Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/808

788

 than the hot-headed Mendieta, he is less clear-sighted, and easily led into errors; he fairly revels in miracles and saintly dissertations, and loses himself in wordy arguments for his theme and cloth, often with striking simplicity. Nevertheless, his work merits admiration for its laborious thoroughness, which has deservedly made it the standard history for its period and field, for its comparatively excellent plan and order, and for its clearness of style; in all of which Torquemada stands preëminent among contemporaries, justly entitled to what a modern Mexican writer calls him, the Livy of New Spain. The claim of the Monarquia Indiana as a standard authority is conceded in the frequent and copious use made of it by general and local writers; and by the absence till Cavo's time of a comprehensive history for the century. Yet the latter is brief and unsatisfactory, giving in his volume on the three centuries of Spanish rule but one seventh to this earlier and more important period. A little fuller, yet equally unsatisfactory, as before remarked, is the more modern Ribera, while Zamacois, who dwells on the Spanish colonial period, 1521-1821, in seven respectable volumes, accords but a little more than one of them to the sixteenth century. This unevenness applies also to the subject-matter, which is compiled, and carelessly so, from a few of the most accessible books and records, so that a number of interesting periods and incidents are either wholly overlooked, or treated in bare outline.

Besides these general works, a number of treatises on special episodes and states have been edited or written by such Mexican writers as Alaman, Ramirez, Icazbalceta, Orozco y Berra, Bustamante, Romero, Gil, Prieto, and a number of others whose names figure in the voluminous Boletin of the Mexican Geographical Society. Still another class of contributions is to be found in the narratives of travellers and navigators, who report not only on affairs, society, and resources as observed by them in the countries visited, but add much to the knowledge of their earlier history from hearsay or research. This material is scattered throughout a vast number of collections of voyages, a class of books to which Ramusio may properly claim title as founder, as I have shown elsewhere.

Herewith I give broader references to some authorities consulted for the preceding chapters: Torquemada, i. 332-670, and iii. 232-634, passim; Concilios Prov., MS., i. 34-320; ii. 89-100; iii. 1-455; iv. 67; Mex., Actas Prov., MS., 4.3-8, 62-170; America, Descrip., MS., 180; Papeles Franciscanos, MS., i. 328-74; Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., iii. 480-91, 520-30; iv. 360-77, 440-62, 491-547; vi. 65, 182-3, 455-6; xi. 5-29, 102-18, 190-211; xiv. 101-3, 196-201; XV. 447-60; xvi. 142-87, 376-460; xvii. 532; xviii. 328-30, 435-7; xix. 32-5; xxiii. 520-47; ''Burgoa, Geog. Descrip., Oajaca,'' i. 34-194, passim; ii. 202-388, passim, 410-11; Id, Palestra 57-139, 189-200, 260-3; ''Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq.,'' v. 157-8; vi. 153; ix. 284-93; ''Gomara, Hist. Ind., 63; Benzoni, Mondo Nuovo, 93 — 4; Cartas de Indias, 108 — 867, passim; Recop. de Indios,'' i. 51-221, passim, 594, 608; ii. 39, 48-64, 122, 199-200, 384; Cortés, Estcritos Sueltos, 102; Id., Despatches, 30; ''Calle, Mem. y Not., 52-90; Mex., Hieroglyph. Hist., 113, 126-7, 157; Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, 8-754, passim; Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad, 20-4, 249-50; Figueroa, Vindicias, MS., 47, 54, 74; Hakluyt's Voy.,'' iii. 396-7, 469-95, 560-1, 602-3, 814-15; Sguier's MSS., x. 4, 5; xiii. 4; xix. 392; xxi. 1-3; xxii. 1, 33, 101, 115-16; ''Solis, Hist. Mex., i. 74 — 8; Oviedo,'' iii. 168; San Francisco de Mex., MS., 1, 5, 216; ''Sin., Doc. Hist., MS., i. 10-13; Las Casas Hist. Ind.,'' iv. 374-6, 465-6, 477, 495; v. 1-5; ''Id., Hist. Apolog., MS., 28-9; Vetancurt, Menolog., 3-156; Id., Chron.''