The travels of Pedro de Cieza de Léon, A.D. 1532-50, / contained in the first part of his Chronicle of Peru

by Pedro de Cieza de León

If good government consists in promoting the happiness and comfort of a people, and in securing them from oppression; if a civilising government is one which brings the means of communication and of irrigating land to the highest possible state of efficiency, and makes steady advances in all the arts,—then the government of the Yncas may fairly lay claim to those titles. The roads, irrigating channels, and other public works of the Yncas were superior to anything of the kind that then existed in Europe. Their architecture is grand and imposing. Their pottery and ornamental work is little inferior to that of Greeks and Etruscans. They were skilled workers in gold, silver, copper, bronze, and stone. Their language was rich, polished, and elegant. Their laws showed an earnest solicitude for the welfare of those who were to live under them. Above all, their enlightened toleration, for the existence of which there are the clearest proofs, is a feature in their rule which, in one point of view at least, and that a most important one, raises them above their contemporaries in every part of the world.[111]

Cieza de Leon bears testimony to the excellence of the government of the Yncas. The intelligent young soldier seems to have been astonished at the order and regularity, the beneficence and forethought which prevailed in the government of that empire which had just been shattered by his cruel countrymen. He says that the Yncas ruled with such wisdom that few in the world ever excelled them;[112] and, in another place, he comes to the conclusion that “if the ancient polity had been preserved, it would not have failed to bring the Indians nearer to the way of good living and conversation; for few nations in the world have had a better government than the Yncas.”[113]

But our author came to Peru fifteen years after the seizure of Atahualpa by Pizarro, and, short as the interval was, a terrible devastation had spread over the length and breadth of the land. Over and over again Cieza de Leon mentions the destruction of the people. In every valley he entered, they had been killed by the Spaniards by thousands, and their buildings reduced to ruins.[114] In many districts the whole population had been exterminated. In one place he says—“Nearly all these valleys are now almost deserted, having once been so densely peopled, as is well known to many persons.” He heard of misery and cruelty in every part of the land. He saw the palaces and store houses of the Yncas in ruins, the flocks slaughtered, the grand roads destroyed, and the posts for pointing the way in the deserts used for fire wood.[115] His barbarian countrymen pulled down the great works of irrigation,[116] and turned thousands of acres of fertile land into desert.

These sights excited the indignation of the humane and observant man at arms, who in this, as in many other respects, proved his superiority of head and heart over his brutal companions. Cieza de Leon felt warmly for the wrongs of the Indians, and devotes a chapter to show how God chastises those who are cruel to them.[117] But he was so steeped in the superstition of his age and country that all the simple rites of the Indians appeared to him to be the work of the devil, and in every harmless ceremony he saw the cloven feet. He tells us that the old men of every tribe in the Indies conversed with the enemy of mankind, and he mocks at their burying food with their dead for the journey to the other world, “as if hell was so very far off.”[118] The whole population of America was destined, according to our author, to eternal torments in the next world; yet it is unjust to blame him for asserting a belief which is held at the present day, and by the most tolerant church in Christendom.[119]

When uninfluenced by religious prejudices, he writes with an impartiality which does him the highest credit. He laments over the condition of the Indians, deplores the wanton destruction of their public works, and condemns the barbarity of the Spaniards. His superstitious folly is the result of his education, his merits are all his own. In arrangement, in trustworthiness, in accuracy, and in the value of his observations, the work of Cieza de Leon stands higher than that of any contemporary chronicler: and these qualities in his book are enhanced by the romantic life and noble disposition of its author. Cieza de Leon will, I think, be found an agreeable companion over a country of no common interest, at a most important period of its history; and so I consign him to the favourable attention of the members of the Hakluyt Society.

F I R S T P A R T
OF THE
CHRONICLE OF PERU:

Which treats of the boundaries of provinces, their
description, the founding of new cities, the rites and customs
of the Indians, and other strange things worthy to
be known.
Written by
PEDRO DE CIEZA DE LEON.
A NATIVE OF SEVILLE.

IN ANTWERP,
IN THE HOUSE OF JEAN STEELTZ.
M.D.LIIII.
Con privilegio.