Peruvian Sheep--Great Hunts--Manufactures--Mechanical Skill--
Architecture--Concluding Reflections
A Nation which had made such progress in agriculture might be
reasonably expected to have made, also, some proficiency in the
mechanical arts--especially when, as in the case of the Peruvians, their
agricultural economy demanded in itself no inconsiderable degree of
mechanical skill. Among most nations, progress in manufactures has
been found to have an intimate connection with the progress of
husbandry. Both arts are directed to the same great object of supplying
the necessaries, the comforts, or, in a more refined condition of society,
the luxuries of life; and when the one is brought to a perfection that
infers a certain advance in civilization, the other must naturally find a
corresponding development under the increasing demands and capacities
of such a state. The subjects of the Incas, in their patient and tranquil
devotion to the more humble occupations of industry which bound them
to their native soil, bore greater resemblance to the Oriental nations, as
the Hindoos and Chinese, than they bore to the members of the great
Anglo-Saxon family whose hardy temper has driven them to seek their
fortunes on the stormy ocean, and to open a commerce with the most
distant regions of the globe. The Peruvians, though lining a long extent
of sea-coast, had no foreign commerce.
They had peculiar advantages for domestic manufacture in a material
incomparably superior to anything possessed by the other races of the
Western continent. They found a good substitute for linen in a fabric
which, like the Aztecs, they knew how to weave from the tough thread of
the maguey. Cotton grew luxuriantly on the low, sultry level of the
coast, and furnished them with a clothing suitable to the milder latitudes
of the country. But from the llama and the kindred species of Peruvian
sheep they obtained a fleece adapted to the colder climate of the
tableland, "more estimable," to quote the language of a well-informed
writer, "than the down of the Canadian beaver, the fleece of the brebis
des Calmoucks, or of the Syrian goat." 1
Of the four varieties of the Peruvian sheep, the llama, the one most
familiarly known, is the least valuable on account of its wool. It is
chiefly employed as a beast of burden, for which, although it is
somewhat larger than any of the other varieties, its diminutive size and
strength would seem to disqualify it. It carries a load of little more than
a hundred pounds, and cannot travel above three or four leagues in a day.
But all this is compensated by the little care and cost required for its
management and its maintenance. It picks up an easy subsistence from
the moss and stunted herbage that grow scantily along the withered sides
and the steeps of the Cordilleras. The structure of its stomach, like that
of the camel, is such as to enable it to dispense with any supply of water
for weeks, nay, months together. Its spongy hoof, armed with a claw or
pointed talon to enable it to take secure hold on the ice, never requires to
be shod; and the load laid upon its back rests securely in its bed of wool,
without the aid of girth or saddle. The llamas move in troops of five
hundred or even a thousand, and thus, though each individual carries but
little, the aggregate is considerable. The whole caravan travels on at its
regular pace, passing the night in the open air without suffering from the
coldest temperature, and marching in perfect order, and in obedience to
the voice of the driver. It is only when overloaded that the spirited little
animal refuses to stir, and neither blows nor caresses can induce him to
rise from the ground. He is as sturdy in asserting his rights on this
occasion, as he is usually docile and unresisting.2
The employment of domestic animals distinguished the Peruvians from
the other races of the New World. This economy of human labor by the
substitution of the brute is an important element of civilization, interior
only to what is gained by the substitution of machinery for both. Yet the
ancient Peruvians seem to have made much less account of it than their
Spanish conquerors, and to have valued the llama, in common with the
other animals of that genus, chiefly for its fleece. Immense herds of
these "large cattle," as they were called, and of the "smaller cattle," 3 or
alpacas, were held by the government, as already noticed, and placed
under the direction of shepherds, who conducted them from one quarter
of the country to another, according to the changes of the season. These
migrations were regulated with all the precision with which the code of
the mesta determined the migrations of the vast merino flocks in Spain;
and the Conquerors, when they landed in Peru, were amazed at finding a
race of animals so similar to their own in properties and habits, and
under the control of a system of legislation which might seem to have
been imported from their native land.4
But the richest store of wool was obtained, not from these domesticated
animals, but from the two other species, the huanacos and the vicunas,
which roamed in native freedom over the frozen ranges of the
Cordilleras; where not unfrequently they might be seen scaling the snow-
covered peaks which no living thing inhabits save the condor, the huge
bird of the Andes, whose broad pinions bear him up in the atmosphere to
the height of more than twenty thousand feet above the level of the sea.5
In these rugged pastures, "the flock without a fold" finds sufficient
sustenance in the ychu, a species of grass which is found scattered all
along the great ridge of the Cordilleras, from the equator to the southern
limits of Patagonia. And as these limits define the territory traversed by
the Peruvian sheep, which rarely, if ever, venture north of the line, it
seems not improbable that this mysterious little plant is so important to
their existence, that the absence of it is the principal reason why they
have not penetrated to the northern latitudes of Quito and New
Granada.6
But, although thus roaming without a master over the boundless wastes
of the Cordilleras, the Peruvian peasant was never allowed to hunt these
wild animals, which were protected by laws as severe as were the sleek
herds that grazed on the more cultivated slopes of the plateau. The wild
game of the forest and the mountain was as much the property of the
government, as if it had been inclosed within a park, or penned within a
fold.7 It was only on stated occasions, at the great hunts, which took
place once a year, under the personal superintendence of the Inca or his
principal officers, that the game was allowed to be taken. These hunts.
were not repeated in the same quarter of the country oftener than once.
in four years, that time might be allowed for the waste occasioned by
them to be replenished. At the appointed time, all those living in the
district and its neighborhood, to the number, it might be, of fifty or sixty
thousand men,8 were distributed round, so as to form a cordon of
immense extent, that should embrace the whole country which was to be
hunted over. The men were armed with long poles and spears, with
which they beat up game of every description lurking in the woods, the
valleys, and the mountains, killing the beasts of prey without mercy, and
driving the others, consisting chiefly of the deer of the country, and the
huanacos and vicunas, towards the centre of the wide-extended circle;
until, as this gradually contracted, the timid inhabitants of the forest were
concentrated on some spacious plain, where the eye of the hunter might
range freely over his victims, who found no place for shelter or escape.
