The nightly disappearance of the sun excited, in the mind of the Inca, many philosophic doubts respecting the government of the world by that luminary. Among the Inca’s remarks on this subject, as recorded by Padre Bias Valera, are the following:—“Many maintain that the sun lives and is the creator and maker of all things (el hacedor de todas las cosas); but whosoever desires to do a thing completely must continue at his task without intermission. Now many things are done when the sun is absent, therefore, he cannot be the creator of all. It may also be doubted whether the sun be really living, for, though always moving round in a circle, he is never weary (no se cansa). If the sun were a living thing he would, like ourselves, become weary; and if he were free, he would, doubtless, sometimes move into parts of the heavens in which we never see him. The sun is like an ox bound by a rope, being obliged always to move in the same circle (como una Res atada que siempre hace un mismo cerco), or like an arrow which can only go where it is sent, and not where it may itself wish to go.” (Garcilaso, Comment. Reales, p. i. lib. viii. cap. 8, p. 276.) The Inca’s simple comparison of the circling movement of a heavenly body to that of an ox fastened by a rope is very curious, owing to a circumstance which may be explained here. Huayna Capac died at Quito in 1525 (seven years prior to the invasion of the Spaniards), and his empire was divided between Huascar and Atahuallpa. Now, in the native language of Peru, the name Huascar signifies rope, and Atahuallpa means a cock or a fowl. Instead of res Huayna Capac probably used the word signifying, in his native language, animal generally; but, even in Spanish, the word res is not applied exclusively to oxen, but is employed to denote cattle of all kinds. How far the Padre, with the view of weaning the natives from the dynastic service of the Inca, may have mingled passages from his own sermons with the heresies of the Inca, we need not here inquire. That it was deemed very important to keep these doubts from the knowledge of the lower classes of the people is evident, from the very conservative policy and the state maxims of the Inca Roca, the conqueror of the province of Charcas. This Inca founded schools exclusively for the higher classes, and, under heavy penalties, prohibited instruction being given to the common people, lest it should render them presumptuous, and cause them to disturb the State. (No es licito que enseñen á los hijos de los Plebeios las Ciencias, porque la gente baja no se eleve y ensobervezca y menoscabe la Republica; Garcilaso, p. i. p. 276.) Thus the theocracy of the Incas may be said to have resembled the Slave States in the free land of the North American Union.
[127]. p. 415—“Expected restoration of the Inca rule.”
I have treated this subject at length in another work.[[SK]] Sir Walter Raleigh had heard of an old prophecy current in Peru, which foretold “that from Inglaterra those Ingas shoulde be againe in time to come restored and deliuered from the seruitude of the said conquerors. I am resolued that if there were but a small army afoote in Guiana marching towards Manoa, the chiefe citie of Inga, he would yield her Majesty by composition, so many hundred thousand pounds yearely, as should both defend all enemies abroad and defray all expenses at home, and that he woulde besides pay a garrison of 3000 or 4000 soldiers very royally to defend him against other nations. The Inca will be brought to tribute with great gladnes.”[[SL]] A restoration project, which promised to be highly satisfactory to both parties, but, unfortunately for the success of the scheme, the dynasty which was to be restored and which was to pay for the restoration was wanting.
[128]. p. 418—“The adventurous expedition of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.”
