America,
vol. I. p. 359. - Also McCulloh, Researches, p. 358.]
The Peruvian farmers were well acquainted with the different
kinds of manures, and made large use of them; a circumstance rare
in the rich lands of the tropics, and probably not elsewhere
practised by the rude tribes of America. They made great use of
guano, the valuable deposit of sea-fowl, that has attracted so
much attention, of late, from the agriculturists both of Europe
and of our own country, and the stimulating and nutritious
properties of which the Indians perfectly appreciated. This was
found in such immense quantities on many of the little islands
along the coast, as to have the appearance of lofty hills, which,
covered with a white saline incrustation, led the Conquerors to
give them the name of the sierra nevada, or "snowy mountains."
The Incas took their usual precautions for securing the benefits
of this important article to the husbandman. They assigned the
small islands on the coast to the use of the respective districts
which lay adjacent to them. When the island was large, it was
distributed among several districts, and the boundaries for each
were clearly defined. All encroachment on the rights of another
was severely punished. And they secured the preservation of the
fowl by penalties as stern as those by which the Norman tyrants
of England protected their own game. No one was allowed to set
foot on the island during the season for breeding, under pain of
death; and to kill the birds at any time was punished in the like
manner.
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