sketched by the pencil of Garcilaso. By the same means, the fables relative to its religion and policy, adopted by the latest historiographers, may be deciphered. The study of the monuments erected by the Yncas, to display their power and record their existence; the recitals of their glories; the traditions and relics of their ancient usages and customs, which still remain among the modern Indians, who tenaciously preserve and repeat what their forefathers have, from time immemorial, handed down to them; and, lastly, the investigation of the works which were erected, either by magnificence or through necessity, unquestionably afford a new light, calculated to remove the thick veil which is spread over the historical and civil parts of the Peruvian monarchy, during the whole of the time that preceded its conquest.
If the rage of avarice and ambition had been satisfied with raking up the bowels of the earth, the memorials of ancient Peru would have been multiplied and entire; and while the delineation would have been more easy, the copy would have been more beautiful. But the execrable thirst of gold carried desolation to the sepulchres, which are the last asylum of mortals, but which were here no security to the ashes respected by the right of nations[1]. In the same way, however, as the fury
- ↑ In great conquests, havock and disorders are inevitable; but those of the detestable Carvajal, and his friend Gonzalo Pizarro, were carried to an unheard-of excess. The latter put to the torture several of the Indians who had fallen into his hands, to force them to discover the sepulchre of the Ynca Viracocha, in which much treasure was said to be concealed. It was found in the valley of Câxâhuana, distant from Cuzco six leagues. Not content with glutting his avarice by the spoil and riches he found in the sepulchre, he burned the corpse of this monarch, and scat-
