The vegetable productions of Peru are of every variety, embracing all the products both of temperate and tropical climes. The European cereals and vegetables are grown with perfect success, together with maize, rice, pumpkins, tobacco, coffee, sugar-cane, cotton, etc. Fruits of the most delicious flavor are grown in endless variety. Cotton, for which the soil and climate of Peru are admirably adapted, is now produced here in gradually increasing quantity. The land suited to the cultivation of this plant is of immense extent, and the quality of the cotton grown is excellent. The animals comprise those of Europe, together with the llama (q.v.) and its allied species. Although Peru produces so much excellent won], almost the whole of the woolen fabrics used as clothing by the Indians are manufactured in Yorkshire, England.
Ancient Civilization and the origheof whose name is unknown, is now passing through its third historical era, and is manifesting its third phase of civilization. The present era may be said to date from the conquest of the country by the Spaniards in the early part of the 16th c. ; the middle era embraces the rule of the Incas; and the earliest cm, about which exceedingly little is known, is that Pre-Incarial period, of unknown duration, during which a nation or nations living in large cities flourished in the country, and had a civilization, a language, and a religion different, and perhaps in some cases even more advanced than those of the Incas who succeeded them, and over ran their territories. Whence these Pre-Incarial nations came, and to what branch of the human family they belonged, still remain unanswered questions. Their existence, however, is clearly attested by the architectural remains. sculptures, carvings, etc., which they have left behind them. Ruins of edifices constructed both before the advent of the Incas, and contemporary with, and independently of them, are found everywhere throughout the country. On the shores of lake Titicaca, for example, are the ruins of Tia-Huanacu, consisting of sculptured monolithic doorways, one of which is 10 ft. high, and 13 ft. wide; of pillars, 21 ft. high, placed in lines at regular distances; and of immense masses of hewn stone, some 30 ft. long by 18 broad. In 1846, several colossal idols were excavated, some being 18 ft. long, 18 wide, and 6 thick. The idols are in the form of statues, and the ears are not enlarged by the insertion in the lobes of silver rings, as those of sculptured figures, executed in Incarial times invariably are. The ancient fragments of buildings on these shores were beheld with astonishment by the earliest of the Incas, who, by their own confession, accepted them as models for their own archi tecture. The name Tia-Huanacu is comparatively modern, having been conferred by one of the Incas; neither history nor tradition has handed down the original name. The ruins stand at a height of 12,930 ft. above sea-level, and one of the many mysteries which have crowded around this ancient site is, that this spot, in the midst of what is now gen erally a frozen desert. and where the rarity of the air must be so great as to be hurtful, should have been chosen as the seat, as it is generally believed to have been, of an ancient government. Of the character and degree of the civilization of the Pm-Incarial races, almost nothing is known. It is worthy of note, however, that at Pachacamac, 25 in. s. of Lima, where there are the remains of a now wholly deserted city, and of a great temple, the religion seems to have been a pure Theism; for when the Peruvians of Cuzco carried their victorious arms across the Cordilleras to this district, they beheld this tem ple (the doors of which are said to have been of gold inlaid with precious stones) with astonisliMent, not only because it rivaled if not surpassed in splendor the famous tem ple of the sun at Cuzco. but because it contained no image or visible symbol of a god. It was raised in honor of an invisible and mysterious deity, whom the inhabitants called Pachacamac, the creator of the world (front two words of the ancient Peruvian language, paella, the earth; and camac, participle of the verb camani, to create). The Peruvians did not dare to destroy this temple, but contented themselves with building by its side a temple of the aim, to the worship of which they gradually won over the inhabitants. For further information regarding Pre-Incarial times and races, see W. Bollaert's Antiq uities, Ethnology, etc., of South America (Lend. 1860); Squier's"Peru (1876).
