Volume 1

History of the conquest of Peru : with a preliminary view of the civilization of the Incas / William H. Prescott.

  • William Hickling Prescott
Date:
[1905?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: History of the conquest of Peru : with a preliminary view of the civilization of the Incas / William H. Prescott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and the gates, we are assured, were sometimes of coloured marble. ‘‘ In the delicacy of the stone- work,'^ says another of the Conquerors, the natives far excelled the Spaniards, though the roofs of their dwellings, instead of tiles, were only of thatch, but put together with the nicest art.^^ The sunny climate of Cuzco did not require a very substantial material for defence against the weather. The most important building was the fortress planted on a solid rock that rose boldly above the city. It was built of hewn stone, so finely wrought that it was impossible to detect the line of junction between the blocks, and the approaches to it were defended by three semicircular parapets, composed of such heavy masses of rock that it bore resemblance to the kind of work known to architects as the Cyclopean.* The fortress was raised to a height rare in Peruvian architecture ; and from the summit of the tower the eye of the spectator ranged over a magnificent pros- pect, in which the wild features of the mountain- scenery, rocks, woods, and waterfalls, were mingled ^ “ Che sono le principali della citta dipinte et lauorate, et di pietra: et la miglior d’esse e la casa di Guainacaba Cacique veccliio, et la porta d’essa e di marnio bianco et rosso, et d’altri colori.” (Ibid., ubi supra.) The buildings were usuaUy of freestone. There may- have been porphyry from the neighbouring mountains mixed with this, which the Spaniards mistook for marble. 3'* “ Todo labrado de piedra muy prima, que cierto toda la canteria desta cibdad hace gran ventaja d la de Espana, aunque carecen de teja que todas las casas sino es la fortaleza, que era hecha de azoteae^ son cubiertas de paja, aunque tan primamente puesta, que parece bien.” Relacion del primer De- scub., MS. *[Mr. Markham, who examined the ruins in 1853, has given a minute description of this “gigantic treble line of Cyclopean fortifi- cation,” which, he says, “ must fill the mind of every traveller with astonishment and admiration.” Translation of Cieza de Leon, p. 325, note.—Ed.]
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