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 "The Gibbet”

A spirit of cruelty and excess such as was unknown to Pachacutic marked the military exploits of Tupac. In the valley of Huarco, near the Pacific coast, for example, he was repulsed by the natives, who were well supplied with food and stores of all sorts, and whose town was well fortified and very strongly situated. Tupac constructed an immense camp, or rather town, the outlines of which recalled those of his capital of Cuzco, on a hill opposite the city, and here he calmly sat down to watch the gradual starvation of the enemy. This siege continued for three years, until the wretched defenders, driven to despair through want of food, capitulated, relying on the assurance of their conqueror that they should become a part of the Inca nation and that their daughters should become the wives of Inca youths. The submission of their chiefs having been made, Tupac ordered a general massacre of the warriors and principal civilians. At the conquest the Spaniards could still see the immense heaps of bones which littered the spot where this heartless holocaust took place, and the name Huarco (The Gibbet) became indissolubly associated with the district.

Huaina Ccapac

Tupac died in 1493, and was succeeded by his son Huaina Ccapac (The Young Chief). Huaina was about twenty-two years of age at the time of his father's death, and although the late Inca had named Ccapac-Huari, his son by another wife, as his successor, the claims of Huaina were recognised. His reign was peaceful, and was marked by wise administrative improvements and engineering effort. At the same 288