History Of The Conquest Of Peru

W >> William Hickling Prescott >> History Of The Conquest Of Peru

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51

From the moment war was proclaimed, the Peruvian monarch used all
possible expedition in assembling his forces, that he might anticipate the
movements of his enemies, and prevent a combination with their allies.
It was, however, from the neglect of such a principle of combination, that
the several nations of the country, who might have prevailed by
confederated strength, fell one after another under the imperial yoke.
Yet, once in the field the Inca did not usually show any disposition to
push his advantages to the utmost, and urge his foe to extremity. In
every stage of the war, he was open to propositions for peace; and
although he sought to reduce his enemies by carrying off their harvests
and distressing them by famine, he allowed his troops to commit no
unnecessary outrage on person or property. "We must spare our
enemies," one of the Peruvian princes is quoted as saying, "or it will be
our loss, since they and all that belong to them must soon be ours." 59 It
was a wise maxim, and, like most other wise maxims, founded equally on
benevolence and prudence. The Incas adopted the policy claimed for the
Romans by their countryman, who tells us that they gained more by
clemency to the vanquished than by their victories.60

In the same considerate spirit, they were most careful to provide for the
security and comfort of their own troops; and, when a war was long
protracted, or the climate proved unhealthy, they took care to relieve
their men by frequent reinforcements, allowing the earlier recruits to
return to their homes.61 But while thus economical of life, both in their
own followers and in the enemy, they did not shrink from sterner
measures when provoked by the ferocious or obstinate character of the
resistance; and the Peruvian annals contain more than one of those
sanguinary pages which cannot be pondered at the present day without a
shudder. It should be added, that the beneficent policy, which I have
been delineating as characteristic of the Incas, did not belong to all; and
that there was more than one of the royal line who displayed a full
measure of the bold and unscrupulous spirit of the vulgar conqueror.

The first step of the government, after the reduction of a country, was to
introduce there the worship of the Sun. Temples were erected, and
placed under the care of a numerous priesthood, who expounded to the
conquered people the mysteries of their new faith, and dazzled them by
the display of its rich and stately ceremonial.62 Yet the religion of the
conquered was not treated with dishonor. The Sun was to be worshipped
above all; but the images of their gods were removed to Cuzco and
established in one of the temples, to hold their rank among the inferior
deities of the Peruvian Pantheon. Here they remained as hostages, in
some sort, for the conquered nation, which would be the less inclined to
forsake its allegiance, when by doing so it must leave its own gods in the
hands of its enemies.63

The Incas provided for the settlement of their new conquests, by
ordering a census to be taken of the population, and a careful survey to
be made of the country, ascertaining its products, and the character and
capacity of its soil.64 A division of the territory was then made on the
same principle with that adopted throughout their own kingdom; and
their respective portions were assigned to the Sun, the sovereign, and the
people. The amount of the last was regulated by the amount of the
population, but the share of each individual was uniformly the same. It
may seem strange, that any people should patiently have acquiesced in an
arrangement which involved such a total surrender of property. But it
was a conquered nation that did so, held in awe, on the least suspicion of
meditating resistance, by armed garrisons, who were established at
various commanding points throughout the country.65 It is probable,
too, that the Incas made no greater changes than was essential to the new
arrangement, and that they assigned estates, as far as possible, to their
former proprietors. The curacas, in particular, were confirmed in their
ancient authority; or, when it was found expedient to depose the existing
curaca, his rightful heir was allowed to succeed him.66 Every respect
was shown to the ancient usages and laws of the land, as far as was
compatible with the fundamental institutions of the Incas. It must also be
remembered, that the conquered tribes were, many of them, too little
advanced in civilization to possess that attachment to the soil which
belongs to a cultivated nation.67 But, to whatever it be referred, it seems
probable that the extraordinary institutions of the Incas were established
with little opposition in the conquered territories.68

