THE work of Pedro de Cieza de Leon is, in many respects, one of the most remarkable literary productions of the age of Spanish conquest in America. Written by a man who had passed his life in the camp from early boyhood, it is conceived on a plan which would have done credit to the most thoughtful scholar, and is executed with care, judgment, and fidelity. But before examining the work itself, I will give some account of its author—of whom, however, little is known, beyond what can be gathered from his own incidental statements in the course of his narrative.

Cieza de Leon is believed to have been born in the year 1519 in the city of Seville, where he passed the first fourteen years of his life. It has been conjectured that his father was a native of Leon,[2] in the north of Spain, but absolutely nothing is known of his parentage.

In 1532, at the extraordinarily early age of fourteen, young Pedro embarked at Seville, and set out to seek his fortunes in the New World. At that time scarcely a year elapsed without seeing an expedition fitted out, to undertake some new discovery or conquest. Seville and Cadiz were crowded with adventurers, all eagerly seeking for a passage to that marvellous land beyond the setting sun. It was, indeed, a time of wild excitement. Every ship that returned from the Indies might, and not a few did, bring tidings of the discovery of new and powerful empires before undreamt of. People of all ages and of every grade in society flocked to the sea ports, and took ship for the Indies; excited beyond control by the accounts of those inexhaustible riches and fabulous glories, which penetrated to every village in Spain. Among the leaders of these expeditions there were some honourable knights, with courteous manners and cultivated minds, such as Diego de Alvarado, Garcilasso de la Vega, and Lorenzo de Aldana.[3] But the majority were either coarse and avaricious adventurers, or disappointed courtiers, like that young scamp Alonzo Enriquez de Guzman, whom I introduced to the notice of the Hakluyt Society in 1862. Cieza de Leon, at the time of his embarkation, was a mere boy, too young to be classed under any of these heads. His character was destined to be formed in a rough and savage school, and it is most remarkable that so fine a fellow as our author really was, should have been produced amidst the horrors of the Spanish American conquest. Humane, generous, full of noble sympathies, observant, and methodical; he was bred amidst scenes of cruelty, pillage, and wanton destruction, which were calculated to produce a far different character. Considering the circumstances in which he was placed from early boyhood, his book is certainly a most extraordinary, as well as an inestimable result of his labours and military services.

It does not appear in what fleet our boy soldier set out from Spain; but judging from the date, and from the company in which we find him immediately on landing in America, I consider it more than probable that he sailed from his native land in one of the ships which formed the expeditionary fleet of Don Pedro de Heredia.

Heredia, who had already served with distinction on the coast of Tierra Firme, had obtained a grant of the government of all the country, between the river Magdalena and the gulf of Darien, from Charles V. He was a native of Madrid, where, having had his nostrils slit in a street brawl, he had killed three of the men who had treated him with this indignity. Forced to leave his native country, he took refuge in San Domingo, and a relation had interest enough to get him appointed as lieutenant to Garcia de Lerma, in an expedition to Santa Martha; whence he returned to Spain. He was a man of considerable ability, judgment, and determination, was respected by his own followers, and had already had some experience in Indian warfare. His lieutenant was Francisco de Cesar, one of the most dashing officers of the time.[4]

Heredia’s expedition, which consisted of one galleon and two caravels, carrying in all about a hundred men, sailed from Cadiz in the end of 1532. They first touched at San Domingo, where Heredia took on board more recruits, forty-seven horses, and some leathern cuirasses, which had been prepared as a protection against the poisoned arrows of the Indians. On the 14th of January 1533 the expedition entered the bay of Carthagena,[5] on the main land of South America, where the disembarkation of the Spaniards was bravely contested by the natives. In no part of Spanish America did the Indians more resolutely defend their homes, than along the coast of the Tierra Firme, as it was called; and young Cieza de Leon saw some very rough service on his first landing in the new world. Eventually Heredia succeeded in founding the city of Carthagena, of which he was the first governor, and in establishing a firm footing in the surrounding country: and for some three or four years the future author continued to serve under him. In 1535 Cieza de Leon accompanied Heredia’s brother Alonzo to the gulf of Darien or Uraba, where a settlement was formed called San Sebastian de Buena Vista.

Meanwhile, a judge, named Pedro Vadillo, was sent to Carthagena to examine into the proceedings of Heredia, with full powers from the Audiencia of San Domingo; and he threw the governor into prison. His violent proceedings were disapproved in Spain, and another lawyer was sent out to sit in judgment on the judge. The licentiate Vadillo, who seems to have been better fitted for a soldier than for a judge, resolved to perform some service, or make some discovery in the interval, the importance of which, in a military point of view, should secure oblivion for his misconduct as a lawyer. He, therefore, organised a force of four hundred Spaniards at San Sebastian de Uraba, and, setting out early in 1538, crossed the mountains of Abibe, and advanced up the valley of the Cauca.

Cieza de Leon, then in his nineteenth year, accompanied Vadillo in this bold adventure as a private soldier. It was now upwards of five years since he first landed in the new world, the whole of which time had been spent by him in severe and dangerous service in the province of Carthagena. At an age when most boys are at school, this lad had been sharing in all the hardships and perils of seasoned veterans; and even then he was gifted with powers of observation far beyond his years, as is proved by his very interesting account of the Indians of Uraba.[6] Amongst other things he tells us that the women of Uraba are the prettiest and most loveable of any that he had seen in the Indies.

The expedition of Vadillo was one of those desperate undertakings which, common as they were in the history of those times, still fill us with astonishment. Young Cieza de Leon took his share in the dangers and privations which were encountered, and which none but men endowed with extraordinary bravery and fortitude could have overcome.

After marching over a low forest covered plain, the explorers had to cross the mountains of Abibe, “where the roads were assuredly most difficult and wearisome, while the roots were such that they entangled the feet of both men and horses. At the highest part of the mountains there was a very laborious ascent, and a still more dangerous descent on the other side.” At this point many of the horses fell over the precipices and were dashed to pieces, and even some of the men were killed, while others were so much injured that they were left behind in the forests, awaiting their deaths in great misery. On one occasion our young soldier was posted as a sentry on the banks of a stream whence some kind of centipede dropped from a branch, and bit him in the neck. He adds that he passed the most painful and wearisome night he ever experienced in his life. At length Vadillo’s gallant little band completed their march over the terrible mountains of Abibe, and entered the pleasant valleys ruled by the cacique Nutibara. Thence the bold licentiate marched up the valley of the Cauca.

In this march the Spaniards suffered terribly from want of proper food, the difficulties of the road, and the constant attacks of the Indians. They clamoured for a retreat to the coast, but this did not suit the views of Vadillo, who knew that imprisonment probably awaited him at Carthagena; and, when the discontent of his men became formidable, he drew his sword and rushed alone into the woods, crying out that, let who would go back, he should press on till he met with better fortune. The troops were ashamed to desert him, and eventually they reached Cali, in the upper part of the Cauca valley. Here at length he was abandoned by all his followers, and went on almost alone to Popayan, whence he returned to Spain.[7]

The followers of Vadillo joined those of Lorenzo de Aldana,[8] who was then governing Popayan for Pizarro, and many of them returned down the valley of the Cauca again with an officer named Jorge de Robledo, who was commissioned to conquer and settle the country discovered by Vadillo. Among this number was our author, who witnessed the subjugation of the cannibal tribes of the Cauca, the foundation of several so-called cities, and the perpetration of much cruelty. He received a repartimiento of Indians in the province of Arma, for his services. Robledo returned to Spain, and came back with the title of marshal, and the grant of the government of a country with ill-defined limits, in 1546. The fierce and unscrupulous Sebastian de Belalcazar was then governor of Popayan. He claimed the territory which Robledo had occupied, and when that officer refused to retire, he surprised him at a place called Picara on the 1st of October, 1546, took him prisoner, and hung him, in spite of the entreaties of the unfortunate knight to be beheaded like a gentleman.[9] The cannibal Indians are said to have eaten the body. Cieza de Leon, who had served under Robledo for several years, makes the following remark on his death, in recapitulating the fate which overtook all the conquerors who were cruel to the natives: “The marshal Don Jorge Robledo consented to allow great harm to be done to the Indians in the province of Pozo, and caused many to be killed with cross-bows and dogs. And God permitted that he should be sentenced to death in the same place, and have for his tomb the bellies of Indians.”[10] Our young author joined the service of Belalcazar, on the death of Robledo.

