History of the Incas

P >> Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa >> History of the Incas

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[Illustration: DON FRANCISCO DE TOLEDO, Viceroy of Peru, A.D. 1569-1581.
After the portrait at Lima, from a sketch by Sir Clements Markham, 1853.]

Among Christians, it is not right to take anything without a good title,
yet that which your Majesty has to these parts, though more holy and
more honourable than that which any other kings in the world have for
any of their possessions, has suffered detriment, as I said before, in
the consciences of many learned men and others, for want of correct
information. The Viceroy proposes to do your Majesty a most signal
service in this matter, besides the performance of all the other duties
of which he has charge. This is to give a secure and quiet harbour to
your royal conscience against the tempests raised even by your own
natural subjects, theologians and other literary men, who have expressed
serious opinions on the subject, based on incorrect information.
Accordingly, in his general visitation, which he is making personally
throughout the kingdom, he has verified from the root and established by
a host of witnesses examined with the greatest diligence and care, taken
from among the principal old men of the greatest ability and authority
in the kingdom, and even those who pretend to have an interest in it
from being relations and descendants of the Incas, the terrible,
inveterate and horrible tyranny of the Incas, being the tyrants who
ruled in these kingdoms of Peru, and the _curacas_ who governed the
districts. This will undeceive all those in the world who think that the
Incas were legitimate sovereigns, and that the _curacas_ were natural
lords of the land. In order that your Majesty may, with the least
trouble and the most pleasure, be informed, and the rest, who are of a
contrary opinion, be undeceived, I was ordered by the Viceroy Don
Francisco de Toledo, whom I follow and serve in this general visitation,
to take this business in hand, and write a history of the deeds of the
twelve Incas of this land, and of the origin of the people, continuing
the narrative to the end. This I have done with all the research and
diligence that was required, as your Majesty will see in the course of
the perusal and by the ratification of witnesses. It will certify to the
truth of the worst and most inhuman tyranny of these Incas and of their
_curacas_ who are not and never were original lords of the soil, but
were placed there by Tupac Inca Yupanqui, [_the greatest, the most
atrocious and harmful tyrant of them all_]. The _curacas_ were and still
are great tyrants appointed by other great and violent tyrants, as will
clearly and certainly appear in the history; so that the tyranny is
proved, as well as that the Incas were strangers in Cuzco, and that they
had seized the valley of Cuzco, and all the rest of their territory from
Quito to Chile by force of arms, making themselves Incas without the
consent or election of the natives.

Besides this, there are their tyrannical laws and customs. [_It will be
understood that your Majesty has a specially true and holy title to
these kingdoms of Peru, because your Majesty and your most sacred
ancestors stopped the sacrifices of innocent men, the eating of human
flesh, the accursed sin, the promiscuous concubinage with sisters and
mothers, the abominable use of beasts, and their wicked and accursed
customs[20].]_ For from each one God demands an account of his
neighbour, and this duty specially appertains to princes, and above all
to your Majesty. Only for this may war be made and prosecuted by the
right to put a stop to the deeds of tyrants. Even if they had been true
and natural lords of the soil, it would be lawful to remove them and
introduce a new government, because man may rightly be punished for
these sins against nature, though the native community has not been
opposed to such practices nor desires to be avenged, as innocent, by the
Spaniards. For in this case they have no right to deliver themselves and
their children over to death, and they should be forced to observe
natural laws, as we are taught by the Archbishop of Florence, Innocent,
supported by Fray, Francisco de Victoria in his work on the title to the
Indies. So that by this title alone, without counting many others, your
Majesty has the most sufficient and legitimate right to the Indies,
better than any other prince in the world has to any lordship whatever.
For, whether more or less concealed or made known, in all the lands that
have been discovered in the two seas of your Majesty, north and south,
this general breaking of the law of nature has been found.

[Note 20: For a contradiction of these slanders by an impartial
witness see Cieza de Leon, ii. p. 78.]

