Untitled Page 574

572

CUZCO.

s;iges the walls were cut Tery crooked, admitting
for a certain space only one person to pass at a
time, and this sidewise, and with great difficulty,
when shortly afterwards two raio^ht pass abreast.
The exit was by a rock, worked in the same nar-
row manner on the other side ; and this was alto-
gether a plan adopted through prudence, and for
the better security against any sudden assault,
since here a single man might defend himself
against a great number. In a magnificent chapel
of the cathedra! is venerated a miraculous crucifix,
which was presented by the Emperor Charles V.
and which is called De los Temblores, from the
city having invoked it as a patron in the tremen-
dous earthquake which happened here in 1590;
also an image of Nuestra Senora de Helen, which
they call La Linda, (the Beautiful), the gift of the
same royal hand. It is the second city of Peru,
and inferior only to the capital of the kingdom.
It was governed, after the time of the conquests
made by the Spaniards, by a secular cabildo, com-
posed of two ordinary alcaldes, a royal ensign,
an alguaxil mayor, a provincial alcalde, a depo-
sitor-general, 12 perpetual regidors, two alcaldes
of the inquisition, and a regidor, nominated an-
nually, with the title of judge of the natives, who
is entrusted with the causes of the Indians; these
having also a protector, nominated every two
years by the viceroy of Lima. This cabildo main-
tains, through the grant of the Emperor Charles
V. the same privileges as the cabildo of Burgos.
The city has also many other prerogatives, with
the title of Gran Ciudad, and Cabeza, or head of
the kingdoms and provinces of Peru, in reward
for its having supported the crown against the
traitor Diego de Almagro, in the conflicts that he
maintained with Francis Pizarro, and from its
liaving taken him prisoner in 1553, in the cele-
brated battle of Las Salinas, a league from Cuzco ;
also from its having refused to acknowledge the
title of governor of Peru, assumed by Diego de
Almagro the younger, supporting, in preference,
the legitimate government. Again, when the Li-
centiate Christoval Vaca de Castro arrived, think-
ing to be governor, the people of Cuzco took him
prisoner, under the orders of the lieutenant-gover-
nor, Diego Salazar de Toledo, and the ordinary
alcalde, Antonio Ruiz de Guevera, and kept him
in confinement until he was beheaded in that place
by the same person that executed his father. For
these services, and for the valuable presents,
which on several occasions it has made to the
crown, this city was allowed to be by the laws of
the Indies, and, as appears by its records, one of
the first cities in all Castilla, having a priority of

vote ; and in 1783, it was ordered by the king of
Spain, that in consideration of the resistance it
offered in the late rebellion of the Indians of the
province of Tinta and the other immediate pro-
vinces, it should be endowed with the title of
Most Noble, Most Loyal, and Most Faithful, and
that it should enjoy the same privileges as Lima.
In 178i, the office of corregidor was extinguished,
and his Majesty established an intendant and go-
vernor vice-patron; and in 1787, the tribunal of
royal audience, composed of a president, four
oidors, and aJiscaL It has for arms a golden castle
upon a blue field, with various trophies and
colours on the sides, and an eagle at the top. It
has been the native place of many illustrious men,
and of these are,

Don Bernardo de Aviza y Ugarte, oidor of
Panama, bishop of Cartagena and Truxillo, and
elected archbishop of Charcas.

Don Cayetano Marcellano y Agramont, bishop
of Buenos Ayres, and archbishop of Charcas.

Don Gabriel de Ugarte, royal ensign of the said
city.

Don Diego Esquivel and Navia, dean of its
church.

Don Ignacio de Castro, curate of San Geronimo
and rector of the university.

Don Francisco Espinosa and Medrano, alias El
Lunarejo, magistral canon of its church,

Don Francis Xavier de Lagos, penitentiary
canon.

The Father Maestro Fray Pedro de la Sota, of
the order of La Merced ; a subject who was often
consulted by the viceroys in matters of the utmost
importance.

The Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, a celebrated
historian of Peru.

Its jurisdiction, although it may retain the title
of province, is so reduced as to extend merely as
far as the district of the city, notwithstanding it
formerly comprehended all the neighbouring pro-
vinces, until the president, Lope Garcia de ()astro,
established in each of these separate corregidors.
Its principal commerce consists in the very large
quantity of sugar which is made in the neighbour-
ing jurisdictions, and where the inhabitants have
many sugar plantations ; that of San Ignacio de
Pachachaca, in the boundaries of the jurisdiction
of Abancay, and formerly belonging to the re-
gulars of the extinguished company of Jesuits,
being the most celebrated. Tliere is made here a
vast quantity of baize and ordinary cloth, called
panete, woven stuffs, saddles, floor-carpets, and
tucuyo, which is an ordinary kind of linen used
as clothing by the poor; galloons of gohl, silver,