“The Yncas, kings of Peru, built wonderful edifices, whether fortresses, temples, gardens, palaces, store-houses, roads, or other works. All excited admiration, as may still be seen by their ruins, though these remains give but an inadequate idea of the complete edifice. “The grandest and most superb work that they ordered to be built, to show their power and majesty, was the fortress of Cuzco. Its magnificence would be incredible to those who have not seen it, and even those who have gazed upon it with attention are induced to imagine, and even to believe, that such works must have been completed by enchantment, and that they were made by demons rather than by men. For the multitude of stones, so many and of such size, that are placed on the three circling lines (being more like rocks than stones), excite astonishment and wonder, as to how they could have been cut from the quarries whence they were brought. For these Indians had neither iron nor steel for cutting and working the stones. “It is an equal wonder how the stones could have been brought from the quarry; for the Indians had neither bullocks nor carts. Besides, no cart could bear the weight of such stones, neither could any bullocks draw them. They were drawn by the force of men’s hands, hauling at stout cables passed round them.”[38] [Sidenote: Destruction of Inca edifices] On a later page Garcilaso de la Vega expresses regret that the Spaniards did not preserve the fortress as they found it: “The Spaniards should have preserved the fortress, and even repaired it at their own cost, that future ages might see how great had been the valour of those who took it, of which it would have been an eternal memorial. But not only have they not maintained it; they have themselves dismantled it to build the private houses they have now in Cuzco. In order to save the cost, delay, and trouble which the Indians expended on preparing dressed stones for building, the Spaniards pulled down all the masonry walls within the circle of the fortress, and there is not a house in the city which has not been partly built with those stones, at least among those that the Spaniards have erected.”[39] III [Sidenote: Sarmiento’s career]