Thus the work of depopulation went on until, in 1622, manyencomiendaswhich originally contained a thousand adult male Indians, and yielded eight thousand dollars of tribute, were reduced to a hundred; yet these unfortunate survivors were forced to continue the payment of the original tribute, or to render personal service instead. There was anencomiendain Huanuco where the Indians had paid more than one hundred thousand dollars over and above what was legally due, during fifty years.[178]
It may well be asked of what use were the humane and beneficent laws enacted by the kings of Spain if this was the way in which they were universally evaded by corregidors, curas, and Spanish settlers of all ranks? The caciques sorrowfully watched the gradual extinction of their people, perhaps secretly hoped for an opportunity of revenge, but were without power to prevent the cruel oppression which they deplored, though they did not neglect, from time to time, to protest against the lawless exactions and cruelties of the Spaniards.[179]
But the Indians did not endure their fate without occasional attempts at resistance. On one occasion the people on the western shore of lake Titicaca rose against themitaof Potosi, and retreated amongst the beds of rushes on the shores of the lake, which, in some places, are nine leagues long and one broad. In the midst of these rushes there was an island, whence secret lanes were cut through the tangled mass, which the fugitives navigated in their balsas. Secure in their retreat, they continued to make inroads on the Spanish towns near the lake, until at last, in 1632, the viceroy Count of Chinchon ordered his nephew, Don Rodrigo de Castro, to chastise them. Five of their leaders were captured and hung at Zepita, and their heads were stuck on the bridge over the Desaguadero. This only exasperated the Indians, who elected a brave and enterprising leader named Pedro Laime, and, suddenly attacking the bridge over the Desaguadero, they carried off the heads of their former chiefs. The Spaniards marched along the shore and waded to some islets, while the Indians hovered round them in their balsas, and prevented them from advancing further. At length the Spanish troops were embarked in twenty balsas, and came in sight of the hostile squadron commanded by Laime. TheIndians went in and out of the lanes of rushes only known to themselves, baffled their oppressors, and cut off several of the Spanish balsas. A party of cavalry advancing into the swampy ground was suddenly surrounded and cut to pieces, the Indians only losing three men.[180]
Thus the fugitive Indians retained their liberty for many years in these inaccessible fastnesses of lake Titicaca, and the Augustine friar Calancha confesses that "the rebellion was caused by the injustice and tyranny of the Spaniards, who forced the Indians to work without pay, and seized on their goods."
This was not a solitary instance of rebellion, though, on the whole, the Indians endured their cruel fate with meekness and long suffering. Yet they are not a mean-spirited people, and at length they showed their oppressors that it was possible to press the yoke down too hard even for their powers of endurance.
The tribute, themita, the exactions of the curas, and thealcabala, or excise duties,[181]were all patiently borne; but another method of extortion, the "repartimiento," or "reparto,"[182]at length exhausted the patience of the over-tasked Indians. Therepartowas a system, ostensibly for distributing European goods to the Indians, which was converted into a means of wholesale robbery by the Spanish corregidors, and finally led to a general rebellion. An Indian chieftain thus describes therepartosystem:—"Abandoning their souls for their avarice, the corregidors have the assurance to distribute (repartir) by force, and against all reason, baize and clothsworth two rials for one dollar, and in the same proportion with knives, needles, dice, pins, cards, trumpets, rings, and pewter mirrors, which are all quite useless to the Indians; besides velvets and silks, which the poor people cannot use; for they are obliged to dress in the coarsest clothes, to sleep on beds of rags, and feed on roots; while the corregidors and their dependants commit the most unjust extortions and outrages. They even exceed the legal quantity ofrepartosassigned to their respective provinces; for example, that of Tinta was ordered to be 112,500 dollars, and the corregidor made it 500,000 dollars, as was proved by his books and papers."[183]General del Valle, who commanded the troops employed to put down Tupac Amaru's rebellion, complained that the avarice of the corregidors, in recovering their claims on the Indians forrepartos, was such that they refused him the aid of their people in pacifying the country. Their obstinacy and avarice, he declared, had reached to such a point that, if they were informed that the rebels had reached the very suburbs of their towns, they would rather see the defeat of the king's troops than send away a single Indian who might owe them a yard of cloth.[184]
