CHAPTER XVIII

Description of the city of Cuzco and of its wonderful fortress, and of the customs of its inhabitants.

Thecity of Cuzco is the principal one of all those where the lords of this land have their residence; it is so large and so beautiful that it would be worthy of admiration even in Spain; and it is full of the palaces of the lords, because no poor people live there, and each lord builds there his house, and all the caciques[104]do likewise, although the latter do not dwell there continuously. The greater part of these houses are of stone, and others have half the façade of stone. There are many houses of adobe, and they are all arranged in very good order. The streets are laid out at right angles; they are very straight, and are paved, and down the middle runs a gutter for water lined with stone. The chief defect which the streets have is that of beingnarrow, so that only one horse and rider can go on one side of the gutter and another upon the opposite side. This city is located upon the slope of a mountain, and there are many houses upon the slope and others below on the plain. The plaza is rectangular, and the greater part of it is flat and paved with small stones. Around the plaza are four houses of noblemen, who are the chief men of the city; [the houses] are of stone, painted and carved, and the best of them is the house of Guaynacaba,[105]a former chief, and the door of it is of marble [colored] white and red and of other colors;[106]and there are other very sightly buildings with flat roofs. There are, in the said city, many other buildings and grandeurs. Along the two sides [of the city] pass two rivers which rise a league above Cuzco, and from there down to the city and for two leagues below it they run over stone flags so that the water may be pure and clear, and so that, though they may rise, they may not overflow. They have bridges for those whoenter the city. Upon the hill which, toward the city, is rounded and very steep, there is a very beautiful fortress of earth and stone. Its large windows which look over the city make it appear still more beautiful.[107]Within, there are many dwellings, and a chief tower in the centre, built square, and having four or five terraces one above another. The rooms inside are small and the stones of which it is built are very well worked and so well adjusted to one another that it does not appear that they have any mortar and they are so smooth that they look like polished slabs with the joinings in regular order and alternating with one another after the usage in Spain.[108]There are so many rooms and towers that a person could not see them all in one day; and many Spaniards who have been in Lombardy and in other foreign kingdoms say that they have never seen any other fortress like this one nor a stronger castle. Five thousand Spaniards might well be within it; nor could it be given a broadside or be mined, because it is on a rockymountain. On the side toward the city, which is a very steep slope, there is no more than one wall;[109]on the other side, which is less steep, there are three, one above the other. The most beautiful thing which can be seen in the edifices of that land are these walls, because they are of stones so large that anyone who sees them would not say that they had been put in place by human hands, for they are as large as chunks of mountains and huge rocks, and they have a height of thirty palms and a length of as many more, and others have twenty and twenty-five, and others fifteen, but there is none so small that three carts could carry it. These are not smooth stones, but rather well joined and matched one with another. The Spaniards who see them say that neither the bridge of Segovia nor any other of the edifices which Hercules or the Romans made is so worthy of being seen as this. The city of Tarragona has some works in its walls made in this style, but neither so strong nor of such large stones. These wallstwist in such a way that if they are attacked, it is not possible to do so from directly in front, but only obliquely.[110]These walls are of the same stone, and between wall and wall there is enough earth to permit three carts to go along the top at one time. They are made after the fashion of steps, so that one begins where another leaves off. The whole fortress was a deposit of arms, clubs, lances, bows, axes, shields, doublets thickly padded with cotton and other arms of various sorts, and clothes for the soldiers collected here from all parts of the land subject to the lords of Cuzco. They had many colors, blue, yellow, brown and many others for painting, much tin and lead with other metals, and much silver and some gold, many mantles and quilted doublets for the warriors. The reason why this fortress contained so much workmanship was that, when this city was founded it was done by a lordorejon[111]who came from Condisuyo, toward the sea, a great warrior who conquered this land as far as Bilcas and who, perceiving thatthis was the best place to fix his domicile, founded that city with its fortress. And all the other lords who followed after him made some improvements in this fortress so that it was ever augmenting in size. From this fortress are seen around the city many houses a quarter of a league, half a league and a league away, and in the valley, which is surrounded by hills, there are more than five thousand houses, many of them for the pleasure and recreation of former lords and others for the caciques of all the land who dwell continuously in the city. The others are storehouses full of mantles, wool, arms, metals, and clothes and all the things which are grown or made in this land. There are houses where the tribute is kept which the vassals bring to the caciques; and there is a house where are kept more than a hundred dried birds because they make garments of their feathers, which are of many colors, and there are many houses for this [work]. There are bucklers, oval shields made of leather, beams for roofing the houses, knivesand other tools, sandals and breast-plates for the warriors in such great quantity that the mind does not cease to wonder how so great a tribute of so many kinds of things can have been given. Each dead lord has here his house and all that was paid to him as tribute during his life, for no lord who succeeds another [and this is the law among them] can, after the death of the last one, take possession of his inheritance. Each one has his service of gold and of silver, and his things and clothes for himself, and he who follows takes nothing from him. The caciques and lords maintain their houses of recreation with the corresponding staff of servants and women who sow their fields with maize and place a little of it in their sepulchres. They adore the sun and have built many temples to him, and of all the things which they have, as much of clothes as of maize and other things, they offer some to the sun, of which the warriors later avail themselves.