Cieza de Leon began to write a journal of some kind, which formed the material for his future work, in the year 1541 at Cartago, in the Cauca valley, when serving under Robledo. He tells us that “as he noted the many great and strange things that are to be seen in this new world of the Indies, there came upon him a strong desire to write an account of some of them, as well those which he had seen with his own eyes, as those he had heard of from persons of good repute.”[11] He was then twenty-two years of age, and from that time he seems to have persevered, in spite of many difficulties, in keeping a careful record of all he saw and heard. “Oftentimes,” he says, “when the other soldiers were reposing, I was tiring myself by writing. Neither fatigue, nor the ruggedness of the country, nor the mountains and rivers, nor intolerable hunger and suffering, have ever been sufficient to obstruct my two duties, namely writing and following my flag and my captain without fault.”[12]

In 1547 the President Gasca landed in Peru, and marched against Gonzalo Pizarro, who was in open rebellion at Cuzco. All loyal officers were called upon to join the royal standard, and troops at Popayan were hurried south with this object. Cieza de Leon, now a stout young man at arms, was among them.[13] By this time he was a veteran of sixteen years service, with his intellect matured and sharpened in a rough and trying school, and every faculty on the alert. His habit of careful observation with a fixed object, and the practical life he was leading, render his remarks, on all he saw during this march, of the greatest value. Mr. Prescott says of him that “his testimony, always good, becomes for these events of more than usual value.”[14] The reinforcements from Popayan marched by Pasto and Quito to Tumebamba, then down to the sea-shore, and along the coast to Lima, then across the Andes again, by Xauxa and Guamanga, until they joined the army of the president Gasca in the valley of Andahuaylas.

Thus Cieza de Leon had the opportunity of seeing a very extensive and varied tract of country. Nothing escaped his observation. The ruins of palaces and store-houses, the great Ynca roads, the nature of the country, the products, the natural phenomena, the method of irrigation, the traditions,—all were carefully noted down by this indefatigable and intelligent young observer. He was present at the final rout of Gonzalo Pizarro, and at the subsequent trial and execution of that chief, and of his fierce old lieutenant Carbajal.[15] He afterwards went to Cuzco, and to the valleys to the eastward, and, in the year 1549, he undertook a journey to the silver-yielding province of Charcas, with the sole object “of learning all that was worthy of notice,”[16] under the special auspices of the President Gasca himself, who supplied him with letters of introduction. In travelling over the Collao, and along the shores of lake Titicaca, he tells us that “he stopped to write all that deserved mention concerning the Indians;”[17] and at Tiahuanaco “he wandered over all the ruins, writing down what he saw.”[18] He then visited the silver mines of Porco and Potosi, and returned to Lima, by way of Arequipa and the coast. At Lima our author finished writing his notes on the 8th of September, 1550, and sailed for Spain, after having passed seventeen years of his life in the Indies.

The first part of his intended work was published at Seville in 1553; and the author died in about 1560. We may gather from his writings that he was humane and generous in his dealings with the Indians, indignant at the acts of cruelty and oppression which he was forced to witness, that he was in the habit of weighing the value of conflicting evidence in collecting his information,[19] and that fuller reliance may be placed on his statements, than upon those of almost any other writer of the period. It is very much to be regretted that so little is known of the life of this remarkable man, beyond what he incidentally tells us himself.[20]

The young author commences his first part with a dedication to Philip II, in which, while dwelling on the grandeur and importance of his subject, he modestly says that he, an unlearned soldier, has undertaken it, because others of more learning were too much occupied in the wars to write. He began to take notes because no one else was writing anything concerning what had occurred, and he reflected that “time destroys the memory of events, in such sort that soon there is no knowledge of what has passed.” In his prologue he gives a full and detailed account of the four parts of his Chronicle, only the first of which has reached us. They were to contain respectively the geography, the early history, the conquest, and the civil wars of Peru. “The first part,” he says, “treats of the division of the provinces of Peru, as well towards the sea as inland, with the longitudes and latitudes. It contains a description of the provinces; an account of the new cities founded by the Spaniards, with the names of the founders, and the time when they were founded; an account of the ancient rites and customs of the native Indians, and other strange things very different from those of our country, which are worthy of note.” It is this part, the only one that was ever printed, which is now placed, for the first time in a translated form, in the hands of Members of the Hakluyt Society.

The work opens with a description of Panama; which is followed by a very accurate notice of all the anchorages and headlands along the west coast of South America, from that port to the southern part of Chile. Cieza de Leon seems to have taken much pains in collecting accurate information for the use of future navigators. “I have myself,” he says, “been in most of the ports and rivers which I have now described, and I have taken much trouble to ascertain the correctness of what is here written, having communicated with the dexterous and expert pilots who know the navigation of these ports, and who took the altitudes in my presence. I have taken no little trouble to ascertain the truth, and I have examined the new charts made by the pilots who discovered this sea.” He appears also to have collected reports from mariners who had sailed through the straits of Magellan, but they were lost, together with other papers and journals, which were stolen in the confusion consequent on the battle of Xaquixaguana.[21] The sailing directions of Cieza de Leon for the west coast of South America are among the earliest attempts of the kind. Information of the same sort is given in Dampier’s voyages; and these were the rude forerunners of the complete works of Admiral Fitz Roy, and other modern surveyors.

Having given the reader a clear idea of the coast of the great newly discovered empire of the Yncas, Cieza de Leon lands him in the gulf of Darien, and conducts him up the valley of the Cauca to Popayan.[22] This portion of his narrative is the more important, because no other writer has since given so complete an account of the Cauca valley. Cieza de Leon is still the best authority concerning this region, notwithstanding that more than three hundred years have elapsed since he wrote. It is true that Restrepo, in the beginning of this century, published a valuable memoir on Antioquia; and that such travellers as Cochrane, Mollien, and Holton have written accounts of Cali and Cartago, in the upper part of the valley of Cauca; but our author still stands alone in having given a full description of the whole length of this little-known valley. He not only describes the manners and customs of the aboriginal tribes, which all appear to have been addicted to cannibalism, but adds many very interesting pieces of information, such as a notice of the different kinds of bees, of the various methods of obtaining salt, and of the prevailing forms of animal and vegetable life.

