But the conduct of Toledo with regard to the Ynca royal family was

dictated by a narrow view of political expediency, and was alike unwise

and iniquitous. He reversed the generous and enlightened policy of the

Marquis of Cañete. After the death of Sayri Tupac, the Ynca court had

again retired into the mountain fastnesses of Vilcabamba, where the

late Ynca’s two brothers, Titu Cusi Yupanqui and Tupac Amaru, resided

with many native chiefs and followers. When the new viceroy arrived at

Cusco, in January, 1571, the Ynca Titu Cusi sent an embassy to him,

and requested that ministers of religion might be sent to Vilcabamba.

Accordingly, the friar Diego Ortiz arrived at the Ynca court; but

almost immediately afterward Titu Cusi sickened and died, and the

superstitious people, believing that it was the work of the friar, put

him to death. The youthful Tupac Amaru was then proclaimed Ynca, as

successor to his brother. This gave the viceroy the pretext he sought.

He despatched a strong force into Vilcabamba, under the command of

Martin Garcia Loyola, who was married to an Ynca princess, the daughter

of Sayri Tupac. Loyola penetrated into Vilcabamba, and took young Tupac

Amaru prisoner on the 4th of October, 1571. He was brought to Cusco and

confined in a palace, under the shadow of the great fortress, which

until now had belonged to the family of his uncle, the Ynca Paullu. But

the viceroy had seized it as a strong position to be held by Spanish

troops under his uncle Don Luis de Toledo. There was a trial for the

murder of the friar; several chiefs were sentenced to be strangled, and

Tupac Amaru, who was perfectly innocent and against whom there was no

evidence, was to be beheaded.

The young sovereign was instructed for several days by two monks who

were excellent Quichua scholars, and who spoke the language with

grace and elegance. He was then taken to a scaffold, which had been

erected in the great square. The open spaces and the hills above the

town were covered with dense crowds of people. When the executioner

produced his knife, there was such a shout of grief and horror that the

Spaniards were amazed, and there were few of them with a dry eye. The

boy was perfectly calm. He raised his right arm, and there was profound

silence. He spoke a few simple words of resignation, and the scene was

so heart-rending that the hardest of the conquerors lost self-control.

Led by the bishop and the heads of the monasteries, they rushed to the

house of the viceroy and threw themselves on their knees, praying for

mercy and entreating him to send the Ynca to Spain to be judged by the

king. Toledo was a laborious administrator, but his heart was harder

than the nether millstone. He sent off the chief Alguazil, of Cusco,

to cause the sentence to be executed without delay. The crime was

perpetrated amid deafening shouts of grief and horror, while the great

bell of the cathedral was tolled. The body was taken to the palace of

the Ynca’s mother, and was afterward interred in the principal chapel

of the cathedral, after a solemn service performed by the bishop and

the chapter. Toledo caused the head to be cut off and stuck on a pike

beside the scaffold; but such vast crowds came to worship before it

every day, that it was taken down and interred with the body.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: TEMPLE OF CUSCO.

[Fac-simile of the engraving as given in Montanus and in Ogilby.

Garcilasso de la Vega describes Cusco soon after the Conquest, and

explains the distribution of buildings which was made among the

conquerors. A plan of the ancient and modern city, showing the

conquerors’ houses, is given in Markham’s _Royal Commentaries of De

la Vega_, vol. ii., and in the _Journal of the Royal Geographical

Society_, 1871, p. 281. A plan of the ancient and modern town, by E.

G. Squier, is given in that author’s _Peru, Land of the Incas_ (New

York), 1877, p. 428. The house of Pizarro is delineated in Charton’s

_Voyageurs_, vol. iii. p. 367; and the remains of the palace of the

first Inca, in Squier’s _Land of the Incas_, p. 451.

Cieza de Leon says: “Cusco was grand and stately; it must have been

founded by a people of great intelligence.” (Markham’s edition.

_Travels_, pp. 322, 327.)

Early plans or views of Cusco are given in Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 412

(see _ante_, p. 554); in Münster’s _Cosmographia_, 1572 and 1598; in

Braun and Hogenberg’s _Civitates orbis terrarum_; in De Bry, part vi.,

and in Herrera (1728), vol. iii. p. 161. There is a large woodcut map

of Cusco, in Ant. du Pinet’s _Plantz, Pourtraitz et Descriptions de

plusieurs Villes_, etc., Lyons, 1564.

Vander Aa published a view at Leyden, and another is in Rycaut’s

translation of Garcilasso de la Vega, p. 12. Accounts of the modern

town are given by Markham, Squier, and others, and there is a view of

it in _Tour du Monde_, 1863, p. 265.—ED.]]

The judicial murder of Tupac Amaru was part of a settled policy. Toledo

intended to crush out all remains of reverence and loyalty for the

ancient family among the people. He confiscated the property of the

Yncas, deprived them of most of the privileges they had hitherto been

allowed to retain, and even banished the numerous half-caste children

of Spaniards by Ynca princesses.

At the same time he labored diligently to formulate and establish

a colonial policy and system of government on the ruins of the

civilization of the Yncas.

* * * * *

The instructions of the kings of Spain, through their council of the

Indies, were remarkable for beneficence and liberality in all that

concerned the natives. Strict orders were given for their instruction

and kind treatment, and special officers were appointed for their

protection. But at the same time there were incessant demands for

increased supplies of treasure from the mines. It was like the orders

of the directors of the East India Company to Warren Hastings,—justice

to the natives, but more money. The two orders were incompatible.

In spite of their beneficent rules and good intentions, the Spanish

kings must share the guilt of their colonial officers, as regards the

treatment of the natives. It is right, however, that the names of

those conquerors should be recorded who displayed feelings of sympathy

and kindness for their Indian vassals. Lorenzo de Aldana, who took a

prominent and important part in the civil wars, died at Arequipa in

1556, and left all his property to the Indians whom he had received

in _repartimiento_, for the payment of their tribute in future years.

Marcio Sierra de Leguizamo described the happy condition of the people

when the Spaniards arrived, and in his will expressed deep contrition

at having taken part in their destruction. Garcilasso de la Vega was

ever kind and considerate to his Indian vassals. Cieza de Leon in his

writings[1481] shows the warmest sympathy for the Ynca people. There

were, however, too many of the first conquerors of a different stamp.

* * * * *

The viceroy Toledo wisely based his legislation on the system of

the Yncas. His elaborate code, called the _Libro de Tasas_, was the

text-book for all future viceroys. He fixed the amount of tribute

to be paid by the Indians, wholly exempting all males under the age

of eighteen, and over that of fifty. He recognized the positions of

hereditary nobles or _curacas_, assigning them magisterial functions,

and the duty of collecting the tribute and paying it to the Spanish

_corregidors_. He enacted that one seventh part of the population of

every village should be subject to the _mita_, or forced labor in

mines or factories; at the same time fixing the distance they might

be taken from their homes, and the payment they were to receive. It

was the abuse of the _mita_ system, and the habitual infraction of the

rules established by Toledo, which caused all the subsequent misery

and the depopulation of the country. Humane treatment of the people

was incompatible with the annual despatch of vast treasure to Spain.

Toledo also fixed the tenures of land, organized local government

by _corregidors_, and specified the duties of all officials, in his

voluminous code of ordinances.

In the days of this viceroy the Inquisition was introduced into Peru,

but the natives were exempted from its penalties as catechumens.

Heretical Europeans or Creoles were alone exposed to its terrible

jurisdiction. The first _auto da fé_ took place at Lima on November 19,

1573, when a crazy old hermit, suspected of Lutheranism, was burned.

Another was celebrated with great pomp on the 13th of April, 1578,

the viceroy and judges of the _Audiencia_ being present in a covered

stand on the great square of Lima. There were sixteen victims to suffer

various punishments, but none were put to death.

During the government of Toledo, in 1579, Sir Francis Drake appeared

on the coast of Peru,[1482] and in the following year the viceroy

despatched an important surveying expedition to the Straits of Magellan

under Sarmiento. After a long and eventful period of office, extending

over upwards of twelve years, Don Francisco de Toledo returned to

Spain. He was coldly received by Philip II., who said that he had

not been sent to Peru to kill kings, and dismissed him. He was a

hard-hearted man, but a conscientious and able administrator, and a

devoted public servant.

Don Martin Henriquez, second son of the Marquis of Alcanizes, was

then viceroy of Mexico, whence he was removed to Peru as successor to

Toledo. He entered Lima on the 28th of September, 1581. He worked

assiduously to carry out the ordinances of his able predecessor in all

branches of administration; but his career was cut short by death

after holding office for eighteen months. He died on the 15th of March,

1583, and was buried in the church of San Francisco. In 1582 he had

founded the college of San Martin, to be under the rule of Jesuits,

and on the 15th of August of the same year the second council of Lima

assembled under the presidency of the archbishop.

[Illustration: PERU (_after Wytfliet, 1597_).]

[Illustration: CHILI (_after Wytfliet, 1597_).]

Loaysa, the first archbishop of Lima, died in 1575, and the see was

vacant for six years. Toribio de Mogrovejo was consecrated at Seville

in 1580, and entered Lima May 24, 1581, at the age of forty-three. He

at once began the study of the Quichua language, to prepare for his

tours of inspection. He had a mule, but generally travelled on foot,

stopping in villages and at wayside huts, instructing, catechising, and

administering the sacraments. He penetrated into the most inaccessible

fastnesses of the Andes and visited all the coast valleys, journeying

over burning deserts, along snowy heights, and through dense forests,

year after year untiringly. He founded the seminary at Lima, for

the education of priests, which is now known by his name. Besides

the council of 1582, he celebrated two other provincial councils in

1592 and 1601, and ten diocesan synods. The principal work of these

assemblies was to draw up catechisms and questions for the use of

priests, with a view to the extirpation of idolatry, and to regulate

parochial work. The good archbishop died at Saña on the coast, during

one of his laborious visitations, on the 23d of March, 1606. He

was canonized in 1680, and is revered as Saint Toribio. During his

archiepiscopate a girl was born at Lima, of very poor and honest

Spanish parents, named Rosa Flores, and was baptized by Saint Toribio

in 1586. Her goodness and charity were equalled by her surpassing

beauty, which she dedicated to God; and after her death, in 1617, a

conclave of theologians decided that she had never strayed from the

right path in thought or deed. She was canonized in 1671, and Santa

Rosa is the patron saint of Lima, with her festival on the 30th of

August.[1483]

Don Fernando de Torres y Portugal, Conde de Villar Don Pardo, the

successor of Henriquez, did not reach Lima until the 20th of November,

1586. He endeavored to prevent abuses in taking Indians for the _mita_,

and ordered that none should be sent to unsuitable climates. During the

previous forty years negroes had been imported into the coast valleys

of Peru in considerable numbers as slaves, and supplied labor for the

rich cotton and sugar estates. The Conde de Villar was an old man, with

good intentions but limited capacity. He allowed abuses to creep into

the financial accounts, which were in great confusion when he was

superseded in the year 1590.

Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, the fourth marquis of Cañete, had

already served in Peru, when his father was viceroy, and had won

renown in his war with the Araucanians. He had also seen service in

Germany and Italy. Married to Doña Teresa de Castro y de la Cueva,

granddaughter of the proud Duke of Albuquerque, he was the first

viceroy who had been allowed to take a vice-queen with him to Peru,

and he was also accompanied by her brother, the gallant and chivalrous

Don Beltran de Castro y Cueva, as commander of the forces. On the

6th of January, 1590, the new viceroy made his solemn entry into

Lima, in a magnificent procession of richly adorned Indian nobles,

arquebusiers and pikemen, gentlemen of the household, judges of the

_Audiencia_, professors and students of the University of San Marcos,

and kings-at-arms. The marquis came out with the usual injunctions

to enforce the kindly treatment of Indians, but he received urgent

demands from the king for more and more money. In 1591 he imposed the

_alcabala_, or duties on sales in markets, and on coca. He was obliged

to send increasing numbers of victims to the silver mines, and to the

quicksilver mines of Huancavelica. He made numerous ordinances for the

regulation of industries and of markets, the suppression of gambling,

and the punishment of fugitive slaves. He founded the college of San

Felipe and San Marcos at Lima in 1592. He despatched an important

expedition under Mandaña, which discovered the Marquesas Islands. He

was an active and intelligent ruler; but all the good he attempted to

do was counterbalanced by the calls for treasure from Spain. He sent

home 1,500,000 ducats, besides value in jewels and plate.

After having governed Peru for six years and a half, the Marquis of

Cañete begged to be allowed to return home. He was succeeded by Don

Luis de Velasco, Marquis of Salinas, who came from Mexico, where he had

been the viceroy. The Marquis of Salinas entered Lima on the 24th of

July, 1596, and governed Peru until the end of 1604.

* * * * *

Chili had been comparatively quiet under the immediate successors of

Don Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, although the war with the Araucanians

had never actually ceased. In 1583 Philip II. selected a military

officer of great experience and approved valor as governor of Chili.

Don Alonso de Sotomayor left Spain for Buenos Ayres with seven hundred

men, and made the journey across the Pampas and over the pass of

Uspallata, reaching Santiago on the 22d of September, 1583. He and his

brother Luis carried on a desultory war against the Araucanians for

several years. During 1588 the attacks of the Indians were led by an

intrepid heroine named Janequeo, who was resolved to avenge the death

of her husband. The governor was superseded in 1592 and proceeded to

Callao, where he commanded a ship, under Don Beltran de Cueva, in the

fleet which attacked and captured Sir Richard Hawkins and his ship.

Sotomayor then returned to Spain.

The new governor of Chili was Don Martin Garcia Oñez de Loyola,

the same cavalier who married an Ynca princess, and captured young

Tupac Amaru. He was a Basque, of the province of Guipuzcoa, and a

near relative of Saint Ignatius. He arrived at Valparaiso, with four

hundred soldiers and abundant supplies of warlike stores, on the 23d

of September, 1592, reaching Santiago on the 6th of October. The

Araucanians had elected the aged chief Paillamacu as their _toqui_,

with two younger warriors named Pelantaru and Millacalquin as his

lieutenants. Believing the subjugation of Araucaria to be practicable,

the new governor traversed the country between Imperial and Villarica

during the year 1597, but failed to discover his astute foes. In the

spring of 1598 Loyola was at Imperial, where he received a letter from

his wife, the Ynca princess Doña Beatriz Coya, urging him to retreat

to Concepcion, as the Araucanians were rising. He set out for Angol,

accompanied by only sixty officers, on the 21st of November, 1598, and

stopped for the night in the valley of Curalaba. When all were wrapped

in sleep, the tents were attacked by five hundred native warriors,

and the governor was killed, with all his companions. His widow, the

Ynca princess, went to Spain with a young daughter, who was given in

marriage by Philip III. to Juan Henriquez de Borja, heir of the house

of Gandia, and was at the same time created Marquesa de Oropesa.

[Illustration: SOTOMAYOR.

[Fac-simile of a part of a copperplate in Ovalle’s _Historica Relacion

de Chili_. Rome, 1648.—ED.]]

The death of the governor was a signal for a general rising. Within

forty-eight hours there were thirty thousand Araucanian warriors in the

field under the _toqui_ Paillamacu. All the Spanish towns south of the

river Biobio were taken and destroyed, the invasion was hurled back

beyond Concepcion, and the Spaniards were placed on the defensive.

* * * * *

The seventeenth century opened in Peru with a period of peace, during

which the system of government elaborated by the viceroy Toledo was to

be worked out to its consequences,—and in Chili, with the prospect of a

prolonged contest and an impoverished treasury. In both countries the

future of the native races was melancholy and without hope.

CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

THE king of Spain instituted the office of historiographer of the

Indies, and that post was held for upwards of half a century by the

learned Antonio de Herrera, who died in 1625. All the official reports

and correspondence were placed in his hands, and he had the use of a

great deal of material which is now lost; so that he is indispensable

as an authority.[1484] His great work, _Historia General de las Indias

Occidentales_, covers the whole ground from 1492 to 1554, and is

divided into eight decades, in strict chronological order. The history

of the conquest of Peru and of the subsequent civil wars is recorded

with reference to chronological order as bearing on events in other

parts of the Indies, and not connectedly. The work first appeared in

1601 and 1615, in five folio volumes, and was republished in 1730. The

English version by Stevens, in six octavo volumes (1725), is worthless.

The episode relating to the descent of the river Amazon by Francisco de

Orellana (_Herrera_, dec. vi. lib. ix.), was translated by Clements R.

Markham, C. B., and printed for the Hakluyt Society in 1859 as a part

of the volume called _Expeditions into the Valley of the Amazons_.

Francisco Lopez de Gomara was another compiler, who never personally

visited Peru, and is best known for his history of the conquest of

Mexico. His narrative of the conquest of Peru forms an important

part of his work entitled _Historia de las Indias_. Although he was

a contemporary, and had peculiarly good opportunities for obtaining

trustworthy information, he was careless in his statements, and is an

unsafe authority.[1485]

Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés, born in 1478 of an old Asturian

family, was an eye-witness of the events on the isthmus which directly

led to the discovery of Peru. He went out with the governor Pedro

Arias in 1513, and was at Panamá when Pizarro and Almagro were fitting

out their first expedition. He afterwards resided for many years in

Hispaniola, and at his death, in 1557, he was chronicler of the Indies,

the predecessor of Herrera. He was devoted to historical composition,

interspersing his narrative with anecdotes and personal reminiscences;

but most of his works long remained in manuscript. His two chapters on

the conquest of Peru cover the ground from the landing of Pizarro to

the return of Almagro from Chili.[1486]

It is, however, a relief to escape from compilers, and to be able

to read the narratives of the actual actors in the events they

describe. The first adventurer who attempted to discover Peru was the

_adelantado_ Pascual de Andagoya, and he has recorded the story of his

failures. Born of a good stock in the province of Alava, Pascual went

out to Darien when very young, with the governor Pedro Arias, in 1514.

After the failure of his first attempt he was in Panamá for some years,

and in 1540 received the government of the country round the Rio San

Juan, the scene of Pizarro’s early sufferings. Here he founded the

town of Buenaventura; but having got into a dispute with Benalcazar

respecting the boundaries of their jurisdictions, Andagoya returned to

Spain, where he remained five years. He accompanied the president Gasca

to Peru, and died at Cusco on the 18th of June, 1548. He had broken

his leg, but was recovering, when fever supervened, which carried him

off. Gasca reported that his death was mourned by all, because he was

such a good man, and so zealous in the service of his country. The

historian Oviedo, who knew him well in the early days of the Darien

colony, speaks of Andagoya as a noble-minded and virtuous person. He

was a man of some education; and his humane treatment of the Indians

entitles his name to honorable mention. His interesting narrative long

remained in manuscript at Seville, but it was at length published by

Navarrete.[1487] An English translation,[1488] by Clements R. Markham,

C. B., with notes and an introduction, was printed for the Hakluyt

Society in 1865.[1489]

Francisco de Xeres, the secretary of Pizarro, wrote his account of the

early days of the conquest of Peru on the spot, by order (March, 1533)

of his master. He left Spain with Pizarro in January, 1530, returned

to Seville with the first instalment of gold from Caxamarca in July,

1534; and his narrative, which embraces the period between these

dates, was printed at Seville in the same year.[1490] This edition

and that of 1547, printed somewhat carelessly at Salamanca, are

extremely rare.[1491] The third and best-known edition was published

at Madrid in 1749 in the Barcia Collection, _Historiadores primitivos

de las Indias_. Italian editions appeared in 1535,[1492] and in 1556

in Ramusio;[1493] and a French version was published at Paris by M.

Ternaux-Compans in 1837.[1494] An English translation, with notes and

an introduction by Clements R. Markham, C. B., was printed for the

Hakluyt Society in 1872. There is a freshness and reality in the story

told by Xeres, owing to his having been an eye-witness of all the

events he describes, which the more elaborate accounts of compilers

cannot impart. Xeres has increased the value of his book by inserting

the narrative of Miguel Astete, who accompanied Hernando Pizarro on his

expedition to Pachacamac.

[Illustration: TITLE OF XERES. VENICE, 1535.]

Hernando Pizarro wrote a letter to the royal _Audiencia_ of Santo

Domingo, which goes over the same ground as the narratives of Xeres

and Astete, but is of course much briefer. It is peculiarly valuable

as containing the observations of the man of highest rank in the

expedition who was able to write.[1495] The letter is dated November,

1533, and was written on his way to Spain with the treasure. Oviedo

gives it in his _Historic General_,[1496] and it is printed by Quintana

in his _Vidas de Españoles celebres_.[1497] It was translated into

English by Clements R. Markham, C. B., and printed for the Hakluyt

Society in 1872 in the volume of _Reports on the Discovery of Peru_.

Pedro Sancho, the notary, wrote a note of the distribution of the

ransom of Atahualpa, with a list of the conquerors and the amount each

received. It is contained in the inedited work of Francisco Lopez de

Caravantes, and was reprinted by Quintana in his _Vidas de Españoles

celebres_. An English translation by Clements R. Markham, C. B., was

printed for the Hakluyt Society in 1872, in the volume already cited.

See also _Ramusio_, vol. iii. p. 414, for an Italian version, in which

form it was used by Robertson and Prescott.[1498]

Vicente de Valverde, the Dominican friar who accompanied Pizarro in

the conquest of Peru and took part in the imprisonment and murder of

Atahualpa, was made bishop of Cusco in 1536. On his way to Spain, in

1541, he landed on the island of Puna, in the Bay of Guayaquil, was

seized by the natives, and put to death with his brother-in-law and

twenty-six other Spaniards. He wrote a detailed _Carta-relacion_ on the

affairs of Peru, which is still inedited. He also addressed letters to

the emperor Charles V., which contain original information of great

value. A copy of one, dated Cusco, April 2, 1539, was among Sir Thomas

Phillipps’s collection of manuscripts. It is frequently quoted by Helps.

