The History Of The Conquest Of Peru (2nd ver) | Page 9

Other valleys or plateaus in this vast
group of mountains reach a still higher elevation.]
The source of this civilization is traced to the valley of Cuzco, the
central region of Peru, as its name implies. *7 The origin of the
Peruvian empire, like the origin of all nations, except the very few
which, like our own, have had the good fortune to date from a civilized
period and people, is lost in the mists of fable, which, in fact, have
settled as darkly round its history as round that of any nation, ancient or
modern, in the Old World. According to the tradition most familiar to
the European scholar, the time was, when the ancient races of the

continent were all plunged in deplorable barbarism; when they
worshipped nearly every object in nature indiscriminately; made war
their pastime, and feasted on the flesh of their slaughtered captives. The
Sun, the great luminary and parent of mankind, taking compassion on
their degraded condition, sent two of his children, Manco Capac and
Mama Oello Huaco, to gather the natives into communities, and teach
them the arts of civilized life. The celestial pair, brother and sister,
husband and wife, advanced along the high plains in the neighbourhood
of Lake Titicaca, to about the sixteenth degree south. They bore with
them a golden wedge, and were directed to take up their residence on
the spot where the sacred emblem should without effort sink into the
ground. They proceeded accordingly but a short distance, as far as the
valley of Cuzco, the spot indicated by the performance of the miracle,
since there the wedge speedily sank into the earth and disappeared for
ever. Here the children of the Sun established their residence, and soon
entered upon their beneficent mission among the rude inhabitants of the
country; Manco Capac teaching the men the arts of agriculture, and
Mama Oello *8 initiating her own sex in the mysteries of weaving and
spinning. The simple people lent a willing ear to the messengers of
Heaven, and, gathering together in considerable numbers, laid the
foundations of the city of Cuzco. The same wise and benevolent
maxims, which regulated the conduct of the first Incas, *9 descended to
their successors, and under their mild sceptre a community gradually
extended itself along the broad surface of the table-land, which asserted
its superiority over the surrounding tribes. Such is the pleasing picture
of the origin of the Peruvian monarchy, as portrayed by Garcilasso de
la Vega, the descendant of the Incas, and through him made familiar to
the European reader. *10
[Footnote 7: "Cuzco, in the language of the Incas," says Garcilasso,
"signifies navel." Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 18.]
[Footnote 8: Mama, with the Peruvians, signified "mother." (Garcilasso,
Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 4, cap. 1.) The identity of this term with that
used by Europeans is a curious coincidence. It is scarcely less so,
however, than that of the corresponding word, papa, which with the
ancient Mexicans denoted a priest of high rank; reminding us of the

papa, "pope," of the Italians. With both, the term seems to embrace in
its most comprehensive sense the paternal relation, in which it is more
familiarly employed by most of the nations of Europe. Nor was the use
of it limited to modern times, being applied in the same way both by
Greeks and Romans.]
[Footnote 9: Inca signified king or lord. Capac meant great or powerful.
It was applied to several of the successors of Manco, in the same
manner as the epithet Yupanqui, signifying rich in all virtues, was
added to the names of several Incas. (Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 41. -
Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 2, cap. 17.) The good qualities
commemorated by the cognomens of most of the Peruvian princes
afford an honorable, though not altogether unsuspicious, tribute to the
excellence of their characters.]
[Footnote 10: Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 9 - 16.]
But this tradition is only one of several current among the Peruvian
Indians, and probably not the one most generally received. Another
legend speaks of certain white and bearded men, who, advancing from
the shores of lake Titicaca, established an ascendency over the natives,
and imparted to them the blessings of civilization. It may remind us of
the tradition existing among the Aztecs in respect to Quetzalcoatl, the
good deity, who with a similar garb and aspect came up the great
plateau from the east on a like benevolent mission to the natives. The
analogy is the more remarkable, as there is no trace of any
communication with, or even knowledge of, each other to be found in
the two nations. *11
[Footnote 11: These several traditions, all of a very puerile character,
are to be found in Ondegardo,