Several students of the literature of the Incas have devoted themselves to the task of preserving Incaic legends and musical compositions. The drama _Ollanta_ has been translated into Spanish by three well-known scholars, Don José Sebastian Barranca, Dr. José Fernando Nadal, and Dr. Gavino Pacheco Zegarra. Don José Maria Valleriestra, a musical composer of note, is the author of two operas, _Ollanta_ and _Atahuallpa_, which have been presented in Lima and elsewhere with success. The greatest Peruvian writer on the subject of Incaic civilization and history—the most celebrated chronicler of his people—was the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, who was born in Cuzco in 1539, and died in Spain in 1618. He spent the first twenty-one years of his life in Peru, his father Garcilaso, one of Pizarro’s followers, having married a native princess of the royal line of Incas. His _Comentarios Reales_ are still regarded as the most authentic source of information existing in reference to prehistoric Peru. The history of Peru, both ancient and modern, is a theme of such extraordinary interest that it is not strange Peruvian writers should have made it the predominating subject of their works. No country has such a wealth of romance to kindle the imagination and to inspire the poet, and no country has greater reason to be proud of its annals, and the patriotic sentiment which finds expression in the literature and art of the country is altogether admirable. The Athenæum of Lima, the Geographic Society, and the Historical Institute, all intellectual organizations, were created for the purpose of promoting the study of Peru, from a literary, geographical, and historical standpoint, and their libraries contain many valuable works by Peruvian as well as foreign writers. The first of these institutions was founded under the name of the Literary Club of Lima, in 1877, Don Francisco Garcia Calderon being its president. Ten years later it was reorganized and took the name of the Athenæum of Lima; among its members are the most illustrious scholars of Peru. Don Luis B. Cisneros, a member of the Spanish Royal Academy and one of Peru’s greatest poets was crowned by the Athenæum, with impressive ceremonies, in 1897. His poems, novels, and dramas are among the literary treasures of his country, and his death, which occurred in 1903, was an occasion of national mourning. The Athenæum was founded too late to number on its roll the gifted poets Clemente Althaus, Nicolas Corpancho, Constantino Carrasco, Arnaldo Marquez, Trinidad Fernandez, and Adolfo Garcia, who died several years earlier; Carlos Augustus Salaverry, the son of the illustrious General Felipe Santiago Salaverry, and a poet of great genius, died in Paris in 1888, a year after the Athenæum was organized; and José Antonio de la Lavalle, a member of the Spanish Academy and a diplomatist of notable talent, whose literary style was especially distinguished for its grace