This
Road Was Five Hundred Leagues In Length Like That Of The Mountain; But The
Palings Are Now Wanting In
Many places, the wood of which they were
constructed having been used by the Spaniards for fuel during the war;
But
the mounds still exist across the vallies, and most of them are yet
tolerably entire, by which the grandeur of the entire work may be judged
of. In his journeys to and from Quito, Huana Capac used to go by one of
these roads and return by the other; and during his whole journey his
subjects used to strew the way with branches and flowers of the richest
perfume.
Besides the two great roads already mentioned, Huana Capac ordered to be
built on the mountain road a number of large palaces, at the distance of a
days journey from each other, having a prodigious number of apartments,
sufficient to lodge his own personal suite and all his army. Such were
likewise built along the road in the plain, but not so numerous or so near
each other as on the mountain road, as these palaces of the plain had all
to be placed on the sides of the rivers for convenience and the
procurement of provisions and other necessaries; so that they were in some
places eight or ten leagues distant from each other, and in other places
fifteen or twenty leagues. These buildings were named _tambos_, and the
neighbouring Indians were bound to furnish each of these with provisions
and every thing else that might be wanted for the royal armies; insomuch
that in each of these _tambos_, in case of necessity, clothing and arms
could be had for twenty or thirty thousand men.
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