It Is Noteworthy How These Incas Were Tyrants Against Themselves, Besides Being So Against the Natives of the Land
1 It is a thing worthy to be noted for the fact that besides being a thing certain and evident the general tyranny of these cruel and tyrannical Incas of Peru against the natives of the land, may be easily gathered from history, and any one who reads and considers with attention the order and mode of their procedure will see, that their violent Incaship was established without the will and election of the natives who always rose with arms in their hands on each occasion that offered for rising against their Inca tyrants who oppressed them, to get back their liberty. Each one of the Incas not only followed the tyranny of his father, but also began afresh the same tyranny by force, with deaths, robberies and rapine.
2 Hence none of them could pretend, in good faith, to give a beginning to time of prescription, nor did any of them hold in peaceful possession, there being always some one to dispute and take up arms against them and their tyranny. Moreover, and this is above all to be noted, to understand the worst aims of these tyrants and their horrid avarice and oppression, they were not satisfied with being evil tyrants to the natives, but also to their own proper sons, brothers and relations, in defiance of their own laws and statutes, they were the worst and most pertinacious tyrants with an unheard-of inhumanity. For it was enacted among themselves and by their customs and laws that the eldest legitimate son should succeed, yet almost always they broke the law, as appears by the Incas who are here referred to.
3 Illustration: Reproduced and printed for the Hakluyt Society by Donald Macbeth. CAPTURE OF ATAHUALPA, AND SIEGE OF CUZCO, ETC. From the Rev. C.M. Cracherode's copy in the British Museum.
4 Before all things Manco Ccapac, the first tyrant, coming from Tampu-tocco, was inhuman in the case of his brother Ayar Cachi, sending him to Tampu-tocco cunningly with orders for Tampu-chacay to kill him out of envy, because he was the bravest, and might for that reason be the most esteemed. When he arrived at the valley of Cuzco he not only tyrannized over the natives, but also over Copalimayta and Columchima who, though they had been received as natives of that valley were his relations, for they were orejones. Then Sinchi Rocca, the second Inca, having an older legitimate son named Manco Sapaca who, according to the law he and his father had made, was entitled to the succession, deprived him and nominated Lloqui Yupanqui the second son for his successor.
5 Likewise Mayta Ccapac, the fourth Inca, named for his successor Ccapac Yupanqui, though he had an older legitimate son named Cunti Mayta, whom he disinherited. Viracocha, the eighth Inca, although he had an older legitimate son named Inca Rocca, did not name him as his successor, nor any of his legitimate sons, but a bastard named Inca Urco. This did not come about, Inca Urco did not enjoy the succession, nor did the eldest legitimate son, for there was a new tyranny. For Inca Yupanqui deprived both the one and the other, besides despoiling his father of his honours and estate. The same Inca Yupanqui, having an elder legitimate son named Amaru Tupac Inca, did not name him, but a young son, Tupac Inca Yupanqui.
6 The same Tupac Inca, being of the same condition as his father, having Huayna Ccapac as the eldest legitimate son, named Ccapac Huari as his successor, although the relations of Huayna Ccapac would not allow it, and rose in his favour. If Ccapac Huari was legitimate, as his relations affirm, the evil deed must be fixed on Huayna Ccapac, who deprived his brother Ccapac Huari, and killed his mother and all his relations, making them infamous as traitors, that is supposing he was legitimate. Huayna Ccapac, though he named Ninan Cuyoche, he was not the eldest, and owing to this the succession remained unsettled, and caused the differences between Huascar and Atahualpa, whence proceeded the greatest and most unnatural tyrannies. Turning their arms against their own entrails, robbing, and with inhuman intestine wars they came to a final end.
7 Thus as they commenced by their own authority, so they destroyed all by their own proper hands.
8 It may be that Almighty God permits that one shall be the executioner of the other for his evil deeds, that both may give place to his most holy gospel which, by the hands of the Spaniards, and by order of the most happy, catholic, and unconquered Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V of glorious memory, father of your Majesty, was sent to these blind and barbarous gentiles. Yet against the force and power of the Incas on foot and united, it appeared that it would be impossible for human force to do what a few Spaniards did, numbering only 180, who at first entered with the Governor Don Francisco Pizarro.
9 It is well established that it is a thing false and without reason, and which ought not to be said, that there is now, in these kingdoms, any person of the lineage of the Incas who can pretend to a right of succession to the Incaship of this kingdom of Peru, nor to be natural or legitimate lords. For no one is left who, in conformity with their laws, is able to say that he is the heir, in whole or in part of this land. Only two sons of Huayna Ccapac escaped the cruelty of Atahualpa. They were Paullu Tupac, afterwards called Don Cristoval Paullu, and Manco Inca. They were bastards, which is well known among them. And these, if any honour or estate had belonged to them or their children, your Majesty would have granted more than they had, their brothers retaining their estate and power. For they would merely have been their tributaries and servants. These were the lowest of all, for their lineage was on the side of their mothers which is what these people look at, in a question of birth.
10 And Manco Inca had been a traitor to your Majesty and was a fugitive in the Andes where he died or was killed. Your Majesty caused his son to be brought out, in peace, from those savage wilds. He was named Don Diego Sayri Tupac. He became a Christian, and provision was made for him, his sons and descendants. Sayri Tupac died as a Christian, and he who is now in the Andes in rebellion, named Titu Cusi Yupanqui, is not a legitimate son of Manco Inca, but a bastard and apostate. They hold that another son is legitimate who is with the same Titu, named Tupac Amaru, but he is incapable and the Indians called him uti. Neither one nor the other are heirs of the land, because their father was not legitimate.
11 Your Majesty honoured Don Cristoval Paullu with titles and granted him a good repartimiento of Indians, on which he principally lived. Now it is possessed by his son Don Carlos. Paullu left two legitimate sons who are now alive, named Don Carlos and Don Felipe. Besides these he left many illegitimate sons. Thus the known grandsons of Huayna Ccapac, who are now alive and admitted to be so, are those above mentioned. Besides these there are Don Alonso Titu Atauchi, son of Titu Atauchi, and other bastards, but neither one nor the other has any right to be called a natural lord of the land.
12 For the above reasons it will be right to say to those whose duty it may be to decide, that on such clear evidence is based the most just and legitimate title that your Majesty and your successors have to these parts of the Indies, proved by the actual facts that are here written, more especially as regards these kingdoms of Peru without a point to raise against the said titles by which the crown of Spain holds them. Respecting which your Viceroy of these kingdoms, Don Francisco Toledo, has been a careful and most curious enquirer, as zealous for the clearing of the conscience of your Majesty, and for the salvation of your soul, as he has shown and now shows himself in the general visitation which he is making by order of your Majesty, in his own person, not avoiding the very great labours and dangers which he is suffering in these journeys, so long as they result in so great a service to God and your Majesty.
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