Pedro Pizarro, a cousin of the conqueror, went out as his page in 1530,

when only fifteen. He was an eye-witness of all the events of the

Conquest, and of the subsequent civil wars, having retired to Arequipa

after the assassination of his patron. Here he probably wrote his

_Relaciones del Descubrimiento y Conquista de los Reynos del Peru_,

finished in 1571. It is a plain, unadorned statement of facts, but

of the highest value as an authority. It remained in manuscript for

centuries, but was at length printed in the _Coleccion de documentos

inéditos para la historia de Espana_, v. 201-388.[1499]

The death-struggle between the Pizarros and the old marshal Almagro is

fully told in the above general histories; but light is also thrown

upon the story from other directions. Among the manuscripts in the

National Library at Madrid[1500] there is an autobiography by a young

scapegrace of noble birth named Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman, comprising

a period from 1518 to 1543, from his nineteenth to his forty-fourth

year. The early part reminds one of the adventures of Gil Blas; but in

1534 he went to Peru, and was a principal actor in the events which

took place between the departure of Almagro for Chili in 1535 and his

execution in 1538. Don Alonzo seems to have quarrelled with Hernando

Pizarro during the siege of Cusco, and warmly espoused the cause of

Almagro, who made him one of his executors. The latter portion of the

autobiography, including a long letter to the emperor on the conduct

of Hernando Pizarro, is very interesting, while the frankness of Don

Alonzo’s confessions as regards his own motives is most entertaining.

_The Life and Acts of Don Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman_ was translated

and edited by Clements R. Markham, C. B., and printed by the Hakluyt

Society in 1862. It had up to this time escaped notice.

The last years of the marquis Pizarro were occupied in laying out and

building the capital of Peru, and we are indebted to the researches

of the learned Peruvian, Don Manuel Gonzalez de la Rosa, for having

discovered the most detailed account of the founding and early history

of Lima among the manuscripts in the Biblioteca Colombina at Seville.

The _Historia de la Fundacion de Lima_ was written by the Jesuit

Bernabé Cobo between 1610 and 1629, and was first printed under the

superintendence of Dr. De la Rosa in the _Revista Peruana_.[1501]

The story of the murder of Pizarro is told in the general histories,

and there are some additional particulars in Montesinos. A very

laudatory life of the marquis, which, however, contains the results

of original research, is contained in the _Varones Ilustres del Nuevo

Mundo_, by Fernando Pizarro y Orellana (Madrid, 1639). This work also

contains Lives of Pizarro’s brothers and of Almagro.[1502]

But by far the best life of Pizarro, both as regards literary merit

and conscientious research, is contained in the _Vidas de Españoles

Celebres_ by Don Manuel Josef Quintana.[1503] Quintana also gives the

texts of the original agreement (1526) between Pizarro, Almagro, and

Luque, and of the capitulation (July 26, 1529, at Toledo) between Queen

Juana and Pizarro. These documents are also given by Prescott in the

Appendix to the second volume of his _Conquest of Peru_.[1504]

After the assassination of Pizarro, the licentiate Vaca de Castro,

having defeated the younger Almagro, succeeded as governor of Peru,

and the history of his rule is told in his own letters. The first is

to the emperor, reporting his arrival at Santo Domingo, and is very

brief. The second, also to the emperor, is from Quito, and announces

the assassination of Pizarro and the rebellion of Almagro the lad.

The third is addressed to the emperor from Cusco, after the battle of

Chupas, and is a straightforward statement of his proceedings. The

fourth is a long letter from Cusco to his wife on private affairs.

There is also a long letter on the revolt of young Almagro and the

battle of Chupas from the municipality of Cusco to the emperor. These

letters are included in the great official volume of _Cartas de Indias_

published at Madrid in 1877, pp. 463-521. The _Vida y elojio del

licenciado Vaca de Castro, Gobernador del Peru_, was written by Antonio

de Herrera, the chronicler of the Indies.[1505]

A good historian accompanied the ill-fated viceroy Blasco Nuñez de Vela

to Lima. Augustin de Zarate was comptroller of accounts for Castile,

and was sent out with the first viceroy to examine into the financial

affairs of Peru. He collected notes and materials during his residence

at Lima, and began the compilation of a history from the discovery by

Pizarro to the departure of Gasca, when he returned to Spain. He had

access to the best official sources of information, and his work is

not without value; but he was strongly prejudiced, and his style is

tedious and inelegant. He assigns as the reason for not having begun

his narrative in Peru, that Carbajal had threatened any one who should

attempt to record his exploits. In the earlier portions he relied on

the testimony of the actors still living; but for the later part he

was himself a spectator and actor. He had not intended to publish it

in his lifetime; but the commendation of the emperor, to whom it was

shown, induced him to depart from his purpose. The original manuscript

of Zarate is or was preserved at Simancas; and Muñoz has disclosed

how the printed volume differs considerably from it, in suppressing

things too frankly stated, and in taking on a literary flavor not in

the draft. Muñoz supposed that Florian d’Ocampo performed this critical

office in passing the book through the press.[1506] His _Historia

del Descubrimiento y Conquista de la Provincia del Peru_ was printed

at Antwerp in 1555,[1507] and a folio edition appeared at Seville in

1577;[1508] but the best edition of Zarate is in the Barcia Collection,

vol. iii. It was included in 1853 in the _Biblioteca de Autores

Españoles_, vol. xxvi.[1509]

A more important narrative of the civil war, which ended with the

death of the viceroy Blasco Nuñez, was written by Pedro de Cieza de

Leon, and has been recently published. Cieza de Leon landed in South

America when he was barely fifteen, in the year 1534, and during his

military service he conceived a strong desire to write an account of

the strange things that were to be seen in the new world. “Oftentimes,”

he wrote, “when the other soldiers were reposing, I was tiring myself

by writing. Neither fatigue, nor the ruggedness of the country, nor

the mountains and rivers, nor intolerable hunger and suffering have

ever been sufficient to obstruct my two duties; namely, writing, and

following my flag and my captain without fault.” In 1547 he joined

the president Gasca, and was present at the final rout of Gonzalo

Pizarro. He was many years in Peru, and he is certainly one of the

most important authorities on Ynca history and civilization, whether

we consider his peculiar advantages in collecting information, or his

character as a conscientious historian. He lived to complete a great

work, but unfortunately only a small portion of it has seen the light.

The first and second parts of the Chronicle of Cieza de Leon have been

published, but they relate to Ynca civilization and are discussed in

a chapter in the first volume of the present work. The third part,

treating of the discovery and conquest of Peru by Pizarro, is inedited,

though the manuscript is believed to have been preserved. Part IV. was

divided into five books relating the history of the civil wars of the

conquerors. Only the third book has been published in the _Biblioteca

Hispano-Ultramarina_. It was very ably edited by Don Márcos Jiménez de

la Espada (Madrid, 1877), and is entitled _La Guerra de Quito_. The

volume begins with the departure of the viceroy Blasco Nuñez de Vela

from Spain, and consists of fifty-three chapters in the first part, the

concluding portion forming a subsequent volume.[1510]

The proceedings of the president, Pedro de la Gasca, were recorded

by himself in very full reports to the Council of the Indies, which

almost amount to official diaries. The first, dated at Santa Marta on

his way out, July 12, 1546, has been published in the official volume

of _Cartas de Indias_ (Madrid, 1877). Other published correspondence

throws light on the astute proceedings of the president while he was

at Panamá. His instructions to Lorenzo de Aldana, his letters to

Gonzalo Pizarro, and the detailed report of his agent Paniagua have

been published in the _Revista de Lima_, 1880. His report to the

Council of the Indies, when on his way to attack Gonzalo Pizarro at

Cusco (dated Andahuaylas, March 7, 1548), has not been edited. But the

Chilian historian Don Diego Barros Arana has published[1511] the long

despatch from Gasca to the Council, dated at Cusco, May 7, 1548, in

which he describes the rout of Sacsahuana, the executions of Gonzalo

Pizarro and Carbajal, and the subsequent bloody assize at Cusco. The

document frequently quoted by Prescott (in book v. chap. iii. of his

history)[1512] as _Relacion del Licenciado Gasca MS._ is an abridged

and mutilated copy of this despatch of May 7, 1548, from the Muñoz

Collection,[1513] and is preserved at Simancas. The sentence pronounced

on Gonzalo Pizarro is published in the _Revista Peruana_ (1880), from

the original manuscript of Zarate’s Chronicle.[1514] Gasca continues

his narrative in the despatches to the Council, dated at Lima, Sept.

25 and Nov. 26, 1548, which are also published by Barros Arana.[1515]

There are six other despatches of the president from Lima, dated in

1549, in the _Cartas de Indias_. The invaluable papers of the president

Gasca are not in the Archives at Seville, but have been preserved by

his family.[1516]

But the best-known historian of the period during which the president

Gasca was in Peru was Diego Fernandez de Palencia, usually called “el

Palentino,” from the place of his birth. He went out to Peru, served

in the army which was raised to put down the rebellion of Giron, and

having collected materials for a history, he was appointed chronicler

of Peru by the viceroy Marquis of Cañete. Fernandez first wrote the

history of the rebellion of Giron, in the suppression of which he was

personally engaged; and afterwards he undertook to write a similar

account of the rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro and the administration of

Gasca. Fernandez is a very painstaking writer, and no history of the

time enters so fully into detail; yet it is pleasantly written, and

the graver narrative is frequently relieved by anecdotes of personal

adventures, and by amusing incidents. He is however a thorough-going

partisan, and can see no redeeming feature in a rebellion, nothing

but evil in the acts of rebels. His book is called _Primera y Secunda

Parte de la Historia del Peru, que se mando escrebir á Diego Fernandez,

vecino de la ciudad de Palencia_. It was published at Seville in 1571

(folio; primera parte, pp. 142; segunda parte, pp. 130). This is the

only edition.[1517]

The first part of the work of the Ynca Garcilasso de la Vega relates

to the history and civilization of the Yncas, and is discussed in the

first volume of the present work. But the second part is a general

history of the discovery of Peru, and of the civil wars down to the

termination of the administration of the viceroy Toledo in Peru, and

to the death of the governor Loyola in Chili. Like the first part,

the second is rather a commentary than a history, for the Ynca quotes

largely from other writers, especially from the Palentino, always

carefully indicating the quotations and naming the authors. But his

memory was well stored with anecdotes that he had heard when a boy; and

with these he enlivens the narrative, while often a recollection of the

personal appearance or of some peculiarity of the historical character

whose deeds he is recording enables him to give a finishing touch to a

picture. His father was a conqueror and an actor in most of the chief

events of the time;[1518] his mother, an Ynca princess, and born in the

city of Cusco; so the future author had special advantages for storing

up information. He was born in 1539, but a few years after the conquest

and one year after the death of Almagro. He passed his school days at

Cusco, with many other half-caste sons of the conquerors, and went to

Spain in 1560, dying at Cordova in 1616. The first part of his great

work on Peru originally appeared at Lisbon in 1609, the second part at

Cordova in 1617. The second and best edition of the two parts appeared

at Madrid in 1723. The English translation of Sir Paul Rycaut (1688) is

worthless, and there has never been a complete English version of the

second part, which is entitled _Historia General del Peru_. The episode

of the expedition of Gonzalo Pizarro to the land of cinnamon (part ii.

