PREFACE. 



The people of the United States have always leit a deep interest in 

 the history and destiny of Mexico. It was not only the commercial 

 spirit of our citizens that awakened this sentiment. In former times, 

 when the exclusive policy of Spain closed the door of intercourse 

 with her American colonies, the ancient histor} r of Peru and Mexico 

 attracted the curiosity of our students. They were eager to solve the 

 enigma of a strange civilization which had originated in the central 

 portions of our continent in isolated independence of all the world. 

 They desired, moreover, to know something of those enchanted re- 

 gions, which, like the fabled garden of the Hesperides, were watched 

 and warded with such jealous vigilance ; and they craved to behold 

 those marvelous mines whose boundless wealth was poured into the 

 lap of Spain. The valuable work of Baron Humboldt, published in 

 the early part of this century, stimulated this natural curiosity ; and, 

 when the revolutionary spirit of Europe penetrated our continent, and 

 the masses rose to cast off colonial bondage, we hailed with joy every 

 effort of the patriots who fought so bravely in the war of liberation. 

 Bound to Mexico by geographical ties, though without a common lan- 

 guage or lineage, we were the first to welcome her and the new Ameri- 

 can Sovereignties into the brotherhood of nations, and to fortify our 

 continental alliance by embassies and treaties. 



After more than twenty years of peaceful intercourse, the war of 

 1846 broke out between Mexico and our Union. Thousands, of all 

 classes, professions and occupations, — educated and uneducated — ob- 

 servers and idlers, — poured into the territory of the invaded republic. 

 In the course of the conflict these sturdy adventurers traversed the 

 central and northern regions of Mexico, scoured her coasts, possessed 

 themselves for many months of her beautiful Capital, and although they 

 returned to their homes worn with the toils of war, none have ceased 

 to remember the delicious land, amid whose sunny valle} r s and majes- 

 tic mountains they had learned, at least, to admire the sublimity of 

 nature. The returned warriors did not fail to report around their fire- 

 sides the marvels they witnessed during their campaigns, and nu- 



