PREFACE. 
The documents presented in this collection have been arranged under 
six subject headings, each of which, in a sense, constitutes a chapter, or 
a division of the whole subject treated. Within each of these groups a 
chronological order is, in general, followed. In both cases this plan of 
organization is adhered to regardless of the archive or the section of an 
archive in which a document was found. 
In expanding abbreviated words the base of the word has been copied 
as it occurred, even though it may have been spelled incorrectly, but the 
added portion has been spelled according to modern rules. Thus the 
abbreviation “ capp an ” when expanded becomes “ cappitan.” Apart from 
extending the abbreviation and separating words that were run together, 
the only other change in form has been to capitalize the first words of 
sentences and paragraphs where in the original they are in lower case, 
and to change to lower case any capital letters occurring in the middle of 
a word. 
As for punctuation and accentuation, no effort has been made to punctu¬ 
ate or accent according to modern rules; on the contrary, the integrity 
of the text in these respects has been preserved in so far as it was possible. 
However, it was decided that in all doubtful cases of punctuation the 
benefit of the doubt should be on the side of intelligibility, modern prac¬ 
tices of punctuation in such cases being followed. Furthermore, where 
it was evident that a sentence had ended, periods have been added where 
none occurs in the original. Otherwise it may be said that the punctuation 
of the original has been preserved. 
For the copying of the Bandelier transcripts and the carrying out of 
the suggestions given above, the greatest credit is due to Mrs. Beatrice 
Quejada Cornish, a native of Mexico and a member of the Spanish de¬ 
partment in the University of California. Mrs. Cornish copied the major 
portion of the Bandelier transcripts; after a serious illness her place was 
ably filled by Miss Padilla of San Francisco, a most competent copyist. 
The editor took it upon himself to read all of the texts of the recopied 
transcripts. 
The major part of the translating was done between August, 1917, and 
December, 1919, by Dr. Herbert I. Priestley of the Bancroft Library 
staff, at present associate professor of Mexican history in the University 
of California, and by Mrs. Nellie V. Sánchez, an expert translator and a 
scholar of high standing, of Berkeley, California. That the translating 
was done by such competent and well-known scholars is a matter of 
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