their numerous high mountain fastnesses. We know how the Persians, and Parthians, and Jews, and Gallic Celts, and Spanish Goths, when vanquished, fled into their mountains, and fought and fought again, century after century, and sometimes triumphed, and never yielded save to formidable armies after numerous well-contested campaigns.

But among the Quichuans we find no such strong national vitality. Whether because their subjection to an exceedingly paternal government had rendered them incompetent to manage their own affairs or not, the fact is that their empire was overthrown by one hundred and eighty men. This little force, with which Francisco Pizarro undertook his conquest and secured his most important successes, was not half so numerous as that of the Spaniards at whose head Hernando Cortes marched into the valley of Mexico; and besides this larger force of Spaniards, Cortes was accompanied by six thousand valiant Tlascalan allies, who were of immense service to him. The emperor Atahualpa, imagining that there was no danger from a petty band of white men, allowed them to advance unresisted and then paid a visit to them in camp. Pizarro immediately pounced on him and held him, the head of the empire, a prisoner. Instead of fighting to the death when the Spaniards attempted to seize him, he allowed himself to be taken alive, and thus gave his captors control not only of himself but of his subjects. The only source of all political and military power was afraid to use it, and in the confusion that followed, the empire of the Incas was overthrown forever.

This most pitiful collapse of what seemed to be a strong government and strong national feeling, was due partly to the peculiar position of Atahualpa. His father, the

last Quichuan emperor who died in possession of the throne, instead of bequeathing his whole empire to his eldest son by an Inca wife, divided it, giving the larger and southern part to Huascar, his legitimate heir, and the northern division to Atahualpa, who was a younger and illegitimate son by a Quito woman of inferior blood. Between these two monarchs, war soon broke out, and Atahualpa conquered, captured, and dethroned Huascar. The victor, pretending that he was willing to replace Huascar on the throne, invited the Incas to meet for the purpose of consulting about a new division of the empire. They, trusting his word, assembled, and were then massacred. Thus the great majority of the only class familiar with the business of government were destroyed, and the people were left without leaders to whom they felt much attached.

SEC. 195. Muyscas.-North of the territory of the Quichuans was that of the Muyscas, or Chibchas, as they were also called. In most of its features, their culture was inferior to that of their southern neighbors, and we know less of it. They had no bronze, no llamas, and no quipus; but they had a better chronological system than that of the Quichuans.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CHINESE.

SECTION 196. China.-We now pass to the study of another people, not less remarkable and original in many features of their culture than the Aztecs and Quichuans, and like them, long isolated from other nations. Although the silk and perhaps other products of China reached Greece in the age of Pericles, Europe does not seem to have felt any noteworthy stimulus from Chinese industry until after the time of Mohammed.

In many respects, China is the most remarkable of nations. It is remarkable for its great age and its vast population; for the permanence of its political institutions; for the preponderance of its civil over its military officials; for the wide spread of education among its people since a remote antiquity; for the large proportion of men devoted to study; for the rule of giving all the high offices to distinguished scholars; for the constitutional and pacific character of the government; for many valuable inventions and discoveries in remote centuries; and for the cessation of such improvements in modern times.

It is a paradoxical nation. Many of its institutions lack the features which seem to be essential parts of sim· ilar institutions elsewhere. It has a language without a grammar; words without parts of speech; writing without

an alphabet; reading without spelling; type without a type foundry; paper without a paper mill; printing without a press; canals without locks; the mariners' compass without a compass-box or pivot; gunpowder without a gun; metallic money without gold or silver coin; laws without a word for liberty; poetry without meter; music without rhythm; love without a kiss, and religion without a god. As measured by the European standard of taste, the Chinese are perverse in many of their customs. With them white is the color of mourning and of gloom. They use white not black for shoe dressing. In speaking of persons, they mention the name of the family first, that of the individual last. Thus they would say not James Watt, but Watt James. With them the seat of honor is on the left. When friends meet, they shake not each the hand of the other, but each his own. They pay an agreeable compliment to a young man by calling him old. An affectionate son offers a stylish coffin to his aged father as an acceptable present for his birthday or the New Year's day. The men carry fans, play with kites, and wear embroidered petticoats; the women wear trousers and distort their feet not their ribs. They write in lines from top to bottom, not from side to side; they begin on the right not the left; they put their title at what is to us the back of the book, and there begin the numbering of the pages, and their foot-notes are at the top of the page.

The history of China goes back four thousand years. In that time it has undergone less change than any other nation within a thousand years. Egypt, the only other country which has approached China in the permanence of political institutions, disappeared from the map as an independent country two thousand years since.

Something of the great duration of the Chinese monarchy must be attributed to its situation. Along more than two thousand miles of its boundaries, it is protected against invasion by great deserts and high mountain ranges. The frontiers, where not guarded by such strong, natural barriers, are occupied by Siam and Eastern Siberia, which are or were neither rich enough to excite much cupidity, nor formidable enough to compel the maintenance of large armies for defense.

It is fortunate for China proper, as distinguished from the subject provinces, that it has been occupied since the beginning of its history by people having the same blood, tongue, faith, traditions, laws, and culture. Among

them there were no such animosities of race or creed as in Europe, set Turk against Greek, Moor against Spaniard, Roman against Gaul, Teuton against Latin, Catholic against Protestant, Saxon against Celt, and Frenchman against Englishman and German. Although, in the course of their long career, they have had bitter experiences in foreign and domestic warfare, they have not been subjected to frequent incursions from abroad, nor to many rebellions at home, and they have been, relatively, the most peaceful of people.

If the maxim be true that those nations are happy whose annals are tiresome, then the Chinese should be counted among the happiest. Their history possesses very little interest. They have had no great military or political revolution. They have never had a republic, never a socialistic rebellion, never a great struggle for popular liberty, never a violent overturn of political or religious institutions, never a hereditary nobility, never extensive serfdom or slavery, never a dominant priesthood, never an inquisition. Twice they submitted to