'1 n 73. r. OP INQUIRY Onr I^ISSION^ AND » THE STATE OF RELIGION. __^ . LIBRA.IIY or, THE Theological Seminary, PRINCETON, N.J. S/teZ/, /cT'S / cg^ J5ooA;, YJ.^rr'. Mo, i ' -^-^ - ^ /- \ y iikk. POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. CONTAINING Researches relative to the Geo- graphy of Mexico, the Extent of its Surface and its political Division into Intentlancies, the physical Aspect of the Coun- try, the Population, the State of Agriculture and Manufac- turing and Commcicial Indus- try, the Canals piojectcd be- tween the South Sea and At- lantic Ocean, the Crown lic- venues, the Quantity of the precious Metals which have flowed from Mexico into Eu- rope and Asia, since the Dis- covery of tlie New Continent, and the Military Defence of New Spain. ^, BY ALEXANDER DE HUMBOLDT. WITH PHYSICAL SECTIONS AND MAPS, FOUNDED ON ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS, AND TRIGONOMETRICAL AND BAROMETRICAL MEASUREMENTS. TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH, BY JOHN BLACK. VOL. II. .XEU'-YOTiK- Printed and published by I. Riley. ISll. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN Territorial extent: 118,478 square leagues,* (2,339,400 my- riares.) Population : 5,837,100 inhabitants, or 49 inhabitants per square league, (2 1-2 per myriare.) Of 25 to the degree. Trnnn. I'OLITICAL ESSAY, Sec. New SpAihf comprehends A. Mexico Profier {el Reyno de Mexico.') Territorial extent: 51,280 square leagues, (or 1,015,640 myi-iares.) Population: 5,413,900 inhabitants, or 105 inhabitants per square league. B. Las provincias internas orientales y occidentales. Territorial extent : 59,375 square leagues, (or 1,323,760 myriares.) Population : 357,200 inhabitants, or 6 inhabitants to the square league. NEW SPAIN. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Population in 1803. Extent of Surface in square Leagues. No. of Inhabit- ants to the square League. I. Intendancy of Mexico. 1,511,800 5,927 255 THE whole of this intendancy is situated under the torrid zone. It extends from the 16° 34' to the 21° 57' of north latitude. It is bounded on the north by the intendancy of San Luis Potosi, on the west by the intendancies of Guanaxuato and Valladolid, and on the east by those of Vera Cruz and La Pue- bla. It is washed towards the south by the South Sea, or Great Ocean, for a length of coast of 82 leagues from Acapulco to Zacatula. Its greatest length from Zacatula to the mines of the Doctor* is 136 leagues ; and its greatest breadth from • The extreme points are properly situated to the south-east of Acapulco, near the mouth of the Rio Nespa, and to the north of the Real del Doctor, near the city of Valles, which belongs to the intendancy of San Luis Potosi. Places of note being seldom situated on the very boundaries, we have pre- ferred naming those which are nearest to them. A glance 5 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. ^ANALYSIS^^]!- Inteiidancy of Mexico. Zacatula to the mountains situated to the east of Chilpansingo, is 92 leagues. In its northern part, to- wards the celebrated mines of Zimapan and the Doc- tor, it is separated by a narrow stripe from the Gulf of Mexico. Near Mextitlan, this stripe is only nine leagues in breadth. More than two thirds of the intendancy of Mexico are mountainous, in which there are immense plains, elevated from 2,000* to 2,300t metres above the level of the ocean. From Chalco to Queretaro are al- most uninterrupted plains of fifty leagues in length, and eight or ten in breadth. In the neighbourhood of the western coast, the climate is burning and very unhealthy. One summit only, the Nevado de To- luca, situated in a fertile plain of 2,700 metres^ in height, enters the region of perpetual snow. Yet the porphyritical summit of this old volcano, whose form bears a strong resemblance to that of Pichincha near Quito, and which appears to have been former- ly extremely elevated, is uncovered with snow in the rainy months of September and October. The ele- vation of the Pico del Fraile, or the highest summit of the Nevado de Toluca, is 4,620 metres^ (2,370 toises.) No mountain in this intendancy equals the height of Mount Blanc. The valley of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, of which I publish a very minute map, is situated in the cen- tre of the Cordillera of Anahuac, on the ridge of bestowed on my general map of New Spain will serve tojvis- tity this mode of indicating the boundaries of the intcnd- ancies. * 6,561 feet. Trayis. f 7,545 feet. Trans. t 8,857 feet. Trans. § 15,156 feet. Trails. 1 CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NFAV SPAFN. 7 STATISTICAL 7 t r . 7 r Ti/r ' ANALYSIS, s ^' Intenaancy of Mexico. the porph}Titical and basaltic amygdaloid mountains, which run from the S.S.E. to the N.N.W. This valley is of an oval form. According to my obser- vations, and those of a distinguished mineralogist, M. Don Luis Martin, it contains from the entry of the Rio Tenango into the lake of Chalco, to the foot of the Cerrode Sincoque, near the Dcsague Real of Hue- huetoca 18 1-^ leagues in length, and from S. Gabriel, near the small town of Tezcuco, to the sources of the Rio de Escapusalco, near Guisquiluca, 12 1-2 leagues in breadth.* The territorial extent of the valley is 244 1-2 square leagues, of which only 22 square leagues are occupied by the lakes, which is less than a tenth of the whole surface. The circumference of the valley, reckoning from the crest of the mountains which surround it like a circular wall, is 67 leagues. This crest is most ele- vated on the south, particularly on the south-east, W'here the great volcanoes of La Puebla, the Popo- catepetl and Iztaccihuatl, bound the valley. One of the roads which lead from the valley of Tenochtit- lan to that of Cholula and La Puebla passes even between the two volcanoes, by Tlamanalco, Ameca, La Cumbre, and La Cruz del Coreo. The small army of Cortez passed by this road on his first in- vasion. Six great roads cross the Cordillera which encloses the valley, of which the medium height is 3,000 me- * The maps of the valley of Mexico hitherto published arc so false, that in that of M. Mascaro, annually repeated in the almanack of Mexico, that the above distances are 25 and 17 instead of 18 and 12 leagues. It is from this map undoubt- edly that the archbishop Lorenzana gives the whole valley a circumference of more than 90 leagues, while the amount is almost one-third less. g POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE fsooK m. STATISTICAL-} t r * ^ z' n/r ANALYSIS. 5 *• ■intenaatwy of Mexico, tres* above the level of the ocean. 1. The road from Acapulco to Guchilaqiie and Cuervaracca by the high summit called la Cruz del Marques ;t 2. The road of Toluca by Tianguillo and Lerma, a magnificent cau- sey, which I could not sufficiently admire, construct- ed' with great art, partly over arches ; 3. The road of Queretaro, Guanaxuato, and Durango el camino de tierra adentro, which passes by Guautitlan, Huehue- toca, and the Puerto de Reyes, near Bata, through hills scarcely 80 metresj above the pavement of the great square {place) of Mexico ; 4. The road of Pa- chuco, which leads to the celebrated mines of Real del Monte, by the Cerro Ventoso, covered with oak, cypress, and rose trees, almost continually in flow- er ; 5. The old road of La Puebla, by S. Bonaventura and the Llanos de Apan ; and, 6. The new road of La Puebla by Rio Frio and Tesmelucos, south-east from the Cerro del Telapon, of which the distance from the Sierra Nevada, as well as that from the Sierra Nevada (Iztaccihuatl) to the great volcano, (Popocatepetl,) served for bases to the trigonometri- cal operations of MM. Velasquez and Costanzo. From being long accustomed to hear the capital of Mexico spoken of as a city built in the midst of a lake, and connected with the continent merely by dikes, those who look at my map will be no doubt * 9,842 feet. Trans. \ It was a military position in the time of the conquest. When the inhabitants of New Spain pronoiince the word el Marques., without adding a family name, the name ofHcrnan Cortes, Marques de el Valle de Oaxaca, is understood. In the same way, cl Almirante designates, in Spanish America, Christopher Columbus. This naive manner of expressing themselves proves the respect and admiration which thev preserve for the memory of these groat inen. \ 262 feet. Tram. cHAf.viii] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 9 ^AnYlysPs!^ ll- Intendancy of Mexico. astonished on seeing that the centre of the present city is 4,500 metres* distance from the lake of Tcz- cuco, and more that 9,000t from the lake of Chalco. They will be inclined, therefore, either to doubt the accuracy of the descriptions in the history of the discoveries of the new world, or they will believe that the capital of Mexico does not stand on the same ground with the old residence of Montezuma :f but the city has certainly not changed its place, for the cathedral of Mexico occupies exactly the ground where the temple of Huitzilopochtli stood, and the present street of Tacuba is the old street of Tlacopan, tlirough which Cortez made his famous retreat in the melancholy night of the 1st of July, 1520, which goes by the name of JVoche triste. The difference of situation between the old maps and those published by me arises solely from the diminution of water of the lake of Tezcuco. It may be useful in this place to lay before the readers a passage from a letter addressed^ by Cortez to the Emperor Charles the Fifth, dated 30th Octo- ber, 1520, in which he gives the description of the valley of Mexico. This passage written with great simplicity of style, gives us at the same time a very good idea of the sort of police which prevailed in the old Tenochtitlan. " The province in which the re- * 14,763 feet. Trans. f 29,527 feet. Trana. \ The true Mexican name of this king is Motmczoma. There arc two kings of the name in the genealogy of the Aztec sultans. The first was called Huehue Moreuczoma, and the second who died prisoner of Cortez Moteuczoma Xocojotzin. The adjectives before and after the proper name signify older and younger. § Lorenzana. VOL. ir. « jQ ruLlTICAL ESSAY ON THE [book nr, ANALYSIS, i ^' Intendancy of Mexico. sidence of this great lord Muteczuma is situated," says Cortez, " is circularly surrounded with elevated mountains, and intersected with precipices. The plain contains near 70 leagues in circumference, and in this plain are two lakes which fill nearly the whole valley ; for the inhabitants sail in canoes for more than 50 leagues round." (We must observe that the general speakes only of two lakes, because he knew but imperfectly those of Zumpango and Xalto- can, between which he hastily passed in his flight from Mexico to Tlascala, before the battle of Otum- ba.) " Of the two great lakes of the valley of Mexi- co, the one is fresh and the other salt water. They are separated by a small range of mountains ; (the conical and insulated hills near Iztapalapan ;) these mountains rise in the middle of the plain, and the waters of the lakes mingle together in a strait between the hills and the high Cordillera, (undoubtedly the eastern declivity of Cerros de Santa Fe.) The nu- merous towns and villages constructed in both of the two lakes carry on their commerce by canoes, with- out touching the coiHtinent. The great city of Te- mixtitan* (Tenochtitlan) is situated in the midst of the salt-water lake, which has its tides like the sea ; and from the city to the continent there are two leagues whichever way we wish to enter. Four dikes lead to the city : they are made by the hand of man, and are of the breadth of two lances. The city is as large as Seville or Cordova. The streets, I merely * 262 feet. Trans. t Tcniistitan, Temixiitaii, Tctioxtitlan, Tcniihiitlan, are all vitious alterations of the true nunVc of Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs, or Mexicans, called tlieni.selves also Tciiocfujues^ivom whence tlie denomination of Tenocluitlan is derived. Chap, vm.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. W TATISTICA ANALYSIS. STATISTICAL 7 T t^ j rM J ^1. Intendancy oj Mexico, speak of the principal ones, are very narrow and very large ; some are half dry and half occupied by na- vigable canals, furnished widi very well constructed wooden bridges, broad enough for ten men on horse- back to pass at the same time. The market-place, twice as large as that of Seville,, is surrounded with an immense portico, under which are exposed for sale all sorts of merchandise, eatables, ornaments made of gold, silver, lead, pewter, precious stones, bones; shells, and feathers ; delft ware, leather, and spun cotton. We find hewn stone, tiles, and timber lit for building. There are lanes for game, others, for roots and garden fruits : there are houses Avhere barbers shave the head, (with razors made of obsidian, and there are houses resembling our apothecary shops, where prepared medicines, unguents, and plasters are sold. There are houses wliere drink is sold. The market abounds with so many things, that 1 am unable to name them all to your highness. To avoid confusion, evcrj^ species of merchandise is sold in a separate lane ; every thing is sold by the yard, but nothing has hitherto been seen to be weigh- ed in the market. In the midst of the great square is a house which 1 shall call Paudiencia, in which ten or twelve persons sit constaiitly for determining any disputes which may arise respecting the sale of goods. There are other persons who mix continually with the crowd, to see that a just price is asked. AVe have seen them break the false measures which they had seized from the merchants." Such was the state of Tenochtitlan in 1520, ac- cording to the description of Cortez himself. I have sought in vain in the archives of his family, pre- served at Mexico in the Casa del Estado, for the plan which this great captain ordered to be drawn up 12 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. STATISTICAL7 r T *^ .1 riK/r • ANALYSIS. 