From The Illustrious
Historian Of America, Dr William Robertson, The Work Which We Now Offer To
The Public For The First Time In The English Language, Has The Following
High Character:
"The history of Zarate, whether we attend to its matter or
composition, is a book of considerable merit, and
Great credit is due to
his testimony." Besides this general eulogy; in his enumeration of six
original authors whom he had consulted in the composition of that portion
of his History of America which refers to Peru, he clearly shews that
Zarate alone can be considered as at the same time perfectly authentic and
sufficiently copious for the purpose we have at present in view. The
substance of his account of all the six is as follows.
"_Two_ of the more early writers on the subject of the discovery and
conquest of Peru, Francisco de Xeres, the secretary of Pizarro, and Pedro
Sanchez, an officer who served under the conqueror, break off almost in
the introduction to the narrative, going no farther into the history of
the conquest than the death of Atahualpa in 1533, only one year after the
invasion of Peru. The _third_ in point of time, Pedro Cioca de Leon, only
two years earlier in his publication than Zarate, gives nothing more than
a description of the country, and an account of the institutions and
customs of the natives. Zarate is the _fourth_. The _fifth_, Don Diego
Fernandez, solely relates to the dissentions and civil wars among the
Spanish conquerors.
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