of Guayaquil in which bones of the
mastodon are met with." The ancient surface earth or vegetable mould,
with its pottery, gold-work, and other relics of civilized human life,
was, therefore, below the sea when that marine deposit was spread over
it. This land, after being occupied by men, had subsided and settled
below the ocean, remained there long enough to accumulate the marine
deposit, and again been elevated to its former position above the sea
level. Since this elevation, forests have been established over it
which are older than the Spanish Conquest, and now it is once more
subsiding. In 1862, at a meeting of the Royal Geological Society, Sir
Roderick Murchison spoke of these discoveries as follows:

"The discoveries Mr. Wilson has made of the existence of the works of
man in a stratum of mould beneath the sea level, and covered by several
feet of clay, the phenomenon being persistent for sixty miles, are of
the highest interest to physical geographers and geologists. The facts
seem to demonstrate that, within the human period, the lands on the west
coast of Equatorial America were depressed and submerged, and that after
the accumulation of marine clays above the terrestrial relics the whole
coast was elevated to its present position."

Assuming the facts to be as Mr. Wilson reports (and they have not been
called in question), it follows that there was human civilization to a
certain extent in South America at the time of the older stone age of
Western Europe. The oldest Peruvian date of Montesinos is quite modern
compared with this. The fact may be considered in connection with
another mentioned in the section on American Ethnology, namely, that the
most ancient fauna on this continent, man probably included, is that of
South America. But, without regard to what may be signified by these
discoveries of Mr. Wilson, there is good reason for believing that the
Peruvian civilization was much more ancient than it has been the fashion
to admit.

Peru would now be a very different country if the Spaniards had been
sufficiently controlled by Christianity and civilization to treat the
Peruvians justly, and seek nothing more than friendly intercourse with
them. But they went there as greedy buccaneers, unscrupulous robbers,
and brought every thing to ruin. At no time since the Spanish Conquest
has the country been as orderly, as prosperous, or as populous as they
found it. It has fallen to a much lower condition. Indu