The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 35, July 1931 - April, 1932 Page: 250

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

The facts do not warrant his conclusion that Urdifiola should be
ranked with Ibarra and Carabajal as an outstanding conquistador
of New Spain during the last half of the sixteenth century.
With the exception of a Master's thesis which was recently
presented at the University of Texas by Mr. W. L. Darnell, this is
the first worthy study of Francisco de Urdifiola. It is based almost
exclusively on hitherto unused and unpublished documents gleaned
from archives and other sources in Mexico, the United States and
Europe. It was the privilege of the reviewer to place at the disposal
of Senior Robles manuscript materials which helped him to expose
the "myths" noted above. Since the same documents were used
by Mr. Darnell, it is not surprising that his conclusions are the
same as those of Sefior Robles, although the latter's study is much
more comprehensive because he was more diligent and fortunate in
collecting materials. In fact, the Mexican scholar displayed in his
search for all possible information an extraordinary tenacity of
purpose in the face of great obstacles which is deserving of the
greatest commendation.
The book is written in a simple, clear, straight-forward style.
Here is a welcome volume devoid of the flowery rhetoric so charac-
teristic of Latin-American historical writing. Another welcome
feature, or innovation rather, is a really usable alphabetical index.
Finally, the book, which is privately printed, contains several inter-
esting illustrations and maps.
J. LLOYD MECHAM.
San Antonio and Its Beginnings, 1691-1731. By Frederick C.
Chabot. (Naylor Printing Co., San Antonio, Texas. 1931.
Pp. 130. Price $2.00.)
The Alamo, Altar of Texas Liberty. By Frederick C. Chabot.
([San Antonio. 1931] Pp. xii, 141. Price $3.00.)
The first of these two books is a brief but most interesting
account of San Antonio with much curious information about the
first settlers and its historical landmarks; while the second, con-
trary to its title, is not a history of the Alamo but rather a com-
pilation of much information of a biographical nature, which,
though not entirely new, is conveniently put together with some
recent findings of the author.
A chronological list of events, the founding of the Presidio de

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