Peru, the centre and stronghold of Spanish colonial power and prestige in South America for three centuries, was governed by conditions that did not prevail in the other provinces. The elements out of which the population was formed were unique in character. The Conquest brought under the dominion of the viceroyalty a people of such ancient culture that no period could be fixed as to its genesis, and of an origin so enveloped in mystery that no certain knowledge existed regarding its derivation,—a people who had lived for centuries under absolute despotism and yet had developed a gentle obedience and submission such as could only exist where the tasks were performed by willing servants of a beloved master. The crime of the Conquest, so deeply resented by the princes of royal Inca blood, could not be appreciated in its full significance by the millions, who were deprived of no rights, since they possessed none, but were simply taken from the welcome task of tilling the farms of their “deity-king” and put to the unaccustomed labor of the mines, under a new master, pitiless in his tyranny and ruthless in destroying their sacred idols. The saddest effects of the Conquest on these people appeared when their obedience and submission lost its refined quality, under cruelty and neglect, and degenerated into servility and apathy. The Indian’s idea of supreme authority was in accordance with what he had been taught under a theocratic government and, therefore, had its fountain-head in religious worship. The Catholic Church performed its mission in Peru, not only by winning the natives to the new faith, but by protecting them from unscrupulous _corregidores_, who abused the law of _repartimiento_—which gave these officials the privilege of furnishing stores to the natives at a fair price—and forced the Indians to pay for articles they could never use; many an insurrection arising from these abuses was stifled through the influence of the priests, who were the highest authority recognized by the Indians. It is certain, however, that the former sun-worshippers never quite comprehended the Christian doctrine, merely adapting their beliefs to its demands; the Indian of the sierra still salutes the rising sun, and kneels to pray, as, on his way to Cuzco, he first obtains a view of the sacred city, or when, leaving it, he sees its sunlit temples for the last time from the neighboring heights.