Journal of a Residence and Tour in the Republic of Mexico in the Year 1826
With Some Account of the Mines of that Country

This vivid and often entertaining two-volume account of travels in Mexico on mining business first appeared in 1828.

G. F. Lyon (Author)

9781108070911, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 July 2014

336 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.43 kg

The British naval officer George Francis Lyon (1795–1832) survived extremes of African heat and Arctic cold during his colourful career. Remembered chiefly for the engaging journals he kept, and for his watercolours of the Arctic, he was fascinated by the indigenous peoples of the lands he explored, notably being tattooed by Inuit and eating raw caribou and seal meat with them. In 1826 he sailed to Mexico, then recovering from its war of independence, to serve as a commissioner for an English mining company. His vivid and often entertaining two-volume account of his experiences was published in 1828. In Volume 1, Lyon complains of his first nights being disturbed by 'dogs, pigs and restless cocks', and on his way to the mining area of Zacatecas he visits a church where a figure of Christ made him recall a 'creation of Frankenstein'.

Preface
1. Arrival at Tampico
2. Journey from Las Tamaulipas to San Luis Potosi
3. Village of Veta Grande
4. Account of the mines and miners of Zacatecas
5. From Zacatecas to Bolanos
6. Mines of Bolanos.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]