Volume 4 / Part 2 / Book 2 — CHAPTER VI.

HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF PERU, BY FRANCISCO PIZARRO, WRITTEN BY AUGUSTINO ZARATE, TREASURER OF THAT KINGDOM, A FEW YEARS AFTER THE CONQUEST.

INTRODUCTION.

The present chapter, like that immediately preceding from the pen of Bernal Diaz, although in strict language neither a journey nor a voyage, records in every step of the conquerors a new discovery of coasts, islands, rivers, districts, and tribes, that had never been visited before. In conformity with our uniform desire to have recourse upon all occasions to the most authentic original authorities for every article admitted into this collection, so far as in our power, the work of Zarate has been chosen as the record of the discovery and conquest of Peru, in preference to any modern compilation on the same subject. As we learn from himself, Zarate was a person of rank and education, who went into Peru in 1543, only eighteen years after the first movements of Pizarro and Almagro towards the discovery of that extensive country, and only eleven years after its actual invasion by Pizarro in 1532. From the illustrious historian of America, Dr William Robertson, the work which we now offer to the public for the first time in the English language, has the following high character: "The history of Zarate, whether we attend to its matter or composition, is a book of considerable merit, and great credit is due to his testimony." Besides this general eulogy; in his enumeration of six original authors whom he had consulted in the composition of that portion of his History of America which refers to Peru, he clearly shews that Zarate alone can be considered as at the same time perfectly authentic and sufficiently copious for the purpose we have at present in view. The substance of his account of all the six is as follows.

"Two of the more early writers on the subject of the discovery and conquest of Peru, Francisco de Xeres, the secretary of Pizarro, and Pedro Sanchez, an officer who served under the conqueror, break off almost in the introduction to the narrative, going no farther into the history of the conquest than the death of Atahualpa in 1533, only one year after the invasion of Peru. The third in point of time, Pedro Cioca de Leon, only two years earlier in his publication than Zarate, gives nothing more than a description of the country, and an account of the institutions and customs of the natives. Zarate is the fourth. The fifth, Don Diego Fernandez, solely relates to the dissentions and civil wars among the Spanish conquerors. The sixth and last of these original authors, Garcilasso de la Vega Inca, the son of a Spanish officer of distinction by a Coya, or Peruvian female of the royal race, gives little more than a commentary on the before mentioned writers, and was not published till 1609, seventy five years after the invasion of Peru by Pizarro[1]."

[1] History of America, note cxxv.

In the Bibliotheque des Voyages, VI. 319. mention is made of a Description of Peru as published in French in 1480, and said to be a very rare work: Rare, indeed, if the imprint be not an error, fifty-two years before the actual invasion and discovery. In the same useful work, the performance of Zarate is thus characterized. "The author has not confined his views to the history and conquest of Peru, but has given us a statement of the natural features of the country, an account of the manners of the inhabitants, and a curious picture of the religious opinions and institutions of the Peruvians."

Four of the six original authors respecting Peru which are noticed by Robertson, we have not seen; having confined our views to that of Zarate, which is not only the best according to the opinion of that excellent judge, but the only one which could answer the purpose of our present collection. In preparing this original work for publication, it is proper to acknowledge that we have been satisfied with translating from the French edition of Paris, 1742; but, besides every attention to fidelity of translation, it has been carefully collated throughout with the Royal Commentary of the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, as published in English by Sir Paul Rycaut, knight, in 1688; and with the excellent work of Dr Robertson. It may be proper to mention, however, that the following translation, though faithful, has been made with some freedom of retrenching a superfluity of useless language; though nothing has been omitted in point of fact, and nothing altered.

Having mentioned the work of Garcilasso de la Vega, which we have employed as an auxiliary on the present occasion, it may be worth while to give a short account of it in this place: For there never was, perhaps, a literary composition so strangely mixed up of unconnected and discordant sense and nonsense, and so totally devoid of any thing like order or arrangement, in the whole chronology of authorship, or rather of book-making, as has been produced by this scion of the Incas. No consideration short of our duty to the public, could have induced us to wade through such a labyrinth of absurdity in quest of information. It is astonishing how the honest knight could have patience to translate 1019 closely printed folio pages of such a farrago; and on closing the work of the Inca for ever, we heartily joined in the concluding pious thanksgiving of the translator, Praised be God. This enormous literary production of the Inca Garcilasso, is most regularly divided and subdivided into parts, books, and chapters; which contain here a little history, then digressions on manners, customs, opinions, ceremonies, laws, policy, arts, animals, vegetables, agriculture, buildings, &c. &c. &c. intermixed with bits and scraps of history, in an endless jumble; so that for every individual circumstance on any one of these topics, the pains-taking reader must turn over the whole work with the most anxious attention. We quote an example, taken absolutely at random, the titles of the Chapters of Part I. Book ix.

Chap. I. Huayna Capac makes a gold chain as big as a cable, and why. II. Reduces ten vallies of the coast. III. Punishes some murderers. IV.-VII. Incidents of his reign, confusedly related. VIII. Gods and customs of the Mantas. IX. Of giants formerly in Peru. X. Philosophical sentiments of the Inca concerning the sun. XI. and XII. Some incidents of his reign. XIII. Construction of two extensive roads. XIV. Intelligence of the Spaniards being on the coast. XV. Testament and death of Huayna Capac. XVI. How horses and mares were first bred in Peru. XVII. Of cows and oxen. XVIII.-XXIII. Of various animals, all introduced after the conquest. XXIV.-XXXI. Of various productions, some indigenous, and others introduced by the Spaniards. XXXII. Huascar claims homage from Atahualpa. XXXIII.-XL. Historical incidents, confusedly arranged, all without dates.

The whole work is equally confused at best, and often much more so; often consisting of extracts from other writers, with commentaries, argumentations, ridiculous speeches, miracles, and tales recited by old Incas and Coyas, uncles aunts and cousins of the author. To add to the difficulty of consultation, Sir Paul, having exhausted his industry in the translation, gives no table of contents whatever, and a most miserable Index which hardly contains an hundredth part of the substance of the work. Yet the author of the Bibliotheque des Voyages, says "that this work is very precious, as it contains the only remaining notices of the government, laws, manners, and customs of the Peruvians."--Ed.

PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR.

After having enjoyed the office of secretary to the royal council of Castille for fifteen years, the king was graciously pleased to order me to Peru in 1543, as treasurer-general of that province and of the Tierra Firma; in which employment I was entrusted with the entire receipt of the royal revenues and rights, and the payment of all his majesties officers in those countries. I sailed thither in the fleet which conveyed Blasco Nugnez Vela the viceroy of Peru; and immediately on my arrival in the New World, I observed so many insurrections, disputes, and novelties, that I felt much inclined to transmit their memory to posterity. I accordingly wrote down every transaction as it occurred; but soon discovered that these could not be understood unless the previous events were explained from which they originated. I found it necessary, therefore, to go back to the epoch of the discovery of the country, to give a detail of the occurrences in their just order and connection. My work might perhaps have been somewhat more perfect, if I had been able to compose it in regular order while in Peru; but a brutal major-general, who had served under Gonzalo Pizarro[1], threatened to put any one to death who should presume to write a history of his transactions, so that I was obliged to satisfy myself with collecting all the documents I could procure for enabling me to compose my history after returning into Spain. He was perhaps right in wishing these transactions might fall into oblivion, instead of being transmitted to posterity.

[1] Even the orthography of the name of Pizarro is handed down to us with some variety. In the work of Garcilasso de la Vega it is always spelt Piçarro: Besides which, the Inca Garcilasso, in his almost perpetual quotations of our author Zarate, always gives the name Carate; the ç, or cerilla c, being equivalent in Spanish to the z in the other languages of Europe.--E.

Should my style of writing be found not to possess all the polish that my readers may desire, it will at least record the true state of events; and I shall not be disappointed if it only serve to enable another to present a history of the same period in more elegant language and more orderly arrangement. I have principally directed my attention to a strict regard for truth, the soul of history, using neither art nor disguise in my description of things and events which I have seen and known; and in relating those matters which happened before my arrival, I have trusted to the information of dispassionate persons, worthy of credit. These were not easy to find in Peru, most persons having received either benefits or injuries from the party of Pizarro or that of Almagro; which were as violent in their mutual resentments as the adherents of Marius and Sylla, or of Caesar and Pompey of old.

In all histories there are three chief requisites: the designs, the actions, and the consequences. In the two latter particulars I have used all possible care to be accurate. If I may not always agree with other authors in regard to the first of these circumstances, I can only say that such is often the case with the most accurate and faithful historians. After I had finished this work, it was my intention to have kept it long unpublished, lest I might offend the families of those persons whose improper conduct is therein pourtrayed. But some persons to whom I had communicated my manuscript, shewed it to the king during his voyage to England, who had it read to him as an amusement from the tiresomeness of the voyage. My work had the good fortune to please his majesty, who honoured it with his approbation, and graciously commanded me to have it printed; and which I have the more readily complied with, as his royal commands may protect my book from the cavils of the censorious readers.

