Part 2 (1/2)
There is a picture which depicts the outward appearance of the Viceroy Toledo. A tall man with round stooping shoulders, in a suit of black velvet with the green cross of Alcantara embroidered on his cloak. A gloomy sallow face, with aquiline nose, high forehead and piercing black eyes too close together. The face is shaded by a high beaver hat, while one hand holds a sword, and the other rests on a table.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Facsimile (reduced) of the_ COAT OF ARMS OF DON FRANCISCO DE TOLEDO, VICEROY OF PERU, 1569--1581.
_From the Sarmiento MS. 1572, Gottingen University Library.
Reproduced and printed for the Hakluyt Society by Donald Macbeth._]
The work done by your Viceroy is such that the Indians are regenerated, and they call him loudly their protector and guardian, and your Majesty who sent him, they call their father. So widely has the news spread of the benefits he has conferred and is still conferring, that the wild warlike Indians in many contiguous provinces, holding themselves to be secure under his word and safe conduct, have come to see and communicate with him, and have promised obedience spontaneously to your Majesty.
This has happened in the Andes of Xauxa, near Pilcocanti, and among the Manaries and Chunchos to the east of Cuzco. These were sent back to their homes, grateful and attached to your royal service, with the presents he gave them and the memory of their reception.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 t.i.tle, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 t.i.tle 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 G.o.d 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 t.i.tle to the Indies. So that by this t.i.tle 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 lords.h.i.+p 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 t.i.tle 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 G.o.d, by shorter routes. I offer much, well do I see it, but I trust in almighty G.o.d with whose favour, I believe I can do what I say in your royal service. The talent which G.o.d 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 circ.u.mstances 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, bishop.r.i.c.ks, 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 G.o.d 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 va.s.sal of your Majesty The Captain Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Facsimile_ (_reduced_) _of the last page of_ SARMIENTO'S INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO KING PHILIP II, 1572. _From the original MS., Gottingen 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 finis.h.i.+ng 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.