5 ^' ^ntendancy oj Mexico, of the environs of the capital, and which he sent to the emperor, as he says, in his third letter pubUshed b)^ Cardinal Lorenzana. The Abbe Clavigero has ventured to give a plan of the lake of Tezcuco, such as he supposes it to have been in the sixteenth cen- tury. This sketch is very inaccurate, though much preferable to that given by Robertson, and other Eu- ropean authors equally unskilled in the geography of Mexico. I have drawn on the map of the valley of Tenochtidan, the old extent of the salt-water lake, such as I conceived it from the historical account of Cortez and some of his contemporaries. In 1520, and long after, the villages of Iztapalapan, Coyohu- acan, (improperly called Cuyacan,) Tacubaja, and Tacuba, were quite near the banks of the Lake of Tezcuco. Cortez says, expressly,* that the most part of the houses of Coyohuacan, Culuacan, Chu- lubuzco, Mexicaltzingo, Iztapalapan, Cuitaguaca, and Mizqueque, were built in the water on piles, so that frequently the canoes could enter by an under door. The small hill of Chapoltcpec, on which the viceroy Count Galvez constructed a castle, was no longer an island in the lake of Tezcuco in the time of Cortez. On this side, the continent approached to within about 3,000 metresf of the city of Te- nochtitlan, consequently the distance of two leagues indicated by Cortez, in his letter to Charles V. is not altogether accurate : he ought to have retrenched the one half of this, excepting, however, the part of the western side at the small porph\ ritical hill of Chapoltepec. Wc may well belie^'e, however, that this hill was, some centuries before, also a small * Lorenzana, p. 229. 195. lOiJ. t 9,842 feet. Tram. CHAP, vm] KINGDOM OF NFAV SPAIN. J3 STA ANA! f ALYSIS. i ^* Intendancy of Mexico. island, like the Penal del Marques, or the Penal de los Banos. It appears extremely probable, from geo- logical observations, that the lakes had been on the decrease long before the arri\'al of the Spaniards, and before the construction of the canal of Huehue- toca. The Aztecs or Mexicans, before founding on a group of islands, in 1325, the capital which yet subsists, had already inhabited for fifty-two years an- other part of the lake farther to the south, of which the Indians could never point out to me the site. The Mexicans left Aztlan towards the vear 1 160, and only arrived, after a migration of 56 years, in the valley of Tenochtitlan, by Malinalco, in the Cor- dillera of Toluca, and by Tula. They established themselves first at Zumpango, then on the southern declivity of the mountains of Tepeyac, where the magnificent temple, dedicated to our lady of Gua- daloupe, is situated. In the year 1245, (according to the chronology of the Abbe Clavigero,) they ar- rived at Chapoltepec. Harassed by the petty princes of Zaltocan, whom the Spanish historians honour with the title of kings, the Aztecs, to preserve their independence, withdrew to a group of small islands called Acocolco, situated towards the southern ex- tremity of the lake of Tezcuco. There they lived for half a century in great want, compelled to feed on roots of aquatic plants, insects, and a problema- tical reptile called axolotl, which Mr. Cuvier looks upon to be the nympha of an unknown salamander.* * M. Cuvier has described in my Recueil d' Observations Zodlogiques et d'jinatome com/iaree, p. 119. M. Dumeril be- lieves that the axolotl, of which M. Bonpland and myself have brought individuals in good preservation, is a new species of proteus. Zoblo^e Analijtique^ p. 9S. 14 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. ANALYSIS, s ^' Intendancy of Mexico. Having been reduced to slavery by the kings of Tez- cuco or Acolhuacan, the Mexicans were forced to abandon theii- village in the midst of the lake, and to take refuge on the continent at Tizapan. The ser- vices which they rendered to their masters in a war against the inhabitants of Xochimilco again procured them liberty. They established themselves first at Acatzitzirulan, which tliey called Mexicalzingo, from the name of MexiUi, or Huitzilopochtli,* their god of war, and next at Iztacalco. They removed from Iztacalco to the little islands which then appeared to the E.N.E. of the hill of Chapoltepec, in the western part of the lake of Tezcuco, in obedience to an order of the oracle of Aztian. An ancient tradition w^s preserved among this horde, that the fatal term of their migration was to be a place where they should find an eagle sitting on the top of a nopal, of which the roots penetrated the crevices of a rock. This nopal, (cactus,) alluded, to in the oracle, was seen by the Aztecs in the year 1325, which is the second Calli\ of the Mexican aera, on a small island, which served for foundation to the Teocalli, or Teopan, z. e. * Huitzlin mean^ hnmmint^-bh'd ; and opochtli means left ; for the god was painted with humming bird's feathers under the left foot. The Europeans have corrupted the word huit- zilopochtli into huiciiilobos, and vizlipuzli. The brotlier of this god, who was much revered by the inhabitants of Tezcu- co, was called Tlaca-huepan-Cuexcotzin. t As the first .icai/ corresponds to the year 1519, the sccovd Calli., in the first half of the fourteenth century, can only be the year 1325, and not the years 1324, 1327, and 1341, which the translator of the Raccolta di Aftndoza, as well as Si- guenza, cited by Boturini, and Betcncourt, cited by Torquc- mada, allege to have been the date of the foundation of Mexi- co. See the chronological dissertation of the Abbe Chu'igcro, Storie di Messico^ T. IV. p. 54. 1 CHAP, vjii] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 15 STATISTICAL 7 T j^ , '/- i\r ANALYSIS. 5 1- Intendancij of Mexico. the house of God, afterwards called by the Spaniards the Great Temple of Mexidi. The first TeocuUi^ around which the new city was built, was of wood, like the most ancient Grecian temple, that of Apollo at Delphi, described by Pau- sanias. The stone edifice, of which Coitez and Bernal Diaz admired the symmetry, was constructed on the same spot by King Ahuitzotl, in the year 1486. It was a pyramidal monument of 37metrps* in height, situated in the middle of a vast enclosure of walls, and consisted of five stories, like several pyramids of Sacara, and particularly that of Alehe- dun. The Teocalli of Tenochtitlan, very accurately laid out, like all the Egyptian, Asiatic, and Mexi- can pyramids, contained 97 metresf of base, and formed so truncated a pyramid, that when seen from a distance the monument appeared an enormous cube, with small altars, covered with wooden cupolas 011 the top. The point where these cupolas terminated was 54 metres elevated above the base of the edifice or the pavement of the enclosure. J We may see from these details, that the Teocalli bore a strong re- semblance in form to the ancient monument of Ba- bylon, called by Strabo the Mausoleum of Belus, which was only a pyramid dedicated to Jupiter Be- lus.^ Neither the Teocalli nor the Babylonian edi- fice were temples in the sense which we attach to the word, according to the ideas derived by us from the Greeks and Romans. All edifices consecrated to Mexican divinities formed truncated pyramids. The great monuments of Teotihuacan, Cholula, and Pa- pantla, still in preservation, confirm this idea, and * 121 feet. Trans, f 318 feet. Trans. i 177 feet. Trans. § Zoega de Obeliscis, p. 50. IQ POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. ^A^\\LYS^s^^}^- Intendancy of Mexico, indicate what the more inconsiderable temples were in the cities of Tenochtitlau and Tezcuco. Covered altars were placed on the top of the Teocallis ; and these edifices must hence be classed with tlie pyra- midal monuments of Asia, of which traces were an- ciently found even in Arcadia ; for the conical mau- soleum of Callistus* was a true tumulus^ covered with fruit trees, and served for base to a small temple con- secrated to Diana. We know not of what materials tlie Teocalli of Tenochtitlau was constructed. The historians mere- ly relate, that it was covered with a hard and smooth stone. The enormous fragments which are from time to time discovered around the present cathedral are of porphyry, with a base of grdnstein filled with amphi- bolos and vitreous feld-spath. When the square round the cathedral was recently paved, carved stones were found at a depth of ten and twelve metres. t Few nations have moved such great masses as were moved by the Mexicans. The calendar stone and the sacrifice stone, exposed to public view in the Great Square, contain from eight to ten cubic me- tres.J The colossal statue of Teoyaomiqui, covered with hieroglyphics, lying in one of tlie vestibules of the university, is ^ metres in length and three in breadth. II M. Gamboa, one of the canons, as- sured me, that on digging opposite the chapel of the Sagrario, a carved rock was foimd among an im- * Pausanias, lib. vlii. c. 35. t 32 and 38 fett. Trun.i. \ From 282 to 353 cubic feet. Trans. § The number of the original here, 3, is evidently erro- neous. Trans. 119 4-5 fett. Trans. CHAP, viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 17 ^YJiLYSf 1 J- Intcndancy of Mexico. mcnse quantity of idols belongiiip: to the Tcocalli, which was s:c\en metres in length, six ip. brt adlh, and three i]ihei2:ht.* TIkv endeiuoured in vain to re- move It. The Tcocalli wiis in I'liinst a feu' years after the siege of Tenochtitlan, which liice tliat of Troy, end- ed in an almost entire destruction of the city, i am therefore inclined to believe tliat the exterior of the truncated pyramid \vas clay, covered with porous amygdaloid called tetzontli. In fact, a short time before the construction of the temple under the reign of King Ahuitzotl, the quarries of this cellular and spongy rock began to be worked. Now nothing could be easier destroyed than edifices constructed of porous and light materials, like pumice-stone. Notwithstanding the coincidence^ of a great num- * 22 r-S, 19 3-5, r.r.d 9 4-5 feet. Tfnnr,. t One of the oldest and most valuable inanuscnpt^ pre- served at ^Mexico is the Book of the Municipality, (Lihro del Cabildo.) Father Pichardo, a respectable nlif^ioso in the con- vent of San Felipe Ncri, well versed in the history of his country, showed mc tliis manuscript, which wusbet^iin on the 3th March, 1-524, tiuee years after the siep^e. It speaks of the square where the great temple stood, (Ja JUuza adondc cstaba el tcinpdo major. ^ \ If those who have left us descriptions and plans of the Teocalli, instead of i-ncasuriin^ it thcn.r.elves, have merely related what they were told by the Indians, this coincidence proves less than mii^ht at first be believed. There are uni- form traditions in every country as to the size of edifices, the height of towers, the breadth of craters, and the descent of cataracts. National pride delights to exaggerate these di- mensions, and travellers agree in their accounts so long as they draw from the same source. However, in this particu- lar case the exaggeration of the height was not prob;J)ly very great, because it was easy to judge of the clevaiion of t!je monument from the number of its stc])s. — Juthor. So far from a coincidence in the acoiTp.tS; it v/ould appear VOL.11. C 1^ POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii^. ^Ynalysis.^]^- Intendancij of Mexico. ber of accounts, it is not impossible that the dimen- sions attributed to the Teocalli are somewhat exagge- rated ; but the pyramidal form of this Mexican edi- fice, and its great analogy to the most ancient monu- ments of Asia ought to interest us miich more than its mass and size. The old city of Mexico communicated with the continent by the three great dikes of Tepejacac, (Guadalupe,) Tlacopan, (Tacuba,) and Iztapalapan. Cortez mentions four dikes, because he reckoned,, without doubt, the causey which led to Chapolte- from the Abbe Clavigero, whose zeal for the ancient honours of his countrj' certainly "by no means predisposed him to scep- ticism on such a subject, that there is almost no possibility of combining the different descriptions, or of ascertaining the dimensions from them. " Voremmo, che fosse stata altretanta 3a loro esatezza nelle misure, che ci lasciarono, quanto fu il loro zelo nel distruggcre quel sup.erbo monurriento della su- perstizione ; "ina e si grande la varieta con cui scrissero^ che dopo aver faticato nel combinare le lor descnzioni,?2on ho fio- tuto certificarmi delle misure^ ne avrei mai potuto formare idea deir architettura di questo tempio, se non fosse stato per Tim- ^■nagine, che ci presenta agli occhi il conquistatore anonimo la cui copia noi diamo qui, benche nelle misure ci conformia- xno piu colla sua relazione, che colla imagine." — {Storia de Messico, vol. ii.. p. 26.) This temple, of Avhich the de- scriptions so much puzzled M. Clavigero, but which he ven- tures however to style iin sufierbo monumento della sufiersti- zione, does not seem to have impressed Robertson with a very high idea of Mexican ingenuity. " As far as one can gather," he says, "from their (the Spanish accounts) obscure and inaccurate descriptions, the great temple of Mexico, the most famous of New Spain, was a solid mass of earth of a square form, faced partly with stone. Such structures con- vey no high idea of progress in art and ingenuity; and one can hardly conceive that a form more rude and simple could have occurred to a nation in its first efforts towards erecting any great work." (^Robertson's America, vol. iii. p. 317} Trans, -nAp.vnr.