ranking among the virtuous, and are classed in the city books among prostitutes and slaves. This, or a native disposition to continence, has such a dominion over them, that the instances of their infidelity are very rare, though they are extremely numerous, and are mistresses to the married and unmarried, and nearly to all the strangers who resort to the town. For, though infidelity is punished among them, they are no sooner disengaged. from one attachment than they are at liberty to form another. The introduction of strangers to them is attended with some ceremony, and must be through the means of the mother, or female adopted to supply her place. The inhabitants of the town neyer infringe their regulations, or treat them abruptly, and strangers are instructed by their acquaintance how to proceed. The Levée at sun-set is the principal market for all this traffic de cœur. There all the beauties assemble; and there all those who need the kind companion joyfully repair all walk up and down for a considerable time, or sit under orange-trees occasionally, with the objects of their separate choice, Such an expression of reserve, morals, and decency, reigns over the women of every sort, that a stranger passes and repasses before he can tell the one he admires the most qu' elle est belle com• me une ange, and so forth. To an Englishman, this timid, bashful, silent demeanour opposes dif,

ficulties which require his utmost resolution to surmount, and he walks the Levée many a pensive evening before the sense of virtue is sufficiently consumed by the new passion of his breast to permit him to speak, or to offer terms to a parent, from which his soul shrinks, from the conviction of their being base and dishonorable. Some mothers now, on becoming acquainted with the English timidity, begin to alter their line of conduct, and suffer their daughters to remove their veil en passant un Anglois, or flirt their fan, or drop a handkerchief, which they receive with such gracious accents of gratitude, that a conversation may easily succeed.

The mothers always regulate the terms and make the bargain. The terms allowed the parents are generally fifty dollars a month; during which time the lover has the exclusive right to the house, where fruit, coffee, and refreshments, may at any time be had, or where he may entirely live with the utmost safety and tranquillity. Many do live in this manner, notwithstanding which, I have never heard a complaint against these interesting females. In proportion as they advance in age they enter into service, &c. and are respected as much as when in their virgin state.

Negresses and female Mestizes next follow; the first are principally employed as servants, of which every family has a considerable number; the se

cond perform all kinds of laborious work, such as washing, and retailing fruit through the city in the hottest weather; and being considered as a cast too degraded to enter into the marriage state, they follow a legal kind of prostitution, without deeming it any disparagement to their virtue or to their honor.

SOUTH AMERICA.

-THE Peruvians had communities of nuns among them, who devoted a perpetual virginity to the Sun. To be certain of their purity, they chose them under eight years of age; those at Cusco were designed for the Sun's wives, and for this reason none were admitted but daughters of the Incas of the blood royal. The most ancient was chosen Abbess, and they were not suffered to see man or woman. The breaking of their vow of chastity was attended with dreadful consequences to them and their relations, but such an instance is not known to have occurred.-The general convents of the empire might be considered as so many seraglios:

they were selected for their beauty, and trained up as mistresses for the Incas, whenever they chose to select them. Such as were thus honored, and had had any connection with him, were not allowed to return home, but attended as ladies of the bedchamber to the Queen, till such time as they were permitted to return home to their own country, where, having been one of the Inca's wives, they were treated with great respect. Those who remained unnoticed by the King were, after his death, made mamacunas, or women acting as mothers; they educated the younger noviciates.

The Incas celebrated marriage in the following singular manner:-The King, in whose person was vested the highest dignities of chief priest of the sun and king of men, convoked annually to Cusco all the marriageable young women of his family. The stated age for the former was twentyfour years; for the latter, eighteen. They were not permitted to marry earlier, as not being considered before that period capable of managing their families. The Inca being seated, the parties who had agreed to an union stood by each other, forming a circle round him. After calling them by name, he joined their hands, and exacted a promise of mutual fidelity from them; he then delivered them to their parents. The celebration of the wedding was kept at the bridegroom's father's, and continued for two or three days. Such were

The sons and daughters of citizens were married by priests, according to the division of the several districts in higher and lower Cusco. The moveables and utensils of the houses of the newmarried couple were supplied by their relations, every one bestowing according to his circumstances. The governors and curacas were obliged, by their offices, to marry after the same forms the young men and maidens of the provinces, &c. over which they presided; for, being considered as lords and fathers of the districts entrusted to their care, they were bound to assist in person to solemnize the marriages.

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Marriages between persons in the first degree of consanguinity in the first line, or even in the collateral, was never permitted, except to the Incas, the legitimate heirs of the empire, and the sovereign alone espoused his own sister. The vanity of those princes who considered themselves little inferor to divinities induced them to establish this law, to the exclusion of the rest of the family, that the race of the sun might be more pure in the blood of the monarch. The elder brother was heir to the crown, and married his own sister; if he had no sister, he married the next of the blood royal, no matter how nearly related. In case his sister brought no issue, he married them all, one