Note on Molina 200 INDEX 201 INTRODUCTORY NOTE Cieza de Leon, besides his two chronicles (translations of which already form part of the first series of the Hakluyt Society’s volumes), completed a history of the conquest and civil wars of Peru. The manuscripts have not all been found, but Jimenes de la Espada edited and published the first part of the “War of Quito” by Cieza de Leon in 1880. It is valuable because Cieza was the most trustworthy of all the old writers on Peru, and because he was on the spot and acquainted with many of the actors in the scenes he describes. Cieza is always fair and impartial. The interest attaching to this recovered work of Cieza is that it records the attempt of the Spanish Government, at the instance of Las Casas, to befriend the Indians by enforcing laws for their protection. It will be seen that the martinet who was sent as Viceroy to carry out the policy of the Government was a hopelessly impossible person. The hopes of the Inca Manco were raised on receiving the news of the Viceroy’s arrival with the New Laws, and he died in the full anticipation that there was a dawn of better things for his people. The narrative of Cieza is well told and full of interest. But it comes to an end just before the Viceroy’s murder of the Factor Illan Suarez de Carbajal, which was the immediate cause of his overthrow. To the narrative of Cieza is, therefore, added in the present volume a letter from the Bishop of Cuzco to Charles V which describes the murder and subsequent events. The letter is followed by the Indictment of the Judges against the Viceroy, also giving their version of the murder and of the events which followed. To complete the story a Sequel has been written by the editor, narrating the events from the assumption of the government by Gonzalo Pizarro to his complete victory and the death of the Viceroy at Añaquito. From that date, for too short a time, Gonzalo Pizarro was Governor of Peru, and in possession of the only approach by Panama, with none to oppose him.