Tupac Amaru II

“ Tupac, yonder, is the son of the son of the son of that Tupac-Amaru who died torn asunder in the square of Cuzco, because he had dared to raise the Rainbow Banner in the Land of the Four Regions, and called the Children of the Sun to revolt against their oppressors. ”

“ He became a Christian, and provision was made for him, his sons and descendants. Sayri Tupac died as a Christian, and he who is now in the Andes in rebellion, named Titu Cusi Yupanqui, is not a legitimate son of Manco Inca, but a bastard and apostate. They hold that another son is legitimate who is with the same Titu, named Tupac Amaru, but he is incapable and the Indians called him uti. Neither one nor the other are heirs of the land, because their father was not legitimate. ”

“ Still higher up, their heads above the clouds, are the jagged snow-capped peaks. The whole offers a marvelous picture, rich in contrast, majestic in proportion. In Yucay once dwelt the Inca Manco's oldest son, Sayri Tupac, after he had accepted the viceroy's invitation to come under Spanish protection. Here he lived three years and here, in 1560, he died an untimely death under circumstances which led his brothers, Titu Cusi and Tupac Amaru, to think that they would be safer in Uiticos. ”

“ After the death of Tupac Amaru, the royal authority was gradually established as firmly in Peru as in the other Spanish colonies, and that country has continued to be governed by viceroys appointed by the Spanish king, up to the present time. The only event of any particular importance, which has occurred till very lately, was the insurrection of the natives in 1781, under Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui, a descendant of, and styling himself Tupac Amaru. He was born in Tongusuca, a village of Tinta, and had been carefully educated by his family at home ”

“ But in truth it would be impossible to describe one-tenth of the beasts, the birds, and reptiles we encountered in our journey; though I shall mention those I had opportunities of examining.
We approached one evening the farm of a cacique, who, with most of the men of his village, had marched to join the army of Tupac Amaru. The women only, and some of the old men and children, remained. It was on the extreme borders of the country inhabited by Christian Indians. Beyond all was totally unknown to the white men, and but seldom visited by the civilised natives. ”

“ No one seemed to heed what he said; and he was led away from the spot by a party of Indians, in whose charge he was given by the chief Tupac Amaru. To his horror, he found that every man, woman, and child among the white inhabitants of the village had fallen victims to the exasperated fury of the Indians. ”

“ After the retreat of General del Valle from Puno, Diego Tupac Amaru established his head-quarters at the town of Azangaro, while Andres Mendagure and Miguel Bastidas overran the provinces on the eastern shore of lake Titicaca, captured the town of Sorata, and placed themselves in communication with the insurgent forces in Upper Peru. It is said that fifteen mule-loads of treasure, consisting of spoils from the provinces of Omasuyos and Larecaja, were brought into Azangaro at this time and buried. Diego Tupac Amaru occupied a house near the plaza, where he gave audience in a long sala ”

“ We climbed mountains, and traversed glens, and crossed torrents by the bridges I have often mentioned; and yet, day after day, not a human being did we meet. Of course we kept as much as possible at a distance from their habitations; but the few farms we passed were deserted, and we had no doubt that the women and children had been removed to more secluded spots, while the men had gone to join the army of Tupac Amaru. ”

“ On the other side of the Urubamba was young Tupac Amaru, surrounded by his councilors, chiefs, and soldiers. The first hostile forces which in Pizarro's time had endeavored to fight their way into Uilcapampa had never been allowed by Manco to get as far as this. His youngest son, Tupac Amaru, had had no experience in these matters. The chiefs and nobles had failed to defend the pass; and they now failed to destroy the Chuquichaca bridge, apparently relying on their ability to take care of one Spanish soldier at a time and prevent the Spaniards from crossing the narrow, swaying structure. ”

