The Natchitoches enterprise., 1914-01-01
Finds in Mexico Treasures From
Vanished Centuries.

IOFDld mas ulSCOV0Feu Ill Gilo dT
chives of state and church in
Mexico, the history will now need
to be rewritten of all the South
west from California to Louisiana.
The keys to these historical
treasure-houses are now made
| ready to the hand of any scholar
through the publication by the
Carnegie Institution of Washing
ton of a Guide to Materials for
the History of the United States
in the Principal Archives of
Mexico" In this volume of 553
pages Professor Bolton tells of the
extraordinary wealth of unknown
manuscripts, recording the ro-
mantle history of the Spaniards IT.
North America, which ne has
brought to light through a dozen
years of exploration In the Mexi-
can archives.
1t will take lifetimes of work
by hundreds of historians to make
adequate use of the historical
riches Professor Bolton has opened
to the world. His pioneer work
OF discovery of sources is regarded
as the most important contribution
made to the history of Western
America since H. II. Bancroft's
monumental tasi; of gathering the
Bancroft Library, that vast accu-
mutation of printed and manu-
Escript material for Pacific Coast
and western American history
which some years ago became the
property OF the UniversitX-0f Cali
fornia, and ever si9c5 has been
busily mined in by scores of
graduate students and other his
torical investigators with fifty
years work still ahead.
The publication of Prof. Bottoms
survey of the Mexican archives as
a source of American History Is
part of the great task which the
endowed Carnegie Institution has
undertaken of publishing similar
guides for the archives of all the
nations with which the United
States has had intimate relations.
Too long, say the historical ex-
perts. has American history been
written from a provincial point OF
view, and merely from American
records. Now the records OF
neightor n9tions are being search
ed, that the ''other fellows story
nav be hearkened to.
Particularly is this important
J for California and the Southwest.
California history and western
history in general cannot be un-
derstood without knowledge of the
Spanish civilization on which later
times have builded. English
! speaking occupation of California
and all the Southwestern United
States is only a matter of yester-
day, while the sixteenth, the
seventeeth, and eighteenth cen
turtles. and much of the nineteenth,
saw Spanish institutions every
where. In architecture. in land
matters, in Indian affairs, in agri-
culture, in use of words and place
names, in legal institutions, in
traditions, and in ways of life, the
whole Southwest of today is pro
foundly influenced by its Spanish
inheritance. The history of Texas,
, like that of California the history
, of Arizona, like that of New
Mexico, must be interpreted
through understanding of the
. Spanish centuries. And since
SDaniard and Angle-Saxon faced
each other across waverlng west
ern frontier for a century, the
whole history of western expan-
sion necessitates Mexican evidences
for its honest Interpretation.
The highest officials of church
and state in Mexico gave and to
Professor Bolton in search for
documents that should open up the
past to mems gaze. From Presi
dent Diaz to the guardians of the
archives in provincial capitals.
from the Apostolic Delegate fol-
Mexica and Archbishops to the
parish priests in distant villages,
the authorities gave hospitable
) and courteous aid to the American
scholar.
1t was an exciting quest that
: Professor Bolton pursued in Mexi.
: CO, with the zest of expectation
that each new bundle of papers