The project of printing original papers selected from national and family archives was agitated in Spain by Campomanes, Jovellanos, Villamil, and others, who collected and wrote much upon the subject. The scheme was delayed by the political disruptions incident to the early part of the century, by which the archives became badly scattered. In 1842, under the auspices of the _Academia de la Historia_, was begun the publication, at Madrid, of a _Coleccion de Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de España_, with the names of Martin Fernandez Navarrete, Miguel Salvá, and Pedro Sainz de Baranda on the title-page. Navarrete lived to see only the fifth volume; Salvá and Baranda continued the publication to vol. xxiii., after which, Salvá edited alone to vol. xxxii., when he was joined by the marquises of Pidal and of Miraflores. After vol. xlvii., Pidal's name was dropped, and with vol. lvii. Salvá and the Marqués de Fuente del Valle appeared as editors. In connection with documents relating to the general history of Spain is here printed a vast amount of matter about America, and the doings of Spaniards in that quarter. [Sidenote: TERNAUX-COMPANS, ALAMAN, AND OTHERS.] During the next score of years floods of light are let in upon the dark recesses of hidden treasures, the spirit of unearthing which extends to Mexico. I may mention incidentally Ramirez, who, in his _Proceso de Residencia contra Alvarado_ and _Nuño de Guzman_, gives some original Mexican documents not elsewhere published. Alaman, at the close of his _Disertaciones_, prints about forty original documents on the time of the Conquest, some of them from the collection of Navarrete, and others from original sources, such as the Hospital de Jesus in Mexico. The _Documentos para la Historia de México_, Mexico, 1853-7, in 21 volumes, was made chiefly from Mexican sources, and is specially valuable for north-west Mexico. Icazbalceta's collection includes fifty-three documents, with few exceptions _inéditos_, the existence of several of which, such as a letter of Cortés, and the relation of Tapia on the Conquest, was then unknown. Most of them were obtained through Gonzalez de Vera, of Madrid; only two or three were found in Mexico. Thus far Icazbalceta's collection refers exclusively to the sixteenth century. Brasseur de Bourbourg, for his _Histoire des Nations Civilisées du Mexique_, Paris, 1857-9, one volume of which is devoted to a history of the Conquest from an Indian stand-point, seems to have relied on his Nahua manuscripts, the standard histories, and a few Spanish manuscripts. Although much thus far had been done, it seemed little to the savans of Spain in comparison with what yet might be accomplished. And it was with this feeling that the government authorized the printing of any documents in the _Real Archivo de Indias_ affecting the history of America down to the end of the seventeenth century. The publication