The subject of this note was a second cousin twice removed of Garcilasso de la Vega the poet, whose poems were published with those of his friend Boscan in 1544.
So much for Garcilasso’s descent, which was sufficiently noble and distinguished. He was a young man of twenty-five years of age, tall, handsome, polished, generous, and well practised in the use of arms, when in 1531 he set out for the New World as a captain of infantry in company with Alonzo de Alvarado, who was returning to resume his government of Guatemala. That famous chief, on hearing of the riches of Peru, set out with a large fleet from Nicaragua, and landed in the bay of Caragues in March 1534. Garcilasso de la Vega accompanied him, and shared in all the terrible hardships and sufferings of the subsequent march to Riobamba. After the convention with Almagro, and the dispersion of Alvarado’s forces, Garcilasso was sent to complete the conquest of the country round the port of Buenaventura. He and his small band of followers forced their way for many days through dense uninhabited forests, enduring almost incredible hardships, and finding nothing to repay their labours. He displayed much constancy and endurance and persevered during a whole year, but, having lost eighty of his men from hunger and fever, he was at last obliged to retreat. He was nearly drowned in crossing the river Quiximies, and after many other strange adventures and narrow escapes, he reached the Spanish settlement of Puerto Viejo, and went thence to Lima, where Pizarro was closely besieged by the insurgent Indians. He then marched to the relief of Cuzco, and afterwards accompanied Gonzalo Pizarro in his expedition to the Collao and Charcas. On the arrival of Vaca de Castro in Peru, Garcilasso de la Vega joined him, and was wounded in the battle of Chupas. When Gonzalo Pizarro rose in rebellion against the viceroy Blasco Nuñez de Vela, Garcilasso and several other loyal knights fled from Cuzco to Arequipa, and thence up by the deserts of the coast to Lima, in order to share the fortunes of the viceroy. But when they arrived at Lima, that ill-fated and wrong-headed knight was gone, and the whole country was in favour of Gonzalo. The fugitives, therefore, concealed themselves as best they could. Garcilasso was lodged in the house of a friend, and afterwards hid himself in the convent of San Francisco. Through the intercession of friends Gonzalo Pizarro granted him a pardon, but detained him as a prisoner until he escaped to the army of Gasca on the morning of the battle of Xaquixaguana, galloping across the space between the two camps at early dawn, on his good horse Salinillas. He afterwards resided at his house in Cuzco until the rebellion of Giron broke out in 1554, when he once more showed his loyalty by escaping in the night, and joining the royal camp. After the fall of Giron, Garcilasso de la Vega was appointed corregidor and governor of Cuzco, where he appears to have devoted himself to the duties of his office, and, amongst other good deeds, restored the aqueduct which brought a supply of water from the lake of Chinchiru for a distance of two leagues, to irrigate the valley of Cuzco. His house was a centre of hospitality and kindness, where the conquerors fought their battles over again in the evenings, while Garcilasso’s wife, the Ynca princess, and her friends dispensed their numerous charities. Both he and his wife were engaged in acts of benevolence, and in collecting subscriptions for charitable purposes during the time that he held office. It is said that in one night they raised 34,500 ducats for a hospital for Indians. When Garcilasso was relieved of his charge, the Juez de Residencia, who came to review his administration, honourably acquitted him of the charges which were brought against him, and he retired into private life. He died at Cuzco in the year 1559, after a long illness.
Garcilasso de la Vega was married to a ñusta or Ynca princess, who was baptised under the name of Isabella in 1539. She was a daughter of Hualpa Tupac, a younger brother of the great Ynca Huayna Ccapac. By this lady he had a son, the well known historian, who was born at Cuzco in 1540. After his father’s death the young Garcilasso Ynca de la Vega, who had received his early education at a school in Cuzco, went to Spain. This was in 1560, when he was just twenty years of age. He fought against the rebel Moriscos under the banner of Don John of Austria, and afterwards settling at Cordova, devoted himself to literary pursuits. He wrote a history of the conquest of Florida, and the two parts of his Commentarios Reales were published in 1609 and 1616. An excellent second edition appeared at Madrid in 1722. His memory was well stored with the recollections of his youth, when he had learnt the history of the Yncas from his mother’s relations, and of the conquest from his father’s old companions in arms. He also quotes largely from Cieza de Leon, Gomara, Zarate, Fernandez, and Acosta, as well as from the manuscript of the missionary Blas Valera, a most important work which was destroyed when Lord Essex sacked the city of Cadiz. No man, therefore, could be better qualified to write a history of the early civilisation of the Yncas, and of the conquest of Peru by the Spaniards. He has been invaluable to me in explaining and illustrating the text of Cieza de Leon; and in gratitude I have therefore devoted a long note to an account of his father. The Ynca Garcilasso died in 1616 at the advanced age of seventy-six, and was buried at Cordova.
[286] Juan de Saavedra was a native of Seville. He afterwards accompanied Almagro in his expedition into Chile, and, when Hernando Pizarro was in his commander’s power, he persuaded the old marshal not to put his enemy to death. In the battle of Chupas he fought against the younger Almagro. When Gonzalo Pizarro and his unscrupulous old lieutenant Carbajal entered Lima and wreaked vengeance on those who had opposed them, Juan de Saavedra, with two other knights, were hung under circumstances of great barbarity.
[287] A castellano, in those days, was worth about £2:12 of our money; so that Alvarado was bought off by Pizarro for the sum of £260,00.
[288] Ulloa describes the ruins at Hatun-cañari as the largest and best built in the province of Quito. In the rear the building terminates in a high thick wall on the slope of a mountain. In the centre there is an oval tower containing two chambers. The walls are full of niches with stone pegs in them. The outer walls are very thick, with ramparts round the inner sides.
[289] Literally “Foam of the lake.” It was the name of one of the Yncas.
[290] The first Quichua grammar was composed by Father Santo Tomas, and printed at Valladolid in 1560, with a vocabulary as an appendix. This friar, a Dominican, was the first doctor who graduated in the University of Lima.
[291] Velasco says there were few traces left of the buildings at Tumebamba in his time. This was the favourite residence of the Ynca Huayna Ccapac.
[292] Garcilasso de la Vega quotes this statement from Cieza de Leon (i, lib. viii, cap. 5).