COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 63 



THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF HISTORY. 



The Royal Academy of History displayed from the rich stores of its 

 library a number of remarkable manuscripts, originals of the ancient 

 u histories of the Indies.&quot; 



Perhaps the most notable of these was a fragmentary history of 

 Mexico by Father Bernardino de Sahagun, being the original draft, or 

 rather a portion of it, consisting of only four books, from which he 

 composed his complete work, the only complete manuscript of which in 

 existence is found, not in Spain, but in Italy. That in Madrid has been 

 described on several occasions, especially by myself and by Dr. Seler, 

 of Berlin, and portions of it have been published by both of us. 1 



The original manuscript of the extensive general history of the 

 Indies, by Fernandez de Oviedo, was also on exhibition, consisting of 

 seven folio volumes, written in the sixteenth century ; all of which, how 

 ever, has been published by the Spanish Government. 



Another manuscript, which has attracted great attention since the 

 first production of a portion of it by the Abbe Brasseur, is the descrip 

 tion of Yucatan by Bishop de Landa. It appears to have been copied 

 from an original which is now lost. It is especially celebrated for the 

 light which it throws upon the system of writing invented by the 

 natives of Yucatan, and which is preserved in a few manuscripts 

 written by them before the Conquest, and also in numerous monuments 

 carved in stone upon their temples. The students of such inscriptions 

 in modern times have usually taken as their starting point the so called 

 u alphabet,&quot; as given in this volume. 



Although the results have not been very successful because the 

 alphabet which he gave was not intended for use in the manner of those 

 employed in modern languages, yet its value can not be doubted as a 

 genuine production of native invention. It may be added that the first 

 time this manuscript was published in a correct form was in 1881, when 

 it was issued by means of a photographic representation in a folio vol 

 ume referring to the hieroglyphic writing of Central America, edited 

 by Sefior Juan de Dios de la Eada y Delgada. 2 



Another of the manuscripts in this collection was one written in the 

 sixteenth century, of 668 folio pages in the first volume and 272 in the 

 second, being the &quot; History of the Indies,&quot; by the illustrious Las Casas. 

 The history, which is here included in full, was published in Mexico, 

 in part, but a considerable portion of the manuscripts of this author 

 has not yet seen the light. It may be said of them that a great many 

 of his chapters treating on ancient classical religious history would have 

 no interest or value to the modern reader, and in an edition of his 

 work would scarcely merit that they should be reproduced in type. 



1 See the Compte-Rendu de la VII e Session du Congres International des America- 

 nistes, p. 83. 



2 1 have also given a photographic reproduction of this alphabet in my Essays of 

 an Americanist, page 242. 



