of the Peruvians.

167

Chap. 18.]

hundred leagues along the coast (says Garcilasso) it did never rain.”Contrivances to obtain and distribute water, were therefore, with the in-cas as with the early kings of Egypt , the most important and constant ob-jects of their care. Nor does it appear that the Egyptians were moreassiduous in this kind of labor than the people of Peru . Examples arementioned of the latter having eonveyed small streams through a spaceof sixty miles, to irrigate a few acres of land.

There are several points of resemblance between these two people;some of which are to be attributed to both countries being, in a greatmeasure. destitute of rain. The first inca, like Osiris, taught the inhabi-tants to cultivate the land ; to construct reservoirs and aqueducts; to makeploughs, harrows, and shoes for their own feet—such shoes, says Garci-lasso, ‘ as they now wear.’ The wife of Manco Capac, like Isis, taughtthe women to spin, to weave, and to make their own garments. Someof their fables, too, resemble those of the Egyptians respecting Isis. Ac-cording to one, “ the maker of all things placed in heaven a virgin, thedaughter of a king, holding a hucket of water in her händ, for the refresh-ment of the earth.” Both people erected stupendous structures and sta-tues of cut and polished stone, which they wrought without iron; bothshaved the head, and both embalmed the dead.

As we have no where met with any distinct notice of, or even allusionto, any Peruvian machine for raising water, we insert some notices of theirwells and aqueducts, &c. from Garcilasso’s “ Royal Commentaries ofPeru .” The reader can then judge, whether a people who devised andconstructed hydraulic Works of immense magnitude for the distributionof water, were without some machmes for raising it; and especially,when, at certain seasons, they obtained it from deep wells. The incaGarcilasso de la Vega, was a native of Cusco . His mother was a Peru­ vian princess ; but his father, whose name he bore, was one of the Spanish conquerors. He was born (he informs us) eight years after the Spaniardsbecame masters of the country, i. e. in the year 1539, and was educatedby his mother and her relatives, in the Indian manner, tili he was twentyyears old. In 1560 he was sent to Spain , where he wrote his Commen-taries. These were translated into English by Sir Paul Ricaut , and pub-lished in one volume, folio, London , 1688.

There is reason to believe that Peru , Chili, and other parts of theSouthern continent, were inhabited by a refined, or partially refined peo-ple, centuries before the time of Manco Capac, the first inca; and that along period of barbarism had intervened, induced, perhaps, by revolutionssimilar to those which, in the old world, swept all' the once celebratednations of antiquity into oblivion. The ancient Peruvians had a traditionrespecting the arrival of giants, who located themselves on the coast, andv/ho äug wells of immense depth through the solid rock ; which wells,as well as cisterns, still remain. When Mayta Capac, the fourth inca,reduced the province of Tiahuanacu , he found colossal pyramids and otherstructures, with gigantic statues, of whose authors or uses, says Garcilasso,“ no man can conjecture.” The ruins of these are still extant, in one ofthe districts of Buenos Ayres. In the same province, the writer justnamed mentions a monolithic temple, which, from the description, equalsany of those of Egypt . These ancient buildings were supposed by thePeruvians to have furnished models for the Temple, Palace, and Fortressat Cusco , which the first incas erected. Acosta, in examining some ofthese buildings in Tiahuanacu , was at a loss to comprehend how theycould have been erected; so large, well cut, and closely jointed were thestones. “ I measured one myself, (he observes) which was thirty feet in