[393] The most terrible earthquakes at Arequipa, took place as follows:—

January 2,1582
February 18,1600
November 23,1604
December 9,1609
1613
May 20,1666
April 23,1668
October 21,1687
August 22,1715
May 13,1784
1812
July 10,1821
October 9,1831
June 3,1848. Between 10 P.M. and 2 A.M. there were forty
terrific shocks.

[394] After the armies of Ynca Pachacutec, under the command of his brother, the able general Ccapac Yupanqui, had conquered the Huanca nation, that commander invaded the province of Caxamarca in about 1380 A.D. The natives replied to the usual Yncarial summons, by saying that they had no need for new gods or new laws beyond those which they had received from their ancestors. The Yncarial troops were victorious in the open ground, but the natives of Caxamarca then retreated into their fortified strongholds, and made continual forays. Thus the war lasted for four months, but the Ynca general lost no opportunity of ingratiating himself with the enemy, setting the prisoners at liberty, curing the wounded, and sending messages of peace and amity to the hostile chiefs. At last the people of Caxamarca began to reflect that they might meet a harder fate than that of submitting to rulers who, while they were able to kill, treated their prisoners with so much kindness. The chiefs sent in their submission, and were confirmed in their privileges, while the province of Caxamarca became an integral part of the empire of the Yncas. The general Ccapac Yupanqui was accompanied in this campaign by his youthful nephew the Ynca Yupanqui, who afterwards succeeded his father Pachacutec as tenth Ynca of Peru.

It was by this enlightened policy of conciliation, accompanied by vigorous movements in the field, that most of the conquests of the Yncas were effected. G. de la Vega, i, lib. vi, cap. xv.

[395] The valley of Caxamarca (Ccasa, “frost,” and marca, “tower” or “house” in Quichua) is about five leagues long and three broad. It is intersected with green hedges enclosing hundreds of small plots bearing luxuriant crops, and a river winds from one extremity to the other. Humboldt believed this valley to be the bottom of an ancient lake. The soil is extremely fertile, and the plain is full of gardens and fields, traversed by avenues of daturas, willows, and the beautiful queñuar tree (Polylepis villosa). In the northern part of the plain, small porphyritic domes break through the sandstone strata, and probably once formed islands in the ancient lake, before its waters had flowed off.

Atahualpa had a palace at the warm sulphur baths of Pultamarca, in this plain, some slight remains of which can still be traced. The large deep basin, forming the baths, appears to have been artificially excavated in the sandstone rock above one of the fissures through which the spring issues. There are also slight remains of the fort and palace of Atahualpa in the town. The palace was situated on a hill of porphyry. The most considerable ruins still visible are only from thirteen to fifteen feet high, and consist of fine cut blocks of stone two or three feet long, and placed upon each other without cement. The cacique Astopilco, a descendant of Atahualpa, resided in a part of these ruins at the time when Humboldt and Stevenson visited Caxamarca. The room was shown them, where the unhappy Atahualpa was kept a prisoner for nine months in 1532-33. Humboldt’s Aspects. Stevenson, ii, cap. v.

Prescott gives the amount of gold collected for Atahualpa’s ransom at Caxamarca at 1,326,539 pesos de oro, besides 51,610 marcs of silver. (From Xeres, in Barcia’s Coll., iii, p. 232. Xeres was Pizarro’s secretary.) The peso or castellano de oro was equal, in commercial value, to £2:12:6; so that the gold alone, of this ransom, was worth £3,500,00. Prescott, i, p. 425.

[396] When Pizarro rudely pulled Atahualpa from his chair, and took him prisoner, a soldier named Miguel Astete tore the crimson fringe, the token of his sovereignty, from his forehead. Astete kept the fringe until 1557, when he gave it to Sayri Tupac, the son of Ynca Manco, who was recognized as Ynca, and received a pension from the viceroy Marquis of Cañete.

[397] This account differs slightly from that given by Garcilasso de la Vega, which is as follows.

After the death of the Ynca Huayna Ccapac in 1526, his two sons, Huascar and Atahualpa, reigned peaceably for about four or five years, the former at Cuzco, and the latter at Quito. At last the elder brother became jealous of the power of his rival at Quito, and sent an envoy demanding that he should do him homage as sole and sovereign lord. Atahualpa replied that he would most willingly submit to the rule of the Ynca, and announced his intention of making a journey to Cuzco, accompanied by all his vassals, to take an oath of obedience, and to celebrate the obsequies of their common father. Under this feigned submission Atahualpa concealed the treacherous intention of attacking and dethroning his brother. He collected thirty thousand armed Indians under the command of his two generals Challcuchima and Quizquiz, and sent them by different ways towards Cuzco, disguised as ordinary serving men. Huascar had so little suspicion of treachery that he ordered these men to be supplied with clothing and provisions on the road. The passage of so many armed men through the provinces, excited the alarm of several veteran governors, who warned Huascar of his danger; but meanwhile the forces of Atahualpa had crossed the river Apurimac without opposition, and, raising their banners, threw off the mask and advanced as open enemies. Thoroughly alarmed, Huascar summoned the chiefs of the southern, eastern, and western districts, Colla-suyu, Anti-suyu, and Cunti-suyu. Chincha-suyu, the northern province, was already in the power of Atahualpa. Those of Cunti-suyu alone had time to join the Ynca, with thirty thousand undisciplined Indians. The forces of Atahualpa advanced to the attack without delay, in order that there might be no time for more reinforcements to reach Cuzco, and a desperate battle was fought at a place called Quepaypa (literally of my trumpet), a few leagues west of Cuzco. Garcilasso mentions that, as a boy at school in Cuzco, he twice visited this battle field, when out hawking in the neighbourhood. The battle lasted during the whole day. At last the veteran troops of Atahualpa, who had served in all his father’s wars, triumphed over the raw levies of his more peaceful brother, Huascar was taken prisoner after a thousand of his body guard had fallen around him, and most of his faithful curacas or chiefs voluntarily surrendered, in order to share the fate of their beloved lord. This battle took place in 1532. Atahualpa was not present at the battle, but he hurried to Cuzco on hearing of his victory. Knowing that, according to the ancient laws of the empire, he, as an illegitimate son, could not inherit the crown; he resolved to put all the legitimate heirs out of his way by indiscriminate slaughter. Not only did he order all his half-brothers to be put to death, but also his uncles, nephews, and cousins of the blood royal, and most of the faithful nobles of Huascar. One of the Ynca’s wives, named Mama Huarcay, fled with her little daughter Coya Cusi Huarcay, who afterwards married Sayri Tupac, the Ynca who was pensioned by the marquis of Cañete in 1553. Out of so large a family several other members also escaped from the fate intended for them by the cruel Atahualpa. Among these were the mother of the historian Garcilasso de la Vega, and her brother Hualpa Tupac Ynca Yupanqui; Manco, Paullu, and Titu, legitimate sons of Huayna Ccapac; and several princesses, who were baptised after the conquest. Of these, Beatrix Coya married Don Martin de Mustincia (the royal accountant), and had three sons; Leonora Coya married first Don Juan Balsa, by whom she had a son—a schoolfellow of Garcilasso, and secondly Don Francisco de Villacastin; and there were about a hundred other survivors of Ynca blood. The Ynca Huascar himself was thrown into prison at Xauxa, and murdered by order of Atahualpa, after the latter had been made prisoner by Pizarro. Huascar was a mild and amiable prince, and fell a victim to his guileless and unsuspicious disposition. G. de la Vega, i, lib. ix, caps. 32 to 40.