South America | Page 5

ABORIGINAL TRIBES
AT THE TIME OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST.]
Perhaps the civilization of the Incas and of their predecessors is most of
all evident in the industrial monuments which they have left behind
them. In irrigation they had little or nothing to learn from the most
advanced European experts of the time. Many of their aqueducts,
indeed, showed an astonishing degree both of ingenuity and of labour.
The nature of the country across which it was necessary to construct
these was, of course, sufficiently mountainous to test the powers of the

most capable engineer. The Inca roads, in many respects, rivalled their
aqueducts. From the point of view of the modern highway, it is true
that they may be considered as somewhat slender and unimportant
affairs. Certainly in the absence of any wheeled traffic no surface of the
kind as was necessary in Europe and Asia was to be met with here.
Provided that the road stretched in an uninterrupted length along the
peaks, valleys, and chasms of the rugged mountain country, no
question of close and intricate pavement was concerned, since for the
troops of pack-llamas anything of the kind was quite superfluous. Thus,
as imposing structures, these highways impress the modern traveller
but little. Nevertheless, they served their purpose efficiently, and
extended themselves in triumph over one of the most difficult
road-making countries in the world.
This road network of the Incas spread itself little by little from the
central portion of the Empire to the far north and south; for during the
comparatively short imperial status of the race their rule had extended
itself steadily. They were in many respects a people possessed of the
true colonizing instincts. Their able and liberal Government was of a
kind which could not fail to be appreciated by the tribes which they had
conquered. Indeed, the various sections of these subjugated Indians
appear to have become an integral part of the Inca Empire in a
remarkably short time.
In their conquest the rulers appear to have strained every point to effect
this end. Thus they were not averse from time to time to receive into
their temples new and strange gods which their freshly made subjects
had been in the habit of worshipping. These were received among the
deities of older standing, and were wont to be acknowledged, and so,
after a short while, were considered as foreign no longer.
A nation of which far less has been heard, but which in many respects
resembled the Incas, was that of the Chibchas. The Chibchas inhabited
the country which had for its centre the valley of the Magdalena River.
The country of this tribe, as a matter of fact, is now part of the Republic
of Colombia; thus the Chibchas were situated well to the north of the
Inca Empire. The religion of these people closely resembled that of the

more southern Children of the Sun. Like these others, they worshipped
the masculine Sun and the female Moon, and a certain number of
deities in addition.
The Chibchas have left some ruins of temples behind them, although
these are not of the same magnitude as the Inca edifices. They were an
agricultural people, and, in addition, were skilled in weaving and in the
manufacture of pottery; they were, moreover, supposed to have been
clever workers in gold. The costume of the race showed very similar
tastes to those of their more southern brethren. The men of rank wore
white or dyed cotton tunics, and the women mantles fastened by means
of golden clasps. The warlike splendour of the men was
characteristically picturesque, their chief decorations being
breast-plates of gold and magnificent plumes for the head. They, too,
employed as weapons darts, bows and arrows, clubs, lances, and slings.
The fate of the Chibchas was, of course, the same as that of the Incas.
Their bodies decked with their brilliant feathers and pomp sank into the
mire of despond, never again to attain to their former state.
This very brief study of the Incas and Chibchas concludes the civilized
elements of the Aboriginal South American. To the east of the Andes
were a number of tribes, all of which were, to a greater or lesser degree,
still in a state of sheer savagery. Near the eastern frontier of the Inca
Empire resided such peoples as the Chiriguanos, Chunchos, Abipones,
Chiquitos, Mojos, Guarayos, Tacanas; while to the north were similar
tribes, such as the Ipurines, Jamamaries, Huitotos, Omaguas. These
appear to have absorbed some crude and vague forms of the Inca
religion, and were addicted to the worship of the Sun, but more
frequently of the Moon.
On the east of the Continent, ranging from the territory which is now
known as Misiones in Argentina, and Southern Paraguay to the
north-east of the Continent, were