* * * * *

Much difficulty occurs respecting the origin of the people who inhabited Peru and the other provinces of America, and by what means their ancestors could have crossed the vast extent of sea which separates that country from the old world. In my opinion this may be explained from what is said by Plato in his Timaeus, and the subsequent dialogue entitled Atlantis. He says: "That the Egyptians report, to the honour of the Athenians, that they contributed to defeat certain kings who came with a numerous army by sea from the great island of Atlantis, which, beginning beyond the Pillars of Hercules, is larger than all Asia and Africa together, and is divided into ten kingdoms which Neptune gave among his ten sons, Atlas, the eldest, having the largest and most valuable share." Plato adds several remarkable particulars concerning the customs and riches of that island; especially concerning a magnificent temple in the chief city, the walls of which were entirely covered over with gold and silver, having a roof of copper, and many other circumstances which are here omitted for the sake of brevity; though it is certain that several customs and ceremonies mentioned by Plato are still practised in the provinces of Peru. Beyond the great island of Atlantis, there were other large islands not far distant from the Firm Land, beyond which again was the True Sea. The following are the words which Plato attributes, in his Timaeus, to Socrates, as spoken to the Athenians. "It is held certain, that in ancient times your city resisted an immense number of enemies from the Atlantic Ocean, who had conquered almost all Europe and Asia. In those days the Straits were navigable, and immediately beyond them there was an island, commencing almost at the Pillars of Hercules, which was said to be larger than Asia and Africa united; from whence the passage was easy to other islands near and opposite to the continent of the True Sea." A little after this passage, it is added. "That nine thousand years before his days, a great change took place, as the sea adjoining that island was so increased by the accession of a prodigious quantity of water, that in the course of one day it swallowed up the whole island; since when that sea has remained so full of shallows and sand banks as to be no longer navigable, neither has any one been able to reach the other islands and the Firm Land."

Some authors hare believed this recital to be merely allegorical, while most of the commentators on Plato considered it as a real historical narrative. The nine thousand years, mentioned by Plato, must not be considered as an indication of this discourse being fabulous; since, according to Eudoxus, we must understand them as lunar years or moons, after the Egyptian mode of computation, or nine thousand months, which are seven hundred and fifty years. All historians and cosmographers, ancient as well as modern, have concurred to name the sea by which that great island was swallowed up, the Atlantic Ocean, in which the name of that ancient island is retained, giving a strong evidence of its former existence. Adopting, therefore the truth of this historical fact, it must be granted that this island of Atlantis, beginning from the Straits of Gibraltar near Cadiz, must have stretched a vast way from north to south, and from east to west, since it was larger than all Asia and Africa. The other islands in the neighbourhood must have been those now named Hispaniola, Cuba, Porto Rico, Jamaica, and others of the West Indies; and the Firm Land, that part of the Continent to which we still give the name of Tierra Firma, together with the other countries and provinces of America, from the Straits of Magellan in the south to the extreme north; as Peru, Popayan, Golden Castille, Veragua, Nicaragua, Guatimala, New Spain, the Seven Cities, Florida, Baccalaos, and so on along the north to Norway. The authority of Plato is conclusive that the New World which has been discovered in our time, is the same Continent or Firm Land mentioned by that philosopher; and his True Sea must be that which we name the South Sea, or Pacific Ocean; for the whole Mediterranean, and all that was before known of the Ocean, which we call the North Sea, can only be considered as rivers or lakes in comparison with the vast extent of that other sea. After these explanations, it is not difficult to conceive how mankind in ancient times may have passed from the great island of Atlantis and the other neighbouring isles, to what we now call the Tierra Firma, or Firm Land, and thence by land, or by the South Sea, into Peru: As we must believe that the inhabitants of these islands practised navigation, which they must have learned by intercourse with the great island, in which Plato expressly says there were many ships, and carefully constructed harbours. These, in my opinion, are the most probable conjectures which can be formed on this obscure subject of antiquity; more especially as we can derive no lights from the Peruvians, who have no writing by which to preserve the memory of ancient times. In New Spain, indeed, they had certain pictures, which answered in some measure instead of books and writings; but in Peru, they only used certain strings of different colours with several knots, by means of which and the distances between them, they were able to express some things in a very confused and uncertain manner, as shall be explained in the course of this history.

So much of the following history as relates to the discovery of the country, has been derived from the information of Rodrigo Lozan, an inhabitant of Truxillo in Peru, and from others who were witnesses of and actors in the transactions which I have detailed.

SECTION I.

Of the discovery of Peru, with some account of the country and its inhabitants.

The city of Panama is a port on the South Sea, in that province of the continent of America which is called Golden Castille. In the year 1524, three inhabitants of that city entered into an association for the purpose of discovering the western coast of the continent by the South Sea, in that direction which has been since named Peru. These were Don Francisco Pizarro of Truxillo, Don Diego de Almagro of Malagon, and Hernando de Luque, an ecclesiastic. No one knew the family or origin of Almagro, though some said that he had been found at a church door[1]. These men, being among the richest of the colonists of Panama, proposed to themselves to enrich and aggrandize themselves by means of discovering new countries, and to do important service to the emperor, Don Carlos V. by extending his dominions. Having received permission from Pedro Arias de Avila[2], who then governed that country, Francisco Pizarro fitted out a vessel with considerable difficulty, in which he embarked with 114 men. About fifty leagues from Panama, he discovered a small and poor district, named Peru, from which that name has been since improperly extended to all the country afterwards discovered along that coast to the south for more than 1200 leagues. Beyond that Peru, he discovered another district, to which the Spaniards gave the name of El Pueblo quemado, or the Burnt People. The Indians of that country made war upon him with so much obstinacy, and killed so many of his men, that he was constrained to retreat to Chinchama or Chuchama, not far from Panama.

[1] In a note of the French edition of 1742, it is said that, in the folio edition of Zarate printed at Seville in 1677, Luque was called the father of Almagro, and that no mention is made of that ecclesiastic having taken any part in the expedition. Robertson, in his History of America, II. 273, says that Pizarro was the natural son of a gentleman of honourable family by a low woman, and that his education was so entirely neglected that he could neither read nor write. He adds that, after serving some years in Italy, he embarked for America, where he greatly distinguished himself. In our last chapter, Diaz makes frequent mention of Pizarro as serving with reputation under Cortes, in the early part of the expedition to Mexico; but gives no account of his quitting the service of Cortes; to whom he was probably somehow related, as the mother of Cortes was named Catalina Pizarro Altamirano. Almagro, according to Robertson, was a foundling, and bred like Pizarro in the army. Luque acted as priest and schoolmaster at Panama, and had amassed considerable riches.--E.

[2] Named Pedrarias by Robertson.--E.

In the mean time, Almagro fitted out another vessel at Panama, in which he embarked with 70 men, and went along the coast in search of Pizarro as far as the river San Juan, a hundred leagues from Panama. Not finding him there, Almagro returned along the coast to the Pueblo quemado, where, from certain indications of Pizarro having been there, he landed with his men. The Indians, puffed up with the remembrance of the victory they had gained over Pizarro, attacked Almagro with great courage, and did him considerable injury; and one day they even penetrated the entrenchment he had thrown up for defence, through some negligence in the guards, and put the Spaniards to flight, who were forced to retreat with loss to their vessel and put to sea, on which occasion Almagro lost an eye. Following the shore on the way back towards Panama, Almagro found Pizarro at Chinchama[3]. Pizarro was much pleased by the junction of Almagro, as by means of his men, and some additional soldiers they procured in Chinchama, they had now a force of two hundred Spaniards. They accordingly recommenced the expedition, endeavouring to sail down the coast to the southwards in two vessels and three large canoes. In this navigation they suffered great fatigue from contrary winds and currents, and were much incommoded when they attempted to land in any of the numerous small rivers which fall into the South Sea, as they all swarmed at their mouths with large lizards, or alligators, called caymans by the natives. These animals, are ordinarily from twenty to twenty-five feet long, and kill either men or beasts when in the water. They come out of the water to lay their eggs, which they bury in great numbers in the sand, leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun. These caymans have a strong resemblance to the crocodiles of the river Nile. The Spaniards suffered much from hunger in this voyage, as they could find nothing fit to eat along this coast except the fruit of a tree called mangles, which grew in great abundance everywhere along the shore. These trees are tall and straight, and have a very hard wood; but as they grow on the shore, their roots being drenched in sea water, their fruit is salt and bitter; yet necessity obliged the Spaniards to subsist on them, along with such fish as they could find, particularly crabs; as on the whole of that coast no maize was grown by the natives. From the currents along this coast, which always set strongly to the north, they were obliged to make their way by dint of constant rowing; always harassed by the Indians, who assailed them with loud cries, calling them banished men, and hairy faces, who were formed from the spray of the sea, and wandered about without cultivating the earth, like outcasts and vagabonds.

[3] Chinchama, by the map in Zarate is that part of the western coast of Tierra Firma or Darien, opposite the Isla del Rey. The poor province of Peru, beyond or to the southwards of Cinchama, is that now called Biruquete; and the Pueblo quemada, or Burnt People, must be looked for in the province of Novita, perhaps Nounamas, immediately to the south of which is the river of St Juan.--E.

