The Caciques Or
Curacas Of The Different Provinces Were Likewise Carried In Litters On The
Shoulders Of Their Vassals.
The Peruvians were exceedingly submissive to
their sovereigns, insomuch that even the most powerful lord always entered
the presence
Barefooted, and carrying some present wrapped up in a cloth,
as a mark of homage; and even if one person had occasion to go an hundred
times in one day to speak to the king, the present had to be repeated
every time he went. To look the king in the face was considered as a
criminal disrespect; and if any one should happen to stumble while
carrying the royal litter, so as to make it fall, his head was immediately
cut off. At every half league on the public roads throughout the whole
empire, there were Indians in constant attendance to relieve each other in
carrying dispatches, which they did swifter than our post horses. When any
province or district was subdued, the natives of the place, or at least
all their chiefs and principal people, were immediately removed to other
parts of the empire, and natives from other places which had been long
subjected were sent to occupy the new conquest, by which means the
fidelity and submission of the whole were secured. From every province of
the empire, yearly tributes of the several productions of their respective
countries were sent to the king; and even some sterile districts above
three hundred leagues distant from Cuzco, had to send yearly a number of
lizards as a mark of their submission, having nothing of any value to send.
Huana Capac rebuilt the temple of the sun at Cuzco, and covered over all
the walls and the roof of that structure with plates of gold and silver.
During his reign, one Chimocappa, who was curaca or prince of a large
district in the plain, above a hundred leagues in length, chose to erect
the standard of rebellion; but Huana Capac marched against him in person,
defeated him in battle, and put him to death; after which he commanded
that the Indians of the plain should not be permitted to carry arms.
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