Native Society and Disease in Colonial Ecuador (Cambridge Latin American Studies)

This book examines the relationship between the indigenous peoples of northern Ecuador and disease, especially those infections introduced by Europeans during the sixteenth century. It addresses an important and often overlooked element in the history of Amerindian populations: their biological adaptability and resilience. But it is more than a history of disease incidents, medical responses, and population trends. The history of the biological adaptation it recounts also reveals much about a people's social and political experience under colonial rule. It differs from other studies in the field by its emphasis on the relationship between biological and social responses.

CAMBRIDGE LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES GENERAL EDITOR SIMON COLLIER ADVISORY COMMITTEE MALCOLM DEAS, STUART SCHWARTZ, ARTURO VALENZUELA

71

NATIVE SOCIETY AND DISEASE IN COLONIAL ECUADOR

For a list of other books in the Cambridge Latin American Studies series, please see page

152.

NATIVE SOCIETY AND DISEASE IN COLONIAL ECUADOR SUZANNE AUSTIN ALCHON University of Delaware

The right of the University of Cambridge to print and sell all manner of books was granted by Henry VIII in 1534. The University has printed and published continuously since 1584.

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The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13,28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 1991 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1991 First paperback edition 2002 A catalogue recordfor this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Alchon, Suzanne Austin. Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador / Suzanne Austin Alchon. p. cm. - (Cambridge Latin American studies: 71) ISBN 0 52140186 0 1. Indians of South America - Ecuador - Diseases. 2. Indians of South America - Ecuador - Population. 3. Indians of South America Ecuador - History. 4. Epidemics - Ecuador - History. 5. Peru (Viceroyalty) Population. I. Title. II. Series. F3721.3.D58A43 1991 986.6'00498-dc20 91-9110 CIP ISBN 0 521401860 hardback ISBN 0 521 52945 X paperback

Transferred to digital printing 2004

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

page ix

i

Along the avenue of volcanoes The setting Native society before 1534 The Inca conquest The native population before 1534

5 5 7 8 12

Disease, illness, and healing before 1534 The pathological setting Native concepts of health and illness Healing, ritual, and meaning

19 19 25 29

Conquest and epidemic disease in the sixteenth century The Spanish conquest of Quito Epidemics during the sixteenth century Hospitals and public health Demographic trends

32 32 35 43 46

Changing patterns of disease and demography in the seventeenth century Disease and natural disasters European medicine and public health Changing concepts of disease in native society Demographic recovery to 1690

57 57 66 72 76

Disaster and crisis in the 1690s The reforms of Palata, migration, and epidemics The disasters of the 1690s Demographic crisis

89 89 91 95

Disease and demographic stagnation in the eighteenth century

100

vi

Contents

Epidemics and endemic disease European medicine and public health Demographic stagnation and economic depression Native medicine and political resistance

ioo 108 113 124

Conclusion

130

Glossary B ibliography Index

134 137 149

Acknowledgments

The origins of this book are in a doctoral dissertation completed in 1984. During the past six years, I have had occasion to return to archives in Ecuador and Spain and, as a consequence, I have altered significantly many of the ideas contained in the dissertation. The intervening years have also given me the opportunity to read further and to think more about the nature of disease and its eflFects on the native peoples of colonial Ecuador. Thus, time and additional research have led me to change both structure and content, and I believe that the ideas embodied in the book are clearer and richer as a result. Over the years many people have given generously of their time, reading and commenting on various stages of this project. My mentor and dissertation adviser at Duke University, John J. TePaske, often put aside his own work to take on the onerous duties of editor and critic, and to him I am especially grateful. I am also indebted to Peter English, whose expertise as physician and historian of medicine has proved so valuable in the writing of both the dissertation and the book. Other members of my graduate committee, including Gerald Hartwig, Charles Berquist, and Carol Smith, shared their time and knowledge. Noble David Cook and Kenneth Andrien, fellow historians of colonial Spanish America, have read parts of the manuscript and offered encouragement; Ken also supplied me with copies of the censuses of 1779—81. Historical geographer Brian Evans provided useful information on the visita to Achambo in 1602—3. Charles Leslie was especially helpful, introducing me to the anthropological literature on the meaning of illness and the practice of medicine in native American societies and prodding me to think about the implications of that literature for the people of colonial Ecuador. W. George Lovell emphasized the importance of reconceptualizing the dissertation, and his careful reading and criticism of subsequent revisions have aided me immensely. Through this long process, his encouragement, friendship, and sense of humor never waned. Thanks also to Marie Perrone for her assistance in preparing the manuscript and tables and to Janet Ann

Vll

viii

Acknowledgments

Parks for her cartographic expertise. All of the above deserve only credit; I alone bear responsibility for any errors or omissions. In Ecuador, the staffs of the Archivo Municipal and the Archivo Nacional assisted me in every way. I especially want to thank Dr. Juan Freile Granizo, who shared freely with me his knowledge of the holdings of the Archivo Nacional. In Spain, the staff of the Archivo General de Indias patiently guided me through the Ecuadorian materials in that vast repository. Grants from the Shell Foundation and the Fulbright Fellowship Program permitted me to carry out my dissertation research in Ecuador and Spain. A General University Research Grant from the University of Delaware allowed me to return to Spain in 1986 to complete the research for the book. I am also grateful to the staff of the Morris Library of the University of Delaware, and in particular to those individuals in the interlibrary loan office who helped me track down many an obscure reference. My friends Maria Laura Romoleroux de Benalcazar, Diego Benalcazar, and Helge Vorbeck and their families graciously extended their hospitality and made my visits to Ecuador ones I shall always remember fondly. I especially want to thank Hernan and Marta Romoleroux for their kindness during my last trip to Quito. Micou M. Browne provided support and encouragement as well as a naturalists perspective on the topic. To my parents, Elizabeth Coombs Austin and Hadley Warner Austin, and my grandparents, Lilla Brown Coombs and William Waldorf Coombs, I offer thanks for so many things. Also, special thanks go to Tarn and the boys for restoring my sense of humor after many a long day. Finally, I extend my deepest gratitude to Guy Alchon, colleague, editor, and friend, who has helped to see me and the manuscript through the last five years.

For Lilla Brown Coombs and William Waldorf Coombs

CARIBBEAN

ATLANTfC OCEAN

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

Seventeenth CBntury Audtenda of Quito

Map i. The Audiencia of Quito in the seventeenth century.

Introduction

Over the last twenty years historians have uncovered and illuminated a new history of Amerindian peoples under European rule. Spanish defeat and subjugation of native populations, so an older historiography once held, were the history of these peoples in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. More recently, however, scholars have concentrated instead on the Indians' resilience and adaptability — their capacity, in the face of terrible odds, to maintain themselves and their societies. The new historiography has begun to reveal the faces and voices of peoples long misunderstood. 1 Still, little attention has been paid to another, very important element in the history of Amerindian populations — their biological adaptability and resilience. The social history of these peoples, in other words, will remain incomplete without further development of their pathogenic and immunological history. Disease, of course, existed in the Americas long before the sixteenth century. But, just as native societies resisted and eventually adapted to European conquest, so too did they adapt to Old World pathogens. Just as the responses of Indian communities to the economic and political demands of Spaniards varied over time, so did the immunological responses of indigenous populations change over generations. What began in the sixteenth century as contact and invasion soon would involve both Indians and Europeans in a new history of biological and social adaptation. 2 And this story, as it For the Andean area, see Stern, Peru's Indian Peoples; and "The Age of Andean Insurrection, 1 7 4 2 1782," pp. 34—93; Spalding, Huarochiri; and De indio a campesino; Larson, Colonialism and Agrarian Transformation; and "Caciques, Class Structure, and the Colonial State in Bolivia"; SanchezAlbornoz, Indios y tributes; and "Migracion rural"; Cole, The Potosi Mita; Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches; and Salomon, Native Lords. For Mexico and Central America, see Farriss, Maya Society under Colonial Rule; MacLeod and Wasserstrom, eds., Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica; Newson, "Indian Population Patterns," 4 1 - 6 9 ; Indian Survival; and The Cost of Conquest; Hill and Monaghan, Continuities in Highland Maya Social Organization; Lovell, Conquest and Survival in Colonial Guatemala; and Zamora, Los mayas de las tierras altas en el siglo XVI. To date, the most thorough and innovative analyses of biohistorical issues can be found in the works of historian Crosby, The Columbian Exchange and Ecological Imperialism.

2

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

developed in the northern sector of the viceroyalty of Peru - in Ecuador is the subject of this book. Because this study traces fundamental biological and social changes over many generations, it is important to assess the nature of Ecuador's native societies before the arrival of Europeans. The first chapter examines the physical and social settings and concludes with an analysis of the demographic history of the region before 1534. The second chapter introduces the pathological setting and relates it to native concepts about health, illness, and healing as they existed before the Spanish invasion. In so doing, it addresses the debate over the nature of pre-Columbian medical systems. The history of biological and social adaptation begins in the third chapter, where the congruent paths of sixteenth-century military conquest and epidemics of Old World diseases are analyzed. Chapter three also examines European attempts to deal with illnesses, both their own and those of the Indian population, through the establishment of hospitals and the creation of rules and regulations designed to protect public health. It concludes with an analysis of the documentary evidence on the catastrophic decline of Ecuador's native population during this period. In the fourth chapter, the resilience and adaptability of native society become especially clear. For although disease continued to exact a heavy toll during the seventeenth century, by 1690 the number of natives living in the north-central highlands of Ecuador had more than doubled. And although native concepts of disease underwent fundamental changes following the Spanish conquest, evidence suggests that the practice of native medical traditions continued largely unchanged. Demographic patterns, in addition, reveal the ways in which both individuals and communities responded to the onerous economic and political demands of Europeans by devising new social institutions and customs and by learning to use the mechanisms of colonial government to their own advantage. Population recovery, however, was to be short-lived in the audiencia (a jurisdictional and administrative unit of the Spanish empire; also, court of appeals) of Quito, and the fifth chapter examines the disasters of the 1690s and their demographic and economic effects on highland society. Chapter six then traces the disease history of the region during the eighteenth century, when these conditions reinforced each other and ensured that, at least in the sierra, Ecuador entered the era of independence with a declining Indian population and a shrinking economy. Significantly, it was during the same period that Quito's natives began to demonstrate immunological resistance to the very diseases that had devastated them for so long. At the same time, native opposition to colonial rule, often taking the form of violent protests, increased throughout the region. The old

Introduction

3

strategy of resistance through cooperation was replaced by direct confrontation, with native healers and shamans often leading the assault. The story of the relation between the biological and social history of the Indian peoples of highland Ecuador raises many issues of concern to historians of colonial Spanish America. Among these, the most central involve the consequences of the biological collision of two cultures so distinctly different from each other. But this study is more than a history of disease incidence, medical responses, and population trends. The history of the biological adaptation it recounts also reveals much about a people's social and political experiences under colonial rule. It is difficult to separate the biological from the social and political in the effort to understand the colonial history of Ecuador's Indian peoples. Indeed, this book insists that it is impossible.

Colombia

Peru Map 2. Highland basins of Ecuador.

1 Along the avenue of volcanoes

When the Spanish marched into the highlands of Ecuador in 1534, they knew that they were entering the northern sector of the Inca empire. Yet the terrain that they crossed and the societies they encountered were distinctly different from those of the southern Andes. These unique physical and cultural characteristics explain, in large measure, the area's special patterns of historical development both before and after the Spanish conquest. Inca control of the northern Andes had been achieved only a few years before the arrival of Europeans. Old World diseases quickly followed the Inca invasion and, in fact, preceded Pizarro and his men by several years. So even before the appearance of Spanish armies, demographic and political crisis gripped native communities throughout the Ecuadorian sierra. The setting The paramo (cool, humid highlands — 3,360—4,600 m) Andes of Ecuador are distinctly different from the puna (cold, dry highlands - 4,000-4,800 m) regions of the southern Andes, where higher elevations, lower temperatures, and an arid climate limit food production. In response to these challenging agricultural conditions, the indigenous inhabitants of Peru and Bolivia developed methods of food preservation enabling them to accumulate large surpluses. The level of political organization required to direct this effort, in turn, encouraged the development of large centralized state systems. Ecuador, by contrast, is characterized by lower elevations, higher temperatures, and constant humidity, allowing for year-round crop production. The milder climate and agricultural abundance of the northThe following abbreviations appear in the tables and notes: AGI - Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain AJC - Archivo Jijon y Camaano, Quito, Ecuador AM - Archivo Municipal, Quito, Ecuador ANHQ - Archivo Nacional de Historia, Quito, Ecuador

6

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

ern Andes did not necessitate the creation of vast political networks; hence the predominance of small-scale chiefdoms.l The parallel Cordilleras of the Andes are widely separated in Peru and Bolivia, in some areas by as much as 750 kilometers, but in Ecuador they run close together (with 130—220 kilometers between them), forming a series of insular highland basins where human populations have congregated for thousands of years.2 Beneath the long, narrow valleys flanked by towering volcanoes lie a series of geological faults, the periodic shifting of which produces violent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. As a result, generations of highland residents have experienced frequent natural disasters, often claiming many lives and disrupting agricultural production. The climate of Ecuador is determined by a number of factors, including the cold Peruvian current, the warm countercurrent El Nino, and altitudinal variations. In the highlands, warm moisture-laden air from the Amazon collides with cold mountain air masses to produce much of the region's rainfall. But even within this limited area, "a 'crazy-quilt' pattern of innumerable micro-climates . . . prevail over short horizontal distances and lack a clearcut, orderly arrangement."3 Geographers and ecologists have divided the Ecuadorian highlands into five distinct climate zones. In the zone of perpetual snow located above 4,600 meters, melting snow and ice feed the many rivers and streams crucial to the local agricultural economy. Just below the snow line is the desolate paramo (3,500-4,600 meters), where poor soils and frequent frosts render the land unproductive. Below this lies the temperate zone, focal point of Indian and Spanish settlement. Here adequate rainfall, rich soil, and moderate temperatures provide farmers with an ideal climate for growing corn, wheat, barley, potatoes, and many types of vegetables. Below 2,500 meters are the subtropical and tropical zones, where fruit and vegetable production is largely determined by precipitation patterns. Where sufficient water is available, often at the bottom of river valleys, sugarcane, bananas, cacao, coffee, cotton, and other tropical crops grow in abundance. It was within this rich and complex ecological setting that Ecuador's indigenous societies developed their unique political and economic institutions. 1

2

3

For a discussion of this subject, see Troll, ed., Geo-ecology of the Mountainous Regions of the Tropical Americas, pp. 15—56; also see Murra, '"El Archipelago Vertical' Revisited," in Andean Ecology and Civilization, Masuda et al., eds., pp. 3—13. It was the German naturalist Von Hum bold t who first described the Ecuadorian highlands as "the avenue of volcanoes." According to Humboldt, "Nowhere in the Cordilleras of the Andes are there more colossal mountains heaped together, than on the east and west of this vast basin of the province of Quito." Von Humboldt and Bonpland, Personal Narrative, 3:307. Basile, Tillers of the Andes, p. 19.

Avenue of volcanoes

7

Native society before 1534 Until the end of the fifteenth century many chiefdoms, each with its own language and customs, dominated the Ecuadorian highlands. The Pastos, Caras, and Panzaleos populated the region extending from southern Colombia to Quito, and the Puruha and Canaris controlled the territory between Latacunga and Cuenca. These nations frequently fought among themselves but, before their consolidation under the Inca state, no one group exercised political hegemony over the region. Archaeologists have found evidence of hundreds of villages scattered throughout the north-central highlands. Within these communities, ranging in size from several dozen to several thousand people, most families built their thatched houses close to their fields rather than congregate around a nuclear settlement. 4 The population of each community was divided into kin groups later called parctaltdades by the Spanish. Like the Inca ayllu and Aztec calpulli, the extended kin group comprised blood relatives as well as others related by political or social bonds such as marriage, place of origin, or occupation. Individuals shared hereditary rights to agricultural lands and recognized one member as their cacique (political and economic leader). The relationship between ruler and subject was clearly delineated within a set of reciprocal responsibilities. Caciques ensured the stability of the community by mediating disputes, distributing labor assignments equitably, arranging marriages, establishing trade agreements with other communities, regulating markets, and maintaining local security. The cacique was also responsible for the distribution of communal surpluses, especially chkha (maize beer) and food on ceremonial occasions. In exchange for political and economic leadership and material largesse, lords enjoyed the prerogatives of power and privilege. Unlike commoners, the ruler was polygamous and therefore supported the largest household in the parcialidad. In addition to several wives and their offspring, these extended families often included siblings, aged parents, and the cacique's personal servants. The responsibilities of subjects to their lord included the planting and harvesting of crops on a portion of llajta (Indian village) land specifically set aside for this purpose, providing the household with a steady supply of firewood and game, and building and repairing the royal compound. Recent archaeological research has shown that caciques frequently chose to locate their houses on tolas (raised earthen platforms) close to the most productive agricultural areas.3 Corn was the staple food of the area's native population, but a variety of 4 Knapp, "Soil and Slope," p. 310. 5 Ibid., pp. 229-30, 352.

8

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

other crops was also cultivated, including beans, peas, squash, quinoa, and potatoes. Although archaeologists have uncovered some evidence of irrigation canals and mountainside terraces, throughout most of the north-central highlands adequate rainfall made such labor-intensive agricultural techniques unnecessary.6 Although the wet, mild climate of the Quito area enabled local residents to produce an abundance of agricultural goods, certain important commodities such as cotton, chili peppers, salt, and coca could only be grown at lower elevations. Therefore, highland society devised a variety of exchange mechanisms to ensure access to these and other coveted items. The most common avenue of trade was between llajtakuna (Indian villages). In this way families and communities could exchange local surpluses of corn, for example, for chili peppers grown in lowland areas. Long-standing relationships between ruling families, often reinforced by intermarriage, facilitated the flow of goods between communities. Northern chiefdoms also developed a system, similar to the Inca archipelago network, whereby a group of individuals, called kamayuj, resided permanently in foreign communities, providing agricultural labor in exchange for exotic products, which they sent back to their home settlements. In addition, an elite group of mindales (long-distance traders) specialized in the acquisition of specific lowland products such as gold, fish, coca, salt, and beads of various types. Because they controlled the flow of luxury items primarily consumed by ruling elites, mindales enjoyed special privileges, including the right to travel widely outside of their native regions and the right to pay tribute in gold rather than in labor. Mindales provided goods not only for their own llajta but also for tiangueces (permanent regional markets). The tianguez at Quito, for example, brought together people and commodities from all over the highlands as well as from the eastern and western lowlands. Thus, regional markets became central places not only for the distribution of goods but also for the dissemination of information and the accumulation of political and economic power for those who controlled the locale.7 The Inca conquest The natural wealth of the northern Andes did not go unnoticed, and economic rather than military interests motivated the first Inca incursions into this area. After the Spanish conquest, local informants explained that Inca traders began arriving sometime during the reign of Pachacuti Inca 6 7

For a discussion of indigenous agricultural technology, see ibid., pp. 234-95. Salomon, Native Lords, pp. 97-115.

Avenue of volcanoes

9

(1438-71). They brought with them luxury items such as silver jewelry and vessels, llama-wool textiles, and exotic ceramics, the novelty of which appealed to northern elites. Over a period of many years, local rulers came to depend on a steady supply of such goods; as a result, emissaries of the Inca state began to amass political and economic power, eventually opening the door to advancing Inca military forces.8 Topa Inca, heir to Pachacuti Inca, initiated the conquest of the northern Andes during the last quarter of the fifteenth century. His army eventually defeated the Canaris and subsequently used their capital, Tomebamba, as a headquarters for further military operations. Because the Canaris came under direct Inca control many years before their neighbors, Inca customs and institutions penetrated their area to a degree never attained farther north. By the eve of the Spanish conquest, the Canaris had adopted many of the economic and political practices of their conquerors as well as the official state language, Quechua. The Incas paid a high price in men and materials for the conquest of the chiefdoms to the north of Tomebamba. Although details are vague, both Spanish and Indian chroniclers agreed that subjugation of the Puruha required two military campaigns, and the defeat of the Carangues and Cayambes in the Otavalo area necessitated four campaigns over the course of some twenty years. Neither eastern nor western lowlands and their inhabitants ever came under Inca control. Huayna Capac, successor to Topa Inca, finally defeated the forces of Nasacoto Puento, cacique of Cayambe, in a massacre on the shores of Lake Yaguarcocha around 1500. According to Pedro Cieza de Leon, more than 20,000 adult males from the Otavalo area died in this battle. 9 In order to reduce the chances for future rebellions, Inca leaders ordered the forced relocation of large segments of the population. Many of the surviving rebels and their families were transported to the coca plantations of Matibamba far to the south in the province of Angaraes. Others were moved to the Huanuco region and still others to Cuzco. The Incas referred to these relocated populations as mitimae, and enclaves of mitimae were scattered throughout the empire. In their place came subjects from all over the southern highlands. The Huancas and Huayacunti from Cajamarca settled in the Chillos Valley near Quito. Other foreigners, including some Canaris, occupied land near Cotocollao, while mitimae from many distant areas of the empire now lived in El Quinche. Enclaves of foreigners also were settled in communities throughout Latacunga, Ambato, Chimbo, and Riobamba. 10 8 9

Ibid., pp. 215-18. "Cuentan los mismos indios que mando matar mas de veinte mil hombres y echarlos en la laguna"; Cieza de Leon, Obras, 1:53. 10 Information on mitimae populations is scattered throughout many sixteenth- and seventeenth-

io

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

Caciques who accepted Inca rule without protest were allowed to remain in power; but where loyalty was in question, Inca officials deposed the suspect and replaced him with someone more willing to cooperate. In communities where outsiders had assumed control and members of the traditional elite remained, hostilities often developed; the repercussions of these dynastic feuds continued well into the seventeenth century when descendants of pre—Inca ruling clans sought to reclaim their ancestral privileges. A revealing example of the lingering conflicts between native and Inca lords is provided by a suit filed in 1565 by Lorenzo Guamarico, cacique principal of the province of Chimbo. 11 Lorenzo had ruled Chimbo since the death of his father Rodrigo seventeen years earlier. In 1565, he petitioned the audiencia to order Santiago, cacique of San Rafael Cumbibamba, to obey and subordinate himself to Guamarico s rule. Santiago conceded that Lorenzo and his father Rodrigo had ruled Chimbo for many years, but he claimed that his own father Longomate had been the original cacique of the region. Both parties agreed that, about 1525, Atahualpa had deposed Longomate (for treason, according to Lorenzo Guamarico) and replaced him with his pariente (kinsman) from Cajamarca, Rodrigo. According to the testimony of Santiago, hundreds of mitimae came with Rodrigo and occupied many settlements throughout the region, confiscating large amounts of land from native inhabitants. Santiago argued that he should not be forced to subordinate himself to Guamarico because he had always exercised independent political control over San Rafael and because since the Spanish conquest he had been collecting and delivering local tribute to the encomendero (receiver of tribute and labor from the Indians) of the town, Juan de Larrea. Two years later, in 1567, the audiencia issued a decision denying Guamarico's request and upholding Santiago's right to independent political and economic control over San Rafael. The court's ruling undermined Guamarico's authority on the regional level and exacerbated tensions between native and Inca elites. This case also demonstrates that, as early as the 1560s, members of Ecuador's century documents. See, e.g., AGI, Quito 32, Don Francisco Garcia Ati, cacique de San Miguel, Latacunga a la audiencia (September 27, 1633); AGI, Justicia 682, Residencia tomada al Licenciado juan Salazar de Villasante oidor de la Audiencia de los Reyes, como a Corregidor y Justicia Mayor de Quito, por el Licenciado Fernando de Santillan Presidente de esta Audiencia de Quito, 1564; and AGI, Justicia 669, Don Lorenzo Guamarica cacique principal del pueblo de Chimbo con Santiago indio principal del pueblo de Cumbibamba, July 13, 1565 y siguio hasta October 14, 1567. Also see Salomon, Native Lords, pp. 158-67, and Miguel de Cantos, "Relacion para la real audiencia de los repartimientos y numero de indios y encomenderos que hay en el corregimiento de Chimbo," in Relaciones geogrdficas de Indias, Jimenez de la Espada, ed., 2:254-60. 11 AGI, Justicia 669, ibid.

Avenue of volcanoes

11

Indian elite had mastered the intricacies of the Spanish legal system and were using it to their own advantage. Under the Inca regime, local production determined tribute obligations. Therefore, most communities in the Quito area cultivated maize for Inca granaries and also continued to supply food and firewood to local officials. In addition, the state instituted the labor requirement of the mita (system of draft labor) in which a specific number of individuals worked for a predetermined period of time as laborers or as servants in the chiefs household. Some communities also supplied workers to weave cotton and llama wool into cloth, which the state later distributed as gifts. Thus, the variety and amount of goods and services demanded of residents of the northern Andes increased under Inca rule. No longer did subjects provide only for the needs of local rulers. Now they also supplied goods for state warehouses and served as laborers on large-scale construction projects. Extended service in the standing armies of the empire was also required of many males and often entailed spending long periods of time far from home. Following the death of Huayna Capac around 1525 and the subsequent outbreak of civil war between his sons, Huascar and Atahualpa, increased military demands placed a heavy burden on the empire. Much of the civil war was fought in the northern Andes, and as a result demographic and economic disruption was especially severe in this area. Cieza de Leon reported that, following their capture of Tomebamba, the army of Atahualpa massacred "more than 35,000 Canaris males and left many wounded." 12 Another Spaniard describing the same incident wrote, "of 50,000 not more than 3,000 remained." 13 When the Spanish reached the northern Andes in 1534, they encountered populations that had only partially assimilated Inca culture. The majority spoke only their native languages; north of Quito, the use of woolen clothing and the construction of stone buildings (Inca innovations) were still uncommon. In addition, many traditional religious practices survived, as did certain economic institutions. Politically, however, Incaappointed officials dominated the area, enforcing policies that emanated from the central government in Cuzco. Major projects, such as the construction and maintenance of roads, storehouses, tambos (way stations), and fortifications provided visible evidence of Inca control. 12

" . . . Atahuallpa quedo vencedor con muerte de muchos contrarios, canto que afirman que murieron entre unos y otros mas de treinta y cinco mil hombres, y heridos quedaron muchos." Cieza, Obras, 1:224. When Sebastian de Benalcazar arrived in the area a few years later, remnants of the Canari population, mostly women, children, and the elderly offered to aid the Spanish in their struggle to conquer Peru. 13 " . . . que de 50 mill que habia, no habian quedado mas que 3 mill," Hernando Pablo, "Relation que enbio a mandar su Magestad se hiziese desta ciudad de Cuenca y toda su provincia," in Relaciones geogrdficas, 2:267.

12

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

The native population before 1534 The debate over the size of the pre-Columbian population of the Americas still rages. On one side are those who argue that, before 1492, the New World was not densely populated, and that even in the highlands of Mexico and Peru, the number of inhabitants remained relatively low. These scholars dismiss contemporary Spanish sources as biased and unreliable and argue that, although Indian populations certainly did decline after the arrival of Europeans, the drop was far less dramatic than the opposition claims. 14 On the other side are those who insist that Mesoamerica and the Andean highlands supported dense populations before 1500 and that the introduction of European diseases and the brutality and exploitation of Spanish settlers significantly reduced demographic levels by the end of the sixteenth century. Proponents of high estimates generally accept the reliability of eyewitness accounts and other documents describing the size of native settlements and armies at the time of contact. These scholars have also used Spanish censuses and tribute lists in order to make backward projections that support their position. Others have adopted an ecological approach, calculating population based on the carrying capacity of the land. 15 14 In 1939, Kroeber calculated a hemispheric population of 8,400,000 with some 3,300,000 in Mesoamerica and another 4,000,000 in South America. Kroeber, Cultural and Natural Areas. Rowe later postulated a preconquest population of 6,000,000 in the central Andes. Rowe, "Inca Culture at the Time of the Spanish Conquest," in The Handbook of South American Indians, Steward, ed., 2:183-330. For the same area, Steward arrived at a figure of 4,700,000; of these 500,000 lived in Ecuador; Steward, "The Native Population of South America," in The Handbook of South American Indians, 5:655—668. In 1954, Rosenblat estimated the number of indigenous inhabitants in the New World at 13,385,000 in 1492. His calculations included 5,300,000 in central Mexico and 6,785,000 in South America; of these, 3,300,000 resided in the Inca empire. Rosenblat, La poblacion indigena, 1:102. 15 Cook and Borah have estimated that in 1492 the native population of the Americas approached 100,000,000, with some 25,000,000 living in central Mexico. Borah, "CAmerica como modelo?" Cuadernos Americanos 6 (1962): 176—85; and Cook and Borah, The Aboriginal Population of Central Mexico on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest. Dobyns arrived at similar conclusions and

estimated that the population of the Inca empire numbered approximately 30,000,000. Dobyns, "Estimating Aboriginal Population." The calculations of Denevan (18,000,000) and Sanders (11,400,000) for central Mexico represent a middle ground. Denevan, The Native Population, p. 291. Sanders, "The Population of the Teotihuacan Valley, The Basin of Mexico, and the Central Mexican Symbiotic Region in the Sixteenth Century," in The Teotihuacan Valley Project, Sanders, eld., 1:385-457. Lovell,Lutz,and Sweezey have estimated that in 1525 the number of Indians in Guatemala, excluding the department of the Peten, was 2,000,000. Lovell et al., "The Indian Population." In Peru that position is represented by the work of Cook (9,000,000) and Smith (12,000,000). Cook, Demographic Collapse, p. 114. Smith, "Depopulation," Current Anthropology 11 (1970): 453-64.

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But it is the implications of these calculations more than the numbers themselves that continue to generate controversy. To accept the premise that Mesoamerica and the central Andes were densely populated in 1492, one must also accept that these societies had achieved levels of political and economic development equal or superior to those of Europe. But many find this a difficult proposition to defend; and, because the existing evidence lends itself to such varying interpretations, debate is certain to continue for many years. In comparison to the research on the demographic history of Mexico and Peru, little has been written on Ecuador. Calculating the precontact population of any region of Latin America presents the researcher with a unique set of problems, and Ecuador is no exception. For administrative as well as economic reasons, Spanish colonization concentrated in the center of the Inca empire. A peripheral area such as Ecuador received considerably less attention, especially during the first decade of Spanish occupation. Hence documentation describing initial contacts with Indian communities, including estimates of their size, is almost nonexistent. Demographic disruptions that occurred before the Spanish entered the region further complicate the situation. The Inca conquest of Ecuador exacted a heavy toll, especially in the northern sierra around Otavalo. The civil war between Huascar and Atahualpa perpetuated the decline, especially in the southern highlands, where the Canaris were all but annihilated. But the most severe loss of population occurred between 1524 and 1533, when one or possibly two epidemics swept through the empire. According to Garcilaso de la Vega, the Inca ruler Huayna Capac died in Quito in 1524 after contracting a chucchu (chill) and rupa (fever).16 Miguel Cabello Balboa also attributed the death of Huayna Capac to a fever that coincided with a deadly epidemic in the Cuzco region. Sarmiento de Gamboa agreed that "an illness of fevers" was responsible but added that "others say it was smallpox and measles."17 But Cieza de Leon claimed that in 1527 Huayna Capac was in the Quito area, having recently completed the conquest of Otavalo, when he heard about Spanish ships off the coast. Shortly thereafter the Inca died in "a great epidemic of smallpox" that swept through the Andes. 18 The Jesuit Bernabe Cobo also claimed that an epidemic of smallpox broke out soon after Europeans began exploring the Peruvian coast. 19 Native chronicler Juan Santa Cruz Pachacuti described the epidemic as "measles," while Guaman Poma de Ayala iden16 17 18 19

Garcilaso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries, 1:572-8. Cabello Balboa, Misceldnea Antdrtka, p. 393; and Gamboa, Historia indica, p. 131. ". . . cuentan que vino una gran pestilencia de viruelas." Cieza, Obras, 1:219. Cobo, History, pp. 1 6 0 - 1 .

14

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

tified it as "measles and smallpox."20 Certainly the appearance of spots (whether rashes or pustules is not clear) on the faces and bodies of victims supports the diagnosis of one of these infections.21 Given the timing of the outbreak, however, smallpox seems more likely. Spaniards introduced the smallpox virus from the Caribbean into central Mexico in 1520. During the next several years, the disease traveled south, reaching Panama by 1527. 22 From there the virus could have continued south in advance of Europeans, across the Isthmus and into the Andes. Yet another possible route of transmission was provided by the ever-increasing number of Spanish expeditions to the Pacific coast of South America. Years later native informants emphasized the destructiveness of this epidemic in their testimony to Spanish officials. Cieza de Leon provided the only estimate of mortality, claiming that "more than 200,000 persons died";23 but it seems likely that the number of deaths was considerably higher.24 Cook recently calculated that about nine million people lived in Peru in 1520. 25 Epidemics of smallpox and measles often claim between one-third to one-half of all individuals in a nonimmune population, so this first epidemic probably claimed 3—4.5 million lives in Peru alone. It also seems likely that before the Spanish conquest a second epidemic may have struck the Indian societies of the Andes, although no description remains. In 1531, an epidemic, identified by Newson as bubonic plague, began in Nicaragua; two years later, an outbreak of measles occurred.26 Again, these diseases could have arrived in Ecuador and Peru either overland from Panama or with an infected European seaman. If, in fact, plague or measles did precede Pizarro, between 25 and 30 percent of the remaining population would have perished.27 Lack of sources and the series of demographic disruptions that occurred before the Spanish conquest make it difficult to estimate the population of the north-central highlands of Ecuador in 1533. What little information remains was often written years later and reflects only the recognition that the number of natives had declined dramatically. Cieza de Leon, who 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid. Manuscript 3169, Juan Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui, "Relacion de antiguedades deste reyno del Piru," 1613. f. 36; "murio mucha gente con la epidemia del sarampion y la viruela." Guaman Poma de Ayala, La neuva coronka, 1:85, 1:207. Measles is characterized by a rash that appears first on the face. In smallpox, the rash that appears initially evolves into pustules, eventually forming scabs. Newson, Indian Survival, p. 119. " . . . que vino una gran pestilencia de viruelas tan contagiosa que murieron mas de doscientos mil animas en todas las comarcas, porque fue general." Cieza, Obras, 1:219. Crosby, Columbian Exchange, pp. 35—63; Cook, Demographic Collapse, pp. 62—5. Cook, Demographic Collapse, p. 114. Newson, Indian Survival, pp. 119-20. Cook, Demographic Collapse, pp. 6 5 - 6 .

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traveled through the Pasto area north of Quito during the 1540s, wrote: "In the past the area must have been much more populated. . . . One cannot travel anywhere (except for the most broken and difficult [terrain]) without seeing that the land had been populated and worked."28 Describing this same region two centuries later, Spanish geographer Antonio de Alcedo placed the precontact population at 600,000. 2 9 Even if this figure inflates the number of inhabitants, it supports the assertion of Cieza de Leon that the region had been much more densely populated before the Spanish conquest. Faced with labor shortages and tribute deficits, royal officials also commented on the demographic decline. According to Hernando de Santillan, president of the audiencia of Quito from 1564 to 1568, depopulation had led to confusion regarding tribute collections "because chiefs today want to retain the same system as in the time of the Inca, without respect for the diminution that has occurred." Santillan s comments on the rate of depopulation reflected the differing experiences of various regions. In some areas "not even one-fourth of the Indians" survived. Although some settlements experienced considerably less destruction, in others only 1 0 20 percent remained.30 In his description of the province of Otavalo written in 1582, corregidor Juan Sancho Paz Ponce de Leon noted the decline of the area's native population and went on to explain why it had occurred: It is said that in the past there were many more Indians, and so it seems from the lay of the land. . . . The Indians have diminished with the wars that they fought against the Incas and later with the conquest by the Spanish and finally with certain epidemics of smallpox and measles and typhus that have occurred in this area; and with these things they have been reduced.31

28 29 30

31

"Antiguamente debio de ser mas poblada . . . no se andara por parte (aunque mas fragosa y diflcultosa sea) que no se vea y parezca haber sido poblada y labrada." Cieza, Obras, 1:48. "El ilustrisimo don Lucas de Piedrahita dice que tenfa 600,000 habicantes cuando entraron los espanoles." Horacio Larrain Barros, Cronistas, 1:145. ". . . porque los curacas quieren hoy guardar la misma orden que en tiempo del inga, sin tener respeto a la disminucion que ha habido en las pachacas y guarangas, repartiendo a una pachaca tanto como la repartian en tiempo del inga, al respeto, no teniendo al presente el numero de indios que tenia en tiempo del inga, ni aun la mitad; y asi quedan unos muy agraviados y otros muy descargados. Porque en una misma provincia acaesce que de una pachaca o guaranga con las guerras y con las entradas en que los han llevado colleras y cadenas, y con otras pestilencias que los han venido despues de que los espanoles entraron en la tierra, no queda la cuarta parte de los indios que habia en ella en tiempo del inga, y hay otras pachacas que acaso se han conservado mas y les faltan menos indios; y en el repartir los tributos echan tanto a aquella que esta disminuida, que a veces no tiene diez indios, como a la que esta mas conservada, que tiene cincuenta o ciento." Santillan, "Relation," Biblioteca Peruana 3:402-3. "Dicen que en otros tiempos habia mucha mas cantidad de indios, y ansi lo paresce en la dispusicion de la tierra, segun las labores de sementeras que la dicha tierra muestra. Hanse

16

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

Once again these statements support the thesis that the number of natives living in the north-central highlands of Ecuador was far greater before 1534Despite the lack of data, several scholars have attempted to calculate the size of the precontact population of Ecuador. The comments of anthropologist Julian Steward neatly summarize the problem. "[The native population of} Highland Ecuador is reckoned entirely by analogy. A half million native population, which is close to the figure for the modern Indians gives a density of 300 [per 100 km 2 ] as compared with Peru's 390 [per 100 km 2 ]." 3 2 On the basis of the descriptions of various chroniclers, Ecuadorian demographer Cesar Cisneros wrote that "it would appear that at the time of the [Spanish] conquest our country had some 800,000 aborigines . . . the greatest concentration [of whom] inhabited the highland region." 33 Since the publication of Steward's essay in 1949, others have continued to use his estimate of a half-million as a base from which to begin their own calculations. Citing both Cisneros and Steward, Argentine historian Angel Rosenblat argued that a total of 1,000,000 inhabitants for all three regions of Ecuador (coast, highlands, and Amazonian lowlands) was too high, but that a population of 500,000 for the sierra appeared reasonable. 34 Although generally supporting Cook and Borah's figure of 25,000,000 inhabitants in central Mexico in 1519, historian John L. Phelan disagreed with high estimates for the Inca empire. According to Phelan: The population of South America was much less dense than that of Mexico at the time of the conquest, and the death rate among the Indians was much less in South America. . . . Epidemic diseases never took such an overwhelming toll in lives among the Peruvians as they did among the Mexicans. In fact, diseases did not become a cause of mass death in Peru until the eighteenth century, some two hundred years after the Indians had first been exposed to them.35

Citing both Cieza de Leon and Lopez de Velasco, Phelan argued that before the arrival of Europeans the native population of the central Andes (i.e., the audiencias of Quito, Charcas, and Lima) totaled between 3,500,000 and 6,750,000. Of these, some 750,000 to 1,000,000 resided

32 33 34 35

acabado estos indios con las guerras que tuvieron con el Ingua cuando los conquisto, y despues con la conquista de los espanoles y a la postre con ciertas pestilencias que en estas partes ha habido de sarampion y viruelas y tabardete; y con estas cosas se han apocado"; Juan Sancho Paz Ponce de Leon, "Relacion y descripcion de los pueblos del partido de Otavalo," Relaciones geograficas, 3:108-9. Steward, "The Native Population of South America," Handbook of South American Indians, 5:660. Cisneros, Demografia, p. n o . Rosenblat, "La poblacion indigena, 1:308-9. Phelan, The Kingdom, pp. 4 4 - 5 .