Having lost several of his men through famine and by the incessant attacks of the Indians, it was agreed that Almagro should return to Panama for recruits and provisions. Having procured twenty-four, they advanced with these and the remains of their original force to a country named Catamez[4], considerably beyond the river of St Juan, a tolerably peopled country, in which they found plenty of provisions. The Indians of this part of the coast, who were still hostile, were observed to have certain ornaments of gold, resembling nails, inserted into holes made for that purpose in different parts of their faces. Almagro was sent back a second time to Panama, to endeavour to procure a larger force, and Pizarro retired in the mean time to the small island of Gallo somewhat farther to the north, near the shore of the Barbacoas, and not far from Cape Mangles, where he and his people suffered extreme hardships from scarcity of provisions, amounting almost to absolute famine.

[4] Tacamez, otherwise called the district of Esmeraldas, or of emeralds, is in the kingdom of Quito near the equinoctial line.--E.

On the return of Almagro to Panama for reinforcements, he found the government in the hands of Pedro de los Rios, who opposed the design of Almagro to raise recruits, because those with Pizarro had secretly conveyed a petition to the governor, not to permit any more people to be sent upon an enterprize of so much danger, and requesting their own recal. The governor, therefore, sent an officer to the Isle of Gallo, with an order for such as were so inclined to return to Panama, which was eagerly embraced by the greatest part of the soldiers of Pizarro, twelve only remaining along with him. Not daring to remain with so small a force in an island so near the main land, Pizarro retired to an uninhabited island named Gorgona, about 70 miles farther north, and considerably more distant from the coast than Gallo, in which island, which had abundance of springs and rivulets, he and his small band of faithful associates, lived on crabs in expectation of relief and reinforcement from Panama. At last a vessel arrived with provisions, but no soldiers, in which Pizarro embarked with his twelve men, to whose courage and constancy the discovery of Peru was owing. Their names deserve to be handed down to posterity: Nicolas de Ribera, Pedro de Candia a native of the Greek island of that name, Juan de Torre, Alfonso Briseno, Christoval de Peraulte, Alfonso de Truxillo, Francisco de Cuellar, and Alfonso de Molina[5]. The pilot of the vessel in which they embarked was named Bartholomew Bruyz, a native of Moguer. Under the guidance of this man, but with infinite difficulty from contrary winds and adverse currents, Pizarro reached a district named Mostripe[6], about equally distant from the two places since built by the Christians, named Truxillo and San Miguel. With the very small number of men who accompanied him, Pizarro dared not to advance any farther along the coast, and contented himself with going a small way up the river Puechos or de la Chira[7]; where he procured some of the sheep[8] of the country, and some of the natives on purpose to serve him as interpreters in the sequel. Returning from thence, Pizarro went northwards to the port of Tumbez on the south-side of the bay of Guayaquil, where he was informed that the king of Peru had a fine palace, and where the Indians were said to be very rich. This place was one of the most extraordinary in the country, until it was ruined by the inhabitants of the island of Puna, as will be related hereafter. At this place, three of his men deserted, who were afterwards put to death by the Indians.

[5] Instead of twelve, the text only names eight of the brave associates of Pizarro.--E.

[6] Morope, in lat. 6° 35', in the district of Sana, is in the situation of the place mentioned in the text.--E.

[7] This river, otherwise called Amatape, runs into the bay of Payta, in lat. 5° 10' south.--E.

[8] Under the name of Peruvian sheep, five species of the Camel genus are known to naturalists, the Glama or Llama, Guanaco, Chillihueque, Vicugna, and Pacos. The three former were used as animals of burthen by the native Peruvians, and domesticated, the two latter, especially the Vicugna, are valuable for the firmness of their fleeces. The three larger species carry loads of about a hundred pounds weight, the other two, when domesticated, may be made to carry smaller burdens of from fifty to seventy-five pounds.--E.

After these discoveries, Pizarro returned to Panama, having spent three years in this voyage, counting from his first leaving Panama, in which time he was exposed to many dangers fatigues and privations, by the opposition and hostilities of the Indians, and through famine, and more than all distressed by the discontents and mutinies of his people, most of whom lost all hope of success, or of deriving any advantage from the expedition. Pizarro soothed their fears and encouraged their perseverance by every means in his power, providing for their necessities with much prudent care, and bearing up against every difficulty with astonishing firmness and perseverance: leaving to Almagro to provide men arms and horses, and necessaries of all kinds for the enterprize. These two officers, from being the richest of the settlers in Panama at the commencement of their enterprize, were now entirely ruined and overwhelmed in debt; yet did they not despair of ultimate success, and resolved to prosecute the discovery of which a very promising commencement had now been made[9].

[9] It was now towards the close of 1527, the third year from the first departure of Pizarro from Panama.--Robertsons America, II. 281.

In concert with his associates Almagro and Luque, Pizarro went to Spain, to lay an account before the king of the discovery which he had made, and to solicit the appointment of governor of that country, of which he proposed to prosecute the discovery, and to reduce it under the dominion of the crown of Spain. His majesty granted his demand, under those conditions which used to be stipulated with other officers who engaged in similar enterprizes. With this authority, he returned to Panama, accompanied by Ferdinand, Juan, and Gonzalo Pizarro, and Francisco Martin de Alcantara, his brothers. Ferdinand and Juan Pizarro were his brothers both by father and mother, and the only lawful sons of Gonzalo Pizarro, an inhabitant of Truxillo in Old Spain, a captain in the infantry regiment of Navarre: Don Francisco Pizarro himself and Gonzalo Pizarro were natural sons of the elder Gonzalo Pizarro by different mothers: Francisco de Alcantara was likewise the brother of Don Francisco Pizarro, by his mother only, but by a different father[10]. Besides these, Pizarro brought as many men from Spain to assist in his enterprize as he could procure, being mostly inhabitants of Truxillo and other places in Estremadura[11].

[10] Robertson, II. 284. gives a different account of these four relations of Francisco Pizarro from Zarate. According to him, Ferdinand was the only lawful son of old Gonzalo Pizarro; Francisco, Juan, and the younger Gonzalo being all natural sons; and Francisco de Alcantara was the uncle of Don Francisco, being the brother of his mother. In the sequel, the conqueror of Peru shall be always mentioned by the single name of Pizarro, distinguishing his brothers by the addition of their Christian names. While in Spain, Pizarro received a supply of money from Cortes, under whom he had served in the early part of the conquest of Mexico.--E.

[11] His commission from the crown of Spain, imposed the condition of raising 250 men, and to supply the ships and warlike stores necessary for the expedition; but his funds and credit were so low that he could hardly complete half the number, and had to steal away from the port of Seville to elude the examination of the officers as to the fulfilment of his contract.--Robertsons America, II. 284.

On his arrival at Panama in 1530, Pizarro and his associates used every effort to complete the preparations for the enterprize; but at first a dispute arose between him and Almagro. The latter complained that Pizarro had only attended to his own interests when at the court of Spain, having procured the appointments of governor and president of Peru for himself, without making any mention of Almagro, or at least without having procured any office for him, who had borne the far greater proportion of the expences hitherto incurred. Pizarro alleged that the king had refused to give any office to Almagro, though solicited by him for that purpose: But engaged his word to renounce the office of president in his behalf, and to supplicate the king to bestow that appointment upon him. Almagro was appeased by this concession; and they proceeded to make every preparation in concert that might be conducive to the success of the undertaking. But, before entering upon the narrative of their actions, it seems proper to give some account of the situation of Peru, of the most remarkable things which it contains, and of the manners and customs of the inhabitants.

The country of Peru, of which this history is intended to treat, commences at the equator, and extends south towards the antarctic pole[12]. The people who inhabit in the neighbourhood of the equator have swarthy complexions; their language is extremely guttural; and they are addicted to unnatural vices, for which reason they care little for their women and use them ill[13], The women wear their hair very short, and their whole clothing consists of a short petticoat, covering only from the waist to about the knees. By the women only is the grain cultivated, and by them it is bruised or ground to meal, and baked. This grain, called maize in the West-Indian Islands, is called Zara in the language of Peru[14]. The men wear a kind of shirts or jackets without sleeves, which only reach to the navel, and do not cover the parts of shame. They wear their hair short, having a kind of tonsure on their crowns, almost like monks. They have no other dress or covering, yet pride themselves on certain ornaments of gold hanging from their ears and nostrils, and are particularly fond of pendants made of emeralds, which are chiefly found in those parts of the country bordering on the equator. The natives have always concealed the places where these precious stones are procured, but the Spaniards have been in use to find some emeralds in that part of the country, mixed among pebbles and gravel, on which account it is supposed that the natives procured them from thence. The men also are fond of wearing a kind of bracelets, or strings of beads, of gold and silver, mixed with small turquoise stones and white shells, or of various colours; and the women are not permitted to wear any of those ornaments.

