The Incas of Peru/Chapter 15

by Clements Robert Markham

CHAPTER XV

THE CHINCHA CONFEDERACY

The territory of the Chimu ended to the south at Paramunca, in 10° 51′ S. The coast thence to latitude about 15° S. includes the perennially watered valleys of Huara, Chancay, Caravayllo, Rimac, Lurin, Mala, Huarcu, Chincha, Pisco, Yca, Rio Grande, comprising five valleys converging into one, and Nasca, with deserts between them. There are also a few inhabited valleys with watercourses coming from outside the region of regular rains, such as Chilca and Asia.^[1] The irrigated valleys supported a dense population in ancient times, the chiefs of each valley being independent, though acting together as a confederacy for certain purposes.

There are reasons for the conclusion that these more southern valleys had also been inhabited from a very remote period. On the island of San Lorenzo, opposite to the mouth of the Rimac, Darwin found the same shells as occur in the ocean at the present time, at a height of 85 feet, and with them the evidence of man's existence, including cobs of Indian corn and cotton twine. The depth at which ancient relics have been found in the deposits of guano on the Chincha Islands has been considered as another proof of the very remote period when there were inhabitants in these coast valleys. There is, however, some reason to doubt the cogency of this argument.^[2] Still the evidence, especially that given by Darwin, is in favour of the peopling of these valleys from a very remote antiquity.

Whence, then, did these coast people originally come? I believe that the mountains of the maritime cordillera, with their gorges and ravines opening on the coast valleys, answer the question. In a former chapter we have seen that the mountain fastnesses of Huarochiri, Yauyos, and Lucanas overlook the coast, and were inhabited by hardy tribes of mountaineers speaking a dialect of Quichua. From remote antiquity they descended into the coast valleys and multiplied exceedingly, being periodically recruited from the mountains.

We have no history, barely a tradition, to throw any light on these coast people—nothing but the confused side-light thrown by their ruins and the contents of their tombs. Touching their superstitions and religious beliefs we have a little more, due to the fact that two or three priests, commissioned to extirpate idolatry, prepared interesting reports which have fortunately been preserved.

The former density of the population is shown by the irrigation works, and also by the fact that the ruins of ancient villages are found on the skirts of the mountains and deserts, and not within the valleys, so as to reserve every square foot for cultivation. The chiefs, however, formed their strongholds in the centre of their dominions. These consisted of huge mounds, or huacas, as the ruins are now called. In the great valley of the Rimac, where now stand the city of Lima and the seaport of Callao, as well as in the other valleys, there are several of these vast mounds built of large adobes. The interiors were used as places of sepulture. On the platform, raised high above the plain, was the chief's palace, made defensible, whence the cultivated lands could be overlooked and the approach of an enemy discerned. At the foot of these mounds there are the ruins of barracks occupied by the followers and attendants of the chief.

The pottery and other works of art found in the tombs are exceedingly interesting, and show that commercial intercourse existed between the Mochicas and the most southern coast dwellers. The Chimu influence is apparent. The most interesting relics are those brought to our knowledge by Reiss and Stübel in their beautifully illustrated work recording the results of their excavations at Ancon, to the north of Lima. Besides the mummies and pottery, and warlike implements, there were cotton cloths worked in various patterns, the work-baskets of ladies with their sewing and spinning articles, and even dolls and other playthings for children. In the more southern valleys the discoveries of pottery and other relics in the places of sepulture have been very numerous. In the valley of Yca I also found a stone vase with two serpents carved round it. In the Nasca valley, in the far south, a number of specimens of painted pottery have recently been discovered, which are believed to be very ancient. But all are inferior to the Chimu works of art, both in design and workmanship.

Some curious mythological fables, belonging as much to the coast valleys as to the adjacent mountainous province of Huarochiri, have been preserved by Dr. Francisco Avila, the cura of San Damian, in Huarochiri, in 1608. This province of Huarochiri, with its lofty mountain ranges, is drained by the rivers Rimac and Lurin. It appears that the tradition of the people was that in the Purun-pacha, or most remote times, the land of Huarochiri was yunca, that is to say that it had a climate similar to the coast valleys. The tradition seems to point to a period before the Andes were raised to their present elevation.

