Not much is known concerning the literary attainments of Centenera. As a priest he must have known the Latin of the Breviary, but there seems to be no evidence of an extensive knowledge of that language, “since in all of his poem there is no indication of the least influence of the classical Latin poets, either in the conception, in the figures, or in the expressions. Even the locution of the poem, wanting in nobility and elegance, proves that the author was not familiar either with the good society or the good poets of his nation, although in one of the passages of his poem he manifests (Canto XXIV) the highest respect for the author of _La Araucana_.”[89] He had, however, a certain knowledge of Tasso and Petrarch.[90] [Sidenote: The editions of _La Argentina_] In the archives of the Indies there is a letter, without signature or date, ascribed by Trelles to Centenera, in which the writer, addressing the king, says, “I have a complete history which, with the favour of your Majesty, will be published; in it there is given an account of Río de la Plata and of Peru.” This reference is set down as the first mention of _La Argentina_. The writer affirms that this letter was written fifteen years after he left Spain; if, therefore, Centenera was the author of the letter it was written in 1587. Fifteen years later the first edition of _La Argentina_ appeared in Lisbon (1602). The second edition was published in 1749 by González de Barcia in his _Historiadores primitivos_, Vol. III; the third is contained in Angelis’ _Colección de obras y documentos, etc._, Madrid, 1836; a fourth appeared in the third volume of the reprint of Díaz de Guzmán’s _Historia argentina_, Buenos Aires, 1854; the fifth is in the reprint of 1900 of Angelis’ _Colección_. In 1912 two separate facsimile reprints of the Lisbon Edition of 1602 were published in Buenos Aires, one in the _Biblioteca de la Junta de Historia y Numismática Americana_, the other in the series _Fuentes de la historia argentina_; the former has bio-bibliographical notes by Enrique Peña and a critical study of the poem by J. M. Gutiérrez, the latter notes by Carlos Navarro y Lamarca. [Sidenote: Centenera’s spirit] Centenera presented no great characters, like those immortalized by Ercilla. But Ercilla was not an ecclesiastic. Centenera had entered the New World to contribute whatever power he possessed to the destruction of paganism, and any especially strong characters presenting themselves among the Indians naturally appeared to him as exaggerated manifestations of the evil he was commissioned to combat. His mission was to transform pagan heroic qualities into Christian virtues, and not to make them live in the admiration of later generations. What appealed to Ercilla, the knight, as noble and worthy of honour, appeared to the archdeacon as something to be eliminated and forgotten. [Sidenote: Story of the voyage]