Concerning the road which the Yncas ordered to be made along these coast
valleys, with buildings and depôts like those in the mountains; and why
these Indians are called Yuncas.
That my writings may be conducted with all possible regularity, I wish,
before returning, to conclude what there is to be said about the
provinces in the mountains, and to relate what is worthy of remark on
the coast, which, as I have said in other parts, is important. In this
place I will give an account of the grand road which the Yncas ordered
to be made along the coast valleys, which, although now it is in ruins
in many places, still shows how grand a work it once was, and how great
was the power of those who ordered it to be made.
Huayna Ccapac, and Tupac Ynca Yupanqui, his father, were those who,
according to the Indians, descended to the coast and visited all the
valleys and provinces of the _Yuncas_, although some say that Ynca
Yupanqui, the grandfather of Huayna Ccapac and father of Tupac Ynca, was
the first who saw the coast and traversed its deserts. The Caciques and
officers, by order of the Yncas, made a road fifteen feet wide through
these coast valleys, with a strong wall on each side. The whole space of
this road was smooth and shaded by trees. These trees, in many places,
spread their branches laden with fruit over the road, and many birds
fluttered amongst the leaves. In every valley there was a principal
station for the Yncas, with depôts of provisions for the troops. If
anything was not ready, a severe punishment was inflicted, and if any of
those whose duty it was to traverse the road, entered the fields or
dwellings of the Indians, although the damage they did was small, they
were ordered to be put to death. The walls on each side extended from
one place to another, except where the sand drifted so high that the
Indians could not pave the road with cement, when huge posts, like
beams, were driven in at regular intervals to point out the way. Care
was taken to keep the road clean, to renew any part of the walls that
was out of repair, and to replace any of the posts which might be
displaced by the wind in the deserts. This coast road was certainly a
great work, though not so difficult as that over the mountains.[323]
There were some fortresses and temples of the sun, which I shall mention
in their proper places. As, in many parts of the work, I shall have to
use the words _Ynca_ and _Yunca_, I will satisfy the reader as to the
meaning of _Yunca_, as I have already done with regard to _Ynca_. He
will understand, then, that the towns and provinces of Peru are situated
in the manner I have already described, many of them in the openings
formed by the snowy mountains of the Andes.
All those who live in these mountains are called _Serranos_, and those
who inhabit the coast are called _Yuncas_; and in many parts of the
mountains where the rivers flow, as the mountains are very high, the
plains are sheltered and warm, and in some of them there is as much heat
as there is on the coast. The inhabitants who live in these warm valleys
and plains, although they are strictly in the mountains, are also called
_Yuncas_. Throughout Peru, when they speak of these warm and sheltered
places between the mountains, they call them _Yuncas_, and the
inhabitants have no other name, though they may have in their own
districts. Thus, those who live in the parts already mentioned, and all
who live in the coast valleys of Peru, are called _Yuncas_, because they
live in a warm land.