CHAPTER V - AUTHORITIES IN CONFIRMATION OF THE NAME “PERÙ

Summary

This was the beginning and origin of the name PERÚ, SO famous in the world, and with reason, seeing that it has filled the world with gold and silver, with pearls and precious stones. But as it was adopted by accident, the native Indians of Peru, though it is seventy-two years since they were conquered, have not taken this word into their mouths, it being a name they had not themselves given. They now know what it means, through their intercourse with the Spaniards, but they do not use it, because they had no generic name in their language to designate the kingdoms and provinces, which their kings ruled over, collectively; such as Spain, Italy, or France, which contain many provinces. They called each province by its own name, as will be seen at large in this work, but they had no word which signified the whole kingdom together. They called it Ttahuantin-suyu, which means the four quarters of the world. The name Beru, as we have seen, was the proper name of an Indian, and is a word used among the Indians of the plains and on the sea-coast, but is unknown in the mountains, and in the general language. For, as in Spain, there are words and names which indicate from what province they are derived, so it is also among the Indians of Peru.