In the before mentioned order of succession, the empire of the Incas fell in process of time to a sovereign named Huana Capac[31], which signifies the young rich man. This prince made great conquests, and augmented the empire more considerably than had been done by any one of his predecessors, and ruled over the whole more reasonably and with greater justice and equity than had ever been done by the former sovereigns. He established everywhere the most perfect police, and exact rules for cultivating the earth; ruling and governing among a barbarous and ignorant nation with the most surprising order and justice; and the love and obedience of his subjects was equally wonderful and perfect. They gave him a signal proof of this, worthy of being mentioned, in the construction of two roads through the whole extent of Peru for his more convenient travelling; of which the difficulty labour and expence equal or even surpass all that the ancients have written of the seven wonders of the world. Huana Capac, in marching from Cuzco to conquer the kingdom of Quito, had to march five hundred leagues by the mountains, where he had everywhere to encounter excessive difficulties, from bad roads, rocks, precipices and ravines, almost impracticable in many places. After he had successfully executed this great enterprize, by the conquest and submission of Quito and its dependencies, his subjects conceived that it was incumbent on them to do honour to his victorious career, by preparing a commodious road for his triumphant return to Cuzco. They accordingly undertook, and executed by prodigious labour, a broad and easy road through the mountains of five hundred leagues in length, in the course of which they had often to dig away vast rocks, and to fill up valleys and precipices of thirty to forty yards in depth. It is said that this road, when first made, was so smooth and level that it would have admitted a coach with the utmost ease through its whole length; but since that time it has suffered great injuries, especially during the wars between the Spaniards and the Peruvians, having been broken up in many places, on purpose to obstruct the invasion of the enemy. The grandeur and difficulty of this vast undertaking may be readily conceived, by considering the labour and cost which has been expended in Spain to level only two leagues of a mountain road between Segovia and Guadarrama, and which after all has never been brought to any degree of perfection, although the usual passage of the king and court on travelling to or from Andalusia or the kingdom of Toledo. Not satisfied with this first astonishing labour, the Peruvians soon afterwards undertook another of a similar and no less grand and difficult kind. Huana Capac was fond of visiting the kingdom of Quito which he had conquered, and proposed to travel thither from Cuzco by way of the plain, so as to visit the whole of his extensive dominions. For his accommodation likewise, his subjects undertook to make a road also in the plain; and for this purpose they constructed high mounds of earth across all the small vallies formed by the various rivers and torrents which descend from the mountain, that the road might be everywhere smooth and level This road was near forty feet wide, and where it crossed the sandy heights which intervene betwixt the verdant vallies of the torrents, it was marked on each side by stakes, forming palings in straight lines to prevent any one losing the way. This road was five hundred leagues in length like that of the mountain; but the palings are now wanting in many places, the wood of which they were constructed having been used by the Spaniards for fuel during the war; but the mounds still exist across the vallies, and most of them are yet tolerably entire, by which the grandeur of the entire work may be judged of. In his journeys to and from Quito, Huana Capac used to go by one of these roads and return by the other; and during his whole journey his subjects used to strew the way with branches and flowers of the richest perfume.
[31] By Zarate this Inca is named Guaynacava, but the more general name used by Garcilasso de la Vega and other Spanish writers, and from them by the illustrious Robertson, is adopted in this translation.--E.
Besides the two great roads already mentioned, Huana Capac ordered to be built on the mountain road a number of large palaces, at the distance of a days journey from each other, having a prodigious number of apartments, sufficient to lodge his own personal suite and all his army. Such were likewise built along the road in the plain, but not so numerous or so near each other as on the mountain road, as these palaces of the plain had all to be placed on the sides of the rivers for convenience and the procurement of provisions and other necessaries; so that they were in some places eight or ten leagues distant from each other, and in other places fifteen or twenty leagues. These buildings were named tambos, and the neighbouring Indians were bound to furnish each of these with provisions and every thing else that might be wanted for the royal armies; insomuch that in each of these tambos, in case of necessity, clothing and arms could be had for twenty or thirty thousand men. Huana Capac was always escorted by a considerable body of soldiers, armed with lances, halberts, maces, and battle axes, made of silver or copper, and some of them even of gold.
