Several centuries before the arrival of Europeans in
America, the so- called Aztecs came down from the north and established
themselves on the Mexican plateau. Here they formed a confederacy of many
tribes, ruled over by a sort of king, whose capital was Tenochtitlan, on the
site of the present city of Mexico.
AZTEC CULTURE
The Aztecs appear to have borrowed much of their art,
science, and knowledge of writing from their Maya neighbors. They built houses
and temples of stone or sundried brick, constructed aqueducts, roads, and
bridges, excelled in the dyeing, weaving, and spinning of cotton, and made most
beautiful ornaments of silver and gold. They worshiped many gods, to which the
priests offered prisoners of war as human sacrifices. In spite of these bloody
rites, the Aztecs were a kind-hearted, honest people, respectful of the rights
of property, brave in battle, and obedient to their native rulers. Aztec
culture in some ways was scarcely inferior to that of the ancient Egyptians.
THE INCAS
The lofty table-lands of the Andes were also the seat of
an advanced Indian culture. At the time of the Spanish conquest the greater
part of what is now Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile had come under
the sway of the Incas, the "people of the sun". The Inca power
centered in the Peruvian city of Cuzco and on the shores of Lake Titicaca, which
lies twelve thousand feet above sea-level. In this region of magnificent
scenery the traveler views with astonishment the ruins of vast edifices,
apparently never completed, which were raised either by the Incas or the
Indians whom they conquered and displaced. Though the culture of the Incas
resembled in many ways that of the Aztecs, the two peoples probably never had
any intercourse and hence remained totally unaware of each other's existence.
