Memorias antiguas historiales del Peru, by Fernando Montesinos

Sir Clements R. Markham, Philip Ainsworth Means, Philip Ainsworth Means

• Publisher: Hakluyt Society
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317097778
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Text written in the seventeenth century, translated and edited by Philip Ainsworth Means, with an Introduction by the late Sir Clements R. Markham. The translation is from the Spanish edition of Marcos Jiménez de la Espada, published Madrid, 1882. Also includes 'Eight chronological tables... compiled by P. A. Means'; 'List of words in the names of kings and Incas...' and 'Quichua words in Montesinos'. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1920.

CHAPTER XVIII

CONCERNING THE MARRIAGE OF INGA ROCA.¹

MAMA CIUACO, mother of Inga Roca, took heed of all that her son was arranging, and she was filled with wonder by his great talents. She saw that vice was in force and that it was applauded by the people, and that it was ignored by Inga Roca, so she addressed to him tender chidings because of his negligence. He satisfied her that the delay had been a warning, and that she would soon see what he had arranged as a remedy for the situation. He called to consult with him the most favoured and courageous men, whom he had chosen as his councillors, and told them that he had express orders to marry, so as to assure the succession, for his father, the Sun, commanded him to marry so as to increase the living and replace those destroyed by plagues and famines in the past. And all the rest were to do the same, after his example, under the severest penalties in case of failure, and on pain of losing the human seed. (He told them) that he had assembled them in order, with their approval, to take a wife, and that it was his wish to choose his sister Mama Cura, because thus the descent from the Sun would be most certain. But Inga Roca would not have done so had it not been for the fact that his sister had overheard the whole falsehood, and by making her queen he would oblige her to keep silence. All the members of the council approved the choice. They went to the house of Mama Ciuaco, and told her that they had come for her daughter, and, when all the people of the city were assembled, she (Mama Cura) was borne to the temple, where Inga Roca received her, and thence he took her to the royal houses.

After this, Inga Roca commanded that the warriors be made ready and that they be given instruction in warfare. He found that there were ten thousand fighting men, most of them married, to whom he gave permission that their wives should serve them in every way, like slaves, which was an incentive furnished by Inga Roca to increase the marriages. He made preparations for a campaign against Vilcas. The king of Lima Tambo [Rimac Tampu] offered him free passage and soldiers; the king of Abancay did the same. The king of Guancarrama [Huancaraimi] sent messengers to tell him not to pass through his land in order to do harm to the king of Vilcas, because he would not permit it. The Inga received them well, and by their means sent a message to the king of Guancarrama to ask how it came about that he was so lacking in fidelity as to break his promise of obedience, and the Inga sent some of his vassals to bring back the reply. The king of Guancarrama received them very well and replied that his huaca (thus they call their idols) had told him that the Inga was not a true Lord, and that, until he knew it for certain, he was not obliged to keep his promise. Notwithstanding this, the Inga pressed forward, and found his enemy in a place well suited to defence, for, in order to reach it, the Inga would have to ascend a very dangerous declivity where the highway now passes through a much better opening than was there then. The Inga sent his engineers ahead, and they returned, [saying] that it was necessary that half the army should go by way of the valley bottom, and that the other half should go by the upper road. So it was done, and when the summit was reached, there was a very bloody battle in which the king of Guancarrama was vanquished and killed, and the Inga took the idol which had given the reply and rolled it down the mountain. To-day, there is a tradition there among the Indians that when they came to seize the stone [to destroy it], a very gaily coloured parrot came forth and went flying down the mountain till it entered a stone which the Indians afterwards greatly esteemed, and even to-day they mochan to it.

Padre Joseph Arriaga, of the Compañia, in the treatise which he wrote on the extirpation of idolatry,¹ refers to a letter from padre Luis Teruel,² written from Cuzco, in which he makes mention of this incident of the idol and says that the Inga was Manco Capac. And when I was passing through that place I made an investigation, and the tradition of the Indians is as follows : That he whom the idol declared to be no true Lord was the first Inga, and, as some careless writers confound him with the first king, called Manco Capac, who brought lordly power to Cuzco more than….³ years before, padre Teruel called the first Inga Manco Capac, following this erroneous opinion. I have declared this in order that it may be understood that when the idol said of the first Inga that he was no true Lord, it was because of his prevention of the deeds of the vicious and because of the fabulous introduction of his reign; and this Inga is the same as he whom I call Inga Roca, for it is certain that he was the first Inga, and Manco the first king.

