INVESTIGATIONS IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 61 



one comes for scientific purposes, and tlie otiier to make a fortune." This latter 

 motive forbids the growtli of any generous or philanthropic feelings. Many of the 

 foreigners in the different states of tropical America are married to women of the 

 country. To do this they must become Catholics, and baptized if they were not 

 Catholics before. It is an interesting fact that in all my travels 1 never met with 

 a case in which the native-born bride abjured tlie Catholic religion and adopted 

 that of her husband. 



In Ecuador I collected a vocabulary of the Kichua language, Avhich I augmented 

 during my travel. It was impossible, however, to get the meaning of the term 

 veJica, which combined with ir-Jiuaiica, forms the name of a city in Peru, Whu- 

 ancavelica. I was very anxious to find the meaning of tliat word, as it is a term 

 likewise used in the Nahuatl language. My wish was to ascertain if any ri'la- 

 tionship existed between tliese two idioms, and to what extent. This desire was 

 the more intense as velica is a term also used in tlie Slavonic tongue, and as in the 

 Nahuatl are a few more expressions, like that of inetzti, "moon," which sound 

 very similar to some Slavonic terms. Not until I arrived in Lima was my desire 

 fulfilled. Velka, which was in former times spelled v'dlca, is a Spanish corruption 

 of the term ichlica (Germ, spell.), and signifies a fortified place; and Whuauna 

 was the name of an Indian tribe; hence Whuancawhlica (Germ, spell.) signifies 

 the stronghold of the Whuancas. 



Mr. Poumaroux, in Lima, possesses an exquisite collection of Peruvian antiqui- 

 ties made of all kinds of material, vegetable and mineral. As he told me that 

 Mr. Squier has taken two hundred photographic copies of tlie most interesting 

 objects, I shall refrain from saying anything about them. Besides this arclueo- 

 logical collection Mr. Poumaroux possesses likewise one of minerals, and a gallery 

 of engravings and paintings. 



Prom Lima I visited the Chincha Islands, on which I remained five weeks. I 

 had there occasion to observe the condition of the Chinese cooleys digging the 

 whuano, which was not much better than a kind of slavery. In former years tlieir 

 condition was still worse. When they signed the contract in China by wiiicli they 

 were bound to perform work for a number of years at a certain amount, they did 

 not know tliat they would be obliged to dig the whuano; consequently, when they 

 had to perform this awful work under a severe treatment, they committed suicide 

 by the dozen, jumping from the rocks of the island. 



I did not increase my archa3ological store by any relics from the islands, for, 

 nothing of this kind was discovered during my stay; althougli many such relics 

 were found at the commencement of the exportation of this fertilizer. 



During my stay on the islands, by the invitation of Captain AVherland, of the 

 British ship Tudor, I joined a boat excursion to tlie bay of Paraca, that part of the 

 bay of Pisco nearest to the promontory of Paraca. This forms the southern 

 boundary of the whole bay. The wind blowing from that quarter, that is, from 

 the south, is also called Paraca, ca in Kichua meaning "take." After having 

 passed the extreme end of the hilly promontory we found on the slope of a hill 

 not much less than a thousand feet high, a figure or pattern, several hundred feet 

 long and broad, executed by trenches in the apparently stony ground. From the 



