Robertson’s excellent view of the story of the Incas in his _History of America_[1273] was for many years the sole source of information on the subject for the general English public; but since 1848 it has been superseded by Prescott’s charming narrative contained in the opening book of his _Conquest of Peru_.[1274] The knowledge of the present generation on the subject of the Incas is derived almost entirely from Prescott, and, so far as it goes, there can be no better authority. But much has come to light since his time. Prescott’s narrative, occupying 159 pages, is founded on the works of Garcilasso de la Vega, who is the authority most frequently cited by him, Cieza de Leon, Ondegardo, and Acosta.[1275] Helps, in the chapter of his _Spanish Conquest_ on Inca civilization, which covers forty-five pages, only cited two early authorities not used by Prescott,[1276] and his sketch is much more superficial than that of his predecessor.[1277] The publication of the _Antigüedades Peruanas_ by Don Mariano Eduardo de Rivero (the director of the National Museum at Lima) and Juan Diego de Tschudi at Vienna, in 1851, marked an important turning-point in the progress of investigation. One of the authors was himself a Peruvian, and from that time some of the best educated natives of the country have given their attention to its early history. The _Antigüedades_ for the first time gives due prominence to an estimate of the language and literature of the Incas, and to descriptions of ruins throughout Peru. The work is accompanied by a large atlas of engravings; but it contains grave inaccuracies, and the map of Pachacamac is a serious blemish to the work.[1278] The _Antigüedades_ were followed by the _Annals of Cuzco_,[1279] and in 1860 the _Ancient History of Peru_, by Don Sebastian Lorente, was published at Lima.[1280] In a series of essays in the _Revista Peruana_,[1281] Lorente gave the results of many years of further study of the subject, which appear to have been the concluding labors of a useful life. When he died, in November, 1884, Sebastian Lorente had been engaged for upwards of forty years in the instruction of the Peruvian youth at Lima and in other useful labors. A curious genealogical work on the Incarial family was published at Paris in 1850, by Dr. Justo Sahuaraura Inca, a canon of the cathedral of Cuzco, but it is of no historical value.[1282]