re the
Spanish conquest, descending to such details as what nations they
subdued, the size of their armies, their speeches to their soldiers,
the words of counsel they addressed to their heirs, their wise laws
and maxims--and we know that this account rests on traditions--he who
believes that they are of historical value, is surely possessed of a
good store of credulity. We do not mean to say that his writings are of
no account. On the other hand, they are of value. The historical part we
are to consider simply as traditions, and we are to weigh them just
as we would any other collection of traditions and compare them with
monuments still extant. He is good authority on the customs and manners
of the Peruvians just previous to the arrival of the Europeans.

We have seen what strange mistakes the Spanish writers made in
describing the government and customs of the Mexicans. We have no doubt
but what substantially the same mistake has been made in regard to Peru.
We believe that a careful, critical study of all that has been written
on the subject of Peru by the early writers will establish this fact.
As yet this has not been done. We must therefore be careful in our
description of the state of society amongst them, as we do not wish to
make statements not supported by good authority.

We must try and decide as to what is the most probable origin of the
ancient Peruvian civilization. Some of the earlier writers on this
subject would trace it to an influx of Toltecs, the same mythical race
that is credited with being the originators of the culture found in
Mexico and Central America. But our modern scholars have clearly shown
that the Toltec Empire, which was supposed to have preceded the Mexican,
never existed. What we are to understand by the Toltecs is the sedentary
tribes of Indians, either of the Nahua or Maya stock. The only value
we would assign to the story of their dispersion is that it is a
traditional statement that the migration of the sedentary Indians has
been in a direction from north to south.

Illustration of Ruins at Pachacamac.---------------

We have no means of knowing when the first tribes arrived in the
country, or of their state of culture. It was doubtless at a very early
date, and the tribes were probably not far advanced. We have no reason
to suppose the culture of Peru was influenced from outside sources at
all. We can not detect any evidence of a succession of races in Peru.
The disting