Vilcabamba
Although the refuge of Manco is frequently spoken of as Uiticos
by the contemporary writers, the word Vilcabamba, or Uilcapampa,
is used even more often. In fact Garcilasso, the chief historian of
the Incas, himself the son of an Inca princess, does not mention
Uiticos. Vilcabamba was the common name of the province. Father
Calancha says it was a very large area, "covering fourteen degrees of
longitude," about seven hundred miles wide. It included many savage
tribes "of the far interior" who acknowledged the supremacy of the
Incas and brought tribute to Manco and his sons. "The Mañaries and
the Pilcosones came a hundred and two hundred leagues" to visit the
Inca in Uiticos.
The name, Vilcabamba, is also applied repeatedly to a town. Titu Cusi
says he lived there many years during his youth. Calancha says it
was "two days' journey from Puquiura." Raimondi thought it must be
Choqquequirau. Captain Garcia's soldiers, however, speak of it as
being down in the warm valleys of the montaña, the present rubber
country. On the other hand the only place which bears this name on
the maps of Peru is near the source of the Vilcabamba River, not more
than three or four leagues from Pucyura. We determined to visit it.
We found the town to lie on the edge of bleak upland pastures, 11,750
feet above the sea. Instead of Inca walls or ruins Vilcabamba has
threescore solidly built Spanish houses. At the time of our visit they
were mostly empty, although their roofs, of unusually heavy thatch,
seemed to be in good repair. We stayed at the house of the gobernador,
Manuel Condoré. The nights were bitterly cold and we should have been
most uncomfortable in a tent.
The gobernador said that the reason the town was deserted was that most
of the people were now attending to their chacras, or little farms,
and looking after their herds of sheep and cattle in the neighboring
valleys. He said that only at special festival times, such as the
annual visit of the priest, who celebrates mass in the church here,
once a year, are the buildings fully occupied. In the latter part
of the sixteenth century, gold mines were discovered in the adjacent
mountains and the capital of the Spanish province of Vilcabamba was
transferred from Hoyara to this place. Its official name, Condoré
said, is still San Francisco de la Victoria de Vilcabamba, and as
such it occurs on most of the early maps of Peru. The solidity of
the stone houses was due to the prosperity of the gold diggers. The
present air of desolation and absence of population is probably due
to the decay of that industry.
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FIGURE
Ñusta Isppana
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The church is large. Near it, and slightly apart from the building,
is a picturesque stone belfry with three old Spanish bells. Condoré
said that the church was built at least three hundred years ago. It
is probably the very structure whose construction was carefully
supervised by Ocampo. In the negotiations for permission to move
the municipality of San Francisco de la Victoria from Hoyara to the
neighborhood of the mines, Ocampo, then one of the chief settlers,
went to Cuzco as agent of the interested parties, to take the matter
up with the viceroy. Ocampo's story is in part as follows:
"The change of site appeared convenient for the service of God our
Lord and of his Majesty, and for the increase of his royal fifths,
as well as beneficial to the inhabitants of the said city. Having
examined the capitulations and reasons, the said Don Luis de Velasco
[the viceroy] granted the licence to move the city to where it is
now founded, ordering that it should have the title and name of the
city of San Francisco of the Victory of Uilcapampa, which was its
first name. By this change of site I, the said Baltasar de Ocampo,
performed a great service to God our Lord and his Majesty. Through my
care, industry and solicitude, a very good church was built, with its
principal chapel and great doors." We found the walls to be heavy,
massive, and well buttressed, the doors to be unusually large and
the whole to show considerable "industry and solicitude."
The site was called "Onccoy, where the Spaniards who first discovered
this land found the flocks and herds." Modern Vilcabamba is on grassy
slopes, well suited for flocks and herds. On the steeper slopes
potatoes are still raised, although the valley itself is given up
to-day almost entirely to pasture lands. We saw horses, cattle, and
sheep in abundance where the Incas must have pastured their llamas
and alpacas. In the rocky cliffs near by are remains of the mines
begun in Ocampo's day. There is little doubt that this was Onccoy,
although that name is now no longer used here.
