Handbook for translators of Spanish historical ... - University Library

INTRODUCTION
from manuscript letters written "by Cortez to printed orders
of the Mexican government during the war with the United
States. In subject matter my source materials naturally included
every type of document from personal letters written
"by civilians in the frontier provinces of New Spain to
royal decrees written in Spain. Official documents such as
communications exchanged between officers and subordinates,
governors and settlers, bishops and missionaries, reports
of trials, investigations, reports, diaries and other forms
of records have been read and translated during the course
of my work. Accounts of Indian raids, reports of reconnoitering
parties , muster rolls, treasury reports, expedientes
land grants, and commercial papers are to be included among
the mi seel lame ous matter falling within the range of my investigation.
The chief source material for this study has
been the collection known as the Spanish Archives of Texas
in the Archives collections of The University of Texas Library.
This collection consists of 205,500 pages of orig-^
inal Spanish manuscripts and printed documents ranging in
date from 1717 to 1836. In addition to this large collection,
manuscripts have been examined from the Latin-American
collections of The University of Texas, some of which date
from the middle of the sixteenth century. Photostatic copies
of the Saltillo and the Matamoros Archives, and the immense
collections of transcripts of documents from archives
in Spain and Mexico at The University of Texas, have been
examined. I have also examined county, church, and private
collections in various parts of Texas, Louisiana, and
New Mexico. Several thousand feet of microfilm copies of
manuscripts from different depositories in Washington, D.C.
have been made available to me for examination.