388 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



ready as quickly as possible, he blew his little horn or shell, and gave 

 the Other, thus warned, the message or document, and he ran with 

 it the same way. Thus this was all so well organized and so faithfully 

 carried out that if it was necessary, they would run 470 leagues, or 

 more than the distance between Quito and Cuzco, in less than 8 days ; 

 and in this way the Inca kings got news from all over their Kingdom, 

 widespread and extensive though it was, in quick time, so that they 

 could attend to what was asked of them. 



1150. The other King's Highway ran along the plains parallel with 

 the coast within sight of the sea. This was over 24 feet wide and 

 was like a very straight avenue, built between two adobe walls, 

 strongly and carefully made, so that even today a considerable part 

 of them remains standing, and I have seen them on most of the 

 plains of that kingdom. 



1151. This road runs from Tumbes and passes where the city of 

 San Miguel de Piura stands and along all the valleys of that kingdom 

 to the Kingdom of Chile, where the Plains Road and the Sierra 

 Road come together. In all the plains valleys it had royal houses 

 and apartments built with great pains ; a large part of them remain 

 standing and their ruins show what extensive and haughty buildings 

 they were; but all has decayed with time. This King's Highway for 

 the plains was walled in where the rivers run down to the sea ; but 

 for long remote stretches and on the uninhabited sand dunes, where 

 they could not succeed in road construction, they laid out and marked 

 off the road with rocks and stakes driven into the dunes ; and as it 

 does not rain in those regions, traces of them can be seen and remain 

 standing in many localities. 



1152. In this kingdom there are three features so different and 

 yet in combination that it would seem impossible to one who had not 

 seen it ; yet one should not be surprised, for the Glorious Doctor St. 

 Augustine and other saints were of the opinion that the Torrid Zone 

 is not habitable, and the contrary is true, for this is one of the most 

 populous and fertile countries in the world. The plains are 6 or 8 

 leagues wide, sometimes more, along the coast ; they run from Tumbes, 

 which is not 2° S., to Coquimbo, which is 32° S. The sierra will 

 average 20 leagues in width, sometimes more, with many hills, ravines 

 and some valleys. This is cool country. The Andes are 10 or 12 

 leagues across, heavily wooded and forested. The country is very 

 hot and damp ; many varieties of all sorts of animals live there, birds, 

 poisonous snakes and other vermin ; many kinds of delicious fruit 

 grow there, and the valuable and highly prized coca. 



