274 PLATEAU OF CAXAMAECA. 



Hernando Pizarro, the most educated and civilised of the 

 three brothers, who for his misdeeds suffered a twenty years' 

 imprisonment at Medina del Campo, and died at last at a 

 hundred years of age " in the odour of sanctity/' " en olor 

 de Santidad," exclaims : " in the whole of Christendom 

 there are nowhere such fine roads as those which we here 

 admire/' The two important capitals and seats of govern- 

 ment of the Incas, Cuzco and Quito, are 1000 English geo-. 

 graphical miles apart in a straight line (SS.E., NN.W.), 

 without reckoning the many windings of the way ; and in- 

 cluding the windings, the distance is estimated by Garcilaso 

 de la Yega and other Conquistadores at "500 leguas." 

 Notwithstanding the great distance, we learn from the well- 

 confirmed testimony of the Licentiate Polo de Ondegardo, 

 that Huayna Capac, whose father had conquered Quito, 

 caused some of the building materials for the "princely 

 buildings/' (the houses of the Incas) in the latter city, to 

 be brought from Cuzco. 



When enterprising races inhabit a land where the 

 form of the ground presents to them difficulties on a 

 grand scale which they may encounter and overcome, this 

 contest with nature becomes a means of increasing their 

 strength and power as well as their courage. Under the 

 despotic centralizing system of the Inca-rule, security and 

 rapidity of communication, especially in the movement of 

 troops, became an important necessity of government. 

 Hence the construction of artificial roads on so grand a scale, 

 and hence also the establishment of a highly improved postal 

 system. Among nations in very different stages of culti- 



