Part 3 (1/2)
It was only, however, the great and good princes that were thus honored, according to Sarmiento, ”whose souls the silly people fondly believed, on account of their virtues, were in heaven, although, in truth,” as the same writer a.s.sures us, ”they were all the time burning in the flames of h.e.l.l”! ”Digo los que haviendo sido en vida buenos y valerosos, generosos con los Indios en les hacer mercedes, perdonadores de injurias, porque a estos tales canonizaban en su ceguedad por Santos y honrraban sus huesos, sin entender que las animas ardian en los Ynfiernos y creian que estaban en el Cielo.” Ibid., ubi supra.]
The n.o.bility of Peru consisted of two orders, the first and by far the most important of which was that of the Incas, who, boasting a common descent with their sovereign, lived, as it were, in the reflected light of his glory. As the Peruvian monarchs availed themselves of the right of polygamy to a very liberal extent, leaving behind them families of one or even two hundred children, *52 the n.o.bles of the blood royal, though comprehending only their descendants in the male line, came in the course of years to be very numerous. *53 They were divided into different lineages, each of which traced its pedigree to a different member of the royal dynasty, though all terminated in the divine founder of the empire.
[Footnote 52: Garcila.s.so says over three hundred! (Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 3, cap. 19.) The fact, though rather startling, is not incredible, if, like Huayna Capac, they counted seven hundred wives in their seraglio. See Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 7.]
[Footnote 53: Garcila.s.so mentions a cla.s.s of Incas por privilegio, who were allowed to possess the name and many of the immunities of the blood royal, though only descended from the great va.s.sals that first served under the banner of Manco Capac.
(Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 22.) This important fact, to which he often refers, one would be glad to see confirmed by a single authority.]
They were distinguished by many exclusive and very important privileges; they wore a peculiar dress; spoke a dialect, if we may believe the chronicler, peculiar to themselves; *54 and had the choicest portion of the public domain a.s.signed for their support. They lived, most of them, at court, near the person of the prince, sharing in his counsels, dining at his board, or supplied from his table. They alone were admissible to the great offices in the priesthood. They were invested with the command of armies, and of distant garrisons, were placed over the provinces, and, in short, filled every station of high trust and emolument. *55 Even the laws, severe in their general tenor, seem not to have been framed with reference to them; and the people, investing the whole order with a portion of the sacred character which belonged to the sovereign, held that an Inca n.o.ble was incapable of crime. *56
[Footnote 54: ”Los Incas tuvieron otra Lengua particular, que hablavan entre ellos, que no la entendian los demas Indios, ni les era licito aprenderla, como Lenguage Divino. Esta me escriven del Peru, que se ha perdido totalmente; porque como perecio la Republica particular de los Incas, perecio tambien el Lenguage dellos.” Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 7, cap.
1]
[Footnote 55: ”Una sola gente hallo yo que era exenta, que eran los Ingas del Cuzco y por alli al rededor de ambas parcialidades, porque estos no solo no pagavan tributo, pero aun comian de lo que traian al Inga de todo el reino, y estos eran por la mayor parte los Governadores en todo el reino, y por donde quiera que iban se les hacia mucha honrra.” Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.]
[Footnote 56: Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte I, lib. 2, cap. 15.]
The other order of n.o.bility was the Curacas, the caciques of the conquered nations, or their descendants. They were usually continued by the government in their places, though they were required to visit the capital occasionally, and to allow their sons to be educated there as the pledges of their loyalty. It is not easy to define the nature or extent of their privileges.
They were possessed of more or less power, according to the extent of their patrimony, and the number of their va.s.sals.
Their authority was usually transmitted from father to son, though sometimes the successor was chosen by the people. *57 They did not occupy the highest posts of state, or those nearest the person of the sovereign, like the n.o.bles of the blood. Their authority seems to have been usually local, and always in subordination to the territorial jurisdiction of the great provincial governors, who were taken from the Incas. *58
[Footnote 57: In this event, it seems, the successor named was usually presented to the Inca for confirmation. (Dec. de la Aud.
Real., Ms.) At other times, the Inca himself selected the heir from among the children of the deceased Curaca. ”In short,” says Ondegardo, ”there was no rule of succession so sure, but it might be set aside by the supreme will of the sovereign.' Rel. Prim., Ms.]
[Footnote 58: Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 4, cap. 10. - Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 11 - Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms. - Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 93. - Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.]
