Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/678

 668 Reviews of Books of each of the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Vir- ginia, and South CaroHna ; while two chapters are given to the minor navies of the Northern and Southern states. It is an interesting fact that these individual states had as elaborate machinery for controlling their navies as did the Continental Congress — naval boards, commis- sioners of the navy, and boards of war. There was also elaborate naval legislation, and admiralty courts not always amenable to the regu- lations proposed by Congress. The book contains a most useful table of contents, a fine index, and a valuable bibliography of manuscript as well as of printed sources. An appendix contains a list of commissioned officers in the navy and marine corps, and a list of armed vessels in the service of the United States during the Revolution. C. H. Van Tyne. Vida de Herrdii. Biografia escrita por Eduardo Posada y Pedro M. Ibanez y premiada en el Concurso del Centenario. [Biblio- teca de Historia Nacional, III.] (Bogota: Imprenta Nacional. 1903. Pp. 477.) Los Comuueros. El Vasallo Instruido, por J. de Finestr.d. El Comuncro Galan, por A. M. Galan. Resena Zipaquirena, por L. Orjuela. Los Comuncros dc Neiva y Los Llanos. Apen- dice. [Biblioteca de Historia Nacional, IV.] (Bogota: Im- prenta Nacional. 1905. Pp. xvi, 453.) The Biblioteca de Historia Nacional, an undertaking of Senores Eduardo Posada and Pedro M. Ibanez, is designed to provide a collec- tion of inedited and rare materials and monographs on the history of Colombia, principally in the nineteenth century. Volume I. (Bogota, 1902) contains, under the title La Patria Boba, three inedited documents of considerable interest: Tiempos Coloniales, by J. A. Vargas Jurado (a chronological history from 1714 to 1764 by a contemporary) ; Libra dc varias noticias particulares que han sucedido en esta capital de Santa Fc de Bogota. . . dcsde el alio de 1743, by Jose Maria Caballero (Bo- gota, September, 1813) ; and Poeiiia que contiene la historia de la entrada del tirano Simon Bolivar, y establecimiento del titidado Con- greso en esta capital del Nuevo Reino de Granada, con noticia de sii libertad por las victoriosas annas del Rcy Nuestro Sefior, by D. Jose Antonio de Torres y Pefia, Cura de Tabio, 1816 (pp. 275-476). Volume II. consists of documents, in the main inedited, relative to the life and career of Nariiio, with an introduction and a few foot-notes. The title of the volume is: El Precursor: Documentos sobre la Vida Publica y Privada del General Antonio Narifio (Bogota, 1903). The subject of volume III., Pedro Alcantara Herran, lived 1800- 1872, is one of the most prominent figures in Colombian history. He joined the revolutionary forces in 1814 and by 1828 had risen to the rank of general, doing service under both Sucre and Bolivar. He was minister of war in 1830; military governor of Panama, 1836-1837; minis-