PART I. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE IN THE NEW WORLD LIFE AMONG THE PEOPLES OF ANCIENT AMERICA 1. CUSTOMS AND MANNERS OF THE INCA INDIANS [1609. Ynca Garcilaso de la Vega, The Royal Commentaries of the Yncas. Hakluyt Society Publications, XLV (1871), 14-35. Reprinted by permission of the Hakluyt Society Council of London.] "The first part of the Royal Commentaries of Peru," explained Markham, "describes the manners and customs of one of the two great civilised communities of the New World, and was written by an author who had known the country from his childhood, and had peculiar qualifications for his task. The writer was not one of those travellers or explorers who set out from Europe in search of adventures in the New World. He had even greater advantages as a describer of a distant and little known land; for he was the son of such an adventurer by a native mother, and thus began to acquire the knowledge which enabled him afterwards to write this invaluable work, in his very cradle. So that his travels over all parts of Peru were not commenced until he had learnt the traditions and customs of his mother's people, and had become intimately acquainted with their language. The young Ynca had a wonderful start of all other contemporary travellers, for he was born, as it were, in the midst of his work, and began to store his materials as soon as he could speak." 3 "The Ynca Garcilasso de la Vega is," continued Markham, "without any doubt, the first authority on the civilization of the Yncas and on the conquest of Peru. His intimate knowledge of the Quichua language, his recollections of discourses with his mother's relations, and the correspondence he kept up with Peruvian friends in after life, gives his testimony a weight and authority such as no Spaniard could lay claim to. . . . The father of Ynca Garcilaso de la Vega came to the Indies with Pedro de Alvarado in 1531. He married Chimpa Ocllo (Doña Isabel), daughter of Hualpa Tupac, brother of the great Ynca Huayna Ccapac. She bore him a son, the author, in 1540. Ynca Garcilaso de la Vega went to Spain later in life and devoted most of his time there to literary pursuits. He died in Córdoba in 1616. There have been three editions of the first part of these Commentaries. The first was published in 1609 at Lisbon, the second in Madrid in 1732, and the third in the same city in 1829. The excerpts given below are taken from the first edition, "collated with that of 1732." HOW THEY DISTRIBUTED THE WATER FOR IRRIGATION. THEY PUNISHED ALL IDLE AND CARELESS PEOPLE In the districts where only limited supplies of water for irrigation were procurable, it was distributed by fixed rule and measurement (like everything else that they supplied to the people), for there were no disputes among the Indians on these matters. In the years when there was little rain, the water was supplied by the State. The quantity was measured. It was known by experience what space of time was necessary for the irrigation of one fanegada of land; and, according to this rule, they gave each Indian a flow of water for the number of hours necessary to irrigate his land. They received the water according to their turns, one after the other; and neither the rich, nor the noble, nor the friend or relation of a Curaca, nor the Curaca, nor even the minister, or Governor himself received any preference. 1 Introduction to The Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, XLI, i, and xiii-xiv. He who neglected to irrigate his land within the allotted time was severely punished. He received three or four blows across the shoulders with a stone; or was flogged over the arms and legs with ozier wands as an idle lazy fellow, for this vice was much despised amongst them. They called these idle men Mizqui-tullu, which means "sweet bones," being composed of the two words-mizqui "sweet," and tullu "a bone." THE TRIBUTE THAT THEY GAVE TO THE YNCAS, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE GRANARIES Now that the method the Yncas had of dividing the land has been described, and how it was cultivated by the vassals, it will be well to explain the nature of the tribute they paid to their kings. Their tribute was to cultivate the lands of the Sun and of the Ynca, to gather in the harvests, and to store them in granaries which were kept in each village. One of the chief crops was the uchu, which the Spaniards call axi, and for another name pepper. The granaries, called pirua, were built of clay mixed with straw. In the time of the Yncas they were constructed with great care. The blocks of clay were of a size conformable to the height of the wall where they were placed, and were cast in different sizes in a mould. They made the granaries of sizes according to the required measurement, some larger than others, to hold from fifty to two hundred fanegas. Each granary was measured so as to be of the required size. It had four walls, and there was a passage down the middle, leading from one granary to another, so that they could be emptied or filled at pleasure. But they did not move them from where they were once placed. In order to empty a granary, they had small windows in front, in eight squares, opening so as to give a measurement of the quantity of grain that was poured out, and thus they knew the number of fanegas that had been taken out and the quantity remaining without having to measure it further. Thus they could easily tell, by the size of the granaries, the quantity of maize in each depôt, and by the windows they knew how much had been taken out and how much was left in each granary. I saw some of these granaries, which remained from the time of the Yncas, and they were among the best, for they were in the house of the virgins of the Sun, and were built for |