arrangements for
obtaining the documents I desired, which, with other papers of
importance, were copied for me from the manuscripts in the Royal Library
of Berlin, and the Ducal Library of Gotha. I have also, in connection
with this, to express my obligations to the distinguished librarian of
the former institution, Mr. Pertz, for the good-will which he showed in
promoting my views.

Through Mr. Fay, I also obtained the authority of Prince Metternich to
inspect the Archives of the Empire in Vienna, which I inferred, from the
intimate relations subsisting between the courts of Madrid and Vienna in
that day, must contain much valuable matter relevant to my subject. The
result did not correspond to my expectations. I am happy, however, to
have the opportunity of publicly offering my acknowledgments to that
eminent scholar, Dr. Ferdinand Wolf, for the obliging manner in which he
conducted the investigation for me, as well in the archives above
mentioned, as, with better results, in the Imperial Library, with which
he is officially connected.

In concluding the list of those to whose good offices I have been
indebted, I must not omit the names of M. de Salvandy, minister of
public instruction in France at the time I was engaged in making my
collection; Mr. Rush, then the minister of the United States at the
French court; Mr. Rives, of Virginia, his successor in that office; and
last, not least, my friend, Count de Circourt, a scholar whose noble
contributions to the periodical literature of his country, on the
greatest variety of topics, have given him a prominent place among the
writers of our time.

I am happy, also, to tender my acknowledgments for the favors I have
received from Mr. Van de Weyer, minister from Belgium to the court of
St. James; from Mr. B. Homer Dixon, consul for the Netherlands at
Boston; and from my friend and kinsman, Mr. Thomas Hickling, consul for
the United States at St. Michael's, who kindly furnished me with sundry
manuscripts exhibiting the condition of the Azores at the period when
those islands passed, with Portugal, under the sceptre of Philip the
Second.

Having thus acquainted the reader with the sources whence I have derived
my materials, I must now say a few words in regard to the conduct of my
narrative. An obvious difficulty in the path of the historian of this
period arises from the nature of the subject, embracing, as it does,
such a variety of independent, not to say incongruous