The Incas of Peru/Chapter 18
CHAPTER XVIII
THE LAST OF THE INCAS
The terrible doom of the unfortunate Peruvians and their beloved Incas was now inevitable. It came upon them in one crushing blow a very little more than ten years after the departure of the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega for Europe. On the death of Sayri Tupac, his brother Titu Cusi Yupanqui was acclaimed as sovereign Inca in Vilcapampa—a man of very different mould. Juan de Betanzos and Rodriguez were sent to persuade him to follow his elder brother's example, but without effect. He was firm in the resolve to maintain his independence.[1]
The Inca Garcilasso's old schoolfellow, Carlos Inca, had succeeded his father, Prince Paullu, at the palace of the Colcampata, and was married to a Spanish lady born in Peru, named Maria de Esquivel. Little of the palace now remains, but it is a very interesting spot and closely connected with the last days of the Incas.
High above the city, of which there is an extensive view bounded by the snowy peak of Vilcañota, and at the foot of the precipitous ascent to the fortress, is the small open space before the little church of San Cristoval. On the north side was the palace. On a terrace with a stone revetment, one may still see a wall built of stones of various sizes fitting exactly one into the other. It is seventy-four yards long and sixteen feet high. In this wall there are eight recesses at equal distances, resembling doorways. They are too shallow to be used for shelter—only two and a half inches. They could not have been used as doors, for this wall is a revetment. One only is a doorway. They are not likely to have been merely ornamental. I think that these recesses contained sacred or royal emblems of some kind. The point is interesting, as there are exactly the same walls at the palaces of Chinchero, Limatambo, and Yucay.
COLCAMPATA, CUZCO
The third recess from the west is a doorway leading to a steep narrow staircase. Above there is a platform, now a maize-field, on a level with the top of the recessed wall, once a garden leading to and fronting the palace itself. The remains of the palace are now of very small extent. They consist of a wall of admirably worked masonry forty feet long and ten and a half feet high. The stones are beautifully cut in perfect parallelograms, all of the same height but varying in length, fitting exactly one to the other. The wall contains a doorway and a window. The sides of the doorway support a stone lintel nearly eight feet long, while a stone of similar length forms the doorstep. The window is nearly 6 ft. from the ground, 2 ft. 3 in. broad, by 2 ft. 8 in. high. The foundations and parts of the wall continue for 65 ft.; and behind there are three terraces planted with fruit trees, up to the base of the steep ascent, on the summit of which the citadel once stood.
The palace was the work of the great Inca Pachacuti at the time when he was remodelling the whole city.[2] In imagination we can rebuild the palace from these ruins, with its approach through the revetment wall, its beautiful gardens and terraces, its long façade of exactly fitting masonry, and its great hall, which we are told by Garcilasso was intact in his time. Pachacuti called it the Llactapata, and desired to be interred there. The more modern term Colcampata may have been given owing to granaries (colca) having been placed there at some later time.
Here dwelt Carlos Inca with his wife Maria de Esquivel, as the head of the section of his family that had submitted to the Spaniards. His relations, driven from their homes in the city, lived in the suburbs and the neighbouring villages. The Inca received frequent visits from them, and appears to have held a somewhat melancholy court. Carlos was the depositary of a great secret. Between the time when the transmission of Atahualpa's ransom was stopped, owing to his murder, and the arrival of Pizarro at Cuzco, the respite was employed in secretly concealing the vast treasure still remaining in Cuzco and the neighbourhood, which amounted to millions. It included the great golden statue which was the Huauqui of the Inca Huayna Ccapac, and of course was never found. It was very fortunate for Carlos Inca that the Spaniards did not know of the secret, or that he was its depositary. It is said that once, when his wife taunted him with his poverty, Carlos led her, under promise of secrecy, blindfold to the secret place, and took her breath away at the sight of such vast treasure. He handed the secret down to a successor when he went into exile.[3]
It is now time to introduce the villain of the piece. Don Francisco de Toledo was a younger son of the Count of Oropesa, belonging to a family of which the butcher Alva was the head. Don Francisco was advanced in years when he came to Peru as Viceroy in 1569, and resolved to visit every part of the vast territory under his rule. He was accompanied by Agustin de la Coruña, Bishop of Popayan, the author Josef de Acosta, the lawyers Polo de Ondegardo and Juan de Matienza, the cosmographer Pedro Sarmiento, the secretary Navamuel, and some others. Toledo was an indefatigable worker, but excessively narrow-minded, cruel and pitiless. One of his ideas was to prove that the King of Spain had a right to Peru because the Incas were usurpers. With this object he examined a number of leading Indians at every place he stopped at, but they were not Amautas versed in history, and their evidence is of little or no value. He sent it all to Spain in reports, which have recently been published.[4] This Viceroy arrived at Cuzco early in the year 1571. There were bull fights, tournaments, and other displays in his honour.
