The Present State of Peru/1b

by Joseph Skinner

VESTIGES OF THE
MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT PERU.

Scarcely does man begin to live, when every thing announces to him his approaching dissolution. The elements destined to his nourishment, conspire to his destruction; and the very globe he inhabits does not cease, by violent convulsions, to endeavour to shake off a load by which it seems to be oppressed. In the mean time, immortality is that which causes in his mortal breast the most poignant and unquiet sensation. The desire of surviving his perishable existence, and of transmitting to posterity his heroical achievements, is an idol to which his last sacrifices are offered up.

This enthusiasm, of equal antiquity with man himself, has constantly led him to have recourse to a thousand expedients, to elude, as it were, the painful limit of his inevitable destiny, and to avenge its attacks. Odoriferous and aromatic substances, balsams, cedar, brass, and marble, on the one hand; on the other, compositions replete with melody, brilliant recitals, emblems, and fine images, which have an efficacious power to attract attention and excite surprize;—such are the obstacles which the pride of mortals has opposed to the voraciousness of time. Hence have arisen mummies, which are preserved for thousands of years, reckoning from their original corruptibility; the mausolea in which they are inclosed; obelisks; pyramids; statues; and all the monuments in which the chisel and the graver display their magic skill, to perpetuate the posthumous memory of the hero and the man of illustrious birth. To this same principle we are indebted for poetry, for history, whether traditional or expressed by symbols, and for all the sketches and designs in which the pencil manifests its powers.

These precious trophies of the vanity and grandeur of men and of nations, destined to immortalize the triumphs of valour, of virtue, and, occasionally, of fanaticism, form, without doubt, an object worthy the consideration and study of the man of letters. But for them, what information could we have obtained relative to those obscure ages which gave birth to monarchies, arts, and sciences, and in which modes and customs were first regulated? To those ages in which the lyre, and the sweet harmony of vocal sounds, subdued the ferocious tyger, tamed the enraged lion, and softened the obdurate rocks? A philosophical poet denied the eternity of the world, solely on this account, that, prior to the Theban war, and the destruction of Troy, no poems or monuments were to be found, to hand down the remembrance of those remarkable events which fame is wont to record, and which illustrate all ages^[1]. But in succeeding times, and in the nations which possessed the art of writing in all its perfection, the want of the press to renew the leaves which the moth or the corroding hand of time had destroyed, has rendered archeology, or the study of antiquities, indispensable, to fill up the chasms they have left, or to comment on the fables they have transmitted to us. In rectifying chronology and history, how useful has been the examination of the hieroglyphics and enigmas of the superstitious Egyptians, the ruins of Palmyra, the odes and descriptions of the Greeks, the busts and pyramids of Rome, &c.

This subject, as it relates to Peru, acquires a new degree of value and interest. At the time of its conquest, the archives of Cuzco, Caxamarca, and Quito, were lost for ever. The fragile Quipos are now reduced to dust; and the tradition of the memorable events of the kingdom having by degrees become less and less perfect, through the ignorance and carelessness of those to whose charge it was entrusted, the observer is obliged to recur to the comparison, or, as it may be said, to the interpretation of the ancient fragments and ruins, to complete the imperfect picture of this ancient empire, as it has been sketched by the pencil of Garcilaso. By the same means, the fables relative to its religion and policy, adopted by the latest historiographers, may be deciphered. The study of the monuments erected by the Yncas, to display their power and record their existence; the recitals of their glories; the traditions and relics of their ancient usages and customs, which still remain among the modern Indians, who tenaciously preserve and repeat what their forefathers have, from time immemorial, handed down to them; and, lastly, the investigation of the works which were erected, either by magnificence or through necessity, unquestionably afford a new light, calculated to remove the thick veil which is spread over the historical and civil parts of the Peruvian monarchy, during the whole of the time that preceded its conquest.

If the rage of avarice and ambition had been satisfied with raking up the bowels of the earth, the memorials of ancient Peru would have been multiplied and entire; and while the delineation would have been more easy, the copy would have been more beautiful. But the execrable thirst of gold carried desolation to the sepulchres, which are the last asylum of mortals, but which were here no security to the ashes respected by the right of nations^[2]. In the same way, however, as the fury of Cambyses could not prevent many inestimable remains of Egyptian learning from being handed down to the present times, so is the utter annihilation of the monuments of the Yncas far from having been accomplished. Their ruins are every where to be found; and, in the midst of the ravages they have suffered, offer sufficient materials to form an estimate of the arts, sciences, and policy, of those by whom they were raised.

