Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1914-05-17


Ny i (M cient capital of the Incas,
- ~ that wonderful family Of
NI%9SgSz kings who ruled the most OF
western South America
about 800 years ago. Like the ruling dy-
nasties of Japan and China and almost every
other great empire on earth, they believed
themselves to be descended from the gods.
They thought they were the offspring OF the
sun and they called themselves the suns
children They had tradition as to how
they sprang into existence on one OF the
islands of Lake Titicaca and from there
marched out onto the Andean plateau and
subdued and civilized the then savages.
They came here to Cuzco, at the head OF
beautiful valley in the heart Of the Andes,
and established capital They gradually
conquered the regions about until their en-
pire extended far beyond Quito, in Ecuador,
which is 800 or 700 miles south OF the Pan
anna canal to below where the capital OF
Chile now stands. They had subjects all
along the eastern slopes of the Amazon, and
the western limits of their rule were the
shores of the mighty Pacific. At the time
that Columbus came to America, or little
later when Pizarro, the brutal Spanish
butcher general, came to Peru and con-
quered them, they governed country as
long as the distance between the Arctic
ocean and the shores of Lake Erie, coun-
try which was larger than all of the United
States east Of the Mississippi valley and
which. had it been dropped down in Europe,
would have more than covered Germany
and France, Norway and Sweden, Denmark
and Switzerland, Austria-Hungary and the
Spanish peninsula.
At the time they were overthrown by the
Spaniards the Incas had divided this coun-
try into provinces They had viceroys and
subordinate officials and they had tens of
millions of subjects. They had not only
subdued the savages, but had civilized them.
The subjects Of the Incas were nation
of farmers, mechanics and artisans. They
had religion that recognized the sun as
the lord Of the world, and their emperor as
his ruler on earth They had temples to the
sun, some of which were plated with gold,
and within which was an image of the sun
of pure gold.
The people believed in this religion and
they were pious and peaceful. They gave
part OF their time to the work for the church
and part for the sick and the widows and
orphans They worked also for the govern
ment, and, last of all, for themselves and
their families They worked well, too.
They conquered the land. They irrigated
the deserts, and today you may see the re-
mains Of their aqueducts Of stone slabs,
neatly fitted together, which carried the
water over millions of acres. They had one
aqueduct that was 500 miles long. Their
irrigating canals ran not only along the
sides OF the mountains, but they cut tunnels
through them, and as rode to Cuzco. along
the high plateau, | saw thousands OF acres
of terraces, now gone to ruin and almost
desert, which these people had made to bios
som like the rose. Such terraces are seen
on the sides of the mountains above almost
every Peruvian valley of the plateau and
along the west coast They run up the
slopes like SO many steps the earth being
held back by stone walls.
The subjects of the Incas were a nation
of shepherds They had millions of alpacas
and l1amas, and they also used the wool Of
the vicunas, which they trapped or shot in
the mountains. They were nation of pot
tiers. They made beautiful vessels of clay
and they were also skilled in the working of
copper, silver and gold l have seen here
some of the tools which they used in erect
ing their buildings. They had way of tenn
pering an alloy of copper and tin SO that the
tools made of it had an edge like razor and
could work the hardest of stone. Further
on in this letter will describe some Of their