The male deer and some of the coarser kind of the Peruvian sheep were
slaughtered; their skins were reserved for the various useful
manufactures to which they are ordinarily applied, and their flesh, cut
into thin slices, was distributed among the people, who converted it into
charqui, the dried meat of the country, which constituted then the sole, as
it has since the principal, animal food of the lower classes of Peru.9
But nearly the whole of the sheep, amounting usually to thirty or forty
thousand, or even a larger number, after being carefully sheared, were
suffered to escape and regain their solitary haunts among the mountains.
The wool thus collected was deposited in the royal magazines, whence,
in due time, it was dealt out to the people. The coarser quality was
worked up into garments for their own use, and the finer for the Inca; for
none but an Inca noble could wear the fine fabric of the vicuna.10
The Peruvians showed great skill in the manufacture of different articles
for the royal household from this delicate material, which, under the
name of vigonia wool, is now familiar to the looms of Europe. It was
wrought into shawls, robes, and other articles of dress for the monarch,
and into carpets, coverlets, and hangings for the imperial palaces and the
temples. The cloth was finished on both sides alike; 11 the delicacy of
the texture was such as to give it the lustre of silk; and the brilliancy of
the dyes excited the admiration and the envy of the European artisan.12
The Peruvians produced also an article of great strength and durability
by mixing the hair of animals with wool; and they were expert in the
beautiful feather-work, which they held of less account than the
Mexicans from the superior quality of the materials for other fabrics,
which they had at their command.13
The natives showed a skill in other mechanical arts similar to that
displayed by their manufactures of cloth. Every man in Peru was
expected to be acquainted with the various handicrafts essential to
domestic comfort. No long apprenticeship was required for this, where
the wants were so few as among the simple peasantry of the Incas. But,
if this were all, it would imply but a very moderate advancement in the
arts. There were certain individuals, however, carefully trained to those
occupations which minister to the demands of the more opulent classes
of society. These occupations, like every other calling and office in
Peru, always descended from father to son.14 The division of castes, in
this particular, was as precise as that which existed in Egypt or
Hindostan. If this arrangement be unfavorable to originality, or to the
development of the peculiar talent of the individual, it at least conduces
to an easy and finished execution by familiarizing the artist with the
practice of his art from childhood.15
The royal magazines and the huacas or tombs of the Incas have been
found to contain many specimens of curious and elaborate workmanship.
Among these are vases of gold and silver, bracelets, collars, and other
ornaments for the person; utensils of every description, some of fine
clay, and many more of copper; mirrors of a hard, polished stone, or
burnished silver, with a great variety of other articles made frequently on
a whimsical pattern, evincing quite as much ingenuity as taste or
inventive talent.16 The character of the Peruvian mind led to imitation,
in fact, rather than invention, to delicacy and minuteness of finish, rather
than to boldness or beauty of design.
That they should have accomplished these difficult works with such tools
as they possessed, is truly wonderful. It was comparativeIy easy to cast
and even sculpture metallic substances, both of which they did with
consummate skill. But that they should have shown the like facility in
cutting the hardest substances, as emeralds and other precious stones, is
not easy to explain. Emeralds they obtained in considerable quantity
from the barren district of Atacames, and this inflexible material seems
to have been almost as ductile in the hands of the Peruvian artist as if it
had been made of clay.17 Yet the natives were unacquainted with the
use of iron, though the soil was largely impregnated with it.18 The tools
used were of stone, or more frequently of copper. But the material on
which they relied for the execution of their most difficult tasks was
formed by combining a very small portion of tin with copper.19 This
composition gave a hardness to the metal which seems to have been little
inferior to that of steel. With the aid of it, not only did the Peruvian
artisan hew into shape porphyry and granite, but by his patient industry
accomplished works which the European would not have ventured to
undertake. Among the remains of the monuments of Cannar may be seen
movable rings in the muzzles of animals, all nicely sculptured of one
entire block of granite.20 It is worthy of remark, that the Egyptians, the
Mexicans, and the Peruvians, in their progress towards civilization,
should never have detected the use of iron, which lay around them in
abundance; and that they should each, without any knowledge of the
other, have found a substitute for it in such a curious composition of
metals as gave to their tools almost the temper of steel; 21 a secret that
has been lost--or, to speak more correctly, has never been discovered-by
the civilized European.
I have already spoken of the large quantity of gold and silver wrought
into various articles of elegance and utility for the Incas; though the
amount was inconsiderable, in comparison with what could have been
afforded by the mineral riches of the land, and with what has since been
obtained by the more sagacious and unscrupulous cupidity of the white
man. Gold was gathered by the Incas from the deposits of the streams.
They extracted the ore also in considerable quantities from the valley of
Curimayo, northeast of Caxamarca, as well as from other places; and the
silver mines of Porco, in particular, yielded them considerable returns.
