History of the Conquest of Peru Part 6

"We must spare our enemies," one of the Peruvian princes is quoted as saying, "or it will be our loss, since they and all that belongs to them must soon be ours." *59 It was a wise maxim, and, like most other wise maxims, founded equally on benevolence and prudence. The Incas adopted the policy claimed for the Romans by their countryman, who tells us that they gained more by clemency to the vanquished than by their victories. *60

[Footnote 59: "Mandabase que en los mantenimientos y casas de los enemigos se hiciese poco dano, diciendoles el Senor, presto seran estos nuestros como los que ya lo son; como esto tenian conocido, procuraban que la guerra fuese la mas liviana que ser pudiese."

Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 14.]

[Footnote 60: "Plus pene parcendo victis, quam vincendo imperium auxisse.' Livy, lib. 30, cap. 42.]

In the same considerate spirit, they were most careful to provide for the security and comfort of their own troops; and, when a war was long protracted, or the climate proved unhealthy, they took care to relieve their men by frequent reinforcements, allowing the earlier recruits to return to their homes. *61 But while thus economical of life, both in their own followers and in the enemy, they did not shrink from sterner measures when provoked by the ferocious or obstinate character of the resistance; and the Peruvian annals contain more than one of those sanguinary pages which cannot be pondered at the present day without a shudder.

It should be added, that the beneficent policy, which I have been delineating as characteristic of the Incas, did not belong to all; and that there was more than one of the royal line who displayed a full measure of the bold and unscrupulous spirit of the vulgar conqueror.

[Footnote 61: Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 6, cap. 18.]

The first step of the government, after the reduction of a country, was to introduce there the wors.h.i.+p of the Sun. Temples were erected, and placed under the care of a numerous priesthood, who expounded to the conquered people the mysteries of their new faith, and dazzled them by the display of its rich and stately ceremonial. *62 Yet the religion of the conquered was not treated with dishonor. The Sun was to be wors.h.i.+pped above all; but the images of their G.o.ds were removed to Cuzco and established in one of the temples, to hold their rank among the inferior deities of the Peruvian Pantheon. Here they remained as hostages, in some sort, for the conquered nation, which would be the less inclined to forsake its allegiance, when by doing so it must leave its own G.o.ds in the hands of its enemies. *63

[Footnote 62: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 14.]

[Footnote 63: Acosta, lib. 5, cap. 12. - Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 12.]

The Incas provided for the settlement of their new conquests, by ordering a census to be taken of the population, and a careful survey to be made of the country, ascertaining its products, and the character and capacity of its soil. *64 A division of the territory was then made on the same principle with that adopted throughout their own kingdom; and their respective portions were a.s.signed to the Sun, the sovereign, and the people. The amount of the last was regulated by the amount of the population, but the share of each individual was uniformly the same. It may seem strange, that any people should patiently have acquiesced in an arrangement which involved such a total surrender of property.

But it was a conquered nation that did so, held in awe, on the least suspicion of meditating resistance, by armed garrisons, who were established at various commanding points throughout the country. *65 It is probable, too, that the Incas made no greater changes than was essential to the new arrangement, and that they a.s.signed estates, as far as possible, to their former proprietors. The curacas, in particular, were confirmed in their ancient authority; or, when it was found expedient to depose the existing curaca, his rightful heir was allowed to succeed him.

*66 Every respect was shown to the ancient usages and laws of the land, as far as was compatible with the fundamental inst.i.tutions of the Incas. It must also be remembered, that the conquered tribes were, many of them, too little advanced in civilization to possess that attachment to the soil which belongs to a cultivated nation. *67 But, to whatever it be referred, it seems probable that the extraordinary inst.i.tutions of the Incas were established with little opposition in the conquered territories. *68

[Footnote 64: Ibid., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 13, 14. - Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 15.]

[Footnote 65: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 19.]

[Footnote 66: Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 2, lib. 3, cap.

11.]

[Footnote 67: Sarmiento has given a very full and interesting account of the singularly humane policy observed by the Incas in their conquests, forming a striking contrast with the usual course of those scourges of mankind, whom mankind are wise enough to requite with higher admiration, even, than it bestows on its benefactors. As Sarmiento, who was President of the Royal Council of the Indies, and came into the country soon after the Conquest, is a high authority, and as his work, lodged in the dark recesses of the Escurial, is almost unknown, I have transferred the whole chapter to Appendix, No. 3.]

