Scarcely was Navarrete's _Coleccion de Viages_ put to press, when Washington Irving heard of it, and went to Madrid with the intention of translating it into English. But he soon saw that with less labor he could accomplish a work which would yield him greater returns. Navarrete, who had already collected the material and prepared the way, was still disposed to lend the genial American every assistance; it was necessary for him to make few original investigations; so that under the circumstances the _Life of Columbus_ was by no means a difficult task for so ready a writer. Humboldt visited Madrid before coming to America, but seems to have consulted no important historical documents not in the possession of others. Prescott obtained from the collections of Muñoz and Navarrete 8000 foolscap pages of copies, most of which having any importance have since been printed by Icazbalceta, Alaman, and others. Between the years 1837 and 1841 Henri Ternaux-Compans published at Paris twenty volumes of _Voyages, relations, et mémoires originaux pour servir à l'histoire de la découverte de l'Amérique_, containing, beside translations of several rare and then unobtainable works, some seventy-five original documents, several of them from the Muñoz collection, and others obtained from the Spanish archives in some unexplained way, possibly not wholly disconnected with the French campaign on the Peninsula. Among his translations are documents relating to the conquest and settlement of Central America and Mexico, the relations of Cabeza de Vaca and Ixtlilxochitl, Oviedo's History of Nicaragua, Zurita's Report on New Spain, and Ixtlilxochitl's History of the Chichimecs. Ternaux-Compans also published _Recueil de documents et mémoires originaux sur l'histoire des possessions espagnoles dans l'Amérique_, Paris, 1840; and _Bibliothèque américaine_, a catalogue of books on America appearing prior to 1700.