Viage desde Manila a la China. This voyage was performed by F. Augustin de Tordesillas, a Franciscan, but published by John Gonzales de Mendoza, An. 1585, being a voyage from the Philippine islands to China; which I have not seen, nor met with any further account of it. Historia del descubrimiento, y conquista del Peru, de Augustin de Zarate. Sevilla, 1577, 8°. The author was an examiner or controller of accounts in the king's household, and sent over to Peru to inquire into the king's revenue, during the rebellion in those parts, where he gathered materials for his history, which has always been in good esteem where known, as appears by its having been twice translated into Italian. Historia da Ethiopia alta, do P. Baltasar Tellez, fol. He was a Portuguese Jesuit, who collected this history of Ethiopia from the writings of the Jesuits, who resided there. He is highly commended by D. Francisco Manoel in his epistles and his history, and no less by Georgius Cordosus in Agiologio. Conquista de las islas Molucas, de Bartolome Leonardo de Argensola. Madrid, 1609, fol. This author was historiographer of the kingdom of Arragon, and the most accomplished master of the Spanish tongue in his time: so that his history is not only valuable for his excellent account of the Molucco islands, but for its language, wherein he has outdone most men. Manual y relacion de las cosas del Peru, de F. Bernardino de Cardenas. Madrid, 1634, 4°. The author was a native of Peru, and bishop of Paraguay; so that his birth, education, and learning, qualified him to give a good account of that country. Navigacion de oriente y noticias de la China, 1577, 8°. It is a short but ingenious treatise of the eastern voyages, and some affairs of China. Historia de Yucatan, de Bernardo de Lizana. The author was a missioner in the province of Yucatan, whose history he writes, but intermixed with much devotion. Historia de las cosas antiguas que los Indios usavan en su infidelidad, por F. Bernardino de Sahagun. This history treats of the idolatry, rites and ceremonies of the Indians, and of their government, laws, and politics. The same author also writ La Conquista, or the conquest of Mexico. Historia verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana, por Bernal Diaz del Castillo. fol. The author of this history of the conquest of Mexico, served in it under Cortes, from the beginning till the last; and therefore speaks as an eye-witness, having been in all the expeditions of note, and received what he could not be present at from those that were. He says he finished his work in the year 1568, but it was not published till some years after. Relacion de las grandezas de Peru, Mexico, y los Angelos, de Bernardo de la Vega. Mexico, 1601, 8°. This is only a collec tion of rarities in those parts, as the title imports. The author was canon of the church of Tucaman in South America. Sitio naturaleza y propriedades de Mexico, de Diego de Cisneros, 1618. The author was physician to the marquis De Guadalcacar, viceroy of Peru, and gives a very good account of that place. Decadas de Asia, de Joao de Barros. He finished three decades, in as many volumes, of the history of India; of which work the learned Nicholaus Antonius, in his Bibliotheca Hispana, p. 498, says it is a most complete work, which will last for ever to the honour of the compiler. His 4th volume and decade, which he left imperfect, was finished by John Baptist Labanha, historiographer to king Philip II. But after that James de Couto undertook to continue the history from the third decade, where Barros ended, and writ nine more; so that the whole work consists of twelve decades, but of these only seven have been printed at Lisbon. Relaciones del Pegu, de Duarte Fernandez. Of this relation I find no further account. Relacion de la provincia de Tucuman, de Fernando de Quintana. This relation is of good authority, and the author was one of the first that went over to inhabit that country. Memorial y relacion_las islas Philippinas, de Fernando de los rios Coronel. The author was a priest in good repute, and gives an account of the wealth, not only of the Philippine, but of the Molucco islands, representing at the same time what faults there are in the governments of those parts to be redressed. Verdadeira informazao do Presse Joao das Indias, de Francisco Alvarez. Lisboa, 1540, fol. The author, a man of great probity, was sent by king Emanuel of Portugal into Ethiopia, with his ambassador Edward Galvao, and resided there six years, re turning thence in the year 1533, and during his stay there had time to collect this historical