MONUMENTS OF ANCIENT PERU. 



15 



lenge duration with eternity, not only on account of the soU- 

 dity of their materials, but also of the sites on which they were 

 ere6led, alike display their skill in sculpture, and their ambi- 

 tion for immortality. That they were extremely solicitous on 

 this head, both with respe6l to the sculptures and the dead 

 bodies, is attested by the multitude of mummies which, after 

 a lapse of so many years, indeed, of so many ages, are to be 

 found entire in the catacombs. The examination of them, 

 may, perhaps, instru6t us in the mode by which they contrived 

 to secure them from putrefa6lion, and from the destrudlive 

 hand of time*. 



The ruins of Pachacamac ; the edifices of Cuzco and Quito ; 

 the fortresses of Herbay and Caxahuana ; and the roads cut 

 through the middle of the Cordillera mountains, the one more 

 especially, in the formation of which the most elevated hills 

 were to be made level with the vallies-f , attest the skill of the 

 ancient Indians in civil and military arcliite6ture. 



The 



supporting large unwieldy busts. They are situated on the declivities of mountains, 

 and in spots so inaccessible, that, in their construftion, both the materials and the 

 workmen must have been lowered down by the means of strong cordage. They ap- 

 pear to have been the mausolea of certain caciques or principal people, who, being 

 desirous to perpetuate their memory, endeavoured not only to secure these monu- 

 ments from the ravages of time, by forming them of the most durable substance, but 

 also from the rude attacks of man, by placing them where the precipice would pre- 

 vent his approach. 



* It is conjedlurcd by some, that the Indians preserved the dead bodies, merely by 

 exposing them to the aflion of frost. This supposition might be allowed, if these 

 mummies were alone to be found in Sierra, and in the cold temperatures. But, on 

 the other hand, they ai e to be met with in abundance, in catacombs dug out in the 

 vallies, and in the warmer climates. 



t The authors of the Encyclopedia, under the head of America, deny the exist- 

 ence 



