Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net AHEAD OF THE ARMY ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: IT WAS SEVERE WORK, BUT IT WAS DONE WITH EAGER ENTHUSIASM (See page 277)] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ AHEAD OF THE ARMY by W. O. STODDARD AUTHOR OF "THE ERRAND BOY OF ANDREW JACKSON," "JACK MORGAN," "THE NOANK'S LOG," ETC. ILLUSTRATED BY C. CHASE EMERSON BOSTON LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY ------------------------------------------------------------------------ COPYRIGHT, 1903, by LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published June, 1903 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE Lest any one should suspect exaggeration in the pictures of Mexican affairs in the old time, which are presented by Senor Carfora, it may be well to offer a few facts 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 Senor 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS Page