Unfortunately, Peru
abounded in mines which too well repaid this labor; and human
life was the item of least account in the estimate of the
Conquerors. Under his Incas, the Peruvian was never suffered to
be idle; but the task imposed on him was always proportioned to
his strength. He had his seasons of rest and refreshment, and
was well protected against the inclemency of the weather. Every
care was shown for his personal safety. But the Spaniards, while
they taxed the strength of the native to the utmost, deprived him
of the means of repairing it, when exhausted. They suffered the
provident arrangements of the Incas to fall into decay. The
granaries were emptied; the flocks were wasted in riotous living.
They were slaughtered to gratify a mere epicurean whim, and many
a llama was destroyed solely for the sake of the brains, - a
dainty morsel, much coveted by the Spaniards. *4 So reckless was
the spirit of destruction after the Conquest, says Ondegardo, the
wise governor of Cuzco, that in four years more of these animals
perished than in four hundred, in the times of the Incas. *5 The
flocks, once so numerous over the broad table-lands, were now
thinned to a scanty number, that sought shelter in the fastnesses
of the Andes. The poor Indian, without food, without the warm
fleece which furnished him a defence against the cold, now
wandered half-starved and naked over the plateau. Even those who
had aided the Spaniards in the conquest fared no better; and many
an Inca noble roamed a mendicant over the lands where he once
held rule, and if driven, perchance, by his necessities, to
purloin something from the superfluity of his conquerors, he
expiated it by a miserable death.
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