Brief sketches of the lives of Bias Valera and Montesinos are given in my introductory chapter.[1] The credit of the list of kings rests mainly on the correctness of the view taken of the works of Valera. It is certain that he wrote a 'History of Peru' in Latin. Garcilasso de la Vega tells us that the manuscript was injured during the sack of Cadiz by the Earl of Essex in 1596. It was given to Garcilasso in a mutilated state, according to him. He quotes very largely from it, but always acknowledges his obligation, and gives high praise to the author. We learn from the bibliographers Leon Pinelo and Antonio that Bias Valera also wrote a work on the customs and pacification of the Indians. In 1879 Don Marcos Jimenez de la Espada edited a valuable work on the same subject from a manuscript at Madrid, calling the author the 'anonymous Jesuit.' Dr. Gonzalez de la Rosa has since proved (Revista Historica de Lima, t. II. trim. ii. p. 184) that the anonymous Jesuit was Blas Valera. That high authority was also the author of a 'Vocabulario Historico del Peru,' which was brought from Cadiz to Chuqui-apu (La Paz) in 1604, by the Procurator of the Jesuits, P. Diego Torres. At La Paz it was consulted by Oliva, the author of 'Varones illustres de la Compania de Jesus en el Peru.' Oliva states that Blas Valera wrote it. Montesinos was probably allowed to make a copy by the Jesuits at La Paz. He appropriated the list without any acknowledgment. The original MS. is lost.
The proofs that Blas Valera knew the list, and that he was identical with the anonymous Jesuit, are satisfactory. Valera (in Garcilasso) mentions one of the kings in the list, namely, Capac Raymi Amauta. The anonymous Jesuit mentions Pachacuti VIII. This is a proof that Montesinos merely copied the list, which was made by an author long before his time, and derived from Amautas two generations at least older than any natives that he knew. Another proof that Blas Valera was the author of the list is furnished by the fact that the account of the calendar in Montesinos is the same as that given by Blas Valera, as quoted by Garcilasso. The anonymous Jesuit mentions Raymi as the thirty-ninth king, and the Inca Pachacuti as the ninth of that name. Also the names Pirua, Illa Tici, Uira-cocha, and Pacari Manco are the same in Montesinos and in the anonymous Jesuit, and nowhere else. The date of the work of the latter is shown to be 1591, because he says that when he wrote it was twelve years since the Jesuits had a mission at Chachapoyas. Oliva states that the Jesuits left that mission in 1579.
Another proof of the identity is that the anonymous Jesuit and Valera (in Garcilasso) both deny the statement of Polo de Ondegardo respecting human sacrifices, in almost the same words.
It seems to me, for these reasons, to be established that Blas Valera was the anonymous Jesuit, and that he obtained the list of kings from the Amautas of an early generation, which was copied and appropriated, without acknowledgment, many years afterwards.
In compiling the list, Bias Valera had the use of the following original authorities :
The Quipus of Juan Collque, The Quipus of Cuzco, Chinchay-suyu, Cunti-suyu, Tarma, Pachacamac, and Sacsahuanac;
the Narratives of Don Luis Inca, in Quichua, The Narratives of Don Sebastian Nina Uilca, The Narratives of Don Diego Rocca Inca, The Narratives of Francisco Chaves (friend of Titu Atauchi), The Narratives of Ludovico Alvarez ('De Titulo Regni Peruani');
the 'Apologia pro Indis' of Lie Falcon;
all since lost.
Montesinos believed that Peru was first peopled by Armenians under the leadership of Ophir, a descendant of Noah; and his mind was full of a chronology based on the date of the deluge approved by Holy Church. Starting with all this nonsense, he read the works on Peru already published in his time, and finally fell in with the list of kings at La Paz. He tried to turn it into what he thought was history by adding events taken from works on the Inca history, to the bare record of the names of kings. Thus he attributes the great Inca Pachacuti's Chanca war to one of the earliest kings in the list, placed by him a century or so after the deluge. In short, having read the history of the Incas in other works, and seeing the long list of early kings without any events, he took the accounts of Inca events, and of their customs and ceremonies, and distributed them among the reigns of the ancient kings.
We may wish that Montesinos had given us the list with proper acknowledgments, yet a tribute of thanks is due to his memory for having
preserved it even in its present form.