The industry and skill of the Peruvian husbandmen can scarcely

alone account for the perfection to which they brought the science

of agriculture. The administrative system of the Incas must share

the credit. Not a spot of cultivable land was neglected. Towns and

villages were built on rocky ground. Even their dead were buried in

waste places. Dry wastes were irrigated, and terraces were constructed,

sometimes a hundred deep, up the sides of the mountains. The most

beautiful example of this terrace cultivation may still be seen in the

“Andeneria,” or hanging gardens of the valley of Vilcamayu, near Cuzco.

There the terraces, commencing with broad fields at the edge of the

level ground, rise to a height of 1,500 feet, narrowing as they rise,

until the loftiest terraces against the perpendicular mountain side are

not more than two feet wide, just room for three or four rows of maize.

An irrigation canal, starting high up some narrow ravine at the snow

level, is carried along the mountain side and through the terraces,

flowing down from one to another.

Irrigation on a larger scale was employed not only on the desert coast,

but to water the pastures and arable lands in the mountains, where

there is rain for several months in the year. The channels were often

of considerable size and great length. Mr. Squier says that he has

followed them for days together, winding amidst the projections of

hills, here sustained by high masonry walls, there cut into the living

rock, and in some places conducted in tunnels through sharp spurs of an

obstructing mountain. An officer knew the space of time necessary for

irrigating each _tupu_, and each cultivator received a flow of water in

accordance with the requirements of his land. The manuring of crops was

also carefully attended to.[1218]

The result of all this intelligent labor was fully commensurate with

the thought and skill expended. The Incas produced the finest potato

crops the world has ever seen. The white maize of Cuzco has never

been approached in size or in yield. Coca, now so highly prized, is

a product peculiar to Inca agriculture, and its cultivation required

extreme care, especially in the picking and drying processes. Ajï, or

Chile pepper, furnished a new condiment to the Old World. Peruvian

cotton is excelled only by Sea Island and Egyptian in length of fibre,

and for strength and length of fibre combined is without an equal.

Quinua, oca, aracacha, and several fruits are also peculiar to Peruvian

agriculture.[1219]

The vast flocks of llamas[1220] and alpacas supplied meat for

the people, dried _charqui_ for soldiers and travellers, and wool

for weaving cloth of every degree of fineness. The alpacas, whose

unrivalled wool is now in such large demand, may almost be said to have

been the creation of the Inca shepherds. They can only be reared by

the bestowal on them of the most constant and devoted care. The wild

_huanacus_ and _vicuñas_ were also sources of food and wool supply.

No man was allowed to kill any wild animal in Peru, but there were

periodical hunts, called _chacu_, in the different provinces, which

were ordered by the Inca. On these occasions a wide area was surrounded

by thousands of people, who gradually closed in towards the centre.

They advanced, shouting and starting the game before them, and closed

in, forming in several ranks until a great bag was secured. The females

were released, with a few of the best and finest males. The rest were

then shorn and also released, a certain proportion being killed for the

sake of their flesh. The _huanacu_ wool was divided among the people

of the district, while the silky fleeces of the _vicuña_ were reserved

for the Inca. The _Quipu-camayoc_ kept a careful record of the number

caught, shorn, and killed.

[Illustration: FROM HELPS.

[Cf. Humboldt’s account in _Views of Nature_, English transl., 393-95,

407-9, 412. Marcoy says the usual descriptions of the ancient roads are

exaggerations (vol. i. 206).—ED.]]

The means of communication in so mountainous a country were an

important department in the administration of the Incas. Excellent

roads for foot passengers radiated from Cuzco to the remotest portions

of the empire. The Inca roads were level and well paved, and continued

for hundreds of leagues. Rocks were broken up and levelled when it

was necessary, ravines were filled, and excavations were made in

mountain sides. Velasco measured the width of the Inca roads, and found

them to be from six to seven yards, sufficiently wide when only foot

passengers used them. Gomara gives them a breadth of twenty-five feet,

and says that they were paved with smooth stones. These measurements

were confirmed by Humboldt as regards the roads in the Andes. The

road along the coast was forty feet wide, according to Zarate. The

Inca himself travelled in a litter, borne by mountaineers from the

districts of Soras and Lucanas. _Corpa-huasi_, or rest-houses, were

erected at intervals, and the government messengers, or _chasquis_, ran

with wonderful celerity from one of these stations to another, where

he delivered his message, or _quipu_, to the next runner. Thus news

was brought to the central government from all parts of The empire

with extraordinary rapidity, and the Inca ate fresh fish at Cuzco

which had been caught in the Pacific, three hundred miles away, on the

previous day. Store-houses, with arms, clothing, and provisions for the

soldiers, were also built at intervals along the roads, so that an army

could be concentrated at any point without previous preparation.

Closely connected with the facilities for communication, which were so

admirably established by the Incas, was the system of moving colonies

from one part of the empire to another. The evils of minute subdivision

were thus avoided, political objects were often secured, and the

comfort of the people was increased by the exchange of products. The

colonists were called _mitimaes_. For example, the people of the

Collao, round Lake Titicaca, lived in a region where corn would not

ripen, and if confined to the products of their native land they must

have subsisted solely on potatoes, quinua, and llama flesh. But the

Incas established colonies from their villages in the coast valleys

of Tacna and Moquegua, and in the forests to the eastward. There was

constant intercourse, and while the mother country supplied _chuñus_ or

preserved potatoes, _charqui_ or dried meat, and wool to the colonists,

there came back in return, corn and fruits and cotton cloth from the

coast, and the beloved coca from the forests.

Military colonies were also established on the frontiers, and the

armies of the Incas, in their marches and extensive travels, promoted

the circulation of knowledge, while this service also gave employment

to the surplus agricultural population. Soldiers were brought from all

parts of the empire, and each tribe or _ayllu_ was distinguished by its

arms, but more especially by its head-dress. The Inca wore the crimson

_llautu_, or fringe; the _Apu_, or general, wore a yellow _llautu_. One

tribe wore a puma’s head; the Cañaris were adorned with the feathers

of macaws, the Huacrachucus with the horns of deer, the Pocras and

Huamanchucus with a falcon’s wing feathers. The arms of the Incas and

Chancas consisted of a copper axe, called _champi_; a lance pointed

with bronze, called _chuqui_; and a pole with a bronze or stone head

in the shape of a six-pointed star, used as a club, called _macana_.

The Collas and Quichuas came with slings and _bolas_, the _Antis_ with

bows and arrows. Defensive armor consisted of a _hualcanca_ or shield,

the _umachucu_ or head-dress, and sometimes a breastplate. The perfect

order prevailing in civil life was part of the same system which

enforced strict discipline in the army; and ultimately the Inca troops

were irresistible against any enemy that could bring an opposing force

into the field. Only when the Incas fought against each other, as in

the last civil war, could the result be long doubtful.

[Illustration: PERUVIAN METAL WORKERS.

[Reproduction of a cut in Benzoni’s _Historia del Mondo Nuovo_

(1565). Cf. D. Wilson’s _Prehistoric Man_, i. ch. 9, on the Peruvian

metal-workers.—ED.]]

[Illustration: PERUVIAN POTTERY.

[The tripod in this group is from Panama, the others are Peruvian. This

cut follows an engraving in Wilson’s _Prehistoric Man_, ii. 41. There

are numerous cuts in Wiener, p. 589, etc. Cf. Stevens’s _Flint Chips_,

p. 271.—ED.]]

[Illustration: PERUVIAN DRINKING VESSEL.

[After a cut in Wilson’s _Prehistoric Man_, ii. 45; showing a cup of

the Beckford collection. “There is an individuality in the head, at

once suggestive of portraiture.”—ED.]]

The artificers engaged in the numerous arts and on public works

subsisted on the government share of the produce. The artists who

fashioned the stones of the Sillustani towers or of the Cuzco temple

with scientific accuracy before they were fixed in their places, were

wholly devoted to their art. Food and clothing had to be provided for

them, and for the miners, weavers, and potters. Gold was obtained by

the Incas in immense quantities by washing the sands of the rivers

which flowed through the forest-covered province of Caravaya. Silver

was extracted from the ore by means of blasting-furnaces called

_huayra_; for, although quicksilver was known and used as a coloring

material, its properties for refining silver do not appear to have

been discovered. Copper was abundant in the Collao and in Charcas, and

tin was found in the hills on the east side of Lake Titicaca, which

enabled the Peruvians to use bronze very extensively.[1221] Lead was

also known to them. Skilful workers in metals fashioned the vases and

other utensils for the use of the Inca and of the temples, forged the

arms of the soldiers and the implements of husbandry, and stamped or

chased the ceremonial breastplates, _topus_, girdles, and chains. The

bronze and copper warlike instruments, which were star-shaped and used

as clubs, fixed at the ends of staves, were cast in moulds. One of

these club-heads, now in the Cambridge collection, has six rays, broad

and flat, and terminating in rounded points. Each ray represents a

human head, the face on one surface and the hair and back of the head

on the other. This specimen was undoubtedly cast in a mould. “It is,”

says Professor Putnam, “a good illustration of the knowledge which

the ancient Peruvians had of the methods of working metals and of the

difficult art of casting copper.”[1222]

[Illustration: UNFINISHED CLOTH FOUND AT PACHACAMAC.

[After a cut in Wiener, _Pérou et Bolivie_, p. 65.—ED.]]

