far-off ocean of the past-yet still possessing a mind and genius almost wholly their own. To judge such a people by the European standards of religion, philosophy and taste, is evidently wrong, and likely to lead to false conclusions. Whoever has studied a new language, must have felt that he has become acquainted with a new, and before unknown, region of thought; how original, then, and how different from our own, must be the mind, soul and character of a people, who have grown up by themselves, shaping out, in isolation from all the rest of the world, and in utter ignorance of all but themselves, their own manners, customs and institutions! In analyzing such a race, we should study facts-abstain long from theory, and constantly be on our guard against bringing them up to be measured by the artificial rules established in our own minds.

Yet, despite these various sources of error, the philosophic spirit of the present day is making rapid strides towards a just view of the subject. The labors of Stevens and Catherwood have made the public familiar with facts heretofore known only to the curious; and the sketches of Catlin have enabled us to see the present tribes of the west, not as the pencil of fancy, but as that of truth would portray them. These and other circumstances have revived the interest felt in the aborigines of this continent, and this is taking place at a period when facts, and not theory, are demanded by the public. Under influences like these, the time cannot be far remote when the means of duly estimating the American race shall be finally obtained.

In the present volume, as before stated, it is our purpose to do something towards the diffusion of truth on the subject in question, and, at the same time, we wish to direct attention to the true mode of studying the original Indian character. Whether we wish to understand the savage tribes of the north, or the more civilized nations that once flourished in Mexico and Peru, we must take facts, and not fancy, as our guide.

We must always look at them as an isolated people, separated by time and distance from the eastern continent; and though we know them to be men, yet we must consider them as men unmoulded by contact with the rest of the world, for centuries-perhaps for ages.

The present volume will at least show the reader one striking fact that the annals of the American Indians are by no means destitute of great deeds and heroic characters. Caupolican, Philip, Tecumseh, and Pontiac, were men of lofty genius, and come up to the full measure of any savage Briton, Dane, or Saxon, handed down to us in the proud pages of English history.

LIVES OF CELEBRATED INDIANS.

MANCO CAPAC.

MANCO CAPAC, the legislator of the Peruvians and the founder of the empire of the Incas, appears to have been one of the first individuals of the western continent, whose name has been transmitted to the present time, as an eminent and distinguished personage among the primitive Americans. The age in which he flourished, though indicated by the Peruvian accounts, is still not known. The dim and uncertain light of tradition is our only guide through the darkness of remote ages, in exploring the history of the man who implanted the elements of civilization in the inhabitants of Peru, and taught a horde savages the science of government and the arts of more polished life.

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The Peruvian traditions inform us that about three centuries prior to the arrival of their Spanish conquerors, and at a period when the inhabitants of that country were still in the rudest and most barbarous state of existence, there suddenly appeared on one of the islands of the lake Titicaca, two persons, clothed in dresses of cotton, calling themselves the Children of the Sun, and declaring that they were sent by their

Beneficent Parent, who beheld with pity the miseries of the human race, to reclaim, instruct and guide them.

Historians have exercised great ingenuity in their conjectures who these mysterious personages could have been; whether they were natives of Peru, enlightened by their own sagacity, or emigrants from a region of America, more civilized, or shipwrecked inhabitants of the eastern continent. On these points the traditions of the country give us no information.

These persons were Manco Capac and his wife, who was also his sister, named Mama Oello. The natives flocked around them to learn the import of their divine mission. The Peruvians had previously been accustomed to regard the sun with superstitious reverence, and the strange visitants took advantage of this feeling of religious awe, to enforce their instructions. The commands issued by Manco Capac were declared to proceed from the glorious luminary of heaven, the visible deity of the universe. The multitude listened, believed, and obeyed. Instructed by the heavenly messengers, the wandering savages of Peru renounced their roving and barbarous life, followed them to the banks of the Apurimac, and there, on an uneven plain, encircled by mountains, laid the foundations of the city of Cuzco.

Having thus fixed a large portion of the population in a permanent residence, and founded that social union, which, by multiplying the desires and combining the efforts of the human species, excites industry and leads to improvement, Manco instructed the men in agriculture and other useful arts, while