of the beautiful map of the City of Mexico and its
surroundings, painted by Alonzo de la Cruz, the cosmographer of
Philip II of Spain. Mr. Dahlgren published an interesting account of
this map, which is preserved in the library of the university at
Upsala, in 1889, with its uncolored reproduction on a reduced scale.
In his monumental work on ancient cartography, Baron Nordenskjoeld
also published an uncolored production of this map and, with Dr.
Bovallius, exhibited a beautiful facsimile of this precious
document, at the Historical Exposition in Madrid, in October, 1892.
During the previous summer at Stockholm, I had personally
superintended the painting of a perfect facsimile copy of the map
which I exhibited in the Anthropological Building of the World's
Columbian Exposition in 1893. The original map was exhibited in
Stockholm during the meeting of the Congress of Americanists at
Stockholm in 1894, and I suggested that it ought to be published in
exact facsimile and in colors, particularly on account of the many
hieroglyphic names of localities it exhibits. It was thereupon
agreed by Mr. Dahlgren and myself that we should jointly publish the
map with an accompanying text in English, my share of the work being
principally the decipherment of the hieroglyphs of localities, the
classification of the tribes inhabiting them, as well as the
presentation of all historical facts connected with them that I
could obtain from the native and early Spanish chronicles. With
characteristic liberality the Duc de Loubat most kindly supported
the proposed publication by subscribing to twenty copies of it in
advance and depositing the payment for these at the Academy of
Sciences. The reproduction of the map has been facilitated by this
generous action and I take great pleasure in expressing here our
grateful appreciation to the Duc de Loubat, who has been patiently
awaiting the achievement of our undertaking. Both Mr. Dahlgren and I
have been prevented from completing this up to the present, by work
planned previously to the publication of the map. The present
publication will prove, however, that the social organization of the
Mexicans has been the object of my painstaking study and that, until
I had satisfactorily set forth the fundamen