"Whether the number of the llamas was really | pendent sovereign :-the usurpation of the so considerable as it is stated to have been, may crown, and the death of his brother Huasfairly be doubted; but that a vast quantity of gold was on its way to Caxamarca, and was concealed, his kindred and minions, instead of humbly car; squandering the public revenues on is a well authenticated fact. That the Indians should never have made any attempt to recover accounting for the whole to the Spaniards; this treasure is quite consistent with their character. idolatry, and polygamy, which implied It is not improbable that even now some particular adultery-and in which the Spaniards individuals among them may know the place of themselves had permitted him to indulge, concealment; but a certain feeling of awe, trans- by not debarring him from the enjoyment mitted through several centuries from father to of his harem. son, has, in their minds, associated the hidden treasure with the blood of their last king, and this feeling doubtless prompts them to keep the secret inviolate. "From traditionary accounts, which bear the appearance of probability, it would appear that the gold was buried somewhere in the Altos of Mito, near the valley of Jauja. Searches have frequently been made in that vicinity, but no clue to the hiding-place has yet been discovered."Tschudi, pp. 325, 326. The death to which Atahuallpa was condemned was intended, no doubt, to proclaim the real crime for which he was to be supposed to suffer; he was to be burnt alive, as an obstinate infidel-as refusing to believe in the religion of Him whose commandments of humility, of self-denial, of gentleness, of holiness, were preached with such wonderful consistency in the lives of Pizarro and his crew. It was only because, in his Dr. Tschudi, or his translator, has trans-wild agony of terror at such a death, he muted the famous name of Almagro into gave a desperate assent to the truth of the Almangra; and he has at once vulgarized Gospel, that the more merciful "garrote" and impaired the awful atrocity of Ata- (the Spanish mode of strangling criminals) huallpa's execution by the familiar phrase was substituted for the pile, which was alwith which he despatches the monarch. ready blazing to burn him alive and the Atahuallpa, when the utmost amount of priest who ministered, and the soldiers who treasure had been wrung from his prodigal stood around, and Pizarro, who is said to fears, and more prodigal faith in the honor have wept iron tears at the scene, no doubt of the Spaniards, had become a burden, were gravely persuaded that poor Atahuallpa an embarrassment, a danger to the con- was thereby released (notwithstanding his querors. Never was a case in which neces- usurpations, the cruelties in war, and sity, the tyrant's plea, was more unblush- sensualities in peace, on which he had been ingly alleged to justify a monstrous crime. arraigned, and with which his memory is It was a singular illustration of the absolute loaded by some of the Spanish writers) unity and completeness of the Peruvian from the eternal fires of hell, of which the polity, that the possession of the Inca's pyre on which he was to suffer was the foreperson had altogether paralysed, and held taste and guarantee; that, if not received as it were in unmovable consternation, his into heaven, he was admitted into a milder whole realm. Without a sign from the and a terminable purgatory: and all of king no one dared to rise even for the them, probably, drew great comfort from rescue of the king: the armies had no this act of evangelic charity! general, the people had no head; no orders The awful Nemesis of Atahuallpa may being issued, Peruvian loyalty dared not seem to hover, throughout their later hisdisplay itself without orders. But for tory, over the whole house of Pizarro. This the Spaniards it was equally impracticable tragedy, with all its eventful vicissitudes, to release the king or to retain him longer forms the subject of Mr. Prescott's second in bondage. His death was therefore re-volume. But we are not disposed to antisolved; but it was not by the summary cipate further our reader's instruction and process which Dr. Tschudi seems to indicate. entertainment When he has closed the first There was the solemn mockery of a trial, volume, he will not need our recommendain which the one charge, on which there tion to hold on his course through the might have been some suspicion of guilt, second. the attempt or the design to excite insur- Before we closed Mr. Prescott's History rection against the Spaniards, was aggra- we received the volume of Travels in Peru vated by such articles as the following, on by the distinguished German naturalist which the Spaniards, with the sanction of Dr. Tschudi, translated, with creditable their Christian teacher, Father Valverde, ease and fluency, by "Thomasina Ross." did not scruple to arraign a great inde-It is an agreeable work, in which the pecu liar pursuits of the naturalist (of which the scientific results have been published by Dr. Tschudi in a larger and more expensive form) are so told as to interest the common reader, and are very amusingly mingled up with personal adventures, and with accounts of the country, of the population, of Lima the capital, and of some of the mining districts. It is not only in itself a lively and entertaining Book of Travels, but furnishes a curious commentary on the History of Mr. Prescott, as enabling us to contrast the melancholy results of Spanish conquest, still worse of Spanish misgovernment, and, at present, of foolish and contemptible wars between the different provinces of the old Peruvian empire, with the former and