"INDICA"
WHICH WAS COMPOSED
BY
THE CAPTAIN PEDRO SARMIENTO DE GAMBOA
BY ORDER OF
THE MOST EXCELLENT LORD DON FRANCISCO DE TOLEDO VICEROY GOVERNOR AND CAPTAIN-GENERAL OF THE KINGDOMS OF PERU AND MAYOR-DOMO OF THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD OF CASTILLE
1572
[Illustration: Facsimile (reduced) of PAGE I OF THE SARMIENTO MS. 1572. From the original, Göttingen University Library. Reproduced and printed for the Hakluyt Society by Donald Macbeth.]
TO HIS SACRED CÆSARIAN MAJESTY THE KING, DON FELIPE, OUR LORD.
Among the excellencies, O sovereign and catholic Philip, that are the glorious decorations of princes, placing them on the highest pinnacle of estimation, are, according to the father of Latin eloquence, generosity, kindness, and liberality. And as the Roman Consuls held this to be the principal praise of their glory, they had this title curiously sculptured in marble on the Quirinal and in the forum of Trajan—-"Most powerful gift in a Prince is liberality[12]." For this kings who desired much to be held dear by their own people and to be feared by strangers, were incited to acquire the name of liberal. Hence that royal sentence became immortal "It is right for kings to give." As this was a quality much valued among the Greeks, the wise Ulysses, conversing with Antinous[13], King of the Phæacians, said—-"You are something like a king, for you know how to give, better than others." Hence it is certain that liberality is a good and necessary quality of kings.