizarro y Orellana, Francis Pizarro
served, while quite a stripling, with his father, in the Italian wars, and
afterwards, under Columbus and other illustrious discoverers, in the
New World, whose successes the author modestly attributes to his
kinsman's valor as a principal cause! Varones ilustres, p. 187.
s Pizarro y Orellana, Varones ilustres, pp. i2I-I28.-Herrera, Hist.
gen., dec. I, lib. 7, cap. 4. —-Montesinos, Annales, MS., aflo I5Io.




HIS EARLY HISTORY               207
After this, we find him associated with Balboa, the
discoverer of the Pacific, and co-operating with him
in establishing the settlement at Darien. He had the
glory of accompanying this gallant cavalier in his terrible march across the mountains, and of being among
the first Europeans, therefore, whose eyes were greeted
with the long-promised vision of the Southern Ocean.
After fte untimely death of his commander, Pizarro
attached himself to the fortunes of Pedrarias, and was
employed by that governor in several military expeditions, which, if they afforded nothing else, gave him
the requisite training for the perils and privations that
lay in the path of the future Conqueror of Peru.
In I5I5 he was selected, with another cavalier,
named Morales, to cross the Isthmus and traffic with
the natives on the shores of the Pacific. And there,
while engaged in collecting his booty of gold and
pearls from the neighboring islands, as his eye ranged
along the shadowy line of coast till it faded in the
distance, his imagination may have been first fired with
the idea of, one day, attempting the conquest of the
mysterious regions beyond the mountains. On the
removal of the seat of government across the Isthmus
to Panama, Pizarro accompanied Pedrarias, and his
name became conspicuous among the cavaliers who
extended the line of conquest to the north over the
martial tribes of Veragua. But all these expeditions,
whatever glory they may have brought him, were productive of very little gold, and at the age of fifty the
captain Pizarro found himself in possession only of a
tract of unhealthy land in the neighborhood of the
capital, and of such retardimientos of the natives as




208            DISCOVERY OF PERU.
were deemed suited to his military services.6 The
New World was a lottery, where the great prizes were
so few that the odds were much against the player; yet
in the game he was content to stake health, fortune,
and, too often, his fair fame.
Such was Pizarro's situation when, in I522, Andagoya
returned from his unfinished enterprise to the south of
Panamat, bringing back with him more copious accounts
than any hitherto received of the opulence and grandeur
of the countries that lay beyond.7 It was at this time,
too, that the splendid achievements of Cort6s made
their impression on the public mind and gave a new
impulse to the spirit of adventure. The southern expeditions became a common topic of speculation among
the colonists of Panama. But the region of gold, as
it lay behind the mighty curtain of the Cordilleras, was
still veiled in obscurity. No idea could be formed of
its actual distance; and the hardships and difficulties
encountered by the few navigators who had sailed in
that direction gave a gloomy character to the undertaking, which had hitherto deterred the most daring
from  embarking in it.   There is no evidence that
Pizarro showed any particular alacrity in the cause.
6 " Teniendo su casa, i Hacienda, i Repartimiento de Indios como
uno de los Principales de la Tierra; porque siempre lo fue." Xerez,
Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 79.
7 Andagoya says that he obtained, while at Birui, very minute accounts of the empire of the Incas, from certain itinerant traders who
frequented that country: "En esta provincia supe y hube relacion,
ansi de los sefiores como de mercaderes e int6rpretes que ellos tenian,
de toda la costa de todo lo que despues se ha visto hasta el Cuzco,
particularmente de cada provincia la manera y gente della, porque
estos alcanzaban por via de mercaduria mucha tierra." Navarrete,
Coleccion, tom. iii. No. 7.




FIRST EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH. 209
Nor were his own funds such as to warrant any expectation of success without great assistance from others.
He found this in two individuals of the colony, who
took too important a part in the subsequent transactions
not to be particularly noticed.
One of them, Diego de Almagro, was a soldier of
fortune, somewhat older, it seems probable, than Pizarro; though little is known of his birth, and even
the place of it is disputed. It is supposed to have
been the town of Almagro in New Castile, whence his
own name, for want of a better source, was derived;
for, like Pizarro, he was a foundling.8 Few particulars
are known of him till the present period of our history;
for he was one of those whom the working of turbulent
times first throws upon the surface, —less fortunate,
perhaps, than if left in their original obscurity. In
his military career, Almagro had earned the reputation
of a gallant soldier. He was frank and liberal in his
disposition, somewhat hasty and ungovernable in his
passions, but, like men of a sanguine temperament,
after the first sallies had passed away, not difficult to
be appeased. He had, in short, the good qualities and
the defects incident to an honest nature not improved
by the discipline of early education or self-control.
The other member of the confederacy was Hernando
8 " Decia el que hera de Almagro," says Pedro Pizarro, who knew
him well. Relacion del Descubrimiento y Conquista de los Reynos
del Peru, MS.-See also Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. I.Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. I4I.-Pizarro y Orellana, Varones
ilustres, p. 2II. The last writer admits that Almagro's parentage is
unknown, but adds that the character of his early exploits infers an
illustrious descent. This would scarcely pass for evidence with the
College of Heralds.
i8*




21I    CIVILIZA TIO  OF THE INCAS.
de Luque, a Spanish ecclesiastic, who exercised the
functions of vicar at Panama, and had formerly filled
the office of schoolmaster in the Cathedral of Darien.
He seems to have been a man of singular prudence and
knowledge of the world, and by his respectable qualities had acquired considerable influence in the little
community to which he belonged, as well as the control of funds, which made his co-operation essential to
the success of the present enterprise.
It was arranged among the three associates that the
two cavaliers should contribute their little stock towards
defraying the expenses of the armament, but by far the
greater part of the funds was to be furnished by Luque.
Pizarro was to take command of the expedition, and
the business of victualling and equipping the vessels
was assigned to Almagro. The associates found no
difficulty in obtaining the consent of the governor to
their undertaking. After the return of Andagoya, he
had projected another expedition, but the officer to
whom it was to be intrusted died. Why he did not
prosecute his original purpose, and commit the affair
to an experienced captain like Pizarro, does not appear.
He was probably not displeased that the burden of the
enterprise should be borne by others, so long as a good
share of the profits went into his own coffers. This he
did not overlook in his stipulations.9
9 "Asi que estos tres compafieros ya dichos acordaron de yr`4 conquistar esta provincia ya dicha. Pues consultandolo con Pedro Arias
de Avila que 4 la sazon hera governador en tierra firme, vino en
ello haziendo compafiia con los dichos compafieros con condicion que
Pedro Arias no havia de contribuir entonces con ningun dinero ni
otra cosa sino de lo que se hallase en la tierra de lo que A el le cupiese
por virtud de la compafiia de all se pagasen los gastos que`4 el le




FIRST EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH.  2II
Thus fortified with the funds of Luque and the consent of the governor, Almagro was not slow to make
preparations for the voyage. Two small vessels were
purchased, the larger of which had been originally
built by Balboa for himself, with a view to this same
expedition. Since his death, it had lain dismantled in
the harbor of Panama. It was now refitted as well as
circumstances would permit, and put in order for sea,
while the stores and provisions were got on board with
an alacrity which did more credit, as the event proved,
to Almagro's zeal than to his forecast.
There was more difficulty in obtaining the necessary
complement of hands; for a general feeling of distrust
had gathered round expeditions in this direction, which
could not readily be overcome. But there were many
idle hangers-on in the colony, who had come out to
mend their fortunes, and were willing to take their
chance of doing so, however desperate. From such
materials as these, Almagro assembled a body of somewhat more than a hundred men;'~ and, every thing
cupiesen. Los tres compafieros vinieron en ello por aver esta licencia
porque de otra manera no la alcanzaran." (Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y
Conq., MS.) Andagoya, however, affirms that the governor was interested equally with the other associates in the adventure, each taking
a fourth part on himself. (Navarrete, Coleccion, tom. iii. No. 7.)
But whatever was the original interest of Pedrarias, it mattered little,
as it was surrendered before any profits were realized from the expedition.
o0 Herrera, the most popular historian of these transactions, estimates the number of Pizarro's followers at only eighty. But every
other authority which I have consulted raises them to over a hundred.
Father Naharro, a contemporary, and resident at Lima, even allows a
hundred and twenty-nine. Relacion sumaria de la Entrada de los
Espafioles en el Peru, MS.




212            DISCO VERY OF PERU.
being ready, Pizarro assumed the command, and, weighing anchor, took his departure from the little port of
Panama about the middle of November, I524. Almagro was to follow in a second vessel of inferior size,
as soon as it could be fitted out."
The time of year was the most unsuitable that could
have been selected for the voyage; for it was the rainy
season, when the navigation to the south, impeded by
contrary winds, is made doubly dangerous by the tempests that sweep over the coast.   But this was not
understood by the adventurers. After touching at the
Isle of Pearls, the frequent resort of navigators, at a
few leagues' distance from Panama, Pizarro held his
way across the Gulf of St. Michael, and steered almost
due south for the Puerto de Pinias, a headland in the
province of Biruquete, which marked the limit of Andagoya's voyage. Before his departure, Pizarro had
obtained all the information which he could derive
from that officer in respect to the country, and the
route he was to follow. But the cavalier's own experience had been too limited to enable him to be of much
assistance.
Doubling the Puerto de Pifias, the little vessel en-', There is the usual discrepancy among authors about the date of
this expedition. Most fix it at I525. I have conformed to Xerez,
Pizarro's secretary, whose narrative was published ten years after the
voyage, and who could hardly have forgotten the date of so memorable an event in so short an interval of time. (See his Conquista del
Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I79.)-The year seems to be settled by
Pizarro's Capitulacion with the crown, which I had not examined till
after the above was written. This instrument, dated July, I529, speaks
of his first expedition as having taken place about five years previous.
(See Appendix No. 7.)




DISTRESSES OF THE  VO YA GERS.    2I3
tered the river BirQi, the misapplication of which name
is supposed by some to have given rise to that of the
empire of the Incas."1 After sailing up this stream for
a couple of leagues, Pizarro came to anchor, and, disembarking his whole force except the sailors, proceeded
at the head of it to explore the country. The land
spread out into a vast swamp, where the heavy rains
had settled in pools of stagnant water, and the muddy
soil afforded no footing to the traveller. This dismal
morass was fringed with woods, through whose thick
and tangled undergrowth they found it difficult to penetrate; and, emerging from them, they came out on a
hilly country, so rough and rocky in its character that
their feet were cut to the bone, and the weary soldier,
encumbered with his heavy mail or thick-padded doublet of cotton, found it difficult to drag one foot after
the other.  The heat at times was oppressive; and,
fainting with toil and famished for want of food, they
sank down on the earth from mere exhaustion. Such
was the ominous commencement of the expedition to
Peru.
Pizarro, however, did not lose heart. He endeavored
to revive the spirits of his men, and besought them not
to be discouraged by difficulties which a brave heart
would be sure to overcome, reminding them of the
golden prize which awaited those who persevered. Yet
it was obvious that nothing was to be gained by remaining longer in this desolate region. Returning to
their vessel, therefore, it was suffered to drop down
12 Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. I.-Herrera, Hist. general,
dec. 3, lib. 6, cap. 13.




2I4          DISCOVERY OF PERU.
the river and proceed along its southern course on the
g eat ocean.
After coasting a few leagues, Pizarro anchored off a
place not very inviting in its appearance, where he took
in a supply of wood and water. Then, stretching more
towards the open sea, he held on in the same direction
towards the south. But in this he was baffled by a
succession of heavy tempests, accompanied with such
tremendous peals of thunder and floods of rain as are
found only in the terrible storms of the tropics. The
sea was lashed into fury, and, swelling into mountain
billows, threatened every moment to overwhelm the
crazy little bark, which opened at every seam. For
ten days the unfortunate voyagers were tossed about by
the pitiless elements, and it was only by incessant exertions-the exertions of despair —that they preserved
the ship from foundering. To add to their calamities,
their provisions began to fail, and they were short of
water, of which they had been furnished only with a
small number of casks; for Almagro had counted on
their recruiting their scanty supplies, from time to
time, from the shore.  Their meat was wholly consumed, and they were reduced to the wretched allowance of two ears of Indian corn a day for each man.
Thus harassed by hunger and the elements, the battered voyagers were too happy to retrace their course
and regain the port where they had last taken in supplies of wood and water. Yet nothing could be more
unpromising than the aspect of the country. It had
the same character of low, swampy soil that distinguished the former landing-place; while thick-matted
forests, of a depth which the eye could not penetrate,




DISTRESSES OF THE  VOYAGERS.    215
stretched along the coast to an interminable length.
It was in vain that the wearied Spaniards endeavored
to thread the mazes of this tangled thicket, where the
creepers and flowering vines, that shoot up luxuriant
in a hot and humid atmosphere, had twined themselves
round the huge trunks of the forest-trees and made a
net-work that could be opened only with the axe. The
rain, in the mean time, rarely slackened, and the ground,
strewed with leaves and saturated with moisture, seemed
to slip away beneath their feet.
Nothing could be more dreary and disheartening
than the aspect of these funereal forests, where the
exhalations from the overcharged surface of the ground
poisoned the air, and seemed to allow no life, except
that, indeed, of myriads of insects, whose enamelled
wings glanced to and fro, like sparks of fire, in every
opening of the woods. Even the brute creation appeared instinctively to have shunned the fatal spot, and
neither beast nor bird of any description was seen by
the wanderers. Silence reigned unbroken in the heart
of these dismal solitudes; at least, the only sounds
that could be heard were the plashing of the raindrops on the leaves, and the tread of the forlorn adventurers.'3
Entirely discouraged by the aspect of the country,
the Spaniards began to comprehend that they had
gained nothing by changing their quarters from sea to
shore, and they felt the most serious apprehensions of
13 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. i8o.-Relacion del
primer Descub., MS.-Montesinos, Annales, MS., aflo I5x5.-Zarate Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. I.-Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 2,
lib. I, cap. 7.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 6, cap. I3.




2I6          DISCOVERY OF PER U.
perishing from famine in a region which afforded
nothing but such unwholesome berries as they could
pick here and there in the woods. They loudly complained of their hard lot, accusing their commander as
the author of all their troubles, and as deluding them
with promises of a fairy-land, which seemed to recede
in proportion as they advanced. It was of no use,
they said, to contend against fate, and it was better
to take their chance of regaining the port of Panama
in time to save their lives, than to wait where they
were to die of hunger.
But Pizarro was prepared to encounter much greater
evils than these before returning to Panama, bankrupt
in credit, an object of derision as a vainglorious
dreamer who had persuaded others to embark in an
adventure which he had not the courage to carry
through himself. The present was his only chance.
To return would be ruin. He used every argument,
therefore, that mortified pride or avarice could suggest
to turn his followers from their purpose; represented
to them that these were the troubles that necessarily
lay in the path of the discoverer, and called to mind
the brilliant successes of their countrymen in other
quarters, and the repeated reports which they had
themselves received of the rich regions along this
coast, of which it required only courage and constancy
on their part to become the masters. Yet, as their
present exigencies were pressing, he resolved to send
back the vessel to the Isle of Pearls, to lay in a fresh
stock of provisions for his company, which might
enable them to go forward with renewed confidence.
The distance was not great, and in a few days they




DISTRESSES OF THE VOYAGERS.    2  7
would all be relieved from their perilous position. The
officer detached on this service was named Montenegro; and, taking with him nearly half the company,
after receiving Pizarro's directions, he instantly weighed
anchor and steered for the Isle of Pearls.
On the departure of his vessel, the Spanish commander made an attempt to explore the country and
see if some Indian settlement might not be found,
where he could procure refreshments for his followers.
But his efforts were vain, and no trace was visible of a
human dwelling; though in the dense and impenetrable foliage of the equatorial regions the distance of a
few rods might suffice to screen a city from observation. The only means of nourishment left to the unfortunate adventurers were such shell-fish as they occasionally picked up on the shore, or the bitter buds of
the palm-tree, and such berries and unsavory herbs as
grew wild in the woods. Some of these were so poisonous that the bodies of those who ate them swelled up
and were tormented with racking pains. Others, preferring famine to this miserable diet, pined away from
weakness and actually died of starvation. Yet their
resolute leader strove to maintain his own cheerfulness
and to keep up the drooping spirits of his men. He
freely shared with them his scanty stock of provisions,
was unwearied in his endeavors to procure them sustenance, tended the sick, and ordered barracks to be
constructed for their accommodation, which might at
least shelter them from the drenching storms of the
season. By this ready sympathy with his followers in
their sufferings he obtained an ascendency over their
rough natures which the assertion of authority, at least
Peru.-VoL. I.-K     19




2I8          DISCOVERY OF PERU.
in the present extremity, could never have secured to
him.
Day after day, week after week, had now passed
away, and no tidings were heard of the vessel that was
to bring relief to the wanderers. In vain did they
strain their eyes over the distant waters to catch a
glimpse of their coming friends. Not a speck was to
be seen in the blue distance, where the canoe of the
savage dared not venture, and the sail of the white
man was not yet spread. Those who had borne up
bravely at first now gave way to despondency, as they
felt themselves abandoned by their countrymen on this
desolate shore.  They pined under that sad feeling
which "maketh the heart sick." More than twenty
of the little band had already died, and the survivors
seemed to be rapidly following.'4
At this crisis reports were brought to Pizarro of a
light having been seen through a distant opening in
the woods. He hailed the tidings with eagerness, as
intimating the existence of some settlement in the
neighborhood, and, putting himself at the head of a
small party, went in the direction pointed out, to reconnoitre. He was not disappointed, and, after extricating himself from a dense wilderness of underbrush
and foliage, he emerged into an open space, where a
small Indian village was planted. The timid inhabitants, on the sudden apparition of the strangers, quitted
their huts in dismay; and the famished Spaniards,
rushing in, eagerly made themselves masters of their
contents. These consisted of different articles of food,
4 Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 6, cap. 13.-Relacion del
primer. Descub., MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ubi supra.




DISTRESSES OF THE VOYAGERS.   219
chiefly maize and cocoanuts.   The supply, though
small, was too seasonable not to fill them with rapture.
The astonished natives made no attempt at resistance. But, gathering more confidence as no violence
was offered to their persons, they drew nearer the white
men, and inquired, "Why they did not stay at home
and till their own lands, instead of roaming about to
rob others who had never harmed them?" s5 Whatever
may have been their opinion as to the question of
right, the Spaniards, no doubt, felt then that it would
have been wiser to do so. But the savages wore about
their persons gold ornaments of some size, though of
clumsy workmanship. This furnished the best reply to
their demand. It was the golden bait which lured the
Spanish adventurer to forsake his pleasant home for
the trials of the wilderness. From the Indians Pizarro
gathered a confirmation of the reports he had so often
received of a rich country lying farther south; and at
the distance of ten days' journey across the mountains,
they told him, there dwelt a mighty monarch whose
dominions had been invaded by another still more
powerful, the Child of the Sun.'6  It may have been
i5 " Porque decian i los Castellanos, que por qu~ no sembraban, i
cogian, sin andar tomando los Bastimentos agenos, pasando tantos
trabajos?" Herrera, Hist. general, loc. cit.
"6,, Dioles noticia el viejo por medio del lengua, como diez soles
de alli habia un Rey muy poderoso yendo por espesas montafias, y
que otro mas poderoso hijo del sol habia venido de milagro ai quitarle
el Reino sobre que tenian mui sangrientas batallas." (Montesinos,
Annales, MS., afio I525.) The conquest of Quito by Huayna Capac
took place more than thirty years before this period in our history.
But the particulars of this revolution, its time or precise theatre, were
probably but very vaguely comprehended by the rude nations in the
neighborhood of Panami; and their allusion to it in an unknown dia.




220          DISCO VER Y OF PERU.
the invasion of Quito that was meant, by the valiant
Inca Huayna Capac, which took place some years previous to Pizarro's expedition.
At length, after the expiration of more than six
weeks, the Spaniards beheld with delight the return
of the wandering bark that had borne away their comrades, and Montenegro sailed into port with an ample
supply of provisions for his famishing countrymen.
Great was his horror at the aspect presented by the
latter, their wild and haggard countenances and wasted
frames,-so wasted by hunger and disease that their
old companions found it difficult to recognize them.
Montenegro accounted for his delay by incessant headwinds and bad weather; and he himself had also a
doleful tale to tell of the distress to which he and his
crew had been reduced by hunger on their passage to
the Isle of Pearls. It is minute incidents like these
with which we have been occupied that enable one to
comprehend the extremity of suffering to which the
Spanish adventurer was subjected in the prosecution of
his great work of discovery.
Revived by the substantial nourishment to which
they had so long been strangers, the Spanish cavaliers,
with the buoyancy that belongs to men of a hazardous
and roving life, forgot their past distresses in their
eagerness to prosecute their enterprise. Re-embarking, therefore, on board his vessel, Pizarro bade adieu
to the scene of so much suffering, which he branded
with the appropriate name of Puerto de la Hambre,
the Port of Famine, and again opened his sails to a
lect was as little comprehended by the Spanish voyagers, who must
have collected their information from signs much more than words.




DISTRESSES OF THE VOYAGERS.    221
favorable breeze that bore him onwards towards the
south.
Had he struck boldly out into the deep, instead of
hugging the inhospitable shore, where he had hitherto
found so little to recompense him, he might have
spared himself the repetition of wearisome and unprofitable adventures and reached by a shorter route
the point of his destination. But the Spanish mariner
groped his way along these unknown coasts, landing at
every convenient headland, as if fearful lest some fruitful region or precious mine might be overlooked should
a single break occur in the line of survey. Yet it
should be remembered that, though the true point of
Pizarro's destination is obvious to us, familiar with the
topography of these countries, he was wandering in
the dark, feeling his way along inch by inch, as it
were, without chart to guide him, without knowledge
of the seas or of the bearings of the coast, and even
with no better defined idea of the object at which he
aimed than that of a land, teeming with gold, that lay
somewhere at the south! It was a hunt after an El
Dorado, on information scarcely more circumstantial
or authentic than that which furnished the basis of so
many chimerical enterprises in this land of wonders.
Success only, the best argument with the multitude,
redeemed the expeditions of Pizarro from a similar
imputation of extravagance.
Holding on his southerly course under the lee of
the shore, Pizarro, after a short run, found himself
abreast of an open reach of country, or at least one
less encumbered with wood, which rose by a gradual
swell as it receded from the coast. He landed with a
19*




222           DISCOVERY OF PERU.
small body of men, and, advancing a short distance
into the interior, fell in with an Indian hamlet. It
was abandoned by the inhabitants, who on the approach
of the invaders had betaken themselves to the mountains; and the Spaniards, entering their deserted dwellings, found there a good store of maize and other
articles of food, and rude ornaments of gold of considerable value. Food was not more necessary for
their bodies than was the sight of gold, from time to
time, to stimulate their appetite for adventure. One
spectacle, however, chilled their blood with horror.
This was the sight of human flesh, which they found
roasting before the fire, as the barbarians had left it,
preparatory to their obscene repast. The Spaniards,
conceiving that they had fallen in with a tribe of
Caribs, the only race in that part of the New World
known to be cannibals, retreated precipitately to their
vessel.17  They were not steeled by sad familiarity with
the spectacle, like the Conquerors of Mexico.
The weather, which had been favorable, now set in
tempestuous, with heavy squalls, accompanied by incessant thunder and lightning, and the rain, as usual
in these tropical tempests, descended not so much in
drops as in unbroken sheets of water. The Spaniards,
however, preferred to take their chance on the raging
element rather than remain in the scene of such brutal
abominations. But the fury of the storm gradually
subsided, and the little vessel held on her way along
x7 ", I en las Ollas de la comida, que estaban al Fuego, entre la
Carne, que sacaban, havia Pies i Manos de Hombres, de donde conocieron, que aquellos Indios eran Caribes." Herrera, Hist. general,
dec. 3, lib. 8, cap. ii.




SHARP:ENCOUNTERS.             223
the coast, till, coming abreast of a bold point of land
named by Pizarro Punta Quemada, he gave orders to
anchor. The margin of the shore was fringed with a
deep belt of mangrove-trees, the long roots of which,
interlacing one another, formed a kind of submarine
lattice-work that made the place difficult of approach.
Several avenues, opening through this tangled thicket,
led Pizarro to conclude that the country must be inhabited, and he disembarked, with the greater part of
his force, to explore the interior.
He had not penetrated more than a league when he
found his conjecture verified by the sight of an Indian
town, of larger size than those he had hitherto seen,
occupying the brow of an eminence, and well defended
by palisades. The inhabitants, as usual, had fled, but
left in their dwellings a good supply of provisions and
some gold trinkets, which the Spaniards made no difficulty of appropriating to themselves. Pizarro's flimsy
bark had been strained by the heavy gales it had of
late encountered, so that it was unsafe to prosecute the
voyage farther without more thorough repairs than
could be given to her on this desolate coast. He accordingly determined to send her back with a few hands
to be careened at Panama, and meanwhile to establish
his quarters in his present position, which was so favorable for defence. But first he despatched a small party
under Montenegro to reconnoitre the country, and, if
possible, to open a communication with the natives.
The latter were a warlike race. They had left their
habitations in order to place their wives and children
in safety. But they had kept an eye on the movements
of the invaders, and when they saw their forces divided




224          DISCO VERY OF' PERU.
they resolved to fall upon each body singly before it
could communicate with the other. So soon, therefore, as Montenegro had penetrated through the defiles
of the lofty hills which shoot out like spurs of the Cordilleras along this part of the coast, the Indian warriors, springing from their ambush, sent off a cloud of
arrows and other missiles that darkened the air, while
they made the forest ring with their shrill war-whoop.
The Spaniards, astonished at the appearance of the
savages, with their naked bodies gaudily painted, and
brandishing their weapons as they glanced among the
trees and straggling underbrush that choked up the
defile, were taken by surprise and thrown for a moment
into disarray. Three of their number were killed and
several wounded. Yet, speedily rallying, they returned
the discharge of the assailants with their cross-bows,for Pizarro's troops do not seem to have been provided
with muskets on this expedition,-and then, gallantly
charging the enemy, sword in hand, succeeded in
driving them back into the fastnesses of the mountains.
But it only led them to shift their operations to another
quarter, and make an assault on Pizarro before he could
be relieved by his lieutenant.
Availing themselves of their superior knowledge of
the passes, they reached that commander's quarters
long before Montenegro, who had commenced a countermarch in the same direction; and, issuing from the
woods, the bold savages saluted the Spanish garrison
with a tempest of darts and arrows, some of which
found their way through the joints of the harness and
the quilted mail of the cavaliers. But Pizarro was too
well-practised a soldier to be off his guard. Calling




SHARP ENCOUNTERS.                 225
his men about him, he resolved not to abide the assault
tamely in the works, but to sally out and meet the
enemy on their own ground. The barbarians, who
had advanced near the defences, fell back as the Spaniards burst forth with their valiant leader at their head.
But, soon returning with admirable ferocity to the
charge, they singled out Pizarro, whom by his bold
bearing and air of authority they easily recognized as
the chief, and, hurling at him a storm of missiles,
wounded him, in spite of his armor, in no less than
seven places.'8
Driven back by the fury of the assault directed
against his own person, the Spanish commander retreated down the slope of the hill, still defending himself as he could with sword and buckler, when his foot
slipped, and he fell. The enemy set up a fierce yell of
triumph, and some of the boldest sprang forward to
despatch him. But Pizarro was on his feet in an instant, and, striking down two of the foremost with his
strong arm, held the rest at bay till his soldiers could
come to the rescue. The barbarians, struck with admiration at his valor, began to falter, when Montenegro
luckily coming on the ground at the moment, and
falling on their rear, completed their confusion; and,
abandoning the field, they made the best of their way
into the recesses of the mountains. The ground was
covered with their slain; but the victory was dearly
purchased by the death of two more Spaniards and a
long list of wounded.
z8 Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap.
Barcia, tom. iii. p. I8o.-Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. i, cap. x. —Balboa, Hist. du PNrou, chap. I5.
K*




226          DISCOVERY OF PERU.
A council of war was then called. The position had
lost its charm in the eyes of the Spaniards, who had
met here with the first resistance they had yet experienced on their expedition. It was necessary to place
the wounded in some secure spot, where their injuries
could be attended to. Yet it was not safe to proceed
farther, in the crippled state of their vessel.  On the
whole, it was decided to return and report their pro.
ceedings to the governor; and, though the magnificent
hopes of the adventurers had not been realized, Pizarro
trusted that enough had been done to vindicate the
importance of the enterprise and to secure the countenance of Pedrarias for the further prosecution of it.'9
Yet Pizarro could not make up his mind to present
himself, in the present state of the undertaking, before
the governor. He determined, therefore, to be set on
shore with the principal part of his company at Chicama, a place on the main land, at a short distance
west of Panama.  From this place, which he reached
without any further accident, he despatched the vessel,
and in it his treasurer, Nicolas de Ribera, with the gold
he had collected, and with instructions to lay before
the governor a full account of his discoveries and the
result of the expedition.
While these events were passing, Pizarro's associate,
Almagro, had been busily employed in fitting out another vessel for the expedition at the port of Panama.
It was not till long after his friend's departure that he
was prepared to follow him. With the assistance of
Luque, he at length succeeded in equipping a small
caravel and embarking a body of between sixty and
z9 Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 8, cap. II.-Xerez, ubi supra




ALIA  GRO'S EXPEDITION.           227
seventy adventurers, mostly of the lowest order of the
colonists. He steered in the track of his comrade,
with the intention of overtaking him as soon as possible. By a signal previously concerted of notching the
trees, he was able to identify the spots visited by Pizarro,
-Puerto de Pifias, Puerto de la Hambre, Pueblo Quemado,-touching successively at every point of the
coast explored by his countrymen, though in a much
shorter time. At the last-mentioned place he was received by the fierce natives with the same hostile
demonstrations as Pizarro, though in the present encounter the Indians did not venture beyond their
defences. But the hot blood of Almagro was so exasperated by this check that he assaulted the place and
carried it sword in hand, setting fire to the outworks
and dwellings, and driving the wretched inhabitants
into the forests.
His victory cost him dear. A wound from a javelin
on the head caused an inflammation in one of his eyes,
which, after great anguish, ended in the loss of it. Yet
the intrepid adventurer did not hesitate to pursue his
voyage, and, after touching at several places on the
coast, some of which rewarded him with a considerable
booty in gold, he reached the mouth of the Rio de San
Juan, about the fourth degree of north latitude. He
was struck with the beauty of the stream, and with the
cultivation on its borders, which were sprinkled with
Indian cottages showing some skill in their construction, and altogether intimating a higher civilization
than any thing he had yet seen.
Still his mind was filled with anxiety for the fate of
Pizarro and his followers. No trace of them had been




228           DISCOVERY O0  PERU.
found on the coast for a long time, and it was evident
they must have foundered at sea or made their way
back to Panama. This last he deemed most probable;
as the vessel might have passed him unnoticed under
the cover of the night or of the dense fogs that sometimes hang over the coast.
Impressed with this belief, he felt no heart to continue his voyage of discovery, for which, indeed, his
single bark, with its small complement of men, was
altogether inadequate. He proposed, therefore, to return without delay. On his way he touched at the Isle
of Pearls, and there learned the result of his friend's
expedition and the place of his present residence. He
directed his course at once to Chicam', where the two
cavaliers soon had the satisfaction of embracing each
other and recounting their several exploits and escapes.
Almagro returned even better freighted with gold than
his confederate, and at every step of his progress he
had collected fresh confirmation of the existence of
some great and opulent empire in the South. The
confidence of the two friends was much strengthened
by their discoveries; and they unhesitatingly pledged
themselves to one another to die rather than abandon
the enterprise.'
The best means of obtaining the levies requisite for
so formidable an undertaking-more formidable, as it
now appeared to them, than before-were made the
so Xerez, ubi supra.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Zarate,
Conq. del Peru, loc. cit.-Balboa, Hist. du Perou, chap. I5.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 8,
cap. I3.-Levinus Apollonius, fol. I2.-Gomara, Hist. de las Ind.,
cap. xo8.




ALMA GRO'S EXPEDITION.            229
subject of long and serious discussion.  It was at
length decided that Pizarro should remain in his present quarters, inconvenient and even unwholesome as
they were rendered by the humidity of the climate and
the pestilent swarms of insects that filled the atmosphere. Almagro would pass over to Panama, lay the
case before the governor, and secure, if possible, his
good will towards the prosecution of the enterprise.
If no obstacle were thrown in their way from this
quarter, they might hope, with the assistance of Luque,
to raise the necessary supplies; while the results of the
recent expedition were sufficiently encouraging to draw
adventurers to their standard in a community which
had a craving for excitement that gave even danger a
charm, and which held life cheap in comparison with
gold.
Peru.-VoL. I     20




CHAPTER III.
THE FAMOUS CONTRACT.-SECOND EXPEDITION.-RUIZ
EXPLORES THE COAST. — PIZARRO' S SUFFERINGS IN
THE FORESTS.-ARRIVAL OF NEW RECRUITS.-FRESH
DISCOVERIES AND DISASTERS.-PIZARRO ON THE ISLE
OF GALLO.
I526-1527'
ON his arrival at Panama, Almagro found that
events had taken a turn less favorable to his views
than he had anticipated. Pedrarias, the governor,
was preparing to lead an expedition in person against
a rebellious officer in Nicaragua; and his temper, naturally not the most amiable, was still further soured by
this defection of his lieutenant and the necessity it imposed on him of a long and perilous march. When,
therefore, Almagro appeared before him with the request that he might be permitted to raise further levies
to prosecute his enterprise, the governor received him
with obvious dissatisfaction, listened coldly to the narrative of his losses, turned an incredulous ear to his
magnificent promises for the future, and bluntly de.
manded an account of the lives which had been sacrificed by Pizarro's obstinacy, but which, had they been
spared, might have stood him in good stead in his
present expedition to Nicaragua. He positively declined to countenance the rash schemes of the two
adventurers any longer, and the conquest of Peru
(230)




THE FAMOUS CONTRA C:               231
would have been crushed in the bud, but for the
efficient interposition of the remaining associate, Fernando de Luque.
This sagacious ecclesiastic had received a very different impression from Almagro's narrative from that
which had been made on the mind of the irritable
governor. The actual results of the enterprise in gold
and silver thus far, indeed, had been small,-forming
a mortifying contrast to the magnitude of their expectations. But in another point of view they were of
the last importance; since the intelligence which the
adventurers had gained at every successive stage of
their progress confirmed, in the strongest manner, the
previous accounts, received from Andagoya and others,
of a rich Indian empire at the south, which might
repay the trouble of conquering it as well as Mexico
had repaid the enterprise of Cortes. Fully entering,
therefore, into the feelings of his military associates,
he used all his influence with the governor to incline
him to a more favorable view of Almagro's petition;
and no one in the little community of Panama exercised greater influence over the councils of the executive
than Father Luque, for which he was indebted no less
to his discretion and acknowledged sagacity than to his
professional station.
But while Pedrarias, overcome by the arguments or
importunity of the churchman, yielded a reluctant assent
to the application, he took care to testify his displeasure
with Pizarro, on whom he particularly charged the loss
of his followers, by naming Almagro as his equal in
command in the proposed expedition. This mortification sank deep into Pizarro's mind. He suspected




232            DISCO VERY OF PERU.
his comrade, with what reason does not appear, of
soliciting this boon from the governor. A temporary
coldness arose between them, which subsided, in outward show at least, on Pizarro's reflecting that it was
better to have this authority conferred on a friend than
on a stranger, perhaps an enemy. But the seeds of
permanent distrust were left in his bosom, and lay
waiting for the due season to ripen into a fruitful harvest of discord.'
Pedrarias had been originally interested in the enterprise, at least so far as to stipulate for a share of the
gains, though he had not contributed, as it appears, a
single ducat towards the expenses. He was at length,
however, induced to relinquish all right to a share of
the contingent profits. But in his manner of doing so
he showed a mercenary spirit better becoming a petty
trader than a high officer of the crown. He stipulated
that the associates should secure to him the sum of one
thousand pesos de oro in requital of his good will, and
they eagerly closed with his proposal, rather than be
encumbered with his pretensions. For so paltry a consideration did he resign his portion of the rich spoil of
the Incas! 2 But the governor was not gifted with the
Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I8o.-Montesinos,
Annales, MS., afio I526.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 8, cap.
12.'Such is the account of Oviedo, who was present at the interview
between the governor and Almagro when the terms of compensation
were discussed. The dialogue, which is amusing enough, and well
told by the old Chronicler, may be found translated in Appendix No.
5. Another version of the affair is given in the Relacion, often quoted
by me, of one of the Peruvian conquerors, in which Pedrarias is said
to have gone out of the partnership voluntarily, from his disgust at
the unpromising state of affairs: "Vueltos con la dicha gente i Pa



THE FAMOUS CONTRACT.                     233
eye of a prophet. His avarice was of that shortsighted kind which defeats itself. He had sacrificed
the chivalrous Balboa just as that officer was opening
to him the conquest of Peru, and he would now have
quenched the spirit of enterprise, that was taking the
same direction, in Pizarro and his associates.
Not long after this, in the following year, he was
succeeded in his government by Don Pedro de los
Rios, a cavalier of Cordova. It was the policy of the
Castilian crown to allow no one of the great colonial
officers to occupy the same station so long as to render
himself formidable by his authority.3 It had, moreover, many particular causes of disgust with Pedrarias.
The functionary sent out to succeed him was fortified
with ample instructions for the good of the colony,
nama, destrozados y gastados que ya no tenian haciendas para tornar
con provisiones y gentes que todo lo habian gastado, el dicho Pedrarias de Avila les dijo, que ya el no queria mas hacer compafiia con
ellos en los gastos de la armada, que si ellos querian volver i su costa,
que lo hiciesen; y ansi como gente que habia perdido todo lo que
tenia y tanto habia trabajado, acordaron de tornar A proseguir su
jornada y dar fin, las vidas y haciendas que les quedaba, 6 descubrir
aquella tierra, y ciertamente ellos tubieron grande constancia y animo."
Relacion del primer Descub., MS.
3 This policy is noticed by the sagacious Martyr: "De mutandis
namque plaerisque gubernatoribus, ne longa nimis imperii assuetudine insolescant, cogitatur, qui praecipue non fuerint prouinciarum
domitores, de hisce ducibus namque alia ratio ponderatur." (De
Orbe Novo (Parisiis, I587), p. 498.) One cannot but regret that the
philosopher who took so keen an interest in the successive revelations
of the different portions of the New World should have died before
the empire of the Incas was disclosed to Europeans. He lived to
learn and to record the wonders of
" Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezuma;.Not Cuzco in Peru, the richer seat of Atabalipa."
20*




234           DISCOVERY OF PERU.
and especially of the natives, whose religious conversion was urged as a capital object, and whose personal
freedom was unequivocally asserted, as loyal vassals of
the crown. It is but justice to the Spanish government
to admit that its provisions were generally guided by a
humane and considerate policy, which was as regularly
frustrated by the cupidity of the colonist and the capricious cruelty of the conqueror. The few ixmaining
years of Pedrarias were spent in petty squabbles, both
of a personal and official nature; for he was still continued in office, though in one of less consideration
than that which he had hitherto filled. He survived
but a few years, leaving behind him a reputation not
to be envied, of one who united a pusillanimous spirit
with uncontrollable passions, but who displayed, notwithstanding, a certain energy of character, or, to speak
more correctly, an impetuosity of purpose, which might
have led to good results had it taken a right direction.
Unfortunately, his lack of discretion was such that the
direction he took was rarely of service to his country
or to himself.
Having settled their difficulties with the governor,
and obtained his sanction to their enterprise, the confederates lost no time in making the requisite preparations for it.  Their first step was to  execute the
memorable contract which served as the basis of their
future arrangements; and, as Pizarro's name appears
in this, it seems probable that that chief had crossed
over to Panama so soon as the favorable disposition of
Pedrarias had been secured.4 The instrument, after
4 In opposition to most authorities,-but not to the judicious Quintana,.-I have conformed to Montesinos, in placing the execution of




THE FA4MOUS CONTRACT.                 235
invoking in the most solemn manner the names of the
Holy Trinity and Our Lady the Blessed Virgin, sets
forth that whereas the parties have full authority to
discover and subdue the countries and provinces lying
south of the Gulf, belonging to the empire of Peru,
and as Fernando de Luque had advanced the funds for
the enterprise in bars of gold of the value of twenty
thousand pesos, they mutually bind themselves to divide equally among them the whole of the conquered
territory. This stipulation is reiterated over and over
again, particularly with reference to Luque, who, it is
declared, is to be entitled to one-third of all lands,
repartimientos, treasures of every kind, gold, silver,
and precious stones,-to one-third even of all vassals,
rents, and emoluments arising from such grants as may
be conferred by the crown on either of his military
associates, to be held for his own use, or for that of his
heirs, assigns, or legal representative.
The two captains solemnly engage to devote themselves exclusively to the present undertaking until it
is accomplished; and in case of failure in their part
of the covenant they pledge themselves to reimburse
Luque for his advances, for which all the property
they possess shall be held responsible, and this declaration is to be a sufficient warrant for the execution of
judgment against them, in the same manner as if it had
proceeded from the decree of a court of justice.
The commanders, Pizarro and Almagro, made oath,
the contract at the commencement of the second, instead of the first,
expedition. This arrangement coincides with the date of the instrument itself, which, moreover, is reported in extenso by no ancient
writer whom I have consulted except Montesinos.




236           DISCO VERY OF PER.
in the name of God and the Holy Evangelists, sacredly
to keep this covenant, swearing it on the missal, on
which they traced with their own hands the sacred
emblem of the cross. To give still greater efficacy to
the compact, Father Luque administered the sacrament
to the parties, dividing the consecrated wafer into
three portions, of which each one of them partook;
while the by-standers, says an historian, were affected
to tears by this spectacle of the solemn ceremonial
with which these men voluntarily devoted themselves
to a sacrifice that seemed little short of insanity.5
The instrument, which was dated March Ioth, I526,
was subscribed by Luque, and attested by three respectable citizens of Panama, one of whom signed on behalf of Pizarro, and the other for Almagro; since
neither of these parties, according to the avowal of the
instrument, was able to subscribe his own name.6
Such was the singular compact by which three obscure individuals coolly carved out and partitioned
among themselves an empire of whose extent, power,
and resources, of whose situation, of whose existence
even, they had no sure or precise knowledge.  The
positive and unhesitating manner in which they speak
of the grandeur of this empire, of its stores of wealth,
so conformable to the event, but of which they could
have really known so little, forms a striking contrast
with the general skepticism and indifference manifested
5 This singular instrument is given at length by Montesinos. (Annales, MS., afio I526.) It may be found in the original in Appendix
No. 6.
6 For some investigation of the fact, which has been disputed by
more than one, of Pizarro's ignorance of the art of writing, see book
4, chap. 5, of this History.




THE FAMOUS CONTRACT.                   237
by nearly every other person, high and low, in the community of Panama.7
The religious tone of the instrument is not the least
remarkable feature in it, especially when we contrast
this with the relentless policy pursued by the very men
who were parties to it in their conquest of the country.
"In the name of the Prince of Peace," says the illustrious historian of America, "they ratified a contract
of which plunder and bloodshed were the objects."8
The reflection seems reasonable. Yet, in criticising
what is done, as well as what is written, we must take
into account the spirit of the times.9 The invocation
of Heaven was natural, where the object of the undertaking was in part a religious one. Religion entered
more or less into the theory, at least, of the Spanish
conquests in the New World. That motives of a baser
sort mingled largely with these higher ones, and in
different proportions according to the character of the
individual, no one will deny. And few are they that
have proposed to themselves a long career of action
without the intermixture of some vulgar personal motive, —fame, honors, or emolument. Yet that religion
furnishes a key to the American crusades, however
7 The epithet of loco, or "madman," was punningly bestowed on
Father Luque, for his spirited exertions in behalf of the enterprise:
Padre Luque o loco, says Oviedo of him, as if it were synonymous.
Historia de las Indias Islas e Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano, MS.,
Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. I.
8 Robertson, America, vol. iii. p. 5.
9 " A perfect judge will read each work of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ,"
says the great bard of Reason. A fair criticism will apply the same
rule to action as to writing, and, in the moral estimate of conduct, will
take largely into account the spirit of the age which prompted it.




238          DISCOVERY OF PERU.
rudely they may have been conducted, is evident from
the history of their origin; from the sanction openly
given to them by the Head of the Church; from the
throng of self-devoted missionaries who followed in
the track of the conquerors to garner up the rich harvest of souls; from the reiterated instructions of the
crown, the great object of which was the conversion
of the natives; from those superstitious acts of the
iron-hearted soldiery themselves, which, however they
may be set down to fanaticism, were clearly too much
in earnest to leave any ground for the charge of hypocrisy. It was indeed a fiery cross that was borne over
the devoted land, scathing and consuming it in its
terrible progress; but it was still the cross, the sign of
man's salvation, the only sign by which generations
and generations yet unborn were to be rescued from
eternal perdition.
It is a remarkable fact, which has hitherto escaped
the notice of the historian, that Luque was not the real
party to this contract. He represented another, who
placed in his hands the funds required for the undertaking. This appears from an instrument signed by
Luque himself and certified before the same notary
that prepared the original contract. The instrument
declares that the whole sum of twenty thousand pesos
advanced for the expedition was furnished by the Licentiate Gaspar de Espinosa, then at Panam/a; that the
vicar acted only as his agent and by his authority; and
that, in consequence, the said Espinosa and no other
was entitled to a third of all the profits and acquisitions resulting from the conquest of Peru.  This
instrument, attested by three persons, one of them the




THE FAMOUS CONTRACT.                   239
same who had witnessed the original contract, was
dated on the 6th of August, I53I.1~ The Licentiate
Espinosa was a respectable functionary, who had filled
the office of principal alcalde in Darien, and since
taken a conspicuous part in the conquest and settlement of Tierra Firme. He enjoyed much consideration for his personal character and station; and it is
remarkable that so little should be known of the manner in which the covenant so solemnly made was executed in reference to him. As in the case of Columbus,
it is probable that the unexpected magnitude of the
results was such as to prevent a faithful adherence to
the original stipulation; and yet, from the same consideration, one can hardly doubt that the twenty thousand pesos of the bold speculator must have brought
him a magnificent return. Nor did the worthy vicar
of Panama, as the history will show hereafter, go without his reward.
Having completed these preliminary arrangements,
the three associates lost no time in making preparations
for the voyage. Two vessels were purchased, larger and
every way better than those employed on the former occasion. Stores were laid in, as experience dictated, on
a larger scale than before, and proclamation was made
of "an expedition to Peru." But the call was not
readily answered by the skeptical citizens of Panama.
10 The instrument making this extraordinary disclosure is cited at
length in a manuscript entitled Noticia general del Pern, Tierra Firme
y Chili, by Francisco Lopez de Caravantes, a fiscal officer in these
colonies. The MS., formerly preserved in the library of the great
college of Cuenca at Salamanca, is now to be found in her Majesty's
library at Madrid. The passage is extracted by Quintana, Espafioles
c6lebres, tom. ii. Apend. No. 2, nota.




240            DISCO VERY OF PERU.
Of nearly two hundred men who had embarked on
the former cruise, not more than three-fourths now
remained.,, This dismal mortality, and the emaciated,
poverty-stricken aspect of the survivors, spoke more
eloquently than the braggart promises and magnificent
prospects held out by the adventurers. Still, there
were men in the community of such desperate circumstances that any change seemed like a chance of bettering their condition. Most of the former company
also, strange to say, felt more pleased to follow up the
adventure to the end than to abandon it as they saw
the light of a better day dawning upon them. From
these sources the two captains succeeded in mustering
about one hundred and sixty men, making altogether
a very inadequate force for the conquest of an empire.
A few horses were also purchased, and a better supply
of ammunition and military stores than before, though
still on a very limited scale. Considering their funds,
the only way of accounting for this must be by the
difficulty of obtaining supplies at Panama, which, recently founded, and on the remote coast of the Pacific,
could be approached only by crossing the rugged barrier of mountains, which made the transportation of
bulky articles extremely difficult. Even such scanty
stock of materials as it possessed was probably laid
under heavy contribution, at the present juncture, by
the governor's preparations for his own expedition to
the north.'x " Con ciento i diez Hombres saliM de Panama, i fue donde estaba
el Capitan Pigarro con otros cinquenta de los primeros ciento i diez,
que con 61 salieron, i de los setenta, que el Capitan Almagro llevb,
quando le fue B buscar, que los ciento i treinta id eran muertos." Xerez,
Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I8o.




SECOND EXPEDITION.                 24I
Thus indifferently provided, the two captains, each
in his own vessel, again took their departure from
Panama, under the direction of Bartholomew Ruiz, a
sagacious and resolute pilot, well experienced in the
navigation of the Southern Ocean. He was a native
of Moguer, in Andalusia, that little nursery of nautical
enterprise, which furnished so many seamen for the first
voyages of Columbus. Without touching at the intervening points of the coast, which offered no attraction
to the voyagers, they stood farther out to sea, steering
direct for the Rio de San Juan, the utmost limit reached
by Almagro. The season was better selected than on
the former occasion, and they were borne along by
favorable breezes to the place of their destination,
which they reached without accident in a few days.
Entering the mouth of the river, they saw the banks
well lined with Indian habitations; and Pizarro, disembarking at the head of a party of soldiers, succeeded
in surprising a small village and carrying off a considerable booty of gold ornaments found in the dwellings,
together with a few of the natives.12
Flushed with their success, the two chiefs were confident that the sight of the rich spoil so speedily
obtained could not fail to draw adventurers to their
standard in Panama; and, as they felt more than ever
the necessity of a stronger force to cope with the
thickening population of the country which they were
now to penetrate, it was decided that Almagro should
return with the treasure and beat up for reinforcements,:2 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. pp. I8o, xI8.Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. x, cap.
I.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. 8, cap. 13.
Peru.-VOL. I.-L       21




242          DISCO VER Y OF PERU.
while the pilot Ruiz, in the other vessel, should reconnoitre the country towards the south, and obtain such
information as might determine their future movements.
Pizarro, with the rest of the force, would remain in the
neighborhood of the river, as he was assured by the
Indian prisoners that not far off in the interior was an
open reach of country, where he and his men could
find comfortable quarters. This arrangement was instantly put in execution. We will first accompany the
intrepid pilot in his cruise towards the south.
Coasting along the great continent, with his canvas
still spread to favorable winds, the first place at which
Ruiz cast anchor was off the little island of Gallo,
about two degrees north. The inhabitants, who were
not numerous, were prepared to give him a hostile reception; for tidings of the invaders had preceded them
along the country, and even reached this insulated spot.
As the object of Ruiz was to explore, not to conquer,
he did not care to entangle himself in hostilities with
the natives: so, changing his purpose of landing, he
weighed anchor, and ran down the coast as far as what
is now called the Bay of St. Matthew. The country,
which, as he advanced, continued to exhibit evidence
of a better culture as well as of a more dense population than the parts hitherto seen, was crowded, along
the shores, with spectators, who gave no signs of fear
or hostility. They stood gazing on the vessel of the
white men as it glided smoothly into the crystal waters
of the bay, fancying it, says an old writer, some mysterious being descended from the skies.
Without staying long enough on this friendly coast
to undeceive the simple people, Ruiz, standing off




RUIZ EXPLORES THE  COAST.                243
shore, struck out into the deep sea; but he had not
sailed far in that direction when he was surprised by
the sight of a vessel, seeming in the distance like a
caravel of considerable size, traversed by a large sail
that carried it sluggishly over the waters. The old
navigator was not a little perplexed by this phenomenon, as he was confident no European bark could have
been before him in these latitudes, and no Indian nation
yet discovered, not even the civilized Mexican, was
acquainted with the use of sails in navigation. As he
drew near, he found it was a large vessel, or rather raft,
called balsa by the natives, consisting of a number of
huge timbers of a light, porous wood, tightly lashed
together, with a frail flooring of reeds raised on them
by way of deck. Two masts or sturdy poles, erected
in the middle of the vessel, sustained a large squaresail of cotton, while a rude kind of rudder and a movable keel, made of plank inserted between the logs,
enabled the mariner to give a direction to the floating
fabric, which held on its course without the aid of oar
or paddle.'3 The simple architecture of this craft was
sufficient for the purposes of the natives, and indeed
has continued to answer them to the present day; for
the balsa, surmounted by small thatched huts or cabins,
still supplies the most commodious means for the transportation of passengers and luggage on the streams and
along the shores of this part of the South American
continent.
u3 "Traia sus manteles y antenas de muy fina madera y velas de algodon del mismo talle de manera que los nuestros navios." Relacion
de los primeros Descubrimientos de F. Pizarro y Diego de Almagro,
sacada del Codice No. I2o de la Biblioteca Imperial de Vienna, MS.




244             DISCO VERY OF PERU.
On coming alongside, Ruiz found several Indians,
both men and women, on board, some with rich ornaments on their persons, besides several articles wrought
with considerable skill in gold and silver, which they
were carrying for purposes of traffic to the different
places along the coast. But what most attracted his
attention was the woollen cloth of which some of their
dresses were made. It was of a fine texture, delicately
embroidered with figures of birds and flowers, and
dyed in brilliant colors. He also observed in the boat
a pair of balances made to weigh the precious metals.'4
His astonishment at these proofs of ingenuity and
civilization, so much higher than any thing he had ever
seen in the country, was heightened by the intelligence
which he collected from some of these Indians. Two
of them had come from Tumbez, a Peruvian port, some
degrees to the south; and they gave him to understand
that in their neighborhood the fields were covered with
large flocks of the animals from which the wool was
obtained, and that gold and silver were almost as common as wood in the palaces of their monarch. The
Spaniards listened greedily to reports which harmo14 In a short notice of this expedition, written apparently at the time
of it, or soon after, a minute specification is given of the several articles
found in the balsa; among them are mentioned vases and mirrors of
burnished silver, and curious fabrics both cotton and woollen: " Espejos guarnecidos de la dicha plata, y tasas y otras vasijas para beber,
trahian muchas mantas de lana y de algodon, y camisas y aljubas y
alcaqeres y alaremes, y otras muchas ropas, todo lo mas de ello muy
labrado de labores muy ricas de colores de grana y carmisi y azul y
amarillo, y de todas otras colores de diversas maneras de labores y
figuras de aves y animales, y Pescados, y arbolesas y trahian unos pesos
chiquitos de pesar oro como hechura de Romana, y otras muchas
cosas." Relacion sacada de la Biblioteca Imperial de Vienna, MS.