Yet the Peruvian sovereigns did not trust altogether to this show of
obedience in their new vassals; and, to secure it more effectually, they
adopted some expedients too remarkable to be passed by in silence.-
Immediately after a recent conquest, the curacas and their families were
removed for a time to Cuzco. Here they learned the language of the
capital, became familiar with the manners and usages of the court, as
well as with the general policy of government, and experienced such
marks of favor from the sovereign as would be most grateful to their
feelings, and might attach them most warmly to his person. Under the
influence of these sentiments, they were again sent to rule over their
vassals, but still leaving their eldest sons in the capital, to remain there as
a guaranty for their own fidelity, as well as to grace the court of the
Inca.69

Another expedient was of a bolder and more original character. This
was nothing less than to revolutionize the language of the country. South
America, like North, was broken up into a great variety of dialects, or
rather languages, having little affinity with one another. This
circumstance occasioned great embarrassment to the government in the
administration of the different provinces, with whose idioms they were
unacquainted. It was determined, therefore, to substitute one universal
language, the Quichua,--the language of the court, the capital, and the
surrounding country,--the richest and most comprehensive of the South
American dialects. Teachers were provided in the towns and villages
throughout the land, who were to give instruction to all, even the
humblest classes; and it was intimated at the same time, that no one
should be raised to any office of dignity or profit, who was unacquainted
with this tongue. The curacas and other chiefs, who attended at the
capital became familiar with this dialect in their intercourse with the
Court and, on their return home, set the example of conversing in it
among themselves. This example was imitated by their followers, and
the Quichua gradually became the language of elegance and fashion, in
the same manner as the Norman French was affected by all those who
aspired to any consideration in England, after the Conquest. By this
means, while each province retained its peculiar tongue, a beautiful
medium of communication was introduced, which enabled the
inhabitants of one part of the country to hold intercourse with every
other, and the Inca and his deputies to communicate with all. This was
the state of things on the arrival of the Spaniards. It must be admitted,
that history furnishes few examples of more absolute authority than such
a revolution in the language of an empire, at the bidding of a master.70

Yet little less remarkable was another device of the Incas for securing the
loyalty of their subjects. When any portion of the recent conquests
showed a pertinacious spirit of disaffection, it was not uncommon to
cause a part of the population, amounting, it might be, to ten thousand
inhabitants or more, to remove to a distant quarter of the kingdom,
occupied by ancient vassals of undoubted fidelity to the crown. A like
number of these last was transplanted to the territory left vacant by the
emigrants. By this exchange, the population was composed of two
distinct races, who regarded each other with an eye of jealousy, that
served as an effectual check on any mutinous proceeding. In time, the
influence of the well affected prevailed, supported, as they were, by
royal authority, and by the silent working of the national institutions, to
which the strange races became gradually accustomed. A spirit of
loyalty sprang up by degrees in their bosoms, and, before a generation
had passed away, the different tribes mingled in harmony together as
members of the same community.71 Yet the different races continued to
be distinguished by difference of dress; since, by the law of the land,
every citizen was required to wear the costume of his native province.72
Neither could the colonist, who had been thus unceremoniously
transplanted, return to his native district for, by another law, it was
forbidden to any one to change his residence without license.73 He was
settled for life. The Peruvian government ascribed to every man his
local habitation, his sphere of action, nay, the very nature and quality of
that action. He ceased to be a free agent; it might be almost said, that it
relieved him of personal responsibility.

In following out this singular arrangement, the Incas showed as much
regard for the comfort and convenience of the colonist as was compatible
with the execution of their design. They were careful that the mitimaes,
as these emigrants were styled, should be removed to climates most
congenial with their own. The inhabitants of the cold countries were not
transplanted to the warm, nor the inhabitants of the warm countries to the
cold.74 Even their habitual occupations were consulted, and the
fisherman was settled in the neighborhood of the ocean, or the great
lakes; while such lands were assigned to the husbandman as were best
adapted to the culture with which he was most familiar.75 And, as
migration by many, perhaps by most, would be regarded as a calamity,
the government was careful to show particular marks of favor to the
mitimaes, and, by various privileges and immunities, to ameliorate their
condition, and thus to reconcile them, if possible, to their lot.76

The Peruvian institutions, though they may have been modified and
matured under successive sovereigns, all bear the stamp of the same
original,--were all cast in the same mould. The empire, strengthening
and enlarging at every successive epoch of its history, was, in its latter
days, but the development, on a great scale, of what it was in miniature at
its commencement, as the infant germ is said to contain within itself all
the ramifications of the future monarch of the forest. Each succeeding
Inca seemed desirous only to tread in the path, and carry out the plans, of
his predecessor. Great enterprises, commenced under one, were
continued by another, and completed by a third. Thus, while all acted on
a regular plan, without any of the eccentric or retrograde movements
which betray the agency of different individuals, the state seemed to be
under the direction of a single hand, and steadily pursued, as if through
one long reign, its great career of civilization and of conquest.

