[213] “Historia General de los Hechos de los Castellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Océano,” Madrid, 1601-15, 4 vols. fol.--“Historia General del Mundo del Tiempo del Señor Rey Don Felipe II., desde 1559, hasta su Muerte,” Madrid, 1601-12, 3 vols. fol.--Five books on the History of Portugal and the Conquest of the Azores were printed, Madrid, 1591, 4to; the History of the League, Madrid, 1598, 4to; and the History of the Troubles in Aragon, in 1612, 4to; the last being only a tract of 140 pages. A work on the History of Italy, from 1281 to 1559, printed at Madrid in 1624, folio, I have never seen. The of Historia General del Mundo is on the Index of 1667, for expurgation. But the East, as well as the West, was now opened to Spanish adventure. The conquest of Portugal had brought the Oriental dependencies of that kingdom under the authority of the Spanish crown; and as the Count de Lemos, the great patron of letters in his time, and President of the Council of the Indies, chanced to have his attention particularly drawn in that direction, he commanded the younger of the Argensolas to write an account of the Moluccas. The poet obeyed, and published his work in 1609, dedicating it to Philip the Third. It is one of the most pleasing of the minor Spanish histories; full of the traditions found among the natives by the Portuguese, when they first landed, and of the wild adventures that followed when they had taken possession of the islands. Parts of it are, indeed, inconsistent with the nature of the civilization they found there, such as formal and eloquent harangues attributed to the natives; while other parts, like some of its love-stories, are romantic enough to be suspected of invention, even if they are true. But, in general, the work is written in an agreeable poetical style, such as is not unbefitting an account of the mysterious isles “Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants brought Their spicy drugs,”-- striving, for a long time, to hide from the competition of other nations the history and resources of the oppressed race whom they compelled to minister to their love of gain.[214] [214] “Conquista de las Islas Molucas,” Madrid, 1609, folio. Pellicer, Bib. de Trad., Tom. I. p. 87. The love-story of Durante, an ensign, in the third book of the “Conquista,” is good and probable; and the account of the Patagonian giants, in the same book, turns out to be almost true, like some of the long-discredited stories of Marco Polo and Mendez Pinto.