Mapas de Bolivia: 1601, 1834, 1837, 1851

Bolivia siempre tuvo mar, no fue un invento de Bolívar

 

Bosquejo estadístico de Bolivia (1851) José María Dalence. Chuquisaca, Imprenta de Sucre.

"Bolivia linda por el S.O. con la república Chilena, por el Sur con la Arjentina; por el S.E. con el Paraguay, por el E. y N. con el imperio del Brasil; por el N. con el Perú y por el O. con el mismo Perú y el mar Pacífico.
"La línea divisoria entre Bolivia y Chile (3) comienza con el río Salado, que por junto al Paposo, desemboca en el Pacífico á los 25° 39' y dirijiéndose luego al E.S.E. remonta la Cordillera por Baquillas y llega a Portezuelo que sirve de límite á la provincia arjentina de Catamarca y nuestro Canton de Antofagasta. De aquí vuelve al N.O. por los desiertos nevados del Chacoalto, bojeando por la ábra de Carachapampa, Serro Galan y Puerta de Burros, los curatos arjentinos de belén, Santa María, Cachi, Rinconada y Santa Catalina y separándoles de los cantones bolivianos de Antofagasta, San Antonio de Lípez, Esmoraca y Talina hasta Laquiaca.
[...]
"Desde Alpaquerí que está a los 17° 15' de latitud, continua la linea al S.S.O. demarcando la provincia de Carangas de Oruro y la de Tarapacá del Perú pasa en seguida al ponienten de los nevados de Sajama, por el centro de la Laguna de Chungará que dista 7 leguas de estos nevados hacia el O.S.O., y 27 del Canton Curaguara de Carangas. Desde allí toma al S.S.O. y corre al poniente de las estancias de Tamboquemado, Paquiza, Surirí, Lliscaya, Parajaya, Chacorí, Piraga y Anocaruta, situadas todas á las raíces de alturas más o menos grandes, y al O. de las serranías nevadas de tatasahaya y Carangas, igualmente que de las que toma sus fuentes primitivas el rio Lauca. Esta parte del lindero corresponde á los cantones de Curaguara, Turco y Cuachacalla, hasta los 19° 50' de latitud S.; desde donde limitando al canton Llica de Potosí, corre por un largo despoblado entre Lipez y Pica hasta el rio Loa, que formando la linea divisoria desemboca en el acífico á los 21° 30'. Aquí principia nuestro Litoral, y concluye en el rio Salado de que antes hice mención. He señalado estos linderos con la prolijidad que se advierte, porque jamás se han publicado, y para que puedan servir también de gobierno á las autoridades limítrofes."

Nota:
3) Esta línea se hallaba mas al Sur; pero los de Copiapó se nos han avanzado mucho. Véase el antiguo Cedulario impreso de Indias, tomo 2° desde la pájina 25. El Cronista Herrera en la Descripción de las Indias, capítulo 21 de conformidad á las cédulas citadas, enuncia los límites de Charcas, comenzando por el Norte del modo siguiente: "Charcas está en 20 y 1/2 de altura austral, por el rio nombre de Dios (Sana) y principio de la laguna del collado: tendrá de largo 300 leguas hasta el valle de Copiapó, principio de la Provincia de Chile, en 28 de altura; aunque de viaje se cuentan 400 leguas y de E. á O. lo que hay entre la Costa del mar del Sur y la del Norte." Para la mejor intelijencia léase el capítulo 24 de la misma descripción.

Peru, Chile & Buenos Aires, Robert Wilkinson 1837. Para quienes no están familiarizados con la historia de la región, aquí el cartógrafo ha dibujado el Virreinato del rio de La Plata (incluye Paraguay y Uruguay además de Bolivia).



Peru and Bolivia, John Tallis, c.1851



Peru and Boliva, John Dower, 1834

ANTIQUE MAPS RICHARD NICHOLSON OF CHESTER es una tienda especializada en mapas antiguos, como también atlases, libros, mapas genealógicos, tablas históricas y cronológicas, etc. Los mapas comprenden a su vez diversos géneros, mapas de caminos, mapas topográficos de Escocia, Gales, Irlanda, Inglaterra. Además de las islas británicas, la Casa Richard Nicholson ofrece mapas de Africa, Asia, Europa y las Américas.

Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas (1559-1625)

Fue nombrado Cronista Mayor de Castilla en 1598 y de las Indias en 1596. Lalabor historiográfica de Herrera comenzó con la Descripción de las Indias Occidentales, publicada en 1601 de forma independiente. Está considerada la introducción de sus Décadas. Trata el medio geográfico como herramienta de ayuda para comprender la historia, localizando los lugares principales y ofreciendo la configuración del territorio como marco de operaciones donde tuvieron lugar los hechos. (Biblioteca C.V.)

Descripcion de las Indias Oc(c)identales (1601)

Dedicatoria

AL LICENCIADO PAVLO DE LAGUNA PRESIDENTE DEL REAL Y SUPREMO CONSEJO DE INDIAS

El Licenciado Ivan de Obando predecesor de V.S. en cuyo tiempo fue instituido el oficio de Coronista mayor de las Indias, para efeto de escrevir con mayor autoridad, fundamento y verdad los hechos de los Castellanos en el nuevo mundo y para ver e esaminar lo que otros Coronistas escriviessen, porque halló que casi a todo lo escrito no se podia dar fe, por la demasiada licencia con que hasta entonces se avia hecho: Puso gran diligencia en recoger las mas ciertas relaciones que se hallaron así en las Indias como en España, de lo sucedido en los descubrimientos de aquellas Regiones, fundaciones de aquellos pueblos y costumbres de auqella gente: y aviendose pasado muchos años, por su muerte, sin dar principio a esta historia, en siendo proveido V.S. por Presidente del Real y supremo Consejo de Indias, conociendo quanto convenía que no estuviesen mas tiempo sepultados hechos tan dignos de memoria y que fuesen escritos por Coronista Real, pues de la historia se saca tanto fruto y es tan excelente tanto a la pintura como el ánima al cuerpo, contra la opinión de un escritor moderno. Proveyendo de todos los medios necesarios con liberalidad y diligencia, ha sido el puro y unico instrumento, siguiendo la opinión de S. Agustín, para que esta Historia y la Descripción que se sigue aya llegado al estado en que se ve, y porque no ha sido el menos importante honrar al autor, animandole a llevar adelante tan gran trabajo, conformandose con el parecer universal de lo mucho que se deve a las vigilias y trabajos de los escritores, poniendo este oficio de Coronista Mayor en el punto y reputacion que tan ilustre exercicio merece, como lo han juzgado los mas eminentes hombres del mundo y se estima y platica entre todas las naciones por barbaras que sean, será V.S. eternamente loado y agradecido de todos los interesados por lo que se ha procurado hazer mencion de sus padres y antepasados con sus nombres y naturaleza lo mas que ha sido posible, contra la barbara y injustisima opinion de Ivan Bautista Ramusio en su Proemio en el tercero volumen de las Navegaciones adonde dize ser cosa vana y ridiculosa que trabajen los autores Españoles en escrevir los nombres y patria de los que sirvieron en las cosas de las Indias. En que muestra el veneno de la embidia que se ha tenido a los hechos gloriosos destos Catolicos Reyes y de la nacion Castellana, pues sirven las Coronicas de honrar lo bueno y vituperar lo malo, para exemplo de los venideros, lo qual no se podria conseguir con el parecer deste Ramusio, a quien quadra el dicho de Cato contra los Griegos, pero el de V.S. ha sido conforme a su prudencia y valor, del qual como es justo avra perpetua memoria y por lo que por esta causa le deve esta nacion, della será eternamente reconocido. Guarde Dios a V.S. de Valladolid a 15 de Otubre, de 1601.

-Antonio de Herrera

Cap. XIX. Del distrito del audiencia de los Reyes [hoy Lima]. Es propia, y particularmente lo que se dize Pirú, el distrito del Audiencia de los reyes, y se comprehende de Norte Sur, desde seys hasta siete grados de altura Austral, q' son docientas y veynte leguas, aunq' de viage ponen trecientas, desde la punta del aguja adelante de Payta, por donde se junta con la Audiencia del Quito, hasta pasada la ciudad y puerto de Arequipa, adonde comienza la de los Charcas [hoy Bolivia], Leste Oeste. Tendrá lo poblado desta Audiencia, como hasta 100 leguas de la costa de la mar del Sur para el Oriente, por donde le quedan limites abiertos hasta las provincias del rio de la Plata, y del Brasil, lo q' ay desde la Cordillera adonde desde ha dicho q' continuamente llueve, hasta la mar, llaman los llanos del Pirú, en los cuales no llueve, ni truena, porque la gran altura de lo sierra abriga los llanos, de suerte que no deja soplar viento de tierra [...] El gobierno desta Audiencia, y de la del Quito, y los Charcas, es a cargo del Visorrey [...] También reside en esta ciudad la Metropoli Arzobispal, cuyos sufraganeos son los obispos de Chile, Charcas, Cuzco, Quito, Panamá, Nicaragua y rio de la Plata [...]

El Collao
[...] En los baños que llaman de Inga cerca del Cuzco, ay dos caños de agua cerca el uno del otro, que el primero es caliente y el segundo frio, que parece que Dios los puso alli para templarse, en el mismo distrito ay una fuente que como va manando se comienzan apartar las dos cordilleras grandes, y hazen en medio una gran campaña, que llaman la provincia del Collao, adonde ay gran cantidad de rios, y está la laguna Titicaca, y grandes tierras y pastos, y aunque es tierra llana, tiene la misma altura, y destemplanza de las sierras, no cria arboleda ni leña: el pan que se come son raizes que llaman papas, que tambien se crian en todo el Pirú, es tierra sana y muy poblada y se acrecienta cadia y tiene muchos ganados de todas suertes.

