y worshipped.

I was looking out, with others of my family, from the windows of the
country house we inhabited, on the glorious spectacle. We were residing
in Peru, that romantic region with which the name of the conqueror
Pizarro must be for ever associated--the kingdom of the once powerful
and enlightened Incas, on the western shore of South America. At the
time of which I speak, however, its greatness, its prosperity and
happiness, had passed away; it was a mere province of Old Spain, and
governed by a viceroy sent from that country, while the race of its
ancient sovereigns, though still existing, was humbled and disregarded,
and almost unknown.

My parents were English, and England was my native land. My father, Mr
Henry Rexton, had been a soldier in his youth; but when he married my
mother, who was the daughter of an eminent British merchant, he quitted
the army; and my grandfather induced him, by advantageous offers, to
take a share in his house of business. The firm traded with Peru; and
certain mercantile transactions of importance requiring for a time the
superintendence of a partner, my father and mother went out there,
taking with them me and a younger sister, their only children then born.
Year after year unexpected circumstances occurred which compelled them,
much against their wish, to remain in the country; and well do I
remember how frequently in our family circle the subject of conversation
was the happiness we expected to enjoy on returning home. On first
going to Peru, we resided in Lima, the modern capital; but at length the
heat of the climate affecting my mother's health, in the hopes of it
being restored by a cooler atmosphere, my father engaged a house in the
country, at a considerable distance from the city. It was situated
among the lower ranges of the lofty Cordilleras, one of those mighty
ranges of mountains which stretches from one end to the other of the
South American continent, the eastern portion of them being more
properly known by the name of the Andes.

Our house stood on a level spot on the summit of a spur of the main
chain. To the east behind it rose range above range of mountains, the
more distant towering to the sky, and covered with eternal snows. On
either side other spurs stretched out far towards the west, forming deep
gorges below us; while along the side of the ridge on which the house
was situated ran a narrow road, one of the few paths in that
neighbourhood, pe