The Licentiate Fernando Montesinos, a native of Osuna, was one of the most diligent of all those who in early times made researches into the history and traditions of the Incas. Montesinos went out in the fleet which took the Viceroy Count of Chinchon to Peru, arriving early in the year 1629. Having landed at Payta, Montesinos travelled southwards towards the capital until he reached the city of Truxillo. At that time Dr. Carlos Marcelino Corni was Bishop of Truxillo.[1247] Hearing of the virtue and learning of Montesinos, Dr. Corni begged that he might be allowed to stop at Truxillo, and take charge of the Jesuits’ College which the good bishop had established there. Montesinos remained at Truxillo until the death of Bishop Corni, in October, 1629,[1248] and then proceeded to Potosi, where he gave his attention to improvements in the methods of extracting silver. He wrote a book on the subject, which was printed at Lima, and also compiled a code of ordinances for mines with a view to lessening disputes, which was officially approved. Returning to the capital, he lived for several years at Lima as chaplain of one of the smaller churches, and devoted all his energies to the preparation of a history of Peru. Making Lima his headquarters, the indefatigable student undertook excursions into all parts of the country, wherever he heard of learned natives to be consulted, of historical documents to be copied, or of information to be found. He travelled over 1,500 leagues, from Quito to Potosi. In 1639 he was employed to write an account of the famous Auto de Fé which was celebrated at Lima in that year. His two great historical works are entitled Memorias Antiguas Historiales del Peru, and Anales ó Memorias Nuevas del Peru.[1249] From Lima Montesinos proceeded to Quito as “Visitador General,” with very full powers conferred by the bishop.
The work of Montesinos remained in manuscript until it was translated into French by M. Ternaux Compans in 1840, with the title Mémoires Historiques sur l’ancien Pérou. In 1882 the Spanish text was very ably edited by Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada.[1250] Montesinos gives the history of several dynasties which preceded the rise of the Incas, enumerating upwards of a hundred sovereigns. He professes to have acquired a knowledge of the ancient records through the interpretations of the quipus, communicated to him by learned natives. It was long supposed that the accounts of these earlier sovereigns received no corroboration from any other authority. This furnished legitimate grounds for discrediting Montesinos. But a narrative, as old or older than that of the licentiate, has recently been brought to light, in which at least two of the ancient sovereigns in the lists of Montesinos are incidentally referred to. This circumstance alters the aspect of the question, and places the Memorias Antiquas del Peru in a higher position as an authority; for it proves that the very ancient traditions which Montesinos professed to have received from the natives had previously been communicated to one other independent inquirer at least.
This independent inquirer is an author whose valuable work has recently been edited by Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada.[1251] His narrative is anonymous, but internal evidence establishes the fact that he was a Jesuit, and probably one of the first who arrived in Peru in 1568, although he appears to have written his work many years afterwards. The anonymous Jesuit supplies information respecting works on Peruvian civilization which are lost to us. He describes the temples, the orders of the priesthood, the sacrifices and religious ceremonies, explaining the origin of the erroneous statement that human sacrifices were offered up. He also gives the code of criminal law and the customs which prevailed in civil life, and concludes his work with a short treatise on the conversion of the Indians.
