INHABITANTS OP PERU. 



265 



first and most celebrated city. It was conje6lurcd to be the 

 capital of the empire of Dorado, so called, because gold not 

 only glittered in the temples, palaces, and gardens, as in Peru, 

 but likewise, according to report, in every part of its vast ter- 

 ritory, insomuch, that the banks and profound depth of the 

 lakes, nay, the groves even, were covered with that precious 

 metal. One of its discoverers, who was enabled, by the dis- 

 persion of the advanced bodies of troops stationed to defend 

 the frontiers, to reach a point whence he descried the above- 

 mentioned capital, reported that its walls were crowned with 

 statues and turrets of the finest gold, which was infinitely more 

 flattering to the view, than were the gardens with which Semi- 

 ramis adorned the walls of Babylon, and even than the Ely- 

 sium of the poets. So grateful a piece of intelligence, to which 

 the spoils of Atahualpa and Montezuma attached some degree 

 of credit, made a rapid progress from America to the north 

 of Europe. While the Pizarros, in Peru, Ordaz, in Quito, 

 and Quezada, in the new kingdom, made preparations for its 

 conquest ; and while the court of Madrid glowed with pre- 

 tensions founded on a priority of claim, and fitted ships in 

 the ports of Spain, the a6tive English, and other powers, 

 opened their coffers, and redoubled their efforts, with a view 

 to be the foremost to seize on the prize. But this prize, like 

 the enchanted palaces of fairy tales, fled from province to 

 province, mocking those by whom it was pursued. The ima- 

 gination, and the eyes, view objedts in a different manner. 

 To the latter they diminish with the distance, and augment 

 in proportion as they are approached : but to the former, on 

 the other rhand, they enlarge in the ratio of the space by 

 which they are separated, and decrease in the same manner 



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