Yet they did not attempt to penetrate into the bowels of the earth 'by
sinking a shaft, but simply excavated a cavern in the steep sides of the
mountain, or, at most, opened a horizonal vein of moderate depth. They
were equally deficient in the knowledge of the best means of detaching
the precious metal from the dross with which it was united, and had no
idea of the virtues of quicksilver,--a mineral not rare in Peru, as an
amalgam to effect this decomposition.22 Their method of smelting the
ore was by means of furnaces built in elevated and exposed situations,
where they might be fanned by the strong breezes of the mountains. The
subjects of the Incas, in short, with all their patient perseverance, did
little more than penetrate below the crust, the outer rind, as it were,
formed over those golden caverns which lie hidden in the dark depths of
the Andes. Yet what they gleaned from the surface was more than
adequate for all their demands. For they were not a commercial people,
and had no knowledge of money.23 In this they differed from the
ancient Mexicans, who had an established currency of a determinate
value. In one respect, however, they were superior to their American
rivals, since they made use of weights to determine the quantity of their
commodities, a thing wholly unknown to the Aztecs. This fact is
ascertained by the discovery of silver balances, adjusted with perfect
accuracy, in some of the tombs of the Incas.24
But the surest test of the civilization of a people--at least, as sure as any--
afforded by mechanical art is to be found in their architecture, which
presents so noble a field for the display of the grand and the beautiful,
and which, at the same time, is so intimately connected with the essential
comforts of life. There is no object on which the resources of the
wealthy are more freely lavished, or which calls out more effectually the
inventive talent of the artist. The painter and the sculptor may display
their individual genius in creations of surpassing excellence, but it is the
great monuments of architectural taste and magnificence that are
stamped in a peculiar manner by the genius of the nation. The Greek, the
Egyptian, the Saracen, the Gothic,--what a key do their respective styles
afford to the character and condition of the people! The monuments of
China, of Hindostan, and of Central America are all indicative of an
immature period, in which the imagination has not been disciplined by
study, and which, therefore, in its best results, betrays only the
illregulated aspirations after the beautiful, that belong to a semi-civilized
people.
The Peruvian architecture, bearing also the general characteristics of an
imperfect state of refinement, had still its peculiar character; and so
uniform was that character, that the edifices throughout the country seem
to have been all cast in the same mould.25 They were usually built of
porphyry or granite; not unfrequently of brick. This, which was formed
into blocks or squares of much larger dimensions than our brick, was
made of a tenacious earth mixed up with reeds or tough grass, and
acquired a degree of hardness with age that made it insensible alike to
the storms and the more trying sun of the tropics.26 The walls were of
great thickness, but low, seldom reaching to more than twelve or
fourteen feet in height. It is rare to meet with accounts of a building that
rose to a second story.27
The apartments had no communication with one another, but usually
opened into a court; and, as they were unprovided with windows, or
apertures that served for them, the only light from without must have
been admitted by the doorways. These were made with the sides
approaching each other towards the top, so that the lintel was
considerably narrower than the threshold, a peculiarity, also, in Egyptian
architecture. The roofs have for the most part disappeared with time.
Some few survive in the less ambitious edifices, of a singular bell-shape,
and made of a composition of earth and pebbles. They are supposed,
however, to have been generally formed of more perishable materials, of
wood or straw. It is certain that some of the most considerable stone-
buildings were thatched with straw. Many seem to have been
constructed without the aid of cement; and writers have contended that
the Peruvians were unacquainted with the use of mortar, or cement of
any kind.28 But a close, tenacious mould, mixed with lime, may be
discovered filling up the interstices of the granite in some buildings; and
in others, where the wellfitted blocks leave no room for this coarser
material, the eye of the antiquary has detected a fine bituminous glue, as
hard as the rock itself.29
The greatest simplicity is observed in the construction of the buildings.
which are usually free from outward ornament; though in some the huge
stones are shaped into a convex form with great regularity, and adjusted
with such nice precision to one another, that it would be impossible, but
for the flutings, to determine the line of junction. In others, the stone is
rough, as it was taken from the quarry, in the most irregular forms, with
the edges nicely wrought and fitted to each other. There is no
appearance of columns or of arches; though there is some contradiction
as to the latter point. But it is not to be doubted, that, although they may
have made some approach to this mode of construction by the greater or
less inclination of the walls, the Peruvian architects were wholly
unacquainted with the true principle of the circular arch reposing on its
key-stone.30
The architecture of the Incas is characterized, says an eminent traveller,
"by simplicity, symmetry, and solidity."31 It may seem unphilosophical
to condemn the peculiar fashion of a nation as indicating want of taste,
because its standard of taste differs from our own. Yet there is an
incongruity in the composition of the Peruvian buildings which argues a
very imperfect acquaintance with the first principles of architecture.
While they put together their bulky masses of porphyry and granite with
the nicest art, they were incapable of mortising their timbers, and, in their
ignorance of iron, knew no better way of holding the beams together that
tying them with thongs of maguey. In the same incongruous spirit, the
building that was thatched with straw, and unilluminated by a window,
was glowing with tapestries of gold and silver! These are the
inconsistencies of a rude people, among whom the arts are but partially
developed. It might not be difficult to find examples of like
inconsistency in the architecture and domestic arrangements of our
Anglo-Saxon, and, at a still later period of our Norman ancestors.
