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 quipus or oral information– and small packets. Along the Inca road system there were relay stations called (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.
Origin of the name
The name chasqui is derived from the Quechua word chaski (plural chaskikuna) meaning "reception, acceptance, consent" and historically "postilion". According to Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, the Spanish−Inca chronicler and writer of the 16th Century, the word chasqui means "the one who exchanges". The name cacha (spelled kacha in modern Quechua), meaning messenger in Quechua, was not used, but rather it was used to mention ambassadors or personal messengers, «who personally went from one prince to another or from the lord to the subject.»
Operation
The chasquis were used to carry the king's orders in short time to the provinces or to the army commanders and bring news and notices important for the kingdom, the war and the provinces to Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire.
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 repair 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».
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 represente the amount of taxes to be paid by a village or a province or the amount 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 khipukamayoq (experts in writing and reading quipu), because 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)».
Origin of the chasqui service
According to the chronicle of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa the chasqui service was established by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui who had extended his empire very much towards the north and who needed to have fresh daily reports from all the provinces of his vast kingdom, thus he ordered his brother and captain general, Capac Yupanqui, to establish the system.
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»
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»