From Popayan the reader is conveyed by this very pleasant companion along the great plateau of the Andes, by Pasto, Quito, and Riobamba, to Tumebamba, and Loxa.[23] Here, again, as indeed throughout the work, the nature of the country, the distances, the manners and customs of the natives, the climate, the staple products, and the animals to be met with, are all carefully noted. There are also descriptions of several ruined edifices, and a glowing account of the great road of the Yncas.[24] In this section, too, there is an excellent general sketch of the principal geographical features of Peru,[25] and some information respecting the origin and rise of the Ynca dynasty.[26]

The chapters relating to the emeralds of Manta, the giants on point Santa Elena, the island of Puna, and the city of Guayaquil, are derived from hearsay, as our author does not appear to have visited that part of the country; but he was careful to sift his authorities, and to weigh their value,[27] and in this, as in many other respects, he is far superior to most of the writers of his time. His chapter on the equator[28] shows that questions of geographical science attracted the attention of the young soldier; while his careful notes in connection with the absence of rain on the Peruvian coast,[29] are evidence that he was not unmindful of the natural phenomena of the strange land which he was exploring.

After traversing the valley of the Cauca, and the Cordillera of the Andes from Popayan to Loxa, Cieza de Leon descends to the Peruvian coast, and describes the sandy deserts, and every intervening fertile valley from Tumbez to Tarapaca.[30] Here again we have interesting accounts of the manners and customs of the natives, especially of the method of burying their dead; descriptions of ruins, of works of irrigation, and of the great coast road of the Yncas; and notices of the fruits, trees, and animals.

Having completed a survey of the coast valleys, Cieza de Leon returns to the Cordillera of the Andes, and describes the country from Caxamarca, by way of Huanuco, Xauxa, Guamanga, Andahuaylas, and Abancay, to Cuzco,[31] the capital of the empire of the Yncas. After devoting two chapters to the city of Cuzco,[32] he then gives an account of the lovely valleys and interminable tropical forests to the eastward;[33] and completes his extensive travels by a description of the cold region of the Collao, the shores of lake Titicaca, the imposing ruins of Tiahuanaco, and the silver-yielding provinces of Plata and Potosi. The interest of the latter part of this remarkable work is enhanced by the discussion of such points in physical geography as the drainage of lake Titicaca, and by information respecting the silver mines, the animals of the llama tribe found in Peru, the vegetable products of the country, and the progress of the Indians in the arts of building, weaving, dying, and working in silver, stone, and clay.

Such is a brief sketch of the contents of Cieza de Leon’s chronicle. Bearing evident marks of honesty of purpose, and skill in the selection of materials, on the part of its author, it is at the same time written by one who examined almost every part of the empire of the Yncas, within a few years of the conquest. It is, therefore, a work of the greatest possible value to the student of early South American history, and has always stood very high as an authority, in the estimation of modern historians. Among these, Mr. Prescott bears strong testimony to the merits of Cieza de Leon.[34]

The first part of the Chronicle of Peru, by Pedro de Cieza de Leon, was published at Seville (folio) by Martin Clement in 1553. A second edition, in duodecimo, was printed at Antwerp by the famous publisher Jean Steeltz, in 1554; and a third edition, translated into Italian by Augustino di Gravalis, appeared at Rome, from the press of Valerius Dorigius (octavo) in 1555. A copy of the first Seville edition, which is in black letter, fetched £10 at Lord Stuart de Rothesay’s sale a few years ago.

It would appear that the author completed the second and third parts of his Chronicle before his death, if not the fourth, and Mr. Rich found them at Madrid in manuscript;[35] but they have never been printed. The disappearance of the second part is by far the greatest loss that has been sustained by South American literature, since the burning of Blas Valera’s manuscript, when Lord Essex sacked Cadiz. It contained an account of the government of the Yncas, described their customs, laws, temples, and roads, and related the traditions connected with their origin and history. There can be no doubt that it was written, because Cieza de Leon, in his first part, frequently refers to special passages in it for further information. Our author had peculiar advantages for writing the history of ancient Peruvian civilisation. He was in Peru so soon after the conquest, that he had opportunities of conversing with many of the advisers and generals of the greatest of the Yncas; while his habits of careful observation, his caution, and his sound judgment on points unconnected with his religion, rendered him more fit to record the history of the Yncas, than even Garcilasso de la Vega, or any subsequent chronicler. For these reasons the loss of his second part can never be sufficiently deplored.

Before leaving my author to the reader’s judgment, it will be well to give some general idea of the great empire of the Yncas, as it appeared in the days when Cieza de Leon first gazed upon its snowy mountains, and at the same time to offer some account of what is known concerning the people who inhabited it. Such a sketch will form a fitting introduction to the agreeable chapters of the young Spaniard; and will, I trust, stimulate, in some degree, the interest with which they will be read.

There is scarcely any country in the world which presents so great a variety of aspects as that region, stretching from the Ancasmayu to the Maule, which once formed the empire of the Yncas. Within these wide limits there are snowy mountain peaks second only to the Himalayas in height; cold plains and bleak hills where a tough grass is the only vegetation; temperate valleys covered with corn fields and willow groves; others filled with richest sub-tropical vegetation; vast plains forming one interminable primeval forest traversed by navigable rivers; trackless sandy deserts; and fertile stretches of field and fruit garden on the Pacific coast. Cieza de Leon properly divides this region into four great divisions:—the uninhabitable frozen plains and mountain peaks, the temperate valleys and plains which intersect the Andes, the great primeval forests, and the deserts and valleys of the coast. It is a land of surpassing grandeur, and exceeding beauty. The snowy peaks of the Andes, upwards of twenty thousand feet above the sea, may be seen from the deserts of sand which fringe the coast, rising in their majesty from the plains, and towering up into a cloudless sky. In the northern and central part of this Peruvian cordillera, the mountain ranges are broken up into profound ravines and abysses, producing scenery of unequalled splendour. At one glance of the eye a series of landscapes may here be taken in, representing every climate on the globe. On the steep sides of one mountain are the snowy wilds and bleak ridges of the Arctic regions, the cold pastures of northern Scotland, the corn fields and groves of central Europe, the orange trees and vineyards of Italy, and the palms and sugar canes of the tropics. But it is in the lovely ravines which lead from the eastern slopes of the Andes to the virgin forests of the interior that nature has been most profusely decked with all the charms that can please the eye, and enriched with overflowing vegetable and mineral wealth. The forests here abound in those beautiful chinchona trees, the fragrance and beauty of whose flowers are almost forgotten because of the inestimable value of their bark. Slender and delicate palms and tree ferns of many kinds, matted creepers, and giant buttressed trees clothe the steep hill sides; and cascades and torrents unite to form rivers, whose sands sparkle with gold. Whether it be in these forest-covered valleys, in the stupendous ravines of the Cordillera, on the frozen heights, or amidst the sandy wildernesses of the coast, the scenery is ever on a scale either of sublime grandeur or of exquisite beauty. Rich, indeed, was the prize which the hardy comrades of Cieza de Leon won for the Castilian crown.

In contemplating this glorious region, one of the first thoughts that naturally suggests itself is that the early inhabitants must have been, to a great extent, isolated and shut out from all intercourse with their neighbours, by the almost insuperable obstacles which the nature of the country presents to locomotion; and this remark is equally applicable to every part of a country which is unequalled in the variety of its climates and of its general features. The spread of the empire of the Yncas is, considering all the circumstances, the most remarkable occurrence in the history of the American race; and one of its results was the destruction of all former land marks of tribe or creed, and the reduction of the numerous ancient nations of the Cordillera and the coast to one great family under one head, by a process not unlike that which takes place on the acquisition of every new province by modern France. Hence the great difficulty of obtaining any clear idea of the condition of the various tribes which inhabited Peru, at a date anterior to the Ynca conquests and annexations. A careful study of the subject, however, enables us at least to distinguish a few leading facts—namely that the region, which afterwards formed the empire of the Yncas, was originally peopled by a number of distinct nations, speaking different languages, and slowly advancing on independent paths of very gradual progress, though all bearing a strong family likeness to each other. I will briefly state what I have been able to gather respecting these aboriginal tribes, commencing with the Quichuas, that imperial race which eventually, under its renowned Yncas, swallowed up all the others.