Of the province of the Collao and of the qualities and customs of its people, and of the rich gold mines that are found there.

Thetwo Christians who were sent to see the province of the Collao were forty days upon their journey, and, as soon as they had returned to Cuzco where the governor was, they gave him news and a report of all that they had seen and learned, which is set forth below. The land of the Collao is far off and a long way from the sea, so much so that the natives who inhabit it, have no knowledge of it. The sierra is very high and rather broad, and with all this, it is excessively cold. There are in the region no groves or woods, nor is there any wood for burning, and what little there is in use there comes from trade, in exchange for merchandise, with those who live near the sea and are called Ingres, andalso with those who live below near the rivers, for these people have fire-wood and they exchange it for sheep[112]and other animals and vegetables, since, for the most part, the land is sterile, and all the people live on roots, herbs, maize and sometimes flesh, not because there is not, in that province of the Collao, a good quantity of sheep, but because the people are so much the subjects of the lord to whom they are bound to give obedience that, without his licence or that of the chief or governor who, by his command, is in the country, they do not kill one [llama], nor do even the lords and caciques dare to kill any without such permission. The land is well populated because wars have not destroyed it as they have other provinces. The villages are of ordinary size and their houses are small, with walls of stone and adobe mixed and covered with roofs of straw. The grass which grows in this land is short and sparse. There are some rivers, although of small volume. In the middle of the province there is a great lake,in length almost one hundred leagues, and the most thickly peopled land is around its shore; in the middle of the lake there are two islets, and on one of them is a mosque and house of the sun which is held in great veneration, and to it they come to make their offerings and sacrifices on a great stone on the island which they call Tichicasa[113]which either because the devil hides himself there and speaks to them or because of an ancient custom, or on account of some other cause that has never been made clear, all the people of that province hold in great esteem, and they offer there gold, silver and other things. There are more than six hundred Indians serving in this place, and more than a thousand women who make chicha in order to throw it upon that stone Tichicasa.[114]The rich mines of that province of the Collao are beyond this lake [in a region] called Chuchiabo.[115]The mines are in the gorge [caja-chiusa] of a river, about half-way up the sides. They are made like caves, by whose mouths they enter to scrapethe earth, and they scrape it with the horns of deer and they carry it outside in certain hides sewn into the form of sacks or of wine-skins of sheep-hide. The manner in which they wash it is that they take from the river a [jet?][116]of water, and on the bank they set up certain very smooth flag-stones on which they throw the water, after which they draw off by a duct the water of the [jet?] which has just fallen down [upon the gold-earth?], and the water carries off the earth little by little so that the gold is left upon the flag-stones themselves, and in this manner they collect it. The mines go far into the earth, one ten brazas, another twenty, and the greatest mine, which is called Guarnacabo[117]goes into the earth some forty brazas.[118]They have no light, nor are they broader than is necessary for one person to enter crouching down, and until the man who is in the mine comes out, no other can go in. The people who get out the gold here are as many as fifty,[119]counting men and women, and these are all of this land,and from one cacique come twenty, from another fifty, from another thirty, and from others more or less according to the number that they have, and they take out gold for the chief lord, and they have taken such precautions in the matter that in nowise can any of what is taken out be stolen, because they have placed guards around the mines so that none of those who take out the gold can get away without being seen. At night, when they return to their houses in the village, they enter by a gate where the overseers are who have the gold in their charge, and from each person they receive the gold that he has got. There are other mines beyond these, and there are still others scattered about through the land which are like wells a man's height in depth, so that the worker can just throw the earth from below on top of the ground. And when they dig them so deep that they cannot throw the earth out on top, they leave them and make new wells.[120]But the richest mines, and the ones from which the most gold is got, are thefirst, which do not have the inconvenience of washing the earth, and, because of the cold, they do not work those mines more than four months of the year, [and then only] from the hour of noon to nearly sunset.[121]The people are very mild, and so accustomed to serve, that all that has to be done in the land they do themselves, and so it is, in the roads and in the houses which the chief lord commands them to build, and they continually offer themselves for work and for carrying the burdens of the warriors when the lord goes to some place [in the region]. The Spaniards took from those mines a load of earth and carried it to Cuzco without doing anything else. It was washed by the hand of the Governor after the Spaniards had sworn that they had not placed the gold in it or done anything to it save take it from the mine as the Indians did who washed it, and from it three pesos of gold was got. All those who understand mines and the getting of gold, being informed of the manner in which it is got in this land, say that all the[country is full of mines], and that if the Spaniards gave implements and skill [in using them] to the Indians so that it might be got out, much gold would be taken from the earth, and it is believed that when this time has arrived, a year will not go by in which a million of gold is not got. The people of this province, as well men as women, are very filthy, and they have large hands, and the province is very large.

