Soon after emigrating from Germany to the United States, Frederick Zeh impulsively joined the army as war with Mexico loomed. His written account is the first book-length description of the Mexican War by a German-American participant--a significant contribution, given that nearly half the regular army was made up of immigrant recruits.
Although Zeh held the lowly rank of "laborer" in the army, he was well educated and an astute observer, and his story is both lively and well written. Besides the horror of battles, he describes relations between officers and enlisted men, military...

Volume 78 in The American Exploration and Travel Series After returning to his Italian monastery in 1770, a Capuchin friar named Ilarione da Bergamo wrote an account of his transatlantic crossing and five-year residence in colonial Mexico. Sent to Mexico to collect alms for missionary work, Friar Ilarione lived four years in the silver-mining camp of Real del Monte, fifty miles north of the viceregal capital. Ilarione relates how he secured silver donations from the miners, describes mining and refining techniques, and writes of a bitter and widespread labor strike. Ilarione also spent a...