barbarous condition of the country. Lima, under the Spaniards, became the capital, instead of "Cuzco, in Peru, the richer seat We must refer to Mr. Prescott for the de- noon also disappears. The great humidity gives rise to many diseases, particularly fevers, and the alternations from heat to damp cause dysentery. On an average, the victims to this disease are very rently regular but distant periods, epidemic. The numerous, It is endemic, and becomes, at appaintermittent fevers or agues, called tercianus, are throughout the whole of Peru very dangerous, both during their course and in their consequences. It may be regarded as certain that two-thirds of the people of Lima are suffering at all times from tercanos, or from the consequences of the disease. their arrival in Lima, but some years afterwards. It usually attacks foreigners, not immediately on In general, the tribute of acclimation is not so soon paid by emigrants in Lima as in other tropical regions."-Tschudi, pp. 159, 160. We know not how far the more inland situation of Cuzco may render it less liable to suffer from earthquakes, or how far the wisdom and experience of the Peruvians warned them to keep their great cities at a distance from the more perilous sea-shore, but Lima might almost seem built over some centre of the earth's internal strife: Tschudi," the atmosphere is almost uniformly in "Along the whole coast of Peru," writes Dr. a state of repose. It is not illuminated by the lightning's flash, or disturbed by the roar of the thunder: no deluges of rain, no fierce hurricanes destroy the fruits of the fields, and with them the hopes of the husbandman. "The central situation of the spot recommended it as a suitable residence for the Peruvian viceroy, whence he might hold easy communication with "But the mildness of the elements above ground the different parts of the country, and keep vigilant is frightfully counterbalanced by their subterranean watch over his Indian vazoole. delightful, and, though only twelve degrees south and several times the city has been reduced to a The climate was fury. Lima is frequently visited by earthquakes, of the line, was So far tempered by the cool mass of ruins. breezes that generally blow from the Pacific, or may be counted on in the year. At an average, forty-five shocks from the opposite quarter down the frozen sides of occur in the latter part of October, in November, Most of them the Cordilleras, that the heat was less than in cor- December, January, May, and June. Experience responding latitudes on the continent. rained on the coast; but this dryness was correct-lating earthquakes in a century. The period beIt never gives reason to expect the visitation of two desoed by a vaporous cloud, which, through the sum-tween the two is from forty to sixty years. The mer months, hung like a curtain over the valley, most considerable catastrophes experienced in sheltering it from the rays of a tropical sun, and Lima since Europeans have visited the west coast imperceptibly distilling a refreshing moisture, that of South America, happened in the years 1586, clothed the fields in the brightest verdure."-Ib., 1630, 1687, 1713, 1746, 1806. There is reason vol. ii., p. 21. to fear that in the course of a few years this city may be the prey of another such visitation.”—1b., pp. 162, 163. Dr. Tschudi's personal observation must be compared with this glowing picture : Dr. Tschudi describes strikingly the effect of the earthquake upon the native and upon the stranger : "The climate of Lima is agreeable, but not very healthy. During six months, from April to October, a heavy, damp, but not cold mist overhangs the city. The summer is always hot, but not oppressive. The transition from one season to an-this feeling. The inhabitant of Lima, who from "No familiarity with the phenomenon can blunt other is gradual, and almost imperceptible. In childhood has frequently witnessed these convul October and November the misty canopy begins to sions of nature, is roused from his sleep by the rise; it becomes thinner, and yields to the pene-shock, and rushes from his apartment with the cry trating rays of the sun. In April the horizon of Misericordia? The foreigner from the north begins to resume the misty veil: the mornings are of Europe, who knows nothing of earthquakes but cool and overcast, but the middle of the day is by description, waits with impatience to feel the clear. In a few weeks after, the brightness of movement of the earth, and longs to hear with his own ears the subterraneous sounds which he has hitherto considered fabulous. With levity he treats the apprehension of a coming convulsion, and laughs at the fears of the natives; but as soon as his wish is gratified, he is terror-stricken, and is involuntarily prompted to seek safety in flight." -Ib., p. 170. The population of the country offers the most unfavorable point of comparison. Notwithstanding the fulness and accuracy with which the Peruvian government is said to have kept its registers, we are not aware that there is any authentic statement of the population in the whole dominions of the Incas; but all the accounts lead us to suppose that the numbers were very great in proportion to the habitable part of the territory. Dr. Tschudi asserts that "the whole present population of the country extending from the 3d to the 22d degree of South latitude, is but 1,400,000❞—at least one-fourth less than that of London and its suburbs. The character of the population is as extraordinary as its still diminishing paucity -for in Lima the inhabitants, which in 1810 amounted to 87,000, in 1842 had sunk to 53,000-and parts of the city are quite deserted. Of course the capital is not to be