Of the great veneration in which the Indians held Guarnacaba[122]when he lived[123]and of that in which they hold him now, after death. And how, through the disunion of the Indians, the Spaniards entered Cuzco, and of the fidelity of the new cacique Guarnacaba[124]to the Christians.

Thecity of Cuzco is the head and principal province of all the others, and from here to the beach of San Mateo and, in the other direction, to beyond the province of Collao, which is entirely a land of arrow-using savages, all is subject to one single lord who was Atabalipa, and, before him, to the other by-gone lords, and at present the lord of all is this son of Guarnacaba. This Guarnacaba, who was so renowned and feared, and is so even to this day, although he is dead, was very much beloved by his vassals, and subjected great provinces, and made themhis tributaries. He was well obeyed and almost worshipped, and his body is in the city of Cuzco, quite whole, enveloped in rich cloths and lacking only the tip of the nose. There are other images of plaster of clay which have only the hair and nails which were cut off in life and the clothes that were worn, and these images are as much venerated by those people as if they were their gods. Frequently they take the [body] out into the plaza with music and dancing, and they always stay close to it, day and night, driving away the flies. When some important lords come to see the cacique, they go first to salute these figures, and they then go to the cacique and hold, with him, so many ceremonies that it would be a great prolixity to describe them. So many people assemble at these feasts, which are held in that plaza, that their number exceeds one hundred thousand souls. It turned out to be fortunate that they [the Spaniards] had made that son of Guarnacaba lord, because all the caciques and lords of the land and of remote provincescame to serve him and, out of respect for him, to yield obedience to the Emperor. The conquerors passed through great trials, because all the land is the most mountainous and roughest that can be traversed on horseback, and it may be believed that, had it not been for the discord which existed between the people of Quito and those of Cuzco and its neighbourhood, the Spaniards would never have entered Cuzco, nor would there have been enough of them to get beyond Xauxa, and in order to enter they would have had to go in a force of five hundred, and, to maintain themselves, they would have needed many more, because the land is so large and so rough that there are mountains and passes that ten men could defend against ten thousand. And the Governor never thought of being able to go with less than five hundred Christians to conquer, pacify, and make a tributary of it. But as he learned of the great disunion that existed between the people of that land [Cuzco] and those of Quito, it was proposed that he should go with thefew Christians that he had to deliver them from subjection and servitude, and to put a stop to the mischief and wrongs that those of Quito were doing in that land, and Our Lord saw fit to favor him [in it]. Nor would the Governor ever have ventured to make so long and toilsome a journey in this great undertaking had it not been for the great confidence which he had in all the Spaniards of his company through having tried them out and having learned that they were dextrous and skilled in so many conquests and accustomed to these lands and to the toils of war. All of this they showed themselves to be in this journey through rains and snows, in swimming