CHAPTER IV.
THE INCA CIVILIZATION IN PERU.
BY CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, C. B.
THE civilization of the Incas of Peru is the most important, because it is the highest, phase in the development of progress among the American races. It represents the combined efforts, during long periods, of several peoples who eventually became welded into one nation. The especial interest attaching to the study of this civilization consists in the fact that it was self-developed, and that, so far as can be ascertained, it received no aid and no impulse from foreign contact.
It is necessary, however, to bear in mind that the empire of the Incas, in its final development, was formed of several nations which had, during long periods, worked out their destinies apart from each other; and that one, at least, appears to have been entirely distinct from the Incas in race and language.[1138] These facts must be carefully borne in mind in pursuing inquiries relating to the history of Inca civilization. It is also essential that the nature and value of the evidence on which conclusions must be based should be understood and carefully weighed. This evidence is of several kinds. Besides the testimony of Spanish writers who witnessed the conquest of Peru, or who lived a generation afterwards, there is the evidence derived from a study of the characteristics of descendants of the Inca people, of their languages and literature, and of their architectural and other remains. These various kinds of evidence must be compared, their respective values must be considered, and thus alone, in our time, can the nearest approximation to the truth be reached.
MAP IN BRASSEUR’S POPUL VUH.
The testimony of writers in the sixteenth century, who had the advantage of being able to see the workings of Inca institutions, to examine the outcome of their civilization in all its branches, and to converse with the Incas themselves respecting the history and the traditions of their people, is the most important evidence. Much of this testimony has been preserved, but unfortunately a great deal is lost. The sack of Cadiz by the Earl of Essex, in 1595, was the occasion of the loss of Blas Valera’s priceless work.[1139] Other valuable writings have been left in manuscript, and have been mislaid through neglect and carelessness. Authors are mentioned, or even quoted, whose books have disappeared. The contemplation of the fallen Inca empire excited the curiosity and interest of a great number of intelligent men among the Spanish conquerors. Many wrote narratives of what they saw and heard. A few studied the language and traditions of the people with close attention. And these authors were not confined to the clerical and legal professions; they included several of the soldier-conquerors themselves.[1140]
EARLY SPANISH MAP OF PERU.
[From the Paris (1774) edition of Zarate. The development of Peruvian cartography under the Spanish explorations is traced in a note in Vol. II. p. 509; but the best map for the student is a map of the empire of the Incas, showing all except the provinces of Quito and Chili, with the routes of the successive Inca conquerors marked on it, given in the Journal of the Roy. Geog. Soc. (1872), vol. xlii. p. 513, compiled by Mr. Trelawny Saunders to illustrate Mr. Markham’s paper of the previous year, on the empire of the Incas. The map was republished by the Hakluyt Society in 1880. The map of Wiener in his Pérou et Bolivie is also a good one. Cf. Squier’s map in his Peru.—Ed.]
The nature of the country and climate was a potent agent in forming the character of the people, and in enabling them to make advances in civilization. In the dense forests of the Amazonian valleys, in the boundless prairies and savannas, we only meet with wandering tribes of hunters and fishers. It is on the lofty plateaux of the Andes, where extensive tracts of land are adapted for tillage, or in the comparatively temperate valleys of the western coast, that we find nations advanced in civilization.[1141]
The region comprised in the empire of the Incas during its greatest extension is bounded on the east by the forest-covered Amazonian plains, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and its length along the line of the Cordilleras was upwards of 1,500 miles, from 2° N. to 20° S. This vast tract comprises every temperature and every variety of physical feature. The inhabitants of the plains and valleys of the Andes enjoyed a temperate and generally bracing climate, and their energies were called forth by the physical difficulties which had to be overcome through their skill and hardihood. Such a region was suited for the gradual development of a vigorous race, capable of reaching to a high state of culture. The different valleys and plateaux are separated by lofty mountain chains or by profound gorges, so that the inhabitants would, in the earliest period of their history, make their own slow progress in comparative isolation, and would have little intercommunication. When at last they were brought together as one people, and thus combined their efforts in forming one system, it is likely that such a union would have a tendency to be of long duration, owing to the great difficulties which must have been overcome in its creation. On the other hand, if, in course of time, disintegration once began, it might last long, and great efforts would be required to build up another united empire. The evidence seems to point to the recurrence of these processes more than once, in the course of ages, and to their commencement in a very remote antiquity.
One strong piece of evidence pointing to the great length of time during which the Inca nations had been a settled and partially civilized race, is to be found in the plants that had been brought under cultivation, and in the animals that had been domesticated. Maize is unknown in a wild state,[1142] and many centuries must have elapsed before the Peruvians could have produced numerous cultivated varieties, and have brought the plant to such a high state of perfection. The peculiar edible roots, called oca and aracacha, also exist only as cultivated plants. There is no wild variety of the chirimoya, and the Peruvian species of the cotton plant is known only under cultivation.[1143] The potato is found wild in Chile, and probably in Peru, as a very insignificant tuber. But the Peruvians, after cultivating it for centuries, increased its size and produced a great number of edible varieties.[1144] Another proof of the great antiquity of Peruvian civilization is to be found in the llama and alpaca, which are domesticated animals, with individuals varying in color: the one a beast of burden yielding coarse wool, and the other bearing a thick fleece of the softest silken fibres. Their prototypes are the wild huanaco and vicuña, of uniform color, and untameable. Many centuries must have elapsed before the wild creatures of the Andean solitudes, with the habits of chamois, could have been converted into the Peruvian sheep which cannot exist apart from men.[1145]
LLAMAS.
[One of the cuts which did service in the Antwerp edition of Cieza de Leon. Cf. Bollaert on the llama, alpaca, huanaco, and vicuña species in the Sporting Review, Feb., 1863; the cuts in Squier, pp. 246, 250; Dr. Van Tschudi, in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1885.—Ed.]
These considerations point to so vast a period during which the existing race had dwelt in the Peruvian Andes, that any speculation respecting its origin would necessarily be futile in the present state of our knowledge.[1146] The weight of tradition indicates the south as the quarter whence the people came whose descendants built the edifices at Tiahuanacu.
The most ancient remains of a primitive people in the Peruvian Andes consist of rude cromlechs, or burial-places, which are met with in various localities. Don Modesto Basadre has described some by the roadside, in the descent from Umabamba to Charasani, in Bolivia. These cromlechs are formed of four great slabs of slate, each slab being about five feet high, four or five in width, and more than an inch thick. The four slabs are perfectly shaped and worked so as to fit into each other at the corners. A fifth slab is placed over them, and over the whole a pyramid of clay and rough stones is piled. These cromlechs are the early memorials of a race which was succeeded by the people who constructed the cyclopean edifices of the Andean plateaux.
DETAILS AT TIAHUANACU.
KEY:—
A, Lid or cover of some aperture, of stone, with two handles neatly undercut.
B, A window of trachyte, of careful workmanship, in one piece.
C, Block of masonry with carving.
D, E, Two views of a corner-piece to some stone conduit, carefully ornamented with projecting lines.
F, G, H, I, Other pieces of cut masonry lying about.
For there is reason to believe that a powerful empire had existed in Peru centuries before the rise of the Inca dynasty. Cyclopean ruins, quite foreign to the genius of Inca architecture, point to this conclusion. The wide area over which they are found is an indication that the government which caused them to be built ruled over an extensive empire, while their cyclopean character is a proof that their projectors had an almost unlimited supply of labor. Religious myths and dynastic traditions throw some doubtful light on that remote past, which has left its silent memorials in the huge stones of Tiahuanacu, Sacsahuaman, and Ollantay, and in the altar of Concacha.
CARVINGS AT TIAHUANACU.
KEY:—
A, Portion of the ornament which runs along the base of the rows of figures on the monolithic doorway.
B, Prostrate idol lying on its face near the ruins; about 9 feet long.
BAS-RELIEFS AT TIAHUANACU.
KEY:—
A, A winged human figure with the crowned head of a condor, from the central row on the monolithic doorway.
B, A winged human figure with human head crowned, from the upper row on the monolithic doorway.
[There are well-executed cuts of these sculptures in Ruge’s Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, pp. 430, 431. Cf. Squier’s Peru, p. 292.—Ed.]
The most interesting ruins in Peru are those of the palace or temple near the village of Tiahuanacu,[1147] on the southern side of Lake Titicaca. They are 12,930 feet above the level of the sea, and 130 above that of the lake, which is about twelve miles off.
FRAGMENTS AT TIAHUANACU.
Various curiously carved stones found scattered about the ruins.
REVERSE OF THE DOORWAY AT TIAHUANACU.
[Cf. view in Squier’s Peru, p. 289, with other particulars of the ruins, p. 276, etc.—Ed.]
They consist of a quadrangular space, entered by the famous monolithic doorway, and surrounded by large stones standing on end; and of a hill or mound encircled by remains of a wall, consisting of enormous blocks of stone. The whole covers an area about 400 yards long by 350 broad. There is a lesser temple, about a quarter of a mile distant, containing stones 36 feet long by 7, and 26 by 16, with recesses in them which have been compared to seats of judgment. The weight of the two great stones has been estimated at from 140 to 200 tons each, and the distance of the quarries whence they could have been brought is from 15 to 40 miles.
IMAGE AT TIAHUANACU.
[This is an enlarged drawing of the bas-relief shown in the picture of the broken doorway (p. [218]). Cf. the cuts in the article on the ruins of Tiahuanacu in the Revue d’Architecture des Travaux publics, vol. xxiv.; in Ch. Wiener’s L’Empire des Incas, pl. iii.; in D’Orbigny’s Atlas to his L’Homme Américain; and in Squier’s Peru, p. 291.—Ed.]
The monolithic portal is one block of hard trachytic rock, now deeply sunk in the ground. Its height above ground is 7 ft. 2 in., width 13 ft. 5 in., thickness 1 ft. 6 in., and the opening is 4 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. 9 in. The outer side is ornamented by accurately cut niches and rectangular mouldings. The whole of the inner side, from a line level with the upper lintel of the doorway to the top, is a mass of sculpture, which speaks to us, in difficult riddles, alas! of the customs and art-culture, of the beliefs and traditions, of an ancient and lost civilization.
BROKEN MONOLITH DOORWAY AT TIAHUANACU.
[An enlarged drawing of the image over the arch is given in another cut. This same ruin is well represented in Ruge’s Gesch. des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen; and not so well in Wiener’s Pérou et Bolivie, p. 419. Cf. Squier’s Peru, p. 288.—Ed.]
In the centre there is a figure carved in high relief, in an oblong compartment, 2 ft. 2 in. long by 1 ft. 6 in.[1148] Squier describes this figure as angularly but boldly cut. The head is surrounded by rays, each terminating in a circle or the head of an animal. The breast is adorned with two serpents united by a square band. Another band, divided into ornamented compartments, passes round the neck, and the ends are brought down to the girdle, from which hang six human heads. Human heads also hang from the elbows, and the hands clasp sceptres which terminate in the heads of condors. The legs are cut off near the girdle, and below there are a series of frieze-like ornaments, each ending with a condor’s head. On either side of this central sculpture there are three tiers of figures, 16 in each tier, or 48 in all, each in a kneeling posture, and facing towards the large central figure. Each figure is in a square, the sides of which measure eight inches. All are winged, and hold sceptres ending in condors’ heads; but while those in the upper and lower tiers have crowned human heads, those in the central tier have the heads of condors. There is a profusion of ornament on all these figures, consisting of heads of birds and fishes. An ornamental frieze runs along the base of the lowest tier of figures, consisting of an elaborate pattern of angular lines ending in condors’ heads, with larger human heads surrounded by rays, in the intervals of the pattern. Cieza de Leon and Alcobasa[1149] mention that, besides this sculpture over the doorway, there were richly carved statues at Tiahuanacu, which have since been destroyed, and many cylindrical pillars with capitals. The head of one statue, with a peculiar head-dress, which is 3 ft. 6 in. long, still lies by the roadside.
TIAHUANACU RESTORED.
After a drawing given in The Temple of the Andes by Richard Inwards (London, 1884).
The masonry of the ruins is admirably worked, according to the testimony of all visitors. Squier says: “The stone itself is a dark and exceedingly hard trachyte. It is faced with a precision that no skill can excel. Its lines are perfectly drawn, and its right angles turned with an accuracy that the most careful geometer could not surpass. I do not believe there exists a better piece of stone-cutting, the material considered, on this or the other continent.”
It is desirable to describe these ruins, and especially the sculpture over the monolithic doorway, with some minuteness, because, with the probable exception of the cromlechs, they are the most ancient, and, without any exception, the most interesting that have been met with in Peru. There is nothing elsewhere that at all resembles the sculpture on the monolithic doorway at Tiahuanacu.[1150] The central figure, with rows of kneeling worshippers on either side, all covered with symbolic designs, represents, it may be conjectured, either the sovereign and his vassals, or, more probably, the Deity, with representatives of all the nations bowing down before him. The sculpture and the most ancient traditions should throw light upon each other.
Further north there are other examples of prehistoric cyclopean remains. Such is the great wall, with its “stone of 12 corners,” in the Calle del Triunfo at Cuzco. Such is the famous fortress of Cuzco, on the Sacsahuaman Hill. Such, too, are portions of the ruins at Ollantay-tampu. Still farther north there are cyclopean ruins at Concacha, at Huiñaque, and at Huaraz.
RUINS OF SACSAHUAMAN.
[After a cut in Ruge’s Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen. Markham has elsewhere described these ruins,—Cieza de Leon, 259, 324; 2d part, 160; Royal Commentaries of the Incas, ii., with a plan, reproduced in Vol. II. p. 521, and another plan of Cuzco, showing the position of the fortress in its relations to the city. There are plans and views in Squier’s Peru, ch. 23.—Ed.]
Tiahuanacu is interesting because it is possible that the elaborate character of its symbolic sculpture may throw glimmerings of light on remote history; but Sacsahuaman, the fortress overlooking the city of Cuzco, is, without comparison, the grandest monument of an ancient civilization in the New World. Like the Pyramids and the Coliseum, it is imperishable. It consists of a fortified work 600 yards in length, built of gigantic stones, in three lines, forming walls supporting terraces and parapets arranged in salient and retiring angles. This work defends the only assailable side of a position which is impregnable, owing to the steepness of the ascent in all other directions. The outer wall averages a height of 26 feet. Then there is a terrace 16 yards across, whence the second wall rises to 18 feet. The second terrace is six yards across, and the third wall averages a height of 12 feet. The total height of the fortification is 56 feet. The stones are of blue limestone, of enormous size and irregular in shape, but fitted into each other with rare precision. One of the stones is 27 feet high by 14, and stones 15 feet high by 12 are common throughout the work.
At Ollantay-tampu the ruins are of various styles, but the later works are raised on ancient cyclopean foundations.[1151] There are six porphyry slabs 12 feet high by 6 or 7; stone beams 15 and 20 feet long; stairs and recesses hewn out of the solid rock. Here, as at Tiahuanacu, there were, according to Cieza de Leon,[1152] men and animals carved on the stones, but they have disappeared. The same style of architecture, though only in fragments, is met with further north.
East of the river Apurimac, and not far from the town of Abancay, there are three groups of ancient monuments in a deep valley surrounded by lofty spurs of the Andes. There is a great cyclopean wall, a series of seats or thrones of various forms hewn out of the solid stone, and a huge block carved on five sides, called the Rumi-huasi. The northern face of this monolith is cut into the form of a staircase; on the east there are two enormous seats separated by thick partitions, and on the south there is a sort of lookout place, with a seat. Collecting channels traverse the block, and join trenches or grooves leading to two deep excavations on the western side. On this western side there is also a series of steps, apparently for the fall of a cascade of water connected with the sacrificial rites. Molina gives a curious account of the water sacrifices of the Incas.[1153] The Rumi-huasi seems to have been the centre of a great sanctuary, and to have been used as an altar. Its surface is carved with animals amidst a labyrinth of cavities and partition ridges. Its length is 20 feet by 14 broad, and 12 feet high. Here we have, no doubt, a sacrificial altar of the ancient people, on which the blood of animals and libations of chicha flowed in torrents.[1154]
Spanish writers received statements from the Indians that one or other of these cyclopean ruins was built by some particular Inca. Garcilasso de la Vega even names the architects of the Cuzco fortress. But it is clear from the evidence of the most careful investigators, such as Cieza de Leon, that there was no real knowledge of their origin, and that memory of the builders was either quite lost, or preserved in vague, uncertain traditions.
The most ancient myth points to the region of Lake Titicaca as the scene of the creative operations of a Deity, or miracle-working Lord.[1155] This Deity is said to have created the sun, moon, and stars, or to have caused them to rise out of Lake Titicaca. He also created men of stone at Tiahuanacu, or of clay; making them pass under the earth, and appear again out of caves, tree-trunks, rocks, or fountains in the different provinces which were to be peopled by their descendants. But this seems to be a later attempt to reconcile the ancient Titicaca myth with the local worship of natural objects as ancestors or founders of their race, among the numerous subjugated tribes; as well as to account for the colossal statues of unknown origin at Tiahuanacu. There are variations of the story, but there is general concurrence in the main points: that the Deity created the heavenly bodies and the human race, and that the ancient people, or their rulers, were called Pirua. Tradition also seems to point to regions south of the lake as the quarter whence the first settlers came who worked out the earliest civilization.[1156] We may, in accordance with all the indications that are left to us, connect the great god Illa Ticsi with the central figure of the Tiahuanacu sculpture, and the kneeling worshippers with the rulers of all the nations and tribes which had been subjugated by the Hatun-runa,[1157]—the great men who had Pirua for their king, and who originally came from the distant south. The Piruas governed a vast empire, erected imperishable cyclopean edifices, and developed a complicated civilization, which is dimly indicated to us by the numerous symbolical sculptures on the monolith. They also, in a long course of years, brought wild plants under cultivation, and domesticated the animals of the lofty Andean plateau. But it is remarkable that the shores of Lake Titicaca, which are almost treeless, and where corn will not ripen, should have been chosen as the centre of this most ancient civilization. Yet the ruins of Tiahuanacu conclusively establish the fact that the capital of the Piruas was on the loftiest site ever selected for the seat of a great empire.
