'186 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



six miles long and three or four wide. Here, according to tradition, Manco Capac, 

 and Mama Oella, at once his sister and wife, both children of the sun and commissioned 

 by that luminary, started on their errand to civilize the barbarous tribes that occupied 

 the country. Manco Capac was directed to travel northward until he reached a spot 

 where his golden staff should sink into the ground of its own accord; and there he 

 was to fix the seat of his empire. He traveled slowly along the western shore of the 

 lake, through the broad bleak Puna lands, crossing the water-shed which separates the 

 streams which fiad their outlet through the La Plata from those which form the mighty 

 Amazon, whose mouths lie 2,500 miles apart in a straight line. Striking the river 

 Vilcanota, an affluent of the Ucayali, one of the main branches of the Amazon, he 

 descended its valley, until, after a journey of three hundred miles, his golden staff 

 sank into the ground upon the spot where the city of Cuzco now stands. Here he 

 fixed his seat, and here arose the City of the Sun, the capital of the Inca empire, which 

 in time spread over a length of 37<^ of latitude, and in breadth from the eastern base 

 of the Andes westward to where the Pacific beats against the deeply planted feet of 

 the Cordillera. 



So runs the legend ; but there is much mythical matter incorporated into the tra- 

 ditions respecting Manco Capac. We find this counterpart in the Fohi of the Chinese, 

 the Buddha of the Hindus, the Osiris of Egypt, the Odin of Scandinavia, the Jatza- 

 coal of Mexico, the Votan of Central America. Still there can be no doubt that he 

 is a real historical character, to whom, however, have been attributed many of the 

 achievements of those who preceded him, and perhaps of some who followed him. 

 The time when he lived is altogether uncertain. Some, studying the quippus or 

 knotted cords, which are the only records of ancient Peruvian history, place his advent 

 back to within five centuries after the deluge. But the best authorities give the date 

 approximately at about four centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards under Pizarro, 

 or about 1000 A. D., the period when all Christendom was hurling itself in the 

 crusades upon the Holy Land. 



The rule of Manco Capac was at first limited to the region close by Cuzco ; but 

 under his successors the Inca dominion, by alliances and conquests, spread far and 

 wide. The greatest of the Inca monarchs was Huayna Capac, who in 1475 led his 

 forces as far northward as Quito, a distance of 1,200 miles from Cuzco. He made 

 Quito his residence. At his death the empire was divided between his two sons, 

 Huascar, who reigned at Cuzco, and Atahuallpa at Quito. Civil war ensued, Huascar 

 was defeated and slain, and Atahuallpa remained sole Inca. During the war Pizarro, 

 coasting down from the Isthmus of Darien, landed at Tumbez, conquered Atahuallpa, 

 and overthrew the Inca civilization. 



This civilization, in some respects one of the most remarkable which the world has 

 ever seen, had its origin in the lofty table-land of the Puna, which we are now con- 

 sidering ; and far and wide as the reign of the Incas subsequently extended, they and 

 their subjects always retained their reverence for the little rocky islet in Lake Titicaca, 

 where it had its origin. At the northern end of the island is a frayed and water-worn 

 mass of red sandstone, about 225 feet long and 25 feet high. This is the sacred rock 

 of Manco Capac, the most holy spot in all Peru. Upon it, as was believed, no bird 

 would alight, no animal venture, and upon which no human being not of the royal 

 blood dared set his foot. From this rock the sun first rose to dispel the primal vapors 