across many rivers, in crossing great mountain chains and in sleeping many nights in the open air without water to drink and without anything on which to feed, and always, day and night, having to be armed and on guard, in going, at the end of the war, to reduce many caciques and lands which had rebelled, and in going from Xauxa to Cuzco, on which journeythey suffered, with their governor, so many trials and on which they so often placed their lives in peril in rivers and mountains where many horses were killed by falling headlong. This son of Guarnacaba has much friendship and concord with the Christians, and for this reason, in order to preserve him in the lordship, the Spaniards put themselves to infinite pains and likewise bore themselves in all these undertakings so valorously, and suffered so much, just as other Spaniards have been able to do in the service of the Emperor, that, as a result, the very Spaniards who have found themselves in this undertaking, marvel at what they have done when once more they set themselves to think upon it, and they do not know how they come to be alive as they have been able to suffer so many trials and such prolonged hunger. But they hold that all [their troubles] were put to a good use, and they would again offer themselves, were it necessary, to enter upon the greatest wearinesses for the conversion of those people and theexaltation of our holy catholic faith. Of the greatness and situation of the aforesaid land, I omit to speak, and it only remains to give thanks and praises to Our Lord because, so obviously, he has wished to guide with his hand the affairs of H. M. and of these kingdoms which, by his divine providence, have been illumined and directed upon the true road of salvation. May he bend his infinite goodness so that henceforth the [kingdoms] may go from good to better by the intercession of his blessed Mother, the advocate of all our steps who directs them to a good end.

This relation was finished in the city of Xauxa on the 15th day of the month of July, 1534. And I, Pero Sancho, Scrivener general of these kingdoms of New Castile and secretary of the governor Francisco Pizarro, by his order and that of the officials of H. M. wrote it just as things happened, and when it was finished I read it in the presence of the governor and of the officials of H. M., and, as it was all true, they saidgovernor and officials of H. M. sign it with their hand.

Francisco PizarroAlvaro Riquelme.Antonio Navarro.Garcia de Salcedo

By order of the Governor and Officials.Sancho

[1]The modern Cajamarca; called by the Indians Casamarca.

[2]Properly Atahualpa.

[3]Thus the original. Something is lacking to complete the sense.—Note by Icazbalceta.

[4]Thepesois about an ounce.

[5]Jauja.

[6]Properly Challcuchima or Calicuchima. This remarkable Indian general was a son of Epiclachima, younger brother of Cacha, last Caran Scyri of Quito. Cacha was conquered by Huayna Capac about 1487, and Calicuchima entered the service of Atahualpa who was his kinsman through Paccha his cousin, Huayna Capac's wife. (Velasco.)

[7]Something lacking in the text.

[8]Caribes, in Spanish, sometimes means the Carib people; here, simply savages.

[9]In the text of Ramusio,Se gli diede una storta col mangano al collo.

[10]This name is, of course, an error.

[11]Gucunacaba is Huayna Capac. He left three legitimate sons beside Huascar, viz., Manco, Paullu, and Titu Atauchi. I do not know which of them was Sancho's "Atabalipa" number two. See Sarmiento, 1907, p. xvii.

[12]Cuzcos = Incas.

[13]Probably Huascar.

