MEXICO

Mexico. As the Encyclopædia contains a very accurate narrative of the early history of Mexico, drawn from the best sources, we have no occasion to make any remarks on that part of this subject. We could, indeed, add but little to it, because no documents have been discovered since the period at which that abstract was drawn up, except a few hieroglyphical remains, which rather illustrate the policy, than the history of the country, under the Aztec monarchs.

New sources of information. But the growth of Mexico since it was first subdued by Spain, its increase in population, in cultivation, and in wealth, have been laid before the public in such a luminous and authentic form by Baron Humboldt, as to merit both the attention and the gratitude of the European world. We have also been furnished with much information regarding the present state of this interesting country, of the mode in which its government is conducted, of the productions of the soil, of its facilities of improvement, and of the character and condition of its inhabitants, in the Memorials of the Deputies who were chosen members of the Cortes that was assembled at Cadiz. Many of them, which have been printed in Spain, give information which had escaped the notice even of the indefatigable Humboldt. The latitudes and longitudes of the most remarkable stations had not till lately been accurately ascertained, but on that subject abundant and certain documents have now been obtained. Statistical accounts of the political and territorial divisions of the population, of the revenue, the produce of the mines, the exportable surplus from agriculture, the expences of the government, the nature and number of its armed forces, and many other points, have also come to the knowledge of the European public. From these various new sources we have abstracted the view we now lay before our readers of the present condition of the most extensive community in the western world.

Extent and Boundaries. Before delineating the boundaries of Mexico, or New Spain, it is necessary to premise, that those boundaries have been the subject of serious discussion between the crown of Spain and the government of the United States of America, though now adjusted by a recent treaty.

The eastern boundary of Mexico begins in the Bay of Honduras, and including the peninsula of Yucatan within its limits, crosses to the Lake Terminos, and then due south to Tonala, to the eastward of the port of Tehuantepec in the South Sea. This line divides it from the kingdom of Guatemala. From Lake Terminos, northward, the Gulf of Mexico forms the boundary to the river Mexicana, in west longitude 92° 30', from thence it is divided from Louisiana by a line drawn through the river Sabina, till it meets the Natchitoches or Red River, in latitude 35° north; from that point, by a line to the sources of the Rio Grande, or, as it is called more usually, Rio Bravo del Norte, supposed to be in lati-

VOL. V. PART II.

tude 40° north. From thence its limits are an imaginary line drawn to Port San Francisco, otherwise Port Sir Francis Drake, in the Pacific Ocean, in latitude 37° 30' north. The Pacific Ocean is the western boundary from Port San Francisco to Tonala, in the Bay of Tehuantepec, where it joins Guatemala.

As the more extensive part of this vast country is very thinly inhabited, and almost exclusively by unreclaimed or half reclaimed Indians (though Spain may consider it among her dominions, and in her negotiations with the American States, may successfully contend for the ownership), it can scarcely be said to belong to any other power than those rude tribes, who use it, rather as hunting grounds, than as permanent occupations. If Mexico be compared with the United States, it will be found to contain nearly the same extent of peopled country. The great mass of the population, within the States, is planted on a narrow strip of land, along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, whilst that of Mexico is concentrated principally on the table-land on which the capital is built. The exterior country of each, the northern provinces of Mexico, and the western division of the States, are alike thinly peopled, but with this material difference, in Mexico the country most thickly peopled is the most healthy, and most fertile; whilst in the States, the country but recently begun to be settled exceeds the more ancient territory, in the salubrity of climate, and productiveness of soil.

The whole surface of Mexico is nearly 120,000 square leagues, of which about one-half in extent, and by far the most considerable in every other view, is situated in what is called the Torrid Zone, though, for reasons which will appear, the climate is much cooler than in the greater part of the other half, which is placed in the temperate zone.

The most important part of Mexico is the table-land, which occupies the centre of the viceroyalty. This tract may be considered as the continuation and expansion of the ridges of mountains which are denominated the Andes, which run through the whole extent of South America, pass through Guatemala, and send forth branches to Honduras and Yucatan. After entering Mexico, it continues its course to the northward, till it terminates on the shores of the Frozen Ocean. In Mexico, however, it expands itself to a great breadth, and without deep intersecting valleys, produces an extensive plain, equal in fertility to any part of the globe, and superior in healthiness to any other between the tropics, except similarly elevated spots. The mean height of this plain is about 7000 feet above the level of the sea. The climate at that elevation is never severely cold, the snow rarely falls, and never continues on the ground, and the severest frosts that are ever felt leave no ice which remains after the break of day. The heat of summer is so tempered by nocturnal rains, and by

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the breezes which blow almost constantly, that the weather is never so oppressively hot as to forbid travelling or labouring in the fields at day light. Though 7000 feet is the mean height of this plain, yet it abounds with elevations, some of which enter the regions of perpetual snow, and others, whose tops are covered with snow during the greater part of the year. These masses of snow communicate a refreshing coolness to the atmosphere at all times, and in the warmest seasons the melting of them produces constant streams, which communicate verdure and fertility during their course. On the eastern side of Mexico, towards Vera Cruz, the elevation is most abrupt, and when attained the most uniform. In descending from the city of Mexico to the westward towards Acapulco, the fall is more gradual, but more interrupted by irregular elevations which intervene, than to the eastward of the city. The northern side of the plain more gradually descends, and terminates at a greater distance from the medium level, than either the eastern or the western sides. It is continued to the north-east 500 miles, and to the north-west a still greater distance. A high ridge then separates one side of the viceroyalty from the other, which is scarcely passable at any point, and divides the two parts of the country as securely as an elevated wall or a fathomless cavern.

Although the table-land of Mexico is perhaps the most healthy district on the globe, yet the other parts of the viceroyalty, on the borders of the sea, partake of the ungenial properties of the torrid zone. The eastern shore is less healthy than the western. The inhabitants of the whole coast from Tabasco to the river Mexicana are subject to fluxes and intermittent and bilious fevers, which lessen the enjoyment, and shorten the duration of human life; and though the western shores are less severely, they are not less frequently visited by the same maladies.

The eastern and western access to this important plain are both attended with difficulty and fatigue. The road from Vera Cruz to Mexico, and from thence to Acapulco, are both impassable for wheel carriages; and passengers who cannot travel on foot, or endure the fatigue of horses or mules, are conveyed in litters, a kind of sedan chair, the long poles of which are fastened to the sides of two mules, one of which precedes, and the other follows the carriage. A road, however, of the most magnificent kind is now constructing from Vera Cruz to the capital; great progress has been made in it, and but for the interruption caused by the tumults which began in 1810, it would have been completed by this time: it is carrying on in some parts by the sides, in others over the tops of the mountains, and in one part it crosses a mountain 10,400 feet above the level of the sea, and 3000 feet higher than the spot on which the city of Mexico stands. Whenever this communication shall be completed, it will give a wonderful stimulus to the agriculture of Mexico, which, for want of roads to convey its surplus produce, cultivates only as much land as is required by the domestic consumption; and hence, when a year of less than usual fecundity occurs, it is exposed to great scarcity, if not to absolute famine. To the northern part of the vice-

royalty, where it is of less consequence, the communication is so much better, that a coach may travel all the way from the capital to the city of Santa Fé, a distance of 440 leagues, with no interruption, and with very little risk. As the road to Acapulco is not passable for wheel carriages, those commodities which Asia furnishes to the commerce of Mexico are conveyed on the backs of mules. Rivers of great extent, and subject to frequent inundations, present obstacles which are difficult to conquer. Large sums have been destined to construct bridges over two of these rivers, the Papagallo and the Mescala, but without effect, and passengers must be conveyed across them on temporary rafts, made of reeds, which are rendered buoyant by having gourds beneath them. These rafts are guided by Indians accustomed to the business, who swim with one hand, and direct the course of the floating raft with the other.

A road has been begun from Vera Cruz to Perote, the place at which the silver and other valuable commodities are collected and deposited, till they can be conveyed to the coast. Already L.600,000 Sterling has been expended on it. The cost per mile is about L.7000, in a country where the labour of Indians, who are principally employed on it, does not cost one-half as much as the wages of labourers in Europe. This road is broad, solid, and of easy ascent, and equals the celebrated roads of the Simplon and Mount Cenis. Pillars of porphyry are intended to be placed along it, which will both indicate the distance and the elevation of the spot above the level of the sea.

The question of the population of this viceroyalty becomes the more interesting, from the great errors which prevailed on the subject, before the publication of Humboldt's Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain. In the Encyclopædia the inhabitants are estimated at 2,000,000. Pinkerton, after discussing various reports and opinions, sums up by estimating all the inhabitants of Spanish North America, including Guatemala (now known to contain more than 1,200,000), at about 3,000,000. By an actual enumeration made in 1793, in which the returns of two intendancies were made to depend on calculation, it appears that the number of inhabitants were 4,483,529; but for reasons which appear satisfactory, Humboldt contends that they amounted to 5,200,000. The Baron had peculiar advantages in forming an estimate of the population in 1803, when he was in Mexico. From the information of the clergy, whose registers of births and deaths are accurately kept; from the increase in the production of the soil, as evinced by the tithes, which are strictly exacted; and from the proportion of births to deaths, he has framed his estimate, which, if it does not arrive at accuracy, must approximate to it as nearly as the nature of the case will admit; and if it in any degree errs, it must be in under rather than in over-rating the number of inhabitants. He found the births to be to the deaths in the proportion of 170 to 100; the births to the number of inhabitants to be 1 to each 17; and the number of deaths to be 1 in 30; whilst, in France, which may be considered as the fair average of Europe, the births are to the deaths as 110 to

Mexico. 100; the births 1 to 28$\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ths of all the inhabitants, and the deaths 1 to 30$\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ths.

The result of his calculations give 6,500,000 as the population in 1803, being an increase of 25 in the 100 in ten years. If the same increase has continued, which there is no reason to doubt, in the year 1813 the population must have advanced to 8,150,000; from that period to the present, 1821, calculating at the increase of 15 per cent. for the eight years, the numbers now would exceed 10,000,000. During part of this period, great internal commotions prevailed, which must have checked the growth of the population, and therefore some allowance must be made for that circumstance. It is very difficult to calculate the effect of such wars as Mexico has entertained; because the mere loss of life forms a less important feature in the estimate, than the effect which is produced by the neglect of cultivation, and the consequent scarcity of subsistence, which tends both to destroy and to prevent life. In stating the present population of the viceroyalty at 10,000,000, we cannot be in any great error, as the introduction of the practice of vaccination must have had a tendency to correct a malady which previously produced dreadful ravages. In the year 1779, upwards of 9000 persons died of the small-pox in the capital alone, and its effects in other parts of the country were still more fatal. It is but justice to a most public-spirited individual to state, that, by the activity of Thomas Murphy, of an Irish family in Malaga, but who had taken up his residence in Vera Cruz, the virus was brought from the United States to that city, in 1804. The cow-pox appeared in its mildest form; it was communicated to all classes with facility, and even the Indians readily submitted to the operation, though they are usually too stupid to be very careful in adopting remedies to prevent evils not immediately before them. It has now spread through the whole extent of North and South America; and it is asserted that several of the most savage of the tribes have adopted it.

Classes of Inhabitants. The classes into which the inhabitants of New Spain are divided is an object of great importance, when sketching a view of the country; and upon this subject the diligence of Humboldt has furnished us with ample details, which are here presented to the readers in an abridged form.

Europeans. The first class is that of the Europeans, who have taken up their residence in Mexico. They are commonly there called Gachupines by the other inhabitants. They generally fill the most lucrative and honourable offices in the state, the courts of law, the boards of revenue, the church, and the army; and the greater part of the more opulent merchants are of the same class. They generally assume, even when in no official situation, nor possessed of any considerable property, a degree of importance which is by no means acceptable to those white men who are natives of the country. The Indians, however, look up to this class with great respect, and almost affection, as they see, or suppose they see, in them, protectors from the oppression which the white natives exercise towards them. The whole number of European Spaniards is not estimated at more than 100,000, the far greater part of whom are established in the capi-

tal, and the other large towns. They do not constitute more than 1-70th part of the whole population; and, in 1813, were calculated to be, to the white Americans, only as 1 to 14. They consist principally of males of mature age, the females not being more than 1 in 10 of the whole number. This greater proportion of males in the meridian of life, the stations they occupy, and the superior activity of mind which they have acquired by a European education, gives them an importance in the community very far beyond what their relative numbers alone would confer.

Creoles. The next class to the Europeans is that of the unmixed whites, natives of the country, the descendants of the first adventurers who subdued it, or of others who from time, to time, have emigrated from the European peninsula. As the Spaniards, from having so small a proportion of females, intermarry with the natives, and their offspring thus become Creoles, the disproportion between these two classes of whites is becoming greater daily. In the year 1803, they were calculated, when compared to all the other inhabitants, to be one-fifth of the whole number. They certainly multiply more rapidly than any other class, both from the greater ease of their situations, and because the mixed class, to whom we shall presently attend, are constantly falling into their ranks, and increasing their numbers. After five or six crosses between the whites and the coloured classes, the children become so nearly white, that they are easily reckoned as such; and, where doubts are entertained, the courts, upon proof being exhibited to satisfy them, decree that they are to be considered white men. It is a remarkable fact, the truth of which, however, cannot be doubted, after the pains taken by Humboldt to verify it, that the proportion of females to males is much greater among the Creoles than in any of the other gradations of Mexican population. This is clear in the villages, but not so striking as in the cities, where the proportion is 134 females to 100 males. The Creoles are possessed of almost the whole of the property in Mexico; the richest mines, the most fertile tracts of land, and the most productive plantations, are in their hands; and some of them derive revenues from their estates far exceeding those of the most opulent European nobility. The family of Valenciana, now ennobled, exclusive of the rich mine from which the title is derived, enjoyed rents amounting to more than L.90,000 per annum, whilst the produce of the mine, communibus annis, yielded a nett revenue of L.65,000. Count Regla, proprietor of the rich mine of Biscaina, built, at his own expence, two ships of the line, one of 120 guns, and presented them to the king, and lent him L.200,000, which has never been repaid, from the profits of a new seam of silver he had discovered. But the family of the Marquis of Fagoaga derived the greatest revenue, from the mine of Sombrere, that the history of mining has recorded. The nett produce, in six months, was upwards of L.800,000. Besides these and similar incomes, derived from mining, several of the Creole nobility possess estates on which no mines are worked, that are nevertheless vastly productive. The Duke of Monteleon, the lineal descendant of Cortes,

enjoys an estate, in the province of Oaxaca, worth more than £60,000 annually, though it has recently been deprived of some branches of revenue, which have diminished it one-half. Though some enormous fortunes, acquired by mining, are transmitted to the descendants of the proprietors, yet there is greater fluctuation in this than in any other species of property. Money, rapidly gained, is generally as rapidly dispersed; and as the thirst for wealth is never satisfied, those who are most successful by one mine, dissipate their riches in exploring others, whose first expense is certain and enormous, whilst the returns are frequently uncertain or trifling. It has not unfrequently happened, that the sinking of a pit, and the attendant works, has cost near £5,000,000 Sterling, and the work has been abandoned without any silver ore being discovered, or any of sufficient richness to pay the expense of separating it from the other substances that it is incorporated with. That class of Creoles who have confined themselves wholly to agricultural operations have generally secured to their families estates of increasing value, and have transmitted that uniform prosperity which neither mining nor commerce are so well fitted to secure. Though the wealth of the country is mostly in the hands of the Creoles, they are far from being all individually rich; perhaps in no class of society, in no country in the world, do the two extremes of excessive riches and excessive poverty so often meet. The pride of the Creoles, an aristocratic feeling, founded on their complexion, which gives them distinction, prevents them from pursuing those kinds of labour that are deemed degrading to gentlemen. The consequence is, that their poverty is often even greater than that of the Indians, whilst indolence, added to pride, prevents them from following any employment beyond that of the gaming table, or becoming the flatterers of the richer members of their own class. In the tremendous collisions which have recently been experienced in Mexico, the Creoles of this description have been the most energetic leaders, and have drawn into their projects many of the more rich and more successful of the white natives. Whatever of science or learning is cultivated in Mexico is almost exclusively for the benefit and improvement of this class. The University of Mexico, the Schools of Mineralogy and Chemistry, are almost solely filled by pupils from this class of society; and, as those establishments are extensive, the benefit communicated by them is gradually extending to a larger portion of the community. The greater part of the parochial, and some of the dignified clergy, are prepared for their functions from among the Creoles: some few have filled the episcopal chairs, and some who have followed the profession of law have attained to the dignity of members of the royal audience.

The Indians form the next class of the Mexican population; they are the unmixed descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants. They have generally remained on the same spots which their ancestors occupied, and have followed the occupations they pursued, with very little other change than substituting the Catholic rites in the room of the sanguinary religion that was formerly practised under their native

emperors. The districts that were most populous at the time of the conquest have, at this day, the greatest proportion of Indian population, whilst in those provinces which were then occupied by savages, in a ruder state, who were mere hunters or fishers, such as New Biscay and Durango, there are scarcely any Indians now to be found. The Indians of Mexico are of a darker colour than those of South America, though they live in a climate of lower temperature. They have more beard, and more hair on other parts of the body, than those of the southern continent. They are almost all of them free from personal deformity. The hunch back, the squinting eye, and lameness in the hands or feet, are unknown among them. Among savage tribes, this exemption from personal deformity has been attributed to their erratic vocation, in which the weak would necessarily perish in their youth; but the Indians in Mexico have been stationary for three centuries; they have pursued the common agricultural labours, and in their habits resemble the cultivators of other countries. It is then, perhaps, natural to conclude, that this more perfect form of the human figure is derived from some modification in the constitution that is peculiar to the swarthy race, since it extends also to the Africans and the Asiatics. Whatever the appearance of the moral faculties of the Indians may be at present, it is impossible to estimate them with impartiality, unless we consider some of the circumstances which accompanied their subjection. At the time of the invasion by Cortes, the whole country was divided into two classes, the aristocracy and their slaves, for such was the condition of the more numerous body. Without contending that the progress of cultivation was very great among the Indians, yet from many facts which have come to our knowledge, we may assume that civilization and knowledge, as far as they had extended, were confined to the higher classes, who preserved and transmitted their acquisitions, in arithmetic, in astronomy, in architecture, and religion, by the hieroglyphical paintings, which were understood only by them. The higher classes perished almost wholly in the contest which ended in the subjugation of their country. The priests, who were the depositaries of science, who resided in colleges around the temples, and who made the astronomical observations which regulated their calendar, were exterminated by the fanaticism of their Catholic conquerors. The Spanish monks burned the hieroglyphic paintings by which knowledge had previously been transmitted from one generation to another. The people were thus plunged in ignorance, and which became so much deeper, from the missionaries being unacquainted with their language, and being therefore unable to substitute new ideas in the room of those the propagation of which they had stopped. The Indian females of the more elevated ranks were disposed to share what property they had secured, by forming alliances with the Spaniards, rather than to commit themselves with their countrymen, thus reduced to poverty and contempt. The rest of the natives consisted only of the indigent race, who, under their aristocratic countrymen, had been kept in subjection, and were in total ignorance of what little knowledge existed in

Mexico. the country. They were either the cultivators, the lowest class of artisans, the porters who had been accustomed to be treated as beasts of burden, or those numerous beggars, who, when Cortes first visited the country, crowded the streets of all the great cities. The few of the chiefs that were left concealed their rank from the conquerors, and with no other decorations than the lowest of their tribe, were satisfied in receiving from them that voluntary homage which custom had long sanctioned.

It is impossible to judge what faculties may be developed in a nation by seeing only the remains of its lowest class, and those in a state of subjection and oppression. Humboldt has said of the Indians of Mexico, "I know no race of men who appear more destitute of imagination. When an Indian attains a certain degree of civilization, he displays a great faculty of apprehension, a judicious mind, a natural logic, and a partial disposition to subtilize or seize the finest differences in the comparison of objects. He reasons coolly and orderly, but never manifests that versatility of imagination, that glow of sentiment, and that creative and animating art, which characterize the nations of the south of Europe, and several tribes of African negroes." The Indians generally reside in their own towns and villages, where they are governed by their chiefs, who, if the laws enacted by Spain were all obeyed in her colonies, would have the rank and privileges of Castilian nobility. It is now difficult to distinguish the chief from the others of his tribe, as they affect, in their dress and mode of living, to exhibit an appearance of poverty, under which they may, with less observation from the intendants, practise oppression on those they govern. They are the collectors of the capitation tax which is paid by the Indians, which they levy most rigidly, and at the same time extort considerable sums for their own emolument. These caciques now display the same vulgarity of manners, and the same want of civilization, as the lower Indians, and appear to excel them in nothing but that chicanery by which they extort from them a portion of their gains. The caciques being recognized as nobles, might pursue the law, or enter the army, and arrive at distinction; but few have chosen these professions; many of them, however, become priests, and the females of this cast are almost the sole occupiers of the convents.

The Indians are acknowledged by the laws to be freemen; and though, when in their own towns, they are governed by their native chiefs, and are treated as in a state of pupilage, they may leave those towns, take up their abodes where there is no cacique, and dispose of their labour to the best advantage. In this manner some families have established themselves in places not under the native governors, and have acquired considerable wealth. The great check to improvement with this race is their fondness for ardent spirits, particularly one kind, called Pulque, which is distilled from the Agave, with which they intoxicate themselves habitually, if they can procure it. As the price of this spirit is very low, whenever they work free from their chiefs, they can procure sufficient by labouring a small portion of their time, to indulge

in drunkenness during the remainder. The tribute paid by the Indians is a poll-tax on all the males between the ages of ten and fifty. It has been frequently diminished in the last two hundred years, and now varies in different provinces of New Spain, amounting in some to one dollar annually, in others to nearly two. The Indians are, however, exempt from all other imposts, even the Alcavala, which every other subject of Spain pays on the sale of all productions. The capitation tax was intended to favour, not oppress the Indians, but by the knavery of their chiefs, probably in collusion with the white inhabitants, it is made an engine of considerable extortion. The Indians, however, pay ecclesiastical dues, which, in their narrow circumstances, press hard on them, but from their superstitious attachment to the showy ceremonies of the church, are borne with more cheerfulness than the tribute. The court of Spain, in order to benefit the Indians, have recently appointed an order of magistrates (Subdelegados), whose office it is to protect them. These were mostly chosen from the white natives, and the institution, instead of benefiting, appears to have depressed still more the unfortunate race, who endeavour, but generally in vain, to obtain redress from the extortions of the Subdelegados, by appeals to their priests, who, being often of their own race, have not sufficient power to protect them against the white Creoles. The Indians consider the Creoles as their oppressors, and the Europeans as their protectors; and hence the animosity between the two classes of white inhabitants becomes inflamed, whilst the poor Indians, from the scarcity of Europeans near their villages, and from not understanding their language, can scarcely even obtain that relief which, if their complaints were made known with facility, would sometimes be administered to them. Though the Indians have appeared patient under suffering, and excessively indolent, yet when their vengeful passions have been roused, they have discovered most vehement feelings, and have shown themselves capable of strenuous exertions. The same Indian who has patiently suffered himself to be whipped at the door of the church, for some ecclesiastical offence, and has meekly thanked the reverend executioner for the correction he has administered, has appeared cunning, active, impetuous, and cruel, when acting with his brethren in the late popular disturbances. The number of unmixed Indians in the whole of New Spain may be estimated at near 3,000,000; and, by every document, it is clearly proved, that they have of late rapidly increased, though not with a rapidity equal to that which the Creoles and mixed casts have exhibited.

