Note 425 — Chapter LXXXVI

Manco Ynca, the second legitimate son of Huayna Ccapac, was invested with the royal llautu at Cuzco by the conqueror Pizarro; but he chafed under the yoke of the invaders, and, on the first opportunity, raised the standard of revolt. Then followed the famous siege of Cuzco, and when the place was relieved by Almagro, and Manco’s last chance of regaining the ancient capital of his ancestors failed, he retreated into the forest fastnesses, continued his hostilities against the Spaniards, and led the romantic life described above by Cieza de Leon. On one occasion Gonzalo Pizarro sent a negro slave to him with presents, to open a negotiation, who was murdered by a party of Indians; upon which Gonzalo perpetrated an act of such devilish cruelty upon a young wife of Manco, whom he had made prisoner, as to be barely credible. The story is related by Prescott, on the authority of Pedro Pizarro’s MS. (ii, p. 136). Manco’s end was very melancholy. He was playing at a game with balls, with one Gomez Perez and some other Spaniards of Almagro’s faction, who had taken refuge in the Ynca’s fastness, when the ill-conditioned ruffian was guilty of some act of disrespect. The Ynca pushed him on one side, upon which Gomez Perez hit him such a blow on the head with a ball that he fell dead. (Gomara, cap. clvi.) This was in the year 1544. The gallant young Ynca left two sons, Sayri Tupac and Tupac Amaru. The former was pensioned by the Spaniards and died at Yucay; the latter perished on the scaffold at Cuzco.