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN.. ig STATISTICAL 7 t r . / r ,\r Tir ANALYSIS. ' *• Jntendancy oj Nexv Mexico. pec. The Calzada of Iztapalapan had a branch which united Coyohuacan to the small fort Xaloc, the same in which tlie Spaniards were entertained at their first entry bv the Mexican nobility. Robertson speaks of a dike which led to Tezcuco, but such a dike never existed, on account of the distance of the place, and the great depth of the eastern part of the lake. In 1338, seventeen years after the foundation of Tenochtitlan, a part of the inhabitants, in a civil dissension, separated from the rest : they established themselves in the small islands to the north-west of the temple of Mexitli. The new city, which at first bore the name of Xaltilolco, and afterwards Tlate- lolco, was governed by a king independent of Te- nochtitlan. In the centre of Anahuac, as well as in the Peloponnesus, Latium, and wherever the civiliza- tion of the human species was merely commencing, every city, for a long time, constituted a separate state. The Mexican king Axajacatl* conquered Tlatelolco, which was thenceforth united by bridges to the city of Tenochtitlan. I discovered in the hiero- gl}phical manuscripts of the ancient Mexicans, pre- served in the palace of the viceroy, a curious paint- ing, which represents the last king of Tlatelolco, called Moquihuix, as killed on the top of a house of God, or truncated pyramid, end then thrown down tlie stairs which led to the stone of the sacrifices. Since this catastrophe, the great market of the Mexi- cans, formerly held near the Teocalli of Mexitli, was transferred to Tlatelolco. The description of the Mexican market, which we have given from C©rtez, relates to the market of Tlatelolco. * Clavtgero, i. p. 251. Axajacatl reigned from J 464 to U77, (iv. p. 5S.) 20 POLITICAL ESSAY ON 'i'HE [book ni. ANALYSIS. 5 J^- i'ltendancy of 3lexico. What is now called tire Barrio of Santiago com- poses but a part of the ancient Tlatelolco. We pro- ceed for more than an hour on the road to Tancpantla and Ahuahnetes, among the ruins of the old city. We perceive there, as well as on the road to Tacu- ba and Iztapalapali, how much the Mexico rebuilt by Cortez is smaller than Tenochtitlan under the last of the Monte zumas. The enormous magnitude of the market-place of Tlatelolco, of which the boundaries are still discernible, j^roves the great population of the ancient city. The Indians show in this same mar- ket-place an elevation surrounded by walls. It was one of the Mexican theatres, the same on which Cortez, a few days belbre the end of the siege, erect- ed his famous Catapulta, [trahuco de pah^^) the ap- pearance of which alone terrilied the besieged ; for the machine was incapable of being used from the awkwardness of the artillery. men. This elevation is now included in the porch of the chapel of Santiago. The city of Tenochtitlan was divided into four quarters, called Teopan, or Xochimilco, Atzacualco, Moyoda, and Tlaguechiuchan, or Cuepopan. The old division is still preserved in the limits assigned to the quarters of St. Paul, St. Sebastian, St. John, and St. Mary ; and the present streets have for the most part the same direction as the old ones, nearly from north to south, and from east to west.f But what gives the new city, as we have already observed, *Loren2ana, p. 289. t Properly from the S. 16o W. to N. 74° E. at least towards the convent of Saint Auguslin, vhere I took my azinmths. The direction of the old streets was undoubtedly determined Ijy that of the prir.cipal dikes. Now, from the position of the places where these dikes appear to have terminated, it is very improbable that they reprtthented cxacilv meridians and pa- rallels. cfiAP. viii.j KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN- oi STATISTIC AL>T r, , y. xr nr ■ ANALYSIS, i ^* ^^itaiaancy of New Mexico. a peculiar and distinctive character, is, that it is situ- ated entirely on the continent, between the extremi- ties of the tv» o lakes ol Tt zeuco and Xochimilco, and that it only receives, by means of navigable canals, the fresh water of the Xochimilco. Many circumstiinces Iiave contributed to this new order of things. The pait of the salt-water lake be- tween the southern and western dikes was always the shallowest. Cortez complained that his flotilla, the brigantines which he constructed at Tczcuco, could not, notwithstanding the openings in the dikes, make the circuit of the besieged city. Sheets of water of small depth became insensibly marshes, which, when intersected with trenches or small dcfluous canals, were converted into cliinampas and arable land. The lake of Tezcuco, which Valmont de Bomare*' sup- posed to communicate with the ocean, though it is at on elevation of 2,277 metres,! has no particular sources, like the lake of Chalco. When ^ve con^ sider, on the one hand, the small volume of water with which, in dry seasons, this lake is furnished by very inconsiderable rivers, and, on the other, the enormous rapidity of evaporation in the table -land of Mexico, of which I have made repeated ex peri- ments, we must admit, what geological observations appear also to confirm, that for centuries the want of equilibrium between the water lost by evaporation, and the mass of water flowing in, has progressively circumscribed the lake of Tczcuco within more nar- row limits. We learn from the Mexican annals,t * Diciionncirc d'Hiatoire JuUurelle^ article Lac. t r,468 feet. Trans. 4 Paintijjgs preserved in the Vatican, and testimony of Fa- ther AcGSta. 22 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ih. ^ANALYS?b\^ll- Intendancy of Mexico. that in the reign of King Ahuizotl, this salt-water lake experienced such a want of water as to interrupt navi- gation ; and that to obviate this evil, and to increase its supplies, an aqueduct was constructed from Coyo- huacan to Tenochtitlan. This aqueduct brought the sources of Huitzilopochco to several canals of the city which were dried up. This diminution of water, experienced before the arrival of the Spaniards, would no doubt have been very slow and very insensible, if the hand of man, since the period of the conquest, had not contributed to reverse the order of nature. Those who have travelled in the peninsula know how much, even in Europe, the Spaniards hate all plantations, which jdeld a shade round towns or villages. It would ap- pear that the first conquerors wished the beautiful valley of Tenochtitlan to resemble the Castilian soil, ^vhich is dry and destitute of vegetation. Since the sixteenth century they have inconsiderately cut, not only the trees of the plain in which the capital is si- tuated, but those on the mountains which surround it. The construction of the new city, begun in 1524, required a great quantity of timber for build- ing and piles. They destroyed, and they daily de- stroy, without planting any thing in its stead, except around the capital, where the last viceroys have per- petuated their memory by promenades,* {FaseoSy Alamedas^) which bear their names. The want of ve- getation exposes the soil to the direct influence of the solar rays ; and the humidity which is not lost by fil- tration through the amygdaloid, basaltic, and spongy rock, is rapidly evaporated and dissolved in air, wherever the foliage of the trees or a luxuriant vcr- * Pasco de Bucran'Uiy de RevHla^^i^edoy de GalveZs dc tjHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. -23 STATISTICAL^ T r* ^ rir ■ ANALYSIS, s • Ifitemaiici/ of uMexico. dure does not defend tlie soil from tlie infiuencc of die sun and the dry winds of the south. As the same cause operates througliout the whole ralley, the abundance and circulation of water has sensibly diminished. The lake of Tezcuco, the finest of the five lakes, which Cortez in his letters habi- tually calls an interior sea., receives much less water from infiltration than in the sixteenth centur}-. Every- xvhere the clearing and destruction of fort sts ha\ e produced the same effects. General Andreossi, in his classical work on the Canal du Midi^ has proved that the springs have diminished around the reservoir of St. Feneol, merely through a false system intro- duced in the management of the forests. In the pro- vince of Caraccas, the picturesque lake of Tacari- gua* has been drying gradually up ever since the sun darted his rays without interposition on the naked and defenceless soil of the valleys of Aragua. But the circumstance which has contributed the most to the diminution of the lake of Tezcuco, is the famous open drain, known by the name of the Desague real de Jliie/metoca, which we shall after- wards discuss. This cut in the }7ioimtai?i, first begun in 1C07, in the form of a subterranean tunnel, has not only reduced within very narrow limits the two lakes in the northern part of the valley, i. e. the lakes of Zumpango [Tzompango) and San Christobal ; but has also prevented their waters in the rainy season from flowing into the basin of the lake of Tezcuco. These waters formerly inundated the plains, and pu- * New islands appear in it from time to time from the di- minution of water, {las afiurccidas.) The hike of Tacnrigua, or J\i'ueva ra/aida, is 474 metres (1554 feet) elevrited above the level of the sea. (See mv Tal)lcaiix de !a Nature, torn. i. p. 72.;'' 24. POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [r.ooK m. ^^ANALyIis".^] I- Intendanmj of Mexico. rifled a soil strongly covered with carbonate aixl mu- riate of soda. At present, without settling into pools, and thereby increasing the humidity of the Mexican atmosphere, they are drawn off by an arti- ficial canal into the river of Panuco, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean. This state of things has been brouglit about from the desire of converting the ancient city of Mexico into a capital better adapted for carriages, and less ex- posed to the danger of inundation. The water and vegetation have in fact diminished with the same ra- pidity with which the tequesquitc (or carbonate of soda) has increased. In the time of Montezuma, and long afterwards, the suburb of Tlatelolco, the barios of San Sebastian, San Juan, and Santa Cruz, were celebrated for the beautiful verdure of their gardens ; but these places now, and especially the plains of San Lazaro, exhil^it nothing but a crust of efflorescent salts. The fertility of the plain, though yet considerable in the southern part, is by no means what it was wlien the city ^\'as surrounded by the lake. A wise distribution of water, particu- larly by means of small canals of irrigation, might restore the ancient fertiHty of the soil, and re- enrich a valley which nature appears to have destined for the capital of a great empire. The actual bounds of the lake of Tezcuco arc not very well determined, the soil being so argillaceous and smooth that the difference of le^'el for a mile is not more than two decimetres.* When the east winds blov/ with any violence, the v/ater v.ithdraws towards the western bank of the lake, and sometimes leaves an extent of more thail 600 metresi" dry. * 7.874 inches. Tran^. +l,96Sfoet. Tran^. CMAf.Tiii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 25 STATISTICAL^ j Jntendancy of Mexico. Perhaps the periodical operation of these winds suggested to Cortez the idea of. regular tides,* of which the existence has not been confirmed by late observations. The lake of Tezcuco is in general only from three to five metrest in depth, and in some places even less than one. Hence the com- merce of tl^ inhabitants of the small town of Tez- cuco suffers much in the very dry months of January and February ; for the want of water prevents them from going in canoes to the capital. The lake of Xochimilco is free from this inconvenience ; for from Chalco, Mesquic, and Tlahuac, the navigation is never once interrupted, and Mexico receives daily, by the canal of Iztapalapan, roots, fruits, and flowers in abundance. Of the five lakes of the valley of Mexico, the lake of Tezcuco is most impregnated with muriate and carbonate of soda. The nitrate of barytes proves that this water contains no sulphate in dissolution. The most pure and limpid water is that of the lake of Xochimilco, the specific weight of which I found to be 1.0009, when that of water distilled at the temperature of 18'' centigrade J was 1.000, and when water from the lake of Tezcuco was l.Oil^. The water of this last lake is consequently heavier than that of the Baltic sea, and not so heavy as that of the ocean, which, under diflerent latitudes, has been found between 1.026<> and 1.0285. The quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen which is detached from the surface of all the Mexican lakes, and which the acetite of lead indicates in great abundance in the * Jourrtfl de Savann for the year 1676, p. 34. The lake ol Geneva manifests also a rcivuiar nioiion, which Saussure at- tributes to periodical winds. t 9 *-5 to 16 2-5 feet. Trann. t J'*''' I'^ahreuhcit. Trans. VOL. II. D 26 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE (book hi. ^^ANALYSrs^^'] I- Intendancy of Mexico. lakes of Tezciico and Chalco, undoubtedly contri- butes in certain seasons to the unhealthiness of the air of the valley. However, and the fact is curious, intermittent fevers are very rare on the banks of these very lakes, of which the surface is partly concealed by rushes and aquatic herbs. Adorned with numerous teocallis, like so many Mahometan steeples, surrounded with water and dikes, founded on islands covered with verdure, and receiving hourly in its streets thousands of boats which vivified the lake, the ancient Tenochtitlan, according to the accounts of the first conquerors, must have resembled some of the cities of Holland, China, or die