Chapter CXXI (4)

[367] These are the ruins of a fortress defended by the Chimu against the army of the Yncas, the outer walls being three hundred yards long by two hundred. The interior is divided into small houses, separated by lanes. It is partly covered with a kind of plaster, on which Proctor saw the uncouth coloured representations of birds and beasts mentioned in the text. The ruined fortress stands at the extremity of a plain, close to the foot of some rugged mountains, about a league from the sea. _Paz Soldan_: _Proctor_, p. 175.

[368] _La Barranca._ The river is approached by a precipitous descent down a high bank of large pebbles and earth. The breadth of the channel is about a quarter of a mile, and, during the rains in the Andes, it is completely full, running furiously, and carrying along with it trees and even rocks, which render it impassable. In the dry season it merely consists of three separate torrents about as deep as the saddle, but unsafe.

[369] The city of Lima is about two miles long and a mile and a half broad. Its circumference is about ten miles, but many gardens, orchards, and fields of alfalfa are included within the walls. The best and fullest account of Lima is contained in a work called _Estadistica de Lima_, by Don Manuel A. Fuentes.

[370] Each side of the grand square of Lima is five hundred and ten feet long. It contains the cathedral and palace.

[371] This is the hill of San Cristobal, a rocky height rising abruptly from the plain, on the opposite side of the river Rimac, near the bull-ring. There is still a cross planted on its summit.

[372] One does not always hear such praise from those who have visited the City of the Kings; but at least the feelings of the editor of this work agree with those of the author. Some of the happiest days in the editor’s life were passed on the banks of the Rimac; and he, therefore, will not criticize the enthusiastic and, as some will think, exaggerated praise of Cieza de Leon.

[373] The city of Lima was founded by Pizarro on the 6th of January, 1535. As it was the day of Epiphany, Lima received the title of _Ciudad de los Reyes_ (City of the Kings).

[374] Great numbers of bodies have been dug up at the foot of the temple of Pachacamac, the extreme dryness of the climate having preserved the long hair on the skulls, and even the skin. There are as many as one hundred and four Pachacamac skulls in European museums, which have been carefully examined. “They exhibit a vertically flattened occiput, a narrow and receding forehead, the glabella being slightly prominent. The acrocephalic or sugar-loaf form predominates. The range of skulls from Pachacamac varies from the globular or oval type, with a slightly depressed coronal suture, which Tschudi terms the ‘Chincha’ skulls, to the pyramidal brachycephalic cranium, with a high and vertical occiput, ordinarily termed the ‘Inca cranium.’” C. C. Blake, Esq., _On the Cranial Characters of the Peruvian Races_. _Transactions of the Ethnological Society._ Vol. ii. New Series, p. 227. Cieza de Leon states, in the text, that only chiefs and pilgrims were allowed to be buried near the temple of Pachacamac; and, if this was really the case, it would be natural to expect that the fact would be corroborated, to some extent, by an examination of the skulls. Accordingly I am informed by Mr. Carter Blake, that Mr. Clift and others have spoken of Pachacamac as being the depository of more than one type of skull, which may be the remains of pilgrims from various localities. Mr. Clift mentions bodies at Pachacamac with heads depressed like those of the people near lake Titicaca, and others with heads properly formed.

[375] The ruins of Pachacamac are about twenty miles south of Lima, on the sea-coast. The temple was on the summit of a hill about four hundred feet above the sea, and half a mile from the beach. The view from the platform, where the temple once stood, is exceedingly striking. Half the horizon is occupied by the ocean, and the other half is divided into two widely different scenes. One is an arid desert, with no object on which the eye can rest save the ruined city; the other is a lovely valley, covered with fields of maize and sugar cane, and dotted with houses half hidden by the encircling fruit gardens. The little town of Lurin stands in its centre. A narrow stream separates this enchanting valley from the dreary expanse of sand, while the glorious Andes bound the inland view.

The upper part of the temple hill is artificially formed of huge _adobes_ or bricks baked in the sun, rising in three broad terraces, the walls of which are thirty-two feet high. Towards the sea the terraces are supported by buttresses of ordinary sized sun-dried bricks, and the red paint, with which the walls were originally coated, may still be seen in several places. The temple stood on a level platform on the top, facing the sea. The door is said to have been of gold plates, richly inlaid with coral and precious stones, but the interior was rendered filthy by the sacrifices. Garcilasso says that the Yunca Indians had idols in the form of fish and other animals, and that they sacrificed animals, and even the blood of men and women; but that these idols were destroyed by the Yncas.

At the foot of the temple hill are the remains of houses for pilgrims; and it is here that the numerous skulls are found, with long flowing hair, which are to be met with in European museums. Further on are the ruins of an extensive city. The streets are very narrow, and the principal houses or palaces generally consist of halls of grand proportions, with a number of small apartments at each end: all now choked with sand. The foundations are frequently of stone.

It is said by some old writers that this temple was erected for the worship of Pachacamac--the Supreme Being, the “Creator of the world”--by an ancient race, long before the time of the Yncas, and of whom the Yunca Indians were degenerate descendants. Its great antiquity is proved by the fact that, when Hernando Pizarro first arrived at it, a considerable portion of the city was already in ruins.

[376] The plain of Chilca is a broad sandy waste, with a thin line of vegetation running from the Andes to the sea. The village is a collection of cane flat-roofed houses, with a handsome church. It is about two miles from the beach, where there is an abrupt headland called Chilca Point. There are none of the maize fields described by Cieza de Leon, and the land is no longer manured with sardine heads, but there are several palm and fig trees, and holes where crops of reeds, for making matting to cover the house tops, are raised. A little scanty herbage grows on the sand hills, where mules and donkeys graze. The inhabitants of Chilca are all pure Indians, and they allow no whites to reside in their village. They employ themselves in plaiting straw for hats and cigar cases of great beauty. In the time of the Yncas this valley was very populous, as is clear from the numerous ruins in various directions; but Spanish occupation has acted as a blight on every corner of this once happy land.