I have, in another work, mentioned the fact that Columbus, long before his death, full ten years prior to Balboa’s expedition, was aware of the existence of the South Sea, and its near proximity to the eastern coast of Veragua.[[SM]] Columbus was led to the knowledge of this fact, not by theoretical speculations on the configuration of Eastern Asia, but by positive and local information obtained from the inhabitants themselves, information which he collected on his fourth voyage (11th May, 1502, to the 7th November, 1504). This fourth voyage led the Admiral from the coast of Honduras to the Puerto de Mosquitos, and even as far as the western extremity of the Isthmus of Panama. The natives reported (and Columbus commented on their reports in the Carta rarissima of the 7th of July, 1503), “that not far from the Rio de Belen, the other sea (the South Sea), turns (boxa) to the mouths of the Ganges; so that the countries of the Aurea (i.e., the Chersonesus Aurea of Ptolemy) are situated, in relation to the eastern shores of Veragua, as Tortosa (at the mouth of the Ebro) is in relation to Fuentarabia (on the Bidassoa) in Biscay, or as Venice in respect to Pisa.” But, although Balboa first saw the South Sea from the heights of the Sierra de Quarequa, on the 25th of September,[[SN]] it was several days later before Alonzo Martin de Don Benito, who had discovered a passage from the mountains of Quarequa to the gulf of San Miguel, embarked on the South Sea in a canoe.[[SO]]
The recent acquisition of the western coast of the New Continent by the United States of North America, and the fame of the golden treasures of New (now called Upper) California, have rendered the question of forming a direct communication between the shores of the Atlantic and the western regions, by the isthmus of Panama, more urgent than ever. I, therefore, consider it my duty here once more to direct attention to the fact, that the shortest route to the shores of the Pacific, as pointed out by the natives to Alonzo Martin de Don Benito, is in the eastern part of the Isthmus, and led to the Golfo de San Miguel. We know that Columbus[[SP]] sought for a narrow pass (estrecho de tierra firme); and in the official documents extant, of the dates of 1505, 1507, and especially in that of 1514, mention is made of the sought-for opening (abertura), and of the pass (passo), which, in this district, should lead directly to the “Indian Land of Spices.” A channel of communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, is a subject which has more or less occupied my attention for the space of forty years; and in my published works, as well as in the several memoirs which, with honourable confidence, the Free States of Spanish America have requested me to write, I have constantly recommended a hypsometrical survey of the Isthmus throughout its whole length, but more especially at two points, viz., where at Darien and what was formerly the deserted province of Biruquete, it joins the South American Continent, and where, between Atrato and the Bay of Cupica, on the shore of the Pacific, the mountain chain of the Isthmus almost entirely disappears.[[SQ]]
In the year 1828 and 1829, General Bolivar, at my request, caused the Isthmus between Panama and the mouth of the Rio Chagres to be accurately levelled by Lloyd and Falmarc.[[SR]] Since that time, other measurements have been executed by intelligent and experienced French engineers, and plans have been drawn out for canals and railways with locks and tunnels. But these measurements have invariably been made in the meridian direction between Porto-bello and Panama, or westward from thence, towards Chagres and Cruces. The most important points of the eastern and south-eastern parts of the Isthmus, on both shores, have in the meantime been overlooked. Until those parts shall be described geographically, according to accurate (but easily obtained) chronometrical determinations of latitude and longitude; and hypsometrically, with reference to their superficial conformation, by barometrical measurements and elevations, I see no reason to alter the views I have always entertained on this subject. Accordingly, at the present time (1849), I here repeat the opinion I have often before expressed; viz., that the assertion is groundless and altogether premature, that the Isthmus of Panama is unsuited to the formation of an Oceanic Canal—one with fewer sluices than the Caledonian Canal—capable of affording an unimpeded passage, at all seasons of the year, to vessels of that class which sail between New York and Liverpool, and between Chili and California.
According to examinations, the results of which the Directors of the Deposito Hidrografico of Madrid have caused to be inserted in all their maps since 1809, it appears that on the Antillean shore of the Isthmus, the creek called the Ensenada de Mandinga, stretches so far to the south that its distance from the Pacific shore, eastward of Panama, appears to be only between 4 and 5 German geographical miles (15 to an equatorial degree) or 16 to 20 English geographical miles. On the Pacific coast also, the deep Golfo de San Miguel, into which falls the Rio Tuyra, with its tributary the river Chuchunque (Chucunaque), runs far into the Isthmus. The river Chuchunque too, in the upper part of its course, runs within 16 geographical miles of the Antillean shore of the Isthmus, westward of Cape Tiburon. For upwards of twenty years I have been repeatedly consulted on the problem of the Isthmus of Panama, by companies having ample pecuniary means at their disposal; but in no instance has the simple advice I have given been followed. Every engineer who has been scientifically educated knows the fact that between the tropics, even without corresponding observations, good barometrical measurements (horary variations being taken into account) may be relied on as correct, within from 75 to 96 feet. Besides it would be easy to establish, for the space of a few months, one on each shore, two fixed barometric stations; and frequently to compare the portable instruments used in the preliminary levelling with each other, and with those at the fixed stations. The point demanding the most attentive examination is that where the range of mountains between the Isthmus and the main continent of South America sinks into hills. Considering the importance of this subject to the commercial interests of the whole world, the examination should not, as heretofore, be restricted within narrow bounds. A complete comprehensive survey, including the whole eastern part of the Isthmus—the results of which would be alike useful in facilitating every possible scheme, whether of canals or railroads—can alone decide the much discussed problem, either affirmatively or negatively. This work will in the end be undertaken, but had my advice been adopted, it would have been done at first.
[129]. p. 418—“Impressions excited by the accidental circumstances of life.”
In Cosmos I have adverted to the incitements to the Study of Nature. (Vol. ii. p. 371, Bohn’s edition.)