Spinning, weaving, and dyeing were arts which were sources of

employment to a great number of people, owing to the quantity and

variety of the fabrics for which there was a demand. There were rich

dresses interwoven with gold or made of gold thread; fine woollen

mantles, or tunics, ornamented with borders of small square gold and

silver plates; colored cotton cloths worked in complicated patterns;

and fabrics of aloe fibre and sheeps’ sinews for breeches. Coarser

cloths of llama wool were also made in vast quantities. But the potters

art was perhaps the one which exercised the inventive faculties of the

Peruvian artist to the greatest extent. The silver and gold utensils,

with the exception of a very few cups and vases, have nearly all been

melted down. But specimens of pottery, found buried with the dead in

great profusion, are abundant. They are to be seen in every museum, and

at Berlin and Madrid the collections are very large.[1223] Varied as

are the forms to be found in the pottery of the Incas, and elegant as

are many of the designs, it must be acknowledged that they are inferior

in these respects to the specimens of the plastic art of the Chimu and

other people of the Peruvian coast. The Incas, however, displayed a

considerable play of fancy in their designs. Many of the vases were

moulded into forms to represent animals, fruit, and corn, and were used

as _conopas_, or household gods. Others took the shape of human heads

or feet, or were made double or quadruple, with a single neck branching

from below. Some were for interment with the _malquis_, others for

household use.[1224] Professor Wilson, who carefully examined several

collections of ancient Peruvian pottery, formed a high opinion of their

merit. “Some of the specimens,” he wrote, “are purposely grotesque,

and by no means devoid of true comic fancy; while, in the greater

number, the endless variety of combinations of animate and inanimate

forms, ingeniously rendered subservient to the requirements of utility,

exhibit fertility of thought in the designer, and a lively perceptive

faculty in those for whom he wrought.”[1225]

There is a great deal more to learn respecting this marvellous

Inca civilization. Recent publications have, within the last few

years, thrown fresh and unexpected light upon it. There may be more

information still undiscovered or inedited. As yet we can understand

the wonderful story only imperfectly, and see it by doubtful lights.

Respecting some questions, even of the first importance, we are still

able only to make guesses and weigh probabilities. Yet, though there

is much that is uncertain as regards historical and other points, we

have before us the clear general outlines of a very extraordinary

picture. In no other part of America had civilization attained to such

a height among indigenous races. In no other part of the world has the

administration of a purely socialistic government been attempted. The

Incas not only made the attempt, but succeeded.

CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

THE student of Inca civilization will first seek for information

from those Spanish writers who lived during or immediately after

the Spanish conquest. They were able to converse with natives who

actually flourished before the disruption of the Inca empire, and who

saw the working of the Inca system before the destruction and ruin

had well commenced. He will next turn to those laborious inquirers

and commentators who, although not living so near the time, were

able to collect traditions and other information from natives who

had carefully preserved all that had been handed down by their

fathers.[1226] These two classes include the writers of the sixteenth

and seventeenth centuries. The authors who have occupied themselves

with the Quichua language and the literature of the Incas have produced

works a knowledge of which is essential to an adequate study of the

subject.[1227] Lastly, a consideration of the publications of modern

travellers and scholars, who throw light on the writings of early

chroniclers, or describe the present appearance of ancient remains,

will show the existing position of a survey still far from complete,

and the interest and charm of which invite further investigation and

research.

Foremost in the first class of writers on Peru is Pedro de Cieza de

Leon. A general account of his works will be found elsewhere,[1228]

and the present notice will therefore be confined to an estimate of

the labors of this author, so far as they relate to Inca history and

civilization. Cieza de Leon conceived the desire to write an account

of the strange things that were to be seen in the New World, at an

early period of his service as a soldier. “Neither fatigue,” he tells

us, “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.” He finished the First Part of his chronicle

in September, 1550, when he was thirty-two years of age. It is mainly

a geographical description of the country, containing many pieces of

information, such as the account of the Inca roads and bridges, which

are of great value. But it is to the Second Part that we owe much of

our knowledge of Inca civilization. From incidental notices we learn

how diligently young Cieza de Leon studied the history and government

of the Incas, after he had written his picturesque description of the

country in his First Part. He often asked the Indians what they knew of

their condition before the Incas became their lords. He inquired into

the traditions of the people from the chiefs of the villages. In 1550

he went to Cuzco with the express purpose of collecting information,

and conferred diligently with one of the surviving descendants of the

Inca Huayna Ccapac. Cieza de Leon’s plan, for the second part of his

work, was first to review the system of government of the Incas, and

then to narrate the events of the reign of each sovereign. He spared

no pains to obtain the best and most authentic information, and his

sympathy with the conquered people, and generous appreciation of their

many good and noble qualities, give a special charm to his narrative.

He bears striking evidence to the historical faculty possessed by the

learned men at the court of the Incas. After saying that on the death

of a sovereign the chroniclers related the events of his reign to his

successor, he adds: “They could well do this, for there were among

them some men with good memories, sound judgments, and subtle genius,

and full of reasoning power, as we can bear witness who have heard

them even in these our days.” Cieza de Leon is certainly one of the

most important authorities on Inca history and civilization, whether

we consider his peculiar advantages, his diligence and ability, or his

character as a conscientious historian.

Juan José de Betanzos, like Cieza de Leon, was one of the soldiers of

the conquest. He married a daughter of Atahualpa, and became a citizen

at Cuzco, where he devoted his time to the study of Quichua. He was

appointed official interpreter to the Audience and to successive

viceroys, and he wrote a _Doctrina_ and two vocabularies which are

now lost. In 1558 he was appointed by the viceroy Marquis of Cañete,

to treat with the Inca Sayri Tupac,[1229] who had taken refuge in the

fastness of Vilcabamba; and by the Governor Lope Garcia de Castro, to

conduct a similar negotiation with Titu Cusi Yupanqui, the brother

of Sayri Tupac. He was successful in both missions. He wrote his

most valuable work, the _Suma y Narracion de los Incas_, which was

finished in the year 1551, by order of the Viceroy Don Antonio de

Mendoza, but its publication was prevented by the death of the viceroy.

It remained in manuscript, and its existence was first made known

by the Dominican monk Gregorio Garcia in 1607, whose own work will

be referred to presently. Garcia said that the history of Betanzos

relating to the origin, descent, succession, and wars of the Incas was

in his possession, and had been of great use to him. Leon Pinelo and

Antonio also gave brief notices of the manuscript, but it is only twice

cited by Prescott. The great historian probably obtained a copy of a

manuscript in the Escurial, through Obadiah Rich. This manuscript is

bound up with the second part of Cieza de Leon. It is not, however,

the whole work which Garcia appears to have possessed, but only the

first eighteen chapters, and the last incomplete. Such as it is, it was

edited and printed for the _Biblioteca Hispano-Ultramarina_, by Don

Márcos Jiménez de la Espada, in 1880.[1230]

The work of Betanzos differs from that of Cieza de Leon, because

while the latter displays a diligence and discretion in collecting

information which give it great weight as an authority, the former

is imbued with the very spirit of the natives. The narrative of the

preparation of young Yupanqui for the death-struggle with the Chancas

is life-like in its picturesque vigor. Betanzos has portrayed native

feeling and character as no other Spaniard has, or probably could have

done. Married to an Inca princess, and intimately conversant with the

language, this most scholarly of the conquerors is only second to Cieza

de Leon as an authority. The date of his death is unknown.

Betanzos and Cieza de Leon, with Pedro Pizarro, are the writers among

the conquerors whose works have been preserved. But these three

martial scholars by no means stand alone among their comrades as

authors. Several other companions of Pizarro wrote narratives, which

unfortunately have been lost.[1231] It is indeed surprising that the

desire to record some account of the native civilization they had

discovered should have been so prevalent among the conquerors. The fact

scarcely justifies the term “rude soldiery,” which is so often applied

to the discoverers of Peru.

The works of the soldier conquerors are certainly not less valuable

than those of the lawyers and priests who followed on their heels. Yet

these latter treat the subject from somewhat different points of view,

and thus furnish supplemental information. The works of four lawyers

of the era of the conquest have been preserved, and those of another

are lost. Of these, the writings of the Licentiate Polo de Ondegardo

are undoubtedly the most important. This learned jurist accompanied

the president, La Gasca, in his campaign against Gonzalo Pizarro,

having arrived in Peru a few years previously, and he subsequently

occupied the post of corregidor at Cuzco. Serving under the Viceroy

Don Francisco de Toledo, he was constantly consulted by that acute but

narrow-minded statesman. His duties thus led Polo de Ondegardo to make

diligent researches into the laws and administration of the Incas, with

a view to the adoption of all that was applicable to the new régime.

But his knowledge of the language was limited, and it is necessary to

receive many of his statements with caution. His two _Relaciones_,

the first dedicated to the Viceroy Marques de Cañete (1561), and the

second finished in 1570,[1232] are in the form of answers to questions

on financial revenue and other administrative points. They include

information respecting the social customs, religious rites, and laws of

the Incas. These _Relaciones_ are still in manuscript. Another report

by Polo de Ondegardo exists in the National Library at Madrid,[1233]

and has been translated into English for the Hakluyt Society.[1234] In

this treatise the learned corregidor describes the principles on which

the Inca conquests were made, the division and tenures of land, the

system of tribute, the regulations for preserving game and for forest

conservancy, and the administrative details. Here and there he points

out a way in which the legislation of the Incas might be imitated and

utilized by their conquerors.[1235]

Agustin de Zarate, though a lawyer by profession, had been employed for

some years in the financial department of the Spanish government before

he went out to Peru with the Viceroy Blasco Nuñez to examine into the

accounts of the colony. On his return to Spain he was entrusted with

a similar mission in Flanders. His _Provincìa del Peru_ was first

published at Antwerp in 1555.[1236] Unacquainted with the native

languages, and ignorant of the true significance of much that he was

told, Zarate was yet a shrewd observer, and his evidence is valuable as

regards what came under his own immediate observation. He gives one of

the best descriptions of the Inca roads.

