the Inca rulers. After a boyhood spent in Peru, at twenty Garcilaso went to Spain and spent fifty years on his writing. In Garcilaso we have the first opportunity to fathom the soul of the mestizo and to understand the clash within him between the two worlds which gave him life. His writing, the first distinguished work of an American-born man of letters, reveals him on the defensive against both races whose blood he shared. He strikes at his father's world by painting an idealized pThe Spanish colonial period produced writers, numerous and varied. The first books dealing with America were the chronicles and histories written by early explorers and churchmen, which reflected the mood of exhilaration of the period. They were chiefly factual reports of events and impressions, and, although seldom of literary distinction, were marked by rough vigor and penetration. They include Columbus's reports to his sovereigns, the Italian Peter Martyr's assembling of early reports, and the letters of Cortes to Charles 1st.

In 1552 53 there appeared Lopez de Gomara's History of the Indies and the Conquest of Mexico, a sober recital of events, although criticized for its adulation of Cortes. Lopez de Gomara was answered by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one time soldier under Cort6s, then living in retirement in Guatemala, in his naive and spirited “True History of the Conquest of New Spain” (published fifty years after his death) in which he sought to capture deserved credit for the common soldier. His book, despite its rude syntax and verbosity, remains the chief literary and most readable account of the conquest of Mexico.

The first critical historian was Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, whose extended journeyings in America yielded his General and Natural History of the Indies, published in 1535. Bartolorne de las Casas, more crusader than historian, wrote his ponderous and unreliable History of the Indies, published in 1575 79. More impartial was Cieza de Leon, whose Chronicle of Peru, published in 1553, contributes much to our knowledge of the Inca Empire. Chief in literary distinction as well as in content was the Royal Commentaries of the Incas, published in 1609, the work of Garcilaso de la Vega, called "the Inca," the most distinguished mestizo of the sixteenth century.

Garcilaso was born in Peru in 1539, Son of a Spanish soldier and an Indian mother who was a granddaughter of one of the last of the Inca rulers. After a boyhood spent in Peru, at twenty Garcilaso went to Spain and spent fifty years on his writing. In Garcilaso we have the first opportunity to fathom the soul of the mestizo and to understand the clash within him between the two worlds which gave him life. His writing, the first distinguished work of an American-born man of letters, reveals him on the defensive against both races whose blood he shared. He strikes at his father's world by painting an idealized pi

orts, and the letters of Cortes to Charles 1st.

In 1552 53 there appeared Lopez de Gomara's History of the Indies and the Conquest of Mexico, a sober recital of events, although criticized for its adulation of Cortes. Lopez de Gomara was answered by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one time soldier under Cort6s, then living in retirement in Guatemala, in his naive and spirited “True History of the Conquest of New Spain” (published fifty years after his death) in which he sought to capture deserved credit for the common soldier. His book, despite its rude syntax and verbosity, remains the chief literary and most readable account of the conquest of Mexico.

The first critical historian was Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, whose extended journeyings in America yielded his General and Natural History of the Indies, published in 1535. Bartolorne de las Casas, more crusader than historian, wrote his ponderous and unreliable History of the Indies, published in 1575 79. More impartial was Cieza de Leon, whose Chronicle of Peru, published in 1553, contributes much to our knowledge of the Inca Empire. Chief in literary distinction as well as in content was the Royal Commentaries of the Incas, published in 1609, the work of Garcilaso de la Vega, called "the Inca," the most distinguished mestizo of the sixteenth century.

Garcilaso was born in Peru in 1539, Son of a Spanish soldier and an Indian mother who was a granddaughter of one of the last of the Inca rulers. After a boyhood spent in Peru, at twenty Garcilaso went to Spain and spent fifty years on his writing. In Garcilaso we have the first opportunity to fathom the soul of the mestizo and to understand the clash within him between the two worlds which gave him life. His writing, the first distinguished work of an American-born man of letters, reveals him on the defensive against both races whose blood he shared. He strikes at his father's world by painting an idealized p

ture deserved credit for the common soldier. His book, despite its rude syntax and verbosity, remains the chief literary and most readable account of the conquest of Mexico.