[12] It is impossible to give any competent geographical account of this extensive country in the compass of a note. Proper Peru begins at the river Tumbez in the gulf of Guayaquil, in about lat. 3° 20' S. and extends S.S.E. along the Pacific Ocean to the desert of Atacama, which divides it from Chili, in lat. 21° 28 S. an extent of about 1200 miles; consisting of two remarkably different tracts of country. A narrow valley along the Pacific Ocean, seldom so much as 70 miles in breadth, bounded on the east by the enormous main ridge of the Andes; beyond which are many elevated vallies or table lands of various extent, divided by collateral ridges and branches of the Andes, from each other and from the prodigiously extensive plains of the vast Orinoco Maranon and La Plata rivers. Quito, which had been annexed to the kingdom of Peru, only a short time before the Spanish conquest, is similarly situated, both as to maritime vale, and elevated table land, immediately to the north of Peru proper, and seems to have reached from lat. 3° 20' S. to about lat, 1° N. but is now included in the viceroyalty of New Granada which reaches to the Carribbean sea, with which it is connected by the river Magdalena.--E.

[13] The substance of this description appears to refer entirely to that province of the kingdom of Quito which is named Esmeraldas or Tacamez, on both sides of the equator.--E.

[14] Various reasons have been assigned for the origin of the word Peru, as the name of the empire of the Incas, unknown to themselves, at least in that sense. The most probable derivation is from the river Piura, near its northern frontier, where it was first visited by Pizarro.--E.

The country is exceedingly hot and unwholesome, and the inhabitants are particularly subject to certain malignant warts or carbuncles of a dangerous nature on the face and other parts of the body, having very deep roots, which are more dangerous than the small-pox, and almost equally destructive as the carbuncles of the plague. The natives have many temples, of which the doors always front the east, and are closed only by cotton curtains. In each temple there are two idols or figures in relief resembling black goats, before which they continually burn certain sweet-smelling woods. From this wood a certain liquor exudes, when the bark is stripped off, which has a strong and disagreeable flavour, by means of which dead bodies are preserved free from corruption. In their temples, they have also representations of large serpents, to which they give adoration; besides which every nation, district, tribe or house, had its particular god or idol. In some temples, particularly in those of certain villages which were called Pafao, the walls and pillars were hung round with dried bodies of men women and children, in the form of crosses, which were all so thoroughly embalmed by means of the liquor already mentioned, that they were entirely devoid of bad smell. In these places also they had many human heads hung up; which by means of certain drugs with which they were anointed, were so much shrunk or dried up as to be no bigger than a mans fist[15].

[15] This circumstance is unintelligible, as the bones could not shrink, unless by supposing these human heads to have been the heads of small apes, resembling human faces. The expression of the text, immediately before, of human carcasses hung up in the form of crosses, ought perhaps to have been rendered instead of crosses.--E.

This country is extremely dry, as it very seldom has any rain, and its rivulets are few and scanty; so that the people are reduced to the necessity of digging pit-wells, or of procuring water from certain pools or reservoirs. Their houses are built of large canes or reeds. It possesses gold, but of a very low quantity; and has very few fruits. The inhabitants use small canoes hollowed out of the trunks of trees, and a sort of rafts which are very flat. The whole coast abounds in fish, and whales are sometimes seen in these seas. On the doors of the temples in that district which is called Caraque, the figures of men are sometimes seen, which have dresses somewhat resembling those of our deacons.

Near the last mentioned province, at Cape St Helena in the province of Guayaquil, there are certain springs or mineral veins which give out a species of bitumen resembling pitch or tar, and which is applied to the same purposes. The Indians of that country pretend that in ancient times it was inhabited by giants, who were four times the height of ordinary men[16]. The Spaniards saw two representations of these giants at Puerto viejo, one of a man and the other of a woman, and the inhabitants related a traditionary tale of the descent of a young man from heaven, whose countenance and body shone like the sun, who fought against the giants and destroyed them with flames of fire. In the year 1543, Captain Juan de Holmos, lieutenant-governor of Puerto viejo, caused a certain valley to be carefully examined, in which these giants were were said to have been destroyed, and in which ribs and other bones of prodigious size were dug up, which fully confirmed the traditions of the Indians[17]. The natives of this country have no knowledge whatever of writing, nor had they even any use of that method of painting employed by the Mexicans for preserving the memory of ancient events, which were handed down from father to son merely by traditionary stories. In some places indeed they used an extraordinary means for preserving the remembrance of important events, by certain cords or strings of cotton called Quippos, on which they represented numbers by knots of different kinds, and at regulated intervals, from units up to dozens, and so forth; the cords being of the same colours with those things which they were intended to represent. In every province, there are persons who are entrusted with the care of these quippos, who are named Quippo camayos, who register public matters by means of these coloured strings and knots artificially disposed; and it is wonderful with what readiness these men understand and explain to others events that have happened several ages ago. There are public buildings throughout the country which are used as magazines of these quippos.

[16] A good deal more is said of these giants, both by Zarate and Garcilasso de la Vega, p. 363, but so vague and absurd as not to be worth insertion. The whole story seems to have arisen out of the colossal representation of a man and woman at Puerto viejo.--E.

[17] This is merely a repetition of the big bones of Mexico and the Ohio, already referred to the Mammoth, or animal ignotum.--E.

To the south of the equator, and near the coast, is the island of Puna[18], about twelve leagues in circumference, containing abundance of game, and having great quantities of fish on its shores. It has plenty of fresh water, and was formerly very populous, its inhabitants being almost continually engaged in war, especially with the people of Tumbez, which is twelve leagues distant to the south. These people wore shirts, above which they had a kind of woollen garments. They went to sea in a peculiar kind of flats or rafts, made of long planks of a light wood fixed to two other cross planks below them to hold them together. The upper planks are always an uneven number, usually five, but sometimes seven or nine; that in the middle, on which the conductor of the float sits and rows, being longer than the others, which are shorter and shorter toward the sides, and they are covered by a species of awning to keep those who sit upon them from the weather. Some of these floats are large enough to carry fifty men and three horses, and are navigated both by oars and sails, in the use of which the Indians are very expert. Sometimes, when the Spaniards have trusted themselves on these floats, the Indian rowers have contrived to loosen the planks, leaving the christians to perish, and saving themselves by swimming. The Indians of that island were armed with bows and slings, and with maces and axes of silver and copper. They had likewise spears or lances, having heads made of gold very much alloyed; and both men and women wore rings and other ornaments of gold, and their most ordinary utensils were made of gold and silver. The lord of this island was much feared and respected by his subjects, and so extremely jealous of his women, that those who had the care of them were not only eunuchs, but had their noses cut off. In a small island near Puna, there was found in a house the representation of a garden, having the figures of various trees and plants artificially made of gold and silver.

[18] Puna is in the bay of Guayaquil, in lat. 3° S. and is near thirty leagues in circumference, being about ten leagues long by five in breadth.--E.

Opposite to the island of Puna on the main land, there dwelt a nation or tribe which had given so much offence to the king of Peru, that they were obliged as a punishment to extirpate all their upper teeth; in consequence of which, even now, the people of that district have no teeth in their upper jaws. From Tumbez for five hundred leagues to the south along the coast of the south sea, and for ten leagues in breadth, more or less according to the distance between the sea and the mountains, it never rains or thunders. But on the mountains which bound that maritime plain, there are both rain and thunder, and the climate has the vicissitudes of summer and winter nearly as in Spain. While it is winter in the mountain, it is summer all along the coast; and on the contrary, during the summer on the mountain the coast has what may be termed winter. The length of Peru, from the city of St Juan de Parto to the province of Chili lately discovered, is above 1800[19] leagues of Castille. Along the whole of that length, a vast chain of exceedingly high and desert mountains extends from north to south, in some places fifteen or twenty leagues distant from the sea, and less in others. The whole country is thus divided into two portions, all the space between the mountains and the sea being denominated the plain, and all beyond is called the mountain.

[19] The estimate in the text is exceedingly erroneous. The city of Parto is in lat. 1° 12' N. and the Rio de Loa, or commencement of the desert of Atacama, in lat. 21° 26' S. which give only a difference of nearly 25 degrees of latitude, which at 17-1/2 Spanish leagues to the degree are only 438 leagues. Even supposing the text to include Chili, which extends to 39° 21' S. the whole extent of Peru and Chili is only 753 Spanish leagues.--E.

The whole plain of Peru is sandy and extremely arid, as it never has any rain, and there are no springs or wells, nor any rivulets, except in four or five places near the sea, where the water is brackish. The only water used by the inhabitants is from torrents which come down from the mountain, and which are there formed by rain and the melting of snow, as there are even very few springs in the mountainous part of the country. In some places, these torrents or mountain-streams are twelve fifteen or twenty leagues distance from each other, but generally only seven or eight leagues; and travellers for the most part are under the necessity of regulating their days journies by these streams or rivers, that they may have water for themselves and cattle. Along these rivers, for the breadth of a league, more or less according to the nature of the soil, there are some groves and fruit-trees, and maize fields cultivated by the Indians, to which wheat has been added since the establishment of the Spaniards. For the purpose of irrigating or watering these cultivated fields, small canals are dug from the rivers, to conduct the water wherever it is necessary and where that can be done; and in the construction of these the natives are exceedingly ingenious and careful, having often to draw these canals seven or eight leagues by various circuits to avoid intermediate hollows, although perhaps the whole breadth of the vale may not exceed half a league. In all these smaller vales along the streams and torrents, from the mountain to the sea, the country is exceedingly fertile and agreeable. Several of these torrents are so large and deep, such as those of Santa, Baranca, and others, that without the assistance of the Indians, who break and diminish for a short time the force of the current, by means of piles and branches forming a temporary wear or dike, the Spaniards would be unable to pass. In these hazardous passages, it was necessary to get over with all possible expedition, to avoid the violence of the stream, which often rolled down very large stones. Travellers in the plain of Peru, when going north or south, almost always keep within sight of the sea, where the torrents are less violent, owing to the greater flatness of the plain as it recedes from the mountain. Yet in winter the passage of these torrents is extremely dangerous, as they cannot be then forded, and must be crossed in barks or floats like those formerly mentioned, or on a kind of rafts made of gourds inclosed in a net, on which the passenger reclines, while one Indian swims before pulling the raft after him with a rope, and another Indian swims behind and pushes the raft before him.