taken as a fair example of the amount of varieties in the breed of human beings-nor we trust of the morality, considering that the number of children born out of wedlock considerably surpasses those born in legitimate union. But the German Doctor's list of crosses in Lima is a curiosity. Indian Father and Cuarterona or Quintera Mother Dr. Tschudi's moral conclusions are as melancholy as his statistics : Yet nature seems to be almost as bountiful as in the better days of this favored "To define their characteristics correctly would land, and only wants the regular tribute of be impossible, for their minds partake of the mix-human industry. The production of the ture of their blood. As a general rule, it may sugar-cane in Peru Proper seems to have fairly be said that they unite in themselves all the been substituted for that of maize, which Dr. faults, without any of the virtues, of their pro- is supplied in exchange by Chili. genitors. As men they are greatly inferior to the Tschudi marks the curious circumstance pure races, and as members of society they are that, "since the earthquake of 1687, the the worst class of citizens. I wish my observacrops of maize on the Peruvian coast have tions to be understood only in a general sense. been inconsiderable." But his account of have met with some honorable exceptions; though, unfortunately, they were mere solitary the other products, especially of the fruits, luminaries, whose transient light has been speedily tends to make less improbable the records obscured by the surrounding darkness."-Ib., pp. of the industrial paradise found, and alas! blighted, by Spanish rule. 91, 92. I The Indians, in the interior, still brood and reached his employers too late to conover their wrongs with deep and indelible duct them to the spot, which remains unanimosity. Centuries of oppression have known to the present day. The Indian thinned their numbers, but not altogether and all his family disappeared. In another crushed the memory of better times. The case, a gambling monk (a Franciscan, laws which were issued from Europe under vowed to poverty!) was led by an Indian the influence of men like Gasca, who es- friend blindfolded to a place, where," the tablished the Spanish rule, and by the bandage being removed from his eyes, he better clergy, were always eluded by the discovered that he was in a small and someexecutive in Peru. The repartimientos, the what shallow shaft, and was surrounded by compulsory purchases of European goods masses of silver;"-he was allowed to take by the natives, though intended to relieve as much as he could carry; but, bethinking them from the frauds and extortions of the himself no doubt of our old friend in the Spanish merchants, proved cruelly oppres-nursery tale, as he went along he dropped sive, forcing the poor Indians to bestow the beads of his rosary (a pious use!) to their small means on that of which they guide him back to the dear masses. But had no need, or on which they looked with even a Franciscan is no match in craft for aversion. But far worse were the Mitas an Indian. In a couple of hours his Indian and the Pongos-the Mitas enforced labor friend knocked at his door with a handful in the mines, the Pongos a kind of domestic of beads: "Father, you have dropped your servitude. Nine millions of lives are com- rosary on the way, and I have picked it monly said to have been sacrificed to the up cruel, wasteful, and unmitigated toils ex- The Peruvians are a gloomy people: this torted from the Indians in the mines of is manifested in their songs, their dances, Peru. Dr. Tschudi thinks this estimate their dress, and their whole domestic econotoo high. But if the tradition linger in my; it is the gloom of three centuries of their minds, of the mild and considerate oppression-and there is danger, if we are treatment even of the miners under their to believe Dr. Tschudi, in their gloom. native kings, no wonder that the unquench- During the whole of the Spanish rule insurable animosity should rankle in the depths rections were frequent. At the close of the of their hearts. The Peruvian miners last century, 1780-1, a rebellion broke out, inflict one, and that a remarkable revenge which was formidable for a time-its leader upon their oppressors. They possess, or Tupac Amaru, who seems to have been encourage in pardonable malice the sup-nerally recognised as a lineal descendant of position of their possessing, old tradition- the last Inca. It was overcome by treachary knowledge of treasures, which they ery, and suppressed with remorseless baroccasionally betray, only to tempt avarice, barity. and then bury again in more profound secresy. Notwithstanding the enormous amount of wealth which the mines of Peru have already yielded, and still continue to yield, only a very small portion of the silver veins have been worked. It is a well-known fact, that the Indians are aware of the existence of many rich mines, the situation of which they will never disclose to the whites, nor to the detested mestizos. Heretofore mining has been to them all toil and little profit, and it has bound them in chains from which they will not easily emancipate themselves. For centuries past, the knowledge of some of the richest silvermines has been with inviolable secresy transmitted from father to son. All endeavors to prevail on them to divulge these secrets have hitherto been fruitless."