Dr. Lund,
however, found human skeletons in the caves of Brazil, the
appearance of which induced him to believe that the Indian race has
existed during a vast lapse of time in South America.
When at Lima, I conversed on these subjects with Mr. Gill, a civil
engineer, who had seen much of the interior country. (16/3. Temple,
in his travels through Upper Peru, or Bolivia, in going from Potosi
to Oruro, says "I saw many Indian villages or dwellings in ruins,
up even to the very tops of the mountains, attesting a former
population where now all is desolate." He makes similar remarks in
another place; but I cannot tell whether this desolation has been
caused by a want of population, or by an altered condition of the
land.) He told me that a conjecture of a change of climate had
sometimes crossed his mind; but that he thought that the greater
portion of land, now incapable of cultivation, but covered with
Indian ruins, had been reduced to this state by the water-conduits,
which the Indians formerly constructed on so wonderful a scale,
having been injured by neglect and by subterranean movements. I may
here mention that the Peruvians actually carried their irrigating
streams in tunnels through hills of solid rock.
Pages:
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702