Source: TW
विस्तारः (द्रष्टुं नोद्यम्)
On December 20th 1609, Hernando Paucar, priest of the huaca Chaupi Namca, informant of the Huarochiri Manuscript’s 13th chapter, and the most respected native religious authority in Huarochiri, was taken to Lima. He was to be tied to a pole, given two-hundred lashes, and forced to watch as the extirpator of idolatry Francisco de Ávila burned hundreds of huacas they had uncovered. He was later shipped off to Chile against his will.
While given forcibly, and likely “influenced” by Ávila, his testimony is our best impression of the privileges of an Andean priest.
Paucar’s fate - whether he ever actually made it to the Jesuit college in Chile - is unknown.
It is true that I’ve been a priest [sacerdote] of Chaupinamocc since I was a youngster, and I inherited [the priesthood] from my father, and in all these villages of this parish and others, they’ve respected me a great deal,
and I used to come visit them twice every year, and if I was late they used to send someone to call on me, and they would send me horses, and people to serve me on the road,
and whenever I entered a village they would erect arches, and they would come out dancing, with the women beating their drums, and they would give me lodging, and fed me, and served me, and they gave me so much that I didn’t know what to do with it all.
At my rear they made something like a cabin of boughs, and they would cover it and close it off with cloaks, and the floor used to be covered with fresh straw, and I would enter into it alone, by day or by night as I preferred.
There they would come to consult me, and I responded, and sacrificed guinea pigs, pouring out maize beer, and I used to perform other ceremonies in view of those who attended, and some used to say that they wanted to hear a response given by Chaupinamocc, and I used to make her speak by placing there a little idol that represented her, and sometimes I would talk in a very high voice and other times very low […]
And for this everyone respected me, as much as they do you [Father Avila], and much more. On the third or fourth day they would bring together maize, potatoes, and a lot of food for me, and they would dispatch it to my wife in my village.”