Mixed The class of mixtures from the primitive races has, in process of time, become a very important portion of the population of New Spain. In a country where rank depends more on the complexion than on the endowments, which, in other countries, confer distinction, it is not surprising, that almost every shade has its limits defined by terms, which, though apparently only expressing the colour, do in reality express the rank of the individual. As the terms used frequently occur in all books relating to the Spanish colonies, an explana-

tion of them may not be useless. The son of a white, whether Creole or European, by an Indian female, is called Mestizo. His colour is almost a pure white, and his skin is of a peculiar transparency. The small hands and feet, and a certain obliquity of the eyes, are more frequent indications of the mixture of Indian blood than the nature of the hair. If a Mestiza marry a white man, the second generation scarcely differs in any thing from the European race. They are generally accounted of a more mild character than the mulattoes descended from whites and negresses, who are distinguished by the violence of their passions, and the singular volubility of their tongues. The issue of negroes by Indian females bear in Mexico the singular name of Chinos, or Chinese, in common language; though by the laws they are denominated Zambos. The term Zambo, however, is generally applied to the descendants of a negro and female mulatto, or a negro and a female Chinese. Another gradation, called Zambo prieto, or blackish Zambo, is the offspring of a negro and female Zamba. From the union of a white man and a mulatto woman the class of Quarterons is derived. When a female Quarteron marries a white man, the children are denominated Quinteron. The issue of a white man by a female Quinteron is considered as white, and is elevated to the highest rank. The number of these mixed casts is generally estimated to be equal to that of the pure Indian race. They are none of them in a state of slavery, but form the class from whence the lower kinds of traders, manufacturers, servants, sailors, and labourers, are furnished. They constitute the middle and lower ranks of society, in general, though some of them rise to wealth and knowledge, and thus, by connecting themselves with those a cast whiter, prepare their offspring for the highest municipal stations. The number of negroes, whether slaves or freemen, is very inconsiderable in Mexico; of the 74,000 negroes which are annually drawn from Africa for the Spanish colonies, not more than 100 are landed on the shores of Mexico, and these are generally employed in the hot countries on the coast, which are equally destructive of the lives of the Indians from the interior, and the newly imported natives of Europe. But though there are few or no negro slaves in Mexico, a species of slave kidnapping is carried on, if possible more disgraceful than that on the coast of Africa. The missionary monks make incursions into the territories of those unclaimed Indians, whom they call Indios bravos, because they have not, like those of the missions, Indios reducidos, learned to make the sign of the cross. Impelled by a mixture of fanaticism and cupidity, they surprise all they can, even old men, women, and children. The prisoners taken in this petty warfare, which is constantly carried on in the provincias internas on the frontiers of New Spain, are not indeed numerous. The tribe that is most commonly subject to these incursions is called Mecos. When seized, they are generally conveyed as prisoners to the house of correction in the capital, where their ferocity is often increased by solitude and despair. When conducted to Vera Cruz, Havana, or other warm climates, they speedily perish,

as all the savages of the mountains do when compelled to labour in the most sultry of the tropical regions. These Mecos sometimes escape from their confinement, or their masters, and commit the most barbarous cruelties before they can be subdued. The whole system is most disgraceful, and the more from religion being made the pretext for continuing it.

Notwithstanding the considerable population of Commerce. Mexico, and its extensive agriculture, its external commerce is but insignificant. This may arise in a great degree from the impolitic and unjust restrictions laid on it by the European metropolis, but in a greater degree from the varieties of the soil and climate, being such as to produce all that man can want; and from the population being so thinly planted as to render the value of the surplus production scarcely equal to the expence of conveyance from the place of its growth to any other place of consumption. On the eastern side of Mexico the whole external commerce is restricted to the ports of Vera Cruz, Campeche, Huasacualco, Tampico, and Santander; and if the restrictions did not legally exist, it would be almost impossible for any other port to trade to a considerable extent, from the shallowness of their water, and the obstructions of their bars. As the trade of Vera Cruz is, however, of exclusive importance, the consideration of that must be principally attended to. The harbour, if it deserves the name, is protected from all but northerly winds, by a cluster of islands which surround it, and is rather a strait between the main land and the island Gallega, on which the castle of St Juan de Uloa stands, than a secure port. The depth of water at the entrance is four fathoms, and at the moorings not more than four and a half. The ships are secured by having their cables fastened to ring-bolts fixed in the castle of St Juan. The tide rises but once in twenty-four hours, and varies from one to three feet in its rise. When a violent gale from the north occurs, the vessels are no longer safe, but must seek security by running to sea, and if the gale does not endure so long as to drive them on the shore of Campeche, when it is over they may return to their moorings. The nature of this port is an impediment to commerce, but none better has been found by which a connection with the interior can be maintained. The city of Vera Cruz is peculiarly unhealthy, and equally dreaded by the sailors from Europe and the natives of Mexico, who descend from the table-land to convey the goods to and from the shore. The merchants, too, among whom are some of very great capital, prefer residing at Xalapa, to breathing the pestiferous air of the hot region, and thus the climate, as well as the physical imperfections of the port, acts as an impediment to commerce. Considered as a single port, and viewing the circumstances of its position, the trade of Vera Cruz is enormous, but as the only point of commerce for a rich country of eight or ten millions of inhabitants, it is very small.

The importations consist principally of the superior kind of clothing which are required by the higher classes, of wine and brandy, of paper and iron. These amount together to about L.4,500,000 Sterling. Besides, there are imported from the other Spa-

Mexico. nish settlements in America various articles, but principally cocoa and bees-wax, to the amount of about L.350,000, thus making the whole imports somewhat less than L.5,000,000. The exports consist almost wholly of the precious metals, of cochineal, and indigo. Some sugar is exported, and it is an increasing production, which, when the new road is completed, must be very considerably augmented. Flour has also of late been exported to the islands, especially to Cuba, and this commerce must also increase as the roads are improved.

Average Value of Exportations from Vera Cruz computed in British Sterling.

To the other Settlements in America.

The commerce is carried on by about two hundred and fifty vessels of different sizes, which annually load and unload here. The greater part of the indigo, and some part of the cochineal, are the products of Guatemala, brought to Vera Cruz for the convenience of transporting to Europe. These are conveyed partly by land and partly by the river Huasacualco, and merely pass through Vera Cruz; and in estimating, the exports ought to be deducted from the amount: allowing for these one million, the whole exported productions of this vast country, independent of gold and silver, does not exceed in value in the whole year what is exported from Great Britain weekly.

Humboldt states the number of persons employed in the mines not to exceed 30,000, or one in two hundred of the whole population; the exportable produce of whose labour amounts to L.4,793,000; whilst the surplus produce of all the rest of the inhabitants does not amount to much more than one-fifth of that sum. The United States of America, with a population nearly the same as Mexico, having about as many negro slaves as New Spain has of Indians, and cultivating a less grateful soil, have been enabled to export surplus native productions to fourteen times the amount, and Great Britain, with only half as many more inhabitants, exports sixty times as much.

The commerce of Vera Cruz is under the direction of a body called the Consulado, consisting of the most eminent merchants. This body acts as a court

of justice in all commercial affairs, which they decide with promptitude and equity, without the intervention of lawyers. As a corporation they enjoy considerable wealth, which is expended in promoting the security of the port, and in improving the roads that lead to it. For these purposes a tax is levied on all imports and exports, which is expended under their direction. The other foreign trade of Mexico, if that can be called a foreign trade which is carried on with a colony of the same sovereign, is from Acapulco in the Pacific Ocean, to Manila. Acapulco is one of the best harbours in the world; it has two entrances, and is completely sheltered by the island at its mouth, which separates these entrances. The anchorage is good in from ten to twenty-five fathom water. Though the immediate vicinity of this port is a barren soil, and the situation at present unhealthy, yet in process of time it must become a place of considerable importance. There are few inhabitants except at the fair, which is held on the arrival of the ship from India, when both the town and the neighbouring villages are crowded with visitors. This whole trade is carried on by a single ship called the galleon. It is usually from 1200 to 1500 tons burden, and is commanded by an officer of the royal navy. It sails from Manila the latter end of July or beginning of August, loaded with calicoes, muslins, silks, spices, drugs, and the other valuable productions of India and China. The value of this cargo is limited by law to five hundred thousand dollars, but it generally amounts to treble that sum. The merchants of Mexico and Lima are interested in the expedition; but many of the ecclesiastical corporations invest part of their funds in the speculation. The arrival of the galleon draws to Acapulco numerous purchasers, who are frequently disappointed, by finding, on their arrival, that, by a combination among some of the great capitalists of Mexico, the whole cargo has been disposed of in a single lot. The returns from Acapulco to Manila are made almost wholly in coined silver, and amount to between one million and a million and a half of dollars. Some iron is sent, a little cochineal, oil, cocoa, and wine, but these are of small amount. Many passengers go by this annual ship to Manila, especially the missionary monks who are destined to make proselytes on the Philippine Islands. A small portion of commerce is conducted between Acapulco and the ports of Guayaquil and Lima. The vessels from the south bring Peruvian wine, oil, copper, and cocoa, and return with a few woollen goods manufactured at Queretaro, some cochineal, and a quantity of contraband East India articles. Though this passage from south to north is easily accomplished, yet in the imperfect state of the art of navigation which is practised on the coasts of the Pacific Ocean, it generally requires more weeks to return than it does days to arrive. Acapulco, in the hands of a power with capital and industry, might command the whole of these two valuable branches of the fishery from which the English and the Anglo-Americans have derived such great advantages. The sperm-whales are caught on the very coasts, and the black whales are abundant a few degrees to the northward; but though the Mexicans have constantly

before their eyes the benefits which their rivals draw from this source, not a single vessel has ever been equipped by them for either of these fisheries. The trade in furs on the north-west coast of America, and the conveyance of them to China, belongs to this part of the world, from whence traders would find advantages that would defy any competition from those who are obliged to coast the whole of North and South America on both sides the continent, before they can reach the station where their trade commences.

The view taken of the face of the country in New Spain must have shown that it is capable of producing all the fruits which can be found in the various climates and countries of the globe. In the account of its agriculture we must, however, enumerate and describe not what it is capable of producing, but what it actually does produce. Indian corn or maize is the most important to the natives of any aliment which is known. It is cultivated in Mexico from the warmest regions up to the height of 9000 feet above the level of the ocean. Its fecundity, in favourable years, in fertile soils, and in proper situations, is wonderful. Its increase in these circumstances has been ascertained to be from three to four hundred times the quantity of the seed that was sown. The general average of the increase is stated to be from 130 to 150 for one. When it returns no more than seventy for one, the cultivation is thought to be not worth continuing. It is used for food in a variety of ways; the green ear is boiled or roasted, and eaten in that state, when it is not unlike green peas. When ripe it is bruised to a flour for bread, or for thickening the soups of the inferior casts. It is used on the declivity of the mountains, above the height in which the sugar-cane will flourish, to make an ardent spirit, in the use of which the Indians indulge to great excess. By expressing the juice from the stalk a sugar is formed, but the sugar-cane having of late been much extended in its growth, has in a great measure superseded this application of the maize. Though maize is sometimes a most abundant crop, yet there are seasons when, in some districts, it almost wholly fails, and the inhabitants feel the severest want. The price of this grain regulates that of almost every other commodity in Mexico. When either a premature frost, or the absence of rain, destroys the harvest, both human beings and the domesticated animals suffer the severest misery. It is, however, a slight alleviation of their sufferings, that the scarcity seldom visits both the warmer and the colder regions in the same year; but the badness of the roads, and the great distance from one district to another, prevents the surplus of one part from relieving the distress of another to any effectual extent. Wheat is one of the presents which the old continent has conferred on the new. The first introduction of it into Mexico was in the year 1530, when a negro slave of Cortez found three or four grains of it among some of the rice. These were sown, and the produce distributed to be again sown, till it has become general. The highest and the lowest regions in Mexico are equally unfit for the cultivation of wheat. It is only grown in the southern provinces, at the elevation of 2650 to 4250 feet above the level of the

ocean. In the more northern provinces it is produced at a lower elevation. The increase of wheat, in most parts of Europe, is calculated to be about five for one on the average of different countries; but in Mexico, at the proper elevation, it generally yields from thirty to forty for one, and at Cholula, it has exceeded seventy or eighty for one. The great impediment to the cultivation of wheat and other grains of the cerealia species, is the want of moisture. Long continued droughts frequently destroy the hopes of the cultivator. In no part of the world does artificial irrigation so abundantly repay the expence that is incurred; but, owing to want of skill in conducting the rivulets which the melting of the snows form, and perhaps more to the want of capital, this important operation is either omitted or negligently executed. On some farms, where the system of irrigation is followed, they water the wheat twice; first, when it shoots up in January, and again in March, when the ear begins to be formed. By leaving the land flooded for some weeks at this latter period, the tenacious soil imbibes such a quantity of moisture, as enables it to resist the deleterious effects of the long droughts, and the burning sun which it subsequently endures. In these irrigated farms, as in Egypt, the seed is sown when the flooding commences, and this is thought to destroy many of those weeds which would be injurious to the crop. The tillering of the wheat plants in Mexico, as well as the number of grains in each ear, is most astonishing. In the best lands, and in the most favourable seasons, we have seldom seen more than six or seven shoots from each root that produced ears, and those ears average from sixty to seventy grains in each. In Zelaya, a cultivator took, at random, from a field of wheat forty plants, and Humboldt found from forty to seventy stalks from each plant. The grains were counted, and were found in different ears to be from 120 to 160. The soil of the wheat lands is generally composed of tenacious clay, mixed with basaltes and amygdaloids, which, though difficult to pulverise, such land, when brought into proper culture, is best adapted for the growth of that plant. Rye and barley, as they resist a greater degree of cold than wheat, are grown on higher elevations. The produce is not much greater than on the lands of some of the best cultivators in England. Oats are scarcely cultivated in Mexico, where, as in Spain, the horses are fed on barley, though sometimes maize is used for that purpose.

Potatoes, for which Europe is indebted to America, are much cultivated in Mexico. It is not an indigenous plant, but was transported from the mountainous parts of Peru, at a very early period after the conquest of that country. It has been generally asserted, that the potatoe is a spontaneous production of the Andes, but Humboldt and his companion, Bonpland, though diligently herborizing from the fifth degree of north to the twelfth of south latitude, found none in a wild state with nutritive roots. They, however, were led to suppose, that in the Andes of Chili they are indigenous. In Mexico, they are cultivated on the highest inhabited lands. The natives preserve them for several years, by exposing them first to the frost and then to the heat of

Mexico. the sun. They grow to a large size; some of them were found by Humboldt to measure from twelve to thirteen inches in diameter, and to be better tasted than any that are grown on our continent.

The banana is, to the inhabitants of warm regions, what grain is to the people of temperate and cold countries; but infinitely more beneficial, in as much as on the same portion of land, and with the same quantity of labour, a much greater quantity of nutritive sustenance may be produced. Within eight months after planting, the banana begins to form clusters, and these may be gathered in the tenth or eleventh month of their growth. When the stalk is cut, some other shoots from it, about two-thirds the height of the parent plant, are left standing, and they bear fruit in about three months after. Thus a plantation is perpetuated, without any other subsequent labour than that of cutting the stalks on which the fruit has ripened, and occasionally digging and dressing round the roots. The ripe fruit of the banana resembles, in appearance, the bean pod, but is far larger. When exposed to the sun, it is dried in the same manner as the figs of the south of Europe. The skin then becomes black, and emits a smell resembling that of a smoked ham, and in that state becomes an object of considerable internal traffic. Its taste is agreeable, and it is considered to be very wholesome, whilst the ripe fruit, in its crude state, is found difficult of digestion by newly arrived Europeans. The green fruit is frequently cut into slices and dried in the sun, and being thus rendered friable, is reduced to powder, and serves the purposes of flour in many culinary preparations. The facility with which this food is produced, gives it an advantage over every other alimentary substance in the same climate. Even the bread fruit, though it affords food through almost the whole year, may be destroyed by an enemy, and cannot be quickly reproduced, whilst the banana, if destroyed, may become available again for subsistence in a few months by planting suckers. The produce of the banana, as compared to that of wheat, is estimated as 133 to 1, and to potatoes as 44 to 1. The facility with which food can thus be obtained in the hot regions, necessarily creates great indolence in the inhabitants. With two days slight labour in each week, a man may gain sufficient subsistence to support a family; and yet such is the love of their native spots with the inhabitants of the mountains, that though a single frost may destroy the labour of the year, none of them will emigrate to the thinly inhabited plains, where nature showers her gifts with such profusion.

In the same temperature which favours the cultivation of the banana, the manioc, or cassava, is grown, and, like it, is abundantly productive of aliment. There are two kinds of manioc; one, called the sweet, may be eaten without injury, the other, the bitter, is a very active poison in its crude state; both are made into bread, but the latter is most generally used for that purpose. The root is first dried, it is then grated, and the juice carefully expressed, by which means a tolerably palatable and wholesome flour is produced. It is generally made into thin cakes, not unlike the oat-cakes eaten by the labourers in the west of Yorkshire. It has the

great property of keeping a very long time, and is not liable to be attacked by worms, or the other insects which, in warm climates, are so destructive of other bread. The cultivation of the manioc requires more care than the banana, and in some measure resembles that of potatoes; the slips are planted, and in seven or eight months the harvest may be gathered.

Almost every species of fruit is produced in Mexico, and the esculent vegetables of every climate are profusely scattered; some of these are indigenous, but some of the best, as the various cabbages, the turnip, the carrot, and pease, have been introduced by the European settlers, and have multiplied till they have become as abundant as the native productions. The jealousy of Spain has prevented vines and olives from being extensively cultivated; but when they are attended to, they yield abundance of fruit. The court of Spain, instigated by the commercial jealousy of its merchants and agriculturists, has always discouraged the cultivation of the vine, the olive, the mulberry, and of hemp and flax. They are generally prohibited in the colonies; but it is difficult to execute the law with rigid strictness. Whilst Humboldt was in Mexico, an order was received from Madrid, to root out all the vines in the northern part of the viceroyalty, because the merchants of Cadiz complained that the vent for their wines and brandies had diminished; but the viceroy would not obey the order, judging that, notwithstanding the great patience of the inhabitants, they would not submit to have their property laid waste, merely to gratify the cupidity of the European monopolists.

After sketching those productions which constitute the food of man, we may notice those which furnish his beverages. The most important of these is called the Maguey, a species of cactus, or opuntia. The plants are set about five feet asunder in rows. When the head of the plant throws forth the bundle of central leaves, they are cut off, and a hole is scooped in the stalk, which is covered with the leaves. In this hollow the plant seems to deposit all the juice, which, without the excision, would go to form the flowers. It is a real vegetable spring, running for two or three months, and which may be emptied twice or thrice in the day. The plants are very productive; a single one will yield 150 quarts of honey (for so in this state it is called) annually. It is placed in a situation to ferment, an operation which takes place in a few days, when it becomes fit to drink, and is called Pulque. It is said in its taste to resemble cider, but has a most disgusting smell, which, for a long time, prevents Europeans from tasting it. When accustomed to it, however, people become very fond of it, and account it healthy and nutritive. The cultivation of the plant which produces this liquor is of vast importance, both to the public revenue and to the comfort of individuals. It pays a duty on its introduction to the cities, and in the year 1793, the amount of the tax produced at the gates of the cities of Mexico, Toluca, and Puebla, amounted to near L. 200,000 Sterling. By distillation of pulque, a very intoxicating kind of brandy is produced, which, though prohibited by the laws,

in order to favour the brandies of Spain, is of very extensive consumption. The plant from which the pulque is made has other valuable purposes to which it is adapted. It is used in making ropes, and even paper; it furnishes the inhabitants with a thread, called pita; its juice is used as a caustic to wounds; and its prickles serve the Indians for needles and pins.

The soil of some parts of Mexico is admirably adapted to the cultivation of tobacco, and perhaps in no portion of the globe is the consumption of that plant greater. It has been always a subject of taxation in every part of the Spanish dominions; but, in 1764, the royal monopoly, or farming of it, was introduced to this viceroyalty. Not only is it now necessary to obtain special permission to plant tobacco, but the whole growth must be carried to the royal farm, and paid for at a price to be fixed by the head of the department. It can only be raised in a district of four or five square leagues, and revenue officers traverse the country in all directions for the purpose of rooting up all the plants that are illegally cultivated. The consequence of these impolitic regulations has naturally tended to check production; and as sufficient is not raised for the consumption, the deficiency is supplied from provinces, where the expense of obtaining it is greater.

Sugar and rum are produced in New Spain, and, as before stated, want only good means of intercourse to increase most rapidly. As the cultivation of sugar is well known, it is needless here to give a description of it; but we cannot omit the striking result of a calculation made by Humboldt, viz. that all the sugar consumed in France, amounting to about 18,000 tons, might be produced on seven leagues square of land in the equinoctial regions. Cotton is grown in Mexico, but to an extent too limited to admit of any considerable exportation; the far greater part is appropriated to domestic consumption, and the whole sent to Spain is not valued at more than L.25,000. The quantity is not sufficient to supply New Spain, and it draws what its wants require from Guatemala and New Granada. Some valuable drugs are produced in Mexico, as sarsaparilla, jalap, vanilla, snakeroot, and some others, which, however important to the healing art, are of too little consequence to the agriculture or the commerce of the country to deserve detailed notices. Of dyeing drugs indigo is produced, but in very limited quantities, and scarcely more than sufficient for the few domestic manufactures. Cochineal is, however, a product exclusively hitherto Mexican, and deserves some attention. It was certainly cultivated long before America was known to Europeans. The cultivation of cochineal is at present limited to the intendency of Oaxaca. Not more than fifty years ago, it was produced in the province of Yucatan; but on a single night, all the nopals, on which the cochineal insect lives, were cut down, and the breed consequently exterminated. The Indians assert, that this was done by the government, to increase the price of the stock on hand, and to confine the whole growth to the province of Misteca, in Oaxaca, where it is chiefly produced. The whites, on the other hand, aver that the Indians, irritated at the low price which the

merchants had fixed for cochineal, formed a combination, and destroyed at once both the insects and the plants on which they were reared. There are two species of cochineal, called Grana fina and Grana silvestre, one the wild, the other, if we may be allowed the term, the domesticated kind. The wild is found in several parts of the world, but though pains have been taken to introduce the better kind in many countries, they have hitherto been unsuccessful. The wild cochineal is covered with a cottony down, which prevents the rings on its back from being visible; the fine is distinguished by being covered with a mealy kind of white powder, which does not conceal the wrinkles on its back. Whether these two insects are of the same species is still a subject of doubt among the most acute entomologists. It is, however, certain, that they are bred on different plants, but yet it is ascertained that they couple together.

The nopal trees, on which the fine cochineal is bred, is of the cactus tribe, known by the name of the prickly tuna; but this variety has its fruit smaller, of an insipid taste, and white, instead of red. When designed to rear the cochineal insect, it is not suffered to grow to more than two feet in height. They are planted on land well cleared of weeds, and of other trees, which are usually burnt on the ground. The ground is cleaned twice in each year, and, if this be accurately executed, and the soil favourable, in the third year they become fit to rear the insects. In the months of April or May, the proprietors, called Nopaleros, purchase branches or joints of the Tuna de Castilla, with the young cochineals recently hatched upon them. These branches, though separated from their roots, preserve their moisture for several months. The Indians, who collect the young insects, keep them about three weeks, either in their huts or in caverns, where the branches to which they are attached are suspended under cover; after which they are exposed to the open air. The growth of these insects is rapid, and, in August and September, the mother cochineal have eggs not hatched, and are big with eggs a second time. Their laying continues from thirteen to fifteen days. In about four months after placing the cochineals on the nopals, the first harvest may be collected in the warmest situations, and in those a little cooler, though the insect is equally valuable, somewhat later. Much care is necessary in keeping the nopals clean, and Indian women sit down many hours to a single plant to brush them with the tail of the squirrel. The produce of the trees varies considerably; in some districts a pound of the semilla, sown in October, will yield a harvest of twelve pounds in January, and leave sufficient of the eggs to continue the produce till May, in which time they sometimes collect thirty-six pounds more. In other districts, where they are occasionally exposed to slight frosts, though great care is taken to cover the plants at night, they scarcely gather more than twelve pounds for each pound that has been sown. At the time of harvest, the insects are killed, sometimes by throwing them into boiling water, sometimes by placing them in heaps exposed to the burning sun, and sometimes in a kind of vapour bath. This last method is deemed the best,

Mexico. as it preserves the whitish powder on the body of the insect, which gives it an increased value in the estimation of the merchants at Vera Cruz and Cadiz. There are rigid laws to prevent the adulteration of this valuable commodity, but they are found to be insufficient wholly to stop the practice. It is, however, generally believed, that the mixture of other substances, where it is grown, is trifling in comparison with the additions made to it at Vera Cruz, and in the ports of Spain. The whole quantity exported from Mexico, communibus annis, was about 2,500,000 pounds, which, before the heavy duties imposed on it, both in Mexico and Spain, was not estimated at more than L.600,000. The quantity produced has greatly diminished of late years. The Indians have discovered, that other commodities pay them better for the labour of cultivating, and hence, in the last ten years, the produce is lessened nearly one half. The dyers of Europe have, however, found a substitute, so that, with the reduced supply, there has been no sensible increase in the price. Lac lake, a commodity from India, has in a great measure superseded it, both in England and France, and will probably, at no distant period, do so in other countries.

