In South America, the only native historical writers who employed their
own tongue appear to have been of the Peruvian Qquichua stock. None of
their productions have been published, but one or more are in existence
and accessible. Prominent among them and deserving of early editing by
competent hands, is an anonymous treatise, partly translated by Dr.
Francisco de Avila, in 1608, on the "Errors, False Gods, Superstitions
and Diabolical Rites" of the natives of the provinces of Huarochiri,
Mama and Chaclla. The original text is in Madrid, and Avila's
translation, as far as it goes, has been rendered into English by Mr.
Clements R. Markham, and published in one of the Hackluyt Society's
volumes.[43]

A member of the Inca family, already referred to, Don Luis Inca, is
reported to have written a series of historical notes, _Advertencias_,
"with his own hand and in his own tongue;" but what became of his
manuscript is not known.[44]

There is another class of historical documents, which profess to be the
production of native hands, and which are moderately numerous. These are
the official letters and petitions drawn up by the chiefs in their own
tongues, and forwarded to the Spanish authorities. Of these, two
interesting specimens, one in the "Abolachi" tongue (a dialect of
Muskokee), and the other in Timucuana, were published in fac-simile by
the late Mr. Buckingham Smith, but in a very limited number of copies
(only fifty in all). Others in Nahuatl and Maya, also in fac-simile,
appear in that magnificent volume, the _Cartas de Indias_, issued
by the Spanish Government in 1880. Doubtless more examples could be
found in the public Archives in Spain, and they should all be collected
into one volume. They were probably prompted by the Spanish local
authorities; but it is likely that they show the true structure of the