account, in which he gives a description of the country, of its trade, and all things that happened there during the stay of the Portuguese. Relazao das provincias de Japao, Malabar, Cochinchina, &c. do P. Francisco Cordim. The author was a Portuguese Jesuit, who had been in those parts; and his work was so well approved of, that it was thought worthy to be translated into French, and printed at Paris 1645. Historia general de las Indias de Francisco Lopez de Gomara. This author wrote in a commendable style; but his history is of no credit, being full of false relations, as is made out by all other authors that write of those parts, some of whom were eye-witnesses of the things he misrepresents, and others received them upon much better information. Conquista del Peru, por Francisco de Xeres. Salamanca, 1547, fol. The author was secretary to Francis Pizarro, the great dis coverer and conqueror of Peru, and wrote this account of the conquest of that vast kingdom, as an eye-witness, which he presented to the emperor Charles the Fifth. Commentarios de los reges Incas del Peru. Lisboa, 1609, fol. Historia general del Peru, 1617, fol. Historia de la Florida, y jornada que hizo a ella el governador Hernando de Soto. 1695, 4. These three by Garcilaso de la Vega, who calls himself inca, as being the son of a Spaniard, who who was one of the conquerors of the kingdom of Peru, by an Indian woman of the imperial race of the incas, from whom he took that name. The history of the ancient incas he received from the natives, that of the actions of the Spaniards from his father and others, who had a share in them. Trasado em que se contam muitopor estenso as cousas da China, e assi do regno de Ormuz, pelo P. Gasparda Cruz. Ebora, 1569, 4o. The author, a Dominican friar, travelled as a missioner in India, Persia, and China, where he made his observations, and dedicated his work to king Sebastian of Portugal. Several authors of note make mention of him. Historia general de las Indias. Salamanca, 1547, fol. Navigacion del Rio Marannon. These three by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, who, after many honourable employments in Spain, was sent governor of the city of Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, where he resided ten years, and compiled his history of the Indies mentioned in the first place, which he had divided into fifty books, whereof only nineteen are in the volume abovementioned; to which is added one called, Of Shipwrecks. The rest have not appeared, unless we allow his history of the straits of Magellan, the second here spoke of, to be his 20th book, which is published by itself. His account of the river Marannon is in the third volume of Ramusio's travels. Tratado de la conquista de las islas de Persia y Arabia, de las muchas gentes, diversas gentes, y estranas y grandes batallas que vio, por Juan Angier. Salamanca, 1512, 4°. The author, of whom we have no further account, assures he saw all he writes, which is all the character we can here give his work, but only that he treats of the conquest of the islands on the coasts of Arabia and Persia, and of several nations where he travelled, and the battles he was in. Historia de las cosas mas notables, ritos y costumbres del gran regno de la China. Madrid, 1586, 8". This history of the most remarkable things, and the customs and manners of China, was writ by F. John Gonzales de Mendoza, of the order of St. Augustin, who in the year 1580 was sent into China by king Philip the 2d of Spain, where he gathered the materials of his history, and composed it at his return. Virtudes del Indio, de D. Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, obispo de la Puebla de los Angelos. 4°. This is a treatise writ in defence of the Indians by the good bishop, and gives an account of their disposition and manners, in opposition to those that represented them as brutal, and scarce endued with reason. This, though it seems not a book of travels, being the manners and customs of strange nations, and by a traveller to those parts, very well deserves admittance among them. Ethiopia oriental, e varia historia de cousas notaveis do oriente, do P. F. Joao dos Santos. Ebora, 1609, fol. It treats of the eastern parts of Afric, where the author, who was a Dominican, resided eleven years as a missioner, making his collections on the spot, which he after methodised in his own country. Historia natural y moral de las Indias, por el P. Joseph de Acosta. Madrid, 1610, 4o. This history is so well known and generally esteemed, that little needs be said of it; the universal character of