with Los Tres Siglos de Mexico. Two years later appeared its continuation by the editor, in two other volumes, from 1707 to 1821, the end of Spanish rule in New Spain, just three centuries after the fall of Mexico, based in this case on the government archives, with the despatches of viceroys and other officials, of which he claims to have examined 280 volumes. It certainly gives the most thorough account so far of the 1707-1800 period, and a very acceptable one for the following years, and it is written in a more historic spirit, though marred by a singular bigotry and effusive patriotism, strongly arrayed against the 'Spanish oppressors.' The value of the work has been recognized by two reprints of 1852 and 1870, in 4to form.
Although the material for special topics, periods, and districts has as a nile been commented upon in appropriate places throughout this volume, I must here allude to several private diaries which present the daily record of events in the capital for about a century, together with frequent mention of the more important occurrences in other portions of New Spain. For the publication of some of the most important we are indebted to the Official of Mexico, in whose rare collection of Documentos para la Historia de México. consisting of twenty volumes of various sizes, issued in Mexico, 1853-7, they are included. Although mention is made of diaries covering the period from 1621 to 1647, Robles, Diario, i. p. ii., the earliest one which has been preserved is that of the licentiate Gregorio Martin del Guijo, presbyter, and secretary of the cathedral chapter of Mexico City, comprising the period from 1648 to 1664, and occupying the first volume of the above collection. It relates to every imaginable subject, particularly within the capital, and possesses that value which attaches to the testimony of an intelligent eyewitness and contemporary, notwithstanding certain defects of style and occasional omissions. The second diary and continuation of the foregoing, by which it was suggested, is that of the licentiate, Antonio de Robles, a presbyter, and member of the college of San Pedro of Mexico City. The period covered is from 1665 to 1703 inclusive, but the diary material is for the most part a compilation or copy of others; indeed, Robles acknowledges having taken more than half from that of the licentiate Diego de Calderon Benavides, suppressing some of its details and making some additions. He proposed to add a summary of events from the conquest down, but no such result appears.
As late as 1849 there existed in the library of the university of Mexico a manuscript diary, which according to Alaman, Disert., iii. app. 93, had been kept by a chaplain of the hospital of Jesus of Mexico City. Leaves were wanting at both the beginning and end, the remaining portion comprising the period from January 1675 to April 1696. Carlos María Bustamante in 1843 made an abstract, added numerous notes and interpolations, which greatly impaired its value, and published the more interesting part in the Museo Mexicano, i. 49 et passim; under the title of Diario curioso y esacto de Juan Antonio Rivera, capellan del hospital de Jesus Nasareno de Mexico. In 1854 the complete abstract of Bustamante appeared in Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii. tom. vi. Why this diary was attributed to Rivera does not appear; for although Bustamante calls the author a chaplain of the hospital of Jesus, it is stated in Doc. Hist. Mex., that the manuscript had formerly belonged to the