At nearly the same time the wife of Don Carlos Inca gave birth to a son and heir, and the Viceroy was requested to be godfather to the child, and 'compadre' or gossip to its parents. He consented, and the baptismal ceremony took place in the little church of San Cristoval. This edifice is built of ancient masonry, and must once have been part of the palace. The child received the names of Carlos Melchior. All the ayllus of the Incas were present, and when the company adjourned to the palace there were rejoicings, dances, fireworks, and 'many newly invented and costly conceits.' The Viceroy came up the staircase in the revetment wall into the gardens of the palace, like a bird of evil omen, guarded by halberdiers. He is portrayed as a short dark man of fifty, with narrow forehead, hawk's nose, black eyes, and a saturnine expression. He would have been in a black velvet suit, with the green cross of Alcantara embroidered on his doublet—certainly a wet blanket.
It is alleged that the Inca Titu Cusi Yupanqui, with his young brother Tupac Amaru, was present and mingled among the crowd of guests. He was impressed with the ceremony, and soon afterwards sent envoys to Cuzco to request that persons might be sent to him to instruct him in the Christian religion. Two friars named Juan de Vivero, who had baptised Sayri Tupac and was Prior of the Augustine convent, and Diego Ortiz, also one of the Augustine order, were despatched with three laymen as companions, and a mestizo servant named Pando. Diego Rodriguez de Figueroa also came as Chief Magistrate and leader of the party, which entered the fastnesses of Vilcapampa and was well received. Rodriguez wrote an account of the mission, which has been preserved. He describes how, when courtiers entered to the presence of Titu Cusi, they first did mucha or reverence to the sun and then to the Inca. The Spaniards used all the arts of persuasion they possessed to induce Titu Cusi to follow the example of his brother and surrender to the conquerors. This he would not do. He temporised and procrastinated for so long that the embassy returned. Friar Ortiz and Pando remained behind. The Inca had been baptised by Father Vivero, receiving the name of Felipe.
Then the Inca had a mortal illness. Pando, the interpreter, had told wonderful stories about the miraculous powers of the Christian priests, so Friar Ortiz was ordered to restore the Inca to health; and he began to say daily masses. The Inca died, and as the fault was naturally supposed to be with the priest and his interpreter, they were put to death.[5] Meanwhile another embassy was sent before the news of the Inca's death had arrived. The chiefs were thoroughly alarmed, and when the envoy Atilano de Añaya attempted to force an entrance by the bridge of Chuqui-chaca he also was put to death.
The deceased Inca was jealous of his younger brother, Tupac Amaru, and confined him in the House of the Sun, in accordance with an ancient usage, keeping him secluded, on the ground of his inexperience. Tupac Amaru, who, judging from the date of his father's death must have been at least twenty-five years of age, was already married and had two daughters and a little son. After the deaths of Ortiz, Pando, and Añaya, the chiefs brought Tupac Amaru out of his seclusion, so that he was not responsible for these deaths, and was indeed perfectly innocent. He was acclaimed as Sovereign Inca. The llautu, or fringe, was placed on his head, the yacolla, or mantle, was fastened over his shoulders, the chipana, or bracelet, was clasped round his wrist. Then the achihua, or parasol, was held over him while he was invested with the tumi, or knife, chuqui, or lance, huallcanca, or shield, and usuta, or shoes. Finally he was carried in the huantuy, or litter, to the tiana, or throne, and was solemnly crowned with the mascapaycha, or imperial head-dress, over the llautu.
The deaths of Ortiz and Pando furnished the Viceroy Toledo with an excuse for the invasion and conquest of Vilcapampa. He assembled as large a force as he could muster, which was placed under the command of Martin Hernando de Arbieto, a veteran of the civil wars. His captains were Juan Alvarez Maldonado, father of Garcilasso's schoolfellow; Martin Garcia de Loyola, captain of the Viceroy's bodyguard; Mancio Serra de Leguisamo, father of another of Garcilasso's schoolfellows; and nine others. They marched down the valley of Vilcamayu to the bridge of Chuqui-chaca, which is the key of Vilcapampa by the western door. Another force watched the outlets on the side of Apancay and the Apurimac. The Incas made some resistance, and then retreated to their camp under a heavy fire of arquebuses and field-pieces. Next day the Indians fled along a narrow path, with dense undergrowth on one side and a precipice on the other. The Spaniards followed, often in single file. At one place a gallant chief named Hualpa rushed out of the bushes, and grappled with Loyola, who led the vanguard. While they were struggling together, a servant named Carrillo drew Loyola's sword and killed Hualpa from behind. It was a lucky but not a chivalrous escape for the Knight of Calatrava. The pursuit was continued. The young Inca was making his way, by a valley called Simaponte, to the friendly Mañari Indians in the montaña. They had placed canoes on a river to enable him to escape.
