The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mexico and its Religion, by Robert A. Wilson

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Title: Mexico and its Religion
With Incidents of Travel in That Country During Parts of
the Years 1851-52-53-54, and Historical Notices of Events
Connected With Places Visited

Author: Robert A. Wilson

Release Date: May 14, 2007 [EBook #21430]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: SANTA ANNA.]

MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION;

WITH

INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN THAT COUNTRY
DURING PARTS OF THE YEARS 1851-52-53-54,

AND

HISTORICAL NOTICES OF EVENTS
CONNECTED WITH PLACES VISITED.

BY

ROBERT A. WILSON.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1855.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New York.

TO

THE AMERICAN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES,

THE FOLLOWING PAGES

Are Respectfully Dedicated.

PREFACE.

The custom of mingling together historical events with the incidents of
travel, of amusement with instruction, is rather a Spanish than
American practice; and in adopting it, I must crave the indulgence of
those of my readers who read only for instruction, as well as of those
who read only for amusement.

The evidence that I have adduced to prove that the yellow fever is not
an American, but an African disease, imported in slave-ships, and
periodically renewed from those cargoes of human rottenness and
putrefaction, I hope will be duly considered.

The picture of inner convent life, and the inimitable gambling scene in
the convent of San Francis, I have not dared to present on my own
responsibility, nor even that of the old English black-letter edition
of Friar Thomas, but I have reproduced it from the expurgated Spanish
edition, which has passed the censors, and must therefore be considered
official.

I have presumed to follow the great Las