[377] Here Cieza de Leon shows his strong prejudice against Almagro. It is well known that Pizarro formed a plot to seize him after the interview at Mala, and that he was warned of the meditated treachery by the voice of an old comrade, who sang a couplet in the verandah--

“Tiempo es de andar, Cavallero!
Tiempo es de andar de aqui.”

[378] The valley of Mala is six miles from that of Chilca. It is covered with rich vegetation--bananas, figs, oranges, fields of maize, vines, and willow trees, and is well supplied with water by a large river. In the southern part there are extensive pastures, where some of the bulls are bred for the Lima bull fights.

[379] This is the rich modern valley of Cañeta, containing six very extensive and flourishing sugar estates, and two villages.

[380] What other right had our author’s countrymen? or does he mean more than meets the eye, in writing this sentence. Cieza de Leon was evidently impressed with the excellence of the government of the Yncas, and deplores, in almost every chapter, the destruction and ruin brought upon the country by the Spaniards. Is this a covert thrust at the justice of the Spanish conquest?

[381] The ruins of this great edifice, half fortress half palace, are still to be seen on an elevated point of land overhanging the sea, on the south side of the river of Cañete. I examined these ruins very carefully in 1853. They are divided into two parts. Those furthest from the sea consist of nine chambers. Entering from a breach in the wall, I passed along a gallery broad enough for two men to walk abreast, with a parapet five feet high on one side, and a wall sixteen feet high on the other. The parapet is on the edge of a hill partly faced with _adobes_. At the end of about twenty yards the gallery turns at right angles into the centre of the building. Here there is a doorway about ten feet high, three feet across at the base, and narrowing as it ascends, with a lintel of willow beams. It leads into a spacious hall, and, on the opposite side, there is a deep recess corresponding with the door. The walls are sixteen feet high, built of moderate sized _adobes_, formerly plastered over, and, as Cieza de Leon tells us, painted with figures. At the sides of the hall there are small chambers with recesses in the walls, communicating with each other by passages in the rear. There is a distance of two hundred yards, strewn with ruined walls, between this portion of the ruins and that overhanging the sea. The latter is entered by a doorway, which leads into a large square hall, nearly a hundred feet each way. The sides towards the north and west are smooth, but the eastern wall is pierced by fifteen small recesses. On the south side two doorways lead by passages into smaller chambers, also with recesses in the walls. In the upper part of the walls of the great hall the holes, for the beams which supported the roof, are distinctly visible. The walls throughout are three to four feet thick. The doorways, from the lintel to the ground, are eight feet high. On the whole, this is one of the best preserved ruins in the land of the Yncas. The portions of the fortress which were built of stone, were barbarously destroyed by order of the Spanish viceroy Count of Moncloa, and the materials were used for building the castles at Callao.

[382] From the great gate of the hacienda of Laran, in the valley of Chincha, a broad road leads towards the Andes. This road formed the division between the governments of Pizarro and Almagro on the sea-coast, and the question as to whether Cuzco was on the north or south side of the imaginary line continued east from Laran, was the cause of a quarrel which ended in the defeat and death of Almagro. Laran now belongs to the hospitable Don Antonio Prada, marquis of the towers of Oran.

[383] Another great public work of the Yncas, now utterly destroyed.

[384] The valley of Yca forms a delightful contrast to the surrounding deserts. The traveller, leaving the sandy waste behind him, finds himself riding through vineyards and cotton plantations, with hedges of fig trees, jessamine and roses on either hand. Yca is a large town about two leagues from the foot of the Andes, in the middle of a fertile and beautiful valley; but it has suffered fearfully from earthquakes. The river is crossed by a bridge of ropes and willow branches, and during January and February it dashes impetuously down the valley, but it is dry for the rest of the year, and, as Cieza de Leon says, the people dig holes in its bed, to get water. There are some very extensive woods of _guaranga_ or _algaroba trees_ (_Prosopis horrida_) in the valley of Yca, generally on the skirts of the deserts.

[385] He includes the rich valleys of Palpa, San Xavier, and Nasca under the same name.

[386] I carefully examined these ruined edifices when I was at Nasca. They are built in terraces up the sides of the mountains, which hem in the valley on the south. The houses contained spacious halls, with niches in the walls. About forty feet higher up the mountain, and immediately overhanging the ruined palaces, there was a fortress with a semicircular wall in front, and a high _adobe_ breastwork in the rear. Its only approach was by a steep ramp leading up from the edifices below. The walls of the buildings are all of stone.

[387] I know of only one modern traveller who has visited and described the coast valleys of Acari, Ocoña, and Camana; namely, that noble old warrior General Miller, who led his patriot troops from Quilca to Pisco in 1823, a most difficult march over trackless deserts, and through a country then in possession of the Spaniards.

The Camana valley, which in its upper part is called Majes, has a considerable river; and contains olive yards, vineyards, and sugar plantations. It is in 15° 57´ S. The yellow _aji_ or capsicum of Camana is also famous, and guano has been used as manure in its cultivation from time immemorial.

[388] Quilca was the port of Arequipa until the year 1827, when it was supplanted by its present successful rival Islay, some leagues further down the coast.

