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Aqueducts

[Book I.

length, eighteen in breadth, and six feet in thickness and in the For-tress of Cusco were stones, he says, nmch larger. But what adds to oursurprise, many of these stones were taken from quarries at from five tofifteen leagues distance from the buildings.

There is much uncertainty respecting Manco Capac. Who he was,and from what country he came, are equally unknown. According totheir Quippus or historical Cords, and the opinion of the inca who was uncleto G-arcilasso, and who communicated to the latter all the knowledge oftheir ancestors then extant, he made his app.earan.ee in Peru about 400years before the invasion of the Spaniards. It is said he was whiter thanthe natives, and was clothed in flowing garments, Awed by his presence,they received him as a divinity, became subject to his laws, and practisedthe arts he introduced. He founded Cusco , and extended his influenceto all the nations around, He taught them agriculture and many usefularts, especially that of irrigating land. His son succeeded him, and with-out violence greatly extended the limits of the kingdom; prevailing withthe natives, it is said, by a peaceable and gentle manner, “ to plough, andmanure, and cultivate the soil.” His successors pursued the same mode,and with the same success. The fifth inca, we are informed, constructedaqueducts, bridges and roads in all the countries he subdued. When thesixth inca acquired a new province, he ordered the lands to be “ dressedand manured the fens to be drained, “ for in that art [draining] theywere excellent, as is apparent by their works, which remain to this day:and also they were [then] very ingenious in making aqueducts for carryingwater into dry and scorched lands, such as the greatest part of that coun-try is : they always made contrivances and inuentions to bring their water.These aqueducts, though they were ruined after the Spaniards came in,yet several reliques and monuments of them remain unto this day.”

The seventh inca, Yiracocha, constructed some water works, which, intheir beneficial effects, perhaps equalled any similar undertakings in anyother part of the world. “ He made an aqueduct 12 feet in depth, and120 leagues in length : the source or head of it arose from certain springson the top of a high mountain between Parcu and Picuy, which was soplentiful that at the very head of the fountains they seemed to be rivers.This current of water had its course through all the country of the Ru-canas, and served to water the pasturage of those uninhabited lands, whichare about 18 leagues in breadth, watcring almost the whole country ofPeru .”

“ There is anoiher aqueduct much like this, which traverses the wholeprovince of Guntisuyu, running above 150 leagues from south to north,Its head or original is from the top of high mountains, the which watersfalling into the plains of the Quechuas, greatly refresh their pasturage,when the heats of the summer and autumn have dried up the moisture ofthe earth. There are many streams of like nature, which run throughdivers parts of th.e empire, which being conveyed by aqueducts, at theCharge and expense of the incas, are works of grandeur and ostentation,and which recommend the magnificence of the incas to all posterity; forthese aqueducts may well be compared to the miraculous fabricks whichhave been the works of mighty princes, who have left their prodigiousmonuments of ostentation to be admired by future ages; for, indeed, weought to consider that these waters had their source and beginning fromvast, high mountains, and were carried over craggy rocks and inaccessiblepassages ; and to make these ways plain, they had no help of instrumentsforged of Steel or iron, such as pickaxes or sledges, but served themselvesonly with one stone to break another. Nor were they acquainted with