[14]Huamachuco.

[15]Andamarca.

[16]Huaylas.

[17]Cajatambo.

[18]Icazbalceta suggests that this place is Cajamarquilla. I do not agree with this opinion, because Cajamarquilla had long been in ruins when the Spaniards arrived. (Cf. Hodge, 1897, pp. 304 ff.) It was probably Chacamarca, (see below).

[19]San Miguel de Piura.

[20]San Miguel was founded first at another site which, on being found to be unhealthy, was deserted; San Miguel was soon refounded at Piura. (Cf. Prescott, Bk. III, Cap. III, Moses, 1914, vol. I, p. 99.) It is possible that the "captain" mentioned here was no other than Sebastian de Belalcazar or Benalcazar who later conquered Quito. (Cf. Moses, 1914, I, p. 106.)

[21]This is obviously a mistake.

[22]Descriptions of Inca bridges will be found at:Garcilasso, 1859, I, pp. 253 ff., 260.Cieza de Leon, 1864, pp. 314-315.Joyce, 1912, pp. 142-143.Beuchat, 1912, pp. 608, 650.Pinkerton, 1808-1814, XIV, p. 530. (Picture.)

[22]Descriptions of Inca bridges will be found at:

Garcilasso, 1859, I, pp. 253 ff., 260.Cieza de Leon, 1864, pp. 314-315.Joyce, 1912, pp. 142-143.Beuchat, 1912, pp. 608, 650.Pinkerton, 1808-1814, XIV, p. 530. (Picture.)

[23]Pachacamac has often been described. See especially Uhle, 1903; and Estete, 1872; and Markham, 1912, pp. 232 ff.

[24]Cajatambo.

[25]Pambo = Pombo = Pumpu.

[26]It is impossible to tell what the correct names of these personages may have been.

[27]Pombo = Pambo = Pumpu.

[28]Chacamarca. See Raimondi's map, 1875.

[29]The Spanish here is very prolix. I have given an approximate and shorter phraseology.

[30]This may be the "Tice" mentioned in Section II, under another name. But all Sancho's proper names are in great confusion.

[31]It is barely possible that "Aticoc" may be an attempt at Titu Atauchi.

[32]The candor or barefacedness with which the secretary, Sancho, confesses and even applauds the bad faith of Pizarro in various places in this narrative, which he wrote by order of Pizarro, is worthy of admiration.—Note by Icazbalceta.

[33]The original:che haurebbe dato rame che i Capitani etc., soldati fossero venuti alla pase. The significance of the wordrameis obscure; as at times it meansmoney, whence comes the vulgar phrasequesto sa di rame, in order to indicate that a thing is dear, it appeared to me that I might adopt the interpretation which I give, although I am not satisfied with it.—Note by Icazbalceta. The present translator has translated the Spanish as given by Icazbalceta.

[34]The original;vedutoappears to me an error forvenuto.—Icazbalceta.

[35]Inca "roads" were designed for foot traffic, and steps were the means used for going up slopes.

[36]Parcostambo.

[37]Vilcas.

[38]All within the parentheses is a reconstruction of the evident sense rather than a translation.

[39]Cf. Bandelier, 1910, p. 61.

[40]Serratameans eitherespesura[thicket] orangostura[cleft].

[41]Quizquiz, like Chalicuchima, had been a general of Atahualpa before the coming of the Spaniards. He fought long against the invaders, but at length his unavailing efforts caused him to be murdered by his own followers. See Garcilasso, II, p. 509; Sarmiento, 171-173; Cieza de Leon, Chr., Pt. II, pp. 164 and 227; Markham, 1912, pp. 247-251.

[42]Andahuaylas.

[43]Curamba.

[44]Andahuaylas.

[45]Vilcas.

[46]Curamba is the correct form for Airamba (given above).

