History of the Incas Part 1

History of the Incas.

by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa.

INTRODUCTION.

The publication of the text of the Sarmiento ma.n.u.script in the Library of Gottingen University, has enabled the Council to present the members of the Hakluyt Society with the most authentic narrative of events connected with the history of the Incas of Peru.

The history of this ma.n.u.script, and of the doc.u.ments which accompanied it, is very interesting. The Viceroy, Don Francisco de Toledo, who governed Peru from 1569 to 1581, caused them to be prepared for the information of Philip II. Four cloths were sent to the King from Cuzco, and a history of the Incas written by Captain Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa.

On three cloths were figures of the Incas with their wives, on medallions, with their _Ayllus_ and a genealogical tree. Historical events in each reign were depicted on the borders. The fable of Tampu-tocco was shown on the first cloth, and also the fables touching the creations of Viracocha, which formed the foundation for the whole history. On the fourth cloth there was a map of Peru, the compa.s.s lines for the positions of towns being drawn by Sarmiento.

The Viceroy also caused reports to be made to him, to prove that the Incas were usurpers. There were thirteen reports from Cuzco, Guamanga, Xauxa, Yucay, and other places, forming a folio of 213 leaves, preserved in the _Archivo de Indias_[1]. At Cuzco all the Inca descendants were called upon to give evidence respecting the history of Peru under their ancestors. They all swore that they would give truthful testimony. The compilation of the history was then entrusted to Captain Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, the cosmographer of Peru. When it was completed the book was read to the Inca witnesses, chapter by chapter, in their own language.

They discussed each chapter, and suggested some corrections and alterations which were adopted. It was then submitted to the Viceroy, who caused the doc.u.ments to be attested by the princ.i.p.al Spaniards settled at Cuzco, who had been present at the conquest, or had taken a leading part in the subsequent administration. These were Dr Loarte, the licentiate Polo de Ondegardo[2], Alonso de Mena[3], Mancio Serra de Leguisano[4], Pero Alonso Carrasco, and Juan de Pancorvo[5], in whose house the Viceroy resided while he was at Cuzco. Mancio Serra de Leguisano married Beatriz nusta, an Inca princess, daughter of Huayna Ccapac. The Viceroy then made some final interpolations to vilify the Incas, which would not have been approved by some of those who had attested, certainly not by Polo de Ondegardo or Leguisano.

[Note 1: Printed in the same volume with Montesinos, and edited by Jimenes de la Espada, _Informaciones acerca del senorio y gobierno de los Ingas hechas por mandado de Don Francisco de Toledo,_ 1570--72.]

[Note 2: The accomplished lawyer, author, and statesman.]

[Note 3: One of the first conquerors. His house at Cuzco was in the square of our Lady, near that of Garcila.s.so de la Vega.]

[Note 4: A generous defender of the cause of the Indians.]

[Note 5: One of the first conquerors. He occupied a house near the square, with his friend and comrade Alonso de Marchena.]

Sarmiento mentions in his history of the Incas that it was intended to be the Second Part of his work. There were to be three Parts. The First, on the geography of Peru, was not sent because it was not finished. The Third Part was to have been a narrative of the conquest.

The four cloths, and the other doc.u.ments, were taken to Spain, for presentation to the King, by a servant of the Viceroy named Geronimo Pacheco, with a covering letter dated at Yucay on March 1st, 1572.

Of all these precious doc.u.ments the most important was the history of the Incas by Sarmiento, and it has fortunately been preserved. The King's copy found its way into the famous library of Abraham Gronovius, which was sold in 1785, and thence into the library of the University of Gottingen, where it remained, unprinted and unedited, for 120 years. But in August, 1906, the learned librarian, Dr Richard Pietschmann published the text at Berlin, very carefully edited and annotated with a valuable introduction. The Council of the Hakluyt Society is thus enabled to present an English translation to its members very soon after the first publication of the text. It is a complement of the other writings of the great navigator, which were translated and edited for the Hakluyt Society in 1895.

The ma.n.u.script consists of eight leaves of introduction and 138 of text.

