Huayna Capac

“ I, Vilcaroya—son of Huayna-Capac, son of the great Yupanqui Inca, before whose throne-seat I am now standing alive in your presence—am he of whom it was said that one who should pass from life to life through the shadows of death should grasp the sceptre of the divine Manco, and restore the ancient glory of the Children of the Sun. ”

“ WHEN the great King Tupac Inca Yupanqui died, they prepared to perform the obsequies and ceremonies of his interment after the manner of his ancestors, and with great pomp. The Orejones relate that some provinces conspired to recover their liberty, and shake off the yoke of the Incas, but the good management of the Inca governors, assisted by the captains and mitimaes, kept order during a trying time. Huayna Capac was not careless, nor did he fail to understand that it would be necessary for him to display valour in order to preserve that which his father had gained with so much labour. ”

“ Their blood was never contaminated by mortal intermixtures, and their dress it was unlawful for any to assume. The empire under Huayna Capac, twelfth monarch from the foundation of the dynasty, embraced more than five hundred leagues of western sea-coast, and extended to the summit of the Andes. This politic and warlike prince died about the beginning of the year 1526. His father, Tupac Inca Yupanqui, during whose reign the imperial domain had been enlarged by the addition of Quito on the one side and of Chile on the other, exhibited martial and administrative talents of a high order. ”

“ Did not Zaïma the Queen shriek out her confession as the wives of Huayna-Capac dragged her away to join their Lord? Did she not scream it out again louder than before as the flames touched her and she called upon his spirit to be merciful to her, and did not many hear her whose lips thou hast closed as thou didst those of Mama-Lupa, my sister—yet not before she had sent me trusty word of the truth?
“But that is past. It was not thy hand that did the deed. For thee the question is now: Wilt thou be Inca or slave? Wilt thou live or die? The price to pay is not great. ”

“ Huayna Capac often said that to keep the people of those kingdoms well under subjection, it was a good thing, when they had no other work to do, to make them remove a hill from one place to another. He even ordered stones and slabs to be brought from Cuzco, for{210} the edifices of Quito, and to this day they remain in the buildings where they were placed. ”

“ At the same moment, far away to the northward and westward, a man was drawing with his sword-point a line along the sandy beach of the desolate island of Gallo, and in the years to come, though neither he nor the son of the murderess knew it, the steel of that same sword was destined to cleave its way to the heart of the great empire which Huayna-Capac would have made impregnable but for the hand of his queen which robbed him of the last half-hour of his life. ”

“ IT is well known to many natives of these parts that Huayna Capac entered the country which we call Bracamoros, and that he returned flying before the fury of the men who dwell there. They had chosen leaders, and assembled to defend themselves against any one who should attack them. This is stated, not only by the Orejones, but also by the Lord of Chincha, and some principal men of the Collao and of Xauxa. ”

“ Others relate that they were{221} sent to the Inca; but that they were put to death on the road when the news came that the Inca was no more. Others, again, declare that the two men died. What we believe to be most probable is, that the Indians killed them shortly after they had been left behind.
Huayna Capac was in Quito with a great company of people. He was very powerful, his dominion extending from the river of Ancasmayu to the river of Maule, a distance of more than 1,200 leagues. ”

“ Everywhere they beheld the signs of perfect peace and order, though but a few days’ marches to the eastward the earth had trembled not many weeks before beneath the tread of countless hosts rushing to the conflict out of which was to spring the doom of Atahuallpa and the Children of the Sun, and which Ullomaya the priest had spoken by the bedside of the great Huayna-Capac in far-off Quito. ”

“ Michael, and obtained the first clear report of the empire of the Incas. Whether tidings of these adventurers reached the Indian monarch's ears is doubtful. There is no doubt, however, that he obtained the news of the first expedition under Pizarro and Almagro, when the latter commander penetrated as far as the Rio de San Juan, about the fourth degree north. The accounts which he received made a strong impression on the mind of Huayna Capac. He discerned in the formidable prowess and weapons of the invaders proofs of a civilization far superior to that of his own people. ”

