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
The possibility of raising sugar cane and coca between Huadquiña and
Santa Ana attracted a few Spanish-speaking people to live in the lower
Urubamba Valley, notwithstanding the difficult transportation over
the passes near Mts. Salcantay and Veronica; but there was nothing
to lead any one to visit the upper Vilcabamba Valley or to desire
to make it a place of residence. And until Señor Pancorbo opened
the road to Lucma, Pucyura was extremely difficult of access. Nine
generations of Indians lived and died in the province of Uilcapampa
between the time of Tupac Amaru and the arrival of the first modern
explorers. The great stone buildings constructed on the "Hill of
Roses" in the days of Manco and his sons were allowed to fall into
ruin. Their roofs decayed and disappeared. The names of those who
once lived here were known to fewer and fewer of the natives. The
Indians themselves had no desire to relate the story of the various
forts and palaces to their Spanish landlords, nor had the latter any
interest in hearing such tales. It was not until the renaissance of
historical and geographical curiosity, in the nineteenth century, that
it occurred to any one to look for Manco's capital. When Raimondi,
the first scientist to penetrate Vilcabamba, reached Pucyura, no one
thought to tell him that on the hilltop opposite the village once
lived the last of the Incas and that the ruins of their palaces were
still there, hidden underneath a thick growth of trees and vines.
A Spanish document of 1598 says the first town of "San Francisco
de la Victoria de Vilcabamba" was in the "valley of Viticos." The
town's long name became shortened to Vilcabamba. Then the river which
flowed past was called the Vilcabamba, and is so marked on Raimondi's
map. Uiticos had long since passed from the memory of man.
Furthermore, the fact that we saw no llamas or alpacas in the upland
pastures, but only domestic animals of European origin, would also
seem to indicate that for some reason or other this region had been
abandoned by the Indians themselves. It is difficult to believe that
if the Indians had inhabited these valleys continuously from Inca
times to the present we should not have found at least a few of the
indigenous American camels here. By itself, such an occurrence would
hardly seem worth a remark, but taken in connection with the loss of
traditions regarding Uiticos, it would seem to indicate that there
must have been quite a long period of time in which no persons of
consequence lived in this vicinity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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