148 NAERATIVE OF AMARU'S REBELLION. Chap. IX. 



mestizo population, except the ayllus or tribes of the sixteen 

 Hispanicized caciques, longed earnestly for the success of this 

 truly national insurrection. After the retreat from Paucar- 

 tambo in February, the Inca occupied himself in strengthening 

 his jjosition round Tinta, and in visiting the distant provinces 

 of Chuquibamba and Cotabambas, while one Isidro Mamani, 

 an Indian of ferocious character, born at Pomata, on the 

 banks of lake Titicaca, Pedro Vargas, and Andres Ingaricona, 

 held the open country in the Collao. 



The whole of the interior of Central and Upper Peru was 

 in revolt, and the viceroys of Peru and Buenos Ayres, Don 

 Augustin de Jauregui and Don Juan Jose de Vertiz, were 

 thoroughly alarmed. The former despatched Don Jose Antonio 

 Areche, as " visitador," with extraordinary judicial powers, 

 and a force commanded by Don Jose del Valle as Mariscal 

 del Campo, to Cuzco ; while the latter named Don Ignacio 

 Flores, then Governor of Moxos, as commandante-general, to 

 put down the rebellion in Upper Peru. 



Areche, accompanied by General Jose del Valle, and Don 

 Benito de la Matta Linares, a judge of the Koyal Audience 

 at Lima, arrived at Cuzco on February 23rd, 1781, where an 

 army of 15,000 men was collected, consisting of the tribes of 

 the recreant caciques, negroes and mulattos fi'om the coast, 

 and a small force of Spaniards. 



Early in March General del Valle prepared to commence 

 the campaign. But, before his army marched out of Cuzco, 

 the visitador Areche received a letter from Tupac iVmaru, in 

 which he represented the earnest endeavours he had made 

 to obtain justice for his people ; the habitual violation of 

 the law by the Spanish ofiScials ; the cruel and intolerable 

 oppression caused by the repartimentos and the mita ; and the 

 absolute necessity of some refonn in the administration. He 

 concluded by proposing a negotiation by which these ends 

 might be attained without bloodshed. This despatch is very 



