CRANIA AMERICANA. 



THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS. 



Peru is a narrow strip of land between the Andes and the sea, bounded on 

 the south by a desert. Its fine climate, its productive soil, and its proximity to 

 the ocean, render it one of the most interesting divisions of the southern continent; 

 and its advantages appear to have been fully appreciated by the aborigines them- 

 selves, for there is evidence that several populous nations held successive dominion 

 in the country. 



History, even before the advent of the Spaniards, throws much light on one 

 of these nations ; that, for instance, which was governed by the Incas : yet, with 

 respect to the others, we know little else than what can be gleaned from their 

 monuments and cemeteries ; and however meagre these facts may appear, they 

 possess considerable interest, and the more so because so few others are available 

 to us. 



The arid region of Atacama* was the favorite sepulchre of the Peruvian 

 nations for successive ages ; for, while the climate tends rather to the desiccation 

 than to the decay of the dead, the mixed sand and salt of the desert have con- 

 tributed to the same end ; and the lifeless bodies of whole generations of the 

 former inhabitants of Peru may now be examined, like those from the Theban 

 catacombs, after the lapse of hundreds, perhaps of thousands of years. The great 

 number of the dead thus remaining in Peru, has been a subject of surprise to all 

 travellers, and serves to convey an idea of the vast population that has at different 



* The desert of Atacama divides the kingdom of Peru from that of Chil6, and is nearly an hundred 

 leagues in length. " In the midst of it is the River of Salt, the water whereof is so brackish that it 

 presently grows thick in the hand, or any vessel, and the banks are covered with salt.'^ — Herrera, 

 Dec. IV. Lib. IV. Cap. I. 



