_The Diccionario del Convento de Motul_ is by far the most valuable of the three, and has not been known to Yucatecan scholars. A copy of it was picked up on a book stall in the City of Mexico by the Abbé Brasseur, and sold by him to Mr. John Carter Brown, of Providence, R. I. In 1864 this was very carefully copied by Dr. Berendt, who also made extensive additions to it from other sources, indicating such by the use of inks of different colors. This copy, in three large quarto volumes, in all counting over 2500 pages, is that which I now have, and have found of indispensable assistance in solving some of the puzzles presented by the ancient texts in the present volume. The particular value of the _Diccionario de Motul_ is not merely the richness of its vocabulary and its numerous examples of construction, but that it presents the language as it was when the Spaniards first arrived. The precise date of its compilation is indeed not given, but the author speaks of a comet which he saw in 1577, and gives other evidence that he was writing in the first generation after the Conquest. FOOTNOTES: [9-1] "Tambien diz [el Almirante] que supó que ... aquella isla Española ó la otra isla Jamaye estaba cerca de tierra firme, diez jornadas de Canoa que podia ser sesenta á setenta leguas, y que era la gente vestida alli." Navarrete, _Viages_, Tom. I, pag. 127. [10-1] "In questo loco pigliorono una Nave loro carica di mercantia et merce la quale dicevono veniva da una cierta provintia chiamata MAIAM vel Iuncatam con molte veste di bambasio de le quale ne erono il forcio di sede di diversi colori." _Informatione di Bartolomeo Colombo._ It is thus printed in Harisse, _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, p. 473; but in the original MS. in the Magliabechian library the words "vel Iuncatam" are superscribed over the word "MAIAM," and do not belong to the text. (Note of Dr. C. H. Berendt.) They are, doubtless, a later gloss, as the name "Yucatan" cannot be traced to any such early date. The mention of _silk_ is, of course, a mistake. Peter Martyr also mentions the name in his account of the fourth voyage: "Ex Guaassa insula et Taia Maiaque et cerabazano, regionibus Veraguæ occidentalibus scriptum reliquit Colonus, hujus inventi princeps," etc. _Decad._ III, Lib. IV.