The Project Gutenberg eBook, Los Gringos, by H. A. (Henry Agustus) Wise

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Los Gringos
Or, An Inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia

Author: H. A. (Henry Agustus) Wise

Release Date: April 29, 2010 [eBook #32178]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOS GRINGOS***

E-text prepared by Julia Miller, Martin Pettit, and the Project Gutenberg
Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from images
generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)

Note: Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
http://www.archive.org/details/losgringosorinsi00wiseiala

+--------------------------------------------------+
|Transcriber's note: |
| |
|Obvious typographical errors have been correctetd |
+--------------------------------------------------+

LOS GRINGOS:

Or,

An Inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings
in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia.

by

LIEUT. WISE, U.S.N.

New York:
Baker and Scribner,
145 Nassau Street and 36 Park Row.
1849.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1849, by
Baker and Scribner,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.

Printed by C. W. BENEDICT,
201 William street.

PREFACE.

The title--_Los Gringos_--with which this volume has been christened, is
the epithet--and rather a reproachful one--used in California and Mexico
to designate the descendants of the Anglo-Saxon race; the definition of
the word is somewhat similar to that of Greenhorns, in modern
_parlance_, or Mohawks in the days of the Spectator. Although many of
the scenes were passed in those countries, yet the narrative takes a
wider range, and embraces portions of the South American Continent in
Brazil, Chili, and Peru,--together with visits to some of the groups of
the Pa