In the Prologue to his First Part, Cieza de Leon announced the plan of his great work:—.

Part I. The divisions and description of the provinces of Peru.
Part II. The government, great deeds, origin, policy, buildings, androads of the Yncas.
Part III. Discovery and conquest of Peru by Pizarro, and rebellion ofthe Indians.
Part IV. Book I. War between Pizarro and Almagro.
Book II. War of the young Almagro.
Book III. The civil war of Quito.
Book IV. War of Huarina.
Book V. War of Xaquixaguana.
Commentary I. Events from the founding of the Audience to thedeparture of the President.
Commentary II. Events to the arrival of the Viceroy Mendoza.

Part I of this very complete Chronicle of Peru was published at Seville in folio, by Martin Clement in 1553. A second edition, in duodecimo, was printed at Antwerp by Jean Steeltz in 1554;[12] and another independent edition, also at Antwerp and in the same year, by Martin Nucio. In 1555 an Italian translation, by Agostino di Gravalis, appeared at Rome, and was reprinted at Venice by Giordano Ziletti, in 1560. A third Italian version was published at Venice in 1566. An English translation by John Stevens came out in London in 1576. The latest Spanish edition forms part of the second volume of the Historiadores Primitivos de Indias, in the Biblioteca de Autores Españoles (vol. 26), and is edited by Don Enrique de Vedia. It was published at Madrid in 1853. Lastly, the Hakluyt Society issued a translation in English in 1864.[13]

Part II remained in manuscript until 1873, when the Peruvian editor, and in 1880 the Spanish editor, printed their versions. An English translation is now, for the first time, issued by the Hakluyt Society.

Part III, and Books I and II of Part IV, are still in manuscript and inaccessible, but Don M. J. de la Espada knows that they exist and where, although he has not seen them.

Book III of Part IV long remained inedited. The manuscript is in the Royal Library at Madrid, and is in handwriting of the middle of the 16th century. It includes the war of Quito, and is divided into 239 chapters. A copy of this manuscript was included in the collection of Don Antonio de Uguina, on whose death it passed into the possession of M. Ternaux-Compans of Paris. Afterwards Mr. Rich obtained it, and sold it in 1849 to Mr. Lenox of New York for £600. At length this Book III of Part IV was printed and edited in 1877, with an interesting and very learned introduction by Don Marcos Jimenez de la Espada.[14]

Books IV and V of Part IV, and the two Commentaries, are not known to be in existence; but they were written, for Cieza de Leon refers to them in his Prologue as completed.

Mr. Prescott was mistaken in supposing that Cieza de Leon only completed the First Part.[15] He worked so diligently, and with such ability, and sound judgment, that he was able to finish the whole of the grand work he had projected. He is thus the greatest and most illustrious among the historians of Peru. So that his fate has been peculiarly hard. For more than three centuries his First Part only has been credited to him. His most valuable Second Part, though used and highly appreciated by Mr. Prescott, was attributed to an obscure lawyer who never was out of Spain in his life. One book of his Fourth Part has also at length been edited, but all the rest of his work still remains in manuscript. The accomplished Spanish editor, Don Marcos Jimenez de la Espada, was influenced in his labours and researches by a generous zeal to repair, in some degree, the great injustice which has been done to the memory of Cieza de Leon.

In my Introduction to the First Part, I gave some account of the author, all indeed that could be gathered from the part of his work then accessible; and I said that he was supposed to have been born in Seville.[16] This is an error. The Spanish editor has pointed out the authority for believing that the place of his birth was the town of Llerena in Estremadura.[17] In my former Introduction I suggested from the dates, and from the company in which we find him immediately on landing in America, that young Cieza de Leon, then a boy between 13 and 15, sailed from his native land in one of the ships which formed the expeditionary fleet of Don Pedro de Heredia, who had obtained a grant of the government of the region between the river Magdalena and the gulf of Darien. This fleet left Cadiz in 1532, and arrived at Cartagena in 1533. But the Spanish editor has shown that there are difficulties in the way of this conclusion, and Cieza himself is slightly contradictory in the matter of dates. He, however, mentions having seen the treasures of Atahualpa at Seville, when they arrived from Caxamarca,[18] which was in 1534. Señor de la Espada, therefore, concludes that our author did not sail for America until 1534, and that he embarked with the ships of Rodrigo Duran, which anchored at Cartagena in November 1534. At all events he was in San Sebastian de Buena Vista in 1537,[19] and was with the first Spaniards who opened a road from the north to the south sea. Thence he accompanied Pedro Vadillo in his expedition up the valley of the Cauca to Cali, and then joined Jorge de Robledo, who established towns in this Cauca valley, and conquered some of the cannibal tribes. It was at this time, in 1541, when at Cartago in the Cauca valley, that our author conceived a strong desire to write an account of the strange things that were to be seen in the new world.[20] “Oftentimes when the other soldiers were reposing, I was tiring myself by writing. Neither fatigue, nor the ruggedness of the country, nor the mountains and rivers, nor intolerable hunger and suffering, have ever been sufficient to obstruct my two duties, namely, writing, and following my flag and my captain without fault.” In 1547 he joined the President Gasca in his march to Cuzco, and was present at the final rout of Gonzalo Pizarro. After a residence at Cuzco he undertook a journey southwards to Charcas, under the special auspices of Gasca, and with the sole object of learning all that was worthy of notice. Returning to Lima he finished his First Part on September 8th, 1550. He says he was then thirty-two years of age, and had passed seventeen of them in the Indies.

The Second Part was also nearly completed before Cieza de Leon left Peru, because he mentions having shown most of it to two learned judges at Lima, Dr. Bravo de Saravia and the Licentiate Hernando de Santillan. The latter was himself the author of a valuable work on the government of the Yncas, which also long remained in manuscript. It was first printed in Madrid in 1879, having been edited by Don Marcos Jimenez de la Espada. From incidental notices in the Second Part, we learn how diligently young Cieza de Leon collected information respecting the history and government of the Yncas, after he had written his accurate yet picturesque description of the country in his First Part. He often asked the Indians what they knew of their condition before the Yncas became their lords.[21] He carefully examined the temple of Cacha, and inquired into the traditions concerning it, from the intelligent native governor of an adjacent village.[22] In 1550 he went to Cuzco with the object of collecting information, and it was arranged by Juan de Saavedra, the Corregidor of that city, that one of the surviving descendants of the great Ynca Huayna Ccapac, an intelligent and learned native named Cayu Tupac, should confer with him. At the very time when Cieza de Leon was diligently studying the history of the Yncas under the guidance of this Peruvian “Pundit”, the young Ynca Garcilasso de la Vega, then eleven years of age, was at school in the same old city of Cuzco, learning Latin under the good Canon Cuellar. The two historians must often have seen each other, the little half-caste boy playing in the streets with his schoolfellows, and the stately young Spanish soldier studying carefully with his noble Ynca friend. Cieza de Leon explains the plan of his Second Part, which was, first to review the system of government of the Yncas, and then to narrate the events of the reign of each sovereign. He weighs conflicting evidence, and gives the version which appears to him to be nearest the truth, sometimes also adding the grounds of his decision. He spared no pains to obtain the best and most authentic information; and his sympathy with the conquered people, and generous appreciation of their many good and noble qualities, give a special charm to his narrative.