Emeralds they obtained in considerable
quantity from the barren district of Atacames, and this
inflexible material seems to have been almost as ductile in the
hands of the Peruvian artist as if it had been made of clay. *17
Yet the natives were unacquainted with the use of iron, though
the soil was largely impregnated with it. *18 The tools used were
of stone, or more frequently of copper. But the material on
which they relied for the execution of their most difficult tasks
was formed by combining a very small portion of tin with copper.
*19 This composition gave a hardness to the metal which seems to
have been little inferior to that of steel. With the aid of it,
not only did the Peruvian artisan hew into shape porphyry and
granite, but by his patient industry accomplished works which the
European would not have ventured to undertake. Among the remains
of the monuments of Cannar may be seen movable rings in the
muzzles of animals, all nicely sculptured of one entire block of
granite. *20 It is worthy of remark, that the Egyptians, the
Mexicans, and the Peruvians, in their progress towards
civilization, should never have detected the use of iron, which
lay around them in abundance; and that they should each, without
any knowledge of the other, have found a substitute for it in
such a curious composition of metals as gave to their tools
almost the temper of steel; *21 a secret that has been lost - or,
to speak more correctly, has never been discovered - by the
civilized European.
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