422 [Assembly 



life; and fire, because it warmed them, and cooked their food. Some 

 also, made choice of sheep, cattle, or corn, and everything around 

 them, that served most for nourishment, as a god, and v^'orthy of di- 

 vine honor. The inhabitants near the coast, fbade the sea their god, 

 the name of which, interpreted in their language, signifies the " Mo- 

 ther Sea" The whale they deified on account of its prodigious size. 

 In the Province of Puerto Viejo, they had a high veneration for the 

 emerald; and near the Cordillera, they worshipped that mountain for 

 its stupendous height. 



The sacrifices which they made to these deities, were often as bar- 

 barous as the gods were senseless; for, besides beasts, fruits, and corn, 

 they sacrificed and devoured alive men and women of all ages, whom 

 they had taken in war. But other Indians less cruel, and more mild 

 in their character, though they mingled blood with these rites, never 

 took away life, but drew it from the veins of an arm., a leg, or the 

 nostrils, according to the nature or solemnity of the sacrifice requir- 

 ed. Others offered sheep and lambs, conies, partridges, and various 

 kinds of fowl, herbs, fruits, and maize, so much esteemed among them, 

 according to the deity they adored. 



These people, living and dying in the manner above described, 

 were at length reclaimed by Inca Manco Capac, who, probably, was 

 so'ne Indian of a more elevated understanding and prudence than or- 

 dinary, and who, by carrying a refined deportment among them, had 

 persuaded them that he and his wife. Mama Oello Hauco, proceeded 

 from the sun, and were come from heaven; and that his father, Pa- 

 chacamac (the soul of the universe, or the sustainer of all things,) 

 had sent them to instruct and bestow benefits on the rest Oi" mankind. 

 Manco Capac w'as the founder of the Incas, who were the native 

 kings of Peru, and who, according to tradition, reigned in dfrect li- 

 neage, until they were conquered by the Spaniards, for the space of 

 four hundred years. The origin of these kings, the majesty and 

 greatness of their empire, their conquests and policies in govern- 

 ment, both in peace and in war, together with the laws they institu- 

 ted for the good and benefit of their subjects, have been recorded by 

 one of their own descendants on the maternal side, Garcilasso, de la 

 Vega, surnvimed the Inca. Concerning the origin of these kings, he 

 says, that, when he was about seventeen years of age, being one day 

 present w^ith his kindred in the imperial city of Cuzco, who were 

 discoursing of their ancestors, it came into his mind to ask the most 

 elderly person amongst them, by interrupting him in his discourse, 

 the following questions: — " Inca and my uncle," said I, " How is it 