[Footnote 68: According to Velasco, even the powerful state of Quito, sufficiently advanced in civilization to have the law of property well recognized by its people, admitted the inst.i.tutions of the Incas "not only without repugnance, but with joy." (Hist.

de Quito, tom. II. p. 183.) But Velasco, a modern authority, believed easily, - or reckoned on his readers' doing so.]

Yet the Peruvian sovereigns did not trust altogether to this show of obedience in their new va.s.sals; and, to secure it more effectually, they adopted some expedients too remarkable to be pa.s.sed by in silence. - Immediately after a recent conquest, the curacas and their families were removed for a time to Cuzco.

Here they learned the language of the capital, became familiar with the manners and usages of the court, as well as with the general policy of government, and experienced such marks of favor from the sovereign as would be most grateful to their feelings, and might attach them most warmly to his person. Under the influence of these sentiments, they were again sent to rule over their va.s.sals, but still leaving their eldest sons in the capital, to remain there as a guaranty for their own fidelity, as well as to grace the court of the Inca. *69

[Footnote 69: Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 12; lib. 7, cap. 2.]

Another expedient was of a bolder and more original character.

This was nothing less than to revolutionize the language of the country. South America, like North, was broken up into a great variety of dialects, or rather languages, having little affinity with one another. This circ.u.mstance occasioned great embarra.s.sment to the government in the administration of the different provinces, with whose idioms they were unacquainted.

It was determined, therefore, to subst.i.tute one universal language, the Quichua, - the language of the court, the capital, and the surrounding country, - the richest and most comprehensive of the South American dialects. Teachers were provided in the towns and villages throughout the land, who were to give instruction to all, even the humblest cla.s.ses; and it was intimated at the same time, that no one should be raised to any office of dignity or profit, who was unacquainted with this tongue. The curacas and other chiefs, who attended at the capital, became familiar with this dialect in their intercourse with the Court, and, on their return home, set the example of conversing in it among themselves. This example was imitated by their followers, and the Quichua gradually became the language of elegance and fas.h.i.+on, in the same manner as the Norman French was affected by all those who aspired to any consideration in England, after the Conquest. By this means, while each province retained its peculiar tongue, a beautiful medium of communication was introduced, which enabled the inhabitants of one part of the country to hold intercourse with every other, and the Inca and his deputies to communicate with all. This was the state of things on the arrival of the Spaniards. It must be admitted, that history furnishes few examples of more absolute authority than such a revolution in the language of an empire, at the bidding of a master. *70

[Footnote 70: Ibid., Parte 1, lib. 6, cap. 35; lib. 7, cap. 1, 2.

- Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms. - Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 55.

"Aun la Criatura no hubiese dejado el Pecho de su Madre quando le comenzasen a mostrar la Lengua que havia de saber; y aunque al principio fue dificultoso, e muchos se pusieron en no quere deprender mas lenguas de las suyas propias, los Reyes pudieron tanto que salieron con su intencion y ellos tubieron por bien de c.u.mplir su mandado y tan de veras se entendio en ello que en tiempo de pocos anos se savia y usaba una lengua en mas de mil y doscientas leguas." Ibid., cap. 21.]

Yet little less remarkable was another device of the Incas for securing the loyalty of their subjects. When any portion of the recent conquests showed a pertinacious spirit of disaffection, it was not uncommon to cause a part of the population, amounting, it might be, to ten thousand inhabitants or more, to remove to a distant quarter of the kingdom, occupied by ancient va.s.sals of undoubted fidelity to the crown. A like number of these last was transplanted to the territory left vacant by the emigrants. By this exchange, the population was composed of two distinct races, who regarded each other with an eye of jealousy, that served as an effectual check on any mutinous proceeding. In time, the influence of the well-affected prevailed, supported, as they were, by royal authority, and by the silent working of the national inst.i.tutions, to which the strange races became gradually accustomed. A spirit of loyalty sprang up by degrees in their bosoms, and, before a generation had pa.s.sed away, the different tribes mingled in harmony together as members of the same community. *71 Yet the different races continued to be distinguished by difference of dress; since, by the law of the land, every citizen was required to wear the costume of his native province. *72 Neither could the colonist, who had been thus unceremoniously transplanted, return to his native district.

For, by another law, it was forbidden to any one to change his residence without license. *73 He was settled for life. The Peruvian government prescribed to every man his local habitation, his sphere of action, nay, the very nature and quality of that action. He ceased to be a free agent; it might be almost said, that it relieved him of personal responsibility.

[Footnote 71: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms. - Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 11.]

