More than four hundred years ago, Pedro de Cieza de Leon set out to conduct the readers of his time and of subsequent generations over the Royal Road of the Incas. His chronicles of Peru, published in 1553 and 1880, rank with Bernal Diaz del Castillo s account of the conquest of Mexico.
While previous English translations have been much abridged, and for many years unavailable, this translation of the Inca materials by Harriet de Onis is not only accurate but possesses a superb literary quality of its own. Victor W. von Hagen skillfully interjoined Cieza s two chronicles to read as...