, the learned librarian of the Boston
Athenaeum; whose minute acquaintance with the grammatical
structure and the true idiom of our English tongue has enabled me
to correct many inaccuracies into which I had fallen in the
composition both of this and of my former works.
From these different sources I have accumulated a large amount of
manuscripts, of the most various character, and from the most
authentic sources; royal grants and ordinances, instructions of
the Court, letters of the Emperor to the great colonial officers,
municipal records, personal diaries and memoranda, and a mass of
private correspondence of the principal actors in this turbulent
drama. Perhaps it was the turbulent state of the country which
led to a more frequent correspondence between the government at
home and the colonial officers. But, whatever be the cause, the
collection of manuscript materials in reference to Peru is fuller
and more complete than that which relates to Mexico; so that
there is scarcely a nook or corner so obscure, in the path of the
adventurer, that some light has not been thrown on it by the
written correspondence of the period. The historian has rather
had occasion to complain of the embarras des richesses; for, in
the multiplicity of contradictory testimony, it is not always
easy to detect the truth, as the multiplicity of cross-lights is
apt to dazzle and bewilder the eye of the spectator.
The present History has been conducted on the same general plan
with that of the Conquest of Mexico.
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