Excerpt from The History of Mexico, Collected From Spanish and Mexican Historians, From Manuscripts and Ancient Paintings of the Indians, Vol. 1 of 2: Illustrated by Charts, and Other Copper Plates; To Which Are Added, Critical Dissertations on the Land, the Animals, and Inhabitants of Mexico The History of Mexico, undertaken in order to avoid the pain and reproach of idleness to which I found my life con demmed, to serve to the utmost of my power my native country, and to restore to their full light truths obscured by an incredible number of modern writers on America, has been a task equally laborious, difficult, and expensive. Exclusive of the great expences occasioned by procuring from Cadiz, Madrid, and other cities of Europe, the books which were necessary to my purpose, I have read and examined every publication which has appeared hitherto on the subject; I have compared the accounts of authors, and critically weighed their authority; I have studied many historical paintings of the hfexicans; I have profited from their manuscripts, which I' read formerly in Mexico; and consulted with many persons well ac quainted with these countries. In addition to such diligence I might add, to give credit to my labours, that I resided thirty-six years in that extensive kingdom; acquired the Mexican language, and for several years conversed with the Mexicans, whose history I write. I do not, however, flatter myself with having been able to give a perfect work; since, besides finding myself unpossessed of those endowments ofge nius, judgment, and eloquence, which are the requisites ofa good his torian, the loss of the greatest part of the Mexican paintings, and the want of many valuable manuscripts which are preserved in different libraries of Mexico, and required repeated consultation, are insuper. Able obstacles to any one who undertakes such a history, particu larlyat a considerable distance from these countries. Nevertheless, I hope my work will be acceptable 5. Not on account of the elegance c.x. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.