History of the Conquest of Peru Part 3

It was only, however, the great and good princes that were thus honored, according to Sarmiento, "whose souls the silly people fondly believed, on account of their virtues, were in heaven, although, in truth," as the same writer a.s.sures us, "they were all the time burning in the flames of h.e.l.l"! "Digo los que haviendo sido en vida buenos y valerosos, generosos con los Indios en les hacer mercedes, perdonadores de injurias, porque a estos tales canonizaban en su ceguedad por Santos y honrraban sus huesos, sin entender que las animas ardian en los Ynfiernos y creian que estaban en el Cielo." Ibid., ubi supra.]

The n.o.bility of Peru consisted of two orders, the first and by far the most important of which was that of the Incas, who, boasting a common descent with their sovereign, lived, as it were, in the reflected light of his glory. As the Peruvian monarchs availed themselves of the right of polygamy to a very liberal extent, leaving behind them families of one or even two hundred children, *52 the n.o.bles of the blood royal, though comprehending only their descendants in the male line, came in the course of years to be very numerous. *53 They were divided into different lineages, each of which traced its pedigree to a different member of the royal dynasty, though all terminated in the divine founder of the empire.

[Footnote 52: Garcila.s.so says over three hundred! (Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 3, cap. 19.) The fact, though rather startling, is not incredible, if, like Huayna Capac, they counted seven hundred wives in their seraglio. See Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 7.]

[Footnote 53: Garcila.s.so mentions a cla.s.s of Incas por privilegio, who were allowed to possess the name and many of the immunities of the blood royal, though only descended from the great va.s.sals that first served under the banner of Manco Capac.

(Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 22.) This important fact, to which he often refers, one would be glad to see confirmed by a single authority.]

They were distinguished by many exclusive and very important privileges; they wore a peculiar dress; spoke a dialect, if we may believe the chronicler, peculiar to themselves; *54 and had the choicest portion of the public domain a.s.signed for their support. They lived, most of them, at court, near the person of the prince, sharing in his counsels, dining at his board, or supplied from his table. They alone were admissible to the great offices in the priesthood. They were invested with the command of armies, and of distant garrisons, were placed over the provinces, and, in short, filled every station of high trust and emolument. *55 Even the laws, severe in their general tenor, seem not to have been framed with reference to them; and the people, investing the whole order with a portion of the sacred character which belonged to the sovereign, held that an Inca n.o.ble was incapable of crime. *56

[Footnote 54: "Los Incas tuvieron otra Lengua particular, que hablavan entre ellos, que no la entendian los demas Indios, ni les era licito aprenderla, como Lenguage Divino. Esta me escriven del Peru, que se ha perdido totalmente; porque como perecio la Republica particular de los Incas, perecio tambien el Lenguage dellos." Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 7, cap.

1]

[Footnote 55: "Una sola gente hallo yo que era exenta, que eran los Ingas del Cuzco y por alli al rededor de ambas parcialidades, porque estos no solo no pagavan tributo, pero aun comian de lo que traian al Inga de todo el reino, y estos eran por la mayor parte los Governadores en todo el reino, y por donde quiera que iban se les hacia mucha honrra." Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.]

[Footnote 56: Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. 15.]

The other order of n.o.bility was the Curacas, the caciques of the conquered nations, or their descendants. They were usually continued by the government in their places, though they were required to visit the capital occasionally, and to allow their sons to be educated there as the pledges of their loyalty. It is not easy to define the nature or extent of their privileges.

They were possessed of more or less power, according to the extent of their patrimony, and the number of their va.s.sals.

Their authority was usually transmitted from father to son, though sometimes the successor was chosen by the people. *57 They did not occupy the highest posts of state, or those nearest the person of the sovereign, like the n.o.bles of the blood. Their authority seems to have been usually local, and always in subordination to the territorial jurisdiction of the great provincial governors, who were taken from the Incas. *58

[Footnote 57: In this event, it seems, the successor named was usually presented to the Inca for confirmation. (Dec. de la Aud.

Real., Ms.) At other times, the Inca himself selected the heir from among the children of the deceased Curaca. "In short," says Ondegardo, "there was no rule of succession so sure, but it might be set aside by the supreme will of the sovereign.' Rel. Prim., Ms.]

[Footnote 58: Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 4, cap. 10. - Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 11 - Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms. - Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 93. - Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.]

