The defects of this
government were those of over-refinement in legislation, - the
last defects to have been looked for, certainly, in the American
aborigines.
Note. I have not thought it necessary to swell this Introduction
by an inquiry into the origin of Peruvian civilization, like that
appended to the history of the Mexican. The Peruvian history
doubtless suggests analogies with more than one nation in the
East, some of which have been briefly adverted to in the
preceding pages; although these analogies are adduced there not
as evidence of a common origin, but as showing the coincidences
which might naturally spring up among different nations under the
same phase of civilization. Such coincidences are neither so
numerous nor so striking as those afforded by the Aztec history.
The correspondence presented by the astronomical science of the
Mexicans is alone of more importance than all the rest. Yet the
light of analogy, afforded by the institutions of the Incas,
seems to point, as far as it goes, towards the same direction;
and as the investigation could present but little substantially
to confirm, and still less to confute, the views taken in the
former disquisition, I have not thought it best to fatigue the
reader with it.
Two of the prominent authorities on whom I have relied in this
Introductory portion of the work, are Juan de Sarmiento and the
Licentiate Ondegardo. Of the former I have been able to collect
no information beyond what is afforded by his own writings.
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