THE NARRATIVE OF CASTANEDA 



BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE 



A perusal of the narratives of the expeditions of Goronado and of 

 Friar Marcos of Nice, which were translated by Henri Ternaux-Com- 

 paus for the ninth volume of his Collection de Voyages, convinced me 

 that the style and the language of these narratives were much more 

 characteristic of the French translator than of the Spanish conquista- 

 dores. A comparison of Ternaux's translations with some, of the Span- 

 ish texts which he had rendered into French, which were available in 

 the printed collections of Spanish documents in the Harvard University 

 library, showed me that Ternaux had not only rendered the language 

 of the original accounts with great freedom, but that in several cases 

 he had entirely failed to understand what the original writer endeav- 

 ored to relate. On consulting Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical 

 History of America, in the second editiou, I found that the Spanish 

 manuscript of the Castaneda narrative, from which most of our knowl- 

 edge of Coronado's expedition is derived, was in the Lenox Library 

 in New York City. The trustees of this library readily granted my 

 request, made through Dr Winsor, for permission to copy the manu- 

 script. The Lenox manuscript is not the original one written by Cas- 

 taneda, but a copy made toward the end of the sixteenth century. It 

 contains a number of apparent mistakes, and the meaning of many 

 passages is obscure, probably due to the fact that the Spanish copyist 

 knew nothing about the North American Indians and their mode of 

 living. These places I have poiuted out in the notes to my translation 

 of the narrative, and I have called attention also to the important 

 errors and misconceptions in Ternaux's version. Diligent inquiry among 

 the custodians of the large Spanish libraries at Simancas, Madrid, and 

 at Seville where the Lenox manuscript was copied in 1590, has failed 

 to bring me any information in regard to the original manuscript. 

 The Lenox copy is the one used by Ternaux. 



The Spanish text of the Relacion Postrera de Sivola is printed now 

 for the first time, through the kindness of the late Sefior Joaquin 

 Garcia Ieazbalceta, who copied it for me from a collection of papers 

 in his possession, which formerly belonged to the Father Motolinia, the 

 author of a very valuable description of the Indians of New Spain. 

 In the preface to this work, dated 1541, Motolinia says that he was 

 in communication with the brethren who had gone with Corouado. The 

 Relacion Postrera appeals to be a copy made from a letter written to 

 some of the Franciscans in New Spain by one of the friars who accom- 

 panied Corouado. 



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