[389] This account of the use of guano by the ancient Peruvians is exceedingly curious. Garcilasso de la Vega also describes the use made by them of the deposits of guano on the coast. He says: “On the shores of the sea, from below Arequipa to Tarapaca, which is more than two hundred leagues of coast, they use no other manure than that of sea birds, which abound in all the coasts of Peru, and go in such great flocks that it would be incredible to one who had not seen them. They breed on certain uninhabited islands which are on that coast; and the manure which they deposit is in such quantities that it would almost seem incredible. In the time of the kings, who were Yncas, such care was taken to guard these birds in the breeding season, that it was not lawful for any one to land on the isles, on pain of death, that the birds might not be frightened, nor driven from their nests. Neither was it lawful to kill them at any time, either on the island or elsewhere, also on pain of death. Each island was, by the Yncas, set apart for the use of a particular province, and the guano was fairly divided, each village receiving a due portion” (ii, lib. v, cap. iii). See also _Antiguedades Peruanas_, p. 77.

Frezier mentions that, when he was on the coast in 1713, guano was brought from Iquique, and other ports along the coast, and landed at Arica and Ylo, for the _aji_ and other crops. Frezier’s _South Sea_, p. 152.

[390] The desert of Atacama.

[391] The original site was in the rear of the little village of Cayma.

[392] The splendid volcano of Misti rises immediately in the rear of the city of Arequipa, in a perfect cone capped with snow, to a height of 18,000 feet above the level of the sea, or, according to Pentland, 20,300 feet.

[393] The most terrible earthquakes at Arequipa, took place as follows:--

January 2, 1582
February 18, 1600
November 23, 1604
December 9, 1609
1613
May 20, 1666
April 23, 1668
October 21, 1687
August 22, 1715
May 13, 1784
1812
July 10, 1821
October 9, 1831
June 3, 1848. Between 10
P.M. and 2 A.M. there were forty
terrific shocks.

[394] After the armies of Ynca Pachacutec, under the command of his brother, the able general Ccapac Yupanqui, had conquered the Huanca nation, that commander invaded the province of Caxamarca in about 1380 A.D. The natives replied to the usual Yncarial summons, by saying that they had no need for new gods or new laws beyond those which they had received from their ancestors. The Yncarial troops were victorious in the open ground, but the natives of Caxamarca then retreated into their fortified strongholds, and made continual forays. Thus the war lasted for four months, but the Ynca general lost no opportunity of ingratiating himself with the enemy, setting the prisoners at liberty, curing the wounded, and sending messages of peace and amity to the hostile chiefs. At last the people of Caxamarca began to reflect that they might meet a harder fate than that of submitting to rulers who, while they were able to kill, treated their prisoners with so much kindness. The chiefs sent in their submission, and were confirmed in their privileges, while the province of Caxamarca became an integral part of the empire of the Yncas. The general Ccapac Yupanqui was accompanied in this campaign by his youthful nephew the Ynca Yupanqui, who afterwards succeeded his father Pachacutec as tenth Ynca of Peru.

It was by this enlightened policy of conciliation, accompanied by vigorous movements in the field, that most of the conquests of the Yncas were effected. _G. de la Vega_, i, lib. vi, cap. xv.

[395] The valley of Caxamarca (_Ccasa_, “frost,” and _marca_, “tower” or “house” in Quichua) is about five leagues long and three broad. It is intersected with green hedges enclosing hundreds of small plots bearing luxuriant crops, and a river winds from one extremity to the other. Humboldt believed this valley to be the bottom of an ancient lake. The soil is extremely fertile, and the plain is full of gardens and fields, traversed by avenues of daturas, willows, and the beautiful _queñuar_ tree (_Polylepis villosa_). In the northern part of the plain, small porphyritic domes break through the sandstone strata, and probably once formed islands in the ancient lake, before its waters had flowed off.

Atahualpa had a palace at the warm sulphur baths of Pultamarca, in this plain, some slight remains of which can still be traced. The large deep basin, forming the baths, appears to have been artificially excavated in the sandstone rock above one of the fissures through which the spring issues. There are also slight remains of the fort and palace of Atahualpa in the town. The palace was situated on a hill of porphyry. The most considerable ruins still visible are only from thirteen to fifteen feet high, and consist of fine cut blocks of stone two or three feet long, and placed upon each other without cement. The cacique Astopilco, a descendant of Atahualpa, resided in a part of these ruins at the time when Humboldt and Stevenson visited Caxamarca. The room was shown them, where the unhappy Atahualpa was kept a prisoner for nine months in 1532-33. _Humboldt’s Aspects._ _Stevenson_, ii, cap. v.

Prescott gives the amount of gold collected for Atahualpa’s ransom at Caxamarca at 1,326,539 _pesos de oro_, besides 51,610 marcs of silver. (From _Xeres_, in _Barcia’s Coll_., iii, p. 232. Xeres was Pizarro’s secretary.) The _peso_ or _castellano de oro_ was equal, in commercial value, to £2:12:6; so that the gold alone, of this ransom, was worth £3,500,000. _Prescott_, i, p. 425.

[396] When Pizarro rudely pulled Atahualpa from his chair, and took him prisoner, a soldier named Miguel Astete tore the crimson fringe, the token of his sovereignty, from his forehead. Astete kept the fringe until 1557, when he gave it to Sayri Tupac, the son of Ynca Manco, who was recognized as Ynca, and received a pension from the viceroy Marquis of Cañete.

[397] This account differs slightly from that given by Garcilasso de la Vega, which is as follows.

