PREFACE. 



The large assemblage of articles constituting the present Exhi- 

 bition, was collected by Mr. Bullock on the spot during his 

 residence in Mexico, whither he went, in the year 1823, for this 

 especial purpose. 



The Collection was formed with the sanction and through the 

 aid of the present Mexican Government ; indeed, without such a 

 powerful auxiliary, all endeavours at obtaining many of the 

 inestimably curious articles which comprise the Ancient division 

 of it would have proved utterly abortive. 



It may easily be imagined that no inconsiderable ardour was 

 required in collecting specimens at once so numerous and so 

 varied, from a country heretofore, through the jealousy of the 

 Spaniard, impenetrably closed against foreigners. As its inha- 

 bitants were, from long habit, accustomed to look with suspicion 

 upon all strangers, it may naturally be supposed they would more 

 particularly distrust one whose pursuits were so new and uncon- 

 genial to them as a mere searcher after Antiquities, and the 

 wonders of Nature — and these difficulties were further increased 

 by the circumstance of the time chosen for the visit, when internal 

 dissentions, inseparable from the vast political changes the country 

 had recently undergone, were by no means thoroughly dissi- 

 pated.— The zeal of the Traveller, in a favourite pursuit, sur- 

 mounted every obstacle, and happily, upon his return to his 

 native country, his labours have been appreciated through the 

 approbation of a discerning public. 



His anticipations of the firm establishment of the present 

 honourable government of Mexico, and his conviction of the 

 reciprocal advantages which would accrue from an intercourse 

 of the most liberal and extended nature between the Mexican 

 and British nations have fortunately received the fullest con- 



