I think it is an appropriate sequel to the history by Sarmiento, because it supplies material for judging whether the usurpation and tyranny were on the side of the Incas or of their accuser.
[Illustration: _Facsimile (reduced) of_ PAGE II OF THE SARMIENTO MS. 1572. _From the original, Göttingen University Library. Reproduced and printed for the Hakluyt Society by Donald Macbeth._]
THE MOST EXCELLENT LORD DON FRANCISCO DE TOLEDO VICEROY GOVERNOR AND CAPTAIN-GENERAL OF THE KINGDOMS OF PERU AND MAYOR-DOMO OF THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD OF CASTILLE
[Illustration: _Facsimile (reduced) of_ PAGE I OF THE SARMIENTO MS. 1572. _From the original, Göttingen University Library_. _Reproduced and printed for the Hakluyt Society by Donald Macbeth_.]
TO HIS SACRED CÆSARIAN MAJESTY THE KING, DON FELIPE, OUR LORD.
Among the excellencies, O sovereign and catholic Philip, that are the glorious decorations of princes, placing them on the highest pinnacle of estimation, are, according to the father of Latin eloquence, generosity, kindness, and liberality. And as the Roman Consuls held this to be the principal praise of their glory, they had this title curiously sculptured in marble on the Quirinal and in the forum of Trajan---"Most powerful gift in a Prince is liberality[12]." For this kings who desired much to be held dear by their own people and to be feared by strangers, were incited to acquire the name of liberal. Hence that royal sentence became immortal "It is right for kings to give." As this was a quality much valued among the Greeks, the wise Ulysses, conversing with Antinous[13], King of the Phæacians, said---"You are something like a king, for you know how to give, better than others." Hence it is certain that liberality is a good and necessary quality of kings.
[Note 12: "Primum signum nobilitatis est liberalitas."]
I do not pretend on this ground, most liberal monarch, to insinuate to your Majesty the most open frankness, for it would be very culpable on my part to venture to suggest a thing which, to your Majesty, is so natural that you would be unable to live without it. Nor will it happen to so high minded and liberal a lord and king, what befell the Emperor Titus who, remembering once, during supper time, that he had allowed one day to pass without doing some good, gave utterance to this laudable animadversion of himself. "O friends! I have lost a day[14]." For not only does your Majesty not miss a day, but not even an hour, without obliging all kinds of people with benefits and most gracious liberality. The whole people, with one voice, says to your Majesty what Virgil sang to Octavianus Augustus: