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Royal Commentaries.
BooK
VII.
in without a Guide, or direetion of a twine of Thread, which being fafiened
at
the entrance, direeted their return through all the Turnings and Meanders
of
it
When
I
was a Boy
I
often went
up
to
the Cail:le, with others of the fame
ag~
\ ·ith me; and then the upper Rooms were
all
ruined, and fome of thofe
which
were under; into which we.durfr not adventure farther than we could fee the
light which !hined in
them,
for the
Jndums
t
ld us, that
if
we adventured
farther
we !hould lofe our felves, and never find our
~Y
out again.
'
.
In
making their
aults they were ignorant of the way of arching, but infiead
thereof they
laid
Braggers or Corbels ofStone, which ferved
in
the place of Beams
for fupport of the whole frame of Building, which being equally cut, and lhaped
at all ends reached from one Wall
to
the other. All the great ab;ick of this
Fortrefs
\l\
1
as made in part of polHhed, and part ofrough tone, richly embelhlhed
according
to
the bell: of their Art, whereby the
IncM
made ofientation both
of
their Skill and Grandeur, being deftrous to advance the Excellency and Magnifi.
cence of this Work above any other; that fo
it
might remain for a confumma–
tion of all their Trophies; and indeed
fo
it
proved, for the
SpaniArds,
a
few
years
after thi was completed, invaded their Empire, and put a fiop to the proceedings
of feveral other great works, which they aefigned to have fini!hed.
There were four chiefUndertakers in the Building of this Fortrefs; the princi–
pal Perfon, who drew the Draught, and defigned the whole Plot, was
Hua!lpa
'
Rimachi,
he was an
Inca,
and fiiled
Apu,
which figoifies Chief; the fecond to
him
was
Inca Maricanchi,
and the third
Acahuana Inca,
to whom they afcribe the chief
contrivance of the Buildings at
Tiahuanacu,
which we have formerly mentioned.
The fourth and lafi was
Calla Cunchlt.J,
in
whofe time the great Stone which refied
in
the way \ as brought thither, and his Name engraved on it, as a monument
to
conferve
his
memory; the which
tone (or Rock rather) was of that vafi pro.
portion, and
fo
exceeding all the others, that
I
would gladly infert here the
rrue
rneafure of
its
height and thickneG , but
in
regard
I
have not procured an exaCl:
and
certain
account of
it,
I
fhall
refer
my
felf
to
the relation of thofe who have
feen it:
It
remains
in
the Plain before the Fortrefs, to which, as the
Jndians
fay,
it could never arrive, in regard it tired by the way, and \ ept bloud, proceeding
from the toil and fatigue it had endured
in
ics
motion.
The fione
is
rough and
unpolii11ed, in the fame manner as it was hewn from its Quarry , a great
part of
it · buried under ground, and they
fay,
it
is
now funk lower than when
I
faw
it;
for they fanfied that there was great rreafure hid under it, and
for that
reafon they
digged about it as deep as they were able, that
fo
they might arrive at this imagi–
nary
Riches; but in regard that as they digged the Stone funk lower, therefore
the
greateft part of it i now hidden under the Earth. According
to
my
befi
remem..
brance
it
hath a hole or nvo upon the upper
part
of it, or
fuch
as paffes
from one
fide
to
the other; the
Jndi11ns
call thefe holes the Eyes of the Stone, out of which
it
wept bloud; from the Dull: which is lodged in thofe Holes, and the continual
droppings of water upon them, it hath died the Stone
in
thofe parts with a reddifh
colour, becaufe. the
foil
thereabouts
is
of the fame colour, and which the
Indians
fa
roceeded from the bloud which
Hfued '
1
ith the tears of that Stone.
This
a le is commonly reported amongO: the
Indums,
and I have heard it often from
chem.
But (he true Moral of this Fable, recounted by the
Inca's AmauttU,
who were
rh ir Philofophers, and people of learning was rhi : That thi
tone, or Rock,
,,.as
moved and drawn by twenty thoufand
Indians,
who dragged and drew
in
ith
gr at Cables; the undertaking
as great.,
£
r it \1\'as
to
paf5 through cragged, and.
une en way , and over Afcents and Defcents; one half of the people drew
be·
fore, the other half\\ ere on each fide
to
poife the weight, and keep the
tone di–
rell:, left it {hould fall into any
recipice
r gravel it felf in any place, from
'"hence
it
could never be recovered.
It
is
faid
that for want ofdue care
in
thofe
who had the polling of
this
weight> it happened to lean too much towards the de–
fcent
fa hill, and being over-born by its great burthen.,
it
tumbled down a bank,
and killed three or four rhoufand of thofe
Indians
who were the guides co direCt
arid fupport
it;
notwitlillanding
hich misfortune they again took courage,
and
r ifed the
tone, carrying it to the Plain where
it
now re!l: . The Bloud which
it {hed and fqueezed from the
eins of thefe poor Wretches were the true tears
' hich iffued from the hollow orbs of
i
Eyes; and becaufe the
v.
eight was
coo
·afi
o e carri d u to the plac
unto \ hich
it
was defigned, they faid, that
it
tired