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1572 - The city of Vilcabamba The city of Vilcabamba After Huayna Pucará, the Spaniards battled past the largely abandoned fort of Machu Pucará and pressed on towards the city of Vilcabamba. On 24 June, the Spaniards finally marched into the legendary city of Vilcabamba, the final refuge of the Incas. They found a well planned, prosperous city: "The climate is such that bees make honeycomb like those of Spain in the boards of the houses, and the maize is harvested three times a year... The town has a location half a league wide... but covering a long distance in length. In it are raised parrots, hens, ducks, local rabbits, turkeys, pheasants... There are a great many pears and other fruit trees... The houses and sheds were covered in good thatch. The Incas had a palace on different levels, covered in roof tiles. The Incas therefore enjoyed scarcely less of the luxuries, greatness and splendour of Cuzco in that distant land... they enjoyed life there". But the Spaniards found that the inhabitants had already fled, taking their treasures and burning the houses and food. "The entire town was found to be sacked, so effectively that if the Spaniards and [their] Indians had done it, it could not have been worse. All the Indian men and women had fled and hidden in the jungle, taking whatever they could. They burned the rest... so that when the expedition arrived it was still smoking". Tupac Amaru had hoped that the Spaniards would return to Cuzco when they found Vilcabamba devoid of food and treasure. But although the Spaniards had successfully captured most of Tupac Amaru's leading generals and some valuable treasure, including the mummified bodies of Manco Inca and Titu Cusi, their main goal was the capture of the Inca himself. The pursuit of Tupac Amaru A handpicked force of 40 soldiers, lead by Martín García de Loyola, set off in pursuit of the Inca. They journeyed over 140 miles into the Vilcabamba valley, travelling along the Masahuay river, before finally capturing some Chuncho Indians. Under interrogation the Indians revealed that Tupac Amaru had fled further downstream, hoping that the difficult river and rapids would deter the Spaniards from following. Loyola did not hesitate but "made five rafts and sailed down the river with [twenty] soldiers of my company, with great danger to our persons. On various occasions we saved our lives by swimming". The Spaniards advanced 170 miles further through the Amazon rainforest before befriending a native chief and offering him some of the Inca's clothing in return for information on his whereabouts. The native chief refused to accept the clothing but did reveal that the Inca had left that place just five days previously. His escape was being slowed by the presence of his wife who "was frightened and depressed because she was about to give birth. Because [Tupac Amaru] loved her so much he was helping her to bear her burden and was waiting for her, travelling in short stages". Loyola set off again in hot pursuit, marching some 50 miles through the dense jungle. But the Inca's devotion to his wife was to prove his undoing. He deferred his final escape onto the Urubamba river by one day, having had "a great debate with his wife, begging her to enter the canoe so that they could travel by water". That night, whilst warming themselves by their campfire, the Inca and his wife were surprised and captured by the Spanish. Had the Inca eluded them until morning, he would have escaped on the river and the exhausted Spaniards admitted they would have given up their pursuit. The independent native state of Vilcabamba was thus at an end, penetrated with relative ease by the Spanish and betrayed by some of its own inhabitants. Tupac Amaru and his generals were led in captivity back to Cuzco for the final, sad chapter of the conquest. |
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