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lowing fuch laws, cuftoms, and regulations, as their father the Sun had formed for them, and ordered these his children to teach them.

The first great maxim which they taught their followers was, that every man fhould live by the rule of equity, i. e. that they should not do any thing to others, that they were not willing others should do to them; because it was contrary to reason and equity, to make one law for ourselves, and another for other people; and this was the great and fundamental principle of all their morality.

In the next place, they ordered all their followers, that they fhould worship the Sun, who was the common father and protector of the whole world, who gave life to all creatures, and made the plants and herbs grow for their food and support; and he fhewed fuch love and care for the welfare of all his creatures, that he even went round the world every day, to infpect and provide for all that was upon it; and had fent thefe his two favourite children down among the Peruvians, who were the particular objects of his attention, to rule and to make them happy.-After this they taught them fuch arts as were moft neceffary for human life; as the man taught the people to fow the common Indian corn, at certain feasons, and to preserve it against others; to build houses against the inclemency of the air, and to fecure them from the fury of the wild beafts; to form themselves into families by marriage; to clothe themselves, at least in such a manner as to cover the

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fhame of their nakedness; and to tame and nourish such creatures as would be useful for their fuftenance and the woman taught the Peruvian women, to fpin and weave cotton, and the wool of certain beasts which they had among them. By these inftructions and regulations, they were fo generally believed in all they faid, and fo much efteemed for what they did and taught for the common utilitý, that they were followed by all the people who faw and heard them; and obeyed like the children of the Sun, who were fent down' from heaven to govern and inftruct them.

Mango Copac had in his hand a rod of gold, about two feet long and one inch and half diameter, which, he faid, he had received from his father, the Sun, with orders, that when he travelled northward from the lake, he fhould every time he refted, ftrike this rod into the earth; and where at the firft ftroke it fhould go down to the very end, there he should fix the seat of his government, and build a temple to the Sun. This fell out to be in the rich foil of the vale of Cozco, where he founded that city which was the feat of government in the Peruvian Empire. He divided his company into two colonies, one of which he' called the high Cafco, and the other the low, and now began his legislative authority over them: every family under his dominion was registered; and, through both these colonies, he instituted decurions, one over every ten families, another over fifty, a third over one hundred, a fourth over five hun

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dred, and a fifth over one thousand; and to this laft he gave the title of Curaca, or governor. Every decurion was a judge, or arbiter, in small controverfies, among those who were under his charge. They took care that every person was clothed, laboured, and lived, according to the regulations given them by the Ynca's, from their father the Sun; one of the principal of which was, that no perfon who could work fhould be idle; and that no perfon who could not work, from age, fickness, or any accidental caufe, fhould want, but should be maintained by the others: and these regulations were fo well observed, in the whole empire of Peru, that during the long race of the Ynca kings, no beggar was ever known; and no woman ever went to see a neighbour but with her work in her hands, which the followed all the time the visit lafted. Moreover, every decurion, besides being a judge over those who were under his direction, was likewife their folicitor, if any them were in want; and was bound to keep a public register of all those who were born, and of all thofe who died, under his charge.-Every colony had one fupreme judge, to whom the lower decurions remitted great and difficult cafes; and to whom, in criminal cafes, the criminal appealed: but every decurion, who concealed any crime of those who were under his charge, above twentyfour hours, became guilty of it, and liable to the fame punishment with the real offender.

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The Ynca's likewise established a code of laws against

against robberies, murders, mutilations, disobedience to officers, and adulteries; for every man was allowed to have but one lawful wife, but he had the liberty of keeping as many women as he could. All their crimes were punished, either with corporal pains, or death, but generally with the latter; because, they obferved, that all crimes, whether great or small, were of the fame nature, and deserved the fame punishment, if they were committed against the divine commands of the Sun; and that to punish any man in his property only, and to leave him alive, and at liberty, was to leave a wicked man more incenfed, or neceffitated, to commit new crimes. On the other hand, they never made a fon answerable for his father's offences; but the judges remonstrated to him the guilt and punishment of them, for his warning or example. These regulations were attended with fuch good effects, that fometimes a whole year paffed without the execution of one criminal in the empire but undoubtedly the disuse of other poffeffions than what were fufficient to produce the neceffaries of life, and the eminent virtue, and great example, of their wife lawgiver, which seemed to have been transfused through his whole race, during the course of a long reign, contributed much to this great order in the ftate, as it is faid no true Ynca was ever found guilty of, or punished for, any crime.

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We have not any example in the history of the world, of a government being established, and

continued,

continued, by greater virtue and feverity; nor any ever gave greater teftimonies, than that of the Ynca's, of an excellent inftitution, by the progreffes and fucceffes, not only in the propagation and extent of empire, but also in interior government, in force and plenty, in greatness and magnificence of temples and public works, and in all provifions neceffary to the fafety, utility, and happiness of human life: infomuch that the miffionary Jefuits feemed to prefer the civil conftitutions of Mango Copac to those of Lycurgus, Numa, Solon, Confucius, or any other celebrated legiflators in the known world.

To every colony was affigned a certain extent of land, whereof one part was appropriated to the public worship of the Sun; a second to the support of the widows, orphans, poor, aged, and infirm; a third to the peculiar maintenance of every family, according to their refpective numbers; and the fourth to the use of the Ynca. In this order the land was tilled with grain, and the produce laid up in feveral granaries; out of which it was diftributed by officers appropriated for that purpose, according to the several uses for which it was defigned, and new feed given out at the season for the new tillage.-No perfon was fuffered to leave the colony or people he was born in, without leave, nor to change the habit commonly used in it; by some parts or marks thereof, the people of each province were distinguished: neither was any perfon to marry out of it, nor any of the Ynca's to marry out of their own blood.-The reigning Ynca

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