A colored facsimile of the codex in Vienna, which is of Mixtec origin. The original document was on deerskin with fifty-two leaves. It is principally mythological and magical in character but also contains historical data.

Also called the Codex Zouche, this too is of Mixtec origin. Originally done on deerskin in forty-eight pages, it is primarily historical and genealogical in nature. It was studied extensively by the archaeologist Zelia Nuttall.

These manuscripts are the records of an Indian cofradía, a religious mutual aid society, written in both Spanish and Nahuatl. The constitution of the cofradía and a listing of members and dues paid are among the documents.

A religious hymn in Nahuatl that honors the Virgin of Guadalupe, this is bound with Aldama's Arte de la lengua Mexicana, a Nahuatl grammar published in 1754. Aldama's grammar is a synthesis of several earlier grammars.

This is the first printed grammar of Nahuatl. Alonso de Molina, a Franciscan, learned Nahuatl as a child and was important in spreading its use by missionaries of his day. He wrote several other works in Nahuatl, including a Vocabulario, a Confesionario breve, and a Confesionario mayor.

A history of the Nahuas until the coming of the Spaniards, this manuscript includes pictograms denoting the years of the chronology. Faustino Chimalpopocatl Galicia was an historian as well as a Nahuatl scholar.

José Fernández, Nodal, a nineteenth-century Peruvian scholar, had many interests, among them Indian languages. This is an incomplete draft of a Spanish-Aymara dictionary. Aymara is the second most important Indian language in Peru today.

This work is a draft of a Spanish-Quechua dictionary. Quechua, the language of the Incas, was the lingua franca of the Inca Empire and was also used as such by the Spaniards. There are several million Quechua speakers in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and northwestern Argentina today.

Ludovico Bertonio, a Jesuit missionary of the early sixteenth century, wrote this grammar of the Aymara language. Bertonio also left a valuable first-hand account of Aymara customs and society.

This Quechua grammar was also published earlier in 1586 and 1603. The authorship of the work has been variously attributed to Ludovico Bertonio, Francisco del Canto, Domingo de Santo Tomás, Alfonso Barcena, Diego González Holguín, and Diego de Torres Rubio.

Domingo de Santo Tomás, a Dominican, was the first bishop of Charcas. He wrote this work, which is the first printed grammar of the Quechua language, to aid in missionary work. This volume also contains his Lexicon, O vocabulario de la lengua general del Perv, printed in 1560.

This doctrine and catechism was the first book printed in Peru. It is significant that this, the first book, was a religious work printed in two indigenous languages. The text is in Spanish, Aymara, and Quechua; and its authorship has been attributed to the Jesuit José de Acosta.

This work is a grammar of several Mexican Indian languages. Buschmann was a German linguistics scholar who was particularly interested in Mexico and the Aztecs.

Miguel Tellechea was a missionary to the Tarahumara Indians of the northern part of Mexico. His work is not only a grammar of the Tarahumara language, but also a collection of sermons, talks, and a catechism in that language, designed for use in the conversion of the Indians.

Written by the Jesuit missionary Benito Rinaldini, this is a grammar, vocabulary, and catechism in the Tepehuano language. The Tepehuanos are a relatively isolated group of Mexican Indians living in southern Chihuahua, Durango, and part of Nayarit.

This is the first edition of this short catechism, written almost entirely in Otomí by the Jesuit Francisco de Miranda. The Otomís are a large Indian group in the central part of Mexico.

A Totonac grammar written by José Zambrano Bonilla, this also includes Oraciones, y doctrina de la cierra baja de Naolingo … . by Francisco Dominguez. The Totonacs were an important pre-hispanic Mexican Indian group living north of Puebla and in the northern part of Veracruz.

José María Sánchez, a priest in Chiapas, was interested in Indian languages, particularly Zoque and Tzotzil. He also wrote a work on Zapoteca. Bound with this grammar of Zoque is his La lengua tzotzil en Chiapas, published in 1895.

