Here reigns a prince, whose heritage proclaims A long bright lineage of imperial names; Where the brave roll of Incas love to trace The distant father of their realm and race, Immortal Capac. He, in youthful pride, With young Oella his illustrious bride, Announced their birth divine; a race begun From heaven, the children of their God the Sun; By him sent forth a polish'd state to frame, Crush the fiend Gods that human victims claim, With cheerful rites their pure devotions pay To the bright orb that gives the changing day. On this great plan, as children of the skies, They plied their arts and saw their hamlets rise. First of their works, and sacred to their fame. Yon proud metropolis received its name, Cusco the seat of states, in peace design'd To reach o'er earth, and civilize mankind. Succeeding sovereigns spread their limits far, Tamed every tribe, and sooth'd the rage of war; Till Quito bow'd; and all the heliac zone Felt the same sceptre, and confirm'd the throne. Near Cusco's walls, where still their hallow'd isle Bathes in its lake and wears its verdant smile, Where these prime parents of the sceptred line Their advent made, and spoke their birth divine, Behold their temple stand; its glittering spires Light the glad waves and aid their father's fires. Arch'd in the walls of gold, its portal gleams With various gems of intermingling beams; And flaming from the front, with borrow'd ray, A diamond circlet gives the rival day; In whose bright face forever looks abroad The labor'd image of the radiant God. There dwells the royal priest, whose inner shrine Conceals his lore; tis there his voice divine Proclaims the laws; and there a cloister'd quire Of holy virgins keep the sacred fire. Columbus heard; and curious to be taught What pious fraud such wondrous changes wrought, Ask'd by what mystic charm, in that dark age, They quell'd in savage souls the barbarous rage, By leagues of peace combined a wide domain, And taught the virtues in their laws to reign. Long is the tale; but tho their labors rest By years obscured, in flowery fiction drest, My voice, said Hesper, shall revive their name, And give their merits to immortal fame. Led by his father's wars, in early prime Young Capac left his native northern clime; The clime where Quito since hath rear'd her fanes, And now no more her barbarous rites maintains. He saw these vales in richer blooms array'd, And tribes more numerous haunt the woodland shade, Saw rival clans their local Gods adore, Their altars staining with their children's gore, Yet mark'd their reverence for the Sun, whose beam Proclaims his bounties and his power supreme; Who sails in happier skies, diffusing good, Demands no victim and receives no blood.