In a six-year campaign with an army that eventually rose to 50,000 men, the Inca general Sinchiruca had subdued the regions of northern Chile, Copiapó, Coquimbo, Aconcagua and the Maipo Valley around what is now Santiago. After securing the Maipo Valley Sinchiruca sent 20,000 men down to the valley of the Maule River. The territory of the Picunche people inhabiting this last region south of Maipo Valley extended further to the south to the Itata River and these people the south of the Maipo Valley had refused to submit to the rule of the Inca and called on their allies south of the Maule; the Antalli, Pincu, and Cauqui to join in opposing these invaders. This defiance gave them their distinctive name of Purumaucas from the quechua puruma auca meaning those not under the rule of the Inca. T