Bees-wax is an article of considerable importance in a country where the pomp of religious worship requires a great supply of wax-tapers. In the churches of the cities, and even of the Indian villages, the consumption is enormous. The indigenous bee of New Spain differs from that of Europe in having no sting, or at least none of sufficient strength to inflict the slightest wound. They are known by the name Angelitos, little angels. Their wax is abundant, but it is more difficult to bleach than that which is produced by the bee of Europe. Some of the Indians have farms of several hundred hives. Mexico does not produce sufficient wax for its own consumption, but obtains the requisite quantity from Cuba, where both the European bee and the American are carefully bred for the sake of the wax.

Besides the productions of agriculture, which have been enumerated, Mexico is abundantly supplied with animal wealth. When first discovered, the inhabitants had few or no domesticated animals. Europe has, however, furnished them with a few, which have become the rudiments of immense herds; they now cover many of the plains, and furnish to their inhabitants an ample supply of animal food. The tallow of their oxen suffices for all the manufactures of soap and candles; oil being too valuable to be used for the former of these purposes. Hides were formerly exported from Mexico to Spain, but, of late, the population and their wealth has so increased, that they are all converted into leather for their own consumption.

Sheep have never been encouraged, though the pastures are admirably adapted for their feed and propagation. The wool, which what few they have produce, is consumed in their manufactures; and as cotton cloths are better suited for the greater part of Mexico than woollen, we may attribute the neglect of sheep to that circumstance. Turkeys and ducks were originally sent to Europe from America, which, in return, received the common fowls of the Old Continent; but the common goose of Europe is not

yet to be found in any of the Spanish settlements in America.

Mexico. Having enumerated the most important agricultural productions of Mexico, we must state, that though the principal branch of industry which has contributed to enrich the country, agriculture is still by no means in that state of activity to which it is capable of arriving. The indolence natural to man, when all his positive wants can be supplied with little exertion, must act as an impediment to the progress of agriculture, as well as of all the other arts. The want of roads, canals, and navigable rivers, whilst it continues, is an insuperable bar to great improvements; and, when to these are added the restrictions imposed by an impolitic government, we are rather surprised at the progress Mexico has made, than that she has made no greater. Amidst other impediments to her improvement, the want of capital is a most important one. It is so in every country, and peculiarly so here. The capitals acquired by mining have frequently been afterwards employed to give activity to agriculture, the only purpose to which capital can be beneficially applied in a country where little or no commerce exists. The convents, and other ecclesiastical communities, possess but little landed property. Their real wealth consisting of the accumulations from tithes, and other clerical sources, has been generally dedicated to agricultural improvements. The capital of the clerical bodies, amounting to more than L.10,000,000 Sterling, is lent out, in small sums, on interest, to proprietors of land, and secured by mortgages on their estates. The benefit conferred by such a capital applied to the agriculture,—a capital gradually increasing, must be very considerable. Such was the impression of its importance on the spot, that when, under the ministry of Godoy, orders were transmitted to Mexico to send these funds to Europe, it caused general murmurs; and though the viceroy had not sufficient firmness to defer, or to demonstrate the impolicy of executing the decree, but attempted to enforce it, the difficulty was so great, that in two years only the small sum of L.250,000 could be collected. One legal evil is felt in Mexico, as it is in Spain. The greater portion of the land, especially the larger tracts of it, is granted in what is called Mayorazgos, a species of entail which prevents alienation, or the division of land into smaller allotments, such as would be suitable for the purchase and the improvement of the class of small capitalists.

There is something very striking in the reports Minerals, and Produce of the Mines. which circulate in Europe of the wealth of Mexico and Peru; but perhaps the mineral wealth, which those countries furnish, has produced less effect on them than on the nations of the Old Continent, whose activity and intelligence has been forcibly stimulated by it. The mineral riches of Peru have been to no extent applied to sustain agricultural industry, which has languished in consequence. If Peru has not declined within the last century, she has certainly not advanced much in population or industry, in productions or in civilization. In Mexico, where the riches from the mines have stimulated agriculture, the progress has been considerable, more especially within the last forty years, in every thing that

Mexico. can conduce to the greatness or the prosperity of a country.

The whole quantity of gold produced in Mexico, on an average of several years, does not amount to more than 7000 marks, or 56,000 ounces, and is worth about £200,000 Sterling. This quantity is collected, either by washing the sands in the torrents which descend from the mountains, from some mines of small produce in the intendancy of Oaxaca, or from the silver mines, in which it is found combined with that metal. The silver which the mines of Mexico distribute over the globe is by far the most important part of what has recently been put in circulation. In a series of years at the beginning of the present century, according to the books of revenue by which the tax called the fifth is paid, the mean produce has been 22,170,000 piastres; and, estimating that portion on which the duty was evaded at somewhat less than a seventh part, we may consider the total at least as 25,000,000; worth, at the average rate of silver in Europe, £5,480,000 Sterling. This quantity exceeds the whole silver that is produced from all the other parts of America, whether belonging to Spain or Portugal.

The whole of the silver mines of Mexico are in the table-land, and most of them are at a great depth from the surface. They have been calculated to amount to nearly three thousand, and are divided into 450 districts, each governed by a council of the mines. It will be easily supposed, that, of these 3000 mines, some must be very inconsiderable, and some very unproductive, when it is ascertained that half of the silver raised in New Spain is the product of only three districts, viz. Guanajuato, Catorce, and Zacatecas. In fact, it appears that the whole of the mines do not pay an adequate profit for the capital that is employed in excavating and working them. On some of these undertakings the whole sum that is embarked is totally lost, and the works are abandoned. On others the product is for a long time much less than the expenditure; but they are continued with the hope that the proprietors will be so lucky as to meet with a rich vein of ore, that will repay them by immense wealth for the expence, trouble, and anxiety they have endured. Some of the mines, however, prove so enormously lucrative, that, like any other gambling, the adventurers are encouraged to continue the game as long as their money or their credit remains.

It is of great importance to the mines of Mexico, that, unlike those of South America, they are found in regions of moderate elevation and temperature. The greater portion of the most valuable are at the height of from 6000 to 10,000 feet above the level of the ocean, and, consequently, exempt from that severity of cold which is found so injurious in Peru. In consequence of the country round the mines being thus in healthy and fruitful elevations, the great number of labourers which they require easily find subsistence; and whenever an extensive mine flourishes, the concourse of people which it collects creates a market for food, to supply which, the uncultivated fields around them are brought to afford the requisite supplies; and towns spring up, and land becomes fruitful, where a few years before

only uncultivated deserts were to be seen. It is from the healthiness of the climate in which the mines are situated, and from the fertility of the land around them, that Mexico has been enabled to extract so great a quantity of mineral wealth, rather than to the richness of the ore, or to the accessibility of the veins. The mines of silver at Obergberge, in Saxony, which are by no means excessively beneficial to the proprietors, will show how much the value of the mines of Mexico depend on the cheapness of labour, arising from the ease with which subsistence is obtained in a fruitful country. In each quintal of the Saxon ore that is extracted, they have commonly found ten ounces of silver, and in fortunate periods it has averaged fifteen ounces. The mean produce of the mine of Guanajuato is four ounces in each quintal of ore. In other mines, the produce is from two to three ounces per quintal, and in few does it exceed five. The average is calculated by Humboldt at between three and four ounces. The mines of Mexico are much deeper than those of Saxony. Valenciana has a shaft of 1680 feet from whence to bring up the ore, whereas the richest of the Saxon mines, Himmelsfürst, is only 1100 feet in depth. The fruitfulness of the country around the mines is not the sole cause of their superiority, for though, as we have seen, the ore is by no means rich, yet the breadth of the veins in which it is found is highly favourable to the facility of raising it. A mine in Saxony, where the vein is six feet in extent, is considered as a prodigy, but the (veta madre), mother vein of Guanajuato, is from 130 to 145 feet in extent. The Saxon mine has been worked in length about 700 yards, whilst the broader one in Mexico has proceeded already to double that distance. The extent and length of other veins are of the same extraordinary dimensions, and the smaller veins, which in Europe would be worked, are left in total neglect. The use of machinery to diminish animal labour is but feebly adopted, and the execution of those few machines they construct is so bad, that they are scarcely of any benefit. As the ore is brought from the mine on the backs of men, it is necessary that the descent should be made very capacious. That of the mine Valenciana is 1680 feet in perpendicular depth, and 90 feet in circumference. This pit is dug in the solid rock, it is beautifully walled, and, when completed, having cost a million dollars, may be considered one of the greatest and boldest undertakings in the history even of Mexican mining. This mine has the peculiar property of being free from water, a circumstance of vast importance, since other mines, equally rich, have been abandoned, because the proprietors have not been enabled to exclude the water, where the steam engine is not yet adopted. In the year 1760, the country around this mine was a perfect desert. M. Obregon, a Spaniard, with a vehement passion for mining, with a small capital, but with the confidence of richer men who assisted him, began to excavate. In 1766, though he had got to the depth of 260 feet, the value of the produce was less than the current expences. He then entered into partnership with a small trader, named Otero, who had some ready money. They continued to pursue

Mexico. their operations, with confidence in the result, till, in 1771, they came to masses of sulphuretted silver, mixed with native and red silver. From 1771 to 1804, the mine has constantly yielded a gross produce of L.583,000 Sterling; and in some of the most profitable years, the two proprietors have each shared the enormous sum of L.250,000. The spot where these operations commenced was occupied by a few wild goats, and in ten years it became a considerable town, with seven or eight thousand inhabitants, surrounded with cultivated and highly productive fields. As the miners have gone deeper for the ore, the expenses of raising it have been increased; but the quality has so improved, that the net profit to the proprietors has continued the same. The expense of working this mine amounts annually to L.190,000 Sterling; three-fourths of which are for wages to the labourers, and the remainder for gunpowder, steel, iron, wood, leather, and tools of various kinds. The cost of powder for blasting the rocks amounts to L.16,000 annually. The number of individuals employed is about 3000. The principal manager receives a salary of L.2500, and has under him several overseers, and nine master miners. These head men visit daily the subterranean operations, on the backs of men, who have a kind of saddle for the purpose, and are called little horses (cavalitos).

The whole of the labour of the mines is performed by freemen; no slaves or convicts are employed; and the stories circulated in Europe of criminals and smugglers being condemned to labour in the mines are totally without foundation. The labour, though voluntary, is very severe, and the people are stimulated to perform it only by being paid, not by the time occupied, but by the quantity of work that is performed. The ore is carried solely by men, who are so accustomed to this kind of labour, that they remain with a load from 240 to 370 pounds on their backs six hours at a time, during which they ascend many thousand steps in the pits, in a temperature from 71° to 77° of Fahrenheit. They proceed in files of fifty or sixty, among whom are some boys of ten or twelve years old, and some men more than sixty, each of them loaded according to his own estimation of his strength. In ascending the stairs they throw the body forward, and support themselves with a staff about a foot long. They walk in a zig-zag direction, having found by experience that their respiration is thereby less impeded. The muscular strength acquired by these men must be prodigious, since, without any burden, a person not accustomed to it, feels intolerably fatigued from ascending and descending so many thousand steps. The weight of each load is agreed on before the ascent is begun; regular registers of the quantity carried by each individual is entered by accountants; and the quantity of ore brought from the mine is easily ascertained to the satisfaction of all parties. Each digger of the ore is calculated to loosen as much from the vein as three of the porters can carry away. This operation is performed with a kind of iron crow, with a sharpened steel point, that requires perpetual repointing; for which purpose small moveable forges are placed in various parts of the mines. Though the workmen are almost naked, and are closely

Mexico. watched and carefully searched, they sometimes contrive to embezzle considerable portions of the richest minerals, by concealing them in their hair, under their arms, and other parts of the body. These thefts are often detected, and a register is kept of what is thus seized from the depredators. In the mine of Valenciana it amounted, in fourteen years, to the value of L.36,000 Sterling.

Though the mine of Valenciana has produced the most uniform profit to its owners, that of Sombrete, in the intendancy of Zaccatecas, has produced the largest profit in a short period. A portion of this mine, called (veta negra), the black vein, yielded to its proprietors, the family of the Marquis del Apartado, upwards of L.800,000 Sterling within six months; and though nothing approaching to that profit has since been gained, it still holds its rank among the mines of the first class. The mines of Catorce have been begun but recently to be excavated. This district was first explored by an accurate and adventurous miner, in 1778. He was fortunate enough, at the first trial, to hit on what is called the great vein (veta grande), and in a very short time gained more than half a million dollars by it. The great riches of the vein, however, were not developed till it had been carried 350 feet down, whence, to the depth of 550 feet, they found the metals called colorades, a mixture of silver and gold, and abundance of native silver. At that period the expense of working scarcely exceeded 80,000 dollars, whilst the value of the metals amounted to 1,200,000. This vein is of the extraordinary breadth of 130 feet. It continued highly productive till 1798, when it had reached a depth of 1574 feet; since that time the mineral has become less valuable, the metales colorades have disappeared, and pyritous and coppery minerals are found with the silver. It is, however, still worked to considerable profit, but not to the extraordinary advantage which was yielded between 1778 and 1798.

When the ore is brought to the surface, there are two modes of separating the minerals from the substances in which they are incorporated; smelting and amalgamation. The first of these processes is so familiar, as to need no description, being nearly the same as is applied to all other minerals. It is used in Mexico in not more than one-third of the mines; and if the uncertainty of obtaining sufficient mercury was removed, and the price of that commodity properly reduced, it would be practised in still fewer, especially as the wood required for firing is becoming scarce on the ridge of the Cordilleras, the most populous of the mining countries. As the scarcity of wood increases, the abolition of the process of smelting will become an object of considerable importance to the various manufactories that are carried on in that district. The progress of amalgamation depends on the quantity of mercury that can be conveyed to the mines, and as a naval war intercepts the supply, that process is necessarily greater in time of peace. In the process of amalgamation, the first step is to reduce the ore to a fine powder, which is done by well constructed mills. As the adhesion of the particles to the quicksilver depends on their fineness, this opera-

tion is more attended to than any other. The powdered ore is moistened, and in that state, called schlich, is carried to the court of amalgamation, an open space paved with hard flag stones. The floor is covered with the schlich, and levelled so as to form a heap from 60 to 90 feet in length, and about two feet in thickness. The materials for amalgamation are then added to it, and consist of muriate of soda or common salt, sulphate of iron and copper, lime and vegetable ashes. The salt is first applied, the quantity of which varies with its purity, which is very various, sometimes amounting to twenty, and sometimes to not more than four pounds, for every quintal of the mineral paste. The mineral, thus mixed with the salt, is left for several days till the whole of the latter is supposed to be dissolved and equally distributed. If the metal is then deemed too warm, or in a state of oxidation, and charged either with sulphates of iron and copper, which rapidly decompose in the air with muriate of silver, lime is added to cool the mass. But if the paste is thought too cold, as it will be, if it contains sulphate of lead or pyrites, which decompose with difficulty in humid air, sulphate of iron and copper are added, which are known to heat the composition. This is thought necessary, and it is only considered to be well prepared when a sensation of heat is felt by holding it in the hand. After leaving the mixture some days to repose, the mercury is begun to be incorporated with it. The quantity of mercury is fixed by the estimation made of the quantity of silver which the composition will yield, and they usually add to the mixture about six times the weight of quicksilver, which they expect will be produced in pure silver. Shortly after the addition of the mercury, sulphate of iron and copper are administered to it again, if too cold, or lime, if too hot. During the space of three, four, or even five months, its temperature is watched, and corrected by the application of the lime, or the sulphates, as either one or the other may be required to make the mercury act on the silver. During the whole of this part of the operation, the action is favoured, and the union increased, by stirring the materials. This is usually done, by causing twenty or thirty horses, or mules, to run round for several hours, or by setting workmen to tread the mass, who go for whole days barefooted in this metallic mud. When it is known by the appearance of the mass, of which those accustomed to the process are accurate judges, that the mercury has united with all the particles of the silver contained in the mixture, the metallic muds are thrown into large vats of wood or stone. Small mills, provided with sails, placed perpendicularly, turn round in those vats. A stream passes through them, by which the earthy and oxidated parts are carried away, whilst the mercury and the amalgam remain in the bottom of the vat. The amalgam remaining at the bottom of the vat is then, in some measure, discharged of the mercury, by pressing it through sacks. The amalgam is then moulded into a pyramidal form, and, in that state, goes through the process of distillation, by which the remainder of the mercury is evaporated, afterwards condensed, and preserved for future use. In this process, however, a loss of mer-

cury is suffered, generally from an ounce and a half to an ounce and three quarters for each ounce of silver that is produced. Our business here is to describe the process, not to point out its errors, or to show that the same effect might be produced in a less expensive, and far more expeditious manner. Among so many thousand mines, the owners of which are the most independent of mankind, there are to be found many deviations from this mode of amalgamation, but we have described that mostly followed, without examining, with chemical criticism, the effect which would be produced if the mass of schlich was placed in a court paved with iron and copper instead of stone, or if the process of stirring would be more beneficially performed with ploughs of iron or copper, than by the feet of horses, mules, or men. This has been urged in Mexico, and will probably be adopted as soon as the benefit of it is clearly understood. The method of amalgamation has been the cause of the increase of the Mexican mines. By it, all the silver in the ore may be extracted from it, and now the residuum, which, under the former process, used to be thrown away as of no value, is made to produce a quantity of silver, that amply repays the expence of collecting it.

Since this mode has been adopted, the consideration of the quantity of mercury that can be procured becomes of vast importance. The present consumption of Mexico requires a supply of 16,000 quintals, which, in time of peace, is supplied from Europe. The mine of Almaden, in Spain, would have furnished this quantity, but for an inundation, which, for want of timely attention, destroyed the works. The mine of Huancavelica, from similar carelessness, had ceased to be worked, or produced but little. In these circumstances, the court of Madrid made a contract with the Austrian government, for a supply to be furnished from the mines of Istria. The mercury from Germany either was, or was supposed to be, less pure than that of Almaden. The government of Spain have unwisely made quicksilver the subject of a royal monopoly, and an article of revenue. The price is thus raised, and the supply uncertain. Intrigues are carried on by the miners at the viceroyal court of Mexico, either to obtain a large quantity, or a greater proportion of Spanish than German quicksilver; and these smaller proprietors, who either have no access to the court, or have no means of creating an influence there, are compelled to be satisfied with a small portion, and that portion what is deemed of the inferior quality. The power of the viceroy to distribute quicksilver whenever it has been scarce, has been the means of great oppression on many miners, and a source of wealth, scandalously enormous, to the viceroy. The price at which the court of Madrid supplies its provinces with quicksilver is of vast importance, both to their and her own prosperity; whereas the revenue drawn from the monopoly is impolitic in its principle, corrupt in its practice, and small in its amount. The court has, indeed, gradually reduced the monopoly price from 82 to 41 dollars the quintal, a price, perhaps, as low as the consumers could obtain it on an average of years, if a competition was permitted. The great evil now arises from the favouritism by which the interests of the

Mexico. small proprietors are sacrificed to those of the greater. It is also no inconsiderable evil, that a supply proceeding from only one source, and that not the most unexceptionable, must be very uncertain, and often very scanty. In New Spain, the indications of mercury are very visible. Cinnabar is found in many parts, and sulphureted mercury in others; but these mines have engaged little attention, and the monopoly of the government has acted as a bar to their being effectually investigated.

Although the mines of Mexico are all of them the property of individuals, or of voluntary partnerships, yet they have a bond of union in a tribunal or corporation, which makes laws to regulate the rights created by the mining system, and (though they can only recommend) to institute improvements in the various processes. When, at the early period of the occupation of Mexico, the Spaniards first began their mining operations, a mixture of laws, some Spanish, some German, and some Flemish, emanated from the court of the Emperor Charles the Fifth. Their contradictory nature induced the proprietors of mines to form a board, which at first was a voluntary union, but has since been recognized as a legal corporation, endowed with considerable revenues, and invested with extensive authority. The board called Tribunal General de la Minería de Nueva España is composed of a director, two deputies from the provincial councils of miners, an assessor, two consultors, and a judge. They are chosen by the thirty-seven provincial councils of the miners, and have two deputies constantly residing at Madrid to protect their interests at the seat of government. They direct the studies in the College of the Mines, and select from thence students, who are sent for the purpose of communicating instruction to the chief towns in the mining districts. The influence of these students is, however, confined; they have no power to direct the most beneficial processes; and the jealousy of the miners regarding their liberty prevents the full benefit which might be derived from this diffusion of men of scientific acquirements. The institution of the tribunal, especially under the organization it has received within the last forty years, has been of great benefit to the proprietors of mines. It has preserved a degree of public spirit, disseminated the knowledge of new facts and improvements, and created a community of feeling among all those connected with the important affairs of the mines. This board is endowed with an annual income of more than L.40,000 Sterling, arising from the signorage which is divided between it and the crown, on all the gold and silver coined at the royal mints. The revenue was designed to support the School of Mines, and to be lent out to feeble proprietors, to assist their operations. It has been useful, to some extent, in both ways; but the court of Madrid, in the state of poverty which has compelled it to lay its grasp on money wherever it could be found, has extorted, under pretence of a gratuity and a loan, near L.700,000, which has absorbed more than its accumulation, and now one-half of its revenue is destined to pay the interest of money which has been borrowed to lend to the government.

The taxes levied on the mines are weighty, and

produce a revenue, which, though much evaded, is still very large. Formerly the king received a fifth of the produce of all mines, and though this tax has been reduced to half that proportion, it still retains its ancient name el quinto. The quinto is now 10 per cent.; another duty called the 1 per cent. is added; besides which, for coinage and seniorage, including the share of the tribunal of mines, 2½ per cent. is paid; making together a charge on the proprietors of 13½ per cent. on the amount of the gold or silver that is extracted. Considerable intricacy exists on this subject. When the minerals contain, as they frequently do, a mixture of gold and silver, this gives rise to endless discussions, and opens a field for oppression, for bribery, for chicane and corruption, which ultimately tends to enrich the larger proprietors in some degree, and the officers of the revenue in a much greater.

Besides the more precious metals, gold and silver, which we have thus far exclusively viewed, Mexico abounds in the other mineral riches, which equally contribute to the improvement and enjoyments of man in the social state. Iron is found in great abundance in the intendancies of Valladolid, Zaccatecas, and Guadalaxara, and especially in the more northern provinces. The increased production of these mines is always suspended by a return of peace, however much they may have yielded in the preceding periods of war. The difference in price in war and peace, both in iron and steel, is enormous. The former has sometimes risen from 20 to 240 the quintal, and the latter, which commonly in peace was sold for L.3, has been known in war to be worth L.50. During the early part of the wars occasioned by the French Revolution, the tribunal of mines advanced money to the iron miners, but the works were suspended by the peace of Amiens. When war recommenced, these mines were resumed, but very imperfectly, and the tribunal having lent its capital to the government, could offer them no assistance.

Copper is found in a native state in the intendancy of Valladolid, and some in Guanajuato. Tin is found in mines, but is principally extracted from the earth washed down in the deep ravines. A combination of these two metals, both of which were known to the ancient Mexicans, though they had not discovered iron, was used to form their tools and weapons. By an examination of one of their implements by some French chemists, it was ascertained that they had the art of tempering these two metals, so as to render them equal in effective utility to iron, or even steel. Lead is found, but the mines are very little worked. Zinc is found under the form of a brown and black blende in several veins. Antimony is produced in Catorce; arsenic, combined with sulphur, has been extracted from the minerals found in Zimapán. Neither cobalt nor manganese has yet been discovered in Mexico; and both these minerals, though the latter has been discovered in Cuba, appear to be less abundant in the equinoctial regions of America than in the temperate climates of the ancient continent. To complete our view of the minerals of New Spain, it is necessary to state, that coal mines have been discovered in several parts of the

Mexico. northern provinces, and one is slightly worked near the sources of Rio Sabina. Rock salt is also found in many parts; and, if necessary, more might be obtained. It is principally required for the process of amalgamation in the silver mines, as the Indians scarcely use it with their food, but adhere to their ancient practice of applying the Chili as the sole condiment to their food.