Leonardo Levanto was an eighteenth-century missionary who came from Spain with his brother Dionisio, with whom he took the Dominican habit in Oaxaca. The Zapotecs are a major Indian group in the Oaxaca region. One of the most famous Zapotecs in Mexican history was Benito Juárez, president of Mexico.

José Bernal was one of the Franciscan missionaries sent to Paraguay to replace the Jesuits who were expelled in 1767. He wrote this catechism to be used by the missionaries to the Guaraní Indians.

The achievements of the Jesuits in the field of linguistics have been most impressive. One of the greatest of these was Antonio Ruíz de Montoya. Born in Lima in 1585, Ruíz de Montoya spent thirty years in the missions in Paraguay. Among the many works he left are a Guaraní grammar and dictionary.

This manuscript, which also appears to be unpublished, is written principally in Cakchikel. It is actually three separate works: the Explicatio Fidei, the Pasion y muerte de xpto. señor nro., and the Inpedimentos del matrimonio para los indios. Maldonado was a Franciscan missionary in Guatemala and Mexico.

Andrés Febrés, a Jesuit, wrote this grammar of the Araucanian language. The Araucanians, one of the principal Indian groups in Chile, were a very warlike people who fiercely resisted the Spanish advance.

The reprints of the Doctrina cristiana, Confesionario, Arte y gramatica, and Vocabulario include facsimiles of the original title pages, dated 1607. The Allentiac, also known as Huarpe, were located in western Argentina and became extinct in the early eighteenth century when they were sent to Chile as laborers.

Julius Platzmann edited this grammar of the Cumanagota language which was printed in facsimile form as Volume II of Algunas obras raras sobre la lengua cumanagota, published in Leipzig in 1888. The Cumanagota lived in an area between the Orinoco River and the northern coast of Venezuela and had well-organized armies which included female warriors.

José Cardús, a Franciscan, wrote this Christian doctrine in Spanish and Guarayo. Any independent, warlike Indians from the forests of eastern Bolivia were usually called the Guarayo, though they might be more properly termed the Chapacura.

The Insular Caribs who inhabited the Lesser Antilles were a warlike people, much more so than their neighbors, the Arawaks. This catechism is in French and Carib, with the two languages in parallel columns.

Published from an anonymous manuscript, this Portuguese-Tupí dictionary received extensive use. Tupí-Guaraní is a very widespread linguistic family of South America, with the bulk of its speakers in eastern Brazil.

This is the first edition of this valuable narrative of the Spanish conquest of the northern part of South America. A Spaniard of French origin, Simon went to Bogotá in 1603. The second and third parts of his work were not published until 1882.

Contained in seven volumes, these are eighteenth- and nineteenth-century copies of the second and third parts of Simon's narrative. The original manuscript is in the Biblioteca Nacional of Bogotá.

Arrate y Acosta relied heavily on earlier published works for much of his information. This manuscript was published in 1831 in the Sociedad económica des amigos del páis in Cuba.

Cristóbal de Acuña, a Jesuit, was ordered to go with the Portuguese general Pedro Texeira on his trip down the Amazon River and to make a report of his observations. Acuña described the characteristics and customs of the various Indian groups in this area in some detail. His report was first published in 1641.

A French Franciscan, Thevet was particularly interested in history and cosmography. This account of his journey to Brazil—here referred to as France Antarctique—has detailed information about the Indians and natural history of that country. Thevet is also reputed to have been responsible for the introduction of tobacco into France.

Pedro Aguado was a sixteenth century Spanish Franciscan who became the provincial of his order in Nueva Granada. This manuscript is an eighteenth-century copy of his history of Venezuela and Nueva Granada, in two volumes.

Thomas Gage was an English Dominican who travelled in Mexico and Central America. He later left America and returned to Europe, where he renounced the Catholic faith. The above work is a description of his travels and the Indians he encountered. A grammar of the Pokonchi language is included.

