NARRATIVE OF THE INSURRECTION OF JOSÉ GABRIEL TUPAC AMARU, THE LAST OF THE INCAS. The basin of lake Titicaca is bounded on the north by the mountains of VilcaÑota, which unite the maritime cordillera with the Eastern Andes, and the river of Vilcamayu rises in these mountains, and flows north through a fertile and well-peopled valley, which is covered with fields of Indian corn. The road from Puno to Cuzco, after crossing the VilcaÑota range by the pass of Santa Rosa, descends the valley of the Vilcamayu, passing through the towns of Marangani, Sicuani, Cacha, Tinta, Checacupe, Quiquijana, and Urcos; and then leaves the river near Oropesa, and ascends a valley for three leagues to the city of Cuzco. On either side of the ravine of Vilcamayu are lofty table-lands, which only yield potatoes and quinoa; the wild hills are covered with coarse grass, often weighed down with snow; and in several places there are large Alpine lakes. Uninviting as this bleak region appears, it still contains several Indian villages, ruled in 1780 by native caciques, who were subject to the corregidor of Tinta, in the valley. The principal villages under the jurisdiction of Tinta in this cold and lofty district are Sangarara, Lanqui, Pampamarca, Surimani, Yanaoca, and Tungasuca—the latter of which was the home of Tupac Amaru. It is a small village, with a few patches of potatoes and quinoa round it, near the banks of a wild-looking lake, with rocky mountains rising abruptly from the water. JosÉ Gabriel Condorcanqui or Tupac Amaru, The young JosÉ received the first rudiments of his education from two neighbouring clergymen, Antonio Lopez, Cura of Pampamarca, a native of Panama, and a man of considerable talent; and Carlos Rodriguez, Cura of Yanaoca, a native of Guayaquil. At a very early age, however, he was sent to the Jesuit college of San Borja at Cuzco, which had been established for the education of young Indian chiefs. He is said to have been particularly noticed by the professors for his close application, capacity, and excellent disposition; and his scholastic acquirements were not inconsiderable. He spoke Spanish with fluent accuracy, and his vernacular Quichua with peculiar grace. Before he was twenty he succeeded his father as Cacique of Tungasuca, Pampamarca, and Surimani, three villages situated on the cold and lofty region which overhangs the valley of the Vilcamayu; and in 1760 he was married to Micaela Bastidas, a beautiful Indian girl of Abancay. In person JosÉ Tupac Amaru was five feet eight inches in height, well-proportioned, sinewy, and firmly knit. He had a handsome Indian face, a slightly aquiline nose, full black eyes, and altogether a countenance intelligent, benign, and expressive. His address, remarkable for gentlemanlike ease, was dignified and courteous towards superiors and equals; but in his intercourse with the aborigines, by whom he was profoundly venerated, there was a sedateness not inconsistent with his legally-admitted claims (de jure) to the diadem of the Incas. In mind he was enterprising, cool, and persevering. He lived in a style becoming his rank, and, when residing at Cuzco, usually wore a black velvet coat and small-clothes in the fashion of the day, a waistcoat of gold tissue, embroidered linen, a Spanish beaver dress hat, silk stockings, and gold knee and shoe-buckles, and he allowed his glossy black hair to flow in ringlets which extended down nearly to his waist. In about 1770 Tupac Amaru went to Lima to establish his claim to the Marquisate of Oropesa, which had been granted to his family by Philip II. After some delay his claim was acknowledged by the Royal Audience, and, in a judgment pronounced by the Fiscal Don Serafin Leytan y Mola, he was declared to be the heir to the marquisate, as fifth in lineal descent from the Inca Tupac Amaru; but it would appear that this judgment was withheld from official publication. It was said that the fiscal paid the successful suitor so many honours, and said so many complimentary things concerning his nobility and royal descent, that he grew proud; The young Inca at this time dropped his surname of Condorcanqui, and assumed that of Tupac Amaru Inca. He governed his villages of Tungasuca, Surinani, and Pampamarca exceedingly well, and was highly esteemed by the corregidor of the province, Don Pedro MuÑoz de Arjona, and his successors, who admired his punctual attention to his duty, and therefore distinguished him above all the other caciques. He habitually cultivated the acquaintance of the Spanish curas and