Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/535

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 folio, 523 pages, and index. It contains a detailed historical and physical account of northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas, from the conquest till 1742. The author, born in Guadalajara October 6, 1688, was the second son of Matías Lopez, an hidalgo from Estremadura, and Ana de la Mota, a lineal descendant of the conquerors, and of illustrious family, who for all that at her marriage could not, it is said, sign the papers because she did not know how to write. From 1713 to 1746, and even later, he filled several municipal and judicial offices, namely, those of district judge, attorney-general, and associate justice of the audiencia of Guadalajara. His character as a man, lawyer, and public officer stands high.

Matías de la Mota Padilla, as he preferred to call himself, having become a widower, was ordained a priest. The audiencia asked the crown to grant him a benefice, but it was deaf to all solicitations in his favor. Icazbalceta, to whose investigations we owe what is known of that writer, declares Beristain mistaken in saying that he was a prebendary. Mota Padilla left no property at his death, which occurred in July 1766, at the age of 68. All his services might perhaps not have saved his name from oblivion, but his history preserved it with its honorable record. For writing this work he had a double object in view, namely, obedience to the king's command, and saving from oblivion the deeds of the conquerors of the country, among whom had been his own maternal ancestors. In the preparation of his work he was painstaking; he searched the public archives, examined private papers, consulted many persons, and used the writings of the Franciscan friar Antonio Tello. The history was finished in 1742. It was sent by the author to the king through the governor of Nueva Galicia in August of that year. The copy did not for some reason reach the court, and the king on hearing of the existence of such a work in 1747 directed that two copies should be sent him, the expense to be paid out of the judiciary fund; but there being no available sum in that fund, the author had them prepared at his own expense. The original writing had cost him over 1,000 pesos, paper being worth then, in 1741-2, from one to two reales per sheet, and 50 pesos aream. Toward the end of 1753 he transmitted the work again; and the receipt not having been acknowledged, the author asked a friend who was going to Spain to solicit for him from the king a copyright that he might print and publish it, and thus be possibly enabled to recover the cost. All his efforts and expenditures were in vain. It seems that the copies forwarded the second time did not reach the court, for the king on the 21st of February, 1790, asked for a copy. Still another was made and forwarded. Of the history there are several manuscript copies, of which I know four: that of the archivo general, Ramirez', and Andrade's, now my own. The division of the work varies in the several copies; mine has two parts, each of 48 chapters. It was published in the feuilleton of the newspaper El Pais, full of gross errors, and should be left unnoticed. The better edition mentioned at the head was published under the auspices of the 'Sociedad Mexicana de Geografia y Estadistica.' I also possess a manuscript copy, 1 vol. folio, 832 pages, with an index in 17 pages, taken from volumes v. and vi. of the collection of Memorias Históricas, which exist in 32 volumes, except vol. i, in the general archives of Mexico.