This work was written by Bernardo de Vargas Machuca, a career military man from Spain who spent over twenty years in the Indies. He was particularly concerned with the military techniques of the Indians.

A missionary and world traveler, Pedro Cubero Sebastián was interested in comparing the customs and ceremonies of various societies. Therefore, only a minor part of this work is actually devoted to a description of America.

An eighteenth-century account of a voyage to the Strait of Magellan, this narrative includes descriptions of the natives encountered during the trip.

A collection of early travel narratives from many sources, this work was first compiled by Pietro Martire d'Anghiera and written in Latin. It was then edited and translated into English by the scholar Richard Eden.

This work is a continuation of Burgoa's Palestra historial de virtvdes, y exemplares apostolicos published in 1670. Both works concern the history of the Dominican missionaries in Oaxaca, Mexico.

This manuscript is a copy made in 1732. Originally written in Nahuatl, it is a history of the Aztec people by the grandson of the emperor Moctezuma, Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc. Born shortly after the Conquest, Alvarado Tezozomoc had access to documents belonging to his family and used them as a basis for his history.

Gómara, a Spanish historian, wrote this after interviewing many of the eyewitnesses of the Conquest of Mexico. His high praise for Hernán Cortés, to the exclusion of his lieutenants, created a violent reaction to the book and led to its prohibition in Spain in 1553 until after 1727.

This edition of Hakluyt's collection of narratives of voyages and travels is the nucleus of his more famous work published about ten years later. Hakluyt collected many other manuscripts of narratives which he never published, and which later came into the hands of Samuel Purchas.

Pero López was a fairly obscure Spanish captain who participated in military actions in Santa Marta, Popoyán, Peru, and Charcas. He first went to Peru as part of an army formed by Sebastián Belalcázar in 1546 to aid the Peruvian viceroy Blasco Núñez Vela. The first half of the work is primarily descriptive, while the second half deals with the mid-sixteenth-century civil wars in Peru.

The López manuscript was found by Juan Friede in the Peruvian collection at the Lilly Library. He transcribed it and edited it in this publication of 1970.

Purchas claimed to have consulted over seven hundred authors for this world comparison of religions. The work has lengthy descriptions of the Aztec and Inca religions, as well as other American Indian groups. Purchas is perhaps better known for his Hakluytus Posthumus, published in 1625, in which he includes, in an abridged form, some of Hakluyt's unpublished narratives.

Lery was a sixteenth-century French Protestant who went to Brazil to settle in the colony of Villegagnon at the mouth of the Rio Janeiro. This account of his trip includes information about the Indians of Brazil and about the natural history of that area.

Motolinia was one of the first twelve Franciscans sent to Mexico as missionaries to the Indians. He is also known as Toribio de Benavente or Toribio de Paredes, but took the name Motolinia after his arrival in Mexico because it signifies poor or humble in Nahua.

The largest part of this work is a natural history of the Antilles, but the second Livre has an extensive physical and social description of the Carib Indians. A Carib vocabulary is also included.

The secretary and friend of Francisco Pizarro, Francisco de Xerez was one of the group to divide Atahuallpa's ransom. After breaking a leg at Cajamarca, he left Peru in July of 1533, carrying the first full official report of the Pizarro expedition, written by himself.

A Spanish historian, Oviedo y Valdés was well-acquainted with the Indies. He went there in 1514 to oversee the smelting of gold and in 1526 was the governor of Cartagena de las Indias. He also knew many of the conquistadores personally.

Díaz de Guzm´n was first a soldier and then an historian. He was a participant in much of the history about which he wrote. This manuscript was published in 1900 as the first volume of Pedro de Angelis’ Colección de obras y documentos relativos a la historia antigua y moderna de las Provincias del Río de la Plata.

Enciso was a sixteenth-century Spanish sailor. After having become rich in Santo Domingo, he helped colonize Darién and founded the city of Santa Maria la Antigua in 1510. After a controversy with Vasco Núñez de Balboa, he was sent to Spain as a prisoner in 1513. This work was first published in Seville in 1519.

