422 COLLECTIONS OF HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS IN GUATEMALA. 



1. The National Archives, containing the archives of the colonial 

 administration, carefully arranged and kept for many years by Don 

 Juan Gavarrete, but now in incompetent hands. It is this collection 

 from which some fifty fascicles relating to Nicaragua, (they comprise 

 original reports from the local authorities, from residing judges and 

 visiting functionaries, from bishops, curates, and missionaries, &c, cov- 

 ering, iu uninterrupted succession, the period from 15G0 to 1821, more 

 than 1,200 documents in ail,) have been given away, and are now rot- 

 ting in their boxes at Managua, where the dampness and the destruc- 

 tive insects which abound at that place must soon destroy them. No 

 catalogue exists of the remainder. 



2. The Archives of the " Audiencia" (the high court of justice dur- 

 ing the Spanish reign) in the palace of justice. They are in the great- 

 est confusion, and, in the opinion of those who have had access to them, 

 have never been revised. 



3. The Archives of the Municipality. They contain the municipal 

 records from the oldest times, besides a few valuable manuscripts, among 

 them the original of Bernal Diaz's " Historia Verdadera," the author 

 (whose existence Judge Wilson holds to be a myth) having been a mem- 

 ber of the municipal council of the city of Guatemala. 



4. The Library of the University. A catalogue by Don Antonio 

 Batres exists in print, which, though a poor work, full of blunders and 

 inaccuracies, gives at least some idea of the rich contents of that vast 

 hall. I hope a copy has been sent to the Institution, as promised to me 

 by the author. 



5. The Library of the " Sociedad Economica." A catalogue of the 

 "ethnological sections" (comprising also the historical works) by Don 

 Juan Gavarrete, is printed in the last February and March numbers of 

 the paper published by the society, and separately in a quarto pamphlet. 

 Both have been sent to the Institution, if I am correctly informed. 



Works which I would recommend to have copied first are those by 

 Jimenez, of which, as far as I remember, no transcripts exist outside 

 of the city of Guatemala. The "Recordation Florida," by Mnnez y Guz- 

 man, of which one volume in manuscript copy is in the Lenox Library j 

 the anonymous " Historia de la Provincia de San Vicente Ferrer de 

 Chiapa y Guatemala," comprising the *' Isagoge apologetico," so often 

 quoted by Pelaez; Bernal Diaz's "Historia Verdadera," (the printed 

 editions being considered defective both in correctness and complete- 

 ness — a copy is actually being made for the Mexican government;) the 

 writings of many ecclesiastical authors, such as Cano, Molina, Montoya, 

 Cort6s y Lara, Goicoechea, &c. ; the records or memoirs written by In- 

 dian authors in Indian languages, among them the manuscripts quoted 

 by Brasseur under the name "Memorial de Tecpan-Atitlan, &c. 



With regard to the permission to be obtained from the government 

 and special managers of the mentioned collections for searching and 

 copying manuscripts in those archives and libraries, I have no doubt it 



