F 
 
 786 
 
 BOLTON 
 
 MATERIAL FOR 
 SOUTHWESTERN HISTORY 
 
 lANCftOFT 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
University of California Berkeley 
 
U && 
 
 MATERIAL FOR 
 
 SOUTHWESTERN HISTORY IN 
 
 THE CENTRAL ARCHIVES 
 
 OF MEXICO 
 
 BY 
 
 UKRKKKT K. BOLTON 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE 
 
 VOL. XIII., NO. 3 
 
 APRIL, 1908 
 
{Reprinted from THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, Vol. XIII., No. 3, April, 1908.] 
 
 MATERIAL FOR SOUTHWESTERN HISTORY IN THE 
 CENTRAL ARCHIVES OF MEXICO 1 
 
 WHEN we consider the close historical relations between Mexico 
 and what we call the " Southwest ", the chief cause for surprise, 
 as regards the Mexican archives, is not that they contain much 
 material for Southwestern history, but rather that this material 
 has been so little used. 
 
 In an endeavor to present in brief space a general idea of the 
 sources of this class contained in the central archives at the City 
 of Mexico, not touching for the present upon provincial, ecclesias- 
 tical or private collections, it seems best to attempt no more than to 
 name the principal repositories and to describe their contents in so 
 far as they will admit of general description. I can treat even in 
 this general way only a part of the field, and have chosen, there- 
 fore, disregarding the demands of proportion, to devote most of my 
 space to sources for early Southwestern history, closing with the 
 merest hint of what there may be for recent periods. Incidentally 
 I shall try to indicate some of the conditions of investigation in 
 Mexico. 
 
 The central government archives proper consist of an Archive 
 General y Publico de la Nacion, commonly called the Archivo 
 General, and of separate archives for each of the great secretariats 
 or executive departments of the national government. To these 
 should be added the manuscript collections in the Museo Nacional 
 and the Biblioteca Nacional. Most of the manuscripts in the 
 
 1 This paper may be regarded as a preliminary report upon a comprehensive 
 survey of the materials for United States history in Mexican archives which the 
 writer has undertaken on behalf of the Department of Historical Research in the 
 Carnegie Institution of Washington. A fuller report in the form of a volume 
 published by that institution may be expected at a later time. 
 
 My grateful acknowledgments for extensive courtesies and liberal treatment 
 received during the preparation of this article are due to the following persons : 
 The Hon. Senor Don Ignacio Mariscal, secretary, and the Hon. Senor Don Jose 
 Algara, sub-secretary, of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations ; Dr. Justino Rubio, 
 .director, and Senor Don Tomas Alarcon, paleographer, of the Archivo General y 
 Publico ; Senor Lie. Don Genaro Garcia, sub-director of the Museo Nacional ; 
 Dr. Jose M. Vigil, director of the Biblioteca Nacional ; Senor Don Juan Salazar, 
 in charge of the archive of the Secretariat of War and Marine ; Senor Don 
 Felipe Camarena, in charge of the archive of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations ; 
 Senor Don Manuel C. Tolsa, in charge of the archive of the Secretariat of 
 Fomento ; and Senor Ing. Ignacio Molina, chief of the department of cartography 
 ,of the last-named secretariat. 
 
5ii H. E. Bolton 
 
 archives of the secretariats bear dates subsequent to the Mexican 
 War of Independence, since which event these departments- 
 have been established ; and, on the other hand, by far the 
 larger part of those in the other collections named relate to the 
 period of the Spanish regime. This clear differentiation of the 
 archives reinforces the historical reasons for choosing the close of 
 that regime, 1821, as the point of division between early and recent 
 Southwestern history. I write mainly, therefore, of sources for the 
 period before 1821. 
 
 It follows from what has already been said that the public col- 
 lections at the capital of special importance for early history are 
 those in the Archivo General, the Museo Nacional and the Biblioteca 
 Nacional. By far the most important of these is the first, which, 
 indeed, is the largest and richest collection of historical material in 
 Mexico. If space would permit, a sketch of the varied and some- 
 times pathetic history of this archive would be instructive. Since 
 this is impossible, suffice it to say that the idea of founding it origi- 
 nated in 1790 with the Viceroy Revilla Gigedo, and that it was 
 established by the Republic in 1823, having for its basis the archive 
 of the Secretariat of the Viceroys, 2 which still constitutes its most 
 important single element. In this connection let it be noted that 
 there is little ground, unless it be an unwarranted faith that in 
 olden times all decrees of Spanish kings were executed, for Ban- 
 croft's remark that in the Archivo General are preserved great 
 quantities of material " collected from all parts of the country by 
 order of Carlos IV." 3 Quite to the contrary, it appears after much 
 study directed to this point, that, in spite of this and later orders 
 to the same effect, provincial collections have not been drawn upon 
 to any considerable extent in the formation of the Archivo General.. 
 
 2 A brief printed sketch of the Archivo General by Manuel Rivera Cambas 
 is in Mexico Pintoresco, Artistico y Monumental (Mexico, 1880), I. 16-17; one 
 by Ignacio Rayon is in Diccionario Universal de Historia y de Geografia (Mexico, 
 1854), V. 978-983 ; a still briefer sketch by Professor George P. Garrison is in; 
 The Nation, May 30, 1901. None of these articles gives a satisfactory account 
 of the origin and elements of the archive. Original correspondence relative to 
 the first attempt to found it is contained in volume 267 of Seccion de Historia, 
 Archivo General. This volume is entitled " Archivo General, Su Establecimiento 
 en Chapultepec, 1788-1819". For data on this subject see also the files of corre- 
 spondence in the sections of the Archivo General named Reales Cedulas y Ordenes, 
 and Correspondencia de los Virreyes. Valuable manuscript reports by different 
 archiveros on the contents and condition of the archive of the Viceroy's Secre- 
 tariat at the end of the Spanish regime and on the Archivo General y Publico 
 since its foundation in 1823, are contained in the archive of the Secretariat of 
 Foreign Relations, section Archivo General. Similar matter is contained in sev- 
 eral memorials to the Mexican Congress by the different secretaries of the De- 
 partment of Relations. 
 
