or “house” in Quichua) is about five leagues long and three broad.
It is intersected with green hedges enclosing hundreds of small
plots bearing luxuriant crops, and a river winds from one extremity
to the other. Humboldt believed this valley to be the bottom of an
ancient lake. The soil is extremely fertile, and the plain is full
of gardens and fields, traversed by avenues of daturas, willows, and
the beautiful _queñuar_ tree (_Polylepis villosa_). In the northern
part of the plain, small porphyritic domes break through the sandstone
strata, and probably once formed islands in the ancient lake, before
its waters had flowed off.
Atahualpa had a palace at the warm sulphur baths of Pultamarca, in
this plain, some slight remains of which can still be traced. The
large deep basin, forming the baths, appears to have been artificially
excavated in the sandstone rock above one of the fissures through
which the spring issues. There are also slight remains of the fort
and palace of Atahualpa in the town. The palace was situated on a
hill of porphyry. The most considerable ruins still visible are only
from thirteen to fifteen feet high, and consist of fine cut blocks
of stone two or three feet long, and placed upon each other without
cement. The cacique Astopilco, a descendant of Atahualpa, resided in
a part of these ruins at the time when Humboldt and Stevenson visited
Caxamarca. The room was shown them, where the unhappy Atahualpa was
kept a prisoner for nine months in 1532-33. _Humboldt’s Aspects._
_Stevenson_, ii, cap. v.
Prescott gives the amount of gold collected for Atahualpa’s ransom at
Caxamarca at 1,326,539 _pesos de oro_, besides 51,610 marcs of silver.
(From _Xeres_, in _Barcia’s Coll_., iii, p. 232. Xeres was Pizarro’s
secretary.) The _peso_ or _castellano de oro_ was equal, in commercial
value, to £2:12:6; so that the gold alone, of this ransom, was worth
£3,500,000. _Prescott_, i, p. 425.
[396] When Pizarro rudely pulled Atahualpa from his chair, and took
him prisoner, a soldier named Miguel Astete tore the crimson fringe,
the token of his sovereignty, from his forehead. Astete kept the
fringe until 1557, when he gave it to Sayri Tupac, the son of Ynca
Manco, who was recognized as Ynca, and received a pension from the
viceroy Marquis of Cañete.
[397] This account differs slightly from that given by Garcilasso de
la Vega, which is as follows.
After the death of the Ynca Huayna Ccapac in 1526, his two sons,
Huascar and Atahualpa, reigned peaceably for about four or five years,
the former at Cuzco, and the latter at Quito. At last the elder
brother became jealous of the power of his rival at Quito, and sent
an envoy demanding that he should do him homage as sole and sovereign
lord. Atahualpa replied that he would most willingly submit to the
rule of the Ynca, and announced his intention of making a journey to
Cuzco, accompanied by all his vassals, to take an oath of obedience,
and to celebrate the obsequies of their common father. Under this
feigned submission Atahualpa concealed the treacherous intention of
attacking and dethroning his brother. He collected thirty thousand
armed Indians under the command of his two generals Challcuchima and
Quizquiz, and sent them by different ways towards Cuzco, disguised as
ordinary serving men. Huascar had so little suspicion of treachery
that he ordered these men to be supplied with clothing and provisions
on the road. The passage of so many armed men through the provinces,
excited the alarm of several veteran governors, who warned Huascar
of his danger; but meanwhile the forces of Atahualpa had crossed the
river Apurimac without opposition, and, raising their banners, threw
off the mask and advanced as open enemies. Thoroughly alarmed, Huascar
summoned the chiefs of the southern, eastern, and western districts,
Colla-suyu, Anti-suyu, and Cunti-suyu. Chincha-suyu, the northern
province, was already in the power of Atahualpa. Those of Cunti-suyu
alone had time to join the Ynca, with thirty thousand undisciplined
Indians. The forces of Atahualpa advanced to the attack without delay,
in order that there might be no time for more reinforcements to reach
Cuzco, and a desperate battle was fought at a place called Quepaypa
(literally _of my trumpet_), a few leagues west of Cuzco. Garcilasso
mentions that, as a boy at school in Cuzco, he twice visited this
battle field, when out hawking in the neighbourhood. The battle lasted
during the whole day. At last the veteran troops of Atahualpa, who
had served in all his father’s wars, triumphed over the raw levies
of his more peaceful brother, Huascar was taken prisoner after a
thousand of his body guard had fallen around him, and most of his
faithful _curacas_ or chiefs voluntarily surrendered, in order to
share the fate of their beloved lord. This battle took place in 1532.
Atahualpa was not present at the battle, but he hurried to Cuzco on
hearing of his victory. Knowing that, according to the ancient laws
of the empire, he, as an illegitimate son, could not inherit the
crown; he resolved to put all the legitimate heirs out of his way by
indiscriminate slaughter. Not only did he order all his half-brothers
to be put to death, but also his uncles, nephews, and cousins of the
blood royal, and most of the faithful nobles of Huascar. One of the
Ynca’s wives, named Mama Huarcay, fled with her little daughter Coya
Cusi Huarcay, who afterwards married Sayri Tupac, the Ynca who was
pensioned by the marquis of Cañete in 1553. Out of so large a family
several other members also escaped from the fate intended for them
by the cruel Atahualpa. Among these were the mother of the historian
Garcilasso de la Vega, and her brother Hualpa Tupac Ynca Yupanqui;
Manco, Paullu, and Titu, legitimate sons of Huayna Ccapac; and several
princesses, who were baptised after the conquest. Of these, Beatrix
Coya married Don Martin de Mustincia (the royal accountant), and had
three sons; Leonora Coya married first Don Juan Balsa, by whom she
had a son--a schoolfellow of Garcilasso, and secondly Don Francisco
de Villacastin; and there were about a hundred other survivors of
Ynca blood. The Ynca Huascar himself was thrown into prison at Xauxa,
and murdered by order of Atahualpa, after the latter had been made
prisoner by Pizarro. Huascar was a mild and amiable prince, and fell a
victim to his guileless and unsuspicious disposition. _G. de la Vega_,
i, lib. ix, caps. 32 to 40.
This is the version given by Garcilasso de la Vega of the war between
Huascar and Atahualpa. As a descendant of the Yncas he was of course
strongly prejudiced in favour of his maternal ancestors, and his
account of Atahualpa’s cruelties after his victory, are probably
much exaggerated. At the same time no one could have had better
opportunities of obtaining authentic information, and doubtless the
principal facts are correct.
Velasco defends the conduct of Atahualpa through thick and thin. As a
native of the province of Quito, he naturally takes the part of the
last sovereign of his own country, whose subsequent misfortunes throw
a veil over his cruelties and treason to the Yncas of Cuzco. _Hist. de
Quito_, ii, p. 76.
[398] Melchor Verdugo was a native of the town of Avila, in Spain.
He distinguished himself in the battle of Chupas, fighting against
the younger Almago, and, receiving the district of Caxamarca in
_encomienda_, settled himself at Truxillo. As a townsman and partizan
of the ill-fated viceroy Blasco Nuñez, he was in bad odour with the
party of Gonzalo Pizarro, and was seized by Carbajal, but evaded
pursuit, and was concealed by his Indians at Caxamarca until he
thought it safe to return to Truxillo. He escaped from Peru by an act
of unsurpassed audacity. A vessel arrived at the port of Truxillo,
from Callao, and Verdugo resolved to seize her. He, therefore,
collected about twenty armed men, upon whom he could depend, and
concealed them in his house. He, then, sent for the master and pilot,
saying that he wanted to ship some merchandise for Panama, and as
soon as he got them into his house he locked them up. Presently
the alcaldes of the town walked down the street with a notary, and
Verdugo, throwing open a window, called out to them to come in, as he
wanted them to witness a deed, and could not come out to them, owing
to a disease in his legs. They entered, without suspecting anything,
and were immediately put in irons and locked up with the master and
pilot of the ship. Returning to his window, Verdugo continued to call
up people he saw passing, saying he had something to say to them,
until he had more than twenty of the principal people of the town, of
Gonzalo Pizarro’s party, safely locked up. He then told them that he
would take them all in the ship with him, unless they paid a ransom,
and, after thus collecting a large sum of money in gold and silver, he
went on board, and sailed for Nicaragua; where his ship was seized by
Palomino, an officer serving under Hinojosa, Gonzalo Pizarro’s admiral
at Panama. Verdugo then collected three small vessels in the lake of
Nicaragua, and, descending the river, entered the sea and sailed to
Nombre de Dios, and thence to Carthagena. After the arrival of the
president Gasca at Panama, Verdugo returned to Spain, and received
the habit of Santiago from the Emperor. Eventually he returned to his
estates in Peru. _Zarate_, lib. vi, cap. vi, etc.
[399] Chachapoyas was a district to the eastward of Caxamarca,
inhabited by brave men and beautiful women, according to Garcilasso
de la Vega. Their chief god was the condor, and they also worshipped
snakes. These Indians were attacked by the Ynca Tupac Yupanqui, and
a fierce war ensued. They defended themselves in fortresses perched
on inaccessible heights, and were only dislodged after a prolonged
resistance. After the death of their conqueror, they rebelled against
his son Huayna Ccapac, but were again subdued and pardoned. The modern
town of Chachapoyas gives its name to a bishopric, with a diocese
extending over that part of the vast forest-covered region of the
Amazon and its tributaries which lies within the boundaries of Peru.
[400] Alonzo de Alvarado, a brother of Cortes’s famous companion, was
detached by Pizarro with orders to conquer Chachapoyas; but he was so
constantly engaged in the civil wars, until his death, that he had
little time to spare in conquering and settling this province; which
duty devolved upon his second son.
[401] The Huancas were the inhabitants of the valley of Xauxa, or
more properly Sausa. They are described by Garcilasso as living in
small villages strongly fortified, and worshipping dogs. The Huancas
mentioned by Cieza de Leon, were probably _Mitimaes_ sent into the
Chachapoyas district by the Yncas.
[402] Moyobamba is now the chief town of the modern province
of Loreto, which includes all the course of the Amazon and its
tributaries within the boundaries of Peru. It contains about fourteen
thousand inhabitants, and is built near the river Mayo, an affluent
of the Huallaga. The ground consists of sandstone, which is easily
washed away by the heavy rains, and deep ravines have been formed in
the course of time, some of them thirty and forty yards deep, which
intersect and break up the town. The inhabitants are employed in
making straw hats, which are exported to Brazil. _Apuntes, &ca., por
Antonio Raimondy_, p. 60.
[403] The Chanca Indians originally inhabited the valley of
Andahuaylas, between Cuzco and Guamanga. They were invaded by the Ynca
Rocca, sixth in descent from Manco Ccapac, and obliged to submit to
his yoke. But soon after the accession of Rocca’s son Yahuar-huaccac,
the Chancas rose in rebellion under their chief Anco-huallu, a youth
of twenty-six years of age. The pusillanimous Ynca not only neglected
to march against him, but even abandoned Cuzco, and retreated in
an opposite direction. His son Huira-ccocha, however, was a man
of different metal. He led an army against the insurgents, and
utterly defeated them in a bloody and well-contested battle on the
Yahuar-pampa, or “plain of blood.” Anco-huallu received a full pardon,
and for ten years he continued to reside in his native valley as a
tributary chief. But this dependent position was distasteful to him,
and eventually he emigrated with eight thousand followers, and settled
in the forests of the Moyobamba district. Garcilasso tells us that
the exact position of his new settlement was never exactly known, the
report merely stating that he descended a great river, and established
his people on the banks of a beautiful lake. Mr. Spruce has suggested
that Anco-huallu and his Chancas conquered Moyobamba, and drove the
original inhabitants out, who, descending the Huallaga and Amazon,
settled between the rivers Ucayali, Marañon, and Yavari, and were the
progenitors of the fierce and untameable modern tribe of _Mayorunas_
(_Mayu_, a river, and _runa_, a man in Quichua). _G. de la Vega_, i,
lib. v, cap. 26.
[404] The word for gold in Quichua is _ccuri_. In the Tupi language,
which was prevalent among the Indians of the river Amazon, the word
_curí_ means coloured earths, much used in plastering huts, and for
other purposes. It is very probable that Spaniards from Peru who
descended into the valley of the Amazon, asked for _ccuri_ (gold), and
were told there was plenty of _curí_ (coloured earth); and that from
this mistake the fame of the wealth of Omagua and El Dorado arose.
[405] For an account of this remarkable emigration of Indians from
Brazil, see my Introduction to the Expedition of Pedro de Ursua
(“_Search for El Dorado_.” HAKLUYT SOCIETY’S volume for 1861,
p. xxviii, and p. 2 of the text.) Their chief, named Viraratu, was
sent to Lima, and it was his report that led to the organisation of
the expedition in search of El Dorado and Omagua, which descended the
Amazon in 1559, under Pedro de Ursua, and met with so tragic a fate.
[406] The climate of Huanuco is delightful. The thermometer seldom
rises above 72° in the shade, nor sinks below 66°, and no place in the
world equals it as a retreat for patients suffering from diseases of
the lungs--but it is terribly inaccessible. The plain still, as in the
days of Cieza de Leon, yields wheat and maize, bananas, figs, coffee,
cotton, grapes, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, citrons, and limes.
_Smith’s Peru As It Is._
[407] The ruins of the Huanuco palace or temple are chiefly
interesting from the six portals, one within the other, which are well
preserved. There is also a species of look out, which was probably
the place where the priests offered their sacrifices to the sun. The
architecture of these ruins is very distinct from that of other Ynca
edifices, and would appear to be of earlier date. The Indians know
these ruins by the name of _Auqui Huanuco_. The look out is 56 paces
long by 36 in width, the height of the wall five yards, and inclined
inwards from the base. It rests upon two courses of round stone,
about five feet high. The walls are of cut stone and terminate in a
cornice, the stones being 4½ feet long and 1½ feet thick. The interior
is composed of gravel and clay, and in the centre there is a large
cavity, which is said to communicate with the palace by a subterranean
passage. The look out is approached by a steep ramp or inclined plane,
and two figures of animals are carved on either side of the entrance.
The palace is entered by six portals. On entering the first there are
halls, 100 yards long by 14 wide, on either side. The walls are built
of round stones mixed with clay, the doorways alone having cut stone.
