BOOK VI. 1532. ages, having thus collected fome wandering tribes, formed that social union, which, by mul tiplying the defires, and uniting the efforts of the human fpecies, excites industry, and leads to improvement. Manco Capac inftructed the men in agriculture, and other useful arts. Mama Ocollo taught the women to spin and to weave. By the labour of the one fex, fubfistence became lefs precarious; by that of the other, life was rendered more comfortable. After securing the objects of first neceffity in an infant ftate, by providing food, raiment, and habitations, for the rude people of whom he took charge, Manco Capac turned his attention towards introducing fuch laws and policy as might perpetuate their happiness. By his inftitutions, which shall be more particularly explained hereafter, the various relations in private life were established, and the duties resulting from them prescribed with fuch propriety, as gradually formed a barbarous people to decency of manners. In public administration, the functions of perfons in authority were so precisely defined, and the fubordination of thofe under their jurisdiction maintained with fuch a steady hand, that the fociety in which he prefided, foon affumed the afpect of a regular and wellgoverned state. THUS, VI. 1532. THUS, according to the Indian tradition, was в OOK founded the empire of the Incas or Lords of Peru. At firft its extent was fmall. The territory of Manco Capac did not reach above eight leagues from Cuzco. But within its narrow precincts he exercifed abfolute and uncontrolled authority. His fucceffors, as their dominions extended, arrogated a fimilar jurisdiction over the new fubjects which they acquired; the defpotifm of Afia was not more complete. The Incas were not only obeyed as monarchs, but revered as divinities. Their blood was held to be facred, and, by prohibiting intermarriages with the people, was never contaminated by mixing with that of any other race. The family, thus feparated from the reft of the nation, was distinguished by peculiarities in drefs and ornaments, which it was unlawful for others to affume. The monarch himself appeared with enfigns of royalty reserved for him alone; and received from his fubjects marks of obfequious homage and refpect, which approached almoft to adoration. BUT, among the Peruvians, this unbounded power of their monarchs feems to have been uniformly accompanied with attention to the good of their fubjects. It was not the rage of conqueft, if we may believe the accounts VOL. III. K of VI. 1532. BOOK of their countrymen, that prompted the Incas to extend their dominions, but the defire of diffufing the bleffings of civilization, and the knowledge of the arts which they poffeffed, among the barbarous people whom they reduced. During a fucceffion of twelve monarchs, it is faid that not one deviated from this beneficent character. WHEN the Spaniards first visited the coaft of Peru, in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-fix, Huana Capac, the twelfth monarch from the founder of the ftate, was feated on the throne. He is reprefented as a prince diftinguished not only for the pacific virtues peculiar to the race, but eminent for his martial talents. By his victorious arms the kingdom of Quito was fubjected, a conqueft of fuch extent and importance as almost doubled the power of the Peruvian empire. He was fond of refiding in the capital of that valuable province, which he had added to his dominions; and, notwithftanding the ancient and fundamental law of the monarchy against polluting the royal blood by any foreign alliance, he married the daughter of the vanquished monarch of Quito. She bore him a fon named Atahualpa, whom, on his * Cieca de Leon, Chron. c. 44. Herrera, dec. 3. lib. x. G. 4. dec. 5. lib. iii. c. 17. death VI. 15326 death at Quito, which feems to have happened BOOK about the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-nine, he appointed his fucceffor in that kingdom, leaving the reft of his dominions to Huafcar, his eldest fon, by a mother of the royal race. Greatly as the Peruvians revered the memory of a monarch who had reigned with greater reputation and fplendour than any of his predeceffors, the deftination of Huana Capac concerning the fucceffion, appeared fo repugnant to a maxim coëval with the empire, and founded on authority deemed facred, that it was no fooner known at Cuzco than it excited general difguft. Encouraged by those sentiments of his subjects, Huafcar required his brother to renounce the government of Quito, and to acknowledge him as his lawful fuperior. But it had been the first care of Atahualpa to gain a large body of troops which had accompanied his father to Quito. These were the flower of the Peruvian warriors, to whofe valour Huana Capac had been indebted for all his victories. Relying on their fupport, Atahualpa firft eluded his brother's demand, and then marched against him in hoftile array. THUS the ambition of two young men, the title of the one founded on ancient usage, and that of the other afferted by the veteran troops, involved K 2 VI. 1532. BOOK involved Peru in civil war, a calamity to which, under a fucceffion of virtuous princes, it had hitherto been a stranger. In such a contest the iffue was obvious. The force of arms triumphed over the authority of laws. Atahualpa remained victorious, and made a cruel ufe of his victory. Confcious of the defect in his own title to the crown, he attempted to exterminate the royal race, by putting to death all the children of the Sun defcended from Manco Capac, whom he could feize either by force or stratagem. From a political motive, the life of his unfortunate rival Huafcar, who had been taken prisoner in a battle which decided the fate of the empire, was prolonged for fome time, that, by iffuing orders in his name, the ufurper might more cafily establish his own authority ". Favourable to the progrefs of Pizarro. WHEN Pizarro landed in the bay of St. Matthew, this civil war raged between the two brothers in its greatest fury. Had he made any hoftile attempt in his former vifit to Peru in the year one thousand five hundred and twentyfeven, he must then have encountered the force of a powerful state, united under a monarch, poffeffed of capacity as well as courage, and "Zarate, lib. i. c. 15. Vega, 1. lib. ix. c. 12 and 3240. Herrera, dec. 5. lib. i. c. 2. lib. iii. c. 17. unem |