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A chasqui (also spelled chaski) was a messenger of the Inca Empire. Agile, highly trained and physically fit, they were in charge of carrying messages in the form of , oral information, or small packets. Along the Inca road system there were relay stations called chaskiwasi (house of chasqui), placed at about from each other, where the chasqui switched, exchanging their message(s) 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.Agurto Calvo, Santiago (1987). Estudios acerca de la construcción, arquitectura y planeamiento incas. Vol. 24. Cámara Peruana de la Construcción - Lima
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 (from the Quechua word khipu meaning 'knot') 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 khipukamayoqD’Altroy, Terence N. (2002). The Incas - Second Edition (215) - Blackwell Publishing Ltd (experts in writing and reading quipu); 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 (even if it was five or six hundred leagues from the court)".
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"Betanzos, Juan de (2004c.1551). Suma y Narración de los Incas Edición, introducción y notas: María del Carmen Martín Rubio - Ediciones Polifemo - Madrid, 2004
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".Murúa, Martín de (1613). Historia general del Perú - Fundación El Libro Total proyecto de responsabilidad social e intelectual de la firma Sistemas y Computadores S.A.
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 , for re-distribution of goods were found along the roads. Towards the boundaries of the Inca Empire and in newly conquered areas (fortresses) were found.
Garcilaso de la Vega underlines the presence of infrastructure (tambos) 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 (sometimes spelled chasquihuasi and meaning house of chasqui in Quechua) 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 (e.g. Garcilaso de la Vega, Guaman Poma de Ayala, Juan de Betanzos, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa) 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.
The first is drawing 138 at folio 351 (see above) It describes the chasquis operations and adds that: "These chasques were under the authority of Inca princes, auquicona, royal 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 (fields or farms) and livestock in the same place, and everything they needed. They were not to be missing over one hour"Guaman Poma de Ayala, Felipe (20091615).The First New Chronicle and Good Government - On the history of the world and the Incas up to 1615 - Translated and edited by Roland Hamilton - Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture - University of Texas Press - Austin
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 (postilion that brings snail) or major runner who could bring sea 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 (messenger of snail) was placed at a day distance to 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 (the chasqui) 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 uaylla quipa (the snail horn). They (the chasquis) were shouting very loud and playing their trumpet and as a weapon they carried a chanbi (fighting club) 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 taxes. He never stopped day and night. In each chasqui (house) 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."Guamán Poma de Ayala, Felipe (1980) Nueva corónica y buen gobierno. Tomo II - Franklin Pease García, editor - Colección Librería Ayacucho. Fundación Biblioteca Ayacucho - Caracas
Murúa gives also fresh information about the speed of the chasquis and the punishments they were given in case they became lazy. First of all the chasquis needed to be searched "among the Indians for those who were quickest and fastest, and who had the most courage to run, and so he (the Inca) tested them, making them run across a plain and, later, go down a hill with the same lightness, and then climb a rough slope, without stopping, and to those who stood out in this and did it well, he assigned the courier task and they had to train every day in the race. So that, they were so encouraged that they reached the deer and even vicuñas, which are very fast wild animals that breed in the coldest places and deserts. Thus, with incredible flight, they carried the news from one place to another, and those who did not run well, and were lazy, were punished by giving them fifty blows to the head with a club, or fifty blows to the back, and their legs were broken, for memory and punishment of others."
The chasquis according to Murúa were raised since children "with great care and only once a day they were fed … and only once they drank, and thus they were skinny, and the parents tested them if they were fast, making them run uphill and follow a deer, and if they were lazy they were punished in the same way, so that the entire caste and generation of Chasquis Indians was fast and light, and for a long time."
Murúa regrets the progressive disappearance of the chasquis system, which was an extremely effective communication system for the Andean zone, stating that the service " is not performed nowadays with the punctuality and care of the past, in the times of the Inga, because then the distance of the these couriers was small, and thus the notices ran very quickly, without stopping for a single moment anywhere, not even for the chasqui to take a break and breathe. But now the journeys are five or six leagues, and from tambo to tambo." This is a confirmation that the chaskiwasi were already non-functioning in 1613.
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