The Amautas, or learned men of the later Inca period, preserved the names of sovereigns of the Pirua dynasty, commencing with Pirua Manco, and continuing for sixty-five generations. Lopez conjectures that there was a change of dynasty after the eighteenth Pirua king, because hitherto Montesinos, who has recorded the list, had always called each successor son and heir, but after the eighteenth only heir. Hence he thinks that a new dynasty of Amautas, or kings of the learned caste, succeeded the Piruas. The only deeds recorded of this long line of kings are their success in repelling invasions and their alterations of the calendar. At length there appears to have been a general disruption of the empire: Cuzco was nearly deserted, rebel leaders rose up in all directions, the various tribes became independent, and the chief who claimed to be the representative of the old dynasties was reduced to a small territory to the south of Cuzco, in the valley of the Vilcamayu, and was called “King of Tampu Tocco.” This state of disintegration is said to have continued for twenty-eight generations, at the end of which time a new empire began to be consolidated under the Incas, which inherited the civilization and traditions of the ancient dynasties, and succeeded to their power and dominion.
It was long believed that the lists of kings of the earlier dynasties rested solely on the authority of Montesinos, and they consequently received little credit. But recent research has brought to light the work of another writer, who studied before Montesinos, and who incidentally refers to two of the sovereigns in his lists.[1158] This furnishes independent evidence that the catalogues of early kings had been preserved orally or by means of quipus, and that they were in existence when the Spaniards conquered Peru; thus giving weight to the testimony of Montesinos.
The second myth of the Peruvians refers to the origin of the Incas, who derived their descent from the kings of Tampu Tocco, and had their original home at Paccari-tampu, in the valley of the Vilcamayu, south of Cuzco. It is, therefore, an ancestral myth. It is related that four brothers, with their four sisters, issued forth from apertures (Tocco) in a cave at Paccari-tampu, a name which means “the abode of dawn.” The brothers were called Ayar Manco, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Uchu, and Ayar Sauca, names to which the Incas, in the time of Garcilasso de la Vega, gave a fanciful meaning.[1159] One of the brothers showed extraordinary prowess in hurling a stone from a sling. The others became jealous, and, persuading Ayar Auca, the expert slingsman, to return into the cave, they blocked the entrance with rocks. Ayar Uchu was converted into a stone idol, on the summit of a hill near Cuzco, called Huanacauri. Manco then advanced to Cuzco with his youngest brother, and found that the place was occupied by a chief named Alcaviza and his people. Here Manco established the seat of his government, and the Alcaviza tribe appears to have submitted to him, and to have lived side by side with the Incas for some generations. The Huanacauri hill was considered the most sacred place in Peru; while the Tampu-tocco, or cave at Paccari-tampu, was, through the piety of descendants, faced with a masonry wall, having three windows lined with plates of gold.
There is a third myth which seems to connect the ancient tradition of Titicaca with the ancestral myth of the Incas. It is said that long after the creation by the Deity, a great and beneficent being appeared at Tiahuanacu, who divided the world among four kings: Manco Ccapac, Colla, Tocay[1160] or Tocapo,[1161] and Pinahua.[1162] The names Tuapaca, Arnauan,[1163] Tonapa,[1164] and Tarapaca occur in connection with this being, while some authorities tell us that his name was unknown. Betanzos says that he went from Titicaca to Cuzco, where he set up a chief named Alcaviza, and that he advanced through the country until he disappeared over the sea at Puerto Viejo. It is also related that the people of Canas attacked him, but were converted by a miracle, and that they built a great temple, with an image, at Cacha, in honor of this being, or of his god Illa Ticsi Uira-cocha. This temple now forms a ruin which in its structure and arrangement is unique in Peru, and therefore deserves special attention.
The ruins of the temple of Cacha are in the valley of the Vilcamayu, south of Cuzco. They were described by Garcilasso de la Vega, and have been visited and carefully examined by Squier. The main temple was 330 feet long by 87 broad, with wrought-stone walls and a steep pitched roof. A high wall extended longitudinally through the centre of the structure, consisting of a wrought-stone foundation, 8 feet high and 5½ feet thick on the level of the ground, supporting an adobe superstructure, the whole being 40 feet high. This wall was pierced by 12 lofty doorways, 14 feet high. But midway there are sockets for the reception of beams, showing the existence of a second story, as described by Garcilasso. Between the transverse and outer walls there were two series of pillars, 12 on each side, built like the transverse wall, with 8 feet of wrought stone, and completed to a height of 22 feet with adobes. These pillars appear to have supported the second floor, where, according to Garcilasso, there was a shrine containing the statue of Uira-cocha. At right angles to the temple, Squier discovered the remains of a series of supplemental edifices surrounding courts, and built upon a terrace 260 yards long.
The peculiarities of the temple of Cacha consist in the use of rows of columns to support a second floor, and in the great height of the walls. In these respects it is unique, and if similar edifices ever existed, they appear to have been destroyed previous to the rise of the Inca empire. The Cacha temple belongs neither to the cyclopean period of the Piruas nor to the Inca style of architecture. Connected with the strange myth of the wandering prophet of Viracocha, it stands by itself, as one of those unsolved problems which await future investigation. The statue in the shrine on the upper story is described by Cieza de Leon, who saw it.
Both the Titicaca and the Cacha myths have, in later times, been connected and more or less amalgamated with the ancestral myth of the Incas. Thus Garcilasso de la Vega makes Manco Ccapac come direct from Titicaca; while Molina refers to him as one of the beings created there, who went down through the earth and came up at Paccari-tampu. Salcamayhua makes the being Tonapa, of the Cacha myth, arrive at Apu Tampu, or Paccari-tampu, and leave a sacred sceptre there, called tupac yauri, for Manco Ccapac. These are later interpolations, made with the object of connecting the family myth of the Incas with more ancient traditions. The wise men of the Inca system, through the care of Spanish writers of the time of the conquest, have handed down these three traditions and the catalogue of kings. The Titicaca myth tells us of the Deity worshipped by the builders of Tiahuanacu, and the story of the creation. The Cacha myth has reference to some great reformer of very ancient times. The Paccari-tampu myth records the origin of the Inca dynasty. Although they are overlaid with fables and miraculous occurrences, the main facts touching the original home of Manco Ccapac and his march to Cuzco are probably historical.
The catalogue of kings given by Montesinos, allowing an average of twenty years for each, would place the commencement of the Pirua dynasty in about 470 b.c.; in the days when the Greeks, under Cimon, were defeating the Persians, and nearly a century after the death of Sakya Muni in India. This early empire flourished for about 1,200 years, and the disruption took place in 830 a.d., in the days of King Egbert. The disintegration continued for 500 years, and the rise of the Incas under Manco was probably coeval with the days of St. Louis and Henry III of England.[1165] By that time the country had been broken up into separate tribes for 500 years, and the work of reunion, so splendidly achieved by the Incas, was most arduous. At the same time, the ancient civilization of the Piruas was partially inherited by the various peoples whose ancestors composed their empire; so that the Inca civilization was a revival rather than a creation.
The various tribes and nations of the Andes, separated from each other by uninhabited wildernesses and lofty mountain chains, were clearly of the same origin, speaking dialects of the same language. Since the fall of the Piruas they had led an independent existence. Some had formed powerful confederations, others were isolated in their valleys. But it was only through much hard fighting and by consummate statesmanship that the one small Inca lineage established, in a period of less than three centuries, imperial dominion over the rest. It will be well, in this place, to take a brief survey of the different nations which were to form the empire of the Incas, and of their territories.
The central Andean region, which was the home of the imperial race of Incas, extends from the water-parting between the sources of the Ucayali and the basin of Lake Titicaca to the river Apurimac. It includes wild mountain fastnesses, wide expanses of upland, grassy slopes, lofty valleys such as that in which the city of Cuzco is built, and fertile ravines, with the most lovely scenery. The inhabitants composed four tribes: that of the Incas in the valley of the Vilcamayu, of the Quichuas in the secluded ravines of the Apurimac tributaries, and those of the Canas and Cauchis in the mountains bordering on the Titicaca basin. These people average a height of 5 ft. 4 in., and are strongly built. The nose is invariably aquiline, the mouth rather large; the eyes black or deep brown, bright, and generally deep set, with long fine lashes. The hair is abundant and long, fine, and of a deep black-brown. The men have no beards. The skin is very smooth and soft, and of a light coppery-brown color, the neck thick, and the shoulders broad, with great depth of chest. The legs are well formed, feet and hands very small. The Incas have the build and physique of mountaineers.
To the south of this cradle of the Inca race extended the region of the Collas[1166] and allied tribes, including the whole basin of Lake Titicaca, which is 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. The Collas dwelt in stone huts, tended their flocks of llamas, and raised crops of ocas, quinoas, and potatoes. They were divided into several tribes, and were engaged in constant feuds, their arms being slings and ayllos, or bolas. The Collas are remarkable for great length of body compared with the thigh and leg, and they are the only people whose thighs are shorter than their legs. Their build fits them for excellence in mountain climbing and pedestrianism, and for the exercise of extraordinary endurance.[1167] The homes of the Collas were around the seat of ancient civilization at Tiahuanacu.
A remarkable race, apart from the Incas and Collas, of darker complexion and more savage habits, dwelt and still dwell among the vast beds of reeds in the southwestern angle of Lake Titicaca. They are called Urus, and are probably descendants of an aboriginal people who occupied the Titicaca basin before the arrival of the Hatun-runas from the south. The Urus spoke a distinct language, called Puquina, specimens of which have been preserved by Bishop Oré.[1168] The ancestors of the Urus may have been the cromlech builders, driven into the fastnesses of the lake when their country was occupied by the more powerful invaders, who erected the imperishable monuments at Tiahuanacu. These Urus are now lake-dwellers. Their homes consist of large canoes, made of the tough reeds which cover the shallow parts of the lake, and they live on fish, and on quinua and potatoes, which they obtain by barter.
North of Cuzco there were several allied tribes, resembling the Incas in physique and language, in a similar stage of civilization, and their rivals in power. Beyond the Apurimac, and inhabiting the valleys of the Andes thence to the Mantaro, was the important nation of the Chancas; and still further north and west, in the valley of the Xauxa, was the Huanca nation. Agricultural people and shepherds, forming ayllus, or tribes of the Chancas and Huancas, occupied the ravines of the maritime cordillera, and extended their settlements into several valleys of the seacoast, between the Rimac and Nasca. These coast people of Inca race, known as Chinchas, held their own against an entirely different nation, of distinct origin and language, who occupied the northern coast valleys from the Rimac to Payta, and also the great valley of Huarca (the modern Cañete), where they had Chincha enemies both to the north and south of them. These people were called Yuncas by their Inca conquerors. Their own name was Chimu, and the language spoken by them was called Mochica. But this question relating to the early inhabitants of the coast valleys of Peru, their origin and civilization, is the most difficult in ancient Peruvian history, and will require separate consideration.[1169]
INCA MANCO CCAPAC.
[After a cut in Marcoy’s South America, i. 210 (also in Tour du Monde, 1863, p. 261), purporting to be drawn from a copy of the taffeta roll containing the pedigree of the Incas, which, in evidence of their claims, was sent by their descendants to the Spanish king in 1603. This genealogical record contained the likenesses of the successive Incas and their wives, and the original is said to have disappeared. Mr. Markham supposes this roll to have been the original of the portraits given in Herrera (see cut on p. 267 of the present volume); but they are not the same, if Marcoy’s cuts are trustworthy. A set of likenesses appeared in Ulloa’s Relacion Histórica (Madrid, 1748), iv. 604; and these were the originals of the series copied in the Gentleman’s Mag., 1751-1752, and thence are copied those in Ranking. These do not correspond with those given by Marcoy. See post, Vol. II., for a note on different series of portraits, and in the same volume, pp. 515, 516, are portraits of Atahualpa. A portrait of Manco Inca, killed 1546, is given in A. de Beauchamp’s Histoire de la Conquête du Pérou (Paris, 1808).—Ed.]
North of the Huanca nation, along the basin of the Marañon, there were tribes which were known to the Incas by their head-dresses. These were the Conchucus, Huamachucus, and Huacrachucus.[1170] Still further north, in the region of the equator, was the powerful nation of Quitus.
All these nations of the Peruvian Andes appear to have once formed part of the mighty prehistoric empire of the Pirhuas, and to have retained much of the civilization of their ancestors during the subsequent centuries of separate existence and isolation. This probably accounts for the ease with which the Incas established their system of religion and government throughout their new empire, after the conquests were completed. The subjugated nations spoke dialects of the same language, and inherited many of the usages and ideas of their conquerors. For the same reason they were pretty equally matched as foes, and the Incas secured the mastery only by dint of desperate fighting and great political sagacity. But finally they did establish their superiority, and founded a second great empire in Peru.
The history of the rise and progress of Inca power, as recorded by native historians in their quipus, and retailed to us by Spanish writers, is, on the whole, coherent and intelligible. Many blunders were inevitable in conveying the information from the mouths of natives to the Spanish inquirers, who understood the language imperfectly, and whose objects often were to reach foregone conclusions. But certain broad historical facts are brought out by a comparison of the different authorities, the succession of the last ten sovereigns is determined by a nearly complete consensus of evidence, and we can now relate the general features of the rise of Inca ascendency in Peru with a certain amount of confidence.
INCA YUPANQUI.
[After a cut in Marcoy, i. 214.—Ed.]
The Inca people were divided into small ayllus, or lineages, when Manco Ccapac advanced down the valley of the Vilcamayu, from Paccari-tampu, and forced the ayllu of Alcaviza and the ayllu of Antasayac to submit to his sway. He formed the nucleus of his power at Cuzco, the land of these conquered ayllus, and from this point his descendants slowly extended their dominion. The chiefs of the surrounding ayllus, called Sinchi (literally, “strong”), either submitted willingly to the Incas, or were subjugated. Sinchi Rocca, the son, and Lloque Yupanqui, the grandson, of Manco, filled up a swamp on the site of the present cathedral of Cuzco, planned out the city,[1171] and their reigns were mainly occupied in consolidating the small kingdom founded by their predecessor. Mayta Ccapac, the fourth Inca, was also occupied in consolidating his power round Cuzco; but his son, Ccapac Yupanqui, subdued the Quichuas to the westward, and extended his sway as far as the pass of Vilcañota, overlooking the Collao, or basin of Lake Titicaca. Inca Rocca, the next sovereign, made few conquests, devoting his attention to the foundation of schools, the organization of festivals and administrative government, and to the construction of public works. His son, named Yahuar-huaccac, appears to have been unfortunate. One authority says that he was surprised and killed, and all agree that his reign was disastrous. For seven generations the power and the admirable internal polity of the Incarial government had been gradually organized and consolidated within a limited area. The succeeding sovereigns were great conquerors, and their empire was rapidly extended to the vast area which it had reached when the Spaniards first appeared on the scene.
CUZCO.
[One of the cuts which did service in the Antwerp editions of Cieza de Leon. There are various views in Squier’s Peru, pp. 427-445.—Ed.]
The son of Yahuar-huaccac assumed the name of the Deity, and called himself Uira-cocha.[1172] Intervening in a war between the two principal chiefs of the Collas, named Cari and Zapaña, Uira-cocha defeated them in detail, and annexed the whole basin of Lake Titicaca to his dominions. He also conquered the lovely valley of Yucay, on the lower course of the Vilcamayu, whither he retired to end his days. The eldest son of Uira-cocha, named Urco, was incompetent or unworthy, and was either obliged to abdicate[1173] in favor of his brother Yupanqui, the favorite hero of Inca history, or was slain.[1174] It was a moment when the rising empire needed the services of her ablest sons. She was about to engage in a death-struggle with a neighbor as powerful and as civilized as herself. The kingdom of the Chancas, commencing on the banks of the Apurimac, extended far to the east and north, including many of the richest valleys of the Andes. Their warlike king, Uscavilca, had already subdued the Quichuas, who dwelt in the upper valleys of the Apurimac tributaries to the southward, and was advancing on Cuzco, when Yupanqui pushed aside the imbecile Urco, and seized the helm. The fate of the Incas was hanging on a thread. The story is one of thrilling interest as told in the pages of Betanzos, but all authorities dwell more or less on this famous Chanca war. The decisive battle was fought outside the Huaca-puncu, the sacred gate of Cuzco. The result was long doubtful. Suddenly, as the shades of evening were closing over the Yahuar-pampa,—“the field of blood,”—a fresh army fell upon the right flank of the Chanca host, and the Incas won a great victory. So unexpected was this onslaught that the very stones on the mountain sides were believed to have been turned into men. It was the armed array of the insurgent Quichuas who had come by forced marches to the help of their old masters. The memory of this great struggle was fresh in men’s minds when the Spaniards arrived, and as the new conquerors passed over the battlefield, on their way to Cuzco, they saw the stuffed skins of the vanquished Chancas set up as memorials by the roadside.
WARRIORS OF THE INCA PERIOD.
[After a cut given by Ruge, and showing figures from an old Peruvian painting.—Ed.]
The subjugation of the Chancas, with their allies the Huancas, led to a vast extension of the Inca empire, which now reached to the shores of the Pacific; and the last years of Yupanqui were passed in the conquest of the alien coast nation, ruled over by a sovereign known as the Chimu. Thus the reign of the Inca Yupanqui marks a great epoch. He beat down all rivals, and converted the Cuzco kingdom into a vast empire. He received the name of Pachacutec, or “he who changes the world,” a name which, according to Montesinos, had on eight previous occasions been conferred upon sovereigns of the more ancient dynasties.
Tupac Inca Yupanqui, the son and successor of Pachacutec, completed the subjugation of the coast valleys, extended his conquests beyond Quito on the north and to Chile as far as the river Maule in the south, besides penetrating far into the eastern forests.