officials, and never let pass an opportunity of representing to them, in impassioned language, the deplorable condition of the Indians. The oppression of the Indians by means of the mitas and repartos excited the indignation of the Inca Tupac Amaru; but he exerted himself for years, and exhausted every means of obtaining redress, before he was finally driven to take up arms in their defence. Moved by his earnest and incessant appeals, and his piteous account of the sufferings of his people, the Bishops of Cuzco and La Paz forwarded them to the king through Don Ventura Santalices; and Blas Tupac Amaru, the Inca's uncle, also undertook a voyage to Spain; but death put an end to the humane missions both of the Spaniard and the Indian. Nevertheless, Tupac Amaru persevered in remitting renewed petitions; while the corregidors not only eluded compliance with the royal decrees, but also increased the burdens of the Indians. At length his patience came to an end, and he resolved to make an appeal to arms, not to throw off the yoke of Spain, but to obtain some guarantee for the due The most merciless oppressor of the Indians of Peru was Don Antonio Aliaga, Corregidor of Tinta, and therefore Tupac Amaru's immediate superior; and the Inca determined to commence his revolt by punishing this great culprit. The Inca's old tutor, Dr. Carlos Rodriguez, Cura of Yanaoca, in celebration of his name-day, gave a dinner to the corregidor of Tinta, and the Inca Tupac Amaru, on the 4th of November, 1780. The Inca, on pretence that some person had arrived at his house from Cuzco, withdrew from the banquet early, and placing himself in ambush on the road, with some attendants, made the corregidor prisoner on his return, taking him to Tungasuca, Having thus drawn together a considerable force, he sent for his old master, Dr. Antonio Lopez, the Cura of Pampamarca, The whole multitude, with one accord, vowed implicit obedience to his orders, and he at once began to form the Indians into companies, and to nominate officers. Next day he marched to Quiquijana, in the valley of the Vilcamayu, the capital of the province of Quispicanchi, which he entered at daybreak on the 12th, but the corregidor had fled. After hearing mass Tupac returned towards Tungasuca, destroying the obraje of Parapuquio on his way, where he found large quantities of woollen clothes, which were distributed amongst his followers. He also demolished the obraje of Pumacancha, where he found property valued at 200,000 dollars, consisting of 18,000 yards of woollen cloths (bayeta), 60,000 of cotton cloths (tocuyo), some fire-arms, and two pieces of artillery, belonging to the Corregidor of Quispicanchi. The news of Tupac Amaru's revolt was brought to Cuzco on the 12th, by Cabrera, the Corregidor of Quispicanchi, who had so narrowly escaped capture. It created the greatest alarm, as the city was only garrisoned by two regiments. The college of the expelled Jesuits was turned into a kind of citadel, into which private and public property was taken for security; the white part of the population was enrolled; requisitions for troops were sent to the neighbouring provinces; and an express was despatched to Lima, imploring speedy succour. Next day 450 men, under the command of Don Tiburcio de Landa, Governor of Paurcartambo, marched out of Cuzco, accompanied by the Cacique of Oropesa, Juan Sahuaraura, with 700 Indians of his ayllu, or tribe. Landa was ordered to wait for reinforcements at a place called Huayra-pata; but the Corregidor Don Fernando Cabrera, who accompanied him, enraged at the loss of property which he had sustained, induced him to advance to the village of Sangarara, within five leagues of Tinta, which he reached on the 17th. At dawn on the following morning it began to snow, and, finding himself surrounded by a superior force of hostile Indians, Landa retreated into the church. Tupac Amaru then wrote to him, offering terms, which were refused; and he again wrote to the cura, who was also in the church, urging him to retire with the women and children. The Spanish troops, however, prevented them from coming out, a scuffle ensued, The news of the disaster at Sangarara reached Cuzco on the 19th, and produced indescribable confusion. The Cabildo immediately began to collect arms, make powder, repair six old field-pieces, and on the 20th Don Juan Nicolas de Lobaton y Zavala, Marquis of Rocafuerte, arrived from Urubamba with reinforcements. Every citizen came forward to serve, and a corps of volunteers was formed under Don Faustino