Note 126 — THE PLATEAU, OR TABLE-LAND, OF CAXAMARCA, THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF THE INCA ATAHUALLPA, AND THE FIRST VIEW OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN, From the Ridge of the Andes.

p. 412—“The great Huayna Capac, who, for a Child of the Sun, was somewhat disposed to free-thinking.”

The nightly disappearance of the sun excited, in the mind of the Inca, many philosophic doubts respecting the government of the world by that luminary. Among the Inca’s remarks on this subject, as recorded by Padre Bias Valera, are the following:—“Many maintain that the sun lives and is the 431creator and maker of all things (el hacedor de todas las cosas); but whosoever desires to do a thing completely must continue at his task without intermission. Now many things are done when the sun is absent, therefore, he cannot be the creator of all. It may also be doubted whether the sun be really living, for, though always moving round in a circle, he is never weary (no se cansa). If the sun were a living thing he would, like ourselves, become weary; and if he were free, he would, doubtless, sometimes move into parts of the heavens in which we never see him. The sun is like an ox bound by a rope, being obliged always to move in the same circle (como una Res atada que siempre hace un mismo cerco), or like an arrow which can only go where it is sent, and not where it may itself wish to go.” (Garcilaso, Comment. Reales, p. i. lib. viii. cap. 8, p. 276.) The Inca’s simple comparison of the circling movement of a heavenly body to that of an ox fastened by a rope is very curious, owing to a circumstance which may be explained here. Huayna Capac died at Quito in 1525 (seven years prior to the invasion of the Spaniards), and his empire was divided between Huascar and Atahuallpa. Now, in the native language of Peru, the name Huascar signifies rope, and Atahuallpa means a cock or a fowl. Instead of res Huayna Capac probably used the word signifying, in his native language, animal generally; but, even in Spanish, the word res is not applied exclusively to oxen, but is employed to denote cattle of all kinds. How far the Padre, with the view of weaning the natives from the dynastic service of the Inca, may have mingled passages from his own sermons with the heresies of the Inca, we need not here inquire. That it was deemed very important to keep these doubts from the knowledge of the lower classes of the people is evident, from the very conservative policy and the state maxims of the Inca Roca, the conqueror of the province of Charcas. This Inca founded schools exclusively for the higher classes, and, under heavy penalties, prohibited instruction being given to the common people, lest it should render them presumptuous, and cause them to disturb the State. (No es licito que enseñen á los hijos de los Plebeios las Ciencias, porque la gente baja no se eleve y ensobervezca y menoscabe la Republica; Garcilaso, p. i. p. 276.) Thus the theocracy of the Incas may be said to have resembled the Slave States in the free land of the North American Union.