“ Every suppressed nationality looks forward to a day of change, and to a renewal of the old government. The flight of Manco Inca, the brother of Atahuallpa, into the forests of Vilcapampa on the declivity of the eastern Cordillera, and the sojourn of Sayri Tupac and Inca Tupac Amaru in those wildernesses, have left permanent recollections. It was believed that the dethroned dynasty had settled between the rivers Apurimac and Beni, or still farther to the east in Guiana. ”

“ They even exceed the legal quantity of repartos assigned to their respective provinces; for example, that of Tinta was ordered to be 112,500 dollars, and the corregidor made it 500,000 dollars, as was proved by his books and papers." [183] General del Valle, who commanded the troops employed to put down Tupac Amaru's rebellion, complained that the avarice of the corregidors, in recovering their claims on the Indians for repartos, was such that they refused him the aid of their people in pacifying the country. ”

“ He conquered more than 300 leagues, 40 more or less in person accompanied by his legitimate brothers, the captains Apu Mayta and Vicaquirao, the rest by Amaru Tupac Inca his eldest son, Ccapac Yupanqui his brother, and Tupac Inca his son and successor, with other captains, his brothers and sons. ”

“ Carlos Inca, son of Paullu, was baptized, and living on the Colcampata at Cuzco with his wife Maria de Esquivel. Seven Inca princesses had married Spaniards, most of them living at Cuzco with their husbands and children.
The events, connected with the Inca family, which followed on the arrival of the Viceroy Toledo at Cuzco, will be found fully described in this volume. It need only be stated here that the inexorable tyrant, having got the innocent young prince Tupac Amaru into his power, resolved to put him to death. The native population was overwhelmed with grief. ”

“ In 1572, when Captain Garcia took up the pursuit of Tupac Amaru after the victory of Vilcabamba, the Inca fled “inland toward the valley of Sima-ponte ... to the country of the Mañaries Indians, a warlike tribe and his friends, where balsas and canoes were posted to save him and enable him to escape.” There is now no valley in this vicinity called Simaponte, so far as we have been able to discover. The Mañaries Indians are said to have lived on the banks of the lower Urubamba. In order to reach their country Tupac Amaru probably went down the Pampaconas from Espiritu Pampa. ”

“ By the innumerable vestiges of building and the tombs near Lake Titicaca we may judge that this country was once thickly populated. But the plains afforded no refuge, and the inhabitants could not escape the forced recruiting which supplied the mining centres. At the time of Tupac-Amaru's insurrection the Aymaras, happy to reconquer their liberty, or perhaps merely to effect a change of masters and to satisfy their bellicose instincts, threw themselves into the revolt; whereupon war, sickness and famine considerably reduced their numbers. To-day they are estimated to be about 400,000 strong. ”

“ Tupac Amaru had now assembled a force of 60,000 men in and around Tinta; but they were wholly undisciplined, and only a few hundreds were armed with muskets. All the caciques in Peru, with the exception of sixteen, [223] had, however, declared in favour of the Inca; and the whole Indian and [Pg 148] mestizo population, except the ayllus or tribes of the sixteen Hispanicized caciques, longed earnestly for the success of this truly national insurrection. ”

“ Though their chests are broad, and their shoulders square, their arms are weak—their chief strength existing in their backs and legs. Mild, generous, and submissive, they have existed when a fiercer race would have been exterminated; but, on several occasions, they have shown that they can be goaded into revolt. About the year 1770, under Tupac Amaru, they broke into rebellion, when, had they possessed better arms and more discipline, they might, with the courage they exhibited, have driven the Spaniards from the country. ”

“ PERU was the first of the American colonies in which, at the era of the Conquest, the spirit of rebellion against the Mother Country broke out. During the Colonial epoch the mixed races frequently rebelled against their Spanish masters. At the end of the eighteenth century Tupac-Amarú, who came of the old royal race of the Incas, made an attempt to restore the kingdom of his forefathers. ”