These doorways are 9 feet high and 4½ broad, the lintels being of a
single stone, 12 feet long and 1½ thick. The jambs are of a single
piece. Three yards further on is the second portal, resembling the
first, with two figures carved on the upper part. This leads into a
spacious court, at the other end of which are two smaller doorways
in a line, leading into a smaller court, and finally there are two
other portals, still smaller, and of sculptured stone. Beyond the
sixth portal there are rooms with stone walls containing niches, and
an aqueduct passes through one of these rooms, which is said to have
been the bathing place of the Ynca. In front of the building there
is a broad artificial terrace, and underneath a large court, with a
receptacle for water in the centre.
The stones of which the ruins are composed were taken from a ridge
about half a mile distant, and some are yet to be seen, lying cut in
the quarry.
[408] In these days a Peruvian Indian answers _No!_ (_Manan canchu_)
to everything that is asked of him. The change is one of the baneful
results of three centuries of Spanish domination.
[409] The Yncas restricted all hunting by their subjects, and the
number of animals of all descriptions consequently multiplied
prodigiously. At a certain season of the year, after breeding time,
the Yncas and governors of provinces held a grand hunt, called _Chacu_
in Quichua. As many as thirty thousand Indians were assembled, who
surrounded a space of several square leagues, and gradually drove all
the animals into the centre, closing upon them until they were so
close as to be easily caught by hand. Very often there were as many
as forty thousand head of _guanacos_ and _vicuñas_ alone. Most of the
female _guanacos_ and _vicuñas_, and a certain number of males, were
then released; but they were shorn of their wool before they were
allowed to go free. The rest were killed. The deer were also killed,
and the meat was distributed amongst the Indians. An accurate account
was kept of the number released, the number killed, and the number
shorn, by means of the _quipus_. The coarse wool of the _guanacos_
was then given to the people, while that of the _vicuñas_, as fine as
silk, was reserved for the Ynca’s service. These hunts were held in
each district every four years, giving three years of rest for the
animals to multiply. The Indians dried the meat which was served out
to them, and this preserved meat, called _charqui_ in Quichua (hence
“jerked beef”), lasted them until another hunting year came round. _G.
de la Vega._ _Comm. Real_, i, lib. vi, cap. 6.
[410] The Peruvian _quipus_ were of twisted wool, and consisted of a
large cord, with finer threads fastened to it by knots. These fringes
contained the contents of the _quipu_, which were denoted either
by single knots or by artificial intertwinings. Sometimes the main
cord was five or six yards long, at others not more than a foot. The
different colours of the threads had different meanings; and not only
was the colour and mode of intertwining of the knots to be considered,
in reading a _quipu_, but even the mode of twisting the thread, and
the distance of knots from each other, and from the main cord. The
registers of tribute; the enrolment of tribes, distinguishing between
taxpayers, aged, invalids, women, and children; lists of arms and
troops; inventories of the contents of storehouses; all these were
the primary uses of the _quipus_. But they were also made available
for recording the most striking events, and thus supplied the place
of chronicles. Acosta says that the ancient Peruvians, by their
combinations of larger and smaller threads; double and single knots;
green, blue, white, black, and red colours; could express meanings and
ideas as innumerable, as we can by the different combinations of our
twenty-four letters.
All attempts, in modern times, to decipher the _quipus_ found in
tombs, have failed; yet there are Indians of noble family, especially
in the southern part of Peru, who know the secret of deciphering these
intricate memorials, but guard it as a sacred trust transmitted from
their ancestors. The _quipu_ records referring to matters of revenue
or registration were kept by officers called _Quipu-camayoc_; while
the chronicles of events were recorded by the _Amautas_ or learned
men, and the poems and songs by _Haravecs_ or bards. Garcilasso de
la Vega distinctly states that the sole specimen of Quichua poesy
preserved in his work, was obtained from an ancient _quipu_ record by
the missionary Blas Valera. See _G. de la Vega_, i, lib. vi, cap. 8.
_Acosta_, lib. vi, cap. 8. _Antiguedades Peruanas_, cap. 5. Markham’s
_Quichua Dictionary_, etc., p. 11.
[411] The name of Francisco de Chaves deserves honourable mention, as
that of one of the few Spaniards who protested against the foul and
dastardly murder of the Ynca Atahualpa by Pizarro, at Caxamarca. He
and his brother Diego, natives of Truxillo, Francisco Moscoso, Pedro
de Ayala, Diego de Mora, Hernando de Haro, Pedro de Mendoza, Juan
de Herrada, Alonzo de Avila, and Blas de Atienza were the principal
officers who raised their voices against that horrible crime. Their
names deserve to be remembered far more than do those of the famous
thirteen who crossed the line drawn by Pizarro on the sea-shore of the
isle of Gallo.
On the march from Caxamarca to Cuzco, Pizarro’s small force was
attacked by the Indians led by the Ynca general Quizquiz, and, after
a long and well contested battle, the Indians retired, taking several
Spanish prisoners with them, among whom was Francisco de Chaves. He
was brought before Atahualpa’s brother, the Ynca Titu Atauchi, and
was treated with great kindness because he had protested against the
perpetration of the murder; while another prisoner named Cuellar, who
had acted as notary and been present at the Ynca’s execution, was
himself most justly put to death by the Indians. Chaves was cured
of his wounds, and set free with many gifts. Pizarro and his other
comrades were astonished when he arrived at Cuzco, having mourned him
as dead, since the day that he fell into the hands of the Indians.
The remaining part of his history is not so creditable, for he
seems to have committed great atrocities in his Conchucos war. The
statements of Cieza de Leon are quoted by G. de la Vega (ii, lib. ii,
cap. 28), who corroborates the account given by the former, of the
cruelties perpetrated by Chaves:--a shameful return for the kindness
and forbearance he had himself experienced at the hands of the
Indians. He was with Pizarro when the assassins came to murder him.
Pizarro called to Chaves to close the door, in order that he and his
friends might have time to arm. Instead of obeying, Chaves went out
to parley with the intruders, and met them coming up the stairs. He
had scarcely asked them their business before he was stabbed to death,
and his body hurled down the steps. The assassins then completed their
bloody work by the murder of the conqueror of Peru.
[412] Nor, if he would speak out, was our young author without
sympathy for the Indians, and their sufferings.
[413] Also called the lake of Chinchaycocha. Near its southern shore
the famous cavalry action was fought in 1823 between the Spaniards
and Patriots, known as the battle of Junin, in which the gallant old
general Miller distinguished himself. The lake is thirty-six miles
long in a north-west and south-east direction, with an average breadth
of about six miles, and 12,940 feet above the level of the sea. The
plain or basin in which it lies, is forty-five miles long and from
six to twelve broad, with a gravelly soil producing a short grass. A
great number of large and beautiful water-fowl, including the scarlet
flamingo and several varieties of snipe, frequent the banks of the
lake, which are overgrown by reeds. As the lake loses by various
outlets much more water than it receives from its tributary sources,
it is evident that it must be fed by subterraneous springs. The
Indians entertain a superstitious belief that this lake is haunted by
huge fish-like animals, who at certain hours of the night leave their
watery abode to prowl about the adjacent pasture lands, where they
commit great havoc among the cattle. _Von Tschudi_, _Herndon._
[414] The lake of Bombon or Chinchay-cocha is drained by the river
of Xauxa, which flows into the Mantaro, one of the sources of the
Ucayali, a principal affluent of the Amazon. The other rivers
mentioned above, namely the Vilcas, Abancay, Apurimac, and Yucay,
are also tributaries of the Ucayali. The erroneous surmise of Cieza
de Leon and his informants, who would carry off all these streams
into the Paraguay, is by no means surprising when we remember that
maps were published in England not twenty years ago, which conveyed
the waters of the Beni right across the line of drainage of the
great river Purus, and poured them into the Ucuyali! The mistake of
Cieza de Leon possibly arose from his having observed that the Xauxa
flows south while in the mountains, and that all other tributaries
of the Amazon flow north. The Xauxa does not change its direction
until it enters the tropical forests, far beyond the ken of the early
conquerors.
[415] No more picturesque view can charm the eye of the weary
traveller than is presented by the immense garden which forms the
valley of Xauxa, which is forty square leagues in extent. Its two
principal towns are Xauxa and Huancayo, in the centre of the valley
is the convent of Ocopa, and the remaining population is scattered
in small villages surrounded by trees on either side of the river of
Xauxa, which flows through the valley. The mighty Andes bound the
river on every side.
[416] The Huancas were conquered by Ccapac Yupanqui, the brother and
general of the Ynca Pachatutec; and at that time they are said to have
numbered thirty thousand souls in the valley of Xauxa. Garcilasso
informs us that, before they were subjugated by the Yncas, they
worshipped the figure of a dog, and feasted on the flesh of dogs. He
surmises that they adored the dog-idol because they were so fond of
roast dog. _G. de la Vega_, i, lib. vi, cap. 10. _Huancar_ (“a drum”
in Quichua,) is probably a name given to this nation by the Yncas.
[417] “The temple of Guarivilca, in the valley of Xauxa, was
consecrated to the god Ticeviracocha, chief divinity of the
Huancas, whose singular worship reminds one of the mythology of the
northern countries of Europe. Notwithstanding the most scrupulous
investigations, it has been impossible to find any vestiges of the
ruins of this temple.” _Antiq. Per._
[418] _Schinus Molle_ Lin.
[419] Vincente de Valverde, a Dominican friar, accompanied Pizarro to
Peru, and we first hear of him as addressing an intolerably prolix
theological discourse to the Ynca Atahualpa, when he came to visit
the Spanish camp at Caxamarca. The treacherous friar completed his
evil work by calling out to Pizarro and his bloodhounds to attack
their guest. Valverde continued to torment the ill-fated Ynca with
his theology while in prison, until the poor captive’s sufferings
were consummated by his murder on August 29th, 1533. We next find
him tormenting the unfortunate general Challcuchina, whom Pizarro
burnt alive, disturbing his last moments by officious importunities.
He performed mass at the humiliating coronation of Ynca Manco, who
received the _llautu_ from the hands of Pizarro. Valverde was soon
afterwards confirmed as bishop of Cuzco by the Pope in 1538. He
returned to Spain, but came out to Peru again in the following year
(1539), and wrote a curious letter to Charles V, still preserved
in the archives of Simancas, in which he describes the ruin and
devastation caused by the Spaniards in the once flourishing capital of
the Yncas. Bishop Valverde protested against the execution of Almagro;
and also endeavoured to save Pizarro’s secretary, who was put to death
at Lima by the assassins of his master. The assassins allowed the
bishop to depart in a vessel from Callao, which touched at the island
of Puna, where he was killed by the Indians in 1541.
Valverde was the first bishop of Cuzco, from 1538 to 1541. He was
succeeded by friar Juan Solano (1545-62), since whose time twenty-six
bishops have filled that episcopal chair.
[420] _Schinus Molle_ Lin., the prevailing tree in this part of the
Andes.
[421] _Pucara_ is Quichua for a fortress.
[422] Gaspar Rodriguez de Campo Redondo was brother of a distinguished
officer who was killed in the battle of Chupas. Gaspar Rodriguez
joined Gonzalo Pizarro in his rebellion against the viceroy Blasco
Nuñez de Vela, but afterwards, seeing reason to think that he had
chosen the losing side, he sent to the viceroy to ask for a safe
conduct. This treachery became known to Pizarro and his ruthless
lieutenant Carbajal, who came to the traitor’s tent. The wretched man
offered many excuses, but Carbajal never showed mercy, and his head
was cut off on the spot.
[423] Diego Gavilan, with his brother Juan, joined Francisco Hernandez
Giron in his rebellion at Cuzco in 1553; and the rebel chief appointed
Diego to the post of captain of infantry. The municipality of Cuzco
was obliged to elect Giron captain-general of Peru, more, says
Garcilasso, from fear of one hundred and fifty arquebusiers under
the command of Diego Gavilan, who were drawn up in front of the
court-house, than from good will. After the overthrow and flight of
Giron at Pucara, Diego and Juan Gavilan went over to the royal army
and received pardon for their share in the rebellion.
[424] Yllan Suarez de Carbajal was the factor of the royal revenue.
After the death of Pizarro he fled from the camp of the younger
Almagro, and fought bravely under Vaca de Castro in the battle of
Chupas. Carbajal was at Lima when Blasco Nuñez de Vela arrived, and
one night the hot-headed viceroy sent for him, accused him of treason,
and, during the altercation which followed, stabbed him with a
poniard. The attendants dispatched him with their swords, and the body
was secretly buried before morning. This foul murder was the immediate
cause of the viceroy’s downfall.
[425] Manco Ynca, the second legitimate son of Huayna Ccapac, was
invested with the royal _llautu_ at Cuzco by the conqueror Pizarro;
but he chafed under the yoke of the invaders, and, on the first
opportunity, raised the standard of revolt. Then followed the famous
siege of Cuzco, and when the place was relieved by Almagro, and
Manco’s last chance of regaining the ancient capital of his ancestors
failed, he retreated into the forest fastnesses, continued his
hostilities against the Spaniards, and led the romantic life described
above by Cieza de Leon. On one occasion Gonzalo Pizarro sent a negro
slave to him with presents, to open a negotiation, who was murdered
by a party of Indians; upon which Gonzalo perpetrated an act of
such devilish cruelty upon a young wife of Manco, whom he had made
prisoner, as to be barely credible. The story is related by Prescott,
on the authority of Pedro Pizarro’s MS. (ii, p. 136). Manco’s end was
very melancholy. He was playing at a game with balls, with one Gomez
Perez and some other Spaniards of Almagro’s faction, who had taken
refuge in the Ynca’s fastness, when the ill-conditioned ruffian was
guilty of some act of disrespect. The Ynca pushed him on one side,
upon which Gomez Perez hit him such a blow on the head with a ball
that he fell dead. (_Gomara_, cap. clvi.) This was in the year 1544.
The gallant young Ynca left two sons, Sayri Tupac and Tupac Amaru. The
former was pensioned by the Spaniards and died at Yucay; the latter
perished on the scaffold at Cuzco.
[426] After the assassination of Pizarro, the younger Almagro
assembled his partizans and prepared to resist the royal forces under
the new governor Vaca de Castro. The two armies met on the heights of
Chupas, which overhang the city of Guamanga, on the 16th of September
1542. During my residence at Guamanga I went in search of the battle
field, which is about three leagues from the town. The field of Chupas
is on a sort of terrace of the Andes, with the mountains rising in the
rear, a rapid descent towards Guamanga, and slightly wooded ravines
to the right and left. The view from it is magnificent. It is now
covered with fields of wheat, with a few huts scattered here and
there amidst thickets of _chilca_ (a species of _Baccharis_). A most
furious and bloody encounter was the battle of Chupas. It was long
doubtful, but at length Vaca de Castro was victorious, and out of 850
Spaniards brought into the field by young Almagro, 700 were killed.