In the central part of the Peruvian Cordillera, round the city of Cuzco, the country consists of cool but temperate plains and warm genial valleys. On the plains there were clumps of molle trees,[36] and crops of quinoa,[37] ocas,[38] and potatoes, while large flocks of llamas browsed on the coarse tufts of ychu grass. In the valleys the rich and abundant fields of maize were fringed by rows of delicious fruit trees—the chirimoya,[39] the paccay, the palta,[40] the lucuma, and the granadilla. This region was called in the native language—Quichua, and the inhabitants were Quichuas.[41]

The eventual predominance of these Quichuas may probably be accounted for by the superiority of the climate and natural conformation of their native country. While their neighbours, on the one hand, had to struggle painfully with the encroaching vigour of tropical forests, and, on the other, with the hardships of a sterile and half frozen alpine plateau, or with the isolation of small villages surrounded by trackless sandy deserts, the Quichuas were enjoying a warm though healthy climate, and reaping abundance from a fertile soil. They were placed in a position which was most advantageous for the complete development of all the civilisation of which that great family of mankind, to which they belong, are capable.

And they attained to that degree of civilisation by very slow and gradual advances. Many things, and especially the character of the people, lead to the belief that cycles of ages must have elapsed before these Quichuas were in a position to establish a superiority over their neighbours, and assume the position of an imperial people.

The Quichuas were a fine, well-developed race, of short stature. They were square shouldered, and broad chested, with small hands and feet, and a comparatively large head. The hair is black and long, and usually plaited into numerous minute plaits, and they have little or no beard. The eyes are horizontal with arched brows, the forehead high but somewhat receding, the nose aquiline and large, the lips thick, cheek bones rather high, and chin small. These people were gentle, hospitable, and obedient. They were good fathers and husbands, patient, industrious, intelligent, and sociable, and loved to live together in villages, rather than in scattered huts.[42] The women, when young, were exceedingly pretty and well shaped, and they held an honourable and respected place in society. The mass of the people were either farmers or shepherds. Each family had a piece of land apportioned to it by the State, often in well-built terraces up the sides of the mountains, on which the members either hoed and ploughed the soil, and raised crops of gourds, maize, potatoes, ocas, or quinoa; or they cultivated fruit trees; or, again, they tended flocks of llamas on the pasture lands, according to the situation of their little patrimonies. Their habitations were of stone or mud, covered with admirable thatched roofs,[43] they wove warm cloth from llama wool, made earthenware and stone vessels, manufactured tasteful ornaments of gold and silver, and used hoes, rakes, rude ploughs, and other simple agricultural implements.

One important test of the capacity of a people for civilisation is their ability to domesticate animals. The inferiority of the African, as compared with the Hindu, is demonstrated by the latter having domesticated the elephant and made it the useful and hard-working companion of man; while the former, during the thousands of years that he has inhabited the African continent, has never achieved any such result, and has merely destroyed the elephant for the sake of his ivory tusks. Now, in the case of the Quichuas, although their domesticated animals were few, they comprised all that were capable of domestication within the limits of their country. During the three centuries that Europeans have since been masters of Peru, not a single indigenous quadruped or bird has been added to the list. The domesticated animals of the Quichuas were the llama, the alpaca, a dog, the ccoy or guinea pig, and a duck. Besides these they tamed, as pets, the monkey, the parrot, the toucan,[44] a kind of gull frequenting the lakes of the Andes, a hawk, and several finches. The llama and alpaca do not exist in a wild state at all, and the variety in the colours of their fleeces seems to be a sign of long domestication. The huanacu and vicuÑa, the wild species of their family, have fleeces of a uniform and unalterable colour, and it probably took an incalculable period[45] to change the wild into the domesticated form. The llama served the Quichuas as a beast of burden, its flesh supplied them with food, its fleece with clothing, and its hide with thongs and sandals. The finer fleece of the alpaca was reserved for the use of the sovereign and his nobles.[46] Guinea pigs ran in hundreds about the huts, they were used as food, and the variety of their colours points out the length of time during which they had been in a domesticated state. The alco or dog was the companion of the Quichua shepherds; and the duck was bred in their homesteads for food, and for the sake of the feathers, which often formed a fringe for the women’s llicllas or mantles.

These simple Quichua farmers and shepherds seem to have kept many festivals, and other observances handed down to them by their fathers. A half philosophic sun worship was enjoined by their superiors, but the people retained an ancient habit of deifying and making household gods of their llamas, their corn, and their fruit. Their seasons of sowing and of harvest were celebrated by dancing and singing, and their songs, some of which have been preserved, were lively and graceful: but the chicha bowl flowed far too freely. A barbarous rite of burial was practised by these people in common with nearly all South American tribes, and is described in many places by Cieza de Leon; and they held the malquis or mummies of their dead in superstitious veneration.

The productiveness of the soil and the increasing prosperity of the people had, in the course of time, given rise to a governing class of Curacas and nobles, to a caste of Umus and Huaca-camayocs, or priests and diviners, and eventually to a despotic sovereign or Ynca, with a privileged royal family. This upper class had leisure, was exempted from ordinary toil, acquired numerous artificial wants, and therefore gradually developed that higher civilisation in the Quichua nation which eventually enabled it to spread its conquests over an immense region, and to consolidate a great and well organised empire.

The advances in civilisation of this upper class were by no means contemptible. The ruins at Cuzco, and in the neighbourhood, bear witness to their marvellous skill in masonry. Their buildings were massive, indeed Cyclopean, but the huge stones were cut and put in their places with extraordinary accuracy; and, although the general effect is plain and sombre, there was frequently some attempt at ornamentation. Such were the rows of recesses with sides sloping inwards, the cornices, and the occasional serpents and other figures carved in relief on the stones. The roofs, though merely of thatch, were thick and durable, and so artistically finished as to give a very pleasing effect to the buildings.[47]