lib. iii.) was translated by Clements R. Markham, C.B., and printed for

the Hakluyt Society in 1859.[1519]

The licentiate Fernando Montesinos is an authority of some reputation,

but chiefly valuable for his studies of native lore. He was altogether

upwards of fifteen years in Peru. He was there a century after the

conquest. His _Memorias Antiguas Historiales_ exclusively relate to

Ynca history; but his _Annales_ contain a history of the conquest and

of subsequent events, and include some original documents, and a few

anecdotes which are not to be found elsewhere.[1520]

* * * * *

The authorities for the final settlement of Peru, after the crushing

of the spirit of revolt by the Marquis of Cañete, are a good deal

scattered. A learned account of the life and administration of Andres

Marquis of Cañete himself will be found in the admirable _Diccionario

Histórico-Biografico del Peru_ by General Mendiburu, published at Lima

in 1880; which also contains a Life of his successor, the licentiate

Lope Garcia de Castro.

The viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo has left a deeper mark on the

history of Peru by his _Libro de Tasas_ and _Ordenanzas_ relating to

mines and the treatment of Indians. The transactions with reference

to the judicial murder of Tupac Amaru and the persecution of the Ynca

family are briefly related by Garcilasso de la Vega; but there is a

much more detailed account in the _Coronica Moralizada del Orden de

San Augustin en el Peru_ by Fray Antonio de la Calancha, published at

Barcelona in 1638.[1521] Calancha also gives the remorseful will of

Mancio Sierra de Leguizamo, whose life-story is fully related by Don

José Rosendo Gutierrez in the _Revista Peruana_ (tomo ii. 1880).

The story of the capture and execution of Tupac Amaru by the viceroy

Toledo is told in very full detail by Baltasar d’Ocampo, who was an

eye-witness. His narrative has all the charm of honest truthfulness;

and yet the incidents, thus simply related, are as interesting as

the most ingeniously constructed romance. Unfortunately the story,

as told by Ocampo (_Descripcion de la Provincia de San Francisco de

Villcapampa_), has never been printed. It is among the manuscripts of

the British Museum.[1522]

Polo de Ondegardo, the learned lawyer, was the principal adviser of

the viceroy Toledo. He arrived in Peru before the president Gasca,

and held the important posts of _corregidor_ of Potosi and of Cusco.

He had a profound knowledge of the Ynca system of government, and

his two _Relaciones_,[1523] addressed to the Marquis of Cañete and

the Conde de Nieva, discuss the land tenures, colonial policy, and

social legislation of the natives. His labors were all undertaken

with a view to adapting the best parts of the Ynca system to the new

polity to be instituted by the Spanish conquerors; and his numerous

suggestions, from this standpoint, are wise and judicious. A feeling

of sympathy for the Indians, and the evidence of a warm desire for

their welfare pervade all his writings. There is another rough draft

of a report by Polo de Ondegardo, a manuscript in the National Library

at Madrid,[1524] which contains much information respecting the

administrative system of the Yncas; and here, also, he occasionally

points out the way in which native legislation might usefully be

imitated by the conquerors. This report of Polo de Ondegardo was

translated by Clements R. Markham, C.B., and printed for the Hakluyt

Society in 1873 in the volume called _Rites and Laws of the Incas_. It

is believed that Polo de Ondegardo died at Potosi in about the year

1580.

The other adviser of the viceroy Toledo was a man of a very different

character, a hard, relentless politician, indifferent alike to the

feelings and the physical well-being of the conquered people. Judge

Matienzo wrote a work in two parts on the condition of the people,

the _mita_, or forced labor, the tribute, the mining laws, and on the

duties of the several grades of Spanish officials. The _Gobierno de el

Peru_ of Matienzo is a manuscript in the British Museum.[1525]

The whole body of ordinances and regulations relating to the aboriginal

people and their treatment by the conquerors is fully explained and

discussed by Dr. Don Juan de Solorzano, a profoundly learned jurist,

and member of the Council of the Indies, in his _Politica Indiana_

(Madrid, 1648). The history of _encomiendas_ in Peru is well and ably

discussed by Enrique Torres Saldamando in the _Revista Peruana_ (vol.

ii. 1880).[1526]

The second Marquis of Cañete, who was viceroy of Peru in the last

decade of the sixteenth century, was best known for his conduct of the

Araucanian war, when, as a young man, he was governor of Chili. That

famous war formed the subject of the epic poem of Alonzo de Ercilla,

the warrior-poet. Born at Bermeo on the shores of the Bay of Biscay,

where the house of his ancestors is still standing, Ercilla began life

as a page to the prince of Spain, and volunteered to go out and serve

against the Araucanians, when news arrived of an outbreak and the death

of Valdivia. Born in 1533, he was only twenty-one when he set out for

Chili under the command of the youthful governor Garcia Hurtado de

Mendoza. Ercilla was present at seven regular battles, and suffered

much from hardships during the harassing campaigns. He returned to

Spain in 1562, after an absence of eight years. His Araucana[1527] is

a versified history of the war, in which he describes all the events

in their order, enumerates the contending chiefs, with a few lines to

denote the character or special characteristic of each, and is minutely

accurate even in his geographical details. He tells us that much of

the poem was composed in the country, and that by the light of the

camp-fires at night he wrote down what had occurred during the day.

Ticknor looks upon the _Araucana_ as an historical rather than an epic

poem;[1528] and he considers the descriptive powers of Ercillo—except

in relation to natural scenery—to be remarkable, the speeches he puts

in the mouths of Araucanian chiefs often excellent, and his characters

to be drawn with force and distinctness. Pedro de Oña, in his _Arauco

Domado_,[1529] praises the governor, Hurtado de Mendoza, the future

Marquis of Cañete; and Lope de Vega made his Araucanian war the subject

of one of his plays.

The Life of the viceroy Marquis of Cañete (Garcia) was written by Don

Cristóval Suarez de Figueroa, a man of some literary fame in his day.

When the marquis returned from Peru broken in health, he was treated

with neglect and ingratitude; nor had he received full justice from

Ercilla for his youthful exploits,—at least so thought his heirs when

he died in 1599; and they applied to Suarez de Figueroa to undertake

his biography, placing all the viceroy’s family and official papers in

the author’s hands. The result was the _Hechos de Don Garcia Hurtado de

Mendoza, cuarto Marques de Cañete_, which was printed in 1613.[1530]

It was reprinted in the _Coleccion de Historiadores de Chile_,—a

work published in seven volumes at Santiago in 1864, edited by Don

Diego Barros Arana. This work contains a very full account of the

administration of the marquis while he was viceroy of Peru.

Pedro de Valdivia has written his own history of his conquest and

settlement of Chili, in his letters to the emperor, Charles V. They

are preserved in the Archives at Seville among the documents sent from

Simancas, and have been published by Claudio Gaye in his _Historia de

Chile_ (Paris, 1846), and also in the first volume of the _Coleccion

de Historiadores de Chile_ (Santiago, 1864). The first of Valdivia’s

despatches is dated from La Serena, Sept. 4, 1545, and the second from

Lima, June 15, 1548. In the third he reports fully on the state of

affairs in Chili, and refers to his own previous career. It is dated

from Concepcion, Oct. 15, 1550. There are two others, dated Concepcion,

Sept. 25, 1551, and Santiago, Oct. 26, 1552, which are short, and not

so interesting.

Some discontented soldiers brought a series of fifty-seven accusations

against Valdivia, which were considered by the president Gasca at Lima

in October, 1548,—the result being acquittal. The _Acta de Accusacion_

was published at Santiago in 1873 by Barros Arana, together with

Valdivia’s defence and several other important historical documents.

That accomplished Chilian historian has also edited a very interesting

letter from Pedro de Valdivia to Hernando Pizarro, dated at La Serena

on the 4th of September, 1545, which fell into the hands of the

president Gasca, and remained among his papers; and when he was at

Seville in 1859, he discovered one more unimportant letter from the

Chilian conqueror to Charles V., dated at Santiago, July 9, 1549. The

first book of the records of the Santiago municipality, called the

_Libro Becerro_, embraces the years from 1541 to 1557. It has been

published in the first volume of the _Coleccion de Historiadores de

Chile_, etc. (Santiago, 1861), and contains the appointment of Valdivia

as governor of Chili, the founding of Santiago, with the nomination of

the first municipal officers, ordinances for mines, and other important

entries.

* * * * *

There is thus ample original material for the opening chapter of the

history of Chili. Moreover, the first connected work on the subject

was written by one of the early conquerors. Gongora Marmolejo served

under Valdivia, and was an eye-witness of all the stirring events

of the time. His history begins at the discovery of Chili, in 1536,

and is brought down to the year 1575. Written in Santiago, it is

addressed to the president of the Council of the Indies; and though

the style is confused, and often obscure, the narrative has the merit

of impartiality, and supplies many interesting details. It also has

annexed documents, including a letter from Gonzalo Pizarro to Valdivia

giving an account of events in Peru, down to the death of Blasco Nuñez

de Vela. The _Historia de Chile_ of Gongora Marmolejo remained in

manuscript in the Biblioteca de Salazar (H. 45) until it was edited

by Don Pascual de Gayangos, in 1850, for the fourth volume of the

_Memorial Histórico Español_. It has since been published in the

_Coleccion de Historiadores de Chile_.

The story of the surprise and death of the governor, Martin Garcia de

Loyola, and of the subsequent formidable rising of the Araucanians in

1598, was written in the form of a poem by Captain Fernando Alvarez

de Toledo. The work has no literary merit, and is only valuable as

an historical narrative. The manuscript is in the National Library

at Madrid, and it was published by Don Diego Barros Arana, in the

_Collection d’Ouvrages inédits ou rares sur L’Amérique_ (Paris, 1861).

An interesting modern account of the death of the governor Loyola,

entitled _La sorpresa de Curalava_, was written by the accomplished

Chilian, Miguel Luis Amunátegui, and published as one of his

_Naraciones Históricas_ (Santiago, 1876).[1531]

The history of Chili, which follows Marmolejo in point of time, is

by Cordova y Figueroa, a native of the country, and a descendant of

Juan de Negrete, one of the followers of Valdivia. Cordova y Figueroa

was born at Concepcion in 1692, served with credit in a war with the

Araucanians, and is believed to have written the history between 1740

and 1745. Beginning with the expedition of Almagro, it comes down to

the year 1717, and is the most complete history that had been written

up to that date. The manuscript was in the National Library at Madrid,

and a copy was made for the Chilian government, under the auspices of

Don Francisco S. Astaburriaga, who was then minister to Spain. It was

published in the _Coleccion de Historiadores de Chile_.

