Having now given at considerable length the authentic histories of the discovery and conquest of the two greatest of the European colonies in the New World, Mexico and Peru, from original and contemporary authors whose works had not before appeared in any English Collection of Voyages and Travels, we now propose to give, as a kind of supplement or appendix to the excellent history of Zarate, an abridged deduction of the principal events in Peru for some time after the departure of the president De la Gasca from that kingdom, extracted from the conclusion of the Royal Commentaries of Peru by Garcilasso de la Vega Inca, Part II. Book VI. VII. and VIII. Having formerly given some account of that work, not very favourable to the character of that descendant of the Incas as a historian, it may only be here mentioned that the events to be now related on his authority all occurred in his own time, and that the relation of them which he has left would have been greatly more valuable if he had been pleased to favour us more frequently with their dates. In the present eventful period, while Spain, once the terror of Europe, seems in danger of sinking under the tyrannical grasp of the usurper of France, a vast revolution appears about to elevate the Spanish American colonies into extensive independent states; if the jealous collision of rights, interests, and pretensions between the various races of their inhabitants do not plunge them into all the horrors of civil war and anarchy. The crisis is peculiarly interesting to all the friends of humanity, and it is to be wished that the present commotions may soon subside into a permanent state of peace and good government, advantageous to all the best interests of the colonists, and beneficial to the commerce and industry of the rest of the world. Before proceeding to the abridged history of events in Peru, subsequent to the departure of the president De la Gasca, the following reflections on the state of manners among the early Spanish settlers in that opulent region, during the period of which we have already given the history, as drawn by the eloquent pen of the illustrious Historian of America, have appeared most worthy of insertion[43]. [Footnote 43: Hist of America, II. p. 393.]