Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-12-03

81 PERUVIAN ANTIQUITIES by MARIANA a. IIVEho
and JOHN JAMES Won TsoHUDL Translated into Eng
lish from the original Spanish by FnAscrs L. HAWKS,
DID,, LII. D. New York, G. P. PUTNAM Co., 1853
In the history of Spanish adventure in the New
World the first distinct notice we find of Peru oc-
ours about the year 1911. When Vasco Nunez de
Balboa, the discoyerer of the Southern Sea, was
weighing some gold which he had collected from
the natives young barbarian cheftain, who
was present, struck the scales with his fist, and
+ scattering the glittering metal around the apart
ment exclaimed g If this is what you prize so
much that you are willing to leave your distant
homes and risk life itself for it, can tell you
of land where they eat and drink out of golden
vessels, and gold is as cheap iron is with you"
Not long after this startling intelligence, as read
in the elegant pages of Prescott, Balboa achieved
the formidable adventure of scaling the mountain
rampant of the isthmus which divides the two mighty
oceans from each other, when, armed with sword
and bucker he rushed into the waters of the Pacific
and cried out, in the true chivalrous vein of the
times, that he claimed this unknown sea. with all
that it contained, for the King of CASTLE, and that
he would make good theclaim against all Christian
or Infdel who dared to gainsay it. Little did the
bold cavalier, adds the historian, comprehend the
full import of his magnificent vaunt, taking in as it
did all the broad continent and sunny isles washed
by the waters Of the Southern Ocean.
1t was on this spot that Balboa received more ex-
plicit tdings of the Peruvian empire and the state
Of its civilization. But, though he steered his ca
rayel for the golden realms, it was reserved for
Francisco Pizarro to effect the actual discovery and
conquest of Peru The story of that conquest, with
its deeds of desperate adventure, its tolls its suffer-
ing and its carnage, is known to every reader from
the familiar work of the distinguished historian al
ready named. The government, the religion, and
the civilization of the Iness also treated on at
considerable length in Mr. Prsscots admirable voumes
but the present work justly represented by its learned
translator containing much that did not fall within the
design of the historian and which has hitherto remained
not generally accessible in language. The work be-
fore also possesses additional interest in the
of Dr. Hawks from the fact that it is in part at least
the production Of native Peruvian of Spanish origin,
who is believed has had native predecessor in any
similar work but Garcilasso de Ia Vega, who published
the first part of his Commentaries" in 1609 and finish
ed them 1916 We have then here the last account Of
Peru by native at date as late 1850, and more
particular description of its most ancient architectural
remains than is be found elsewhere In this last
spect the researches Of Senior Rvero adapted to
fulfil the wish long ago expressed by Humboldt in his
'sVues DIES Cordleres'-that learned traveller
would visit the borders of Lake Ttcaca the district of
Calao and the high plains of Tahuanaco the theatre of
the ancient American civilization
The New World which Columbus gave to CASTLE and
Leon is without its antiquities but they stand
alone and despite all the attempts of psychologists
they avail but little in furnishing the materials by
which to bridge the dark gulf that still sepa-
rates the Old World from the New" The remnants and
memorials of the aboriginal dynastes that ruled
preme either continent Of the New World the cvili
zaton of the Aztecs in Mexico and of the ncas in Peru
like many isolated facts that refuse to be
dnated with the antiquities of any anterior nation
they resemble the boulders drifted by unknown
force in regions where neither account for their
existence trace their origin The whole SUBJECTS in
volved mist that utterly impenerabe and defes
discovery while it alures curiosity But to most minds
imagine the study of American antiquities is rendered
dstasteful by this very isolation in which they stand
for what is it that invests the antiquities of Egypt of
Nneveh of Greece of Rome with that interest which
known to attach to them in the minds only Of the
scholar but of the general reader is it not the
Citations in which it stands with the present that gives to
the past its highest attraction The wisdom of the Egyp-
tians the literature and art of elder Greece and Rome
all form subjects of interesting because of
the relations which they sustain to modern times But
the civilization of the aboriginal of America
to be fragmentary and abnormal development in the
realm Of universal history We cannot deduce its origin
nor have its results been transmitted to modify in any
Improbable degree the civilization of succeeding times
And though there net wanting those who, upon the
slightest induction Of these fragmentary facts in American
antiquities proceed to build ingenious theories with
"fghtful degree Of certainty, Fontenee expresses
it. yet have little hope that the obscurity which
lopes the aboriginal settlement and occupation Of the
American continent will be satisfactorily cleared
by all the researches Of the antiquares the nvesga
tons of the ethnologiss Though it be true,
thors assert, that Babylon Egypt Greece and Rome are
not the only empires which food to generous
Imagination; Thoughts hipwrecked civilization lies stretch
ed at feet; though footsteps disturbing
archaeological mine less rich and opulent than our
celebrated mines Of silver of gold yet fear it
is much to hope that this dust which papitated
lived felt, thought in oden tines, be again
galvanized into life by study and artistic enthusiasm
The civilization Of the American nations has died and
made no sign.
When the Spaniards first trod the shores Of the New
World they supposed tito be inhabited by savages only
but they advanced in the work Of discovery and
quest they found that among the tribes which they sought
to subugate few at least had made certain advances
in cultivation and in works Of The question hence
very naturally arises whether this civilization wholly
Indigenous whether had been transpanted in part
ment Of people left to the free exercise Of their
distinctive genius controlled only by the nature and cir
cumstances Of their position, it modified form Of
earlier civilization that had deserted its ancient
haunts find asylum in the unbroken forests Of the
New Wordf Without pretending on the present occa-
sion to assign the for ncning either altena
tive thus suggested may venture to express it as our