418 PLATEAU OP CAXAMARCA. 



Quito, are 1000 English geographical miles apart in a straight line 

 (SS.E., NN.W.), without reckoning the many windings of the 

 way; and including the windings, the distance is estimated by Gar- 

 cilasso de la Vega and other Conquistadores at " 500 leguas." Not- 

 withstanding the great distance, we learn, from the well-confirmed 

 testimony of the Licentiate Polo de Ondegardo, that Huayna Capac, 

 whose father had conquered Quito, caused some of the building 

 materials for the "princely buildings" (the houses of the Incas) in 

 the latter city, to be brought from Cuzco. 



"When enterprising races inhabit a laud where the form of the 

 ground presents to them difficulties on a grand scale which they 

 may encounter and overcome, this contest with nature becomes a 

 means of increasing their strength and power as- well as their 

 courage. Under the despotic, centralizing system of the Inca-rule, 

 security and rapidity of communication, especially in the movement 

 of troops, became an important necessity of government. Hence 

 the construction of artificial roads on so grand a scale, and hence 

 also the establishment of a highly improved postal system. Among 

 nations in very different stages of cultivation, we see the national 

 activity display itself with peculiar predilection in some particular 

 directions, but we can by no means determine the general state of 

 culture of a people from the striking development of such particular 

 and partial activity. Egyptians, Greeks, ( 7 ) Etruscans, and Romans, 

 Chinese, Japanese, and Hindoos show many interesting contrasts in 

 these respects. It is difficult to pronounce what length of time may 

 have been required for the execution of the Peruvian roads. The 

 great works in the northern part of the Empire of the Incas, in the 

 highlands of Quito, must at all events have been completed in less 

 than 30 or 35 years, i. e. within the short period intervening be- 

 tween the defeat of the Ruler of " Quitu" and the death of Huayna 

 Capac, but entire obscurity prevails as to the period of the forma- 

 tion of the Southern, and more properly speaking Peruvian roads. 



The mysterious appearance of Manco Capac is usually placed 400 

 years before the landing of Pizarro in the Island of Puna (1532), 

 therefore towards the middle of the 12th century, almost 200 years 

 before the foundation of the city of Mexico (Tenochtitlan) ; some 

 Spanish writers even reckon, instead of 400, 500 and 550 years 