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in what would become the kingdom of Quito. 3 6 Although Phelan underestimated the size of the native population of the central Andes, his figure of 1,000,000 inhabitants for the audiencia of Quito may be fairly accurate. 37 Nevertheless, he clearly failed to recognize the devastating effect of disease on Indian communities throughout the viceroyalty of Peru. More recently, historian Horacio Larrain Barros and geographer Gregory Knapp have published their findings concerning the precontact population of the northern highlands of Ecuador. Based on the Otavalo census of 1582 (16,800) and Santillans depopulation ratio of 4:1, Larrain arrived at a total of 132,768 persons inhabiting the corregimiento of Otavalo in 1534. 38 Knapp, on the other hand, relied on archaeological evidence in order to calculate a population of 155,000 for the same area. He also estimated that in the richest agricultural areas, where residents had constructed raised fields, food production could have supported up to 750 persons per square kilometer. In less productive areas, population density ranged from 70 to 125 persons per square kilometer. 39 To date, much of the archaeological research in Ecuador has been confined to the coast and the northern sierra, leaving vast gaps in our knowledge of the prehistory of the rest of the country. Therefore, backward projection appears to be the only method currently available for calculating the population of the entire highland area before 1534. The earliest demographic data for the sierra region (from Otavalo to Cuenca) were compiled during the late 1550s. 40 Two documents based on a visita (visit or census) ordered by Viceroy Andres Hurtado de Mendoza include information concerning the native population during the mid-sixteenth century; but they arrive at different conclusions. One of these, an undated, unsigned copy of the 1559 visita of Pedro de Avedano, indicated that 48,134 tributaries and 240,670 individuals lived in the Quito area. 41 The 36 Ibid., p. 44. In his study of the demographic and economic history of the audiencia, historian Robson Tyrer claimed that Phelan's figures were too low, but he offered no revised estimate. Tyrer, "Demographic and Economic History," pp. 3-4. 37 The author calculates the preconquest population of the audiencia at 1,080,000. Discussion follows. 38 Larrain, Demografia 2:126—7. 39 Knapp, "Soil and Slope," pp. 307, 339. 40 Until that time documents contain demographic data limited to particular areas. A more accurate picture might be drawn using the Toldeo visita of the early 1570s, but a complete set of the individual repartimiento totals for the audiencia of Quito has not yet been discovered. 41 The original copy of the Avedano visita is located in the Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid) in the Coleccion Juan Bautista Munoz. Also see AGI, Lima 1627, Papeles para agregar. It is significant to note that dividing the number of tributaries (48,134) into the total population (240,670) produces a factor of five precisely. This suggests that Avedano counted only the tributary population and then multiplied this figure by five (his estimate of average family size) in order to arrive at the total native population.

18

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

other, based on the same visita but contained in a relacion (report) by Oidor Juan Matienzo de Peralta dated 1561, calculated a total of 54,000 tributaries and 270,000 individuals for the same area.42 These two figures differ by 5,866 tributaries and 29,000 persons, a sizable discrepancy and one that is difficult to resolve. Because both censuses are based on many of the same data - and in fact the columns recording the amounts of tribute collected agree exactly in many cases - it may be that the Avedano copy contained incomplete totals and that the Matienzo document compiled in 1561 accurately represented the actual demographic situation. On the basis of the larger figure of 270,000 and using the depopulation ratio of 4:1 offered by Santillan, one can estimate that the precontact population of highland Ecuador would have numbered 1,080,000. One way to check that figure is by calculating rates of decline to 1561 according to our knowledge of mortality rates during virgin soil epidemics. A review of the literature on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century epidemics of smallpox and measles among isolated communities indicates that in nonimmune populations almost everyone will become sick and that 3 0 50 percent will die. 43 This means that of a population of 1,080,000, between 590,000 and 756,000 would have survived the initial attack of smallpox. If, as seems likely, a second epidemic, of measles, followed, another 25-30 percent would have succumbed.44 Thus, on the eve of the Spanish conquest, the number of indigenous inhabitants remaining in the highlands of Ecuador probably totaled between 375,000 and 570,000. The disruption and violence of the European invasion, followed by severe epidemics in 1546 and 1558, could easily account for the further decline to 270,000 recorded in 1561. Although we do not know on what information he based his statement, Santillan may well have been correct when he asserted that in some areas three-quarters of the Indian population had disappeared since the Spanish conquest. A decline of 4:1 is somewhat greater than Cook's average ratio of 3.4:1 for highland Peru between 1520 and 1571, but it remains less than the rate of decline for the highland population of Huancas—Hatun Xauxa (7.3:1) and well within the realm of possibility.45 Not until the beginning of the twentieth century did the population of highland Ecuador again reach 1 million. 46 42

AGI, Lima 120, "Relacion de los naturales destos reynos del peru," 1561. Again, the number of tributaries was multiplied by five to arrive at the total population. 43 Cook, Demographic Collapse, pp. 62-6; Crosby, Columbian Exchange, p. 44. 44 Cook, Demographic Collapse, pp. 65-6. 45 Ibid., p. 50. 46 According to Cisneros, the population of the Republic of Ecuador totaled 1,271,861 in 1889. In 1945, approximately 2,000,000 persons resided in the highlands. Therefore, it seems likely that sometime during the first decade of the twentieth century, the number of inhabitants in the Ecuadorian sierra probably reached 1 million. Cisneros, Demografia, pp. 90—101.

2 Disease, illness, and healing before 1534

Although we can only speculate about the number of Indians living in the highlands of Ecuador before 1534, we can be certain of the ferocious destruction that accompanied the arrival of smallpox and measles. In order to comprehend the effects of these previously unknown infections and how they influenced the colonial experience of Ecuador's native inhabitants, we must first delineate the disease environment that existed before Europeans arrived. But it is equally important to understand pre-Columbian concepts regarding health, illness, and healing, because they too helped to determine the responses of Indian communities not only to invasion by Old World pathogens but also to the Spanish colonial system as it developed in the northern Andes. The pathological setting The most significant difference between patterns of disease in the Old and New Worlds was the absence of many "crowd-type" illnesses in preColumbian America. Native Americans had never experienced epidemics of smallpox, measles, influenza, bubonic plague, or cholera - all diseases that require dense human populations in which to proliferate. When the ancestors of American Indians crossed the Bering Strait they brought many diseases with them, but the cold of the far north and the rigors of the journey ensured that some of these organisms or their insect vectors died out. l Even after permanent agricultural communities developed, population levels remained too low to sustain acute infections that relied on direct human transmission for their propagation. Another factor contributing to the paucity of crowd-type diseases was the absence of domesticated mammals living in close proximity to human settlements. Many Old World infections, such as smallpox, measles, and influenza, originated as zoonoses among animal populations; and although New World inhabitants had domesticated several species, includ1

Newman, "Aboriginal New World Epidemiology," p. 668.

19

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

ing dogs, turkeys, and South American cameloids, few pathogens made the leap - with the likely exception of typhus rickettsia, for which domesticated guinea pigs acted as a reservoir. Given the absence of acute, epidemic diseases, one might be tempted to assume that, before the Spanish conquest, serious illness was uncommon among native Americans. But as archaeological evidence mounts, it becomes increasingly clear that the Andes provided a suitable habitat for many parasitic and arthropod-transmitted diseases and that, before the sixteenth century, numerous chronic endemic infections flourished among Indian communities. Protozoan infections such as uta (leishmaniasis), Chagas' disease, toxoplasmosis, amebiasis, and giardiasis were certainly common, just as they are today. Leishmaniasis and Chagas' disease, both transmitted by arthropods, attack the mucous membranes of the face. In its acute form, the trypanosome responsible for Chagas' disease destroys cardiac and skeletal cells and can eventually result in death through myocarditis and meningo-encephalitis. Toxoplasmosis, another chronic protozoan infection, seldom becomes acute. However, when contracted during pregnancy, the disease can cause blindness, severe brain damage, or death of the fetus. Amoebas and giardias enter the body in contaminated water or food, or through wounds in the skin, producing fever, chills, and diarrhea. Ulceration of the colon and chronic malaise constitute the most serious longterm effects. Neither amebiasis nor giardiasis is in itself fatal, but during famines or in conjunction with other diseases, their debilitating effects often contribute to higher mortality rates, especially among children. A host of bacterial and spirochetal infections also affected the health of pre-Columbian populations. On the basis of salmonella antigens found in Peruvian mummies, paleopathologist Marvin Allison has suggested that typhoid fever may have existed in the Americas before 1492. 2 Other medical authorities, however, argue that because typhoid fever is a "crowd-type disease spread through contaminated food and water its presence seems unlikely given the dispersed settlement pattern found throughout most of the hemisphere." 3 Among the bacterial infections endemic to the region was one Europeans had never encountered before — bartonellosis, or Carrion's disease. According to Garcilaso de la Vega: Pizarro's men suffered from a strange and abominable disease which broke out on their heads and faces and over the whole of their bodies. At first a sort of wart appeared, which as it developed turned into a growth as large as a black fig. It hung from a sort of stem,

2 Allison, "Paleopathology," p. 78. 3 Garruto, "Disease Patterns," p. 580.

Disease before 1334

21

gave out a great deal of blood and caused great pain and nausea. . . . Many died, many more recovered.4

Victims of verrugas, as the Spanish named the disease, also experienced fever, headache, and severe pain lasting from one to three months. A more malignant form of verrugas called Oroya fever produces chills, high fever, bone pain, weakness, cramps, depression, and insomnia. In some cases complications, such as salmonella septicemia, can prove fatal. Of the several spirochetal infections attacking preconquest populations, pinta, a nonvenereal treponematosis, was probably the most common. Although this skin disease is seldom serious, it produces rashes of various colors — blue, pink, yellow, and violet — on the trunks and faces of its victims. These rashes, which can last for many years if untreated, often engender psychological stress and depression in the person so disfigured. In addition to pinta, it seems likely that two other treponematoses also infected pre-Columbian inhabitants. The treponemas responsible for pinta, yaws, and syphilis are indistinguishable in laboratory tests, indicating that different strains of the same organism trigger all three. Like pinta, yaws is a nonvenereal form of treponematosis transmitted by direct contact, especially among children. The yaws spirochete can remain latent for many years, emerging periodically to produce skin and cartilage lesions. Although the most serious cases can eventually cause lesions on the bones, yaws rarely, if ever, results in death. The controversy surrounding the debate over the origins of syphilis has continued unabated ever since the disease first appeared, in its most virulent form, in Europe in 1493. Since then scholars have proposed two explanations of the origins of this dreaded venereal infection.5 According to the unitarian school, pinta, yaws, and syphilis are all forms of the same disease. Sometime around the end of the fifteenth century, the yaws spirochete, which has been prevalent throughout the Old World for millennia, mutated and adopted a venereal form of transmission. Some proponents of this theory argue that syphilis was then introduced to the Americas, although others claim the disease already existed there. Supporters of the Columbian theory, including many Europeans who witnessed the initial epidemics, agree that the infection arrived in Europe with the men of Columbus's first expedition. Besides the timing, spread, and virulence of epidemics in the Old World, Columbian theorists cite archaeological evidence to bolster their argument. Since the first decade of this century, scientists have uncovered several skeletal remains displaying lesions of the skull, tibiae, and fingers characteristic of syphilis. Converse4 5

Garcilaso, Royal Commentaries, 2:661. Crosby offers a succinct summary of the evidence in Columbian Exchange, pp. 122-64.

22

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

ly, no trace of such scarring has ever been found on pre-fifteenth-century skeletons anywhere in the Old World. The fact that syphilis claimed many lives in sixteenth-century Europe whereas cases among native Americans were considerably less severe adds further support to the Columbian theory.6 Today, two other spirochetal diseases are also endemic to Ecuador's indigenous population, and it seems likely that they were present long before the conquest. Leptospirosis, which is transmitted through contaminated water, soil, and food, produces a fever that lasts for several days to several weeks and can recur. Occasionally complications such as anemia, meningitis, or hemorrhaging may develop, but in general, fatalities are rare. Two types of relapsing fever, the endemic variety transmitted by ticks and the epidemic variety carried by lice, also occur throughout the area. During an epidemic up to 50 percent of those affected may die, whereas fatalities among those suffering from the endemic variety average only between 2 and 10 percent. One can also build a strong case for the existence of both endemic (fleaborne) and epidemic (louse-born) typhus in the New World before 1492. Examinations of mummified human remains have revealed that head and body lice commonly infested native populations. 7 Lice prefer cool climates, and the heavy woolen and cotton clothing worn by Andean peoples provided safe habitats. In addition, most native households included several guinea pigs in the family's living quarters; these animals can be reservoirs for the typhus rickettsiae without themselves succumbing to the illness. Infected fleas can easily jump from rodent to human, transmitting the endemic form of the disease. Thus the rickettsia found the rodent reservoir, the arthropod vector, and the human victim all under one roof. Preconquest traditions of epidemics occurring during periods of social turmoil - wars, famines, and natural disasters - support the assertion that typhus existed in the Americas before the sixteenth century. In his history of the Incas, the Indian chronicler Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala described two epidemics that occurred long before the Spanish conquest. In describing the origins of the Incas he wrote, "The population was so numerous that it was able to survive a plague which once raged for six months throughout the kingdom. During this period the condors gorged themselves on the human corpses scattered about the fields and villages."8 Later, recounting the military achievements of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, Guaman Poma described another, more serious episode. The defeat of Chile was made possible by the ravages of plague, which lasted for ten years. Disease and famine, even more than force of arms, brought about the downfall of the 6 7 8

Shearwood, "Syphilis," pp. 47-55. Zinser, Rats, pp. 175-7; and Busvine, Insects, pp. 43-4. Guaman Poma, Letter to a King, p. 26.

Disease before 1534

23

Chileans, just as civil war between Huascar and Atahuallpa was later to facilitate the Spanish conquest. Peru itself suffered terribly from plague, famine and drought. For a decade no rain fell and the grass withered and died. People were reduced to devouring their own children and when the stomachs of the poor were opened it was sometimes found that they had managed to sustain life by eating grasses. 9

Furthermore, Guaman Poma wrote that the Incas associated "a plague of fleas" with death, suggesting that they may have connected these ectoparasites with the appearance of typhus. 10 If it existed in the Andes before the sixteenth century, typhus would have been the most lethal of all diseases. Both forms begin suddenly with fever, chills, severe headaches, exhaustion, and general pain. A skin eruption appears by the end of the first week; later the victim often becomes delirious and deaf. Death results from a collapse of the cardiovascular system. Mortality rates for endemic typhus average 2 percent but soar to 10-40 percent for the epidemic variety. Although small populations and dispersed settlements protected preColumbian Indians from the ravages of contagious viral diseases such as smallpox and measles, at least two types of viruses had evolved mechanisms that would have allowed them to survive among Amerindian communities. A family of herpes viruses, including herpes simplex (cold sores), varicella (chicken pox and shingles), and cytomegalovirus (a mononucleosislike illness), can remain latent within the human body for years after the initial attack. By remaining dormant for long periods and allowing their hosts a chance to recover, herpes viruses bypass the need for a constant supply of new victims or for intermediate reservoirs. When the viruses are reactivated, the human host becomes ill once again and can transmit the disease to others. These viruses can also pass from mother to fetus. Because these infections leave no unique physical evidence, it is impossible to be certain that they were present before 1530; but researchers have found these same types of viruses endemic among previously isolated populations of Amazonian natives. 11 The research of paleopathologists has also revealed three types of helminthic infections - pinworms, whipworms, and hookworms - in Peruvian mummies; but these scholars claim that "they were not common enough to produce a serious health problem." 12 Although they may not have posed a serious threat to public health, lack of energy and chronic malaise are common long-term side effects among those infected reducing productivity and weakening the body's defenses against other infections. Archaeological evidence also indicates that acute respiratory infections 9 Ibid., p. 42. 10 Ibid., p. 77. 11 Kaplan et al., "Workup on the Waorani," pp. 68-75. 12 Allison, "Peruvian and Chilean Populations," p. 525.

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

were the most frequent cause of death among Andean residents, just as they are today. Paleopathologists have discovered incontrovertible evidence of pneumonia, blastomycosis, and tuberculosis in Peruvian mummies. 13 Samples of lung tissue taken from Peruvian mummies dating from the eighth century on show unmistakable signs of pulmonary and bloodborne (miliary) tuberculosis. These samples demonstrate that natives suffered most from the chronic, pulmonary form, with its characteristic symptoms of cough, fatigue, fever, and weight loss. In miliary tuberculosis, the bloodstream disseminates bacteria throughout the body, infecting many organs, including the eyes, lymph nodes, kidneys, intestines, larynx, and skin. This form of the disease almost always proves fatal. Tissue samples also indicate that bacterial pneumonia was especially common and that many individuals contracted the disease more than once. When pneumonia appears in conjunction with other diseases, such as tuberculosis or typhus, death often follows. Yet another serious respiratory infection was blastomycosis. Because the fungus responsible for producing the disease is transmitted in soil, those engaged in agricultural activities are most susceptible. The fungus produces lesions on the lungs, mucous membranes, and skin, and frequently results in death. In addition to pathological data, archaeological evidence provides information on the length and quality of life in the Andes. Human remains indicate that, before the Spanish conquest, 27 percent of the population had lived past the age of forty, while only 12 percent did so after 1534. Infant mortality had also been lower, with fewer children dying before the age of one. Both before and after the sixteenth century, however, nearly 50 percent of all children perished by the age of fifteen.l4 Much can also be learned about the history of disease in the Americas by studying present-day societies whose contact with outsiders has been limited. Before the arrival of missionaries in 1958, the disease environment of the Waorani, an isolated population of natives living in the Amazon Basin of Ecuador, resembled that of pre-Columbian communities. According to physicians and medical researchers who examined the Waorani between 1976 and 1984, before 1968 "epidemics of infectious disease were non-existent and those infections that did occur were rarely fatal." 15 In fact, although physicians found that most Waorani were infested with intestinal parasites, they showed few symptoms and appeared to be "remarkably healthy and robust people." 16 The evolution of the relationship between humans and disease in the 13 14 15 16

Allison, "Peruvian and Chilean Populations," p. 523, "Paleopathology," pp. 77-9. Allison, "Paleopathology," p. 77, and "Peruvian and Chilean Populations," p. 518. Kaplan et al., "Waorani," p. 71. Ibid., p. 70.

Disease before 1334

25

Andes spans thousands of years. Because many areas did not support dense populations until several hundred years before the arrival of Europeans, disease-causing organisms were forced to develop complex modes of transmission. For many infections, such as relapsing fever, leishmaniasis, Chagas' disease, and bartonellosis, arthropods were the vectors. Spirochetes and herpetoviruses could remain latent within the body of the human host for long periods. Typhus was particularly complicated: Arthropods served as vectors and guinea pigs as intermediate reservoirs. Low population levels placed yet another restriction on diseases. In order to survive, these organisms could not deplete their limited supply of human fuel; death of the host threatened the existence of all diseasecausing organisms. For this reason, most infections were chronic and endemic rather than acute and epidemic. So, although the disease environment of the New World was far from benign, indigenous inhabitants of the Andes clearly enjoyed better health and longer lives before the sixteenth century.

Native concepts of health and illness Every society evolves its own concepts of health and illness that define various physical and emotional conditions affecting the well-being of individuals. Because these beliefs are derived from and simultaneously reinforced by relationships within the community and the physical and cosmological universe, ultimately they reveal as much about the nature and structure of a society as they do about the specific ways in which illness is defined, diagnosed, and treated. Thus, the ways in which indigenous populations understand what it means to be healthy or sick not only demonstrate their knowledge of human physiology and pathology but also explain how they make sense of their world and their history. In recent years, a debate has developed about concepts of health and disease in Amerindian societies. Like the controversy concerning preColumbian population estimates, this also raises questions about the abilities and achievements of the New World's native inhabitants. On one side are those who argue that native medical practices lacked a sophisticated, systematic structure of interpretation and classification, that Spaniards introduced European humoral theories, and that this accounts for the wide spread use of humoral pathology throughout Latin America today. 17 On the other side are those who cite evidence of an original American humoral system, similar to and yet distinct from the Old World model. Anthropologist Joseph Bastien, for example, argues that the Andean sys17

See Foster, "On the Origin of Humoral Medicine," pp. 355-93; Edmonson, "A Mayan Perspective"; and Guerra, "Aztec Medicine," pp. 315-38.

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

tern was based on a cyclical theory in which health resulted from the unimpeded movement of fluids through the body. Sickness developed when the cycle was interrupted either by a blockage or by the loss of fluids.18 Health could be restored only by reestablishing the cycle. Like a landslide on the side of a mountain, illness signified "disintegration of the body which [was] caused by imbalances of nature, cleavages within the lineage, or punishment by the ancestors."19 Thus, although both Amerindian and European systems emphasized balance, the system devised by indigenous peoples of the Andes included a cyclical concept based on their knowledge of mountain hydraulics. 20 Andean concepts of physiology and classification closely resemble those of the traditional European system in other ways. In form and function, the three fluids of life (air, blood, and fat) correspond to the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) of Hippocrates and Galen. Both also include principles of opposition with regard to the use of hot and cold categories, although whether native Americans developed their own taxonomic system on the basis remains in dispute. Some claim that Europeans introduced the concept along with the categories of wet and dry and the notion of degrees of intensity. According to Foster, nonliterate native societies could not manage such a complex set of theories and eventually retained only hot and cold distinctions. 21 Opponents insist that other concepts of duality were central to the philosophies of many native American societies, including the Aztecs and Incas. Furthermore, anthropologists have found that binary-temperature theories of disease classification exist even in isolated societies only recently contacted by outsiders. 22 They also claim that the almost total absence of wet and dry classifications and degrees of intensity was not due to any deficiency within Amerindian peoples; rather, their absence supports the argument that hot/cold and humoral theories developed independently in the New World. 23 Much evidence cited in support of this argument is based on direct observation of the beliefs and practices of those who continue to rely on traditional systems of classification and healing. Proponents of the American theory claim that today in many areas of the Andes the etiology of 18 Bastien, Healers of the Andes, p. 46, and "Differences," pp. 45-51. 19 George L. Urioste, "Sickness and Death in Preconquest Andean Cosmology: The Huarochiri Oral Tradition," in Bastien and Donahue, eds., Health in the Andes, p. 9. 20 Bastien, "Differences," p. 48. 21 Foster, "On the Origin of Humoral Medicine," p. 381. 22 Messer, "The Hot and Cold," pp. 339-46; Lopez Austin, The Human Body, 11270-6; Colson and Armellada, "An Amerindian Derivation," pp. 1229-48; and Wilbert, "Pneumatic Theory," pp. 1139-46. 23 Lopez Austin, The Human Body, 1:270—6, and Colson and Armellada, "An Amerindian Derivation," p. 1241.

Disease before 1334

27

illness, as well as the processes by which it is cured, maintain continuity with pre-Columbian traditions. Bastien argues that the medical system of the Qollahuaya, long renowned for their healing expertise, is a continuation of ancient thought. For many centuries these residents of highland Bolivia, known as "lords of the medicine bag," have traveled throughout the Andes diagnosing and healing with herbs and rituals. Inca rulers considered their medical services indispensable and, in order to ensure their constant presence, chose the Qollahuaya to carry the royal litter. Today their descendants continue to practice their curing arts, although most have now settled in urban areas where they operate herbal clinics. 24 The Qollahuaya derive their concepts of human physiology from their understanding of the relationship between the individual, the ayllu, and the mountainous environment in which they have lived for many generations. Just as the ayllu controls land along a vertical axis involving a variety of ecological zones, each contributing its own unique products to the survival of the community, so too is the body seen "as a vertical axis with three levels through which blood and fat flow from the center to the peripheral. . . .Basically the body is a hydraulic system with distillation, circulation, and elimination processes which operate by centripetal and centrifugal forces of liquids." 25 Ayllus are interdependent, maintaining bonds of reciprocity: So too are the parts of the body interrelated, relying for their nourishment on the sonco or heart, which compresses and distills the three fluids of life — air, blood, and fat. 26 Another source of evidence that many have ignored can be found in sixteenth-century chronicles. Although Inca concepts about health and illness do not occupy a central place in these works, they do occasionally appear. According to Garcilaso de la Vega, "The chill of a tertian or quartan they [the Incas] call chucchu, 'trembling,' fever is rupa, with a soft r, 'to burn.' They feared these illnesses a great deal, because of the alternating extremes of heat and cold." 27 Similar references to hot and cold classifications also exist for sixteenth-century Mexico, where Spaniards noted that natives "could explain the properties of medicinal plants by no other means." 28 These statements support the view that pre-Columbian peoples had indeed formulated classificatory systems based on the properties of hot and cold — further evidence that a humoral system of medicine had developed independently in the Americas. According to Guaman Poma, Andean peoples recognized the season24 25 26 27 28

Bastien, "Qollahuaya-Andean Body Concepts," pp. 595-611. Ibid., pp. 595-6. Ibid., p. 598. Garcilaso, Royal Commentaries, 1:122. Lopez Austin, The Human Body, 1:274.

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

ality of disease patterns, anticipating increased illness during particular months. The heavy rains of February brought food shortages, and many survived on yuyos (unripened fruit), "producing diarrheas and serious stomach ailments leading to death, especially among the elderly and young, not only because of eating green fruit but also because being hungry all of the bad humors of the body combined with the fumes of the earth abundant at this time." 29 During the dry months of June and July, disease increased once again. July was considered especially unhealthy because of the "many illnesses that attack the health of all, great, rich, women and children." 30 Guaman Poma also emphasized the centrality of balance in Inca medical thought. The Incas believed that humoral balance through moderation of diet and behavior ensured a long and happy life. Because certain foods and activities disturbed biological and communal systems, social strictures proscribed dietary and behavioral actions. The Incas, rulers, commoners, as well as the ancient peoples of these kingdoms, lived long and healthy lives, many reaching the age of 150 to 200 years because they had an ordered and methodical regimen for living and eating. Children were not allowed to eat greasy foods, sweets, fat, honey, hot pepper, salt, or vinegar; [boys] could not sleep with women, nor drink chicha, nor be bled until they were 50 years old; on the other hand, they purged themselves with Bilcaturi every month. . . . In this way they maintained their health and prolonged their lives. 31

Regular purges "taken when they felt heavy or sluggish, more often in health than in sickness," unblocked the physiological cycle so that fluids could travel unimpeded through the body. They resorted to bleeding less 29

"Era tiempo de aguas y llovia mucho, por cuyo motivo habia abundancia de verduras, sobre todo, Yuyos; pero como escaseaban alimentos y existia hambre en este mes, muchos se veian obligados a comer estos Yuyos, asi como la fruta que en esta epoca estaba completamente verde, produciendose diarreas y enfermedades graves del estomago que ocasionaban la muerte, especialmente en los ancianos, ancianas y ninos, no solo por alimentarse con esta comida y fruta verde sino tambien porque con el hambre todo el mal humor del cuerpo se juntaba con el vapor de la tierra abundante en este tiempo" (Guaman Poma, La nueva coronica, 1:168). Guaman Poma's use of the word "humors" as well as his reference to "the fumes of the earth" suggests that in this passage he had combined elements from both Andean and European humoral traditions. 30 "Durante este mes, el clima se va haciendo templada y suave, pero en cambio se desarrollan muchas enfermedades que atacan la salud de grandes, ricos, mujeres y ninos" (Guaman Poma, La nueva coronica, 1:175). 31 "Los incas, senores Principales, indios particulares y la gente antigua de estos reinos, pudieron vivir con salud muchos anos, alcanzando muchos hasta la edad de 150 a 200 anos, porque tuvieron una regla de vivir y criar muy ordenada y metodica. A sus hijos cuando estos eran muchachos no les dejaban comer cosas grasosas, dulces, sebo, miel, aji, sal ni vinagre; no dormian con mujer; no los dejaban beber chicha, y no se sangraban hasta tener 50 anos; en cambio, acostumbraban tomar purgante Bilcaturi cada mes. . . . De este modo, pudieron mantenerse con salud y prolongar sus vidas" (Guaman Poma, La nueva coronica, 1:89).

Disease before 1534

29

frequently, but when necessary "they merely opened the vein nearest the place where they felt the pain." 32 In this way bloodletting also restored balance to the biological system. Concepts of balance and reciprocity as desirable properties applied not only to the health of individuals but also to the condition of communities and the universe beyond. Any breach of cultural norms that altered the relations of the human, natural, and spiritual realms had serious implications for society as a whole; and illness or natural disasters were often the direct consequence of such breaches. Thus, imbalances in the natural or supernatural worlds led to outbreaks of disease that manifested themselves as imbalances within the human body. These beliefs also served a more political purpose, however, in that they circumscribed behavior and thus helped to perpetuate the hierarchical structure of peasant societies. Medical historian E. N. Anderson has noted that "[T]he humoral medical theory fits very well into the social order of the ancient peasant civilizations (Mediterranean, Aztec, Chinese, Indian . . . ) in which powerful centralized control is validated through constant invocation of an ideology of social harmony, balance, stasis, and obedience."33 Clearly, the ideology of balance and reciprocity served this same purpose in the Andes, reaching its apogee in the highly centralized imperial structure of the Inca state. Healing, ritual, and meaning Since all illnesses were the result of biological and cosmic imbalances, cures could be effected only by restoring the system to a state of equilibrium; and that required human intervention through the use of medicinal plants, rituals, and offerings to the gods. Because of the complexities of the disease environment and because healing required knowledge of physiology, botany, and cosmology, those who practiced the curing arts often specialized in a particular technique. According to Father Pablo Joseph de Arriaga, a seventeenth-century observer of Inca medical practices, the socayac, "keeper of the heart," used kernels of corn to divine the cause of illness. 34 Arriaga also noted that "many of the sorcerers are ambkamayos," experts in the use of herbal remedies. 35 Some administered hallucinogens to themselves and their patients in order to visualize the cause of an ailment, whereas others spoke with the spirits who inhabited their patients' dreams in order to determine the cause. Still others practiced divination through the use of spiders, butterflies, rocks, guinea 32 33 34 35

Garcilaso, Royal Commentaries, 1:120—2. Anderson, "Why Is Humoral Medicine So Popular?", pp. 3 3 1 - 7 . Arriaga, Extirpation of Idolatry, p. 34. Ibid., p. 99.

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

pigs, and other objects. 36 According to Guaman Poma, circa (bleeders), and quichicaun (surgeons) also performed important health care functions in native communities throughout the Andes. 37 But not all practitioners used their skills to heal. Arriaga claimed that some possessed special knowledge of poisons, which they used to kill their enemies. 38 People so feared the power of these hampkoc that for many years "only the Inca had these sorcerers and no one else could have them because any Indian who used or possessed venom or poison was killed immediately being stoned along with everyone from his lineage, not leaving any of his relatives except nursing infants." 39 Others killed by "eating the souls" of their victims. One man explained that, after losing his farm he "ate" the son of the man who took his land. "It is certain that when they are angry at each other they avenge themselves by eating each other's children, killing them as described, and they call this eating each other." 40 Still others practiced rituals using frogs and snakes or pieces of string ("hilo forcido hasta el lado izquierdo") to induce illness. 41 Frequently the process of healing involved an act of purification or cleansing, such as washing, sucking, or rubbing the illness out of the body. In other instances, the disease was transferred into another object and then discarded. When they are ill, their sorcerers tell them to throw white corn on the highway so that passersby will carry away their illness. At other times, the sorcerer goes to the top of the nearest hill and makes a point of throwing stones at it with his slingshot, complaining that it has been the cause of an illness, which he begs it to take away. For the same purpose they wash the sick person with chicha and rub him with white corn.42

Determining cause or placing blame was an important component in the healing process because it allowed the victim to vent anger and frustration and to transfer responsibility for a problem to someone or something else. Once cause had been established, appropriate actions could follow. Frequently, the healing ceremony involved the entire community in a night of offerings, dancing, singing, and drinking — "a form of supportive therapy."43 Such public demonstrations of support and car36 37 38 39

40 41 42 43

Guaman Poma, La nueva coronica, 1:200-1, and Haro Alvear, Shamanismo, pp. 6 - 8 . Guaman Poma, La nueva coronica, 1:136. Arriaga, Extirpation, pp. 38—9. "Al principio solo el Inca tenia estos hechiceros y ninguno otro pudo tenerlos, porque todo indio que usaba o tenia veneno o ponzona era muerto inmediatamente, siendo apedreado juntamente con todos los de su generacion, no quedando ninguno de sus parientes, sino los que fuesen ninos de teta." Guaman Poma, La nueva coronica, 1:195. Arriaga, Extirpation, p. 39. Guaman Poma, La nueva coronica, 1:196. Arriaga, Extirpation, p. 77. "Velan toda la noche, cantan y beben por la salud de los enfermos y lo mismo hacen cuando hay peste" (Guaman Poma, La nueva coronica, 1:204), a n d Bastien, Healers, p. 38.

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ing often lifted the spirits of the sick person and reinforced bonds within the community. Patients' participation in their own treatment was another important aspect of the healing process because it allowed the sick to assert some measure of control over their lives and bodies. "To the degree to which the [healer] is able to convince his clients that the condition has been named (i.e., made meaningful) and is under control, he has reduced the aggravating factors that push the client's psychological coping resources past their limits." 44 During epidemics, it was customary for processions of armed men to march through their communities in a show of force aimed at driving diseases out. 45 But these processions also served a preventive function. Every year during the month of September people throughout the Inca empire celebrated Citua, one of the four most important festivals of the Inca calendar. According to Garcilaso de la Vega, Citua was an occasion for purification, "for it represented the expulsion from the city and the district of all the diseases and other ills and troubles that man can suffer."46 In preparation for the festival, houses were washed and streets were cleaned. 47 After a period of fasting and sexual abstinence, families gathered to bathe and rub their bodies with bread, which absorbed illness and removed it from the body. At the same time in Cuzco, four members of the Inca royal family ran out from the center of the city, driving illness in front of them. The ceremony continued the next night when torches were carried through the city for the same purpose. 48 All of these measures helped Andean peoples to manage the disease environment in which they lived. But the relationship between humans and disease was about to change. With the arrival of Spaniards and the introduction of European infections, a much more devastating disease environment emerged, and indigenous societies proved immunologically unprepared for the destruction that followed. 44 45 46 47 48

Joralemon, "The Role of Hallucinogenic Drugs," p. 420. Guaman Poma, La nueva coronka, 1:205. Garcilaso, Royal Commentaries, 1:413. Guaman Poma, La nueva coronka, 1:177. Garcilaso, Royal Commentaries, 1:413-7.

Conquest and epidemic disease in the sixteenth century

A hostile disease environment greeted Europeans on their arrival in Africa hampering their efforts at colonization there for several hundred years; but the relatively benign set of infections encountered by the Spanish in the New World did little to hinder their invasion. In fact, the absence of any new, virulent diseases (with the possible exception of syphilis) allowed Europeans to conduct their exploratory and military expeditions free from the threat of biological reprisals. At the same time, the diseases that the Spanish brought with them from the Old World, more than any other factor, aided them in their conquest of Amerindian societies. The inadvertent introduction of smallpox, measles, and influenza to nonimmune populations claimed millions of lives and in so doing weakened the resistance of indigenous society, leaving it vulnerable to penetration by Europeans. Once the period of military conquest had ended, however, epidemic disease worked against Spanish interests by significantly reducing the number of Indians available for tribute and labor. Their most valuable ally had become an enemy, and throughout the remainder of the sixteenth century, disease continued to reduce the profits of empire. The Spanish conquest and the introduction of previously unknown diseases unleashed a series of disasters on Indian Ecuador that weakened the foundations of native communities but ultimately proved incapable of destroying them. The demographic effects of sixteenth-century pandemics are undoubtedly the most obvious, but analysis of these events also reveals social and economic consequences of disease and population loss.

The Spanish conquest of Quito After the capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca in November 1532, Francisco Pizarro dispatched his lieutenant Sebastian de Benalcazar to govern the remote settlement of San Miguel de Piura on Peru's northern coast. From there Benalcazar independently planned and launched the conquest of the

32

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33

northern sector of the Inca empire. 1 During 1533 and 1534, Benalcazar and his band of 200 men fought their way into the highlands of Ecuador and, with the aid of Canari allies, defeated the armies of the Riobambo area. But Benalcazar's independence soon angered Pizarro, who ordered his partner Diego de Almagro to take charge of the conquest of Quito. After meeting Almagro in the Riobamba area, Benalcazar agreed to abandon his unsanctioned campaign and continue under the direction of Pizarro. Early in August 1534, the Spanish founded their first settlement in the region, naming it Santiago de Quito. Almagro remained in Santiago; Benalcazar and his men continued their march. In the highlands north of Riobamba, many communities welcomed the opportunity to rid themselves of Inca rule, receiving the Spanish without hostilities. Benalcazar and his troops were bitterly disappointed, however, when they failed to find the large caches of precious metals they had been led to expect. When the looting of El Quinche turned up only a few silver and gold vessels, Spanish frustration and disappointment erupted into the massacre of local inhabitants - mostly women, children, and the elderly. As news of the Spanish brutality spread, many caciques decided to surrender voluntarily; and, on returning to his headquarters, Benalcazar found several ready to make peace. The Spanish occupation of the northern highlands was not, however, unopposed. Leaders of communities in the southern portion of the Chillos Valley as well as the Atis of Cotopaxi fought against the advancing army of Benalcazar.2 Two of Atahualpa's military commanders, Ruminahui and Quizquiz, also led organized attacks against Spaniards and the Indians suspected of collaborating with them. Angered by the peaceful surrender of local caciques, Ruminahui raided communities in the Pomasqui Valley on the outskirts of Quito, slaughtering some 4,000 inhabitants. 3 As Spanish control over the area tightened, Inca rebels were forced to flee, first to the Yumbos on the western slope of the Andes and finally to Quixos on the eastern slope. From the forest, these loyalists and their followers fought stubbornly against the Spanish for several years. On December 6, 1534, Benalcazar founded the city of San Francisco de Quito. Later that day, a notary drew up a list with names of 202 residents. 4 Six weeks later, Benalcazar ordered all Indian houses within city limits destroyed to make space for the houses of the conquerors. Because many laborers would be needed for construction of the new city, however, 1 2 3 4

Lockhart, Men of Cajamarca, pp. 122—9. Salomon, Native Lords, p. 181. Ibid., p. 182. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 1, f. 50, Dec. 5, 1534.

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

most of the natives were resettled nearby in the valley of Guapulo. Concerned that an adequate supply of labor be available to Spaniards throughout the area, the newly formed cabildo (town council) moved quickly to restrict the mobility of the Indian population, decreeing that every Indian would be considered a naturale (native) of the community in which he had resided at the time of the Spaniards' arrival in Riobamba. Those who had relocated since then were ordered to return to their original homes, and all Indians were expected to remain permanently in these settlements. 5 By June the cabildo had awarded each European an area of land "large enough to plant eight fanegas [12.8 bushels] of wheat." 6 These grants encompassed the most fertile land surrounding the city and included property located in Pomasqui, Cumbaya, Cotocollao, Pinta, Chillos, and Guayllabamba. Five years later, in 1540, the cabildo was distributing land as far north as Cayambe and as far south as Riobamba because all of the land close to Quito had already been claimed.7 Not content to remain in Quito, Benalcazar decided to relinquish his governorship in order to concentrate on the conquest of New Granada. In May 1536, Pedro de Puelles, encomendero of Otavalo, replaced him. Many of the original conquerors chose to accompany Benalcazar into New Granada, abandoning their grants of land and their Indians; Puelles quickly redistributed these to his own supporters. 8 Military campaigns followed exploratory expeditions. Less than two years after the founding of the city, the cabildo ordered that no more natives be taken out of the area "because this province has few Indians." 9 This decree was in part a response to a letter from Francisco Pizarro stating his concern that the Indian population was rapidly declining. Between 1534 and 1580, at least twenty-nine major expeditions, including approximately 50,000 Indian men and women, left Quito. Few natives ever returned. Some died in battles; many more died of starvation and disease. Still others were sold into slavery in New Granada. 10 In 1538 Francisco Pizarro appointed his youngest brother Gonzalo governor of Quito. Many who had arrived with Benalcazar and Puelles resented the new governor and his cronies and tried repeatedly to undermine his authority. But Gonzalo Pizarro lived only a short time in Quito; in February 1541, he headed an expedition to conquer Canelos in the Amazon Basin. During his absence, supporters of Diego de Almagro assassinated Francisco Pizarro in Lima. Gonzalo did not learn of his broth5 Estrada, Ycaza, "Migraciones internas," p. 5. 6 AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 1, f. 105, June 15, 1535. 7 Ibid., vol. 2, f. 135, July 24, 1540. 8 Ibid., vol. 1, f. 167, May 28, 1536. 9 Ibid., vol. 1, f. 283, July 24, 1537. 10 Larrain Barros, Demografia, 2:56-7.

