Search -
First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas
First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas Author:Garcilaso de la Vega Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PREFACE TO THE READER. Although there have been curious Spaniards who have written accounts of the commonwealths of the New World, such as that of Mexico, tha... more »t of Peru, and those of other kingdoms of heathendom, yet these accounts have not been so complete as they might have been. I have remarked this particularly in the accounts which I have seen written of affairs in Peru, concerning which, as a native of the city of Ouzco, the Rome of that empire, I have a fuller and clearer knowledge than has hitherto been supplied by any writer. It is true that former writers touch upon many of the great events which occurred in the empire of Peru, but they write them so briefly that (owing to the manner in which they are told) I am scarcely able to understand them. For this reason, and influenced by a natural love of my country, I undertook the task of writing these Commentaries, in which the events that happened in that land, before the arrival of the Spaniards, are clearly and distinctly set forth, as well touching the rites of their vain religion, as the government of their kings during peace and war, and all other things that relate to those Indians, from the lowest affairs of the vassals to the highest matters touching the royal crown. I only write concerning the events of the empire of the Yncas, without entering upon those of other monarchies, respecting which I have no knowledge. In thetext of the history I protest concerning its truth, and that I affirm no important circumstance that is not authorised by the Spanish historians, either in part or altogether. My intention is not to contradict them, but to supply a commentary and gloss, and to interpret many Indian words which they, as strangers in that land, gave a mistaken meaning to, as will be seen fully in the course of the his...« less