OCR Text |
Show ACCOUNT OF THE WRITERS OF THE Dotlor Cervantes, dean of the metropolitan church of Mexico. Herrera, the Chronicle-writer, praifes the Hiil:orical Memoirs of Mexico, written by this author ,j but we have no other intelligence of him. Antonio de Saavedra Guzman, a noble Mexican, during his voyage to Spain, wrote in twt.:nty cantos, the Hi!l:ory of the Conquefl: of Mexico, and printed it in Madrid, under the Spania1 title of El Pe- 1'f'grino IndiaJto, in 1 599· This work ought to be reckoned amongfl: the hiil:ories of Mexico; for it has nothing of poetry but the meafure. P' edro Guterrez de S. Chiara. Betancourt made ufe of the manu-fcripts of this author in his Hifl:ory of Mexico ; but we know nothing of the title or quality of the work, nor of the country of the author, although we fufpeCt he was an Indian. In the Seventeenth Century. Antonio de Herrera, . royal hiil:oriographer for the Indies. This candid and judicious autl~or wrote jn four volumes in fo1io, Eight D~cade~ of the Hifl:ory of America, beginning from the year I 492, tog~ther with a Geographical Defcription of the Spanifb Colonies; wh1ch work was printed for the .fir!l: time in Madrid, at the beginning of the laft century, and afterwards reprinted in I730; alfo tran!lated and publifhed in other languages of Europe. Although the principal deiign of the author was to relate the atl:ions of the Spaniards, he does not, however, omit the Ancient fl~O:ory of the Americans; but in what relates to the Mexicam, he copi~s for the mort part the accounts of f\~oil:a .and. Gomara. His method, however, like that of all rigid anno.ltfts, .1s dJfagreea~'le. to the lovers of hillory, becaufe at every .fi:ep the narration of faCts 1s mterrupted with the account of other uncoRnected occurrenees. . ..Atigo ~artinez, a f0rcign author, although , of Spania1 furname. .A:fter havmg travelled through the greate.fl: part of Europe and refided many ye .ars . .1· 0 M ex1· co, W.Ll 'Jere he made himfclf moll uf' eful by his great iklll m mathematic~, he wrote the Hifiory of New Spain, 2 which ANCIENT HISTORY OF MEXICO. which was printed in Mexico in 1606. : In the Ancient Hill:ory, he treads for the ruofl: part in the footftcps of Acoil:a; but there are ail:ronomical and phyfical obfervations in it of importance to the geography and natural hifiory of thefe countries. . Gregorio Garcia, a Dominican SpaniarJ. His famous treatife on the Origin of the Americans, printed in quarto, at Valentia, in 1607, afterwards enlarged and repri nted in Madrid, in 1729, in folio, is a work of vall: erudition, but almoft totally ufelefs, as it gives little or no a!litl:ancc in difcovering truth ; the foundation for the opinions which he maintains co~cerning the origin of the Americans, are, for the moil: part, weak conjetl:ures founded on the refemblance between fome of their cuftoms and words, and thofe of other nations. Juan de Torqucmada, a Francifcan Spaniard. The Hi.fi:ory of Mexico, written by him under the title of the Indian Monarchy, printed in Madrid about I 6 I 4, in three great volumes in folio, is, without quetl:ion, the moil: complete in refpeCt: to the antiquity of Mexico of nny hitherto publifhed. The author refided in Mexico from his youth to his death; knew the Mexican language well , converfcd with the Mexicans for upwards of fifty years, colleCted a great number of ancient piCtures and excellent manufcripts, and laboured at his work more than twenty years; but in fpite of his diljgence, and fuch advantages, he f-i·equently betrays want of memory, of critical fkill, and good tafte; and in his hj(l:ory there appear many grofs contraditl:ions, particularly in chronolo~ y, fcveml childi{h recitals, and a great deal of fuperfluous learning, on which account it requires conliderable patience to read it; neverthelefs, there being many things of cnriofity and value in it~ which would be fought for in vain in other authors, I was under the necem ty to do with this hiil:ory what Virgil did with the works of En.nius, to [earch for the gems amongtl: the rubbi(h . Arrias Villalobos, a Spaniard. His Hill:ory of Mexico carried on from. the foundati.on of the capita], to the year 1623, wrjtten in verfc, ami nr)ntod there in the above year, is a work of little value. Chrift€lval . XX& |