The ultimate aim of its institutions was domestic quiet. But it seemed as
if this were to be obtained only by foreign war. Tranquillity in the heart
of the monarchy, and war on its borders, was the condition of Peru. By
this war it gave occupation to a part of its people, and, by the reduction
and civilization of its barbarous neighbors, gave security to all. Every
Inca sovereign, however mild and benevolent in his domestic rule, was a
warrior, and led his armies in person. Each successive reign extended
still wider the boundaries of the empire. Year after year saw the
victorious monarch return laden with spoils, and followed by a throng of
tributary chieftains to his capital. His reception there was a Roman
triumph. The whole of its numerous population poured out to welcome
him, dressed in the gay and picturesque costumes of the different
provinces, With banners waving above their heads, and strewing
branches and flowers along the path of the conqueror. The Inca, borne
aloft in his golden chair on the shoulders of his nobles, moved in solemn
procession, under the triumphal arches that were thrown across the way,
to the great temple of the Sun. There, without attendants,--for all but the
monarch were excluded from the hallowed precincts,--the victorious
prince, stripped of his royal insignia, barefooted, and with all humility,
approached the awful shrine, and offered up sacrifice and thanksgiving
to the glorious Deity who presided over the fortunes of the Incas. This
ceremony concluded, the whole population gave itself up to festivity;
music, revelry, and dancing were heard in every quarter of the capital,
and illuminations and bonfires commemorated the victorious campaign
of the Inca, and the accession of a new territory to his empire.77

In this celebration we see much of the character of a religious festival.
Indeed, the character of religion was impressed on all the Peruvian wars.
The life of an Inca was one long crusade against the infidel, to spread
wide the worship of the Sun, to reclaim the benighted nations from their
brutish superstitions, and impart to them the blessings of a well-regulated
government. This, in the favorite phrase of our day, was the "mission"
of the Inca. It was also the mission of the Christian conqueror who
invaded the empire of this same Indian potentate. Which of the two
executed his mission most faithfully, history must decide.

Yet the Peruvian monarchs did not show a childish impatience in the
acquisition of empire. They paused after a campaign, and allowed time
for the settlement of one conquest before they undertook another; and, in
this interval, occupied themselves with the quiet administration of their
kingdom, and with the long progresses, which brought them into nearer
intercourse with their people. During this interval, also, their new
vassals had begun to accommodate themselves to the strange institutions
of their masters. They learned to appreciate the value of a government
which raised them above the physical evils of a state of barbarism,
secured them protection of person, and a full participation in all the
privileges enjoyed by their conquerors; and, as they became more
familiar with the peculiar institutions of the country, habit, that second
nature, attached them the more strongly to these institutions, from their
very peculiarity. Thus, by degrees, and without violence, arose the great
fabric of the Peruvian empire, composed of numerous independent and
even hostile tribes, yet, under the influence of a common religion,
common language, and common government, knit together as one nation,
animated by a spirit of love for its institutions and devoted loyalty to its
sovereign. What a contrast to the condition of the Aztec monarchy, on
the neighboring continent, which, composed of the like heterogeneous
materials, without any internal principle of cohesion, was only held
together by the stern pressure, from without, of physical force !--Why the
Peruvian monarchy should have fared no better than its rival, in its
conflict with European civilization, will appear in the following pages.

