396 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



100 years of age, in the odour of sanctity (en olor de Sanitdad), 

 observes, alluding to the Inca roads: "Throughout the whole 

 of Christendom, no such roads are to be seen as those which 

 we here admire." Cuzco and Quito, the two principal capi- 

 tals of the Incas, are situated in a direct line south-south- 

 east, north-north-west in reference the one to the other. 

 Their distance apart, without calculating the many windings 

 of the road, is 1000 miles; including the windings of the 

 road, the distance is stated by Garcilaso de la Vega, and 

 other Conquistadores, to be "500 Spanish leguas." Not- 

 withstanding this vast distance, we are informed, on the 

 unquestionable testimony of the Licentiate Polo de Onde- 

 gardo, that Huayna Capac, whose father conquered Quito, 

 caused certain materials to be conveyed thither from Cuzco, 

 for the erection of the royal buildings, (the Inca dwellings). 

 In Quito, I found this tradition still current among the 

 natives. 



When, in the form of the earth, nature presents to man 

 formidable difficulties to contend against, those very diffi- 

 culties serve to stimulate the energy and courage of enter- 

 prizing races of people. Under the despotic centralizing 

 system of the Inca Government, security and rapidity of 

 communication, especially in relation to the movement of 

 troops, were matters of urgent state necessity. Hence the 

 construction of great roads, and the establishment of very- 

 excellent postal arrangements by the Peruvians. Among 

 nations in the most various degrees of civilization, national 

 energy is frequently observed to manifest itself, as it were by 

 preference, in some special direction; but the advancement 

 consequent on this sort of partial exertion, however strikingly 

 exhibited, by no means affords a criterion of the general culti- 

 vation of a people. Egyptians, Greeks (7), Etruscans, and 

 Romans, Chinese, Japanese, and Indians, present examples of 

 these contrasts. It would be difficult to determine, what 

 space of time may have been occupied in the execution of the 



