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secondary source and the entire original was not available lo us. Contemporary newspaper and 19th century historical works abound in partially quoted letters which are no longer extant, and l have felt it of value to quote as much as possible of them even though some are mere fragments. We have also included numerous citations of letters, giving descriptive data and some i~ea of their contents. These are mostly letters known by us lo exist, but not available to us for publication, and letters which have very little potential value within our scope but which we felt should be at least listed. The footnotes are my own, ·and the responsibility for errors, sure to exist, is mine alone. I have tried lo cite the original manuscript wherever possible, as well as published versions. I have also added a few insignificant remarks about some of the entries, indicating first names and proper spellings on some of the more confusing entires. With thousands of entries, however, it would have taken decades to provide adequate historical commentaries on each entry: I hope those that I have provided will be useful to some and will not he ridiculed by those scholars to whom my comments will appear superficial and trite. We have printed each letter in its original state, retaining original spelling and grammar. In a very few we have added bracketed explanations, particularly where a document was torn or illegible. Material within parentheses is in the original; material \\ithin brackets has been added by us. We have used so many different types of sources that textual errors are certain to abound, and these are c·ompounded by typographical errors of our own that we have overlooked. We have used English translations of Spanish material wherever possible, and these include rou~h contemporary translations, translations by persons unknown to us (such as those in the Nacogdoches Archives transcripts), and some modern translations. In each case, however, the footnote citation will lead the user to the location of the original Spanish version if he so desires. We have given the address leaf in full wherever possible, but have excluded endorsements by the recipient except where com- ments on the contents have been made. The major sources, of course, are the archival holdings of the Texas State Library and the University of Texas. Both were undergoing extensive reorganization during the compilation of this work, and this will lead to some co9fusion regarding the precise internal location of some of the oriJ!inals of our entries. Fortu- nately, thcs1~ reorganizations have h1!en performed under the direction of two of the nation's leadin:r archival experts, and the
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