Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/626

606 and escort him on his way. Among the prominent men who would not pay him this courtesy, though remonstrated with by Luis Cortés on his brother's behalf, were Juan de Valdivieso, and the high-sheriff, Juan de Sámano. The breach between the brothers-in-law widened, and Valdivieso had on one occasion to fight his way down stairs in Luis Cortés' house, to which he had been invited for an interview. All this greatly incensed the marquis and his retainers, and open war between the factions was prevented only by the efforts of the archbishop.

 The marquis had, it seems, laid himself open to criticism by his relations with a lady of the same name as the great Cortés' famous mistress, and by favoring her relatives, who were the sons of his father's bitter enemies, to the utter neglect of the offspring of his warmest friends. These likewise became hostile to the marquis, and were afterward found among his accusers. Peralta, 199-200.

Juan Suarez Peralta’s Noticias Históricas de la Nueva España, Madrid, 1878, folio, i.-xxiv. 1-392, the work last cited, was published under the auspices of the minister of Fomento of Spain, and as a part of the Cartas de Indias, by Justo Zaragoza, who changed its title from that given by the writer, which was long and not so appropriate. The author was an eye-witness of most of the events that he relates. What he says of things that happened before this is of little weight; but his descriptions of the conspiracy of the second marqués del Valle and its consequences; of the expeditions carried out during the rules of Mendoza and Velasco; of general affairs in New Spain from the induction into office of the latter; of the landing of Hawkins and fighting at Vera Cruz, and treatment of the English prisoners in Mexico; of the acts of the several rulers down to the administration of the marques de Villamanrique, including the wars with England and Drake's career — these are interesting and valuable. The style is careless, unpretentious, but withal superior to that of some writers of reputation. From page 287 to the end are given notes.

The Cartas de Indias, Madrid, 1877, large folio, x.-xiv. 1-877, and 208 unnumbered, with fac-similes, cuts, maps, indexes, and three chromo-lithographic charts, was issued under the auspices of the department of Fomento of Spain and dedicated to King Alfonso XII. It contains letters from Columbus, Vespucci, Las Casas, and Bernal Diaz; a collection of letters from New Spain, Central America, Peru, Rio de la Plata, and the Philippine Islands — all such letters being of the 15th and 16th centuries. Several of them and a considerable number of signatures of the men that figured in those times are also given in fac-simile. To the above are added about 224 pages of geographical notes, vocabulary, biographical data, a glossary, and cuts, maps, and indexes. The letters and fac-similes, from the first to the last, are valuable in a historic sense, and the vocabulary is useful; but the biographical and historical data are not always reliable, numerous errors having been detected in comparing their contents with official records, and with the memoranda of witnesses of the events related.