I. _José Eusebio Llano y Zapata._ II. _Miguel de Olivares and Pedro de Córdoba y Figueroa._ III. _José Pérez García and Vicente Carvallo y Goyeneche._ IV. _Geographical description; Molina and Vidaurre._ V. _Dionisio and Antonio Alcedo, Zamacola, Segurola, and Martínez y Vela._ VI. _Concolorcorvo._ I [Sidenote: Llano y Zapata] [Sidenote: Zapata’s precocity] [Sidenote: The Cadiz volume and letters of Zapata] A notable figure of Peru in the eighteenth century was José Eusebio Llano y Zapata. He was born in Lima, where his father held the office of alcalde in 1690 and again in 1708. He appeared as the most precocious mind of his time in Peru. At the age of nineteen he had published papers on various topics in medicine, physics, and literature; and before he was twenty-five he had added to these, among other writings, a panegyric on Marcellos, bishop of Cuzco, the true method of preserving health, the nature and origin of comets, a discussion on the books of Judith and Isaiah, and the moral philosophy of Seneca. He possessed an extensive knowledge of languages, and, as evidence of his interest in this branch of study, he founded at Lima a public school for instruction in Greek. In pursuit of knowledge of natural history he made extensive journeys throughout South America during a period of five years, and afterwards went to Spain, where he completed his most important book: _Memorias histórico-físicas-críticas-apologéticas de la América meridional_, in four volumes. The first volume (_Reino mineral_) was printed, the MSS. of others have disappeared. In the second, the author is known to have treated of the vegetable kingdom, “from the most magnificent tree to the most humble plant”; in the third, of the animal kingdom, from the highest to the lowest; in the fourth, the author described certain geographical features of South America, particularly the great rivers, and in all parts attention is given to the historical phases of the subject. A little volume published at Cadiz in 1759 contains the preliminary discourse of the first volume of the _Memorias_ and a number of Zapata’s letters. A more extensive collection of Zapata’s letters began to be published at Cadiz in 1764. They present important details of a great variety of subjects in the history of South America during the two centuries of Spanish rule then completed. [Sidenote: Support of Spanish system] Zapata was an ardent champion of the designs and spirit of Spain’s government of America. He praised the zeal of the conquistadores, excused in some measure their faults, excesses, and avarice. He denounced the writings of Las Casas as false and exaggerated, and condemned them as utterances unworthy of a Spaniard. At the same time he showed an appreciation of the Indians, maintaining that under a proper system of instruction they would have manifested in the course of time “las fuerzas del espíritu y la eficacia de la razón.”[201] II [Sidenote: Olivares’ career]