La laguna Titicaca
La laguna Titicaca boxa ochenta leguas y en algunas partes tiene de fondo ochenta brazas y en esto y en las olas que levanta quando ay viento parece algún seno de mar, de la qual estará como sesenta leguas, entran en ella doze o treze rios y muchos arroyos, y sale della un rio que entra en otra laguna que llaman de los Aullagas, que no tiene desaguadero, aunque por debaxo de tierra van a dar a la mar, se juzga que podría ser que el agua destos lagos fuesse abriendo camino por las entrañas de la tierra hasta la mar: estan en el contorno de la laguna grande muchos pueblos, y en ella islas y grandes sementeras y alli suelen los Indios guardar sus cosas más preciadas por mayor seguridad.


El Cuzco
La gran ciudad del Cuzco, asiento real de los Ingas y cabeza de su Imperio y aora de los reynos del Pirú, por título que dello tiene de los Reyes de Castilla y León, está en treze grados y medio de altura, setenta y ocho de longitud, ciento veynte y cinco leguas de la ciudad de los Reyes, al Sueste, de mas de mil vezinos Castellanos, fundola el Marques don Francisco Pizarro, tiene ocho Parroquias y quatro monasterios de las Quatro Ordenes, de santo Domingo, san Francisco, S. Agustin, la Merced y la Compañía, y uno de monjas, aqui reside la Catedral sufraganea al arzobispado de los Reyes, salen desde el tiempo de los Ingas, de la plaza de esta ciudad quatro caminos Reales para las quatro partes del mundo, uno que llaman Chinchasuyo, al Norte, para los llanos y provincia del Quito, otro Condesuyo al Poniente, para la mar: otro Collasuyo al Sur y Chile, y el quarto al Oriente, que dizen Andesuyo, que va a los Andes y faldas de la sierra, está en comarca de buen temple, fresco moderadamente, y sano, libre de todas sabandijas venenosas y fertil de todas cosas con mil maneras de frutas de Castilla y yervas y flores olorosas en todos tiempos que son de gran deleyte, está en su jurisdicion el Valle Toyma y otros de mucha granjería de cocas y muestras de minas de oro, plata y azogue, y avra en su jurisdicion cien mil Indios tributarios, en todas las partes de estas Indias tienen los Indios gran gusto en traer en la boca de ordinario raizes o yervas, y lo que mas usan en todo el Pirú es la coca, porque según dizen, sienten poco la hambre y se hallan con gran vigor mascandola siempre, aunque mas parece costumbre o vicios heredados: esta coca se planta y da pequeños arboles, que se cultivan y regalan y dan la oja como arrayan y seca en cestos se lleva a vender y se saca mucho dinero della.

[...]




 

 Cap. XXI. Del distrito del Audiencia de la Plata, o de los Charcas. El distrito de la audiencia de los Charcas, que parte terminos con la de los Reyes está en 20 grados y medio de altura Austral, por el rio del Nombre de Dios, y principio de la laguna del collao, tendrá de largo 300 leguas hasta el Valle de Copiapo, principio de la provincia de Chile en 28 grados de altura, aunque de viage se cuenta cerca de 400 leguas y Leste Oeste, lo que hay entre la costa del mar del Sur, hasta la del Norte, o Medio dia que respponde a las provincias del rio de la Plata, que aunque no está del todo descubierto, se entiende que porque metiendo en mucha altura toda la tierra desta Audiencia, es más fria que caliente.

El gobierno de este Audiencia es a cargo del Virrey del Pirú, como el del Audiencia de Quito y el de los Reyes: ay dos governadores y dos Obispados, el de los Charcas y Tucumán, la provincia de los Charcas, que se nombra comunmente lo que ay desde donde s ejunta con el distrito del audiencia de los reyes, hasta pasado Potosí, y tendra de largo Norte Sur como 150 leguas y otras tantas Leste Oeste, tierra no muy fertil aunque abundosa de ganados, especialmente en el Collao, que es desde la laguna de Titicaca hasta los Charcas, adonde el Invierno y el Verano son al contrario que en Europa, es tierra abundante de todo ganado, en especial de ovejas que ay muchas y de muy fina lana.

Ay en esta provincia 4 pueblos de Castellanos de un bispado, que son la ciudad de la Plata, que pobló el Capitan Peranzurez, año de 1583, por orden del Marques don Francisco pizarro, está en 72 grados de longitud del Meridiano de Toledo, de donde distara por un circulo mayor 1780 leguas y en 19 grados de latitud 175 leguas del Cuzco a la parte del Sur, o Polo Antartico dentro de los trópicos, en lo último de la Torridazona, estarán en la comarca de esta ciudad en Chacaras, que son heredades de grangerías 800 vezinos Castellanos, es tierra fria en extremo, aviendo de ser tempalda o caliente, conforme a la altura del Polo que está: reside en esta ciudad el Audiencia y la Catedral y monasterios de Dominicos, Franciscos, Agustinos y de la Merced y en su jurisdiccion 60 mil Indios tributarios, repartidos en 29 repartimientos y danse bien las semillas de Castilla y ay muchas minas de plata rica.

Nuestra señora de la Paz
La ciudad de nuestra Señora de la Paz, por otro nombre Pueblo Nuevo y Chuquiabo, en medio del Collao 100 leguas del Cuzco y 80 de la Plata, tiene monasterios de Franciscos, Agustinos y de la Merced, con mucho vino y muchos ganados, fundola el capitan Alonzo de Mendoza año de 1549 siendo Presidente el Governador del Pirú, el Licenciado Pedro la Gasca, Obispo de Sigüenza que fue despues. La provincia de Chicuito, en el Collao, como al Nordeste de la Plata, mas de 100 leguas della, población de Indios, con el Corregidor Castellano, del Obispado de los Charcas, y un monasterio de Dominicos, tiene mucho ganado y esta al orilla Titicaca. Oropesa es poblacion del Visorrey, don Francisco de Toledo, en el valle de Cochabamba 20 leguas de la ciudad de la Plata, es su grangeria cosecha de trigo, mayz y ganados.

Potosí
La villa Imperial de Potosi, en 19 grados de altura 18 leguas de la ciudad de la Plata, y como 8 de la laguna de los Aullagas, al Oriente, en la falda del Cerro de Potosi, que mira al Nordeste, tendrá 500 casas de Castellanos que atienden a las minas, y de mercaderes, y hasta cincuenta mil indios de ordinario, yentes y vinientes a la grangeria de la plata, y aunque es villa de por sí no tiene Corregidor, sino el de la ciudad de la Plata; residen aquí los Oficiales y la caxa Real desta provincia, por las minas del cerro de Potosi, que descubrió año de 1545 un Castellano llamado Villarroel, por medio de ciertos Indios, y llamase Potosí porque los Indios dizen así a los cerros y cosas altas. Y fue tanta la plata que se sacó en los rpincipios que el años 1549 cada Sábado que se hazía la fundición, tocava a los quintos Reales de 25 mil hasta 30 mil pesos: el cerro es raso y pelado, su habitación seca y fría, desabrida y del todo estéril, que no produze fruto, grano ni yerva y pro causa de la plata es la mayor población de las Indias, que tendrá dos leguas de contorno y adonde se halla todo genero de regalo y abundancia, aunque de acarreo: la color de la tierra del cerro tira a bermejo escuro: su forma es como un pan de azucar que señorea todos los otros cerros que le estan cerca: la subida es áspera, aunque se anda a caballo, boxa una legua y desde su punta a la raiz avra un quarto de legua, tiene por todas partes muy ricas betas de plata, de alto a baxo, y el puerto de Arica por donde se meten las mercaderias y se saca la plata deste cerro, estará del noventa leguas, casi al Poniente.

A seys leguas del referido cerro en el camino del puerto de arica, está el cerro de Porco, asiento antiguo de minas de plata: de donde se afirma que los Ingas sacaron la mayor parte de la plata que avia en el templo del sol de Curinché, de donde todavía se saca y se sacará mucha plata.

Santa Ctruz de la Sierra
 Está 100 leguas de los Charcas santa Cruz de la sierra, al Oriente, en el camino por donde va de los Charcas al Assumcion, en las provincias del rio de la plata, hasta donde ponen 300 leguas de camino, con un Governador proveido por el Visrorrey, de la diocesis de los Charcas y un monasterio de la Merced, en tierra falta de agua, aunque fertil de trigo, vino y mayz; esta provincia tiene vecindad con muchas naciones de Indios infieles, y muchos dellos se han ya bautizado y el primero que puso devoción en los naturales fue un soldado Castellano que se andava entre ellos huydo por delitos, que por ansia grandissima que tenía de agua los hizo una gran cruz y persuadió que la adorasen con devoción y pidiessen agua y Dios por su misericordia los oyó y dio grandes lluvias; el año 1560 salio el Capitan Nuflo de Chaves, de la ciudad de la Ascension en el rio de la Plata a descubrir y llegado a Santa Cruz de la Sierra, aviendo echo grandes descubrimientos, se le bolvió la gente y pareciéndole que estaba cerca del Pirú fue a la ciudad de los Reyes, adonde era Vosirrey el marques de caññete, y con su orden y por Teniente de su hijo don García de Mendoza, bolvió el capitán Nuflo de Chaves a poblar esta ciudad aunque salió del rio de la Plata, con fin de descubrir las provincias del Dorado.

Puertos y puntas de la costa desta Audiencia
En la costa desta Audiencia, que comienca en 17 grados y medio, en el rio de Nombre de Dios, o Tambopalla, ay el puerto de Hilo junto a un rio, en 18 grados y medio y mas al Sur, el Morro de los diablos, y el puerto de Arica en 19 grados y un tercio, y el de Tacáma en veynte y uno, y la punta de Tarapaca al Sur, y mas adelnate rio de Pica, y el de la Hoja, y de Montelo, puerto de Mexillones, y mas al Sur, punta de los Farallones, o Morro Moreno, antes de la bahia, y rio de santa Clara, y mas al Sur, la quebrada y punta Blanca, y quebrada Honda, y el rio de Santa Clara, como treynta leguas del rio de Copiapo, adonde comienca la costa de Chile, y se acaba la de los Charcas. (p.63)

La provincia del TucumánLa provincia y governación de tucuman es toda Mediterranea, comienza su distrito desde la tierra de los Chichas, que son de la juridicion de la villa Imperial de Potosi, esta en el parage de la ciudad de la assumcion, del rio de la Plata, como cien leguas de la costa de la mar del Sur, confina con la provincia de Chile, es tierra de buen temple, medianamente fertil y hasta ora sin minas de plata, ni de oro, ay en ella algunos pueblos de Castellanos en un Obispado, que son de la ciudad de Santiago del Estero, que al principio la nombraron del Varco, en 28 grados de altura 185 leguas  del Potosí, al Sur declinando algo al Oriente; reside aquí el Governador, oficiales del hazienda y caxa real, y el Obispado y la catedral.

