The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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[Footnote 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 fue harto
beneficio para los Espaoles haver esta lengua pues podian con
ella andar por todas partes en algunas de las quales ya se va
perdiendo." Relacion, Ms., cap. 21.

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.]

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 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.

[Footnote 10: Garcilasso, Com. Real., ubi supra.]

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. *11 They
had, also, weeks; but of what length, whether of seven, nine, or
ten days, is uncertain. As their lunar 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 "the
god sat with all his light upon the column." *12 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. *13

[Footnote 11: 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. 10.]

[Footnote 12: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 2, cap.
22-26.

The Spanish conquerors threw down these pillars, as savouring of
idolatry in the Indians. Which of the two were best entitled to
the name of barbarians?]

[Footnote 13: Betanzos, Nar. de los Ingas, Ms., cap. 16. -
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 Florence, was erected by the famous
Toscanelli, - for the purpose of determining the solstices, and
regulating the festivals of the Church, - about the year 1468;
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.]
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. *14

[Footnote 14: A tolerably meagre account - yet as full, probably,
as authorities could warrant - of this interesting people has
been given by Piedrahita, Bishop of Panama, in the first two
Books of his Historia General de las Conquistas del Nuevo Regno
de Granada, (Madrid, 1688.) - 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.]

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 neighbours. 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. *15 But this assertion -
not improbable in itself - rests on a writer but little gifted
with the spirit of criticism, and is counter-balanced 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
conjurors 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 age and infirmity disqualified them
for the real business of life. *16

[Footnote 15: Montesinos, Mem. Antiguas, Ms., lib. 2, cap. 7.
"Renovo la computacion de los tiempos, que se iba perdiendo, y se
contaron en su Reynaldo los anos por 365 dias y seis horas; a los
anos anadio decadeas de diez anos, a cada diez decadas una
centuria de 100 anos, y a cada diez centurias una capachoata o
Jutiphuacan, que son 1000 anos, que quiere decir el grande ano
del Sol; asi contaban los siglos y los sucesos memorables de sus
Reyes." Ibid., loc. cit.]

[Footnote 16: "Ansi mismo les hicieron senalar 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 o contrechos, y gente asi a quien
faltava las fuerzas para ello." Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms.]

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. *17

[Footnote 17: See Codex Tel-Remensis, Part 4, Pl. 22, ap.
Antiquities of Mexico, vol. I. London, 1829.]

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 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. *18

[Footnote 18: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 16.

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 an arado i
comenzava con el a romper la tierra, i lo mismo los demas
senores, para que de alli adelante en todo su senorio 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 a las fiestas.' Conq. i. Pob.
del Piru, Ms.]

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. 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. *19

[Footnote 19: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 21. - Garcilasso,
Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 24. - Stevenson, Narrative of a
Twenty Years' Residence in S. America, (London, 1829,) vol. I. p.
412; II. pp. 173, 174.

"Sacauan acequias en cabos y por partes que es cosa estrana
afirmar lo: porque las echauan por lugares altos y baxos: y por
laderas de los cabecos 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 delectacio caminar por aquellos
valles: porque parece que se anda entre huertas y florestas
llenas de frescuras." Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 66.]

Most of these beneficent works of the Incas were suffered to go
to decay by their Spanish conquerors. 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.
*20

[Footnote 20: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Memoirs of
Gen-Miller, vol II p. 220.]

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. *21 Some of the 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

[Footnote 21: Miller supposes that it was from these andenes that
the Spaniards 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 1, lib. 2, cap. 11.) 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.]

[Footnote 22: Memoirs of Gen. Miller, ubi supra. - Garcilasso,
Com. Real. Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 1.]

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 quantities along the coast, - was
planted with some kind of grain or vegetable. *23

[Footnote 23: Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 73.

The remains of these ancient excavations still excite the wonder
of the modern traveller. See Stevenson, Residence in S. America,
vol. I. p. 359. - Also McCulloh, Researches, p. 358.]

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
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

[Footnote 24: Acosta, lib. 4, cap. 36. - Garcilasso, Com. Real.,
Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 3.]

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

[Footnote 25: Ibid., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 2.]

It was frequently the policy of the Incas, after providing 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 neighbouring
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

[Footnote 26: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 19. - Garcilasso,
Com. Real, Parte 1, lib. 6, cap. 36; lib. 7, cap. 1. - Herrera,
Hist. General. dec. 5, lib. 4, cap. 3.]

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.
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 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

[Footnote 27: 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 133 to 1, and with that of the potato,
as 44 to 1. (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.]