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Works Issued by the Hakluyt Society
HISTORY OF THE INCAS
by
PEDRO SARMIENTO DE GAMBOA
Translated and Edited with Notes and an Introduction by Sir Clements Markham, K.C.B. President of the Hakluyt Society.
Cambridge: Printed for the Hakluyt Society. MDCCCCVII. Cambridge: Printed by John Clay, M.A. at the University Press.
COUNCIL OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.
SIR CLEMENTS MARKHAM, K.C.B., F.R.S., President.
THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL, Vice-President.
THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD AMHERST OF HACKNEY, Vice-President.
THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD BELHAVEN AND STENTON.
THOMAS B. BOWRING.
COLONEL GEORGE EARL CHURCH.
SIR WILLIAM MARTIN CONWAY, M.A., F.S.A.
THE REV. CANON JOHN NEALE DALTON, C.M.G., C.V.O.
GEORGE WILLIAM FORREST, C.I.E.
WILLIAM FOSTER, B.A.
THE RIGHT HON. SIR GEORGE TAUBMIN GOLDIE, K.C.M.G., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., Pres. R.G.S.
ALBERT GRAY, K.C.
EDWARD HEAWOOD, M.A.
COLONEL SIR THOMAS HUNGERFORD HOLDICH, K.C.M.G., K.C.S.I., C.B., R.E.
JOHN SCOTT KELTIE, LL.D.
ADMIRAL SIR ALBERT HASTINGS MARKHAM, K.C.B.
ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET SIR FREDERICK WILLIAM RICHARDS, G.C.B.
ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET SIR EDWARD HONART SEYMOUR, G.C.B., O.M.
LIEUT.-COL. SIR RICHARD CARNAC TEMPLE, BART., C.L.E.
ROLAND VENABLES VERNON, B.A.
BASIL HARRINGTON SOULSBY, B.A., F.S.A., Honorary Secretary.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Introduction
Dedicatory letter to King Philip II
I. Division of the history
II. The ancient division of the land
III. Description of the ancient Atlantic Island
IV. First inhabitants of the world and principally of the Atlantic Island
V. Inhabitants of the Atlantic Island
VI. The fable of the origin of these barbarous Indians of Peru, according to their blind opinions
VII. Fable of the second age, and creation of the barbarous Indians according to their account
VIII. The ancient Behetrias of these kingdoms of Peru and their provinces
IX. The first settlers in the valley of Cuzco
X. How the Incas began to tyrannize over the lands and inheritances
XI. The fable of the origin of the Incas of Cuzco
XII. The road which these companies of the Incas took to the valley of Cuzco, and of the fables which are mixed with their history
XIV. Entry of the Incas into the valley of Cuzco, and the fables they relate concerning it
XIV. The difference between Manco Ccapac and the Alcabisas, respecting the arable land
XV. Commences the life of Sinchi Rocca, the second Inca
XVI. The life of Lloqui Yupanqui, the third Inca
XVII. The life of Mayta Ccapac, the fourth Inca
XVIII. The life of Ccapac Yupanqui, the fifth Inca
XIX. The life of Inca Rocca, the sixth Inca
XX. The life of Titu Cusi Hualpa, vulgarly called Yahuar-huaccac
XXI. What happened after the Ayarmarcas had stolen Titu Cusi Hualpa
XXII. How it became known that Yahuar-huaccac was alive
XXIII. Yahuar-huaccac Inca Yupanqui commences his reign alone, after the death of his father
XXIV. Life of Viracocha, the eighth Inca
XXV. The provinces and towns conquered by the eighth Inca Viracocha
XXVI. Life of Inca Yupanqui or Pachacuti, the ninth Inca
XXVII. Coming of the Chancas against Cuzco
XXVIII. The second victory of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui over the Chancas
XXIX. The Inca Yupanqui assumes the sovereignty and takes the fringe, without the consent of his father
XXX. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui rebuilds the city of Cuzco
XXXI. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui rebuilds the House of the Sun and establishes new idols in it
XXXII. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui depopulates two leagues of country near Cuzco
XXXIII. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui kills his elder brother named Inca Urco
XXXIV. The nations which Pachacuti Inca subjugated and the towns he took; and first of Tocay Ccapac, Sinchi of the Ayamarcas, and the destruction of the Cuyos
XXXV. The other nations conquered by Inca Yupanqui, either in person or through his brother Inca Rocca
XXXVI. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui endows the House of the Sun with great wealth
XXXVII. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui conquers the province of Colla-suyu
XXXVIII. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui sends an army to conquer the province of Chinchay-suyu
XXXIX. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui plants mitimaes in all the lands he had conquered
XL. The Collas, sons of Chuchi Ccapac, rebel against Inca Yupanqui to obtain their freedom
XLI. Amaru Tupac Inca and Apu Paucar Usnu continue the conquest of the Collao and again subdue the Collas
XLII. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui nominates his son Tupac Inca Yupanqui as his successor
XLIII. How Pachacuti armed his son Tupac Inca
XLIV. Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui sends his son Tupac Inca Yupanqui to conquer Chinchay-suyu
XLV. How Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui visited the provinces conquered for him by his captains
XLVI. Tupac Inca Yupanqui sets out, a second time, by order of his father, to conquer what remained unsubdued in Chinchay-suyu
XLVII. Death of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui
XLVIII. The life of Tupac Inca Yupanqui, the tenth Inca
XLIX. Tupac Inca Yupanqui conquers the province of the Antis
L. Tupac Inca Yupanqui goes to subdue and pacify the Collas
LI. Tupac Inca makes the Yanaconas
LII. Tupac Inca Yupanqui orders a second visitation of the land, and does other things
LIII. Tupac Inca makes the fortress of Cuzco
LIV. Death of Tupac Inca Yupanqui
LV. The life of Huayna Ccapac, eleventh Inca
LVI. They give the fringe of Inca to Huayna Ccapac, the eleventh Inca
LVII. The first acts of Huayna Ccapac after he became Inca
LVIII. Huayna Ccapac conquers Chachapoyas
LIX. Huayna Ccapac makes a visitation of the whole empire from Quito to Chile
LX. Huayna Ccapac makes war on the Quitos, Pastos, Carangues, Cayambis, Huancavilcas
LXI. The Chirihuanas come to make war in Peru against those conquered by the Incas
LXII. What Huayna Ccapac did after the-said wars
LXIII. The life of Huascar, the last Inca, and of Atahualpa
LXIV. Huascar Inca marches in person to fight Chalco Chima and Quiz-quiz, the captains of Atahualpa
LXV. The battle between the armies of Huascar and Atahualpa. Huascar made prisoner
LXVI. What Chalco Chima and Quiz-quiz did concerning Huascar and those of his side in words
LXVII. The cruelties that Atahualpa ordered to be perpetrated on the prisoners and conquered of Huascar's party
LXVIII. News of the Spaniards comes to Atahualpa
LXIX. The Spaniards come to Caxamarca and seize Atahualpa, who orders Huascar to be killed. Atahualpa also dies
LXX. It is noteworthy how these Incas were tyrants against themselves, besides being so against the natives of the land
LXXI. Summary computation of the period that the Incas of Peru lasted
Certificate of the proofs and verification of this history
* * * * *
Account of the Province of Vilcapampa and a narrative of the execution of the Inca Tupac Amaru, by Captain Baltasar de Ocampo
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. Map of Central Peru. 1907. By Graham Mackay, R.G.S
Six Facsimiles (reduced) from the Sarmiento MS., 1572 (Goettingen University Library):
2. a. Arms of Philip II of Spain. Coloured
3. b. Last page of Sarmiento's introductory Letter to Philip II, with his autograph
4. c. Arms of Philip II. fol. 1
5. d. Title of the Sarmiento MS. fol. 2
6. e. Arms of Don Francisco de Toledo, Viceroy of Peru, 1569—1581. fol. 132
7. f. Signatures of the attesting witnesses, 1572. fol. 138
8. Portrait of the Viceroy, Don Francisco de Toledo, at Lima. From a sketch by Sir Clements Markham in 1853
9. Group of Incas, in ceremonial dresses, from figures in the pictures in the Church of Santa Ana, Cuzco, A.D. 1570. From a sketch by Sir Clements Markham in 1853
10. Portraits of the Incas. Facsimile of the Title-page of the Fifth Decade of Antonio de Herrera's Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano, Madrid, 1615. fol. From the Rev. C.M. Cracherode's copy in the British Museum
11. Capture of Atahualpa, and Siege of Cuzco. From the Title-page of the Sixth Decade of Antonio de Herrera
12. Map of Vilca-Pampa. 1907. By Graham Mackay, R.G.S
Plates 2—7 have been reproduced from the negatives, kindly lent for the purpose by Professor Dr Richard Pietschmann, Director of the Goettingen University Library.
INTRODUCTION.
The publication of the text of the Sarmiento manuscript in the Library of Goettingen University, has enabled the Council to present the members of the Hakluyt Society with the most authentic narrative of events connected with the history of the Incas of Peru.
The history of this manuscript, and of the documents which accompanied it, is very interesting. The Viceroy, Don Francisco de Toledo, who governed Peru from 1569 to 1581, caused them to be prepared for the information of Philip II. Four cloths were sent to the King from Cuzco, and a history of the Incas written by Captain Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa. On three cloths were figures of the Incas with their wives, on medallions, with their Ayllus and a genealogical tree. Historical events in each reign were depicted on the borders. The fable of Tampu-tocco was shown on the first cloth, and also the fables touching the creations of Viracocha, which formed the foundation for the whole history. On the fourth cloth there was a map of Peru, the compass lines for the positions of towns being drawn by Sarmiento.
