[34] These names are not to be found in our best modern maps of Peru: but some other names not unlike, as Mayobamba, Chachapoyas, Partas, and Caxamarca, are in the present bishopric of Truxillo, the most northern in Peru proper, and therefore likely to have been the seat of war against the revolters in Quito.--E.
While the army of Huascar was celebrating their victory with great feasts and rejoicings, Atahualpa contrived to escape from the tambos or palace of Tumibamba in which he was confined, by digging through a very thick wall with a bar of copper, which he procured from a woman. He returned immediately to Quito, where he collected the remains of his defeated army, to whom he represented that his father had changed him into a serpent, by which means he had been enabled to escape from his prison through a small hole; and that his father had assured him of certain victory, if they would return along with him against the enemy. His troops were so much encouraged by this stratagem, that they followed him with great courage, believing themselves invincible under the protection of Huana Capac. He again attacked the army of Huascar, which in this second battle was entirely defeated. Such numbers were slain on both sides in these two battles, that even to this day large quantities of human bones remain in the places where they were fought. In pursuit of his victory, Atahualpa marched into the provinces which adhered to his brother, which he destroyed with fire and sword. He entirely destroyed the great city of Tumibamba, which stood on a plain watered by three great rivers. In his pursuing his conquests, he gave no quarter wherever he met with resistance but granted mercy and peace to all such districts as submitted quietly to his authority, obliging all the warriors to join his army, which by these means, increased continually as he advanced. On arriving at Tumbez he was desirous to take possession of the island of Puna, but as the curaca of that island defended himself courageously, Atahualpa did not think it prudent to waste much time in the attempt, more especially as he had intelligence of the approach of Huascar with a numerous army; for which reason he continued his march towards Cuzco, and arrived at Caxamarca, where he established his head-quarters. From this place he detached two of his principal officers at the head of two or three thousand light armed troops, with orders to reconnoitre the army of the enemy, and to bring him word of their numbers and situation. When this party had arrived at no great distance from the camp of the enemy, they quitted the direct road and made a circuit among the woods and mountains, to prevent the enemy from discovering them. Procuring intelligence that Huascar had retired to a place at some distance from his camp, attended by seven hundred of his principal officers and nobles, on purpose to avoid the noise and confusion of his great army, they attacked his quarters by surprise, easily defeated his small escort, and made him prisoner. While endeavouring to make good their retreat to the camp of Atahualpa with their great prize, they were surrounded on every side by the vast army of the enemy, which could easily have exterminated them, being at least thirty to one. But the commanders of this fortunate detachment, immediately told Huascar that they would put him to death, if he did not instantly give orders to his army to retire: and at the same time assured him that his brother Atahualpa had no farther desire than to be permitted to enjoy the kingdom of Quito in peace, for which he would do homage to him as his king and lord. Huascar, terrified by the prospect of death, and believing their promise of restoration to liberty and dominion, issued peremptory orders to his army to desist from their intended attack and to return to Cuzco, which they did accordingly; and the Atahualpan officers carried Huascar a prisoner to Caxamarca, where they delivered him up to their master. Thus were the affairs of Peru situated when Don Francisco Pizarro arrived in that country with the Spaniards; which conjuncture was exceedingly favourable to his views of conquest, of which we shall give an account in the next section, as the great army of Huascar was entirely dispersed, and Atahualpa had dismissed a great proportion of his troops, after this fortunate event, which had placed his enemy in his hands.
Of the Peruvian History before the arrival of the Spaniards[35].
[35] The whole of this appendix to the first section is an addition to Zarate, extracted from Garcilasso de la Vega and Robertson; which, being too long for a note, has been placed in the text. The introductory part of this deduction is from the History of America, Vol. II p. 289. The list of kings is from Garcilasso, whose disarranged work is too confused for quotation.--E.
"Peru, like the rest of the New World, was originally possessed by small independent tribes, differing from each other in manners, and in their forms of rude policy. All, however, were so little civilized, that, if the traditions concerning their mode of life, preserved among their descendants, deserve credit, they must be classed among the most unimproved savages of America. Strangers to every species of cultivation or regular industry, without any fixed residence, and unacquainted with those sentiments and obligations which form the first bonds of social union, they are said to have roamed naked about the forests with which their country was then covered, more like wild beasts than like men. After they had struggled for ages with the hardships and calamities which are inevitable in such a state, and when no circumstance seemed to indicate the approach of any uncommon effort towards improvement, we are told that there appeared on the banks of the lake Titicaca, a man and woman of majestic form, and clothed in decent garments. They declared themselves to be children of the sun, sent by their beneficent parent, who beheld with pity the miseries of the human race, and who had commanded them to instruct and reclaim them. At their persuasion, enforced by reverence for the divinity in whose name they were supposed to speak, several of the dispersed savages united together, and receiving their commands as heavenly instructions, followed them to Cuzco where they settled, and where they begun to lay the foundations of a city, afterwards the capital of Peru."