Loyola went in chase with fifty men and overtook the fugitives, who were captured, after a brief resistance, on October 4, 1571. When at last General Arbieto was satiated with the slaughter of unarmed Indians, he marched back to Cuzco with the Inca Tupac Amaru, his family and chiefs, as prisoners. They dressed the young sovereign in his imperial robes and headgear, put a rope round his neck, and so brought him before Toledo, a most ignoble triumph. Don Carlos Inca had been lawlessly driven out of the Colcampata in order to convert it into a prison, and here the Inca was confined. There was a mock trial, presided over by one of Toledo's creatures named Gabriel de Loarte, who condemned the Inca to be beheaded and all his chiefs to be hanged. The chiefs were tortured with such savage brutality that they died in the streets before they could reach the gallows, and the executioners had to hang the dead bodies.
The unfortunate young Inca was beset by monks in his prison, and, at the end of two days, he was baptised. On the third day he was led forth from the Colcampata, and through the streets to the great square, accompanied by four priests, one being Father Cristoval de Molina, the Quichua scholar and author. The scaffold was built in front of the cathedral. The open spaces and streets were densely crowded with sorrowing Indians. When the Inca ascended the scaffold with the priests, the executioner, a Cañari Indian, brought out the knife. 'Then,' wrote an eye-witness, 'the whole crowd of natives raised such a cry of grief that it seemed as if the day of judgment had come.' Many invoked their most venerated huaca, and cried out:
'Ay Huanacauri maytam ricuy sapra aucachic chomana huchayocta concayquita Incap cuchon.'
'O Huanacauri! behold where the wicked and cruel enemies cut the neck of the Inca.'
Even the Spaniards were horrified, for all knew that the young man was innocent, and had committed no offence.
Things being in this state, all the chief dignitaries of the Church hurried to the Viceroy. They were the Bishop of Popayan, the Provincials of all the religious orders, and the Kector of the Jesuits. They went down on their knees and entreated the ruthless Toledo to show mercy and spare the life of the Inca. They urged that he should be sent to Spain to be judged by the King in person. But no prayers could prevail with the obstinate, pitiless man. Juan de Soto, chief officer of the court, was sent on horseback with a pole to clear the way, galloping furiously and riding down the people. He ordered the Inca's head to be cut off at once, in the name of the Viceroy.
Tupac Amaru was told that the time had come. He took one step forward and raised his right arm. Instantly there was profound silence. He then said in a loud voice:
'Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta.'
'O righteous God! behold how my enemies shed my blood.'[6]
According to the picture by Huaman Poma, the Inca was then thrown on his back, his arms and legs were held by two men, and a third cut his throat. There was a great and bitter cry from the vast multitude. The head was cut off,and stuck on a pole. The Inca's body was carried to the house of his mother, the Queen Cusi Huarcay. All the bells in the city were tolled. Next day the body was interred in the high chapel of the cathedral, the service being performed by the chapter. Pontifical mass was said by the good Bishop of Popayan. Next day all the funeral honours were repeated, and the masses were sung with the organ.
The Inca's head remained on a pole in the great square. Mancio Serra de Leguisamo passed that night in a house to the right of the cathedral. He awoke just before dawn and thought he heard a noise such as would be caused by a vast multitude. He got up and looked out. To his utter amazement, the whole square was covered with a closely packed crowd, all kneeling, and all offering mucha or reverence to the Inca's head. He reported this surprising incident to the Viceroy, who promptly ordered the head to be buried with the body.
Thus ended the famous dynasty of the Incas. It formed a line of wise and capable sovereigns ruling a vast empire on such principles, and with such capacity and wisdom as the world has never seen before or since. Assuredly the story of their rise, their government, and their sorrowful end is worthy of study.
