112 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XV. No. 36? 



The Lonja was built nearly three hundred years ago, as a sort 

 of merchants' exchange; and there is a trace of its original 

 purpose in the apartments now occupied by the Chamber of 

 Commerce. It is a massive, simple, quadrangular building, 

 the sides of which may be two hundred feet long, and it 

 encloses a beautiful court, in which stands a statue of Chris- 

 topher Columbus. The stone of which it is partly built is of a 

 dull-brown hue, but in other respects I was reminded of the 

 Peabody Institute in Baltimore. There are two lofty stories, 

 the upper one being devoted to the archives. Ascending a 

 stately marble staircase, and passing the outer offices of the 

 registers or secretaries, we entered a long gallery, which 

 extends completely around three sides of the building, and must, 

 therefore, be almost six hundred feet in length. It is not 

 interrupted by partitions, is lofty, light, free from dust, and 

 in excellent order. 



Around the walls are cases open to the eye, in which are 

 thousands upon thousands of packages containing original 

 letters and reports from every part of the globe. Each package 

 is carefully tied up, and it bears a conspicuous label, stating 

 the district to which the papers belong and the dates to which 

 they relate. They are separated in fourteen principal depart- 

 ments, corresponding with the fourteen andiencias into which 

 the exterior possessions of Spain have been divided. Not yet 

 placed upon the shelves, but stacked in the centre of the 

 gallery, were a multitude of packages lately received from 

 Havana. 



To the casual visitor all this is impressive because of its 

 voluminous extent. If he has any antiquarian taste, his appe- 

 tite is whetted to know what these packages contain, and 

 whether there are any papers of historical interest that have still 

 escaped the keen eye of historical scholars. But the curiosity 

 of the passing visitor is gratified, as it is in the British 

 Museum, and as it is in the Lenox Library of New York, by the 

 display under glass of some of the most interesting autographs 

 and documents belonging to the collection. Here are papers 

 bearing the signatures of Ferdinand, and Isabella, Philip le Bel, 

 Joanna or Crazy Jane, Charles V., and Philip II. ; but to me 

 the papers sent to these sovereigns from the New World by 

 the great navigators and conquerors were of far more interest 

 than royal autographs. Hanging upon the walls were portraits 

 of many famous discoverers, doubtless authentic likenesses, 

 though not original pictures. We seemed to be brought into 

 the presence of these great men as we looked upon their faces 

 and saw the lines which their pens had traced. 



The newspapers of this week are filled with the splendid 

 achievements of Stanley, whose arrival at Zanzibar is just 

 reported,- and with expressions of pity for Emin Bey, who has 

 met with such an accident after escaping the dangers of theMahdi, 

 imprisonment, sickness, battle, and fatigue. These stories 

 of the exploration of Africa are a fresh commentary on the 

 privations and perils encountered when America was "the dark 

 continent. ' ' In parallel columns we are reading of the exile 

 of Dom Pedro II. and of the substitution of a republican for a 

 monarchical government in the great territory of Brazil, last 

 of all the countries in Spanish America to renounce the authority 

 of a king. How obvious it is that the "archives" of to-day 

 are hooks and newspapers: The telegraph in a moment reports 

 from the lands beyond the seas events which three or four hun- 

 dred years ago would not have been made known for months 

 and years. 



Here, for example, is one of the first letters which attracted 

 our attention, from Fernando Cortez to Charles V., dated May 

 15, 1.522, and complaining that he has had no answer to the 

 despatches he had sent during the three years he has been in 

 New Spain. He announces that he has discovered the South 

 Sea, the coast of which is inhabited, and that he has begun to 

 build ships. He begs the King to listen to the messengers whom 

 he sends, assuring him that this business is far more important 

 than all that pertains to the rest of the Indies. Contrast this 

 delay in the exchange of correspondence with the telegrams 

 which have been passed within the last week between Stanley 

 and the King of the Belgians and the Emperor of Germany. 



