ased to be a free
agent; it might almost be said, that it relieved him of personal
responsibility. Even his marriage was determined for him; from time to
time all the men and women who had attained marriageable age were
summoned to the great squares of their respective towns, and the hands
of the couples joined by the presiding magistrate. The consent of
parents was required, and the preference of the parties was supposed to
be consulted, but owing to the barriers imposed by the prescribed age of
the parties, this must have been within rather narrow limits. A dwelling
was prepared for each couple at the charge of the district, and the
prescribed portion of land assigned for their maintenance.

The country as a whole was divided into four great provinces, each ruled
by a viceroy. Below him, there was a minute subdivision of supervision
and authority, down to the division into decades, by which every tenth
man was responsible for his nine countrymen.

The tribunals of justice were simple and swift in their procedure, and
all responsible to the Crown, to whom regular reports were forwarded,
and who was thus in a position to review and rectify any abuses in the
administration of the law.

The organisation of the country was altogether on a much higher level
than that encountered by the Spaniards in any other part of the American
continent. There was, for example, a complete census of the people
periodically taken. There was a system of posts, carried by runners,
more efficient and complete than any such system in Europe. There was,
lastly, a method of embodying in the empire any conquered country which
can only be compared to the Roman method. Local customs were interfered
with as little as possible, local gods were carried to Cuzco and
honoured in the pantheon there, and the chiefs of the country were also
brought to the capital, where they were honoured and by every possible
means attached to the new _regime_. The language of the capital was
diffused everywhere, and every inducement to learn it offered, so that
the difficulty presented by the variety of dialects was overcome. Thus
the Empire of the Incas achieved a solidarity very different from the
loose and often unwilling cohesion of the various parts of the Mexican
empire, which was ready to fall to pieces as soon as opportunity
offered. The Peruvian empire arose as one great fabric, composed of
numerous and even hostile tribes, yet, under the influence of a common