In this review of works on the conquest and first settlement of Peru

and Chili, those which refer only to the history and civilization of

the Yncas, or to geography and natural history, have been omitted, as

they receive notice in the chapter on ancient Peru in the first volume

of this History.

[Illustration]

EDITORIAL NOTES.

=A.= CIEZA DE LEON.—It does not seem desirable to divide the

bibliographical record of Cieza de Leon between the present and the

first volume. His work was separated into four parts,—the _first_

relating to the geography and description of Peru; the _second_, to

the period of the Incas; the _third_, to the Spanish Conquest; the

_fourth_, to the civil wars of the conquerors. The fate of each part

has been distinct.

=Part I.= Prescott (_Peru_, vol. ii. p. 306) speaks of this as more

properly an itinerary or geography of Peru, presenting the country

in its moral and physical relations as it appeared to the eye of the

conquerors; and not many of them, it is probable, were so impressed

as Cieza de Leon was with the grandeur of the _cordilleras_. This, as

_Parte primera de la chronica del Peru_, was published in folio at

Seville, in 1553. In Rich’s time (1832) it was worth £5 5_s._[1532] It

was reprinted the next year (1554) at Antwerp in two distinct editions.

One, _La chronica del Peru_, in duodecimo, has the imprint of Nucio;

the other, likewise in duodecimo, is printed in an inferior manner,

and sometimes has the name of Bellero, and sometimes that of Steelsio,

as publisher. This last edition has the larger title, _Parte primera

de la chronica del Peru_, etc., and was the one used by Prescott, and

followed by Markham in the translation, _Travels of Cieza de Leon_,

published by the Hakluyt Society in 1864.[1533]

In 1555 an Italian translation, _La prima parte de la cronica del

... Peru_, appeared at Rome, made by Agostino Cravaliz, or Augustino

di Gravalis.[1534] A second edition—_La prima parte dell’istorie del

Peru_—appeared the next year (1556) at Rome, and is found with the

names of two different publishers.[1535]

At Venice, in 1560, appeared the _Cronica del gran regno del Peru_.

This makes a work of which the first volume is a reprint of Gravaliz’

version of Cieza, and volumes ii. and iii. contain an Italian version

of Gomara in continuation offered by the same publisher, Ziletti, under

the title, _La seconda, terza parte delle historie dell India_.[1536]

The English translation of Stevens (_The Seventeen Years’ Travels

of Peter de Cieza through the mighty Kingdom of Peru and the large

Provinces of Cartagena and Popayan in South America, from the City of

Panama on the Isthmus to the Frontiers of Chile_) was printed at London

in 1709, and appeared both separately and as a part of his collection

of _Voyages_. It gives only ninety-four of the one hundred and nineteen

chapters.

=Part II.= Rich, though he had heard of this part, supposed it to have

disappeared; and it is spoken of as missing by Markham in 1864, and

by Harrisse in his _Bibl. Amer. Vet._ (p. 319). The manuscript of it

was meanwhile in the Escurial, preserved in a bad copy made about the

middle or end of the sixteenth century; but it is deficient in chapters

i. and ii. and in part of chapter iii. Another manuscript copy not well

done is in the Academy of History at Madrid. Lord Kingsborough had

a copy, and from this Rich had a fifth copy made, which was used by

Prescott; but it does not appear that any of these students suspected

it to be the second part of Cieza de Leon. Prescott, supposing it to

be written _by_ the president of the Council of the Indies, Sarmiento,

instead of _for_ that officer, ascribed it to him; but Kirk, Prescott’s

editor (_Peru_, vol. ii. p. 308), has recognized its identity, which

Dr. Manuel Gonzales de la Rosa established when he edited the Escurial

manuscript in 1873. This edition, though wholly printed in London, has

not been made public. Following another transcript, and correcting the

spelling, etc., Márcos Jiménez de la Espada printed it at Madrid in

1880 as vol. v. of the _Biblioteca Hispano-Ultramarina_. An English

translation of it was made by Mr. Markham, and published by the Hakluyt

Society in 1883.

=Part III.= Markham reports that Espada says that this part is in

existence, but inaccessible.

=Part IV.= Espada is cited as asserting that books i. and ii. of this

part are in existence, but inaccessible.

A manuscript of book iii. is in the Royal Library at Madrid, in

handwriting of the middle of the sixteenth century. It covers the

period from the appointment of Blasco Nuñez as viceroy in 1543 to a

period just previous to Gasca’s departure from Panamá for Peru in 1547.

A copy of this manuscript, belonging to Uguina, passed to Ternaux,

thence to Rich, who sold it for £600 to Mr. Lenox; and it is now in the

Lenox Library.

It has since been included under Espada’s editing in the _Biblioteca

Hispano-Ultramarina_, and was published at Madrid in 1877 as _Tercero

libro de las Guerras Civiles del Peru_.[1537]

Books iv. (war of Huarina) and v. (war of Xaquixaguana), and two

appended commentaries on events from the founding of the _Audiencia_ to

the departure of the president, and on events extending to the arrival

of the viceroy Mendoza, are not known to exist, though Cieza refers to

them as written. These would complete the fourth part, and end the work.

What we know of Cieza is mainly derived from himself and the brief

notice in Antonio’s _Bibliotheca Hispana Nova_ (Madrid, 1788). The

writer of the foregoing chapter gives an account of Cieza’s career, as

well as it could be made out, in his translation of the _Travels_; but

he supplements that story in the introduction to his version of Part II.

=B.= GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA.—The _Primera parte de los Commentarios

reales_ seems to have been printed—according to the colophon at

Lisbon—in 1608, but to have been published in 1609. It has incidental

notices of Spanish-American history, though concerned mainly with

chronicles of the Incas.[1538]

The second part, called _Historia General del Peru_, was printed at

Cordova in 1616, though most copies are dated 1617. The titles of the

two dates slightly vary. This volume is of larger size than that of

1609.[1539]

The two parts were reprinted by Barcia at Madrid in 1722-1723.[1540]

There have been later editions of the Spanish at Madrid in 1800, and

in 1829, in four volumes, as a part of a series; _Conquista del Nuevo

Mondo_, in nine volumes, which embraced also Solis’s Mexico, Garcilasso

de la Vega’s Florida, and the Florida of Cardenas y Cano.

Rycaut’s English _Royal Commentaries of Peru_ (London, 1688) was priced

by Rich (no. 420) in 1832 at £1 4_s._, and is not worth more now.[1541]

Markham’s English version of the first part was issued in two volumes

by the Hakluyt Society in 1869-1871.

The French version (by J. Baudoin) of the first part was printed at

Paris in 1633 as _Le Commentaire Royal_,[1542] and of the second part

as _Histoire des Guerres Civiles_ in 1650, and again in 1658 and

1672,[1543] and at Amsterdam in 1706.[1544] A French version of the

first part was also printed at Amsterdam in 1715,[1545] and joined with

the book on Florida; another French edition appeared at Amsterdam in

1737.[1546] A new translation of this first part, made by Dalibard, was

printed in Paris in 1744.[1547] Baudoin’s version of both parts was

reissued in Paris in 1830.[1548] There was a German translation in 1798.

An account of Garcilasso de la Vega and his ancestry is given by

Markham in the introduction to his version of the _Royal Commentaries

of the Yncas_. Another account is in the _Documentos inéditos

(España)_, vol. xvi.[1549]

The estimate held of him by Robertson has been largely shared among the

older of the modern writers, who seem to think that Garcilasso added

little to what he borrowed from others, though we find some traces in

him of authorities now lost. The later writers are more generous in

their praise of him. Prescott quotes him more than twice as often as he

cites any other of the contemporary sources. (Cf. his _Peru_, vol. i.

p. 289.)

Helps says that “with the exception of Bernal Diaz and Las Casas, there

is not perhaps any historical writer of that period, on the subject of

the Indies, whose loss would be more felt than that of Garcilasso de la

Vega.”

=C.= MEMORANDA.—An early voyage to the coast is supposed to be

indicated in an Italian tract of 1521, mentioned in the catalogue

of the Biblioteca Colombina. It is not now known, except in what

is supposed to be a German version.[1550] The first tidings (March

15, 1533) which Europe got of Pizarro’s success came from a letter

which was addressed to the emperor, probably in Spanish, though we

have no copy of it in that tongue; but it is preserved in Italian,

_Copia delle lettere del prefetto della India, la Nuova Spagna detta_,

a plaquette of two leaves, of which there is a copy in the Lenox

Library. It is supposed to have been printed at Venice.[1551] This

version is also included in the _Libro di Benedetto_ (Venice, 1534).

A German translation was printed at Nuremberg, February, 1534, as

_Newe Zeitung aus Hispanien_, of four leaves.[1552] A French issue,

_Nouvelles certaines des isles du Peru_, dated 1534, is in the British

Museum.[1553] Ticknor[1554] cites Gayangos’ references to a tractate

of four leaves, _La Conquista del Peru_, which he found in the British

Museum.[1555]

It is not very clear to what city reference is made in a plaquette,

_Letera de la nobil cipta, novamente ritrouvata alle Indie ... data in

Peru adi. xxv de novembre, de MDXXXIIII_. An edition of the next year

(1535) is “data in Zhaual.”[1556] Marco Guazzo’s _Historie di tutte

le cose degne di memoria qual del anno MDXXIIII._, etc., published at

Venice in 1540, gives another early account.[1557] It was repeated in

the edition of 1545 and 1546.

The _De Peruviæ regionis, inter novi orbis provincias celeberrimæ

inventione_ of Levinus Apollonius of Ghent was published at Antwerp

in 1565, 1566, 1567, for copies with these respective dates are

found;[1558] though Sabin thinks Rich and Ternaux are in error in

assigning an edition to 1565. It covers events from the discovery to

the time of Gasca and the death of Gonzalo Pizarro.[1559] It also

appeared as a third part to the German translation of Benzoni (Basle

1582).

Ternaux-Compans in his _Voyages_ has preserved in a French version

several early chronicles of minor importance. Such is Miguel Carello

Balbóa’s _Histoire du Peru_ (in vol. xvii.), the work of one who went

to Bogota in 1566, and finished his work at Quito in 1586. It rehearses

the story of the Inca rule, not always agreeing with Garcilasso, and

only touches the Spanish Conquest as it had proceeded before the murder

of Atahualpa.[1560] Another work is the _Histoire du Pérou_ of Father

Anello Oliva, a Jesuit, who was born at Naples in 1593, came to Peru as

a Jesuit in 1597, and died at Lima in 1642. It was apparently written

before 1631; but what Ternaux affords us is only the first of the four

books which constitute the completed work.[1561] Juan de Velasco’s

_Histoire de Quito_, a work of a later day but based on the early

sources, makes volumes xviii. and xix. of Ternaux’s collection.

