The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

The innate love of pomp and etiquette, characteristic of the Latin race, was displayed in all its attractiveness on such occasions as the reception of a viceroy; and during the entire period of colonial rule the arrival of these dignitaries was marked by grand festivities. Blasco Nuñez de Vela entered Lima in magnificent state, under a canopy of crimson velvet, richly embroidered with the arms of Spain, and supported on poles of solid silver, which were carried by officials of the municipality, dressed in crimson satin robes that sparkled with jewels. The brilliant procession was met three leagues from the capital by the Bishop of Cuzco, Vaca de Castro, and the principal cavaliers of Lima, and on crossing the Rimac River was joined by the Bishop of Quito, the ecclesiastical council and remaining clergy, while at the entrance to the city the municipal corporation awaited the illustrious guest. An imposing pageant was presented as the viceroy, preceded by a cavalier in full armor bearing the mace of authority, and attended by a handsome retinue, passed under the triumphal arch at the city gates and proceeded to the Cathedral, along streets strewn with flowers, while the church bells chimed a joyous welcome and bands of music made a gay accompaniment. At the Cathedral Te Deum was sung, after which the procession moved on to the Palace, where the new viceroy took the oath of office. He inspired confidence by announcing that he would await the arrival of the Oidores and the installation of the Real Audiencia before proceeding with the question of the new ordinance.

When the Oidores entered Lima bearing the royal seal, the city was again the scene of a grand and imposing display. By order of the king, the royal seal was received with as much ceremony as attended a visit of his majesty to the cities of his kingdom. It was placed in a box covered with cloth of gold, and was borne by a magnificent charger, richly caparisoned and led by one of the city aldermen in gala dress, while four other officials in robes of crimson velvet carried above the royal insignia the canopy of state embroidered with the arms of Spain.

The Real Audiencia was duly installed, and everything went well in the beginning under the newly established authority, the council having decided to suspend the ordinance against encomiendas until word should arrive from Spain in answer to the petition for its repeal; except that immediate enforcement was made in the case of public functionaries. But, unfortunately, the viceroy and the Real Audiencia did not long agree on the policy of government, and their quarrels weakened the prestige of the colonial authority at a time when all its strength was needed to cope with the disaffected soldiers of the Conquest, who bitterly resented the way in which they were thrust aside, now that their services were no longer of prime necessity to the Crown. Gonzalo Pizarro saw that he was to have no share in the dignities and honors of the colonial government, and he took advantage of the quarrel between the viceroy and the Real Audiencia to raise a large army and march on Lima, the oidores treacherously aiding him; the viceroy escaped to Tumbes and marched to Quito, whither Pizarro followed, engaging the royal army in a fierce battle near that city, during which the sovereign’s representative was defeated and slain. The victor was then lord of Peru, and more independent of the royal authority than his illustrious brother, the Conqueror himself, had ever been; he could raise a powerful army, could control a large squadron, had at his disposal a million dollars annually, and his friends guarded the national ports of entry. He was acclaimed the liberator of Peru and made a grand triumphal march into the capital, amid the vivas of the multitude, the chime of church bells, and the strains of martial music. His companions would have crowned him king; but whether Pizarro vacillated because he knew too well the fickle character of his enthusiastic supporters, or whether the moment did not seem opportune for such a step, he never assumed the purple robes of royalty, though his authority was as absolute as that of a king.

DOORWAY OF A COLONIAL PALACE IN CUZCO. PERIOD FOLLOWING THE CONQUEST.

