r^fi ULLOA*S VOYAGE TO SOUTH AMERICA. 



noftrils. There are alfo found collars, bracelets, and ear-pendants, refembling the 

 nofe-jewels : but all thefe are no thicker than paper : the idols, which are at full length, 

 are every where hollow within ; and as they are all of one piece, without any mark 

 of foldering, the method they ufed in making them is not eafily conceived. If it be 

 faid that they were caft, ftill the difficulty remains how the mould could be of fuch a 

 fragility as to be taken away without damaging works, which, in all their parts, are fo 

 extremely thin. 



The maize has ever been the delight of the Indians ; for, befides being their food, 

 their favourite liquor chicha was made of it ; the Indian artifls therefore ufed to fhew 

 their fkill in making ears of it in a kind of very hard flone ; and fo perfed was the 

 refemblance, that they could hardly be diflinguillied by the eye from nature ; efpecially 

 as the colour was imitated to the greatefl perfection ; fome reprefented the yellow 

 maize, fome the white ; and in others, the grains feemed as if fmoke-dried by the 

 length of time they had been kept in their houfes. The moil furprifing circumflance 

 of the whole is, the manner of their working, which, when we confider their want 

 of inftruments, and wretched form of thofe they had, appears an inexplicable myftery : 

 for either they worked with copper tools, a mettle little able to refill the hardnefs of 

 ftones ; or, to give the nice poliih confpicuous on their works, other flones mufl have 

 been ufed for tools. But the labour, time, and patience, requifite to make only a hole 

 in the gallinazos, as was made in the mirrours ; and much more to give their furfaces 

 fuch a fmoothnefs and polifh, that they are not to be diflinguifhed from the fined glafs, 

 mufl have been prodigious. Thefe are works which the mod ingenious of our artifts 

 would be extremely at a lofs to produce, if they were allowed only pieces of copper 

 and ftones, without any other tools or materials. It is the greateft proof of the inge^ 

 nuity of thefe people, that by mere dint of genius, and unaffifted by information, they 

 ihould attain to fuch contrivances and fuch a delicacy of workmanfhip. 



Yet all that we have faid is furpafled by the ingenuity of the Indians in working 

 emeralds, with which they were fupplied from the coaft of Manta, and the countries 

 dependent on the government of Atacames, Coaquis or Quaques. But thefe mines 

 are now entirely loft, very probably through negligence. Thefe curious emeralds are 

 found in the tombs of the Indians of Manta and Acatames: and are, in beauty, fize, 

 and hardnefs, fuperior to thofe found in the jurifdidlion of Santa Fe ; but what chiefly 

 raifes the admiration of the connoifleur is, to find them worked, fome in fpherical, fome 

 cylindrical, fome conical, and of various other figures ; and all with a perfed accuracy. 

 But the unfurmountable difficulty here is, to explain how they could work a ftone of 

 fuch hardnefs ; it being evident, that fteel and iron were utterly unknown to them. 

 They pierced emeralds, and other gems, with all the delicacy of the prefent times, 

 furnilhed with fo many tools : and the direction of the hole is alfo very obfervable ; in 

 fome it paffes through the diameter ; in others, only to the centre of the ftone, and 

 coming out at its circumference they formed triangles at a fmall diftance from one 

 another : and thus the figure of the ftone, to give it relief, was varied with the diredion 

 of the holes. 



After this account of the guacas of thefe idolatrous nations, the cuftom which 

 equally prevailed among the fouthern nations of Peru, I proceed to their fuperb edifices, 

 whether temples, palaces, or fortrefles : and though thofe in the kingdom of Quito are 

 not the moft ftately and magnificent, the court and refidence of the yncas having been 

 in the province of Cufco ; yet fome of the former fufficiently denote the grandeur of 

 the Indians who then inhabited it, and their fondnefs for fuch edifices j intending as it 



2 were 



