e been found. The city itself was most interesting. Its handsome
Spanish cathedral had a facade of beautifully designed columns and a fine
central doorway. The great bell in one of the towers contained a large
quantity of gold in the bronze, giving wonderful resonance to its
vibrating notes. A solid silver altar of great height was to be admired
in the interior of the cathedral, while the chancel was of marvellously
carved wood. So was a supplementary altar which had been stored away
behind the silver one.

The principal square of Cuzco had recently been paved with cement, on
which none of the natives could be induced to walk, as they were afraid
of slipping, accustomed as they were to the roughest cobble-stone paving
of their streets. Only the gentry of the city could be seen treading with
great care on the polished pavement, and were looked upon with much
admiration by the lower natives, who stared aghast from the porticoes
around the square. In the centre of the square was a cheap terra-cotta
statue of the Indian hero Atahualpa surmounting a fountain painted of a
ghastly green. The gardens were nicely laid out with pretty lawns.
Another beautiful church rose in the _plaza_, the doorway of which was
also handsome, but not comparable in beauty with that of the cathedral.
The stone carvings of its facade were nevertheless remarkable. There were
arcades on three sides of the _plaza_, the houses being generally only
one storey high above them. The buildings were painted light blue, pink,
green, or bright yellow, the columns of beautifully cut stone being also
covered with hideous paint to match.

Thanks to the kindness of the President of the Republic, Mr. B. B.
Legujia, a telegram had been sent asking the Prefect of Cuzco to give me
every possible assistance in visiting the Inca ruins in the
neighbourhood. The Prefect, Mr. J. J. V. Cuner, kindly placed at my
disposal three excellent horses and an orderly.

It is seldom one can visit a place where the people have more primitive
habits than in the city of Cuzco. The streets, so wonderfully
picturesque, were not fit to walk upon. The people threw into them all
that can be thrown out of the houses, which possess no sanitary
arrangements of any kind. Much of the pleasure of looking at the
magnificent Inca walls--constructed of great blocks of stone so well
fitted that no cement was necessary to hold them together--was really
lost through being absolutely stifled by the suff