vents of the past.... These chroniclers
had likewise to calculate the days, months, and years; and
though they had no writing like our own, they had their
symbols and characters through which they understood
everything; they had their great books, which were composed
with such ingenuity and art that our alphabet was really of
no great assistance to them.... Our priests have seen those
books, and I myself have seen them likewise, though many
were burnt at the instigation of the monks, who were afraid
that they might impede the work of conversion. Sometimes
when the Indians who had been converted had forgotten
certain words, or particular points of the Christian
doctrine, they began--as they were unable to read our
books--to write very ingeniously with their own symbols and
characters, drawing the figures which corresponded either to
the ideas or to the sounds of our words. I have myself seen
a large portion of the Christian doctrine written in figures
and images, which they read as we read the characters of a
letter; and this is a very extraordinary proof of their
genius.... There never was a lack of those chroniclers. It
was a profession which passed from father to son, highly
respected in the whole republic; each historian instructed
two or three of his relatives. He made them practise
constantly, and they had recourse to him whenever a doubt
arose on a point of history.... But not these young
historians only went to consult him; kings, princes, and
priests came to ask his advice. Whenever there was a doubt
as to ceremonies, precepts of religion, religious festivals,
or anything of importance in the history of the ancient
kingdoms, every one went to the chroniclers to ask for
information.'

In spite of the religious zeal of Dominican and Franciscan friars, a
few of these hieroglyphic MSS. escaped the flames, and may now be seen
in some of our public libraries, as curious relics of a nearly extinct
and forgotten literature. The first collection of these MSS. and other
American antiquities was due to the zeal of the Milanese antiquarian,
Boturini, who had been sent by the Pope in 1736 to regulate some
ecclesiastical matters, and who devoted the eight years of his stay in
the New World to rescuing whatever could be rescued from the scattered
ruins of ancient America. Befo