Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/315

Rh of the 'Dialogues of Love' by a Jew named Abarbanel, who wrote under the nom de plume of El Leon Ebreo. The Inca's translation was published in 1590. The dedication to the King contains a full account of Garcilasso's Inca lineage.

His next work was a narrative of the expedition of Hernando de Soto in Florida, which he completed in 1591. He is said to have got his information chiefly from the accounts of an old soldier who served with de Soto. It was first published at Lisbon in 1605, and reprinted several times. The best edition is that of 1722.

Don Pascual de Gayangos gave me a curious manuscript written by the Inca, which appears to have been intended for a dedicatory epistle to be placed at the beginning of the Inca's work on Florida. It is addressed to the head of the Vargas family, and consists of a full genealogical account of the house of Vargas, followed by an abstract of the contents of the work on Florida, and an explanation of the system adopted by the author in its division into six books. In the genealogical part there are several interesting digressions, both personal and historical.

We gather from this document that his uncle, Don Alonzo de Vargas, a military officer of long and varied service, being childless, adopted the Inca as his heir.

For many years before his death Garcilasso had lived in a hired house in the city of Cordova—'mi pobre casa de alquiler.' He was never married.