History of the Incas | Page 7

of Talavera; Leonor Ñusta, the wife of
Juan de Balsa, who was killed at the battle of Chupas on the side of
young Almagro, secondly of Francisco de Villacastin: Francisca Ñusta,
niece of Huayna Ccapac, married to Juan de Collantes, and was
great-grandmother of Bishop Piedrahita, the historian of Nueva

Granada: another Beatriz Ñusta married Mancio Sierra de Leguisano,
the generous defender of the natives; and Inez Ñusta married first
Francisco Pizarro and had a daughter Francisca, who has descendants,
and secondly to Francisco Ampuero. Angelina, daughter of Atahualpa,
was married to Juan de Betanzos, the author and Quichua scholar. The
brother of Huayna Ccapac, named Hualpa Tupac Yupanqui, had a
daughter, Isabel Ñusta Yupanqui, the wife of Garcilasso de la Vega,
and mother of the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega[10], the historian, author
of the Comentarios Reales.
[Note 10: The Inca Garcilasso was a third cousin of the regicide
Viceroy Toledo. Their great grandfathers were brothers.]
This then was the position of the Inca family when the Viceroy,
Francisco de Toledo, came to Cuzco in 1571. Cusi Titu Yupanqui and
Tupac Amaru, sons of the Inca Manco were in the mountains of
Vilcapampa, the former maintaining his independence. Carlos Inca, son
of Paullu, was baptized, and living on the Colcampata at Cuzco with
his wife Maria de Esquivel. Seven Inca princesses had married
Spaniards, most of them living at Cuzco with their husbands and
children.
The events, connected with the Inca family, which followed on the
arrival of the Viceroy Toledo at Cuzco, will be found fully described in
this volume. It need only be stated here that the inexorable tyrant,
having got the innocent young prince Tupac Amaru into his power,
resolved to put him to death. The native population was overwhelmed
with grief. The Spaniards were horrified. They entreated that the lad
might be sent to Spain to be judged by the King. The heads of religious
orders and other ecclesiastics went down on their knees. Nothing could
move the obstinate narrow-minded Viceroy. The deed was done.
When too late Toledo seems to have had some misgivings. The judicial
murder took place in December, 1571. The history of the Incas was
finished in March, 1572. Yet there is no mention of the death of Tupac
Amaru. For all that appears he might have been still in Vilcapampa.
Nevertheless the tidings reached Philip II, and the Viceroy's conduct
was not approved.

There was astonishing audacity on the part of Toledo, in basing
arguments on the alleged cruelty and tyranny of the Incas, when the
man was actually red-handed with the blood of an innocent youth, and
engaged in the tyrannical persecution of his relations and the hideous
torture of his followers. His arguments made no impression on the
mind of Philip II. The King even showed some favour to the children of
Tupac Amaru by putting them in the succession to the Marquisate of
Oropesa. In the Inca pedigrees Toledo is called "el execrable regicidio."
When he presented himself on his return from Peru the King angrily
exclaimed: "Go away to your house; for I sent you to serve kings; and
you went to kill kings[11]."
[Note 11: "Idos a vuestra casa, que yo os envie a servir reyes; y vos
fuiste a matar reyes."]
All his faithful services as a legislator and a statesman could not atone
for this cruel judicial murder in the eyes of his sovereign. He went back
to his house a disgraced and broken-hearted man, and died soon
afterwards.
The history of the Incas by Sarmiento is followed, in this volume, by a
narrative of the execution of Tupac Amaru and of the events leading to
it, by an eye-witness, the Captain Baltasar de Ocampo. It has been
translated from a manuscript in the British Museum.
The narrative of Ocampo, written many years after the event, is
addressed to the Viceroy Marquis of Montes Claros. Its main object
was to give an account of the province of Vilcapampa, and to obtain
some favours for the Spanish settlers there.
Vilcapampa is a region of very special historical and geographical
interest, and it is one of which very little is known. It is a mountainous
tract of country, containing the lofty range of Vilcacunca and several
fertile valleys, between the rivers Apurimac and Vilcamayu, to the
north of Cuzco. The mountains rise abruptly from the valley of the
Vilcamayu below Ollantay-tampu, where the bridge of Chuqui-chaca
opened upon paths leading up into a land of enchantment. No more
lovely mountain scenery can be found on this earth. When Manco Inca

escaped from the Spaniards he took refuge in Vilcapampa, and
established his court and government there. The Sun temple, the
convent of virgins, and the other institutions of the Incas at Cuzco,
were transferred to this mountain fastness.