Free E-Books

While there, in the city of Tepeopulco, in the
latter part of the sixteenth century, he began the work, best known
to us as the 'Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva Espa?a,' from
which the above prayers have been taken. It would be hard to imagine
a work of such a character constructed after a better fashion of
working than his. Gathering the principal natives of the town in
which he carried on his labors, he induced them to appoint him a
number of persons, the most learned and experienced in the things of
which he proposed to write. These learned Mexicans being collected,
Father Sahagun was accustomed to get them to paint down in their
native fashion the various legends, details of history and mythology,
and so on, that he wanted; at the foot of the said. pictures these
learned Mexicans wrote out the explanations of the same in the
Mexican tongue; and this explanation the Father Sahagun translated
into Spanish. That translation purports to be what we now read as the
'Historia General.'"[1]
[1. "The Native Races of the Pacific States," vol. iii, p. 231.


Pages:
251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275