WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 559 



those built by Inca Roca, his great-grandfather, they had side doors 

 by which they could go over to the schools to learn from the pro- 

 fessors, and to teach also, for these two kings were great legislators, 

 in their laws and idolatry. Close by Cassana there was a handsome 

 shelter built at the command of Inca Pachacutec, utilized only for 

 the celebration of their festivals on rainy days and so capacious that 

 it held over 12,000 persons : this was where they built the Franciscan 

 convent. In front of the Cassana palaces was the main plaza, called 

 Huaicapata, which means festival plaza ; this is the principal square 

 of the city. 



1506. At the S. end of the plaza, across the stream and opposite 

 Cassana, stood the royal palaces of Huayna Capac, father of Huascar 

 Inca and of Atahualpa, who was captured at Cajamarca by Don 

 Francisco Pizarro and his companions. Those palaces were named 

 Amaru Cancha, which means ward of big snakes ; at the present day 

 the Jesuit Convent stands on this site. 



1507. In the ward running E. and W. next to the plaza and named 

 Rimacpampa, where the nobles lived who were of the Inca blood 

 royal, stood the royal palaces of King Sinchi Roca. second king of 

 that empire, and immediately after them, those of his son Lloque 

 Yupangui, the third king, and in front of them to the S., those of 

 Mayta Capac, the fourth king and son of Lloque Yupangui. 



1508. The royal palaces of Yaguar Huacac, seventh emperor of 

 that empire and father of Inca Viracocha, stood likewise in the 

 eastern quarter which runs across the city, near where the Cathedral 

 is today and near where they had the shelters in their main plaza 

 where they celebrated their chief festivals dedicated to the new moons 

 of certain months ; in order not to fail to hold the festival in case 

 it rained, they had shelters for that purpose. 



1509. When the Indians surrounded the Spaniards in this imperial 

 city and tried to burn them out, they burned it all up except for the 

 shelters of Cassana, Collcampata, and Amarucancha ; as regards the 

 fourth shelter, where the Spaniards were located and which served 

 them as a fort, at the point where the Cathedral stands today, they 

 shot countless fire arrows at it and although they landed in the straw 

 with which the shelters were thatched and it caught fire in many 

 places, nevertheless through God's mercy, in His divine secrets and 

 infinite mercy, they all went out, for His Divine Majesty had already 

 ordained that the Gospel should be preached to those blind heathen, 

 so that they might emerge from the blindness in which the Devil 

 had so long kept them deceived. Together with these shelters referred 

 to, they spared the Temple of the Sun and that of Chosen Virgins 



