writers, I thought that it was better, upon the whole, to have a work composed from independent sources, which would convey the impression that the original documents had made upon another mind.
Here and there I have accidentally become acquainted with what some modern writer has said upon a particular point; and I have endeavoured to confirm or refute his views. But, with the exception of the historical fragment of Muñoz and the biographies of Quintana, I have not read thirty pages of all that has been written by modern writers on the Spanish Conquest.
It is seldom worth while, I think, to explain how any book has been written, except in such a case as the present, when the explanation may altogether remove any appearance even of discourtesy to persons who should receive nothing but gratitude and honour from a fellow-labourer.