This unblushing dishonesty and extortion, which was winked at by the Royal Audience at Lima, the highest court of judicial appeal, drove the Indian population to a state of desperation, which only required a spark to set it in a blaze. The humane laws, and the elaborate system of legislation for the Indians, had, after 200 years of hopeless inefficiency, ended in this. The careful enactments to limit the amount of tribute, to prevent the Indians from suffering by forced personal service, the laws of ecclesiastical councils to protect them from the exactions of the curas, the benevolent intentions evinced in declaring all Indians to be minors in the eyeof the law, the "residencias," or arrangements for examining the conduct of every official at the close of his term of office; all these provisions, which have justly called forth the praise of Mr. Helps, Mr. Merivale,[185]and other modern writers, had become dead letters, absolutely and hopelessly, towards the end of the last century. The laws remained the same, but they were habitually set aside by those whose duty it was to administer them. The tribute fixed for villages when they contained a thousand men was continued the same when the population had decreased to a hundred;[186]themitawas enforced so mercilessly that whole districts were left without a single adult male inhabitant;[187]the curas extorted exorbitant fees from their victims, in spite of the law;[188]and the judges, who were sent to take the "residencias," received bribes to overlook all offences, and usually handed over the complaints which were submitted to them to the officials who were complained of in exchange for a sum of money, the price of their silence.[189]These evils were long borne patiently; but when the shameless enormities of theRepartoswere superadded, the poor remnant of the descendants of the subjects of the Incas at length rose as one man against their oppressors.
There were not wanting, amongst the Spaniards in Peru, as well as amongst the native Caciques, many good and humane men who raised their voices against the lawless cruelty of the majority of the officials, and earnestly warned the Government of the inevitable consequences. Don Ventura Santalices, the Governor of La Paz, devoted his time and fortune to the cause of the oppressed Indians, and was appointed to a seat in the Council of the Indies, but he waspoisoned on his arrival in Spain: the energetic remonstrances of Blas Tupac Amaru, a descendant of the Incas, caused him also to be summoned to Spain, where he obtained promises of many concessions, but he was assassinated at sea, during the return voyage: and the names of other bold and fearless defenders of the Indians deserve to be recorded, such as Don Manuel Arroyo, Don Ignacio Castro, Don Agustin de Gurruchategui, Bishop of Cuzco, and Don Francisco Campos, Bishop of La Paz.
But their remonstrances bore no fruit, and, in 1780, the Corregidor of Chayanta having exacted threerepartosin one year, an Indian chief, named Tomas Catari, set the example of revolt; thousands flocked to his standard, and to those of his brothers Damaso and Nicolas; in a few months the whole of Upper Peru (the modern Bolivia) was in revolt, and an army of Indians under Julian Apasa, a baker of Hayohayo near Sicasica, besieged La Paz.[190]At the same time there was an uneasy feeling at Cuzco and throughout Peru, and whispers of a conspiracy amongst the Indians. Don Pedro Sahuaraura, the Cacique of Oropesa, near Cuzco, reported that one Ildefonso del Castillo had solicited him to join the conspiracy; suspicion was thrown on several other influential Indians; and in June 1780 this Castillo, Bernardo Tambohuacto, the Cacique of Pissac, and six others, were put to death at Cuzco.[191]In the following November the Cacique José Gabriel Condorcanqui, better known as Tupac Amaru, raised the standard of revolt, and the last desperate struggle for liberty was commenced by the descendant of the Incas.[192]
"It would be difficult," says Dean Funes, "to find in the history of revolutions one more justifiable and less fortunatethan that of Tupac Amaru. America had, in those days, become the theatre of the most wide-spread tyranny; but the Indians of Peru were those on whose necks the yoke weighed heaviest.Mitasandrepartoswere, in Peru, the deadly plagues of Spanish invention, which devoured the human race."[193]
I am enabled to give a more correct and circumstantial account of the great rising of the Peruvian Indians in the end of the last century than has yet appeared in Europe; although, as this interesting subject is a digression from the main purpose of the present work, I shall be obliged to compress my narrative within the narrow limits of one or two chapters.[194]In this brief sketch of the state of the Peruvian Indians under Spanish rule, I have endeavoured to establish the fact that Tupac Amaru's rebellion was justified because the oppression of his people had become intolerable, and because all law was set at defiance by the Spanish officials. He protested, not against the tyranny of the laws, but against the infringement of laws, and the oppressive acts done in spite of the laws, by those whose duty it was to administer them.
