On the uplands vegetation nourishes, and to the height of 10,000 feet, the Sierra or High Peru, enjoys a climate composed of a mixture of perpetual spring and autumn. Beyond 14,000 feet, the Sierra is covered with eternal snows, and consequently an everlasting winter reigns in its neighbourhood.
The cultivation of these different tracts is little attended to; along the coast, desarts of thirty or forty leagues in extent are frequent; and the immense forests which cover the maritime plains, prove that the inhabitants are not numerous; these forests contain acacias, mangle trees, arborescent brooms and ferns, aloes, and other succulent plants, cedars, cotton or ceiba trees of gigantic growth, many kinds of ebony, and other useful woods, ten or twelve species of palms, and the maria, an enormous tree used in ship building. These forests are thickest at the distance of seven or eight leagues from the coast, and the trees then become covered with parasitical plants, which reach to their very top, mixing their beautiful and lively flowers with the dark green foliage, so peculiar to the tropics.
In the forests and in the plains of the coast, are found the cabbage palm, the cocoa nut, the cacao nut, the cotton shrub, the pine apple, canna, amomum, turmeric, plantain, sugar cane, &c., on the sides of the Andes, and in its great plains, are the precious cinchona, coffee tree, the cardana alliodora, a large tree, whose leaves and wood emit an odour resembling garlic. Twenty-four species of pepper, five or six of capsicum, and several of potato, tobacco and jalap exist in Peru, and the green and hot houses of Europe owe most of their beautiful flowers and plants to this country.
The llama, the guanuco, the vicuna, and the alpaca, or the different species of American camel, find their native climate in the cold districts of Peru; the jaguar, the cougar or puma, and several other wild animals, inhabit the thick forests; while the elk, the ant-bear, deer, monkeys, the great black bear of the Andes, and armadillos, &c., are very numerous. The woods abound in beautiful birds, the rivers in fish and alligators, and numerous tribes of reptiles infest the warm districts of the coast, in which venomous insects are also common.
The mountains of Peru do not yield in height to those of Quito, the great chain of the Andes dividing itself into several parallel branches, forming as in Quito, long and narrow valleys, near its summits; it is very precipitous towards the east, and seems to form a natural barrier between the kingdoms of La Plata and Peru. It here gives birth to the Maranon, the Guallaga, the Tunguragua, and a variety of smaller rivers, which either lose themselves in these or in the Pacific Ocean.
HISTORY, DISCOVERY, &C.
The history of Peru in the remote ages is not so clearly ascertained as that of Mexico; traditions were not handed down to posterity as in that country by symbolical paintings, but were remembered only by means of the quippus, a knotted string of different colours, or by the priests who were brought up from their youth in temples, where the history of the nation was one of the objects of the care of their elders in their instruction.
Although it is doubtful which nation had advanced to the greatest state of civilization, it is certain that the Mexicans had the most correct chronological notions; and accordingly, the æras of their early history are the most to be depended on. From what country the ancient Peruvians migrated is not known; they were however of a character widely different from the Mexicans, and have been conjectured by some authors to have come from the south-east.
They remained for a length of time without any decided form of government, until they were subdued by a tribe who were said to have come from an island in a great lake to the south of Peru. These people were warlike and totally different in their manners from the Peruvians, who were merely tribes of wandering inoffensive savages. According to some authors Manco Capac, and Mama Oello his wife were the conquerors of Peru, appearing on the banks of lake Chucuito, clothed in flowing garments, and whiter than the natives whom they came amongst; they gave themselves out as children of the sun, sent by that divinity to reclaim and instruct mankind. Awed by the presence of these people, the rude savages followed them till they settled at Cuzco, where they founded a town, afterwards the capital of Peru. Persuading the tribes who wandered over the country to collect around them, Manco Capac, instructed the men in agricultural and other useful arts, while Mama Oello taught the females to weave and spin. After securing the objects of primary importance, those of providing food, raiment and habitations for his followers, Manco Capac turned his attention towards framing laws for their government, in order to perpetuate the good work he had begun. He constituted himself their sovereign and high priest, enacted a law that no one but his descendants were to fill this post, that they were to be held sacred, and looked upon as inferior only to the planet from whom they sprung.
At first his territories embraced only a few leagues in extent round the capital, but these were rapidly enlarged from the mild and beneficent effects of his patriarchal government.