'The execrable regicide,' as Toledo is called on the Inca Pedigrees, was not yet satisfied. He had driven Carlos Inca from his property regardless of right or law. He now banished him to Lima without any suitable provision. With him were expelled his brother Felipe Inca, the clever pupil of Garcilasso's school days, and thirty-five more of the principal Incas. They all perished miserably and in poverty. Saddest of all was the fate of four poor little Inca children; neither their tender age nor their innocence saved them from Toledo's inhuman persecution. They were Quispi Titu, the son of the Inca Cusi Titu Yupanqui, little Martin, son of the murdered Inca Tupac Amaru, and his two daughters, Magdalena and Juana. The boys were received in the house of Don Martin Ampuero of Lima, son of Francisco Ampuero and his wife, who was daughter of Francisco Pizarro by the Princess Inez, daughter of Huayna Ccapac. But both the exiled boys died young.
The forlorn little girls, Magdalena and Juana Tupac Amaru, were kindly received in the house of Dr. Loaysa, the first Archbishop of Lima, who took charge of them. Juana married the Curaca of Surimani, named Condorcanqui, from whom descended the ill-fated José Gabriel Condorcanqui, who took the name of Tupac Amaru and headed a rising against the Spaniards in 1782.
The inhuman Viceroy was not even yet satisfied. He aimed at the extirpation of every branch of the royal family of Peru. He next decreed the banishment of all the mestizos, those bright and happy lads who were the schoolfellows of the Inca Garcilasso. A few, having taken orders, were overlooked. The rest were sent to perish in the swamps of Darien, or the frozen wilds of Southern Chile. This persecution of the mestizos was as stupid as it was cruel, for excellent service might have been got from them by a wise administrator.
Toledo remained for six more years in Peru, making an almost endless number of laws and ordinances, until they filled a large volume. They were worse than useless, for no attention was paid to the few just and good rules amongst them, while the wisdom and statesmanship of the majority may be judged from a few specimens taken at random:
'Any Indian who makes friendship with an Indian woman who is an infidel, is to receive one hundred lashes, for the first offence, that being the punishment they dislike most.
'Indians shall no longer use surnames taken from the moon, birds, animals, serpents, or rivers, which they formerly used.
'No Indian shall be elected for any office who has been punished for idolatry, worshipping huacas, dancing, mourning, or singing in memory of infidel rites, offering up chicha, coca, or burnt fat, or for dancing the dance called Ayrihua.'
Toledo's term of office came to an end in September 1581, a period of nearly twelve years. It was generally reported that he was received with coldness by King Philip II, who told him that he was not sent out to kill Kings but to serve Kings. Huaman Poma depicts the retired Viceroy sitting in a chair in a state of extreme despondency. This report would be very satisfactory if true. But there is some evidence that Toledo's general policy was approved, although fault may have been found with some of the details.
There can be no doubt of the disastrous results of the ruthless administration of such men as Toledo, and of the Spanish rule. The last survivor of the original conquerors has given his testimony with no uncertain sound. Mancio Serra de Leguisamo signed his will at Cuzco on September 18, 1589, with the following preamble:
'First, and before I begin my testament, I declare that for many years I have desired to take order for informing the Catholic and Royal Majesty of the King Don Felipe our Lord, seeing how Catholic and most Christian he is, and how zealous for the service of God our Lord, touching what is needed for the health of my soul, seeing that I took a great part in the discovery, conquest, and settlement of these kingdoms, when we drove out those who were the Lords Incas and who possessed and ruled them as their own. We placed them under the royal crown, and his Catholic Majesty should understand that we found these kingdoms in such order, and the said Incas governed them in such wise that throughout them there was not a thief, nor a vicious man, nor an adulteress, nor was a bad woman admitted among them, nor were there immoral people. The men had honest and useful occupations. The lands, forests, mines, pastures, houses, and all kinds of products were regulated and distributed in such sort that each one knew his property without any other person seizing or occupying it, nor were there law suits respecting it. The operations of war, though they were numerous, never interfered with the interests of commerce nor with agriculture. All things from the greatest to the most minute had their proper place and order. The Incas were feared, obeyed and respected by their subjects, as men very capable and well versed in the art of government. As in these rulers we found the power and command as well as the resistance, we subjugated them for the service of God our Lord, took away their land, and placed it under the royal crown, and it was necessary to deprive them entirely of power and command, for we had seized their goods by force of arms. By the intervention of our Lord it was possible for us to subdue these kingdoms containing such a multitude of people and such riches, and of their lords we made our servants and subjects.
'As is seen, and as I wish your Majesty to understand, the motive which obliges me to make this statement is the discharge of my conscience, as I find myself guilty. For we have destroyed by our evil example, the people who had such a government as was enjoyed by these natives. They were so free from the committal of crimes or excesses, as well men as women, that the Indian who had 100,000 pesos worth of gold and silver in his house, left it open merely placing a small stick across the door, as a sign that its master was out. With that, according to their custom, no one could enter nor take anything that was there. When they saw that we put locks and keys on our doors, they supposed that it was from fear of them, that they might not kill us, but not because they believed that any one would steal the property of another. So that when they found that we had thieves amongst us, and men who sought to make their daughters commit sin, they despised us. But now they have come to such a pass, in offence of God, owing to the bad example that we have set them in all things, that these natives from doing no evil, have changed into people who now do no good or very little.