In writing on this subject one is apt to be carried away by indignation against the Spanish rulers in South America; yet, if we look round at the systems of colonization pursued by other European nations, it will be found difficult to say who has a right to cast the first stone. The Spanish colonies, however, cannot properly be compared with those modern English settlements, to which thousands of the labouring classes have emigrated, and either annihilated the natives, or fencedthem off by a system of reserves and isolation. No European labouring class was introduced into South America; the Indians still continued to be the cultivators, the shepherds, and the artizans; and the Spaniards were merely the dominant race. This state of things is more allied to the conditions which now exist in British India or Dutch Java, and there is thus no analogy between the South American settlements and any British colony in the proper acceptation of the word.
Yet to Spain the credit is due, in spite of numerous shortcomings, and notwithstanding the oppression of her subordinates, of having endeavoured to establish the wisest, the most humane, and the only successful system of treating natives of an inferior race. It is certain that such a race must either continue to form the mass of the population, amalgamate with their conquerors, or be annihilated. The two former of these three alternatives were adopted in Peru, partly from natural causes, but partly also owing to the incessant exertions of the earlier Spanish viceroys, and of the "Defenders of the Indians;" and this result was achieved in spite of the oppression and cruelty of their subordinates. The Indians have continued to form the labouring class of Peru; amalgamation has taken place, to a very large extent, with Europeans; and the native race has thus been preserved from extinction.[195]In the English colonies, on the other hand, owing to the influx of settlers of the labouring class, the aborigines have either been exterminated, or, through a system of isolation, are rapidly and inevitably advancing on the melancholy road to final annihilation.
But it was the intention of the Spanish system to do more for the aboriginal race than merely to preserve itfrom extinction. By adopting a system of tutelage, as regarded the Indians, the Spanish Government endeavoured to defend them, in legal matters, from the superior intelligence of a more civilized race; and Mr. Helps points out that it is hardly possible to carry legislation further, in favour of any people, than by considering them as minors in the eye of the law, in order to protect them from being imposed upon in their dealings with their conquerors.[196]The opposite plan, which has been adopted in some of the English colonies, of making native tribes equal to Europeans in the eye of the law, is a mere mockery, and cannot by any possibility exist in reality.[197]
It may then be readily allowed that the intentions of the Spanish Government towards the Indians were humane and just; that their legislation was invariably marked by tenderness and concern for the subject race; and that their policy, had it been carried into effect, was far more wise and generous than that by which modern nations have generally been influenced in dealing with the aborigines of their colonies. But I think I have clearly shown that, through the unworthiness of their subordinates, this policy was only very partially enforced; that the cruelty and oppression of the colonial officials at length became insufferable; and that no cause could be more just than that in which Tupac Amaru, the last of the Incas, at length drew his sword.
NARRATIVE OF THE INSURRECTION OF JOSÉ GABRIEL TUPAC AMARU, THE LAST OF THE INCAS.
Thebasin 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.
FAMILYOF THEINCAS OF PERU.To face page 134.
FAMILYOF THEINCAS OF PERU.To face page 134.
José Gabriel Condorcanqui or Tupac Amaru,[198]the son of the Cacique Miguel Tupac Amaru by his wife Rosa Noguera, was born at Tinta in the year 1742, and baptized at Tungasuca, the birthplace of his father.[199]He claimed to be the representative of the family of the Incas, as fifth in lineal descent from Tupac Amaru, the son of the Inca Manco, who was judicially murdered by the Viceroy Toledo in 1571.
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.[200]
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.[201]
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.[202]The chief source of his income arose from thirty-fivepiarasor troops of mules, eachpiaraconsisting of ten, which were regularly employed or hired out in the transport of merchandise, home-made stuffs, sugar, and quicksilver to Potosi and other parts.[203]He had travelled over a considerableportion of Peru, and had two or three times resided in Lima; and in his journeys he was always attended by a small retinue of Indians, and sometimes accompanied by a chaplain.
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;[204]and it certainly appears that he adopted a style of living in his mountain home at Tungasuca, after his return from Lima, which he had not previously assumed.[205]It is remarkable that, in 1618, the Viceroy Prince of Esquilache wrote a despatch on the claims to jurisdiction of the members of the Inca family, who were heirs to the marquisate of Oropesa. He represented that very great inconvenience might arise from any descendant of the Incas, particularly of the family of Oropesa, so closely representing the direct line, holding any jurisdiction in Peru. The estates of the marquisate were therichest and best in Peru, and situated near Cuzco, where the memory of the Incas was most cherished. Many descendants of the Incas, he added, were then living, subject to no tribute and no personal service, and very rich and powerful; and he recommended that all claimants to the marquisate should be obliged to live in Spain, and that an equivalent should be paid them for their estates.[206]This advice was not adopted by the Council of the Indies.
