The first wheat was introduced by a
Spanish lady of Trujillo, who took great pains to disseminate it
among the colonists, of which the government, to its credit, was
not unmindful. Her name was Maria de Escobar. History, which is
so much occupied with celebrating the scourges of humanity,
should take pleasure in commemorating one of its real
benefactors.]
Chapter V:
Peruvian Sheep. - Great Hunts. - Manufactures. - Mechanical
Skill. - Architecture. - Concluding Reflections.
A nation which had made such progress in agriculture might be
reasonably expected to have made, also, some proficiency in the
mechanical arts, - especially when, as in the case of the
Peruvians, their agricultural economy demanded in itself no
inconsiderable degree of mechanical skill. Among most nations,
progress in manufactures has been found to have an intimate
connection with the progress of husbandry. Both arts are
directed to the same great object of supplying the necessaries,
the comforts, or, in a more refined condition of society, the
luxuries of life; and when the one is brought to a perfection
that infers a certain advance in civilization, the other must
naturally find a corresponding development under the increasing
demands and capacities of such a state. The subjects of the
Incas, in their patient and tranquil devotion to the more humble
occupations of industry which bound them to their native soil,
bore greater resemblance to the Oriental nations, as the Hindoos
and Chinese, than they bore to the members of the great
Anglo-Saxon family, whose hardy temper has driven them to seek
their fortunes on the stormy ocean, and to open a commerce with
the most distant regions of the globe.
Pages:
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184