 3 Bancroft, Arizona and New Mexico, p. 21. 
 
The Archives of Mexico 5 1 2 
 
 This fact is significant, for it offers the prospect that in certain 
 of the local archives there may yet be found important stores of 
 material. While, as has been said, the larger part of the collection 
 in the Archive General relates to the period before 1821, only a 
 small part of that which does not is of importance for the history 
 of the United States. 
 
 This archive is under the supervision of the Secretariat of 
 Foreign Relations, and permission to work in it is secured, by 
 foreigners, from that department. It is housed in the southwestern 
 portion of the vast building known as the Palacio Nacional, in rooms 
 adjacent to those formerly occupied by the Secretariat of the Vice- 
 roys quarters that are altogether inadequate for present needs. In 
 summer it is usually open from 7 :3O a. m. to 1 130 p. m., and in 
 winter from 8 :oo a. m. to i .-30 p. m. To those who are properly 
 introduced, wide liberties are given to search among the volumes 
 and legajos. Indeed, if this were not the case, little progress could 
 be made under present circumstances. 
 
 The collection, which consists of some thirty-five thousand bound 
 volumes of manuscripts and bundles enough to form at least as 
 many more, is, besides being large, extremely miscellaneous, and 
 therefore difficult to describe in general terms. Enough material 
 to form perhaps twenty thousand volumes is piled ceiling-high in 
 a board crib in the middle of the main hall, and, though partly 
 classified and bound, is at present almost inaccessible. Difficulties 
 of research are increased through lack of a catalogue, either printed 
 or unprinted. 4 
 
 The archive is divided into sections, the basis of division being 
 subjects rather than the offices from which the papers have ema- 
 nated. The general arrangement of these sections is chronological, 
 with dates on the backs or title-pages of the volumes or on the 
 labels of the legajos. This arrangement greatly facilitates investiga- 
 tion but it is frequently violated, and the dates cannot always be 
 relied upon. Many of the volumes in some cases entire sections 
 have tables of contents, called indices. These, when well made, 
 which is by no means always the case, enable one readily to ascer- 
 tain the general nature of the contents of a volume. 
 
 Seven sections, in particular, of the Archivo General have great 
 importance for the early history of the Southwest. The two most 
 
 4 Material for the formation of a catalogue is gradually being accumulated by 
 the archive force, but the prospects for a speedy completion of it are not good, 
 unless the force be materially increased. There are, it is true, some special 
 indices for official use but they are too general to be of much service for historical 
 investigation. 
 
513 H. E. Bolton 
 
 systematically arranged and at the same time the most generally 
 useful are those containing the royal cedulas and orders to the 
 viceroys and the communications of the viceroys to the court of 
 Spain. 5 These two sections, taken together, form the best single 
 documentary guide to the history of a given province, as well as 
 to the general administrative history of New Spain, for most matters 
 of importance became the subjects of correspondence between the 
 viceroys and the court. The compilation of these series in their 
 present form was begun about 1773 by Peramas, the viceroy's 
 secretary. During his long term the arranging of current docu- 
 ments was kept up, and when, after an interval, Antonio Bonilla 
 became secretary, he went back and arranged apparently all of the 
 materials of these and some other classes that be could find. The 
 documents are filed in chronological order, and the volumes have, 
 besides tables of contents, alphabetical prontuarios or brief subject- 
 indexes, which, in general, are very well made. 
 
 Of the royal cedulas and orders there are two series. The 
 first, of 243 bound volumes, contains the originals or principals of 
 cedulas and orders directed to the viceroys. The second, of 176 
 volumes, is very miscellaneous and fragmentary but it contains, 
 besides extraneous matter, (a) principals of ccdulas and orders 
 directed to the audiencia of Mexico, (b) duplicates of some of 
 those sent to the viceroys and (c) libros de asiento or record-books, 
 in which cedulas and orders of both classes are copied. 
 
 The first series, which is by far the more important from our 
 present viewpoint, covers the period from 1609 to 1821, being fairly 
 complete after 1643. These royal communications deal with every 
 conceivable kind of subject. In the prontuarios the headings Cali- 
 fornias, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and Provincias Internas 
 occupy a prominent place, and, taken together with such headings 
 as explorations, colonization, missions, presidios, Indians, defense, 
 foreigners and appointments, guide the way to much of the early 
 history of the Southwest. 
 
 Besides the cedulas and orders that are filed in this regular 
 series, a good many principals are to be found in other places, with 
 papers to which they are directly related. Of duplicates, separate 
 series have been formed for the history of the Provincias Internas 
 for the period between 1750 and 1793, and for the history of the 
 expulsion of the Jesuits. For these excellent and useful compila- 
 
 5 They are named respectively, Reales Cedulas y -Ordenes, and Correspondencia 
 de los Virreyes. These titles are obviously too broad, for besides these there are 
 other royal cedulas and orders and other classes of viceroys' correspondence. 
 
 AM. HIST. KEY., VOl. XITI. 34. 
 
