CAXAMARCA. 255 



square miles in extent. The plain resembled that of Bo- 

 gota : both were probably the bottoms of ancient lakes. 

 But at Caxamarca there was wanting the myth of the 

 wonder-working Bochica, who opened for the waters a 

 passage through the rock of Tequendama. Caxamarca 

 was situated six hundred and forty feet higher than Bo- 

 gota — almost as high as the city of Quito ; but being 

 sheltered by surrounding mountains it enjoyed a far 

 milder and more agreeable climate. The soil was ex- 

 tremely fertile, and the plain full of cultivated fields and 

 gardens traversed by avenues of willows, large flowered 

 red, white, and yellow varieties of Datura, Mimosas, and 

 beautiful Quinuar- trees. Wheat yielded on an average in 

 the Pampa de Caxamarca fifteen to twenty fold, but the 

 hopes of a plentiful harvest were sometimes disappointed 

 by night frosts, occasioned by the great radiation of heat 

 towards the unclouded sky through the dry and rarefied 

 mountain air; these frosts were not felt in the roofed 

 houses. 



In the northern part of the plain, small porphyritic 

 domes broke through the widely extended sandstone 

 strata, and probably once formed islands in the ancient 

 lake before its waters had flowed off. On the summit of 

 one of these domes, the Cerro de Santa Polonia, the 

 travellers enjoyed a beautiful prospect. The ancient 

 residence of Atahuallpa was surrounded on this side by 

 fruit gardens and by irrigated fields of lucerne. Co- 

 lumns of smoke were seen at a distance rising from the 

 warm baths of Pultamarca, which were still called the 

 Baths of the Inca. Atahuallpa spent a part of the year 

 at these baths, where some slight remains of his palace 

 still survived the devastating rage of the Conquistadores. 



