Part 6 (2/2)
[Footnote 71: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms. - Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 11.]
[Footnote 72: ”This regulation,” says Father Acosta, ”the Incas held to be of great importance to the order and right government of the realm.” lib. 6, cap. 16.]
[Footnote 73: Conq. i Pob. del Piru, Ms.]
In following out this singular arrangement, the Incas showed as much regard for the comfort and convenience of the colonist as was compatible with the execution of their design. They were careful that the mitimaes, as these emigrants were styled, should be removed to climates most congenial with their own. The inhabitants of the cold countries were not transplanted to the warm, nor the inhabitants of the warm countries to the cold. *74 Even their habitual occupations were consulted, and the fisherman was settled in the neighbourhood of the ocean, or the great lakes; while such lands were a.s.signed to the husbandman as were best adapted to the culture with which he was most familiar. *75 And, as migration by many, perhaps by most, would be regarded as a calamity, the government was careful to show particular marks of favor to the mitimaes, and, by various privileges and immunities, to ameliorate their condition, and thus to reconcile them, if possible, to their lot. *76
[Footnote 74: ”Tras.m.u.taban de las tales Provincias la cantidad de gente de que de ella parecia convenir que saliese, a los cuales mandaban pasar a poblar otra tierra del temple y manera de donde salian, si fria fria, si caliente caliente, en donde les daban tierras, y campos, y casas, tanto, y mas como dejaron.”
Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 19.]
[Footnote 75: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.]
[Footnote 76: The descendants of these mitimaes are still to be found in Quito, or were so at the close of the last century, according to Velasco, distinguished by this name from the rest of the population. Hist. de Quito, tom.l. p. 175.]
The Peruvian inst.i.tutions, though they may have been modified and matured under successive sovereigns, all bear the stamp of the same original, - were all cast in the same mould. The empire, strengthening and enlarging at every successive epoch of its history, was, in its latter days, but the development, on a great scale, of what it was in miniature at its commencement, as the infant germ is said to contain within itself all the ramifications of the future monarch of the forest. Each succeeding Inca seemed desirous only to tread in the path, and carry out the plans, of his predecessor. Great enterprises, commenced under one, were continued by another, and completed by a third. Thus, while all acted on a regular plan, without any of the eccentric or retrograde movements which betray the agency of different individuals, the state seemed to be under the direction of a single hand, and steadily pursued, as if through one long reign, its great career of civilization and of conquest.
The ultimate aim of its inst.i.tutions was domestic quiet. But it seemed as if this were to be obtained only by foreign war.
Tranquillity in the heart of the monarchy, and war on its borders, was the condition of Peru. By this war it gave occupation to a part of its people, and, by the reduction and civilization of its barbarous neighbours, gave security to all.
Every Inca sovereign, however mild and benevolent in his domestic rule, was a warrior, and led his armies in person. Each successive reign extended still wider the boundaries of the empire. Year after year saw the victorious monarch return laden with spoils, and followed by a throng of tributary chieftains to his capital. His reception there was a Roman triumph. The whole of its numerous population poured out to welcome him, dressed in the gay and picturesque costumes of the different provinces, with banners waving above their heads, and strewing branches and flowers along the path of the conqueror. The Inca, borne aloft in his golden chair on the shoulders of his n.o.bles, moved in solemn procession, under the triumphal arches that were thrown across the way, to the great temple of the Sun. There, without attendants, - for all but the monarch were excluded from the hallowed precincts, - the victorious prince, stripped of his royal insignia, barefooted, and with all humility, approached the awful shrine, and offered up sacrifice and thanksgiving to the glorious Deity who presided over the fortunes of the Incas. This ceremony concluded, the whole population gave itself up to festivity; music, revelry, and dancing were heard in every quarter of the capital, and illuminations and bonfires commemorated the victorious campaign of the Inca, and the accession of a new territory to his empire. *77
[Footnote 77: Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., Parte 1, lib. 3, cap. 11, 17; lib. 6 cap. 55. - Garcila.s.so, Com. Real., cap. 16.]
In this celebration we see much of the character of a religious festival. Indeed, the character of religion was impressed on all the Peruvian wars. The life of an Inca was one long crusade against the infidel, to spread wide the wors.h.i.+p of the Sun, to reclaim the benighted nations from their brutish superst.i.tions, and impart to them the blessings of a well-regulated government.
This, in the favorite phrase of our day, was the ”mission” of the Inca. It was also the mission of the Christian conqueror who invaded the empire of this same Indian potentate. Which of the two executed his mission most faithfully, history must decide.
