Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-06-11

ber Several Of these enormous cables bound together form
ed bridge which, covered with panks, well
Tended by railing of the osier materials the Sides
afforded safe passage for the traveller"
The other road Of th ncas lay through the level country
between the Andes and the Ii constructed in
different demanded by the nature of the ground
which for the part low and much of il sandy The
causeway raised high embankmen Of earth,
feaded either side by parnpet wall Of clay
and odorferous shrubs planted along the Margin the
Of the traveller with their perfumes and refreshing him
by their shades grateful under the burning sky the ro
the distance of ten twelve miles for the accommodation
Of travellers, mary constructed for security and supplied
with water brought in aqueduc when not found the place
Courers relieves and running swiftly carried dispatches
the whole extent Of these long the Of one hun
dred and fifty miles day and, besides dispatches often
red fish from the Distant and fruits and game the
hot regions the TO be served up fresh the nca
table In the imperial capitals"
The Baron Humboldt, "Rs NeStoro Of Scientific Traveersp
thus speaks of the remains of the roads from his
own personal observation:
AZ we leading heavily laden mules with great
difficulty through the marshy ground the elevated plain
del Pula eyes meanwhile continually dwelling ON
the grand remains Of the Incas road which, with breadth
Of twenty English feet there remaining by side
II had deep understructure, and paved with
blocks of backish rapporphery Nothing that had seen Of
the remains Of Roman roads in Italy in South Of France and
in SPAIN imposing than those works of ancient
Peruvans, which situated according my barone
measurement 1928 English feet above the the sea-
than thousand feet higher than the summit Of the
Peak of Tenere There are two great artificial paved
system Of roads, covered with fiat stones sometimes
with cemented gravel passes through the wide and arid
plain between the Pacific and the chain Andes
and the other the ridges of the Coderas Mlesones
stones marking the distances often placed equal in
tervals The road conducted rivers deep
vines by three kinds ofbrdgesson wood bridges
and there also aqueducs for bringing water the
ing places and to the foresse Both systems
of roads were directed the central point Cuzco the
government Of the great empire in 12o 81 south latitude
which is placed according Pentand map of Bolivia
English feet above the level of the The important
capitals Of the empire Cuzco and Quito thus connected by
different systems of roads, 1000 English geographical
miles apart in straight line Is. s. r. N. N. W. without
reckoning the windngs OF the and including the
wndngs the distance is estimated by Garcasso de la Vega
and other conquistadores at 500 leagues"
Such the roads constructed on own continent
before the discovery of the New World and by people
whom consider uncivzed, and who certainly had but
few of the helps of civilzatonno knowledge Of iron
mechanical powersno beast of burden but sort OF
sheepthe lamatoo light for the draft and too weak
for the burden-only carrying hundred pounds ten
miles In day; and yet people who constructed two
such roads, each about long from Missouri to
the Pacifc-one at mountainous elevation only about
thousand feet lower than the summit of Mont Blanc
and the other in the arid sands of the owlands under
tropical heat and both in direction successive
mountains rivers, and both executed in style of &C.
commodation that do not pretend to rival military
protection safe lodging water shade baths the perfume
of odorferous shrubs! and mails, messages and small
burdens transported upon them the rate of hundred
and fifty miles day, without horses and without steam
by running foot alone. After seeing such sys
tenn of roads own continent devised and establish
ed by such people, what is there to prevent the
guard Of the AngoSaxon race, and the descendants
the elite of Europe to open the system of roads which
bill proposes common road which the mail stage is
to hundred miles in the twenty -four hours and
letter horse-mai two hundred miles in the time-s
railway which the to fly like the express trains
in England forytwo miles to the houran electric line
along which, and cross the continent people to
municate as they would hold converse across room