In the furniture of their dwellings and the clothing of their persons the Ynca nobles had reached a high degree of refinement. Their pottery is especially remarkable, and the Peruvian potter gratified the taste of his employers by moulding vessels into every form in nature, from which he could take a model. Professor Wilson, who has carefully examined several collections of ancient Peruvian pottery, says—“Some of the specimens are purposely grotesque, and by no means devoid of true comic fancy; while, in the greater number, the endless variety of combinations of animate and inanimate forms, ingeniously rendered subservient to the requirements of utility, exhibit fertility of thought in the designer, and a lively perceptive faculty in those for whom he wrought.”[48] Many of these vessels, moulded into forms to represent animals and fruits, were used as conopas or household gods; others were for the service of the temple; others for interment with the malquis or mummies, and others for the use of the Yncas and their nobles. The common people used vessels of simple form. The Yncas also had drinking cups of gold and silver, beaten out very fine, and representing llamas, or human heads. Vessels of copper also, and plates and vases of stone with serpents carved round them in relief, are of frequent occurrence, as well as golden bracelets and breast-plates, and mirrors of silver or polished stone. Their knives and other cutting instruments were of copper, hardened with tin or silica.[49] Their clothing consisted of cloth woven from the wool of the llama, alpaca, and vicuÑa; the latter as fine as silk and undyed, for its own rich chestnut colour was sufficiently becoming. They had attained to great proficiency in the art of weaving and dyeing. Tasteful designs were woven in the cloth, which was dyed flesh colour, yellow, gray, blue, green, and black; for they knew the art of fixing dyes extracted from vegetable substances, so that the cloth will never fade.[50] They ornamented their robes, tunics, rugs, and blankets with fringes, borders of feathers, and also by sowing on them rows of thin gold and silver plates, sometimes square, at others cut into the shape of leaves and flowers. They also adorned wooden seats and couches, by covering them with these thin plates of gold and silver. The interior of a hall in the palace of an Ynca was thus filled with articles of luxury. The great doors, with the sides gradually approaching, were often ornamented with a cornice, and finished above with a huge stone lintel. The walls of solid masonry, beautifully cut and polished, had small square windows,[51] and deep recesses of the same size, at intervals. The walls were hung with rich vicuÑa cloth fringed with bezants of gold and silver, or with llama cloth dyed with bright colours, and woven into tasteful patterns. The niches were filled with gold and silver statues, and with vases moulded into the shape of llamas, birds, and fruit. The floors were soft with rich carpets and rugs, and the seats and couches were plated with gold. Numerous small chambers opened on the great halls, and the baths were fitted up with metal spouts in the form of serpents, from which the water flowed into stone basins.[52]

The intellectual advancement of the Quichua people had kept pace with the increase in their material comforts; and their religious belief, their literary culture, their discoveries in the sciences of astronomy and mechanics, and their administrative talent, if not of a very high order, at least prove very clearly that they were not incapable of attaining a respectable rank amongst civilised nations. During the last two centuries of their existence as an independent people, their progress was very rapid.

The religion of the Yncas and their nobles was, as is well known, a worship of the celestial bodies, and especially of the sun; that of the cultivators and shepherds a reverence for every object in nature—for their llamas, for their corn, for their fruits, for hills and streams, and above all for the malquis or mummies of their dead. To all these, sacrifices of the fruits of the earth were made. The more spiritual worship of the men of leisure was combined with complicated ceremonial observances, gorgeous temples, and an influential caste of priests, wise men, and virgins. The worship of the sun, and the great importance attached to its apparent course, as connected with the seasons of sowing and reaping, led to the acquirement of some astronomical knowledge, but there is no evidence that any great progress was made in this direction. The Chibchas of Bogota and the Aztecs of Mexico were in advance of the Quichuas in astronomical science. The Yncas knew the difference between the solar and lunar year, they had introduced intercalary days to reconcile that difference, and they observed the periods of the solstices and equinoxes. They also watched and recorded the courses of some of the stars, and of comets. They had a complete system of numerals, perfectly balanced pairs of scales have been found in Peruvian tombs, and their administrators must have been in the habit of making and recording very complicated revenue accounts. Their year was divided into twelve months, and great periodical festivals celebrated the periods of the solstices and equinoxes.[53] The proficiency of the Quichuas in mechanical science was of a high order, as is attested by their magnificent roads and aqueducts, and by the conveyance of Cyclopean blocks of stone for their buildings.

The language of the Quichuas was carefully cultivated during many centuries by the Haravecs or bards in their love ditties and songs of triumph, and by the Amautas or wise men, whose duty it was to preserve the traditions of the people, and to prepare the rituals for the worship of the Deity; and their literary productions in prose and verse were preserved by means of the quipus. The Quichua was a highly polished language, and the student who may turn his attention to the history of the South American races, will find in this rich and copious tongue many ancient fragments of prose and poetry which will convince him of the civilisation of the ancient Peruvians.[54] It is true that they had not discovered the use of letters, but it must be remembered that they were completely isolated and precluded from exchanging ideas with the other races of mankind. If no communication, direct or indirect, had existed between Phoenicia and the other countries of the old world, how many of them would, by their own unassisted genius, have discovered the use of letters. Would the Tamils and Canarese of India? Would the Malays of the islands? It may well be doubted; and, after all, the quipus, though a clumsy, were not altogether an inefficient substitute.[55]

But it is in their administrative arrangements that the intellectual progress of the Yncas is most strikingly displayed. Theirs was the most enlightened despotism that ever existed. The Ynca claimed to be Yntip-churi or “child of sun,” but his not less glorious title was Huaccha-cuyac or “friend of the poor.” His duty was to superintend the comfort and happiness of the people, and to take care that no family was without a topu or plot of ground sufficient for his maintenance. The net produce of the land was divided into three equal parts, one for the cultivators, the second for religious and charitable purposes, and the third for the Ynca and his government; including the clothing and maintenance of the nobles, and of soldiers, miners, potters, weavers, and other artizans. Curacas or chiefs were placed over the different districts, with subordinate officers under them, and a minute supervision was exercised over all matters connected with revenue and judicial administration. Crime was almost unknown.[56]

Such were the Quichuas, the representative people of the Peruvian Andes. To the eastward of their original territory, in the virgin forests which are traversed by the tributaries of the Amazon, dwelt the Antis and Chunchos, who wandered about in search of food, through the interminable wilderness of matted vegetation. They never seem to have made any progress; what they are now, such they were centuries ago: the nature of the country renders advancement impossible. Moreover they probably belong to the great Tupi-Guarani race of Brazil, and are distinct from the Peruvian tribes. To the south of the Quichuas, on either side of the upper valley of the Vilcamayu, were the wild shepherd tribes called Asancatus, Asillus, Cavinas, Canas, and Canches.[57] But still further south, beyond the VilcaÑota range of mountains, there was a great people, almost rivalling the Quichuas, who seem to have made some progress in civilisation, in the face of formidable natural difficulties. These were the Collas or Aymaras.

In the southern part of Peru the Cordillera of the Andes is divided into two chains. That to the eastward, containing the peaks of Illimani and Yllampu, consists of rocks of Silurian formation mixed with granite, and the peaks themselves are said to be fossiliferous to their summits. The other range to the westward is chiefly volcanic, and contains the famous volcano of Misti, and the glorious peaks of Chuquibamba and Chacani. Between these two chains of mountains there are lofty plateaux, never less than twelve thousand feet above the sea, the drainage of which flows into the great lake of Titicaca. Here there are no deep temperate valleys and ravines, nothing but bleak plains covered with coarse tufts of grass, with occasional patches of potatoe, quinoa, and oca. The climate is very severe, and the only trees, which are few and far between, are the stunted crooked queÑua (Polylepis villosa) and the dark leaved ccolli (Buddleia coriacea). In some places a low shrubby Baccharis is met with, which serves as fuel. This region, known as the Collao, was inhabited by the Aymara nation.

These Aymaras had to contend against a rigorous climate and an unproductive soil; they had none of the advantages enjoyed by their Quichua neighbours, and had consequently made slower advances in civilisation, but they were apparently an offshoot from the same common stock. The descendants of the Aymaras are shorter and more thick-set than those of the Quichuas, and their features are coarser and less regular. Cieza de Leon says that they flattened their skulls in infancy. They wore woollen cloths and square caps, and the women had hoods like those of a friar.[58] The land was too cold for maize, and the people lived on potatoes and ocas, which they preserved by drying them in the sun and then freezing them, for winter use. In this state they were called chuÑus. There were large flocks of llamas and alpacas, and wild vicuÑas on the unfrequented heights. The Aymaras lived in stone huts roofed with straw, which were built close together in villages, with the potatoe, oca, and quinoa fields around them.[59] Cieza de Leon states that the Collao was once very populous, and the numerous vestiges of former cultivation up the terraced sides of the mountains, bear witness to the truth of his assertion. The people were ruled by chiefs who were treated with great respect, and carried about in litters.