Alonso de Ovalle’s historical account of Chili was issued at Rome in

1646, in Italian, as _Historica Relatione del Regno di Cile_, and

the same year at the same place in Spanish, as _Histórica Relacion

del Reyne de Chile_. Six of the eight books are given in English in

Churchill’s _Voyages_ (1732), and in Pinkerton.[1562]

Among the minor documentary sources there is much of interest to be

found in the _Documentos inéditos (España)_, vols. v., xiii., xxvi.,

xlix., l., and li.

The Ministerio de Fomento of Peru printed at Madrid in 1881 the first

volumes—edited by Jiménez de la Espada—of _Relaciones geográficas de

Indias_. The editor supplied a learned introduction, and the volume

contained twelve documents of the sixteenth century, which were

then published for the first time;[1563] and they contribute to our

knowledge of the condition of the country during that period.

There are other documents covering the whole course of Peruvian history

in the collection of _Documentos históricos del Peru en las epocas

del coloniage despues de la conquista y de la independencia hasta a

presente, colectados y arreglados por el coronel Manuel Odriozola_, the

first volume of which was published at Lima about twenty-five years ago

(1863).

Harrisse (_Bibl. Amer. Vet._, pp. 320-322) enumerates many copies of

manuscripts preserved in New York and Boston, some of which have since

been printed. There is record of other manuscripts in New York in the

_Magazine of American History_, i. 254.

The _Varias relaciones del Peru y Chile y Conquista de la isla de

Santa Catalina, 1535-1658 (Madrid, 1879)_[1564] constitutes vol. xiii.

of _Coleccion de libros raros ó curiosos_, which includes anonymous

manuscripts in “Relacion del sitio del Cusco, 1537-1539,” in the

“Rebelion de Giron, 1553,” and in some others of the seventeenth

century. Vol. xvi. of the same _Coleccion_ is edited by Jiménes de la

Espada, and is entitled _Memorias antiguas historiales y políticas del

Perú, por D. Fernando Montesinos, seguidas de las Informaciones acerca

del señorío de los Incas, hechas por mandado de D. Francisco de Toledo,

virey del Perú [1570-1572]_. _Madrid_, 1882. An account of the original

which this edition of the work of Montesinos follows is given in the

preface. The editor criticises the translation by Henri Ternaux-Compans

in his Mémoires historiques sur l’ancien Pérou (forming part of his

_Voyages_), Paris, 1840.[1565]

[Illustration: PRESCOTT’S LIBRARY.]

Leclerc in 1878[1566] offered for 2,500 francs an unprinted manuscript

containing the military Lives of Pedro Alvarez de Holguin and Martin

de Almendral (Almendras), consisting of depositions respecting their

services by eye-witnesses, taken in pursuance of a claim by their

families for the possession of titles and property, their ancestors

having been among the conquerors.

The most conspicuous writers upon Peruvian history in English are

Prescott, Helps, and Markham,—the first two as the historians of the

Conquest, and the third as an annotator of the original sources and

an elucidator of controverted points. Prescott’s _Conquest of Peru_

was published in 1843. He had been fortunate enough to secure copies

from the manuscript stores which Muñoz had gathered, and Navarrete

allowed his collections to be gleaned for the American’s use. He did

not fail of the sympathy and support of Ternaux and of Gayangos. The

ingenious and active assistance of Obadiah Rich secured him a good

share of the manuscripts of the Kingsborough Collection when that was

scattered. The _Conquest of Peru_ was promptly translated into Spanish,

and published at Madrid in 1847-1848; and again in a version supposed

to have been made by Icazbalceta. It was printed at Mexico in 1849. A

French translation was introduced to the world by Amédée Pichot, and

the English on the continent were soon able to read it in their own

tongue under a Paris imprint. The Dutch and German people were not

long without versions in their vernaculars. Since Mr. Prescott’s death

the revision, which the American reader was long kept from (owing to

the obstructions to textual improvements imposed by the practice of

stereotyping), was made by Mr. Kirk, who had been Prescott’s secretary;

and the new edition, with that gentleman’s elucidatory and corrective

notes, appeared at Philadelphia in 1874.

As was the case with the hero of Mexico, the chapters in Helps’s

_Spanish Conquest_ on the conqueror of Peru have, since the publication

of that book, been extracted and fitted newly together under the title

of _The Life of Pizarro, with some account of his Associates in the

Conquest of Peru_, published in London in 1869. Pizarro is not, under

Helps’s brush, the abhorrent figure of some other historians. “He is

always calm, polite, dignified,” he says. “He was not one of the least

admirable of the conquerors.”

Mr. Markham, referring to a visit which he made to Prescott, says: “He

it was who encouraged me to undertake my Peruvian investigations and to

persevere in them. To his kindly advice and assistance I owe more than

I can say, and to him is due, in no small degree, the value of anything

I have since been able to do in furtherance of Peruvian research.” The

first fruit of Mr. Markham’s study was his _Cusco and Lima_ in 1856.

Three years later (1859) he was sent by the British Government to

superintend the collection of cinchona plants and seeds (quinine) in

Peru, and to introduce them into India. In pursuit of this mission, he

formed the acquaintance with the country which was made public in his

_Travels in Peru and India_ in 1862. In 1880 he epitomized his great

knowledge in a useful little handbook on _Peru_, which was published in

London in the series of _Foreign Countries and British Colonies_. His

greatest aid to the historian has come, however, from the annotations

given by him to numerous volumes of the Hakluyt Society, which he

has edited, and in his communications to the _Journal of the Royal

Geographical Society_.

The Peruvian story is but an incidental feature of Hubert H. Bancroft’s

_Central America_, where Alvarado’s report of May 12, 1535, and

other documents which fell into that author’s hands with the Squier

manuscripts afford in part the basis of his narrative, vol. ii. chap.

vii. Bancroft accounts Pizarro himself the most detestable man in the

Indies after Pedrárias. He collates the authorities on many disputed

points, and is a valuable assistant, particularly for the relations

of operations on the isthmus to those in Peru,—such as the efforts

of Gonzalo Pizarro to make the isthmus the frontier of his Peruvian

government, and Gasca’s method of breaking through it. In his chapter

on “Mines and Mining” in his _Mexico_ (vol. iii.) he incidentally

recapitulates the story of the wealth which was extracted from Peru.

The dignified and well-balanced story as told in Robertson’s _America_

(book vi.) is not without use to-day, and his judgment upon authorities

(note cxxv.) is usually sound. He has of course fallen behind that

sufficiency which Dr. Smyth found in him, when he gave his _Lectures on

Modern History_ (lecture xxi.). The latter writer reflected an opinion

not yet outgrown when he says that “Pizarro was, after all, a vulgar

conqueror, and is from the first detested, though he seizes upon our

respect, and retains it in defiance of ourselves, from the powerful

and decisive nature of his courage and of his understanding.”

The latest English summarized view of the Conquest will be found in R.

G. Watson’s _Spanish and Portuguese South America during the Colonial

Period_ (London, 1884). The author lived in South America about twenty

years ago, in various parts, as a diplomatic agent of the English

government.

THE

AMAZON AND ELDORADO.

BY THE EDITOR.

IN 1528, in order to follow up the explorations of Ojeda and others on

the coast of Venezuela the Emperor had agreed with the great German

mercantile house of the Velsers to protect a colony to be sent by

them to found cities and to mine on this northern coast.[1567] This

was the origin of the expedition led by Ambrosio de Alfinger to find

a fabulous golden city, of which reports of one kind and another

pervaded the Spanish settlements along the coast. It was in 1530 that

Alfinger started inland. This march produced the usual story of perfidy

and cruelty practised upon the natives, and of attack and misery

experienced by the invaders. Alfinger died on the way, and after two

years (in 1532) what was left of his followers found their way back to

the coast.

Meanwhile an expedition inland had started under Diego Ordaz in 1531,

by way of the Orinoco; but it had failed, its leader being made the

victim of a mutiny. One of his officers, Martinez, being expelled from

the force for misbehavior, wandered away until he fell into the hands

of people who blindfolded him and led him a great way to a city, where

the bandage was removed from his eyes. Here they led him for a day and

night through its streets till they came to the palace of Inga their

Emperor, with whom being handsomely entertained he stayed eight months,

when, being allowed to return, he came down the Orinoco to Trinidad,

and thence to Porto Rico, where, when dying, he told this tale of

Manoa, as he called the city. He was the first, the story goes, to

apply the name of Eldorado to the alluring kingdom in the depths of the

continent. This is the pretended story as Raleigh sixty years later

learned from a manuscript which Berreo the Governor of Trinidad showed

to him.[1568]

Again, the Germans made another attempt to penetrate the country and

its mystery. George of Spires, under the imperial sanction, coming from

Spain with four hundred men, started inland from Coro in 1534. He

succeeded in penetrating about fifteen hundred miles, and returned with

the survivors in 1538.

A lieutenant had played him false. Nicolaus Federmann[1569] had been

disappointed in not getting the command of the expedition, but being

made second, was instructed to follow after his chief with supplies.

Federmann avoided making a junction with George, and wandered at the

head of about two hundred men, who were faithful to him, seeking

glory on his own account, till after three years of labor he emerged

in April, 1539, from the mountain passes upon the plains of Bogotá.

Two years before this (in 1537) Gonzalo Ximenes Quesada, following up

the Magdalena River, had arrived on the same plateau, and completed

the conquest of New Granada. The year following (1538), Sebastian

de Belalcazar, marching north from Quito, had reached the same

point.[1570]

[Illustration: QUESADA.

Cf. Markham’s _Travels of Cieza de Leon_, p. 110; and his _Narrative of

Andagoya_, p. xxv.]

Thus the three explorers from three directions came together. They

joined forces and descended the Magdalena to Santa Martha, where Pedro

Fernandez de Lugo, the associate of Quesada, died, while Quesada

himself proceeded to Spain to obtain the government of the newly

discovered region. Meanwhile Hernan Perez, a brother of Quesada, being

left in command in Bogotá, committed the usual cruel excesses upon the

Chibchas, but finally left them, to follow another adventurer who had

arrived in the track of Federmann, with the same stories of the golden

city. So the recreant Governor joined the new-comer Montalvo de Lugo,

and together they marched eastward on their golden quest. He returned

to Bogotá in a year’s time, wiser but not happier.

