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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
The best example of the effect produced by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas’ theoretical writings concerning the just title Spain held to America occurred in Peru during the rule of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, wise law-giver, energetic administrator, and greatest viceroy Spain ever sent to Peru, who laid the basis for Spanish rule there during the years 1569–1582. Before his coming, Peru had had a most turbulent and bloody history, and Toledo arrived with one great aim—to establish without question in this territory the position of the King of Spain. One of his earliest acts was to execute the Inca, Lord Tupac Amaru, the Indian leader who refused to accept Spanish rule. Presently, with a view to establishing Spain’s juridical title to Peru, he undertook an extensive historical investigation which attempted to demonstrate the unjust nature of the Inca regime and thus demolish the doctrines of Las Casas.
1 Archivo de Indias, Indiferente General 2859, Lib. 2, 12 vuelto—13; de la Espada, Marcos Jiménez, Tres relaciones de antiguedades peruanas (Madrid, 1879), tomo 4, p. CXVII Google Scholar; Levillier, Roberto, Don francisco de Toledo, supremo organizador del Perú; su vida, su obra (1515–1582) (Buenos Aires, 1935), tomo 1, pp. 126–127 Google Scholar provides the Inquisition citation.
2 Archivo de Indias, Lima 29, Lib. 5. Report by Toledo to the king, from Potosí, on March 20, 1573.
3 Archivo de Indias, Lima 29, Lib. 5. Letter from Toledo at La Plata, to the king, dated Nov. 30, 1573. See also Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organización de las antiguas posesiones españolas de ultramar (Madrid, 1885–1932), tomo 15: p. 285
4 Archivo de Indias, Lima 29, Lib. 5. Toledo’s letter to the king of Nov. 30, 1573.
5 Llorente, Juan A., Colección de las obras del Obispo de Chiapa, Don Bartolomé de las Casas (Paris, 1822), tomo 2, pp. 175–327.Google Scholar
6 Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España (Madrid, 1842–1895), tomo 13, pp. 425–469.
7 Urteaga, Horacio, Informaciones sobre el antiguo Perú (Colección de libros y documentos referentes a la historia del Perú, tomo 3, segunda serie, Lima, 1921), pp. XXIX–XXX.Google Scholar
Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid), Ms. No. 19569, pp. 111–112. Note by Jiménez de la Espada.
8 de la Espada, Jimenéz, op. cit., p. XXVIII.Google Scholar At another time this same author believed that Pedro Cieza de León composed the treatise.
9 Colectión de documentos inéditos para la historia de España, tomo 13, p. 443.
10 Ibid., p. 455.
11 Levillier, op. cit., tomo 2.
12 Levillier gives a résumé and criticsm of these opinions, ibid., pp. 201–202. See alto de la Rira Agüero, José, La historia en el Perú (Lima, 1910)Google Scholar; Urteaga, , Los errores y supersticiones de los Indios (CLDHP, Lima, 1916), p. VIII Google Scholar; Levillier, , Gobernantes del Perú, cartas y papeles, siglo XVI (Madrid, 1922), toma 1, pp. XII–XIII Google Scholar; Urteaga, and Romero, (ed.), Relación de los fundementos acerca del notable daño … (CLDHP, tomo III, Lima, 1916), p. LXXII Google Scholar. As an example of the present attitude in tome Peruvian historical circles may be cited the “Juicio crítico” by Humberto Santillán, one of Urteaga’s students, who states, “Aun poniéndonos en al caso extremo de que a nosotros no hubieran Ilegado sino estas informaciones, como único mensaja escrito de la cultura que forjaron nuestros incas, aun en ese caso carecerían de valor histórico … muchos de los datos que se consignan son falsos … en este documento no hay ni disinterés ni imparcialidad.” Humberto Santillán, Juicio crítico sobre el informe que el Virrey Don Francisco de Toledo elevó al Rey de España, sobre el origin, costumbres, etc. de los indios del Perú (Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, Seminario de Letras, Lima, 1937. Folleto de vulgarizasión histórica), no. 3, pp. 3, 12.
13 Both sides were accused of dishonesty in the recording of the Information. The charge that Toledo’s assistants did so was made by Urteaga, Informaciones sobre el entiguo Perú, p. LXXV. The anonymous treatise writer of 1571 declared that an important occlesiastic, afterwards a bishop, who was present when some of the testimony was being given, also tried to influence the testimony, but in the opposite way. When the Indians made certain statements bearing on the title of the King of Spain, the ecclesiastic told the interpreter not to include it, lest it be used to the disadvantage of the Indians. Colección de documentos ineditos para la historia de España, tomo 13, p. 465.
14 Means, Philip A., Biblioteca Andina, Part I (Trantactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, No. 29, New Haven, 1928), pp. 496–7.Google Scholar
15 Levillier, , Don Francisco de Toledo, tomo 1, pp. 296–7.Google Scholar
16 Ibid., tomo 1, pp. 65–98.
17 John Howland Rowe has made a thorough study of the evidence available in connection with the preparation of a chapter on “Inca culture at the time of the Spanish conquest” to appear in the forthcoming Handbook of the South American Indians to be published soon by the Smithsonian Institution. Rowe concludes that the material gathered by Toledo and his associates is essentially sound.
18 Levillier, op. cit., tomo 2.
19 Ibid., pp. 11–13.
20 Levillier, , Gobernantes del Perú: Cartes y Papeles, Siglo XVI (14 vols., Madrid, 1921–1926), tomo 5, pp. 310–312.Google Scholar
21 Medina, José Toribio, Biblioteca Hispano-Americana (1493–1810), tomo 1 (Santiago de Chile, 1898), p. 355.Google Scholar
22 Carbia, Rómulo D., La Crónica Oficial de las Indias Occidentales (Bueno Aires, 1940), p. 148.Google Scholar In the Boston Public Library there is a 40 folio manuscript by Fernández entitled, “Réplica a las objeciones puestas por el Lic. Santillán a su historia del Perú, 1572”.
