MONUMENTS OP ANCIENT PERU. 13 



sketched by the pencil of Garcilaso. By the same means, the 

 fables relative to its religion and policy, adopted by the latest 

 historiographers, may be deciphered. The study of the mo- 

 numents erefted by the Yncas, to display their power and re- 

 cord their existence ; the recitals of their glories ; the tradi- 

 tions and relics of their ancient usages and customs, which 

 still remain among the modern Indians, who tenaciously pre- 

 serve and repeat what their forefathers have, from time imme- 

 morial, handed down to them; and, lastly, the investigation 

 of the works which were ere6led, either by magnificence or 

 through necessity, unquestionably afford a new light, calcu- 

 lated to remove the thick veil which is spread over the histori- 

 cal and civil parts of the Peruvian monarchy, during the whole 

 of the time that preceded its conquest. 



If the rage of avarice and ambition had been satisfied with 

 raking up the bowels of the earth, the memorials of ancient 

 Peru would have been multiplied and entire ; and while the 

 delineation would have been more easy, the copy would have 

 been more beautiful. But the execrable thirst of gold carried 

 desolation to the sepulchres, which are the last asylum of mor- 

 tals, but which were here no security to the ashes respefted by 

 the right of nations*. In the same way, however, as the fury 



of 



* In great conquests, havock and disorders are inevitable ; but those of the deles- 

 table Carvajal, and his friend Gonzalo Pizarro, were carried to an unheard-of ex- 

 cess. The latter put to the torture several of the Indians who had fallen into his 

 hands, to force them to discover the sepulchre of the Ynca Viracocha, in which 

 much treasure was said to be concealed. It was found in the valley of Caxahuana, 

 distant from Cuzco six leagues. Not content with glutting his avarice by the spoil 

 and riches he found in the sepulchre, he burned the corpse of this monarch, and scat- 

 tered 



