Note 104 — Chapter XVII

Cacique is really a West Indies word. The early Spanish writers are wont to apply it to any sort of native official. Here, no doubt, the correct term would be the Quichua word Curaca. Officials thus designated under the Inca dominion were the hereditary chiefs of formerly independent tribes and territories—roughly analogous to the mediatized princes of Europe. Though made vassals of the Inca, the curacas were often continued in the command of their former subjects and were intrusted with the governorship of provinces over which they were formerly sovereigns. The curacas ranked immediately below the Inca caste, and ruled what was known as a hunu. Sometimes a curaca was made an Inca-by-privilege as a reward of services.