Revenues. New Spain, unlike the colonies of the other European nations, not only produces a revenue adequate to the expense of its own government, but a surplus to assist the mother country. Owing to the very impolitic arrangements of the government, the expenses of its collection amount to more than one-fourth of the gross sum of the revenue. The taxes levied on the mines are the most productive; these have been before described, and amount, on an average of years, to

The monopoly of tobacco, after deducting the expense of the cost of the leaf tobacco, is 594,000 dollars; and that of manufacturing it into snuff and segars, which is 1,285,000 dollars, produces 4,500,000 dollars; but this particular branch of revenue is reserved to the crown, and not mixed with the general produce of the taxes, but remitted to Spain in a distinct head of account. The alcavala, or duty on sales, from which the Indians are exempted, produces net about 3,000,000. The Indian capitation tax yields 1,300,000. The duty on the fermented liquor made from the Agava, called Pulque, produces 800,000. The Almoharifazgo, or duties on foreign trade, is 500,000. There are some other articles, which we shall presently enumerate; but in the mean time we must mention, that the king has a monopoly of fighting cocks, and of snow from the mountains, which, whimsical as it may appear, are both thereby subjected to taxation, and this tax, though trifling, is found very irritating to those who love a barbarous amusement, and to those who wish to enjoy cool liquors under a burning sun.

Net Revenue of New Spain.

Mexico. By some accounts, it appears, that, when the gross revenue of New Spain amounted to 20,000,000, the expenses of collecting it were more than 6,000,000, and, consequently, the net sum paid into the treasury was less than 14,000,000. It should, however, be remarked, that, in the expenses of collecting are included the salaries of the viceroy, of the intendants of the provinces, of the different secretaries and clerks, and the pensions of governors retired from office, and all the expenses, except those of the military kind, and those of the courts of justice. The revenue of 16,727,000 dollars first pays the military, naval, and judiciary charges; the repairs of fortifications, arsenals, hospitals, and other royal works, 5,700,000 dollars. The other settlements in America, whose revenues fall short of their expenditure, draw from the treasury of Mexico the requisite sums. Florida, Porto Rico, Cuba, Manila, and St Domingo, draw from New Spain about 3,500,000 dollars annually; and the remainder, about 7,000,000 dollars, or L. 1,700,000 Sterling, is remitted to the court of Madrid.

From the gross amount of the revenue is, however, to be deducted the salary of the Viceroy. This is the annual sum of 60,000 dollars, which, large as it appears, is of itself inadequate to the state he is compelled to assume, and the expenses he consequently incurs. He cannot move without his guards on horseback, most splendidly accoutred; he is constantly served by pages of honour; is forbidden by etiquette from permitting any but his own family to sit at table with him; and preserves constantly more of the state of a monarch than is retained by most of the sovereigns of Europe. He has few honourable and fair means of accumulating a fortune, and hence the few who have filled the office with a desire to benefit the community have retired from the dignity with their original mediocrity. On the other hand, their extensive power has been used by many to enrich themselves, and that to a degree that might satisfy cupidity itself. Some individuals have returned to Spain, after filling the office of Viceroy for a few years, with fortunes of from L. 300,000 to half a million Sterling. The distribution of mercury, the patronage of lucrative places, the dispensing rank in the militia, the recommendation of individuals to the titles of count or marquis, the opening the ports to favour the commercial speculations of individuals, and the winking at contraband transactions; all these ways may be, and often have been, used by Viceroys to the injury of the public, and the pecuniary advantage of their own families. In order to escape inquiry at home, it is necessary that he should have a most intrepid assessor with him, and a powerful party in the court of Madrid; and, with these assistants, there is no knowing the bounds to which his corruptions may be extended.

None of the officers of government have any effectual control over the Viceroy. The court of royal audience, a kind of privy council, and the supreme court of justice, may indeed protest against his acts, and transmit their protests to the Council of the Indies in Spain, but it must obey his orders,

Mexico. without creating delay, how much soever it may condemn them.

Armed Force. An army is constantly kept up in Mexico of about 10,000 regular troops, who are recruited, disciplined, and regimented, within the viceroyalty. Of these about 6000 are in Mexico proper, and the remainder on the various stations on the northern frontier, or in the provincias internas. Of the former 1000 are cavalry, 150 artillery, and the remainder infantry. The regular troops on the frontier provinces are mostly light troops, with some flying artillery. Besides these regulars, called tropas veteranas, a body of militia (milicias provinciales) of 22,200 men is constantly maintained; of these 11,000 are infantry, and the same number of cavalry. The Indians on the banks of the Rio del Norte carry on a constant war with the Spaniards. The troops on that frontier are, in consequence, in a state of perpetual activity. They are all natives of the country. They are tall and robust mountaineers, admirably mounted, and equally accustomed to the extremes of heat and cold. They are constantly under arms, generally on horseback, and perform long marches through deserts with no other provision than a little ground maize, which they mix at any brook with water, and thus subsist without difficulty. It is reported by those who have seen these troops, that it would be difficult to find in Europe any cavalry of greater activity in its movements, of greater impetuosity in battle, or capable of enduring greater privations. As these would be the first troops to be encountered, in case hostilities between the United States and Spain should lead to an invasion of New Spain by the former, they are entitled to this brief notice. Almost the whole frontier towards the United States is by nature nearly impenetrable. Arid savannas, resembling the deserts of Tartary, separate the provinces of Mexico from the United States. Beyond the 32d degree of north latitude the extent of the deserts and the nature of the soil afford security against an invading enemy. To the southward, between the Mississippi and Rio del Norte, several rivers intervene. The ground towards the shore is swampy, and these swamps filled with impenetrable thickets. On this point the two countries at present approach nearest to each other; the American post Fort Clayborn is distant from the Spanish presidio of Nacodoches only about sixty leagues.

Ecclesiastical Establishment. Although the religious establishment in Spain is most profusely endowed, that example has not been followed in Mexico to so considerable an extent. The numbers of the clergy bear a proportion nearer to the Protestant than to the Catholic countries of Europe. The Archbishop of Mexico is the metropolitan, and has under him eight bishops, the differences in whose revenues are very striking.

Bishops and their Revenues.

VOL. V. PART II.

The inequality of income seen in the bishopricks extends also to the curas or parochial clergy, some of whom have incomes amounting to 15,000 dollars, whilst others have scarcely 100. The religious houses are in many instances rich, but not from their possessions in land, so much as from their accumulations which have been improved by lending on mortgages to the proprietors of lands at high interest. The revenues of the church being derived almost solely from land, in the form of tithes, have partaken of that advance which the increase of cultivation has produced. The difference in the value of tithes taken at two following periods, will show both the increase in cultivation, and in the revenues of the church. Produce of tithes from 1771 to 1780, 13,357,157 dollars,—from 1781 to 1790, 18,353,821 dollars.

The proportion between the regular and secular clergy is not ascertained, but the whole of the religious of both orders, including nuns, monks, lay-brothers, probationers, choristers, and servants, do not exceed 14,000 persons.

The political division of New Spain is into twelve Intendancies, to which may be added three provinces and Provinces, which, though under its government, are removed to a considerable distance, and are rather dependent upon it, because no other plan of ruling them has yet been adopted, than from any design that they should ultimately be considered a part of it. The intendancies are,

After a sketch of these, the provinces of New Mexico, Old California, and New California, will be noticed.

The intendancy of Mexico merits the first consideration, on account of its being the most populous, the most rich, and as containing the capital of the kingdom, and the seat of the government. Its extent is 5927 square leagues, and its inhabitants, by the census of 1803, amounted to 1,511,800. It extends from 16° 34' to 21° 57' of north latitude. On its western side a portion of the province is washed by the South Sea from Acapulco to Zacatula, a distance of 270 miles, but no part of it approaches nearer than 35 miles to the Eastern Ocean. The intendancy being both on the high and the low land, must partake of the climate of each, but more than two-thirds of it is mountainous, and consequently cool and healthy; whilst that part which borders on the South Sea, has all the heat and insalubrity usually encountered in similar circumstances. Only the highest peak of one of its mountains enters the region of perpetual snow; and no other summit but

this of Toluca is equal in height to Mont Blanc in Switzerland. The best and most valuable portion of the intendency is the Valley of Mexico, which is called a valley, because surrounded by ridges of higher hills, but is yet 7500 feet above the level of the ocean. The drains of the hills around the plain run towards the city, in the vicinity of which they form the lakes of Tezucuco, Zumpango, San Christoval, Xochimilco, and Chalco. Tezucuco, from the muriate and carbonate of soda in the soil, is brackish; the other lakes are of good tasted water, and all are abundantly stocked with fish. These lakes have gradually been drying up, ever since the country has been occupied by the Spaniards. The great quantity of trees which have been cut down for building, whilst none have been planted, has exposed both the soil and the lakes to a greater degree of evaporation, as well by a greater surface on which the direct rays of the sun operate, as by laying them open to the influence of the drying winds from the south. Artificial means have been also applied to a most expensive, if not an effectual extent, for draining the Lake of Tezucuco, and preventing it from inundating the capital, as it has sometimes done in a most injurious degree. Operations have been carrying on for near 300 years to prevent these inundations, by turning the Lake of Zumpango into a stream, that shall empty itself by the River Tula to the Gulf of Mexico. The labour, and even the lives, of numberless Indians have been lavished on this undertaking, and the expenditure has already amounted to L.2,000,000 Sterling. It is a canal of most stupendous dimensions; but from the friable nature of the soil through which it is conducted, from frequent variations in the design, and numerous errors in the execution, it does not yet operate as an effectual security, or insure the inhabitants from these fatal inundations, by which at several periods they have been visited. The lakes in the immediate vicinity of the capital are made to supply considerable quantities of vegetables and fruits, by means of floating gardens; an invention of more importance, when the city was almost covered, and wholly surrounded with water, than at present; but which has, however, been continued by the Indian families to the present time, and furnishes the means of subsistence to many of them. These gardens (chinampas) are formed of reeds, rushes, roots, and branches of brush-wood, which are converted into a raft; on these materials is laid the black mould, which is strongly impregnated with muriate of soda. The soil is gradually purified from the salt, by frequently washing it with the water of the lake. Even the water of Tezucuco, which, though salt, is not highly saturated, has the effect of dissolving the salt in the soil, and by each washing the fertility is increased. Some of these gardens contain the cottage of the proprietor, on which he guards a group of surrounding chinampas. They are towed or pushed by long poles from one part of the lake to the other, and in process of time, as the lakes have subsided near the banks, these gardens have become fixed, and at length, by farther fall of the water, have become dry ground. Each chinampa is about 330 feet long, and 20 broad. The mould, purified by frequent irrigations, is heap-

ed to the height of three or four feet above the surface of the water. Beans, peas, capsicums, potatoes, artichokes, cauliflowers, and other vegetables, are cultivated upon them; the borders are generally ornamented with flowers, and sometimes a hedge of rose bushes is planted as a fence around them. One of the most agreeable recreations of the inhabitants of the city is taking the air in boats among these delicious floating gardens.

The city of Mexico, the most extensive, populous, City of and wealthy of any place in the western hemisphere, Mexico, is built on what was formerly a lake, and is still a marshy soil, between the two lakes of Tezucuco and Xochimilco. The centre of the city is distant from the former two miles and six furlongs, and from the latter five miles and a half. It equals in regularity of buildings, in equality of surface, and in the breadth of its streets, St Petersburg, Berlin, or the best parts of Westminster. The houses are built of stone, with flat roofs, and generally display considerable architectural taste. The public buildings are magnificent, and have been constructed at enormous expense. The most considerable of these is the Viceroyal Palace, an extensive but heavy edifice; the Cathedral, a magnificent building, whose execution occupied ninety years, and which is most profusely adorned with gold and silver images, rails and lamps of solid silver, and other decorations of the same expensive character. There are near one hundred other churches, which are for the most part ornamented and decorated with the same lavish profusion. The Royal Mint is a splendid building, and one hundred workmen are constantly employed in it. The edifice destined for the School of Mines cost in building L.125,000, and would be thought an ornament to the best parts of Paris or London. The Plaza Major is adorned with a beautiful equestrian statue of King Charles the Fourth, cast in bronze in this city by a native artist. It is considered a chef d'oeuvre of art, and its weight, which is twenty-two tons, must have employed mechanical talents of no common order to place it on the pedestal which supports it. The Treasury near the Viceroy's palace is more remarkable for having been the spot from whence have issued more than one thousand five hundred millions of dollars, than for any peculiar beauty or taste in the edifice. There are many Convents in the city, the principal one, that of the Franciscans, is of great extent, and possesses a large revenue. There are several Nunneries, the principal part of whose inhabitants are the females of the higher Indian families, and some few of the white Creoles.

Education is not totally neglected, though it is rather at a low ebb. The University is a richly endowed establishment, and has abundance of professors, canons, and the other offices which might be usefully employed. The mathematics, chemistry, and botany, are more studied than the classics, but scholastic divinity is the most favourite pursuit, in an institution whose principal design it is to qualify youth for the clerical profession. The study of mineralogy is prosecuted with ardour in the school for that science. A botanical garden is established, very richly furnished with the rarest specimens of those plants which are interesting either to commerce or medicine. An Aca-

demy for the Fine Arts, furnished with a good collection of ancient casts, has been useful in fostering a correct taste, which has been displayed in the equestrian statue already noticed, and in a beautiful sepulchral monument consecrated to Cortez by his descendant the Duke of Monteleon, which was constructed by Tolosa, and stands in the chapel of the hospital de los naturales. Instruction in the fine arts is communicated gratis, and for this purpose an annual revenue of more than L.5000 is appropriated. The building assigned to it contains a much finer assemblage of casts than is to be found in any city of Germany. Casts of the Apollo Belvedere, Laocoön, and other large statues, have been transported over the worst roads, and over higher mountains than St Gothard or St Bernard. The casts were purchased in Europe at an expense of more than L.8000, exclusive of the cost of conveyance. The Academy has laboured successfully to introduce among the artisans a taste for elegant and beautiful forms. Every evening the large rooms of the building, well lighted with Argand's lamps, are filled with hundreds of young people, some of whom are occupied in drawing from reliefs or living models, and others in copying drawings of various kinds; and in this assemblage the distinctions of rank depending on complexion seem to be waved, as the whites, the Indians, and the Mestizoes, meet on equal terms, and enjoy equal advantages of instruction.

The knowledge of chemistry is very generally diffused throughout Mexico; it is called the nueva filosofía, and the natives even in the distant provinces are accustomed to reason on its principles and results. The best work on mineralogy in the Spanish language, The Manual of Oryctognosy, according to the principles of the school of Freyberg, by M. del Rio, was published in Mexico, as well as the first translation of Lavoisier's Elements of Chemistry. The School of Mines possesses a chemical laboratory, a geological collection arranged according to the system of Werner, a physical cabinet furnished with the instruments of Ramsden, Adams, Le Noir, and Berthoud, and also models executed with great accuracy by native artisans. The Court of Spain has sedulously promoted botanical researches in each portion of its extensive transatlantic dominions. The botanical garden in Mexico exhibits specimens of these expeditions. One of the commissioners for New Spain, M. Sesse, after returning from the expedition, and arranging his collection, delivered a course of botanical lectures, which are now continued by M. Cervantes, whilst M. Echeveria describes the extraordinary beasts, birds, and fishes, which the country produces. These gentlemen are both of them natives of Mexico.

Mathematical knowledge, though not neglected, is less assiduously cultivated in the University of Mexico than in the School of Mines. The pupils of this last institution proceed farther in analysis, and are instructed in the integral and differential calculus. As the return of peace has supplied them with chronometers, sextants, and repeating circles, we may hope for accurate observations from the most remote provinces of the viceroyalty. The taste for

astronomy is of ancient date in Mexico. It had three distinguished cultivators in the last century,—Velasquez, Gama, and Alzate. They made a number of observations, especially on the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites. Alzate was the correspondent of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and though, from directing his attention to too many objects, he sometimes was led into error, he is entitled to great praise for having excited among his countrymen a taste for science, and a love of research, and for having diffused a considerable portion of physical knowledge by the Gazetta de Literatura, which, for a long series of years, he edited.

Don Joaquin Velasquez was the most able geometer that has been produced in New Spain, and all his geodetical and astronomical labours bear the stamp of the greatest accuracy. He was born in July 1732, at an obscure Indian village. His uncle, a parish priest, placed him under an Indian of Xaltocam, who was deeply versed in the Mexican history and mythology, for his education, where he acquired a knowledge of the various languages of the indigenous inhabitants, and perused their hieroglyphical writings. He was removed to the Tridentine College in Mexico, which then had a paucity of books, instruments, and able instructors. With such assistance as he had, however, he commenced the study of the mathematics, and was at length made happy by an accident, which placed in his hands the works of Bacon and Newton. From the one he imbibed a taste for astronomy, and from the other learnt the true method of philosophizing. Being then poor, he began jointly with his friend Guadalajara, since Professor of Mathematics in the Academy, to construct telescopes, quadrants, and other instruments. Having entered on the profession of the law, the fees he received as an advocate were destined to procure from England those instruments which his love of science made desirable. He continued his studies with much assiduity, and was at length appointed a professor in the University. In 1769, he was appointed to observe, in California, the transit of Venus, and to make other astronomical observations. He rectified the errors in the geographical positions of various places in that country, and availed himself of its translucent and serene atmosphere, to make several celestial observations. The Abbe Chappe, from Paris, had arrived in California during his residence there, to observe the transit of Venus, and was surprised that the Mexican astronomer was found right in having ascertained that the eclipse of the moon on the 18th of June would be visible in California, contrary to his own calculation. He made by himself a very good observation of the transit of Venus over the disk of the sun, 3d June 1769, and communicated the result the same morning to Chappe, and to the two Spanish astronomers, who were his fellow commissioners. In 1772, by a variety of observations, he fixed the latitude and longitude of the capital, and many other important places in the viceroyalty. His labours were indefatigable, and the establishment of the School of Mines, which owes its origin to him, will be a lasting monument of his zeal and ardour in the cause of science. He died in 1786, whilst director-general of the Tri-

Mexico. bunal de Minería, and invested with the title of Alcalde del Corte Honorario.

After these notices, it would be unjust not to mention Gama. Without fortune, and with a numerous family to maintain by severe and almost mechanical labour, he was unknown during his life to his fellow citizens, though they eulogised him after his death. Gama, by his own exertions, became an able and well informed astronomer. He published several memoirs on eclipses of the moon, on the satellites of Jupiter, on the almanack and chronology of the ancient Mexicans, and on the climate of New Spain; all of which discover great precision of ideas, and great accuracy of observation.—It is proper to record these instances of mental proficiency, both as preserving the memory of respectable individuals, and showing that the western hemisphere is capable of producing and developing talent.

The Acordada, a prison and house of correction, is a very fine and extensive building. It has room for more than 1200 inhabitants, many of whom are destined to reside there, for contravening the revenue laws, and for other offences. Besides the hospital of St Juan de Dios, which, being under the care of the monks, as in the other Spanish dominions, is not considered to receive the best medical treatment; there are several other hospitals, which receive the sick poor, and to which students in medicine are admitted, to acquire the knowledge of their profession. The streets of Mexico are well paved with a most excellent kind of porphyry, and it is well lighted with convex lamps. A common sewer runs through the centre of each street, which is covered with planks, and conveys the filth of the city away. A very good police is maintained, under the direction of the Cabildo, or corporation of the city. Mexico contains a population of about 140,000, of whom nearly one-half are whites, either European or Creole, the remainder Indians, Negroes, and the various mixed casts. There are in the streets, without habitation, and almost without food or work, nearly 30,000 Indians, called Guachinangos, who resemble the Lazarons of Naples, though, unlike them, they neither beg nor are tumultuous. As a small quantity of labour will enable them to indulge the propensity for drunkenness, they are often seen in the streets in a state of intoxicated insensibility, when they are carried to the guard-house, and, when recovered, set to work by the police. They are employed in cleansing the streets, and, in a day or two, having acquired sufficient to purchase as much pulque as will intoxicate them, they are soon again in the same condition, transferred to the guard-house, and from thence to the streets, and thus pass their lives in alternate drunkenness and punishment.

As Mexico is built on a marshy soil, water is to be found everywhere, by digging a few feet, but this water is not much approved by the inhabitants, except for washing. The principal supply is by means of aqueducts, which convey the water to the different parts of the city. The best is from the lake of Xochimilco, which is remarkably pure and limpid, and runs incessantly. Every kind of provision is cheaply and abundantly supplied from the surrounding districts, which are highly cultivated, and covered

with a hardy and numerous population, whose principal occupation is the labour of agriculture. The consumption of pulque within the city is enormous; a duty is collected at the gates which produces annually 600,000 dollars. The consumption of bread in Mexico is, in proportion to the population, nearly the same as in the cities of Europe. Beef is less eaten than mutton; the annual supply of oxen is only 16,000, whilst that of sheep is 273,000. Salt is made near the city. The clayey soil is impregnated with muriate of soda, which is dissolved, and, by evaporation, refined so as to fit it for culinary purposes. In regard to the supply of all necessaries, no city can be more favourably placed than Mexico, and its local position is such as to give it a commanding influence over the whole of the American continent. It can more easily communicate both with Europe and Asia than any other capital, and nothing is wanted to augment its importance to an astonishing extent, but a free commerce, more liberal institutions, and an intercourse with some port to the northward of Vera Cruz, in a more healthy climate than that city enjoys.

The next important place to Mexico in the in-tendency of that name is Queretaro, a city of 35,000 inhabitants, surrounded with mines, celebrated for its beautiful houses, its aqueducts, and some manufactures of cloth. Tezcuco contains 5000 inhabitants, who are principally employed in the manufacture of cotton goods. Chilpancingo depends on the cultivation of wheat on the fields that surround it. The number of its inhabitants is about 7000. Cuernavaca, on the southern declivity of the Cordilleras, is in a most delicious climate, and abounds in all the fruits of both climates, being only 3500 feet above the level of the sea. Cuyoacan, Tacuba, Tasco, Lerma, Toluca, Pachuca, Cadereta, and St Juan del Rio, are the only other towns in the interior. Their population increases rapidly, and though some of them have mines in their vicinity, their principal dependance is on agriculture. The two towns on the coast of the Pacific Ocean are Acapulco and Zacatula. The inhabitants of the former amount to 4000 usually; but, when the ships from Manila visit the harbour, the population is generally tripled. The granite mountains by which it is surrounded render it very sickly; though, by a large cut through them, which has created a current of air, it is rendered less noxious. Zacatula, though a good port, has but little trade; and, being to the northward, it enjoys a more healthy climate. The coast is very dangerous in the months of July and August, when tremendous hurricanes blow from the south-west; at that time, and even in September and October, the ports are difficult of access; and, even in the fine season, from October to May, impetuous winds from the north-east and north-north-east, known by the names of papagallo and tehuantepec, render the coast very hazardous. The south-west winds are attended with thunder and heavy rains, whilst the others are prevalent when the sky is clear; and what the English sailors call in the West Indies white squalls are excessively dangerous.

The intendency of Puebla contains 813,300 inhabitants, and extends over a surface of 2696 square leagues. Its frontage towards the Pacific Ocean is

Mexico. 26 leagues in length, between the intendancies of Oaxaca and Mexico; but it has neither harbour nor navigable river. The greater part of the intendancy is traversed by the Cordilleras. It extends through four degrees of latitude; and, though wholly in the torrid zone, from the great inequalities of its surface, possesses the productions and the climate of every part of the globe. The table-land, which is from 5900 to 6500 feet above the level of the sea, is eminently fruitful in wheat, maize, agave, and fruit trees. It still exhibits remarkable vestiges of the ancient Mexican civilization. The highest mountain in Mexico, Pocomatepetl, is in this province. It is volcanic, but for the last three centuries has only discharged smoke and ashes. It is 2000 feet higher than the highest peak of the Alps, and, with one exception, is the highest mountain of North America. The population of this district is principally concentrated on a small part of it; and almost the whole track, from the central table-land to the shores of the South Sea, though well adapted for the cultivation of sugar, cotton, and other tropical productions, is nearly a desert. The most favourable production of the elevated plain is wheat; for a long period it made but slow progress; but, as the road towards Vera Cruz has advanced, the cultivation of this grain has increased; and probably at no distant period it will become the granary for the supply not only of Cuba, Porto-Rico, and the Caraccas, but of the whole West India settlements. The most remarkable objects now left of the ancient Mexicans are the mounds or pyramids, one of the largest of which is to be found in this intendancy. Its sides are exactly in the direction of the parallels and the meridian. It is constructed of alternate layers of clay and bricks. Its height is only 177 feet, but its base is 1423 feet on each side. On the top of it is a church, on a platform of 45,200 square feet, in which mass is daily celebrated, by a priest of Indian extraction. This pyramid of Cholula was used, by the former inhabitants, as a temple, or rather altar, on which human victims were offered. It was in this intendancy that Cortez laid his plans for the subsequent subjugation of the whole country, and where he found those assistances without which he could have made no efforts with any prospect of success. It had been long possessed by the two powerful republics of Tlascala and Cholula, the former of an aristocratic, the latter of a democratic kind. The latter had been recently subdued, and was not reconciled to the government of Montezuma; the former still resisted, though against fearful inequality. Cortez released Cholula from its subjection, though by the exercise of gratuitous and sanguinary cruelty; and then, having made alliance with Tlascala, the population of both states were placed under his orders, and operated that great change which the empire of Anahuac experienced. The defection of Cholula, which was the centre of knowledge, and the arbiter of the customs and religion of the country, which was resorted to by pilgrims from all parts of it, and by that means diffused its feelings and ideas, was more injurious to Montezuma than the firm hostility which Tlascala maintained. When the power of both republics were united, under the orders of such a captain as Cortez, and

directed by the knowledge and valour of Europeans, it is not wonderful that the empire of Mexico perished.

