03398cam a22003493u 450000100060000000300070000600500170001300600020003000700050003200800410003701000130007804000110009104100170010205000100011910000380012924500380016726400510020530000470025633600260030333700260032933800360035550000310039150801730042252021570059553400610275265300410281365300380285465300370289285600570292985600430298699900190302977881UtSlPG20260610134814.0mcr n260607r20261883utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d  a02023140  aUtSlPG 7aen2iso639-1 4aF12011 aBishop, William Henry,d1847-192810aOld Mexico and her lost provinces 1aSalt Lake City, UT :bProject Gutenberg,c2026  a1 online resource :bmultiple file formats  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier  aRelease date is 2026-02-07  aPeter Becker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)  a"Old Mexico and her lost provinces" by William Henry Bishop is a travel narrative written in the late 19th century. It traces an American observer’s journey through Mexico—approached via Cuba—and onward to the former Mexican territories in the American Southwest, blending firsthand reportage with history, politics, and local color. The work dwells on railways, commerce, cities, landscapes, and daily life in a nation rapidly modernizing under new economic schemes and foreign capital.

The opening of Old Mexico and her lost provinces follows Bishop’s departure from New York by steamer to Havana, where he samples tropical life, visits Matanzas and a sugar plantation, notes corruption scandals and the lottery, and records talk of the long Cuban insurgency. He transfers to a French packet for Vera Cruz, arrives after a “norther,” and sketches the perilous roadstead, somber San Juan de Ulúa, and a city of tiled domes, zopilotes, and bullfight bills, along with a consul’s argument that yellow fever is epidemic but not contagious and the labyrinth of Mexican tariffs. Boarding the English-built railway at night, he ascends from the Tierra Caliente with a vivid cast—a flamboyantly dressed hacendado and a French bridal pair—through the Metlac gorge, past Orizaba at sunrise, Holy Saturday Judas effigies, pulque country at Apam, and the pyramids of Teotihuacan, before reaching the high basin of Mexico City and its alkali-ringed lakes. He then maps the capital’s core: the Zócalo and cathedral on the Aztec war-god’s former site, arcaded streets, serapes and rebozos, Indian vendors, and the persistent drainage problem of Lake Texcoco. Excursions to Chapultepec and the Paseo de la Reforma frame his sense of the city’s future growth, while his hotel courtyard swarms with “projectors”—foreign engineers, financiers, and promoters (with General Grant among them)—planning railways, banks, and industries. The section closes with reflections on American–Mexican perceptions, the 1847 invasion, and the internal divisions that once hobbled Mexico’s defense. (This is an automatically generated summary.)  pOriginally published:cNew York: Harper & brothers, 1883  aCalifornia -- Description and travel  aArizona -- Description and travel  aMexico -- Description and travel4 uhttps://archive.org/details/oldmexicoherlost1883bish40uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77881  c118601d118601