THE PLATEAU OF CAXAMARCA. 397 



Peruvian roads. Those great works, in the northern part of 

 the Inca Empire, on the table-land of Quito, must certainly 

 have been completed in less than thirty or thirty-five years ; 

 that is to say, in the short interval between the defeat of the 

 Ruler of Quito, and the death of the Inca Huayna Capac. With 

 respect to the southern, or those specially styled the Peruvian 

 roads, the period of their formation is involved in complete 

 obscurity. 



The date of the mysterious appearance of Manco Capac is 

 usually fixed 400 years prior to the arrival of Francisco 

 Pizarro, (who landed on the Island of Puna in the year 

 1532), consequently, about the middle of the twelfth century, 

 and full 200 years before the foundation of the city of Mexico 

 (Tenochtitlan) ; but instead of 400 years, some Spanish 

 writers represent the interval between Manco Capac and 

 Pizarro to have been 500, or even 550 years. However the 

 history of the Peruvian empire records only thirteen reign- 

 ing princes of the Inca dynasty, which, as Prescott justly 

 observes, is not a number sufficient to fill up so long a 

 period as 550, or even 400 years. Quezalcoatl, Botchia, 

 and Manco Capac, are the three mythical beings, with whom 

 are connected the earliest traces of cultivation among the 

 Aztecs, the Muyscas, (properly Chibchas), and the Peruvians. 

 Quezalcoatl, who is described as bearded and clothed in 

 black, was High Priest of Tula, and afterwards a penitent, 

 dwelling on a mountain near Tlaxapuchicalco. He is repre- 

 sented as having come from the coast of Panuco; and, 

 therefore, from the eastern part of Anahuac, on the Mexican 

 table-land. Botchia, or rather the bearded, long-robed Nem- 

 terequeteba (8), (literally messenger of God, a Buddha of 

 the Muyscas), came from the grassy steppes eastward of 

 the Andes chain, to the table-lands of Bogota. Before the 

 time of Manco Capac, some degree of civilization already 

 existed on the picturesque shores of the Lake of Titicaca. 

 The fortress of Cuzco, on the hill of Sacsahuaman, was built 



