by Ralph Bauer
Thus, after their victory had been completed, my father’s men went about collecting the spoils from the Spaniards and stripped every one of them that they could get their hands on, taking their clothes and weapons and bringing everything up into the village of Oroncoy. My father and his people were very much elated by the victory that they had accomplished and made a celebration and dance that lasted for five days in order to honor the spoils and the victory. After this celebration, and after all of these things had happened, my father set out with all of his people for a several days’ march to the town of Rauantu, which is located in the direction of Quito. As he was crossing the valley of Jauja, in a town called Llacjapalanga he learned that the natives of this land, the Guanca people, had allied themselves with the Spaniards.70 He was very much enraged by this and decided to punish them in a way that would set an example for the entire country. He made it known that, because they had obeyed and submitted to the Spaniards, he would burn them and their houses without permitting anyone to be spared, including their women, daughters, and sons who served a powerful huaca called Guari Villca, whom they worshipped in a certain valley about five leagues from Xaxallaga.
When the Guanca people found out that my father was angry with them and intended to burn them and their idol Guari Villca on account of them having allied themselves with the Spaniards in spite of the fact he [Manco Inca] was their legitimate ruler, they decided to prevent his entry by sending word to the Spaniards and by putting themselves under their protection in order to extricate themselves from their precarious situation. As soon as the Spaniards heard about my father’s decision to destroy the Guancas, a hundred of them rushed to their defense.
When my father found out about this, he changed his course and fought many battles against the Guancas in several places, spreading death and destruction and calling out, “May your masters help you now!” Thus, after a march that lasted several days, he arrived at a place called Jauja la Grande. There he was engaged in a bigger battle with the Spaniards and the Guancas that lasted two days. Finally, my father emerged victorious, thanks to the large number of people and to his skill. They killed fifty Spaniards and put the others to flight in full gallop. Some of our men went after them for awhile, but when they saw how fast they were running away, they returned to my father, who was swinging his lance high on his horse on which he had fought the Spaniards so valiantly. After the battle had ended, my father, somewhat tired from the fighting, descended from his horse and sat down to rest with his people, who were all very exhausted from the battle and many of them injured. The next day, when the people were somewhat refreshed, they took a break from all the marching at a town called Vayocache,71 which is not far from the place of the idol called Guari Villca. While he was staying there, my father ordered the idol to be excavated from where it had been buried up to the shoulders. After it had been excavated on all sides, he had the entire treasure that had been placed there as an offering brought before him, as well as the yanaconas, the male and female servants,72 who had been left in charge of the keeping of this idol, in which the inhabitants of this country had much faith. Then he ordered all of them killed in order to demonstrate that he alone was the ruler. Also, they placed a rope around the idol’s neck and dragged it for the entire journey of twenty leagues over hills and rocks, swamps and mud, heaping great insults upon it and saying, “Just think about the faith that those Guancas placed in this idol, even believing it to be Viracocha, and now look how it’s ended up, as well as their masters, the Spaniards.” As they were thus proceeding with their journey, they arrived at a town called Acostambo,73 where they stayed for one year. There they built houses and cultivated fields, which are now owned by Spaniards and are now called Viñaca, for there is much Castilian wine to be seen there. The huaca, or idol, called Guari Villca was, upon order of my father, thrown into a large river.74
After this, my father went to a region and town called Pillcorumi.75 He went there upon the request of some Anti leaders, who kept begging him to come. There he was once more engaged in battle by a group of Spaniards who had come in search of him; but he beat and dispersed them. It would lead too far astray here if I were to recount all the details; suffice it to note that in the process a great amount of artillery, harquebuses, lances, crossbows, and other weapons fell into his hands. After he had fought another battle with the Spaniards at Yeñupay, he stayed there for another year. Thereafter, he returned to Vitcos, and from there made his way back to Vilcabamba, stopping on the way in several towns that I will omit here for brevity’s sake. Having arrived, he rested and recovered for a few days and built his houses and lodgings in order to settle down there, for it seemed to him like a good site for his capital seat.
