

A BRONZE KNIFE OF THE ?>IORE ORDINARY PATTERN FOUND AT ATACHU PICCHU. 



NATURAL SIZE 



with the Inca, the young Manco, who had 

 been set up by Pizarro to be a dummy 

 Inca, but who^ rebelled and fled into the 

 wilds of Vilcabamba. 



FLED FROM THE CONQUERORS 



He set up his own capital at Vitcos, 

 where, as we were able to demonstrate 

 in 191 1, he was near an ancient shrine — 

 a great white rock near a spring of 

 water. Here he was surrounded bv fer- 

 tile valleys, at the same time difficult of 

 access. He was, however, not too far re- 

 moved from the great highway which the 

 Spaniards had to use for their caravans 

 in passing from Cuzco to Lima, so that 

 he could readily attack them. 



The only possible reference I can find 

 to these \^irgins of the Sun, or, as they 

 have been called. Concubines of the Inca, 

 is in the missionary chronicles of Father 

 Calancha, an Augustinian. He relates 

 the trials of two monks who, at the peril 



of their lives, entered the sequestered 

 valleys near Vitcos and, after founding a 

 convent at Puquiura, near Vitcos, asked 

 the Inca to let them Ansit "Vilcabamba 

 the Old." For a long time he refused ; 

 but finally he yielded to their urgent re- 

 quest and bade them prepare for the 

 journey. 



Calancha says that the Inca took the 

 monks, with a small company of his cap- 

 tains and chieftains, over a very rougTi 

 road. The Inca did not sufi^er, because 

 he was carried in a litter, but the monks 

 had to walk, and their robes hindered 

 them. They arrived at a bad place in the 

 road, called Ungacacha, where the trail 

 was under water, as the river had risen. 

 The monks thought it was as bad as being 

 asked to wade through a lake. The water 

 was very cold. But, because they so 

 much desired to go to Mlcabamba to 

 preach, "on account of its being the larg- 

 est city, in which was the university of 



180 



