Letters from the New World: Selected Correspondence of Don Diego De Vargas to His Family, 1675-1706 (The Journals of Don Diego De Vargas) [SOLD]

From the outside cover:

The administrative career of don Diego de Vargas, late seventeenth-century governor and colonizer of New Mexico, is only partially familiar to historians. Now from hitherto unknown family archives we have personal letters that present Vargas in a new, more intimate light. An extended introductory essay provides a well-rounded account of the man and his times.

The image that emerges from Vargas's family correspondence is that of a strong-minded, tenacious, even arrogant official beset by financial insecurity. A proud and often troubled paterfamilias away in the service of the crown, Vargas sought dutifully to govern his household from afar, win promotion, and get out of debt. These letters illuminate not simply their author but also the history of colonial New Mexico as don Diego experienced it.

This book is the abridged version of Remote Beyond Compare, an award winning volume favorably reviewed.