Yet the Peruvian monarchs did not show a childish impatience in the acquisition of empire. They paused after a campaign, and allowed time for the settlement of one conquest before they undertook another; and, in this interval, occupied themselves with the quiet administration of their kingdom, and with the long progresses, which brought them into nearer intercourse with their people. During this interval, also, their new va.s.sals had begun to accommodate themselves to the strange inst.i.tutions of their masters. They learned to appreciate the value of a government which raised them above the physical evils of a state of barbarism, secured them protection of person, and a full partic.i.p.ation in all the privileges enjoyed by their conquerors; and, as they became more familiar with the peculiar inst.i.tutions of the country, habit, that second nature, attached them the more strongly to these inst.i.tutions, from their very peculiarity.
Thus, by degrees, and without violence, arose the great fabric of the Peruvian empire, composed of numerous independent and even hostile tribes, yet, under the influence of a common religion, common language, and common government, knit together as one nation, animated by a spirit of love for its inst.i.tutions and devoted loyalty to its sovereign. What a contrast to the condition of the Aztec monarchy, on the neighbouring continent, which, composed of the like heterogeneous materials, without any internal principle of cohesion, was only held together by the stern pressure, from without, of physical force! - Why the Peruvian monarchy should have fared no better than its rival, in its conflict with European civilization, will appear in the following pages.
Chapter III:
Peruvian Religion. - Deities. - Gorgeous Temples. - Festivals. - Virgins Of The Sun. - Marriage.
It is a remarkable fact, that many, if not most, of the rude tribes inhabiting the vast American continent, however disfigured their creeds may have been in other respects by a childish superst.i.tion, had attained to the sublime conception of one Great Spirit, the Creator of the Universe, who, immaterial in his own nature, was not to be dishonored by an attempt at visible representation, and who, pervading all s.p.a.ce, was not to be circ.u.mscribed within the walls of a temple. Yet these elevated ideas, so far beyond the ordinary range of the untutored intellect, do not seem to have led to the practical consequences that might have been expected; and few of the American nations have shown much solicitude for the maintenance of a religious wors.h.i.+p, or found in their faith a powerful spring of action.
But, with progress in civilization, ideas more akin to those of civilized communities were gradually unfolded; a liberal provision was made, and a separate order inst.i.tuted, for the services of religion, which were conducted with a minute and magnificent ceremonial, that challenged comparison, in some respects, with that of the most polished nations of Christendom.
This was the case with the nations inhabiting the table-land of North America, and with the natives of Bogota, Quito, Peru, and the other elevated regions on the great Southern continent. It was, above all, the case with the Peruvians, who claimed a divine original for the founders of their empire, whose laws all rested on a divine sanction, and whose domestic inst.i.tutions and foreign wars were alike directed to preserve and propagate their faith.
Religion was the basis of their polity, the very condition, as it were, of their social existence. The government of the Incas, in its essential principles, was a theocracy.
Yet, though religion entered so largely into the fabric and conduct of the political inst.i.tutions of the people, their mythology, that is, the traditionary legends by which they affected to unfold the mysteries of the universe, was exceedingly mean and puerile. Scarce one of their traditions - except the beautiful one respecting the founders of their royal dynasty - is worthy of note, or throws much light on their own antiquities, or the primitive history of man. Among the traditions of importance is one of the deluge, which they held in common with so many of the nations in all parts of the globe, and which they related with some particulars that bear resemblance to a Mexican legend.
*1
[Footnote 1: They related, that, after the deluge, seven persons issued from a cave where they had saved themselves, and by them the earth was repeopled. One of the traditions of the Mexicans deduced their descent, and that of the kindred tribes, in like manner, from seven persons who came from as many caves in Aztlan.
(Conf. Acosta, lib. 6, cap. 19; lib. 7, cap. 2. - Ondegardo, Rel.
Prim., Ms.) The story of the deluge is told by different writers with many variations, in some of which it is not difficult to detect the plastic hand of the Christian convert.]
Their ideas in respect to a future state of being deserve more attention. They admitted the existence of the soul hereafter, and connected with this a belief in the resurrection of the body.
They a.s.signed two distinct places for the residence of the good and of the wicked, the latter of which they fixed in the centre of the earth. The good they supposed were to pa.s.s a luxurious life of tranquillity and ease, which comprehended their highest notions of happiness. The wicked were to expiate their crimes by ages of wearisome labor. They a.s.sociated with these ideas a belief in an evil principle or spirit, bearing the name of Cupay, whom they did not attempt to propitiate by sacrifices, and who seems to have been only a shadowy personification of sin, that exercised little influence over their conduct. *2
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