ry. These were painted on great boards, and
deposited in the temple of the Sun, in a great hall. There such boards,
adorned with gold, were kept as in our libraries, and learned persons
were appointed, who were well versed in the art of understanding and
declaring their contents. No one was allowed to enter where these boards
were kept, except the Inca and the historians, without a special order
of the Inca.

In this way they took care to have all their past history investigated,
and to have records respecting all kinds of people, so that at this day
the Indians generally know and agree respecting details and important
events, though, in some things, they hold different opinions on special
points. By examining the oldest and most prudent among them, in all
ranks of life, who had most credit, I collected and compiled the present
history, referring the sayings and declarations of one party to their
antagonists of another party, for they are divided into parties, and
seeking from each one a memorial of its lineage and of that of the
opposing party. These memorials, which are all in my possession, were
compared and corrected, and ultimately verified in public, in presence
of representatives of all the parties and lineages, under oaths in
presence of a judge, and with expert and very faithful interpreters also
on oath, and I thus finished what is now written. Such great diligence
has been observed, because a thing which is the foundation of the true
completion of such a great work as the establishment of the tyranny of
the cruel Incas of this land will make all the nations of the world
understand the judicial and more than legitimate right that the King of
Castille has to these Indies and to other lands adjacent, especially to
these kingdoms of Peru. As all the histories of past events have been
verified by proof, which in this case has been done so carefully and
faithfully by order and owing to the industry of the most excellent
Viceroy Don Francisco de Toledo, no one can doubt that everything in
this volume is most sufficiently established and verified without any
room being left for reply or contradiction. I have been desirous of
making this digression because, in writing the history, I have heard
that many entertain the doubts I have above referred to, and it seemed
well to satisfy them once for all.

X.

HOW THE INCAS BEGAN TO TYRANNIZE OVER THE LANDS AND INHERITANCES.

Having explained that, in ancient time