By this same title your Majesty may also, without scruple, order the
conquest of those islands of the archipelago of "Nombre de Jesus,"
vulgarly but incorrectly called the Solomon Isles, of which I gave
notice and personally discovered in the year 1567; although it was for
the General Alvaro de Mendana; and many others which are in the same
South Sea[21]. I offer myself to your Majesty to discover and settle
these islands, which will make known and facilitate all the commercial
navigation, with the favour of God, by shorter routes. I offer much,
well do I see it, but I trust in almighty God with whose favour, I
believe I can do what I say in your royal service. The talent which God
has given me leads me to aspire to the accomplishment of these
achievements, and does not demand of me a strict account, and I believe
that I shall comply with what will be required, for never did I so wish
to achieve anything. Your Majesty sees and does not lose what other
kings desire and hold by good fortune. This makes me speak so freely of
my desire to die in your service in which I have laboured since my
childhood, and under what circumstances others may say.

[Note 21: See my introduction to the _Voyages of Sarmiento_, pp.
xiii--xvii.]

Believing that, in writing this present history, I have not done a less
but a greater service than all the rest, I obeyed your Viceroy who made
me undertake it. Your Majesty will read it many times because, besides
that the reading of it is pleasant, your Majesty will take a great
interest in the matters of conscience and of administration of which it
treats. I call this the Second Part, because it is to be preceded by the
geographical description of all these lands, which will form the First
Part. This will result in great clearness for the comprehension of the
establishment of governments, bishopricks, new settlements, and of
discoveries, and will obviate the inconveniences formerly caused by the
want of such knowledge. Although the First Part ought to precede this
one in time, it is not sent to your Majesty because it is not finished,
a great part of it being derived from information collected during the
general visitation. Suffice that it will be best in quality, though not
in time. After this Second Part will be sent a Third Part on the times
of the evangel. All this I have to finish by order of the Viceroy Don
Francisco de Toledo. May your Majesty receive my work with the greatest
and most favourable attention, as treating of things that will be of
service to God and to your Majesty and of great profit to my nation; and
may our Lord preserve the sacred catholic and royal person of your
Majesty, for the repair and increase of the catholic Church of Jesus
Christ.

From Cuzco. _The 4th of March_, 1572.

Your catholic royal Majesty
from the least vassal of your Majesty
The Captain
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa.

[Illustration: _Facsimile_ (_reduced_) _of the last page of_ SARMIENTO'S
INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO KING PHILIP II, 1572. _From the original MS.,
Goettingen University Library. Reproduced and printed for the Hakluyt
Society by Donald Macbeth._]

I.

DIVISION OF THE HISTORY.

This general history of which I took charge by order of Don Francisco de
Toledo, Viceroy of these kingdoms of Peru, will be divided into three
Parts. The First will be the natural history of these lands, being a
particular description of them. It will contain accounts of the
marvellous works of nature, and other things of great profit and
interest. I am now finishing it, that it may be sent to your Majesty
after this, though it ought to have come before it. The Second and Third
Parts treat of the people of these kingdoms and of their deeds in the
following order. In the Second Part, which is the present one, the most
ancient and first peoplers of this land will be discussed in general,
and then, descending to particulars, I shall describe [_the terrible and
inveterate tyranny of_] the Ccapac Incas of these kingdoms, down to the
end and death of Huascar, the last of the Incas. The Third and Last Part
will treat of the times of the Spaniards, and of their notable deeds in
the discovery and settlement of this kingdom and others adjoining it,
with the captains, governors, and viceroys who have ruled here, down to
the present year 1572.

II.

THE ANCIENT DIVISION OF THE LAND.

When historians wish to write, in an orderly way, of the world or some
part of it, they generally first describe the situation containing it,
which is the land, before they deal with what it contains, which is the
population, to avoid the former in the historical part. If this is so in
ancient and well known works, it is still more desirable that in
treating of new and strange lands, like these, of such vast extent, a
task which I have undertaken, the same order should be preserved. This
will not only supply interesting information but also, which is more to
be desired, it will be useful for navigation and new discoveries, by
which God our Lord may be served, the territories of the crown of Spain
extended, and Spaniards enriched and respected. As I have not yet
finished the particular description of this land, which will contain
everything relating to geography and the works of nature minutely dealt
with, in this volume I shall only offer a general summary, following the
most ancient authors, to recall the remains of those lands which are now
held to be new and previously unknown, and of their inhabitants.

