4. The Yuncas.
The Yuncas occupied the hot valleys near the sea between south latitude 5° and 10°, their capital being in the vicinity of the present city of Truxillo. Their tongue belongs to an entirely different stock from the Kechua, and was not influenced by it. It still survives in a few sequestered valleys. The extreme difficulty of its phonetics aided to prevent its extension.[320]
There is little doubt but that the Yuncas immigrated to their locality at some not very distant period before the conquest. According to their own traditions their ancestors journeyed down the coast in their canoes from a home to the north, until they reached the port of Truxillo.[321] Here they settled and in later years constructed the enormous palace known as the Gran Chimu, whose massive brick walls, spacious terraces, vast galleries and fronts decorated with bas-reliefs and rich frescoes, are still the wonder and admiration of travelers.[322]
Near by, in the valley of Chicama and vicinity, they constructed capacious reservoirs and canals for irrigation which watered their well-tilled fields, and were so solidly constructed that some of them have been utilized by enterprising planters in this generation. Doubtless some of these were the work of the Incas after their conquest of this valley by the Inca Pachacutec, as is related by Garcilasso de la Vega,[323] but the fact that the Chimus were even before that date famed for their expertness in the working of metals and the fashioning of jewels and vases in silver and gold,[324] proves that they did not owe their culture to the instruction of the Quichuas.
The term yunca-cuna is a generic one in the Kechua language, and means simply “dwellers in the warm country,” the tierra caliente, near the sea coast. It was more particularly applied to the Chimus near Truxillo, but included a number of other tribes, all of whom, it is said, spoke related dialects. Of the list which I append we are sure of the Mochicas or Chinchas, as the Yunca portion of Geronimo de Ore’s work is in this dialect;[325] of the Estenes, Bastian has printed quite a full vocabulary which is nearly identical with the Yunca of Carrera;[326] Mr. Spruce obtained in 1863 a vocabulary of forty words from the Sechuras, proving them to belong to this stock;[327] but the dialects of the Colanes and Catacoas are said by the same authority to be now extinct. According to the information obtained by the Abbé Hervas, the “Colorados of Angamarca” also spoke a Yunca dialect,[328] but I have been unable to identify this particular tribe of “painted” Indians.
The location of the stock at the conquest may be said to have been from south lat. 4° to 10°; and to have included the three departments of modern Peru called Ancachs, Libertad, and Piura.
YUNCA LINGUISTIC STOCK.
- Catacoas, on the upper Rio Piura.
- Chancos, on the coast south of the Mochicas.
- Chimus, near Truxillo.
- Chinchas, see Mochicas.
- Colanes, on Rio Chiura, north of Payta.
- Etenes, in the valleys south of Lambayeque.
- Mochicas, at Mochi, near Truxillo.
- Morropes, north of Lambayeque.
- Sechuras, on Rio Piura.
5. The Atacameños and Changos.
In the valley of the river Loa, about 20°-23° south latitude, and in the vicinity of Atacama, there still survive remnants of a tribe called Atacameños by the Spaniards, but by themselves Lican-Antais, people of the villages. Their language appears to be of an independent stock, equally remote from that of the Kechuas and the Aymaras. Vocabularies of it have been preserved by various travelers, and the outlines of its grammar have been recently published by San-Roman.[329] From two of its numerals and some other indications Dr. Darapsky has connected it with the Aymara, which is also spoken in that vicinity.[330] The relationship, however, cannot be considered established, and the latest researches tend to sharpen the contrast between the Cunza, as it is sometimes called, and the Aymara.