I present this case to undeceive and correct those who believe themselves secure in the possession of their temporal goods.” VI [Sidenote: _El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes_] _El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes_ is rather an elaborate guide-book than a history. It treats of the route from Buenos Aires to Santiago de Chile, but its principal subject is the south-eastern part of Spanish South America, the region between Buenos Aires and Lima. It indicates the various lines of communication, describes the towns, the roads, the resources, the manners and customs of the country traversed, and the difficulties, privations, and dangers of a journey over this route. The style is plain and direct, the writer’s point of view is often humorous, and his references are now and then vulgar; but the clearness of his descriptions and the picturesqueness of the lighter parts make the book eminently readable. As a contemporary account of the Peruvian cities in the last half of the eighteenth century it has no successful rival. [Sidenote: Concolorcorvo] By the title-page of the original edition one is informed that the book was written by Don Calixto Bustamante Inca, alias Concolorcorvo, and that it was printed in Gijón in 1773. But, in spite of this reference to Gijón it is held that it was printed in Lima. A new and excellent edition was issued by the historical and numismatic society of Buenos Aires in 1908. [Sidenote: Dialogue with Alonso Carrión] The author was born in Cuzco. As a youth he visited Lima, and soon afterwards set out for Spain, where he affirmed he had an uncle who was an Indian of the royal Inca family; but learning of the death of this unnamed uncle, he went on this occasion only as far as Buenos Aires. Later he undertook the voyage to the Peninsula and returned from Coruña to Montevideo in the ship “El Tucumán.” From Buenos Aires to Lima he accompanied the visitador Alonso Carrión de Lavandera, to whom he frequently makes reference in describing this journey, and who figures in certain passages in a dialogue with the author. Carrión had been commissioned by the king to arrange the affairs of the postal service preparatory to its passing from private hands to the crown. Bustamante, who assisted Carrión, took this occasion to gather at least a part of the information set down in his description of the country traversed, and much of this information refers to the existing postal service and the special need of it at certain points.[209] [Sidenote: The merits of Lima and Cuzco] The following extract gives some indication of the author’s manner.