In the final decision of a question of this kind, it is always an advantage to have an able antagonist who will take the trouble to state all that can be said against the generally received opinion. In the present case the “Devil’s Advocate” is no less a person than General Don Bartolomé Mitré, the ex-President of the Argentine Republic. General Mitré maintains that the drama of _Ollantay_ is entirely of Spanish origin, and that it was written in modern times.[47] His opinion is not to be despised; for he is evidently a man of extensive reading, and is possessed of critical insight of a high order. But his knowledge of the Quichua language and of the Spanish authors who wrote in the first century after the conquest of Peru is limited, as will presently appear. Nevertheless, the accomplished general and statesman would no doubt have proved his case if it had been possible. The facts, however, are too numerous, and too closely arrayed against him. His attack was well planned and gallantly delivered, but it has utterly failed.[48] The General’s first assault is made upon the evidence of the existence of dramatic compositions among the Yncas. Garcilasso de la Vega is declared to be the sole authority, and he is unceremoniously set aside as unworthy of credit. Cieza de Leon and Acosta are then triumphantly referred to as being absolutely silent on the subject. But General Mitré had evidently only read the first part of Cieza de Leon, and was still ignorant of the contents of the present volume. He was equally ignorant of the work of Salcamayhua, where the names of four different kinds of dramatic compositions are given. There is, quite independently of the positive statement of Garcilasso, ample evidence of the existence of a drama of some kind in the time of the Yncas. His next point is that _Ollantay_ is throughout, in general form and minute details, a Christian and cavalieresque play _de capa y espada_, such as those of Lope de Vega and Calderon. Mr. Ticknor says that _comedias de capa y espada_ excluded those dramas in which royal personages appear; their main and moving principle is gallantry; the story is almost always involved and intriguing; and accompanied with an underplot and parody on the characters and adventures of the principal parties, formed out of those of the servants and other inferior personages.[49] _Ollantay_ is a historical play including royal personages; the main and moving principle is not gallantry of the _capa y espada_ type, the story is simple and not intriguing, and it is not accompanied with an underplot. So that the Quichua drama is not only unlike a Spanish _comedia de capa y espada_, but it would be difficult to find two classes of compositions, both being dramatic, which are more completely distinct from each other.