In short, they practised all
the arts familiar to the most subtle politician of a civilized
land to secure the acquisition of empire. When all these
expedients failed, they prepared for war.
[Footnote 52: "Mas se hicieron Senores al za." Ondegardo, Rel.
Prim., principio por mana, que por fuer- Ms.]
Their levies were drawn from all the different provinces; though
from some, where the character of the people was particularly
hardy, more than from others. *53 It seems probable that every
Peruvian, who had reached a certain age, might be called to bear
arms. But the rotation of military service, and the regular
drills, which took place twice or thrice in a month, of the
inhabitants of every village, raised the soldiers generally above
the rank of a raw militia. The Peruvian army, at first
inconsiderable, came, with the increase of population, in the
latter days of the empire, to be very large, so that their
monarchs could bring into the field, as contemporaries assure us,
a force amounting to two hundred thousand men. They showed the
same skill and respect for order in their military organization,
as in other things. The troops were divided into bodies
corresponding with out battalions and companies, led by officers,
that rose, in regular gradation, from the lowest subaltern to the
Inca noble, who was intrusted with the general command. *54
[Footnote 53: Idem, Rel. Prim., Ms. - Dec. de la Aud. Real., Ms.]
[Footnote 54: Gomara, Cronica, cap.
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