The Viceroy also caused reports to be made to him, to prove that the Incas were usurpers. There were thirteen reports from Cuzco, Guamanga, Xauxa, Yucay, and other places, forming a folio of 213 leaves, preserved in the Archivo de Indias[1]. At Cuzco all the Inca descendants were called upon to give evidence respecting the history of Peru under their ancestors. They all swore that they would give truthful testimony. The compilation of the history was then entrusted to Captain Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, the cosmographer of Peru. When it was completed the book was read to the Inca witnesses, chapter by chapter, in their own language. They discussed each chapter, and suggested some corrections and alterations which were adopted. It was then submitted to the Viceroy, who caused the documents to be attested by the principal Spaniards settled at Cuzco, who had been present at the conquest, or had taken a leading part in the subsequent administration. These were Dr Loarte, the licentiate Polo de Ondegardo[2], Alonso de Mena[3], Mancio Serra de Leguisano[4], Pero Alonso Carrasco, and Juan de Pancorvo[5], in whose house the Viceroy resided while he was at Cuzco. Mancio Serra de Leguisano married Beatriz Nusta, an Inca princess, daughter of Huayna Ccapac. The Viceroy then made some final interpolations to vilify the Incas, which would not have been approved by some of those who had attested, certainly not by Polo de Ondegardo or Leguisano.
[Note 1: Printed in the same volume with Montesinos, and edited by Jimenes de la Espada, Informaciones acerca del senorio y gobierno de los Ingas hechas por mandado de Don Francisco de Toledo, 1570—72.]
[Note 2: The accomplished lawyer, author, and statesman.]
[Note 3: One of the first conquerors. His house at Cuzco was in the square of our Lady, near that of Garcilasso de la Vega.]
[Note 4: A generous defender of the cause of the Indians.]
[Note 5: One of the first conquerors. He occupied a house near the square, with his friend and comrade Alonso de Marchena.]
Sarmiento mentions in his history of the Incas that it was intended to be the Second Part of his work. There were to be three Parts. The First, on the geography of Peru, was not sent because it was not finished. The Third Part was to have been a narrative of the conquest.
The four cloths, and the other documents, were taken to Spain, for presentation to the King, by a servant of the Viceroy named Geronimo Pacheco, with a covering letter dated at Yucay on March 1st, 1572.
Of all these precious documents the most important was the history of the Incas by Sarmiento, and it has fortunately been preserved. The King's copy found its way into the famous library of Abraham Gronovius, which was sold in 1785, and thence into the library of the University of Goettingen, where it remained, unprinted and unedited, for 120 years. But in August, 1906, the learned librarian, Dr Richard Pietschmann published the text at Berlin, very carefully edited and annotated with a valuable introduction. The Council of the Hakluyt Society is thus enabled to present an English translation to its members very soon after the first publication of the text. It is a complement of the other writings of the great navigator, which were translated and edited for the Hakluyt Society in 1895.
The manuscript consists of eight leaves of introduction and 138 of text. The dedicatory letter to the King is signed by Sarmiento on March 4th, 1572. The binding was of red silk, under which there is another binding of green leather. The first page is occupied by a coloured shield of the royal arms, with a signature el Capita Sarmi de Gaboa. On the second page is the title, surrounded by an ornamental border. The manuscript is in a very clear hand, and at the end are the arms of Toledo (chequy azure and argent) with the date Cuzco, 29 Feb., 1572. There is also the signature of the Secretary, Alvaro Ruiz de Navamuel[6].
[Note 6: Alvaro Ruiz and his brother Captain Francisco Ruiz were the sons of Francisco Santiago Rodriguez de los Rios by Inez de Navamuel. Both used their mother's name of Navamuel as their surname; and both were born at Aquilar del Campo. Alonso Ruiz de Navamuel was Secretary to the governments of five successive Viceroys. He wrote a Relacion de las cosas mas notables que hiza en el Peru, siendo Virev Don Francisco de Toledo, 20 Dec. 1578. He died in the year 1613. The descendants of his son Juan de los Rios formed the mayorazgos of Rios and Cavallero.
By his wife Angela Ortiz de Arbildo y Berriz, a Biscayan, he had a daughter Inez married to her cousin Geronimo Aliaga, a son of the Secretary's brother Captain Francisco Ruiz de Navamuel, the encomendero of Caracoto in the Collao, by Juana, daughter of Captain Geronimo de Aliaga. His marriage, at which the Viceroy Toledo was present, took place on November 23rd, 1578. From the marriage of the younger Geronimo de Aliaga with Inez Navamuel, descend the Aliagas, Counts of Luringancho in Peru.]
The history of the Incas by Sarmiento is, without any doubt, the most authentic and reliable that has yet appeared. For it was compiled from the carefully attested evidence of the Incas themselves, taken under official sanction. Each sovereign Inca formed an ayllu or "gens" of his descendants, who preserved the memory of his deeds in quipus, songs, and traditions handed down and learnt by heart. There were many descendants of each of these ayllus living near Cuzco in 1572, and the leading members were examined on oath; so that Sarmiento had opportunities of obtaining accurate information which no other writer possessed. For the correct versions of the early traditions, and for historical facts and the chronological order of events, Sarmiento is the best authority.
But no one can supersede the honest and impartial old soldier, Pedro de Cieza de Leon, as regards the charm of his style and the confidence to be placed in his opinions; nor the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega as regards his reminiscences and his fascinating love for his people. Molina and Yamqui Pachacuti give much fuller details respecting the ceremonial festivals and religious beliefs. Polo de Ondegardo and Santillana supply much fuller and more reliable information respecting the laws and administration of the Incas. It is in the historical narrative and the correct order of events that Sarmiento, owing to his exceptional means of collecting accurate information, excels all other writers.
There is one serious blemish. Sarmiento's book was written, not only or mainly to supply interesting information, but with an object. Bishop Las Casas had made Europe ring with the cruelties of the Spaniards in the Indies, and with the injustice and iniquity of their conquests. Don Francisco de Toledo used this narrative for the purpose of making a feeble reply to the good bishop. Under his instructions Sarmiento stated the Viceroy's argument, which was that the King of Spain was the rightful sovereign of Peru because the Incas had usurped their power by conquest and had been guilty of acts of cruelty. Hence the constant repetition of such phrases as "cruel tyranny" and "usurping tyrant"; and the numerous interpolations of the Viceroy himself are so obvious that I have put them in italics within brackets. He goes back as far as the first Inca to make out the usurpation, and he is always harping on illegitimacy. If we go back as far as Sancho IV the title of Philip II to Spain was voided by the grossest usurpation, while we need only go back to Henry II to see how Philip's title was vitiated by illegitimacy. As for cruelty, it would be a strange plea from the sovereign by whose orders the Netherlands were devastated, the Moors of Granada almost annihilated, and under whose rule the Inquisition was in full swing. It is the old story of preaching without practice, as Dr Newman once observed in quoting what James I said to George Heriot:
"O Geordie, jingling Geordie, it was grand to hear Baby Charles laying down the guilt of dissimulation, and Steenie lecturing on the turpitude of incontinence."
It is right to say that Philip never seems to have endorsed the argument of his Viceroy, while his father prohibited the circulation of a book by Dr Sepulveda which contained a similar argument; nor was the work of Sarmiento published.
Barring this blemish, the history of the Incas, written by order of the Viceroy Toledo, is a most valuable addition to the authorities who have given us authentic accounts of Andean civilization; for we may have every confidence in the care and accuracy of Sarmiento as regards his collection and statement of historical facts, provided that we always keep in mind the bias, and the orders he was under, to seek support for the Viceroy's untenable argument.
I have given all I have been able to find respecting the life of Sarmiento in the introduction to my edition of the voyages of that celebrated navigator.
But the administration of the Viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo, from 1569 to 1581, forms a landmark in the history of Peru, and seems to call for some notice in this place. He found the country in an unsettled state, with the administrative system entirely out of gear. Though no longer young he entered upon the gigantic task of establishing an orderly government, and resolved to visit personally every part of the vast territory under his rule. This stupendous undertaking occupied him for five years. He was accompanied by ecclesiastics, by men well versed in the language of the Incas and in their administrative policy, and by his secretary and aide-de-camp. These were the Bishop of Popayan, Augustin de la Coruna, the Augustine friars Juan Vivero and Francisco del Corral, the Jesuit and well-known author, Joseph de Acosta, the Inquisitor Pedro Ordonez Flores, his brother, the Viceroy's chaplain and confessor, the learned lawyer Juan Matienzo, whose work is frequently quoted by Solorzano[7], the licentiate Polo de Ondegardo, who had been some years in the country and had acquired an intimate knowledge of the laws of the Incas, the secretary Alvaro Ruiz de Navamuel, and as aide-de-camp his young nephew, Geronimo de Figueroa, son of his brother Juan, the Ambassador at Rome[8].
[Note 7: In his Politica Indiana. There are two manuscripts of Juan Matienzo de Peralta at the British Museum, Govierno del Peru and Relacion del libro intitulado Govierno del Peru, apparently one work in two parts. Add. MSS. 5469, in Gayangos Catalogue, vol. II. p. 470.]
[Note 8: Some sons took the father's surname, others that of the mother. The Viceroy had the name of his father, Francisco Alvarez de Toledo, the third Count of Oropesa, while his brother Juan had the surname of Figueroa, being that of his mother.]
Toledo was endowed with indefatigable zeal for the public service, great energy, and extraordinary powers of application. He took the opinions of others, weighed them carefully, and considered long before he adopted any course. But he was narrow-minded and obstinate, and when he had once determined on a measure nothing could alter him. His ability is undoubted, and his appointment, at this particular juncture, is a proof of Philip's sagacity.
