3 Review(s)

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Pedro de Cierza de Leon (c.1520-1554) was a Spanish solider who participated in many expeditions throughout South America. Between 1548 and 1553 he travelled across Peru, interviewing local officials and Inca prisoners and collecting information about the landscape and indigenous people. Volumes 33 (Travels of Pedro de Cierza de Leon) and 68 of the Hakluyt series were the first English translation of his work; this, the second volume, appeared in 1883 and contains a detailed description of Inca society and the Spanish conquest of Peru.