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but the most important is the Palestra Historical de Virtvdes, y Exemplares, Mexico, 1670, 269 folios, followed in 1674 by a second part under the title of Geografica Descripcion. . .de esta Provincia de Predicadores de Anteqvera, 423 folios and a supplement, in two volumes, both devoted to the history of Dominican missions, and the lives of the friars, interspersed with numerous details on the ancient history, rites, and relics of the Zapotecs and adjoining tribes. It is the only source of any value for the history of this important province; yet it is so rare even in Mexico as to have been overlooked by several bibliographers. An engraved page representing a portal with a number of statues, astronomic signs, and other elaboration, precedes the title-page. The printing is in double columns, and rather crude. The diction is flowery and verbose, with the superabundance of religious matter to be expected from such a pen, and the phraseology is obscure, rendering it on the whole very troublesome to glean facts; but these are faults of the time, as much as of the man, whose pious biographies do justice to his fraternal zeal, if not to his judgment, and whose curious annals rouse our interest.

The crowning figure in the bibliographic series for the later colonial period is undoubtedly Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt, whose well known work on New Spain forms a review of its condition at the most advanced period, the first exhaustive account of the kind ever given, and that by one of a foreign race, hitherto so jealously excluded from making inquiries. The exemption granted in this case was due greatly to Humboldt's fame as a scientist and traveller, which had paved the way to favor at a court roused in a measure to the liberal requirements of the age. He early displayed a taste for botany and kindred subjects, and was allowed full liberty for his inclination at the university of Göttingen, at that time preeminent for scientific studies. His rapid advancement in these and other branches can be traced greatly to the influence of a noble-minded mother, on whom had devolved his entire care since his tenth year, owing to the death in 1779 of his father, a major in the army and chamberlain at the Berlin court. At Göttingen Humboldt formed a friendship with George Forster, companion of the navigator Cook, which gave impulse to an innate love for travelling, and henceforth his reading was especially directed to prepare him for scientific exploration, while a series of contributions on subjects ranging from physics to philosophy gave evidence in his twentieth year both of his profundity and the variety of his attainments. In 1792 he had accepted a position in the mining department with a view to advance his studies, but displayed such marked ability as to obtain rapid advancement, as well as important commissions. In 1795 he undertook a scientific tour through Switzerland and Italy, prepared shortly after to join the projected circumnavigation party under Baudin, but drifted to Madrid and was invited to select Spanish America as a field for investigation. He accordingly left Coruna in 1799, accompanied by the botanist Bonpland, overran successively Nueva Andalucia, Spanish Guaiana, and Cuba, established the existence of a connection between the Orinoco and Amazon, and began in 1801 the celebrated exploration of the Andes, crowned by an ascent of Chimborazo, and complemented by observations on the transit of Mercury, on the sources of the Amazon, and on the fertilizing properties of guano.