ns a number of little towns and
villages. Furthermore, Huarancalque is two or three days' journey
from Pucyura and is on the road which the Indians of this region
now use in going to Ayacucho. This was undoubtedly the route used by
Manco in his raids on Spanish caravans. The Mapillo flows into the
Apurimac near the mouth of the river Pampas. Not far up the Pampas is
the important bridge between Bom-bon and Ocros, which Mr. Hay and I
crossed in 1909 on our way from Cuzco to Lima. The city of Ayacucho was
founded by Pizarro, a day's journey from this bridge. The necessity
for the Spanish caravans to cross the river Pampas at this point
made it easy for Manco's foraging expeditions to reach them by sudden
marches from Uiticos down the Mapillo River by way of Huarancalque,
which is probably the "Huarancalla" of Calancha's "Chronicles." He
must have had rafts or canoes on which to cross the Apurimac, which
is here very wide and deep. In the valleys between Huarancalque and
Lucma, Manco was cut off from central Peru by the Apurimac and its
magnificent canyon, which in many places has a depth of over two
miles. He was cut off from Cuzco by the inhospitable snow fields and
glaciers of Salcantay, Soray, and the adjacent ridges, even though
they are only fifty miles from Cuzco. Frequently all the passes are
completely snow-blocked. Fatalities have been known even in recent
years. In this mountainous province Manco could be sure of finding
not only security from his Spanish enemies, but any climate that he
desired and an abundance of food for his followers. There seems to
be no reason to doubt that the retired region around the modern town
of Pucyura in the upper Vilcabamba Valley was once called Uiticos.

CHAPTER XIII

Vilcabamba

Although the refuge of Manco is frequently spoken of as Uiticos
by the contemporary writers, the word Vilcabamba, or Uilcapampa,
is used even more often. In fact Garcilasso, the chief historian of
the Incas, himself the son of an Inca princess, does not mention
Uiticos. Vilcabamba was the common name of the province. Father
Calancha says it was a very large area, "covering fourteen degrees of
longitude," about seven hundred miles wide. It included many savage
tribes "of the far interior" who acknowledged the supremacy of the
Incas and brought tribute to Manco and his sons. "The Manaries and
the Pilcosones came a hundred and two hundred leagues" to visit the
Inca in Uiticos.

The name, Vilcabam