The _Relacion_ of Fernando de Santillan is a work which may be classed

with the reports of Polo de Ondegardo, and its author had equal

advantages in collecting information. Going out to Peru as one of

the judges of the Audiencia in 1550,[1237] Santillan was for a short

time at the head of the government, after the death of the Viceroy

Mendoza, and he took the field to suppress the rebellion of Giron. He

afterwards served in Chile and at Quito, where he was commissioned to

establish the court of justice. Returning to Spain, he took orders,

and was appointed Bishop of the La Plata, but died at Lima, on his

way to his distant see, in 1576. The _Relacion_ of Santillan remained

in manuscript, in the library of the Escurial, until it was edited by

Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada in 1879. This report appears to have

been prepared in obedience to a decree desiring the judges of Lima to

examine aged and learned Indians regarding the administrative system of

the Incas. The report of Santillan is mainly devoted to a discussion of

the laws and customs relating to the collection of tribute. He bears

testimony to the excellence of the Inca government, and to the wretched

condition to which the country had since been reduced by Spanish

misrule.

The work of the Licentiate Juan de Matienzo, a contemporary of

Ondegardo, entitled _Gobierno de el Peru_, is still in manuscript. Like

Santillan and Ondegardo, Matienzo discusses the ancient institutions

with a view to the organization of the best possible system under

Spanish rule.[1238]

Melchor Bravo de Saravia, another judge of the Royal Audience at Lima,

and a contemporary of Santillan, is said to have written a work on the

antiquities of Peru; but it is either lost or has not yet been placed

within reach of the student. It is referred to by Velasco. Cieza de

Leon mentions, at the end of his Second Part, that his own work had

been perused by the learned judges Hernando de Santillan and Bravo de

Saravia.

While the lawyers turned their attention chiefly to the civil

administration of the conquered people, the priests naturally studied

the religious beliefs and languages of the various tribes, and

collected their historical traditions. The best and most accomplished

of these sacerdotal authors appears to have been Blas Valera, judging

from the fragments of his writings which have escaped destruction. He

was a native of Peru, born at Chachapoyas in 1551, where his father,

Luis Valera,[1239] one of the early conquerors, had settled. Young Blas

was received into the Company of Jesus at Lima when only seventeen

years of age, and, as he was of Inca race on the mother’s side, he

soon became useful at the College in Cuzco from his proficiency in the

native languages. He did missionary work in the surrounding villages,

and acquired a profound knowledge of the history and institutions of

the Incas. Eventually he completed a work on the subject in Latin,

and was sent to Spain by his Jesuit superiors with a view to its

publication. Unfortunately the greater part of his manuscript was burnt

at the sack of Cadiz by the Earl of Essex in 1596, and Blas Valera

himself died shortly afterwards. The fragments that were rescued fell

into the hands of Garcilasso de la Vega, who translated them into

Spanish, and printed them in his _Commentaries_. It is to Blas Valera

that we owe the preservation of two specimens of Inca poetry and an

estimate of Inca chronology. He has also recorded the traditional

sayings of several Inca sovereigns, and among his fragments there are

very interesting chapters on the religion, the laws and ordinances, and

the language of the Incas, and on the vegetable products and medicinal

drugs of Peru. These fragments are evidence that Blas Valera was an

elegant scholar, a keen observer, and thoroughly master of his subject.

They enhance the feeling of regret at the irreparable loss that we have

sustained by the destruction of the rest of his work.

Next to Blas Valera, the most important authority on Inca civilization,

among the Spanish priests who were in Peru during the sixteenth

century, is undoubtedly Christoval de Molina. He was chaplain to the

hospital for natives at Cuzco, and his work was written between 1570

and 1584, the period embraced by the episcopate of Dr. Sebastian de

Artaun, to whom it is dedicated. Molina gives minute and detailed

accounts of the ceremonies performed at all the religious festivals

throughout the year, with the prayers used by the priests on each

occasion. Out of the fourteen prayers preserved by Molina, four are

addressed to the Supreme Being, two to the sun, the rest to these

and other deities combined. His mastery of the Quichua language, his

intimacy with the native chiefs and learned men, and his long residence

at Cuzco give Molina a very high place as an authority on Inca

civilization. His work has remained in manuscript,[1240] but it has

been translated into English and printed for the Hakluyt Society.[1241]

Molina, in his dedicatory address to Bishop Artaun, mentions a

previous narrative which he had submitted, on the origin, history, and

government of the Incas. Fortunately this account was preserved by

Miguel Cavello Balboa, an author who wrote at Quito between 1576 and

1586. Balboa, a soldier who had taken orders late in life, went out

to America in 1566, and settled at Quito, where he devoted himself to

the preparation and writing of a work which he entitled _Miscellanea

Austral_. It is in three parts; but only the third, comprising about

half the work, relates to Peru. Balboa tells us that his authority for

the early Inca traditions and history was the learned Christoval de

Molina, and this gives special value to Balboa’s work. Moreover, Balboa

is the only authority who gives any account of the origin of the coast

people, and he also supplies a detailed narrative of the war between

Huascar and Atahualpa. The portion relating to Peru was translated into

French and published by Ternaux Compans in 1840.[1242]

The Jesuits who arrived in Peru during the latter part of the

sixteenth century were devoted to missionary labors, and gave an

impetus to the study of the native languages and history. Among the

most learned was José de Acosta, who sailed for Peru in 1570. At the

early age of thirty-five, Acosta was chosen to be Provincial of the

Jesuits in Peru, and his duties required him to travel over every part

of the country. His great learning, which is displayed in his various

theological works, qualified him for the task of writing his _Natural

and Moral History of the Indies_, the value of which is increased

by the author’s personal acquaintance with the countries and their

inhabitants. Acosta went home in the Spanish fleet of 1587, and his

first care, on his return to Spain, was to make arrangements for the

publication of his manuscripts. The results of his South American

researches first saw the light at Salamanca, in Latin, in 1588 and

1589. The complete work in Spanish, _Historia Natural y Moral de las

Indias_, was published at Seville in 1590. Its success was never

doubtful.[1243] In his latter years Acosta presided over the Jesuits’

College at Salamanca, where he died in his sixtieth year, on February

15, 1600.[1244] In spite of the learning and diligence of Acosta and of

the great popularity of his work, it cannot be considered one of the

most valuable contributions towards a knowledge of Inca civilization.

The information it contains is often inaccurate, the details are

less complete than in most of the other works written soon after the

conquest,[1245] and a want of knowledge of the language is frequently

made apparent. The best chapters are those devoted to the animal and

vegetable products of Peru; and Feyjoo calls Acosta the Pliny of the

New World.[1246]

The Licentiate Fernando Montesinos, a native of Osuna, was one of the

most diligent of all those who in early times made researches into the

history and traditions of the Incas. Montesinos went out in the fleet

which took the Viceroy Count of Chinchon to Peru, arriving early in

the year 1629. Having landed at Payta, Montesinos travelled southwards

towards the capital until he reached the city of Truxillo. At that

time Dr. Carlos Marcelino Corni was Bishop of Truxillo.[1247] Hearing

of the virtue and learning of Montesinos, Dr. Corni begged that he

might be allowed to stop at Truxillo, and take charge of the Jesuits’

College which the good bishop had established there. Montesinos

remained at Truxillo until the death of Bishop Corni, in October,

1629,[1248] and then proceeded to Potosi, where he gave his attention

to improvements in the methods of extracting silver. He wrote a book

on the subject, which was printed at Lima, and also compiled a code

of ordinances for mines with a view to lessening disputes, which was

officially approved. Returning to the capital, he lived for several

years at Lima as chaplain of one of the smaller churches, and devoted

all his energies to the preparation of a history of Peru. Making Lima

his headquarters, the indefatigable student undertook excursions into

all parts of the country, wherever he heard of learned natives to be

consulted, of historical documents to be copied, or of information to

be found. He travelled over 1,500 leagues, from Quito to Potosi. In

1639 he was employed to write an account of the famous Auto de Fé which

was celebrated at Lima in that year. His two great historical works

are entitled _Memorias Antiguas Historiales del Peru_, and _Anales ó

Memorias Nuevas del Peru_.[1249] From Lima Montesinos proceeded to

Quito as “Visitador General,” with very full powers conferred by the

bishop.

The work of Montesinos remained in manuscript until it was translated

into French by M. Ternaux Compans in 1840, with the title _Mémoires

Historiques sur l’ancien Pérou_. In 1882 the Spanish text was very

ably edited by Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada.[1250] Montesinos gives

the history of several dynasties which preceded the rise of the Incas,

enumerating upwards of a hundred sovereigns. He professes to have

acquired a knowledge of the ancient records through the interpretations

of the _quipus_, communicated to him by learned natives. It was long

supposed that the accounts of these earlier sovereigns received no

corroboration from any other authority. This furnished legitimate

grounds for discrediting Montesinos. But a narrative, as old or older

than that of the licentiate, has recently been brought to light, in

which at least two of the ancient sovereigns in the lists of Montesinos

are incidentally referred to. This circumstance alters the aspect

of the question, and places the _Memorias Antiquas del Peru_ in a

higher position as an authority; for it proves that the very ancient

traditions which Montesinos professed to have received from the natives

had previously been communicated to one other independent inquirer at

least.

This independent inquirer is an author whose valuable work has

recently been edited by Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada.[1251] His

narrative is anonymous, but internal evidence establishes the fact

that he was a Jesuit, and probably one of the first who arrived in

Peru in 1568, although he appears to have written his work many years

afterwards. The anonymous Jesuit supplies information respecting

works on Peruvian civilization which are lost to us. He describes the

temples, the orders of the priesthood, the sacrifices and religious

ceremonies, explaining the origin of the erroneous statement that human

sacrifices were offered up. He also gives the code of criminal law and

the customs which prevailed in civil life, and concludes his work with

a short treatise on the conversion of the Indians.

