Although I might write the events of the reign of Sinchi Roca Inca, son of Manco Capac the founder of Cuzco, in this place, it has seemed to me that there will be confusion further on if the system of the government of these lords is not explained as one whole. For one ordered one set of laws, and others others. For example, one introduced the system of mitimae, others the plan of having garrisons of soldiers in fixed positions for the defence of the kingdom. All these regulations are important and worthy to be remembered, that the learned statesmen who regulate the affairs of civilized governments may be informed of them, and may feel astonished at the knowledge that a barbarous people without letters should have been found to have had institutions such as we know that they possessed, both with reference to internal polity and to their plans of extending their dominion over other nations. Under a monarchy they obeyed one Lord, who alone was deemed worthy to reign in an empire which the Incas possessed, extending over more than one thousand two hundred leagues of coast. In order to avoid the necessity for saying that some assert that particular institutions were introduced by one lord, and others by another, on which points many of the native accounts differ, I will relate, in this place, what I understand and hold for certain, in conformity with the statements that I took down from their mouths in the city of Cuzco, which are corroborated by the remains that they have left, and which are visible to those who have travelled through Peru.