dinary perfonages were, whether they imported their fyftem of legiflation and knowledge of arts from fome country more improved, or, if natives of Peru, how they acquired ideas fo far fuperior to thofe of the people whom they addressed, 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 authority. The multitude liftened 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 thofe arts, and fome relifh for that industry which render fubfiftence fecure and life comfortable, hath been formerly related. Thofe bleffings were originally confined within narrow precincts; for the authority of the first Inca did not reach many leagues beyond Cuzco. But, in procefs of time, his fucceffors extended their dominion over all the regions that ftretch to the weft of the Andes from Chili to Quito, eftablishing in every province their peculiar policy and religious inftitutions.

Founded

Founded in religion.

The moft fingular and striking circumftance in Peruvian government, is the influence of religion upon its genius and laws. Religious 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 publick 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 meffenger of Heaven. His precepts were received not merely as the injunctions of a fuperior, but as the mandates of the Deity. His race was held to be facred; and in order to preferve it diftin&t, without being polluted by any mixture of lefs noble blood, the fons of Manco Capac married their. own fifters, and no perfon was ever admitted to the throne who could not claim it by fuch a pure descent. To thofe Children of the Sun, for that was the appellation bestowed 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. ROBERTSON Vol. III.

Two remarkable effe&ts of this.

The abfolute power of

the inca.

From those ideas two confequences refult= ed. 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 oppofe his will. Obedience becomes a duty of religion; and as it would be profane to controul a monarch under the guidance of Heaven, and presumptuous to advise him, nothing remains but to fubmit with implicit respect. This muft neceffarily be the effect of every government eftablifhed on pretenfions 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 hear whatever the Inca was pleafed to impofe. 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 oblerver of Peruvian man-`

ners, d) might proceed alone from one extremity of the empire to another, without meeting oppofition; for, on producing a fringe from the royal Borla, or ornament peculiar to the reigning Inca, the lives and fortunes of the people were at his difpofal.

All crimes punished capitally.

Another confequence of eftablishing government in Peru on the foundation of religion was, that all crimes were punished capitally. They were not confidered as transgreffions of human laws, but as infults offered to the Deity. Each, without any diftinction between fuch as were flight and fuch as were atrocious, called for vengeance, and could be expiated only by the blood of the offender. Confonantly to the fame ideas, punishment followed the trefpafs with inevitable certainty, becaufe an offence against Heaven was deemed fuch an high enormity as could not be pardoned. e) Among a people of corrupted morals, maxims of jurifprudence fo fevere and unrelenting, by rendering men ferocious and defperate, would be more apt to multiply crimes than to reftrain them. But the Peruvians, of fimple manners and unfufpicious faith, were held in fuch awe by this rigid difcipline, that the number of offenders was extremely fmall. Veneration for

d) Zarate, lib. i. c. 13.

⚫) Vega, lib. ii. 8. 6.

monarchs, enlightened and directed, as they believed, by the divinity whom they adored, prompted them to their duty; the dread of punifhment, which they were taught to confider as unavoidable vengeance inflicted by offended Heaven, withheld them from evil.

Mild genius of their religion.

The fyftem of fuperftition on which the Incas ingrafted their pretenfions to fuch high authority, was of a genius very different from that established among the Mexicans. Manco Capac turned the veneration of his followers entirely towards natural objects. The Sun, as the great fource of light, of joy, and fertility in the creation, attracted their principal homage. The Moon and Stars, as cooperating with him, were entitled to fecondary honours. Wherever the propenfity in the human mind to acknowledge and to adore fome fuperior power, takes this direction, and is employed in contemplating the order and beneficence that really exift in nature, the spirit of fuperftition is mild. Wherever imaginary beings, created. by the fancy and the fears of men, are suppofed to prefide in nature, and become the objects of worship, fuperftition always affumes a more fevere and atrocious form. Of the latter we have an example among the Mexicans, of the former among the people of Peru. The Feruvians had not, indeed, made fuch progrefs