When the tidings reached Spain that the viceroy had been killed on the battlefield and that Gonzalo Pizarro reigned supreme in the colony, it caused the greatest consternation. A policy of conciliation was at once adopted, the law abolishing encomiendas was revoked, and a priest, Pedro Gasca, was appointed, not as viceroy, but as president of the Audiencia, with full power to represent the interests of the Crown in this difficult situation. Though an ecclesiastic, he was a brave soldier, added to which, he possessed a wonderful knowledge of human nature. By his tact he won many of Pizarro’s followers as soon as he landed at Tumbes, where he appeared clothed in the simple garb of a priest, with a breviary in his hand and the king’s pardon for all who would help him to establish peace in the country. His ranks were rapidly filled with deserters from Pizarro’s army as he marched across the mountains to meet the enemy, whom he encountered at Sacsahuaman, near Cuzco, and defeated. Pizarro was taken prisoner and executed. Gasca and his army then marched on to Lima, where the victor was received with even greater welcome and rejoicing than had greeted the victorious Pizarro. But it was not until some years later that the civil wars of the Conquerors finally came to an end. When Gasca returned to Spain, the second viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, who had previously held the same high office in Mexico, was appointed to take charge of affairs in Peru. He died the following year and the government passed into the hands of the Real Audiencia, until, in 1555, the third viceroy was named, Don Andres Hurtado de Mendoza, Marquis de Cañete, under whose judicious and energetic rule the country was pacified and the authority of the Crown of Spain securely established. During the administration of this able statesman the son of the Inca Manco, whose following was great in the sierra and around Cuzco, made a formal abdication in favor of the King of Spain, receiving in return an annuity of twenty thousand ducats and other grants. It is related that when the Inca went to Lima to take the oath of allegiance he was carried from Cuzco to the capital in a litter, borne on the shoulders of his faithful subjects, and that he received the homage of his people wherever he stopped along the route; but the poverty of his own state and the empty-handed greeting of his unhappy compatriots made his progress a via dolorosa of poignant significance. He survived the ordeal only three years, which he passed in melancholy seclusion. The successor of the Marquis de Cañete, the Count de Nieva, occupied the viceregal office for only a short time; he was assassinated by order of a jealous husband. His post was taken by an ecclesiastic, Lope Garcia de Castro, who, as President of the Real Audiencia, continued the work of organizing the various political institutions of the colony. Peru was divided into provinces governed by corregidores; the towns peopled by Spaniards had cabildos, or municipal councils, with alcaldes, or mayors, and aldermen; the Indians were governed through their caciques, whose authority was, and still is, recognized by the central government.

One of the most illustrious of the viceroys, Don Francisco de Toledo, son of the Count of Oropesa, ruled Peru from 1567 to 1580, and his rigorous though well-ordered government marked a new epoch in the history of the colony. He began his administration by making a grand tour of all the provinces, during which he informed himself as to the needs of the people and the laws required for their well-being. Accompanied by the priests Ondegardo and Acosta, both of whom became celebrated afterward as historians of the Conquest, and having in his suite an oidor and several eminent personages of his court, the great viceroy made an imposing progress, being received everywhere with a welcome fit for a king. Though autocratic in his methods, he was eminently successful in reforming the political organization of the country; the corregidores, alcaldes, municipal police, in fact, every employee of the government, received positive instructions as to the duties of his office. He abolished encomiendas and obliged the Indians to live in communities, in each of which a church was built and priests were appointed to give the inhabitants religious instruction. Hundreds of these communities or reducciones were founded by the viceroy’s order, and built up with adobe houses, straight, though narrow, streets, cabildos, jails, hospitals, and a tract of land to be held as community property and worked on shares. The viceroy also established a regular system for the labor by mita, or rotation, required of the Indians, as well as for the tribute they were obliged to pay from the age of eighteen to fifty; more than twelve thousand mitayos, as the rotation laborers were called, were consigned to the silver mines of Potosi, then at the height of their production, and three thousand to the mines of quicksilver in Huancavelica, recently discovered. The Crown granted ownership of the mines to any Spaniards who would guarantee to work them and to deliver to the king one-fifth of all the ores extracted, and the mita was established in order to supply the necessary labor to work the mines; but so cruel was the oppression of the unhappy mitayos that, it is said, only a tenth of them ever returned to their homes, the rest dying a miserable death under the heavy tasks inflicted on them by greedy and inhuman masters. The viceroys were charged, on the one hand, to protect the Indians, and on the other to increase by all means the royal fifth from the mines; their office was no sinecure.

CHURCH OF THE COMPAÑIA, AREQUIPA, SHOWING EXQUISITE HAND CARVING.

Not only did the Viceroy Toledo make laws to improve the Indian’s condition as far as was consistent with his duty to increase the “King’s fifth” to the utmost extent, but he also introduced reforms for the benefit of the Spanish colonists, establishing new schools, hospitals and other institutions. Social life began to show more distinctive features in the colonial capital than had been possible during the turbulent period immediately following the Conquest; the viceroy and ecclesiastics entertained with sumptuous festivals, and luxurious tastes and habits appeared among the nobility.