it being better than what it can here receive, being the history natural and moral of the West Indies. Description del nuevo orbe, y de los naturalez del, por el P. F. Luis Jeronymo de Ore. Lima, 1598, fol. The author was an American by birth, a great traveller in those parts, an able scholar, and of excellent natural parts; all which rendered him capable to write well upon this subject. Description general de Africa, por Luis del Marmol Caravajal, 8 vols. fol. This is the fullest account extant of Afric, generally esteemed in all parts, and has been translated into French. The author being a slave at Morocco, there read and heard those accounts he afterwards published, of the interior parts of Afric which remain inaccessible to Christians. Thuanus and Ambrosius Morales, in their histories, commend this work. Historia de Ethiopia, y Historia de la orden de predicadores en Ethiopia, por F. Luis de Urreta, 2 vols. 4°. Both these generally condemned as fabulous, and particularly by F. Nicholas Godinho, in his book de Abyssinorum rebus. Historia de las islas del Archipelago, China, Tartaria, Cochinchina, Malaca, Sian, Camboja, y Japon, por el P. Morcello de Ribadencira. Barcelona, 1601, 40. This history of those eastern countries was collected there by the author, who travelled the greatest part of them as a missioner. Relacion del nombre, sitio, plantas, &c. de regno de Sardenha, por el Dr. Martin Camillo. Barcelona, 1612, 4o. This was a doctor of the civil law, who being sent by king Philip of Spain into Sardinia, to inspect all the courts there, travelled over the whole island of Sardinia, and took that opportunity to write this learned treatise of its name, situation, plants, conquests, conversion, fertility, towns, cities, and government. Relacion del Govierno de los Quixos en Indias, 1608, 4°. An account of the province called Los Quixos in South America, writ by Dr. Peter de Castro Eorle of Lemos. What more to say of it I do not find. Relacion de Philippinas, por el P. Pedro Chirino. Roma, 1604, 4°. The author of this account of the Philippine islands spent the greatest part of his life, and ended his days there, so that he was well acquainted with what he writ; but a great part of it consists of the actions of the Jesuits in those parts, he being of that society. Primera parte de la Chronica de Peru, de Pedro Cieca de Leon. Antwerp, 1554, 8°. It treats of the limits and description of the provinces of Peru, the founding of cities, and the customs and manners of the Indians. Only this first part is extant, the other four, which the author promises, and were historical, having never been published; which is a great loss, for by the value of this first we may judge of the rest. Historia da provincia de Santa Cruz, a que vulgarmente chamamos Brasil. The history of the province of Santa Cruz, vulgarly Brasil, by Peter de Magalhaens Gandavo. Lisbon, 1579, 4. It is commended by Antonius Leo, in his Bibliotheca Indica. Relacion dos reges de Persia y Ormuz, viage da India oriental a Italia por terra no anno de 1604. An account of the kings of Persia and Ormuz, and travels from India to Italy by land, in the year 1614, 4°. The author Peter Texeira, a Portuguese, who performed the journey, Itinerario de las missiones orientales, con une sumaria relacion del imperio del gran Mogor. An account of the eastern missions, and of the empire of the Mogol. Rome, 1649, 4°. Composed by Sebastian Manrique, of which we have no other particulars. Cortas de D. Hernando Cortes Marque del Valle, de la conquista de Mexico, al emperador. The original letter writ by Cortes, the famous conqueror of Mexico, giving the emperor Charles the Fifth an account of his expedition. There is no need to speak of the value of such papers, than which nothing can be more authentic, as being the relation of a commander in chief to his sovereign. Corta do P. Gonzalo Rodrigues do sua embaixado a Ethiopia, e do que la le sucedeo com o seu Rey Claudio. A letter giving an account of the embassy of F. Gonzalo Rodriguez, sent by the king of Portugal to the emperor of Ethiopia. It is to be seen in F. Nicholas Godinho de rebus Abyssinorum, lib. II. cap. 58. Relacion del viage que hizieron los capitones Bartolome Garcia de Nodal, y Gonsalo de Nodal hermanos al descubrimento del Estreco Nuevo de S. Vincente, y reconocimiento del de Magalhancs. This is an account of a voyage performed by the two captains above-named to the straits of St. Vincent, which we call strait Lo Mayre, and to view that of Magellan, in the years 1618 and 1619. Madrid, 1621, 4°. It is an exact journal of their voyage and |