Alvarez de Foronda, Count of Vallehermoso. The Bishop ordered all the clergy to assemble, formed them into four companies, and gave the command to the Dean, Dr. Manuel de Mendieta. More troops soon came in from Calca, under Don Pablo Astete, and from other parts, and by the end of November there were 3000 men in arms at Cuzco. Anxious to pacify the Indians, the Cabildo then issued a proclamation abolishing the repartos, and the alcabala, or excise on provisions, and declaring that the Indians should never At this moment Tupac Amaru might probably have entered Cuzco without opposition; but unfortunately, relying on the justice of his cause, he beguiled himself into the belief that he could accomplish by argument and negotiation what could only be obtained by the sword. He threw up embankments and entrenched himself in an encampment near Tinta, throwing out videttes to within three leagues of Cuzco; and on the 27th he issued an edict from his head-quarters at Tungasuca, setting forth the causes of his revolt. In this document he recapitulated the grievances which his people suffered, declared the tyranny of the Spanish officials to be impious and cruel, and called upon the Indians to rally round his standard. Early in December 1780 Tupac Amaru crossed the VilcaÑota range, by the pass of Santa Rosa, and, entering the Collao, advanced by Pucara to Lampa. At every village he addressed the people from the church-steps, saying that he came to abolish abuses and punish the corregidors; and that he was "the liberator of the kingdom, the restorer of privileges, and the common father of those who groan under the yoke of repartos." Nothing was heard amongst the Indians but acclamations for their Inca and Redeemer. On the 28th the heights of Picchu, overhanging Cuzco on the west, were covered with his army. His cousin Diego Tupac Amaru was detached to the eastward with 6000 men, to occupy the provinces of Calca and Paucartambo. Another detachment under Antonio Castelo, one of the Inca's most trusted followers, marched along the direct road to Cuzco, but was defeated two leagues from the city at a place called Saylla, and finally effected a junction with the main body on the heights of Picchu. Before attempting to force his way into Cuzco, the Inca addressed a letter to the cabildo, and another to the bishop, on the 3rd of January, 1781. To the cabildo he said that, as the heir of the Incas, the ancient kings of the realm, he was stimulated to endeavour by all possible means to put an end to abuses, and to see men appointed to govern the Indians who would respect the laws of the King of Spain. The punishment of the Corregidor of Tinta was, he declared, absolutely necessary as an example to others: and he announced the object of his rebellion to be the entire abolition of repartos; the appointment of an alcalde mayor, or judge of the Indian nation, in every province; and the establishment of an audiencia or court of appeal at Cuzco, within reach of the Indians. "This," he concluded, "is at present the extent of my wishes, leaving to the King of Spain his former dominion." But the garrison of Cuzco had, in the mean while, been reinforced by Pumacagua, the Cacique of Chinchero, and by 200 mulatto soldiers from Lima under Don Gabriel de Aviles, who arrived by forced marches on January 1st. The cabildo, therefore, refused to entertain any proposals from the Inca. The Spaniards came out to attack him under Don Pablo Astete, and the Caciques of Chinchero and Anta, Pumacagua and Rosas. There was a long skirmish in the broken ground, which was brought to a conclusion by the evening snow; but on the 8th a sanguinary battle was fought in the suburbs and on the heights, which lasted two days, and during which a Dominican friar, named Ramon de Salazar, concealed behind a rock, did effective service with his musket, and contributed to throw the Indians into confusion. The Inca finally retreated to Tinta, to re-organize his forces. His cousin Diego Tupac Amaru was also unsuccessful to the eastward. His division was detached from the main army at Checacupe, where he crossed some mountainous country, and again descended into the valley of the Vilcamayu, following the course of the river until he encountered the forces under the command of the Marquis of Rocafuerte, consisting of the levies of Pumacagua, Cacique of Chinchero, and those of the Caciques of Maras and Huayllabamba. An engagement took place at Huaran, on the banks of the river, near Calca, when Diego was defeated, many of his Indians