Conquest and disease

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er's death until his return to Quito two years later. Hostilities between the youngest Pizarro and representatives of the crown festered; when Blasco Nunez Vela, first viceroy of Peru, arrived, civil war erupted. During a battle on the outskirts of Quito in 1546, Pizarro's troops defeated the royal army and killed the viceroy. The apprehension and execution of Pizarro and his closest supporters two years later left many encomiendas (grants of Indians from the Spanish crown to individuals) vacant in the Quito area. Those who afterward received these grants became the new elite; they and their descendants dominated the province for the remainder of the century.

Epidemics during the sixteenth century Because the first epidemics of smallpox and measles preceded actual contact in many areas of the Andes, most Spaniards never fully recognized the significance of disease in their conquest of the area. Only a few chroniclers, such as Cieza de Leon, Santa Cruz Pachacuti, and Guaman Poma, even mentioned these events. But the first two epidemics claimed the lives of up to three-quarters of the native population, so it is impossible to deny their effect on the initial success of European colonization. Until the second half of the sixteenth century, smallpox in Europe was an endemic and relatively mild childhood infection. According to medical historians Ann Carmichael and Arthur Silverstein, the first virulent epidemic of smallpox occurred in Naples in 1544. Thirty years later, "eight major epidemics of smallpox were reported, with additional descriptions of malignant pustules and high childhood mortality that begin to resemble the Variola major of the next two centuries." 11 How then to account for the lethal nature of smallpox in the Americas as early as 1518 when the first recorded outbreak occurred on the island of Hispaniola? One plausible explanation is that the virulent form of the disease originated in an area of the Old World other than Europe. Smallpox had a long history among human populations in both Africa and Asia; thus, the viral mutation could have taken place in one of these areas, arriving in the Antilles with a slave carrier. If so, this virulent form of the disease could have been introduced into Europe either directly from Africa or from the Americas sometime around 1544, or the virus could have mutated following its introduction to the Caribbean. Or perhaps the disease that claimed so many Indian lives was caused by the same virus that produced a mild childhood illness in Europeans. "If there should exist single genes or gene complexes that predispose the individual to suffer an increased mortality from an otherwise avirulent strain of small11 Carmichael and Silverstein, "Smallpox," p. 159.

36

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

pox, such as appears to exist in slight measure for poliomyelitis and other viral infections, then . . . the relatively inbred Amerindian population . . . might hyper-respond to even the mild European strain of the disease."12 According to this theory, the virus itself remained unchanged until the 1540s, almost thirty years after its introduction to Hispaniola, at which time the mutation could have taken place in either the Old or New World. But if in fact the mutation did occur in the Americas, smallpox is the only disease of Old World origin to return to Europe with renewed virulence. The first major Andean epidemic witnessed by Spaniards began in 1546. 13 (See Table 3.1.) That no description of the outbreak in Quito remains is not surprising since it occurred during the chaotic period of the Gonzalo Pizarro rebellion and the Battle of Inaquito. According to Cieza de Leon, the epidemic, which began south of Cuzco, spread from one end of the viceroyalty to the other, killing "innumerable people." The disease began with a severe headache and high fever, following which the pain shifted to the left ear; most died within two to three days. 14 Some have diagnosed this outbreak as typhus, arguing that it could have been an extension of the cocoliztli (an unidentified disease) epidemic which had swept through New Spain a year earlier.15 That no mention is made of the rash associated with typhus is not unusual because the eruption normally 12 Ibid., pp. 166-7. 13 Two years earlier, in 1546, an epizootic had swept through the region's llama population. The Indians called the infection earache, or llama mange. This disease attacked all four species of llamoids (llamas, alpacas, guanacos, and vicunas), reducing most flocks by two-thirds, although the wild guanacos and vicunas suffered less "because they frequented colder zones" and "because they did not collect in such numbers as tame animals." Traveling through the Quito region in 1546, Cieza de Leon attributed the decline of the llama population to their wanton slaughter by Spaniards; but the epizootic probably killed many more llamas than did Europeans. This epizootic may have been triggered by the introduction of plague or one of several acute infections of Old World mammals such as anthrax, rinderpest, or sheep pox. That the disease was extremely lethal seems clear from the description by Garcilaso: "It was a dire disease, hitherto unknown. It afflicted the flank and belly and then spread over the whole body, producing scabs two or three fingers high, especially on the belly, which was the part most seriously affected and which came out in cracks two or three fingers deep, such being the depth of the scabs down in the flesh. Blood and matter issued from the sores and in a few days the animal withered and was consumed" (Garcilaso, Royal Commentaries, 1:513-14; Cieza, Incas, p. 68; and Benzoni, La historia, p. 262). 14 "Vino una general pestilencia por todo el reino del Peru, la cual comenzo de mas adelante del Cuzco y cundio toda la tierra; donde murieron gente sin cuento. La enfermedad era, que daba un dolor de cabeza y accidente de calentura muy recio, y luego se pasaba el dolor de la cabeza al oido izquierdo, y agravaba tanto el mal, que no duraban los enfermos sino dos o tres dias" (Cieza, Obras, 1:36). 15 Zinsser, Rats, p. 256; McNeill, Plagues, p. 209; and Dobyns, "An Outline," pp. 499-500. Subsequently Dobyns has written that the 1546 epidemic may have been bubonic plague. Dobyns, Their Number, pp. 264—5.

Conquest and disease

37

Table 3 . 1 . Epidemics in the north-central highlands of Ecuador, 1524—91 Year

Disease

Mortality

1524-8

Smallpox

"More than 200,000 persons died"; one-third to onehalf died

1531-3

Measles

25%-3O% died

1544-8

"Carache" (possibly plague)

Kills two-thirds of llamoid population

1546

Pneumonic plague or typhus

"Innumerable people died"; possibly 20% perished

1558-9

Smallpox, measles, and influenza

15%-20% died

1585-91

Smallpox, measles, typhus, and influenza

Approximately half the native population perished

Sources Cieza, Obras, 1:219 Dobyns, "Andean Epidemic History," pp. 494-7 Cook, Demographic Collapse, p. 70 Dobyns, "Andean Epidemic History," pp. 497-9 Cook, Demographic Collapse, p. 70 Garcilaso, Royal Commen-

taries, 1:513-4 Cieza, Incas, p. 68 Dobyns, "Andean Epidemic History," p. 499 Cieza, Obras, 1:36 Dobyns, "Andean Epidemic History," p. 499-500 Cook, Demographic Collapse, p. 70 Newson, "Old World Epidemics," p. 10-12 Macleod, Spanish Central America, p. 119. Relaciones geograficas, 2:205

Dobyns, "Andean Epidemic History," p. 500 Cook, Demographic Collapse, p. 70 See Chapter 3, "Epidemics during the sixteenth century" Lilly Library manuscript Gobernantes del Peru,

11:207, 221, 284-5 Dobyns, "Andean Epidemic History," p. 501-8 Cook, Demographic Collapse, p. 70 See Chapter 3, "Demographic Trends"

appears on the fifth or sixth day; and in this instance, many victims did not survive that long. But if typhus had been endemic in the Andes before the sixteenth century, mortality rates would not have been so high as Cieza's description indicates.

38

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

There are, however, additional reasons for suspecting that a disease other than typhus was responsible: High fever, headache, and sudden death are all characteristic of pneumonic plague, which, if untreated, even today claims close to 100 percent of those infected. Transmission of the plague bacillus is through airborne droplets inhaled into the lungs; thus the disease is spread directly and requires no rodent reservoir, unlike bubonic plague. A simultaneous epizootic among Peru's sheep and llama populations lends further credence to the diagnosis of plague because these animals are also susceptible to the plague bacillus. 16 One year later, Cieza interviewed survivors of the epidemic who told him this apocalyptic tale. Shortly before the epidemic broke out, a large group of Indian women were engaged in salt production at a local spring; a tall man appeared to them, his entrails hanging from his torn abdomen and two children in his arms. He told the women, "I promise you that I am going to kill all the [Indian] women of the Christians and the rest of you as well." 17 Residents of a neighboring village reported seeing the same man on a horse "riding through the mountains like the wind." A few days later, the epidemic began, claiming "the greater part of the people of the province." Because so many women died, Spaniards were left without their concubines and servants and they were shocked and frightened by the experience. Many natives reported seeing the ghosts of those who had died. 18 Cook calculated that if the disease responsible for the 1546 epidemic had been typhus, mortality would have totaled around 20 percent. 19 But the description from Qtiimbaya suggests that more than half perished; such an elevated rate supports the diagnosis of pneumonic plague. This story is significant for more than just its descriptions of demographic decline; it also reveals how the indigenous population explained the disaster. The eviscerated stranger stated that the immoral behavior of Indian women was responsible for the impending epidemic. Less than twenty years after the conquest, distrust and hostility characterized relations between Andean males and females, and native society had placed 16

17 18

19

Newson and MacLeod both believe that the 1545-46 epidemics in New Spain and Peru were attributable to pneumonic plague. Newson, "Old World Epidemics in Early Colonial Ecuador," in The Secret Judgments of God, Cook and Lovell, eds. MacLeod, Spanish Central America, p. 119. Cook cites plague as well as typhus. Demographic Collapse, pp. 68, 71. "Yo os prometo que tengo de matar a todas las mujeres de los cristianos y a todas las mas de vosotros" (Cieza, Obras, 1:36). "Donde a pocos dias la pestilencia y mal de oido dio de tal manera, que la mayor parte de la gente de la provincia falto, y los espanoles se les murieron sus indias de servicio, que pocas o ningunas quedaron; sin lo cual, andaba un espanto, que los mismos espanoles parecian estar asombrados y temerosos" (ibid.). C o o k , Demographic Collapse, p . 7 1 .

Conquest and disease

39

the blame for one of its most serious problems on women. 20 This passage is significant because it may be one of the earliest to reflect native assimilation of the European belief that "women were the vehicle through which the devil operated on earth." As time passed, this notion would become increasingly prevalent and Indians and Spaniards alike would hold women responsible for many conflicts and crises. 21 Twelve years later, in 1558, "a general epidemic of smallpox killed many Indians" in the Quito area. 22 In Peru, witnesses attributed the outbreak to smallpox and measles. Dobyns has suggested that hemorrhagic smallpox may, in fact, have been responsible for this episode. 23 His diagnosis seems unlikely, however, because the hemorrhagic form of the disease is rapidly fatal, and the rash and pustules that led colonial observers to identify the illness as smallpox would not have appeared before death occurred. This epidemic was made worse by the simultaneous appearance of a "severe cough," probably influenza, which claimed the lives of both Spaniards and Indians. In Quito, the coughing illness was "similar to that which often appeared during the summer months," when lack of rainfall facilitated mobility and increased the incidence of contaminated water supplies, thus encouraging the spread of infection. 24 Respiratory ailments, including some cases of influenza, occurred annually during the dry season, but this particular outbreak was probably an extension of the influenza pandemic which began in Europe in 1556. The virus reached Madrid in 1557; from there it could easily have been transported to the New World, where it raged in many regions, including Florida, Mexico, and Guatemala. 25 Recent studies of influenza epidemics indicate that children, the elderly, pregnant women, and individuals suffering from other infections such as smallpox are especially likely to develop severe cases of the disease, which may eventually lead to viral pneumonia and death. 26 In January 1559, less than six months after the outbreak of smallpox 20 21 22

23 24 25 26

For a discussion of Inca gender relations before the Spanish conquest, see Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches, pp. 3-39. Ibid., p. 161. "El ano de 58, hubo general mortandad de viruelas entre los naturales." This description of the 1558 epidemic was written by the anonymous author of "La ciudad de San Francisco de Quito 1573," in Relaciones geogrdfkas, 3:205. Dobyns, "Andean Epidemic History," p. 500. "Y otras veces mueren algunos espanoles e indios de cadarros fuertes que por la mayor parte dan a las entradas y salidas de los veranos" ("La ciudad de Quito, 1573," 3:205). Dobyns, Their Number, pp. 269—70. Kilbourne, Influenza, pp. 157-228. For a discussion of the complexity of disease patterns during epidemics, see Carmichael, "Infection, Hidden Hunger, and History," pp. 249-64.

40

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

and influenza, two Spanish inspectors conducted a census of the Indian population of Urinchillo, some twenty kilometers south of the city of Quito. Although the officials did not specifically mention the epidemic of the previous year, they noted the presence of a number of enfermos (sick people). Some of these may have been persons still suffering from one or both illnesses. The epidemic may also account for the small population of children between the ages of one and three, many of whom would have succumbed. Disease may also account for the relatively large number of orphans, widows, and widowers. 27 It is estimated that between 15 and 20 percent of the native population died during this combined outbreak of smallpox and influenza. 28 For almost thirty years, residents of the Quito area enjoyed a respite from major epidemics. Even though numerous illnesses remained endemic, the number of cases never warranted mention in either municipal or audiencia records. 29 A generation of natives grew up without exposure to many virulent strains of disease, and it was this generation that was most severely affected by the next wave of infection. In April 1585, an epidemic of "measles and smallpox" began in Cuzco, spreading rapidly west to Huamanga and north to Lima. Indians proved especially susceptible to these two diseases, but a respiratory infection ("catarrh and cough," probably influenza) followed in its wake, killing blacks and whites as well as natives. Approximately one-fifth of Lima's population perished during this initial wave of illness. 30 Just when the epidemic arrived in Quito is not clear, but by February 1587 so many had succumbed that the Indian cofradia (religious brotherhood) of the Holy Cross petitioned the audiencia for funds to be used for the care and burial of sick and dying natives. 31 Several months later, in July, another epidemic, moving in the opposite direction, struck the city. Mortality rates remained persistently high for at least nine months, and, according to one source, 4,000 people, including many children, died during a three-month period. 32 The second epidemic first appeared in 27 A copy of this visita is included among the documents constituting the residencia of Oidorjuan de Salazar Villasante conducted in 1564—65 by Audiencia President Fernando de Santillan. AGI, Justicia 682, Residencia tomada al licenciado Juan de Salazar de Villasante, 1565. 28 Cook, Demographic Collapse, p. 70. 29 According to Hernando Pablos, smallpox and measles were common in Cuenca in 1582. "Relacion que enbio a mandar su magestad se hiziese desta ciudad de Cuenca y toda su provincia," Relaciones geogrdficas 3:266. 30 Dobyns, "Andean Epidemic History," p. 501. 31 This is the first reference that the author has found to an Indian cofradia in the Quito area. It is significant because it reveals that, at least among urban Indians, some Christian practices had been adopted. AGI, Quito 23, Carta de la cofradia de la vera cruz a la audiencia, February 20, 1587. 32 "Este temblor fue pronostico de la peste general que hubo en estas provincias de tabardillos, viruelas y sarampion. . . . Murio innumerable gente, criollos, hombres y mujeres, ninos e

Conquest and disease

41

Cartagena and probably arrived with the expedition of Sir Francis Drake, which captured and occupied the city from January through February of 1586. 33 Drake's forces reportedly carried with them an infection contracted during a stopover at the Cape Verde Islands in November 1585. The disease, which appeared after they had been at sea for seven or eight days, produced a rash and fever, and during the next three months claimed one-quarter of the ships' crews. 34 Because these two epidemics overlapped in many areas, including Quito, some have assumed that the second was a continuation of the smallpox and measles episode. 35 But Dobyns has argued that typhus appears more likely, given the prolonged period of mortality, suggestive of an insect vector. Also, epidemic louse-borne typhus has an incubation period of one to two weeks. Drake's expedition spent ten days on the Cape Verde island of Santiago, and the disease broke out after the men had been at sea for seven or eight days. Thus, the timing of the epidemic is consistent with the diagnosis of typhus. Little information remains concerning the incidence of disease during 1588, and although mortality rates probably remained higher than during nonepidemic periods, the number of deaths may have been declining. But the situation took a turn for the worse during the spring of 1589, when smallpox and measles appeared with renewed virulence. Writing to the king of Spain in April, Viceroy Fernando de Torres y Portugal, Conde del Villar, described an epidemic of "smallpox and measles" that began in Quito and was spreading south into Peru. Once again, the initial wave of infection was followed by "a pestilential typhus," and the viceroy was urging Spanish officials to use community funds to purchase food and medicine for the Indians. In that letter he also reported that "at the same time in the provinces of Upper Peru another illness of coughing with fever has struck and even though on some days in Potosi more than 10,000 Indians and some Spaniards are sick, until now no notable damage has resulted there or in Cuzco or Huancavelica." 36

33 34 35 36

indios" (Diego Rodriguez Docampo, "Description y relation del estado eclesiastico del obispado de San Francisco de Quito," in Relaciones geogrdficas 3:70; and Madero Moreira, Historia, p. 66). It is also possible that the disease was introduced by slaves coming from the Cape Verde Islands. Dobyns, "Andean Epidemic History," pp. 5 0 3 - 4 . Ibid., p. 504. Ibid., pp. 5 0 3 - 5 "Escrito tengo a Vuestra Magestad la enfermedad que comenco a tocar en la provincia de quito viruelas y sarampion de que comencava a morir alguna gente y particularmente yba haciendo dano en los naturales . . . y a buelta de ella un tabardete pestilencial . . . en las provincias de arriva cassi en un mismo tiempo a tocado otra enfermedad de tose y rromadico con calentura de la cual aunque ubo dfas en potosi enfermaron de ella mas de diez mil indios y algunos espanoles no a hecho hasta aora dano notable ni en el cuzco y guancavelica." "Carta de Virrey Conde del Villar a S.M. con relation de una gran epidemia de viruelas y sarampion que se habia desarrollado en la

42

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

One month later, both epidemics converged on Lima and, although almost everyone became ill, few died. 37 That Creoles and peninsular Spaniards were also affected suggests that the disease that originated in Upper Peru was influenza. During June 1589, mortality rates rose again and the viceroy expressed alarm that in addition to natives and blacks, mulattoes, Creoles, and Europeans of all ages were also dying. 38 The epidemic was especially severe north of Lima in the Trujillo Valley, and it seems likely that this outbreak of influenza continued its northern trajectory into the Quito area during the summer months. 39 In the highlands of the audiencia of Quito this disease lingered, and in 1590 officials still reported many cases. 40 When the epidemics finally subsided the following year they left behind a trail of death and destruction unsurpassed by even the 1546 episode. In 1591 caciques from the eastern lowland provinces of Yaguarsongo and Jaen testified that, after the outbreak of smallpox, only 1,000 Indians remained of a population that had previously numbered 3O,ooo. 41 Although the rate of demographic decline was not so severe in the highlands, approximately 50 percent of the native population perished. 42 The epidemics of 1585—91 were only the last in a series of devastating encounters of native society with disease during the sixteenth century. Beginning with the arrival of smallpox in the 1520s, disease decimated provincia de Quito," April 19, 1589, in Gobernantes del Peru, cartas y papeles, sig/o XVI, Levillier, ed.,

37

11:207-8.

"Y de pocos dias aca a ynfestado esta ciudad aunque con menos furia que en los llanos en la enfermedad de viruelas y dado en rromadizo y dolores de costado de que pocos an escapado de enfermer y vendicto nuestro senor no an muerto muchos." "Carta a S.M. de virrey conde del Villar dando cuenta de como se habia sentido alguna mejoria, en la epidemia que asolaba las provincias de los llanos y valles de Trujillo," May 11, 1589, ibid., pp. 221—2. 38 "Han ydo en mucho crecimiento en esta ciudad donde de an muerto mucha gente de los naturales y negros y mulatos y cada dia mueren muchos y espanoles de los nacidos aca y se ha estendido ya a los de castilla y de todos enferman y mueren en mucho numero de todas edades de las dichas enfermedades y de otros que se tienen por pestilencias con que esta ciudad esta muy aflijida." "Carta del Virrey Conde del Villar a S.M. sobre haberse extendido y agravado la epidemia de viruelas sarampion y romadizo," June 13, 1589, ibid., p. 284. 39 "Por la de XI de mayo di auiso a Vuestra Magestad de la enfermedad de viruelas y sarampion que en este Reyno auia comencado a hacer dano y particular en los valles de truxillo." "Carta del Virrey conde del Villar a S.M. relativa a la epidemia de viruelas y sarampion," June 16, 1589, ibid., p. 285. 40 Paredes Borja, Historia, 1:254. 41 "El mal de las viruelas que ubo en general en aquella provincia del Peru el ano pasado de 1589 . . . no an quedado en aquella valle {de Jaen] y provincia del [Yaguarsongo} y de la conipa mil indios poco mas de todas edades aviendo mas de 30.000 segun era notorio." AGI, Quito 23, Carta de los caciques y indios de la provincia de Yaguarsongo y distrito de Jaen a la audiencia, March 10, 1591. 42 For a discussion of the demographic effect of the epidemics of 1585—91, see "Demographic trends," below.

Conquest and disease

43

Andean communities at irregular intervals from five to twenty-six years. In each case, however, sufficient time elapsed after each episode to allow partial recovery of native communities; when the next wave of disease struck, individuals born since the last epidemic proved especially susceptible. The devastatingly high levels of mortality experienced by Indian communities were not due only to the infections introduced by Europeans. Malnutrition, mistreatment, and endemic diseases, such as amebic dysentery, were widespread and, in conjunction with epidemics of smallpox, measles, and influenza, pushed soaring death tolls even higher. Even more important was the breakdown of communal systems providing basic social services: Frequently entire populations were stricken by disease, leaving no one to tend crops or deliver food and water to the homes of the sick. Healthy individuals often fled in fear, leaving the sick behind to fend for themselves. As a result, many who might otherwise have survived perished from neglect. Hospitals and public health In order to deal with the health-related problems of both natives and Europeans, Spaniards turned to the system of health care with which they were most familiar, establishing laws and institutions modeled on those of sixteenth-century Spain. Responsibility for matters affecting public health rested with the cabildo, and, in Quito, this institution wrote and enforced legislation dealing with disease and sanitation throughout the colonial period. In June 1538, the town council passed an ordinance requiring all residents to collect and dispose of their garbage and to clean the streets in front of their properties. 43 They also banned the raising of pigs within city limits. 44 In February 1540, they prohibited the construction of Indian houses near the ditches that carried water into the city. 45 These measures reflect the European belief that disease originated in poisonous miasmas emanating from bodies of contaminated water or piles of rotting waste: hence the emphasis on protecting the city's water supply and preventing the accumulation of garbage. Compliance was another matter, however, and council members attempted to enforce sanitary legislation only when a public health emergency confronted them. The epidemic of 1546 provided such an opportunity, and, in response to the crisis, local officials established the Hospital of Nuestra Senora de la Antigua. Funding for the first hospital in the northern Andes came from 43 44 45

AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. i, f. 428, June 28, 1538. Ibid., vol. 1, f. 430, July 5, 1538. Ibid., vol. 2, f. 97, February 20, 1540.

44

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

the sale of livestock, and a prominent cabildo member, Pedro de Valverde, served as director. How long the hospital continued to function after 1548 is not clear; but, by 1565, it had ceased to exist, probably because of insolvency.46 One of the first acts of audiencia president Hernando de Santillan was to initiate construction of a new hospital in March 1565. At the same time, Santillan created the Cofradia y Hermandad de la Caridad y Misercordia (Fraternity and Brotherhood of Charity and Mercy), whose members were responsible for raising money and administering the new infirmary. The hospital was intended to serve both men and women, Spaniards and Indians; but within a few years, it too was abandoned because of lack of support. During his tenure as audiencia president, Santillan also initiated the construction of a hospital at the port of Guayaquil. 47 The cabildo tried once again, in 1576, to found an hermandad and hospital for the poor; 48 a description of the city written one year later referred to a hospital de la caridad (charity hospital) that treated both Indians and Spaniards. 49 In this instance, council members anticipated financial troubles and requested a share of the bishopric's tithe to be used for hospital expenses, but church officials refused to surrender any portion of their budget. During the 1580s, Spanish officials established hospitals in Riobamba (1581), Otavalo (1583), Loja (1583), and Ibarra (1612). 50 Even when funds were available, however, administrative corruption often diverted significant amounts of money from hospital budgets. Such a case was revealed in 1585, when the director of Quito's hospital, Francisco de Paredes, refused to leave office at the end of his three-year term. Charges were filed against him by the audiencia, and the Council of the Indies ruled that Paredes was guilty of stealing money from the hospital resulting in "very bad service and little care for the poor." The ruling also noted that similar problems existed in other hospitals throughout the bishopric. 51 The fiscal crisis continued until 1595, when the crown designated a portion of its income from the tithe, the novenoy medio (roughly equivalent to one-ninth), for the hospital in Quito, and during the next five years the institution received 660 pesos toward expenses. 52 But this sum proved inadequate to cover the costs of food, medicine, bedding, and attendants' 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

Estrada Ycaza, El hospital, p. 6. Ibid., pp. 3 - 6 . AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 8, f. 193, January 23, 1576. Anonimo, "Descripcion de Quito en 1577," in Museo Historico 56 (May 1978): 56. Estrada, El hospital, p. 10. Astudillo Espinosa, Paginas historicas, p. 57. Estrada, El hospital, pp. 6 - 7 .

Conquest and disease

45

salaries, and although the hospital remained open, the city was unable to afford the permanent services of a licensed doctor. Because conditions were so poor and mortality rates so high, the hospital was feared and avoided, when possible, by Europeans and natives alike. Instead, most Spaniards sought out the services of unlicensed medical practitioners, apothecaries, and barber-surgeons, whereas most Indians, who had little or no contact with European medical practices, continued to rely on their own system of healing. Viceregal administrators were also concerned with matters affecting public health, but only rarely did they interfere with the policies and procedures of local governments. The crisis posed by the epidemics of the late 1580s was so serious, however, that in March 1589 Viceroy Conde del Villar issued a set of specific medical instructions intended to help regional governments mitigate the effects of the disaster.53 On the advice of three Lima physicians, the viceroy ordered local officials throughout the Andes to quarantine all native communities in hopes of preventing the spread of disease. This measure was also intended to prevent a total breakdown of social services by forcing the healthy to remain in their homes and care for the sick. 54 He recommended bleeding and a diet of meat as preventive measures and urged families to limit contact in order to avoid spreading infection among themselves. Those who had no one to care for them were to be brought to hospitals, public houses, and churches where priests, encomenderos, and local officials would provide food and medicine. The instructions also included specific dietary recommendations: The sick should be given no meat of any kind; rather they should be fed a mixture of barley, conserves, raisins, lettuce, squash, and quinoa cooked with oil, vinegar, and sugar. They should also be provided with bread and water mixed with barley and raisins. If the patient recovered, he or she could then eat meat and drink wine and chicha. Physicians also urged patients to stay warm, to avoid sleeping on the ground, and not to drink cold water. The appearance of llagas (sores) in the throat and around the eyes was regarded as a most dangerous development, and the viceroy's advisers recommended a solution of alum or copper sulfate for the throat and a bath of sugar and saffron dissolved in rose or fennel water for the eyes. Finally, the clothing of the dead was to be burned or washed many times in hot water. To what extent local officials and encomenderos complied with these 53

"Virrey Conde del Villar a los medicos y oficiales del Virreinato del Peru," Lima, March 21, 1589. A copy of these instructions can be found in the Latin American Manuscripts Collection, Peru Manuscripts Department, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington. 54 The viceroy's advisers were Doctor Francisco Franco Mendoza, Licenciado Ximenez, and Doctor Enriquez.

46

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

instructions is impossible to say. Because of the considerable expense, it seems unlikely that many of these recommendations were followed. Nevertheless, the urgency and scope of these instructions suggest that the viceregal government regarded the severity of the crisis as unprecedented and reveal the underlying fear that the epidemics posed a long-term threat to Spanish interests throughout the viceroyalty, as indeed they did. Demographic trends The decline of highland Ecuador's native population had begun long before the Spanish arrived in 1534. Opposition to Inca invasion and the subsequent relocation of entire communities reduced the number of inhabitants to approximately 1 million in 1520; and the introduction of smallpox and measles between 1524 and 1533 claimed one-half to twothirds of those. Then, between 1534 and 1559, the Spanish conquest and at least two more major epidemics further reduced the number of survivors to 270,000 (see Table 3.2X55 Beginning in the 1560s, however, in areas such as Otavalo, Quito, and Cuenca, some observed that the number of Indians began to increase. According to Archdeacon Rodriguez de Aguayo, "In the province of Quito, the number of Indians has grown since the conquest, more than in any other area of Peru." 56 But this opinion was not unanimous: A statement by Juan Lopez de Velasco indicated disagreement even among Indians. "The Indians of this region say that some are increasing because of the good treatment they receive; others are doubtful, because of the work in the mines." 57 If, in fact, the number of natives increased between 1560 and 1584, a period with no major epidemics, it did so only in specific highland areas such as Otavalo, Quito, and Cuenca, where the loss of population before the Spanish conquest had been most severe. In the lowlands, and in the southern highlands around Zaruma decline continued during the remainder of the century. Among those most concerned with Ecuador's long-term demographic patterns was Juan Vasquez de Acuna, corregidor (chief magistrate) of Quito. 55 56

57

See Chapter i, "The Native Population before 1534." "En la dicha provincia de Quito han crecido los naturales despues de la conquista en gran numero mas que en otra parte ninguna del Piru" (Rodriguez de Aguayo, "Relacion de la provincia de Quito y distrito de su audiencia por los oficiales de la real hacienda - 1576," Relaciones geogrdficas 3:202). "Los indios de esta comarca dicen unos que van en crecimento por los buenos tratamientos que se les hace; otros lo ponen en duda por el trabajo de las minas" (Juan Lopez de Velasco, Geografia, p. 218).

Conquest and disease

47

Table 3.2. The native population of Ecuador in the sixteenth century Date

Total population/tributaries

Comments/sources

1520

1,080,000/216,000 (5:1)

Based on Matienzo's estimate of 270,000/54,000 in 1559/adjusted according to Santillan's depopulation rate of 4 : 1 AGI, Lima 120, 1561, and Santillan, Relation del origen,

1534

375,000-570,000/75,000-114,000 (5:1)

1559 1572

270,000/54,000 (5 : 1) A) 200,000/50,000 (4 : 1); B) but 42,000-43,000 is more likely (4.7: 1) 112,500/30,000 (3.75: 1)

1590

3:402-3 Based on 3 0 - 5 0 percent mortality as a result of two epidemics See Chapter 3, "Demographic Trends" AGI, Lima 120, 1561 A) AGI, Q17, 1577; B) Lopez de Velasco, Geografia, p. 218 Based on data from "Relation de Zaruma, "Relationes geogrdfkas,

1598

105,000/29,000 (3.62: 1)

3:234—7; Morales Figueroa, "Relaciones de los indios que hay," 5:58-60; and Tyrer, "Demographic and Economic History," p. 18 AGI, Q32, 1636

Writing to the crown in April 1636, Vasquez outlined the area's demographic history, including estimates for the years 1566, 1598, and 1630. 58 According to his calculations, in 1566 the total and tributary populations of the audiencia (in which he included Popayan, Pasto, Otavalo, Quito, Latacunga, Riobamba, Cuenca, Loja, Bracamoras, Guayaquil, and Macas) numbered 80,000 and 16,000, respectively. But a comparison with data based on the Toldeo visita of the 1570s indicates that Vasquez s estimate included less than half of the indigenous population. Whether he deliberately misrepresented the data is not clear; in any case, his figures must be regarded as inaccurate. The census ordered by Viceroy Francisco de Toldeo in 1570 was intended to increase royal revenues and alleviate labor shortages. A complete set of the individual repartimiento (jurisdiction) totals for the audiencia of Quito has not been discovered, but a 1577 report from the cabildo 58

AGI, Quito 32, Carta de Juan Vasquez de Acufia, corregidor de Quito, al consejo de indias, April 4, 1636.

48

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

of Quito to the Council of the Indies included a list of forty-one repartimientos and concluded: All of these repartimientos were visited by order of Don Francisco de Toledo viceroy of these kingdoms in the last general census. . . . There are in these repartimientos 50,000 Indian tributaries more or less between the ages of 18 and 50 not including the elderly, crippled, and sick who are exempt . . . 200,000 souls/men, women, and children and adults. 59

The Toledan visita conducted in 1572 covered approximately the same geographical territory as the Avedafio visita of 1559, and both included figures for tributaries and total population. A comparison of these data indicates that, during the thirteen years between 1559 and 1572, the number of tributary-aged males dropped from 54,000 to 50,000, a decline of 7 percent. The total population, however, declined by 16 percent, from 270,000 to 200,000. All of these figures are clearly approximations, but the discrepancy between the two rates of decline is significant, suggesting that in 1572 government officials may have inflated the number of tributaries in order to keep revenues high and to prevent a serious drop in the number of males eligible for mita service. The conflict is not that easily resolved, however, Another estimate of the tributary population based on the Toledo visita, but recorded several years later, described "42,000 or 43,000 Indian tributaries in forty-three repartimientos." 60 Comparing these figures to those of 1559 indicates a decline of some 1 1 12,000 adult males, or 20 to 22 percent. This coincides more closely with the decline of the general population during this period and suggests that the estimate of 42-43,000 tributaries is a more accurate reflection of the size of Quito's adult male population in the 1570s. Another audiencia-wide estimate of the Indian population was recorded in 1590 by the anonymous author of the "Relacion de Zaruma." 61 This document was a compilation of potential labor sources for the mineowners of Zaruma, and it included a total of 24,250 tributaries in twenty-seven highland encomiendas. One year later, in 1591, Luis de Morales Figueroa, secretary of the audiencia of Lima, compiled Ecuadorian census materials for Viceroy 59

60

61

"Ai en los dichos repartimientos 50,000 indios tributarios poco mas o menos de edad de 18 hasta 50 sacando los viejos, tullidos y enfermos . . . 200,000 animas/hombres y mujeres y viejos" (AGI, Quito 17, Carta del cabildo de Quito al consejo de indias, January 23, 1577). "Y en toda su jurisdiction ochenta y siete pueblos o parcialidades de indios, en que hay cuarenta y dos o cuarenta y tres mil indios tributarios repartidos en cuarenta y tres repartimientos" (Lopez de Velasco, Geografia, p. 218). "Relacion del distrito del cerro de Zaruma y distancias a la ciudad de Quito, Loja y Cuenca y indios de aquella provincia y repartimientos de ellos y otras cosas de aquella provincia" (Relaciones geogrdficas, 3:234-7).

Conquest and disease

49

Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza. Basing his calculations on the Toledo visitas of the 1570s, Morales updated these figures whenever possible and arrived at an estimate of 29,386 tributaries in the highlands of Ecuador in 1591. 6 2 But if we compare only those areas also included in the "Relacion de Zaruma," the number declines to 25,852, a total only slightly greater than that offered in the 1590 document. 63 Tyrer has suggested adjusting these figures upward by 25 percent to 30,000, in order to take into account the large number of indios vagamundos (tributaries no longer living in their native communities) who would not have been included in these censuses.64 This estimate agrees closely with the figure of 29,000 tributaries offered by Vasquez for 1598. Although the "Relacion de Zaruma" does not include an estimate of the total Indian population, both Vasquez and Morales included such figures in their reports. According to Morales, in 1591 there were 112,500 Indians of all ages in the highlands of the audiencia; Vasquez offered an estimate of 105,000. These figures agree quite closely and indicate that the ratio of tributaries to total population had declined from over 4:1 in 1572 to approximately 3.7:1 by the end of the century. Comparison of the tributary population of 1590—1 with that of 1572 reveals a precipitous drop of slightly more than 50 percent. 65 A similar comparison of the figures for total population shows a drop of approximately 45 percent. Such a dramatic loss of population can only be attributed to the epidemics that raged through the audiencia between 1585 and 1591. Further proof of that can be found in censuses of tributary populations in the corregimientos of Ibarra, Otavalo, and Chimbo conducted in 1582 (see Table 3.3X 66 Comparing these figures to those for 1590-1, we find that the number of adult males had declined by 43 percent in Ibarra, 18 percent in Otavalo, and 41 percent in Chimbo in only eight years. Al62

63

64 65

66

Luis de Morales Figueroa, "Relacion de los indios que hay al presente en estos reinos y provincias del Peru," in Torres de Mendoza, Coleccion de documentos ineditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista, y organization de las antiguas posestones espanolas de America y Oceania, 6:58-60. The total number of tributaries arrived at by Morales Figueroa (29,386) included the districts of Loja (2,849) and Zamora (685), which were not included in the "Relacion de Zaruma." Therefore, in order to make these two censuses more comparable, I subtracted these two from the total. Tyrer, "Demographic and Economic History," p. 18. Unlike the visitas of 15 59 and 1572, neither of the documents from the 1590s appears to include the number of tributaries in the lowland provinces of Yumbos, Quixos, or Macas; but the native population in these areas had declined so dramatically by the end of the century that few remained. Ponce de Leon, "Relacion de Otavalo" (Relaciones geogrdficas 3:233-40); de Cantos, "Relacion para la real audiencia de los repartimientos y numero de indios y encomenderos que hay en el corregimiento de Chimbo" (Relaciones geogrdficas 3:254-60).

5
Native

society and disease in colonial

Ecuador

Table 3.3. Tributary population, 1582-90

Ibarra Otavalo Chimbo

1582

1590

4,300 4,345 3,566

2,650 2,500 2,100

Decline (%) 38 42 41

Note: During the sixteenth century, Ibarra was part of the corregimiento of Otavalo. It became a separate jurisdiction in 1606.

though these documents deal only with tributaries, it can be assumed that other natives, especially young children, suffered even greater losses as a result of the epidemics of smallpox, measles, typhus, and influenza. It remains difficult to arrive at more than a general understanding of audiencia-wide demographic patterns during the sixteenth century, but a number of sources reveal the changes taking place in the structure and composition of specific native communities, ayllus, and families. Many of these data derive from censuses compiled for encomenderos and royal officials; but litigation over various fiscal and political issues also included details concerning demographic trends. Some of the most significant changes resulted from the Spanish policy of resettling native communities. Throughout the highlands, officials relocated entire populations, opening up the best lands for Europeans and congregating Indians close to Spanish settlements where their labor would be most easily accessible. In areas where decline had been particularly severe, officials often combined the vestiges of two or three communities into one. The relocation of two villages on the outskirts of the city of Quito in the early 1560s reveals the consequences of such large-scale resettlement policies. In 1564, the audiencia conducted the residencia (review conducted at the end of an official's term) of Licenciado Juan Salazar de Villasante, corregidor of Quito. 67 During the hearing the corregidors former aide, Carlos Salazar, testified that the cabildo of Quito, with Villasante s cooperation, expropriated Indian lands that had previously been set aside by Gil Ramirez Davalos, governor of Quito between 1556 and 1559. According to Salazar, the natives, who had already been relocated once, were forced to vacate their lands, which were then divided up and sold by the cabildo. Indian residents were resettled in two locations: one near Anaquito on a windy mountainside with no convenient source of 67

AGI, Justicia 682, Residencia tomada al Licenciado Juan Salazar de Villasante, 1565.

