INTRODUCTION Vll 



Aucara. On the day of the Presentation, 1618, he said Mass near 

 Arequipa (1393), and he was at Arequipa at the end of the year 

 (1390) ; he was in Arica (1396) and inspected Indian villages near 

 Arica (1416), burning one where the inhabitants were too idolatrous. 

 He spent Lent of 1619 in Lima (1157, 1405). Then he went north 

 again, and mentions being in Guatemala City in 1620 (602) and 

 1621 (614). He boasts (43) of "having .... seen .... the 

 greater part of ... . New Spain, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and all 

 the Kingdom of Peru .... also .... the Indian tribes." Constant 

 references show his Andalusian origin, as well as his knowledge of 

 other parts of Spain. "The large river issuing from the great Lake 

 of Chucuito is as broad as the Guadalquivir at Cordova" (1620) ; 

 the Rio de Vilcas at Uramarca is as wide as the Genii at ficija ( 1478) ; 

 the Rio de Tucay is the size of the Genii at ficija or the Jarama 

 at the Aranjuez highway (1526). Potosi covers more ground 

 than Seville (1661). In 760 he refers to the volcano of Ternate as 

 one of those he had seen. 



Vazquez does not consider himself a historian ; he refers to "the 

 histories" for further details (305, 889), the "historians of the Indies" 

 (1182), the "ancient histories" of Pizarro's conquest of Peru (889). 

 He is well versed in these histories, and his frequent quotations and 

 references enable us to reconstruct much of his schooling and his 

 special reading for his task. He knew his Bible thoroughly and speaks 

 of Hebrew as if he had some slight acquaintance with it ; but his one 

 example of Greek derivation (20) is wrong. Of the ancients he refers 

 to Plato (30), PHny (29, 1464, 1469 f.), and Seneca (30), Jerome 

 (66), and Zosimus (67) ; of his predecessors on the New World, he 

 utilizes Sol6rzano (24, 98, 289, 324, 424, 898), Herrera (404, 431, 

 605, J^il)^ Acosta (57, 422, 1467, 1510, 1518), the Inca Garcilaso 

 (57, 1 120, 1363, 1490, 1510, 1518, 1553, 1595). and G6mara (98, 

 102 f ., 397 f ., 404 f ., 409, 605 ; he generally writes the name Gomora ; 

 'jT^'/ and 741 f. are good examples of his method of supplementing 

 his sources by personal observation). He knew the "Bibliotheca" of 

 Leon Pinelo (1363). All in all, he was admirably qualified for his 

 theme through his familiarity with the great previous descriptions 

 of America and the 10 years he himself had spent between Mexico 

 City and Chiloe ; and in spite of his disclaimer, he makes considerable 

 contributions to Spanish-American history, the most notable being 

 the long account given him by Capt. Altamirano of the Ursua-Aguirre 

 expedition down the Marahon in 1559 (1197 ff.) and the description 

 of the Arequipa earthquake of 1600 which he got from Pedro de 

 Vivar, a Guardsman who was caught in it. He does not mention his 