The efforts of the viceroys and archbishops of Lima during the early

part of the seventeenth century to extirpate idolatry, particularly

in the province of Lima, led to the preparation of reports by the

priests who were entrusted with the duty of extirpation, which

contain much curious information. These were the Fathers Hernando

de Avendaño, Francisco de Avila, Luis de Teruel, and Pablo José de

Arriaga. Avendaño, in addition to his sermons in Quichua, wrote an

account of the idolatries of the Indians,—_Relacion de las Idolatrias

de los Indios_,—which is still in manuscript. Avila was employed in

the province of Huarochiri, and in 1608 he wrote a report on the idols

and superstitions of the people, including some exceedingly curious

religious legends. He appears to have written down the original

evidence from the mouths of the Indians in Quichua, intending to

translate it into Spanish. But he seems to have completed only six

chapters in Spanish; or perhaps the translation is by another hand.

There are still thirty-one chapters in Quichua awaiting the labors

of some learned Peruvian scholar. Rising Quichua students, of whom

there are not a few in Peru, could undertake no more useful work.

This important report of Avila is comprised in a manuscript volume

in the National Library at Madrid, and the six Spanish chapters have

been translated and printed for the Hakluyt Society.[1252] Teruel was

the friend and companion of Avila. He also wrote a treatise on native

idolatries,[1253] and another against idolatry,[1254] in which he

discusses the origin of the coast people. Arriaga wrote a still more

valuable work on the extirpation of idolatry, which was printed at Lima

in 1621, and which relates the religious beliefs and practices of the

people in minute detail.[1255]

Antiquarian treasures of great value are buried in the works of

ecclesiastics, the principal objects of which are the record of the

deeds of one or other of the religious fraternities. The most important

of these is the _Coronica Moralizada del orden de San Augustin en el

Peru; del Padre Antonio de la Calancha_ (1638-1653),[1256] which is

a precious storehouse of details respecting the manners and customs

of the Indians and the topography of the country. Calancha also gives

the most accurate Inca calendar. Of less value is the chronicle of the

Franciscans, by Diego de Cordova y Salinas, published at Madrid in 1643.

A work, the title of which gives even less promise of containing

profitable information, is the history of the miraculous image of a

virgin at Copacabana, by Fray Alonso Ramos Gavilan. Yet it throws

unexpected light on the movements of the _mitimaes_, or Inca colonists;

it gives fresh details respecting the consecrated virgins, the

sacrifices, and the deities worshipped in the Collao, and supplies

another version of the Inca calendar.[1257]

The work on the origin of the Indians of the New World, by Fray

Gregorio Garcia,[1258] who travelled extensively in the Spanish

colonies, is valuable, and to Garcia we owe the first notice of the

priceless narrative of Betanzos. His separate work on the Incas is lost

to us.[1259] Friar Martin de Múrua, a native of Guernica, in Biscay,

was an ecclesiastic of some eminence in Peru. He wrote a general

history of the Incas, which was copied by Dr. Muñoz for his collection,

and Leon Pinelo says that the manuscript was illustrated with colored

drawings of insignia and dresses, and portraits of the Incas.[1260]

The principal writers on Inca civilization in the century immediately

succeeding the conquest, of the three different professions,—soldiers,

lawyers, and priests,—have now been passed in review. Attention must

next be given to the native writers who followed in the wake of Blas

Valera. First among these is the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, an author

whose name is probably better known to the general reader than that

of any other who has written on the same subject. Among the Spanish

conquerors who arrived in Peru in 1534 was Garcilasso de la Vega, a

cavalier of very noble lineage,[1261] who settled at Cuzco, and was

married to an Inca princess named Chimpa Ocllo, niece of the Inca

Huayna Ccapac. Their son, the future historian, was born at Cuzco in

1539, and his earliest recollections were connected with the stirring

events of the civil war between Gonzalo Pizarro and the president La

Gasca, in 1548. His mother died soon afterwards, probably in 1550,

and his father married again. The boy was much in the society of his

mother’s kindred, and he often heard them talk over the times of the

Incas, and repeat their historical traditions. Nor was his education

neglected; for the good Canon Juan de Cuellar read Latin with the

half-caste sons of the citizens of Cuzco for nearly two years, amidst

all the turmoil of the civil wars. As he grew up, he was employed by

his father to visit his estates, and he travelled over most parts of

Peru. The elder Garcilasso de la Vega died in 1560, and the young

orphan resolved to seek his fortune in the land of his fathers. On his

arrival in Spain he received patronage and kindness from his paternal

relatives, became a captain in the army of Philip II, and when he

retired, late in life, he took up his abode in lodgings at Cordova,

and devoted himself to literary pursuits. His first production was a

translation from the Italian of “The Dialogues of Love,” and in 1591

he completed his narrative of the expedition of Hernando de Soto to

Florida.[1262]

[Illustration: HOUSE IN CUZCO IN WHICH GARCILASSO WAS BORN.

[After a cut in Marcoy, i. 219. Cf. Squier’s _Peru_, p. 449.—ED.]]

As years rolled on, the Inca began to think more and more of the land

of his birth. The memory of his boyish days, of the long evening chats

with his Inca relations, came back to him in his old age. He was as

proud of his maternal descent from the mighty potentates of Peru as

of the old Castilian connection on his father’s side. It would seem

that the appearance of several books on the subject of his native land

finally induced him to undertake a work in which, while recording

its own reminiscences and the information he might collect, he could

also comment on the statements of other authors. Hence the title of

_Commentaries_ which he gave to his work. Besides the fragments of the

writings of Blas Valera, which enrich the pages of Garcilasso, the

Inca quotes from Acosta, from Gomara, from Zarate, and from the First

Part of Cieza de Leon.[1263] He was fortunate in getting possession of

the chapters of Blas Valera rescued from the sack of Cadiz. He also

wrote to all his surviving schoolfellows for assistance, and received

many traditions and detailed replies on other subjects from them. Thus

Alcobasa forwarded an account of the ruins at Tiahuanacu, and another

friend sent him the measurements of the great fortress at Cuzco.

The Inca Garcilasso de la Vega is, without doubt, the first authority

on the civilization of his ancestors; but it is necessary to consider

his qualifications and the exact value of his evidence. He had lived

in Peru until his twentieth year; Quichua was his native language,

and he had constantly heard the traditions of the Incas related and

discussed by his mother’s relations. But when he began to write he had

been separated from these associations for upwards of thirty years.

He received materials from Peru, enabling him to compose a connected

historical narrative, which is not, however, very reliable. The true

value of his work is derived from his own reminiscences, aroused by

reading the books which are the subjects of his Commentary, and from

his correspondence with friends in Peru. His memory was excellent, as

is often proved when he corrects the mistakes of Acosta and others

with diffidence, and is invariably right. He was not credulous, having

regard to the age in which he lived; nor was he inclined to give the

rein to his imagination. More than once we find him rejecting the

fanciful etymologies of the authors whose works he criticises. His

narratives of the battles and conquests of the early Incas often become

tedious, and of this he is himself aware. He therefore intersperses

them with more interesting chapters on the religious ceremonies, the

domestic habits and customs, of the people, and on their advances in

poetry, astronomy, music, medicine, and the arts. He often inserts

an anecdote from the storehouse of his memory, or some personal

reminiscence called forth by the subject on which he happens to be

writing. His statements frequently receive undesigned corroboration

from authors whose works he never saw. Thus his curious account of the

water sacrifices, not mentioned by any other published authority, is

verified by the full description of the same rite in the manuscript

of Molina. On the other hand, the long absence of the Inca from his

native country entailed upon him grave disadvantages. His boyish

recollections, though deeply interesting, could not, from the nature of

the case, provide him with critical knowledge. Hence the mistakes in

his work are serious and of frequent occurrence. Dr. Villar has pointed

out his total misconception of the Supreme Being of the Peruvians, and

of the significance of the word “Uira-cocha.”[1264] But, with all its

shortcomings,[1265] the work of the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega must

ever be the main source of our knowledge, and without his pious labors

the story of the Incas would lose more than half its interest.

The first part of his _Commentarios Reales_, which alone concerns the

present subject, was published at Lisbon in 1607.[1266] The author died

at Cordova at the age of seventy-six, and was buried in the cathedral

in 1616. He lived just long enough to accomplish his most cherished

wish, and to complete the work at which he had steadily and lovingly

labored for so many years.

Another Indian author wrote an account of the antiquities of Peru, at

a time when the grandchildren of those who witnessed the conquest by

the Spaniards were living. Unlike Garcilasso, this author never left

the land of his birth, but he was not of Inca lineage. Don Juan de

Santacruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua was a native of the Collao, and

descended from a family of local chiefs. His work is entitled _Relacion

de Antigüedades deste Reyno del Peru_. It long remained in manuscript

in the National Library at Madrid, until it was edited by Don Márcos

Jiménez de la Espada in 1879. It had previously been translated into

English and edited for the Hakluyt Society.[1267] Salcamayhua gives

the traditions of Inca history as they were handed down to the third

generation after the conquest. Intimately acquainted with the language,

and in a position to converse with the oldest recipients of native

lore, he is able to record much that is untold elsewhere, and to

confirm a great deal that is related by former authors. He has also

preserved two prayers in Quichua, attributed to Manco Ccapac, the first

Inca, and some others, which add to the number given by Molina. He also

corroborates the important statement of Molina, that the great gold

plate in the temple at Cuzco was intended to represent the Supreme

Being, and not the sun. Salcamayhua is certainly a valuable addition to

the authorities on Peruvian history.

[Illustration

NOTE.—The title-page of the fifth decade Herrera, showing the

Inca portraits, is given above. Cf. the plate in Stevens’s English

translation of Herrera, vol. iv., London, 1740, 2d edition.—ED.]

While so many soldiers and priests and lawyers did their best to

preserve a knowledge of Inca civilization, the Spanish government

itself was not idle. The kings of Spain and their official advisers

showed an anxiety to prevent the destruction of monuments and to

collect historical and topographical information which is worthy of

all praise. In 1585, orders were given to all the local authorities

in Spanish America to transmit such information, and a circular,

containing a series of interrogatories, was issued for their guidance.

