fènt into New Spain immediately after the conqueft, it was found that about two thoufand five hundred were facrificed every year in Mexico. C. 207.

NOTE XXXII. p. 205.

It is hardly neceffary to obferve, that the Peruvian Chronology is not only obfcure, but repugnant to conclufions deduced from the moft accurate and extenfive obfervations, concerning the time that elapfes during each reign, in any given fucceffion of princes. The medium has been found not to exceed twenty years. According to Acofta and Garcilaffo de la Vega, Huana Capac, who died about the year 1527, was the twelfth Inca. The duration of the Peruvian monarchy ought not to have been reckoned above two hundred and forty years; but they affirm that it had fubfifted four hundred years. Acofta. lib. vi. c. 19. Vega, lib. i. c. 9. By this account each reign is extended at a medium to thirty-three years, instead of twenty, the number afcertained by Sir Ifaac Newton's obfervations; but fo imperfect were the Peruvian traditions, that though the total is boldly marked, the number of years in each reign is unknown.

NOTE XXXIII. p. 213

Many of the early Spanish writers affert, that the Peruvians offered human facrifices, Xeres, p. 190. Zarate, lib. i. c. 11. Acofta, lib. v. c. 19. But Garcilaffo de la Vega contends, that though this barbarous practice prevailed among their uncivilized ancestors, it was totally abolished by the Incas, and that no human victim was ever offered in any temple of the Sun. This affertion, and the plaufible reafons with which he confirms it, are fufficient to refute the Spanifh writers, whofe accounts feem to be founded entirely upon report, not upon what they themselves had obferved. Vega, lib. ii. c. 4. In one of their feftivals, the Peruvians offered cakes of bread moistened with blood drawn from the arms, the eye-brows, and nofes of their children. Jd. lib. vii. c. 6. This rite appears to have been derived from their ancient practice of sacrificing human victims,

NOTE XXXIV. p. 220.

The Spaniards have adopted both those cuftoms of the ancient Peruvians. They have preferved fome of the aqueducts or canals, made in the days of the Incas, and have made new ones, by which they water every field that they cultivate. Ulloa Voyage, tom. i.

422. 477. They likewife continue to use guano, or the dung of fea - fowls, as manure. Ulloa gives a defcription of the almoft incredible quantity of it in the fmall islands near the coaft. Ibid. 481.

and

NOTE XXXV. p. 223.

The temple of Cayambo, the palace of the Inca at Callo in the plain of Lacatunga, and that of Atun - Cannar, are defcribed by Ulloa, tom. i. 286, &c. who infpected them with great care. M. de Condamine published a curious memoir concerning the ruins of AtunCannar. Mem. de l'Academie de Berlin, A D. 1746. p. 435. Acofta defcribes the ruins of Cuzco, which he had examined. Lib. vi. c. 4. Garcilaffo, in his ufual ftile, gives pompous confufed defcriptions of feveral temples, and other publick edifices. Lib. iii. c. I. 21. lib. vi. c. 4. Don Zapata, in a large treatise concerning Peru, which has not hitherto been publifhed, communicates fome information with refpect to feveral monuments of the ancient Peruvians, which have not been mentioned by other authors. MS. penes me, Articulo xx. Ulloa defcribes fome of the ancient Peruvian fortifications, which were likewife works of great extent and folidity. Tom. i. 391. Three circumftances ftruck all thofe obfervers: the vaft fize of the ftones which

the Peruvians employed in fome of their buildings. Acofta measured one, which was thirty feet long, eigtheen broad, and fix in thicknefs; and yet, he adds, that in the fortrefs at Cuzco, there were ftones confiderably larger. It is difficult to conceive how the Peruvians could move these, and raise them to the height even of twelve feet. The fecond circumftance is, the imperfection of the Peruvian art, when applied to working in timber. By the patience and perfeverance natural to Americans, ftones may be formed into any shape, merely by rubbing one against another, or by the use of hatchets or other inftruments made of ftone; but with fuch rude tools, little progrefs can be made in carpentry. The Peruvians could not mortize two beams together, or give any degree of union, or ftability to any work compofed of timber. As they could not form a centre, they were totally unacquainted with the ufe of arches in building, nor can the Spanish authors conceive how they were able to frame a roof for thofe ample ftructures which they raised.

The third circumftance is a ftriking proof, which all the monuments of the Peruvians furnish, of their want of ingenuity and invention, accompanied with patience no lefs aftonishing. None of the ftones employed; in thofe works were formed into any particular or uniform shape, which could render them fit

for building. The Indians took them as they fell from the mountains, or were raised out of the quarries. Some were fquare, fome triangular, fome convex, fome concave. Their art and induftry were employed in joining them together, by forming fuch hollows in the one, as perfectly correfponded to the projections or rifings in the other. This tedious operation, with might have been fo eafily abridged, by adapting the furface of the ftones to each other, either by rubbing, or by their hatchets of copper, would be deemed incredible, if it were not put beyond doubt by inspecting the remains of those buildings. It gives them a very fingular appearance to an European eye. There is no regular layer or ftratum of building, and no one ftone resembles another in dimenfion or form. At the same time, by the perfevering, but ill-directed induftry of the Indians, are all joined with that minute nicety which I have mentioned. Ulloa made this obfervation concerning the form of the ftones in the fortress of Atun-Cannar. Voy. i. p. 387. Pineto gives a fimilar defcription of the fortrefs of Cuzco, the most perfect of all the Peruvian works. Zapata MS. penes me. According to M. de Condamine, there were regular ftrata of building in fome parts of Atun-, Cannar, which he remarks as fingular, and as a proof of fome progrefs in improvement.