Delta of Lower Egypt. The capital, reconstructed by the Spaniards, exhibits, perhaps, a less vivid, though a more august and majestic ap- pearance. Mexico is undoubtedly one of the finest cities ever built by Europeans in either hemisphere. With the exception of Petersburg, Berlin, Philadel- phia, and some quarters of Westminster, there docs not exist a city of the same extent which can be compared to the capital of New Spain, for the uniform level of the ground on which it stands, for the regu- larity and breadth of the streets, and the extent of the public places. The architecture is generally of a vtry pure style, and there are even edifices of very beautiful structure. Tlie exterior of the houses is not loaded with ornaments. Two sorts of hewn *itonc, the porous amygdaloid called tetzontli, and especially a jxjrphyry of vitreous feld-spath without any quartz, give to the Mexican buildings an air of solidity, and sometimes even magnificence. There :^re none of those wooden balconies and galleries to be seen which disfigure so much all the European cities in both the Indies. The balustrades and gates are all of Biscay iron, ornamented with bronze, and CHAP, viii] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 27 ^ ANALYS?S^^5 I- Intendancij of Mexico. the houses, instead of roofs, have terraces like those in Italy and other southern countries. Mexico has been very much embellished since the residence of the Abbe Chappe there in 1769. The edifice destined to the School of Mines, for which ihe richest individuals of the country furnished a sum of more than three millions of francs,* would adorn the principal places of Paris or Lon- don. Two great palaces (hotels) were recently con- structed by Mexican artists, pupils of the Academy of Fine Arts of the capital. One of these palaces, in the quarter della Traspana, exhibits in the inte- rior of the court a very beautiful oval peristyle of coupled columns. The traveller justly admires a vast circumference paved with porphyry flags, and enclosed with an iron railing, richly ornamented with bronze, containing an equestrian statuef of King Charles the Fourth, placed on a pedestal of Mexican marble, in the midst of the Plaza Major of Mexico, opposite the cathedral and the viceroy's palace. However, it must be agreed, that notwithstanding the progress of the arts within these last thirty years, it is much less from the grandeur and beauty of the monuments, than from the breadth and straight- ness of the streets, and much less from its edifices than from its uniform regularity, its extent and posi- * 124,800/. sterling. TVaras.—See Chap. VII. t This colossal statue was executed at the expense of the Marquis de Branciforte, I'ormerly viceroy of Mexico, bro- ther-in-law of the Prince of Peace. It weighs 450 quintals, and was modelled, founded, and placed by the same artist, M. Tolsu, whose name deserves a distinguished place in the history of Spanish sculpture. The merits of this man of ge- nius can only be appreciated by those who know the difficul- ties with which the execution of these great works of ui"t are attended even in civilized Europe. 28 VOLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. ANAI.YSIS. S^' Intendancy of Mexico* tion, that the capital of New Spam attracts the admi- ration of Europeans. From a singular concurrence of circumstances, I have seen successively, within a very short space of time, Lima, Mexico, Philadelphia, Washington,* Paris, Rome, Naples, and the lar- gest cities of Germany. By comparing together im- pressions which follow in rapid succession, we are enabled to rectify any opinion which we may have too easily adopted. Notwithstanding such unavoida- ble comparisons, of which several, one would think, must hare proved disadvantageous for the capital of Mexico, it has left in me a recollection of gran- deur which I principally attribute to the majestic character of its situation and the surrounding scenery. In fact, nothing can present a more rich and varied appearance than the valley, when, in a fine sum- mer morning, the sky without a cloud, and of that deep azure which is peculiar to the dry and rarefied air of high mountains, we transport ourselves to the top of one of the towers of the cathedral of Mexico, or ascend thehill of Chapoltepec. A beautiful vegetation * From the plan of the city of Washington, and from the magnificence of its Capitol, of which 1 only saw a part comple- ted, the Federal City will undoubtedly one duy be a much finer cily than Mexico. Philadelphia Iias also the same regularity of construction. The alleys of plalanus, acacia, and populus heterophylla, which adorn its streets, almost give to it a ru- ral beauty. The vegetation of the banks of the Potomac and Delaware is also richer than \\ hat we fiiid at 2,300 metres (7,500 feet) of elevation on the ridge of the Mexican Cordil- leras. But Wasl;ii)gton and Philadelphia w iil always look like European cities. They will not strike tiic eyes of the tra- veller with that peculiar, I may say exotic, character which belongs to Mexico, Santa Fe de Bogota, Quito, and all the tropical capitals, constructed at an elevation as high or higher 'ban the passage of the great St. Bernard. 6 CHAP, vni.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 29 STATISTICAL) T r, » /• 1 / ANALYSIS s Intendancij oj Mexico. surrounds this hill. Old cypress trunks,* of more than 15 and 16 metresf in circumfcrtncc, raise their na- ked heads above those of the schinus, which resem- ble in their appearance the weeping willows of the cast. From the centre of this solitude, the summit of the porphyritical rock of Chapoltepec, the eye sweeps over a vast plain of carefully cultivated fields, which extend to the very feet of the colossal moun- tains covered with perpetual snow. The city ap- pears as if washed by the \\'aters of the lake of Tez- cuco, whose basin, surrounded with villages and hamlets, brings to mind the most beautiful lakes of the mountains of Switzerland. Large avenues of elms and poplars lead in every direction to the capi- tal ; and two aqueducts, constructed over arches of very great elevation, cross the plain, and exhibit an appearance equally agreeable and interesting. The magnificent convent of Nuestra Sanora de Guada- lupe appears joined to the mountains of Tcpeyacac, among ravines, which shelter a few date and young yucca trees. Towards the south, the whole tract be- tween San Angel, Tacabaya, and San Augustin de las Cuevas, appears an immense garden of orange, peach, apple, cherry, and other European fruit trees. This beautiful cultivation forms a singular contrast with the wild appearance of the naked mountains which enclose the valley, among which the famous volcanoes of La Puebla, Popocatepetl, and Iztacci- huatl are the most distinguished. The first of these forms an enormous cone, of which the crater, con- tinually inflamed and throwing up smoke and ashes, opens in the midst of eternal snows. * Los Ahuahuetes. — Cupressus disticha Lin. t 49 and 52 feet. Trant. 30 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book irr. STATISTICAL^, t .^ ^ /• 71 r • ANALYSIS. S intemancy of Mexico. The city of Mexico is also remarkable for its ex- cellent police. The most part of the streets have very broad pavements, andlhey are clean and well lighted. These advantages are the fruits of the activity of the Count de Revillagigedo, who on his arrival found the capital extremely dirty. Water is everywhere to be had in the soil of Mexico, a very short way below the surface, but it is brackish, like the water of the lake of Tezcuco. The two aqueducts already mentioned, by which the city receives fresh water, are monuments of modern construction worthy of the traveller's attention. The springs of potable water are situated to the east of the town, one in the insulated hill of Chapoltepec, and the other in the cerros of Santa Fe, near the Cor- dillera, which separates the valley of Tenochtitlan from that of Lerma and Toluca. The arches of the aqueduct of Chapoltepec occupy a length of more than 3,300 metres.* The water of Chapoltepec en- ters by the southern part of the city, at the kSalto del Agua. It is not the most pure, and is only drank in the suburbs of Mexico. The water which is least impregnated with carbonate of lime is that of the aqueduct of Santa Fe, which runs along Alameda, and terminates at la Traspana, at the bridge de la Marescala. This aqueduct is nearly 10,200 metresf in length ; but the declivity of the ground is such, that for not more than a third of this space the water can be conducted over arches. The old city of Tenochtitlan had aqueducts no less consi- derable. :j: In the beginning of the siege, the two captains Alvarado and Olid destroyed that of Cha- poltepec. Corttz, in iiis first letter to Charles the * 10,826 feet. Trans. f 33,464 feet. 7Vfl?j.v. :|: C/avii^ero, iii: p. 195. Soils, i. p. AOF,. r.HAi'. viir ] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 31 TATISr ANALY: STATISTICAL 7 x r * J r A/T • V'SIS. 3 '• intemiancij oj Mexico. Fifth, speaks also of the spring of Aniilco, near Chu- rubusco, of wliich tlic w atcrs were bi ouglit to the city by pipes of burnt earth. This spring is near to that of Santa Fe. We still perceive the remains of this great aqueduct, which \\as constructed with double pipes, one of which received the water, while they were employed in cleaning the other.* This "vvater was sold in canoes, which traversed the streets of Tenochtitlan. The sources of San Augustin de las Cuevas are the finest and ptirest ; and I imagined I discovered on the road leading from this charming village to Mexico traces of an ancient aqueduct. We have already named the three principal dikes by which the old city was connected with the Terra * Lorenzana, p. 108. — The largest and finest construction of the Indians in this way is the aqueduct of the city of Tez- cuco. We still admite the traces of a great mound which was constructed to heighten the level of the water. How must we admire the industry and activity displayed in general by the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians.in the irrigation of arid lands I In the maritime part of Peru I have seen the re- mains of walls, along which water Avas conducted for a space of from 5 to 6,000 metres (from 16,404 to 19,685 feet) from the foot of the Cordillera to the coast. The conquerors of the 16th century destroyed these aqueducts, and that part of Peru is become, like Persia, a desert destitute of vegetation. Such is the civilization carried by the Europeans among the people whom they are pleased to call barbarous, yluthor. How much it is to be regretted that Robertson gives usually such general descriptions) that we have a difficulty in forming any thing like a distinct conception of the subjects of them. He says of the Peru canals of irrigation, " By means of artifi- cial canals, conducted with much patience and considerable art from the torrents that poured across their country, they conveyed a regular supply of moisture to their fields." — Would it have been beneath the dignity of an historian, to have specified that art and that patience to his readers for which he did not want materials I Trans. 52 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [boor ni. ^^/fNALvKs ^] ^' Intendancy of Mexico. Firma. These dikes partly still exist, and the num- ber has been even increased. They form at present great paved causeys across marshy grounds ; and as they are very elevated, they possess the double advantage of admitting the passage of carriages, and containing the overflowings of the lake. The Cal- zada of Astapalapan is founded on the very same old dike on which Cortez performed such prodigies of valour in his encounters with the besieged. The Calzada of San Anton is still distinguished in our days for the great number of small bridges which the Spaniards and Tlascaltecs found there, when San- doval, Cortez's companion in arms, was wounded near Coyohuacan.* These Calzadas of San Anto- nio Abad, of La Piedad, of San Christobal, and of Guadalupe,' (anciently called the dike of Tepeyacac,) were newly reconstructed after the great inundation of 1604, under the viceroy Don Juan de Mendoza, y Lima, Marquis de Montesclaros. The only savans of that time, Fathers Torquemada and Gero- nimo de Zaratc, executed the survey and marking out of the causeys. At this peiiod the city of Mexico was paved for the first time ; for before the Count de Revillagigedo, no other viceroy had em- ployed himself more successfully in effecting a good police than the Marquis de Montesclaros. The objects which generally attract the attention of the traveller are, 1. The cathedral^ of which a small part is in the style vulgarly called Gothic : the principal edifice, which has two towers ornamented with pilasters and statues, is of very beautiful sym- metry and very recent construction. 2. The treasu- ry, adjoining to the palace of the viceroys, a building * Lorenzana, p. 229, 245. CHAP, viii] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 33 ^^A^ALYS^^^l^- I'^tendancij of Mexico. from which, since the beginning of the 16th century, more than 6,500 millions* in gold and silver coin have been issued. 3. The convents y among which the great convent of St. Francis is particularly distin- guished, which from alms alone possesses an annual revenue of half a million of francs. f This vast edifice was at first intended to be constructed on the ruins of the temple of Huitzilopochtli ; but these ruins having been destined for the foundation of the cathedral, the convent was begun in 1531 in its actual ^situation. It owes its existence to the great activity of a serving- brother or lay monk, Fray Pedro de Gante, an ex- traordinary man, who was said to have been the natu- ral son of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, and who was a great benefactor of the Indians, to whom he ^vas the first who taught the most useful mechanical arts of Europe. 