Excerpt from The Natural Moral History of the Indies: Father Joseph De Acosta The Natural and Moral History of the Western Indies by Acosta, which has been selected to form two volumes of the Hakluyt Societys series, is a valuable work for two reasons. It contains an exposition of the ideas of learned men of the sixteenth century on physical geography, and it is one of the leading authorities on the ancient civilisations of Peru and Mexico. Our chief knowledge of the author is derived from his published works, only a few facts being forthcoming from other sources. His parents lived at the town of Medina del Campo, the city of the plain, about twentyfour miles from Valladolid, in Old Castille, on the left bank of the swampy river Zapardiel, and overlooked by the old castle of La Mota. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.