[Footnote 72: "This regulation," says Father Acosta, "the Incas held to be of great importance to the order and right government of the realm." lib. 6, cap. 16.]

[Footnote 73: Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.]

In following out this singular arrangement, the Incas showed as much regard for the comfort and convenience of the colonist as was compatible with the execution of their design. They were careful that the mitimaes, as these emigrants were styled, should be removed to climates most congenial with their own. The inhabitants of the cold countries were not transplanted to the warm, nor the inhabitants of the warm countries to the cold. *74 Even their habitual occupations were consulted, and the fisherman was settled in the neighbourhood of the ocean, or the great lakes; while such lands were a.s.signed to the husbandman as were best adapted to the culture with which he was most familiar. *75 And, as migration by many, perhaps by most, would be regarded as a calamity, the government was careful to show particular marks of favor to the mitimaes, and, by various privileges and immunities, to ameliorate their condition, and thus to reconcile them, if possible, to their lot. *76

[Footnote 74: "Tras.m.u.taban de las tales Provincias la cantidad de gente de que de ella parecia convenir que saliese, a los cuales mandaban pasar a poblar otra tierra del temple y manera de donde salian, si fria fria, si caliente caliente, en donde les daban tierras, y campos, y casas, tanto, y mas como dejaron."

Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 19.]

[Footnote 75: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.]

[Footnote 76: The descendants of these mitimaes are still to be found in Quito, or were so at the close of the last century, according to Velasco, distinguished by this name from the rest of the population. Hist. de Quito, tom.l. p. 175.]

The Peruvian inst.i.tutions, though they may have been modified and matured under successive sovereigns, all bear the stamp of the same original, - were all cast in the same mould. The empire, strengthening and enlarging at every successive epoch of its history, was, in its latter days, but the development, on a great scale, of what it was in miniature at its commencement, as the infant germ is said to contain within itself all the ramifications of the future monarch of the forest. Each succeeding Inca seemed desirous only to tread in the path, and carry out the plans, of his predecessor. Great enterprises, commenced under one, were continued by another, and completed by a third. Thus, while all acted on a regular plan, without any of the eccentric or retrograde movements which betray the agency of different individuals, the state seemed to be under the direction of a single hand, and steadily pursued, as if through one long reign, its great career of civilization and of conquest.

The ultimate aim of its inst.i.tutions was domestic quiet. But it seemed as if this were to be obtained only by foreign war.

Tranquillity in the heart of the monarchy, and war on its borders, was the condition of Peru. By this war it gave occupation to a part of its people, and, by the reduction and civilization of its barbarous neighbours, gave security to all.

Every Inca sovereign, however mild and benevolent in his domestic rule, was a warrior, and led his armies in person. Each successive reign extended still wider the boundaries of the empire. Year after year saw the victorious monarch return laden with spoils, and followed by a throng of tributary chieftains to his capital. His reception there was a Roman triumph. The whole of its numerous population poured out to welcome him, dressed in the gay and picturesque costumes of the different provinces, with banners waving above their heads, and strewing branches and flowers along the path of the conqueror. The Inca, borne aloft in his golden chair on the shoulders of his n.o.bles, moved in solemn procession, under the triumphal arches that were thrown across the way, to the great temple of the Sun. There, without attendants, - for all but the monarch were excluded from the hallowed precincts, - the victorious prince, stripped of his royal insignia, barefooted, and with all humility, approached the awful shrine, and offered up sacrifice and thanksgiving to the glorious Deity who presided over the fortunes of the Incas. This ceremony concluded, the whole population gave itself up to festivity; music, revelry, and dancing were heard in every quarter of the capital, and illuminations and bonfires commemorated the victorious campaign of the Inca, and the accession of a new territory to his empire. *77

[Footnote 77: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., Parte 1, lib. 3, cap. 11, 17; lib. 6 cap. 55. - Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., cap. 16.]

In this celebration we see much of the character of a religious festival. Indeed, the character of religion was impressed on all the Peruvian wars. The life of an Inca was one long crusade against the infidel, to spread wide the wors.h.i.+p of the Sun, to reclaim the benighted nations from their brutish superst.i.tions, and impart to them the blessings of a well-regulated government.

This, in the favorite phrase of our day, was the "mission" of the Inca. It was also the mission of the Christian conqueror who invaded the empire of this same Indian potentate. Which of the two executed his mission most faithfully, history must decide.