Talavera
La ciudad de Santa María de Talavera 45 leguas de santiago, al Norte, y 40 de Potosí en 26 grados. San Miguel. La ciudad San Miguel de Tucuman 28 leguas de Santiago, al Poniente, en el camino de los Charcas en 127 grados, pobláronse en esta governación en tiempo de don García de Mendoza, siendo Visorrey su padre el Marques de Cañete. La nueva Londres y Calchaque, que llamaron nueva Cordura, en la provincia de los jurias  y Draguitas que se despoblaron dentro de pocos años. La gente de esta tierra anda toda vestida de lana y de cuero labrado, con policía a manera de guadarmeci de Castilla: criase mucho ganado de la tierra, por causa de las lanas que se aprovechan, tienen muy cercanas las poblaciones unas de otras, y los pueblos son chicos, porque no hay más de una parentela en cada uno, están en redondo cercados con cordones y arboles espinosos por las guerras que entre elos tenían: son grandes labradores y es gente que no se embriaga porque no se dan al bever, como otras naciones destas Indias: ay en la provincia siete rios caudales y mas de 80 arroyos de buenas aguas y grandes pastos: el Invierno y el Verano es a los tiempos que en Castilla, es tierra sana de buen temple y los primeros que entraron en ella fueron los Capitanes Diegos de ojas, Felipe Gutierrez y Nicolas de Heredia y llegaron a descubrir por esta parte el rio de la Plata hasta la fortaleza de Gaboto.




Bolivia siempre tuvo mar. "Descripcion del Audiencia de los Charcas [hoy Bolivia]": Rio Nombre de Dios o Tambopalla, Hilo, Morro de los Diablos, Puerto de Arica [hoy Perú], Puerto de Tacama, Punta de Tarapáca, Rio de La hoja, Bahía de Motela, Puerto de Mexillones, Punta de Farallones, Morro Moreno, Bahia de Santa Clara, Quebrada, Blanca, Santa Clara, Copiapo (Chile); tierra adentro figuran las ciudades de Potosí, La Plata, La Paz y Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Mapa publicado en la Descripción de las Indias Ocidentales (1601), Antonio de Herrera, Coronista Mayor de su Magd de las Indias y su Coronista de Castilla. Obviamente lo que interesa destacar con este mapa no son los límites con el Perú actual, sino con el antiguo Chile.



Cap. XXII. Del distrito del reyno de Chile. Año de 1534, en Toledo fue proueido don Diego de Almagro, por Gouernador de 200 leguas de tierra mas adelante de la gouernación del Marqués don Francisco Pizarro, hacia el estrecho de Magallanes, intitulando a esta parte la gouernación de la nueva Toledo, fue a pacificar esta tierra, y porque la desamparó, se encargó año de mil y quinientos y treinta y siete, el Marqués don Francisco Pizarro, y él la encomendó año de 1540 al Capitán Pedro de Valdivia, y fue con 150 Castellanos, estan todas las tierras deste Reyno al Sur de la linea Equinocial, en mas Austral altura que el Reyno del Pirú, y sus provincias dentro de la Torrida, desde la Equinocial hasta el Tropico de Capricornio, que pasa por un despoblado que llaman de Atacama, que está de 23 grados, hasta 26 y luego comienza el reyno de Chile, que los indios dicen Chille, y antes de la tierra poblada está en 23 grados y tres quartos el rio de la Sal [...]

Descripcion de la Provincia de Chile: Valle de Copiapo, Rio Copiapo, Rio de Guasco, La Serena, Rio Coquimbo, P. de la Ligua, P. Quintero, Topocalma, Santiago, Valparaiso... etc. Mapa publicado en la Descripción de las Indias Ocidentales, Antonio de Herrera, Coronista Mayor de su Magd de las Indias y su Coronista de Castilla, 1601. (Nota: por más que he buscado un mapa de mejor resolución de este primer mapa de Chile publicado en el libro de Herrera y Tordesillas, no me ha sido posible encontrarlo, sólo he conseguido versiones borrosas del mismo. Es una lástima que el único que encontré publicado fue en un sitio de autor chileno que lo quitó inmediatamente de la red tras la observación hecha por mí acerca de que la Audiencia de Charcas es otro de los nombres antiguos con que fue conocida Bolivia.)

 

Descripción breve del reino del Perú, Tucumán, Río de la Plata y Chile (1605)

Fray Reginaldo de Lizárraga (1545-1615)

Libro primero

Capítulo I

De la descripción del Perú. De qué gente procedan los indios



La Atlántida, mítica civilización desaparecida de que da cuenda Platón
(Ilustración: 10 lugares inexistentes que nos gustaría conocer)



Lo más dificultoso de toda esta materia es averiguar de qué gentes procedan los indios que habitan estos larguísimos y anchísimos reinos, porque como no tengan escripturas, ni ellos ni nosotros sabemos quien fueron sus predescesores ni pobladores destas tierras, mucha parte della; despobladas o por la destemplanza del calor, o por el demasiado frío, o por los médanos de arena y llanos estériles por falta de las aguas. Porque afirmar lo que dice Platón en el libro que intituló Timeo, que desembocando por el estrecho de Gibraltar en el mar Occéano, no muy lejos de la tierra firme, se descubría una isla mayor que la Europa y toda la Asia, que contenía en sí diez reinos, la cual, con una inundación del mar toda se anegó y destruyó de tal manera que no quedó rastro della, sino el mar ancho que hay por ventura desde Cabo Verde al Brasil; lo cual no es creíble, por no se hallar en ningún autor mención dello, ni es posible. Lo que parece se puede rastrear de los primos genitores destos indios descubiertos desde las primeras islas: Deseada, Marigalante, Dominica y las demás, Sancto Domingo, Cuba, Habana, Puerto Rico y la Tierra Firme, reino de México y del Perú, es llegarnos a lo que dice Floriano de Ocampo en la Historia general que comenzó de España, que es lo siguiente: Que cuando los cartaginenses eran señores de alguna parte del Andalucía, desembocando con temporal por el estrecho de Gibraltar ciertos navíos de los Cartaginenses se derrotaron hacia el Occidente, corriendo la derrota que agora se navega por aquel mar ancho, y no pararon hasta descubrir unas islas que por ventura son las arriba referidas, y viéndolas tan fértiles, pobladas de arboledas, ríos y sabanas, que son llanos abundantes de yerba, como vegas de pastos, los más allí se quedaron, y volvieron los otros a Cartago, los cuales, proponiendo en el Senado lo que habían descubierto, y fertilidad de la tierra, convernía poblar aquellas islas despobladas. Empero por aquellos senadores cartaginenses fue acordado por entonces se dejase de tratar de aquello, mandando, con mucho rigor nadie volviese a aquellas islas, porque tenían por más importante el señorío y riqueza de nuestra España que poblar nuevas tierras.



Noé, el Diluvio Universal y el Arco de la Alianza, libro de Génesis 9. Lizárraga parece conocer
la versión andina del Diluvio Universal y las 4 parejas. (Ilustración: Hora cero)



Destos pudo ser que navegando y buscando tierra firme diesen con ella, y dellos se poblasen estos reinos; y esto no parece dificultoso de imaginar, porque los cartaginenses que se quedaron en aquellas islas, con algunos navíos se habían de quedar, con los cuales pudo ser que navegando para España o buscando tierra firme se derrotaron y dieron en ella, que por lo menos en aquella derecera dista de las islas cien leguas, y más y menos como corre la costa, así de las islas como de la tierra firme; porque el día de hoy, como me refirió un español qu'estuvo preso y captivo en la Deseada, que los indios della, en sus canoas; que son unas vigas más gruesas que un buey, de madera liviana, cavadas, largas y angostas, atraviesan a la tierra firme a la gobernación de Venezuela, cien leguas por mar, y más; cuando hay viento, a vela, y cuando les falta, a remo, guiándose de noche por las estrellas que tienen marcadas en aquel tiempo, qu'es verano; donde el pobre remaba como captivo hasta que huyéndose al tiempo que las flotas nuestras vienen a Tierra Firme suelen aportar a la Deseada a tomar agua y leña, fue su ventura buena que a cabo de pocos días después de huido y llegado al puerto, surgió la flota en él y le tomaron los nuestros. De día estaba escondido arriba en las copas de los árboles, que son muy grandes y altos y muy coposos y de ramas espesas, y de noche descendía, con no poco temor, a buscar algunas raíces dél conoscidas, o algún poco de marisco para comer, porque si sus amos le hallaran, como luego salieron, en echándole menos, en busca dél, sin duda le flecharan y luego se le comieran. Son todos estos indios caribes, que quiere decir comedores de carne humana; bien dispuestos de cuerpo, morenotes, y así los varones como las mujeres andan desnudos, como si vivieran en el estado de la ignocencia; son grandes flecheros y muy ligeros, y el cuero del cuerpo, por el mucho calor, muy duro. Estas islas son abundantes de muchas víboras ponzoñosas y culebras muy grandes que llaman bobas, y muy gruesas; tienen muchas aves de monte y críanse en ellas muchos venados. Lo que con mucha verdad podemos afirmar, que no se sabe hasta hoy, ni en los siglos venideros naturalmente se sabrá, de qué hijos o nietos o descendientes de Noé los indios de todas estas islas, ni Tierra Firme, ni México, ni del Perú, hayan procedido.





