First Part of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas: (Cambridge Library Collection - Hakluyt First Series)

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volume 1 of this 1869 English translation contains Books 1-4 of the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas by Garcilaso de la Vega (1539–1616), the son of a Spanish soldier and an Inca princess. Brought up to speak Quechua as well as Spanish, Garcilaso had access through his mother's family to the history and traditions of the Incas, which he recorded in Part 1 of the Royal Commentaries. The posthumously-published Part 2, on the Spanish conquest of Peru, is not included here.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; Book I: 1. Whether there are many worlds; 2. Whether there are antipodes; 3. How the new world was discovered; 4. The derivation of the word Peru; 5. Authorities in confirmation of the name Peru; 6. What a certain author says touching this name of Peru; 7. Of other derivations of new words; 8. The description of Peru; 9. Of the idolatry of the Indians; 10. Of many other gods that they had; 11. Of the manner of their sacrifices; 12. Concerning the mode of life and government of the ancient people; 13. How they dressed in those ancient times; 14. Different modes of marriage, and divers languages; 15. The origin of the Yncas kings of Peru; 16. The founding of Cuzco, the imperial city; 17. Of the country which was brought under the rule of the Ynca Manco Ccapac; 18. Of fabulous accounts of the origin of the Yncas; 19. Protest of the author touching the history; 20. The villages which the first Ynca ordered to be founded; 21. The things which the Ynca taught to his vassals; 22. The honourable badges which the Ynca gave to his followers; 23. Of other fashions, and of the name of Ynca; 24. Names by which the Indians knew their king; 25. Of the will and death of the Ynca Manco Ccapac; 26. Of the royal names and their meanings; Book II. 1. Of the idolatry of the second age, and of its origin; 2. The Yncas sought the true God Our Lord; 3. The Yncas kept a cross in a sacred place; 4. Of many gods improperly attributed to the Indians by the Spanish historians; 5. Of many other meanings of the word Huaca; 6. What an author says concerning their gods; 7. They knew of the immortality of the soul, and of the general resurrection; 8. Of the things that they sacrificed to the sky; 9. Of the priests, rites, and ceremonies, and of the laws attributed to the first Ynca; 10. The author collates his own statements with those of the Spanish historians; 11. They divided the empire into four districts, and registered their vassals; 12. Two duties which the decurions performed; 13. Concerning certain laws that the Yncas instituted in their government; 14. The decurions gave an account of the births and deaths; 15. The Indians deny that an Ynca of the blood royal has ever committed any crime whatever; 16. The life and acts of Sinchi Roca the second king of the Ynca dynasty; 17. Lloque Yupanqui, third king, and the meaning of his name; 18. Two conquests made by the Ynca Lloque Yupanqui; 19. The conquests of Hatun-Colla, and the origin of the Collas; 20. The great province of Chucuitu is reduced; 21. The sciences which the Yncas had acquired; 22. They understood the measurement of the year, and the solstices and equinoxes; 23. They observed the eclipses of the sun, and what they did when those of the moon occurred; 24. The medicines they used, and their manner of effecting cures; 25. Of the medicinal herbs they used; 26. Of their knowledge touching geometry, arithmetic, and music; 27. The poetry of the Yncas Amautas, who are philosophers, and haravicus or poets; 28. Of the few instruments which the Indians used for various purposes; Book III: 1. Mayta Ccapac, the fourth Ynca, annexes Tiahuanaca; 2. Hatunpacasa is reduced, and they conquer Cac-Yaviri; 3. The Indians who surrendered are pardoned; 4. They reduce three provinces and conquer others; 5. The Ynca acquires three new provinces; 6. Those of Huaychu submit, and are mercifully pardoned; 7. They reduce many towns; 8. Many nations are reduced to submission by the fame of the bridge; 9. The Ynca acquires many other great provinces, and dies in peace; 10. Ccapac Yupanqui, the fifth king, gains many provinces in Cunti-Suyu; 11. The conquest of the Aymaras; 12. The Ynca sends an army to conquer the Quechuas; 13. They conquer many valleys on the sea coast; 14. Two great curacas refer their differences to the Ynca, and become his subjects; 15. They make a bridge over the Desaguadero; 16.