Thus, while his contemporaries gathered light
from his suggestions as to the present condition of affairs, the
historian of later times is no less indebted to him for
information in respect to the past. His manuscript was freely
consulted by Herrera, and the reader, as he peruses the pages of
the learned historian of the Indies, is unconsciously enjoying
the benefit of the researches of Ondegardo. His valuable
Relaciones thus had their uses for future generations, though
they have never been admitted to the honors of the press. The
copy in my possession, like that of Sarmiento's manuscript, for
which I am indebted to that industrious bibliographer, Mr. Rich,
formed part of the magnificent collection of Lord Kingsborough, -
a name ever to be held in honor by the scholar for his
indefatigable efforts to illustrate the antiquities of America.
Ondegardo's manuscripts, it should be remarked, do not bear his
signature. But they contain allusions to several actions of the
writer's life, which identify them, beyond any reasonable doubt,
as his production. In the archives of Simancas is a duplicate
copy of the first memorial, Relacion Primera, though, like the
one in the Escurial, without its author's name. Munoz assigns it
to the pen of Gabriel de Rojas, a distinguished cavalier of the
Conquest. This is clearly an error; for the author of the
manuscript identifies himself with Ondegardo, by declaring, in
his reply to the fifth interrogatory, that he was the person who
discovered the mummies of the Incas in Cuzco; an act expressly
referred, both by Acosta and Garcilasso, to the Licentiate Polo
de Ondegardo, when corregidor of that city.
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