PLATEAU OF CAXAMA11CA. 419 



between Manco Capac and Pizarro. But the history of the Empire 

 of Peru only recognizes thirteen ruling princes of the Irica-dynasty, 

 a number which, as Prescott very justly remarks, is not sufficient to 

 occupy so long an interval as 550 or even 400 years. Quetzalcoatl, 

 Botschica, and Mauco Capac are the three mythical forms with 

 which the commencements of civilization among the Aztecs, the 

 Muyscas (more properly Chibchas), and the Peruvians, are connect- 

 ed. Quetzalcoatl, bearded, clothed in black, a high -priest of Tula, 

 subsequently a penance-performing anchorite on a mountain near 

 Tlaxapuchicalco, comes to the highlands of Mexico from the coast 

 of Panuco ; therefore, from the eastern coast of Anahuac. Botschica, 

 or rather Nemterequeteba ( 8 ) (a Buddha of the Muyscas), a mes- 

 senger sent by the Deity, bearded and wearing long garments, arrives 

 in the high plains of Bogota from the grassy steppes east of the chain 

 of the Andes. Before Manco Capac, a degree of civilization already 

 prevailed on the picturesque shores of the Lake of Titicaca. The 

 strong fort of Cuzco, on the hill of Sacsahuaman, was formed on the 

 pattern of the older constructions of Tiahuanaco. In the same man- 

 ner, the Aztecs imitated the pyramidal structures of the Toltecs, and 

 these, those of the Olmecs (Hulmecs) ; and, gradually ascending, we 

 arrive, still on historic ground in Mexico, as far back as the sixth 

 century of our era. According to Siguenza, the Toltec step-pyramid 

 (or Teocalli) of Cholula is a repetition of the form of the Hulmec 

 step-pyramid of Teotihuacan. Thus, as we penetrate through eaeh 

 successive stratum of civilization, we arrive at an earlier one; and 

 national self-consciousness not having awoke simultaneously in the 

 two Continents, we find in each nation the imaginative, mythical do- 

 main always immediately preceding the period of historic knowledge. 

 Notwithstanding the tribute of admiration which the first Con- 

 quistadores paid to the roads and aqueducts of the Peruvians, not 

 only did they neglect the repair and preservation of both these classes 

 of Useful works, but they even wantonly destroyed them; and this 

 still more towards the sea-coast (for the sake of obtaining fine cut 

 stones for new buildings; and where the want of water consequent 

 on the destruction of the aqueducts has rendered the soil barren) 

 than on the ridges of the Andes, or in the deep-cleft valleys by 

 which the mountain chain is intersected. In the long day's journey 



