To the northwest of us, and a little south of the centre of Lake Titicaca, is situated the Island of Titicaca, from which Manco Capac and his wife travelled to Cuzco. He was a navigator. The Island of Titicaca is surrounded by the Aymara tribe of Indians, whose language was not understood by José, who spoke Quichua as well as his own. The valley of Cuzco is the first inviting spot to the northwest of this lake, and the road from it to Cuzco is level enough for a railroad. Manco Capac and his wife were carried by east winds, which blow every day across the lake, to the western shore, and travelled on foot the road we took between Cuzco and Puno, according to Indian tradition. Among the scattered stone remains of the ancient edifices of Tiahuanaco, we observed no resemblance to the stone-work of Cuzco, and were surprised to find that, although the ruins were in such a dilapidated state as not to enable us to make out the character of the structure, we could perceive, and were convinced of the higher order of mechanical art over that displayed in Cuzco. The stones, immense in size, were hewn square; one of them had an arched way cut in it large enough to drive a mule through.
The cura of the town told us there were no stone to be found in the neighborhood of the same sort, and that he did not know whence they had been brought. We have reason to believe Manco Capac had nothing to do with the ancient works of Tiahuanaco. Both the hewing of the stone and structure of the language of the people are different from his, though his first appearance was among these people.
We have faith in the peculiarities of the winds to aid the great work of populating distant portions of the earth. The northeast trade-winds of the North Atlantic ocean are fair winds for the emigrants of Europe to North and South America; and the southeast trade-winds in the south Atlantic ocean hasten the passage of the African to Brazil, the West India islands, and the shores of North America. Ships sailing around Cape Horn are headed off sometimes a month by the westerly gales. We are disposed to chart Manco Capac and his wife's track by the instrumentality of winds in the South Pacific ocean, from the far West to the Bay of Arica.