REMAINS IN PERU, 
257 
generation after generation has stood, lived, warred, grown old and passed 
away ; and not only their names, but their nation, their language lias per- 
ished, and utter oblivion has closed over their once populous abodes ! We 
call this the New World. It is old ! Age after age, and one physical revo- 
lution after another has passed over it — but who shall tell its history?'''' 
Who ? We have seen the memorials of three distinct races — but who 
can tell the origin of the first two — or even of the last ? And, yet, these 
are only part of the inhabitants of North America. 
I have attempted to describe to you the prominent remains that still exist 
farther south, in' the Valley of Mexico, and in other portions of the Re- 
public. Following the links of the chain still farther south. Messieurs 
Stephens and Catherwood have given an account oi forty cities visited by 
them in their second tour ; and they describe the ruins of others and their 
monuments, still more southerly, in their former volumes. 
In South America, we have only the most distinct accounts of Peru ; 
and although the Government of the Incas possessed no regular city but 
Cuzco, many interesting specimens have been exhumed from the " Gua- 
cas," or mounds, with which they covered the bodies of the dead. " Among 
these," says Dr. Rees, are "mirrors of various dimensions, oi hard shining 
stones, highly polished ; vessels of earthenware, of different forms ; hatchets 
and other instruments, some destined for war, and others for labor. Some 
were of flint, some of copjjer, hardened by an unknown process, to such a 
degree as to supply the place of iron." To these may be added a variety 
of curious drinking vessels, made of pottery baked and painted ; many 
specimens of which embellish the public and private Museums of our 
country, and are not unlike some that have been found in the Island of 
Sacrificios., 
PERUVIAN WATER VESSELS 
The public roads of the Peruvians were also v.^orthy of all praise ; 
especially those two magnificent highways traversing the country from 
Quito to Cuzco for fifteen hundred miles ; — the one passing through the in- 
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