The Prehistoric World or Vanished races Part 54

(84) Valentine: Proceedings of American Antiquarian Society, April, 1880.

(85) Gallatin: "American Ethnological Society's Transactions,"

Vol. I, p. 131.

(86) Valentine: Amer. Antiq. Society's Transactions, April, 1880, pp. 59-91.

(87) Brinton's "Introduction to Study of ma.n.u.script Troans,"

p. xxvi.

(88) American Antiquarian Society, April, 1881, p. 294.

(89) "Myths of the New World." The doctor now thinks his statement just referred to, too strong. There is, indeed, a resemblance, as he pointed out; but it is not strong enough to found any theories on.

(90) Short's "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 474.

(91) Brinton's "Myths of the New World."

(92) This historical ma.n.u.script represents the traditions of the Maya people shortly after the conquest. It is very likely its author had before him picture records of what he wrote.

Such records have since disappeared. The ma.n.u.script itself, the interpretation of it, and Perez's remarks are found in Stephen's "Yucatan," Vol. II, Appendix. The same in Bancroft's "Native Races," Vol. V, p. 628. The fullest and most complete discussion is by Prof. Valentine in Proceedings Am. Antiq. Soc., October, 1879, p. 80, _et seq._ Whether there is any thing worthy of the name of history is doubtful.

(93) Proceedings Am. Antiq. Society, Oct., 1882.

(94) "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 578.

(95) "Peabody Museum Reports," Vol. II, p. 387.

(96) Valentine: Proceedings Am. Antiq. Society, October, 1882, p. 209.

(97) _North American Review,_ from Sept., 1880, to 1883.

(98) Short's "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 218.

(99) This historical notice is a mere outline. Such, however, is all we wished to give. Those who wish for more details can not do better than to refer to Mr. Bancroft's fifth volume on the "Native Races." We do not believe, however, that any thing definite is known of the early periods of which some writers give such glowing descriptions. When they talk about the doings of monarchs, the rise and fall of dynasties, and royal governors, we must remember the majority of the descriptive matter is mere nonsense, consequently our faith in the dates given can not be very great.

Chapter XVI.

ANCIENT PERU.

First knowledge of Peru--Expeditions of Pizarro--Geography of Peru--But a small part of it inhabitable--The tribes of ancient Peru--How cla.s.sified--Sources of our knowledge of Peru--Garcilla.s.so De La Vega--Origin of Peruvian civilization--The Bolson of Cuzco--Historical outline--Their culture--Divided into phratries and gentes--Government--Efforts to unite the various tribes--Their system of colonies--The roads of the Incas--The ruins of Chimu--The arts of the Chimu people--The manufacture of pottery--Excavation at Ancon--Ruins in the Huatica Valley--The construction of a Huaca--The ruins at Pachacamac--The valley of the Canete--The Chincha Islands--Tiahuanuco-- Carved gateway--The Island of t.i.ticaca--Chulpas--Ruins at Cannar-- Aboriginal Cuzco--Temple of the Sun--The Fortress--General remarks.

The early part of the sixteenth century was surely a stirring time in the world's history. The night of the Dark Ages was pa.s.sing off of the Old World; the darker gloom of prehistoric times was lifting from off the New. Spanish discoveries followed each other in rapid succession in the South. As yet, they supposed these discoveries to be along the eastern sh.o.r.es of Asia, but, in 1513, Balboa, from a mountain peak, in Darien, saw the gleam of the great Pacific, which intervenes between America and Asia. At the same time he was informed there was a country to the southward where gold was in common use, and of as little value among the people as iron among the Spaniards. As gold was what the Spaniards most desired, we can imagine how they rejoiced over such information.

The rich country of which Balboa was thus informed was later known as Peru. Balboa himself did not attempt its discovery. There was no lack, however, of those who wished to achieve fame and fortune by so doing.

