“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.  Manco Capac instructed the men in agriculture and other useful arts; Mama Ocollo taught the women to spin and weave.  By the labour of the one sex subsistence became less precarious; by that of the other life was rendered more comfortable.  After securing the object 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 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 traditions, was founded the empire of the Incas, or Lords of Peru.  At first its extent was small; as the territory of Manco Capac did not reach above eight leagues from Cuzco:  But within these narrow limits he exercised an 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.  The Incas were not only obeyed as monarchs, but revered as divinities.  Their blood was held to be sacred, and by prohibiting intermarriages with the people, was never contaminated by mixing with that of any other race.  The family thus separated from the rest of the nation, was distinguished by peculiarities in dress and ornaments, which it was unlawful for others to assume.  The monarch himself appeared with ensigns of royalty reserved for him alone; and received from his subjects marks of obsequious homage and respect, which approached almost to adoration.  But among the Peruvians, this unbounded power of their monarchs seems to have been uniformly accompanied with attention to the good of their subjects.  It was not the rage of conquests, if we may believe the accounts of their countrymen, that prompted the Incas to extend their dominion, but the desire of diffusing the blessings of civilization, and the knowledge of the arts which they possessed, among the barbarous people whom they reduced.  During a succession of twelve monarchs, it is said that not one deviated from this beneficent character.”