The Archives of Mexico 5 1 4 
 
 tions we have to thank that best of viceroy's secretaries, Antonio 
 Bonilla, or, perhaps, his master with the organizing genius, the 
 Viceroy Revilla Gigedo. The former compilation consists of five 
 large volumes, until recently scattered and forgotten, among the 
 volumes of the second series of royal cedulas and orders mentioned, 
 but now reunited. 6 In them the indices cite separately the docu- 
 ments relating to the Provincias Internas as a whole, and likewise 
 those for each of the provinces of New Mexico, Texas, Nuevo 
 Santander, Nuevo Leon, Nueva Viscaya, Coahuila, Sonora and 
 Sinaloa. 7 For the period covered, the five volumes are of inestim- 
 able value, and their tables of contents are deserving of publication 
 entire, as a partial bibliography. 8 The compilation of cedulas con- 
 cerning the expulsion of the Jesuits is still scattered. Volumes I. 
 and II. have recently been brought together from different parts 
 of the Archivo General, while III. and IV. are in the Biblioteca 
 Nacional. 9 
 
 The regular file of communications from the viceroys to the 
 court of Spain does not begin, unfortunately, until 1755, m the 
 administration of the Marques de las Amarillas. 10 From that time 
 to 1821 they fill 244 volumes. They are arranged in three series, 
 which, by the way, have no discoverable distinction. 11 These letters- 
 and reports of the viceroys, found here in the form of minutes or 
 of copies, according to the care of the secretaries, are even more- 
 important than the royal cedulas and orders, for they not only 
 present the cisatlantic viewpoint, but, being based upon detailed 1 
 
 Besides containing this compilation relating to the Provincias Internas, the 
 second series of cedulas supplements the first in two other ways. First, the libros 
 de asiento contain documents as early as 1585, and second, in this collection there 
 are cedulas and orders directed to the audiencias. The arrangement of the series 
 is so very bad, however, that to use it would be difficult. 
 
 7 The title of the series is " Coleccion de Reales Ordenes y Cedulas Dupli- 
 cadas sobre Provincias Ynternas ". 
 
 8 In the indices reference is made in each case to the series of principals, and, 
 even if a duplicate is lacking, the principal is cited. 
 
 9 The title of the first volume is " Coleccion de Reales Ordenes, y Cedulas 
 Sobre Expatriacion de los Regulares de la Comp a . de Jesus, y demas Asuntos 
 Relativas, Dirigidas al Exmo. S or . Virrey Marques de Croix en los Anos de 1767, 
 68, 69, y 70". The titles -of the other volumes vary slightly from this. The 
 series, or at least a part of it, will be listed in the forthcoming catalogue of books., 
 on jurisprudence issued by the Biblioteca. 
 
 10 The Secretariat of the Viceroys was, in its origin, only a private office.. 
 Its first official corps of three was organized in 1757. This explains, perhaps,, 
 why the file of viceroys' correspondence begins no earlier. See Juan de Dios 
 Uribe, "Informe pedido por un apunte ", etc., in the archive of the Secretariat of" 
 Foreign Relations, Seccion de Archivo General, ca.ra 1823-1827. 
 
 11 Each of the three series contains the three main classes of correspondence,, 
 namely, that sent por via reservada, through the secretary of the Universal Office 
 of Marine and Indies ; that sent through the Council of the Indies ; and that 
 addressed to the different department secretaries. 
 
515 H. E. Bolton 
 
 reports from provincial governors, missionaries and other local 
 authorities, they are nearer than the royal cedillas to the spirit of 
 provincial affairs. For certain periods it was customary to file 
 with the minutes of correspondence the originals or copies of docu- 
 ments that were transmitted to Spain. Would that this had been 
 a constant practice ! Of special value on the Southwest are the 
 monthly extracts from the local reports of affairs in the Californias 
 and the Provincias Internas which were more or less regularly sent 
 by the viceroy to the king during the period between 1770 and 
 
 I777- 12 
 
 After the establishment in 1777 of the commandancy-general at 
 Chihuahua, practically independent of the viceroy, the latter official's 
 correspondence suddenly lessens in value for the Southwest. From 
 that time forth we shall have to look to Spain or to the remains of 
 the archive of the commandancy-general for some of the most 
 important correspondence relative to the Provincias Internas. 
 
 As a companion to the compilation of duplicate royal cedulas 
 and orders concerning the expulsion of the Jesuits, Bonilla formed 
 a similar one of the letters of the viceroys to the court of Spain 
 relative to the same subject. This series has strayed to the Biblio- 
 teca Nacional. 13 
 
 Scarcely less valuable than the two series just described, but, 
 because of their miscellaneous character, infinitely more difficult 
 to treat satisfactorily in brief space, are the sections called Historia, 
 Provincias Internas, Californias and Misiones. These together 
 comprise about nine hundred volumes, of whose contents perhaps 
 one-half relates to territory that is within the United States. 
 
 The nucleus of the history section is the thirty-two volume 
 series of " Memorias de Nueva Espana ", compiled in 1791-1792 
 by Fray Francisco Garcia Figueroa, at the order of the king and 
 under the direction of the viceroy. 14 These volumes are composed 
 
 12 A considerable portion of these noticias of Texas, Louisiana and New 
 Mexico are copied in the Talamantes-Pichardo Papers contained in volumes 298 
 and 299 of Seccion de Historia, Archive General. 
 
 13 1 cannot say that the three volumes preserved there form the complete 
 series ; indeed, apparently they do not, although they are numbered consecutively, 
 one, two and three. The main title of the first is " Libro i. de Cartas Escritas 
 al Ex mo . S or . Conde de Aranda ". The titles of the others vary slightly from this. 
 
 14 For a brief statement of the circumstances of their compilation, see the 
 article by Professor Garrison, cited above, page 511, note 2. For a fuller state- 
 ment, see a report dated July 27, 1853, by the noted Mexican scholar, Manuel 
 Orosco y Berra, in the archive of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations, Seccion 
 de Mexico, caxa 1849-1853. The occasion of this report was the offer for sale 
 in New York, by a Spanish editor, of what purported to be the original of 
 volume I. of the " Memorias ", together with what was called the original manu- 
 script of Morfi's history of Texas. Since volume I. of the "Memorias" was 
 
