The historian's mother was of the Peruvian blood royal. She was
niece of Huayna Capac, and granddaughter of the renowned Tupac
Inca Yupanqui. Garcilasso, while he betrays obvious satisfaction
that the blood of the civilized European flows in his veins,
shows himself not a little proud of his descent from the royal
dynasty of Peru; and this he intimated by combining with his
patronymic the distinguishing title of the Peruvian princes, -
subscribing himself always Garcilasso Inca de la Vega.
His early years were passed in his native land, where he was
reared in the Roman Catholic faith, and received the benefit of
as good an education as could be obtained amidst the incessant
din of arms and civil commotion. In 1560, when twenty years of
age, he left America, and from that time took up his residence in
Spain. Here he entered the military service, and held a
captain's commission in the war against the Moriscos, and,
afterwards, under Don John of Austria. Though he acquitted
himself honorably in his adventurous career, he does not seem to
have been satisfied with the manner in which his services were
requited by the government. The old reproach of the father's
disloyalty still clung to the son, and Garcilasso assures us that
this circumstance defeated all his efforts to recover the large
inheritance of landed property belonging to his mother, which had
escheated to the Crown. "Such were the prejudices against me,"
says he, "that I could not urge my ancient claims or
expectations; and I left the army so poor and so much in debt,
that I did not care to show myself again at court; but was
obliged to withdraw into an obscure solitude, where I lead a
tranquil life for the brief space that remains to me, no longer
deluded by the world or its vanities.
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