R ZIZ EXPLORES THE  COAST.                245
nized so well with their fond desires. Though half
distrusting the exaggeration, Ruiz resolved to detain
some of the Indians, including the natives of Tumbez,
that they might repeat the wondrous tale to his commander, and at the same time, by learning the Castilian, might hereafter serve as interpreters with their
countrymen. The rest of the party he suffered to proceed without further interruption on their voyage.
Then, holding on his course, the prudent pilot, without touching at any other point of the coast, advanced
as far as the Punta de Pasado, about half a degree
south, having the glory of being the first European
who, sailing in this direction on the Pacific, had crossed
the equinoctial line. This was the limit of his discoveries; on reaching which he tacked about, and,
standing away to the north, succeeded, after an absence of several weeks, in regaining the spot where he
had left Pizarro and his comrades.'5
It was high time; for the spirits of that little band
had been sorely tried by the perils they had encountered. On the departure of his vessels, Pizarro marched
into the interior, in the hope of finding the pleasant
champaign country which had been promised him by
the natives. But at every step the forests seemed to
grow denser and darker, and the trees towered to a
i5 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom, iii. p. I8I.-Relacion
sacada de la Biblioteca Imperial de Vienna, MS.-Herrera, Hist.
general, dec. 3, lib. 8, cap. 13.-One of the authorities speaks of his
having been sixty days on this cruise. I regret not to be able to give
precise dates of the events in these early expeditions. But chronology
is a thing beneath the notice of these ancient chroniclers, who seem
to think that the date of events so fresh in their own memory must
be so in that of every one else.
21*




246           DISCO VER   OF PERU.
height such as he had never seen, even in these fruitful
regions, where Nature works on so gigantic a scale."
Hill continued to rise above hill, as he advanced,
rolling onward, as it were, by successive waves to join
that colossal barrier of the Andes, whose frosty sides,
far away above the clouds, spread out like a curtain of
burnished silver, that seemed to connect the heavens
with the earth.
On crossing these woody eminences, the forlorn adventurers would plunge into ravines of frightful depth,
where the exhalations of a humid soil steamed up
amidst the incense of sweet-scented flowers, which
shone through the deep gloom in every conceivable
variety of color. Birds, especially of the parrot tribe,
mocked this fantastic variety of nature with tints as
brilliant as those of the vegetable world.  Monkeys
chattered in crowds above their heads, and made
grimaces like the fiendish spirits of these solitudes;
while hideous reptiles, engendered in the slimy depths
of the pools, gathered round the footsteps of the wanderers. Here was seen the gigantic boa, coiling his
unwieldy folds about the trees, so as hardly to be distinguished from their trunks, till he was ready to dart
upon his prey; and alligators lay basking on the borders of the streams, or, gliding under the waters, seized
their incautious victim before he was aware of their approach.'7 Many of the Spaniards perished miserably
in this way, and others were waylaid by the natives,
who kept a jealous eye on their movements and availed
I6 " Todo era montafias, con arboles hasta el cielo 1" Herrera, Hist.
general, ubi supra.
17 Ibid., ubi supra.




ARRIVAL OF NEW RECRUITS.              247
themselves of every opportunity to take them at advantage. Fourteen of Pizarro's men were cut off at
once in a canoe which had stranded on the bank of a
stream. i8
Famine came in addition to other troubles, and it
was with difficulty that they found the means of sustaining life on the scanty fare of the forest,-occasionally the potato, as it grew without cultivation, or the
wild cocoanut, or, on the shore, the salt and bitter
fruit of the mangrove; though the shore was less tolerable than the forest, from the swarms of mosquitos
which compelled the wretched adventurers to bury their
bodies up to their very faces in the sand. In this extremity of suffering, they thought only of return; and
all schemes of avarice and ambition-except with
Pizarro and a few dauntless spirits-were exchanged
for the one craving desire to return to Panama.
It was at this crisis that the pilot Ruiz returned
with the report of his brilliant discoveries; and, not
long after, Almagro sailed into port with his vessel
laden with provisions and a considerable reinforcement of volunteers. The voyage of that commander
had been prosperous. When he arrived at PanamA, he
found the government in the hands of Don Pedro de
los Rios; and he came to anchor in the harbor, unwilling to trust himself on shore till he had obtained
from Father Luque some account of the dispositions
of the executive. These were sufficiently favorable;
for the new governor had particular instructions fully
to carry out the arrangements made by his predecessor
is Herrera, loc. cit.-Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. io8.-Naharro,
Relacion sumaria, MS.




248          DISCO VERY OF PERU
with the associates. On learning Almagro's arrival, he
came down to the port to welcome him, professing his
willingness to afford every facility for the execution of
his designs.  Fortunately, just before this period a
small body of military adventurers had come to Panama
from the mother-country, burning with desire to make
their fortunes in the New World. They caught much
more eagerly than the old and wary colonists at the
golden bait held out to them; and with their addition,
and that of a few supernumerary stragglers who hung
about the town, Almagro found himself at the head of
a reinforcement of at least eighty men, with which,
having laid in a fresh supply of stores, he again set sail
for the Rio de San Juan.
The arrival of the new recruits all eager to follow
up the expedition, the comfortable change in their
circumstances produced by an ample supply of provisions, and the glowing pictures of the wealth that
awaited them in the south, all had their effect on the
dejected spirits of Pizarro's followers. Their late toils
and privations were speedily forgotten, and, with the
buoyant and variable feelings incident to a freebooter's
life, they now called as eagerly on their commander to
go forward in the voyage as they had before called on
him to abandon it. Availing themselves of the renewed spirit of enterprise, the captains embarked on
board their vessels, and, under the guidance of the
veteran pilot, steered in the same track he had lately
pursued.
But the favorable season for a southern course, which
in these latitudes lasts but a few months in the year,
had been suffered to escape. The breezes blew steadily




FRESH DISCOVERIES AND DISASTERS. 249
towards the north, and a strong current, not far from
shore, set in the same direction. The winds frequently
rose into tempests, and the unfortunate voyagers were
tossed about, for many days, in the boiling surges,
amidst the most awful storms of thunder and lightning,
until at length they found a secure haven in the island
of Gallo, already visited by Ruiz. As they were now
too strong in numbers to apprehend an assault, the
crews landed, and, experiencing no molestation from
the natives, they continued on the island for a fortnight, refitting their damaged vessels, and recruiting
themselves after the fatigues of the ocean. Then, resuming their voyage, the captains stood towards the
south until they reached the bay of St. Matthew. As
they advanced along the coast, they were struck, as
Ruiz had been before, with the evidences of a higher
civilization constantly exhibited in the general aspect
of the country and its inhabitants. The hand of cultivation was visible in every quarter.  The natural
appearance of the coast, too, had something in it more
inviting; for instead of the eternal labyrinth of mangrove-trees, with their complicated roots snarled into
formidable coils under the water, as if to waylay and
entangle the voyager, the low margin of the sea was
covered with a stately growth of ebony, and with a
species of mahogany, and other hard woods that take
the most brilliant and variegated polish. The sandalwood, and many balsamic trees of unknown names,
scattered their sweet odors far and wide, not in an
atmosphere tainted with vegetable corruption, but on
the pure breezes of the ocean, bearing health as well
as fragrance on their wings. Broad patches of culti.
L*




250            DISCO VERY OF PERU.
vated land intervened, disclosing hill-sides covered
with the yellow maize and the potato, or checkered, in
the lower levels, with blooming plantations of cacao.x9
The villages became more numerous; and, as the
vessels rode at anchor off the port of Tacamez, the
Spaniards saw before them a town of two thousand
houses or more, laid out into streets, with a numerous
population clustering around it in the suburbs." The
men and women displayed many ornaments of gold
and precious stones about their persons, which may
seem strange, considering that the Peruvian Incas
claimed a monopoly of jewels for themselves and the
nobles on whom they condescended to bestow them.
But, although the Spaniards had now reached the outer
limits of the Peruvian empire, it was not Peru, but
Quito, and that portion of it but recently brought
under the sceptre of the Incas, where the ancient
u!sages of the people could hardly have been effaced
under the oppressive system of the American despots.
The adjacent country was, moreover, particularly rich
in gold, which, collected from the washings of the
streams, still forms one of the staple products of Barbacoas. Here, too, was the fair River of Emeralds, so
called from the quarries of the beautiful gem on its
x9 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I8I.-Relacion
sacada de la Biblioteca Imperial de Vienna, MS.-Naharro, Relacion
sumaria, MS.-Montesinos, Annales, MS., anfo I526.-Zarate, Conq.
del Peru, lib. I, cap. i.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.
so Pizarro's secretary speaks of one of the towns as containing 3000
houses: " En esta Tierra havia muchos Mantenimientos, i la Gente
tenia mui buena orden de vivir, los Pueblos con sus Calles, i Plagas:
Pueblo havia que tenia mas de tres mil Casas, i otros havia menores."
Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. i8I.




FRESH DISCOVERIES AND DISASTERS. 25I
borders, from which the Indian monarchs enriched
their treasury.2'
The Spaniards gazed with delight on these undeniable evidences of wealth, and saw in the careful cultivation of the soil a comfortable assurance that they had
at length reached the land which had so long been seen
in brilliant, though distant, perspective before them.
But here again they were doomed to be disappointed by
the warlike spirit of the people, who, conscious of their
own strength, showed no disposition to quail before
the invaders. On the contrary, several of their canoes
shot out, loaded with warriors, who, displaying a gold
mask as their ensign, hovered round the vessels with
looks of defiance, and, when pursued, easily took shelter
under the lee of the land.22
A more formidable body mustered along the shore,
to the number, according to the Spanish accounts, of
at least ten thousand warriors, eager, apparently, to
come to close action with the invaders. Nor could
2t Stevenson, who visited this part of the coast early in the present
century, is profuse in his description of its mineral and vegetable
treasures. The emerald-mine in the neighborhood of Las Esmeraldas, once so famous, is now placed under the ban of a superstition
more befitting the times of the Incas. " I never visited it," says the
traveller, " owing to the superstitious dread of the natives who assured
me that it was enchanted, and guarded by an enormous dragon, which
poured forth thunder and lightning on those who dared to ascend the
river." Residence in South America, vol. ii. p. 4o6.
= " Salieron a los dichos navios quatorce canoas grandes con muchos Indios dos armados de oro y plata, y trahian en la una canoa 6
en estandarte y encima de 6l un bolto de un mucho desio de oro, y
dieron una suelta A los navios por avisarlos en manera que no los pudiese enojar, y asi dieron vuelta acia i su pueblo, y los navios no los
pudieron tomar porque se metieron en los baxos junto ai la tierra."
Relacion sacada de la Biblioteca Imperial de Vienna, MS.




252            DISCOVERY OF PER U.
Pizarro, who had landed with a party of his men in the
hope of a conference with the natives, wholly prevent
hostilities; and it might have gone hard with the Spaniards, hotly pressed by their resolute enemy so superior
in numbers, but for a ludicrous accident reported by
the historians as happening to one of the cavaliers.
This was a fall from his horse, which so astonished the
barbarians, who were not prepared for this division of
what seemed one and the same being into two, that,
filled with consternation, they fell back, and left a way
open for the Christians to regain their vessels! 23
A council of war was now called. It was evident
that the forces of the Spaniards were unequal to a
contest with so numerous and well-appointed a body
of natives; and, even if they should prevail here, they
could have no hope of stemming the torrent which
must rise against them in their progress, —for the
country was becoming more and more thickly settled,
and towns and hamlets started into view at every new
headland which they doubled. It was better, in the
opinion of some,-the faint-hearted, —to abandon the
enterprise at once, as beyond their strength. But Almagro took a different view of the affair. "To go
23 "Al tiempo del romper los unos con los otros, uno de aquellos
de caballo cay6 del caballo abajo; y como los Indios vieron dividirse
aquel animal en dos partes, teniendo por cierto que todo era una cosa,
fu6 tanto el miedo que tubieron que volvieron las espaldas dando voces
A los suyos, diciendo, que se habia hecho dos haciendo admiracion
dello: lo cual no fu6 sin misterio; porque a no acaecer esto se presume, que mataran todos los cristianos." (Relacion del primer Descub., MS.) This way of accounting for the panic of the barbarians
is certainly quite as credible as the explanation, under similar circumstances, afforded by the apparition of the militant apostle St. James,
so often noticed by the historians of these wars.




FRESH DISCOVERIES AND DISASTERS.  253
home," he said, "with nothing done, would be ruin,
as well as disgrace. There was scarcely one but had
left creditors at Panama, who looked for payment to
the fruits of this expedition. To go home now would
be to deliver themselves at once into their hands. It
would be to go to prison. Better to roam a freeman,
though in the wilderness, than to lie bound with fetters
in the dungeons of Panama.-4  The only course for
them," he concluded, "was the one lately pursued.
Pizarro might find some more commodious place where
he could remain with part of the force while he himself went back for recruits to Panam/a. The story they
had now to tell of the riches of the land, as they had
seen them with their own eyes, would put their expedition in a very different light, and could not fail
to draw to their banner as many volunteers as they
needed."
But this recommendation, however judicious, was
not altogether to the taste of the latter commander,
who did not relish the part, which constantly fell to
him, of remaining behind in the swamps and forests
of this wild country. "It is all very well," he said
to Almagro, "for you, who pass your time pleasantly
enough, careering to and fro in your vessel, or snugly
sheltered in a land of plenty at Panama; but it is quite
another matter for those who stay behind to droop and
die of hunger in the wilderness."25  To this Almagro
24 " No era bien bolver pobres, d pedir limosna, i morir en las Carceles, los que tenian deudas." Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. Io,
cap. 2.
S5 " Como iba, i venia en los Navios, adonde no le faltaba Vitualla,
no padecia la miseria de la hambre, i otras angustias que tenian, i
Peru.-VoL. I.        22




254             DISCOVER Y OF PERU.
retorted with some heat, professing his own willingness
to take charge of the brave men who would remain
with him, if Pizarro declined it. The controversy
assuming a more angry and menacing tone, from words
they would have soon come to blows, as both, laying
their hands on their swords, were preparing to rush on
each other, when the treasurer Ribera, aided by the
pilot Ruiz, succeeded in pacifying them. It required
but little effort on the part of these cooler counsellors
to convince the cavaliers of the folly of a conduct
which must at once terminate the expedition in a manner little creditable to its projectors. A reconciliation
consequently took place, sufficient, at least in outward
show, to allow the two commanders to act together in
concert. Almagro's plan was then adopted; and it
only remained to find out the most secure and convenient spot for Pizarro's quarters.
Several days were passed in touching at different parts
of the coast, as they retraced their course; but everywhere the natives appeared to have caught the alarm,
and assumed a menacing, and from their numbers a
formidable, aspect. The more northerly region, with
its unwholesome fens and forests, where nature wages a
ponian A. todos en estrema congoja." (Herrera, Hist. general, dec.
3, lib. Io, cap. 2.) The cavaliers of Cortes and Pizarro, however
doughty their achievements, certainly fell short of those knights-errant,
commemorated by Hudibras, who,
" As some think,
Of old did neither eat nor drink;
Because, when thorough deserts vast
And regions desolate they past,
Unless they grazed, there's not one word
Of their provision on record;
Which made some confidently write,
They had no stomachs but to fight."




PIZARRO ON THE ISLE OF GALLO.  255
war even more relentless than man, was not to be
thought of. In this perplexity, they decided on the
little island of Gallo, as being, on the whole, from its
distance from the shore, and from the scantiness of its
population, the most eligible spot for them in their
forlorn and destitute condition.'6
But no sooner was the resolution of the two captains
made known than a feeling of discontent broke forth
among their followers, especially those who were to
remain with Pizarro on the island.  "What!"  they
exclaimed, "were they to be dragged to that obscure
spot to die by hunger? The whole expedition had
been a cheat and a failure, from beginning to end.
The golden countries, so much vaunted, had seemed to
fly before them as they advanced; and the little gold
they had been fortunate enough to glean had all been
sent back to Panama to entice other fools to follow
their example. What had they got in return for all
their sufferings? The only treasures they could boast
were their bows and arrows, and they were now to be
left to die on this dreary island, without so much as a
rood of consecrated ground to lay their bones in!" 27
26 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Relacion sacada de la
Biblioteca Imperial de Vienna, MS.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.
-Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. I.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3,
lib. Io, cap. 2.-It was singularly unfortunate that Pizarro, instead of
striking farther south, should have so long clung to the northern shores
of the continent. Dampier notices them as afflicted with incessant
rain; while the inhospitable forests and the particularly ferocious character of the natives continued to make these regions but little known
down to his time. See his Voyages and Adventures (London, 1776),
vol. i. chap. I4.
27 " Miserablemente morir adonde aun no havia lugar Sagrado, para
sepultura de sus cuerpos." Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3. lib. Io, cap. 3.




256            DISCOVERY OF PERU.
In this exasperated state of feeling, several of the
soldiers wrote back to their friends, informing them
of their deplorable condition, and complaining of the
cold-blooded manner in which they were to be sacrificed to the obstinate cupidity of their leaders. But
the latter were wary enough to anticipate this movement, and Almagro defeated it by seizing all the letters
in the vessels and thus cutting off at once the means
of communication with their friends at home. Yet
this act of unscrupulous violence, like most other similar acts, fell short of its purpose; for a soldier named
Sarabia had the ingenuity to evade it by introducing a
letter into a ball of cotton, which was to be taken to
Panama as a specimen of the products of the country
and presented to the governor's lady.28
The letter, which was signed by several of the disaffected soldiery besides the writer, painted in gloomy
colors the miseries of their condition, accused the two
commanders of being the authors of this, and called
on the authorities at Panama to interfere by sending a
vessel to take them from the desolate spot while some
of them might still be found surviving the horrors of
their confinement. The epistle concluded with a stanza,
in which the two leaders were stigmatized as partners
in a slaughter-house,-one being employed to drive in
the cattle for the other to butcher. The verses, which
had a currency in their day among the colonists to
28 " Metieron en un ovillo de algodon una carta firmada de muchos
en que sumariamente daban cuenta de las hambres, muertes y desnudez que padecian, y que era cosa de risa todo, pues las riquezas se.
habian convertido en flechas, y no havia otra cosa." Montesinos,
Annales. MS., afio I527.




PIZARRO ON THE ISLE OF GALLO.  25 7
which they were certainly not entitled by their poetical merits, may be thus rendered into corresponding
doggerel:
"Look out, Sefior Governor,
For the drover while he's near;
Since he goes home to get the sheep
For the butcher, who stays here." 29
39 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I8I.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Balboa, Hist. du PNrou, chap. 15.-" Al fin de
la peticion que hacian en la carta al Governador puso Juan de Sarabia, natural de Trujillo, esta cuarteta:
Pues Sefior Gobernador,
Mirelo bien por entero
que alli va el recogedor,
y ac. queda el carnicero."
Montesinos Annales, MS., afio 1527.
22*




CHAPTER IV.
INDIGNATION OF THE GOVERNOR.-STERN RESOLUTION
OF PIZARRO. -PROSECUTION OF THE VOYAGE.-BRILLIANT ASPECT OF TUMBEZ. —DISCOVERIES ALONG THE
COAST. —RETURN TO PANAMA. —PIZARRO EMBARKS FOR
SPAIN.
I527-I528.
NOT long after Almagro's departure, Pizarro sent off
the remaining vessel, under the pretext of its being put
in repair at Panama. It probably relieved him of a part
of his followers, whose mutinous spirit made them an
obstacle rather than a help in his forlorn condition,
and with whom he was the more willing to part from
the difficulty of finding subsistence on the barren spot
which he now occupied.
Great was the dismay occasioned by the return of
Almagro and his followers in the little community of
Panama; for the letter surreptitiously conveyed in the
ball of cotton fell into the hands for which it was intended, and the contents soon got abroad, with the
usual quantity of exaggeration. The haggard and dejected mien of the adventurers, of itself, told a tale
sufficiently disheartening, and it was soon generally
believed that the few ill-fated survivors of the expedition were detained against their will by Pizarro, to
end their days with their disappointed leader on his
desolate island.
Pedro de los Rios, the governor, was so much in(258)




INDIGNATION OF THE GOVERNOR. 259
censed at the result of the expedition, and the waste
of life it had occasioned to the colony, that he turned
a deaf ear to all the applications of Luque and Almagro for further countenance in the affair; he derided
their sanguine anticipations of the future, and finally
resolved to send an officer to the isle of Gallo, with
orders to bring back every Spaniard whom he should
find still living in that dreary abode.  Two vessels
were immediately despatched for the purpose, and
placed under charge of a cavalier named Tafur, a
native of Cordova.
Meanwhile, Pizarro and his followers were experiencing all the miseries which might have been expected
from the character of the barren spot on which they
were imprisoned. They were, indeed, relieved from
all apprehensions of the natives, since these had quitted
the island on its occupation by the white men; but they
had to endure the pains of hunger even in a greater
degree than they had formerly experienced in the wild
woods of the neighboring continent. Their principal
food was crabs and such shell-fish as they could scantily
pick up along the shores. Incessant storms of thunder
and lightning, for it was the rainy season, swept over
the devoted island and drenched them with a perpetual
flood. Thus, half naked, and pining with famine, there
were few in that little company who did not feel the
spirit of enterprise quenched within them, or who
looked for any happier termination of their difficulties
than that afforded by a return to Panam/a. The appearance of Tafur, therefore, with his two vessels, well
stored with provisions, was greeted with all the rapture
that the crew of a sinking wreck might feel on the




260           DISCOVERY OF PERU.
arrival of some unexpected succor; and the only
thought, after satisfying the immediate cravings of
hunger, was to embark and leave the detested isle
forever.
But by the same vessel letters came to Pizarro from
his two confederates, Luque and Almagro, beseeching
him not to despair in his present extremity, but to
hold fast to his original purpose. To return under the
present circumstances would be to seal the fate of the
expedition; and they solemnly engaged, if he would
remain firm at his post, to furnish him in a short time
with the necessary means for going forward.A ray of hope was enough for the courageous spirit
of Pizarro.  It does not appear that he himself had
entertained, at any time, thoughts of returning. If he
had, these words of encouragement entirely banished
them from his bosom, and he prepared to stand the
fortune of the cast on which he had so desperately
ventured. He knew, however, that solicitations or remonstrances would avail little with the companions of
his enterprise; and he probably did not care to win
over the more timid spirits who, by perpetually looking
back, would only be a clog on his future movements.
He announced his own purpose, however, in a laconic
but decided manner, characteristic of a man more accustomed to act than to talk, and well calculated to
make an impression on his rough followers.
Drawing his sword, he traced a line with it on the
z Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I82.-Zarate, Conq.
del Peru, lib. I, cap. 2.-Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio 1527.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. Io, cap. 3.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria,
MS.




STERN RESOLUTION OF PIZARRO.  26 I
sand from east to west. Then, turning towards the
south, "Friends and comrades 1" he said, "on  that
side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm,
desertion, and death; on this side, ease and pleasure.
There lies Peru with its riches; here, Panama and its
poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a
brave Castilian. For my part, I go to the south."
So saying, he stepped across the line.2 He was followed
by the brave pilot Ruiz; next by Pedro de Candia, a
cavalier, born, as his name imports, in one of the isles
of Greece.   Eleven  others successively crossed  the
line, thus intimating their willingness to abide the fortunes of their leader, for good or for evil.3  Fame, to
quote the enthusiastic language of an ancient chronicler, has commemorated the names of this little band,
"who thus, in the face of difficulties unexampled in
history, with death rather than riches for their reward,
"" Obedeciola Pizarro y antes que se egecutase sac6 un Pufial, y
con notable animo hizo con la punta una raya de Oriente i Poniente;
y sefialando al medio dia, que era la parte de su noticia, y derrotero
dijo; Camaradas y amigos, esta parte es la de la muerte, de los trabajos,
de las hambres, de la desnudez, de los aguaceros, y desamparos; la otra
la del gusto: Por aqui se ba a Panama 6a ser pobres, por alla al Peru
ser ricos. Escoja el que fuere buen Castellano lo que mas bien le
estubiere. Diciendo esto pas6 la raya: siguieronle Barthome Ruiz
natural de Moguer, Pedro de Candi Griego, natural de Candia." Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio I527.
3 The names of these thirteen faithful companions are preserved in
the convention made with the crown two years later, where they are
suitably commemorated for their loyalty. Their names should not be
omitted in a history of the Conquest of Peru. They were " Bartolome
Ruiz, Cristoval de Peralta, Pedro de Candia, Domingo de Soria Luce,
Nicolas de Ribera, Francisco de Cuellar, Alonso de Molina, Pedro
Alcon, Garcia de Jerez, Anton de Carrion, Alonso Briceflo, Martin de
Paz, Joan de la Torre."




262            IDISCO VERY OF PERU.
preferred it all to abandoning their honor, and stood
firm by their leader as an example of loyalty to future
ages. " 4
But the act excited no such admiration in the mind
of Tafur, who looked on it as one of gross disobedience to the commands of the governor, and as little
better than madness, involving the certain destruction
of the parties engaged in it. He refused to give any
sanction to it himself by leaving one of his vessels with
the adventurers to prosecute their voyage, and it was
with great difficulty that he could be persuaded even
to allow them a part of the stores which he had brought
for their support. This had no influence on their determination, and the little party, bidding adieu to their
returning comrades, remained unshaken in their purpose
of abiding the fortunes of their commander. 
There is something striking to the imagination in the
spectacle of these few brave spirits thus consecrating
themselves to a daring enterprise, which seemed as far
above their strength as any recorded in the fabulous
annals of knight-errantry. A handful of men, without
food, without clothing, almost without arms, without
knowledge of the land to which they were bound,
without vessel to transport them, were here left on a
4 " Estos fueron los trece de la fama. Estos los que cercados de
los mayores trabajos que pudo el Mundo ofrecer ai hombres, y los que
estando mas para esperar la muerte que las riquezas que se les prometian, todo lo pospusieron a, la honra, y siguieron A su capitan y
caudillo para egemplo de lealtad en lo futuro." Montesinos, Annales,
MS., afio I527.
5 Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. 2.-Montesinos, Annales, MS.
aflo I527.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Herrera, Hist. general,
dec. 3, lib. xo, cap. 3.




STERN RESOLUTION OF PIZARRO.  263
lonely rock in the ocean with the avowed purpose of
carrying on a crusade against a powerful empire, staking their lives on its success. What is there in the
legends of chivalry that surpasses it? This was the
crisis of Pizarro's fate. There are moments in the lives
of men, which, as they are seized or neglected, decide
their future destiny.6 Had Pizarro faltered from his
strong purpose, and yielded to the occasion, now so
temptingly presented, for extricating himself and his
broken band from their desperate position, his name
would have been buried with his fortunes, and the conquest of Peru would have been left for other and more
successful adventurers. But his constancy was equal
to the occasion, and his conduct here proved him competent to the perilous post he had assumed, and inspired
others with a confidence in him which was the best
assurance of success.
In the vessel that bore back Tafur and those who
seceded from the expedition the pilot Ruiz was also
permitted to return, in order to co-operate with Luque
and Almagro in their application for further succor.
Not long after the departure of the ships, it was de6 This common sentiment is expressed with uncommon beauty by
the fanciful Boiardo, where he represents Rinaldo as catching Fortune,
under the guise of the fickle fairy Morgana, by the forelock. The
Italian reader may not be displeased to refresh his memory with it:
" Chi cerca in questo mondo aver tesoro,
O diletto, e piacere, honore, e stato,
Ponga la mano a questa chioma d' oro,
Ch' io porto in fronte, e lo farb beato;
Ma quando ha in destro sl fatto lavoro
Non prenda indugio, che'1 tempo passato
Perduto e tutto, e non ritorna mai,
Ed io mi volto, e lui lascio con guai."
Orlando Innamorato, lib. 2, canto S.




264         DISCOVERY OF PERU.
cided by Pizarro to abandon his present quarters, which
had little to recommend them, and which, he reflected,
might now be exposed to annoyance from the original
inhabitants, should they take courage and return on
learning the diminished number of the white men.
The Spaniards, therefore, by his orders, constructed a
rude boat or raft, on which they succeeded in transporting themselves to the little island of Gorgona,
twenty-five leagues to the north of their present residence. It lay about five leagues from the continent,
and was uninhabited. It had some advantages over
the isle of Gallo; for it stood higher above the sea,
and was partially covered with wood, which afforded
shelter to a species of pheasant, and the hare or rabbit
of the country, so that the Spaniards, with their crossbows, were enabled to procure a tolerable supply of
game. Cool streams that issued from the living rock
furnished abundance of water, though the drenching
rains that fell without intermission left them in no
danger of perishing by thirst. From this annoyance
they found some protection in the rude huts which they
constructed; though here, as in their former residence,
they suffered from the no less intolerable annoyance
of venomous insects, which multiplied and swarmed in
the exhalations of the rank and stimulated soil. In
this dreary abode Pizarro omitted no means by which
to sustain the drooping spirits of his men. Morning
prayers were duly said, and the evening hymn to the
Virgin was regularly chanted; the festivals of the
Church were carefully commemorated, and every means
taken by their commander to give a kind of religious
character to his enterprise, and to inspire his rough




STERN RESOLUTION OF PIZARRO.  265
followers with a confidence in the protection of
Heaven, that might support them in their perilous
circumstances.7
In these uncomfortable quarters, their chief employment was to keep watch on the melancholy ocean, that
they might hail the first signal of the anticipated succor.
But many a tedious month passed away, and no sign of
it appeared. All around was the same wide waste of
waters, except to the eastward, where the frozen crest
of the Andes, touched with the ardent sun of the
equator, glowed like a ridge of fire along the whole
extent of the great continent.   Every speck in the
distant horizon was carefully noticed, and the drifting
timber or masses of sea-weed, heaving to and fro on
the bosom of the waters, was converted by their imaginations into the promised vessel; till, sinking under
successive disappointments, hope gradually gave way
to doubt, and doubt settled into despair.8
Meanwhile the vessel of Tafur had reached the port
of Panama. The tidings which she brought of the inflexible obstinacy of Pizarro and his followers filled the
governor with indignation. He could look on it in no
other light than as an act of suicide, and steadily refused to send further assistance to men who were obstinately bent on their own destruction. Yet Luque and
Almagro were true to their engagements. They repre7 " Cada Mafiana daban gracias a Dios: a las tardes decian la Salve,
i otras Oraciones, por las Horas: sabian las Fiestas, i tenian cuenta con
los Viernes, i Domingos." Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. Io,
cap. 3.
8 Al cabo de muchos Dias aguardando, estaban tan angustiados,
que los salages, que se hacian bien dentro de la Mar, les parecia, que
era el Navio." Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. xo, cap. 4.
Peru.-VOL. I-M           23




266           DISCO VER Y OF PERU.
sented to the governor that, if the conduct of their
comrade was rash, it was at least in the service of the
crown and in prosecuting the great work of discovery.
Rios had been instructed, on his taking the government, to aid Pizarro in the enterprise; and to desert
him now would be to throw away the remaining chance
of success, and to incur the responsibility of his death
and that of the brave men who adhered to him. These
remonstrances, at length, so far operated on the mind
of that functionary that he reluctantly consented that
a vessel should be sent to the island of Gorgona, but
with no more hands than were necessary to work her,
and with positive instructions to Pizarro to return in
six months and report himself at Panamt, whatever
might be the future results of his expedition.
Having thus secured the sanction of the executive,
the two associates lost no time in fitting out a small
vessel with stores and a supply of arms and ammunition, and despatched it to the island. The unfortunate
tenants of this little wilderness, who had now occupied
it for seven months,9 hardly dared to trust their senses
when they descried the white sails of the friendly bark
coming over the waters. And although, when the
vessel anchored off the shore, Pizarro was disappointed
to find that it brought no additional recruits for the
enterprise, yet he greeted it with joy, as affording the
means of solving the great problem of the existence
of the rich southern empire, and of thus opening the
way for its future conquest. Two of his men were so
ill that it was determined to leave them in the care of
9 "Estubieron con estos trabajos con igualdad de animo siete
meses." Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio I527.




PROSECUTION OF T1HE  VOYAGE.    267
some of the friendly Indians who had continued with
him through the whole of his sojourn, and to call fol
them on his return. Taking with him the rest of his
hardy followers and the natives of Tumbez, he embarked, and, speedily weighing anchor, bade adieu to
the "Hell," as it was called by the Spaniards, which
had been the scene of so much suffering and such undaunted resolution.!T
Every heart was now elated with hope, as they found
themselves once more on the waters, under the guidance
of the good pilot Ruiz, who, obeying the directions of
the Indians, proposed to steer for the land of Tumbez,
which would bring them at once into the golden empire
of the Incas,-the El Dorado of which they had been
so long in pursuit. Passing by the dreary isle of Gallo,
which they had such good cause to remember, they
stood farther out to sea until they made Point Tacumez, near which they had landed on their previous
voyage. They did not touch at any part of the coast,
but steadily held on their way, though considerably
impeded by the currents, as well as by the wind, which
blew with little variation from the south.  Fortunately,
the wind was light, and, as the weather was favorable,
their voyage, though slow, was not uncomfortable. In
a few days they came in sight of Point Pasado, the
limit of the pilot's former navigation; and, crossing
the line, the little bark entered upon those unknown
seas which had never been ploughed by European keel
lo Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I82.-Montesinos,
Annales, MS., afio'I527.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS. —Herrera,
Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. io, cap. 4.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq.,
MS.




268          DISCOVERY OF PERU.
before. The coast, they observed, gradually declined
from its former bold and rugged character, gently
sloping towards the shore, and spreading out into
sandy plains, relieved here and there by patches of
uncommon richness and beauty; while the white cottages of the natives glistening along the margin of the
sea, and the smoke that rose among the distant hills,
intimated the increasing population of the country.
At length, after the lapse of twenty days from their
departure from the island, the adventurous vessel
rounded the point of St. Helena and glided smoothly
into the waters of the beautiful gulf of Guayaquil.
The country was here studded along the shore with
towns and villages, though the mighty chain of the
Cordilleras, sweeping up abruptly from the coast, left
but a narrow strip of emerald verdure, through which
numerous rivulets, spreading fertility around them,
wound their way to the sea.
The voyagers were now abreast of some of the most
stupendous heights of this magnificent range; Chimborazo, with its broad round summit, towering like the
dome of the Andes, and Cotopaxi, with its dazzling
cone of silvery white, that knows no change except from
the action of its own volcanic fires; for this mountain is
the most terrible of the American volcanoes, and was
in formidable activity at no great distance from the
period of our narrative. Well pleased with the signs
of civilization that opened on them at every league of
their progress, the Spaniards at length came to anchor,
off the island of Santa Clara, lying at the entrance of
the bay of Tumbez."
Xx According to Garcilasso, two years elapsed between the departure




BRILLIANT ASPECT OF TUMBEZ.  269
The place was uninhabited, but was recognized by
the Indians on board as occasionally resorted to by the
warlike people of the neighboring island of Pun/a for
purposes of sacrifice and worship.  The Spaniards
found on the spot a few bits of gold rudely wrought
into various shapes, and probably designed as offerings
to the Indian deity. Their hearts were cheered, as the
natives assured them they would see abundance of the
same precious metal in their own city of Tumbez.
The following morning they stood across the bay for
this place. As they drew near, they beheld a town of
considerable size, with many of the buildings apparently of stone and plaster, situated in the bosom of a
fruitful meadow, which seemed to have been redeemed
from the sterility of the surrounding country by careful and minute irrigation. When at some distance
from shore, Pizarro saw standing towards him several
large balsas, which were found to be filled with warriors going on an expedition against the island of
Puna. Running alongside of the Indian flotilla, he
invited some of the chiefs to come on board of his
vessel. The Peruvians gazed with wonder on every
object which met their eyes, and especially on their
own countrymen, whom they had little expected to
meet there. The latter informed them in what manner
they had fallen into the hands of the strangers, whom
they described as a wonderful race of beings, that had
from Gorgona and the arrival at Tumbez. (Com. Real., Parte 2, lib.
l, cap. ii.) Such gross defiance of chronology is rather uncommon
even in the narratives of these transactions, where it is as difficult to
fix a precise date, amidst the silence, rather than the contradictions,
of contemporary statements, as if the events had happened before the
deluge.
23*




270          DISCO VERY OF PERU
come thither for no harm, but solely to be made acquainted with the country and its inhabitants. This
account was confirmed by the Spanish commander,
who persuaded the Indians,to return in their balsas
and report what they had learned to their townsmen,
requesting them at the same time to provide his vessel
with refreshments, as it was his desire to enter into
friendly intercourse with the natives.
The people of Tumbez were gathered along the
shore, and were gazing with unutterable amazement
on the floating castle, which, now having dropped
anchor, rode lazily at its moorings in their bay. They
eagerly listened to the accounts of their countrymen,
and instantly reported the affair to the curaca or ruler
of the district, who, conceiving that the strangers must
be beings of a superior order, prepared at once to
comply with their request.  It was not long before
several balsas were seen steering for the vessel, laden
with bananas, plantains, yuca, Indian corn, sweet potatoes, pine-apples, cocoanuts, and other rich products
of the bountiful vale of Tumbez.  Game and fish,
also, were added, with a number of llamas, of which
Pizarro had seen the rude drawings belonging to Balboa, but of which till now he had met with no living
specimen. He examined this curious animal, the Peruvian sheep,-or, as the Spaniards called it, the " little
camel" of the Indians,-with much interest, greatly
admiring the mixture of wool and hair which supplied
the natives with the materials for their fabrics.
At that time there happened to be at Tumbez an
Inca noble, or orejon,-for so, as I have already noticed, men of his rank were called by the Spaniards,




BRILLIANT ASPECT OF TUMABEZ.  27I
from the huge ornaments of gold attached to their
ears. He expressed great curiosity to see the wonderful strangers, and had, accordingly, come out with the
balsas for the purpose. It was easy to perceive from
the superior quality of his dress, as well as from the
deference paid to him by the others, that he was a person of consideration; and Pizarro received him with
marked distinction. He showed him the different
parts of the ship, explaining to him the uses of whatever engaged his attention, and answering his numerous queries, as well as he could, by means of the Indian
interpreters. The Peruvian chief was especially desirous of knowing whence and why Pizarro and his followers had come to these shores. The Spanish captain
replied that he was the vassal of a great prince, the
greatest and most powerful in the world, and that he
had come to this country to assert his master's lawful
supremacy over it. He had further come to rescue the
inhabitants from the darkness of unbelief in which
they were now wandering. They worshipped an evil
spirit, who would sink their souls into everlasting perdition; and he would give them the knowledge of the
true and only God, Jesus Christ, since to believe in
Him was eternal salvation.12
The Indian prince listened with deep attention and
apparent wonder, but answered nothing. It may be
that neither he nor his interpreters had any very disX2 The text abridges somewhat the discourse of the military polemic; which is reported at length by Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3,
lib. io, cap. 4.-See also Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio I527.Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




272          DISCOVERY OF PERU.
tinct ideas of the doctrines thus abruptly revealed to
them. It may be that he did not believe there was
any other potentate on earth greater than the Inca;
none, at least, who had a better right to rule over his
dominions. And it is very possible he was not disposed to admit that the great luminary whom he worshipped was inferior to the God of the Spaniards. But
whatever may have passed in the untutored mind of
the barbarian, he did not give vent to it, but maintained a discreet silence, without any attempt to controvert or to convince his Christian antagonist.
He remained on board the vessel till the hour of
dinner, of which he partook with the Spaniards, expressing his satisfaction at the strange dishes, and
especially pleased with the wine, which he pronounced
far superior to the fermented liquors of his own country. On taking leave, he courteously pressed the
Spaniards to visit Tumbez, and Pizarro dismissed him
with the present, among other things, of an iron
hatchet, which had greatly excited his admiration; for
the use of iron, as we have seen, was as little known to
the Peruvians as to the Mexicans.
On the day following, the Spanish captain sent one
of his own men, named Alonso de Molina, on shore,
accompanied by a negro who had come in the vessel
from Panama, together with a present for the curaca
of some swine and poultry, neither of which were indigenous to the New World. Towards evening his
emissary returned with a fresh supply of fruits and
vegetables, that the friendly people sent to the vessel.
Molina had a wondrous tale to tell. On landing, he
was surrounded by the natives, who expressed the




BRILLIANT ASPECT OF TUMBEZ.  273
greatest astonishment at his dress, his fair complexion,
and his long beard. The women, especially, manifested great curiosity in respect to him, and Molina
seemed to be entirely won by their charms and captivating manners. He probably intimated his satisfaction by his demeanor, since they urged him to stay
among them, promising in that case to provide him
with a beautiful wife.
Their surprise was equally great at the complexion
of his sable companion. They could not believe it
was natural, and tried to rub off the imaginary dye
with their hands. As the African bore all this with
characteristic good humor, displaying at the same time
his rows of ivory teeth, they were prodigiously delighted. 3  The animals were no less above their comprehension; and, when the cock crew, the simple
people clapped their hands and inquired what he was
saying.'4  Their intellects were so bewildered by sights
so novel that they seemed incapable of distinguishing
between man and brute.
Molina was then escorted to the residence of the
curaca, whom he found living in much state, with porters stationed at his doors, and with a quantity of gold
and silver vessels, from which he was served. He was
then taken to different parts of the Indian city, and saw
a fortress built of rough stone, and, though low, spreading over a large extent of ground. s Near this was a'3 " No se cansaban de mirarle, hacianle labar, para v&r si se le quitaba la Tinta negra, i 61 lo hacia de buena gana, riendose, i mostrando
sus Dientes blancos." Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. io, cap. 5.'4 Ibid., ubi supra.'5 " Cerca del solia estar una fortaleza muy fuerte y de linda obra,
hecha por los Yngas reyes del Cuzco y sefiores de todo el Peru...
3*




274           DISCO VERY OF PERU.
temple; and the Spaniard's description of its decorations, blazing with gold and silver, seemed so extravagant that Pizarro, distrusting his whole account, resolved to send a more discreet and trustworthy emissary
on the following day.x6
The person selected was Pedro de Candia, the Greek
cavalier mentioned as one of the first who intimated
his intention to share the fortunes of his commander.
He was sent on shore, dressed in complete mail, as
became a good knight, with his sword by his side, and
his arquebuse on his shoulder. The Indians were even
more dazzled by his appearance than by Molina's, as
the sun fell brightly on his polished armor and glanced
from his military weapons. They had heard much of
the formidable arquebuse from their townsmen who had
come in the vessel, and they besought Candia "to let
it speak to them." He accordingly set up a wooden
board as a target, and, taking deliberate aim, fired off
the musket. The flash of the powder and the startling
report of the piece, as the board, struck by the ball,
was shivered into splinters, filled the natives with dismay. Some fell on the ground, covering their faces
with their hands, and others approached the cavalier
with feelings of awe, which were gradually dispelled
by the assurance they received from the smiling expression of his countenance."
Ya esta el edificio desta fortaleza muy gastado y deshecho: mas no
para que dexe de dar muestra de lo mucho que fue." Cieza de Leon,
Cronica, cap. 4.:6 Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.-Herrera, Hist. general, loc. cit.Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. x, cap. 2.
t7 It is moreover stated that the Indians, desirous to prove still
further the superhuman nature of the Spanish cavalier, let loose on




BRILLIANT ASPECT OF TUMBEZ.   275
They then showed him the same hospitable attentions which they had paid to Molina; and his description of the marvels of the place, on his return,
fell nothing short of his predecessor's. The fortress,
which was surrounded by a triple row of wall, was
strongly garrisoned. The temple he described as literally tapestried with plates of gold and silver. Adjoining this structure was a sort of convent appropriated to the Inca's destined brides, who manifested
great curiosity to see him. Whether this was gratified
is not clear; but Candia described the gardens of the
convent, which he entered, as glowing with imitations
of fruits and vegetables all in pure gold and silver.'8
He had seen a number of artisans at work, whose sole
business seemed to be to furnish these gorgeous decorations for the religious houses.
him a tiger-a jaguar probably-which was caged in the royal fortress.
But Don Pedro was a good Catholic, and he gently laid the cross which
h'e wore round his neck on the animal's back, who, instantly forgetting
his ferocious nature, crouched at the cavalier's feet and began to play
round him in innocent gambols. The Indians, now more amazed
than ever, nothing doubted of the sanctity of their guest, and bore
him in triumph on their shoulders to the temple. This credible anecdote is repeated, without the least qualification or distrust, by several
contemporary writers. (See Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 3, lib. Io, cap. 5.-Cieza de Leon, Cronica,
cap. 54.-Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte 2, lib. I, cap. I2.) This last
author may have had his version from Candia's own son, with whom
he tells us he was brought up at school. It will no doubt find as easy
admission with those of the present day who conceive that the age of
miracles has not yet passed.
a8 " Que habia visto un jardin donde las yerbas eran de oro imitando
en un todo a las naturales, arboles con frutas de lo mismo, y otras
muchas cosas A. este modo, con que aficion6 grandemente a sus compafieros a esta conquista." Montesinos, Annales, aflo I527.




276             DISCOVERY OF PERU
The reports of the cavalier may have been somewhat
overcolored.'9 It was natural that men coming from
the dreary wilderness in which they had been buried
the last six months should have been vividly impressed
by the tokens of civilization which met them on the
Peruvian coast. But Tumbez was a favorite city of
the Peruvian princes. It was the most important place
on the northern borders of the empire, contiguous to
the recent acquisition of Quito.   The great Tupac
Yupanqui had established a strong fortress there, and
peopled it with a colony of mitimaes. The temple,
and the house occupied by the Virgins of the Sun,
had been erected by Huayna Capac, and were liberally
endowed by that Inca, after the sumptuous fashion of
the religious establishments of Peru. The town was
well supplied with water by numerous aqueducts; and
the fruitful valley in which it was embosomed, and the
ocean which bathed its shores, supplied ample means
of subsistence to a considerable population. But the
cupidity of the Spaniards, after the Conquest, was not
slow in despoiling the place of its glories; and the
site of its proud towers and temples, in less than half a
I9 The worthy knight's account does not seem to have found favor
with the old Conqueror, so often cited in these pages, who says that,
when they afterwards visited Tumbez, the Spaniards found Candia's
relation a lie from beginning to end, except, indeed, in respect to the
temple; though the veteran acknowledges that what was deficient in
Tumbez was more than made up by the magnificence of other places
in the empire not then visited. " Lo cual fue mentira; porque despues
que todos los Espafioles entramos en ella, se vi6 por vista de ojos haber mentido en todo, salvo en lo del templo, que este era cosa de ver,
aunque mucho mas de lo que aquel encareci6, lo que falt6 en esta
ciudad, se hall6 despues en otras que muchas leguas mas adelante se
descubrieron." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




DISCOVERIES ALONG THE COAST.  277
century after that fatal period, was to be traced only by
the huge mass of ruins that encumbered the ground.o
The Spaniards were nearly mad with joy, says an
old writer, at receiving these brilliant tidings of the
Peruvian city. All their fond dreams were now to be
realized, and they had at length reached the realm
which had so long flitted in visionary splendor before
them. Pizarro expressed his gratitude to Heaven for
having crowned his labors with so glorious a result;
but he bitterly lamented the hard fate which, by depriving him of his followers, denied him, at such a
moment, the means of availing himself of his success.
Yet he had no cause for lamentation; and the devout
Catholic saw in this very circumstance a providential
interposition which prevented the attempt at conquest
while such attempts would have been premature. Peru
was not yet torn asunder by the dissensions of rival candidates for the throne; and, united and strong under
the sceptre of a warlike monarch, she might well have
bid defiance to all the forces that Pizarro could muster.  "It was manifestly the work of Heaven," exclaims a devout son of the Church, "that the natives
of the country should have received him in so kind and
loving a spirit as best fitted to facilitate the conquest;
for it was the Lord's hand which led him and his followers to this remote region for the extension of the
holy faith, and for the salvation of souls." 21
2o Cieza de Leon, who crossed this part of the country in I548, mentions the wanton manner in which the hand of the Conqueror had
fallen on the Indian edifices, which lay in ruins even at that early
period. Cronica, cap. 67.
x " I si le recibiesen con amor, hiciese su Mrd. lo que mas conve.
niente le pareciese al efecto de su conquista: porque tenia entendido,
Peru.-VoL. I. —24




278          DISCOVE'RY OF PERU
Having now collected all the information essential
to his object, Pizarro, after taking leave of the natives
of Tumbez and promising a speedy return, weighed
anchor, and again turned his prow towards the south.
Still keeping as near as possible to the coast, that no
place of importance might escape his observation, he
passed Cape Blanco, and, after sailing about a degree
and a half, made the port of Payta. The inhabitants,
who had notice of his approach, came out in their
balsas to get sight of the wonderful strangers, bringing
with them stores of fruits, fish, and vegetables, with
the same hospitable spirit shown by their countrymen
at Tumbez.
After staying here a short time, and interchanging
presents of trifling value with the natives, Pizarro continued his cruise; and, sailing by the sandy plains
of Sechura for an extent of near a hundred miles, he
doubled the Punta de Aguja, and swept down the coast
as it fell off towards the east, still carried forward by
light and somewhat variable breezes.  The weather
now became unfavorable, and the voyagers encountered
a succession of heavy gales, which drove them some
distance out to sea and tossed them about for many
days. But they did not lose sight of the mighty ranges
of the Andes, which, as they proceeded towards the
south, were still seen, at nearly the same distance from
the shore, rolling onwards, peak after peak, with their
stupendous surges of ice, like some vast ocean that had
been suddenly arrested and frozen up in the midst of
its wild and tumultuous career. With this landmark
que el haverlos traido Dios erA para que su santa f6 se dilatase I
aquellas almas se salvasen." Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.




DISCO VERIES ALONG THE COAST.   279
always in view, the navigator had little need of star or
compass to guide his bark on her course.
As soon as the tempest had subsided, Pizarro stood
in again for the continent, touching at the principal
points as he coasted along.  Everywhere he was received with the same spirit of generous hospitality,
the natives coming out in their balsas to welcome him,
laden with their little cargoes of fruits and vegetables,
of all the luscious varieties that grow in the tierra
caliente.  All were eager to have a glimpse of the
strangers, the "Children of the Sun," as the Spaniards began already to be called, from their fair complexions, brilliant armor, and the thunderbolts which
they bore in their hands.22  The most favorable reports, too, had preceded them, of the urbanity and
gentleness of their manners, thus unlocking the hearts
of the simple natives and disposing them to confidence
and kindness. The iron-hearted soldier had not yet
disclosed the darker side of his character.  He was
too weak to do so. The hour of conquest had not yet
come.
In every place Pizarro received the same accounts ot
a powerful monarch who ruled over the land, and held
his court on the mountain plains of the interior, where
his capital was depicted as blazing with gold and silver
and displaying all the profusion of an Oriental satrap.
The Spaniards, except at Tumbez, seem to have met
with little of the precious metals among the natives
on the coast. More than one writer asserts that they
did not covet them, or at least, by Pizarro's orders,' " Que resplandecian como el Sol. Llamabanles hijos del Sol por
esto." Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio 1528.




280            DISCO VER Y OF PERHU.
affected not to do so.  He would not have them betray
their appetite for gold, and actually refused gifts when
they were proffered!23 It is more probable that they
saw little display of wealth, except in the embellishments of the temples and other sacred buildings, which
they did not dare to violate. The precious metals, reserved for the uses of religion and for persons of high
degree, were not likely to abound in the remote towns
and hamlets on the coast.
Yet the Spaniards met with sufficient evidence of
general civilization and power to convince them that
there was much foundation for the reports of the
natives.   Repeatedly  they saw  structures  of stone
and plaster, occasionally showing architectural skill in
the execution, if not elegance of design. Wherever
they cast anchor, they beheld green patches of cultivated country redeemed from the sterility of nature
and blooming with the variegated vegetation of the
tropics; while a refined system of irrigation, by means
of aqueducts and canals, seemed to be spread like a
net-work over the surface of the country, making even
the desert to blossom as the rose. At many places
where they landed they saw the great road of the
Incas which traversed the sea-coast, often, indeed, lost
in the volatile sands, where no road could be maintained, but rising into a broad and substantial causeway as it emerged on a firmer soil. Such a provision
23 Pizarro wished the natives to understand, says Father Naharro,
that their good alone, and not the love of gold, had led him to their
distant land! " Sin haver querido recibir el oro, plata i perlas que les
ofrecieron, t fin de que conociesen no era codicia, sino deseo de su
bien el que les habia traido de tan lejas tierras a las suyas." Relacion
sumaria, MS.




DISCOVERIES ALONG THE COAST.  28I
for internal communication was in itself no slight
monument of power and civilization.
Still beating to the south, Pizarro passed the site of
the future flourishing city of Truxillo, founded by himself some years later, and pressed on till he rode off the
port of Santa. It stood on the banks of a broad and
beautiful stream; but the surrounding country was so
exceedingly arid that it was frequently selected as a
burial-place by the Peruvians, who found the soil most
favorable for the preservation of their mummies. So
numerous, indeed, were the Indian huacas that the
place might rather be called the abode of the dead
than of the living.:4
Having reached this point, about the ninth degree
of southern latitude, Pizarro's followers besought him
not to prosecute the voyage farther. Enough and
more than enough had been done, they said, to prove
the existence and actual position of the great Indian
empire of which they had so long been in search.
Yet, with their slender force, they had no power to
profit by the discovery. All that remained, therefore,
was to return and report the success of their enterprise to the governor at Panama.  Pizarro acquiesced
in the reasonableness of this demand. He had now
penetrated nine degrees farther than any former navigator in these southern seas, and, instead of the blight
4 " Lo que mas me admiro, quando passe por este valle, fue ver la
muchedumbre que tienen de sepolturas: y que por todas las sierras y
secadales en los altos del valle ay numero grande de apartados, hechos a su usanga, todo cubiertas de huessos de muertos. De manera
que lo que ay en este valle mas que ver, es las sepolturas de los
muertos, y los campos que labraron siendo vivos." Cieza de Leon,
Cronica, cap. 7o.
24*




282          DISCOVERY OF PERU.
which, up to this hour, had seemed to hang over his
fortunes, he could now return in triumph to his countrymen. Without hesitation, therefore, he prepared
to retrace his course, and stood again towards the
north.
On his way he touched at several places where he
had before landed. At one of these, called by the
Spaniards Santa Cruz, he had been invited on shore
by an Indian woman of rank, and had promised to
visit her on his return. No sooner did his vessel cast
anchor off the village where she lived, than she came
on board, followed by a numerous train of attendants.
Pizarro received her with every mark of respect, and
on her departure presented her with some trinkets
which had a real value in the eyes of an Indian princess. She urged the Spanish commander and his companions to return the visit, engaging to send a number
of hostages on board as security for their good treatment. Pizarro assured her that the frank confidence
she had shown towards them proved that this was unnecessary. Yet no sooner did he put off in his boat,
the following day, to go on shore, than several of the
principal persons in the place came alongside of the
ship to be received as hostages during the absence of
the Spaniards,-a singular proof of consideration for
the sensitive apprehensions of her guests.
Pizarro found that preparations had been made for
his reception in a style of simple hospitality that
evinced some degree of taste. Arbors were formed
of luxuriant and wide-spreading branches, interwoven
with fragrant flowers and shrubs that diffused a delicious perfume through the air. A banquet was pro



RETURN TO PANAMA.              283
vided, teeming with viands prepared in the style of
the Peruvian cookery, and with fruits and vegetables
of tempting hue and luscious to the taste, though their
names and nature were unknown to the Spaniards.
After the collation was ended, the guests were entertained with music and dancing by a troop of young
men and maidens simply attired, who exhibited in
their favorite national amusement all the agility and
grace which the supple limbs of the Peruvian Indians
so well qualified them to display. Before his departure, Pizarro stated to his kind host the motives of his
visit to the country, in the same manner as he had
done on other occasions, and he concluded by unfurling the royal banner of Castile, which he had brought
on shore, requesting her and her attendants to raise it
in token of their allegiance to his sovereign. This
they did with great good humor, laughing all the
while, says the chronicler, and making it clear that
they had a very imperfect conception of the serious
nature of the ceremony. Pizarro was contented with
this outward display of loyalty, and returned to his
vessel well satisfied with the entertainment he had received, and meditating, it may be, on the best mode
of repaying it, hereafter, by the subjugation and conversion of the country.
The Spanish commander did not omit to touch also
at Tumbez on his homeward voyage. Here some of
his followers, won by the comfortable aspect of the
place and the manners of the people, intimated a wish
to remain, conceiving, no doubt, that it would be better to live where they would be persons of consequence
than to return to an obscure condition in the comn




284          DISCOVER Y OF PERU.
munity of Panama. One of these men was Alonso de
Molina, the same who had first gone on shore at this
place and been captivated by the charms of the Indian
beauties. Pizarro complied with their wishes, thinking
it would not be amiss to find, on his return, some of
his own followers who would be instructed in the language and usages of the natives. He was also allowed
to carry back in his vessel two or three Peruvians, for
the similar purpose of instructing them in the Castilian.
One of them, a youth named by the Spaniards Felipillo, plays a part of some importance in the history
of subsequent events.
On leaving Tumbez, the adventurers steered directly
for Panama, touching only, on their way, at the illfated island of Gorgona, to take on board their two
companions who were left there too ill to proceed with
them. One had died; and, receiving the other, Pizarro
and his gallant little band continued their voyage, and,
after an absence of at least eighteen months, found
themselves once more safely riding at anchor in the
harbor of Panama.25
The sensation caused by their arrival was great, as
might have been expected. For there were few, even
among the most sanguine of their friends, who did not
imagine that they had long since paid for their temerity, and fallen victims to the climate or the natives,
or miserably perished in a watery grave. Their joy
was proportionably great, therefore, as they saw the
2S Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.-Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio I528,
-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq.,
MS.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 2, cap. 6, 7.-Relacion del
primer Descub., MS.