“ Huayna Capac had provisions in the fort, and he had sent to summon the governors of Quito to come with reinforcements, for the enemy would not desist from their attacks. He tried, many times, to pacify them, sending embassies with presents; but it was all of no avail. The Inca increased his army, and the enemy did the same, resolutely determined to attack and defeat him, or die in the attempt. They assaulted the fortress, and broke through two lines of defence. If there had not been others round the hill, without doubt the enemy would have been victorious. ”

“ Yet it was not till the middle of the fifteenth century that the famous Topa Inca Yupanqui, grandfather of the monarch who occupied the throne at the coming of the Spaniards, led his armies across the terrible desert of Atacama, and, penetrating to the southern region of Chili, fixed the permanent boundary of his dominions at the river Maule. His son, Huayna Capac, possessed of ambition and military talent fully equal to his father's marched along the Cordillera towards the north, and, pushing his conquests across the equator, added the powerful kingdom of Quito to the empire of Peru. ”

“ HUAYNA CAPAC being in Quito, with all his captains and veteran soldiers, they relate as certainly true that he ordered certain of them to go forth and conquer some countries whose inhabitants had never desired to obtain his friendship. These people, when they knew what was intended at Cuzco, sought aid from their neighbours to resist any invaders that might come against them, and they had prepared forts and strong places, with plenty of arms of the kind used by them. ”

“ To such a length was this carried, that so grave a historian as Herrera tells us how the Inca Huayna Capac, wishing to determine what kind of tribute the inhabitants of Pasto were to pay, and being assured that they were so entirely without resources or capacity of any kind that they could give him nothing at all, laid on them the annual tribute of a certain measure of vermine, preferring, as he said, that they should pay this singular tax rather than nothing. ”

“ Huayna-Capac made Quito his residence, and reigned there thirty-eight years—the most brilliant epoch in the annals of the city. At his death his kingdom was divided, one son, Atahuallpa, [18] reigning in Quito, and Huascar at Cuzco. Civil war ensued, in which the latter was defeated, and Atahuallpa was chosen Inca of the whole empire, 1532. During this war Pizarro arrived at Tumbez. Every body knows what followed. Strangled at Caxamarca, the body of Atahuallpa was carried to Quito, the city of his birth, in compliance with his dying wish, and buried there with imposing obsequies. ”

“ CHAPTER LXIX. Of the lineage, and character of Huascar and Atahualpa.
THE empire of the Incas was in a state of such profound peace when Huayna Capac died, that there was not to be found a man, throughout its vast extent, who would dare to raise his head to foment disturbance, or to refuse obedience, as well from fear of the Inca, as on account of the mitimaes who were stationed in all parts, and maintained order. ”

“ The temple, and the house occupied by the Virgins of the Sun, had been erected by Huayna Capac, and were liberally endowed by that Inca, after the sumptuous fashion of the religious establishments of Peru. The town was well supplied with water by numerous aqueducts, and the fruitful valley in which it was embosomed, and the ocean which bathed its shores, supplied ample means of subsistence to a considerable population. But the cupidity of the Spaniards, after the Conquest, was not slow in despoiling the place of its glories ”

“ Oviedo says that Huayna Capac left a hundred sons and daughters, and that most of them were alive at the time of his writing. "Tubo cien hijos y hijas, y la mayor parte de ellos son vivos." Hist. de las Indias, Ms., Parte 3, lib. 8, cap. 9.]
[Footnote 15: I have looked in vain for some confirmation of this story in Oviedo, Sarmiento, Xerez, Cieza de Leon, Zarate, Pedro Pizarro, Gomara, - all living at the time, and having access to the best sources of information; and all, it may be added, disposed to do stern justice to the evil qualities of the Indian monarch.] ”

