History of the Incas

by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa

XIV.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MANCO CCAPAC AND THE ALCABISAS, RESPECTING THE ARABLE LAND.

It has been said that one of the natural tribes of this valley of Cuzco was the Alcabisas. At the time when Manco Ccapac settled at Ynti-cancha and seized the goods of the Sauaseras and Huallas, the Alcabisas were settled half an arquebus shot from Ynti-canchi, towards the part where Santa Clara now stands. Manco Ccapac had a plan to spread out his forces that his tyrannical intentions might not be impeded, so he sent his people, as if loosely and idly, making free with the land. He took the lands without distinction, to support his companies. As he had taken those of the Huallas and Sauaseras, he wished also to take those of the Alcabisas. As these Alcabisas had given up some, Manco Ccapac wished and intended to take all or nearly all. When the Alcabisas saw that the new comers even entered their houses, they said: "These are men who are bellicose and unreasonable! they take our lands! Let us set up landmarks on the fields they have left to us." This they did, but Mama Huaco said to Manco Ccapac, "let us take all the water from the Alcabisas, and then they will be obliged to give us the rest of their land." This was done and they took away the water. Over this there were disputes; but as the followers of Manco Ccapac were more and more masterful, they forced the Alcabisas to give up their lands which they wanted, and to serve them as their lords, although the Alcabisas never voluntarily served Manco Ccapac nor looked upon him as their lord. On the contrary they always went about saying with loud voices-to those of Manco Ccapac—"Away! away! out of our territory." For this Manco Ccapac was more hard upon them, and oppressed them tyrannically.

Besides the Alcabisas there were other tribes, as we have mentioned before. These Manco Ccapac and Mama Huaco totally destroyed, and more especially one which lived near Ynti-cancha, in the nearest land, called Humanamean, between Ynti-cancha and Cayocachi[55], where there also lived another native Sinchi named Culunchima. Manco Ccapac entered the houses and lands of all the natives, especially of the Alcabisas, condemned their Sinchi to perpetual imprisonment, sending the others to banishment in Cayocachi, and forcing them to pay tribute. But they were always trying to free themselves from the tyranny, as the Alcabisas did later[56].

[Note 55: Garcilasso de la Vega describes Cayau-cachi as a small village of about 300 inhabitants in his time. It was about 1000 paces west of the nearest house of the city in 1560; but he had been told that, at the time of his writing in 1602, the houses had been extended so as to include it.]

[Note 56: Cieza de Leon and Balboa corroborate the story of
Sarmiento that the Alcabisas (Cieza calls them Alcaviquizas, Balboa has
Allcay-villcas) were hostile to the Incas, Cieza, ii. p. 105, Balboa, p.
25. Yamqui Pachacuti mentions them as Allcayviesas, p. 76.]

Having completed the yoke over the natives, their goods and persons, Manco Ccapac was now very old. Feeling the approach of death, and fearing that in leaving the sovereignty to his son, Sinchi Rocca, he and his successors might not be able to retain it owing to the bad things he had done and to the tyranny he had established, he ordered that the ten lineages or companies that had come with him from Tampu-tocco should form themselves into a garrison or guard, to be always on the watch over the persons of his son and of his other descendants to keep them safe. They were to elect the successor when he had been nominated by his father, or succeeded on the death of his father. For he would not trust the natives to nominate or elect, knowing the evil he had done, and the force he had used towards them. Manco Ccapac being now on the point of death, he left the bird indi enclosed in its cage, the tupac-yauri[57] or sceptre, the napa and the suntur-paucar the insignia of a prince, [though tyrant,] to his son Sinchi Rocca that he might take his place, [and this without the consent or election of any of the natives].

[Note 57: Tupac-yauri The sceptre of the sovereign. Molina, pp. 25, 40, 41. Yamqui Pachacuti, p. 92.]

Thus died Manco Ccapac, according to the accounts of those of his ayllu or lineage, at the age of 144 years, which were divided in the following manner. When he set out from Paccari-tampu or Tampu-tocco he was 36 years of age. From that time until he arrived at the valley of Cuzco, during which interval he was seeking for fertile lands, there were eight years. For in one place he stayed one, in another two years, in others more or less until he reached Cuzco, where he lived all the rest of the time, which was 100 years, as Ccapac or supreme and rich sovereign.

They say that he was a man of good stature, thin, rustic, cruel though frank, and that in dying he was converted into a stone of a height of a vara and a half. The stone was preserved with much veneration in the Ynti-cancha until the year 1559 when, the licentiate Polo Ondegardo being Corregidor of Cuzco, found it and took it away from where it was adored and venerated by all the Incas, in the village of Bimbilla near Cuzco.

From this Manco Ccapac were originated the ten ayllus mentioned above. From his time began the idols huauquis, which was an idol or demon chosen by each Inca for his companion and oracle which gave him answers[58]. That of Manco Ccapac was the bird indi already mentioned. This Manco Ccapac ordered, for the preservation of his memory, the following: His eldest son by his legitimate wife, who was his sister, was to succeed to the sovereignty. If there was a second son his duty was to be to help all the other children and relations. They were to recognize him as the head in all their necessities, and he was to take charge of their interests, and for this duty estates were set aside. This party or lineage was called ayllu If there was no second son, or if there was one who was incapable, the duty was to be passed on to the nearest and ablest relation. And that those to come might have a precedent or example, Manco Ccapac made the first ayllu and called it Chima Panaca Ayllu, which means the lineage descending from Chima, because the first to whom he left his ayllu or lineage in charge was named Chima, and Panaca means "to descend." It is to be noted that the members of this ayllu always adored the statue of Manco Ccapac, and not those of the other Incas, but the ayllus of the other Incas always worshipped that statue and the others also. It is not known what was done with the body, for there was only the statue. They carried it in their wars, thinking that it secured the victories they won. They also took it to Huanacauri, when they celebrated the huarachicos of the Incas. Huayna Ccapac took it with him to Quito and Cayambis, and afterwards it was brought back to Cuzco with the dead body of that Inca. There are still those of this ayllu in Cuzco who preserve the memory of the deeds of Manco Ccapac. The principal heads of the ayllu are now Don Diego Chaco, and Don Juan Huarhua Chima. They are Hurin-cuzcos. Manco Ccapac died in the year 665 of the nativity of Christ our Lord, Loyba the Goth reigning in Spain, Constantine IV being Emperor. He lived in the Ynti-cancha, House of the Sun.

[Note 58: Sarmiento says that every sovereign Inca had a familiar demon or idol which he called guauqui, and that the guauqui of Manco Ccapac was the indi or bird already mentioned. This is corroborated by Polo de Ondegardo. The word seems to be the same as Huauqui, a brother.]