VII. BOOK device for rendering calculation more expeditious and accurate. By the various colours different objects were denoted, and by each knot a distinct number. Thus an account was taken, and a kind of register kept, of the inhabitants in each province, or of the several productions collected there for public ufe. But as by these knots, however varied or combined, no moral or abftract idea, no operation or quality of the mind could be represented, they contributed little towards preferving the memory of ancient events and inftitutions. By the Mexican paintings and fymbols, rude as they were, more knowledge of remote tranfactions feems to have been conveyed, than the Peruvians could derive from their boafted quipos. Had the latter been even of more extenfive ufe, and better adapted to fupply the place of written records, they perished fo generally, together with other monuments of Peruvian ingenuity, in the wreck occafioned by the Spanish conqueft, and the civil wars fubfequent to it, that no acceffion of light or knowledge comes from them. All the zeal of Garcilaffo de la Vega, for the honour of that race of monarchs from whom he defcended, all the industry of his researches, and the fuperior advantages with which he carried them on, opened no fource of information unknown to the Spanish authors who wrote before him. In VII. his Royal Commentaries, he confines himself to BOOK illuftrate what they had related concerning the antiquities and inftitutions of Peru; and his illuftrations, like their accounts, are derived entirely from the traditionary tales current among his countrymen. VERY little credit then is due to the minute details which have been given of the exploits, the battles, the conquefts, and private character of the early Peruvian monarchs. We can reft upon nothing in their story, as authentic, but a few facts, fo interwoven in the fyftem of their religion and policy, as preferved the memory of them from being loft; and upon the description of fuch customs and inftitutions as continued in force at the time of the conqueft, and fell under the immediate obfervation of the Spaniards. By attending carefully to these, and endeavouring to feparate them from what appears to be fabulous, or of doubtful authority, I have laboured to form an idea of the Peruvian government and manners. THE people of Peru, as I have already observed, had not advanced beyond the rudeft form of favage life, when Manco Capac, and Origin of their civil policy. c Lib. i. c. 10. Book vi. p. 126, &c. his VII. OOK his confort Mama Ocollo, appeared to instruct and civilize them. Who thefe extraordinary perfonages were, whether they imported their fystem of legislation and knowledge of arts from fome country more improved, or, if natives of Peru, how they acquired ideas fo far fuperior to those of the people whom they addrefied, are circumstances with refpect to which the Peruvian tradition conveys no information. Manco Capac and his confort, taking advantage of the propenfity in the Peruvians to fuperftition, and particularly of their veneration for the Sun, pretended to be children of that glorious luminary, and to deliver their inftructions in his name, and by authority from him. The multitude listened and believed. What reformation in policy and manners the Peruvians afcribe to thofe founders of their empire, and how, from the precepts of the Inca and his confort, their ancestors gradually acquired fome knowledge of those arts, and fome relish for that industry, which render fubfiftence secure and life comfortable, hath been formerly related. Those bleffings were originally confined within narrow precincts; but in procefs of time, the fucceffors of Manco Capac extended their dominion over all the regions that stretch to the weft of the Andes from Chili to Quito, establishing in every province their peculiar policy and religious institutions. VII. Founded in THE moft fingular and ftriking circumftance BOOK in the Peruvian government, is the influence of religion upon its genius and laws. Religious religion. ideas make fuch a feeble impreffion on the mind of a favage, that their effect upon his fentiments and manners is hardly perceptible. Among the Mexicans, religion, reduced into a regular fyftem, and holding a confiderable place in their public inftitutions, operated with confpicuous efficacy in forming the peculiar character of that people. But in Peru, the whole fyftem of civil policy was founded on religion. The Inca appeared not only as a legiflator, but as the messenger of Heaven. His precepts were received not merely as the injunctions of a fuperior, but as the mandates of the Deity. His race was to be held facred; and in order to preferve it diftinct, without being polluted by any mixture of lefs noble blood, the fons of Manco Capac married their own fifters, and no person was ever admitted to the throne who could not claim it by such a pure descent. To thofe Children of the Sun, for that was the appellation beftowed upon all the offspring of the firft Inca, the people looked up with the reverence due to beings of a fuperior order. They were deemed to be under the immediate protection of the deity from whom they iffued, and by him every order of the reigning Inca was fuppofed to be dictated. FROM FROM thofe ideas two confequences refulted. The authority of the Inca was unlimited and abfolute, in the most extenfive meaning of the words. Whenever the decrees of a prince are confidered as the commands of the Divinity, it is not only an act of rebellion, but of impiety, to difpute or oppose his will. Obedience becomes a duty of religion; and as it would be prophane to control a monarch who is believed to be under the guidance of Heaven, and prefumptuous to advise him, nothing remains but to submit with implicit refpect. This muft neceffarily be the effect of every government established on pretensions of intercourfe with fuperior powers, Such accordingly was the blind fubmiffion which the Peruvians yielded to their fovereigns. The perfons of highest rank and greatest power in their dominions acknowledged them to be of a more exalted nature; and in teftimony of this, when admitted into their prefence, they entered with a burden upon their fhoulders, as an emblem of their fervitude, and willingness to bear whatever the Inca was pleafed to impose. Among their fubjects, force was not requifite to fecond their commands. Every officer entrusted with the execution of them was revered, and, according to the account of an intelligent obferver of Peruvian manners, he might proceed alone |