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.[207]He assisted the distressed, paid tribute for the poor, and sustained whole families which had been reduced to ruin.[208]He cherished the traditions of his people, and such customs as were not inconsistent with his profession of Christianity; and he especially delighted in the dramatic representations which recalled the glorious memories of the past. One of his most intimate friends was Dr. Antonio Valdez, Cura of Sicuani, a perfect master of the Quichua language, and author of a play called 'Ollantay,' founded on ancient tradition, which was frequently acted before Tupac Amaru at Tungasuca.[209]
The oppression of the Indians by means of themitasandrepartosexcited 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 dueobservance of the laws, and their just administration. His views were certainly confined to these ends when he first drew his sword, although afterwards, when his moderate demands were only answered by cruel taunts and brutal menaces, he saw that independence or death were the only alternatives.
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,[211]and placing him in close confinement. Tupac then wrote a letter markedreservadissima, which he obliged Aliaga to sign, ordering his cashier at Tinta to remit the public money in the provincial treasury to the Inca, assigning as a reason that it was necessary to set out forthwith to the port of Aranta,[212]threatened by a descent from English cruisers. The Inca thus received 22,000 dollars, some gold ingots, seventy-five muskets, baggage-horses, and mules. Recruits were also ordered to be embodied, and sent to Tungasuca.
Having thus drawn together a considerable force, he sent for his old master, Dr. Antonio Lopez, the Cura of Pampamarca,[213]and ordered him to make known to the corregidorthat he must die, and to administer to him the consolations of religion. A scaffold was then erected in the plaza of Tungasuca, around which the retainers of the Inca were ranged in three ranks, the first armed with muskets, the second with pikes, and the rear rank with treble-loaded slings. Aliaga was then led out and publicly executed on November 10th. Tupac Amaru at the same time addressed the astonished multitude, in Quichua, as to his present conduct and ulterior views. Mounted on a fiery charger, attired in the princely costume of his ancestors, with a banner bearing the figure of an Inca encircled by embroidered chains of gold and silver, and two armorial serpents,[214]he exhorted his followers to lend an attentive ear to the legitimate descendant of their ancient sovereigns, promising to abolish themitasandrepartos, and to punish the extortionate corregidors.
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 theobrajeof Parapuquio on his way, where he found large quantities of woollen clothes, which were distributed amongst his followers. He also demolished theobrajeof 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.[215]Theseobrajeswere odious to the Indians, their owners having enforced themitafar beyond the limits assigned by the law, and perpetrated great cruelties on the women and children of themitayos. The Inca had now mustered 6000 troops, 300 armed with muskets, and the rest with pikes, clubs, and slings. Nearly the whole population of the provinces of Tinta, Quispicanchi, Cotabambas, Calca, and Chumbivilicas rose in his favour, with the exception of a few whites.
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 hisayllu, 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 stock of powder ignited, and the roof and one of the walls were blown out. The Spaniards then made a dash forward, and fought bravely until they were nearly all killed.[216]Only twenty-eight wounded remained, who were cured and set at liberty by order of the Inca. Landa,[217]his lieutenant Escajadillo, Cabrera, and the Cacique Sahuaraura[218]were amongst the slain.
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 therepartos, and thealcabala, or excise on provisions, and declaring that the Indians should neveragain be forced to work in theobrajes, if they remained faithful. Defensive works were thrown up in the city and suburbs, and religious processions paraded the streets.
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 ofrepartos." Nothing was heard amongst the Indians but acclamations for their Inca and Redeemer.[219]On the 13th of December he entered the town of Azangaro, where he destroyed the houses of the Cacique Chuquihuanca, who had refused to join the insurrection. A private letter, dated January 1781,[220]says that he rode into Azangaro on a white horse, with splendidly-embroidered trappings, and that two fair men, like Englishmen, of commanding aspect, were on his right and left. He was armed with a gun, sword, andpistols, and was dressed in blue velvet, richly embroidered with gold, with a three-cornered hat, and anuncu, in the shape of a bishop's rochet, over all, with a gold chain round his neck, to which a large golden sun was attached. Having received repeated letters from his wife, reporting the threatening assembly of troops at Cuzco, he retraced his steps, by Asillo and Orurillo, to the valley of the Vilcamayu, obliging the curas of the villages through which he passed to receive him in their churches under a canopy, and to chant theTe Deum.
