they adored, they operated by gentleness, more potent than violence. They sought to soften the hearts of the rude tribes around them, and melt them by acts of condescension and kindness. Far from provoking hostilities, they allowed time for the salutary example of their own institutions to work its effect, trusting that their less civilized neighbors would submit to their sceptre, from a conviction of the blessings it would. secure to them. When this course failed, they employed other measures, but still of a pacific character, and endeavored by negotiation, by conciliatory treatment, and by presents to the leading men, to win them over to their dominion. In short, they practised all the arts familiar to the most subtle politician of a civilized land to secure the acquisition of empire. When all these expedients failed, they prepared for war.

Their levies were drawn from all the different provinces; though from some, where the character of the people was particularly hardy, more than from others. 53 It seems probable that every Peruvian who had reached a certain age might be called to bear arms. But the rotation of military service, and the regular drills, which took place twice or thrice in a month, of the inhabitants of every village, raised the soldiers generally above the rank of a raw militia. The Peruvian army, at first inconsiderable, came with the increase of population, in the latter days of the empire, to be very large, so that their monarchs could bring into the field, as contemporaries assure us, a force amounting to

52" Mas se hicieron Señores al principio por maña, que por fuerza.” Ondegardo, Rel. Prim., MS.

53 Idem, Rel. Prim., MS.-Dec. de la Aud. Real., MS.

two hundred thousand men. They showed the same skill and respect for order in their military organization as in other things. The troops were divided into bodies corresponding with our battalions and compa▪ nies, led by officers, that rose, in regular gradation, from the lowest subaltern to the Inca noble who was intrusted with the general command. 54

Their arms consisted of the usual weapons em: ployed by nations, whether civilized or uncivilized, before the invention of powder,-bows and arrows, lances, darts, a short kind of sword, a battle-axe or partisan, and slings, with which they were very expert. Their spears and arrows were tipped with copper, or, more commonly, with bone, and the weapons of the Inca lords were frequently mounted with gold or silver. Their heads were protected by casques made either of wood or of the skins of wild animals, and sometimes richly decorated with metal and with precious stones, surmounted by the brilliant plumage of the tropical birds. These, of course, were the ornaments only of the higher orders. The great mass of the soldiery were dressed in the peculiar costume of their prov inces, and their heads were wreathed with a sort of turban or roll of different-colored cloths, that produced a gay and animating effect. Their defensive armor consisted of a shield or buckler, and a close tunic of quilted cotton, in the same manner as with the MexiEach company had its particular banner, and the imperial standard, high above all, displayed the glittering device of the rainbow,—the armorial ensign

cans.

54 Gomara, Cronica, cap. 195.-Conq. i Pob. del Piru, MS.

of the Incas, intimating their claims as children of the skies.55

By means of the thorough system of communication established in the country, a short time sufficed to draw the levies together from the most distant quarters. The army was put under the direction of some experienced chief, of the blood royal, or, more frequently, headed by the Inca in person. The march was rapidly performed, and with little fatigue to the soldier; for, al along the great routes, quarters were provided for him, at regular distances, where he could find ample accommodations. The country is still covered with the remains of military works, constructed of porphyry o granite, which tradition assures us were designed to lodge the Inca and his army. 56

At regular intervals, also, magazines were estab lished, filled with grain, weapons, and the different munitions of war, with which the army was supplied on its march. It was the especial care of the government to see that these magazines, which were furnished from the stores of the Incas, were always well filled. When the Spaniards invaded the country, they sup

55 Gomara, Cronica, ubi supra.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 20.-Velasco, Hist. de Quito, tom. i. pp. 176-179.-This last writer gives a minute catalogue of the ancient Peruvian arms, comprehending nearly every thing familiar to the European soldier, except fire-arms. It was judicious in him to omit these.

56 Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 1, cap. 11.-Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 60.-Condamine speaks of the great number of these fortified places, scattered over the country between Quito and Lima, which he saw in his visit to South America in 1737; some of which he has described with great minuteness. Mémoire sur quelques anciens Monumens du Pérou, du Tems des Incas, ap. Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences et de Belles-Lettres (Berlin, 1748), tom. ii. p. 438.

ported their own armies for a long time on the provisions found in them.57 The Peruvian soldier was forbidden to commit any trespass on the property of the inhabitants whose territory lay in the line of march. Any violation of this order was punished with death.58 The soldier was clothed and fed by the industry of the people, and the Incas rightly resolved that he should not repay this by violence. Far from being a tax on the labors of the husbandman, or even a burden on his hospitality, the imperial armies traversed the country, from one extremity to the other, with as little inconvenience to the inhabitants as would be created by a procession of peaceful burghers or a muster of holiday soldiers for a review.

From the moment war was proclaimed, the Peruvian monarch used all possible expedition in assembling his forces, that he might anticipate the movements of his enemies and prevent a combination with their allies. It was, however, from the neglect of such a principle of combination that the several nations of the country, who might have prevailed by confederated strength, fell one after another under the imperial yoke. Yet,

57" E ansi cuando," says Ondegardo, speaking from his own personal knowledge, "el Señor Presidente Gasca passó con la gente de castigo de Gonzalo Pizarro por el valle de Jauja, estuvo alli siete semanas á lo que me acuerdo, se hallaron en deposito maiz de cuatro y de tres y de dos años mas de 15 9. hanegas junto al camino, é alli comió la gente, y se enten lió que si fuera menester muchas mas nó faltaran en el valle en aquellos depositos, conforme á la orden antigua, porque á mi cargo estubo el repartirlas y hacer la cuenta para pagarlas." Rel. Seg., MS.

58 Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., MS.-Cieza de Leon, Cronica, cap. 44. Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 14.

once in the field, the Inca did not usually show any disposition to push his advantages to the utmost and urge his foe to extremity. In every stage of the war, he was open to propositions for peace; and, although he sought to reduce his enemies by carrying off their harvests and distressing them by famine, he allowed his troops to commit no unnecessary outrage on person or property. "We must spare our enemies," one of the Peruvian princes is quoted as saying, "or it will be our loss, since they and all that belongs to them must soon be ours."59 It was a wise maxim, and, like most other wise maxims, founded equally on benevolence and prudence. The Incas adopted the policy claimed for the Romans by their countryman, who tells us that they gained more by clemency to the vanquished than by their victories.6%

In the same considerate spirit, they were most careful to provide for the security and comfort of their own troops; and when a war was long protracted, or the climate proved unhealthy, they took care to relieve their men by frequent reinforcements, allowing the earlier recruits to return to their homes." But while thus economical of life, both in their own followers and in the enemy, they did not shrink from sterner measures when provoked by the ferocious or obstinate

59 "Mandabase que en los mantenimientos y casas de los enemigos se hiciese poco daño, diciendoles el Señor, presto serán estos nuestros como los que ya lo son; como esto tenian conocido, procuraban que la guerra fuese la mas liviana que ser pudiese." Sarmiento, Relacion, MS., cap. 14.

60" Plus pene parcendo victis, quàm vincendo imperium auxisse." Livy, lib. 30, cap. 42.

61 Garcilasso, Com. Real., Parte 1, lib. 6, cap. 18.