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 Amautas had been ruling the Peruvian highlands for about sixty
generations, when, as has been told in Chapter VI, invaders came
from the south and east. The Amautas had built up a wonderful
civilization. Many of the agricultural and engineering feats which
we ordinarily assign to the Incas were really achievements of the
Amautas. The last of the Amautas was Pachacuti VI, who was killed by
an arrow on the battle-field of La Raya. The historian Montesinos,
whose work on the antiquities of Peru has recently been translated
for the Hakluyt Society by Mr. P. A. Means, of Harvard University,
tells us that the followers of Pachacuti VI fled with his body to
"Tampu-tocco." This, says the historian, was "a healthy place" where
there was a cave in which they hid the Amauta's body. Cuzco, the
finest and most important of all their cities, was sacked. General
anarchy prevailed throughout the ancient empire. The good old days
of peace and plenty disappeared before the invader. The glory of the
old empire was destroyed, not to return for several centuries. In
these dark ages, resembling those of European medieval times which
followed the Germanic migrations and the fall of the Roman Empire,
Peru was split up into a large number of small independent units. Each
district chose its own ruler and carried on depredations against
its neighbors. The effects of this may still be seen in the ruins of
small fortresses found guarding the way into isolated Andean valleys.
Montesinos says that those who were most loyal to the Amautas
were few in number and not strong enough to oppose their enemies
successfully. Some of them, probably the principal priests,
wise men, and chiefs of the ancient régime, built a new city at
"Tampu-tocco." Here they kept alive the memory of the Amautas and
lived in such a relatively civilized manner as to draw to them,
little by little, those who wished to be safe from the prevailing
chaos and disorder and the tyranny of the independent chiefs or
"robber barons." In their new capital, they elected a king, Titi
Truaman Quicho.
The survivors of the old régime enjoyed living at Tampu-tocco,
because there never have been any earthquakes, plagues, or tremblings
there. Furthermore, if fortune should turn against their new young
king, Titi Truaman, and he should be killed, they could bury him
in a very sacred place, namely, the cave where they hid the body of
Pachacuti VI.
Fortune was kind to the founders of the new kingdom. They had chosen
an excellent place of refuge where they were not disturbed. To their
ruler, the king of Tampu-tocco, and to his successors nothing worth
recording happened for centuries. During this period several of the
kings wished to establish themselves in ancient Cuzco, where the great
Amautas had reigned, but for one reason or another were obliged to
forego their ambitions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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