A vegetable curiosity of most extraordinary kind is to be seen in Puebla: A cyprus tree, at the village of Atlixco, whose circumference is 76 feet 4 inches, and whose hollow trunk is 16 feet in diameter. It is unfortunate for the intendancy, that four-fifths of the land in it is in mortmain, or under Majorazgos. The greater part of it is the property of municipal, ecclesiastical, or charitable corporations, and cannot be alienated.

The principal city is Puebla de los Angelos, the most populous place of Spanish America, next to Mexico. It contains 70,000 inhabitants, by far the greater proportion of whom are Indians. The municipality, by ancient privilege, is wholly of the native race, no white man being eligible. It consists of a cacique and four alcaldes, under the control of an Indian governor, who is, however, under the command of a European intendant. Cholula, the next city, now contains about 16,000 inhabitants, mostly Spaniards, or the mixed casts, who are chiefly occupied in cultivation. Tlascala has fallen from its pristine state, and is now reduced to only 3500 inhabitants, not more than one-fourth of whom are of the original race. Thus, whilst Puebla de los Angelos, a town founded by Spaniards, is almost wholly occupied by Indians, this place, once the seat of the most numerous and warlike population of Mexico, has become deserted by the aborigines, and the white population predominates. Atlixco, Tehuacan, Tepeaca, and Huectotzinco, the other towns, are not populous, although the farms and mines in their vicinity maintain a considerable population.

The intendancy of Guanaxuato is the smallest in Intendancy of Guanaxuato. New Spain; but the density of its population, and its mineral wealth, more than compensate for its deficiency in extent. It extends over a surface of 911 square leagues, and contains 517,300 inhabitants, giving 586 souls to the league, a relative population greater than many countries of Europe, and much greater than in any other part of the Spanish dominions in the western hemisphere. Its rapid increase may be dated to have commenced about fifty or sixty years ago, when the rich mines of Marfel, Santa Ana, Santa Rosa, Valenciana, Rayas, and Mellado, began to yield their immense wealth. The metallic produce of these mines far exceeds the celebrated hill of Potosi, in Peru, or any other district in either continent. The riches of the mines have induced cultivation where deserts before only existed, and cities and towns have risen with astonishing celerity. No part of New Spain exceeds this in the quantity of agricultural produce, though it is all situated at a considerable elevation. Wheat and maize are beneficially cultivated, and the supply of cattle and esculent vegetables is abundant. The principal city has the same name as the intendancy, but is sometimes called Santa Fé de Guanaxuato. It is of ancient incorporation, but of recent growth, and now contains within the town 41,000 inhabitants, while 30,000 live in the mines and farms that immediately surround it. Some of the residences of the proprietors of the mines are of a degree of mag-

nificence and taste, which would be deemed ornamental in the finest cities of Europe. The hall of the Cabildo, the churches, and convents, are beautiful, and give to this recent city an air of grandeur and prosperity. The city of Salamanca is finely situated on the banks of the river El Grande, which runs into the lake of Chapala. Celayo and Salvatierra are cities of no great extent, but rapidly increasing, as are the towns of San Miguel, San Felipe, and Leon; all of which are of modern foundation since the great influx of wealth from the mines.

The intendancy of Valladolid is 3446 square leagues in extent, and contains 376,500 inhabitants. It has a line of coast on the South Sea, about 38 leagues in length, but has no port or navigable river on the whole of its border. It is situated on the western declivity of the Cordilleras, intersected with hills and delightful valleys, which exhibit the unusual spectacle in the torrid zone of verdant and well watered meadows. In descending to the coast, the climate is hot and the soil arid. The most singular feature in this intendancy is the Volcano de Xorullo, or Juruyo, which was formed in the night of the 20th September 1759. The catastrophe in which this mountain rose in one night, to a great height, and totally changed the face of a great extent of country, is one of the most singular of which we have any recent and accurate accounts. Till the period of the combustion, the extent of ground between two brooks, called the San Pedro and the Cuitamba, was occupied by plantations of indigo and sugar canes. These two streams were bounded by basaltic mountains, the structure of which indicated that the district, at some remote period, had been subject to great volcanic convulsions. Fields, beautifully irrigated, formed the plantation of Xorullo, one of the richest and most prosperous in the whole province. In the month of June 1759, subterranean rumbling noises were heard, and were attended with shocks of earthquakes, that, during an interval of fifty or sixty days, created terror in the cultivators. In the beginning of September, tranquillity appeared to be restored. The roaring had ceased, and the earthquakes were suspended. In the night between the 28th and 29th, the horrid rumbling recommenced, and with increased loudness, so as to terrify the inhabitants, who fled to the adjacent mountains. During the night, a surface of ground, from three to four leagues in extent, swelled up like an enormous bladder, in a convex form, whose elevation, in the centre, was 520 feet above the level of the ground from which it rose. Those who saw the awful spectacle assert that flames issued forth for an extent of more than half a square league; that fragments of burning rocks were thrown to prodigious heights; and that, through a cloud of thick ashes, when illumined by the volcanic fire, the softened surface of the earth was seen to lift itself up like the waves of the sea. The two rivulets ran into the fiery chasm, and the decomposition of their waters contributed to invigorate the flames. Eruptions of mud, and especially strata of clay and basaltes, in concentrical layers, indicated that subterranean water had a great share in producing this extraordinary convulsion. Thousands of small cones, from six to ten feet

in height, were projected from the surface, which became a kind of funnel, from which a thick vapour ascends to the height of from forty to sixty feet. In many of them a subterranean noise appeared to indicate the proximity of some fluid in a state of ebullition. In the midst of these cones, or, as they are named by the inhabitants, ovens (hornitos), six large masses were protruded to the height of from 1300 to 1650 feet above the old level of the plain; the most elevated of which now forms the volcano of Xorullo. It is constantly burning, and has thrown up from its north side an immense heap of scorified and basaltic lavas, containing fragments of primitive rocks. The great eruptions of the central volcano continued till February of the following year, when they began gradually to diminish. The country has ever since obtained the very appropriate name of Malpays. The terrified inhabitants, who had retired to a distance of between seven and eight leagues, became gradually reconciled to the spectacle, and having returned to their cottages, beheld, with admiration, the streams of fire issuing from a vast number of great and small apertures. Although the subterranean noises now appear by no means violent, and the Malpays, and even the great volcano, begin to be covered with vegetables, yet the ambient air is so heated by the action of the small ovens, that the thermometer, in the shade, at a great distance from the surface, rose to 109. The traveller is still shown the two brooks, whose clear streams formerly watered the plantation, bursting forth at a distance of more than a mile from the spot where they were enveloped in the chasm created by the volcano. These streams, if the same, are now united in one, and are of the temperature of 126. There is near them a sulphurous stream, more than 22 feet in breadth, the water of which is most highly impregnated with that mineral. The belief among the more rude Indians in the vicinity is, that the convulsion was a miracle wrought by some Capuchin friars, who had preached, but without effect, to their tribes; that being thus rejected, they poured forth imprecations, and declared that the plantation should be first destroyed by earthquakes and volcanos; and that when the latter were burnt out, the climate would gradually cool, till, from being perpetually buried in frost and snow, it would become totally uninhabitable. As the first part of the prediction has been fulfilled, and as the gradual coolness has been increasing, they live under a strong impression that the latter will also be accomplished, thus expecting an impossibility, because a natural, though unusual, operation of nature has taken place. The industry of the monks, in making converts among the Indians, is very great; many of them are constantly employed in the work, and their anxiety to succeed in it is such, that they seldom fail to avail themselves of any natural occurrence that can be made subservient to their views.

The Indians, who inhabit this province, are of three different races, and each retains its original language;—the Tarascos, who were famed in the sixteenth century for their industry, and the advancement they had made in the mechanical arts; the Oromites, who are remarked for their low degree of civilization, and their peculiarly gut-

Mexico. tural language, which was noticed by Cortez at the first discovery; and the Chichimecs, who, like the Tlascals, have preserved the ancient language spoken at the Aztec court. The whole of the north part of the intendancy is inhabited by these tribes, who preserve their ancient separation, if not their enmity. They are, however, all Christians, and the only white man seen in their villages is sometimes a priest, though even the ecclesiastics are more frequently of the Indian or Mestizo race. The benefices are so poor, that it is with difficulty any of the clergy can be induced to reside in a country where no Spanish is spoken, and which on the sea coast is so unhealthy, that the priests frequently die of malignant fevers within six or eight months after their induction. The population of this intendancy decreased very much in the year 1786 and 1790, when the country, from long drought, was visited by scarcity approaching to famine. The suffering of the inhabitants would have been much greater, but for the humanity of the bishop of the diocese; who, at a loss of more than 50,000 dollars to himself, procured maize from the neighbouring provinces to feed the poor.

The principal city, Valladolid de Mechoacan, contains about 18,000 inhabitants; it is the see of a bishop, and the residence of the intendant. The town-house, churches, and convents, are handsome, and the public walk, the Alameda, celebrated for its beauty. Pascuaro, the next city, is finely situated on the border of a lake of the same name. It contains 6000 inhabitants, mostly Indians. A former bishop of Valladolid is interred here, Vasco de Quiroga, who was distinguished by his humanity to the Indians, and by the skill with which he inspired them with the practice of industry: he died in 1556, but his memory is preserved by the rude tribes, who still call him their father. The only town besides is Huitzitzilla, with 2500 inhabitants. Some of the mines are very valuable, particularly those of Zitaquaro and Real del Oro.

Intendancy of Guad. laxara. Guadaluaxara is an intendancy extending over a surface of 9612 square leagues, and maintaining a population of 630,500 souls. It stretches 123 leagues along the shores of the Pacific Ocean, where it has the single port of St Blas. It is crossed from east to west by the Santiago, a considerable river, which rises on the lake Chapala, and empties itself into the Pacific Ocean, near St Blas. It is a most important means of communication between the interior of the country and the sea, and though now only used for floating timber to the naval arsenal, is capable of being made the route for the productions of Salamanca, Guanaxuato, and Zelaya, to the ocean. The volcano of Colima in this province rises to the height of 9200 feet above the sea; but the plain on which it stands being 5500, its appearance is not striking. No eruption of it is recorded, but it frequently throws up smoke and ashes. It is the most westerly of all the volcanos of New Spain. This intendancy is both an agricultural and manufacturing district: according to the statement made by the intendant, the value of its annual agricultural produce amounted to 2,599,000 dollars, and that of its manufactures to 3,302,000. Maize, wheat, and cotton, are the

principal productions of the soil, whilst the manufactories furnish cloth from cotton and from wool, both for the inhabitants of this district and some of the surrounding ones. One of the most productive mines of New Spain, that of Balanos, is within this intendancy, besides which are Asientos de Ibarra, Copala, Guichichila, and several smaller ones. The city of Guadaluaxara is the residence of the bishop and of the intendant; and the highest court of justice, the Royal Audience, has its sessions in it. It is a corporation with a cabildo. The edifices are some of them very magnificent. The population in 1793, according to Humboldt, was 19,500; but by an account now before us taken in 1809, it appears to amount to more than 40,000. The only other city, St Blas, if it were not unhealthy, would at some time become a port of vast importance. It is the best harbour on the western shore of Mexico. It has an inland communication by means of the river St Iago. The country about it is well covered with excellent ship timber. Pitch, tar, and turpentine, are to be procured with facility, and hemp and flax grow as far as they are permitted almost spontaneously. It is already the principal arsenal for building ships, and the chief place where the few ships of war, belonging to Spain, in those seas are refitted. It was in the contemplation of the government to concentrate their naval affairs by conveying the stores of St Blas to Acapulco, but the superior advantages of the former port has induced the continuance of it as an arsenal.

Intendancy of Zacatecas. The intendancy of Zacatecas contains 2350 square leagues, and a population of 153,000 inhabitants. Its dependance is almost wholly on the rich mines which it contains. The table-land, which forms the centre of the district, is composed of sienite, on which strata of primitive schistus and schistous chlorites repose. The schist forms the base of the mountains of grauwacke and trappish porphyry. There are nine small lakes to the north of the capital, which abound in muriate and carbonate of soda, especially the latter. This carbonate is of great use in dissolving the muriates and the sulphurets of silver. The central table-land of Asia does not abound in soda more than this part of Mexico. Some of the richest silver mines are worked in this province, where was discovered the veta negra de Sombrete, the richest seam that was ever discovered in either hemisphere. Zacatecas, the chief place, contains a population of 33,000 inhabitants. Sombrete and Fresnillo are large well-inhabited places, and increasing as the productiveness of the mines which they surround increases.

Intendancy of Oaxaca. The intendancy of Oaxaca is one of the richest in New Spain; its extent is 4447 square leagues, and its inhabitants amount to 535,000. Its southern boundary extends along the coast of the Pacific Ocean from Guatemala to the province Puebla, a distance of 110 leagues. Oaxaca is one of the most delightful countries in this quarter of the globe. The beauty and salubrity of the climate, the fertility of the soil, and the variety and richness of its productions, all minister to the prosperity of the inhabitants, who have, in consequence, from the most remote period that we are acquainted with, been the

most advanced in civilization of any portion of New Spain. The mountain soil of this province forms a singular contrast with that of the adjoining districts. In place of the strata of basaltes, and amygdaloid, and porphyry, with grunstein base, which cover the other regions, only granite and gneiss are found in these mountains. The height of these granite summits are not ascertained, but the Cerro de Senpualtepec is said to be the loftiest, and from one of its heights both the seas are to be seen. This intendancy comprehends two mountainous districts, called Mixteca and Tzapoteca. The Indians of the former, who principally cultivate the nopal for the cochineal insect, are an active, intelligent, and industrious race of people. Some ancient cemeteries which exist, though in ruins, show that the inhabitants of this district, before it was known to Europe, had made more progress than the other natives of this continent. The palace of Mitla was appropriated as a retirement for the sovereign, to lament for the loss of a wife, a mother, or a son. It forms three edifices, the principal of which is best preserved, and is 130 feet in length. A staircase formed in a pit leads to a subterranean apartment, 88 feet by 26. This gloomy place is covered with Grecques, the same as the exterior walls of the palace. The most material distinction between this and other Mexican edifices is, its having pillars of porphyry to support the ceiling; they are 17 feet high, and the shaft is a single piece. The similarity of the apartments to those found in Upper Egypt is very striking. This province gives the title of marquis to the family of Cortez, and the majorazgo belonging to them consists of four towns and forty-nine villages, which contain 17,000 inhabitants. The principal city, Oaxaca, but sometimes called Antequera, contains about 24,000 inhabitants. It is the residence of the bishop, of the intendant, and the court of justice. It is well built, and was, till the late disturbances, when the insurgents entered and plundered it, a most rapidly improving place. San Antonia de los Cues is a populous place, and carries on a considerable trade. The only port is Teguan-tepeque, at the mouth of a river, whose bar impedes the entrance of large vessels. It is, however, the channel by which the indigo and other valuable products of Guatemala pass into the river Huascalco, in their way to the European markets. The most considerable mines are Villalta, Zolga, Yxte-pexi, and Totomoslá, but their produce is inconsiderable, when compared with the richer veins to the northward.

Merida is an intendancy of New Spain, though it comprises only the peninsula of Yucatan, which formed no part of the ancient empire of Mexico, and is now in part inhabited by a few straggling British subjects, and a numerous body of unreclaimed Indians. Its extent is 5977 square leagues, and its population is estimated at 465,000, the far greater part of whom live an erratic life. Cape Catoche was once probably joined to Cape Antonio, in the Island of Cuba; but the period when the impetuous force of the ocean burst the barrier, and formed the Gulf of Mexico, must be more a matter of conjecture than either of history or of calculation. The

peninsula has a ridge of high mountains in the centre, which divides the part to which the English have access from the Spanish inhabitants. The western side of this range alone is, strictly speaking, under the Viceroy of Mexico, who has issued orders for the Indians under the authority of Spain to be removed to such a distance as shall prevent their assisting in contraband trade. The soil of this peninsula, when cultivated, is fertile, and yields the subsistence and subjects of commerce which a tropical climate usually affords. Its hills abound with cattle, whose hides and tallow constitute part of the exports. The climate, especially in the hills in the centre, is salubrious, and refreshed by the sea breezes. Campeche is the principal place of commerce, but the whole shore is so flat, that vessels cannot approach within six or seven miles with safety. Its inhabitants are estimated at 7000 or 8000. The town of Merida is on an arid plain, forty miles from the coast. A small river passes it, and enters the sea at a part which can scarcely admit the entrance of large boats; what little commerce it enjoys is by this channel. Its exports consist principally of honey, wax, and an inferior kind of cotton; but the latter article, owing to the want of machines for clearing the seed from the wool, is of very little value. The population of the town is 10,000 souls. Besides these, there is the small town of Valladolid, with about 2500 inhabitants. The rest of the population is scattered in small villages, or spread in wandering tribes. The wood, which takes its name from one of the towns of this province (Campeche), is found in great abundance. It is suffered to dry for one year after it is cut down, when it is usually carried to Vera Cruz or Havana, to be conveyed to Europe. The expences of its conveyance are so great, in proportion to its value, that it is scarcely worth converting into an article of commerce. There are no mines of any description in this intendancy.

The intendancy of Vera Cruz is a narrow strip of land extending along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, from the river Baraderas or de los Largatos, to the great river, or rather the estuary of Panuco. Its length is 210 leagues, whilst its breadth is only from 25 to 28 leagues. Its whole surface is an extent of 4140 square leagues, and its population no more than 156,000. Having already, under the division of commerce, taken a view of its most important depot, the city of Vera Cruz, the capital of this intendancy, we pass on to the description of its interior. There is no region of even the new continent where the change and variety of climate and production is so abrupt as in this province. The high and snowy mountains approach almost to the shore, where the intense heat of a vertical sun is felt with the fullest fervour. The western side of this district forms the acclivity of the table-land of Mexico, and the ascent is so sudden, that, in the short space of a single day, the traveller from the plain above may, from the regions of eternal frost and snow, reach the level ground on the shore of the ocean, where the most suffocating heats prevail. In ascending to the upper plain, the increase of elevation is distinctly marked by the different trees, and other vegetables, and by the modes of cultivation which the peasantry pur-

Mexico. sue. The growth of the oak points out the limit which nature has assigned to the dreadful fever of the low country. When the region where that tree grows is once gained, the apprehension of infection from the contagious disease of the warm climate may be at rest. In ascending to Xalapa, 4300 feet, the forests of liquid-amber announce that the traveller is in the region where the clouds from the ocean come in contact with the basaltic summits of the Cordilleras. A little higher, the banana tree, whose fruit induces indolence in the native of the hot climates, ceases to be productive, and thus compels the peasant to a more laborious kind of cultivation. At the height of San Miguel, pine trees begin to mingle among the oaks, and gradually increase to Perote, at the elevation of 7700 feet, where the eye of the traveller is first regaled by the spectacle of extensive fields of wheat. A thousand feet higher the climate forbids the growth of the oak, and only pines are to be seen, which clothe the mountains till they penetrate the regions of perpetual snow. The coast of Vera Cruz is very thinly inhabited; this may in some measure be owing to the insalubrity of its climate, though no more can be owing to that cause there, than in the other tropical regions; but as the coast is the frontier against a naval enemy, the only one that New Spain could dread, the military service in the militia demanded from the inhabitants was much greater than in the cooler regions, where, from the climate, it is much less oppressive; and therefore many fly from the coast, to escape the forced service in the corps of lancers and cavalry. Though the most fertile spot on the globe, yet Vera Cruz has frequently been exposed to a want of provisions, from the scarcity of labourers in its vicinity to execute the small portion of work which its productiveness demands.

In this province are two mountains of great height. The volcano of Orixaba is 17,300 feet above the level of the sea; it resembles a truncated cone, and its crater, which inclines towards the south-east, is visible at a prodigious distance. Its upper part is always covered with snow. Smoke constantly ascends from it, but it has not terrified the inhabitants by an eruption within any known period. The Coffer of Perote, another mountain, and which, with Orixaba, serves as a guide to mariners in approaching the coast, is 13,500 in height. On its summit is a square mass, resembling a large chest, from which its name has been obtained. No crater is to be seen upon it, nor are any eruptions recorded, but currents of lava, near some villages in its vicinity, appear to indicate that at some distant period there must have been a lateral explosion. A volcano at Tuxtla, to the southward of Vera Cruz, has had frequent eruptions within recent periods; one, in March 1793, was very considerable, the houses in Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, and Perote, were covered with ashes, and at the latter place, though a distance of 180 miles, the subterranean noises which were heard there at the same time resembled heavy discharges of artillery. There are no mines at present worked in this intendancy; some were formerly explored, but, after being ascertained to be too poor to be profitable, they have been abandoned. Some medicinal productions, of more value to

the physician than to the merchant, are collected in this intendancy. The root of the Convolvulus jalapae is found near the city, from which it has received its name. Sarsaparilla is also found in plenty in the humid and shady ravines of the Cordilleras. The royal monopoly of tobacco is supplied with part of its consumption from the vicinity of Cordova, and creates a large portion of that productive branch of revenue. The city of Vera Cruz is the capital of the intendancy, and to what has been already noticed concerning it, it will be sufficient to add that its population is 16,000 inhabitants, and that the public buildings and houses are all built of materials drawn from the bottom of the ocean; a species of madrepones and petchstein, as there is neither stone nor clay in the neighbourhood. Water is very scarce and brackish, so that most houses are provided with tanks for holding the rain, which falls in most copious showers, or rather torrents, at some seasons.

Xalapa, or Jalapa, is a city rather more than half the height of the central table-land. The climate being good, it is the resort of the richer inhabitants of Vera Cruz, when their commercial affairs do not demand their personal attendance. The sky is serene and beautiful in summer, but from December to February it wears a most melancholy aspect. When the north winds blow at Vera Cruz, the inhabitants of Xalapa are enveloped in a thick fog, the thermometer falls to 60 or 61, and for several weeks the sun and stars are utterly invisible. In the other parts of the year, when the heats on the coast are intolerable, and the sufferings from insects highly annoying, the residents at Xalapa enjoy all the delights that the most voluptuous climate can afford. The buildings in this place are spacious, and partake of that character of magnificence which is prevalent in New Spain. Some attention to study and to the fine arts is paid; and there is a School of Drawing, in which children of the poorer artisans are instructed, at the expence of the richer inhabitants. The population amounts to about 14,000, the greater part of whom are whites.

Perote is a fortress rather than a town, and in it the treasure destined for Europe is usually lodged, to wait a secure means of conveyance. In time of war, it is said to have contained at one time more than 40,000,000 of dollars, waiting an opportunity of being conveyed to Cadiz. It is nearly 8000 feet above the level of the sea, and in a country peculiarly barren.

Cordova is a large town, in a good climate on the eastern declivity of the Pic de Orixaba, whose inhabitants, about 6000, are mostly employed in the cultivation of tobacco; as are those of Orixaba, another town of nearly the same population, a little to the eastward of Cordova. The inhabitants of these two places had a contest of many years continuance, respecting the course of the new road from Vera Cruz to Mexico. After much intrigue, many law-suits, and much bribery, a road was begun, and is now proceeding from Perote to Xalapa, and from thence to the bottom of the mountains near Vera Cruz, which, when completed, will have a powerful effect on the future condition of the whole viceroyalty. There are many smaller towns on the more elevated

parts of the province, which is indeed by far the best peopled division of it; but in the border on the sea-coast there are merely plantations, haciendas or grazing tracts, ranchos, with none but the necessary labourers which the two species of establishments require.

