No. I. Carta dirigida al Key de Espana, por el Licenciado Dr. Don DIEGO
GARCIA DE PALACIO, Oydor de la Real Audiencia de Guatemala, Ano 1576.
Being a Description of the Ancient Provinces of Guazacapan, Izalco,
Cuscatlan, and Chiquimula, in the Audiencia of Guatemala: with an
Account of the Languages, Customs, and Religion of their Aboriginal
Inhabitants, and a Description of the Ruins of Copan. Square 8vo. pp.
132.

This tract is the first number of a series of Rare and Original
Documents, relating to the first settlement of America by the Spaniards,
which Mr. Squier proposes to edit and publish. The undertaking is one of
interest to all students of American history, and deserves a generous
encouragement from them. Its success must depend not on the usual
machinery of bookselling so much as on the ready support of individuals.

Mr. Squier's proposed collection resembles in its scope the well-known
"Recueil des Documents et Memoires Originaux" of M. Ternaux-Compans.
Familiar, by long residence and longer study, as few men are or ever
have been, with those portions of our continent of which the Spaniards
first took possession, acquainted with their antiquities and former
condition, and a curious investigator of their present state and
prospects, Mr. Squier is peculiarly fitted to select and edit--with
judgment such documents of historical interest as his unrivalled
opportunities have enabled him to collect.

The Letter of Palacio is now for the first time published in the
original, although it was largely used by Herrera in his "Historia
General." "To me," says Mr. Squier, "the relation has a special
interest. I have been over a great part of the ground that was traversed