Recovered: Lost manuscript with memoirs of Inca leaders
LIMA:Peru unveiled a priceless manuscript containing the memoirs of former Inca leaders that had disappeared during Chile’s occupation of Lima during the 1879-84 Pacific War.
The manuscript - called Memories of the Peruvian monarchy or outline of the Inca’s history - was written in the 1830s by Justo Apu Sahuaraura Inca (1775-1853), a descendent of the Inca emperor Huayna Capac (14931525).
Sahuaraura was a member of the indigenous nobility in Cusco, the old Inca capital, and dedicated his time to preserving the memory of the Inca empire, which lasted 100 years between the 15th and 16th centuries and covered a vast area from the south of Colombia to the centre of Chile.
In the manuscript he traced Inca history until the arrival in South America of the Spanish colonisers, using now extinct documents.
The text includes information about Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, the son of a Spanish conquistador and Inca noblewoman, thought to be the first mixed-race person in the history of the Americas.
The manuscript also includes accounts of the Spanish conquest of Cusco, as well as an Inca chronology.
“It’s a pretty rare and strange manuscript because it has coloured sheets that represent the different Incas,” saidGerardo Trillo, director of the Protection of Collections at Lima’s National Library. He said the manuscript was stolen during the Chilean occupation of Lima from 1881-83.