[47]Vilcas, sometimes called Vilcashuaman, was a part of the territory controlled by the Chanca before they were made subjects to Cuzco. The conquest of the Chanca may have begun in the time of Rocca, but it had its culmination in that of Viracocha. Tupac Yupanqui built numerous temples and palaces there, and the region round about Vilcas was traversed by important roads or trails. It is a place that is mentionedby nearly all the early writers. Cf. Garcilasso, I, pp. 324-326, II, p. 58; Cieza de Leon, I, 312-315, II, 150-154; Joyce, 1912, p. 107; Markham, 1912, p. 178.

[48]Sancho is vague in his use of the wordscaballoandligero caballo. The latter means "light horse" or "light-armed cavalry." But he uses the wordcaballowhen he meanscaballero. In the present instance he really meanscaballo.

[49]The veracity of this story is certainly open to question.

[50]Here the text sayscaballos, although it is plain thatcaballerosis the word intended.

[51]See Squier, 1877, p. 177; Cieza, Tr. p. 355; Velasco, 1840, p. 22; Joyce, 1912, pp. 210-212.

[52]This speech can hardly be regarded as verbatim, of course.

[53]Sancho's imagination was drawn upon throughout this section.

[54]Limatambo (correctly, Rimactampu).

[55]Xaquixaguana or Sacsahuana.

[56]The text has: "y que riendo el Gobernador partirse sin aguardar a que pasaran los indios amigos, ..."

[57]tuvieron tiempo de retraerse al montereally means, "they had time to withdraw to the mountain," but the obvious sense is better preserved in the translation I have given.

[58]Possibly this means Huascar, whom Atahualpa had caused to be put to death.

[59]In Spanish they always say "el Cuzco." I believethat the reason for this is that "Cuzco" comes from a Quichua word meaning "navel." If this is so, "el Cuzco" has the significance of "the Navel" (of the World). In English, of course, we use the word simply as a place-name.

[60]The official designation of the Emperor was: S. C. C. M., or Sagrada Cesarea Catolica Majestad.

[61]The modern village of Limatambo. When I was there the fine walls so often spoken of were in a bad condition from neglect on the part of the natives. Yet, in spite of the refuse piled around them and the throngs of pigs all about, one could see that the masonry was of the finest Cyclopean type. Cf. Squier, 1877, p. 535; Markham, 1912, pp. 286 and 319; Cieza, Tr., p. 320; Sarmiento, pp. 119 and 209. Garcilasso tells us that it was founded by Manco Capac and that it was the place where Viracocha waited for the Chanca. Garcilasso, I, p. 80, and II, p. 52.

[62]Now called Zurite. It was the site of a palace of Viracocha, who added it to his realm once more by a victory (won by Pachacutec) over the Chanca. Cf. Sarmiento, p. 85; Garcilasso, I, p. 53; Cieza, Chr., p. 128; The "Finca de los Andenes" is doubtless the site of the palace.

[63]The truth of this statement is very questionable.

[64]Valverde.

[65]Pachacamac.

[66]In the days before the Incas the Creator-God (under the names of Pachacamac, Viracocha, Irma, etc.) was worshipped without idols. He was conceivedas being superior to all other gods and as being invisible. To judge from all accounts, his cult, at this stage, was an advanced type of religion. Later, however, the custom of having idols sprang up. As their attributes were the same, there can be but little doubt that Pachacamac and Viracocha were the same deity. Pachacamac's chief shrine was on the coast, at Pachacamac. Inca Pachacutec conquered Cuismancu, lord of Pachacamac, about 1410, and built a Sun Temple there. The chief temple to Viracocha was at Cacha south of Cuzco, and it was probably erected by the Inca Viracocha to celebrate his defeat of the Chanca confederacy. Both these temples (under Inca influence) had idols. Cf. Blas Valera, 1879, pp. 137-140; Sarmiento, pp. 28-29; Garcilasso, II, pp. 69, 185-193, 428, 460; Cieza, Tr., pp. 161-163, 251-254; Cobo, 1892, III, pp. 320-323; Uhle, 1903; Markham, 1912, pp. 41, 97, 181, 233-234; Joyce, 1912, pp. 150-152; Beuchat, 1912, pp. 615-616.

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