The famous obelisks and statues of Tiahuanacu^[3]; together with the mausolea of Chahapoyas^[4]; works destined to challenge duration with eternity, not only on account of the solidity of their materials, but also of the sites on which they were erected, alike display their skill in sculpture, and their ambition for immortality. That they were extremely solicitous on this head, both with respect to the sculptures and the dead bodies, is attested by the multitude of mummies which, after a lapse of so many years, indeed, of so many ages, are to be found entire in the catacombs. The examination of them, may, perhaps, instruct us in the mode by which they contrived to secure them from putrefaction, and from the destructive hand of time^[5].

The ruins of Pachacamac; the edifices of Cuzco and Quito; the fortresses of Herbay and Câxâhuana; and the roads cut through the middle of the Cordillera mountains, the one more especially, in the formation of which the most elevated hills were to be made level with the vallies^[6], attest the skill of the ancient Indians in civil and military architecture.

The large apertures in the mountains of Escnmora, Chilleo, and Abitanis, abounding in gold; those of Choquipina and Pozco, in silver; those of Curahuara, in copper; and those of Carabuco, in lead; together with many other stupendous and magnificent labours of a similar nature, all undertaken in the time of the government of the Yncas, give an idea of their subterraneous and metallurgic architecture.

The fragments of the great aqueducts of Lucanas, Condesuyos, and an infinity of others, which, in the midst of precipices, conducted the water from the deepest vallies to the summit of the highest hills, and to the distant plains; the clefts of hills filled up with earth, to augment the proportion of the cultivable lands—an enterprize which the observer cannot fail to contemplate with admiration and surprize; and the very useful custom, still observed by the Indians of the present day, of uniting together like brethren, in the rural labours of the seed-time and the harvest, are so many incontestible proofs of the skill of this nation in hydraulics and agriculture. It is evident that in this description of knowledge, the Spaniards have not only made no advances, but have also lost many of the guides with which the example of the Indians might have furnished them.

It was the custom of the native Peruvians to be interred with their apparel, and other personal effects. Their sepulchres are rich depositaries of their paintings, manufactures, mechanical and warlike instruments, implements for fishing, &c. The modern Indians still preserve the industry of their fathers, in the weaving of lliellas, anacos and chuces, and in the manufacture of topos, huaqueros, &c.^[7]

Of their ancient writing, some traces are to be found among the shepherds, who make use of quipos^[8] to reckon the number, increase, or diminution of their flocks, not forgetting the day or hour on which a sheep died, a lamb was ewed, or one of the flock stolen. The language they employed when they invoked the protection of the deity, may serve to give an idea of their oratory. Of their poetry and music many records still exist. The modern Indians, who are excessively fond of dancing, have not forgotten the wind instruments, and the immense variety of quick and lively airs which were the delight of their ancestors. Their tradition has handed down a few idyls and odes, and many elegies, which are revived and augmented, as well by the Arabicus^[9] as by the Spaniards, by whom they are recited with the sweetness, tenderness, and soft melancholy, which are the soul of these compositions.

The sciences which were cultivated by the Yncas with the greatest industry, were astronomy and medicine. Several pillars erected to point out the equinoctials and solstices; the names given to the planets; the celestial observations relative to eclipses; and those by which they kept their time, are so many data by which their progress in the former of these sciences may be calculated. Their acquirements in the latter may be estimated by the medical practice of the Indians who inhabit the mountainous territory, and by the skill of the Ceamatas^[10], the successors of the ancient Amautas.

The government of the Caciques over several of the tribes, which they ruled without controul; their inflexible justice; and the order and economy they observed, are illustrative of the mild sway exercised in every part of Peru by the Yncas, during the existence of their monarchies.

If to these materials, the examination of the Quechua tongue were to be added, an estimate might be formed, both of the degree of civilization they had attained, and of the duration of their empire. Words are the images of thought: the beauty and taste displayed in its delineation, and the vivacity with which it is represented, point out the ratio of the state and cultivation of the human mind.

Pl. I.

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Indian representation of the costumes of the Ynca and his Queen, to face
Pub. Feb. 1. 1805 by Richard Philips 6 New Bridge Street

Plate I. contains the delineation of the costumes of the Ynca, and of his Queen, as represented by the modern Indians in their processions.

