9 



spot there still exist some remains of those edi- 

 fices, which Pedro de Cie9a * has described with 

 great simplicity ; they seem never to have been 

 finished, and, at the arrival of the Spaniards, the 

 natives attributed the construction of them to a 

 race of white and bearded men, who inhabited 

 the ridge of the Cordilleras long before the 

 foundation of the empire of the Incas. American 

 architecture, we cannot too often repeat, can 

 cause no astonishment, either by the magnitude 

 of its works, or the elegance of their form ; but it 

 is highly interesting, as it throws light on the 

 history of the primitive civilization of the inha- 

 bitants of the mountains of the new continent. 



I have sketched, 1st, the plan of the Inca 

 Huayna-Capac's house : 2d, a part of the inner 

 wall of the most northerly apartment, seen on the 

 inside : 3d, the same part seen on the outside, but 

 within the court. In the external walls, opposite 

 the doors of the apartments, we find, instead of 

 niches, openings looking to the adjacent country. 

 I shall not decide, whether these windows were 

 originally niches (hocos), and opened in times 

 subsequent to the conquest, when this edifice 

 served as a dwelling to some Spanish family. 

 The natives on the contrary believe, that they 

 were made for the purpose of observing, whether 

 an enemy would attempt an attack against the 

 Inca's troops. 



* Cieca, cap. 105, p. 255; 