being drowned in the river; and he again suffered defeat at Yucay on December 23rd. The Indian chief then left the valley of the Vilcamayu, Tupac Amaru had now assembled a force of 60,000 men in and around Tinta; but they were wholly undisciplined, and only a few hundreds were armed with muskets. All the caciques in Peru, with the exception of sixteen, The whole of the interior of Central and Upper Peru was in revolt, and the viceroys of Peru and Buenos Ayres, Don Augustin de Jauregui and Don Juan JosÉ de Vertiz, were thoroughly alarmed. The former despatched Don JosÉ Antonio Areche, as "visitador," with extraordinary judicial powers, and a force commanded by Don JosÉ del Valle as Mariscal del Campo, to Cuzco; while the latter named Don Ignacio Flores, then Governor of Moxos, as commandante-general, to put down the rebellion in Upper Peru. Areche, accompanied by General JosÉ del Valle, and Don Benito de la Matta Linares, a judge of the Royal Audience at Lima, arrived at Cuzco on February 23rd, 1781, where an army of 15,000 men was collected, consisting of the tribes of the recreant caciques, negroes and mulattos from the coast, and a small force of Spaniards. Early in March General del Valle prepared to commence the campaign. But, before his army marched out of Cuzco, the visitador Areche received a letter from Tupac Amaru, in which he represented the earnest endeavours he had made to obtain justice for his people; the habitual violation of the law by the Spanish officials; the cruel and intolerable oppression caused by the repartimentos and the mita; and the absolute necessity of some reform in the administration. He concluded by proposing a negotiation by which these ends might be attained without bloodshed. This despatch is very Tupac Amaru now prepared to resist to the utmost, as it became evident to him that complete independence or death were the only two alternatives which were left by the barbarous policy of the bloodthirsty visitador; but his edicts were still marked by humanity and good sense. It does not appear that he ever actually proclaimed himself a sovereign independent of Spain; yet the draft of an edict was found amongst his papers, in which he styles himself "Don JosÉ I., by the grace of God, Inca, King of Peru, Quito, Chile, Buenos Ayres, and the continents of the South Sea, Lord of the River of the Amazons, with dominion over the Grand Paytiti." The document is headed by a portrait of Tupac Amaru, crowned, with Spanish trophies at his feet. It states that the King of On March 12th, 1781, the army under General del Valle marched out of Cuzco. A detachment of 2000 men was sent against the insurgents, commanded by the Caciques Parvina and Bermudez, General del Valle was upwards of seventy years of age, and, unable longer to endure the excessive cold of the mountains, he descended into the valley of the Vilcamayu, and captured Quiquijana, hanging the Cacique Luis Poma Inca, who defended it. On the 6th of April the Spanish army advanced up the valley, meeting with considerable opposition, and reached Checacupe early in the day. Near this village the Inca had taken up a position, defended by a ditch and parapet stretching across the valley, and manned by 20,000 men, but he had neglected to provide any defence for his flanks. A Spanish division stole unperceived to the back of the position, while the main body assaulted it in front; and after an heroic defence the Indians, attacked both in front and rear, fell back to another entrenched position at Combapata, a league from Tinta, where the village was surrounded by a mud wall, covered at the top with thorny bushes. The Spaniards, following up their success, played upon the village with their field-pieces for several hours, then carried the position at the point of the bayonet, and made a bloody entry into Tinta. Tupac Amaru, with his wife and three sons, fled to Lanqui, a village about twenty miles to the westward, on the shores of a wild Alpine lake. Here he intended to have rallied his disordered troops, but he was betrayed by one of his own officers, named Ventura Landaeta, who, assisted by the cura of the place, basely delivered the illustrious Inca and his family into the hands of the Spaniards. On the same On the 8th of April Francisco, the aged uncle of the Inca, The chief prisoners were the Inca Tupac Amaru, his wife, his two sons Hipolito and Fernando, his uncle Francisco, his brother-in-law Antonio Bastidas, his maternal cousin Patricio Noguera, his cousin Cecilia Tupac Amaru with her husband Pedro