The land, which we read of as having existed in the first and second age
of the world, was divided into five parts. The three continents, of
which geographers usually write, Asia, Africa, and Europe, are divided
by the river Tanais, the river Nile, and the Mediterranean Sea, which
Pomponius calls "our" sea. Asia is divided from Europe by the river
Tanais[22], now called Silin, and from Africa by the Nile, though
Ptolemy divides it by the Red Sea and isthmus of the desert of Arabia
Deserta. Africa is divided from Europe by "our" sea, commencing at the
strait of Gibraltar and ending with the Lake of Meotis. The other two
parts are thus divided. One was called, and still ought to be called,
Catigara[23] in the Indian Sea, a very extensive land now distinct from
Asia. Ptolemy describes it as being, in his time and in the time of
Alexander the Great, joined on to Asia in the direction of Malacca. I
shall treat of this in its place, for it contains many and very precious
secrets, and an infinity of souls, to whom the King our Lord may
announce the holy catholic faith that they may be saved, for this is the
object of his Majesty in these new lands of barbarous idolatry. The
fifth part is or was called the Atlantic Island, as famous as extensive,
and which exceeded all the others, each one by itself, and even some
joined together. The inhabitants of it and their description will be
treated of, because this is the land, or at least part of it, of these
western Indies of Castille.

[Note 22: The Don.]

[Note 23: Marinus of Tyre, quoted by Ptolemy, gave an enormous
extension to eastern Asia, and placed the region he called Catigara far
to the S.E. of it. Catigara was described by Marinus of Tyre as an
emporium and important place of trade. It is not mentioned in the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.]

III.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ANCIENT ATLANTIC ISLAND.

The cosmographers do not write of this ancient Atlantic Island because
there was no memory, when they wrote, of its very rich commercial
prosperity in the second, and perhaps in the first age. But from what
the divine Plato tells us and from the vestiges we see which agree with
what we read, we can not only say where it was and where parts of it
were, as seen in our time, but we can describe it almost exactly, its
grandeur and position. This is the truth, and the same Plato affirms it
as true, in the Timaeus, where he gives its truthful and marvellous
history.

We will speak first of its situation, and then of its inhabitants. It is
desirable that the reader should give his attention because, although it
is very ancient history, it is so new to the ordinary teaching of
cosmography that it may cause such surprise as to raise doubts of the
story, whence may arise a want of appreciation.

From the words which Plato refers to Solon, the wisest of the seven of
Greece, and which Solon had heard with attention from the most learned
Egyptian priest in the city called Delta, we learn that this Atlantic
Island was larger than Asia and Africa together, and that the eastern
end of this immense island was near the strait which we now call of
Gibraltar. In front of the mouth of the said strait, the island had a
port with a narrow entrance; and Plato says that the island was truly
continental. From it there was a passage by the sea, which surrounded
it, to many other neighbouring islands, and to the main land of Europe
and Africa. In this island there were kings of great and admirable power
who ruled over that and many adjacent islands as well as the greater
part of Europe and Africa, up to the confines of Egypt, of which I shall
treat presently. The extent of the island was from the south, where were
the highest mountains, to the north. The mountains exceeded in extent
any that now exist, as well in their forests, as in height, and in
beauty. These are the words of Plato in describing the situation of this
most richly endowed and delightful Atlantic Island. It now remains for
me to do my duty, which is to explain what has been said more clearly
and from it to deduce the situation of the island.

