Garcilasso de la Vega does not appear to have been welcomed with any very great amount of cordiality by his grand relations in Spain. How he must have regretted his happy boyhood at Cuzco, and the loss of all his friends! At first he got some letters from his cousin Figueroa, and his Inca uncle, Hualpa Tupac Yupanqui.
The young Inca made an application for the restitution of the patrimony of his mother, and for a recognition of his father's faithful services. It was referred to the Council of the Indies, and the members were convinced by his proofs until an ill-natured lawyer named Lope Garcia de Castro intervened. He was afterwards Governor of Peru from 1564 to 1569. He asked the Inca what favour he could expect when his father was at the battle of Huarina helping Gonzalo Pizarro. Garcilasso replied that it was false. Castro then said that three historians had affirmed it, and who was he to deny what they said? So his petition was rejected. His best friend at this sad time, and for long afterwards, was Don Alonzo Fernandez de Cordova, Lord of the House of Aguilar, and Marquis of Priego, a Figueroa cousin of Garcilasso on his grandmother's side.
The Inca obtained a captaincy in the army of Philip II, and served in the campaign against the Moriscos under Don Juan of Austria. He soon afterwards left a military life, poor and in debt, and devoted himself to literary pursuits. His first production was a translation from the Italian