Among other restless spirits who had been attracted to the New World, was Francisco Pizarro. He had been a.s.sociated with Balboa in founding the settlement of Darien, and, of course, he was among the first to hear of the marvelous country farther south. In 1518, Panama, on the Pacific coast, was made the seat of government for the Spaniards in that section of the country. Pizarro was one of the first there--his services had been rewarded by the grant of an estate. The historian of his expedition speaks of him as "one of the princ.i.p.al men of the land, possessing his house, his farm, and his Indians."<1> We need not doubt but what he often pondered over his knowledge of the rich country south. He was well acquainted with Indian character, and knew that a small band of resolute Europeans, possessed of fire-arms, could sweep every thing before them.

He could not endure the quiet life on his estate, and so he obtained from the governor permission to explore the coast of the South Sea to the eastward. He spent a large part of his fortune on a good s.h.i.+p and the necessary supplies for the voyage, and finally set sail from Panama in November of 1524. It needed a man of no common spirits to withstand the disappointments of the next few years. In less than a year this s.h.i.+p returned to Panama for reinforcements. Pizarro himself and a few of his men remained at a place not very far from Panama. Here he was joined by reinforcements under Almagro. Undismayed by his first experience, he again sailed southward along the coast. Xeres's brief account is as follows: "When they thought they saw signs of habitations, they went on sh.o.r.e in their canoes they had with them, rowed by sixty men, and so they sought for provisions. They continued to sail in this way for three years, suffering great hards.h.i.+ps from hunger and cold. The greater part of the crew died of hunger, insomuch that there were not fifty surviving. During all these years they discovered no good land; all was swamp and inundated land without inhabitants."

This expedition accomplished nothing further than to obtain definite information as to Peru. Pizarro's grant from the governor having expired, and the further fact that he had spent all his fortune in these unsuccessful expeditions, made it necessary for him to go to Spain.

Received by the emperor with favor, clothed with ample authority, he was able to raise men and money, and finally sailed from Panama in 1531 on his third and successful expedition for the conquest of Peru. Thus was made known to the world what is regarded as the most wonderful example of native civilization in the two Americas.

The dawn of history for Peru was the sunset of her native culture. In a few short years what has come down to us as the Empire of the Incas was completely overthrown; the enslaved Indians were groaning under the weight of Spanish oppression; the demolition of her ancient monuments had already begun, and romance, tradition, and wonder had already thrown their subtle charms around the ruins. The old customs and usages were on the sudden dropped, a new culture was forced upon the unwilling natives, and prehistoric Peru, though distant but a few years in time, was as completely separated from historic Peru as is the culture of the Neolithic Age in Europe from that of the early historic period.

The magician's wand in the fairy stories of olden days did not present results more bewildering in their changes than did the operations of the Spaniards in Peru. All accounts unite in praising the government of ancient Peru. There is probably no question but what the government the Spaniards overthrew was one far better adapted to the wants of the native inhabitants than the one they forced them to accept. But when we read the accounts of that government as set forth by the early writers, we are at a loss to know what to believe. There is such an evident mixture of fables, traditions, and facts, that the cautious student hesitates, and asks what support the researches of later scholars give to these early writers. We doubt whether we have to this day clear ideas of the culture of ancient Peru. This is to be regretted. There is no question but that here was the highest development of the Indian race in America. If we accept the accounts given us, here rose an empire which will not suffer by comparison with the flouris.h.i.+ng empires of early times in Oriental lands. Let us try and learn what we can of this culture, and see wherein it differed from that of the civilized tribes already discussed.

Ill.u.s.tration of Map of Peru.---------------

We must, first of all, acquaint ourselves with the physical features of the country. We can never fairly judge of the civilization or culture of a people until we know their surroundings. One of the discoveries of late years is, that the culture of a people is greatly influenced by their surroundings. The very appearance of a country whether it is mountainous or plain, sea-girt or inland, influences the character of a people. Civilization is found to depend upon such common factors as climate, food, and physical surroundings.<2> Now if we will examine the map of South America, we will see that the entire section of country occupied by the tribes under consideration is very mountainous. What is known as the Andes is in reality the most eastern of the two ranges.

