The government of the Incas was a paternal despotism controlling the most minute affairs of daily life. Knowledge, the Incas taught, "was not intended for the people, but for those of generous ability, for it would render persons of low degree vain and arrogant."
The Incas established a communal system similar to that of Russia. One-third of the land belonged to the Inca, one-third to the priests of the Sun, and the remainder to the people, who were required to cultivate the land of the Inca and of the priests, as well as their own. The land was divided among the families yearly, according to their number. Every newly married couple received a stated portion which was increased as the family increased.
Their only means of writing was by a cord, called quippus, about two feet long, composed of threads of different colors twisted together, from which a quantity of smaller threads hung like a knotted fringe. The colors denoted sensible objects or sometimes abstract ideas, though the principal use of the quippus was for arithmetical purposes.
The civilization of the Incas appears to have been of a higher order than that of the Mexicans. It is not probable that hieroglyphics were in use among any of the South American Indians, though it is said that traces of a pictorial alphabet have been found. The people were contented and happy, although they were deprived of personal liberty, although their daily life was supervised by their rulers, and although they held only communal rights of property. They had neither ambition nor strong love of country.
When Pizarro landed in Peru there were two Incas, one at Cuzco and the other at Quito, and the bitter conflict which was raging between them made the conquest of both easy. Pizarro had only 180 followers, but they were Spanish cavaliers, carrying fire-arms; and with this small force he overturned the Incas and enslaved the people. The descendants of the Quichuas, or the people of the Incas, still inhabit the land—a mild, apathetic, servile and dejected race. It is said that after the conquest the women put on a black mantle, which they have worn ever since, as perpetual mourning for the last of the Incas.
There are a few descendants of Spaniards in Peru, but the population consists chiefly of the descendants of the Quichuas and mixed Spaniards and Quichuas. The Peruvians of to-day are less civilized than those who lived 400 years ago; they have less liberty and are poorer.
DISCOVERY OF THE AMAZON.
Great rivers have usually been discovered and explored by ascending them from the ocean to their sources; the Congo and the Amazon were explored downward from their sources to the ocean.
Three hundred and fifty years ago, Gonzalo Pizarro, then governor of Upper Peru, heard of a land of silver and gold, spices and precious stones; a land where spring reigned and all tropical fruits abounded. He determined to follow the little stream which, rising in the Andes, near Quito, flowed eastward; to explore the country, and find the happy land. He set out with 350 Cavaliers, mounted on Spanish horses and attended by 4000 Indian slaves.
The first part of the route was easy; the little stream soon became a river, then broadened into the Napo; but the farther they went, the slower and more difficult was their progress as they passed from the open forest and the cool and invigorating breezes of the Andes into the sultry valley of the Napo. Their way now led through forests more dense, darker and more impenetrable than those described by Stanley, for the valley of the Amazon is richer than the valley of the Congo. Natives armed with poisoned arrows opposed their progress; food became scarce, treachery was on every side, and their number gradually diminished by death and by desertion of the slaves.