their homes worn with the toils of war, none have ceased to remember the delicious land, amid whose sunny valleys and majestic mountains they had learned, at least, to admire the sublimity of nature. The returned warriors did not fail to report around their firesides the marvels they witnessed during their campaigns, and numerous works have been written to sketch the story of individual adventure, or to portray the most interesting physical features of various sections of the republic. Thus by war and literature, by ancient curiosity and political sympathy, by geographical position and commercial interest, Mexico has become perhaps the most interesting portion of the world to our countrymen at the present moment. And I have been led to believe that the American people would not receive unfavorably a work designed to describe the entire country, to develop its resources and condition, and to sketch impartially its history from the conquest to the present day.
It has been no ordinary task to chronicle the career of a nation for more than three centuries, to unveil the colonial government of sixty-two Viceroys, to follow the thread of war and politics through the mazes of revolution, and to track the rebellious spirit of intrigue amid the numerous civil outbreaks which have occurred since the downfall of Iturbide. The complete Viceroyal history of Mexico is now for the first time presented to the world in the English language, while, in Spanish, no single author has ever attempted it continuously. Free from the bias of Mexican partizanship, I have endeavored to narrate events fairly, and to paint character without regard to individual men. In describing the country, its resources, geography, finances, church, agriculture, army, industrial condition, and social as well as political prospects, I have taken care to provide myself with the most recent and respectable authorities. My residence in the country, and intimacy with many of its educated and intelligent patriots, enabled me to gather information in which I confided, and I have endeavored to fuse the whole mass of knowledge thus laboriously procured, with my personal, and, I hope, unprejudiced, observation.