Yet the buildings of the Incas were accommodated to the character of the
climate, and were well fitted to resist those terrible convulsions which
belong to the land of volcanoes. The wisdom of their plan is attested by
the number which still survive, while the more modern constructions of
the Conquerors have been buried in ruins. The hand of the Conquerors,
indeed, has fallen heavily on these venerable monuments, and, in their
blind and superstitious search for hidden treasure, has caused infinitely
more ruin than time or the earthquake.32 Yet enough of these
monuments still remain to invite the researches of the antiquary. Those
only in the most conspicuous situations have been hitherto examined.
But, by the testimony of travellers, many more are to be found in the less
frequented parts of the country; and we may hope they will one day call
forth a kindred spirit of enterprise to that which has so successfully
explored the mysterious recesses of Central America and Yucatan.
I cannot close this analysis of the Peruvian institutions without a few
reflections on their general character and tendency, which, if they
involve some repetition of previous remarks, may, I trust, be excused,
from my desire to leave a correct and consistent impression on the
reader. In this survey, we cannot but be struck with the total
dissimilarity between these institutions and those of the Aztecs,--the
other great nation who led in the march of civilization on this western
continent, and whose empire in the northern portion of it was as
conspicuous as that of the Incas in the south. Both nations came on the
plateau, and commenced their career of conquest, at dates, it may be, not
far removed from each other.33 And it is worthy of notice, that, in
America, the elevated region along the crests of the great mountain
ranges should have been the chosen seat of civilization in both
hemispheres.
Very different was the policy pursued by the two races in their military
career. The Aztecs, animated by the most ferocious spirit, carried on a
war of extermination, signalizing their triumphs by the sacrifice of
hecatombs of captives; while the Incas, although they pursued the game
of conquest with equal pertinacity, preferred a milder policy, substituting
negotiation and intrigue for violence, and dealt with their antagonists so
that their future resources should not be crippled, and that they should
come as friends, not as foes, into the bosom of the empire.
Their policy toward the conquered forms a contrast no less striking to
that pursued by the Aztecs. The Mexican vassals were ground by
excessive imposts and military conscriptions. No regard was had to their
welfare, and the only limit to oppression was the power of endurance.
They were over-awed by fortresses and armed garrisons, and were made
to feel every hour that they were not part and parcel of the nation, but
held only in subjugation as a conquered people. The Incas, on the other
hand, admitted their new subjects at once to all the rights enjoyed by the
rest of the community; and, though they made them conform to the
established laws and usages of the empire, they watched over their
personal security and comfort with a sort of parental solicitude. The
motley population, thus bound together by common interest, was
animated by a common feeling of loyality, which gave greater strength
and stability to the empire, as it became more and more widely extended;
while the various tribes who successively came under the Mexican
sceptre, being held together only by the pressure of external force, were
ready to fall asunder the moment that that force was withdrawn. The
policy of the two nations displayed the principle of fear as contrasted
with the principle of love.
The characteristic features of their religious systems had as little
resemblance to each other. The whole Aztec pantheon partook more or
less of the sanguinary spirit of the terrible war-god who presided over it,
and their frivolous ceremonial almost always terminated with human
sacrifice and cannibal orgies. But the rites of the Peruvians were of a
more innocent cast, as they tended to a more spiritual worship. For the
worship of the Creator is most nearly approached by that of the heavenly
bodies, which, as they revolve in their bright orbits, seem to be the most
glorious symbols of his beneficence and power.
In the minuter mechanical arts, both showed considerable skill; but in the
construction of important public works, of roads, aqueducts, canals, and
in agriculture in all its details, the Peruvians were much superior.
Strange that they should have fallen so far below their rivals in their
efforts after a higher intellectual culture, in astronomical science, more
especially, and in the art of communicating thought by visible symbols.
When we consider the greater refinement of the Incas, their inferiority to
the Aztecs in these particulars can be explained only by the fact, that the
latter in all probability were indebted for their science to the race who
preceded them in the land,--that shadowy race whose origin and whose
end are alike veiled from the eye of the inquirer, but who possibly may
have sought a refuge from their ferocious invaders in those regions of
Central America the architectural remains of which now supply us with
the most pleasing monuments of Indian civilization. It is with this more
polished race, to whom the Peruvians seem to have borne some
resemblance in their mental and moral organization, that they should be
compared. Had the empire of the Incas been permitted to extend itself
with the rapid strides with which it was advancing at the period of the
Spanish conquest, the two races might have come into conflict, or,
perhaps, into alliance with one another.
The Mexicans and Peruvians, so different in the character of their
peculiar civilization, were, it seems probable, ignorant of each other's
existence; and it may appear singular, that, during the simultaneous
continuance of their empires, some of the seeds of science and of art,
which pass so imperceptibly from one people to another, should not have
found their way across the interval which separated the two nations.
They furnish an interesting example of the opposite directions which the
human mind may take in its struggle to emerge from darkness into the
light of civilization,
A closer resemblance--as I have more than once taken occasion to
notice--may be found between the Peruvian institutions and some of the
despotic governments of Eastern Asia; those governments where
despotism appears in its more mitigated form, and the whole people,
under the patriarchal sway of its sovereign, seem to be gathered together
like the members of one vast family. Such were the Chinese, for
example, whom the Peruvians resembled in their implicit obedience to
authority, their mild yet somewhat stubborn temper, their solicitude for
forms, their reverence for ancient usage, their skill in the minuter
manufactures, their imitative rather than inventive cast of mind, and their
invincible patience, which serves instead of a more adventurous spirit for
the execution of difficult undertakings.34
A still closer analogy may be found with the natives of Hindostan in their
division into castes, their worship of the heavenly bodies and the
elements of nature, and their acquaintance with the scientific principles
of husbandry. To the ancient Egyptians, also, they bore considerable
resemblance in the same particulars, as well as in those ideas of a future
existence which led them to attach so much importance to the permanent
preservation of the body.
