Ynca was called Capa Ynca; and he always married the first of his female kindred, either fifter, niece, or coufin, to preserve the line the purest 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 these, and other laws and inftitutions of this kind, Mango Copac first settled 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 flaves or fubjects; by which they came at length to be fo honoured, and even adored, that it was like facrilege for any common perfon fo 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 such 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 thoufand.-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. Thofe who fubmitted were immediately received into the fame rights and enjoyments with the rest of his people; but those who refused 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 flaughter of his own troops grew otherwise unavoidable; then he fuffered his forces to kill them without mercy, and not even to spare those 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 Juftice, the fecond of War, and the third of Revenue, of which an Ynca was likewife prefident; 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 last 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 course 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 should do it with juftice, 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 fhould 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 lasted 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 happiness, 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 said to go to reft with their father the Sun, from whom they came; but the happiness

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happiness and felicity of their subjects were to finifh with this life. It is true that, although the common people worshipped only the Sun, yet the Amautas, who were their priests and wife men, taught, that the Sun was only the great minifter of Pachacamac; which the Spaniards interpreted to be the Being that animated and enlivened the world; and therefore they seem to have still a more refined notion of the Supreme Being, than even the Chineses philofophers, who adored the spirit and foul of the world. Mango Copac taught them that, when they offered facrifices to his father the Sun, they fhould be formed of a certain part of the produce of the earth, that their great protector might continue to give a bleffing upon their labours; and of the wild beasts which they caught in hunting:-but afterwards, when the precepts of this great lawgiver came to be explained by their Amautas, and when they were engaged in wars with the neighbouring powers, the people were ordered to offer human facrifices, from among their enemies, to the Sun, to the end that he might give ftrength and victory to their arms.

Upon the whole, when we take a curfory furvey of the principles of the religion, civil government, and policy, which were taught the Peruvians by the Ynca's, and at a time too when they were to be distinguished from the beafts only by their form, I think it will be allowed, that human nature is the fame in all parts of the world; and

that