The Monarch Himself Appeared With Ensigns Of Royalty Reserved
For Him Alone; And Received From His Subjects Marks Of Obsequious Homage
And Respect, Which Approached Almost To Adoration.
But among the Peruvians,
this unbounded power of their monarchs seems to have been uniformly
accompanied with attention to the good of their subjects.
It was not the
rage of conquests, if we may believe the accounts of their countrymen,
that prompted the Incas to extend their dominion, but the desire of
diffusing the blessings of civilization, and the knowledge of the arts
which they possessed, among the barbarous people whom they reduced.
During a succession of twelve monarchs, it is said that not one deviated
from this beneficent character."
"When the Spaniards first visited the coast of Peru in 1526, Huana Capac,
the twelfth monarch from the founder of the state, was seated on the
throne. He is represented as a prince distinguished not only for the
pacific virtues peculiar to the race, but eminent for his martial talents.
By his victorious arms the kingdom of Quito was subjected, a conquest of
such extent and importance as almost doubled the power of the Peruvian
empire. He was fond of residing in the capital of that valuable province
which he had added to his dominions; and notwithstanding the ancient and
fundamental law of the monarchy against polluting the royal blood by any
foreign alliance, he married the daughter of the vanquished monarch of
Quito. She bore him a son named Atahualpa, whom, on his death at Quito,
which seems to have happened about the year 1529, he appointed his
successor in that kingdom, leaving the rest of his dominions to Huascar,
his eldest son, by a mother of the royal race. Greatly as the Peruvians
revered the memory of a monarch who had reigned with greater reputation
and splendour than any of his predecessors, the destination of Huana Capac
concerning the succession appeared so repugnant to a maxim coeval with the
empire, and founded on authority deemed sacred, that it was no sooner
known at Cuzco than it excited general disgust. Encouraged by those
sentiments of his subjects, Huascar required his brother to renounce the
government of Quito, and to acknowledge him as his lawful superior. But it
had been the first care of Atahualpa to gain a large body of troops which
had accompanied his father to Quito. These were the flower of the Peruvian
warriors, to whose valour Huana Capac had been indebted for all his
victories. Atahuaipa first eluded the demand of his brother, and then
marched against him in hostile array."
"Thus the ambition of two young princes, the title of the one founded on
ancient usage, and of the other asserted by the veteran troops, involved
Peru in civil war, a calamity to which it had been hitherto a stranger,
under a succession of virtuous monarchs. In such a contest the issue was
obvious. The force of arms triumphed over the authority of laws. Atahualpa
remained victorious, and made a cruel use of his victory. Conscious of the
defect in his own title to the throne, he attempted to exterminate the
royal race, by putting to death all the children of the sun descended from
Manco Capac, whom he could seize either by force or stratagem. From a
political motive, the life of the unfortunate Huascar, who had been taken
prisoner in a battle which decided the fate of the empire, was prolonged
for some time; that, by issuing orders in his name, the usurper might more
easily establish his own authority."
"When Pizarro landed in the bay of St Matthew, in 1531, this civil war
raged between the two brothers in its greatest fury; and though the two
competitors received early accounts of the arrival of the Spaniards, they
were so intent upon the operations of a war which they deemed more
interesting, that they gave no attention to the motions of an enemy too
inconsiderable in number to excite any great alarm, and to whom it would
be easy, as they imagined, to give a check when more at leisure. By this
fortunate coincidence of events, of which he could have no foresight, and
of which he remained long ignorant from its defective mode of intercourse
with the people of the country, Pizarro was permitted to advance
unmolested into the centre of a great empire, before any effort of its
power was exerted to stop his career. During their progress, the Spaniards
acquired some imperfect knowledge of the struggle between the two
contending factions; and the first complete information respecting it was
received from messengers sent by Huascar to Pizarro, to solicit his aid
against Atahualpa, whom he represented as a rebel and an usurper."
* * * * *
Manco Capac, the first Inca of the Peruvians, is said to have reigned
about the middle of the twelfth century, as the traditionary accounts
attribute a period of about 400 years between the commencement of his
reign and the decease of Huana Capac in 1529, which would place the origin
of the monarchy about the year 1129, allowing an average of 30 years to
each of 13 successive reigns. The traditions of such ancient matters among
an ignorant people are little to be depended on; and even admitting the
series of kings to be right as to number, the ordinary average of _twenty_
years to each of the _thirteen_ successive reigns would only give 260
years for the duration of the monarchy, and would carry back the
commencement of the reign of Manco Capac only to the year 1269. The series
of these kings, as given by various Spanish writers, according to the
traditions of the Peruvians, is as follows:
1. Manco Capac. 2. Sinchi Roca. 3. Lloque Yupanqui. 4. Mayta Capac. 5.
Capac Yupanqui. 6. Inca Roca. 7. Yahuar Huacac. 8. Inca Roca, likewise
named Viracocha. 9. Pachacutec[36]. 10. Yupanqui. 11. Tupac Yupanqui. 12.
Huana Capac. 13. Huascar, or Inti-cusi-Hualpa. 14. Atahualpa. 15. Manco
Capac the Second, crowned at Cuzco by permission of Pizarro; afterwards
revolted and retired to the mountains.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 157 of 216
Words from 159784 to 160798
of 221091
