Chapter 26: Of the laws and punishments with which the Incas governed their kingdom

Since the Indians lacked writing, they had no written laws; rather, they preserved those established by their kings through tradition and through continued use and observance. I will set down here the principal ones, those most remembered among them.

Where the Inca himself was present, he alone was the judge before whom all wrongs were brought; and where he was not, his governors and caciques administered justice according to who was responsible for hearing the case, taking into account its nature and seriousness.

When someone committed an offense deserving of punishment, he was arrested and placed in prison; and in order to investigate his case, he was taken out and brought before the Inca or before the judge or curaca (local hereditary authority) who had jurisdiction over it. There, the witnesses were also presented and confronted with the accused; each stated what he knew about the matter against him, and in this way his guilt was established. Once this had been seen by the Inca or judge, without any further records, formalities, or delays, sentence was pronounced and the offender was ordered punished according to his guilt.

He who killed another in order to rob him was subject to the death penalty; and before the execution was carried out, he was tortured in prison as an additional punishment, and after being tortured, he was put to death.

He who killed by treachery was immediately put to death publicly and in a dishonorable manner, even if he were a man of high status and the slain man of far lesser fortune.

He who killed by means of sorcery was subject to the death penalty. This punishment was carried out with great publicity, summoning the surrounding villages to witness the execution; and all the members of the sorcerer’s household and family were put to death, because it was presumed that they all knew the craft.

If someone died in a fight, it was first determined who had been the one to provoke it; and if the deceased had caused it, the killer was punished lightly, at the Inca’s discretion. But if the one who caused the quarrel was the killer, he was subject to the death penalty; and if he was fortunate, he was banished to a province of the Andes, a sickly and unhealthy land for highland Indians, where he would serve for the rest of his life, like a galley slave, in the Inca’s coca fields.

The cacique who killed one of his subjects without the Inca’s permission was punished publicly, being struck several times on the back with a stone (this was called the ‘stone punishment,’ and it was very shameful), even if the Indian had been greatly at fault for disobedience committed against the cacique. And if, after having been reprimanded and punished, the said cacique reoffended, he was put to death; and when, through pleas and intercessions, this punishment was not carried out, the Inca deprived him of the caciqueship and granted it to another.

The husband who killed his wife for adultery was free and without penalty; but if he killed her out of anger and passion, he was subject to the death penalty if he was a common man. If, however, he was a man of high rank and standing, he was not put to death, but he was given another punishment.

A woman who killed her husband was punished by death, and the execution was carried out in this manner: she was hung upside down by her feet in a public place and left there until she died, with no one daring to remove her.

A pregnant woman who took a potion to kill her child was punished by death; and the same punishment was imposed on anyone who gave her the potion or maliciously induced a miscarriage by beating her or otherwise mistreating her.

He who forcibly assaulted a single woman received the stone punishment for the first offense, and the death penalty for the second.

He who forcibly corrupted a maiden, if she was a woman of high rank, was put to death; if she was not, he received the torture they customarily used for the first offense, and the death penalty for the second.

He who committed adultery with another man’s wife, if she was not of high rank, was tortured; but if she was of high rank, he was put to death, and she also died…

He who stole out of vice, in addition to repaying the theft if he had the means, was banished to the Andes, and he dared not leave that place without the Inca’s command.

He who, out of necessity, stole food was reprimanded and given no other punishment than to be warned that he should work, and that if he did so again he would be punished publicly with the stone punishment on the back.

He who, while traveling, stole some fruit from fields or gardens out of necessity was punished with death if the land belonged to the Inca; but if it belonged to a private individual, he was pardoned.

When an Indian serving at the tambos failed to deliver to his master the load he was carrying, the town from which that Indian came paid for it, because responsibility for the service of that tambo lay with the community; and the Indian himself was punished.

He who stole the water used to irrigate the fields and diverted it to his own land before his turn came was punished with a discretionary penalty.

He who insulted another was subject to a discretionary penalty; but the one who had given occasion for the insulting words had his punishment increased.

He who seriously injured another or caused similar harm was punished with a discretionary penalty; and if the act was committed treacherously, he was subjected to torture.

He who, in a fight, wounded another in such a way that the injured person could no longer work at ordinary tasks was required to support him from his own property, in addition to the punishment imposed for the offense; and if he had no property, the Inca provided for the injured man from his own resources, and the offender was punished more severely.

He who maliciously burned a bridge was subject to the death penalty, which was carried out with severity.

An Indian who was disobedient to his cacique was punished at the Inca’s discretion for the first offense; for the second, he received the stone punishment; and for the third, the death penalty.

An Indian mitima (forcibly resettled person) who left the place where the Inca had settled him as such was tortured for the first offense, and for the second, he was put to death.

He who changed the dress and insignia of his native province committed a grave offense against the Inca, his own nation, and the province whose dress he adopted; accordingly, he was publicly accused and punished with severity.

He who removed boundary markers or borders, or encroached upon another’s land or estate, received the stone punishment for the first offense; for the second, he was subject to the death penalty.

He who hunted in any protected reserve without permission was punished with the stone punishment on the back and with torture.

If any livestock caused damage on another person’s land, the owner could seize the offending animals up to an amount equivalent to the damage. There was a standard valuation, specifying how many feet of maize corresponded to a given penalty, which was collected in proportion to the harm done.

If travelers stole anything at a tambo (imperial storehouse), the chief responsible for the service of that tambo was punished first; he then punished his other subjects for the negligence and lack of care they had shown.

