In the Peruvian religious system much attention was given to the service of dead chieftains by a class of special attendants organized like those who served the gods. There was, therefore, throughout the whole Inca domains, a large class of ecclesiastics well endowed with lands and serfs; at Cuzco at the time of the conquest most of the inhabitants of the pueblo were assigned to the service of some mummy. There was no hope for the living unless they could keep the good will of the dead; in all the affairs of life they had a part, food was set before the dead body at feasts and liquid refreshment was forced between the mummy’s lips.

Huascar, the rival of Atahuallpa for the chieftainship of the Incas, lost the support of the warrior class because he was reported to have said that all the dead ought to be buried and their property taken from them. He did not wish to rule over mummies, from less sentimental reasons than those once expressed on a celebrated occasion by the spirit of Achilles. There had undoubtedly originated in Peru a movement against the economic monopoly connected with the temple worship. An effort had been made to meet this difficulty on the part of the Inca chieftains, who apparently, in view of the multiplication of festivals and sacrifices, had adopted the policy of diminishing the worship of the minor divinities and of concentrating the sacrificial offerings as far as they could on the Creator, Sun, Thunder, Earth, and Moon.

Under Inca rule the simple tribal administration was retained throughout the group of districts which were added in rapid succession to the seat of the race at Cuzco. Each Inca pueblo had its local chief or curaca, to whom were assigned a certain number of llamas and those portions of the land that were worked for him by the peasantry, who did all the agricultural labor. Distributions of the same character were made in each pueblo for the use of the head chieftain who dwelt at Cuzco, the so-called Ccapac Inca, and for the service of the tribal chieftains. The products of these reservations were taken to Cuzco and deposited there in store-houses from whence the llama hair was given to the women of the chief pueblo and woven by them into cloth. The food and the cloth so prepared were either kept as stores for military expeditions or used for sacrificial purposes.

As the territory of the empire was enlarged, this original system was applied to it. In each central district there was the same arrangement of buildings secular and religious, the Inca-tampu and the Ccoricancha, to which the produce of the lands belonging to the overlord and the sun was brought at regular intervals. These stations are found generally throughout the Inca domains, except in the coast-valleys. Between them were minor stations where two messengers were kept to carry orders from one stage to the other. Where there were natural difficulties to be overcome, in the long line of communication between the capitals Quito and Cuzco, a distance of 1500 miles in extent, causeways were built, and over streams and torrents enduring bridges were stretched, made of timber laid in strong ropes of twisted grass. There was a second road along the coast of the same length, but here, where the country was sandy, nothing was to be found save direction marks to indicate the correct track to be followed. In Cuzco there are still standing massive, finely-executed foundation walls which attest the skill of Inca builders. The temple of the sun can still be traced in the edifices of the European occupation. On an elevation commanding the road which led to middle Peru, the coast-valleys, and the northern colony there stands an impressive mass of cyclopean masonry, the fortress of Sacsahuaman, which represents the great terraced fortress begun by the founder of the Inca dominion and apparently not yet finished at the time of the conquest.

Though the Incas preserved a systematic administration that worked with mechanical accuracy over the area of their empire, it was at best a despotism, and their chieftains were nothing better than crude and brutal tyrants. The mental capacity of the race seems to have been below that of the people of Mexico, and their culture was certainly lower, as is seen in the absence of artistic advance on their part along with their inability to invent picture-writing, to work out the divisions of time, or to elaborate a system of numbers, although they were acquainted with denary arithmetic, and regularly observed the solstices. As warriors, they seem to have been drilled efficiently but mechanically; they were unable to foresee changes or adapt themselves to them when they came. They were vanquished by the Europeans more easily than the Aztecs had been, and their downfall was brought about by the assistance rendered the Spaniards by hosts of native allies.

IV
PIZARRO

The discovery of the Pacific Ocean and the foundation of the city of Panama on the narrow peninsula, led to the undertaking of voyages of exploration farther south, and this in turn to the entrance into Inca territory. In one of these enterprises progress was made as far as the Gulf of Guayaquil. The unanimous report was that the country for hundreds of miles was in a state of nature, unoccupied, unhealthful, covered with swamps, forests, and lofty mountains; but the voyagers had also heard that farther on to the south there was an empire, Bisu by name, civilized and notorious for its great wealth.

Francisco Pizarro

(From the original painting in the palace of the Viceroys at Lima.)