The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 7, July 1903 - April, 1904 Page: 197

                                
Materials for Southwestern History.

In Secci6n de Historia fifteen of the additional volumes exam-
ined contain extensive materials on Texas, most of these fifteen
being devoted largely or entirely to this subject.' Secci6n de Pro-
vincias Internas contains some two hundred and forty volumes in
all, and a very cursory examination shows that about one-tenth
of them are devoted largely to Texas.2 In Secci6n de Misiones only
one volume, No. 21, seems to contain extensive material on this
subject.
Before proceeding with a detailed description of these Texas
materials, a comment on two points of more general interest may
be in order. The questions have arisen, Where are the originals of
such historical documents as are found in the Archivo General only
in the form of copies, and, What proportion of the materials pre-
served there are of this character? To each of these queries a par-
tial answer may be ventured.
What is probably the richest portion of the historical material in
the Archivo General, the Coleccidn de Memorias de Nueva Espaia,
forming the nucleus of the history section, is entirely made up of
copies. The circumstances under which these documents were com-
piled were such as to establish a probability that the originals, if
they exist anywhere, are in Mexico, and have not, as has been sug-
gested (by way of inquiry rather than as the expression of an opin-
ion), been sent to Spain. In 1780 the Spanish government planned
to have written in Madrid a general history of its colonial posses-
sions, and, pursuant to that plan, began making efforts to collect in
Mexico materials for the purpose. In 1783 the manuscripts of
Veytia were sent to Spain.8   The next year came an order for more
documents, and in 1788 one box of papers was sent, but it contained
only a small number of important papers. Others were not sent
for different reasons-many, because their possessors, private indi-
viduals, would not part with them, while to make copies, without
1They are Nos. 72, 82, 84, 93, 100, 153, 161, 162, 287, 298, 299, 301,302, 320,
and 325. Five volumes of this section formerly described also deal largely
with Texas. These are Nos. 27, 28. 43, 51, and 100. See THE QUARTERLY,
VI 104-109; The Nation, May 30, 1901.
2The twenty-three volumes of this section in which I encountered Texas
material are Nos. 20, 24, 25, 29, 32, 73, 79, 99, 100, 135, 136, 137, 159, 163,
170, 175, 177, 181, 182, 183, 188, 200. 201.
8 The Nation, May 30, 1901, page 430.

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