Essential to the study of the Mesta in New Spain is the publication of the text of its constitution, not too available in Spanish, in English dress. This document throws new light on the relation of government to the pastoral industry, up to the present a sadly neglected aspect of Spanish colonial history. The importance of the problem is evident in view of the wealth and extent of the sheep and cattle business, and its relationship to the whole economy of New World colonization. Any adequate study of the grazing industry in New Spain would be impossible without some knowledge of the Mesta constitution of 1537, the basic instrument which regulated this industry until 1574; in the latter year the constitution was changed by the addition of numerous amendments which indicate considerable growth in the pastoral industry. Unfortunately, the minutes of the semiannual meetings of the Mesta have not been uncovered, if indeed they exist at all. Such documents would provide a picture of the grazing industry in operation and would be useful in a more complete investigation of the subject.

In The year 1864, the Cuban-born poet Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, visited New York, Philadelphia, Niagara Falls, Mount Vernon, and other points of interest in the United States. The impressions she received at that time were crystallized in two poems: “A Washington” (soneto), “A vista del Niágara” (silva)

There are pertinent notes to be revealed in connection with the writing of the sonnet to Washington. The version composed in 1864 was not the poet’s first dedicatory poem to George Washington. La Avellaneda’s first composition on the subject (written long before she had the opportunity to visit the United States) appeared in her earliest collection of verse in 1841.

In the Rich Collection of the New York Public Library there is a manuscript, Apuntes ligeros sobre los Estados Unidos de la América Septentrional, in which a Spanish diplomat and author, Valentín de Foronda, gives his impressions about the United States of America.

We cannot say with certainty what the history of this manuscript is, but from the few scattered facts which we have we can come to certain conclusions. At the time when it was written, in 1804, there must have been more than one copy. The perfection of the manuscript and the fact that ft is not in Foronda’s handwriting, tends to indicate that it was recopied several times. It is probable that there were at least three sets of copies. The original he must have kept for himself. One, in all likelihood was given to his immediate superior, who at that time was Casa Irujo. A third set might have been sent to the Spanish Minister of State. It is my belief that the manuscript that has come down to us is the one he gave to the Ambassador Casa Irujo. The reason on which I base this, is that twenty years later, long after Foronda and Casa Irujo had died, Mrs. Casa Irujo became a personal friend of Obadiah Rich, the bibliographer, and used to be a frequent guest at his house in Madrid. Rich obtained the manuscript about this time and it is very probable that he got it from her. Where the other hypothetical copies are would be difficult to say. The set sent to the Spanish Minister of State must be buried in some Spanish archive. The other one which he kept for himself was more than likely confiscated by the Spanish authorities, along with his other papers, and was probably destroyed during Foronda’s trial of 1814.