140 



SEIZURE AND EXECUTION OF ALIAGA. Chap. IX. 



observance of the laws, and their just administration. His 

 views were certainly confined to these ends when he first 

 drew his sword, although afterAvards, when his moderate 

 demands were only answered by cruel taunts and brutal 

 menaces, he saw that independence or death were the only 

 alternatives. 



The most merciless oppressor of the Indians of Peru was 

 Don Antonio Aliaga, Corregidor of Tinta, and therefore 

 Tupac Amani's immediate superior ; and the Inca determined 

 to commence his revolt by punishing this great culprit. The 

 Inca's old tutor, Dr. Carlos Eodriguez, Cura of Yanaoca, in 

 celebration of his name-day, gave a dinner to the corregidor 

 of Tinta, and the Inca Tupac Amaru, on the 4th of November, 

 1780. The Inca, on pretence that some person had arrived 

 at his house from Cuzco, withdrew from the banquet early, 

 and placing himself in ambush on the road, with some 

 attendants, made the corregidor prisoner on his return, taking 

 him to Tungasuca,* and placing him in close confinement. 

 Tupac then \vrote a letter marked reservadissima, which he 

 obliged Aliaga to sign, ordering his cashier at Tinta to remit 

 the pubKc money in the provincial treasury to the Inca, 

 assigning as a reason that it was necessary to set out forth- 

 with to the port of Aranta,^ threatened by a descent from 

 English cruisers. The Inca thus received 22,000 dollars, 

 some gold ingots, seventy-five muskets, baggage-horses, and 

 mules. Kecruits were also ordered to be embodied, and sent 

 to Tungasuca. 



Having thus drawn together a considerable force, he sent 

 for his old master, Dr. Antonio Lopez, the Cura of Pam- 

 pamarca,^ and ordered him to make kno^Mi to the corregidor 



^ Two and a half leagues from 

 Tinta, and two miles from Yanaoca. 



* Near the port of Islay, and west- 

 ward of Comejo point, the coast fonns 

 a shallow bay, in which is the small 



cove of Aranta, 13 miles from tlie 

 valley of Quilca. Its caiiabiUties as a 

 port were personally examined by the 

 President Castilla three years ago. 

 " One uule from Tungasuca. 