The victors lost about 350 men. Among the slain, on the royal side,
was Pedro Alvarez Holguin, one of the first corregidors of Guamanga,
and formerly a companion of Hernan Cortez--the same who captured
Guatimozin in the lakes of Mexico. He was buried in the little church
of San Christoval at Guamanga, which was built by Pizarro and still
exists. Several of the prisoners, who were implicated in the murder of
Pizarro, were beheaded in the _plaza_ of Guamanga.
[427] The country round Guamanga was inhabited, in ancient times,
by the nation of Pocras. They joined the Chancas under Anco-huallu
in their war against the Ynca (see note at p. 280), and after the
bloody defeat of the allied tribes on the plain of Yahuarpampa, and
the emigration of Anco-huallu, they again rose in rebellion. They
were finally crushed in a bloody battle at the foot of the heights of
Condor-canqui, by the Ynca Huira-ccocha, in a place which has ever
since been called _Aya-cucho_ (“the corner of dead men”). Four hundred
and fifty years afterwards, on the same spot, the battle was fought
between the Spaniards and the Patriots, which finally established the
independence of Peru. (December 9th, 1824.)
After the overthrow of the Pocras, the Ynca was serving out rations of
llama flesh to his soldiers when a falcon (_huaman_) came wheeling in
circles over his head. He threw up a piece of meat crying _Huaman-ca_
(Take! falcon), and the bird caught it and flew away. “Lo,” cried the
soldiers, “even the birds of the air obey him:” and the place was
ever afterwards called _Huaman-ca_, corrupted by the Spaniards into
_Guamanga_. Since the independence, the name of the city has been
altered to _Ayacucho_, in honour of the battle.
Others derive the name from _Huaman_ (falcon) and _Ccaca_ (a
rock)--“the Falcon’s Rock.”
[428] The city of Guamanga, now called Ayacucho, is in lat. 12° 59´
S., and long. 73° 59´ W. From the steep mountains which overhang it
on the south-west, the city presents to the view a mass of red tiles,
with church towers rising here and there, surrounded by gardens of
fruit trees, which extend in different directions up the sides of the
mountains, while to the north-west is the broad grassy plain called
_Pampa del Arco_, and the view is bounded in that direction by the
frowning heights of Condor-canqui, at the feet of which the famous
battle of Ayacucho was fought. The streets run at right angles,
sloping gradually from north to south, and in the centre is the _plaza
mayor_. On the south side of the _plaza_ are the handsome stone
cathedral and the _cabildo_ or court-house. The other three sides are
occupied by private houses on handsome arcades, with stone pillars
and circular arches. The south part of the town was formerly broken
up by a deep ravine, but in 1801 the Spanish intendente, Don Demetrio
O’Higgins, spanned it with a number of well built stone bridges. On
the west side there is an _alameda_ or avenue of double rows of willow
trees, by the side of which a stream of clear water flows down and
supplies the city. On either hand the hills rise up abruptly, covered
with fruit trees, and hedges of prickly pears. There are more than
twenty churches, built of limestone, with well proportioned towers.
The climate, as Cieza de Leon says, is delicious, and Ayacucho is one
of the pleasantest places in Peru.
[429] In alluding to these ruins, Tschudi and Rivero, in their
“_Antiguedades Peruanas_,” merely refer to the above passage in Cieza
de Leon, but do not appear to have identified or examined them.
[430] The country round Guamanga still yields abundant supplies of
wheat, and is capable of supporting ten times the present population.
[431] I have been unable to find any other detailed account of the
ruins of Vilcas, near Guamanga, where there was evidently a very
important station in the time of the Yncas. There is a bare allusion
to the above passage of Cieza de Leon in the _Antiguedades Peruanas_,
without a word of further information. I made an endeavour to find the
ruins, when I was in this part of the country, but without success.
They are mentioned, and nothing more, by Paz Soldan (_Geografia del
Peru_, p. 366); and, indeed, no author tells us so much concerning the
once splendid palaces and temples of Vilcas as does Cieza de Leon.
[432] This river is now known as the Pampas. It flows through the very
deep valley of Pumacancha, which is covered with dense underwood, and
tall stately aloes. The mountains rise up abruptly, in some places
quite perpendicularly, on either side. In a place where the river is
about twenty paces across, a bridge of _sogas_, or ropes made of the
twisted fibres of the aloe, is stretched from one side to the other.
It consists of six _sogas_, each of about a foot in diameter, set
up on either side by a windlass. Across these _sogas_ other smaller
ropes are secured, and covered with matting. This rope bridge is
considerably lower in the centre than at the two ends, and vibrated
to and fro as we passed over it. It has to be renewed several times
every year. In Spanish times the Indians of certain villages were
excused other service, to repair the bridge. It has been a point
of considerable strategical importance, in the frequent intestine
wars which Peru has suffered from, as commanding the main road from
Cuzco to Lima and the coast. On the side towards Cuzco the valley of
Pumacancha is bounded by the mountains of Bombon, up which the road
passes through woods of _molle_, _chilca_, and other trees, while
rugged peaks rise up on either side. One of those glorious views which
are seldom equalled out of the Andes, may be enjoyed from the _cuesta_
of Bombon.
[433] Lucanas is one of the provinces of the modern department of
Ayacucho.
[434] From the Quichua words _anta_ (copper) and _huaylla_ (pasture),
“the copper coloured meadow.”
[435] See _ante_, note at p. 280.
[436] The original followers and subjects of Manco Ccapac, the first
Ynca of Peru, appear to have been called _Quichuas_, and hence the
name of the language. The derivation of the word is doubtful. In
Peru the hot tropical valleys are called _Yunca_, the lofty cold
heights _Puna_, and the intermediate temperate region _Quichua_.
Mossi suggests the following derivation of the word. _Quehuani_
is “to twist” in Quichua, the participle of which is _Quehuasca_,
“twisted;” and _Ychu_ is “straw.” Hence _Quehuasca-ychu_, “twisted
straw,” corrupted into _Quichua_; from the quantity of straw growing
in this temperate region. Thus the Quichuas were the inhabitants of
the temperate zone, between the _Punas_ and the _Yuncas_; and they
were the original followers of the first Ynca of Peru. _Gramatica de
la Lengua General del Peru, con Diccionario, por el R. P. Fray Honorio
Mossi (Misionero) Sucre_, 1857.
[437] _Sonccon_ is the Quichua word for “heart.”
[438] Diego Maldonado was one of the first _conquistadores_. He was
imprisoned in the fortress of Cuzco by Almagro, after the marshal
returned from Chile, with Marcio Serra de Legesamo, and many others.
He was afterwards in the battle of Chupas, fighting on the royal side.
He became a _regidor_ of Cuzco, where he had several houses, received
Andahuaylas in _encomienda_, and was surnamed “the rich.” When Gonzalo
Pizarro rebelled, Maldonado was with the insurgent forces, and,
hearing that accusations had been brought against him, he fled from
his tent on foot, and hid himself in a field of sugar cane. An Indian
found him, and, with the usual kind-heartedness of his race, guided
him to the beach, made a _balsa_ out of a bundle of straw, and paddled
him to one of La Gasca’s ships, which was lying off and on in Callao
bay. He was then sixty-eight years of age; but he still continued
to play an important part in public affairs, and was wounded in the
rebellion of Giron in 1554. He lived for twelve years afterwards,
though he eventually died, in 1566, of wounds received in the battle
against that rebel.
[439] The Indians of Andahuaylas, descendants from these Chancas,
are a tall and generally handsome race, and many of the women are
beautiful. The population of the valley is about six thousand.
[440] The valley of Andahuaylas is one of the most beautiful in the
Andes. It contains the three small towns of Talavera, Andahuaylas, and
San Geronimo. Through its centre flows a little river, lined on either
side by lofty willows, while here and there large fruit gardens slope
down to its banks. Every part of the valley is carefully cultivated,
and large fields of wheat cover the lower slopes of the surrounding
mountains.
[441] From the beginning of January to the end of March 1548. Gasca
was here joined by Valdivia, the conqueror of Chile, and when he
commenced his march against Gonzalo Pizarro, he was at the head of
nearly two thousand well armed men.
[442] This is the river Pachachaca. It is now spanned by a handsome
stone bridge of one arch, at a great height above the stream. This
bridge is some sixty years old. The Pachachaca is a tributary of the
Ucayali.
[443] See my translation of the life of Don Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman,
chap. xlviii, and note at p. 114. HAKLUYT SOCIETY’S volume
for 1862.
[444] A few miles beyond the little village of Curahuasi, is the
precipitous descent to the bridge over the Apurimac (_Apu_, “chief,”
and _rimac_, “speaking,” or “a speaker,” in Quichua). A steep zigzag
path leads down to the side of the cliff, and at last the precipice
becomes so perpendicular that a tunnel has been excavated in the solid
rock, about twenty yards long, at the end of which is the bridge.
It is made in the same way as that over the river Pampas. The river
dashes furiously along between vertical precipices of stupendous
height, and a high wind is not uncommon, which blows the frail rope
bridge to and fro, rendering the passage very dangerous, and at times
impossible.
[445] The empire of the Yncas, as it existed in the time of Manco
Ccapac, the founder of his dynasty, only extended from the Apurimac on
the west, to the Paucar-tambo on the east, a distance of about fifty
miles. In the centre was Cuzco, while on each frontier there was a
fortress and a palace--Ollantay-tampu on the north, Paccari-tampu on
the south, Paucar-tampu on the east, and Rimac-tampu (corrupted by the
Spaniards into Limatambo) on the west, near the river of Apurimac. The
ruins of the palace of Lima-tambo are situated in a delightful spot,
commanding a fine view. Only two walls, and the face of the stone
terrace on which the palace was built, now remain. These walls are
twenty and forty paces long respectively, forming an angle, and about
fourteen feet high. The stones are beautifully fitted into each other,
without cement of any kind, and to this day look angular and fresh.
At intervals there are recesses in the walls, about one foot deep and
eight feet high. The interior of the palace is now an extensive fruit
garden.
[446] These are the _andeneria_ or terraced fields and gardens. They
may still be seen on the hills bordering the plain of Xaquixaguana or
Surite.
[447] The original name of this plain appears to have been
_Yahuar-pampa_ (field of blood), so called in memory of the bloody
battle between the army of Ynca Huira-ccocha and the allied tribes led
by Anco-hualluc. In the days of the Spanish conquest it was known by
the name of _Xaquixaguana_ (Cieza de Leon and Zarate) or _Sacsahuana_
(G. de la Vega); here the Ynca general Challcuchima was cruelly
burnt to death by Pizarro, and here the President Gasca defeated and
executed Gonzalo Pizarro and Carbajal. It is now generally called the
plain of Surite, from a village of that name at its north-western
corner.
The plain of Surite is a few leagues west of Cuzco, on the road to
Lima, at a sufficient elevation to be within the region of occasional
frosts, and is surrounded by mountains, up which the ancient
_andeneria_ or terraced fields, now left to ruin, may be seen rising
tier above tier. The plain is swampy and covered with rank grass, and
would be difficult to cross, if it were not for the causeway, built
by order of the Yncas, and accurately described by Cieza de Leon,
which is still in good preservation. This causeway is of stone, raised
about six feet above the plain, and perfectly straight for a distance
of two leagues. At the end of the causeway is the little village of
Yscu-chaca.
[448] The ancient city of Cuzco is in lat. 13° 31´ S., and long. 73°
3´ W., at the head of a valley 11,380 feet above the level of the sea.
The valley is nine miles long, and from two to three broad, bounded on
either side by ranges of bare mountains of considerable elevation. It
is covered with fields of barley and lucerne, and, besides many farms
and country houses, contains the two small towns of San Sebastian
and San Geronimo. On the north side the famous hill of Sacsahuaman
rises abruptly over the city, and is divided from the mountains on
either side by two deep ravines, through which flow the little rivers
of Huatanay and Rodadero. The former stream rushes noisily past the
moss-grown walls of the old convent of Santa Teresa, under the houses
forming the west side of the great square of Cuzco, down the centre
of a broad street, where it is crossed by numerous stone bridges, and
eventually unites with the Rodadero. The Huatanay is now but a noisy
little mountain torrent confined between banks faced with masonry;
but in former times it must have been in the habit of frequently
breaking its bounds, as the name implies, which is composed of two
words, _Huata_ (a year), and _Ananay_, an ejaculation of weariness,
indicating fatigue from the yearly necessity of renewing its banks.
The principal part of the ancient city was built between the two
rivers.
[449] “The grandeur of the fortress of Cuzco,” says Garcilasso de la
Vega, “is incredible to those who have not seen it, and those who
have examined it carefully might well imagine, and even believe,
that it was made by some enchantment, and by demons rather than
men. The multitude and bigness of the stones in the three lines
of fortification (which are more like rocks than stones) cause
admiration, and it is wonderful how the Indians could have cut them
out of the quarries whence they were brought, for they have neither
iron nor steel. How they conveyed them to the building is a still
greater difficulty, for they had no bullocks, nor did they know how to
make carts which could bear the weight of the stones; so they dragged
them with stout ropes by the force of their arms. The roads by which
they had to come were not level, but led over very rugged mountains,
up and down which the stones were dragged by sheer force. Many of
the stones were brought from distances of ten, twelve, and fifteen
leagues, particularly the stone, or, to speak more correctly, the
rock which the Indians call _saycusca_ (as much as to say ‘tired’),
for it never reached the building. It was brought from a distance of
fifteen leagues, across the river of Yucay, which is little smaller
than the Guadalquivir at Cordova. The nearest quarry was at Muyna,
five leagues from Cuzco. But it is still more wonderful to think how
they fitted such great stones so closely that the point of a knife
will scarcely go between them. Many are so well adjusted that the
joining can scarcely be seen, and to attain such nicety it must have
been necessary to raise them to their places and lower them very
many times; for the Indians had no square, nor had they any rule by
which they could know that one stone fitted justly on another. They
had no knowledge of cranes nor of pulleys, nor of any machine which
would assist them in raising and lowering the stones.” ... Acosta
(lib. vi, cap. 14, p. 421, ed. 1608) makes similar remarks on the
size of the stones and on the difficulty of raising them. Garcilasso
continues: “They built the fortress on a high hill to the north of
the city, called Sacsahuaman. This hill rises above the city almost
perpendicularly, so that on that side the fortress is safe from an
enemy, whether formed in squadron or in any other way. Owing to its
natural advantages this side was only fortified with a stout wall,
more than two hundred fathoms long. But on the other side there is a
wide plain approaching the hill by a gentle incline, so that an enemy
might march up in squadrons. Here they made three walls, one in front
of the other, each wall being more than two hundred fathoms long. They
are in the form of a half moon, and unite with the wall facing the
city. The first wall contains the largest stones. I hold that they
were not taken from any quarry, because they bear no marks of having
been worked, but that they were huge boulders (_tormos_) or loose
rocks which were found on the hills, adapted for building. Nearly
in the centre of each line of wall there was a doorway, each with
a stone of the same height and breadth, which closed it. The first
of these doorways was called _Ttiu-puncu_ (Sand gate); the second,
_Acahuana-puncu_, so called after the chief architect; and the third,
_Huira-ccocha-puncu_. There is a space of twenty-five or thirty feet
between the walls, which is made level, so that the summit of one wall
is on a line with the foot of the next. Each wall had its parapet or
breastwork, behind which the defenders could fight with more security.
