Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/11



"T 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