Sir Clements R. Markham, in his introduction to the _Narratives of the Rites and Laws of the Yncas_, makes this interesting note concerning Garcilaso’s memory and the accuracy of his statements: “Garcilaso wrote from memory, forty years after he had left Peru, with the aid of letters from correspondents. His main object was to publish a commentary, correcting the errors of Spanish authors who professed to give a history of the Yncas without being acquainted with their language. In doing this, he added much precious information from the storehouse of his own memory, and the more his work is sifted and examined, the more clearly does it appear that he was scrupulously truthful, and that, allowing for the disadvantage under which he laboured, his statements are wonderfully accurate. Perhaps the excellence of the Ynca’s memory is best shown in the topographical details. He gives the conquests of each successive Ynca, mentioning the places through which the conquerors marched in the gradual acquisition of their vast empire. He enumerates three hundred and twenty places in Peru, yet, in describing the marches, he does not make a single mistake, nor give one of these places out of its order, or in the wrong position. When Garcilaso’s routes of each of the conquering Yncas are placed on a map, they present convincing proofs of the remarkable accuracy of the author.” [Sidenote: Prescott on Garcilaso] Another phase of Garcilaso’s writing is presented by Prescott (_Conquest of Peru_, I, 469-473), where he affirms that Garcilaso de la Vega “wrote to effect a particular object. He stood forth as counsel for his unfortunate countrymen, pleading the cause of that degraded race before the tribunal of posterity. The exaggerated tone of panegyric consequent on this becomes apparent in every page of the work. He pictures forth a state of society, such as an Utopian philosopher would hardly venture to depict.” His work “is addressed to the imagination more than to sober reason. We are dazzled by the gorgeous spectacle it perpetually exhibits, and delighted by the variety of amusing details and animated gossip sprinkled over its pages. The story of the action is perpetually varied by discussions on topics illustrating its progress, so as to break up the monotony of the narrative, and afford an agreeable relief to the reader. This is true of the first part of his great work. In the second there was no longer room for such discussion. But he has supplied the place by garrulous reminiscences, personal anecdotes, incidental adventures, and a host of trivial details—trivial in the eyes of the pedant—which historians have been too willing to discard as below the dignity of history.” Referring to the edifices constructed at Cuzco by the Indians under the Incas, Garcilaso de la Vega gives expression to the astonishment which many persons since his day have experienced: [Sidenote: Ancient buildings at Cuzco]