Note 403 — Chapter LXXVIII

The Chanca Indians originally inhabited the valley of Andahuaylas, between Cuzco and Guamanga. They were invaded by the Ynca Rocca, sixth in descent from Manco Ccapac, and obliged to submit to his yoke. But soon after the accession of Rocca’s son Yahuar-huaccac, the Chancas rose in rebellion under their chief Anco-huallu, a youth of twenty-six years of age. The pusillanimous Ynca not only neglected to march against him, but even abandoned Cuzco, and retreated in an opposite direction. His son Huira-ccocha, however, was a man of different metal. He led an army against the insurgents, and utterly defeated them in a bloody and well-contested battle on the Yahuar-pampa, or “plain of blood.” Anco-huallu received a full pardon, and for ten years he continued to reside in his native valley as a tributary chief. But this dependent position was distasteful to him, and eventually he emigrated with eight thousand followers, and settled in the forests of the Moyobamba district. Garcilasso tells us that the exact position of his new settlement was never exactly known, the report merely stating that he descended a great river, and established his people on the banks of a beautiful lake. Mr. Spruce has suggested that Anco-huallu and his Chancas conquered Moyobamba, and drove the original inhabitants out, who, descending the Huallaga and Amazon, settled between the rivers Ucayali, Marañon, and Yavari, and were the progenitors of the fierce and untameable modern tribe of Mayorunas (Mayu, a river, and runa, a man in Quichua). G. de la Vega, i, lib. v, cap. 26.