teacher. He wrote theological, educational, and historical works. The most noted among the latter is his General History of the Affairs of New Spain. He died in 1590, at the advanced age of ninety-one.
In his last illness he was removed to a hospital, but insisted on being taken back to the Indians, that he might breathe his last among the people he loved so well.
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a companion of Cortez, wrote, fifty years after the conquest, The True History of the Events of the Conquest of New Spain. The name of this work is a correct exponent of its nature, for it is conceded by all who have seen it to be a faithful record of scenes and events by an eye-witness. No better history of the country and the times it deals with could be placed in the hands of our own school children. Its simple, charming narrative style would render it extremely attractive to the young. Its reproduction in our language would be an undertaking well worthy of some of our enterprising school-book publishers.
Of the famous Bishop of Chiapas, Father Las Casas, much has been written. His two historical works were for a long time condemned to oblivion, but have been lately revived. He was a true friend to the Indians, and did all in his power to protect them from the cruelty of their conquerors. His defense of the Aztecs is the subject of Para's great painting.
Father Olmos was one of the earliest writers. Arriving in 1524, four years after the conquest, he was one of the first who made a grammar of the Mexican tongue. He also wrote several other works, most, if not all, of which are lost to us. The manuscript of his grammar lay for a long time in the Paris library, and was at length published in 1875.
Under the name of the manuscript of Zumarraga, two important chronicles were written at the request of Don Juan Cano, the son-in-law of Montezuma, for the purpose of eulogizing that monarch so that the King of Spain might return to Doña Izabel (the wife of Don Juan) the birthright of which she had been dispossessed.
