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2 Among these Pedro de Cieza de Leon takes the first and most honourable place. Imagine a little boy of fourteen entering upon a soldier's life in the undiscovered wilds of South America, and, without further instruction, becoming the highest authority on Inca history. It seems wonderful, yet it was at the early age of fourteen that Cieza de Leon embarked for the new world. He was born in 1519 at the town of Llerena, in Estremadura, about nineteen leagues east of Badajos, at the foot of the Sierra de San Miguel, a Moorish looking place surrounded by a wall with brick towers, and five great gates. It produced several distinguished men, including Juan de Pozo, the watchmaker who placed the giralda on the tower of Seville Cathedral. At Llerena Pedro de Cieza passed his childhood, but his boyhood was scarce begun when he embarked at Seville; serving under Pedro de Heredia, the founder and first governor of Carthagena, on the Spanish Main. Soon afterwards, in 1538, young Pedro de Cieza joined the expedition of Vadillo up the valley of the Cauca. At an age when most boys are at school, this lad had been sharing all the hardships and perils of seasoned veterans, and even then he was gifted with powers of observation far beyond his years.

The character of our soldier chronicler was destined to be formed in a rough and savage school. It is certainly most remarkable that so fine a character should have been formed amidst