Elizabeth-Town gazette. [volume] (Elizabeth-Town, N.J.) 1818-1821, 1819-09-14

10 this respect, which we may hereafter
notice, would furnish some useful exam
piles.
From the Neru-Tork Daily .9dvertiser.
The following account of the city of CUSCO, 10
South America, is extracted from an original
article in the third number of the 6 Bellies
Lettres REPOSITORY" an amusing magazine,
published monthly in this city, by Messrs. A. T..
Goodrich & Co.
This city is situated 10 8 deg. S. lat
~ miles from the Pacific, in valley
about IL miles long, at the southern fort
|of Moum SaXaquaman, on which is the
citadel that commands the town. The
City may be seen for nine miles from the
sonth where the ridge Of hills which sur
ounds it lessons in size, there is mag
nificent gate at this place all travellers
and passengers were obliged to take off
heir sandals, throw out their cocoa guilds.
and make bow 10 honour Of the sove-
reign city and the natives preserve the
custom to this day. The streets Of an
Client Cusco are all of stone, long ard mar
row; it has three squares embellished by
fountains, and is crossed by two rivers
flom north TO south. The largest of these
is called Guatany; which means in the
language of the country, perpetual motion !;
this name was given to it Oh account Of
criminals having been condemned TO labor
upon its banks, which were built up with
quays of massy stone, cemented SO as to
form an immovabie mass, Notwithstanding
the impetuosiiy of the winter torrents.
These quays are about three miles in ex
tent, and terminate in a beautiful cascade.
The Spaniards threw arches across the
river, and erected houses upon them.
Each Of the provinces of the empire
inhabited separate departments in the city,
conformably to the municipal laws. under
a general administration regulated the
whole of the empire, 90 tribe was permit
led to intermarry with another; SO, at the
first glance ii Was EASY 10 diis,ipgsfislse acil
nation. There were public schools in
which the general idiom of the country
was taught. even to those inhabiting the
m, st distant town; this facilitated the
knowledge of The laws and Of Quipos.
There were also hospitals, infirmaries,
public storehouses for the poor, and in
deed every thing that political wisdom
could devise or suggest for the happiness
Of people.
The couriers or chasguis were regu-
larly established with relays every Is or
is miles, and thus orders we're commu-
nicated with the greatest alacrity. As
wars attracted the attention OF government,
they had beacons of fire to inform of the
rising of any town, however remote
These signals flew from mountain to
mountain as speedily as the instructions
of modern teIegraphs. The Peruvians
now sometimes use them to spread the in
telligence of the arrival of some great
parsonage.
AS good roads were indispensable in
country mountainous and intersected by
rapid torrents and waterfalls, the lucas
constructed royal roads, which even now
are superior to any in the world. From
Cusco to Quito, distance Of 1900 miles,
there is straight road of stone, which is
now perfect, Notwithstanding earthquakes
and time work not inferior to the great
wall of China.
South of Cusco there we're roads cross
ing the gigantic Andes, which we're COM
posed Of species of mortar as hard as
stone. The canals and aqueducts, also,
seem indestructible one of the best fonn.
tains at Cusco, is that built by the Incas,
and situated in the garden of the g hospi-
tai of the matiueS." The pipes are Of
stone, cemented with great neatness, and
the earthquakes have never dislodged
them. The Spaniards wished to discover
the spring of this fountain and dug to that
effect; as they progressed, they found the
pipes lay deeper aud deeper; they aban
doned the search, which has never been
resumed, and the source remains unknown.
The streets run from north to south, and
from east to west; the longest now in
preservation, runs from the temple OF the
Sun TO fort Saxaguaman. The walls on
each side Of the street are from 9 TO IL
feet high. The surface of these is ex-
tremely smooth, and the stones joined
without any mortar) by an art which is
now lost. They had different ways of
placing the stones 10 masonry; some look
ed like planed boards some had mould
ipgs like those Of the City Hall New
York;; others in their naturally irregularl
state, the interstices filled with stone fled