On the borders of these rivers there are various kinds of fruit-trees, cotton-trees, willows, and many kinds of canes, reeds, and sedges. The watered land is extremely fertile, and is kept under continual cultivation; wheat and maize being sown and reaped all the year through. The Indians in the plain seldom have any houses, or at best a kind of rude huts or cabins made of branches of trees, often dwelling under the shade of trees, without any habitation whatever. The women are habited in long dresses of cotton which descend to their feet; while the men wear breeches and vests which come down to their knees, and have a kind of cloak or mantle thrown over their shoulders. They are all dressed in a similar manner, having no distinctions except in their head-dresses, according to rank or the different districts of the country; some wearing a tuft of wool, others a single cord, and others several cords of different colours. All the Indians of the plain are distributed into three orders; the first named Yungas, the second Tallanes, and the third Mochicas. Every province has its own peculiar language or dialect, different from all the rest. But all the caciques or principal people and nobles of the country, besides the language peculiar to their respective countries or districts, were obliged to understand and speak the language of Cuzco. One of the Peruvian kings, named Huana Capac, the father of Atahualpa or Atabalipa, was much displeased that the caciques and principal people of his empire should be under the necessity of employing interpreters when they had occasion to speak to him; and gave orders that all the caciques and their relatives should send their children to reside at court, to be instructed in the language of Cuzco which was spoken by the Incas. This was the ostensible reason of the measure; but in reality he wished to have these children in his power, to serve as hostages for the loyalty of their parents. By this means, all the nobles of the land came to understand the peculiar language of Cuzco which was spoken at court; just as in Flanders all the nobles and persons of any rank speak French. Owing to this circumstance, as the Spaniards have learnt the language of the Incas, or of Cuzco, they are able to converse with all the principal natives of Peru, both those of the mountain and of the plain.

It may appear difficult to some of my readers to comprehend why no rain should fall in the plain of Peru, considering that the country is bounded along the whole of one side by the sea, where many vapours are constantly ascending, and on the other side by a vast range of mountain which is always enveloped in rain or snow. Those who have carefully considered this singular phenomenon, allege that it is occasioned by the continual prevalence of a strong south-west wind all along the coast and over the whole plain of Peru, which carries off all the vapours which rise from the sea and the land, without allowing them to rise sufficiently high in the air to gather and fall down again in rain. From the tops of the high mountains, these vapours are often seen far beneath on the plain in thick clouds, while all is quite clear and serene on the mountain. By the perpetual blowing of the same wind, the waters of the South-sea have a constant current along the coast to the northward. Others allege a different reason for this current; saying, that the water of the South-sea having only a narrow outlet at the straits of Magellan, which are only two leagues broad, and being there opposed by the Atlantic Ocean, they are forced to return to the northward along the coast of Chili and Peru. This constant wind and current render the navigation exceedingly difficult, from Panama to Peru for the greater part of the year; so that vessels are obliged always to tack to windward against wind and current.

The whole coast of Peru abounds in fish of various kinds, among which are great quantities of sea-calves or seals, of several species. Beyond the river of Tumbez there are no caymans or alligators, which is supposed to be owing to the too great coolness of the sea and rivers, as these animals delight in heat; but it is more probable that their absence from the rivers of Peru is occasioned by their great rapidity, as they usually frequent rivers that are very still. In the whole extent of the plain there are only five cities inhabited by the Christians[20]. The first of these, Puerto Viejo, about one degree south of the line, has very few inhabitants, as it stands in a poor and unwholesome country, in which the principal production of value is a few emeralds. Fifty leagues to the southward, and about fifteen leagues from the coast, is the city of San Miguel, named Piuru by the Indians, in a pleasant and fruitful country, but which has no mines of gold or silver. Most people who have occasion to go there are liable to be afflicted with diseases of the eyes. Sixty leagues farther along the coast, is the city of Truxillo, two leagues from the sea, in the valley of Chimo, having a dangerous harbour of difficult approach. This city stands on the banks of a river in a fine plain, which is fertile in wheat and maize, and breeds great abundance of cattle, having plenty of excellent water. Truxillo is very regularly built, and is inhabited by about three hundred Spanish families. About eighty leagues from Truxillo to the south, and in the valley of Rimac, stands the city of Los Reys, or Lima, because it was founded at Epiphany, vulgarly called the day of the kings. This city is about two leagues from the harbour of Callao, an excellent and secure harbour, and is situated on a large river in a fine plain, abounding in grain, and in all kinds of fruit and cattle. All the streets are perfectly straight, and all of them lead towards the country, which may be seen from all parts of the city. This is a most agreeable residence, as the air is always temperate, being never either too hot or too cold at any season of the year. During the four months which constitute the summer in Spain, the air here is somewhat cooler than for the rest of the year; and every day from sun-rise to noon there falls a light dew, somewhat like the mists at Valladolid in Old Spain. Far from being injurious to health, this slight moisture is reckoned an infallible cure for headaches. This part of the country produces the same kinds of fruit as are found in Spain, particularly oranges, citrons, and lemons of all kinds, both sweet and sour, with figs and pomegranates. It might assuredly have produced grapes in great abundance, if the discords which have prevailed in this country had allowed the colonists to plant and cultivate the vine; as it already has several thriving vine plants which have grown from the pips of dried raisins. The neighbouring country produces all kinds of pot herbs and garden vegetables usually cultivated in Spain, in great perfection and abundance. Indeed every thing conspires to assist cultivation at this place, as every plantation has a canal from the river sufficiently large for a mill-stream; and on the main river, the Spaniards have several corn-mills. This city is universally reckoned the most salubrious and most agreeable residence in all Peru; and its harbour is so convenient for trade, that people come here from all parts of Peru to provide themselves with necessaries of all kinds, bringing with them the gold and silver which is so abundantly procured from the mines of the other provinces. For these reasons, and because it is nearly central to Peru, it has been chosen by his majesty for the residence of the royal court of audience, to which the inhabitants of all Peru have to carry their law-suits, by which means it is to be presumed that this place will in time become more considerable and very populous. Lima at present, 1550, contains five hundred houses; yet is larger than any city in Spain of fifteen hundred houses, as the square in the centre of the town is very large, and all the streets very wide, and because each house has a plot of eighty feet in front by twice that in depth. The houses likewise are all of one storey, as the country has no wood fit for joists or flooring-deals, every kind which it produces becoming worm-eaten in three years. The houses, however, are large and magnificent, and have many chambers and very convenient apartments. The walls are built on both sides of brick, leaving a hollow between of five feet, which is filled up with hard-rammed earth; in which manner the apartments are carried up to a convenient height, and the windows towards the street are raised considerably above the ground. The stairs leading up are towards the interior court, and in the open air, leading to galleries or corridors, which serve as passages to the several apartments. The roofs are formed of some rough timbers, not even hewn square, which are covered underneath by coloured matts like those of Almeria, or painted canvas, serving as ceilings, to conceal these clumsy joists: and the whole is covered over by way of roofing with branches of trees with their leaves, which keep the rooms cool and effectually exclude the rays of the sun. In this climate there is no call for any defence from rain, which never falls in the plain of Peru.

[20] This is only to be understood of the period when Zarate wrote, about the middle of the sixteenth century, or two hundred and fifty years ago. The first town he enumerates, Puerto Viejo, is now in the viceroyalty of New Granada.--E.

One hundred and thirty leagues still farther south, is the city of Villahermosa de Arequipa, containing about three hundred houses, in a very healthy situation, abounding in provisions. Though at twelve leagues distance from the sea, this place is very conveniently situated for trade, as vessels can easily import thither by the river Quilca all sorts of European commodities for the supply of the city of Cuzco and the province of Charcas, which are much frequented on account of the mines of Potosi and Porco; and from whence large quantities of silver are carried to Arequipa, to be transported by sea to Lima and Panama, which saves a vast expence and risk of land-carriage; now become more difficult since his majesty has forbidden those heavy burdens upon the Indians by which they were formerly oppressed. From this city we travel four hundred leagues by land along the coast of the South Sea to the province of Chili, which was discovered and in part colonized by the governor Pedro de Valdibia, or Baldivia. In the language of the Indians the word Chili signifies cold; and it was so named by the Peruvians because of the terribly cold mountains which were necessary to be passed on the way thither from Peru, as will be particularly mentioned when we come to detail the perilous enterprize undertaken by Don Diego de Almagro when he marched to discover that distant country. Such is a rapid view of that portion of Peru which is called the plain; to which must be added that the sea along its entire coast is always smooth and tranquil, from which it has been called the Pacific Ocean, being never vexed with storms, or disturbed by high and low tides; so that vessels can everywhere ride in perfect security at single anchor.