RETURN TO PANAMA.                285
wanderers now returned, not only in health and safety,
but with certain tidings of the fair countries which had
so long eluded their grasp. It was a moment of proud
satisfaction to the three associates, who, in spite of
obloquy, derision, and every impediment which the
distrust of friends or the coldness of government could
throw in their way, had persevered in their great enterprise until they had established the truth of what had
been so generally denounced as a chimera. It is the
misfortune of those daring spirits who conceive an idea
too vast for their own generation to comprehend, or,
at least, to attempt to carry out, that they pass for
visionary dreamers. Such had been the fate of Luque
and his associates. The existence of a rich Indian empire at the south, which in their minds, dwelling long
on the same idea and alive to all the arguments in its
favor, had risen to the certainty of conviction, had
been derided by the rest of their countrymen as a mere
mirage of the fancy, which, on nearer approach, would
melt into air; while the projectors who staked their
fortunes on the adventure were denounced as madmen.
But their hour of triumph, their slow and hard-earned
triumph, had now arrived.
Yet the governor, Pedro de los Rios, did not seem,
even at this moment, to be possessed with a conviction
of the magnitude of the discovery,-or perhaps he was
discouraged by its very magnitude. When the associates now with more confidence applied to him for
patronage in an undertaking too vast for their individual resources, he coldly replied, " He had no desire to
build up other states at the expense of his own; nor
would he be led to throw away more lives than had




286           DISCO VER Y OF PERU.
already been sacrificed by the cheap display of gold
and silver toys and a few Indian slieep!" 26
Sorely disheartened by this repulse from the only
quarter whence effectual aid could be expected, the
confederates, without funds, and with credit nearly
exhausted by their past efforts, were perplexed in the
extreme.  Yet to stop now,-what was it but to abandon the rich mine which their own industry and perseverance had laid open, for others to work at pleasure?
In this extremity the fruitful mind of Luque suggested
the only expedient by which they could hope for success. This was to apply to the crown itself. No one
was so much interested in the result of the expedition.
It was for the government, indeed, that discoveries
were to be made, that the country was to be conquered.
The government alone was competent to provide the
requisite means, and was likely to take a much broader
and more liberal view of the matter than a petty colonial officer.
But who was there qualified to take charge of this
delicate mission? Luque was chained by his professional duties to Panama; and his associates, unlettered
soldiers, were much better fitted for the business of
the camp than of the court. Almagro, blunt, though
somewhat swelling and ostentatious in his address, with
a diminutive stature and a countenance naturally plain,
now much disfigured by the loss of an eye, was not so
well qualified for the mission as his companion in arms,
-6 " No entendia de despoblar su Governacicn, para que se fuesen
ai poblar nuevas Tierras, muriendo en tal demanda mas Gente de la
que havia muerto, cebando h los Hombres con la muestra de las
Ovejas, Oro, i Plata, que havian traido." Herrera, Hist. general, dec.
4, lib. 3, cap. I.




RETURN  TO PANAMA.                287
who, possessing a good person and altogether a commanding presence, was plausible, and, with all his defects of education, could, where deeply interested, be
even eloquent in discourse. The ecclesiastic, however,
suggested that the negotiation should be committed to
the Licentiate Corral, a respectable functionary, then
about to return on some public business to the mothercountry. But to this Almagro strongly objected. No
one, he said, could conduct the affair so well as the
party interested in it.  He had a high opinion of
Pizarro's prudence, his discernment of character, and
his cool, deliberate policy.'7 He knew enough of his
comrade to have confidence that his presence of mind
would not desert him even in the new, and therefore
embarrassing, circumstances in which he would be
placed at court. No one, he said, could tell the story
of their adventures with such effect as the man who
had been the chief actor in them. No one could so
well paint the unparalleled sufferings and sacrifices
which they had encountered; no other could tell so
forcibly what had been done, what yet remained to
do, and what assistance would be necessary to carry
it into execution. He concluded, with characteristic
frankness, by strongly urging his confederate to undertake the mission.
Pizarro felt the force of Almagro's reasoning, and,
though with undisguised reluctance, acquiesced in a
measure which was less to his taste than an expedition
to the wilderness. But Luque came into the arrangen " E por pura importunacion de Almagro cupole a Pizarro, porque
siempre Almagro le tubo respeto, d dese6 honrarle." Oviedo, Hist.
de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. I.




288             DISCOVERY OF PERU.
ment with more difficulty.   "God  grant, my children," exclaimed the ecclesiastic, "that one of you
may not defraud the other of his blessing!"28  Pizarro engaged to consult the interests of his associates
equally with his own. But Luque, it is clear, did not
trust Pizarro.
There was some difficulty in raising the funds necessary for putting the envoy in condition to make a
suitable appearance at court; so low had the credit
of the confederates fallen, and so little confidence was
yet placed in the result of their splendid discoveries.
Fifteen hundred ducats were at length raised; and
Pizarro, in the spring of I528, bade adieu to Panam/a,
accompanied by Pedro de Candia.29 He took with
him, also, some of the natives, as well as two or three
llamas, various nice fabrics of cloth, with many ornaments and vases of gold and silver, as specimens of
the civilization of the country, and vouchers for his
wonderful story.
28 " Plegue h Dios, Hijos, que no os hurteis la bendicion el uno al
otro que yo todavia holgaria, que X lo menos fuerades entrambos."
Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 3, cap. I.
29 " Juntaronle mil y quinientos pesos de oro, que di6 de buena voluntad Dn Fernando de Luque." Montesinos, Annales, MS., aino 1528.
Of all the writers on ancient Peruvian history, no one has acquired
so wide celebrity, or been so largely referred to by later compilers, as
the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega. He was born in Cuzco, in I540, and
was a mestizo, that is, of mixed descent, his father being European
and his mother Indian. His father, Garcilasso de la Vega, was one
of that illustrious family whose achievements, both in arms and letters,
shed such lustre over the proudest period of the Castilian annals. He
came to Peru, in the suite of Pedro de Alvarado, soon after the country




GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA.                     289
had been gained by Pizarro. Garcilasso attached himself to the fortunes of this chief, and, after his death, to those of his brother Gonzalo,-remaining constant to the latter, through his rebellion, up to
the hour of his rout at Xaquixaguana, when Garcilasso took the same
course with most of his faction, and passed over to the enemy. But
this demonstration of loyalty, though it saved his life, was too late to
redeem his credit with the victorious party; and the obloquy which
he incurred by his share in the rebellion threw a cloud over his subsequent fortunes, and even over those of his son, as it appears, in
after-years.
The historian's mother was of the Peruvian blood royal. She was
niece of Huayna Capac, and granddaughter of the renowned Tupac
Inca Yupanqui. Garcilasso, while he betrays obvious satisfaction that
the blood of the civilized European flows in his veins, shows himself
not a little proud of his descent from the royal dynasty of Peru; and
this he intimated by combining with his patronymic the distinguishing
title of the Peruvian princes,-subscribing himself always Garcilasso
Inca de la Vega.
His early years were passed in his native land, where he was reared
in the Roman Catholic faith, and received the benefit of as good an
education as could be obtained amidst the incessant din of arms and
civil commotion. In 156o, when twenty years of age, he left America,
and from that time took up his residence in Spain. Here he entered
the military service, and held a captain's commission in the war against
the Moriscos, and, afterwards, under Don John of Austria. Though
he acquitted himself honorably in his adventurous career, he does not
seem to have been satisfied with the manner in which his services were
requited by the government. The old reproach of the father's disloyalty still clung to the son, and Garcilasso assures us that this circumstance defeated all his efforts to recover the large inheritance of
landed property belonging to his mother, which had escheated to the
crown.  "Such were the prejudices against me," says he, " that I
could not urge my ancient claims or expectations; and I left the army
so poor and so much in debt that I did not care to show myself again
at court, but was obliged to withdraw into an obscure solitude, where
I lead a tranquil life for the brief space that remains to me, no longer
deluded by the world or its vanities."
The scene of this obscure retreat was not, however, as the reader
might imagine from this tone of philosophic resignation in the depths
of some rural wilderness, but in Cordova, once the gay capital of MosPeru-VOL. I. —N          25




290          GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA.
lem science, and still the busy haunt of men. Here our philosopher
occupied himself with literary labors, the more sweet and soothing to
his wounded spirit that they tended to illustrate the faded glories of
his native land and exhibit them in their primitive splendor to the eyes
of his adopted countrymen. "And I have ho reason to regret," he
says in his Preface to his account of Florida, "that Fortune has not
smiled on me, since this circumstance has opened a literary career
which, I trust, will secure to me a wider and more enduring fame than
could flow from any worldly prosperity."
In I6o9 he gave to the world the First Part of his great work, the
Commentsrios Reales, devoted to the history of the country under the
Incas; and in i6i6, a few months before his death, he finished the
Second Part, embracing the story of the Conquest, which was published at Cordova the following year. The chronicler, who thus closed
his labors with his life, died at the ripe old age of seventy-six. He
left a considerable sum for the purchase of masses for his soul, showing that the complaints of his poverty are not to be taken literally.
His remains were interred in the cathedral church of Cordova, in a
chapel which bears the name of Garcilasso; and an inscription was
placed on his monument, intimating the high respect in which the historian was held both for his moral worth and his literary attainments.
The First Part of the Commentarios Reales is occupied, as already
noticed, with the ancient history of the country, presenting a complete
picture of its civilization under the Incas,-far more complete than
has been given by any other writer. Garcilasso's mother was but ten
years old at the time of her cousin Atahuallpa's accession, or rather
usurpation, as it is called by the party of Cuzco. She had the good
fortune to escape the massacre which, according to the chronicler.
befell most of her kindred, and, with her brother, continued to reside
in their ancient capital after the Conquest. Their conversations naturally turned to the good old times of the Inca rule, which, colored
by their fond regrets, may be presumed to have lost nothing as seen
through the magnifying medium of the past. The young Garcilasso
listened greedily to the stories which recounted the magnificence and
prowess of his royal ancestors, and, though he made no use of them
at the time, they sank deep into his memory, to be treasured up for a
future occasion. When he prepared, after the lapse of many years,
in his retirement at Cordova, to compose the history of his country,
he wrote to his old companions and schoolfellows of the Inca family,
to obtain fuller information than he could get in Spain on various mat



GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA.                      291
ters of historical interest. He had witnessed in his youth the ancient
ceremonies and usages of his countrymen, understood the science of
their quipus, and mastered many of their primitive traditions. With the
assistance he now obtained from his Peruvian kindred, he acquired a
familiarity with the history of the great Inca race, and of their national
institutions, to an extent that no person could have possessed unless
educated in the midst of them, speaking the same language, and with
the same Indian blood flowing in his veins. Garcilasso, in short, was
the representative of the conquered race; and we might expect to find
the lights and shadows of the picture disposed under his pencil so as
to produce an effect very different from that which they had hitherto
exhibited under the hands of the Conquerors.
Such, to a certain extent, is the fact; and this circumstance affords
a means of comparison which would alone render his works of great
value in arriving at just historic conclusions. But Garcilasso wrote late
in life, after the story had been often told by Castilian writers.  He
naturally deferred much to men, some of whom enjoyed high credit
on the score both of their scholarship and their social position. His
object, he professes, was not so much to add any thing new of his own,
as to correct their errors and the misconceptions into which they had
been brought by their ignorance of the Indian languages and the usages
of his people. He does, in fact, however, go far beyond this; and the
stores of information which he has collected have made his work a
large repository, whence later laborers in the same field have drawn
copious materials. He writes from the fulness of his heart, and illuminates every topic that he touches with a variety and richness of illustration that leave little to be desired by the most importunate curiosity.
The difference between reading his Commentaries and the accounts of
European writers is the difference that exists between reading a work
in the original and in a bald translation. Garcilasso's writings are an
emanation from the Indian mind.
Yet his Commentaries are open to a grave objection,-and one naturally suggested by his position. Addressing himself to the cultivated
European, he was most desirous to display the ancient glories of his
people, and still more of the Inca race, in their most imposing form.
This, doubtless, was the great spur to his literary labors, for which previous education, however good for the evil time on which he was cast,
had far from qualified him. Garcilasso, therefore, wrote to effect a particular object. He stood forth as counsel for his unfortunate countrymen, pleading the cause of that degraded race before the tribunal of




292          GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA.
posterity. The exaggerated tone of panegyric consequent on this becomes apparent in every page of his work. He pictures forth a state of
society such as an Utopian philosopher would hardly venture to depict.
His royal ancestors became the types of every imaginary excellence,
and the golden age is revived for a nation which, while the war of
proselytism is raging on its borders, enjoys within all the blessings of
tranquillity and peace. Even the material splendors of the monarchy,
sufficiently great in this land of gold, become heightened, under the
glowing imagination of the Inca chronicler, into the gorgeous illusions
of a fairy-tale.
Yet there is truth at the bottom of his wildest conceptions, and it
would be unfair to the Indian historian to suppose that he did not himself believe most of the magic marvels which he describes. There is
no credulity like that of a Christian convert,-one newly converted to
the faith. From long dwelling in the darkness of paganism, his eyes,
when first opened to the light of truth, have not acquired the power
of discriminating the just proportions of objects, of distinguishing
between the real and the imaginary. Garcilasso was not a convert,
indeed, for he was bred from infancy in the Roman Catholic faith.
But he was surrounded by converts and neophytes,-by those of his
own blood, who, after practising all their lives the rites of paganism,
were now first admitted into the Christian fold. He listened to the
teachings of the missionary, learned from him to give implicit credit
to the marvellous legends of the Saints, and the no less marvellous
accounts of his own victories in his spiritual warfare for the propagation of the faith. Thus early accustomed to such large drafts on his
credulity, his reason lost its heavenly power of distinguishing truth
from error, and he became so familiar with the miraculous that the
miraculous was no longer a miracle.
Yet, while large deductions are to be made on this account from the
chronicler's reports, there is always a germ of truth which it is not
difficult to detect, and even to disengage from the fanciful covering
which envelops it; and, after every allowance for the exaggerations
of national vanity, we shall find an abundance of genuine information
in respect to the antiquities of his country, for which we shall look in
vain in any European writer.
Garcilasso's work is the reflection of the age in which he lived. It
is addressed to the imagination, more than to sober reason. We are
dazzled by the gorgeous spectacle it perpetually exhibits, and delighted
by the variety of amusing details and animated gossip sprinkled over




GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA.                         293
its pages. The story of the action is perpetually varied by discussions
on topics illustrating its progress, so as to break up the monotony of
the narrative and afford an agreeable relief to the reader. This is true
of the First Part of his great work. In the Second there was no longer
room for such discussion. But he has supplied the place by garrulous
reminiscences, personal anecdotes, incidental adventures, and a host
of trivial details,-trivial in the eyes of the pedant,-which historians
have been too willing to discard, as below the dignity of history. We
have the actors in this great drama in their private dress, become acquainted with their personal habits, listen to their familiar sayings, and,
in short, gather up those minutiae which in the aggregate make up so
much of life, and not less of character.
It is this confusion of the great and the little, thus artlessly blended
together, that constitutes one of the charms of the old romantic' chronicle,-not the less true that, in this respect, it approaches nearer to the
usual tone of romance. It is in such writings that we may look to find
the form and pressure of the age. The worm-eaten state-papers, official
correspondence, public records, are all serviceable, indispensable, to
history. They are the framework on which it is to repose; the skeleton of facts which gives it its strength and proportions. But they are
as worthless as the dry bones of the skeleton, unless clothed with the
beautiful form and garb of humanity and instinct with the spirit of the
age. Our debt is large to the antiquarian, who with conscientious
precision lays broad and deep the foundations of historic truth; and
no less to the philosophic annalist, who exhibits man in the dress of
public life,-man in masquerade; but our gratitude must surely not
be withheld from those who, like Garcilasso de la Vega, and many a
romancer of the Middle Ages, have held up the mirror-distorted
though it may somewhat be-to the interior of life, reflecting every
object, the great and the mean, the beautiful and the deformed, with
their natural prominence and their vivacity of coloring, to the eye of
the spectator. As a work of art, such a production may be thought
to be below criticism. But, although it defy the rules of art in its
composition, it does not necessarily violate the principles of taste; for
it conforms in its spirit to the spirit of the age in which it was written.
And the critic, who coldly condemns it on the severe principles of art,
will find a charm in its very simplicity, that will make him recur again
and again to its pages, while more correct and classical compositions
are laid aside and forgotten.
I cannot dismiss this notice of Garcilasso, though already long pro25*




294          GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA.
tracted, without some allusion to the English translation of his Commentaries. It appeared in James the Second's reign, and is the work
of Sir Paul Rycaut, Knight. It was printed at London in I688, in
folio, with considerable pretension in its outward dress, well garnished
with wood-cuts, and a frontispiece displaying the gaunt and rather
sardonic features, not of the author, but his translator. The version
keeps pace with the march of the original, corresponding precisely in
books and chapters, and seldom, though sometimes, using the freedom,
so common in these ancient versions, of abridgment and omission.
Where it does depart from the original, it is rather from ignorance
than intention. Indeed, so far as the plea of ignorance will avail
him, the worthy knight may urge it stoutly in his defence. No one
who reads the book will doubt his limited acquaintance with his own
tongue, and no one who compares it with the original will deny his
ignorance of the Castilian. It contains as many blunders as paragraphs, and most of them such as might shame a schoolboy. Yet
such are the rude charms of the original, that this ruder version of
it has found considerable favor with readers; and Sir Paul Rycaut's
translation, old as it is, may still be met with in many a private, as
well as public, library.




BOOK THIRD.
CONQUEST OF PERU.
( 295 )








BOOK III.
CONQUEST OF PERU.
CHAPTER I.
PIZARRO S RECEPTION AT COURT.-HIS CAPITULATION
WITH THE CROWN.-HE VISITS HIS BIRTHPLACE.RETURNS TO THE NEW WORLD.-DIFFICULTIES WITH
ALMAGRO.-HIS THIRD EXPEDITION.-ADVENTURES ON
THE COAST.-BATTLES IN THE ISLE OF PUNA.
I528-I531.
PIZARRO and his officer, having crossed the Isthmus,
embarked at Nombre de Dios for the old country, and,
after a good passage, reached Seville early in the summer of I528. There happened to be at that time in
port a person well known in the history of Spanish
adventure as the Bachelor Enciso. He had taken an
active part in the colonization of Tierra Firme, and
had a pecuniary claim against the early colonists of
Darien, of whom Pizarro was one. Immediately on
the landing of the latter, he was seized by Enciso's
orders and held in custody for the debt.  Pizarro,
who had fled from his native land as a forlorn and
houseless adventurer, after an absence of more than
twenty years, passed, most of them, in unprecedented
toil and suffering, now found himself on his return
N*~                              (297)




298           CONQUEST OF PERU
the inmate of a prison.  Such was the commencement of those brilliant fortunes which, as he had
trusted, awaited him  at home.  The circumstance
excited general indignation; and no sooner was the
court advised of his arrival in the country, and the
great purpose of his mission, than orders were sent
for his release, with permission to proceed at once on
his journey.
Pizarro found the emperor at Toledo, which he was
soon to quit, in order to embark for Italy. Spain
was not the favorite residence of Charles the Fifth in
the earlier part of his reign. He was now at that
period of it when he was enjoying the full flush of
his triumphs over his gallant rival of France, whoml
he had defeated and taken prisoner at the great battle of Pavia; and the victor was at this moment preparing to pass into Italy to receive the imperial crown
from the hands of the Roman Pontiff. Elated by his
successes and his elevation to the German throne,
Charles made little account of his hereditary kingdom, as his ambition found so splendid a career
thrown open to it on the wide field of European politics. He had hitherto received too inconsiderable
returns from his transatlantic possessions to give them
the attention they deserved. But, as the recent acquisition of Mexico and the brilliant anticipations in
respect to the southern continent were pressed upon
his notice, he felt their importance as likely to afford
him the means of prosecuting his ambitious and most
expensive enterprises.
Pizarro, therefore, who had now come to satisfy the
royal eyes, by visible proofs, of the truth of the golden




PIZARRO'S RECEPTION AT COURT.   299
rumors which from time to time had reached Castile,
was graciously received by the emperor. Charles examined the various objects which his officer exhibited
to him with great attention. He was particularly interested by the appearance of the llama, so remarkable
as the only beast of burden yet known on the new
continent; and the fine fabrics of woollen cloth which
were made from its shaggy sides gave it a much higher
value, in the eyes of the sagacious monarch, than what
it possessed as an animal for domestic labor. But the
specimens of gold and silver manufacture, and the
wonderful tale which Pizarro had to tell of the abundance of the precious metals, must have satisfied even
the cravings of royal cupidity.
Pizarro, far from being embarrassed by the novelty
of his situation, maintained his usual self-possession,
and showed that decorum and even dignity in his ad
dress which belong to the Castilian. He spoke in a
simple and respectful style, but with the earnestness
and natural eloquence of one who had been an actor
in the scenes he described, and who was conscious
that the impression he made on his audience was to
decide his future destiny. All listened with eagerness
to the account of his strange adventures by sea and
land, his wanderings in the forests, or in the dismal
and pestilent swamps on the sea-coast, without food,
almost without raiment, with feet torn and bleeding
at every step, with his few companions becoming still
fewer by disease and death, and yet pressing on with
unconquerable spirit to extend the empire of Castile
and the name and power of her sovereign; but
when he painted his lonely condition on the deso



300             CONQUEST OF PERU.
late island, abandoned by the government at home,
deserted by all but a handful of devoted followers, his
royal auditor, though not easily moved, was affected
to  tears.  On his departure from  Toledo, Charles
commended the affairs of his vassal in the most favorable terms to the consideration of the Council of the
Indies.'
There was at this time another man at court, who
had come there on a similar errand from the New
World, but whose splendid achievements had already
won for him a name that threw the rising reputation
of Pizarro comparatively into the shade. This man
was Hernando Cortes, the Conqueror of Mexico. He
had come home to lay an empire at the feet of his
sovereign, and to demand in return the redress of his
wrongs and the recompense of his great services.  He
was at the close of his career, as Pizarro was at the commencement of his; the Conqueror of the North and
of the South; the two men appointed by Providence
to overturn the most potent of the Indian dynasties,
and to open the golden gates by which the treasures
of the New World were to pass into the coffers of
Spain.
Notwithstanding the emperor's recommendation, the
business of Pizarro went forward at the tardy pace
with which affairs are usually conducted in the court: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria,
MS. —Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.-" Hablaba tan bien en la materia,
que se llev6 los aplausos y atencion en Toledo donde el Emperador
estaba, diole audiencia con mucho gusto, tratolo amoroso, y oyole
tierno, especialmente cuando le hizo relacion de su consistencia y de
los trece compafieros en la Isla en medio de tantos trabajos." Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio 1528.




HIS CAPITULATION WITH THE CRO WN. 30I
of Castile.  He found his limited means gradually
sinking under the expenses incurred by his present
situation, and he represented that unless some measures were speedily taken in reference to his suit, however favorable they might be in the end, he should be
in no condition to profit by them.  The queen, accordingly, who had charge of the business, on her
husband's departure, expedited the affair, and on the
twenty-sixth of July, 1529, she executed the memorable Capitulation which defined the powers and privileges of Pizarro.*
The instrument secured to that chief the right of
discovery and conquest in the province of Peru, or
New Castile,-as the country was then called, in the
same manner as Mexico had received the name of
New Spain, —for the distance of two hundred leagues
south of Santiago. He was to receive the titles and
rank of Governor and Captain-General of the province, together with those of Adelantado and Alguacil
Mayor, for life; and he was to have a salary of seven
hundred and twenty-five thousand maravedis, with the
obligation of maintaining certain officers and military retainers, corresponding with the dignity of his
station.  He was to have the right to erect certain
fortresses, with the absolute government of them; to
assign encomiendas of Indians, under the limitations
* [There seems to be in this sentence a confusion of two distinct
personages. On leaving Spain in 1529, Charles intrusted the government to his wife, the Empress Isabella, who therefore "had charge of
the business" referred to, and may have "expedited the affair." But
"the queen" in whose name the agreement with Pizarro was " executed" was the unfortunate Juana, Charles's mother.-ED.]
Peru-VOL. I.          26




302              CONQUEST OF PERU.
prescribed by law; and, in fine, to exercise nearly all
the prerogatives incident to the authority of a viceroy.
His associate, Almagro, was declared commander of
the fortress of Tumbez, with an annual rent of three
hundred thousand maravedis, and with the further
rank  and  privileges of an  hidalgo.   The  reverend
Father Luque received the reward of his services in
the bishopric of Tunibez, and he was also declared
Protector of the Indians of Peru. He was to enjoy the
yearly stipend of a thousand ducats, —to be derived,
like the other salaries and gratuities in this instrument,
from the revenues of the conquered territory.
Nor were the subordinate actors in the expedition
forgotten. Ruiz received the title of Grand Pilot of
the Southern Ocean, with a liberal provision; Candia
was placed at the head of the artillery; and the remaining eleven companions on the desolate island
were created hidalgos and cavalleros, and raised to
certain municipal dignities,-in prospect.*
* [Mr. Markham, after quoting this clause of the instrument, which
contains the list of names before cited as those of the men who elected
to remain with Pizarro at the island of Gallo, instead of returning to
Panamd (p. 26I, note 3), observes, "It has always been supposed
that these were the men who crossed the line, and hence their number
has been placed at thirteen. But it is not asserted in the Capitulation
that the men whose names are given in it were those who crossed the
line, and it might be that Pizarro, in asking favors for his most faithful
companions, on the one hand omitted one or more of those who
crossed the line, and on the other included some who did not take
part in that transaction, but who joined him afterwards." Proceeding
on this supposition, he rejects the accounts of Cieza de Leon, Gomara,
Herrera, and Garcilasso, who all concur in fixing the number of those
who remained at Gallo at thirteen, and accepts instead the statement
of Francisco de Xerez, afterwards secretary of Pizarro, who, in a




HIS CAPITULA TION WITH THE CRO WN. 303
Several provisions of a liberal tenor were also made,
to encourage emigration  to the country.   The new
brief mention of the affair, gives the number as sixteen. (Reports on
the Discovery of Peru, p. 8, note.) But had Mr. Markham been at
the pains to read the whole of the document on whose assumed silence in regard to the point in question his argument is chiefly based,
he would probably have refrained from contradicting the general
mass of contemporary authorities, as well as the modern writers who
have conformed to them. The preamble to the Capitulation, reciting
the services and enterprises for which Pizarro and his companions
were to be rewarded, says expressly that on account of the dangers and
toils of the voyage he was deserted on an uninhabited island by all the
people that had gone with him, except thirteen alone, who chose to
remain with him. (" Donde pasastes muchos peligros e trabajo, A
causa de lo cual os dej6 toda la gente que con vos iba en una isla despoblada con solos trece hombres que no vos quisieron dejar.") This
settles the number of the faithful few on the authority of Pizarro himself, and accounts for the fact that the subsequent clause, enumerating
their names, mentions only in a general way " the great service they
had rendered in the said voyage and discovery."
It should perhaps be mentioned that Sir Arthur Helps makes the
number fourteen, without citing his authority, and rejects the common
version of the story of " crossing the line," as an example of " the invincible passion for melodramatic representation which people of secondrate imagination delight in, —those especially who have not seen much
of human affairs, and who do not know in how plain and unpretending
a manner the greatest things are, for the most part, transacted." (The
Spanish Conquest in America, Am. ed., vol. iii. p. 409.) It may be
admitted that there are many people of second-rate, or even third- or
fourth-rate, imagination, who have employed themselves either in amplifying or simplifying the events of history; but, without holding any
official position, one may have seen enough of "human affairs" to believe that neither the greatest nor the smallest things are always transacted with the extreme quietude and gentleness that accord with the
tone of an idyllic historian. In regard to this particular affair, Sir
Arthur Helps relies on what he calls the " simple story" told by Herrera, according to whom it was Tafur who drew the line, and who
makes no mention of Pizarro's speech. Garcilasso, on the other




304            CONQUEST OF PERU.
settlers were to be exempted from some of the most
onerous but customary taxes, as the alcabala, or to be
subject to them only in a mitigated form. The tax
on the precious metals drawn from mines was to be
reduced, at first, to one-tenth, instead of the fifth imposed on the same metals when obtained by barter or
by rapine.
It was expressly enjoined on Pizarro to observe the
existing regulations for the good government and protection of the natives; and he was required to carry
out with him a specified number of ecclesiastics, with
whom he was to take counsel in the conquest of the
country, and whose efforts were to be dedicated to
the service and conversion of the Indians; while lawyers and attorneys, on the other hand, whose presence
was considered as boding ill to the harmony of the
new settlements, were strictly prohibited from setting
foot in them.
Pizarro, on his part, was bound, in six months
from the date of the instrument, to raise a force,
well equipped for the service, of two hundred and
fifty men, of whom one hundred might be drawn
from the colonies; and the government engaged to
furnish some trifling assistance in the purchase of artillery and military stores. Finally, he was to be prepared, in six months after his return to Panama, to
leave that port and embark on his expedition.'
2 This remarkable document, formerly in the archives of Simancas,
hand, gives exactly the same relation as Montesinos, whom Prescott
has followed; and we can feel little difficulty in agreeing with Mr.
Markham that "of these two accounts [Herrera's and Garcilasso's]
that of Garcilasso is far more likely to be true."-ED.]




HIS CAPITULATION WITH THE CROWN. 305
Such are some of the principal provisions of this
Capitulation, by which the Castilian government, with
the sagacious policy which it usually pursued on the
like occasions, stimulated the ambitious hopes of the
adventurer by high-sounding titles and liberal promises of reward contingent on his success, but took
care to stake nothing itself on the issue of the enterprise. It was careful to reap the fruits of his toil,
but not to pay the cost of them.
A circumstance that could not fail to be remarked
in these provisions was the manner in which the high
and lucrative posts were accumulated on Pizarro, to
the exclusion of Almagro, who, if he had not taken
as conspicuous a part in personal toil and exposure,
had at least divided with him the original burden of
the enterprise, and, by his labors in another direction,
had contributed quite as essentially to its success. Almagro had willingly conceded the post of honor to
his confederate; but it had been stipulated, on Pizarro's departure for Spain, that, while he solicited the
office of Governor and Captain-General for himself,
he should secure that of Adelantado for his companion. In like manner, he had engaged to apply for
the see of Tumbez for the vicar of Panama, and the
office of Alguacil Mayor for the pilot Ruiz. The
bishopric took the direction that was concerted, for
the soldier could scarcely claim the mitre of the prelate; but the other offices, instead of their appropriate
and now transferred to the Archivo General de las Indias in Seville,
was transcribed for the rich collection of the late Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, to whose kindness I am indebted for a copy of
it. It will be found printed entire, in the original, in Appendix No. 7.
26*




306              CONQUEST OF PERU.
distribution, were all concentred in himself. Yet it
was in reference to his application for his friends that
Pizarro had promised on his departure to deal fairly
and honorably by them all.3
It is stated by the military chronicler, Pedro Pizarro,
that his kinsman did, in fact, urge the suit strongly in
behalf of Almagro, but that he was refused by the government, on the ground that offices of such paramount
importance could not be committed to different individuals. The ill effects of such an arrangement had
been long since felt in more than one of the Indian
colonies, where it had led to rivalry and fatal collision.4   Pizarro, therefore, finding his remonstrances
unheeded, had no alternative but to combine the offices
in his own person, or to see the expedition fall to the
ground. This explanation of the affair has not received the sanction of other contemporary historians.
The apprehensions expressed by Luque, at the time of
Pizarro's assuming the mission, of some such result as
3 "Al fin se capitulo6, que Francisco Pigarro negociase la Governacion para si: i para Diego de Almagro, el Adelantamiento: i para Hernando de Luque, el Obispado: i para Bartolom6 Ruiz, el Alguacilazgo
Maior: i Mercedes para los que quedaban vivos, de los trece Compafieros, afirmando siempre Francisco Pigarro, que todo lo queria para
ellos, i prometiendo, que negociaria lealmente, i sin ninguna cautela."
Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 3, cap. I.
4 "Y don Francisco Pigarro pidio conforme E lo que 11evava capltulado y hordenado con sus compafieros ya dicho, y en el consejo se le
rrespondio que no avia lugar de dar governacion A dos compafleros,. caussa de que en santa marta se avia dado ansi a' dos compafieros
y el uno avia muerto al otro.... Pues pedido, como digo, muchas
vezes por don Francisco Pi9arro se les hiziese la merced a ambos compafieros, se le rresponlio la pidiesse parassi sino que se daria d otro, y
visto que no avia lugar lo que pedia y queria pedio se le hiziese la
merced a el, y ansi se le hizo." Descub. y Conq., MS.




HE VISITS HIS BIR TPLACE.    307
actually occurred, founded, doubtless, on a knowledge
of his associate's character, may warrant us in distrusting the alleged vindication of his conduct; and our
distrust will not be diminished by familiarity with his
subsequent career. Pizarro's virtue was not of a kind
to withstand temptation,-though of a much weaker
sort than that now thrown in his path.
The fortunate cavalier was also honored with the
habit of St. Jago;s and he was authorized to make an
important innovation in his family escutcheon, — for by
the father's side he might claim his armorial bearings.
The black eagle and the two pillars emblazoned on the
royal arms were incorporated with those of the Pizarros;
and an Indian city, with a vessel in the distance on the
waters, and the llama of Peru, revealed the theatre and
the character of his exploits; while the legend announced that "under the auspices of Charles, and by
the industry, the genius, and the resources of Pizarro,
the country had been discovered and reduced to tranquillity,"-thus modestly intimating both the past and
prospective services of the Conqueror.6
These arrangements having been thus completed to
Pizarro's satisfaction, he left Toledo for Truxillo, his
native place, in Estremadura, where he thought he
should be most likely to meet with adherents for his
new enterprise, and where it doubtless gratified his
vanity to display himself in the palmy, or at least
5 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I82.-Oviedo, Hist.
de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. i.-Caro de Torres, Historia
de las Ordenes militares (ed. Madrid, I629), p. II3.
6 - Caroli Caesaris auspicio, et labore, ingenio, ac impensa Ducis Pigarro inventa, et pacata." Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 6, cap. 5.




308           CO02QUEST OF PERU.
promising, state of his present circumstances. If vanity
be ever pardonable, it is certainly in a man who, born
in an obscure station in life, without family, interest,
or friends to back him, has carved out his own fortunes
in the world, and, by his own resources, triumphed
over all the obstacles which nature and accident had
thrown in his way. Such was the condition of Pizarro
as he now revisited the place of his nativity, where he
had hitherto been known only as a poor outcast, without a home to shelter, a father to own him, or a friend
to lean upon. But he now found both friends and followers, and some who were eager to claim kindred with
him and take part in his future fortunes. Among these
were four brothers. Three of them, like himself, were
illegitimate,-one of whom, named Francisco Martin
de Alcantara, was related to him by the mother's side,
the other two, named Gonzalo and Juan Pizarro, were
descended from the father. "They were all poor, and
proud as they were poor," says Oviedo, who had seen
them; "and their eagerness for gain was in proportion
to their poverty." 
The remaining and eldest brother, named Hernando,
was a legitimate son, —"legitimate," continues the
same caustic authority, "by his pride, as well as by his
birth." His features were plain, even disagreeably so;
but his figure was good. He was large of stature, and,
like his brother Francis, had on the whole an imposing
presence.8 In his character he combined some of the
7 "Trujo tres o cuatro hermanos suyos tan soberbios como pobres,
6 tan sin hacienda como deseosos de alcanzarla." Hist. de las Indias,
MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. I.
8 Oviedo's portrait of him is by no means flattering. He writes like




HE  VISITS HIS BIR IHPLACE.               309
worst defects incident to the Castilian. He was jealous
in the extreme; impatient, not merely of affront, but
of the least slight, and implacable in his resentment.
He was decisive in his measures, and unscrupulous in
their execution. No touch of pity had power to arrest
his arm. His arrogance was such that he was constantly wounding the self-love of those with whom he
acted; thus begetting an ill will which unnecessarily
multiplied obstacles in his path. In this he differed
from his brother Francis, whose plausible manners
smoothed away difficulties and conciliated confidence
and co-operation in his enterprises.  Unfortunately,
the evil counsels of Hernando exercised an influence
over his brother which more than compensated the advantages derived from his singular capacity for business.
Notwithstanding the general interest which Pizarro's
adventures excited in his country, that chief did not
find it easy to comply with the provisions of the Capitulation in respect to the amount of his levies. Those
who were most astonished by his narrative were not
always most inclined to take part in his fortunes. They
shrank from the unparalleled hardships which lay in
the path of the adventurer in that direction; and they
listened with visible distrust to the gorgeous pictures
of the golden temples and gardens of Tumbez, which
they looked upon as indebted in some degree, at least,
to the coloring of his fancy, with the obvious purpose
one too familiar with the original. " 1 de todos ellos el Hernando
Pizarro solo era legitimo, e mas legitimado en la soberbia, hombre de
alta estatura e grueso, la lengua 6 labios gordos, 6 la punta de la nariz
con sobrada carne e encendida, y este fue el desavenidor y estorbador
del sosiego de todos y en especial de los dos viejos compafieros Francisco
Pizarro 6 Diego de Almagro." Hist. de las Indias, MS. ubi supra.




310           CONQUEST 0F PERU.
of attracting followers to his banner. It is even said
that Pizarro would have found it difficult to raise the
necessary funds, but for the seasonable aid of Cortes, a
native of Estremadura like himself, his companion in
arms in early days, and, according to report, his kinsman.9 No one was in a better condition to hold out
a helping hand to a brother adventurer, and probably
no one felt greater sympathy in Pizarro's fortunes, or
greater confidence in his eventual success, than the man
who had so lately trod the same career with renown.
The six months allowed by the Capitulation had
elapsed, and Pizarro had assembled somewhat less than
his stipulated complement of men, with which he was
preparing to embark in a little squadron of three vessels at Seville; but before they were wholly ready he
received intelligence that the officers of the Council
of the Indies proposed to inquire into the condition
of the vessels and ascertain how far the requisitions
had been complied with.
Without loss of time, therefore, Pizarro, afraid, if
the facts were known, that his enterprise might be
nipped in the bud, slipped his cables, and, crossing
the bar of San Lucar, in January, I530, stood for the
isle of Gomera,-one of the Canaries,-where he ordered his brother Hernando, who had charge of the
remaining vessels, to meet him.
Scarcely had he gone, before the officers arrived to
institute the search. But when they objected the deficiency of men they were easily-perhaps willinglydeceived by the pretext that the remainder had gone
forward in the vessel with Pizarro. At all events, no
9 Pizarro y Orellana, Varones ilustres, p. 143.




RETURNS TO THE NEW  W TORLD.    311
further obstacles were thrown in Hernando's way, and
he was permitted, with the rest of the squadron, to
join his brother, according to agreement, at Gomera.
After a prosperous voyage, the adventurers reached
the northern coast of the great southern continent, and
anchored off the port of Santa Marta. Here they received such discouraging reports of the countries to
which they were bound, of forests teeming with insects
and venomous serpents, of huge alligators that swarmed
on the banks of the streams, and of hardships and perils
such as their own fears had never painted, that several
of Pizarro's men deserted, and their leader, thinking
it no longer safe to abide in such treacherous quarters,
set sail at once for Nombre de Dios.
Soon after his arrival there, he was met by his two
associates, Luque and Almagro, who had crossed the
mountains for the purpose of hearing from his own lips
the precise import of the Capitulation with the crown.
Great, as might have been expected, was Almagro's
discontent at learning the result of what he regarded
as the perfidious machinations of his associate.  "Is
it thus," he exclaimed, "that you have dealt with the
friend who shared equally with you in the trials, the
dangers, and the cost of the enterprise, and this, notwithstanding your solemn engagements on your departure to provide for his interests as faithfully as your
own? How could you allow me to be thus dishonored
in the eyes of the world by so paltry a compensation,
which seems to estimate my services as nothing in
comparison with your own?" x
so Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 7, cap. 9.-Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., MS.




312          CONQUEST OF PERU.
Pizarro, in reply, assured his companion that he
had faithfully urged his suit, but that the government
refused to confide powers which intrenched so closely
on one another to different hands. He had no alternative but to accept all himself or to decline all; and
he endeavored to mitigate Almagro's displeasure by
representing that the country was large enough for
the ambition of both, and that the powers conferred
on himself were, in fact, conferred on Almagro, since
all that he had would ever be at his friend's disposal,
as if it were his own. But these honeyed words did
not satisfy the injured party; and the two captains
soon after returned to Panama with feelings of estrangement, if not hostility, towards one another,
which did not augur well for their enterprise.
Still, Almagro was of a generous temper, and might
have been appeased by the politic concessions of his
rival, but for the interference of Hernando Pizarro,
who, from the first hour of their meeting, showed
little respect for the veteran, which, indeed, the diminutive person of the latter was not calculated to
inspire, and who now regarded him with particular
aversion as an impediment to the career of his brother.
Almagro's friends-and his frank and liberal manners had secured him many-were no less disgusted
than himself with the overbearing conduct of this
new ally. They loudly complained that it was quite
enough to suffer from the perfidy of Pizarro, without
being exposed to the insults of his family, who had
now come over with him to fatten on the spoils of
conquest which belonged to their leader. The rupture soon proceeded to such a length that Almagro




DIFFICULTIES WITH ALMA GRO.             313
avowed his intention to prosecute the expedition without further co-operation with his partner, and actually entered into negotiations for the purchase of
vessels for that object. But Luque, and the Licentiate Espinosa, who had fortunately come over at that
time from St. Domingo, now interposed to repair a
breach which must end in the ruin of the enterprise
and the probable destruction of those most interested
in its success. By their mediation, a show of reconciliation was at length effected between the parties, on
Pizarro's assurance that he would relinquish the dignity of Adelantado in favor of his rival, and petition
the emperor to confirm  him in the possession of it,an assurance, it may be remarked, not easy to reconcile with his former assertion in respect to the avowed
policy of the crown in bestowing this office. He was,
moreover, to apply for a distinct government for his
associate, so soon as he had become master of the
country assigned to himself, and was to solicit no
office for either of his own brothers until Almagro
had been first provided for. Lastly, the former contract in regard to the division of the spoil into three
equal shares between the three original associates was
confirmed in the most explicit manner. The reconciliation thus effected among the parties answered the
temporary purpose of enabling them to go forward in
concert in the expedition. But it was only a thin
scar that had healed over the wound, which, deep and
rankling within, waited only fresh cause of irritation
to break out with a virulence more fatal than ever."'
"z Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio 1529.-Relacion del primer
Peru-VOL. I.-o       27




3I4             CONQUEST OF PERU.
No time was now lost in preparing for the voyage.
It found little encouragement, however, among the
colonists of Panama, who were too familiar with the
sufferings on the former expeditions to care to undertake another, even with the rich bribe that was held
out to allure them. A few of the old company were
content to follow out the adventure to its close; and
some additional stragglers were collected from the
province of Nicaragua,-a shoot, it may be remarked,
from the colony of Panam/a. But Pizarro made slender additions to the force brought over with him from
Spain, though this body was in better condition, and,
in respect to arms, ammunition, and equipment generally, was on a much better footing, than his former
levies.  The whole number did not exceed one hundred and eighty men, with twenty-seven horses for
the cavalry.  He had  provided  himself with three
vessels, two of them of a good size, to take the place
of those which he had been compelled to leave on
the opposite side of the Isthmus at Nombre de Dios;
an armament small for the conquest of an empire,
and far short of that prescribed by the Capitulation
with the crown. With this the intrepid chief proposed to commence operations, trusting to his own
successes, and the exertions of Almagro, who was to
Descub., MS.-Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. 3.-Oviedo, Hist.
de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. I.-There seems to have been
little good will, at bottom, between any of the confederates; for Father
Luque wrote to Oviedo that both of his partners had repaid his services with ingratitude: " Padre Luque, compafiero de estos Capitanes,
con cuya hacienda hicieron ellos sus hechos, puesto que el uno e el
otro se lo pagaron con ingratitud segun a mi me lo escribi6 el mismo
electo de su mano." Ibid., loc. cit.




HIS THIRD EXPEDITION.                   315
remain behind for the present, to muster reinforcemrents. "
On St. John the Evangelist's day, the banners
of the company and the royal standard were consecrated in the cathedral church of Panam/a; a sermon
was preached before the little army by Fray Juan de
Vargas, one of the Dominicans selected by the government for the Peruvian mission; and mass was performed, and the sacrament administered to every soldier previous to his engaging in the crusade against
the infidel.'3 Having thus solemnly invoked the blessing of Heaven on the enterprise, Pizarro and his followers went on board their vessels, which rode at
anchor in the Bay of Panama, and early in January,
153I, sallied forth on his third and last expedition for
the conquest of Peru.
It was his intention to steer direct for Tumbez,
which held out so magnificent a show of treasure on
his former voyage. But head-winds and currents, as
usual, baffled his purpose, and after a run of thirteen
days, much shorter than the period formerly required
for the same distance, his little squadron came to
anchor in the Bay of St. Matthew, about one degree
n The numerical estimates differ, as usual. I conform to the statement of Pizarro's secretary, Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom.
iii. p. I82.
13 " El qual haviendo hecho bendecir en la Iglesia mayor las banderas i estandarte real dia de San Juan Evangelista de dicho afio de
I530, i que todos los soldados confesasen i comulgasen en el convento
de Nuestra Sefiora de la Merced, dia de los Inocentes en la misa cantada que se celebr6 con toda solemnidad i sermon que predic6 el P.
Presentdo Fr. Juan de Vargas, uno de los 5 religiosos que en cumplimiento de la obediencia de sus prelados i orden del Emperador pasaban i la conquista." Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.




316           CONQUEST OF PERU.
north; and Pizarro, after consulting with his officers,
resolved to disembark his forces and advance along
the coast, while the vessels held their course at a convenient distance from the shore.
The march of the troops was severe and painful in
the extreme; for the road was constantly intersected by
streams, which, swollen by the winter rains, widened
at their mouths into spacious estuaries. Pizarro, who
had some previous knowledge of the country, acted
as guide as well as commander of the expedition. He
was ever ready to give aid where it was needed, encouraging his followers to ford or swim the torrents
as they best could, and cheering the desponding by
his own buoyant and courageous spirit.
At length they reached a thick-settled hamlet, or
rather town, in the province of Coaque. The Spaniards rushed on the place, and the inhabitants, without
offering resistance, fled in terror to the neighboring
forests, leaving their effects-of much greater value
than had been anticipated-in the hands of the invaders.  "We fell on them, sword in hand," says
one of the Conquerors, with some nailet; "for if
we had advised the Indians of our approach we should
never have found there such store of gold and precious
stones." x4 The natives, however, according to another
authority, stayed voluntarily; "for, as they had done
no harm to the white men, they flattered themselves
none would be offered to them, but that there would
24 " Pues llegados ai este pueblo de Coaque dieron de supito sin
savello la gente del porque si estuvieran avisados. No se tomara la
cantidad de oro y esmeraldas que en el se tomaron." Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., MS.




AD VENTURES ON THE COAST.   317
be only an interchange of good offices with the
strangers,"'5-an expectation founded, it may be, on
the good character which the Spaniards had established for themselves on their preceding visit, but one
in which the simple people now found themselves most
unpleasantly deceived.
Rushing into the deserted dwellings, the invaders
found there, besides stuffs of various kinds, and food
most welcome in their famished condition, a large
quantity of gold and silver wrought into clumsy ornaments, together with many precious stones; for this
was the region of the esmeraldas, or emeralds, where
that valuable gem was most abundant. One of these
jewels, that fell into the hands of Pizarro in this
neighborhood, was as large as a pigeon's egg. Unluckily, his rude followers did not know the value of
their prize; and they broke many of them in pieces
by pounding them with hammers.'6  They were led to
this extraordinary proceeding, it is said, by one of the
Dominican missionaries, Fray Reginaldo de Pedraza,
who assured them that this was the way to prove the
true emerald, which could not be broken. It was observed that the good father did not subject his own
jewels to this wise experiment; but, as the stones, in
t5 Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 4, lib. 7, cap. 9.
x6 Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib.
I, cap. 4. —" A lo que se ha entendido en las esmeraldas ovo gran
hierro y torpedad en algunas Personas por no conoscellas. Aunque
quieren decir que algunos que las conoscieron las guardaron. Pero
ffinalmente muchos vbieron esmeraldas de mucho valor; vnos las provavan en yunques, dandolas con martillos, diziendo que si hera esmeralda no se quebraria; otros las despreciaban, diziendo que era vidrio."
Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.
27*




318            CONQUEST OF PERU.
consequence of it, fell in value, being regarded merely
as colored glass, he carried back a considerable store
of them to Panamt.'7
The gold and silver ornaments rifled from the dwellings were brought together and deposited in a common
heap; when a fifth was deducted for the crown, and
Pizarro distributed the remainder in due proportions
among the officers and privates of his company. This
was the usage invariably observed on the like occasions
throughout the Conquest. The invaders had embarked
in a common adventure. Their interest was common,
and to have allowed every one to plunder on his own
account would only have led to insubordination and
perpetual broils. All were required, therefore, on pain
of death, to contribute whatever they obtained, whether
by bargain or by rapine, to the general stock; and all
were too much interested in the execution of the penalty to allow the unhappy culprit who violated the law
any chance of escape."'
Pizarro, with his usual policy, sent back to Panama
a large quantity of the gold, no less than twenty thousand castellanos in value, in the belief that the sight of
so much treasure, thus speedily acquired, would settle
the doubts of the wavering and decide them on joining
17 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Herrera, Hist. general,
dec. 4, lib. 7, cap. 9.
18," Los Espafioles las rrecoxeron y juntaron el oro y la plata,
porque asi estava mandado y hordenado sopena de la vida el que otra
cossa hiziese, porque todos lo avian de traer i monton para que de
alli el governador lo rrepartiese, dando a cada uno confforme 6a su
persona y meritos de servicios; y esta horden se guardo en toda esta
tierra en la conquista della, y al que se le hallara oro 6 plata escondido muriera por ello, y deste medio nadie oso escondello." Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.




AD VENTURES ON THE COAST    3I9
his banner.'9  He judged right.  As one of the Conquerors piously expresses it, "It pleased the Lord that
we should fall in with the town of Coaque, that the riches
of the land might find credit with the people, and that
they should flock to it." 2
Pizarro, having refreshed his men, continued his
march along the coast, but no longer accompanied by
the vessels, which had returned for recruits to Panama.
The road, as he advanced, was checkered with strips
of sandy waste, which, drifted about by the winds,
blinded the soldiers, and afforded only treacherous
footing for man and beast. The glare was intense;
and the rays of a vertical sun beat fiercely on the iron
mail and the thick quilted doublets of cotton, till the
fainting troops were almost suffocated with the heat.
To add to their distresses, a strange epidemic broke
out in the little army. It took the form of ulcers, or
rather hideous warts of great size, which covered the
body, and when lanced, as was the case with some,
discharged such a quantity of blood as proved fatal to
the sufferer. Several died of this frightful disorder,
which was so sudden in its attack, and attended with
19 The booty was great indeed, if, as Pedro Pizarro, one of the Conquerors present, says, it amounted in value to 200,000 gold castellanos:
" Aqui se hallo mucha chaquira de oro y de plata, muchas coronas
hechas de oro A manera de imperiales, y otras muchas piezas en que
se avaleo montar mas de dozientos mill castellanos." (Descub. y
Conq., MS.) Naharro, Montesinos, and Herrera content themselves
with stating that he sent back 20,000 castellanos in the vessels to
Panama.
" In Fueron a dar en vn pueblo que se dezia Coaque que fue nuestro Sefior servido tapasen con el, porque con lo que en el se hallo se.
acredito la tierra y vino gente a ella." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y
Conq., MS.




320           CONQUEST OF PERU.
such prostration of strength, that those who lay down
well at night were unable to lift their hands to their
heads in the morning.21 The epidemic, which made its
first appearance during this invasion, and which did
not long survive it, spread over the country, sparing
neither native nor white man.22 It was one of those
plagues from the vial of wrath, which the destroying
angel, who follows in the path of the conqueror, pours
out on the devoted nations.
The Spaniards rarely experienced on their march
either resistance or annoyance from the inhabitants,
who, instructed by the example of Coaque, fled with
their effects into the woods and neighboring mountains
No one came out to welcome the strangers and offer
the rites of hospitality, as on their last visit to the
land. For the white men were no longer regarded as
good beings that had come from heaven, but as ruthless destroyers, who, invulnerable to the assaults of the
Indians, were borne along on the backs of fierce animals, swifter than the wind, with weapons in their
hands that scattered fire and desolation as they went.
Such were the stories now circulated of the invaders,
which, preceding them everywhere on their march,
closed the hearts, if not the doors, of the natives against
them. Exhausted by the fatigue of travel and by disease, and grievously disappointed at the poverty of the
land, which now offered no compensation for their
toils, the soldiers of Pizarro cursed the hour in which
they had enlisted under his standard, and the men of
-2 Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y
Conq., MS.-Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio I530.
22 Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte 2, lib. I, cap. I5.