In their armies, besides these arms, the Peruvians used slings, and javelins having their points hardened in the fire. On such parts of their rivers as furnished materials for the purpose, they built wooden bridges; and where timber could not be had, they stretched across the stream two large cables made of a plant named maguey, forming a kind of net work between these of smaller ropes and masts, strong enough to answer the purpose of a bridge. In this manner they constructed bridges of a surprizing magnitude; some of them being thirty yards broad and four hundred yards long[32]. In such places as did not admit of the construction of bridges, they passed over rivers by means of a cable or thick rope extended from side to side, on which they hung a large basket, which was drawn over by means of a smaller rope. All these bridges were kept in repair by the inhabitants of the districts in which they stood.
[32] Garcilasso de la Vega, p. 65, describes the bridge over the Apurimac not far from Cuzco, as about two hundred paces in length. He says that its floor consisted of three great cables as thick as the body of a man; having another cable on each side, a little raised, to serve as rails. The two hundred toises or four hundred yards of the text seem an exaggeration; perhaps a mistake of the French translator.--E.
The king of Peru was always carried in a species of litter covered over with plates of gold, and was attended by more than a thousand of the principal native nobles, who relieved each other in carrying the royal litter on their shoulders. All these men were counsellors, principal officers of the household, or favourites of the prince. The caciques or curacas of the different provinces were likewise carried in litters on the shoulders of their vassals. The Peruvians were exceedingly submissive to their sovereigns, insomuch that even the most powerful lord always entered the presence barefooted, and carrying some present wrapped up in a cloth, as a mark of homage; and even if one person had occasion to go an hundred times in one day to speak to the king, the present had to be repeated every time he went. To look the king in the face was considered as a criminal disrespect; and if any one should happen to stumble while carrying the royal litter, so as to make it fall, his head was immediately cut off. At every half league on the public roads throughout the whole empire, there were Indians in constant attendance to relieve each other in carrying dispatches, which they did swifter than our post horses. When any province or district was subdued, the natives of the place, or at least all their chiefs and principal people, were immediately removed to other parts of the empire, and natives from other places which had been long subjected were sent to occupy the new conquest, by which means the fidelity and submission of the whole were secured. From every province of the empire, yearly tributes of the several productions of their respective countries were sent to the king; and even some sterile districts above three hundred leagues distant from Cuzco, had to send yearly a number of lizards as a mark of their submission, having nothing of any value to send. Huana Capac rebuilt the temple of the sun at Cuzco, and covered over all the walls and the roof of that structure with plates of gold and silver. During his reign, one Chimocappa, who was curaca or prince of a large district in the plain, above a hundred leagues in length, chose to erect the standard of rebellion; but Huana Capac marched against him in person, defeated him in battle, and put him to death; after which he commanded that the Indians of the plain should not be permitted to carry arms. Yet he allowed the son and successor of Chimocappa to remain in the province of Chimo, in which the city of Truzillo has been since built.
Peru was astonishingly full of those animals called sheep; as Huana Capac and his predecessors had established laws for their multiplication and preservation. Every year a certain proportion of these animals belonging to individuals were set apart as a kind of tythe or offering to the sun, and these consecrated animals multiplied greatly, no person being allowed to injure them under pain of sacrilege, except the prince only for his own use or that of his army. On such occasions, he gave orders for one of these hunts called chacos, formerly mentioned, at some of which twenty or thirty thousand sheep have been taken at one time. Gold was in great request among the Peruvians, as the king and all the principal persons of the empire used it for the construction of vessels for all uses, as ornaments for their persons, and as offerings to their gods. The king had everywhere carried along with him a kind of couch or table of gold, of sixteen carats fine, on which he used to sit, and which was worth 25,000 ducats of standard gold. This was chosen by Don Francisco Pizarro, at the time of the conquest, in consequence of an agreement, by which he was authorized to appropriate some single jewel or valuable article to his own use, besides his regular share of the plunder. When the eldest son of Huana Capac was born, he ordered a prodigious chain or cable of gold to be made, so large and heavy that two hundred men were hardly able to lift it. In remembrance of this circumstance, the infant was named Huascar, which signifies a cable or large rope, as the Peruvians have no word in their language signifying a chain. To this name of Huascar was added the surname Inca, belonging to all their kings, just as Augustus was given to all the Roman emperors. Huana Capac had several large magazines full of gold in various shapes, such as the figures of men and women, of sheep and animals of all kinds, and of all the kinds of plants which are found in the country, all accurately represented. He had also great quantities of vestments of various kinds, and many slings, in which the fabric was mixed with gold threads; and many bars of gold and silver made like billets of fire wood.
