[25] Cuzco, situate in latitude 13° 32´ 20´´ S. in a cool and bracing climate, in the midst of a valley, between the eastern and western chains of Cordillera, has in its vicinity warm and fertile ravines or glens. It is said to have been founded by Manco Capac, the first Inca, in the middle of the eleventh century; and Francis Pizarro took possession of it, in the name of Charles I. King of Castile, on the 13th March 1534. In the year 1590, this celebrated capital of the old Peruvian empire suffered from a violent earthquake, which ruined a great part of its ancient monuments. The architecture of the great Temple of the Sun, and fortress, close to the city, still exhibit a different style of masonry from that which we have described above, and is most usual in the Sierra of Peru, where there are numerous ruins of villages and tambos, constructed with stone of very ordinary size. But, at Cuzco, the ruins of the temple and fortress yet remaining are formed of stones of vast magnitude, and of irregular shapes; yet, so exactly are they adjusted, that no void, or cement, is visible at their points of junction. [26] Commentarios Reales de los Incas, lib. viii. cap. xii. [27] Corral means a cattle pen. [28] Ignorant of this, and believing no roof to be near under which to take shelter, we have known travellers obliged to pass the night very miserably, and with no small risk of health, on the plain, or by the cascade at the base of the Viuda. [29] The name of this place is very appropriate, as it implies the fare it affords. _Casa_ is the Spanish word for house, and _cancha_ is the Quichua name for toasted Indian corn: hence Casa-cancha, or the House of Toasted Maize. [30] See p. 241. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. LONDON: PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, Dorset Street, Fleet Street.