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 ofrepartos; the appointment of analcalde mayor, or judge of the Indian nation, in every province; and the establishment of anaudienciaor 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."To the bishop he said that he had come forward, on behalf of the whole nation, to put an end to the robberies and outrages of the corregidors; and he promised to respect the priests, all church property, and all women and inoffensive unarmed people.[221]
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,crossed a range of mountains, and laid siege to the town of Paucartambo, on the banks of the rapid river of the same name, while his videttes hovered over the heights above the Vilcamayu valley, threatening the towns of Calca, Pissac, and Taray. Don José Antonio Vivar was sent to occupy the bridge at Urubamba, and watch the movements of the Indians. Paucartambo, and a strong fort built on a rocky height on the opposite side of the river, were desperately defended by the Spaniards under Don Lorenzo Lechuga, who had fortified and garrisoned the place. Astete was sent across the bridge at Urubamba, with 400 men, to relieve it; they had several encounters with the Indians on the march, and on reaching the besieged town they found that Lechuga had expended all his ammunition; but the besieging force, under Diego Tupac Amaru, fell back towards Tinta, on the approach of Astete, on the 18th of January, 1781. Having re-organized his army at Tinta, the Inca, accompanied by his cousin Diego, made another attack upon Paucartambo on the 11th of February; but, after several fruitless assaults, the Indian army finally retreated to Tinta on the 14th.[222]
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,[223]had, however, declared in favour of the Inca; and the whole Indian andmestizo population, except theayllusor tribes of the sixteen Hispanicized caciques, longed earnestly for the success of this truly national insurrection. After the retreat from Paucartambo in February, the Inca occupied himself in strengthening his position round Tinta, and in visiting the distant provinces of Chuquibamba and Cotabambas, while one Isidro Mamani, an Indian of ferocious character, born at Pomata, on the banks of lake Titicaca, Pedro Vargas, and Andres Ingaricona, held the open country in the Collao.
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 therepartimentosand themita; 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 veryably written, and is a monument of the noble and enlightened views of this great but most unfortunate patriot.[224]The answer of the visitador Areche was a brutal menace, better suited to a follower of Zengis Khan than to a Christian judge. He refused all negotiation, vowed the most horrible vengeance, and concluded by saying that, if the Inca surrendered at once, the cruelty of the mode of his execution would be lessened. The Spanish General del Valle protested against the brutality of this reply.[225]
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 ofCastille had usurped the crown and dominions of Peru, imposing innumerable taxes, tributes, duties, excises, monopolies, tithes, fifths; appointing officers who sold justice, and treating the people like beasts of burden. For these causes, and by reason of the cries which have risen up to Heaven, in the name of Almighty God, it is ordered that no man shall henceforward pay money to any Spanish officer, excepting the tithes to priests; but that tribute shall be paid to the Inca, and an oath of allegiance to him be taken in every town and village. The document is without date.[226]
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,[227]in the province of Cotabambas, who were both killed in a desperate action. Tupac Amaru used to call these brave chiefs his right and left arms. Meanwhile the main body of the royalist army advanced slowly along the mountains to the westward of the valley of the Vilcamayu, suffering much from the snow-storms, the want of food and fuel, and the shameful neglect of all commissariat arrangements by Areche. On the 18th the Inca sent a message to the Spanish General, saying that the morrow, being the festival of San José, would be an appropriate day for settling their differences; and that he should prepare his troops for a movement of which, in compliment to the name-day of both himself and Del Valle, he deemed it courteous to apprise his adversary. In consequence of this message the Spaniard kept his men under arms all night, but no attack took place, and in the morning the Inca's army wasfound to be gone. Tupac had intended a stratagem, and had retired into an unfrequented ravine: on the 21st a snow-storm favoured his design, and his plan would have succeeded, had not a traitor, named Zunuario de Castro, given Valle notice of his movements. The Spaniards changed their position, and the Inca passed the night in vainly searching for it.
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 sameday General del Valle hung sixty-seven Indian prisoners at Tinta, whose heads he stuck on poles by the road-side.[228]Diego Tupac Amaru, his nephew Andres Mendagure, and Mariano, the second son of the Inca, fortunately escaped.
