170 



INSURRECTION OF PUMACAGUA. 



Chap. X. 



The rebelliou wliicli broke out in CHizco, Ihirty-four 

 years after the death of Tupac jVmaru, is historically 

 important, not on account of the patriotism of its leaders, 

 for they were almost all men of small weight and selfish 

 ends, but because the gi-eat body of the Indians rose as 

 one man at the first signal, in the hope of freeing their 

 country from a foreign yoke. In 1809 the peojile of Upper 

 Peru had formed an independent government, which they 

 called an "Institucion de Gobierno," and the viceroy sent 

 General Goyeneche against them with 5000 men from 

 Cuzco. The rebels, ill-provided with arms, were defeated 

 at Huaqui, near lake Titicaca, and slaughtered without 

 mercy ;^ but General Pezuela, who succeeded Goyeneche 

 in the command, had to face a patriot army from Buenos 

 Ayres under Belgrano, which kept him fully employed. 

 Then it was that the opportunity was seized of commencing 

 a rebelHon at Cuzco ; and this enemy in the rear of the 

 royal army placed Pezuela in a most critical position. 



The leader of the rebellion was JMateo Garcia Piunacagua, 

 Cacique of Chinchero near Cuzco, then a very old men. In 

 January 1781, when Tupac Amaru occupied the heights of 

 Picchu above Cuzco, he had marched from Chinchero A^dth 

 Indians to join him, but, hearing that a large Spanish army 

 was advancing from Lima, he changed his mind, and took 

 part, against his countrymen with such zeal, that the viceroy 

 created him a brigadier in the Spanish service. On August 

 3rd, 1814, this Indian Cacique Pumacagua, mth the three 

 brothers Yicente, Mariano, and Jose Angulo, Don Gabriel 

 Bejar, Hurtado de Mendoza, Astete, Pinelo, Prado, and 

 others, raised the cry of independence in Cuzco ; and so 

 unanimous was the feeling against Spanish rule, that the 



7 Goyeneche was created Count of 

 Huaqui. His brother, the late Bishop 

 of Arcquipa, and present Archbishop 

 of Lima, is probably the senior Bishop 



of Clu'istendoni, dating liis appoint- 

 ment from ISOy ; and lie is certainly 

 the richest man in all South America. 