The Archives of Mexico 516 
 
 of copies of documents of great general importance the monu- 
 menta, so to speak for the history of New Spain down to the 
 time of their compilation. Since they are relatively well-known, 
 they need no mention here further than to say that of their number 
 four are devoted to New Mexico, two to Upper California, two to 
 Texas and as many more to territory just on the other side of the 
 border and closely associated with the United States frontier. To 
 this nucleus there have been added from time to time about five 
 hundred volumes, mainly of original documents, dealing with 
 various parts of New Spain. 15 The section of Provincias Internas, 
 comprising 264 volumes, is so called because it relates primarily to 
 the northern provinces. A considerable part of the papers con- 
 tained in it emanated from the division of the Viceroy's Secretariat 
 devoted especially to the administration of these provinces. Tech- 
 nically, the Provincias Internas did not include the Californias, 
 Louisiana or Florida, but there is in the section a good deal of 
 matter relative to the first two. It contains also, for obvious rea- 
 sons, a great deal of material concerning San Bias and the Philip- 
 pine Islands. Probably the most distinctive class of material in 
 this section is the correspondence of the viceroy with the com- 
 mandant-general of the Provincias Internas (or, when the com- 
 mandancy was divided, with the commandants of the eastern and 
 the western provinces) and with the provincial governors. Such 
 material, however, is not lacking from the other series. The section 
 of Californias contains nearly all kinds of matter for Antigua and 
 Nueva California, some of it dating nearly to the time of the 
 American occupation, besides considerable matter for New Mexico 
 and Texas. The section of Misiones is confined largely to the 
 relations of missions with the central secular authorities, but it 
 covers all New Spain. 
 
 For present purposes these four sections may be considered 
 together, for, aside from such differences of emphasis as have been 
 indicated, their contents are similar and overlap in a thousand places. 
 It is in these sections especially that one must look for a large part 
 of the important correspondence of the viceroys with the local 
 
 then lacking from the set in the Archive General, the government contemplated 
 purchasing the one advertised, believing that it was the identical volume that had 
 been lost. The missing volume was replaced in 1882 by a copy made in Spain. 
 (See correspondence in the archive of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations, 
 Seccion de Archive General, under the dates given.) Its loss cannot be charged, 
 in the customary way, to the vandalism of the American army that occupied the 
 city in 1847, for Cubas's report of 1824 notes the absence of the volume. This is 
 not intended, however, as a denial that the American army carried off some 
 documents from the Mexican archives, for there is good evidence that they did so. 
 15 There are at present date, December 5, 1907, 530 volumes in the section. 
 
517 H. E. Bolton 
 
 authorities. But, instead of being made up of chronological or 
 otherwise systematic 'files of correspondence between certain offices, 
 the volumes are, for the most part, collections of expedientes, an 
 expedience being a group of papers relating to a single subject. In 
 these expediences records of local procedure and correspondence 
 are brought together and joined to the records of related procedure 
 in Mexico or even in Spain. The result is that a single e.vpediente 
 may contain all of the documents necessary for tracing the history 
 of a given matter from beginning to end. Such correspondence 
 as could not be fitted into e.vpedientes is scattered through the 
 series in a very miscellaneous way, with here and there well unified 
 groups. 
 
 Contained in these e.vpedientes or existing separately, as the 
 case may be, there are found several general classes of material 
 for the history of the provinces that constituted what is now the 
 Southwest. Some of the most important are the following: 
 (i) diaries of exploring expeditions or other entradas into the 
 north country; (2) autos of the founding of missions and other 
 settlements; (3) correspondence of the viceroys with the governors, 
 missionaries and other local authorities ; (4) correspondence of the 
 viceroys with the commandant-general or, when the jurisdiction of 
 this official was divided, with the commandants of the eastern and 
 western Internal Provinces; (5) autos of the residencias of gov- 
 ernors and of "other special investigations into local administration. 
 Besides these and perhaps other classes, there are countless e.r- 
 pedientes concerning special subjects. These kinds of material are 
 found, in general, for all of the northern provinces except Florida 
 and Louisiana, to the end of the Spanish regime, though it would 
 be impossible, perhaps, to find a complete file of any one class of 
 material for any single province. 
 
 In the four sections under consideration are the originals, 
 which will never lose their value, of a large part of the documents 
 copied in the " Memorias de Nueva Espafia", as well of course as 
 of thousands of others. This is not true to any great extent in 
 cases where the documents were copied from the provincial or 
 ecclesiastical archives, for, as has already been said, these collections, 
 have not to any considerable degree found their way into the 
 Archive General. 16 In view of the gigantic work of collecting 
 done by H. H. Bancroft and of the impression abroad that he may 
 have got all there is to be had, it is in point to remark here that it 
 
 18 Notable exceptions to the last assertion are the 1,200 or 1,300 volumes of 
 papers from the Inquisition archives, and the Jesuit records contained in the 
 Misiones section. 
 
The Archives of Mexico 5 1 8 
 
 appears that he copied little or nothing in the Archive General, and 
 that therefore he used few or none of the originals which I mention. 
 This is said, not with any thought of disparagement of the great 
 feat of collecting accomplished by Bancroft, but, quite to the con- 
 trary, to choose the most pointed way of illustrating the value of 
 the yet unconquered worlds of material in this storehouse. 
 
 A large portion of the correspondence of the viceroys with the 
 military chiefs during the Mexican War of Independence (1810- 
 1821) is filed in the extensive section 17 called Historia: Operaciones 
 de Guerra, which is the seventh of the sections which have been 
 mentioned as being of primary importance from our present stand- 
 point. In it there are three groups of correspondence that deserve 
 especial mention, even in so general a sketch as this, (i) That of 
 the viceroy with Manuel de Salcedo, governor of Texas, from 1809 
 to 1813, is highly valuable for the affairs of the Texas-Louisiana 
 frontier, including the first stage of the Gutierrez-Magee expedi- 
 tion. 18 (2) For both the early and the later stages of this episode, 
 as well as for the Mina expedition and other notable doings of the 
 period from 1811 to 1821, there is much of value in the cor- 
 respondence of Arredondo, commandant of the eastern Internal 
 Provinces. 19 Among the papers in this correspondence is the 
 original report of the bloody battle of the Medina, of August 18, 
 1813. (3) In the same section is a four-volume series called 
 " Notas Diplomaticas ", which contains, primarily, diplomatic and 
 consular correspondence concerning the United States for the period 
 between 1809 and 1821. Some of the subjects of interest in it are 
 the later doings of Bernardo de Gutierrez and Toledo, the Mina 
 expedition, Lallemand, Aury, and James Long. 20 In volume IV. of 
 this series the chief subjects of correspondence are a rumored plan 
 
 17 It contains 750 or 800 volumes. Technically, it is a part of Seccion de 
 Historia, but it is not so treated in practice and may be considered as a separate 
 section. 
 