San Luis Potosi is the largest intendancy in New Spain, and, like the other northern parts of the viceroyalty, very thinly peopled. Its extent is 27,260 square leagues, and its population 335,000. Though this extent is mentioned, it is by no means to be relied upon, for the limits to the north have never been ascertained with any tolerable accuracy, and the greater part has never been explored by any but the native Indians. A considerable district lying between the rivers Conchos and Bravo del Norte, called Bolson de Mapimi, extending over 3000 leagues, is occupied by tribes of Indians called Apaches, who make perpetual incursions on the Spanish settlers in Coahuila and New Biscay. San Luis Potosi, from its southern extremity to the ridge of mountains which separate it from the provincias internas (which will be presently noticed), presents a regular declivity; beginning at the table-land of Mexico, and with a gentle descent terminating near Saltillo, where the only opening in that range of mountains is to be found. The southern part is a country whose mines are very productive, and in the northern they are supposed to be equally rich, but the want of capital and the thinness of the population have hitherto prevented them from being explored. The southern part is fertile and cool, with the exception of some of the deepest valleys and the highest mountains. Wheat is grown sufficient for the higher class of inhabitants, but the poorer classes use bread made from maize. The whole country is well supplied with animal food, either from itself or from the provincias internas. As there are no settlements between the river Sabina and the mountains which divide it from Texas, this province contains 1500 square leagues without habitations, and most parts of the district present nothing but impassable marshes. Mr Lafond, a French engineer who passed through this country, states, that eight leagues north of Chichi there are hills which abound in coal, from which subterranean noises resembling discharges of artillery are frequently heard. It occupies ten or twelve weeks to travel from the city of Mexico to the frontiers of this intendancy, and the greater number of nights, from want of habitations, must be passed in the open air. The city of San Luis, the capital, contains a population of 12,000 inhabitants; being the seat of the board of revenue for the provincias internas, it has considerable intercourse with them. The mines of Catorce have only been worked since 1778, but they now hold the second or third rank among those of New Spain. These mines are in rocks easily worked, and requiring but a small supply of gunpowder to blast them. They have, too, the great advantage of being free from water almost altogether, so as to need no costly machines to discharge it. The town of Catorce, situated near the mines, and depending on them, has risen with great rapidity from an obscure Indian village, to be a large and flourishing place, and though not yet dignified with the title of city, it

is much larger than many other places so incorporated.

Though the intendancy of San Luis Potosi extends over the four provinces of Leon, Santander, Cohahuila, and Texas, those divisions are no part of the viceroyalty of New Spain, but are under a chief independent of its control, though, in affairs of revenue, they are accountable to the intendant of St. Luis, and in law processes their last appeal is to the court of royal audience in the city of Mexico. As these provinces are but little known to Europe, were but slightly noticed by Humboldt, and yet promise at no distant period, both from their natural properties, and from their local situation, as the frontier towards the United States, to be subjects of considerable interest, we shall describe them according to the Memorial which their delegate to the Cortez at Cadiz, Don Miguel Ramos de Arispe, presented to that body.

These four provinces occupy two hundred and twenty leagues of shore on the Gulf of Mexico. Though none of the ports are good, and all have bars at their mouths, yet they are capable of considerable improvement, and probably would be improved, if greater freedom of commerce were allowed them. The harbour at the mouth of Rio Bravo del Norte, called El Brazo de Santiago, is the best on the coast. It has never less than thirteen feet water at its entrance, and as the tide sometimes rises three feet, it would admit vessels, properly adapted for it, of 400 tons. It is defended from the prevailing storms by the island Malahuitas. The river is already navigable forty leagues upwards, and might be made so, with very little exertion, thirty leagues higher. The port of San Barnardo, in lat. 27° 30', was, indeed, in 1808, decreed to be opened for admitting vessels either from Spain or the colonies, but up to March 1812, only three small sloops had entered it, and owing to some jealousies of the officers of government, the restrictions on commerce were such as to forbid the hopes of increase. El Soto de la Marina, a port now closed by authority, in 24° 29' of north latitude, if it could be opened, would be improved by its own inhabitants, who are anxious to be allowed to do so. These four extensive provinces are separated from the other dominions of Spain by ridges of mountains which are impassable in most parts by horses, and totally so by wheel carriages, except at the single chasm where the city of Saltillo is built, and which has, in consequence, become the focus of all communication. Their intercourse with each other is maintained with great facility, both by means of their rivers and their extensive and rich plains; and they can exchange their different productions without encountering those difficulties which almost exclude communication with New Spain. Coahuila, the largest of the provinces, is the southernmost, and divided from San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas by the Cordilleras before noticed. It is 200 leagues in length, and 100 in breadth. Its situation is generally elevated, and being well sheltered from the north-west winds, its climate is generally healthy, not too hot even in the summer, nor severely cold in the winter months. Its surface is most luxuriantly irrigated by the numberless springs which burst from its hills, and

produce rivulets that contribute to increase the waters of the great river Bravo del Norte. The water of these springs is generally pure, from mineral solutions, and is pleasing to the taste, but some are impregnated with sulphur, and are used for medicinal purposes. Its pastures are clothed with rich natural grasses, and admirably calculated for breeding, rearing, and fattening cattle; and its forests furnish abundance of wood, well calculated for every kind of construction. There are mines of salt-petre, copper, alum, lead, tin, and copper, besides some silver in Santa Rosa, and gold in Sacramento. These mineral treasures, for want of population and capital, have been rather ascertained than explored. The inhabitants are almost wholly of the white race, or with such slight mixture of the Indian blood, as to make no distinction in colour worthy of notice. The native tribes within the province have been extinguished; but, on the borders, they have the warlike nations of the Lipanes and Cumanches to the north, and the Apaches and Mescaleros to the west. The principal town, Saltillo, contains 6000 inhabitants; it is the seat of the fiscal branch of the government for the four provinces. An annual fair is held at it, to which great crowds resort, and exchange their produce for the few articles of European luxury, which their high prices and the poverty of the inhabitants enable them to obtain. Monclova is deemed the capital of the province, because it is the head-quarters of the military; but the governor-general resides at Chihecahua, in New Biscay. He is independent of the viceroy of Mexico, and has equal power throughout the four provinces, except in matters of finance, and in legal decisions. Cohauila contained betwixt 70,000 and 80,000 inhabitants in 1811. They are solely occupied in agriculture, and produce excellent wheat and barley, and great variety of fruits. The vines cultivated here make wine of very excellent flavour, and considerable strength, and, if admitted into New Spain, would be a valuable source of riches. The province of Texas began to be peopled from Cohauila, in the middle of the last century. San Antonio de Bejar, the principal place, is called a city, as are Espiritu Santo and Nacodoches; but all have a very small population. In each town, a troop of cavalry is established; and, since 1806, detachments have been posted on the rivers Guadalupe and Trinidad, and in the port of Arcotaisas. On account of the pretensions of the government of the United States, a body of militia of 700 men has been kept constantly in active service in this province, and they, with their families, have contributed to extend cultivation and to increase the population. The plains in this province are cultivated with indigo, coffee, and sugar, but to very trifling extent; and they produce zasafras, snake-root, and some other drugs. Mines are said to exist, but none are worked.

The province of Leon, or, as it is pompously designated by the Spaniards, the New Kingdom of Leon, is one hundred leagues in length, and fifty in breadth, all in a low and hot climate, except the town of Rio Blanco, and the Valley de Labradores, which are beyond the mountains, and with difficulty approached from the other parts of the province. Its

soil is generally fruitful, and abounds in excellent pastures, on which numerous cattle are bred. It produces abundance of corn and fruits; and mines of lead, tin, and copper, are slightly worked. The inhabitants affirm, that it has several rich mines of silver and gold, but they are too poor to work them. The city of Monte del Rey is the capital; it is the residence of the bishop, who has spiritual authority over the four provinces. There is in it a college, a cathedral served by seventeen priests, an hospital, and a convent of Franciscans. The capital contains 9000 souls. There is another city, Linares, and several towns, but they cannot be large, as the whole population of the province only amounted to between 70,000 and 80,000 inhabitants.

The province of Santander, like that of Leon, only began to be peopled about fifty years ago. As part of this province is on the coast, it is warm, but in general healthy, the air being free from humidity, and cooled by the trade wind in the day, and the land wind at night. The more elevated parts are cooler, but the mountains are not of that immense height, as to be intolerable even on their summits. The country is well irrigated, and the soil well calculated for every production of all climates. Its mines of tin, lead, and copper, are affirmed to be rich, and the ore of the latter is said to be the nearest to the pure metal of any hitherto discovered. The inhabitants amount only to between 60,000 and 70,000: Horcasitas, the capital, contains about 5000; the remainder are distributed in several smaller towns, and in numerous villages and farms, and are wholly employed in the affairs of agriculture. This province abounds with excellent horses, with which part of Mexico is supplied; they are of an active make, accustomed to perform long journeys, and, what is of vast consequence, when the use of shoes is not introduced, with very hard hoofs. The sheep have multiplied in an extraordinary degree, for the short period during which these provinces have been settled. They not only suffice for their own consumption, but supply the markets of Zacatecas, Queretara, Mexico, and Puebla, notwithstanding their immense distance. Notwithstanding the riches of the soil, and the salubrity of the air, the inhabitants of these provinces have made no progress to be compared with that of those who have proceeded from the United States, into the western part of the Continent, or to the British province of Upper Canada. This may be accounted for in some measure from the want of capital in the settlers; for it appears that they are obliged to sell their cotton, as well as the wool from their sheep, to the people of the south, as soon as it is collected, from not having money to pay for weaving it at home. Some manufactures have commenced at Saltillo, where about forty looms are at work; but such is their poverty, that they are obliged to sell every week what they produce, that they may purchase a supply of wool to work with in the subsequent week. Although this want of capital is a great impediment, it might be, and would be surmounted, if the bad policy of the government did not tend to keep them from improvement. Being prevented, by the system adopted in many parts of the Spanish dominions, from having direct intercourse

from their own ports with any other, all they want comes loaded with heavy duties and charges, and what they have to dispose of comes to the consumer with similar additions. In these kind of transactions the tax called Alcavala,—a duty on the sale of every commodity, is felt with peculiar pressure. This is strongly stated by Don Miguel Ramos in his Memoir.

"There is no open port for all the opulent kingdom of Mexico," he says, "but that of Vera Cruz, which has a most scandalous monopoly of all European goods. These goods at Cadiz are the second hand, Vera Cruz is the third, Mexico, Queretara, or Zacatecas, the fourth, the great fair of Saltillo is the fifth, thence they are spread every year to the dealers of the interior, which makes the sixth hand, and then to the consumer the seventh. These goods have to their original cost added the duties of export at the place from whence they are first sent; of importation and of exportation at Cadiz, of various duties at Vera Cruz, of the Alcavala there, the same at Mexico, at Saltillo, and the other dealers through whose hands they pass. To this must be added the expence of freights and carriage, and the profit of each dealer through whom it has reached the poor consumer. The Alcavala is even levied on the last purchaser, and with such tyranny and cruelty, that the poor labourer is compelled to pay it on the emments of cloth he buys at Saltillo to cover his naked family; and the small quantities of rice, flour, or beans, which he sells there must bear the same costly expences of freights, profits, and Alcavalas. Whilst the merchants of Cadiz, of Vera Cruz, of Mexico, and of Saltillo, gain, the heavy weight of the duties and charges falls upon and impoverishes the poor cultivator, in the provincias internas."

It seems to have been the weak policy of Spain to make government precede, and not follow, population; to appoint officers of revenue before there are inhabitants to pay it; to build churches, and remunerate the clergy, before any worshippers are collected; and to appoint military commanders before any troops can be mustered. The policy, both of Great Britain and the United States, has been directly the reverse. As their subjects have proceeded to cultivate the deserts, they have been left to themselves; and when, by their increase in numbers and in wealth, which, on good soils, has been with great rapidity, they have felt the want of government, laws, religious institutions, or armed protectors, they have either been supplied to them, or their necessities have compelled them to provide those requisites from their own resources. In one case, nature has been left to her own course, and she has converted the desert woods into cultivated fields and populous cities; in the other, art has been exercised where it was unnecessary, and the consequence has been a slow, languid, and doubtful progress, accompanied with arduous struggles for even the necessaries of existence.

The intendancy of Durango, or, as it is more usually called, of New Biscay, has an extent of 16,873 square leagues, and a population of 160,000 inhabitants. The northern border of this province, for more than 200 leagues, is inhabited by warlike and

independent Indians. The Acoclames, the Cocoyames, the Apaches, the Mescaleros, and Fardones, possess the Bolson and mountains of Chamante, on the left bank of the Rio del Norte. The Membrenos are farther to the west, in the wild ravines of the Sierra de Acha. The Cumanches, and the numerous tribes of Chechimees, included by the Spaniards in the general and vague term of Mecos, disturb the inhabitants of New Biscay, and compel them always to travel in large bodies, or well armed. The military posts (presidios) on the frontiers, are too far from each other to intercept the excursions of these savage tribes, who are well skilled in all the stratagems of petty predatory warfare. The Cumanches are the mortal enemies of the Apaches, some of whose tribes live in peace among the Spaniards, and are formidable foes to the colonists of New Biscay. They have learnt to tame the horses, which have increased to wildness since the Europeans have settled in the country, and they are become expert and agile horsemen. The Cumanches, like all the savages who range extensive savannas, are ignorant of their original country. They wander over the plain accompanied by large dogs, whom they have trained to carry their tents, made of the hides of the buffalo. These savages are most to be dreaded on account of their cruelty, as they murder all their adult prisoners, and carry away the children, whom they preserve for their slaves. The Indian tribes on this frontier are certainly on the decrease; and, within the last twenty years, their inroads have been fewer. Their hatred to the whites is, however, unabated; and though the frequent want of success may have lessened their hopes, it has not diminished either their animosity or their courage. They have concentrated themselves in the vicinity of Moqui, and in the mountains of Nabajoa, and have driven away the Spanish colonists. The evil effect of being thus stationary in a strong country will be long felt, and prevent their becoming more civilized; as the spirit of revenge which Indians peculiarly imbibe will act as an obstacle to their intercourse with the Europeans, or with those tribes that live among them. If the same races of Mexican Indians existed in New Biscay as in the table-land of the viceroyalty, the wild tribes would be more likely to become gradually conciliated by them than by Europeans alone. But, in New Biscay, there are no Indians who pay the tax, and are thereby freed from the alcavala. All are whites, or so nearly approaching to that race, that they are accounted such.

This perpetual state of warfare with the Indians, which has long endured, by which the colonist, in his lonely farm, is under the necessity of being always watchful and always armed, has given to the inhabitants of the frontiers a degree of courageous energy, and a temperament of a peculiar kind. The climate is favourable to corporeal strength, and these causes have created a race of borderers who endure hunger, suffer fatigue, maintain watchfulness, and exhibit courage, which, though now only called forth by predatory warfare, would become powerful means of defence if they should be involved in warfare with the descendants of other Europeans, advancing towards them from the United States. This strength

Mexico. of body is said, also, to be productive of strength of mind, and a happy disposition of the intellectual faculties. Those who superintend the seminaries of Mexico have remarked that their most distinguished students in the exact sciences have been natives of the most northern provinces of New Spain. Durango is a mining country, and consequently furnishes both capital and consumers to the agriculture, which, for the paucity of the inhabitants, is in a flourishing state. Near the better-peopled division of the country, wheat is grown sufficient for those who prefer it to maize, which is, however, the common food of the greater proportion of the inhabitants.

The climate is generally temperate. In even the more settled parts, snow is not unusual in the winter, and the thermometer descends frequently below the freezing point to $14^\{\backslash circ\}$ of Fahrenheit. A singular group of rocks is seen near the capital, which have engaged the attention of mineralogists. The basis of these rocks, called La Brena, appear to be basaltic amygdaloid, which seem to have been raised up by volcanic fires. They are covered with scoria. They are in the midst of a level plain; are twelve leagues in length from north to south, and six leagues in breadth from east to west. They are of a most grotesque form; and, on the summit, there is a crater 320 feet in circumference, and 100 feet in depth. Near these rocks, a remarkably large mass of iron is found in the midst of a level plain; it is probably an aerolite. Its weight, calculated by its size, is 17 tons 9 cwt. The city of Durango is the residence of an intendant, and of the bishop of the diocese; its population amounted to about 12,000. Chihuahua, San Jose del Parral, and San Juan del Rio, contain about 10,000 each; and there are several smaller towns, many of which derive their names, as well as their existence, from the mines near which they have been built.

Intendancy of Sonora. The last intendancy of New Spain is Sonora, extending over 19,143 square leagues, and inhabited by 121,400 persons. From the proportion between its extent and population, it will naturally be inferred, that a very small portion only of it is cultivated. It extends through ten degrees of latitude on the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California. In some parts it is not more than 50 leagues in breadth, and in others 120. The post from Mexico to California passes through this district on horseback, and crosses the gulf in a launch to Loreto, or Old California. The whole distance traversed by the courier with correspondence from Guatimala to San Francisco, in New California, is upwards of 3000 miles. The northern part of Sonora is chiefly inhabited by a numerous Indian nation, called the Pimas. They mostly live under the direction of missionary monks, and are followers of the Catholic rites and ceremonies. In the ravines of this mountainous country much gold has been found, sometimes in very large grains; but the washing places are subject to incursions from some unreclaimed Indians, which prevent their yielding to the extent they would do under other circumstances. There has been hitherto no permanent intercourse between Sonora, New Mexico, and New California. The government has directed chains of missions to be established to preserve the communi-

Mexico. cation, but its efforts have been fruitless. Two monks of the propaganda of Queretaro have recently been enabled to traverse the whole country from Monterey to San Francisco, without crossing, as is commonly done, into any part of California. Father Garces and Father Font departed from Horcasillas, and in eleven days reached an extensive and beautiful plain, at one league distant from the southern bank of Rio Gila, where they discovered the Casa Grande; the place at which the Astec nation rested many years, in its progress from the north to the place where it finally settled. It is constructed of rammed clay in squares of unequal sizes, but symmetrically placed. It is a square, each of whose sides is 445 feet and parallel to the cardinal points. The walls are four feet in thickness. The edifice had three stories and a terrace, and the staircase was on the outside. A wall, on which were square towers, surrounded it, and appeared to have served for purposes of defence. There are vestiges of an artificial canal from the river for supplying it with water, and the whole surrounding place is covered with fragments of earthen pots and pitchers, some of which are neatly painted with red or blue. There are besides found many pieces of the volcanic glass, or obsidian, which was used when the Spaniards first visited Mexico for mirrors, as well as for razors, knives, and arms. This is deemed by the Mexican antiquaries to be a decisive proof, that those who emigrated to this place came from some more northern region, where the volcanic production is profusely to be found. Those Indians who inhabit the plains near the river Gila, by no means deserve the appellation of savages, though they never had, before these missionaries visited them, any communication with the inhabitants of Sonora. They were found in villages of two or three thousand persons, were comfortably clothed, and had fields cultivated with maize, cotton, and gourds. The missionaries, in order to convert them, exhibited a large picture, painted on a cotton cloth, which represented a sinner burning in the flames of hell. It terrified them, and they requested the fathers not to unroll it again, or to speak to them of what would happen after death. These Indians are of a mild and sincere character. When the missionaries explained to them, by an interpreter, the security which prevailed in the Christian missions, where an Alcalde administered justice; the chief replied, "This order of things may be necessary for you, but we do not steal, and we very seldom disagree; what use then have we for an Alcalde among us?" The most considerable places in this intendancy are Sonora, the residence of the bishop, and Arispe, each of which contains a population of 7000 or 8000; but Cinaloa, Culiacan, and Las Almas, each reckon their inhabitants at near 10,000. There are several silver mines, which, though beneficial to their proprietors, are worked to a very limited extent.

New Mexico has been pompously dignified by New Spanish writers with the title of a kingdom, though Mexico. it does not contain more than 40,000 souls, on a few detached spots in a surface of near 6000 square leagues. It is a long and comparatively narrow strip of country, through which that great river Bravo del

Norte runs. Its boundary towards the north has never been ascertained, though the government of the mother country has claimed, as a portion of the whole track, up to the 38th degree of north latitude. In this view of it, the length is 175 leagues, whilst its breadth varies from 30 to 50 leagues. Though it has been settled, as far as establishing some towns can be said to settle a country, for more than 200 years, yet it is separated by uninhabited and most malignant marshes, in which travellers are frequently exposed to attacks from ferocious tribes of unclaimed Indians. Three stations were originally fixed on as garrisons (presidios) to maintain the communication; but in a general revolt of the Indians, they were either destroyed or abandoned. There are several passes which are dangerous for passengers, especially the defile of Robledo, to the west of the great river, and the desert del Muerto, in both of which, many white persons have been massacred by the wandering Indians. The desert of the Muerto is a plain of 30 leagues in extent, and destitute of water, and the whole of that district suffers from the same cause, as there is not a single spring issuing from the mountains of Los Mansos. From this aridity alone, it is impossible that the two populations should ever unite, how much soever they may both increase their numbers. Though New Mexico is in the same latitude as Syria and Persia, the climate is remarkably cold. It sometimes freezes in the month of May, and a little to the north of Santa Fé, the great river is frozen, sufficiently hard to admit the passage of men and horses in the winter season. The mountains which bound this great river do not wholly lose their snow till the beginning of June. The elevation of the river in these cold regions has never been exactly ascertained; but, at the capital, it is not supposed to be greater than 2200 or 2600 feet. The most interesting circumstance attending New Mexico is the great river Bravo de Norte, the Mississippi of this part of North America, passing through the whole of it; a circumstance which, when the country is fully peopled, must make its possession a matter of the highest importance. This great stream has its origin in the Sierra Verde; the point of separation between those streams that run to the south sea, and those that run to the Mexican gulf. Like the Orinoco, the Mississippi, and other American rivers of similar long course, it has periodical rises and falls. The waters begin to swell in April, increase through May, and reach their highest pitch in June. In the drought of summer alone it is fordable, and then, from its rapidity, only by horses of extraordinary strength. The borders of it are well wooded, irregular, and highly picturesque. Its waters are remarkably turbid, like the Orinoco and the other vast rivers of South America. The recollection of a very extraordinary event, which occurred in this river in 1752, is preserved by the inhabitants. The whole bed of the river became suddenly dry for more than thirty leagues above and twenty leagues below El Paso. The water made for itself a new channel near the Pordeo of San Eleazar. This loss of the river continued several weeks. The fine plains which surround El Paso, and which are irrigated by small canals, became wholly dry,

and the inhabitants could only obtain water by digging wells in the forsaken channel of the river. After a time the stream resumed its former course, and continued its accustomed channels, probably because in the new course the deposit of its mud had filled the chasm, and the subterraneous conductors had become filled up. In some part of the northernmost division of New Mexico, the rivers empty themselves into the Mississippi, and the river De Pecos is probably the same with the Red River of the Natchitoches; and, perhaps, when the geography of the district is ascertained, the river called by the Spaniards Napestia, may prove to be the same as that which lower down is called by the Anglo-Americans the Arkansas.

The colonists of New Mexico live in a state of perpetual hostility with the Indians that surround them; hence, though there are several towns and garrisons (presidios), there are no solitary farms or extensive plantations; all are concentrated around those places whose population is sufficient to bid defiance to the wandering Indians. The colonists are provided with all that nature absolutely requires from their own soil; the grains of Europe flourish, and the pastures supply abundance of animal food; all other supplies they must dispense with, as they are too far removed from the civilized world to maintain any commercial intercourse.

The capital is Santa Fé, situate to the east of the great river; its population is about 3600. Albuquerque, to the west of the Sierra Obscura, has a population of 6000, and Taos, to the north, has about 9000. The Paso del Norte is a garrison at which travellers must provide themselves with food to subsist on during their journey of 60 leagues over the desert which separates it from Santa Fé. The fields there are well cultivated with maize and wheat, and the vineyards produce excellent sweet wines. The gardens are well stocked with figs, peaches, apples, pears, and the other fruits of Europe. Artificial irrigation is here conducted on very simple but very good principles, and the effect is visible in all their crops.

Although the country of California is not, strictly speaking, a part of Mexico, yet it is a dependent upon the government of that viceroyalty, and can have no intercourse with Europe but through it; there seems, therefore, no place so proper to introduce the most recent information respecting it as after that country. It is divided into two intendancies, called New and Old California; the latter, though first settled, contains the fewest inhabitants; they are not estimated at more than 7000 or 8000, though the district contains nearly as many square leagues of surface. Of these, two-thirds are Indians, who, though they may be taught a few Catholic prayers and ceremonies, are almost as untamed as they were three centuries ago. The number of white people do not exceed 1000, who are dispersed on several missions and garrisons, designated on the Spanish maps with the names of towns, but which are in reality but miserable collections of hovels. Loreto is the most important place, being a presidio; and besides it there are two missions, Santa Ana and San Joseph; the latter of which has been best known from its having

Mexico. been the station in which the astronomical observations were made, and the transit of Venus observed in 1768, by the French Abbé Chappe and a Spanish astronomer, Don Vincente Doz.