After the death of the Ynca Huayna Ccapac in 1526, his two sons, Huascar and Atahualpa, reigned peaceably for about four or five years, the former at Cuzco, and the latter at Quito. At last the elder brother became jealous of the power of his rival at Quito, and sent an envoy demanding that he should do him homage as sole and sovereign lord. Atahualpa replied that he would most willingly submit to the rule of the Ynca, and announced his intention of making a journey to Cuzco, accompanied by all his vassals, to take an oath of obedience, and to celebrate the obsequies of their common father. Under this feigned submission Atahualpa concealed the treacherous intention of attacking and dethroning his brother. He collected thirty thousand armed Indians under the command of his two generals Challcuchima and Quizquiz, and sent them by different ways towards Cuzco, disguised as ordinary serving men. Huascar had so little suspicion of treachery that he ordered these men to be supplied with clothing and provisions on the road. The passage of so many armed men through the provinces, excited the alarm of several veteran governors, who warned Huascar of his danger; but meanwhile the forces of Atahualpa had crossed the river Apurimac without opposition, and, raising their banners, threw off the mask and advanced as open enemies. Thoroughly alarmed, Huascar summoned the chiefs of the southern, eastern, and western districts, Colla-suyu, Anti-suyu, and Cunti-suyu. Chincha-suyu, the northern province, was already in the power of Atahualpa. Those of Cunti-suyu alone had time to join the Ynca, with thirty thousand undisciplined Indians. The forces of Atahualpa advanced to the attack without delay, in order that there might be no time for more reinforcements to reach Cuzco, and a desperate battle was fought at a place called Quepaypa (literally _of my trumpet_), a few leagues west of Cuzco. Garcilasso mentions that, as a boy at school in Cuzco, he twice visited this battle field, when out hawking in the neighbourhood. The battle lasted during the whole day. At last the veteran troops of Atahualpa, who had served in all his father’s wars, triumphed over the raw levies of his more peaceful brother, Huascar was taken prisoner after a thousand of his body guard had fallen around him, and most of his faithful _curacas_ or chiefs voluntarily surrendered, in order to share the fate of their beloved lord. This battle took place in 1532. Atahualpa was not present at the battle, but he hurried to Cuzco on hearing of his victory. Knowing that, according to the ancient laws of the empire, he, as an illegitimate son, could not inherit the crown; he resolved to put all the legitimate heirs out of his way by indiscriminate slaughter. Not only did he order all his half-brothers to be put to death, but also his uncles, nephews, and cousins of the blood royal, and most of the faithful nobles of Huascar. One of the Ynca’s wives, named Mama Huarcay, fled with her little daughter Coya Cusi Huarcay, who afterwards married Sayri Tupac, the Ynca who was pensioned by the marquis of Cañete in 1553. Out of so large a family several other members also escaped from the fate intended for them by the cruel Atahualpa. Among these were the mother of the historian Garcilasso de la Vega, and her brother Hualpa Tupac Ynca Yupanqui; Manco, Paullu, and Titu, legitimate sons of Huayna Ccapac; and several princesses, who were baptised after the conquest. Of these, Beatrix Coya married Don Martin de Mustincia (the royal accountant), and had three sons; Leonora Coya married first Don Juan Balsa, by whom she had a son--a schoolfellow of Garcilasso, and secondly Don Francisco de Villacastin; and there were about a hundred other survivors of Ynca blood. The Ynca Huascar himself was thrown into prison at Xauxa, and murdered by order of Atahualpa, after the latter had been made prisoner by Pizarro. Huascar was a mild and amiable prince, and fell a victim to his guileless and unsuspicious disposition. _G. de la Vega_, i, lib. ix, caps. 32 to 40.

This is the version given by Garcilasso de la Vega of the war between Huascar and Atahualpa. As a descendant of the Yncas he was of course strongly prejudiced in favour of his maternal ancestors, and his account of Atahualpa’s cruelties after his victory, are probably much exaggerated. At the same time no one could have had better opportunities of obtaining authentic information, and doubtless the principal facts are correct.

Velasco defends the conduct of Atahualpa through thick and thin. As a native of the province of Quito, he naturally takes the part of the last sovereign of his own country, whose subsequent misfortunes throw a veil over his cruelties and treason to the Yncas of Cuzco. _Hist. de Quito_, ii, p. 76.

[398] Melchor Verdugo was a native of the town of Avila, in Spain. He distinguished himself in the battle of Chupas, fighting against the younger Almago, and, receiving the district of Caxamarca in _encomienda_, settled himself at Truxillo. As a townsman and partizan of the ill-fated viceroy Blasco Nuñez, he was in bad odour with the party of Gonzalo Pizarro, and was seized by Carbajal, but evaded pursuit, and was concealed by his Indians at Caxamarca until he thought it safe to return to Truxillo. He escaped from Peru by an act of unsurpassed audacity. A vessel arrived at the port of Truxillo, from Callao, and Verdugo resolved to seize her. He, therefore, collected about twenty armed men, upon whom he could depend, and concealed them in his house. He, then, sent for the master and pilot, saying that he wanted to ship some merchandise for Panama, and as soon as he got them into his house he locked them up. Presently the alcaldes of the town walked down the street with a notary, and Verdugo, throwing open a window, called out to them to come in, as he wanted them to witness a deed, and could not come out to them, owing to a disease in his legs. They entered, without suspecting anything, and were immediately put in irons and locked up with the master and pilot of the ship. Returning to his window, Verdugo continued to call up people he saw passing, saying he had something to say to them, until he had more than twenty of the principal people of the town, of Gonzalo Pizarro’s party, safely locked up. He then told them that he would take them all in the ship with him, unless they paid a ransom, and, after thus collecting a large sum of money in gold and silver, he went on board, and sailed for Nicaragua; where his ship was seized by Palomino, an officer serving under Hinojosa, Gonzalo Pizarro’s admiral at Panama. Verdugo then collected three small vessels in the lake of Nicaragua, and, descending the river, entered the sea and sailed to Nombre de Dios, and thence to Carthagena. After the arrival of the president Gasca at Panama, Verdugo returned to Spain, and received the habit of Santiago from the Emperor. Eventually he returned to his estates in Peru. _Zarate_, lib. vi, cap. vi, etc.