ADVENTURES ON TIIE COAST.   321
Nicaragua in particular, says the old chronicler, calling to mind their pleasant quarters in their luxurious
land, sighed only to return to their Mahometan paradise.'2
At this juncture the army was gladdened by the
sight of a vessel from Panama, which brought some
supplies, together with the royal treasurer, the veedor
or inspector, the comptroller, and other high officers
appointed by the crown to attend the expedition.
They had been left in Spain by Pizarro, in consequence of his abrupt departure from the country; and
the Council of the Indies, on learning the circumstance, had sent instructions to Panama to prevent the
sailing of his squadron from that port. But the Spanish government, with more wisdom, countermanded
the order, only requiring the functionaries to quicken
their own departure and take their place without loss
of time in the expedition.
The Spaniards in their march along the coast had
now advanced as far as Puerto Viejo. Here they were
soon after joined by another small reinforcement of
about thirty men, under an officer named Benalcazar,
who subsequently rose to high distinction in this service.
Many of the followers of Pizarro would now have
halted at this spot and established a colony there. But
that chief thought more of conquering than of colonizing, at least for the present; and he proposed, as
3 " Aunque ellos no ninguno por aver venido, porque como avian
dexado el paraiso de mahoma que hera Nicaragua y hallaron la isla
alzada y falta de comidas y la mayor parte de la gente enfferma y no
oro ni plata como atras avian hallado, algunos y todos se holgaran
de volver de adonde avian venido." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq.,
MS.
0*




322          CONQUEST OF PERU.
his first step, to get possession of Tumbez, which he
regarded as the gate of the Peruvian empire.  Continuing his march, therefore, to the shores of what is
now called the Gulf of Guayaquil, he arrived off the
little island of Puna, lying at no great distance from
the Bay of Tumbez. This island, he thought, would
afford him a convenient place to encamp until he was
prepared to make his descent on the Indian city.
The dispositions of the islanders seemed to favor his
purpose. He had not been long in their neighborhood
before a deputation of the natives, with their cacique
at their head, crossed over in their balsas to the main
land to welcome the Spaniards to their residence. But
the Indian interpreters of Tumbez, who had returned
with Pizarro from Spain, and continued with the camp,
put their master on his guard against the meditated
treachery of the islanders, whom they accused of designing to destroy the Spaniards by cutting the ropes
that held together the floats and leaving those upon
them to perish in the waters. Yet the cacique, when
charged by Pizarro with this perfidious scheme, denied
it with such an air of conscious innocence that the
Spanish commander trusted himself and his followers,
without further hesitation, to his conveyance, and was
transported in safety to the shores of Puna.
Here he was received in a hospitable manner, and
his troops were provided with comfortable quarters.
Well satisfied with his present position, Pizarro resolved to occupy it until the violence of the rainy
season was past, when the arrival of the reinforce.
ments he expected would put him in better condition
for marching into the country of the Inca.




ADVENTURES ON THE COAST.             323
The island, which lies in the mouth of the river of
Guayaquil, and is about eight leagues in length by four
in breadth at the widest part, was at that time partially covered with a noble growth of timber. But a
large portion of it was subjected to cultivation, and
bloomed with plantations of cacao, of the sweet potato, and the different products of a tropical clime,
evincing agricultural knowledge as well as industry in
the population. They were a warlike race, but had
received from their Peruvian foes the appellation of
" perfidious." It was the brand fastened by the Roman
historians on their Carthaginian enemies, —with perhaps no better reason. The bold and independent
islanders opposed a stubborn resistance to the arms of
the Incas; and, though they had finally yielded, they
had been ever since at feud, and often in deadly hostility, with their neighbors of Tumbez.
The latter no sooner heard of Pizarro's arrival on
the island than, trusting probably to their former
friendly relations with him, they came over in some
number to the Spanish quarters. The presence of their
detested rivals was by no means grateful to the jealous
inhabitants of Puna, and the prolonged residence of
the white men on their island could not be otherwise
than burdensome. In their outward demeanor they
still maintained the same show of amity; but Pizarro's
interpreters again put him on his guard against the
proverbial perfidy of their hosts. With his suspicions
thus roused, the Spanish commander was informed
that a number of the chiefs had met together to deliberate on a plan of insurrection. Not caring to wait
for the springing of the mine, he surrounded the place




324             CONQUEST OF PERU.
of meeting with his soldiers and made prisoners of the
suspected chieftains. According to one authority, they
confessed their guilt.24  This is by no means certain.
Nor is it certain that they meditated an insurrection.
Yet the fact is not improbable in itself; though it derives little additional probability from the assertion of
the hostile interpreters.  It is certain, however, that
Pizarro was satisfied of the existence of a conspiracy;
and, without further hesitation, he abandoned his
wretched prisoners, ten or twelve in number, to the
tender mercies of their rivals of Tumbez, who instantly
massacred them before his eyes.25
Maddened by this outrage, the people of Puna
sprang to arms, and threw themselves at once, with
fearful yells and the wildest menaces of despair, on the
Spanish camp. The odds of numbers were greatly in
their favor, for they mustered several thousand warriors. But the more decisive odds of arms and discipline were on the side of their antagonists; and, as
the Indians rushed forward in a confused mass to the
assault, the Castilians coolly received them on their
long pikes or swept them down by the volleys of their
musketry. Their ill-protected bodies were easily cut
to pieces by the sharp sword of the Spaniard; and
Hernando Pizarro, putting himself at the head of the
cavalry, charged boldly into the midst, and scattered
them far and wide over the field, until, panic-struck
24 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I83.
25 " y el marques don Francisco Pigarro, por tenellos por amigos y
estuviesen de paz quando alla passasen, les dio algunos principales los
quales ellos matavan en presencia de los espafioles, cortandoles las
cavezas por el cogote." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.




BATTLES IN THE ISLE OF PUNA.  325
by the terrible array of steel-clad horsemen and the
stunning reports and the flash of fire-arms, the fugitives sought shelter in the depths of their forests. Yet
the victory was owing, in some degree, at least,-if
we may credit the Conquerors,-to the interposition
of Heaven; for St. Michael and his legions were seen
high in the air above the combatants, contending with
the arch-enemy of man and cheering on the Christians
by their example! 6
Not more than three or four Spaniards fell in the
fight; but many were wounded, and among them Hernando Pizarro, who received a severe injury in the leg
from a javelin. Nor did the war end here; for the
implacable islanders, taking advantage of the cover
of night, or of any remissness on the part of the invaders, were ever ready to steal out of their fastnesses
and spring on their enemy's camp, while, by cutting
off his straggling parties and destroying his provisions,
they kept him in perpetual alarm.
In this uncomfortable situation, the Spanish commander was gladdened by the appearance of two vessels off the island.  They brought a reinforcement
26 The city of San Miguel was so named by Pizarro to commemorate
the event; and the existence of such a city may be considered by
some as establishing the truth of the miracle.-" En la batalla de
Puna vieron muchos, ya de los Indios, ya de los nuestros, que habia
en el aire otros dos campos, uno acaudillado por el Arcangel S. Miguel
con espada y rodela, y otro por Luzbel y sus secuaces; mas apenas
cantaron los Castellanos la victoria huyeron los diablos, y formando
un gran torvellino de viento se oyeron en el aire unas terribles voces
que decian, Vencistenos  Miguel vencistenos! De aqui torn6 Dn
Francisco Pizarro tanta devocion al sto Arcangel, que prometi6 llamar
la primera ciudad que fundase de su nombre; cumpliolo asi como
veremos adelante." Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio I530.
Peru.-VoL. I.           28




326            CONQUEST OF PERU.
consisting of a hundred volunteers, besides horses for
the cavalry. It was commanded by Hernando de
Soto, a captain afterwards famous as the discoverer
of the Mississippi, which still rolls its majestic current over the place of his burial,-a fitting monument
for his remains, as it is of his renown.27
This reinforcement was most welcome to Pizarro,
who had been long discontented with his position
on an island, where he found nothing to compensate
the life of unintermitting hostility which he was compelled to lead. With these recruits he felt himself in
sufficient strength to cross over to the continent and
resume military operations on the proper theatre for
discovery and conquest. From the Indians of Tumbez he learned that the country had been for some
time distracted by a civil war between two sons of
the late monarch, competitors for the throne. This
intelligence he regarded as of the utmost importance,
for he remembered the use which Cort6s had made of
similar dissensions among the tribes of Anahuac. Indeed, Pizarro seems to have had the example of his
great predecessor before his eyes on more occasions
than this.  But he fell far short of his model; for,
notwithstanding the restraint he sometimes put upon
himself, his coarser nature and more ferocious temper
often betrayed him into acts most repugnant to sound
policy, which would never have been countenanced
by the Conqueror of Mexico.
2 The transactions in Pund are given at more or less length by
Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.-Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Montesinos, Annales, MS., ubi supra.
— Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap,
Barcia, tom. iii. pp. I32, 183.




CHAPTER  II.
PERU AT THE TIME OF THE CONQUEST. —-REIGN OF
HUAYNA CAPAC. —THE INCA BROTHERS. —CONTEST FOR
THE EMPIRE. -TRIUMPH AND CRUELTIES OF ATAHUALLPA.
BEFORE accompanying the march of Pizarro and
his followers into the country of the Incas, it is necessary to make the reader acquainted with the critical
situation of the kingdom at that time. For the Spaniards arrived just at the consummation of an important revolution,-a crisis most favorable to their views
of conquest, and one, indeed, but for which the conquest, with such a handful of soldiers, could never
have been achieved.
In the latter part of the fifteenth century died Tupac Inca Yupanqui, one of the most renowned of the
"Children of the Sun," who, carrying the Peruvian
arms across the burning sands of Atacama, penetrated
to the remote borders of Chili, while in the opposite
direction he enlarged the limits of the empire by the
acquisition of the southern provinces of Quito. The
war in this quarter was conducted by his son Huayna
Capac, who succeeded his father on the throne, and
fully equalled him in military daring and in capacity
for government.
Under this prince, the whole of the powerful state
of Quito, which rivalled that of Peru itself in wealth
and refinement, was brought under the sceptre of the
( 327 )




328          CONQUEST OF PERU.
Incas; whose empire received by this conquest the
most important accession yet made to it since the
foundation of the dynasty of Manco Capac. The remaining days of the victorious monarch were passed in
reducing the independent tribes on the remote limits
of his territory, and, still more, in cementing his conquests by the introduction of the Peruvian polity,
He was actively engaged in completing the great
works of his father, especially the high-roads which
led from  Quito to the capital.  He perfected the
establishment of posts, took great pains to introduce
the Quichua dialect throughout the empire, promoted
a better system of agriculture, and, in fine, encouraged
the different branches of domestic industry and the
various enlightened plans of his predecessors for the
improvement of his people.  Under his sway the
Peruvian monarchy reached its most palmy state; and
under both him and his illustrious father it was advancing with such rapid strides in the march of civilization as would soon have carried it to a level with
the more refined despotisms of Asia, furnishing the
world, perhaps, with higher evidence of the capabilities of the American Indian than is elsewhere to be
found on the great Western continent. But other
and gloomier destinies were in reserve for the Indian
races.
The first arrival of the white men on the South
American shores of the Pacific was about ten years before the death of Huayna Capac, when Balboa crossed
the Gulf of St. Michael and obtained the first clear
report of the empire of the Incas. Whether tidings
of these adventurers reached the Indian monarch's




REIGN  OF HUAYNA CAPA C.            329
ears is doubtful. There is no doubt, however, that
he obtained the news of the first expedition under
Pizarro and Almagro, when the latter commander
penetrated as far as the Rio de San Juan, about the
fourth degree north. The accounts which he received
made a strong impression on the mind of Huayna
Capac. He discerned in the formidable prowess and
weapons of the invaders proofs of a civilization far
superior to that of his own people.  He intimated
his apprehension that they would return, and that at
some day, not far distant perhaps, the throne of the
Incas might be shaken by these strangers endowed
with such incomprehensible powers.' To the vulgar
eye, it was a little speck on the verge of the horizon;
but that of the sagacious monarch seemed to descry in
it the dark thunder-cloud that was to spread wider
and wider till it burst in fury on his nation.
There is some ground for believing thus much. But
other accounts, which have obtained a popular currency, not content with this, connect the first tidings
of the white men with predictions long extant in the
country, and with supernatural appearances which
filled the hearts of the whole nation with dismay.
Comets were seen flaming athwart the heavens. Earthquakes shook the land; the moon was girdled with
rings of fire of many colors; a thunderbolt fell on
one of the royal palaces and consumed it to ashes;
and an eagle, chased by several hawks, was seen,
screaming in the air, to hover above the great square
of Cuzco, when, pierced by the talons of his torI Sarmiento, an honest authority, tells us he had this from some of
the Inca lords who heard it. Relacion, MS., cap. 65.
28*




330             CONQUEST OF PERU.
mentors, the king of birds fell lifeless in the presence of many of the Inca nobles, who read in this
an augury of their own destruction.  Huayna Capac
himself, calling his great officers around him, as he
found he was drawing near his end, announced the
subversion of his empire by the race of white and
bearded strangers, as the consummation predicted by
the oracles after the reign of the twelfth Inca, and he
enjoined it on his vassals not to resist the decrees of
Heaven, but to yield obedience to its messengers.2
Such is the report of the impressions made by the
appearance of the Spaniards in the country, reminding one of the similar feelings of superstitious terror
occasioned by their appearance in Mexico. But the
traditions of the latter land rest on much higher
authority than those of the Peruvians, which, unsupported by contemporary testimony, rest almost wholly
on the naked assertion of one of their own nation,
who thought to find, doubtless, in the inevitable decrees of Heaven, the best apology for the supineness
of his countrymen.
It is not improbable that rumors of the advent of a
strange and mysterious race should have spread gradually among the Indian tribes along the great table2 A minute relation of these supernatural occurrences is given by
the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega (Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 9, cap. X4),
whose situation opened to him the very best sources of information,
which is more than counterbalanced by the defects in his own character as an historian,-his childish credulity, and his desire to magnify
and mystify every thing relating to his own order, and, indeed, his
nation. His work is the source of most of the facts-and the falsehoods-that have obtained circulation in respect to the ancient Peru.
vi;nms. Unfortunately, at this distance of time it is not always easy to
distinguish the one from the other.




REIGN OF HUAYNA CAPAC.                   331
land of the Cordilleras, and should have shaken the
hearts of the stoutest warriors with feelings of undefined dread, as of some impending calamity. In this
state of mind, it was natural that physical convulsions, to which that volcanic country is peculiarly
subject, should have made an unwonted impression
on their minds, and that the phenomena which might
have been regarded only as extraordinary, in the usual
seasons of political security, should now be interpreted
by the superstitious soothsayer as the handwriting on
the heavens, by which the God of the Incas proclaimed
the approaching downfall of their empire.
Huayna Capac had, as usual with the Peruvian
princes, a multitude of concubines, by whom he left
a numerous posterity.  The heir to the crown, the
son of his lawful wife and sister, was named Huascar.3 At the period of the history at which we are
now arrived, he was about thirty years of age.   Next
to the heir-apparent, by another wife, a cousin of the
monarch's, came Manco Capac, a young prince who
will occupy an important place in our subsequent
story.  But the best-beloved of the Inca's children
3 Huascar, in the Quichua dialect, signifies " a cable." The reason
of its being given to the heir-apparent is remarkable. Huayna Capac
celebrated the birth of the prince by a festival, in which he introduced
a massive gold chain for the nobles to hold in their hands as they performed their national dances. The chain was seven hundred feet in
length, and the links nearly as big round as a man's wrist! (See
Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. I4.-Garcilasso, Corn. Real., Parte
I, lib. 9, cap. I.) The latter writer had the particulars, he tells us,
from his old Inca uncle,-who seems to have dealt largely in the marvellous; not too largely for his audience, however, as the story has
been circulated without scruple by most of the Castilian writers both
of that and of the succeeding age.




33.2          CONQUEST OF PERU.
was Atahuallpa. His mother was the daughter of the
last Scyri of Quito, who had died of grief, it was
said, not long after the subversion of his kingdom by
Huayna Capac. The princess was beautiful, and the
Inca, whether to gratify his passion, or, as the Peruvians say, willing to make amends for the ruin of her
parents, received her among his concubines.  The
historians of Quito assert that she was his lawful wife;
but this dignity, according to the usages of the empire, was reserved for maidens of the Inca blood.
The latter years of Huayna Capac were passed in
his new kingdom of Quito. Atahuallpa was accordingly brought up under his own eye, accompanied
him, while in his tender years, in his campaigns,
slept in the same tent with his royal father, and ate
from the same plate.4 The vivacity of the boy, his
courage and generous nature, won the affections of
the old monarch to such a degree that he resolved
to depart from the established usages of the realm
and divide his empire between him and his elder
brother Huascar.  On his death-bed he called the
great officers of the crown around him, and declared
it to be his will that the ancient kingdom  of Quito
should pass to Atahuallpa, who might be considered
as having a natural claim on it, as the dominion of
his ancestors. The rest of the empire he settled on
Huascar; and he enjoined it on the two brothers to
acquiesce in this arrangement and to live in amity
4 " Atabalipa era bien quisto de los Capitanes viejos de su Padre y
de los Soldados, porque andubo en la guerra en su nifiez y porque 61
en vida le mostr6 tanto amor que no le dejaba comer otra cosa que lo
que 61 le daba de su plato." Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 66.




REIGN OF HUAYNA CAPAC.    333
with each other. This was the last act of the heroic
monarch; doubtless the most impolitic of his whole life.
With his dying breath he subverted the fundamental
laws of the empire; and, while he recommended harmony between the successors to his authority, he left
in this very division of it the seeds of inevitable
discord.5
His death took place, as seems probable, at the
close of I525, not quite seven years before Pizarro's
arrival at Puna.6 The tidings of his decease spread
sorrow  and consternation  throughout the land; for,
though stern  and even inexorable to the rebel and
the long-resisting foe, he was a brave and magnanimous monarch, and legislated with the enlarged views
of a prince who regarded every part of his dominions as equally his concern. The people of Quito,
flattered by the proofs which he had given of preference for them by his permanent residence in that
country and his embellishment of their capital, manifested unfeigned sorrow at his loss; and his sub5 Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte I, lib. 8, cap. 9.-Zarate,
Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. 12.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 65.Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 2oi.
6 The precise date of this event, though so near the time of the
Conquest, is matter of doubt. Balboa, a contemporary with the Conquerors, and who wrote at Quito, where the Inca died, fixes it at I525.
(Hist. du Perou, chap. I4.) Velasco, another inhabitant of the same
place, after an investigation of the different accounts, comes to the
like conclusion. (Hist. de Quito, tom. i. p. 232.) Dr. Robertson,
after telling us that Huayna Capac died in I529, speaks again of this
event as having happened in I527. (Conf. America, vol. iii. pp. 25,
38I.) Any one who has been bewildered by the chronological snarl
of the ancient chronicles will not be surprised at meeting occasionally
with such inconsistencies in a writer who is obliged to take them as
his guides.




334             CONQUEST OF PERU.
jects at Cuzco, proud of the glory which his arms
and his abilities had secured for his native land, held
him in no less admiration;7 while the more thoughtful and the more timid, in both countries, looked
with apprehension to the future, when the sceptre
of the vast empire, instead of being swayed by an
old and experienced hand, was to be consigned to
rival princes, naturally jealous of one another, and,
from their age, necessarily exposed to the unwholesome influence of crafty and ambitious counsellors.
The people testified their regret by the unwonted
honors paid to the memory of the deceased Inca.
His heart was retained in Quito, and his body, embalmed after the fashion of the country, was transported to Cuzco, to take its place in the great temple
of the Sun, by the side of the remains of his royal
ancestors.  His obsequies were celebrated with sanguinary splendor in both the capitals of his far-extended empire; and several thousand of the imperial
concubines, with numerous pages and officers of the
palace, are said to have proved their sorrow, or their
superstition, by offering up their own lives, that they
might accompany their departed lord to the bright
mansions of the Sun.8
For nearly five years after the death of Huayna
Capac, the royal brothers reigned, each over his al7 One cannot doubt this monarch's popularity with the female part
of his subjects, at least, if, as the historian of the Incas tells us, " he
was never known to refuse a woman, of whatever age or degree she
might be, any favor that she asked of him" I Com. Real., Parte I, lib.
8, cap. 7.
8 Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 65.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec.
5, lib. 3, cap. X7.




THE INCA BROTHERS.               335
lotted portion of the empire, without distrust of one
another, or, at least, without collision. It seemed as
if the wish of their father was to be completely realized, and that the two states were to maintain their
respective integrity and independence as much as if
they had never been united into one. But, with the
manifold causes for jealousy and discontent, and the
swarms of courtly sycophants who would find their
account in fomenting these feelings, it was easy to see
that this tranquil state of things could not long endure. Nor would it have endured so long, but for the
more gentle temper of Huascar, the only. party who
had ground for complaint. He was four or five years
older than his brother, and was possessed of courage
not to be doubted; but he was a prince of a generous
and easy nature, and perhaps, if left to himself, might
have acquiesced in an arrangement which, however
unpalatable, was the will of his deified father. But
Atahuallpa was of a different temper. Warlike, ambitious, and daring, he was constantly engaged in
enterprises for the enlargement of his own territory;
though his crafty policy was scrupulous not to aim at
extending his acquisitions in the direction of his royal
brother.  His restless spirit, however, excited some
alarm at the court of Cuzco, and Huascar at length
sent an envoy to Atahuallpa, to remonstrate with him
on his ambitious enterprises, and to require him to
render him homage for his kingdom of Quito.
This is one statement. Other accounts pretend that
the immediate cause of rupture was a claim instituted
by Huascar for the territory of Tumebamba, held by
his brother as part of his patrimonial inheritance. It




336           CONQUEST OF PERU.
matters little what was the ostensible ground of collision between persons placed by circumstances in so
false a position in regard to one another that collision
must, at some time or other, inevitably occur.
The commencement, and, indeed, the whole course,
of hostilities which soon broke out between the rival
brothers are stated with irreconcilable and, considering the period was so near to that of the Spanish invasion, with unaccountable discrepancy. By some it
is said that in Atahuallpa's first encounter with the
troops of Cuzco he was defeated and made prisoner
near Tumebamba, a favorite residence of his father,
in the ancient territory of Quito and in the district
of Cafiaris. From this disaster he recovered by a fortunate escape from confinement, when, regaining his
capital, he soon found himself at the head of a numerous army, led by the most able and experienced captains in the empire. The liberal manners of the young
Atahuallpa had endeared him to the soldiers, with
whom, as we have seen, he served more than one campaign in his father's lifetime. These troops were the
flower of the great army of the Inca, and some of them
had grown gray in his long military career, which had
left them at the north, where they readily transferred
their allegiance to the young sovereign of Quito. They
were commanded by two officers of great consideration, both possessed of large experience in military
affairs and high in the confidence of the late Inca.
One of them was named Quizquiz; the other, who
was the maternal uncle of Atahuallpa, was called
Challcuchima.
With these practised warriors to guide him, the




CONTEST FOR THE EMPIRE.                    337
young monarch put himself at the head of his martial
array and directed his march towards the south. He
had not advanced farther than Ambato, about sixty
miles distant from his capital, when he fell in with a
numerous host which had been sent against him by his
brother, under the command of a distinguished chieftain, of the Inca family. A bloody battle followed,
which lasted the greater part of the day; and the
theatre of combat was the skirts of the mighty Chimborazo.9
The battle ended favorably for Atahuallpa, and the
Peruvians were routed with great slaughter and the
loss of their commander. The prince of Quito availed
himself of his advantage to push forward his march
until he arrived before the gates of Tumebamba, which
city, as well as the whole district of Caflaris, though
an ancient dependency of Quito, had sided with his
rival in the contest. Entering the captive city like a
conqueror, he put the inhabitants to the sword, and
razed it with all its stately edifices, some of which had
been reared by his own father, to the ground. He carried on the same war of extermination as he marched
through the offending district of Cafiaris.  In some
places, it is said, bands of children, as well as of older
persons, were sent out, in melancholy procession, with
9 Garcilasso denies that any thing but insignificant skirmishes took
place before the decisive action fought on the plains of Cuzco. But
Sarmiento, who gathered his accounts of these events, as he tells us,
from the actors in them, walked over the field of battle at Ambato,
when the ground was still covered with the bones of the slain: " Yo
h6 pasado por este Pueblo y he visto el Lugar donde dicen que esta
Batalla se di6, y cierto segun hay la osamenta devieron aun de morir
mas gente de la que cuentan." Relacion, MS., cap. 69.
Peru.-VoL. I.-p          29




338             CONQUEST OF PERU.
green branches in their hands, to deprecate his wrath;
but the vindictive conqueror, deaf to their entreaties,
laid the country waste with fire and sword, sparing no
man capable of bearing arms who fell into his hands."T
The fate of Cafiaris struck terror into the hearts of
his enemies, and one place after another opened its
gates to the victor, who held on his triumphant march
towards the Peruvian capital. His arms experienced a
temporary check before the island of Pun/, whose bold
warriors maintained the cause of his brother. After
some days lost before this place, Atahuallpa left the
contest to their old enemies, the people of Tumbez,
who had early given in their adhesion to him, while he
resumed his march and advanced as far as Caxamalca,
about seven degrees south. Here he halted with a detachment of the army, sending forward the main body
under the command of his two generals, with orders to
move straight upon Cuzco. He preferred not to trust
himself farther in the enemy's country, where a defeat
might be fatal. By establishing his quarters at Caxamalca, he would be able to support his generals in case
of a reverse, or, at worst, to secure his retreat oil
Io,, Cuentan muchos Indios, quien yo lo oi, que por amansar su
ira, mandaron t[ un escuadron grande de niiios y a otro de hombres
de toda edad, que saliesen hasta las ricas andas donde venia con gran
pompa, luevando en las manos ramos verdes y ojas de palma, y que le
pidiesen la gracia y amistad suya para el pueblo, sin mirar la injuria
pasada, y que en tantos clamores se lo suplicaron, y con tanta humildad, que bastara quebrantar corazones de piedra; mas poca impresion hicieron en el cruel de Atabalipa, porque dicen que mand6
&i sus capitanes y gentes que matasen a todos aquellos que habian
venido, lo cual fue hecho, no perdonando sino, algunos nifios y
A las mugeres sagradas del Templo." Sarmiento, Relacion, MS.,
cap. 70.




CONTEST FOR THE EMPIRE.           339
Quito until he was again in condition to renew hostilities.
The two commanders, advancing by rapid marches,
at length crossed the Apurimac River, and arrived
within a short distance of the Peruvian capital. Meanwhile, Huascar had not been idle.  On receiving
tidings of the discomfiture of his army at Ambato,
he made every exertion to raise levies throughout the
country. By the advice, it is said, of his priests, —
the most incompetent advisers in times of danger,-he
chose to await the approach of the enemy in his own
capital; and it was not till the latter had arrived
within a few leagues of Cuzco that the Inca, taking
counsel of the same ghostly monitors, sallied forth to
give him battle.
The two armies met on the plains of Quipaypan, in
the neighborhood of the Indian metropolis. Their
numbers are stated with the usual discrepancy; but
Atahuallpa's troops had considerably the advantage
in discipline and experience, for many of Huascar's
levies had been drawn hastily together from the surrounding country.  Both fought, however, with the
desperation of men who felt that every thing was at
stake. It was no longer a contest for a province, but
for the possession of an empire. Atahuallpa's troops,
flushed with recent success, fought with the confidence
of those who relied on their superior prowess; while
the loyal vassals of the Inca displayed all the self-devotion of men who held their own lives cheap in the
service of their master.
The fight raged with the greatest obstinacy from
sunrise to sunset; and the ground was covered with




340            CONQUEST OF PERU.
heaps of the dying and the dead, whose bones lay
bleaching on the battle-field long after the conquest
by the Spaniards.  At length, fortune declared in
favor of Atahuallpa, or, rather, the usual result of superior discipline and military practice followed. The
ranks of the Inca were thrown into irretrievable disorder, and gave way in all directions. The conquerors followed close on the heels of the flying. Huascar himself, among the latter, endeavored to make his
escape with about a thousand men who remained round
his person.  But the royal fugitive was discovered
before he had left the field; his little party was enveloped by clouds of the enemy, and nearly every
one of the devoted band perished in defence of their
Inca. Huascar was made prisoner, and the victorious
chiefs marched at once on his capital, which they
occupied in the name of their sovereign.,I
These events occurred in the spring of I532, a few
months before the landing of the Spaniards.  The
tidings of the success of his arms and the capture of
his unfortunate brother reached Atahuallpa at Caxamalca. He instantly gave orders that Huascar should
be treated with the respect due to his rank, but that
he should be removed to the strong fortress of Xauxa
and held there in strict confinement. His orders did
not stop here,-if we are to receive the accounts of
Garcilasso de la Vega, himself of the Inca race, and by
his mother's side nephew of the great Huayna Capac.:z Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 77.-Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias,
MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 9.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom.
iii. p. 202.-Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. I, cap. 12.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 70.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.




CONTEST FOR THE EMPIRE.    34I
According to this authority, Atahuallpa invited the
Inca nobles throughout the country to assemble at
Cuzco, in order to deliberate on the best means of
partitioning the empire between him and his brother.
When they had met in the capital, they were surrounded by the soldiery of Quito and butchered without mercy. The motive for this perfidious act was to
exterminate the whole of the royal family, who might
each one of them show a better title to the crown
than the illegitimate Atahuallpa. But the massacre
did  not end  here.  The  illegitimate offspring, like
himself, half-brothers of the monster, all, in short,
who had any of the Inca blood in their veins, were
involved in it; and, with an appetite for carnage unparalleled in the annals of the Roman Empire or
of the French Republic, Atahuallpa ordered all the
females of the blood royal, his aunts, nieces, and
cousins, to be put to death, and that, too, with the
most refined and lingering tortures. To give greater
zest to his revenge, many of the executions took place
in the presence of Huascar himself, who was thus compelled to witness the butchery of his own wives and
sisters, while, in the extremity of anguish, they in vain
called on him to protect them! X
1x Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 9, cap. 35-39.-" A las Mugeres, Hermanas, Tias, Sobrinas, Primas Hermanas, y Madrastras
de Atahuallpa, colgavan de los Arboles, y de muchas Horcas mui
altas que hicieron: B unas colgaron de los cabellos, h otras por debajo
de los bravos, y a otras de otras maneras feas, que por la honestidad
se callan: davanles sus hijuelos, que los tuviesen en bragos, tenianlos
hasta que se les calan, y se aporreavan." (Ibid., cap. 37-) The
variety of torture shows some invention in the writer, or, more probably, in the writer's uncle, the ancient Inca, the raconteur of these
Bluebeard butcheries.
29*




342             CONQUEST OF PERU.
Such is the tale told by the historian of the Incas,
and received by him, as he assures us, from his mother
and uncle, who, being children at the time, were so
fortunate as to be among the few that escaped the
massacre of their house.'3 And such is the account
repeated by many a Castilian writer since, without
any symptom  of distrust.  But a tissue of unprovoked atrocities like these is too repugnant to the
principles of human nature —and, indeed, to common
sense-to warrant our belief in them on ordinary
testimony.
The annals of semi-civilized nations unhappily show
that there have been instances of similar attempts to
extinguish the whole of a noxious race which had be
come the object of a tyrant's jealousy; though such
an attempt is about as chimerical as it would be to
extirpate any particular species of plant the seeds of
which had been borne on every wind over the country.
But, if the attempt to exterminate the Inca race was
actually made by Atahuallpa, how comes it that so
many of the pure descendants of the blood royalnearly six hundred in number-are admitted by the
historian to have been in existence seventy years after
the imputed massacre? 4 Why was the massacre, in13 " Las crueldades, que Atahuallpa en los de la Sangre Real hi9o,
dire de Relacion de mi Madre, y de un Hermano suio, que se llam6
Don Fernando Huallpa Tupac Inca Yupanqui, que entonces eran
Niflos de menos de diez Afios." Garcilasso, Comrn. Real., Parte I, lib.
9, cap. 14.'4 This appears from a petition for certain immunities, forwarded to
Spain in I603, and signed by five hundred and sixty-seven Indians of
the royal Inca race. (Ibid., Parte 3, lib. 9, cap. 40.) Oviedo says
that Huayna Capac left a hundred sons and daughters, and that most




TRIUMPH OF ATAHUALLPA.                   343
stead of being limited to the legitimate members of
the royal stock, who could show a better title to the
crown than the usurper, extended to all, however remotely or in whatever way, connected with the race?
Why were aged women and young maidens involved
in the proscription, and why were they subjected to
such refined and superfluous tortures, when it is obvious that beings so impotent could have done nothing
to provoke the jealousy of the tyrant? Why, when
so many were sacrificed from some vague apprehension of distant danger, was his rival Huascar, together
with his younger brother Manco Capac, the two men
from whom the conqueror had most to fear, suffered
to live? Why, in short, is the wonderful tale not recorded by others before the time of Garcilasso, and
nearer by half a century to the events themselves?'1
That Atahuallpa may have been guilty of excesses,
and abused the rights of conquest by some gratuitous
adts of cruelty, may be readily believed; for no one
who calls to mind his treatment of the Cafiariswhich his own apologists do not affect to deny'6of them were alive at the time of his writing: " Tubo cien hijos y hijas,
y la mayor parte de ellos son vivos." Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte
3, lib. 8, cap. 9.
5 I1 have looked in vain for some confirmation of this story in
Oviedo, Sarmiento, Xerez, Cieza de Leon, Zarate, Pedro Pizarro, Gomara,-all living at the time, and having access to the best sources
of information, and all, it may be added, disposed to do stern justice
to the evil qualities of the Indian monarch.
16 No one of the apologists of Atahuallpa goes quite so far as Father
Velasco, who, in the overflowings of his loyalty for a Quito monarch,
regards his massacre of the Cafiaris as a very fair retribution for their
offences: " Si les auteurs dont je viens de parler s'6taient trouvds dans
les memes circonstances qu'Atahuallpa et avaient 6prouv6 autant




344            CONQUEST' OF PERU.
will doubt that lie had a full measure of the vindictive
temper which belongs to
"Those souls of fire, and Children of the Sun,
With whom revenge was virtue."
But there is a wide difference between this and the
monstrous and most unprovoked atrocities imputed to
him, implying a diabolical nature not to be admitted
on the evidence of an Indian partisan, the sworn foe
of his house, and repeated by Castilian chroniclers,
wno may naturally seek, by blazoning the enormities
of Atahuallpa, to find some apology for the cruelty of
their countrymen towards him.
The news of the great victory was borne on the
wings of the wind to Caxamalca; and loud and long
was the rejoicing, not only in the camp of Atahuallpa,
but in the town and surrounding country; for all now
came in, eager to offer their congratulations to the
victor and do him homage. The prince of Quito no
longer hesitated to assume the scarlet borla, the diadem of the Incas. His triumph was complete. He
had beaten his enemies on their own ground, had
taken their capital, had set his foot on the neck of his
rival, and won for himself the ancient sceptre of the
Children of the Sun. But the hour of triumph was
destined to be that of his deepest humiliation. Atahuallpa was not one of those to whom, in the language
of the Grecian bard, "the gods are willing to reveal
themselves."'7 He had not read the handwriting on
d'offenses graves et de trahisons, je ne croirai jamais qu'ils eussent agi
autrement." Hist. de Quito, tom. i. p. 253.'7 "c Ol yap rto irWaVTrEL Oeoat faivovTras bvapyt."
OATS. r, v. I6i.




TRIUMPH OF A TAHUALLPA.          345
the heavens. The small speck which the clear-sighted
eye of his father had discerned on the distant verge of
the horizon, though little noticed by Atahuallpa, intent
on the deadly strife with his brother, had now risen high
towards the zenith, spreading wider and wider, till it
wrapped the skies in darkness and was ready to burst
in thunders on the devoted nation.




CHAPTER III.
THE SPANIARDS LAND AT TUMBEZ.-PIZARRO RECONNOITRES THE COUNTRY.-FOUNDATION OF SAN MIGUEL.-MARCH INTO THE INTERTOR.-EMBASSY FROM
THE INCA.-ADVENTURES ON THE MARCH. —ARRIVAL
AT THE FOOT OF THE ANDES.
1532.
WE left the Spaniards at the island of PunA, preparing to make their descent on the neighboring continent at Tumbez. This port was but a few leagues
distant, and Pizarro, with the greater part of his followers, passed over in the ships, while a few others
were to transport the commander's baggage and the
military stores on some of the Indian balsas. One of
the latter vessels which first touched the shore was surrounded, and three persons who were on the raft were
carried off by the natives to the adjacent woods and
there massacred. The Indians then got possession of
another of the balsas, containing Pizarro's wardrobe;
but, as the men who defended it raised loud cries for
help, they reached the ears of Hernando Pizarro, who,
with a small body of horse, had effected a landing
some way farther down the shore. A broad tract of
miry ground, overflowed at high water, lay between
him and the party thus rudely assailed by the natives.
The tide was out, and the bottom was soft and danger.
(346)




THE SPANIARDS LAND AT TUMBEZ. 347
ous. With little regard to the danger, however, the
bold cavalier spurred his horse into the slimy depths,
and, followed by his men, with the mud up to their
saddle-girths,. plunged forward into the midst of the
marauders, who, terrified by the strange apparition of
the horsemen, fled precipitately, without show of fight,
to the neighboring forests.
This conduct of the natives of Tumbez is not easy
to be explained, considering the friendly relations
maintained with the Spaniards on their preceding
visit, and lately renewed in the island of Puna.  But
Pizarro was still more astonished, on entering their
town, to find it not only deserted, but, with the exception of a few buildings, entirely demolished. Four
or five of the most substantial private dwellings, the
great temple, and the fortress-and these greatly damaged, and wholly despoiled of their interior decorations-alone survived to mark the site of the city and
attest its former splendor.' The scene of desolation
filled the conquerors with dismay; for even the raw
recruits, who had never visited the coast before, had
heard the marvellous stories of the golden treasures of
Tumbez, and they had confidently looked forward to
them as an easy spoil after all their fatigues. But the
gold of Peru seemed only like a deceitful phantom,
which, after beckoning them on through toil and
danger, vanished the moment they attempted to grasp it.' Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I85.-" Aunque lo
del templo del Sol en quien ellos adoran era cosa de ver, porque
tenian grandes edificios, y todo el por de dentro y de fuera pintado de
grandes pinturas y ricos matizes de colores, porque los hay en aquella
tierra" Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




348          CONQUEST OF PERU.
Pizarro despatched a small body of troops in pursuit
of the fugitives; and, after some slight skirmishing,
they got possession of several of the natives, and
among them, as it chanced, the curaca of the place.
When brought before the Spanish commander, he exonerated himself from any share in the violence offered
to the white men, saying that it was done by a lawless
party of his people, without his knowledge at the time;
and he expressed his willingness to deliver them up to
punishment, if they could be detected. He explained
the dilapidated condition of the town by the long wars
carried on with the fierce tribes of Pund, who had at
length succeeded in getting possession of the place
and driving the inhabitants into the neighboring woods
and mountains. The Inca, to whose cause they were
attached, was too much occupied with his own feuds to
protect them against their enemies.
Whether Pizarro gave any credit to the cacique's
exculpation of himself may be doubted. He dissembled
his suspicions, however, and, as the Indian lord promised obedience in his own name and that of his vassals,
the Spanish general consented to take no further notice
of the affair. He seems now to have felt for the first
time, in its full force, that it was his policy to gain the
good will of the people among whom he had thrown
himself in the face of such tremendous odds. It was,
perhaps, the excesses of which his men had been guilty
in the earlier stages of the expedition that had shaken
the confidence of the people of Tumbez and incited
them to this treacherous retaliation.
Pizarro inquired of the natives who now, under
promise of impunity, came into the camp, what had




PIZARRO RECONNOITRES THE COUNTRY. 349
become of his two followers that remained with them
in the former expedition. The answers they gave were
obscure and contradictory. Some said they had died
of an epidemic; others, that they had perished in the
war with Puna; and others intimated that they had
lost their lives in consequence of some outrage attempted on the Indian women. It was impossible to
arrive at the truth. The last account was not the least
probable. But, whatever might be the cause, there
was no doubt they had both perished.
This intelligence spread an additional gloom over
the Spaniards, which was not dispelled by the flaming
pictures now given by the natives of the riches of the
land, and of the state and magnificence of the monarch
in his distant capital among the mountains. Nor did
they credit the authenticity of a scroll of paper which
Pizarro had obtained from an Indian to whom it had
been delivered by one of the white men left in the
country. "Know, whoever you may be," said the
writing, "that may chance to set foot in this country,
that it contains more gold and silver than there is iron
in Biscay." This paper, when shown to the soldiers,
excited only their ridicule, as a device of their captain
to keep alive their chimerical hopes.2
Pizarro now saw that it was not politic to protract
his stay in his present quarters, where a spirit of disaffection would soon creep into the ranks of his fol2 For the account of the transactions in Tumbez, see Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., MS.-Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3,
lib. 8, cap. I.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS. —Herrera, Hist.
general, dec. 4, lib. 9, cap. I, 2.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia,
tom. iii. p. I85.
Peru.-VOL. I.       30




350            CONQUEST OF PERU.
lowers unless their spirits were stimulated by novelty
or a life of incessant action. Yet he felt deeply anxious to obtain more particulars than he had hitherto
gathered of the actual condition of the Peruvian empire, of its strength and resources, of the monarch who
ruled over it, and of his present situation. He was
also desirous, before taking any decisive step for penetrating the country, to seek out some commodious
place for a settlement, which might afford him the
means of a regular communication with the colonies,
and a place of strength, on which he himself might
retreat in case of disaster.
He decided, therefore, to leave part of his company
at Tumbez, including those who, from the state of
their health, were least able to take the field, and with
the remainder to make an excursion into the interior
and reconnoitre the land, before deciding on any plan
of operations. He set out early in May, I532, and,
keeping along the more level regions himself, sent a
small detachment under the command of Hernando de
Soto to explore the skirts of the vast sierra.
He maintained a rigid discipline on the march, commanding his soldiers to abstain from all acts of violence,
and punishing disobedience in the most prompt and
resolute manner.3  The natives rarely offered resistance. When they did so, they were soon reduced,
and Pizarro, far from adopting vindictive measures,
was open to the first demonstrations of submission.
3 " Mando el Gobernador por pregon 6 so graves penas que no le
fiese hecha fuerza ni descortesia, 6 que se les hiciese muy buen tratamiento por los Espafioles e sus criados." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias,
MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. a.




PIZARRO RECONNOITRES THE COUNTR Y. 35 
By this lenient and liberal policy he soon acquired a
name among the inhabitants which effaced the unfavorable impressions made of him in the earlier part of the
campaign. The natives, as he marched through the
thick-settled hamlets which sprinkled the level region
between the Cordilleras and the ocean, welcomed him
with rustic hospitality, providing good quarters for his
troops, and abundant supplies, which cost but little in
the prolific soil of the tierra caliente.   Everywhere
Pizarro made proclamation that he came in the name
of the Holy Vicar of God and of the sovereign of
Spain, requiring the obedience of the inhabitants as
true children of the Church and vassals of his lord and
master. And, as the simple people made no opposition to a formula of which they could not comprehend
a syllable, they were admitted as good subjects of the
crown of Castile, and their act of homage-or what
was readily interpreted as such-was duly recorded and
attested by the notary.4
At the expiration of some three or four weeks spent
in reconnoitring the country, Pizarro came to the conclusion that the most eligible site for his new settlement was in the rich valley of Tangarala, thirty leagues
south of Tumbez, traversed by more than one stream
4 " E mandabales notificar 6 dar 4 entender con las lenguas el requerimiento que su Magestad manda que se les haga 6 los Indios para
traellos en conocimiento de nuestra Santa f6 catolica, y requiriendoles
con la paz, 6 que obedezcan i la Iglesia Catolica 6 Apostolica de Roma,
6 en lo temporal den la obediencia di su Magestad 6 a los Reyes sus
succesores en los regnos de Castilla i de Leon; respondieron que asi
lo querian 6 harian, guardarian 6 cumplirian enteramente; e el
Gobernador los recibio por tales vasallos de sus Magestades por auto
publico de notarios." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., ubi supra.




352             CONQUEST OF PERU.
that opens a communication with the ocean. To this
spot, accordingly, he ordered the men left at Tumbez
to repair at once in their vessels; and no sooner had
they arrived than busy preparations were made for
building up the town in a manner suited to the wants
of the colony. Timber was procured from the neighboring woods, stones were dragged from their quarries, and edifices gradually rose, some of which made
pretensions to strength, if not to elegance. Among
them were a church, a magazine for public stores, a
hall of justice, and a fortress. A municipal government was organized, consisting of regidores, alcaldes,
and the usual civic functionaries. The adjacent territory was parcelled out among the residents, and each
colonist had a certain number of the natives allotted
to assist him in his labors; for, as Pizarro's secretary
remarks, "it being evident that the colonists could not
support themselves without the services of the Indians,
the ecclesiastics and the leaders of the expedition all
agreed that a reipartimienfo of the natives would serve
the cause of religion, and tend greatly to their spiritual
welfare, since they would thus have the opportunity of
being initiated in the true faith." 5
s Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.
-Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 55.-Relacion del primer Descub.,
MS.-" Porque los Vecinos, sin aiuda i servicios de los Naturales no
se podian sostener, ni poblarse el Pueblo.... A esta causa, con
acuerdo de el Religioso, i de los Oficiales, que les parecio convenir asi
al servicio de Dios, i bien de los Naturales, el Gobernador deposits
los Caciques, i Indios en los Vecinos de este Pueblo, porque los
aiudasen a sostener, i los Christianos los doctrinasen en nuestra Santa
Fi, conforme a los Mandamientos de su Magestad." Xerez, Conq.
del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I87.




FOUNDIATION  OF SAN MIGUEL.             353
Having made these arrangements with such conscientious regard to the welfare of the benighted heathen,
Pizarro gave his infant city the name of San Miguel,
in acknowledgment of the service rendered him by
that saint in his battles with the Indians of Puna. The
site originally occupied by the settlement was afterwards found to be so unhealthy that it was abandoned
for another on the banks of the beautiful Piura. The
town is still of some note for its manufactures, though
dwindled from its ancient importance; but the name
of San Miguel de Piura, which it bears, still commemorates the foundation of the first European colony in the
empire of the Incas.
Before quitting the new settlement, Pizarro caused
the gold and silver ornaments which he had obtained
in different parts of the country to be melted down
into one mass, and a fifth to be deducted for the
crown. The remainder, which belonged to the troops,
he persuaded them to relinquish for the present, under
the assurance of being repaid from the first spoils that
fell into their hands.6 With these funds, and other
articles collected in the course of the campaign, he
sent back the vessels to Panama. The gold was applied
to paying off the ship-owners and those who had furnished the stores for the expedition. That he should
so easily have persuaded his men to resign present
possessions for a future contingency is proof that the
spirit of enterprise was renewed in their bosoms in all
6 ", E sacado el quinto para su Magestad, lo restante que perteneci6
al Egercito de la Conquista, el Gobernador le tom6 prestado de los
compafieros para se lo paga del primer oro que se obiese." Oviedo,
Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 2.
30*




35 4         CONQUEST OF PER U
its former vigor, and that they looked forward with
the same buoyant confidence to the results.
In his late tour of observation the Spanish commander had gathered much important intelligence in
regard to the state of the kingdom. He had ascertained the result of the struggle between the Inca
brothers, and that the victor now lay with his army
encamped at the distance of only ten or twelve days'
journey from San Miguel. The accounts he heard of
the opulence and power of that monarch, and of his
great southern capital, perfectly corresponded with the
general rumors before received, and contained, therefore, something to stagger the confidence, as well as to
stimulate the cupidity, of the invaders.
Pizarro would gladly have seen his little army
strengthened by reinforcements, however small the
amount, and on that account postponed his departure
for several weeks. But no reinforcement arrived; and,
as he received no further tidings from his associates,
he judged that longer delay would probably be attended with evils greater than those to be encountered
on the march; that discontents would inevitably spring
up in a life of inaction, and the strength and spirits
of the soldier sink under the enervating influence of
a tropical climate. Yet the force at his command,
amounting to less than two hundred soldiers in all,
after reserving fifty for the protection of the new settlement, seemed but a small one for the conquest of
an empire. He might, indeed, instead of marching
against the Inca, take a southerly direction towards
the rich capital of Cuzco. But this would only be to
postpone the hour of reckoning. For in what quarter




MARCH INTO THE INTERIOR.            355
of the empire could he hope to set his foot, where the
arm of its master would not reach him? By such a
course, moreover, he would show his own distrust of
himself. He would shake that opinion of his invincible prowess which he had hitherto endeavored to
impress on the natives, and which constituted a great
secret of his strength; which, in short, held sterner
sway over the mind than the display of numbers and
mere physical force. Worse than all, such a course
would impair the confidence of his troops in themselves and their reliance on himself. This would be
to palsy the arm of enterprise at once. It was not to
be thought of.
But, while Pizarro decided to march into the interior, it is doubtful whether he had formed any more
definite plan of action. We have no means of knowing his intentions, at this distance of time, otherwise
than as they are shown by his actions. Unfortunately,
he could not write, and he has left no record, like the
inestimable Commentaries of Cortes, to enlighten us
as to his motives.  His secretary, and some of his
companions in arms, have recited his actions in detail; but the motives which led to them they were not
always so competent to disclose.
It is possible that the Spanish general, even so early
as the period of his residence at San Miguel, may have
meditated some daring stroke, some effective coup-demain, which, like that of Cortes when he carried off
the Aztec monarch to his quarters, might strike terror
into the hearts of the people and at once decide the
fortunes of the day. It is more probable, however,
that he now only proposed to present himself before




356            CONQUEST OF PERU.
the Inca as the peaceful representative of a brother
monarch, and by these friendly demonstrations disarm
any feeling of hostility, or even of suspicion. When
once in communication with the Indian prince, he
could regulate his future course by circumstances.
On the 24th of September, I532, five months after
landing at Tumbez, Pizarro marched out at the head
of his little body of adventurers from the gates of San
Miguel, having enjoined it on the colonists to treat
their Indian vassals with humanity and to conduct
themselves in such a manner as would secure the good
will of the surrounding tribes. Their own existence,
and with it the safety of the army and the success of
the undertaking, depended on this course.  In the
place were to remain the royal treasurer, the veedor,
or inspector of metals, and other officers of the crown;
and the command of the garrison was intrusted to the
contador, Antonio Navarro.7 Then, putting himself
at the head of his troops, the chief struck boldly into
the heart of the country in the direction where, as he
was informed, lay the camp of the Inca.  It was a
daring enterprise, thus to venture with a handful of
followers into the heart of a powerful empire, to present himself face to face before the Indian monarch in
his own camp, encompassed by the flower of his victorious army! Pizarro had already experienced more
than once the difficulty of maintaining his ground
against the rude tribes of the north, so much inferior
in strength and numbers to the warlike legions of
7 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I87.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte
3, lib. 8, cap. Io.




MARCH INTO  THE INTERIOR.             357
Peru. But the hazard of the game, as I have already
more than once had occasion to remark, constituted
its great charm  with the Spaniard.  The brilliant
achievements of his countrymen, on the like occasions, with means so inadequate, inspired him with
confidence in his own good star, and this confidence
was one source of his success. Had he faltered for a
moment, had he stopped to calculate chances, he must
inevitably have failed; for the odds were too great to
be combated by sober reason. They were only to be
met triumphantly by the spirit of the knight-errant.
After crossing the smooth waters of the Piura, the
little army continued to advance over a level district
intersected by streams that descended from the neighboring Cordilleras.  The face of the country was
shagged over with forests of gigantic growth, and occasionally traversed by ridges of barren land, that
seemed like shoots of the adjacent Andes, breaking
up the surface of the region into little sequestered
valleys of singular loveliness. The soil, though rarely
watered by the rains of heaven, was naturally rich,
and wherever it was refreshed with moisture, as on
the margins of the streams, it was enamelled with the
brightest verdure.  The industry of the inhabitants,
moreover, had turned these streams to the best account, and canals and aqueducts were seen crossing
the low lands in all directions, and spreading over
the country, like a vast net-work, diffusing fertility
and beauty around them. The air was scented with
the sweet odors of flowers, and everywhere the eye
was refreshed by the sight of orchards laden with unknown fruits, and of fields waving with yellow grain




358           CONQUEST OF PERU.
and rich in luscious vegetables of every description
that teem in the sunny clime of the equator. The
Spaniards were among a people who had carried the
refinements of husbandry to a greater extent than any
yet found on the American continent; and, as they
journeyed through this paradise of plenty, their condition formed a pleasing contrast to what they had
before endured in the dreary wilderness of the mangroves.
Everywhere, too, they were received with confiding
hospitality by the simple people; for which they were
no doubt indebted, in a great measure, to their own
inoffensive deportment. Every Spaniard seemed to be
aware that his only chance of success lay in conciliating
the good opinion of the inhabitants among whom he
had so recklessly cast his fortunes. In most of the
hamlets, and in every place of considerable size, some
fortress was to be found, or royal caravansary, destined
for the Inca on his progresses, the ample halls of which
furnished abundant accommodations for the Spaniards;
who were thus provided with quarters along their route
at the charge of the very government which they were
preparing to overturn.8
On the fifth day after leaving San Miguel, Pizarro
halted in one of these delicious valleys, to give his
troops repose and to make a more complete inspection of them. Their number amounted in all to one
hundred and seventy-seven, of which sixty-seven were
cavalry. He mustered only three arquebusiers in his
8 Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 4.-Naharro,
Relacion sumaria, MS.-Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.-Relacion del
primer Descub., MS.




AIARCH  INTO  THE INTERIOR.               359
whole company, and a few crossbow-men, altogether not
exceeding twenty.9 The troops were tolerably well
equipped, and in good condition. But the watchful
eye of their commander noticed with uneasiness that,
notwithstanding the general heartiness in the cause
manifested by his followers, there were some among
them whose countenances lowered with discontent,
and who, although they did not give vent to it in open
murmurs, were far from moving with their wonted
alacrity. He was aware that if this spirit became contagious it would be the ruin of the enterprise; and he
thought it best to exterminate the gangrene at once,
and at whatever cost, than to wait until it had infected
the whole system. He came to an extraordinary resolution.
Calling his men together, he told them that "a
crisis had now arrived in their affairs, which it demanded all their courage to meet. No man should
think of going forward in the expedition who could
not do so with his whole heart, or who had the least
misgiving as to its success. If any repented of his
share in it, it was not too late to turn back. San
Miguel was but poorly garrisoned, and he should be
glad to see it in greater strength. Those who chose
might return to this place, and they should be entitled
to the same proportion of lands and Indian vassals as
9 There is less discrepancy in the estimate of the Spanish force here
than usual. The paucity of numbers gave less room for it. No account carries them as high as two hundred. I have adopted that of
the secretary Xerez (Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I87), who
has been followed by Oviedo (Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. I,
cap. 3) and by the judicious Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. i,
cap. a.




360             CONQUEST OF PERU:
the present residents. With the rest, were they few or
many, who chose to take their chance with him, he
should pursue the adventure to the end."'O
It was certainly a remarkable proposal for a commander who was ignorant of the amount of disaffection
in his ranks, and who could not safely spare a single
man from his force, already far too feeble for the undertaking. Yet, by insisting on the wants of the little
colony of San Miguel, he afforded a decent pretext for
the secession of the malecontents, and swept away the
barrier of shame which might have still held them in
the  camp.   Notwithstanding  the fair opening  thus
afforded, there were but few, nine in all, who availed
themselves of the general's permission. Four of these
belonged to the infantry, and five to the horse. The
rest loudly declared their resolve to go forward with
their brave leader; and, if there were some whose
voices were faint amidst the general acclamation, they
at least relinquished the right of complaining hereafter,
since they had voluntarily rejected the permission to
return."  This stroke of policy in their sagacious captain was attended with the best effects. He had winnowed out the few grains of discontent which, if left
to themselves, might have fermented in secret till the
do " Que todos los que quiriesen bolverse a la ciudad de San Miguel
y avecindarse alli demas de los vecinos que alli quedaban el les depositaria repartimientos de Indios con que se sostubiesen como lo habia
hecho con los otros vecinos; A que con los Espafioles que quedasen,
pocos 6 muchos, iria Ai conquistar 6 pacificar la tierra en demanda y
persecucion del camino que l1evaba." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias,
MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 3.
z" Ibid., MS., loc. cit.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. I, cap. 2.
-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 187.




