Chasqui


A chasqui was a messenger of the Inca Empire. Agile, highly trained and physically fit, they were in charge of carrying messages in the form of quipus, oral information, or small packets. Along the Inca road system there were relay stations called chaskiwasi, placed at about from each other, where the chasqui switched, exchanging their message with the fresh messenger. The chasqui system could be able to deliver a message or a gift along a distance of up to per day.

The Incas

The name chasqui is derived from the Quechua word chaski meaning "reception, acceptance, consent" and historically "postilion". According to Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, the Spanish−Inca chronicler and writer of the 16th Century, the word chasqui means "the one who exchanges". The name cacha, meaning messenger in Quechua, was not used, but rather it was used to mention ambassadors or personal messengers, "who personally went from one prince to another or from the lord to the subject."

Chasqui relay system

The chasquis were used to carry the king's orders in short time to the provinces or to the army commanders and bring news and notices important for the kingdom, the war and the provinces to Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire.
Along the Inca roads relay stations were placed at half a league distance, where a league is about or an hour walking. At each station, four to six slim, fit and young chasquis would stand in wait, with a roof or a hut to protect them from the sun and the rain. They carried the messages in turns in one direction or the other. The waiting chasquis would constantly surveil the road to spot the incoming runner, the latter of which shouted within sight of the hut and played his seashell trumpet, in order to alert the new one to take his place. He gave his message, repeating it more than once, until the new chasqui understood it perfectly. This way the message was never lost.
The huts were light constructions and were always placed in an elevated position and in such a way that they could see each other. According to Inca Garcialso the distance was just one quarter of a league "because they said that that was what an Indian could run with lightness and breath, without getting tired"; other chroniclers report distances of half a league or a mile and a half.
The chasquis also carried other messages, in the form of quipus which contained mainly numbers in an ordered form. Quipus could represent the amount of taxes to be paid by a village or a province or the number of soldiers to be moved. There is no evidence that the chasquis could read the quipus, which was a delicate and difficult task carried out by khipukamayoq ; in practice, it was not necessary for the chasquis to have access to the information they delivered.
In case of grave emergencies such as an invasion or an uprising, bonfires were used during the night and smoke columns during the day. According to Inca Garcilaso the Inca would receive the distress message "within two or three hours at the most ".

Origin of the chasqui service

According to the chronicle of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa the chasqui service was established by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui who had extended his empire very much towards the north and who needed to have fresh daily reports from all the provinces of his vast kingdom, thus he ordered his brother and captain general, Capac Yupanqui, to establish the system.
On the other hand Juan de Betanzos states that it was Viracocha Inca, predecessor of Pachacuti who "ordered that there be markers of leagues on the royal roads" and "that all the royal roads be populated with chasques, in each league marker four chasques, so that with the mandates and provisions of the lnga, in a short time, they can run the earth"
Martín de Murúa states instead that it was Topa Inca Yupanqui Pachacuti's son, who ordered "to put couriers on all the roads, which they call chasques, with such order and concert that they admire, which were on the roads, at intervals each one about a crossbow shot, and sometimes closer, and others were at half a league distance".

Logistic arrangement

Royal road

The Inca road system, known as Qhapaq Ñan was the most extensive and advanced transportation system in pre-Columbian South America. As a whole it was about long
The network was composed of formal roads carefully planned, engineered, built, marked and maintained; paved where necessary, with stairways to gain elevation, bridges and accessory constructions such as retaining walls, and water drainage systems.
It was based on two north–south roads: one along the coast and the second and most important inland and up the mountains, both with numerous branches.
The road system allowed for the transfer of information, goods, soldiers and persons, without the use of wheels, within the Tawantinsuyu or Inca Empire throughout a territory covering almost and inhabited by about 12 million people.
The roads were bordered, at intervals, with buildings to allow the most effective usage: at short distance there were chasquiwasi, relay stations for chasquis; at a one-day walking interval tambos allowed support to the road users and flocks of llama pack animals. Administrative centers with warehouses, called qullqas, for re-distribution of goods were found along the roads. Towards the boundaries of the Inca Empire and in newly conquered areas pukaras were found.

