At the time when Pizarro and his crew arrived at Tumbez, the Empire of Peru stretched along the Pacific coast, covering an area now occupied by Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. According to the Indian legends, this empire had emerged from the shores of Lake Titicaca in central Peru during a time when the ancient people of the land were still plunged in deplorable barbarism, when they had no beliefs, and when they feasted on the flesh of captives of war. Finally, the sun, the great parent of all mankind, had taken pity on their degraded condition. It sent out two of its children, Manco Capac and Mama Oello Huaca, to gather the people into communities and to teach them the arts of civilized life. Gathering the willing natives in great numbers, this celestial pair, who were both brother and sister, husband and wife, laid the foundations of the city of Cuzco, and taught the men the art of agriculture, and the women weaving and spinning. Their wise and benevolent maxims were passed down from one generation of Incas to another, as the original community gradually extended itself over the surrounding tribes until it had reached its present size.

Whatever the facts behind these legends, there apparently had existed an advanced civilization long before the time of the Incas, a people so skilled that they had been able to erect impressive architectural structures that still remain today. When the Incas arrived in Peru around 1200 AD, they seem to have gradually conquered and dominated all the neighboring tribes, making the ancient fortress of Cuzco their Holy City, to which pilgrims came from all parts of the empire. All during the 15th century, a ruler named Pachacuti Inca and his son and successor, Tupa Inca, had conquered the entire mountainous region between the Equator and the 35th parallel in a series of brilliant campaigns. Shortly before Columbus had arrived in the New World, the Tupa Inca Yaquani had led his armies to the southern regions of Chile, while his son Huayna Capac pushed far above the Equator.
The Inca government was a pure despotism in which the ruler was placed in a revered status far above his subjects. Chosen only from the direct descendants of the sacred Inca, Manco Capac, the founder of the monarchy, the ruler was also considered a child of the Sun, whose word was the absolute law. The Inca raised armies, and he usually commanded them in person; he was high priest of the empire, and presided over the most important religious festivals; he imposed taxes, made laws, and appointed and removed all judges and officials at will. He was, in short, the state.
The royal residence of the Inca was at Yucay, high in the Peruvian Andes. There he retreated with his concubines amid luxurious surroundings. To this royal palace, water was conducted through subterranean silver channels into basins of gold. The walls of the palace were decorated with gold and silver, and niches in these walls held golden images of animals and plants. Within the household, throngs of servants, supplied by the towns of the empire, anticipated every wish of the divine ruler.
The Inca’s pomp and ceremony was well calculated to impress and awe the people. Yet, in contrast to the Aztec rulers in Mexico, the Inca regularly mingled with his people, carefully inspecting the conditions of the population. At regular intervals of several years, the Inca was carried through the empire in great state and splendor with a large following. The men who bore his litter on their shoulders were especially selected for this honored position, but it was a dangerous honor – a slip of the foot or a stumble resulted in immediate death. But as the procession wound its way through the mountain passes or along the roads of the tablelands, every place was thronged with people eager to catch a glimpse of their ruler. These same people would also sweep away the stones and stubbles from the roads and strew them with flowers. From time to time the Inca would halt and listen to any grievances of his subjects, or perhaps settle some matter that the regular judges had been unable to decide. The points at which he halted would then become sacred places, revered by the people as spots consecrated by the presence of an Inca.
When an Inca died, his funeral became a ceremony of great pomp and solemnity. The bowels were taken from the body and deposited in the temple; the Inca was then skillfully embalmed and his body placed in the temple of the Sun at Cuzco. Most of his jewels and ornaments were buried with him, and his queen, his attendants, and his concubines, sometimes amounting to as many as a thousand people, all were immolated in his tomb. But there the Inca was reunited with his royal ancestors; ranged in opposite files, men on the right, their queens on the left, the bodies of all the Inca emperors sat on chairs of gold, clothed in royal dress, heads bowed and hands crossed over their chests. It looked like a congregation of solemn worshippers fixed in eternal devotion, so true were the forms, with almost natural face colors and black hair.
The Peruvians acknowledged a Supreme Being, a Creator of the Universe, whom they called Viracocha. No temples were raised by the Incas to this invisible god; but there was one, built long before the time of the Incas, in the valley that took its name from this god. But the deity which was especially worshipped, and which penetrated all Inca life, was the Sun. It was the Sun whom they revered as the founder of the empire, who decided over the destiny of every man, who gave warmth and light to the people and life to every plant and animal. And it was the Sun whose temples rose in every city, every town and every village throughout the empire. Though the Incas also worshipped the moon and several stars, especially Venus, it was always the Sun to whom they erected the most magnificent temples; some, like that at Cuzco, were literally built of solid gold, the tears of the Sun.
The Incas had already made great advances in civilization. Though they had no system of writing, they kept an accurate accounting system by way of the quipu, a cord about two feet long, and tied into knots with strings of different colors. They had begun to use astronomy as an aid in their plantings, and their engineers had built complicated systems of canals and aqueducts to irrigate their extensive fields. They were expert weavers and spinners, whose cloth, made from the wool of the llama, was considered the finest the Spaniards had ever seen. Their workmanship in gold, silver, copper, and polished stone was among the very best in all America, and their buildings were constructed with an almost miraculous precision and skill. During the 15th century, the Incas had no equals in all the Americas; then, in the year 1527 appeared a lone little Spanish caravel in the Bay of Tumbez, and nothing was ever the same again.