Above these lines of defence there is a long narrow platform, on which
were three strong towers. The principal one was in the centre, and was
called _Moyoc-marca_ or ‘the round tower.’ In it there was a fountain
of excellent water, brought from a distance underground, the Indians
know not whence. The kings lodged in this tower when they went up to
the fortress for amusement, and all the walls were adorned with gold
and silver, and animals, birds, and plants imitated from nature, which
served as tapestry. The second tower was called _Paucar-marca_, and
the third, _Sacllac-marca_. They were both square, and they contained
lodgings for many soldiers. The foundations were as deep as the towers
were high, and the vaults passed from one to the other. These vaults
were cunningly made, with so many lanes and streets that they crossed
each other with their turns and doublings.” Garcilasso complains that
the Spaniards, instead of preserving this wonderful monument, have
taken away many stones, from the vaults and towers, with which to
build their new houses in Cuzco; but they left the three great walls,
because the stones were so enormous that they could not move them. He
adds that the fortress took fifty years in building.
The ruins of the fortress of Cuzco are the most interesting in Peru,
and I made a very minute examination of them in 1853. On the side of
the hill immediately above the city there are three stone terraces.
The first wall, 14 feet high, extends in a semicircular form round
this end of the hill, for 180 paces. Between the first and second
walls there is a level space 8 paces broad. Above the third wall there
are many carefully hewn stones lying about, some of them supporting
three lofty wooden crosses. Here, probably, were the three towers
mentioned by Garcilasso, now totally destroyed. The view from this
point is extensive and beautiful. The city of Cuzco is spread out like
a map below, with its handsome church towers and domes rising above
the other buildings. The great square is seen, crowded with Indian
girls sitting under shades before their merchandise, or passing to
and fro like a busy hive of bees. Beyond is the long plain, and far
in the distance, rising above the lower ranges of mountains, towers
Asungato, with its snowy peak standing out in strong relief against
the cloudless sky.
The length of the platform or table land on the summit of the
Sacsahuaman hill is 525 paces, and its breadth, in the broadest part,
130 paces. Many deep excavations have been made in all parts of it,
in search of hidden treasure. On the south side the position was so
strong that it needed no artificial defence, being bounded by the
almost inaccessible ravine of the Huatanay. On the north, from the
terraces already described for 174 paces in a westerly direction,
the position is naturally defended by the steep ravine through which
flows the river Rodadero, and only required a single stone breastwork,
which still exists. But from this point to the western extremity of
the table land, a distance of 400 paces, it is entirely undefended
by nature. Here the Yncas constructed that gigantic treble line of
Cyclopean fortification, which must fill the mind of every traveller
with astonishment and admiration. The first wall averages a height
of 18 feet, the second of 16, and the third of 14: the terrace
between the first and second being 10 paces across, and that between
the second and third 8 paces. The walls are built with salient and
retiring angles. The position is entered by three doorways, so narrow
that they only admit of the passage of one man at a time. The outer
angles are generally composed of one enormous block of stone. I
measured some of these. One was 17 feet high, 12 broad, and 7½ long;
another, 16 feet high by 6 broad. They are made to fit so exactly one
into the other as to form a piece of masonry unparalleled in solidity
and the peculiarity of its construction, in any other part of the
world. These walls are composed of a limestone of a dark slate colour,
and are now overgrown with cacti and wild flowers.
[451] Known, in the days of the Yncas, as _Huaca-puncu_ (“the holy
gate”).
[452] The Yncas ascertained the time of the solstices by means of
eight towers on the east, and eight towers on the west of the city,
put four and four, two small between two large ones. The smaller
towers were eighteen or twenty feet apart, and the larger ones were
the same distance, one on each side. The solstice was ascertained by
watching when the sun set or rose between the smaller towers. _G. de
la Vega_, i, lib. ii, cap. 22.
[453] The four grand divisions of the empire of the Yncas gave
their names to these four royal roads. The whole empire was called
_Ttahua-ntin-Suyu_, literally “The four regions.”
[454] The most detailed account of ancient Cuzco is to be found in
the pages of the Ynca historian. He says that the first houses were
built on the steep slopes of the Sacsahuaman hill. The city was
divided into two parts, Hanan-Cuzco (upper or north) and Hurin-Cuzco
(lower or south). The chief ward or division was on the slopes of
Sacsahuaman, and was called _Collcam-pata_. Here Manco Ccapac built
his palace, the ruins of which are still in good preservation; and the
great hall, where festivals were celebrated on rainy days, was entire
in the days of Garcilasso. The next ward, to the east, was called
_Cantut-pata_ (“the terrace of flowers”); then came _Puma-curcu_
(“lion’s beam”), so called from a beam to which wild animals were
secured; then _Toco-cachi_ (“window of salt”); then, further south,
_Munay-sencca_ (“loving nose”); then _Rimac-pampa_ (“speaking place”),
where ordinances were promulgated, close to the temple of the sun,
at the south end of the city; then _Pumap-chupan_ (“lion’s tail”),
where the two streams of Huatanay and Rodadero unite, and form a long
promontory, like a tail. To the westward there was a division called
_Chaquill-chaca_; and next to it, on the north, were others called
_Pichu_ and _Quillipata_. Finally, the division known as _Huaca-puncu_
(“holy gate”) adjoined the _Collcampata_ on the west side.
The inner space, between the abovenamed divisions or suburbs, and
extending from the Collcampata on the north to Rimac-pampa on the
south, was occupied by the palaces and houses of the Ynca and his
family, divided according to their _Ayllus_ or lineages. This central
part of the city was divided into four parts, called _Hatun-cancha_,
containing the palace of Ynca Yupanqui; _Puca-marca_, where stood the
palace of Tupac Ynca Yupanqui; _Ynti-pampa_, the open space in front
of the temple of the sun; and _Ccori-cancha_, which was occupied by
the temple of the sun itself. Immediately south of the _Collcam-pata_
was the _Sacha-huasi_ or college, founded by Ynca Rocca, where the
_Amautas_ or wise men resided. Near the college was the palace of Ynca
Rocca, called _Coracora_, and another palace called _Cassana_,{a} the
abode of the Ynca Pachacutec. The latter was so called because it
would cause any one who saw it to freeze (_cassa_) with astonishment,
at its grandeur and magnificence. These palaces looked upon the
great square of the ancient city, called _Huacay-pata_ (“the festive
terrace”), which was two hundred paces long and one hundred and
fifty broad from east to west. At the west end it was bounded by the
Huatanay stream. At the south side there was another royal palace,
called _Amaru-cancha_ (“place of a serpent”), the residence of Huayna
Ccapac, and south of the _Anaru-cancha_ was the _Aclla-huasi_.
{a} The site is now occupied by the convent of San Francisco. or
convent of virgins. West of the _Huacay-pata_ was the _Cusi-pata_
(“joyful terrace”), which was united with it, the Huatanay being paved
over with large flagstones.
All the streets of modern Cuzco contain specimens of ancient masonry.
Many of the stones have serpents sculptured in relief, and four slabs
are to be seen, with figures--half bird, half man--carved upon them,
with some pretence to artistic skill. The wall of the palace of Ynca
Rocca is still very perfect. It is formed of huge masses of rock of
various shapes, one of them actually having twelve sides, yet fitting
into each other with marvellous accuracy. They are of a sombre hue,
and have an imposing effect. With the exception, however, of this
building, of the palace on the Collcampata, and of the fortress, which
are in the Cyclopean style, all the ancient masonry of Cuzco is in
regular parallel courses. The roofs were of thatch, but very neatly
and carefully laid on, as may be seen in the specimen still existing
at the _Sondor-huasi_ of Azangaro (See _note_ to p. 166), and the
city must altogether have presented a scene of architectural grandeur
and magnificence which was well calculated to astonish the greedy and
illiterate conquerors.
[455] _Ccuri-cancha_ means literally “the place of gold.” Its site
is now occupied by the convent of San Domingo, but several portions
of the ancient temple of the sun are still standing, especially at
the west end, where a mass of the dark, beautifully-formed masonry,
about eighteen feet high, overhangs the Huatanay river. At the east
end of the convent the ancient wall of the temple is almost entire,
being seventy paces long and about thirty feet high. The stones are
of irregular length, generally about two feet by one and a-half, and
very accurately cut. They are in regular parallel courses, with their
exterior surfaces projecting slightly and sloping off at the sides to
form a junction with their neighbours. The roof was formed of beams
pitched very high, and thatched with straw. In the interior the four
walls were lined with plates of gold, and at one end there was a huge
golden sun, with features represented, and rays of flame darting from
its circumference, all of one piece. It extended from one wall to the
other, occupying the whole side. This magnificent prize fell to the
share of a Spanish knight named Marcio Serra de Lejesama, who gambled
it away in one night; but he never took a card into his hand again.
The reformed knight married an Ynca princess, and left the memorable
will which I have quoted in a note at page 124.
On each side of the golden sun were the mummies of the deceased Yncas,
seated in chairs of gold. The principal door faced towards the north,
and opened on the open space known as the _Ynti-pampa_; and a cornice
of gold, a yard broad, ran round the exterior walls of the temple.
On the south side were the cloisters, also ornamented with a broad
cornice of gold, and within the enclosure were buildings dedicated to
the moon, and adorned with silver, to the stars, to lightning, and to
the rainbow; as well as the dwellings of the _Huillac Umu_, or high
priest, and of his attendants. Within the courts of these cloisters
there were five fountains, with pipes of silver or gold. In the rear
of the cloisters was the garden of the sun, where all the flowers,
fruits, and leaves, were of pure beaten gold. I have myself seen some
of these golden fruits and flowers.
[456] Namely Sinchi Rocca (1062), Lloque Yupanqui (1091), Mayta Ccapac
(1126), Ccapac Yupanqui (1156), Ynca Rocca (1197), Yahuar-huaccac
(1249), Huira-ccocha (1289), Pachacutec (1340), Ynca Yupanqui (1400),
and Tupac Ynca Yupanqui (1439). The last named was succeeded by Huayna
Ccapac (1475), in whose reign the Spaniards first appeared on the
coast of Peru.
[457] G. de la Vega quotes this passage (i, lib. vii, cap. 19).
[458] In Quichua, _Muchani_ is to adore or to kiss; and _Muchay_ would
be “adoration.”
[459] The valley of Yucay or Vilca-mayu is the paradise of Peru. It
was the favourite residence of the Yncas, and is one of the most
delightful spots in this favoured land. The rapid river which flows
through it rises in the mountains of Vilcañota, and, leaving the city
of Cuzco at a distance of about ten miles to the west, eventually
joins the Apurimac after a course of about four hundred miles, and
becomes one of the main affluents of the Ucayali.
The valley is seldom more than three miles in breadth, and is bounded
on its eastern side by the snow-capped range of the Andes. To the
westward there is a lower range of steep and rocky mountains. Within
these narrow limits the vale of Yucay enjoys a delicious climate, and
the picturesque farms, with their maize towers surrounded by little
thickets of fruit trees, the villages scattered here and there along
the banks of the rapid river, the groves of trees, and the lofty
mountains rising abruptly from the valley, combine to form a landscape
of exceeding beauty. The little village of Yucay is on the site of the
delicious country retreat of the Yncas, a palace on which all the arts
of Peruvian civilisation were lavished to render it a fitting abode
for the sovereign and his court. The only remaining vestiges of the
palace are two walls of Ynca masonry, forming sides of a modern house
in the _plaza_ of the village.
[460] Next to the fortress of Cuzco, the ruins at Tambo or
Ollantay-tambo, in the valley of Yucay, are the most astonishing in
Peru. They are built at a point where the valley is only about a
league in width, covered with maize fields, with the broad and rapid
river flowing through the centre. The dark mountains rise up almost
perpendicularly on either side to such a stupendous height that but a
narrow portion of blue sky smiles down upon the peaceful scene between
them. A ravine, called Marca-ccocha, descends from the bleak _punas_
of the Andes to the valley of Yucay at this point, and at the junction
two lofty masses of rock rise up abruptly in dark and frowning
majesty. The fortress of Tambo is built on the rock which forms the
western portal to the ravine. The rock is a dark limestone, the lower
part of which, to the south and east, is faced with masonry composed
of small stones. At a height of about 300 feet there is a platform
covered with a ruin apparently left in an unfinished state. Here there
are six enormous slabs of granite, standing upright, and united by
smaller pieces fitted between them. Each slab is 12 feet high, and at
their bases there are other blocks of the same material, in one place
formed into a commencement of a wall. This spot appears to have been
intended as the principal part of the citadel. In the rear, and built
up the steep sides of the mountains, there are several edifices of
small stones plastered over with a yellow mud. They have gables at
either end, and apertures for doors and windows. Still further to the
east, a flank wall of the same material rises up from the valley to
near the summit of the mountain, which is very steep and rocky, and
indeed difficult of ascent. Immediately below the principal platform
there are a succession of stone terraces. The upper one is entered at
the side by a handsome doorway with an enormous granite lintel. The
wall is built of polygonal-shaped blocks, fitting exactly into each
other, and contains eight recesses, two feet two inches high by one
broad and one deep. When the inner sides of these recesses are tapped
with the fingers, a peculiar metallic ringing sound is produced. In
front of the terraces there a series of well-constructed _andeneria_,
or hanging gardens, sixteen deep, all faced with masonry, which
descend into the ravine. On the opposite side of these _andeneria_ the
mountain rises perpendicularly, and terminates in a dizzy peak, where
there is a huge block of stone called the _Ynti-huatana_, or place for
observing the sun.