On the 8th of April Francisco, the aged uncle of the Inca,[229]was also seized, and the prisoners were marched bareheaded into Cuzco, the visitador Areche coming out as far as Urcos to meet them. They were all separated from each other, and told that they would not meet again until the day of execution.
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,[230]a negro slave.
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 theobrajes, of abolishing themita, and of causing pictures to be painted of himselfdressed in the imperial insignia of theuncuor mantle, andmascapaichaor head-dress; and others representing the triumph of his arms at Sangarara. He condemned his victim to behold the execution of his wife, his son, his uncle, his brother-in-law Antonio Bastidas, and of his captains; to have his tongue cut out, and afterwards to have his limbs secured to the girths of four horses dragging different ways, and thus to be torn in pieces. His body to be burnt on the heights of Picchu, his head to be stuck on a pole at Tinta, one arm at Tungasuca, the other in Caravaya, a leg in Chumbivilicas, and another in Lampa. His houses to be demolished, their sites strewn with salt, all his goods to be confiscated, all his relations declared infamous, all documents relating to his descent to be burnt by the hangman, all dresses used by the Incas or caciques to be prohibited, all pictures of the Incas to be seized and burnt, the representation of Quichua dramas to be forbidden, all the musical instruments of the Indians to be destroyed, all signs of mourning for the Incas to be forbidden, all Indians to give up their national costumes, and dress henceforth in the Spanish fashion, and the use of the Quichua language to be prohibited.
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.[231]
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, andurged to betray all the accomplices in his rebellion.[232]"You and I," he replied, "are the only conspirators: you for having oppressed the country with exactions which were unendurable, and I for having wished to free the people from such tyranny."[233]The Inca's companions in misfortune were his wife Micaela, his sons Hipolito and Fernando, his brother-in-law Antonio Bastidas, his uncle Francisco Tupac Amaru, Tomasa Condemaita the Cacica of Acos, José Verdejo and Andres Castelo, captains in the Inca's army, and the executioner Oblitas.
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 unfortunateInca's body was thus raised into the air, his youngest son Fernando, a child of ten years, who had been forced to witness this horrible massacre of his relations, uttered a heartrending shriek, the knell of which continued to ring in the ears of those who heard it to their dying day.[234]The horses did not pull at the same time, and the body remained suspended like a spider for many minutes, until at last the brutal miscreant Areche, who was looking on from a window in the College of the Jesuits, caused the head to be cut off.[235]The child Fernando was then passed under the scaffold, and sentenced to be banished for life to one of the penal settlements in Africa.
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.[236]
The heads, bodies, and limbs of the victims were sent to the different towns of Peru, and to the villages round Cuzco,[237]in order to strike terror into the hearts of the Indians; but this proceeding of course had the opposite effect, and goaded them to fury. By the humane exertions of the Inca the war had hitherto been carried on without unnecessary bloodshed, and he had always protected unarmed persons and women; but, after the perpetration of these barbarities in Cuzco, it became a war of extermination, and during the following year not less than 80,000 people fell victims to the vengeance of the Indian and Spanish troops.
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.[238]Tupac Amaru did not die in vain; for, after the suppression of his revolt, therepartoswere abolished, and themitaswere much modified.
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 enlightenedstatesman, and Spain had many such, the viceroy placed full powers in the hands of a wretch whose conduct was a mixture of cowardice, atrocious cruelty, and incapacity. Fortune decided in favour of the Spaniards, and the Inca fell into the power of a man whose vile nature was excited to acts of unequalled barbarity by the terror which his position and his incompetence had caused him. I have felt obliged to relate the shocking circumstances of the death of Tupac Amaru in justice to the Indians; for who can be surprised if afterwards they frequently refused to give quarter to any of the hated race ofChapetones, as they called the Spaniards? and no atrocity was ever perpetrated by them which can be compared to the execution of the Inca and his family, committed by the deliberate sentence of a Spanish judge.[239]
DIEGO TUPAC AMARU—FATE OF THE INCA'S FAMILY—INSURRECTION OF PUMACAGUA.
DIEGO TUPAC AMARU—FATE OF THE INCA'S FAMILY—INSURRECTION OF PUMACAGUA.