 18 An excellent calendar of these papers, prepared by Mr. E. W. Winkler, is 
 contained in the Thirty-First Annual Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 
 Insurance, Statistics and History of the State of Texas, part n., 1906. They were 
 used by Dr. W. F. McCaleb in the preparation of his article on the " First Period 
 of the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition ", which appeared in the Quarterly of the 
 Texas State Historical Association, IV. 218-230. Dr. McCaleb evidently missed 
 the Arredondo correspondence in the same section, mentioned below. 
 
 "Volume I. (Operaciones de Guerra, 56) contains correspondence for 1811- 
 1816; II. (O. de G., 57) for 1811-1820, but mainly for 1811-1812; III. (O. de G., 
 58) for 1812-1813; IV. (O. de G., 59) for 1813-1820. 
 
 20 1 may mention here, somewhat out of order, the bundle of documents in 
 the archive of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations which deal with the capture 
 and imprisonment of Long and his men. They are in Seccion de Asuntos Inter- 
 nacionales, caxa 1817-1824. The bundle contains a number of papers taken from 
 Long after his capture. 
 
519 H. E. Bolton 
 
 of Americans to invade New Mexico in 1818-1819, and correspond- 
 ing plans of the Spanish government to defend that province. 
 Taken together these three groups of documents contain much of 
 value for the restless period of southwestward migration and of 
 filibustering projects directed toward the Southwest between 1810 
 and 1821. But it must not be inferred that, because other docu- 
 ments on this period have not been specifically mentioned, there are 
 no others. As a matter of fact, a great many are contained in the 
 volumes which I have been able to describe in general terms. 
 
 The large section of Tierras probably contains a great deal of 
 matter relative to land grants within the southwestern part of the 
 United States, as well as sources of a wider historical bearing, but 
 the restrictions placed upon its use are such as to have made it thus 
 far impossible for me to consult it. Were its contents known to 
 historical investigators, it is not improbable that this section would 
 take rank in importance with those described above. 
 
 Besides these seven (or eight) sections of first importance, there 
 is a larger number that contain either (a) a smaller amount or only 
 occasional matter of direct bearing on the Southwest or (b) data 
 for studying the Spanish provincial administrative system in general. 
 
 Of the first class are to be noted the sections or series of Marina, 
 Oficio de Soria, Obras Publicas, Inquisicion, Impresos Oficiales, 
 Bandos, Ordenanzas, Real Caxa and Yndiferente de Guerra. Seccion 
 de Marina, which comprises two hundred or three hundred volumes, 
 contains, primarily, reports of marine and port officials, including 
 sometimes consuls in foreign countries, especially those in New 
 Orleans, to the viceroys, and after the revolution to the Department 
 of Marine. In them matters of commerce occupy first place. Con- 
 cerning this subject there are reports of entry and clearance of 
 vessels, ship-registers, port and fair regulations and much matter 
 relative to the conduct of the Philippine trade. Filed with such 
 documents concerning legitimate commerce, there are many reports 
 of contraband or otherwise illegal trade in Mexican ports. In both 
 the legitimate and the illegal trade American vessels figure promi- 
 nently at the close of the eighteenth century and the beginning of 
 the nineteenth. The volumes of this section which are marked 
 San Bias contain much matter relative to the movement of vessels 
 up and down the Pacific coast. Mixed with these commercial 
 affairs are a good many documents of political and military bearing, 
 several of them touching the eighteenth-century history of Florida. 
 One volume of the series called Oficio de Soria also contains 
 
The Archives of Mexico 520 
 
 several reports, like those mentioned above, concerning illegal trade 
 by American vessels (1809-1811). In addition the series contains 
 a few papers that relate to the eighteenth-century history of New 
 Mexico and Texas. The sections of Impresos Oficiales, Ordenanzas, 
 and Bandos, supplement other files by containing many cedulas, 
 viceroys' decrees, ordinances and other documents that were of 
 such general bearing as to be given a circular character. In Obras 
 Publicas there are occasional expedientes of interest to us con- 
 cerning the construction of public works. For example, in the first 
 volume there is one relative to the erection of the presidio and other 
 public buildings at San Francisco in 1778. The 1,200 or 1,300 
 volumes of papers from the archives of the Inquisition contain a 
 little matter of specific bearing on the Southwest. Probably most 
 of it, except what may relate to California, is listed in the report 
 prepared in 1807 for the Louisiana Boundary Commission by 
 Torrecilla and DeNaxera, secretaries of the Holy Office. This 
 report is in volume 301 of the history section. In the volumes of 
 Real Caxa devoted to the jurisdiction of Chihuahua are to be found 
 documents dealing with the finances of the provinces comprised in 
 Provincias Internas. 21 
 
 Some thirty-five sections, or series not technically called sections, 
 forming a large part of the bulk of the archive, while of great value 
 for the history of the interior of Mexico, are of interest from our 
 present viewpoint mainly as illustrating the Spanish provincial ad- 
 ministration in general. The names of most of them are given in 
 a foot-note. 22 I have not been able to examine every one of these 
 sections volume by volume, and it may be that they contain oc- 
 casional documents of direct bearing on the United States, but the 
 aggregate amount of such is evidently not large. It .must be re- 
 membered that the value for the Southwest of documents of such 
 
 21 It would seem that the sections of Intendencias, Sublegados, Ayuntamientos 
 and Alcaldes Mayores, which are composed of the correspondence of the viceroys 
 with or about these administrative agencies, should contain matter of direct 
 bearing on the Southwest, but so far as I have been able to examine them the 
 volumes are in a large measure inaccessible at present I have found nothing of 
 this character. 
 