The most astonishing circumstance connected with these ruins is the
distance from which the stones which compose them have been conveyed.
The huge blocks of granite of enormous dimensions rest upon a
limestone rock, and the nearest granite quarry is at a distance of six
miles, and on the other side of the river. On the road to this quarry
there are two stones which never reached their destination. They are
known as the _Saycusca-rumicuna_ or “tired stones.” One of them is 9
ft. 8 in. long and 7 ft. 8 in. broad; with a groove round it, three
inches deep, apparently for passing a rope. The other is 20 ft. 4 in.
long, 15 ft. 2 in. broad, and 3 ft. 6 in. deep.
At the foot of the rock on which the fortress is built there are
several ancient buildings. Here is the _Mañay raccay_ or “court of
petitions,” sixty paces square, and surrounded by buildings of gravel
and plaster, which open on the court by doorways twelve feet high,
surmounted by enormous granite lintels. On the western side of the
ravine of Marca-ccocha, opposite the fortress, there is another mass
of rock towering up perpendicularly, and ending in a sharp peak. It
is called the _Pinculluna_ (“Place of Flutes”). Half-way up, on a
rocky ledge very difficult of approach, there are some buildings which
tradition says were used as a convent of virgins of the sun. They
consist of three long chambers separated from each other but close
together, and rising one behind the other up the declivitous side of
the mountain. They are each twenty-eight paces long, with a door at
each end, and six windows on each side. There are steep gables at
each end about eighteen feet high, and the doors have stone lintels.
There may have been six cells, according to the number of windows,
making eighteen in all. On one side of these buildings there are three
terraces on which the doors open, which probably supplied the inmates
with vegetable food and flowers, and whence they might view one of
nature’s loveliest scenes, the tranquil fertile valley, with its noble
river, and mountains fringed with tiers of cultivated terraces.
About a hundred yards beyond the edge of these convent gardens the
Pinculluna becomes quite perpendicular, and forms a yawning precipice
eight hundred feet high, descending sheer down into the valley. This
was used as the _Huarcuna_ or place of execution, and there is a small
building, like a martello tower, at its verge, whence the victims were
hurled into eternity.
For an account of the tradition connected with the building of
Ollantay-tambo, and of the Quichua drama which is founded on it, see
my work, _Cuzco and Lima_, pp. 172 to 188.
The authors of the _Antiguedades Peruanas_ believe these ruins to be
anterior to those of Cuzco.
[461] _Cunti-suyu_ was the western division of the empire of the
Yncas. The word was afterwards corrupted by the Spaniards into
_Condesuyos_; and the district of that name is now a province of the
department of Arequipa. It is nearly on the watershed of the maritime
Cordillera, and is drained by a river which, after irrigating the
valley of Ocoña, falls into the Pacific.
[462] To the eastward of the Andes are the great forests which extend
unbroken to the Atlantic. Those in the immediate neighbourhood of
Cuzco are watered by the tributaries of the Purus, one of the largest
and most important, though still unexplored affluents of the Amazon.
These forests comprised the _Anti-suyu_ or eastern division of the
empire of the Yncas, and were inhabited by wandering savage tribes
called Antis and Chunchos. The forest region was first invaded by the
Ynca Rocca, but no permanent conquest was made until the reign of the
Ynca Yupanqui, who received tidings of a rich province inhabited by a
people called Musus (Moxos) far to the eastward. All the streams were
said to unite and form a great river called the Amaru-mayu (“serpent
river”), which is probably the main stream of the Purus. The Ynca
made a road from the Andes to the shores of the river, through the
forest-covered country now known as the _montaña de Paucartambo_, and
was occupied for two years in making canoes sufficient to carry ten
thousand men, and their provisions. He then descended the river, and,
after a long and bloody war, subjugated the savage tribes of Chunchos
on its banks, and collected them into a settlement called Tono. They
ever afterwards paid an annual tribute of parrots, honey, and wax to
the Yncas. Yupanqui then penetrated still further to the south and
east, and conquered the province of Moxos.
In the early days of the conquest, the Spaniards established farms
for raising coca, cacao, and sugar in the beautiful forests of
Paucartambo, especially along the banks of the Tono, and Garcilasso de
la Vega tells us that he inherited an estate called Abisca, in this
part of the country. But as Spanish power declined, these estates
began to fall into decay, the savage Chunchos encroached more and
more, and now there is not a single farm remaining in this once
wealthy and flourishing district. The primitive forest has again
resumed its sway, and the country is in the same state as it was
before it was invaded by the Ynca Yupanqui. The exploration of the
course of the Purus is one of the chief desiderata in South American
geography. An expedition under Don Tiburcio de Landa, governor of
Paucartambo, penetrated for some distance down the course of the Tono
in about 1778; in about 1824 a Dr. Sevallos was sent on a similar
errand; General Miller, in 1835, penetrated to a greater distance than
any other explorer before or since; Lieutenant Gibbon, U.S.N., entered
the forests in 1852; and I explored part of the course of the Tono in
1853. I have been furnished with a most valuable and interesting paper
on the river Purús, by Mr. Richard Spruce, the distinguished South
American traveller and botanist, which I have inserted as a note at
the end of this chapter.
[463] These are the _Chunchos_ and other wild tribes.
[464] Unfit for translation.
[465] “_Ensayo Corografico sobre o Pará._ This author cites no
authorities, but he had access to very valuable documents and
manuscript maps in the archives of Pará, most of which were
unfortunately destroyed or dispersed during the uprising of the
_cabanos_ in 1835; and wherever I have had the opportunity of testing
his statements by personal observation I have found them very exact.
[466] “_New Discovery of the Great River of the Amazons._ Markham’s
Transl., p. 107.
[467] “Acuña writes these names respectively ‘Curucurus’ and
‘Quatausis.’
[468] “The original exists as an appendix to the ‘Falla dirigida á
assemblea legislativa provincial do Amazonas, no dia 1º de Outubro de
1853,’ by Senhor Herculano Ferreira Penna, the learned and patriotic
president of the province, who presented me with a copy of it when I
revisited the Barra in 1854.
[469] “_Tolda_, roof to shelter the after part of a canoe.
[470] “_Furo_, a channel between two points of the same river, or from
one river to another, which becomes filled with water in the time of
flood. A narrow channel between an island and the bank is generally
called a _Paraná-merím_, or little river.
[471] “Caldeiraō, a noted whirlpool in the Amazon, near the left bank,
above the mouth of the Rio Negro.
[472] “Solimoēs, the Brazilian name of the Amazon from the Rio Negro
to the frontier, or even as far up as to the mouth of Ucayali.
[473] “The _furo_, or _paraná-merím_, of Paratarý is the lowest
mouth of the Purús, and it appears that Serafim sailed along it for
three days before reaching the main channel. In 1851 I spent nearly
a month on the lakes of Manaquirý, about forty miles below the mouth
of the Purús, and found that the Paratarý had many ramifications,
communicating not only with those lakes, but also with the much larger
lake of Uauatás to the eastward, and thence with the river Madeira.
In the rainy season, indeed, it is possible to navigate for hundreds
of miles parallel to the southern side of the Amazon without ever
entering that river.”
[474] “The beaches on the Amazon and its tributaries are very
important to the Indians, being the places where the turtles lay their
eggs; and hence they all have a special name.
[475] “_Ubá_, a canoe made simply of a hollow trunk, and stretched to
the form of a boat by putting fire under it and cross pieces of wood
within it. _Casca_, a bark canoe.
[476] “This is the _yúca_ of Peru, and is a distinct species from the
_mandiocea_ (_Manihot utilissima_ Pohl.), which is the staple article
of food throughout Brazil.
[477] “In June 1851, I took six days to go from the Barra only half
way to Manacapurú, but the river was then at the height of flood, and
my large boat was manned by only three men.
[478] “I should suppose the Uainamarís to be a tribe of the savage
Chunchos. Many of the large Indian nations spoken of by old authors
are now much subdivided; thus of the Jibaros, on the eastern side of
the Quitenian Andes, have been constituted in modern times the tribes
Achuales, Pindus, Huambisas, etc.
“The Cucamas are a section of the great Tupi nation, and speak a very
euphonious dialect of Tupi. They are now found scattered in most of
the villages on the Marañon (or upper Amazon) in Peru, and formerly
existed in much greater numbers than at present in the village of
La Laguna, within the Huallaga. It is curious to find a remnant of
them so far separated from the bulk of their nation as at the head
of the Purús, but it is explicable enough when we come to trace the
migrations of the Tupís and Cucamas, as narrated by Acuña and other
writers.”
[479] See my chapter on coca cultivation in _Travels in Peru and
India_, chap. xiv, p. 232.
[480] Cieza de Leon now conducts the reader up the beautiful valley of
Vilca-mayu, or Yucay.
[481] Canas was conquered by Lloque Yupanqui, the third Ynca. _G. de
la Vega_, i, lib. ii, cap. 18.
[482] The country inhabited by the Indian tribes of Canas and Canches
was, in Spanish times, included within the Corrigimiento of Tinta,
one of the divisions of the Presidency of Cuzco. It now comprises the
two provinces of Canas and Canches. It consists of lofty plateaux
or _punas_ of the Andes, intersected by the deep and fertile ravine
through which flows the river Vilcamayu or Yucay; and is bounded on
the south by the equally lofty plains of the Collao. The _punas_ are
covered with flocks of llamas; and the more inaccessible fastnesses
are the haunts of huanacus, vicuñas, deer, and viscachas (a kind of
rabbit).
In the most remote times the tribe of Canas inhabited one side of
the Vilcamayu ravine, and that of Canches the other. The former were
proud, cautious, and melancholy, their clothing was usually of a
sombre colour, and their music was plaintive and sad. The latter were
joyous, light hearted, and sociable, but very poor, their clothing
consisting of skins. They made wars upon each other, and built their
villages in strong fortified positions called _pucaras_. These tribes
were brought under the yoke of the Yncas by Sinchi Rocca, the second
of his dynasty. He permitted the ancient chiefs to retain their power,
but insisted upon their children being educated at Cuzco. The Canas,
however, were constantly in a state of revolt, until the Ynca Huayna
Ccapac gave one of his daughters in marriage to their chief.
The Canches were of middle height, very bold, restless, inconstant,
but good workmen, industrious, and brave. The Canas, though of a
darker complexion, were stouter and better made. The Canches loved
solitude and were very silent, and built their huts in secluded
ravines and valleys. The villages of the Canches were Sicuani, Cacha,
Tinta, Checacupe, Pampamarca, Yanaoca, and Lanqui; and those of the
Canas were Checa, Pichigua, Yacuri, Coparaque, Tungasaca, Surimani.
Sicuani, in the ravine of the Vilcamayu, is the principal place in
the country of the Canches and Canas. At the end of the last century
it contained a population of four thousand Indians, and one thousand
Mestizos. The number of Indians in the whole district was calculated,
at the same time, to amount to twenty-six thousand souls. _Mercurio
Peruano_ (_Nueva Edicion_), i, p. 193.
[483] Garcilasso de la Vega relates a tradition respecting this temple
at Cacha, which is on the right bank of the river Yucay, sixteen
leagues south of Cuzco. A supernatural being is said to have appeared
to the Ynca Huira-ccocha, before the battle with Anco-hualluc and his
allies on the plain of Yahuar-pampa (see note to p. 280), and after
his victory the grateful prince caused a temple to be erected at
Cacha, in memory of the phantom. As the vision appeared in the open
air, so the temple was to have no roof, and as he was sleeping at the
time under an overhanging rock, so there was to be a small covered
chapel opening into the temple, which was 120 feet long by 80. The
edifice was built of large stones carefully dressed and finished. It
had four doors, three of them being merely ornamental recesses, and
the fourth, facing to the east, was alone used. Within the temple
there were walls winding round and round and forming twelve lanes,
each seven feet wide, and covered overhead with huge stone slabs ten
feet long. As these lanes went round and round they approached the
centre of the temple, and at the end of the twelfth and last there
was a flight of steps leading to the top. At the end of each lane or
passage there was a window by which light was admitted. The steps were
double, so that people could go up on one side and down on the other.
The floor above was paved with polished black stones, and on one side
there was a chapel, within which was the statue representing the
phantom. The Spaniards entirely demolished this temple.
[484] This description of the Collao is very accurate. South of the
Vilcañota mountains the Andes separate into two distinct chains,
namely the cordillera or coast range and the Eastern Andes, which
include the loftiest peaks in South America, Illimani and Sorata. The
Collao is the region between these two ranges. It contains the great
lake of Titicaca, and consists of elevated plains intersected by
rivers flowing into the lake.
[485] The potatoe was indigenous to the Andes of Peru, and the best
potatoe in the world is grown at a place called Huamantango, near
Lima. I am surprised to find that Humboldt should have doubted this
fact, (“La pomme de terre n’est pas indigène au Pérou.” _Nouv.
Espagne_, ii, p. 400), seeing that there is a native word for potatoe,
and that it is mentioned as the staple food of the people of the
Collao, by Cieza de Leon, and other early writers. Moreover the
_Solanaceæ_ are the commonest plants in several parts of Peru. The
ancient Quichua for potatoe is _ascu_ or _acsu_, and the same word
exists in the Chinchay-suyu dialect. (_Torres Rubio_, p. 219.)
[486] _Chuñus_ or frozen potatoes are still the ordinary food of the
natives of the Collao. They dam up square shallow pools by the sides
of streams, and fill them with potatoes during the cold season of
June and July. The frost soon converts them into _chuñus_, which are
insipid and tasteless.
[487] The _oca_ (_Oxalis tuberosa_ Lin.) is an oval shaped root, the
skin pale red, and the inside white. It is watery, has a sweetish
taste, and is much liked by the Peruvians.
[488] See note at page 143.
[489] See chapter xxv, p. 90.
[490] The most remarkable of these tower tombs of the Collao are
at a place called Sillustani, on a promontory running out into the
lake of Umayu, near Puno. This promontory is literally covered with
places of sepulture. Four of them are towers of finely cut masonry,
with the sides of the stones dovetailing into each other. See a full
description of them in my _Travels in Peru and India_, p. 111; also
_Vigne’s Travels in South America_, ii, p. 31; and _Antiguedades
Peruanas_, p. 293.
[491] A small village of the Collao, on the banks of the river Pucara,
near the point where, uniting with the Azangaro, it forms the Ramiz,
which empties itself into lake Titicaca at the north-west corner.
