The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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Etext of The History Of The Conquest Of Peru
by William H. Prescott

"Congestae cumulantur opes, orbisque rapinas Accipit."

Claudian, In Ruf., lib. i., v. 194.

"So color de religion
Van a buscar plata y oro
Del encubierto tesoro."
Lope De Vega, El Nuevo Mundo, Jorn. 1.

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 Munoz. 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, 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, relative 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 form a most
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 which 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 Munoz
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 the library of the
Escurial. 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
Athenaeum; 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 sources 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, 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 endeavoured 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 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, as
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, have, in the composition of the work, availed
myself freely of my manuscript materials, allowed the actors 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. Amedee 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 skillful
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 endeavoured to give him a reason 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 endeavoured 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 eyes 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 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
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 operandi 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 copy of the "History of Ferdinand and
Isabella" to be printed for of my own inspection, before it was
sent to the press for the publication. Such as I have described
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 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 a 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 1847

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 endeavoured 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
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. *1

[Footnote 1: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 65. - Cieza de Leon,
Cronica del Peru, (Anvers, 1554,) cap. 41. - Garcilasso de la
Vega, Commentarios Reales, (Lisboa, 1609,) Parte 1, lib. 1, 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.]

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
Magellan, reaches its highest elevation - indeed, the highest on
the American continent - about the seventeenth degree south, *2
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 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

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 3: At least, the word anta, which has been thought to
furnish the etymology of Andes, in the Peruvian tongue, signified
"copper." Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 15.]

[Footnote 4: Humboldt, Vues des Cordilleres et Monumens des
Peuples Indigenes de l'Amerique, (Paris, 1810,) p. 106. -
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.]

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
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 traveler, as he winds along his
aerial pathway, vainly endeavours to fathom. *5 Yet the industry,
we might almost say, the genius, of the Indian was sufficient to
overcome all these impediments of Nature.