MEXICO: ITS GEOGRAPHY - ITS PEOPLE - AND ITS INSTITUTIONS: WITH A MAP, CONTAINING THE RESULT OF THE LATEST EXPLORATIONS OF FREMONT, WILKES, AND OTHERS

New York, [1846].. 80pp. plus folding colored map and plate. Lacks the "Map of Central Mexico." Engraved titlepage vignette. Original printed wrappers, bound into modern half cloth and paper boards, paper label. Wrappers soiled. Contemporary ownership signature on front wrapper. Scattered foxing. Good plus. The expanded edition of Farnham's work, published the same year as the first, but with an additional eight-page chapter on "Mexican character, habits, manners and superstitions" and a plate of seven portraits of Mexican military leaders. This expanded edition also contained a folding "Map of Central Mexico," lacking from this copy, but contains a map of "Mexico, Texas, and California." Farnham's work, published on the eve of the Mexican-American War and anticipating the conflict, is a comprehensive survey of Mexican geography, culture, economics, and society. Written in the summer of 1846, it contains a section on the "Position and route of the American Army" and an extensive discussion of Mexican roads, including the route from Veracruz to Mexico City. Farnham had already published two important western travel narratives. Not in Tutorow. Scarce. GARRETT, p.21. WAGNER-CAMP 120b:3. SABIN 23870.