426 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



Here is not the place to enter into the details of the astonish- 

 ing architectural, engineering, and artistic remains, 



The Chimus. 



now generally assigned to the Incas, who have in 

 this respect become the " Toltecs " of the Southern Continent, 

 but were here preceded, not only by the Aymaras, but also by 

 the Chimus, perhaps by the Atacamefws, and other cultured 

 peoples whose very names have perished. Doubts attach even 

 to the name of the Chimus themselves, whose dominion before 

 their overthrow by the Inca Yupanqui extended from their capital, 

 Grand Chimu, where is now Truxillo, for 625 miles along the coast 

 nearly to the Chilian frontier. 



The ruins of Chimu cover a vast area, nearly 15 miles by 6, 

 which is everywhere strewn with the remains of palaces, reservoirs, 

 aqueducts, ramparts, and especially huacas, that is, truncated 

 pyramids not unlike those of Mexico, whence the theory that 

 the Chimus, of unknown origin, were " Toltecs " from Central 

 America. One of these huacas is described by Squier as 150 feet 

 high with a base 580 feet square, and an area of 8 acres, present- 

 ing from a distance the appearance of a huge crater 1 . Still larger 

 is the so-called "Temple of the Sun," 800 by 470 feet, 200 feet 

 high, and covering an area of 7 acres. An immense population of 

 hundreds of thousands was assigned to this place in pre-Inca 

 times; but from some rough surveys made in 1897 it would 

 appear that much of the space within the enclosures consists of 

 waste lands, which had never been built over, and it is calculated 

 that at no time could the number of inhabitants have greatly 

 exceeded 50,000. 



We need not stop to describe the peculiar civil and social 

 institutions of the Peruvians, which are of common 



Peruvian 



Political knowledge. Enough to say that here everything 



was planned in the interests of the theocratic and 

 all-powerful Incas, who were more than obeyed, almost honoured 

 with divine worship by their much bethralled and priestridden 

 subjects. "The despotic authority of the Incas was the basis 

 of government ; that authority was founded on the religious 

 respect yielded to the descendant of the sun, and supported by 



1 Pern, p. i 20. 