Huayna Ccapac, the son of Tupac Inca Yupanqui, completed and consolidated the conquests of his father. He traversed the valleys of the coast, penetrated to the southern limit of Chile, and fought a memorable battle on the banks of the “lake of blood” (Yahuar-cocha), near the northern frontier of Quito. After a long reign,[1175] the last years of which were passed in Quito, Huayna Ccapac died in November, 1525. His eldest legitimate son, named Huascar, succeeded him at Cuzco. But Atahualpa, his father’s favorite, was at Quito with the most experienced generals. Haughty messages passed between the brothers, which were followed by war. Huascar’s armies were defeated in detail, and eventually the generals of Atahualpa took the legitimate Inca prisoner, entered Cuzco, and massacred the family and adherents of Huascar.[1176] The successful aspirant to the throne was on his way to Cuzco, in the wake of his generals, when he encountered Pizarro and the Spanish invaders at Caxamarca. This war of succession would not, it is probable, have led to any revolutionary change in the general policy of the empire. Atahualpa would have established his power and continued to rule, just as his ancestor Pachacutec did, after the dethronement of his brother Urco.[1177]
The succession of the Incas from Manco Ccapac to Atahualpa was evidently well known to the Amautas, or learned men of the empire, and was recorded in their quipus with precision, together with less certain materials respecting the more ancient dynasties. Many blunders were committed by the Spanish inquirers in putting down the historical information received from the Amautas, but on the whole there is general concurrence among them.[1178] Practically the Spanish authorities agree, and it is clear that the native annalists possessed a single record, while the apparent discrepancies are due to blunders of the Spanish transcribers. The twelve Incas from Manco Ccapac to Huascar may be received as historical personages whose deeds were had in memory at the time of the Spanish invasion, and were narrated to those among the conquerors who sought for information from the Amautas.
| a.d. 1240—Manco Ccapac. 1260—Sinchi Rocca. 1280—Lloque Yupanqui. 1300—Mayta Ccapac. 1320—Ccapac Yupanqui. 1340—Inca Rocca. | a.d. 1360—Yahuar-huaccac. 1380—Uira-cocha. 1400—Pachacutec Yupanqui. 1440—Tupac Yupanqui. 1480—Huayna Ccapac. 1523—Inti Cusi Hualpa, or Huascar. |
The religion of the Incas consisted in the worship of the supreme being of the earlier dynasties, the Illa Ticsi Uira-cocha of the Pirhuas. This simple faith was overlaid by a vast mass of superstition, represented by the cult of ancestors and the cult of natural objects. To this was superadded the belief in the ideals or souls of all animated things, which ruled and guided them, and to which men might pray for help. The exact nature of this belief in ideals, as it presented itself to the people themselves, is not at all clear. It prevailed among the uneducated. Probably it was the idea to which dreams give rise,—the idea of a double nature, of a tangible and a phantom being, the latter mysterious and powerful, and to be propitiated. The belief in this double being was extended to all animated nature, for even the crops had their spiritual doubles, which it was necessary to worship and propitiate.
But the religion of the Incas and of learned men, or Amautas, was a worship of the Supreme Cause of all things, the ancient God of the Titicaca myth, combined with veneration for the sun[1179] as the ancestor of the reigning dynasty, for the other heavenly bodies, and for the malqui, or remains of their forefathers. This feeling of veneration for the sun, closely connected with the beneficent work of the venerated object as displayed in the course of the seasons, led to the growth of an elaborate ritual and to the celebration of periodical festivals.
The weight of evidence is decisively in the direction of a belief on the part of the Incas that a Supreme Being existed, which the sun must obey, as well as all other parts of the universe. This subordination of the sun to the Creator of all things was inculcated by successive Incas. Molina says, “They did not know the sun as their Creator, but as created by the Creator.” Salcamayhua tells us how the Inca Mayta Ccapac taught that the sun and moon were made for the service of men, and that the chief of the Collas, addressing the Inca Uira-cocha, exclaimed, “Thou, O powerful lord of Cuzco, dost worship the teacher of the universe, while I, the chief of the Collas, worship the Sun.” The evidence on the subject of the religion of the Incas, collected by the Viceroy Toledo, showed that they worshipped the Creator of all things, though they also venerated the sun; and Montesinos mentions an edict of the Inca Pachacutec, promulgated with the object of enforcing the worship of the Supreme God above all other deities. The speech of Tupac Inca Yupanqui, showing that the sun was not God, but was obeying laws ordained by God, is recorded by Acosta, Blas Valera, and Balboa, and was evidently deeply impressed on the minds of their Inca informers. This Inca compared the sun to a tethered beast, which always makes the same round; or to a dart, which goes where it is sent, and not where it wishes. The prayers from the Inca ritual, given by Molina, are addressed to the god Ticsi Uira-cocha; the Sun, Moon, and Thunder being occasionally invoked in conjunction with the principal deity.
The worship of this creating God, the Dweller in Space, the Teacher and Ruler of the Universe, was, then, the religion of the Incas which had been inherited from their distant ancestry of the cyclopean age. Around this primitive cult had grown up a supplemental worship of creatures created by the Deity, such as the heavenly bodies, and of objects supposed to represent the first ancestors of ayllus, or tribes, as well as of the prototypes of things on whom man’s welfare depended, such as flocks and animals of the chase, fruit and corn. It has been asserted that the Deity, the Uira-cocha himself, did not generally receive worship, and that there was only one temple in honor of God throughout the empire, at a place called Pachacamac, on the coast. But this is clearly a mistake. The great temple at Cuzco, with its gorgeous display of riches, was called the “Ccuri-cancha Pacha-yachachicpa huasin,” which means “the place of gold, the abode of the Teacher of the Universe.” An elliptical plate of gold was fixed on the wall to represent the Deity, flanked on either side by metal representations of his creatures, the Sun and Moon. The chief festival in the middle of the year, called Ccapac Raymi, was instituted in honor of the supreme Creator, and when, from time to time, his worship began to be neglected by the people, who were apt to run after the numerous local deities, it was again and again enforced by their more enlightened rulers. There were Ccuri-canchas for the service of God, at Vilca and in other centres of vice-regal rule, besides the grand fane of Cuzco.[1180]
TEMPLE OF THE SUN.
[After a cut in Marcoy, i. p. 234, where it is said to be drawn from existing remains and printed and manuscript authorities. The modern structure of the convent of Santo Domingo, built in 1534, is at A, which contains in its construction some remains of the walls of the older edifice. B is a cloister. C, an outer court. D, fountains for purification. E are streets leading to the great square of Cuzco. F, the garden where golden flowers were once placed; now used as a kitchen garden. G, the chapel dedicated to the moon. H, chapel dedicated to Venus and the Milky Way. I, chapel dedicated to thunder and lightning. J, chapel dedicated to the rainbow. K, council hall of the grand pontiff and priests of the sun. L, the apartments of the priests and servants. See the view of the temple from Montanus in Vol. II. p. 555, and a modern view in Wiener’s. Pérou et Bolivie, p. 318. Other plans and views are in Squier’s Peru, pp. 430-445.—Ed.]
Although the first and principal invocations were addressed to the Creator, prayers were also offered up to the Sun and Moon, to the Thunder, and to ancestors who were called upon to intercede with the Deity.[1181] The latter worship formed a very distinctive feature in the religious observances of nearly all the Incarial tribes. The Paccarina, or forefather of the ayllu, or lineage, was often some natural object converted into a huaca, or deity. The Paccarina of the Inca family was the Sun; with his sister and spouse, the Moon. A vast hierarchy was set apart to conduct the ceremonies connected with their worship, and hundreds of virgins, called Aclla-cuna, were secluded and devoted to duties relating to the observances in the Sun temples. Worship was also offered to the actual bodies of the ancestors, called malqui, which were preserved with the greatest care, in caves called machay. On solemn festivals each ayllu assembled with its malqui. The bodies of the Incas were all preserved, clothed as when alive, and surrounded by their special furniture and utensils. Three of these Inca mummies, with two mummies of queens, were discovered by Polo de Ondegardo, then corregidor of Cuzco, in 1559, and were sent by him to Lima for interment. Those who saw them[1182] reported that they were so well preserved that they appeared to be alive; that they were in a sitting posture; that the eyes were made of gold, and that they were arrayed in the insignia of their rank.[1183] The Paccarina, or founder of the family, and the malquis, or mummies of ancestors, thus formed the objects of a distinct belief and religion, based undoubtedly on the conviction that every human being has a spiritual as well as a corporeal existence; that the former is immortal, and that it is represented by the malqui. The appearance of the departed in dreams and visions was not an unreasonable ground for this belief, which certainly was the most deeply rooted of all the religious ideas of the Peruvian people. The paccarina, or ancestral deities, were innumerable. There was one or more that received worship in every tribe, and was represented by a rock, or some other natural object. Many were believed to be oracles. Some, such as Catequilla, or Apu-catequilla,[1184] the oracle of the Conchucu tribe, have been brought into undue prominence through being mentioned by Spanish writers.
ZODIAC OF GOLD FOUND AT CUZCO.
[After a drawing by Mr. Markham of the plate itself, made at Lima in 1853. Mr. Markham’s drawing is reproduced in Bollaert’s Antiquarian Researches, p. 146. The disk is 53/10 inches in diameter. The signs in the outer ring are supposed to represent the months.—Ed.]
Religious ceremonials were closely connected with the daily life of the people, and especially with the course of the seasons and the succession of months, as they affected the operations of agriculture. It was important to fix the equinoxes and solstices, and astronomical knowledge was a part of the priestly office. There were names for many of the stars; their motions were watched as well as those of the sun and moon; and though a record of the extent of the astronomical knowledge of the Incas has not been preserved, it is certain that they watched the time of the solstices and equinoxes with great care, and that they distinguished between the lunar and solar years. Pillars were erected to determine the time of the solstices, eight on the east and eight on the west side of Cuzco, in double rows, four and four, two low between two higher ones, twenty feet apart. They were called Sucanca, from suca, a ridge or furrow, the alternate light and shade between the pillars appearing like furrows. A stone column in the centre of a level platform, called Inti-huatana, was used to ascertain the time of the equinoxes. A line was drawn across the platform from east to west, and watch was kept to observe when the shadow of the pillar was on this line from sunrise to sunset, and there was no shadow at noon. The principal Inti-huatana was in the square before the great temple at Cuzco; but there are several others in different parts of Peru. The most perfect of these observatories is at Pissac, in the valley of Vilcamayu.[1185] There is another at Ollantay-tampu, a fourth near Abancay, and a fifth at Sillustani in the Collao.
There is reason to believe that the Incas used a zodiac with twelve signs, corresponding with the months of their solar year. The gold plates which they wore on their breasts were stamped with features representing the sun, surrounded by a border of what are probably either zodiacal signs or signs for the months. Whether the ecliptic, or huatana, was thus divided or not, it is certain that the sun’s motion was observed with great care, and that the calendar was thus fixed with some approach to accuracy.[1186] The year, or Huata, was divided into twelve Quilla, or moon revolutions, and these were made to correspond with the solar year by adding five days, which were divided among the twelve months. A further correction was made every fourth year. Solar observations were taken and recorded every month.
The year commenced on the 22d of June, with the winter solstice, and there were four great festivals at the occurrence of the solstices and equinoxes.[1187]
The celebrations of the solar year and of the seasons, in their bearings on agriculture, were identical with the chief religious observances. The Raymi, or festival of the winter solstice, in the first month, when the granaries were filled after harvest, was established in special honor of the Sun. Sacrifices of llamas and lambs, and of the first-fruits of the earth, were offered up to the images of the Supreme Being, of the Sun, and of Thunder, which were placed in the open space in front of the great temple; as well as to the huaca, or stone representing the brother of Manco Ccapac, on the hill of Huanacauri. There was also a procession of the priests and people as far as the pass of Vilcañota, leading into the basin of Lake Titicaca, sacrifices being offered up at various spots on the road. The sacrifices were accompanied by prayers, and concluded with songs, called huayllina, and dancing. Then followed the ploughing month, when it is said that the Inca himself opened the season by ploughing a furrow with a golden plough in the field behind the Colcampata palace, on the height above Cuzco.
The question here arises whether human sacrifices were offered up, in the Inca ritual. This has been stated by Molina, Cieza de Leon, Montesinos, Balboa, Ondegardo, and Acosta, and indignantly denied by Garcilasso de la Vega. Cieza de Leon admits that there were occasional human sacrifices, but adds that their numbers and the frequency of such offerings have been grossly exaggerated by the Spaniards. If the sacrifices had been offered under the idea of atonement or expiation, it might well be expected that human sacrifices would be included. Under such ideas, men offered up what they valued most, just as Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son, as Jephthah dedicated his daughter as a burnt-offering to Jehovah, and as the king of Moab sacrificed his eldest son to Chemosh.[1188] But, except in the Situa, when the idea was to efface sins by washing, the sacrifices of the Incas were offerings of thanksgiving, not of expiation or atonement. The mistake of the five writers who supposed that the Incas offered human sacrifices was due to their ignorance of the language.[1189] The perpetration of human sacrifice was opposed to the religious ideas of the ancient Peruvians, and formed no part of their ceremonial worship. Their ritual was almost exclusively devoted to thanksgiving and rejoicings over the beneficence of their Deity. The notion of expiation formed no part of their creed, while the destruction involved in such a system was opposed to their economic and carefully regulated civil polity.[1190]
The second great festival, called Situa, was celebrated at the vernal equinox. This was the commencement of the rainy season, when sickness prevailed, and the object of the ceremony was to pray to the Creator to drive diseases and evils from the land. In the centre of the great square of Cuzco a body of four hundred warriors was assembled, fully armed for war. One hundred faced towards the Chincha-suyu road, one hundred faced towards Anti-suyu, one hundred towards Colla-suyu, and one hundred towards Cunti-suyu,—the four great divisions of the empire. The Inca and the high-priest, with their attendants, then came from the temple, and shouted, “Go forth all evils!” On the instant the warriors ran at great speed towards the four quarters, shouting the same sentence as they went, until they each came to another party, which took up the cry, and the last parties reached the banks of great rivers, the Apurimac or Vilcamayu, where they bathed and washed their arms. The rivers were supposed to carry the evils away to the ocean. As the warriors ran through the streets of Cuzco, all the people came to their doors, shaking their clothes, and shouting, “Let the evils be gone!” In the evening they all bathed; then they lighted great torches of straw, called pancurcu, and, marching in procession out of the city, they threw them into the rivers, believing that thus nocturnal evils were banished. At night, each family partook of a supper consisting of pudding made of coarsely ground maize, called sancu, which was also smeared over their faces and the lintels of their doorways, then washed off and thrown into the rivers with the cry, “May we be free from sickness, and may no maladies enter our houses!” The huacas and malquis were also bathed at the feast of Situa. In the following days all the malquis were paraded, and there were sacrifices, with feasting and dancing. A stone fountain, plated with gold, stood in the great square of Cuzco, and the Inca, on this and other solemn festivals, poured chicha into it from a golden vase, which was conducted by subterranean pipes to the temple.
The third great festival at the summer solstice, called Huaracu, was the occasion on which the youths of the empire were admitted to a rank equivalent to knighthood, after passing through a severe ordeal. The Inca and his court were assembled in front of the temple. Thither the youths were conducted by their relations, with heads closely shorn, and attired in shirts of fine yellow wool edged with black, and white mantles fastened round their necks by woollen cords with red tassels. They made their reverences to the Inca, offered up prayers, and each presented a llama for sacrifice.[1191] Proceeding thence to the hill of Huanacauri, where the venerated huaca to Ayar Uchu was erected, they there received huaras, or breeches made of aloe fibres, from the priest. This completed their manly attire, and they returned home to prepare for the ordeal. A few days afterwards they were assembled in the great square, received a spear, called yauri, and usutas or sandals, and were severely whipped to prove their endurance. The young candidates were then sent forth to pass the night in a desert about a league from Cuzco. Next day they had to run a race. At the farther end of the course young girls were stationed, called ñusta-calli-sapa,[1192] with jars of chicha, who cried, “Come quickly, youths, for we are waiting!” but the course was a long one, and many fell before they reached the goal. They also had to rival each other in assaults and feats of arms. Finally their ears were bored, and they received ear-pieces of gold and other marks of distinction from the Inca. The last ceremony was that of bathing in the fountain called Calli-puquio. About eight hundred youths annually passed through this ordeal, and became adult warriors, at Cuzco, and similar ceremonies were performed in all the provinces of the empire.
In the month following on the summer solstice, there was a curious religious ceremony known as the water sacrifice. The cinders and ashes of all the numerous sacrifices throughout the year were preserved. Dams were constructed across the rivers which flow through Cuzco, in order that the water might rush down with great force when they were taken away. Prayers and sacrifices were offered up, and then a little after sunset all the ashes were thrown into the rivers and the dams were removed. Then the burnt-sacrifices were hurried down with the stream, closely followed by crowds of people on either bank, with blazing torches, as far as the bridge at Ollantay-tampu. There two bags of coca were offered up by being hurled into the river, and thence the sacrifices were allowed to flow onwards to the sea. This curious ceremony seems to have been intended not only as a thank-offering to the Deity, but as an acknowledgment of his omnipresence. As the offerings flowed with the stream, they knew not whither, yet went to Him, so his pervading spirit was everywhere, alike in parts unknown as in the visible world of the Incas.
A sacred fire was kept alive throughout the year by the virgins of the sun, and the ceremony of its annual renewal at the autumnal equinox was the fourth great festival, called Mosoc-nina, or the “new fire.” Fire was produced by collecting the sun’s rays on a burnished metal mirror, and the ceremony was the occasion of prayers and sacrifices. The year ended with the rejoicing of the harvest months, accompanied by songs, dances, and other festivities.
Besides the periodical festivals, there were also religious observances which entered into the life of each family. Every household had one or more lares, called Conopa, representing maize, fruit, a llama, or other object on which its welfare depended. The belief in divination and soothsaying, the practice of fasting followed by confession, and worship of the family malqui, all gave employment to the priesthood.
