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TOPA-INCA-YUPANGUI EXPEDITION AGAINST QUITO — HIS JOURNEY BY SEA — ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS OF THE PLAINS.

      In the expedition of which I have just spoken, Topa-Inca-Yupangui and his generals subdued a considerable number of different nations. But without a doubt the most remarkable event was the conquest of the province of Quito, which due to its fertility and number of inhabitants, could fight with the empire of the Incas.

      Topa-Inca-Yupangui encountered strong resistance and was attacked by such a multitude of barbarians that, despite the repeated defeats they caused them, there were always enough to avenge the death of those who had perished. Until reaching Quito, each city was the theater of bloody struggles.

      But as the Incas led an innumerable multitude of warriors who would have considered it a crime to lose an inch of ground, they finally subjugated the inhabitants of the province of Quito, whose

resistance, however, cost the lives of a large part of the Peruvian nobility. The Inca, after having completely dominated them, and taken prisoner their general Pillaguasu, cacique of the Quilacos province, forced them to build a fortress and left a garrison made up of warriors of great value. He ordered the vanquished to respect them as their bosses in future and to supply him with everything they might need.

      When the Inca had arranged everything related to the government of the country that he had just subjugated, he resolved to take his conquests to the neighboring provinces, which he believed to be as rich as Quito. He advanced in the territory of the Chimbos, and arrived, after having crossed almost inaccessible mountains, at that of the Guancavillcas. During this march he had the fortress of Machalla built and subdued many tribes. From there he moved to Xipixapa and Apelope (1).

      Knowing that there was a port nearby, where he could embark and increase the glory of his name, he continued his march forward and made his army camp at Manta, Charapoto and Picuaza; for this was so considerable that he would not have been able to house it and provide it with subsistence by occupying a less extensive territory. It was on this march and from the top of a mountain that he saw the sea for the first time, which he adored and called Mama-Cocha or Mother of the lakes (2).

      He brought together a large number of boats, which are used by the natives of those coasts. They are a kind of raft made with beams of a very light wood, tightly tied and covered with reeds. The

Spanish have given them the name of rafts. He chose the most experienced pilots, and embarked at the head of his best troops with as much courage and freedom of spirit as if he had sailed all his life (q).

      Peruvian historians claim that this trip lasted more than a year, and that the Inca discovered some islands in the South Sea that they call Haguachumbi and Ninachumbi. However, I dare not confirm this fact, nor determine which islands are mentioned here, but the Indians say that the Inca brought a large number of prisoners from this expedition whose skin was black, much gold and silver, a throne of copper and skins of animals similar to horses. It is absolutely unknown in which part of Peru or the seas that bathe its coasts, similar objects have been found. All I can say is that in the year 1585, which has just passed, Don Alonso Niño, who was returning from New Spain to Lima in a ship loaded with merchandise that belonged to him, and came with him a pilot from Sonsonate, named Juan Gómez, discovered on Friday, February 25, some very beautiful islands that seemed to be cut by very high mountain ranges and very deep valleys.

      Don Alonso Nino crossed this archipelago without bothering to see if it was inhabited, and even without stopping to carry water, which they greatly needed.

      It is believed that these islands are to the east-south-east of that of La Plata, in the surroundings of Manta, and that, according to the route that Don Alonso Niño followed, they must be at a distance of 100 leagues more or less from the port of Paita. ; If that businessman had had more courage and ambition, we would know positively if those islands are the ones that were visited by Topa-Inca-Yupangui and his crude fleet. But we must content

ourselves with conjectures, until a more daring man has the audacity to explore them.

      A little further south there are other islands from which the Spanish do not take any advantage. A certain Escobar, an inhabitant of Ica, has told me that in the old civil wars, finding himself in the port of Arica and wanting to escape from Pizarro's supporters, he had embarked on a boat with six soldiers to go to New Spain. They set out on a Friday at noon, and the following Monday they discovered a large rock shaped like a ring in the middle of the sea. The following Friday, after nine days at sea, they discovered a large island, with large fields planted with corn and yucca. There they hunted a large number of pigeons and embarked again without daring to penetrate inside.

      Nicolás Degio, a pilot who has traveled the South Sea for a long time, has assured me that he has seen other islands of the same kind and in the same places; other people claim they have seen inhabitants and cultivated fields. I mention all these facts to let the reader know that it is very possible that Topa-Inca-Yupangui discovered some of those islands, knowledge of which was later lost due to the negligence of his successors; the most respectable mariners assert that at a certain distance from the coast there is found an archipelago beginning about the 7th degree of north latitude, and extending many degrees beyond the line. It was there, probably, that the Inca landed, and from where he brought all the things of which we have spoken. What is certain is that he returned victorious from his maritime expedition.

      He immediately took the route to Cusco, and submitted the Guancavillcas and the Chonos during his march. After having built a fortress in Tumbes, whose construction cost the inhabitants a lot of work,

he rested many days in Pohechos. Topa-Inca-Yupangui decided to cross the mountains with part of his army, and leave the other to his uncles, who had to advance through the plains, which were inhabited by warlike nations and who could not patiently endure the yoke of Chimo-Cápac. He also commissioned them to build fortresses and leave enough garrisons to maintain his authority.

      For many centuries, the Peruvians considered the climate of the arid and sandy plains that extend along the Ocean, as pestilent and nobody dared to settle in them. However, some families from the province of Contisuyo, fleeing the cruelty of the Collas, decided to seek refuge in the upper part of those plains, on the Arequipa side, with less hope of escaping death than delaying it, and because they preferred to succumb under the influence of the weather and not under the blows of their enemies.

