History Of The Conquest Of Peru

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If this dazzling picture staggers the faith of the reader, he may reflect that
the Peruvian mountains teemed with gold; that the natives understood the
art of working the mines, to a considerable extent; that none of the ore, as
we shall see hereafter, was converted into coin, and that the whole of it
passed into the hands of the sovereign for his own exclusive benefit,
whether for purposes of utility or ornament. Certain it is that no fact is
better attested by the Conquerors themselves, who had ample means of
information, and no motive for misstatement.--The Italian poets, in their
gorgeous pictures of the gardens of Alcina and Morgana, came nearer the
truth than they imagined.

Our surprise, however, may reasonably be excited, when we consider that
the wealth displayed by the Peruvian princes was only that which each
had amassed individually for himself. He owed nothing to inheritance
from his predecessors. On the decease of an Inca, his palaces were
abandoned, all his treasures, except what were employed in his obsequies,
his furniture and apparel, were suffered to remain as he left them, and his
mansions, save one, were closed up for ever. The new sovereign was to
provide himself with every thing new for his royal state. The reason of
this was the popular belief, that the soul of the departed monarch would
return after a time to reanimate his body on earth; and they wished that he
should find every thing to which he had been used in life prepared for his
reception.45

When an Inca died, or, to use his own language, "was called home to the
mansions of his father, the Sun," 46 his obsequies were celebrated with
great pomp and solemnity. The bowels were taken from the body, and
deposited in the temple of Tampu, about five leagues from the capital. A
quantity of his plate and jewels was buried with them, and a number of his
attendants and favorite concubines, amounting sometimes, it is said, to a
thousand, were immolated on his tomb.47 Some of them showed the
natural repugnance to the sacrifice occasionally manifested by the victims
of a similar superstition in India. But these were probably the menials
and more humble attendants; since the women have been known, in more
than one instance, to lay violent hands on themselves, when restrained
from testifying their fidelity by this act of conjugal martyrdom. This
melancholy ceremony was followed by a general mourning throughout the
empire. At stated intervals, for a year, the people assembled to renew the
expressions of their sorrow, processions were made, displaying the banner
of the departed monarch; bards and minstrels were appointed to chronicle
his achievements, and their songs continued to be rehearsed at high
festivals in the presence of the reigning monarch,--thus stimulating the
living by the glorious example of the dead.48

The body of the deceased Inca was skilfully embalmed, and removed to
the great temple of the Sun at Cuzco. There the Peruvian sovereign, on
entering the awful sanctuary, might behold the effigies of his royal
ancestors, ranged in opposite files,--the men on the right, and their queens
on the left, of the great luminary which blazed in refulgent gold on the
walls of the temple. The bodies, clothed in the princely attire which they
had been accustomed to wear, were placed on chairs of gold, and sat with
their heads inclined downward, their hands placidly crossed over their
bosoms, their countenances exhibiting their natural dusky hue,--less liable
to change than the fresher coloring of a European complexion,--and their
hair of raven black, or silvered over with age, according to the period at
which they died! It seemed like a company of solemn worshippers fixed in
devotion,--so true were the forms and lineaments to life. The Peruvians
were as successful as the Egyptians in the miserable attempt to perpetuate
the existence of the body beyond the limits assigned to it by nature.49

They cherished a still stranger illusion in the attentions which they
continued to pay to these insensible remains, as if they were instinct with
life. One of the houses belonging to a deceased Inca was kept open and
occupied by his guard and attendants, with all the state appropriate to
royalty. On certain festivals, the revered bodies of the sovereigns were
brought out with great ceremony into the public square of the capital.
Invitations were sent by the captains of the guard of the respective Incas
to the different nobles and officers of the court; 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

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.

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

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

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 yet
done little to explain.

Book 1

Chapter 2

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

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

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 the most distant extremities, and review and rectify any abuses
in the administration of the law.7

The laws were few and exceedingly severe. They related almost wholly
to criminal matters. Few other laws were needed by a people who had
no money, little trade, and hardly 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 neighbor's land into one's own, burning a
house, were all severely punished. To burn a bridge was death. The inca
allowed no obstacle to those facilities of communication so essential to
the maintenance of public order. A rebellious city or province was laid
waste, and its inhabitants exterminated. Rebellion against the "Child of
the Sun," was the greatest of all crimes.9

The simplicity and severity of the Peruvian code may be thought to infer
a state of society but little advanced; which had few of those complex
interests and relations that grow up in a civilized community, and which
had not proceeded far enough in the science of legislation to economize
human suffering by proportioning penalties to crimes. But the Peruvian
institutions must be regarded from a different point of view 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

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 fight 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

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 propertion varied
according to the amount of population, and the greater or less amount of
land consequently required for the support of the inhabirants.13

