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by way of explanation. During sixty-three years of the national life of the Republic of Mexico, from the establishment of its independence in 1821 to the year 1884, nearly all of its successive changes of government were accompanied by more or less violence and bloodshed. There have been fifty-five Mexican Presidents; at one revolutionary period, four within three months, and to this list must be added two emperors and one regency. Both of the emperors were shot, so were several of the Presidents, and nearly all of the others incurred the penalty of banishment. How this came to be so will possibly be better understood by the young Americans who will kindly travel with Señor Carfora and his generals and his two armies, commanded for him by General Scott and General Santa Anna. It is the wish of the author that all his young friends may cultivate a deeper and kinder interest in the wonderful land of Anahuac and its people. The now peaceful and rapidly improving republic of the South is, in fact, only a kind of younger brother of the United States. Mexico has no more sincere well-wisher than
William O. Stoddard.
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CONTENTS Page
Far-away Guns 11 The Race of the Goshawk 22 The Fortune of War 47 Completely Stranded 69 The Work of the Norther 84 Forward, March 99 The Land of the Montezumas 119 Out of the Tierra Caliente 136 Leaving the Hacienda 157 Pictures of the Past 167 Ned's News 181 A Storm Coming 193 The Revolution 207 The Despatch-bearer 221 Under Fire 240 General Scott and His Army 254 The Mountain Passes 267 Señor Carfora Trapped 281 The Stars and Stripes in Tenochtitlan 294
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ILLUSTRATIONS Page
It was severe work, but it was done with eager enthusiasm Frontispiece "Do you see that? What does it mean?" 30 "We have orders to take care of you" 114 Ned saw a long, bright blade of a lance pointed at his bosom 286<