The Viceroy's intercourse with Polo de Ondegardo informed him respecting the administrative system of the Incas, so admirably adapted to the genius of the people, and he had the wisdom to see that there was much to learn from it. His policy was to collect the people, who, to a great extent, were scattered over the country and hiding from the Spaniards, in villages placed near the centres of their cultivated or pasture lands. He fixed the numbers in each village at 400 to 500, with a priest and Alcalde. He also ordered the boundaries of all the parishes to be settled. Spanish Corregidors were to take the places of the Tucuyricoc or governors of Inca times, and each village had an elected Alcalde approved by the Corregidor. Under him there were to be two overseers, a Pichca pachaca over 500, and a Pachaca as assistant. Another important measure was the settlement of the tribute. The name "tribute" was unfortunate. The system was that of the Incas, and the same which prevailed throughout the east. The government was the landlord, and the so-called "tribute" was rent. The Incas took two-thirds for the state and for religion, and set apart one-third for the cultivators. Toledo did much the same, assessing, according to the nature of the soil, the crops, and other local circumstances. For the formation of villages and the assessment of the tribute he promulgated a whole code of ordinances, many of them intended to prevent local oppression in various forms.
The Viceroy next took up the questions of the position of yana-cunas or domestic servants, and of forced service. Both these institutions existed in Incarial times. All that was needed were moderate laws for the protection of servants and conscripts, and the enforcement of such laws. Toledo allowed a seventh of the adult male population in each village to be made liable for service in mines or factories, fixed the distance they could be taken from their homes, and made rules for their proper treatment. It is true that the mita, as it was called, was afterwards an instrument of cruel oppression, that rules were disregarded, and that it depopulated the country. But this was not the fault of Toledo.
The Viceroy gave much attention to the mining industry, promoted the introduction of the use of mercury in the extraction of silver, and founded the town of Huancavelica near the quick-silver mine. His personality pervaded every department of the state, and his tasas or ordinances fill a large volume. He was a prolific legislator and a great statesman.
His worst mistake was the policy he adopted with regard to the family of the Incas. He desired to establish the position of the King of Spain without a rival. He, therefore, sought to malign the preceding dynasty, persecuted the descendants of the Incas, and committed one act of cruel injustice.
When Atahualpa put his half-brother Huascar, the last reigning Inca, to death, there remained three surviving sons of their father the great Inca Huayna Ccapac, named Manco, Paullu, and Titu Atauchi, and several daughters. After his occupation of Cuzco, Pizarro acknowledged Manco Inca as the legitimate successor of his brother Huascar, and he was publicly crowned, receiving all the insignia on March 24th, 1534. He escaped from the Spaniards and besieged them in Cuzco at the head of a large army. Forced to raise the siege he established his head-quarters at Ollantay-tampu, where he repulsed an attack led by Hernando Pizarro. He was, however, defeated by Orgoniez, the lieutenant of Almagro, and took refuge in the mountainous province of Vilcapampa on the left bank of the Vilcamayu. From thence he made constant attacks on the Spaniards, maintaining his independence in this small remnant of his dominions. Some of the partisans of Almagro took refuge with him, and he was accidentally killed by one of them in 1544, after a not inglorious reign of ten years.
He left two legitimate sons, named Sayri Tupac and Tupac Amaru, by his wife and niece the Princess Ataria Cusi Huarcay, daughter of his ill-fated brother Huascar. This marriage was legalized by a bull of Pope Paul III in the time of the Viceroy Marquis of Canete, 1555—1561. He had also an illegitimate son named Cusi Titu Yupanqui, and a daughter named Maria Tupac Usca, married to Don Pedro Ortiz de Orue, one of the first conquerors[9].
[Note 9: Diego Ortiz de Orue was born in the village of Getafe, near Madrid. He went out to Peru in 1559, and at once began to study the Quichua language. He was encomendero of Maras, a village overlooking the valley of Yucay. By the Inca princess he had a daughter named Catalina married to Don Luis Justiniani of Seville, descended from the Genoese family. Their son Luis was the grandfather of Dr Justo Pastor Justiniani who married Manuela Catano, descended from Tupac Inca Yupanqui. Their son Don Pablo Justiniani was Cura of Laris until his death in 1858, and was a great depository of Inca lore. He had a very early copy of the Inca drama of Ollanta.]
Sayri Tupac succeeded as fourteenth Inca of Peru. On the arrival of the Marquis of Canete as Viceroy in 1555, he caused overtures to be made to Sayri Tupac through his aunts, who were living at Cuzco with their Spanish husbands, Juan Sierra de Leguisano and Diego Hernandez. It was finally arranged that the Inca should receive 17000 castellanos of rent and the valley of Yucay. On October 7th, 1557, Sayri Tupac left Vilcapampa with 300 followers, reaching Andahuaylas on November 5th. He entered Lima on January 6th, 1558, was cordially greeted by the Viceroy and received investiture, assuming the names of Manco Ccapac Pachacuti Yupanqui. He went to live in the lovely vale of Yucay. He had been baptized with the name of Diego, but he did not long survive, dying at Yucay in 1560. His daughter Clara Beatriz married Don Martin Garcia Loyola. Their daughter Lorenza was created Marchioness of Oropesa and Yucay, with remainder to descendants of her great uncle Tupac Amaru. She was the wife of Juan Henriquez de Borja, grandson of the Duke of Gandia.
On the death of Sayri Tupac, his illegitimate brother, Cusi Titu Yupanqui assumed sovereignty, owing to the youth of the legitimate brother Tupac Amaru, both remaining in Vilcapampa.
Paullu Tupac Yupanqui, the next brother of Manco Inca, was baptized with the name of Cristoval. He accompanied Almagro in his expedition to Chile, and was with young Almagro at the battle of Chupas. Eventually he was allowed to fix his residence on the Colcampata of Cuzco, at the foot of the fortress, and by the side of the church of San Cristoval. From the terrace of the Colcampata there is a glorious view with the snowy peak of Vilcanota in the far distance. Paullu died in May, 1549, and was succeeded on the Colcampata by his son Carlos Inca. He had two other sons named Felipe and Bartolome. From the latter was descended the late Archdeacon of Cuzco, Dr Justo Salmaraura Inca.
Titu Atauchi, the youngest son of Huayna Ccapac, had a son Alonso.
The princesses, daughters of Huayna Ccapac and sisters of Manco and Paullu, were Beatriz Nusta, married first to Martin de Mustincia, and secondly to Diego Hernandez of Talavera; Leonor Nusta, the wife of Juan de Balsa, who was killed at the battle of Chupas on the side of young Almagro, secondly of Francisco de Villacastin: Francisca Nusta, niece of Huayna Ccapac, married to Juan de Collantes, and was great-grandmother of Bishop Piedrahita, the historian of Nueva Granada: another Beatriz Nusta married Mancio Sierra de Leguisano, the generous defender of the natives; and Inez Nusta married first Francisco Pizarro and had a daughter Francisca, who has descendants, and secondly to Francisco Ampuero. Angelina, daughter of Atahualpa, was married to Juan de Betanzos, the author and Quichua scholar. The brother of Huayna Ccapac, named Hualpa Tupac Yupanqui, had a daughter, Isabel Nusta Yupanqui, the wife of Garcilasso de la Vega, and mother of the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega[10], the historian, author of the Comentarios Reales.
[Note 10: The Inca Garcilasso was a third cousin of the regicide Viceroy Toledo. Their great grandfathers were brothers.]
This then was the position of the Inca family when the Viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, came to Cuzco in 1571. Cusi Titu Yupanqui and Tupac Amaru, sons of the Inca Manco were in the mountains of Vilcapampa, the former maintaining his independence. Carlos Inca, son of Paullu, was baptized, and living on the Colcampata at Cuzco with his wife Maria de Esquivel. Seven Inca princesses had married Spaniards, most of them living at Cuzco with their husbands and children.
The events, connected with the Inca family, which followed on the arrival of the Viceroy Toledo at Cuzco, will be found fully described in this volume. It need only be stated here that the inexorable tyrant, having got the innocent young prince Tupac Amaru into his power, resolved to put him to death. The native population was overwhelmed with grief. The Spaniards were horrified. They entreated that the lad might be sent to Spain to be judged by the King. The heads of religious orders and other ecclesiastics went down on their knees. Nothing could move the obstinate narrow-minded Viceroy. The deed was done.
When too late Toledo seems to have had some misgivings. The judicial murder took place in December, 1571. The history of the Incas was finished in March, 1572. Yet there is no mention of the death of Tupac Amaru. For all that appears he might have been still in Vilcapampa. Nevertheless the tidings reached Philip II, and the Viceroy's conduct was not approved.
There was astonishing audacity on the part of Toledo, in basing arguments on the alleged cruelty and tyranny of the Incas, when the man was actually red-handed with the blood of an innocent youth, and engaged in the tyrannical persecution of his relations and the hideous torture of his followers. His arguments made no impression on the mind of Philip II. The King even showed some favour to the children of Tupac Amaru by putting them in the succession to the Marquisate of Oropesa. In the Inca pedigrees Toledo is called "el execrable regicidio." When he presented himself on his return from Peru the King angrily exclaimed: "Go away to your house; for I sent you to serve kings; and you went to kill kings[11]."
[Note 11: "Idos a vuestra casa, que yo os envie a servir reyes; y vos fuiste a matar reyes."]
All his faithful services as a legislator and a statesman could not atone for this cruel judicial murder in the eyes of his sovereign. He went back to his house a disgraced and broken-hearted man, and died soon afterwards.