We met at the gobernador's an old Indian who admitted that an Inca had
once lived on Rosaspata Hill. Of all the scores of persons whom we
interviewed through the courtesy of the intelligent planters of the
region or through the customary assistance of government officials,
this Indian was the only one to make such an admission. Even he denied
having heard of "Uiticos" or any of its variations. If we were indeed
in the country of Manco and his sons, why should no one be familiar
with that name?
Perhaps, after all, it is not surprising. The Indians of the highlands
have now for so many generations been neglected by their rulers
and brutalized by being allowed to drink all the alcohol they can
purchase and to assimilate all the cocaine they can secure, through
the constant chewing of coca leaves, that they have lost much if not
all of their racial self-respect. It is the educated mestizos of the
principal modern cities of Peru who, tracing their descent not only
from the Spanish soldiers of the Conquest, but also from the blood
of the race which was conquered, take pride in the achievements of
the Incas and are endeavoring to preserve the remains of the wonderful
civilization of their native ancestors. Until quite recently Vilcabamba
was an unknown land to most of the Peruvians, even those who live in
the city of Cuzco. Had the capital of the last four Incas been in a
region whose climate appealed to Europeans, whose natural resources
were sufficient to support a large population, and whose roads made
transportation no more difficult than in most parts of the Andes,
it would have been occupied from the days of Captain Garcia to the
present by Spanish-speaking mestizos, who might have been interested
in preserving the name of the ancient Inca capital and the traditions
connected with it.
After the mines which attracted Ocampo and his friends "petered
out," or else, with the primitive tools of the sixteenth century,
ceased to yield adequate returns, the Spaniards lost interest in that
remote region. The rude trails which connected Pucyura with Cuzco and
civilization were at best dangerous and difficult. They were veritably
impassable during a large part of the year even to people accustomed
to Andean "roads."
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.
We are told by the historians of the colonial period that the mining
operations of the first Spanish settlers were fatal to at least
a million Indians. It is quite probable that the introduction of
ordinary European contagious diseases, such as measles, chicken pox,
and smallpox, may have had a great deal to do with the destruction
of a large proportion of those unfortunates whose untimely deaths
were attributed by historians to the very cruel practices of the
early Spanish miners and treasure seekers. Both causes undoubtedly
contributed to the result. There seems to be no question that the
population diminished enormously in early colonial days. If this is
true, the remaining population would naturally have sought regions
where the conditions of existence and human intercourse were less
severe and rigorous than in the valleys of Uiticos and Uilcapampa.
The students and travelers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, including such a careful observer as Bandelier, are of
the opinion that the present-day population in the Andes of Peru
and Bolivia is about as great as that at the time of the Conquest. In
other words, with the decay of early colonial mining and the consequent
disappearance of bad living conditions and forced labor at the mines,
also with the rise of partial immunity to European diseases, and
the more comfortable conditions of existence which have followed the
coming of Peruvian independence, it is reasonable to suppose that the
number of highland Indians has increased. With this increase has come
a consequent crowding in certain localities. There would be a natural
tendency to seek less crowded regions, even at the expense of using
difficult mountain trails. This would lead to their occupying as remote
and inaccessible a region as the ancient province of Uilcapampa. It
is probable that after the gold mines ceased to pay, and before the
demand for rubber caused the San Miguel Valley to be appropriated by
the white man, there was a period of nearly three hundred years when
no one of education or of intelligence superior to the ordinary Indian
shepherd lived anywhere near Pucyura or Lucma. The adobe houses of
these modern villages look fairly modern. They may have been built
in the nineteenth century.
Such a theory would account for the very small amount of information
prevailing in Peru regarding the region where we had been privileged
to find so many ruins. This ignorance led the Peruvian geographers
Raimondi and Paz Soldan to conclude that Choqquequirau, the only ruins
reported between the Apurimac and the Urubamba, must have been the
capital of the Incas who took refuge there. It also makes it seem
more reasonable that the existence of Rosaspata and ñusta Isppana
should not have been known to Peruvian geographers and historians,
or even to the government officials who lived in the adjacent villages.
