Many of the modern residences of the conquerors
stand on the foundations of the ancient buildings of the Peruvians, and
from among them we saw towering upwards the spires and towers of the
magnificent cathedral, of the convents of Saint Augustine and La Merced,
and of a number of other fine churches. We had not long to contemplate
this scene of the ruins of the past and of modern splendour, as it was
necessary to reach the city before dark; and the setting sun warned us
that we had not much time to lose. We were questioned, when we entered,
whence we had come; but before we could speak, our Indian attendant
stepped forward and gave an answer that satisfied the guard, and we
passed on.

The inn we went to was the best in the city, but it could boast of
affording us little comfort, though, as we were accustomed to rough
fare, that mattered little. At daybreak I was on foot, as I was anxious
to see the city; and with our Indian attendant as my guide, I wandered
through the larger portion of it before breakfast. We reached a
collection of ruined walls, composed of huge masses of rock.

"On this spot," said the Indian, bending reverentially towards the sun,
just then rising over the walls of the city, "stood the great temple
where our fathers worshipped the God in whom they trusted; away to the
right, where now those convent walls appear, were the residences of the
beautiful virgins of the sun; and in these fields of corn and lucerne
which surround us were once laid out the magnificent gardens of the
temple, filled with menageries of all the animals of our country, with
aviaries of birds of many-coloured plumage, with fountains, and trees,
and flowers, and ornaments of vast size, of gold and silver and precious
stones, many in the form of the shrubs and plants among which they
stood, and of workmanship so admirable that they seemed to vie with them
in elegance and beauty. But the greedy spoiler came, and behold,
stranger, what he made it! Alas! this garden is but an example of the
condition to which our unhappy country has been reduced."

The Indian was silent, and seemed lost in gloomy reflection. I, too,
thought of the past; and as I did so, the magnificent Temple of the Sun
appeared before me, with its walls resplendent with the golden ornaments
which surrounded them, and its wide courts crowded with votaries in
their many-coloured costumes and head-dresses and robes of feathers,
eagerly watching for the rising o