[399] Chachapoyas was a district to the eastward of Caxamarca, inhabited by brave men and beautiful women, according to Garcilasso de la Vega. Their chief god was the condor, and they also worshipped snakes. These Indians were attacked by the Ynca Tupac Yupanqui, and a fierce war ensued. They defended themselves in fortresses perched on inaccessible heights, and were only dislodged after a prolonged resistance. After the death of their conqueror, they rebelled against his son Huayna Ccapac, but were again subdued and pardoned. The modern town of Chachapoyas gives its name to a bishopric, with a diocese extending over that part of the vast forest-covered region of the Amazon and its tributaries which lies within the boundaries of Peru.

[400] Alonzo de Alvarado, a brother of Cortes’s famous companion, was detached by Pizarro with orders to conquer Chachapoyas; but he was so constantly engaged in the civil wars, until his death, that he had little time to spare in conquering and settling this province; which duty devolved upon his second son.

[401] The Huancas were the inhabitants of the valley of Xauxa, or more properly Sausa. They are described by Garcilasso as living in small villages strongly fortified, and worshipping dogs. The Huancas mentioned by Cieza de Leon, were probably _Mitimaes_ sent into the Chachapoyas district by the Yncas.

[402] Moyobamba is now the chief town of the modern province of Loreto, which includes all the course of the Amazon and its tributaries within the boundaries of Peru. It contains about fourteen thousand inhabitants, and is built near the river Mayo, an affluent of the Huallaga. The ground consists of sandstone, which is easily washed away by the heavy rains, and deep ravines have been formed in the course of time, some of them thirty and forty yards deep, which intersect and break up the town. The inhabitants are employed in making straw hats, which are exported to Brazil. _Apuntes, &ca., por Antonio Raimondy_, p. 60.

[403] The Chanca Indians originally inhabited the valley of Andahuaylas, between Cuzco and Guamanga. They were invaded by the Ynca Rocca, sixth in descent from Manco Ccapac, and obliged to submit to his yoke. But soon after the accession of Rocca’s son Yahuar-huaccac, the Chancas rose in rebellion under their chief Anco-huallu, a youth of twenty-six years of age. The pusillanimous Ynca not only neglected to march against him, but even abandoned Cuzco, and retreated in an opposite direction. His son Huira-ccocha, however, was a man of different metal. He led an army against the insurgents, and utterly defeated them in a bloody and well-contested battle on the Yahuar-pampa, or “plain of blood.” Anco-huallu received a full pardon, and for ten years he continued to reside in his native valley as a tributary chief. But this dependent position was distasteful to him, and eventually he emigrated with eight thousand followers, and settled in the forests of the Moyobamba district. Garcilasso tells us that the exact position of his new settlement was never exactly known, the report merely stating that he descended a great river, and established his people on the banks of a beautiful lake. Mr. Spruce has suggested that Anco-huallu and his Chancas conquered Moyobamba, and drove the original inhabitants out, who, descending the Huallaga and Amazon, settled between the rivers Ucayali, Marañon, and Yavari, and were the progenitors of the fierce and untameable modern tribe of _Mayorunas_ (_Mayu_, a river, and _runa_, a man in Quichua). _G. de la Vega_, i, lib. v, cap. 26.

[404] The word for gold in Quichua is _ccuri_. In the Tupi language, which was prevalent among the Indians of the river Amazon, the word _curí_ means coloured earths, much used in plastering huts, and for other purposes. It is very probable that Spaniards from Peru who descended into the valley of the Amazon, asked for _ccuri_ (gold), and were told there was plenty of _curí_ (coloured earth); and that from this mistake the fame of the wealth of Omagua and El Dorado arose.

[405] For an account of this remarkable emigration of Indians from Brazil, see my Introduction to the Expedition of Pedro de Ursua (“_Search for El Dorado_.” HAKLUYT SOCIETY’S volume for 1861, p. xxviii, and p. 2 of the text.) Their chief, named Viraratu, was sent to Lima, and it was his report that led to the organisation of the expedition in search of El Dorado and Omagua, which descended the Amazon in 1559, under Pedro de Ursua, and met with so tragic a fate.

[406] The climate of Huanuco is delightful. The thermometer seldom rises above 72° in the shade, nor sinks below 66°, and no place in the world equals it as a retreat for patients suffering from diseases of the lungs--but it is terribly inaccessible. The plain still, as in the days of Cieza de Leon, yields wheat and maize, bananas, figs, coffee, cotton, grapes, pomegranates, oranges, lemons, citrons, and limes. _Smith’s Peru As It Is._

[407] The ruins of the Huanuco palace or temple are chiefly interesting from the six portals, one within the other, which are well preserved. There is also a species of look out, which was probably the place where the priests offered their sacrifices to the sun. The architecture of these ruins is very distinct from that of other Ynca edifices, and would appear to be of earlier date. The Indians know these ruins by the name of _Auqui Huanuco_. The look out is 56 paces long by 36 in width, the height of the wall five yards, and inclined inwards from the base. It rests upon two courses of round stone, about five feet high. The walls are of cut stone and terminate in a cornice, the stones being 4½ feet long and 1½ feet thick. The interior is composed of gravel and clay, and in the centre there is a large cavity, which is said to communicate with the palace by a subterranean passage. The look out is approached by a steep ramp or inclined plane, and two figures of animals are carved on either side of the entrance.

