THE PERUVIAN COLONY.
If we look at the map of Atlantis, as revealed by the deep sea soundings, we will find that it approaches at one point, by its connecting ridge, quite closely to the shore of South. America, above the mouth of the Amazon, and that probably it was originally connected with it.
If the population of Atlantis expanded westwardly, it naturally found its way in its ships up the magnificent valley of the Amazon and its tributaries; and, passing by the low and fever-stricken lands of Brazil, it rested not until it had reached the high, fertile, beautiful, and healthful regions of Bolivia, from which it would eventually cross the mountains into Peru.
Here it would establish its outlying colonies at the terminus of its western line of advance, arrested only by the Pacific Ocean, precisely as we have seen it advancing up the valley of the Mississippi, and carrying on its mining operations on the shores of Lake Superior; precisely as we have seen it going eastward up the Mediterranean, past the Dardanelles, and founding Aryan, Hamitic, and probably Turanian colonies on the farther shores of the Black Sea and on the Caspian. This is the universal empire over which, the Hindoo books tell us, Deva Nahusha was ruler; this was “the great and aggressive empire” to which Plato alludes; this was the mighty kingdom, embracing the whole of the then known world, from which the Greeks obtained their conception of the universal father of all men in King Zeus. And in this universal empire Senor Lopez must find an explanation of the similarity which, as we shall show, exists between the speech of the South American Pacific coast on the one hand, and the speech of Gaul, Ireland, England, Italy, Greece, Bactria, and Hindostan on the other.
Montesino tells us that at some time near the date of the Deluge, in other words, in the highest antiquity, America was invaded by a people with four leaders, named Ayar-manco-topa, Ayar-chaki, Ayar-aucca, and Ayar- uyssu. “Ayar,” says Senor Lopez, “is the Sanscrit Ajar, or aje, and means primitive chief; and manco, chaki, aucca, and uyssu, mean believers, wanderers, soldiers, husbandmen. We have here a tradition of castes like that preserved in the four tribal names of Athens.” The laboring class (naturally enough in a new colony) obtained the supremacy, and its leader was named Pirhua-manco, revealer of Pir, light (pu~r, Umbrian pir). Do the laws which control the changes of language, by which a labial succeeds a labial, indicate that the Mero or Merou of Theopompus, the name of Atlantis, was carried by the colonists of Atlantis to South America (as the name of old York was transplanted in a later age to New York), and became in time Perou or Peru? Was not the Nubian “Island of Merou,” with its pyramids built by “red men,” a similar transplantation? And when the Hindoo priest points to his sacred emblem with five projecting points upon it, and tells us that they typify “Mero and the four quarters of the world,” does he not refer to Atlantis and its ancient universal empire?
Manco, in the names of the Peruvian colonists, it has been urged, was the same as Mannus, Manu, and the Santhal Maniko. It reminds us of Menes, Minos, etc., who are found at the beginning of so many of the Old World traditions.
The Quichuas—this invading people—were originally a fair skinned race, with blue eyes and light and even auburn hair; they had regular features, large heads, and large bodies. Their descendants are to this day an olive- skinned people, much lighter in color than the Indian tribes subjugated by them.
They were a great race. Peru, as it was known to the Spaniards, held very much the same relation to the ancient Quichua civilization as England in the sixteenth century held to the civilization of the empire of the Caesars. The Incas were simply an offshoot, who, descending from the mountains, subdued the rude races of the sea-coast, and imposed their ancient civilization upon them.
The Quichua nation extended at one time over a region of country more than two thousand miles long. This whole region, when the Spaniards arrived, “was a populous and prosperous empire, complete in its civil organization, supported by an efficient system of industry, and presenting a notable development of some of the more important arts of civilized life.” (Baldwin’s “Ancient America,” p. 222.) The companions of Pizarro found everywhere the evidences of a civilization of vast antiquity. Cieca de Leon mentions “great edifices”
that were in ruins at Tiahuanaca, “an artificial hill raised on a groundwork of stone,” and “two stone idols, apparently made by skilful artificers,” ten or twelve feet high, clothed in long robes. “In this place, also,” says De Leon, “there are stones so large and so overgrown that our wonder is excited, it being incomprehensible how the power of man could have placed them where we see them. They are variously wrought, and some of them, having the form of men, must have been idols.
Near the walls are many caves and excavations under the earth; but in another place, farther west, are other and greater monuments, such as large gate-ways with hinges, platforms, and porches, each made of a single stone. It surprised me to see these enormous gate-ways, made of great masses of stone, some of which were thirty feet long, fifteen high, and six thick.”
The capital of the Chimus of Northern Peru at Gran-Chimu was conquered by the Incas after a long and bloody struggle, and the capital was given up to barbaric ravage and spoliation. But its remains exist to-day, the marvel of the Southern Continent, covering not less than twenty square miles. Tombs, temples, and palaces arise on every hand, ruined but still traceable. Immense pyramidal structures, some of them half a mile in circuit; vast areas shut in by massive walls, each containing its water-tank, its shops, municipal edifices, and the dwellings of its inhabitants, and each a branch of a larger organization; prisons, furnaces for smelting metals, and almost every concomitant of civilization, existed in the ancient Chimu capital. One of the great pyramids, called the “Temple of the Sun,” is 812 feet long by 470 wide, and 150 high. These vast structures have been ruined for centuries, but still the work of excavation is going on.
One of the centres of the ancient Quichua civilization was around Lake Titicaca. The buildings here, as throughout Peru, were all constructed of hewn stone, and had doors and windows with posts, sills, and thresholds of stone.
At Cuelap, in Northern Peru, remarkable ruins were found. “They consist of a wall of wrought stones 3600 feet long, 560 broad, and 150 high, constituting a solid mass with a level summit. On this mass was another 600 feet long, 500 broad, and 150 high,” making an aggregate height of three hundred feet! In it were rooms and cells which were used as tombs.
Very ancient ruins, showing remains of large and remarkable edifices, were found near Huamanga, and described by Cieca de Leon. The native traditions said this city was built “by bearded white men, who came there long before the time of the Incas, and established a settlement.”
“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
