120 CRANIA AMERICANA. 



metal, were composed of copper alloyed with a very small proportion of tin, which 

 gave it great additional tenacity. It was with chisels of this kind that they 

 shaped those enormous blocks of stone which have already been mentioned. 



" Yet all we have said," observes UUoa, " is surpassed by the ingenuity with 

 which they wrought emeralds; these gems being found cut into various shapes, 

 some spherical, others cylindrical, conical, and various other shapes, made with 

 perfect accuracy, and drilled through with all the delicacy of our European artists. 

 It is an almost insurmountable difficulty to explain how they could work a stone 

 of such hardness."* 



The constructive talent of the Incas was also conspicuous in their roads. 

 One of these is eminently deserving of notice, and is thus described by Humboldt, 

 in his journey across the plains of Assuay. " We were surprised to find in this 

 place, and at heights which greatly surpass the top of the peak of Teneriffe, the 

 magnificent remains of a road constructed by the Incas of Peru. This causeway, 

 lined with freestone, may be compared to the finest Roman roads I have seen in 

 Italy, France or Spain. It is perfectly straight, and keeps the same direction for 

 six or eight thousand metres. We observed the continuation of this road near 

 Caxamarca, one hundred and twenty leagues to the south of Assuay ; and it is 

 believed in the country that it led as far as the city of Cuzco."t 



After a review of the preceding facts, how idle is the assertion of Dr. Robert- 

 son, that America contained no monuments older than the conquest ! How 

 replete with ignorance are also the aspersions of Pinkerton and De Pauw ! Two 

 of these authors, who wrote expressly on American history, are unpardonable for 

 such gross misrepresentation. They appear to have veiled the truth in order to 

 support an hypothesis.f It is in vain longer to contend against facts ; for how- 

 ever difficult it may be to explain them, they are nevertheless incontrovertible. 

 Whence the Peruvians derived their civilisation, may long remain a mooted 

 question; that they possessed it, cannot be denied. "At a time when a public 

 highway was either a relic of Roman greatness, or a sort of nonentity in England, 

 there were roads fifteen hundred miles in length in the empire of Peru. The 

 feudal system was as firmly established in these transatlantic kingdoms as in 

 France. The Peruvians were ignorant of the art of forming an arch, but they 



* Quoted in M'Culloh's Researches, p. 366. t Monuments, I, p. 241. 



i Robertson, Hist. Amer. II, p. 110. •^m. ed. — Pinkerton, Essay on the Goths, p. 6S. — De 

 Pauw, passim. 



