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Show PLATEAU OF CAXAl\lA.RCA. 419 between Manco Capac and Pizarro. But the history of the Empire of Peru only recognises thirteen ruling princes of the Inca-dynasty, a number which, as Pre cott very justly remarks, is not sufficient to occupy so long an interval as 550 or even 400 years. Quetzalcoatl, Botschica, and l\Ianco Capac are the three mythical forms with which the commencements of civilization among the Aztecs, the Muyscas (more properly Chibchas), and the Peruvians, are connected. Quetzalcoatl, bearded, clothed in black, a high priest of Tula, subsequently a penance-performing anchorite on a mountain near Tlaxapuchicalco, comes to the highlands of Mexico from the coast of Panuco ; therefore, from the eastern coast of Anahuac. Botschica, or rather Nemterequeteba (B) (a Buddha of the Muyscas), a messenger sent by the Deity, bearded and wearing long garments, arrives in the high plains of Bogota from the grassy steppes east of the chain of the Andes. Before Manco Capac, a degree of civilization already prevailed on the picturesque shores of the Lake of Titicaca. The strong fort of Cuzco, on the hill of Sacsahuaman, was formed on the pattern of the older constructions of Tiahuanaco. In the same manner, the Aztecs imitated the pyramidal structures of the Toltecs, and these, those of the Olmecs (Hulmecs); and, gradually ascending, we arrive, still on historic ground in Mexico, as far back as the sixth century of our era. According to Siguenza, the Toltec step-pyramid (or Teocalli) of Cholula is a repetition of the form of the Hulmec step-pyramid of Teotihuacan. Thus, as we penetrate through each successive stratum of civilization, we arrive at an earlier one; and national self-consciousness not having awoke simultaneously in the two Continents, we find in each nation the imaginative, mythical domain always immediately preceding the period of historic knowledge. Notwithstanding the tribute of admiration which the first Conquistadores paid to the roads and aqueducts of the Peruvians, not only did they neglect the repair and preservation of both these classes of useful works, but they even wantonly destroyed them; and this still more towards the sea-coast (for the sake of obtaining fine cut stones for new buildings; and where the want of water consequent on the destruction of the aqueducts has rendered the soil barren) than on the ridges of the Andes, or in the deep-cleft valleys by which the mountain chain is intersected. In the long day's journey |