His first campaigns were conducted under the renowned
commanders who had grown grey in the service of his father;
until, advancing in years and experience, he was placed in
command himself, and, like Huayna Capac, the last and most
illustrious of his line, carried the banner of the rainbow, the
armorial ensign of his house, far over the borders, among the
remotest tribes of the plateau.
The government of Peru was a despotism, mild in its character,
but in its form a pure and unmitigated despotism. The sovereign
was placed at an immeasurable distance above his subjects. Even
the proudest of the Inca nobility, claiming a descent from the
same divine original as himself, could not venture into the royal
presence, unless barefoot, and bearing a light burden on his
shoulders in token of homage. *32 As the representative of the
Sun, he stood at the head of the priesthood, and presided at the
most important of the religious festivals. *33 He raised armies,
and usually commanded them in person. He imposed taxes, made
laws, and provided for their execution by the appointment of
judges, whom he removed at pleasure. He was the source from which
every thing flowed, - all dignity, all power, all emolument. He
was, in short, in the well-known phrase of the European despot,
"himself the state." *34
[Footnote 32: Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 1, cap. 11. -
Sarmiento, Relacion, Ms., cap. 7.
"Porque verdaderamente a lo que yo he averiguado toda la
pretension de los Ingas fue una subjeccion en toda la gente, qual
yo nunca he oido decir de ninguna otra nacion en tanto grado, que
por muy principal que un Senor fuese, dende que entrava cerca del
Cuzco en cierta senal que estava puesta en cada camino de quatro
que hay, havia dende alli de venir cargado hasta la presencia del
Inga, y alli dejava la carga y hacia su obediencia.
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