THE CHAPTER III. THE CONQUEST OF BOGOTA. discovers HE discovery and conquest of Bogotá were B. XXI. achieved by the Licentiate Gonzalo Ximenez Ch. 3. de Quesada, acting as Lieutenant for Don Pedro Quesada Fernandez de Lugo, the Governor of Santa Bogotá. Marta. This discovery was commenced in the year 1536; and Quesada was employed for several years in completing his discovery and consolidating his conquest. He conquered certain chiefs, named Bogotá and Tunja. He founded the city of Santa Fé de Bogotá, and gave the whole province the name of "The New Kingdom of Granada." He had many hardships and perils to endure, and also difficulties to overcome from the claims of other conquerors, namely, Sebastian de Belalcazar and Federman, who advanced from other points upon the district that Quesada was conquering. But his adventures do not differ materially from many others of the same kind which have been already recorded in this history. civiliza The people, however, whom he discovered Signs of and conquered, deserve particular mention, for tion in amongst them were found signs of considerable "New civilization, and even of scientific research. They were well dressed, having cotton clothes of Granada." 428 Mythology of the Muyscas. B. XXI. various colours, and wearing garlands on their Ch. 3. heads, in which were inserted artificial flowers. Mythology of the Muyscas. of Bochica Indians. Their houses were well built. Busts and paintings were found in their houses. Their food was various, always a sign of civilization; and they manufactured salt. In some of their temples Quesada found emeralds, and also gold wrought into the shape of crowns, eagles and other birds, and animals.* The mythology of the Muyscas (for this was the name of the Indians who inhabited the great plain of Bogotá) is very remarkable. All The advent their knowledge and polity were brought to amongst them by a mysterious stranger named Bochica, a the Muysca bearded man. He taught them how to build, to plant, and to sow, and how to live in a commonwealth. This was in the days when the moon was not. Bochica was accompanied by a beautiful woman, named Huythaca, not less malignant than beautiful. "By her skill in magic she swelled the river of Funzha, and inundated the valley of Bogotá. The greater part of the inhabitants perished in this deluge; a few only found refuge on the summits of the neighbouring mountains. The old man, in anger, drove the beautiful Huythaca far from the earth, and she became the moon, which began from that "Gonzalo Ximenez, visto que no havia podido dár con Sagamosa, bolvió por la Tierra de Duitama, í halló en unos Adoratorios hasta quarenta mil pesos de Oro fino, í baxo, con Esmeraldas, í alguna parte del Oro estaba en figuras de Coronas, Aguilas, í otras Aves í Animales."-HERRERA, Hist. de las Indias, dec. 6, lib. 3, cap. 13. Some say that she came afterwards: she is represented as the principle of evil. Indian Reverence for the Number Four. 429 epoch to enlighten our planet during the night. B. XXI. Bochica, moved with compassion for those who Ch. 3. were dispersed over the mountains, broke with his powerful arm the rocks that enclosed the valley on the side of Canoas and Tequendama. By this outlet he drained the waters of the lake Bogotá. Moreover, he built towns; introduced the worship of the Sun; named two chiefs, between whom he divided the civil and ecclesiastical authority; and then withdrew himself, under the name of Idacanzas, into the holy valley of Iraca, near Tunja, where he lived in the exercise of the most austere penitence for the space of two thousand years. nance of ber four. Tlascala. I have elsewhere remarked that the number Predomifour was a dominant and important number in the num the New World. In the republic of Tlascala their chief city was divided into four quarters, ruled over by four chiefs. In the great city of Cusco the division was also into four districts, corresponding to the four divisions of the Empire of Peru-Condesuyo, Collasuyo, Antisuyo, and Peru. Chinchasuyo. It was strictly ordered that all tribes coming to the city were to be attached to one or other of these divisions, so that the division into four was thus permanently maintained. And still further south a trace of this division. into four may be observed in the number of chiefs who ruled over the indomitable Araucans. Their Araucana. number was sixteen,† a multiple of four, which * HUMBOLDT's Researches, vol. I, p. 74. Es el soberbio Estado poseido, B. XXI. exactly corresponds to the number in Guatemala. Ch. 3. Amongst the Tultecas, the original inhabitants, Guate mala. or rather conquerors of Guatemala, there were four ruling families in four independent provinces; and in each province there were four persons designated to succeed to the Royal authority. A similar mode of succession prevailed amongst the Mexicans. In the Quichean account of the creation of the world, which has come to light within the last few years, four men are created, and afterwards four wives are given to them. Every fourth year in Mexico was a year year a ju- of jubilee, and amongst the Apalaches of Florida there were four* great annual feasts.† Every fourth bilee in Mexico. Bochica, before he disappeared mysteriously from the earth, settled the mode of election of the High Priest and King, which conjoint authority was to be conferred on one person, to be chosen by four Chiefs of Tribes. This great personage, like the Lama of Thibet, was secluded at an early En militar estudio los mejores Que de bárbaras madres han nacido: La Araucana de ALONSO DE ERCILLA Y ZÚÑIGA, canto I. *As another instance of a predilection for the number four, the Chibcas (a general name for the inhabitants of New Granada) divided the day and the night each into four parts. "Los Chibchas dividian el dia Sua, i la noche Za, en quatro partes, á saber; Sua mena, desde el nacimiento del sol hasta medio dia; Sua meca, desde el medio dia hasta entrarse el sol; Zasca, desde que se entraba el sol hasta media noche, i Cagui, desde media noche hasta salir el sol.” -- EZEQUIEL URICOECHEA, Memoria sobre las Antiguëdades NeoGranadinas, cap. 3, p. 19. Berlin, 1854. + See Notes on the Floridian Peninsula, by DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.B., p. 106. Philadelphia, 1859. Science among the Muyscas. 431 age, and was not even permitted to see the sun B. XXI. until he should assume his rightful authority.* Ch. 3. among the That the Muyscas had made some advance in Science science is proved by the fact of their having a Lunar Muyscas. calendar with hieroglyphical signs, "representing the order in which the intercalations that bring back the origin of the year to the same season, is made." Their laws of hereditary descent were This account is, in the main, | Bogotá. This ecclesiastic, a confirmed by PIEDRAHITA, who made use of the MS. of Quesada, the conqueror of Bogotá :-" Ultimamente afirman del Bochica que murió en Sogamoso despues de su predicacion; y que aviendo vivido alli retirado viente vezes cinco vientes de años, que por su cuenta hazen dos mil, fue trasladado al Cielo, y que al tiempo de su partido dexó al Cazique de aquella Provincia por heredero de su santidad y poderio."-LUCAS FERNANDEZ DE PIEDRAHITA, Historia General de las Conquistas del Nuevo Reyno de Granada, parte 1, lib. 1, cap. 3. Amberes, 1688. "A stone covered with hieroglyphic signs of the lunar calendar, and representing the order in which the intercalations, that bring back the origin of the year to the same season, are made, is a monument so much the more remarkable, as it is the work of a people, whose name is almost unknown in Europe, and who have been hitherto confounded with the wandering tribes of the savages of South America. For the discovery of this monument we are indebted to Don José Domingo Duquesne of Madrid, Canon of the Metropolitan Church of Santa Fé de native of the kingdom of New |