continued, by greater virtue and feverity; nor any ever gave greater teftimonies, than that of the Ynca's, of an excellent inftitution, by the progresses and fucceffes, not only in the propagation and extent of empire, but also in interior government, in force and plenty, in greatness and magnificence of temples and public works, and in all provifions neceffary to the fafety, utility, and happiness of human life: infomuch that the miffionary Jesuits feemed to prefer the civil conftitutions of Mango Copac to thofe of Lycurgus, Numa, Solon, Confucius, or any other celebrated legiflators in the known world.

To every colony was affigned a certain extent of land, whereof one part was appropriated to the public worship of the Sun; a second to the support of the widows, orphans, poor, aged, and infirm; a third to the peculiar maintenance of every family, according to their refpective numbers; and the fourth to the use of the Ynca. In this order the land was tilled with grain, and the produce laid up in feveral granaries; out of which it was diftributed by officers appropriated for that purpose, according to the several uses for which it was defigned, and new feed given out at the season for the new tillage. No perfon was fuffered to leave the colony or people he was born in, without leave, nor to change the habit commonly used in it; by fome parts or marks thereof, the people of each province were distinguished: neither was any person to marry out of it, nor any of the Ynca's to marry out of their own blood.-The reigning

Ynca was called Capa Ynca; and he always married the first of his female kindred, either sister, niece, or coufin, to preferve the line the pureft they could. Once every two years he affembled all the unmarried Ynca's, the men above twenty, and the women above fixteen years old, and there in public married all fuch as he thought fit, by joining each of their hands the one to the other. The fame thing was done among the common people, in every colony, by their Curaca or governor.

By thefe, and other laws and inftitutions of this kind, Mango Copac first fettled his government, or empire, in the colonies of Cozco, which were in time extended over many other colonies, by the great concourfe of people who flocked about him from every part; and who were not only allured by the divine authority of his orders, but by the sweetness and clemency of his reign, and by the happiness and felicity of all thofe who lived under it. Indeed the whole fyftem of the civil government of this race of the Ynca's was rather like that of a tender parent over his children, or a just and good-natured guardian over his pupils, than like that of a lord or fovereign over his slaves or fubjects; by which they came at length to be fo honoured, and even adored, that it was like facrilege for any common person so much as to touch an Ynca without his leave; which was given, as a grace, to all those who served him well, or to fuch new fubjects as fubmitted to him.

After

After Mango Copac had extended his empire over all the country round Cozco, by the voluntary submission of the native inhabitants, as to a Being of a fuperior order, he affembled all his governors and officers, and told them, that the Sun, his father, had commanded him to extend his laws and dominions as far as poffible, for the good and happiness of the human race; and, for that purpofe, to go with armed troops to those remote parts which had not yet received them, and to reduce them to their obfervance; but not to hurt or offend any of those who would submit to him, and accept of the good and happiness which were offered them, by fuch divine bounty, and to diftress fuch only as refused; without however killing any perfons who did not attack them, and then to do it justly in their own defence.-With this intention, therefore, he raised a large body of troops, which he armed both with offenfive and defenfive weapons: and fet officers over them, as he had done over the families in every colony; but he moreover added a general to every five thousand, and a director-general over every ten thousand. With armies formed in this manner, he reduced many new provinces under his dominion, declaring to every people he approached, the fame thing he had done to those who first came about him near the Great Lake; and moreover offering them all the benefits of the arts which he had taught, and of the laws and orders which he had formed; and the fame protection and felicity which

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which his former fubjects enjoyed. Those who fubmitted were immediately received into the fame rights and enjoyments with the rest of his people; but those who refufed were diftreffed, and purfued by his forces, till they were neceffitated to accept of his offers and conditions. He would not fuffer his men to kill even those whom they purfued, before the danger and slaughter of his own troops grew otherwise unavoidable; then he fuffered his forces to kill them without mercy, and not even to spare thofe who yielded themselves, after having fo long and fo obftinately refifted.By these means, and by the length of his reign, he fo far extended his empire, that he divided it into four great provinces, over each of which he appointed an Ynca to be a viceroy; having at this time many fons who were grown fit to command ; and in each of them established three fupreme councils; the first of Justice, the second of War, and the third of Revenue, of which an Ynca was likewise president; and which continued ever after.

After having paffed through a long reign, during which he was adored by all his fubjects, this extraordinary genius fell into the laft period of his life; upon the approach of which, he called together all his children and grand-children, with his eldest fon, to whom he left his empire, and told them, that for his own part, he was going to repose himself with his father, the Sun, from whom he came; that he advised and charged them all to go on in the fame paths of reafon and virtue which

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he had taught them, till they followed him in the fame journey; that, by this courfe only, they would prove themselves to be the true fons of the Sun, and as fuch be honoured and efteemed. But he gave a particular charge to the Ynca who was to be his fucceffor; and commanded him to govern his people according to his example, and the precepts which he had received from the Sun; and that he fhould do it with justice, mercy, piety, clemency, and care of the poor and diftreffed: And when the time fhould come that he, the then prince, fhould be ready to go to reft with his father the Sun, that he should be exact in giving the fame exhortations and inftructions to his fucceffor. This form was accordingly used in all the fucceffions of the race of the Ynca's, which had lafted above eight hundred years when the Spaniards came among them, with the fame orders, and with the greatest felicity that could be in any human government.

I have been the more particular in endeavouring to give my readers an idea of the civil government of this unlearned American; because I agree with the miffionary Jefuits in thinking, that none of the learned fages of antiquity have formed fo perfect a plan for human happinefs, in this life; for I do not find that any mention was ever made by the Ynca's, of a future ftate, or even of a place of reft, after this life, for the common people:The Ynca race were faid to go to reft with their father the Sun, from whom they came; but the happiness

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