It is a curious fact, well worthy of notice, that throughout the American continent, seemingly so dependent on maritime colonisation for its settlement by man, the use of sails as a means of propelling vessels through the water appears to have been almost unknown. Prescott, when describing the singular suspension bridges, made of the tough fibres of the maguey, with which the Peruvians spanned the broad gullies of their mountain streams, adds: “The wider and more tranquil waters were crossed on _balsas_, a kind of raft still much used by the natives, to which sails were attached, furnishing the only instance of this higher kind of navigation among the American Indians.”[67] This statement of the historian is too comprehensive; for, although the Peruvians were so essentially an agricultural and unmaritime people, the use of sails in their coasting trade constitutes one of their noticeable points of superiority over other nations of the New World. Attention is specially directed to this by an incident recorded in the second expedition for the discovery of Peru preparatory to its conquest. Bartholomew Ruiz, the pilot of the expedition, after lingering on the coast, near the Bay of St. Matthew, stood out into the ocean, when he was suddenly surprised by the sight of a vessel in that strange, silent sea, seemingly like a caravel of considerable size, with its broad sail spread before the wind. “The old navigator was not a little perplexed by this phenomenon, as he was confident that no European bark could have been before him in these latitudes; and no Indian nation yet discovered, not even the civilised Mexican, was acquainted with the use of sails in navigation.” As he drew near, it proved to be a native _balsa_, formed of huge timbers of light, porous wood, and with a flooring of reeds raised above them. Two masts sustained the large, square, cotton sail; and a moveable keel and rudder enabled the boatman to steer. On board of it Ruiz found ornaments displaying great skill, wrought in silver and gold, vases and mirrors of burnished silver, curious fabrics, both cotton and woollen, and a pair of balances made to weigh the precious metals. Here were the first undoubted evidences of the existence of that strange seat of a native American civilisation, among the lofty valleys of the Southern Andes, which he was in search of. The balsa’s crew included both men and women, who carried with them provisions for their voyage, and had come from a Peruvian port some degrees to the south. Like older voyagers of the Mediterranean, the Peruvian pilots were wont to creep timidly along the shore; but the Spaniards encountered them in the open Pacific, where no European prow had ever sailed. Caught by a sudden gale their bark might have been borne far off among the islands that stud the Southern Ocean, and here was the germ of a race of islanders, to whom, after a few generations, the memory of their Peruvian ancestry would have