MAR CH INTO  THE INTE RIOR.          36I
whole mass had swelled into mutiny. Cortes had compelled his men to go forward heartily in his enterprise
by burning their vessels and thus cutting off the only
means of retreat. Pizarro, on the other hand, threw
open the gates to the disaffected and facilitated their
departure. Both judged right, under their peculiar
circumstances, and both were perfectly successful.
Feeling himself strengthened, instead of weakened,
by his loss, Pizarro now resumed his march, and on the
second day arrived before a place called Zaran, situated
in a fruitful valley among the mountains. Some of
the inhabitants had been drawn off to swell the levies
of Atahuallpa. The Spaniards had repeated experience on their march of the oppressive exactions of the
Inca, who had almost depopulated some of the valleys
to obtain reinforcements for his army. The curaca of
the Indian town where Pizarro now arrived received
him with kindness and hospitality, and the troops were
quartered as usual in one of the royal tambos or caravansaries, which were found in all the principal places.*2
Yet the Spaniards saw no signs of their approach to
the royal encampment, though more time had already
elapsed than was originally allowed for reaching it.
Shortly before entering Zaran, Pizarro had heard that
a Peruvian garrison was established in a place called
Caxas, lying among the hills, at no great distance from
his present quarters. He immediately despatched a
small party under Hernando de Soto in that direction,
to reconnoitre the ground, and bring him intelligence
of the actual state of things, at Zaran, where he would
halt until his officer's return.,2 Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.
Peru.-VOL. I.-qQ     3 




362             CONQUEST OF PERU.
Day after day passed on, and a week had elapsed
before tidings were received of his companions, and
Pizarro was becoming seriously alarmed for their fate,
when on the eighth morning Soto appeared, bringing
with him an envoy from the Inca himself. He was a
person of rank, and was attended by several followers
of inferior condition. He had met the Spaniards at
Caxas, and now accompanied them on their return, to
deliver his sovereign's message, with a present to the
Spanish commander. The present consisted of two
fountains, made of stone, in the form of fortresses;
some fine stuffs of woollen embroidered with gold
and silver; and a quantity of goose-flesh, dried and
seasoned in a peculiar manner, and much used as a
perfume, in a pulverized state, by the Peruvian nobles.z3
The Indian ambassador came charged also with his
master's greeting to the strangers, whom Atahuallpa
welcomed to his country and invited to visit him in
his camp among the mountains.'4
Pizarro well understood that the Inca's object in
this diplomatic visit was less to do him courtesy than
to inform himself of the strength and condition of
13,, Dos Fortalegas, b manera de Fuente, figuradas en Piedra, con
que beba, i dos cargas de Patos secos, desollados, para que hechos
polvos, se sahume con ellos, porque asi se usa entre los Sefiores de su
Tierra: i que le embiaba X decir, que M1 tiene voluntad de ser su
Amigo, i esperalle de Paz en Caxamalca." Xerez, Conq. del Peru,
ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I89.
-4 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Oviedo, Hist. de las
Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 3.-Relacion del primer Descub.,
MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. i89.-Garcilasso
de la Vega tells us that Atahuallpa's envoy addressed the Spanish
commander in the most humble and deprecatory manner, as Son of
the Sun and of the great God Viracocha. He adds that he was loaded




EMBASSY FROM THE INCA.    363
the invaders.   But he was well pleased with the embassy, and dissembled his consciousness of its real
purpose.   He caused the Peruvian to be entertained
in the best manner the camp could afford, and paid
him the respect, says one of the Conquerors, due to
the ambassador of so great a monarch.'5  Pizarro
urged him to prolong his visit for some days, which
the Indian envoy declined, but made the most of his
time while there, by gleaning all the information he
could in respect to the use of every strange article
which he saw, as well as the object of the white
men's visit to the land, and the quarter whence they
came.
The Spanish captain satisfied his curiosity in all these
particulars. The intercourse with the natives, it may
be here remarked, was maintained by means of two
of the youths who had accompanied the Conquerors
on their return home from their preceding voyage.
They had been taken by Pizarro to Spain, and, as
much pains had been bestowed on teaching them the
Castilian, they now filled the office of interpreters and
opened an easy communication with their countrymen.
with a prodigious present of all kinds of game, living and dead, gold
and silver vases, emeralds, turquoises, etc., etc., enough to furnish out
the finest chapter of the Arabian Nights. (Com. Real., Parte 2, lib.
I, cap. I9.) It is extraordinary that none of the Conquerors, who
had a quick eye for these dainties, should allude to them. One can.
not but suspect that the " old uncle" was amusing himself at his young
nephew's expense, —and, as it has proved, at the expense of most of
his readers, who receive the Inca's fairy-tales as historic facts.
s " I mand6, que le diesen de comer b el, i b los que con 61 venian,
I todo lo que huviesen menester, i fuesen bien aposentados, como
Embajadores de tan Gran Sefior." Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia,
tom. iii. p. 189.




364             CONQU~ES7' OF PERU.
It was of inestimable service; and well did the Spanish commander reap the fruits of his forecast.'6
On the departure of the Peruvian messenger, Pizarro
presented him with a cap of crimson cloth, some cheap
but showy ornaments of glass, and other toys, which
he had brought for the purpose from  Castile.   He
charged the envoy to tell his master that the Spaniards came from a powerful prince who dwelt far beyond the waters; that they had heard much of the
fame of Atahuallpa's victories, and were come to pay
their respects to him, and to offer their services by
aiding him with their arms against his enemies; and
he might be assured they would not halt on the road
longer than was necessary, before presenting themselves before him.
Pizarro now received from Soto a full account of
his late expedition.   That chief, on entering Caxas,
found the inhabitants mustered in hostile array, as if
to dispute his passage.  But the cavalier soon convinced them of his pacific intentions, and, laying aside
their menacing attitude, they received the Spaniards
with the same courtesy which had been shown them
in most places, on their march.
Here Soto found one of the royal officers, employed
"6 " Los Indios de la tierra se entendian muy bien con los Espafioles,
porque aquellos mochachos Indios que en el descubrimiento de la
tierra Pizarro truxo a Espafia, entendian muy bien nuestra lengua, y
los tenia alli, con los cuales se entendia muy bien con todos los naturales de la tierra." (Relacion del primer Descub., MS.) Yet it is a
proof of the ludicrous blunders into which the Conquerors were perpetually falling, that Pizarro's secretary constantly confounds the Inca's
name with that of his capital. Huayna Capac he always styles " old
Cuzco," and his son Huascar " young Cuzco."




ADVENTURES ON THE IMARCH.   365
in collecting the tribute for the government. From
this functionary he learned that the Inca was quartered
with a large army at Caxamalca, a place of considerable size on the other side of the Cordillera, where he
was enjoying the luxury of the warm baths, supplied
by natural springs, for which it was then famous, as
it is at the present day. The cavalier gathered, also,
much important information in regard to the resources
and the general policy of government, the state maintained by the Inca, and the stern severity with which
obedience to the law was everywhere enforced.  He
had some opportunity of observing this for himself,
as, on entering the village, he saw several Indians
hanging dead by their heels, having been executed
for some violence offered to the Virgins of the Sun,
of whom there was a convent in the neighborhood.'7
From Caxas, De Soto had passed to the adjacent
town of Guancabamba, much larger, more populous,
and better built than the preceding.  The houses,
instead of being made of clay baked in the sun, were
many of them constructed of solid stone, so nicely
put together that it was impossible to detect the line
of junction. A river which passed through the town
was traversed by a bridge, and the high-road of the
Incas which crossed this district was far superior to
that which the Spaniards had seen on the sea-board.
It was raised in many places, like a causeway, paved'7 " A la entrada del Pueblo havia ciertos Indios ahorcados de los
pies: i supo de este Principal, que Atabalipa los mand6 matar, porque uno de ellos entr6 en la Casa de las Mugeres i dormir con una:
al qual, i. todos los Porteros que consintieron, ahorc6."  Xerez.
Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I88.
3I*




366             CONQUEST OF PERU.
with heavy stone flags, and bordered by trees that
afforded a grateful shade to the passenger, while
streams of water were conducted through aqueducts
along the sides to slake his thirst. At certain distances, also, they noticed small houses, which, they
were told, were for the accommodation of the traveller, who might thus pass without inconvenience from
one end of the kingdom to the other.'8 In another
quarter they beheld one of those magazines destined
for the army, filled with grain and with articles of
clothing; and at the entrance of the town was a stone
building, occupied by a public officer, whose business
it was to collect the tolls or duties on various commodities brought into the place or carried out of it.'9
These accounts of De Soto not only confirmed all
that the Spaniards had heard of the Indian empire,
but greatly raised their ideas of its resources and domestic policy. They might well have shaken the confidence of hearts less courageous.
Pizarro, before leaving his present quarters, despatched a messenger to San Miguel with particulars
of his movements, sending at the same time the articles received from the Inca, as well as those obtained
I8,, Van por este camino cafios de agua de donde los caminantes
beben, traidos de sus nacimientos de otras partes, y Ai cada jornada
una Casa A manera de Venta donde se aposentan los que van e
vienen." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 3.
19 " A la entrada de este Camino en el Pueblo de Cajas esta una
casa al principio de una puente donde reside una guarda que recibe
el Portazgo de todos los que van e vienen, e paganlo en la misma cosa
que lievan, y ninguno puede sacar carga del Pueblo sino la mete, y
esta costumbre es alli antigua." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS.,
ubi supra.




ADVENTURES ON THE MARCH.   367
at different places on the route. The skill shown in
the execution of some of these fabrics sent to Castile
excited great admiration there. The fine woollen
cloths, especially, with their rich embroidery, were
pronounced equal to textures of silk, from which it
was not easy to distinguish them. The material was
probably the delicate wool of the vicufia, none of
which had then been seen in Europe.an
Pizarro, having now acquainted himself with the
most direct route to Caxamalca,-the Caxamarca of
the present day,*-resumed his march, taking a direction nearly south. The first place of any size at which
he halted was Motupe, pleasantly situated in a fruitful
valley, among hills of no great elevation, which cluster
round the base of the Cordilleras. The place was deserted by its curaca, who, with three hundred of its
warriors, had gone to join the standard of their Inca.
Here the general, notwithstanding his avowed purpose
to push forward without delay, halted four days. The
tardiness of his movements can be explained only by
the hope which he may have still entertained of being
joined by further reinforcements before crossing the
Cordilleras. None such appeared, however; and, ad2o" Piezas de lana de la tierra, que era cosa mucho de ver segun su
primer 6 gentileza, 6 no se sabian determinar si era seda 6 lana segun
su fineza con muchas labores i figuras de oro de martillo de tal manera
asentado en la ropa que era cosa de marabillar." Oviedo, Hist. de
las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 4.
* [The letter 1, except in the combination ii or 1, which is equivalent
to the Italiangl, is scarcely found in the Quichua-according to Tschudi,
only in the word lampa, a hoe. The Spaniards supplied the omission
by changing r to I in several names, as Lima for Rimac.-ED.]




368          CONQUEST OF PERU.
vancing across a country in which tracts of sandy
plain were occasionally relieved by a broad expanse
of verdant meadow, watered by natural streams and
still more abundantly by those brought through artificial channels, the troops at length arrived at the
borders of a river. It was broad and deep, and the
rapidity of the current opposed more than ordinary
difficulty to the passage.  Pizarro, apprehensive lest
this might be disputed by the natives on the opposite
bank, ordered his brother Hernando to cross over with
a small detachment under cover of night and secure a
safe landing for the rest of the troops. At break of
day Pizarro made preparations for his own passage,
by hewing timber in the neighboring woods and constructing a sort of floating bridge, on which before
nightfall the whole company passed in safety, the
horses swimming, being led by the bridle. It was a
day of severe labor, and Pizarro took his own share
in it freely, like a common soldier, having ever a word
of encouragement to say to his followers.
On reaching the opposite side, they learned from
their comrades that the people of the country, instead
of offering resistance, had fled in dismay. One of
them, having been taken and brought before Hernando Pizarro, refused to answer the questions put to
him respecting the Inca and his army; till, being put
to the torture, he stated that Atahuallpa was encamped,
with his whole force, in three separate divisions, occupying the high grounds and plains of Caxamalca.
He further stated that the Inca was aware of the approach of the white men and of their small number,
and that he was purposely decoying them into his own



ADVENTURES ON THE MARCH.            369
quarters, that he might have them more completely in
his power.
This account, when reported by Hernando to his
brother, caused the latter much anxiety.  As the
timidity of the peasantry, however, gradually wore off,
some of them mingled with the troops, and among
them the curaca or principal person of the village.
He had himself visited the royal camp, and he informed the general that Atahuallpa lay at the strong
town of Huamachuco, twenty leagues or more south
of Caxamalca, with an army of at least fifty thousand
men.
These contradictory statements greatly perplexed the
chieftain; and he proposed to one of the Indians who
had borne him company during a great part of the
march, to go as a spy into the Inca's quarters and
bring him intelligence of his actual position, and, as
far as he could learn them, of his intentions towards
the Spaniards. But the man positively declined this
dangerous service, though he professed his willingness
to go as an authorized messenger of the Spanish commander.
Pizarro acquiesced in this proposal, and instructed
his envoy to assure the Inca that he was advancing
with all convenient speed to meet him.  He was to
acquaint the monarch with the uniformly considerate
conduct of the Spaniards towards his subjects in their
progress through the land, and to assure him that they
were now coming in full confidence of finding in him
the same amicable feelings towards themselves. The
emissary was particularly instructed to observe if the
strong passes on the road were defended, or if any
Qs




370           CONQUEST OF PERU.
preparations of a hostile character were to be discerned.
This last intelligence he was to communicate to the
general by means of two or three nimble-footed attendants who were to accompany him on his mission. 2'
Having taken this precaution, the wary commander
again resumed his march, and at the end of three days
reached the base of the mountain-rampart behind
which lay the ancient town of Caxamalca.  Before
him rose the stupendous Andes, rock piled upon rock,
their skirts below dark with evergreen forests, varied
here and there by terraced patches of cultivated garden, with the peasant's cottage clinging to their shaggy
sides, and their crests of snow glittering high in the
heavens,-presenting altogether such a wild chaos of
magnificence and beauty as no other mountain-scenery
in the world can show. Across this tremendous rampart, through a labyrinth of passes, easily capable of
defence by a handful of men against an army, the
troops were now to march. To the right ran a broad
and level road, with its border of friendly shades, and
wide enough for two carriages to pass abreast. It was
one of the great routes leading to Cuzco, and seemed
by its pleasant and easy access to invite the wayworn
soldier to choose it in preference to the dangerous
mountain-defiles. Many were accordingly of opinion
that the army should take this course and abandon the
original destination to Caxamalca. But such was not
the decision of Pizarro.
a Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 4.-Conq.
i Pob. del Piru, MS.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Xerez.
Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tomrn. iii. p. 190.




REACH THE FOOT OF THE ANDES.  37I
The Spaniards had everywhere proclaimed their purpose, he said, to visit the Inca in his camp. This
purpose had been communicated to the Inca himself.
To take an opposite direction now would only be to
draw on them the imputation of cowardice, and to
incur Atahuallpa's contempt. No alternative remained
but to march straight across the sierra to his quarters.
"Let every one of you," said the bold cavalier, "take
heart and go forward like a good soldier, nothing
daunted by the smallness of your numbers. For in
the greatest extremity God ever fights for his own;
and doubt not he will humble the pride of the heathen,
and bring him to the knowledge of the true faith, the
great end and object of the Conquest." 
Pizarro, like Cort6s, possessed a good share of that
frank and manly eloquence which touches the heart
of the soldier more than the parade of rhetoric or the
finest flow of elocution. He was a soldier himself,
and partook in all the feelings of the soldier, his joys,
his hopes, and his disappointments. He was not raised
by rank and education above sympathy with the humblest of his followers. Every chord in their bosoms
vibrated with the same pulsations as his own, and the
conviction of this gave him a mastery over them.
"Lead on," they shouted, as he finished his brief
"Que todos se animasen y esforzasen A hacer comno de ellos esperaba y como buenos espafioles lo suelen hacer, e que no les pusiese
temor la multitud que se decia que habia de gente ni el poco numero
de los cristianos, que aunque menos fuesen e mayor el egercito contrario, la ayuda de Dios es mucho mayor, y en las mayores necesidades socorre y faborece a los suyos para desbaratar y abajar la soberbia de los infieles 4 traerlos en conocimiento de nuestra Sta fe catolica."
Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 4.




372             CONQUEST OE PERU
but animating address, "lead on wherever you think
best. We will follow with good will, and you shall
see that we can do our duty in the cause of God and
the King!" 23  There was no longer hesitation.  All
thoughts were now bent on the instant passage of the
Cordilleras.
23 I" Todos digeron que fuese por el Camino que quisiese i viese que
mas convenia, que todos le seguirian con buena voluntad e obra al
tiempo del efecto, y veria lo que cada uno de ellos haria en servicio
de Dios 6 de su Magestad." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., loc. cit.




CHAPTER IV.
SEVERE PASSAGE OF THE ANDES. — EMBASSIES FROM
ATAHUALLPA. —THE SPANIARDS REACH CAXAMALCA.
-EMBASSY TO THE INCA.-INTERVIEW WITH THE
INCA.-DESPONDENCY OF THE SPANIARDS.
I532.
THAT night Pizarro held a council of his principal
officers, and it was determined that he should lead the
advance, consisting of forty horse and sixty foot, and
reconnoitre the ground; while the rest of the company, under his brother Hernando, should occupy
their present position till they received further orders.
At early dawn the Spanish general and his detachment were under arms and prepared to breast the difficulties of the sierra. These proved even greater than
had been foreseen. The path had been conducted in
the most judicious manner round the rugged and precipitous sides of the mountains, so as best to avoid the
natural impediments presented by the ground. But it
was necessarily so steep, in many places, that the cavalry were obliged to dismount, and, scrambling up as
they could, to lead their horses by the bridle. In
many places, too, where some huge crag or eminence
overhung the road, this was driven to the very verge
of the precipice; and the traveller was compelled to
wind along the narrow ledge of rock, scarcely wide
Peru.-VoL. I.      32             (373)




374           CONQ UEST OF PER U.
enough for his single steed, where a misstep would
precipitate him hundreds, nay, thousands of feet into
the dreadful abyss!  The wild passes of the sierra,
practicable for the half-naked Indian, and even for
the sure and circumspect mule,-an animal that seems
to have been created for the roads of the Cordilleras,
— were formidable to the man-at-arms encumbered
with his panoply of mail. The tremendous fissures
or quebradas, so frightful in this mountain-chain,
yawned open, as if the Andes had been split asunder
by some terrible convulsion, showing a broad expanse
of the primitive rock on their sides, partially mantled
over with the spontaneous vegetation of ages; while
their obscure depths furnished a channel for the torrents, that, rising in the heart of the sierra, worked
their way gradually into light and spread over the
savannas and green valleys of the tierra caliente on
their way to the great ocean.
Many of these passes afforded obvious points of
defence; and the Spaniards, as they entered the rocky
defiles, looked with apprehension lest they might rouse
some foe from his ambush. This apprehension was
heightened as, at the summit of a steep and narrow
gorge, in which they were engaged, they beheld a
strong work, rising like a fortress, and frowning, as it
were, in gloomy defiance on the invaders. As they
drew near this building, which was of solid stone,
commanding an angle of the road, they almost expected to see the dusky forms of the warriors rise
over the battlements, and to receive their tempest of
missiles on their bucklers; for it was in so strong a
position that a few resolute men might easily have




SE VERE PASSAGE OF THE ANDES.  3 7 5
held there an army at bay. But they had the satisfaction to find the place untenanted, and their spirits
were greatly raised by the conviction that the Indian
monarch did not intend to dispute their passage, when
it would have been easy to do so with success.
Pizarro now sent orders to his brother to follow
without delay, and, after refreshing his men, continued
his toilsome ascent, and before nightfall reached an
eminence crowned by another fortress, of even greater
strength than the preceding. It was built of solid
masonry, the lower part excavated from the living
rock, and the whole work executed with skill not
inferior to that of the European architect.'
Here Pizarro took up his quarters for the night.
Without waiting for the arrival of the rear, on the
following morning he resumed his march, leading still
deeper into the intricate gorges of the sierra. The
climate had gradually changed, and the men and
horses, especially the latter, suffered severely from
the cold, so long accustomed as they had been to the
sultry climate of the tropics.' The vegetation also
had changed its character; and the magnificent timber which covered the lower level of the country had
gradually given way to the funereal forest of pine,
and, as they rose still higher, to the stunted growth of
numberless Alpine plants, whose hardy natures found
z " Tan ancha la Cerca como qualquier Fortaleqa de Espafia, con sus
Puertas: que si en esta Tierra oviese los Maestros, i Herramientas de
Espafia, no pudiera ser mejor labrada la Cerca." Xerez, Conq. del
Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I92.
2 " Es tanto el frio que hace en esta Sierra, que como los Caballos
venian hechos al calor, que en los Valles hacia, algunos de ellos se
resfriaron." Ibid., p. i9I.




376           CONQUEST OF PERU.
a congenial temperature in the icy atmosphere of the
more elevated regions. These dreary solitudes seemed
to be nearly abandoned by the brute creation as well
as by man. The light-footed vicufia, roaming in its
native state, might be sometimes seen looking down
from some airy cliff, where the foot of the hunter
dared not venture. But instead of the feathered tribes
whose gay plumage sparkled in the deep glooms of
the tropical forests, the adventurers now beheld only
the great bird of the Andes, the loathsome condor,
which, sailing high above the clouds, followed with
doleful cries in the track of the army, as if guided
by instinct in the path of blood and carnage.
At length they reached the crest of the Cordillera,
where it spreads out into a bold and bleak expanse,
with scarcely a vestige of vegetation, except what is
afforded by the pajonal, a dried yellow grass, which,
as it is seen from below, encircling the base of the
snow-covered peaks, looks, with its brilliant strawcolor lighted up in the rays of an ardent sun, like a
setting of gold round pinnacles of burnished silver.
The land was sterile, as usual in mining-districts, and
they were drawing near the once famous gold-quarries
on the way to Caxamalca:
" Rocks rich in gems, and mountains big with mines,
That on the high equator ridgy rise."
Here Pizarro halted for the coming up of the rear.
The air was sharp and frosty; and the soldiers, spreading their tents, lighted fires, and, huddling round
them, endeavored to find some repose after their laborious march.3
3 "t  aposentaronse los Espafioles en sus toldos 6 pabellones de




EMBASSIES FROM ATAHUA LLPA.   377
They had not been long in these quarters, when a
messenger arrived, one of those who had accompanied
the Indian envoy sent by Pizarro to Atahuallpa. He
informed the general that the road was free from enemies, and that an embassy from the Inca was on its
way to the Castilian camp. Pizarro now sent back to
quicken the march of the rear, as he was unwilling
that the Peruvian envoy should find him with his present diminished numbers. The rest of the army were not
far distant, and not long after reached the encampment.
In a short time the Indian embassy also arrived,
which consisted of one of the Inca nobles and several
attendants, bringing a welcome present of llamas to
the Spanish commander. The Peruvian bore, also, the
greetings of. his master, who wished to know when the
Spaniards would arrive at Caxamalca, that he might
provide suitable refreshments for them. Pizarro learned
that the Inca had left Huamachuco, and was now lying
with a small force in the neighborhood of Caxamalca,
at a place celebrated for its natural springs of warm
water. The Peruvian was an intelligent person, and
the Spanish commander gathered from him many particulars respecting the late contests which had distracted
the empire.
As the envoy vaunted in lofty terms the military prowess and resources of his sovereign, Pizarro thought it
politic to show that it had no power to overawe him.
algodon de la tierra que levaban, 6 haciendo fuegos para defenderse
del mucho frio que en aquella Sierra hacen, porque sin ellos no se
pudieron valer sin padecer mucho trabajo; y-segun A los cristianos les
pareci6, y aun como era lo cierto, no podia haber mas frio en parte de
Espafia en invierno." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib.
8, cap. 4.
32*




37 8          CONQUEST OF PERU.
He expressed his satisfaction at the triumphs of Atahuallpa, who, he'acknowledged, had raised himself high
in the rank of Indian warriors. But he was as inferior, he added with more policy than politeness, to the
monarch who ruled over the white men, as the petty
curacas of the country were inferior to him. This was
evident from the ease with which a few Spaniards had
overrun this great continent, subduing one nation after
another that had offered resistance to their arms. He
had been led by the fame of Atahuallpa to visit his
dominions and to offer him his services in his wars,
and, if he were received by the Inca in the same
friendly spirit with which he came, he was willing, for
the aid he could render him, to postpone awhile his
passage across the country to the opposite seas. The
Indian, according to the Castilian accounts, listened
with awe to this strain of glorification from the Spanish commander. Yet it is possible that the envoy was
a better diplomatist than they imagined, and that he
understood it was only the game of brag at which he
was playing with his more civilized antagonist.4
On the succeeding morning, at an early hour, the
troops were again on their march, and for two days
were occupied in threading the airy defiles of the
Cordilleras. Soon after beginning their descent on
the eastern side, another emissary arrived from the
Inca, bearing a message of similar import to the preceding, and a present, in like manner, of Peruvian
sheep. This was the same noble that had visited
Pizarro in the valley. He now came in more state,
4 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I93.-Oviedo, Hist.
de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 5.




EMBASSIES FROM ATAHUALLPA.   379
quaffing chicha-the fermented juice of the maize —
from golden goblets borne by his attendants, which
sparkled in the eyes of the rapacious adventurers.s
While he was in the camp, the Indian messenger,
originally sent by Pizarro to the Inca, returned, and no
sooner did he behold the Peruvian, and the honorable
reception which he met with from the Spaniards, than
he was filled with wrath, which would have vented
itself in personal violence, but for the interposition
of the by-standers. It was hard, he said, that this
Peruvian dog should be thus courteously treated, when
he himself had nearly lost his life on a similar mission
among his countrymen. On reaching the Inca's camp
he had been refused admission to his presence, on the
ground that he was keeping a fast and could not be seen.
They had paid no respect to his assertion that he came
as an envoy from the white men, and would, probably,
not have suffered him to escape with life, if he had not
assured them that any violence offered to him would be
retaliated in full measure on the persons of the Peruvian
envoys now in the Spanish quarters. There was no
doubt, he continued, of the hostile intentions of Atahuallpa; for he was surrounded with a powerful army,
strongly encamped about a league from Caxamalca,
while that city was entirely evacuated by its inhabitants.
5 " Este Embajador trala servicio de Sefior, i cinco o seis Vasos de
Oro fino, con que bebia, i con ellos daba h beber h los Espafioles de
la Chicha que trala." Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p.
193.-Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., ubi supra.-The latter author,
in this part of his work, has done little more than make a transcript
of that of Xerez. His endorsement of Pizarro's secretary, however, is
of value, from the fact that, with less temptation to misstate or overstate, he enjoyed excellent opportunities for information.




380           CONQUEST OF PERU.
To all this the Inca's envoy coolly replied that
Pizarro's messenger might have reckoned on such a
reception as he had found, since he seemed to have
taken with him no credentials of his mission. As to
the Inca's fast, that was true; and, although he would
doubtless have seen the messenger had he known there
was one from the strangers, yet it was not safe to disturb
him at these solemn seasons, when engaged in his religious duties. The troops by whom he was surrounded
were not numerous, considering that the Inca was at
that time carrying on an important war; and as to
Caxamalca, it was abandoned by the inhabitants in
order to make room for the white men, who were so
soon to occupy it.6
This explanation, however plausible, did not altogether satisfy the general; for he had too deep a
conviction of the cunning of Atahuallpa, whose intentions towards the Spaniards he had long greatly
distrusted.  As he proposed, however, to keep on
friendly relations with the monarch for the present,
it was obviously not his cue to manifest suspicion.
Affecting, therefore, to give full credit to the explanation of the envoy, he dismissed him with reiterated
assurances of speedily presenting himself before the
Inca.
The descent of the sierra, though the Andes are less
precipitous on their eastern side than towards the west,
was attended with difficulties almost equal to those of
the upward march; and the Spaniards felt no little
satisfaction when, on the seventh day, they arrived in
6 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. x94.-Oviedo, Hist,
de las Indias, MS., ubi supra.




THE SPANIARDS REACH CAXAMALCA. 381
view of the valley of Caxamalca, which, enamelled
with all the beauties of cultivation, lay unrolled like
a rich and variegated carpet of verdure, in strong
contrast with the dark forms of the Andes, that rose
up everywhere around it. The valley is of an oval
shape, extending about five leagues in length by three
in breadth. It was inhabited by a population of a
superior character to any which the Spaniards had met
on the other side of the mountains, as was argued by
the superior style of their attire and the greater cleanliness and comfort visible both in their persons and
dwellings.7 As far as the eye could reach, the level
tract exhibited the show of a diligent and thrifty husbandry. A broad river rolled through the meadows,
supplying facilities for copious irrigation by means of
the usual canals and subterraneous aqueducts. The
land, intersected by verdant hedge-rows, was checkered
with patches of various cultivation; for the soil was
rich, and the climate, if less stimulating than that of
the sultry regions of the coast, was more favorable to
the hardy products of the temperate latitudes. Below
the adventurers, with its white houses glittering in the
sun, lay the little city of Caxamalca, like a sparkling
gem on the dark skirts of the sierra. At the distance
of about a league farther, across the valley, might be
seen columns of vapor rising up towards the heavens,
indicating the place of the famous hot baths, much
frequented by the Peruvian princes. And here, too,
was a spectacle less grateful to the eyes of the Spaniards; for along the slope of the hills a white cloud of
pavilions was seen covering the ground, as thick as
7 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 195.




382             CONQUEST OF PERU.
snow-flakes, for the space, apparently, of several miles.
"It filled us all with amazement," exclaims one of
the Conquerors, " to behold the Indians occupying so
proud a position! So many tents, so well appointed,
as were never seen in the Indies till now! The spectacle caused something like confusion and even fear in
the stoutest bosom. But it was too late to turn back,
or to betray the least sign of weakness, since the natives
in our own company would, in such case, have been
the first to rise upon us. So, with' as bold a countenance as we could, after coolly surveying the ground,
we prepared for our entrance into Caxamalca." 8
What were the feelings of the Peruvian monarch
we are not informed, when he gazed on the martial
cavalcade of the Christians, as, with banners streaming,
and bright panoplies glistening in the rays of the evening sun, it emerged from the dark depths of the sierra
and advanced in hostile array over the fair domain
which, to this period, had never been trodden by othei
foot than that of the red man. It might be, as several
of the reports had stated, that the Inca had purposely
decoyed the adventurers into the heart of his populous
empire, that he might envelop them with his legions
8 " Y eran tantas las tiendas que parecian, que cierto nos puso harto
espanto, porque no pensabamos que Indios pudiesen tener tan soberbia estancia, ni tantas tiendas, ni tan a punto, lo cual hasta alli en
las Indias nunca se vi6, que nos caus6 4 todos los Espafioles harta
confusion y temor; aunque no convenia mostrarse, ni menos volver
atras, porque si alguna flaqueza en nosotros sintieran, los mismos
Indios que llevabamos nos mataran, y ansi con animoso semblante,
despues de haber muy bien atalayado el pueblo y tiendas que he
dicho, abajamos por el valle abajo, y entramos en el pueblo de Cajamalca." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




THE SPANIARDS REACH CAXAMALCA. 383
and the more easily become master of their property
and persons.9 Or was it from a natural feeling of
curiosity, and relying on their professions of friend.
ship, that he had thus allowed them, without any
attempt at resistance, to come into his presence? At
all events, he could hardly have felt such confidence
in himself as not to look with apprehension, mingled
with awe, on the mysterious strangers, who, coming
from an unknown world and possessed of such wonderful gifts, had made their way across mountain and
valley in spite of every obstacle which man and nature
had opposed to them.
Pizarro, meanwhile, forming his little corps into
three divisions, now moved forward, at a more measured pace, and in order of battle, down the slopes that
led towards the Indian city. As he drew near, no one
came out to welcome him; and he rode through the
streets without meeting with a living thing, or hearing
a sound, except the echoes, sent back from the deserted
dwellings, of the tramp of the soldiery.
It was a place of considerable size, containing about
ten thousand inhabitants, somewhat more, probably,
9 This was evidently the opinion of the old Conqueror, whose imperfect manuscript forms one of the best authorities for this portion
of our narrative: " Teniendonos en muy poco, y no haciendo cuenta
que 90o hombres le habian de ofender, di6 lugar y consinti6 que pasasemos por aquel paso y por otros muchos tan malos como 61, porque
realmente, A lo que despues se supo y averigu6, su intencion era
vernos y preguntarnos, de donde veniamos? y quien nos habia hechado alli? y que queriamos? Porque era muy sabio y discreto, y
aunque sin luz ni escriptura, amigo de sabery de sotil entendimiento;
y despues de holgadose con nosotros, tomarnos los. caballos y las cosas
que a el mas le aplacian, y sacrificar A los demas." Relacion del
primer Descub., MS.




384              CONQUEST OF PER2S.
than the population assembled at this day within the
walls of the modern city of Caxamalca.x~ The houses,
for the most part, were built of clay, hardened in the
sun; the roofs thatched or of timber. Some of the
more ambitious dwellings were of hewn stone; and
there was a convent in the place, occupied by the
Virgins of the Sun, and a temple dedicated to the
same tutelar deity, which last was hidden in the deep
embowering shades of a grove on the skirts of the city.
On the quarter towards the Indian camp was a square
-if square it might be called, which was almost triangular in form —of an immense size, surrounded by
low  buildings.   These consisted  of capacious halls,
with wide doors or openings communicating with the
square. They were probably intended as a sort of
barracks for the Inca's soldiers."  At the end of the
plaza, looking towards the country, was a fortress of
stone, with a stairway leading from the city, and a
private entrance from the adjoining suburbs. There
was still another fortress on the rising ground which
commanded the town, built of hewn stone and encompassed by three circular walls,-or rather one and the
same wall, which wound up spirally around it. It was
Io According to Stevenson, this population, which is of a very
mixed character, amounts, or did amount some thirty years ago, to
about seven thousand. That sagacious traveller gives an animated
description of the city, in which he resided some time, and which he
seems to have regarded with peculiar predilection. Yet it does not
hold probably the relative rank at the present day that it did in that
of the Incas. Residence in South America, vol. ii. p. I3I.
xz Carta de Hem. Pizarro, ap. Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS.,
Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. I5.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii
P. 195.




EMBASSY TO THE INCA.                    385
a place of great strength, and the workmanship showed
a better knowledge of masonry, and gave a higher
impression of the architectural science of the people,
than any thing the Spaniards had yet seen.'2
It was late in the afternoon of the fifteenth of
November, I532, when the Conquerors entered the
city of Caxamalca. The weather, which had been fair
during the day, now threatened a storm, and some rain
mingled with hail-for it was unusually cold-began to
fall.'3  Pizarro, however, was so anxious to ascertain
the dispositions of the Inca that he determined to send
an embassy at once to his quarters. He selected for
this Hernando de Soto with fifteen horse, and, after
his departure, conceiving that the number was too
small in case of any unfriendly demonstrations by the
Indians, he ordered his brother Hernando to follow
with twenty additional troopers. This captain and
one other of his party have left us an account of the
excursion. Xx
12 " Fuergas son, que entre Indios no se han visto tales." Xerez,
Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 195.-Relacion del primer
Descub., MS.'3 "Desde a poco rato comengo X llover, i caer grani;o." (Xerez,
Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 195.) Caxamalca, in the Indian tongue, signifies "place of frost;" for the temperature, though
usually bland and genial, is sometimes affected by frosty winds from
the east, very pernicious to vegetation. Stevenson, Residence in South
America, vol. ii. p. I29.
4 Carta de Hern. Pizarro, MS.-The Letter of Hernando Pizarro,
addressed to the Royal Audience of St. Domingo, gives a full account
of the extraordinary events recorded in this and the ensuing chapter,
in which that cavalier took a prominent part. Allowing for the partialities incident to a chief actor in the scenes he describes, no authority can rank higher. The indefatigable Oviedo, who resided in
Peru.-VOL. I.-R        33




386            CONQUEST OF PERU.
Between the city and the imperial camp was a causeway, built in a substantial manner across the meadowland that intervened. Over this the cavalry galloped
at a rapid pace, and before they had gone a league they
came in —front of the Peruvian encampment, where it
spread along the gentle slope of tle mountains. The
lances of the warriors were fixed in the ground before
their tents, and the Indian soldiers were loitering without, gazing with silent astonishment at the Christian
cavalcade, as with clangor of arms and shrill blast of
trumpet it swept by, like some fearful apparition on
the wings of the wind.
The party soon came to a broad but shallow stream,
which, winding through the meadow, formed a defence
for the Inca's position. Across it was a wooden bridge;
but the cavaliers, distrusting its strength, preferred to
dash through the waters, and without difficulty gained
the opposite bank. A battalion of Indian warriors was
drawn up under arms on the farther side of the bridge,
but they offered no molestation to the Spaniards; and
these latter had strict orders from Pizarro-scarcely
necessary in their present circumstances-to treat the
natives with courtesy. One of the Indians pointed
out the quarter occupied by the Inca.'s
It was an open court-yard, with a light building or
pleasure-house in the centre, having galleries running
round it, and opening in the rear on a garden. The
St. Domingo, saw its importance, and fortunately incorporated the
document in his great work, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8,
cap. I5.-The anonymous author of the Relacion del primer Descub.,
MS., was also detached on this service.
x5 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Carta de Hem. Pizarro,
MS.




EMBASSY TO THE INCA.                     387
walls were covered with a shining plaster, both white
and colored, and in the area before the edifice was seen
a spacious tank or reservoir of stone, fed by aqueducts
that supplied it with both warm and cold water.'6 A
basin of hewn stone-it may be of a more recent construction-still bears, on the spot, the name of the
"Inca's bath."x7  The court was filled with Indian
nobles, dressed in gayly-ornamented attire, in attendance on the monarch, and with women of the royal
household. Amidst this assembly it was not difficult
to distinguish the person of Atahuallpa, though his
dress was simpler than that of his attendants. But he
wore on his head the crimson borla or fringe, which,
surrounding the forehead, hung down as low as the
eyebrow. This was the well-known badge of Peruvian
sovereignty, and had been assumed by the monarch
only since the defeat of his brother Huascar. He was
seated on a low stool or cushion, somewhat after the
Morisco or Turkish fashion, and his nobles and principal officers stood around him with great ceremony,
holding the stations suited to their rank.'8:6 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 202. —" Y al
estanque venian dos cailos de agua, uno caliente y otro frio, y alli se
templava la una con la otra, para quando el Sefior se queria bafiar 6
sus mugeres que otra persona no osava entrar en el so pena de la
vida."  Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.
17 Stevenson, Residence in South America, vol. ii. p. I64.
x8 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I96.-Carta de
Hern. Pizarro, MS.-The appearance of the Peruvian monarch is described in simple but animated style by the Conqueror so often quoted,
one of the party: " Llegados al patio de la dicha casa que tenia delante della, vimos estar en medio de gran muchedumbre de Indios
asentado aquel gran Sefior Atabalica (de quien tanta noticia, y tantas
cosas nos habian dicho) con una corona en la cabeza, y una borla que




388            CONQUEST OF PERU.
The Spaniards gazed with much interest on the
prince, of whose cruelty and cunning they had heard
so much, and whose valor had secured to him the possession of the empire. But his countenance exhibited
neither the fierce passions nor the sagacity which had
been ascribed to him; and, though in his bearing he
showed a gravity and a calm consciousness of authority
well becoming a king, he seemed to discharge all expression from his features, and to discover only the
apathy so characteristic of the American races. On
the present occasion this must have been in part, at
least, assumed. For it is impossible that the Indian
prince should not have contemplated with curious interest a spectacle so strange, and, in some respects,
appalling, as that of these mysterious strangers, for
which no previous description could have prepared
him.
Hernando Pizarro and Soto, with two or three only
of their followers, slowly rode up in front of the Inca;
and the former, making a respectful obeisance, but
without dismounting, informed Atahuallpa that he
came as an ambassador from his brother, the commander of the white men, to acquaint the monarch
with their arrival in his city of Caxamalca. They
were the subjects of a mighty prince across the waters,
and had come, he said, drawn thither by the report of
his great victories, to offer their services, and to impart
le salia della, y le cubria toda la frente, la cual era la insinia real,
sentado en una sillecita muy baja del suelo, como los turcos y moros
acostumbran sentarse, el cual estaba con tanta magestad y aparato
cual nunca se ha visto jamas, porque estaba cercado de mas de seiscientos Senores de su tierra." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




INTER VIEW WITH THE INCA.    389
to him the doctrines of the true faith which they professed; and he brought an invitation from the general
to Atahuallpa that the latter would be pleased to visit
the Spaniards in their present quarters.
To all this the Inca answered not a word; nor did
he make even a sign of acknowledgment that he comprehended it; though it was translated for him by
Felipillo, one of the interpreters already noticed. He
remained silent, with his eyes fastened on the ground;
but one of his nobles, standing by his side, answered,
"It is well."'9  This was an embarrassing situation for
the Spaniards, who seemed to be as far from ascertaining the real disposition of the Peruvian monarch
towards themselves as when the mountains were between
them.
In a courteous and respectful manner, Hernando
Pizarro again broke the silence by requesting the Inca
to speak to them himself and to inform them what was
his pleasure.20 To this Atahuallpa condescended to
reply, while a faint smile passed over his features, " Tell
your captain that I am keeping a fast, which will end
to-morrow morning. I will then visit him, with my
chieftains. In the mean time, let him occupy the
x9 " Las cuales por 61 oidas, con ser su inclinacion pregmuntarnos y
saber de donde veniamos, y que queriamos, y ver nuestras personas
y caballos, tubo tanta serenidad en el rostro, y tanta gravedad en su
persona, que no quiso responder palabra a lo que se le decia, salvo
que un Sefior de aquellos que estaban par de el respondia: bien
estA." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.
go " Visto por el dicho Hernando Pizarro que 61 no hablaba, y que
aquella tercera persona respondia de suyo, torn6 le a suplicar, que el
hablase por su boca, y le respondiese lo que quisiese." Ibid., MS.,
ubi supra.
33*




39o              CONQUEST OF PERU.
public buildings on the square, and no other, till I
come, when I will order what shall be done." =
Soto, one of the party present at this interview, as
before noticed, was the best mounted and perhaps the
best rider in Pizarro's troop.   Observing that Atahuallpa looked with some interest on the fiery steed that
stood before him, champing the bit and pawing the
ground with the natural impatience of a war-horse, the
Spaniard gave him the rein, and, striking his iron heel
into his side, dashed furiously over the plain, then,
wheeling him round and round, displayed all the beautiful movements of his charger, and his own excellent
horsemanship. Suddenly checking him in full career,
he brought the animal almost on his haunches, so near
the person of the Inca that some of the foam that
flecked his horse's sides was thrown on the royal garments. But Atahuallpa maintained the same marble
composure as before, though several of his soldiers,
whom De Soto passed in the course, were so much disconcerted by it that they drew back in manifest terror,
-an act of timidity for which they paid dearly, if, as
the Spaniards assert, Atahuallpa caused them to be put
l "E1 cual ti esto volvi6 la cabeza i mirarle sonriendose y le dijo:
Decid. ese Capitan que os embia acA; que yo estoy en ayuno, y le
acabo mafiana por la mafiana, que en bebientdo una vez, yo ire con
algunos destos principales mios 6a verme con el, que en tanto 61 se
aposente en esas casas que estan en la plaza que son comunes a todos,
y que no entren en otra ninguna hasta que Yo vaya, que Yo mandar6
lo que se ha de hacer." Relacion del primer Descub., MS., ubi supra.
-In this singular interview I have followed the account of the cavalier
who accompanied Hernando Pizarro, in preference to that of the latter,
who represents himself as talking in a lordly key, that savors too much
of the vaunt of the hidalgo.




DESPONDENCY OF THE SPANIARDS. 39I
to death that same evening for betraying such unworthy
weakness to the strangers."
Refreshments were now offered by the royal attendants to the Spaniards, which they declined, being unwilling to dismount. They did not refuse, however,
to quaff the sparkling chicha from golden vases of extraordinary size, presented to them by the dark-eyed
beauties of the harem.23 Taking then a respectful
leave of the Inca, the cavaliers rode back to Caxamalca,
with many moody speculations on what they had seen:
on the state and opulence of the Indian monarch; on
the strength of his military array, their excellent appointments, and the apparent discipline in their ranks,
-all arguing a much higher degree of civilization, and
consequently of power, than any thing they had witnessed in the lower regions of the country. As they
contrasted all this with their own diminutive force, too
far advanced, as they now were, for succor to reach
them, they felt they had done rashly in throwing themselves into the midst of so formidable an empire, and
were filled with gloomy forebodings of the result.24
"Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Relacion del primer
Descub., MS.-" I algunos Indios, con miedo, se desviaron de la
Carrera, por lo qual Atabalipa los higo luego matar." (Zarate, Conq.
del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 4.)-Xerez states that Atahuallpa confessed this
himself, in conversation with the Spaniards after he was taken prisoner.
-Soto's charger might well have made the Indians start, if, as Balboa
says, he took twenty feet at a leap, and this with a knight in armor on
his back I Hist. du Perou, chap. 22.'3 Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap.
Barcia, tom. iii. p. I96.
4 " Hecho esto y visto y atalayado la grandeza del ejercito, y las
tiendas que era bien de ver, nos bolvimos 6 donde el dicho capitan
nos estaba esperando, harto espantados de lo que habiamos visto, ha



392             CONQUEST OF PERU.
Their comrades in the camp soon caught the infectious
spirit of despondency, which was not lessened as night
came on, and they beheld the watch-fires of the Peruvians lighting up the sides of the mountains and glittering in the darkness, "as thick," says one who saw
them, " as the stars of heaven." 2s
Yet there was one bosom in that little host which
was not touched with the feeling either of fear or
(lejection. That was Pizarro's, who secretly rejoiced
that he had now brought matters to the issue for
which he had so long panted. He saw the necessity
of kindling a similar feeling in his followers, or all
would be lost. Without unfolding his plans, he went
round among his men, beseeching them not to show
faint hearts at this crisis, when they stood face to face
with the foe whom they had been so long seeking.
" They were to rely on themselves, and on that Providence which had carried theln safe through so many
fearful trials. It would not now desert them; and if
numbers, however great, were on the side of their
enemy, it mattered little, when the arm of Heaven was
biendo y tomando entre nosotros muchos acuerdos y opiniones de lo
que se debia hacer, estando todos con mucho temor por ser tan pocos,
y estar tan metidos en la tierra donde no podiamos ser socorridos."
(Relacion del primer Descub., MS.) Pedro Pizarro is honest enough
to confirm this account of the consternation of the Spaniards. (Descub. y Conq., MS.) Fear was a strange sensation for the Castilian
cavalier. But if he did not feel some touch of it on that occasion, he
must have been akin to that doughty knight who, as Charles V. pronounced, "never could have snuffed a candle with his fingers."
25': Hecimos la guardia en la plaza, de donde se vian los fuegos del
ejercito de los Indios, lo cual era cosa espantable, que como estaban
en una ladera la mayor parte, y tan juntos unos de otros, no parecia
sino un cielo muy estrellado." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




DESPONDENCY OF THE SPANIARDS.  393
on theirs."   The Spanish cavalier acted under the
combined influence of chivalrous adventure and religious zeal.  The latter was the more effective in
the hour of peril; and Pizarro, who understood well
the characters he had to deal with, by presenting the
enterprise as a crusade, kindled the dying embers of
enthusiasm in the bosoms of his followers, and restored
their faltering courage.
He then summoned a council of his officers, to consider the plan of operations, or rather to propose to
them the extraordinary plan on which he had himself
decided. This was to lay an ambuscade for the Inca
and take him prisoner in the face of his whole army!
It was a project full of peril, —bordering, as it might
well seem, on desperation. But the circumstances of
the Spaniards were desperate. Whichever way they
turned, they were menaced by the most appalling
dangers; and better was it bravely to confront the
danger than weakly to shrink from it, when there was
no avenue for escape.
To fly was now too late. Whither could they fly?
At the first signal of retreat, the whole army of the
Inca would be upon them. Their movements would
be anticipated by a foe far better acquainted with the
intricacies of the sierra than themselves; the passes
would be occupied, and they would be hemmed in on
all sides; while the mere fact of this retrograde movement would diminish their confidence and with it
their effective strength, while it doubled that of their
enemy.
96 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 197.-Naharro,
Relacion sumaria, MS.
R*




394          CONQUEST OF PERU.
Yet to remain long inactive in their present position
seemed almost equally perilous. Even supposing that
Atahuallpa should entertain friendly feelings towards
the Christians, they could not confide in the continuance of such feelings.  Familiarity with the white
men would soon destroy the idea of any thing super
natural, or even superior, in their natures. He would
feel contempt for their diminutive numbers. Their
horses, their arms and showy appointments, would be
an attractive bait in the eye of the barbaric monarch,
and when conscious that he had the power to crush
their possessors he would not be slow in finding a pretext for it. A sufficient one had already occurred in
the high-handed measures of the Conquerors on their
march through his dominions.
But what reason had they to flatter themselves that
the Inca cherished such a disposition towards them?
He was a crafty and unscrupulous prince, and, if the
accounts they had repeatedly received on their march
were true, had ever regarded the coming of the Spaniards with an evil eye.  It was scarcely possible he
should do otherwise.  His soft messages had only
been intended to decoy them across the mountains,
where, with the aid of his warriors, he might readily
overpower them.  They were entangled in the toils
which the cunning monarch had spread for them.
Their only remedy, then, was to turn the Inca's arts
against himself; to take him, if possible, in his own
snare. There was no time to be lost; for any day
might bring back the victorious legions who had recently won his battles at the south, and thus make the
odds against the Spaniards far greater than now.




DESPONDENCY OF THE SPANIARDS.  395
Yet to encounter Atahuallpa in the open field would
be attended with great hazard; and, even if victorious, there would be little probability that the person
of the Inca, of so much importance, would fall into
their hands. The invitation he had so unsuspiciously
accepted to visit them in their quarters afforded the
best means for securing this desirable prize.  Nor
was the enterprise so desperate, considering the great
advantages afforded by the character and weapons of
the invaders and the unexpectedness of the assault.
The mere circumstance of acting on a concerted plan
would alone make a small number more than a match
for a much larger one. But it was not necessary to
admit the whole of the Indian force into the city
before the attack; and the person of the Inca once
secured, his followers, astounded by so strange an
event, were they few or many, would have no heart
for further resistance; and with the Inca once in his
power, Pizarro might dictate laws to the empire.
In this daring project of the Spanish chief it was
easy to see that he had the brilliant exploit of Cortes
in his mind when he carried off the Aztec monarch in
his capital.  But that was not by violence,-at least
not by open violence,-and it received the sanction,
compulsory though it were, of the monarch himself.
It was also true that the results in that case did not
altogether justify a repetition of the experiment, since
the people rose in a body to sacrifice both the prince
and his kidnappers.  Yet this was owing, in part at
least, to the indiscretion of the latter.  The experiment in the outset was perfectly successful; and could
Pizarro once become master of the person of Ata



396          CONQUEST OF PERU.
huallpa he trusted to his own discretion for the rest.
It would at least extricate him from his present critical
position, by placing in his power an inestimable guarantee for his safety; and if he could not make his own
terms with the Inca at once, the arrival of reinforcements from home would, in all probability, soon enable him to do so.
Pizarro having concerted his plans for the following day, the council broke up, and the chief occupied
himself with providing for the security of the camp
during the night. The approaches to the town were
defended; sentinels were posted at different points,
especially on the summit of the fortress, where they
were to observe the position of the enemy and to report any movement that menaced the tranquillity of
the night. After these precautions, the Spanish commander and his followers withdrew to their appointed
quarters,-but not to sleep. At least, sleep must have
come late to those who were aware of the decisive plan
for the morrow; that morrow which was to be the
crisis of their fate,-to crown their ambitious schemes
with full success, or consign them to irretrievable ruin!




CHAPTER V.
DESPERATE PLAN OF PIZARRO.-ATAHUALLPA VISITS THE
SPANIARDS.-HORRIBLE MASSACRE. —THE INCA A PRISONER.-CONDUCT OF THE CONQUERORS.-SPLENDID
PROMISES OF THE INCA.-DEATH OF HUASCAR.
I532.
THE clouds of the evening had passed away, and
the sun rose bright on the following morning, the most
memorable epoch in the annals of Peru. It was Saturday, the sixteenth of November, 1532. The loud cry
of the trumpet called the Spaniards to arms with the
first streak of dawn; and Pizarro, briefly acquainting
them with the plan of the assault, made the necessary
dispositions.
The plaza, as mentioned in the preceding chapter,
was defended on its three sides by low ranges of buildings, consisting of spacious halls with wide doors or
vomitories opening into the square. In these halls he
stationed his cavalry in two divisions, one under his
brother Hernando, the other under De Soto. The
infantry he placed in another of the buildings, reserving twenty chosen men to act with himself as occasion
might require. Pedro de Candia, with a few soldiers
and the artillery,-comprehending under this imposing
name two small pieces of ordnance, called falconets,
-he established in the fortress. All received orders
Peru. —VOL. I.     34             (397)




398            CONQUEST OF PERU.
to wait at their posts till the arrival of the Inca. After
his entrance into the great square, they were still to
remain under cover, withdrawn from observation, till
the signal was given by the discharge of a gun, when
they were to cry their war-cries, to rush out in a body
from their covert, and, putting the Peruvians to the
sword, bear off the person of the Inca. The arrangement of the immense halls, opening on a level with the
plaza, seemed to be contrived on purpose for a coup
de theatre.  Pizarro particularly inculcated order and
implicit obedience, that in the hurry of the moment
there should be no confusion. Everything depended
on their acting with concert, coolness, and celerity.'
The chief next saw that their arms were in good
order, and that the breastplates of their horses were
garnished with bells, to add by their noise to the consternation of the Indians.  Refreshments were, also,
liberally provided, that the troops should be in condition  for the conflict.   These arrangements being
completed, mass was performed with great solemnity
by the ecclesiastics who attended the expedition; the
God of battles was invoked to spread his shield over
the soldiers who were fighting to extend the empire
of the Cross; and all joined with enthusiasm in the
chant, "Exsurge, Donmine,"  "Rise, O  Lord! and
judge thine own cause." 2  One might have supposed' Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I97.Carta de Hern. Pizarro, MS.-Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS..
Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 7.
2 " Los Eclesiasticos i Religiosos se ocuparon toda aquella noche
en oracion, pidiendo tt Dios el mas conveniente suceso i su sagrado
servicio. exaltacion de la fM 6 salvacion de tanto numero de almas,




DESPERA TE PLAN OF PIZARRO.   399
them a company of martyrs about to lay down their
lives in defence of their faith, instead of a licentious
band of adventurers meditating one of the most atrocious acts of perfidy on the record of history! Yet,
whatever were the vices of the Castilian cavalier, hypocrisy was not among the number. He felt that he
was battling for the Cross, and under this conviction,
exalted as it was at such a moment as this into the
predominant impulse, he was blind to the baser motives which mingled with the enterprise.  With feelings thus kindled to a flame of religious ardor, the
soldiers of Pizarro looked forward with renovated
spirits to the coming conflict; and the chieftain saw
with satisfaction that in the hour of trial his men
would be true to their leader and themselves.
It was late in the day before any movement was
visible in the Peruvian camp, where much preparation
was making to approach the Christian quarters with
due state and ceremony. A message was received from
Atahuallpa, informing the Spanish commander that he
should come with his warriors fully armed, in the same
manner as the Spaniards had come to his quarters the
night preceding. This was not an agreeable intimation to Pizarro, though he had no reason, probably,
to expect the contrary.  But to object might imply
distrust, or perhaps disclose, in some measure, his own
designs. He expressed his satisfaction, therefore, at the
derramando muchas lagrimas i sangre en las disciplinas que tomaron.
Francisco Pizarro animo at los soldados con una mrui cristiana pflatca
que les hizo: con que, i asegurarles los Eclesiasticos de parte de Dios
i de su Madre Santisima la vitoria, amanecieron todos mui deseosos
de dar la batalla, diciendo at voces, Exsurge Domine, et judica causam
tuam." Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.




