ABSTRACT
Having to treat of the New World, or of the best and most important parts of it, which are the kingdoms and provinces of the empire called Peru, of whose antiquities and of the origin of whose kings we intend to write; it seems proper, and in conformity with the usual custom of authors, to treat here, at the beginning, of the question whether there is one world or many, if it is flat or round, and also whether heaven is flat or round, whether the whole earth is habitable or only the temperate zones, whether there is a way from one temperate zone to the other, whether there are antipodes, and other like matters. The ancient philosophers treated very largely and curiously on these subjects, and the moderns do not fail to argue and write on them, each following the opinion which best pleases him. But as this is not my chief subject, as the powers of an Indian cannot enable him to presume so far, and as experience, since the discovery of what they call the New World, has undeceived us touching most of these doubts, we will pass over them briefly, in order to go on to the other part of my subject, the conclusion of which I am fearful lest I should not reach. I may affirm, however, trusting in the infinite mercy, that, in the first place, there is only one world; and though we speak of the Old World and the New World, this is because the latter was lately discovered by us, and not because 16there are two, but one only. And to those who still imagine that there are many worlds, there is no answer to be given except that they can remain in their heretical persuasions until they are undeceived in hell. Those who doubt, if there be any such, whether the world is flat or round, may be convinced by the testimony of men who have gone round it, or round the greater part, as those belonging to the ship Victoria,* and others. Respecting the heavens, 17whether they be flat or round, a reply may be given in the words of the Royal Prophet—Extendens cœlum sicut pellem, in which he desires us to see the form and method of the work, giving one as a similitude of the other, and saying:—that the heavens should be spread out like a skin; that is, that they should cover this great body of the four elements, even as a skin should cover the body of an animal, not only the main body but all its parts, how small soever they may be. As to those who affirm that the five parts of the world, which they call zones, are uninhabitable excepting the two that are temperate: that the central one, from its extreme heat, and the two end ones, from the great cold, are uninhabitable; and that it is impossible to pass from one temperate zone to the other, owing to the extreme heat between them; I am able to assure such persons that I was born in the torrid zone, that is in Cuzco, and was brought up in it until my twentieth year, and that I have been myself in the other temperate zone, on the other side of the tropic of Capricorn, to the south, at the extreme end of Charcas, where the Chichas live. I also passed through the torrid zone to come to this other temperate zone where I am now writing, and was three complete days under the equinoctial line, near the Cape of Pasau.* I therefore affirm that the torrid zone is habitable, as well as the temperate zones. I wish I could speak of the cold zones as an eye-witness, as I can of the other three; but I must hand them over to those who know more about them than I do. I would reply to those who say that, owing to their extreme cold they are uninhabitable, that they also may be lived in, like the rest. For it cannot reasonably be imagined that God should have made so large 18a part of the world useless, after creating all to be inhabited by man; and it may be supposed that the ancients were deceived in what they said about the cold zones, as they were about the torrid zone. It ought rather to be believed that the Lord, as a wise and powerful Father, and Nature, as a pious and universal Mother, have remedied the extreme cold by temperate warmth, just as they have tempered the heat of the torrid zone with so much snow, and so many fountains, rivers, and lakes as are found in Peru. That country is varied by many changes of temperature, some parts become hotter and hotter until those regions are reached which are so low and so hot as to be almost uninhabitable, as the ancients said. Other regions get colder and colder until such a height is reached that that land also becomes uninhabitable, owing to the cold of perpetual snow. This is contrary to what the philosophers said of the torrid zone, for they never imagined that it was possible to have perpetual snow under the equinoctial line, without melting at all, at least on the great Cordillera, whatever it may do on the slopes and ravines. It must, therefore, be understood, that in the torrid zone, within the region over which Peru extends, heat and cold does not consist in proximity to, or distance from, the equinoctial; but in the height or lowness of the land, and the difference is seen on a very short distance, as I shall relate more at length, presently. I say, then, that this would lead to the belief that the cold zones are temperate and habitable, as many grave authors hold, though not from personal knowledge or experience. But it is sufficient that God himself has given us to understand as much; for when he created man he said, “Increase and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it.”* From this we may know that it is habitable; for if it were not, it could not be subdued, nor filled with inhabitants. I trust in His Omnipotence that, in His own time, He will disclose 19these secrets (as He disclosed the New World)* for the great confusion and dismay of those audacious ones who, with their natural philosophies and human understanding, desire to measure the power and wisdom of God, as if He could not perform His works in a way which they cannot imagine, there being as much disparity between one intelligence and the other, as there is between the finite and the infinite.
