Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1885-08-01
ANCIENT AND MODERN PERU.
The Grandeur of the Inca Empire-The
Misery of To-Day.

Inc UranueW OF the Inca Elnptre-The
Misery of To-Day.
Lima Cor. Inter ocean,
The Peruvian army is made up mostly
of Indians and Cholos Gas the mixed
races are called, and are brought
in from the mountains tied
With ropes. A train-load of these
volunteers" came in from the
country the other day, all of them
with their hands tied behind them, and
were driven into q corral, like so many
cattle, where they were given uniforms
and guns and put through a course of
sprouts. 1t is of little interest to the
Indian on which side he fights, for he
knows nothing about the political trou-
bles of the country, an serves any
commander who happens to capture
him, like mule or a horse, until he is
shot or runs away They are obedient,
tractable, and enduring, and although
those who know enough will cut off
hands and feet to avoid service
in the army, their mutinies always orig
mate with the officers, who are Spanish.
Robertson in his History of America
asserts that 100000 900 of people were
slain in the conquest of cru. While it
is difficult to believe that this is not an
eXaggeration, it is nevertheless true that
the mere handful of Indians that re-
main represent race which, at the
time Pizarro came, was as dense as the
population of China. We can see, even
now, that the country was covered with
towns and villages, who were compelled
to bury their dead in the sands, and
build houses upon the rocks in order to
utilize every inch of soil for agriculture.
The struggle the Indians had to sustain
themselves is illustrated on every noun
tain side, where they built terraces and
scratched the earth out of the crevices
of the rocks to plant few grains of
corn; and in every desert where
great basins were excavated in the
sand and filled with guano from the
islands of the sea to make them fertile.
Their cemeteries contain millions of
bodies-mummies, which are found to-
day in perfect state of preservation,
and teach lesson of civilization which
has been and passed away, superior in
its age to that of any prehistoric race.
No man can see Peru without won
dering at the grandeur, the extent, the
industry, and the intelligence of the
Inca empire. They had arts which the
world has forgotten; knowledge which
the world never knew; thrift which
their conquerers could never initiate,
and wealth which made them the prey
of every adventurer of the sixteenth
century. Their temples and palaces
were built of hewn stone from quar-
ries that the Spaniards have not been
able to discover, and the means by
which they lifted blocks of gran.
lite weighing hundreds of tons is a prob
lem no antiquarian has been able to
solve. They knew how to harden cop.
per until it had an edge as keen and en-
during as the finest of modern steel,
} they made ornaments of gold and silver,
and cut jewels as skillfully as the lapi-
diaries of to-day, and their fabrics of
wooden and cotton are spun and wover
as smoothly as modern looms can make.
They surpassed modern civilization in
many things, and had a system of gov
[ eminent under which millions of people
lived and labored as a single family,
with everything in common, knowing
all arts but those Of war, and worship
+ ping deity whose attributes were
almost parallel to those of the Christian
God.
Hemmed in on one side by the impas
3 sable SHOWS Of the Andes, and on the
other by desert, lifted above the rest
of a world unknown to them, in spirit
as well as fact, as peaceful and
calm as the Andean stars, they
established system of civilization in
which, for the first time since creation
the equal rights of every human being
e were recognized and observed. The
p great sea beating necessarily against
their desolate coast was recognized BY
them as a symbol of the infinite, thu
: omnipotence, whose force and majesty
S their simple logic could not comprehend
q while the sun, whose heat and light
: made existence possible, was recognized
as the source of all good. Hence these
e two elements, the sun and the ocean
t were personfed and were the objects O
4 the lncas' worship.
All their grandeur, all their wealth
the results of all their industry and &C
r cumulation, were swept away by {
1 handful of Spaniards, and finally lif
o itself surrendered, and the race of Inca
= was so nearly exterminated that Chi
u nese coolies were introduced here, a
# the negroes were introduced into tn
n West Indies, to do the work of slaves.
Tho size of Noah's Ark
Exchange.