An Indian who showed insufficient respect toward the Incas or other lords was imprisoned for a long time; and if another offense was found in addition, he was put to death.

He who was a liar or perjurer was subjected to torture as punishment, and if he was very depraved and did not reform under that punishment, he was executed publicly.

If a governor, through bribery or favoritism, failed to uphold justice or concealed wrongdoing, the Inca himself punished him, depriving him of his office and rank and disqualifying him from holding any others; and if the injustice involved a serious matter, he was ordered executed.

The Incas had two prisons in Cuzco. The first was half a league from the city, opposite the parish of San Sebastián, called Aravaya, located in a place known as Umpillay. There, thieves and other criminals were punished with the death penalty; executions were carried out by hanging the wrongdoers upside down and leaving them suspended until they died. The second prison was within the city, underground, where they kept lions, bears, tigers, and snakes. Those who committed especially heinous crimes, such as treason against the king or similar offenses, were thrown to these beasts and devoured.

Chapter 23: How the Incas organized newly acquired lands, settling them with Indians from other regions, whom they called mitimaes, and the differences among them.

The entire Inca Empire, though vast and composed of many different nations, was a single commonwealth, governed by the same laws, legal customs, and traditions, and observing the same religion, rites, and ceremonies. Yet before being brought under Inca rule, each province possessed its own legal norms and forms of governance. Thus, it should be understood that what is described here as having been introduced into the conquered nations to maintain unity and uniformity throughout the empire was the same form of government practiced at the royal court and in the territories the Incas had previously ruled.

The first thing the Inca kings did upon conquering a province was to remove six or seven thousand families from it (more or less, according to their judgment, depending on the capacity and disposition of the people encountered) and relocate them to other quiet and peaceful provinces, distributing them among various towns. In exchange, they brought in an equal number of people from the places the first families had left, or from whichever locations they saw fit; among them were many nobles of royal blood who wore large ear ornaments. Those settled in the new lands were called mitimaes, meaning “newcomers” or “outsiders,” in contrast to the local inhabitants. This term applied not only to the new vassals but also to the original inhabitants who were exchanged with them, since both groups moved from their own lands to foreign ones. Even today, the term is understood in this way, referring to all newcomers settled in the provinces of the kingdom.

Care was taken to ensure that those being relocated from newly conquered territories and from other regions were not transferred indiscriminately, but rather to lands of the same climate and characteristics, or at least very similar to those they had left and in which they had been raised. Therefore, those from cold regions were moved to cold regions, and those from hot regions to hot regions, so that they would experience less change in their natural constitution and remain healthier in their new lands, rather than suffering the effects they would have endured had they been taken to regions of an opposite climate.

Those whom the Inca thus relocated were removed from the authority of their former caciques and placed under the authority of the leaders of the lands where he settled them. In these lands, he ordered that both groups of mitimaes be assigned sites on which to build their houses and lands on which to cultivate their small household plots and sowing fields, and that they remain as permanent residents of the towns in which they were placed, observing the customs and way of life of the local inhabitants, except that they retained the clothing, emblems, and distinguishing signs of their own nation and province. These they have preserved down to the present day, so that by such markers we can recognize in each town who are its natives and who are mitimaes.

The Inca introduced this relocation of populations to more easily maintain his dominion in peace and security considering that the city of Cuzco, the head of the realm, where he held his court and residence, was so distant from the farthest provinces in which there were many nations of people both barbarous and warlike. He therefore judged that he could not keep them in peace and obedience in any other way. And since this was the principal end toward which this policy was directed, he ordered that the greater part of the mitimaes whom he sent to newly subjected towns be settled in the provincial capitals, so that they might serve as a kind of garrison and stronghold—not by way of pay nor for a limited time, but perpetually, they and their descendants. And as men of war he granted them certain privileges, so that they might appear more noble, and he commanded them always to obey strictly whatever their captains and governors ordered them. By this design and stratagem, if the native inhabitants rebelled, these mitimaes, being devoted to the governors, quickly reduced them to obedience to the Inca; and if the mitimaes themselves caused disturbances or raised some revolt, they were repressed and punished by the natives. Thus, by this arrangement of settling most of his people among one another’s lands, the king kept his realms secure from rebellion, and trade and commerce among the provinces increased, and the whole land was better supplied with what was necessary.

Furthermore, through this relocation of their subjects from one region to another, the Incas aimed to ensure similarity and conformity throughout the empire in matters of religion and political governance, and that all the nations within it would learn and speak the language of Cuzco, which thereby came to be generally used throughout Peru. For with this movement of households, the newly conquered peoples, who were relocated into the heart of the kingdom, learned all of this quickly and without hardship or compulsion; and the older subjects, settled as mitimaes in newly pacified areas, taught it to the local inhabitants, an effort that was pursued with great care and enforced under compulsion. The Incas required everyone to adopt their language, laws, and religion, along with all the practices established in Cuzco, removing either entirely or partially the customs and rites previously observed, and imposing their own.

To further implement and establish these measures, beyond the relocation of peoples already mentioned, they removed the principal idol of any conquered province and brought it to Cuzco, preserving the same ceremonial apparatus and cult as it had in its original location, and requiring the local inhabitants to provide for it just as they had when it remained in their province. For this reason, Indians from all provinces of the kingdom always resided in the capital city and court, occupied with guarding and serving these idols, where they learned the customs and practices of the courtiers; and when they returned to their home regions through their mitas (labor drafts) and rotational service, they preserved and taught to their own people everything they had seen and learned at the court…