Concerning the road which the Yncas ordered to be made along these coast valleys, with buildings and depÔts like those in the mountains; and why these Indians are called Yuncas.

THAT my writings may be conducted with all possible regularity, I wish, before returning, to conclude what there is to be said about the provinces in the mountains, and to relate what is worthy of remark on the coast, which, as I have said in other parts, is important. In this place I will give an account of the grand road which the Yncas ordered to be made along the coast valleys, which, although now it is in ruins in many places, still shows how grand a work it once was, and how great was the power of those who ordered it to be made.

Huayna Ccapac, and Tupac Ynca Yupanqui, his father, were those who, according to the Indians, descended to the coast and visited all the valleys and provinces of the Yuncas, although some say that Ynca Yupanqui, the grandfather of Huayna Ccapac and father of Tupac Ynca, was the first who saw the coast and traversed its deserts. The Caciques and officers, by order of the Yncas, made a road fifteen feet wide through these coast valleys, with a strong wall on each side. The whole space of this road was smooth and shaded by trees. These trees, in many places, spread their branches laden with fruit over the road, and many birds fluttered amongst the leaves. In every valley there was a principal station for the Yncas, with depÔts of provisions for the troops. If anything was not ready, a severe punishment was inflicted, and if any of those whose duty it was to traverse the road, entered the fields or dwellings of the Indians, although the damage they did was small, they were ordered to be put to death. The walls on each side extended from one place to another, except where the sand drifted so high that the Indians could not pave the road with cement, when huge posts, like beams, were driven in at regular intervals to point out the way. Care was taken to keep the road clean, to renew any part of the walls that was out of repair, and to replace any of the posts which might be displaced by the wind in the deserts. This coast road was certainly a great work, though not so difficult as that over the mountains.[323] There were some fortresses and temples of the sun, which I shall mention in their proper places. As, in many parts of the work, I shall have to use the words Ynca and Yunca, I will satisfy the reader as to the meaning of Yunca, as I have already done with regard to Ynca. He will understand, then, that the towns and provinces of Peru are situated in the manner I have already described, many of them in the openings formed by the snowy mountains of the Andes.

All those who live in these mountains are called Serranos, and those who inhabit the coast are called Yuncas; and in many parts of the mountains where the rivers flow, as the mountains are very high, the plains are sheltered and warm, and in some of them there is as much heat as there is on the coast. The inhabitants who live in these warm valleys and plains, although they are strictly in the mountains, are also called Yuncas. Throughout Peru, when they speak of these warm and sheltered places between the mountains, they call them Yuncas, and the inhabitants have no other name, though they may have in their own districts. Thus, those who live in the parts already mentioned, and all who live in the coast valleys of Peru, are called Yuncas, because they live in a warm land.