4. The hospital^ or rather the two united hospitals, of \vhich the one maintains 600 and the othei' 800 children and old people. This esta- blishment, in which both order and cleanliness may be seen, but little industry, has a revenue of 250,000 francs.J A rich merchant lately bequeathed to it by his testament six millions of francs, § which the royal treasury laid hold of, on the promise of paying five per cent, for it. 5. The acor'dada, a fine edi- fice, of which the prisons are generally spacious and well aired. They reckon in this house, and in the other prisons of the acordada which depend on it, more than 1,200 individuals, among whom are a great number of smugglers, and the unfortunate Indian * 270,855,000/. sterling. Trans.' t 20,835/. sterling. Trans. \ 10,470/. sterling;. Tra/is. § 250,020/. sterling. Tran.". VOL. II. E 54 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iif. ^\1JvL™s^^ll- Intendancy of Mexico, prisoners dragged to Mexico from the provincial in^ ternas, (Indios Mecos,) of whom we have already spoken in the 6th and 7th chapters. 6. The School of' Mines, the newly begun edifice, and the old pro- visory establishment, with its fine collections in physics, mechanics, and mineralogy. *^ 7. The bo- tanical garden^ in one of the courts of the vice- roy's palace. It is very small, but extremely rich in vegetable productions either rare or interesting for commerce. 8. The edifices of the university and the public library, which is very unworthy of so great and ancient an establishment. 9. The Academy of Fine Aj'tSy with a collection of ancient casts. 10. The equestrian statue of King Charles the Fourth in the Plaza Mayor, and the sepulchral monument which the Duke de Monteleone consecrated to the great Cortez, in a chapel of the Hospital de los Na- turales. It is a simple family monument, adorned with a bust in bronze, representing the hero in the prime of life, executed by M. Tolsa. Wherever we traverse Spanish America, from Buenos Ayres to jVlonterey, and from Trinidad and Porto Rico to Panama and Veragua, we nowhere meet with a na- tional monument erected by the public gratitude to the glorv of Christopher Columbus and Hernan Cor- tez ! Those who are addictc^d to the study of history, and who love to investigate American antiquities, * There are two other very remarkable oryctognostical and geological collections belonging to Professor Cervantes and the Oidor M. Caravajal. -This respectable magistrate also possesses a superb cabinet of shells, collected during his re- sidence in the Philippine Islands, where he displayed the VAiTie zeal for the physical sciences for m hich he is so ho- nourably distinguished at Mexico. , CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 35 ^^IStYSs""^]!- IntenSancy of Mexico. will not find in this capital those great remains oi works which are to be seen in Peru, in the environs of Cusco and Guamachuco, at Pachacamac near Lima, or at Mansiche near Truxillo ; at Canar and Cayo in the province of Quito ; and in Mexico, near Mitla and Cholula, in the intendancics of Oaxaca and Puebla. It appears that the teocallis (of which we have already attempted to describe the strange form) were the sole monuments of the Aztecs. Now the christian fanaticism was not only highly interested in their destruction, but the very safety of the con- queror rendered such a destruction necessary. It was partly effected during the siege ; for those trun- cated pyramids rising up by layers served for refuge to the combatants, like the temple of Baal-Berith to the people of Canaan. They were so many cas- tles from which it was necessary to dislodge the enemy. As to the houses of individuals, which the Spanish historians describe as very low, we are not to be surprised to find merely their foundations or low ruins, such as we discover in the Bario de Tlatelolco, and towards the canal of Istacalco. Even in the most part of our European cities, how small is the number of houses of which the cpnstruction goes so far back as the beginning of the sixteenth century ! How- ever, the edifices of Mexico are not fallen into ruins through age. Animated by the same spirit of de- struction which the Romans displayed at Syracuse, Carthage, and in Greece, the Spanish conquerors believed that the siege of a Mexican city never was finished till they had rased every building in it. Cortez, in his third letter* to the Emperor Charles V. * Lorenzana, p. 278. 36 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [boox hi. STATISTICAL? j t . j r n/T ANALYSIS, 5 ^* ^ntendancy of Mexico, discloses himself the fearful system which he followed in his military operations. " Notwithstanding all these advantages," says he, " which we have gained, I saw clearly that the inhabitants of the city of Temix- titlan (Tenochtitlan) were so rebellious and obsti- nate that they wished rather to perish than surrender. I knew not what means to employ to spare so many dangers and hardships, and to avoid completing the entire ruin of the capital, which was the most beau- tiful thing in the world {a la ciudad^ porqiie era la mas hermosa cosa del Mundo.) It was in vain to tell them that I would never raise my camp, nor with- draw my flotilla of brigantines ; and that I would never cease to carry on the war by land and water till I was master of Temixtitlan ; and it was in vain I observed to them that they could expect no as- sistance, and that there was not a nook of land from which they could hope to draw maize, meat, fruits, and water. The more we made these exhortations to them, the more they showed us that they were far from being discouraged. They had no other desire but that of fighting. In this state of things, con- sidering that more than forty or fifty days had already elapsed since wc began to invest the place, I resolved at last to adopt means, by which, in providing for our own security, we should be able to press our enemies more closely. / formed the design of de- 7nolishing on all sides all the houses in proportion as we became masters of the streets^ so that we sJioidd not advance a foot without having destroyed and cleared down xvhatever was behind us, coiwerting into firm ground whatever was rvater, however slow the ope- ration might be; and notwithstanding the delay to CHAP, viii] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 37 ^Yn^vL™s^^1 I- Intevdancij of Mexico. which we should expose ourselves.* For this purpose I assembled the lords and chiefs of our allies ; and I explained to them the resolution which I had formed. I engaged them to send a great number of labourers with their coas, which are somewhat like the hoes which are used in Spain for excavations ; and our allies and friends approved my project, for they hoped that the city would be laid in complete ruins, which they had ardently desired for a long time. Three or four days passed without fighting, for we Avaited the arrival of the people from the country, who were to aid us in demolishing." After reading the naif recital of this commander in chief to his sovereign, we are not to be surprised at finding almost no vestige of the ancient Mexican edifices. Cortez relates that the Indians, to revenge themselves for the oppressions which they had suf- fered from the Aztec kings, flocked in great num- bers, even from the remotest provinces, whenever they learned that the destruction of the capital was going on. The rubbish of the demolished houses served to fill up the canals. The streets were made dry to allow the Spanish cavalry to act. The low houses, like those of Pekin and China, w^rc partly constructed of wood and partly of tetzontli, a spongy stone, light, and easily broken. " More than fifty thousand Indians assisted us," says Cortez, " that * Accorde de tomar un rnedio para nuestra seguridad y para poder mas estrechar a los eneniigos ; y fue que como tuessemos ganando por las calles de la ciudad, que fuessen derocando todas las casas de ellas, de un Itido y del otro ; por manera que no fuessemos un passo adelante sin la dcjar todo asolado y que lo que era agua hacerlo tierra firme ; aunque hubiesse todo la dilacion que se pudiesse seguir. Lorenzana, No. xxxiv. 38 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. ^ ANALYSIS^^^] ^' ^nte?icknc7/ of Mexico. day, when, marching over heaps of carcasses, we at length gained the great street ofTacuba, and burned the house of King Guatimucin.* No other thing, * The true name of this unfortunate king, the last of the Aztec dynasty, was Quauhiemotzin. He is the same to whona Cortez caused the soics of the feet to be gradually burned, after having soaked them in oil. This torment, however, did not induce the king to declare in Avhat place his treasures were concealed. His end was the same as that of the king of Acolhuacan, (Tezcuco,) and of Tetlepanguetzaltzin, king of Tlacopan, (Tacuba.) These three princes were hung on the same tree, and as I saw in a hicroglyphical picture possessed by Father Pichardo, (in the convent of San Felipe Neri,) they were hung by the feet to lengthen out their torments. This act of cruelty in Cortez, which recent historians have the meanness to describe as the effect of a far-sighted policy, ex- cited murmurs in the very army. " The death of the young king," says Bernal Diaz del Castillo, (an old soldier full of honour and of naivety of expression,) " was a very unjust thing. And it was accordingly blamed by us all, so long as we were in the suite of the captain, in his march to Comaja- hua." Author. The Abbe Clavigero observes, on what authority I know not, that this cruelty made Cortez very melancholy, and gave him a few sleepless nights, una gran malinconia, ed aicune negghie. Well indeed it might ; but whether we are indebted for these vegghie to the native suggestions of his own con- science, or to the murmurs of his army, is not so easily to be determined ; for heroes' consciences are made of stern stuff, as many can witness who have known several of them perform certain actions in a certain neighbouring country, and neither eat nor sleep the worse for it ; at the bare recital of which otlicr people's checks turn either pale or flushed as their diffeient temperaments dispose them. We must not think tiiat the Spaniards monopolized cruelty in foreign settlements. Mr. Orme, in his excellent History of Hindostan, celebrates some feats of our own countrymen, and those the bravest of our countrymen, which yield very liitlc to any thing in the Mexican annals. Three or four luindrtd, I believe, of the brave grenadiers who lont;^ distinguished themselves so gal- lantly on the plains of Trichinnpoly, and who, rushing on CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 39 ^Wal™^^] ^- Ijife'^(l(incy of Mexico. accordingly, was done than burn and demolish houses. Those of the city said to our allies, that they did wrong in assisting us to destroy, bccatise one day they would have to reconstruct \vith their hands the veiy same edifices, either for the besieged if they were to conquer, or for us Spaniards, who, in reality, now compel them to rebuild what was de- molished."* In going over the Libro del Cabildo, a manuscript already mentioned by us, which contains the history of the new city of Mexico from the year 1524 to 1529, I found nothing in all the pages but names of people who appeared before the alguazils " to demand the situation [solar] on which formerly certain destruction, swore, in their energetic way, " they would follow their leader to hell," on taking possession of a fortified town in Arcot put every soul in it to death, man, woman and child, for no other reason than that the place had been gallantly defended. Heroes are nearly the same all the world over. But, to be sure, the poor Mexican kings were better off, Juan de Varillas, a friar of the order of Nuestra Senora de la Merced, confessed them, and comforted them in their suf- ferings, that they were good christians, and that they died in good preparation, seeing they were baptised: li confesso e confurto nel sufiftlicio : ch'eglino erano buoni Cristiani, e che morirono ben disfiosti : ond' e mayiifeslo ch'' erano stato battez- zati. (Clavigero, iii. p. 233. Note.) It is only after considering the operations of an army in detail, and the ferocious dispositions and habits of those of which it is almost necessarily, for the greatest part, com- posed, that we can fully appreciate all the glory of a Corn- wallis, an Abercrombie, or a Moore. This is not dictated in the spirit of a canting philosophy, nor from a foolish ima- gination that soldiers will ever be other than what they are. No one would wish to see them imbued with the lacrymose propensities of a modern hero of romance. It is perhaps wisely ordained, that those who fight should not be those who feel. Trans. • Lorenzana, p. 286. 