The complicated religious ceremonies connected with the periodical festivals, the daily worship, and the requirements of private families gave rise to the growth of a very numerous caste of priests and diviners. The pope of this hierarchy, the chief pontiff, was called Uillac Umu, words meaning “The head which gives counsel,” he who repeats to the people the utterances of the Deity. He was the most learned and virtuous of the priestly caste, always a member of the reigning family, and next in rank to the Inca. The Villcas, equivalent to the bishops of a Christian hierarchy, were the chief priests in the provinces, and during the greatest extension of the empire they numbered ten. The ordinary ministers of religion were divided into sacrificers, worshippers and confessors, diviners, and recluses.[1193] It was indeed inevitable that, with a complicated ritual and a gorgeous ceremonial worship, a populous class of priests and their assistants, of numerous grades and callings, should come into existence.[1194]
But the intellectual movement and vigor of the Incas were not confined to the priesthood. The Amautas or learned men, the poets and reciters of history, the musical and dramatic composers, the Quipu-camayoc, or recorders and accountants, were not necessarily, nor indeed generally, of the priestly caste. It is probable that the Amautas, or men of learning, formed a separate caste devoted to the cultivation of literature and the extension of the language. Our knowledge of their progress and of the character of their traditions and poetic culture is very limited, owing to the destruction of records and the loss of oral testimony. The language has been preserved, and that will tell us much; but only a few literary compositions have been saved from the wreck of the Inca empire. Quichua was the name given to the general language of the Incas by Friar Domingo de San Tomas, the first Spaniard who studied it grammatically, possibly owing to his having acquired it from people belonging to the Quichua tribe. The name continued to be used, and has been generally adopted.[1195] Garcilasso de la Vega speaks of a separate court language of the Incas, but the eleven words he gives as belonging to it are ordinary Quichua words, and I concur with Hervas and William von Humboldt in the conclusion that this court language of Garcilasso had no real existence.[1196] It is not mentioned by any other authority.
THE QUIPUS.
[Following a sketch in Rivero and Tschudi, as reproduced by Helps. It shows a quipu found in an ancient cemetery near Pachacamac. There are other cuts in Wiener’s Pérou et Bolivie, p. 777; Tylor’s Early Hist. Mankind, 156; Kingsborough’s Mexico, vol. iv.; Silvestre’s Universal Palæography; and Léon de Rosny’s Écritures figuratives, Paris, 180. Cf. Acosta, vi. cap. 8, and other early authorities mentioned in Prescott (Kirk’s ed. i. 125); Markham’s Cieza, 291; D. Wilson’s Prehistoric Man, ii. ch. 18; Fourth Rept. Bureau of Ethnology (Washington), p. 79; Bollaert’s description in Memoirs read before the Anthropological Society of London, i. 188, and iii. 351; A. Bastian’s Culturländer des alten America, iii. 73; Brasseur de Bourbourg’s MS. Troano, i. 18; Stevens’s Flint Chips, 465; T. P. Thompson’s “Knot Records of Peru” in Westminster Review, xi. 228; but in the separate print called History of the Quipos, or Peruvian Knot-records, as given by the early Spanish Historians, with a Description of a supposed Specimen, assigned to Al. Strong by Leclerc, No. 2413. The description in Frezier’s Voyage to the South Sea (1717) is one of the earliest among Europeans. Leclerc, No. 2412, mentions a Letter a apologetica (Napoli, 1750), pertaining to the quipus, but seems uncertain as to its value.—Ed.]
It was the custom for the Yaravecs or Bards to recite the deeds of former Incas on public occasions, and these rhythmical narratives were orally preserved and handed down by the learned men. Cieza de Leon tells us that “by this plan, from the mouths of one generation the succeeding one was taught, and they could relate what took place five hundred years ago as if only ten years had passed. This was the order that was taken to prevent the great events of the empire from falling into oblivion.” These historical recitations and songs must have formed the most important part of Inca literature. One specimen of imaginative poetry has been preserved by Blas Valero, in which the thunder, followed by rain, is likened to a brother breaking his sister’s pitcher; just as in the Scandinavian mythology the legend which is the original source of our nursery rhyme of Jack and Jill employs the same imagery. Pastoral duties are embodied in some of the later Quichuan dramatic literature, and numerous love songs and yaravies, or elegies, have been handed down orally, or preserved in old manuscripts. The dances were numerous and complicated, and the Incas had many musical instruments.[1197] Dramatic representations, both of a tragic and comic character, were performed before the Inca court. The statement of Garcilasso de la Vega to this effect is supported by the independent evidence of Cieza de Leon and of Salcamayhua, and is placed beyond a doubt by the sentence of the judge, Areche, in 1781, who prohibited the celebration of these dramas by the Indians. Father Iteri also speaks of the “Quichua dramas transmitted to this day (1790) by an unbroken tradition.” But only one such drama has been handed down to our own time. It is entitled Ollantay, and records an historical event of the time of Yupanqui Pachacutec. In its present form, as regards division into scenes and stage directions, it shows later Spanish manipulation. The question of its antiquity has been much discussed; but the final result is that Quichua scholars believe most of its dialogues and speeches and all the songs to be remnants of the Inca period.
INCA SKULL.
[After the plate in the Contrib. to N. Am. Ethnology, vol. v. (Powell’s survey, 1882), showing the trephined skull brought from Peru by Squier, in the Army Med. Museum, Washington. Squier in his Peru, p. 457, gives another cut, with comments of Broca and others in the appendix. Cf. in the same volume a paper on “Prehistoric Trephining and Cranial Amulets,” by R. Fletcher, and a paper on “Trephining in the Neolithic Period,” in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Nov., 1887. Cf. on Peruvian skulls Rudolf Virchow, in the third volume of the Necropolis of Ancon; T. J. Hutchinson in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, iii. 311; iv. 2; Busk and Davis in Ibid. iii. 86, 94; Wilson’s Prehistoric Man, ii. ch. 20; C. C. Blake, in Transactions Ethnolog. Soc., n. s., ii. There are two collections of Peruvian skulls in the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, Mass.,—one presented by Squier, the other secured by the Haasler Expedition. (Cf. Reports VII. and IX. of the museum.) Wiener (L’Empire des Incas, p. 81) cites a long list of writers on the artificial deforming of the skull.—Ed.]
The system of record by the use of quipus, or knots, was primarily a method of numeration and of keeping accounts. To cords of various colors smaller lines were attached in the form of fringe, on which there were knots in an almost infinite variety of combination. The Quipu-camayoc, or accountant, could by this means keep records under numerous heads, and preserve the accounts of the empire. The quipus represented a far better system of keeping accounts than the exchequer tallies which were used in England for the same purpose as late as the early part of the present century. But the question of the extent to which historical events could be recorded by this system of knots is a difficult one. We have the direct assertions of Montesinos, Salcamayhua, the anonymous Jesuit, Blas Valera, and others, that not only narratives, but songs, were preserved by means of the quipus. Von Tschudi believed that by dint of the uninterrupted studies of experts during several generations, the power of expression became developed more and more, and that eventually the art of the Quipu-camayoc reached a high state of perfection. It may reasonably be assumed that with some help from oral commentary, codes of laws, historical events, and even poems were preserved in the quipus. It was through this substitute for writing that Montesinos and the anonymous Jesuit received their lists of ancient dynasties, and Blas Valera distinctly says that the poem he has preserved was taken from quipus. Still it must have been rather a system of mnemonics than of complete record. Molina tells us that the events in the reigns of all the Incas, as well as early traditions, were represented by paintings on boards, in a temple near Cuzco, called Poquen cancha.
The diviners used certain incantations to cure the sick, but the healing art among the Incas was really in the hands of learned men. Those Amautas who devoted themselves to the study of medicine had, as Acosta bears testimony, a knowledge of the properties of many plants. The febrifuge virtues of the precious quinquina were, it is true, unknown, or only locally known. But the Amautas used plants with tonic properties for curing fevers; and they were provided with these and other drugs by an itinerant caste, called Calahuayas or Charisanis, who went into the forests to procure them. The descendants of these itinerant doctors still wander over South America, selling drugs.[1198] The discovery of a skull in a cemetery at Yucay, which exhibits clear evidence of a case of trepanning before death, proves the marvellous advances made by the Incas in surgical science.
RUINS AT CHUCUITO.
[After a drawing in Squier’s Primeval Monuments of Peru, p. 17, showing a wall of hewn stones, with an entrance. The enclosed rectangle is 65 feet on each side,—“a type of an advanced class of megalithic monuments by no means uncommon in the highlands of Peru.” Cf. Squier’s Peru, p. 354.—Ed.]
The sovereign was the centre of all civilization and all knowledge. All literary culture, all the religious ceremonial which had grown up with the extension of the empire, had the Inca for their centre, as well as all the military operations and all laws connected with civil administration. Originally but the Sinchi, or chief of a small ayllu, the greatness of successive Incas grew with the extension of their power, until at last they were looked upon almost as deities by their subjects. The greatest lords entered their presence in a stooping position and with a small burden on their backs. The imperial family rapidly increased. Each Inca left behind him numerous younger sons, whose descendants formed an ayllu, so that the later sovereigns were surrounded by a numerous following of their own kindred, from among whom able public servants were selected. The sovereign was the “Sapallan Inca,” the sole and sovereign lord, and with good reason he was called Huaccha-cuyac, or friend of the poor.
Enormous wealth was sent to Cuzco as tribute from all parts of the empire, for the service of the court and of the temples. The special insignia of the sovereign were the llautu, or crimson fringe round the forehead, the wing feathers (black and white) of the alcamari, an Andean vulture, on the head, forming together the suntu paucar or sacred head-dress; the huaman champi, or mace, and the ccapac-yauri, or sceptre. His dress consisted of shirts of cotton, tunics of dyed cotton in patterns, with borders of small gold and silver plates or feathers, and mantles of fine vicuña wool woven and dyed. The Incas, as represented in the pictures at Cuzco,[1199] painted soon after the conquest, wore golden breastplates suspended round their necks, with the image of the sun stamped upon them;[1200] and the Ccoya, or queen, wore a large golden topu, or pin, with figures engraved on the head, which secured her lliclla, or mantle. All the utensils of the palace were of gold; and so exclusively was that precious metal used in the service of the court and the temple that a garden outside the Ccuri-cancha was planted with models of leaves, fruit, and stalks made of pure gold.[1201]
TITICACA.
[After a cut in Ruge’s Gesch. des Zeital. der Entdeckungen. Squier explored the lake with Raimond in 1864-65, and bears testimony to the general accuracy of the survey by J. B. Pentland, British consul in Bolivia (1827-28 and 1837), published by the British admiralty; but Squier points out some defects of his survey in his Remarques sur la Géog. du Pérou, p. 14, and in Journal Amer. Geog. Soc., iii. There is another view in Wiener’s Pérou et Bolivie, p. 441. Cf. Markham’s Cieza de Leon, 370; Marcoy’s Voyage; Baldwin’s Ancient America, 228; and Philippson’s Gesch. des neu. Zeit., i. 240. Squier in his Peru (pp. 308-370) gives various views, plans of the ruins, and a map of the lake.—Ed.]
Two styles are discernible in Inca architecture. The earliest is an imitation of the cyclopean works of their ancestors on a smaller scale. The walls were built with polygonal-shaped stones with rough surfaces, but the stones were much reduced in size. Rows of doorways with slanting sides and monolithic lintels adorn the façades; while recesses for huacas, shaped like the doorways, occur in the interior walls. Part of the palace called the Collcampata, at the foot of the Cuzco fortress, the buildings which were added to the cyclopean work at Ollantay tampu, the older portion of the Ccuri-cancha temple at Cuzco, the palaces at Chinchero and Rimac-tampu, are in this earlier style. The later style is seen mainly at Cuzco, where the stones are laid in regular courses. No one has described this superb masonry better than Squier.[1202] No cement or mortar of any kind was used, the edifices depending entirely on the accuracy of their stone-fitting for their stability. The palaces and temples were built round a court-yard, and a hall of vast dimensions, large enough for ceremonies on an extensive scale, was included in the plan of most of the edifices. These halls were 200 paces long by 50 to 60 broad. The dimensions of the Ccuri-cancha temple were 296 feet by 52, and the southwest end was apsidal. Serpents are carved in relief on some of the stones and lintels of the Cuzco palaces. Hence the palace of Huayna Ccapac is called Amaru-cancha.[1203] At Hatun-colla, near Lake Titicaca, there are two sandstone pillars, probably of Inca origin, which are very richly carved. They are covered with figures of serpents, lizards, and frogs, and with elaborate geometrical patterns. The height of the walls of the Cuzco edifices was from 35 to 40 feet, and the roofs were thatched. One specimen of the admirable thatching of the Incas is still preserved at Azangaro.
LAKE TITICACA.
[One of the cuts which did service in the Antwerp editions of Cieza de Leon.—Ed.]
There are many ruins throughout Peru both in the earlier and later styles; some of them, such as those at Vilcashuaman and Huanuco el viejo, being of great interest. The Inca palace on the island in Lake Titicaca is a rectangular two-storied edifice, with numerous rooms having ceilings formed of flat overlapping stones, laid with great regularity. With its esplanade, beautiful terraced gardens, baths, and fountains, this Titicaca palace must have been intended for the enjoyment of beautiful scenery in comparative seclusion, like the now destroyed palace at Yucay, in the valley of the Vilcamayu.
An example of the improvement of architecture after Inca subjugation is shown in the curious burial-places, or chulpas, of the Collao, in the basin of Lake Titicaca. The earliest, as seen at Acora near the lake, closely resemble the rude cromlechs of Brittany. Next, roughly built square towers are met with, with vaults inside. Lastly, the chulpas at Sillustani are well-built circular towers, about 40 feet high and 16 feet in diameter at the base, widening as they rise. A cornice runs round each tower, about three fourths of the distance from the base to the summit. The stones are admirably cut and fitted in nearly even courses, like the walls at Cuzco. The interior circular vaults, which contained the bodies, were arched with overlapping stones, and a similar dome formed the roof of the towers.
MAP OF TITICACA, WITH WIENER’S ROUTE.
The architectural excellence reached by the Incas, their advances in the other arts and in literature, and the imperial magnificence of their court and religious worship, imply the existence of an orderly and well-regulated administrative system. An examination of their social polity will not disappoint even high expectations. The Inca, though despotic in theory, was bound by the complicated code of rules and customs which had gradually developed itself during the reigns of his ancestors. In his own extensive family, composed of Auqui[1204] and Atauchi,[1205] Palla[1206] and Ñusta,[1207] to the number of many hundreds,[1208] and in the Curacas[1209] and Apu-curacas[1210] of the conquered tribes, he had a host of able public servants to govern provinces, enter the priesthood, or command armies.
PRIMEVAL TOMB, ACORA.
[After a sketch in Squier’s Primeval Monuments of Peru, Salem, 1870. He considers it an example of some of the oldest of human monuments, and is inclined to believe these chulpas, or burial monuments, to have been built by the ancestors of the Peruvians of the conquest in their earliest development.—Ed.]
RUINS AT QUELLENATA.
[Reduced from a sketch in Squier’s Primeval Monuments of Peru, p. 7. They are situated in Bolivia, northeast of Lake Titicaca, and the cut shows a hill-fortress (pucura) and the round, flaring-top burial towers (chulpas). Cf. cut in Wiener’s Pérou et Bolivie, p. 538.—Ed.]
The empire was marked out into four great divisions, corresponding with the four cardinal points of a compass placed at Cuzco. To the north was Chinchaysuyu, to the east Anti-suyu, to the west Cunti-suyu, and to the south Colla-suyu.
RUINS AT ESCOMA, BOLIVIA.
[After a cut in Squier’s Primeval Monuments of Peru, p. 9,—a square two-storied burial tower (chulpa) with hill-fortress (pucura) in the distance, situated east of Lake Titicaca. Cf. Squier’s Peru, p. 373.—Ed.]
SILLUSTANI, PERU.
[Sun-circles (Inti-huatana, where the sun is tied up), after a cut in Squier’s Primeval Monuments of Peru, p. 15. The nearer circle is 90 feet; the farther, which has a grooved outlying platform, is 150 feet in diameter. Cf. plan and views in Squier’s Peru, ch. 20.—Ed.]
The whole empire was called Ttahuantin-suyu, or the four united provinces. Each great province was governed by an Inca viceroy, whose title was Ccapac, or Tucuyricoc.[1211] The latter word means “He who sees all.” Garcilasso describes the office as merely that of an inspector, whose duty it was to visit the province and report. Under the viceroy were the native Curacas, who governed the ayllus, or lineages. Each ayllu was divided into sections of ten families, under an officer called Chunca (10) camayu. Ten of these came under a Pachaca (100) camayu. Ten Pachacas formed a Huaranca (1,000) camayu, and the Hunu (10,000) camayu ruled over ten Huarancas. The Chunca of ten families was the unit of government, and each Chunca formed a complete community.[1212]
RUINS OF AN INCARIAL VILLAGE.
[Situated on the road from Milo to Huancayo. Reduced from an ink drawing given by Wiener in his L’Empire des Incas, pl. v.—Ed.]
The cultivable land belonged to the people in their ayllus, each Chunca being allotted a sufficient area to support its ten Purics and their dependants.[1213] The produce was divided between the government (Inca), the priesthood (Huaca), and the cultivators or poor (Huaccha), but not in equal shares.[1214] In some parts the three shares were kept apart in cultivation, but as a rule the produce was divided at harvest time. The flocks of llamas were divided into Ccapac-llama, belonging to the state, and Huaccha-llama, owned by the people. Thus the land belonged to the ayllu, or tribe, and each puric, or able-bodied man, had a right to his share of the crop, provided that he had been present at the sowing. All those who were absent must have been employed in the service of the Inca or Huaca, and subsisted on the government or priestly share. Shepherds and mechanics were also dependent on those shares. Officers called Runay-pachaca annually revised the allotments, made the census, prepared statistics for the Quipu-camayoc, and sent reports to the Tucuyricoc. The Llacta-camayoc, or village overseer, announced the turns for irrigation and the fields to be cultivated when the shares were grown apart. These daily notices were usually given from a tower or terrace. There were also judges or examiners, called Taripasac,[1215] who investigated serious offences and settled disputes. Punishments for crimes were severe, and inexorably inflicted. It was also the duty of these officers, when a particular ayllu suffered any calamity through wars or natural causes, to allot contingents from surrounding ayllus to assist the neighbor in distress. There were similar arrangements when the completion or repair of any public work was urgent. The most cruel tax on the people consisted in the selection of the Aclla-cuna, or chosen maidens for the service of the Inca, and the church, or Huaca. This was done once a year by an ecclesiastical dignitary called the Apu-Panaca,[1216] or, according to one authority, the Hatun-uilca,[1217] who was deputy of the high-priest. Service under the Inca in all other capacities was eagerly sought for.