From what Plato says that this island had a port near the mouth of the
strait of the pillars of Hercules, that it was larger than Asia and
Africa together, and that it extended to the south, I gather three
things clearly towards the understanding of all that invites attention.
The first is that the Atlantic Island began less than two leagues from
the mouth of the strait, if more it was only a little more. The coast of
the island then turned north close to that of Spain, and was joined to
the island of Cadiz or Gadiz, or Caliz, as it is now called. I affirm
this for two reasons, one by authority and the other by conjectural
demonstration. The authority is that Plato in his Critias, telling how
Neptune distributed the sovereignty of the island among his ten sons,
said that the second son was called in the mother tongue "Gadirum,"
which in Greek we call "Eumelo." To this son he gave the extreme parts
of the island near the columns of Hercules, and from his name the place
was called Gadiricum which is Caliz. By demonstration we see, and I have
seen with my own eyes, more than a league out at sea and in the
neighbourhood of the island of Caliz, under the water, the remains of
very large edifices of a cement which is almost imperishable[24], an
evident sign that this island was once much larger, which corroborates
the narrative of Critias in Plato. The second point is that the Atlantic
Island was larger than Asia and Africa. From this I deduce its size,
which is incredible or at least immense. It would give the island 2300
leagues of longitude, that is from east to west. For Asia has 1500
leagues in a straight line from Malacca which is on its eastern front,
to the boundary of Egypt; and Africa has 800 leagues from Egypt to the
end of the Atlantic mountains or "Montes Claros" facing the Canary
Islands; which together make 2300 leagues of longitude. If the island
was larger it would be more in circuit. Round the coast it would have
7100 leagues, for Asia is 5300 and Africa 2700 leagues in circuit, a
little more or less, which together makes 7100 leagues, and it is even
said that it was more.

[Note 24: Dr Peitschmann quotes from Juan Bautista Suarez de
Salazar, _Grandezas y antigueedades de la isla y ciudad de Cadiz_ (Cadiz,
1610)---"That which all those who traverse the sea affirm was that to
the south, the water being clear, there is seen beneath it at a distance
of a league, ruins of edifices which are good evidence that the ocean
has gained upon the land in this part." He refers also to a more recent
history of Cadiz and its province by Adolfo de Castro (1858), and to the
five first books of the _General Chronicle of Spain_ of Florian de
Ocampo, 1552 (lib. ii. cap. II).]

Having considered the measurement of its great size we come to the third
point, which is the true position over which this great island extended.
Plato says that the position of the island extended to the south;
opposite to the north. From this we should understand that, the front
conterminous with Spain from the strait of Gibraltar to Cadiz thence
extended westward, making a curve along the coast of Barbary or Africa,
but very close to it, between west and south, which is what sailors call
south-west. For if it was opposite to north, which is between east and
north, called north-east, it must necessarily have its direction in the
said south-west, west-south-west, or south-south-west. It would include
and incorporate the Canary Islands which, according to this calculation,
would be part of it, and from thence the land trended south-west. As
regards the south, it would extend rather more to the south and
south-south-west, finally following the route by which we go when we
sail from Spain to the Indies, forming a continent or main land with
these western Indies of Castille, joining on to them by the parts
stretching south-west, and west-south-west, a little more or less from
the Canaries. Thus there was sea on one side and on the other of this
land, that is on the north and south, and the Indies united with it, and
they were all one. The proof of this is that if the Atlantic Island had
2300 leagues of longitude, and the distance of Cadiz to the mouth of the
river Maranon or Orellana and Trinidad, on the coast of Brazil, is, not
more than 1000, 900, or 1100 leagues, being the part where this land
joined to America, it clearly appears that, to complete the complement
of 2300 leagues, we have to include in the computation all the rest of
the land from the mouth of the Maranon and Brazil to the South Sea,
which is what they now call America. Following this course it would come
to Coquimbo. Counting what is still wanting, this would be much less
than 2300 leagues. Measuring the circumference, the island was more than
7100 leagues round, because that is about the circumference of Asia and
Africa by their coasts. If this land is joined to the other, which in
fact it was in conformity with the description, it would have a much
greater circuit, for even now these parts of the western Indies,
measured by compass, and latitude, have more than 7100 leagues.

From all this it may be inferred that the Indies of Castille formed a
continent with the Atlantic Island, and consequently that the same
Atlantic Island, which extended from Cadiz over the sea we traverse to
the Indies, and which all cosmographers call the Atlantic Ocean because
the Atlantic Island was in it, over which we now navigate, was land in
ancient times. Finally we shall relate the sequel, first giving an
account of the sphere at that time and of the inhabitants.

IV.

FIRST INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD AND PRINCIPALLY OF THE ATLANTIC ISLAND.

