THE MODERN PART OF AN Univerfal History, FROM THE Earlieft AccOUNT of TIME. Compiled from ORIGINAL WRITERS. By the AUTHORS of the ANTIENT PART. IN RECTO DE CVS LONDON: Printed for T. OSBORNE, C. HITCH, A. MILLAR, M.DCC.LXIII. Modern History: BEING A CONTINUATION OF THE Universal History. The HISTORY of AMERICA. SECT. XII. Containing the Hiftory of the Incas, and the Religion, T AHE origin of nations is fo involved in obfcurity, that Account of little can be related with certainty, refpecting the the ancient earlier periods, and remoter ages, of the most civilized Peruvians. people, that has any pretenfions to antiquity. What fables are intermixed with the hiftories of Rome and Athens! Even the origin of modern nations, though pofterior to the ufe of lettters, hath its difficulties, and every day furnishes matter of debate among antiquaries: how, therefore, can we expect to find truth unmixed with falfhood and abfurdity, in the accounts given by the barbarous natives of the origin of thofe kingdoms and empires, whofe fubverfion afforded the firft inlet to the enlightening beams of fcience, and the bright dawn diffufed over every object, by the ufe of thofe characters invented happily to carry our ideas to pofterity, with the fame precifion they occured to our own minds? Accordingly we find, that nothing can be more improbable, fuperftitious, and ridiculous, than the account given of the Peruvians, before they were reduced by their Incas to a regular form of government, unless we except the means by MOD. HIST, VOL. XXXIX. B which Religion. which this extraordinary change, and revolution of manners, was effected. The genealogy of the fovereigns favours ftrongly of that adulation ever paid to the rulers of the world, who are often inferior to the brute creation; while they are regarded by their indifcriminating fubjects as fomething above human. Garcilaffo de la Vega, the most authentic hiftorian of Peru, himself defcended, by the mother, from the royal line, lavishes his praifes on the Incas, as the civilizers and humanizers of a barbarous people, who wandered about like the beafts of the fields, without laws, government, or the leaft idea of virtue or rational religion. Perhaps he intended to compliment the regal dignity at the expence of human nature; certain it is, that the horrible picture he has drawn of the ancient Peruvians, before the foundation of their monarchy, is the higheft panegyric on the conduct of the Incas. If we may credit this writer, the ancestors of the Peruvians were favages, diftinguished from the brute creation only by fpeech, and the human form; they were fierce, ignorant, and cruel, almoft beyond belief. We fhall begin with their religion, if that term may be applied to fuch abominable fuperftitious inftitutions, every way fuitable to their corrupt manners, and grovelling notions. THE ancient Peruvians, like the negroes on the coaft of Africa, had a multiplicity of gods; almoft every object that prefented itself was raifed into a deity. Nations, provinces, tribes, families, and individuals, had their peculiar gods; the Peruvians not being able to comprehend how the fame deity fhould be able to attend to the various actions of different perfons. Herbs, flowers, trees, fhrubs, caves, rivers, and all kinds of animals, were worshipped by this favage people, who facrificed to thofe material gods not only their enemies, but their own children. Mountains were adored for their height, trees for their fhade, tigers for their ferocity, other animals for other qualities, and many for their power of doing mifchief. Garcilaffo confirms the account of Blas Valera, who relates, that the inhabitants of the mountains of the Andes were man-eaters, and facrificed their fellow creatures and even their children to ferpents, whom they deified. Prifoners taken in war were immediately quartered and divided for the benefit of the captors, or fold in the fhambles. Should any perfon of diftinction happen to have fallen into the hands of this favage tribe, they ftripped him of his garments, tied him to a ftake, cut him in pieces with knives and fharp ftones, pared off all the fleshy mufcular parts, and fprinkling the bye-ftanders with the blood, eat up the flesh with the utmoft greediness, before the eyes of the unhappy victim, regarding his excru 4 ciating clating anguish as the most delicious fauce. The women wet their nipples with the blood, that their infant children might partake of the shocking facrifice. All this was performed by way of religious offering; and when the wretched victim expired in agonies, the remainder of his flesh and bowels were devoured with a more folemn and filent reverence. "Such," fays Garcilaffo," was the manner of thefe brutes, because the government of the Incas was not received into their country." Nor need we indeed be aftonished at the profound veneration with which their race of princes was regarded, if the people ascribed to them the changes wrought on their manners. THE government of the ancient Peruvians was equally Manners. barbarous with their religion. There was no regular fyftem of policy; a few families lived together in caves, rocks, and forefts, and roamed for their prey over the country like wild beafts. Neither the arts of building, fowing, planting, or cloathing themselves, were known to thefe barbarians. Nature produced fufficient for their wants, in the fpontaneous roots, fruits, and herbs, of the earth; and the only luxury known, was that of feeding upon the flesh of their fellow creatures. Sometimes a ruler ftarted up among the Peruvians, and then they were reduced for a while to a kind of focieties. Whoever had courage or policy enough to acquire a fuperiority, might eafily tyrannize over the whole, and treat them as flaves. When this kind of defpotifm was established, the fituation of the Peruvians became ftill more wretched; no change was wrought in their manners, and they loft their liberty. Their daughters and wives became the property of the tyrant; even their lives were facrificed to his caprice, and their skins employed in covering drums, to regale the ears of this monfter of cruelty. In other parts they lived without lords, paffing their days like fo many fheep in all fimplicity; not that virtue moderated their nature, but that ftupidity rendered them equally infenfible to good and evil. Even their barbarity was the refult of their inienfibility. It was no way fhocking to them to difpofe of the flesh of their prifoners in the fhambles, and fatten children, in order to be ferved up as delicacies to table. Luft unreftrained by laws, customs, or natural decency, was a ruling paffion among the Peruvians, who propagated like beafts without difcrimination, and gratified their appetites with the first woman that offered. Where there was no regular fociety, there could scarce be any idea of those refined paftons of love and friendship, which are the refult of communication and mutual converfe. No regard was paid to kindred, or affinity of blood, in the grati- · B 2 fication |