These people, who spoke a dialect of Quichua, preserved a tradition, handed down to them from the megalithic age, of the supreme god of Pirua, the 'Uira-cocha.' To his name they attached the words 'Cconi-rayac,'^[3] meaning 'appertaining to heat.' They addressed him as 'Ccoñi-rayac Uira-cocha,' saying, 'Thou art Lord of all; thine are the crops, thine are all the people.'

Yet with all their reverence for the Deity, they told grotesque mythological stories about him. In one of these there was a virgin goddess whom he caused to conceive by dropping before her the fruit from a lucma tree.^[4] To her own astonishment the goddess, whose name was Cavillaca,^[5] gave birth to a son. She assembled all the huacas (gods) to see who was the father, by the test of the child recognising him. Uira-cocha came as a wretched mendicant. The child went at once to the beggar as his father. Cavillaca was ashamed and enraged at being supposed to have connection with any one so despicable. She snatched up the child and fled towards the sea. Uira-cocha resumed his godlike form and, clothed in golden robes, he ran after her. His splendour illuminated the whole country, and he cried to her to turn and look at him, but she rather increased her speed, disdaining to look on such a vile and filthy creature. She was soon out of sight, and when she reached the shore of Pachacamac she entered the sea with her child. They were turned into two rocky islets, which may still be seen. Uira-cocha continued the pursuit, asking several animals, as he passed them, whether the goddess was near or far off. These were a condor, a skunk, a lion, a fox, a falcon, and a parrot.

The condor said he had seen the goddess pass, and that if Uira-cocha went a little faster he would catch her. So Uira-cocha blessed the condor and promised great powers of flight to all future condors. He then met the skunk, who replied to his question that Cavillaca was far away and that he could never overtake her. So Uira-cocha cursed the skunk,^[6] and condemned it to have a strong scent so as to be easily caught. The lion's^[7] reply was favourable, so the king of beasts received a blessing. He was to be respected and feared in life, feeding on the llamas of sinners, and after his death his skin, with the head, was to be honoured by being worn by men at great festivals. Uira-cocha next met a fox,^[8] who told him that his running was useless. The fox's curse was that he would be hunted during life, and that his skin would be despised after death. The cheering answer of the falcon^[9] secured for him a great blessing. He was to breakfast on delicious little birds, and after death festive dancers were to honour his skin by wearing it as a head-dress. Lastly, some parrots gave him bad news, and the curse upon them was that in feeding they should never be safe,for their own cries would betray them.

These talks with the birds and beasts on the road must have delayed the god a good deal, so that when at last he reached the seashore he found that Cavillaca and her child were turned into rocks in the offing. Uira-cocha walked along the seashore until he met two young daughters of the fish god Pachacamac, but they flew away from him in the shape of doves. For this reason their mother, who had gone to visit Cavillaca, now turned to a rock, was called Urpi-huachac, or the 'mother of doves.' Uira-cocha was angry, and looked about to see how he could injure her. In those days there were no fishes in the sea. But Urpi-huachac reared some in a pond; so the enraged god emptied all the fish into the sea, and from them all the fishes that are now in the sea were propagated. This tradition was rooted in the hearts of the people, and in Avila's time the condor, falcon, and lion were looked upon as sacred, and were never killed. Avila knew of a condor which lived under the bridge at the village of San Damian for many years after it was too old to fly. The diligent priest has preserved several other mythological legends.

The temple of Pachacamac was dedicated to a fish god, and is alluded to in this legend of Cavillaca. An immense mound of stones and adobes rises to a height of 200 feet, on the right bank of the river Lurin, near the seashore. It stands on the frontier line, with the fertile valley of Lurin on one side and the sandy desert on the other. The temple is built in three wide terraces, with a platform on the summit. The side-walls are supported by buttresses, but the buildings on the terraces and on the platform have been destroyed. The god gave out oracles which attracted many people from great distances. The Incas are said to have consulted it. Hence a large town sprang up to the east of the temple, and the worship of the creator Uira-cocha was superseded by that of the fish god Pachacamac. The site of the temple was very grand and the view was imposing from the platform, with the bright green of the Lurin valley on one side, the desert on the other, and the lofty mountains of Huarochiri in the rear. The view in front, of the Pacific Ocean, with the sun setting behind the rocks which were once Cavillaca and her child, is very grand.

