The inspired Law-giver, after establishing a firm government, with good laws and regulations for its continuance, left a colony in power over the conquered natives of the soil, and, departing from Mexico, landed on the shores of the southern continent of America, where he founded the extensive Empire of Peru.
At the time of Pizarro’s arrival in Peru the dominion of its sovereign extended in length, from north to south, above fifteen hundred miles along the Pacific Ocean; its breadth from east to west was much less, it being uniformly bounded by the vast ridge of the Andes, stretching from one extremity of the country to the other.
When Moses and his followers landed, the country was inhabited, like the rest of the primitive world, by independent tribes of savages, differing from each other in manners, and in their rude forms of polity. He, however, brought them all under his government; imparted to them the knowledge of God; gave them laws; and instructed the men in agriculture and other useful arts, while the women were taught to spin and weave, as in China and other kingdoms and empires that he had already founded. So that, as by the labour of the one sex subsistence became less precarious, by that of the other life was rendered more comfortable.
There is a tradition preserved among the Peruvians, that when their ancestors were mere savages roaming the woods, without clothing, or any settled place of residence, their condition became changed under the following circumstances:—
“After they had struggled for several ages with the hardships and calamities which are inevitable in such a state, and when no circumstance seemed to indicate the approach of any uncommon effort towards improvement, we are told that there appeared, on the banks of the Lake Titiaca, a man and a woman of majestic form, clothed in decent garments.
“They declared themselves to be children of the sun, sent by their beneficent parent, who beheld with pity the miseries of the human race, to instruct and to reclaim them. At their persuasion, enforced by reverence for the divinity in whose name they were supposed to speak, several of the dispersed savages united together, received their commands as heavenly injunctions, and followed them to Cuzco, where they settled and began to lay the foundations of a city.
“Manco Capac and Mama Ocollo, for such were the names of these extraordinary personages, having thus collected some wandering tribes, formed that social union which, by multiplying the desires and uniting the efforts of the human species, excites industry, and leads to improvement.
“After securing the objects of first necessity in an infant state, by providing food, raiment, and habitations for the rude people of whom he took charge, Manco Capac turned his attention towards introducing such laws and policy as might perpetuate their happiness. By his institutions the various relations in private life were established, and the duties resulting from them prescribed with such propriety, as gradually formed a barbarous people to decency of manners.
“In public administration, the functions of persons in authority were so precisely defined, and the subordination of those under their jurisdiction maintained with such a steady hand, that the society in which he presided soon assumed the aspect of a regular and well governed state.
“Thus, according to the Indian tradition, was founded the empire of the Incas, or Lords of Peru. At first its extent was small. The territory of Manco Capac did not reach above eight leagues from Cuzco. But within its narrow precincts he exercised absolute and uncontrolled authority. His successors, as their dominions extended, arrogated a similar jurisdiction over the new subjects which they acquired; the despotism of Asia was not more complete.