But we shall look in vain in the history of the East for a parallel to the
absolute control exercised by the Incas over their subjects. In the East,
this was rounded on physical power,--on the external resources of the
government. The authority of the Inca might be compared with that of
the Pope in the day of his might, when Christendom trembled at the
thunders of the Vatican, and the successor of St. Peter set his foot on the
necks of princes. But the authority of the Pope was founded on opinion.
His temporal power was nothing. The empire of the Incas rested on
both. It was a theocracy more potent in its operation than that of the
Jews; for, though the sanction of the law might be as great among the
latter, the law was expounded by a human lawgiver, the servant and
representative of Divinity. But the Inca was both the lawgiver and the
law. He was not merely the representative of Divinity, or, like the Pope,
its vicegerent, but he was Divinity itself. The violation of his ordinance
was sacrilege. Never was there a scheme of government enforced by
such terrible sanctions, or which bore so oppressively on the subjects of
it. For it reached not only to the visible acts, but to the private conduct,
the words, the very thoughts, of its vassals.
It added not a little to the efficacy of the government, that, below the
sovereign, there was an order of hereditary nobles of the same divine
original with himself, who, placed far below himself, were still
immeasurably above the rest of the community, not merely by descent,
but, as it would seem, by their intellectual nature. These were the
exclusive depositaries of power, and, as their long hereditary training
made them familiar with their vocation, and secured them implicit
deference from the multitude, they became the prompt and well-practised
agents for carrying out the executive measures of the administration. All
that occurred throughout the wide extent of his empire---such was the
perfect system of communication--passed in review, as it were, before
the eyes of the monarch, and a thousand hands, armed with irresistible
authority, stood ready in every quarter to do his bidding. Was it not, as
we have said, the most oppressive, though the mildest, of despotisms?
It was the mildest, from the very circumstance, that the transcendent rank
of the sovereign, and the humble, nay, superstitious, devotion to his will
make it superfluous to assert this will be acts of violence or rigor. The
great mass of the people may have appeared to his eyes as but little
removed above the condition of the brute, formed to minister to his
pleasures. But, from their very helplessness, he regarded them with
feelings of commiseration, like those which a kind master might feel for
the poor animals committed to his charge, or--to do justice to the
beneficent character attributed to many of the Incas--that a parent might
feel for his young and impotent offspring. The laws were carefully
directed to their preservation and personal comfort. The people were not
allowed to be employed on works pernicious to their health, nor to pine--
a sad contrast to their subsequent destiny--under the imposition of tasks
too heavy for their powers. They were never made the victims of public
or private extortion; and a benevolent forecast watched carefully over
their necessities, and provided for their relief in seasons of infirmity, and
for their sustenance in health. The government of the Incas, however
arbitrary in form, was in its spirit truly patriarchal.
Yet in this there was nothing cheering to the dignity of human nature.
What the people had was conceded as a boon, not as a right. When a
nation was brought under the sceptre of the Incas, it resigned every
personal right, even the rights dearest to humanity. Under this
extraordinary polity, a people advanced in many of the social
refinements, well skilled in manufactures and agriculture, were
unacquainted, as we have seen, with money. They had nothing that
deserved to be called property. They could follow no craft, could
engage in no labor, no amusement, but such as was specially provided by
law. They could not change their residence or their dress without a
license from the government. They could not even exercise the freedom
which is conceded to the most abject in other countries, that of selecting
their own wives. The imperative spirit of despotism would not allow
them to be happy or miserable in any way but that established by law.
The power of free agency--the inestimable and inborn right of every
human being--was annihilated in Peru.
The astonishing mechanism of the Peruvian polity could have resulted
only from the combined authority of opinion and positive power in the
ruler to an extent unprecedented in the history of man. Yet that it should
have so successfully gone into operation, and so long endured, in
opposition to the taste, the prejudices, and the very principles of our
nature, is a strong proof of a generally wise and temperate administration
of the government.
The policy habitually pursued by the Incas for the prevention of evils
that might have disturbed the order of things is well exemplified in their
provisions against poverty and idleness. In these they rightly discerned
the two great causes of disaffection in a populous community. The
industry of the people was secured not only by their compulsory
occupations at home, but by their employment on those great public
works which covered every part of the country, and which still bear
testimony in their decay to their primitive grandeur. Yet it may well
astonish us to find, that the natural difficulty of these undertakings,
sufficiently great in itself, considering the imperfection of their tools and
machinery, was inconceivably enhanced by the politic contrivance of
government. The royal edifices of Quito, we are assured by the Spanish
conquerors, were constructed of huge masses of stone, many of which
were carried all the way along the mountain roads from Cuzco, a
distance of several hundred leagues.35 The great square of the capital
was filled to a considerable depth with mould brought with incredible
labor up the steep slopes of the Cordilleras from the distant shores of the
Pacific Ocean.36 Labor was regarded not only as a means, but as an
end, by the Peruvian law.
With their manifold provisions against poverty the reader has already
been made acquainted. They were so perfect, that, in their wide extent of
territory,--much of it smitten with the curse of barrenness,--no man,
however humble, suffered from the want of food and clothing. Famine,
so common a scourge in every other American nation, so common at that
period in every country of civilized Europe, was an evil unknown in the
dominions of the Incas.