One hundred copies of this immense work in sixty-six volumes were printed. Contained in it are over 3,000 maps, charts, views, and plans. Tomes 63-66 concern America.

Cobo was also a Jesuit who wrote this manuscript in 1635, although it wasn't published until the nineteenth century. He argued a common origin for all the Indians, based on cultural and physical similarities among the various groups.

An extensive study in the Acostan tradition, Solórzano concluded that the Indians came to America by a northern land route. This judgment was made on the basis of the geography and the fauna of the New World.

Another writer in the Acostan tradition, Torquemada accepted the impossibility of ever discovering the origins of the Indians. However, he did reject the theory that they were one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and did agree to the probability of a northern land route to America.

Calancha also concluded that the Indians came to America by a northern land route. He further decided that the Indians were the descendants of the Tatars.

Manasseh, a Portuguese rabbi, was the first Jew to write about the Jewish origins of the Indians. He was one of the most popular authors on this subject, and his work went through many editions in several languages.

Laet printed Hugo Grotius’ pamphlet, De Origine Gentium, in an annotated form, questioning each of Grotius’ points in turn. Grotius believed that the Indians north of the Isthmus of Panama, excepting the Yucatán, were descended from the Norwegians; the Yucatecan Indians descended from the Ethiopians; and the Peruvians from the Chinese. A rather extensive controversy developed between Laet and Grotius over this subject.

Horn was also involved in the Grotius-Laet dispute. Horn, much younger than either of the two principals, wrote this work much earlier; but it was not published until 1652. Horn was encouraged to write this by Laet, but Laet died years before its publication.

Poma de Ayala's work is frequently used by those who claim that all civilizations began in America, although he did not directly say this himself. This volume is a facsimile copy of the original manuscript, complete with illustrations.

In this rare first edition, Rocha argued that the Indians were descended primarily from the ancient Iberians, and secondarily from the Israelites and Tatars.

This is the first English edition of the 1555 work by the Portuguese Antonio Galvão. Galvão postulated a Chinese origin for the Indians.

Garcia's volume is essentially a discussion and summary of the various origin theories current at the time. Perhaps one of the most interesting facets of the work is the inclusion of the Indians' own theories of their origin. These theories are contained in Libro V of the work.

Although a professor of astronomy at Gresham College, Brerewood's avocation was the study of languages. Linguistic comparison was one factor in his conclusion that the Indians were descendants of the Tatars, and also that the Tatars were not one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

A very popular book, this work went through several translations in the first thirty years after its publication. Zarate decided that the Peruvians had customs similar to the Atlanteans, as described by Plato. Therefore, he concluded that Atlanteans migrated to America before Atlantis sank.

A map in colors, this gives a simple plan of the town of Yunguyo in the bishopric of La Paz. The map and its notes show how the Catholic Church made arrangements to accommodate the Indians living in remote areas. This map was presented to the bishop of La Paz, Remigio de la Santa y Ortega.

This history and description of the province and missions of Maynas, located in the present-day departamento of Loreto in Peru, is attributed to Francisco Requena. He was governor of Maynas in the late eighteenth century.

This description of the Jesuit missions of the Guaraní Indians in Paraguay was written by Ignacio José Gonzalez in the eighteenth century. Apparently this manuscript has never been published.

A copy of decrees and memorials relating to the California missions, this document is incomplete. It reflects the changes made necessary after the expulsion of the Jesuits. Armona was governor of California at that time.

A detailed report, this manuscript concerns the mission of San Francisco Javier de Baborigame in Durango, Mexico. In the fourteen pages of this document, Larronda discusses the geography and natural resources around the mission and its political and economic aspects.

This informe, shorter than the previous noticia, is concerned exclusively with the demographic aspects of the mission. Larronda gives statistics on the population by sex, age and marital status, as well as the number of baptisms, marriages, and deaths in the mission area.

