MONTESINOS, Fernando, Spanish historian, born in Osuna in 1593 ; died in Seville in 1655. He emigrated to Lima in 1610, received an appointment raider the government, and became afterward councillor of tlie viceroy and visitor of the audiencia of Charcas. During the whole of his career he showed himself very humane to the Indians, and won the friendship of their eaciqnes, who furnished him with valuable historical information. He obtained also the manuscripts of the learned Luis Lopez de Solis, bishop of Quito, who (lied in 1628, and utilized them in his works. He was reputed the ablest of Peruvian archaeologists, and made also a particular study of the mines of Peru. He published "Ophyr de Espafia, e anales de los reynds de Quito y Lima" (2 vols., Lima, 1640)" "Memorias historicas del antiguo reyno de Quito" (1652)" and works on Peruvian metallurgy, since reprinted in Henry Ternaux-Compans's collection (1850), and in the second edition of Leon Pinelo's "Epitome de la Biblioteca Oriental y Occidental" (Madrid, 1737).