El relato inca del origen de los pueblos andinos: el Diluvio Universal y la 
supervivencia a la catátrofe de 4 parejas de hermanos en 4 cuevas se
encuentra representado en las 4 ventanas del reverso de
La Puerta del Sol de Tiahuanaco
(Ilustración: Tiahuanaco)



Capítulo II

De la descripción del Pirú

Descendiendo en particular a nuestro intento, trataré lo que he visto, como hombre que allegué a este Perú más ha de cincuenta años el día que esto escribo, muchacho de quince años, con mis padres, que vinieron a Quito, desde donde, aunque en diferentes tiempos y edades, he visto muchas veces lo más y mejor deste Pirú, de allí hasta Potosí, que son más de 600 leguas, y desde Potosí al reino de Chile, por tierra, que hay más de quinientas, atravesando todo el reino de Tucumán, y a Chile me ha mandado la obediencia ir dos veces; esta que acabo de decir fue la segunda, y la primera por mar desde el puerto de la ciudad de Los Reyes; he dicho esto porque no hablaré de oídas, sino muy poco, y entonces diré haberlo oído mas a personas fidedignas; lo demás he visto con mis propios ojos, y como dicen, palpado con las manos; por lo cual lo visto es verdad, y lo oído, no menos; algunas cosas diré que parece van contra toda razón natural, a las cuales el incrédulo dirá que de largas vías, etc., mas el tal dará muestras de un corto entendimiento, porque no creer los hombres sino lo que en sus patrias veen, es de los tales.

Capítulo XII

De los llanos

Desierto de Atacama. En 1605, año en que Lizárraga escribe su Descripción, territorio de Charcas (hoy Bolivia).
Foto: NASA

Desierto de Atacama

Y para que se entienda qué llamamos Llanos y Sierra, adviértase que desde este valle Xayanca, y aún más abajo, desde Tumbez, aunque allí alcanzan (como dijimos) algunos aguaceros hasta Copiapo, que es el primer valle del distrito del reino   de Chille, a lo menos desde el valle de Santa hasta Copiapo no llueve jamás, ni se acuerdan los habitadores dellos haber llovido. Todo el camino, diez leguas en algunas partes, en otras ocho, en otras seis y cuatro leguas en otras, hasta la costa de la mar, es arena muerta, aunque hay pedazos de arena o tierra fija en algunas partes y a trechos. Entre estos arenales proveyó Dios hobiese valles anchos, unos más que otros, por los cuales corren ríos, mayores o menores, conforme a como tienen más cercana, o vienen de más adentro de la sierra su nascimiento; la tierra de todos estos valles es de buen migajón, la cual regada con las acequias que los naturales tienen sacadas para regarlos, es abundantísima de todo género de comidas, así suya como nuestra; cógese mucho maíz, trigo, cebada, fríjoles, pepinos, etc.; tienen muchas huertas, con mucho membrillo, manzana, camuesa, naranjas, limas, olivos que llevan mucha y muy buena aceituna, la grande mejor que la de Córdoba, porque tiene más que comer; en muchos dellos se da vino muy bueno, y la caña dulce se cría mucha y gruesa, por lo cual son cómodas para ingenios de azúcar, en muchos de los cuales los hay, como en su lugar diremos. Extiéndense estos Llanos que llamamos (aunque hay grandes médanos de arena) desde el puerto de Paita hasta el valle que dijimos de Copiapo por más de 700 leguas o poco menos, siguiendo la costa, sin que en ellas llueva; pero desde mayo comienzan unas garúas, llamadas así de los marineros, que duran hasta otubre; son unas nieblas espesas, que mojan un poco la tierra, mas no son poderosas a hacerla fructificar; son con todo eso necesarias para las sementeras, porque las defiende de cuando está en berza de los grandes calores del sol; con estas garúas en los cerros y médanos de arena se cría mucha yerba y flores olorosas, las cuales son admirable pasto para el ganado vacuno y yeguas; pero tiene un contrapeso grande, porque no falte a cada cosa su alguacil. Cuando éstas garúas son muchas críanse grande cantidad de ratones entre estas yerbas, y venido el verano, como se sequen y no tengan que comer, descienden ejércitos dellos a buscar comida a los valles, viñas y heredades, y cómense hasta las cáscaras de árboles; esta plaga es irremediable.

El aire que corre por estos arenales es Sur, algunas temporadas muy recio, y es cosa de ver que remolina en estos cerros de arena y levantando la arena la trasporta a otro lugar, y ha subcedido estar durmiendo en estos arenales, porque por ellos va el camino, el pasajero, y viniendo un remolino déstos caer sobre el pobre viandante y quedarse allí enterrado en la arena. Fuera de la abundancia que los valles tienen de mieses, son abundantes de árboles frutales, como son guayabas, paltas, plátanos, melones, ciruelas de la tierra y otras fructas, mucho algarrobal; con la fructa de los árboles engordan los ganados abundantísimamente, haciendo la carne muy sabrosa; pero hay en algunas partes unos algarrobos parrados por el suelo, que llevan una algarrobilla, la cual comida de los caballos o yeguas, luego dan con la crin y cerdas de la cola en el suelo, y porque en el valle de Santa hay más que en otros valles, se llama la algarrobilla de Santa, de donde, cuando algún hombre por enfermedad se pela, le dicen haber comido la algarrobilla de Santa. El rey desta tierra, a quien comúnmente llamamos el Inga, para que en estos arenales no se perdiesen los caminantes y se atinase con el camino, tenía puestas de trecho a trecho unas vigas grandes hincadas muy adentro en el arena, por las cuales se gobernaban los pasajeros. Ya esto se ha perdido por el descuido de los corregidores de los distritos, por lo cual es necesaria guía.

Entrando en el valle, por una parte y por otra iba el camino Real entre dos paredes a manera de tapias hechas de barro de mampuesto, de un estado en alto, derecho como una vira, porque los caminantes no entrasen a hacer daño a las sementeras, ni cogiesen una mazorca de maíz ni una guayaba, so pena de la vida, que luego se ejecutaba.

Estas paredes están por muchas partes ya derribadas, y los caminos no en pocas partes van por detrás de las paredes; en tiempo del Inga no se consintiera. Por los arenales ya dijimos no se puede caminar sin guía, y lo más del año se ha de caminar de noche, por los grandes calores del sol; los guías indios son tan diestros en no perder el camino, de día ni de noche, que parece cosa no creedera.

Lo que llamamos y es sierra son unos cerros muy altos, muchos de los cuales, por su altura, aunque están en la misma linea equinoctial, como es Quito y mucha parte de aquel distrito, y desde allí a Potosí, que son 600 leguas incluidas entre el trópico de Capricornio, porque Potosí está en veinte grados, es muy frío siempre y no pocas las sierras llenas de nieve todo el año, y otros por el frío inhabitables; lo cual los antiguos filósofos tuvieron por inhabitable respecto del mucho calar por andar el sol estre estos dos trópicos, de Canero a la parte del Norte y de Capricornio a la parte del Sur, veinte e dos grados y medio apartado cada uno de la línea.

En esta sierra hay muchas y muy grandes poblaciones en valles que hay, y en llanos muy espaciosos, como son los del Collao; corre esta cordillera comúnmente de 17 a 20 leguas de la mar, y lo bueno deste Perú es esta tierra que dista de la cordillera a la mar, y aun de Chile, como en su lugar diremos.

Tiahuanaco en un libro de viajes de 1877

PERU Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the LAND OF THE INCAS

by E. George Squier, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1877.

NOTE: This excerpt serves to provide a description of the ruins before the harvesting of many stones for railroad construction. It also provides insights into some nineteenth-century attitudes towards archaeology sites by and the racism of its author, cited writers, and the local priest (cura) in Tiahuanaco village.

CHAPTER XV.

TIAHUANUCO, THE BAALBEC OF THE NEW WORLD.

Tiahuanuco a Centre of Ancient Civilization.-Difficulties.-The Chuño Festival.-Death of my Photographer.-Studying the Art.-My Assistants.-The Edifices of Ancient Tiahuanuco.-The Ruins a Quarry for Modern Builders.-Their Extent. -The Temple.-The Fortress.-The Palace.-The Hall of Justice.-Precision of the Stone-cutting.-Elaborate Sculptures.-Monolithic Gate-ways.-The Modern Cemetery.-The Sanctuary.-Symbolical Slab.-The great Monolithic Gate-way. -Its Elaborate Sculptures.-Monuments described by Cieza de Leon and D'Or-bigny.-Material of the Stone-work.-How the Stone was cut.-General Resume. -Tiahuanuco probably a Sanctuary, not a Seat of Dominion.

TIAHUANUCO lies almost in the very centre of the great terrestrial basin of lakes Titicaca and Aullagas, and in the heart of a region which may be properly characterized as the Thibet of the New World. Here, at an elevation of twelve thousand nine hundred feet above the sea, in a broad, open, unprotected, arid plain, cold in the wet and frigid in the dry season, we find the evidences of an ancient civilization, regarded by many as the oldest and the most advanced of both American continents.

It was to explore and investigate the monumental remains that have made this spot celebrated that I had come to Tiahuannco, and I lost no time in commencing my task. This was not an easy one, for even with the aid of the drunken Cura we were unable to procure laborers to assist us, for not only had we reached the village on the eve of the Chuño, or potato festival, a remnant of ancient observances, but before we had finished our work the Feast of Corpus Christi had commenced. Chicha flowed like water, and the few inhabitants that the Chuño festival had left sober deliberately gave themselves up to beastly intoxication.

This was not my only difficulty. While we were toiling our way upwards through the mountain road, my photographer, on whose skill I had depended, became dangerously ill. One bitter night, under an ebon sky, with no one to assist us save some kindly Indians, we tried in vain to relieve his sufferings and compose his mental hallucinations. The disease baffled all our efforts, and before sunrise death brought him relief and release. He murmured something in the Gaelic tongue, in which only the endearing word "mamma"—sacred in all languages—was intelligible, and died with that word lingering on his thin, blue lips.