Inga Roca remained at the fortress, which he called….⁴ and it is a league from Guancarrama. He finished it and perfected it, leaving there a garrison of soldiers; then he went on with his army. And, before arriving at Andaguáilas, he found many warriors who were holding against him the pass in a narrow part of a valley. Inga Roca had prepared for this beforehand, having been informed that the king of Andaguáilas was of the same mind as the king of Vilcas, on account of the reply which the idol of Guancarrama gave. He sent a third of his army through some mountains with great silence and speed, to take possession of the (other) entrance of the valley, so that the enemy could not get it, and he ordered that, if the enemy had already taken it, his men should attack their rear-guard, advising the Inga of what took place, so that he might attack also. Thus it was done, and, caught between the two divisions, the troops of Andaguáilas suffered great mortality at the hands of the Inga, until they yielded, and he received the survivors benignantly, and they acknowledged him true son of the Sun.

¹ Certain passages are omitted from this Chapter by the present translator, who thinks it best not to present them to the reader.

¹ Chapter IX.—J.

² Iritsterber in text.—J.

³ Blank in text.—J.

⁴ Blank in text.—J.

CHAPTER XIX

HOW THE KING OF VILCAS AND OTHER LORDS SENT THEIR OBEDIENCE TO INGA ROCA, AND OF HIS RETURN TO CUZCO

THE king of Vilcas watched closely these deeds of Inga Roca, and they threw him into confusion, for, on the one hand, he was aware that the idol of Guancarrama had said that he (Roca) was no true Lord, and, on the other hand, he was forced to consider the ease with which he (Roca) had conquered the Lords of Guancarrama and Andaguáilas, being now in their lands and having great advantage both as to men and position. Finally he (Vilcas) resolved to give himself up peaceably to the Inga. He sent him his messengers, laden with fine clothing and with many arrows and bows. Inga Roca received them a league from Andaguáilas; he treated them very well, and, in their presence, after having chosen for himself a rich mantle, shirt and ojotas, he commanded the remainder to be distributed among his soldiers, who were quartered in family groups through the camp; and from this act sprang the custom of distributing spoils among the soldiers and gifts¹ as military prizes.

The mother of Inga Roca took care to learn of his deeds. For his good fortune, she offered great sacrifices, and caused many priests to be dedicated to this office, and, afterwards, Inga Roca confirmed them in it. As soon as she knew the victories which he had won, and how the king of Vilcas had yielded himself peacefully, she sent a chasqui to the Inga begging him to return to Cuzco, for Illatice² Huira. Cocha, now that his foes had been made subject to him, wished to see him there. Inga Roca did so. He entered Cuzco in great triumph; the soldiers marched before him adorned with their spoils, and then came the Inga in a golden litter with his relatives forming an escort about him after the fashion of a body-guard. And thus was established the guard of orejones,³ men of the royal caste. All the chief people of Cuzco went out to receive him with much dancing, and in this way he went to the temple to give thanks to the Sun, and thence to his palace, where he remained eight days, enjoying great banquets with his relatives, captains and most valiant soldiers.

Inga Roca established laws very well adjusted to nature, and he added grave penalties to those who should break the ancient laws, and he commanded that a document¹ should be drawn up containing them all, of which the chief were : That no one should marry more than one woman, and that she should be of his kindred, because it was best, and families would not get confounded with one another; That people should marry from eighteen years upwards, so that the men should know how to work and the women how to wait upon them; That flocks and fruits should be held in common, and that all should array themselves and feed themselves from the common stock. This law was altered later, each Indian being given land for his crops.

Photo by Max Vargas, Arequipa.

THE PALACE OF THE INCA ROCCA AT CUZCO.

Reproduced and printed for the Hakluyt Society by Donald Macbeth, 1920.

As regards religion, he commanded that the Sun should be regarded as supreme god, and that in his temple great sacrifices should be held and thanks should be given, especially for his having sent his son to them to rule them and draw them away from the weakened and vicious fife which they were leading. He commanded the erection near the temple of a house or convent of maidens for the service of it—whence springs the present custom of girls serving in the churches; and these maidens were of royal blood. He laid many such duties upon them touching the matter of worship and religion, promising them, in the name of his father, the Sun, many good things if they observed his rules, and giving them to understand that the Sun himself commanded it. And the people were persuaded of the truth of it, seeing the great achievements and the great prudence of Inga Roca.

He honoured the men of the blood royal by permitting them to bore their ears where women do to-day, but with larger holes, which were brought [gradually] to half the size of those of the Inga; and this was the sig...