Page:Vol 5 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/824

804

 were gathered in from all quarters; and persons were consulted who might throw light on particular events; while every dollar that he could spare outside the requirements of his household was devoted to pushing his works through the press. The most important of these is Cuadro Uistorico de la Revolucion de la América Mexicana, Mexico, 1823, 32. This production was commenced on the 15th of Sept., 1810, and was published in six small 4to volumes, the first of which was issued in 1823 and the last in 1832. No regular plan is observed in the Cuadro Histórico, which consists of a series of letters without order or regularity with regard to the sequence of events. The author seems merely to have added letter after letter as fast as he could gather material for the narration of incidents, whether they were connected or not. Although a vast amount of valuable documents are reproduced and a great many others referred to, his statements must always be taken with the utmost caution. He is in no sense a reliable author. Accepting without reflection any tale that fell in with his own views, many of the occurrences he relates are exaggerated, warped, or utterly false. But worse than this: Bustamante is not a thoroughly honest writer, and by the suppression of facts in some cases and the perversion of them in others, he lays himself open to the most serious censure. Other less heinous offences are noticeable in the Cuadro Histórico. Perorations are frequent, and the rancorous spirit and bitterness which they display do not make the perusal of them pleasing. With regard to style, it is easy, fluent, and clear; sometimes marked by a degree of elegance, but too often Bustamante's language is disfigured by low expressions; while the frequent occurrence of forensic and obsolete words exposes him to the charge of affectation. This work has been severely criticised by his countrymen, but no one has applied more ungenerous terms to it than Zavala, who qualifies it as a farrago of false, absurd, and ridiculous statements, while he charges the author with continual perversion of the truth, and with putting his country to shame by affording evi dence of the want of candor and honesty in a writer of its annals. ''Hist. Rev. Mex''., 2. This attack elicited from Bustamante an equally sweeping and unjust condemnation of Zavala's work. In his indignation he gives that author the lie direct, and declares that he had written a history without knowing even the names of the principal persons who figure in it. Cavo, Tres Siglos, iii. sup., Prol. vi., and p. 318-21. On the other hand, Mendívil and Alaman speak in terms of high appreciation of the services rendered by Bustamante. And not without justice. The greatest credit is due to the member for Oajaca — for during his whole congressional career Bustamante was a deputy for that state, with rare exceptions — for the untiring zeal with which he prosecuted his literary labors during a life-time of political turmoil. Had he only possessed the qualities which would have enabled him to use rightly the large accumulation of authentic material which he succeeded in laying his hands on, he would have been the greatest Mexican historian of modern times. As it is, he can hardly be regarded as having advanced much beyond the grade of an industrious compiler.

A second edition of the Cuadro Histórico was issued in five 4to volumes, comprising 2,284 pages, during the years 1843 to 1840, inclusive. As a, continuation to the above work, Bustamante published, in 1846, Historia del Emperador D. Agustin de Iturbide, an 8vo volume of 293 pages of text, with an index. This book displays the feelings with which the writer regarded that unfortunate leader. I have referred to various works of Bustamante in this and previous volumes, and to enumerate all the others would be uninteresting. Mention, however, must be made of La Galeria de Antigos Príncipes Mexicanos; Mañanas de la Alameda, ó Conversaciones sobre la Historia Antigua de México, Mexico, 1835 and 1836, 2 vols, which was published with the object of assisting the young women of Mexico in acquiring a knowledge of the history of their country; El Gabinete Mexicano, Mexico, 1842, being a history of President Bustamante's government from 1836 to the elevation of Santa Anna to the presidency; ''Apuntes para la Historia del Gobierno de Victoria; Id. de Santa Anna; and La Aparicion Guadalupana de Mexico''. Mexico, 1843. This last work illustrates the author s fanaticism, it being a defence of the