B. XVI. bits of silver, to the golden-plated temples of the Ch. 3. Sun. Happily, men move about, for the most Huayna of the having touched part, in a sort of mist, which allows them dimly to apprehend the present, but which infuses itself between their dull eyes and the future as completely as if it were the most impenetrable thing in nature. And so Huayna Capac, the boasted descendant of the Sun, heir to so much wisdom, little thought what mischief to his country he had unwittingly been the cause of, when, just Capac heard before his death, he heard of the advent of a Spaniards few strange-looking, bearded men, who had landed at a remote part of his dominions,-for, upon his doubtless, he did hear of that apparition of Pedro de Candia at the palace and temple of Tumbez. This intelligence, however, probably filled the Inca with strange fears and misgivings; and some expressions of his may be the origin of those reports mentioned in the Spanish historians, that the Peruvians themselves had already forecast the fate of their dynasty. That dynasty was now a kingdom divided against itself. Huayna Capac was dead, and between his sons an internecine war was raging when Pizzaro landed, for the second time, at Tumbez. coasts. Atahuallpa's history. Atahuallpa, as before said, was the son of Huayna Capac, by the daughter of the conquered Lord of Quito; but he was considered illegitimate -not in our modern and narrow sense of the word, but simply that, not having a mother of the imperial race, he could not succeed to the throne of the Incas. Huayna Capac had other children who were legitimate, and of whom Guascar Inca Atahuallpa's History. * 511 Ch. 3. (so called, as some say, from a golden chain of B. XVI. immense size which was used at the dances given in honour of his birth) was the eldest, and therefore of right succeeded to the throne of Cusco. throne of Atahuallpa is said to have been a favourite of his father; he succeeded in gaining the affections of some of the late Inca's generals; and, after his father's death, whether by right, by fraud, or by Atahuallpa force, he established himself upon the throne of himself Quito. The story then becomes very tangled, and upon the is told in different ways. The main facts, however, Quito. are simply these:-that there were two brothers, both of them despots, dividing an inheritance, and the usual result in such cases took place in this. Guascar Inca, no doubt, beheld with concern the occupation of Quito by his brother, and regretted the division of a kingdom which had been ruled over by one supreme Inca. On the other hand, Atahuallpa doubtless considered himself as the legitimate sovereign of Quito, in right of his mother's claims, and would naturally be unwilling to render homage to Guascar Inca. War ensued between the brothers; and, while Pizarro was founding the town of San Miguel, Atahuallpa, by means of his generals, Quizquiz and Chilicuchima, had invaded Guascar's territories, taken Cusco, and made Guascar himself a prisoner. Quizquiz had exercised the utmost barbarities upon the royal race of Cusco, whom, though very numerous, he had nearly succeeded in exterminating; and, with Guascar *Huasca' means, in Quichuan, a rope. Ch. 3. 512 Date of Atahuallpa's Victory. B. XVI. himself as prisoner, the victorious general was returning from the South to rejoin his master, Atahuallpa, in Cassamarca, at the very time when the Spaniards were descending from the North, and making their way to meet Atahuallpa in that beautiful valley. The dates of these transactions are a little dubious, but I assume that Atahuallpa's troops had already gained this victory, and I am strengthened in that assumption by the fact that Atahuallpa, when first seen by the Spaniards, wore the tasselled diadem which belonged to the Incas alone. NOTE. In the space, necessarily very limited, which can be given here to any account of the government of Peru, it is impossible to demonstrate how such a system could have been made to work in practice. But, indeed, to describe the functions of any officer in a country with which we are ever so well acquainted, or to explain to a foreigner how any portion of practical life is managed amongst us, is always a task that surprises him who undertakes it, by its difficulty. Human beings arrange at last some mode of action by which rules and systems, apparently most intractable, are adopted into daily life, and made to work with very little trouble. In Peru, the annual apportionment of land seems almost impossible; but it was probably little more than nominal, and the change that took place in any year in the holding of land might not have been more than was exactly requisite to meet the change in the circumstances of the population. Moreover, it is not said that the land was divided into three equal parts between the Sun, the Inca, and the people; and these portions might have been constantly varying in different parts of the kingdom. As the people's portion was increased, the Inca's might have been diminished, though at the same time rendered more productive by the additional labour brought to bear upon it. I have omitted to mention the order in which the yearly husbandry of Peru was performed. First, the lands of the Sun were attended to; then, the portions of land belonging to widows, orphans, those who, from age or infirmity, were incompetent to work, and soldiers employed in service, whose wives entered into the list of widows; then, the lands of the Curaca; then, the portions of the common people; lastly, the estates of the Inca. PERUVIANS AND CAPTURE OF THE INCA. PIZARRO left San Miguel on the 24th of B. XVI. Ch. marches Cassa 1532. 4. September, 1532, and commenced his march on Cassamarca, conquering or pacifying the Pizarro Indian tribes that came in his way, and obtaining upon what information he could (sometimes by means marca, of torture) of the movements and designs of Sept. 24, Atahuallpa. When the Spaniards had proceeded about half-way between San Miguel and Cassamarca, messengers from Atahuallpa presented themselves before Pizarro. Their message was friendly. They brought a present for the Spanish Commander, and some provisions for his men. The principal part of the present was a singular drinking-vessel, fashioned of some precious stone, in the form of a double castle.* The messengers said that their master was awaiting Pizarro, at Cassamarca; and they mentioned that Ata "Este mensagero dixo al fuente figuradas en piedra con governador que su Señor Ata- que beva."-F, de XEREZ. balipa le embia desde Caxamalca BARCIA, Historiadores, tom. 3, para le traer aquel presente que p. 189. eran dos fortalezas á manera de march samarca. 514 Pizarro marches towards Cassamarca. B. XVI. huallpa's generals had been victorious. Pizarro Ch. 4. replied with courtesy, and even made an offer of his services to subdue Atahuallpa's enemies. Journeying on for two days, and resting each night in buildings that were fortified and surrounded with walls of dried mud, Pizarro arrived at a river, which he forded. It was here that the Spaniards first learnt the way in which the Peruvians were numbered by tens and multiples of ten; and that five tens of thousands was the number of which Atahuallpa's army consisted. Pizarro's Proceeding onwards, Pizarro then came to the upon Cas- territory of a Curaca named Cinto. Thence he despatched the Curaca of San Miguel as his envoy, to ascertain what were Atahuallpa's intentions, and whether any troops occupied the mountains between this point and Cassamarca. Pizarro was now upon one of the great roads between Cusco and Quito, and therefore, each night he was enabled to rest in some one of the fortified places at which the Incas themselves had been accustomed to stop. But, in the course of the next three days, Pizarro diverged from the main road, leaving it to the right, and prepared to ascend the mountain road, which led direct to Cassamarca. Atahuallpa seems to have been no great general, or to have had the fullest confidence in his own superiority of numbers and the pacific intentions of the "Informóse de su manera de contar, i supo que cuentan de uno, hasta diez, i de diez hasta ciento, i de diez cientos hacen mil, i cinco dieces de millares era la Gente que Atabaliba tenia." -F. DE XEREZ. BARCIA, Historiadores, tom. 3, p. 190. |