This current of water had its course through all the country of the Rucanas, and served to water the pasturage of those uninhabited lands, which are about 18 leagues in breadth, watering almost the whole country of Peru."

There is another Aqueduct much like this, which traverses the whole province of Cuntisuyu, running above 150 leagues from south to north. Its head or original is

from the top of high mountains, the which waters falling

into the plains of the Quechuas, greatly refresh their pasturage, when the heats of the summer and autumn have dried up the moisture of the earth.

"There are many streams of like nature, which run through divers parts of the empire, which being conveyed by Aqueducts, at the charge and expense of the Incas, are works of grandeur and ostentation, and which recommend the magnificence of the Incas to all posterity ; for these Aqueducts may well be compared to the miraculous fabrics which have been the works of mighty princes, who have left their prodigious monuments of ostentation to be admired by

future ages ; for, indeed, we ought to consider that these waters had their source and beginning from vast, high mountains, and were carried over craggy rocks and inaccessible passages ; and to make these ways plain, they had no help of instruments forged of steel or iron, such as pickaxes or sledges, but served themselves only with one stone to

break another. Nor were they acquainted with the invention of arches, to convey the water on the level from one precipice to the other, but traced round the mountain until they found ways and passages at the same height and level with the head of the springs."