of half the world.

A principal design of the great roads was to serve the purposes of
military communication. It formed an important item of their military
policy, which is quite as well worth studying as their municipal.

Notwithstanding the pacific professions of the Incas, and the pacific
tendency, indeed, of their domestic institutions, they were constantly at
war. It was by war that their paltry territory had been gradually enlarged
to a powerful empire. When this was achieved, the capital, safe in its
central position, was no longer shaken by these military movements, and
the country enjoyed, in a great degree, the blessings of tranquillity and
order. But, however tranquil at heart, there is not a reign upon record in
which the nation was not engaged in war against the barbarous nations
on the frontier. Religion furnished a plausible pretext for incessant
aggression, and disguised the lust of conquest in the Incas, probably,
from their own eyes, as well as from those of their subjects. Like the
followers of Mahomet, bearing the sword in one hand and the Koran in
the other, the Incas of Peru offered no alternative but the worship of the
Sun or war.

It is true, their fanaticism--or their policy--showed itself in a milder form
than was found in the descendants of the Prophet. Like the great
luminary which they adored, they operated by gentleness more potent
than violence.52 They sought to soften the hearts of the rude tribes
around them, and melt them by acts of condescension and kindness. Far
from provoking hostilities, they allowed time for the salutary example of
their own institutions to work its effect, trusting that their less civilized
neighbors would submit to their sceptre, from a conviction of the
blessings it would secure to them. When this course failed, they