Whilethe events occurred in the valley of Vilcamayu which ended in the capture of the Inca Tupac Amaru and his family, the whole of the Collao was in a state of insurrection, and all Spaniards had to escape for their lives to Puno, La Paz, or Arequipa.
Don Joaquim Antonio de Orellana,[240]Governor of Puno, made a most gallant defence of that town, with a force consisting of 180 musketeers, 647 pikemen, 44 artillerymen with 4 guns, and 254 cavalry. He retreated behind his entrenchments when the Inca advanced as far as Lampa, in December 1780; but in February 1781, in spite of the heavy rains, he marched to Lampa, where he flogged an Indian until he confessed that his rebel countrymen were on an adjacent mountain called Catacora. Orellana found the rebel army drawn up in an almost inaccessible position, with colours flying; and, while seeking for a place where his troops might ascend, they suffered from a storm of hail and snow. The Spaniards were divided into two assaulting parties, but the showers of stones which the Indians hurled from their slings obliged them to retreat, and Orellana himself was wounded in the jaw.
He found it prudent to fall back towards Puno, and, onthe 16th, encamped on the banks of the river of Juliaca, near a place called Mananchili. The Indian army followed the Spaniards and offered them battle—the chiefs sending a message to Orellana to tell him that they acknowledged no king but their Inca Tupac Amaru. They formed their forces in a semicircle—the right being led by the Cacique Andres Ingaricona, the left by Mamani, and the centre by a chief of Caravaya named Alejandro Calisaya. The battle began at fourP.M., and, after a sharp fight, Mamani's division fled to the adjacent heights, and Ingaricona was also routed. The Indians left 370 killed on the field; among whom there were many women who came to fight by the sides of their husbands and brothers, armed with bones sharpened at one end. Notwithstanding this success, Orellana made a rapid retreat to his entrenched position at Puno, collected provisions, and sent messengers to Arequipa for reinforcements.[241]
On the 18th of March the Indian army came in sight, extending for three miles along the heights round Puno, with colours flying and a great noise of drums and clarions, entirely surrounding the town, except on the side of the lake. It was commanded by the Caciques Andres Ingaricona and Pedro Vargas. The dismal news of the capture of Tupac Amaru reached the besieging Indians on April 12th, when they retreated, followed by a Spanish force under Nicolas de Mendiosala of Chucuito. He overtook them posted on a hill called Condorcuyo, to the left of the road to Cuzco, when a furious struggle commenced; but the Indians fought most gallantly, and defeated Mendiosala, who retreated in disorder. This success encouraged the rebels as much as it disheartened the Spaniards, and Chucuito and the other towns on thewestern banks of the lake of Titicaca fell into their hands. They committed indiscriminate slaughter in revenge for the cruel death of the Inca, and only a few Spaniards escaped to Puno. The governor Orellana sent balsas to rescue some fugitives who were concealed in the rushes on the shores of the lake, he himself being confined to his house[242]by a wound in his foot. Meanwhile the Indians of Azangaro, by capturing the town and peninsula of Capachica, completed the conquest of the province of Chucuito, and the rebel chiefs prepared for a second siege of Puno.
Diego Cristoval Tupac Amaru the Inca's cousin, with his nephew Andres Mendagure, Mariano the young son of the Inca, and Miguel Bastidas a nephew of the Inca's wife, escaped when the rest of their family were betrayed and captured at Lanqui. They now joined the rebel army in the Collao, Diego took the command, and on the 9th of May he invested Puno on all sides, and commenced the second siege.
The Indians were formed in a semicircle on the sides of the surrounding hills; while Orellana had deepened his entrenchments, and occupied a very strong position on the Huassa-pata hill, above Puno: he also built two forts, one called Santa Barbara, where the triumphal arch now is, and the other called Horca-pata, on the descent from the heights of Cacharani. The corners of the plaza and of the streets were barricaded. On the 10th there were skirmishes all day, and on the 11th the Indians carried the forts of Santa Barbara and Horca-pata by assault, and penetrated into the streets, but failed in their attack on the rocky height of the Huassa-pata.[243]On the 12th the besiegers suddenly retreated, at the approach of the army advancing from Cuzco.
