Note 224 — I. VOCABULARIES OF SOME OF THE TRIBES OF NORTHWESTERN AMERICA, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE INDIAN SIGN LANGUAGE

Chevalier Lorenzo Boturini Beneduci was an Italian scholar who came to Mexico in 1736 on a mission for a descendant of Montezuma. Becoming interested in Mexican antiquities, Boturini spent eight years in making a valuable collection of aboriginal manuscripts; but having incurred the suspicion of the government, he was imprisoned and his collection confiscated (1745). On his return voyage to Spain, whither he was sent for trial, the galley was captured by the English, and the last vestiges of his antiquities disappeared. In Spain he sought redress, which was granted him, but this of course did not restore his collection. While in Spain he published Idea de una nueva historia general de la America septentrionale (Madrid, 1746), in which appears a catalogue of this collection. A portion was recovered, and is now in the museum in the City of Mexico. The manuscript seen by Delafield was the property of William Bullock (for whom see our volume xix, preface), who was also a specialist in Mexican antiquities.—Ed.