Mendagure, a number of captains in the Inca's army and other officials, and Aliaga's executioner named Antonio Oblitas, It is necessary to record the diabolical cruelties of the visitador Areche, and his assistant Matta Linares, in order to complete the narrative of the ill-fated Inca's life, and to show into whose hands the fate of the Peruvian Indians was placed by the Spanish viceroy, and of what devilish atrocities they were capable. On the 15th of May, 1781, the visitador Areche pronounced a lengthy sentence, in which he declared that it was necessary to hasten its execution, in order to convince the Indians that it was not impossible to put a man of such elevated rank to death, merely because he was the heir of the Incas of Peru. He then accused the Inca of rebellion, of destroying the obrajes, of abolishing the mita, and of causing pictures to be painted of himself In the annals of barbarism there is probably not to be found a document equalling this in savage wickedness and imbecile absurdity: and this was written by a Spanish judge only eighty years ago. This hideous cruelty was literally carried into effect, in all its revolting details. On Friday the 18th of May, 1781, after the great square had been surrounded by Spanish and negro troops, ten persons came forth from the church of the Jesuits. One of these was the Inca Tupac Amaru, who had, in the early morning, been visited in prison by Areche, and Verdejo, Castelo, Oblitas, and Bastidas were hung at once. The rest were heavily chained, tied up in the bags which are used for carrying the matÉ or Paraguay tea, and dragged backwards into the centre of the square by horses. Francisco and Hipolito Tupac Amaru, the one an old man verging on fourscore years, the other a youth of twenty, then had their tongues cut out, and, with Tomasa Condemaita, were garrotted by an iron screw, the first that had been seen in Cuzco. Micaela, the wife of the Inca, was then placed on the same scaffold, her tongue was cut out, and the screw was placed round her neck in presence of her husband; but she suffered cruelly, because her neck was so small that the screw failed to strangle her. The executioners then placed a lasso round her neck, and pulled different ways, at the same time kicking her in the stomach and bosom until they succeeded in killing her. The Inca was then taken into the centre of the square, his chains were taken off, and his tongue was cut out. He was then thrown on the ground; lassos, secured to the girths of four horses, were fastened to his wrists and ankles, and the horses were made to drag different ways, "a spectacle never before seen at Cuzco." As the unfortunate Many of the Spanish citizens were present, but not an Indian was to be seen. They afterwards declared that, while the horses were torturing the Inca, a great wind arose, with torrents of rain, and that even the elements felt the death of the Inca, whom the inhuman and impious Spaniards were torturing with such cruelty. The heads, bodies, and limbs of the victims were sent to the different towns of Peru, and to the villages round Cuzco, In the revolting cruelty of Areche may be traced the abject terror of a dastardly and craven mind; and to this cowardice may also be imputed the concessions which were afterwards wrung from him. Thus fell the last of the Incas. He was a man of whom his nation might well be proud, and will bear comparison with the greatest monarchs of his race. Having enjoyed the best education which Spanish policy at that time permitted to the people of the colonies, he brought a cultivated mind, a clear understanding, untiring industry, and devoted zeal for the welfare of his countrymen to his important duties as a wealthy and influential cacique. When he afterwards undertook the office of defender of the oppressed Indians he displayed an amount of patient perseverance, combined with great ability in the advocacy of their cause, which excited the admiration of the Bishop of Cuzco and others of the more enlightened Spaniards. Finally, after he had unwillingly become convinced that all remonstrance was useless, he, in his appeal to arms, combined promptitude of action with great moderation in his demands; his edicts were remarkable for their good sense and humanity; and had his efforts been met by the Spaniards in a corresponding spirit, the viceroy of the King of Castille might at length have succeeded in enforcing the practical observance of the humane laws of his master. But this was not to be. Instead of a calm and enlightened |