Another letter which interested me particularly was that of 

 Juan Ponce de Leon, dated Feb. 10, 1521, announcing the 

 discovery of 2a isla florida, and expressing his intention to g& 

 again and find out whether this is really an island or a part of 

 the mainland of Velasquez. 



Here was a letter from Francisco Pizarro, dated at Cuzco ioi 

 1535, in the handwriting of a secretary, who attaches the 

 signature of the conqueror. Pizarro makes his mark on the 

 right and left of the signature, as Spaniards now are wonted ta 

 subscribe a flourish or dash of the pen to their signatures. 



I paused with special attention before the portrait of Fr. 

 Bartol. de las Casas, in his clerical garb, and read his letter tO: 

 Charles V., explaining to the Emperor, that, in addition ta 

 saving many souls, he might obtain the best • income in the 

 world from the rich lands beyond the seas if he would only adopt 

 the measures which Las Casas proposed. 



Here, too, we saw an autograph of Amerigo Vespucci, 

 another of Bernal Diaz, one of Magellan, one of Balboa, one of 

 Velasquez. There was also displayed in one of the cases the- 

 treaty (June 5, 1494) between Ferdinand and Isabella and the 

 King of Portugal with regard to their respective possessions in 

 the seas. We were also shown the bull of May 3, 1498,, 

 delivered by Pope Alexander VI. 



The autograph of Christopher Columbus is not here to be seen. 

 In the Columbian Library, near by, are some of his books, 

 with annotations in his own handwriting, — hooks that have 

 often been mentioned by the travellers who have seen them. 

 Before leaving Baltimore. I read with great interest the account 

 of this library given by Mr. S. Teackle Wallis in his recollec- 

 tions of Spain, and I will not attempt to redescribe that which 

 he described so well. Indeed, his books ought to be reprinted, 

 and made accessible to a new generation of readers, for they 

 are just as good now as when they were written. Can copies 

 be found in the New Mercantile Library or in the Hopkins 

 Historical Rooms? If not, let some one give his copies, to be 

 made accessible to the public. 



The consul of the United States, Mr. Caldwell, introduced us. 

 to the chief of the archives, Ilmo. Sr. D. Carlos Jimenez- 

 Placer; and this distinguished gentleman accompanied us 

 through the halls and answered all our inquiries in the most 

 obliging way; and, although our knowledge of Spanish was not 

 much better than his knowledge of English, we were able- 

 through an intelligent interpreter to obtain a great deal of 

 information. 



It appears that the collection of these historical papers at. 

 Seville is due to one of the most enlightened of the modern 

 kings of Spain, Charles III., who in 1781 issued a decree estab- 

 lishing in the Casa Lonja el real archivo de Indias. Most of 

 the Spanish archives are still at Samancas, noith of Madrid,, 

 including, doubtless, many of those which have been so service- 

 able to Mr. S. R. Gardiner in the preparation of his admirable- 

 history of England in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. ,, 

 to Froude and other recent historians. 



I asked the head of the archives, Sig. D. Jimenez-Placer,, 

 whether a young man from the Johns Hopkins University,, 

 properly accredited and having a definite historical purpose, 

 might he allowed to prosecute his inquiries in the Indian- 

 archives. He replied that such authority could only be given in 

 Madrid, and that application should be made to the ministry 

 of foreign affairs, properly, of course, through the American 

 minister. In the two visits which I made to the archives I saw 

 no signs of an investigator. I also asked for an authentic 

 account of the archives, printed in Spanish or any other lan- 

 guage ; but I could learn of nothing more satisfactory than that 

 which is given in the local histories and guides to Seville. 



In one of the book-stores I found a copy of the ' 'Cartas 

 de Indias," published at Madrid in 1877 by the minister of 

 Fomento, — a magnificent quarto volume, containing facsimiles; 

 of two letters of Columbus, and of many other imporant 

 papers, illustrated with notes and essays. I looked upon the 

 book with the envious eye of a librarian and the economical eye 

 of a college president; but whether I shall buy it for the 

 university or not, to-morrow will decide. 



