PERU

CHILE

CHAPTER I

THE SPANISH CONQUEST

About a century before Pizarro landed, Tupac Yupanqui, the greatest of the Inca conquerors, crossed the rough mountains, bleak plateaux, and waterless deserts which lie between the habitable part of Bolivia and the irrigable valleys of northern Chile, and rapidly overran the coast for six hundred miles. As one goes south the plain broadens, the short rivers flowing from the mountains grow larger, the rainfall and the area available for cultivation increase, and from Santiago a wide valley, the heart of Chile, stretches between the Andes and the coast range, sustaining a dense population. As far south as the river Maule, the limit of Tupac's conquests, irrigation is necessary for crops. In all these valleys dwelt various tribes whose system of agriculture and civilisation was similar to that of the Incas. Only the southern peoples inhabiting the rainy and forested regions beyond the Maule refused to submit. Huaina Capac, Tupac's son, was once obliged to undertake a campaign to consolidate the Inca power, but Chile north of the Maule became thoroughly attached to the Cuzco dynasty.