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

A more thorough and effectual agrarian law than this cannot be
imagined. In other countries where such a law has been introduced, its
operation, after a time, has given way to the natural order of events, and,
under the superior intelligence and thrift of some and the prodigality of
others, the usual vicissitudes of fortune have been allowed to take their
course, and restore things to their natural inequality. Even the iron law
of Lycurgus ceased to operate after a time, and melted away before the
spirit of luxury and avarice. The nearest approach to the Peruvian
constitution was probably in Judea, where, on the recurrence of the great
national jubilee, at the close of every half-century, estates reverted to
their original proprietors. There was this important difference in Peru;
that not only did the lease, if we may so call it, terminate with the year,
but during that period the tenant had no power to alienate or to add to his
possessions. The end of the brief term found him in precisely the same
condition that he was in at the beginning. Such a state of things might be
supposed to be fatal to any thing like attachment to the soil, or to that
desire of improving it, which is natural to the permanent proprietor, and
hardly less so to the holder of a long lease. But the practical operation of
the law seems to have been otherwise; and it is probable, that, under the
influence of that love of order and aversion to change which marked the
Peruvian institutions, each new partition of the soil usually confirmed the
occupant in his possession, and the tenant for a year was converted into a
proprietor for life.

The territory was cultivated wholly by the people. The lands belonging
to the Sun were first attended to. They next tilled the lands of the old, of
the sick, of the widow and the orphan, and of soldiers engaged in actual
service; in short, of all that part of the community who, from bodily
infirmity or any other cause, were unable to attend to their own concerns.
The people were then allowed to work on their own ground, each man
for himself, but with the general obligation to assist his neighbor, when
any circumstance--the burden of a young and numerous family, for
example--might demand it.16 Lastly, they cultivated the lands of the
Inca. This was done, with great ceremony, by the whole population in a
body. At break of day, they were summoned together by proclamation
from some neighboring tower or eminence, and all the inhabitants of the
district, men, women, and children, appeared dressed in their gayest
apparel, bedecked with their little store of finery and ornaments, as if for
some great jubilee. They went through the labors of the day with the
same joyous spirit, chanting their popular ballads which commemorated
the heroic deeds of the Incas, regulating their movements by the measure
of the chant, and all mingling in the chorus, of which the word hailli, or
"triumph," was usually the burden. These national airs had something
soft and pleasing in their character, that recommended them to the
Spaniards; and many a Peruvian song was set to music by them after the
Conquest, and was listened to by the unfortunate natives with
melancholy satisfaction, as it called up recollections of the past, when
their days glided peacefully away under the sceptre of the Incas.17

A similar arrangement prevailed with respect to the different
manufactures as to the agricultural products of the country. The flocks
of llamas, or Peruvian sheep, were appropriated exclusively to the Sun
and to the Inca.18 Their number was immense. They were scattered
over the different provinces, chiefly in the colder regions of the country,
where they were intrusted to the care of experienced shepherds, who
conducted them to different pastures according to the change of season.
A large number was every year sent to the capital for the consumption of
the Court, and for the religious festivals and sacrifices. But these were
only the males, as no female was allowed to be killed. The regulations
for the care and breeding of these flocks were prescribed with the
greatest minuteness, and with a sagacity which excited the admiration of
the Spaniards, who were familiar with the management of the great
migratory flocks of merinos in their own country.19

At the appointed season, they were all sheared, and the wool was
deposited in the public magazines. It was then dealt out to each family in
such quantities as sufficed for its wants, and was consigned to the female
part of the household, who were well instructed in the business of
spinning and weaving. When this labor was accomplished, and the
family was provided with a coarse but warm covering, suited to the cold
climate of the mountains,--for, in the lower country, cotton, furnished in
like manner by the Crown, took the place, to a certain extent, of wool,--
the people were required to labor for the Inca. The quantity of the cloth
needed, as well as the peculiar kind and quality of the fabric, was first
determined at Cuzco. The work was then apportioned among the
different provinces. Officers, appointed for the purpose, superintended
the distribution of the wool, so that the manufacture of the different
articles should be intrusted to the most competent hands.20 They did not
leave the matter here, but entered the dwellings, from time to time, and
saw that the work was faithfully executed. This domestic inquisition was
not confined to the labors for the Inca. It included, also, those for the
several families; and care was taken that each household should employ
the materials furnished for its own use in the manner that was intended,
so that no one should be unprovided with necessary apparel.21 In this
domestic labor all the female part of the establishment was expected to
join. Occupation was found for all, from the child five years old to the
aged matron not too infirm to hold a distaff. No one, at least none but
the decrepit and the sick, was allowed to eat the bread of idleness in
Peru. Idleness was a crime in the eye of the law, and, as such, severely
punished; while industry was publicly commended and stimulated by
rewards.22