The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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[Footnote 22: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 8, cap. 25.]

[Footnote 23: Ibid., Parte 1, 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.]

[Footnote 24: Ulloa, Not. Amer., ent. 21.]

But the surest test of the civilization of a people - at 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 monuments 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 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. *26
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

[Footnote 25: It is the observation of Humboldt. "Il 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'a quatre mille metres
d'elevation au-dessus du niveau de l'Ocean. On dirait qu'un seul
architecte a construit ce grand nombre de monumens." Vues des
Cordilleres, p. 197.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 27: Ibid., ubi supra.]

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 detected a fine bituminous glue, as hard as the rock itself.
*29

[Footnote 28: Among others, see Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 15. -
Robertson, History of America, (London, 1796,) vol. III. p. 213.]

[Footnote 29: Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms. - Ulloa, Not. Amer., ent.
21.
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 Cordilleres, p. 116.)
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. 126-128.]

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

[Footnote 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. 14. - Ulloa, Voyage to S. America, vol. I. p 469. -
Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms.]

The architecture of the Incas is characterized, says an eminent
traveller, "by simplicity, symmetry and solidity." *31 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.

[Footnote 31: "Simplicite, symetrie, et solidite, voila les trois
caracteres par lesquels se distinguent avantageusement tous les
edifices peruviens.' Humboldt, Vues des Cordilleres, p. 115.]

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 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 successfully explored the mysterious
recesses of Central America and Yucatan.

[Footnote 32: 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, Dona 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. Dona 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!'"]

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.

[Footnote 33: Ante, chap. 1.]

Very different was the policy pursued by the two 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 toward 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 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 agriculture 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 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.
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 its 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 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

[Footnote 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
Americaines, tom. II. pp. 7, 8.]

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 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 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 destiny - under 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 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 itself, considering the imperfection of their tools and
machinery, was inconceivably enhanced by the politic contrivance
of 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.

[Footnote 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 o pa el Sol en gran cantidad,
y del Cuzco llevalla 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.]

[Footnote 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 llevo a otras partes
por cosa de gran estima, e 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 pequenos 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 a governar aquella Ciudad; e si fue
verdad que aquella se trajo de ellos, afirman e 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 a lo que creo, y cierto
yo me satisfice, porque todos dicen, que aquel genero de arena,
no lo hay hasta la costa." Rel. Seg., Ms]