Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
North of Cuzco there were several allied tribes, resembling the Incas
in physique and language, in a similar stage of civilization, and their
rivals in power. Beyond the Apurimac, and inhabiting the valleys of the
Andes thence to the Mantaro, was the important nation of the Chancas;
and still further north and west, in the valley of the Xauxa, was the
Huanca nation. Agricultural people and shepherds, forming _ayllus_, or
tribes of the Chancas and Huancas, occupied the ravines of the maritime
cordillera, and extended their settlements into several valleys of
the seacoast, between the Rimac and Nasca. These coast people of Inca
race, known as Chinchas, held their own against an entirely different
nation, of distinct origin and language, who occupied the northern
coast valleys from the Rimac to Payta, and also the great valley of
Huarca (the modern Cañete), where they had Chincha enemies both to
the north and south of them. These people were called _Yuncas_ by
their Inca conquerors. Their own name was Chimu, and the language
spoken by them was called _Mochica_. But this question relating to
the early inhabitants of the coast valleys of Peru, their origin and
civilization, is the most difficult in ancient Peruvian history, and
will require separate consideration.[1169]
[Illustration: INCA MANCO CCAPAC.
[After a cut in Marcoy’s _South America_, i. 210 (also in _Tour du
Monde_, 1863, p. 261), purporting to be drawn from a copy of the
taffeta roll containing the pedigree of the Incas, which, in evidence
of their claims, was sent by their descendants to the Spanish king
in 1603. This genealogical record contained the likenesses of the
successive Incas and their wives, and the original is said to have
disappeared. Mr. Markham supposes this roll to have been the original
of the portraits given in Herrera (see cut on p. 267 of the present
volume); but they are not the same, if Marcoy’s cuts are trustworthy.
A set of likenesses appeared in Ulloa’s _Relacion Histórica_ (Madrid,
1748), iv. 604; and these were the originals of the series copied
in the _Gentleman’s Mag._, 1751-1752, and thence are copied those
in Ranking. These do not correspond with those given by Marcoy. See
_post_, Vol. II., for a note on different series of portraits, and in
the same volume, pp. 515, 516, are portraits of Atahualpa. A portrait
of Manco Inca, killed 1546, is given in A. de Beauchamp’s _Histoire de
la Conquête du Pérou_ (Paris, 1808).—ED.]]
North of the Huanca nation, along the basin of the Marañon, there were
tribes which were known to the Incas by their head-dresses. These were
the Conchucus, Huamachucus, and Huacrachucus.[1170] Still further
north, in the region of the equator, was the powerful nation of Quitus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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