Majesty receive my work with the greatest
and most favourable attention, as treating of things that will be of
service to God and to your Majesty and of great profit to my nation; and
may our Lord preserve the sacred catholic and royal person of your
Majesty, for the repair and increase of the catholic Church of Jesus
Christ.

From Cuzco. _The 4th of March_, 1572.

Your catholic royal Majesty
from the least vassal of your Majesty
The Captain
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa.

[Illustration: _Facsimile_ (_reduced_) _of the last page of_ SARMIENTO'S
INTRODUCTORY LETTER TO KING PHILIP II, 1572. _From the original MS.,
Goettingen University Library. Reproduced and printed for the Hakluyt
Society by Donald Macbeth._]

I.

DIVISION OF THE HISTORY.

This general history of which I took charge by order of Don Francisco de
Toledo, Viceroy of these kingdoms of Peru, will be divided into three
Parts. The First will be the natural history of these lands, being a
particular description of them. It will contain accounts of the
marvellous works of nature, and other things of great profit and
interest. I am now finishing it, that it may be sent to your Majesty
after this, though it ought to have come before it. The Second and Third
Parts treat of the people of these kingdoms and of their deeds in the
following order. In the Second Part, which is the present one, the most
ancient and first peoplers of this land will be discussed in general,
and then, descending to particulars, I shall describe [_the terrible and
inveterate tyranny of_] the Ccapac Incas of these kingdoms, down to the
end and death of Huascar, the last of the Incas. The Third and Last Part
will treat of the times of the Spaniards, and of their notable deeds in
the discovery and settlement of this kingdom and others adjoining it,
with the captains, governors, and viceroys who have ruled here, down to
the present year 1572.

II.

THE ANCIENT DIVISION OF THE LAND.

When historians wish to write, in an orderly way, of the world or some
part of it, they generally first describe the situation containing it,
which is the land, before they deal with what it contains, which is the
population, to avoid the former in the historical part. If this is so in
ancient and well known works, it is still more desirable that in
treating of new and strange lands, like these, of such vast extent, a
task which I have undertaken, the same order should b