Conquest and disease

51

water, the other on the banks of the Machangara River. The moves took place during the cold, rainy season when many Indians were sick, possibly still suffering the lingering effects of the epidemic of 1559; as a result, many died. Faced with yet another move, others chose to flee and never return. Relocations similar to these occurred many times throughout the sierra, so that, by the beginning of the seventeenth century, scores of native settlements had been moved and often merged with others. In Cotacache, Otavalo, in 1601, natives testified that their population included ten Indians from the town of Gualcaqui, reduced and moved by visitador Don Pedro de Hinojosa around 1576. 68 Hinojosa also initiated the reduction of many communities in the province of Chimbo. 69 Spanish officials and encomenderos also removed individual Indians and families, forcing them to become personal servants. Many of these people appeared in sixteenth century records as "yanaconas de ," or servants of whoever the Spanish master might be. The label yanacona meant that they had been permanently removed from their native communities and no longer retained ayllu affiliations. As the number of displaced Indians increased, new social patterns emerged. Traditionally, individuals married within their ayllu or community. By the 1560s, however, this had begun to change. A register of Indian marriages performed in the Quito parish of El Sagrario between February and June 1566 demonstrates the effect of migration on marriage patterns. 70 In the forty-six marriages recorded, forty-four of the males were described as either yanaconas or as servants of Quito's leading citizens, indicating that these were individuals brought to Quito by their encomenderos. The Indians came from many areas throughout the viceroyalty including such distant places as Cuzco, Pasto, and Guayaquil. Sometimes men and women from the same region or town married, suggesting that both had come to the city to work in the house of a particular Spaniard. Most, however, married persons from places far distant from their own. On February 17, for example, Hernando, a native of Cuzco and a yanacona of Captain Rodrigo de Salazar, encomendero of Otavalo, married Isabel, a native of Otavalo. They probably met after they arrived in Quito to work for Salazar. Although this document is limited to only one parish in the city, it describes changes taking place in towns throughout the viceroyalty. By the middle of the sixteenth century, Spanish officials and encomen68 69 70

ANHQ, Indigenas, Caja i, Carta sobre la encomienda real de Otavalo, 1601. Cantos, "Relacion de Chimbo." "Memoria de los indios casados solo y en desde el ano de 1566 anos," resumen por Jorge Moreno Egas, Revista del Centro National de Investigacioms Genealogicas y Antropologicas 1 (March 1981): 61 —

6.

52

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

deros were increasingly preoccupied with fiscal matters, particularly the collection of tribute. In order to ascertain the amount and type of tribute that could be extracted from each community, officials organized inspections of their jurisdictions, during which they often conducted censuses. These documents, although limited in scope, provide rich demographic data on the structure of native communities and families. On January 22 and 23, 1559, each member of the community of Urinchillo appeared before two Spanish inspectors, an Indian translator, and a scribe. 71 The majority of entries seem to represent households, although, for example, the census takers occasionally listed orphans and young single females separately even when they probably did not live alone. More often, however, they included the names of such persons within larger household units. In fact, 28 percent of all households in Urinchillo included individuals in addition to the nuclear family of husband, wife, and any children. A number of households included women described as "indias de servicio" or female servants, who may actually have been wives of male heads-of-households attempting to conceal their polygamy from royal officials. Other homes included elderly mothers but no elderly fathers, unmarried brothers, orphans, and widowed and unmarried sisters and their offspring. The number of children per couple varied greatly, but almost one-quarter reported no living children, and 57 percent had three or fewer. The average for all couples claiming children was 2.-J.72 In spite of the relatively small size of Indian families, 43 percent of the population was under fifteen years old. Three years later, in November 1562, caciques from the repartimiento of Guayllabamba submitted a report organized by sex and general age groups, of the number of their subjects (see Table 3.4X 73 According to their compilations, 45 percent were under fifteen years of age, and male children outnumbered female children (1.16:1). Tributary-aged males constituted approximately one-quarter of the total population of 12,669 persons; 15 percent of all males over fifteen were unmarried. Females only slightly outnumbered males (1.04:1), but single females significantly outnumbered single males (2.8:1). This may reflect the absence of many young men serving their turn in the labor repartimiento; still others may have left in order to avoid tribute payments. Although census takers omitted the number of families with children, the average for all couples was 2.25. But many couples probably remained childless, thus pushing family size slightly higher. 71

Today Urinchillo, located approximately 20 kilometers south of the city of Quito, is known as Sangolqui. AGI, Justicia 682. Also see Salomon, "Seis comunidades," pp. 139—90. 72 To arrive at the average number of children per couple in Urinchillo, I divided the total number of couples claiming to have children into the total number of children of both sexes. 73 AGI, Escribania 922A, Visita del repartimiento de Guayllabamba, November 11, 1562.

Conquest and disease

53

Table 3.4. Population of the repartimiento of Guayllabamba, 1362 2,543 446 2,989 (2,543) 1,247 3,081 2,659 150

12,669

Married men Single males over 15 Total number of tributaries Married women'* Single females Male children Female children Elderly males no longer paying tribute Total persons

a

Because no number is given, I have assumed the same number of married women as married men.

In response to an order from the audiencia, Spanish officials and priests in the corregimientos of Otavalo, Riobamba, and Chimbo undertook censuses of their native subjects during 1581—82 (see Tables 3.5 and 3.6). 74 These documents contain considerably less detail than that of Urinchillo and, like the census for Guayllabamba, simply reported the total number of tributaries, elderly and infirm, women, and children. Nevertheless, these figures can be used to identify three demographic characteristics. In the four towns of Otavalo for which sufficient data exist the average number of children per couple was 2.3, less than the average of 2.7 in Urinchillo and slightly more than that of Guayllabamba. Individuals fifteen and under constituted 44 percent of the total population. Unfortunately, the numbers do not reveal anything about household structure or the frequency of nonnuclear families; but they do indicate that approximately 30 percent of all tributaries were unmarried. For economic reasons many Indian males married late; therefore, the majority of these single men were probably between the ages of eighteen and thirty, and most would eventually marry. Females tended to marry earlier, and most were married or had established at least a temporary relationship by the age of twenty-four. 75 In addition to the total number of taxpayers and children of both sexes, the priest reporting on the Indian population of four towns in Chimbo in 1582 included the number of married females (see Table 3.7). In Chimbo, 74

75

Ponce de Leon, "Relacion de Otavalo," Relaciones geogrdfkas, 3:233-40. Fray Geronimo de Aguilar, "Relacion de la doctrina y pueblo de Caguasqui y Quilca," Relaciones geogrdfkas, 3 : 2 4 5 7; P. Antonio Borja, "Relacion en suma de la doctrina e beneficio de Pimanpiro," Relaciones geogrdfkas, 3:248-53; and Cantos, "Relacion de Chimbo," Relaciones geogrdfkas, 3:254-60. Judging from the ages of mothers and their oldest surviving child, it appears that most Indian females married between the ages of 18 and 24.

Table 3.5. The Indian population of Otavalo, 1582

Otavalo (Sarance) Carangue, S. Antonio, Chapi? Pimanpiro Mira Lita, Quilca, Caguascjui Cay am be, Tabacundo Guayllab. El Guanca Perucho, Malchingui Total % of total

Males

Tributaries

Females

Children

2,796

2,360

2,969

5,487

11,252

1,291 500

1,118 400

1,385 549

2,563 912

5,239 1,961

880

700

873

1,184

2,937

500

400

527

1,081

2,108

497

436

616

780

1,893

208

176 5,590 21

199 7,118 27

417 12,424 47

824 26,214

6,672 25

Table 3. 6. Population of Caguasqui, Quilca, Pimanpiro, and Otavalo, 1382 657 279 936 42 105 77 820

1,543 3,523

Married men Single males Tributaries Widows Elderly and infirm males Women over 50 Adult women Children under 15 Total

Table 3.7. Population of San Miguel, San Rafael, Pallatanga, and Tomabela, Chimbo, 1382 2,360 521 2,556 2,383 1,111 2,209 11,410

Tributaries Elderly and infirm males Boys under 17 Married women Widows ancI single women over 15 Girls under 15 Total

Total

Conquest and disease

55

42 percent of the population was under seventeen years of age. The average of two children per couple was considerably lower than that for Urinchillo and slightly lower than those of Guayllabamba and Otavalo. Between November 1581 and January 1582, Pedro de Leon, corregidor of Riobamba, conducted a census of the encomiendas within his jurisdiction (see Table 3.8X 76 His figures reveal that 34 percent of a total population of 24,399 were under fifteen years old. The average number of children per couple, 1.4, was even lower than that of Chimbo; but again, census takers may have failed to represent accurately their number. If this is in fact a reliable estimate, some other explanation must be sought for low fertility and/or high infant mortality rates. The data also indicate that 26 percent of all adult males were either single or widowed. On the basis of the demographic data contained in these documents, what can we conclude happened to native towns, ayllus, and families after 1534? Even before Europeans arrived, the number of indigenous inhabitants had begun to decline as a result of the Inca civil wars and the first epidemic of smallpox. Once the Spanish conquest was under way, the decline of the native population accelerated because of continued warfare and epidemics. By the 1560s at least two-thirds of the Indian population had perished. Disease did not strike randomly, however, and certain age-groups proved particularly susceptible. In Urinchillo in 1559, the census shows that mortality rates of the very young and very old rose substantially higher than those of other age-groups during epidemics. Increased mortality among the elderly had little effect on these communities except for reducing the total number of inhabitants; but increased mortality among young people had both immediate and long-term consequences because lowered reproduction would hamper recovery for at least a generation. In addition to raising mortality rates, disease also affected fertility, at least temporarily. When people were sick, they were less likely to engage in sexual intercourse, ultimately lowering the birthrate. Women who became ill during pregnancy ran a greater risk of miscarriage. But high infant mortality encouraged couples to continue producing more children to replace those who died; approximately one year after an epidemic, birthrates could be expected to increase. Even during epidemic-free periods, however, infant mortality rates were probably around 50 percent. 77 In three of the five areas analyzed, the average number of children per couple was approximately 2.5; and in Urinchillo in 1559, close to 25 percent of all couples reported only one child. Even more significantly, almost one-quarter of all couples claimed they had no living children. 76

77

AGI, Quito 8, Visita y numeration de Riobamba, 1582; and Javier Ortiz de la Table Ducasse, "La poblacion indigena del corregimiento de Riobamba (Ecuador), 1581 —1605. La visita y numeration de Pedro de Leon," Historiografia y Bibliografia Amerkanistas 25 (1981): 19—87. Allison, "Paleopathology," pp. 74-82.

56

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

Table 3.8. Population of Riobamba, 1381-82 5,863 5,863 2,052 2,252 8,294 75

24,399

Married men Married women Single and widowed males Single females and widows Children Elderly males Total

Cook has noted a similar trend in many areas of Peru at the end of the sixteenth century. 78 The frequency of childless couples and families with only one child suggests that, although fertility levels remained high in postconquest Indian societies, disease and high infant mortality rates resulted in small families. Migration also contributed to lowering the birthrate. During the sixteenth century, thousands of Indians left their native communities in response to Spanish demands for tribute and labor. The mining mita forced many to travel long distances, and even local mitas frequently required tributaries to leave their homes. Others left to work as personal servants of the Spanish or to move to distant communities, hoping in that way to avoid tribute and mita obligations. As a result, many Indian families separated. Often, too, young men remained single because they could not afford to marry and support a family. Over time, migration and demographic decline led to the disappearance of entire towns and ayllus and to the diminution of Indian families. The arrival of Europeans and their diseases in Ecuador signaled the beginning of a process of intense biological and cultural change. The consequences of contact and colonization continued to manifest themselves throughout the colonial era and beyond; but the most difficult and challenging period occurred during the sixteenth century, when violent exploitation and lethal epidemics combined to reduce the indigenous population to a fraction of its former size. However, native society survived the challenges posed by Spanish colonialism and by depopulation, so that, during the following century, Indian communities throughout the northern Andes entered a period of demographic and cultural resurgence. 78

Cook, Demographic Collapse, p. 197.

Changing patterns of disease and demography in the seventeenth century

Although Indian populations in other areas of the viceroyalty of Peru continued to decline, demographic recovery was under way in the highlands of Ecuador by the beginning of the seventeenth century. This was made possible by a number of factors, including natural increase, immigration, and a decline in the number and severity of epidemics. Whereas the sixteenth century witnessed a series of violent confrontations between Europeans and the indigenous peoples of the Andes, the following years were characterized by biological and social stabilization. On the foundation of an expanding native labor force, Quito became the center of a thriving agricultural and textile-producing economy that continued to prosper until the 1690s. The resilience of native society was evident in its demographic recovery and also in its ability to respond to new social and economic circumstances created by Spanish imperialism. Disease and natural disasters The pandemics that swept through Ecuador between 1585 and 1591 were the last viceroyalty-wide outbreaks of such magnitude; although epidemics continued to attack native communities throughout the seventeenth century, never again did they occur with such ferocity. The changes that took place in disease patterns were influenced by both demographic and immunological factors. The loss of more than half of the native population during the sixteenth century meant fewer human hosts for disease organisms, leading to a significant reduction in the number and scale of subsequent outbreaks. Five pandemics struck the Quito area between 1524 and 1591, but available documentation suggests that only three major epidemics occurred between 1600 and 1690. Equally important, repeated exposure to smallpox and measles led to the gradual buildup of immunities among Amerindian populations. Decline in the number and severity of epidemics was only one of the changes manifested in disease patterns. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, outbreaks occurred more frequently on a regional basis, 57

58

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

influenced by local conditions such as population densities, natural disasters, and food shortages. The records of the audiencia and especially those of the cabildo of Quito contain numerous references to localized outbreaks of disease but not to pandemics. Although the increased incidence of regional outbreaks may simply reflect more conscientious reporting by Spanish officials, it appears unlikely that these individuals would have failed to record more significant episodes. Change did not occur uniformly throughout the audiencia, however. In densely populated urban centers, smallpox, measles, and typhus gradually became endemic. These and other diseases continued to claim significant numbers of adults annually, but mortality among children and infants remained especially high. Smallpox and measles had become childhood infections in Europe, and they gradually became so in the cities of the Americas. In the countryside, however, dispersed settlement patterns and low population densities prevented many contagious illnesses from establishing themselves permanently; when epidemics did occur, rural morality rates could exceed those of urban areas. Clearly, contemporary witnesses recognized changes in the disease environment, commenting on both the endemism and periodicity of infections (see Table 4.1). In July 1614, Corregidor General Francisco de Maldonado told cabildo members that tabardete (typhus) had been present in the area for twenty-four years and that the number of cases increased annually. According to Maldonado, the disease had recently raged at nearepidemic levels. l His description indicates that local officials recognized the endemic nature of the disease and also distinguished between epidemic and "nearly epidemic" outbreaks. Although these documents do not explain what constituted an epidemic in official eyes, their descriptions suggest that disease rarely reached what they considered to be epidemic proportions during the seventeenth century. Even on occasions when disease affected "the majority of households" in Quito, officials did not automatically label such outbreaks as epidemics. To contemporary witnesses, an epidemic was what had happened during the sixteenth century, nothing less. Thus, the past determined present concepts of disease. Maldonado also traced the endemism of typhus back to the pandemic of the late 1580s, adding further evidence to support the assertion that the last decade of the sixteenth century was a turning point in the history of disease in the region. Because of its prevalence, typhus may have been one of the diseases to which cabildo members referred in 1604 when they noted the large 1

"Que por cuanto la enfermedad de tabardete ha sido informado que ha mas de 24 anos questa en esta tierra, con que han adolecido y enfermado los vecinos y habitantes desta provincia y cada ano ha ido aumentandose, cuasi como peste, pues ha muerto y muere tanta gente" (AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 26, f. 394, July 28, 1614).

Table 4.1 Epidemics in the north-central highlands of Ecuador, 1600—89 Disease

Year 1604 1606 1609 1611-12 1614

Garrotillo Tabardillo, saraxnpion, and other enfermedades Tabardete

1634

Sarampion and mal del valle Tabardete

1639 1644-5 1648-9

Tabardillo Alfombrilla and garrotillo Viruelas and alfombrilla

1651 1652 1657

Paperas and cotos Algunas enfermedades Diferentes enfermedades and achaques Tabardillo and dolor de costado Viruelas and other enfermedades

1618-19

1667 1676-7 1680 1683

1685-9

Tabardillo and dolor de costado

*L C = A. M. Libros de Cabildos

Mortality/Comments

Sources

Many sick in city of Quito Many died throughout the district Many died in city of Quito "Epidemic" claimed many lives

L C,« 20:98 AGI, Q19 L C, 20:486 L C, 26:107, 137

Typhus had been present for more than 24 years Epidemic killed many, especially children Serious outbreak of typhus spread throughout the province No. cases increasing daily Many deaths "Epidemic" "More than 100,000 died throughout province" Common among population Attempts at quarantine unsuccessful Afflicted the majority of households in the city; many died Cases throughout the city

L C, 26:394

No. cases increasing

L C, 00114:8, 50-51

Peste in the city Peste in the city Both Spaniards and Indians dying

L C, 00114:165 L C, 00114:269-70 L C, 00115:57, 59, 136, 2 0 1 -

AGI, Q10 Rodriguez Docampo, "Descripcion," p. 13 L C, 30:36 Toribio, "Apuntes," p. 71-2 AJC, 00299C, and L C, Rodriguez Docampo, "Descripcion," p. 70 L C, 33:134 L C, 33:157, 165, 175 L C, 33:462, 506 L C, 00113:125

2

60

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

number of sick people in the city. 2 Again, in 1609, the council failed to attribute the deaths of many residents to a specific illness, suggesting that several infections including typhus were responsible. 3 That officials were frequently unable to diagnose the diseases responsible for localized outbreaks suggests the complexity of Quito's disease environment. Europeans readily, although not always correctly, identified cases of smallpox and measles, but the symptoms of dysentery, tuberculosis, and other endemic infections were often too nonspecific to facilitate a diagnosis; as a result, officials were often unable to label local outbreaks. Still other diseases also appeared with regularity. In 1606, garrotillo (diphtheria) claimed many lives throughout the highlands. 4 In November 1611, the first "epidemic" of the seventeenth century occurred. According to Captain Juan Sanchez de Xeres Bohorquez, tabardillo, sarampion (measles), and "other diseases" were spreading throughout the city where "many were sick and many had died." 5 Although the captain did not describe what was happening in rural areas, the council's use of "epidemic" suggests that the disease may eventually have spread outside of the city. In comparison to the vast quantities of information concerning the fiscal and political affairs of the audiencia, data dealing with disease and other health-related issues are scarce. This problem is compounded by the fact that much of the existing documentation describes conditions only in the city of Quito, making it especially difficult to establish a chronology of disease incidents in rural areas — where most of the native population lived. In some cases, the wording of a document suggests whether the outbreak was confined to a particular area or was more widespread. Just as the documents fail to define clearly the geographical scope of the problem, so too they often neglect to explain which parts of the population were most severely affected. But the omission of this information is in itself significant because it indicates that the problem was confined to the Indian community and thus, as far as Spanish administrators were concerned, did not warrant explanation in the record. When disease did strike large numbers of Europeans, local officials invariably included this information in their reports. Only rarely, however, do the sources indicate whether particular age-groups were more seriously affected. One of those rare occasions happened in April 1618, during the second "epidemic" of the seventeenth century. According to the audiencia presi2 3 4 5

Ibid., vol. 20, f. 98, January 5, 1604. Ibid., vol. 20, f. 487, July 27, 1609. AGI, Quito 19, Aguirre de Ugarte, April 24, 1607; referred to in Newson, "Old World Epidemics in Early Colonial Ecuador," in Cook and Lovell, The Secret Judgments of God. "Anda en esta ciudad, enfermedad de tabardillo y sarampion y otros, de que hay muchas personas enfermas y muchas se han muerto" (AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 26, f. 107, November 10, 1611, and f. 137, February 13, 1612).

Disease and demography

61

dent Antonio de Morga, an epidemic of sarampion and mal del valle (amebic dysentery) had killed many Indians, especially children. 6 Because the last outbreak of measles had occurred only six years earlier, infants and young children constituted a pool of individuals particularly susceptible to the virus. The presence of amebic dysentery, a frequent cause of childhood mortality, would have pushed death rates even higher. 7 Although no records specifically mention disease during the 1620s, endemic illnesses such as typhus, dysentery, and tuberculosis continued to circulate among Indian communities. That officials still considered typhus a constant threat to public health is supported by references to the prevalence of the disease in 1634 and again in 1639, when the cabildo noted that the number of cases increased daily.8 Once again in June 1644, the council was unable to diagnose the diseases responsible for an outbreak of "enfermedades contagiosas" (contagious illnesses); but it seems likely that typhus was one of those. 9 The absence of epidemics for approximately one generation (1619-45) permitted the growth of a large nonimmune population, and when epidemics finally struck, many children and young adults perished. According to Ecuadorian historian Federico Gonzalez Suarez, the number of cases of alfombrilla (measles) and garrotillo reached epidemic levels during February and March 1645. Of the ninety students enrolled in the seminary of San Luis, eighty-seven became ill, and several eventually died. Mortality among rural Indians was especially high. 1 0 Father Enrique Maria Castro claimed that in the city of Quito so many died "that cadavers filled the churches and cemetaries and nothing else could be heard except the clamor of churchbells and the shrieks of the sick." 11 6

7

8

9 10 11

"Ha sobre venido una enfermedad general de sarampion y mal de el valle de que han muerto muchos especialmente muchachos" (AGI, Quito 10, Antonio de Morga al consejo de indias, April 20, 1618). In colonial Ecuador, chronic, unsanitary conditions encouraged frequent outbreaks of diarrheal diseases just as they did in Europe. According to historian Ann Carmichael, dysentry commonly afflicted infants and young children in fifteenth-century Florence and was a frequent cause of death. Adults also suffered from this ailment, but, because they were better able to prevent severe dehydration, fewer died. Carmichael, Plague and the Poor, pp. 4 1 - 5 4 . Rodriguez Docampo, "Descripcion y relacion del estado eclesiastico del obispado de San Francisco de Quito," in Re/aciones Geogrdphkas 3:13; and AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 30, f. 36, January 25, 1639. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 30, f. 221, June 2, 1644. Gonzalez Suarez, Historia general, 4:206; cited in Toribio, "Apuntes," p. 7 1 . "Aquejaba ya a la ciudad (Quito) una pestilencia mortifera de alfombrilla y garrotillo, tan tenaz y maligna, que causaba grande mortandad, de tal manera que llegaron a poblarse sus iglesias y cementerios de cadaveres, y a no oirse en ella otra cosa que el clamoreo de las campanas y el alarido de los pobres enfermos," Enrique Maria Castro, Historia abreviada de la Beata Mariana de Jesus Paredes y Flores ([London, 1877], p. 159), as cited in Toribio, "Apuntes," p. 7 1 . Also see Arcos, La medicina, 1:335.

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During the next two years, the number of deaths declined; but in 1648, viruelas (smallpox) and alfombrilla once again reached epidemic proportions. According to one official, "more than 100,000 persons died throughout the province." 12 Mortality was especially high in the eastern lowlands, where isolated native communities had been infrequently exposed to Old World pathogens. In March 1650, Rodriguez Docampo compared the "peste" of 1648 to that of 1587-8, "a pitiful thing and never again seen in these lands nor did God permit another like it [referring to 1587—8}; although, because of our sins, another similar epidemic raged during 1648 and part of 1649, killing many people." 13 Docampo's comparison of the 1648 epidemic to the devastation of the late 1580s indicates that it was indeed severe and that mortality must have been significant in the sierra as well as in the lowlands. In November 1649, the audiencia president Martin de Arriola reported that "the province has been free [of diseases} for five months." 14 Although the epidemic had ended, still other diseases remained and in November 1651, the cabildo wrote to Doctor Francisco Diaz in Latacunga requesting that he come to Quito in order to treat the many residents afflicted with paperas and cotos (mumps and goiters). 15 Goiters, caused by insufficient amounts of dietary iodine, are endemic in certain highland areas of Ecuador, just as they are in other mountainous regions of the world, including the Alps, the Pyrenees, and The Himalaya. In the most severe cases, iodine deficiency causes cretinism, a condition characterized by deaf-mutism and mental retardation. l6 Whether Diaz responded to their request is not clear, but by February 1652, cabildo members were preoccupied with another threat to public health. Just north of Quito, in the province of Popayan, the government had quarantined several merchants and their load of Spanish textiles. The cloth originated in Cadiz and Seville, where an epidemic had recently raged. When a similar infection appeared in Panama and Cartagena following the introduction of the material, officials surmised that the cloth 12 13

14 15 16

"El ano de 48 huvo en la provincia de quito contaxio de viruelas y alfombrilla en que muriendo mas de 100,000 personas" (AJC, Cartas de cabildos de Lima, 00299c, s.f.) "Cosa lastimosa y nunca vista en estas tierras ni que Dios permita acaeza otra semejante; aunque por nuestros pecados, corrio otra peste semejante por los anos de 1648 y parte de 1649, donde murio muchisima gente" (Rodriguez Docampo, "Description," p. 70). Arriola referred to his November 1649 letter in a later communication dated 1651. AGI, Quito 209, Martin de Arriola al consejo de indias, April 2, 1651. AM, Libras de cabildos, vol. 33, f. 134, November 6, 1651. Seventeenth-century censuses of Indian communities contain frequent references to mute and retarded individuals, some of whom may have suffered from cretinism. In certain areas of northcentral Ecuador today, goiters afflict between 50 and 75 percent of the total population. North of Quito, in the towns of Tocachi and La Esperanza, 6—8 percent of the population have been diagnosed as cretins. Greene, "Nutrition and Behavior."

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was contaminated; in order to prevent further spread of the disease, they ordered the merchants and their goods quarantined; 17 Attempts to halt the disease proved unsuccessful, however; by April, "illness and contagions" broke out in Quito. 1 8 Three months later, in July, serious illness continued to threaten city residents and council members fretted that "as summer is beginning it is feared that [the situation} will get worse." 19 References to unidentified illnesses appeared in records throughout the year, but the number of cases increased dramatically in the summer. Vague descriptions often included the word fiebre (fever), suggesting that malaria or dysentery or both may have been responsible. By the mid-seventeenth century, malaria may have posed a threat to public health in the Tumbaco and Guayllabamba Valleys on the outskirts of Quito. And as temperatures rose during the summer, even the city was vulnerable to the mosquito vector. 20 It seems likely, however, that, at least in the highlands, dysentery accompanied by fever was a more common ailment than malaria. During the dry summer months, the movement of people and merchandise increased, along with the spread of disease. As water supplies dwindled, contamination further encouraged dissemination of the amoebas and bacteria that cause dysentery. 21 After the epidemic of 1648, no major outbreaks occurred until the 1690s, although disease always remained a problem. In 1657; cabildo minutes recorded the presence of diferentes enfermedades and achdques (various illnesses and ailments), including viruelas, which had infected the "majority of households throughout the city." The council expressed concern that many persons of all ages were dying. The situation was made even worse by the heavy rains that threatened to ruin the harvest, further endangering the health of "the poor and Indians." 22 Ten years later, in January 1667, tabardillo and dolores de costado (pains in the side) struck city residents. 23 In 1676-7, the council reported that 17 18 19 20

21 22

23

AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 33, f. 157, February 15, 1652. Ibid., f. 163, April 4, 1652. Ibid., f. 175, July 12, 1652. Just when malaria arrived in the New World is not clear; but by 1630, Spaniards recognized the therapeutic properties of chinchona bark, indicating that malarial fevers had already become a problem. See Bruce-Chwatt and Zulueta, Rise and Fall, p. 124; Harrison, Mosquitoes, Malaria and Man, p. 199; and Crosby, Columbian Exchange, p. 208. Carmichael noted a similar seasonal pattern for dysentery in fifteenth-century Florence. Carmichael, Plague and the Poor, pp. 41—54. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 33, f. 462, January 12, 1657, and f. 506, June 19, 1657. According to Ecuadorian historian Juan de Velasco, the first epidemic to strike Spanish missions in the Amazonian area occurred in 1660 and claimed 44,000 out of a total native population of 100,000. A second epidemic, in 1669, killed another 20,000 Indians. Velasco, Historia, 3:450. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00113, fv. 125, January 22, 1667.

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the number of cases of "viruelas y otras enfermedades" was on the rise. 24 In 1680 and 1683, officials expressed alarm at the rapid spread of an unnamed "peste" throughout the city. 25 But it was "tabardillo y dolor de costado" that continued to attack local residents throughout the remainder of the 1680s. In July and August 1685, Spaniards and Indians alike died of the disease. 26 The same situation prevailed two years later, in August 1687. 27 And in April 1689, many people, including the president of the audiencia, were bedridden with typhus. 28 Throughout the seventeenth century, typhus was one of the most common and serious threats to public health, although it was only one of many infections contributing to Quito's complex disease environment. Illness was a constant presence in native communities, where several infections often circulated simultaneously. Infectious diseases caused much suffering and premature death, but their constant presence helped to prevent the eruption of major epidemics for much of the period. Natural disasters happened often in the seventeenth century: Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, and droughts damaged villages and towns, ruined crops, and claimed many lives (see Table 4.2). But the effects of earthquakes and the eruptions of Pichincha were brief and insignificant when compared to disruptions in the agricultural cycle caused by the periodic droughts and deluges characterizing weather patterns in the highlands of the audiencia during the seventeenth century. The effects of droughts and inundations varied, depending on the time of year in which they occurred. Too much rain at the onset of the growing season drowned newly planted crops, whereas too much rain at the end of the cycle rotted grains waiting to be harvested and stored. Drought during the first half of the season killed young plants but later had less effect. Often drought and deluge occurred in the same year. For example, toward the middle of the growing season in February 1612, farmers faced droughtlike conditions; but by August, heavy rainfall threatened to rot the imminent harvest. 29 In 1614, agricultural production declined because of excessive precipitation, while drought resulted in higher food prices between 1615 and 1617. 30 The cabildo responded by distributing wheat to the city's poor. Officials rarely resorted to such charitable mea24 25

Ibid., vol. 00114, fv. 8, January 24, 1676 and fv. 50—51, May 4, 1677. Ibid., fv. 165, September 11, 1680, and f. 269-70, October 6, 1683. Velasco claimed that some 60,000 natives died during an epidemic of viruelas that swept through the eastern lowlands in 1680. I have found no mention of this incident in cabildo or audiencia documents. Velasco, Historia, 3:450—1. 26 AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00115, f. 57, July 30, 1685, and f. 59, August 21, 1685. 27 Ibid., f. 136, August 14, 1687. 28 Ibid., fv. 201-2, April 22, 1689. 29 Ibid., vol. 26, f. 137, February 13, 1612, and f. 178, August 13, 1612. 30 Ibid., f. 415, October 7, 1614, and f. 538, September 2, 1616.

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Table 4.2. Natural disasters and agricultural conditions, 1600-89 Year(s) 1601 1612 1614 1615-17 1626 1627 1628-9 1644 1645 1650-4

1657 1660-1 1662 1665-9 1676-7 1682-7

1687

d

Comments

Sources

Crop failure and famine in Quito Drought in February; heavy rains in August Heavy rain in October threatens crops Drought; emergency food distributed in Quito Drought and famine Earthquake in Quito, June 26 Drought and famine in the highlands Heavy rains threaten crops in September Strong earthquake rocks Riobamba in March Drought, flooding, and earthquakes

L C,« 16:160 L C, 26:137, 178

Heavy rain from January through June Eruptions of Pichincha severely damage Quito Earthquakes in Quito Heavy rains decrease agricultural production Heavy rains threaten agricultural production Drought alternates with heavy rain to raise food prices

Strong earthquake damages Ambato and Latacunga

L C, 26:415 L C, 26:538, AGI, Q10 AGI, Q31 AGI, Q l l AGI, Q l l L C, 30:255 L C, 30:301 L C, 33:27, 49, 119, 177, 224, 245, 260, 272, 299, 324, 365 L C, 33:506 LC, 34:129 AGI, Q210 L C, 00113:64, 144, 200, 225 L C, 00114:51 L C, 00114:249, 264-65, 00115:41, 101-3, 11617

Wolf, Cronica, pp. 26-7

L C = A.M., Libros de Cabildos

sures, however; and when they did, the amount of food distributed was always insufficient to provide for all who needed it. In general, food supplies were abundant in the highlands throughout the century, although weather-related crises occasionally disrupted production. But until the 1690s, periodic shortages never lasted more than two seasons, and although prices rose dramatically then, they returned to normal following the next harvest. Only rarely and in circumscribed areas

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

did famine develop. During these periods, the number of people taking to the road in search of food increased, facilitating the spread of disease and making the situation even worse. However, it seems likely that malnutrition was more common than starvation, even in 1615—17 and 1654, when the cabildo reported that shortages were especially severe. Between 1626 and 1629, drought again decreased harvests throughout the highlands. This time, however, food supplies were so limited that famine prevailed in the corregimientos of Latacunga, Riobamba, and Chimbo, forcing local officials to cancel tribute payments. 31 The situation must have been grave indeed; the audiencia suspended tribute collections only under most dire circumstances. Problems with weather and food supplies returned during the 1650s and 1660s. Between 1650 and 1654, highland residents endured drought, flooding, and earthquakes. By August 1654, food prices had risen significantly, and many producers and merchants raised prices even higher. Efforts by the cabildo to regulate the price of bread ultimately failed, and merchants continued to overcharge.32 But despite shortages and high prices, famine did not develop, according to the cabildo. Heavy rains triggered a decline in agricultural production between 1665 and 1669, but serious shortages never materialized. 33 The 1680s also proved difficult because drought alternated with periods of heavy rain to damage crops and raise prices. 34 But in spite of the many challenges posed by disease and natural disasters, the native population continued to increase. European medicine and public health Demographic and disease patterns changed during the seventeenth century, but Spanish concepts about health and illness remained largely the same. The revolutionary discoveries in physiology and medicine that occurred in Europe after 1600 did not penetrate the Andes until the end of the eighteenth century; thus, royal officials and medical practitioners approached public health and disease from the same perspectives they had adopted during the preceding century. According to physicians and bureaucrats, the biggest obstacle to improving the health of the native population was a lack of funds. Money 31 32

33 34

AGI, Quito 11, Antonio de Morga al consejo de indias, April 30, 1629. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 33, f. 27, 49, 119, and 134, January 31, 1650-November 6, 1651; f. 177, 224, 245, and 260, August 8, 1652-January 12, 1654; f. 272, 299, 324, and 365, March 7, 1654-June 8, 1655. Ibid., vol. 00113, f. 64, November 27, 1665; f. 144, August 20, 1667; f. 200, August 16, 1668; and f. 225, January 21, 1669. Ibid., vol. 00114, fv. 249, December 30, 1682, and f. 264-5, August 19, 16831vol. 00115, f. 41, January 2, 1685; fv. 101-3, November 15 and 20, 1686; and fv. 116-17, February 18, 1687.

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was needed to upgrade hospital services, to hire physicians, to stock pharmacies, to provide emergency relief during epidemics and natural disasters, and to educate Indians in Spanish concepts of sanitation and hygiene. In spite of their deeply held belief, year after year the government ignored these needs and concentrated instead on such matters as salaries for crown employees, the availability and price of meat, oil, wine, wheat, and other foods favored by Europeans, and expenditures for the celebration of religious holidays. Even when projects had potential benefits for all of colonial society, the cabildo and audiencia remained reluctant to appropriate the necessary resources. For example, the cabildo was responsible for the care and maintenance of the local water system. Council members recognized that, without an adequate supply of clean water and the maintenance of public fountains, the city's population would face serious health problems; on numerous occasions they expressed concern over water quality and the disrepair of water channels into the city. Nevertheless, during almost 300 years of Spanish rule, the bureaucracy failed to establish a permanent office to monitor the system and acted only in response to emergencies. 35 Cabildo members also understood that the garbage and human waste fouling local streets provided a breeding ground for disease. Nevertheless, the city never organized a systematic waste collection service; nor was it ever able to persuade (or force) citizens to accept responsibility for cleaning the streets in front of their homes and businesses. Spanish officials did, however, assume an active role in matters they believed crucial to protect the lives of local residents and that, not coincidentally, also generated income for themselves and the government. The examination of candidates and their credentials for medical, surgical, and apothecary licenses, the inspection and regulation of boticas (licensed pharmacies), and the apprehension and punishment of untrained, unlicensed practitioners were all of grave concern throughout the empire. In Spain, the protomedicato (office of the medical examiner) handled such matters, and, not long after the invasions of Mexico and Peru, the crown authorized the establishment of similar institutions in each viceroyalty. The position of protomedico did not include a salary; thus, the physician who served in this capacity made his living from fines, fees collected for examinations, and private practice. Eventually several audiencias established their own protomedicatos. However, the poverty of the audiencia prevented such a development in Quito; as a result, cabildo members with no medical training assumed responsibilities traditionally associated with that office. Because Quito did not have enough doctors, surgeons, and apothecaries 35

Ibid., vol. 00106, fv. 223-4, September 25, 1600; fv. 318-19, February 8, 1602; vol. 00112, f. 127-8, December 1, 1660; vol. 00114, f. 89-91, August 3, 1678.

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

to support a protomedicato, the population remained in desperate need of medical care. But once again, lack of financial opportunity hindered efforts to secure appropriate medical personnel. One of the matters that appeared repeatedly in city council minutes involved the search for and retention of licensed physicians. Throughout the viceroyalty of Peru, demand exceeded supply; even when such individuals settled in Quito, the attraction of more lucrative practices in other areas often lured them away. Such a situation occurred during the last decade of the sixteenth century when Doctor Juan del Castillo arrived in the city. To induce the doctor to stay, the cabildo solicited funds for his salary from fifty prominent households. 36 But Castillo's residency was brief; in August 1597, the council offered Doctor Adolfo Valdez a salary of 100 pesos for treating the poor. Cabildo members expressed particular satisfaction at the appointment of Valdez "because of the many and serious illnesses which regularly existed" in the city. In fact, they prohibited the doctor from leaving the area without permission. 37 But Valdez died not long after, and once again the cabildo complained that Quito had no physician to care for its growing population. 38 When no licensed physician was in residence, the cabildo relied on members of the clergy to care for the sick and injured, as their counterparts did in rural parishes. Physicians in colonial Latin America had two potential sources of income: The first and most remunerative was private practice. Wealthy individuals could afford to pay handsomely for medical attention; therefore, most doctors concentrated their time and efforts on paying customers. Their other source of income derived from salaries provided by local governments for the treatment of the indigent, including patients in charity hospitals. The crown expected wealthy citizens and religious orders to contribute annually toward such positions. But actually collecting these commitments and then securing a licensed doctor often proved impossible. Even the richest residents of the audiencia of Quito were poor compared to elites in areas where mining provided a continuous supply of capital. But in spite of its poverty, when a qualified physician appeared, the cabildo could usually scrape together enough money to fund a public position. In 1601, the cabildo appropriated the sum of 150 pesos, 50 pesos more than they had offered four years earlier, to retain the services of Doctor Fernando de Meneses. But, without explanation, they suspended his salary seven months later, and he left for Guayaquil. 39 After his 36 37 38 39

Astudillo Espinosa, Paginas, p. 53. Valdez presented the cabildo with his baccalaureate, licentiate, and doctoral degrees in medicine from the University of Seville. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00106, f. 14, August 12, 1597. Estrada, El hospital, p. 20. Astudillo Espinosa, Paginas, pp. 5 4 - 5 ; and Estrada, El hospital, p. 20.

