[Sidenote: Romero’s _Colección_] [Sidenote: The Molina muddle] In the first volume of the _Colección de libros y documentos referentes a la historia del Perú_, Carlos A. Romero has caused to be published the _Relación de las fabulas y ritos de los incas_ by Cristóbal de Molina, one of the two writers of that name who flourished in the sixteenth century. The author of this _Relación_ is known as Cristóbal de Molina of Cuzco; the other as Cristóbal de Molina, the almagrist, or Molina of Santiago. Their similar professions and similar intellectual interests and the little knowledge of them that had come to light made discrimination between them difficult, and caused the writings of both to be thought of as the work of one person. The first suggestion that this name applied to two persons, contemporaries in the south-western part of South America, was made by the Chilean bibliographer Tomás Thayer Ojeda in 1913 in the _Revista chilena de historia y geografía_. The distinct individuality of the two persons has been clearly set forth by Carlos A. Romero in an essay prefixed to the _Relación_ already referred to. Little light has been thrown on the origin of Cristóbal de Molina of Cuzco. Romero has, however, ventured the opinion that he was a mestizo born in Cuzco, where he spent the greater part of his life, and that his father was Francisco de Molina, who, having made extensive journeys about the country, finally settled in Lima and there took ecclesiastical orders between 1545 and 1550. His thorough knowledge of the Quichua language is referred to as supporting the suggestion that this was the language of his mother. He became a priest of the parish of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios del Hospital de los Naturales in Cuzco, and for his preaching to the Indians he received an annual salary of one hundred and fifty pesos, under a grant by Viceroy Toledo.[46] [Sidenote: Indian ways] By a decree issued at Badajoz, September 23, 1580, the king ordered the viceroy to collect information concerning the usage and customs of the Indians before the Spanish conquest. Under this order a considerable body of data was gathered, and on the basis of this Molina wrote his _Relación_, but the date of the composition cannot be established; it must, however, have been late in 1572 or subsequent to that year, since certain events of 1572 are mentioned in the document itself. [Sidenote: Rites and Laws of the Incas]