INHABITANTS OF PEKU. 309 



Those who escaped the mita were hopelessly ruined by the accumulating eccle- 

 siastical dues, and by the so-called repart i/nietitos, a kind of enforced truck system, 

 applied to the purchase of the necessaries of life. During the first years of the 

 Spanish occupation many sought safety in flight. Both the chroniclers and 

 popular tradition speak of Incas followed by thousands, laden with enormous 

 quantities of the precious metals, who escaped from the oppressors by crossing the 

 eastern Andes and seeking refuge amongst the allied tribes of the Amazonian 

 valleys. According to the legend these fugitives settled about the confluence of 

 the Huallaga and Maranon, where they built the great city of Paytiti, called also 

 Yurac-Huasi, " White House," which in the popular imagination was often con- 

 founded with the palace of El Dorado, the " Golden King." So strong was the 

 belief in the fugitive dynasty of the old kings that, in 1740, a certain Juan Santos 

 was able to assume the name of Atahuallpa, rally to his standard the Chunchos, 

 or savages of various tribes, massacre or expel the missionaries, and set up the 

 empire of Emin or Paytiti in defiance of the Spanish authorities. 



Although the revolts in the inter- Andean provinces were ruthlessly suppressed, 

 the Government was for a moment endangered by the rising of 1780, when Tupac- 

 Amaru, a descendant of the Incas, ordered all the corregidores to be hanged, 

 abolished the mita and repartimientos, and in a few months found himself master 

 of the greater part of the Peruvian plateau. But he was unable to resist the 

 regular troops, and after his execution at Cuzco the natives returned to their 

 obedience. The repartimientos, however, were never revived, and the inita was 

 greatly modified, though not finally abolished till the War of Independence. 



At present the Quichua race is scarcely anywhere found in a pure state. In 

 the Huancavelica district it is intermingled with the Huancas, and elsewhere with 

 the Huamanes, the Yuncas, Charcas and Antis. Besides these aborigines the 

 Quichuas have also absorbed some European, African, and even Chinese elements, 

 and without being fundamentally changed, they have been somewhat modified by 

 the Spanish administration itself. 



The YuiNCAS, Antis and other Aborigines. 



Besides the Quichuas, who held most of the Sierra, the Bolivian Aymaras 

 occupied some of the southern districts. On the hot coastlands dwelt several 

 civilised peoples collectively called Yuncas, like the country itself, but differing 

 greatly from each other, and probably, on the whole, superior to the Quichuas in 

 culture and mental capacity. But occupying a narrow zone, broken into several 

 fragments by intervening arid and desert tracts, the Yuncas were unable to resist 

 the Peruvian armies descending from the uplands and attacking them in detail. 

 Most of their fortified villages, still seen in large numbers on the heights along 

 the coast, were perched on bare rocks destitute of springs, so that water had to be 

 brought with great labour from the gorges at the foot of the hills. 



Besides these ruined settlements the Yuncas have left numerous structures, 

 such as citadels, temples and Jiiiacas, which far exceed those of the Quichuas 



