The History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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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; and entertainments were provided in the 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." *50 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! *51

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 51: 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 a
estos tales canonizaban en su ceguedad por Santos y honrraban sus
huesos, sin entender que las animas ardian en los Ynfiernos y
creian que estaban en el Cielo." Ibid., ubi supra.]

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
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.

[Footnote 52: Garcilasso says over three hundred! (Com. Real.,
Parte 1, lib. 3, cap. 19.) The fact, though rather startling, is
not incredible, if, like Huayna Capac, they counted seven hundred
wives in their seraglio. See Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 7.]

[Footnote 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 1, lib. 1, cap. 22.) This important fact, to
which he often refers, one would be glad to see confirmed by a
single authority.]

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, 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

[Footnote 54: "Los Incas tuvieron otra Lengua particular, que
hablavan entre ellos, que no la entendian los demas Indios, ni
les era licito aprenderla, como Lenguage Divino. Esta me
escriven del Peru, que se ha perdido totalmente; porque como
perecio la Republica particular de los Incas, perecio tambien el
Lenguage dellos." Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 7, cap.
1]

[Footnote 55: "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.]

[Footnote 56: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. 15.]
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
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

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 58: Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 4, cap. 10. -
Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 11 - Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms. -
Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 93. - Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.]

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 preeminence, which, no less than their station, gave
them authority with the people. Indeed, it may be said to 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 vet done little to explain.

[Footnote 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 in the latter, which was
singularly flat and deficient in intellectual character. Crania
Americana, (Philadelphia, 1829.)]

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." *1 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, 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

[Footnote 1: 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 1, lib. 1, cap. 6.) Such
blunders have led to the 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. 1, 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.]

[Footnote 2: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms. - Garcilasso, Com Real.,
Parte 1, lib. 2, cap. 11.]

[Footnote 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?]

[Footnote 4: Ibid., parte 1, cap. 9, 10. - 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.]
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. *5 The 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

[Footnote 5: Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms. - Garcilasso, Com. Real.,
Parte 1, lib. 2, cap. 15.

For this account of the councils I am indebted to Garcilasso, 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.]

[Footnote 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 was more humane, which
imposed only a fine on the district, in case of a criminal's
escape.]

The people were still further divided into bodies of fifty, one
hundred, five hundred, and a thousand, with each 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, 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

[Footnote 7: Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms. - Ondegardo, Rel. Prim.
et Seg., Mss. - Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 2, cap.
11-14. - 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.]

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 any thing 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 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 neighbour'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

[Footnote 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 1, lib. 4, cap.
34.]

[Footnote 9: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 23.

"I los traidores entre ellos llamava aucaes, i esta palabra es la
mas abiltada de todas quantas pueden decir aun Indio del Piru,
que quiere decir traidor a su Senor." (Cong. i Pob. del Piru,
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.]

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 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. *10 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. *11

[Footnote 10: "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 a Dios." Garcilasso,
Com. Real. Parte 1, lib. 2. cap. 12.]

[Footnote 11: 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. 361.]
These legislative provisions may strike us as very defective,
even as compared with those of the semi-civilized 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 guaranty for
their integrity. 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. *12

[Footnote 12: The Royal Audience of Peru under Philip II. - 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 Espanoles que algo alcanzan de
ella, es porque todas las cosas susodichas se de terminaban sin
hacerles costas" Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms.]

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
distribution, indeed, was made on the same general principle, as
each new conquest was added to the monarchy; but the proportion
varied according to the amount of population, and the greater or
less amount of land consequently required for the support of the
inhabitants. *13

[Footnote 13: Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 15. - Garcilasso, Com. Real.,
Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 1.

"Si estas partes fuesen iguales, o qual fuese mayor, yo lo he
procurado averiguar, y en unas es diferente de otras, y finalmte
yo tengo entendido que se hacia conforme a la disposicion de la
tierra y a la calidad de los Indios" Ondegardo, Rel Prim., Ms]

The lands assigned to the Sun furnished a revenue to support the
temples, and maintain the costly ceremonial 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. *14 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
*15

[Footnote 14: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms. - Garcilasso, Com.
Real., Parte 1, 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.]

[Footnote 15: Ibid., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 3.

It is singular, that while so much is said of the Inca sovereign,
so little should be said of the Inca nobility, of their estates,
or the tenure by which they held them. 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. He
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.]