Those Indians who inhabit the mountainous regions of Peru are entirely different from the inhabitants of the plain, whom they vastly exceed in strength, courage, and mental abilities. They live in a much less savage manner, having houses covered with earth, and being clothed in shirts and mantles made from the wool of their sheep[21]; but their only head-dress consists in a species of bands or fillets. The women wear a species of vestments like shifts without sleeves, and gird their waists with several turns of a woollen girdle, which give them a neat and handsome shape; covering their shoulders with a mantle or plaid of woollen cloth like a large napkin, which they fix round the neck with a large skewer or pin of silver or gold called topos in their language, with large broad heads, the edges of which are sharpened so as to serve in some measure the purposes of a knife. These women give great assistance to their husbands in all the labours belonging to husbandry and household affairs, or rather these things fall entirely to their lot. Their complexions are much fairer, and their countenances, manners, and whole appearance, are greatly superior in all respects to the natives of the plain. Their countries likewise differ entirely; as instead of the sterile sands which are everywhere interspersed over the plain, the mountain is covered through its whole extent with verdure, and is everywhere furnished with rivulets and springs of fine water, which unite to form the torrents and rivers which descend so impetuously into the plain country. The fields are everywhere full of flowers and plants of infinite varieties, among which are many species like the plants which grow in Spain; such as cresses, lettuce, succory, sorrel, vervain, and others; and vast quantities of wild mulberries, and other fruit-bearing shrubs are found everywhere. There is one particular plant with yellow flowers, having leaves like those of celery, of most admirable virtues. If applied to the most putrid sore, it makes it quite clean and sweet in a short time; but if laid upon a sound place it soon eats to the very bone. There are many fruit-trees in this country of various kinds, carrying abundant crops of fruit as good as those of Spain without having the smallest care taken of them.

[21] The wool-bearing animals of Peru, improperly named sheep, are one or other of the species of camel already mentioned in a former note.--E.

There are great numbers of sheep in the mountainous region, part of which are domesticated by the Indians, but vast numbers of them are wild; likewise abundance of deer and roes, many foxes and other smaller animals. The natives often have public hunts of these animals, which they call chaco, in which they take great delight. Four or five thousand natives, more or less according to the population of the district, assemble together, and enclose two or three leagues of country by forming a circle, in which at first they are at considerable distances from each other, and by gradually contracting their circle, beating the bushes, and singing certain songs appropriated to the occasion, they drive all the animals of every kind before them to an appointed place in the centre. The whole company at length join in a small circle, holding each other by the hands, and hallooing loudly, by which the beasts are terrified from endeavouring to break through, and are easily taken in nets or even by the hand. Even partridges, hawks, and other birds, are often so astonished by the loud cries of the hunters as to fall down in the circle and allow themselves to be taken. In these mountains there are lions or pumas, black bears, wild cats of several kinds, and many species of apes and monkeys. The principal birds, both of the plain and the mountain, are eagles, pigeons, turtle-doves, plovers, quails, parroquets, falcons, owls, geese, white and grey herons, and other water fowl; nightingales and other birds of sweet song, many kinds of which have very beautiful plumage. There is one kind of bird very remarkable for its astonishing smallness, not being larger than a grasshopper or large beetle, which however has several very long feathers in its tail. Along the coast there is a species of very large vulture, the wings of which, when extended, measure fifteen or sixteen palms from tip to tip. These birds often make prey of large seals, which they attack when out of the water: On these occasions, some of the birds attack the animal behind; others tear out his eyes; and the rest of the flock tear him on all sides with their beaks, till at length they kill him, and tear him to pieces. Upon the coast of the South Sea there are great numbers of birds named alcatraz, somewhat like our ordinary poultry in shape, but so large that each individual may contain three pecks of grain in its crop. These birds feed mostly on fish which they catch in the sea, yet are fond of carrion, which they go in search of thirty or forty leagues inland. The flesh of these birds stinks most abominably, insomuch that some persons who have been driven to the necessity of eating it have died, as if poisoned.

It has been already said, that rain, hail, and snow, fall on the mountainous region of Peru, where in many places it is intensely cold: But in many parts of that region there are deep valleys in which the air is so hot, that the inhabitants have to use various contrivances to defend themselves from the excessive heat. In these vallies there is an herb called coca, which is held in very high estimation by the natives: Its leaf resembles that of the sumach, and the Indians have learnt from experience that, by keeping a leaf of that plant in their mouth they can prevent themselves for a long time from feeling either hunger or thirst. In many parts of the mountain there is no wood, so that travellers in those parts are obliged to use a species of earth which is found there for the purpose of fuel, and which burns very much like turf or peats. In the mountains there are veins of earth of various colours, and mines both of gold and silver, in which the natives are exceedingly conversant, and are even able to melt and purify these metals with less labour and expence than the Christians. For this purpose they construct furnaces in the mountains, placing always the door of the furnace towards the south, as the wind blows always from that point. The ores are put into these furnaces alternately with dried sheeps dung, which serves as fuel, and by means of the wind the fire is raised to a sufficient power to melt and purify the metal. In melting the vast quantities of silver which has been dug from the mines of Potosi, the furnaces constructed with bellows were found quite inefficient, while these furnaces, named guayras by the Indians, which signifies wind-furnaces, answered the purpose effectually.

The soil is everywhere extremely fertile, and gives abundant returns of all the kinds of grain which are there sown; insomuch that from one bushel of seed for the most part at hundred bushels are reaped, sometimes an hundred and fifty, and even as high as two hundred. The natives employ no ploughs, but labour the earth with a kind of hoes; and set their seed into the ground in holes made with a dibble, or pointed stick, just as beans are sown in Spain. All kinds of pot and garden herbs grow so luxuriantly that radishes have been seen at Truxillo as thick as a mans body, yet neither hard nor stringy. Lettuces, cabbages, and all other vegetables grow with similar luxuriance: But the seeds of these must all be brought from Spain; as when raised in the country the produce is by no means so large and fine. The principal food of the Indians is maize, either roasted or boiled, which serves them for bread, and venison of various kinds, which they salt up for use. They likewise use dried fish, and several kinds of roots, one of which named yuca resembles skirret; likewise lupines and many other leguminous vegetables. Instead of wine, they make a fermented liquor from maize, which they bury in the earth along with water in tubs or large jars, where it ferments. In this process, besides the maize in its natural state, a certain quantity of maize which has been steeped in a particular manner is used as a ferment; and there are men and women who are versant in the manner of steeping maize, and are hired for this purpose. When this kind of drink is made by means of stagnant water, it is reckoned stronger and better than when running water is used. In the West Indian islands this drink is called chica, but the Peruvian name is azua. It is either white or red, according to the kind of maize used for its preparation, and inebriates even more readily than Spanish wine; yet the Indians prefer the latter when it can be procured. They make another kind of liquor from the fruit of certain trees, which they call molles; but it is by no means so well liked as azua from maize.

The first city of the Christians in the mountain of Peru is Quito, which is about four degrees to the south of the equator[22]. This city is situated in an agreeable and fertile district; and particularly since 1544 and 1545, when rich mines of gold were discovered in its neighbourhood, it has become populous, and continued to increase fast in the number of its inhabitants; till in the destructive civil wars its people were almost entirely cut off by Gonzalo Pizarro and his adherents, as they favoured the party of the viceroy Blasco Nugnez Vela, who made this place his ordinary residence. The Spaniards had no other establishment in the mountain till the discovery of the province of Bracamoras[23], by the captains, Juan Porcel and Vergara, who established some small colonies in these parts, on purpose to continue the discovery and conquest of the interior country; but these establishments have been since entirely ruined, as Gonzalo Pizarro recalled these two captains and their men to assist him in his war. This discovery was made under the orders of the licentiate Vaca de Castro, who was then governor of Peru. The Captain Porcel was sent by him from S. Miguel de Piura, and Vergara into the province of Chachapoyas farther to the south; but they unexpectedly met each other in the course of their exploration of the country, and quarrelled about the boundaries of their discoveries, in consequence of which they were recalled by Vaco de Castro, and were at Lima at the commencement of the civil war in the service of the viceroy; and when he was made prisoner they entered into the party of Gonzalo Pizarro. The place which they discovered, called Bracamoras, is a hundred and sixty leagues from Quito by way of the mountain; and eighty leagues farther south they discovered a province named Chacaapoyas, where there is a small Christian town named Levanto[24]. This province abounds in provisions, and has mines of some value. Its situation is peculiarly strong against an enemy, as it is surrounded on all sides by a deep valley, in which runs a considerable river; so that by breaking down the bridges, it may be made very difficult of access. The Maestre de Campo Alfonzo de Alvarado, who held the command of this province, established a colony of Christians at this place.