There is a mystery about the civilisation of the ancient Aymaras, which cannot now be solved. The origin and history of the extensive unfinished ruins at Tiahuanaco, near the southern shore of lake Titicaca, will for ever remain a secret; but there can be no doubt that a people who could form so magnificent a design, convey such huge blocks of stone from great distances, hew out the enormous monolithic doorways, and carve them with such minuteness of ornamental detail, must have been numerous, and civilised.[60] There are also remains of Aymara burial places in various parts of the Collao, especially on the peninsula of Sillustani, which consist of towers of hewn masonry.[61] We learn from Cieza de Leon that the Aymaras observed the movements of the sun and moon, and divided their year into ten months. He considered them to be a very intelligent people. He gives an account of their funeral ceremonies,[62] and a very interesting description of a harvest home among the Aymaras,[63] and states that they were often engaged in civil wars.[64] The Aymara language, which is still in common use on the banks of lake Titicaca, though identical with Quichua in grammatical construction, has a distinct vocabulary.[65] It is worthy of remark, however, that though the first few numerals in Aymara are indigenous, all the higher numbers are borrowed from the Quichua.[66] Next to the Quichuas, the Aymaras were by far the most important and civilised people in the Peruvian Andes; and though their climate and soil was against them, there is some ground for the opinion that their civilisation, such as it was, boasts of an origin more ancient than that of the Quichuas. But all such speculations are mere conjecture.

In the rich valleys and on the grassy mountain sides of the Central Peruvian Andes, to the westward of the Quichuas, dwelt three nations which were called by their future conquerors—the Chancas, Pocras, and Huancas.[67] They inhabited the districts now known as Abancay, Andahuaylas, Guamanga, and Xauxa. Little or nothing is known of their history anterior to their absorption into the empire of the Yncas, and if they had a distinct language, it must have been either very barbarous or very closely allied to Quichua, for no vestige of it has survived.[68] All the ruins which might have enabled us to form an idea of their skill in building, such as the temple of Huarivilca in the valley of Xauxa,[69] have entirely disappeared. It appears, however, that they were very fierce and warlike, that each village had a fortress, and that they made a desperate struggle for independence before they were finally subjugated by the Quichuas.[70]

North of Xauxa, the valleys and plateaux of the Cordillera were inhabited by the Conchucos, and by the Indians of Huamachuco, Caxamarca, Chachapoyas, and Bracamoras. This brings us to the frontier of Quito. The tribes of northern Peru are also said to have been warlike, and to have been incessantly engaged in feuds with each other.[71] They are described as intelligent industrious agriculturists, with some knowledge of the courses of the heavenly bodies, and the same customs of burying their dead and worshipping huacas in the form of stones or other natural objects, as prevailed among the masses of the Quichua people.[72]

We now come to the inhabitants of the numerous isolated fertile tracts on the Pacific coast, who were all known by the Yncas, as Yuncas or “dwellers in the warm valleys.”[73]

The Peruvian coast has been, geologically speaking, recently upheaved from the sea. It is a narrow strip of land, averaging a breadth of from ten to forty miles, confined on one side by the ocean, on the other by the magnificent Andes, which rise abruptly from the plains. The whole of this region consists of sandy desert, intersected by ranges of rocky hills, except where a stream flows down from the mountains to the sea, and forms an oasis of verdure and fertility. These pleasant valleys are in some parts of the coast of frequent occurrence, and are only separated by narrow strips of sand; while in others the trackless deserts extend for nearly a hundred miles without a break. It scarcely ever rains on the Peruvian coast, but a heavy dew, during part of the year, falls on the valleys.

The most ancient traces of the American race have been found on the Pacific coast, in the shape of middings or refuse heaps, similar to those in Denmark. These middings, which have been examined by Mr. Spruce at Chanduy and Amotape, consist of fragments of pottery, sea shells, and crystal quartz cutting instruments.[74] They are the remains of a very ancient people of what is called, in European archÆology, the stone age; and they suggest the possible existence of man in South America, contemporaneously with the post-pleistocene fossil vicuÑa of Corocoro. Be this how it may, there can be no doubt that the coast valleys of Peru had been inhabited for many centuries by Indian communities, which had made gradual progress in the improvement of their condition. Every part of these valleys, which could be reached by irrigation, was very fertile. Where irrigation ceased the desert commenced. The irrigated parts contained fields of cotton, of yucas, of maize, of aji pepper, of sweet potatoes, and of gourds; which were shaded by fruit trees festooned with passion flowers,[75] and by groves of algoroba (Prosopis horrida), of a sort of willow, and of the beautiful suchi (Plumieria). The most important traces of ancient civilisation are met with in the most extensive valleys, where the population was denser than in the smaller and more isolated oases.

The ancient works of irrigation in these valleys, now in ruins, excite the admiration of civil engineers who come to Peru to draw up schemes for imitating them.[76] Every square foot of land was under cultivation, none was wasted even for the sites of villages and temples, which were always built on the verge of the desert, or on the rocky spurs of the maritime cordillera, overlooking the algoroba woods, the groves of fruit trees, and the rising crops.[77] The fields were carefully manured, as well as watered by means of irrigating channels. In the valley of the Chilca they raised crops of Indian corn by putting two sardine heads into each hole with the grain, and thus the fish served for manuring the crops as well as for food.[78] The guano on the islands off the coast was also utilised as manure.[79] The houses were built of huge adobes, or bricks baked in the sun, with flat roofs of reed, plastered with mud; and the people were clothed in cotton dresses, which were very skilfully woven.[80] Their pottery was quite equal to that of the Quichuas, but at the same time clearly original in design; the vessels being made to imitate shells, fruit, fish, and other objects, which were familiar to the natives of the coast.

The great ruins at Caxamarquilla, at Pachacamac,[81] and of the Gran Chimu near Truxillo,[82] still afford evidence of the civilisation of the Yunca Indians, and of the wealth and power of their chiefs. The people were warlike, and the tribe inhabiting the Chincha valley is even said to have made incursions far into the heart of the Andes.[83] In the valley of the Rimac there are mounds or artificial hills of immense size, which appear to have been intended to afford protection against their enemies to the feudal lords; and to serve as a place of retreat for their retainers. A collection of ruins is almost always found at their feet, which formed the village of the tribe. Cieza de Leon gives a detailed account of the manners and customs of these Yunca chiefs, and of their subjects.[84] Nearly every valley had its independent chief and separate tribe; although some of the more powerful chiefs, such as the Grand Chimu, the Chuqui-mancu of the Rimac, and the Lord of Chincha, had extended their dominion over several valleys. The language of the coast was quite distinct from Quichua.[85]

In many parts of the coast the aboriginal Indians have been exterminated by Spanish cruelty, in others they have disappeared through frequent crosses with negroes, in others they have entirely lost, with their native language, all traces of the distinctive character which once marked their ancestors. It is exceedingly important, therefore, to obtain authentic information concerning any of the coast tribes which have retained their language and national characteristics; and the memoranda collected by Mr. Spruce at Piura, on this subject, which will be found in the accompanying note, contain some particulars of great interest.[86]