[492] The editor also remained a whole day at Pucara in 1860, looking
at everything, but more than three centuries had elapsed since the
visit of Cieza de Leon, and there is no longer a vestige of the ruins
mentioned in the text. Pucara is a little town at the foot of an
almost perpendicular mountain, which closely resembles the northern
end of the rock of Gibraltar. The precipice is composed of a reddish
sandstone, and is upwards of twelve hundred feet above the plain,
the crevices and summit being clothed with long grass and shrubby
_queñuas_ (_Polylepis tomentella_ Wedd.) Here Francisco Hernandez
Giron, the rebel who led an insurrection to oppose the abolition of
personal service amongst the Indians, was finally defeated in 1554.
In 1860 the aged cura, Dr. José Faustino Dasa, was one of the best
Quichua scholars in Peru.
[493] Hatun-colla is now a wretched little village, not far from the
towers of Sillustani, already alluded to.
[494] See my chapter on the province of Caravaya, in _Travels in Peru
and India_, chap. xii, p. 199.
[495] A thorough survey of the great lake of Titicaca is still a
desideratum in geography. The lake is about 80 miles long by 40 broad,
being by far the largest in South America. It is divided into two
parts by the peninsula of Copacabana. The southern division, called
the lake of Huaqui, is 8 leagues long by 7, and is united to the
greater lake by the strait of Tiquina. A number of rivers, which are
of considerable volume during the rainy season, flow into the lake.
The largest of these is the Ramiz, which is formed by the junction
of the two rivers of Pucara and Azangaro, and enters the lake at its
north-west corner. The Suchiz, formed by the rivers of Cavanilla and
Lampa, also flows into the lake on its west side, as well as the Yllpa
and Ylave; while on the eastern side are the rivers Huarina, Escoma,
and Achacache. Much of the water thus flowing in is drained off by the
great river Desaguadero, which flows out of the south-west corner, and
disappears in the swampy lake of Aullagas, in the south of Bolivia.
Perhaps a great quantity is taken up by evaporation. On the eastern
side lake Titicaca is very deep, but on parts of the west shore it
is so shoal that there is only just water enough to force a _balsa_
through the forests of rushes. The winds blow from the eastward all
the year round, sometimes in strong gales, so as to raise a heavy
sea. Along the western shore there are acres of tall rushes. The
principal islands are those of Titicaca and Coati, near the peninsula
of Copacabana, Campanario, Escoma, Soto, and Esteves.
[496] The temple, on the island of Titicaca, was one of the
most sacred in Peru, and the ruins are still in a good state of
preservation. The buildings are of hewn stone, with doorways wider
below than above. But they are inferior to those on the adjacent
island of Coati. See _Rivero_, _Antiguedades Peruanas_, chap. x.
[497] We first meet with Hernando Bachicao as a captain of pikemen
in the army of Vaca de Castro. When Gonzalo Pizarro rose against the
viceroy Blasco Nuñez de Vela, he entrusted Bachicao with the formation
of a navy. That officer took command of a brigantine at Callao, which
had just arrived from Quilca, and sailed up the coast. At Tumbez he
found the viceroy, who fled inland on his approach; and Bachicao
seized two vessels. Sailing northward he captured several others, and
with the fleet thus formed, he got possession of the city of Panama
in March 1545. Soon afterwards Gonzalo Pizarro appointed Hinojosa to
command the fleet, and superseded Bachicao; who then joined his chief
with reinforcements from Panama, and took part in the final defeat of
the viceroy at Añaquito, where he commanded the pikemen. At the battle
of Huarina, where he also commanded the pikemen, believing that the
forces of Centeno were about to gain the victory, he turned traitor
and deserted his colours; but he was mistaken, for his old commander
Gonzalo Pizarro won that bloody fight. Bachicao, therefore, returned
to his own side, and would have been glad if his conduct had escaped
observation. But the eagle eye of the fiery old master of the camp,
Carbajal, was not to be deceived, and the captain Hernando Bachicao
was hung by his order, a few days afterwards, in the little village of
Juli, on the western shore of lake Titicaca.
[498] These ruins are in lat. 16° 42´ S. long. 68° 42´ W., 12,930 feet
above the level of the sea, and twelve miles from the south shore
of lake Titicaca. (See Mr. Bollaert’s paper, in the _Intellectual
Observer_ for May 1863.)
[499] It is 918 feet long, 400 broad, and 100 to 120 in height.
[500] The head of one of these statues is 3 feet 6 inches long, from
the point of the beard to the upper part of the ornamental head dress;
and from the nose to the back of the head it measures 2 feet 7 inches.
It is adorned with a species of round cap, 1 foot 7 inches high, and
2 feet 5 inches in width. In the upper part are certain wide vertical
bands, and in the lower are symbolical figures with human faces. From
the eyes, which are large and round, two wide bands, each with three
double circles, project to the chin. From the outer part of each eye
a band descends, adorned with two squares terminating in a serpent.
The nose is slightly prominent, surrounded on the lower side by a
wide semicircular band, and terminating towards the inner side of the
eyes in two corners. The mouth forms a transverse oval, garnished
with sixteen teeth. From the under lip projects, in the form of a
beard, six bands, towards the edge of the chin. The ear is represented
by a semi-lunar figure in a square, and in the fore-part of it is a
vertical band with three squares, terminating in the head of a wild
beast. On the neck there are many human figures. The sculpture of this
head is very remarkable. _Antiguedades Peruanas_, p. 295.
[501] Of these huge monolithic doorways there is one block of hard
trachytic rock measuring 10 feet in height by 13 wide, and another
7 feet in height. In the former block a doorway is cut, which is 6
feet 4 inches high, and 3 feet 2 inches wide. On its eastern side
there is a cornice, in the centre of which a human figure is carved.
The head is almost square, and there proceed from it several rays,
amongst which four snakes can be discerned. The arms are extended,
and each hand holds a snake with a crowned head. The body is covered
with an embroidered garment, and the short feet rest upon a pedestal,
also ornamented with symbolical figures. On each side of this figure
there are a number of small squares on the cornice, in three rows,
each containing a human figure in profile with a walking-stick in the
hand. Each row has sixteen figures, the central row with birds’ heads.
_Antiguedades Peruanas_, p. 296.
Acosta says that he measured one of the great stones at Tiahuanaco,
and found it to be 38 feet long, 18 broad, and 6 deep. _Historia
Natural de las Indias_, lib. vi, cap. 14, p. 419.
(In the _Intellectual Observer_ for May 1863, there is an excellent
engraving of one of the great monolithic doorways at Tiahuanaco, to
illustrate a paper by Mr. Bollaert.)
[502] The famous ruins of Tiahuanaco, generally considered to be
long anterior to the time of the Yncas, appear, like those at
Ollantay-tambo, to be remains of edifices which were never completed.
Garcilasso de la Vega gives the following account of Tiahuanaco.
“Amongst other works in this place, one of them is a hill, made
artificially, and so high that the fact of its having been made by man
causes astonishment; and, that it might not be loosened, it was built
upon great foundations of stone. It is not known why this edifice was
made. In another part, away from the hill, there were two figures of
giants carved in stone, with long robes down to the ground, and caps
on their heads: all well worn by the hand of time, which proves their
great antiquity. There is also an enormous wall of stones, so large
that the greatest wonder is caused to imagine how human force could
have raised them to the place where they now are. For there are no
rocks nor quarries within a great distance, from whence they could
have been brought. In other parts there are grand edifices, and what
causes most astonishment are some great doorways of stone, some of
them made out of one single stone. The marvel is increased by their
wonderful size, for some of them were found to measure 30 feet in
length, 15 in breadth, and 6 in depth. And these stones, with their
doorways, are all of one single piece, so that it cannot be understood
with what instruments or tools they can have been worked.
“The natives say that all these edifices were built before the time
of the Yncas, and that the Yncas built the fortress of Cuzco in
imitation of them. They know not who erected them, but have heard
their forefathers say that all these wonderful works were completed
in a single night. The ruins appear never to have been finished, but
to have been merely the commencement of what the founders intended to
have built. All the above is from Pedro de Cieza de Leon, in his 105th
chapter; to which I propose to add some further particular obtained
from a schoolfellow of mine, a priest named Diego de Alcobasa (who
I may call my brother, for we were born in the same house, and his
father brought me up). Amongst other accounts, which he and others
have sent me from my native land, he says the following respecting
these great edifices of Tiahuanaco. ‘In Tiahuanaco, in the province
of Collao, amongst other things, there are some ancient ruins worthy
of immortal memory. They are near the lake called by the Spaniards
Chucuito, the proper name of which is Chuquivitu. Here there are
some very grand edifices, and amongst them there is a square court,
15 _brazas_ each way, with walls two stories high. On one side of
this court there is a hall 45 feet long by 22 broad, apparently once
covered, in the same way as those buildings you have seen in the house
of the sun at Cuzco, with a roof of straw. The walls, roofs, floor,
and doorways are all of one single piece, carved out of a rock, and
the walls of the court and of the hall are three-quarters of a yard
in breadth. The roof of the hall, though it appears to be thatch, is
really of stone. For as the Indians cover their houses with thatch,
in order that this might appear like the rest, they have combed and
carved the stone so that it resembles a roof of thatch. The waters of
the lake wash the walls of the court. The natives say that this and
the other buildings were dedicated to the Creator of the universe.
There are also many other stones carved into the shape of men and
women so naturally that they appear to be alive, some drinking with
cups in their hands, others sitting, others standing, and others
walking in the stream which flows by the walls. There are also statues
of women with their infants in their laps, others with them on their
backs, and in a thousand other postures. The Indians say that for the
great sins of the people of those times, and because they stoned a man
who was passing through the province, they were all converted into
these statues.’
“Thus far are the words of Diego de Alcobasa, who has been a vicar and
preacher to the Indians in many provinces of this kingdom, having been
sent by his superiors from one part to another: for, being a mestizo
and native of Cuzco, he knows the language of the Indians better than
others who are born in the country, and his labours bear more fruit.”
The part of the country in which Tia-huanaco is situated, was first
conquered by Mayta Ccapac, the fourth Ynca. The name is derived from a
circumstance connected with the conquest. It is said that, while the
Ynca was engaged in this campaign against the Aymara nation, and being
encamped amongst the ruins, a Cañari Indian, serving as a _chasqui_
or courier, arrived from Cuzco in an extraordinarily short space of
time. The Ynca exclaimed _Tia_ (Be seated) _Huanaco_: the _huanaco_
being the swiftest animal in Peru. Thus, like Luxor, and so many other
famous places, these wonderful ruins have received a comparatively
modern name, which has no real connection with their history.
[503] See chapter lxxxvii.
[504] On the 26th of October 1547 Centeno mustered a thousand men, of
whom 250 were mounted. Gonzalo Pizarro’s force barely amounted to 400
infantry and 85 cavalry. Pizarro gained a complete victory, and 350 of
Centeno’s followers were killed.
[505] The president Gasca ordered Don Alonzo de Mendoza, an officer
who had come over to him from the party of Gonzalo Pizarro, to found
a new city south of lake Titicaca, which was to be called “La Ciudad
de Nuestra Señora de la Paz;” to commemorate the peace which had been
established, after the overthrow of the rebel Gonzalo Pizarro. It was
deemed convenient that there should be a Spanish settlement between
Cuzco and the rich silver-yielding province of Charcas, and thus the
building of the city of La Paz was commenced. It is now one of the
principal towns in the modern Republic of Bolivia.
[506] It is now known as the city of Chuquisaca, or Sucre, and is the
capital of the republic of Bolivia.
[507] Pedro de Hinojosa is first heard of as fighting bravely against
Almagro the younger, in the battle of Chupas. He afterwards joined the
fortunes of Gonzalo Pizarro, and that ill-fated chief entrusted him
with the command of Panama and of the fleet. On the arrival of the
president Gasca from Spain, Hinojosa, after some months of hesitation,
betrayed his trust, and handed over the fleet to the wily ecclesiastic
on November 19th, 1546. He was rewarded by being appointed Gasca’s
general by land and sea, and commanded the troops at the final
overthrow of his old commander on the plain of Xaquixaguana. Gasca
granted Gonzalo Pizarro’s valuable estates and mines in Charcas to
Hinojosa. He was also appointed corregidor of Charcas, where he was
assassinated two years afterwards in a mutiny headed by Sebastian de
Castilla.
[508] Before the defeat and death of the viceroy Blasco Nuñez de Vela,
near Quito in January 1546, Gonzalo Pizarro had sent his lieutenant
Carbajal to reduce the province of Charcas, and put down a revolt
headed by Diego Centeno and Lope de Mendoza. Centeno fled, closely
pursued by Carbajal, and hid himself in a cave somewhere near Arequipa
for eight months. The aged veteran Francisco de Carbajal, having run
this fox to earth, then marched into Charcas, and captured Lope de
Mendoza and Nicolas de Heredia, both of whom he hung. Carbajal sent
the heads of his victims to Arequipa, while he busied himself in
collecting silver from the rich mines of Potosi, to supply the needs
of his commander.
[509] The ancient Peruvians knew of gold, silver, copper, tin, and
quicksilver. They took the silver from mines which were not very
deep, abandoning them as soon as the hardness of the ore offered a
resistance sufficient to withstand their imperfect tools. They not
only knew native silver, but also its chemical combinations, such as
the sulphate, antimonial silver, etc. They also knew how to extract
the pure metal from these compounds by fusion, or in portable stoves.
[510] The gold mines of Tipuani, to the eastward of the Andes of
Bolivia, are the richest in South America. See an account of the
method of working them in Bonelli’s _Travels in Bolivia_, i, p. 268.
[511] The licentiate Polo de Ondegardo was appointed corregidor of
Charcas by the president Gasca, and subsequently of Cuzco, where he
remained for several years. He was the author of two _Relaciones_, or
reports to the government, the first addressed to the viceroy Marquis
of Cañete in 1561, and the second to the Count of Nieva. They contain
an account of the laws, habits, religion, and policy of the Yncas.
Unfortunately these valuable documents have never been printed, and
Mr. Prescott obtained copies both of them and of the equally important
manuscript of Sarmiento from Lord Kingsborough’s collection, through
the agency of Mr. Rich. Their publication would be a great boon to the
student of ancient South American civilisation. See _Prescott’s Peru_,
i, p. 162, etc.
[512] A _castellano_ was worth about £2 12s 6d. of our money.