New California, though to the north, and in a less genial climate, possesses a more fertile soil and more numerous population. The inhabitants were estimated at 15,000 in about 2000 square leagues of extent in the year 1802. The settlement of this country has been but recent, being first occupied by Spaniards in 1769. Its increase since that period, with very trifling additions from fresh emigrants, has been singularly rapid. The numbers in 1790 were 7748 souls, in 1800 13,468, and in 1802 15,562. The fertility of the soil is such, as must cause a continued increase, if, as cannot be doubted, the principle is correct that the multiplication of mankind is limited by the quantity of food that can be produced. It is stated, on good authority, that in the year 1791 there were sowed in the whole province 874 fanegas of wheat, the produce of which, at the harvest, amounted to 15,197, or more than 17 for 1. The next season recorded, that of 1802, was nearly as beneficial. The seed sown was 2089 fanegas, and the crop reaped was 33,576 fanegas. The increase of the flocks and herds seems to be keeping equal pace with the produce of the corn fields. In 1791, the black cattle were 24,958, and in 1802 they had been augmented to 67,782; whilst sheep, horses, mules, and pigs, had been similarly increased. As in other Spanish colonies, some impolitic regulations check its growth. The soldiers are discouraged from becoming cultivators, and the monks, who rule the country, rather discourage the settlement of white people, because they are less obedient than the Indians, whom they convert. In spite of these regulations, however, the colony bids fair to become populous and flourishing. The climate is remarkably salubrious, and the fruits of Europe flourish most luxuriantly, especially the vine, from which already some very good wine is made. There are abundance of wild animals, especially stags of vast size, with horns of enormous length, some said to be nine feet long. These animals, called venados, are remarkably swift of foot. They are caught by hunters on horseback, but being swifter than the best horses, they can only be come up to when they stop to drink, when a running noose is thrown over them, in the same dexterous manner in which the Spanish hunters take wild horses and cows. The Indians have a different mode of taking these animals. They place the horns of one on their own heads, and conceal in the bushes every thing but the horns which appear above; the herd approach without fear, and are then killed by arrows. The animals lately exhibited in London, under the name of Wapiti, were of this kind, and though stated by the proprietor to have been caught on the banks of the Missouri, were more probably the venados of California. They had not arrived at their full growth, but one of them was then on the shoulder seventeen hands two inches in height. The capital of New California is San Carlos de Monterey. It has an excellent bay, and good anchorage in six fathom water; and the English ships bound to the fur stations on the north-west coast of America, find re-

freshments there which are highly grateful in their protracted voyages. The other settlements on the coast amount to twelve, whose population varies from 500 to 1500 souls. The whole cultivation, and nearly all the inhabitants, are either in these places or in their immediate vicinity.

From the first conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, to the invasion of Old Spain by the armies of Buonaparte, that country had continued to enjoy internal tranquillity, and had been free from the exercise and even the alarms of war. During the contests between Spain and England, its communication with the European metropolis had been interrupted, its commerce frequently intercepted, and small predatory bands of enemies had occasionally committed trifling depredations on its smaller maritime towns; but these events had little influence on the progressive improvement of the country, which had gone on increasing in wealth and population, with a rapidity unexampled in the communities either of the old or the new world.

If this state of tranquillity had rendered the practice of arms unnecessary, and removed from the inhabitants all tendency to acts of violence and bloodshed, it had not lessened those more vengeful feelings which seem innate in the human breast, and whose horrible exercise, when the passions became inflamed, is displayed in every form of implacable fury, wanton cruelty, and exterminating revenge.

As the events in Spain, which produced the bloody scenes that Mexico exhibited, are too well known to our readers to require any recital here, to connect the cause with the effect, we may proceed to the narration of the ferocious transactions which followed in Mexico the pretended cession of the Spanish dominions to the family of the occupier of the military throne of France.

The Viceroy of Mexico, at the period of the renunciation of Bayonne, was Don Josep Iturrigaray, a man nearly seventy years of age, undistinguished by any display of talent or energy of character. He was of mild and insinuating manners, and had been sent to Mexico by the influence of Godoy, to amass that fortune which most of his predecessors had made the principal object of their government. The details of administration there, as in all the other colonies, are vested in various Boards for the military, ecclesiastical, mining, fiscal, and judicial departments. The court of justice, called the Royal Audiencia, though it had no power to control the Viceroy, yet, from its important duties, of a mixed nature, was considered the highest tribunal, and was indeed a species of privy council. On the death or absence of the Viceroy, it exercised supreme power until his successor was appointed. As this is the most powerful body in each colony, care is taken that the majority of its members, called oidores, shall be natives of Old Spain, and as the emoluments of the office are very considerable, no small degree of influence, intrigue, and bribery, was usually exercised to obtain the appointment. The merchants of Vera Cruz, and of the city of Mexico, are an important body, and the principal members of it are erected into a board called the Consulado, which

had much influence and power, and considerable intercourse with the audiencia, and like that court consisted almost wholly of natives of Spain. Besides the boards already noticed, the municipal corporations, from their great possessions, had naturally a considerable share of influence; and that of the city of Mexico, containing a population of 140,000 inhabitants with immense estates, had a larger proportion than usually fell to the lot of other Spanish American cities. Those municipalities, called sometimes the Cabildo, sometimes the Ayuntamiento, and sometimes the City, were in their composition not unlike the ancient parliaments of France. Their members called regidores, their president, the corregidor, and their executive officers, the syndics, were chosen from the people, and originally by the people; but by a more recent practice, those offices had been openly sold by the crown, and the purchasers had the power of relinquishing them in favour of any of their own relatives. As the purchasers advanced in life, they most commonly transferred the office to a successor of their own family born within the colony, till, in process of time, the municipal corporations became composed of members, the far greater part of whom were natives of the country or Creoles. These cabildos, though not exempt from corruption, nor free from undue influence, and though subordinate to the audiencias, were by far the most independent bodies in Spanish America; and though they had little power except over their own revenues, they could and did remonstrate against any very grievous acts of oppression. The cabildo of the city of Mexico possessed a larger portion of the confidence of the people than any other public body, and sometimes assumed, from the popularity they enjoyed, a degree of authority in public proceedings, which it was doubtful, at least, if they were legally entitled to exercise by the laws, entitled "la recopilacion de las Indias."

Indistinct rumours only had reached Mexico of the tumults at Aranjuez, of the resignation of Charles the Fourth, the banishment of Godoy, and the proclamation of Ferdinand the Seventh (for the war with England intercepted regular correspondence), till, on the 15th of July 1808, a small vessel from Cadiz arrived with the French Madrid Gazettes, addressed to the Viceroy Iturrigaray. The Viceroy assembled the audiencia, and laid before them the intelligence these Gazettes contained of the transactions of Bayonne. By the advice of this body, he was induced to publish these French accounts, without any remarks, or intimation that any injustice had been done, or that any resistance was making, or would be made, to the new dynasty; but cool as the Viceroy appeared, and as the audiencia and the consulado really were on this occasion, the inhabitants of Mexico were thrown into a ferment of indignation; crowds eagerly assembled in the squares and public walks, and vengeance was denounced against France and its adherents, with all the characteristic fury of a Spanish populace.

The cabildo immediately presented an address tending to stimulate the loyalty and zeal of the Viceroy and the audiencia; they expressed in strong terms their adherence to the captive family, their

detestation of Bonaparte and his tyranny, and their resolution to resist his dominion, by making the sacrifice of every thing dear to them in opposing him. They conclude, "This is the universal resolution of the kingdom, which Mexico, as its metropolis, displays to your excellency and to all the world; its inhabitants are resolved to maintain it with their persons and their property, and will shed the last drop of their blood in its support. In defence of this just cause even death itself will be cheering and delightful; as their career will then terminate with the noble satisfaction of being sons worthy of those fathers whose valour and loyalty they inherit. Mothers will themselves place in the hands of their sons the musket and the sword, that they may fill up the ranks in which their fathers have fallen; and should no other resource be finally left, they with moistened eyes will fire the towns and cities, and embracing their infants, rush with them into the flames, that the enemy may triumph over our ashes, but not over our freedom."

The whole viceroyalty of Mexico was in a state of alarm and confusion, which created a spirit of party, and gave birth to scenes of violence very different from the apathy and indolence which had prevailed for centuries preceding. The audiencia and consulado, all Spaniards looking to Spain for protection, and ultimately as a retirement when they had accumulated sufficient wealth, were afraid lest, if the French family were firmly established, which there was no reason to doubt, the Americans would withdraw all the ties which connected them with the peninsula. The municipality were in dread of being subjected to France, and, by that subjection, being deprived of their laws, and, above all, of their religion; of the excellency of which they affected to be themselves, and certainly made the Creoles, mulattoes, and Indians, deeply impressed. The audiencia and consulado urged on the Viceroy, with all their powers, the importance of following the fortune of Spain under every circumstance; whilst the municipality and the populace demanded a solemn abjuration of France and her partizans, and the immediate assembling of a junta composed of representatives of the different corporations of the kingdom, to assist and maintain the rights of the Spanish Bourbon family. Amidst this collision of parties, the Viceroy hesitated what part decidedly to take, though he gave, when acting without the influence of the audiencia, strong indications of adherence to the popular party.

After fourteen days of dissention, official advices were received that the whole of Spain had spontaneously risen to resist the cession of the crown, and that a body at Seville was appointed as the supreme junta of Spain and the Indies, and had proclaimed the captive Ferdinand king of all the dominions. Immediately on receiving this intelligence, without consulting the audiencia, Iturrigaray caused the young monarch to be proclaimed, and his name used, though without acknowledging, or even noticing, that the exercise of his power was vested in the junta of Seville.

The audiencia then urged submission to the assembly of Seville; the municipality urged the necessity

Mexico. of collecting the representatives of the various corporations; and whilst these two bodies were busily employed in memorializing the viceroy, dispatches arrived from the junta of the Asturias assembled at Oviedo, claiming also supreme authority in the name of Ferdinand. This event furnished a strong ground to the Creoles for demanding a junta, and it was as eagerly resisted by the Spaniards, who feared that, if a popular assembly was once collected, such steps would be taken as must separate Mexico from Spain; if, as they expected, the French dynasty should ultimately be established in the peninsula. In this situation of affairs, because the viceroy declined acknowledging the authorities both of Seville and Oviedo, the members of the audiencia and the other European Spaniards, principally the traders, secretly organised a body of about 250 men, surrounded the palace in the middle of the night, seized Iturrigaray, his wife, and children, conveyed him under an escort to the Inquisition, and by day-break issued proclamations to quiet the populace, declaring him accused of heresy. A charge of this nature so shocked the feelings of a people deeply imbued with superstition, that, under their influence, no movements were made in the metropolis, and the body who had deposed the viceroy conveyed him to Vera Cruz, embarked him on board a ship, and sent him a prisoner to Cadiz. The audiencia, being thus in possession of supreme power, had the means of conveying to the junta of Seville such representations of their own conduct, and that of the viceroy, as best tended to exculpate themselves, and to keep the government of the country in their own hands. They knew that a charge of heresy, that the intention of degrading the image of the Virgin, however calculated to influence the mob of Mexico, would be treated with indignation, or at least with contempt, in Spain. The charge, therefore, transmitted to Europe against Iturrigaray, was of a nature to produce a greater influence on those who ruled in the peninsula. He was accused of designing to establish himself as an independent monarch, and of acting without the control of the junta of Seville. This accusation was effectual; on his arrival, the junta, delighted at having in their power one of those who had opposed their authority, or at least not acknowledged it, consigned him to a dungeon without investigation. He never was brought to any examination or trial; but, after three years' close confinement, when the Cortes published a general amnesty, he was released, ruined in his fortune, his reputation, and his health, and one among many proofs of the villainous injustice of the sovereign people of Spain.

The audiencia, in Mexico, having dethroned the viceroy, assumed the supreme authority, and placed at their head Garibay, an imbecile officer, more than eighty years of age, who was in every thing ruled by those who had appointed him. His authority was brief, however, as the junta of Seville sent orders for the archbishop to assume the vice-regal character. This ecclesiastical used great and effectual exertions to collect and send to the peninsula large quantities of treasure. His hatred to France, and his love to religion, especially to the Virgin of Guadalupe, the

VOL. V. PART II.

tutelar saint of Mexico, made him a favourite with the Creole and Indian races; and, as he discovered no great acuteness in detecting the jobs, or the injustice of the audiencia, he was universally respected.

During these changes of government, however, the public not only in the capital, where the transactions had passed, but in the large cities of Guanaxuato, Guadalajara, and Dolores, were agitated with alarms and suspicions; and their apprehensions were kept up by the municipalities, who certainly feared, that when Spain was overrun by the French, which they considered inevitable, the intrigues of the audiencia would deliver them over to Bonaparte.

When intelligence reached Mexico, that the central junta was dispersed, and that the French had possession of every part of Spain, except Cadiz, serious indications of insurrections became prevalent; but when it was announced, that a regency, installed by the fugitive junta, had deposed the archbishop, and nominated for his successor General Venegas, who was considered in Mexico as a traitor, who, by his conduct in the command of an army destined to co-operate with Lord Wellington, had rendered the victory of Talavera worse than a defeat, the dread of being delivered over by him to the dominion of France, so filled every mind in the whole kingdom of Mexico with alarm, as to produce an instant and spontaneous explosion. When Venegas reached the shores of his government, he was greeted with the intelligence, that the whole of the territory, whose command he came to assume, was in a state of revolt against the authority of those by whom he was appointed. The disposition to revolt had been much strengthened by the regency, who nominated Venegas, having expressed their approbation of the conduct of the party who had deposed Iturrigaray, and who, instead of censuring, had rewarded with decorations and appointments the individuals who had been most prominent in that transaction. This appeared to the Mexicans to be most decisive evidence of the design of the Regency and of their new Viceroy, to annex Mexico to the fate of Spain, when it should be totally subjected to the Corsican dynasty. The Spaniards had always impressed on the minds of the Americans the highest ideas of the powers of Spain, of the valour of her armies, and the talents of her officers; and this impression was so strong, that the disastrous occurrences of the war in the peninsula could only be accounted for by the Mexicans, on the supposition of treachery in those who affected to conduct the defence of their country.

When popular discontent is diffused through a country so extensively as it was spread in Mexico, a very slight event is often sufficient to rouse it into action. It is said, a plan for a general insurrection was laid, to take place on the 1st of November 1810, but that some events in the city of Dolores, about 50 leagues north-west of the capital, caused the explosion to take place prematurely in the middle of September. The Corregidor of that city, Don Manuel Dominguez, a native of America, was

suspected of being engaged in a plot against the government; and information of it having been communicated to the Audiencia of Mexico, he was suddenly arrested in the middle of the night; his colleagues in the municipality alarmed, and suspecting that they also should soon share the same fate, immediately resolved to commence a revolution.

The most considerable instigator of the revolt was Hidalgo, rector of Dolores, a town of 18,000 inhabitants, principally Indians. This man possessed great natural talents, and a degree of activity and exertion not common among the Creoles. He had distinguished himself in the University of Valladolid by his learning and abilities, and though a man of somewhat dissipated habits, had obtained a benefice, producing from 10,000 to 12,000 dollars a year. He had introduced various new branches of industry which had benefited the neighbourhood. He had established a manufacture of earthenware, a plantation of mulberries, on whose leaves silkworms were reared, and had introduced the various processes necessary for manufacturing the silk. He paid great attention to the education of his parishioners, and, by the appearance, perhaps the reality, of excessive devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe, he was looked up to by the inhabitants as a superior being. When Dominguez was arrested, this priest convoked his parishioners, and addressed them in language suited to their prejudices and their simple understandings. "This day," said he, "I ought to preach my first sermon on the duty of restitution to those we have injured (this is practised in a species of Lent, observed in September in Mexico); but, alas, this is the last sermon I shall ever deliver to you. I lament it, but there is no remedy! The Europeans give us over to the French. You see they have rewarded those who have deposed our Viceroy, they have displaced the good Archbishop who protected us, and have imprisoned the Corregidor, because he is a Creole. Farewell religion, you must become Jacobins! Farewell Ferdinand the Seventh, you must become Napoleonists!"—"No, father," shouted the Indians, "you must preserve us from this evil! The Virgin of Guadalupe for ever! Ferdinand the Seventh for ever!"—"Well," replied he, "then the Virgin and Ferdinand for ever! and now follow your pastor, who has always watched for your happiness." The effect of this harangue was to rouse the natives, who followed the priest to the neighbouring towns, in all which, their numbers rapidly gathering, they collected more than 40,000 men. Three officers of the royal army, who had been fellow collegians with Hidalgo,—Alende, Aldama, and Abasolo, seduced the native regiments to which they belonged, and joined the insurgents.

These men began immediately to organise their force; Hidalgo was declared general in chief, Alende and Aldama lieutenant-generals; their standard was an image of the Virgin Mary, with the motto, Life to religion, life to our most holy Mother of Guadalupe, life to Ferdinand the Seventh, life to America, death to the wicked government. A regiment of infantry from Telaya, and two squadrons

of cavalry of the regiment De la Reyna, joined Hidalgo, who began his command by decreeing the abolition of the tribute paid by the Indians, and then led his forces to the north-west, towards the city of Guanaxuto, the capital of the mining district, where the great mass of silver was retained till it was convenient to transmit it to Perote, the principal fortress of the viceroyalty. The city of Guanaxuto and its vicinity contains a population of 80,000 souls; it is situated in a wild and mountainous country, and by its position might be defended by a small military force; but its inhabitants favoured the insurgents. The commander of the regular forces being killed in a first attack with some of his troops, the rest of the soldiers joined the cause of Hidalgo, and thus he took possession of the place, in which he found silver in coin and bars to the amount of more than 5,000,000 dollars. This important conquest was achieved within fourteen days after the commencement of the revolt, by a body numerous indeed, but ill armed, and worse disciplined, and, excepting the soldiers who had joined them, without any military appearance. Some few had fowling pieces, some few swords, many were armed with only knives at the ends of sticks, and some with the ancient Indian weapons, bows and arrows.

Hidalgo, in possession of Guanaxuto, assumed a kind of government there; he nominated officers for a military staff, ordered the bell-founders to cast cannon, established a mint, and coined money, and employed the most skilful mechanics and chemists to direct the working of the silver mines. He received a deputation from Valladolid, a city of 40,000 inhabitants, consisting of the chiefs of the ecclesiastical, civil, and military bodies of that city, who invited him to visit and organise that place, which he entered with considerable pomp and splendour, on the 20th of October. Here another regiment of the royal army, that of Pasquaro, joined the revolt. Plunder was forbidden, and good order was preserved, but to insure this, military execution was inflicted on fifteen of his Indians, who had been guilty of some disorders. From Valladolid Hidalgo determined to march to the capital, and fully expected to succeed in driving the Viceroy and the Spaniards from that city; on his march he was opposed by a small regular army under Truxillo, which, after a sanguinary contest, was defeated, and the remains of which fell back on Mexico to join the Viceroy.

Venegas, however, had taken measures to annoy the insurgents, in the points at which the insurrection commenced. Cadena was dispatched to Queretaro, about 50 leagues to the north-west, with one division, and Calleja to St. Luis Potosi, about 100 leagues to the north, with another; by this plan the capital was unprotected, except by the defeated division of Truxillo, and the few Europeans who were hastily formed into volunteer corps. Hidalgo advanced, and appeared before the city; his columns were seen descending the mountains to the number of 70,000 men; but the Viceroy discovered considerable firmness, though he took the precaution to place the treasure and the stores in such a position as to in-

Mexico. sure their secure transport to Vera Cruz. He relied, however, more on the thunder of the church than on his military powers; the inquisitor and the archbishop were prevailed on to pronounce a sentence of excommunication against the military priest. Hidalgo, about ten years before, had been the subject of a process before the holy tribunal, from which he had escaped, rather by connivance than by investigation. The process was revived, and sentence pronounced, by which he was cut off from the church in this world, and condemned to everlasting flames in the next. The Inquisition, in passing its sentences, is accustomed to increase the number of offences, with no more reason than in an English indictment, the prisoner is charged with "force and arms," with "being moved by the instigation of the devil," or with "not having the fear of God before his eyes;" and in the case of Hidalgo, he was accused of denying the existence of hell; and in another part of asserting, that a Pope who had been canonized was in hell. He was accused of adhering to the heresy of Luther, who maintained that the authority of scripture is superior to that of the Pope, and at the same time of denying the veracity of the Bible. These accusations and charges he turned into ridicule, in his answer, showed their opposition to each other, and added a profession of faith by no means deficient in orthodoxy. Though this ecclesiastical process had little or no influence on the forces of the insurgents, who had more confidence in Hidalgo's power to absolve, than in that of the Inquisition to excommunicate; yet on the inhabitants of the city, who were previously disposed to rise and join the insurgents, it had a powerful effect, and produced a resistance which saved it from capture.

Hidalgo, whose numerous troops, flushed with their recent victory over Truxillo, had invested the capital, was induced to desist from attempting to carry it by storm, either, as some assert, from a disinclination to the carnage that must have ensued, or, as others think, from his expecting to gain possession of it by negotiation: be this as it may, he delayed to act till intelligence reached him that the divisions under Cadena and Calleja had defeated some insurgent bands, had united their forces, and were marching to the relief of the capital. The chiefs of the insurgents became divided in their opinions of the next operations to be undertaken; and whilst the army under Calleja was advancing on the capital, Hidalgo and his associates trembling for the fate of the important city of Guanaxuto, determined to withdraw from Mexico, and taking a route to avoid the march of Calleja, retired north to secure the treasures in that place. This induced Calleja to change his route and pursue him. Guanaxuto, by nature a strong position, could only be attacked through a defile, to defend which, the insurgents had hastily constructed two batteries. These the troops of the Viceroy stormed, and entered the city, which was delivered to the vengeance of the enraged soldiers, who executed the most inhuman cruelties on all they met, without distinction of sex or age. The leaders of the insurrection, with the greater

part of their military followers, escaped, and collected again at St. Luis Potosi; whilst Calleja, with the utmost deliberation, executed the most sanguinary vengeance on those inhabitants of Guanaxuto who had aided, or even acquiesced in the rebellion.

Guadalaxara, one of the most populous cities of the viceroyalty, about 150 leagues north-west from the capital, had, in the mean time, raised the standard of revolt, and towards that part Hidalgo directed his march, strengthened by the addition of numerous bands, that joined him on his route, and encouraged by success in various skirmishes which occurred with small and scattered bodies of the royalists. He was received at Guadalaxara with open arms by the inhabitants; his stores were replenished, his troops recruited and refreshed, and some degree of discipline attempted to be introduced. From Guadalaxara an expedition was dispatched towards the important sea-port of St. Blas, which succeeded in capturing it. The indefatigable Calleja, however, gave little respite to the insurgents, but with his handful of troops advanced towards them. Hidalgo having determined to risk a general engagement in defence of Guadalaxara, he posted his army on the banks of a river, on strong ground at the Bridge of Calderon. Calleja came up with him the 17th January 1811. The insurgents were well provided with artillery, some of heavy calibre, but ill appointed and badly worked; their cavalry were the most numerous part of their army, but in infantry they were very deficient. After various attacks which were at first resisted with firmness and success, Calleja succeeded in carrying all the batteries, and defeating the enemy, who abandoned their stores, ninety pieces of cannon, and their wounded, but retired in some degree of order, which the reduced state of Calleja's force could not enable him to prevent. Hidalgo retired on Zacatecas, a city in the mining district, 125 leagues west-north-west from Mexico, containing 35,000 inhabitants. Here he made a short stay, cast some new cannon, coined money (with the head of Ferdinand), and again filled up his ranks, which the battle at the Bridge of Calderon had thinned. From hence he removed his head-quarters to St. Luis Potosi, where one Villeria had collected an army of fresh insurgents. From this point small detachments of guerillas were equipped, which spread themselves over the whole table-land of Mexico, and kept the few partizans of the Viceroy in a state of perpetual alarm and activity. As the provinces to the north had shown a disposition to revolt, Hidalgo removed his head-quarters to Saltillo, a town at the entrance of the only pass through the range of high mountains, that is practicable for wheel carriages, in order to open a communication with Monterey, and from thence to Louisiana, a part of the United States from whence he hoped to obtain some stores and officers.