I had provided myself with a complete and costly set of photographic apparatus, which I regarded as indispensable to success in depicting the ancient monuments; but I had little knowledge of the art, and must now become my own photographer, or lose many of the results of my labor. With no instruction except such as I could gain from Hardwick's" Manual of Photographic Chemistry," I went to work, and, after numerous failures, became tolerably expert. I had but a single assistant, Mr. H-, an amateur draughtsman, and only such other aid as I could get from my muleteer and his men, who were eager to conclude their engagement, and simply astounded that we should waste an hour, much more that we should spend days, on the remains of the heathens. Still, the investigation was undertaken with equal energy and enthusiasm, and, I am confident, with as good results as could be reached without an expenditure of time and money which would hardly have been rewarded by any probable additional discoveries. We spent a week in Tiahuanuco among the ruins, and, I believe, obtained a plan of every structure that is traceable, and of every monument of importance that is extant.

The first thing that strikes the visitor in the village of Tiahuanuco is the great number of beautifully cut stones, built into the rudest edifices, and paving the squalidest courts. They are used as lintels, jambs, seats, tables, and as receptacles for water. The church is mainly built of them; the cross in front of it stands on a stone pedestal which shames the symbol it supports in excellence of workmanship. On all sides are vestiges of antiquity from the neighboring ruins, which have been a real quarry, whence have been taken the cut stones, not only for Tiahuanuco and all the villages and churches of its valley, but for erecting the cathedral of La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, situated in the deep valley of one of the streams falling into the river Beni, twenty leagues distant. And what is true here is also true of most parts of the Sierra. The monuments of the past have furnished most of the materials for the public edifices, the bridges, and highways of the present day.

The ruins of Tiahuanuco have been regarded by all students of American antiquities as in many respects the most interesting and important, and at the same time most enigmatical, of any on the continent. They have excited the admiration and wonder alike of the earliest and latest travelers, most of whom, vanquished in their attempts to penetrate the mystery of their origin, have been content to assign them an antiquity beyond that of the other monuments of America, and to regard them as the solitary remains of a civilization that disappeared before that of the Incas began, and contemporaneous with that of Egypt and the East. Unique, yet perfect in type and harmonious in style, they appear to be the work of a people who were thorough masters of an architecture which had no infancy, passed through no period of growth, and of which we find no other examples. Tradition, which mumbles more or less intelligibly of the origin of many other American monuments, is dumb concerning these. The wondering Indians told the first Spaniards that "they existed before the sun shone in the heavens," that they were raised by giants, or that they were the remains of an impious people whom an angry Deity had converted into stone because they had refused hospitality to his viceregent and messenger.

I shall give only a rapid account of these remains, correcting some of the errors and avoiding some of the extravagances of my predecessors in the same field of inquiry. I must confess I did not find many things that they have described; but that fact, in view of the destructiveness of treasure-hunters and the rapacity of ignorant collectors of antiquities, does not necessarily discredit their statements; for Tiahuanuco is a rifled ruin, with comparatively few yet sufficient evidences of former greatness.

The ruins are about half a mile to the southward of the village, separated from it by a small brook and a shallow valley. The high-road to La Paz passes close to them—in fact, between them and some mounds of earth which were probably parts of the general system. They are on a broad and very level part of the plain, where the soil is an arenaceous loam, firm and dry. Rows of erect stones, some of them rough or but rudely shaped by art; others accurately cut and fitted in walls of admirable workmanship; long sections of foundations, with piers and portions of stairways; blocks of stone, with mouldings, cornices, and niches cut with geometrical precision; vast masses of sandstone, trachyte, and basalt but partially hewn; and great monolithic doorways, bearing symbolical ornaments in relief, besides innumerable smaller, rectangular, and symmetrically shaped stones, rise on every hand, or lie scattered in confusion over the plain. It is only after the intelligent traveler has gone over the whole area and carefully studied the ground, that the various fragments fall into something like their just relations, and the design of the whole becomes comprehensible.

Leaving aside, for the present, the lesser mounds of earth of which I have spoken, we find the central and most conspicuous portion of the ruins, which cover not far from a square mile, to consist of a great, rectangular mound of earth, originally terraced, each terrace supported by a massive wall of cut stones, and the whole surmounted by structures of stone, parts of the foundations of which are still distinct. This structure is popularly called the" Fortress," and, as tradition affirms, suggested the plan of the great fortress of Sacsahuaman, dominating the city of Cuzco . The sides of this structure, as also of all the others in Tiahuanuco, coincide within ten degrees with the cardinal points of the compass. Close to the left of the Fortress (I adopt this name, and the others I may use, solely to facilitate description) is an area called the "Temple," slightly raised, defined by lines of erect stones, but ruder than those which surround the Fortress. A row of massive pilasters stands somewhat in advance of the eastern front of this area, and still in advance of this are the deeply embedded piers of a smaller edifice of squared stones, with traces of an exterior corridor, which has sometimes been called the "Palace." At other points, both to the south and northward, are some remains to which I shall have occasion to refer.

The structure called the Temple will claim our first attention; primarily because it seems to be the oldest of the group, the type, perhaps, of the others, and because it is here we find the great monolithic sculptured gateway of Tiahuanuco, which is absolutely unique, so far as our knowledge goes, on this continent.

The body of the Temple forms a rectangle of 388 by 445 feet, defined, as I said before, by lines of erect stones, partly shaped by art. They are mostly of red sandstone, and of irregular size and height; those at the corners being more carefully squared and tallest. For the most part, they are between 8 and 10 feet high, from 2 to 4 feet broad, and from 20 to 30 inches in thickness. The portions entering the ground, like those of our granite gateposts, are largest, and left so for the obvious purpose of giving the stones greater firmness in their position.

These stones, some of which have fallen and others disappeared, seem to have been placed, inclining slightly inwards, at approximately 15 feet apart, measuring from centre to centre, and they appear to have had a wall of rough stones built up between them, supporting a terre-plein of earth, about 8 feet above the general level of the plain. On its eastern side this terre-plein had an apron or lower terrace 18 feet broad, along the edge of the central part of which were raised ten great stone pilasters, placed 15 1/2 feet apart, all of which, perfectly aligned, are still standing, with a single exception. They are of varying heights, and no two agree in width or thickness. The one that is fallen, which was second in the line, measures 13 feet 8 inches in length by 5 feet 3 inches in breadth. It is partly buried in the earth, but shows 32 inches of thickness above ground. Among those still erect the tallest is 14 feet by 4 feet 2 inches, and 2 feet 8 inches; the shortest 9 feet by 2 feet 9 inches, and 2 feet 5 inches. These are less in dimension than the stones composing the inner cell or sanctum of Stonehenge , which range from 16 feet 3 inches to 21 feet 6 inches in height; but they are nearly, if not quite, equal with those composing the outer circle of that structure. They are much more accurately cut than those of Stonehenge , the fronts being perfectly true, and the backs alone left rough or only partially worked. The tops of the taller ones have shoulders cut into them as if to receive architraves; and as this feature does not appear in the shorter ones, it may be inferred that their tops have been broken off, and that originally they were all of one length. And here I may call attention to another singular feature of this colonnade—namely, that the sides or edges of each erect stone are slightly cut away to within six inches of its face, so as to leave a projection of about an inch and a half, as if to retain in place any slab fitted between the stones, and prevent it from falling outwards. The same feature is found in the stones surrounding the great mound or Fortress, where its purpose becomes obvious, as we shall soon see.

Such is the general character of the exterior propylon, if I may so call it, of the structure called the Temple. But within the line of stones surrounding it there are other features which claim our attention. I have said that the interior is a mound of earth raised about eight feet above the general level. But in the centre and towards the western side is an area sunk to the general level, 280 feet long by 190 feet broad. It was originally defined on three sides by walls of rough stones which rose above the surface of the mound itself, but which are now in ruins. If this sunken area communicated in any way with the more elevated interior parts of the structure, the means of communication, by steps or otherwise, have disappeared. Across the end of the area not shut in by the mound, the line of stones which surrounds the Temple is continued without interruption; but outside and connected with it is part of a small square of lesser stones, also erect, standing in the open plain.

Regarding the eastern side of the Temple , marked by the line of pilasters which I have described, as the front, we find here, at the distance of 57 feet, the traces of a rectangular structure, to which I have alluded as the" Palace," which was composed of blocks of trachyte admirably cut, 8 to 10 feet long by 5 feet broad, with remains of what appears to have been a corridor 30 feet broad extending around it. The piers which supported the Palace still remain, sunk deep in the ground, apparently resting on an even pavement of cut stones. Remove the superstructures of the best-built edifices of our cities, and few, if any, would expose foundations laid with equal care, and none of them stones cut with such accuracy, or so admirably fitted together. And I may say, once for all, carefully weighing my words, that in no part of the world have I seen stones cut with such mathematical precision and admirable skill as in Peru, and in no part of Peru are there any to surpass those which are scattered over the plain of Tiahuanuco. The so-called Palace does not seem to have been placed in any symmetrical relation towards the Temple, although seemingly dependent on it; nor, in fact, do any of the ancient structures here appear to have been erected on any geometric plan respecting each other, such as is apparent in the arrangement of most of the remains of aboriginal public edifices in Peru.

The Fortress stands to the southwest of the Temple , the sides of the two coinciding in their bearings, and is 64 feet distant from it. As I have already said, it is a great mound of earth, originally rectangular in shape, 620 feet in length and 450 in width, and about 50 feet high. It is much disfigured by the operations of treasure-seekers, who have dug into its sides and made great excavations from the summit, so that it now resembles rather a huge, natural, shapeless heap of earth than a work of human hands. The few of the many stones that environed it, and which the destroyers have spared, nevertheless enable us to make out its original shape and proportions. There are distinct evidences that the body of the mound was terraced, for there are still standing stones at different elevations, distant horizontally nine, eighteen, and thirty feet from the base. There may have been more terraces than these lines of stones would indicate, but it is certain that there were at least three before reaching the summit. This coincides with what Garcilasso tells us of the mound when first visited by the Spaniards. He says, speaking of the ruins under notice: "Among them there is a mountain or hill raised by hand, which, on this account, is most admirable. In order that the piled-up earth should not be washed away and the hill leveled, it was supported by great walls of stone. Noone knows for what purpose this edifice was raised." Cieza de Leon, who himself visited Tiahuanuco soon after the Conquest, gives substantially the same description of the so-called Fortress.