Yet the Peruvian monarchs did not show a childish impatience in the acquisition of empire. They paused after a campaign, and allowed time for the settlement of one conquest before they undertook another; and, in this interval, occupied themselves with the quiet administration of their kingdom, and with the long progresses, which brought them into nearer intercourse with their people. During this interval, also, their new va.s.sals had begun to accommodate themselves to the strange inst.i.tutions of their masters. They learned to appreciate the value of a government which raised them above the physical evils of a state of barbarism, secured them protection of person, and a full partic.i.p.ation in all the privileges enjoyed by their conquerors; and, as they became more familiar with the peculiar inst.i.tutions of the country, habit, that second nature, attached them the more strongly to these inst.i.tutions, from their very peculiarity.

Thus, by degrees, and without violence, arose the great fabric of the Peruvian empire, composed of numerous independent and even hostile tribes, yet, under the influence of a common religion, common language, and common government, knit together as one nation, animated by a spirit of love for its inst.i.tutions and devoted loyalty to its sovereign. What a contrast to the condition of the Aztec monarchy, on the neighbouring continent, which, composed of the like heterogeneous materials, without any internal principle of cohesion, was only held together by the stern pressure, from without, of physical force! - Why the Peruvian monarchy should have fared no better than its rival, in its conflict with European civilization, will appear in the following pages.

Chapter III:

Peruvian Religion. - Deities. - Gorgeous Temples. - Festivals. - Virgins Of The Sun. - Marriage.

It is a remarkable fact, that many, if not most, of the rude tribes inhabiting the vast American continent, however disfigured their creeds may have been in other respects by a childish superst.i.tion, had attained to the sublime conception of one Great Spirit, the Creator of the Universe, who, immaterial in his own nature, was not to be dishonored by an attempt at visible representation, and who, pervading all s.p.a.ce, was not to be circ.u.mscribed within the walls of a temple. Yet these elevated ideas, so far beyond the ordinary range of the untutored intellect, do not seem to have led to the practical consequences that might have been expected; and few of the American nations have shown much solicitude for the maintenance of a religious wors.h.i.+p, or found in their faith a powerful spring of action.

But, with progress in civilization, ideas more akin to those of civilized communities were gradually unfolded; a liberal provision was made, and a separate order inst.i.tuted, for the services of religion, which were conducted with a minute and magnificent ceremonial, that challenged comparison, in some respects, with that of the most polished nations of Christendom.

This was the case with the nations inhabiting the table-land of North America, and with the natives of Bogota, Quito, Peru, and the other elevated regions on the great Southern continent. It was, above all, the case with the Peruvians, who claimed a divine original for the founders of their empire, whose laws all rested on a divine sanction, and whose domestic inst.i.tutions and foreign wars were alike directed to preserve and propagate their faith.

Religion was the basis of their polity, the very condition, as it were, of their social existence. The government of the Incas, in its essential principles, was a theocracy.

Yet, though religion entered so largely into the fabric and conduct of the political inst.i.tutions of the people, their mythology, that is, the traditionary legends by which they affected to unfold the mysteries of the universe, was exceedingly mean and puerile. Scarce one of their traditions - except the beautiful one respecting the founders of their royal dynasty - is worthy of note, or throws much light on their own antiquities, or the primitive history of man. Among the traditions of importance is one of the deluge, which they held in common with so many of the nations in all parts of the globe, and which they related with some particulars that bear resemblance to a Mexican legend.

*1

[Footnote 1: They related, that, after the deluge, seven persons issued from a cave where they had saved themselves, and by them the earth was repeopled. One of the traditions of the Mexicans deduced their descent, and that of the kindred tribes, in like manner, from seven persons who came from as many caves in Aztlan.

(Conf. Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 19; lib. 7, cap. 2. - Ondegardo, Rel.

Prim., Ms.) The story of the deluge is told by different writers with many variations, in some of which it is not difficult to detect the plastic hand of the Christian convert.]

Their ideas in respect to a future state of being deserve more attention. They admitted the existence of the soul hereafter, and connected with this a belief in the resurrection of the body.

They a.s.signed two distinct places for the residence of the good and of the wicked, the latter of which they fixed in the centre of the earth. The good they supposed were to pa.s.s a luxurious life of tranquillity and ease, which comprehended their highest notions of happiness. The wicked were to expiate their crimes by ages of wearisome labor. They a.s.sociated with these ideas a belief in an evil principle or spirit, bearing the name of Cupay, whom they did not attempt to propitiate by sacrifices, and who seems to have been only a shadowy personification of sin, that exercised little influence over their conduct. *2