 22 The series entitled : Indies, Encomiendas, Clero Regular, Clero Secular, 
 Bienes de Comunidad, Temporalidades, Templos y Conventos, Cofradias y 
 Archicofradfas, Matrimonios, Registro de Fianzas, Real Fisco, Salinas, Minerfa, 
 Informes de Fonseca y Urrutia, Real Audiencia, Real Acuerdo, Civil, Intestados. 
 and Infidencias, are accessible. The following, which are of similar value, and 
 perhaps others, are in the crib mentioned formerly and are only partly accessible- 
 at present : Judicial, Tribunal de la Acordada, Arzobispo y Obispos, Media 
 Annata, Bula de Santa Cruzada, Real Armada, Artilleria, Presidarios, Comisaria 
 General, Casa de Moneda, Tesorerias, Hacienda, Tribunal del Consulado, Aduanas,. 
 Alcabalas, Peages, Renta de Tabaco and Fabrica de Polvora. 
 
521 H. E. Bollon 
 
 a character is greatly lessened by the fact that the Spanish admin- 
 istrative system reached the distant and sparsely settled provinces 
 of the north only in a much modified and greatly attenuated form. 
 
 Turning now from the Archivo General, the manuscripts in the 
 Museo Nacional and the Biblioteca Nacional may be designated as 
 special collections, unrelated and fragmentary, that have been 
 acquired as odds and ends in various ways. 
 
 The chief materials in the Museo for the history of the South- 
 west, or, indeed, for any part of the United States, are Franciscan 
 mission papers, of which many are of great value. They are con- 
 tained primarily in three groups, known as the Lancaster- Jones 
 Collection, the Fischer Collection and the Franciscan Convent 
 Papers. Notable in the first are the four quarto volumes of Fran- 
 ciscan correspondence called " Documentos Relatives a las Misiones 
 de Californias ". Their contents are mainly original correspondence 
 of missionaries in the field and of various colleges and convents 
 with the central Franciscan authorities. The documents deal 
 largely with Upper California between 1769 and 1800, but touch 
 also New Mexico and Texas. They clearly came from the central 
 Franciscan archives, by what route I cannot say. In the same col- 
 lection there are two octavo volumes of mission correspondence 
 which have the same title as the quarto series, and whose contents 
 are, to some extent, copies of documents found in the original 
 in that series. In the Fischer Collection there is a volume compiled 
 "by Fray Rafael Verger under the title " Coleccion y Trasunto de 
 Varies Escritos, Alegatos, Ynformes, Memoriales, y Cartas ". It 
 is a rare set of California mission documents for that most interest- 
 ing period of beginnings, 1771-1774. The Franciscan Convent 
 Papers contain, besides a large number of administration-books of 
 relatively small value, enough loose papers, mainly correspondence, 
 to form a hundred or more large volumes ; but they are so dis- 
 ordered that it would take an expert several months to arrange and 
 describe them properly. They come mainly from the archive of the 
 Franciscan commissary-general of New Spain and from the col- 
 leges of San Fernando, San Gregorio and Santo Evangelio. They 
 are much more valuable for the history of missions in Mexico and 
 the Philippines than for those in the United States, but they con- 
 tain, nevertheless, besides much matter of a general bearing on 
 Franciscan polity, a good deal of specific bearing on the missions of 
 'California, New Mexico and Texas. 
 
 The recent preparation of a detailed bibliography of materials 
 
The Archives of Mexico 522 
 
 in the central public archives of Mexico for the history of Alta 
 California between 1768 and 1785 has demonstrated that these 
 collections in the Museo Nacional, together with some of the sec- 
 tions of the Archive General, contain an enormous amount of 
 unused material of highest importance for early California history. 
 
 Besides these Franciscan documents, the Ramirez Papers deserve 
 mention. These papers, most of which recently came from the 
 library of the late Alfredo Chavero, are documents gathered and 
 autograph essays written by the noted Jose Fernando Remirez. 
 They deal mainly with ancient Mexico, where his interests were 
 centred, but some of them relate to the United States. Among 
 these is a collection of original " Documentos sobre Caspar de 
 Villagra ", author of the metrical history of New Mexico, part of 
 them signed in the hand of Onate; copies of various more or less 
 well-known New Mexico documents ; a fragment of a Jesuit 
 critica of the Benavides account of the apparition of the venerable 
 Maria Jesus de Agreda; and a forty-three page study of the Co- 
 manche nation by Ramirez himself. 23 
 
 All of these Museo papers are kept in the library, which is open 
 to the public from 9:30 to 12:30 in the morning and from 3:30 to 
 6:30 in the afternoon. 
 
 The manuscript materials in the Biblioteca Nacional are not 
 many in the aggregate, yet there are a few nuggets about which 
 investigators of special topics would wish to know. Some of these 
 are fragments of series contained in the Archivo General y Publico. 
 I have already mentioned part of one and all of another Bonilla 
 compilation relative to the expulsion of the Jesuits. A larger col- 
 lection is that of about forty bound volumes of documents accumu- 
 lated as an incident to the administration of real hacienda during 
 the eighteenth century. They consist of royal cedulas, viceroys' 
 decrees, official reports and expedients* concerning the various 
 branches of the royal revenue. In them is to be found a large 
 amount of information concerning the Spanish economic and 
 administrative systems. Many rare pamphlets and some manu- 
 scripts are gathered into the various series of " Documentos para la 
 Historia de Mexico " listed in the history division of the library's 
 catalogue. Single manuscript volumes or documents deserving of 
 
 23 Of more interest than importance in this connection are the sixty-odd 
 volumes of original records from the archive of the Inquisition. These are saiti 
 by Senor Don Luiz Gonzalez Obregon, who has made a thorough study of them, 
 to be the cream of a much larger collection to which the 1,200 or 1,300 volumes 
 in the Archivo General y Publico belong. They seem, however, to contain 
 nothing relating specifically to the United States. 
 
