The tribes over whom they ruled are still to be found, though in
diminished numbers, and debased by the cruel system of oppression under
which they long groaned. The native inhabitants of the central region
of the Andes are known as the Quichuas, and their chief characteristics
are common to the greater number of the tribes along the whole extent of
the range. Though the languages of the different tribes vary, they are
probably derived from the same source. The head of the Quichua is an
oblong longitudinal, somewhat compressed at the sides. He has a low and
very slightly arched forehead; a prominent, long, aquiline nose, with
large nostrils. The mouth is large, and the teeth very fine, while the
lips are not thick; the chin is short, but not receding; cheek-bones not
prominent, eyes horizontal and never large, eyebrows long, the hair
jet-black--and, though thick, straight and coarse, yet soft. He has
little or no beard. In stature they seldom reach five feet. The chest
is long, broad, deep, and highly arched. The hands and feet are small.
The colour is between olive, brown, and bronze,--somewhat like that of
the mulatto. Though their chests are broad, and their shoulders square,
their arms are weak--their chief strength existing in their backs and
legs. Mild, generous, and submissive, they have existed when a fiercer
race would have been exterminated; but, on several occasions, they have
shown that they can be goaded into revolt. About the year 1770, under
Tupac Amaru, they broke into rebellion, when, had they possessed better
arms and more discipline, they might, with the courage they exhibited,
have driven the Spaniards from the country. The rebellion was put down
with the atrocious cruelties to which the Spaniards have invariably
subjected this unhappy race.
On the eastern slopes of the Andes are found savage tribes, wearing few
or no clothes, painting their skins, and ornamenting themselves with the
coloured feathers of birds. Towards the southern end of Chili, the
fierce Araucanians inhabit the mountains. Beyond them are the
large-limbed Patagonians, clothed in skins; and at the extreme end, the
wretched Fuegans, living in nearly a state of nature, on seals and fish.
The race supposed to have been the most civilised before the time of the
Incas were the Aymaras, whose descendants still inhabit the shores of
Lake Titicaca. Their language differs from the Quichua, though
evidently a sister-tongue.
This expanse of water, already mentioned, is about eighty miles long and
forty broad. Numerous rivers flow into it; in some places it is very
deep, but in others so shallow that there is only just room to force the
balsas through the rushes. It abounds in fish of peculiar form, and in
aquatic birds. Several islands rise above its surface. That of
Titicaca, from which it takes its name, is most celebrated.
During one of the several occasions when the Indians rose against their
taskmasters to free themselves from the mita--a system which compelled
one-seventh part of the male population to labour in the mines--the
lake, for a long time, afforded them a place of refuge. In some places
along the shores, beds of rushes exist nine leagues long and one broad.
In the midst of them there is an island, to which lanes were cut through
the tangled mass. This watery labyrinth was navigated by the Indians in
their balsas; and, secure in their retreat, they contrived to make
inroads on the Spanish towns in the neighbourhood for a length of time.
(These balsas are composed of reeds, tightly fastened together on the
sides, in the form of boats, and are propelled both by sails and
paddles.) Several of the Indian chiefs were at length captured and
executed. This, however, only exasperated the rebels, who, under an
enterprising leader, attacked the bridge over the Desaguadero, and
carried off the heads of their chiefs, which had been stuck on poles
above it. The Spanish troops sent against them waded to some islets,
but the Indians, hovering round them in their balsas, prevented them
from advancing further. At length the Spaniards embarked in twenty
balsas, and came in sight of the native squadron. The Indians, however,
going in and out among the lanes and rushes, baffled their oppressors,
cutting off several Spanish balsas. A party of cavalry also, advancing
into the swampy ground, was suddenly surrounded and cut to pieces, with
a loss to the Indians of only three men.
These outbreaks, and the far more important rebellion under Tupac Amaru,
show that Spanish tyranny had not entirely succeeded in crushing the
spirit of the Indians. During the civil wars which for so long
devastated the Spanish provinces of South America, the Indians fought
with a courage fully equal to that of the whites.