reviews and general press mention of subsequent Bancroft publications followed along the same line as the reviews of the Native Races, recognizing Mr. Bancroft alone as the author. We may, therefore, conclude as does he himself (Lit. Ind., 361, 661) that it was his being accredited with the authorship of the Native Races which made for him his literary reputation. It has been shown that this credit depended in turn upon the fact that his own name was on the title page as author instead of managing editor. The facts show, therefore, that Mr. Bancroft was assisted largely by his corps of writers even in the revision of manuscripts, that due credit has never been given Oak, Fisher, Harcourt, Goldschmidt, and Nemos, who, aided by a number of compilers and writers of fragmentary bits, are the true authors of the work, and that the rise of the fame of Hubert Howe Bancroft as an historical writer was founded upon a popular misconception, both as to the nature of his first work and his connection with that work.
Just as fast as the members of the library force ended their respective labors on the Native Races, they were set to work taking notes for the history, Mr. Oak continuing to act as manager of detail as heretofore. The system of note-taking was perfected by Mr. Nemos and now included a boiling down process by which new members could so prepare rough material as to permit writers to turn out manuscript more quickly.
Laying aside for the time being the work on Central America and Mexico, Bancroft and Oak decided to direct the activities of a library force now thoroughly trained to the material on California, since California history is the starting point for that of a number of other states, including Northern Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah, and more especially because the mass of original material collected for this state was greater than for any other, a
