544 



ULLOA's voyage to south AMERICA. 



which, confidering the magnitude of the works, and the few tools they were mafters 

 of, their contrivance and ingenuity are really admirable. And the work itfelf, though 

 deftitute of European fymmetry, elegance, and difpofition, is furprifmg, even in the 

 very performance of it. 



Thefe Indians raifed works both for the convenience and veneration of pofterity. 

 With thefe the plains, eminences, or leffer mountains, are covered ; like the Egyptians, 

 they had an extreme paflion for rendering their burial-places remarkable. If the latter 

 erected aftonifhing pyramids, in the centre of which their embalmed bodies were de- 

 pofited ; the Indians, having laid a body without burial in the place it was to reft in, 

 environed it with ftones and bricks as a tomb ; and the dependents, relations, and in- 

 timate acquaintance of the deceafed, threw fo much earth on it as to form a tumulus or 

 eminence which they called Guaca. The figure of thefe is not precifely pyramidical ; 

 the Indians feeming rather to have affefted the imitation of nature in mountains and 

 eminences. Their ufual height is about eight or ten toifes, and their length betwixt 

 twenty and twenty-five, and the breadth fomething lefs ; though there are others much 

 larger. I have already obferved, that thefe monuments are very common all over this 

 country ; but they are moft numerous within the jurifdidion of the town of Cayambe, 

 its plains being, as it were, covered with them. The reafon pf this is, that formerly 

 here was one of their principal temples, which they imagined muft communicate a fa- 

 cred quality to all the circumjacent country, and thence it was chofen for the burial- 

 place of the kings and caciques of Quito ; and, in imitation of them, the caciques of 

 all thefe villages were alfo interred there. 



The remarkable difference in the magnitude of thefe monuments feems to in- 

 dicate, that the guacas were always fuitable to the charader, dignity, or riches 

 of the perfon interred ; as indeed the great number of vaflals under fome of the 

 moft potent caciques, concurring to raife a guaca over his body, .it muft certain- 

 ly be confiderably larger than that of a private Indian, whofe guaca was raifed 

 only by his family and a few acquaintance : with them alfo were buried their furniture, 

 and many of their inftruments, both of gold, copper, ftone, and earth : and thefe now 

 are the objects of the curiofity or avarice of the Spaniards inhabiting the country ; 

 that many of them make it a great part of their bufinefs to break up thofe guacas, in 

 expedation of finding fomething valuable : and, milled by finding fome pieces of gold 

 here and there, they fo devote themfelves to this fearch, as to fpend in it both their 

 fubftance and time : though it muft be owned, that many, after a long perfeverance 

 under difappointments, have at length met with rich returns for all their labour and ex- 

 pence. Two inftances of this kind happened while we were in the country ; the firft 

 guaca had been opened near the village of Cayambe, in the plain of Pefillo, a little 

 before our arrival at Quito; and out of it were taken a confiderable quantity of "gold 

 utenfils ; fome of which we faw in the revenue-office, having been brought there as 

 equivalents for the fifths. The fecond was more recently difcovered in the jurifdidtion 

 of Paftos, by a Dominican friar, who, from a turn of genius for antiquities, had laid 

 out very large fums in this amufement ; and at laft met with a guaca in which he is faid 

 to have found great riches. This is certain, that he fent- fome valuable pieces to 

 the provincial of his order, and other perfons at Quito. The contents of moft of them 

 confift only of the Ikeleton of the perfon interred ; the earthen veifels in which he ufed 

 to drink chica, now called Guaqueros ; fome copper axes, looking-glaiTes of the ynca- 

 ftone, and things of that kind, being of little or no value, except for their great anti- 

 quity, and their being the works of a rude illiterate people. 



The 



