The History of the Conquest of Peru | Page 8

the natives, though they might with more
reason have been called "mountains of gold." Arranged sometimes in a
single line, though more frequently in two or three lines running
parallel or obliquely to each other, they seem to the voyager on the
ocean but one continuous chain; while the huge volcanoes, which to the
inhabitants of the tableland look like solitary and independent masses,
appear to aim only like so many peaks of the same vast and
magnificent range. So immense is the scale on which Nature works in
these regions, that it is only when viewed from a great distance, that the
spectator can, in any degree, comprehend the relation of the several
parts to the stupendous whole. Few of the works of Nature, indeed, are
calculated to produce impressions of higher sublimity than the aspect of
this coast, as it is gradually unfolded to the eye of the mariner sailing
on the distant waters of the Pacific; where mountain is seen to rise
above mountain, and Chimborazo, with its glorious canopy of snow,
glittering far above the clouds, crowns the whole as with a celestial
diadem.4
The face of the country would appear to be peculiarly unfavorable to
the purposes both of agriculture and of internal communication. The
sandy strip along the coast, where rain never falls, is fed only by a few
scanty streams, that furnish a remarkable contrast to the vast volumes
of water which roll down the eastern sides of the Cordilleras into the
Atlantic. The precipitous steeps of the sierra, with its splintered sides of
porphyry and granite, and its higher regions wrapped in snows that
never melt under the fierce sun of the equator, unless it be from the
desolating action of its own volcanic fires, might seem equally
unpropitious to the labors of the husbandman. And all communication
between the parts of the long- extended territory might be thought to be
precluded by the savage character of the region, broken up by
precipices, furious torrents, and impassable quebradas,--those hideous
rents in the mountain chain, whose depths the eye of the terrified
traveller, as he winds along his aerial pathway, vainly endeavors to
fathom.5 Yet the industry, we might almost say, the genius, of the
Indian was sufficient to overcome all these impediments of Nature.

By a judicious system of canals and subterraneous aqueducts, the waste
places on the coast were refreshed by copious streams, that clothed
them in fertility and beauty. Terraces were raised upon the steep sides
of the Cordillera; and, as the different elevations had the effect of
difference of latitude, they exhibited in regular gradation every variety
of vegetable form, from the stimulated growth of the tropics, to the
temperate products of a northern clime; while flocks of llamas--the
Peruvian sheep--wandered with their shepherds over the broad,
snow-covered wastes on the crests of the sierra, which rose beyond the
limits of cultivation. An industrious population settled along the lofty
regions of the plateaus, and towns and hamlets, clustering amidst
orchards and widespreading gardens, seemed suspended in the air far
above the ordinary elevation of the clouds. 6 Intercourse was
maintained between these numerous settlements by means of great
roads which traversed the mountain passes, and opened an easy
communication between the capital and the remotest extremities of the
empire.
The source of this civilization is traced to the valley of Cuzco, the
central region of Peru, as its name implies.7 The origin of the Peruvian
empire, like the origin of all nations, except the very few which, like
our own, have had the good fortune to date from a civilized period and
people, is lost in the mists of fable, which, in fact, have settled as
darkly round its history as round that of any nation, ancient or modern,
in the Old World. According to the tradition most familiar to the
European scholar, the time was, when the ancient races of the continent
were all plunged in deplorable barbarism; when they worshipped nearly
every object in nature indiscriminately; made war their pastime, and
feasted on the flesh of their slaughtered captives. The Sun, the great
luminary and parent of mankind, taking compassion on their degraded
condition, sent two of his children, Manco Capac and Mama Oello
Huaco, to gather the natives into communities, and teach them the arts
of civilized life. The celestial pair, brother and sister, husband and wife,
advanced along the high plains in the neighborhood of Lake Titicaca, to
about the sixteenth degree south. They bore with them a golden wedge,
and were directed to take up their residence on the spot where the
sacred emblem should without effort sink into the ground. They

proceeded accordingly but a short distance, as far as the valley of
Cuzco, the spot indicated by the performance of the miracle, since there