The like in Herefordshire in England.
Eight years before this terrible Earthquake here, there hapned in the County of Hereford in England almost the same kind of prodigious Motion: for not far from the Town Ledborough, arose Marcely Hill to an exceeding heighth, and moving along bury’d all whate’re it met with, after which manner it continu’d for the space of three days, to the great terror of all that beheld it.
9. Chilane; 10. Acos; 11. Pomata, and some others, all of them good Towns, but not so considerable as those other.
Roads and High-ways made by the Ingas.
Concerning the Roads or High-ways, it may well be said, That none of the seven Wonders of the World can compare with any one of them; neither was the Way that Appius Claudius made from Rome to Brundusium, upon the repairing of which the Emperors Julius and Augustus spent great sums of Money, fit to stand in competition with the Roads made by the Ingas in Peru: for who cannot but admire at the consideration of so many Valleys fill’d with Mountains, the hardest Rocks cut asunder, Moors damm’d up, great Stone Bridges laid over swift gliding Streams, and through vast Wildernesses a Way made of twenty Foot broad, inclos’d in high Walls, extending from Quito to Chilo, a thousand Leagues, and at the end of every ten Leagues brave Houses or Magazines, stor’d with Bowes, Arrows, Halberds, Axes, Clubs, Clothes, and Provision for twenty or thirty thousand Men. Some relate, that Guainacava, when he return’d Victor from the conquer’d Countrey Quito, suffer’d great Inconveniences on the pathless Mountains, and thereupon Commanded his Subjects to make the fore-mention’d Way. But it is more probable, that this Master-piece was not the work of one Inga, especially since besides the Way from Chili to Quito there leads another through the Mountains over the Plains from Cusco to Quito, forty Foot broad, and five hundred Leagues long, inclos’d within two Walls.
The manner of the Peruvian Registers.
The Peruvians relate from the testimony of the Quipos, much more concerning these High-Ways, and other Buildings on them, made by Guainacava. These Quipos are Rowls of divers colour’d Strings, full of all manner of Knots, which serve in stead of Characters to keep their Chronicles; in which were employ’d the Quipo-Camayos, who being in the nature of our Secretaries, Registred all Transactions, performing the same with the several Strings and Buttons, with which they gave Obligations, Discharges, and the like: but besides the Quipos they also us’d Rings full of little Stones for the same purpose; and knew with Maiz-Seed how to cast up an Account as well as the best Arithmetician with Figures.
Their Account of Time hung on the twelve Pillars Succanga, erected on a Mountain beyond Cusco by the Inga Pachacuma, that is, The Regulator of the Year, to shew the Course of the Sun, and according to that their appointed Feast-days, times of Sowing and Harvest: Their Year begins in December.
The present State of Peru under the Spanish Government.
The Spanish Government in the Kingdom of Peru is setled at present in great tranquility and splendor. The Vice-Roy, who keeps a splendid Court in Lima, otherwise call’d Los Reyos, Commands over Chili and Terra Firma, and never comes abroad without a Guard of forty Halberdeers: when he travels by Land he is accompanied by the Arch-bishop, and guarded by his forty Halberdeers, a hundred Pike-men, and fifty Musquetteers. His Reign is generally not above six or eight years, during which time he receives forty thousand Ducats per Annum out of the King’s Exchequer.