The industry and skill of the Peruvian husbandmen can scarcely alone account for the perfection to which they brought the science of agriculture. The administrative system of the Incas must share the credit. Not a spot of cultivable land was neglected. Towns and villages were built on rocky ground. Even their dead were buried in waste places. Dry wastes were irrigated, and terraces were constructed, sometimes a hundred deep, up the sides of the mountains. The most beautiful example of this terrace cultivation may still be seen in the “Andeneria,” or hanging gardens of the valley of Vilcamayu, near Cuzco. There the terraces, commencing with broad fields at the edge of the level ground, rise to a height of 1,500 feet, narrowing as they rise, until the loftiest terraces against the perpendicular mountain side are not more than two feet wide, just room for three or four rows of maize. An irrigation canal, starting high up some narrow ravine at the snow level, is carried along the mountain side and through the terraces, flowing down from one to another.
Irrigation on a larger scale was employed not only on the desert coast, but to water the pastures and arable lands in the mountains, where there is rain for several months in the year. The channels were often of considerable size and great length. Mr. Squier says that he has followed them for days together, winding amidst the projections of hills, here sustained by high masonry walls, there cut into the living rock, and in some places conducted in tunnels through sharp spurs of an obstructing mountain. An officer knew the space of time necessary for irrigating each tupu, and each cultivator received a flow of water in accordance with the requirements of his land. The manuring of crops was also carefully attended to.[1218]
The result of all this intelligent labor was fully commensurate with the thought and skill expended. The Incas produced the finest potato crops the world has ever seen. The white maize of Cuzco has never been approached in size or in yield. Coca, now so highly prized, is a product peculiar to Inca agriculture, and its cultivation required extreme care, especially in the picking and drying processes. Ajï, or Chile pepper, furnished a new condiment to the Old World. Peruvian cotton is excelled only by Sea Island and Egyptian in length of fibre, and for strength and length of fibre combined is without an equal. Quinua, oca, aracacha, and several fruits are also peculiar to Peruvian agriculture.[1219]
The vast flocks of llamas[1220] and alpacas supplied meat for the people, dried charqui for soldiers and travellers, and wool for weaving cloth of every degree of fineness. The alpacas, whose unrivalled wool is now in such large demand, may almost be said to have been the creation of the Inca shepherds. They can only be reared by the bestowal on them of the most constant and devoted care. The wild huanacus and vicuñas were also sources of food and wool supply. No man was allowed to kill any wild animal in Peru, but there were periodical hunts, called chacu, in the different provinces, which were ordered by the Inca. On these occasions a wide area was surrounded by thousands of people, who gradually closed in towards the centre. They advanced, shouting and starting the game before them, and closed in, forming in several ranks until a great bag was secured. The females were released, with a few of the best and finest males. The rest were then shorn and also released, a certain proportion being killed for the sake of their flesh. The huanacu wool was divided among the people of the district, while the silky fleeces of the vicuña were reserved for the Inca. The Quipu-camayoc kept a careful record of the number caught, shorn, and killed.
FROM HELPS.
[Cf. Humboldt’s account in Views of Nature, English transl., 393-95, 407-9, 412. Marcoy says the usual descriptions of the ancient roads are exaggerations (vol. i. 206).—Ed.]
The means of communication in so mountainous a country were an important department in the administration of the Incas. Excellent roads for foot passengers radiated from Cuzco to the remotest portions of the empire. The Inca roads were level and well paved, and continued for hundreds of leagues. Rocks were broken up and levelled when it was necessary, ravines were filled, and excavations were made in mountain sides. Velasco measured the width of the Inca roads, and found them to be from six to seven yards, sufficiently wide when only foot passengers used them. Gomara gives them a breadth of twenty-five feet, and says that they were paved with smooth stones. These measurements were confirmed by Humboldt as regards the roads in the Andes. The road along the coast was forty feet wide, according to Zarate. The Inca himself travelled in a litter, borne by mountaineers from the districts of Soras and Lucanas. Corpa-huasi, or rest-houses, were erected at intervals, and the government messengers, or chasquis, ran with wonderful celerity from one of these stations to another, where he delivered his message, or quipu, to the next runner. Thus news was brought to the central government from all parts of The empire with extraordinary rapidity, and the Inca ate fresh fish at Cuzco which had been caught in the Pacific, three hundred miles away, on the previous day. Store-houses, with arms, clothing, and provisions for the soldiers, were also built at intervals along the roads, so that an army could be concentrated at any point without previous preparation.
Closely connected with the facilities for communication, which were so admirably established by the Incas, was the system of moving colonies from one part of the empire to another. The evils of minute subdivision were thus avoided, political objects were often secured, and the comfort of the people was increased by the exchange of products. The colonists were called mitimaes. For example, the people of the Collao, round Lake Titicaca, lived in a region where corn would not ripen, and if confined to the products of their native land they must have subsisted solely on potatoes, quinua, and llama flesh. But the Incas established colonies from their villages in the coast valleys of Tacna and Moquegua, and in the forests to the eastward. There was constant intercourse, and while the mother country supplied chuñus or preserved potatoes, charqui or dried meat, and wool to the colonists, there came back in return, corn and fruits and cotton cloth from the coast, and the beloved coca from the forests.
Military colonies were also established on the frontiers, and the armies of the Incas, in their marches and extensive travels, promoted the circulation of knowledge, while this service also gave employment to the surplus agricultural population. Soldiers were brought from all parts of the empire, and each tribe or ayllu was distinguished by its arms, but more especially by its head-dress. The Inca wore the crimson llautu, or fringe; the Apu, or general, wore a yellow llautu. One tribe wore a puma’s head; the Cañaris were adorned with the feathers of macaws, the Huacrachucus with the horns of deer, the Pocras and Huamanchucus with a falcon’s wing feathers. The arms of the Incas and Chancas consisted of a copper axe, called champi; a lance pointed with bronze, called chuqui; and a pole with a bronze or stone head in the shape of a six-pointed star, used as a club, called macana. The Collas and Quichuas came with slings and bolas, the Antis with bows and arrows. Defensive armor consisted of a hualcanca or shield, the umachucu or head-dress, and sometimes a breastplate. The perfect order prevailing in civil life was part of the same system which enforced strict discipline in the army; and ultimately the Inca troops were irresistible against any enemy that could bring an opposing force into the field. Only when the Incas fought against each other, as in the last civil war, could the result be long doubtful.
PERUVIAN METAL WORKERS.
[Reproduction of a cut in Benzoni’s Historia del Mondo Nuovo (1565). Cf. D. Wilson’s Prehistoric Man, i. ch. 9, on the Peruvian metal-workers.—Ed.]
PERUVIAN POTTERY.
[The tripod in this group is from Panama, the others are Peruvian. This cut follows an engraving in Wilson’s Prehistoric Man, ii. 41. There are numerous cuts in Wiener, p. 589, etc. Cf. Stevens’s Flint Chips, p. 271.—Ed.]
PERUVIAN DRINKING VESSEL.
[After a cut in Wilson’s Prehistoric Man, ii. 45; showing a cup of the Beckford collection. “There is an individuality in the head, at once suggestive of portraiture.”—Ed.]
The artificers engaged in the numerous arts and on public works subsisted on the government share of the produce. The artists who fashioned the stones of the Sillustani towers or of the Cuzco temple with scientific accuracy before they were fixed in their places, were wholly devoted to their art. Food and clothing had to be provided for them, and for the miners, weavers, and potters. Gold was obtained by the Incas in immense quantities by washing the sands of the rivers which flowed through the forest-covered province of Caravaya. Silver was extracted from the ore by means of blasting-furnaces called huayra; for, although quicksilver was known and used as a coloring material, its properties for refining silver do not appear to have been discovered. Copper was abundant in the Collao and in Charcas, and tin was found in the hills on the east side of Lake Titicaca, which enabled the Peruvians to use bronze very extensively.[1221] Lead was also known to them. Skilful workers in metals fashioned the vases and other utensils for the use of the Inca and of the temples, forged the arms of the soldiers and the implements of husbandry, and stamped or chased the ceremonial breastplates, topus, girdles, and chains. The bronze and copper warlike instruments, which were star-shaped and used as clubs, fixed at the ends of staves, were cast in moulds. One of these club-heads, now in the Cambridge collection, has six rays, broad and flat, and terminating in rounded points. Each ray represents a human head, the face on one surface and the hair and back of the head on the other. This specimen was undoubtedly cast in a mould. “It is,” says Professor Putnam, “a good illustration of the knowledge which the ancient Peruvians had of the methods of working metals and of the difficult art of casting copper.”[1222]
UNFINISHED CLOTH FOUND AT PACHACAMAC.
[After a cut in Wiener, Pérou et Bolivie, p. 65.—Ed.]
Spinning, weaving, and dyeing were arts which were sources of employment to a great number of people, owing to the quantity and variety of the fabrics for which there was a demand. There were rich dresses interwoven with gold or made of gold thread; fine woollen mantles, or tunics, ornamented with borders of small square gold and silver plates; colored cotton cloths worked in complicated patterns; and fabrics of aloe fibre and sheeps’ sinews for breeches. Coarser cloths of llama wool were also made in vast quantities. But the potters art was perhaps the one which exercised the inventive faculties of the Peruvian artist to the greatest extent. The silver and gold utensils, with the exception of a very few cups and vases, have nearly all been melted down. But specimens of pottery, found buried with the dead in great profusion, are abundant. They are to be seen in every museum, and at Berlin and Madrid the collections are very large.[1223] Varied as are the forms to be found in the pottery of the Incas, and elegant as are many of the designs, it must be acknowledged that they are inferior in these respects to the specimens of the plastic art of the Chimu and other people of the Peruvian coast. The Incas, however, displayed a considerable play of fancy in their designs. Many of the vases were moulded into forms to represent animals, fruit, and corn, and were used as conopas, or household gods. Others took the shape of human heads or feet, or were made double or quadruple, with a single neck branching from below. Some were for interment with the malquis, others for household use.[1224] Professor Wilson, who carefully examined several collections of ancient Peruvian pottery, formed a high opinion of their merit. “Some of the specimens,” he wrote, “are purposely grotesque, and by no means devoid of true comic fancy; while, in the greater number, the endless variety of combinations of animate and inanimate forms, ingeniously rendered subservient to the requirements of utility, exhibit fertility of thought in the designer, and a lively perceptive faculty in those for whom he wrought.”[1225]
There is a great deal more to learn respecting this marvellous Inca civilization. Recent publications have, within the last few years, thrown fresh and unexpected light upon it. There may be more information still undiscovered or inedited. As yet we can understand the wonderful story only imperfectly, and see it by doubtful lights. Respecting some questions, even of the first importance, we are still able only to make guesses and weigh probabilities. Yet, though there is much that is uncertain as regards historical and other points, we have before us the clear general outlines of a very extraordinary picture. In no other part of America had civilization attained to such a height among indigenous races. In no other part of the world has the administration of a purely socialistic government been attempted. The Incas not only made the attempt, but succeeded.
[CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.]
THE student of Inca civilization will first seek for information from those Spanish writers who lived during or immediately after the Spanish conquest. They were able to converse with natives who actually flourished before the disruption of the Inca empire, and who saw the working of the Inca system before the destruction and ruin had well commenced. He will next turn to those laborious inquirers and commentators who, although not living so near the time, were able to collect traditions and other information from natives who had carefully preserved all that had been handed down by their fathers.[1226] These two classes include the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The authors who have occupied themselves with the Quichua language and the literature of the Incas have produced works a knowledge of which is essential to an adequate study of the subject.[1227] Lastly, a consideration of the publications of modern travellers and scholars, who throw light on the writings of early chroniclers, or describe the present appearance of ancient remains, will show the existing position of a survey still far from complete, and the interest and charm of which invite further investigation and research.
Foremost in the first class of writers on Peru is Pedro de Cieza de Leon. A general account of his works will be found elsewhere,[1228] and the present notice will therefore be confined to an estimate of the labors of this author, so far as they relate to Inca history and civilization. Cieza de Leon conceived the desire to write an account of the strange things that were to be seen in the New World, at an early period of his service as a soldier. “Neither fatigue,” he tells us, “nor the ruggedness of the country, nor the mountains and rivers, nor intolerable hunger and suffering, have ever been sufficient to obstruct my two duties, namely, writing and following my flag and my captain without fault.” He finished the First Part of his chronicle in September, 1550, when he was thirty-two years of age. It is mainly a geographical description of the country, containing many pieces of information, such as the account of the Inca roads and bridges, which are of great value. But it is to the Second Part that we owe much of our knowledge of Inca civilization. From incidental notices we learn how diligently young Cieza de Leon studied the history and government of the Incas, after he had written his picturesque description of the country in his First Part. He often asked the Indians what they knew of their condition before the Incas became their lords. He inquired into the traditions of the people from the chiefs of the villages. In 1550 he went to Cuzco with the express purpose of collecting information, and conferred diligently with one of the surviving descendants of the Inca Huayna Ccapac. Cieza de Leon’s plan, for the second part of his work, was first to review the system of government of the Incas, and then to narrate the events of the reign of each sovereign. He spared no pains to obtain the best and most authentic information, and his sympathy with the conquered people, and generous appreciation of their many good and noble qualities, give a special charm to his narrative. He bears striking evidence to the historical faculty possessed by the learned men at the court of the Incas. After saying that on the death of a sovereign the chroniclers related the events of his reign to his successor, he adds: “They could well do this, for there were among them some men with good memories, sound judgments, and subtle genius, and full of reasoning power, as we can bear witness who have heard them even in these our days.” Cieza de Leon is certainly one of the most important authorities on Inca history and civilization, whether we consider his peculiar advantages, his diligence and ability, or his character as a conscientious historian.
Juan José de Betanzos, like Cieza de Leon, was one of the soldiers of the conquest. He married a daughter of Atahualpa, and became a citizen at Cuzco, where he devoted his time to the study of Quichua. He was appointed official interpreter to the Audience and to successive viceroys, and he wrote a Doctrina and two vocabularies which are now lost. In 1558 he was appointed by the viceroy Marquis of Cañete, to treat with the Inca Sayri Tupac,[1229] who had taken refuge in the fastness of Vilcabamba; and by the Governor Lope Garcia de Castro, to conduct a similar negotiation with Titu Cusi Yupanqui, the brother of Sayri Tupac. He was successful in both missions. He wrote his most valuable work, the Suma y Narracion de los Incas, which was finished in the year 1551, by order of the Viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza, but its publication was prevented by the death of the viceroy. It remained in manuscript, and its existence was first made known by the Dominican monk Gregorio Garcia in 1607, whose own work will be referred to presently. Garcia said that the history of Betanzos relating to the origin, descent, succession, and wars of the Incas was in his possession, and had been of great use to him. Leon Pinelo and Antonio also gave brief notices of the manuscript, but it is only twice cited by Prescott. The great historian probably obtained a copy of a manuscript in the Escurial, through Obadiah Rich. This manuscript is bound up with the second part of Cieza de Leon. It is not, however, the whole work which Garcia appears to have possessed, but only the first eighteen chapters, and the last incomplete. Such as it is, it was edited and printed for the Biblioteca Hispano-Ultramarina, by Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada, in 1880.[1230]
The work of Betanzos differs from that of Cieza de Leon, because while the latter displays a diligence and discretion in collecting information which give it great weight as an authority, the former is imbued with the very spirit of the natives. The narrative of the preparation of young Yupanqui for the death-struggle with the Chancas is life-like in its picturesque vigor. Betanzos has portrayed native feeling and character as no other Spaniard has, or probably could have done. Married to an Inca princess, and intimately conversant with the language, this most scholarly of the conquerors is only second to Cieza de Leon as an authority. The date of his death is unknown.
Betanzos and Cieza de Leon, with Pedro Pizarro, are the writers among the conquerors whose works have been preserved. But these three martial scholars by no means stand alone among their comrades as authors. Several other companions of Pizarro wrote narratives, which unfortunately have been lost.[1231] It is indeed surprising that the desire to record some account of the native civilization they had discovered should have been so prevalent among the conquerors. The fact scarcely justifies the term “rude soldiery,” which is so often applied to the discoverers of Peru.
The works of the soldier conquerors are certainly not less valuable than those of the lawyers and priests who followed on their heels. Yet these latter treat the subject from somewhat different points of view, and thus furnish supplemental information. The works of four lawyers of the era of the conquest have been preserved, and those of another are lost. Of these, the writings of the Licentiate Polo de Ondegardo are undoubtedly the most important. This learned jurist accompanied the president, La Gasca, in his campaign against Gonzalo Pizarro, having arrived in Peru a few years previously, and he subsequently occupied the post of corregidor at Cuzco. Serving under the Viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo, he was constantly consulted by that acute but narrow-minded statesman. His duties thus led Polo de Ondegardo to make diligent researches into the laws and administration of the Incas, with a view to the adoption of all that was applicable to the new régime. But his knowledge of the language was limited, and it is necessary to receive many of his statements with caution. His two Relaciones, the first dedicated to the Viceroy Marques de Cañete (1561), and the second finished in 1570,[1232] are in the form of answers to questions on financial revenue and other administrative points. They include information respecting the social customs, religious rites, and laws of the Incas. These Relaciones are still in manuscript. Another report by Polo de Ondegardo exists in the National Library at Madrid,[1233] and has been translated into English for the Hakluyt Society.[1234] In this treatise the learned corregidor describes the principles on which the Inca conquests were made, the division and tenures of land, the system of tribute, the regulations for preserving game and for forest conservancy, and the administrative details. Here and there he points out a way in which the legislation of the Incas might be imitated and utilized by their conquerors.[1235]
Agustin de Zarate, though a lawyer by profession, had been employed for some years in the financial department of the Spanish government before he went out to Peru with the Viceroy Blasco Nuñez to examine into the accounts of the colony. On his return to Spain he was entrusted with a similar mission in Flanders. His Provincìa del Peru was first published at Antwerp in 1555.[1236] Unacquainted with the native languages, and ignorant of the true significance of much that he was told, Zarate was yet a shrewd observer, and his evidence is valuable as regards what came under his own immediate observation. He gives one of the best descriptions of the Inca roads.
The Relacion of Fernando de Santillan is a work which may be classed with the reports of Polo de Ondegardo, and its author had equal advantages in collecting information. Going out to Peru as one of the judges of the Audiencia in 1550,[1237] Santillan was for a short time at the head of the government, after the death of the Viceroy Mendoza, and he took the field to suppress the rebellion of Giron. He afterwards served in Chile and at Quito, where he was commissioned to establish the court of justice. Returning to Spain, he took orders, and was appointed Bishop of the La Plata, but died at Lima, on his way to his distant see, in 1576. The Relacion of Santillan remained in manuscript, in the library of the Escurial, until it was edited by Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada in 1879. This report appears to have been prepared in obedience to a decree desiring the judges of Lima to examine aged and learned Indians regarding the administrative system of the Incas. The report of Santillan is mainly devoted to a discussion of the laws and customs relating to the collection of tribute. He bears testimony to the excellence of the Inca government, and to the wretched condition to which the country had since been reduced by Spanish misrule.