General del Valle, after defeating the Indians at Combapata, continued his march up the valley of the Vilcamayu, crossed the pass of Ayaviri, and, entering the Collao, advanced towards Puno, where he arrived in the middle of May. But the Indians of his army were disgusted at the excessive rigour with which the rebels were treated; they deserted in great numbers,[244]and assisted the troops of Diego Tupac Amaru in harassing the Spaniards, and cutting of all supplies. The army of del Valle had been shamefully neglected by the visitador Areche, who was too busy in torturing his prisoners to attend to the commissariat. The troops were wretchedly clad, unpaid, without medical stores, or biscuit, or fresh meat. Under these circumstances the General reluctantly determined to retreat to Cuzco, taking with him the garrison and inhabitants of Puno, which place was evacuated by Orellana on the 26th of May. The army which had left Cuzco in March 15,000 strong was now reduced, by desertions and sickness, to 1443 men, with which force General del Valle commenced the retreat, closely followed and constantly harassed by the Indians. He reached Cuzco on the 4th of July, when a paper war ensued between him and Areche, the latter blaming him for evacuating Puno, while the General retorted that Areche had shamefully neglected the wants of his army, and failed to make any attempt to subdue the country round Cuzco.[245]
The Viceroy seems to have taken the part of the General in this controversy; and the foul vulture Areche, with his companion Matta Linares, was recalled. He reached Lima on August 23rd, 1781, and embarked for Spain with the poor little Fernando, son of Tupac Amaru, who was sentenced to imprisonment for life.
The Indians still remained in arms round Cuzco, especially in the heights above Urubamba and Calca, and at Lauramarca and Ocungate. Those near Calca fortified themselves in a place called Chayña-ccasa, against whom the General sent a force of 400 men under Don José de Barela, and the Indians were defeated with great slaughter; while Don Joaquim Balcarcel kept the insurgents in check, who continued to threaten Paucartambo.
After the retreat of General del Valle from Puno, Diego Tupac Amaru established his head-quarters at the town of Azangaro, while Andres Mendagure and Miguel Bastidas overran the provinces on the eastern shore of lake Titicaca, captured the town of Sorata, and placed themselves in communication with the insurgent forces in Upper Peru. It is said that fifteen mule-loads of treasure, consisting of spoils from the provinces of Omasuyos and Larecaja, were brought into Azangaro at this time and buried. Diego Tupac Amaru occupied a house near the plaza, where he gave audience in a long sala; and he went from this house to the church every night, wrapped in a large cloak. This story made people believe that he was concealing treasure, and many a fruitless search has since been made for it.[246]
The hopes of the Indians were now beginning to wane. Diego, though a man of considerable talent, was not possessed of the same influence over the people as his unfortunate cousin; and the Spanish officials were rapidly receiving reinforcements from Buenos Ayres, while the slaughter of the Indians had been prodigious. In August, 1781, Diego issued a decree, ordering that all women, children, and priests, should be respected during the war;[247]and on the 18th of October he promulgated a manifesto setting forth the numerous violations of law habitually committed by the corregidors,the exactions of the curas, and the extortionate duties imposed by the aduaneros.[248]This is a very able and telling document, and, together with the more detailed writings of the unfortunate Inca, forms a most complete vindication of this memorable insurrection.[249]
On September 12th, 1781, the viceroy of Peru, Don Augustin de Jauregui, had issued a proclamation offering pardon, on submission, to Diego Tupac Amaru and all his followers.[250]It would swell this short narrative to an undue length if I attempted to give any account of the events in Upper Peru during this period;[251]but the final suppression of the revolt in that part of the country by the Spanish commanders Flores, Reseguin, and Segurola, induced Diego Tupac Amaru to accept the Viceroy's offer of pardon, give up the cause, and place himself in the power of a faithless enemy. Dr. Antonio Valdez, cura of Sicuani, the friend of the Inca, and author of the Quichua play of 'Ollantay,' was sent to Azangaro by the Spanish authorities to persuade Diego to adopt this course. They held their conferences on the subject while walking up and down on the banks of the river; and there is a tradition that Pedro Vilca Apasa, one of Diego's bravest officers, overheard one of these conversations, and remonstrated violently against the madness of trusting to the word of a Spaniard. But the advice of Valdez prevailed, Diego sent young Miguel Bastidas to open a negotiation with the Spanish Colonel Reseguin in November; and on December 11th he gave himself up to Don Ramon de Arias, commandant of the column of Arequipa. At the same time Mariano Tupac Amaru, the son of the Inca, Andres Mendagure, and Miguel Bastidas, surrendered to Don Sebastian de Segurola at La Paz. Bastidas was sent to Buenos Ayres.