Accounts of what happened in Uiticos under the rule of Manco are not very satisfactory.  Father Calancha, who published in 1639 his “Coronica Moralizada,” or “pious account of the missionary activities of the Augustinians” in Peru, says that the Inca Manco was obeyed by all the Indians who lived in a region extending “for two hundred leagues and more toward the east and toward the south, where there were innumerable Indians in various provinces.”  With customary monastic zeal and proper religious fervor, Father Calancha accuses the Inca of compelling the baptized Indians who fled to him from the Spaniards to abandon their new faith, torturing those who would no longer worship the old Inca “idols.”  This story need not be taken too literally, although undoubtedly the escaped Indians acted as though they had never been baptized.

Besides Indians fleeing from harsh masters, there came to Uilcapampa, in 1542, Gomez Perez, Diego Mendez, and half a dozen other Spanish fugitives, adherents of Almagro, “rascals,” says Calancha, “worthy of Manco’s favor.”  Obliged by the civil wars of the conquistadores to flee from the Pizarros, they were glad enough to find a welcome in Uiticos.  To while away the time they played games and taught the Inca checkers and chess, as well as bowling-on-the-green and quoits.  Montesinos says they also taught him to ride horseback and shoot an arquebus.  They took their games very seriously and occasionally violent disputes arose, one of which, as we shall see, was to have fatal consequences.  They were kept informed by Manco of what was going on in the viceroyalty.  Although “encompassed within craggy and lofty mountains,” the Inca was thoroughly cognizant of all those “revolutions” which might be of benefit to him.

Perhaps the most exciting news that reached Uiticos in 1544 was in regard to the arrival of the first Spanish viceroy.  He brought the New Laws, a result of the efforts of the good Bishop Las Casas to alleviate the sufferings of the Indians.  The New Laws provided, among other things, that all the officers of the crown were to renounce their repartimientos or holdings of Indian serfs, and that compulsory personal service was to be entirely abolished.  Repartimientos given to the conquerors were not to pass to their heirs, but were to revert to the king.  In other words, the New Laws gave evidence that the Spanish crown wished to be kind to the Indians and did not approve of the Pizarros.  This was good news for Manco and highly pleasing to the refugees.  They persuaded the Inca to write a letter to the new viceroy, asking permission to appear before him and offer his services to the king.  The Spanish refugees told the Inca that by this means he might some day recover his empire, “or at least the best part of it.”  Their object in persuading the Inca to send such a message to the viceroy becomes apparent when we learn that they “also wrote as from themselves desiring a pardon for what was past” and permission to return to Spanish dominions.