dieta. Hist. Ecles., 620-1; Beristain, Bib. Hisp. Am.; Ramirez, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. p. cxviii., etc.; Datos Biog., in Cartas de Indias, 810; Fernandez, Hist. Ecles., 52-3; Salazar y Olarte, Cong. Mex., 207-11. His robe was kept as a relic of a saintly man to whose prayers many miraculous happenings were attributed. His intimacy with the natives led to a careful study of their customs, religion, and history, while his admirable knowledge of Aztec caused him to prepare several writings for their instruction. The list includes: De moribus Indorum, used to a great extent by Torquemada; Adventus duodecim Patrum, qui primi eas regiones devenerunt, et de eorum rebus gestis; giving an account of the apostolic labors of himself and his companions; Doctrina Christiana, in Mexican, for the benefit of the converts, to which Torquemada, iii, 386, alludes: 'Hiço luego una breve Doctrina Christiana, Fr. Toribio Motolinia lo qval anda impressa;' Guerra de los Indios de la Nueva España; Camino del Espiritu; Calendario Mexicano, to which Henrico Martinez makes reference. Memoriales Históricos, quoted sometimes by Herrera and often by Torquemada; aud some letters, notably that of January 2, 1555. But the most important of Motolinia's writings is the Historia de los Indios de la Nueva España; to which Antonia and Pinelo, Epitome, ii. 711, refer under the original title of Relacion de las cosas, Idolatrias Ritos, í Ceremonias de la Nueva España, MS., fol. It forms three tratados, the first, in 15 chapters, relating to the idols and religious ceremonies of the Mexicans; the second, in 10 chapters, to missionary labors, and acceptance of Christianity by the natives; the third, in 20 chapters, to a medley of civil and ecclesiastic, scientific points, resources, towns. One of these chapters was intended for the second part. In chapter ix. of third part the author promises a fourth tratado, which he failed to add. It was probably intended as an amplification of the Adventus duodecim, to judge by the productions of other monk chroniclers, and consequently of great value. As it is, the treatise contains a vast amount of information of which later writers have eagerly availed themselves, based as it is on personal inquiries and observation. While it exhibits a rambling order, and a naive acceptance of the marvellous, yet it is pervaded by a vein of candor that wins confidence. The manuscript circulated in several copies, two of which have of late years been published, in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., wherein the first tratado by the duplication of a chapter number, closes with chapter xiii. instead of xiv., and in the admirable collection of Icazbalceta, prefaced by an exhaustive biography from the pen of the Mexican scholar Ramirez.
There were several others, who with a longer period and a wider range of subjects at their command, assumed a more important position as chroniclers, such as Mendieta, Torquemada, Vetancurt. They will be noticed in more appropriate places. All the orders had their annalists, though the writings of most appeared to the public only in compiled form, in the books of favored ones, Among these, Juan de Grijalva early appeared as the historian of the order of San Augustin, which enjoyed a comparatively small representation in New Spain. The writer is the more interesting to us in being a creole, born in Colima about 1559. As a child already he displayed a literary taste, and as a priest he delighted the public with his oratorical powers, while the order esteemed him as authority on theologic and other topics. He figured successively