This large map in colors locates Franciscan missions in Chile. The map is very detailed and shows the locations of volcanoes, Indian tribes, and the islands of the archipelago of Chiloe.

Though his pontificate was brief, Hadrianus VI was known as a reformer. Earlier, he had been tutor to the future Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, Charles V, and had also been an inquisitor-general in Spain. This copy concerns the regulation and administration of missionary activities in Mexico.

A report of his visit to the missions along the rivers Marañon and Napo, this manuscript of the Jesuit Andrés de Zárate was published in Madrid in 1904. Zárate gives complete geographical, economic, and political information about the area. He also describes various Indian tribes and gives a history of the missionary work among them.

An order from the King to the bishop of Guadalajara, Juan de Santiago León Garabito, this document concerns the administration of the missions in Coahuila and Nayarit. These missions were run by the Franciscans.

The first seven leaves of this short manuscript by a Portuguese Franciscan discuss the missions of the province of Piedade. The last four are a separate work. Included is a small map of the area around the mouth of the Amazon River.

After the expulsion of the Jesuits, California was divided, for missionary work, between the Franciscans and the Dominicans. In this document, the King is entrusting the conversion of the Indians of Sinaloa and Sonora to the Discalced Carmelites.

Intended to be part of the uncompleted ecclesiastical history of Spain's American possessions by Tomás Tomayo de Vargas, this manuscript volume is essentially a history of the La Plata region. It describes in detail the people, mines and minerals, civil and ecclesiastical government, and the condition and administration of the Indians.

This detailed map in ink by the Discalced Augustinian Pedro de Santiago gives longitude and latitude, locations of cities, mines, missions, mountains, and the course of rivers of the area occupied by the Chiriguano Indians. The Chiriguanos are a branch of the Guaraní Indians.

Apparently unpublished, this manuscript describes the missions in Chile. It was probably written in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Juan Rivero was a Spanish writer and Jesuit who spent many years in America. This history of the missions of the plains of Casanare in Colombia was published in 1883.

A large map in colors, this locates the course of rivers, towns, mountain ranges, and Indian tribes. Notes on the map itself provide other details.

Manuel Joaquín Uriarte y Baquedano was a Jesuit missionary in the Amazon. In this letter to his brother, written from Omaguas, he tells of the missionaries taking the Indians “from the mountains, where they live like wild beasts.”

This lengthy letter by the missionary Uriarte to another of his brothers clearly portrays the activities and difficulties of the missionaries in the Amazon. He describes the Indians he has encountered and his own ill-health during his travels.

This letter also contains a great deal of information about the Indian populations of the Amazon—groups that he had personally visited. He describes the Indians and their customs and relates anecdotes of his life and work among them.

This was a secret report to the king of Spain candidly discussing the administration of the viceroyalty of Peru. The abuses of the clergy, particularly as regards their Indian charges, are clearly set forth. Although not intended for publication, it was published in London in 1826 with the title Noticias secretas de America. This manuscript copy is one of six known.

Juan de Zumárraga, first archbishop of Mexico, was also appointed the Protector of the Indians. In this document are reported the abuses of the Indians by the Spaniards in the ten years after the Conquest.

Artigas, the newly elected Provincial of the Augustinians in the Province of San Vincente de Chiapas y Guatemala, made a report to the King on the pacification of the Tzeltal Indians after a recent uprising. Four missionaries were killed in that uprising, and Artigas also gave details of that event.

This document describes an expedition in Nicaragua that began in October of 1692. There is information concerning missionaries and Indian tribes in that area. Margil de Jesús was a great Franciscan missionary who travelled extensively in Mexico and Central America.

The Manasicas are a branch of the Bolivian Chiquitos. This manuscript describes their political organization, customs, and religion. Caballero has included a Satyra against their native gods in the belief that the best way to attack false religion is through ridicule. This manuscript was published in 1933 by Manuel Serrano y Sanz.