After a few days of rest, when he was just starting to think that the Spaniards would leave him alone, he had word from the scouts whom he had positioned along the way that Gonzalo Pizarro and Captain Diego Maldonado and Ordónez,76 as well as many others, were approaching and that they were accompanied by his three brothers, who were Don Pablo,77 Ynguill, and Huaspar. The Spaniards made them go first, for they maintained that they intended to ally themselves with my father against the Spaniards. My father went out in order to intercept them at a fortress that he had in his control about three leagues away. He intended to defend himself against them there and not to let them take this bastion. When he arrived there, he faced a great number of Spaniards. (I am not sure how many exactly, as they were difficult to count because of the dense forest.) They battled each other fiercely from the opposite banks of a river—the one on one side and the other on the other side. After ten days, the battle still had not ended, for the Spaniards fought in shifts against my father’s hordes and against him. But they fared poorly throughout because we held the fortress. The situation became even more precarious when a brother of my aunt Cura Oclo by the name of Huaipar turned up there. This would later cost him his life, for my father was extremely enraged that he had dared to go against him. When my father, beside himself with rage, wanted to kill him, Cura Oclo tried to prevent him from it, because she loved him [Huaipar] very much. But my father was not inclined to grant her request and beheaded him and his other brother Ynguill, exclaiming, “It is more just that their heads be cut off than to let them take mine.” My aunt, who was very upset about the death of her brother, did not ever want to move from the spot where their bodies were laid.
In the midst of these events, still before they were completely over, a few Spaniards came to the place where my father was. When he saw them approach and realized that there was no escape, he decided to jump into the water and to swim across the river. Having arrived on the opposite bank, he exclaimed loudly, “I am Manco Inca, I am Manco Inca!” When the Spaniards realized that they would not be able to catch him, they decided to return to Cuzco and drove before them Cura Oclo and Cusi Rimache, another one of my father’s brothers whom he had with him, among other things. They arrived with my aunt at the town of Pampaconac, where they tried to rape her. But she did not want to let this happen and defended herself bravely to the bitter end, even covering her body with stinking and filthy things in order to disgust those who wanted to touch her. Thusly she defended herself innumerable times until they arrived at the town of Tambo, where the Spaniards, who were very angry because my aunt would not permit what they desired and because she was my father’s sister, shot her with arrows. For the sake of chastity, she endured it all and, while the others shot arrows at her, exclaimed, “Will you take revenge on a woman for your annoyance? What would another woman do in my place? Hurry up and kill me, so that your appetite may be satisfied!” Thus, they murdered her while she covered her eyes with a piece of cloth.
When Vila Oma, my father’s former commanding general, as well as Ticoc, Taipi, Tanquihualpa, Orco Varanca, Atoc Suyru, and many other former generals of my father saw that the Spaniards had captured and abused the coya in this manner,78 they were very upset. This was not lost on the Spaniards, who took them and said, “Surely, you
will revert to your old love of the Inca and ally yourself with him. But we won’t let it happen, for you will die here along with your mistress.” They defended themselves against these accusations and said that they did not intend to do this, that they wanted to stay with the Spaniards and serve them. The Spaniards, however, who did not believe them and thought that their protestations were feigned, had them all burnt to death. After they had been burnt and the coya killed, they went on to Yucay, where they burned Ozcollo, Coriatao, and many others in order to prevent them from joining my father and in order to cover their backs. After all these things related here had passed and many more that I have omitted for brevity’s sake, my father returned to Vilcabamba, the capital of this province, and lived there in peace for a few days. Because he missed me, he sent me several messengers from that town to Cuzco, where I had been staying since my abduction from Vitcos at the house of the aforementioned Oñate. The messengers, however, abducted me and my mother and secretly brought us from Cuzco to the town of Vitcos, where my father was staying in order to refresh himself, for it was located in a cool region. There my father and I spent many days. During this time, seven Spaniards appeared there, each of whom arrived on a different day. They claimed that they were on the run for some crimes they had committed, and they protested their willingness to serve my father to the best of their abilities for the duration of their entire lives.79 They begged for permission to stay in his land for the remainder of their days. Although my father would hardly have been prejudiced in favor of the Spaniards by then, when he saw that they had come with good intentions, he ordered his captains not to harm them, for he wanted to protect them in his land as though they were his own offspring. They were even to be given houses in which they could live. Although my father’s captains would have preferred to finish them off then and there, they obeyed his orders. My father hosted them for days, even years, treating them very well and supplying them with everything they needed. He even ordered his own women to prepare food and drink for them. Not enough, he had them accompany him, treating them and enjoying himself with them as though they were his brothers.
