“The Peruvians made large use of aqueducts, which they built with notable skill, using hewn stones and cement, and making them very substantial.”  One extended four hundred and fifty miles across sierras and over rivers.  Think of a stone aqueduct reaching from the city of New York to the State of North Carolina!

The public roads of the Peruvians were most remarkable; they were built on masonry.  One of the-se roads ran along the mountains through the whole length of the empire, from Quito to Chili; another, starting from this at Cuzco, went down to the coast, and extended northward to the equator.  These roads were from twenty to twenty-five feet wide, were macadamized with pulverized stone mixed with lime and bituminous cement, and were walled in by strong walls “more than a fathom in thickness.”  In many places these roads were cut for leagues through the rock; great ravines were filled up with solid masonry; rivers were crossed by suspension bridges, used here ages before their introduction into Europe.  Says Baldwin, “The builders of our Pacific Railroad, with their superior engineering skill and mechanical appliances, might reasonably shrink from the cost and the difficulties of such a work as this.  Extending from one degree north of Quito to Cuzco, and from Cuzco to Chili, it was quite as long as the two Pacific railroads, and its wild route among the mountains was far more difficult.”  Sarmiento, describing it, said, “It seems to me that if the emperor (Charles V.) should see fit to order the construction of another road like that which leads from Quito to Cuzco, or that which from Cuzco goes toward Chili, I certainly think he would not be able to make it, with all his power.”  Humboldt said, “This road was marvellous; none of the Roman roads I had seen in Italy, in the south of France, or in Spain, appeared to me more imposing than this work of the ancient Peruvians.”

Along these great roads caravansaries were established for the accommodation of travellers.

These roads were ancient in the time of the Incas.  They were the work of the white, auburn-haired, bearded men from Atlantis, thousands of years before the time of the Incas.  When Huayna Capac marched his army over the main road to invade Quito, it was so old and decayed “that he found great difficulties in the passage,” and he immediately ordered the necessary reconstructions.

It is not necessary, in a work of this kind, to give a detailed description of the arts and civilization of the Peruvians..  They were simply marvellous.  Their works in cotton and wool exceeded in fineness anything known in Europe at that time.  They had carried irrigation, agriculture, and the cutting of gems to a point equal to that of the Old World.  Their accumulations of the precious metals exceeded anything previously known in the history of the world.  In the course of twenty-five years after the Conquest the Spaniards sent from Peru to Spain more than eight