History of the conquest of Peru / by Willilam H. Prescott.

  • Prescott, William Hickling, 1796-1859.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the conquest of Peru / by Willilam H. Prescott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    initiating her own sex in the mysteries of weaving and spinning. The simple people lent a willing ear to the messengers of Heaven, and, gathering together in considerable numbers, laid the foundations of the city of Cuzco. The same wise and benevolent maxims, which regulated the conduct of the first Incas,1 descended to their successors, and under their mild sceptre a community gradually extended itself along the surface of the broad table-land, which asserted its superiority over the surrounding tribes. Such is the pleasing picture of the origin of the Peruvian monarchy, as portrayed by Garcilasso de la Vega, the descendant of the Incas, and through him made familiar to the European reader.2 But this tradition is only one of several current among the Peruvian Indians, and probably not the one most generally received. Another legend speaks of certain white and bearded men, who, advancing from the shores of Lake Titicaca, estab¬ lished an ascendancy over the natives, and imparted to them the blessings of civilisation. It may remind us of the tradition existing among the Aztecs in respect to Quetzalcoatl, the good deity, who with a similar garb and aspect came up the great plateau from the east on a like benevolent mission to the natives. The analogy is the more remarkable, as there is no trace of any communication with, or even knowledge of, each other to be found in the two nations.3 The date usually assigned for these extraordinary events was about four hundred years before the coming of the Spaniards, or early in the twelfth century.4 But, however pleasing to the 1 Inca signified king or lord. Capac meant great or poiuerful. It was applied to several of the successors of Manco, in the same manner as the epithet Yupanqui, signifying rich in all virtues, was added to the names of several Incas. The good qualities commemorated by the cognomens of most of the Peruvian princes afford an honourable, though not altogether unsuspicious, tribute to the excellence of their characters. 2 Com. Real., parte i. lib. i. cap. ix.—xvi. 8 These several traditions, all of a very puerile character, are to be found in Ondegardo, Relacion Segunda, MS. ; Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. i. ; Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. cv.;—Conquista i Poblacion del Piru, MS. Declaracion de los Presidentes e Oydores de la Audiencia Reale del Peru, MS. ;—all of them authorities contemporary with the Conquest. The story of the bearded white men finds its place in most of their legends. 4 Some writers carry back the date 500, or even 550, years before the Spanish invasion. (Balboa, Histoire du Perou, chap. 1.—Velasco, Histoire du Royaume de Quito, tom. i. p. 81.—Ambo auct. ap. Relations et Memoires originaux pour servir a THistoire de la Decouverte de l’Amerique, par Ternaux-Compans. (Paris, 1840.) In the Report of the Royal Audience of Peru, the epoch is more modestly fixed at 200 years before the Conquest. Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.