The first critical historian was Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, whose extended journeyings in America yielded his General and Natural History of the Indies, published in 1535. Bartolorne de las Casas, more crusader than historian, wrote his ponderous and unreliable History of the Indies, published in 1575 79. More impartial was Cieza de Leon, whose Chronicle of Peru, published in 1553, contributes much to our knowledge of the Inca Empire. Chief in literary distinction as well as in content was the Royal Commentaries of the Incas, published in 1609, the work of Garcilaso de la Vega, called "the Inca," the most distinguished mestizo of the sixteenth century.

Garcilaso was born in Peru in 1539, Son of a Spanish soldier and an Indian mother who was a granddaughter of one of the last of the Inca rulers. After a boyhood spent in Peru, at twenty Garcilaso went to Spain and spent fifty years on his writing. In Garcilaso we have the first opportunity to fathom the soul of the mestizo and to understand the clash within him between the two worlds which gave him life. His writing, the first distinguished work of an American-born man of letters, reveals him on the defensive against both races whose blood he shared. He strikes at his father's world by painting an idealized p

More impartial was Cieza de Leon, whose Chronicle of Peru, published in 1553, contributes much to our knowledge of the Inca Empire. Chief in literary distinction as well as in content was the Royal Commentaries of the Incas, published in 1609, the work of Garcilaso de la Vega, called "the Inca," the most distinguished mestizo of the sixteenth century.

Garcilaso was born in Peru in 1539, Son of a Spanish soldier and an Indian mother who was a granddaughter of one of the last of the Inca rulers. After a boyhood spent in Peru, at twenty Garcilaso went to Spain and spent fifty years on his writing. In Garcilaso we have the first opportunity to fathom the soul of the mestizo and to understand the clash within him between the two worlds which gave him life. His writing, the first distinguished work of an American-born man of letters, reveals him on the defensive against both races whose blood he shared. He strikes at his father's world by painting an idealized p

the Inca rulers. After a boyhood spent in Peru, at twenty Garcilaso went to Spain and spent fifty years on his writing. In Garcilaso we have the first opportunity to fathom the soul of the mestizo and to understand the clash within him between the two worlds which gave him life. His writing, the first distinguished work of an American-born man of letters, reveals him on the defensive against both races whose blood he shared. He strikes at his father's world by painting an idealized picture of the Inca Empire of his mother. Then he seems to turn against his mother's heritage in praise of the Spain of his father. Although Garcilaso's account of Inca history is not regarded highly by modern anthropologists and archaeologists, he still holds a firm place as an interpreter of the mestizo. His La Florida, describing the conquest of that region, is readable and exciting.

We are indebted to numerous other chroniclers and historians. The Jesuit Jose de Acosta published his “Natural and Moral History of the Indies” in 1590, the source of much of our knowledge of the social and economic patterns of Mexico and Peru. The Franciscan Bernardino Sahagun wrote his General History of the Events of New Spain in the middle of the sixteenth century (though it was not published until 1829); he gave minute details of the daily life, and religious customs and beliefs of the Aztecs.

Another Franciscan, Bishop Diego de Landa, wrote on Yucatan, adding greatly to our knowledge of the later Maya. One of the most illuminating reports, uncovered in Rome and published in 1942, is the “Compendium and Description of the West Indies”, the work of the Carmelite missionary, Antonio Vazquez de Espinosa, who came to America about 1600, spent some twenty years in Mexico and Peru, and wrote detailed notes on the crops, weather, customs, abuses of Spanish rule, church organization, wages, and countless other aspects of life in early colonial times.

In the early seventeenth century, a few substantial histories were written. Notable among these were Jeronimo Becker's “Histories of New Granada and Venezuela”; Bernabe Cobo's “History of the New World” (not published until the late nineteenth century), throwing much light on the Inca past of Peru; Juan de Torquemada's “Indian Monarchy”, dealing with pre Conquest Mexico; and Alonso de Ovalle's “History of Chile”. The most comprehensive historical work of this period was Antonio