Notas y mapas

Book I, Ch.5: View of the Civilization of the Incas, Footnote 37

…

But the most emphatic testimony to the merits of the people is that afforded by Mancio Sierra Lejesema, the last survivor of the early Spanish Conquerors, who settled in Peru. In the preamble to his testament, made, as he states, to relieve his conscience, at the time of his death, he declares that the whole population, under the Incas, was distinguished by sobriety and industry; that such things as robbery and theft were unknown; that, far from licentiousness, there was not even a prostitute in the country; and that every thing was conducted with the greatest order, and entire submission to authority. The panegyric is somewhat too unqualified for a whole nation, and may lead one to suspect that the stings of remorse for his own treatment of the natives goaded the dying veteran into a higher estimate of their deserts than was strictly warranted by facts. Yet this testimony by such a man at such a time is too remarkable, as well as too honorable to the Peruvians, to be passed over in silence by the historian.

Prescott, William H. (Author). History of the Conquest of Peru.
Westminster, MD, USA: Modern Library, 2000.
ebrary collections. 30 may. 2011
<http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/Doc?id=5001979&ppg=150>