The palace is entered by six portals. On entering the first there are halls, 100 yards long by 14 wide, on either side. The walls are built of round stones mixed with clay, the doorways alone having cut stone. These doorways are 9 feet high and 4½ broad, the lintels being of a single stone, 12 feet long and 1½ thick. The jambs are of a single piece. Three yards further on is the second portal, resembling the first, with two figures carved on the upper part. This leads into a spacious court, at the other end of which are two smaller doorways in a line, leading into a smaller court, and finally there are two other portals, still smaller, and of sculptured stone. Beyond the sixth portal there are rooms with stone walls containing niches, and an aqueduct passes through one of these rooms, which is said to have been the bathing place of the Ynca. In front of the building there is a broad artificial terrace, and underneath a large court, with a receptacle for water in the centre.

The stones of which the ruins are composed were taken from a ridge about half a mile distant, and some are yet to be seen, lying cut in the quarry.

[408] In these days a Peruvian Indian answers _No!_ (_Manan canchu_) to everything that is asked of him. The change is one of the baneful results of three centuries of Spanish domination.

[409] The Yncas restricted all hunting by their subjects, and the number of animals of all descriptions consequently multiplied prodigiously. At a certain season of the year, after breeding time, the Yncas and governors of provinces held a grand hunt, called _Chacu_ in Quichua. As many as thirty thousand Indians were assembled, who surrounded a space of several square leagues, and gradually drove all the animals into the centre, closing upon them until they were so close as to be easily caught by hand. Very often there were as many as forty thousand head of _guanacos_ and _vicuñas_ alone. Most of the female _guanacos_ and _vicuñas_, and a certain number of males, were then released; but they were shorn of their wool before they were allowed to go free. The rest were killed. The deer were also killed, and the meat was distributed amongst the Indians. An accurate account was kept of the number released, the number killed, and the number shorn, by means of the _quipus_. The coarse wool of the _guanacos_ was then given to the people, while that of the _vicuñas_, as fine as silk, was reserved for the Ynca’s service. These hunts were held in each district every four years, giving three years of rest for the animals to multiply. The Indians dried the meat which was served out to them, and this preserved meat, called _charqui_ in Quichua (hence “jerked beef”), lasted them until another hunting year came round. _G. de la Vega._ _Comm. Real_, i, lib. vi, cap. 6.

[410] The Peruvian _quipus_ were of twisted wool, and consisted of a large cord, with finer threads fastened to it by knots. These fringes contained the contents of the _quipu_, which were denoted either by single knots or by artificial intertwinings. Sometimes the main cord was five or six yards long, at others not more than a foot. The different colours of the threads had different meanings; and not only was the colour and mode of intertwining of the knots to be considered, in reading a _quipu_, but even the mode of twisting the thread, and the distance of knots from each other, and from the main cord. The registers of tribute; the enrolment of tribes, distinguishing between taxpayers, aged, invalids, women, and children; lists of arms and troops; inventories of the contents of storehouses; all these were the primary uses of the _quipus_. But they were also made available for recording the most striking events, and thus supplied the place of chronicles. Acosta says that the ancient Peruvians, by their combinations of larger and smaller threads; double and single knots; green, blue, white, black, and red colours; could express meanings and ideas as innumerable, as we can by the different combinations of our twenty-four letters.

All attempts, in modern times, to decipher the _quipus_ found in tombs, have failed; yet there are Indians of noble family, especially in the southern part of Peru, who know the secret of deciphering these intricate memorials, but guard it as a sacred trust transmitted from their ancestors. The _quipu_ records referring to matters of revenue or registration were kept by officers called _Quipu-camayoc_; while the chronicles of events were recorded by the _Amautas_ or learned men, and the poems and songs by _Haravecs_ or bards. Garcilasso de la Vega distinctly states that the sole specimen of Quichua poesy preserved in his work, was obtained from an ancient _quipu_ record by the missionary Blas Valera. See _G. de la Vega_, i, lib. vi, cap. 8. _Acosta_, lib. vi, cap. 8. _Antiguedades Peruanas_, cap. 5. Markham’s _Quichua Dictionary_, etc., p. 11.

[411] The name of Francisco de Chaves deserves honourable mention, as that of one of the few Spaniards who protested against the foul and dastardly murder of the Ynca Atahualpa by Pizarro, at Caxamarca. He and his brother Diego, natives of Truxillo, Francisco Moscoso, Pedro de Ayala, Diego de Mora, Hernando de Haro, Pedro de Mendoza, Juan de Herrada, Alonzo de Avila, and Blas de Atienza were the principal officers who raised their voices against that horrible crime. Their names deserve to be remembered far more than do those of the famous thirteen who crossed the line drawn by Pizarro on the sea-shore of the isle of Gallo.

On the march from Caxamarca to Cuzco, Pizarro’s small force was attacked by the Indians led by the Ynca general Quizquiz, and, after a long and well contested battle, the Indians retired, taking several Spanish prisoners with them, among whom was Francisco de Chaves. He was brought before Atahualpa’s brother, the Ynca Titu Atauchi, and was treated with great kindness because he had protested against the perpetration of the murder; while another prisoner named Cuellar, who had acted as notary and been present at the Ynca’s execution, was himself most justly put to death by the Indians. Chaves was cured of his wounds, and set free with many gifts. Pizarro and his other comrades were astonished when he arrived at Cuzco, having mourned him as dead, since the day that he fell into the hands of the Indians.