1. Lucretii, lib. v. ver. 325.
2. In great conquests, havock and disorders are inevitable; but those of the detestable Carvajal, and his friend Gonzalo Pizarro, were carried to an unheard-of excess. The latter put to the torture several of the Indians who had fallen into his hands, to force them to discover the sepulchre of the Ynca Viracocha, in which much treasure was said to be concealed. It was found in the valley of Câxâhuana, distant from Cuzco six leagues. Not content with glutting his avarice by the spoil and riches he found in the sepulchre, he burned the corpse of this monarch, and scattered in the air his respectable ashes. Don Pedro de la Gasca, a virtuous Spaniard, whose name ought to be engraven on all the public monuments of Peru, punished this and the other crimes of the perfidious Pizarro, by causing him to be decapitated beside the monument he had so scandalously outraged. The foreign writers who dwell so pertinaciously on the horrors which attended the conquest of Peru, when they exaggerate the misconduct of some of the early adventurers, ought not to forget the heroism and virtues of this learned president, and of many others, who, by imitating his example, have not only wiped away the national stains on this score, but have also rendered the Spanish name illustrious by their valour and heroic deeds.
3. This town, situated on the confines of the city of la Paz, is unquestionably anterior to the monarchy of the Yncas, notwithstanding one of them bestowed on it its present name, the origin of which is said to be as follows: the Ynca fell in there with a messenger, whose dispatch in travelling was so great, that it might be compared to the swiftness of the huanaco, an animal having some degree of resemblance to the bouquetin, or wild goat of the Alps. The Ynca, alluding to this circumstance, said to the messenger, when he was brought into his presence, Tia-Huanaco, be seated, huanaco. To perpetuate the remembrance of the celerity of the messenger, and the condescension of the monarch, this name was substituted to the one the place originally bore. The formidable pyramid it contains, and the colossal statues of stone, together with a variety of human figures nicely cut out of the same substance, although decayed by time, point out that this monument belonged to some gigantic nation.
4. The province of Chaliapoyas contains buildings of stone, of a conical shape, supporting large unwieldy busts. They are situated on the declivities of mountains, and in spots so inaccesible, that, in their construction, both the materials and the workmen must have been lowered down by the means of strong cordage. They appear to have been the mausolea of certain caciques or principal people, who, being desirous to perpetuate their memory, endeavoured not only to secure these monuments from the ravages of time, by forming them of the most durable substance, by also from the rude attacks of man, by placing them where the precipice would prevent his approach.
5. It is conjectured by some, that the Indians preserved the dead bodies, merely by exposing them to the action of frost. This supposition might be allowed, if these mummies were alone to be found in Sierra, and in the cold temperatures. But, on the other hand, they are to be met with in abundance, in catacombs dug out in the vallies, and in the warmer climates.
6. The authors of the Encyclopedia, under the head of America, deny the existence of these roads. To convince themselves, they have only to send some one to view the splendid vestiges of them which still remain.
7. The lliella is a very fine square covering, adorned with much labour, which serves the Indians as a mantle. The anaco also forms a part of their dress, but is much larger. The chuce is a kind of carpet. The topo is a pin of gold, silver, or other metal, with a large solid head, eitiier circular or square, on which various figures are sculptured. Its use is to fasten the lliella at the breast, and to ornament it. The huaquero is a small earthen vessel.
8. The Peruvian tracts of Madame Grasigny induced an Italian nobleman, a member of the Academy of La Crusca, and a dutchess of the same nation, to write a large volume in quarto, entitled An Apology for the Quipos. After introducing into this work what Garcilaso has written on the subject, the authors describe with so much confidence the grammar and dictionary of the Quipos, and, in short, whatever relates to Quipographia, that we should have fancied we had fallen in with some Quipo-Camayu (secretary) of the Yncas, if, unfortunately, all the conjectures had not been utterly false.
9. Arabicus. Name of the Peruvian poets, from which is derived that of the yaravies, bestowed on their elegiac songs. The style, effect, and peculiar music of these compositions give them a decided advantage over all the similar ones of other nations, so far as they tend to inspire the human heart with sentiments of piety and love.
10. These are Indians of the province of Choque Ceamata, situated in the intendency of La Paz, who, in imitation of the earlier physicians of Greece, travel over the kingdom, provided with herbs, drugs, &c. curing empirically, but often-times with great success.