century. To most of our readers, the reasons for this are obvious:
the fact that the classic period of Philippine history is thus bounded;
the comparative rarity and inaccessibility of most material therein to
the general public; the vast extent of the field covered by Philippine
history, and the necessary limitations of space imposed upon the
selection of material for this work; the closing of foreign archives
to all investigators after an early date in the nineteenth century;
and the greater difficulty, in that later period, of securing a proper
historical perspective. But so many and urgent requests have come to
us, from subscribers and reviewers, for such extension of this series
as shall cover the entire period of Spanish domination, that we have
decided to modify the former plan in the manner here briefly indicated.

It is our purpose not to exceed the number of volumes already
announced, fifty-five. We are able to do this because in our original
plan, to avoid a subsequent increase in the number of volumes,
a certain amount of space was purposely left for possible future
changes as a result of later investigations to be made in foreign
archives, or on account of the necessary excision of extraneous or
irrelevant matter from the printed works which are to be presented
in this series. The new title will be "The Philippine Islands:
1493-1898." The early and especially important history of the
islands will be covered as fully as before. For the history of
the nineteenth century, we will present various important decrees,
reports, and other official documents; and provide a clear, careful,
and impartial synopsis of some of the best historical matter extant,
down to the close of the Spanish régime. Throughout the series will
be used, as has been done from the beginning, all the best material
available--historical, descriptive, and statistical--for reference
and annotation. With the copious and carefully-prepared bibliography