20 Mexico: Archivo General 
HISTORIA. 
(HISTORY; about 530 volumes.) 
The nucleus of this section is the collection of thirty-two volumes of manu- 
scripts entitled “ Coleccién de Memorias de Nueva Espafia ”, described below, 
which has hitherto been the best known portion of the Archivo General y 
Publico. To this nucleus there have been added from time to time about 500 
volumes. Much of the increase was made in the administration of Senor 
F. P. de Urquide as Director of the archive, who tells us in his report of 
September 6, 1873, that he had greatly enlarged the section, adding to it 
especially such legajos as he could find of the old “ archivo secreto” (see p. 
7). The section is miscellaneous in character and arrangement, but of the 
very highest value for the history of New Spain and for that portion of New 
Spain now included within the United States. Most of the volumes have 
indices. Volumes 288, 300, 305, 309, 310, 315, and 318 were missing from the 
files or misplaced when the investigation was made. 
NOTABLE GROUPS OF DOCUMENTS. 
Volumes 285, 286, 295, 296, 298, 299, 301, 302, 308, 311, 316, 333, 391, 392, 
and 398 are all entitled “ Jesuitas ” (Jesuits). Most of them comprise original 
Jesuit mission records, proceeding from the central archive of the Jesuit 
order. Several of the volumes (298-302), however, contain Talamantes- 
Pichardo papers, being included under the head “ Jesuitas ”, perhaps because, 
like the rest, they were found in that archive, where Talamantes and Pichardo 
worked. Volumes 25, 26, and 27 of the section of Misiones belong to the 
same group of Jesuit papers also. In these volumes are found most of the 
originals of the Jesuit papers printed in the Documentos para la Historia de 
Mé.sico, which has been one of our principal sources for documents relating 
to the early history of the Southwest. 
Another notable group of materials in the section is the “ Memorias de 
Nueva Espafia.” This collection, as we are told by Sefior Urquide in his 
report (informe) of 1873, had its origin in the project of the Spanish govern- 
ment to prepare a general history of the Indies. In pursuance of this plan an 
order was issued in 1780 to Viceroy Mayorga requesting the papers of Veytia 
and Boturini and such other similar manuscripts as might be found at the 
Royal University of Mexico or in other repositories. In response to this order 
the Veytia manuscripts were sent in 1783 to Spain, the gift of the collector’s 
widow, Dofia Josefa Arostegui. In the following year came the request for 
all that could be found of the manuscripts mentioned by Clavigero in his Storia 
del Antico Messico, published in 1780. As a result of this order Viceroy 
Flores sent in 1788 a box containing parts of the works of Father Morfi and 
Father Tello and some Boturini papers. It is probable indeed that the whole 
Morfi history was sent, so far as it was ever finished (see p. 207, legajo 59). 
By another order dated Feb. 21, 1790, copies of the lacking Boturini papers 
and other monumental manuscripts were required. The list included sixteen 
items, as follows: “(1) Los Documentos del Museo de Boturini; (2) Las 
Relaciones de Ixtlilxochitl; (3) El Informe del [lustrisimo Sor. D. Juan de 
Palafox al Conde de Salvatierra; (4) El Memorial de Don Carlos Cigtienza 
y Gongora; (5) El Impreso de Cigtienza que es el Teatro de Virtudes Politi- 
cas; (6) El Librito de la Vida y Muerte de los Nifios Tlaxcaltecas; (7) El 
MS. Mexicano sobre la Historia de Tlaxcala; (8) La Conquista del Reyno 
de Nueva Galicia; (9) Las Relaciones del Nuevo Mexico del Padre Fray 
