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

THE situation of this city of Leon de Huanuco is good, and is considered very healthy. It is praised as a place where the nights and mornings are cool, and where men are healthy, owing to a good climate. They reap wheat and maize in great abundance, and they also have grapes, figs, oranges, lemons, limes, and other fruits of Spain; and of the fruits of the country there are many kinds which are excellent. They grow the pulses of Spain, and besides all these there are large banana plantations. Thus it is a prosperous town, and there is hope that it will increase every day. They breed many cows, goats, and mares in the fields, and have abundance of pigeons, doves, partridges, and other birds, as well as falcons to fly at them.[406] In the forests there are some lions and very large bears, besides other animals. The royal roads passed through the villages near this city, and there were store-houses of the Yncas, well supplied with provisions.

In Huanuco there was a fine royal edifice, the stones of which were large and very accurately set. This palace was the chief place in the provinces of the Andes, and near it there was a temple of the sun, with many virgins and priests. It was so grand a place in the time of the Yncas, that more than 30,00 Indians were set apart solely for its service.[407] The overseers of the Indians had charge of the collection of tribute, and the people of the surrounding districts assisted the work at the palace with their services. When the Kings Yncas ordered that the lords of the provinces should appear personally at the court of Cuzco, they came. It is said that the Indians of many of these nations were hardy and valiant, and that, before the Yncas subjugated them, they had many cruel wars, so that the people were scattered and did not know each other, except when they gathered together at their assembles and festivals. They built fortresses on the heights, and carried on wars with each other on very slight provocation. Their temples were in places convenient for making sacrifices and performing other superstitious rites, and where those could hear the replies of the devil who were set apart for that duty. They believed in the immortality of the soul in that same blind fashion as is common with all the other Indians. These Indians of Huanuco are intelligent, but they answer Yes! to everything that is asked of them.[408] The chiefs, when they died, were not put into their tombs alone, but were accompanied by the most beautiful of their wives, as is the custom with all the other tribes. These dead men lie with their souls outside their bodies, and the women who are buried with them in the great vaults await the awful hour of death, holding it to be an auspicious and happy thing to go with their husbands and lords, and believing that they will soon again have to do them the same service as they did in this world. Thus it seemed to them that the sooner they departed from this life the sooner they would see their lords and husbands in the other. This custom originates, as I have said before on other occasions, from the apparition of the devil in the fields and houses, in the form of chiefs who had died, accompanied by their wives who had been buried alive. There were some sorcerers who watched the signs of the stars amongst these Indians.

After these people were conquered by the Yncas they adopted their rites and customs. In each of their villages there were royal store-houses, and they adopted more decent ways of dressing and ornamenting themselves, and spoke the general language of Cuzco in conformity with the law and edict of the Kings, which ordered that all their subjects should know and speak it.

The Conchucos, the great provinces of Huaylos, Tamara, Bombon, and other districts large and small, are under the jurisdiction of this city of Leon de Huanuco; they are all very fertile and productive, yielding many edible roots which are wholesome and nourishing, and good for the sustenance of animal life. In former times there was so great a number of flocks of sheep that they could not be counted, but the late wars have caused their destruction to such an extent that very few remain. The natives preserve them for the sake of their fleeces, from which they make their woollen clothing. The houses of these Indians are built of stone, and thatched with straw. On their heads they all wear peculiar head-dresses of cords, by which they are known. Although the devil has had great power over them, I have not heard that they commit the abominable crime. In truth, however, as in all other parts, there must be bad men among them.

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In many parts of this province they find great mines of silver, and when the Spaniards begin to work them they will yield largely.

CHAPTER LXXXI.

Of what there is to be said concerning the country from Caxamarca to the valley of Xauxa; and of the district of Guamachuco, which borders on Caxamarca.

HAVING told all that I was able to gather touching the foundation of the cities of the frontier of Chachapoyas and of Leon de Huanuco, I shall now return to the royal road, and describe the provinces between Caxamarca and the beautiful valley of Xauxa, a distance of eighty leagues, a little more or less, all traversed by the royal road of the Yncas.

Eleven leagues beyond Caxamarca there is another large province called Huamachuco, which was once very populous, and half way on the road to it there is a very pleasant and delightful valley. It is surrounded by mountains and is therefore cold, but a beautiful river flows through it, on the banks of which grow wheat, vines, figs, oranges, lemons, and many other plants which have been brought from Spain. In ancient times there were buildings for the chiefs in the meadows and dales of this valley, and many cultivated fields for them and for the temple of the sun. The province of Huamachuco is like that of Caxamarca, and the Indians are of the same race, imitating each other in their religion and sacrifices, as well as in their clothes and head-dress. In times past there were great lords in this province of Huamachuco who were highly favoured by the Yncas. In the principal part of the province there is a great plain, where the tampus and royal palaces were built, amongst which there are two the thickness of which was twenty-two feet, and the length as much as a horse’s gallop, all made of stone, embellished with huge beams, over which the straw was laid with much skill. Owing to the late troubles the greater part of the population of this province has perished. The climate is good, more cold than hot, and the country abounds in all things necessary for the sustenance of man. Before the Spaniards arrived there were great flocks of sheep in the province of Huamachuco, and in the lofty and uninhabited mountains there were other wild kinds, called guanacos and vicuñas, which resemble those which are domesticated.