Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
The work of Betanzos differs from that of Cieza de Leon, because
while the latter displays a diligence and discretion in collecting
information which give it great weight as an authority, the former
is imbued with the very spirit of the natives. The narrative of the
preparation of young Yupanqui for the death-struggle with the Chancas
is life-like in its picturesque vigor. Betanzos has portrayed native
feeling and character as no other Spaniard has, or probably could have
done. Married to an Inca princess, and intimately conversant with the
language, this most scholarly of the conquerors is only second to Cieza
de Leon as an authority. The date of his death is unknown.
Betanzos and Cieza de Leon, with Pedro Pizarro, are the writers among
the conquerors whose works have been preserved. But these three
martial scholars by no means stand alone among their comrades as
authors. Several other companions of Pizarro wrote narratives, which
unfortunately have been lost.[1231] It is indeed surprising that the
desire to record some account of the native civilization they had
discovered should have been so prevalent among the conquerors. The fact
scarcely justifies the term “rude soldiery,” which is so often applied
to the discoverers of Peru.
The works of the soldier conquerors are certainly not less valuable
than those of the lawyers and priests who followed on their heels. Yet
these latter treat the subject from somewhat different points of view,
and thus furnish supplemental information. The works of four lawyers
of the era of the conquest have been preserved, and those of another
are lost. Of these, the writings of the Licentiate Polo de Ondegardo
are undoubtedly the most important. This learned jurist accompanied
the president, La Gasca, in his campaign against Gonzalo Pizarro,
having arrived in Peru a few years previously, and he subsequently
occupied the post of corregidor at Cuzco. Serving under the Viceroy
Don Francisco de Toledo, he was constantly consulted by that acute but
narrow-minded statesman. His duties thus led Polo de Ondegardo to make
diligent researches into the laws and administration of the Incas, with
a view to the adoption of all that was applicable to the new régime.
But his knowledge of the language was limited, and it is necessary to
receive many of his statements with caution. His two _Relaciones_,
the first dedicated to the Viceroy Marques de Cañete (1561), and the
second finished in 1570,[1232] are in the form of answers to questions
on financial revenue and other administrative points. They include
information respecting the social customs, religious rites, and laws of
the Incas. These _Relaciones_ are still in manuscript. Another report
by Polo de Ondegardo exists in the National Library at Madrid,[1233]
and has been translated into English for the Hakluyt Society.[1234] In
this treatise the learned corregidor describes the principles on which
the Inca conquests were made, the division and tenures of land, the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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