History of the Conquest of Peru: With a Preliminary View of the Civilization of the IncasPrescott, William Hickling
History
History of the Conquest of Peru: With a Preliminary View of the Civilization of the Incas
Prescott, William Hickling
Incas; Peru -- History -- Conquest, 1522-1548
I cannot dismiss this notice of Garcilasso, though already long
protracted, without some allusion to the English translation of
his Commentaries. It appeared in James the Second's reign, and
is the work of Sir Paul Rycaut, Knight. It was printed at
London, in 1688, in folio, with considerable pretension in its
outward dress, well garnished with wood-cuts, and a frontispiece
displaying the gaunt and rather sardonic features, not of the
author, but his translator. The version keeps pace with the
march of the original, corresponding precisely in books and
chapters, and seldom, though sometimes, using the freedom, so
common in these ancient versions, of abridgment and omission.
Where it does depart from the original, it is rather from
ignorance than intention. Indeed, as far as the plea of
ignorance will avail him, the worthy knight may urge it stoutly
in his defence. No one who reads the book will doubt his limited
acquaintance with his own tongue, and no one who compares it with
the original will deny his ignorance of the Castilian. It
contains as many blunders as paragraphs, and most of them such as
might shame a schoolboy. Yet such are the rude charms of the
original, that this ruder version of it has found considerable
favor with readers; and Sir Paul Rycaut's translation, old as it
is, may still be met with in many a private, as well as public
library.
Book III: Conquest Of Peru
Chapter I
Pizarro's Reception At Court. - His Capitulation With The Crown.
- He Visits His Birthplace. - Returns To The New World. -
Difficulties With Almagro. - His Third Expedition. - Adventures
On The Coast. - Battles In The Isle Of Puna.
1528-1531.
Pizarro and his officer, having crossed the Isthmus, embarked at
Nombre de Dios for the old country, and, after a good passage,
reached Seville early in the summer of 1528. There happened to
be at that time in port a person well known in the history of
Spanish adventure as the Bachelor Enciso. He had taken an active
part in the colonization of Tierra Firme, and had a pecuniary
claim against the early colonists of Darien, of whom Pizarro was
one. Immediately on the landing of the latter, he was seized by
Enciso's orders, and held in custody for the debt. Pizarro, who
had fled from his native land as a forlorn and houseless
adventurer, after an absence of more than twenty years, passed,
most of them, in unprecedented toil and suffering, now found
himself on his return the inmate of a prison. Such was the
commencement of those brilliant fortunes which, as he had
trusted, awaited him at home. The circumstance excited general
indignation; and no sooner was the Court advised of his arrival
in the country, and the great purpose of his mission, than orders
were sent for his release, with permission to proceed at once on
his journey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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