First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volume 1 of this 1869 English translation contains Books 1-4 of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas by Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616), the son of a Spanish soldier and an Inca princess. Brought up to speak Quechua as well as Spanish, Garcilaso had access through his mother's family to the history and traditions of the Incas, which he recorded in Part 1 of the Royal Commentaries. The posthumously-published Part 2, on the Spanish conquest of Peru, is not included here.