As the country of New Estremadura, New Leon, and New Santander, were in a state of insurrection, Hidalgo, and the officers of his staff, thought they might pass through with a small force, to organize, and not to conquer it. On the frontiers of these provinces, towards Fort Clayborne, in Louisiana, and to-

Mexico. wards the unreclaimed Indian nations, the Lipones and the Comanches, a few veteran companies were posted; these were privately concentrated, without the knowledge of Hidalgo, who, with his staff, artillery, and baggage, under a very weak escort, advanced towards St Antonio de Bejar, the capital of Texas. A force of 500 men had been sent forward from the Spanish army, and had passed Saltillo, where the main body of Hidalgo's army was quartered, without being noticed. One Ignacio Elizondo, a native of the country, who commanded a party of insurgents, was seduced, with a small body of men, to betray the excommunicated Hidalgo; and, by these three bodies, the whole of the staff, with Hidalgo, Allende, Aldama, the commanders, the artillery and the stores, were surrounded and captured. The officers, upwards of sixty in number, were immediately put to death, and the privates decimated. Thus perished Hidalgo, after a career of seven months, in which he had been the instrument of raising a power which he was unable to wield, but which became the cause of more bloodshed and desolation than even any civil war had before produced. Though deprived of its officers, its artillery, and its baggage, the insurgent army was neither defeated nor dispirited. The party of the Viceroy considered the destruction of all the leaders of the insurrection as the death-blow of their cause, and celebrated the event with much rejoicing; but the leaders appeared to be of little importance, for others, and with more ability, were instantly found to fill their places. Rayon, who had been formerly a lawyer, and had acted as secretary to Hidalgo, assumed the command of the army at Saltillo, which he found to amount to more than 40,000 men. With this force, avoiding an engagement with Calleja, he took post at Zaccatecas, from whence he attempted to open a negotiation that might terminate in a peace between the two parties, each of which claimed the merit of contending for the rights and authority of Ferdinand, and of the Catholic church. Rayon liberated three prisoners of distinguished rank, and commissioned them to propose to Calleja to desist from further hostilities, and to refer every matter in dispute to an assembly, to be immediately convened, of European and Creole Spaniards. To the proposal Calleja replied, "That, for the goodness of his intention, he had merited a pardon, which should be granted, if he would surrender himself and his army, but if he did not, he would march against him, chastise, and destroy him."

Whilst the insurrection began by Hidalgo, and continued by Rayon, was fluctuating with alternate successes and reverses, another, of an equally formidable nature, was supported on the coast of Mexico, bordering on the Pacific Ocean. Morelos, in early life, had served in the corps of royal artillery, and been promoted to the rank of serjeant; he had long left the army, and entered the church, in which he had attained the station of a parish priest, in one of the most populous districts in the neighbourhood of Acapulco. Here, as soon as Hidalgo commenced his operations, an insurrection also burst forth, of which Morelos was immediately declared the chief.

He organized an army, which became formidable for its discipline and numbers, and which successfully repelled the different bodies of Spaniards sent to attack him. At length the Viceroy collected an army, under the command of General Fuentes, to subdue these western rebels. Morelos advanced to offer battle, and an engagement took place at Tixtla, in which the insurgents were completely victorious, the royal army was dispersed, their cannon, stores, and even muskets, which, in their haste, the defeated threw away, became the prey of the victors. Morelos thus became master of the south-west of Mexico, captured the city of Acapulco, entered the province of Oaxaca, and gave orders which were obeyed even to Guatemala. His troops, instead of flying at the appearance of the royal army, resisted boldly its attacks, and at length became generally the assailants.

During this work of havoc, even in the provinces where the royalists had military possession of the towns, the open country was overrun by small bands of guerillas, who lived on the plunder of the country, and massacred, without regret, any Europeans that were unfortunate enough to fall in their way. The royal troops, on their part, wherever they passed, marked their track by thousands of Indians, who, without the formalities of trial, were hung on the trees that bordered the roads, or at the plantations by which they had marched. A mine situated at the entrance of Huasteca was worked by the insurgents, and furnished Morelos with silver, in a place, from the impenetrable nature of the country, secure from all fears of attack. Canas, a chief, occupied some mountains, from which he descended occasionally, and levied contributions, within five or six leagues of the capital; whilst, a little to the south, one Aldama troubled the bishoprick of Puebla, and intercepted the communication between Mexico and the post of Vera Cruz.

At this period the symptoms of insurrection in the city of Mexico became more alarming; the Creoles and Indians within its inclosure became insolent with every new success of the insurgents; and the delusive doctrines of the rights of man began to be propagated, and to annihilate their loyalty to Ferdinand, and their devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

We left two large organized armies, one under Rayon to the north, the other under Morelos to the south of the metropolis, and will briefly survey the progress of each. Rayon was at Zaccatecas, after the abortive attempt at conciliation, to which he appeared always anxiously to look, and to which he addressed several efforts. He was attacked by General Emperan, who commanded a part of the army of Calleja, and repelled him, with the total loss of his artillery, and the dispersion of his men. He then advanced to Zitaquaro, made it his head-quarters, and established a supreme executive council for Mexico, consisting of himself, the curate Verdusco, and the General Liceaga. The election was made by the acclamations of hordes of Creoles, Indians, and mulattoes, who were taught that in these acclamations they were exercising their newly acquired

Mexico. sovereignty, and not made dupes of fanatical and intriguing leaders. Whilst exercising all the power of an arbitrary monarch in Zitaquaro, Rayon did not neglect the proper means of securing himself in his strong position, but fortified all the assailable points. The Viceroy concentrated his army to attack a place now the grand focus of the northern rebellion, and having collected a considerable force, he ordered Calleja to proceed against it: after overcoming several obstacles, the attack on the position succeeded, and Calleja obtained possession of Zitaquaro, with its powder-mills, the cannon foundry, and some stores; but Rayon, with his brother directors and the greater part of the army, retreated in safety to Zultepec, a still stronger position, about thirty leagues to the westward of Mexico, and from whence all the force of the Viceroy could not drive them, till the progress of their disorganizing principles had so far weakened all discipline, as to reduce them from an army into a banditti. Calleja, when in possession of Zitaquaro, exceeded the ferocity which he had before exhibited in different places from which he had driven the insurgents. The defenceless inhabitants were massacred by hundreds during the storming, and afterwards the whole property of each individual was confiscated; those who were permitted to live were banished for ever, and all the buildings of the place utterly destroyed.

When Rayon with his force was securely posted, in December 1811, in the strong position of Zultepec, dissensions began among the chiefs, which were the necessary result of the disorganizing principles they had infused into their ignorant and ferocious followers; all would be rulers, none would be ruled; and those men who had shown courage when opposed to their enemy, discovered equal hardihood in overturning all authority. In close connection with Morelos, who in the field displayed the talents of an able commander, Rayon rather became the civilian, and with his co-directors, issued proclamations and decrees, made solemn declarations of the sovereignty of the people, and attempted by wire-drawn distinctions, incomprehensible to his followers, to reconcile the sovereign authority with that of Ferdinand, whose name he still continued to use. At Zultepec he coined money, and established a printing press, from whence he issued a Gazette, entitled Illustrador Nacional, which was very rudely executed with wooden types cut for the purpose by a native Indian, and printed with indigo. The only military achievement of Rayon, beyond the occasional excursions made by his troops to levy contributions, was an attempt to take possession of the town of Toluca, which the royalists had fortified. He besieged it, but from the want of skill, and having neither heavy guns nor mortars, he failed in the attempt, and withdrew his forces to Tenango, where he was attacked, and though posted on strong ground, was compelled to retreat. In consequence of this reverse, he and the rest of the directory, with all the members of the government, were compelled to abandon Zultepec, and lead a vagrant life; wandering with the army through the northern districts, sometimes affecting to convene a national convention, at other

times almost without food to keep together any considerable force: in fact, the contest had been carried on with so much fury, the scenes of the operations were so extensive, and the numbers collected in arms by the insurgents were so large, that the little cultivation which that rich soil requires was almost totally omitted, and famine contributed to add its share to the mass of suffering which the country endured.

In the beginning of the year 1812, considerable reinforcements of European troops had arrived from the peninsula, where the Cortes, though pressed on all sides by the French, contrived to spare some regiments, both from Galicia and Andalusia, which were joined by a division formed in the island of Cuba. Venegas was superseded in the Viceroyship by General Calleja, who seems to have obtained the appointment by his own representations of the ferocious cruelty with which he treated the insurgents, which was more approved by the government at Cadiz, than the slight traces of humanity that Venegas had discovered.

Whilst these reinforcements were arriving and forming, Morelos was not idle, but discovered, considering the nature of his troops, and the deficiency in stores and ammunition, considerable military talents. We left him in possession of the southwest part of Mexico, and commanding the coast from Acapulco to Costa-Rica. In that unhealthy country his men suffered from an epidemic fever, which induced him to advance to the high land; but he took an easterly direction, marching in two divisions, one towards Chantila, which he surprised, and the other towards Xalapa. He defeated the Spanish General Saavedra, entered the large mining city of Tasco, and occupied the whole mining district between the city of Mexico and Vera Cruz, and thereby prevented the capital from maintaining any connection with the sea. He continued to enjoy uninterrupted success for a long period; the town of Irucar was his principal depot, which resisted a regular siege, and repulsed the attacking army, whilst with his main body he almost surrounded the capital, and reduced it nearly to a state of famine. The newly arrived troops from Spain, who pompously denominated themselves "the conquerors of the conquerors of Austerlitz," were unable to withstand the rude attacks of these Creole bands, and were defeated in several battles, or rather large skirmishes; and, during the time they had passed in the vicinity of Vera Cruz, the dreadful fever of the country had considerably thinned their ranks. The communication between the capital and Vera Cruz entirely ceased in March 1812, and continued closed till the September following. Morelos took the city of Orizaba, in which he found money, tobacco of the king, and various stores, valued at more than 12,000,000 dollars. The disinclination to the service among the troops in the Spanish armies caused numerous desertions, and plans were formed, though, before the execution, they were detected, and the traitors put to death, for delivering up to the insurgents the castle of Perote, the strongest fortress in Mexico, where the treasure is collected; and the castle of St. Juan

de Ulloa, which commands the city of Vera Cruz. The city of Mexico was filled with rebels ready to rise and drive away the Viceroy, and was only kept in subjection by a rigid police, which filled every public building with suspected persons; forbade more than three men to converse together; and put to death some of the most respectable of those who were known to have favoured the insurgents. The defalcation in the revenue and the mint is a plain display of the distress to which the government was reduced. The Alcavala in the capital, a tax of six per cent. on all exchanges of property, usually produced 100,000 dollars monthly; its receipts were reduced to 8000, and the mint, which, before the disturbances, coined annually 27,000,000 dollars, in the year 1811 coined but 5,000,000, and in 1812 but 2,000,000; and, even for this purpose, the plate of all individuals was put in requisition by the Viceroy. Sanchez, a curate, acting under Morelos with five divisions of from 5000 to 6000 men, each occupied the whole of the plains of Puebla, the country of Tehuacan, and Orizaba, quite up to Xalapa. Calleja, with the only official royalist force, watched Morelos, whom he had contrived to separate from Rayon and Sanchez; and at last besieged him in Quautlan, which he had made his head-quarters, and in which his principal stores were collected. The town of Quautlan is situated on a rising ground, in the midst of a large plain, every part of which may be commanded from it. It is a large place, half a league in length, and a quarter in breadth, protected on one side by a rapid river, and on the others by strong walls, flanked by redoubts. The numerous party collected within the town soon produced famine, and an epidemic fever, which was more favourable to the besiegers than their cannon and bombs. The distress was great, and Morelos attempted to open, by a sally, a communication with a body of insurgents, who surrounded, and far out-numbered the besieging army; but the military skill and discipline of the troops under Calleja caused the sally to be unsuccessful; it was, therefore, necessary to abandon the place, and force a passage to their party. Morelos, in the middle of the night, formed a column, in the van of which were 1000 fusileers and 256 light horse, followed by 4000 lancers, then the carriages and light artillery, then the slingers and archers, and the rear-guard of infantry, with a regiment of cavalry. With this force he penetrated the lines of Calleja, and though with a tremendous sacrifice of the lives of his followers, extricated himself, his officers, and part of his troops, from the circle in which they were supposed to be securely inclosed, and in which he had sustained the attacks of a body of disciplined troops, supplied with cannon and other artillery, during seventy-five days, amidst privations and diseases, which had cost him half his army.

After disconcerting himself from this perilous situation, Morelos filled up his vacant ranks, and in spite of an obstinate resistance, captured the town of Chilapa; here he offered to exchange his prisoners, which Calleja having refused, he put to death all the royalist officers and one-tenth of the privates

in his power; hoping, as he expressed it, that this painful act of retaliation would put a stop to the inhuman practice which he charged his opponents with having commenced. He then entered Tehuacan, where he burned tobacco, belonging to the king, valued at 6,000,000 dollars. The Generals Sanchez and Montezuma (the latter a descendant of the kings of ancient Mexico, but a priest of a large township in the bishopric of Puebla, and distinguished by his virtues and talents) successfully attacked a division of the royalist army in St Augustine de Palmar, and succeeded in cutting off the whole; putting to death those few who surrendered, so that not a single individual of the garrison was left alive. A reinforcement of 1500 men landed at Vera Cruz from Europe; but after an ineffectual attempt to march into the country and join the royalists, they were shut up within the walls of that pestiferous city, and there, by scarcity of provisions and the black vomit, in less than six weeks their effective force was reduced to half their original number. In order to effect a junction with these troops, and to relieve the distress of Vera Cruz, the Viceroy drew together the forces which had been employed in the siege of Quautlan, and joining them with such others as he could collect, forced a passage by Cordova, and with 1800 mules loaded with flour, put a period to the famine, and returned to the high table-land with a reinforcement of 700 or 800 men only of those recently arrived from Spain.

Though the Viceroy had thus gained some additional force in men, and considerable supplies in stores, he was reduced to merely defensive operations, and could not hinder the insurgents from possessing themselves of any of those places in which they could collect treasure or stores, or destroy the king's tobacco, which, from the cessation of mining, had become the principal resource of the royal revenue.

After burning the tobacco of the three preceding harvests, which was stored in Orizaba, valued at 10,000,000 dollars, Morelos proceeded to Oaxaca, the district in which cochineal is produced. He attacked the capital Antiquera, and, after a sharp contest, entered that city, and acquired a considerable quantity of its peculiar production, as well as of other riches. By a very sensible letter which we have now before us, written from thence by a lady, the wife of a Spanish officer, who had escaped at the capture, it appears that Morelos was busily employed in drilling his army, inspecting their appointments, and providing them with stores; but he suffered no plunder, and permitted no cruelties; that he organized the courts of justice with all due formalities, preserved the greatest attention to all religious ceremonies; and though he put to death two Spanish officers of high rank, it was only in retaliation for two of his chiefs, Lopez and Armento, who had been executed in that city a short period before. He collected the remains of these men from the graves where they had been buried, and from the edifices on which they had been exposed, enclosed them in sumptuous coffins, made a grand procession to the Episcopal

Mexico. church, and interred them with all the most impressive rites of the Catholic religion.

The regular force, under the immediate command of Morelos, at this period amounted to 18,000 men; 10,000 of whom were regimented and clothed in uniform, and armed wholly with muskets, which, at different periods, had been taken from the royalist army. One of the royalist party, writing from Mexico in March 1813, adds, "Thus Morelos has secured a formidable army, after having been engaged in forty-six battles great and small, none of which he lost, and having, by his skilful retreat from Quautlan, demonstrated in the judgment of his opponent Calleja very superior talents."

During the whole of the year 1813, though considerable reinforcements to the royalist army arrived in Mexico, they were insufficient to enable Calleja to assume an offensive war, and though, on the other hand, a small force organized in the United States by Toledo, who had been a member for Mexico in the Cortes at Cadiz, invaded the northern provinces, they were defeated by the royalist General Arredondo, and the remnant effected their escape to New Orleans.

Morelos, in the latter end of 1813, made an attack on the city of Valladolid, in which he was repulsed, and being obliged to raise the siege, he retreated towards Puran; he was followed by the royalist army under the command of Llano, when a battle was fought, in which Morelos was defeated, and his second in command, Matamoros, with 700 men, were taken prisoners. Matamoros had a few days before taken 500 prisoners, and sent them for safety to Acapulco; these Morelos proposed to exchange for the prisoners taken at Puran, but Llano rejected the proposal, and put the whole to death; upon which Morelos ordered the 500 prisoners at Acapulco to be massacred, which was immediately executed. Such was the barbarity with which this furious and extended contest was carried on!

This defeat of Morelos gave a superiority to the royalists' cause, and fresh reinforcements having arrived, they were enabled to begin offensive operations, when the release of Ferdinand from captivity, and his return to his capital, was announced in Mexico. The leaders of the revolt calling themselves the national legislature, which had been driven from Zultepec, consisted only of Rayon, Liceaga, and Cos. These three men had exercised a species of mock government over the various bands; but having defended their conduct on the metaphysical principles of the French Convention, transmitted through the Cortes of Cadiz, they were, in conformity with those principles, compelled to call a congress, which met at Chilpancingo, and practised the same silly mimicry of decreing abstract doctrines, as had marked the two European assemblies. Whilst debating on many whimsical subjects; whilst striving to conciliate their doctrine of the sovereignty of the people with that allegiance they still professed to Ferdinand,—the news of his release reached them. The more sober part were disposed to suspend their declaratory projects, and wait the result of the situation of affairs, which the establishment of the

power to which they owed and professed subjection might produce; but the more violent, as is usually the case in such assemblies, overcame the more prudent; and instead of waiting calmly, or attempting to obtain a truce, they issued some arrogant and menacing proclamations, which seem to have precluded the possibility of negotiating, even if Calleja had been disposed to enter into them.

Calleja had been promoted to the government at Cadiz, on account of the severities he had practised and the zeal he had displayed. When the king was restored he was continued in the command, and as all the representations of the state of affairs in Mexico received by the monarchical government in Madrid came from him, they were tinged with that colouring which it was deemed necessary to give them, in order to justify the cruelties he had practised, and to induce Ferdinand to continue both the commander and the system, though they had hitherto produced only death and desolation. When a conciliatory proclamation of Ferdinand reached Mexico it produced a temporary pause, which, if Calleja had not been filled with ideas of vengeance, and the insurgents with the fatal whims of democracy, might have led to general tranquillity; but whilst the former only issued offers of pardon, to which the revolters could give no confidence, and to which, as appears by his own intercepted correspondence, none was due; the congress was busily employed in framing one of those ridiculous and impracticable plans, which, in the school of jacobinism, have been called Constitutions. It was founded on none of the customs or habits of the country, coincided with none of their prejudices, respected none of their institutions, and was only fitted to be the puppet of a day, and then to be neglected even by those who had framed it. Morelos, whose views were more practicable than those of the others, was too much occupied in the peculiar business of the military, to give a tone in the political disputes of the congress, otherwise he perhaps might have prevented some of the absurdities of which that body was guilty.

The new constitution renouncing allegiance to Ferdinand, and declaring Mexico an independent republic, was promulgated in October 1814; and, under this character of an independent state, privateers were fitted out, manned with the refuse of all nations, and encouraged, by a few secure asylums, to plunder, in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, the peaceful ships of traders. Emissaries were sent to the United States to procure arms, ammunition, and officers. There Toledo, the member of Cortes, whom we have before noticed, succeeded in engaging General Humbert, who had formerly landed in Ireland, to join the Mexican army; they landed with some arms and ammunition, and proceeded in safety to a small fortress on the road between Vera Cruz and Xalapa, where, according to a preconceived plan, Morelos was to have joined them; but the latter having been intercepted in his route, which he had undertaken with a small escort, was attacked by a body of royalists, his escort defeated, and himself made prisoner. Having thus fallen into the hands of the

Viceroy, he could expect no favour; he was accused before the Inquisition of heresy, but that tribunal refused to condemn him, or rather hesitated so long, according to its ordinary forms, that Calleja ordered him to military execution; yet such was the veneration in which he was held by all the inhabitants of the city of Mexico, that the government feared his execution there would produce some convulsion, and sent him secretly to an obscure village at six leagues distance, where he was shot in the back to indicate that he was a traitor.

With the death of this extraordinary man, every rational prospect of success to the insurgents was at an end. The democratic assembly convened under the fantastic constitution met at Tehuacan, and, as usual in such assemblies, spent its time in silly debates about the limits to be prescribed to the executive power, whilst they neglected to strengthen the armies, or to provide them with ammunition. After some time spent in personalities, an ape of Cromwell, or of Bonaparte, appeared in the person of Don Miguel Teran; he had been a partizan soldier, but at length became commander of the guards, the best disciplined corps in the service of the republic. This man, in December 1815, about one month after the death of Morelos, surrounded the hall of assembly with his guards, entered it with a detachment, expelled the members, and associating with himself two other persons, Alas and Cumplido, assumed the supreme power, and abolished the constitution. The irregular despotism, generated in democracy, was unequal to contend with the more consolidated despotism exercised by Calleja. Teran had hopes of assistance from the United States. Joseph Bonaparte, who had arrived there, was destitute of money, or unwilling to risk it in another royal speculation, and though he amused the insurgents with some hopes of assistance, and they flattered him with some prospect of being again a king, it terminated with the disappointment of the expectations of all the parties.

Calleja was strengthened by fresh troops, while the insurgents in numerous bands were scattered over the country, which they laid waste, but retreated as the royalists advanced. He thus describes them: "These bands are not sufficiently powerful to defeat the regular troops, to take towns, or to intercept the convoys; yet we have not strength enough to destroy them, but they are frequently defeated, often harassed, and always severely punished if they fall into our power."

During the whole time that Calleja ruled in Mexico, the predatory bands continued to commit depredations; a species of warfare more afflictive than any operations carried on in regular contests. The country became sick of the calamities it suffered, and the voice of conciliation was more wanted than reinforcements of troops. Milder councils at length prevailed in the cabinet of Madrid, and the execution of them was entrusted to the best hands in which they could be placed. Admiral Apodaca is too well

known in the first circles in this country to require any eulogium; and as he went to Mexico, the herald of peace, he succeeded in lessening the irritation that prevailed, and reconciling the most respectable of the chiefs to his mild administration. Rayon, the most considerable, has accepted the terms that have been offered; and he and his whole army have laid down their arms, and taken the oath of allegiance to Ferdinand. We are unacquainted with the terms on which the conciliation has been effected; but as Rayon, during five years, contended with vigour, even after severe reverses against the royal troops; as his whole conduct, during the continuance of the contest, was marked by the most determined resolution, we may fairly conclude, either that the terms proposed were advantageous to his party, or that the expectation of success was so small, that further hope could not be entertained.

We need scarcely notice the expedition of Mina, who was equipped by some speculators in Europe for the conquest of Mexico. He was little acquainted with the dispositions of the inhabitants, and less with the nature of the country and the paucity of its resources. After effecting a landing to the north of Panuco, he penetrated into the country, where he was surrounded by the royalist troops, was taken prisoner with most of his followers, and at length received his death from the hands of the executioner.

From the execution of Mina, the tranquillity of Mexico was gradually returning, though occasionally interrupted by small assemblages of rioters rather than insurgents. They were dispersed, though not without the loss of some lives in the field, and of others on the scaffold.

The recent events in Spain, as far as certain intelligence has yet (20th September 1821) reached us, appear to have produced an effervescence in Mexico which has led to riotous assemblages in some parts of the viceroyalty of great, but perhaps of exaggerated extent. The communication between the capital and the coast has been occasionally interrupted, but never closed, when the Post was attended by an armed escort.

It is, however, too much to be feared, that a country in the circumstances of Mexico will continue to be the theatre of bloody contests as long, at least, as the metropolitan government in Europe shall remain in its present unsettled and revolutionary state.

See Humboldt's Political Essay on New Spain; translated into English. 4 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1811. — Historia de la Revolucion de Nueva España, por Guerra. London, printed, but not published, 1812. — El Español (in 8 vols.), por Blanco White. London, from 1810 to 1815. — Gazettas de Mexico. — Memoria que el Doctor Don Miguel Ramos de Arispe, present. a los Cortes de España sobre el estado de su provincia (in the periodical paper, El Consico). (w. w.)