MUCH as students would now prize the information that was collected by the Spaniards who first overran the New World, they can only obtain a small fraction of it. In these days, when scientific methods are understood, and all evidence can be sifted and receive its relative weight, much of that evidence is lost. Of all the narratives and reports furnished to Herrera, for his history of the Indies, and of which he made such scanty and unintelligent use, very few have been preserved. Diligent search, for which we have to thank Don Pascual de Gayangos, has brought four such documents to light, relating to ancient Peruvian history, translations of which have been selected by the Council of the Hakluyt Society to form a volume of their series. The originals are manuscripts in the National Library at Madrid, marked B 135.
The first of these manuscripts is a report on the fables and rites of the Yncas, addressed by Christoval de Molina, the priest of the hospital for natives, at Cuzco, to Dr. Don Sebastian do Artaun, the bishop of that ancient capital. It must have been written between 1570 and 1584; the period during which Artaun was bishop of Cuzco.
The second is an account of the antiquities of Peru, by an Indian named Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti-yamqui Salcamayhua. His great-great grand parents were living at the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru; so that the author may have written in about 1620.
The third is an account of the religion and traditions of the Indians of the mountainous province of Huarochiri, on the Pacific slope of the maritime Cordillera, near Lima, by a resident priest, named Dr. Francisco de Avila. It was written in 1608.
The fourth is a report, written in a memorandum book, apparently as a rough draft, among the papers of the Licentiate Polo de Ondegardo, an able and accomplished statesman, who was Corregidor of Cuzco, in 1560.
The first of these documents is the most important. Cristoval de Molina had peculiar opportunities for collecting accurate information. He was a master of the Quichua language; he examined native chiefs and learned men who could remember the Ynca empire in the days of its prosperity, and he was intimately acquainted with the native character, from his position in the hospital at Cuzco. In his opening address to the bishop, he mentions a previous account which he had submitted, on the origin, history, and government of the Yncas. Fortunately this account has been preserved, by Miguel Cavello Balboa,
The report on the fables and rites is supplementary to the history used by Balboa; but which is not now extant as a separate work. It contains a minute and detailed account of the ceremonies performed in the different months throughout the Ynca year, with the prayers used by the priests on each occasion in Quichua and Spanish, the sacrifices, and festivities. There are some very interesting points, which must be noticed in their order, in connection with Molina's account of the Yncas; for they throw fresh light on several doubtful questions.
The first of these points is the position held by the Supreme Being or Creator, in the religion of the Yncas. Our knowledge of this subject has hitherto been derived from Garcilasso de la Vega, who tells us that, besides the Sun, the Yncas worshipped the true supreme God and Creator; that they called him Pachacamac, a name signifying "He who gives animation to the universe," or "He who does to the universe what the soul does to the body;" that they held Him in much greater inward veneration than the Sun; but that they did not build temples to him,
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nor offer him sacrifices. The name Pachacamac occurs three times in the prayers given by Molina, as an attribute of the Deity; but the term most constantly used was Pachayachachic, "the teacher of the universe." Another name was Tecsi-viracocha, which Molina interprets, "the incomprehensible God." In the prayers, however, the first word is Aticsi, probably from Atini (I conquer), and the meaning would rather be the
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conquering Uiracocha. Respecting the meaning of the word Uira-cocha, I am at present doubtful; but Garcilasso has clearly shown that it does not mean, as has been suggested by writers unacquainted with the language, "the foam of the sea." The language of the Collas, Pacasas, and Lupacas, the people in the basin of the lake Titicaca (erroneously called Aymara), added very few words to the rich idiom of the Yncas; but a vast number of Quichua words were adopted by the Collas. Two or three Colla words, however, occur in the manuscripts of Molina and Salcamayhua, which may give rise to speculation. According to Molina, the Ynca name for the sun was Punchau, A fourth point of interest is the additional proof furnished in these manuscripts of the antiquity of the Quichua drama of Ollanta. The full details of Ynca ceremonies given by Molina furnish incidental evidence of the truthfulness of Garcilasso de la Vega. Thus the account of the feast of Situa, in the Royal commentaries, The words of the prayers actually offered up by the Ynca Priests to their Deities are the most valuable part of Molina's report. He gives fourteen of these prayers: four to the Supreme Being; two to the Sun; one for fruitful flocks; four for the Yncas; two for or to the other huacas or gods, and one to the earth. Unfortunately the Quichua words have, in many instances, been incorrectly transcribed, so that the meaning is not always clear; and the translations in Spanish, which are now given in English, are in some cases far from literal. Under these circumstances I have thought the best course would be to give all the Quichua words in an alphabetical index, with the