Having described the four parts of the world, for of Catigara, which is
the fifth, we shall not speak except in its place which the ancients
assigned to it, it will be right to come to the races which peopled
them. All of which I have to treat has to be personal and heathen
history. The chief value and perfection of history consists in its
accuracy, thoroughly sifting each event, verifying the times and periods
of what happened so that no doubt may remain of what passed. It is in
this way that I desire to write the truth in so far as my ability
enables me to do so respecting a thing so ancient as the first peopling
of these new lands. I wish, for the better illustration of the present
history, to precede it with the foundations that cannot be denied,
counting the time in conformity with the chronology of the Hebrews in
the days before our Saviour Jesus Christ, and the times after his most
holy nativity according to the counting used by our mother the holy
church, not making account of the calculations of Chaldean or Egyptian
interpreters.

Thus, passing over the first age from Adam to the Deluge, which covers
1656 years, we will begin from the second age, which is that of the
patriarch Noah, second universal father of mortals. The divine
scriptures show us that eight persons were saved from the flood, in the
ark. Noah and his wife Terra or Vesta, named from the first fire lighted
by crystal for the first sacrifice as Berosus would have; and his three
sons to wit, Cam and his wife Cataflua, Sem and his wife Prusia or
Persia, Japhet and his wife Fun a, as we read in the register of the
chronicles. The names of some of these people remain, and to this day we
can see clearly whence they were derived, as the Hebrews from Heber, the
Assyrians from Amur, but most of them have been so changed that human
intelligence is insufficient to investigate by this way. Besides the
three sons, Noah had others after the flood.

The descendants of these men having multiplied and become very numerous,
Noah divided the world among his first sons that they might people it,
and then embarked on the Euxine Sea as we gather from Xenophon. The
giant Noah then navigated along the Mediterranean Sea, as Filon says and
Annius repeats, dividing the whole land among his sons. He gave it in
charge to Sem to people Asia from the Nile to the eastern Indies, with
some of the sons he got after the flood. To Cam he gave Africa from the
Rinocoruras to the straits of Gibraltar with some more of the sons.
Europe was chosen for Japhet to people with the rest of the sons
begotten after the flood, who were all the sons of Tuscan, whence
descend the Tadescos, Alemanes, and the nations adjacent to them.

In this voyage Noah founded some towns and colonies on the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea, and remained in them for ten years, until 112 years
after the universal deluge. He ordered his daughter Araxa to remain in
Armenia where the ark rested, with her husband and children, to people
that country. Then he, with the rest of his companions, went to
Mesopotamia and settled. There Nembrot was raised up for king, of the
descendants of Cam. This Nembrot, says Berosus, built Babylon 130 years
after the flood. The sons of Sem elected for their king, Jektan, son of
Heber. Those of Japhet chose Fenec for their king, called Assenes by
Moses. There were 300,000 men under him only 310 years after the deluge.
Each king, with his companions, set out to people the part of the world
chosen for them by the patriarch Noah. It is to be noted that, although
Noah divided the parts of the world among his three sons and their
descendants, many of them did not keep to the boundaries. For some of
one lineage settled on the lands of another brother. Nembrot, being of
the line of Cam, remained in the parts of Sem, and many others were
mixed together in the same way.

Thus the three parts of the world were peopled by these and their
descendants, of whom I do not propose to treat in detail, for our plan
is to proceed in our narrative until we come to the inhabitants of the
Atlantic Island, the subject of this history. This was so near Spain
that, according to the common fame, Caliz used to be so close to the
main land in the direction of the port of Santa Maria, that a plank
would serve as a bridge to pass from the island to Spain. So that no one
can doubt that the inhabitants of Spain, Jubal and his descendants,
peopled that land, as well as the inhabitants of Africa which was also
near. Hence it was called the Atlantic Island from having been peopled
by Atlas, the giant and very wise astrologer who first settled
Mauritania now called Barbary, as Godefridus and all the chronicles
teach us. This Atlas was the son of Japhet by the nymph Asia, and
grandson of Noah. For this there is no authority except the above,
corroborated by the divine Plato as I began by explaining, and it will
be necessary to seek his help to give the reader such evidence as merits
belief respecting the inhabitants of this Atlantic Island.

V.

INHABITANTS OF THE ATLANTIC ISLAND.

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