It will be natural to inquire whether a race, which had for centuries inhabited the valleys on the Pacific coast, had habitually navigated the ocean which was always in sight; and we find that they occasionally did venture to sea for fish, and that they undertook coasting voyages. The crooked algorobas, the willows, and fruit trees, afforded no suitable timber for boat-building; but the Yuncas supplied the place of timber by going afloat on inflated sealskins.[87] In this way they passed to and fro from the shore to the Guano islands, and, according to Acosta, they even went on long voyages to the westward.[88]

The kingdom of Quito, which eventually formed the most northern province of the empire of the Yncas, consists of a series of lofty plateaux from which rise the towering peaks of Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, and Chanduy; while both to the east and west a rich tropical vegetation fills the ravines which gradually subside on one side into the valley of the Amazon, and on the other into the Pacific coast. This region was inhabited by several aboriginal tribes, the most important of which were the CaÑaris, the Puruaes, and the Caras. Velasco relates that the Caras, after having been settled for about two hundred years on the coast of Esmeraldas, marched up the Andes and established themselves at Quito, where they were ruled by a succession of sovereigns called Scyris, until the country was conquered by the Yncas. These Caras are said to have been little advanced in architecture, but to have been dexterous in weaving fabrics of cotton and llama wool, and to have excelled as lapidaries. A great emerald in the head-dress was the distinguishing mark of the reigning Scyri.

But all this information respecting the early inhabitants of Quito, and more of the same sort, is derived from Velasco, who wrote only in the end of the last century. In truth, there are scarcely any reliable facts in the history of the people of Quito, previous to their subjugation by the Yncas, and all the remains of roads and buildings confessedly date from the times of Ynca domination.[89] Cieza de Leon gives some account of the inhabitants of the Quitenian Andes.[90]

The principal aboriginal nations which inhabited the great empire of the Yncas have now been passed in review. In the temperate valleys of central Peru were the Quichuas, the most powerful and civilised of all. To the eastward of them were the savage Antis and Chunchos in the great tropical forests. To the south were the wild shepherd tribes of Canas, Canches, and others; and still further south were the more civilised Aymaras, struggling against the difficulties of a rigorous climate. To the westward of Cuzco were the warlike Chancas, Pocras, Huancas, and other tribes; and on the coast were numerous tribes known to the Yncas by the collective name of Yuncas. Finally, in the kingdom of Quito, among others of less note, were the nations of Caras, Puruaes, and CaÑaris.

About three centuries before the arrival of Pizarro in Peru, the civilised and populous nation of Quichuas, feeling their superiority, began to make permanent and rapid conquests over the surrounding tribes in every direction. The date of the first commencement of these conquests cannot now be ascertained. Many centuries must have elapsed, and a long succession of Yncas must have reigned at Cuzco before an aggressive policy became the leading feature of their government; and there can be little doubt that their civilisation was indigenous, and not derived from any foreign source. The traditional Manco Ccapac may or may not have been the first Ynca, but there is no good reason for supposing that he was a foreigner; and I am decidedly of opinion that the Quichua civilisation is more likely to have required a period represented by the hundred Yncas of Montesinos, than by the dozen of Garcilasso de la Vega, for its full development.[91] But all the early traditions are probably fictitious, and the first really historical personage we meet with is the great conqueror Huiraccocha Ynca. This prince is frequently mentioned by Cieza de Leon,[92] and from his time the narrative of Ynca rule is clear and I think trustworthy. It was gathered, by our author and others, from the mouths of the old Ynca statesmen and generals, who told what they had themselves seen, and what they had heard from their sires and grandsires. It would appear, however, that, even before the time of Huiraccocha, the Quichuas had already extended their sway into some of the tropical valleys inhabited by the Antis and Chunchos, had subjugated the Canas and Canches, and, taking advantage of the civil wars of the Aymaras, had annexed the wide plains of the Collao and of Charcas, and the campiÑa of Arequipa.

The reigns of the last five Yncas were very long, and when the mummy of Huira-ccocha was discovered by the Corregidor Ondegardo,[93] it was found to be that of a very old man. We are justified, therefore, in placing his reign in the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century, contemporary with Edward I. of England.

Huira-ccocha organised an army, and, after having defeated the united forces of the Chancas, Pocras and Huancas, in the great battle of Yahuar-pampa, annexed the whole of the central part of the Peruvian Andes to his dominions.[94] The generals of his son and successor Pachacutec conquered the rich valleys of Xauxa and Caxamarca,[95] and the coast districts inhabited by the Yuncas.[96] Pachacutec’s son, the Ynca Yupanqui, made extensive conquests in the rich forest-covered tropical plains to the eastward of Cuzco, which were completed by his son Tupac Ynca Yupanqui.[97] The latter monarch extended his dominions as far as Tucuman and Chile on the south, and to the extreme limit of the kingdom of Quito on the north. Lastly, the famous Huayna Ccapac, during a long reign, consolidated and brought into subjection this vast empire.[98]

These conquests, extending over a period of about two centuries and a half or more, were not achieved without much hard fighting and stubborn resistance on the part of the invaded nations. This was especially the case with the Yuncas of the Pacific coast. The Yncas, however, succeeded in permanently establishing their power more by conciliation than by force of arms; and though their disciplined troops, wielding battle-axes, clubs and spears,[99] did good execution on the day of battle; yet the liberal treatment of the vanquished, and their experience of the benefits of Ynca rule, were far more efficacious agents in giving security to the new government.[100] At the same time, in cases of treachery or revolt, the Yncas were capable of terrible severity, as in the case of the slaughter at Yahuar-ccocha, described by Cieza de Leon, which was perpetrated under orders from Huayna Ccapac.[101]

During this period of conquest the Quichuas probably made more rapid progress in civilisation than they had done during many previous centuries. By becoming the dominant race over a vast region, their views became enlarged, their wants increased, and they learnt many things from communication with their conquered neighbours. Instead of being confined to the products of their native valleys, the Quichuas now obtained gold[102] and their beloved coca leaf[103] from the eastern forests; increased supplies of silver and copper from the country of the Aymaras; emeralds from Quito; fish from the Pacific Ocean; aji pepper, cotton fabrics, and an improved system of irrigation from the coast valleys. They also learnt from the vanquished the use of many medicinal herbs and vegetable dyes.

They had become an imperial race, and Cuzco was henceforward an imperial city,[104] to which the chiefs and retainers of a hundred tribes, all distinguished by peculiar head-dresses,[105] flocked to do homage to their common sovereign. Then it was that great palaces were erected. Then the famous fortress, with its Cyclopean stones, rose on the Sacsahuaman hill.[106] Then the Ccuri-cancha blazed forth in its almost fabulous splendour.[107] In short, all the works of the Yncas of imperial magnificence or importance date from this period of busy conquest, and some of them, such as the fortress of Ollantay-tambo, were in course of construction when the Spaniards arrived, and they remain unfinished. At this time, too, those wonderful lines of road were constructed, running from Cuzco east, west, north, and south, overcoming every natural obstacle, and affording the means of rapid communication from the capital to the extreme frontiers of the empire.[108] There were tampus or lodgings at short intervals, and public buildings for officials, for storing tribute, and for collecting necessaries for an army, were erected in almost every valley along the line of the roads.

The organisation of every branch of the government of this great empire displays extraordinary administrative ability on the part of the Yncas. Perhaps their most remarkable institution was the system of mitimaes or colonists, which is fully explained by Cieza de Leon.[109] Combined with their policy of superseding all local idioms by the rich and cultivated Quichua,[110] this system of mitimaes would soon have cemented the numerous conquered nations and tribes into one people, speaking one language.