The result of this measure was, that a great number of _Relaciones

descriptivas_ were received in Spain, and stored up in the archives of

the Indies. Herrera had these reports before him when he was writing

his history, but it is certain that he did not make use of half

the material they contain.[1268] Another very curious and valuable

source of information consists of the reports on the origin of Inca

sovereignty, which were prepared by order of the Viceroy Don Francisco

de Toledo, and forwarded to the council of the Indies. They consist

of twenty documents, forming a large volume, and preceded by an

introductory letter. The viceroy’s object was to establish the fact

that the Incas had originally been usurpers, in forcibly acquiring

authority over the different provinces of the empire, and dispossessing

the native chiefs. His inference was, that, as usurpers, they were

rightfully dethroned by the Spaniards. He failed to see that such an

argument was equally fatal to a Spanish claim, based on anything but

the sword. Nevertheless, the traditions collected with this object,

not only from the Incas at Cuzco, but also from the chiefs of several

provinces, are very important and interesting.[1269]

The Viceroy Toledo also sent home four cloths on which the pedigree of

the Incas was represented. The figures of the successive sovereigns

were depicted, with medallions of their wives, and their respective

lineages. The events of each reign were recorded on the borders,

the traditions of Paccari-tampu, and of the creation by Uira-cocha,

occupying the first cloth. It is probable that the Inca portraits

given by Herrera were copied from those on the cloths sent home

by the viceroy. The head-dresses in Herrera are very like that of

the high-priest in the _Relacion_ of the anonymous Jesuit. A map

seems to have accompanied the pedigree, which was drawn under the

superintendence of the distinguished sailor and cosmographer, Don Pedro

Sarmiento de Gamboa.[1270]

Much curious information respecting the laws and customs of the

Incas and the beliefs of the people is to be found in ordinances and

decrees of the Spanish authorities, both civil and ecclesiastical.

These ordinances are contained in the _Ordenanzas del Peru_, of the

Licentiate Tomas de Ballesteros, in the _Politica Indiana_ of Juan de

Solorzano (Madrid, 1649),[1271] in the _Concilium Limense_ of Acosta,

and in the _Constituciones Synodales_ of Dr. Lobo Guerrero, Archbishop

of Lima, printed in that city in 1614, and again in 1754.

The kingdom of Quito received attention from several early writers,

but most of their manuscripts are lost to us. Quito was fortunate,

however, in finding a later historian to devote himself to the work

of chronicling the story of his native land. Juan de Velasco was a

native of Riobamba. He resided for forty years in the kingdom of Quito

as a Jesuit priest, he taught and preached in the native language of

the people, and he diligently studied all the works on the subject

that were accessible to him. He spent six years in travelling over

the country, twenty years in collecting books and manuscripts; and

when the Jesuits were banished he took refuge in Italy, where he wrote

his _Historia del Reino de Quito_. Velasco used several authorities

which are now lost. One of these was the _Conquista de la Provincia

del Quito_, by Fray Marco de Niza, a companion of Pizarro. Another was

the _Historia de las guerras civiles del Inca Atahualpa_, by Jacinto

Collahuaso. He also refers to the _Antigüedades del Peru_ by Bravo

de Saravia. As a native of Quito, Velasco is a strong partisan of

Atahualpa; and he is the only historian who gives an account of the

traditions respecting the early kings of Quito. The work was completed

in 1789, brought from Europe, and printed at Quito in 1844, and M.

Ternaux Compans brought out a French edition in 1840.[1272]

Recent authors have written introductory essays on Peruvian

civilization to precede the story of the Spanish conquest, have

described the ruins in various parts of the country after personal

inspection, or have devoted their labors to editing the early

authorities, or to bringing previously unknown manuscripts to light,

and thus widening and strengthening the foundation on which future

histories may be raised.

[Illustration: WILLIAM ROBERTSON.

[After a print in the _European Mag._ (1802), vol. xli.—ED.]]

Robertson’s excellent view of the story of the Incas in his _History

of America_[1273] was for many years the sole source of information on

the subject for the general English public; but since 1848 it has been

superseded by Prescott’s charming narrative contained in the opening

book of his _Conquest of Peru_.[1274] The knowledge of the present

generation on the subject of the Incas is derived almost entirely from

Prescott, and, so far as it goes, there can be no better authority. But

much has come to light since his time. Prescott’s narrative, occupying

159 pages, is founded on the works of Garcilasso de la Vega, who is

the authority most frequently cited by him, Cieza de Leon, Ondegardo,

and Acosta.[1275] Helps, in the chapter of his _Spanish Conquest_ on

Inca civilization, which covers forty-five pages, only cited two early

authorities not used by Prescott,[1276] and his sketch is much more

superficial than that of his predecessor.[1277]

The publication of the _Antigüedades Peruanas_ by Don Mariano Eduardo

de Rivero (the director of the National Museum at Lima) and Juan Diego

de Tschudi at Vienna, in 1851, marked an important turning-point in the

progress of investigation. One of the authors was himself a Peruvian,

and from that time some of the best educated natives of the country

have given their attention to its early history. The _Antigüedades_

for the first time gives due prominence to an estimate of the language

and literature of the Incas, and to descriptions of ruins throughout

Peru. The work is accompanied by a large atlas of engravings; but it

contains grave inaccuracies, and the map of Pachacamac is a serious

blemish to the work.[1278] The _Antigüedades_ were followed by the

_Annals of Cuzco_,[1279] and in 1860 the _Ancient History of Peru_,

by Don Sebastian Lorente, was published at Lima.[1280] In a series of

essays in the _Revista Peruana_,[1281] Lorente gave the results of many

years of further study of the subject, which appear to have been the

concluding labors of a useful life. When he died, in November, 1884,

Sebastian Lorente had been engaged for upwards of forty years in the

instruction of the Peruvian youth at Lima and in other useful labors.

A curious genealogical work on the Incarial family was published at

Paris in 1850, by Dr. Justo Sahuaraura Inca, a canon of the cathedral

of Cuzco, but it is of no historical value.[1282]

Several scholars, both in Europe and America, have published the

results of their studies relating to the problems of Inca history.

Ernest Desjardins has written on the state of Peru before the

Spanish conquest,[1283] J. G. Müller on the religious beliefs of the

people,[1284] and Waitz on Peruvian anthropology.[1285] The writings

of Dr. Brinton, of Philadelphia, also contain valuable reflections and

useful information respecting the mythology and native literature of

Peru.[1286] Mr. Bollaert had been interested in Peruvian researches

during the greater part of his lifetime (b. 1807; d. 1876), and had

visited several provinces of Peru, especially Tarapaca. He accumulated

many notes. His work, at first sight, appears to be merely a confused

mass of jottings, and certainly there is an absence of method and

arrangement; but closer examination will lead to the discovery of many

facts which are not to be met with elsewhere.[1287]

A critical study of early authorities and a knowledge of the Quichua

language are two essential qualifications for a writer on Inca

civilization. But it is almost equally important that he should have

access to intelligent and accurate descriptions of the remains of

ancient edifices and public works throughout Peru. For this he is

dependent on travellers, and it must be confessed that no descriptions

at all meeting the requirements were in existence before the opening of

the present century. Humboldt was the first traveller in South America

who pursued his antiquarian researches on a scientific basis. His works

are models for all future travellers. It is to Humboldt,[1288] and his

predecessors the Ulloas,[1289] that we owe graphic descriptions of Inca

ruins in the kingdom of Quito and in northern Peru as far as Caxamarca.

French travellers have contributed three works of importance to the

same department of research. M. Alcide D’Orbigny examined and described

the ruins of Tiahuanacu with great care.[1290] M. François de Castelnau

was the leader of a scientific expedition sent out by the French

government, and his work contains descriptions of ruins illustrated by

plates.[1291] The work of M. Wiener is more complete, and is intended

to be exhaustive. He was also employed by the French government on an

archæological and ethnographic mission to Peru, from 1875 to 1877, and

he has performed his task with diligence and ability, while no cost

seems to have been spared in the production of his work.[1292] The

maps and illustrations are numerous and well executed, and M. Wiener

visited nearly every part of Peru where archæological remains are to

be met with. There is only one fault to be found with the praiseworthy

and elaborate works of D’Orbigny and Wiener. The authors are too apt to

adopt theories on insufficient grounds, and to confuse their otherwise

admirable descriptions with imaginative speculations. An example of

this kind has been pointed out by the Peruvian scholar Dr. Villar,

with reference to M. Wiener’s erroneous ideas respecting _Culte de

l’eau ou de la pluie, et le dieu Quonn_.[1293] M. Wiener is the only

modern traveller who has visited and described the interesting ruins of

Vilcashuaman.

The present writer has published two books recording his travels in

Peru. In the first he described the fortress of Hervay, the ancient

irrigation channels at Nasca on the Peruvian coast, and the ruins at

and around Cuzco, including Ollantay-tampu.[1294] In the second there

are descriptions of the _chulpas_ at Sillustani in the Collao, and of

the Inca roof over the Sunturhuasi at Azangaro.[1295]

The work of E. G. Squier is, on the whole, the most valuable result

of antiquarian researches in Peru that has ever been presented to the

public.[1296] Mr. Squier had special qualifications for the task. He

had already been engaged on similar work in Nicaragua, and he was well

versed in the history of his subject. He visited nearly all the ruins

of importance in the country, constructed plans, and took numerous

photographs. Avoiding theoretical disquisitions, he gives most accurate

descriptions of the architectural remains, which are invaluable to the

student. His style is agreeable and interesting, while it inspires

confidence in the reader; and his admirable book is in all respects

thoroughly workmanlike.[1297]

[Illustration: CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM.