The western one nearer the coast is called the Cordillera, or the Coast Range. The summit of this mountain range often spreads out into great undulating plains, the general elevation of which is from fourteen to eighteen thousand feet above the sea. This series of elevated plains forms a dreary, uninhabited stretch of country, "frigid, barren, and desolate, where life is only represented by the hardy vicuna and the condor."<3>

This is the uninhabited portion of Peru. The general width of this plateau region is about one hundred and fifty miles. Pa.s.sing this dreary stretch of country we come to another still elevated plateau section, which extends to the snow-clad Andes proper. The distance between these two great mountain ranges is from one to two hundred miles, but as we see on the map they come together in places. One such place, the Pa.s.s of La Raya, fifteen degrees south lat.i.tude is of importance as marking the northern extremity of the great basin of Lake t.i.ticaca. This basin is remarkable in many respects. It is of no inconsiderable size, being six hundred miles in length by one hundred and fifty in width. It has a lake and river system of its own. At the northern extremity of the basin is the noted Lake t.i.ticaca, which is given by some as the traditional place of origin of the Incas. This lake finds an outlet in the River Desaguadero, which flows in a broad and swift stream in a southerly direction, where it empties into Lake Aullagas.

Of this lake we know next to nothing, but it seems to be established that it has no outlet to the sea. Thus this t.i.ticaca basin is but another example of interior basins like that of our own great Salt Lake.

It is not, however, favorably situated for agricultural purposes. It is a "region where barley will not ripen except under very favorable circ.u.mstances and where maize in its most diminutive size has its most precarious development; where the potato, shrunk to its smallest proportions, is bitter; where the only grain is the quinoa, and where the only indigenous animals fit for food are the biscacha, the llama and the vicuna."<4>

Thus we see that a large part of the interior of Peru was not desirable for habitations. But this great plateau region north of the basin of Lake t.i.ticaca is here and there broken up by what we would call valleys, but which the Spaniards more appropriately named _bolsons,_ literally meaning "pockets." These bolsons are of various alt.i.tudes, and, therefore have different climates and productions. Some are well drained and fertile, others are marshy and contain considerable lakes. As a general thing, the bolsons are separated from each other by stretches of the dreary, desolate plateau; or by ranges of precipitous hills and mountains, or by profound gorges, along which courses some river on its way to swell the flood of the mighty Amazon.

The coast range of mountains of which we have spoken runs nearly parallel to the coast, distant from it about forty miles. This stretch of country along the entire coast of ancient Peru is mainly a desert.

Owing to causes which we need not explain, rain is almost unknown; the consequence is, the coast presents a dreary, verdureless, forbidding appearance. The melting snows on the great Cordillera, however, send down, here and there, on their western flanks, feeble rivers. Some of these rivers reach the sea, others prolong their flow but a few miles from the mountains before the thirsty desert swallows them from view. As is true of all desert countries, all that is needed to render it fertile is water; so, wherever these rivers occur there are found wonderfully fertile valleys. Every one of these valleys was once thickly settled, but, like the bolsons of the interior, they were not connected with each other. Each valley is separated from its neighbor by many miles of almost trackless desert, across which the Incas are said to have indicated the road by means of stakes driven into the sand and joined by Ozier ropes. No remains of such roads have been found by modern travelers.

Ill.u.s.tration of Fortress, Huatica Valley.-------

From this description it is "clear that but a small portion of the country was inhabitable, or capable of supporting a considerable number of people. The rich and productive valleys and bolsons are hardly move than specks on the map."<5> It is necessary that we bear this description of the country in mind. It will help us to understand as nothing else will how the tribes located in one rich and productive bolson could, by successive forays, reduce to a condition of tribute tribes living in other detached valleys and bolsons. It will also enable us to put a correct estimate on the extravagant accounts that have reached us of the population of this country under the rule of its ancient inhabitants. We can also readily see why the tribes living in the hot and fertile valleys along the coast, which were called Yuncas by the Peruvians, should differ in religion and mental and moral characteristics from the tribes living in the bolsons of the interior, where the snow-clad peaks were nearly always in sight, and where the sun, shedding his warm and vivifying beams, would appear to the s.h.i.+vering natives as the beneficent deity from whence comes all good.