If good government consists in promoting the happiness and comfort of a people, and in securing them from oppression; if a civilising government is one which brings the means of communication and of irrigating land to the highest possible state of efficiency, and makes steady advances in all the arts,—then the government of the Yncas may fairly lay claim to those titles. The roads, irrigating channels, and other public works of the Yncas were superior to anything of the kind that then existed in Europe. Their architecture is grand and imposing. Their pottery and ornamental work is little inferior to that of Greeks and Etruscans. They were skilled workers in gold, silver, copper, bronze, and stone. Their language was rich, polished, and elegant. Their laws showed an earnest solicitude for the welfare of those who were to live under them. Above all, their enlightened toleration, for the existence of which there are the clearest proofs, is a feature in their rule which, in one point of view at least, and that a most important one, raises them above their contemporaries in every part of the world.[111]

Cieza de Leon bears testimony to the excellence of the government of the Yncas. The intelligent young soldier seems to have been astonished at the order and regularity, the beneficence and forethought which prevailed in the government of that empire which had just been shattered by his cruel countrymen. He says that the Yncas ruled with such wisdom that few in the world ever excelled them;[112] and, in another place, he comes to the conclusion that “if the ancient polity had been preserved, it would not have failed to bring the Indians nearer to the way of good living and conversation; for few nations in the world have had a better government than the Yncas.”[113]

But our author came to Peru fifteen years after the seizure of Atahualpa by Pizarro, and, short as the interval was, a terrible devastation had spread over the length and breadth of the land. Over and over again Cieza de Leon mentions the destruction of the people. In every valley he entered, they had been killed by the Spaniards by thousands, and their buildings reduced to ruins.[114] In many districts the whole population had been exterminated. In one place he says—“Nearly all these valleys are now almost deserted, having once been so densely peopled, as is well known to many persons.” He heard of misery and cruelty in every part of the land. He saw the palaces and store houses of the Yncas in ruins, the flocks slaughtered, the grand roads destroyed, and the posts for pointing the way in the deserts used for fire wood.[115] His barbarian countrymen pulled down the great works of irrigation,[116] and turned thousands of acres of fertile land into desert.

These sights excited the indignation of the humane and observant man at arms, who in this, as in many other respects, proved his superiority of head and heart over his brutal companions. Cieza de Leon felt warmly for the wrongs of the Indians, and devotes a chapter to show how God chastises those who are cruel to them.[117] But he was so steeped in the superstition of his age and country that all the simple rites of the Indians appeared to him to be the work of the devil, and in every harmless ceremony he saw the cloven feet. He tells us that the old men of every tribe in the Indies conversed with the enemy of mankind, and he mocks at their burying food with their dead for the journey to the other world, “as if hell was so very far off.”[118] The whole population of America was destined, according to our author, to eternal torments in the next world; yet it is unjust to blame him for asserting a belief which is held at the present day, and by the most tolerant church in Christendom.[119]

When uninfluenced by religious prejudices, he writes with an impartiality which does him the highest credit. He laments over the condition of the Indians, deplores the wanton destruction of their public works, and condemns the barbarity of the Spaniards. His superstitious folly is the result of his education, his merits are all his own. In arrangement, in trustworthiness, in accuracy, and in the value of his observations, the work of Cieza de Leon stands higher than that of any contemporary chronicler: and these qualities in his book are enhanced by the romantic life and noble disposition of its author. Cieza de Leon will, I think, be found an agreeable companion over a country of no common interest, at a most important period of its history; and so I consign him to the favourable attention of the members of the Hakluyt Society.

Which treats of the boundaries of provinces, their
description, the founding of new cities, the rites and customs
of the Indians, and other strange things worthy to
be known.
Written by
PEDRO DE CIEZA DE LEON.
A NATIVE OF SEVILLE.
colophon
IN ANTWERP,
IN THE HOUSE OF JEAN STEELTZ.
M.D.LIIII.
Con privilegio.

TO THE MOST HIGH AND MOST PUISSANT
LORD DON PHILIP, PRINCE OF THE
SPAINS, OUR LORD.

Most high and most puissant Lord,—

AS not only the notable deeds of many very brave men, but also numerous events worthy of perpetual memory in different provinces, have remained in the shades of oblivion for want of writers who will record them, and of historians who will narrate them; I, therefore, having crossed over to the New World, where I have passed the greater part of my time serving your Majesty in wars and discoveries, in which service I have always taken much delight, have determined to undertake the history of the events in the great and memorable kingdom of Peru. I went to it by land from the province of Carthagena, where, and in the province of Popayan, I was for many years. After I had been in your Majesty’s service in that last war, which ended in the overthrow of the rebels and tyrants, I thought over the great wealth of Peru, the wonderful things in its provinces, the stirring events of its early history and of more recent times, and how much there was both in the one and the other period which was worthy of note. Then it was that I resolved to take up my pen and accomplish the desire I had conceived to perform a signal service for your Highness, holding it to be certain that your Highness would receive it without noticing the weakness of my powers, but rather judging my intention, and, in your royal clemency, receiving the will with which I offer this book to your Highness. It treats of that great kingdom of Peru of which God has made you Lord. I do not fail to consider, O most serene and gracious Lord, that to describe the wonderful things of this great kingdom of Peru would require one who could write like Titus Livius, or Valerius, or some other of the great writers that have appeared in the world, and that even they would find some difficulty in the task. For who can enumerate the mighty things of Peru? the lofty mountains and profound valleys over which we went conquering and discovering? the numerous rivers of such size and depth? the variety of provinces, with so many different things in each? the tribes, with all their strange customs, rites, and ceremonies? so many birds, animals, trees, fishes, all unknown? Besides all these things, who can worthily describe the unheard-of labours which a handful of Spaniards passed through in this vast country? Who can imagine the events of those wars and discoveries, extending over sixteen hundred leagues of country? the hunger, thirst, death, terrors, and fatigue which were suffered? Concerning all these things there is so much to relate, that any writer would be tired out in writing it. For this cause, most puissant Lord, I have collected the most important events which I myself saw or heard, into this history. I have not the audacity to place it before the judgment of an unkind world, but I entertain the hope that your Highness will protect and defend it as a thing belonging to yourself, so that I may freely dare to walk under your protection. For many writers, fearing the same thing, have sought for Princes of great note to whom they might dedicate their works, and some of these works have never been read by any one, being so fantastic and absurd. But what I have written here is concerning true and important things, both pleasant and useful, which have happened in our time; and I dedicate my work to the greatest and most powerful Prince in the world, who is your Highness. The attempt savours of temerity in so unlearned a man, but others of more learning are too much occupied in the wars to write. Oftentimes, when the other soldiers were reposing, I was tiring myself by writing. Neither fatigue nor the ruggedness of the country, nor the mountains and rivers, nor intolerable hunger and suffering, have ever been sufficient to obstruct my two duties, namely, writing and following my flag and my captain without fault. Having written this work under such difficulties, and it being dedicated to your Highness, it seems to me that my readers ought to pardon any faults which, in their judgments, they may find in it. If they refuse to pardon these faults, it must suffice for me that I have written the truth, for this is what I have most carefully sought after. Much that I have written I saw with my own eyes, and I travelled over many countries in order to learn more concerning them. Those things which I did not see, I took great pains to inform myself of, from persons of

good repute, both Christians and Indians. I pray to Almighty
God that, as He was served by giving to your Highness
so great and rich a kingdom as Peru, He will
leave you to live and reign for many
happy years, with increase of
many other kingdoms
and lordships.