A veteran of the Mexican War, W. W. H. Davis returned to New Mexico in 1853 to become United States Attorney for the territory. He soon thought of himself as El Gringo, the stranger, who had much to learn about his new home and its people. Equipped with a few changes of clothes, a two-book law library, and a ravenous curiosity, Davis recorded in his diary all that impressed him on his thousand-mile trip to Santa Fä and his thousand-mile court circuit. In 1856 he ransacked the diary to write El Gringo, selecting those features of custom, language, landscape, and history most likely to interest general readers. El Gringo caught on quickly. His duties took him far and wide, to ramshackle jails locked with twine and to the homes of the rich and powerful. His legal training intensified his interest in and understanding of the longstanding quarrels between Indians and whites, between New Mexicans and Texans, between the established Spanish-speaking population and the influx of new settlers and traders from the United States. His description of New Mexico is one of the earliest full-length accounts to appear in English and provides a stunning picture of a newly conquered land.

Excerpt from El Gringo, or New Mexico and Her People This volume is mainly written from a diary the au thor kept during a residence of two and a half years in New Mexico, and the matters contained in it are either drawn from careful personal observation, or other relia ble sources. The historical portions are almost wholly obtained from official records in the office of the Secre tary of the Territory at Santa Fe, and may be relied upon as correct. The beautiful drawings that adorn the work were executed by Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Eaton, U. S.a., on duty in that territory, and F. A. Percy, Esq., of El Paso, Texas, to whom I am much indebted; and I take this occasion to make my acknowledgments to them for their great kindness. With these remarks the work is submitted to the public, and if, upon perusal, the reader should find any thing in it to instruct or amuse, the author will consider his labors amply re warded. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

Published in 1857, this travelogue by William Davis describes his experiences in New Mexico during the Mexican-American War. Davis provides vivid descriptions of the people, culture, and landscape of New Mexico, as well as his encounters with notable figures such as Kit Carson and General Stephen Watts Kearny. This book is a valuable primary source for historians of the American West and the Mexican-American War. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

In this classic work, W.W.H. Davis describes New Mexico as he experienced it shortly after it became a Territory of the United States in 1850. He recounts a brief history of the land and its people, and describes his journeys around the Territory, Santa Fé as it was in the early 1850's, the Pueblo Indians, and the Navajo Indians. This delightful and informative book contains all thirteen of the original illustrations contained in the original book, originally published in 1857.

Chapter 15. Realized Political Parties, 1869-1871 -- Conclusions -- Appendixes -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Veteran journalist and author Sherry Robinson presents readers with the first full biography of New Mexico’s first territorial governor, James Silas Calhoun. Robinson explores Calhoun’s early life in Georgia and his military service in the Mexican War and how they led him west. Through exhaustive research Robinson shares Calhoun’s story of arriving in New Mexico in 1849—a turbulent time in the region—to serve as its first Indian agent. Inhabitants were struggling to determine where their allegiances lay; they had historic and cultural ties with Mexico, but the United States offered an abundance of possibilities. An accomplished attorney, judge, legislator, and businessman and an experienced speaker and negotiator who spoke Spanish, Calhoun was uniquely qualified to serve as the first territorial governor only eighteen months into his service. While his time on the New Mexico political scene was brief, he served with passion, intelligence, and goodwill, making him one of the most intriguing political figures in the history of New Mexico.

"Mexican Protestantism was born in the encounter between Mexican Catholics and Anglo American Protestants, after the United States ventured into the Southwest and wrested territory from Mexico in the early nineteenth century. In Sea la Luz, Juan Francisco Martinez traces the birth and initial development of this ethno-religious community brought through the westward expansion of the United States. Using the records of Protestant missionaries, he uncovers the story of Mexican converts and the churches they developed. Those same records reveal Protestant attitudes toward the war with Mexico, the conquest of the Southwest, and the Mexican population that became U.S. citizens with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo (1848)."--BOOK JACKET.