The history of the Incas by Sarmiento is followed, in this volume, by a narrative of the execution of Tupac Amaru and of the events leading to it, by an eye-witness, the Captain Baltasar de Ocampo. It has been translated from a manuscript in the British Museum.
The narrative of Ocampo, written many years after the event, is addressed to the Viceroy Marquis of Montes Claros. Its main object was to give an account of the province of Vilcapampa, and to obtain some favours for the Spanish settlers there.
Vilcapampa is a region of very special historical and geographical interest, and it is one of which very little is known. It is a mountainous tract of country, containing the lofty range of Vilcacunca and several fertile valleys, between the rivers Apurimac and Vilcamayu, to the north of Cuzco. The mountains rise abruptly from the valley of the Vilcamayu below Ollantay-tampu, where the bridge of Chuqui-chaca opened upon paths leading up into a land of enchantment. No more lovely mountain scenery can be found on this earth. When Manco Inca escaped from the Spaniards he took refuge in Vilcapampa, and established his court and government there. The Sun temple, the convent of virgins, and the other institutions of the Incas at Cuzco, were transferred to this mountain fastness. Even handsome edifices were erected. Here the Incas continued to maintain their independence for 35 years.
Ocampo opens his story with a very interesting account of the baptism of Melchior Carlos, son of Carlos Inca, who had become a Christian, and lived in the palace on the Colcampata at Cuzco. He then describes the events which culminated in the capture, of the Inca Tupac Amaru, and gives a pathetic and touching account of the judicial murder of that ill-fated young prince. Ocampo was an actor in these events and an eye-witness. The rest of his narrative consists of reminiscences of occurrences in Vilcapampa after it was occupied by the Spaniards. He owned property there, and was a settler holding official posts. He tells of the wealth and munificence of a neighbour. He gives the history of an expedition into the forests to the northward, which will form material for the history of these expeditions when it is written. He tells the story of an insurrection among the negro labourers, and complains of the spiritual destitution of his adopted land. He finally returns to Cuzco and gives an account of a very magnificent pageant and tilting match. But this story should have preceded the mournful narrative of the fate of Tupac Amaru; for the event took place at the time of the baptism of Melchior Carlos, and before the Viceroy Toledo became a regicide. Ocampo's story is that of an honest old soldier, inclined to be garrulous, but an eye-witness of some most interesting events in the history of Peru.
I think it is an appropriate sequel to the history by Sarmiento, because it supplies material for judging whether the usurpation and tyranny were on the side of the Incas or of their accuser.
THE
SECOND PART
OF THE
GENERAL HISTORY
CALLED
"INDICA"
WHICH WAS COMPOSED
BY
THE CAPTAIN PEDRO SARMIENTO DE GAMBOA
BY ORDER OF
THE MOST EXCELLENT LORD DON FRANCISCO DE TOLEDO VICEROY GOVERNOR AND CAPTAIN-GENERAL OF THE KINGDOMS OF PERU AND MAYOR-DOMO OF THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD OF CASTILLE
1572
TO HIS SACRED CAESARIAN MAJESTY THE KING, DON FELIPE, OUR LORD.
Among the excellencies, O sovereign and catholic Philip, that are the glorious decorations of princes, placing them on the highest pinnacle of estimation, are, according to the father of Latin eloquence, generosity, kindness, and liberality. And as the Roman Consuls held this to be the principal praise of their glory, they had this title curiously sculptured in marble on the Quirinal and in the forum of Trajan—-"Most powerful gift in a Prince is liberality[12]." For this kings who desired much to be held dear by their own people and to be feared by strangers, were incited to acquire the name of liberal. Hence that royal sentence became immortal "It is right for kings to give." As this was a quality much valued among the Greeks, the wise Ulysses, conversing with Antinous[13], King of the Phaeacians, said—-"You are something like a king, for you know how to give, better than others." Hence it is certain that liberality is a good and necessary quality of kings.
[Note 12: "Primum signum nobilitatis est liberalitas."]
[Note 13: Alcinous.]
I do not pretend on this ground, most liberal monarch, to insinuate to your Majesty the most open frankness, for it would be very culpable on my part to venture to suggest a thing which, to your Majesty, is so natural that you would be unable to live without it. Nor will it happen to so high minded and liberal a lord and king, what befell the Emperor Titus who, remembering once, during supper time, that he had allowed one day to pass without doing some good, gave utterance to this laudable animadversion of himself. "O friends! I have lost a day[14]." For not only does your Majesty not miss a day, but not even an hour, without obliging all kinds of people with benefits and most gracious liberality. The whole people, with one voice, says to your Majesty what Virgil sang to Octavianus Augustus:
"Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane, Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet."
[Note 14: "Amici! diem perdidi." Suetonius.]
But what I desire to say is that for a king who complies so well with the obligation of liberality, and who gives so much, it is necessary that he should possess much; for nothing is so suitable for a prince as possessions and riches for his gifts and liberalities, as Tully says, as well as to acquire glory. For it is certain, as we read in Sallust that "in a vast empire there is great glory[15]"; and in how much it is greater, in so much it treats of great things. Hence the glory of a king consists in his possessing many vassals, and the abatement of his glory is caused by the diminution of the number of his subjects.
[Note 15: Proem of Catiline.]
Of this glory, most Christian king, God Almighty gives you so large a share in this life that all the enemies of the holy catholic church of Christ our Lord tremble at your exalted name; whence you most justly deserve to be named the strength of the church. As the treasure which God granted that your ancestors should spend, with such holy magnanimity, on worthy and holy deeds, in the extirpation of heretics, in driving the accursed Saracens out of Spain, in building churches, hospitals and monasteries, and in an infinite number of other works of charity and justice, with the zeal of zealous fathers of their country, not only entitled them to the most holy title of catholics, but the most merciful and almighty God, whom they served with all their hearts, saw fit to commence repayment with temporal goods, in the present age. It is certain that "He who grants celestial rewards does not take away temporal blessings[16]," so that they earned more than the mercies they received. This was the grant to them of the evangelical office, choosing them from among all the kings of this world as the evangelizers of his divine word in the most remote and unknown lands of those blind and barbarous gentiles. We now call those lands the Indies of Castille, because through the ministry of that kingdom they will be put in the way of salvation, God himself being the true pilot. He made clear and easy the dark and fearful Atlantic sea which had been an awful portent to the most ancient Argives, Athenians, Egyptians, and Phoenicians, and what is more to the proud Hercules, who, having come to Cadiz from the east, and seen the wide Atlantic sea, he thought this was the end of the world and that there was no more land. So he set up his columns with this inscription "Ultra Gades nil" or "Beyond Cadiz there is nothing." But as human knowledge is ignorance in the sight of God, and the force of the world but weakness in his presence, it was very easy, with the power of the Almighty and of your grandparents, to break and scatter the mists and difficulties of the enchanted ocean. Laughing with good reason at Alcides and his inscription, they discovered the Indies which were very populous in souls to whom the road to heaven could be shown. The Indies are also most abundant in all kinds of inestimable treasures, with which the heavy expenses were repaid to them, and yet remained the richest princes in the world, and thus continued to exercise their holy and Christian liberality until death. By reason of this most famous navigation, and new and marvellous discovery, they amended the inscription on the columns of Hercules, substituting "Plus ultra" for "Ultra Gades nil"; the meaning was, and with much truth, that further on there are many lands. So this inscription, "Plus ultra," remained on the blazon of the arms and insignia of the Indies of Castille.
[Note 16: From the poem of Coelius Sedulius, a Christian poet who flourished about A.D. 450. The passage is—"Hostis Herodes impie Christum venire quod timeo? Non eripit mortalia qui regna dat coelestia." (Note by Dr Peitschmann.)]
As there are few who are not afflicted by the accursed hunger for gold, and as good successes are food for an enemy, the devil moved the bosoms of some powerful princes with the desire to take part in this great business. Alexander VI, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, considering that this might give rise to impediments in preaching the holy evangel to the barbarous idolaters, besides other evils which might be caused, desired of his own proper motion, without any petition from the catholic kings, by authority of Almighty God, to give, and he gave and conceded for ever, the islands and main lands which were then discovered and which might hereafter be discovered within the limits and demarcation of 180 deg. of longitude, which is half the world, with all the dominions, rights, jurisdictions and belongings, prohibiting the navigation and trading in those lands from whatever cause, to the other princes, kings, and emperors from the year 1493, to prevent many inconveniences.
But as the devil saw that this door was shut, which he had begun to open to introduce by it dissensions and disturbances, he tried to make war by means of the very soldiers who resisted him, who were the same preachers. They began to make a difficulty about the right and title which the kings of Castille had over these lands. As your invincible father was very jealous in matters touching his conscience, he ordered this point to be examined, as closely as possible, by very learned doctors who, according to the report which was given out, were indirect and doubtful in their conclusions. They gave it as their opinion that these Incas, who ruled in these kingdoms of Peru, were and are the true and natural lords of that land. This gave a handle to foreigners, as well catholics as heretics and other infidels, for throwing doubt on the right which the kings of Spain claim and have claimed to the Indies. Owing to this the Emperor Don Carlos of glorious memory was on the point of abandoning them, which was what the enemy of the faith of Christ wanted, that he might regain the possession of the souls which he had kept in blindness for so many ages.
All this arose owing to want of curiosity on the part of the governors in those lands, at that time, who did not use the diligence necessary for ascertaining the truth, and also owing to certain reports of the Bishop of Chiapa who was moved to passion against certain conquerors in his bishoprick with whom he had persistent disputes, as I knew when I passed through Chiapa and Guatemala[17]. Though his zeal appears holy and estimable, he said things on the right to this country gained by the conquerors of it, which differ from the evidence and judicial proofs which have been seen and taken down by us, and from what we who have travelled over the Indies enquiring about these things, leisurely and without war, know to be the facts[18].
