FERNANDEZ, DIEGO, a Spanish adventurer and historian of the 16th century. Born at Palencia, he was educated for the church, but about 1545 he embarked for Peru, where he served in the royal army under Alonzo de Alvarado, and became chron icler of Peru. He wrote a narrative of the insurrection of Fran cisco Hernandez Giron, of the rebellion of Gonzalo Pizarro, and of the administration of Pedro de la Gasca. The work, Primera y segunda parte de la Historia del Piru (Seville, 1571), was dedi cated to Philip II. It is the fullest and most authentic record existing of the events it relates.
A notice of the work will be found in W. H. Prescott's History of the Conquest of Peru (new ed., 1902) .