Book 1

Chapter 3

Peruvian Religion--Deities--Gorgeous Temples--Festivals-
Virgins Of The Sun--Marriage

It is a remarkable fact, that many, if not most, of the rude tribes
inhabiting the vast American continent, however disfigured their creeds
may have been in other respects by a childish superstition, had attained
to the sublime conception of one Great Spirit, the Creator of the
Universe, who, immaterial in his own nature, was not to be dishonored
by an attempt at visible representation, and who, pervading all space,
was not to be circumscribed within the walls of a temple. Yet these
elevated ideas, so far beyond the ordinary range of the untutored
intellect, do not seem to have led to the practical consequences that
might have been expected; and few of the American nations have shown
much solicitude for the maintenance of a religious worship, or found in
their faith a powerful spring of action.

But, with progress in civilization, ideas more akin to those of civilized
communities were gradually unfolded; a liberal provision was made, and
a separate order instituted, for the services of religion, which were
conducted with a minute and magnificent ceremonial, that challenged
comparison, in some respects, with that of the most polished nations of
Christendom. This was the case with the nations inhabiting the table-
land of North America, and with the natives of Bogota, Quito, Peru, and
the other elevated regions on the great Southern continent. It was, above
all, the case with the Peruvians, who claimed a divine original for the
founders of their empire, whose laws all rested on a divine sanction, and
whose domestic institutions and foreign wars were alike directed to
preserve and propagate their faith. Religion was the basis of their polity,
the very condition, as it were, of their social existence. The government
of the Incas, in its essential principles, was a theocracy.

Yet, though religion entered so largely into the fabric and conduct of the
political institutions of the people, their mythology, that is, the
traditionary legends by which they affected to unfold the mysteries of the
universe, was exceedingly mean and puerile. Scarce one of their
traditions--except the beautiful one respecting the founders of their royal
dynasty--is worthy of note, or throws much light on their own antiquities,
or the primitive history of man. Among the traditions of importance is
one of the deluge, which they held in common with so many of the
nations in all parts of the globe, and which they related with some
particulars that bear resemblance to a Mexican legend.1

Their ideas in respect to a future state of being deserve more attention.
They admitted the existence of a soul hereafter, and connected with this
a belief in the resurrection of the body. They assigned two distinct
places for the residence of the good and of the wicked, the latter of
which they fixed in the centre of the earth. The good they supposed were
to pass a luxurious life of tranquillity and ease, which comprehended
their highest notions of happiness. The wicked were to expiate their
crimes by ages of wearisome labor. They associated with these ideas a
belief in an evil principle or spirit, bearing the name of Cupay, whom
they did not attempt to propitiate by sacrifices, and who seems to have
been only a shadowy personification of sin, that exercised little influence
over their conduct.2

It was this belief in the resurrection of the body, which led them to
preserve the body with so much solicitude, by a simple process,
however, that, unlike the elaborate embalming of the Egyptians,
consisted in exposing it to the action of the cold, exceedingly dry, and
highly rarefied atmosphere of the mountains.3 As they believed that the
occupations in the future world would have great resemblance to those of
the present, they buried with the deceased noble some of his apparel, his
utensils, and, frequently, his treasures; and completed the gloomy
ceremony by sacrificing his wives and favorite domestics, to bear him
company and do him service in the happy regions beyond the clouds.4
Vast mounds of an irregular, or, more frequently, oblong shape,
penetrated by galleries running at right angles to each other, were raised
over the dead, whose dried bodies or mummies have been found in
considerable numbers, sometimes erect, but more often in the sitting
posture, common to the Indian tribes of both continents. Treasures of
great value have also been occasionally drawn from these monumental
deposits, and have stimulated, speculators to repeated excavations with
the hope of similar good-fortune. It was a lottery like that of searching
after mines, but where the chances have proved still more against the
adventurers.5

The Peruvians, like so many other of the Indian races, acknowledged a
Supreme Being, the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, whom they
adored under the different names of Pachacamac and Viracocha.6 No
temple was raised to this invisible Being, save one only in the valley
which took its name from the deity himself, not far from the Spanish city
of Lima. Even this temple had existed there before the country came
under the sway of the Incas, and was the great resort of Indian pilgrims
from remote parts of the land; a circumstance which suggests the idea,
that the worship of this Great Spirit, though countenanced, perhaps, by
their accommodating policy, did not originate with the Peruvian
princes.7

