IT can be readily understood that before any study can be made regarding the truth of the statement concerning conditions in Peru in the Noticias secretas a detailed examination should first be completed of the Voyage to South America, also written by Ulloa. All of the information contained in the Noticias was gathered while on this trip and such an examination should yield valuable clues concerning the places visited by the two scientists, the people with whom they spoke and the length of time spent in each region. In this way, the student should be able to form an opinion concerning how much of the material in the Noticias is first hand and how much was gathered either from other people by word of mouth or from written reports found in the archives of the various governmental agencies. At the same time, such an examination should yield a list of informants, who are known to have given information to the Spanish travellers.

WASHINGTON IRVING put together The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus too hurriedly for it to be as accurate and original as historians would like it to be. He was even inclined on occasion, perhaps to compensate for the impossibility of doing exhaustive research, to “let his imagination go completely,” reconstructing colorful scenes not only from what existing records clearly indicated had happened, but from what a knowledge of the era of discovery led him to believe might have happened. And he heightened diction, tone, and characterization to the point of inviting criticism. Nevertheless nineteenth-century historians did not laugh Columbus off. And Stanley Williams’s verdict that instances where Irving consciously invents facts or distorts what in his time was considered to be the evidence are “relatively rare” seems sound. In spite of its faults, the book proved, apparently, to be usable until more detailed studies of the subject appeared.

IT is well-known that the Franciscans had a very considerable influence on the history of America. From the days of the conquest up to the present time, their labors have been outstanding in the sphere of American spiritual life by their extensiveness, their intensity, and their brilliance. In the missionary field, Franciscan activity was particularly conspicuous. Up to the end of the sixteenth century, the Franciscan missions were almost as numerous as those of all the rest of the religious orders together; Franciscan primacy was maintained in the seventeenth century, and from 1767 onwards nearly all the missions among the pagans, both in North and South America, remained in their hands, once the Society of Jesus had been suppressed.

FATHER Omer Englebert is a distinguished author, known for his works in several languages. In his choice of themes he has shown versatility of interest and a knowledge that is almost encyclopedic. But when he chose Padre Junípero Serra for his latest book, the several years of preparation that he spent were not enough to save the book from many errors. A great number nowadays are asking for a definitive life of Padre Serra. It is regrettable that even such an accomplished writer failed to write it.