23 Levillier, , Gobernantes del perú, tomo 7, pp. 115–130.Google Scholar
24 The principal sources of our information on Sarmiento and his history are: Pietschmann, Richard (ed.). Geschichte des Inkareiches von Pedro Sarmiento de Gambos (Berlin, 1906)Google Scholar; and Lerillier, Roberto, Don Francisco de Toledo, supremo organizador del Perú; su vide, su obra, 1515–1582 (Buenos Aires, 1931–1942, 3 vols.).Google Scholar
25 Levillier, , Don Francisco de Toledo, tomo 3, pp. 154–5.Google Scholar
25a Ibid., tomo 1, pp. 285–289; tomo 3, pp. 155–159.
26 Montesinos, Fernando, Memories Antiguas Historiales y Políticas del Perú (Madrid, 1882), pp. 244–5 Google Scholar [Colección de libros españoles raros ó curiosos, tomo 16].
27 Levillier, Don Francisco de Toledo, tomo 3, p. 10.
28 Pietschmann, op. cit.
29 Lopetegui, León, El Padre José de Acosta y las misiones (Madrid, 1942), pp. 251, 356.Google Scholar
30 de Matienzo, Juan, Gobierno del Perú (edited by José Nicolás Matienzo, Buenos Aires, 1910), chapter 2Google Scholar. This passage was first printed by de Solórzano, Juan, Política Indiana (Madrid, 1930)Google Scholar. Matienzo was an old hand at Indian problems. In 1565 he participated in a curious episode during which he attempted to get the Inca Titu Cussi Yupangui to give in peacefully. The Inca showed an impressive finesse in the art of stalling, even when dealing with a shrewd Spanish lawyer. See Lohmann Villena, Guillermo, “El Inca Titu Cussi Yupangui y su entrevista con el Oidor Matienzo (1565),” Mercurio Pernano, tomo 23 (Lima, 1941), pp. 3–18.Google Scholar
31 de Ondegardo, Juan Polo, Relación del linaje de los Incas (edited by Urteaga, Horacio and Romero, Carlos), Colección de libros y documentos referentes a la historia del Perú (Lima, 1917), III, p. 48.Google Scholar
32 “In the letter of April 18, 1578, Toledo tells the king about a great map that he is having made. It includes, so he says, the whole of South America and it is based on every possible evidence that he has been able to collect from the Caciques and Corregidores scattered throughout the Kingdom of Peru. He sutes that in connection with the work, which has been going on for nearly five years, he has collected all the known chronicles of Peru and that he has made notes upon them in which truth and falsity are each pointed out. He goes on to say that, in the same connection, he sent to His Majesty much literary material and many paintings in which Indian history was set forth, dealing with the rites and polity of the natives before they were tyrannized over by the series of twelve Yngas, and then, in turn, dealing with the tyrannical government and conquests of the twelve Yngas, from Mango Capac to Guascar, during eight hundred years, and with the period of the Conquest by the Spaniards.” Means, Biblioteca Andina, pp. 492–493. The Viceroy Martín Enríquez carried on an investigation in Cuzco in March-April, 1582, on Inca customs. Cf.Levillier, , Gobernantes del Parú, tomo 9, pp. 268–288.Google Scholar
33 Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y colonización de las posesiones españolas en América y Oceanía (Madrid, 1864–1884), tomo 7, p. 453.
34 Means, Biblioteca Andina, p. 469.
35 Levillier, , Don Francisco de Toledo, tomo 1, p. 297.Google Scholar For a critical review and indictment of Markham’s translations and prejudices, see Diffie, Bailey, “A Markham contribution to the Leyenda Negra” Hispanic American Hístorical Review, vol. 16 (1936), pp. 96–103 Google Scholar; and Bernstein, Harry and Diffie, Bailey, “Sir Clements R. Markham as a translator,” Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 17 (1937), pp. 546–557.Google Scholar
36 Colección de documentos inéditos relativos el descubrimiento, conquista y colonización de las posesiones españolas en América y Oceanía, tomo 5, pp. 301–2.
37 de Mendiburu, Manuel, Diccionario histórico-biográfico del Perú (Lima, 1931), tomo 7, pp. 391–399.Google Scholar See also Means, Biblioteca Andina, p. 492. Naturally two diverse interpretations of this will have arisen. Walter Schücking, the international lawyer, stated: “I may not have searched diligently enough, but in the many narratives of modern explorations, conquerors and pioneers of civilizations, I can recall few expressions of regret so deep as that of the confessions by the Spanish conqueror, few cases in which the conscience of a modern explorer or promoter smites him, and he is filled with doubts whether it was right to break up tribal organizations and convert into masses of shifting atoms what were once strong cohesive organizations, the rudiments of nations, if not nations full grown.”
Raúl Porras Barrenechea, the Peruvian historian, considers the whole episode due to the pressure of friars and has written an amusing literary account, sans evidence which tends to depreciate the honesty of the old conquistador’s death bed statement. Barrenechea, Raúl Porras, “El testamento de Maneio Serra”, Mercurio Peruano, tomo 23 (Lima, 1941), pp. 55–62.Google Scholar
38 Ernest, James, Roger Willams (New York, 1932), pp. 80, 101–103, 130.Google Scholar
