[56] On this point let the last of the Spanish conquerors give his remorseful testimony:—
“True confession and protestation in the hour of death by one of the first Spaniards, conquerors of Peru, named Marcio Serra de Lejesama, with his will proved in the city of Cuzco on the 15th of November 1589, before Geronimo Sanchez de Quesada, public notary—First, before beginning my will, I declare that I have desired much to give notice to his Catholic Majesty king Philip, our lord, seeing how good a Catholic and Christian he is, and how zealous in the service of the Lord our God, concerning that which I would relieve my mind of, by reason of having taken part in the discovery and conquest of these countries, which we took from the Lords Yncas, and placed under the royal crown, a fact which is known to his Catholic Majesty. The said Yncas governed in such a way that in all the land neither a thief, nor a vicious man, nor a bad dishonest woman was known. The men all had honest and profitable employment. The woods, and mines, and all kinds of property were so divided that each man knew what belonged to him, and there were no law suits. The Yncas were feared, obeyed, and respected by their subjects, as a race very capable of governing; but we took away their land, and placed it under the crown of Spain, and made them subjects. Your Majesty must understand that my reason for making this statement is to relieve my conscience, for we have destroyed this people by our bad examples. Crimes were once so little known among them, that an Indian with one hundred thousand pieces of gold and silver in his house, left it open, only placing a little stick across the door, as the sign that the master was out, and nobody went in. But when they saw that we placed locks and keys on our doors, they understood that it was from fear of thieves, and when they saw that we had thieves amongst us, they despised us. All this I tell your Majesty, to discharge my conscience of a weight, that I may no longer be a party to these things. And I pray God to pardon me, for I am the last to die of all the discoverers and conquerors, as it is notorious that there are none left but me, in this land or out of it, and therefore I now do what I can to relieve my conscience.” Calancha, lib. i, cap. 15, p. 98.
[57] See chapters xcvii and xcviii, and note, p. 356.
[60] For a full description of the ruins of Tiahuanaco see chapter cv; and notes at pages 375 to 378.
[62] See pages 363-4.