—Ib., p. 345. Dr. Tschudi here relates two anecdotesone of a mine betrayed by a Peruvian girl to a youth with whom she was in love. He was discovered in the act of breaking into the mine by the old Indian father, poisoned, ge The Indians joined in the Colonial revolt against Spain, but the result of that movement produced no independence to them they have now drawn off within themselves, and await their time. "Since the War of Independence the Indians have made immense progress. During the civil war, which was kept up uninterruptedly for the space of twenty years, they were taught military manœuvres and the use of fire-arms. After every lost battle the retreating Indians carried with them in their flight their muskets, which they still keep carefully concealed. They are also acquainted with the manufacture of gunpowder, of which in all their festivals they use great quantities for squibs and rockets. The materials for the preparation of gunpowder are found in abundance in the valleys of the Sierra."-lb., p. 478. Even the change of faith has in no way blended them with the foreign population which possesses the land of their fathers. "The Christian religion has been spread among the Indians by force; and for centuries past they according to their singular polity, were anhave regarded the priests only in the light of ty- nually granted and resumed by the State. rants, who make religion a cloak for the most It is no wonder indeed that here and there scandalous pecuniary extortions, and whose con- these conduits have perished, if, as Dr. duct is in direct opposition to the doctrines they profess. If they render to them unconditional Tschudi was told, some of the water-pipes obedience, accompanied by a sort of timid reve- were of gold. But above all there are vast rence, it is to be attributed less to the operation of remains of palaces, fortresses, and temples. the Christian principle than to a lingering attach-"The walls of these edifices," writes Dr. ment to the theocratic government of the Incas, which has impressed the Peruvians with a sacred awe of religion." —Ib., p. 482. Tschudi, (6 were built of square stones, so finely cut and joined so closely together, that between any two there is not sufficient But the traveller still contemplates the space to insert the edge of the thinnest pamonuments of the departed magnificence per." In the royal palace at Cuzco, and and the wisdom of the Incas' rule, and so in the Temple of the Sun, there was a cefar bears witness to the romance of their ment of melted gold and silver. In ordigrandeur and the happiness of the people. nary cases, however, the stones so poised The great military road from Cuzco to and fitted were supported by their own Quito may be traced by many remains weight. Dr. Tschudi supposes that these throughout its vast length, crossing as it stones, some of which are from twelve to did the awful heights of the Cordillera, sixteen feet long, from eight to ten high, spanning with its pensile bridges the and of the same breadth, were worked by most terrific ravines, and throwing off the friction of a harder stone, and afterto all the more important points its lateral wards polished by pyritous plants. They branches, so as to afford the most complete are of various shapes, some square, others means of communication, in the days when polygonal, and even spherical. But how the llama was the only beast of burden to they were extracted from the quarry, or elethe inhabitants of the whole empire. It was vated to their present heights, passes his from twenty-five to thirty feet broad, paved comprehension. The Peruvians seem to with large flat stones. At every interval have been ignorant of the lever and the of about twelve paces there was a row of pulley, and of all machinery of the kind: smaller stones laid horizontally and a little nothing therefore remains but the labor of elevated, so that the road ascended, as it thousands of men. If then Niebuhr's thewere, by a succession of terraces. It was ory, that all such colossal works necessarily edged on each side by a low parapet. Many imply not merely a monarchical or aristoof the stations for the messengers, who cratic government, but an oppressive and kept up a sort of human electric telegraph tyrannical abuse of despotic power-(and on this great road, are still entire. Each the fortresses seem to have been more giof these was on a hillock, and a signal being gantic constructions than the temples)—we hoisted to the next station, the messenger must make great reservations from the mild was met half-way by one from that station, and beneficent and parental sway of the Inand so the intelligence travelled on with cas. Yet even then we can hardly close great rapidity. And not messages alone, these two works without a painful and but luxuries: "The royal table in Cuzco somewhat compunctious feeling: in the nowas served with fresh fish, caught in the seable words of Mr. Wordsworthnear the Temple of the Sun in Xurin, a distance of more than 200 leagues from Cuzco." Besides these messenger-stations, vestiges of many of the broad round towers which were used for magazines of grain, are seen in the Altos of Southern and Central Peru. The aqueducts, by which the most barren sand-wastes and arid hills were converted into fruitful plantations, are to be traced throughout the whole of Peru. Where the watercourses have been destroyed, the limits of the Tapu lands (square fields of uniform size, surrounded by low stone walls) are discernible. These were the allotments to the people, which, "Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade Of that which once was great is passed away." GIGANTIC BIRDS' NESTS.-Mr. Gould describes the Wattled Talegalla, or Brush Turkey, of Australia, as adopting a most extraordinary process of nidification. The birds collect together an immense heap of decaying vegetable matter as a depository for the eggs, and trust to the heat engendered by decomposition for the development of the young. |