Xxiv ACCOUNT OF THE WRITERS OF THE 



In the Seventeenth Century, 



Antonio de Herrera, royal hiftoriographer for the In- 

 dies. This candid and judicious author wrote in four 

 vohimes in folio. Eight Decades of the Hiflory of Ameri- 

 ca, beginning from the year 1492, together with a Geo- 

 graphical Defcription of the Spanifli Colonies ; which 

 work was printed for the firft time in Madrid, at the 

 beginning of the lafl century, and afterwards reprinted 

 in 1730 ; alfo tranllated and publiflied in other langua- 

 ges of Europe. Although the principal defign of the 

 author was to relate the anions of the Spaniards, he 

 does not, however, omit the Ancient Hiflory of the 

 Americans ; but in what relates to the Mexicans, he 

 copies for the mod part the accounts of Acofla and Go- 

 mara. His method, however, like that of all rigid an- 

 nalifts, is difagreeable to the lovers of hiftory, becaufe 

 at every flep the narration of fa£i:s is interrupted with 

 the account of other unconnected occurrences. 



Arigo Martinez, a foreign author, although of Spanifli 

 furname. After having travelled through the greatefl 

 part of Europe, and refided many years in Mexico, where 

 he made himfelf moll: ufeful by his great fldll in mathe- 

 matics, he wrote the Hiflory of New Spain, which was 

 printed in Mexico in 1606. In the Ancient Hiflory, he 

 treads for the moft part in the footfleps of Acofla ; but 

 there are aflronomical and phyfical obfervations in it of 

 importance to the geography and natural hiflory of thefe 

 countries. 



Gregorio Garcia, a Dominican Spaniard. His famous 

 treatife on the Origin of the Americans, printed in quar- 

 to, at Valencia, in 1607, afterwards enlarged and re- 

 printed 



