690 eyes, coarse glossy black hair, and thin beards. They are of the middle size, and well-proportioned in their limbs. A person with any defect or deformity is rarely seen amongst them. They are healthy, and live to an advanced age, when life is not shortened by drunken ness. The Toltec and Aztec races, when they established themselves in the country, diffused their own language partially from the Lake of Nicaragua to the 37th parallel. They reclaimed, by degrees, many of the neighbouring savage tribes to a settled mode of life, and spread a feeble degree of civilisation over a mixed mass of nations, speak ing, according to Clavigero, 35 languages, of which Hum- boldt tells us that 20 still exist. The Aztec language is one of the most copious and polished of the American tongues, and abounds in words of the immoderate length of 12 or 15 syllables. It is uncertain what was the number of sub jects over whom Montezuma ruled. The ruins in the valley of Tenochtitlan, on which the capital stands, show that it must have been more populous before the conquest than now ; but the population at present is diffused over an incomparably wider space ; and, upon the whole, there are no good grounds for believing that the number of civilised Indians was much greater when Cortes landed, than in 1803, when it amounted to 2,000,000. The civilisation of Mexico, as well as of Peru, owed its existence to a single cause, the patient, submissive, and superstitious character of the people, which fitted them to be beasts of burden, under an aristocracy of priests and nobles, who were led, perhaps, partly by influences from abroad, partly by the instinct of self-interest, to devise means for holding the mass of the community in subjection. Many of the nations which continued savage, such as the Algonquins and Iroquois, were pro bably equal to the Mexicans in intellect ; but their propensity to superstition was less, and their energy of character was too great to permit of their being enslaved by their chiefs. It is chiefly in the variety of their pri mitive character that we must seek for the cause of the diversity of manners and institutions we find among the American nations. The ancient empire of Peru, more extensive than that of Mexico, embraced the whole sea-coast from Pastes to the river Maule, a line of 2500 miles in length. Its breadth is imcertain ; but as it included both declivities of the Andes, it must have extended in some cases to 500 miles, and the entire surface of the empire probably exceeded 500,000 square miles. It is plain, however, from the imperfect history of the Incas which has been preserved, that within this space there were many dis tricts where their authority was feeble, and others inhabited by tribes which were entirely independent. One part of the country, besides, consisted of a sandy desert, while the most elevated tracts were uninhabitable from cold. It must not therefore be supposed that the capacity of the country to support population was commensurate with the extent of its surface. Still the magnitude of the Peruvian empire, in the midst of an immense multitude of independent savage communities, so extremely minute, that a hundred of them might have been planted with out crowding in one of its provinces, is an extraordinary phenomenon. The creating and maintaining of such an empire is a proof that the Peruvians had made no trifling progress in the useful arts and in the science of government. To keep in subjection so many remote provinces, there must have been an efficient military force, rapid means of com munication, considerable revenues, and an organised magis tracy capable of understanding and executing the plans of rulers, who had sufficient political skill and knowledge of human nature to adapt their institutions and arrange ments to the wants, habits and character of a great [ANCIENT I-EKU. variety of dissimilar nations, spread over a territory reach ing as far as from Lisbon to the banks of the Volga. It is clear that the ruling tribe, which was able to extent i its dominion, and to a considerable extent its language, over a space of 2500 miles, must have possessed a marked superiority of some kind over the hordes that surrounded it. We must remember, besides, that the Peruvians lay under the disadvantage of being destitute of even such an imperfect instrument of communication as the hieroglyphic language of the Mexicans, and that they were extremely deficient in military spirit. Indeed, it is one of the most singular facts connected with the history of America, that by far the largest empire it contained was funned by the most unwarlike people in it. The dominion of the Incas was founded entirely on policy, superstition, and the arts. It could only be by the intelligence and skill which civi lisation developes, that the Peruvians conquered tribes superior to themselves in courage ; and it was by policy and superstition that the Incas tamed the rudeness of savage tribes, and held distant countries in subjection. Robertson justly observes, that the Peruvians " had ad vanced far beyond the Mexicans, both in the necessary arts of life, and in such as had some title to the name of elegant." In two points only were they inferior; in their calendar or mode of computing time, and in their want of such a substitute for writing as the Aztecs possessed in their hieroglyphics. Agriculture was conducted with greater care and sue- Arts iu cess in Peru than in Mexico. The lands capable of cui- ^eru. tivation were divided into three shares. One was conse crated to the service of religion, the erection of temples, and the maintenance of priests ; the second was set apart as a provision for the support of the government; and the third and largest share, which was reserved for the people, was parcelled out, not among individuals, but among the hamlets and villages, according to the number and rank of the inhabitants ; and a new division was made every year to meet any change that might arise in the circumstances of the parties. The members of each little community went to the fields under overseers, and cultivated the land by their joint labour. The produce was distributed among the families and individuals accord ing to their wants, while the evils of famine were pro vided against by storing up the corn in granaries. The Peruvians having no draught animals, and no ploughs, turned up the earth with wooden mattocks ; but their skill and care were exemplified in irrigation, which they practised extensively, and in their employing as manure guano, or the dung of sea birds, which abounds on the islands near the coast. Their masonry was superior to that of the Mexicans. Like the ancient Egyptians, they understood mechanics sufficiently to move stones of vast size, even of 30 feet in length, of which speci mens are still existing in the walls of the fortress of Cuzco. They had the art of squaring and cutting blocks for building with great accuracy ; and they did not efl ect their purpose, as Robertson supposes, merely by chip ping the stones, or rubbing them together so as to lit the surface of the one to that of the other, without re gard to symmetry of form. It is now known that thcy had hard chisels, made of copper, with a mixture of G per cent, of tin, a proof of considerable skill in the work ing of metals. With these they hewed the stones into parallelepipeds, which were disposed in "courses as Building regular," says Ilumboldt, " as those of Roman workman ship." They arc joined with such nicety, that the line which divides the blocks can scarcely be perceived ; and the outer surface is in some cases covered with carving. The palaces or lodges of the Incas, of which there are
many remains, had doors with slanting sides like the