The work of the Licentiate Juan de Matienzo, a contemporary of Ondegardo, entitled Gobierno de el Peru, is still in manuscript. Like Santillan and Ondegardo, Matienzo discusses the ancient institutions with a view to the organization of the best possible system under Spanish rule.[1238]
Melchor Bravo de Saravia, another judge of the Royal Audience at Lima, and a contemporary of Santillan, is said to have written a work on the antiquities of Peru; but it is either lost or has not yet been placed within reach of the student. It is referred to by Velasco. Cieza de Leon mentions, at the end of his Second Part, that his own work had been perused by the learned judges Hernando de Santillan and Bravo de Saravia.
While the lawyers turned their attention chiefly to the civil administration of the conquered people, the priests naturally studied the religious beliefs and languages of the various tribes, and collected their historical traditions. The best and most accomplished of these sacerdotal authors appears to have been Blas Valera, judging from the fragments of his writings which have escaped destruction. He was a native of Peru, born at Chachapoyas in 1551, where his father, Luis Valera,[1239] one of the early conquerors, had settled. Young Blas was received into the Company of Jesus at Lima when only seventeen years of age, and, as he was of Inca race on the mother’s side, he soon became useful at the College in Cuzco from his proficiency in the native languages. He did missionary work in the surrounding villages, and acquired a profound knowledge of the history and institutions of the Incas. Eventually he completed a work on the subject in Latin, and was sent to Spain by his Jesuit superiors with a view to its publication. Unfortunately the greater part of his manuscript was burnt at the sack of Cadiz by the Earl of Essex in 1596, and Blas Valera himself died shortly afterwards. The fragments that were rescued fell into the hands of Garcilasso de la Vega, who translated them into Spanish, and printed them in his Commentaries. It is to Blas Valera that we owe the preservation of two specimens of Inca poetry and an estimate of Inca chronology. He has also recorded the traditional sayings of several Inca sovereigns, and among his fragments there are very interesting chapters on the religion, the laws and ordinances, and the language of the Incas, and on the vegetable products and medicinal drugs of Peru. These fragments are evidence that Blas Valera was an elegant scholar, a keen observer, and thoroughly master of his subject. They enhance the feeling of regret at the irreparable loss that we have sustained by the destruction of the rest of his work.
Next to Blas Valera, the most important authority on Inca civilization, among the Spanish priests who were in Peru during the sixteenth century, is undoubtedly Christoval de Molina. He was chaplain to the hospital for natives at Cuzco, and his work was written between 1570 and 1584, the period embraced by the episcopate of Dr. Sebastian de Artaun, to whom it is dedicated. Molina gives minute and detailed accounts of the ceremonies performed at all the religious festivals throughout the year, with the prayers used by the priests on each occasion. Out of the fourteen prayers preserved by Molina, four are addressed to the Supreme Being, two to the sun, the rest to these and other deities combined. His mastery of the Quichua language, his intimacy with the native chiefs and learned men, and his long residence at Cuzco give Molina a very high place as an authority on Inca civilization. His work has remained in manuscript,[1240] but it has been translated into English and printed for the Hakluyt Society.[1241]
Molina, in his dedicatory address to Bishop Artaun, mentions a previous narrative which he had submitted, on the origin, history, and government of the Incas. Fortunately this account was preserved by Miguel Cavello Balboa, an author who wrote at Quito between 1576 and 1586. Balboa, a soldier who had taken orders late in life, went out to America in 1566, and settled at Quito, where he devoted himself to the preparation and writing of a work which he entitled Miscellanea Austral. It is in three parts; but only the third, comprising about half the work, relates to Peru. Balboa tells us that his authority for the early Inca traditions and history was the learned Christoval de Molina, and this gives special value to Balboa’s work. Moreover, Balboa is the only authority who gives any account of the origin of the coast people, and he also supplies a detailed narrative of the war between Huascar and Atahualpa. The portion relating to Peru was translated into French and published by Ternaux Compans in 1840.[1242]
The Jesuits who arrived in Peru during the latter part of the sixteenth century were devoted to missionary labors, and gave an impetus to the study of the native languages and history. Among the most learned was José de Acosta, who sailed for Peru in 1570. At the early age of thirty-five, Acosta was chosen to be Provincial of the Jesuits in Peru, and his duties required him to travel over every part of the country. His great learning, which is displayed in his various theological works, qualified him for the task of writing his Natural and Moral History of the Indies, the value of which is increased by the author’s personal acquaintance with the countries and their inhabitants. Acosta went home in the Spanish fleet of 1587, and his first care, on his return to Spain, was to make arrangements for the publication of his manuscripts. The results of his South American researches first saw the light at Salamanca, in Latin, in 1588 and 1589. The complete work in Spanish, Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias, was published at Seville in 1590. Its success was never doubtful.[1243] In his latter years Acosta presided over the Jesuits’ College at Salamanca, where he died in his sixtieth year, on February 15, 1600.[1244] In spite of the learning and diligence of Acosta and of the great popularity of his work, it cannot be considered one of the most valuable contributions towards a knowledge of Inca civilization. The information it contains is often inaccurate, the details are less complete than in most of the other works written soon after the conquest,[1245] and a want of knowledge of the language is frequently made apparent. The best chapters are those devoted to the animal and vegetable products of Peru; and Feyjoo calls Acosta the Pliny of the New World.[1246]
The Licentiate Fernando Montesinos, a native of Osuna, was one of the most diligent of all those who in early times made researches into the history and traditions of the Incas. Montesinos went out in the fleet which took the Viceroy Count of Chinchon to Peru, arriving early in the year 1629. Having landed at Payta, Montesinos travelled southwards towards the capital until he reached the city of Truxillo. At that time Dr. Carlos Marcelino Corni was Bishop of Truxillo.[1247] Hearing of the virtue and learning of Montesinos, Dr. Corni begged that he might be allowed to stop at Truxillo, and take charge of the Jesuits’ College which the good bishop had established there. Montesinos remained at Truxillo until the death of Bishop Corni, in October, 1629,[1248] and then proceeded to Potosi, where he gave his attention to improvements in the methods of extracting silver. He wrote a book on the subject, which was printed at Lima, and also compiled a code of ordinances for mines with a view to lessening disputes, which was officially approved. Returning to the capital, he lived for several years at Lima as chaplain of one of the smaller churches, and devoted all his energies to the preparation of a history of Peru. Making Lima his headquarters, the indefatigable student undertook excursions into all parts of the country, wherever he heard of learned natives to be consulted, of historical documents to be copied, or of information to be found. He travelled over 1,500 leagues, from Quito to Potosi. In 1639 he was employed to write an account of the famous Auto de Fé which was celebrated at Lima in that year. His two great historical works are entitled Memorias Antiguas Historiales del Peru, and Anales ó Memorias Nuevas del Peru.[1249] From Lima Montesinos proceeded to Quito as “Visitador General,” with very full powers conferred by the bishop.
The work of Montesinos remained in manuscript until it was translated into French by M. Ternaux Compans in 1840, with the title Mémoires Historiques sur l’ancien Pérou. In 1882 the Spanish text was very ably edited by Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada.[1250] Montesinos gives the history of several dynasties which preceded the rise of the Incas, enumerating upwards of a hundred sovereigns. He professes to have acquired a knowledge of the ancient records through the interpretations of the quipus, communicated to him by learned natives. It was long supposed that the accounts of these earlier sovereigns received no corroboration from any other authority. This furnished legitimate grounds for discrediting Montesinos. But a narrative, as old or older than that of the licentiate, has recently been brought to light, in which at least two of the ancient sovereigns in the lists of Montesinos are incidentally referred to. This circumstance alters the aspect of the question, and places the Memorias Antiquas del Peru in a higher position as an authority; for it proves that the very ancient traditions which Montesinos professed to have received from the natives had previously been communicated to one other independent inquirer at least.
This independent inquirer is an author whose valuable work has recently been edited by Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada.[1251] His narrative is anonymous, but internal evidence establishes the fact that he was a Jesuit, and probably one of the first who arrived in Peru in 1568, although he appears to have written his work many years afterwards. The anonymous Jesuit supplies information respecting works on Peruvian civilization which are lost to us. He describes the temples, the orders of the priesthood, the sacrifices and religious ceremonies, explaining the origin of the erroneous statement that human sacrifices were offered up. He also gives the code of criminal law and the customs which prevailed in civil life, and concludes his work with a short treatise on the conversion of the Indians.
The efforts of the viceroys and archbishops of Lima during the early part of the seventeenth century to extirpate idolatry, particularly in the province of Lima, led to the preparation of reports by the priests who were entrusted with the duty of extirpation, which contain much curious information. These were the Fathers Hernando de Avendaño, Francisco de Avila, Luis de Teruel, and Pablo José de Arriaga. Avendaño, in addition to his sermons in Quichua, wrote an account of the idolatries of the Indians,—Relacion de las Idolatrias de los Indios,—which is still in manuscript. Avila was employed in the province of Huarochiri, and in 1608 he wrote a report on the idols and superstitions of the people, including some exceedingly curious religious legends. He appears to have written down the original evidence from the mouths of the Indians in Quichua, intending to translate it into Spanish. But he seems to have completed only six chapters in Spanish; or perhaps the translation is by another hand. There are still thirty-one chapters in Quichua awaiting the labors of some learned Peruvian scholar. Rising Quichua students, of whom there are not a few in Peru, could undertake no more useful work. This important report of Avila is comprised in a manuscript volume in the National Library at Madrid, and the six Spanish chapters have been translated and printed for the Hakluyt Society.[1252] Teruel was the friend and companion of Avila. He also wrote a treatise on native idolatries,[1253] and another against idolatry,[1254] in which he discusses the origin of the coast people. Arriaga wrote a still more valuable work on the extirpation of idolatry, which was printed at Lima in 1621, and which relates the religious beliefs and practices of the people in minute detail.[1255]
Antiquarian treasures of great value are buried in the works of ecclesiastics, the principal objects of which are the record of the deeds of one or other of the religious fraternities. The most important of these is the Coronica Moralizada del orden de San Augustin en el Peru; del Padre Antonio de la Calancha (1638-1653),[1256] which is a precious storehouse of details respecting the manners and customs of the Indians and the topography of the country. Calancha also gives the most accurate Inca calendar. Of less value is the chronicle of the Franciscans, by Diego de Cordova y Salinas, published at Madrid in 1643.
A work, the title of which gives even less promise of containing profitable information, is the history of the miraculous image of a virgin at Copacabana, by Fray Alonso Ramos Gavilan. Yet it throws unexpected light on the movements of the mitimaes, or Inca colonists; it gives fresh details respecting the consecrated virgins, the sacrifices, and the deities worshipped in the Collao, and supplies another version of the Inca calendar.[1257]
The work on the origin of the Indians of the New World, by Fray Gregorio Garcia,[1258] who travelled extensively in the Spanish colonies, is valuable, and to Garcia we owe the first notice of the priceless narrative of Betanzos. His separate work on the Incas is lost to us.[1259] Friar Martin de Múrua, a native of Guernica, in Biscay, was an ecclesiastic of some eminence in Peru. He wrote a general history of the Incas, which was copied by Dr. Muñoz for his collection, and Leon Pinelo says that the manuscript was illustrated with colored drawings of insignia and dresses, and portraits of the Incas.[1260]
The principal writers on Inca civilization in the century immediately succeeding the conquest, of the three different professions,—soldiers, lawyers, and priests,—have now been passed in review. Attention must next be given to the native writers who followed in the wake of Blas Valera. First among these is the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, an author whose name is probably better known to the general reader than that of any other who has written on the same subject. Among the Spanish conquerors who arrived in Peru in 1534 was Garcilasso de la Vega, a cavalier of very noble lineage,[1261] who settled at Cuzco, and was married to an Inca princess named Chimpa Ocllo, niece of the Inca Huayna Ccapac. Their son, the future historian, was born at Cuzco in 1539, and his earliest recollections were connected with the stirring events of the civil war between Gonzalo Pizarro and the president La Gasca, in 1548. His mother died soon afterwards, probably in 1550, and his father married again. The boy was much in the society of his mother’s kindred, and he often heard them talk over the times of the Incas, and repeat their historical traditions. Nor was his education neglected; for the good Canon Juan de Cuellar read Latin with the half-caste sons of the citizens of Cuzco for nearly two years, amidst all the turmoil of the civil wars. As he grew up, he was employed by his father to visit his estates, and he travelled over most parts of Peru. The elder Garcilasso de la Vega died in 1560, and the young orphan resolved to seek his fortune in the land of his fathers. On his arrival in Spain he received patronage and kindness from his paternal relatives, became a captain in the army of Philip II, and when he retired, late in life, he took up his abode in lodgings at Cordova, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. His first production was a translation from the Italian of “The Dialogues of Love,” and in 1591 he completed his narrative of the expedition of Hernando de Soto to Florida.[1262]
HOUSE IN CUZCO IN WHICH GARCILASSO WAS BORN.
[After a cut in Marcoy, i. 219. Cf. Squier’s Peru, p. 449.—Ed.]
As years rolled on, the Inca began to think more and more of the land of his birth. The memory of his boyish days, of the long evening chats with his Inca relations, came back to him in his old age. He was as proud of his maternal descent from the mighty potentates of Peru as of the old Castilian connection on his father’s side. It would seem that the appearance of several books on the subject of his native land finally induced him to undertake a work in which, while recording its own reminiscences and the information he might collect, he could also comment on the statements of other authors. Hence the title of Commentaries which he gave to his work. Besides the fragments of the writings of Blas Valera, which enrich the pages of Garcilasso, the Inca quotes from Acosta, from Gomara, from Zarate, and from the First Part of Cieza de Leon.[1263] He was fortunate in getting possession of the chapters of Blas Valera rescued from the sack of Cadiz. He also wrote to all his surviving schoolfellows for assistance, and received many traditions and detailed replies on other subjects from them. Thus Alcobasa forwarded an account of the ruins at Tiahuanacu, and another friend sent him the measurements of the great fortress at Cuzco.
The Inca Garcilasso de la Vega is, without doubt, the first authority on the civilization of his ancestors; but it is necessary to consider his qualifications and the exact value of his evidence. He had lived in Peru until his twentieth year; Quichua was his native language, and he had constantly heard the traditions of the Incas related and discussed by his mother’s relations. But when he began to write he had been separated from these associations for upwards of thirty years. He received materials from Peru, enabling him to compose a connected historical narrative, which is not, however, very reliable. The true value of his work is derived from his own reminiscences, aroused by reading the books which are the subjects of his Commentary, and from his correspondence with friends in Peru. His memory was excellent, as is often proved when he corrects the mistakes of Acosta and others with diffidence, and is invariably right. He was not credulous, having regard to the age in which he lived; nor was he inclined to give the rein to his imagination. More than once we find him rejecting the fanciful etymologies of the authors whose works he criticises. His narratives of the battles and conquests of the early Incas often become tedious, and of this he is himself aware. He therefore intersperses them with more interesting chapters on the religious ceremonies, the domestic habits and customs, of the people, and on their advances in poetry, astronomy, music, medicine, and the arts. He often inserts an anecdote from the storehouse of his memory, or some personal reminiscence called forth by the subject on which he happens to be writing. His statements frequently receive undesigned corroboration from authors whose works he never saw. Thus his curious account of the water sacrifices, not mentioned by any other published authority, is verified by the full description of the same rite in the manuscript of Molina. On the other hand, the long absence of the Inca from his native country entailed upon him grave disadvantages. His boyish recollections, though deeply interesting, could not, from the nature of the case, provide him with critical knowledge. Hence the mistakes in his work are serious and of frequent occurrence. Dr. Villar has pointed out his total misconception of the Supreme Being of the Peruvians, and of the significance of the word “Uira-cocha.”[1264] But, with all its shortcomings,[1265] the work of the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega must ever be the main source of our knowledge, and without his pious labors the story of the Incas would lose more than half its interest.
The first part of his Commentarios Reales, which alone concerns the present subject, was published at Lisbon in 1607.[1266] The author died at Cordova at the age of seventy-six, and was buried in the cathedral in 1616. He lived just long enough to accomplish his most cherished wish, and to complete the work at which he had steadily and lovingly labored for so many years.
Another Indian author wrote an account of the antiquities of Peru, at a time when the grandchildren of those who witnessed the conquest by the Spaniards were living. Unlike Garcilasso, this author never left the land of his birth, but he was not of Inca lineage. Don Juan de Santacruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua was a native of the Collao, and descended from a family of local chiefs. His work is entitled Relacion de Antigüedades deste Reyno del Peru. It long remained in manuscript in the National Library at Madrid, until it was edited by Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada in 1879. It had previously been translated into English and edited for the Hakluyt Society.[1267] Salcamayhua gives the traditions of Inca history as they were handed down to the third generation after the conquest. Intimately acquainted with the language, and in a position to converse with the oldest recipients of native lore, he is able to record much that is untold elsewhere, and to confirm a great deal that is related by former authors. He has also preserved two prayers in Quichua, attributed to Manco Ccapac, the first Inca, and some others, which add to the number given by Molina. He also corroborates the important statement of Molina, that the great gold plate in the temple at Cuzco was intended to represent the Supreme Being, and not the sun. Salcamayhua is certainly a valuable addition to the authorities on Peruvian history.
Note.—The title-page of the fifth decade Herrera, showing the Inca portraits, is given above. Cf. the plate in Stevens’s English translation of Herrera, vol. iv., London, 1740, 2d edition.—Ed.
