FOREWORD 



The Smithsonian Institution pubhshed recently Doctor Charles Upsoji 

 Clark's translation of the "Espiiiosa Manuscript," which he discovered m the 

 Library of the Vatican.* This work contauis the detailed report by a keen 

 observer of conditions in Latin America as they were soon after the Spanish 

 Conquest. 



The Smithsonian Institution's Institute of Social Antluopology now 

 begins to give an even more detailed accoimt of life and conditions prevailing 

 at the present time among the Sierra Tarascans in Mexico. It can readily 

 be foreseen that not only may this study lead to improvement in these social 

 conditions, but that it will be read by anthi'opologists of the future with the 

 same type of interest which attracts them in the Espinosa Manuscript. 



C. G. Abbot, 

 Secretary, Smithsonian Institution, 



June 22, 1944. 



•Compendium and description ot the West Indies, by Antonio Vizquez de Espinosa. Translated by Charles 

 Upson Clark. Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 102, 862 pp. 1942. 