“ Those who were employed on the building of the fortress{200} continued to work without the cessation of a single day. The great chain of gold was brought out into the square of Cuzco, and there were dances and drinking-bouts. The captains received their appointments near the Stone of War, according to their custom. Huayna Capac then ordered that there should be a conference, where he addressed the people in a vehement speech, urging those who accompanied him to be loyal, as well as those who remained behind. ”

“ It would be easier to govern under the venerated authority to which the homage of the Indians had been so long paid; and it was not difficult to find a successor. The true heir to the crown was a second son of Huayna Capac, named Manco, a legitimate brother of the unfortunate Huascar. But Pizarro had too little knowledge of the dispositions of this prince; and he made no scruple to prefer a brother of Atahuallpa, and to present him to the Indian nobles as their future Inca. ”

“ Notwithstanding this vast distance, we are informed, on the unquestionable testimony of the Licentiate Polo de Ondegardo, that Huayna Capac, whose father conquered Quito, caused certain materials to be conveyed thither from Cuzco, for the erection of the royal buildings, (the Inca dwellings) . In Quito, I found this tradition still current among the natives.
When, in the form of the earth, nature presents to man formidable difficulties to contend against, those very difficulties serve to stimulate the energy and courage of enterprising races of people. ”

“ Spaniards, they rushed into the water to embrace the prows of their vessels, and despatched messengers throughout the land to proclaim the return of Quetzalcoatl.188-1
The noble Mexican was not alone in his presentiments. When Hernando de Soto on landing in Peru first met the Inca Huascar, the latter related an ancient prophecy which his father Huayna Capac had repeated on his dying bed, to the effect that in the reign of the thirteenth Inca, white men (viracochas) of surpassing strength and valor would come from their father the Sun and subject to their rule the nations of the world. ”

“ Him we met by chance one evening in the square of the town which is called Panama, named, they told me, after that older city, whence the conquerors of my people sailed to ravish the realms of Huayna-Capac. There was peace in his own land and all the neighbouring countries, and so he was journeying to the region which is now called South America, where the descendants of the Spaniards are nearly always fighting among themselves over the spoils of my people, to see what work he could find to keep his sword from rusting. ”

“ Huascar and Atahuallpa, two sons of the great Huayna Capac (who for a child of the Sun was somewhat disposed to free-thinking) [126] , reigned in succession before the invasion of the Spaniards. Neither of these two princes left any acknowledged male heirs. In the plains of Quipaypan, Huascar was made prisoner by Atahuallpa, by whose order he was shortly after secretly put to death. Atahuallpa had two other brothers. One was the insignificant youth Toparca, who in the autumn of 1533 Pizarro caused to be crowned as Inca ”

“ Bastard descendants of the Incas, they still preserved a deep-rooted belief in the ancient gods of their ancient race, who had fallen with Huayna Capac, the Great Inca, a year before Pizarro came raging into Peru. ”

“ The point at which the legend preserved by Garcilasso is clearly at fault, is in its claim for the Incas as the first and only civilizers of Peru. We shall presently meet with other Peruvian myths of civilization which do not stand in the least connection with Manco Capac and the Incas. The kingdom of Quito, which the Inca Huayna Capac had recently conquered when the Spaniards arrived, though not on the same level as Peru proper, was far removed from the savage state, while as yet a stranger to the influence of the Incas. ”

“ The Incas reached an astronomical knowledge which astonished the Spaniards, but the Quichuans of to-day count vaguely by moons and rains. Great is the contrast between the architecture of this century and that in the days of Huayna-Capac. There are few Incarial relics, however, in the Valley of Quito, for the Incas ruled there only half a century. ”

“ They formed the most polished and industrious nation of the New World."
The inca Huayna-Capac, father of Atahualpa, under whom this vast empire was destroyed, had done much to increase and embellish it. This inca, who conquered all the country of Quito, had made, by the hands of his soldiers and of the vanquished people, a great road 1500 miles in length from Cuzco to Quito, across precipices which had been filled up and mountains which had been levelled. Relays of men, stationed at intervals of a mile and a half from each other, carried the emperor's orders throughout the empire. ”