Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of PeruBingham, Hiram
History
Inca Land: Explorations in the Highlands of Peru
Bingham, Hiram
Incas; Peru -- Antiquities; Peru -- Description and travel
1545. Murder of Manco and accession of his son Sayri Tupac.
1555. Sayri Tupac goes to Cuzco and Yucay.
1560. Death of Sayri Tupac. His half brother Titu Cusi becomes Inca.
1566. Friar Marcos reaches Uiticos. Settles in Puquiura.
1566. Friar Diego joins him.
1568-9 (?). They burn the House of the Sun at Yurac Rumi in
Chuquipalpa.
1571. Titu Cusi dies. Friar Diego suffers martyrdom. Tupac Amaru
becomes Inca.
1572. Expedition of General Martin Hurtado and Captain Garcia de
Loyola. Execution of Tupac Amaru.
CHAPTER X
Searching for the Last Inca Capital
The events described in the preceding chapter happened, for the most
part, in Uiticos [6] and Uilcapampa, northwest of Ollantaytambo, about
one hundred miles away from the Cuzco palace of the Spanish viceroy,
in what Prescott calls "the remote fastnesses of the Andes." One looks
in vain for Uiticos on modern maps of Peru, although several of the
older maps give it. In 1625 "Viticos" is marked on de Laet's map of
Peru as a mountainous province northeast of Lima and three hundred
and fifty miles northwest of Vilcabamba! This error was copied by
some later cartographers, including Mercator, until about 1740,
when "Viticos" disappeared from all maps of Peru. The map makers
had learned that there was no such place in that vicinity. Its real
location was lost about three hundred years ago. A map published at
Nuremberg in 1599 gives "Pincos" in the "Andes" mountains, a small
range west of "Cusco." This does not seem to have been adopted by
other cartographers; although a Palls map of 1739 gives "Picos" in
about the same place. Nearly all the cartographers of the eighteenth
century who give "Viticos" supposed it to be the name of a tribe, e.g.,
"Los Viticos" or "Les Viticos."
------
FIGURE
Part of the Nuremberg Map of 1599, Showing Pincos and the Andes
Mountains
------
The largest official map of Peru, the work of that remarkable explorer,
Raimondi, who spent his life crossing and recrossing Peru, does not
contain the word Uiticos nor any of its numerous spellings, Viticos,
Vitcos, Pitcos, or Biticos. Incidentally, it may seem strange that
Uiticos could ever be written "Biticos." The Quichua language has
no sound of V. The early Spanish writers, however, wrote the capital
letter U exactly like a capital V. In official documents and letters
Uiticos became Viticos. The official readers, who had never heard
the word pronounced, naturally used the V sound instead of the U
sound. Both V and P easily become B. So Uiticos became Biticos and
Uilcapampa became Vilcabamba.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account