We felt sure we had found Uiticos; nevertheless it was quite
apparent that we had not yet found all the places which were called
Vilcabamba. Examination of the writers of the sixteenth century
shows that there may have been three places bearing that name;
one spoken of by Calancha as Vilcabamba Viejo ("the old"), another
also so called by Ocampo, and a third founded by the Spaniards,
namely, the town we were now in. The story of the first is given in
Calancha's account of the trials and tribulations of Friar Marcos
and the martyrdom of Friar Diego Ortiz. The chronicler tells with
considerable detail of their visit to "Vilcabamba Viejo." It was
after the monks had already founded their religious establishment
at Puquiura that they learned of the existence of this important
religious center. They urged Titu Cusi to permit them to visit
it. For a long time he refused. Its whereabouts remained unknown to
them, but its strategic position as a religious stronghold led them
to continue their demands. Finally, either to rid himself of their
importunities or because he imagined the undertaking might be made
amusing, he yielded to their requests and bade them prepare for the
journey. Calancha says that the Inca himself accompanied the two
friars, with a number of his captains and chieftains, taking them
from Puquiura over a very rough and rugged road. The Inca, however,
did not suffer from the character of the trail because, like the
Roman generals of old, he was borne comfortably along in a litter by
servants accustomed to this duty. The unfortunate missionaries were
obliged to go on foot. The wet, rocky trail soon demoralized their
footgear. When they came to a particularly bad place in the road,
"Ungacacha," the trail went for some distance through water. The
monks were forced to wade. The water was very cold. The Inca and his
chieftains were amused to see how the friars were hampered by their
monastic garments while passing through the water. However, the monks
persevered, greatly desiring to reach their goal, "on account of its
being the largest city in which was the University of Idolatry, where
lived the teachers who were wizards and masters of abomination." If
one may judge by the name of the place, Uilcapampa, the wizards and
sorcerers were probably aided by the powerful effects of the ancient
snuff made from huilca seeds. After a three days' journey over very
rough country, the monks arrived at their destination. Yet even then
Titu Cusi was unwilling that they should live in the city, but ordered
that the monks be given a dwelling outside, so that they might not
witness the ceremonies and ancient rites which were practiced by the
Inca and his captains and priests.
Nothing is said about the appearance of "Vilcabamba Viejo" and it
is doubtful whether the monks were ever allowed to see the city,
although they reached its vicinity. Here they stayed for three weeks
and kept up their preaching and teaching. During their stay Titu Cusi,
who had not wished to bring them here, got his revenge by annoying
them in various ways. He was particularly anxious to make them break
their vows of celibacy. Calancha says that after consultation with
his priests and soothsayers Titu Cusi selected as tempters the most
beautiful Indian women, including some individuals of the Yungas who
were unusually attractive. It is possible that these women, who lived
at the "University of Idolatry" in "Vilcabamba Viejo," were "Virgins of
the Sun," who were under the orders of the Inca and his high priests
and were selected from the fairest daughters of the empire. It is
also evident that "Vilcabamba Viejo" was so constructed that the
monks could be kept for three weeks in its vicinity without being
able to see what was going on in the city or to describe the kinds of
"abominations" which were practiced there, as they did those at the
white rock of Chuquipalta. As will be shown later, it is possible
that this Vilcabamba, referred to in Calancha's story as "Vilcabamba
Viejo," was on the slopes of the mountain now called Machu Picchu.
In the meantime it was necessary to pursue the hunt for the ruins
of Vilcabamba called "the old" by Ocampo, to distinguish it from
the Spanish town of that name which he had helped to found after
the capture of Tupac Amaru, and referred to merely as Vilcabamba by
Captain Garcia and his companions in their accounts of the campaign.