The work of Pedro de Cieza de Leon is, in many respects, one of the most remarkable literary productions of the age of Spanish conquest in America. Written by a man who had passed his life in the camp from early boyhood, it is conceived on a plan which would have done credit to the most thoughtful scholar, and is executed with care, judgment, and fidelity. But before examining the work itself, I will give some account of its author–of whom, however, little is known, beyond what can be gathered from his own incidental statements in the course of his narrative.

Cieza de Leon is believed to have been born in the year 1519 in the city of Seville, where he passed the first fourteen years of his life. It has been conjectured that his father was a native of Leon, in the north of Spain, but absolutely nothing is known of his parentage.

In 1532, at the extraordinarily early age of fourteen, young Pedro embarked at Seville, and set out to seek his fortunes in the New World. At that time scarcely a year elapsed without seeing an expedition fitted out, to undertake some new discovery or conquest. Seville and Cadiz were crowded with adventurers, all eagerly seeking for a passage to that marvellous land beyond the setting sun.