Page 136 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

132 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.

band and wife, was perpetuated in the reigning family to the
time of the conquest, in order to preserve, uncontaminated, the
pure Inca blood. They may have formed, first, the little com-
munity at lake Titicaca, and subsequently migrated to the valley
of Cuzco, and so been identical with the bearded whitemen
from that quarter; though this does not quite agree with the
tradition.
Of this superior race, was the reigning family of Peru, and
the monarch was called, by way of pre-eminence, the Inca, and
the titles ho arrogated to himself remind us of those so pom-
pously assumed by the Persian monarchs to the present day.
His sway over his subjects was of the most absolutely despotic,
and yet, of the most mild and paternal character. The duty of
unconditional and unquestioning obedience, was conceded by
the subject; and the duty of consulting, in dl his requirements,
the good of his people, was held equally sacred by the monarch
-an excellence rarely met with amongst rulers of the present
day. The whole Inca race were exempted from the burdens of
taxation and were held in the highest respect and veneration on
account of their supposed celestial origin and their relationship
to the reigning Inca, and filled all ofices under the emperor.
Such was the foundation of the Peruvian monarchy.
Our limits will only admit of a hasty glance at the main fea-
tures of their laws and institutions to enable us to compare them
with those of the nations of the Old World.
Like many of the Asiatics, and in common with their Aztec
neighbors, the great object of worship was the Sun, and human
sacrifices were sometimes offered. The cross was one of their
sacred symbols, but the more obvious traces of Christianity
observed among the Aztecs were not found among the Peru-
vians, and their religious rites were fewer and more simple.
Their lands were divided into three parts, in what proportion
does not appear-one for the Sun, or the support of their reli-
gion; one for the Inca, or the maintenance of the government,
and the third for the people. The Church and State lands mere
cultivated by drafts of laborers from the common people and so