40 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iii. ^\^^ALYSls;^l I- Intendancy of Mexico. stood the house of such or such a Mexican lord." Even at present they are occupied infiUing and drying up the old canals which run through the capital. The number of" these canals has diminished in a particular manner since the government of the Count de Galvez, though on account of the great breadth of the streets of Mexico, the canals are less inimical to the passage of carriages than in the most part of the cities of Holland. We may reckon among the small remains of Mexican antiquities which interest the intelligent traveller, either in the bounds of the city of Mexico, or in its environs, the ruins of the Aztec dikes (alba- radones) and aqueducts ; the stone of the sacrifices, adorned with a relievo which represents the triumph of a Mexican king ; the great calendar monument ; (exposed with the foregoing at the Plaza Mayor ;) the colossal statue of the goddess Teoyaomiqui, stretch- ed out in one of the galleries of the edifice of the uni- versity, and habitually covered with three or four inches of earth ; the Aztec manuscripts, or hierogly- phical pictures, painted on agave paper, on stag skins and cotton cloth, (a valuable collection unjustly taken away from the Chevalier Boturini,* very ill preserved in the archives of the palace of ' the vice- roys, displaying in every figure the extravagant ima- gination of a people who delighted to see the palpi- tating heart of human victims ofiered up to gigan- tic and monstrous idols ;) the foundations of the pa- * The author of the ingenious work, Ydea de una nuevu Historia general de hi America Septentrional por el Caballero Boturini. jiuthor. Robertson gives a character of this book somewhat lower ; " His idea of a new history appears' to me the work of ;i whimsiciJ credulous man." Vol. iii. note 36. Trans. CHAP. vui.J KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 41 STATISTICAL^ T r - ^ r A/T ANALYSIS, jl- Intendancij of Mexico. lace of the kings of Alcolhuacan at T€zcuco;,thc colossal relievo traced on the western face of the porphyritical rock called the Penol de los Banos ; as well as several other objects which recall to the in- telligent observer the institutions and works of people of the Mongol race, of which descriptions and draw- ings will be given in the historical account of my tra- vels to the equinoxial regions of the new continent. The only ancient monuments in the Mexican valley, which from their size ox their masses can strike the eyes of a European, are the remains of the two pyramids of San Juan de Teotihuacan, situa- ted to the north-east of the lake of Tezcuco, conse- crated to the sun and moon, which the Indians called Tonatiuh Ytzaqual, house of the sun, and Metzli Ytzaqual, house of the moon. According to the measurements made in 1803 by a young Mexican savant, Doctor Otcyza, the first pyramid, which is the most southern, has in its present state a base of 208 metres* (645 feet) in length, and 55 metres (66 Mexican vara,t or 171 fectj) of perpendicular ele- vation. The second, the pyramid of the moon, is eleven metres^ (30 feet) lower, and its base is much less. These monuments, according to the accounts of the first travellers, and from the form which they yet exhibit, were the models of the Aztec teocallis. The nations whom the Spaniards found settled in New Spain attributed the pyramids of Teotihuacan * 682 feet English. Trails^ t Velasquez found that the Mexican vara contained exactly 31 inches of the old pied du roi of Paris. The nortliern fa- 9ade of the Hotel des Invalides at Paris is only 600 feet French in length. i: 180 feet English, Trans. § 36 feet English. Trans* VOL. II. F 42 POLltlCAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi.. ANALYSIS. 1 ^* I^^t^^^dancy of Mexico. to the Toiiltec nation ;* consequently their construc- tion goes as far back as the eighth or ninth century ; for the kingdom of Tolula lasted from 667 to 1031. The faces of these edifices are to within 52' exactly placed from north to south, and from east to west. Their interior is clay, mixed with small stones- This kernel is covered with a thick wall of porous amygdaloid. We perceive, besides, traces of a bed of lime which covers the stones (the tetzontli) on the outside. Several authors of the sixteenth cen- tury pretend, according to an Indian tradition, that the interior of these pyramids is hollow. Boturini says that Siguenza, the Mexican geometrician, in vain endeavoured to pierce these edifices by a gallery. They formed four layers of which three are only now perceivable, the injuries of time and the vegeta- tion of the cactus and agaves having exercised their destructive influence on the exterior of these monu- ments. A stair of large hewn stones formerly led to their tops, where, according to the accounts of the first travellers, were statues covered with very thin lamina of gold. Each of the four principal lay- ers was subdivided into small gradations of a metref in height, of which the edges are still distinguishable, * Siguenza, however, in his manuscript notes, believes them io be the work of the Ohuec nation, which dwelt round the Sierra de Tlascala, called Matlacueje. If tliis hypothesis, of which we are unacquainted with the historical foundations, be true, these monuments would be still more ancient. For the Ohnecs belong to the first nations mentioned in the Aztec chronology as existing in New Spain. It is even pretended that the Olmecs are the only nation of which the migration took place, not from the north and north-west (Mongol Asia ?) but from the east (Europe ?). 7 3 feet 3 inches. Tram. CHAP. VI n.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 43 STATISTICAL^, r , / /^ 1/ ANALYSIS. 5 I- Intendannj of Mexico. which were covered with fragments of obsidian, tliat were undoubtedly the edge of instruments will) which the Toultec and Aztec priests in their barba- rous sacrifices {Papahua Tlemacazqiic or Teopixqui) opened the chest of the human victims. We know that the obsidian (itztli) was the object of the great mining undertakings, of which we still see tlie traces in an innumerable quantity of pits between the mines of Moran and the village Atotonilco el Grande, in the porphyry mountains of Oyamel and the Jacal, a D'cgion called by the Spaniards the mountain of knives^ el Cerro de las Navajas.* It would be undoubtedly desirable to have the question resolved, whether these curious edifices, of which the one, {the Tonatiuh Ytzaqual^) according to the accurate measurement of my iriend M. Oteyza, has a mass of 128,970 cubic toises,t were entirely constructed by the hand of man, or whether the Toultecs took advantage of some natural hill which they covered over with stone and lime. This very question has been recently agitated with respect to several pyramids of Giza and Sacara ; and it has be- come doubly interesting from the fantastical hypothe- ses which M, Witte has thrown out as to the origin of the monuments of colossal form in Egypt, Perse- polis, and Palmyra. As neither the pyramids of Teo- tihuacan, nor that Cholula, of which we shall after- wards have occasion to speak, have been diametrically pierced, it is impossible to speak with certainty of * I found the height of trie summit of the Jacal 3,124 me- tres (10,248 feet;) and la Rocca de las Vcntanas at the foot of the Cerro dc las Navajas, 2,590 metres (8,496 feet) abov^ the level of the sea. t 33,743,201 cubic feet Tranf., 44 POLlTICx\L ESSAY ON THE [book m. STATISTICAL 7 t r * ^ /- 1T • ANALYSIS. 5 ^* intenaancy of Mexico, their interior structure. The Indian traditions, from which they are believed to be hollow, are vague and contradictory. Their situation in plains ■\vhere no other hill is to be found renders it extremely probable that no natural rock serves for a kernel to these monuments. What is also very remarkable (es- pecially if we call to mind the assertions of Fococke, as to the symmetrical position of the lesser pyramids of Egypt) is, that around the houses of the sun and moon of Teotithuacan we find a group, I may say a system, of pyramids, of scarcely nine or ten metres of elevation.* These monuments, of which there are several hundreds, are disposed in very large streets which follow exactly the direction of the parallels, and of the meridians, and which terminate in the four faces of the two great pyramids. The lesser pyra- mids are more frequent towards the southern side of the temple of the moon than towards the temple of the sun : and, according to the tradition of the country, they were dedicated to the stars. It appears certain enough that they served as burying places for the chiefs of tribes. All the plain which the Spa- niards, from a word of the language of the island of Cuba, call Llano de los Cues, bore formerly in the Aztec and Toultec languages the name of Micaotl, or road of the dead. What analogies with the monu- ments of the old continent ! And this Toultec peo- ple, who, on arriving in the seventh century on the Mexican soil, constructed on a uniform plan several of those colossal monuments, those truncated pyra- mids divided by layers, like the temple of Belus at Babylon, whence did they take the model of these edifices ? Were they of Mongol race ? Did they * 29 or 32 feet. Trans. CHAP.viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 4.5 STATISTICAL 7 T T* j /> H/r ANALYSIS. 5 1- Intetidancij of Mexico. descend from a common stock* with the Chinese, tlic Hiong-nu, and the Japanese? Another ancient monument, worthy of the travel- ler's attention, is the miHtary intrenchment of Xo- chicalco, situated to the S. S.AV. of the town of Cu- ernavaca, near Tetlama, belonging to the parish of Xochitepeque. It is an insulated hill of 117 metres of elevation, surrounded Avith ditches or trenches, and divided by the hand of man into five terraces co- vered with masonr}% The whole forms a truncated pyramid, of which the four faces are exactly laid down according to the four cardinal points. The porphyry stones, with basaltic bases, are of a very re- gular cut, and are adorned with hieroglyphicai figures/ among which are to be seen crocodiles spouting up water, and, what is very curious, men sitting cross- legged in the Asiatic manner. Tlie platform of this extraordinary monunientt contains more than 9,000 square metres,| and exhibits the ruins of a small square edifice, which undouijtcdly served for a last retreat to the besieged. I shall conclude this rapid view of the Aztec anti- quities with pointing out a few places Avliich may be called classical, on account of the interest they ex- cite in those vvho have studied the history of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. * See a work of Mr. Herders : Idea of a Philosophical History of the Human Species, Vol. II. page 11, (in German,) and Essay towards a Universal History by M. Gatterer, p. 489, (in German.) t Descripcion de las antiguedades dc Xochicalco dedicada a los Senores de la Expcdicion maritima baxo las ordenes dc Don Alexandre Malaspina, por Don Jose Antonio Alzarc. Mexico, 1791, p. 12. I 96,825 square feet. Trana. 4^ POLITICAL ESSAt ON THE [book uu STATISTICAL > t 7" * ^ /•;?/• ANALYSIS. 5 *• Intenaancy of Mexico, The palace of Motezuma occupied the very sam« site on which at present stands the hotel of the Duke de Monteleone, vulgarly called Casa del Estado, in the Plaza Mayor, S, W. from the cathedral. This palace, like those of the Emperor of China, of which we have accurate descriptions from Sir George Staunton and M. Barrow, was composed of a great number of spacious, but very low houses. They occupied the whole extent of ground between the Einpedradillo, the great street of Tacuba, and the convent de la Professa. Cortez, after the taking of the city, fixed his abode opposite to tli.e ruins of the palace of the Aztec kings, vvh^re the palace of the viceroy Is now situated. But it was soon thought that the house of Cortez was more suitable ibr the assemblies of the audiencia, and the government consequently made the family of Cortez resign the Casa del Estado, or the old hotel belonging to them. This family, which bears the title of the Marquesado del Vallc de Oaxaca^ received in exchange the situa- tion of the ancient palace of Montezuma, and they there constructed the line edifice in which the archives del Estado are kept, and which descended with the rest of the heritage to the Neapolitan Duke de Mon- teleone, At the first entry of Cortez into Tenochtitlan on the 8th November, 1519, he and his small army were lodged, not in the palace of Montezuma, but in an edifice formerly possessed by King Axajacatl. It was in this edifice that the Spaniards and the Tlas- caltecs, their allies, sustained the assault of the Mexi- cans ; it v/as there that the unfortunate King Mote- zuma* perished of the consequences of a wound * It is from one of his sons, called Tohualicahuatzin^ and after baptism Don Pedro Motezumuy that the Counts of Mo- 4 CHAP, viii] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. /^l ^ analysis!^] I- Intendancij of Mexico. which he received in haranguing his people. Wc still perceive* inconsiderable remains ol these quarters of the Spiuiiards in the ruins behind the convent of Santa Teresa, at the corner of the streets of Tacuba and del Indio Triste. A small bridge near Bonavista preserves the name of Alvarado's Leap, (Sallo de Alvarado,) in memory of the prodigious leap of the valorous Don Pedro de Alvarado, Avhen, in the famous melancholy mght,^ the dike of Tlacopan having been cut in several places by the Mexicans, the Spaniards withdrew from the city to the moimtains of Tepeyacac. It ap- pears that even in the time of Cortez the historical truth of this fact was disputed, which, from the po- puliir tradition, is familiar to every class of the inha-= bitants of Mexico. Bernal Diaz considers the his- tory of the leap as a mere boast of his companion in arms, of whose courage and presence of mind he, however, els,ewhere makes honourable mention. He tezuma and Tula, in Spaiu, are descended. The Cano Mo« tezuma, the Andrade Motezuma, and, if I am not mistaken, even the Counts of Miravalle, at Mexico, trace back their origin to the beautiful princess Tecuichfiotzin, the youngest daughter of the last King Motezuma II. or Moteuczoma. Xocojptzin. The descendants of this king did not mingle their blood with the whites till the second generation. * The proofs of this assertion are contained in the manu* scripts of M. Gama, at the convent of San Felipe Neri, in the hands of Father Pichardo. The palace of Axajacatl was probably a vast enclosure, which contained several edifices ; lor nearly seven thousand men were quartered there. (Cla- vigero, iii. p. 79.) The ruinr, of the city of Mansighe, in Peru, give us a clear idea of this species of American con- struction. Every habitation of a great lord formed a separate district, in which the courts, streets, walls, and ditches were distinguished. t .Voche tri^te^ July 1, 1520. 