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Conquest of Mexico
narrative of the Conquest: for which he is a prominent authority. His earlier annals—though no one of his manuscripts has been printed—have been diligently studied by the Spanish writers in Mexico, and liberally transferred to their pages; and his reputation like Sahagun's has doubtless suffered by the process. His Historia Chichimeca is now turned into French by M. Ternaux-Compans, forming part of that inestimable series of translations from unpublished documents, which have so much enlarged our acquaintance with the early American history. I have had ample opportunity of proving the merits of his version of Ixtlilxochitl; and am happy to bear my testimony to the fidelity and elegance with which it is executed.
Note.—It was my intention to conclude this introductory portion of the work with an inquiry into the Origin of the Mexican Civilisation. "But the general question of the origin of the inhabitants of a continent," says Humboldt, "is beyond the limits prescribed to history; perhaps it is not even a philosophic question." "For the majority of readers," says Livy, "the origin and remote antiquities of a nation can have comparatively little interest." The criticism of these great writers is just and pertinent; and, on further consideration, I have thrown the observations on this topic, prepared with some care, into the Appendix (Part I); to which those who feel sufficient curiosity in the discussion can turn before entering on the narrative of the Conquest.116