Meanwhile a new expedition was forming on the Venezuela side. Among the

followers of George of Spires had been one Philip von Huten,[1571] who

after George’s death, and when Rodrigo Bastidas had succeeded him, was

made the commander of an expedition which left Coro in 1541 by vessels,

and, prepared for an inland march, landed at Barburata. The next spring

he got on the track of Quesada and resolved to follow it; but the

expedition only journeyed in a circle, and after suffering all sorts of

hardships found itself at the point of setting out. Huten, undaunted,

again started with a smaller force. He encountered and made friends of

the Uaupe Indians, and under their guidance proceeded against the towns

of the Omaguas, where they encountered resistance; and Huten being

wounded, the invaders retreated, and brought to an end another search

for Eldorado. The expedition had added a new synonym, Omaguas, for the

attractive lure.

[Illustration: SKETCH MAP, AMAZON AND ELDORADO.]

Huten, on his return to Coro, found that Carbajal had seized the

government. This brutal soldier now executed Huten, and held his

iniquitous sway until the licentiate Juan Perez de Tolosa arrived

with the imperial authority in 1546, when Carbajal was in turn put to

death. Thus ended the German efforts at South American discovery on

this side of the continent.

Meanwhile Gonzalo Ximenes Quesada’s visit to Spain had failed in

making him the Governor of New Granada, as he had hoped. Luis Alonzo

de Lugo, the son of Quesada’s associate, was the successful applicant

for the position. The new Governor arrived in 1542, but a _residencia_

interrupted his career, and Pedro de Ursua, a nephew of Armendariz,

the judge who had taken the _residencia_, was sent to Bogotá to take

charge. Thence his patron sent him on the old quest for the rivers

flowing over golden sands. He failed to find Eldorado; but he founded

the city of Pampluna in the wilds, and ruled its stately lots for two

years. Then Armendariz had his downfall in turn, and Pedro de Ursua in

1549 found favor enough with those who then administered the government

to get command of another expedition to Eldorado, during which he

founded another city, which he had to abandon in 1552 because the

natives attacked it so persistently. Next, Pedro was put in command of

Santa Martha, and began to fight the Indians thereabout; but seeking a

larger field, he started for Peru. His fame was sufficient to induce

the authorities at Panamá to engage him to quell the Cimarrones, who

infested the Isthmus. In two years Ursua accomplished this task, and

then went on to Peru, where at Lima, in 1559, the new viceroy Cañete

appointed him to lead a well-equipped expedition to Eldorado and the

Omaguas. If the fabled city should not be reached, the quest for it

would draw away from Cañete’s province the prowling ruffians whom the

cessation of the civil wars had left among the settlements. But it was

thought the quest was more likely to be successful than any previous

one had been, since Viraratu, a coast chieftain of Brazil, had with two

Portuguese recently ascended the Amazon, and had confirmed to Cañete

the old stories of a hidden lake and its golden city.

Pedro de Ursua started in boats down the Huallaga to the Marañon, and

so on to the neighborhood of Machiparo. At this point, on New Year’s

day, 1561, conspirators murdered Ursua, threw off allegiance to Spain,

and made Fernando de Guzman their sovereign. One Lope de Aguirre was

the leader of the insurrection, and it was not long before Guzman

paid the penalty of his life in turn, and Aguirre became supreme. The

conspirators went on to the mouth of the Negro, but from this point

authorities differ as to their course. Humboldt and Southey supposed

they still kept to the Amazon until they reached the sea. Acuña,

Simon, Acosta, and among the moderns Markham, suppose they ascended

the Negro, crossed by the Cassiquiari canal to the Orinoco, and so

passed on to the ocean; or if not by this route, by some of the rivers

of Guiana. Mr. Markham[1572] balances the testimony. Once on the

ocean, at whatever point, Aguirre steered his vessels for the north

and west till they came to the island of Margarita, then colonized by

the Spanish. Having seized this settlement, Aguirre led his followers

across the intervening waters to Venezuela, with the aim of invading

and conquering New Granada; but in due time a Spanish force led by

Gutierrez de la Peña confronted the traitor and his host, and overthrew

them. Many of Aguirre’s men had deserted him; when killing his own

daughter, that she might not survive to be stigmatized as a traitor’s

child, he was set upon and despatched by his conquerors.

The earliest account of the expedition of Ursua and Aguirre is a

manuscript in the Royal library at Madrid written by one of the

company, Francisco Vasquez, who remained with Aguirre under protest

till he reached Margarita. Vasquez’s story was a main dependence

of Pedro Simon, in the sixth of the _Primera parte de las Noticias

historiales de las Conquistas de Tierra Firme en las Indias

Occidentales_, published at Cuenca in 1627. Simon, who was born in

Spain in 1574, had come to Bogotá in 1604, in time to glean much from

men still living. After many years of gathering notes, he began to

write his book in 1623. Only one part, which included the affairs of

Venezuela and the expedition of Ursua and Aguirre, was printed. Two

other parts are in existence; and Colonel J. Acosta, in his _Compendio

histórico del descubrimiento y colonizacion de la Nueva Granada en el

siglo décimo sexto_, published at Paris in 1848, made use of them, and

says they are the most valuable recital of the sixteenth century in

existence which relates to these regions.[1573] The account of Simon,

so far as it relates to the expedition of Ursua, has been translated by

William Bollaert, and properly annotated by Mr. Markham; it constitutes

the volume published by the Hakluyt Society in 1861, called _The

Expedition of Pedro de Ursua and Lope de Aguirre in search of Eldorado

and Omagua in 1560-1561_. It has a map which marks the alternative

courses of Aguirre.[1574]

[Illustration: CASTELLANOS.

A fac-simile of the portrait in his _Elegias_, p. 10.]

The main dependence of Simon, besides the manuscript of Vasquez, was a

metrical chronicle by Juan de Castellanos, _Elegias de Varones ilustres

de Indias_, the first part of which, containing, besides the accounts

of Ursua and Aguirre, the exploits of Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Garay,

and others, was printed at Madrid in 1589.[1575] De Bry makes use of

this versified narrative in the eighth part of his _Grand Voyages_.

Castellanos’ first part is reprinted in the _Biblioteca de Autores

Españoles_, 1847-1850, where are also to be found the second and third

parts, printed there for the first time. The text is there edited by

Buenaventura Carlos Aribau. Ercilla has recorded his opinion of the

faithfulness of Castellanos, but Colonel Acosta thinks him inexact.

These second and third parts recount the adventures of the Germans in

their search for Eldorado, and record the conquests of Cartagena by

Lugo, of Popayan by Belalcazar, and of Antischia. A fourth part, which

gave the conquest of New Granada, though used by Piedrahita, is no

longer known.

Castellanos could well have derived his information, as he doubtless

did, from men who had made part of the exploits which he celebrates;

and as regards the mad pranks of Aguirre, such is also the case with

another contemporary account, preserved in the National Library at

Madrid, which was written by Toribio de Ortiguera, who was at Nombre de

Dios in 1561, and sent forces against Aguirre when that conspirator was

on his Venezuela raid. The story written from the survivors’ recitals

does not materially differ from that of Vasquez. He gives also a short

account of the expedition of Gonzalo Pizarro and Orellana, later to be

mentioned.

Lucas Fernandez Piedrahita was a native of Bogotá, and, like Garcilasso

de la Vega, had the blood of the Incas in his veins. He became a

priest, and was successively Bishop of Santa Martha and of Panamá, and

after having lived a life of asceticism, and been at one time a captive

of the buccaneers, he died at Panamá in 1688, at the age of seventy. He

depended chiefly in his _Historia General de las Conquistas del nuevo

Reyno de Granada_,[1576] on the _Compendio_ of Ximenes de Quesada, no

longer known, the Elegias of Castellanos, and the Noticia of Simon. He

borrows liberally from Simon, and says but little of Aguirre till he

lands in Venezuela. Aguirre’s career in the _Historia de la Conquista y

poblacion de Venezuela_ of Oviedo y Baños is in like manner condensed

from Simon, and is confined also to his final invasion of the main. The

book is rare, and Markham says that in 1861 even the British Museum

had no copy.[1577] The general historians, De la Vega, Herrera, and

Acosta, give but scant accounts of the Ursua expedition. Markham[1578]

points out the purely imaginative additions given to Aguirre’s story in

Gomberville’s translation of Acuña, misleading thereby not a few later

writers. Much the same incorrectness characterizes the recitals in the

_Viage_ of the Ulloas, in Velasco’s _Historia de Quito_ (1789).

* * * * *

The faithlessness of Orellana and his fifty followers in deserting

Gonzalo Pizarro in 1540, while this leader was exploring the forests

of the Cinnamon country, is told in another place. Orellana, as has

been said, was sent forward in an improvised bark to secure food for

Pizarro’s famished followers, but was tempted to pursue the phantom

of golden discovery. This impulse led him to follow the course of the

river to the sea. It gave him the distinction of being the discoverer

of the weary course of the great Amazon. In his intercourse with some

of the river Indians he heard or professed to hear of a tribe of women

warriors whom it was easy, in recognition of the classic story, to name

the Amazons. At one of the native villages on the river the deserters

built themselves a stancher craft than they had escaped in; and so

they sailed on in a pair of adventurous barks, fighting their way

past hostile villages, and repelling attacks of canoes, or bartering

with such of the Indians as were more peaceful. In one of the fights,

when Orellana landed his men for the conflict, it is affirmed that

women led the native horde. From a prisoner they got signs which they

interpreted to mean that they were now in the region of the female

warriors, and not far from all the fabled wealth of which they were in

search. But the marks of the tide on the banks lured them on with the

hope of nearing the sea. They soon got unmistakable signs of the great

water, and then began to prepare their frail crafts for encountering

its perils. They made sails of their cloaks. On the 26th of August they

passed into the Atlantic. They had left the spot where the river Napo

flows into the Amazon on the last day of December, 1541; and now, after

a voyage of nearly eight months, they spread their sails and followed

the coast northward. The vessels parted company one night, but they

reached the island of Cubagua within two days of each other. Here they

found a Spanish colony, and Orellana was not long in finding a passage

to Spain. The story he had to tell was a thrilling one for ears eager

for adventure, and a joyous one for such as listened for the tales of

wealth. Orellana might be trusted to entrap both sorts of listeners.

The King was the best of listeners. He gave Orellana a commission to

conquer these fabulous countries, and in May, 1544, Orellana sailed

with four ships and four hundred men. Misfortune followed him speedily,

and only two of his vessels reached the river. Up they went for a

hundred leagues or so; but it was quite different making headway

against the current from floating down it, as he had done before.

His men died; his vessels were stranded or broken up; he himself

became ill, and at last died. This ended the attempt; and such of his

followers as could, made their way back to Spain; and New Andalusia, as

the country was to be named, remained without a master.

Of the expedition of Gonzalo Pizarro there is no account by any

one engaged in it; but we have the traditions of the story told by

Garcilasso de la Vega in the second part, book third, of the _Royal

Commentaries_, and this account is put into English and annotated

by Mr. Markham in the _Expeditions into the Valley of the Amazons_,

published by the Hakluyt Society in 1859,—and to this book its editor

contributes a summary of the later explorations of the valley.