"Manco Capac and Mama Ocollo, for such were the names of these extraordinary personages, having thus collected some wandering tribes, formed that social union which, by multiplying the desires, and uniting the efforts of the human species, excites industry and leads to improvement. Manco Capac instructed the men in agriculture and other useful arts; Mama Ocollo taught the women to spin and weave. By the labour of the one sex subsistence became less precarious; by that of the other life was rendered more comfortable. After securing the object of first necessity in an infant state, by providing food, raiment, and habitations for the rude people of whom he took charge, Manco Capac turned his attention towards introducing such laws and policy as might perpetuate their happiness. By his institutions, the various relations in private life were established, and the duties resulting from them prescribed with such propriety, as gradually formed a barbarous people to decency of manners. In public administration, the functions of persons in authority were so precisely defined, and the subordination of those under jurisdiction maintained with such a steady hand, that the society in which he presided soon assumed the aspect of a regular and well-governed state."
"Thus, according to the Indian traditions, was founded the empire of the Incas, or Lords of Peru. At first its extent was small; as the territory of Manco Capac did not reach above eight leagues from Cuzco: But within these narrow limits he exercised an uncontrolled authority. His successors, as their dominions extended, arrogated a similar jurisdiction over the new subjects which they acquired; the despotism of Asia was not more complete. The Incas were not only obeyed as monarchs, but revered as divinities. Their blood was held to be sacred, and by prohibiting intermarriages with the people, was never contaminated by mixing with that of any other race. The family thus separated from the rest of the nation, was distinguished by peculiarities in dress and ornaments, which it was unlawful for others to assume. The monarch himself appeared with ensigns of royalty reserved for him alone; and received from his subjects marks of obsequious homage and respect, which approached almost to adoration. But among the Peruvians, this unbounded power of their monarchs seems to have been uniformly accompanied with attention to the good of their subjects. It was not the rage of conquests, if we may believe the accounts of their countrymen, that prompted the Incas to extend their dominion, but the desire of diffusing the blessings of civilization, and the knowledge of the arts which they possessed, among the barbarous people whom they reduced. During a succession of twelve monarchs, it is said that not one deviated from this beneficent character."
"When the Spaniards first visited the coast of Peru in 1526, Huana Capac, the twelfth monarch from the founder of the state, was seated on the throne. He is represented as a prince distinguished not only for the pacific virtues peculiar to the race, but eminent for his martial talents. By his victorious arms the kingdom of Quito was subjected, a conquest of such extent and importance as almost doubled the power of the Peruvian empire. He was fond of residing in the capital of that valuable province which he had added to his dominions; and notwithstanding the ancient and fundamental law of the monarchy against polluting the royal blood by any foreign alliance, he married the daughter of the vanquished monarch of Quito. She bore him a son named Atahualpa, whom, on his death at Quito, which seems to have happened about the year 1529, he appointed his successor in that kingdom, leaving the rest of his dominions to Huascar, his eldest son, by a mother of the royal race. Greatly as the Peruvians revered the memory of a monarch who had reigned with greater reputation and splendour than any of his predecessors, the destination of Huana Capac concerning the succession appeared so repugnant to a maxim coeval with the empire, and founded on authority deemed sacred, that it was no sooner known at Cuzco than it excited general disgust. Encouraged by those sentiments of his subjects, Huascar required his brother to renounce the government of Quito, and to acknowledge him as his lawful superior. But it had been the first care of Atahualpa to gain a large body of troops which had accompanied his father to Quito. These were the flower of the Peruvian warriors, to whose valour Huana Capac had been indebted for all his victories. Atahuaipa first eluded the demand of his brother, and then marched against him in hostile array."
"Thus the ambition of two young princes, the title of the one founded on ancient usage, and of the other asserted by the veteran troops, involved Peru in civil war, a calamity to which it had been hitherto a stranger, under a succession of virtuous monarchs. In such a contest the issue was obvious. The force of arms triumphed over the authority of laws. Atahualpa remained victorious, and made a cruel use of his victory. Conscious of the defect in his own title to the throne, he attempted to exterminate the royal race, by putting to death all the children of the sun descended from Manco Capac, whom he could seize either by force or stratagem. From a political motive, the life of the unfortunate Huascar, who had been taken prisoner in a battle which decided the fate of the empire, was prolonged for some time; that, by issuing orders in his name, the usurper might more easily establish his own authority."