Chapter I: Front Matter

DOCUMENTS AND NARRATIVES
CONCERNING THE
DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST
OF LATIN AMERICA

PUBLISHED BY
THE CORTES SOCIETY
NEW YORK

NUMBER TWO

_Edition limited to 250 copies
of which ten are on Kelmscott paper_

_This copy is Number_

85

AN ACCOUNT
OF THE
CONQUEST OF PERU

WRITTEN BY
PEDRO SANCHO

SECRETARY TO PIZARRO
AND SCRIVENER TO HIS ARMY

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH AND ANNOTATED
BY
PHILIP AINSWORTH MEANS

THE CORTES SOCIETY
NEW YORK
1917

COCKAYNE, BOSTON

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

The work of Pedro Sancho is one of the most valuable accounts of the Spanish conquest of Peru that we possess. Nor is its value purely historical. The "Relacion" of Sancho gives much interesting ethnological information relative to the Inca dominion at the time of its demolition. Errors Pedro Sancho has in plenty; but the editor has striven to counteract them by footnotes.

In every instance the translator has preserved Pedro Sancho's spelling of proper names, calling attention to the modern equivalent on the first occurrence of each name. In a few instances, where the text was unusually obscure, close translation has not been adhered to.

The virtues, as well as the shortcomings of this account, are so obvious that an extended reference to them here is superfluous. It must always be borne in mind that this document partook of the nature of an "_apologia pro vita sua_" and that it was directly inspired by Pizarro himself with the purpose of restoring himself to the Emperor's favor. Its main purpose was to nullify whatever charges Pizarro's enemies may have been making to the sovereign. Consequently there are numerous violations of the truth, all of which are, for us, easy to recognize.

A word as to the previous editions of Pedro Sancho may not be out of place here. The original manuscript is lost. An Italian translation of it appears in the "Viaggi" of Giovanni Battista or Giambattista Ramusio, published in Venice about 1550. The numerous editions of Ramusio's great work do not need to be listed here. Occasionally the translator has referred to that of 1563, a copy of which is in his possession. The edition which has served as a text for the present translation is that issued and edited by Don Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, Mexico, 1849. This edition, like all of Icazbalceta's work, is painstaking. Professor Marshall Saville has been good enough to lend me his copy of this edition, which is very rare, in order that I might have it to work with. Finally, a small portion of Pedro Sancho's narrative was issued by the Hakluyt Society of London. The editor, Sir Clements Markham, included it in the same volume with the reports of Xeres, Miguel de Estete, Hernando Pizarro. The volume, entitled "Reports on the Discovery of Peru," was issued by the Hakluyt Society in 1872.

PHILIP AINSWORTH MEANS
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
October 9, 1916

RELATION

Of the events that took place during the conquest and pacification of these provinces of New Castile, and of the quality of the land, and of the manner in which the Captain Hernando Pizarro afterward departed to bear to His Majesty the account of the victory of Caxamalca[1] and of the capture of the Cacique Atabalipa.[2]