It was the Inca n.o.bility, indeed, who const.i.tuted the real strength of the Peruvian monarchy. Attached to their prince by ties of consanguinity, they had common sympathies and, to a considerable extent, common interests with him. Distinguished by a peculiar dress and insignia, as well as by language and blood, from the rest of the community, they were never confounded with the other tribes and nations who were incorporated into the great Peruvian monarchy. After the lapse of centuries, they still retained their individuality as a peculiar people. They were to the conquered races of the country what the Romans were to the barbarous hordes of the Empire, or the Normans to the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles. Cl.u.s.tering around the throne, they formed an invincible phalanx, to shield it alike from secret conspiracy and open insurrection. Though living chiefly in the capital, they were also distributed throughout the country in all its high stations and strong military posts, thus establishing lines of communication with the court, which enabled the sovereign to act simultaneously and with effect on the most distant quarters of his empire. They possessed, moreover, an intellectual preeminence, which, no less than their station, gave them authority with the people. Indeed, it may be said to have been the princ.i.p.al foundation of their authority. The crania of the Inca race show a decided superiority over the other races of the land in intellectual power; *59 and it cannot be denied that it was the fountain of that peculiar civilization and social polity, which raised the Peruvian monarchy above every other state in South America. Whence this remarkable race came, and what was its early history, are among those mysteries that meet us so frequently in the annals of the New World, and which time and the antiquary have as vet done little to explain.

[Footnote 59: Dr. Morton's valuable work contains several engravings of both the Inca and the common Peruvian skull, showing that the facial angle in the former, though by no means great, was much larger than that in the latter, which was singularly flat and deficient in intellectual character. Crania Americana, (Philadelphia, 1829.)]

Chapter II

Orders Of The State. - Provisions For Justice. - Division Of Lands. - Revenues And Registers. - Great Roads And Posts. - Military Tactics And Policy.

If we are surprised at the peculiar and original features of what may be called the Peruvian aristocracy, we shall be still more so as we descend to the lower orders of the community, and see the very artificial character of their inst.i.tutions, - as artificial as those of ancient Sparta, and, though in a different way, quite as repugnant to the essential principles of our nature. The inst.i.tutions of Lycurgus, however, were designed for a petty state, while those of Peru, although originally intended for such, seemed, like the magic tent in the Arabian tale, to have an indefinite power of expansion, and were as well suited to the most flourishing condition of the empire as to its infant fortunes. In this remarkable accommodation to change of circ.u.mstances we see the proofs of a contrivance that argues no slight advance in civilization.

The name of Peru was not known to the natives. It was given by the Spaniards, and originated, it is said, in a misapprehension of the Indian name of "river." *1 However this may be, it is certain that the natives had no other epithet by which to designate the large collection of tribes and nations who were a.s.sembled under the sceptre of the Incas, than that of Tavantinsuyu, or "four quarters of the world." *2 This will not surprise a citizen of the United States, who has no other name by which to cla.s.s himself among nations than what is borrowed from a quarter of the globe. *3 The kingdom, conformably to its name, was divided into four parts, distinguished each by a separate t.i.tle, and to each of which ran one of the four great roads that diverged from Cuzco, the capital or navel of the Peruvian monarchy. The city was in like manner divided into four quarters; and the various races, which gathered there from the distant parts of the empire, lived each in the quarter nearest to its respective province. They all continued to wear their peculiar national costume, so that it was easy to determine their origin; and the same order and system of arrangement prevailed in the motley population of the capital, as in the great provinces of the empire. The capital, in fact, was a miniature image of the empire. *4

[Footnote 1: Pelu, according to Garcila.s.so, was the Indian name for "river," and was given by one of the natives in answer to a question put to him by the Spaniards, who conceived it to be the name of the country. (Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 6.) Such blunders have led to the names of many places both in North and South America. Montesinos, however, denies that there is such an Indian term for "river." (Mem. Antiguas, Ms., lib. 1, cap. 2.) According to this writer, Peru was the ancient Ophir, whence Solomon drew such stores of wealth; and which, by a very natural transition, has in time been corrupted into Phiru, Piru, Peru!

The first book of the Memorias, consisting of thirty-two chapters, is devoted to this precious discovery.]

[Footnote 2: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms. - Garcila.s.so, Com Real., Parte 1, lib. 2, cap. 11.]

[Footnote 3: Yet an American may find food for his vanity in the reflection, that the name of a quarter of the globe, inhabited by so many civilized nations, has been exclusively conceded to him.

- Was it conceded or a.s.sumed?]

[Footnote 4: Ibid., parte 1, cap. 9, 10. - Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 93.

The capital was further divided into two parts, the Upper and Lower town, founded, as pretended, on the different origin of the population; a division recognized also in the inferior cities.

Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms.]

