lógico de todos los Religiosos que. . . ha habido en esta Sta Prova del Santo Evangelio, MS. (copy), 1764, fol. 33 pages, in Paps Francnos I., 1st ser. 13-51, no. 1, contains a great deal of information on the foundation and workings of the Franciscans in the various provinces of Mexico, Michoacan, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Yucatan, Guatemala, Florida, and the Philippine Islands down to the year he wrote. It was evidently a much longer work, giving the names of aU the friars who served in said provinces, and particulars respecting them—all this is missing. Beaumont, Friar Pablo de la Purísima Concepcion. Crónica de la Provincia de los Santos A póstoles San Padro y San Pablo de Michoacan. . . Mex. 1873-4, 12mo, 5 vols. (pp. 582, 544, 567, 630, 632, respectively); fol., MS., 1 vol., pp. 1183, and 8 sheets of Indian paintings.
The author had been educated in Paris as a physician, and afterward became tired of the world and joined the Franciscan order. Having come to Mexico he was assigned to Michoacan, where he served; but his uncertain health not allowing of his devoting himself to the more active duties of a missionary, he undertook the work of recording the chronicles of his province. He had intended to bring them down to 1640, and had prepared a vast plan, that he was not permitted to accomplish, sickness and death putting an end to his labors when he had recorded events only to 1565-6, though in some parts of his narrative are mentioned those of a later date. The work was probably written in the latter part of the 18th century—the last dates spoken of therein being of 1777—and breaks off with only a few pages in the third book. He was not satisfied with merely fulfilling the pious duty (of itself a laborious one) of chronicling the missionary life and services of the Franciscan and other religious orders, as well as of the church in general, within the region comprised in the Franciscan 'custodia' (as first constituted), and 'provincia' (as it became in 1566), of Michoacan and Jalisco, but taking up history from the earliest time of the western continent, gave an introduction, called by him Aparato, containing a narrative of events from the discovery of America to the capture of the Aztec capital by Cortés.
For the purpose of his work he gathered, as he tells us, a large quantity of MSS. and authentic documents, from which and from pertinent printed material (some 30 standard writers, with whom he at times disagrees) he drew his information, forming a collection of historical facts relating to the interior provinces, as far as New Mexico, and even to general history. Of many of the documents he gives full copies. The last part gives general remarks on Michoacan, physically and politically considered, from 1525 to 1566, and quite full information on agriculture, food of the natives, etc. The style of the work, bke that of most writings of churchmen of that period, is too prolix, and confused at times; the writer's judgment is often open to doubt, and his Spanish somewhat defective, which Beaumont himself attributes to his education in Paris; but such drawbacks must be overlooked, and the importance of the material chiefly considered. The Indian paintings at the end of the MS. copy give incidents of the first visits of the Spaniards to Michoacan, their reception by the Tarascans, labors of Franciscan priests, establishment of the episcopal see, litigation anent the capital of the province, and the last sheet gives colored drawings of coats-of-arms of the principal cities of Michoacan. My manuscript copy was taken from the Mexican archives.
