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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. 
Cie^a, cap. 105, p. 255. 
