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tinguished by no official or hereditary honours. Above them were raised, thofe whom the Spaniards call Orejones, from the ornaments worn in their ears. They formed what may be denominated the order of nobles, and in peace as well as war held every office of power or truft. m) At the head of all were the children of the Sun, who, by their high defcent, and peculiar privileges, were as much exalted above the Orejones, as these were elevated beyond the people.

State of arts.

Such a form of fociety, from the union of its members, as well as from the diftinction in their ranks, was favourable to progrefs in the arts. But the Spaniards having been acquainted with the improved ftate of various arts in Mexico, feveral years before they difcovered Peru, were not fo much ftruck with what they obferved in the latter country, and defcribe the appearances of ingenuity there with lefs warmth of admiration. The Peruvians, nevertheless, had advanced far beyond the Mexicans, both in the neceffary arts of life, and in fuch as have fome title to the name of elegant.

Improved ftate of agriculture.

In Peru, agriculture, the art of primary neceffity in focial life was more extenfive, and m) Herrera, dec. 5. lib iv. c. I.

carried on with greater fkill than in any part of America. The Spaniards, in their progrefs through the country, were fo fully fupplied with provifions of every kind, that in the relation of their adventures we meet with few of thofe difmal fcenes of diftrefs occafioned by famine, in which the conquerors of Mexico were fo often involved. The quantity of foil under cultivation was not left to the difcretion of individuals, but regulated by publick authority in proportion to the exigencies of the community. Even the calamity of an unfruitful feafon was but little felt, for the product of the lands confecrated to the Sun, as well as thofe fet apart for the Incas, being depofited in the Tambos, or publick ftorehoufes, it remained there as a ftated provision for times of fcarcity. n) As the extent of cultivation was determined with fuch provident attention to the demands of the ftate, the invention and industry of the Peruvians were called forth to extraordinary exertions, by certain defects peculiar to their climate and foil. All the vaft rivers that flow from the Andes take their courfe eastward to the Atlantick Ocean. Peru is watered only by fome ftreams which rufh down from the mountains like torrents. A great part of the low country is fandy and barren, and never refreshed with rain. In order to render fuch an unpromifing region fertile, the ingenuity of the Peruvians had ren) Zarate, lib. i, c. 14. Vega, lib. i. c. 8.

courfe to various expedients. By means of artificial canals conducted, with much patience and confiderable art, from the torrents that poured across their country, they conveyed a regular fupply of moisture to their fields. o) They enriched the foil by manuring it with the dung of fea-fowls, of which they found an inexhauftible ftore on all the iflands fcattered along their coafts. p) In defcribing the customs of any nation thoroughly civilized, fuch practices would hardly draw attention, or be mentioned as in any degree remarkable; but in the history of the improvident race of men in the New World, they are entitled to notice as fingular proofs of industry and of art. The ufe of the plough, indeed, was unknown to the Peruvians. They turned up the earth with a kind of mattock of hard wood. q) Nor was this labour deemed fo degrading as to be devolved wholly upon the women. Both fexes joined in performing this neceffary work. Even the children of the Sun fet an example of induftry, by cultivating a field near Cuzco with their own hands, and they dignified this function, by denominating it their triumph over the earth. r)

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Their buildings.

The fuperior ingenuity of the Peruvians is obvious, likewife, in the conftruction of their houfes and publick buildings. In the extensive plains which ftretch along the Pacifick Ocean, where the fky is perpetually ferene, and the climate mild, their houfes were very properly of a fabrick extremely flight. But in the higher regions, where rain falls, where the viciffitude of feafons is known, and their rigour felt, houfes were conftructed with greater folidity. They were generally of a fquare form, the walls about eight feet high, built with bricks hardened in the fun, the door low and without any windows. Simple as these ftructures were, and rude as the materials may feem to be, of which they were formed, they were fo durable, that many of them still subsist in different parts of Peru, long after every monument that might have conveyed to us any idea of the domeftick ftate of the other American nations has vanifhed from the face of the earth. But it was in the temples confecrated to the Sun, and in the buildings deftined for the relidence of their monarchs, that the Peruvians displayed the utmost extent of their art and contrivance. The defcriptions of them by fuchof the Spanish writers as had an opportunity of comtemplating them, while, in fome meafure, entire, migh have appeared highly exag

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gerated, if the ruins which ftill remain, did not vouch the truth of their relations. The fe ruins of facred or royal buildings are found in every province of the empire, and by their frequency demonftrate that they are monuments of a powerful people, who must have fubfifted, during a period of fome extent, in a state of no inconfiderable improvement. They appear to have been edifices various in their dimenfions. Some of a moderate fize, many of immenfe extent, all remarkable for folidity, and resembling each other in the style of architecture. The temple of Pachacamac, together with a palace of the Inca, and a fortrefs, were fo connected together as to form one great ftructure, above half a league in circuit. In this prodigious pile, the fame fingular tafte in building is confpicuous, as in other works of the Peruvians. As they were unacquainted with the use of the pulley, and other mechanical powers, and could not elevate the large ftones and bricks which they employed in building to any confiderable height, the walls of this edifice, in which they feem to have made their greatest effort towards magnificence, did not rife above twelve feet from the ground. Though they had not difcovered the ufe of mortar or of any other cement in building, the bricks or ftones were joined with so much nicety, that the feams can hardly be difcern

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