Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans/Preface
PREFACE.
"IT is difficult," wrote an English author of celebrity, "for a person, who is desirous to lay before the public an impartial view of the present state of Mexico, to determine exactly at what point to commence his undertaking." This difficulty has stared the author in the face ever since his first trip to Mexico; but it has seemed to him that there has been an increasing popular demand for a work which, while conducting the reader by pleasant paths through the most interesting portions of the Republic, should convey at the same time information of lasting value.
Hence, during the nine months devoted to travel and exploration, and the two years and more given to a study of the history and customs of the Mexican people, he has ever kept in mind the great popular desire, now so decidedly expressed, for a book on Mexico which should relate, in plain and simple language, the fascinating story of its history as it is interwoven with scenes visited, and should describe the wonderful development now taking place through the agency of the millions of American capital invested in railway construction and the exploitation of mines. At the time of the author's visit to Yucatan and Central and Southern Mexico, he devoted more attention to the natural features and historic surroundings of his journey than to the material wealth of the country; but the great progressive movement, initiated by the opening of the railroads, could not fail to awaken in him an interest in the present and future of Mexico, as well as in its past. Returning to the United States, his narrative of travel was nearly ready for the press early in 1883, but perceiving, as he thought, a greater need of the public for full and authoritative statements regarding the resources of Mexico, and descriptions of the Border region, written from the standpoint of personal observation, he laid aside his manuscript for a while and essayed another journey southward. By this time the great railroads, which were hardly beyond their inception at the period of his first visit, had entered Mexico at several points, and he travelled along the entire Mexican boundary line, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of California, accomplishing a journey by rail of over ten thousand miles, some distance of which was through a region not often traversed and but little known.
It would be impossible for the author even to enumerate, in the short space he has assigned himself for this brief prefatory note, the authors and friends, in Mexico as well as at home, to whom he is under obligation. It must suffice to say that to the liberality of his enterprising publishers, to the skill of artists and engravers, and of the famous house in which the book was printed, to the healthy criticisms of that Nestor of proof-readers, Mr. M. T. Bigelow, and especially to the friendly counsel and fine artistic taste of his friend, Mr. Fred H. Allen, whose patience and encouragement have sustained him through a long and somewhat trying ordeal, the author owes his ability to present the work in a shape which he trusts the public will appreciate. Except to call attention to the fact that he has examined nearly every prominent work on Mexico, the author feels that any mention of the various books on the subject would be a superfluous labor. It is hoped that the wide scope of the present book, including as it does nearly every topic of interest,—people, customs, historical references, antiquities, and productions,—and its carefully prepared and exhaustive index, will make it valuable to every person interested, even though remotely, in the progress of Mexico. To this end the numerous engravings and maps have been prepared; and by means of the latter one may trace the extension of our vast system of railways towards its ultimate destination, the continent of South America.
If, during the many months intervening between the conception and the completion of this volume, the author has wearied of his task, or has doubted the wisdom or expediency of it, he has constantly derived consolation from the reflection that, in helping to make Mexico better known to the world at large, he is but lending his aid to a progressive movement, that is not to end until the American—the hitherto hated "Gringo"—shall have pushed his engines to the extremest portion of that Greater South; and a trade legitimate and prosperous shall flow in those longitudinal channels which require the traversing of no broad ocean or tempestuous sea.
With this hopeful suggestion, that the reader view the "Mexican Movement" in the same catholic light, the author ventures to add another volume to the already large list of works on Mexico.
Beverly, Massachusetts, January, 1884.