THE INCAS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3230, 5 November 1881, Page 3

THE INCAS.

Perhaps some of the most remarkable of ancient dwelling-places are the ruined homes of the Incas, still scattered about on that great continent which, by a strange misuse of terms, we call the New World. In these vestiges of palaces and large cities, on the worn stones of grand and massive monuments, lies the undeciphered history of that motley empire, in which fragments of surrounding races conquered by the Incas were mixed up in a high degree ; for before the waves of the Spanish invasion surged over Peru, there were no pages of history to turn back for a faithful picture of the national life; no possibility of tracing the successive steps which lead the Incas from their early seat of civilisation to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Tradition sayg that the first h,Qm,O9

of the Incas are to he found on the shores and islands of the sacred lake, Titicaca; and amongst the ruins there many objects of interest in gold and silver and pottery have been discovered. Some of the few rare specimens of pottery present fair representations of the people of those faroff times, which show that they were identical in feature with their descendants of the present day. But at the period when this race of kings are first met with in history, their empire extended for two thousand five hundred miles, and included the presedt states of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and part of Chili. It was traversed by the two great mountain ranges of the Cordilleras. A great portion of this vast kingdom was practically uninhabitable. On the plateau of the Despoblado, which lies far above the 1 limits of eternal snow, between the mountain ranges there is no trace of human habitation, excepting the small hut of refuge built by the Incas on the main road between the northern and southern parts of their dominions. And in the desolate region around the lake Umayo, the only distinguishing features are the inumerable chulpus or burying towers, which stand singly or in groups upon the desert plain. Round or square, these tombs are solid structures, with one small cavity at the base, entered by a narrow hole in the side. Some are in ruins; a few as perfect as when first completed ; many, doubtless, as completely vanished as the ashes they were meant to cover.—Chambers' Journal.