[After a photograph kindly furnished by himself at the editor’s

request.—ED.]]

Tiahuanacu is minutely described by D’Orbigny, Wiener, and Squier, and

the famous ruins have also been the objects of special attention from

other investigators. Mr. Helsby of Liverpool took careful photographs

of the monolithic doorway in 1857, which were engraved and published,

with a descriptive article by Mr. Bollaert.[1298] Don Modesto Basadre

has also written an account of the ruins, with measurements.[1299]

But the most complete monograph on Tiahuanacu is by Mr. Inwards, who

surveyed the ground, photographed all the ruins, made enlarged drawings

of the sculptures on the monolithic doorway, and even attempted an

ideal restoration of the palace. In the letter-press, Mr. Inwards

quotes from the only authorities who give any account of Tiahuanacu,

and on this particular point his monograph entitles him to be

considered as the highest modern authority.[1300]

Another special investigation of equal interest, and even greater

completeness, is represented by the superb work on the burial-ground

of Ancon, being the results of excavations made on the spot by Wilhelm

Reiss and Alphonso Stübel. The researches of these painstaking and

talented antiquaries have thrown a flood of light on the social habits

and daily life of the civilized people of the Peruvian coast.[1301]

The great work of Don Antonio Raimondi on Peru is still incomplete.

The learned Italian has already devoted thirty-eight years to the

study of the natural history of his adopted country, and the results

of his prolonged scientific labors are now gradually being given to

the public. The plan of this exhaustive monograph is a division into

six parts, devoted to the geography, geology, mineralogy, botany,

zoölogy, and ethnology of Peru. The geographical division will contain

a description of the principal ancient monuments and their ruins,

while the ethnology will include a treatise on the ancient races,

their origin and civilization. But as yet only three volumes have been

published. The first is entitled _Parte Preliminar_, describing the

plan of the work and the extent of the author’s travels throughout

the country. The second and third volumes comprise a history of the

progress of geographical discovery in Peru since the conquest by

Pizarro. The completion of this great work, undertaken under the

auspices of the government of Peru, has been long delayed.[1302]

The labors of explorers are supplemented by the editorial work of

scholars, who bring to light the precious relics of early authorities,

hitherto buried in scarcely accessible old volumes or in manuscript.

First in the ranks of these laborers in the cause of knowledge, as

regards ancient Peruvian history, stands the name of M. Ternaux

Compans. He has furnished to the student carefully edited French

editions of the narrative of Xeres, of the history of Peru by Balboa,

of the _Mémoires Historiques_ of Montesinos, and of the history of

Quito by Velasco.[1303]

The present writer has translated into English and edited the works

of Cieza de Leon, Garcilasso de la Vega, Molina, Salcamayhua, Avila,

Xeres, Andagoya, and one of the reports of Ondegardo, and has edited

the old translation of Acosta.

Dr. M. Gonzalez de la Rosa, an accomplished Peruvian scholar, brought

to light and edited, in 1879, the curious _Historia de Lima_ of Father

Bernabé Cobo. It was published in successive numbers of the _Revista

Peruana_, at Lima.

[Illustration: MÁRCOS JIMÉNEZ DE LA ESPADA.

[After a photograph, kindly furnished by himself, at the editor’s

request.—ED.]]

But in this department students are most indebted to the learned

Spanish editor, Don Márcos Jiménez de la Espada; for he has placed

within our reach the works of important authorities, which were

previously not only inaccessible, but unknown. He has edited the second

part of Cieza de Leon, the anonymous Jesuit, Montesinos, Santillana,

the reports to the Viceroy Toledo, the _Suma y Narracion_ of Betanzos,

and the _War of Quito_, by Cieza de Leon. Moreover, there is every

reason to hope that his career of literary usefulness is by no means

ended.

Although so much has been accomplished in the field of Peruvian

research, yet much remains to be done, both by explorers and in

the study. The Quichua chapters of the work of Avila, containing

curious myths and legends, remain untranslated and in manuscript.

A satisfactory text of the Ollantay drama, after collation of all

accessible manuscripts, has not yet been secured. Numerous precious

manuscripts have yet to be unearthed in Spain. Songs of the times of

the Incas exist in Peru, which should be collected and edited. There

are scientific excavations to be undertaken, and secluded districts to

be explored. The Yunca grammar of Carrera requires expert comparative

study, and comparison with the Eten dialect. Remnants of archaic

languages, such as the Puquina of the Urus, must be investigated. When

all this, and much more, has been added to existing means of knowledge,

the labors of pioneers will approach completion. Then the time will

have arrived for the preparation of a history of ancient Peruvian

civilization which will be worthy of the subject.[1304]

[Illustration: [Autograph: Clements R Markham]]

* * * * *

NOTES.

=I.= ANCIENT PEOPLE OF THE PERUVIAN COAST.—There was a civilized people

on the coast of Peru, but not occupying the whole coast, which was

distinctly different, both as regards race and language, from the Incas

and their cognate tribes. This coast nation was called _Chimu_, and

their language _Mochica_.[1305]

The numerous valleys on the Peruvian coast, separated by sandy deserts

of varying width, required only careful irrigation to render them

capable of sustaining a large population. The aboriginal inhabitants

were probably a diminutive race of fishermen. Driven southwards

by invaders, they eventually sought refuge in Arica and Tarapaca.

D’Orbigny described their descendants as a gentle, hospitable race

of fishermen, never exceeding five feet in height, with flat noses,

fishing in boats of inflated sealskins, and sleeping in huts of

sealskin on heaps of dried seaweed. They are called Changos. Bollaert

mentions that they buried their dead lengthways. Bodies found in this

unusual posture near Cañete form a slight link connecting the Changos

to the south with the early aboriginal race of the more northern

valleys.

The _Chimu_ people drove out the aborigines and occupied the valleys of

the coast from Payta nearly to Lima, forming distinct communities, each

under a chief more or less independent. The _Chimu_ himself ruled over

the five valleys of Parmunca, Hualli, Huanapu, Santa, and Chimu, where

the city of Truxillo now stands. The total difference of their language

from Quichua makes it clear that the Chimus did not come from the Andes

or from the Quito country. The only other alternative is that they

arrived from the sea. Balboa, indeed, gives a detailed account of the

statements made by the coast Indians of Lambayeque, at the time of the

conquest. They declared that a great fleet arrived on the coast some

generations earlier, commanded by a chief named Noymlap, who had with

him a green-stone idol, and that he founded a dynasty of chiefs.

The _Chimu_ and his subjects, let their origin be what it may, had

certainly made considerable advances in civilization. The vast palaces

of the Chimu near the seashore, with a surrounding city, and great

mounds or artificial hills, are astonishing even in their decay. The

principal hall of the palace was 100 feet long by 52. The walls are

covered with an intricate and very effective series of arabesques on

stucco, worked in relief. A neighboring hall, with walls stuccoed in

color, is entered by passages and skirted by openings leading to small

rooms seven feet square, which may have been used as dormitories.

A long corridor leads from the back of the arabesque hall to some

recesses where gold and silver vessels have been found. At a short

distance from this palace there is a sepulchral mound where many

relics have been discovered. The bodies were wrapped in cloths woven

in ornamental figures and patterns of different colors. On some of the

cloths plates of silver were sewn, and they were edged with borders

of feathers, the silver plates being occasionally cut in the shapes

of fishes and birds. Among the ruins of the city there are great

rectangular areas enclosed by massive walls, containing buildings,

courts, streets, and reservoirs for water.[1306] The largest is about

a mile south of the palace, and is 550 yards long by 400. The outer

wall is about 30 feet high and 10 feet thick at the base, with sides

inclining towards each other. Some of the interior walls are highly

ornamented in stuccoed patterns; and in one part there is an edifice

containing 45 chambers or cells, which is supposed to have been a

prison. The enclosure also contained a reservoir 450 feet long by 195,

and 60 feet deep.

The dry climate favored the adornment of outer walls by color, and

those of the Chimu palaces were covered with very tasteful sculptured

patterns. Figures of colored birds and animals are said to have been

painted on the walls of temples and palaces. Silver and gold ornaments

and utensils, mantles richly embroidered, robes of feathers, cotton

cloths of fine texture, and vases of an infinite variety of curious

designs, are found in the tombs.

Cieza de Leon gives us a momentary glimpse at the life of the Chimu

chiefs. Each ruler of a valley, he tells us, had a great house with

adobe pillars, and doorways hung with matting, built on extensive

terraces. He adds that the chiefs dressed in cotton shirts and long

mantles, and were fond of drinking-bouts, dancing and singing. The

walls of their houses were painted with bright colored patterns and

figures. Such places, rising out of the groves of fruit-trees, with the

Andes bounding the view in one direction and the ocean in the other,

must have been suitable abodes for joy and feasting. Around them were

the fertile valleys, peopled by industrious cultivators, and carefully

irrigated. Their irrigation works were indeed stupendous. “In the

valley of Nepeña the reservoir is three fourths of a mile long by more

than half a mile broad, and consists of a massive dam of stone 80 feet

thick at the base, carried across a gorge between two rocky hills.

It was supplied by two canals at different elevations; one starting

fourteen miles up the valley, and the other from springs five miles

distant.”[1307]

[Illustration: SECTION OF A MUMMY-CASE FROM ANCON.

[After a cut given by Ruge, following a plate in _The Necropolis of

Ancon_. Wiener (p. 44) gives a section of one of the Ancon tombs. See a

cut in Squier’s _Peru_, p. 73.—ED.]]

The custom prevalent among the Chimus of depositing with their dead

all objects of daily use, as well as ornaments and garments worn by

them during life, has enabled us to gain a further insight into the

social history of this interesting people. The researches of Reuss and

Stübel at the necropolis of Ancon, near Lima, have been most important.