48 POUTiCAL ESSA.Y ON 'iHli [uogst lu,. '*'ANAL?l?a''ll- Intendcncy of Mexico. affirms, that the ditch was much too broad to be passed at a leap. I have, however, to observe, that this anecdote is very minutely related in the manu- script of a noble Mestizo of the republic of Tlas- cala, Diego Munoz Camargo, which I consulted at the convent of San Felipe Neri, and of which Fa- ther Torquemada* appears also to have had some knowledge. This Mestizo historian was the co- temporary of Hernan Cortez. He relates the history of Alvarado's leap with much simplicity, without any appearance of exaggeration, and without mentioning the breadth of the ditch. We imagine we perceive in his naive recital one of the heroes of antiquity, who, with his shoulder and arm supported on his lance, takes an enoi'mous leap to escape from the hands of his enemies. Canuirgo adds, that other Spaniards wished to follow the example of Alvara- do, but that, having less agility than he had, they fell into the ditch, {azequia.) The Mexicans, says he, were so astonished at the address of Alvarado, that on seeing him make his escape, they bit the earth, (a figurative expression which the Tlascaltec author borrowed from his language, and which sig- * Monarquia Indiana., lib. iv. cap. 80. Clax'igero, i, p. 10.^ There stiii exist in Mexico and Spain several historical manu- scripts of the 16th century, of which the publication by ex- tract would throw much light on the history of Anahuac. Such are the manuscripts of Sahagun, Motolinia, Andrea dc Olmos, Zurita, Josef Tobar, Fernando Pimentel IxtlilxochitI, Antonio Motezuma, Antonio Pimentl IxtlilxochitI, Taddeo de Niza, Gabriel d'Ayala, Zapata, Ponce, Cl^ristophe de Cas- tillo, Fernando Alba IxtlilxochitI, Pomar, Chimalpain, Alva- rado Tezozomoc, and Guttericz. All these authors, with the exception of the five first, were baptized Indians, natives ol Tluscaia, Tczcuco, Cholula, and Mexico. The ixtlilxochiUs descended from the royal fiimily oi" Alcohuacau. CHAP.yili.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 49 ^ANALYsTs^^ll. Intendancij of New Mexico, nifies being stupified with admiration.*) " The children of Alvarado, who was called the Capitan del Salto, proved by witnesses before the judges of Tez- cuco the prowess of their father. To this they were compelled by a process in which they demonstrated the exploits of yllvarado de el Salto, their father, at the period of the conquest of Mexico." Strangers are shown the bridge of Clcrigo, near the Plazu Mayor de I'latelolco, as the memorable place where the last Aztec king, Quauhtemotzin, nephew of his predecessor. King Cnitlahuatzin,t and son-in-law of Motezuma II. was taken. But the result of the most careful researches which myself and Father Pichardo could make was, that the young king fell into the hands of Garci Holguin,| in a great basin of water which was formerly between the Ga- * There is such a thing, perhaps, as explaining too much.' Few of M. Humboldt's reudcrs, I dure say, will be led to con- ceive, that the Mexicans fell literally to the eating of earth. There are bounds to commenting, which a salutary- dread of prolixity should impress on every writer, but which, unfortunately, the countrymen of M. de Humboldt (Germans) seem seldom to have a clear conception of. I shall make myself sufliciently understood when I allude to the prolixity of their most celebrated writers, their Herders, Gentzes, and Wie- lands. Trans. t This king, Cuitlahuatzin, (whom Solis and the other Eu- ropean historians, who confound all the IMexican names, call Quetlabaca,) Avas the brother and successor of Motezuma 11. He is the same prince who displayed so much taste for gardening; and who, according to the recital of Cortez, made the collection of rare plants, v,hich were long admired after his death, at Iztapalapan. % On the 3 1st August, 1521, the 75th day of the siege of Tenochtitlan, and Saint Hyppolitus's day. The same day is still celebrated every year by a tour round the city by the viceroy and oidorca on horseback, follov>ine the standard. VOL. IT. f7 50 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. STATISTICAL^T r* ^ r T\r ANALYSIS. 5 1* Intendancy of Mexico, rita del Peralvillo, the square of Santiago de Tlate- lolco, and the bridge of Amaxac. Cortez happened to be on the terrace of a house of Tlatelolco when the young king was brought a prisoner to him. " I made him sit down," says the conqueror, in his third letter to the Emperor Charles V. " and I treated him with confidence ; but the young man put his hand on the poniard which I wore at my side, and exhorted ine to kill him, because, since he had done all that his duty to himself and his people demanded of him, he had no other desire but death." This trait is wor- thy o£ the best days of Greece and Rome. Under every zone, and whatever be the colour of men, the language of energetic minds struggling with misfor- tune is the same. We have already seen what was the tragical end of this unfortunate Quauhtemotzin. After the entire destruction of the ancient Tenoch- titlan, Cortez remained with his people for four or live months at Cojohuacan,* a place for which he constantly displayed a great predilection. He was at first uncertain whether he should reconstruct the capital on some other spot around the lakes. He at last determined on the old situation, " because the city of Tcmixtitlan had acquired celebrity, because its position was delightful, and because in all times it had been considered as the head of the Mexican provinces," (como principal y senora de todas estas provinclas.) It cannot, however, admit of a doubt, that on account of the frequent inundations suffered by Old and New Mexico, it would have been better to have rebuilt the city to the east of Tezcuco, or on the heights between Tacuba and Tacubaya.f The * Lorenzana, p. 307. t Cisneros clescrificioii del silio en el qual se halla Mexico. Alzate Tofw^ra/ihia de Mexico, (Gazetta de Litteratura, CHAP, viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 5X ^^ANALras^^jI- ^^^tendancy of Mexico. capital was, in fact, about to be transferred to these heights b}' a formal edict of King Philip III., al the period of the great inundution in 1607. The ajim- tamiento, or magistracy of tlic city, represented to the court that the value of the houses condemned to de- struction amounted to 105 millions of francs.* They appeared to be ignorant at Madrid that the capital of a kingdom, constructed for more than 88 years, is not a flying camp, which may be changed at will. It is impossible to determine with any certainty the number of inhabitants of old Tenochtitlan. Were we to judge from the fragments of ruined houses, and the recital of the first conquerors, and especially from the number of the combatants whom the kings Cuitlahuatzin and Quauhtemotzin opposed to the Tlascaltecs and Spaniards, we should pronounce the population of Tenochtitlan three times greater than that of Mexico in our days. Cortez asserts, that after the siege the concourse of Mexican artisans who wrought for the Spaniards, as carpenters, masons, weavers, and founders, was so enormous, that in 1524 the new 1790, p. 32.) The most part of the great cities of the Spanish colonies, however new their appearance may be, are in disagreeable situations. I do not here speak of the site of Caraccas, Quito, Pas to, and several other cities of South Ame- rica, but merely of the Mexican cities ; for example, Valla- dolid, which might hare been built in the beautiful valley of Tepare ; Guadalaxara, which is quite near the delightful plain of the Rio Chiconahuatenco, or San Pedro ; Pazcuaro, which we cannot help wishing to have been built at Tzintzontza. One would say that everywhere the new colonists of two ad- joining places have uniformly chosen either the one most mountainoHs, or most exposed to inundations. But indeed ihe Spaniards have constructed almost no new cities; they merely inhabited or enlarged those wliioh were already founded by the Indians. t ^..sys.SSO/. sterling. Tram. 52 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. ^"ANALYsf^^] I- Intendancy of Mexico. city of Mexico already numbered thirty thousand inhabitants. Modern authors have thrown out the most contrqdictory ideas regarding the population of this capital. The Abbe Clavigero, in his excellent work on the ancient history of New Spain, proves that these estimations vary from sixty thousand to a million and a half of inhabitants.* We ought not to be astonished at these contradictions when we con- sider how new statistical researches are even in the most cultivated parts of. Europe. According to the most recent and least uncertain data, the actual population of the capital of Mexico appears to be (including the troops) from 135 to 140,000 souls. The enumeration in 1790, by orders of the Count de Revillagigedo, gave a resultf of only 112,926 inhabitants for the city; but we know that this result is one- sixth below the truth. The regular troops and militia in garrison in the capital are com- posed of from 5 to 6,000 men in arms. We may admit with great probability, that the actual popula* tion consists of 2,500 white Europeans. 65,000 white Creoles. 33,000 indigenous (copper-coloured.) 26,500 Mestizoes, mixture of whites and Indians. 10,000 Mulattoes. 137,000 Inhabitants, There are consequently in Mexico 69,500 men of colour, and 67,500 whites ; but a great number * Clavigero, iv; p. 278. note /i. + See note C. at the end of the work. CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 53 ^ ANALYsfs^^l I. Litendancy of Mexico. of the Mestizoes are almost as white as the Euro- peans and Spanish Creoles ! In the twenty-three male convents which the capi- tal contains there are nearly 1,200 individuals, of whom 5aO are priests and choristers. In the fifteen female convents there are 2,100 individuals, of whom nearly 900 are professed religieuses. The clergy of the city of Mexico is extremely numerous, though less numerous by one-fourth than at Madrid. The enumeration of 1790 gives Individuals. C 573 priests and choristers. ^ In the convents 1 59 novices. C 867 of monks, ^235 lay brothers. ) In the convents \ 888 professed religieuses. / g-. of nuns, 1 35 novices. V Prebendaries 26 Parish priests, [cures.) 16 Curates 43 Secular ecclesiastics 517 Total 2,392 and without including lay brothers and novices, 2,068. The clergy of Madrid, according to the ex- cellent work of M. de Laborde,* is composed of 3,470 persons, consequently the clergy is to tlic whole population of Mexico as 1 1-2 to 100, and at Madrid as 2 to 100. We have already given a view of the revenues of * This excellent work of Laborde, it is worth while to re- mark, received several contributions from M. de Humboldt. Travf!, 54 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book xii. ^^^ALvSa^}^* Intendancy of Mexico. the Mexican clergy. The archbishop of Mexico possesses a revenue of 682,500 livres.* This sum is somewhat less than the revenue of the convent of Jeronimites of the Escurial. An archbishop of Mexico is, consequently, much poorer than the archbishops of Toledo, Valencia, Seville, and San- tiago. The first of these possesses a revenue of three millions of livres.t However M. de Laborde has proved, and the fact is by no means generally known, that the clergy of France before the revolu- tion w^as more numerous, compared to the total popu- lation, and richer as a body, than the Spanish clergy. The revenues of the tribunal of inquisition of Mexi- co, a tribunal which extends over the whole kingdom of New Spain, Guatimala, and the Philippine Islands, amount to 200,000 livres.J The number of births at Mexico, for a mean term of 100 years, is 5,930 ; and the number of deaths 5,050. In the year 1802 there were even 6,155 births and 5,166 deaths, which would give, supposing a population of 137,000 souls, for every 22 1-2 indi- viduals, one birth, and for every 26 1-2 one death* We have already seen in the fourth chapter, that in the country they reckon in general in New Spain the relation of the births to the population § as one to 17 ; and the relation of the deaths to the population * 18,420/, sterling-. Trans. f 125,000/. sterling. Trans. % 8,334/. sterling. Trans. § In France the relation of the births to the deaths is such, that on the totality of the population only one 30th annually dies, while there is born one 28th. Peuchet Statistiquc, p. 251. In cities this proportion depends on a concurrence of local and variable circumstances. In 1786 there were reckon- ed in London 18,119 births, and 20,454 deaths ; and in 1802. at Paris, 21,818 births, and 20.590 deaths. 1 GHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NFAV tiPAIN. 