But the fish god and its oracle lost their fame and importance after the conquest by the Incas. It was January 30, 1533, when Hernando Pizarro, and the recorder of his journey, Miguel Astete, reached the temple of Pachacamac. Astete tells us that an idol of wood was found in a good, well-painted building which the people looked upon as their creator and sustainer. Offerings of gold were placed before it, and no one was allowed to enter the temple except the officiating priests. Hernando Pizarro caused the temple to be pulled down and the idol to be broken and burnt before all the people. The Inca, after the conquest of these coast valleys, had built a temple to the sun on the upper platform. But great part of the town was in ruins, and most of the outer wall had fallen, an indication that the fish god and its oracle had lost their importance under the Incas. Astete tells us that the name of the principal chief was Tauri-chumbi. Because this idol was called Pachacamac an erroneous idea has prevailed that the Supreme Being was worshipped at this place. Pacha means the earth, and Camac, maker or creator. The name was given to their chief idol and oracle, but there is no valid reason for the conjecture that it conveyed any abstract belief in a Supreme Being. On the contrary, the coast people had degraded the primitive and pure religion of megalithic times into a mass of legendary lore, and a system of local image worship combined with divination, soothsaying, and sorcery.

Father Pablo Joseph de Arriaga, a Jesuit, was busily employed, like Avila, in the extirpation of idolatry on the coast and in Conchucos, and his report to the Royal Council of the Indies was published at Lima in 1621.^[10] He tells us that each ayllu had an idol common to the whole tribe, as well as special idols for families, with sacrificial priests. The people long clung to their custom of preserving the bodies of their relations in rocky or desert places, even taking them from the churchyards, where the curas had ordered them to be buried, in the dead of night. They said that they did this 'cuyaspa,' for the love they had for them. On festivals they assembled by ayllus, each one with its mummies, offering to them clothes, plumes, jars, vases, skins of lions and deer, shells and other things. They invoked the ocean as Mamacocha, especially those who came down from the mountains, the earth as Mamapacha at seed-time, to yield good harvests, the Puquios or fountains when water was scarce. Hills and rocks were worshipped and had special names, with a thousand fables about their having once been men who were turned into stones. Many huacas (or gods) were of stone carved in the shape of men, women, and animals. All had special names, and there was not a boy in the ayllu but knew them. Those which were the guardians of the villages were called Marcaparac or Marcacharac. Their Penates or household gods were called Conopa or Huasi-camayoc. Large stones in fields called Chichic or Huanca, and other stones in the irrigating channels; received sacrifices. Then there were the Saramamas and Cocamamas, or the 'mother,' i.e. representative deity of sara (maize) and coca. Besides the sacrificing priests there were hosts of diviners and soothsayers. Arriaga and his colleague Avendaño boasted of having destroyed 603 huacas, 617 malquis (mummies), 3418 conopas, 189 huancas, and 45 mamasaras.

The coast people were steeped in superstitious observances, as this report sufficiently proves, but, nevertheless, they were laborious and intelligent, excellent cultivators, good artisans and, above all, admirable contrivers of irrigation works.

The finest example of an effective irrigation system is that enjoyed by the valley of Nasca, which, as has already been stated, was probably peopled by the mountaineers of Lucanas. Here was a tract of country at the foot of the mountains which originally only received a precarious supply of water from the coast range. Practically it was a desert. The Lucanas converted it into a garden. Of all the earthly paradises in which Peru abounds, Nasca is one of the most charming. The two main channels are brought from the mountains by subterraneous tunnels, the origins of which are unknown. They continue right down the valley, and smaller channels branch from them, also subterraneous in their upper courses but coming to the surface lower down. From these secondary channels the water is taken off, in smaller channels, to irrigate the fields and gardens. There were similar works for the great valleys of Rimac, Lurin, Mala, Huarcu (Cañete), Chincha, Pisco, and Yca, but none more complete and scientifically designed than those of the vale of Nasca.