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departure, the council wrote to Lima requesting a doctor because "this city has a great need for doctors who will cure its residents especially at the present time when there are so many sick people and no one to treat them." 40 In response, the protomedicato dispatched Doctor Mena de Valenzuela to serve as the official physician of Quito. He remained in that post for four years, until December 1608, when he was replaced by Doctor Jeronimo Leiton. 41 Lei ton left the city several months later, and the cabildo wrote to Guayaquil requesting the return of Meneses. Realizing that a significant inducement would be required to bring him back to Quito, the council, after much debate, offered an annual salary of 300 pesos, double the amount he had been promised in 1601. 4 2 A number of individuals and convents promised Meneses an additional 500 pesos. 43 He accepted the offer and returned to Quito; but in 1613 the cabildo again suspended his salary because "Meneses only treats those who can pay him." 44 When the doctor threatened to return to Guayaquil, however, the council capitulated and reinstated his salary. A year later, Alguacil Mayor Diego de Niebla charged Meneses with incompetence and negligence in the death of his brother-in-law, Father Francisco del Arco. Meneses s salary was subsequently reduced to 300 pesos in 1614-15 and to 200 pesos in 1616. 45 The tumultuous and often strained relationship between Meneses and the cabildo illustrates the difficulties involved in trying to secure even the most basic medical care for the poor, whether Indians, mestizos, or indigent Spaniards. The problem represented a conflict of interests. Physicians wanted to earn as much as possible, whereas the wealthy wanted to ensure adequate medical care for themselves and their families. Government officials were authorized to secure aid for the poor; but, as members of the elite, they also realized that if these demands became too onerous, the doctor might leave. Therefore, in order to retain the services of a licensed physician, the cabildo often allowed him to receive a salary when little charitable work was actually performed. However, Meneses apparently did even less than the little that was expected of him. Many licensed doctors passed through the audiencia during the seventeenth century; some stayed, many more did not. 46 But the cabildos' 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 20, f. 98, February 5, 1604. Astudillo Espinosa, Paginas, p. 55; and Estrada, El hospital, pp. 2 0 - 1 . AM, Libros de cobildos, vol. 20, f. 487, July 27, 1609. Lanning, Royal Protomedicato, p. 40. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 26, f. 288, July 12, 1613. Estrada, El hospital, p. 2 1 ; and AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 26, f. 500, October 29, 1615. When the audiencia president Pedro de Velasco arrived from Lima in 1665, he brought with him a physician, Doctor Andres Fortellis. Because he was a close associate of Velasco's, many wealthy

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

preoccupation with medical credentials had little effect on the health of the vast majority of the audiencia's population, who never saw a licensed doctor. The native population, in particular, continued to rely on traditional healers. The cabildo assumed responsibility for licensing and regulating the medical profession; hospitals fell under the jurisdiction of the audiencia. But, in fact, it was the archbishop of Quito who ultimately appointed the person to fill the potentially lucrative post of hospital administrator. 47 The prelates involvement in hospital affairs stemmed, at least in part, from the fact that a large portion of that institution's income derived from the noveno (tithe). With an individual friendly to church interests serving as budgetary administrator, the bishop could expect cooperation as well as financial favors. Such collusion eventually came to the attention of Philip III, who in 1605 issued a decree prohibiting the archbishop from annually appropriating 3 percent of the noveno "for the seminary." But after appeals were made to the viceroy and the council of the Indies, the practice was allowed to continue. 48 In addition to an infirmary, the hospital included a church and chapel, a pharmacy, two fountains, and a garden. According to a description written in 1650, under normal circumstances, the hospital treated thirty to forty patients, but that number increased during epidemics. This same document also noted that the hospital budget totaled "almost 4,000 pesos" per year. 49 Such a large sum encouraged administrative corruption, and money for operating expenses was often misused. Hospital officials also made loans available to their friends and prominent local residents, as when in 1604, hospital accounts revealed that Oidor Diego de Armenteros had borrowed 2,598 pesos. 50 To end such abuses and to better the care of patients, in 1638 the cabildo proposed that the order of San Juan de Dios be allowed to take control of the hospital. 51 This order ran hospitals throughout Spain and America, and its members were recognized as efficient and honest administrators. In Quito, however, the threat of losing access to hospital funds aroused such opposition that local officials and encomenderos were able to citizens and members of religious orders sought the advice of Fbrtellis. The Franciscans later brought suit against him, claiming that he had overcharged for his services. Astudillo Espinosa, Paginas, p. 62. Other references to physicians in Quito appear in AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00112, f. 159, March 12, 1661; f. 201-3, March 30, 1662; f. 207-8, July 4, 1662; vol. 00113, f. 127, February 4, 1667; vol. 00115, f. 98, October 23, 1686; and f. 144, October 10, 1687. 47 Rodriguez Docampo, "Descripcion," p. 58. 48 Astudillo Espinosa, Paginas, pp. 58-59. 49 Rodriguez Docampo, "Descripcion," p. 58. 50 Astudillo Espinosa, Paginas, p. 60. Armenteros served as president of the audiencia from 1608 to 1609. 51 AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 30, f. 10-12, November 5, 1638.

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block the proposal, and control remained in local hands until the eighteenth century. 52 A survey of both audiencia and cabildo records reveals that, even during epidemics, royal officials showed little concern for the sick. Only during the most serious emergencies did they attempt to respond in any way. The measles epidemic of 1618 posed such an emergency. In November of that year, Viceroy Francisco de Borja y Aragon, Principe de Esquilache, issued a set of medical instructions to be circulated throughout Peru and Ecuador. According to the viceroy, the epidemic had traveled south from Quito. He lamented the shortage of doctors "especially among Indians" and noted that, in areas where the sick had received medical attention, many had recovered. Where no such care was available, however, most died. He hoped that his detailed instructions, distributed to priests and others in positions of authority, would not only be implemented by them but taught to Indians who, in turn, could introduce them into isolated rural areas. The first section of the document described a variety of symptoms "which commonly occurred before the measles [rash] appeared on the skin." 53 They included a severe cough; headache; body aches, especially severe in the shoulders; heartburn; anxiety; bloodshot eyes; and finally, a high fever. Although the intent of these measures was similar to that of the instructions issued during the pandemic of 1589 by Viceroy Conde del Villar, they differed in some details. In 1589, the viceroy ordered a quarantine of all native communities in the hope of preventing further spread of disease. But in 1618, the Principe de Esquilache did not mandate any such action, possibly because prior experience had shown the futility of such attempts. 54 In addition, some dietary recommendations differed from those in 1589. For example, Esquilache suggested that the sick be fed poultry or mutton, while the instructions of 1589 specified that patients be fed no meat of any kind. Both agreed, however, that porridge, fruits, and vegetables would help restore the sick to health. In 1589, physicians used bleeding only as a preventive measure, whereas, in 1618, the sick were bled frequently to drain the disease from their bodies. Both stressed the importance of staying warm and not sleeping on cold, 52 53

54

Astudillo Espinosa, Paginas, p. 63. AJC, vol. 00299c, Cartas del cabildo, "Relacion que se a embiado de lima por mandado de su excelencia para como se an de curar en general los espanoles o yndios que enfermaren de este mal pestilence que corre de sarampion o alfombrilla" (November 1, 1618). This document is a copy of the original, which is in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, Cod. 1.55, f. 426. "Catarro que destila de la caveza al pecho, dolor de todo el cuerpo y caveza y mas en las espaldas, ardor vascas en el estomago y ansias en el coracon, los ojos encarnicados y luego la calentura grande." The quarantine of people and goods between Popayan and Quito in 1652 is one of only two references I have found to this practice during the seventeenth century. In this case, the record noted that the unidentified disease entered the Quito area in spite of all attempts to prevent its spread. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 33, f. 157, February 15, 1652, and f. 163, April 4, 1652.

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

damp ground. In February 1620, the king congratulated Borja on his success in cutting short the epidemic and ordered that, in future epidemics, officials should apply the same measures. 55 But no further reference to these instructions ever appears, even during the most serious outbreaks of disease. A comparison of the instructions issued during the pandemic of 1589 to those issued in 1618 reveals that several changes had taken place in Spanish medical practices. No longer did officials rely on quarantine to contain the spread of disease; during the seventeenth century, only two such orders were ever issued, and in both cases (1652 and 1693), officials were forced to admit their failure. Also, differences are evident in some of the dietary prescriptions for the sick. Perhaps the most significant and probably the most harmful of all changes was increased reliance on phlebotomy as a measure for treating those already weakened by disease. Just why phlebotomy was more commonly resorted to under these circumstances is not clear; it may reflect an increase in the number of individuals practicing this activity, both legally and illegally.56 But although these alterations reflect changes in specific practices, the underlying concepts and strategies of Spanish medicine remained the same. Changing concepts of disease in native society In many respects, native beliefs about health and disease, as well as actual medical practices, did not differ radically from those of Europeans. Both systems espoused concepts of balance and moderation as ways to maintain health, and both utilized systems of classification that were basically humoral in nature. In addition, they both relied on the services of specially trained individuals skilled in the use of medicinal plants and other healing arts. But while the most lasting effect of the discovery of the Americas on European medicine was the introduction of a host of previously unknown herbal remedies, that same event altered Amerindian concepts of disease in much more fundamental ways. By the seventeenth century, the way in which native societies understood and interpreted the etiology of illness had changed significantly, although documentary evidence suggests that healing practices changed very little. The introduction of Old World pathogens and the subsequent arrival of Christianity forced native societies to reevaluate and reinterpret their cosmological structure. Because two sets of gods had the potential to inflict disease, both had to be propitiated, and two distinct sets of rituals had to be followed. It became increasingly difficult for native commu55 56

Toribio, "Apuntes," p. 69. See the discussion of phlebotomy in Lanning, Royal Protomedicato, pp. 282—97.

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73

nities and individuals to maintain the sense of balance central to both systems. In the minds of Andean Indians, the epidemics of smallpox, measles, and other diseases that had arrived with Europeans were directly attributable to the imbalances resulting from European colonialism. Andean peoples had long recognized divine anger as one of several possible causes of disease. Conflicts between individuals or the breaking of taboos could also manifest themselves as sickness, but after the conquest, divine retribution became the primary explanation for illness. The wak'as, abandoned by the people who turned to the Catholic faith, had grown hungry and vengeful toward their descendants. They sent the unfamiliar illnesses that devastated the people. . . . In order to end the illness and death, the representatives of the wak'as argued that the people had to return to the old traditions and remove the discord and disunity sown by the Spaniards. 57

Both Spalding and Urioste have noted that, in the province of Huarochiri, Indians renewed their devotion to the huacas (traditional Andean gods) after the epidemics of the sixteenth century, and it seems likely that natives in Ecuador did the same in hopes of staving off further outbreaks. 58 However, the god of the Christians also sent disease to punish those who refused to worship him. Catholic priests, dispatched throughout the viceroyalty to congregate and convert the native population during the sixteenth century, preached that their god was responsible for the devastating epidemics. Thus, native residents of the Andes found themselves trapped, because if they ignored their huacas and adopted the god of the Europeans, they would suffer. But if they failed to give up their old ways, the Spanish and their Christian god would surely punish them. Nevertheless, evidence gathered by the Spanish throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries clearly indicates that most Indians did not give up their traditional religious beliefs. In the more remote areas where parish priests seldom ventured, native communities were left alone to practice their ancient rituals. In regions closer to the European sphere of influence, officials and clergy required Indian participation in church activities, especially payment of the tithe. In spite of outward displays of Christian piety, however, many continued to worship their huacas in secret. However, the etiology of disease was made even more complicated by the introduction of the Christian concept of the devil. According to Silverblatt, before the arrival of Europeans, "Andeans never defined dis57 58

Spalding, Huarochiri, p. 247. Ibid.; and Urioste, "Sickness and Death in Preconquest, Andean Cosmology," in Bastien and Donahue, Health in the Andes, pp. 13-14.

74

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

ease in terms of complots made with evil forces." 59 Although gods could send illness in response to natural imbalances, their intentions and their agents were not intrinsically evil. 60 By the seventeenth century, however, not only sickness but many other social problems were also blamed on the work of Satan. At the same time, native society adopted the concept of inherent evil and applied it to their huacas. For example, Silverblatt discovered that, in northern Peru, the native god Huari had assumed satanic characteristics, including the ability to inflict illness on those who opposed him. 6 1 Colonial policy clearly prohibited the continued practice of native religion, but legislation regarding medical matters was ambivalent, at least through the first half of the seventeenth century. Spanish officials and physicians recognized the value of the New World pharmacopoeia and strove to learn from native healers the many properties of their herbal medicines. The shortage of European-trained doctors also forced them to tolerate the continued practice of native healers, although they issued specific instructions that they hoped would eliminate procedures they considered unacceptable. According to Arriaga, Many of the sorcerers are ambicamayos, as they call themselves, or healers, but they precede their cures with superstitious and idolatrous practices. The priests should examine and instruct those who are to perform healing in order to get rid of what is superstitious and evil therein, and to profit by what is good, for example, their knowledge and use of certain herbs and other simples used in their treatments. 62

The church was also concerned with abolishing specific medical practices. Fasting, for example, played an important role in both the prevention and treatment of illness before the conquest. Thus Arriaga viewed it as a return to paganism and declared, "From now on the Indians, male and female, of this town will not fast as they used to in the pagan manner, eating neither salt nor pepper, and if anyone breaks this rule he will have proceedings started against him as one lapsed into idolatry." 63 In addition, the church urged authorities to prohibit sacrifices of corn, chicha, and other items "when they are ill" and to punish those who persisted in this practice. Whether native society had adopted any European medical techniques 59 Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches, p. 173. 60 Although divine evil did not exist in Andean beliefs, human evil did. Guaman Poma's description of runampicucs and hampicos indicates that these sorcerers deliberately inflicted death and suffering on their fellows, often for personal gain, either payment or to increase their political power within the community. 61 Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches, pp. 193-4. 62 Arriaga, Extirpation, p. 99. 63 Ibid., p. 171.

Disease and demography

75

by the seventeenth century is not clear. Writing in the 1570s, Francisco Hernandez, protomedico of Mexico, criticized Aztec medicine as irrational and inflexible. He charged that "Aztec healers or ticitl did not study the nature of individual diseases or differentiate between individual ailments." Furthermore, Indians rarely relied on dietary recommendations or phlebotomy when dealing with disease.64 Finding their own techniques ineffective against the epidemics of the sixteenth century, some native healers may have incorporated particular Spanish practices into their own repertoire of curing skills. But these documents do not reveal whether their use of phlebotomy or dietary prescriptions actually increased during the seventeenth century. At least one change that certainly occurred was the increased use of alcohol for medicinal purposes. According to Arriaga, Spanish priests and officials conspired to sell large amounts of wine and other spirits, ostensibly for medical use. "They would like to see all diseases treated with wine, for that is a profitable business for them." 65 Although shamans and healers sometimes administered chicha and other intoxicants to their patients, drunkenness unrelated to ceremonial occasions had been a serious offense before the conquest. But the Spanish not only condoned the excessive use of alcohol, they encouraged it; and, as a result, alcohol poisoning, alcoholism, and other related problems posed yet another threat to the health of Indian communities. Arriaga concluded his report with a set of "Regulations to Be Left by the Visitor in the Towns as a Remedy for the Extirpation of Idolatry." In addition to prohibitions against drunkenness, dancing, and ceremonial sacrifices, he placed further restrictions on the practice of native medicine. From now on Indian sorcerers and ministers of idolatry must not cure the sick in any way, because experience has shown that when they effect cures they cause those who are sick to become idolaters and to confess their sins to them in the pagan manner. And if there be any other Indians who know how to effect cures, because they are acquainted with the properties of herbs, the local priest will make sure that the manner of the cure is free from superstition. 66

However, the attempts of Arriaga and others like him to extirpate the idolatry of Andean Indians proved a dismal failure. Writing in 1668, the bishop of Quito, Pena Montenegro, noted that "although they have had preachers, teachers, and priests, for 135 years trying to erase their errors, they have not been able to erase them from their hearts." 67 The bishop, 64 65 66 67

Guenter B. Risse, "Medicine in New Spain," in Medicine in the New World, ed. Numbers, p. 44. Arriaga, Extirpation, p. 7 1 . Ibid., p. 171. The writings of Bishop Pena Montenegro are cited in Michael Taussig's Shamanism, p. 376.

76

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

who believed that "since time immemorial [Indians] had been worshiping the devil," was especially concerned with the role that "memories" played in perpetuating the continuation of rituals and healing practices. Therefore, he ordered his priests to prohibit all such activities and, furthermore, to "destroy their drums, deerheads, and feathers, because these are the instruments of their evil and bring on the memory of paganism." 68 But, as anthropologist Michael Taussig has stated, "The momentous irony was that in struggling to erase these 'memories,' the Church was in fact creating and strengthening them as a new social force, thereby ensuring the transmission of myth into reality and memory into the future." 69 Although the Spanish were never able to eliminate native beliefs and rituals — and in fact only increased the attraction and strength of those rites by their repeated attempts to do so — the penalties for practicing traditional ceremonies made it increasingly dangerous for those engaging in them. To ensure secrecy, many communities, especially those close to Spanish centers of power, hid their huacas in remote locations, far from the people they protected. Natives were forced to travel long distances to perform ritual ceremonies, so that there was less time for these activities. Secrecy also meant that the skills of healers became less visible to the community and conferred on them an aura of mystery and furtiveness previously unknown. The shroud of secrecy that descended on native medical practices only increases the difficulty of understanding the importance of Amerindian beliefs and rituals in colonial society. Nevertheless, the number of legal proceedings brought against individuals charged with sorcery and idolatry demonstrates that traditional religious and medical beliefs continued to play an important role in community life throughout the colonial period. 7 0 In fact, the communal nature of native medicine helped to strengthen Indian society in the face of European demands. Emphasis on group participation in ritual healing ceremonies brought people together in the interests of the common good, reaffirming ancient beliefs and creating a sense of solidarity within the ayllu or village. As the colonial period continued, the survival of native traditions played an increasingly important role in the survival of Indian society itself. Demographic recovery to 1690 After the epidemics and demographic disaster of the late sixteenth century, the native population of the north-central highlands of Quito began to increase. Although the number of Indians in many regions of Peru 68 69 70

Ibid., pp. 376, 143. Ibid., p. 143. See Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches, pp. 159-96; Spalding, Huarochiri, pp. 252-68; and Frank Salomon, "Shamanism," pp. 413-28.

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77

continued to decline, demographic recovery was under way in the audiencia of Quito by the first decade of the seventeenth century. 71 In fact, between 1590 and 1690, in the sierran corregimientos of Otavalo, Quito, Latacunga, Ambato, Riobamba, and Chimbo, the native population more than doubled. Demographic recovery and the expanding pool of native laborers delighted Spanish officials, who attributed the increase to the absence of a mining mita. "[The] Indians of that province [Quito] are many and there are no mines nor other personal services to consume them." 72 Declining production at the audiencia's gold mines alleviated the need for workers; as a result, the mita de minas had ceased to function by the end of the sixteenth century. Then, in 1609, Viceroy Juan de Mendoza abolished Quito's urban labor draft in favor of a system of voluntary wage labor made possible by the city's large Indian population. 73 However, in spite of that ruling, the city continued to draft mita Indians well into the eighteenth century. In addition, other types of mitas continued to draw on the services of Indians throughout the region. Mitayos (Indians serving in the mita) worked in obrajes (textile mills), on haciendas, in the gunpowder factories of Latacunga, and in other sectors of the colonial economy. Indeed, native communities paid a heavy price for their resilience. In other areas of the viceroyalty, the mita took one-seventh of the tributary population in any given year; but "in the province of Quito one-fifth [are distributed] because there are more Indians here than anywhere else in Peru." 74 Official reports also suggested that agricultural abundance and a low cost of living reinforced the growth of the native population. For example, in 1607, Alfonso Messia reported that a mita Indian in Potosi consumed nine pesos worth of food per month including half a fanega of corn, one sheep, some quinoa flour, and dried fish, while a similar ration in Quito cost a maximum of three pesos. 75 But the wages of Indian workers were much lower in Quito than they were in Potosi and other mining regions. 71

For a discussion of seventeenth-century demographic trends in Peru, see Wightman, "From Caste to Class in the Andean Sierra," p. 63; Larson, "Caciques," p. 215; and Sanchez-Albornoz, Indios, p. 34. The researches of Ortiz de la Tabla Ducasse and LeClaire demonstrate that, as early as 1603 in the corregimiento of Riobamba, the number of Indians was increasing. Ortiz, "La poblacion indigena," pp. 19-87; and LeClair, "The Repartimiento of Achambo: Age-Sex Composition 1602-1603," private correspondence.

72

"Los indios de aquella provincia [Quito] son muchos y no tienen minas ni tantas charcaras ni otros servicios personales que los consume" (AGI, Quito, 2. Consultas del consejo de indias, 1642). Francisco de Borja y Aragon, principe de Esquilache, Metnorias de los virreyes que han gobernado el Peru, 1:90. "En los llanos se distribuyen a la sexta parte, y en la provincia de Quito a la quinta con ser la mas abundante de Indios de todo el Peru" (ibid., 1:89). Alfonso Messia, "Memorial a Luis de Velasco," Relaciones de los vireyes y audiencias, 2:348.

73 74 75

78

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

During the first half of the seventeenth century, non-mita Indians in the southern Peruvian province of Oruro earned between one and three pesos per day plus a portion of the ore they mined. 76 Non-mita obraje workers in Quito earned only eighteen to thirty-six pesos per year, and mitayos received even less. 77 So lower food costs were more than offset by the low wages paid to Quito's labor force. Nevertheless, Spanish officials were correct when they observed that the number of natives in the north-central highlands of Ecuador was increasing; their mistake was in attributing growth solely to economic factors. Natural increase, as a result of both rising birthrates and declining death rates, occurred in spite of, rather than because of, the economic system that developed in the audiencia of Quito. As the social and economic turmoil of the sixteenth century subsided, stability returned to native communities, and birthrates rose as a consequence. Simultaneously, a decline in both the number and severity of epidemics ensured population growth. As noted earlier, illness remained a constant problem throughout the seventeenth century, but native populations had begun the process of developing immunities to those diseases introduced only a century before, although it seems certain that deaths among infants and young children remained high. Rising birthrates probably had a greater effect on demographic recovery, but lower mortality rates among adolescents and adults reinforced this trend. 78 Migration was another factor influencing demographic growth. Analysis of census data indicates that, although the Indians of highland Ecuador were as mobile as their counterparts in other areas of Peru, most migrants remained within the audiencia of Quito and often within the corregimiento in which they were born. 79 Many left their communities to settle only a few kilometers away in a neighboring village or on an hacienda; others relocated at considerably greater distances; but relatively few ever left the jurisdiction permanently. 80 It is in analyzing migration strategies that the economic explanations of 76 77 78

See Zulawski, "Wages," pp. 412-13. Tyrer, "Demographic and Economic History," p. 200. On the basis of the data available, it is difficult to generalize about fertility and birthrates. Nevertheless, the rapid growth of Quito's Indian population during the seventeenth century suggests that the birthrate had increased. Information about infant and child mortality is also sketchy, but it was frequently noted that disease often affected the young most severely. 79 According to historian Karen Powers, not only were Indians in the audiencia of Quito as mobile as natives in other regions of Peru but they "may have been, at least chronologically-speaking, in the vanguard of the Andean migration phenomenon." Powers, "Indian migrations in the Audiencia of Quito: Crown Manipulation and Local Co-optation," in Robinson, ed., Migration in Colonial Spanish America, p. 313. 80 A 1613 census of Lima's native population reveals that only 5 percent originated in the audiencia of Quito; of those, only 2.3 percent came from the Quito area. Cook, Demographic Collapse, p. 154.

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79

Spanish officials do, in fact, prove valid. The absence of a mita de minas and the abundance of local food supplies provided incentives for Indians to remain in the region, hence the low rate of emigration from the Quito area. Furthermore, these factors may also explain the influx of Indians from other regions of the viceroyalty. The extent to which immigration contributed to the demographic recovery of the region is not clear, however, because many forasteros ("foreign" Indians) escaped inclusion in census documents. And even when they were added to local censuses, caciques and officials often failed to indicate their places of origin. In those cases, it is impossible to distinguish between a forastero from a neighboring town or corregimiento and one from New Granada or Upper Peru. As early as the 1590s, Spaniards in Quito noted the presence of significant numbers of Indians from areas outside of the audiencia. And once again, they cited the low cost of living and the absence of a mining economy as primary attractions. 81 Although royal officials exaggerated the importance of economic factors in the recovery of Quito's native population, they recognized the unique nature of the area's demographic patterns. Economic conditions kept many natives from leaving the audiencia and, in fact, attracted significant numbers, but rising birthrates and declining death rates accounted for most of the growth. In spite of the fact that considerably more demographic data exist for the seventeenth century than for the preceding period, many of them pertain to limited areas; only three sets of figures reflect population trends throughout the entire region (see Table 4.3). The first originated in 1626, when the senior scribe and census taker Andres de Sevilla reported more than 80,000 adult males residing within the "district of the audiencia of Quito." Of that number, 40,000 were indios de visita, whereas the remaining 40,000 were not listed on tribute rolls. 82 Several years later, Vasquez de Acufia claimed that the number of tributaries living within the audiencia had grown to 85,000. He also estimated the total native population to be 425,000 persons. 83 Because the figures offered by both officials are so similar (differing by only 5,000 tributaries) and because the dates cited are only four years apart, it seems likely that they are based on the same census data. Compared to Vasquez's estimate of 105,000 individuals and 29,000 adult males in 1598, the number of individuals had quadrupled, and the number of tributaries had tripled. It is important to 81

"Relacion del distrito del cerro de Zaruma y distancias a la ciudad de Quito, Loja y Cuenca y Indios de aquella provincia y repartimientos de ellos y otras cosas de aquella provincia," Relaciones geogrdfkas, 3:319. 82 AGI, Quito 31, Andres de Sevilla al consejo de indias, March 13, 1626. 83 AGI, Quito 32, Carta de Juan Vasquez de Acuna, corregidor de Quito, al consejo de indias, April 4, 1636.

80

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

Table 4 . 3 . The tributary population of the north-central sierra,

Place

1590 Relacion de Zaruma*

Ibarra Otavalo Quito Latacunga Ambato Riobamba Chimbo Total

3,313 3,125 5,125 5,875 2,125 5,625 1,375 26,563

1590—1670

1590-1670 1660-70 Cartas Cuentas*

Rate of change

Annual rate of change

3,044 8,500 19,265 14,171 6,011 17,500 2,664

-0.1

-0.11 1.25 1.67 1.11 1.29 1.43 0.83 1.22

71,155

2.7

3.8 2.4 2.8 3.1 1.9 2.7

"Both sets of data have been adjusted upward by 25% in order to account for tributaryaged males missed by census takers.

remember, however, that Vasquez probably underestimated the number of Indians living in the north-central highlands in 1598 by as much as 25 percent. Conversely, he may have inflated the totals for 1630 in order to enhance his own accomplishments before the Council of the Indies to whom his report was addressed. But in spite of Vasquez's self-serving motives, it is apparent that the native population had staged a remarkable comeback. Fortunately, a third source of demographic information permits a more detailed interpretation of population patterns while focusing specifically on the north-central highlands. Cartas cuentas de tributos (tribute records) documented the number of adult male taxpayers in each of the seven provinces. 84 But although portions of these accounts exist for a number of years scattered throughout the century, only the accounts for the 1660s and 1670s are complete enough to allow a reconstruction of demographic patterns for the entire north-central region. These show that, during this time, the tributary population numbered approximately 57,000. Because so many males continued to go unreported, however, this figure is probably too low and should be increased by at least 25 percent, bringing the total to 7 1 , 0 0 c 8 5 Because the estimate of 85,000 tributaries in 1630 84

Tribute accounts are scattered throughout various sections of the ANHQ, but many of the more complete sets are located in Presidencia de Quito, vols. 3 and 11 and Tributos 2, 3, and 4. In addition, tributary totals for the corregimiento of Quito in 1608 and 1668 are located in AGI, Quito 28 and 34. The 1676-78 tributary totals for the corregimiento of Chimbo can be found in ANHQ, Gobierno 4. Data concerning the tributary population of Riobamba in 1678 come from AGI, Quito 210. 85 On the basis of the calculation of 71,000 tributaries in the 1670s, it is possible to estimate a

Disease and demography

81

encompassed the entire audiencia, it is difficult to compare this to the cartas cuentas total for 1670. One way to avoid the problem is to compare data from the cartas cuentas with those from the "Relacion de Zaruma," which was also organized by corregimientos. According to the author of the "Relacion," 21,250 tributaries resided within the area between Ibarra and Riobamba in 1590. When this figure is adjusted upward by 25 percent to account for adult males who escaped inclusion, the total reaches 26,563. When this is compared to the data collected between 1660 and 1670, it appears that the tributary population had increased 2.6 times during that eighty-year period. The tributary population of the corregimiento of Quito demonstrated the strongest rate of growth, increasing from 5,225 tributaries in 1590 to more than 19,000 in 1668. Its importance as a center of economic and governmental activity made the corregimiento and city of Quito attractive to thousands of natives from all over the audiencia and beyond. During the seventeenth century, many settled in the city's Indian neighborhoods and in the surrounding countryside. The tributary population in the corregimiento of Riobamba also registered impressive gains, rising from 5,625 in 1590 to 17,500 in 1678. Here accelerated growth was in response to the proliferation of obrajes and an ever-increasing demand for labor. Likewise, the corregimientos of Otavalo, Latacunga, Ambato, and Chimbo all experienced significant increases. Throughout this period, the northernmost corregimiento of Ibarra was the only sierran province that did not record an expanding tributary population. There the number of adult males actually declined from 3,313 in 1590 to 3,044 in 1679, a loss of 24 percent. Corregidor Ponce de Leon pinpointed the explanation for Ibarra's unique demographic history when he noted that Ibarra's tierra enferma (unhealthy tropical climate) led to the death of many Indians. 86 The development of a plantation economy and the subsequent flight of natives seeking to avoid the harsh existence associated with such a system further exacerbated the problem. However, Ibarra was the exception; until the last decade of the seventeenth century, many native communities experienced unprecedented growth. The annual rate of change for the entire region (including Ibarra) for the period 1590—1678 totaled +1.22, a significant rate of increase, according to British demographers E. A. Wrigley and R. S. Schofield, who argue that anything over 1 percent should be considered high in preindustrial societies.87 Certainly, when compared to demographic total native population of somewhere between 284,000 and 355,000. The larger figure is based on the ratio of 5:1 offered by Vazquez de Acuna in 1630. But census data indicate that many Indian households remained small throughout this period; thus, the smaller estimate arrived by using a ratio of 4:1. The total native population was probably around 300,000. 86 Ponce de Leon, "Relacion de Otavalo," Relaciones geograficas 3:234. 87 Wrigley and Schofield, Population, p. 188.

82

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

trends in other regions of the Spanish empire, the recovery of Quito's Indian population is exceptional. Up to this point, the data analyzed present only the most general picture of Quito's demographic history during the seventeenth century. Fortunately, more specific information can be gleaned from census documents describing the populations of specific geographical areas. Although scattered in time and space, these records do more than support the conclusion that the number of Indians was increasing throughout much of the region; they also reveal significant information about migration and settlement patterns, sex and age structures of various communities, and the size of native families. One important change during the seventeenth century was the migration and relocation of more than one-half of the Indian population. As native participation in the colonial economy increased, many left their ayllus and villages to seek employment on Spanish haciendas, in obrajes, or (if they possessed a marketable skill) as artisans and craftsmen in provincial capitals. Some worked just long enough to earn the money they needed for tribute payments and then returned to their homes; many settled on haciendas or in towns close to their villages and maintained their ayllu affiliations; still others moved further away and permanently severed all ties with their communities. Recognizing displaced Indians as a potentially lucrative source of income, royal officials began to organize forasteros into crown-controlled ayllus during the late sixteenth century. In addition to exemptions from local mita obligations, indios vagamundos de la real corona, as members of these ayllus were labeled, paid less than half the tribute of natives. Such inducements encouraged thousands of Indians to leave their ayllus for these newly formed social units. At the same time, Indians who rounded up and reported forasteros also benefited because royal officials frequently named them to head these ayllus. The possibility of acquiring the title and privileges of cacique provided a powerful inducement for ambitious persons to organize such units and provided social mobility for them. 8 8 As increasing numbers of Indians adopted migration for survival and social mobility, the resident population of many ayllus shrank. Censuses indicate that these changes were well under way by the 1620s, when in the town of Macaxi, Riobamba, caciques of three ayllus reported that 13 percent of their members were absent. 89 Several had been missing for fifteen to twenty years; some lived as far away as Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, and even Lima. Others resided in neighboring towns, working in obrajes or on haciendas. 88 Powers, "Indian migrations," pp. 319—20. 89 ANHQ, Indigenas 1, Visita cuenta y numeracion de los indios del pueblo de Macaxi, Riobamba, 1620.

Disease and demography

83

In other areas this trend was even more pronounced. In 1624, in the Indian barrio of San Sebastian in the city of Quito, a census of indios angamarcas (natives from the community of Angamarca) in the corregimiento of Latacunga, who had settled in Quito during the sixteenth century, indicates that 40 percent of all adult males, many with their families, lived outside of San Sebastian (see Table 4.4) 9 0 Of thirty-two absent tributaries, caciques could account for the whereabouts of twentyfour. Most of these resided close by in towns just outside the city, such as Amaguana, Uyumbicho, Conocoto, Chillogallo, Tumbaco, and Yarqui; four had settled in Ibarra, two in Otavalo, and two in Popayan. An even higher rate of absenteeism prevailed in Cayambe, Otavalo in 1632, when caciques of thirteen ayllus reported 60 percent of their tributaries as absent (see Table 4.5) 9 1 According to this census, the majority of ausentes (absentee Indians) lived on haciendas within several kilometers of their birthplace. Emigration over the course of many years left some ayllus on the verge of extinction. In Cayambe, several were quite small. The ayllu of Don Bernal Quillumbaguen contained only three young tributaries (and no one else), one of whom was absent. The ayllu of Don Fernando Lallchinbaguen was composed of the cacique and an orphaned boy who lived with him, four young tributaries, one couple with two children, and one childless couple. Three other ayllus had fewer than eight tributaries and five more less than twenty. The largest of the thirteen ayllus comprised anaconas (nonnative residents) including twentynine tributary-aged males, twenty-two of whom were reported to be living on haciendas or in the city of Quito. That the largest ayllu in Cayambe was made up of outsiders is truly significant and reflects the demographic reality of many communities where forasteros outnumbered natives. Indeed, while many ayllus of native-born Indians experienced significant rates of growth during the seventeenth century, it was among the numerous ayllus de vagamundos where much of Quito's population expansion was recorded. But even where native-born inhabitants continued to dominate numerically, the presence of large numbers of forasteros had a significant effect on social and economic events in those communities. The arrival of forasteros altered patterns of land tenure; in many villages, they rented land from native residents, providing a new source of income for the community. In addition, the tribute payments of forasteros constituted a reliable source of revenue and helped pay off communal debts generated by the emigration of native males. Occasionally during the first half of the century, officials attempted to 90

91

ANHQ, Indigenas 2, visita cuenta y numeracion de los indios angamarcas en esta ciudad de Quito de la corona real por muerte de Diego Porcel de ano hecha por el senor licenciado don Manuel Tello de Velasco oydor y visitador general de las cinco leguas, 1624. Ibid., visita cuenta y numeracion de los indios del repartimiento de Cayambe, 1632.

84

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

Table 4 . 4 . Place of residence of absentee Indios Angamarcas, San Sebastian, Quito, 1624 Quito area

Ibarra

Otavalo

Popayan

Unknown

16

4

2

2

8

Table 4.5. Tributaries and absentees in Cayambe, 1632 Ayllu/Kuraka Anaconas de Cayambe/ Don Favian Puento Cayambe/ Don Favian Anrrango Don Gabriel Cacoango Mindales de Cayambe/ Don Bernal Cacoango Pulamarin/ Don Diego Pulamarin Quinchoango/ Don Leon Quinchoango Ychizi de Cayambe/ Don Gabriel Cacoango Mitimas de este pueblo en Guachala/Don Francisco Cacoango Yanaconas de Tagaundo/ Don Favian Puento Tachachiquil/ Don Fernando Lalchinbaguen Pulrussi/ Don Favian Peres Ynriuma/ Don Bernal Quilumbaguen Don Francisco Cacoango Total

Tributaries

Absentees

29

22

17 3

13 1

18

8

21

15

20

10

7 13 17 4

4

12

10

3 5

1 0

169

101

learn the origins of forasteros in order to ascertain migration patterns and, in some instances, to try to move individuals back to their native communities. In 1630, officials conducted a census, only a portion of which has survived, of an ayllu of forasteros in the town of Pillaro, Ambato (see Table 4-6) 9 2 The count was organized by family units and in most cases included the place of origin of the male head of household. Of the thirty 92

Ibid., Juan de Castro, teniente de corregidor en virtud de la real provision numero los indios siguentes, May 2, 1630.

Disease and demography

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Table 4.6. Origins of forasteros in Ambato and Riobamba, 1630—47 Ambato Latacunga Trujillo Riobamba Quito Otavalo Cuenca Lima Unknown Pillaro, Ambato, 1630 Villa de Ambato, 1640-1 Licto, Riobamba, 1647

7

7 3

5 1

1

10

1

10 1

3

4

1

1

14

tributaries listed, ten claimed that they did not know the origins of their families. Several more stated that they had been born in Pillaro, indicating that their parents had migrated into the area some years before. The rest hailed from towns in neighboring Latacunga and Riobamba; only one claimed to come from Quito. Another census, conducted among forasteros in the city of Ambato in 1641, revealed that the majority had never been included on the tribute rolls of any ayllu. 93 Some were orphans, others illegitimate. Some claimed that they had never known their parents, but even among those who had, many did not know their parents' place of origin. A similar situation prevailed among the individuals being incorporated into the ayllu of Don Domingo Alcoser in Licto, Riobamba, in 1647. Many of them did not know the location of their ancestral home; but among those who did, such distant places as Otavalo, Quito, and Lima were listed. 94 By the last quarter of the seventeenth century, more than half of the Indian population resided elsewhere than their ancestral place of origin. A revisita of the Indian communities of Cayambe in 1685 reveals that, in five ayllus, 68 percent of all tributaries lived outside of their villages, the majority on haciendas in the surrounding area. 95 In most cases, their spouses and children had moved with them; many entries show two and three generations of one family living and working together on the same estate. Other than caciques and their relatives, only a few individuals were listed as living in their own houses on village land. A few had moved to the provincial capitals of Otavalo or Ibarra, where they worked as independent artisans or as servants in the households of Spaniards. 93 ANHQ, Indigenas 4, visita de los indios vagamundos de la corona real, Ambato, 1641. 94 Ibid., visita de los indios vagamundos en el pueblo de Licto, 1647. 95 To date, this segment of the 1685 census ordered by Viceroy Palata is the only portion of this visita to have been found for the audiencia of Quito. Freile Granizo, Numerations, 2:141—279.