The dedicatory letter to the King is signed by Sarmiento on March 4th, 1572. The binding was of red silk, under which there is another binding of green leather. The first page is occupied by a coloured shield of the royal arms, with a signature _el Capit Sarmi de Gboa_. On the second page is the t.i.tle, surrounded by an ornamental border. The ma.n.u.script is in a very clear hand, and at the end are the arms of Toledo (_chequy azure and argent_) with the date Cuzco, 29 Feb., 1572. There is also the signature of the Secretary, Alvaro Ruiz de Navamuel[6].

[Note 6: Alvaro Ruiz and his brother Captain Francisco Ruiz were the sons of Francisco Santiago Rodriguez de los Rios by Inez de Navamuel.

Both used their mother's name of Navamuel as their surname; and both were born at Aquilar del Campo. Alonso Ruiz de Navamuel was Secretary to the governments of five successive Viceroys. He wrote a _Relacion de las cosas mas notables que hiza en el Peru, siendo Virev Don Francisco de Toledo, 20 Dec. 1578_. He died in the year 1613. The descendants of his son Juan de los Rios formed the _mayorazgos_ of Rios and Cavallero.

By his wife Angela Ortiz de Arbildo y Berriz, a Biscayan, he had a daughter Inez married to her cousin Geronimo Aliaga, a son of the Secretary's brother Captain Francisco Ruiz de Navamuel, the _encomendero_ of Caracoto in the Collao, by Juana, daughter of Captain Geronimo de Aliaga. His marriage, at which the Viceroy Toledo was present, took place on November 23rd, 1578. From the marriage of the younger Geronimo de Aliaga with Inez Navamuel, descend the Aliagas, Counts of Luringancho in Peru.]

The history of the Incas by Sarmiento is, without any doubt, the most authentic and reliable that has yet appeared. For it was compiled from the carefully attested evidence of the Incas themselves, taken under official sanction. Each sovereign Inca formed an _ayllu_ or "gens" of his descendants, who preserved the memory of his deeds in _quipus_, songs, and traditions handed down and learnt by heart. There were many descendants of each of these _ayllus_ living near Cuzco in 1572, and the leading members were examined on oath; so that Sarmiento had opportunities of obtaining accurate information which no other writer possessed. For the correct versions of the early traditions, and for historical facts and the chronological order of events, Sarmiento is the best authority.

But no one can supersede the honest and impartial old soldier, Pedro de Cieza de Leon, as regards the charm of his style and the confidence to be placed in his opinions; nor the Inca Garcila.s.so de la Vega as regards his reminiscences and his fascinating love for his people. Molina and Yamqui Pachacuti give much fuller details respecting the ceremonial festivals and religious beliefs. Polo de Ondegardo and Santillana supply much fuller and more reliable information respecting the laws and administration of the Incas. It is in the historical narrative and the correct order of events that Sarmiento, owing to his exceptional means of collecting accurate information, excels all other writers.

There is one serious blemish. Sarmiento's book was written, not only or mainly to supply interesting information, but with an object. Bishop Las Casas had made Europe ring with the cruelties of the Spaniards in the Indies, and with the injustice and iniquity of their conquests. Don Francisco de Toledo used this narrative for the purpose of making a feeble reply to the good bishop. Under his instructions Sarmiento stated the Viceroy's argument, which was that the King of Spain was the rightful sovereign of Peru because the Incas had usurped their power by conquest and had been guilty of acts of cruelty. Hence the constant repet.i.tion of such phrases as "cruel tyranny" and "usurping tyrant"; and the numerous interpolations of the Viceroy himself are so obvious that I have put them in italics within brackets. He goes back as far as the first Inca to make out the usurpation, and he is always harping on illegitimacy. If we go back as far as Sancho IV the t.i.tle of Philip II to Spain was voided by the grossest usurpation, while we need only go back to Henry II to see how Philip's t.i.tle was vitiated by illegitimacy.

As for cruelty, it would be a strange plea from the sovereign by whose orders the Netherlands were devastated, the Moors of Granada almost annihilated, and under whose rule the Inquisition was in full swing. It is the old story of preaching without practice, as Dr Newman once observed in quoting what James I said to George Heriot:

"O Geordie, jingling Geordie, it was grand to hear Baby Charles laying down the guilt of dissimulation, and Steenie lecturing on the turpitude of incontinence."

