[4], vii, [1], 374 pp. 20.5x11.8 cm (8x4¾"), period leather-backed marbled boards, spine label. First Edition.
Account, by the veteran Mexican diplomat and first vice-president of the Texas republic, of his exile in the United States in the early 1830's following the overthrow of the Mexican government, with keen observations of the U.S. political culture. Of his travels through the United States, Lorenzo de Zavala gives personal impressions and information about New Orleans, slavery, the Mississippi River, Tennessee, Indiana, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Canada, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, etc. Published in Paris when Zavala was serving as minister for the Mexican government in France. The work includes notes dedicated to Zavala's affairs in Texas, where he discusses his colonization enterprises in that State. Zavala would later become the first vice-president of the Republic of Texas. Howes Z3.
He writes that Texas, being a territory composed mostly by colonies of foreign citizens, must be considered a State on its own: “Un inglés será Mejicano en Méjico, y un Mejicano Inglés en Londres. No sucederá lo mismo con las colonias. Lugares enteramente desiertos, convertidos en villas y pueblos repentinamente Alemanes, Irlandeses y Norte-Americanos, deben por necesidad formar una nación enteramente diversa…” (page 141).
Condition:
Boards well rubbed, as is spine label, wear to edges; still in very good, sound condition.