Produced by Julia Miller, Larry B. Harrison and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) [Illustration: HERNANDO CORTÉZ. (Autograph)] MEXICO, AZTEC, SPANISH AND REPUBLICAN: A HISTORICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, POLITICAL, STATISTICAL AND SOCIAL ACCOUNT OF THAT COUNTRY FROM THE PERIOD OF THE INVASION BY THE SPANIARDS TO THE PRESENT TIME; WITH A VIEW OF THE ANCIENT AZTEC EMPIRE AND CIVILIZATION; A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE WAR; AND NOTICES OF NEW MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA BY BRANTZ MAYER, FORMERLY SECRETARY OF LEGATION TO MEXICO IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME I. HARTFORD: S. DRAKE AND COMPANY. MDCCCLII. ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by SIDNEY DRAKE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. C. A. ALVORD, PRINTER, 29 Gold-st., N. Y. TO THE HONORABLE HENRY CLAY: MY DEAR SIR: I take the liberty to inscribe these volumes to you as a testimonial of personal gratitude. In the midst of engrossing cares you have often been pleased to turn aside for a while to foster those who were following the humbler and quieter walks of literature; and it is, naturally, their delight to offer for your acceptance, upon every suitable occasion, an acknowledgment of cordial thankfulness. Allow me, then, as the only tribute I can tender, to present a work designed to illustrate the history and resources of one of those American States which were summoned into the brotherhood of nations by your sympathy and eloquence. I am, with the greatest respect, Your friend and servant, BRANTZ MAYER. BALTIMORE, JULY, 1850. PREFACE.