We must now turn our attention to the tribes inhabiting the section of country just described. We have seen that the Mayas, of Central America, the Nahuas, of Mexico, and the sedentary tribes, of the United States, were considerably in advance of the great body of the Indian tribes of North America. We find the same fact true of the natives of South America. Those tribes inhabiting the territory of ancient Peru, and those of the territory now known as the United States of Columbia, were considerably further advanced than the wild tribes living in the remaining portions of South America. Quite a number of our scholars have grouped in one cla.s.s these partially civilized tribes of both North and South America, and called them the Toltecan Family.<6> But others do not think that there are sufficient grounds for such a cla.s.s division. They can not detect any radical changes in the domestic inst.i.tutions of the various tribes.<7> On this point we must wait until our authorities are agreed among themselves.

Attempts have been made to cla.s.sify the various partially civilized tribes of Peru. There are several difficulties in the way. It was, for instance, the custom of the Incas, whenever they had reduced a tribe to tribute, to force them to learn their language, which was the Quichua, and is what the early Spanish writers call the general language of Peru.<8> How far this language was forced on the tribes, and how far it was their own idiom, we can not tell. Mr. Markham, who has made a very careful study of all the authorities bearing on Peru, divides the territory of ancient Peru into five divisions, and in each locates a number of tribes, which he thinks forms a family.

The first, and most northern one, extends north from near Tumbez, in the present State of Ecuador. The second extends from Loja, on the north, to Cerro De Pasco, in about eleven degrees south lat.i.tude. The third, and most important, extends from this last named place to the pa.s.s of La Raya, fifteen degrees south lat.i.tude. This was the home of the Incas and five other closely related tribes. To the south of La Raya is the basin of Lake t.i.ticaca, the home of a family of Indians generally known as the Aymara Indians. This name is, however, wrong; these tribes should be called the Collao Indians. These four divisions do not include any territory west of the Cordillera range, except one part of the third division. These four families are all closely related. Mr. Markham thinks they all had a common origin. Mr. Squier thinks the Collao, or, as they are generally called, the Aymara Indians, are distinct from the others. "They differ from each other as widely as the German's differ from the French," is his own conclusion. The entire coast district of Peru was the home of many tribes of Indians, about which we as yet know but little. The name by which they are known is Yuncas.<9>

We are now ready to proceed to a consideration of the culture of ancient Peru, and a description of the monuments. But before doing so we must have a word to say as to the authorities. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru, the Empire of the Incas was supposed to have been in existence about four hundred years. But the Incas had no hieroglyphic or pictorial system of recording events. The most they had was a system of knot records or quippos, which will be explained in due time. These records were simply aids to the memory. Mr. Squier places them "about on a par with Robinson Crusoe's Notched Calendar, or the chalked tally of an illiterate tapster."<10> They are manifestly of no value as historical records.

It must be evident, then, that all our knowledge of Peru, previous to the arrival of the Spaniards, rests solely upon traditions. We have no reason to suppose that these traditions are of more value in their case than in the case of other rude and illiterate people. The memory of such people is very short lived. The tribes in the southern part of the United States must have been greatly impressed with Do Soto's expedition. They heard fire-arms for the first time, and for the first time saw horses ridden by men. Yet in the course of a few generations they had completely forgotten all this.<11>

One very eminent authority is Garcilla.s.so De La Vega.<12> Let us examine his writings a minute. He was born in Cuzco about 1540, but a few years after the conquest. His mother claimed descent from the royal family. He left Peru in 1560, when he was just twenty years old, and went to Spain.

He first sought advancement in the army. Despairing of success in that line, he turned his attention to literature. One of his first works was an account of De Soto's expedition to Florida. The historian Bancroft thus characterizes this work: "An extravagant romance, yet founded upon facts--a history not without its value, but which must be consulted with extreme caution." Yet in this work there were no subtile ties of blood, no natural bias as there would be in favor of the land of his birth.