[Note 17: See the introduction to my Voyages of Sarmiento p. x.]
[Note 18: Sarmiento here refers to the efforts of Las Casas to protect the natives from the tyranny and cruelties of the Spanish settlers. He appears to have been in Guatemala when Las Casas arrived to take up his appointment as Bishop of Chiapas, and encountered hostility and obstruction from certain "conquistadores de su obispado," as Sarmiento calls them. On his return to Spain, the good Las Casas found that a certain Dr Sepulveda had written a treatise maintaining the right of Spain to subdue the natives by war. Las Casas put forward his Historia Apologetica in reply. A Junta of theologians was convoked at Valladolid in 1550, before which Sepulveda attacked and Las Casas defended the cause of the natives. Mr. Helps (Spanish conquest in America, vol. iv. Book xx. ch. 2) has given a lucid account of the controversy. Sarmiento is quite wrong in saying that Las Casas was ignorant of the history of Peru. The portion of his Historia Apologetica relating to Peru, entitled De las antiguas gentes del Peru, has been edited and published by Don Marcos Jimenez de la Espada in the "Coleccion de libros Espanoles raros o curiosos" (1892). It shows that Las Casas knew the works of Xeres, Astete, Cieza de Leon, Molina, and probably others; and that he had a remarkably accurate knowledge of Peruvian history.]
This chaos and confusion of ignorance on the subject being so spread over the world and rooted in the opinions of the best informed literary men in Christendom, God put it into the heart of your Majesty to send Don Francisco de Toledo, Mayor-domo of your royal household, as Viceroy of these kingdoms[19]. When he arrived, he found many things to do, and many things to amend. Without resting after the dangers and long voyages in two seas which he had suffered, he put the needful order into all the things undertook new and greater labours, such as no former viceroys or governors had undertaken or even thought of. His determination was to travel over this most rugged country himself, to make a general visitation of it, during which, though it is not finished, it is certain that he has remedied many and very great faults and abuses in the teaching and ministry of the Christian doctrine, giving holy and wise advice to its ministers that they should perform their offices as becomes the service of God, and the discharge of your royal conscience, reducing the people to congregations of villages formed on suitable and healthy sites which had formerly been on crags and rocks where they were neither taught nor received spiritual instruction. In such places they lived and died like wild savages, worshipping idols as in the time of their Inca tyrants and of their blind heathenism. Orders were given to stop their public drinking bouts, their concubinage and worship of their idols and devils, emancipating and freeing them from the tyrannies, of their curacas, and finally giving them a rational life, which was before that of brutes in their manner of loading them as such.
[Note 19: Don Francisco de Toledo was Viceroy of Peru, from Nov. 16th, 1569, to Sept. 28th, 1581, and in some respects a remarkable man. He was a younger son of the third Count of Oropesa who had a common ancestor with the Dukes of Alva. His mother was Maria de Figueroa daughter of the Count of Feria. Through her he was directly descended from the first Duke of Alva. He was a first cousin of that Duke of Feria who made a love match with Jane Dormer, the friend and playmate of our Edward VI. Moreover Don Francisco was a third cousin of Charles V. Their great grandmothers were sisters, daughters of Fadrique Henriquez, the Admiral of Castille.
This Viceroy was advanced in years. He held the appointment of a Mayor-domo at the court of Philip II, and another brother Juan was Ambassador at Rome. The Viceroy Toledo came to Peru with the Inquisition, which proved as great a nuisance to him as it was a paralyzing source of terror to his people. He was a man of extraordinary energy and resolution, and was devoted heart and soul to the public service. Sarmiento does not speak too highly of his devotion to duty in undertaking a personal visit to every part of his government. He was a most prolific legislator, founding his rules, to some extent, on the laws of the Incas. He was shrewd but narrow minded and heartless; and his judicial murder of the young Inca, Tupac Amaru, has cast an indelible stain on his memory.
Such a man could have no chance in an attack on the sound arguments of Las Casas.
There is a picture which depicts the outward appearance of the Viceroy Toledo. A tall man with round stooping shoulders, in a suit of black velvet with the green cross of Alcantara embroidered on his cloak. A gloomy sallow face, with aquiline nose, high forehead and piercing black eyes too close together. The face is shaded by a high beaver hat, while one hand holds a sword, and the other rests on a table.]
The work done by your Viceroy is such that the Indians are regenerated, and they call him loudly their protector and guardian, and your Majesty who sent him, they call their father. So widely has the news spread of the benefits he has conferred and is still conferring, that the wild warlike Indians in many contiguous provinces, holding themselves to be secure under his word and safe conduct, have come to see and communicate with him, and have promised obedience spontaneously to your Majesty. This has happened in the Andes of Xauxa, near Pilcocanti, and among the Manaries and Chunchos to the east of Cuzco. These were sent back to their homes, grateful and attached to your royal service, with the presents he gave them and the memory of their reception.
Among Christians, it is not right to take anything without a good title, yet that which your Majesty has to these parts, though more holy and more honourable than that which any other kings in the world have for any of their possessions, has suffered detriment, as I said before, in the consciences of many learned men and others, for want of correct information. The Viceroy proposes to do your Majesty a most signal service in this matter, besides the performance of all the other duties of which he has charge. This is to give a secure and quiet harbour to your royal conscience against the tempests raised even by your own natural subjects, theologians and other literary men, who have expressed serious opinions on the subject, based on incorrect information. Accordingly, in his general visitation, which he is making personally throughout the kingdom, he has verified from the root and established by a host of witnesses examined with the greatest diligence and care, taken from among the principal old men of the greatest ability and authority in the kingdom, and even those who pretend to have an interest in it from being relations and descendants of the Incas, the terrible, inveterate and horrible tyranny of the Incas, being the tyrants who ruled in these kingdoms of Peru, and the curacas who governed the districts. This will undeceive all those in the world who think that the Incas were legitimate sovereigns, and that the curacas were natural lords of the land. In order that your Majesty may, with the least trouble and the most pleasure, be informed, and the rest, who are of a contrary opinion, be undeceived, I was ordered by the Viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo, whom I follow and serve in this general visitation, to take this business in hand, and write a history of the deeds of the twelve Incas of this land, and of the origin of the people, continuing the narrative to the end. This I have done with all the research and diligence that was required, as your Majesty will see in the course of the perusal and by the ratification of witnesses. It will certify to the truth of the worst and most inhuman tyranny of these Incas and of their curacas who are not and never were original lords of the soil, but were placed there by Tupac Inca Yupanqui, [the greatest, the most atrocious and harmful tyrant of them all]. The curacas were and still are great tyrants appointed by other great and violent tyrants, as will clearly and certainly appear in the history; so that the tyranny is proved, as well as that the Incas were strangers in Cuzco, and that they had seized the valley of Cuzco, and all the rest of their territory from Quito to Chile by force of arms, making themselves Incas without the consent or election of the natives.
Besides this, there are their tyrannical laws and customs. [It will be understood that your Majesty has a specially true and holy title to these kingdoms of Peru, because your Majesty and your most sacred ancestors stopped the sacrifices of innocent men, the eating of human flesh, the accursed sin, the promiscuous concubinage with sisters and mothers, the abominable use of beasts, and their wicked and accursed customs[20].] For from each one God demands an account of his neighbour, and this duty specially appertains to princes, and above all to your Majesty. Only for this may war be made and prosecuted by the right to put a stop to the deeds of tyrants. Even if they had been true and natural lords of the soil, it would be lawful to remove them and introduce a new government, because man may rightly be punished for these sins against nature, though the native community has not been opposed to such practices nor desires to be avenged, as innocent, by the Spaniards. For in this case they have no right to deliver themselves and their children over to death, and they should be forced to observe natural laws, as we are taught by the Archbishop of Florence, Innocent, supported by Fray, Francisco de Victoria in his work on the title to the Indies. So that by this title alone, without counting many others, your Majesty has the most sufficient and legitimate right to the Indies, better than any other prince in the world has to any lordship whatever. For, whether more or less concealed or made known, in all the lands that have been discovered in the two seas of your Majesty, north and south, this general breaking of the law of nature has been found.
[Note 20: For a contradiction of these slanders by an impartial witness see Cieza de Leon, ii. p. 78.]
By this same title your Majesty may also, without scruple, order the conquest of those islands of the archipelago of "Nombre de Jesus," vulgarly but incorrectly called the Solomon Isles, of which I gave notice and personally discovered in the year 1567; although it was for the General Alvaro de Mendana; and many others which are in the same South Sea[21]. I offer myself to your Majesty to discover and settle these islands, which will make known and facilitate all the commercial navigation, with the favour of God, by shorter routes. I offer much, well do I see it, but I trust in almighty God with whose favour, I believe I can do what I say in your royal service. The talent which God has given me leads me to aspire to the accomplishment of these achievements, and does not demand of me a strict account, and I believe that I shall comply with what will be required, for never did I so wish to achieve anything. Your Majesty sees and does not lose what other kings desire and hold by good fortune. This makes me speak so freely of my desire to die in your service in which I have laboured since my childhood, and under what circumstances others may say.
[Note 21: See my introduction to the Voyages of Sarmiento, pp. xiii—xvii.]
