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Show SPCR RIP BER : ; Pre Fe | ve?| ee MULL EAC TeneTRC Tee aeOM Ses IPoaeGae te RODACEAL SAL AUS ACPO TC PARA PAR ORIEN eT ee ee tee Bek Fa Pee AP OAT We ge afetfetatishfeis Gee Se ee Pe ee BM xvi rea) <) E ul k i é ' LPs i eS ie Pad i a Hi Oo i | * 4 i hy if Pea ? t te ee te” | Li aa CZ 7 - / re F 3 ¥ Pd te a teyi by ca of private land claims. i Ce td tel a THE SPANISH ARCHIVES OF NEW MEXICO of them were used in the trial of cases before the court Le Piet [eenDc ee es es =O. Wert 8. O-@~# ted. be Cet et ee ee el a tet aed eo = a he Pe Chee ee aeP [eet a) CB or. al a ee aes eee BD mb wh ee te be Se Bel—ec thy CatPe ht eS -@-@ Pt oe ye 7 During the last year of the administration of Gover- te o de + ad Siet translating these archives, and the governor was empowered to contract with some competent person for the work, ‘‘it being understood that only such documents as contained matters of historical interest to New Mexico shall be required to be translated, and that the person with whom such contract shall be made shall also make clean copies of said documents as he may translate, with proper indexes to both Spanish and English, so as to prepare the same for publication as historical documents; such documents shall also be arranged chronologically.’’ Mr. Ad. F. Bandelier was employed by the governor for the purpose. All that the Territory ever received for the money paid to Mr. Bandelier was a ‘‘list’’ of 1074 archives, chronologically arranged, a copy of which is now in the possession of the Historical Society of New Mexico, and which has been used in this compilation. If any translations were made they were never filed with the Territorial authorities, or, if filed, have entirely disappeared. No index was ever made and no copies have ever been preserved. Narrowly escaping destruction by fire when the first capitol was burned in 1892, the archives were placed in the custody of the secretary of the Territory. Numbers Ne x fatiot: Qiat/ ae eee be FP RC US ALPS AC TRG 270 AL NA IE Re STEN PEEL ECC ORS ARG T ETA PCA Aa reaeG « nor Miguel A. Otero they were removed, by order of the general government, to Washington and placed in the Library of Congress. A full statement of how this removal was arbitrarily accomplished is contained in et Seek ht dies a A Fe, eh | eek ie oe. dei Tt Be ek fi pe“ m ot Oe ee —# a aed Pt Bd P-w alate +2. 6-#@ tt as oe a oe - 4 ed ek Oe ee ee OG te e468 re) * Professor Vaughan’s monograph, where he states: PREFATORY NOTE XVil ‘‘After the completion of the present Territorial capitol, in 1900, and the removal of the Territorial offices from the Old Palace to the capitol building, these old documents were transferred to the office of the Territorial Secretary and stored in the vault adjoining the office. Here they were arranged, roughly, in the order of their dates, were tied in packages, and stored as carefully as was possible on the shelving in a vault available for that purpose. In 1901, however, it was clearly seen that these documents, which occupied nearly all the shelf space on one side of the vault, would have to be removed in order to make room for the current records of the office, the volume of which was constantly and rapidly increasing. ‘‘About this time correspondence was being received from the authorities at Washington, particularly from the librarian of Congress, asking that these Spanish and Mexican archives be transferred to the Library of Congress at Washington, where they would be stored in a manner absolutely safe; also classified, indexed, and translated by persons trained in this line of work, and without expense to the Territory. Recommendations to this effect were made by the Secretary of the Territory in 1899, 1901, and 1903; and the governor, in his message to the Legislative Assembly, called the at- tention of that body to the circumstances on at least one occasion. No action of any kind was taken or even considered until 1903. During the winter of that year the librarian of Congress was a visitor in Santa Fe, in the month of February, and discussed the matter with the members of the Legislature and the Territorial officials. The result of this discussion was the drafting |