The hi/drof/raphg of Peru may be said to bo divided into three systems— those of Lake Titicaca, the Pacific, and the Amazon. All the great rivers of Peru are trib- utaries of the Amazon.
HI. ProdiictioiiK, f-'.rports and Imports, Revenue, etc. — The wealth and resources of Peru consist, not in man- ufactures, but entirely in mineral, vegetable, and animal products. As no statistics are taken in the country, it is impossible to give the quantity and value of the pro- ductions, and of the exports and imports, even approx- imately. Of the precious metals, in which Peru abounds,
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the procUiction has greatly fallen off; and this country, wliich once stood in the same relation to Spain that Australia does to Great Britain, now contributes little to the metallic wealth of the world. The immense stores of gold and silver found here by the Spanish in- vaders represented the accumulation of centuries, and that among a people who used the precious metals only for the purposes of ornamentation. The Andes mines have gold, silver, copper, lead, bismuth, etc. ; and in the Montana gold is said to exist in abundance in veins and in pools on the margins of rivers. Although so rich in the precious metals, Peru produces comparatively little specie, which is to be accounted for chiefly b)' the unscientific and improvident manner in which the min- ing operations are carried on. It can hardly be said that Teruvian coinage exists, inasmuch as that in cir- culation is from the mint of Bolivia. In addition to the precious metals and guano, another important article of national wealth is nitrate of soda, which is found in immense quantities in the province of Tarapaca. This substance, which is a powerful fertilizer, is calculated to cover, in this province alone, an area of fifty square leagues, and the quantity has been estimated at sixty- three million tons. Great quantities of borax are also found. The working of this valuable substance, how- ever, is interdicted by government, which has made a monopoly of it, as it has of the guano.
The vegetable productions are of every variety, em- bracing all the products both of temperate and tropical climes. Tlie European cereals and vegetables are grown with perfect success, together with maize, rice, pump- kins, tobacco, coffee, sugar-cane, cotton, etc. Fruits of the most delicious tlavor are grown in endless variety. Cotton, for which the soil and climate are admirably adapted, is now produced here in gradually increasing quantity. The land suited to the cultivation of this plant is of immense extent, and the quality of the cotton grown is excellent. The animals comprise those of Europe, together with the llama and its allied species; but although Peru produces much excellent wool, al- most the whole of the woollen fabrics used as clothing by the Indians is imported.
IV. Ancient Civilization and Ilistonj. — Peru, the or- igin of whose name is unknown, is now passing through its third historical aera, and is manifesting its third phase of civilization. The present ajra may be said to date from the conquest of the country by the Spaniards in the earh' part of the lOth century; tlie middle wra embraces the rule of the Incas; and the earliest iera, about which exceedingly little is known, is that pre- Incarial period, of unknown duration, during which a nation or nations living in large cities flourished in the country, and had a civilization, a language, and a re- ligion different, and perhaps in some cases even more advanced than those of the Incas who succeeded them, and overran their territories. Whence these pre-In- carial nations came, and to what branch of the human family they belonged, still remain unanswered ques- tions. Their existence, however, is clearly attested by the architectural remains, sculptures, carvings, etc., which they have left behind them. Kuins of edifices .constructed both before the advent of the Incas and contemporary with and independently of them, are found everywhere throughout the countrv. For further information regarding pre-Incarial times and races, see Bollaert, Antiquities, Ethnolo(jy, etc., of South America (Lond. 18G0), p. HI sq. ; Hutchinson, Two Yetirs in Peru, with Explorations of its Antiquities (ibid. ISTi, 2 vols. 8vo) ; Brinton, A/i/ths of the Neio World (N. Y. 1877, revised cd.).
Regarding the origin of the Incas, nothing definite can be said. We have no authorities on the subject save the traditions of the Indians, and these, besides being outrageously' fabulous in character, are also conflicting. It appears, however, from all the traditions, that Man- co, the first luca, first appear^'d on the shores of Lake Titicaca, with his wife Mama Oello. He announced