Although the main object of this history is to relate the Spanish Discovery and Conquest of Peru, it seems proper to explain the circumstances under which they found the affairs of that empire at their arrival; by which we shall have occasion to admire the wisdom of Providence, in permitting that enterprize to take place at a time when that vast country was divided into two hostile parties, which greatly facilitated the conquest. After Huana Capac had reduced many provinces to submission, to the extent of five hundred leagues from Cuzco, he undertook in person to make the conquest of the kingdom of Quito, which bounded with his empire in the north-west. Having successfully accomplished that great enterprise, finding the country exceedingly pleasant, he continued to reside there for a long while, leaving at Cuzco several of his children, both sons and daughters, among whom were his eldest son Huascar Inca, Manco Inca, Paul Inca, and several others. While at Quito, he took to wife the daughter of the former lord of that country, by whom he had a son named Atahualpa or Atabalipa, of whom he was very fond, and whom he left to be educated in Quito when he returned to Cuzco. After residing for some years in Cuzco, he made a journey back to Quito, partly because he delighted in that country which he had subdued, and partly from affection for his son Atahualpa, whom he loved more than all the rest of his children. He continued to reside in Quito all the rest of his life; and at his death, he bequeathed the kingdom of Quito to Atahualpa[33], which had belonged to his maternal ancestors. On his death, Atahualpa secured the affection of the army, and got possession of all the treasure which his father had in Quito, but the far greater proportion of the treasure remained in Cuzco, as too heavy for transportation, and accordingly fell to Huascar, the eldest son.
[33] This prince is called Atabaliba by Zarate, and Atabalipa by some other writers, but we have chosen to follow the illustrious historian of America in naming him Atahualpa.--E.
Atahualpa sent ambassadors to his eldest brother Huascar, informing him of the death of their father, and assuring him of his loyalty and obedience; yet requesting that he might be permitted to retain the command of the kingdom of Quito, the conquest of his father; which he alleged was beyond the limits of the Peruvian empire, and ought not therefore to follow the ordinary rules of primogeniture, more especially as Atahualpa was the legitimate heir of that country in right of his mother and grandfather. Huascar sent back for answer, that if Atahualpa would come to Cuzco and give up the army, he should receive lands and possessions sufficient to enable him to live according to his rank; but that he would on no account give up Quito, a frontier province of the empire, where of course he must keep up a body of troops for the defence of the whole. Huascar added, that if Atahualpa refused submission to these conditions, he would march in person against him as a declared enemy. On receiving this message, Atahualpa consulted two of his fathers principal officers, Quiz-quiz and Cilicuchima, brave and experienced warriors, who advised him not to wait the invasion of his brother, but to take the field without delay and march against him; as the army which was under his orders was sufficient to enable him to acquire the whole provinces of the empire, and would increase on the march by means of the provinces which intervened between Quito and Cusco. Atahualpa followed this advice and gradually made himself master of the country through which he marched. Huascar, on hearing of the hostile proceedings of his brother, sent some light-armed troops against him. The commander of these troops advanced to the province of Tumibamba about a hundred leagues from Quito; and learning that Atahualpa had taken the field, he sent a courier to Cuzco with notice of the state of the affairs, and to request that he might be furnished with two thousand officers of experience; by means of whom he could arm thirty thousand men of the warlike province called Cagnares which remained in allegiance to Huascar. These two thousand experienced warriors were immediately sent, by whose means, and with assistance of the curacas of Tumibamba, Chaparras, Paltas, and Cagnares[34], in that neighbourhood, Huascars general was enabled to collect a formidable army. Atahualpa marched against this army, with whom he fought a battle which lasted three days, in which he was at last defeated and made prisoner, in attempting to escape by the bridge of Tumibamba.