Note 8 — I. Introductory.

The first copy of Landa’s alphabet published in the United States was by myself in the American Historical Magazine, 1870. Twenty years later, 1890, in my Essays of an Americanist, p. 242, I reproduced a photographic fac-simile of it from the original MS. Though not without considerable value in certain directions, I do not think it worth while to dwell upon it here.

Bishop Landa’s important work, Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, written about 1570, must be carefully read by every student on this branch. It has been twice published, first by the Abbé Brasseur, at Paris, 1864, and more fully at Madrid, under the competent editorship of Juan de Dios de la Rada y Delgado, in 1884. On the relative merits of the two editions, see my “Critical Remarks on the Editions of Diego de Landa’s Writings,” in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1887.