refined social polity, and considerable progress in the arts of civilization.
Indeed, so prominently do they stand out on the great canvas of history,
that the name of the one, notwithstanding the contrast they exhibit in
their respective institutions, most naturally suggests that of the other; and
when I sent to Spain to collect materials for an account of the Conquest
of Mexico, I included in my researches those relating to the Conquest of
Peru.

The larger part of the documents, in both cases, was obtained from the
same great repository,--the archives of the Royal Academy of History at
Madrid; a body specially intrusted with the preservation of whatever may
serve to illustrate the Spanish colonial annals. The richest portion of its
collection is probably that furnished by the papers of Munoz. This
eminent scholar, historiographer of the Indies, employed nearly fifty
years of his life in amassing materials for a history of Spanish discovery
and conquest in America. For this, as he acted under the authority of the
government, every facility was afforded him; and public offices and
private depositories, in all the principal cities of the empire, both at home
and throughout the wide extent of its colonial possessions, were freely
opened to his inspection. The result was a magnificent collection of
manuscripts, many of which he patiently transscribed with his own hand.
But he did not live to reap the fruits of his persevering industry. The
first volume, relative to the voyages of Columbus, were scarcely finished
when he died; and his manuscripts, at least that portion of them which
have reference to Mexico and Peru, were destined to serve the uses of
another, an inhabitant of that New World to which they related.

Another scholar, to whose literary stores I am largely indebted, is Don
Martin Fernandez de Navarrette, late Director of the Royal Academy of
History. Through the greater part of his long life he was employed in