MANC0 CAPAC (mang-ko-kah-pack'), founder and first inca of the empire of Peru, died in Peru about 1107. He is supposed to have been some stranger from a foreign land, who gathered the savage tribes together on the borders of Lake Titicaca and persuaded them that he was the offspring of the sun, and had been sent to earth, with Mama-Oclla Huacco, his sister and wife, to make men good and happy. The Peruvians, according to their tradition, listened to his instructions submissively. The naked men who were scattered through the forests assembled at his command, and were taught by Manco to till the earth, direct the course of the streams, and protect themselves against the severity of the weather, while the Indian women learned from Oclla Huacco the art of weaving wool and cotton, obedience to their bus-bands," and how to train their children. Then Nanco Capac proceeded to establish his power on the basis of religion. He abolished human sacrifices, taught his subjects to adore as a supreme but unknown God the great Pachacamac (the soul or support of the universe), and to offer externally their principal homage to the sun, his father, as a known and visible god, the source of light and fertility, and, after him, to the stars and the moon. He afterward laid the foundation of the city of Cuzco (the navel or centre of the earth), in the beautiful valley of that name, surrounded it with villages, divided the Peruvians into several tribes, and placed chiefs or " caracas" over them, who governed the people as lieutenants of the inca. After instituting the festival of the sun, he raised temples to this deity, which he adorned with gold and silver. Manco Capac lived to see the empire prosper that he had founded, and then, feeling his strength diminishing, he told his subjects that he was going to rest in the bosom of the sun, his father, and died after a happy reign of thirty or forty years. He was succeeded by Sinchi Rocca-Inca, his eldest son, whose reign was signalized by the same kindness and benevolence. Such is the tradition of the origin of the incas or sovereigns of Peru. The empire comprised at first only the valley of Cuzco, but the successors of Manco Capac extended its boundaries widely, less from love of conquest than desire to civilize barbarous tribes. The Peruvians celebrated the obsequies of Manco Capac for three months, and embalmed his body carefully with aromatic preparations. Looking on him as a divinely commissioned legislator, they worshipped his memory with superstitious observances.

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