FERNANDEZ, Diego, Spanish-American historian, born in Palencia, Spain, about 1530, died in Sevilla, 1581. He adopted the military profession, went to Peru in 1545, and took part ill the campaign of 1553 and 1554, in which Francisco Giron (q. v.) was defeated and his party destroyed. The Marquis de Cafiete, who was viceroy in 1556, gave him an office, and ordered him to write the history of the events in which he had taken part. He afterward returned to Spain, where Sandoval, the president of the council of the Indias, requested him to write also an account of the troubles caused by Gonzalo Pizarro and his adherents. The work composed by Fernandez is entitled "Primera y Segunda parte de la Historia del Peru" (Seville, 1571). The author gives a detailed account of all that passed in Peru from the arrival of the first viceroy, Blasco Nufiez de Vela, in 1544. Since he took part in several of the events that he describes, and knew all the men of whom he writes, his history is usually regarded as the best account of the conquest of Peru. Garcilaso de la Vega, however, aecuses him of partiality, and says that his record of events is colored by his animosity toward individuals. The council of the Indias forbade the sale of the work and the inhabitants of Spanish America were particularly forbidden to read it.