400             CONQUEST OF PERU
intelligence, assuring the Inca that, come as he would,
lie would be received by him as a friend and brother.3
It was noon before the Indian procession was on its
march, when it was seen occupying the great causeway
for a long extent.  In front came a large body of
attendants, whose office seemed to be to sweep away
every particle of rubbish from the road. High above
the crowd appeared the Inca, borne on the shoulders
of his principal nobles, while others of the same rank
marched by the sides of his litter, displaying such a
dazzling show of ornaments on their persons that, in
the language of one of the Conquerors, " they blazed
like the sun."4  But the greater part of the Inca's
forces mustered along the fields that lined the road,
and were spread over the broad meadows as far as the
eye could reach.5
When the royal procession had arrived within half a
mile of the city, it came to a halt; and Pizarro saw
with surprise that Atahuallpa was preparing to pitch
3 " El governador respondi6: Dl i tu Sefior, que venga en hora
buena como quisiere, que de la manera que viniere lo recebir6 como
Amigo, i Hermano." Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p.
197.-Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 7.-Carta
de Hem. Pizarro, MS.
4 " Hera tanta la pateneria que traian d'oro y plata que hera cossa
estrafia lo que reluzia con el Sol." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq.,
MS.
s To the eye of the old Conqueror so often quoted, the number of
Peruvian warriors appeared not less than 50,000; "mas de cincuenta
mil que tenia de guerra." (Relacion del primer Descub., MS.) To
Pizarro's secretary, as they lay encamped among the hills, they seemed
about 30,000. (Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I96.)
However gratifying to the imagination to repose on some precise
number, it is very rarely that one can do so with safety in estimating
the irregular and tumultuous levies of a barbarian host.




A TAHIUALLPA VISITS THE SPANIARDS. 40I
his tents, as if to encamp there. A messenger soon
after arrived, informing the Spaniards that the Inca
would occupy his present station the ensuing night,
and enter the city on the following morning.
This intelligence greatly disturbed Pizarro, who had
shared in the general impatience of his men at the
tardy movements of the Peruvians. The troops had
been under arms since daylight, the cavalry mounted,
and the infantry at their post, waiting in silence the
coming of the Inca.  A  profound  stillness reigned
throughout the town, broken only at intervals by the
cry of the sentinel from the summit of the fortress, as
he proclaimed the movements of the Indian army.
Nothing, Pizarro well knew, was so trying to the
soldier as prolonged suspense, in a critical situation
like the present; and he feared lest his ardor might
evaporate, and be succeeded by that nervous feeling
natural to the bravest soul at such a crisis, and which,
if not fear, is near akin to it.6 He returned an answer,
therefore, to Atahuallpa, deprecating his change of
purpose, and adding that he had provided every thing
for his entertainment, and expected him that night to
sup with him.7
This message turned the Inca from his purpose;
6 Pedro Pizarro says that an Indian spy reported to Atahuallpa that
the white men were all huddled together in the great halls on the
square, in much consternation, Ilenos de miedo,-which was not far
from the truth, adds the cavalier. (Descub. y Conq., MS.)
7 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS. —"Asentados sus toldos
envi6 a decir al gobernador que ya era tarde, que 61 queria dormir
alli, que por la mafiana vernia: el gobernador le envi6 dA decir que le
rogaba que viniese luego, porque le esperaba a cenar, 6 que no habia
de cenar, hasta que fuese." Carta de Hem. Pizarro, MS.
34*




402             CONQUEST OF PERU.
and, striking his tents again, he resumed his march,
first advising the general that he should leave the
greater part of his warriors behind, and enter the
place with only a few of them, and without arms,8 as
he preferred to pass the night at Caxamalca. At the
same time he ordered accommodations to be provided
for himself and his retinue in one of the large stone
buildings, called, from a serpent sculptured on the
walls, " the House of the Serpent." 9 No tidings could
have been more grateful to the Spaniards. It seemed
as if the Indian monarch was eager to rush into the
snare that had been spread for him! The fanatical
cavalier could not fail to discern in it the immediate
finger of Providence.
It is difficult to account for this wavering conduct
of Atahuallpa, so different from the bold and decided
character which history ascribes to him. There is no
doubt that he made his visit to the white men in
perfect good faith; though Pizarro was probably right
in conjecturing that this amiable disposition stood on
a very precarious footing. There is as little reason to
suppose that he distrusted the sincerity of the strangers;
or he would not thus unnecessarily have proposed to
visit them unarmed. His original purpose of coming
with all his force was doubtless to display his royal
state, and perhaps, also, to show greater respect for
the Spaniards; but when he consented to accept their
3 I t1 queria venir luego, e que venia sin armas. E luego Atabaliva se movi6 para venir e dej6 alli la gente con las armas, e Uev6
consigo hasta cinco 6 seis mil indios sin armas, salvo que debajo de las
camisetas traian unas porras pequefas, 6 hondas, 6 bolsas con piedras." Carta de Hern. Pizarro, MS.
9 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 197.




A TAtHUALLPA  VISITS THE SPANIARDS. 403
hospitality and pass the night in their quarters, he
was willing to dispense with a great part of his armed
soldiery and visit them in a manner that implied entire
confidence in their good faith. He was too absolute
in his own empire easily to suspect; and he probably
could not comprehend the audacity with which a few
men, like those now assembled in Caxamalca, meditated an assault on a powerful monarch in the midst of
his victorious army. He did not know the character
of the Spaniard.
It was not long before sunset when the van of the
royal procession entered the gates of the city. First
came some hundreds of the menials, employed to clear
the path of every obstacle, and singing songs of
triumph as they came, "'which in our ears," says one
of the Conquerors, " sounded like the songs of hell"!'~
Then followed other bodies of different ranks, and
dressed in different liveries. Some wore a showy stuff,
checkered white and red, like the squares of a che
board." Others were clad in pure white, bearing hammers or maces of silver or copper;12 and the guards,
together with those in immediate attendance on the
prince, were distinguished by a rich azure livery, and
a profusion of gay ornaments, while the large pendants
attached to the ears indicated the Peruvian noble.
Elevated high above his vassels came the Inca
Atahuallpa, borne on a sedan or open litter, on which
was a sort of throne made of massive gold of inestimable value.'3 The palanquin was lined with the richlyIo Relacion del primer Descub., MS.:1 " Blanca y colorada como las casas de un ajedrez." Ibid., MS.
s2 " Con martillos en las manos de cobre y plata." Ibid., MS.
13 "E1 asiento que traia sobre las andas era un tablon de oro que




404             CONQUEST OF PERU.
colored plumes of tropical birds and studded with
shining plates of gold and silver.'4 The monarch's
attire was much richer than on the preceding evening.
Round his neck was suspended a collar of emeralds of
uncommon size and brilliancy.'5  His short hair was
decorated with golden ornaments, and the imperial
borla encircled his temples. The bearing of the Inca
was sedate and dignified; and from his lofty station he
looked down on the multitudes below with an air of
composure, like one accustomed to command.
As the leading files of the procession entered the
great square, larger, says an old chronicler, than any
square in Spain, they opened to the right and left for
the royal retinue to pass. Every thing was conducted
with admirable order. The monarch was permitted
to traverse the plaza in silence, and not a Spaniard was
to be seen.  When some five or six thousand of his
people had entered the place, Atahuallpa halted, and,
turning round with an inquiring look, demanded,
" Where are the strangers?"
At this moment Fray Vicente de Valverde, a Dominican friar, Pizarro's chaplain, and afterwards Bishop
of Cuzco, came forward with his breviary, or, as other
pes6 un quintal de oro segun dicen los historiadores 25,ooo pesos 6
ducados." Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.
x4 "Luego venia mucha Gente con Armaduras, Patenas, i Coronas
de Oro i Plata: entre estos venia Atabalipa, en una Litera, aforrada de
Pluma de Papagaios, de muchas colores, guarnecida de chapas de
Oro, i Plata." Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I98.'5 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-"Venia la persona de
Atabalica, la cual traian ochenta Sefiores en hombros todos bestidos
de una librea azul muy rica, y el bestido su persona muy ricamente
con su corona en la cabeza, y al cueUo un collar de esmeraldas
grandes." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




A TAHUALLPA VISITS THE SPANIARDS. 405
accounts say, a Bible, in one hand, and a crucifix in
the other, and, approaching the Inca, told him that he
came by order of his commander to expound to him
the doctrines of the true faith, for which purpose the
Spaniards had come from a great distance to his country. The friar then explained, as clearly as he could,
the mysterious doctrine of the Trinity, and, ascending
high in his account, began with the creation of man,
thence passed to his fall, to his subsequent redemption
by Jesus Christ, to the crucifixion, and the ascension,
when the Saviour left the Apostle Peter as his Vicegerent upon earth. This power had been transmitted
to the successors of the apostle, good and wise men,
who, under the title of Popes, held authority over all
powers and potentates on earth. One of the last of
these Popes had commissioned the Spanish emperor,
the most mighty monarch in the world, to conquer and
convert the natives in this Western hemisphere; and
his general, Francisco Pizarro, had now come to execute this important mission. The friar concluded with
beseeching the Peruvian monarch to receive him kindly,
to abjure the errors of his own faith, and embrace that
of the Christians now proffered to him, the only one
by which he could hope for salvation, and, furthermore,
to acknowledge himself a tributary of the Emperor
Charles the Fifth, who, in that event, would aid and
protect him as his loyal vassal.!6
16 Montesinos says that Valverde read to the Inca the regular formula used by the Spaniards in their Conquests. (Annales, MS., afio
I533.) But that address, though absurd enough, did not comprehend
the whole range of theology ascribed to the chaplain on this occasion.
Yet it is not impossible. But I have followed the report of Fray Naharro, who collected his information from the actors in the tragedy,




406            CONQUEST OF PERU.
Whether Atahuallpa possessed himself of every link
in the curious chain of argument by which the monk
connected Pizarro with St. Peter, may be doubted. It
is certain, however, that he must have had very incorrect notions of the Trinity, if, as Garcilasso states, the
interpreter Felipillo explained it by saying that " the
Christians believed in three Gods and one God, and
that made four." 17 But there is no doubt he perfectly
comprehended that the drift of the discourse was to
persuade him to resign his sceptre and acknowledge the
supremacy of another.
The eyes of the Indian monarch flashed fire, and his
dark brow grew darker, as he replied, "I will be no
man's tributary. I am greater than any prince upon
earth. Your emperor may be a great prince; I do not
doubt it, when I see that he has sent his subjects so far
across the waters; and I am willing to hold him as a
brother. As for the Pope of whom you speak, he must
be crazy to talk of giving away countries which do not
belong to him.  For my faith," he continued, "I will
not change it. Your own God, as you say, was put to
death by the very men whom he created. But mine,"
he concluded, pointing to his Deity,-then, alas! sinking in glory behind the mountains,-" my God still
lives in the heavens and looks down on his children." "8
and whose minuter statement is corroborated by the more general
testimony of both the Pizarros and the secretary Xerez.'7 " Por dezir Dios trino y uno dixo Dios tres y uno son quatro,
sumando los numeros pIor darse.i entender." Com. Real., Parte 2,
lib. I, cap. 23.
18 See Appendix No. 8, where the reader will find extracts in the
original from several contemporary MSS., relating to the capture of
Atahuallpa.




A TAHUALLPA VISITS THE SPANIARDS. 407
He then demanded of Valverde by what authority
he had said these things. The friar pointed to the book
which he held, as his authority. Atahuallpa, taking it,
turned over the pages a moment, then, as the insult he
had received probably flashed across his mind, he threw
it down with vehemence, and exclaimed, "Tell your
comrades that they shall give me an account of their
doings in my land. I will not go from here till they
have Inade me full satisfaction for all the wrongs they
have committed."'9
The friar, greatly scandalized by the indignity offered
to the sacred volume, stayed only to pick it up, and,
hastening to Pizarro, informed him of what had been
done, exclaiming, at the same time, "Do you not see
that while we stand here wasting our breath in talking
with this dog, full of pride as he is, the fields are filling with Indians?   Set on, at once; I absolve you."'9 Some accounts describe him as taxing the Spaniards in much
more unqualified terms. (See Appendix No. 8.) But language is not
likely to be accurately reported in such seasons of excitement. According to some authorities, Atahuallpa let the volume drop by accident. (Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio 1533.-Balboa, Hist. du Perou,
chap. 22.) But the testimony, as far as we have it, of those present,
concurs in representing it as stated in the text. And, if he spoke with
the heat imputed to him, this act would only be in keeping.
V0 " Visto esto por el Frayle y lo poco que aprovechaban sus palabras, tom6 su libro, y abaj6 su cabeza, y fuese para donde estaba el
dicho Pizarro, casi corriendo, y dijole: No veis lo que pasa: para que
estais en comedimientos y requerimientos con este perro lleno de soberbia que vienen los campos lilenos de Indios? Salid d el,-que yo
os absuelvo." (Relacion del primer Descub., MS.) The historian
should be slow in ascribing conduct so diabolical to Father Valverde,
without evidence. Two of the Conquerors present, Pedro Pizarro
and Xerez, simply state that the monk reported to his commander the
indignity offered to the sacred volume. But Hernando Pizarro and




408            CONQUEST OF PERU.
Pizarro saw that the hour had come. He waved a
white scarf in the air, the appointed signal. The fatal
gun was fired from the fortress. Then, springing into
the square, the Spanish captain and his followers
shouted the old war-cry of "St. Jago and at them."
It was answered by the battle-cry of every Spaniard in
the city, as, rushing from the avenues of the great halls
in which they were concealed, they poured into the
plaza, horse and foot, each in his own dark column,
and threw themselves into the midst of the Indian
crowd. The latter, taken by surprise, stunned by the
report of artillery and muskets, the echoes of which
reverberated like thunder from the surrounding buildings, and blinded by the smoke which rolled in sulphurous volumes along the square, were seized with a
panic. They knew not whither to fly for refuge from
the coming ruin. Nobles and commoners,-all were
trampled down under the fierce charge of the cavalry,
who dealt their blows, right and left, without sparing;
while their swords, flashing through the thick gloom,
carried dismay into the hearts of the wretched natives,
who now for the first time saw the horse and his rider
in all their terrors.  They made no resistance, —as,
indeed, they had no weapons with which to make it.
Every avenue to escape was closed, for the entrance to
the square was choked up with the dead bodies of men
the author of the Relacion del primer Descubrimiento, both eyewitnesses, and Naharro, Zarate, Gomara, Balboa, Herrera, the Inca
Titucussi Yupanqui, all of whom obtained their information from
persons who were eye-witnesses, state the circumstance, with little
variation, as in the text. Yet Oviedo endorses the account of Xerez,
and Garcilasso de la Vega insists on Valverde's innocence of any attempt to rouse the passions of his comrades.




HORRIBLE  MASSACRE.                   409
who had perished in vain efforts to fly; and such was
the agony of the survivors under the terrible pressure
of their assailants that a large body of Indians, by
their convulsive struggles, burst through the wall of
stone and dried clay which formed part of the boundary of the plaza! It fell, leaving an opening of more
than a hundred paces, through which multitudes now
found their way into the country, still hotly pursued
by the cavalry, who, leaping the fallen rubbish, hung
on the rear of the fugitives, striking them down in all
directions. 2
Meanwhile the fight, or rather massacre, continued
hot around the Inca, whose person was the great object
of the assault. His faithful nobles, rallying about him,
threw themselves in the way of the assailants, and
strove, by tearing them from their saddles, or at least
by offering their own bosoms as a mark for their vengeance, to shield their beloved master. It is said by
some authorities that they carried weapons concealed
under their clothes. If so, it availed them little, as it is
not pretended that they used them. But the most timid
animal will defend itself when at bay. That the Indians did not do so in the present instance is proof that
they had no weapons to use.22  Yet they still continued
= Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru,
ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I98.-Carta de Hern. Pizarro, MS.-Oviedo,
Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 7.-Relacion del primer
Descub., MS.-Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 5.-Instruccion
del Inga Titucussi Yupanqui, MS.
= The author of the Relacion del primer Descubrimiento speaks
of a few as having bows and arrows, and of others as armed with
silver and copper mallets or maces, which may, however, have been
more for ornament than for service in fight. Pedro Pizarro and some
Peru.-VoL. I. —s       35




4o0             CONQUEST OF PERU.
to force back the cavaliers, clinging to their horses
with dying grasp, and, as one was cut down, another
taking the place of his fallen comrade with a loyalty
truly affecting.
The Indian monarch, stunned and bewildered, saw
his faithful subjects falling around him without fully
comprehending his situation. The litter on which he
rode heaved to and fro, as the mighty press swayed
backwards and forwards; and he gazed on the overwhelming ruin, like some forlorn mariner, who, tossed
about in his bark by the furious elements, sees the
lightning's flash and hears the thunder bursting around
him with the consciousness that he can do nothing to
avert his fate.  At length, weary with the work of
destruction, the Spaniards, as the shades of evening
grew deeper, felt afraid that the royal prize might,
after all, elude them; and some of the cavaliers made
a desperate attempt to end the affray at once by taking
Atahuallpa's life. But Pizarro, who was nearest his
person, called out, with stentorian voice, "Let no one
who values his life strike at the Inca;" 23 and, stretching out his arm  to shield him, received a wound on
the hand from one of his own men,-the only wound
received by a Spaniard in the action.24
later writers say that the Indians brought thongs with them to bind
the captive white men. Both Hernando Pizarro and the secretary
Xerez agree that their only arms were secreted under their clothes;
but, as they do not pretend that these were used, and as it was announced by the Inca that he came without arms, the assertion may
well be doubted,-or rather discredited. All authorities, without exception, agree that no active resistance was attempted.
"3 " E1 marquez dio bozes diciendo: Nadie hiera al indio so pena
de la vida." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.
24 Whatever discrepancy exists among the Castilian accounts in




THE ISNCA  A PRIS 0NE.                    411
The struggle now became fiercer than ever round the
royal litter. It reeled more and more, and at length,
several of the nobles who supported it having been
slain, it was overturned, and the Indian prince would
have come with violence to the ground, had not his
fall been broken by the efforts of Pizarro and some
other of the cavaliers, who caught him in their arms.
The imperial borla was instantly snatched from his
temples by a soldier named Estete,2s and the unhappy
other respects, all concur in this remarkable fact,-that no Spaniard,
except their general, received a wound on that occasion. Pizarro saw
in this a satisfactory argument for regarding the Spaniards, this day,
as under the special protection of Providence. See Xerez, Conq. del
Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I99.
25 Miguel Estete, who long retained the silken diadem as a trophy
of the exploit, according to Garcilasso de la Vega (Com. Real., Parte
2, lib. x, cap. 27), an indifferent authority for any thing in this part
of his history. This popular writer, whose work, from his superior
knowledge of the institutions of the country, has obtained greater
credit, even in what relates to the Conquest, than the reports of the
Conquerors themselves, has indulged in the romantic vein to an unpardonable extent in his account of the capture of Atahuallpa. According to him, the Peruvian monarch treated the invaders from the
first with supreme deference, as descendants of Viracocha, predicted
by his oracles as to come and rule over the land. But if this flattering homage had been paid by the Inca, it would never have escaped
the notice of the Conquerors. Garcilasso had read the Commentaries
of Cortes, as he somewhere tells us; and it is probable that that general's account, well founded, it appears, of a similar superstition among
the Aztecs, suggested to the historian the idea of a corresponding sentiment in the Peruvians, which, while it flattered the vanity of the
Spaniards, in some degree vindicated his own countrymen from the
charge of cowardice, incurred by their too ready submission; for,
however they might be called on to resist men, it would have been
madness to resist the decrees of Heaven. Yet Garcilasso's romantic
version has something in it so pleasing to the imagination that it has
ever found favor with the majority of readers. The English student




412             CONQUEST OF PERU.
monarch, strongly secured, was removed to a neighboring building, where he was carefully guarded.
All attempt at resistance now ceased. The fate of
the Inca soon spread over town and country. The
charm which might have held the Peruvians together
was dissolved. Every man thought only of his own
safety. Even the soldiery encamped on the adjacent
fields took the alarm, and, learning the fatal tidings,
were seen flying in every direction before their pursuers, who in the heat of triumph showed no touch of
mercy. At length night, more pitiful than man, threw
her friendly mantle over the fugitives, and the scattered
troops of Pizarro rallied once more at the sound of the
trumpet in the bloody square of Caxamalca.
The number of slain is reported, as usual, with great
discrepancy.   Pizarro's secretary says two thousand
natives fell.26  A  descendant of the Incas   a safer
authority than Garcilasso-swells the number to ten
thousand.2 Truth is generally found somewhere bemight have met with a sufficient corrective in the criticism of the sagacious and skeptical Robertson.
26 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. I99.
"27  Los mataron ti todos con los Cavallos con espadas con arcabuzes como quien mata ovejas-sin hacerles nadie resistencia que no
se escaparon de mas de diez mil, doscientos."' Instruc. del Inga Titucussi, MS.-This document, consisting of two hundred folio pages, is
signed by a Peruvian Inca, grandson of the great Huayna Capac, and
nephew, consequently, of Atahuallpa. It was written in I570, and
designed to set forth to his Majesty Philip II. the claims of Titucussi and the members of his family to the royal bounty. In the
course of the Memorial the writer takes occasion to recapitulate some
of the principal events in the latter years of the empire; and, though
sufficiently prolix to tax even the patience of Philip II., it is of much
value as an historical document, coming from one of the royal race
of Peru.




THE INCA A PRISONER.                    413
tween the extremes. The slaughter was incessant, for
there was nothing to check it. That there should have
been no resistance will not appear strange when we
consider the fact that the wretched victims were
without arms, and that their senses must have been
completely overwhelmed by the strange and appalling
spectacle which burst on them so unexpectedly.
"What wonder was it," said an ancient Inca to a
Spaniard, who  repeats it, "what wonder that our
countrymen lost their wits, seeing blood run like
water, and the Inca, whose person we all of us adore,
seized and carried off by a handful of men?"28  Yet,
though the massacre was incessant, it was short in
duration. The whole time consumed by it, the brief
twilight of the tropics, did not much exceed half an
hour; a short period, indeed,-yet long enough to
decide the fate of Peru and to subvert the dynasty of
the Incas.
That night Pizarro kept his engagement with the
Inca, since he had Atahuallpa to sup with him. The
banquet was served in one of the halls facing the great
square, which a few hours before had been the scene
-2 Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio 1532.-According to Naharro,
the Indians were less astounded by the wild uproar caused by the
sudden assault of the Spaniards, though " this was such that it seemed
as if the very heavens were falling," than by a terrible apparition
which appeared in the air during the onslaught. It consisted of a
woman and a child, and, at their side, a horseman all clothed in white
on a milk-white charger,-doubtless the valiant St. James,-who, with
his sword glancing lightning, smote down the infidel host and rendered
them incapable of resistance. This miracle the good father reports on
the testimony of three of his Order, who were present in the action
and who received the account from numbers of the natives. Relacion
sumaria, MS.
35*




414            CONQUEST OF PERU.
of slaughter, and the pavement of which was still
encumbered with the dead bodies of the Inca's subjects.  The captive monarch was placed  next his
conqueror. He seemed like one who did not yet fully
comprehend the extent of his calamity. If he did, he
showed an amazing fortitude. "It is the fortune of
war," he said;29 and, if we may credit the Spaniards,
he expressed his admiration of the adroitness with
which they had contrived to entrap him in the midst
of his own troops.30 He added that he had been
made acquainted with the progress of the white men
from the hour of their landing, but that he had been
led to undervalue their strength from the insignificance
of their numbers. He had no doubt he should be easily
able to overpower them, on their arrival at Caxamalca,
by his superior strength; and, as he wished to see for
himself what manner of men they were, he had suffered
them to cross the mountains, meaning to select such as
he chose for his own service, and, getting possession of
their wonderful arms and horses, put the rest to death.3"
That such may have been Atahuallpa's purpose is not
improbable. It explains his conduct in not occupying
the mountain-passes, which afforded such strong points
of defence against invasion.  But that a prince so
astute, as by the general testimony of the Conquerors
9 " Diciendo que era uso de Guerra vencer, i ser vencido." Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 2, cap. I2.
30 " Haciendo admiracion de la traza que tenia hecha." Relacion
del primer Descub., MS.
31 "And in my opinion," adds the Conqueror who reports the
speech, "he had good grounds for believing he could do this, since
nothing but the miraculous interposition of Heaven could have saved
us." Ibid., MS.




CONDUCT OF THE CONQUERORS.    4I5
he is represented to have been, should have made so
impolitic a disclosure of his hidden motives is not so
probable. The intercourse with the Inca was carried
on chiefly by means of the interpreter Felipillo, or little
Philip, as he was called, from his assumed Christian
name,-a malicious youth, as it appears, who bore no
good will to Atahuallpa, and whose interpretations
were readily admitted by the Conquerors, eager to
find some pretext for their bloody reprisals.
Atahuallpa, as elsewhere noticed, was at this time
about thirty years of age.  He was well made, and
more robust than usual with his countrymen. His
head was large, and his countenance might have been
called handsome, but that his eyes, which were bloodshot, gave a fierce expression to his features. He was
deliberate in speech, grave in manner, and towards his
own people stern even to severity; though with the
Spaniards he showed himself affable, sometimes even
indulging in sallies of mirth.32
Pizarro paid every attention to his royal captive,
and endeavored to lighten, if he could not dispel, the
gloom which, in spite of his assumed equanimity, hung
over the monarch's brow. He besought him not to be
cast down by his reverses, for his lot had only been
that of every prince who had resisted the white men.
They had come into the country to proclaim the gospel,
the religion of Jesus Christ; and it was no wonder they
had prevailed, when his shield was over them. Heaven
had permitted that Atahuallpa's pride should be humbled, because of his hostile intentions towards the
Spaniards and the insult he had offered to the sacred
32 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 203.




416            CONQUEST OF PERU.
volume. But he bade the Inca take courage and
confide in him, for the Spaniards were a generous
race, warring only against those who made war on
them, and showing grace to all who submitted!33
Atahuallpa may have thought the massacre of that day
an indifferent commentary on this vaunted lenity.
Before retiring for the night, Pizarro briefly addressed his troops on their present situation.  When
he had ascertained that not a man was wounded, he
bade them offer up thanksgivings to Providence for so
great a miracle; without its care, they could never
have prevailed so easily over the host of their enemies; and he trusted their lives had been reserved for
still greater things. But, if they would succeed, they
had much to do for themselves.  They were in the
heart of a powerful kingdom, encompassed by foes
deeply attached to their own sovereign. They must
be ever on their guard, therefore, and be prepared at
any hour to be roused from their slumbers by the call
of the trumpet.34  Having then posted his sentinels,
placed a strong guard over the apartment of Atahuallpa, and taken all the precautions of a careful
commander, Pizarro withdrew to repose; and, if he
could really feel that in the bloody scenes of the past
day he had been fighting only the good fight of the
Cross, he doubtless slept sounder than on the night
preceding the seizure of the Inca.
On the following morning, the first commands of
33 " Nosotros vsamos de piedad con nuestros Enemigos vencidos, i
no hacemos Guerra, sino k los que nos la hacen, i pudiendolos destruir,
no lo hacemos, antes los perdonamos." Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap.
Barcia, tom. iii. p. I99.
34 Ibid., ubi supra.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.




CONDUCT OF THE CONQUERORS.   4I7
the Spanish chief were to have the city cleansed of
its impurities; and the prisoners, of whom there were
many in the camp, were employed to remove the dead
and give them decent burial. His next care was to
despatch a body of about thirty horse to the quarters
lately occupied by Atahuallpa at the baths, to take
possession of the spoil, and disperse the remnant of
the Peruvian forces which still hung about the place.
Before noon, the party which he had detached on
this service returned with a large troop of Indians,
men and women, among the latter of whom were
many of the wives and attendants of the Inca. The
Spaniards had met with no resistance; since the Peruvian warriors, though so superior in number, excellent
in appointments, and consisting mostly of able-bodied
young men,-for the greater part of the veteran forces
were with the Inca's generals at the south,-lost all
heart from the moment of their sovereign's captivity.
There was no leader to take his place; for they recognized no authority but that of the Child of the Sun,
and they seemed to be held by a sort of invisible
charm near the place of his confinement; while they
gazed with superstitious awe on the white men who
could achieve so audacious an enterprise.3
35 From this time, says Ondegardo, the Spaniards, who hitherto had
been designated as the " men with beards," barbudos, were called by
the natives, from their fair-complexioned deity, Viracochas. The
people of Cuzco, who bore no good will to the captive Inca, "looked
upon the strangers," says the author, "as sent by Viracocha himself."
(Rel. Prim., MS.) It reminds us of a superstition, or rather an
amiable fancy, among the ancient Greeks, that "the stranger came
from Jupiter."
" lIpc ycap A6Sc ehav &iravrnv
Edzvoi re."            oAT.. 5. v. 57.
8*




418             CONQUEST OF PERU.
The number of Indian prisoners was so great that
some of the Conquerors were for putting them  all to
death, or, at least, cutting off their hands, to disable
them from acts of violence and to strike terror into
their countrymen.36  The proposition, doubtless, came
from  the lowest and most ferocious of the soldiery.
But that it should have been made at all shows what
materials entered into the composition of Pizarro's
company. The chief rejected it at once, as no less
impolitic than inhuman, and dismissed the Indians
to their several homes, with the assurance that none
should be harmed who did not offer resistance to the
white men. A sufficient number, however, were retained to wait on the Conquerors, who were so well
provided in this respect that the most common soldier
was attended by a retinue of menials that would have
better suited the establishment of a noble.37
The Spaniards had found immense droves of llamas
under the care of the shepherds in the neighborhood
of the baths, destined for the consumption of the court.
Many of them were now suffered to roam abroad among
their native mountains; though Pizarro caused a considerable number to be reserved for the use of the
army.  And this was no small quantity, if, as one
of the Conquerors says, a hundred and fifty of the
36 " Algunos fueron de opinion, que matasen i todos los Hombres
de Guerra, 6 les cortasen las manos." Xerez, Hist. del Peru, ap.
Barcia, tom. iii. p. 200.
37 " Cada Espaiiol de los que alli ivan tomaron para si mui gran
cantidad tanto que como andava todo a rienda suelta havia Espafiol
que tenia docientas piezas de Indios i Indias de servicio." Conq. i
Pob. del Piru, MS.




CONDUCT OF THE CONQUERORS.   419
Peruvian sheep were frequently slaughtered in a day.38
Indeed, the Spaniards were so improvident in their
destruction of these animals that in a few years the
superb flocks, nurtured with so much care by the
Peruvian government, had almost disappeared from
the land.3
The party sent to pillage the Inca's pleasure-house
brought back a rich booty in gold and silver, consisting chiefly of plate for the royal table, which greatly
astonished the Spaniards by their size and weight.
These, as well as some large emeralds obtained there,
together with the precious spoils found on the bodies
of the Indian nobles who had perished in the massacre, were placed in safe custody, to be hereafter
divided.   In  the city of Caxamalca the troops also
found magazines stored with goods, both cotton and
woollen, far superior to any they had seen, for fineness of texture and the skill with which the various
colors were blended. They were piled from the floors
to the very roofs of the buildings, and in such quantity that, after every soldier had provided himself
with what he desired, it made no sensible diminution
of the whole amount.40
38 " Se matan cada Dia, ciento i cinquenta." Xerez, Conq. del Peru,
ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 202.
39 Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 8o.-Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., MS."Hasta que los destruian todos sin haver Espafiol ni Justicia que lo
defendiese ni amparase." Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.
40 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 200.-There was
enough, says the anonymous Conqueror, for several ship-loads.
" Todas estas cosas de tiendas y ropas de lana y algodon eran en tan
gran cantidad, que i mi parecer fueran menestei muchos navios en
que supieran." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




420          CONQUEST OF PERU.
Pizarro would now gladly have directed his march
on the Peruvian capital. But the distance was great,
and his force was small. This must have been still
further crippled by the guard required for the Inca,
and the chief feared to involve himself deeper in a
hostile empire so populous and powerful, with a prize
so precious in his keeping. With much anxiety, therefore, he looked for reinforcements from the colonies;
and he despatched a courier to San Miguel, to inform
the Spaniards there of his recent successes, and to
ascertain if there had been any arrival from Panam/a.
Meanwhile he employed his men in making Caxamalca
a more suitable residence for a Christian host, by erecting a church, or, perhaps, appropriating some Indian
edifice to this use, in which mass was regularly performed by the Dominican fathers with great solemnity.  The dilapidated walls of the city were also
restored in a more substantial manner than before,
and every vestige was soon effaced of the hurricane
that had so recently swept over it.
It was not long before Atahuallpa discovered, amidst
all the show of religious zeal in his Conquerors, a lurking appetite more potent in most of their bosoms than
either religion or ambition.  This was the love of
gold. He determined to avail himself of it to procure
his own freedom.  The critical posture of his affairs
made it important that this should not be long delayed.
His brother Huascar, ever since his defeat, had been
detained as a prisoner, subject to the victor's orders.
He was now at Andamarca, at no great distance from
Caxamalca; and Atahuallpa feared, with good reason,
that, when his own imprisonment was known, Huascar




SPLENDID PR OMISES OF THE INCA.  421
would find it easy to corrupt his guards, make his
escape, and put himself at the head of the contested
empire without a rival to dispute it.
In the hope, therefore, to effect his purpose by appealing to the avarice of his keepers, he one day told
Pizarro that if he would set him free he would engage
to cover the floor of the apartment on which they
stood with gold. Those present listened with an incredulous smile; and, as the Inca received no answer,
he said, with some emphasis, that "he would not
merely cover the floor, but would fill the room with
gold as high as he could reach;" and, standing on tiptoe, he stretched out his hand against the wall. All
stared with amazement; while they regarded it as the
insane boast of a man too eager to procure his liberty
to weigh the meaning of his words. Yet Pizarro was
sorely perplexed. As he had advanced into the country,
much that he had seen, and all that he had heard, had
confirmed the dazzling reports first received of the
riches of Peru. Atahuallpa himself had given him
the most glowing picture of the wealth of the capital,
where the roofs of the temples were plated with gold,
while the walls were hung with tapestry and the floors
inlaid with tiles of the same precious metal. There
must be some foundation for all this. At all events,
it was safe to accede to the Inca's proposition; since
by so doing he could collect at once all the gold at
his disposal, and thus prevent its being purloined or
secreted by the natives. He therefore acquiesced in
Atahuallpa's offer, and, drawing a red line along the
wall at the height which the Inca had indicated, he
caused the terms of the proposal to be duly recorded
Peru. —VoL. I.     36




422              CONQUEST OF PERU.
by the notary.   The apartment was about seventeen
feet broad, by twenty-two feet long, and the line round
the walls was nine feet from  the floor.4'  This space
was to be filled with gold; but it was understood that
the gold was not to be melted down into ingots, but
to retain the original form of the articles into which
it was manufactured, that the Inca might have the
benefit of the space which they occupied. He further
agreed to fill an adjoining room of smaller dimensions
twice full with silver, in like manner; and he demanded
two months to accomplish all this.4'
4' I have adopted the dimensions given by the secretary Xerez.
(Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 202.) According to Hernando
Pizarro, the apartment was nine feet high, but thirty-five feet long by
seventeen or eighteen feet wide. (Carta, MS.) The most moderate
estimate is large enough.-Stevenson says that they still show "a
large room, part of the old palace, and now the residence of the Cacique Astopilca, where the ill-fated Inca was kept a prisoner;" and he
adds that the line traced on the wall is still visible. (Residence in
South America, vol. ii. p. I63.) Peru abounds in remains as ancient
as the Conquest; and it would not be surprising that the memory of
a place so remarkable as this should be preserved,-though anything
but a memorial to be cherished by the Spaniards.
42 The facts in the preceding paragraph are told with remarkable
uniformity by the ancient chroniclers. (Conf. Pedro Pizarro, Descub.
y Conq., MS.-Carta de Hern. Pizarro, MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru,
ap. Barcia, ubi supra.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Zarate,
Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 6.-Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. I14.
-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 2, cap. I.)-Both Naharro and
HIerrera state expressly that Pizarro promised the Inca his liberation
on fulfilling the compact. This is not confirmed by the other chroniclers, who, however, do not intimate that the Spanish general declined
the terms. And as Pizarro, by all accounts, encouraged his prisoner
to perform his part of the contract, it must have been with the understanding implied, if not expressed, that he would abide by the other.
It is most improbable that the Inca would have stripped himself of
his treasures, if he had not so understood it.




SPLENDID PROMISES OF THE INCA.  423
No sooner was this arrangement made than the Inca
despatched couriers to Cuzco and the other principal
places in the kingdom, with orders that the gold ornaments and utensils should be removed from the royal
palaces, and from the temples and other public buildings, and transported without loss of time to Caxamalca. Meanwhile he continued to live in the Spanish
quarters, treated with the respect due to his rank, and
enjoying all the freedom that was compatible with the
security of his person. Though not permitted to go
abroad, his limbs were unshackled, and he had the
range of his own apartments under the jealous surveillance of a guard, who knew too well the value of the
royal captive to be remiss. He was allowed the society
of his favorite wives, and Pizarro took care that his
domestic privacy should not be violated. His subjects had free access to their sovereign, and every day
he received visits from the Indian nobles, who came
to bring presents and offer condolence to their unfortunate master. On such occasions the most potent of
these great vassals never ventured into his presence
without first stripping off their sandals and bearing a
load on their backs in token of reverence. The Spaniards gazed with curious eyes on these acts of homage,
or rather of slavish submission, on the one side, and
on the air of perfect indifference with which they were
received, as a matter of course, on the other; and
they conceived high ideas of the character of a prince
who, even in his present helpless condition, could inspire such feelings of awe in his subjects. The royal
levee was so well attended, and such devotion was
shown by his vassals to the captive monarch, as did




424            CONQUEST OF PERU..
not fail, in the end, to excite some feelings of distrust
in his keepers.43
Pizarro did not neglect the opportunity afforded him
of communicating the truths of revelation to his prisoner, and both he and his chaplain, Father Valverde,
labored in the same good work. Atahuallpa listened
with composure and apparent attention. But nothing
seemed to move him so much as the argument with
which the military polemic closed his discourse,-that
it could not be the true God whom Atahuallpa worshipped, since he had suffered him to fall into the
hands of his enemies. The unhappy monarch assented
to the force of this, acknowledging that his Deity had
indeed deserted him in his utmost need.44
Yet his conduct towards his brother Huascar at this
time too clearly proves that, whatever respect he may
have shown for the teachers, the doctrines of Christianity had made little impression on his heart. No
sooner had Huascar been informed of the capture of
his rival, and of the large ransom he had offered for
his deliverance, than, as the latter had foreseen, he
made every effort to regain his liberty, and sent, or
attempted to send, a message to the Spanish commander, that he would pay a much larger ransom than
that promised by Atahuallpa, who, never having dwelt
in Cuzco, was ignorant of the quantity of treasure
there, and where it was deposited.
43 Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria,
MS.-Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 6.
44 " I mas dijo Atabalipa, que estaba espantado de lo que el Governador le havia dicho: que bien conocia que aquel que hablaba en
su Idolo, no es Dios verdadero, pues tan poco le aiud6." Xerez, Conq.
del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 203.




DEA TH OF HUASCAR.            425
Intelligence of all this was secretly communicated
to Atahuallpa by the persons who had his brother in
charge; and his jealousy, thus roused, was further
heightened by Pizarro's declaration that he intended to
have Huascar brought to Caxamalca, where he would
himself examine into the controversy and determine
which of the two had the better title to the sceptre
of the Incas. Pizarro perceived, from the first, the
advantages of a competition which would enable him,
by throwing his sword into the scale he preferred, to
give it a preponderance.  The party who held the
sceptre by his nomination would henceforth be a tool
in his hands, with which to work his pleasure more
effectually than he could well do in his own name. It
was the game, as every reader knows, played by Edward the First in the affairs of Scotland, and by many
a monarch both before and since; and, though their
examples may not have been familiar to the unlettered
soldier, Pizarro was too quick in his perceptions to
require, in this matter, at least, the teachings of
history.
Atahuallpa was much alarmed by the Spanish commander's determination to have the suit between the
rival candidates brought before him; for he feared that,
independently of the merits of the case, the decision
would be likely to go in favor of Huascar, whose mild
and ductile temper would make him a convenient instrument in the hands of his conquerors. Without
further hesitation, he determined to remove this cause
of jealousy forever, by the death of his brother.
His orders were immediately executed, and the unhappy prince was drowned, as was commonly reported,
36*




426             CONQUEST OF PERU.
in the river of Andamarca, declaring with his dying
breath that the white men would avenge his murder,
and that his rival would not long survive him.45 Thus
perished the unfortunate Huascar, the legitimate heir
of the throne of the Incas, in the very morning of life,
and the commencement of his reign; a reign, however,
which had been long enough to call forth the display
of many excellent and amiable qualities, though his
nature was too gentle to cope with the bold and fiercer
temper of his brother. Such is the portrait we have
of him from the Indian and Castilian chroniclers;
though the former, it should be added, were the kinsmen of Huascar, and the latter certainly bore no good
will to Atahuallpa.46
That prince received the tidings of Huascar's death
with every mark of surprise and  indignation.   He
immediately sent for Pizarro, and communicated the
event to him with expressions of the deepest sorrow.
The Spanish commander refused, at first, to credit the
unwelcome news, and bluntly told the Inca that his
brother could not be dead, and that he should be
45 Both the place and the manner of Huascar's death are reported
with much discrepancy by the historians. All agree in the one important fact that he died a violent death at the instigation of his
brother. Conf. Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 3, cap. 2.-Xerez,
Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 204.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub.
y Conq., MS.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Zarate, Conq. del
Peru, lib. 2, cap. 6.-Instruc. del Inga Titucussi, MS.
46 Both Garcilasso de la Vega and Titucussi Yupanqui were descendants from Huayna Capac, of the pure Peruvian stock, the natural enemies, therefore, of their kinsman of Quito, whom they regarded
as a usurper. Circumstances brought the Castilians into direct collision with Atahuallpa, and it was natural they should seek to darken
his reputation by contrast with the fair character of his rival.




DEA TH OF HUASCAR.                  427
answerable for his life.47 To this Atahuallpa replied
by renewed assurances of the fact, adding that the
deed had been perpetrated, without his privity, by
Huascar's keepers, fearful that he might take advantage
of the troubles of the country to make his escape.
Pizarro, on making further inquiries, found that the
report of his death was but too true. That it should
have been brought about by Atahuallpa's officers without his express command would only show that by so
doing they had probably anticipated their master's
wishes. The crime, which assumes in our eyes a
deeper dye from the relation of the parties, had not
the same estimation among the Incas, in whose multitudinous families the bonds of brotherhood must have
sat loosely,-much too loosely to restrain the arm of
the despot from sweeping away any obstacle that lay in
his path.
47,' Sabido esto por el Gobernador, mostrA, que le pesaba mucho:
i dijo que era mentira, que no le havian muerto, que lo trujesen luego
vivo: i sino, que Ml mandaria matar 3 Atabalipa." Xerez, Conq. del
Peru, ap. Barcia, tom iii. iii. p. 204.




CHAPTER VI.
GOLD ARRIVES FOR THE RANSOM. —VISIT TO PACHACAMAC.
-— DEMOLITION OF THE IDOL. -THE INCA'S FAVORITE
GENERAL.-THE INCA'S LIFE IN CONFINEMENT.-ENVOYS' CONDUCT IN CUZCO.-ARRIVAL OF ALMAGRO.'533SEVERAL weeks had now passed since Atahuallpa's
emissaries had been despatched for the gold and silver
that were to furnish his ransom to the Spaniards. But
the distances were great, and the returns came in
slowly. They consisted, for the most part, of massive
pieces of plate, some of which weighed two or three
arrobas, —a Spanish weight of twenty-five pounds. On
some days, articles of the value of thirty or forty thousand pesos de oro were brought in, and, occasionally,
of the value of fifty or even sixty thousand pesos. The
greedy eyes of the Conquerors gloated on the shining
heaps of treasure, which were transported on the shoulders of the Indian porters, and, after being carefully
registered, were placed in safe deposit under a strong
guard. They now began to believe that the magnificent promises of the Inca would be fulfilled. But, as
their avarice was sharpened by the ravishing display of
wealth such as they had hardly dared to imagine, they
became more craving and impatient. They made no
allowance for the distance and the difficulties of the
way, and loudly inveighed against the tardiness with
(428 )




GOLD ARRIVES FOR THE RANSOM.   429
which the royal commands were executed. They even
suspected Atahuallpa of devising this scheme only to
gain a pretext for communicating with his subjects in
distant places, and of proceeding as dilatorily as possible, in order to secure time for the execution of his
plans. Rumors of a rising among the Peruvians were
circulated, and the Spaniards were in apprehension of
some general and sudden assault on their quarters.
Their new acquisitions gave them additional cause for
solicitude: like a miser, they trembled in the midst of
their treasures.'
Pizarro reported to his captive the rumors that were
in circulation among the soldiers, naming, as one of
the places pointed out for the rendezvous of the Indians, the neighboring city of Huamachuco. Atahuallpa listened with undisguised astonishment, and
indignantly repelled the charge, as false from beginning to end.  "No one of my subjects," said he,
"would dare to appear in arms, or to raise his finger,
without my orders. You have me," he continued,
"in your power.  Is not my life at your disposal?
And what better security can you have for my fidelity?"
He then represented to the Spanish commander that
the distances of many of the places were very great;
that to Cuzco, the capital, although a message might
be sent by post, through a succession of couriers, in
five days from Caxamalca, it would require weeks for a
porter to travel over the same ground with a heavy
load on his back. " But, that you may be satisfied I
am proceeding in good faith," he added, "I desire
x Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 6.-Naharro, Relacion sumatia, MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 204.




430           CONQUEST OF PERU.
you will send some of your own people to Cuzco. I
will give them a safe-conduct, and, when there, they
can superintend the execution of the commission, and
see with their own eyes that no hostile movements are
intended." It was a fair offer; and Pizarro, anxious
to get more precise and authentic information of the
state of the country, gladly availed himself of it.'
Before the departure of these emissaries, the general
had despatched his brother Hernando with about twenty
horse and a small body of infantry to the neighboring
town of Huamachuco, in order to reconnoitre the'country and ascertain if there was any truth in the report of an armed f6rce having assembled there. Hernando found every thing quiet, and met with a kind
reception from the natives. But before leaving the
place he received further orders from his brother to
continue his march to Pachacamac, a town situated on
the coast, at least a hundred leagues distant from Caxamalca. It was consecrated as the seat of the great
temple of the deity of that name, whom the Peruvians
worshipped as the Creator of the world. It is said
that they found there altars raised to this god, on their
first occupation of the country; and such was the veneration in which he was held by the natives that the
Incas, instead of attempting to abolish his worship,
deemed it more prudent to sanction it conjointly with
that of their own deity, the Sun.  Side by side the two
temples rose on the heights that overlooked the city of
Pachacamac, and prospered in the offerings of their
respective votaries.  "It was a cunning  arrange2 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap.
Barcia, tom. iii. pp. 203, 204.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.




VISIT TO PACHACAMIAC.              43I
ment," says an ancient writer, "by which the great
enemy of man secured to himself a double harvest of
souls. " 3
But the temple of Pachacamac continued to maintain
its ascendency; and the oracles delivered from its dark
and mysterious shrine were held in no less repute among
the natives of Tavantinsuyu (or "the four quarters of
the world," as Peru under the Incas was called) than
the oracles of Delphi obtained among the Greeks.
Pilgrimages were made to the hallowed spot from the
most distant regions, and the city of Pachacamac became among the Peruvians what Mecca was among the
Mahometans, or Cholula with the people of Anahuac.
The shrine of the deity, enriched by the tributes of
the pilgrims, gradually became one of the most opulent
in the land; and Atahuallpa, anxious to collect his
ransom as speedily as possible, urged Pizarro to send a
detachment in that direction, to secure the treasures
before they could be secreted by the priests of the
temple.
It was a journey of considerable difficulty. Twothirds of the route lay along the table-land of the
Cordilleras, intersected occasionally by crests of the
mountain-range, that imposed no slight impediment
to their progress.  Fortunately, much of the way
they had the benefit of the great road to Cuzco; and
"nothing in Christendom," exclaims Hernando Pizarro, "equals the magnificence of this road across
3 " El demonio Pachacama alegre con este concierto, afirman que
mostraua en sus respuestas gran contento: pues con lo vno y lo otro
era el seruido, y quedauan las animas de los simples malauenturados
presas en su poder." Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 72.




432            CONQUEST OF PERU.
the sierra." 4  In some places the rocky ridges were so
precipitous that steps were cut in them for the travellers, and, though the sides were protected by heavy
stone balustrades or parapets, it was with the greatest
difficulty that the horses were enabled to scale them.
The road was frequently crossed by streams, over which
bridges of wood and sometimes of stone were thrown;
though occasionally, along the declivities of the mountains, the waters swept down in such furious torrents
that the only method of passing them was by the
swinging bridges of osier, of which till now the Spaniards had had little experience. They were secured on
either bank to heavy buttresses of stone. But as they
were originally designed for nothing heavier than the
foot-passenger and the llama, and as they had something exceedingly fragile in their appearance, the
Spaniards hesitated to venture on them with their
horses. Experience, however, soon showed they were
capable of bearing a much greater weight; and though
the traveller, made giddy by the vibration of the long
avenue, looked with a reeling brain into the torrent
that was tumbling at the depth of a hundred feet or
more below him, the whole of the cavalry effected
their passage without an accident. At these bridges,
it may be remarked, they found persons stationed whose
business it was to collect toll for the government from
all travellers.5
4 " El camino de las sierras es cosa de ver, porque en verdad en
tierra tan fragosa en la cristiandad no se han visto tan hermosos caminos, toda la mayor parte de calzada." Carta, MS.
s " Todos los arroyos tienen puentes de piedra 6 de madera: en un
rio grande, que era muy caudaloso e muy grande, que pasamos dos
veces, hallamos puentes de red, que es cosa maravillosa de ver; pasa



VISIT TO PACHACAMAC.                    433
The Spaniards were amazed by the number as well
as magnitude of the flocks of llamas which they saw
browsing on the stunted herbage that grows in the
elevated regions of the Andes. Sometimes they were
gathered in enclosures, but more usually were roaming
at large under the conduct of their Indian shepherds;
and the Conquerors now learned, for the first time,
that these animals were tended with as much care, and
their migrations as nicely regulated, as those of the
vast flocks of merinos in their own country.6
The table-land and its declivities were thickly
sprinkled with hamlets and towns, some of them of
considerable size; and the country in every direction
bore the marks of a thrifty husbandry. Fields of
Indian corn were to be seen in all its different stages,
from the green and tender ear to the yellow ripeness
of harvest-time.' As they descended into the valleys
and deep ravines that divided the crests of the Cordilleras, they were surrounded by the vegetation of a
warmer climate, which delighted the eye with the gay
livery of a thousand bright colors and intoxicated the
senses with  its perfumes.  Everywhere  the  natural
capacities of the soil were stimulated by a minute
mos por ellas los caballos; tienen en cada pasaje dos puentes, la una
por donde pasa la gente comun, la otra por donde pasa el sefior de la
tierra 6 sus capitanes: esta tienen siempre cerrada e indios que la
guardan; estos indios cobran portazgo de los que pasan." Carta de
Hern. Pizarro, MS.-Also Relacion del primer Descub., MS.
6 A comical blunder has been made by the printer, in M. TernauxCompans' excellent translation of Xerez, in the account of this expedition: "On trouve sur toute la route beaucoup de porcs, de
lamas." (Relation de la Conquete du Perou, p. I57.) The substitution of porcs forparcs might well lead the reader into the error of;
supposing that swine existed in Peru before the Conquest.
Peru.-VOL. I.-T         37




434            CONQUEST OF PERU.
system of irrigation, which drew the fertilizing moisture from every stream and rivulet that rolled down
the declivities of the Andes; while the terraced sides
of the mountains were clothed with gardens and
orchards that teemed with fruits of various latitudes.
The Spaniards could not sufficiently admire the industry with which the natives had availed themselves of
the bounty of Nature, or had supplied the deficiency
where she had dealt with a more parsimonious hand.
Whether from the commands of the Inca, or from
the awe which their achievements had spread throughout the land, the Conquerors were received, in every
place through which they passed, with hospitable kindness. Lodgings were provided for them, with ample
refreshments from the well-stored magazines distributed
at intervals along the route. In many of the towns the
inhabitants came out to welcome them with singing
and dancing, and, when they resumed their march, a
number of able-bodied porters were furnished to carry
forward their baggage.7
At length, after some weeks of travel, severe even
with all these appliances, Hernando Pizarro arrived
before the city of Pachacamac. It was a place of
considerable population, and the edifices were, many
of them, substantially built. The temple of the tutelar
deity consisted of a vast stone building, or rather pile
of buildings, which, clustering around a conical hill,
7 Carta de Hernando Pizarro, MS.-Estete, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. pp.
20o6, 2o7.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Both the last-cited
author and Miguel Estete, the royal veedor or inspector, accompanied
Hernando Pizarro on this expedition, and, of course, were eye-witae.ses, like himself, of what they relate. Estete's narrative is incorpc:ated by the secretary Xerez in his own.