Tambo

The tambos were perhaps the most important buildings in the operations of the road network. They were constructions of varied architecture and size whose function was mainly the lodging of the travellers and the storage of products for their supply. For this reason, they were located at a day's journey interval, although irregularities were identified in their distances probably linked to various factors such as the presence of water sources, the existence of land with agricultural produce or the presence of pre-Inca centers. Tambos were so frequent that many Andean regional place names include the word tambo in them.
Garcilaso de la Vega underlines the presence of infrastructure on the Inka road system where lodging posts for state officials and chasquis were ubiquitous across the Inca empire; they were well spaced and well provisioned. Food, clothes and weapons were stored and ready also for the Inka army marching through the territory.
The chaskiwasis were relay stations and accommodations for the chasquis: the buildings were of small dimensions having an architecture probably linked to local traditions. Even if they were more frequent than tambos, there is little evidence and research on them. A research published in 2006 under the 'Qhapaq Ñan Project' of the National Institute of Culture in Peru, based on surveys along the Inca road system, revealed that chaskiwasis were not present on all the Inca roads. It is not yet defined if this was a planned decision, because that road part was not useful for information transfer, or simply there is no current evidence of them due to their poor construction. The chaskiwasis were an integral part of the routes and defined some of the most characteristic aspects of the operation of the road network that called the attention of the first Spaniards that was reflected in the chronicles, as was the speed in the transmission of messages and small goods for the Inka.
According to several chroniclers the average distance between two chaskiwasi was half a league that means about as in the case of tambos the distance must have been determined by the environment, keeping into account the soil characteristics, the climate, and the elevation above sea level. Polo de Ondegardo states that the distance was one and a half league meaning about which D'Altroy takes as a reference writing that the distance was.
The minimum manpower of a chaskiwasi was four runners, a couple resting and the others waiting as sentinels for an incoming chasqui. The chasqui patrol was exchanged for a fresh one every month. The chasqui service was active 24 hours a day and its speed was even faster than the European message services in the same historical period and until the invention of the telegraph.
The Peruvian architect Santiago Agurto Calvo –professor and rector of the National University of Engineering in Lima– cites Von Hagen's experiment along the Inca road in the Mantaro Valley between Jauja and Bonbón which demonstrated that young Quechuas, having no special training, could run the distance of in about 4 minutes and keep this pace for about. This means that in 1 hour could be covered, summing up to per day. For the Inca emperor, getting fresh fish in Cusco was really possible.

Chasquis in the chronicles

Guaman Poma de Ayala

Guaman Poma de Ayala in his manuscript "Primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno", preserved in the Copenhagen Royal Library mentions and depicts the chasquis twice.
The first is drawing 138 at folio 351
It describes the chasquis operations and adds that: "These chasques were under the authority of Inca princes, auquicona, in the kingdom so no mistakes would be made. This Inca would visit the chasques to make sure they did nothing wrong and that they had sufficient food. As has been stated, the chasques were authorized to take provisions from the Inca’s storehouses. These chasques were not replaced by others because they had to be faithful, sons of well-known curacas, not be lazy, and able to fly like a deer or a hawk. Their wives and children were protected because the runners had to be on call day and night. They had chacras and livestock in the same place, and everything they needed. They were not to be missing over one hour"
The second one is drawing 306 at folio 825.
"It has to be known that the Ynga king had two kinds of runners in this kingdom. The first one is named churo mullo chasque or major runner who could bring snails from more than 500 leagues, since mulo is the sea snail of the new kingdom. They were placed at a distance of half a league. And the lesser runner was named caro chasque was placed at a day distance heavy things.
And these runners must be sons of chiefs, of loyal and proved knights, as fast as a deer these were paid and equipped by the Inca as lord and king. And he was wearing on his head a big feather sunshade that covered his head in order to be seen form far away and a trumpet that was called huaylla quipa. They were shouting very loud and playing their trumpet and as a weapon they carried a chanbi and a sling. And this is how the land was managed by this runners. They and their wives and sons, father, mother, brothers and sisters were free form anything that there was . He never stopped day and night. In each chasqui there were four diligent Indians in this kingdom.
The mentioned king's runners chasque shall have their salary from his majesty of the royal road."