O 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, Goettingen University Library_.
_Reproduced and printed for the Hakluyt Society by Donald Macbeth_.]

TO HIS SACRED CAESARIAN 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 Phaeacians, 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.

[Note 12: "Primum signum nobilitatis est liberalitas."]

[Note 13: Alcinous.]

I do not pretend on this ground, most liberal monarch, to insinuate to
your Majesty the most open frankness, for it would be very culpable on
my part to venture to suggest a thing which, to your Majesty, is so
natural that you would be unable to live without it. Nor will it happen
to so high minded and liberal a lord and king, what befell the Emperor
Titus who, remembering once, during supper time, that he had allowed one
day to pass without doing some good, gave utterance to this laudable
animadversion of himself. "O friends! I have lost a day[14]." For not
only does your Majesty not miss a day, but not even an hour, without
obliging all kinds of people with benefits and most gracious liberality.
The whole people, with one voice, says to your Majesty what Virgil sang
to Octavianus Augustus:

"Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane,
Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet."

[Note 14: "Amici! diem perdidi." Suetonius.]

But what I desire to say is that for a king who complies so we