VISIT TO PACIACAMAC.              435
had the air of a fortress rather than a religious establishment. But, though the walls were of stone, the
roof was composed of a light thatch, as usual in
countries where rain seldom or never falls, and where
defence, consequently, is wanted chiefly against the
rays of the sun.
Presenting himself at the lower entrance of the
temple, Hernando Pizarro was refused admittance by
the guardians of the portal. But, exclaiming that " he
had come too far to be stayed by the arm of an Indian
priest," he forced his way into the passage, and,
followed by his men, wound up the gallery which led
to an area on the summit of the mount, at one end of
which stood a sort of chapel. This was the sanctuary
of the dread deity. The door was garnished with
ornaments of crystal and with turquoises and bits of
coral.' Here again the Indians would have dissuaded
Pizarro from violating the consecrated precincts, when
at that moment the shock of an earthquake, that
made the ancient walls tremble to their foundation, so
alarmed the natives, both those of Pizarro's own
company and the people of the place, that they fled
in dismay, nothing doubting that their incensed deity
would bury the invaders under the ruins or consume
them with his lightnings.  But no such terror found
its way into the breasts of the Conquerors, who felt
that here, at least, they were fighting the good fight of
the Faith.
Tearing open the door, Pizarro and his party entered. But, instead of a hall blazing, as they had fondly
8,, Esta puerta era muy tejida de diversas cosas de corales y turque.
sas y cristales y otras cosas." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




436             CONQUEST OF PERU.
imagined, with gold and precious stones, offerings of
the worshippers of Pachacamac, they found themselves
in a small and obscure apartment, or rather den, from
the floor and sides of which steamed up the most offensive odors,-like those of a slaughter-house. It was
the place of sacrifice. A few pieces of gold and some
emeralds were discovered on the ground, and, as their
eyes became accommodated to the darkness, they discerned in the most retired corner of the room the
figure of the deity. It was an uncouth monster, made
of wood, with the head resembling that of a man. This
was the god through whose lips Satan had breathed
forth the far-famed oracles which had deluded his
Indian votaries!9
Tearing the idol from its recess, the indignant Spaniards dragged it into the open air and there broke it
into a hundred fragments. The place was then purified, and a large cross, made of stone and plaster, was
erected on the spot. In a few years the walls of the
temple were pulled down'by the Spanish settlers, who
found there a convenient quarry for their own edifices.
But the cross still remained spreading its broad arms
over the ruins. It stood where it was planted in the
very heart of the stronghold of heathendom; and,
while all was in ruins around it, it proclaimed the
permanent triumphs of the Faith.
9 " Aquel era Pachacama, el cual les sanaba de sus enfermedades,
y i lo que alli se entendi6, el Demonio aparecia en aquella cueba A
aquellos sacerdotes y hablaba con ellos, y estos entraban con las peticiones y ofrendas de los que venian en romeria, que es cierto que del
todo el Sefiorio de Atabalica iban alli, como los Moros y Turcos van. la casa de Meca."  Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Also Estete,
ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 209.




TREASURE OBTAINED.                      437
The simple natives, finding that Heaven had no
bolts in store for the Conquerors, and that their god
had no power to prevent the profanation of his shrine,
came in gradually and tendered their homage to the
strangers, whom they now regarded with feelings of
superstitious awe. Pizarro profited by this temper to
wean them, if possible, from their idolatry; and,
though no preacher himself, as he tells us, he delivered
a discourse as edifying, doubtless, as could be expected
from  the mouth of a soldier;' and, in conclusion, he
taught them the sign of the cross, as an inestimable
talisman to secure them against the future machinations
of the devil."
But the Spanish commander was not so absorbed in
his spiritual labors as not to have an eye to those temporal concerns for which he had been sent to this quarter.
He now found, to his chagrin, that he had come somewhat too late, and that the priests of Pachacamac,
being advised of his mission, had secured much the
greater part of the gold and decamped with it before
his arrival.  A  quantity was afterwards discovered
buried in the grounds adjoining.!2  Still, the amount
obtained was considerable, falling little short of eighty
thousand castellanos, a sum which once would have
lo,, I A falta de predicador les hice mi sermon, diciendo el engafio
en que vivian." Carta de Hem. Pizarro, MS.
z! Ibid., MS.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Estete, ap. Bar.
cia, tom. iii. p. 20o9.
s2 "Y andando los tiepos el capitan Rodrigo Orgofiez, y Francisco
de Godoy, y otros sacaron gra summa de oro y plata de los enterra.
mientos. Y aun se presume y tiene por cierto, que ay mucho mas:
pero como no se sabe donde esta enterrado, se pierde." Cieza de
Leon, Cronica, cap. 72.
37*




438          CONQUEST OF PERU.
been deemed a compensation for greater fatigues than
they had encountered. But the Spaniards had become
familiar with gold; and their imaginations, kindled by
the romantic adventures in which they had of late been
engaged, indulged in visions which all the gold of Peru
would scarcely have realized.
One prize, however, Hernando obtained by his expe
dition, which went far to console him for the loss of
his treasure. While at Pachacamac, he learned that
the Indian commander Challcuchima lay with a large
force in the neighborhood of Xauxa, a town of
some strength at a considerable distance among the
mountains. This man, who was nearly related to
Atahuallpa, was his most experienced general, and,
together with Quizquiz, now at Cuzco, had achieved
those victories at the south which placed the Inca on
the throne. From his birth, his talents, and his large
experience, he was accounted second to no subject in
the kingdom. Pizarro was aware of the importance of
securing his person. Finding that the Indian noble
declined to meet him on his return, he determined to
march at once on Xauxa and take the chief in his own
quarters. Such a scheme, considering the enormous
disparity of numbers, might seem desperate even for
Spaniards. But success had given them such confidence that they hardly condescended to calculate
chances.
The road across the mountains presented greater
difficulties than those on the former march. To add
to the troubles of the cavalry, the shoes of their horses
were worn out, and their hoofs suffered severely on the
rough and stony ground. There was no iron at hand,




THE INCA'S FA VORITE GENERAL.  439
nothing but gold and silver. In the present emergency
they turned even these to account; and Pizarro caused
the horses of the whole troop to be shod with silver.
The work was done by the Indian smiths, and it
answered so well that in this precious material they
found a substitute for iron &uring the remainder of the
march.'3
Xauxa was a large and populous place; though we
shall hardly credit the assertion of the Conquerors, that
a hundred thousand persons assembled habitually in
the great square of the city.'4 The Peruvian commander was encamped, it was said, with an army of
five-and-thirty thousand men, at only a few miles'
distance from the town. With some difficulty he was
persuaded to an interview with Pizarro. The latter
addressed him courteously, and urged his return with
him to the Castilian quarters in Caxamalca, representing it as the command of the Inca. Ever since
the capture of his master, Challcuchima had remained
uncertain what course to take. The capture of the
Inca in this sudden and mysterious manner by a race'13, Hicieron hacer herrage de herraduras 6 clavos para sus Caballos
de Plata, los cuales hicieron los cien Indios fundidores muy buenos 6
cuantos quisieron de ellos, con el cual herrage andubieron dos meses."
(Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. I6.) The author
of the Relacion del primer Descubrimiento, MS., says they shod the
horses with silver and copper. And another of the Peruvian Conquerors assures us they used gold and silver. (Relatione d'un Capitano
Spagnuolo, ap. Ramusio, Navigationi et Viaggi, Venetia, I56%, tom.
iii. fol. 376.) All agree as to the silver.'4 " Era mucha la Gente de aquel Pueblo, i de sus Comarcas, que
al parecer de los Espafioles, se juntaban cada Dia en la Plaa Principal cien mil Personas." Estete, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 230.




440          CONQUEST OF PERU.
of beings who seemed to have dropped from the
clouds, and that too in the very hour of his triumph,
had entirely bewildered the Peruvian chief. He had
concerted no plan for the rescue of Atahuallpa, nor,
indeed, did he know whether any such movement
would be acceptable to him. He now acquiesced
in his commands, and was willing, at all events, to
have a personal interview with his sovereign. Pizarro
gained his end without being obliged to strike a single
blow to effect it. The barbarian, when brought into
contact with the white man, would seem to have
been rebuked by his superior genius, in the same
manner as the wild animal of the forest is said to quail
before the steady glance of the hunter.
Challcuchima came attended by a numerous retinue.
He was borne in his sedan on the shoulders of his
vassals, and, as he accompanied the Spaniards on
their return through the country, received everywhere from the inhabitants the homage paid only to
the favorite of a monarch. Yet all this pomp vanished
on his entering the presence of the Inca, whom he
approached with his feet bare, while a light burden,
which he had taken from one of the attendants, was
laid on his back. As he drew near, the old warrior,
raising his hands to heaven, exclaimed, "Would that I
had been here!-this would not then have happened;"
then, kneeling down, he kissed the hands and feet of
his royal master and bathed them with his tears. Atahuallpa, on his part, betrayed not the least emotion,
and showed no other sign of satisfaction at the presence of his favorite counsellor than by simply bidding
him welcome. The cold demeanor of the monarch




THE INCA'S LIFE IN CONFINEMENT.  44
contrasted strangely with the loyal sensibility of the
subject.'s
The rank of the Inca placed him at an immeasurable
distance above the proudest of his vassals; and the
Spaniards had repeated occasion to admire the ascendency which, even in his present fallen fortunes, he
maintained over his people, and the awe with which
they approached him. Pedro Pizarro records an interview, at which he was present, between Atahuallpa
and one of his great nobles, who had obtained leave to
visit some remote part of the country on condition of
returning by a certain day. He was detained somewhat beyond the appointed time, and on entering the
presence with a small propitiatory gift for his sovereign
his knees shook so violently that it seemed, says the
chronicler, as if he would have fallen to the ground.
His master, however, received him kindly, and dismissed him without a word of rebuke.'6
Atahuallpa in his confinement continued to receive
the same respectful treatment from the Spaniards as
hitherto. They taught him to play with dice, and the
more intricate game of chess, in which the royal
captive became expert, and loved to beguile with it
the tedious hours of his imprisonment. Towards his
own people he maintained as far as possible his wonted
state and ceremonial. He was attended by his wives
and the girls of his harem, who, as was customary,
waited on him at table and discharged the other menial
15 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-" The like of it," exclaims
Estete, "was never before seen since the Indies were discovered."
Ibid., p. 23I.
16 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.
Ts




442            CONQUEST OF PERU.
offices about his person. A body of Indian nobles
were stationed in the antechamber, but never entered
the presence unbidden; and when they did enter it
they submitted to the same humiliating ceremonies
imposed on the greatest of his subjects. The service
of his table was gold and silver plate. His dress,
which he often changed, was composed of the wool of
the vicufa wrought into mantles, so fine that it had
the appearance of silk.  He sometimes exchanged
these for a robe made of the skins of bats, as soft and
sleek as velvet.  Round his head he wore the llautu, a
woollen turban or shawl of the most delicate texture,
wreathed in folds of various bright colors; and he
still continued to encircle his temples with the borla,
the crimson threads of which, mingled with gold,
descended so as partly to conceal his eyes.  The
image of royalty had charms for him, when its substance had departed. No garment or utensil that had
once belonged to the Peruvian sovereign could ever be
used by another. When he laid it aside, it was carefully deposited in a chest, kept for the purpose, and
afterwards burned. It would have been sacrilege to
apply to vulgar uses that which had been consecrated
by the touch of the Inca.~7
Not long after the arrival of the party from Pachacamac, in the latter part of May, the three emissaries
returned from Cuzco. They had been very successful
in their mission. Owing to the Inca's order, and the
17 This account of the personal habits of Atahuallpa is taken from
Pedro Pizarro, who saw him often in his confinement. As his curious
narrative is little known, I have extracted the original in Appendix
No. 9.




ENVOYS' CONDUCT IN CUZCO.          443
awe which the white men now inspired throughout the
country, the Spaniards had everywhere met with a kind
reception. They had been carried on the shoulders of
the natives in the hamacas, or sedans, of the country;
and, as they had travelled all the way to the capital on
the great imperial road, along which relays of Indian
carriers were established at stated intervals, they performed this journey of more than six hundred miles,
not only without inconvenience, but with the most
luxurious ease. They passed through many populous
towns, and always found the simple natives disposed to
venerate them as beings of a superior nature. In Cuzco
they were received with public festivities, were sumptuously lodged, and had every want anticipated by the
obsequious devotion of the inhabitants.
Their accounts of the capital confirmed all that
Pizarro had before heard of the wealth and population
of the city. Though they had remained more than a
week in this place, the emissaries had not seen the
whole of it. The great temple of the Sun they found
literally covered with plates of gold. They had entered
the interior and beheld the royal mummies, seated each
in his gold-embossed chair and in robes profusely covered with ornaments. The Spaniards had the grace to
respect these, as they had been previously enjoined by
the Inca; but they required that the plates which garnished the walls should be all removed. The Peruvians most reluctantly acquiesced in the commands of
their sovereign to desecrate the national temple, which
every inhabitant of the city regarded with peculiar
pride and veneration. With less reluctance they assisted the Conquerors in stripping the ornaments from




444            CONQUEST OF PERU.
some of the other edifices, where the gold, however,
being mixed with a large proportion of alloy, was of
much less value.x8
The number of plates they tore from the temple of
the Sun was seven hundred; and though of no great
thickness, probably, they are compared in size to the
lid of a chest, ten or twelve inches wide.x9 A cornice
of pure gold encircled the edifice, but so strongly set
in the stone that it fortunately defied the efforts of the
spoilers. -The Spaniards complained of the want of
alacrity shown by the Indians in the work of destruction, and said that there were other parts of the city
containing buildings rich in gold and silver which they
had not been allowed to see. In truth, their mission,
which at best was a most ungrateful one, had been
rendered doubly annoying by the manner in which
they had executed it. The emissaries were men of a
very low stamp, and, puffed up by the honors conceded
to them by the natives, they looked on themselves as
entitled to these, and contemned the poor Indians as
a race immeasurably beneath the European. They not
only showed the most disgusting rapacity, but treated
the highest nobles with wanton insolence. They even
went so far, it is said, as to violate the privacy of the
convents, and to outrage the religious sentiments of
the Peruvians by their scandalous amours with the
Virgins of the Sun.   The people of Cuzco were so
i8 Rel. d'un Capitano Spagn., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 375.-Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 2,
cap. 12, 13.'9 ", I de las Chapas de oro, que esta Casa tenia, quitaron setecientas
Planchas.... manera de Tablas de Caxas de a. tres, i & quatro
palmos de largo." Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 232.




ENVOYS' CONDUCT IN CUZCO.    445
exasperated that they would have laid violent hands on
them, but for their habitual reverence for the Inca, in
whose name the Spaniards had come there. As it was,
the Indians collected as much gold as was necessary to
satisfy their unworthy visitors, and got rid of them as
speedily as possible.20 It was a great mistake in Pizarro
to send such men. There were persons, even in his
company, who, as other occasions showed, had some
sense of self-respect, if not respect for the natives.
The messengers brought with them, besides silver,
full two hundred cargas or loads of gold.= This was
an important accession to the contributions of Atahuallpa; and, although the treasure was still considerably below the mark prescribed, the monarch saw with
satisfaction the time drawing nearer for the completion
of his ransom.
Not long before this, an event had occurred which
changed the condition of the Spaniards and had an
unfavorable influence on the fortunes of the Inca.
This was the arrival of Almagro at Caxamalca, with a
strong reinforcement. That chief had succeeded, after
great efforts, in equipping three vessels and assembling
a body of one hundred and fifty men, with which he
sailed from Panama the latter part of the preceding
year. On his voyage he was joined by a small addigo Herrera, Hist. general, ubi supra.
21 So says Pizarro's secretary: " I vinieron docientas cargas de
Oro, i veinte i cinco de Plata." (Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia,
ubi supra.) A load, he says, was brought by four Indians. " Cargas
de Paligueres, que las traen quatro Indios." The meaning of paligueres-not a Spanish word-is doubtful. Ternaux-Compans supposes, ingeniously enough, that it may have something of the same
meaning with palanquin, to which it bears some resemblance.
Peru —VoL I.           38




446          CONQUEST OF PERU.
tional force from Nicaragua, so that his whole strength
amounted to one hundred and fifty foot and fifty horse,
well provided with the munitions of war. His vessels
were steered by the old pilot Ruiz; but, after making
the Bay of St. Matthew, he crept slowly along the
coast, baffled as usual by winds and currents, and experiencing all the hardships incident to that protracted
navigation. From some cause or other, he was not so
fortunate as to obtain tidings of Pizarro; and so disheartened were his followers, most of whom were raw
adventurers, that when arrived at Puerto Viejo they
proposed to abandon the expedition and return at once
to Panama. Fortunately, one of the little squadron
which Almagro had sent forward to Tumbez brought
intelligence of Pizarro and of the colony he had
planted at San Miguel. Cheered by the tidings, the
cavalier resumed his voyage, and succeeded at length,
towards the close of December, 1532, in bringing his
whole party safe to the Spanish settlement.
He there received the account of Pizarro's march
across the mountains, his seizure of the Inca, and, soon
afterwards, of the enormous ransom offered for his liberation. Almagro and his companions listened with
undisguised amazement to this account of his associate,
and of a change in his fortunes so rapid and wonderful that it seemed little less than magic. At the same
time, he received a caution from some of the colonists
not to trust himself in the power of Pizarro, who was
known to bear him no good will.
Not long after Almagro's arrival at San Miguel, advices were sent of it to Caxamalca, and a private note
from his secretary Perez informed Pizarro that his asso



ARRIVAL OF ALMAGRO.                447
ciate had come with no purpose of co-operating with
him, but with the intention to establish an independent
government. Both of the Spanish captains seem to
have been surrounded by mean and turbulent spirits,
who sought to embroil them with each other, trusting,
doubtless, to find their own account in the rupture.
For once, however, their malicious machinations failed.
Pizarro was overjoyed at the arrival of so considerable a reinforcement, which would enable him to push
his fortunes as he had desired, and go forward with the
conquest of the country. He laid little stress on the
secretary's communication, since, whatever might have
been Almagro's original purpose, Pizarro knew that the
richness of the vein he had now opened in the land
would be certain to secure his co-operation in working
it.  He had the magnanimity, therefore,-for there is
something magnanimous in being able to stifle the suggestions of a petty rivalry in obedience to sound policy,
-to send at once to his ancient comrade, and invite
him, with many assurances of friendship, to Caxamalca.
Almagro, who was of a frank and careless nature, received the communication in the spirit in which it was
made, and, after some necessary delay, directed his
march into the interior. But before leaving San Miguel,
having become acquainted with the treacherous conduct
of his secretary, he recompensed his treason by hanging him on the spot.22
Almagro reached Caxamalca about the middle of
= Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru,
ap. Barcia, tomrn. iii. pp. 204, 205.-Relacion sumaria, MS.-Conq. i
Pob. del Piru, MS.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-HIerrera,
Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 3, cap. I.




448          CONQUES7' OF PERU.
February, I533. The soldiers of Pizarro came out to
welcome their countrymen, and the two captains embraced each other with every mark of cordial satisfaction. All past differences were buried in oblivion,
and they seemed only prepared to aid one another in
following up the brilliant career now opened to them
in the conquest of an empire.
There was one person in Caxamalca on whom this
arrival of the Spaniards produced a very different impression from that made on their own countrymen.
This was the Inca Atahuallpa. He saw in the newcomers only a new swarm of locusts to devour his
unhappy country; and he felt that, with his enemies
thus multiplying around him, the chances were diminished of recovering his freedom, or of maintaining it
if recovered. A little circumstance, insignificant in
itself, but magnified by superstition into something
formidable, occurred at this time to cast an additional
gloom over his situation.
A remarkable appearance, somewhat of the nature
of a meteor, or it may have been a comet, was seen in
the heavens by some soldiers and pointed out to Atahuallpa. He gazed on it with fixed attention for some
minutes, and then exclaimed, with a dejected air, that
"a similar sign had been seen in the skies a short time
before the death of his father Huayna Capac." 23 From
this day a sadness seemed to take possession of him,
as he looked with doubt and undefined dread to the
future. Thus it is that in seasons of danger the mind,
like the senses, becomes morbidly acute in its percep33 Rel. d'un Capitano Spagn., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 377.Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 65.




ARRIVAL OF ALMAGRO.             449
tions, and the least departure from the regular course
of nature, that would have passed unheeded in ordinary
times, to the superstitious eye seems pregnant with
meaning, as in some way or other connected with the
destiny of the individual.
38 *




CHAPTER VII.
IMMENSE AMOUNT OF TREASURE.-ITS DIVISION AMONG
THE TROOPS. —RUMORS OF A RISING. —TRIAL OF THE
INCA. —HIS EXECUTION.-REFLECTIONS.
I533.
THE arrival of Almagro produced a considerable
change in Pizarro's prospects, since it enabled him to
resume active operations and push forward his conquests in the interior. The only obstacle in his way
was the Inca's ransom, and the Spaniards had patiently
waited, till the return of the emissaries from Cuzco
swelled the treasure to a large amount, though still
below the stipulated limit. But now their avarice got
the better of their forbearance, and they called loudly
for the immediate division of the gold.  To wait
longer would only be to invite the assault of their
enemies, allured by a bait so attractive. While the
treasure remained uncounted, no man knew its value,
nor what was to be his own portion. It was better to
distribute it at once, and let every one possess and
defend his own. Several, moreover, were now disposed to return home and take their share of the gold
with them, where they could place it in safety. But
these were few; while much the larger part were only
anxious to leave their present quarters and march at
once to Cuzco.  More gold, they thought, awaited
them in that capital than they could get here by pro(450)




IMMENSE AMOUNT OF TREASURE.  45I
longing their stay; while every hour was precious, to
prevent the inhabitants from secreting their treasures,
of which design they had already given indication.
Pizarro was especially moved by the last consideration; and he felt that without the capital he could not
hope to become master of the empire. Without further
delay, the division of the treasure was agreed upon.
Yet, before making this, it was necessary to reduce
the whole to ingots of a uniform standard, for the
spoil was composed of an infinite variety of articles, in
which the gold was of very different degrees of purity.
These articles consisted of goblets, ewers, salvers, vases
of every shape and size, ornaments and utensils for the
temples and the royal palaces, tiles and plates for the
decoration of the public edifices, curious imitations of
different plants and animals. Among the plants, the
most beautiful was the Indian corn, in which the golden
earwas sheathed in its broad leaves of silver, from which
hung a rich tassel of threads of the same precious metal.
A fountain was also much admired, which sent up a
sparkling jet of gold, while birds and animals of the
same material played in the waters at its base. The
delicacy of the workmanship of some of these, and the
beauty and ingenuity of the design, attracted the admiration of better judges than the rude Conquerors of Peru.'
Before breaking up these specimens of Indian art,
Relatione de Pedro Sancho, ap. Ramusio, Viaggi, tom. iii. fol.
399.-Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 233. —Zarate,
Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 7. —Oviedo saw at St. Domingo the articles
which Hernando Pizarro was bearing to Castile; and he expatiates
on several beautifully-wrought vases, richly chased, of very fine gold,
and measuring twelve inches in height and thirty round. Hist. de las
Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. I6.




452          CONQUEST OF PERU.
it was determined to send a quantity, which should be
deducted from the royal fifth, to the emperor.  It
would serve as a sample of the ingenuity of the natives,
and would show him the value of his conquests. A
number of the most beautiful articles was selected, of
the value of a hundred thousand ducats, and Hernando Pizarro was appointed to be the bearer of them
to Spain. He was to obtain an audience of Charles,
and at the same time that he laid the treasures before
him he was to give an account of the proceedings of
the Conquerors, and to seek a further augmentation
of their powers and dignities.
No man in the army was better qualified for this
mission, by his address and knowledge of affairs, than
Hernando Pizarro; no one would be so likely'to urge
his suit with effect at the haughty Castilian court. But
other reasons influenced the selection of him at the
present juncture.
His former jealousy of Almagro still rankled in his
bosom, and he had beheld that chief's arrival at the
camp with feelings of disgust, which he did not care
to conceal. He looked on him as coming to share the
spoils of victory and defraud his brother of his legitimate honors. Instead of exchanging the cordial greeting proffered by Almagro at their first interview, the
arrogant cavalier held back in sullen silence.  His
brother Francis was greatly displeased at conduct
which threatened to renew their ancient feud, and he
induced Hernando to accompany him to Almagro's
quarters and make some acknowledgment for his uncourteous behavior.2 But, notwithstanding this show
2 Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 2, cap. 3.




IMMENSE AMO UNT OF TREASURE.  45 3
of reconciliation, the general thought the present a
favorable opportunity to remove his brother from the
scene of operations, where his factious spirit more than
counterbalanced his eminent services.3
The business of melting down the plate was intrusted
to the Indian goldsmiths, who were thus required to
undo the work of their own hands. They toiled day
and night, but such was the quantity to be recast that
it consumed a full month. When the whole was reduced to bars of a uniform standard, they were nicely
weighed, under the superintendence of the royal inspectors. The total amount of the gold was found to
be one million three hundred and twenty-six thousand five hundred and thirty-nine pesos de oro, which,
allowing for the greater value of money in the sixteenth century, would be equivalent, probably, at the
present time, to near three millions and a half of ounds
sterling, or somewhat less than fifteen millions and a
half of dollars.4 The quantity of silver was estimated
3 According to Oviedo, it was agreed that Hernando should have a
share much larger than he was entitled to of the Inca's ransom, in
the hope that he would feel so rich as never to desire to return again
to Peru: "Trabajaron de le embiar rico por quitarle de entre ellos, y
porque yendo muy rico como fue no tubiese voluntad de tornar A
aquellas partes." Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. i6.
4 Acta de Reparticion del Rescate de Atahuallpa, MS.-Xerez,
Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 232.-In reducing the sums
mentioned in this work, I have availed myself-as I before did, in the
History of the Conquest of Mexico-of the labors of Sefior Clemencin, formerly Secretary of the Royal Academy of History at
Madrid. This eminent scholar, in the sixth volume of the Memoirs
of the Academy, prepared wholly by himself, has introduced an elaborate essay on the value of the currency in the reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella. Although this period-the close of the fifteenth centurywas somewhat earlier than that of the Conquest of Peru, yet his cal



45 4             CONQUEST OF PERU.
at fifty-one thousand six hundred and ten marks. History affords no parallel of such a booty-and that, too,
culations are sufficiently near the truth for our purpose, since the
Spanish currency had not as yet been much affected by that disturbing cause, the influx of the precious metals from the New World.
In inquiries into the currency of a remote age, we may consider, in
the first place, the specific value of the coin,-that is, the value which
it derives from the weight, purity, etc., of the metal, circumstances
easily determined. In the second place, we may inquire into the
commercial or comparative worth of the money,-that is, the value
founded on a comparison of the difference between the amount of
commodities which the same sum would purchase formerly and at the
present time. The latter inquiry is attended with great embarrassment,
from the difficulty of finding any one article which may be taken as
the true standard of value. Wheat, from its general cultivation and
use, has usually been selected by political economists as this standard;
and Clemencin has adopted it in his calculations. Assuming wheat as
the standard, he has endeavored to ascertain the value of the principal
coins in circulation at the time of the " Catholic Kings." He makes
no mention in his treatise of the peso de oro, by which denomination
the sums in the early part of the sixteenth century were more frequently expressed than by any other. But he ascertains both the
specific and the commercial value of the castellano, which several of
the old writers, as Oviedo, Herrera, and Xerez, concur in stating as
precisely equivalent to the peso de oro. From the results of his calculations, it appears that the specific value of the castellano, as stated
by him in reals, is equal to three dollars and seven cents of our own
currency, while the commercial value is nearly four times as great, or
eleven dollars sixty-seven cents, equal to two pounds twelve shillings
and sixpence sterling. By adopting this as the approximate value of
the peso de oro in the early part of the sixteenth century, the reader
may easily compute for himself the value, at that period, of the sums
mentioned in these pages; most of which are expressed in that denomination. I have been the more particular in this statement since
in my former work I confined myself to the commercial value of the
money, which, being much greater than the specific value, founded
on the quality and weight of the metal, was thought by an ingenious
correspondent to give the reader an exaggerated estimate of the sums
mentioned in the history. But it seems to me that it is only this com



ITS DIVISION AMONG  THE  TROOPS.  455
in the most convertible form, in ready money, as it
were-having fallen to the lot of a little band of military adventurers, like the Conquerors of Peru. The
great object of the Spanish expeditions in the New
World was gold. It is remarkable that their success
should have been so complete. Had they taken the
track of the English, the French, or the Dutch, on the
shores of the northern continent, how different would
have been the result! It is equally worthy of remark
that the wealth thus suddenly acquired, by diverting
them from the slow but surer and more permanent
sources of national prosperity, has in the end glided
from their grasp and left them among the poorest of
the nations of Christendom.
A new difficulty now arose in respect to the division
of the treasure. Almagro's followers claimed to be
admitted to a share of it; which, as they equalled
and, indeed, somewhat exceeded in number Pizarro's
company, would reduce the gains of these last very
materially.  "We were not here, it is true," said
Almagro's soldiers to their comrades, "at the seizure
of the Inca, but we have taken our turn in mounting
guard over him since his capture, have helped you to
defend your treasures, and now give you the means
of going forward and securing your conquests. It is a
common cause," they urged, "in which all are equally
parative or commercial value with which the reader has any concern;
indicating what amount of commodities any given sum represents,
that he may thus know the real worth of that sum,-thus adopting the
principle, though conversely stated, of the old Hudibrastic maxim," What is wvorth in any thing,
But so much money as't will bring?"




456            CONQUEST OF PERU.
embarked, and the gains should be shared equally between us."
But this way of viewing the matter was not at all
palatable to Pizarro's company, who alleged that Atahuallpa's contract had been made exclusively with
them; that they had seized the Inca, had secured the
ransom, had incurred, in short, all the risk of the
enterprise, and were not now disposed to share the
fruits of it with every one who came after them.
There was much force, it could not be denied, in this
reasoning, and it was finally settled between the leaders
that Almagro's followers should resign their pretensions
for a stipulated sum of no great amount, and look to
the career now opened to them for carving out their
fortunes for themselves.
This delicate affair being thus harmoniously adjusted,
Pizarro prepared, with all solemnity, for a division of
the imperial spoil. The troops were called together in
the great square, and the Spanish commander, "with
the fear of God before his eyes," says the record,
"invoked the assistance of Heaven to do the work
before him conscientiously and justly."5 The appeal
may seem somewhat out of place at the distribution of
spoil so unrighteously acquired; yet in truth, considering the magnitude of the treasure, and the power
assumed by Pizarro to distribute it according to the
respective deserts of the individuals, there were few
acts of his life involving a heavier responsibility. On
s "Segun Dios Nuestro Sefior se diere a entender teniendo su
conciencia y para lo mejor hazer pedia al ayuda de Dios Nuestro
Sefior, 6 imboco el auxilio divino." Acta de Reparticion del Rescate,
MS.




ITS DIVISION AMONG THE TROOPS. 457
his present decision might be said to hang the future
fortunes of each one of his followers,- poverty or
independence during the remainder of his days.
The royal fifth was first deducted, including the
remittance already sent to Spain. The share appropriated by Pizarro amounted to fifty-seven thousand
two hundred and twenty-two pesos of gold, and two
thousand three hundred and fifty marks of silver. He
had besides this the great chair or throne of the Inca,
of solid gold, and valued at twenty-five thousand pesos
de oro.  To his brother Hernando were paid thirty-one
thousand and eighty pesos of gold, and two thousand
three hundred and fifty marks of silver. De Soto
received seventeen thousand seven hundred and forty
pesos of gold, and seven hundred and twenty-four
marks of silver. Most of the remaining cavalry, sixty
in number, received each eight thousand eight hundred
and eighty pesos of gold, and three hundred and sixtytwo marks of silver, though some had more, and a few
considerably less. The infantry mustered in all one
hundred and five men. Almost one-fifth of them were
allowed, each, four thousand four hundred and forty
pesos of gold, and one hundred and eighty marks of
silver, half of the compensation of the troopers. The
remainder received one-fourth part less; though here
again there were exceptions, and some were obliged to
content themselves with a much smaller share of the
spoil.6
6 The particulars of the distribution are given in the Acta de Reparticion del Rescate, an instrument drawn up and signed by the royal
notary. The document, which is therefore of unquestionable authority, is among the MSS. selected for me from the collection of Mufioz.
Peru.-VoL. I.-U     39




45 8             CONQUEST OF PERU.
The new church of San Francisco, the first Christian
temple in Peru, was endowed with two thousand two
hundred  and  twenty  pesos of gold.   The  amount
assigned to Almagro's company was not excessive, if
it was not more than twenty thousand pesos;7 and
that reserved for the colonists of San Miguel, which
amounted only to fifteen thousand pesos, was unaccountably small.8 There were among them certain
soldiers who, at an early period of the expedition, as
the reader may remember, abandoned the march and
returned to San Miguel. These, certainly, had little
claim to be remembered in the division of booty. But
the greater part of the colony consisted of invalids,
men whose health had been broken by their previous
hardships, but who still, with a stout and willing heart,
did good service in their military post on the sea-coast.
On what grounds they had forfeited their claims to a
more ample remuneration it is not easy to explain.
Nothing is said, in the partition, of Almagro himself, who, by the terms of the original contract, might
claim an equal share of the spoil with his associate.
As little notice is taken of Luque, the remaining
partner. Luque himself was, indeed, no longer to be
7 " Se diese E la gente que vino con el Capitan Diego de Almagro
para ayuda E pagar sus deudas y fletes y suplir algunas necesidades
que traian, veinte mil pesos." (Acta de Reparticion del Rescate, MS.)
Herrera says that Ioo,ooo pesos were paid to Almagro's men. (Hist.
general, dec. 5, lib. 2, cap. 3.) But it is not so set down in the in..
strument.
8 " En treinta personas que quedaron en la ciudad de san Miguel
de Piura dolientes y otros que no vinieron ni se hallaron en la prision
de Atagualpa y toma del oro porque algunos son pobres y otros tienen necesidad sefialaba I5,ooo ps de oro para los repartir S. Sefioria
entre las dichas personas." Ibid., MS.




ITS DIVISZON AMONG THE TROOPS. 459
benefited by worldly treasure. He had died a short
time before Almagro's departure from  Panama;9 too
soon to learn the full success of the enterprise, which,
but for his exertions, must have failed; too soon to
become acquainted with the achievements and the
crimes of Pizarro. But the Licentiate Espinosa, whom
he represented, and who, it appears, had advanced
the funds for the expedition, was still living at St.
Domingo, and Luque's pretensions were explicitly
transferred to him. Yet it is unsafe to pronounce,
at this distance of time, on the authority of mere
negative testimony; and it must be admitted to form
a strong presumption in favor of Pizarro's general
equity in the distribution, that no complaint of it
has reached us from any of the parties present, nor
from contemporary chroniclers.I~
The division of the ransom being completed by the
Spaniards, there seemed to be no further obstacle to
their resuming active operations and commencing the
march to Cuzco. But what was to be done with Atahuallpa? In the determination of this question, whatever was expedient was just." To liberate him would
9 Montesinos, Annales, MS., afio I533.
Io The " Spanish Captain," several times cited, who tells us he was
one of the men appointed to guard the treasure, does indeed complain
that a large quantity of gold vases and other articles remained undivided, a palpable injustice, he thinks, to the honest Conquerors, who
had earned all by their hardships. (Rel. d'un Capitano Spagn., ap.
Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 378, 379.) The writer, throughout his Relation, shows a full measure of the coarse and covetous spirit which
marked the adventurers of Peru.
zx "1Y esto tenia por justo, pues era provechoso." It is the sentiment imputed to Pizarro by Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 3,
cap. 4.




460           CONQUEST OF PERU.
be to set at large the very man who might prove their
most dangerous enemy, -one whose birth and royal
station would rally round him the whole nation, place
all the machinery of government at his control, and all
its resources,-one, in short, whose bare word might
concentrate all the energies of his people against the
Spaniards, and thus delay for a long period, if not
wholly defeat, the conquest of the country. Yet to
hold him in captivity was attended with scarcely less
difficulty; since to guard so important a prize would
require such a division of their force as must greatly
cripple its strength, and how could they expect, by
any vigilance, to secure their prisoner against rescue in
the perilous passes of the mountains?
The Inca himself now loudly demanded his freedom.
The proposed amount of the ransom had, indeed, not
been fully paid. It may be doubted whether it ever
would have been, considering the embarrassments
thrown in the way by the guardians of the temples,
who seemed disposed to secrete the treasures, rather
than despoil these sacred depositories to satisfy the
cupidity of the strangers. It was unlucky, too, for the
Indian monarch that much of the gold, and that of the
best quality, consisted of flat plates or tiles, which,
however valuable, lay in a compact form that did little
towards swelling the heap. But an immense amount
had been already realized, and it would have been a
still greater one, the Inca might allege, but for the
impatience of the Spaniards. At all events, it was a
magnificent ransom, such as was never paid by prince
or potentate before.
These considerations Atahuallpa urged on several of




RUMORS OF A RISING.                    46I
the cavaliers, and especially on Hernando de Soto, who
was on terms of more familiarity with him than Pizarro.
De Soto reported Atahuallpa's demands to his leader;
but the latter evaded  a direct reply.  He did not
disclose the dark purposes over which his mind was
brooding.'1 Not long afterwards he caused the notary
to prepare an instrument in which he fully acquitted
the Inca of further obligation in respect to the ransom.
This he commanded to be publicly proclaimed in the
camp, while at the same time he openly declared that
the safety of the Spaniards required that the Inca
should be detained in confinement until they were
strengthened by additional reinforcements.'T
Meanwhile the old rumors of a meditated attack by
the natives began to be current among the soldiers.
They were repeated from one to another, gaining
something by every repetition.  An immense army,
it was reported, was mustering at Quito, the land of
Atahuallpa's birth, and thirty thousand Caribs were on
their way to support it.'4 The Caribs were distributed
2  "I como no ahondaban los designios que tenia le replicaban;
pero 61 respondia, que iba mirando en ello." Herrera, Hist. general,
dec. 5, lib. 3, cap. 4.
13 " Fatta quella fusione, il Governatore fece vn atto innanzi al notaro nel quale liberaua il Cacique Atabalipa et l'absolueua della promessa et parola che haueua data a gli Spagnuoli che lo presero della
casa d'oro c'haueua lor c6cessa, il quale fece publicar publicamete a
suon di trombe nella piazza di quella citt. di Caxamalca." (Pedro
Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 399.) The authority is unimpeachable,-for any fact, at least, that makes against the Conquerors,-since the Relatione was by one of Pizarro's own secretaries, and
was authorized under the hands of the general and his great officers.
s4 "De la gente Natural de Quito vienen docientos mil Hombres
de Guerra, i treinta mil Caribes, que comen Came Humana." Xerez,
39*




462             CONQ UEST OF PER U.
by the early Spaniards rather indiscriminately over the
different parts of America, being invested with peculiar horrors as a race of cannibals.
It was not easy to trace the origin of these rumors.
There was in the camp a considerable number of Indians, who belonged to the party of Huascar, and who
were, of course, hostile to Atahuallpa. But his worst
enemy was Felipillo, the interpreter from Tumbez,
already mentioned in these pages. This youth had
conceived a passion for, or, as some say, had been
detected in an intrigue with, one of the royal concubines.x5 The circumstance had reached the ears of
Atahuallpa, who felt himself deeply outraged by it.
"That such an insult should have been offered by so
base a person was an indignity," he said, "more difficult to bear than his imprisonment;"x6 and he told
Pizarro "that, by the Peruvian law, it could be expiated, not by the criminal's own death alone, but by
that of his whole family and kindred."'7 But Felipillo was too important to the Spaniards to be dealt
with so summarily; nor did they probably attach such
Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 233.-See also Pedro Sancho,
Rel., ap. Ramusio, ubi supra.
1s " Pues estando asi atravesose un demonio de una lengua que se
dezia ffelipillo uno de los muchachos que el marquez avia llevado d
Espaffa que al presente hera lengua y andava enamorado de una
muger de Atabalipa." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-The
amour and the malice of Felipillo, which, Quintana seems to think,
rest chiefly on Garcilasso's authority (see Espafioles celebres, tom. ii.
p. 2Io, nota), are stated very explicitly by Zarate, Nabarro, Gomara,
Balboa, all contemporaneous, though not, like Pedro Pizarro, personally present in the army.
6 A Diciendo que sentia mas aquel desacato, que su prision." Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 7.
z7 Ibid., loc. cit.




RUMORS OF A RISING.                   463
consequence to an offence which, if report be true,
they had countenanced by their own example.'8 Felipillo, however, soon learned the state of the Inca's
feelings towards himself, and from that moment he
regarded him with deadly hatred. Unfortunately, his
malignant temper found ready means for its indulgence.
The rumors of a rising among the natives pointed to
Atahuallpa as the author of it. Challcuchima was examined on the subject, but avowed his entire ignorance
of any such design, which he pronounced a malicious
slander. Pizarro next laid the matter before the Inca
himself, repeating to him the stories in circulation,
with the air of one who believed them. " What treason
is this," said the general, "that you have meditated
against me,-me, who have ever treated you with
honor, confiding in your words, as in those of a
brother?"   "You jest," replied the Inca, who perhaps did not feel the weight of this confidence; "you
are always jesting with me. How could I or my people
think of conspiring against men so valiant as the Spaniards?  Do not jest with me thus, I beseech you."9
"This," continues Pizarro's secretary, "he said in
the most composed and natural manner, smiling all
the while to dissemble his falsehood, so that we were
all amazed to find such cunning in a barbarian." ~
s8 " E le habian tornado sus mugeres 6 repartidolas en su presencia
e usaban de ellas de sus adulteries." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS.,
Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.:9 " Burlaste conmigo? siempre me hablas cosas de burlas? Que
parte somos Yo, i toda mi Gente, para enojar a tall valientes Hombres
como vosotros? No me digas esas burlas." Xerez, Conq. del Peru,
ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 234.
"o " De que los Espafioles que se las han oldo, estan espantados de
vrr en vn Hombre Barbaro tanta prudencia." Ibid., loc. cit.




464          CONQUEST OF PERU.
But it was not with cunning, but with the consciousness of innocence, as the event afterwards proved, that
Atahuallpa thus spoke to Pizarro.  He readily discerned, however, the causes, perhaps the consequences,
of the accusation. He saw a dark gulf opening beneath his feet; and he was surrounded by strangers,
on none of whom he could lean for counsel or protection. The life of the captive monarch is usually short;
and Atahuallpa might have learned the truth of this,
when he thought of Huascar.  Bitterly did he now
lament the absence of Hernando Pizarro, for, strange
as it may seem, the haughty spirit of this cavalier had
been touched by the condition of the royal prisoner,
and he had treated him with a deference which won
for him the peculiar regard and confidence of the Indian. Yet the latter lost no time in endeavoring to
efface the general's suspicions and to establish his own
innocence.  "Am I not," said he to Pizarro, "a poor
captive in your hands? How could I harbor the designs you impute to me, when I should be the first
victim of the outbreak? And you little know my
people, if you think that such a movement would be
made without my orders; when the very birds in my
dominions," said he, with somewhat of an hyperbole,
" would scarcely venture to fly contrary to my will." 2
But these protestations of innocence had little effect
on the troops; among whom the story of a general
rising of the natives continued to gain credit every
hour. A large force, it was said, was already gathered
at Huamachuco, not a hundred miles from the camp,
2r "Pues si Yo no lo quiero, ni las Aves bolar.n en mi Tierra."
Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 7.




RUMORS OF A RISING.               465
and their assault might be hourly expected. The treasure which the Spaniards had acquired afforded a tempting prize, and their own alarm was increased by the
apprehension of losing it. The patrols were doubled.
The horses were kept saddled and bridled. The soldiers slept on their arms; Pizarro went the rounds
regularly to see that every sentinel was on his post.
The little army, in short, was in a state of preparation
for instant attack.
Men suffering from fear are not likely to be too
scrupulous as to the means of removing the cause of
it. Murmurs, mingled with gloomy menaces, were
now heard against the Inca, the author of these machinations. Many began to demand his life, as necessary
to the safety of the army. Among these the most
vehement were Almagro and his followers. They had
not witnessed the seizure of Atahuallpa. They had no
sympathy with him in his fallen state. They regarded
him only as an encumbrance, and their desire now was
to push their fortunes in the country, since they had
got so little of the gold of Caxamalca. They were
supported by Riquelme, the treasurer, and by the rest
of the royal officers. These men had been left at San
Miguel by Pizarro, who did not care to have such official spies on his movements. But they had come to
the camp with Almagro, and they loudly demanded
the Inca's death, as indispensable to the tranquillity
of the country and the interests of the crown.s
To these dark suggestions Pizarro turned-or seemed
w Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 400. —
These cavaliers were all present in the camp.
u*




466           CONQUEST OF PERU.
to turn-an unwilling ear, showing visible reluctance
to proceed to extreme measures with his prisoner.23
There were some few, and among others Hernando de
Soto, who supported him in these views, and who regarded such measures as not at all justified by the evidence of Atahuallpa's guilt. In this state of things,
the Spanish commander determined to send a small detachment to Huamachuco, to reconnoitre the country
and ascertain what ground there was for the rumors of
an insurrection. De Soto was placed at the head of
the expedition, which, as the distance was not great,
would occupy but a few days.
After that cavalier's departure, the agitation among
the soldiers, instead of diminishing, increased to such
a degree that Pizarro, unable to resist their importunities, consented to bring Atahuallpa to instant trial. It
was but decent, and certainly safer, to have the forms
of a trial. A court was organized, over which the
two captains, Pizarro and Almagro, were to preside as
judges. An attorney-general was named to prosecute
for the crown, and counsel was assigned to the prisoner.
The charges preferred against the Inca, drawn up in
the form of interrogatories, were twelve in number.
The most important were, that he had usurped the
crown and assassinated his brother Huascar; that he
had squandered the public revenues since the conquest
of the country by the Spaniards, and lavished them on
his kindred and his minions; that he was guilty of
23 "Aunque contra voluntad del dicho Gobernador, que nunca
estubo bien en ello."-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-So also
Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, ubi supra.




TRIAL OF THE INCA.                     467
idolatry, and of adulterous practices, indulging openly
in a plurality of wives; finally, that he had attempted
to excite an insurrection against the Spaniar.ds.24
These charges, most of which had reference to
national usages, or to the personal relations of the
Inca, over which the Spanish conquerors had clearly
no jurisdiction, are so absurd that they might well provoke a smile, did they not excite a deeper feeling.
The last of the charges was the only one of moment
in such a trial; and the weakness of this may be inferred from the care taken to bolster it up with the
others. The mere specification of the articles must
have been sufficient to show that the doom of the Inca
was already sealed.
A number of Indian witnesses were examined, and
their testimony, filtrated through the interpretation of
Felipillo, received, it is said, when necessary, a very
different coloring from that of the original. The examination was soon ended, and C a warm discussion,"
24 The specification of the charges against the Inca is given by
Garcilasso de la Vega. (Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. I, cap. 37.) One
could have wished to find them specified by some of the actors in the
tragedy. But Garcilasso had access to the best sources of information, and where there was no motive for falsehood, as in the present
instance, his word may probably be taken.-The fact of a process
being formally instituted against the Indian monarch is explicitly
recognized by several contemporary writers, by Gomara, Oviedo, and
Pedro Sancho. Oviedo characterizes the indictment as " a badly contrived and worse written document, devised by a factious and unprincipled priest, a clumsy notary without conscience, and others of the
like stamp, who were all concerned in this villany." (Hist. de las
Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.) Most authorities agree in the two
principal charges,-the assassination of Huascar, and the conspiracy
against the Spaniards.




468             CONQUEST OF PERU.
as we are assured by one of Pizarro's own secretaries,
"took place in respect to the probable good or evil
that would result from the death of Atahuallpa." 25 It
was a question of expediency. He was found guilty,
-whether of all the crimes alleged we are not informed,
-and he was sentenced to be burnt alive in the great
square of Caxamalca. The sentence was to be carried
into execution that very night. They were not even
to wait for the return of De Soto, when the information he would bring would go far to establish the truth
or the falsehood of the reports respecting the insurrection of the natives. It was desirable to obtain the
countenance of Father Valverde to these proceedings,
and a copy of the judgment was submitted to the friar
for his signature, which he gave without hesitation, declaring that, "in his opinion, the Inca, at all events,
deserved death." a6
Yet there were some few in that martial conclave
who resisted these high-handed measures. They considered them as a poor requital of all the favors bestowed on them by the Inca, who hitherto had received
at their hands nothing but wrong. They objected to
25 " Doppo l'essersi molto disputato, et ragionato del danno et vtile
che saria potuto auuenire per il viuere o morire di Atabalipa, fu risoluto che si facesse giustitia di lui." (Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio,
tom. iii. fol. 400.) It is the language of a writer who may be taken
as the mouthpiece of Pizarro himself. According to him, the conclave
which agitated this " question of expediency" consisted of the " officers
of the crown and those of the army, a certain doctor learned in the
law, that chanced to be with them, and the reverend Father Vicente
de Valverde."
26 " Respondi6, que firmaria, que era bastante para que el Inga
fuese condenado a muerte, porque aun en lo exterior quisieron justificar su intento."  Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 3, cap. 4.




TRIAL  OF THSE INCA.                 469
the evidence as wholly insufficient; and they denied
the authority of such a tribunal to sit in judgment on
a sovereign prince in the heart of his own dominions.
If he were to be tried, he should be sent to Spain, and
his cause brought before the emperor, who alone had
power to determine it.
But the great majority-and they were ten to oneoverruled these objections, by declaring there was no
doubt of Atahuallpa's guilt, and they were willing to
assume the responsibility of his punishment. A full
account of the proceedings would be sent to Castile,
and the emperor should be informed who were the
loyal servants of the crown, and who were its enemies.
The dispute ran so high that for a time it menaced an
open and violent rupture; till, at length, convinced
that resistance was fruitless, the weaker party, silenced,
but not satisfied, contented themselves with entering a
written protest against these proceedings, which would
leave an indelible stain on the names of all concerned
in them.27
When the sentence was communicated to the Inca,
he was greatly overcome by it. He had, indeed, for
some time, looked to such an issue as probable, and
had been heard to intimate as much to those about him.
But the probability of such an event is very different
27 Garcilasso has preserved the names of some of those who so
courageously, though ineffectually, resisted the popular cry for the
Inca's blood. (Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. I, cap. 37.) They were doubtless correct in denying the right of such a tribunal to sit in judgment
on an independent prince like the Inca of Peru, but not so correct in
supposing that their master the emperor had a better right. Vattel
(book ii. ch. 4) especially animadverts on this pretended trial of Atahuallpa, as a manifest outrage on the law of nations.
Peru.-VoL. I.          40




470            CONQUEST OF PERU
from  its certainty,-and  that, too, so sudden and
speedy. For a moment, the overwhelming conviction
of it unmanned him, and he exclaimed, with tears in
his eyes, "What have I done, or my children, that I
should meet such a fate? And from your hands, too,"
said he, addressing Pizarro; " you, who have met with
friendship and kindness from my people, with whom I
have shared my treasures, who have received nothing
but benefits from my hands!" In the most piteous
tones, he then implored that his life might be spared,
promising any guarantee that might be required for
the safety of every Spaniard in the army,-promising
double the ransom he had already paid, if time were
only given him to obtain it.8
An eye-witness assures us that Pizarro was visibly
affected, as he turned away from the Inca, to whose
appeal he had no power to listen in opposition to the
voice of the army and to his own sense of what was
due to the security of the country.29 Atahuallpa, finding he had no power to turn his Conqueror from his
purpose, recovered his habitual self-possession, and
from that moment submitted himself to his fate with
the courage of an Indian warrior.
The doom of the Inca was proclaimed by sound of
trumpet in the great square of Caxamalca; and, two
hours after sunset, the Spanish soldiery assembled by
torch-light in the plaza to witness the execution of
28 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Herrera, Hist. general,
dec. 5, lib. 3, cap. 4.-Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2, cap. 7.
29 " I myself," says Pedro Pizarro, "saw the general weep." " Yo
vide llorar al marques de pesar por no podelle dar la vida porque
cierto temio los requirimientos y el rriezgo que avia en la tierra si se
soltava." Descub. y Conq., MS.




HIS EXECUTION.                  471
the sentence. It was on the twenty-ninth of August,
I533. Atahuallpa was led out chained hand and foot,
-for he had been kept in irons ever since the great
excitement had prevailed in the army respecting an
assault. Father Vicente de Valverde was at his side,
striving to administer consolation, and, if possible, to
persuade him at this last hour to abjure his superstition
and embrace the religion of his Conquerors. He was
willing to save the soul of his victim from the terrible
expiation in the next world to which he had so cheerfully consigned his mortal part in this.
During Atahuallpa's confinement, the friar had repeatedly expounded to him the Christian doctrines,
and the Indian monarch discovered much acuteness in
apprehending the discourse of his teacher. But it had
not carried conviction to his mind, and, though he
listened with patience, he had shown no disposition
to renounce the faith of his fathers. The Dominican
made a last appeal to him in this solemn hour; and,
when Atahuallpa was bound to the stake, with the
fagots that were to kindle his funeral pile lying around
him, Valverde, holding up the cross, besought him to
embrace it and be baptized, promising that, by so
doing, the painful death to which he had been sentenced should be commuted for the milder form of the
garroate,-a mode of punishment by strangulation, used
for criminals in Spain.30
30 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 234.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.-Ped.
Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 4oo.-The garrote is a mode
of execution by means of a noose drawn round the criminal's neck,
to the back part of which a stick is attached. By twisting this stick




472             CONQUEST OF PERU.
The unhappy monarch asked if this were really so,
and, on its being confirmed by Pizarro, he consented
to abjure his own religion and receive baptism. The
ceremony was performed by Father Valverde, and the
new convert received the name of Juan de Atahuallpa,
-the name of Juan being conferred in honor of John
the Baptist, on whose day the event took place.31
Atahuallpa expressed a desire that his remains might
be transported to Quito, the place of his birth, to be
preserved with those of his maternal ancestors. Then,
turning to Pizarro, as a last request, he implored him
to take compassion on his young children and receive
them under his protection. Was there no other one in
that dark company who stood grimly around him, to
whom he could look for the protection of his offspring?
Perhaps he thought there was no other so competent to
afford it, and that the wishes so solemnly expressed in
that hour might meet with respect even from his Conqueror. Then, recovering his stoical bearing, which
for a moment had been shaken, he submitted himself
calmly to his fate, -while the Spaniards, gathering
around, muttered their credos for the salvation of his
soul! 32 Thus by the death of a vile malefactor
perished the last of the Incas!
the noose is tightened and suffocation is produced. This was the
mode, probably, of Atahuallpa's execution. In Spain, instead of the
cord, an iron collar is substituted, which, by means of a screw, is
compressed round the throat of the sufferer.
3X Velasco, Hist. de Quito, tom. i. p. 372.
32 " Ma quando se lo vidde appressare per douer esser morto, disse
che raccomandaua al Gouernatore i suoi piccioli figliuoli che volesse
tenersegli appresso, & con queste ultime parole, & dicendo per l'anima sua li Spagnuoli che erano all' intorno il Credo, fu subito affogato."