The most enlightened of the Spaniards who first visited Peru, struck with
the general appearance of plenty and prosperity, and with the astonishing
order with which every thing throughout the country was regulated, are
loud in their expressions of admiration. No better government, in their
opinion, could have been devised for the people. Contented with their
condition, and free from vice, to borrow the language of an eminent
authority of that early day, the mild and docile character of the Peruvians
would have well fitted them to receive the teachings of Christianity, had
the love of conversion, instead of gold, animated the breasts of the
Conquerors.37 And a philosopher of a later time, warmed by the
contemplation of the picture--which his own fancy had colored---of
public prosperity and private happiness under the rule of the Incas,
pronounces "the moral man in Peru far superior to the European." 38
Yet such results are scarcely reconcilable with the theory of the
government I have attempted to analyze. Where there is no free agency,
there can be no morality. Where there is no temptation, there can be
little claim to virtue. Where the routine is rigorously prescribed by law,
the law, and not the man, must have the credit of the conduct. if that
government is the best, which is felt the least, which encroaches on the
natural liberty of the subject only so far as is essential to civil
subordination, then of all governments devised by man the Peruvian has
the least real claim to our admiration.
It is not easy to comprehend the genius and the full import of institutions
so opposite to those of our own free republic, where every man, however
humble his condition, may aspire to the highest honors of the state,--may
select his own career, and carve out his fortune in his own way; where
the light of knowledge, instead of being concentrated on a chosen few, is
shed abroad like the light of day, and suffered to fall equally on the poor
and the rich; where the collision of man with man wakens a generous
emulation that calls out latent talent and tasks the energies to the utmost;
where consciousness of independence gives a feeling of self-reliance
unknown to the timid subjects of a despotism; where, in short, the
government is made for man,--not as in Peru, where man seemed to be
made only for the government. The New World is the theatre in which
these two political systems, so opposite in their character, have been
carried into operation. The empire of the Incas has passed away and left
no trace. The other great experiment is still going on,--the experiment
which is to solve the problem, so long contested in the Old World, of the
capacity of man for self-government. Alas for humanity, if it should fail!
The testimony of the Spanish conquerors is not uniform in respect to the
favorable influence exerted by the Peruvian institutions on the character
of the people. Drinking and dancing are said to have been the pleassures
to which they were immoderately addicted. Like the slaves and serfs in
other lands, whose position excluded them from more serious and
ennobling occupations, they found a substitute in frivolous or sensual
indulgence. Lazy, luxurious, and licentious, are the epithets bestowed on
them by one of those who saw them at the Conquest, but whose pen was
not too friendly to the Indian.39 Yet the spirit of independence could
hardly be strong in a people who had no interest in the soil, no personal
rights to defend; and the facility with which they yielded to the Spanish
invader--after every allowance for their comparative inferiority--argues a
deplorable destitution of that patriotic feeling which holds life as little in
comparison with freedom.
But we must not judge too hardly of the unfortunate native, because he
quailed before the civilization of the European. We must not be
insensible to the really great results that were achieved by the
government of the Incas. We must not forget, that, under their rule, the
meanest of the people enjoyed a far greater degree of personal comfort,
at least, a greater exemption from physical suffering, than was possessed
by similar classes in other nations on the American continent,--greater,
probably, than was possessed by these classes in most of the countries of
feudal Europe. Under their sceptre, the higher orders of the state had
made advances in many of the arts that belong to a cultivated
community. The foundations of a regular government were laid, which,
in an age of rapine, secured to its subjects the inestimable blessings of
tranquillity and safety. By the well-sustained policy of the Incas, the
rude tribes of the forest were gradually drawn from their fastnesses, and
gathered within the folds of civilization; and of these materials was
constructed a flourishing and populous empire, such as was to be found
in no other quarter of the American continent. The defects of this
government were those of overrefinement in legislation,--the last defects
to have been looked for, certainly, in the American aborigines.
Note. I have not thought it necessary to swell this Introduction by an
inquiry into the origin of the Peruvian civilization, like that appended to
the history of the Mexican. The Peruvian history doubtless suggests
analogies with more than one nation in the East, some of which have
been briefly adverted to in the preceding pages; although these analogies
are adduced there not as evidence of a common origin, but as showing
the coincidences which might naturally spring up among different
nations under the same phase of civilization. Such coincidences are
neither so numerous nor so striking as those afforded by the Aztec
history. The correspondence presented by the astronomical science of
the Mexicans is alone of more importance than all the rest, Yet the light
of analogy, afforded by the institutions of the Incas, seems to point, as
far as it goes, towards the same direction; and as the investigation could
present but little substantially to confirm, and still less to confute, the
views taken in the former disquisition, I have not thought it best to
fatigue the reader with it.
Two of the prominent authorities on whom I have relied in this
Introductory portion of the work, are Juan de Sarmiento and the
Licentiate Ondegardo. Of the former I have been able to collect no
information beyond what is afforded by his own writings. In the title
prefixed to his manuscript, he is styled President of the Council of the
Indies, a post of high authority, which infers a weight of character in the
party, and means of information, that entitle his opinions on colonial
topics to great deference.
