Book Review - The Eagle and the Serpent by John Selby

The Eagle and the Serpent: The Spanish and American Invasions of Mexico: 1519 and 1846

by John Selby                         London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978      ISBN 0241897475


A short and interesting book, reminding us that Mexico in the time of the Aztecs and the Spanish covered much of the Southwest of what became the United States. Selby describes in the first half of this book how Spain took over not only Mexico's heartland, but expanded into what is now Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico, and, in the second half, how the United States took much of the aforementioned territory from them.

For this reader, the story of Cortes and his march on Tenochtitlan and subsequent overthrow of the Aztec Empire is a familiar one. It still boggles the mind that such a small group of Spaniards could overthrow such a civilization, albeit with help from local Indian allies. While the theory that personalities can shape history is these days seen as a dated way to look at the past, there seems little doubt that both Cortes' strength of will and Moctezuma's weakness of character bore strongly on the outcome of their clash.

Spanish reach soon covered most of today's Mexico, and expanded Northwards, driven by missionaries. While ostensibly part of Mexico, this Northern part was in many respects independent, being hard to reach overland owing to the desert country in between it and metropolitan Mexico, and through lack of population.

Mexico were keen to increase population in these areas, partly for development, but also to forestall the encroaching Americans from taking the land. Ironically, it was to the US that they looked for immigrants, and in the early 1800s quite a few people moved West to try their luck under the flag of Mexico.

It wasn't long before the "natives" got restless, and skirmishes developed between the new immigrants and those who had been there longer. The lack of effective governmental control did not help the situation, nor did the incursions of US "explorers", who were mostly military men with eventual conquest on their mind.

The banning of further US immigration into Texas began the break-up of this part of Mexico, with disaffected locals declaring the Republic of Texas, and,with US help, cementing their independence. Further unrest followed further West, with Americans in California working to undermine the sovereignty of Mexico and move to US control. The ascension of Polk as President, and his desire to acquire land, moved the conflict into open war.

Meanwhile, the Mexican government was very unstable, with Santa Anna the cause of much of that instability. His military efforts were mostly ineffective, and when the US Army invaded and took Mexico City, there was little the Mexican Government could do but accede to the US offer to purchase the land that became Arizona, New Mexico and California.

Selby's book is a clear, concise introduction to a period of history that non-Americans might be surprised to know occurred in the way it did. There is a useful (if now dated) bibliography as well.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Zero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano

Zero Zero Zero by Roberto Saviano, translated from the Italian by Virginia Jewiss

New York: Penguin, 2015                          ISBN 9781594205507

I have previously reviewed Gomorrah, the book that made Saviano's name as a writer. That polemic against the Camorra, written with the heart-felt rage of a local who saw its effects on the city and the people he knew, was a deserved best-seller.

Zero Zero Zero takes a wider view, at the World-wide epidemic of cocaine. Starting where else but in Colombia, Saviano shows us how the big cartels were created, and then overtaken by their Mexican middle-men. As always the Italian connection is not too far away, with the 'Ndrangheta most involved in the trade in Europe. However, Saviano shows us that everyone's involved in the trade in cocaine, from El-Salvador to Spain, Russia to Australia.

The trade is a river of gold to those who can manage it and who are ruthless enough to corrupt and kill. Saviano is adept at providing a list of murders, kingpins (and queens), stings and prison sentences. He also shows the reader how money and drugs eats its own, with cartels, mini-cartels and micro-cartels being created, warring and being destroyed all the time, either through the work of law enforcement agencies or other drug groups.

The reader of Zero Zero Zero is at turns horrified, disgusted, and lost in the minutiae of this history. The one theme that comes through is just how enormous the trade is, driven by an insatiable demand on the streets for Cocaine.

There is no doubt that Saviano is driven by a need to uncover this criminal activity - to his own detriment - and after more than three hundred pages of exposition  the reader comes to the same conclusion as Saviano: the only solution is legalisation, but that is the wrong solution.

A powerful book, and worth reading.



Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell

Book Review - Recollections of a Rogue by Samuel E Chamberlain

Recollections of a Rogue, written and illustrated by Samuel E. Chamberlain, Foreword by D.W. Brogan, Introduction and Postscript by Roger Butterfield

London, Museum Press, 1957

After re-reading and reviewing Blood Meridian a little while back, I was scanning some information about Cormac McCarthy and the writing of Blood Meridian, where it was mentioned he got some of his material from the book being reviewed here. Being in the fortunate position of having access to a range of University Libraries, a quick search discovered this book and it was soon in my hands.

Samuel Chamberlain was a well respected person in Boston Massachusetts, a well regarded officer of the Union forces in the Civil War, married for over 50 years, who enjoyed a relaxing retirement in his large house in Worcester.

Before all this occurred, he spent time in the US Army in the Mexican War, where he was (from his own telling) known as Peloncillo Jack, and (if he is to be believed) got up to all kinds of scrapes, both military and on the field of love.

Recollections of a Rogue is a narrative written by Chamberlain just before the outbreak of the Civil War, in which he recounts his earlier adventures with some dash and bravado, in the melodramatic style of novels of the time.

Unlucky in his choice of paramour in Boston, Samuel leaves for his Uncle's farm in Illinois, where he is treated harshly. Never one to take a backward step, Samuel is forced to leave after a run-in with his Uncle and Cousin with an axe. As always in this narrative, the women take Samuel's side - but he is forced to leave, and after a few more adventures he joins the First Dragoons, and is marching off to Mexico.

While he does fight in the battle of Buena Vista in 1847, most of Peloncillo Jack's time in Mexico is spent in picket duty, garrison duty, and in ensuring the US Volunteer forces are not ravaging the countryside and inhabitants of Mexico. He not only must have been writing a diary, but also drew many pictures in a naive style, some of which are reproduced in this publication.

He recounts several close shaves with 'Guerillars', quite a few romantic interludes, and many scrapes with Army authority. These are usually set out in a way that shows Chamberlain is wrongly done by, with officers shown as capricious and cruel.

After one depredation too many, he deserts, and joins with the Glanton gang of scalp hunters, which is the part of this book McCarthy used as a source for Blood Meridian. He makes it clear that Glanton himself was a psychopath, probably due to outrages suffered early in his life - on a few occasions the gang vote down particularly barbarous plans that Glanton cooks up - and that Judge Holden was indeed the prototype of the Judge in McCarthy's book.

After a few short chapters of life with the Glanton gang, the narrative suddenly breaks off - Roger Butterfield surmises that this was the time when Chamberlain went off to serve in the Civil War, and he never got around to finishing his story. Which is a shame.

Recollections of a Rogue is a rollicking read, with adventure after adventure (in fact so many it's hard to believe at the end of his narrative he is still but a teenager). It also provides a fine first-hand account of life on the frontiers at a formative stage of US history.

You might be lucky and find this in a library near you, or perhaps second-hand on the web.

Cheers for now, from
A View Over the Bell