Note IV'-1 — Chapter IV · OBSERVATIONS ON NEW SPAIN.[IV'-1]

Chapter IV., which I introduce to accommodate Pike's Observations on New Spain, as the article may be briefly entitled, consists of the leading piece of the App. to Pt. 3 of the orig. ed., pp. 1-51; it had no number, but as it came first and was followed by a piece presented as No. 2, it is of course to be taken as No. 1, pro forma. The original heading was: Geographical, Statistical, and General Observations made by Capt. Z. M. Pike, on the Interior Provinces of New Spain, from Louisiana to the Vice Royalty, and between the Pacific Ocean, Gulph of California and the Atlantic Ocean or Gulph of Mexico. This was by far the most important article in the whole work, bringing news of great public interest in 1810. Much of it was original; how much of it was borrowed without acknowledgement could only be said after careful examination of prior works on the same subject. It should be compared with Humboldt and Bonpland's Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, with a Physical and Geographical Atlas, etc., 2 vols., 4to, with atlas, folio, of 20 plates. Pike's two maps of Mexico will be best understood in connection with the same source of information: see Memoir, anteà.