Believing that, in writing this present history, I have not done a less but a greater service than all the rest, I obeyed your Viceroy who made me undertake it. Your Majesty will read it many times because, besides that the reading of it is pleasant, your Majesty will take a great interest in the matters of conscience and of administration of which it treats. I call this the Second Part, because it is to be preceded by the geographical description of all these lands, which will form the First Part. This will result in great clearness for the comprehension of the establishment of governments, bishopricks, new settlements, and of discoveries, and will obviate the inconveniences formerly caused by the want of such knowledge. Although the First Part ought to precede this one in time, it is not sent to your Majesty because it is not finished, a great part of it being derived from information collected during the general visitation. Suffice that it will be best in quality, though not in time. After this Second Part will be sent a Third Part on the times of the evangel. All this I have to finish by order of the Viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo. May your Majesty receive my work with the greatest and most favourable attention, as treating of things that will be of service to God and to your Majesty and of great profit to my nation; and may our Lord preserve the sacred catholic and royal person of your Majesty, for the repair and increase of the catholic Church of Jesus Christ.
From Cuzco. The 4th of March, 1572.
Your catholic royal Majesty from the least vassal of your Majesty The Captain Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa.
I.
DIVISION OF THE HISTORY.
This general history of which I took charge by order of Don Francisco de Toledo, Viceroy of these kingdoms of Peru, will be divided into three Parts. The First will be the natural history of these lands, being a particular description of them. It will contain accounts of the marvellous works of nature, and other things of great profit and interest. I am now finishing it, that it may be sent to your Majesty after this, though it ought to have come before it. The Second and Third Parts treat of the people of these kingdoms and of their deeds in the following order. In the Second Part, which is the present one, the most ancient and first peoplers of this land will be discussed in general, and then, descending to particulars, I shall describe [the terrible and inveterate tyranny of] the Ccapac Incas of these kingdoms, down to the end and death of Huascar, the last of the Incas. The Third and Last Part will treat of the times of the Spaniards, and of their notable deeds in the discovery and settlement of this kingdom and others adjoining it, with the captains, governors, and viceroys who have ruled here, down to the present year 1572.
II.
THE ANCIENT DIVISION OF THE LAND.
When historians wish to write, in an orderly way, of the world or some part of it, they generally first describe the situation containing it, which is the land, before they deal with what it contains, which is the population, to avoid the former in the historical part. If this is so in ancient and well known works, it is still more desirable that in treating of new and strange lands, like these, of such vast extent, a task which I have undertaken, the same order should be preserved. This will not only supply interesting information but also, which is more to be desired, it will be useful for navigation and new discoveries, by which God our Lord may be served, the territories of the crown of Spain extended, and Spaniards enriched and respected. As I have not yet finished the particular description of this land, which will contain everything relating to geography and the works of nature minutely dealt with, in this volume I shall only offer a general summary, following the most ancient authors, to recall the remains of those lands which are now held to be new and previously unknown, and of their inhabitants.
The land, which we read of as having existed in the first and second age of the world, was divided into five parts. The three continents, of which geographers usually write, Asia, Africa, and Europe, are divided by the river Tanais, the river Nile, and the Mediterranean Sea, which Pomponius calls "our" sea. Asia is divided from Europe by the river Tanais[22], now called Silin, and from Africa by the Nile, though Ptolemy divides it by the Red Sea and isthmus of the desert of Arabia Deserta. Africa is divided from Europe by "our" sea, commencing at the strait of Gibraltar and ending with the Lake of Meotis. The other two parts are thus divided. One was called, and still ought to be called, Catigara[23] in the Indian Sea, a very extensive land now distinct from Asia. Ptolemy describes it as being, in his time and in the time of Alexander the Great, joined on to Asia in the direction of Malacca. I shall treat of this in its place, for it contains many and very precious secrets, and an infinity of souls, to whom the King our Lord may announce the holy catholic faith that they may be saved, for this is the object of his Majesty in these new lands of barbarous idolatry. The fifth part is or was called the Atlantic Island, as famous as extensive, and which exceeded all the others, each one by itself, and even some joined together. The inhabitants of it and their description will be treated of, because this is the land, or at least part of it, of these western Indies of Castille.
[Note 22: The Don.]
[Note 23: Marinus of Tyre, quoted by Ptolemy, gave an enormous extension to eastern Asia, and placed the region he called Catigara far to the S.E. of it. Catigara was described by Marinus of Tyre as an emporium and important place of trade. It is not mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.]
III.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ANCIENT ATLANTIC ISLAND.
The cosmographers do not write of this ancient Atlantic Island because there was no memory, when they wrote, of its very rich commercial prosperity in the second, and perhaps in the first age. But from what the divine Plato tells us and from the vestiges we see which agree with what we read, we can not only say where it was and where parts of it were, as seen in our time, but we can describe it almost exactly, its grandeur and position. This is the truth, and the same Plato affirms it as true, in the Timaeus, where he gives its truthful and marvellous history.
We will speak first of its situation, and then of its inhabitants. It is desirable that the reader should give his attention because, although it is very ancient history, it is so new to the ordinary teaching of cosmography that it may cause such surprise as to raise doubts of the story, whence may arise a want of appreciation.
From the words which Plato refers to Solon, the wisest of the seven of Greece, and which Solon had heard with attention from the most learned Egyptian priest in the city called Delta, we learn that this Atlantic Island was larger than Asia and Africa together, and that the eastern end of this immense island was near the strait which we now call of Gibraltar. In front of the mouth of the said strait, the island had a port with a narrow entrance; and Plato says that the island was truly continental. From it there was a passage by the sea, which surrounded it, to many other neighbouring islands, and to the main land of Europe and Africa. In this island there were kings of great and admirable power who ruled over that and many adjacent islands as well as the greater part of Europe and Africa, up to the confines of Egypt, of which I shall treat presently. The extent of the island was from the south, where were the highest mountains, to the north. The mountains exceeded in extent any that now exist, as well in their forests, as in height, and in beauty. These are the words of Plato in describing the situation of this most richly endowed and delightful Atlantic Island. It now remains for me to do my duty, which is to explain what has been said more clearly and from it to deduce the situation of the island.
From what Plato says that this island had a port near the mouth of the strait of the pillars of Hercules, that it was larger than Asia and Africa together, and that it extended to the south, I gather three things clearly towards the understanding of all that invites attention. The first is that the Atlantic Island began less than two leagues from the mouth of the strait, if more it was only a little more. The coast of the island then turned north close to that of Spain, and was joined to the island of Cadiz or Gadiz, or Caliz, as it is now called. I affirm this for two reasons, one by authority and the other by conjectural demonstration. The authority is that Plato in his Critias, telling how Neptune distributed the sovereignty of the island among his ten sons, said that the second son was called in the mother tongue "Gadirum," which in Greek we call "Eumelo." To this son he gave the extreme parts of the island near the columns of Hercules, and from his name the place was called Gadiricum which is Caliz. By demonstration we see, and I have seen with my own eyes, more than a league out at sea and in the neighbourhood of the island of Caliz, under the water, the remains of very large edifices of a cement which is almost imperishable[24], an evident sign that this island was once much larger, which corroborates the narrative of Critias in Plato. The second point is that the Atlantic Island was larger than Asia and Africa. From this I deduce its size, which is incredible or at least immense. It would give the island 2300 leagues of longitude, that is from east to west. For Asia has 1500 leagues in a straight line from Malacca which is on its eastern front, to the boundary of Egypt; and Africa has 800 leagues from Egypt to the end of the Atlantic mountains or "Montes Claros" facing the Canary Islands; which together make 2300 leagues of longitude. If the island was larger it would be more in circuit. Round the coast it would have 7100 leagues, for Asia is 5300 and Africa 2700 leagues in circuit, a little more or less, which together makes 7100 leagues, and it is even said that it was more.
[Note 24: Dr Peitschmann quotes from Juan Bautista Suarez de Salazar, Grandezas y antigueedades de la isla y ciudad de Cadiz (Cadiz, 1610)—-"That which all those who traverse the sea affirm was that to the south, the water being clear, there is seen beneath it at a distance of a league, ruins of edifices which are good evidence that the ocean has gained upon the land in this part." He refers also to a more recent history of Cadiz and its province by Adolfo de Castro (1858), and to the five first books of the General Chronicle of Spain of Florian de Ocampo, 1552 (lib. ii. cap. II).]
Having considered the measurement of its great size we come to the third point, which is the true position over which this great island extended. Plato says that the position of the island extended to the south; opposite to the north. From this we should understand that, the front conterminous with Spain from the strait of Gibraltar to Cadiz thence extended westward, making a curve along the coast of Barbary or Africa, but very close to it, between west and south, which is what sailors call south-west. For if it was opposite to north, which is between east and north, called north-east, it must necessarily have its direction in the said south-west, west-south-west, or south-south-west. It would include and incorporate the Canary Islands which, according to this calculation, would be part of it, and from thence the land trended south-west. As regards the south, it would extend rather more to the south and south-south-west, finally following the route by which we go when we sail from Spain to the Indies, forming a continent or main land with these western Indies of Castille, joining on to them by the parts stretching south-west, and west-south-west, a little more or less from the Canaries. Thus there was sea on one side and on the other of this land, that is on the north and south, and the Indies united with it, and they were all one. The proof of this is that if the Atlantic Island had 2300 leagues of longitude, and the distance of Cadiz to the mouth of the river Maranon or Orellana and Trinidad, on the coast of Brazil, is, not more than 1000, 900, or 1100 leagues, being the part where this land joined to America, it clearly appears that, to complete the complement of 2300 leagues, we have to include in the computation all the rest of the land from the mouth of the Maranon and Brazil to the South Sea, which is what they now call America. Following this course it would come to Coquimbo. Counting what is still wanting, this would be much less than 2300 leagues. Measuring the circumference, the island was more than 7100 leagues round, because that is about the circumference of Asia and Africa by their coasts. If this land is joined to the other, which in fact it was in conformity with the description, it would have a much greater circuit, for even now these parts of the western Indies, measured by compass, and latitude, have more than 7100 leagues.