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English meanings of those which can be recognized. The third document in the present collection is a narrative of the false gods and other superstitions of the Indians of the province of Huarochiri, by the Dr. Francisco de Avila, Priest of the principal village in the province. This is one of the very few fragments from which we can glean some slight knowledge of the mysterious civilized nation which occupied the coast of Peru, before the Ynca conquest. Researches into the history of this coast-people are surrounded by peculiar difficulties. The Yncas conquered the Peruvian coast two or three generations before the arrival of the Spaniards, and used all their influence and power to substitute the Quichua language, and to destroy the separate polity and religion of the conquered race. Hence many Quichua words appear in their traditions, as told by Father Avila, and the student must carefully eliminate them, before forming any conclusions respecting the intellectual position of the original people of the Pacific coast. For instance, the god of the Huarochiri is said to be Coniraya Uiracocha, the former word being indigenous, and the latter a foreign term introduced by the Yncas; just as we should say the God Vishnu, combining an English and a Hindu word. The root Con, in the words Coniraya and
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Conopa, is the term for the deity, or for anything sacred in the language of the coast, and has nothing to do with Quichua. The province of Huarochiri, of which a map is given to illustrate the curious narrative of Avila, is very mountainous. It occupies the western slopes of the maritime cordillera of the Andes, overhanging the coast plain from the latitude of Lima to that of Pachacamac. Avila unconsciously furnishes evidence that the inhabitants of Huarochiri originally came from the coast. "They declare," he says, "that in the days of Coniraya their country was yunca," The sources of information respecting the civilized race of the Peruvian coast are very scanty, and consequently very precious. We have the silent testimony of the grand ruins of Chimu near Truxillo, The last document in this volume is a Report by Polo de Ondegardo, an accomplished lawyer and statesman who came to Peru with the President Gasca. He was Corregidor of Charcas, and afterwards of Cuzco, and studied the language and laws of the Yncas with minute care, in order that he might be better able to conduct the administration of the provinces under his charge. The document is in the form of a rough draft or set of notes, apparently intended as material for a more finished report. He describes the principle on which the Ynca conquests were made, the division and tenure of land, the system of tribute, the regulations for preserving game and for forest conservancy, and other administrative details; and he points out, here and there, the way in which the wise legislation of the Yncas ought to be utilized and imitated by their conquerors. These four curious papers, which have never been printed in the language in which they were written, are now translated for the first time; and it is believed that they will form an important addition to the sources of knowledge respecting the early civilization of the American races.
1 A French translation of the work of Balboa was published by Ternaux Compans, in the sccond series of his translations, in 1840.
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Balboa commenced his work at Quito in 1576, and completed it in 1586; the very period when Molina was prosecuting his researches at Cuzco. 2 G. de la Vega, i, p. 106. 3 Ibid., ii, p. 38. 4 Ibid., ii, p. 186. 5 G. de la Vega, ii, p. 66. 8 See also Arriaga. Extirpacion de la idolatria del Peru. 5 See "Ollanta, an ancient Ynca Drama, translated from the original Quichua, by Clements R. Markham, C. B. (Trübner, 1871.) 8 P. 11. 9 Les races Aryennes du Pérou, p. 327. 1 See my translation, ii, p. 228. 3 See my translation of the Royal Commentaries, i, p. 76. 4 See p. 186. 5 Yunca is a warm tropical plain or valley. 6 Described by Rivero, and photographed, in detail, by Mr. Squier. 7 See my translation, pp. 233-63. 8 See my translation, ii, pp. 147, 154, 185, 193, 195, 424, 428, 460. 9 P. 89 (Ternaux Compans' ed.) 1 Extirpacion de la idolatria del Peru, dirigido al Rey N.S., en su real Consejo de Indias: por el Padre Pablo Joseph de Arriaga de la Compania de Jesus (Lima, 1621.). 2 Translated into French by M. Ternaux Compans, in his Recueil de Documents et Mémoires originaux sur l'Histoire des Possessions Espagnoles dans l'Amérique (Paris, 1840), p. 85.
Footnotes