No. 151.] 427 



with gold, to be dedicated to their Father, the Sun; where all the 

 Indians of the provinces, subject to the Incas, generally assembled 

 once a year to offer gold, silver and precious stones, in thankful ac- 

 knowledgments of the great blessings they had received. And so 

 immense was the quantity of gold and silver which was amassed in 

 that island, besides what was cast and wrought into utensils for the 

 service of the temple, that the report of it made by the Incas is in- 

 credible, and is more to be admired than believed. Bias Valera, a 

 Spanish historian, in speaking of the riches of this temple, says, 

 that after all the vessels and ornaments were supplied, he wa*^ told 

 by the Indians of Copa-Cabano, there was such a superfluity of gold 

 and silver, after all was finished, that another such temple might have 

 been erected without the aid of any other materials! And that, so 

 soon as the Indians had news of the invasion of the Spaniards, and 

 were informed that their object was to despoil them of their trea- 

 sures, they demolished their temple, and threw all the fragments and 

 the immense wealth appertaining thereto into the great lake. 



Those Incas, besides the riches they bestowed, and the encourage- 

 ment they gave for the adornment of this temple, did much to im- 

 prove the sterile land of this isle, so as to render it more fertile, and 

 fit to produce fruit; and, in gratitude to the place, on which they 

 believed their ancestors to have descended from heaven, they enno- 

 bled it by bringing it into the highest state of fertility and the best 

 of husbandry. To this end they levelled and cleared it of rocks and 

 stones, made gardens and covered them over with good earth and 

 manure brought from afar, and thereby made the ground capable of 

 producing maize, which, by reason of its elevation and its consequent 

 coldness of climate, would not grow in the country adjacent. This 

 grain, with flax and other seeds, they sowed in the gardens they had 

 made, which yielded*good increase, the fruits of which they sent as 

 sacred presents to the temple of the sun, and to the select virgins, 

 at Cuzco, with orders to distribute them in all other sacred places 

 throughout the dominions. One year they sent presents to Cuzco, 

 the next to another place, and the third year somewhere else, which 

 were held in high esteem, as sacred relics, sowing some in the gar- 

 dens belonging to the temples, and other public houses, and others 

 they divided among the people. A portion of the grain they cast 

 into the public granaries, and those of the sun and of the king, be- 

 lieving that some divine virtue was contained in it, and that it would 

 bless and increase the corn with which it was mixed, preserve it 

 from corruption, and render it more wholesome for human sustenance; 

 and that Indian who was so happy as to be able to get but one 



