It must be admitted, however, that an account of this reign could not have
been undertaken at any preceding period, with anything like the advantages
at present afforded; owing to the light which recent researches of Spanish
scholars, in the greater freedom of inquiry now enjoyed, have shed on some
of its most interesting and least familiar features. The most important of
the works to which I allude are, the History of the Inquisition, from
official documents, by its secretary, Llorente; the analysis of the
political institutions of the kingdom, by such writers as Marina, Sempere,
and Capmany; the literal version, now made for the first time, of the
Spanish-Arab chronicles, by Conde; the collection of original and
unpublished documents, illustrating the history of Columbus and the early
Castilian navigators, by Navarrete; and, lastly, the copious illustrations
of Isabella's reign, by Clemencin, the late lamented secretary of the
Royal Academy of History, forming the sixth volume of its valuable
Memoirs.

It was the knowledge of these facilities for doing justice to this
subject, as well as its intrinsic merits, which led me, ten years since,
to select it; and surely no subject could be found more suitable for the
pen of an American, than a history of that reign, under the auspices of
which the existence of his own favored quarter of the globe was first
revealed. As I was conscious that the value of the history must depend
mainly on that of its materials, I have spared neither pains nor expense,
from the first, in collecting the most authentic. In accomplishing this, I
must acknowledge the services of my friends, Mr. Alexander H. Everett,
then minister plenipotentiary from the United States to the court of
Madrid, Mr. Arthur Middleton, secretary of the American legation, and,
above all, Mr. O. Rich, now American consul for the Balearic Islands, a
gentleman, whose extensive bibliographical knowledge, and unwearied
researches, during a long residence in the Peninsula, have been liberally