From all this it may be inferred that the Indies of Castille formed a continent with the Atlantic Island, and consequently that the same Atlantic Island, which extended from Cadiz over the sea we traverse to the Indies, and which all cosmographers call the Atlantic Ocean because the Atlantic Island was in it, over which we now navigate, was land in ancient times. Finally we shall relate the sequel, first giving an account of the sphere at that time and of the inhabitants.
IV.
FIRST INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD AND PRINCIPALLY OF THE ATLANTIC ISLAND.
Having described the four parts of the world, for of Catigara, which is the fifth, we shall not speak except in its place which the ancients assigned to it, it will be right to come to the races which peopled them. All of which I have to treat has to be personal and heathen history. The chief value and perfection of history consists in its accuracy, thoroughly sifting each event, verifying the times and periods of what happened so that no doubt may remain of what passed. It is in this way that I desire to write the truth in so far as my ability enables me to do so respecting a thing so ancient as the first peopling of these new lands. I wish, for the better illustration of the present history, to precede it with the foundations that cannot be denied, counting the time in conformity with the chronology of the Hebrews in the days before our Saviour Jesus Christ, and the times after his most holy nativity according to the counting used by our mother the holy church, not making account of the calculations of Chaldean or Egyptian interpreters.
Thus, passing over the first age from Adam to the Deluge, which covers 1656 years, we will begin from the second age, which is that of the patriarch Noah, second universal father of mortals. The divine scriptures show us that eight persons were saved from the flood, in the ark. Noah and his wife Terra or Vesta, named from the first fire lighted by crystal for the first sacrifice as Berosus would have; and his three sons to wit, Cam and his wife Cataflua, Sem and his wife Prusia or Persia, Japhet and his wife Fun a, as we read in the register of the chronicles. The names of some of these people remain, and to this day we can see clearly whence they were derived, as the Hebrews from Heber, the Assyrians from Amur, but most of them have been so changed that human intelligence is insufficient to investigate by this way. Besides the three sons, Noah had others after the flood.
The descendants of these men having multiplied and become very numerous, Noah divided the world among his first sons that they might people it, and then embarked on the Euxine Sea as we gather from Xenophon. The giant Noah then navigated along the Mediterranean Sea, as Filon says and Annius repeats, dividing the whole land among his sons. He gave it in charge to Sem to people Asia from the Nile to the eastern Indies, with some of the sons he got after the flood. To Cam he gave Africa from the Rinocoruras to the straits of Gibraltar with some more of the sons. Europe was chosen for Japhet to people with the rest of the sons begotten after the flood, who were all the sons of Tuscan, whence descend the Tadescos, Alemanes, and the nations adjacent to them.
In this voyage Noah founded some towns and colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and remained in them for ten years, until 112 years after the universal deluge. He ordered his daughter Araxa to remain in Armenia where the ark rested, with her husband and children, to people that country. Then he, with the rest of his companions, went to Mesopotamia and settled. There Nembrot was raised up for king, of the descendants of Cam. This Nembrot, says Berosus, built Babylon 130 years after the flood. The sons of Sem elected for their king, Jektan, son of Heber. Those of Japhet chose Fenec for their king, called Assenes by Moses. There were 300,000 men under him only 310 years after the deluge. Each king, with his companions, set out to people the part of the world chosen for them by the patriarch Noah. It is to be noted that, although Noah divided the parts of the world among his three sons and their descendants, many of them did not keep to the boundaries. For some of one lineage settled on the lands of another brother. Nembrot, being of the line of Cam, remained in the parts of Sem, and many others were mixed together in the same way.
Thus the three parts of the world were peopled by these and their descendants, of whom I do not propose to treat in detail, for our plan is to proceed in our narrative until we come to the inhabitants of the Atlantic Island, the subject of this history. This was so near Spain that, according to the common fame, Caliz used to be so close to the main land in the direction of the port of Santa Maria, that a plank would serve as a bridge to pass from the island to Spain. So that no one can doubt that the inhabitants of Spain, Jubal and his descendants, peopled that land, as well as the inhabitants of Africa which was also near. Hence it was called the Atlantic Island from having been peopled by Atlas, the giant and very wise astrologer who first settled Mauritania now called Barbary, as Godefridus and all the chronicles teach us. This Atlas was the son of Japhet by the nymph Asia, and grandson of Noah. For this there is no authority except the above, corroborated by the divine Plato as I began by explaining, and it will be necessary to seek his help to give the reader such evidence as merits belief respecting the inhabitants of this Atlantic Island.
V.
INHABITANTS OF THE ATLANTIC ISLAND.
We have indicated the situation of the Atlantic Island and those who, in conformity with the general peopling of the world, were probably its first inhabitants, namely the early Spaniards and the first Mauritanian vassals of the King Atlas. This wonderful history was almost forgotten in ancient times, Plato alone having preserved it, as has already been related in its place, and which should again be consulted for what remains. Plato, in Critias, says that to Neptune's share came the Atlantic Island, and that he had ten sons. He divided the whole island amongst them, which before and in his time was called the empire of the floating islands, as Volaterranius tells us. It was divided by Neptune into ten regions or kingdoms. The chief one, called Venus, he gave to his eldest son named Atlantis, and appointed him sovereign of the whole island; which consequently took the name of Atlantica, and the sea Atlantic, a name which it retains to this day. The second son, named Gadirun, received the part which lies nearest to Spain and which is now Caliz. To the third son Neptune gave a share. His name was Amferes, the fourth's Eutoctenes, the seventh's Alusipo, the eighth's Mestores, the ninth's Azaen, the tenth's Diaprepem. These and their descendants reigned for many ages, holding the lordships, by the sea, of many other islands, which could not have been other than Hayti, which we call Santo Domingo, Cuba and others, also peopled by emigrants from the Atlantic Island. They also held sway over Africa as far as Egypt, and over Europe to Tirrenia and Italy.
The lineage of Atlas extended in a grand succession of generations, and his kingdom was ruled in succession by the firstborns. They possessed such a copious supply of riches that none of the natives had seen it all, and that no new comers could realise it. This land abounded in all that is necessary for sustaining human life, pasture, timber, drugs, metals, wild beasts and birds, domestic animals including a great number of elephants, most fragrant perfumes, liquors, flowers, fruits, wine, and all the vegetables used for food, many dates, and other things for presents. That island produced all things in great profusion. In ancient times it was sacred, beautiful, admirable and fertile, as well as of vast extent. In it were extensive kingdoms, sumptuous temples, palaces calling forth great admiration, as is seen from the relation of Plato respecting the metropolis of the island which exceeded Babylon, Troy, or Rome, with all their rich buildings, curious and well-constructed forts, and even the seven wonders of the world concerning which the ancients sing so much. In the chief city of this empire there was a port to which so many ships and merchants resorted from all parts, that owing to the vast concourse a great and continual noise caused the residents to be thunderstruck. The number of these Atlantics ready for war was so great that in the capital city alone they had an ordinary garrison of 60,000 soldiers, always distributed among farms, each farm measuring 100 furlongs. The rest inhabited the woods and other places, and were innumerable. They took to war 10,000 two-horse chariots each containing eight armed men, with six slingers and stone throwers on either side. For the sea they had 200,000 boats with four men in each, making 800,000 men for the sea-service alone. This was quite necessary owing to the great number of subject nations which had to be governed and kept in obedience.
The rest which Plato relates on this subject will be discussed in the sequel, for I now proceed to our principal point, which is to establish the conclusion that as these people carried their banners and trophies into Europe and Africa which are not contiguous, they must have overrun the Indies of Castille and peopled them, being part of the same main land. They used much policy in their rule. But at the end of many ages, by divine permission, and perhaps owing to their sins, it happened that a great and continuous earthquake, with an unceasing deluge, perpetual by day and night, opened the earth and swallowed up those warlike and ambitious Atlantic men. The Atlantic Island remained absorbed beneath that great sea, which from that cause continued to be unnavigable owing to the mud of the absorbed island in solution, a wonderful thing.
This special flood may be added to the five floods recorded by the ancients. These are the general one of Moses, the second in Egypt of which Xenophon makes mention, the third flood in Achaia of Greece in the time of Ogyges Atticus, described by Isidore as happening in the days of Jacob, the fourth in Thessaly in the time of Deucalion and Pyrrha, in the days of Moses according to Isidore, in 782 as given by Juan Annius. The fifth flood is mentioned by Xenophon as happening in Egypt in the time of Proteus. The sixth was this which destroyed so great a part of the Atlantic Island and sufficed so to separate the part that was left unsubmerged, that all mortals in Asia, Africa and Europe believed that all were drowned. Thus was lost the intercourse and commerce of the people of these parts with those of Europe and Africa, in such sort that all memory of them would have been lost, if it had not been for the Egyptians, preservers of the most ancient deeds of men and of nature. The destruction of the Atlantic Island, over at least 1000 leagues of longitude, was in the time when Aod[25] governed the people of Israel, 1320 years before Christ and 2162 years after the Creation, according to the Hebrews. I deduce this calculation from what Plato relates of the conversation between Solon and the Egyptian priest. For, according to all the chronicles, Solon lived in the time of Tarquinius Priscus the King of Rome, Josiah being King of Israel at Jerusalem, before Christ 610 years. From this period until the time when the Atlantics had put a blockade over the Athenians 9000 lunar years had passed which, referred to solar years, make 869. All added together make the total given above. Very soon afterwards the deluge must have come, as it is said to have been in the time of Aod[25] or 748 years after the general deluge of Noah. This being so it is to be noted that the isle of Caliz, the Canaries, the Salvages, and Trinidad must have been parts of the absorbed land.
