262 OVEE THE EASTEKN CORDILLERA. 



leys of the Ancles. Along the flank of the Eastern Cor- 

 dillera may be seen to-day remnants of the great road 

 which once connected Lima, Cuzco, and Quito, the three 

 great centres of the Peruvian kingdom. Upon the table- 

 lands, massive ruins of the temples of the sun mark the 

 devotion of the people to their religion. As we might 

 expect, traditions of their former state of happiness exist 

 among the Peruvian Indians, who still look for the resto- 

 ration of the Inca dynasty, longing for its mild, paternal 

 sway, while crushed by Spanish oppression. The corrupt- 

 ing influence of this foreign civilization has wrought a 

 great change upon these Indians. A certain chief being 

 asked why he shunned civilization, replied : " What you 

 call civilization is simply a collection of vices ; before you 

 came among my people they were pure and good ; see 

 what your civilization has made them." 



It is interesting to observe that every instance of 

 high, indigenous ciAdlization among tlie primitive nations 

 of the New World was looked down upon by the loftiest 

 peaks of the highest mountain-ranges. Witness the civ- 

 ilization of the Quitus and Carans, guarded by the noble 

 mountains which stand about the Quito Valley ; and, again, 

 that of the Incas, nourished into national strength and 

 vigor amid the peerless peaks of the highlands of Titi- 

 caca, and later spreading itself over the Quitonian valley ; 

 observe, also, the civilization of the Montezumas, walled 

 in by the Cordilleras of Mexico. Shall we consider the 

 influence of their mountain-home as the originating and 

 moulding power which determined those characteristics 

 that so widely distinguished the Indians of the plateaux 

 of the Andes, and the table-lands of Mexico, from all 

 other American tribes ? So Rnskin would. He would 

 tell us that, as we find the dweller of the plain sharing in 

 his nature the tameness of the scenery about Lim, so we 

 must expect the mountaineer to partake of the stern en- 