The inhabitants of these coast valleys appear to have had the generic name of Chinchas, from the great valley of Chincha, originally peopled by the mountaineers of Yauyos. They were trained to the use of arms, and had frequent wars with the subjects of the Chimu, perhaps also among themselves. Their conquest by the Incas took place before that of the Chimu. Garcilasso de la Vega tells us that there was desperate resistance in the different valleys, the Chinchas forming a confederacy, and that they were not subdued until after several well-fought campaigns. The name of their principal leader was Cuis-mancu, the chief of the Rimac valley. After they were at length subdued, they joined the Incas as allies in the war against the Chimu.

The Incas erected two important palace-fortresses on the coast. One was on the frontier between the Chinchas and Mochicas, called Paramanca. It was an extension of a more ancient work built by the Chimu, and is described, by both ancient and modern writers, as an edifice of imposing appearance, with painted walls.^[11] The other Inca stronghold was on an eminence with precipitous sides, at the mouth of the river now called Cañete. It consisted of two blocks of buildings in the Inca style of architecture, one with a vast hall and passages opening upon one side, leading to small chambers. Between the two blocks of buildings there was an open space, or place d'armes, overlooking the plain, with the rapid river washing the base of the height. The place is now called Hervay.^[12] It was designed to overawe the great valleys of Huarcu (Cañete) and Chincha.

The coast valleys continued to flourish under the Incas, and their own hereditary chiefs were confirmed as governors under the Inca system. When Hernando Pizarro arrived at Pachacamac, in January 1533, most of these hereditary governors seem to have sent in their submission.^[13]

South of Nasca the valleys do not appear to have had either an early history or a dense population. There was an aboriginal race of fishermen called Changos, and the Atacamas far to the south, of whose language a vocabulary has been preserved. These fishing tribes used balsas of inflated seal-skins. The southern valleys were eventually peopled by mitimaes, or colonists, chiefly from the Collas. Acari,^[14] the next valley to Nasca, is mentioned by several early writers, and may, perhaps, be included in the Chincha confederacy. Next came Atequipa,^[15] Atico,^[16] Ocoña,^[17] Camana,^[18] and Majes. Arequipa, Moquegua, and Tacna, with its port of Arica, were occupied by Colla colonists, but not, apparently, in great numbers or at a very early date.

1. Formerly Asyac.
2. Mr, Squier argues that articles may have been buried in the guano at considerable depths, also that they may have been placed on the surface and have fallen down to an apparent great depth with the disintegration of the material in course of removal, and thus appear to have been deposited there.
3. Cconi, heat in Quichua; rayac is a particle, meaning 'that which appertains to.'
4. Caballeria latifolia (R.P.).
5. Cavi means a small kind of oca (Oxalis tuberoso); llaca, a diminutive particle.
6. Anas.
7. Puma.
8. Atoc.
9. Huaman.
10. Extirpation de la idolatria de Peru, dirigido al Rey N. S. en su real consejo de Indias por el Padre Pablo Joseph de Arriaga de la Compania de Jesus (Lima, 1621), p. 137.
11. Described by Cieza de Leon, p. 247. Proctor's Travels, p. 175. Squier.
12. Described by Markham, Cuzco and Lima.
13. Astete mentions the following chiefs who came to Pachacamac or sent in their submission:

    Chief of Mala—Lincoto;	Guanchapaichu;
    Pachacamac—Taurichumbi;	Colixa—Aci;
    Poax—Alincai;	Sallicai-marca—Yspilo;
    Huarcu (Cañete)—Guarili;	and others.
    Chincha—Tamviambea;

14. Cieza de Leon, 28, 265; G. de la Vega, i. 244, 267; Balboa, 109; Molina, 62.
15. G. de la Vega, i. 267; ii. 12.
16. G. de la Vega, ibid.; Acosta, 167.
17. Cieza de Leon, 29, 263; G. de la Vega, i. 267; Balboa, 111.
18. Cieza de Leon, 29, 265; G. de la Vega, i 267.