THE Spanish Ministry of Public Instruction has just issued a very important publication, being a collection of letters of Christopher Columbus, and of his contemporaries, as well as of reports sent in, during the sixteenth century by governors of the new American provinces, the originals of these letters and reports being now in the State Archives of Spain. The work, which bears the title “Cartas de India” (Letters from India), and forms a large volume of 877 folio pages, contains the following highly interesting documents: (1) Two autograph letters from Columbus, written in 1502 to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the first letter dwelling upon the necessity of measures for increasing the population of the island “Española” (San Domingo), and the second being a discussion on the art of navigation; (2) a letter from Amerigo Vespuchi to the Cardinal Gimenes di Cuneros, Archbishop of Toledo, dated Sevilla, 1508, and dealing with the merchandise to be sent to the Antilles; (3) two letters from Fra Bartholomeo de las Casas, Archbishop of Nicaragua, to the Infanta Don Filippo, dated Gracias a Dios, in Guatemala; (4) two letters from Bernaldo Diaz del Castillo, one of the warriors of the small army of Cortes, and author of a history of Mexico, to Charles the Fifth (1552), and to Philip the Second (1558); (5) letters from the baccalaureates Don Pedro de Gasca and Don Christophor Vaca de Castro, dated Quito, 1541 and Cusco (1542), announcing to Charles the Fifth the death of the Marchese Don Pizaro and the insurrection of Don Diego de Almagro; both letters are very interesting, being accounts of eye-witnesses; (6) a very interesting letter of Donna Isabella Quivara to the Regent, Donna Huana, about the remarkable courage displayed by women during the expedition of Cortes, when all male members of the expedition were exhausted by disease. The work contains 652 pages of text and 225 pages of appendix, in which we find twenty-nine autograph letters and reports of various important historical persons; twenty-one sheets of autographs of Columbus, Vespuchi, Las Casas, Diaz del Castillo, Gimenez, &c.; a map of the fortifications where the gems of the Incas were found; and maps of Australia, of the River Amazon, the Antilles Archipelago, and Magellan Strait, drawn in the sixteenth century. We are sure that all friends of historical geography will feel grateful to the Spanish Government for this valuable publication.