Numerous garments, interwoven with work of a decorative character,

cloths of many colors and complicated patterns, implements used in

spinning and sewing, work-baskets of plaited grass, balls of thread,

fingerrings, wooden and clay toys, are found with the mummies. The

spindles are richly carved and painted, and attached to them are terra

cotta cylinders aglow with ornamental colorings which were used as

wheels. Fine earthenware vases of varied patterns, and wooden or clay

dishes, also occur.

Turning to the language of the coast people, we find that no Mochica

dictionary was ever made; but there is a grammar and a short list of

words by Carrera, and the Lord’s prayer in Mochica, by Bishop Oré. The

grammar was composed by a priest who had settled at Truxillo, near

the ruins of the Chimu palace, and who was a great-grandson of one of

the first Spanish conquerors. It was published at Lima in 1644. At

that time the Mochica language was spoken in the valleys of Truxillo,

Chicama, Chocope, Sana, Lambayeque, Chiclayo, Huacabamba, Olmos, and

Motupè. When the _Mercurio Peruano_[1308] was published in 1793, this

language is said to have entirely disappeared. Father Carrera tells us

that the Mochica was so very difficult that he was the only Spaniard

who had ever been able to learn it. The words bear no resemblance

whatever to Quichua. Mochica has three different declensions, Quichua

only one. Mochica has no transitive verbs, and no exclusive and

inclusive plurals, which are among the chief characteristics of

Quichua. The Mochica conjugations are formed in quite a different way

from those in the Quichua language. The Mochica system of numerals

appears to have been very complete. With the language, the people

have now almost if not entirely disappeared. Possibly the people of

Eten, south of Lambayeque, who still speak a peculiar language, may be

descendants of the Chimus.

[Illustration: MUMMY FROM A HUACA AT PISCO.

[After a cut in T. J. Hutchinson’s _Two Years in Peru_ (London, 1873),

vol. i. p. 113. The Peruvian mummies are almost invariably simply

desiccated. Only the royal personages were embalmed (Markham’s _Cieza

de Leon_, 226). Cf. Wilson’s _Prehistoric Man_, ii. 135.—ED.]]

The Chimu dominion extended probably from Tumbez, in the extreme north

of the Peruvian coast, to Ancon, north of Lima. The Chimus also had

a strong colony in the valley of Huarcu, now called Cañete. But the

valleys of the Rimac, of Lurin, Chilca, and Mala, north of Cañete;

and those of Chincha, Yca, and Nasca, south of Cañete; were not Chimu

territory. The names of places in those valleys are all Quichua,

as well as the names of their chiefs, as recorded by Garcilasso de

la Vega and others. The inhabitants were, therefore, of Inca race,

probably colonists from the Huanca nation. Their superstitions as told

by Arriaga, and the curious mythological legends recorded by Avila as

being believed by the people of Huarochiri and the neighboring coast,

all point to an Inca origin. These Inca coast people are said to have

had a famous oracle near the present site of Lima, called “Rimac,” or

“He who speaks.” But more probably it was merely the name given to the

noisy river Rimac, babbling over its stones. It is true that there

was a temple on the coast with an oracle, the fame of which had been

widely spread. The idol called Pachacamac, or “The world-creator,”

was described by the first Spanish visitor, Miguel Estete, as being

made of wood and very dirty. The town was then half in ruins, for the

worship of this local deity was neglected after the conquest by the

Incas. These coast people of Inca race were as industrious as their

Chimu neighbors. In the Nasca valley there is a complete network of

underground watercourses for irrigation. At Yca “they removed the sand

from vast areas, until they reached the requisite moisture, then put in

guano from the islands, and thus formed sunken gardens of extraordinary

richness.”[1309] Similar methods were adopted in the valleys of Pisco

and Chilca.

When the Inca Pachacutec began to annex the coast valleys, he met

with slight opposition only from the people of Inca origin, who soon

submitted to his rule. But the Chimus struggled hard to retain their

independence. Those of the Huarcu (_Cañete_) valley made a desperate

and prolonged resistance. When at length they submitted, the Inca

built a fortress and palace on a rocky eminence overlooking the sea to

overawe them. The ruins now called Hervai are particularly interesting,

because they are the principal and most imposing example of Inca

architecture in which the building material is adobes and not stone.

The conquest of the valleys to the north of Lima and of the grand Chimu

himself was a still more difficult undertaking, necessitating more

than one hard-fought campaign. When it was completed, great numbers of

the best fighting-men among the Chimus were deported to the interior

as _mitimaes_. More than a century had elapsed since this conquest

when the Spaniards arrived, so that there was but slight chance of the

history of the Chimus being even partially preserved. Cieza de Leon and

Balboa alone supply us with notices of any value.[1310] The southern

valleys of the coast, Arequipa, Moquegua, and Tacna, were occupied by

_mitimaes_ or colonists from the Collao. The Incas gave the general

name of _yuncas_, or dwellers in the warm valleys, to all the people of

the coast.

Much mystery surrounds the history and origin of the _Chimu_ people.

That they were wholly separate and unconnected with the other races of

Peru seems almost certain. That they were far advanced in civilization

is clear. Difficulties surround any further prosecution of researches

concerning them. They have themselves disappeared from the face of the

earth. Their language has gone with them. But there are the magnificent

ruins of their palaces and temples. There are numerous tombs and

cemeteries which have never been scientifically examined. There is a

grammar and a small vocabulary of words calling for close comparative

examination. There are crania awaiting similar comparative study. There

is a possibility that further information may be gleaned from inedited

Spanish manuscripts. The subject is a most interesting one, and it is

by no means exhausted.

[Illustration: TAPESTRY FROM THE GRAVES OF ANCON.

[After a cut in Ruge’s _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, p.

429, following the colored plate in _The Necropolis of Ancon_. Wiener

reproduces in black and white many of the Ancon specimens.—ED.]]

=II.= THE QUICHUA LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.—No real progress can be

made in the work of elucidating the ancient history of Peru, and in

unravelling the interesting but still unsolved questions relating to

the origin and development of Inca civilization, without a knowledge

of the native language. The subject has accordingly received the close

attention of laborious students from a very early period, and the

present essay would be incomplete without appending an enumeration of

the Quichua grammars and vocabularies, and of works relating to Inca

literature.

Fray Domingo de San Tomas, a Dominican monk, was the first author who

composed a grammar and vocabulary of the language of the Incas. He gave

it the name of Quichua, probably because he had studied with members of

that tribe, who were of pure Inca race, and whose territory lies to the

westward of Cuzco. The name has since been generally adopted for the

language of the Peruvian empire.[1311]

Diego de Torres Rubio was born in 1547, in a village near Toledo,

became a Jesuit at the age of nineteen, and went out to Peru in 1577.

He studied the native languages with great diligence, and composed

grammars and vocabularies. His grammar and vocabulary of Quichua first

appeared at Saville in 1603, and passed through four editions.[1312]

A long residence in Chuquisaca enabled him to acquire the Aymara

language, and in 1616 he published a short grammar and vocabulary of

Aymara. In 1627 he also published a grammar of the Guarani language.

Torres Rubio was rector of the college at Potosi for a short time, but

his principal labors were connected with missionary work at Chuquisaca.

He died in that city at the great age of ninety-one, on the 13th of

April, 1638. Juan de Figueredo, whose Chinchaysuyu vocabulary is bound

up with later editions of Torres Rubio, was born at Huancavelica in

1648, of Spanish parents, and after a long and useful missionary life

he died at Lima in 1724.

The most voluminous grammatical work on the language of the Incas

had for its author the Jesuit Diego Gonzales Holguin. This learned

missionary was the scion of a distinguished family in Estremadura,

and was befriended in his youth by his relation, Don Juan de Obando,

President of the Council of the Indies. After graduating at Alcalá

de Henares he became a member of the Society of Jesus in 1568, and

went out to Peru in 1581. He resided for several years in the Jesuit

college at Juli, near the banks of Lake Titicaca, where the fathers had

established a printing-press, and here he studied the Quichua language.

He was entrusted with important missions to Quito and Chili, and was

nominated interpreter by the Viceroy Toledo. His later years were

passed in Paraguay, and when he died at the age of sixty-six, in 1618,

he was rector of the college at Asuncion. His Quichua dictionary was

published at Lima in 1586, and a second edition appeared in 1607,[1313]

the same year in which the grammar first saw the light.[1314] The

Quichua grammar of Holguin is the most complete and elaborate that has

been written, and his dictionary is also the best in every respect.

While Holguin was studiously preparing these valuable works on the

Quichua language in the college at Juli, a colleague was laboring with

equal zeal and assiduity at the dialect spoken by the people of the

Collao, to which the Jesuits gave the name of Aymara. Ludovico Bertonio

was an Italian, a native of the marches of Ancona. Arriving in Peru in

1581, he resided at Juli for many years, studying the Aymara language,

until, attacked by gout, he was sent to Lima, where he died at the age

of seventy-three, in 1625. His Aymara grammar was first published at

Rome in 1603,[1315] but a very much improved second edition,[1316] and

a large dictionary of Aymara,[1317] were products of the Jesuit press

at Juli in 1612. Bertonio also wrote a catechism and a life of Christ

in Aymara, which were printed at Juli.

A vocabulary of Quichua by Fray Juan Martinez was printed at Lima in

1604, and another in 1614. Four Quichua grammars followed during the

seventeenth century. That of Alonso de Huerta was published at Lima in

1616; the grammar of the Franciscan Diego de Olmos appeared in 1633;

Don Juan Roxo Mexia y Ocon, a native of Cuzco, and professor of Quichua

at the University of Lima, published his grammar in 1648; and the

grammar of Estevan Sancho de Melgar saw the light in 1691.[1318] Leon

Pinelo also mentions a Quichua grammar by Juan de Vega. The anonymous

Jesuit refers to a Quichua dictionary by Melchior Fernandez, which is

lost to us.

