How many nations of these Indians make war one upon the other, and how the lords and chiefs oppress the poorer people.

I VERILY believe that the people in these Indies have been there for many ages, as is shown by the ancient buildings and the extensive regions they have peopled; and, although they are all brown and beardless, and are so much alike, they have such a multitude of languages that there is almost a new language at every league in all parts of the country.[535] As so many ages have passed away since these people came here, they have waged great wars and battles, retaining the provinces they conquered. Thus, in the district of the town of Arma, in the government of Popayan, there is a great province called Carrapa, between which and that of Quinbaya (where the city of Cartago is founded) there are many people. These people, having for their leader a chief named Yrrua, entered Carrapa, and, in spite of the natives, made themselves masters of the greater part of the province.[536] I know this, because, when we discovered these districts, we saw the villages burnt just as they were left by the natives of the province of Quinbaya. It is notorious that they were all killed, in former times, by those who made themselves masters of the land.

In many parts of the provinces of the government of Popayan the same things happened. In Peru they talk of nothing else but how some came from one part, and some from another, and made themselves masters of the land of their neighbours by wars and battles. The great antiquity of these people is also shown by the remains of cultivated fields, which are so numerous.

The Yncas, it is well known, made themselves masters of this kingdom by force and intrigues. They relate that Manco Ccapac, who founded the city of Cuzco, had an insignificant origin, and the sovereignty remained in the hands of his descendants until the time of the dispute between the sole heir Huascar, and Atahualpa, concerning the government of the empire, after which the Spaniards arrived, and easily got possession of the country. From all this it appears that there were wars and oppressions among these Indians, as well as among all the other nations of the world; for do we not read that tyrants have made themselves rulers of great kingdoms and lordships?

When I was in these parts I heard that the chiefs oppressed the people, and that some of them treated the Indians with great severity; for if the Encomenderos asked for any service, or desired some forced service, either from the persons or goods of the Indians, they obliged the chiefs to supply it. The chiefs then went to the houses of the poorest people, and ordered them to comply with the demand; and if they made any excuse, even if it was a just one, not only were they not listened to, but they were also ill-treated, and their persons or goods were taken by force. I heard the poor Indians of the King, and others in the Collao, in the valley of Xauxa, and in many other parts, lamenting over this oppression, but though they receive an injury they cannot resent it. If sheep are required, they are not taken from the chiefs but from the unhappy Indians. Some of them are so much molested that they hide away for fear of these exactions; and in the coast valleys they are more oppressed by the chiefs than in the mountains. It is true, however, that, as there are friars preaching in most of the provinces of this kingdom, and as some of them understand the language, they hear the complaints of the Indians, and remedy many of their wrongs. Each day things get into better order, and the Christians and Indian chiefs have such fear of the strict justice enforced in these parts by the Audience and royal Chancelleries, that they dare not lay their hands on the poor, and there has thus been a great reform in the government.