“ These particulars are given by the monk Gonzalez, in his Historia de lo acaecido en Paucartambo, a narrative still in MS.; besides which, the materials for the history of the rebellion of Tupac Amaru consist of a large collection of original documents, including narratives, letters, despatches, and edicts, printed in the Coleccion de obras y documentos relativos a la historia antiqua y moderna de las provincias de Rio de la Plata, por Pedro de Angelis (Buenos Ayres, 1836) , tom. v. pp. 109-286; the Report of the Cabildo of Cuzco, printed in the Museo Erudito del Cuzco ”

“ At the same time a general accusation was made against all the males of mixed race, born of Indian mothers to the Spanish conquerors, who were alleged to have secretly agreed with Tupac Amaru and other Incas to make an insurrection for extirpating the Spaniards and restoring the native, Inca to the throne of Peru. In consequence of this accusation, all the sons of Spaniards by Indian women who were of age sufficient to carry arms were committed to prison, and many of them were put to the torture to extort confession of these alleged crimes, for which they had no proof or evidence whatsoever. ”

“ Crimes of any magnitude are hardly ever heard of amongst them; and I am sure that there is no safer region in the world for the traveller, than the plateaux of the Peruvian cordilleras. That the Indians are not cowardly or mean-spirited when once roused was proved in the battles which they fought under the banner of Tupac Amaru in 1781; and a people who could produce men capable of such heroic constancy as was displayed by the mutilated heroes of Asillo should not lightly be accused of want of courage. ”

“ The only point of interest in Sicuani is the church and the arched gateway beside it. It is like any other village church, the architecture dull, the interior gloomy. But it was in this church that in 1782 Andres the nephew of Tupac Amaru, half of Spanish Biscayan, half of Inca blood, received episcopal absolution for his share in the great insurrection of the Indians under that chieftain, an absolution to be shortly followed by his murder at the hands of perfidious Spaniards ”

“ Other Indians kept arriving from all sides through the forest. He stood elevated above the rest on a mound of earth under a canopy of cloth of many colours; and I observed that the borla, the red fringe worn only in ancient days by the proud Incas, bound his brow. From this sign I could have no doubt that he was the well-known chieftain, Tupac Amaru, the lineal descendant of the Incas, and the elder uncle of my friend Manco. ”

“ He tells the story of an insurrection among the negro labourers, and complains of the spiritual destitution of his adopted land. He finally returns to Cuzco and gives an account of a very magnificent pageant and tilting match. But this story should have preceded the mournful narrative of the fate of Tupac Amaru; for the event took place at the time of the baptism of Melchior Carlos, and before the Viceroy Toledo became a regicide. Ocampo's story is that of an honest old soldier, inclined to be garrulous, but an eye-witness of some most interesting events in the history of Peru. ”

“ He was torn to pieces by horses in the plaza of Azangaro, and his limbs were stuck on poles by the road-side. [253] An old lady told me that she could remember seeing one of his arms on a pole near her father's house. Calisaya, and many others, were hung. The Spanish General had the cruelty to force Diego Tupac Amaru to accompany him, and to witness the execution of his old friends. Del Valle then marched over the cordilleras of Lauramarca and Ausangate, where the Indians had been in rebellion, taking Diego with him in a sort of triumph, and returned to Cuzco in August. ”

“ They arrived at the strong position held by the Charcas and their allies, and fought with them. The Incas were victorious, and took great spoils of silver extracted by those natives from the mines of Porco. It is to be noted that nothing was ever known of the 5000 orejones who entered by the mountains or what became of them. Leaving all these provinces conquered, and subdued, Amaru Tupac Inca and Apu Paucar Usnu returned to Cuzco where they triumphed over their victories, Pachacuti granting them many favours, and rejoicing with many festivals and sacrifices to idols. ”

“ The Indians then clearly perceived that they had been made the tools of the leaders of the revolution. Upon the whole, their condition was but little improved; for if they were relieved from some oppressive laws, other hardships weighed heavily on them, and they found that they still were slaves in the land of their fathers. The creoles, like the Spaniards, will draw the string of despotism till it snaps. Then will arise another Indian insurrection like that headed by Tupac Amaru, but with a more successful result. ”