On the summit of this structure are sections of the foundations of rectangular buildings, partly undermined, and partly covered up by the earth from the great modern excavation in the centre, which is upwards of 300 feet in diameter, and more than 60 feet deep. A pool of water stands at its bottom. This latest piece of barbarism was, however, only in continuation of some similar previous undertaking. All over the Fortress and on its slopes lie large and regular blocks of stone, sculptured with portions of elaborate designs, which would only appear when the blocks were fitted together.

Some portions of the outer or lower wall are fortunately nearly intact, so that we are able to discover how it was constructed, and the plan and devices that were probably observed in all the other walls, as well as in some parts of the Temple. In the first place, large, upright stones were planted in the ground, apparently resting on stone foundations. They are about ten feet above the surface, accurately faced, perfectly aligned, and inclining slightly inwards towards the mound. They are placed seventeen feet apart from centre to centre, and are very nearly uniform in size, generally about three feet broad and two feet in thickness. Their edges are cut to present the kind of shoulders to which I alluded in describing the pilasters in front of the Temple , and of which the purpose now becomes apparent. The space between the upright stones is filled in with a wall of carefully worked stones. Those next the pilasters are cut with a shoulder to fit that of the pilaster they adjoin; and they are each, moreover, cut with alternate grooves and projections, like mortise and tenon, so as to fit immovably into each other horizontally. Vertically they are held in position by round holes drilled into the bottom and top of each stone at exact corresponding distances, in which, there is reason to believe, were placed pins of bronze. We here see the intelligent devices of a people unacquainted with the uses of cement to give strength and permanence to their structures. Nearly all the blocks of stone scattered over the plain show the cuts made to receive what is called the T clamp, and the round holes to receive the metal pins that were to retain the blocks in their places, vertically.

The Fortress has on its eastern side an apron, or dependent platform, 320 by 180 feet, of considerably less than half the elevation of the principal mound. Like the rest of the structure, its outline was defined by upright stones, most of which, however, have disappeared. The entrance seems to have been at its southeast corner, probably by steps, and to have been complicated by turnings from one terrace to another, something like those in some of the Inca fortresses.

The tradition runs that there are large vaults filled with treasure beneath the great mound, and that here commences a subterranean passage which leads to Cuzco, more than four hundred miles distant. The excavations certainly reveal some curious subterranean features. The excavation at its southwest corner has exposed a series of superimposed cut stones, apparently resting on a pavement of similar character, twelve feet below the surface. It is said that Von Tschudi, when he visited the ruins, found some "caverns" beneath them (but whether under the Fortress or not does not appear), into which he endeavored to penetrate, but "was glad to be pulled out, as he soon became suffocated." I found no such subterranean vaults or passages in any part of Tiahuanuco; but I do not deny their existence.

To the southeast of the Fortress, and about two hundred and fifty paces distant, is a long line of wall in ruins, apparently a single wall, not connected with any other so as to form an enclosure. But beyond it are the remains of edifices of which it is now impossible to form more than approximate plans. One was measurably perfect when visited by D'Orbigny in 1833, who fortunately has left a plan of it, more carefully made than others he has given us of ruins here or elsewhere. Since 1833, however, the iconoclasts have been at work with new vigor. Unable to remove the massive stones composing the base of what was called the Hall of Justice, they mined them, and blew them up with gunpowder, removing many of the elaborately cut fragments to pave the cathedral of La Paz. Enough remains to prove the accuracy of D'Orbigny's plan, and to verify what Cieza de Leon wrote concerning these particular remains three hundred years ago.

The structure called the Hall of Justice occupied one end of a court something like that discoverable in the Temple. In the first place, we must imagine a rectangle, 420 feet long by 370 broad, defined by a wall of cut stones, supporting on three sides an interior platform of earth 130 feet broad, itself enclosing a sunken area, or court, also defined by a wall of cut stones. This court, which is of the general level of the plain, is 240 feet long and 160 broad. At its eastern end is, or rather was, the massive edifice distinguished' as the Hall of Justice, of which D'Orbigny says:

 "It is a kind of platform of well-cut blocks of stone, held together by copper clamps, of which only the traces remain. It presents a level surface elevated six feet above the ground, 131 feet long and 23 broad, formed of enormous stones, eight making the length and two the breadth. Some of these stones are 25 1/2 feet long by 14 feet broad, and 6 1/2 feet thick. These are probably the ones measured by Oiego de Leon, who describes them as 30 feet long, 15 in width, and 6 in thickness. Some are rectangular in shape, others of irregular form. On the eastern side of the platform, and cut in the stones of which they form part, are three groups of alcoves, or seats. One group occupies the central part of the monument, covering an extent of fifty-three feet, and is divided into seven compartments. A group of three compartments occupies each extremity of the monument. Between the central and side groups were reared monolithic doorways, similar in some respects to the large one, only more simple, the one to the west alone having a sculptured frieze similar to that of the great gateway. In front of this structure, to the west, and about twenty feet distant, is a wall remarkable for the fine cutting of its stones, which are of a blackish basalt and very hard. The stones arc all of equal dimensions, having a groove running around them, and each has a niche cut in it with absolute precision. Every thing goes to show that the variety of the forms of the niches was one of the great ornaments of the walls, for on all sides we find stones variously cut, and evidently intended to fit together so as to form architectural ornaments."

So much for the description of D'Orbigny. I measured one of the blocks with a double niche, which is shown in the engraving of the terrace walls of the Fortress. It is 6 feet 2 inches in length, 3 feet 7 inches broad, and 2 feet 6 inches thick. The niches are sunk to the depth of 3 inches.

One of the monolithic doorways originally belonging to this structure is unquestionably that forming the entrance to the cemetery of Tiahuanuco . This cemetery is an ancient rectangular mound, about a hundred paces long, sixty broad, and twenty feet high, situated midway between the village and the Fortress. Its summit is enclosed by an adobe wall, and, as I have said, the entrance is through an ancient monolithic gateway, of which I give a front and rear view. It is 7 feet 5 inches in extreme height, 5 feet 10 1/2 inches in extreme width, and 16 1/2 inches thick. The doorway, or opening, is 6 feet 2 inches in height, and 2 feet 10 inches wide. The frieze has a repetition of the ornaments composing the lower line of sculptures of the great monolith, but it has suffered much from time and violence. The ornamentation of the back differs from that of the front, and seems to have been made to conform to the style adopted in the interior of the structure.

In making our measurement in the cemetery we disturbed a pack of lean, hungry, savage dogs of the Sierra-an indigenous species—which had dug up the body of a newly-buried child from its shallow, frozen grave, and were ravenously devouring it. They snarled at us with bristling backs and bloodshot eyes as we endeavored to drive them away horn their horrible feast—by no means the first, as the numerous rough holes they had dug, the torn wrappings of the dead, and the skulls and fragments of human bodies scattered around too plainly attested. I subsequently represented the matter to the cura, but he only shrugged his shoulders, ejaculating, "What does it matter? They have been baptized, and all Indians are brutes at the best."

Returning to the Hall of Justice, we find, to the eastward of it, a raised area 175 feet square, and from 8 to 10 feet high, the outlines defined by walls of cut stone. This seems to have escaped the notice of travelers; at least, it is not mentioned by them. In the centre of this area there seems to have been a building about fifty feet square, constructed of very large blocks of stone, which I have denominated the" Sanctuary." Within this, where it was evidently supported on piers, is the distinctive and most remarkable feature of the structure. It is a great slab of stone 13 feet 4 inches square, and 20 inches in thickness. It is impossible to describe it intelligibly, and I must refer to the engraving for a notion of its character. It will be observed that there is an oblong area cut in the upper face of the stone, 7 feet 3 inches long, 5 feet broad, and 6 inches deep. A sort of sunken "portico" 20 inches wide, 3 feet 9 inches long, is cut at one side, out of which opens what may be called the entrance, 22 inches wide, extending to the edge of the stone.

At each end of the "portico" is a flight of three miniature steps leading up to the general surface of the stone, and sunk in it, while at the side of the excavated area are three other flights of similar steps, but in relief. They lead to the broadest part of the stone, where there are six mortises, 8 inches square, sunk in the stone. 6 inches, and forming two sides of a square, of 3 feet 7 inches on each side, and apparently intended to receive an equal number of square columns. The external corners of the stone are sharp, but within six inches of the surface they are cut round on a radius of twelve inches.

I cannot resist the impression that this stone was intended as a miniature representation or model of a sacred edifice, or of some kind of edifice reared by the builders of the monuments of Tiahuanuco. The entrance to the sunken area in the stone, the steps leading to the elevation surrounding it, and the naos opposite the entrance, defined perhaps by columns of bronze or stone set in the mortises and supporting some kind of roof, constituting the shrine within which stood the idol or symbol of worship—all these features would seem to indicate a symbolic design in this monument. The building in which it stood, on massive piers that still remain, was constructed of blocks of stone, some of them nearly fourteen feet in length and of corresponding size and thickness, and was not so large as to prohibit the probability that it was covered in. Looking at the plan of the Temple, and of the enclosure to the area, one side of which was occupied by the building called the Hall of Justice, we cannot fail to observe features suggestive of the plan cut in the great stone which I have called symbolical.

The most remarkable monument in Tiahuanuco, as already intimated, is the great monolithic gateway. Its position is indicated by the letter m in the plan. It now stands erect, and is described as being in that position by every traveler except D'Orbigny, who visited the ruins in 1833, and who says it had then fallen down. I give two views of this unique monument, both from photographs, of some interest to me, as the first it was ever my fortune to be called on to take. It will be seen that it has been broken—the natives say by lightning—the fracture extending from the upper right-hand angle of the opening, so that the two parts lap by each other slightly, making the sides of the doorway incline towards each other; whereas they are, or were, perfectly. vertical and parallel—a distinguishing side two small niches, below which, also on either side, is a single larger niche. The stone itself is a dark and exceedingly hard trachyte. It is faced with a precision that no skill can excel; its lines are perfectly drawn, and its right angles turned with an accuracy that the most careful geometer could not surpass. Barring some injuries and defacements, and some slight damages by weather, I do not believe there exists a better piece of stone-cutting, the material considered, on this or the other continent. The front, especially the part covered by sculpture, has a fine finish, as near a true polish as trachyte can be made to bear.

