The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1885-03-12

I
ties or inducements for the compila-
the Pacific coast, although II might be
said that almost every letter or docu-
ment written at the time formed a
chapter of that history. There was
material for history, butmuch of il
during those turbulent times had fall
Gu into profane hands, much was hid
den aud forgotten in old Cove rnmcnt
archives and mission records, and not
the least valuable portion, perhaps,
was intelllgently preserved in the
hands of = Nv; G persons, notably by
IN nbers of old Spanish families
whose ancestors had taken leading
part IN the evcuts, the records OF
which they broadly kept. If any one,
herefore,f ad ever conceived the idea OF
only collecting those priceless histori-
cal treasures there were, apart from
the app rent impossibility TO do so in
a lifetime, a hundred other reasons TO
deter the most energetic mind from n
task presenting difficulties and de-
handing lcrifices of time and money
ut every step. How very much
greater then would be the task of
writing history from that vast ma
terial which, assuming that all would
be collected, wo nd not even be sufll-
cient, b, would have bccn only the
material for su Derstruc ure for
which foundation would have
to be laid first, reaching down to the
leL ends and myths oil aboriginal
races. Yet there seems TO be an eter-
| nal law in nature that wherever work
of such magnitude is TO be done, some
| one is born to do il, aud Mr.. Bancroft
| and his works. which more than once
and Justly so, have been called the
most stupendous literary enterprise
| of the present age, tend to prove the
fact.
We assume that our readers fave
already heard of the hist orical works
of Hubert Howe Bancroft, and that
the volumes, so far as published are
in the hands of some of them. We
have the pleasure OF having Mr.. Ken
nedy with MS at present who repr~-
sents Mr.. Bancroft in this City with
the object of collecting facts and
data of Texan history. To interest
our readers In lis work we give
lbrief outline of Mr. Bancroft's life
and the plan of his works.
Hubert Howe Bancroft was born
Ii Granville. Ohio, in 1882. In his
Fifteenth year he entered booksel-
l,r's store in Buffalo, n. V, and,
sowing ability, his en- nloyer, in 1852,
SIT him to look after business in
lCiifornia, where in 1856 he began
huness for himself in san Frar cisco.
En,getic andpcrsevering he poss sed
the ements of success, and in II com
parately short time his establish
ment ankcd foremost on the coast.
Althosh shrewd business man,
and nter neglecting his business,
he nevthclcss applied every mo-
ment oil isure to receiving historical
matter rQting to the Pacific Coast.
II Ills obsying mind foresaw that
, m lch yal,ble information relating
to Coliforh was in danger of being
forever losSnless preserved by some
careful hai, In the events that
TRANSFERRED bore his eyes, in spite of
: their hlisordcr, he saw fore
Swallowed grMdwork for future his
, tory, links tlt only needed TO be
9 connected to fm a chain of events.
of interest not ly to this coast, but
! to the world at rye. Here then was
. his task, and helplicd himself to it
o in good earnest Every book, paper
or manuscript being on the subject
was bought and fl for future refer
8 ence, this work collecting grad
. ually extending oN& the whole west
: ern halt of NortiiA merica. The
= eastern states and Rome were Wis
% Iited next tor the sas purnose. the
y Libraries of the wd were ran
), sacked, and purchase agents az.
-. pointed in all the CHI cities. The
result of all this labqnd research
& was the Bancroft librai which now
!, contains over forty tusand vol
o umes, some worth the weight in
= gold. Here are reoordSf Mexican
affairs dating from the seenth cen
., fury, original manuscril from the
VI ancient missions in california.
I'd weather-stained journalin faded
'r' ink, recording the tolls an,ardships
u of pioneer travel across thtains: col
. lections of valuable public suments
and archives, and volume On vol
ume of private papers of thoost in
tercstimg character, obtaineuDm the
n libraries of early settlers; qes of
h the first books printed wcstf the
III Rocky mountains aud files OF e lat
~ est Pacific coast papers.
a. The Native Races of the cine
States, in five volumes, pubiisl in
10 was the first fruit of Mr.. Bahft's
arduous labors, and took the liary
, world by surprise, for il SEED
strange to look for such worpn
tu' these new shores where all encrgyf
al; body and mind was supposed TIC
H, bent upon the rapid acquisitions
MS, gold, and he is now writing the !
.rF tory OF the Pacific States of No
/. America, in thirty-four volumes. Z
g" of the leading Journals, speaking
with Mr.. Bancroft said: "llc has discoN
,l:,si ed thousand rinlets and uni
iy!rt them into broad historic stre'
.s:G We know of no volume of hist
more instructive to the student,
more interesting TO the general re
y er. II will remain forever mo
J. 'o" mcnt to the industry and AFFINITY
- the author" and indeed no work
the field OF letters has ever elici
such enthusiastic and extended pr
from the press of Europe and An
~ lea.
rs Tho volumes dealing with Me-
u, are OF equally absorbing terest,
''' In many ways remarkable; their c
H. merit. however, is the combinatio
- them of exactitudo and exhaus
knowledge with sympathy aud
II man comprehension.
Y As we observed before we
at present the pleasure of having
a Kennedy, with corps of assista
among us who intend collecting
such data, facts and general infoi
lion rs may have any bearing I
the history of our state, to enable
author to complete the portion OF
"a work dealing with Texas ms early
~ possible. We feel proud that we
ri are to have some share in this |
= work, and are confident that ouI
~ -. t....,,e ara ;nuNiraH with