[22] Instead of four degrees, Quito is only the fourth part of a degree beyond the line.--E.

[23] Bracamoras, or Jaen de Bracamoras, in lat. 5° 30' S. is in the district or province of Jaen in the kingdom of New Granada, on one of the branches of the Lauricocha or Tanguragua, which is one of the great rivers which contribute to form the vast Maranon, or river of the Amazons.--E.

[24] No place of that name is now found in our best maps. The principal town of the district of Chachapoyas has the same name, otherwise called St Juan de la Frontera.--E.

Sixty leagues farther to the south, in the district of Guanuco, Vaco de Castro established a colony which he ordered to be called Leon, as he came from the city of that name in Spain. The country of Guanuco is fertile and abounds in provisions; and valuable mines are believed to exist on that side which is occupied by a warlike and powerful inca in a province of the Andes, as shall be mentioned hereafter[25]. There is no other place in the mountains farther south which has been as yet settled by the Christians, till we come to the province of Guamanga, in which is a small town named San Juan de la Vittoria[26], which is sixty leagues from Leon. In San Juan there are very few Spaniards, but their number is expected to increase, if the neighbouring inca can be induced to submit to peace; as he at present occupies the best lands belonging to that city, in which there are many mines, and which produces the herb called coca in great abundance, formerly mentioned as of great value. The town of Guamanga is about eighty leagues from the city of Cuzco; the road between being exceedingly difficult, as it goes over high and precipitous mountains, and through very dangerous passes.

[25] Not far to the south of San Leon de Guanuco, in the mountains of Lauricocha, there are considerable silver mines.--E.

[26] No such place is now found on our maps in the province of Guamanga; but the ruins of a town named Vittoria are marked in the district of Calca, about fifty miles north-west from the city of Cuzco. Perhaps the Vittoria of the text is the town now called Guamanga.--E.

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the kings of Peru resided in the city of Cuzco, whence they governed the whole of this great country of which I have endeavoured to give some account, and which will be more particularly treated of in the sequel of this history. This city served as the common centre for all the chiefs or caciques of this vast kingdom, to which they resorted from all quarters, to pay their tributes to the king, and to obtain justice in case of disputes among each other. At that time Cuzco was the only place in all Peru that had the least resemblance to a city. It had even a strong fortress, built of such enormous dressed stones, that it was very wonderful to conceive in what manner the Indians had been able to transport such vast masses of stone without the aid of any animals of draught. In fact some of these are so large that they would have required ten yokes of oxen to have dragged them along on a fit carriage. The houses which are now inhabited by the Spaniards are the same which were formerly occupied by the Indians; some of which houses have been merely repaired and others enlarged by their present possessors. This city was formerly divided into four quarters, corresponding to the four cardinal points; and by orders of the Incas, or sovereigns of Peru, all those natives who came to the capital were obliged to lodge in the particular quarter which was towards the direction of the province from whence they came, under severe penalties. The south quarter of the city was named Colla-sugo, from the province of Collao which lay to the south. The northern quarter was named Chinca-sugo, from the large and renowned province of Chinca[27] in that direction. The eastern and western quarters were respectively named Ande-sugo and Conde-sugo. The country about Cuzco is extremely fertile, and abounds in all kinds of provisions, and the climate is so healthy that the inhabitants are seldom if ever sick. Around the city there are many rich mines, whence all the gold which has been hitherto sent into Spain was procured. These indeed have been nearly abandoned since the discovery of the rich silver mines of Potosi; both because much greater profit may be made from these other mines of silver, and because the working of these are far less dangerous both to the Indians and Spaniards who are there employed.

[27] Probably the country of the people now called Chunchos, who are implacable enemies to the Spaniards.--E.

From the city of Cuzco to that of La Plata in the province of Charcas, the distance is more than a hundred and fifty leagues, between which two places there is a large flat province named Collao, above fifty leagues long; the principal part of which, named Chiquito, belongs to his majesty. Seeing so large an extent of country unoccupied by the Spaniards, the licentiate De la Gasca sent some people there in 1545 to commence an establishment. The city of La Plata is situated in the coldest part of all the mountainous region of Peru, and has very few inhabitants, but these are extremely rich, and spend the greatest part of the year in the mines of Porco, and in those of Potosi since their discovery. Towards the left hand or the east from La Plata, a new province was explored by Diego de Rojas and Philip Gutierez, by the order of Vaca de Castro, which was named Rojas[28] from one of these captains. It is said to be fertile and abounding in provisions, but they have not found so much riches there as was expected. Captain Domingo de Ytala and his companions came by that way into Peru in 1549, having remounted the Rio Plata from the Atlantic Ocean.

[28] Probably the province now called Chicas on the eastern side of the Andes, occupying the head of the river Chirivionas which joins the Paraguay or Rio Plata.--E.

Such is the state and situation of all that has been hitherto discovered of this vast country of Peru, which is chiefly known along the coast of the South Sea, and has not been much explored in its inland parts, on account of the vast quantity of lofty and rude mountains, by which it is everywhere pervaded, and which are extremely difficult to pass; because of their height and precipitous nature, the excessive cold which prevails among them, and the scarcity of food. Yet the industry and courage of the Spaniards would have overcome all these obstacles, if there were any hope of finding a rich country beyond.

As the Peruvians were ignorant of writing they knew nothing respecting the history of the creation and deluge or of their own origin. They had however some tradition among them, which had been altered from age to age according to the fancies of the reciters. They said that there came anciently from the north, a man who had no bones or joints, and who was able to shorten or lengthen the way before him as he thought fit, and to elevate or depress the mountains at his pleasure. By this man the ancient Indians were created; and as those of the plain had given him some cause of displeasure, he rendered their country sterile and sandy as it now is, and commanded that it should never rain in that district; yet sent them the rivers and torrents which run through it, that they might have wherewithal to quench their thirst. This person, named Con, who they allege was son of the sun and moon, they esteemed and adored as a god, pretending that he had given the herbs and wild fruits as food for the people whom he had created. After him came another man from the south, named Pachacamac, or the creator, who was likewise the son of the sun and moon, but more powerful than Con, who disappeared on his arrival, leaving the men whom he had created without chiefs or laws, and Pachacamac transformed them all into various animals, as birds, cats, bears, lions, and the like, giving origin in this manner to all the beasts and birds which are now found in the country. After this Pachacamac created the present race of Indians, teaching them the art of labouring the ground for the cultivation of plants of various kinds for food. Pachacamac is considered as a god, and all the principal persons among the Peruvians are desirous of being buried in the province named from him Pachacamac, as he resided there, which is about four leagues from the city of Lima[29]. They pretended that their god Pachacamac continued several ages among them, even to the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, since when he has disappeared. Hence we may presume that he was some demon by whom they were miserably abused and misled, and who filled their minds with so many extravagant absurd fables.

[29] Off the mouth of the river Lurin, in lat. 12° 26' S. is the island of Pachacamac, probably indicating the situation of the ancient province of that name.--E.

The Indians believe likewise, that even before Con and Pachacamac, there was a great deluge, during which mankind saved themselves in great caves in the high mountains, into which they carried a store of food, shutting up the entries, and carefully filling up all the crevices, to keep out the water. After a long while, they sent out some dogs, who returned to them all wet but not dirtied with mud, from which circumstance they concluded that the waters still remained very high, and they did not venture to leave their caverns till the dogs came back a second time all covered with mud. They allege that great numbers of serpents were engendered by the moisture left in the earth by this deluge, by which their ancestors were much distressed for a long time, till they at length succeeded to extirpate them. From this tradition they appear to have retained some confused notion of the deluge, although they were ignorant of the way in which Noah and seven other persons were saved in the ark to repeople the whole earth. Perhaps their tradition may refer to some partial deluge, like that of Deucalion.

The have a notion that the world is to come to an end; before which there is to be a great drought, when no rain is to fall for several years. On this account, in former times, the caciques used to lay up large magazines of maize to serve them during the long drought. Even yet, the more timid among the Peruvians make a great lamentation when the sun or moon are eclipsed, believing the end of the world to be at hand; as they allege that these luminaries are to be extinguished at the destruction of the world.

The Peruvians worship the Sun and Moon as deities, and swear by these luminaries and by the earth, which they consider as their mother. In their temples they adore certain stones, as representatives of the sun, which they name guacas, a word signifying to weep, which they do on entering into their temples. No person is permitted to approach these guacas except the priests who sacrifice to these idols, who are all clothed in white. When they go up to their idols, they carry certain white cloths in their hands, prostrating themselves and crawling on the earth, and addressing their idols in a language which is not understood by any of the natives. By these priests all the offerings for the idols are received and buried in the temples, as the Indian votaries make gifts of figures in gold or silver of those things for which they address their prayers to the guaca. These priests likewise offer sacrifices of animals and even of men to their gods, searching the hearts and intrails of the victims for certain signs which they wish to find, and repeating their abominable sacrifices until they meet with those signs which they desire; pretending that the idols are not satisfied by the sacrifices till these appear. During all the time that the priests are engaged in sacrificing, they never appear in public, neither have they any intercourse with women, and employ themselves all night in loud cries, invoking the demons near to the places in which the guacas are kept, which are extremely numerous, as most houses have each their own guaca. The priests prepare themselves for having intercourse with the demons by long fasts, after which they tie up their eyes and some even carry their superstition to such excess as to put out their own eyes. The caciques and other great men among the Peruvians never undertake any affair of importance without having first consulted the idols, or demons rather, by means of the priests.