While so many soldiers and priests and lawyers did their best to preserve a knowledge of Inca civilization, the Spanish government itself was not idle. The kings of Spain and their official advisers showed an anxiety to prevent the destruction of monuments and to collect historical and topographical information which is worthy of all praise. In 1585, orders were given to all the local authorities in Spanish America to transmit such information, and a circular, containing a series of interrogatories, was issued for their guidance. The result of this measure was, that a great number of Relaciones descriptivas were received in Spain, and stored up in the archives of the Indies. Herrera had these reports before him when he was writing his history, but it is certain that he did not make use of half the material they contain.[1268] Another very curious and valuable source of information consists of the reports on the origin of Inca sovereignty, which were prepared by order of the Viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo, and forwarded to the council of the Indies. They consist of twenty documents, forming a large volume, and preceded by an introductory letter. The viceroy’s object was to establish the fact that the Incas had originally been usurpers, in forcibly acquiring authority over the different provinces of the empire, and dispossessing the native chiefs. His inference was, that, as usurpers, they were rightfully dethroned by the Spaniards. He failed to see that such an argument was equally fatal to a Spanish claim, based on anything but the sword. Nevertheless, the traditions collected with this object, not only from the Incas at Cuzco, but also from the chiefs of several provinces, are very important and interesting.[1269]
The Viceroy Toledo also sent home four cloths on which the pedigree of the Incas was represented. The figures of the successive sovereigns were depicted, with medallions of their wives, and their respective lineages. The events of each reign were recorded on the borders, the traditions of Paccari-tampu, and of the creation by Uira-cocha, occupying the first cloth. It is probable that the Inca portraits given by Herrera were copied from those on the cloths sent home by the viceroy. The head-dresses in Herrera are very like that of the high-priest in the Relacion of the anonymous Jesuit. A map seems to have accompanied the pedigree, which was drawn under the superintendence of the distinguished sailor and cosmographer, Don Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa.[1270]
Much curious information respecting the laws and customs of the Incas and the beliefs of the people is to be found in ordinances and decrees of the Spanish authorities, both civil and ecclesiastical. These ordinances are contained in the Ordenanzas del Peru, of the Licentiate Tomas de Ballesteros, in the Politica Indiana of Juan de Solorzano (Madrid, 1649),[1271] in the Concilium Limense of Acosta, and in the Constituciones Synodales of Dr. Lobo Guerrero, Archbishop of Lima, printed in that city in 1614, and again in 1754.
The kingdom of Quito received attention from several early writers, but most of their manuscripts are lost to us. Quito was fortunate, however, in finding a later historian to devote himself to the work of chronicling the story of his native land. Juan de Velasco was a native of Riobamba. He resided for forty years in the kingdom of Quito as a Jesuit priest, he taught and preached in the native language of the people, and he diligently studied all the works on the subject that were accessible to him. He spent six years in travelling over the country, twenty years in collecting books and manuscripts; and when the Jesuits were banished he took refuge in Italy, where he wrote his Historia del Reino de Quito. Velasco used several authorities which are now lost. One of these was the Conquista de la Provincia del Quito, by Fray Marco de Niza, a companion of Pizarro. Another was the Historia de las guerras civiles del Inca Atahualpa, by Jacinto Collahuaso. He also refers to the Antigüedades del Peru by Bravo de Saravia. As a native of Quito, Velasco is a strong partisan of Atahualpa; and he is the only historian who gives an account of the traditions respecting the early kings of Quito. The work was completed in 1789, brought from Europe, and printed at Quito in 1844, and M. Ternaux Compans brought out a French edition in 1840.[1272]
Recent authors have written introductory essays on Peruvian civilization to precede the story of the Spanish conquest, have described the ruins in various parts of the country after personal inspection, or have devoted their labors to editing the early authorities, or to bringing previously unknown manuscripts to light, and thus widening and strengthening the foundation on which future histories may be raised.
WILLIAM ROBERTSON.
[After a print in the European Mag. (1802), vol. xli.—Ed.]
Robertson’s excellent view of the story of the Incas in his History of America[1273] was for many years the sole source of information on the subject for the general English public; but since 1848 it has been superseded by Prescott’s charming narrative contained in the opening book of his Conquest of Peru.[1274] The knowledge of the present generation on the subject of the Incas is derived almost entirely from Prescott, and, so far as it goes, there can be no better authority. But much has come to light since his time. Prescott’s narrative, occupying 159 pages, is founded on the works of Garcilasso de la Vega, who is the authority most frequently cited by him, Cieza de Leon, Ondegardo, and Acosta.[1275] Helps, in the chapter of his Spanish Conquest on Inca civilization, which covers forty-five pages, only cited two early authorities not used by Prescott,[1276] and his sketch is much more superficial than that of his predecessor.[1277]
The publication of the Antigüedades Peruanas by Don Mariano Eduardo de Rivero (the director of the National Museum at Lima) and Juan Diego de Tschudi at Vienna, in 1851, marked an important turning-point in the progress of investigation. One of the authors was himself a Peruvian, and from that time some of the best educated natives of the country have given their attention to its early history. The Antigüedades for the first time gives due prominence to an estimate of the language and literature of the Incas, and to descriptions of ruins throughout Peru. The work is accompanied by a large atlas of engravings; but it contains grave inaccuracies, and the map of Pachacamac is a serious blemish to the work.[1278] The Antigüedades were followed by the Annals of Cuzco,[1279] and in 1860 the Ancient History of Peru, by Don Sebastian Lorente, was published at Lima.[1280] In a series of essays in the Revista Peruana,[1281] Lorente gave the results of many years of further study of the subject, which appear to have been the concluding labors of a useful life. When he died, in November, 1884, Sebastian Lorente had been engaged for upwards of forty years in the instruction of the Peruvian youth at Lima and in other useful labors. A curious genealogical work on the Incarial family was published at Paris in 1850, by Dr. Justo Sahuaraura Inca, a canon of the cathedral of Cuzco, but it is of no historical value.[1282]
Several scholars, both in Europe and America, have published the results of their studies relating to the problems of Inca history. Ernest Desjardins has written on the state of Peru before the Spanish conquest,[1283] J. G. Müller on the religious beliefs of the people,[1284] and Waitz on Peruvian anthropology.[1285] The writings of Dr. Brinton, of Philadelphia, also contain valuable reflections and useful information respecting the mythology and native literature of Peru.[1286] Mr. Bollaert had been interested in Peruvian researches during the greater part of his lifetime (b. 1807; d. 1876), and had visited several provinces of Peru, especially Tarapaca. He accumulated many notes. His work, at first sight, appears to be merely a confused mass of jottings, and certainly there is an absence of method and arrangement; but closer examination will lead to the discovery of many facts which are not to be met with elsewhere.[1287]
A critical study of early authorities and a knowledge of the Quichua language are two essential qualifications for a writer on Inca civilization. But it is almost equally important that he should have access to intelligent and accurate descriptions of the remains of ancient edifices and public works throughout Peru. For this he is dependent on travellers, and it must be confessed that no descriptions at all meeting the requirements were in existence before the opening of the present century. Humboldt was the first traveller in South America who pursued his antiquarian researches on a scientific basis. His works are models for all future travellers. It is to Humboldt,[1288] and his predecessors the Ulloas,[1289] that we owe graphic descriptions of Inca ruins in the kingdom of Quito and in northern Peru as far as Caxamarca. French travellers have contributed three works of importance to the same department of research. M. Alcide D’Orbigny examined and described the ruins of Tiahuanacu with great care.[1290] M. François de Castelnau was the leader of a scientific expedition sent out by the French government, and his work contains descriptions of ruins illustrated by plates.[1291] The work of M. Wiener is more complete, and is intended to be exhaustive. He was also employed by the French government on an archæological and ethnographic mission to Peru, from 1875 to 1877, and he has performed his task with diligence and ability, while no cost seems to have been spared in the production of his work.[1292] The maps and illustrations are numerous and well executed, and M. Wiener visited nearly every part of Peru where archæological remains are to be met with. There is only one fault to be found with the praiseworthy and elaborate works of D’Orbigny and Wiener. The authors are too apt to adopt theories on insufficient grounds, and to confuse their otherwise admirable descriptions with imaginative speculations. An example of this kind has been pointed out by the Peruvian scholar Dr. Villar, with reference to M. Wiener’s erroneous ideas respecting Culte de l’eau ou de la pluie, et le dieu Quonn.[1293] M. Wiener is the only modern traveller who has visited and described the interesting ruins of Vilcashuaman.
The present writer has published two books recording his travels in Peru. In the first he described the fortress of Hervay, the ancient irrigation channels at Nasca on the Peruvian coast, and the ruins at and around Cuzco, including Ollantay-tampu.[1294] In the second there are descriptions of the chulpas at Sillustani in the Collao, and of the Inca roof over the Sunturhuasi at Azangaro.[1295]
The work of E. G. Squier is, on the whole, the most valuable result of antiquarian researches in Peru that has ever been presented to the public.[1296] Mr. Squier had special qualifications for the task. He had already been engaged on similar work in Nicaragua, and he was well versed in the history of his subject. He visited nearly all the ruins of importance in the country, constructed plans, and took numerous photographs. Avoiding theoretical disquisitions, he gives most accurate descriptions of the architectural remains, which are invaluable to the student. His style is agreeable and interesting, while it inspires confidence in the reader; and his admirable book is in all respects thoroughly workmanlike.[1297]
CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM.
[After a photograph kindly furnished by himself at the editor’s request.—Ed.]
Tiahuanacu is minutely described by D’Orbigny, Wiener, and Squier, and the famous ruins have also been the objects of special attention from other investigators. Mr. Helsby of Liverpool took careful photographs of the monolithic doorway in 1857, which were engraved and published, with a descriptive article by Mr. Bollaert.[1298] Don Modesto Basadre has also written an account of the ruins, with measurements.[1299] But the most complete monograph on Tiahuanacu is by Mr. Inwards, who surveyed the ground, photographed all the ruins, made enlarged drawings of the sculptures on the monolithic doorway, and even attempted an ideal restoration of the palace. In the letter-press, Mr. Inwards quotes from the only authorities who give any account of Tiahuanacu, and on this particular point his monograph entitles him to be considered as the highest modern authority.[1300]
Another special investigation of equal interest, and even greater completeness, is represented by the superb work on the burial-ground of Ancon, being the results of excavations made on the spot by Wilhelm Reiss and Alphonso Stübel. The researches of these painstaking and talented antiquaries have thrown a flood of light on the social habits and daily life of the civilized people of the Peruvian coast.[1301]
The great work of Don Antonio Raimondi on Peru is still incomplete. The learned Italian has already devoted thirty-eight years to the study of the natural history of his adopted country, and the results of his prolonged scientific labors are now gradually being given to the public. The plan of this exhaustive monograph is a division into six parts, devoted to the geography, geology, mineralogy, botany, zoölogy, and ethnology of Peru. The geographical division will contain a description of the principal ancient monuments and their ruins, while the ethnology will include a treatise on the ancient races, their origin and civilization. But as yet only three volumes have been published. The first is entitled Parte Preliminar, describing the plan of the work and the extent of the author’s travels throughout the country. The second and third volumes comprise a history of the progress of geographical discovery in Peru since the conquest by Pizarro. The completion of this great work, undertaken under the auspices of the government of Peru, has been long delayed.[1302]
The labors of explorers are supplemented by the editorial work of scholars, who bring to light the precious relics of early authorities, hitherto buried in scarcely accessible old volumes or in manuscript. First in the ranks of these laborers in the cause of knowledge, as regards ancient Peruvian history, stands the name of M. Ternaux Compans. He has furnished to the student carefully edited French editions of the narrative of Xeres, of the history of Peru by Balboa, of the Mémoires Historiques of Montesinos, and of the history of Quito by Velasco.[1303]
The present writer has translated into English and edited the works of Cieza de Leon, Garcilasso de la Vega, Molina, Salcamayhua, Avila, Xeres, Andagoya, and one of the reports of Ondegardo, and has edited the old translation of Acosta.
Dr. M. Gonzalez de la Rosa, an accomplished Peruvian scholar, brought to light and edited, in 1879, the curious Historia de Lima of Father Bernabé Cobo. It was published in successive numbers of the Revista Peruana, at Lima.
MÁRCOS JIMÉNEZ DE LA ESPADA.
[After a photograph, kindly furnished by himself, at the editor’s request.—Ed.]
But in this department students are most indebted to the learned Spanish editor, Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada; for he has placed within our reach the works of important authorities, which were previously not only inaccessible, but unknown. He has edited the second part of Cieza de Leon, the anonymous Jesuit, Montesinos, Santillana, the reports to the Viceroy Toledo, the Suma y Narracion of Betanzos, and the War of Quito, by Cieza de Leon. Moreover, there is every reason to hope that his career of literary usefulness is by no means ended.
Although so much has been accomplished in the field of Peruvian research, yet much remains to be done, both by explorers and in the study. The Quichua chapters of the work of Avila, containing curious myths and legends, remain untranslated and in manuscript. A satisfactory text of the Ollantay drama, after collation of all accessible manuscripts, has not yet been secured. Numerous precious manuscripts have yet to be unearthed in Spain. Songs of the times of the Incas exist in Peru, which should be collected and edited. There are scientific excavations to be undertaken, and secluded districts to be explored. The Yunca grammar of Carrera requires expert comparative study, and comparison with the Eten dialect. Remnants of archaic languages, such as the Puquina of the Urus, must be investigated. When all this, and much more, has been added to existing means of knowledge, the labors of pioneers will approach completion. Then the time will have arrived for the preparation of a history of ancient Peruvian civilization which will be worthy of the subject.[1304]
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[NOTES.]
[I.] Ancient People of the Peruvian Coast.—There was a civilized people on the coast of Peru, but not occupying the whole coast, which was distinctly different, both as regards race and language, from the Incas and their cognate tribes. This coast nation was called Chimu, and their language Mochica.[1305]
The numerous valleys on the Peruvian coast, separated by sandy deserts of varying width, required only careful irrigation to render them capable of sustaining a large population. The aboriginal inhabitants were probably a diminutive race of fishermen. Driven southwards by invaders, they eventually sought refuge in Arica and Tarapaca. D’Orbigny described their descendants as a gentle, hospitable race of fishermen, never exceeding five feet in height, with flat noses, fishing in boats of inflated sealskins, and sleeping in huts of sealskin on heaps of dried seaweed. They are called Changos. Bollaert mentions that they buried their dead lengthways. Bodies found in this unusual posture near Cañete form a slight link connecting the Changos to the south with the early aboriginal race of the more northern valleys.
The Chimu people drove out the aborigines and occupied the valleys of the coast from Payta nearly to Lima, forming distinct communities, each under a chief more or less independent. The Chimu himself ruled over the five valleys of Parmunca, Hualli, Huanapu, Santa, and Chimu, where the city of Truxillo now stands. The total difference of their language from Quichua makes it clear that the Chimus did not come from the Andes or from the Quito country. The only other alternative is that they arrived from the sea. Balboa, indeed, gives a detailed account of the statements made by the coast Indians of Lambayeque, at the time of the conquest. They declared that a great fleet arrived on the coast some generations earlier, commanded by a chief named Noymlap, who had with him a green-stone idol, and that he founded a dynasty of chiefs.
The Chimu and his subjects, let their origin be what it may, had certainly made considerable advances in civilization. The vast palaces of the Chimu near the seashore, with a surrounding city, and great mounds or artificial hills, are astonishing even in their decay. The principal hall of the palace was 100 feet long by 52. The walls are covered with an intricate and very effective series of arabesques on stucco, worked in relief. A neighboring hall, with walls stuccoed in color, is entered by passages and skirted by openings leading to small rooms seven feet square, which may have been used as dormitories. A long corridor leads from the back of the arabesque hall to some recesses where gold and silver vessels have been found. At a short distance from this palace there is a sepulchral mound where many relics have been discovered. The bodies were wrapped in cloths woven in ornamental figures and patterns of different colors. On some of the cloths plates of silver were sewn, and they were edged with borders of feathers, the silver plates being occasionally cut in the shapes of fishes and birds. Among the ruins of the city there are great rectangular areas enclosed by massive walls, containing buildings, courts, streets, and reservoirs for water.[1306] The largest is about a mile south of the palace, and is 550 yards long by 400. The outer wall is about 30 feet high and 10 feet thick at the base, with sides inclining towards each other. Some of the interior walls are highly ornamented in stuccoed patterns; and in one part there is an edifice containing 45 chambers or cells, which is supposed to have been a prison. The enclosure also contained a reservoir 450 feet long by 195, and 60 feet deep.
The dry climate favored the adornment of outer walls by color, and those of the Chimu palaces were covered with very tasteful sculptured patterns. Figures of colored birds and animals are said to have been painted on the walls of temples and palaces. Silver and gold ornaments and utensils, mantles richly embroidered, robes of feathers, cotton cloths of fine texture, and vases of an infinite variety of curious designs, are found in the tombs.
Cieza de Leon gives us a momentary glimpse at the life of the Chimu chiefs. Each ruler of a valley, he tells us, had a great house with adobe pillars, and doorways hung with matting, built on extensive terraces. He adds that the chiefs dressed in cotton shirts and long mantles, and were fond of drinking-bouts, dancing and singing. The walls of their houses were painted with bright colored patterns and figures. Such places, rising out of the groves of fruit-trees, with the Andes bounding the view in one direction and the ocean in the other, must have been suitable abodes for joy and feasting. Around them were the fertile valleys, peopled by industrious cultivators, and carefully irrigated. Their irrigation works were indeed stupendous. “In the valley of Nepeña the reservoir is three fourths of a mile long by more than half a mile broad, and consists of a massive dam of stone 80 feet thick at the base, carried across a gorge between two rocky hills. It was supplied by two canals at different elevations; one starting fourteen miles up the valley, and the other from springs five miles distant.”[1307]
SECTION OF A MUMMY-CASE FROM ANCON.
[After a cut given by Ruge, following a plate in The Necropolis of Ancon. Wiener (p. 44) gives a section of one of the Ancon tombs. See a cut in Squier’s Peru, p. 73.—Ed.]
The custom prevalent among the Chimus of depositing with their dead all objects of daily use, as well as ornaments and garments worn by them during life, has enabled us to gain a further insight into the social history of this interesting people. The researches of Reuss and Stübel at the necropolis of Ancon, near Lima, have been most important. Numerous garments, interwoven with work of a decorative character, cloths of many colors and complicated patterns, implements used in spinning and sewing, work-baskets of plaited grass, balls of thread, fingerrings, wooden and clay toys, are found with the mummies. The spindles are richly carved and painted, and attached to them are terra cotta cylinders aglow with ornamental colorings which were used as wheels. Fine earthenware vases of varied patterns, and wooden or clay dishes, also occur.
