Page:Appleton's Guide to Mexico.djvu/15



the year 1880, a large amount of capital has been invested in Mexico by citizens of the United States. Within that period an unprecedented number of the English-speaking races have visited that country either as tourists, or as explorers with a view to an actual settlement and a permanent residence.

During a professional visit to the Mexican Republic, in the winter and spring of this year, the author experienced from day to day, and frequently from hour to hour, the want of a compendious guide-book. While many volumes of history and of general observation and travel relating to Mexico have, from time to time, been published, no book of this description is known to exist.

Believing that our sister Republic will in future, to a far greater extent than ever before, be the resort of the capitalist, the speculator, the artist, the archæologist, the valetudinarian, and the pleasure-seeker, as well as of the intelligent and enterprising man of business, the author has endeavored to render each and all an acceptable service by the preparation of this manual. It has been his