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

That same year, in the city of Ambato, Don Pedro Pillamunga, principal cacique of four ayllus, reported that 67 percent of all tributaries were absent. 96 In the ayllu of Guebene, not one of twenty-two tributaries remained. Pillamunga explained that one lived in Quito, two worked in an obraje outside of Quito, and one worked in an obraje in Latacunga; he did not know the whereabouts of the other eighteen men. Five years later, in the textile-manufacturing town of San Andres, Riobamba, officials encountered a similar situation. Among eleven ayllus, 64 percent of all tributaries were absent. 97 The whereabouts of many were not known, but of those recorded, the city of Quito was the favored destination, with the city of Cuenca second. Others lived as far away as Ibarra to the north and Babahoya on the coast. As these documents reveal, it is difficult to generalize about migration patterns during the seventeenth century; nevertheless, three trends do emerge. First, many individuals, males and females, headed to the city of Quito and to provincial capitals where their chances of finding work and remaining anonymous were better than in rural areas; the large numbers of vagamundos in Quito and other cities support this assertion. Others traveled only a few kilometers from their homes, settling in neighboring villages or on haciendas. Some of these individuals maintained ties to their ayllus, while others sought the advantages of inclusion in an ayllu de vagamundos. Many more traveled long distances, sometimes relocating every few years. At least some of these eventually ended up in renegade settlements on the eastern slope of the Andes at the edge of the Amazon Basin. 98 In addition to revealing migration patterns, these documents also contain limited information on fertility and birthrates, the sex and age structure of specific native communities, and the size and organization of Indian families. The census of Urinchillo in 1559 indicated that extended households were common both before and immediately following the conquest. But analysis of seventeenth-century censuses indicates that this form of family organization had declined and that the number of nuclear families had increased. These documents also reveal that, even among caciques, the practice of polygamy had ceased to exist. The demands of the colonial economy and the mobility of the Indian population made the maintenance of extended households increasingly untenable. Censuses also indicate that, in spite of rising birthrates, most Indian families remained small. Analysis of various visitas conducted between 1620 and 1685 reveals that the average number of children per woman 96 97 98

ANHQ, Indigenas 3, Cartas cuentas de indios tomavelas, 1685. ANHQ, Indigenas 18, Visita de indios de San Andres, 1690. Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, Discourse and Political Reflections on the Kingdoms of Peru, pp. 111 —12, 167—9.

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was only two, like the average during the sixteenth century. This finding suggests that, although fertility rates had risen, disease continued to claim the lives of many infants. Furthermore, many women remained childless: Between one-quarter and one-half of all couples had no living children, and in some communities the rate was as high as three-quarters. Again, the rate of childlessness remained similar to that of the sixteenth century. Infertility may have played a role in some of these cases, but it seems more likely that infant mortality was responsible. Overall, adult males were approximately one-third of the total population. Among ayllus de vagamundos in Puni and Lican, Riobamba in 1681, 45 percent were adult males. But because tributaries were the main focus of colonial censuses, officials often underenumerated other segments of the population, especially females, and thus the percentage of adult males may have been lower than some estimates indicate. When extrapolation is made from the data available, it appears that approximately onequarter of all adult males were unmarried. Because of the paucity of data on this topic available for the sixteenth century, it is impossible to document the rate of change; but the number of men remaining single into their late twenties and thirties seems to have increased. Among females over fifteen, the rate was much lower, with only 10 percent described as unmarried. In these same communities, persons under seventeen constituted one-third to one-half of the total population. This was not unusual, given that life expectancy was short, with few adults surviving past fifty. The increasing frequency with which individuals married outside of their ayllu and community, noted during the second half of the sixteenth century, accelerated during the 1600s. Few visitas contain information on this practice, suggesting that it had become so common that it no longer warranted special attention. The only seventeenth-century census that sheds any light on extra-ayllu marriages involved the Indian populations of Guaca and Puchuquin, Ibarra, in 1 6 5 0 . " This visita revealed that, within ten ayllus, approximately 35 percent of all married couples were from different ayllus and often from different communities. In urban areas and communities with large forastero populations, this figure may have been even higher. By the last decade of the seventeenth century, native society had adapted biologically and demographically to the rigors of life under Spanish colonialism. The number of Indians living in the north-central highlands had more than doubled and smallpox and measles were well on their way to becoming endemic, at least in the city of Quito and provincial capitals. 99

ANHQ, Indigenas 5, traslado segundo de la numeration quenta y discrepcion de los indios del pueblo de Guaca de las parcialidades del Puchuquin de la real corona, 1650.

88

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

Native communities and families had also responded to change, building on traditional structures to create innovative forms of social organization, such as ayllus de vagamundos, which recognized the reality of migration and offered many an alternative to the relentless demands for mita service and tribute in their place of origin. The same resilience and adaptability are also evident in changing patterns of marriage and family structure.

Disaster and crisis in the 1690s

The demographic and economic boom of the seventeenth century ended abruptly in the 1690s. Epidemics and natural disasters combined to decimate the native population, thereby depleting the labor supply so crucial to the continued success of Quito's agricultural and manufacturing sectors. For Spaniards, the disasters of the 1690s represented a severe economic setback; but for natives, the effect of the disasters was much more profound. The sudden loss of up to one-half of the population created serious social and economic crises in Indian communities. And for the remainder of the colonial period, these problems were exacerbated by the unyielding demands of the struggling colonial economy. The reforms of Palata, migration, and epidemics Because the highlands of Ecuador never had the political and economic importance of the major mining centers of central and southern Peru, the area remained somewhat isolated from events in other parts of the viceroyalty. But during the 1680s, policies aimed at reforming the mining economy produced serious repercussions in the audiencia of Quito. In 1681, Viceroy Don Melchor de Navarra y Rocafull, Duque de la Palata arrived in Peru determined to revive the failing mining system and to increase government revenues. Palata attributed much of the decline in output to a shortage of mita laborers, so he decided not only to enforce mita regulations more tightly but also to expand the number of corregimientos subject to the labor draft. l The first phase of Palata's planned reforms called for a census of the viceroyalty's native population. Palata claimed that, despite the problems inherent in such a great undertaking, "the numeration or general census of 1

During the 1570s, Viceroy Toledo ordered 4,500 Indians to serve each week in the mita of Potosi. By 1680, fewer than 2,000 actually did so, and more than half bought their way out of the system. The money collected in this way was supposed to be used to hire wage laborers, but more often, mineowners appropriated the funds for their own expenses. See Jeffrey A. Cole, "Viceregal Persistence," pp. 37-56.

89

90

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

the entire kingdom is the most important project [of my government]." 2 The census would allow officials to determine the number of tributaries in the provinces subject to the mita; it would also enable treasury employees in other areas to adjust tribute records, thus increasing revenues. In addition, the numeracion would reveal patterns of migration, permitting officials to formulate measures for dealing with the problems caused by massive population movements. According to the viceroy's instructions, corregidors were to begin the census on October i, 1683. Although local officials received no additional salary for their efforts, Palata realized that without some financial reward his endeavor, like so many others, would fail. Therefore, as an incentive, he offered each corregidor an encomienda of one-seventh of all Indians added to their tribute rolls. 3 Geography had spared the tributary population of Quito from mining labor for much of the century, but it could not protect them from the viceroy 's most drastic reform - tribute payment and mita service in their place of residence rather than in their place of origin. Under Palata's plan, forasteros would assume the status of originarios (native inhabitants), with all of the attendant responsibilities. Thus, the amount of tribute paid by forasteros would increase, and they would also be held liable for local mita service, a burden they had largely managed to avoid. The overall effect of Palata's reforms was "to make the mita and tribute personal, rather than communal responsibilities {and} therefore attempted to alter the very nature of the relationship between Andean Indians and their sovereign." 4 The result of these policies was immediate and far-reaching; in the corregimientos closest to the mines, tributaries fled in droves, seeking protection in regions outside of the mita's scope. But the census also triggered major migrations in other areas, especially among forasteros who sought to avoid increased obligations by avoiding census takers. Although Palata planned for the numeracion to be completed within a year, in the corregimiento of Otavalo the undertaking did not get under way until 1685, and in Alto Peru results were not turned in until 1688. 5 During the intervening period thousands of Indians sought safety in flight, which in turn, helped to spread numerous diseases. In May 1687, the archbishop of Lima reported that 10,000 persons had died of viruelas in Potosi and that Lima and other areas were likewise affected. In addi2

3 4 5

"La numeracion o padron general de todo el Reyno es el negocio maximo, que ha tenido mi gobierno y en que nuebe Virreyes mis antecessores pensaron, sin acercarse a el por las grandes dificultades con que encontraron a las primeras conferencias" (Duque de la Palata, Memorias de los virreyes que han gobernado el Peru, 2:237). Ibid., 2:256-7. Cole, "Viceregal Persistence," p. 4 3 . Ibid., p. 42.

Disaster and crisis

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tion, tremors and a volcanic eruption had claimed 2,000 lives in the town of Angaraes, close to Huancavelica.6 Later that year, a severe earthquake rocked the coastal area from the Chilean port of Concepcion to the Peruvian town of Sana. Serious damage occurred within a 200-league radius of Lima, where many buildings collapsed. Thus disease and natural disasters combined to drive still more Indians out of the region. By the end of his term of office in 1689, Palata's attempts to reform the mining mita had failed, and his policies for boosting tribute collections had met with only limited success. The disasters of the 1690s By September 1691, an epidemic of viruelas that had begun in the southern highlands of Peru had reached Quito, and, according to members of the cabildo, many people had already died. 7 At the same time, a drought began in the highlands of Ecuador, and by March 1692 officials feared that a failed harvest would result in famine among a population already laid low by disease.8 The situation worsened later that year when a second epidemic, of sarampion and viruelas, arrived in the area from somewhere in New Granada. After striking together in Quito, these two epidemics moved south back into Peru, infecting the populations of "Lima, Huamanga, Cuzco, Arequipa, and Charcas as far as Potosi" during 1693. 9 Many Indians died in Peru, but the epidemic of 1687 had immunized much of the population; so mortality was lower than in the Quito area. In the summer of 1692, the drought continued and the epidemics worsened. Although the city had two salaried doctors, the number of victims was so great that the cabildo was forced to allocate a 300-peso salary to a third physician, Sebastian de Aguilar, who threatened to leave for Popayan unless they paid him immediately. 10 That the cabildo gave in to Aguilar's extortionate demand shows their desperation and the gravity of conditions. According to Toribio, one of these three physicians, Diego Herrera, saved the lives of more than 500 Indians by administering infusions of canafistula (an herbal remedy derived from the seedpods of the native American drumstick tree). 11 But the epidemics affected everyone, not just Indians; during 1692-3, the council was forced to cancel meet6 7 8 9

10 11

AGI, Lima 304, Arzobispo de Lima al consejo de indias, Lima, May 18, 1687. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00116, fv. 27—8, September 13, 1691. Ibid., f. 42, March 18, 1692. In response to the epidemic, in 1694, the protomedico of Lima, Doctor Francisco Bermejo y Roldan, published a pamphlet entitled Discurso de la enfermedad sarampion experimentada en la ciudad de los Reyes del Peru. Toribio, "Apuntes," pp. 7 3 - 4 . AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00116, f. 52, May 5, 1692. Toribio, "Apuntes," p. 74.

92

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

ings and make new appointments because so many of its members were sick. 12 By 1693, disease had spread throughout the highlands, and in May, the corregidor of Otavalo notified the cabildo of Quito that "sarampion, viruelas, and other diseases" had broken out in his jurisdiction. In response, the council decided to quarantine Otavalo in hopes of preventing communication of the "contagion" further afield.13 Two months later, the protector de naturales (protector of Indians) in Latacunga wrote the audiencia requesting funds to aid residents of his jurisdiction. 14 According to Manuel Infantes, every Indian family had fallen victim to the epidemic of sarampion, and another official from Latacunga reported that "many were dying of hunger and neglect." 15 He added "that in this corregimiento the number of deaths is without comparison . . . and that poor Spaniards, as well as Indians, mestizos, negros, and mulattoes" also required assistance. Further south, in Riobamba, the corregidor reported that in the four months since "the epidemics of sarampion, viruelas, tabardillo, and other {diseases]" had appeared, 8,000 persons had died, and the number continued to rise. l 6 He also noted that both Spaniards and Indians succumbed to the infections. Age was no protection against the epidemics, according to an entry in city council records that stated that individuals "of all ages" had died. 17 These documents demonstrate that everyone was susceptible to disease, but they also make clear that mortality was especially high among the native population. Epidemics and drought forced corregidors to request exemptions from tribute payments, and audiencia officials suspended collections during Christmas 1693. 1 8 Not since the epidemics of the 1580s had so many natives been excused from meeting their tribute obligations. The reprieve made little difference, however. According to local officials, Indian communities needed huge amounts of food and medicine. But, despite pleas for charity, most encomenderos refused to aid their Indians, perhaps be12 AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00116, f. 69, November 14, 1692, and fv. 89, May 5, 1693. 13 This is the only reference to a quarantine during the epidemics of the 1690s. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00116, f. 90, May 8, 1693. 14 ANHQ, Presidencia de Quito, vol. 15, no. 405, Protector de naturales, Manuel Infantes a la audiencia, July 9, 1693. 15 "Perezen muchos por falta de sustento y quien los cuide . . . aviendose experimentado eneste corregimiento, que fuera sin comparacion mayor el numero de los difuntos" (ibid., no. 406, Ignacio Aybar a la audiencia, July 14, 1693). 16 "Los contenidos achaques que de 4 meses a esta parte an padesido los havitadores desta villa y pueblos de su jurisdision asi yndios como espanoles con las epidemias que sean experimentado del sarampion virguelas y tabardillos y otros de que se tiene por sierto an muerto hasta oy mas de 8,000 personas y se ba continuando" (ANHQ, Hojas Sueltas 172, folder 3, Corregidor de Riobamba a la audiencia, October 9, 1693). 17 AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00116, fv. 95, December 18, 1693. 18 ANHQ, Obrajes 9, Corregidor de Riobamba a la audiencia, January 27, 1694.

Disaster and crisis

93

cause they feared that worsening food shortages and rising prices would eventually affect their own well-being. In the city of Quito and in provincial capitals, some wealthy residents made charitable donations for emergency relief; in other areas, officials sought permission to use money from past tribute collections to pay for medical care. 19 But despite the good intentions of a few individuals, their efforts did little to mitigate the effects of disease and famine. By the middle of 1693, still other diseases had broken out. From the royal jail in Quito, a local official, General Don Felipe Landasurri y Murcia wrote that he had just recovered from a bout of sarampion when he, along with many others in the jail, was stricken with tabardillo. He complained of pain in his side, stomach, and at the base of his spine, together with headache, general body aches, high fever, and vomiting. 20 In San Andres, Guano, and Ylapo in Riobamba, caciques testified that an epidemic of sarampion reached there in June 1693, quickly followed by an outbreak of viruelas. 21 Between July and November, 3,000 persons had died; but just as the number of deaths had begun to decline, another disease, garrotillo, arrived in the area and mortality rates rose once again. Thus, by December 1693, a t least four diseases, sarampion, viruelas, tabardillo, and garrotillo, raged throughout the highlands of Ecuador. The drought, now in its third year, continued to limit food production, further exacerbating the desperate situation. The epidemics continued throughout 1694, but with less virulence; and, by the middle of 1695, ^ e y had run their course. But although the worst was over, endemic infections remained; in 1696—7 the cabildo reported cases of dysentery and "algunos achaques violentos [some violent ailments}." 22 Drought persisted throughout the decade; high prices, food shortages, and hunger remained serious problems. The appearance of polvillo, or wheat rust, during this period further depleted grain supplies. 23 In response, the cabildo attempted to implement strict rationing in April 1697. 24 19 Ibid., Presidencia de Quito, vol. 11, no. 330, General Alberto Hernandez Montenegro, administrator de las encomiendas del convento del santissimo Sacramento de la Villa de Madrid a la audiencia, July 1693; ^ea^ Hacienda 10, folder 1, General Simon de Ontanon, arrendador del obraje de Otavalo a la audiencia, March 26, 1694; and Herrera y Ennquez, Apuntes cronologkos, 1:167. 20 ANHQ, Gobierno 5, folder 2, Felipe Landasurri y Murcia a la audiencia, June 19, 1693. 21 Ibid., Obrajes 9, folder 9, Antonio de la Puente a la audiencia, December 1693. 22 AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00116, fv. 188, November 20, 1696, and f. 195, January 4, 1697. 23 Ibid., f. 177-8, June 22, 1696. According to Cook, wheat smut first arrived in Peru sometime after 1687. See Cook, Demographic Collapse, p. 139. It seems more likely, however, that the pest was actually wheat rust, a more common fungal disease that attacks wheat, barley, rye, and other grasses. 24 Ibid., f. 203, May 20, 1697, and f. 204, May 24, 1696.

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

However, epidemics and famine were not the only crises of the 1690s. On June 28, 1698, between one and two in the morning, a severe earthquake shook the provinces of Latacunga, Ambato, and Riobamba. 25 Because most of the population was asleep at the time, many urban residents did not escape from their crumbling adobe and stone houses, and mortality was especially high. Although no serious damage occurred in Quito, or in San Miguel de Ibarra further north, the quake was felt in these cities, awakening residents and sending them into the streets. In Latacunga, Ambato, and Riobamba, the earth shook again at three in the morning, sending more buildings crashing down. At five, a third violent tremor occurred. News of the devastation arrived in Quito later that day, and initial reports estimated 3,000 deaths in the city of Latacunga alone. The situation in Ambato was even worse. 26 In the center of town not a church or convent was left standing; many clerics and government officials were buried under tons of rubble. Although Indians used lighter materials, such as mud, wood, and straw, to build their houses, the rural population did not escape the ravages of the quakes. The Indian communities of Tisaleo and Mocha, close to the volcano Carihuairazo, were buried under "an avenue of mud" spewing out of the volcano's crater during the shocks. 27 More than a thousand persons perished as a result. In the village of Patate, the river rose "higher than the tower of the church" and swept away at least 300 people, including Indian workers in the obraje of Pilatos. Reports arriving in Quito told of a climbing death toll. Fear of epidemics and a shortage of able-bodied males forced survivors to bury many in mass graves. Even in Riobamba, which experienced the least destruction, at least 200 people died, and most of Riobamba's numerous obrajes were destroyed or severely damaged. All told, 600 tremors occurred during the next few days. To the east the volcano Sangay erupted, while Mojanda, close to Otavalo, and Pichincha, overlooking Quito, also rumbled ominously. Huge breaches had opened in the earth, swallowing trees and other vegetation. Eyewitnesses claimed that the quake was one of the worst since the conquest in its destruction of property and life. When the tremors ceased, government officials moved into action. The 25

26 27

Information on the 1698 earthquake comes from the Yale University Manuscript Collection, South America, Box 3, July 1698. The documents in this box include reports from the corregidors of Latacunga, Ambato, and Riobamba, as well as the report of Fiscal Antonio de Ron. The quake must have been centered close to Ambato because destruction was most serious in this jurisdiction. Mudflows, or lahars, often follow volcanic eruptions. Payson Sheets and Donald Grayson, eds., Volcanic Activity, p. 4.

Disaster and crisis

95

audiencia dispatched Fiscal (treasury official) Antonio de Ron to deliver badly needed supplies to the area and to report on the extent of the damage. According to Ron, what little food existed in the region had been buried by the quakes. Roads were also badly damaged, hampering the delivery of emergency supplies and the evacuation of surviving Spaniards and also slowing the long-term economic recovery of the area. A final tally in the three corregimientos of Ambato, Latacunga, and Riobamba placed the number at more than 10,000 dead. Coming so soon after the epidemics of 1691—5, this further undermined the demographic and economic structure of these provinces. Demographic crisis The 1690s thus produced a crisis unequaled since the catastrophic epidemics of the late sixteenth century. The deaths of many adult males and the concomitant decline in tribute payments led corregimiento officials to draw up reports explaining fiscal deficits; several of these documents contain valuable information about the demographic effect of the epidemics. In December 1694, t n e audiencia ordered Quito's corregidor, Pedro Garcia de la Torre, to account for 66,992 pesos in tribute deficits. To do that, Garcia turned to parish priests, requesting that they submit reports on the number of deaths among their parishioners (see Table 5.1). 28 These clerics, and others interviewed by Garcia, reported many new cases of illness and high death rates as late as the end of 1694. Witnesses described villages littered with unburied corpses. They also noted that survivors had abandoned their homes to scavenge in the countryside for food, thereby continuing to spread disease. Notary Tomas Fernandez de Fraga testified in June 1695 "that in the two years of epidemics, there were countless deaths in Quito; abandoned bodies were found in cemeteries, churches, and public plazas, causing horror and compassion among the faithful, and that dogs were even feeding on the bodies." The testimonies collected by Garcia revealed that at least 2,939 Indians had perished in the Quito area between April 1692 and December 1694. But, in fact, the number reported was far less than the actual number who died. Priests admitted that, because of the overwhelming number of deaths, they had been unable to keep accurate burial records and only a fraction of victims were brought to churches for interment. In addi28

"Que en los dos anos de epidemias, hubo en Quito un sinnumero de muertos, que se encontraban abandonados en los cementerios, iglesias y plazas publicas, causando horror y compacion a los fieles, que aun parece, que los perros se alimentaban de ellos" (ANHQ, Presidencia de Quito, vol. 13, no. 463, Corregidor Pedro Garcia de la Torre a la audiencia, June 5, 1697).

6

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

Table 5 . 1 . Number of burials recorded by priests in Quito's urban parishes and surrounding towns, 1693—4 Parish/town

Comments

No. of Burials

San Bias San Roque San Marcos Cathedral Santa Barbara

221

Hospital San Sebastian Aloag Aloasi Cotocollao Uyumbicho La Merced Santo Domingo San Francisco San Agustin

86 116 21 47 60

84 500

64

71 tributaries/150 plus young males Priest did not know Tributaries Tributaries Tributaries; also many children 7—9 years old

53 80 180 600 140

Tributaries Tributaries 2 reservados/remainder tributaries More than 47 tributaries and reservados 20 tributaries/40 forasteros Tributaries Tributaries 80 tributaries/100 young males Men, women, and children 40-50 adult males/100 children 7-8 years old

Zambisa y Nayon Quinche Yarqui Puembo

46 9

Perucho Tumbaco Pintac Sangolqui Conocoto Amaguana S. Juan Evangelista S. Maria Magdalena Chillogallo Guapulo Cumbaya

20 87 42 87

Total

52 91

56

21 22 19 92 8

35

Tributaries Indians Adult males plus many children 41 tributaries/50 forasteros plus many children Tributaries Tributaries plus many children Tributaries Tributaries Tributaries Tributaries Tributaries Tributaries Tributaries plus many children Tributaries plus many children 22 tributaries/13 forasteros plus some children

2,939

Source: ANHQ, Presidencia de Quito, 13:74-130, Corregidor de Quito a la audiencia, June 5, 1697. tion, their reports often included only the number of deaths among tributaries, completely ignoring mortality among other people, especially females. Compared to the number of tributaries per parish before the epidemics, mortality rates varied. Of the tributaries in the parishes of Santa Barbara and San Sebastian located near the cathedral, 72 percent and

Disaster and crisis

97

29

52 percent, respectively, died. Mortality rates in the other parishes covered in Garcia's report averaged only 5 percent, but that figure merely reflected incomplete record keeping. In Riobamba, the closing of obrajes prompted the representative of a local millowner to organize a report that included the testimony of caciques about the epidemics and their demographic effect (see Table 5.2). 30 Antonio de la Puente, administrator of the obraje of Dona Micaela Lopez de Moncayo, explained that in the corregimiento of Riobamba, "more than 3,000 persons had died." According to caciques from the towns of Guano and Ylapo, 638 persons died between June and December 1693. Of these, 123, or 19 percent, were adult males. Of the number of tributaries recorded before the epidemics, approximately 36 percent died. In one ayllu, "the majority fell ill at the same time," and eventually eight tributaries, twenty boys, and twelve females perished. Maria Chaplaitema, cacica of two ayllus, testified "that in the beginning, there were twenty to twenty-five burials a day and that continued for a long time; and later, there were four to ten every day."31 In neighboring San Andres, 43 percent of the tributary population succumbed. 32 Caciques also reported the deaths of 279 male children and 236 females of all ages. Again, the number of deaths recorded is far fewer than the actual number who died. Maria Chaplaitema explained that she could not accurately represent the number of deaths among her subjects because many were absent, serving in the mita, or living in other ayllus; but she claimed to have received news that many of these had died. Also, information on mortality among women and children is often missing or incomplete, and therefore, the effect of the epidemics on these people remains unknown. But witnesses in both Quito and Riobamba reported that children were more severely affected than their parents. Indeed, death rates among children were probably twice as high as those of adults. These documents also indicate that older individuals suffered less than any other group. 33 That was because persons over thirty had acquired 29

30 31

32

33

Before the epidemics, the cartas cuentas de tributos (tribute accounts) recorded 88 adult males in Santa Barbara and 222 in San Sebastian; but these documents may underrepresent that sector of the population. If that is true, morality rates would not be quite so high. ANHQ, Obrajes 9, folder 9, Antonio de la Puente a la audiencia, December 1693. "Que a los principios se enterravan a veinte, y a veinte y cinco personas cada dia lo qual duro muchos, y despues aca todos los dfas continuamente se an enterrado de quatro hasta diez cada dia" (ibid., f. 6). Tribute records for the years 1690-4 indicate an average of 690 tributaries in Guano and 421 in San Andres, including absentees, who constituted approximately one-half of the total. There is some overlap with the period of epidemics, but the accounts had not been adjusted to reflect the crisis. If absentees are subtracted, 34 and 43 percent of all tributary-aged males died during the first six months of the epidemic. ANHQ, Presidenica de Quito, vol. 17, no. 532, Capitan Diego Suares de Figueroa a la audiencia, August 26, 1707.

98

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador Table 5.2. No. dead in Guano, Ylapo, and San Andres, Riobamba as reported in December 1693 Town

Guano and Ylapo San Andres Total

Females

Male children

123 (out of 345 or 36%) 96 (out of 222 or 43%)

236

279

135

143

219

371

422

Tributaries

Source: ANHQ, Obrajes 9, Antonio de la Puente a la audiencia, December 1693.

immunities to various diseases during childhood. An Indian born in 1642, fifty years before the epidemics, had survived at least four outbreaks of smallpox and measles (1644-5, 1648-9, 1651-3, and 1676-7), two of which had occurred before the individual had reached the age of ten. Approximately half of all children died before the age often, so an Indian who survived to tributary age (eighteen) would probably live, barring fatal accidents, to complete his tax-paying status at age fifty. Age and immunity to diseases could not save Indians from starvation or protect residents from the ravages of the earthquake of 1698. The number of natives who succumbed to these disasters was never recorded; but at least 70 percent of the 10,000 deaths from the earthquake were probably Indians. As a result, the demographic crisis in the central sierra region around Latacunga, Ambato, and Riobamba was especially severe. Although it is difficult to estimate accurately the overall impact of the disasters of the 1690s on the native communities of the north-central highlands, it appears that between 40 and 50 percent of the total population perished. 34 The 1690s dealt Quitefio society a blow from which it would not soon recover. Disease and natural disasters had wiped out a century of demographic growth and left the region in a state of economic ruin. These episodes demonstrated that the continuously evolving relationship between the Indian population and disease remained subject to violent and destructive fluctuations. But why did disaster strike in 1692, when native communities had withstood such trials for over a century? One reason was that, by the 1690s, population density was approaching mid-sixteenthcentury levels, presenting a target ready for epidemic incursions. More important, however, was that no serious outbreaks of disease had occurred 34 Tyrer estimated that one-third of the native population died during the 1690s (Tyrer, "Demographic and Economic History," p. 39).

Disaster and crisis

99

between 1677 and 1692. This sixteen-year hiatus allowed for a large number of individuals who, without immunities, were susceptible and easily overcome by disease. Witnesses substantiated this when they testified that children and young adults suffered the highest mortality, whereas many older people survived. Still another important factor in explaining exceptionally high mortality rates was the breakdown of social and economic systems precipitated by the epidemics and drought. The combination of high morbidity and mortality rates and a drop in food supplies disrupted normal patterns of food production and distribution, bringing death to many who might otherwise have survived. Officials also cited neglect as contributing to high death rates. Not only did encomenderos and other Spaniards fail to do all they could to aid Indian communities; but friends and neighbors often ignored the needs of their fellows in order to save themselves. Still, the disasters of the 1690s elicited an unprecedented response from the colonial government. The amount of detail that went into official documents was in itself an innovation. The carefully organized report prepared by the corregidor of Quito included statistical data presented in a format heretofore unknown in the audiencia of Quito. And the scope and scale of relief operations were also unique, especially after the earthquake of 1698. These developments reflect a trend toward a more interventionist form of government, a tendency that would grow during the next century. No amount of governmental concern or material aid, however, could undo the damage that had been done in the north-central highlands of Ecuador. In fact, neither the native population nor the local economy would ever again demonstrate the resilience that had characterized their development during the seventeenth century.

Disease and demographic stagnation in the eighteenth century

During the eighteenth century, Quito's Indian population did not recover as rapidly as it had during the previous century. Disease and natural disasters hampered population increase, and economic depression reinforced demographic stagnation. Lack of economic opportunities discouraged both natural increase and immigration, so by the 1780s the number of Indians in the north-central highlands still had not reached the peak attained during the 1670s. As the audiencia's economic situation became more desperate, Quito's elite increased their demands on Indian communities. In response, native resistance to Spanish political and economic repression escalated sharply. Evidence suggests that native healers played an important role in preserving local traditions and organizing opposition to the colonial government, a political reaction examined in this chapter's final section. Epidemics and endemic disease The beginning of the eighteenth century found Quito still reeling from the disasters of the previous decade. In January 1700, the drought had entered its ninth year; food shortages and high prices remained a serious problem. An epidemic of fevers had spread among the populace, and officials expressed concern that the number of unlicensed medical practitioners had increased as the epidemic worsened (see Table 6.1). Attempting to curtail such abuses, the council published the names of two men suspected of practicing without licenses, and they ordered Jacinto Rondon and Fulano Estupinan to present their credentials within two days or pay fines of 200 pesos. l Although the fines were probably never collected, the threat indicates that officials were taking more seriously their responsibilities for regulating the medical profession. 1 AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00117, fv. 43, January 29, 1700. The drought, which began in 1691, finally ended late in 1703. And in January of 1707 the cabildo authorized a public holiday "because for fourteen years this province has suffered great calamities and harvest failures." Ibid., vol. 00118, f. 106-7, January J4> I 7°7IOO

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Table 6.1. Epidemics in the north-central highlands, Place

Time 1700 1708 1709 1713 1724-6 1728-9 1746 1751 1759-60 1763-4 1769 1777 1779 1780-3 1783 1785-6

Quito Quito and surrounding area Quito and surrounding area Quito Quito Quito and surrounding area Throughout the audiencia Quito Quito and surrounding area Quito and surrounding area Quito Quito Quito Quito and surrounding area Quito Quito and surrounding area

Description

IJOO—86.

Source

"Fiebres" "Catarros"

L C, 00117 L C, 00119

"Viruelas y diferentes achaques" "Achaques de agudos" "Pestilencia y achaques" "Sarampion"

L C, 00119

"Viruelas" "Viruelas" "Viruelas y peste de japon" "Epidemia de peste" "Esquilencia y disenteria" "Varias enfermedades" "Mai de pujos" "Disenteria y otros enfermedades" "Viruelas" "Sarampion"

L Cf 00119 L C, 00122 and 123

AGI, Q172 Herrera y Enriquez, "Apunte," 2:143 AJC, 01229 Toribio, "Apuntes," p. 81 GL,a 2,5,8 L C, 00129 L C, 00130 L C, 00131 L C, 00132 L C, 00132 AJC, 01229 L C, 00133

a

GL — Gazeta de Lima

No outbreak of disease serious enough to warrant inclusion in cabildo minutes occurred for eight years, although endemic infections continued. In May 1708, an epidemic of catarros (coughs) attacked, men, women, and children, Spaniards and natives alike. Some people contracted the disease more than once and many died from it. 2 That this respiratory illness afflicted everyone suggests that it was influenza. Further support for this diagnosis comes from Europe, where "the first influenza epidemic of the eighteenth century took place in 1708—09." 3 The influenza virus 2 Ibid., vol. 00119, fv. 45-6, May n , 1708. 3 Patterson, Pandemic Influenza, p. 13. Patterson claims that this outbreak "was apparently restricted to western Europe," suggesting that the two incidents were unrelated. But because of the paucity of documents for this period, it is entirely possible that these two epidemics were part of a worldwide occurrence, originating with the same virus.

102

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

could easily have been transmitted from the Old World to the New aboard one of the many ships crossing the Atlantic. A year later, the cabildo reported drought and an outbreak of viruelas. Urban mortality rates climbed, and the epidemic spread throughout the region. Council members linked the continuation of the drought to the appearance of "other infections." (Unfortunately, they failed to describe these.) 4 This was followed in April 1713, by "achaques de agudos (an epidemic of dysentery) that killed many persons." 5 According to city council records, there were no significant incidents of disease during the next nine years. But the 1720s proved to be particularly difficult for residents of Quito. Wheat rust, introduced into the region during the 1690s, returned and, as food supplies dwindled, famine threatened. To make matters worse, in some areas years of overexploitation had left previously fertile soil sterile, and many wheat farmers close to Quito and provincial capitals were forced out of business because of declining production and profits. 6 Haciendas rented for one-half of their seventeenth-century rates and novenos yielded only half of their previous amount. 7 Between 1724 and 1726, one or more unnamed diseases afflicted highland residents. In August 1724, the cabildo reported that "many people had died as a result of the pestilence that has been introduced." 8 A year later, the epidemic continued; and in February 1726, the council still noted the presence of achaques. 9 Whether all three descriptions refer to the same infection is not clear. Sarampion appeared in the city during the spring of 1728, and although the disease continued to spread throughout the highlands during 1729, few deaths resulted, according to the president of the audiencia. 10 If sarampion was becoming endemic to the area, reaching epidemic proportions only occasionally, then many persons, especially in the city of Quito and in provincial capitals, would have already been exposed to the virus, which explains the low mortality rate. According to Spanish naval officers Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, who visited Quito during the late 1730s, syphilis was so common "that few persons are free of it, tho' its effects are much more violent in some 4 AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00119, fv. 128-9, September 19, 1709. 5 "Ay epidemia de achaques de agudos, que sean muerto muchas personas" (ibid., f. 98, April 29, 1713). 6 Ibid., vol. 00122, fv. 117-18, September 27, 1723. 7 Herrera y Enriquez, Apunte, 1:311. 8 "Que mueren muchos con la peste que sea introducido" (AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00112, f. 164, August 26, 1724). 9 Ibid., vol. 00123, f. 30, September 19, 1725, and f. 100, February 11, 1726. 10 AGI, Quito 172, presidente de la real audiencia al consejo de indias, May 25, 1730.

Demographic stagnation

103

than in others." Espejo also commented on the "universal" nature of the malady and claimed that many individuals, both male and female, died of the disease. 11 Juan and Ulloa also noted the presence of "a distemper unknown in Europe . . . called peste; and its symptoms are convulsions in every part of the body, a continual endeavor to bite, delirium, {and} vomiting blood." They added that the disease was common throughout South America and that most individuals contracted it at sometime during their lives; having survived an attack, the victim acquired lifetime immunity. This disease may have been a form of hemorrhagic fever endemic in the Andean area. 12 Records reveal no indication that the influenza pandemic that began in Russia in 1729 and struck Peru during 1732 ever arrived in Quito. 1 3 It seems unlikely that officials would have failed to record such a serious incident, and outbreaks of influenza often skip over circumscribed areas. The same pandemic never reached South Carolina, although it was reported along the northern and central coast of the United States. 14 It was not until 1746 that another epidemic hit the region. This can be traced to an outbreak of viruelas that appeared in Lima late in 1744. 15 A few cases were reported in the audiencia of Quito that same year, but the disease did not reach epidemic levels until two years later, in July 1746. 16 Eventually this epidemic made its way into the Amazon Basin, where it claimed the lives of many natives. 17 Five years later, in 1751, another outbreak of viruelas occurred in the city, but, according to Espejo, "it appeared not to be especially malignant." 18 In November 1758, an epidemic of viruelas began in Lima, arriving in Quito in October 1759. By the spring of 1760, the epidemic had reached Popayan. As viruelas continued to move north, another disease, peste de japon (Japan disease), broke out in Bogota, spreading south to Quito and then to Lima. This outbreak of influenza may have been related to an epidemic that began in North America in 1757—8, or it may have been a wave of the pandemic that struck Europe and North America in 1761-2. The fact that observers associated this particular incident with Japan suggests that the disease had arrived in South America from the east. In any case, morbidity in Europe was reportedly high, while mortality re11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo, Reflexiones sobre el contagio transmision de las viruelas, pp. 110-18. Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, A Voyage to South America, 1:294—5. Patterson, Pandemic Influenza, pp. 14—17. Ibid., p. 14. Gazeta de Lima, no. 8, November-December 1744. Herrera y Enriquez, Apunte, 2:143. Toribio, "Apuntes," p. 80. AJC, vol. 01229, Eugenio Espejo, "Sobre viruelas," 1784, f. 39.

104

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

mained low. 19 This description agrees with accounts from the city of Quito. 2 0 A far more lethal disease spread throughout the audiencia in 1763. Between February and April, many natives became ill; by October 1764, many had died. In Quito, cabildo members expressed concern that the price of sugar, an important ingredient in many medicines, was too high (twenty-four reales per arroba [eleven kilos]); so they lowered the price (to eighteen to twenty reales). But the Jesuits, who controlled the local sugar supply, opposed the ruling; by a month later, they had persuaded officials to restore the previous price. 21 As mortality rates increased during 1764, the cabildo did what little it could to mitigate the crisis. Their first step was to inspect the licenses of all doctors and surgeons to protect the public from untrained individuals. The audiencia initiated the second measure, ordering all medical practitioners in the city to report to the hospital to perform an autopsy on a victim of the epidemic in the hope of determining the cause of death. The audiencia further instructed all doctors and surgeons to continue performing autopsies until they discovered the nature of the disease and how best to treat it. 2 2 Four days later, Francisco de Borja y Larraspuro, the official in charge of convoking the operations, returned to request that the cabildo appoint a protomedico because the doctors did not want to perform the surgeries, and they needed one physician to take charge. The council appointed Doctor Joseph Gaude, "professor of medicine," to conduct the proceedings. Within a few days, several postmortems had been done, but the doctors claimed they had learned nothing new, and the epidemic continued. 23 Espejo agreed that the "pestilential fever was new in this country" and he described it as mal de manchas or peste de los indios because "it infected only Indians and some mestizos." His use of the word manchas (bruises or spots) suggests some form of smallpox, measles, or typhus. Indeed, following his description of mal de manchas, he added that an especially virulent form of viruelas was a component of this epidemic. Espejo traced the origins of the outbreak to the Jesuit estate of Tanlagua and claimed that it had spread outward from there. He also charged that as many people died from the "inexperience of those who have the temerity to call themselves physicians" as from the fever.24 19 Patterson, Pandemic Influenza, pp. 19-20. 20 Toribio, "Apuntes," p. 81, and Gazeta de Lima, no. 2, January—March 1759; no. 5, JuneAugust 1759; no. 8, November 1759—January 1760; and no. 10, March—May 1760. 21 AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00129, fy- 42~3» February 25, 1763. 22 Ibid., fv. 34—5, October 9, 1764. 23 Ibid., f. 117, October 13, 1764, and f. n o , October 18, 1764. 24 "En esta provincia se vio el ano pasado de 1764, por este mismo tiempo, la que se llamo mal de manchas, o peste de los indios . . . infestando tan solamente a los indios y algunos mestizos,

Demographic stagnation

105

Between 1769 and 1783, the cabildo noted several serious outbreaks of disease. In March 1769, an epidemic of esquilencia (scarlet fever) and disenteria ravaged the city. 25 In February and March 1777, the council reported that the city was infested with "various diseases." 26 In October 1779, many residents died of ma I de pujos (dysentery).27 During the next three years, disenteria de sangre (bloody dysentery) and other illnesses spread throughout the highlands, claiming many lives. 28 But the most devastating epidemic of the eighteenth century arrived in August 1785. As sarampion began to spread throughout the city, complaints reached the cabildo that pharmacies, even that of the hospital, were open only from 11 A.M. until 3 P.M. The public complained also that the price of medicine was too high. In response, cabildo members met with druggists and hospital administrators, ordering them to stay open around the clock and to lower their prices or face severe penalties. 29 When it became clear that this outbreak was particularly virulent, the cabildo convened an extraordinary session to address the problem of providing medical assistance to poor neighborhoods. Complaints had reached the council that doctors treated only those who could pay and furthermore were overcharging for their services. After deliberation, the council ordered all four licensed physicians in the city to spend three hours each day without pay visiting patients in the neighborhoods to which they would be assigned. To ensure compliance, four council members would also visit these districts daily. The cabildo went on to establish four reales as the maximum fee doctors could charge customers. Two druggists agreed to supply medicine free on receipt of a doctor's prescription. In return, the cabildo promised to reimburse the apothecaries for one-half their expenses at the end of the emergency. 30 The council decided, also, to meet each Friday with the doctors to discuss the course of the epidemic. 31 During one of these Friday meetings, they agreed to distribute 500 pesos of city funds among the poor. 32 Throughout the city, residents fell ill. In September and October, the two worst months of the epidemic, at least 2,400 people, both children and adults, died. 33 In the parishes of Santa Barbara, San Roque, and La

25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

que perecieron sin consuelo, tanto por la malignidad de la fiebre cuanto por la impericia de los que entonces se llamaban temerariamente profesores de Medicina. Pero esta calentura pestilencial, era nueva en este pais" (Espejo, Reflexiones sobre las viruelas, pp. 54, 64). AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00130, f. 23, March 29, 1769. Ibid., vol. 00131, f. 15, February 14, 1777, and f. 17, March 7, 1777. Ibid., vol. 00132, fv. 132-3, October 14, 1779. Ibid., fv. 177, August 11, 1780; f. 186, October 20, 1780; f. 232, October 23, 1781. Ibid., vol. 00133, f. 180, September 6, 1785. Ibid., f. 181-2, September 8, 1785. Ibid., f. 183, September 27, 1785, and f. 184, October 1, 1785. Ibid., fv. 184-5, October 7, 1785. Arcos, La medicina, p. 142.