[513] Acosta says that in his time there were four principal veins of
silver on the hill of Potosi, called _La Rica_, _Centeno_, _Estaño_
(tin), and _Mendieta_. They were all on the east side, and ran in a
north and south direction. There were many other smaller veins which
branch off from these four, and in each vein there were several
mines. In _La Rica_ there were seventy-eight mines, which were very
deep; and to remedy the evils caused by their great depth, horizontal
excavations, called _socabones_, were made in the sides of the
hill, and continued until they met the veins. The mines of Potosi
were discovered by an Indian named Hualpa, a native of Chumbivilica
near Cuzco. He was climbing up a steep part of the hill in chase of
deer, and helping his ascent by catching hold of the _queñua_ shrubs
(_Polylepis tomentella_, Wedd.) which grow there. One of the shrubs
came up by the roots, and disclosed a quantity of native silver, which
was the commencement of the vein called _La Rica_. He secretly worked
the vein himself for some time, but eventually disclosed the secret
to a native of Xauxa, who told his master, a Spaniard of Porco, named
Villaroel, and the latter began to work the vein in April 1545. The
three other principal veins were discovered between April and August
of the same year. People soon flocked from all parts to seek their
fortunes at the hill of Potosi. _Acosta_, lib. iv, cap. 6, 7, 8.
[514] _Huayra_ is “wind” or “air” in Quichua.
[515] Acosta tells us that, when he wrote in 1608, most of the
silver was extracted from the ore by means of quicksilver. Formerly,
however, he says that there were more than six thousand _huayras_
on the sides and summit of the hill of Potosi. “The _huayras_ were
small ovens in which the metal was melted, and to see them burning at
night with a red heat, and throwing their light to a distance, was a
pleasant spectacle. At present if the number of _huayras_ reaches to
one thousand or two thousand, it is the outside, because the melting
is done on a small scale, nearly all the metal being extracted by
quicksilver.” _Acosta_, lib. iv, cap. 9, p. 218.
The hill of Potosi is in 21° 40´ S. lat., and seventeen thousand feet
above the level of the sea. The name is said to be derived from the
Aymara word _Potocsi_ (“he who makes a noise”), because, when Huayna
Ccapac in 1462 ordered search to be made for a silver mine on the
hill, a terrible voice cried out from underground that the riches it
contained were reserved for other masters. _G. de la Vega._
Zarate says, that in a short time after the discovery of the silver,
seven thousand Indians were at work, who had to give two marcs of
silver to their masters every week, which they did with such ease,
that they retained more silver for themselves than they paid to their
employers. _Historia del Peru_, lib. vi, cap. 4.
In 1563 Potosi was constituted a town, and was granted a coat of
arms by Philip II; and in 1572 the viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo
went in person to this great seat of mining wealth, and established
regulations for its government. This viceroy also introduced the use
of quicksilver, a mine of which had been discovered at Huancavelica,
by a Portuguese named Enrique Garces, in 1566. Toledo also regulated
and legalised the atrocious system of _mitas_, or forced labour in
the mines. He caused a census to be taken of Indians in Peru, between
the ages of eighteen and fifty, the result of which gave a total of
1,677,697 men liable for service, who were divided into 614 _ayllus_
or lineages. Of these he assigned a seventh part of those living in
the seventeen nearest provinces, or 11,199 Indians, to work at the
mines of Potosi, under certain rules for their protection, which
were generally evaded. According to Toledo’s law, each _Mitayo_, or
forced labourer, would only have to serve for eighteen months during
the thirty-two years that he was liable. They were to receive twenty
rials a week, and half a rial for every league of distance between
their native village and Potosi. In 1611 there was a population of
one hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants in the town of Potosi, of
whom seventy-six thousand were Indians, three thousand Spaniards,
thirty-five thousand Creoles, forty thousand Europeans, and six
thousand Negroes and Mulattoes. The riches accumulated by individuals
were enormous, and a man named Sinteros, “the rich,” who died in 1650,
was worth twenty million dollars. _Mercurio Peruano._
In 1825 there were about five thousand mouths of mines on the
mountain, of which only fifty or sixty were then worked. The upper
portion of the mountain, indeed, was so completely honeycombed,
that it was considered as nearly worked out. The lower part, about
one-third of the cone, was then hardly touched, in consequence of the
number of springs which impede the working.
[516] _Yana_, in Quichua, is a “companion,” and also a “servant.” The
word also means “black.” _Cuna_ is a particle denoting the plural
number. The _Yana-cuna_ were a class of Indians forced to labour as
domestic servants, but with the power to choose their masters.
[517] “The domestic animals,” says Padre Blas Valera, “which God has
given to these Indians of Peru, are bland and gentle, like their
masters, so that a child can lead them where he likes. There are
two kinds, one larger than the other. The Indians call the animals
_llamas_, and their shepherds _llama-michec_. They are of all colours,
like the horses of Spain, when domesticated, but the wild kind, called
_huanacus_, have only one colour, which is a washed-out chestnut.
The _llama_ stands as high as a deer of Spain, but no animal does it
resemble more than a camel without a hump, and a third part of the
size. The neck of the _llama_ is long and smooth. The Indians used the
skin, softened with grease, as soles for their sandals, but, as they
had not the art of tanning, they took them off in crossing brooks or
in rainy weather. The Spaniards make very good reins of it for their
horses. The skin is also used for girths and cruppers of saddles, and
for whips. Besides this, the animals are useful to both Indians and
Spaniards as beasts of burden, to carry merchandise whithersoever they
list, but they are generally used on the road from Cuzco to Potosi,
a distance of near two hundred leagues. They carry three or four
_arrobas_” (75 or 100 lbs.) “weight, and only make journeys of three
leagues a day. When they are tired they lie down, and nothing will
induce them to stir, for if any one tries to force them to rise, they
spit in his face. They have no other means of defending themselves,
having no horns like a stag. That they may not be easily tired, some
forty or fifty unladen animals accompany the drove, that they may take
their turn with the burdens. Their flesh is the best in the world;
it is tender, wholesome, and savoury. The doctors order the flesh of
their lambs of four or five months, for sick persons, in preference to
chickens.
“The Yncas possessed enormous flocks of _llamas_ of all colours, and
each colour had a special name. The flocks were divided according to
their colours, and if a lamb was born of a different colour from its
parents, it was passed into the flock of its own colour. The _Quipus_
had knots for each flock, according to the colour, and thus an account
of their number was easily kept.
“There is another domestic kind, called _Paco_. The _Pacos_ are not
reared for carrying burdens, but for the sake of their flesh, and
for their wool, which is excellent and very long. The Indians make
very fine cloths of it, dotted with rich colours. The Indians do not
use the milk of either of the kinds, nor do they make cheese of it.
Indeed, they only have sufficient to nourish their lambs, and the
Indians call the milk, the udder, and the act of sucking, by the same
word _nuñu_.
“The wild kind was called _huanacu_, and these _huanacus_ are of the
same size and form as the llamas. Their flesh is good, though not so
good as that of the domesticated llama. The males always remain on
lofty heights, while the females come down into the plains to feed,
and when the males see any one coming, they bleat like the neighing of
a horse, to warn the females, and they gallop away with the females
in front. Their wool is short and rough, yet it was also used by the
Indians for their cloths. There is another wild kind called _vicuña_,
a delicate animal with plenty of fine wool. The _vicuña_ stands higher
than a goat, and the colour of its wool is a clear chestnut. They are
so fleet that no dog can overtake them, and frequent the loftiest
fastnesses near the line of snow.” _G. de la Vega_, i, lib. viii,
caps. 16 and 17.
“Among the notable things possessed by the Indians of Peru,” says
Acosta, “are the _vicuñas_ and _llamas_. These llamas are tame and
very useful; the vicuñas are wild. The vicuñas live in the loftiest
and most uninhabited parts of the mountains, which are called _punas_.
Snow and frost do not harm them, and they run very swiftly. They are
not very prolific, and the Yncas therefore prohibited the hunting of
these animals, except on special occasions. Their wool is like silk
and very durable, and, as the colour is natural and not a dye, it
lasts for ever. Acosta also says that vicuña flesh is excellent for
sore eyes.
“The domestic flocks are of two kinds, one small, and called _pacos_,
the others with less wool, and useful as beasts of burden, called
llamas. The llamas have long necks like those of camels, and this
is necessary to enable them to browse, as they stand high on their
legs. They are of various colours, some white all over, others black
all over, others grey, others black and white, which they call
_moro-moro_. For sacrifices the Indians were very particular to
select the proper colour, according to the season or occasion. The
Indians make cloth from the wool, a coarse sort called _auasca_, and
a fine sort called _ccompi_. Of this _ccompi_ they make table cloths,
napkins, and other cloths very skilfully worked, which have a lustre
like silk. In the time of the Yncas the principal _ccompi_ workers
lived at Capachica, near the lake of Titicaca. They use dyes which are
gathered from various plants.
“The llamas carry loads weighing from four to six arrobas (100 to 150
lbs.), but do not go further than three, or at the most four leagues a
day. They are all fond of a cold climate, and die when they are taken
down into the warm valleys. They have a very pleasant look, for they
will stop in the road and watch a person very attentively for some
time without moving, with their necks raised up, so that it causes
laughter to see their serenity; but sometimes they suddenly take
fright and run off to inaccessible places with their loads.” _Acosta_,
lib. iv, cap. 41, p. 293.
The llama measures, from the sole of the hoof to the top of the head,
4 feet 6 to 8 inches, and from the sole of the hoof to the shoulders 2
feet 11 inches to 3 feet. The female is usually smaller, but her wool
is finer and better. The young llamas are left with their dams for
about a year. In Acosta’s time (1608) a llama was worth six or seven
dollars, and in 1840 about from three to four dollars. The Indians are
very fond of these animals. They adorn them by tying bows of ribbon to
their ears, and, before loading, they always fondle and caress them
affectionately. See _Von Tschudi’s Travels_, pp. 307-14.
The llama is invaluable to the Peruvian Indians, and Cieza de Leon
truly says that without this useful animal they could scarcely exist.
Their food is llama flesh, which may be preserved for a long time in
the form of _charqui_ or smoke-dried meat, their clothing is made from
llama wool, all the leather they use is from llama hides, the only
fuel they have in many parts of the Collao is llama dung, and, while
living, the llama is their beast of burden.
[518] The molle tree (_Schinus Molle_: Lin.) is well known in the
countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and Mrs. Clements Markham
introduced it into the Neilgherry hills in Southern India in 1861. It
is the commonest tree in some parts of the Andes, especially in the
valleys of Xauxa, Guamanga, Andahuaylas, Abancay, and the Vilcamayu,
and in the _campiña_ of Arequipa; where its graceful foliage and
bunches of red berries overshadow the roads.
Acosta says that the molle tree possesses rare virtues, and that the
Indians make a wine of the small twigs (lib. iv, cap. 30). Garcilasso
de la Vega describes it as forming its fruit in large bunches. “The
fruits are small round grains like coriander seeds, the leaves are
small and always green. When ripe the berry has a slightly sweet taste
on the surface, but the rest is very bitter. They make a beverage of
the berries by gently rubbing them in the hand, in warm water, until
all their sweetness has come out, without any of the bitter. The water
is then allowed to stand for three or four days, and it makes a very
pleasant and healing drink. When mixed with _chicha_ it improves the
flavour. The same water boiled until it is curdled, forms treacle,
and when put in the sun it becomes vinegar. The resin of the molle is
very efficacious in curing wounds, and for strengthening the gums. The
leaves boiled in water also have healing virtues. I remember when the
valley of Yucay was adorned with great numbers of these useful trees,
and in a few years afterwards there were scarcely any; for they had
all been used to make charcoal.” _Comm. Real._, i, lib. viii, cap. 12,
p. 280.
The resin of the molle is a substance like mastick, and the Peruvians
still use it for strengthening their gums.
[519] The _Collahuayas_, or itinerant native doctors of Peru, still
carry about a vast number of herbs and roots, which are supposed to
cure all diseases.
[520] Buenaventura.
[521] See p. 26.
[522] The best known hot medicinal springs in Peru are those near
Caxamarca (129.7° Fahr.), those at Laris, in the mountains overhanging
the valley of the Vilcamayu, and those at Yura, near Arequipa.
Great attention was paid by the Yncas to the formation of their baths,
called _armana_ in Quichua. The springs (_puquio_), or hot springs
(_ccoñic puquio_), were carefully paved with a mixture of small stones
and a species of bitumen, and over them was arranged the figure of an
animal, bird, or serpent in marble, basalt, or even gold or silver,
which threw water from the mouth, either perpendicularly into the
air, when the jet was called _huraca_, or horizontally, when it was
called _paccha_. The flowing water was conducted through a pipe of
metal or stone into jars of sculptured stone. The baths had small
dressing-rooms attached, which were ornamented with statues in stone
and metal. _Antiguedades Peruanas_, p. 238.
[523] Wheat was introduced into Peru by a lady named Maria de Escobar,
wife of Don Diego de Chaves, a native of Truxillo; and one of those
noble knights who raised their voices against the murder of the Ynca
Atahualpa. She first sowed it in the valley of the Rimac, but there
were so few seeds to begin with, that three years elapsed before any
wheaten bread was made.
[524] Garcilasso says he does not know who introduced the barley, but
thinks it probable that a few grains may have come with the wheat.
_Comm. Real._, i, lib. ix, cap. 24.
[525] Olive trees from Seville were introduced into Peru in 1560, by
Don Antonio de Ribera, a citizen of Lima, ten years after Cieza de
Leon left the country. Ribera brought more than a hundred young plants
out very carefully in two jars, but, as might have been expected,
there were only three alive when he reached Lima, and he was very
fortunate in preserving any. He planted them in a fruit garden near
Lima, and stationed an army consisting of a hundred negroes and
thirty dogs, to guard and watch over them night and day. In spite of
all this care, one of the three plants was stolen and carried off
to Chile, where it yielded many cuttings, which eventually formed
flourishing plantations. At the end of three years the same olive tree
was secretly planted again in Ribera’s garden, and he was never able
to discover who had stolen it, nor who had restored it. There are now
several olive plantations in the coast valleys of Peru, especially at
Tambo, near Aiequipa, where there are five thousand olive trees and
seven mills. _G. de la Vega._
[526] This excellent suggestion, which Cieza de Leon made more than
three hundred years ago, has never been adopted by the indolent
Peruvians. I am convinced that plantations, not perhaps of oak, but
of larch, fir, and birch, might be successfully formed in the more
sheltered ravines of the Collao, and of other treeless parts of the
Andes, for the supply of timber and fuel. The winters, from May to
September, are not nearly so cold as in Scotland, though very dry;
and during the rainy season, though it is cold, there is plenty of
moisture. The introduction of these plantations would change the whole
face of the country, and the introducer would confer an inestimable
blessing on the inhabitants.