The lower line of sculpture is 7 1/2 inches broad, and is unbroken; the three above it are 8 inches high, cut up in cartouches, or squares, of equal width, but interrupted in the centre, immediately over the doorway, by the figure in high-relief to which I have alluded. This figure, with its ornaments, covers a space of 32 by 21 1/2 inches. There are consequently three ranges or tiers of squares on each side of this figure, eight in each range, or forty-eight in all. The figures represented in these squares have human bodies, feet, and hands; each holds a sceptre; they are winged; but the upper and lower series have human heads wearing crowns, represented in profile, while the heads of the sixteen figures in the line between them have the heads of condors.

The central and principal figure is angularly but boldly cut, in a style palpably conventional. The head is surrounded by a series of what may be called rays, each terminating in a circle, the head of the condor, or that of a tiger, all conventionally but forcibly treated. In each hand he grasps two staves or sceptres of equal length with his body, the lower end of the right-hand sceptre terminating in the head of the condor, and the upper in that of the tiger, while the lower end of the left-hand sceptre terminates in the head of the tiger, and the upper is bifurcate, and has two heads of the condor. The staves or sceptres are not straight and stiff, but curved as if to represent serpents, and elaborately ornamented as if to represent the sinuous action of the serpent in motion. The radiations from the head—which I have called rays, for want of a better term—seem to have the same action. An ornamented girdle surrounds the waist of this principal figure, from which depends a double fringe. It stands upon a kind of base or series of figures approaching nearest in character to the architectural ornament called grecques, each extremity of which, however, terminates in the crowned head of the tiger or the condor. The face has been somewhat mutilated, but shows some peculiar figures extending from the eyes diagonally across the cheeks, terminating also in the heads of the animals just named.

The winged human-headed and condor-headed figures in the three lines of squares are represented kneeling on one knee, with their faces turned to the great central figure, as if in adoration, and each one holds before him a staff or sceptre. The sceptres of the figures in the two upper rows are bifurcate, and correspond exactly with the sceptre in the left hand of the central figure, while the sceptres of the lower tier correspond with that represented in his right hand. The relief of all these figures is scarcely more than two-tenths of an inch; the minor features are indicated by very delicate lines, slightly incised, which form subordinate figures, representing the heads of condors, tigers, and serpents. Most of us have seen pictures and portraits of men and animals, which under close attention resolve themselves into representatives of a hundred other things, but which are so artfully arranged as to produce a single broad effect. So with these winged figures. Every part, the limbs, the garb, all separate themselves into miniatures of the symbols that run all through the sculptures on this singular monument.

The fourth or lower row of sculpture differs entirely from the rows above it. It consists of repetitions—seventeen in all—smaller and in low-relief, of the head of the great central figure, surrounded by corresponding rays, terminating in like manner with the heads of animals. These are arranged alternately at the top and bottom of the line of sculpture, within the zigzags or grecques, and every angle terminates in the head of a condor.

The three outer columns of winged figures, and the corresponding parts of the lower line of sculpture, are only blocked out, and have none of the elaborate, incised ornamentation discoverable in the central parts of the monument. A very distinct line separates these unfinished sculptures from those portions that are finished, which is most marked in the lower tier. On each side of this line, standing on the rayed heads to which I have alluded, placed back to back, and looking in opposite directions, are two small but interesting figures of men, crowned with something like a plumed cap, and holding to their mouths what appear to be trumpets. Although only three inches high, these little figures are ornamented in the same manner as the larger ones, with the heads of tigers, condors, etc.

These are the only sculptures on the face of the great monolith of Tiahuanuco. I shall not attempt to explain their significance. D'Orbigny finds in the winged figures with human heads symbols or representations of conquered chiefs coming to pay their homage to the ruler who had his capital in Tiahuanuco, and who, as the founder of sun-worship and the head of the Church as of the State, was invested with divine attributes as well as with the insignia of power. The figures with condors' heads, the same fanciful philosopher supposes, may represent the chiefs of tribes who had not yet fully accepted civilization, and were therefore represented without the human profile, as an indication of their unhappy and undeveloped state. By parity of interpretation, we may take it that the eighteen unfinished figures were those of as many chieftains as the ruler of Tiahuanuco had it in his mind to reduce, and of which, happily, just two-thirds had claims to be regarded as civilized, and, when absorbed, to be perpetuated with human heads, and not with those of condors. Another French writer, M. Angrand, finds a coincidence between these sculptures and those of Central America and Mexico, having a corresponding mythological and symbolical significance, thus establishing identity of origin and intimate relationship between the builders of Tiahuanuco and those of Palenque, Ocosingo, and Xochicalco.

Leibnitz tells us that nothing exists without a cause; and it is not to be supposed that the sculptures under notice were made without a motive. They are probably symbolical; but with no knowledge of the religious ideas and conceptions of the ancient people whose remains they are, it is idle to attempt to interpret them. Nowhere else in Peru, or within the whole extent of the Inca empire, do we find any similar sculptures. They are, as regards Inca art, quite as unique in Peru as they would be on Boston Common or in the New York Central Park.

The reverse of the great monolith shows a series of friezes over the doorway, five in number, of which the engraving will give a better idea than any description. Above the entrance on either hand are two niches, twelve by nine inches in the excavation. It will be observed that those on the right have a sort of sculptured cornice above them which those on the left have not. The second one on the left, it will also be observed, is not complete, but evidently intended to be finished out on another block, which was to form a continuation of the wall of which the gateway itself was designed to be a part. Indeed, as I have said, nearly all the blocks of stone scattered over the plain are cut with parts of niches and other architectural features, showing that they were mere fragments of a general design, which could only be clearly apparent when they were properly fitted together.

The lower niches, now on a level with the ground, show that the monolith is sunk deeply in the soil. They exhibit some peculiar features. At each inner corner above and below are vertical sockets, apparently to receive the pivots of a door, extending upwards and downwards seven inches in the stone. D'Orbigny avers that he discovered the stains of bronze in these orifices and I have no doubt that these niches had doors, possibly of bronze, hinged in these sockets, and so firmly that it was necessary to use chisels (the marks of which are plain) to cut into the stone and disengage them. These large niches are 28.2 inches by 18.2 inches wide. On the face of the monolith, on each side of the doorway, but near the edges of the stone, are two mortises 10 inches by 9, and 6 inches deep, and 12 inches by 6, and 3 1/2 inches deep respectively, which are not shown in the drawings published by D'Orbigny and some others.

I very much question if this remarkable stone occupies its original position. How far it has sunk in the ground it was impossible for me to determine, for the earth was frozen hard, and we had no means of digging down to ascertain. D'Orbigny, as I have already said, states it was fallen when he visited it. Who has since raised it, and for what purpose, it is impossible to say. Noone that we could find either knew or cared to know anything about it. It seems to me not unlikely that it had a position in the hollow square of the structure called the Temple, in some building corresponding with that called the Hall of Justice. Or, perhaps, it had a place in the structure enclosing the stone I have ventured to call symbolical. It is neither so large nor so heavy that it may not be moved by fifty men with ropes, levers, and rollers and although we no not know of any reason why it should have been removed from its original position, we know that many of the heaviest stones have been thus moved, including the monolithic doorway at the entrance of the cemetery.

In addition to the various features of Tiahuanuco already enumerated, I must not neglect to notice the vast blocks of unhewn and partially hewn stones, that evidently have never entered into any structure, which lie scattered among the ruins. The positions of two or three are indicated in the plan. The one to the northeast of the Temple is 26 by 17, and 3 1/2 feet aboveground. It is of red sandstone, with deep grooves crossing each other at right angles in the centre, twenty inches deep, as if an attempt had been made to cut the stone into four equal parts. Another of nearly equal dimensions, partly hewn, was between the Temple and the Fortress. Another, boat-shaped and curiously grooved, lies to the northwest of the great mound. It measures upwards of forty feet in length, and bears the marks of transportation from a considerable distance.

There were formerly a number of specimens of sculpture in Tiahuanuco besides the two monolithic gateways I have described. Says Oiego de Leon: "Beyond this hill [referring to the Fortress] are two stone idols, of human shape, and so curiously carved that they seem to be the work of very able masters. They are as big as giants, with long garments differing from those the natives wear, and seem to have some ornament on their heads." These, according to D'Orbigny, were broken into pieces by blasts of powder inserted between the shoulders, and not even the fragments remain on the plain of Tiahuanuco. The head of one lies by the side of the road, four leagues distant, on the way to La Paz , whither an attempt was made to carry it. I did not see it, but I reproduce the sketch of it given by D'Orbigny, merely remarking that I have no doubt the details are quite as erroneous as those of the figures portrayed by the same author on the great monolith. The head is 3 feet 6 inches high and 2 feet 7 inches in diameter; so that if the other proportions of the figure were corresponding, the total height of the statue would be about eighteen feet.

D'Orbigny found several other sculptured figures among the ruins; one with a human head and wings rudely represented; another of an animal resembling a tiger, etc. Castelnau mentions "an immense lizard cut in stone," and other sculptured figures. M. Angrand, whose notes have been very judiciously used by M. Desjardains, speaks of eight such figures in the village of Tiahuanuco, besides two in La Paz , and one, broken, on the road thither. I found but two; rough sculptures of the human head and bust, in coarse red sandstone, one of a man and the other of a woman, standing by the side of the gateway of the church of Tiahuanuco. They are between four and five feet high, roughly cut, much defaced, and more like the idols which I found in Nicaragua, and have represented in my work on that country, than any others I have seen elsewhere.

