La, a district of Spain, being the southernmost division of New Castille. It produces wheat and barley, but in quantities insufficient to feed its inhabitants. Wine is its most abundant production, with which it principally supplies Madrid. The wines are of both colours, and of various qualities: some of them, in colour, strength, and flavour, are similar to the wines of Burgundy; but as they seldom or never have any casks or cooperers near the vineyards, and the wine is conveyed in bottles made of the skins of goats, its good qualities become deteriorated at the moment of its production. Some silk is produced in this province, and in various parts the plantations of mulberry trees are extensive. The other vegetable productions which create commerce are saffron, barilla, and kelp. They breed a considerable number of mules, which are sent for sale to Portugal and the intermediate places. The whole district, however, is very poor, and the inhabitants generally are in a state of great distress, which may be attributed in a considerable degree to the want of water; for though the river Guadiana runs through it, and by its streams fructifies the borders, yet the influence of that river is of too little extent to benefit any but its immediate vicinity. The capital, Ciudad Real, is benefited by the Guadiana more than the whole province besides. The extent of this division of New Castile is 631 square leagues, and the population 205,548, or 326 to each square league; being, with the exception of Cuenca, the most thinly peopled of any part of Spain.

Although La Mancha is destitute both of agricultural and manufacturing wealth, yet the two extremities of the province are favoured with considerable mineral riches. On the eastern extremity, near the source of the river Munda, is a rich mine of calamine, and in its vicinity is a royal manufactory of tin plates. On the western side are the celebrated quicksilver mines of Almadin, whose valuable product is of the greatest importance to the silver mines of Mexico, where it is conveyed, and is indispensable in the extraction of silver by the process of amalgamation. The only towns in La Mancha, besides the capital, Ciudad Real, are Alcazar de St Juan, Consuegra, Infantes, and Almagro. This province has derived considerable notoriety throughout Europe, from having been the theatre of the imaginary exploits of the hero of Spanish fiction, Don Quixote. It is bounded on the north by Toledo, on the east by Cuenca and Murcia, on the south by Murcia, and on the west by Estremadura.