king, dated from 1529 to 1533; to which may be added the historical writings of Mujioz, Velasco, and Coronado, from 1545 to 1562. A large number of documents, consisting of reports and journals by priests and officials, relating to la Historia Ecclesiastica y civil de la Nueva Viscaya, Materiales para la Historia de Sonora, and Documentos para la Historia de Texas, collected from the archives of Mexico, furnish invaluable material for the history of that portion of the Mexican territory.
Coming down to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the number of historical documents of value is greatly augmented. The Memorias de Mexico is a collection on the history of the city of Mexico, especially referring to the foundation of her convents, illustrated with a plan of the city, dated 1618. Another municipal history is Alcala, Descripcion de Puebla, carried down to 1769, containing a full account of its edifices, interspersed with odes and sonnets, and illustrated with a map of the district in colors. Rivera, Diario Curioso contains the chronicles of Mexico from 1676 to 1696, witha preface by the hand of Bustamante, to whom the librarian of the University of Mexico presented it, with an unaccountable disregard of its value to that institution. Bustamante, however, had the liberality to publish it in 1843, in the Museo Mexicano, with a preface by himself. He also wrote a preface to another Diario by Gomez, of events from 1776 to 1798. An archive of curious biographies is the Mexico Archivo General, which contains, among other histories, the Vida de Beatriz de Silva, founder of the order of Primera Concepcion.
The Cronica de la Provincia de S. Pedro y S. Pablo de Mechoacan from 1522 to 1575, by Beaumont, is the result of extensive research by a man of the world turned friar; and the Historia de la Conquista de la Nueva Galicia, by Mota Padilla, 1740, is a manuscript history of those provinces. The original of the latter is said to exist in the Biblioteca del Carmen; but several copies have been made, one of which is in the Bancroft Library; and two printed editions have been published: one in El Pais, a periodical of 1856; and one in book form by the Mexican Geographical Society. The author of Nueva Galicia was another man of the world, who, after being fiscal to the Audiencia of Guadalajara, and incumbent of other civil offices, turned churchman, and devoted himself to study.
The Representacion Politico Legal of Aumada, advocate of the Mexican Audiencia, is a plea for the free admission of Spanish Indians to secular and ecclesiastical offices. A similar plea is the Representacion Umilde of 1771, by the Ayuntamiento of the capital. In Adalid, Causa Formada, 1815, three volumes bound in parchment, is found the trial of prominent supporters of the insurgents in Mexico. 'The proceedings of a similar trial are found in Extracto de la Causa of Matoso; and other matters concerning the revolutionary period of 1812 to 1821 in Orizaba, is found in Ovizava Libro Noticioso, an original diary, with a preface by Carlos Maria Bustamante, the most prolific historical writer of Mexico. He was not only a lawyer and editor, but joined the revolutionary party, and was elected deputy from his native province of Oajaca, and at one time president pro tem. of the Mexican Congress. From 1836 to 1841 he was one of the five conservadores of supreme power in the republic of which his brother was president. Nearly all the important original manuscripts left by him are in the Bancroft Library.
It was during these revolutionary times that so much of value to the history of Mexico became scattered. 'The manuscript Descripcion de Darien, a report by its governor, Remon, to the viceroy, the most complete statement known, was found among a pile of waste paper ina store in Bogota, and sent to Mr. Bancroft by a friend. Many writings of this kind had been turned over to the cartridge makers.
Of standard works on Spanish history, the library contains, besides those referred to, those of Cortés, Bernal Diaz, Mendieta, Motolinia, Sahagun, Torquemada, Acosta, Peter Martyr, Oviedo, Gomara, Herrera,
