TheNatural and Moral History Of the Western Indies by Acosta, which has been selected to form two volumes of the Hakluyt Society's series, is a valuable work for two reasons. It contains an exposition of the ideas of learned men of the sixteenth century on physical geography, and it is one of the leading authorities on the ancient civilisations of Peru and Mexico.

Our chief knowledge of the author is derived from his published works, only a few facts being forthcoming from other sources. His parents lived at the town of Medina del Campo, the city of the plain, about twentyfour miles from Valladolid, in Old Castille, on the left bank of the swampy river Zapardiel, and overlooked by the old castle of La Mota. They had five sons, named Geronimo, Christoval, Joseph, Diego, and Bernardo; and at least two, if not more, of these boys joined the Society of Jesus. Joseph de Acosta was born in the year 1540, and he was devoted to the Society before he had completed his fourteenth year. Bernardo de Acosta entered upon the same career, and probably Christoval also. The Acostas were fellow townsmen of that charming old soldier Bernal Diaz, who told the story of the conquest of Mexico, but they were many years his juniors.

Joseph de Acosta became a Jesuit in 1553, and for the next eighteen years he must have devoted himself to the study of sacred and classical authors, for he was a man of very great learning, when, at the age of thirty-two, he sailed for the New World, in company with several brethren of the same Society.