CIEZA DE LEON, PEDRO DE (c. Spanish soldier and historian, was born at Seville. He sailed for the New World, possibly in Heredia's expedition of 1532, more probably with Duran in 1534, reaching Cartagena in November. In he went with Heredia's brother Alonzo to Darien, and in 1538 with Vadillo on an appalling journey up the valley of the Cauca; Vadillo was eventually deserted by his men, and Cieza de Leon later joined Jorge de Robledo, who consolidated the discoveries in the Cauca valley, and on his death served under Belalcazar, governor of Popayan, who had beheaded Robledo. It was in 1541, in the Cauca valley, that he started his diary. In 1547 the troops from Popayan marched to join President Gasca against Pizarro, a long journey, the details of which he carefully noted. In he went to look at the mines of Porco and Potosi, and then to Cuzco to confer with a surviving descendant of the Incas; in 1550 he left for Spain. The first part of his Cr6nica de Peru was published at Seville in 1553.
The scheme of his Cr6nica de Peru was as follows: part I., geography; part II., early history; part III. (lost), conquest; and part IV (of which books 1, 2 and 3 have been found), civil wars. The first part is a minute topographical review, founded on his diary, with an account of the customs and religion of the people as he found them, given with unusual accuracy of obser vation and without concealing his respect for the Inca civilization. Part II., referred to inaccurately by Prescott as Sarmiento, gives the history of Peru under the Incas. The ms. was preserved in the Escorial library and published in 1880.