The remaining part of his history is not so creditable, for he seems to have committed great atrocities in his Conchucos war. The statements of Cieza de Leon are quoted by G. de la Vega (ii, lib. ii, cap. 28), who corroborates the account given by the former, of the cruelties perpetrated by Chaves:--a shameful return for the kindness and forbearance he had himself experienced at the hands of the Indians. He was with Pizarro when the assassins came to murder him. Pizarro called to Chaves to close the door, in order that he and his friends might have time to arm. Instead of obeying, Chaves went out to parley with the intruders, and met them coming up the stairs. He had scarcely asked them their business before he was stabbed to death, and his body hurled down the steps. The assassins then completed their bloody work by the murder of the conqueror of Peru.

[412] Nor, if he would speak out, was our young author without sympathy for the Indians, and their sufferings.

[413] Also called the lake of Chinchaycocha. Near its southern shore the famous cavalry action was fought in 1823 between the Spaniards and Patriots, known as the battle of Junin, in which the gallant old general Miller distinguished himself. The lake is thirty-six miles long in a north-west and south-east direction, with an average breadth of about six miles, and 12,940 feet above the level of the sea. The plain or basin in which it lies, is forty-five miles long and from six to twelve broad, with a gravelly soil producing a short grass. A great number of large and beautiful water-fowl, including the scarlet flamingo and several varieties of snipe, frequent the banks of the lake, which are overgrown by reeds. As the lake loses by various outlets much more water than it receives from its tributary sources, it is evident that it must be fed by subterraneous springs. The Indians entertain a superstitious belief that this lake is haunted by huge fish-like animals, who at certain hours of the night leave their watery abode to prowl about the adjacent pasture lands, where they commit great havoc among the cattle. _Von Tschudi_, _Herndon._

[414] The lake of Bombon or Chinchay-cocha is drained by the river of Xauxa, which flows into the Mantaro, one of the sources of the Ucayali, a principal affluent of the Amazon. The other rivers mentioned above, namely the Vilcas, Abancay, Apurimac, and Yucay, are also tributaries of the Ucayali. The erroneous surmise of Cieza de Leon and his informants, who would carry off all these streams into the Paraguay, is by no means surprising when we remember that maps were published in England not twenty years ago, which conveyed the waters of the Beni right across the line of drainage of the great river Purus, and poured them into the Ucuyali! The mistake of Cieza de Leon possibly arose from his having observed that the Xauxa flows south while in the mountains, and that all other tributaries of the Amazon flow north. The Xauxa does not change its direction until it enters the tropical forests, far beyond the ken of the early conquerors.

[415] No more picturesque view can charm the eye of the weary traveller than is presented by the immense garden which forms the valley of Xauxa, which is forty square leagues in extent. Its two principal towns are Xauxa and Huancayo, in the centre of the valley is the convent of Ocopa, and the remaining population is scattered in small villages surrounded by trees on either side of the river of Xauxa, which flows through the valley. The mighty Andes bound the river on every side.

[416] The Huancas were conquered by Ccapac Yupanqui, the brother and general of the Ynca Pachatutec; and at that time they are said to have numbered thirty thousand souls in the valley of Xauxa. Garcilasso informs us that, before they were subjugated by the Yncas, they worshipped the figure of a dog, and feasted on the flesh of dogs. He surmises that they adored the dog-idol because they were so fond of roast dog. _G. de la Vega_, i, lib. vi, cap. 10. _Huancar_ (“a drum” in Quichua,) is probably a name given to this nation by the Yncas.

[417] “The temple of Guarivilca, in the valley of Xauxa, was consecrated to the god Ticeviracocha, chief divinity of the Huancas, whose singular worship reminds one of the mythology of the northern countries of Europe. Notwithstanding the most scrupulous investigations, it has been impossible to find any vestiges of the ruins of this temple.” _Antiq. Per._

[418] _Schinus Molle_ Lin.

[419] Vincente de Valverde, a Dominican friar, accompanied Pizarro to Peru, and we first hear of him as addressing an intolerably prolix theological discourse to the Ynca Atahualpa, when he came to visit the Spanish camp at Caxamarca. The treacherous friar completed his evil work by calling out to Pizarro and his bloodhounds to attack their guest. Valverde continued to torment the ill-fated Ynca with his theology while in prison, until the poor captive’s sufferings were consummated by his murder on August 29th, 1533. We next find him tormenting the unfortunate general Challcuchina, whom Pizarro burnt alive, disturbing his last moments by officious importunities. He performed mass at the humiliating coronation of Ynca Manco, who received the _llautu_ from the hands of Pizarro. Valverde was soon afterwards confirmed as bishop of Cuzco by the Pope in 1538. He returned to Spain, but came out to Peru again in the following year (1539), and wrote a curious letter to Charles V, still preserved in the archives of Simancas, in which he describes the ruin and devastation caused by the Spaniards in the once flourishing capital of the Yncas. Bishop Valverde protested against the execution of Almagro; and also endeavoured to save Pizarro’s secretary, who was put to death at Lima by the assassins of his master. The assassins allowed the bishop to depart in a vessel from Callao, which touched at the island of Puna, where he was killed by the Indians in 1541.

Valverde was the first bishop of Cuzco, from 1538 to 1541. He was succeeded by friar Juan Solano (1545-62), since whose time twenty-six bishops have filled that episcopal chair.

[420] _Schinus Molle_ Lin., the prevailing tree in this part of the Andes.

[421] _Pucara_ is Quichua for a fortress.