Turning to the language of the coast people, we find that no Mochica dictionary was ever made; but there is a grammar and a short list of words by Carrera, and the Lord’s prayer in Mochica, by Bishop Oré. The grammar was composed by a priest who had settled at Truxillo, near the ruins of the Chimu palace, and who was a great-grandson of one of the first Spanish conquerors. It was published at Lima in 1644. At that time the Mochica language was spoken in the valleys of Truxillo, Chicama, Chocope, Sana, Lambayeque, Chiclayo, Huacabamba, Olmos, and Motupè. When the Mercurio Peruano[1308] was published in 1793, this language is said to have entirely disappeared. Father Carrera tells us that the Mochica was so very difficult that he was the only Spaniard who had ever been able to learn it. The words bear no resemblance whatever to Quichua. Mochica has three different declensions, Quichua only one. Mochica has no transitive verbs, and no exclusive and inclusive plurals, which are among the chief characteristics of Quichua. The Mochica conjugations are formed in quite a different way from those in the Quichua language. The Mochica system of numerals appears to have been very complete. With the language, the people have now almost if not entirely disappeared. Possibly the people of Eten, south of Lambayeque, who still speak a peculiar language, may be descendants of the Chimus.
MUMMY FROM A HUACA AT PISCO.
[After a cut in T. J. Hutchinson’s Two Years in Peru (London, 1873), vol. i. p. 113. The Peruvian mummies are almost invariably simply desiccated. Only the royal personages were embalmed (Markham’s Cieza de Leon, 226). Cf. Wilson’s Prehistoric Man, ii. 135.—Ed.]
The Chimu dominion extended probably from Tumbez, in the extreme north of the Peruvian coast, to Ancon, north of Lima. The Chimus also had a strong colony in the valley of Huarcu, now called Cañete. But the valleys of the Rimac, of Lurin, Chilca, and Mala, north of Cañete; and those of Chincha, Yca, and Nasca, south of Cañete; were not Chimu territory. The names of places in those valleys are all Quichua, as well as the names of their chiefs, as recorded by Garcilasso de la Vega and others. The inhabitants were, therefore, of Inca race, probably colonists from the Huanca nation. Their superstitions as told by Arriaga, and the curious mythological legends recorded by Avila as being believed by the people of Huarochiri and the neighboring coast, all point to an Inca origin. These Inca coast people are said to have had a famous oracle near the present site of Lima, called “Rimac,” or “He who speaks.” But more probably it was merely the name given to the noisy river Rimac, babbling over its stones. It is true that there was a temple on the coast with an oracle, the fame of which had been widely spread. The idol called Pachacamac, or “The world-creator,” was described by the first Spanish visitor, Miguel Estete, as being made of wood and very dirty. The town was then half in ruins, for the worship of this local deity was neglected after the conquest by the Incas. These coast people of Inca race were as industrious as their Chimu neighbors. In the Nasca valley there is a complete network of underground watercourses for irrigation. At Yca “they removed the sand from vast areas, until they reached the requisite moisture, then put in guano from the islands, and thus formed sunken gardens of extraordinary richness.”[1309] Similar methods were adopted in the valleys of Pisco and Chilca.
When the Inca Pachacutec began to annex the coast valleys, he met with slight opposition only from the people of Inca origin, who soon submitted to his rule. But the Chimus struggled hard to retain their independence. Those of the Huarcu (Cañete) valley made a desperate and prolonged resistance. When at length they submitted, the Inca built a fortress and palace on a rocky eminence overlooking the sea to overawe them. The ruins now called Hervai are particularly interesting, because they are the principal and most imposing example of Inca architecture in which the building material is adobes and not stone. The conquest of the valleys to the north of Lima and of the grand Chimu himself was a still more difficult undertaking, necessitating more than one hard-fought campaign. When it was completed, great numbers of the best fighting-men among the Chimus were deported to the interior as mitimaes. More than a century had elapsed since this conquest when the Spaniards arrived, so that there was but slight chance of the history of the Chimus being even partially preserved. Cieza de Leon and Balboa alone supply us with notices of any value.[1310] The southern valleys of the coast, Arequipa, Moquegua, and Tacna, were occupied by mitimaes or colonists from the Collao. The Incas gave the general name of yuncas, or dwellers in the warm valleys, to all the people of the coast.
Much mystery surrounds the history and origin of the Chimu people. That they were wholly separate and unconnected with the other races of Peru seems almost certain. That they were far advanced in civilization is clear. Difficulties surround any further prosecution of researches concerning them. They have themselves disappeared from the face of the earth. Their language has gone with them. But there are the magnificent ruins of their palaces and temples. There are numerous tombs and cemeteries which have never been scientifically examined. There is a grammar and a small vocabulary of words calling for close comparative examination. There are crania awaiting similar comparative study. There is a possibility that further information may be gleaned from inedited Spanish manuscripts. The subject is a most interesting one, and it is by no means exhausted.
TAPESTRY FROM THE GRAVES OF ANCON.
[After a cut in Ruge’s Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, p. 429, following the colored plate in The Necropolis of Ancon. Wiener reproduces in black and white many of the Ancon specimens.—Ed.]
[II.] The Quichua Language and Literature.—No real progress can be made in the work of elucidating the ancient history of Peru, and in unravelling the interesting but still unsolved questions relating to the origin and development of Inca civilization, without a knowledge of the native language. The subject has accordingly received the close attention of laborious students from a very early period, and the present essay would be incomplete without appending an enumeration of the Quichua grammars and vocabularies, and of works relating to Inca literature.
Fray Domingo de San Tomas, a Dominican monk, was the first author who composed a grammar and vocabulary of the language of the Incas. He gave it the name of Quichua, probably because he had studied with members of that tribe, who were of pure Inca race, and whose territory lies to the westward of Cuzco. The name has since been generally adopted for the language of the Peruvian empire.[1311]
Diego de Torres Rubio was born in 1547, in a village near Toledo, became a Jesuit at the age of nineteen, and went out to Peru in 1577. He studied the native languages with great diligence, and composed grammars and vocabularies. His grammar and vocabulary of Quichua first appeared at Saville in 1603, and passed through four editions.[1312] A long residence in Chuquisaca enabled him to acquire the Aymara language, and in 1616 he published a short grammar and vocabulary of Aymara. In 1627 he also published a grammar of the Guarani language. Torres Rubio was rector of the college at Potosi for a short time, but his principal labors were connected with missionary work at Chuquisaca. He died in that city at the great age of ninety-one, on the 13th of April, 1638. Juan de Figueredo, whose Chinchaysuyu vocabulary is bound up with later editions of Torres Rubio, was born at Huancavelica in 1648, of Spanish parents, and after a long and useful missionary life he died at Lima in 1724.
The most voluminous grammatical work on the language of the Incas had for its author the Jesuit Diego Gonzales Holguin. This learned missionary was the scion of a distinguished family in Estremadura, and was befriended in his youth by his relation, Don Juan de Obando, President of the Council of the Indies. After graduating at Alcalá de Henares he became a member of the Society of Jesus in 1568, and went out to Peru in 1581. He resided for several years in the Jesuit college at Juli, near the banks of Lake Titicaca, where the fathers had established a printing-press, and here he studied the Quichua language. He was entrusted with important missions to Quito and Chili, and was nominated interpreter by the Viceroy Toledo. His later years were passed in Paraguay, and when he died at the age of sixty-six, in 1618, he was rector of the college at Asuncion. His Quichua dictionary was published at Lima in 1586, and a second edition appeared in 1607,[1313] the same year in which the grammar first saw the light.[1314] The Quichua grammar of Holguin is the most complete and elaborate that has been written, and his dictionary is also the best in every respect.
While Holguin was studiously preparing these valuable works on the Quichua language in the college at Juli, a colleague was laboring with equal zeal and assiduity at the dialect spoken by the people of the Collao, to which the Jesuits gave the name of Aymara. Ludovico Bertonio was an Italian, a native of the marches of Ancona. Arriving in Peru in 1581, he resided at Juli for many years, studying the Aymara language, until, attacked by gout, he was sent to Lima, where he died at the age of seventy-three, in 1625. His Aymara grammar was first published at Rome in 1603,[1315] but a very much improved second edition,[1316] and a large dictionary of Aymara,[1317] were products of the Jesuit press at Juli in 1612. Bertonio also wrote a catechism and a life of Christ in Aymara, which were printed at Juli.
A vocabulary of Quichua by Fray Juan Martinez was printed at Lima in 1604, and another in 1614. Four Quichua grammars followed during the seventeenth century. That of Alonso de Huerta was published at Lima in 1616; the grammar of the Franciscan Diego de Olmos appeared in 1633; Don Juan Roxo Mexia y Ocon, a native of Cuzco, and professor of Quichua at the University of Lima, published his grammar in 1648; and the grammar of Estevan Sancho de Melgar saw the light in 1691.[1318] Leon Pinelo also mentions a Quichua grammar by Juan de Vega. The anonymous Jesuit refers to a Quichua dictionary by Melchior Fernandez, which is lost to us.
In 1644 Don Fernando de la Carrera, the Cura of Reque, near Chiclayo, published his grammar of the Yunca language, at Lima. This is the language which was once spoken in the valleys of the Peruvian coast by the civilized people whose ruler was the grand Chimu. Now the language is extinct, or spoken only by a few Indians in the coast village of Eten. The work of Carrera is therefore important, as, with the exception of a specimen of the language preserved by Bishop Oré, it is the only book in which the student can now obtain any linguistic knowledge of the lost civilization. The Yunca grammar was reprinted in numbers in the Revista de Lima of 1880 and following years.[1319]
There was a professorial chair for the study of Quichua in the University of San Márcos at Lima, and the language was cultivated, during the two centuries after the conquest, as well by educated natives as by many Spanish ecclesiastics. The sermons of Dr. Don Fernando de Avendaño have already been referred to.[1320] Dr. Lunarejo, of Cuzco, was another famous Quichuan preacher, and the Confesionarios and catechisms in the language were very numerous. Bishop Louis Geronimo Oré, of Guamanga, in his ritualistic manual, gives the Lord’s prayer and commandments, not only in Quichua and Aymara, but also in the Puquina language spoken by the Urus on Lake Titicaca, and in the Yunca language of the coast, which he calls Mochica.[1321]
A very curious book was published at Lima in 1602, which, among other things, treats of the Quichua language and of the derivations of names of places. The author, Don Diego D’Avalos y Figueroa, appears to have been a native of La Paz. He was possessed of sprightly wit, was well read, and a close observer of nature. We gather from his Miscelanea Austral[1322] the names of birds and animals, and of fishes in Lake Titicaca, as well as the opinions of the author on the cause of the absence of rain on the Peruvian coast, on the lacustrine system of the Collao, and on other interesting points of physical geography.[1323]
In modern times the language of the Incas has received attention from students of Peruvian history. The joint authors, Dr. Von Tschudi and Don Mariano Eduardo de Rivero, in their work entitled Antigüedades Peruanas, published at Vienna in 1851, devote a chapter to the Quichua language. Two years afterwards Dr. Von Tschudi published a Quichua grammar and dictionary, with the text of the Inca drama of Ollantay, and other specimens of the language.[1324] The present writer’s contributions towards a grammar and dictionary of Quichua were published by Trübner in 1864, and a few years previously a more complete and elaborate work had seen the light at Sucre, the capital of Bolivia. This was the grammar and dictionary by Father Honorio Mossi, of Potosi, a large volume containing thorough and excellent work.[1325] Lastly a Quichua grammar by José Dionisio Anchorena was published at Lima in 1874.[1326]
The curious publication of Don José Fernandez Nodal in 1874 is not so much a grammar of the Quichua Language as a heterogeneous collection of notes on all sorts of subjects, and can scarcely take a place among serious works. The author was a native of Arequipa, of good family, but he was carried away by enthusiasm and allowed his imagination to run riot.[1327]
The gospel of St. Luke, with Aymara and Spanish in parallel columns, was translated from the vulgate by Don Vicente Pazos-kanki, a graduate of the University of Cuzco, and published in London in 1829;[1328] and more recently a Quichua version of the gospel of St. John, translated by Mr. Spilsbury, an English missionary, has appeared at Buenos Ayres.[1329] These publications and others of the same kind have a tendency to preserve the purity of the language, and are therefore welcome to the student of Incarial history.
Quichua has been the subject of detailed comparative study by more than one modern philologist of eminence. The discussion of the Quichua roots by the learned Dr. Vicente Fidel Lopez is a most valuable addition to the literature of the subject; while the historical section of his work is a great aid to a critical consideration of Montesinos and other early authorities. Whatever may be thought of his theoretical opinions, and of the considerations by which he maintains them, there can be no doubt that Dr. Lopez has rendered most important service to all students of Peruvian history.[1330] The theoretical identification of Quichuan roots with those of Turanian and Iberian languages, as it has been elaborated by Mr. Ellis, is also not without its use, quite apart from the truth or otherwise of any linguistic theory.[1331]
FROM TIMANÁ.
[After a cut in William Bollaert’s Antiquarian Researches, etc., p. 41, showing a stone figure from Timana in New Granada, an antiquity of the Muiscas, found in a dense forest, with no tradition attached.—Ed.]
Editorial labors connected with the publication of the text and of translations of the Inca drama of Ollantay have recently conduced, in an eminent degree, to the scholarly study of Quichua, while they have sensibly contributed to a better knowledge of the subject. Von Tschudi was the first to publish the text of Ollantay, in the second part of his Kechua Sprache, having given extracts from the drama in the chapter on the Quichua language in the Antigüedades Peruanas. After a long interval he brought out a revised text with a parallel German translation,[1332] from his former manuscript, collated with another bearing the date of La Paz, 1735.
The drama, in the exact form that it existed when represented before the Incas, is of course lost to us. It was handed down by tradition until it was arranged for representation, divided into scenes, and supplied with stage directions in Spanish times. Several manuscripts were preserved, which differ only slightly from each other; and they were looked upon as very precious literary treasures by their owners. The drama was first publicly brought to notice by Don Manuel Palacios, in the Museo Erudito, a periodical published at Cuzco in 1837; but it was not until 1853 that the text was printed by Von Tschudi. His manuscript was copied from one preserved in the Dominican monastery at Cuzco by one of the monks. The transcription was made between 1840 and 1845 for the artist Rugendas, of Munich, who gave it to Von Tschudi. There was another old manuscript in the possession of Dr. Antonio Valdez, the priest of Sicuani, who lived in the last century, and was a friend of the unfortunate Tupac Amaru. Dr. Valdez died in 1816; and copies of his manuscript were possessed by Dr. Pablo Justiniani, the aged priest of Laris, a village in the heart of the eastern Andes, and by Dr. Rosas, the priest of Chinchero. The present writer made a copy of the Justiniani manuscript at Laris, which he collated with that of Dr. Rosas. In 1871 he published the text of his copy, with an attempt at a literal English translation.[1333] In 1868 Dr. Barranca published a Spanish translation from the text of Von Tschudi, now called the Dominican text.[1334] The Peruvian poet Constantino Carrasco afterwards brought out a version of the drama of Ollantay in verse, paraphrased from the translation of Barranca.[1335] The enthusiastic Peruvian student, Dr. Nodal, printed a different Quichua text with a Spanish translation, in parallel columns, in 1874.[1336]
There are other manuscripts, and a text has not yet been derived from a scholarly collation of the whole of them. There is one in the possession of Dr. Gonzalez de la Rosa, which belonged to Dr. Justo Sahuaraura Inca, Archdeacon of Cuzco, and descendant of Paullu, the younger son of Huayna Ccapac. In 1878 the Quichua scholar and native of Cuzco, Don Gavino Pacheco Zegarra, published the text of Ollantay at Paris, from a manuscript found among the books of his great-uncle, Don Pedro Zegarra. He added a very free translation in French, and numerous valuable notes. The work of Zegarra is by far the most important that has appeared on this subject, for the accomplished Peruvian has the great advantage of knowing Quichua from his earliest childhood. With this advantage, not possessed by any previous writer, he unites extensive learning and considerable critical sagacity.[1337]
The reasons for assigning an ancient date to this drama of Ollantay are conclusive in the judgment of all Quichua scholars. On this point there is a consensus of opinion. But General Mitre, the ex-President of the Argentine Republic, published an essay in 1881, to prove that Ollantay was of Spanish origin and was written in comparatively modern times.[1338] The present writer replied to his arguments in the introduction (p. xxix) to the English translation of the second part of Cieza de Leon (1883), and this reply was translated into Spanish and published at Buenos Ayres in the same year, by Don Adolfo F. Olivares, accompanied by a critical note from the pen of Dr. Vicente Lopez.[1339] The latest publication on the subject of Ollantay consists of a series of articles in the Ateneo de Lima, by Don E. Larrabure y Unanue, the accomplished author of a history of the conquest of Peru, not yet published. The general conclusion which has been arrived at by Quichua scholars, after this thorough sifting of the question, is that, although the division into scenes and the stage directions are due to some Spanish hand, and although some few Hispanicisms may have crept into some of the texts, owing to the carelessness or ignorance of transcribers, yet that the drama of Ollantay, in all essential points, is of Inca origin. Several old songs are imbedded in it, and others have been preserved by Quichua scholars at Cuzco and Ayacucho, and in the neighborhood of those cities. The editing of these remains of Inca literature will, at some future time, throw further light on the history of the past. There are several learned Peruvians who devote themselves to Incarial studies, besides Señor Zegarra, who now resides in Spain. Among them may be mentioned Dr. Villar of Cuzco, a ripe scholar, who has recently published a closely reasoned essay on the word Uira-cocha, Don Luis Carranza, and Don Martin A. Mujica, a native of Huancavelica.
[III.] The New Granada Tribes.—The incipient civilization of the Chibchas or Muiscas of New Granada was first made generally known by Humboldt (Vues des Cordillères, octavo ed., ii. 220-67; Views of Nature, Eng. trans., 425). Cf. also, E. Uricoechea’s Memorias sobre las Antigüedades néo-granadinas (Berlin, 1854); Bollaert; Rivero and Von Tschudi; Nadaillac, 459; and Joseph Acosta’s Compendio historico del Descubrimiento de la Nueva Granada (Paris, 1848; with transl. in Bollaert).