[Note 25: Ehud.]
It may be assumed that these very numerous nations of Atlantis were sufficient to people those other lands of the Western Indies of Castille. Other nations also came to them, and peopled some provinces after the above destruction. Strabo and Solinus say that Ulysses, after the fall of Troy, navigated westward to Lusitania, founded Lisbon, and, after it had been built, desired to try his fortune on the Atlantic Ocean by the way we now go to the Indies. He disappeared, and it was never afterwards known what had become of him. This is stated by Pero Anton Beuter, a noble Valencian historian and, as he mentions, this was the opinion of Dante Aligheri, the illustrious Florentine poet. Assuming this to be correct we may follow Ulysses from island to island until he came to Yucatan and Campeachy, part of the territory of New Spain. For those of that land have the Grecian bearing and dress of the nation of Ulysses, they have many Grecian words, and use Grecian letters. Of this I have myself seen many signs and proofs. Their name for God is "Teos" which is Greek, and even throughout New Spain they use the word "Teos" for God. I have also to say that in passing that way, I found that they anciently preserved an anchor of a ship, venerating it as an idol, and had a certain genesis in Greek, which should not be dismissed as absurd at first sight. Indeed there are a sufficient number of indications to support my conjecture concerning Ulysses. From thence all those provinces of Mexico, Tabasco, Xalisco, and to the north the Capotecas, Chiapas, Guatemalas, Honduras, Lasandones, Nicaraguas, Tlaguzgalpas, as far as Nicoya, Costa Rica, and Veragua.
Moreover Esdras recounts that those nations which went from Persia by the river Euphrates came to a land never before inhabited by the human race. Going down this river there was no way but by the Indian Sea to reach a land where there was no habitation. This could only have been Catigara, placed in 90 deg. S. by Ptolemy, and according to the navigators sent by Alexander the Great, 40 days of navigation from Asia. This is the land which the describers of maps call the unknown land of the south, whence it is possible to go on settling people as far as the Strait of Magellan to the west of Catigara, and the Javas, New Guinea, and the islands of the archipelago of Nombre de Jesus which I, our Lord permitting, discovered in the South Sea in the year 1568, the unconquered Felipe II reigning as King of Spain and its dependencies by the demarcation of 180 deg. of longitude.
It may thus be deduced that New Spain and its provinces were peopled by the Greeks, those of Catigara by the Jews, and those of the rich and most powerful kingdoms of Peru and adjacent provinces by the Atlantics who were descended from the primeval Mesopotamians and Chaldaeans, peoplers of the world.
These, and other points with them, which cannot be discussed with brevity, are true historical reasons, of a quality worthy of belief, such as men of reason and letters may adopt respecting the peopling of these lands. When we come to consider attentively what these barbarians of Peru relate of their origin and of the tyrannical rule of the Incas Ccapacs, and the fables and extravagances they recount, the truth may be distinguished from what is false, and how in some of their fables they allude to true facts which are admitted and held by us as such. Therefore the reader should peruse with attention and read the most strange and racy history of barbarians that has, until now, been read of any political nation in the world.
VI.
THE FABLE OF THE ORIGIN OF THESE BARBAROUS INDIANS OF PERU, ACCORDING TO THEIR BLIND OPINIONS.
As these barbarous nations of Indians were always without letters, they had not the means of preserving the monuments and memorials of their times, and those of their predecessors with accuracy and method. As the devil, who is always striving to injure the human race, found these unfortunates to be easy of belief and timid in obedience, he introduced many illusions, lies and frauds, giving them to understand that he had created them from the first, and afterwards, owing to their sins and evil deeds, he had destroyed them with a flood, again creating them and giving them food and the way to preserve it. By chance they formerly had some notice, passed down to them from mouth to mouth, which had reached them from their ancestors, respecting the truth of what happened in former times. Mixing this with the stories told them by the devil, and with other things which they changed, invented, or added, which may happen in all nations, they made up a pleasing salad, and in some things worthy of the attention of the curious who are accustomed to consider and discuss human ideas.
One thing must be noted among many others. It is that the stories which are here treated as fables, which they are, are held by the natives to be as true as we hold the articles of our faith, and as such they affirm and confirm them with unanimity, and swear by them. There are a few, however, who by the mercy of God are opening their eyes and beginning to see what is true and what is false respecting those things. But we have to write down what they say and not what we think about it in this part. We shall hear what they hold respecting their first age, [and afterwards we shall come to the inveterate and cruel tyranny of the Inca tyrants who oppressed these kingdoms of Peru for so long. All this is done by order of the most excellent Don Francisco de Toledo, Viceroy of these kingdoms]. I have collected the information with much diligence so that this history can rest on attested proofs from the general testimony of the whole kingdom, old and young, Incas and tributary Indians.
The natives of this land affirm that in the beginning, and before this world was created, there was a being called Viracocha. He created a dark world without sun, moon or stars. Owing to this creation he was named Viracocha Pachayachachi, which means "Creator of all things[26]."
[Note 26: Uiracocha (Viracocha) was the Creator. Garcilasso de la Vega pointed out the mistake of supposing that the word signified "foam of the sea" (ii. p. 16). He believed it to be a name, the derivation of which he did not attempt to explain. Blas Valera (i. p. 243) said the meaning was the "will and power of God"; not that this is the signification of the word, but by reason of the godlike qualities attributed to Him who was known by it. Cieza de Leon says that Tici-Uiracocha was God, Creator of heaven and earth: Acosta that to Tici-Uiracocha they assigned the chief power and command over all things; Montesinos that Illa-tici-Uiracocha was the name of the creator of the world; Molina that Tecsi-Uiracocha was the Creator and incomprehensible God; the anonymous Jesuit that Uiracocha meant the great God of "Pirua"; Betanzos that the Creator was Con-Tici-Uiracocha.
According to Montesinos and the anonymous Jesuit Uira or Vira is a corruption of Pirua meaning a depository. The first meaning of Cocha is a lake, but here it is held to signify profundity, abyss, space. The "Dweller in Space." Ticci or Tici is base or foundation, hence the founder. Illa means light. The anonymous Jesuit gives the meaning "Eternal Light" to Illa-Ticci. The word Con, given by Betanzos and Garcia, has no known meaning.
Pachacamac and Pachayachachi are attributes of the deity. Pacha means time or place, also the universe. Camac is the Ruler, Yachachi the Teacher. "The Ruler and Teacher of the Universe."
The meaning and significance of the word Uiracocha has been very fully discussed by Senor Don Leonardo Villar of Cuzco in a paper entitled Lexicologia Keshua Uiracocha (Lima, 1887).]
And when he had created the world he formed a race of giants of disproportioned greatness painted and sculptured, to see whether it would be well to make real men of that size. He then created men in his likeness as they are now; and they lived in darkness.
Viracocha ordered these people that they should live without quarrelling, and that they should know and serve him. He gave them a certain precept which they were to observe on pain of being confounded if they should break it. They kept this precept for some time, but it is not mentioned what it was. But as there arose among them the vices of pride and covetousness, they transgressed the precept of Viracocha Pachayachachi and falling, through this sin, under his indignation, he confounded and cursed them. Then some were turned into stones, others into other things, some were swallowed up by the earth, others by the sea, and over all there came a general flood which they call unu pachacuti, which means "water that overturns the land." They say that it rained 60 days and nights, that it drowned all created things, and that there alone remained some vestiges of those who were turned into stones, as a memorial of the event, and as an example to posterity, in the edifices of Pucara, which are 60 leagues from Cuzco.
Some of the nations, besides the Cuzcos, also say that a few were saved from this flood to leave descendants for a future age. Each nation has its special fable which is told by its people, of how their first ancestors were saved from the waters of the deluge. That the ideas they had in their blindness may be understood, I will insert only one, told by the nation of the Canaris, a land of Quito and Tumibamba, 400 leagues from Cuzco and more.
They say that in the time of the deluge called unu pachacuti there was a mountain named Guasano in the province of Quito and near a town called Tumipampa. The natives still point it out. Up this mountain went two of the Canaris named Ataorupagui and Cusicayo. As the waters increased the mountain kept rising and keeping above them in such a way that it was never covered by the waters of the flood. In this way the two Canaris escaped. These two, who were brothers, when the waters abated after the flood, began to sow. One day when they had been at work, on returning to their hut, they found in it some small loaves of bread, and a jar of chicha, which is the beverage used in this country in place of wine, made of boiled maize. They did not know who had brought it, but they gave thanks to the Creator, eating and drinking of that provision. Next day the same thing happened. As they marvelled at this mystery, they were anxious to find out who brought the meals. So one day they hid themselves, to spy out the bringers of their food. While they were watching they saw two Canari women preparing the victuals and putting them in the accustomed place. When about to depart the men tried to seize them, but they evaded their would-be captors and escaped. The Canaris, seeing the mistake they had made in molesting those who had done them so much good, became sad and prayed to Viracocha for pardon for their sins, entreating him to let the women come back and give them the accustomed meals. The Creator granted their petition. The women came back and said to the Canaris—"The Creator has thought it well that we should return to you, lest you should die of hunger." They brought them food. Then there was friendship between the women and the Canari brothers, and one of the Canari brothers had connexion with one of the women. Then, as the elder brother was drowned in a lake which was near, the survivor married one of the women, and had the other as a concubine. By them he had ten sons who formed two lineages of five each, and increasing in numbers they called one Hanansaya which is the same as to say the upper party, and the other Hurinsaya, or the lower party. From these all the Canaris that now exist are descended[27]. |
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