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government; framed from very wife laws and regulations, and from the principles of morality.— The founders of this empire, which, according to the history which they gave of themfelves to the Spaniards, had been in a civilized state for eight hundred years, were Mango Copac, and his wife, who was likewife his fifter, Coya Mama; who appeared first in that country near a great lake, which, for this reafon, is ftill held facred among them. Before this æra, the Peruvians are faid to have lived with the beafts, joint tenants in the fame caves and rocks, without any traces of orders, laws, or religion; without any other food than what they gathered from the trees or fhrubs, or what animals they could catch, and of this they had no further provifion than for present hunger; and without clothing. They fecured themselves in holes of rocks or caves, from the fury of the wild beafts; and upon the tops of hills, if they were in fear of any fierce neighbours. -When Mango Copac and his wife came among them, as they were perfons of great beauty, fo they were adorned with fuch clothing as was afterwards conftantly worn by the Ynca's; which name they gave themfelves. They told the people, who first flocked about them, that they were the fon and daughter of the Sun, and that their father, taking pity of the miferable condition that they lived in, had sent them down to reform them from the favage ftate they were then in, and to instruct them how to live in fafety, and happily, by fol

lowing fuch laws, customs, and regulations, as their father the Sun had formed for them, and ordered these his children to teach them.

The first great maxim which they taught their, followers was, that every man fhould live by the rule of equity, i. e. that they should not do any thing to others, that they were not willing others should do to them; because it was contrary to reafon and equity, to make one law for ourselves, and another for other people; and this was the great and fundamental principle of all their morality.

In the next place, they ordered all their followers, that they fhould worship the Sun, who was the common father and protector of the whole world, who gave life to all creatures, and made the plants and herbs grow for their food and support;. and he fhewed fuch love and care for the welfare of all his creatures, that he even went round the world every day, to inspect and provide for all that was upon it; and had fent thefe his two favourite children down among the Peruvians, who were the particular objects of his attention, to rule and to make them happy.-After this they taught them fuch arts as were moft neceffary for human life ; as the man taught the people to fow the common Indian corn, at certain seasons, and to preserve it against others; to build houses against the inclemency of the air, and to fecure them from the fury of the wild beasts; to form themselves into families by marriage; to clothe themselves, at least in fuch a manner as to cover the

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fhame of their nakednefs; and to tame and nourish fuch creatures as would be ufeful for their fuftenance: and the woman taught the Peruvian women, to fpin and weave cotton, and the wool of certain beasts which they had among them. By these inftructions and regulations, they were fo generally believed in all they faid, and fo much efteemed for what they did and taught for the common utility, that they were followed by all the people who faw and heard them; and obeyed like the children of the Sun, who were fent down from heaven to govern and inftruct them.

Mango Copac had in his hand a rod of gold, about two feet long and one inch and half diameter, which, he faid, he had received from his father, the Sun, with orders, that when he travelled northward from the lake, he should every time he refted, ftrike this rod into the earth; and where at the first stroke it fhould go down to the very end, there he should fix the feat of his government, and build a temple to the Sun. This fell out to be in the rich foil of the vale of Cozco, where he founded that city which was the feat of government in the Peruvian Empire. He divided his company into two colonies, one of which he called the high Cafco, and the other the low, and now began his legislative authority over them: every family under his dominion was registered; and, through both thefe colonies, he inftituted decurions, one over every ten families, another over fifty, a third over one hundred, a fourth over five hun

dred,

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dred, and a fifth over one thoufand; and to this last he gave the title of Curaca, or governor. Every decurion was a judge, or arbiter, in small controverfies, among those who were under his charge. They took care that every person was clothed, laboured, and lived, according to the regulations given them by the Ynca's, from their father the Sun; one of the principal of which was, that no perfon who could work fhould be idle; and that no perfon who could not work, from age, fickness, or any accidental caufe, fhould want, but should be maintained by the others and these regulations were fo well obferved, in the whole empire of Peru, that during the long race of the Ynca kings, no beggar was ever known; and no woman ever went to see a neighbour but with her work in her hands, which fhe followed all the time the visit lafted. Moreover, every decurion, befides being a judge over thofe who were under his direction, was likewise their folicitor, if any of them were in want; and was bound to keep a public register of all those who were born, and of all thofe who died, under his charge.-Every colony had one fupreme judge, to whom the lower decurions remitted great and difficult cafes; and to whom, in criminal cafes, the criminal appealed: but every decurion, who concealed any crime of those who were under his charge, above twentyfour hours, became guilty of it, and liable to the fame punishment with the real offender.

The Ynca's likewise established a code of laws

against

against robberies, murders, mutilations, disobedience to officers, and adulteries; for every man was allowed to have but one lawful wife, but he had the liberty of keeping as many women as he could. All their crimes were punifhed, either with corporal pains, or death, but generally with the latter; because, they obferved, that all crimes, whether great or small, were of the fame nature, and deserved the fame punishment, if they were committed against the divine commands of the Sun; and that to punish any man in his property. only, and to leave him alive, and at liberty, was to leave a wicked man more incenfed, or neceffitated, to commit new crimes. On the other hand, they never made a fon answerable for his father's offen

but the judges remonftrated to him the guilt and punishment of them, for his warning or example. These regulations were attended with such good effects, that fometimes a whole year paffed without the execution of one criminal in the empire: but undoubtedly the disuse of other poffeffions than what were fufficient to produce the neceffaries of life, and the eminent virtue, and great example, of their wife lawgiver, which feemed to have been transfused through his whole race, during the course of a long reign, contributed much to this great order in the ftate, as it is faid no true Ynca was ever found guilty of, or punished for, any crime.

We have not any example in the history of the world, of a government being established, and continued,

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