After some days and years while the said Spaniards were in my father’s company in his own house in Vitcos, my father, they, and I were enjoying ourselves by playing a game of herrón.80 My father, being unsuspecting, gave no credit to an Indian woman who was in the service of one of the Spaniards named Barba and who had reported a few days earlier that the Spaniards wanted to kill him. But my father, without suspecting anything in this or any other regard, was enjoying himself with them as he had before. When, in the course of the game, my father went to pick up the iron with which they were playing, they all fell upon him with daggers, knives, and some swords. Feeling his injuries, my father attempted to defend himself on all sides, invigorated by the fury with which approaching death inspired him. He being alone, however, and there being seven of them and because he did not have any weapons, they threw his wounded body to the ground several times and left him there for dead. When I, still being very young, saw them treat my father this way, I tried to rush to his aid, but they angrily turned on me and threw at me my father’s personal lance, which happened to be there, thus almost killing me as well. Frightened and terrified by this, I ran down some wooded slopes, so that they wouldn’t find me if they came after me. They left my father, who was on his last gasps, and went out the door in good spirits, saying, “Don’t worry; we’ve already killed the Inca.” But several Antis, who were just arriving, as well as the Captain Rimache Yupanqui, surrounded them and, before they could get away, cut off their escape route, threw them off their horses, and dragged them away in order to sacrifice them. They killed all of them in a cruel manner, even burning some of them alive. Before my father died,81 he summoned all of his captains, as well as me, in order to talk to us. He addressed his captains with the following words.
The Inca’s Dying Speech to his Captains
He said, “My sons, here you see how I fared because I was too trusting toward these Spanish people, especially those seven whom you have gotten to know here. I treated them like sons, and after I had protected them for such a long time, they have reciprocated my hospitality in this manner. I don’t believe I will emerge from this alive. But, on your lives, remember how I have warned you again and again—in Cuzco, in Tambo, and in all the other towns where you gathered following my call, as well as in the places to which you have followed me. Because I know well that you have committed all of this to your memory, I don’t want to reiterate it. Neither do my pains permit it, nor is there any reason to torture you even more with it. I leave my son Titu Cusi Yupanqui in your care. Look after him, for you know that he is the apple of my eye and that I used to treat him more like a brother than a son, owing to his intelligence. I have also instructed him to take care of all of you and all my children, to look after them as I would have done. I ask that you treat him like you treated me; and I am convinced that he will appreciate it very much and repay you accordingly. Therefore, call him, so I can give him my blessings and tell him what to do.”
Manco Inca’s Dying Speech to his Son
“My beloved son, you can see well what’s happening to me, so I don’t need to express in words my pain, which is obvious in the facts. Do not weep, for if there is anyone who has reason to weep, it is me, provided I still could. For I have myself brought about this situation in which I now find myself by trusting people of that sort and by spoiling those who did not deserve it. As you know, they came here on the run from their comrades because of certain crimes they had committed. I took them in and favored them with paternal sympathy. But listen to what I have to say: I order you never to deal with people like these, so you won’t end up like me. Don’t allow them to enter into your lands, regardless of how much they try to persuade you with words. I was fooled by their sickly sweet words; and the same will happen to you if you trust them.
I entrust to you your brothers and sisters, as well as your mother. Look after them, help and support them, as I have done for you. Look out so that you don’t dishonor my bones by maltreating your siblings and your mother, for you know that this would hurt me very much. I also entrust these poor Indians to you. Take care of them as you are supposed to and remember how they gave up their lands and their homes out of love for me and how they have accompanied, guarded, and protected me in the course of all my trials. Don’t work them too hard and don’t harass them; don’t scold or punish them without cause, for this would bring forth the wrath of Viracocha. I have ordered them to respect and revere you in my place as their ruler, for you are my firstborn son and the heir of my kingdom. This is my last will.82 I trust in their benevolence and know that they will accept and respect you. They will do nothing but what I have told them to do and what you will order them to do.”
After these words, he expired and left me in the town of Vitcos. From there I moved to Vilcabamba, where I remained for more than twenty years until some Indians from Huamachuco disturbed my peace. They had been sent by the court of justice at Cuzco on orders of Gonzalo Pizarro, who was then rebelling against the king.
