ment. Manco Capac inftructed the men in agriculture, and other ufeful arts. Mama Ocollo taught the women to fpin and to weave. By the labour of the one fex, fubfiftence became lefs precarious; by that of the other, life was rendered more confortable. After fecuring the objects of first neceffity in an infant ftate, by providing food, raiment, and inhabitations, 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 fhall be more particularly explained hereafter, the various relations in private life were established, and the duties refulting from them prescribed with fuch propriety, as gradually formed a barbarous people to decency of manners. In publick adminiftration, the functions of perfons in authority were fo precisely defined, and the fubordination of thofe under their jurifdiction maintained with fuch a fteady hand, that the fociety in which he prefided, foon affumed the aspect of a regular and well governed state.

Thus, according to the Indian tradition, was founded the empire of the Incas or Lords of Peru. At first, 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 expanded, arrogated a fimilar jurifdiction over their fubjects: 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 diftinguifhed by peculiarities in drefs and ornaments, which it was unlawful for others to affume. The monarch himself appeared with enfigns of royalty referved for him alone; and received from his fubjects marks, of obfequious homage and respect, 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 conquest, if we may believe the accounts of their countrymen, that prompted the Incas to extent 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. t)

When theSpaniards firft vifited 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 diftinguifhed not only for the pacifick virtues peculiar to the race, but eminent for his martial talents. By his victorious arms the kingdom of Quito was subjected, a conB 2

t) Cieca de Leon, Chron. 6. 44. Herrera, dec, 3. lib. x. c. 4. dec. 5. lib. iii. c. 17.

queft of fuch extent and importance as, almoft 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, notwithstanding the ancient and fundamental law of the monarchy againft polluting the royal blood by any foreign alliance, he married the daughter of the vanquifhed monarch of Quito. She bore him a fon named Atahualpa, whom, on his death at Quito, which feems to have happened 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 more reputation and splendour than any of his predeceffors, the deftination of Huana Capac concerning the fucceffion, appeared fo repugnant to a maxim coeval 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 fentiments of his fubjects, 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. Thefe were the flower of the Peruvian warriors, to whofe valour Huana Capac had been indebted for all his victories. Relying on their fupport, Atahunlpa 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 ufage, and that of the other afferted by the veteran troops, involved Peru in civil war, a calamity to which, under a fucceffion of virtuous princes, it had hitherto been a stranger. In fuch a conteft the issue was obvious. The force of arms triumphed over the authority of laws. Atahualpa remained victorious, and made a cruel ufe of his victory. Conscious 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 ftratagem. From a political motive, the life of his unfortunate rival Huafcar, who had been taken prifoner in the battle which decided the fate of the empire, was prolonged for fome time, that, by iffuing orders in his name, the ufurper might more eafily establish his own authority. u)

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 greateft fury. Had he made any hoftile attempt in his former visit to Peru in the year one thousand five hundred and twenty-feven, he muft then have encountered the force of a powerful ftate, united under a monarch, poffeffod of capacity as well as courage, and unembarraffed with any care that could divert him from oppofing his progrefs. But at this time, the two competitors,

a) Zarate, lib. i. c. 15. Vega, I. lib. ix. c. 12 and 32-40. Herrera, dec. 5. lib. i. c. 2. lib, iii. 6. 17.

though they received early accounts of the arrival and violent proceedings of the Spaniards, were fo intent upon the operations of a war, which they deemed more interefting, that they paid no attention to the motions of an enemy, too inconfiderable in number to excite any great alarm, and to whofe career, it would be eafy, as they imagined, to give a check when more at leifure.

He avails, himfelf of it, and advances.

By this fortunate coincidence of events, whereof Pizarro could have no forefight, and of which, from his defective mode of intercourfe with the people of the country, he remained long ignorant, he was permitted to carry on his operations unmolested, and advanced to the centre of a great empire before one effort of its power was exerted to stop his career. During their progress, the Spaniards had acquired fome imperfect knowledge of this ftruggle between the two contending factions. The firft complete information, with respect to it, they received from meffengers whom Huafcar fent to Pizarro, in order to folicit his aid against Atahualpa, whom he represented as a rebel and an ufurper. u) Pizarro perceived at once the importance of this intelligence, and forefaw fo clearly all the advantages which might be derived from this divided state of the kingdom, which he had invaded, that, without waiting for the reinforcement which he expected from Panama, he determined to push forward, while inteftine difcord put it out of the power of the Peruvians to attack him with their whole force, and while, by

u) Zarate, lib. ii. c. 3.