Afanes, I infer that the author was the friar in charge of Santa Rita and Jesus María from a date somewhat earlier than 1728, that he wrote much of his work at Santa Rita, that his name was probably Joseph Ortega, and that the part of his narrative relating to Nayarit was largely founded on a manuscript from the pen of father Antonio Arias de Ibarra. Frejes, however, speaks of father Fluvia as the author. Hist. Breve, 20. Of the three parts which make up the volume the first is entitled Maravillosa reduccion y conquista de la Provincia de San Joseph del Gran Nayar, Nuevo Reino de Toledo, filling 25 chapters and 223 pages. It is therefore the leading authority for the present chapter of my work. Mota-Padilla's Conq. N. Gal., 271-2, 319, 458-87, 510, written ten years earlier than the Afanes, and not consulted by the author of that work, contains some information not included in the Jesuit record, and is hardly second to it as an authority. Alegre, Hist. Comp., iii. 196-239, gives a very full account of the subject, following the Afanes pretty closely, and his version is repeated in Dicc. Univ. Geog., x. 10-18, 834. Arlegui. Cron. Zac., 89-90, 172-3, 201, and Arricivita, Cron. Seráf., 88-92, narrate the acts of the Franciscans in the Nayarit region.
