neously to your Majesty.
This has happened in the Andes of Xauxa, near Pilcocanti, and among the
Manaries and Chunchos to the east of Cuzco. These were sent back to
their homes, grateful and attached to your royal service, with the
presents he gave them and the memory of their reception.

[Illustration: DON FRANCISCO DE TOLEDO, Viceroy of Peru, A.D. 1569-1581.
After the portrait at Lima, from a sketch by Sir Clements Markham, 1853.]

Among Christians, it is not right to take anything without a good title,
yet that which your Majesty has to these parts, though more holy and
more honourable than that which any other kings in the world have for
any of their possessions, has suffered detriment, as I said before, in
the consciences of many learned men and others, for want of correct
information. The Viceroy proposes to do your Majesty a most signal
service in this matter, besides the performance of all the other duties
of which he has charge. This is to give a secure and quiet harbour to
your royal conscience against the tempests raised even by your own
natural subjects, theologians and other literary men, who have expressed
serious opinions on the subject, based on incorrect information.
Accordingly, in his general visitation, which he is making personally
throughout the kingdom, he has verified from the root and established by
a host of witnesses examined with the greatest diligence and care, taken
from among the principal old men of the greatest ability and authority
in the kingdom, and even those who pretend to have an interest in it
from being relations and descendants of the Incas, the terrible,
inveterate and horrible tyranny of the Incas, being the tyrants who
ruled in these kingdoms of Peru, and the _curacas_ who governed the
districts. This will undeceive all those in the world who think that the
Incas were legitimate sovereigns, and that the _curacas_ were natural
lords of the land. In order that your Majesty may, with the least
trouble and the most pleasure, be informed, and the rest, who are of a
contrary opinion, be undeceived, I was ordered by the Viceroy Don
Francisco de Toledo, whom I follow and serve in this general visitation,
to take this business in hand, and write a history of the deeds of the
twelve Incas of this land, and of the origin of the people, continuing
the narrative to the end. This I have done with all the research and
diligence that was required, as your Majesty will see in the course of
t