The four great provinces were each placed under a viceroy or governor, who ruled over them with the a.s.sistance of one or more councils for the different departments. These viceroys resided, some portion of their time, at least, in the capital, where they const.i.tuted a sort of council of state to the Inca. *5 The nation at large was distributed into decades, or small bodies of ten; and every tenth man, or head of a decade, had supervision of the rest, - being required to see that they enjoyed the rights and immunities to which they were ent.i.tled, to solicit aid in their behalf from government, when necessary, and to bring offenders to justice. To this last they were stimulated by a law that imposed on them, in case of neglect, the same penalty that would have been incurred by the guilty party. With this law hanging over his head, the magistrate of Peru, we may well believe, did not often go to sleep on his post. *6

[Footnote 5: Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms. - Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 2, cap. 15.

For this account of the councils I am indebted to Garcila.s.so, who frequently fills up gaps that have been left by his fellow-laborers. Whether the filling up will, in all cases, bear the touch of time, as well as the rest of his work, one may doubt.]

[Footnote 6: Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms. - Montesinos, Mem.

Antiguas, Ms., lib. 2, cap. 6. - Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.

How a.n.a.logous is the Peruvian to the Anglo-Saxon division into hundreds and t.i.things! But the Saxon law was more humane, which imposed only a fine on the district, in case of a criminal's escape.]

The people were still further divided into bodies of fifty, one hundred, five hundred, and a thousand, with each an officer having general supervision over those beneath, and the higher ones possessing, to a certain extent, authority in matters of police. Lastly, the whole empire was distributed into sections or departments of ten thousand inhabitants, with a governor over each, from the Inca n.o.bility, who had control over the curacas and other territorial officers in the district. There were, also, regular tribunals of justice, consisting of magistrates in each of the towns or small communities, with jurisdiction over petty offences, while those of a graver character were carried before superior judges, usually the governors or rulers of the districts. These judges all held their authority and received their support from the Crown, by which they were appointed and removed at pleasure. They were obliged to determine every suit in five days from the time it was brought before them; and there was no appeal from one tribunal to another. Yet there were important provisions for the security of justice. A committee of visitors patrolled the kingdom at certain times to investigate the character and conduct of the magistrates; and any neglect or violation of duty was punished in the most exemplary manner. The inferior courts were also required to make monthly returns of their proceedings to the higher ones, and these made reports in like manner to the viceroys; so that the monarch, seated in the centre of his dominions, could look abroad, as it were, to their most distant extremities, and review and rectify any abuses in the administration of the law. *7

[Footnote 7: Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms. - Ondegardo, Rel. Prim.

et Seg., Mss. - Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 2, cap.

11-14. - Montesinos, Mem. Antiguas, Ms., lib. 2, cap. 6.

The accounts of the Peruvian tribunals by the early authorities are very meagre and unsatisfactory. Even the lively imagination of Garcila.s.so has failed to supply the blank.]

The laws were few and exceedingly severe. They related almost wholly to criminal matters. Few other laws were needed by a people who had no money, little trade, and hardly any thing that could be called fixed property. The crimes of theft, adultery, and murder were all capital; though it was wisely provided that some extenuating circ.u.mstances might be allowed to mitigate the punishment. *8 Blasphemy against the Sun, and malediction of the Inca, - offences, indeed, of the same complexion, - were also punished with death. Removing landmarks, turning the water away from a neighbour's land into one's own, burning a house, were all severely punished. To burn a bridge was death. The Inca allowed no obstacle to those facilities of communication so essential to the maintenance of public order. A rebellious city or province was laid waste, and its inhabitants exterminated. Rebellion against the "Child of the Sun" was the greatest of all crimes. *9

[Footnote 8: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms. - Herrera, Hist. General, dec. 5, lib. 4, cap 3.

Theft was punished less severely, if the offender had been really guilty of it to supply the necessities of life. It is a singular circ.u.mstance, that the Peruvian law made no distinction between fornication and adultery, both being equally punished with death.

Yet the law could hardly have been enforced, since prost.i.tutes were a.s.signed, or at least allowed, a residence in the suburbs of the cities. See Garcila.s.so, Com Real., Parte 1, lib. 4, cap.

34.]

[Footnote 9: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 23.

"I los traidores entre ellos llamava aucaes, i esta palabra es la mas abiltada de todas quantas pueden decir aun Indio del Piru, que quiere decir traidor a su Senor." (Cong. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.) "En las rebeliones y alzamientos se hicieron los castigos tan asperos, que algunas veces asolaron las provincias de todos los varones de edad sin quedar ninguno." Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.]

