The Agonies Which Are

"MISERY is manifold. The wretchedness of earth is multiform. Overreaching the wide horizon as the rainbow, its hues are as various as the hues of that arch - as distinct too, yet as intimately blended. Overreaching the wide horizon as the rainbow! How is it that from beauty I have derived a type of unloveliness? - from the covenant of peace, a simile of sorrow? But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are, have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been." [1]

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    "First, and before I begin my testament, I declare that for many years I have desired to take order for informing the Catholic and Royal Majesty of the King Don Felipe our Lord, seeing how Catholic and most Christian he is, and how zealous for the service of God our Lord, touching what is needed for the health of my soul, seeing that I took a great part in the discovery, conquest, and settlement of these kingdoms, when we drove out those who were the Lords Incas and who possessed and ruled them as their own. We placed them under the royal crown, and his Catholic Majesty should understand that we found these kingdoms in such order, and the said Incas governed them in such wise that throughout them there was not a thief, nor a vicious man, nor an adulteress, nor was a bad woman admitted among them, nor were there immoral people. The men had honest and useful occupations. The lands, forests, mines, pastures, houses, and all kinds of products were regulated and distributed in such sort that each one knew his property without any other person seizing or occupying it, nor were there law suits respecting it. The operations of war, though they were numerous, never interfered with the interests of commerce nor with agriculture. All things from the greatest to the most minute had their proper place and order. The Incas were feared, obeyed and respected by their subjects, as men very capable and well versed in the art of government. As in these rulers we found the power and command as well as the resistance, we subjugated them for the service of God our Lord, took away their land, and placed it under the royal crown, and it was necessary to deprive them entirely of power and command, for we had seized their goods by force of arms. By the intervention of our Lord it was possible for us to subdue these kingdoms containing such a multitude of people and such riches, and of their lords we made our servants and subjects.
     As is seen and as I wish your Majesty to understand, the motive which obliges me to make this statement is the discharge of my conscience, as I find myself guilty. For we have destroyed by our evil example, the people who had such a government as was enjoyed by these natives. They were so free from the committal of crimes or excesses, as well men as women, that the Indian who had 100,000 pesos worth of gold and silver in his house, left it open merely placing a small stick across the door, as a sign that its master was out. With that, according to their custom, no one could enter nor take anything that was there. When they saw that we put locks and keys on our doors, they supposed that it was from fear of them, that they might not kill us, but not because they believed that any one would steal the property of another. So that when they found that we had thieves amongst us, and men who sought to make their daughters commit sin, they despised us. But now they have come to such a pass, in offence of God, owing to the bad example that we have set them in all things, that these natives from doing no evil, have changed into people who now do no good or very little."  [5]

1. Poe, Edgar Allan. Berenice. Octopus Books Ltd.: London. 1981

2. Theodore de Bry. Indi Hispanis arurum sitientibus. Frankfort: 1593.

3. Theodore de Bry. "Scene of Cannibalism," Brevis Narratio. 1564.

4. Theodore de Bry. Le Voyage au Brézil de Jean de Léry. 1578.

5. Markham, Clement Roberts. "The last will and testament of Mancio Serra de Leguisamo made at Cuzco on September 18, 1589." The Incas of Peru. E.P. Dutton and Co.: New York. 1910.

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