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278 As years rolled on he began to think more of the land of his birth, and, as we can gather from the above document, he had resolved to write the story of his native land in 1596, the date of the document.

In that or the next year a Jesuit residing at Cordova, named Maldonado de Saavedra, a native of Seville, gave the Inca the history of Peru by Blas Valera, a manuscript written in most elegant Latin. The Inca says that only one half was rescued from pillage during the sack of Cadiz by the English. But the priests were allowed to take their papers with them, and Dr. Gonzalez de la Rosa thinks that Garcilasso received the history intact. He speaks with great respect of the knowledge and learning of Blas Valera, quoting twenty-one passages from his work, most of them long and important. For a narrative of the events of each Inca's reign, Garcilasso wrote to his old schoolfellows asking them to help him by sending him accounts of conquests of the Incas in the countries of their mothers, for each province has its quipus and recorded annals and traditions. He adds that they sent them to him, and that he thus got the records of the deeds of the Incas. His great friend Diego de Alcobasa had become a priest, and he sent a valuable account of the ruins