"A Drama in Mexico" (French: Un drame au Mexique) is a historical short story by Jules Verne, first published in July 1851 under the title "The First Ships of the Mexican Navy" ("L'Amérique du Sud. Etudes historiques. Les Premiers Navires de la Marine Mexicaine").
In a letter to his father Verne wrote that it "is but a simple adventure-story in the style of Cooper which I am locating in Mexico."
Illustration by Jules Férat, 1876
Plot outline
In 1825, off the islands of Guam on a passage from Spain, Lieutenant Martinez, and his associates plot a mutiny on board of two Spanish warships. Conspirators murder Captain Don Orteva, take command of the ships, and plan to sell them to the republican government in Mexico. But on arrival in Acapulco, Lieutenant Martinez and Jose embark on a cross-country trip to Mexico City that proves fatal to both.
Publication history
The story was first published in July 1851 under the title "The First Ships of the Mexican Navy" ("L'Amérique du Sud. Etudes historiques. Les Premiers Navires de la Marine Mexicaine") in Musée des familles with three illustrations by Eugène Forest and Alexandre de Bar. The renamed and revised version, with six illustrations by Jules Férat, was published in 1876 together with the novel Michel Strogoff as a part of the Voyages Extraordinaires series. The first English translation by W. H. G. Kingston was published in 1876.
