Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/24

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
6
SARMIENTO

University of Göttingen in 1785. It remained in the university library, unnoticed, for 120 years. But, in August 1906, the learned librarian, Dr. Pietschmann, published the text at Berlin, carefully edited and annotated and with a valuable introduction.[1]

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa was a seaman of some distinction, and was a leader in Mandana's voyage to the Solomon Islands.[2] He accompanied the Viceroy Toledo, and was employed by that statesman to write a history of the Incas. It is without doubt the most authentic and reliable we possess, as regards the course of events. For it was compiled from the carefully attested evidence of the Incas themselves, who were officially examined on oath, so that Sarmiento had the means of obtaining accurate information which no other writer possessed. The chapters were afterwards read over to the forty-two Incas who gave evidence, in their own language, and received their final corrections. The history was finished and sent to Spain in 1572.

Pedro Pizarro, who was a cousin of the conqueror, went to Peru as his page when only fifteen. He eventually retired to Arequipa, where he wrote his 'Relaciones,' finished in 1571. Prescott

  1. It was translated into English by Sir Clements Markham for the Hakluyt Society in 1907.
  2. For an account of the adventurous life of Sarmiento see the introduction to his voyages by Sir Clements Markham (Hakluyt Society, 1895).