The efforts of the viceroys and archbishops of Lima during the early part of the seventeenth century to extirpate idolatry, particularly in the province of Lima, led to the preparation of reports by the priests who were entrusted with the duty of extirpation, which contain much curious information. These were the Fathers Hernando de Avendaño, Francisco de Avila, Luis de Teruel, and Pablo José de Arriaga. Avendaño, in addition to his sermons in Quichua, wrote an account of the idolatries of the Indians,—Relacion de las Idolatrias de los Indios,—which is still in manuscript. Avila was employed in the province of Huarochiri, and in 1608 he wrote a report on the idols and superstitions of the people, including some exceedingly curious religious legends. He appears to have written down the original evidence from the mouths of the Indians in Quichua, intending to translate it into Spanish. But he seems to have completed only six chapters in Spanish; or perhaps the translation is by another hand. There are still thirty-one chapters in Quichua awaiting the labors of some learned Peruvian scholar. Rising Quichua students, of whom there are not a few in Peru, could undertake no more useful work. This important report of Avila is comprised in a manuscript volume in the National Library at Madrid, and the six Spanish chapters have been translated and printed for the Hakluyt Society.[1252] Teruel was the friend and companion of Avila. He also wrote a treatise on native idolatries,[1253] and another against idolatry,[1254] in which he discusses the origin of the coast people. Arriaga wrote a still more valuable work on the extirpation of idolatry, which was printed at Lima in 1621, and which relates the religious beliefs and practices of the people in minute detail.[1255]
Antiquarian treasures of great value are buried in the works of ecclesiastics, the principal objects of which are the record of the deeds of one or other of the religious fraternities. The most important of these is the Coronica Moralizada del orden de San Augustin en el Peru; del Padre Antonio de la Calancha (1638-1653),[1256] which is a precious storehouse of details respecting the manners and customs of the Indians and the topography of the country. Calancha also gives the most accurate Inca calendar. Of less value is the chronicle of the Franciscans, by Diego de Cordova y Salinas, published at Madrid in 1643.
A work, the title of which gives even less promise of containing profitable information, is the history of the miraculous image of a virgin at Copacabana, by Fray Alonso Ramos Gavilan. Yet it throws unexpected light on the movements of the mitimaes, or Inca colonists; it gives fresh details respecting the consecrated virgins, the sacrifices, and the deities worshipped in the Collao, and supplies another version of the Inca calendar.[1257]
The work on the origin of the Indians of the New World, by Fray Gregorio Garcia,[1258] who travelled extensively in the Spanish colonies, is valuable, and to Garcia we owe the first notice of the priceless narrative of Betanzos. His separate work on the Incas is lost to us.[1259] Friar Martin de Múrua, a native of Guernica, in Biscay, was an ecclesiastic of some eminence in Peru. He wrote a general history of the Incas, which was copied by Dr. Muñoz for his collection, and Leon Pinelo says that the manuscript was illustrated with colored drawings of insignia and dresses, and portraits of the Incas.[1260]
The principal writers on Inca civilization in the century immediately succeeding the conquest, of the three different professions,—soldiers, lawyers, and priests,—have now been passed in review. Attention must next be given to the native writers who followed in the wake of Blas Valera. First among these is the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, an author whose name is probably better known to the general reader than that of any other who has written on the same subject. Among the Spanish conquerors who arrived in Peru in 1534 was Garcilasso de la Vega, a cavalier of very noble lineage,[1261] who settled at Cuzco, and was married to an Inca princess named Chimpa Ocllo, niece of the Inca Huayna Ccapac. Their son, the future historian, was born at Cuzco in 1539, and his earliest recollections were connected with the stirring events of the civil war between Gonzalo Pizarro and the president La Gasca, in 1548. His mother died soon afterwards, probably in 1550, and his father married again. The boy was much in the society of his mother’s kindred, and he often heard them talk over the times of the Incas, and repeat their historical traditions. Nor was his education neglected; for the good Canon Juan de Cuellar read Latin with the half-caste sons of the citizens of Cuzco for nearly two years, amidst all the turmoil of the civil wars. As he grew up, he was employed by his father to visit his estates, and he travelled over most parts of Peru. The elder Garcilasso de la Vega died in 1560, and the young orphan resolved to seek his fortune in the land of his fathers. On his arrival in Spain he received patronage and kindness from his paternal relatives, became a captain in the army of Philip II, and when he retired, late in life, he took up his abode in lodgings at Cordova, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. His first production was a translation from the Italian of “The Dialogues of Love,” and in 1591 he completed his narrative of the expedition of Hernando de Soto to Florida.[1262]
HOUSE IN CUZCO IN WHICH GARCILASSO WAS BORN.