The wild game of the forest and the
mountain was as much the property of the government, as if it had
been inclosed within a park, or penned within a fold. *7 It was
only on stated occasions, at the great hunts, which took place
once a year, under the personal superintendence of the Inca or
his principal officers, that the game was allowed to be taken.
These hunts were not repeated in the same quarter of the country
oftener than once in four years, that time might be allowed for
the waste occasioned by them to be replenished. At the appointed
time, all those living in the district and its neighbourhood, to
the number, it might be, of fifty or sixty thousand men, *8 were
distributed round, so as to form a cordon of immense extent, that
should embrace the whole country which was to be hunted over.
The men were armed with long poles and spears, with which they
beat up game of every description lurking in the woods, the
valleys, and the mountains, killing the beasts of prey without
mercy, and driving the others, consisting chiefly of the deer of
the country, and the huanacos and vicunas, towards the centre of
the wide-extended circle; until, as this gradually contracted,
the timid inhabitants of the forest were concentrated on some
spacious plain, where the eye of the hunter might range freely
over his victims, who found no place for shelter or escape.
[Footnote 7: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.]
[Footnote 8: Sometimes even a hundred thousand mustered, when the
Inca hunted in person, if we may credit Sarmiento.
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