When
their earthenware, woollen clothes, utensils of elegant forms cut
out of the hardest rocks, tools of copper, ornaments of precious
stones, palaces, and hydraulic works, are considered, it is
impossible not to respect the considerable advance made by them in
the arts of civilisation. The burial mounds, called Huacas, are
really stupendous; although in some places they appear to be
natural hills encased and modelled.
There is also another and very different class of ruins which
possesses some interest, namely, those of old Callao, overwhelmed
by the great earthquake of 1746, and its accompanying wave. The
destruction must have been more complete even than at Talcahuano.
Quantities of shingle almost conceal the foundations of the walls,
and vast masses of brickwork appear to have been whirled about like
pebbles by the retiring waves. It has been stated that the land
subsided during this memorable shock: I could not discover any
proof of this; yet it seems far from improbable, for the form of
the coast must certainly have undergone some change since the
foundation of the old town; as no people in their senses would
willingly have chosen for their building place the narrow spit of
shingle on which the ruins now stand.
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