hey belong extends north and south about two thousand
miles. When the marauding Spaniards arrived in the country, this whole
region was the seat of a populous and prosperous empire, complete in its
civil organization, supported by an efficient system of industry, and
presenting a very notable development of some of the more important arts
of civilized life. These ruins differ from those in Mexico and Central
America. No inscriptions are found in Peru; there is no longer a
"marvelous abundance of decorations;" nothing is seen like the monoliths
of Copan or the bas-reliefs of Palenque. The method of building is
different; the Peruvian temples were not high truncated pyramids, and
the great edifices were not erected on pyramidal foundations. The
Peruvian ruins show us remains of cities, temples, palaces, other
edifices of various kinds, fortresses, aqueducts (one of them four
hundred and fifty miles long), great roads (extending through the whole
length of the empire), and terraces on the sides of mountains. For all
these constructions the builders used cut stone laid in mortar or
cement, and their work was done admirably, but it is every where seen
that the masonry, although sometimes ornamented, was generally plain in
style and always massive. The antiquities in this region have not been
as much explored and described as those north of the isthmus, but their
general character is known, and particular descriptions of some of them
have been published.

THE SPANISH HUNT FOR PERU.

The Spanish conquest of Peru furnishes one of the most remarkable
chapters in the history of audacious villainy. It was the work of
successful buccaneers as unscrupulous as any crew of pirates that ever
robbed and murdered on the ocean. After their settlements began on the
islands and the Atlantic coast, rumors came to them of a wonderful
country somewhere at a distance in the west. They knew nothing of
another ocean between them and the Indies; the western side of the
continent was a veiled land of mystery, but the rumors, constantly
repeated, assured them that there was a country in that unknown region
where gold was more abundant than iron among themselves. Their strongest
passions were moved; greed for the precious metals and thirst for
adventures.

Balboa was hunting for Peru when he discovered the Pacific, about 1511
A.D. He was guided across the isthmus by a young native chief, who told
him of that ocean, saying it was the best way to