523 H. E. Botton 
 
 mention are: (i) a copy of Mange's " Luz de Tierra Incognita", 
 containing at the end Kino's " Relacion Diaria " of his entrada into 
 Pimeria in 1698 (dated at N. S. de Dolores, December 8, 1698) ; 
 (2) a copy of Nicolas de la Fora's " Relacion " of his expedition to 
 New Mexico in 1766 in company with the Marques de Rubi for the 
 purpose of inspecting the northern establishments an expedition 
 that led to a complete revision of the northern military and mis- 
 sionary frontier; (3) still another Bonilla compilation contained in 
 the Biblioteca is the volume called " Reconocimiento De los quatro 
 establecimientos que el Ymperio Ruso ha formado al Norte de la 
 California". It contains many of the important original documents 
 concerning the Martinez exploration of 1788, including diaries and 
 maps. 
 
 Besides the -manuscripts listed in the history division of the 
 library's catalogue, others will appear in the forthcoming division of 
 jurisprudence. With few exceptions the manuscripts are kept in 
 the office of the director, and may be examined only with his 
 permission. His office is usually open from 12 m. to 2 p. m. and 
 from 4 to 8 p. m. 
 
 As has already been stated, the archives of the active secretariats 
 contain, primarily, materials that bear dates subsequent to the revo- 
 lution. Nevertheless, occasional groups of earlier documents are 
 to be found in them. I have already referred, in a note, 24 to the 
 papers in the Secretariat of Foreign Relations relative to the im- 
 prisonment of General James Long. Two other groups in the 
 same archive may be mentioned. One of these consists of part of 
 the papers taken by the Spanish authorities from Lieutenant 
 Zebulon M. Pike. The correspondence that accompanies them 
 shows that these papers lay in Chihuahua for twenty years after 
 Pike was relieved of them there in 1807, and that they were then 
 hunted up and sent to the City of Mexico for the use of the Texas- 
 Louisiana Boundary Commission. The list made when they were 
 confiscated shows twenty-one numbered documents. The first 
 eighteen and the last of these are now preserved in the archive 
 named, to which the whole collection was returned by the Boundary 
 Commission in 1828. It is to be deplored that the two missing 
 documents are, perhaps, those of greatest interest Pike's principal 
 diary and a book containing personal observations and memoranda 
 of his correspondence. 25 The other group to which I alluded con- 
 
 ~* See page 518, note 20. 
 
 28 These papers are in caxa 1817-1824, Seccion de Asuntos Internacionales, 
 in a carpeta labelled " Sobre busca y entrega a la Comision de limites de los docu- 
 
The Archives of Mexico 524 
 
 sists of a part of the Pichardo Papers. In 1807 Father Jose 
 Pichardo was appointed by the viceroy to succeed Talamantes, who 
 before his untimely death had worked two years as commissioner 
 to report, through historical investigation, on the true Texas- 
 Louisiana boundary. After five years of additional labor, Pichardo 
 submitted to the viceroy, in February, 1812, a ponderous study of 
 nearly all phases of the history of Texas and of many phases of 
 that of New Mexico and Louisiana. This work has frequently 
 been referred to in Mexican manuscript records and has for some 
 time been sought, by myself, at least, but I doubt if it has been used 
 since Teran returned it in 1828. The report, which is of true 
 Spanish length, filling more than four thousand quarto pages, 26 is 
 in the same section as the Pike Papers, together with part of 
 Pichardo's documents. Many other Talamantes-Pichardo docu- 
 ments are in the Archive General y Publico. 27 Over a year ago I 
 found in the cartography department of the Secretariat of Fomento 
 the original map made by Pichardo in 1811 to accompany his report, 
 together with the rare original of the La Fora map, made about 
 1767. 
 
 One of the puzzles that I have not been able to solve is the 
 whereabouts of the many other old maps of different parts of the 
 Southwest that are mentioned in the sources and whose accompany- 
 ing documents are available. Of course, the originals or copies of 
 many of them were sent to Spain, but it is inconceivable that copies, 
 at least, should not have been kept in Mexico. In fact, in a good 
 many instances we have proof that copies or the originals were kept 
 but where the larger part of them now are is a mystery. A con- 
 siderable number, it is true, are here and there in the Archive 
 General and the Biblioteca Nacional. A much larger number are 
 in carpetas 2, 3, n and 12 of the department of cartography of the 
 Secretariat of Fomento, among them being the Pichardo and La 
 Fora maps already mentioned. But these four boxes contain only 
 the merest fraction of what should be in existence. 
 
 mentos q. se tomaron al viagero Paike ". Such of them as are historically impor- 
 tant and have not been printed heretofore will be published in the next number 
 of this journal. 
 
 28 The copy of the report and the accompanying documents which in 1842 
 were in the hydrographic department of the Secretaria de Govierno of Spain, 
 filled fifteen volumes. See correspondence of the Mexican Secretary of Foreign 
 Relations with the Minister to Spain, in the same archive, Seccion de Mexico, 
 caxa 1842-1844. 
 
 27 See Bolton, in the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, 
 VII. 210-212. 
 
 a My attention was first called to the collection of old maps in this depart- 
 ment by Mr. William Beer of the Howard Memorial Library of New Orleans. 
 
525 H. E. Bolton 
 
 Having spent on the early period nearly all of the space allotted 
 to me and not having completed my investigations, I can only sug- 
 gest here what there is for later times, a period of greater interest 
 to most of us, perhaps, than the other. Some groups of papers 
 of recent date bearing on the Southwest are contained in the 
 Archive General and the Biblioteca Nacional, but they cannot be 
 mentioned in the brief resume which follows. 29 In my work I have 
 not proceeded very far with the examination of the department 
 archives, which, as I said, contain most of the records accumulated 
 since 1821 ; but even now I can pronounce three of them rich in 
 materials for the history of the relations between the United States 
 and Mexico since that date. These three are the secretariats of 
 Foreign Relations, War, and Fomento, or Public Improvements. 
 
