Túpac Inca Yupanqui

Topa Inca Yupanqui or Túpac Inca Yupanqui (, ), also Topa Inga Yupangui, erroneously translated as "noble Inca accountant" (before 14711493) was the tenth Sapa Inca (1471–1493) of the Inca Empire, fifth of the Hanan dynasty. His father was Pachacuti, and his son was Huayna Capac.

Biography

His father appointed him to head the Inca army before his reign as emperor, granting him the title of Auqui, or crown prince, at a young age. Topa Inca launched multiple large-scale expeditions to the north during his period as Auqui, subduing regions such as Hatun Xauxa, the Bombon Plateau, and Huaylas. Cities and sites the army he commanded besieged and captured at this time include Curamba, Huaylla-Pucara, Canta, and, most importantly, Chan Chan. He extended the realm along the Andes through modern Ecuador, and developed a special fondness for the city of Quito, which he rebuilt with architects from Cusco. During this time his father Pachacuti reorganized the kingdom of Cusco into the , the "region of four provinces". Topa Inca led extensive military conquests to extend the Inca empire across much of Southern America. and ("outer belt"), also spelled ). The voyage is mentioned in the History of the Incas by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, as well as in the works of Martín de Murúa and Miguel Cabello de Balboa. Pedro Sarmiento described the expedition as follows:

:...there arrived at Tumbez some merchants who had come by sea from the west, navigating in balsas with sails. They gave information of the land whence they came, which consisted of some islands called Avachumbi and Ninachumbi, where there were many people and much gold. Topa Inca was a man of lofty and ambitious ideas, and was not satisfied with the regions he had already conquered. So he determined to challenge a happy fortune, and see if it would favour him by sea...

The Inca, having this certainty, determined to go there. He caused an immense number of balsas to be constructed, in which he embarked more than 20,000 chosen men...

Topac Inca navigated and sailed on until he discovered the islands of Avachumbi and Ninachumbi, and returned, bringing back with him slaves, gold, a chair of brass, and a skin and jaw bone of a horse. These trophies were preserved in the fortress of Cusco until the Spaniards came. The duration of this expedition undertaken by Topa Inca was nine months, others say a year, and, as he was so long absent, every one believed he was dead. where oral traditions have claimed that a group of long-eared came to the island from an unknown land. Some historians, however, are skeptical that the voyage ever took place.