_History_, _&c._--This country had remained independent, till a very short time previous to the Spaniards appearing on the western shores of the Southern Pacific. The empire of Peru at that period, had fallen to _Huana Capac_, (the young rich man,) who being of a very warlike disposition extended his conquests to all the countries bordering on his kingdom, but had particularly directed his operations against the state of Quito, which his predecessor Tupac Yupanqui had already overrun. Quito was inhabited at that period by powerful tribes, who resembled the Peruvians in their manners and customs; the most noted of these people were the Puruays, who were governed by a king under the title of conchocando, and by tributary chiefs called guastays, and whose country was known by the name of Lican. Huana Capac departing with an immense army from Cuzco, marched five hundred leagues towards the capital of this country, encountering at every step the greatest difficulties from bad roads, ravines, precipices, marshes and rapid rivers. These difficulties were apparently insurmountable, but nothing could damp the ardour of the Inca and his Peruvians, and they reached the metropolis of their enemies, subduing both the kingdom and its adjacent provinces. His subjects fancying they could not offer him a more acceptable return for the benefits he had showered upon them, by removing all dread of the future incursions of their warlike neighbours, prepared a magnificent causeway from Quito to Cuzco, in order that the monarch might travel back to his capital with the greatest facility and ease. This road was carried with indefatigable labour over mountains and through swamps. Valleys were filled up, and rocks excavated to an immense extent, and so smooth and level was its surface, that a coach might have been driven along it with the greatest safety. It has since suffered considerable dilapidations from the wars between the Spaniards and Peruvians, but enough is still left to show the magnificence of the undertaking.