It is right to say that Philip never seems to have endorsed the argument of his Viceroy, while his father prohibited the circulation of a book by Dr Sepulveda which contained a similar argument; nor was the work of Sarmiento published.

Barring this blemish, the history of the Incas, written by order of the Viceroy Toledo, is a most valuable addition to the authorities who have given us authentic accounts of Andean civilization; for we may have every confidence in the care and accuracy of Sarmiento as regards his collection and statement of historical facts, provided that we always keep in mind the bias, and the orders he was under, to seek support for the Viceroy's untenable argument.

I have given all I have been able to find respecting the life of Sarmiento in the introduction to my edition of the voyages of that celebrated navigator.

But the administration of the Viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo, from 1569 to 1581, forms a landmark in the history of Peru, and seems to call for some notice in this place. He found the country in an unsettled state, with the administrative system entirely out of gear. Though no longer young he entered upon the gigantic task of establishing an orderly government, and resolved to visit personally every part of the vast territory under his rule. This stupendous undertaking occupied him for five years. He was accompanied by ecclesiastics, by men well versed in the language of the Incas and in their administrative policy, and by his secretary and aide-de-camp. These were the Bishop of Popayan, Augustin de la Coruna, the Augustine friars Juan Vivero and Francisco del Corral, the Jesuit and well-known author, Joseph de Acosta, the Inquisitor Pedro Ordonez Flores, his brother, the Viceroy's chaplain and confessor, the learned lawyer Juan Matienzo, whose work is frequently quoted by Solorzano[7], the licentiate Polo de Ondegardo, who had been some years in the country and had acquired an intimate knowledge of the laws of the Incas, the secretary Alvaro Ruiz de Navamuel, and as aide-de-camp his young nephew, Geronimo de Figueroa, son of his brother Juan, the Amba.s.sador at Rome[8].

[Note 7: In his _Politica Indiana_. There are two ma.n.u.scripts of Juan Matienzo de Peralta at the British Museum, _Govierno del Peru_ and _Relacion del libro int.i.tulado Govierno del Peru_, apparently one work in two parts. _Add. MSS_. 5469, in Gayangos Catalogue, vol. II. p. 470.]

[Note 8: Some sons took the father's surname, others that of the mother. The Viceroy had the name of his father, Francisco Alvarez de Toledo, the third Count of Oropesa, while his brother Juan had the surname of Figueroa, being that of his mother.]

Toledo was endowed with indefatigable zeal for the public service, great energy, and extraordinary powers of application. He took the opinions of others, weighed them carefully, and considered long before he adopted any course. But he was narrow-minded and obstinate, and when he had once determined on a measure nothing could alter him. His ability is undoubted, and his appointment, at this particular juncture, is a proof of Philip's sagacity.

The Viceroy's intercourse with Polo de Ondegardo informed him respecting the administrative system of the Incas, so admirably adapted to the genius of the people, and he had the wisdom to see that there was much to learn from it. His policy was to collect the people, who, to a great extent, were scattered over the country and hiding from the Spaniards, in villages placed near the centres of their cultivated or pasture lands. He fixed the numbers in each village at 400 to 500, with a priest and Alcalde. He also ordered the boundaries of all the parishes to be settled. Spanish Corregidors were to take the places of the _Tucuyricoc_ or governors of Inca times, and each village had an elected Alcalde approved by the Corregidor. Under him there were to be two overseers, a _Pichca pachaca_ over 500, and a _Pachaca_ as a.s.sistant. Another important measure was the settlement of the tribute. The name "tribute"

was unfortunate. The system was that of the Incas, and the same which prevailed throughout the east. The government was the landlord, and the so-called "tribute" was rent. The Incas took two-thirds for the state and for religion, and set apart one-third for the cultivators. Toledo did much the same, a.s.sessing, according to the nature of the soil, the crops, and other local circ.u.mstances. For the formation of villages and the a.s.sessment of the tribute he promulgated a whole code of ordinances, many of them intended to prevent local oppression in various forms.

