It is a valuable addition to our authorities on ancient Peru, and is more especially valuable for its chapters containing full accounts of the minerals, medicinal plants and edible vegetables, and of the fauna of Peru.
A narrative has been recently brought to light by Don Carlos Romero, in the Revista Historica, of Lima,[1] written by a Dominican monk named Reginaldo de Lizarraga, in about 1605. It is entitled 'Descripcion de las Indias,' and consists of two parts, one geographical and the other chiefly biographical. Lizarraga travelled all over the country, from Quito to the most southern part of Chile. Finally, he became Bishop of Asuncion in Paraguay, where he died in about 1612. The geographical descriptions of Lizarraga are sketchy and unequal to those of Cieza de Leon, and he is very unsympathetic when referring to the Incas, or to the unfortunate Indians. His work is mainly occupied with brief notices of prelates and viceroys, devoting more space to the proceedings of the Viceroy Toledo. There are only two statements of interest in his work. One is that a wall was built on the pass of Vilcañota, to divide the territory of the Incas from that of the Collas. In another he gives what is clearly the correct story about Mancio Serra de Leguisamo having gambled away the great image of the sun in one night. These statements will be referred to in their places.
- ↑ Revista Historica (Lima, 1907), tom. ii. trimestres iii. and iv.
