Jules Gabriel Verne (1828-1905) was a French novelist, poet, playwright and initiate.
His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages Extraordinaires, a series of bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). His novels, always well-researched according to the scientific knowledge then available, are generally set in the second half of the 19th century, taking into account the technological advances of the time.
He has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979, ranking below Agatha Christie and above William Shakespeare. He has sometimes been called the "Father of Science Fiction", a title that has also been given to Herbert George Wells and Hugo Gernsback.
The Jules Verne's novel A Drama in Mexico (Un drame au Mexique, originally published as L'Amérique du Nord, études historiques: Les premiers navires de la marine mexicaine), which we propose to our readers today, was written in 1850 and then revised in 1876.
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. On arrival in Acapulco, Lieutenant Martinez and Jose embark on a cross-country trip to Mexico City to effect the sale. Martinez becomes increasingly fearful that he is being pursued by Ortega's loyal followers, and during a stormy night in the mountains murders Jose in a moment of madness and is then toppled to his death in a mountain torrent by the men he feared.