Among the stones taken from the ruins, and worked into buildings in the town of Tiahuanuco, are a number of cylindrical columns cut from a single block, with capitals resembling the Doric. One of these stands on each side of the entrance to the court of the church, 6 feet high and 14 inches in diameter. There are also many caps of square columns or pilasters, besides numbers of stones cut with deep single or double grooves, as if to serve for water-conduits when fitted together—a purpose the probability of which is sanctioned by finding some stones with channels leading off at right angles, like the elbows in our own water-pipes.

The stones composing the structures of Tiahuanuco, as already said, are mainly red sandstone, slate-colored trachyte, and a dark, hard basalt. None of these rocks are found in situ on the plain, but there has been much needless speculation as to whence they were obtained. There are great cliffs of red sandstone about five leagues to the north of the ruins, on the road to the Desaguadero; and, on the isthmus of Yunguyo, connecting the peninsula of Copacabana with the mainland, are found both basaltic and trachytic rocks, identical with the stones in the ruins. Many blocks, hewn or partially hewn, are scattered over the isthmus. It is true this point is forty miles distant from Tiahuanuco in a right line, and that, if obtained here, the stones must have been carried twenty-five miles by water and fifteen by land. That some of them were brought from this direction is indicated by scattered blocks all the way from the ruins to the lake; but it is difficult to conceive how they were transported from one shore to the other. There is no timber in the region of which to construct rafts or boats; and the only contrivances for navigation are floats, made of reeds, closely bound into cylinders, tapering at the ends, which are turned up so as to give them something of the outline of boats. Before they become water-soaked these floats are exceedingly light and buoyant.

As to how the stones of Tiahuanuco were cut, and with what kind of instruments, are questions which I do not propose to discuss. I may, nevertheless, observe that I have no reason to believe that the builders of Tiahuanuco had instruments differing essentially in form or material from those used by the Peruvians generally, which, it is certain, were of champi, a kind of bronze.

I have thus rapidly presented an outline of the remains of Tiahuanuco-remains most interesting, but in such an absolute condition of ruin as almost to defy inquiry or generalization. Regarding them as in some respects the most important of any in Peru, I have gone more into details concerning them than I shall do in describing the better-preserved and more intelligible monuments with which we shall have hereafter to deal.

We find on a review that, apart from five considerable mounds of earth now shapeless, with one exception, there are distinct and impressive traces of five structures, built of stones or defined by them—the Fortress, the Temple, the Palace, the Hall of Justice, and the Sanctuary—terms used more to distinguish than truly characterize them. The structure called the Fortress may indeed have been used for the purpose implied in the name. Terraced, and each terrace faced with stones, it may have been, as many of the terraced pyramids of Mexico were, equally temple and fortress, where the special protection of the divinity to whom it was reared was expected to be interposed against an enemy. But the absence of water and the circumscribed area of the structure seem to weigh against the supposition of a defensive origin or purpose. But, whatever its object, the Fortress dominated the plain; and when the edifices that crowned its summit were perfect, it must have been by far the most imposing structure in Tiahuanuco.

The Temple seems to me to be the most ancient of all the distinctive monuments of Tiahuanuco. It is the American Stonehenge. The stones defining it are rough and frayed by time. The walls between its rude pilasters were of uncut stones; and although it contains the most elaborate single monument among the ruins, and notwithstanding the erect stones constituting its portal are the most striking of their kind, it nevertheless has palpable signs of age, and an air of antiquity which we discover in none of its kindred monuments. Of course, its broad area was never roofed in, whatever may have been the case with smaller, interior buildings no longer traceable. We must rank it, therefore, with those vast open temples (for of its sacred purpose we can scarcely have a doubt), of which Stonehenge and Avebury, in England, are examples, and which we find in Brittany, in Denmark, in Assyria, and on the steppes of Tartary, as well as in the Mississippi Valley. It seems to me to have been the nucleus around which the remaining monuments of Tiahuanuco sprung up, and the model upon which some of them were fashioned. How far, in shape or arrangement, it may have been symbolical, I shall not undertake to say; but I think that students of antiquity are generally prepared to concede a symbolical significance to the primitive pagan temples as well as to the cruciform edifices of Christian times.

We can hardly conceive of remains so extensive as those of Tiahuanuco, except as indications of a large population, and as evidences of the previous existence on or near the spot of a considerable city. But we find nowhere in the vicinity any decided traces of ancient habitations, such as abound elsewhere in Peru, in connection with most public edifices. Again, the region around is cold, and for the most part arid and barren. Elevated nearly thirteen thousand feet above the sea, no cereals grow except barley, which often fails to mature, and seldom, if ever, so perfects itself as to be available for seed. The maize is dwarf and scant, and uncertain in yield; and the bitter potato and quinoa constitute almost the sole articles of food for the pinched and impoverished inhabitants. This is not, prima facie, a region for nurturing or sustaining a large population, and certainly not one wherein we should expect to find a capital. Tiahuanuco may have been a sacred spot or shrine, the position of which was determined by an accident, an augury, or a dream, but I can hardly believe that it was a seat of dominion.

Some vague traditions point to Tiahuanuco as the spot whence Manco Capac, the founder of the Inca dynasty, took his origin, and whence he started northwards to teach the rude tribes of the Sierra religion and government; and some late writers, D'Orbigny and Castelnau among them, find reasons for believing that the whole Inca civilization originated here, or was only a reflex of that which found here a development, never afterwards equaled, long before the golden staff of the first Inca sunk into the earth where Cuzco was founded, thus fixing through superhuman design the site of the imperial city. But the weight of tradition points to the rocky islands of Lake Titicaca as the cradle of the Incas, whence Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo, his wife and sister, under the behest of their father, the Sun, started forth on their beneficent mission. Certain it is that this lake and its islands were esteemed sacred, and that on the latter were reared structures, if not so imposing as many other and perhaps later ones, yet of peculiar sanctity.

But before starting on our visit to that lake and its sacred islands, I must relate some of the incidents of our stay in Tiahuanuco.

CHAPTER XVI.

AT TIAHUANUCO, AND TO THE SACRED ISLANDS.

Suspected of Treasure-hunting.-The Guardian of the Tapadas.-The Potato-feast and Corpus Christi.-The Indian Celebration.-Music, Dancing, and Costumes.-Departure from Tiahuanuco.-Village of Guaque.-Cattle feeding in the Lake.-Tortora Bridge over the Outlet of the Lake.-Entry into the Village of Desaguadero.-A Convivial Cura.-Hospitalities of the Caballeros and Señoritas.-Mine Host the Comandante.-Zepita.-Scenes on the Road.-Comparatively Fertile Region.-Village of Yunguyo.-A Pressing Invitation.-A Dinner Compliment. -A Legal Luminary.

I HAVE no doubt, the Cura of Tiahuanuco believes to this day that our visit to the ruins was for the purpose of digging for treasures, and that we had some itinerario, or guide, obtained from the archives of Old Spain to direct our search.

What the Indians themselves thought, they did not tell us. But on our very first day among the monuments, and within an hour after we had pitched our photographic tent and got out our instruments, we became aware of the presence of a very old man, withered, wrinkled, and bent with the weight of years. His hair was scant and gray, his eyes rheumy, and his face disfigured by a great quid of coca that he carried in one cheek. He wore tattered pantaloons of coarse native cloth, made from the fleece of the llama, kept together by thongs; his poncho was old and ragged; and the long woollen cap, that was pulled low over his forehead, was greasy from use and stiff with dirt. He had an earthen vessel containing water suspended from his waist, besides a pouch of skin containing coca, and a little gourd of unslacked lime. In his hand he carried a small double-edged stone-cutter's pick or hammer. He paid us no perceptible attention, but wandered about deliberately among the blocks of cut stone that strew the ground, and finally selected one of a kind of white tufa, which he rolled slowly and with many a pause up to the very foot of the great monolith, then seated himself on the ground, placed it between his legs, and after preparing a new quid of coca, began to work on the stone, apparently with the purpose of cutting it in halves. He worked at it all day with small effect, and during the whole time neither noticed us nor responded to our questions. Just before returning to the village, in the edge of the chill night, I prevailed on one of our arrieros, who could speak Aymara, to ask him what was his occupation. He got the curt answer from the old man, that he was "cutting out a cross." Every morning he was at the ruins before us, and he never left until after we did at night. All day he pecked away at the stone between his knees, apparently absorbed in his work and oblivious of our presence. After a time we came to look upon him as an integral part of the monuments, and should have missed him as much as the great monolith itself.

One evening I mentioned the old man to the cura, who again put on mystery, took me out for a turn in the plaza, and explained in whispers, heavy with fumes of cañaso, that the old man was nothing more nor less than a spy on our doings, and that we made no movement in any direction that he did not carefully observe. "He is," said the padre, "one of the guardians of the tapadas. He is more than a hundred years old. He was with Tupac Amaru when he undertook to overturn the Spanish power, and he led the Aymaras when they sacked the town of Huancane, and slew every white man, woman, and child that fell into their hands. He is a heathen still, and throws coca on the apachetas. Ah! if I only knew what that old man knows of the tapadas, señor," exclaimed the cura, with fervor, " I should not waste my life among these barbarians ! You can pity me! And for the love of God, señor, if you do come across the treasures, share them with me! I can't live much longer here !" And the padre burst into a maudlin paroxysm of tears.

Von Tschudi, when he was at Tiahuanuco, found or obtained some ancient relics—small stone idols, if I remember rightly—but had not proceeded many miles on his way to La Paz before he was surrounded by a party of Indians from the town, and compelled to surrender them. We suffered no molestation, although there is no doubt we were closely watched, and that the deaf and apparently almost sightless old stone-cutter was a spy on our actions.

I have already said that our visit to Tiahuanuco was coincident in time with the Chuño and Corpus Christi. The population of the place, as indeed of the whole region, is Indian, the white priests, officials, and landed proprietors being so few as hardly to deserve enumeration. These Indians are of the Aymara as distinguished from the Quichua family, and are a swarthier, more sullen, and more cruel race........

Fuente: James Jacobs