University of Virginia Library

—When first I determined to write the Legends of Mexico—ancient and modern,
from the era of Scott and Taylor, back through the mists of ages, to Cortez and
Montezuma—it was your generous sympathy with my purposes, that gave me strength
and deepened my enthusiasm for the task. These works on Mexico—every one of
which is intended to be distinct and separate, yet forming together, a complete book
on the `golden and bloody land'—I now dedicate to you, in this the first of the series,
embodying the Battles of Taylor. This Dedication, my tried friend, is no less a
token of that brotherhood which I feel with you, than a tribute to your commanding
Genius, which having ranked you among the first orators, will soon claim admiration
for you, among the first Essayists of the Nineteenth Century.