of Cambyses could not prevent many inestimable remains of Egyptian learning from being handed down to the present times, so is the utter annihilation of the monuments of the Yncas far from having been accomplished. Their ruins are every where to be found; and, in the midst of the ravages they have suffered, offer sufficient materials to form an estimate of the arts, sciences, and policy, of those by whom they were raised.
The famous obelisks and statues of Tiahuanacu[1]; together with the mausolea of Chahapoyas[2]; works destined to chal-
- ↑ This town, situated on the confines of the city of la Paz, is unquestionably anterior to the monarchy of the Yncas, notwithstanding one of them bestowed on it its present name, the origin of which is said to be as follows: the Ynca fell in there with a messenger, whose dispatch in travelling was so great, that it might be compared to the swiftness of the huanaco, an animal having some degree of resemblance to the bouquetin, or wild goat of the Alps. The Ynca, alluding to this circumstance, said to the messenger, when he was brought into his presence, Tia-Huanaco, be seated, huanaco. To perpetuate the remembrance of the celerity of the messenger, and the condescension of the monarch, this name was substituted to the one the place originally bore. The formidable pyramid it contains, and the colossal statues of stone, together with a variety of human figures nicely cut out of the same substance, although decayed by time, point out that this monument belonged to some gigantic nation.
- ↑ The province of Chaliapoyas contains buildings of stone, of a conical shape,
tered in the air his respectable ashes. Don Pedro de la Gasca, a virtuous Spaniard, whose name ought to be engraven on all the public monuments of Peru, punished this and the other crimes of the perfidious Pizarro, by causing him to be decapitated beside the monument he had so scandalously outraged. The foreign writers who dwell so pertinaciously on the horrors which attended the conquest of Peru, when they exaggerate the misconduct of some of the early adventurers, ought not to forget the heroism and virtues of this learned president, and of many others, who, by imitating his example, have not only wiped away the national stains on this score, but have also rendered the Spanish name illustrious by their valour and heroic deeds.