106

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

Catedral, priests recorded 362 deaths between August 23 and October 4. But, according to the clerics of these three urban districts, the totals did not accurately reflect mortality rates, because many victims were buried in other cemeteries throughout the city and in outlying areas. 34 To the south, in Latacunga, at least 417 Spaniards and 2,333 natives died between September 1785 and March 1786. 35 The population of Ambato was also hit hard. Ramon Puente, administrator of the obraje and hacienda of San Ildefonso, testified that so many natives fell ill that he was forced to close the operation from October 15, 1785, until March 30, 1786. Extended closings of obrajes had not occurred since the epidemics of the 1690s. Puente also stated that when workers finally began to return to their jobs they became even sicker than before and production shut down once again. In the town of Pelileo, ninety adult males, approximately 8 percent of the tributary population, and 225 women and children had died by April 1786; according to Puente, many more continued to perish. 36 The situation resembled that of the 1690s in at least two respects: First, besides the epidemic, natural disasters (in this case, heavy rains and freezing temperatures) threatened food supplies, increasing the difficulties of native communities. Second, so many workers were sick or dying that a serious labor shortage had developed, and few were available to harvest what crops had survived the rains. Puente predicted that labor shortages would continue for a long time because of the deaths of so many young boys. The epidemic of sarampion continued on into New Granada; by 1788, it had reached Bogota. The following year, this epidemic, or possibly an unrelated outbreak, moved south from Bogota, through the audiencia and on into Peru. Epidemic disease remained a serious problem at the end of the eighteenth century, but, increasingly, mortality was limited to infants, children, and those already weakened by other illnesses. Sarampion, viruelas, and other infections introduced by Europeans had been present in the Andes for almost three centuries, and numerous encounters with the native population had encouraged the gradual development of immunities. In a treatise on the history of viruelas written in 1784, Espejo noted that, following the conquest, epidemics of viruelas were introduced 34

35

36

AJC, vol. 00029, Antonio Gomez Laso de la Vega, Cura de Santa Barbara a la audiencia; Juan Fausto Gomez, Cura de La Catedral a la audiencia; Thadeo Romo, Cura de San Roque a la audiencia, September 30 and October 4, 1785. Tyrer, "Demographic and Economic History," p. 61. Among Spaniards, 125 adults and 292 children perished, and 710 adult natives and 1,623 children died. According to Tyrer, 6 percent of Latacunga's native population died during this epidemic. ANHQ, Haciendas 20, folder 119, Cuentas ajustadas del obraje y haciendas de San Ildefonso al Administrator Don Ramon Puente desde 30 de marzo de 1780 hasta 31 de enero de 1787, June 30, 1786, f. 60-7.

Demographic stagnation

107

directly from Spain and other parts of Europe every twenty years. Later, the interval decreased to every twelve years; and "since 1764, it has returned to infect this city every two years." According to the author, an epidemic in 1783 killed "many children" and following that incident, [viruelas] "has become almost endemic; because until today it has not ceased, invading here and there in the neighborhoods of the city as well as in surrounding towns." 37 Earlier records describing low rates of mortality during epidemics of sarampion also suggest that the disease was becoming endemic, only occasionally flaring to epidemic proportions. What triggered these major incidents cannot be determined in many cases; perhaps a particularly virulent strain of disease organism was introduced, or perhaps a previously unknown infection appeared, as in 1763— 4. Certainly in 1708 and 1760, influenza was responsible for many deaths. In at least four instances, cabildo records clearly attribute the arrival of epidemics to areas outside of the audiencia. In 1724, council members described a peste as having been introduced, although they offered no information on its possible origin. But entries about the viruelas epidemics of 1744-6 and 1758-60 clearly trace those outbreaks to the city of Lima; while peste de japon, which also appeared in 1760, arrived from Bogota. Like most eighteenth-century cities, Quito was an unhealthy place even in the best of times. Poor hygiene and the absence of public sanitation policies favored the spread of numerous endemic infections, including tuberculosis, syphilis, and dysentery. Except for respiratory illnesses, which increased during the cool, rainy season (from January through May), and fevers, which appeared most frequently during the dry season (from June through September), outbreaks of disease such as smallpox, measles, and typhus could occur in any month of the year. During the eighteenth century, epidemics passed through the city of Quito on the average of every six years. But, although disease was a constant presence, after 1700, even the most severe outbreaks did not result in the devastat37

"Sean los que fuesen los corpusculos tenues, pero pestilentes de la Viruela, nuestra experiencia nos esta diciendo, que estos nos vinieron de la Espana y de otras regiones de la Europa. En los tiempos anteriores en que el ramo de comercio activo, que hacia esta con la America, especialmente a sus mares del Sur, no era tan frecuente; del mismo modo era mas rara la epidemia de Viruelas. Conforme la negociacion europea se fue aumentando y haciendose mas comun, tambien las Viruelas se hicieron mas familiares. En tiempo de los que llamaban galeones, que venian a los puertos de Cartagena, Panama, Portovelo y Callao, padecfamos las Viruelas de veinte en veinte anos. Despues de doce en doce. . . . Desde entonces [1764] volvio a los dos anos a infestarse esta ciudad. Se destruyo su pestilencia enteramente hasta el ano proximo pasado de mil setecientos ochenta y tres, en que siendo general el contagio con muerte de muchos ninos, se nos ha vuelto domestica o casi endemica; porque no se aparta hasta hoy, invadiendo ya aqui, ya alii, en los barrios de esta ciudad, como tambien en los pueblos del contorno de la provincia" (Espejo, Reflexiones sobre las viruelas, p. 40—1).

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

ing degree of mortality that had occurred during the sixteenth century and again during the 1690s. 38 Cabildo records describe the disease environment as it had evolved by the eighteenth century and also reveal changes in European perceptions of disease. During this period, virtually every reference to a specific outbreak was labeled an epidemic, whereas during the seventeenth century the word was applied only to the most serious incidents. The definition had changed as the point of reference of medical personnel and officials had changed. No longer were the pandemics of the sixteenth century the standard by which outbreaks of disease were judged; increasingly, doctors and colonial officials termed any sizable outbreak an epidemic. European medicine and public health Although Spanish America remained far from the center of Enlightenment-inspired reforms in education and medicine, many of the new ideas and attitudes did cross the Atlantic. As a result, during the eighteenth century, local officials and medical authorities assumed a more active role in dealing with Quito's public health problems. Cabildo records for the city show that, during the 1700s, the entries concerning health-related issues were twenty times the number of entries for the previous two centuries combined. The Bourbon government also encouraged the dissemination of knowledge through the circulation of new medical texts. The writings of Espejo are full of references to the works of Booerhave, Lister, Malpigi, and others, proving that, even in a backwater such as the audiencia of Quito, physicians were familiar with current medical theories. However, although a few of Quito's educated elite had access to the latest European medical literature, little had been actually done to improve public health. At the end of the eighteenth century, the audiencia still did not have a permanent protomedico, even though Espejo and others argued that the presence of such an office would improve the standards of the medical profession and help to eradicate communicable diseases. 39 Officials and doctors agreed that a lack of funds was still their biggest obstacle. It remained a constant problem for the audiencia's hospitals. The Bethlemite order had taken charge of the city's hospital at the beginning of the century. According to cabildo members, the Bethlemites were dedicated and hardworking and did an excellent job with limited re38

39

Although cabildo minutes still present an incomplete history of encounters between the human population and disease, eighteenth-century records are much more complete than those for the earlier period. Espejo, Reflexiones sobre las viruelas, pp. 1 5 8 - 6 3 .

Demographic stagnation

109

40

sources. The order, on the other hand, felt these resources to be too limited; in 1729, they requested permission to charge one tomin from each native in the corregimiento. Two months later, the council denied the request, without explanation. 41 If financing the hospital in the capital of the audiencia proved difficult, the situation in provincial capitals was even worse. As late as the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the Riobamba area had no functioning hospital, and the one that was planned was intended to serve over 100,000 people. 42 Obviously, even the best facilities and staff would be inadequate for such a large population. Nonetheless, local officials took seriously the need to provide a sizable endowment for the new institution. In an attempt to secure a steady source of income, the cabildo of Riobamba ordered all tributaries to contribute one-half real per year toward operating expenses. Another portion of the budget was to be derived from church funds, specifically tithes and novenos. In addition, a bequest of 10,500 pesos from Don Juan Bauptista Dominguez was to be invested and the annual return slated for the hospital. The institution also owned two haciendas that would provide much of the food for patients. The hospital's endowment appeared generous, but it was still insufficient to meet the needs of such a large population. A report on the Indian hospital in the southern city of Cuenca, in 1736, reveals what conditions were like for many residents of these institutions. Officials observed that the hospital building was dilapidated; the sick lay uncared for in one damp room. On August 11, two patients, Juan Gonzalez and Gertrudiz, both natives, described their experiences in the hospital. They charged that the paid staff did little to care for patients. Domingo Gonzalez, alcalde ordinario (town councilman) of Cuenca and administrator of the hospital, provided food — a plate of greens and potatoes with a little meat. A priest of San Juan de Dios "who claimed to be a doctor" prescribed medicines. Patients brought their own beds because the hospital did not provide them. Furthermore, Juan explained, they suffered from the cold and humidity and lacked proper clothing and adequate medicines. 43 The audiencia established a hospital in the port city Guayaquil during the sixteenth century. Because of Guayaquil's importance as a center for commerce and shipping as well as military defense, this hospital routinely cared for soldiers and sailors. As a result, it appears to have received regular funding throughout most of the colonial period. According to a 40 41

AGI, Quito 139, Ramo 7, Cartas del cabildo de Quito, August 24, 1723. AM, Libros de cabtldos, vol. 00123, f. 154, November 22, 1729; fv. 155-6, November 23, 1729; fv. 157-8, November 29, 1729; and vol. 00124, &• 9> January 27, 1730. 42 AGI, Quito 273, Hospitales, Riobamba, 1771-97. 43 ANHQ, Hospitales 2, Cuenca, July 29, 1736.

no

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

report on the hospital of San Juan de Dios, in January 1781 the hospital treated a total oi ninety-two persons. The document described the majority of patients as pobres (poor people); the rest were sailors, soldiers, local residents (presumably not poor), and local tax officials. Of these, fiftythree had been "cured" and discharged; two had died; and the rest remained in the hospital. 44 During the eighteenth century, Quito had only one hospital, a fact some considered a "disgrace" for a city of its size. 45 The building was in the center of the city — an unfortunate location, according to Espejo, who wrote that local residents were thereby exposed to the "corrupt vapors" emanating from within. The physician was also highly critical of hospital administrators and of the conditions that most patients endured, charging that many involved in hospital affairs were motivated solely by greed and that "they earned a lot of money from the poor." Therefore, it did not surprise him that many sick persons "would rather suffer a life of pain than go to the hospital because they saw it as a place of prolonged torture and certain death." 46 The hospital also cared for those persons diagnosed as leprosos (lepers). For some time, city officials and physicians had debated the merits of segregating these individuals from the rest of the hospital population, but no action had been taken. Rather than establish a new hospital to deal only with leprosy, in October 1785 the viceroy of New Granada ordered all twenty-two lepers transferred to the Hospital of Lazarinos in Cartagena. After examining each of the patients, Doctor Bernardo Delgado concluded that only five individuals were capable of making the arduous journey. Not surprisingly, those five were most upset by the prospect of being uprooted and transferred hundreds of miles from their homeland. They told Delgado that they were terrified of the trip, especially the voyage from Guayaquil, and that if the doctor tried to force them to go, they would flee into the most remote areas of the highlands. 47 Whether the five were ever transferred is not clear, but in April 1789, the cabildo met to discuss funding the move. 48 What is most significant about this episode is that, for the first time, fiscal considerations motivated the viceregal administration to consider centralizing and consolidating health care for a particular segment of the population of New Granada. In spite of local officials' taking a more active interest in public health, little had been done to improve unsanitary conditions throughout the city. 44 45 46 47 48

ANHQ, Hospitales 3, Guayaquil, April 21, 1780. Espejo, Reflexiones sobre las viruelas, p. 94. "Que los enfermos, mas bien quieren arrastrar una vida dolorosa, que ir al hospital, porque le ven a este como el lugar de su dilatado suplico y de su muerte cierta" (ibid., p. 98). ANHQ, Hospitales 4, Quito, October 10, 1785. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00134, f. 103, April 15, 1789.

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Inadequate and contaminated water supplies were a frequent problem, as was the dumping of garbage on city streets. 49 In 1743, the audiencia and Doctor Joseph Sisiu directed the cabildo to publish a ban ordering residents and property owners to clean city streets and prohibiting shopkeepers from disposing of garbage in public places where it "rotted and corrupted the air, leading to the epidemic currently claiming many lives." The audiencia also directed council members to inspect all mills, bakeries, and shops to find contaminated wheat and barley flour and to throw all confiscated materials into rivers and ravines. 50 It is not clear that these measures were ever enforced; but they were only temporary and at best would have had little effect on the chronically unhealthy conditions in Quito. By the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the situation still had not improved. According to Espejo, the most serious problem was the disposal of human waste and garbage on city streets. He argued that local authorities should heavily fine residents who dumped their refuse in public places and that the city should begin releasing water to wash the streets regularly. 51 He was especially critical of the monasteries of La Concepcion, Santa Clara, and Santa Catalina, which he claimed "were full of garbage and all types of filth." He urged the directors of these institutions to inspect the premises weekly to ensure that all waste was properly disposed of.52 Another public health problem was the sale of contaminated alcohol: In January 1714, the council reported that many slaves and Indians had died from drinking tainted liquor. Trying to prevent further mortality, the cabildo reiterated its ban on the illegal manufacture of aguardiente (cane alcohol); but unlicensed production of alcohol was so widespread and profitable that the ban proved unenforceable.53 By 1744, the illegal production of aguardiente had become such a problem that sugar, its key ingredient, was in short supply. Public drunkenness was leading to serious disturbances, and many individuals, especially Indians, died from alcohol poisoning. In response, the cabildo imposed a fifty-peso fine on anyone caught manufacturing aguardiente without a license and ordered the destruction of all confiscated liquor. 54 Espejo considered the problem of excessive alcohol consumption one of the most serious public health issues facing the audiencia. He was especially critical of those who fortified their preparations with "narcotic 49 50 51 52 53 54

Ibid., vol. 00121, f. 72, February 26, 1717; and vol. 00134, f- 10, January 16, 1787. Ibid., vol. 00126, fv. 41-2, July 1, 1743. Espejo, Reflexiones sobre las viruelas, pp. 7 1 - 4 . Ibid., p. 93. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00120, f. 132, January 25, 1714. Ibid., vol. 00126, f. 5 4 - 5 , January 10, 1744.

ii2

Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

herbs." He claimed that such drinks made people "crazy" and that, "although these spirits are not drunk in large quantities . . . they have produced inflammations of the liver, tumors on the spleen, and dropsy."55 Concern for the health of the native population was not the only factor motivating governmental action, however. Both the audiencia and the cabildo expressed their displeasure over the large amounts of revenue lost to the estanco de aguardiente (the office that collected the alcohol tax) because of the sale of alcohol on the black market. According to one estimate, over 20,000 bottles of aguardiente were sold legally in the city each year. 56 The number of bottles sold illegally must have been several times greater. Most of the public health situations confronting local officials and physicians during the eighteenth century were the same as those faced by their predecessors. Epidemics, endemic diseases, and poor sanitation remained facts of life throughout the audiencia. What had changed, however, were the attitudes and responses of those in charge of dealing with such issues. After 1750, the audiencia and cabildo were increasingly active in dealing with matters affecting public health. Mandating autopsies, forcing doctors to treat the poor free of charge, subsidizing the dispensation of medicines to the sick, and distributing city funds to the indigent were all policies without precedent in the audiencia. The idea of charity certainly was not new in Spanish America; traditionally, the church and wealthy individuals had assumed responsibility for collecting and distributing whatever resources were available to aid the poor. But after 1750, the colonial government became increasingly involved with such concerns, implementing new policies that required not only commitments of time and energy but financial resources as well. Of course, compared to relief efforts in the colonies' wealthiest and most important center, Mexico City, the funds available were meager. However, even in New Spain, "the capacity of Mexico City to assist its sick—poor during any given epidemic was closely related to its economic prosperity at that particular time." 57 Therefore, in the dire economic situation in the highlands of Quito during the eighteenth century, little was available to aid the region's thousands of poor residents. To understand the origins of the changes in attitude that did occur, it is necessary to look beyond charity and a renewed sense of responsibility for the poor and sick to the policies and objectives of the Bourbon government. In the eighteenth century, the Spanish crown implemented many new policies designed to strengthen political control and increase reve55

56 57

"Todos estos licores aunque no se beban en mayor cantidad, he visto, que han producido las inflamaciones del higado, mortales disinterias, tumores en el bazo y caquexias o verdaderamente hidropesias, imposibles de curarse" (Espejo, Reflexioms sobre las viruelas, pp. 83-4). AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00126, fv. 149-50, May 23, 1746, and f. 151, June 22, 1746. Donald Cooper, Epidemic Disease, p. 190.

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nues. Spain desperately needed financial support at a time when colonial governments faced growing opposition and unrest from all sectors of society. To address both of these problems, governments began taking control of policies and programs previously outside their jurisdictions. This drive for control manifested itself in many areas, from the implementation of new trade and tax laws to the regulation of hospitals and the care of the indigent. This emerging interest in public health focused attention on the effects of disease. It was commonly recognized that during epidemics, poor neighborhoods had higher mortality rates than others; many believed that poverty predisposed individuals to illness. Nevertheless, the elite also believed that the poor were somehow responsible for their economic plight and thus for their sickness. In Mexico City, officials argued that the sick-poor should voluntarily commit themselves to hospitals to help prevent the spread of disease — even though they knew that the poor regarded such institutions as places of certain death. 58 Increasingly, public health policies came to focus on one social class, the poor. Legislation aimed at controlling and isolating the sick-poor in Europe had developed out of the plague epidemics of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 59 By the sixteenth century, hospitals were also being used as poorhouses where the indigent were housed, often against their will, and forced to labor on public projects in exchange for food and shelter. 60 While local governments in Spanish America never had the funds necessary for such expensive welfare policies, many members of the elite favored similar measures. Espejo argued that the audiencia needed more hospitals because "they are the asylums for the poor and abandoned." 61 Even Mexico City was unable to subsidize the types of public welfare programs prevalent in many European cities. But, in spite of its inability to finance such stringent measures of control, the policies adopted by the audiencia and cabildo of Quito reflected their desire to exercise some restraint over the masses of poor, especially in urban areas. The reasons for their concern will become clear in the last section of this chapter. Demographic stagnation and economic depression Any attempt to assess the effect of disease on demographic trends in the highlands of Ecuador during the eighteenth century must begin with the 58 59 60 61

Ibid., pp. 7 5 - 9 . See Carmichael, Plague and the Poor, pp. 121-6. Natalie Zemon Davis, "Poor Relief," pp. 215—75. "Son los asilos donde va a salvar su vida la gente pobre y desamparada de parientes y benefactores" (Espejo, Reflexiones sobre las viruelas, p. 94).

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador

epidemics and natural disasters of the 1690s. Because of the great mortality from these events, in 1700, the number of Indians in the northcentral sierra had been reduced by half; as a result, the region entered a period of demographic stagnation and economic depression from which it would not fully recover until the present century (see Tables 6.2 and 6.3). During the halcyon days of the mid-seventeenth century, some 50,000 people lived in the city of Quito and its immediate vicinity.62 Of that number, only 5 percent were whites; natives, mestizos, and mulattoes composed the remainder. Although there are no data on the population of the city for the years immediately after the 1690s, the deaths of one-half of all inhabitants must have reduced the number to approximately 25,000. The collapse of the regional economy, particularly the closing of numerous urban obrajes, pushed many survivors out to seek work in rural areas. Data from the second half of the eighteenth century support the idea that the rate of decline was especially severe in urban areas and suggest that the city population may have fallen as low as 20,000. Throughout the highland region, the degree of demographic decline was equally severe. According to a report submitted to the audiencia by Manuel Navarette de Vera, between 1690 and 1700 tribute collections fell by almost 50 percent. 63 Fortunately, more detailed information about the decline can be found in separate accounts for each of the highland provinces. In addition to recording the amount of tribute collected, these documents include the number of adult males actually paying the tax. If it is assumed that many continued to avoid tax collectors, and the total figure is adjusted upward by 25 percent to account for that factor, the number of tributary-aged males in the north-central highlands in 1710 was approximately 44,500. A comparison with the data from the 1670s shows a decline of 37 percent. 64 Constant complaints from both hacendados (landowners) and obraje owners about severe labor shortages support these low estimates. Between deaths and absenteeism, the number of tributaries in most highland juris62

In 1650, Rodriguez Docampo estimated the population of the city at 25,000, excluding Indians. Because Indians constituted at least one-half of the urban population, the total population probably numbered around 50,000. Docampo, "Description y relation del estado eclesiastico del Obispado de San Francisco de Quito," Relaciones geografkas 3:6. Also see Phelan, Kingdom, p. 49. 63 AGI, Quito 143, Manuel Navarette de Vera a la audiencia, May 9, 1716. Navarette based his claims on the treasury accounts compiled by Diego Suarez de Figueroa in 1704. These records indicate that out of a total of 560,209 pesos owed by corregidors in the seven highland provinces, only 285,252 pesos were ever collected. 64 Most of the information concerning tribute collections during the first decade of the eighteenth century are located in ANHQ, Tributos 5 and Presidencia de Quito 19. The total for Riobamba was offered by local caciques in their report concerning the prevalence of forced labor following the disasters of the 1690s. AGI, Quito 128, Caciques de Riobamba a la audiencia, November 13, 1711, fv. 338-9.

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Table 6.2. The native population of the north-central highlands, 1670-1825 Date

Total population

Tributaries

Sources

1670 1710

300,000 [150,000]

71,000 44,500

1740

[200,000]

1780

217,000

1825

197,000

See Chapter 4, nn. 80, 81 [Based on 50 percent mortality as a result of the epidemics and natural disasters of the 1690s]; ANHQ, Tributos 5 and Presidencia de Quito 19 Based on Minchom's estimate of a 25%-3O% increase in the city of Quito, 1700-40. Minchom, "Demographic Change," p. 468 Based on the Villalengua census, AGI, Quito 381 or 412 Based on Minchom s figures for the 1825 census and calculating that Indians constituted 70% of the total

Table 6.3. The native population of the north-central highlands, Date

Population

1520 1598 1670 1780 1825

1,080,000" 105-112,000 300,000 217,000 197,000

1520-1825

Sources See Chapter 1, "The native population before 1534" See Chapter 3, "Demographic trends" See Chapter 4, nn. 80, 81 AGI, Quito 381 or 412 Minchom, "Demographic Change," p. 465

*These figures include native population of the entire audiencia.

dictions had declined by 30-50 percent or more. Officials in the village of Lican, Riobamba, reported that 38 percent of the adult male population was gone. Tribute rolls in the neighboring towns of Cubijies, San Andres, and Puni showed declines of 72, 42, and 27 percent, respectively. (These figures include both dead and absent males.) 65 In the north, the labor shortage appeared to be even more critical. In 1697, the corregidor of Otavalo wrote, "the population used to be 3,000 Indians resulting in tribute collections of 16,000 pesos but now it has been reduced to only 100 Indians." 66 Although this report may have exaggerated the degree of 65

ANHQ, Presidencia de Quito, tomos 16 and 17, Caciques de Riobamba a la audiencia, November 13, 1706, and October 21, 1707. 66 "El qual habiendo sido su poblacion de 3,000 indios y satisfaciendose entonces de tributos en el 16,000 pesos havia quedado reducido a solos 100 indios" (AGI, Quito 15, Corregidor de Otavalo a la audiencia, Otavalo, 1697).

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decline (a decrease of 97 percent seems too extreme), it nevertheless indicates the severity of the crisis. As the full extent of the destruction became apparent, officials confronted the fact that the disasters would have long-term as well as immediate demographic consequences. The existing tributary population had been seriously depleted, and in the future, the number of tributaries would remain low owing to the deaths of approximately one-half of all children and young adults. Although birthrates probably rose quickly after 1695, t n e small number of persons left to reproduce would continue to slow recovery for at least a generation. Some twenty years after the crisis, an increase in the number of young adults could be expected. This, in turn, would lead to further increases in population as these individuals married and reproduced. But in 1700, recovery was a long way off. In response to the labor shortage, obraje owners and hacendados increased pressure on Indian communities to supply more workers. Caciques complained that tribute rolls had not been updated since the 1600s and that, following the epidemics, Spaniards continued to demand the same number of workers as had been assigned to them decades before.67 Although many caciques petitioned the audiencia for new censuses that would more accurately reflect the demographic reality of their communities, Quito's elite succeeded in blocking such proposals on the grounds that the audiencia could ill afford the expense of such a massive undertaking. 6 8 For more than two decades following the disasters, tensions escalated between native communities and landowners over the labor issue. In 1699 a cacique from Pillaro, Ambato, reported that only nine tributaries and five boys remained in his parcialidad (neighborhood unit within a native community), and of those, eight had been conscripted into the local repartimiento. He added that, because there were so few males, those who remained were forced to work constantly, without rest; as a result, he anticipated that several would eventually flee.69 In Puni, Riobamba, in 1705, a count of the tributary population revealed 111 adult males, thirty-five of whom were absent. According to their cacique, of the remaining seventy-five tributaries, he was legally obligated to supply seventeen gananes (mita Indians), but hacendados had already claimed fifty-six.70 After a census of tributaries in the province of Chimbo in 1657, officials had assigned local landowners 600 mitayos; but in spite of the loss of population, in 1711, more than 1,200 men were drafted. 71 67 68

Ibid., Quito 128, fv. 336. AM, Libros de cabildos, vol. 00118, fv. 158-9, November 16, 1707, ». il f. 175-80, December 16, 1707. 69 ANHQ, Indigenas 24, Cacique de Pillaro a la audiencia, 1699. 70 Ibid., Indigenas 29, Cacique de Puni a la audiencia, July 10, 1705. 71 AGI, Quito 128, fv. 336.

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Throughout the corregimiento of Riobamba, caciques reported only 4,200 tributaries (down from 14,000 in the 1670s); of those, the repartimiento claimed more than 2,3oo. 7 2 Such abuses continued for many years. In 1723, the protector of Indians from the corregimiento of Quito reported that landowners continued to demand the same number of repartimiento Indians that they had been assigned in 1659, in spite of the fact that the native population was "less than half of what it had been at the time of the census. 73 The situation in the manufacturing sector was the same: owners resorted to increasingly harsh tactics to secure workers. In some instances, desperate obraje managers even seized hacienda Indians. According to the corregidor of Otavalo, Sebastian Manrrique, natives were regularly placed in prison "for no other offense except that they were born Indians"; from there they were taken to work in obrajes until they escaped or died. 74 Indeed, confrontations over forced labor in obrajes had become so serious that as early as December 31, 1704, a royal cedula banned obraje mitas altogether. But stiff resistance from owners and administrators delayed enforcement of the ruling for ten years; and by 1714, when the ban finally took effect, most community obrajes had already closed down. But although competition for native workers had declined, those obrajes that remained in operation continued to report severe labor shortages. In 1733, the audiencia president Joseph Araujo reported that owners frequently locked workers up at night in order to keep them from running away.75 The shortage of labor was only one of several problems confronting the struggling textile industry. The decline of mining production in Upper Peru during the seventeenth century had prompted many Peruvian entrepreneurs to turn to textile manufacturing as an alternative form of investment. Beginning in the 1680s, numerous obrajes opened in Lima and Upper Peru, weakening the market for Quito's cloth, which was increasingly uncompetitive because of higher transportation costs. To make matters worse, by the first decade of the eighteenth century, large quantities of European cloth began flooding markets throughout the viceroyalty, further reducing demand for Quito's product. Increased competition reduced prices by 40 to 50 percent between 1700 and 1750; and, as profits shrank, textile production in the highlands of Ecuador declined sharply.76 According to cabildo member Miguel de Jijon y Leon, by 1752 72 Ibid., fv. 338. 73 Ibid., Quito 129, Protector de indios, Francisco Ramirez de Arellano a la audiencia, December 2, 1723, fV. 473. 74 Ibid., Quito 142, Corregidor de Otavalo a la audiencia, June 11, 1702. 75 Ibid., Quito 145, Joseph Araujo al consejo de indias, August 9, 1733. 76 Tyrer, "Demographic and Economic History," pp. 184-226; and Washburne, "The Bourbon Reforms," p. 3.

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the number of bales of cloth exported to Peru had declined from 12,000 to only 3,ooo. 77 Throughout this period, urban obrajes and chorillos (small operations with fewer than twenty workers) experienced the greatest rate of decline. Because Quito's entire business community depended on revenues generated by the textile industry, by the 1720s, wholesale and retail merchants had also suffered significant losses: "because of the lack of silver the number of businesses in the city has declined from more than 400 to only 70 or 80; and of these, 10 or 12 are unable to sell their cloth and other goods." Real estate prices in the city also plummeted, and buildings sold for a half or a third of their previous value. 78 The rapid decline of Quito's commercial sector illustrates the severity of the depression. To protect the interests of the city's white merchant elite by limiting competition from unlicensed vendors, the cabildo voted on June 26, 1724, to prohibit Indians, blacks, mestizos, and mulattoes from selling goods in public places. The council also expressed concern over Quito's flourishing black market trade in European cloth, flour, and wine. 79 According to Juan and Ulloa, Quito's merchants purchased smuggled goods along the coast of Cartagena, then shipped them back to Quito. At the same time, they made legitimate purchases that were also transported south into the audiencia. Much of this merchandise, both legal and contraband, could then be sold in Lima, where demand was greater and prices higher. Juan and Ulloa reported that warehouses in Quito were full of contraband, and no secret was made of the extent of the smuggling. 80 Smuggled goods also entered the sierra from other places. Ships from Acapulco carrying oriental silks frequently unloaded their wares at the small ports of Atacames, Puerto Viejo, Manta, or Santa Elena before going on to Guayaquil, their official destination. Accomplices then shipped the silk to Guayaquil, Quito, or Lima for sale on the black market. A few individuals obviously profited from the contraband trade, but the overall effect of such dealings was to reduce even further the available market for Quito's legitimate merchants. 81 Long-term economic depression had a decidedly negative effect on the standard of living of highland elites. Traditionally, the fortunes of Quito's leading citizens had been derived from some aspect of the textile trade or hacienda agriculture. As those sectors contracted, the incomes of prominent families shrank, and many were eventually forced into bankruptcy. 82 77 AGI, Quito 139, Miguel de Jijon y Leon al consejo de indias, August i, 1752. 78 Herrera and Enriquez, Apunte, 1:307-8. 79 Ibid., 1:327. 80 Juan and Ulloa, Discourse, pp. 45—52. 81 Juan and Ulloa, Discourse, p. 271. 82 AJC, Vol. 00001, Presidente de la audiencia al consejo de indias, November 21, 1800; and Washburne, "Creoles," p. 4.

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Describing the city of Quito as they saw it in 1736, Juan and Ulloa later wrote, "Quito . . . was formerly in a much more flourishing condition than at present; the number of its inhabitants being considerably decreased, particularly the Indians, whole streets of whose huts are now forsaken, and in ruins." 83 The authors then went on to estimate the city's total population at 50,000—60,000. 84 These figures are grossly inflated, however; by the 1730s, the highland population had experienced only moderate demographic recovery. In fact, the epidemics and food shortages of the 1720s had slowed population growth, and the disastrous state of the city's economy continued to discourage immigration. It therefore seems likely that the figures given by Juan and Ulloa represent double the actual number of inhabitants. Nevertheless, the naval officers were correct in noting that the native population had undergone the steepest decline and now constituted only one-third of all urban residents. Data about the population of the city of Quito for the first half of the eighteenth century are scarce, but on the basis of information in several parish registers, historian Martin Minchom has calculated that, by the 1740s, some 30,000 persons lived in the city of Quito. 8 5 Given that the city's population numbered only 20,000-25,000 in 1700, Minchom's estimate posits an increase of 25 to 30 percent over a forty-year period. But even though this represents a significant rate of growth, the number of urban dwellers remained well below the estimated population of 50,000 in 1650. Although there were frequent outbreaks of disease during the first half of the century, in general mortality rates remained low. As a result, the native population of the north-central highlands experienced a period of modest recovery, especially during the 1730s and 1750s. 86 Unfortunately, no census figures have yet been found to reveal the size of that population at mid-century, but if the rate of increase was similar to that registered in the city of Quito between 1700 and 1740, the total number of Indians living in the north-central sierra region may have approached 200,000. With the arrival of the mysterious epidemic of 1763—4, however, this brief recovery came to an end. To date, the only estimate of mortality comes from several communities in Ambato, where at least 513 tributaries (approximately 15 percent of the adult male population) died during the outbreak. 87 Although cabildo records do not contain estimates of 83 Juan and Ulloa, Voyage, 1:263-5. 84 Ibid., 1:276. 85 Minchom, "Demographic Change," pp. 459-80. 86 Minchom's analysis of births and deaths in the urban parishes of El Sagrario, Santa Barbara, and San Bias indicates a rise in mortality rates during the late 1720s, probably in response to agricultural shortfalls and disease. He notes similar increases during the mid-1740s and mid-1760s, both in response to epidemics (ibid., pp. 470-1). 87 Tyrer, "Demographic and Economic History," p. 61.

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urban mortality, the amount of time devoted to discussions of the crisis and the unprecedented steps taken to diagnose the illness indicate the serious threat from the epidemic. For the remainder of the eighteenth century, many incidents of disease, particularly the epidemic of 1785, and continued economic depression reinforced the downturn. The late 1770s proved to be a turning point in the demographic history of the audiencia, for it was during this period that royal officials conducted the first modern censuses of the area. Although inaccuracies and discrepancies can be found even in these carefully organized documents, the data they contain are unparalleled in providing historians with a broad view of late-eighteenth-century population trends. 88 Between 1776 and 1781, two separate sets of census data were compiled by colonial authorities: the first constituted part of the viceroyalty-wide count ordered in 1776 and carried out between 1779 and 1781; the second was a census of the audiencia conducted by Visitor Juan Josef de Villalengua in the late 1770s. 89 According to the data compiled during 1779—81, the total population of the north-central highlands numbered some 282,000 persons (see Table 6.4). The totals of the Villalengua count are slightly higher, however — approximately 300,000 in the area between Ibarra and Riobamba. 90 Of these, slightly over 70 percent were natives (217,000), while whites and mestizos made up 25 percent, and free blacks and slaves, 5 percent. When compared to the 1740 estimate of 200,000, these figures indicate that overall the Indian population had experienced a modest growth of only 8 percent during 40 years. Not all areas of the highlands registered population increases during this period. According to Minchom and geographer Rosemary Bromley, the last quarter of the eighteenth century was marked by urban recession. During 1740-80, the population of the city of Quito contracted from 30,000 to 25,000, a drop of almost 17 percent (see Table 6.5). At the same time, the number of persons residing in the provincial capitals of Riobamba and Latacunga declined by 5 and 32 percent, respectively. According to Bromley, the earthquake and floods of 1757 accounted for the especially sharp decline in Latacunga. 91 88

For a discussion of the problems inherent in these documents, see Minchom, "Demographic Change," pp. 459-61. 89 Copies of the Villalengua census are located in AGI, Quito 381 and 412. Various copies of the data for 1779-81 are located in the AGI and ANHQ. See, e.g., ANHQ, Empadronamientos 5 (Latacunga) and 15 (Otavalo) and AGI, Quito 240-1 and 377. 90 In addition to Minchom, a number of scholars have published their findings about these two censuses. See Paz y Mino, La poblacion del Ecuador, pp. 24—39; Tyrer, "Demographic and Economic History," p. 79; and Washburne, "Bourbon Reforms," p. 2. Rosemary Bromley has also worked extensively with these documents. 91 Bromley, "Functions and Development" p. 38.

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Table 6.4. The population of north-central Ecuador, 1778-81 Place Ibarra Otavalo Quito Latacunga Ambato Riobamba Chimbo Total

General census 16,593 32,240 59,485 49,935 42,373 66,726 14,456 281,808

Villalengua census 23,871 37,897 66,733 49,018 41,337 66,827 15,704 301,387

These documents also reveal important changes taking place in the racial composition of the highland population (see Table 6.5; see also Table 6.3). During the last quarter of the sixteenth century, some thousand Spaniards, many with families, had taken up residence in the city of Quito. The nonnative population of the audiencia also included 2,000 mestizos and "many mulattos." 92 Even if these figures underestimate the number of castas (people of mixed race) and Europeans, both groups were tiny in comparison to the Indian majority. Throughout the seventeenth century, the Spanish population remained small, while the number of mestizos and mulattoes increased significantly. Nevertheless, natives continued to compose at least one-half of all urban residents. But this situation changed dramatically after the disasters of the 1690s. As a result, in 1737, the corregidor of Quito, Nicolas Ponce de Leon complained about "the imponderable number of mestizos . . . who by adopting Spanish dress are able to avoid tribute payments." The corregidor favored legislation that would prohibit "Spaniards, mestizos, or others of mixed race" from living in Indian communities. 93 But such a law would have proved impossible to enforce, and for the remainder of the colonial period the number of persons who identified themselves as mestizos continued to climb. By 1780, Indians made up only 25 to 30 percent of Quito's urban population, down significantly from the mid-seventeenth century. A similar trend was underway in the urban parishes of Latacunga, Ambato, and Riobamba, where the white and mestizo sectors of the population had grown to 52, 38, and 55 percent of the total population, respectively. 94 92 Cabildo de Quito, "Descripcion de Quito," pp. 45-70. 93 AGI, Quito 138, Corregidor de Quito a la audiencia, January 9, 1737. 94 See Bromley, "Urban-Rural Demographic Contrasts," p. 286.

