Custodian: University of Glasgow Library Special Collections

Reference: Cp.3.13

Zarate, the Comptroller of Accounts for Castile, was sent out as Treasurer-General with the first viceroy, Blasco Nuñez de Vela, to examine the financial affairs of Peru. During his stay at Lima, he carefully collected notes and materials in his journal and, on his return to Spain, began the compilation of a history of Peru from the discovery of Pizarro to the departure of Gasca. He had access to the best official sources of information, and his work is not without value, though strongly prejudiced. The Historia del descubrimiento y conquista del Peru is the foundation of all the subsequent histories of the events to which it refers.

This is the first English translation, by Thomas Nicholas, who also translated Lopez de Gomara’s La conquista de Mexico. Nicholas was employed by the Levant Company in the Canary Islands and spent several years in prison there and in Spain for alleged heresy. On his release and return to England he published his translations of Spanish works which were probably written during his imprisonment.

The catalogue entry for this item can be found here.