14 Mexico: Archivo General 
through the Ministerio Universal de Indias were now sent through various 
ministries, as Guerra, Estado, Marina, Hacienda, Gracia y Justicia, etc. For 
twenty years after 1787, therefore, the correspondence is generally distin- 
guished as (1) that sent through the various ministries and (2) that sent 
through the Council (Consejo), either of which classes might or might not be 
reservada. Between 1807 and 1812 there is correspondence sent to the various 
Direcciones (directions), to the Junta Gobernadora de Sevilla, and to the 
Consejo. Vol. 56, which comprises the years 1813-1819, is designated as 
letters of the viceroy to the Supremo Gobierno de la Nacion. 
Series II. 
Series II. contains 285 volumes, which extend from 1755 to 1821. While 
the numbering of the volumes is continuous for the whole series, those for 
each administration constitute a separately numbered sub-series. Thus, vol. 
13 of the whole set is no. 3 of Croix’s administration, and the title on the 
back, reading down, is “ Croix, 1769-1770. 3/13”. The correspondence in 
this series to 1787 is primarily of the class sent por via reservada de Indias, 
through the Ministro de Estado y Secretario del Despacho Universal de 
Marina y Indias, and is not different therefore from some of the matter in 
series I. There are some despatches, however, that are not of this class.” 
After 1787 there is the same differentiation of ministries to which the corre- 
spondence is sent as in series I., but little if any correspondence designated 
as being sent through the Real y Supremo Consejo was noted. 
Series III. 
This series contains only three odd volumes, numbered 7, 8, and 10, and 
comprising documents for the period 1775-1788. The correspondence is all 
designated as dl Supremo Consejo. The volumes are evidently the remains 
of a series that has become broken. The titles of the volumes are as follows: 
vol. 7, “ Mayorga, 1775-1781 ” ; vol. 8, “ Mayorga y Galvez, 1782-1784 ” ; vol. 
10, “ Arzobispo y Flores, 1781-1788 ”’. 
It will be seen that because of the overlapping of these three series, citations 
to them must be made very explicit in order to be clear. 
ForM: MOob£E or TRANSMISSION. 
The despatches to the court are here found in the form of copies or of 
minutes, according to the care of the Secretary (Secretario de Camara). The 
tendency in the later volumes is toward less care, and exact copies are more 
rare than in the earlier ones. The minutes or copies usually contain the rubric 
of the viceroy and “ Py D”, or, it may be, only the “ Py D”. The communi- 
cations were ordinarily dated in installments four days before the end of the 
month, to be sent in the monthly mail vessel from Vera Cruz. Customarily, 
indices of the month’s correspondence were made in triplicate, one copy being 
sent with the despatches. Important matters were numbered first in the 
indices and were frequently marked “en el pliego de preferencia” (in the 
preferred parcel). To this class the monthly notices from the Interior Prov- 
77 V7ol. 10 contains correspondence sent “ fuera de indice”, some of which was non- 
reserved (1761-1766) ; and vols. 16 and 17 embrace correspondence sent to the Des- 
pacho Universal de Hacienda, to the Directores Generales de Correos, to the Secretario 
de Estado y Primer Ministro de Su Majestad, to the Ministro de Guerra, and to El 
Conde de O’Reilly, inspector general de infanteria of Spain. 