In the temples of the sun the Spaniards found several large earthen jars containing the dried bodies of children which had been sacrificed. Among the figures of gold and silver which were used as ornaments to the guacas, there were several which had a strong resemblance to the mitres and crosiers of our bishops, and some of these idols were found having mitres on their heads. When Thomas de Verlanga, bishop of Tierra Firma travelled through Peru, with his mitre, in which he was seen by the Indians celebrating the mass, they asked if he was the guaca of the Christians. When asked the reason of these mitres, they could only say that they had been handed down from their ancestors. In every part of Peru there were certain houses or monasteries, which were inhabited by women who were consecrated to the sun. These women never went out, but were perpetually employed in spinning cotton and wool, which they wove into cloth, and then burned along with the bones of white sheep, throwing the ashes into the air in honour of the sun. These women were consecrated to perpetual celibacy, and were put to death if found to be with child, unless they could swear that their child was begotten by the sun.

Every year, at the season of the maize harvest, the mountaineer Peruvians had a solemn festival; on which occasion they set up two tall straight trees like masts, on the top of which was placed the figure of a man surrounded by other figures and adorned with flowers. The inhabitants went in procession armed with bows and arrows and regularly marshalled into companies, beating their drums and with great outcries and rejoicings, each company in succession discharging their arrows at the dressed up figure. After which the priests set up an idol at the bottom of the masts, before which they sacrificed a man or a sheep, sprinkling the idol with the blood of the victim; and having inspected the heart and entrails of the sacrifice, they reported the signs they had discovered to the people, who were sad or rejoiced according as these were good or bad. The whole of this festival was usually spent in dancing and drinking, and in various games and sports, some of which were warlike exercises, with maces, clubs, axes and other arms.

All the caciques and other principal inhabitants of Peru are reposited after their death in a kind of vaults, clothed in all their richest dresses, and seated in a kind of chairs which they name duos. It was customary also to bury along with them one or two of their best beloved wives, and on this occasion the honour was frequently contested among the wives of the deceased, unless when the husband had previously settled who were to be chosen to accompany him in the tomb. Two or three youths of their train, and all their gold and silver-plate used also to be buried along with them; all of which was done in the hope of one day rising again from the dead, and that they might then appear in proper style, accompanied by their wives and servants. When the Spaniards broke up these sepulchres on purpose to take possession of their buried treasures, the Peruvians requested of them not to disturb the bones of the dead, that they might not be hindered in their resurrection. In the burial ceremony, the relations of the deceased used to pour some of the liquor formerly mentioned, named Chica, into the grave, of which a portion was conveyed by some hollow canes into the mouth of the dead person. On the top of the tomb or sepulchre, wooden images were placed, representing the appearance of the deceased; but on the graves of the lower orders, they satisfied themselves by some painted emblems of their profession or employment, more especially if they happened to be warriors.

In all the provinces of Peru there were certain nobles or principal persons, of whom the chiefs or rulers were named curacas, similar in every respect to the caciques of the islands. As the Spaniards who conquered Peru had been accustomed to name many things according to the language of Hispaniola and Cuba, and were at first ignorant of the Peruvian language, they continued to employ the terms to which they had been accustomed; and the Peruvians have so far accommodated themselves to this language, especially in speaking to the Spaniards, that they mostly use these terms. Thus they call those chiefs caciques, who in their own language are named curacas, their bread corn and drink, which in the Peruvian are zara and azua, they denominate maize and chica, which names were brought from the islands by the Spaniards. These curacas or caciques were the judges and protectors of their subjects in peace, and their leaders in war against the neighbouring tribes. The whole people of Peru lived in that manner for many years under a multiplicity of independent chiefs, having no king or supreme chief; until at length a warlike nation came from the environs of the great lake Titicaca named the Incas in the language of Peru. These men had their heads close shaven, and their ears pierced, in which they wore large round pendents of gold, by which their ears were dragged down upon their shoulders, in consequence of which they were called ringrim, or the large ears. Their chief was called Zapalla Inca[30], or the only king; though others say that he was named Inca Vira cocha, or the king from the scum of the lake, because the astonished natives, not knowing the origin of their invaders, believed that they had started into existence from the scum or mud of the great lake. This great lake of Titicaca is about eighty leagues in circumference, from which a large river runs to the southwards, which in some places is half a league in breadth, and which discharges its waters into a small lake about forty leagues from the great lake, which has no outlet. This circumstance gives great astonishment to many, who are unable to comprehend how so vast a body of water should disappear in so small a reservoir. As this smaller lake appears to have no bottom, some conceive that it discharges itself into the sea by some subterranean communication, like the river Alphaeus in Greece.

[30] The first of the Incas is named by Robertson, II. 290. and III. 47. Manco Capac.--E.

These Incas established themselves in the first place at Cuzco, from whence they gradually extended their sway over the whole of Peru, which became tributary to them. The empire of the Incas descended in successive order, but not by immediate hereditary rules. On the death of a king, he was succeeded by his immediately younger brother; and on his demise the eldest son of the preceding king was called to the throne; so as always to have on the throne a prince of full age. The royal ornament worn by the supreme Inca in place of a crown or diadem, consisted in a fringe of coloured worsted from one temple to the other, reaching almost to the eyes. He governed their extensive empire with much grandeur and absolute power; and perhaps there never was a country in the world where the subjects were so submissive and obedient. They had only to place a single thread drawn from their diadem in the hands of one of the ringrim or great ears, by which he communicated to this deputy the most absolute delegation of power, which was respected and obeyed over the whole empire. Alone, and without troops or attendants, the message or order which he carried was instantly obeyed, were it even to lay waste a whole province, and to exterminate every one of its inhabitants; as on the sight of this thread from the royal fillet, every one offered themselves voluntarily to death, without a single murmur or the slightest resistance.

In the before mentioned order of succession, the empire of the Incas fell in process of time to a sovereign named Huana Capac[31], which signifies the young rich man. This prince made great conquests, and augmented the empire more considerably than had been done by any one of his predecessors, and ruled over the whole more reasonably and with greater justice and equity than had ever been done by the former sovereigns. He established everywhere the most perfect police, and exact rules for cultivating the earth; ruling and governing among a barbarous and ignorant nation with the most surprising order and justice; and the love and obedience of his subjects was equally wonderful and perfect. They gave him a signal proof of this, worthy of being mentioned, in the construction of two roads through the whole extent of Peru for his more convenient travelling; of which the difficulty labour and expence equal or even surpass all that the ancients have written of the seven wonders of the world. Huana Capac, in marching from Cuzco to conquer the kingdom of Quito, had to march five hundred leagues by the mountains, where he had everywhere to encounter excessive difficulties, from bad roads, rocks, precipices and ravines, almost impracticable in many places. After he had successfully executed this great enterprize, by the conquest and submission of Quito and its dependencies, his subjects conceived that it was incumbent on them to do honour to his victorious career, by preparing a commodious road for his triumphant return to Cuzco. They accordingly undertook, and executed by prodigious labour, a broad and easy road through the mountains of five hundred leagues in length, in the course of which they had often to dig away vast rocks, and to fill up valleys and precipices of thirty to forty yards in depth. It is said that this road, when first made, was so smooth and level that it would have admitted a coach with the utmost ease through its whole length; but since that time it has suffered great injuries, especially during the wars between the Spaniards and the Peruvians, having been broken up in many places, on purpose to obstruct the invasion of the enemy. The grandeur and difficulty of this vast undertaking may be readily conceived, by considering the labour and cost which has been expended in Spain to level only two leagues of a mountain road between Segovia and Guadarrama, and which after all has never been brought to any degree of perfection, although the usual passage of the king and court on travelling to or from Andalusia or the kingdom of Toledo. Not satisfied with this first astonishing labour, the Peruvians soon afterwards undertook another of a similar and no less grand and difficult kind. Huana Capac was fond of visiting the kingdom of Quito which he had conquered, and proposed to travel thither from Cuzco by way of the plain, so as to visit the whole of his extensive dominions. For his accommodation likewise, his subjects undertook to make a road also in the plain; and for this purpose they constructed high mounds of earth across all the small vallies formed by the various rivers and torrents which descend from the mountain, that the road might be everywhere smooth and level This road was near forty feet wide, and where it crossed the sandy heights which intervene betwixt the verdant vallies of the torrents, it was marked on each side by stakes, forming palings in straight lines to prevent any one losing the way. This road was five hundred leagues in length like that of the mountain; but the palings are now wanting in many places, the wood of which they were constructed having been used by the Spaniards for fuel during the war; but the mounds still exist across the vallies, and most of them are yet tolerably entire, by which the grandeur of the entire work may be judged of. In his journeys to and from Quito, Huana Capac used to go by one of these roads and return by the other; and during his whole journey his subjects used to strew the way with branches and flowers of the richest perfume.