The Viceroy next took up the questions of the position of _yana-cunas_ or domestic servants, and of forced service. Both these inst.i.tutions existed in Incarial times. All that was needed were moderate laws for the protection of servants and conscripts, and the enforcement of such laws. Toledo allowed a seventh of the adult male population in each village to be made liable for service in mines or factories, fixed the distance they could be taken from their homes, and made rules for their proper treatment. It is true that the _mita_, as it was called, was afterwards an instrument of cruel oppression, that rules were disregarded, and that it depopulated the country. But this was not the fault of Toledo.

The Viceroy gave much attention to the mining industry, promoted the introduction of the use of mercury in the extraction of silver, and founded the town of Huancavelica near the quick-silver mine. His personality pervaded every department of the state, and his _tasas_ or ordinances fill a large volume. He was a prolific legislator and a great statesman.

His worst mistake was the policy he adopted with regard to the family of the Incas. He desired to establish the position of the King of Spain without a rival. He, therefore, sought to malign the preceding dynasty, persecuted the descendants of the Incas, and committed one act of cruel injustice.

When Atahualpa put his half-brother Huascar, the last reigning Inca, to death, there remained three surviving sons of their father the great Inca Huayna Ccapac, named Manco, Paullu, and t.i.tu Atauchi, and several daughters. After his occupation of Cuzco, Pizarro acknowledged Manco Inca as the legitimate successor of his brother Huascar, and he was publicly crowned, receiving all the insignia on March 24th, 1534. He escaped from the Spaniards and besieged them in Cuzco at the head of a large army. Forced to raise the siege he established his head-quarters at Ollantay-tampu, where he repulsed an attack led by Hernando Pizarro.

He was, however, defeated by Orgoniez, the lieutenant of Almagro, and took refuge in the mountainous province of Vilcapampa on the left bank of the Vilcamayu. From thence he made constant attacks on the Spaniards, maintaining his independence in this small remnant of his dominions.

Some of the partisans of Almagro took refuge with him, and he was accidentally killed by one of them in 1544, after a not inglorious reign of ten years.

He left two legitimate sons, named Sayri Tupac and Tupac Amaru, by his wife and niece the Princess Ataria Cusi Huarcay, daughter of his ill-fated brother Huascar. This marriage was legalized by a bull of Pope Paul III in the time of the Viceroy Marquis of Canete, 1555--1561. He had also an illegitimate son named Cusi t.i.tu Yupanqui, and a daughter named Maria Tupac Usca, married to Don Pedro Ortiz de Orue, one of the first conquerors[9].

[Note 9: Diego Ortiz de Orue was born in the village of Getafe, near Madrid. He went out to Peru in 1559, and at once began to study the Quichua language. He was _encomendero_ of Maras, a village overlooking the valley of Yucay. By the Inca princess he had a daughter named Catalina married to Don Luis Justiniani of Seville, descended from the Genoese family. Their son Luis was the grandfather of Dr Justo Pastor Justiniani who married Manuela Catano, descended from Tupac Inca Yupanqui. Their son Don Pablo Justiniani was Cura of Laris until his death in 1858, and was a great depository of Inca lore. He had a very early copy of the Inca drama of Ollanta.]

Sayri Tupac succeeded as fourteenth Inca of Peru. On the arrival of the Marquis of Canete as Viceroy in 1555, he caused overtures to be made to Sayri Tupac through his aunts, who were living at Cuzco with their Spanish husbands, Juan Sierra de Leguisano and Diego Hernandez. It was finally arranged that the Inca should receive 17000 _castellanos_ of rent and the valley of Yucay. On October 7th, 1557, Sayri Tupac left Vilcapampa with 300 followers, reaching Andahuaylas on November 5th. He entered Lima on January 6th, 1558, was cordially greeted by the Viceroy and received invest.i.ture, a.s.suming the names of Manco Ccapac Pachacuti Yupanqui. He went to live in the lovely vale of Yucay. He had been baptized with the name of Diego, but he did not long survive, dying at Yucay in 1560. His daughter Clara Beatriz married Don Martin Garcia Loyola. Their daughter Lorenza was created Marchioness of Oropesa and Yucay, with remainder to descendants of her great uncle Tupac Amaru. She was the wife of Juan Henriquez de Borja, grandson of the Duke of Gandia.