      They chose to settle in the least arid places, acclimatized and multiplied little by little. This example destroyed the unhealthy reputation that the plains had until then and many mountain nations successively settled, following the currents of the rivers that descended from the Great Cordillera. With the exception of some really unhealthy places, those deserts were filled with inhabitants and the number of the Yungas became so considerable that the valleys were not enough for their subsistence, despite the fact that they were cultivated with the largest industry; even when a large part of the land is so arid and rocky that it cannot be cultivated except by means of artificial irrigation, as we still see in many valleys of Peru, and mainly in those of Runaguana (1), Chilca and Villacuri, which produce splendid

fruits, with no other water than that which is extracted from the bowels of the earth.

      The country no longer being enough for its inhabitants, a large number of families decided to expatriate and embarked on harmonies to find a place to settle.

      We have already said that the coast begins to be sterile from Tumbes, which was already populated by natives from the mountains, as well as the banks of the Luchira and the valleys of Catacaos, Tangarara and Piura, as the inhabitants affirm. Those of Olmos, who differ entirely from their neighbors by their language and customs, also come from the mountains, as do most of the Tallana tribes.

      The inhabitants of Motupe and Jayanca, Lambayeque, Callanca (1) and Collique tell their origin in a different way. I will present as briefly as possible their different opinions.

      Those of Lambayeque and its surroundings affirm that in a very distant time, a great fleet of rafts arrived from the northern part of Peru. The leader of these foreigners was a man of great talent and great courage; he was called Naymlap; his wife's name was Ceterni. Furthermore, he had with him a large number of concubines. The main officers of his house were Pitazofi, his trumpet or seashell player, a highly esteemed instrument among the Indians; Ninacolla who was in charge of his litter and his throne; Ninagentue, his cupbearer; Fongasigde, who was in charge of distributing shell powder to the places where he had to pass; Ochocalo, his cook; Xam, who took care of the fats and the colors with which his face was painted; finally, Ollopcopoc, who prepared his baths;

Llapchilulli, who made their tunics and feathered dresses highly esteemed at that time (r).

      Naimlap disembarked with his entire entourage at the mouth of a stream that is today called Faquisllanga. The immigrants abandoned their rafts, settled in the country and built a temple half a league from there, which they named Chot (1), placing in it an idol that they had brought with them and that represented the image of their chief. It was made of a green stone and was called Llampallec, which means figure or statue of Naymlap.

      That prince died after a long reign leaving a large number of children. To make the people believe that he was immortal, he spread the word that, by his power, he had been given wings and had flown to heaven. His companions were so afflicted by his departure that, although almost all of them had a large family and had become so attached to their new homeland, whose territory was very fertile, almost all of them abandoned it and traveled from all sides in search of their boss. His children born in the country were the only ones left.

      Cium successor of Naymlap, he married a young woman named Zolzdoñi and had twelve children with her and some concubines, each of whom was the head of numerous offspring. After a long reign, the curaca locked himself in a cellar, where he allowed himself to starve, in order to hide his death from the people and to preserve the opinion that his race was immortal.

      The Indians call his successors Escuñain, Mascuy, Cuntipallec, Allascunti, Nofanech, Mulu-Muslan, Lla-

llecoll, Lanipatcum, Acunta, and finally Tempellec, who was the last prince of this dynasty. He wanted to move the idol of Naimlap, which had been placed in the Chot, but the project brought him fate, because the devil appeared to him in the form of a beautiful young woman and managed to seduce him, but as soon as he had committed the crime it began to rain. , something that had never been seen in the plains. That deluge lasted thirty days and was followed by a whole year of barrenness and famine.

      The priests and chiefs who had learned of his sin, attributed the cause of the disaster to him and then seized his person and threw him into the sea tied hand and foot. His death put an end to the dynasty of the natural rulers of the Lambayeque Valley, so called because of the Llampallec idol that Naimlap had carried. I have already said that the twelve sons of Cium, the second king of this dynasty, had numerous offspring, with whom they went to settle in different places. Nor, he went to the Cinto valley; He silences Cucumé, the third one to Collique and so on the others.

      Llapchilulli, of whom we have already spoken, and who was highly esteemed by Naimlap, because of his skill in making feather dresses, left at the head of all those who wanted to follow him and went to settle in the Jayanca valley, where his descendants They reigned for a long time.

      It has been seen that due to the death of Tempellec, the throne of Lambayeque was vacant. That country was governed for a long time in a republic and was finally subdued by the powerful Chimoc-Cápac, who gave the government to a cacique named Pongmassa, who recognized him as his feudal lord. He ruled for a long time without opposition and had as his successor his son Pallomassa and Oxa; the latter reigned at the time when the Incas conquered Caxamarça, and

was therefore the first prince of his race to hear of them and learn to fear their armies. His successors were Llempisan and his three sons, Chullumpisan, Cipromarca and Fellempisan, who successively occupied the throne, Efquempisan and, finally, Pecfunpisan, who was still reigning when the Spaniards arrived in Peru.

      We will pick up the thread of this story later. Now I will only explain why these princes reigned so short a time, since many did not reign more than two years and none more than twelve. On their accession to the throne they observed fasts so severe and so debilitating that they never regained their health, and even succumbed at times during this useless penance. That is why brothers succeeded brothers and all were victims of the devil.

      The army of the Incas defeated the garrisons that Chimo-Cápac had placed in all the nations that we have just mentioned, subdued them and returned to Cajamarca, as had been agreed upon in Pohechos.

Miguel Cabello de Balboa, 16th cent.
      Historia del Peru: Bajo la dominación de los incas, por el R. R. Miguel Cabello Balboa (escrite de 1576 a 1586) ...
  [Coleccion de Libros y Documentos Referentees a la Historia del Peru, Tomo II (2a Serie)]
Lima: Imprenta y Libreria Sanmarti y Ca., 1920.
pp.49-57.

Galapagos Islands  Source  Whalesite