The leader of the rebellion was Mateo Garcia Pumacagua, Cacique of Chinchero near Cuzco, then a very old men. In January 1781, when Tupac Amaru occupied the heights of Picchu above Cuzco, he had marched from Chinchero with Indians to join him, but, hearing that a large Spanish army was advancing from Lima, he changed his mind, and took part against his countrymen with such zeal, that the viceroy created him a brigadier in the Spanish service. On August 3rd, 1814, this Indian Cacique Pumacagua, with the three brothers Vicente, Mariano, and José Angulo, Don Gabriel Bejar, Hurtado de Mendoza, Astete, Pinelo, Prado, and others, raised the cry of independence in Cuzco; and so unanimous was the feeling against Spanish rule, that the whole population of that city joined heart and soul in the insurrection.[265] The brothers Angulo were men of low birth, and vulgar both in their language and their persons;[266] but Astete and Prado were gentlemen of good family and position. It is possible that they made use of Pumacagua, as an Indian cacique, that his countrymen might more readily be induced to join their cause. Having occupied Cuzco, the insurgents divided their forces into three divisions, which separated in different directions, to excite the other provinces to revolt. Mariano Angulo, Bejar, and Mendoza, who was nicknamed Santafecino, marched to Guamanga, assaulted the house in which several Spaniards had taken refuge, and hung two officers in the plaza. Colonel Vicente Gonzalez was sent against them from Lima, and attacked the insurgents, who had been joined by a body of Morochuco Indians, near Guanta, in September. The rebels were defeated, and several Morochuco Indians were shot at Guamanga, but the country continued in a disordered state until Santafecino was finally routed at Matara in April 1815. Pinelo, and the cura of Munecas in Upper Peru, entered Puno without resistance with another division on August 29th, advanced to La Paz, and took it by assault after a siege of two days, on September 24th. The main division, led by Pumacagua in person, and Vicente Angulo, marched on Arequipa.