They had become an imperial race, and Cuzco was henceforward an imperial city,[104] to which the chiefs and retainers of a hundred tribes, all distinguished by peculiar head-dresses,[105] flocked to do homage to their common sovereign. Then it was that great palaces were erected. Then the famous fortress, with its Cyclopean stones, rose on the Sacsahuaman hill.[106] Then the Ccuri-cancha blazed forth in its almost fabulous splendour.[107] In short, all the works of the Yncas of imperial magnificence or importance date from this period of busy conquest, and some of them, such as the fortress of Ollantay-tambo, were in course of construction when the Spaniards arrived, and they remain unfinished. At this time, too, those wonderful lines of road were constructed, running from Cuzco east, west, north, and south, overcoming every natural obstacle, and affording the means of rapid communication from the capital to the extreme frontiers of the empire.[108] There were _tampus_ or lodgings at short intervals, and public buildings for officials, for storing tribute, and for collecting necessaries for an army, were erected in almost every valley along the line of the roads.
The organisation of every branch of the government of this great empire displays extraordinary administrative ability on the part of the Yncas. Perhaps their most remarkable institution was the system of _mitimaes_ or colonists, which is fully explained by Cieza de Leon.[109] Combined with their policy of superseding all local idioms by the rich and cultivated Quichua,[110] this system of _mitimaes_ would soon have cemented the numerous conquered nations and tribes into one people, speaking one language.
If good government consists in promoting the happiness and comfort of a people, and in securing them from oppression; if a civilising government is one which brings the means of communication and of irrigating land to the highest possible state of efficiency, and makes steady advances in all the arts,--then the government of the Yncas may fairly lay claim to those titles. The roads, irrigating channels, and other public works of the Yncas were superior to anything of the kind that then existed in Europe. Their architecture is grand and imposing. Their pottery and ornamental work is little inferior to that of Greeks and Etruscans. They were skilled workers in gold, silver, copper, bronze, and stone. Their language was rich, polished, and elegant. Their laws showed an earnest solicitude for the welfare of those who were to live under them. Above all, their enlightened toleration, for the existence of which there are the clearest proofs, is a feature in their rule which, in one point of view at least, and that a most important one, raises them above their contemporaries in every part of the world.[111]