The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0072/00729.txt

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$Title{History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Chapter VIII: Part I}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Prescott, William H.}
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$Subject{ms
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$Date{1864}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of The Conquest Of Peru
Book:        Book III: Conquest Of Peru
Author:      Prescott, William H.
Date:        1864

Chapter VIII: Part I

Disorders In Peru. - March To Cuzco. - Encounter With The Natives. -
Challcuchima Burnt. - Arrival In Cuzco. - Description Of The City. - Treasure
Found There.

     1533-1534.

     The Inca of Peru was its sovereign in a peculiar sense.  He received an
obedience from his vassals more implicit than that of any despot; for his
authority reached to the most secret conduct, - to the thoughts of the
individual.  He was reverenced as more than human. ^1 He was not merely the
head of the state, but the point to which all its institutions converged, as
to a common centre, - the keystone of the political fabric, which must fall
to pieces by its own weight when that was withdrawn.  So it fared on the
death of Atahuallpa. ^2 His death not only left the throne vacant, without any
certain successor, but the manner of it announced to the Peruvian people that
a hand stronger than that of their Incas had now seized the sceptre, and that
the dynasty of the Children of the Sun had passed away for ever.

[Footnote 1: "Such was the awe in which the Inca was held," says Pizarro,
"that it was only necessary for him to intimate his commands to that effect,
and a Peruvian would at once jump down a precipice, hang himself, or put an
end to his life in any way that was prescribed." Descub. y Conq., Ms.]

[Footnote 2: Oviedo tells us, that the Inca's right name was Atabaliva, and
that the Spaniards usually misspelt it, because they thought much more of
getting treasure for themselves, than they did of the name of the person who
owned it.  (Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 16.)
Nevertheless, I have preferred the authority of Garcilasso, who, a Peruvian
himself, and a near kinsman of the Inca, must be supposed to have been well
informed.  His countrymen, he says, pretended that the cocks imported into
Peru by the Spaniards, when they crowed, uttered the name of Atahuallpa; "and
I and the other Indian boys," adds the historian, "when we were at school,
used to mimic them." Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 9, cap. 23.]

     The natural consequences of such a conviction followed.  The beautiful
order of the ancient institutions was broken up, as the authority which
controlled it was withdrawn.  The Indians broke out into greater excesses
from the uncommon restraint to which they had been before subjected.
Villages were burnt, temples and palaces were plundered, and the gold they
contained was scattered or secreted.  Gold and silver acquired an importance
in the eyes of the Peruvian, when he saw the importance attached to them by
his conquerors.  The precious metals, which before served only for purposes
of state or religious decoration, were now hoarded up and buried in caves and
forests.  The gold and silver concealed by the natives were affirmed greatly
to exceed in quantity that which fell into the hands of the Spaniards. ^3 The
remote provinces now shook off their allegiance to the Incas.  Their great
captains, at the head of distant armies, set up for themselves.  Ruminavi,
a commander on the borders of Quito, sought to detach that kingdom from the
Peruvian empire, and to reassert its ancient independence.  The country, in
short, was in that state, in which old things are passing away, and the new
order of things has not yet been established.  It was in a state of
revolution.

[Footnote 3: "That which the Inca gave the Spaniards, said some of the Indian
nobles to Benalcazar, the conqueror of Quito, was but as a kernel of corn,
compared with the heap before him." (Oviedo, Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte
3, lib. 8 cap. 22.) See also Pedro Pizarro Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Relacion
del Primer. Descub., Ms.]

     The authors of the revolution, Pizarro and his followers, remained
meanwhile at Caxamalca.  But the first step of the Spanish commander was to
name a successor to Atahuallpa.  It would be easier to govern under the
venerated authority to which the homage of the Indians had been so long paid;
and it was not difficult to find a successor.  The true heir to the crown was
a second son of Huayna Capac, named Manco, a legitimate brother of the
unfortunate Huascar.  But Pizarro had too little knowledge of the
dispositions of this prince; and he made no scruple to prefer a brother of
Atahuallpa, and to present him to the Indian nobles as their future Inca.
We know nothing of the character of the young Toparca, who probably resigned
himself without reluctance to a destiny which, however humiliating in some
points of view, was more exalted than he could have hoped to obtain in the
regular course of events.  The ceremonies attending a Peruvian coronation
were observed, as well as time would allow; the brows of the young Inca were
encircled with the imperial borla by the hands of his conqueror, and he
received the homage of his Indian vassals.  They were the less reluctant to
pay it, as most of those in the camp belonged to the faction of Quito.

     All thoughts were now eagerly turned towards Cuzco, of which the most
glowing accounts were circulated among the soldiers, and whose temples and
royal palaces were represented as blazing with gold and silver.  With
imaginations thus excited, Pizarro and his entire company, amounting to
almost five hundred men, of whom nearly a third, probably, were cavalry, took
their departure early in September from Caxamalca, - a place ever memorable
as the theatre of some of the most strange and sanguinary scenes recorded in
history.  All set forward in high spirits, - the soldiers of Pizarro from the
expectation of doubling their present riches, and Almagro's followers from
the prospect of sharing equally in the spoil with "the first conquerors." ^4
The young Inca and the old chief Challcuchima accompanied the march in their
litters, attended by a numerous retinue of vassals, and moving in as much
state and ceremony as if in the possession of real power. ^5

[Footnote 4: The "first conquerors," according to Garcilasso, were held in
especial honor by those who came after them, though they were, on the whole,
men of less consideration and fortune than the later adventurers.  Com.
Real., Parte 1 lib. 7, cap. 9.]

[Footnote 5: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Naharro, Relacion Sumaria,
Ms. - Ped. Sancho Rel., ap. Ramusio, tom. III. fol. 400.]

     Their course lay along the great road of the Incas, which stretched
across the elevated regions of the Cordilleras, all the way to Cuzco.  It was
of nearly a uniform breadth, though constructed with different degrees of
care, according to the ground. ^6 Sometimes it crossed smooth and level
valleys, which offered of themselves little impediment to the traveller; at
other times, it followed the course of a mountain stream that flowed round
the base of some beetling cliff, leaving small space for the foothold; at
others, again, where the sierra was so precipitous that it seemed to preclude
all further progress, the road, accommodated to the natural sinuosities of
the ground, wound round the heights which it would have been impossible to
scale directly. ^7

[Footnote 6: "Va todo el camino de una traza y anchura hecho a mano."
Relacion del Primer. Descub., Ms.]

[Footnote 7: "En muchas partes viendo lo que esta adelante, parece cosa
impossible poderlo pasar." Ibid., Ms.]

     But although managed with great address, it was a formidable passage for
the cavalry.  The mountain was hewn into steps, but the rocky ledges cut up
the hoofs of the horses; and, though the troopers dismounted and led them by
the bridle, they suffered severely in their efforts to keep their footing. ^8
The road was constructed for man and the light-footed llama; and t