'This needs a remedy, and it touches your Majesty for the discharge of your conscience, and I inform you, being unable to do more, I pray to God to pardon me, for I am moved to say this, seeing that I am the last to die of all the conquerors and discoverers, as is well known. Now there is no one but myself in this kingdom or out of it, and with this I do what I can to discharge my conscience.
'I had a figure of the sun made of gold, placed by the Incas in the House of the Sun at Cuzco, which is now the convent of San Domingo. I believe it was worth 2000 pesos,[7] and with what I got at Caxamarca and in Cuzco, my share was worth 12,000 pesos. Yet I die poor and with many children. I beseech your Majesty to have pity on them, and God to have pity on my soul.'
- ↑ A letter dictated by Titu Cusi Yupanqui and addressed to the licentiate Castro (who was Governor of Peru from 1564 to 1569) has been unearthed and will be published.
- ↑ It is attributed to the mythical Manco Ccapac. The masonry and style of building show this to be impossible.
- ↑ Tradition told by Felipe de Pomares. Squier had a copy of the MS., which is in the British Museum.
My friend, the Señora Astete de Bennet, was the daughter of Colonel Pablo Astete of Cuzco, descended from that Miguel Astete who went with Hernando Pizarro to Pachacamac, and wrote an interesting report of the expedition. Colonel Astete was a friend of Tupac Amaru, who rose against the Spaniards in 1782, and of the Cacique Pumacagua, who rose against them in 1815.
My friend remembered Pumacagua as a very short old man, with a long nose and bright eyes. He could hardly speak Spanish, but could write it perfectly. In 1815 he was seventy-seven. He was shown the immense concealed wealth of the Incas by an Indian who had inherited the secret. Led up the bed of the river Huatanay for a long distance, blindfold and in the night, he suddenly found himself surrounded by vases, cups, plates, ingots, and great statues, all of pure gold, in incredible profusion. He only took what was urgently needed to equip his troops. Returning to Cuzco, he went straight to Colonel Astete's house. The Señora Astete told me that she could remember his coming into the room with the gold, and wet through, to relate his adventures. His conductor was the last who knew the secret, for when Pumacagua was killed he despaired of his country, and died without revealing it to a successor.
Mateo Garcia Pumacagua, Cacique of Chinchero, was defeated by the Spanish General Ramirez at Umachiri on March 4, 1815, taken prisoner and hanged. His rebellion was the forerunner of independence.
My old friend the Señora Astete hoped that the Inca treasure would never be found. 'No one deserves it,' she said.
- ↑ Informaciones a cerca del senorio y gobierno de los Ingas hechas por mandado de Don Francisco de Toledo, 1570-1572. Printed in the same volume as Montesinos and edited by Jimenez de la Espada (Madrid, 1882).
- ↑ It need not be believed that they were tortured. When monks have to treat of a 'martyrdom' or a miracle, especially in connection with their own order, no exaggeration is too wild for them. There could be no evidence except from the Indians, and they would not have spoken unless under the excruciating pain of torture themselves.
- ↑ These were certainly the last words of Tupac Amaru, as they were handed down in the family. Two eye-witnesses have told the story—Captain Baltasar de Ocampo, and Friar Gabriel de Oviedo, Prior of the Dominicans at Cuzco. The latter could not have heard what was said, because he had gone with the others to intercede with the Viceroy. Ocampo gives a childish speech about his mother having once put a malediction on her son for some naughtiness, and how the curse was coming true. He may have told a tale of the kind, but not at such a moment. Oviedo makes him deliver an address on the false nature of idolatry. This might have come from a monk in a pulpit, but not from a young man preparing for death. He could not speak Spanish.
- ↑ This was not, as is generally supposed, the great image of the sun on the wall of the temple, a mass of gold worth fifty times 2000 pesos. The great sun was never found, and is still concealed with the rest of the Inca treasure. There was a great hollowed stone in the temple, of an octangular shape outside, about 4½ feet wide and 4 feet deep. Offerings of chicha were poured into this receptacle at the festival of the Raymi, and the opening was covered with a plate of gold on which the sun was carved. It was this small gold sun that Leguisamo gambled away in a single night. But he never touched a card again, married an Inca princess, and became a most respectable official in the municipality of the city of Cuzco. See Lizarraga, p. 348.