These means of information were much enlarged by Sarmiento's visit to
the colonies, during the administration of Gasca. Having conceived the
design of compiling a history of the ancient Peruvian institutions, he
visited Cuzco, as he tells us, in 1550, and there drew from the natives
themselves the materials for his narrative. His position gave him access
to the most authentic sources of knowledge, and from the lips of the Inca
nobles, the best instructed of the conquered race, he gathered the
traditions of their national history and institutions. The quipus formed,
as we have seen, an imperfect system of mnemonics, requiring constant
attention, and much inferior to the Mexican hieroglyphics. It was only
by diligent instruction that they were made available to historical
purposes; and this instruction was so far neglected after the Conquest,
that the ancient annals of the country would have perished with the
generation which was the sole depositary of them, had it not been for the
efforts of a few intelligent scholars, like Sarmiento, who saw the
importance, at this critical period, of cultivating an intercourse with the
natives, and drawing from them their hidden stores of information.
To give still further authenticity to his work, Sarmiento travelled over the
country, examined the principal objects of interest with his own eyes,
and thus verified the accounts of the natives as far as possible by
personal observation. The result of these labors was his work entitled,
"Relacion de la sucesion y govierno de las Yngas Senores naturales que
fueron de las Provincias del Peru y otras cosas tocantes a aquel Reyno,
para el Iltmo. Senor Dn Juan Sarmiento, Presidente del Consejo Rl de
Indias."
It is divided into chapters, and embraces about four hundred folio pages
in manuscript. The introductory portion of the work is occupied with the
traditionary tales of the origin and early period of the Incas; teeming, as
usual, in the antiquities of a barbarous people, with legendary fables of
the most wild and monstrous character. Yet these puerile conceptions
afford an inexhaustible mine for the labors of the antiquarian, who
endeavors to unravel the allegorical web which a cunning priesthood had
devised as symbolical of those mysteries of creation that it was beyond
their power to comprehend. But Sarmiento happily confines himself to
the mere statement of traditional fables, without the chimerical ambition
to explain them.
From this region of romance, Sarmiento passes to the institutions of the
Peruvians, describes their ancient polity, their religion, their progress in
the arts, especially agriculture; and presents, in short, an elaborate
picture of the civilization which they reached under the Inca dynasty.
This part of his work, resting, as it does, on the best authority, confirmed
in many instances by his own observation, is of unquestionable value,
and is written with an apparent respect for truth, that engages the
confidence of the reader. The concluding portion of the manuscript is
occupied with the civil history of the country. The reigns of the early
Incas, which lie beyond the sober province of history, he despatches
with commendable brevity. But on the three last reigns, and fortunately
of the greatest princes who occupied the Peruvian throne, he is more
diffuse. This was comparatively firm ground for the chronicler, for the
events were too recent to be obscured by the vulgar legends that gather
like moss round every incident of the older time. His account stops with
the Spanish invasion: for this story, Sarmiento felt, might be safely left to
his contemporaries who acted a part in it, but whose taste and education
had qualified them but indifferently for exploring the antiquities and
social institutions of the natives.
Sarmiento's work is composed in a simple, perspicuous style, without
that ambition of rhetorical display too common with his countrymen. He
writes with honest candor, and while he does ample justice to the merits
and capacity of the conquered races, he notices with indignation the
atrocities of the Spaniards and the demoralizing tendency of the
Conquest. It may be thought, indeed, that he forms too high an estimate
of the attainments of the nation under the Incas. And it is not
improbable, that, astonished by the vestiges it afforded of an original
civilization, he became enamoured of his subject, and thus exhibited it in
colors somewhat too glowing to the eye of the European. But this was
an amiable failing, not too largely shared by the stern Conquerors, who
subverted the institutions of the country, and saw little to admire in it,
save its gold. It must be further admitted, that Sarmiento has no design
to impose on his reader, and that he is careful to distinguish between
what he reports on hearsay, and what on personal experience. The
Father of History himself does not discriminate between these two things
more carefully.
Neither is the Spanish historian to be altogether vindicated from the
superstition which belongs to his time; and we often find him referring to
the immediate interposition of Satan those effects which might quite as
well be charged on the perverseness of man. But this was common to the
age, and to the wisest men in it; and it is too much to demand of a man to
be wiser than his generation. It is sufficient praise of Sarmiento, that, in
an age when superstition was too often allied with fanaticism, he seems
to have had no tincture of bigotry in his nature. His heart opens with
benevolent fulness to the unfortunate native; and his language, while it is
not kindled into the religious glow of the missionary, is warmed by a
generous ray of philanthropy that embraces the conquered, no less than
the conquerors, as his brethren.
Notwithstanding the great value of Sarmiento's work for the information
it affords of Peru under the Incas, it is but little known, has been rarely
consulted by historians, and still remains among the unpublished
manuscripts which lie, like uncoined bullion, in the secret chambers of
the Escurial.
The other authority to whom I have alluded, the Licentiate Polo de
Ondegardo, was a highly respectable jurist, whose name appears
frequently in the affairs of Peru. I find no account of the period when he
first came into the country. But he was there on the arrival of Gasca, and
resided at Lima under the usurpation of Gonzalo Pizarro. When the
artful Cepeda endeavored to secure the signatures of the inhabitants to
the instrument proclaiming the sovereignty of his chief, we find
Ondegardo taking the lead among those of his profession in resisting it.
On Gasca's arrival, he consented to take a commission in his army. At
the close of the rebellion he was made corregidor of La Plata, and
subsequently of Cuzco, in which honorable station he seems to have
remained several years. In the exercise of his magisterial functions, he
was brought into familiar intercourse with the natives, and had ample
opportunity for studying their laws and ancient customs. He conducted
himself with such prudence and moderation, that he seems to have won
the confidence not only of his countrymen but of the Indians; while the
administration was careful to profit by his large experience in devising
measures for the better government of the colony.
