The Peruvian annals
may be deemed to show somewhat of the effects of this union,
since there is a tinge of the marvellous spread over them down to
the very latest period, which, like a mist before the reader's
eye, makes it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction.
The poet found a convenient instrument for his purposes in the
beautiful Quichua dialect. We have already seen the
extraordinary measures taken by the Incas for propagating their
language throughout their empire. Thus naturalized in the
remotest provinces, it became enriched by a variety of exotic
words and idioms, which, under the influence of the Court and of
poetic culture, if I may so express myself, was gradually
blended, like some finished mosaic made up of coarse and
disjointed materials, into one harmonious whole. The Quichua
became the most comprehensive and various, as well as the most
elegant, of the South American dialects. *9
[Footnote 9: Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., Ms.
Sarmiento justly laments that his countrymen should have suffered
this dialect, which might have proved so serviceable in their
intercourse with the motley tribes of the empire, to fall so much
out of use as it has done. "Y con tanto digo que fue harto
beneficio para los Espaoles haver esta lengua pues podian con
ella andar por todas partes en algunas de las quales ya se va
perdiendo." Relacion, Ms., cap. 21.
According to Velasco, the Incas, on arriving with their
conquering legions at Quito, were astonished to find a dialect of
the Quichua spoken there, although it was unknown over much of
the intermediate country; a singular fact, if true.
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