[1192] Pinart-Brasseur Catalogue, no. 237.
[1193] Brinton’s Aboriginal American Authors, p. 26. Mr. A. F. Bandelier is said to be preparing an edition of it.
[1194] Cf. Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, 1844-1849. Ternaux’s translation is much questioned. Cf. also Kingsborough, vol. ix., and the Biblioteca Mexicana of Vigel, with notes by Orozco y Berra.
[1195] Aboriginal American Authors, p. 28.
[1196] Bancroft, Central America, vol. i. p. 686. Bandelier has given a partial list of the authorities on the conquest of Guatemala in the Amer. Antiq. Soc. Proc., October, 1880; and Bancroft (Central America, vol. i. p. 703, vol. ii. p. 736) characterizes the principal sources. Helps (end of book xv. of his Spanish Conquest) complained of the difficulty in getting information of the Guatemala affairs; but Bancroft makes use of all the varied published collections of documents on Spanish-American history, which contain so much on Guatemala; and to his hands, fortunately, came also all the papers of the late E. G. Squier. A Coleccion de Documentos Antiguos de Guatemala, published in 1857, has been mentioned elsewhere, as well as the Proceso against Alvarado, so rich in helpful material. The general historians must all be put under requisition in studying this theme,—Oviedo, Gomara, Diaz, Las Casas, Ixtlilxochitl, and Herrera, not to name others. Antonio de Remesal’s is the oldest of the special works, and was written on the spot. His Historia de Chyapa is a Dominican’s view; and being a partisan, he needs more or less to be confirmed. A Franciscan friar, Francisco Vasquez, published a Chronica de la Provincia del Santissimo Nombre de Jesus de Guatemala in 1714, a promised second volume never appearing. He magnified the petty doings of his brother friars; but enough of historical interest crept into his book, together with citations from records no longer existing, to make it valuable. He tilts against Remesal, while he constantly uses his book; and the antagonism of the Franciscans and Dominicans misguides him sometimes, when borrowing from his rival. He lauds the conquerors, and he suffers the charges of cruelty to be made out but in a few cases (Bancroft, Central America, vol. ii. pp. 142, 736). The Historia de Guatemala of Francisco Antonio de Fuentes y Guzman is quoted by Bancroft from a manuscript copy (Central America, vol. ii. p. 736), but it has since been printed in Madrid in 1882-1883, in two volumes, with annotations by Justo Zaragoza, as one of the series Biblioteca de los Americanistes. Bancroft thinks he has many errors and that he is far from trustworthy, wherever his partiality for the conquerors is brought into play. The chief modern historian of Guatemala is Domingo Juarros, who was born in that city in 1752, and died in 1820. His Compendio de la historia de la Ciudad de Guatemala was published there, the first volume in 1808 and the second in 1818; and both were republished in 1857. It was published in English in London in 1823, with omissions and inaccuracies,—according to Bancroft. The story of the Conquest is told in the second volume. Except so far as he followed Fuentes, in his partiality for the conquerors, Juarros’ treatment of his subject is fair; and his industry and facilities make him learned in its details. Bancroft (Central America, vol. ii. pp. 142, 737) remarks on his omission to mention the letters of Alvarado, and doubts, accordingly, if Juarros could have known of them.
Of the despatches which Alvarado sent to Cortés, we know only two. Bandelier (American Antiquarian Society’s Proceedings, October, 1880) says that Squier had copies of them all; but Bancroft (Central America, vol. i. p. 666), who says he has all of Squier’s papers, makes no mention of any beyond the two,—of April 11 and July 28, 1524,—which are in print in connection with Cortés’ fourth letter, in Ramusio’s version, except such as are of late date (1534-1541), of which he has copies, as his list shows (Cf. also Ternaux, vol. x., and Barcia, vol. i. p. 157). Ternaux is said to have translated from Ramusio. Oviedo uses them largely, word for word. Herrera is supposed to have used a manuscript History of the Conquest of Guatemala by Gonzalo de Alvarado.
[1197] Prescott, Mexico, vol. ii. p. 165.
[1198] A copy is in the Force Collection, Library of Congress, and another in Mr. Bancroft’s, from whose Mexico, vol. i. p. 461, we gather some of these statements.
[1199] Cf. Backer, Bibliothèque des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus; Markham’s introduction to his edition of Acosta in the Hakluyt Society’s publications.
[1200] The original edition of the De natura is scarce. Rich priced it at £1 1s. fifty years ago; Leclerc, no. 2,639, at 150 francs (cf. also Carter-Brown, i. 379; Sabin, i. 111,—for a full account of successive editions; Sunderland, i. 23). It was reprinted at Salamanca in 1595, and at Cologne in 1596. The latter edition can usually be bought for $3 or $4. Cf. Field, no. 9; Stevens, Bibliotheca Historica, no. 9; Murphy, no. 11, etc.