Regarding•the origin of the Incas, nothing definite can be said. We have no author ities on the subject save the traditions of the Indians, and these, besides being outrage ously fabulous in character, are also conflicting. It appears, however, from all the traditions, that Manco, the first Inca, first appeared on the shores of lake Titicaca, with his wife Mama Oa°. He announced that he and his wife were children of the sun, and were sent by the glorious Intl (the sun) to instruct the simple tribes. He is said to
have carried with him a golden wedge, or, as it is sometimes called, a wand. Wherever this wedge, on being struck upon the ground, should sink into the earth, and disappear forever, there it was decreed Manco should build his capital. Marching northward, he came to the plain of Cuzco, where the wedge disappeared. Here lie founded the city of Cuzco, became the first inca (a name said to be derived from the Peruvian word for the sun). and founded the Peruvian race, properly so-called. Manco, or Manco Capac (i. e., Banco the rider), instructed the men in agriculture and the arts, gave them a comparatively pure religion, and a social and national organization; while his wife, Mama Ocllo,who is also represented as being his sister, taught the women to sew, to spin, and to weave. Thus, the inca was not only ruler of his people, but also the father and the high-priest. The territory held by Manco Capac was small, extending about 90 m. from e. to w., and about 80 m. front n. to south. After introducing laws among his people, and bringing them into regularly organized communities, "he ascended to his father, the sun." The year generally assigned as that of his death, after a reign of 40 years, is 1062 A.D. The progress'of the Peruvians was at first so slow as to be almost imperceptible. Gradually, however, by their wise and temperate policy: they won over the neighboring tribes, who readily appreciated the benefits of a powerful and fostering government. Little is clearly ascertained regarding the early history of the Peruvian kingdom, and the lists given of its early sovereigns are by no means to be trusted. They invented no alphabet, and therefore could keep no written record of their affairs, so that almost all we can know of their early history is derived from the traditions of the people, collected by the early Spaniards. Memoranda were indeed kept by the Peruvians, and, it is said, even fall historical records, by means of the qtdpu, a twisted woolen cord, upon which other smaller cords of different colors were tied. Of these cross threads, the color, the length. the number of knots upon them, and the distance of one from another, all had their significance; but after the invasion of the Spaniards, when the whole Peruvian system of goterninent and civilization underwent dislocation, the art of reading the quipus seems either to have been lost, or was effectually concealed. Thus it is that we have no exact knowledge of Peruvian history further back than about one century before the coining of the Spaniards. In 1453 Tupac Inca Yupanqui, the 11th inca, according to the list given by Garcilasso de is Vega, greatly enlarged his already wide-spread dominions. Ile led his armies southward, crossed into Chili, marched over the terrible desert of Atacama, and as far s. us the river Manic (lat. 81Y s.), fixed there the southern boundary of Peru. lieturnieg, he crossed the Chilian Andes by a pass of unequaled danger and difficulty, and at length regained his capital, which he entered in triumph. While thus engaged, his son, the young Huayna Capac, heir to the fame as well as the throne of his father, had marched northward to the Amazon, crossed that bar rier, and conquered the kingdom of Quito. In 1475 Huayna Capac ascended the throne, and tinder him the empire of the incas attained to its greatest extent, and the height of its glory. Ilis sway extended from the equatorial valleys of the Amazon to the temper ate plains of Chili, and from the sandy shores of the Pacific to the marshy sources of the Paraguay. Of this immense territory, Cuzco, as its name implies (the word signifies naval), was the great center; great roads branched off from it to the n., s., e., and w., and ramified through every the kingdom. The greatest highway of the country was that which led from Quito through Cuzco into the Chilian dominions. In its con struction, galleries were cut for leagues through the living rock; rivers were crossed by bridges of plaited osiers, that swung in the air; precipices were ascended by staircases artificially cut; and valleys were filled up with solid masonry. It was from 1500 to 2,000 in, long, was about 20 ft. broad, and was built of heavy flags of freestone, Upon all the great routes were posts or small buildings, about 5 rn. apart, attached to ‘vhich were a number of runners, whose business it was to carry forward the dispatches of government. By means of these messengers, fresh fish caught ou one day at Luria, on the Pacific, is said to have been eaten the next day at Cuzco. The distance between these places is 500 m., and the road traverses the wildest and most mountainous country in the world. Order and civilization accompanied conquest among the Peruvians, and each tribe that was vanquished found itself under a careful paternal government, which provided for it, and fostered it in every way.