Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/208

172 admirably summed up by Belaunde in his extremely interesting and able review. But at the same time he does not consider that this pre-existence of communities holding land in common at all detracts from the admiration that is due to the government of the Incas. The wisdom which led the Incas to respect the institutions of the various tribes brought under their rule, and the skill with which they adapted those institutions to the requirements of a great empire, are evidences of no ordinary statesmanship. Their wise policy explains the rapidity of the rise of their empire, and the slight resistance to it.