Manco, the Peruvian Chief / Or, An Englishman's Adventures in the Country of the Incas

by William Henry Giles Kingston

We approached one evening the farm of a cacique, who, with most of the men of his village, had marched to join the army of Tupac Amaru. The women only, and some of the old men and children, remained. It was on the extreme borders of the country inhabited by Christian Indians. Beyond all was totally unknown to the white men, and but seldom visited by the civilised natives.

Manco sent on a messenger to give notice of our approach, and to crave the hospitality of the cacique and his family. He returned shortly, saying that the females only were at home, and that as yet they had received no account of the result of the expedition; but that they bade the strangers welcome.

“Alas!” said Manco, “we are, I fear, the bearers of evil tidings. Had the cacique escaped, he would have returned ere this.”

We proceeded on, and in a space cleared of trees, we found a collection of low buildings. The walls were constructed of reeds, the interstices being filled up with loam; and the roofs were covered with palm leaves. On one side of the house was a coffee plantation, and on the other some fields of maize, with fruit-trees growing round them. At a little distance, on some marshy ground, was a field of sugar-canes; and by the side of a brook a row of the useful banana. The poor woman came out to receive us as we approached. Her first inquiries were for her husband. Manco had seen him and all his people cut to pieces. She did not faint or shriek out, but retired into an inner room, sat herself down on the ground, surrounded by her women, and groaned bitterly all the night long. We did not see her again; but after a time one of her females came out and set food before us. Our Indian companions found shelter in some of the huts of the village; and one belonging to the farm was given up to Ned, Pedro, and me. We had Indian corn bread, and cakes made of the juice of the sugar-cane, called chancacas; potatoes, bananas, oranges, and pine-apples, and several varieties of dried meat; with a liquor also made from the sugar-cane, called guarapo: indeed we had no cause to complain of any want of provisions. As we were safe here from all risk of pursuit, Manco proposed to remain for some days, that we might recruit our strength before prosecuting our journey.

The cacique had been accustomed to increase his wealth by buying from the wilder tribes the celebrated Peruvian bark. In the month of May, a number of Indians set out together, some of whom, of greatest experience, who are called cateadores, or searchers, climb the highest trees to spy out the manchas, or spots where the chinchona groups are growing, distinguishing them merely by a slight difference in the tints from the dark-green of the surrounding foliage. When the cateador has discovered a group, he leads his companions to it with wonderful precision through the almost impenetrable forest; a hut is built, the trees are felled, and incisions are made in the bark, and after a few days, as it dries, it is stripped off and placed in the huts to dry still more. It is then packed in bundles, and sent to market.

A party of Indians came one day to the village, on their way across the Andes, from the more distant forests to the east, laden with balsams and odoriferous gums, which they had collected from a variety of resinous plants. They were ignorant that the war had broken out, and when they heard of it, they were unwilling to venture further, and returned, to their own country. The men who carried the loads had on merely a piece of cloth round the waist; but the women who accompanied them wore a loose tunic without sleeves. Their legs were bare, but painted with the juice of the huito, which made it appear that they had on half-boots. The object was to protect their legs from the stings of insects. I found that they professed Christianity. They were regular medical pedlars; for they had powders, salves, plasters, seeds, and roots of every description; claws of the tapir, as a remedy against the falling-sickness; and the teeth of poisonous snakes, carefully stuck into rushes, as specifics against head-ache and blindness. Manco had purchased a sufficient number of horses to mount all our party, and to carry such provisions as we required; though, from the abundance of game to be procured in the forests, we had no fear of being in want of fresh meat. Still, however, as there was no notice of the approach of the Spaniards, he thought it better to remain a few clays longer, to recruit our strength, before we recommenced our journey. Three of the Indians only had remained with us, the rest having departed to their homes in the south. Pedro, Ned, and I employed our time in wandering about the neighbouring country, under the guidance of one of the Indians; but we were charged by Manco not to go far from the village.

I can scarcely venture to describe the magnificence of the vegetation of that region. There were numerous ferns and nettles growing in the form of large shrubs; wonderful bignonias and gigantic orchids drawing their nourishment from the air; with every variety of climbing plants, throwing their thousand tendrils round the trees which gave them support. I could not but admire the various forms of the stately palm, the thickly-leaved balsam-yielding leguminosae, the luxuriant laurels, and the solaneae, with their numberless flowers of vast size. Further on, again, on the flat lands towards the east, the mighty trees rise to an immense height from the humid soil, without a flowering plant or shrub below their branches, forming a canopy almost impervious to the light of day.

One day we had gone farther than usual from home, when we reached a narrow lagune, overspread by the boughs of the gigantic trees which grew on either side of it. The air and earth were teeming with animal life. Birds of beautiful plumage, and every variety of note, were perched on the branches, or flying above our heads; butterflies of many hues were flitting about in all directions; and reptiles and insects innumerable were crawling along the ground. More beautiful than all were the humming-birds, which, like flashes of coloured light, appeared and disappeared as they flew by us; and surpassing his brethren in gorgeousness of hues, was the golden-tailed humming or fly bird, numbers of which haunted every glade we passed. From many of the shady branches hung nests built by the pouched starlings, four or five feet long, and swinging to and fro with every breath of wind. Flocks of green parrots were chattering on the higher boughs, and preparing to seek their night—quarters in the higher parts. Our guide called them jornaleros (day-labourers), and told me that the name was given them because, on the return of every day, they come back at the same hour from the mountains, where they sleep, to gather their food in the lower forests. I had shot several birds, and was aiming at one, when he seized my arm, and implored me not to fire.

“Do you not hear its note, Señor?” he exclaimed. “If you were to kill that bird, Heaven would afflict you with some dreadful disaster. Listen: does it not say, Dios te de (May God give it thee)?”

The bird, as he rested on a branch before me, threw back his head and rocked his body, and certainly uttered a note which might easily be thus translated.