 The names of these departments indicate their special functions 
 and the general classes of materials which we might expect to find 
 in their archives. In general, the materials of these archives are 
 contained in legajos or boxes, which are classified into sections on 
 the basis of subjects treated. So far as I have examined, the most 
 important section of the archive of the Secretariat of War is that of 
 Military Operations. This contains, primarily, correspondence of 
 the Secretary of War with the officers in the field and with other 
 departments of government directly concerned in active operations, 
 principally those of Hacienda and Foreign Relations. In the 
 Secretariat of Foreign Relations there is extensive diplomatic and 
 consular correspondence concerning nearly all exterior political rela- 
 tions ; while, so far as I am able to report at present, the most im- 
 portant materials in the Secretariat of Fomento are the old mope 
 and other documents, including old maps, concerning the Anglo- 
 American colonization of the Southwest and industrial concessions 
 to Americans in more recent times. Since two or all of these de- 
 partments, in many cases, contain documents relating to the same 
 subject, I shall not treat separately each archive, but shall only 
 mention some of the principal topics for which they collectively 
 contain material. 
 
 Concerning Anglo-American colonization before the Mexican 
 War there are in the secretariats of Fomento and Foreign Relations 
 hundreds of applications for lands in Texas and other parts of the 
 Southwest; schemes proposed by Mexicans and foreigners to offset 
 Anglo-American aggrandizement by planting in the Southwest 
 
 29 It may be noted that all of the records of the general archive of the 
 Secretariat of Justice down to 1886 have recently been sent to the Archivo 
 General. 
 
The Archives of Mexico 526- 
 
 colonies of Europeans; maps of lands asked for; and records of 
 concessions granted or refused. The mass of documents concerning 
 Anglo-American colonization in Texas alone after 1821, would 
 probably fill fifteen or twenty large volumes. Of greatest single 
 interest among them, perhaps, are the many papers relating to the 
 efforts of Moses and Stephen F. Austin, although the material seems 
 to be relatively full for other leading empresarios. One of the 
 colonization projects of considerable antiquarian interest, at least, 
 is that proposed to the Mexican government in 1826 by Robert 
 Owen. His memorial, present in his own handwriting, asks for a 
 concession of all Texas, with guaranteed independence and pro- 
 tection, as a place in which to test on a large scale his favorite 
 plan, which he outlines, of regenerating humanity. 
 
 Parallel with the plans for Anglo-American colonies are the 
 fears of Anglo-American aggression, then of revolution in Texas. 
 Giving expression to these fears there are in the secretariats of 
 Foreign Relations and War bewildering quantities of correspondence 
 with local authorities and diplomatic agents. In this connection 
 may be noted the bundle of papers in the Secretariat of War which 
 give the details of the arrest and imprisonment of Stephen F. Austin. 
 For California and New Mexico there are many documents, dated 
 between 1830 and 1840, concerning political disturbances caused, 
 according to the reports, by Americans and factious Spaniards, as 
 well as reports regarding the movements of the Russians. The 
 Oregon migration also calls for the use of much ink and paper. 
 
 What appear to be very complete files of correspondence be- 
 tween the Secretary of War and the frontier military authorities 
 from 1830 to 1845 fill about thirty-five legajos of some 1,200 pages 
 each. In them are the original reports, not only of the general 
 movements of Americans and Mexicans during this momentous- 
 period, but also Mexican reports of the principal military engage- 
 ments of the Texas War. Notable among the latter, of course, 
 are those of the recapture of San Antonio by the Mexicans, the- 
 fall of the Alamo and the defeat of Santa Anna at San Jacinto. I 
 had the unique experience of breaking the seals, in the presence 
 and with the permission of the archivero, of packages containing 
 some fifteen personal letters and official orders addressed to Santa 
 Anna about the time of his capture but never delivered because of 
 that event. It is interesting to note, as a reflection of the Mexican 
 view of events, that from 1830 on to 1835 the Texas bundles are 
 marked " The Revolution in Texas ", as though the revolution were- 
 
527 H. E. Bolton 
 
 already a fact at the earlier date, while those from 1835 to 1845 
 are marked " The Texas Campaign ", as though the war had con- 
 tinued for a decade, instead of ending at San Jacinto, the usual 
 American view. The views expressed by the labels seem to prevail 
 in the documents. 
 
 The secretariats of War and Foreign Relations combined, con- 
 tain voluminous reports of the raids and counter-raids across the 
 borders between the time of the Texas Revolution and that of the 
 Mexican War. For the Texas-Santa Fe expedition, for example, 
 there are not only rumors and reports of the approaching expedi- 
 tion and accounts of the capture and imprisonment of the Ameri- 
 cans, but also many papers taken from the captives, as well as 
 autograph letters subsequently written by them to the United States 
 minister to Mexico, in which they quite uniformly explain their 
 misunderstanding of the enterprise. For the only less famous Mier 
 expedition there is the same wealth of material, touching, it would 
 seem, every important phase, not excepting the romantic break for 
 liberty and the tragic decimation of the unfortunates. Concerning 
 the Mexican War of 1846-1848 there are some fifty large legajos in 
 the one section named of the archives of the Secretariat of War 
 and perhaps nearly as much material in the Secretariat of Foreign 
 Relations. 
 
 In the archive of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations there are 
 extensive files of correspondence relative to the connection of the 
 United States government with all phases of Southwestern affairs 
 after 1821 ; files of treaties and records of their negotiation; reports 
 of the various boundary commissions; diplomatic correspondence 
 with the Confederacy ; and endless records of claims that grew out 
 of Southwestern border troubles extending over the last three- 
 quarters of the nineteenth century. 
 
 The above brief summary of the results of an incompleted task 
 will give, I hope, some idea of the extent and importance of the 
 materials of the kind in question contained in the central public 
 archives of Mexico. To those who are conversant with the 
 bibliography of Southwestern history it is needless to say that the 
 sources described, particularly those for the nineteenth century, have 
 been all but unused. Indeed, I should shrink from presenting a 
 view of these later materials so very general that it contains little 
 but the obvious, were it not for the fact that students seem to have 
 ignored the obvious regarding these recent materials in the Mexican 
 archives. HERBERT E. BOLTON.