Orellana’s desertion and his experiences are told by Herrera in his

_Historia General_; and this, which Markham calls the best account

possessed by us, is also translated by him in the same publication.

Wallace, in his _Amazon and Rio Negro_, has of late years suggested

that the woman-like apparel of the men, still to be found among the

tribes of the upper Amazon, gave rise to the belief in the story of the

female warriors.[1579]

* * * * *

The form which the story of Eldorado oftener took, and which it

preserved for many years, gave representation of a large inland sea,

called finally Parima, and of a golden city upon it called Manoa, the

reminiscences of Martinez’s tale. Somehow, as Mr. Markham thinks, these

details were evolved in part out of a custom prevalent on the plains

of Bogotá, where a native chief is said to have gilded himself yearly,

and performed some rites in a large lake. All this array of wealth was

clustered, in the imagination of the conquerors of northern Peru, about

the fabled empire of the Omaguas; and farther south the beckoning

names were Paytiti and Enim. Whatever the names or details, the

inevitable greed for gold in the mind of the Spanish invaders was quite

sufficient to evolve the phantom from every impenetrable region of the

New World. In 1566 Martin de Proveda followed in the track of Ursua;

but sweeping north, his men dropped by the way, and a remnant only

reached Bogotá. He brought back the same rumors of rich but receding

provinces.

In 1568 the Spanish Government mapped out all this unknown region

between two would-be governors. Pedro Malaver de Silva was to have

the western part, and Diego Fernando de Cerpa to have the eastern as

far as the mouths of the Orinoco. Both of the expeditions which these

ambitious heroes led came to nothing beyond their due share of trials

and aimless wandering; and one of the leaders, Silva, made a second

attempt in 1574, equally abortive, as the one survivor’s story proved

it to be.

[Illustration: THE MOUTHS OF THE ORINOCO.

This is a portion of the map given by Schomburgk in his edition of

_Raleigh’s Discovery of Guiana_, published by the Hakluyt Society in

1848.]

Markham says that the last expedition to achieve any important

geographical discovery was that of Antonio de Berreo in 1582. He had

received by right the adventurous impulse, through his marriage with

the daughter or heiress of Gonzalo Ximenes de Quesada. He followed

down the Cassanare and the Meta, and pursued the Orinoco to its mouth.

The English took up the quest when Raleigh sent Jacob Whiddon in 1594

to explore the Orinoco. Berreo, who was now the Spanish governor of

Trinidad, threw what obstacles in the way he could; and when Raleigh

arrived with his fleet in 1595, the English leader captured the

troublesome Spaniard, and was confirmed in his belief, by what Berreo

told him, that he could reach the goal. This lure was the lying account

of Juan Martinez, already mentioned. The fortunes of Raleigh have

been told elsewhere,[1580] and the expeditions which he conducted or

planned, says Markham, may be said to close the long roll of searches

after the fabulous Eldorado.

Nearly the whole of the northern parts of South America had now been

thridded by numerous adventuring parties, but without success in this

fascinating search. There still remained an unknown region in Central

Guiana, where were plains periodically inundated by the overflow of the

Rupununi, Essequibo, and Branco (Parima) rivers. Here must Eldorado be;

and here the maps, shortly after this, placed the mysterious lake and

its auriferous towers of Manoa down to a comparatively recent time.

According to Humboldt[1581] and Schomburgk,[1582] it was after the

return of Raleigh’s and Keymis’s expedition that Hondius was the first

in his _Nieuwe Caerte van het goudreyke landt Guiana_ (1599),[1583] to

introduce the Laguna Parima with its city Manoa in a map. He placed

it between 1° 45´ and 2° north latitude, and made it larger than the

Caspian Sea.

We find the lake also in the _Nieuwe Wereldt_ of De Laet in 1630,

and in the editions of that year in other languages. Another Dutch

geographer, Jannson, also represented it. Sanson, the French

geographer, puts it one degree north of the equator in his _Terre

Ferme_ in 1656, and is particular enough to place Manoa at the

northwest corner of a squarish inland sea; but he omits it in his

chart of the Amazons in 1680. We find the lake again in Heylin’s

_Cosmographie_ of 1663, and later editions; in Blaeu’s _Atlas_ in

1685. Delisle omits the lake in 1703, but gives a legend in French, as

Homann does in his map in Latin, “In hac regione aliqui ponunt lacum

Parima urbemque Manoa del Dorado.” In another of Delisle’s maps a

small lake appears with the legend: “Guiane proprement dite ou Dorado,

dans laquelle quelques-uns mettent le lac Parime.” We have it again in

the map in Herrera, edition of 1728; and in 1729. Moll, the English

geographer, likewise shows it. In the middle of the century (1760) the

maps of Danville preserve the lake, though he had omitted it in an

earlier edition; and the English edition, improved by Bolton in 1755,

still continues it, as does an Italian edition (Venice) in 1779. The

original Spanish of Gumilla’s _El Orinoco_ (2d edition, Madrid, 1745)

has a map which gives the lake, and it is repeated in the French

edition at Avignon in 1758, and in a later Spanish one at Barcelona in

1781. Kitchen’s map, which was prepared for Robertson’s _History of

America_, again shows it; and it is in the centre of a great water

system in the large map of La Cruz, made by order of the King of

Spain in 1775, which was re-engraved in London the same year. It is

also represented in the maps in the _Historia de la nueva Andalucia_,

of Antonio Caulin,[1584] Madrid, 1779, and in the _Saggio di Storia

Americana_, Rome, 1780. Conrad Mannert’s map, published at Nuremberg in

1803, gives it; as do the various editions of François Depons’ _Voyage

dans l’Amerique méridionale_, Paris, 1806. The lake here is given under

thirty degrees north latitude, and Manoa is put at the northeast corner

of it.

[Illustration: DE LAET, 1630.]

The same plate was used for the English version “by an American

gentleman,” published in New York in 1806; while the translation

published in London in 1807, apparently the same with a few verbal

changes, has a like configuration on a map of reduced scale. One of the

latest preservations of the myth is the large map published in London

by Faden in 1807, purporting to be based on the studies of D’Arcy de la

Rochette, where the inland sea is explained by a legend: “Golden Lake,

or Lake Parime, called likewise Parana Pitinga,—that is, White Sea,—on

the banks of which the discoverers of the sixteenth century did place

the imaginary city of Manoa del Dorado.” I have seen it in German maps

as late as 1814, and the English geographer, Arrowsmith, kept it in his

maps in his day.[1585]

It was left for Humboldt to set the seal of disbelief firmly upon

the story.[1586] Schomburgk says that the inundations of extensive

savannas during the tropical winter gave rise, no doubt, to the fable

of the White Sea, assisted by an ignorance of the Indian language.

Nevertheless, as late as 1844, Jacob A. van Heuvel, in his _Eldorado,

being a Narrative of the Circumstances which gave rise to Reports in

the Sixteenth Century of the Existence of a Rich and Splendid City

in South America_, published in New York, clung to the idea; and he

represents the lake somewhat doubtingly as in 4° north, and between 60°

and 63° west, in the map accompanying his book.

* * * * *

Later in the seventeenth century the marvellous story took on

another guise. It was remembered that after the conquest of Peru a

great emigration of Inca Indians had taken place easterly beyond

the mountains, and in the distant forests it was reputed they had

established a new empire; and the names of Paytiti and Enim, already

mentioned, were attached to these new theatres of Inca magnificence.

Stories of this fabulous kingdom continued to be hatched well on into

the eighteenth century, and not a few expeditions of more or less

imposing strength were sent to find this kingdom. It never has been

found; but, as Mr. Markham thinks, there is some reason to believe that

the Inca Indians who fled with Tapac Amaru into the forests may for a

considerable period have kept up their civilization somewhere in those

vast plains east of the Andes. The same writer says that the belief was

not without supporters when he was in Peru in 1853; and he adds that it

is a pleasant reflection that this story may possibly be true.[1587]

The most considerable attempt of the seventeenth century to make better

known the course of the Amazon was the expedition under Texeira,

sent in 1639 to see if a practicable way could be found to transport

the treasure from Peru by the Amazon to the Atlantic coast. Acuña’s

book on this expedition, _Nuevo descubrimiento del gran Rio de las

Amazons_,[1588] published at Madrid in 1641, is translated in Markham’s

_Valley of the Amazons_, published by the Hakluyt Society. It was not

till 1707, when Samuel Fritz, a Bohemian and a missionary, published

his map of the Amazons at Quito, that we find something better than the

vaguest delineation of the course of the great river.[1589]

* * * * *

It is not the purpose of the present essay to continue the story of

the explorations of the Amazon into more recent times; but a word may

be spared for the strange and sorrowful adventures along its stream,

which came in the train of the expedition that was sent out by the

French Government in 1735 to measure an arc of the meridian in Peru,

for comparing the result with a similar measurement in Lapland. The

object was to prove or to disprove the theory of Sir Isaac Newton that

the earth was flattened at the poles. The commissioners—Bouguer, La

Condamine, and Godin (the last accompanied by his wife)—arrived at

Quito in June, 1736. The arc was measured; but the task did not permit

them to think of returning before 1743, when La Condamine resolved to

return by descending the Amazon and then making his way to the French

colony of Cayenne. He and his companion, a Spanish gentleman seeking

some adventure, had their full content of it, but safely accomplished

the journey.

Another of the commissioners, Godin, having tarried a few years longer

in Peru, had finally proceeded to Cayenne, where he made arrangements

for embarking for France. Through the favor of the Portuguese

Government he had been provided with a galiot of sixteen to twenty oars

on a side, to ascend the river and meet his wife, who on receiving

a message from him was to leave Peru with an escort and come down

the river and meet him. Illness finally prevented the husband from

proceeding; but he despatched the vessel, having on board one Tristan,

who was charged with a letter to send ahead. By some faithlessness

in Tristan, the letter miscarried; but Madame Godin sent a trusty

messenger in anticipation, who found the galiot at Loreto awaiting

her arrival, and returned with the tidings. The lady now started with

her father and two brothers; and they allowed a certain Frenchman who

called himself a physician to accompany them, while her negro servant,

who had just returned over the route, attended them, as well as three

Indian women and thirty Indian men to carry burdens. They encountered

the small-pox among the river Indians, when their native porters

deserted them. They found two other natives, who assisted them in

building a boat; but after two days upon it these Indians also deserted

them. They found another native, but he was shortly drowned. Then their

boat began to leak and was abandoned. On pretext of sending assistance

back, the French physician, taking with him the negro, pushed on to

a settlement; but he forgot his promise, and the faithful black was

so impeded in attempting alone the task of rescue, that he arrived at

the camp only to find unrecognizable corpses. All but the lady had

succumbed. She pushed on alone through the wilderness, encountering

perils that appall as we read; but in the end, falling in with two

Indians, she passed on from one mission station to another, and reached

the galiot.

Thus a hundred years later than Orellana, the great river still flowed

with a story of fearful hazards and treachery.