[527] This nasty animal is called _añas_ in Quichua.
[528] Called _Suri_ in Quichua. (_Rhea Americana_ L.)
[529] The _Huis-cacha_ (_Lagidium Peruvianum_ May) is a large rodent
very common in the Andes, and frequenting rocky ridges. It has a long
bushy tail. In the morning and evening it creeps out from amongst its
rocks to nibble the alpine grass.
[530] One called _chuy_ in Quichua; the other _yutu_.
[531] He here alludes to the turkey buzzards, or _gallinazos_, obscene
vultures, which act as scavengers in the streets of Lima and other
coast towns, but are unknown in the mountains. The Quichua word for
them is _suyuntuy_. _Aura_ is the word used in Mexico.
[532] The ancient Peruvian silversmiths knew how to melt the metal, to
cast it in moulds, to solder it, and to hammer it. For melting they
used small ovens, with tubes of copper through which the air passed.
The moulds were made of a clay mixed with gypsum, and the moulded
figures were finished off with a chisel. They hammered out figures on
the sides of open vases with wonderful skill, and soldered the parts
with great art, after burnishing so that the points of junction can
scarcely be discerned. They supplied the place of gilding by fastening
very thin leaves of gold or silver to copper, timber, and even stone.
They also extracted fine threads from the precious metal, and wove
them into cloths. Unfortunately, all their best works were either
destroyed by the covetous Spaniards, or concealed by the Indians
themselves at the time of the conquest. Zarate mentions four llamas
and ten statues of women, of the natural size, of the finest gold, as
having been found at Xauxa; and all the ancient writers agree in their
accounts of the vast number and great merit of the gold and silver
ornaments of the Yncas.
The ancient pottery of Peru is very remarkable. The Indians imitated
every quadruped, bird, fish, shell, plant, fruit, besides heads of
men and women. All these varied forms were moulded in clay, and the
vessels thus made were used as sacred urns to be buried with the
dead, or for sacrificial purposes. Those for domestic uses were more
simple. The material made use of was coloured clay and blackish earth,
and the vessels do not appear to have been burnt, but dried in the
sun. Many of these vessels are double, others quadruple, and even
octuple, the principal vessel being surrounded by smaller appendages,
which communicate with each other and with the principal vessel. When
the double ones were filled with water, the air escaped through the
opening left for that purpose, and produced sounds, which imitated
the voice of the animal represented by the principal vessel. Thus, in
a vessel representing a cat, when water is poured in, a sound like
mewing is produced, and another gives out a sound like the whistling
of a bird, the form of which is moulded on the handle. See some very
interesting remarks on ancient Peruvian pottery, in Professor Wilson’s
work. _Prehistoric Man_, i, p. 110.
[533] Small beads. See note at page 176.
[534] The Peruvians wove cotton and woollen cloths with great skill,
and there are a great number of words connected with weaving in the
Quichua language, such as _ahuana_ (loom), _ahuay_ (woof), _comana_
(a wooden batten used in weaving), etc. They also knew the secret of
fixing the dyes of all colours--flesh colour, yellow, gray, blue,
green, black--so firmly that they never fade after the lapse of ages,
and all their dyes were extracted from vegetables. They ornamented
their textures by sewing leaves of gold or silver, mother-of-pearl,
and feathers on them; and they also made fringes, laces, and tassels
of wool and cotton, to adorn carpets and tapestries.
[535] The people included within the empire of Yncas are comprised
by D’Orbigny in his Ando-Peruvian race, which he divides into three
branches, namely the Peruvian, Antisian, and Araucanian. The Peruvian
branch is subdivided by him into four nations, namely the Quichua,
Aymara, Atacama, and Chango. This Peruvian branch is characterised by
a rich brown olive colour, middling height (1 mètre 597 millimètres),
massive form, trunk very long in comparison with the whole height,
forehead receding, face large and oval, nose long, very aquiline, and
full at the base, mouth large, eyes horizontal, cornea yellowish,
ball not jutting out: character serious, thoughtful, and sad. The
height of the pure Quichua Indians varies from 4 feet 9 inches to 5
feet 3 inches. Their shoulders are very broad, and square; breast
excessively voluminous, and longer than ordinary, so as to increase
the length of the trunk. The arms and feet are always small. The
head is oblong, forehead slightly receding, but the cranium is
nevertheless voluminous, and indicates a well developed brain. The
face is generally large, and nearer a circle than an oval. The nose is
long and very aquiline, nostrils large and open. The lips are thick
and the mouth large, but the teeth are always good. The chin is short
but not receding. The cheeks are somewhat high. The eyes are always
horizontal, the cornea yellowish, the eyebrows much arched, and the
hair black, long, and very straight. They have no beard beyond a few
straggling hairs, appearing late in life.
Such were the main characteristics of nearly all the tribes which
formed the empire of the Yncas. These tribes were, as mentioned by
Cieza de Leon, the Quichuas, Collas or Aymaras, Canas and Canches,
Chancas, Huancas, Yuncas, Antis, Chachapuyas, and Cañaris. It is
generally found that a vast number of languages exist in a mountainous
country, and the Caucasus offers a striking example of this rule;
to which the Andes was no exception, for Cieza de Leon assures us
that nearly every village originally had a language of its own. But
the dominant tribe of the Quichuas, with its civilised rule and
astute policy, had gradually superseded all the other dialects by
their own language--the richest and most copious to be found in the
whole American group of tongues. Thus at the time of the conquest
the Quichua was alone spoken throughout the empire of the Yncas,
and we now have but few scattered remnants of any other language on
the plateaux of the Andes, except the Aymara. The vocabulary of a
Chinchay-suyu dialect, spoken in the north of Peru, as given by Torres
Rubio, differs little, if at all, from the Quichua, and the same
remark applies to the Quito dialect. I am of opinion that the whole of
the ancient tribes mentioned above, were essentially members of one
and the same race.
D’Orbigny says of the Quichua or Ynca Indians that their character
is gentle, hospitable, and obedient. They are good fathers, good
husbands, sociable or rather gregarious, always living together in
villages, taciturn, patient, and industrious. (_L’Homme Américain_, i,
p. 255). I have myself seen much of these interesting people, and have
found them to be intelligent, patient, obedient, loving amongst each
other, and particularly kind to animals. They are brave and enduring.
I was in the dense untrodden forests with four of these Indians for
many days, and they proved to be willing, hard working, intelligent,
good humoured, efficient, and companionable. Of the higher qualities
of this race, their copious language; plaintive songs; superb works of
art in gold, silver, stone, and clay; beautiful fabrics; stupendous
architecture; enlightened laws; and marvellous civilisation in the
days of the Yncas; are sufficient proof.
[536] See p. 82.
[537] The family of Quiñones is still the principal one in Azangaro;
and the enlightened and liberal Don Luis Quiñones, late a member of
Congress, was my host during my stay in that interesting town.
[538] This is a very curious account of the ceremony at harvest time,
in use among the ancient inhabitants of the Collao.
[539] _Umu_ is the correct word for priest in Quichua, and
_huillac-umu_ for high priest. _Huaca-camayoc_ was a person having
charge of the _huacas_, or tombs and holy places.
[540] This is the Mexican name for turkey buzzards.
[541] All this sounds very like a spirit-rapping and table-turning
piece of business.
[542]
“Pues Señor Gobernador
Mirelo bien por entero
Que allá va el Recogedor
Y acá queda el Carnicero.”
The above is Mr. Prescott’s version of these famous lines. Mr. Helps
translates them thus:--
“My good lord Governor,
Have pity on our woes;
For here remains the butcher,
To Panama the salesman goes.”
[543] Of the famous thirteen only four ever appear again in the
history of the times. These are Pedro de Candia (see note, p. 193);
Juan de la Torre (see note, p. 221); Nicholas de Ribera, who is
mentioned as having deserted from Gonzalo Pizarro to Gasca, as having
been afterwards appointed captain of the guard of the royal seal
by the Royal Audience of Lima in 1554, and as having lived quietly
on a _repartimiento_ granted to him near Cuzco, and left children
to inherit it; and Alonzo de Molina. When Pizarro finally left the
desert island, and continued his voyage of discovery, he first
touched at Tumbez, on the northern boundary of Peru, and then sailed
some distance down the coast. Alonzo de Molina was sent on shore at
one place, and, the sea running high, he was left there until the
return of the ship. The natives treated him with great kindness, and
when Pizarro’s ship came back, three more of the thirteen, Nicolas
de Ribera, Francisco de Cuellar, and Pedro Alcon were sent ashore,
the latter being very gaily dressed. This Alcon fell madly in love
with an Indian lady at first sight, and was so furious at not being
allowed to stay behind, that he drew his sword on his own shipmates,
and the pilot Ruiz was obliged to knock him down with an oar. He was
afterwards kept chained on the lower deck. When Pizarro finally sailed
for Panama again, on his way to Spain, Alonzo de Molina was allowed
to remain behind at Tumbez until the Spaniards should come back,
the Indians promising to use him well. But he died before Pizarro
returned, and the Indians gave various conflicting accounts of the
manner of his death. _Herrera_, dec. iii, lib. iii, cap. 3, and lib.
iv, cap. 1.
The most authentic and only complete list of the thirteen is given
by Prescott, from a manuscript copy of “the Capitulation made by
Pizarro with Queen Juana on July 26th, 1529,” which he obtained from
Navarrete. The original is at Seville. In this document all those,
among the thirteen, who were not already hidalgos, were created so.
Gomara gives the names of two, the pilot Ruiz, and Pedro de Candia.
Zarate adds seven more, one of whom is not in the “Capitulation.”
Garcilasso de la Vega copies from Zarate, but adds that there were two
whose names were Ribera, and that he knew them both afterwards. There
is only one in the “Capitulation.”
The list in the “Capitulation,” supplied by Pizarro himself, must of
course have been the correct one: it is as follows:--
Bartolome Ruiz (the pilot).
Cristoval de Peralta.
Pedro de Candia.
Domingo de Soria Luce.
Nicolas de Ribera.
Francisco de Cuellar.
Alonzo de Molina.
Pedro Alcon.
Garcia de Jerez.
Anton de Carrion.
Alonzo Briceño.
Martin de Paz.
Juan de la Torre.
The name added by Zarate is that of Alonzo de Truxillo; but he may
have been one of the two Alonzos of the “Capitulation;” Zarate giving
his birth place of Truxillo, instead of his surname. Garcia de Jerez
(or de Jaren), another of the thirteen, seems to have given evidence
before a judge respecting this transaction in 1529, which has been
preserved (_Doc. Ined._, tom. 26, p. 260), and is quoted by Mr.
Helps (iii, p. 446, _note_). He says:--“Pizarro being in the island
of Gallo, the governor Rios sent for the men who were with the said
captain, allowing any one who should wish to prosecute the enterprise
to remain with him.”
This story respecting Pizarro, who, when his people were suffering
from the extremities of famine and hardship, and when a ship had
arrived to take them back to Panama, drew a line, and called upon
those who preferred toil and hunger to ease and pleasure, to cross it
and remain with him, is certainly one of the most heart-stirring in
the history of Spanish conquest in America. Robertson gives the story
on the authority of Herrera, Zarate, Xerez, and Gomara. Prescott adds
the speech imputed to Pizarro, from Montesinos, a very unreliable
source; and Helps gives the account according to Herrera’s version,
which no doubt is very near the truth. The conduct of these thirteen
brave men shows the spirit which animated the Spaniards of that age,
and the dauntless act itself, in its simple grandeur, certainly
derives no additional glory from the melodramatic speeches which have
been put into Pizarro’s mouth by later chroniclers.
[544] See note at page 47.
[545] See page 79 and note.
[546] See page 110, note.
[547] See note at page 300.
[548] This warlike prelate was in the battle of Huarina, fighting on
the side of Centeno, and narrowly escaped with his life; for if grim
old Carbajal had caught him, he would assuredly have been hanged.
Solano succeeded Valverde in the bishopric of Cuzco in 1545, and died
in 1562.
[549] Guamanga was detached from Cuzco, and erected into a separate
bishopric by a Bull of Pope Paul V, dated July 20th, 1609. The first
bishop was installed in 1615; since which time there have been
twenty-five bishops of Guamanga.
[550] See note at page 227.
[551] Plata (Chuquisaca), Truxillo, and Chachapoyas afterwards became
the seats of distinct bishoprics.
[552] Previously viceroy of Mexico. He died at Lima in 1555. He was a
son of Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, second Count of Tendilla and Marquis of
Mondejar, who was ambassador to Rome in the time of Innocent VIII.
[553] The church of La Merced in Cuzco has a cloister, which is the
finest specimen of architecture in Peru dating from Spanish times,
and, I should think, in all South America. Here the Almagros, father
and son, and Gonzalo Pizarro were buried.
[554] All the monasteries in Guamanga have been suppressed.
[555] This is by far the largest monastery in Lima.
[556] The tower of San Domingo is the loftiest in Lima, being 180 feet
high. The church contains a rich silver-cased altar to Santa Rosa, the
patron saint of Lima.
* * * * *
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
disappoined courtiers=> disappointed courtiers {pg ii}
Descubrimiento de la Neuva Granada=> Descubrimiento de la Nueva Granada
{pg vii fn 7}
palms of the _Pixiuaes_=> palms of the _Pixiuares_ {pg 73}
The porvince round Popayan=> The province round Popayan {pg 118}
sumptuous buildings of Cavangue=> sumptuous buildings of Carangue {pg
133}
which, in our languege=> which, in our language {pg 133}
between the two camps at early down=> between the two camps at early
dawn {pg 158 fn 284}
marquis Don Fracisco Pizarro=> marquis Don Francisco Pizarro {pg 186}
of this punisnment=> of this punishment {pg 190}
were there are vast territories=> where there are vast territories {pg
204}
during most part of the year=> during most parts of the year {pg 303}
who try to foretel=> who try to foretell {pg 312}
The Indians of Andehuaylas=> The Indians of Andahuaylas {pg 317 fn 438}
Many deep excations have been made=> Many deep excavations have been
made {pg 324}
about two feet by one a-half=> about two feet by one and a-half {pg 328
fn 454}
got much gold from Paccari-tambo=> got much gold from Paccari-tambu {pg
335}
To the _paráná-merím_ of Sapiá.=> To the _paraná-merím_ of Sapiá. {pg
344}
Toledo (Garcia Gutierrèz do), discovery of treasure by, 243 _note_=>
Toledo (Garcia Gutierrez de), discovery of treasure by, 243 _note_ {pg
437}