[Illustration: AZTEC SACRIFICIAL STONE
Now in the National Museum in the City of Mexico.]
AZTEC CULTURE
The Aztecs appear to have borrowed much of their art, science, and knowledge of writing from their Maya neighbors. They built houses and temples of stone or sundried brick, constructed aqueducts, roads, and bridges, excelled in the dyeing, weaving, and spinning of cotton, and made most beautiful ornaments of silver and gold. They worshiped many gods, to which the priests offered prisoners of war as human sacrifices. In spite of these bloody rites, the Aztecs were a kind-hearted, honest people, respectful of the rights of property, brave in battle, and obedient to their native rulers. Aztec culture in some ways was scarcely inferior to that of the ancient Egyptians.
THE INCAS
The lofty table-lands of the Andes were also the seat of an advanced Indian culture. At the time of the Spanish conquest the greater part of what is now Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile had come under the sway of the Incas, the "people of the sun". The Inca power centered in the Peruvian city of Cuzco and on the shores of Lake Titicaca, which lies twelve thousand feet above sea-level. In this region of magnificent scenery the traveler views with astonishment the ruins of vast edifices, apparently never completed, which were raised either by the Incas or the Indians whom they conquered and displaced. Though the culture of the Incas resembled in many ways that of the Aztecs, the two peoples probably never had any intercourse and hence remained totally unaware of each other's existence.
[Illustration: Map, WEST INDIES]
224. SPANISH EXPLORATIONS AND CONQUESTS IN AMERICA
OBJECTS OF THE SPANIARDS
The discoverers of the New World were naturally the pioneers in its exploration. The first object of the Spaniards had been trade with the Indies, and for a number of years, until Magellan's voyage, they sought vainly for a passage through the mainland to the Spice Islands. When, however, the Spaniards learned that America was rich in deposits of gold and silver, these metals formed the principal objects of their expeditions.