The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-05-12
THE ZUCCO OF
Frank c.. Carpenter Tells How the Ancient
Capital of the Incas Looks in 1914.

by Railroad-How 1t Was
FOundcd-Manco Capac and His
Gold Divining Rod-A City OF
Churches and Converts and It's
Gold and Silver Treasures Worth
One Million Dollars-A Stroll
Through the Strects-Business Sec
ton Where the Merchants Are
ave Dweller-A Look at the Mar
Ike Where ChOl and Indian WOm-
en- Arc the Butchers, Bakers and
reddiers- Vegctables and
Original Home OF the Irish Potato
0CuZcO's Mule Car Line, Which
Runs Once a Day-Hotels, Prices,
Etc.
copyrighted, 1914. by Frank G.. Car
penter.)
CUSCO. PERU.
am in Cuzco, once the famed cap
tia of the lncas, and now by all odds
the-most interesting city Of modern
Peru. 1t lies here in the heart Of the
Andean plateau about 500 miles by
rail from the Pacific Ocean at the
port OF Mollendo, and SO far inland
that with the change of trains, it
takes almost four days to reach it.
The cars cross the Andes at a pass
that is several hundred feet higher
than the top OF Pixies Peak, and then
drops down to a plateau that has the
same altitude as the SHOWS which kiss
the sky on the summit of Fujiyama,
the sacred mountain of Japan. You
travel over this plateau for about 200
miles. and then enter a beautiful val
ley about 1000 feet lower. The pla-
teau is covered with grass. and is
spotted with the matched mud huts
of countless Indians of the Incas' de-
s~cendants. 1t has good pastures, and
upon 1t are feeding tens of thousands
OF sheep n great f1ockS of alpacaS
and llamas. 1t has small cultivated
patches here and there, but it's gen.
eral aspect is dreary and bleak.
The valley has a different appear
ance. 1t seems like a Garden of
Eden as you descend from the pam
pas. There are great fields of grain
n acres of potatoes and beans.
There are patches Of quinua and
tracts of green barley, which just now
are sprinkled with the yellow bios
SONS Of the mustard that has grown
up among it. This land belongs to
the haciendados, or the white or half
breed Peruvians. 1t has some large
houses. but everywhere scattered
through the farms are Indian villages
with their mud huts. the home Of the
]aborers. Some Of the fields are sur
by low fences Of stone or mud
walls, n many Of them are in ter
races tina rise, step by step, from the
valley, high up the slopes of the
mountains. There are some pastures,
and everywhere are beautiful wild
overs. The whole country looks fer
tile, rich and well kept. There are
cattle and sheep and alpacas, all eat
ing together as they are watched over
by Indian herdmen, the whole form
ing a picture of prosperity hat is ac-
c~entuated by the poverty of the high
n from which o ave dropped.
1t is at the head of this beautiful
valley that CuZco is situated. 1t lies
on the slope of the mountain, and as
you stand above it on the site of the
ola fortihcations built by the Incas,
this great fertile tract is spread out
before you.
1t is probable that it was this sight
that made the first Incas king. Nance
Capac, choose CuzcO as the capital of
his nation. He saw it hundreds of
years before Columbus discovered
America, and the empire he founded
was already from four to six centu-
ries old, when it was conquered and
destroyed by the Spaniard, Pizarro.
According to tradition it had been
founded by a race that was descended
from a child of the sun, and placed
49, o'oAl III Lam 1llCoC
A prince and princess of this race were
gwen a golden rod by the sun god
and told to go forth and civilize the
avag which then inhabited the high
plateau of the Andes. They were
told to select as the site of their CITY.
where that rod should sink into the
earth. AS the story goes, they trav-
eled across the pampas Owe much
the same route that l came by the
railroad, and when they reached here
the golden rod fell and disappeared in
the ground.
On that spot they outlined the chief
plaza n about it grew up ancient
Cuzco. Whether this story be true
or not, it is certain that here the In
cas- built a great city and that for
generations this was the capital of
their empire, that reached two or
three thousand miles north and south.
The n dominions look in what is
now the city of Quito, in Ecuador
and extended TO far below where now
stands Santiago, the capital of Chile.
Cuzco Itself then contained over two
hunhrnd fhntiCn nd ;l