HIS EXECUTION.                       473
I have already spoken of the person and the qualities of Atahuallpa. He had a handsome countenance,
though with an expression somewhat too fierce to be
pleasing. His frame was muscular and well-proportioned; his air commanding; and his deportment in
the Spanish quarters had a degree of refinement, the
more interesting that it was touched with melancholy.
He is accused of having been cruel in his wars and
bloody in his revenge.33  It may be true, but the pencil
of an enemy would be likely to overcharge the shadows
of the portrait. He is allowed to have been bold,
Ped. Sancho, ReI., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 399.-Xerez, Conq. del
Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 234.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq.,
MS.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria, MS.-Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.
-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.-Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 2,
cap. 7.-The death of Atahuallpa has many points of resemblance
to that of Caupolican, the great Araucanian chief, as described in
the historical epic of Ercilla. Both embraced the religion of their
conquerors at the stake, though Caupolican was so far less fortunate
than the Peruvian monarch that his conversion did not save him from
the tortures of a most agonizing death. He was impaled and shot
with arrows. The spirited verses reflect so faithfully the character of
these early adventurers, in which the fanaticism of the Crusader was
mingled with the cruelty of the conqueror, and they are so germane
to the present subject, that I would willingly quote the passage were
it not too long. See La Araucana, Parte 2, canto 24.
33 " Thus he paid the penalty of his errors and cruelties," says Xerez,
" for he was the greatest butcher, as all agree, that the world ever saw;
making nothing of razing a whole town to the ground for the most
trifling offence, and massacring a thousand persons for the fault of
one 1"  (Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 234.) Xerez was the
private secretary of Pizarro. Sancho, who, on the departure of Xerez
for Spain, succeeded him in the same office, pays a more decent tribute
to the memory of the Inca, who, he trusts, " is received into glory,
since he died penitent for his sins, and in the true faith of a Christian."
Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 399.
40*




474            CONQUEST OF PERU.
high-minded, and liberal.34 All agree that he showed
singular penetration and quickness of perception. His
exploits as a warrior had placed his valor beyond dispute. The best homage to it is the reluctance shown
by the Spaniards to restore him to freedom. They
dreaded him as an enemy, and they had done him too
many wrongs to think that he could be their friend.
Yet his conduct towards them from the first had been
most friendly; and they repaid it with imprisonment,
robbery, and death.
The body of the Inca remained on the place of
execution through the night. The following morning
it was removed to the church of San Francisco, where
his funeral obsequies were performed with great solemnity. Pizarro and the principal cavaliers went into
mourning, and the troops listened with devout attention to the service of the dead from the lips of Father
Valverde.35 The ceremony was interrupted by the
sound of loud cries and wailing, as of many voices at
the doors of the church. These were suddenly thrown
open, and a number of Indian women, the wives and
sisters of the deceased, rushing up the great aisle,
surrounded the corpse. This was not the way, they
cried, to celebrate the funeral rites of an Inca; and
they declared their intention to sacrifice themselves on
his tomb and bear him company to the land of spirits.
34"  El hera muy regalado, y muy Seffor," says Pedro Pizarro. (Descub. y Conq., MS.) " Mui dispuesto, sabio, animoso, franco," says
Gomara. (Hist. de las Ind., cap. iI8.)
35 The secretary Sancho seems to think that the Peruvians must
have regarded these funeral honors as an ample compensation to Atahuallpa for any wrongs he may have sustained, since they at once
raised him to a level with the Spaniards I Ibid., loc. cit.




HIS EXECUTION.                      475
The audience, outraged by this frantic behavior, told
the intruders that Atahuallpa had died in the faith of a
Christian, and that the God of the Christians abhorred
such sacrifices. They then caused the women to be
excluded from the church, and several, retiring to their
own quarters, laid violent hands on themselves, in the
vain hope of accompanying their beloved lord to the
bright mansions of the Sun.36
Atahuallpa's remains, notwithstanding his request,
were laid in the cemetery of San Francisco.37 But
from thence, as is reported, after the Spaniards left
Caxamalca, they were secretly removed, and carried,
as he had desired, to Quito. The colonists of a later
time supposed that some treasures might have been
buried with the body. But, on excavating the ground,
neither treasure nor remains were to be discovered.38
A  day or two after these tragic events, Hernando
de Soto returned from his excursion. Great was his
astonishment and indignation at learning what had
36 Relacion del primer Descub., MS. See Appendix No. xo, where
I have cited in the original several of the contemporary notices of Atahuallpa's execution, which being in manuscript are not very accessible,
even to Spaniards.
37 " Oi dicen los indios que este su sepulcro junto a una Cruz de
Piedra Blanca que esta en el Cementerio del Convento de Sn Francisco." Montesinos, Annales, MS., adio 153338 Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.-According to Stevenson, " In the chapel belonging to the common gaol, which
was formerly part of the palace, the altar stands on the stone on which
Atahuallpa was placed by the Spaniards and strangled, and under
which he was buried." (Residence in South America, vol. ii. p. i63.)
Montesinos, who wrote more than a century after the Conquest, tells
us that "spots of blood were still visible on a broad flagstone, in the
prison of Caxamalca, on which Atahuallpa was beheaded." (Annales,
MS., afdo I533.)-Ignorance and credulity could scarcely go further.




476             CONQUEST OF PERU.
been done in his absence. He sought out Pizarro at
once, and found him, says the chronicler, "with a
great felt hat, by way of mourning, slouched over his
eyes," and in his dress and demeanor exhibiting all
the show of sorrow.39  "You have acted rashly," said
De Soto to him bluntly; " Atahuallpa has been basely
slandered. Tfiere was no enemy at Huamachuco; no
rising among the natives. I have met with nothing on
the road but demonstrations of good will, and all is
quiet. If it was necessary to bring the Inca to trial, he
should have been taken to Castile and judged by the
emperor. I would have pledged myself to see him
safe on board the vessel."40  Pizarro confessed that
he had been precipitate, and said that he had been deceived by Riquelme, Valverde, and the others. These
charges soon reached the ears of the treasurer and the
Dominican, who, in their turn, exculpated themselves,
and upbraided Pizarro to his face, as the only one
responsible for the deed. The dispute ran high; and
the parties were heard by the by-standers to give one
another the lie!4' This vulgar squabble among the
39 " Hallaronle monstrando mucho sentimiento con un gran sombrero de fieltro puesto en la cabeza por luto e muy calado sobre los
ojos." Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.
40 Ibid., MS., ubi supra.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.See Appendix No. Io.
43 This remarkable account is given by Oviedo, not in the body of
his narrative, but in one of those supplementary chapters which he
makes the vehicle of the most miscellaneous, yet oftentimes important,
gossip, respecting the great transactions of his history. As he knew
familiarly the leaders in these transactions, the testimony which he collected, somewhat at random, is of high authority. The reader will
find Oviedo's account of the Inca's death extracted, in the original,
among the other notices of this catastrophe, in Appendix No. io.




REFLECTIONS.               477
leaders, so soon after the event, is the best commentary
on the iniquity of their own proceedings and the innocence of the Inca.
The treatment of Atahuallpa, from first to last, forms
undoubtedly one of the darkest chapters in Spanish colonial history. There may have been massacres perpetrated on a more extended scale, and executions
accompanied with a greater refinement of cruelty. But
the blood-stained annals of the Conquest afford no
such example of cold-hearted and systematic persecution, not of an enemy, but of one whose whole deportment had been that of a friend and a benefactor.
From the hour that Pizarro and his followers had
entered within the sphere of Atahuallpa's influence,
the hand of friendship had been extended to them by
the natives. Their first act, on crossing the mountains,
was to kidnap the monarch and massacre his people.
The seizure of his person might be vindicated, by
those who considered the end as justifying the means,
on the ground that it was indispensable to secure the
triumphs of the Cross. But no such apology can be
urged for the massacre of the unarmed and helpless
population,-as wanton as it was wicked.
The long confinement of the Inca had been used by
the Conquerors to wring from him his treasures with
the hard gripe of avarice. During the whole of this
dismal period he had conducted himself with singular
generosity and good faith. He had opened a free
passage to the Spaniards through every part of his empire, and had furnished every facility for the execution
of their plans. When these were accomplished, and
he remained an encumbrance on their hands, notwith



478             CONQUEST OF PERU.
standing their engagement, expressed or implied, to
release him, —and Pizarro, as we have seen, by a
formal act acquitted his captive of any further obligation on the score of the ransom, —he was arraigned
before a mock tribunal, and, under pretences equally
false and frivolous, was condemned to an excruciating
death.  From  first to last, the policy of the Spanish
conquerors towards their unhappy victim is stamped
with barbarity and fraud.
It is not easy to acquit Pizarro of being in a great
degree responsible for this policy. His partisans have
labored to show that it was forced on him by the necessity of the case, and that in the death of the Inca,
especially, he yielded reluctantly to the importunities
of others.42  But, weak as is this apology, the historian
who has the means of comparing the various testimony
of the period will come to a different conclusion. To
him it will appear that Pizarro had probably long felt
the removal of Atahuallpa to be essential to the success
of his enterprise. He foresaw the odium that would
be incurred by the death of his royal captive without
sufficient grounds; while he labored to establish these,
he still shrank from the responsibility of the deed, and
preferred to perpetrate it in obedience to the suggestions of others, rather than his own. Like many an
42 "Contra su voluntad sentencio -t muerte i Atabalipa." (Pedro
Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.) "Contra voluntad del dicho Gobernador." (Relacion del primer Descub., MS.) "Ancora che molto
li dispiacesse di venir a questo atto." (Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 399.) Even Oviedo seems willing to admit it possible that Pizarro may have been somewhat deceived by others: " Que
tambien se puede creer que era engafiado." Hist. de las Indias, MS.,
Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.




REFLECTIONS.                479
unprincipled politician, he wished to reap the benefit
of a bad act and let others bear the blame of it.
Almagro and his followers are reported by Pizarro's
secretaries to have first insisted on the Inca's death.
They were loudly supported by the treasurer and the
royal officers, who considered it as indispensable to
the interests of the crown; and, finally, the rumors of
a conspiracy raised the same cry among the soldiers,
and Pizarro, with all his tenderness for his prisoner,
could not refuse to bring him to trial. The form of a
trial was necessary to give an appearance of fairness to
the proceedings. That it was only form is evident
from the indecent haste with which it was conducted,
-the examination of evidence, the sentence, and the
execution being all on the same day. The multiplication of the charges, designed to place the guilt of the
accused on the strongest ground, had, from their very
number, the opposite effect, proving only the determination to convict him. If Pizarro had felt the reluctance to his conviction which he pretended, why did he
send De Soto, Atahuallpa's best friend, away, when the
inquiry was to be instituted? Why was the sentence
so summarily executed, as not to afford opportunity,
by that cavalier's return, of disproving the truth of
the principal charge,-the only one, in fact, with
which the Spaniards had any concern? The solemn
farce of mourning and deep sorrow affected by Pizarro,
who by these honors to the dead would intimate the
sincere regard he had entertained for the living, was
too thin a veil to impose on the most credulous.
It is not intended by these reflections to exculpate
the rest of the army, and especially its officers, from




480           CONQUEST OF PERU.
their share in the infamy of the transaction. But Pizarro, as commander of the army, was mainly responsible for its measures. For he was not a man to allow
his own authority to be wrested from his grasp, or to
yield timidly to the impulses of others. He did not
even yield to his own. His whole career shows him,
whether for good or for evil, to have acted with a cool
and calculating policy.
A story has been often repeated, which refers the
motives of Pizarro's conduct, in some degree at least,
to personal resentment. The Inca had requested one
of the Spanish soldiers to write the name of God on
his nail. This the monarch showed to several of his
guards successively, and, as they read it, and each
pronounced the same word, the sagacious mind of the
barbarian was delighted with what seemed to him little
short of a miracle,-to which the science of his own
nation afforded no analogy. On showing the writing
to Pizarro, that chief remained silent; and the Inca,
finding he could not read, conceived a contempt for
the commander who was even less informed than his
soldiers. This he did not wholly conceal, and Pizarro,
aware of the cause of it, neither forgot nor forgave it.43
The anecdote is reported not on the highest authority.
It may be true; but it is unnecessary to look for the
motives of Pizarro's conduct in personal pique, when
so many proofs are to be discerned of a dark and deliberate policy.
Yet the arts of the Spanish chieftain failed to recon43 The story is to be found in Garcilasso de la Vega (Com. Real.,
Parte 2, cap. 38), and in no other writer of the period, so far as I am
aware.




REFLECTIONS.                       481
cile his countrymen to the atrocity of his proceedings.
It is singular to observe the difference between the
tone assumed by the first chroniclers of the transaction, while it was yet fresh, and that of those who
wrote when the lapse of a few years had shown the
tendency of public opinion. The first boldly avow
the deed as demanded by expediency, if not necessity;
while they deal in no measured terms of reproach with
the character of their unfortunate victim.44 The latter,
on the other hand, while they extenuate the errors of
the Inca, and do justice to his good faith, are unreserved in their condemnation of the Conquerors, on
whose conduct, they say, Heaven set the seal of its
own reprobation, by bringing them all to an untimely
and miserable end.45 The sentence of contemporaries
44 I have already noticed the lavish epithets heaped by Xerez on the
Inca's cruelty. This account was printed in Spain, in I534, the year
after the execution. " The proud tyrant," says the other secretary,
Sancho, " would have repaid the kindness and good treatment he had
received from the governor and every one of us with the same coin
with which he usually paid his own followers, without any fault on
their part,-by putting them to death." (Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 399.) " He deserved to die," says the old Spanish
Conqueror before quoted, " and all the country was rejoiced that he
was put out of the way." Rel. d'un Capitano Spagn., ap. Ramusio,
tom. iii. fol. 377.
45 " Las demostraciones que despues se vieron bien manifiestan lo
mui injusta que fue,.. puesto que todos quantos entendieron en
ella tuvieron despues mui desastradas muertes." (Naharro, Relacion
sumaria, MS.) Gomara uses nearly the same language. " No ai que
reprehender i los que le mataron, pues el tiempo, i sus pecados los
castigaron despues; ch todos ellos acabaron mal." (Hist. de las Ind.,
cap. II8.) According to the former writer, Felipillo paid the forfeit
of his crimes, some time afterwards,-being hanged by Almagro on
the expedition to Chili,-when, as "some say, he confessed having perPeru.-VoL. I.-v       41




482              CONQUEST OF PERU.
has been fully ratified by that of posterity;46 and the
persecution of Atahuallpa is regarded with justice as
having left a stain, never to be effaced, on the Spanish
arms in the New World.
verted testimony given in favor of Atahuallpa's innocence, directly
against that monarch." Oviedo, usually ready enough td excuse the
excesses of his countrymen, is unqualified in his condemnation of this
whole proceeding (see Appendix No. io), which, says another contemporary, "fills every one with pity who has a spark of humanity in
his bosom." Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.
46 The most eminent example of this is given by Quintana in his
memoir of Pizarro (Espafioles c6lebres, tom. ii.), throughout which
the writer, rising above the mists of national prejudice, which too
often blind the eyes of his countrymen, holds the scale of historic
criticism with an impartial hand, and deals a full measure of reprobation to the actors in these dismal scenes.




CHAPTER VIII.
DISORDERS IN PERU.-MARCH TO CUZCO.-ENCOUNTER
WITH THE NATIVES.-CHALLCUCHIMA BURNT. -ARRIVAL IN CUZCO.-DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY.-TREASURE FOUND THERE.
1533-1534THE Inca of Peru was its sovereign in a peculiar
sense. He received an obedience from his vassals
more implicit than that of any despot; for his authority
reached to the most secret conduct,-to the thoughts
of the individual. He was reverenced as more than
human.' He was not merely the head of the state,
but the point to which all its institutions converged,
as to a common centre,-the keystone of the political
fabric, which must fall to pieces by its own weight
when that was withdrawn. So it fared on the death
of Atahuallpa.'  His death not only left the throne
x " Such was the awe in which the Inca was held," says Pedro Pizarro,
"that it was only necessary for him to intimate his commands to that
effect, and a Peruvian would at once jump down a precipice, hang
himself, or put an end to his life in any way that was prescribed."
Descub. y Conq., MS.
2 Oviedo tells us that the Inca's right name was Atabaliva, and that
the Spaniards usually misspelt it, because they thought much more of
getting treasure for themselves than they did of the name of the person who owned it. (Hist. de las Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. x6.)
Nevertheless, I have preferred the authority of Garcilasso, who, a Peruvian himself, and a near kinsman of the Inca, must be supposed to
(483 )




484             CONQUEST OF PERU.
vacant, without any certain successor, but the manner
of it announced to the Peruvian people that a hand
stronger than that of their Incas had now seized the
sceptre, and that the dynasty of the Children of the
Sun had passed away forever.
The natural consequences of such a conviction followed. The beautiful order of the ancient institutions
was broken up, as the authority which controlled it
was withdrawn. The Indians broke out into greater
excesses from the uncommon restraint to which they
had been before subjected. Villages were burnt, temples and palaces were plundered, and the gold they
contained was scattered or secreted. Gold and silver
acquired an importance in the eyes of the Peruvian,
when he saw the importance attached to them by his
conquerors. The precious metals, which before served
only for purposes of state or religious decoration, were
now hoarded up and buried in caves and forests. The
gold and silver concealed by the natives were affirmed
greatly to exceed in quantity that which fell into the
hands of the Spaniards.3 The remote provinces now
shook off their allegiance to the Incas. Their great
captains, at the head of distant armies, set up for
have been well informed. His countrymen, he says, pretended that
the cocks imported into Peru by the Spaniards, when they crowed,
uttered the name of Atahuallpa; "and I and the other Indian boys,"
adds the historian, "when we were at school, used to mimic them"
Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 9, cap. 23.
3 " That which the Inca gave the Spaniards, said some of the Indian
nobles to Benalcazar, the conqueror of Quito, was but as a kernel of
corn, compared with the heap before him." (Oviedo, Hist. de las
Indias, MS., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 22.) See also Pedro Pizarro, Descub.
y Conq., MS.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




DISORDERS IN PERU.             485
themselves. Ruminavi, a commander on the borders
of Quito, sought to detach that kingdom from the
Peruvian empire and to reassert its ancient independence.  The country, in short, was in that state in
which old things are passing away and the new order
of things has not yet been established. It was in a
state of revolution.
The authors of the revolution, Pizarro and his followers, remained meanwhile at Caxamalca. But the
first step of the Spanish commander was to name a
successor to Atahuallpa. It would be easy to govern
under the venerated authority to which the homage of
the Indians had been so long paid; and it was not
difficult to find a successor. The true heir to the
crown was a second son of Huayna Capac, named
Manco, a legitimate brother of the unfortunate Huascar. But Pizarro had too little knowledge of the
dispositions of this prince; and he made no scruple to
prefer a brother of Atahuallpa and to present him to
the Indian nobles as their future Inca. We know
nothing of the character of the young Toparca, who
probably resigned himself without reluctance to a
destiny which, however humiliating in some points of
view, was more exalted than he could have hoped to
obtain in the regular course of events. The ceremonies attending a Peruvian coronation were observed,
as well as time would allow; the brows of the young
Inca were encircled with the imperial baorla by the
hands of his conqueror, and he received the homage
of his Indian vassals. They were the less reluctant to
pay it, as most of those in the camp belonged to the
faction of Quito.
41*




486             CONQUEST OF PERU 
All thoughts were now eagerly turned towards Cuzco,
of which the most glowing accounts were circulated
among the soldiers, and whose temples and royal
palaces were represented as blazing with gold and
silver. With imaginations thus excited, Pizarro and
his entire company, amounting to almost five hundred
men, of whom nearly a third, probably, were cavalry,
took their departure early in September from Caxamalca,-a place ever memorable as the theatre of some
of the most strange and sanguinary scenes recorded in
history.  All set forward in high spirits,-the soldiers
of Pizarro from the expectation of doubling their
present riches, and Almagro's followers from  the prospect of sharing equally in the spoil with "the first
conquerors."4 The young Inca and the old chief
Challcuchima accompanied the march in their litters,
attended by a numerous retinue of vassals, and moving
in as much state and ceremony as if in the possession
of real power.s
Their course lay along the great road of the Incas,
which stretched across the elevated regions of the
Cordilleras, all the way to Cuzco. It was of nearly
a uniform breadth, though constructed with different
degrees of care, according to the ground.6 Sometimes
it crossed smooth and level valleys, which offered of
4 The "first conquerors," according to Garcilasso, were held in
especial honor by those who came after them, though they were, on
the whole, men of less consideration and fortune than the later adven.
turers. Corn. Real., Parte I, lib. 7, cap. 9.
s Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Naharro, Relacion sumaria,
MS.-Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 4oo.
6," Va todo el camino de ina traza y anchura hecho 6. mano." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




MARCH TO CUZCO.                  487
themselves little impediment to the traveller; at other
times it followed the course of a mountain-stream that
flowed round the base of some beetling cliff, leaving
small space for the foothold; at others, again, where
the sierra was so precipitous that it seemed to preclude
all farther progress, the road, accommodated to the
natural sinuosities of the ground, wound round the
heights which it would have been impossible to scale
directly.7
But, although managed with great address, it was a
formidable passage for the cavalry. The mountain was
hewn into steps, but the rocky ledges cut up the hoofs
of the horses; and, though the troopers dismounted
and led them by the bridle, they suffered severely in
their efforts to keep their footing.8 The road was
constructed for man and the light-footed llama; and
the only heavy beast of burden at all suited to it was
the sagacious and sure-footed mule, with which the
Spanish adventurers were not then provided. It was a
singular chance that Spain was the land of the mule;
and thus the country was speedily supplied with the
very animal which seems to have been created for the
difficult passes of the Cordilleras.
Another obstacle, often occurring, was the deep
torrents that rushed down in fury from the Andes.
They were traversed by the hanging bridges of osier,
whose frail materials were after a time broken up
by the heavy tread of the cavalry, and the holes made
in them added materially to the dangers of the passage.
7 " En muchas partes viendo lo que est4 adelante, parece cosa impossible poderlo pasar." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.
8 Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 4o4.




488            CONQUEST OF PERU
On such occasions the Spaniards contrived to work
their way across the rivers on rafts, swimming their
horses by the bridle.9
All along the route they found post-houses for the
accommodation of the royal couriers, established at
regular intervals; and magazines of grain and other
commodities, provided in the principal towns for the
Indian armies. The Spaniards profited by the prudent
forecast of the Peruvian government.
Passing through several hamlets and towns of some
note, the principal of which were Huamachuco and
Huanuco, Pizarro, after a tedious march, came in
sight of the rich valley of Xauxa. The march, though
tedious, had been attended with little suffering, except in crossing the bristling crests of the Cordilleras,
which occasionally obstructed their path, —a rough
setting to the beautiful valleys that lay scattered like
gems along this elevated region. In the mountainpasses they found some inconvenience from the cold;
since, to move more quickly, they had disencumbered
themselves of all superfluous baggage, and were even
unprovided with tents.'0 The bleak winds of the
mountains penetrated the thick harness of the soldiers;
but the poor Indians, more scantily clothed, and accustomed to a tropical climate, suffered most severely.
The Spaniard seemed to have a hardihood of body,
as of soul, that rendered him almost indifferent to
climate.
9 Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, ubi supra.-Relacion del primer
Descub., MS.
so " La notte dormirono tutti in quella campagna senza coperto
alcuno, sopra la neue, ne pur hebber souuenimento di legne ne da
mangiare." Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 40I.




MARCH TO CUZCO.              489
On the march they had not been molested by
enemies. But more than once they had seen vestiges
of them in smoking hamlets and ruined bridges.
Reports, from time to time, had reached Pizarro of
warriors on his track; and small bodies of Indians
were occasionally seen like dusky clouds on the verge
of the horizon, which vanished as the Spaniards approached. On reaching Xauxa, however, these clouds
gathered into one dark mass of warriors, which formed
on the opposite bank of the river that flowed through
the valley.
The Spaniards advanced to the stream, which, swollen
by the melting of the snows, was now of considerable
width, though not deep. The bridge had been destroyed; but the Conquerors, without hesitation, dashing boldly in, advanced, swimming and wading, as
they best could, to the opposite bank. The Indians,
disconcerted by this decided movement, as they had
relied on their watery defences, took to flight, after
letting off an impotent volley of missiles. Fear gave
wings to the fugitives; but the horse and his rider
were swifter, and the victorious pursuers took bloody
vengeance on their enemy for having dared even to
meditate resistance.
Xauxa was a considerable town. It was the place
already noticed as having been visited by Hernando
Pizarro. It was seated in the midst of a verdant valley,
fertilized by a thousand little rills, which the thrifty
Indian husbandmen drew from the parent river that
rolled sluggishly through the meadows. There were
several capacious buildings of rough stone in the town,
and a temple of some note in the times of the Incas.
v*




490           CONQUEST OF PERU.
But the strong arm of Father Valverde and his countrymen soon tumbled the heathen deities from their pride
of place, and established, in their stead, the sacred
effigies of the Virgin and Child.
Here Pizarro proposed to halt for some days, and to
found a Spanish colony. It was a favorable position,
he thought, for holding the Indian mountaineers in
check, while at the same time it afforded an easy communication with the sea-coast.  Meanwhile he determined to send forward De Soto, with a detachment
of sixty horse, to reconnoitre the country in advance,
and to restore the bridges where demolished by the
enemy."'
That active cavalier set forward at once, but found
considerable impediments to his progress. The traces
of an enemy became more frequent as he advanced.
The villages were burnt, the bridges destroyed, and
heavy rocks and trees strewed in the path to impede
the march of the cavalry. As he drew near to Bilcas,
once an important place, though now effaced from the
map, he had a sharp encounter with the natives, in a
mountain-defile, which cost him the lives of two or
three troopers. The loss was light; but any loss was
felt by the Spaniards, so little accustomed as they had
been of late to resistance.
Still pressing forward, the Spanish captain crossed
the river Abancay and the broad waters of the Apurimac; and, as he drew near the sierra of Vilcaconga,
xI Carta de la Justicia y Regimiento de la Ciudad de Xauja, MS.Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. io.-Relacion del primer
Descub., MS.




ENCOUNTER  WITH THE NATIVES.    4 9 I
he learned that a considerable body of Indians lay in
wait for him in the dangerous passes of the mountains.
The sierra was several leagues from Cuzco; and the
cavalier, desirous to reach the farther side of it before
nightfall, incautiously pushed on his wearied horses.
When he was fairly entangled in its rocky defiles, a
multitude of armed warriors, springing, as it seemed,
from every cavern and thicket of the sierra, filled the
air with their war-cries, and rushed down, like one of
their own mountain-torrents, on the invaders, as they
were painfully toiling up the steeps. Men and horses
were overturned in the fury of the assault, and the
foremost files, rolling back on those below, spread ruin
and consternation in their ranks. De Soto in vain
endeavored to restore order, and, if possible, to charge
the assailants. The horses were blinded and maddened
by the missiles, while the desperate natives, clinging
to their legs, strove to prevent their ascent up the
rocky pathway. De Soto saw that, unless he gained a
level ground which opened at some distance before
him, all must be lost. Cheering on his men with the
old battle-cry, that always went to the heart of a
Spaniard, he struck his spurs deep into the sides of his
wearied charger, and, gallantly supported by his troop,
broke through the dark array of warriors, and, shaking
them off to the right and left, at length succeeded in
placing himself on the broad level.
Here both parties paused, as if by mutual consent,
for a few moments. A little stream ran through the
plain, at which the Spaniards watered their horses;z
and, the animals having recovered wind, De Soto and
22 Ped Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 405.




492           CONQUEST OF PERU.
his men made a desperate charge on their assailants
The undaunted Indians sustained the shock with firmness; and the result of the combat was still doubtful,
when the shades of evening, falling thicker around
them, separated the combatants.
Both parties then withdrew from the field, taking up
their respective stations within bow-shot of each other,
so that the voices of the warriors on either side could
be distinctly heard in the stillness of the night. But
very different were the reflections of the two hosts.
The Indians, exulting in their temporary triumph,
looked with confidence to the morrow to complete it.
The Spaniards, on the other hand, were proportionably discouraged.  They were not prepared for this
spirit of resistance in an enemy hitherto so tame.
Several cavaliers had fallen,-one of them by a blow
from a Peruvian battle-axe, which clove his head to
the chin, attesting the power of the weapon and of
the arm that used it."3 Several horses, too, had been
killed; and the loss of these was almost as severely
felt as that of their riders, considering the great cost
and difficulty of transporting them to these distant
regions. Few either of the men or horses had escaped
without wounds, and the Indian allies had suffered still
more severely.
It seemed probable, from the pertinacity and a certain order maintained in the assault, that it was directed by some leader of military experience,-perhaps
the Indian commander Quizquiz, who was said to be
hanging round the environs of Cuzco with a considerable force.'3 Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, loc. cit.




ENCOUNTER WITH THE NATIVES.   493
Notwithstanding the reasonable cause of apprehension for the morrow, De Soto, like a stout-hearted
cavalier as he was, strove to keep up the spirits of his
followers. If they had beaten off the enemy when
their horses were jaded and their own strength nearly
exhausted, how much easier it would be to come off
victorious when both were restored by a night's rest!
and he told them to "trust in the Almighty, who
would never desert his faithful followers in their extremity." The event justified De Soto's confidence in
this seasonable succor.
From time to time, on his march, he had sent advices to Pizarro of the menacing state of the country,
till his commander, becoming seriously alarmed, was
apprehensive that the cavalier might be overpowered
by the superior numbers of the enemy. He accordingly detached Almagro, with nearly all the remaining
horse, to his support,-unencumbered by infantry,
that he might move the faster. That efficient leader
advanced by forced marches, stimulated by the tidings
which met him on the road, and was so fortunate as
to reach the foot of the sierra of Vilcaconga the very
night of the engagement.
There, hearing of the encounter, he pushed forward
without halting, though his horses were spent with
travel. The night was exceedingly dark, and Almagro,
afraid of stumbling on the enemy's bivouac, and desirous to give De Soto information of his approach,
commanded his trumpets to sound, till the notes,
winding through the defiles of the mountains, broke
the slumbers of his countrymen, sounding like blithest
music in their ears. They quickly replied with their
Peru.-VOL. I.      42




494            CONQUEST OF PERU.
own bugles, and soon had the satisfaction to embrace
their deliverers."4
Great was the dismay of the Peruvian host when
the morning light discovered the fresh reinforcement
of the ranks of the Spaniards. There was no use in
contending with an enemy who gathered strength from
the conflict, and who seemed to multiply his numbers
at will. Without further attempt to renew the fight,
they availed themselves of a thick fog, which hung
over the lower slopes of the hills, to effect their retreat, and left the passes open to the invaders. The
two cavaliers then continued their march until they
extricated their forces from the sierra, when, taking
up a secure position, they proposed to await there the
arrival of Pizarro.'5
The commander-in-chief, meanwhile, lay at Xauxa,
where he was greatly disturbed by the rumors which
reached him of the state of the country. His enterprise, thus far, had gone forward so smoothly that he
was no better prepared than his lieutenant to meet
with resistance from the natives. He did not seem to
comprehend that the mildest nature might at last be
roused by oppression, and that the massacre of their
Inca, whom they regarded with such awful veneration,
would be likely, if any thing could do it, to wake them
from their apathy.
The tidings which he now received of the retreat of
14 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Herrera, Hist. general,
dec. 5, lib. 5, cap. 3.
15 The account of De Soto's affair with the natives is given in more
or less detail, by Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 405,Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.,-Relacion del primer Descub., MS..Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.,-persons all present in the army




CHALLCUCHIMA BURNT.               495
the Peruvians were most welcome; and he caused mass
to be said, and thanksgivings to be offered up to
Heaven, "which had shown itself thus favorable to the
Christians throughout this mighty enterprise." The
Spaniard was ever a Crusader. He was in the sixteenth century what Coeur de Lion and his brave
knights were in the twelfth, with this difference; the
cavalier of that day fought for the Cross and for glory,
while gold and the Cross were the watchwords of the
Spaniard. The spirit of chivalry had waned somewhat
before the spirit of trade; but the fire of religious enthusiasm still burned as bright under the quilted mail
of the American Conqueror as it did of yore under the
iron panoply of the soldier of Palestine.
It seemed probable that some man of authority had
organized, or at least countenanced, this resistance of
the natives; and suspicion fell on the captive chief
Challcuchima, who was accused of maintaining a secret
correspondence with his confederate Quizquiz. Pizarro
waited on the Indian noble, and, charging him with
the conspiracy, reproached him, as he had formerly
done his royal master, with ingratitude towards the
Spaniards, who had dealt with him so liberally. He
concluded by the assurance that, if he did not cause
the Peruvians to lay down their arms and tender their
submission at once, he should be burnt alive so soon as
they reached Almagro's quarters.x6
The Indian chief listened to the terrible menace with
the utmost composure. He denied having had any
communication with his countrymen, and said that, in
I6 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap.
Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 406.




496             CONQUEST OF PERU.
his present state of confinement at least, he could have
no power to bring them to submission. He then remained doggedly silent, and Pizarro did rpt press the
matter further.17  But he placed a strong guard over
his prisoner, and caused him to be put in irons. It
was an ominous proceeding, and had been the precursor of the death of Atahuallpa.
Before quitting Xauxa, a misfortune befell the Spaniards, in the death of their creature the young Inca
Toparca. Suspicion, of course, fell on Challcuchima,
now selected as the scape-goat for all the offences of
his nation.', It was a disappointment to Pizarro, who
hoped to find a convenient shelter for his future proceedings under this shadow of royalty.'9
The general considered it most prudent not to hazard
the loss of his treasures by taking them on the march,
and he accordingly left them at Xauxa, under a guard
of forty soldiers, who remained there in garrison. No
event of importance occurred on the road, and, Pizarro
t7 Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, ubi supra.
18 It seems, from the language of the letter addressed to the emperor by the municipality of Xauxa, that the troops themselves were far
from being convinced of Challcuchima's guilt: " Publico fue, aunque
dello no ubo averiguacion in certenidad, que el capitan Chaliconiman
le abia dado ierbas o a beber con que murio."  Carta de la Just. y
Reg. de Xauja, MS.
x9 According to Velasco, Toparca, whom, however, he calls by
another name, tore off the diadem bestowed on him by Pizarro, with
disdain, and died in a few weeks of chagrin. (Hist. de Quito, tom.
i. p. 377.) This writer, a Jesuit of Quito, seems to feel himself bound
to make out as good a case for Atahuallpa and his family as if he had
been expressly retained in their behalf. His vouchers-when he condescends to give any-too rarely bear him out in his statements to
inspire us with much confidence in his correctness.




CHALLCUCHIMA BURNT.                 497
having effected a junction with Almagro, their united
forces soon entered the vale of Xaquixaguana, about
five leagues from Cuzco. This was one of those bright
spots, so often found embosomed amidst the Andes, the
more beautiful from contrast with the savage character
of the scenery around it. A river flowed through the
valley, affording the means of irrigating the soil and
clothing it in perpetual verdure; and the rich and
flowering vegetation spread out like a cultivated garden.
The beauty of the place and its delicious coolness commended it as a residence for the Peruvian nobles, and
the sides of the hills were dotted with their villas,
which afforded them a grateful retreat in the heats of
summer." Yet the centre of the valley was disfigured
by a quagmire of some extent, occasioned by the
frequent overflowing of the waters; but the industry
of the Indian architects had constructed a solid causeway, faced with heavy stone, and connected with the
great road, which traversed the whole breadth of the
morass.2'
In this valley Pizarro halted for several days, while
he refreshed his troops from the well-stored magazines
of the Incas. His first act was to bring Challcuchima
to trial, —if trial that could be called, where sentence
may be said to have gone hand in hand with accusation.
We are not informed of the nature of the evidence. It
was sufficient to satisfy the Spanish captains of the
chieftain's guilt. Nor is it at all incredible that Challso "Auia en este valle muy sumptuosos aposentos y ricos adonde
los sefiores del Cuzco salian a tomar sus plazeres y solazes." Cieza
de Leon, Cronica, cap. 9r.
2 Ibid., ubi supra.
42*




498          CONQUEST OF PERU.
cuchima should have secretly encouraged a movement
among the people, designed to secure his country's
freedom and his own. He was condemned to be burnt
alive on the spot. " Some thought it a hard measure,"
says Herrera; " but those who are governed by reasons
of state policy are apt to shut their eyes against every
thing else." 22 Why this cruel mode of execution was
so often adopted by the Spanish Conquerors is not obvious; unless it was that the Indian was an infidel, and
fire, from ancient date, seems to have been considered
the fitting doom of the infidel, as the type of that inextinguishable flame which awaited him in the regions
of the damned.
Father Valverde accompanied the Peruvian chieftain
to the stake. He seems always to have been present
at this dreary moment, anxious to profit by it, if possible, to work the conversion of the victim. He painted
in gloomy colors the dreadful doom of the unbeliever,
to whom the waters of baptism could alone secure the
ineffable glories of paradise.23 It does not appear that
he promised any commutation of punishment in this
world. But his arguments fell on a stony heart, and
the chief coldly replied, he "' did not understand the
religion of the white men.",4 He might be pardoned
for not comprehending the beauty of a faith which, as
it would seem, had borne so bitter fruits to him. In
the midst of his tortures he showed the characteristic
courage of the American Indian, whose power of endurance triumphs over the power of persecution in his
X Hist. general, dec. 5, lib. 6, cap. 3.'3 Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 4o6.
24 Ibid., loc. cit.




CHALLCUCHIMA BURNT.                499
enemies, and he died with his last breath invoking the
name of Pachacamac. His own followers brought the
fagots to feed the flames that consumed him.25
Soon after this tragic event, Pizarro was surprised by
a visit from a Peruvian noble, who came in great state,
attended by a numerous and showy retinue. It was
the young prince Manco, brother of the unfortunate
Huascar, and the rightful successor to the crown.
Being brought before the Spanish commander, he announced his pretensions to the throne and claimed the
protection of the strangers. It is said he had meditated resisting them by arms, and had encouraged the
assaults made on them on their march, but, finding
resistance ineffectual, he had taken this politic course,
greatly to the displeasure of his more resolute nobles.
However this may be, Pizarro listened to his application with singular contentment, for he saw in this new
scion of the true royal stock a more effectual instrument for his purposes than he could have found in the
family of Quito, with whom the Peruvians had but
little sympathy. He received the young man, therefore, with great cordiality, and did not hesitate to
assure him that he had been sent into the country by
his master, the Castilian sovereign, in order to vindicate the claims of Huascar to the crown and to punish
the usurpation of his rival.2
Taking with him the Indian prince, Pizarro now
95 Pedro Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, loc. cit.-Pedro Pizarro, Descub.
y Conq., MS.-The MS. of the old Conqueror is so much damaged
in this part of it that much of his account is entirely effaced.
26 Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 406.-Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., MS.




500            CONQUEST OF PERU.
resumed his march. It was interrupted for a few hours
by a party of the natives, who lay in wait for him in
the neighboring sierra. A sharp skirmish ensued, in
which the Indians behaved with great spirit and inflicted some little injury on the Spaniards; but the
latter at length, shaking them off, made good their
passage through the defile, and the enemy did not care
to follow them into the open country.
It was late in the afternoon when the Conquerors
came in sight of Cuzco.27 The descending sun was
streaming his broad rays full on the imperial city,
where many an altar was dedicated to his worship.
The low ranges of buildings, showing in his beams like
so many lines of silvery light, filled up the bosom of
the valley and the lower slopes of the mountains,
whose shadowy forms hung darkly over the fair city,
as if to shield it from the menaced profanation. It
was so late that Pizarro resolved to defer his entrance
till the following morning.
That night vigilant guard was kept in the camp, and
the soldiers slept on their arms. But it passed away
without annoyance from the enemy, and early on the
following day, November I5th, I533, Pizarro prepared
for his entrance into the Peruvian capital.28
The little army was formed into three divisions, of
which the centre, or "battle," as it was called, was
led by the general. The suburbs were thronged with
27 "Y dos horas antes que el Sol se pusiese, liegaron i vista de la
ciudad del Cuzco." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.
28 The chronicles differ as to the precise date. There can be no
better authorities than Pedro Sancho's narrative and the Letter of the
Magistrates of Xauxa, which I have followed in the text.




ARRIVAL IN  CUZCO.              501
a countless multitude of the natives, who had flocked
from the city and the surrounding country to witness
the showy and, to them, startling pageant. All looked
with eager curiosity on the strangers, the fame of whose
terrible exploits had spread to the remotest parts of the
empire. They gazed with astonishment on their dazzling arms and fair complexions, which seemed to proclaim them the true Children of the Sun; and they
listened with feelings of mysterious dread as the trumpet
sent forth its prolonged notes through the streets of the
capital and the solid ground shook under the heavy
tramp of the cavalry.
The Spanish commander rode directly up the great
square. It was surrounded by low piles of buildings,
among which were several palaces of the Incas. One
of these, erected by Huayna Capac, was surmounted
by a tower, while the ground-floor was occupied by one
or more immense halls, like those described in Caxamalca, where the Peruvian nobles held their fetes in
stormy weather. These buildings afforded convenient
barracks for the troops, though during the first few
weeks they remained under their tents in the open
plaza, with their horses picketed by their side, ready
to repulse any insurrection of the inhabitants.29
The capital of the Incas, though falling short of the
El Dorado which had engaged their credulous fancies,
astonished the Spaniards by the beauty of its edifices,
the length and regularity of its streets, and the good
order and appearance of comfort, even luxury, visible
in its numerous population. It far surpassed all they
29 Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 4o7.-Garcilasso,
Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 7, cap. xo.-Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




502             CONQUEST OF PERU.
had yet seen in the New World. The population of
the city is computed by one of the Conquerors at two
hundred thousand inhabitants, and that of the suburbs
at as many more.30 This account is not confirmed, as
far as I have seen, by any other writer. But, however
it may be exaggerated, it is certain that Cuzco was the
metropolis of a great empire, the residence of the
court and the chief nobility; frequented by the most
skilful mechanics and artisans of every description,
who found a demand for their ingenuity in the royal
precincts; while the place was garrisoned by a numerous soldieiy, and was the resort, finally, of emigrants
from the most distant provinces. The quarters whence
this motley population came were indicated by their
peculiar dress, and especially their head-gear, so rarely
found at all on the American Indian, which, with its
variegated colors, gave a picturesque effect to the
groups and masses in the streets. The habitual order
and decorum maintained in this multifarious assembly
30 " Esta ciudad era muy grande i mui populosa de grandes edificios
i comarcas, quando los Espafioles entraron la primera vez en ella
havia gran cantidad de gente, seria pueblo de mas de 40 mill. vecinos
solamente lo que tomaba la ciudad, que arravalles i comarca en deredor del Cuzco 6 Io 6 I2 leguas creo yo que havia docientos mill. Indios, porque esto era lo mas poblado de todos estos reinos." (Conq.
i Pob. del Piru, MS.) The vecino or "householder" is computed,
usually, as representing five individuals.-Yet Father Valverde, in a
letter written a few years after this, speaks of the city as having only
three or four thousand houses at the time of its occupation, and the
suburbs as having nineteen or twenty thousand. (Carta al Emperador, MS., 20 de Marzo, I539.) It is possible that he took into the
account only the better kind of houses, not considering the mud huts,
or rather hovels, which made so large a part of a Peruvian town, as
deserving notice.




DE~SCRIPTION OF THE CITY.                   503
showed the excellent police of the capital, where the
only sounds that disturbed the repose of the S'paniards
were the noises of feasting and dancing, which the
natives, with happy insensibility, constantly prolonged
to a late hour of the night.3'
The edifices of the better sort-and they were
very numerous-were of stone, or faced with stone.32
Among the principal were the royal residences; as
each sovereign built a new palace for himself, covering, though low, a large extent of ground. The walls
were sometimes stained or painted with gaudy tints,
and the gates, we are assured, were sometimes of colored marble.33  " In the delicacy of the stone-work,"
says another of the Conquerors, "the natives far excelled the Spaniards, though the roofs of their dwellings, instead of tiles, were only of thatch, but put
together with the nicest art." 34 The sunny climate
31 " Heran tantos los atambores que de noche se oian por todas
partes bailando y canta:ndo y bebiendo que toda la mayor parte de la
noche se les pasava en esto cotidianamente." Pedro Pizarro, Descub.
y Conq., MS.
32 " La maggior parte di queste case sono di pietra, et l'altre hfno
la met. della facciata di pietra." Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio,
tom. iii. fol. 413.
33 " Che sono le principali della citth dipinte et lauorate, et di pietra:
et la miglior d'esse e la casa di Guainacaba Cacique vecchio, et la porta
d'essa e di marmo bianco et rosso, et d'altri colori." (Ibid., ubi supra.) The buildings were usually of freestone. There may have been
porphyry from the neighboring mountains mixed with this, which the
Spaniards mistook for marble.
34 " Todo labrado de piedra muy prima, que cierto toda la canteria
desta cibdad hace gran ventaja d la de Espafia, aunque carecen de
teja que todas las casas sino es la fortaleza, que era hecha de azoteas,
son cubiertas de paja, aunque tan primamente puesta, que parece
bien." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.




504             CONQUEST OF PERU.
of Cuzco did not require a very substantial material
for defence against the weather.
The most important building was the fortress, planted
on a solid rock that rose boldly above the city. It
was built of hewn stone, so finely wrought that it was
impossible to detect the line of junction between the
blocks; and the approaches to it were defended by
three semicircular parapets, composed of such heavy
masses of rock that it bore resemblance to the kind of
work known to architects as the Cyclopean.* The fortress was raised to a height rare in Peruvian architecture; and from the summit of the tower the eye of the
spectator ranged over a magnificent prospect, in which
the wild features of the mountain-scenery, rocks, woods,
and waterfalls, were mingled with the rich verdure of
the valley, and the shining city filling up the foreground,
-all blended in sweet harmony under the deep azure
of a tropical sky.
The streets were long and narrow. They were arranged with perfect regularity, crossing one another at
right angles; and from the great square diverged four
principal streets connecting with the high-roads of the
empire. The square itself, and many parts of the city,
were paved with a fine pebble.35 Through the heart of
33 Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii., ubi supra.-A passage
in the Letter of the Municipality of Xauxa is worth quoting, as con.
firming on the best authority some of the interesting particulars men.
* [Mr. Markham, who examined the ruins in x853, has given a
minute description of this " gigantic treble line of Cyclopean fortification," which, he says, " must fill the mind of every traveller with
astonishment and admiration." Translation of Cieza de Leon, p.
325. note.-ED.]




DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY.                     505
the capital ran a river of pure water, if it might not be
rather termed a canal, the banks or sides of which, for
the distance of twenty leagues, were faced with stone.36
Across this stream, bridges, constructed of similar broad
flags, were thrown at intervals, so as to afford an easy
communication between the different quarters of the
capital.37
The most sumptuous edifice in Cuzco in the times
of the Incas was undoubtedly the great temple dedicated to the Sun, which, studded with gold plates, as
already noticed, was surrounded by convents and dormitories for the priests, with their gardens and broad
parterres sparkling with gold. The exterior ornaments
had been already removed by the Conquerors,-all but
the frieze of gold, which, imbedded in the stones, still
encircled the principal building. It is probable that
tioned in the text: " Esta cibdad es la mejor e maior que en la tierra
se ha visto, i aun en Yndias; e decimos a V. M. ques tan hermosa i
de tan buenos edeficios que en Espafia seria muy de ver; tiene las
calles por mucho concierto en pedradas i por medio dellas un caflo
enlosado, la plaza es hecha en cuadra i empedrada de quijas pequefias
todas, todas las mas de las casas son de Sefiores Principales hechas de
canteria, esta en una ladera de un zerro en el cual sobre el pueblo
esta una fortaleza mui bien obrada de canteria, tan de ver que por
Espafioles que han andado Reinos estrafios dicen no haver visto otro
edeficio igual al della." Carta de la Just. y Reg. de Xauja, MS.
36 " Un rio, el cual baja por medio de la cibdad y desde que nace,
mas de veinte leguas por aquel valle abajo donde hay muchas poblaciones, va enlosado todo por el suelo, y las varrancas de una parte y
de otra hechas de canteria labrada, cosa nunca vista, ni oida." Relacion del primer Descub., MS.
37 The reader will find a few repetitions in this chapter of what I
have already said, in the Introduction, of Cuzco under the Incas. But
the facts here stated are for the most part drawn from other sources,
and some repetition was unavoidable in order to give a distinct image
of the capital.
Peru.-VoL. I.-43         w




5o6            CONQUEST OF PERU.
the tales of wealth so greedily circulated among the
Spaniards greatly exceeded the truth. If they did not,
the natives must have been very successful in concealing their treasures from the invaders. Yet much still
remained, not only in the great House of the Sun, but
in the inferior temples which swarmed in the capital.
Pizarro, on entering Cuzco, had issued an order forbidding any soldier to offer violence to the dwellings
of the inhabitants.38 But the palaces were numerous,
and the troops lost no time in plundering them of their
contents, as well as in despoiling the religious edifices.
The interior decorations supplied them with considerable booty. They stripped off the jewels and rich ornaments that garnished the royal mummies in the temple
of Coricancha. Indignant at the concealment of their
treasures, they put the inhabitants, in some instances,
to the torture, and endeavored to extort from them a
confession of their hiding-places.39 They invaded the
repose of the sepulchres, in which the Peruvians often
deposited their valuable effects, and compelled the
grave to give up its dead. No place was left unexplored
by the rapacious Conquerors; and they occasionally
stumbled on a mine of wealth that rewarded their labors.
In a cavern near the city they found a number of
vases of pure gold, richly embossed with the figures of
serpents, locusts, and other animals. Among the spoil
were four golden llamas and ten or twelve statues of
women, some of gold, others of silver, " which merely
38 " Pues mando el marquez dar vn pregon que ningun espa~iol fuese
ti entrar en las casas de los naturales 6 tomalles nada." Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., MS.
39 Gomara, Hist. de las Ind., cap. I23.




TREASURE FOUND THERE.                     507
to see," says one of the Conquerors, with some naiveft,
"was truly a great satisfaction." The gold was probably thin, for the figures were all as large as life; and
several of them, being reserved for the royal fifth, were
not recast, but sent in their original form to Spain.40
The magazines were stored with curious commodities;
richly-tinted robes of cotton and feather-work, gold
sandals, and slippers of the same material, for the
women, and dresses composed entirely of beads of
gold.4' The grain and other articles of food, with
which the magazines were filled, were held in contempt
by the Conquerors, intent only on gratifying their lust
for gold.42  The time came when the grain would have
been of far more value.
Yet the amount of treasure in the capital did not
equal the sanguine expectations that had been formed
by the Spaniards. But the deficiency was supplied by
the plunder which they had collected at various places
on their march. In one place, for example, they met
with ten planks or bars of solid silver, each piece being
40 " Et fra l'altre cose singolari, era veder quattro castrati di fin oro
molto grandi, et Io 6 12 statue di d6ne, della grandezza delle done di
quel paese tutte d'oro fino, cosi belle et ben fatte come se fossero viue.... Queste furono date nel quinto che toccaua a S. M." (Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 409.) " Muchas estatuas y figuras de oro y plata enteras, hecha la forma toda de una muger, y del
tamafio della, muy bien labradas." Relacion del primei Descub., MS.
4' "Avia ansi mismo otras muchas plumas de diferentes colores para
este efecto de hacer rropas que vestian los sefiores y sefioras y no otro
en los tiempos de sus fiestas, avia tambien mantas hechas de chaquira,
de oro, y de plata, que heran vnas quentecitas muy delicadas, que
parecia cosa de espanto ver su hechura." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y
Conq., MS.
42Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.




508             CONQUEST OF PERU.
twenty feet in length, one foot in breadth, and two or
three inches thick. They were intended to decorate
the dwelling of an Inca noble.43
The whole mass of treasure was brought into a common heap, as in Caxamalca; and, after some of the
finer specimens had been deducted for the crown, the
remainder was delivered to the Indian goldsmiths to
be melted down into ingots of a uniform standard.
The division of the spoil was made on the same principle as before. There were four hundred and eighty
soldiers, including the garrison of Xauxa, who were
each to receive a share, that of the cavalry being
double that of the infantry. The amount of booty is
stated variously by those present at the division of it.
According to some, it considerably exceeded the ransom
of Atahuallpa. Others state it as less. Pedro Pizarro
says that each horseman got six thousand pesos de oro,
and each one of the infantry half that sum;"44 though
the same discrimination was made by Pizarro as before,
in respect to the rank of the parties, and their relative
services. But Sancho, the royal notary, and secretary
of the commander, estimates the whole amount as far
less,-not exceeding five hundred and eighty thousand
and two hundred pesos de oro, and two hundred and
fifteen thousand marks of silver.45 In the absence of
43 " Pues andando yo buscando mahiz 6 otras cosas para comer,
acaso entre en vn buhio donde halle estos tablones de plata que tengo
dicho que heran hasta diez y de largo tenian veinte pies y de anchor
de vno y de gordor de tres dedos, di noticia dello al marquez y el y
todos los demas que con el estavan entraron a vello." Pedro Pizarro,
Descub. y Conq., MS.
44 Descub. y Conq., MS.
45 Ped. Sancho, Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 409.




TREASURE FOUND THERE.                   509
the official returns, it is impossible to determine which
is correct. But Sancho's narrative is countersigned,
it may be remembered, by Pizarro and the royal treasurer Riquelme, and doubtless, therefore, shows the
actual amount for which the Conquerors accounted to
the crown.
Whichever statement we receive, the sum, combined
with that obtained at Caxamalca, might well have satisfied the cravings of the most avaricious. The sudden influx of so much wealth, and that, too, in so
transferable a form, among a party of reckless adventurers little accustomed to the possession of money,
had its natural effect. It supplied them with the means
of gaming, so strong and common a passion with the
Spaniards that it may be considered a national vice.
Fortunes were lost and won in a single day, sufficient
to render the proprietors independent for life; and
many a desperate gamester, by an unlucky throw of
the dice or turn of the cards, saw himself stripped in
a few hours of the fruits of years of toil and obliged
to begin over again the business of rapine. Among
these, one in the cavalry service is mentioned, named
Leguizano,* who had received as his share of the booty
the image of the Sun, which, raised on a plate of
burnished gold, spread over the walls in a recess of the
* [Or Lejesema,-the same person whose will is referred to in Book I.
chap. 5, note 37, and printed in Appendix No. 4. According to Garcilasso, he had been' a great gambler," but his loss on the present
occasion proved his salvation, as he " hated play ever afterwards," and
devoted himself with zeal and diligence to the public service. He
held several offices, married an Inca princess, took part in the civil
wars,-generally on the winning side,-and survived all his old companions in arms.-ED.]
43*




510           CONQUEST OF PERU.
great temple, and which, for some reason or other,perhaps because of its superior fineness,-was not recast like the other ornaments. This rich prize the
spendthrift lost in a single night; whence it came to
be a proverb in Spain, Juega el Sol antes que amanezca,
"He plays away the Sun before sunrise." 46
The effect of such a surfeit of the precious metals
was instantly felt on prices. The most ordinary articles were only to be had for exorbitant sums.  A
quire of paper was sold for ten pesos de oro; a bottle
of wine, for sixty; a sword, for forty or fifty; a cloak,
for a hundred,-sometimes more; a pair of shoes cost
thirty or forty pesos de oro, and a good horse could
not be had for less than twenty-five hundred.47 Some
brought a still higher price.  Every article rose in
value, as gold and silver, the representatives of all,
declined. Gold and silver, in short, seemed to be the
only things in Cuzco that were not wealth. Yet there
were some few wise enough to return contented with
their present gains to their native country. Here their
riches brought them consideration and competence,
and, while they excited the envy of their countrymen,
stimulated them to seek their own fortunes in the like
path of adventure.
46 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 3, cap. 20.
47 Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. iii. p. 233.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.