It was while he was guardian of the convent of Tlatelolco that Torquemada also put in hand the organisation of the materials he had been gathering for many years previously, and (between 1605 and 1612) their redaction into the great work he had been projecting - the history of the aboriginal nations of New Spain, and their conquest and evangelisation by the Spanish. In addition to the voluminous unpublished writings of other Franciscans to which he had unimpeded access, Torquemada possessed many original documents acquired during his missionary work, as well as the oral testimony he had obtained from people he had encountered on his various travels. In 1609 he had been named chronicler of the Franciscan Order by Fray Bernardo de Salva, Franciscan Commissary General of the Indies. On completion of the work he took the manuscript to Spain in order to oversee its publication (as to which see below).