The Conquests of Mexico And Peru

Front Cover
Cosimo, Inc., Oct 1, 2005 - Travel - 572 pages
With its vivid language and bold strokes, the magnificent History of the Conquest of Peru, first published in 1847, is one of historian William Prescott's landmark works. A masterly study of Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro's overthrow of the Inca Empire, this astonishing chronicle is considered a classic of Latin American history. Noted for its striking portrayal of the Spanish character, the book rings with a "fusion of courage, cruelty, pride, and gallows humor," says Darnell. "We seem to be overhearing dialogue and observing firsthand the interaction between the Spaniards as they struggle for control of an empire." He hails this as "an immensely readable history."Also available from Cosimo Classics: History of the Conquest of Mexico, Prescott's companion volume about Cort s's subjugation of the Aztecs.Historian, writer, and scholar WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT (1796-1859) was born in Salem, Massachusetts. A regular contributor to the prestigious Boston literary journal North American Review, he also authored numerous books of history, including 1837's The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, a critical and popular success in both America and Europe.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Section 1
725
Section 2
733
Section 3
752
Section 4
776
Section 5
791
Section 6
805
Section 7
825
Section 8
834
Section 17
997
Section 18
1015
Section 19
1036
Section 20
1049
Section 21
1061
Section 22
1072
Section 23
1082
Section 24
1098

Section 9
863
Section 10
883
Section 11
898
Section 12
908
Section 13
935
Section 14
952
Section 15
964
Section 16
982
Section 25
1119
Section 26
1131
Section 27
1142
Section 28
1163
Section 29
1178
Section 30
1196
Section 31
1214
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Page 749 - The body of the deceased Inca was skilfully embalmed, and removed to the great temple of the Sun at Cuzco. There the Peruvian sovereign, on entering the awful sanctuary, might behold the effigies of his royal ancestors, ranged in opposite files, — the men on the right, and their queens on the left, of the great luminary which blazed in refulgent gold on the walls of the temple. The bodies, clothed in the princely attire which they had been accustomed to wear, were placed on chairs of gold. and...
Page 764 - No man could be rich, no man could be poor in Peru; but all might enjoy and did enjoy, a competence. Ambition, avarice, the love of change, the morbid spirit of discontent, those passions which most agitate the minds of men, found no place in the bosom of the Peruvian.
Page 738 - Oceano (Madrid, 1730), dec. 6, lib. 6, cap. 9.) McCulloh, in some sensible reflections on the origin of the Peruvian civilization, adduces, on the authority of Garcilasso de la Vega, the famous temple of Pachacamac, not far from Lima, as an example of architecture more ancient than that of the Incas. (Researches, Philosophical and Antiquarian, concerning the Aboriginal History of America (Baltimore, 1829), p.

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