It was the Inca n.o.bility, indeed, who const.i.tuted the real strength of the Peruvian monarchy. Attached to their prince by ties of consanguinity, they had common sympathies and, to a considerable extent, common interests with him. Distinguished by a peculiar dress and insignia, as well as by language and blood, from the rest of the community, they were never confounded with the other tribes and nations who were incorporated into the great Peruvian monarchy. After the lapse of centuries, they still retained their individuality as a peculiar people. They were to the conquered races of the country what the Romans were to the barbarous hordes of the Empire, or the Normans to the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles. Cl.u.s.tering around the throne, they formed an invincible phalanx, to s.h.i.+eld it alike from secret conspiracy and open insurrection. Though living chiefly in the capital, they were also distributed throughout the country in all its high stations and strong military posts, thus establis.h.i.+ng lines of communication with the court, which enabled the sovereign to act simultaneously and with effect on the most distant quarters of his empire. They possessed, moreover, an intellectual preeminence, which, no less than their station, gave them authority with the people. Indeed, it may be said to have been the princ.i.p.al foundation of their authority. The crania of the Inca race show a decided superiority over the other races of the land in intellectual power; *59 and it cannot be denied that it was the fountain of that peculiar civilization and social polity, which raised the Peruvian monarchy above every other state in South America. Whence this remarkable race came, and what was its early history, are among those mysteries that meet us so frequently in the annals of the New World, and which time and the antiquary have as vet done little to explain.
[Footnote 59: Dr. Morton's valuable work contains several engravings of both the Inca and the common Peruvian skull, showing that the facial angle in the former, though by no means great, was much larger than that in the latter, which was singularly flat and deficient in intellectual character. Crania Americana, (Philadelphia, 1829.)]
Chapter II
Orders Of The State. - Provisions For Justice. - Division Of Lands. - Revenues And Registers. - Great Roads And Posts. - Military Tactics And Policy.
If we are surprised at the peculiar and original features of what may be called the Peruvian aristocracy, we shall be still more so as we descend to the lower orders of the community, and see the very artificial character of their inst.i.tutions, - as artificial as those of ancient Sparta, and, though in a different way, quite as repugnant to the essential principles of our nature. The inst.i.tutions of Lycurgus, however, were designed for a petty state, while those of Peru, although originally intended for such, seemed, like the magic tent in the Arabian tale, to have an indefinite power of expansion, and were as well suited to the most flouris.h.i.+ng condition of the empire as to its infant fortunes. In this remarkable accommodation to change of circ.u.mstances we see the proofs of a contrivance that argues no slight advance in civilization.
The name of Peru was not known to the natives. It was given by the Spaniards, and originated, it is said, in a misapprehension of the Indian name of ”river.” *1 However this may be, it is certain that the natives had no other epithet by which to designate the large collection of tribes and nations who were a.s.sembled under the sceptre of the Incas, than that of Tavantinsuyu, or ”four quarters of the world.” *2 This will not surprise a citizen of the United States, who has no other name by which to cla.s.s himself among nations than what is borrowed from a quarter of the globe. *3 The kingdom, conformably to its name, was divided into four parts, distinguished each by a separate t.i.tle, and to each of which ran one of the four great roads that diverged from Cuzco, the capital or navel of the Peruvian monarchy. The city was in like manner divided into four quarters; and the various races, which gathered there from the distant parts of the empire, lived each in the quarter nearest to its respective province. They all continued to wear their peculiar national costume, so that it was easy to determine their origin; and the same order and system of arrangement prevailed in the motley population of the capital, as in the great provinces of the empire. The capital, in fact, was a miniature image of the empire. *4
[Footnote 1: Pelu, according to Garcila.s.so, was the Indian name for ”river,” and was given by one of the natives in answer to a question put to him by the Spaniards, who conceived it to be the name of the country. (Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 6.) Such blunders have led to the names of many places both in North and South America. Montesinos, however, denies that there is such an Indian term for ”river.” (Mem. Antiguas, Ms., lib. 1, cap. 2.) According to this writer, Peru was the ancient Ophir, whence Solomon drew such stores of wealth; and which, by a very natural transition, has in time been corrupted into Phiru, Piru, Peru!
The first book of the Memorias, consisting of thirty-two chapters, is devoted to this precious discovery.]
[Footnote 2: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms. - Garcila.s.so, Com Real., Parte 1, lib. 2, cap. 11.]
[Footnote 3: Yet an American may find food for his vanity in the reflection, that the name of a quarter of the globe, inhabited by so many civilized nations, has been exclusively conceded to him.
- Was it conceded or a.s.sumed?]
[Footnote 4: Ibid., parte 1, cap. 9, 10. - Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 93.
The capital was further divided into two parts, the Upper and Lower town, founded, as pretended, on the different origin of the population; a division recognized also in the inferior cities.
Ondegardo, Rel. Seg., Ms.]