In 1644 Don Fernando de la Carrera, the Cura of Reque, near Chiclayo,

published his grammar of the Yunca language, at Lima. This is the

language which was once spoken in the valleys of the Peruvian coast

by the civilized people whose ruler was the grand Chimu. Now the

language is extinct, or spoken only by a few Indians in the coast

village of Eten. The work of Carrera is therefore important, as, with

the exception of a specimen of the language preserved by Bishop Oré,

it is the only book in which the student can now obtain any linguistic

knowledge of the lost civilization. The Yunca grammar was reprinted in

numbers in the _Revista de Lima_ of 1880 and following years.[1319]

There was a professorial chair for the study of Quichua in the

University of San Márcos at Lima, and the language was cultivated,

during the two centuries after the conquest, as well by educated

natives as by many Spanish ecclesiastics. The sermons of Dr. Don

Fernando de Avendaño have already been referred to.[1320] Dr.

Lunarejo, of Cuzco, was another famous Quichuan preacher, and the

_Confesionarios_ and catechisms in the language were very numerous.

Bishop Louis Geronimo Oré, of Guamanga, in his ritualistic manual,

gives the Lord’s prayer and commandments, not only in Quichua and

Aymara, but also in the Puquina language spoken by the Urus on Lake

Titicaca, and in the Yunca language of the coast, which he calls

Mochica.[1321]

A very curious book was published at Lima in 1602, which, among other

things, treats of the Quichua language and of the derivations of names

of places. The author, Don Diego D’Avalos y Figueroa, appears to have

been a native of La Paz. He was possessed of sprightly wit, was well

read, and a close observer of nature. We gather from his _Miscelanea

Austral_[1322] the names of birds and animals, and of fishes in Lake

Titicaca, as well as the opinions of the author on the cause of the

absence of rain on the Peruvian coast, on the lacustrine system of the

Collao, and on other interesting points of physical geography.[1323]

In modern times the language of the Incas has received attention from

students of Peruvian history. The joint authors, Dr. Von Tschudi and

Don Mariano Eduardo de Rivero, in their work entitled _Antigüedades

Peruanas_, published at Vienna in 1851, devote a chapter to the

Quichua language. Two years afterwards Dr. Von Tschudi published a

Quichua grammar and dictionary, with the text of the Inca drama of

Ollantay, and other specimens of the language.[1324] The present

writer’s contributions towards a grammar and dictionary of Quichua

were published by Trübner in 1864, and a few years previously a more

complete and elaborate work had seen the light at Sucre, the capital of

Bolivia. This was the grammar and dictionary by Father Honorio Mossi,

of Potosi, a large volume containing thorough and excellent work.[1325]

Lastly a Quichua grammar by José Dionisio Anchorena was published at

Lima in 1874.[1326]

The curious publication of Don José Fernandez Nodal in 1874 is not so

much a grammar of the Quichua Language as a heterogeneous collection

of notes on all sorts of subjects, and can scarcely take a place among

serious works. The author was a native of Arequipa, of good family, but

he was carried away by enthusiasm and allowed his imagination to run

riot.[1327]

The gospel of St. Luke, with Aymara and Spanish in parallel columns,

was translated from the vulgate by Don Vicente Pazos-kanki, a graduate

of the University of Cuzco, and published in London in 1829;[1328] and

more recently a Quichua version of the gospel of St. John, translated

by Mr. Spilsbury, an English missionary, has appeared at Buenos

Ayres.[1329] These publications and others of the same kind have a

tendency to preserve the purity of the language, and are therefore

welcome to the student of Incarial history.

Quichua has been the subject of detailed comparative study by more

than one modern philologist of eminence. The discussion of the Quichua

roots by the learned Dr. Vicente Fidel Lopez is a most valuable

addition to the literature of the subject; while the historical section

of his work is a great aid to a critical consideration of Montesinos

and other early authorities. Whatever may be thought of his theoretical

opinions, and of the considerations by which he maintains them, there

can be no doubt that Dr. Lopez has rendered most important service to

all students of Peruvian history.[1330] The theoretical identification

of Quichuan roots with those of Turanian and Iberian languages, as it

has been elaborated by Mr. Ellis, is also not without its use, quite

apart from the truth or otherwise of any linguistic theory.[1331]

[Illustration: FROM TIMANÁ.

[After a cut in William Bollaert’s _Antiquarian Researches_, etc., p.

41, showing a stone figure from Timana in New Granada, an antiquity of

the Muiscas, found in a dense forest, with no tradition attached.—ED.]]

Editorial labors connected with the publication of the text and of

translations of the Inca drama of Ollantay have recently conduced, in

an eminent degree, to the scholarly study of Quichua, while they have

sensibly contributed to a better knowledge of the subject. Von Tschudi

was the first to publish the text of Ollantay, in the second part of

his _Kechua Sprache_, having given extracts from the drama in the

chapter on the Quichua language in the _Antigüedades Peruanas_. After

a long interval he brought out a revised text with a parallel German

translation,[1332] from his former manuscript, collated with another

bearing the date of La Paz, 1735.

The drama, in the exact form that it existed when represented before

the Incas, is of course lost to us. It was handed down by tradition

until it was arranged for representation, divided into scenes, and

supplied with stage directions in Spanish times. Several manuscripts

were preserved, which differ only slightly from each other; and they

were looked upon as very precious literary treasures by their owners.

The drama was first publicly brought to notice by Don Manuel Palacios,

in the _Museo Erudito_, a periodical published at Cuzco in 1837; but

it was not until 1853 that the text was printed by Von Tschudi. His

manuscript was copied from one preserved in the Dominican monastery at

Cuzco by one of the monks. The transcription was made between 1840 and

1845 for the artist Rugendas, of Munich, who gave it to Von Tschudi.

There was another old manuscript in the possession of Dr. Antonio

Valdez, the priest of Sicuani, who lived in the last century, and was

a friend of the unfortunate Tupac Amaru. Dr. Valdez died in 1816; and

copies of his manuscript were possessed by Dr. Pablo Justiniani, the

aged priest of Laris, a village in the heart of the eastern Andes, and

by Dr. Rosas, the priest of Chinchero. The present writer made a copy

of the Justiniani manuscript at Laris, which he collated with that of

Dr. Rosas. In 1871 he published the text of his copy, with an attempt

at a literal English translation.[1333] In 1868 Dr. Barranca published

a Spanish translation from the text of Von Tschudi, now called the

Dominican text.[1334] The Peruvian poet Constantino Carrasco afterwards

brought out a version of the drama of Ollantay in verse, paraphrased

from the translation of Barranca.[1335] The enthusiastic Peruvian

student, Dr. Nodal, printed a different Quichua text with a Spanish

translation, in parallel columns, in 1874.[1336]

There are other manuscripts, and a text has not yet been derived

from a scholarly collation of the whole of them. There is one in the

possession of Dr. Gonzalez de la Rosa, which belonged to Dr. Justo

Sahuaraura Inca, Archdeacon of Cuzco, and descendant of Paullu, the

younger son of Huayna Ccapac. In 1878 the Quichua scholar and native of

Cuzco, Don Gavino Pacheco Zegarra, published the text of Ollantay at

Paris, from a manuscript found among the books of his great-uncle, Don

Pedro Zegarra. He added a very free translation in French, and numerous

valuable notes. The work of Zegarra is by far the most important

that has appeared on this subject, for the accomplished Peruvian has

the great advantage of knowing Quichua from his earliest childhood.

With this advantage, not possessed by any previous writer, he unites

extensive learning and considerable critical sagacity.[1337]

The reasons for assigning an ancient date to this drama of Ollantay

are conclusive in the judgment of all Quichua scholars. On this point

there is a consensus of opinion. But General Mitre, the ex-President

of the Argentine Republic, published an essay in 1881, to prove that

Ollantay was of Spanish origin and was written in comparatively

modern times.[1338] The present writer replied to his arguments in

the introduction (p. xxix) to the English translation of the second

part of _Cieza de Leon_ (1883), and this reply was translated into

Spanish and published at Buenos Ayres in the same year, by Don Adolfo

F. Olivares, accompanied by a critical note from the pen of Dr. Vicente

Lopez.[1339] The latest publication on the subject of Ollantay consists

of a series of articles in the _Ateneo de Lima_, by Don E. Larrabure y

Unanue, the accomplished author of a history of the conquest of Peru,

not yet published. The general conclusion which has been arrived at

by Quichua scholars, after this thorough sifting of the question, is

that, although the division into scenes and the stage directions are

due to some Spanish hand, and although some few Hispanicisms may have

crept into some of the texts, owing to the carelessness or ignorance

of transcribers, yet that the drama of Ollantay, in all essential

points, is of Inca origin. Several old songs are imbedded in it, and

others have been preserved by Quichua scholars at Cuzco and Ayacucho,

and in the neighborhood of those cities. The editing of these remains

of Inca literature will, at some future time, throw further light

on the history of the past. There are several learned Peruvians who

devote themselves to Incarial studies, besides Señor Zegarra, who now

resides in Spain. Among them may be mentioned Dr. Villar of Cuzco, a

ripe scholar, who has recently published a closely reasoned essay on

the word _Uira-cocha_, Don Luis Carranza, and Don Martin A. Mujica, a

native of Huancavelica.

=III.= THE NEW GRANADA TRIBES.—The incipient civilization of the

Chibchas or Muiscas of New Granada was first made generally known by

Humboldt (_Vues des Cordillères_, octavo ed., ii. 220-67; _Views of

Nature_, Eng. trans., 425). Cf. also, E. Uricoechea’s _Memorias sobre

las Antigüedades néo-granadinas_ (Berlin, 1854); Bollaert; Rivero and

Von Tschudi; Nadaillac, 459; and Joseph Acosta’s _Compendio historico

del Descubrimiento de la Nueva Granada_ (Paris, 1848; with transl. in

Bollaert).