War and a Semblance of Peace in the Inca Heartland

4) Consolidation of Inca control Mid 12th century
in the Cuzco Valley, when the 4th
Inca was young
5) The time of origins, when the Late 11th century
1st Inca and his siblings crawled
out of a cave
The Inca genealogical account that supplies the general chronology for
the Historia Indica, begins with a story about Manco Capac and his seven
siblings crawling out of the central window of three at Tambotoco, a site about
25 km. south of Cuzco. The siblings made several intermediate stops before
settling permanently in Cuzco, residing for years in each place. The final place
of residence before their move to Cuzco was a place called Matagua. The Inca
odyssey is described in terms of looking for good lands (Sarmiento de Gamboa
1906, chp. 12: 35). To test a site for potential settlement, a vara (rod) was
thrown. How it penetrated the ground was read as a sign of fertility. When the
Inca siblings finally reached the Cuzco valley, one of the women, Mama
Guaco, threw two varas, both of gold. The one that revealed fertile soil landed
in Guanaypata, a place inhabited by the Guallas, “two arquebus shots from
Cuzco”, and near a Spanish arch at the edge of the early colonial city where
the Inca road leading to the Lake Titicaca region departed (Sarmiento de
Gamboa 1906, chp. 13: 38-39). Between Sarmiento and the members of this
group interviewed in the Toledo Informaciones, a very bloody story of conquest
is told. Returning first to Matagua, Manco Capac, the brother who was the
progenitor of the dynastic line, sent another brother off to a stone boundarymarker
where the church of Santo Domingo stands today. The brother went
to the appointed place, sat there and turned to stone, becoming a marker of
Inca possession of the site. Moving to the spot where the brother had marked
the site of Cuzco, the Incas also began their campaign to usurp the water and
lands of the Guallas (Sarmiento de Gamboa 1906, chp. 13: 39-40).
Fifteen Guallas were interviewed in Cuzco during the Toledo interviews.
They testified that they had come from Pachatusan. Their lands were on some
terraces on a slope past San Blas, one of the parishes of Cuzco. The Incas had
introduced people into their lands on two occasions. Out of fear of Inca
cruelty, the Guallas fled with their cinchecona Apo Caua to look for new lands,
settling 20 leagues [100 km.] from Cuzco, in a town named after them where
they still lived at the time of the interview (ff. 139-140v).
The Guallas say nothing about an act of extreme cruelty that occurred
during an Inca attack, but Sarmiento does. He described how the Guallas
resisted the Incas until Mama Guaco, Manco Capac’s sister, killed a Gualla
and “made pieces out of him”. With his entrails, heart and lungs in her mouth
and a haybinto (a stone tied to a cord) in her hands, she went after the other
Guallas with “diabolical determination” (Sarmiento de Gamboa 1906, chp. 13:
39-40). Sarmiento is likely to magnify any kind of negative statement about
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