The name of Peru was not known to the natives. It was given by
the Spaniards, and originated, it is said, in a misapprehension
of the Indian name of "river." *1 However this may be, it is
certain that the natives had no other epithet by which to
designate the large collection of tribes and nations who were
assembled under the sceptre of the Incas, than that of
Tavantinsuyu, or "four quarters of the world." *2 This will not
surprise a citizen of the United States, who has no other name by
which to class himself among nations than what is borrowed from a
quarter of the globe. *3 The kingdom, conformably to its name,
was divided into four parts, distinguished each by a separate
title, and to each of which ran one of the four great roads that
diverged from Cuzco, the capital or navel of the Peruvian
monarchy. The city was in like manner divided into four
quarters; and the various races, which gathered there from the
distant parts of the empire, lived each in the quarter nearest to
its respective province. They all continued to wear their
peculiar national costume, so that it was easy to determine their
origin; and the same order and system of arrangement prevailed in
the motley population of the capital, as in the great provinces
of the empire. The capital, in fact, was a miniature image of
the empire. *4
[Footnote 1: Pelu, according to Garcilasso, was the Indian name
for "river," and was given by one of the natives in answer to a
question put to him by the Spaniards, who conceived it to be the
name of the country.
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