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Native society and disease in colonial Ecuador Table 6.5. Population of the city of Quito,

Date

Population

1650

50,000

1700

20-25,000

1740 1780 1830

30,000 25,000 21,700

1650-1830

Sources Docampo, "Descripcion," p. 6, and Phelan, Kingdom, p.49 Based on 50% mortality as a result of epidemics and natural disasters of the 1690s Minchom, "Demographic Change," p. 468 Minchom, "Demographic Change," p. 468 AM, vol. 00064, Padron 1831

Although the percentage of whites in rural areas was considerably lower (18 percent in Riobamba, 20 percent in Latacunga), except in Ambato (32 percent), even there the number of Indians was declining in relation to whites. Several factors account for the "whitening" of the highland population: First, whites were experiencing a higher rate of natural increase than Indians; second, the mestizo population, which had been expanding steadily throughout the colonial period, was now increasing rapidly; and third, a growing number of Indians were choosing to live and dress as mestizos in order to avoid tribute and mita obligations. 95 The depressed economy of the audiencia also triggered changes in migration patterns after the 1690s. During their heyday in the midseventeenth century, the central highland provinces, especially Quito and Riobamba, had been favored destinations for thousands of Indian migrants. But the decline of the obraje economy and subsequent long-term depression had reversed this trend; during the eighteenth century, migrants moved away from the central region in all directions. Thus, during this period, the population of the southern highlands around Cuenca and Loja grew, as did the coastal population of Guayaquil and the northern province of Ibarra. 96 Another significant change in migration patterns was the frequency with which individuals and even entire Indian communities fled to uncontrolled lowland areas along the eastern and western slopes of the Andes. Juan and Ulloa reported that the entire native population of Pimanpiro, Ibarra, some 5,000 persons, had abandoned their village and moved to "heathen settlements" on the Cordillera Occidental. Occasionally a few of the renegades would appear in the town of Mira to trade. According to the two Spaniards, "in less than two hours, an Indian could flee from Mira into the mountains." 97 In the south-central area around Riobamba, many 95 96

Bromley, "Change," 412-13. Minchom, "Demographic Change," p. 476; and Michael T. Hamerly, "Social and Economic History." 97 Juan and Ulloa, Discourse, pp. 109, 169.

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Indians had reportedly fled east to the remote settlement of Guamboya. 98 The censuses of 1776-81 were soon followed by the outbreak of sarampion in August 1785. Although this epidemic was not so bad as those of the 1690s, it claimed thousands of lives throughout the audiencia. In the city of Quito, the deaths of 2,400 persons meant the loss of approximately 10 percent of the population. In the town of Pelileo, Ambato, 8 percent of all tributaries perished. Reports from other areas of the highlands suggest that mortality rates averaged 5 to 10 percent. According to Bromley, in Latacunga officials recorded 2,750 deaths: 61 per 1,000 Indians and 36 per 1,000 whites. She added that most of the fatalities were children." Several years later, the most destructive natural disaster of the eighteenth century further reduced the population of the south-central region (see Table 6.6). On February 4, 1797, a severe earthquake claimed over 12,000 lives in the corregimientos of Riobamba, Latacunga, Ambato, and Chimbo. 100 After this, looting broke out in many areas; and in the village of San Miguel, Chimbo, Indians seized the opportunity to rebel against local authorities. Officials in Riobamba complained that, with the white population reduced to an eighth of its former size, Indians were becoming increasingly insolent and that famine was imminent because most of the harvest had been destroyed in the disaster. It was not until March 17, almost six weeks after the earthquake, that officials were able to restore order in the stricken area. Thus, by the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the native population of highland Ecuador was only slightly larger than it had been in 1700. But Quito's troubles were not yet over. Political unrest and escalating violence associated with the coming of the wars for independence disrupted all sectors of highland society, leading to lower birthrates and a significant increase in the number of deaths. This is borne out by the results of a census conducted in 1825, which demonstrates that the native population of the north-central highlands had declined by almost 10 percent since the 1780s. 101 Comparison of the 1825 census with that of Villalengua indicates that decline was most severe in the corregimiento of Riobamba, which lost 23 percent of its total population. At least part of that loss was due to the earthquake of 1797, which had been centered in that province. The corregimientos of Otavalo, Quito, Ambato, and Chimbo registered declines of 12, 5, 9, and 4 percent, respectively. In this same period, the 98 Ibid., pp. 111-12. 99 Bromley, "Disasters," p. 105. 100 AGI, Quito 403, Testimonios 2, 3, 4, and 5; Corregidores de Riobamba, Ambato, Latacunga, and Chimbo a la audiencia, March 1797. 101 See Minchom, "Demographic Change," p. 7.

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6,303 5,908 234 57 12,505

population of Ibarra increased 7 percent, and that of Latacunga by 14 percent. 102 The data reveal that demographic depression was most severe in urban areas. For example, the urban populations of Latacunga, Ambato, and Riobamba declined by 35, 50, and 67 percent. 103 And according to a census of the city of Quito conducted in 1830, the population was only 21,674, down 13 percent since the 1780s. 104 With the notable exceptions of Ibarra and Latacunga, demographic decline characterized the Ecuadorian highlands as they entered a new era of political independence.

Native medicine and political resistance Much of this study has concentrated on the social and political implications of disease. These become especially clear for the eighteenth century, when the continued practice of ancient medical and religious traditions aided native society in its struggle to survive in spite of increasingly severe economic and political repression. Several factors in the first half of the eighteenth century combined to make life more difficult for individual natives and for their communities. The serious labor shortage resulting from the disasters of the 1690s led officials, obrajeros, and landowners to adopt ever more exploitive tactics in their desperate search for workers. Their refusal to amend tax lists further exacerbated the problem and greatly increased the burden of tribute and mita obligations on the remaining Indian population. At the same time, the transformation of these obligations into personal rather than communal responsibilities fragmented group interests and isolated individuals. 102

103 104

Comparison of the figures for Ibarra from the 1825 census to those collected between 1779 and 1781 indicates that the population had increased by 54 percent. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine which of the two late-eighteenth-century censuses more accurately reflects Ibarra's demographic situation. However, it appears certain that, after two centuries of decline, this northernmost province was finally experiencing population growth. The expansion of the local plantation economy probably accounted for this development. I can find no plausible explanation for the increase registered in the corregimiento of Latacunga. Bromley, "Functions and Development," p. 36. AM, vol. 00064, Padron 1831.

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The rapidly increasing number of persons of mixed blood, many of whom lived in or close to Indian communities, further undermined unity within native society. Their presence and that of significant numbers of forasteros heightened tensions and intracommunal conflicts over the distribution of scarce economic resources and political power. As the composition of these communities became increasingly diverse, native residents struggled to maintain their identity as distinct and separate from the rest of colonial society. Political repression escalated, as the reform-minded Bourbon government attempted to secure greater control over all society, including the "republic of Indians," which, until then, had enjoyed a limited autonomy. In response, opposition to colonial authority increased significantly throughout the Andes after 1700. 105 In many areas, Indian resistance took the form of violent protests against specific officials and policies. Even in the highlands of Ecuador, where such resistance to Spanish rule had been notably absent during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, at least ten uprisings occurred between 1730 and 1803. 1 0 6 In each instance the cause of rebellion was rooted in the economic concerns of local Indian residents and involved land, labor, and tribute. As the level of oppression increased throughout the century, Indian society drew upon both pre-Columbian and colonial traditions to sustain itself. Especially in areas away from European centers of development, many villages were able to retain control over communal lands, enabling residents to maintain at least limited economic independence. In addition, individuals and communities continued the now long-established practice of utilizing the Spanish legal system to oppose both political and economic encroachments. And one important way that native society preserved its unity and identity was through continued reliance on preconquest religious beliefs and ceremonies, including healing rituals. Because of Quito's peripheral position within the viceroyalty, it existed outside "the main path of extirpation"; therefore, native traditions remained stronger here than in areas of Peru and Upper Peru that had borne the full brunt of Spain's attempts to eliminate Indian religion. 107 Hence, the memories to which Bishop Pena Montenegro was so violently opposed remained more vivid here than in many other regions and may have played a more central role in Indian resistance. As Bourbon policies designed to expand governmental influence met 105 106 107

Stern refers to the period from 1742 to 1782 as "the age of Andean insurrection" because of the many rebellions that took place throughout the region. See Stern, Resistance, p. 34. Moreno Yanez, Sublevaciones. Salomon uses this phrase when referring to the Arequipa area, but it seems equally applicable to Quito. Salomon, "Ancestor Cults and Resistance to the State in Arequipa, ca. 1748-1754," in Stern, Resistance, p. 159.

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increasingly violent opposition, colonial authorities restricted even further the independence of Indian communities. One of the best ways to do this was to circumscribe the judicial powers of indigenous leaders. But stripping caciques of their traditional authority was not in itself sufficient to ensure Spanish dominance, and "[T]he resultant failure to govern the highlands effectively provided the degree of isolation necessary for intraindigenous political process to continue." 108 Bourbon policies thus created a vacuum in the native power structure, which was rilled by the only other group of individuals with a preexisting base for mobilizing popular support — healers and shamans. Once again the veil of secrecy that worked so well to protect native traditions from the prying of colonial officials makes it difficult to ascertain just what was happening to the political structure of native communities in the eighteenth century. However, using records of judicial proceedings against four individuals accused of practicing sorcery, anthropologist Frank Salomon has been able to reveal the politicization of the role of healer throughout this period. In each instance, the individual charged had used his knowledge of the supernatural to intimidate both Indians and Europeans, thus gaining considerable power within his community. Ultimately such aggressive tactics could backfire, turning kin and neighbors against the culprit, as in three of the four trials examined by Salomon. But these were certainly the exception. In most instances, the political relationship between a healer-shaman and his community went unheeded by Spanish officials. In 1705, witnesses in the southern highlands near Zaruma testified that their cacique and shaman, Juan Arevalo, had, for many years, used his supernatural powers to threaten and terrorize local residents and boasted of his responsibility for the deaths of some eighteen people and many cattle. In one case, an informant charged that his wife and children had died of bloody fluxes as a result of Arevalo's witchcraft. Others reported incidents where the "victim, following a verbal threat, would find himself 'drying up' in the extremities and neck, and finally throughout his body, until he became emaciated and died." 109 Arevalo reportedly inflicted these illnesses through "disease bundles" that he buried in or near the homes of his enemies; several of these were eventually discovered and introduced as evidence at his t r i a l . n o According to Salomon, these documents reveal an ongoing struggle between the areas traditional agri108 Frank Salomon, "Shamanism and Politics," p. 426. 109 Salomon, "Fury of Andres Arevalo," p. 88. n o The use of "disease bundles" preceded Europeans in the New World and continues to the present. The bundles commonly contain a toad, strands of hair or a piece of cloth from the intended victim, and an "agent of harm such as needles piercing the surrogate, thorns, poisons or noxious filth," bound up together in a package. Ibid., p. 89.

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cultural society, represented by Arevalo, and a new economic order based on cattle raising; many of his victims were ranchers or native residents who had sided with the newcomers. And although Arevalo's influence was clearly on the wane, his trial records reveal the increasingly political role that many native healers were assuming in rural communities. A similar situation was reported in the northern highlands near Pasto in 1727. n i Witnesses testified that the shaman Lorenzo Buesaquillo was involved in a number of disputes with neighbors and kin and had intimidated his enemies with threats of sickness and death. During his trial, Buesaquillo was charged with the deaths of four persons, including a Spanish official. Another victim was a neighbor who had punished the shaman's children for stealing food; two were former drinking companions. Salomon argues that the underlying tension between Buesaquillo and his neighbors probably stemmed from "agricultural insufficiency," the result of shrinking communal landholdings. Even before the trial began, the shaman and his family had been forced to move to the outskirts of the village. The case against Buesaquillo demonstrates the way that "witchcraft . . . could have served as a trigger mechanism for palliating economic or ecological stress by distributing land users away from the most stressed areas." 112 Another example of the increasingly political role of indigenous healers is an investigation centered in Otavalo in 1703. 1 1 3 Don Salbador Ango, cacique of Otavalo, had sought the services of Juan Roza Pinto, a shaman. Ango requested that Roza use his magical powers to influence the outcome of a lawsuit then before the audiencia. When the intended victim, a Spaniard, became ill but did not die, Ango hired two other shamans whose efforts at supernatural assassination proved equally unsuccessful. Infuriated, Ango sought revenge by reporting Roza to authorities in Quito. When the case finally came to trail, the victim's wife testified that, to counter the spell cast by Roza, she too had retained the services of an Indian healer. Testimony later revealed that Roza was a mestizo; for that reason, his case was eventually turned over to the Office of the Inquisition. Although the records do not indicate what happened to Roza after the change of jurisdiction, his case demonstrates that all sectors of colonial society - Indians, Europeans, and mestizos - attributed great power to those skilled in the magical arts and that all groups attempted to harness that power to influence political events. Whereas the foregoing focuses on shamans whose personal and political fortunes were waning, a case originating on the coast in the late eigh111 Salomon, "Shamanism and Politics," pp. 415—17. 112 Ibid., p. 417. 113 Ibid., pp. 422-4.

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teenth century reveals that some shamans were powerful enough to wield political authority even against governmental persecution. Sebastian Carlos Gavino was elected alcalde of his community in the parish of Punta Santa Elena in 1786. l l 4 Having served as a legal adviser to Indians involved in litigations against the crown, Carlos was considered a troublemaker by Spanish officials; after the election, he was arrested and charged with criminal sorcery. During his trial, informants revealed that the shaman was exercising power from jail, summoning witnesses to the prison and threatening them with acts of magical aggression to influence their testimony. Following the death of one of Carlos s chief accusers and the transfer of another, the case against him was dropped; presumably he was then free to consolidate his political position. The four men described in these documents had inherited the knowledge, passed down through memories, of generations of Andean healershamans. As such, they represented Spanish failures to extirpate traditional beliefs and practices from the hearts and minds of the Indians of Quito. It is certainly true that, for every healer who was apprehended by colonial authorities, many more were not. Although those who served as repositories for the ancient wisdom occasionally engendered controversy and divisions within their own communities; more often, their presence provided a sense of historical continuity and stability that served as a rallying point from which the community could draw its strength. The survival of the old ways gave Indian communities a measure of control over their lives and environment independent of the Spanish sphere of influence. And, as is so often the case, secrecy strengthened communal bonds. According to historian Inga Clendinnen, writing on the Maya under colonial rule, "in a society where knowledge was power the concealment of the highly significant in the apparently mundane must have been intensely gratifying to those who held the secret key to understanding." 115 The fact that, in the eyes of colonial officials, everyone who knew the secrecy was guilty, whether actively participating in the rituals or not, could only serve to unify native society further. Fear is a powerful weapon: Throughout the colonial period, both Indians and Europeans attempted to exploit the other's fears to gain the advantage. For several centuries, we have known much more about European use of that weapon because it was far more obvious. Spanish settlers and officials terrorized native populations economically and politically from 1492 on. Only recently has it been revealed that Indians had recourse to the same arsenal, although their uses of it were much more surreptitious. Especially during the eighteenth century, Europeans feared native uprisings; they also feared the Indians' ability to manipulate what 114 115

Ibid., pp. 420-2. Inga Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests, p. 159.

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they considered to be supernatural powers. This fear of rebellion and magic enabled native society to wield some degree of control over their relations with their colonizers. By exploiting European fears, Indians were able to remain separate and apart from the rest of society in spite of numerous attempts by colonial governments to absorb both them and their resources.

Conclusion

In several respects, the history of Indian peoples under Spanish colonial rule is strikingly similar throughout the New World. Wherever Europeans went they brought disease, and in their wake followed demographic disaster. Along with disease, the Spanish also introduced institutions and practices designed to subjugate native populations and to lay the foundation for a new colonial order. Thus, Indians from central Mexico to the southern highlands of Peru and beyond shared the experience of being brutally exploited under encomienda and repartimiento. Later, they would witness the emergence of latifundia, and many generations would toil on haciendas while others would continue to labor in mines or obrajes. Whatever the task, wherever it was performed, the lives of Spain's Indian subjects were always difficult and too often full of suffering and deprivation. This book has examined the relation between indigenous populations in the north-central highlands of Ecuador and disease, especially infections introduced by Europeans during the sixteenth century. During the preconquest period, the unique characteristics that would later substantially influence the colonial experiences of the region's indigenous inhabitants first became apparent. They had had their own distinct economic and political institutions and had only recently been absorbed into the Inca state. That these societies were only partly assimilated into the Inca imperial system in 1534 meant that their experiences under Spanish rule would differ from those of their more fully integrated southern neighbors. The introduction of Old World infections had transformed the complex, but relatively benign, disease environment of the northern Andes to one of extreme virulence by the middle of the sixteenth century. Pandemics of smallpox, measles, and plague cleared a path for advancing Spanish armies. As a result, within less than sixty years disease, violence, and exploitation had claimed three-fourths of the native population. And whereas the number of indigenous peoples dropped precipitously throughout the Americas, the rate of decline and the length of time over which that decline occurred varied greatly from one area to 130

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another. In highland Ecuador, the wars of the Inca invasion had consumed many lives and much material wealth in the northern Andes. Those losses, combined with the mortality and destruction resulting from the civil war between partisans of Huascar and of Atahualpa, further disrupted local communities. These events explain, at least in part, the unprecedented increase of native populations between 1560 and 1580 in the provinces of Otavalo, Quito, and Cuenca, where losses before 1534 had been most severe. The epidemics of the 1580s devastated native inhabitants throughout the viceroyalty of Peru. But it seems likely that mortality was particularly high in the audiencia of Quito where, because of limited population recovery after 1560, an exceptionally large generation of individuals had grown up without exposure to smallpox and measles. When those diseases appeared in 1585, thousands of infants, children, and young adults perished. However, what seems most striking about the history of Quito's Indian peoples during the sixteenth century is that, in spite of the destruction from the Spanish conquest and pandemics of Old World diseases, native society survived and quickly adapted to life under colonial rule. In fact, by the beginning of the seventeenth century, demographic increase was already under way in the highlands of Ecuador. The rapid recovery of Quito's Indian population is an example of biological and social adaptation; it also demonstrates how much the relationship between native peoples and disease varied from one area to another. Just to the south in Peru and Upper Peru, and far to the north in Mexico and Guatemala, the decline of native populations continued well into the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. And, although social and economic factors obviously exerted great influence over demographic trends in all areas, health and disease patterns were also central. In highland Ecuador, rapid recovery was due to a high rate of natural increase and to immigration, both influenced by such social and economic conditions as the absence of a mining mita and Quito's abundant natural resources. European and Indian societies were distinctly different in many ways, but their concepts about maintaining health and preventing or curing illness were remarkably similar. In both, humoral balance was the key to good health; problems resulted from imbalances, and the role of the healer was to control illness and restore equilibrium through the use of specific ceremonies and herbal remedies. But colonialism dictated that both rulers and subjects perceive differences rather than similarities, and so it was with medical traditions. Throughout the colonial period, especially during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Spanish officials attempted to destroy all practices associated with native religious traditions, including healing rituals. Their failure to do so is a testament to the resilience of

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Indian communities which refused to surrender their memories even under constant pressures. Nevertheless, Quito's Indian communities did undergo significant changes during the colonial period. In the sixteenth century, the Spanish policy of relocating entire populations obliterated many communities and created new ones. As early as 1559, records show fundamental changes in the structure and size of Indian households. The process of social and demographic transformation accelerated during the seventeenth century, as violent opposition to European control ended in many areas. It did not mean, however, that Indians passively acquiesced to the emerging system of social and economic relations. On the surface, cooperation replaced confrontation; but other, more subtle forms of resistance lay buried beneath layers of tension and resentment. Migration proved the most attractive strategy for many because it significantly reduced tribute and labor obligations. By 1675 more than half of Quito's native inhabitants had left their communities of origin. And although caciques and encomenderos opposed the uncontrolled movement of population, Spanish officials, perceiving potential fiscal benefits for the crown, eventually sanctioned mass migration through the creation of ayllus de vagamundos. Quito's modest economic boom during the seventeenth century encouraged Indians to seek improved living and working conditions, and many ended up on haciendas beyond the reach of greedy tribute collectors. With mobility came changes in marriage patterns and household structure. Many Indian males delayed marriage until their middle or late twenties, and some never married at all. In addition, the number of persons marrying someone from outside their ayllu or community of origin rose rapidly. At the same time, the number of extended families declined, and polygamy all but disappeared. But in spite of the remarkable demographic recovery and resilience of Ecuador's highland Indian population during the seventeenth century, native families remained small, and 25 to 50 percent of all couples were reportedly childless. Although disease remained a constant problem throughout this time, epidemics were less frequent and mortality less severe than in the previous century. But this biological adaptation was violently disrupted during the 1690s when epidemics of smallpox, measles, typhus, and diphtheria reduced the native inhabitants by approximately half. In the years that followed, serious labor shortages and increased competition from both European and Peruvian textiles triggered a profound economic depression throughout the audiencia of Quito. During the remainder of the colonial period, disease and natural calamities hampered population recovery. More important, economic depression reinforced demographic stagnation. Lack of economic opportunities discouraged both natural increase and

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immigration, and by the 1780s the number of Indians in the northcentral highlands still had not reached that of the 1670s. Again, Quito's demographic trends contrasted sharply with those of central Mexico and other areas of the viceroyalty of Peru, where natives significantly increased during the eighteenth century. As many areas of the Spanish empire entered an era of unprecedented economic growth, the textile and agricultural sectors of the economy of highland Ecuador languished. This study argues that, to understand the colonial history of Ecuador's Indian peoples, it is necessary to integrate their social and political history with their biological experiences. Perhaps because they appear so obvious, the biological effects of imperialism have often been ignored. But the influence of colonialism on the biology of native peoples was complex and ultimately affected them in a multitude of ways, ranging from dietary habits and immunological responses to reproductive behavior. Such basic considerations as health, illness, nutrition, and sexuality determined both quality and duration of every life and therefore cannot be separated from political economy and governance. This is especially true in colonial societies, where access to food and other resources is rigidly controlled and often withheld by small elites. In colonial Spanish America, illness was not only physiological; it was also political. Thus, the introduction of Old World infections does not fully explain the dramatic decline of native populations. Rather, the combination of epidemic diseases and the simultaneous loss of control over social and economic resources led to the death of millions. Too often, poverty and neglect claimed the lives of many who might otherwise have survived.

Glossary

achaques - an attack (of illness) agudos - dysentery aguardiente - cane alcohol alcalde or dinario — a town councilman alfombrilla - measles ambicamayo - a native herbalist and healer arroba - a measure of weight equal to 11 kilos audiencia - a jurisdictional and administrative unit of the Spanish empire; also, a court of appeals ausente — an absentee Indian ayllu — an extended family unit of native Andean society bilcaturi — a purge derived from the leaves of lupins botica - a licensed pharmacy cabildo - a town council cacique — a leader of an Indian community canafistula - an herbal remedy derived from the seedpods of the native American drumstick tree earache — a disease that attacked all four species of llamoids in 1546 cartas cuentas de tributos — tribute accounts

castas - castes or people of mixed racial ancestry catarro — a cough chicha — corn beer chorillo — a small urban textile factory chucchu - a chill (trembling) circa — a native phlebotamist Citua — an Inca festival of purification cocoliztli — an unidentified disease that struck New Spain in 1545 cofradia - a religious fraternity or brotherhood corregidor - a chief magistrate coto - a goiter disenteria — dysentery encomienda — a grant of Indians from the Spanish crown to an individual; the 134

Glossary

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recipient, or encomendero, had the right to receive tribute and labor from the Indians enfermedad — an illness enfermo — a sick person esquilencia - scarlet fever fanega - a unit of dry measure equal to 1.6 bushels fiebre — a fever

forastero — an Indian who no longer resided in his or her native community garrottllo - diphtheria hampico - a curer who used poisons huaca - a traditional Andean god or sacred place kamayuj - a group of natives residing in foreign communities and performing agricultural labor in exchange for exotic products that they sent to their home settlements leproso - a leper llaga - a sore llajtalllajtakuna - Indian village(s) mal del valle — dysentery medico — a licensed doctor mindald — an individual specializing in long-distance trade mita — a system of draft labor mitayo — an Indian serving in the mita mitimae — populations relocated throughout the Inca empire naturales — natives

noveno y medio - the Spanish crown's share of the tithe numeration — a census obraje — a textile factory originario — a native inhabitant paperas — m u m p s

paramo — cool, humid highland regions of Ecuador (3,360—4,600 m) parcialidad - a neighborhood unit within a native community pariente — a relative pestelpestilencia — an unidentified disease or epidemic pobre — a poor person polvtllo — wheat rust protector de naturales - protector of Indians: a position within local Spanish bureaucracy protomedicato - & board empowered to examine and license doctors, surgeons, and other medical practitioners protomedico — a medical examiner puna - cold, dry highland regions of Peru and Bolivia (4,000-4,800 m) quichicuan - a native surgeon repartimiento — a rotating labor draft; also used to describe a jurisdiction

136

Glossary

residencia — a review conducted at the end of an official's term runampicuc — a healer who used his skills for evil purposes rupa — a fever (burning) sarampion — measles socayac — "keeper of the heart" who used kernels of corn to divine the cause of illness sonco — a heart tabardetel tabardillo — typhus tambo — an Inca way station tianguez — an Indian market tola — a raised earthern platform on which caciques often built their houses uicza allichac hampicamayoc — a midwife vagamundo — an Indian who no longer resided in his or her native community verrugas — a disease native to northern South America characterized by fever, pain, and tumorlike nodules viruelas — smallpox visita - a visit or census yanacona — an Indian who no longer retained ties to his or her ayllu yuyos — unripened fruit or herbs

Bibliography

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Imprenta de Fortanet, 1967. Alsedo, Antonio de. Diccionario geogrdfico de las Indias occidentales 0 America. 4 vols. Madrid:

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Index

adaptation: biological and social, 1-3, 56, 131

cartas cuentas de tributos, see tribute

aguardiente, see alcohol

Chagas' disease, 20, 25 charity, 40, 44, 112 cholera, 19 chucchu (chill), 13, 27 Cieza de Leon, Pedro de, 13, 14, 15, 16, 36— 7, 38 Citua, 31 Cobo, Bernabe, 13 conquest: Inca, 4-11, 13; Spanish, 32-5 cost of living (Quito), 77, 79

Aguayo, Rodriguez de (archdeacon), 46 Alcedo, Antonio de, 15 alcohol: illegal manufacture of, 111 —12; medical problems caused by, 75, 111-12 alfombrilla, see measles

Almagro, Diego de, 33, 34 ambicamayos, 29, 74

amebiasis, 20 Arriaga, Pablo Joseph de, 29-30, 74, 75 Atahualpa, 11, 13, 23, 32, 33, 131 audiencia: regulation of hospitals, 70, 109; responses to natural disasters, 66, 95, 99; see also public health, legislation ausentes, see forasteros

autopsies, 104, 112 Avedano, Pedro de (visitor), 17, 18, 48 bartonellosis, 20—1, 25 Benalcazar, Sebastian de, 32-3, 34 Bethlemites, 70, 108 blastomycosis, see infections bleeding, see phlebotomy Borja y Aragon, Francisco de (viceroy), 71 boticas, see pharmacies

Bourbon reforms, 108, 112-13, 125-6 cabtldo of Quito: census data, 47-8; legislation, 34, 93, 118; and native relocation, 50—1; regulation of medical profession, 70, 100, 104, 105; see also public health, legislation caciques: and censuses, 52, 82, 83, 97, 116, 117; Inca conquest of, 10; loss of authority, 126, 132; responsibilities of, 7; Spanish conquest of, 33 Canaris, 7 , 9 , n , 13, 33

cotos, see goiters

depression: economic, 114-24 diet and disease, 28, 45, 71 diphtheria, 60, 61, 93, 132 disease environment: before 1534, 19-25, 29, 31; transformation of, 31, 32, 56; seventeenth century, 58, 64, 130; eighteenth century, 108 dysentery: sixteenth century, 60, 61, 63; in the 1690s, 93; eighteenth century, 102, 105, 107 encomiendas, 35

endemicity of disease: before 1534, 20-5; sixteenth century, 37, 43; seventeenth century, 58, 60, 61, 87; eighteenth century, 1 0 1 , 1 0 7 , 112

epidemics: breakdown of social services, 43, 45> 99; changing patterns of, 57-60; documentation on, 60; sixteenth century, 35— 8, 39, 40-3, 45, 46, 49, 51, 57, 62, 71, 75, 92, 130, 131; seventeenth century, 57, 60-1, 62, 67, 78, 89-94, 132; eighteenth century, 100-7, I I 2 > Ir3> 11920,

123

epizootic, 36m 3

149

150

Index

Espejo, Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y: on diseases of eighteenth century, 103, 104, 106; on hospitals, n o , 113; on medical problems caused by alcohol, i n ; writings of, 108

kamayuj, 8

esquilencia, see scarlet fever

labor shortages: eighteenth century, 114, 116, 117, 124, 132 leishmaniasis, 20, 25 lepers, n o

ethnohistory: before 1534, 7—n, 130

leprosos, see lepers

famine, 66, 92, 94, 102, 123 fasting, 74 fear: use of by Indians and Europeans, 128—9 fertility: effects of disease on, 55—6; and family size, 52, 55, 86-7 forasteros: censuses of, 83, 84, 85; and conflict, 125; migration, 79, 82; reforms of Palata, 90 garrotillo, see diphtheria giardiasis, 20 goiters, 62 Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe: on disease before 1534, 13—14, 22—3, 27—31 ptcoc, 3 0

healers: as leaders of resistance, 126—9 health and illness: concepts of before 1534 (native), 25—9; controversy over, 25-6; concept of balance in, 26, 28, 29, 72—3, 74, 131; divine retribution, 73, 74; hot and cold categories in, 26, 27; humoral classification in, 25—6, 72; native concepts of, changing, 38—9, 72-6, 131; as related to politics, 133 herpes viruses, 23, 25 hospitals: administration of, 70, 108—9; conditions in, 109—10; as poorhouses, 113; sixteenth century, 43—5 Huascar, n , 13, 22, 131 Huayna Capac, 9, n , 13 Hurtado de Mendoza, Andres (viceroy), 17 imperialism: biological effects of, 1—3, 133 infections: helminthic, 23; respiratory, 23—4, 39, 60, 61, 107 influenza, 19; epidemics, 39, 40-3, 101, 103, 107; introduction of, 32; mortality, 39— 40, 42, 50 Japan disease, 103, 107 Juan, Jorge, 102—3, 118—19, 122

leptospirosis, 22 Lopez de Velasco, Juan, 16, 46 mal de manchas, 104 mal del valle, see dysentery malaria, 63 malnutrition, 43, 66 marriage patterns: changes in native, 51, 53, 87, 88, 132 Matienzo de Peralta, Juan (oidor), 18 measles, 23, 73; introduction of, 13-14, 19, 32, 35; mortality, 18, 40, 46, 50, 57, 92, 93, 130; sixteenth century, 39, 4 0 - 3 , 130, 131; seventeenth century, 57, 60, 61, 62, 71, 87, 91, 93, 98, 132; eighteenth century, 102, 104, 105, 106, 107, 123 medical practices: European, 45, 66—72; native before 1534, 29—31; restrictions on native, 75—6, 131; survival of native, 73, 74, 124, 125, 128 migration: sixteenth century, 56; seventeenth century, 78, 79, 82, 83, 86, 88, 131-2; eighteenth century, 100, 122, 133 mindales, 8 mita: Inca, 11; Spanish, 56, 77, 78, 79, 82, 89, 90, 116, 124

mitimae, 9 Morales Figueroa, Luis de, 48—9 mumps, 62 natural disasters: seventeenth century, 64—6, 67; of the 1690s, 89, 91, 93, 94, 98; eighteenth century, 100, 106, 114, 123 northern Andes: climate, 6, 8; physical geography, 5—6 noveno, see tithe

Oroya fever, 21 Pachacuti Inca, 8, 9, 22 Palata, Duque de (viceroy): reforms of, 89-91 paper as, see mumps Pena Montenegro (bishop), 75—6, 125

Index peste de japon, see Japan disease

pharmacies, 67, 70, 105 phlebotomy, 28-9, 45, 71, 72, 75 physicians: demand for, 62, 67, 68, 69, 74; salaries of, 68, 69, 91 pinta, 21 Pizarro, Francisco, 5, 32, 33, 34 Pizarro, Gonzalo, 34—5, 36 plague: bubonic, 14, 19; pneumonic, 38, 130 pneumonia, see infections population: estimates of, 12—18, 48—9, 79, 80—1,

114, 119, 120

population change: and absenteeism, 82—8; before 1534, 14-15; sixteenth century, 34, 42, 46-56, 57, 130-1, 132; seventeenth century, 76-88, 95—9; eighteenth century, 100, 113—24, 133

population data, 13, 46-9, 79—81, 95-8, 114, 120 protomedkato, 67, 68, 69 protomedko, 67, 104, 108

public health: funding, 66—7, 68, 108—9, 112; legislation, 43-6, 62, 67, 104, 108, no—11, 112, 113; and the poor, 69, 112-13; threats to, 64, 112, 113 Puelles, Pedro de, 34 Puruha, 7, 9 Qollahuaya, 27 quarantine, 45, 62-3, 71, 72, 92 Quito: foundation of city, 33-4 rebellions, see resistance Relation de Zaruma, 48, 49 relapsing fever, 22, 25 relocation: of individuals, 51; of native communities, 50—1, 82, 132 resistance: and memories, 76, 125, 128; and secrecy, 76, 128; survival of, 76, 132; eighteenth century, 100, 123, 125 rupa (fever), 13, 27 Sancho Paz Ponce de Leon, Juan, 1 5 , 8 1 Santa Cruz Pachacuti, Juan, 13 Santillan, Hernando de (audiencia president), 15, 17, 18, 44 sarampion, see measles scarlet fever, 105 seasonality of disease, 2 7 - 8 , 39, 63, 107

shaman, see healers smallpox, 23, 73; increased virulence of, 356; introduction of, 13-14, 19, 32, 35, 55; mortality, 18, 40, 42, 46, 50, 57, 92, 93; sixteenth century, 39, 40-3, 130, 131; seventeenth century, 57, 60, 62, 63, 87, 90, 91, 93, 98, 132; eighteenth century, 102, 103, 104, 106, 107 socayac, 29

sorcery, 76, 126—9 syphilis: origins of, 21-2, 32; eighteenth century, 102-3, IO 7 tabardete, see typhus tabardillo, see typhus

textile industry: decline of, 94, 106, 114, 117, 118, 122, 132 tithe, 44, 70, 109 Toldeo, Francisco de (viceroy), 47-8 Topa Inca, 9 Torres y Portugal, Fernando de (viceroy), 4 1 2, 45> 7i toxoplasmosis, 20 tribute: Incas, n ; records, 80; Spanish, 52, 56, 66, 90, 92, 114, 124 tuberculosis, see infections typhoid fever, 20 typhus: mortality, 50, 58, 92; origins of, 20, 22—3, 25; sixteenth century, 36-8, 41; seventeenth century, 60, 61, 64, 92, 93, 132; eighteenth century, 104, 107 Ulloa, Antonio de, 1 0 2 - 3 , 118-19, 122 uta, see leishmaniasis Vasquez de Acuna, Juan, 46—7, 49, 79—80 Vega, Garcilaso de la, 13, 2 0 - 1 , 27, 31 verrugas, see bartonellosis Villalengua, Juan Josef de (visitor), 120 viruelas, see smallpox wheat rust, 93, 102 witchcraft, see sorcery yanaconas, 5 1 , 83 yaws, 21 zoonoses, 19-20

CAMBRIDGE LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES

3 8 10 15 22 24 31 32 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65

Peter Calvert. The Mexican Revolution 1910—1914: The Diplomacy of Anglo-American Conflict Celso Furtado. Economic Development of Latin America: Historical Background and Contemporary Problems D. A. Brading. Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico, 1763—1810 P. J. Bakewell. Silver Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico. Zacatecas, 1564—1700 James Lockhart and Enrique Otte. Letters and People of the Spanish Indies: The Sixteenth Century Jean A. Meyer. The Cristero Rebellion: The Mexican People between Church and State, 1926—1929 Charles F. Nunn. Foreign Immigrants in Early Bourbon Mexico, 1700—1760 D. A. Brading. Haciendas and Ranchos in the Mexican Bajio David Nicholls. From Dessalines to Duvalier: Race, Color, and National Independence in Haiti Jonathan C. Brown. A Socioeconomic History of Argentina, 1776—1860 Marco Palacios. Coffee in Colombia, 1850—1970: An Economic, Social, and Political History David Murray. Odious Commerce: Britain, Spain, and the Abolition of the Cuban Slave Trade D. A. Brading. Caudillo and Peasant in the Mexican Revolution Joe Foweraker. The Struggle for Land: A Political Economy of the Pioneer Frontier in Brazil from 1930 to the Present Day George Philip. Oil and Politics in Latin America: Nationalist Movements and State Companies Noble David Cook. Demographic Collapse: Indian Peru, 1520-1620 Gilbert M. Joseph. Revolution from Without: Yucatan, Mexico, and the United States, 1880—1924 B. S. McBeth. Juan Vicente Gomez and the Oil Companies in Venezuela, 1908—1935 J. A. Offner. Law and Politics in Aztec Texcoco Thomas J. Trebat. Brazils State-Owned Enterprises: A Case Study of the State as Entrepreneur James Lockhart and Stuart B. Schwartz. Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil Adolfo Figueroa. Capitalist Development and the Peasant Economy in Peru Norman Long and Bryan Roberts. Miners, Peasants, and Entrepreneurs: Regional Development in the Central Highlands of Peru Ian Roxborough. Unions and Politics in Mexico: The Case of the Automobile Industry Alan Gilbert and Peter Ward. Housing, the State, and the Poor: Policy and Practice in Three Latin American Cities Jean Stubbs. Tobacco on the Periphery: A Case Study in Cuban Labor History, i860—1958 Stuart B. Schwartz. Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550—1835 Richard J. Walter. The Province of Buenos Aires and Argentine Politics, 1912-1945 Alan Knight. The Mexican Revolution, vol. 1: Porfirians, Liberals, and Peasants Alan Knight. The Mexican Revolution, vol. 2: Counter-Revolution and Reconstruction P. Michael McKinley. Pre-Revolutionary Caracas: Politics, Economy, and Society, 1777-1811 Adriaan C. van Oss. Catholic Colonialism: A Parish History of Guatemala, 1524—1821 Leon Zamosc. The Agrarian Question and the Peasant Movement in Colombia: Struggles of the National Peasant Association, 1967—1981 Brian R. Hamnett. Roots of Insurgency: Mexican Regions, 1750—1824 Manuel Caballero. Latin America and the Comintern, 1919—1943 Inga Clendinnen. Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517—1570 Jeffrey D. Needell. A Tropical Belle Epoque: Elite Culture and Society in Turn-of-the-Century Rio de Janeiro Victor Bulmer-Thomas. The Political Economy of Central America since 1920 Daniel James. Resistance and Integration: Peronism and the Argentine Working Class, 1946-1976 Bill Albert. South America and the First World War: The Impact of the War on Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Chile

Cambridge Latin American Studies 66 67 68 69 70

Jonathan Hartlyn. The Politics of Coalition Rule in Colombia Charles H. Wood and Jose Alberto Magno de Carvalho. The Demography of Inequality in Brazil Sandra Lauderdale Graham. House and Street: The Domestic World of Servants and Masters in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro Ronald H. Chilcote. Power and the Ruling Classes in Northeast Brazil: Juazeiro and Petrolina in Transition Joanne Rappaport. The Politics of Memory: Native Historical Interpretation in the Colombian Andes