Robert Merry's Museum, Volumes I-II (1841)

by Various

After the people had been taught to work, and had built houses and cultivated fields, and so on, Manco Capac introduced such laws and usages as were calculated to perpetuate the good habits of the people. And thus, according to the Indian tradition, was founded the empire of the Incas.

The territory was, at first, small; but it was gradually enlarged by conquering the neighboring tribes,—merely, however, to do good by extending the blessings of their laws and arts to the barbarians,—till the dominions of the Inca Atahualpa, the twelfth in succession, extended from north to south along the Pacific Ocean above 2000 miles; its breadth from east to west was from the ocean to the Andes. The empire had continued four hundred years.

The most singular and striking circumstance in the Peruvian government, was the influence of religion upon its genius and its laws. The whole civil policy was founded on religion. The Inca appeared not only as a legislator, but as the messenger of heaven. His precepts were received as the mandates of the Deity. Any violation of his laws was punished with death; but the people were so impressed with the power and sacred character of their ruler that they seldom ventured to disobey.

Manco Capac taught the Peruvians to worship the sun, as the great source of light, of joy, and fertility. The moon and stars were entitled to secondary honors. They offered to the sun a part of those productions which his genial warmth had called forth from the bosom of the earth, and his beams had ripened. They sacrificed some of the animals which were indebted to his influence for nourishment. They presented to him choice specimens of those works of ingenuity which his light had guided the hand of man in forming. But the Incas never stained the altar of the sun with human blood.

Thus the Peruvians were formed, by the spirit of the religion which they had adopted, till they possessed a national character more gentle than that of any other people in America.

The state of property in Peru was no less singular than that of religion, and contributed, likewise, towards giving a mild turn of character to the people. All the lands capable of cultivation, were divided into three shares. One was consecrated to the sun, and the product of it was applied to the erection of the temples, and furnishing what was requisite towards celebrating the public rites of religion.

The second share belonged to the Inca, or was set apart as the provision made by the community for the support of government. The third and largest share was reserved for the maintenance of the people, among whom it was parcelled out. All such lands were cultivated by the joint industry of the community.

A state thus constituted may be considered like one great family, in which the union of the members was so complete, and the exchange of good offices so perceptible, as to create stronger attachment between man and man than subsisted under any other form of society in the new world. The Peruvians were advanced far beyond any of the nations in America, both in the necessary arts of life, and in such as have some title to be called elegant.

Agriculture was carried on by the Peruvians with a good deal of skill. They had artificial canals to water their fields; and to this day the Spaniards have preserved and use some of the canals made in the days of the Incas. They had no plough, but turned up the earth with a kind of mattock of hard wood. The men labored in the fields with the women, thus showing the advance of civilization over the rude tribes which imposed all the drudgery upon females.

The superior ingenuity of the Peruvians was also obvious in their houses and public buildings. In the extensive plains along the Pacific Ocean, where the sky is always serene and the climate mild, the houses were, of course, very slight fabrics. But in the higher regions, where rain falls and the rigor of the changing seasons is felt, houses were constructed with great solidity. They were generally of a square form, the walls about eight feet high, built of bricks hardened in the sun, without any windows, and the door strait and low. Many of these houses are still to be seen in Peru.