He Was Perhaps Right In
Wishing These Transactions Might Fall Into Oblivion, Instead Of Being
Transmitted To Posterity.
Should my style of writing be found not to possess all the polish that my
readers may desire, it
Will at least record the true state of events; and
I shall not be disappointed if it only serve to enable another to present
a history of the same period in more elegant language and more orderly
arrangement. I have principally directed my attention to a strict regard
for truth, the soul of history, using neither art nor disguise in my
description of things and events which I have seen and known; and in
relating those matters which happened before my arrival, I have trusted to
the information of dispassionate persons, worthy of credit. These were not
easy to find in Peru, most persons having received either benefits or
injuries from the party of Pizarro or that of Almagro; which were as
violent in their mutual resentments as the adherents of Marius and Sylla,
or of Caesar and Pompey of old.
In all histories there are three chief requisites: the designs, the
actions, and the consequences. In the two latter particulars I have used
all possible care to be accurate. If I may not always agree with other
authors in regard to the first of these circumstances, I can only say that
such is often the case with the most accurate and faithful historians.
After I had finished this work, it was my intention to have kept it long
unpublished, lest I might offend the families of those persons whose
improper conduct is therein pourtrayed.
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