Page 135 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961
P. 135
ANNUAL ADDRESS. 131
The traditions of t.he Peruvians, which have been preserved,
eeem to extend no farther back than their civilization. They
commence with a rude, savage people, already inhabiting the
country. Over these, certain bearded whitemen from lake
Titicaca gained ascendancy and conferred on them the blessings
of civilization. It is not probable that these strangers were
very numerous, or gained their ascendancy by force, but more
probably it was the natural result of their superior knowledge
and benevolent endeavors to improve the condition of the peo-
ple. That a small community of cizilized men once inhabited
the shores of lake Titicaca, is attested by ancient ruins still
found there. That they could not have been numerous when
they joined themselves to the original Peruvians seems further
probable from the fact that no distinctive traces of them were
visible at the time of the Spanish conquest, unless they were
identical with the Incas.
Subsequent to these (if not identical with them) came the
Incas,-a pt:ople quite distinct from the tribes incorporated into
the Peruvian empire. They were distinguished, even at the
time of the conquest, by peculiar dress and insignia, as well as
by language and complexion. They claimed to be children of
the sun and to have sprung from a single pair. hranco Capac
and Mama Oello Huaco, who were brother and sister, and hus-
band and wife. They are represented to have advanced from
the South, along the high plains, by lake Titicaca, to the valley
of Cuzco. They represented to the natives that out of com-
passion to their degraded condition, the Sun, the great parent
of mankind, had sent them to gather their brethren into com-
munities and teach them the arts of civilized life."
That this singular race sprung from one pair upon the
continent, and they a brother and sister, who had, by some
chance, become isolated from the rest of mankind, is probable,
not only on the authority of a distinct tradition, but also from
the fact that the unnatural union of brother and sister as hus-
* Prcscott's Conquest of Peru. vol. 1, chap. 1.