The simplicity and severity of the Peruvian code may be thought to infer a state of society but little advanced; which had few of those complex interests and relations that grow up in a civilized community, and which had not proceeded far enough in the science of legislation to economize human suffering by proportioning penalties to crimes. But the Peruvian inst.i.tutions must be regarded from a different point of view from that in which we study those of other nations. The laws emanated from the sovereign, and that sovereign held a divine commission, and was possessed of a divine nature. To violate the law was not only to insult the majesty of the throne, but it was sacrilege. The slightest offence, viewed in this light, merited death; and the gravest could incur no heavier penalty. *10 Yet, in the infliction of their punishments, they showed no unnecessary cruelty; and the sufferings of the victim were not prolonged by the ingenious torments so frequent among barbarous nations. *11

[Footnote 10: "El castigo era riguroso, que por la mayor parte era de muerte, por liviano que fuese el delito; porque decian, que no los castigavan por el delito que avian hecho, ni por la ofensa agena, sino por aver quebrantado el mandamiento, y rompido la palabra del Inca, que lo respetavan como a Dios." Garcila.s.so, Com. Real. Parte 1, lib. 2. cap. 12.]

[Footnote 11: One of the punishments most frequent for minor offences was to carry a stone on the back. A punishment attended with no suffering but what arises from the disgrace attached to it is very justly characterized by McCulloh as a proof of sensibility and refinement. Researches, p. 361.]

These legislative provisions may strike us as very defective, even as compared with those of the semi-civilized races of Anahuac, where a gradation of courts, moreover, with the right of appeal, afforded a tolerable security for justice. But in a country like Peru, where few but criminal causes were known, the right of appeal was of less consequence. The law was simple, its application easy; and, where the judge was honest, the case was as likely to be determined correctly on the first hearing as on the second. The inspection of the board of visitors, and the monthly returns of the tribunals, afforded no slight guaranty for their integrity. The law which required a decision within five days would seem little suited to the complex and embarra.s.sing litigation of a modern tribunal. But, in the simple questions submitted to the Peruvian judge, delay would have been useless; and the Spaniards, familiar with the evils growing out of long-protracted suits, where the successful litigant is too often a ruined man, are loud in their encomiums of this swift-handed and economical justice. *12

[Footnote 12: The Royal Audience of Peru under Philip II. - there cannot be a higher authority - bears emphatic testimony to the cheap and efficient administration of justice under the Incas.

"De suerte que los vicios eran bien castigados y la gente estaba bien sujeta y obediente; y aunque en las dichas penas havia esceso, redundaba en buen govierno y policia suya, y mediante ella eran aumentados. . . . . . Porque los Yndios alababan la governacion del Ynga, y aun los Espanoles que algo alcanzan de ella, es porque todas las cosas susodichas se de terminaban sin hacerles costas" Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms.]

The fiscal regulations of the Incas, and the laws respecting property, are the most remarkable features in the Peruvian polity. The whole territory of the empire was divided into three parts, one for the Sun, another for the Inca, and the last for the people. Which of the three was the largest is doubtful. The proportions differed materially in different provinces. The distribution, indeed, was made on the same general principle, as each new conquest was added to the monarchy; but the proportion varied according to the amount of population, and the greater or less amount of land consequently required for the support of the inhabitants. *13

[Footnote 13: Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 15. - Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 5, cap. 1.

"Si estas partes fuesen iguales, o qual fuese mayor, yo lo he procurado averiguar, y en unas es diferente de otras, y finalmte yo tengo entendido que se hacia conforme a la disposicion de la tierra y a la calidad de los Indios" Ondegardo, Rel Prim., Ms]

The lands a.s.signed to the Sun furnished a revenue to support the temples, and maintain the costly ceremonial of the Peruvian worship and the mult.i.tudinous priesthood. Those reserved for the Inca went to support the royal state, as well as the numerous members of his household and his kindred, and supplied the various exigencies of government. The remainder of the lands was divided, per capita, in equal shares among the people. It was provided by law, as we shall see hereafter, that every Peruvian should marry at a certain age. When this event took place, the community or district in which he lived furnished him with a dwelling, which, as it was constructed of humble materials, was done at little cost. A lot of land was then a.s.signed to him sufficient for his own maintenance and that of his wife. An additional portion was granted for every child, the amount allowed for a son being the double of that for a daughter. The division of the soil was renewed every year, and the possessions of the tenant were increased or diminished according to the numbers in his family. *14 The same arrangement was observed with reference to the curacas, except only that a domain was a.s.signed to them corresponding with the superior dignity of their stations *15

[Footnote 14: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms. - Garcila.s.so, Com.