The deity whose worship they especially inculcated, and which they
never failed to establish wherever their banners were known to penetrate,
was the Sun. It was he, who, in a particular manner, presided over the
destinies of man; gave light and warmth to the nations, and life to the
vegetable world; whom they reverenced as the father of their royal
dynasty, the founder of their empire; and whose temples rose in every
city and almost every village throughout the land, while his altars
smoked with burnt offerings,--a form of sacrifice peculiar to the
Peruvians among the semi-civilized nations of the New World.8

Besides the Sun, the Incas acknowledged various objects of worship in
some way or other connected with this principal deity. Such was the
Moon, his sister-wife; the Stars, revered as part of her heavenly train,-
though the fairest of them, Venus, known to the Peruvians by the name
of Chasca, or the "youth with the long and curling locks," was adored as
the page of the Sun, whom he attends so closely in his rising and in his
setting. They dedicated temples also to the Thunder and Lightning,9 in
whom they recognized the Sun's dread ministers, and to the Rainbows
whom they worshipped as a beautiful emanation of their glorious
deity.10

In addition to these, the subjects of the Incas enrolled among their
inferior deities many objects in nature, as the elements, the winds, the
earth, the air, great mountains and rivers, which impressed them with
ideas of sublimity and power, or were supposed in some way or other to
exercise a mysterious influence over the destinies of man.11 They
adopted also a notion, not unlike that professed by some of the schools
of ancient philosophy, that every thing on earth had its archetype or idea,
its mother, as they emphatically styled it, which they held sacred, as, in
some sort, its spiritual essence.12 But their system, far from being
limited even to these multiplied objects of devotion, embraced within its
ample folds the numerous deities of the conquered nations, whose
images were transported to the capital, where the burdensome charges of
their worship were defrayed by their respective provinces. It was a rare
stroke of policy in the Incas, who could thus accommodate their religion
to their interests.13

But the worship of the Sun constituted the peculiar care of the Incas, and
was the object of their lavish expenditure. The most ancient of the many
temples dedicated to this divinity was in the Island of Titicaca, whence
the royal founders of the Peruvian line were said to have proceeded.
From this circumstance, this sanctuary was held in peculiar veneration.
Every thing which belonged to it, even the broad fields of maize, which
Surrounded the temple, and formed part of its domain, imbibed a portion
of its sanctity. The yearly produce was distributed among the different
public magazines, in small quantities to each, as something that would
sanctify the remainder of the store. Happy was the man who could
secure even an ear of the blessed harvest for his own granary! 14

But the most renowned of the Peruvian temples, the pride of the capital,
and the wonder of the empire, was at Cuzco, where, under the
munificence of successive sovereigns, it had become so enriched, that it
received the name of Coricancha, or "the Place of Gold." It consisted of
a principal building and several chapels and inferior edifices, covering a
large extent of ground in the heart of the city, and completely
encompassed by a wall, which, with the edifices, was all constructed of
stone. The work was of the kind already described in the other public
buildings of the country, and was so finely executed, that a Spaniard,
who saw it in its glory, assures us, he could call to mind only two
edifices in Spain, which, for their workmanship, were at all to be
compared with it.15 Yet this substantial, and, in some respects,
magnificent structure, was thatched with straw !

The interior of the temple was the most worthy of admiration. It was
literally a mine of gold. On the western wall was emblazoned a
representation of the deity, consisting of a human countenance, looking
forth from amidst innumerable rays of light, which emanated from it in
every direction, in the same manner as the sun is often personified with
us. The figure was engraved on a massive plate of gold of enormous
dimensions, thickly powdered with emeralds and precious stones.16 It
was so situated in front of the great eastern portal, that the rays of the
morning sun fell directly upon it at its rising, lighting up the whole
apartment with an effulgence that seemed more than natural, and which
was reflected back from the golden ornaments with which the walls and
ceiling were everywhere in crusted. Gold, in the figurative language of
the people was "the tears wept by the sun," 17 and every part of the
interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and studs of the
precious metal. The cornices, which surrounded the walls of the
sanctuary, were of the same costly material; and a broad belt or frieze of
gold, let into the stonework, encompassed the whole exterior of the
edifice.18