There are three types of notes in the text. The lettered notes (originally asterisks) were printed as standard footnotes on each page. References to these notes now appear in brackets as [A], [B] and so on. The notes themselves have been moved to directly follow the paragraph within which they are referenced. Occasionally, an asterisk is used for some other purpose, usually preceding rather than following a word or phrase, and remain asterisks.

Numeric notes refer to the extensive Notes section of the text. The references to those notes in the text are themselves not necessarily consecutive, nor are they unique.

Within the Notes, there are bold numbers prefixed to key words (e.g., ‘123keyword’) which serve as references to sources, to be found in the Appendix. There may be multiple references to the same source.

The logic behind this system is explained by the author in his Preface, and in more detail in note 5 of the Notes to that Preface.

In general, Spanish names, when used in English phrases, are printed without accents. ‘MÉxico’ is used when the language is Spanish, and ‘Mexico’, without the accent, when in English. On occasion, the printer fails to observe this distinction, as on p. xviii: “and a plan in [Mexico] Á travÉs de los Siglos”. These are considered as printer’s errors, and have been corrected here.

Where variants in spelling occur in quoted passages, they are always retained.

The name of the town of Matamoros is spelled, occasionally (pp. 177, 468), as ‘Matamoras’. The variants are retained.

The word ‘manoeuvre’ is sometimes printed with an ‘oe’ ligature. The variant has been retained.

At the end of the final paragraph of Chapter III, there is a reference to Note 41 of that chapter, which does not exist. Either the note was not included, or the reference was misnumbered. The anchor is included, and linked to a [note ] to that effect.

The following table describes other textual issues, and the resolution of each. The [x/y] annotations mark the additions, deletions or substitutions made to the text. Minor inconsistencies of punctuation in the Notes have been silently corrected. On several occasions, letters or numbers have gone missing from the images used to prepare this text. Where no reasonable conjecture is supportable, an empty bracket [ ] indicates the spot.