About 1600 he commenced his "Royal Commentaries of Peru." This is the main source of information as to ancient Peru. We must reflect that he had been away from his native land forty years when he commenced the work. His sources of information were the stories told him in his boyhood days, the writings of the Spanish travelers, monks, and conquerors, and what he learned by corresponding with his old friends in Peru, which he did when he formed the design of writing his history. In other words, his history rests on the traditions extant at the time of the conquest, viewed, however, from a distance of sixty years. Who can doubt but what the old man, writing his accounts of this mother's race, that race that had been so deeply wronged, wrote it under the influence of that potent spell, which the memory of old age throws around childhood's days?

It is evident we have in these accounts but little deserving the name of history. When he undertakes to tell us of the doings of the Incas, who are supposed to have reigned three or four hundred years before the Spanish conquest, descending to such details as what nations they subdued, the size of their armies, their speeches to their soldiers, the words of counsel they addressed to their heirs, their wise laws and maxims--and we know that this account rests on traditions--he who believes that they are of historical value, is surely possessed of a good store of credulity. We do not mean to say that his writings are of no account. On the other hand, they are of value. The historical part we are to consider simply as traditions, and we are to weigh them just as we would any other collection of traditions and compare them with monuments still extant. He is good authority on the customs and manners of the Peruvians just previous to the arrival of the Europeans.

We have seen what strange mistakes the Spanish writers made in describing the government and customs of the Mexicans. We have no doubt but what substantially the same mistake has been made in regard to Peru.

We believe that a careful, critical study of all that has been written on the subject of Peru by the early writers will establish this fact.

As yet this has not been done. We must therefore be careful in our description of the state of society amongst them, as we do not wish to make statements not supported by good authority.

We must try and decide as to what is the most probable origin of the ancient Peruvian civilization. Some of the earlier writers on this subject would trace it to an influx of Toltecs, the same mythical race that is credited with being the originators of the culture found in Mexico and Central America. But our modern scholars have clearly shown that the Toltec Empire, which was supposed to have preceded the Mexican, never existed. What we are to understand by the Toltecs is the sedentary tribes of Indians, either of the Nahua or Maya stock. The only value we would a.s.sign to the story of their dispersion is that it is a traditional statement that the migration of the sedentary Indians has been in a direction from north to south.

Ill.u.s.tration of Ruins at Pachacamac.---------------

We have no means of knowing when the first tribes arrived in the country, or of their state of culture. It was doubtless at a very early date, and the tribes were probably not far advanced. We have no reason to suppose the culture of Peru was influenced from outside sources at all. We can not detect any evidence of a succession of races in Peru.

The distinguished author to whom we have already referred<13> speaks of what he calls the ancient Peruvians as distinguished from the modern tribes that acknowledged the government of the Incas.<14> We think that all the evidence points to a long continued residence of the same race of people.

We may suppose that in the fertile valleys of the coast, and in the bolsons of the interior, tribes of rude people were slowly moving along the line of progress that conducts at last to civilization. There is no reason to suppose that this progress was a rapid one. Under all circ.u.mstances this development is slow. We must not forget the natural features of the country. The inhabited tracts were isolated, hence would arise numerous petty tribes, having no common aims or mutual interests.

Each would pursue their own way, and would keep about equal pace through the stages of Barbarism.<15>

In process of time geographical and climatic causes would produce those effects, from which there is no escape, and some tribes would distinguish themselves as being possessed of superior energy, and the same results would follow there as elsewhere; that is, the dominion of the strong over the weak. All other circ.u.mstances being equal, we would look for this result in a section where a mild climate and fertile soil enabled man to put forth his energies, and rewarded his labors. All accounts agree in speaking of the bolson of Cuzco as well provided by nature in this respect. One eminent traveler speaks of it as "a region blessed with almost every variety of climate. On its bracing uplands were flocks of llamas and abundance of edible roots, while its sunny valleys yielded large crops of corn, pepper, and fruits."<16> Mr. Squier thinks that, on the whole, the climate is very nearly the same as that of the south of France.<17>