The Relaciones, so often cited in this History, were prepared at the
suggestion of the viceroys, the first being addressed to the Marques de
Canete, in 1561, and the second, ten years later, to the Conde de Nieva.
The two cover about as much ground as Sarmiento's manuscript; and the
second memorial, written so long after the first, may be thought to
intimate the advancing age of the author, in the greater carelessness and
diffuseness of the composition.
As these documents are in the nature of answers to the interrogatories
propounded by government- the range of topics might seem to be limited
within narrower bounds than the modern historian would desire. These
queries, indeed, had particular reference to the revenues, tributes,--the
financial administration, in short, of the Incas; and on these obscure
topics the communication of Ondegardo is particularly full. But the
enlightened curiosity of government embraced a far wider range; and the
answers necessarily implied an acquaintance with the domestic policy of
the Incas, with their laws, social habits, their religion, science, and arts,
in short, with all that make up the elements of civilization. Ondegardo's
memoirs, therefore, cover the whole ground of inquiry for the
philosophic historian.
In the management of these various subjects, Ondegardo displays both
acuteness and erudition. He never shrinks from the discussion, however
difficult; and while he gives his conclusions with an air of modesty, it is
evident that he feels conscious of having derived his information through
the most authentic channels. He rejects the fabulous with disdain;
decides on the probabilities of such facts as he relates, and candidly
exposes the deficiency of evidence. Far from displaying the simple
enthusiasm of the well-meaning but credulous missionary, he proceeds
with the cool and cautious step of a lawyer accustomed to the conflict of
testimony and the uncertainty of oral tradition. This circumspect manner
of proceeding, and the temperate character of his judgments, entitle
Ondegardo to much higher consideration as an authority than most of his
countrymen who have treated of Indian antiquities.
There runs through his writings a vein of humanity, shown particularly in
his tenderness to the unfortunate natives, to whose ancient civilization he
does entire, but not extravagant, justice; while, like Sarmiento, he
fearlessly denounces the excesses of his own countrymen, and admits the
dark reproach they had brought on the honor of the nation. But while
this censure forms the strongest ground for condemnation of the
Conquerors, since it comes from the lips of a Spaniard like themselves, it
proves, also, that Spain in this age of violence could send forth from her
bosom wise and good men who refused to make common cause with the
licentious rabble around them. Indeed, proof enough is given in these
very memorials of the unceasing efforts of the colonial government, from
the good viceroy Mendoza downwards, to secure protection and the
benefit of a mild legislation to the unfortunate natives. But the iron
Conquerors, and the colonist whose heart softened only to the touch of
gold, presented a formidable barrier to improvement.
Ondegardo's writings are honorably distinguished by freedom from that
superstition which is the debasing characteristic of the times; a
superstition shown in the easy credit given to the marvellous, and this
equally whether in heathen or in Christian story; for in the former the eye
of credulity could discern as readily the direct interposition of Satan, as
in the latter the hand of the Almighty. It is this ready belief in a spiritual
agency, whether for good or for evil, which forms one of the most
prominent features in the writings of the sixteenth century. Nothing
could be more repugnant to the true spirit of philosophical inquiry or
more irreconcilable with rational criticism. Far from betraying such
weakness, Ondegardo writes in a direct and business-like manner,
estimating things for what they are worth by the plain rule of common-
sense. He keeps the main object of his argument ever in view, without
allowing himself, like the garrulous chroniclers of the period, to be led
astray into a thousand rambling episodes that bewilder the reader and
lead to nothing.
Ondegardo's memoirs deal not only with the antiquities of the nation, but
with its actual condition, and with the best means for redressing the
manifold evils to which it was subjected under the stern rule of its
conquerors. His suggestions are replete with wisdom, and a merciful
policy, that would reconcile the interests of government with the
prosperity and happiness of its humblest vassal. Thus, while his
contemporaries gathered light from his suggestions as to the present
condition of affairs, the historian of later times is no less indebted to him
for information in respect to the past. His manuscript was freely
consulted by Herrera and the reader, as he peruses the pages of the
learned historian of the Indies, is unconsciously enjoying the benefit of
the researches of Ondegardo. His valuable Relaciones thus had their
uses for future generations, though they have never been admitted to the
honors of the press. The copy in my possession, like that of Sarmiento's
manuscript, for which I am indebted to that industrious bibliographer,
Mr. Rich formed part of the magnificent collection of Lord
Kingsborough,--a name ever to be held in honor by the scholar for his
indefatigable efforts to illustrate the antiquities of America.
Ondegardo's manuscripts, it should be remarked, do not bear his
signature. But they contain allusions to several actions of the writer's
life, which identify them, beyond any reasonable doubt, as his
production. In the archives of Simancas is a duplicate copy of the first
memorial, Relacion Primera, though, like the one in the Escurial, without
its author's name. Munoz assigns it to the pen of Gabriel de Rojas, a
distinguished cavalier of the Conquest. This is clearly an error; for the
author of the manuscript identifies himself with Ondegardo, by
declaring, in his reply to the fifth interrogatory, that he was the person
who discovered the mummies of the Incas in Cuzco; an act expressly
referred both by Acosta and Garcilasso, to the Licentiate Polo de
Ondegardo, when corregidor of that city.--Should the savans of Madrid
hereafter embrace among the publications of valuable manuscripts these
Relaciones, they should be careful not to be led into an error here, by the
authority of a critic like Munoz whose criticism is rarely at fault.
History of the Conquest of Peru
by William Hickling Prescott