[422] Gaspar Rodriguez de Campo Redondo was brother of a distinguished officer who was killed in the battle of Chupas. Gaspar Rodriguez joined Gonzalo Pizarro in his rebellion against the viceroy Blasco Nuñez de Vela, but afterwards, seeing reason to think that he had chosen the losing side, he sent to the viceroy to ask for a safe conduct. This treachery became known to Pizarro and his ruthless lieutenant Carbajal, who came to the traitor’s tent. The wretched man offered many excuses, but Carbajal never showed mercy, and his head was cut off on the spot.

[423] Diego Gavilan, with his brother Juan, joined Francisco Hernandez Giron in his rebellion at Cuzco in 1553; and the rebel chief appointed Diego to the post of captain of infantry. The municipality of Cuzco was obliged to elect Giron captain-general of Peru, more, says Garcilasso, from fear of one hundred and fifty arquebusiers under the command of Diego Gavilan, who were drawn up in front of the court-house, than from good will. After the overthrow and flight of Giron at Pucara, Diego and Juan Gavilan went over to the royal army and received pardon for their share in the rebellion.

[424] Yllan Suarez de Carbajal was the factor of the royal revenue. After the death of Pizarro he fled from the camp of the younger Almagro, and fought bravely under Vaca de Castro in the battle of Chupas. Carbajal was at Lima when Blasco Nuñez de Vela arrived, and one night the hot-headed viceroy sent for him, accused him of treason, and, during the altercation which followed, stabbed him with a poniard. The attendants dispatched him with their swords, and the body was secretly buried before morning. This foul murder was the immediate cause of the viceroy’s downfall.

[425] Manco Ynca, the second legitimate son of Huayna Ccapac, was invested with the royal _llautu_ at Cuzco by the conqueror Pizarro; but he chafed under the yoke of the invaders, and, on the first opportunity, raised the standard of revolt. Then followed the famous siege of Cuzco, and when the place was relieved by Almagro, and Manco’s last chance of regaining the ancient capital of his ancestors failed, he retreated into the forest fastnesses, continued his hostilities against the Spaniards, and led the romantic life described above by Cieza de Leon. On one occasion Gonzalo Pizarro sent a negro slave to him with presents, to open a negotiation, who was murdered by a party of Indians; upon which Gonzalo perpetrated an act of such devilish cruelty upon a young wife of Manco, whom he had made prisoner, as to be barely credible. The story is related by Prescott, on the authority of Pedro Pizarro’s MS. (ii, p. 136). Manco’s end was very melancholy. He was playing at a game with balls, with one Gomez Perez and some other Spaniards of Almagro’s faction, who had taken refuge in the Ynca’s fastness, when the ill-conditioned ruffian was guilty of some act of disrespect. The Ynca pushed him on one side, upon which Gomez Perez hit him such a blow on the head with a ball that he fell dead. (_Gomara_, cap. clvi.) This was in the year 1544. The gallant young Ynca left two sons, Sayri Tupac and Tupac Amaru. The former was pensioned by the Spaniards and died at Yucay; the latter perished on the scaffold at Cuzco.

[426] After the assassination of Pizarro, the younger Almagro assembled his partizans and prepared to resist the royal forces under the new governor Vaca de Castro. The two armies met on the heights of Chupas, which overhang the city of Guamanga, on the 16th of September 1542. During my residence at Guamanga I went in search of the battle field, which is about three leagues from the town. The field of Chupas is on a sort of terrace of the Andes, with the mountains rising in the rear, a rapid descent towards Guamanga, and slightly wooded ravines to the right and left. The view from it is magnificent. It is now covered with fields of wheat, with a few huts scattered here and there amidst thickets of _chilca_ (a species of _Baccharis_). A most furious and bloody encounter was the battle of Chupas. It was long doubtful, but at length Vaca de Castro was victorious, and out of 850 Spaniards brought into the field by young Almagro, 700 were killed. The victors lost about 350 men. Among the slain, on the royal side, was Pedro Alvarez Holguin, one of the first corregidors of Guamanga, and formerly a companion of Hernan Cortez--the same who captured Guatimozin in the lakes of Mexico. He was buried in the little church of San Christoval at Guamanga, which was built by Pizarro and still exists. Several of the prisoners, who were implicated in the murder of Pizarro, were beheaded in the _plaza_ of Guamanga.

[427] The country round Guamanga was inhabited, in ancient times, by the nation of Pocras. They joined the Chancas under Anco-huallu in their war against the Ynca (see note at p. 280), and after the bloody defeat of the allied tribes on the plain of Yahuarpampa, and the emigration of Anco-huallu, they again rose in rebellion. They were finally crushed in a bloody battle at the foot of the heights of Condor-canqui, by the Ynca Huira-ccocha, in a place which has ever since been called _Aya-cucho_ (“the corner of dead men”). Four hundred and fifty years afterwards, on the same spot, the battle was fought between the Spaniards and the Patriots, which finally established the independence of Peru. (December 9th, 1824.)

After the overthrow of the Pocras, the Ynca was serving out rations of llama flesh to his soldiers when a falcon (_huaman_) came wheeling in circles over his head. He threw up a piece of meat crying _Huaman-ca_ (Take! falcon), and the bird caught it and flew away. “Lo,” cried the soldiers, “even the birds of the air obey him:” and the place was ever afterwards called _Huaman-ca_, corrupted by the Spaniards into _Guamanga_. Since the independence, the name of the city has been altered to _Ayacucho_, in honour of the battle.

Others derive the name from _Huaman_ (falcon) and _Ccaca_ (a rock)--“the Falcon’s Rock.”