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I'll attempt to further explain my thoughts on the usage of 'chiefs' ...
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I follow your reasoning Legolas, and it does make sense to me. You say that, because they had no first hand knowledge of how many Istari there were, those recording these events referred to the five that were known, but left open the possibility that there might be more by referring to the named five as the "chiefs" of those that came to Middle-earth. But they were mistaken because there were in fact only five.
Your argument is premised on the passage which contains this sentence having been intended to form part of a recorded history "within the story". And it is implicit in what you say that those responsible for recording the events portrayed were fallible, ie they could get it wrong when recording events of which they had no first hand knowledge.
The difficulty that I have with this is that it raises the question of how much more there is, for example in the Appendices, that cannot necessarily be taken as accurate because it is portrayed as having been recorded by those without direct knowledge of the events in question.