d the pictographic documents of the ancient
inhabitants of America, and written in the dialects as spoken at the
time of Columbus, Cortez, and Pizarro. What the Abbe Brasseur de
Bourbourg has to say on this point amounts to this:--The manuscript
was first discovered by Father Francisco Ximenes towards the end of
the seventeenth century. He was cure of Santo-Tomas Chichicastenango,
situated about three leagues south of Santa-Cruz del Quiche, and
twenty-two leagues north-east of Guatemala. He was well acquainted
with the languages of the natives of Guatemala, and has left a
dictionary of their three principal dialects, his 'Tesoro de las
Lenguas Quiche, Cakchiquel y Tzutohil.' This work, which has never
been printed, fills two volumes, the second of which contains the copy
of the MS. discovered by Ximenes. Ximenes likewise wrote a history of
the province of the preachers of San-Vincente de Chiapas y Guatemala,
in four volumes. Of this he left two copies. But three volumes only
were still in existence when the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg visited
Guatemala, and they are said to contain valuable information on the
history and traditions of the country. The first volume contains the
Spanish translation of the manuscript which occupies us at present.
The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg copied that translation in 1855. About
the same time a German traveller, Dr. Scherzer, happened to be at
Guatemala, and had copies made of the works of Ximenes. These were
published at Vienna, in 1856.[98] The French Abbe, however, was not
satisfied with a mere reprint of the text and its Spanish translation
by Ximenes, a translation which he qualifies as untrustworthy and
frequently unintelligible. During his travels in America he acquired a
practical knowledge of several of the native dialects, particularly of
the Quiche, which is still spoken in various dialects by about six
hundred thousand people. As a priest he was in daily intercourse with
these people; and it was while residing among them and able to consult
them like living dictionaries, that, with the help of the MSS. of
Ximenes, he undertook his own translation of the ancient chronicles of
the Quiches. From the time of the discovery of Ximenes, therefore, to
the time of the publication of the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, all
seems clear and satisfactory. But there is still a century to be
accounted for, from the end of the sixteenth century, when the
original is supposed to have been written,