THE PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. 395 



de Maroma. There were also aqueducts for conveying water 

 to the Tambos and fortresses. Both lines of road were 

 directed to Cuzco, the central point and capital of the 

 great Peruvian empire, situated in 13° 31' south lat., and 

 according to Pentland's Map of Bolivia, at the elevation of 

 11,378 feet above the level of the sea. As the Peruvians 

 had no wheeled carriages, these roads were constructed 

 for the march of troops, for the conveyance of burthens 

 borne by men, and for flocks of lightly laden Lamas ; conse- 

 quently, long flights of steps (6), with resting-places, were 

 formed at intervals in the steep parts of the mountains. 

 Francisco Pizarro and Diego Almagro, in their expeditions to 

 remote parts of the country, availed themselves with much 

 advantage of the military roads of the Incas; but the steps 

 just mentioned were formidable impediments in the way of 

 the Spanish cavalry, especially as in the early period of the 

 Conquista, the Spaniards rode horses only, and did not make 

 use of the sure-footed mule, which, in mountainous precipices, 

 seems to reflect on every step he takes. It was only at 

 a later period that the Spanish troops were mounted on 

 mules. 



Sarmiento, who saw the Inca roads whilst they were in a 

 perfect state of preservation, mentions them in a Relation 

 which he wrote, and which long lay buried in the Library of 

 the Escurial. " How," he asks, " could a people, unacquainted 

 with the use of iron, have constructed such great and magni- 

 ficent roads, {caminos tan grandes, y tan sovervios), and in 

 regions so elevated as the countries between Cuzco and Quito, 

 and between Cuzco and the coast of Chili?" " The Emperor 

 Charles," he adds, "with all his power, could not have accom- 

 plished even a part of what was done by the well-directed 

 Government of the Incas, and the obedient race of people 

 under its rule." Hernando Pizarro, the most educated of 

 the three brothers, who expiated his misdeeds by twenty 

 years of captivity in Medina del Campo, and who died at 



