TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF MEXICO in Baja California and Around the Sea of Cortez 1825, 1826, 1827 & 1828 [SOLD]

TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF MEXICO in Baja California and Around the Sea of Cortez 1825, 1826, 1827 & 1828 by Lieut. R. W. H. Hardy, R.N.

Publisher of First Edition: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, London, 1829

Publisher of this edition: The Rio Grande Press, Glorieta, 1977

Hardback, 558 pages, illustrations and maps, new condition

From the Publisher’s Preface

“Travel books were all the rage 150 years ago; here is one of the better ones, or even one of the best.  It is about Northwestern Mexico—that part of our southern neighbor that by and large adjoins the United States.  Now easing into a ‘resort’ era, this part of Mexico is becoming better known to American travelers—particularly those Americans who live and travel around the Southwest.  The mainland resort developments are Mazatlan, Guaymas (San Carlos) and Hermosillo (Kino Bay), luxurious though they are, are having trouble keeping up with the beautiful new developments along the newly-completed trans-baja peninsula highway.

“When author Hardy traveled from the mainland to the Baja and around the Sea of Cortez, he was confronted with great empty vistas of terra incognita.  Now his ‘stomping ground’ (so to speak) is easily accessible by car or plane and even, for some of it, by train.  The information in this book covers the period 1825 through 1828, both years inclusive.  Lieut. Hardy, an Englishman lately an officer in the Royal Navy, described the Mexico he visited as it was shortly after throwing off the heavy yoke of Imperial Spain.  He traveled literally thousands of miles by boat, muleback and shank’s mare.  There were no luxuries for travelers in Mexico in those days.”

Preface to the First Edition

 “So much has, within these few years, become known of Mexico, through the writings of various intelligent individuals, that the present might almost be considered a presumptuous undertaking, to increase the already large stock of knowledge respecting that republic; and the more so, as the Author’s recent return to England, and constant occupation since his arrival, have not permitted him the gratification of perusing the works of preceding travelers, which probably might have prevented him from falling into some errors of repetition.  As the writer of the following pages, however, travelled over a part of Mexico visited by no other European, he trusts that the Public will bestow upon this attempt to interest them, that indulgence which may be due, not indeed to his merit, but to his good intention.

 London, October 1829