their speed and fidelity. As the distance each courier had to perform was
small, and as he had ample time to refresh himself at the stations, they
tart over the ground with great swiftness, and messages were carried
through the whole extent of the long routes, at the rate of a hundred and
fifty miles a day. The office of the chasquis was not limited to carrying
despatches. They frequently brought various articles for the use of the
Court; and in this way, fish from the distant ocean, fruits, game, and
different commodities from the hot regions on the coast, were taken to
the capital in good condition, and served fresh at the royal table.50 It is
remarkable that this important institution should have been known to
both the Mexicans and the Peruvians without any correspondence with
one another; and that it should have been found among two barbarian
nations of the New World, long before it was introduced among the
civilized nations of Europe.51

By these wise contrivances of the Incas, the most distant parts of the
long-extended empire of Peru were brought into intimate relations with
each other. And while the capitals of Christendom, but a few hundred
miles apart, remained as far asunder as if seas had rolled between them,
the great capitals Cuzco and Quito were placed by the high roads of the
Incas in immediate correspondence. Intelligence from the numerous
provinces was transmitted on the wings of the wind to the Peruvian
metropolis, the great focus to which all the lines of communication
converged. Not an insurrectionary movement could occur, not an
invasion, on the remotest frontier, before the tidings were conveyed to
the capital, and the imperial armies were on their march across the
magnificent roads of the country to suppress it. So admirable was the
machinery contrived by the American despots for maintaining
tranquillity throughout their dominions! It may remind us of the similar
institutions of ancient Rome, when, under the Caesars, she was mistress