On the death of Sayri Tupac, his illegitimate brother, Cusi t.i.tu Yupanqui a.s.sumed sovereignty, owing to the youth of the legitimate brother Tupac Amaru, both remaining in Vilcapampa.

Paullu Tupac Yupanqui, the next brother of Manco Inca, was baptized with the name of Cristoval. He accompanied Almagro in his expedition to Chile, and was with young Almagro at the battle of Chupas. Eventually he was allowed to fix his residence on the Colcampata of Cuzco, at the foot of the fortress, and by the side of the church of San Cristoval. From the terrace of the Colcampata there is a glorious view with the snowy peak of Vilcanota in the far distance. Paullu died in May, 1549, and was succeeded on the Colcampata by his son Carlos Inca. He had two other sons named Felipe and Bartolome. From the latter was descended the late Archdeacon of Cuzco, Dr Justo Salmaraura Inca.

t.i.tu Atauchi, the youngest son of Huayna Ccapac, had a son Alonso.

The princesses, daughters of Huayna Ccapac and sisters of Manco and Paullu, were Beatriz nusta, married first to Martin de Mustincia, and secondly to Diego Hernandez of Talavera; Leonor nusta, the wife of Juan de Balsa, who was killed at the battle of Chupas on the side of young Almagro, secondly of Francisco de Villacastin: Francisca nusta, niece of Huayna Ccapac, married to Juan de Collantes, and was great-grandmother of Bishop Piedrahita, the historian of Nueva Granada: another Beatriz nusta married Mancio Sierra de Leguisano, the generous defender of the natives; and Inez nusta married first Francisco Pizarro and had a daughter Francisca, who has descendants, and secondly to Francisco Ampuero. Angelina, daughter of Atahualpa, was married to Juan de Betanzos, the author and Quichua scholar. The brother of Huayna Ccapac, named Hualpa Tupac Yupanqui, had a daughter, Isabel nusta Yupanqui, the wife of Garcila.s.so de la Vega, and mother of the Inca Garcila.s.so de la Vega[10], the historian, author of the _Comentarios Reales_.

[Note 10: The Inca Garcila.s.so was a third cousin of the regicide Viceroy Toledo. Their great grandfathers were brothers.]

This then was the position of the Inca family when the Viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, came to Cuzco in 1571. Cusi t.i.tu Yupanqui and Tupac Amaru, sons of the Inca Manco were in the mountains of Vilcapampa, the former maintaining his independence. Carlos Inca, son of Paullu, was baptized, and living on the Colcampata at Cuzco with his wife Maria de Esquivel. Seven Inca princesses had married Spaniards, most of them living at Cuzco with their husbands and children.

The events, connected with the Inca family, which followed on the arrival of the Viceroy Toledo at Cuzco, will be found fully described in this volume. It need only be stated here that the inexorable tyrant, having got the innocent young prince Tupac Amaru into his power, resolved to put him to death. The native population was overwhelmed with grief. The Spaniards were horrified. They entreated that the lad might be sent to Spain to be judged by the King. The heads of religious orders and other ecclesiastics went down on their knees. Nothing could move the obstinate narrow-minded Viceroy. The deed was done.

When too late Toledo seems to have had some misgivings. The judicial murder took place in December, 1571. The history of the Incas was finished in March, 1572. Yet there is no mention of the death of Tupac Amaru. For all that appears he might have been still in Vilcapampa.

Nevertheless the tidings reached Philip II, and the Viceroy's conduct was not approved.

There was astonishing audacity on the part of Toledo, in basing arguments on the alleged cruelty and tyranny of the Incas, when the man was actually red-handed with the blood of an innocent youth, and engaged in the tyrannical persecution of his relations and the hideous torture of his followers. His arguments made no impression on the mind of Philip II. The King even showed some favour to the children of Tupac Amaru by putting them in the succession to the Marquisate of Oropesa. In the Inca pedigrees Toledo is called "el execrable regicidio." When he presented himself on his return from Peru the King angrily exclaimed: "Go away to your house; for I sent you to serve kings; and you went to kill kings[11]."