55 ^ ANALYSIS^^I I- Irnendancy of New Mexico, as one to 30. There is consequently, in appearance, a verj' great mortality and a very small number of births in the capital. The conflux of patients to the city is considerable, not only of the most indigent class of the people who seek assistance in the hospi- tals, of which the number of beds amount to 1,100, but also of persons in easy circumstances, who are brought to Mexico because neither advice nor reme- dies can be procured in the country. This circum- stance accounts for the great number of deaths on the parish registers. On the other hand, the con- vents, the celibacy of the secular clerg}%* the pro- gress of luxury, the militia, and the indigence of the Saragates Indians, who live like the Lazaroni of Naples in idleness, are the principal causes which in- fluence the disadvantasreous relation of the births to the population. MM. Alzate and Clavigero,t from a comparison of the parish registers of Mexico with those of se- veral European cities, have endeavoured to prove that the capital of New Spain must contain more than 200,000 inhabitants ; but how can we suppose in the enumeration of 1790 an eiTor of 87,000 souls, * From this mode of expression one would be led to ima- gine that the regular clergy did not live in celibacy. What they may contribute to the population more than the secular clergy will not be easy to ascertain, but their title is presu- med to be precisely the same. Trans. t The Abbe Clavigero falls into an error when he says, '• that an enumeration gave more than 200,000 souls to the city of Mexico." He says, however, very truly, that the births and deaths of Mexico generally amount to a fourth more than those of Madrid. In fact, in 1788 the number of births at Madrid was 4,897, and the deaths 5,915 ; and in 1797 •here were 4,441 deaths, and 4,9 11 births. (Jlexaridre de Ji>- ■yordc, ii. p. 102.) 56 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE book ui. ^\kalys?s^^1 ^' ^^^^^dancy of Mexico. more than two-fifths of the whole population ? Be- sides, the comparisons of these two learned Mexi- cans can from their nature lead to no certain results, because the cities of which they exhibit the bills of mortality are situated in very different elevations and climates, and because the state of civilization and comfort of the great mass of their inhabitants afford the most striking contrasts. At Madrid the births are one in 34, and at Berlin one in 28. The one of these proportions, can no more, however, than the other be applicable to calculations regarding the po- pulation of the cities of equinoxial America. Yet the difference between these proportions is so great, that it would alone, on an annual number of 6,000 births, augment or diminish to the extent of 36,000 souls the population of the city of Mexico. The number of deaths or births is, perhaps, the best of all means for detennining the number of the inhabi- tants of a district, when the numbers which express the relations of the births and deaths to the whole po- pulation in a given country have been carefully ascer- tained ; but these numbers, the result of a long in- duction, can never be applied to countries whose phy- sical and moral situation are totally different. They denote the medium state of prosperity of a mass of population, of which the greatest part dwell in the country ; and we cannot, therefore, avail ourselves of tliese proportions to ascertain the number of inhabi- tants of a capital. Mexico is the most populous city of the new con- tinent. It contains nearly 40,000 inhabitants fewer than Madrid ;"^ and as it forms a great square of tThc population of INIadrid (says M. de I^aborde) is " 156,272 iuhubitaiUs. Honevcr, with the gaiTison, strangers CHAP, vui.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 57 ^YnalySs^^II- Jntendaiicy of Mexico. which each side is neaily 2,750 metres,* its popula- tion is spread over a great extent of ground. The streets being very spacious, they in general appear rather deserted. They are so much the more so, as in a climate considered as cold by the inhabitants of the tropics, people expose themselves less to the free air than in the cities at die foot of the Cordillera. Hence the Luter [ciudades dc ticrra caliente) appear uniformly more populous than the cities of the tem- perate or cold regions (ciudades de tierra fria.) If Mexico contains more inhabitants than any of the cities of Great Britain and France, with the excep- tion of London, Dub!in, and Paris ; on the other hand, its population is much less than that of the great cities of the Levant and East Indies. Calcutta, Surat, Madras, Aleppo, and Damascus, contain all of them from two to four and even six hundred thousand inhabitants. The Count de Revillagigedo set on foot accurate researches into the consumption of Mexico. The following table, drawn up in 1791, may be interest- ing to those who have a knowledge of the important operatit)ns of MM. Lavoisier and Arnould, relative to the consumption of Paris and all France. CONSUMPTION OF MEXICO. X EATABLES. Beeves - - 16,300 Calves - - - 4.50 and Spaniards who flock in from the provinces, the popula- tion may be carried to 200,000 souls." The greatest length of Mexico is nearly 3,900 metres, (12,794 English feet ;) rf Paris, 8,000 metres, (26,346 English feet.) * 9,021 feet. Trans, VOL. II. H ^g POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi, ^j^NAL™&^]'- Intendancij of Mexico. Sheep 278,923 Hogs 50,676 Kids and Rabbits 24,000 Fowls 1,255,340 Ducks 125,000 Turkeys 205,000 Pigeons 65,300 Partridges 140,000 II. GRAIN. Maize or Turkey wheat, cargas of three fanegas 117,224 Barley, cargas 40,219 III. LIQUIDS. Wheat flour, cargas of 12 arrobas* 130,000 Pulque, the fermented juice of the agava, cargas 294,790 Wine and vinegar, barrels of 4 1-2 arrobas 4,507 Brandy, barrels 12,000 Spanish oil, arrobas of 25 pounds 5,585 Supposing, with M. Peuchet, the population of Paris to be four times greater than that of Mexico, we shall find that the consumption of beef is nearly pro- portional to the number of inhabitants of the two cities, but that that of mutton and pork is infinitely more at Mexico. The difference is as follows : * Flour is not certainly a liquid ; |Dut it is probably classed among the liquidS) as being sold by liquid measure. Trans. i CHAP. VIII.} KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. i^y STATISTICAL 7 t T" * ,7 r TiyT ANALYSIS. 3 I- Intendancij of Mexico. Consul) iplioii Quadruple of the Of Mexico, Of Paris. consumption of Mexico. Beeves lt"),5tXJ 70,000 65,200 Sheep 27.'>,000 350,000 1,116,000 Hos^s 50,100 35,000 200,400 M. Lavoisier found by his calculations that the in- habitants of Paris consumed annually in his time 90 millions of pounds, of animal food of all sorts, whicli amounts to 163 pounds* (79 7-10 kiloi^rammcs) per individual. In estimating the animal food yielded by the animals designated in the preceding table, acr cording to the principles of Lavoisier, modified ac - cording to the localities, the consumption of Mexico in every sort of meat is 26 millions of pounds, or 189 pounds (4-10 kilogrammes!') per individual. This difference is so nriuch the more remarkable as the population of Mexico includes 33,000 Indians, who consume very little animal food. Thq, consumption of wine has greatly increased sinte 179], especially since the introduction of the Brownonian'system in the practice of the Mexican physicians. The enthusiasm with which this systera was received in a country where asthcnical or debili- tating remedies had been employed to an excess for ages, produced, according to the testimony of all the merchants of Vera Cruz, the most remarkable effect on the trade in luscious Spanish wines {v'ms liquo' * 175 9-lOlb. avoird. Trajrsi. t 20411). avoird. The author has omitted to insert the inte- gral number of kilogrammes. I have merely converted the French pounds into avoirdupois, and le.ft the error of the text^ as I found it. Trans. 50 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ui. ^ AiSl™S^^]^- Intendancy of Mexico, reux.) These wines, hov/cver, are only drunk by the wealthy class of the inhabitants. The Indians, Mestizoes, Mulattoes, and even the greatest number of white Creoles, prefer the fermented juice of the agave, called pulque^ of which there is annually con- sumed the enormous quantity of 44 millions of bot- tles, containing 48 cubic inches* each. The im- mense population of Paris only consumed annually in the time of M. Lavoisier 281,000 muids of wine, brandy, cider, and beer, equal to 80,928,000 bottles, t The consumption of bread at Mexico is equal to that of the cities of Europe. This fact is so much the more remarkable, as at Caraccas, at Cumana, and Carthagena de las Indias, and in all the cities of America situated under the torrid zone, but on a level with the ocean, or very little above it, the Creole inhabitants live on almost nothing but maize bread, and the jatropha manihot. If we suppose, with M. Arnould, that 325 pounds of flour yield 416 pounds of bread, we shall find that the 130,000 loads of flour consumed at Mexico yield 49,900,000 pounds of bread, which amounts to 363 pounds+ per inclivi- dual of every age. Estimating the habitual popu- lation of Paris at 547,000 inhabitants, and the con- sumption of bread at 206,788,000 pounds, we shall find the consumption of each individual in Paris 377 * 58.141 cubic inches English. Trans. t These bottles must contain somewhat more than the English. It is believed that an English gallon generally runa five bottles, in which case the bottle would only contain 40 cubic inches ; but even supposing two pints to the bottle, it •would only contain 57.8 cubic inches, still somewhat Ics? than the above. Trarn. % 391 8-lOlb. avoird. Trans. CHAP. viii.;i KINC.DOM OF NEW SPAIN. 51 AN \LYSlS. 5 ^' I^itcndaiicij of Mexico. pounds.* At Mexico the consumption of maize is almost equal to that of wlieat. The Turkish corn is the food most in request among the Indians. We may apply to it the denomination which Pliny gives to barley (the "S'^rj of Horner"*^) antiqiiissimum fru- mentuni ; for the zea maize was the only farinaceous gramen cultivated by the Americans before the arri- val of the Europeans. The market of Mexico is richly supplied with eatables, particularly with roots and fruits of every sort. It is a most interesting spectacle, which may be enjoyed every morning at sun rise, to see these provisions, and a great quantity of flowers, brought in by Indians in boats, descending the canals of Is- tacalco and Chalco. The greater part of these roots is cultivated on the chinampas, called by the Eu- ropeans floating gardens. There are t\\ o sorts of them, of which the one is moveable, and driven about by the winds, and the other fixed and attached to the shore. The first alone merit the denomina- tion of floating gardens, but their number is daily diminishing. The ingenious invention of chinampas appears to go back to the end of the 14th century. It had its origin in the extraordinary situation of a people sur- * 406 9-lOlb. avoird. Trans. § Homer it is believed never uses koiCh but xjj. This is an affair of small consequence, to be sure; but since Homer has been referred to, it is just as well to state correctly what is to be found in him, x^t is to be used in the following pas- sages, and perhaps elsewhere. . . . Ux^ot, dE aff the water of the lake of Tezcuco by a gallery which should pass between Xaltocan and Santa Lucia, and open into the brook [arroy) of Tequisquiac, which, as has been already observed, falls into the the Rio de Moctezu- ma or Tula. Mendez began this desaguc^ projected at the lowest point; and four pits of ventilation {lumbreras) were already completed, when the go- vernment, perpetually irresolute and vacillating, aban- doned the undertaking as being too long and too ex- pensive. Another desiccation of the valley was pro- jected in 1630 by Antonio Roman, and Juan Alva- rez de Toledo, at an intermediate point, by the lake of San Christobal, the waters of which were propo- sed to be conducted to the ravin [barranca) of Hui- putztla, north of the village of San Mateo, and four leagues west from the small town of Pachuca, The viceroy and audiencia paid as little attention to thi?i project as to another of the mayor of Oculma, Chris- tobal de Padilla, who, having discovered three per. pendicular caverns, or natural gulfs, {boquerones,) even in the interior of the small town of Oculma, wished to avail himself of these holes for drawing oiF the water of the lakes. The small river of Teo- tihuacan is lost in these boquerones. Padilla propo- sed to turn also the water of the lake of Tezcuco into them, by bringing it to Oculma through the farm of Tezquititlan. This idea of availing themselves of the natural caverns formed in the strata of porous amygdaloid gave rise to an analogous and equally gigantic pro- ject, in the head of Francisco Calderon the Jesuit uHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 85 STATISTICAL 7 r , ^ ^ r nr ANALYSIS. 5 *• Jfitenaanci/ of Mexico. This monk pretended that at the bottom of the lake of 'rezcuco, near the Penol dc los Banos, there was a hole, (sumidero,) wliieh, on being enlarged, would swallow up all the water. He endeavoured to sup- port this assertion b}' the testimony of the most in telligent Indians, and by old Indian maps. The vice- roy commissioned the prelates of all the religious orders (who no doubt were likely to be best informed in hvdraulical matters) to examine this project. The monks and Jesuit kept sounding in vain for three months, from September till December, 1635 ; but no sumidero was ever found, though even jet, many Indians believe as firmly in its existence as Father Calderon. Whatever geological opinion may be formed of the volcanic or neptunian origin of the po- rous amygdaloid (blasiger Alafide/stem) of the valley of Mexico, it is very improbable that this problema- tical rock contains hollows of dimension enough to receive the water of the lake of Tezcuco, which even in time of drought ought to be estimated at more than 251,700,000 cubic metres. It is only in secon- dary strata of g}psum, as in Thuringia, where wc can sometimes venture to conduct inconsiderable masses of water into natural caverns, (gr/pssrhlotten,) where galleries of discharge opened from the interior of a mine of coppery schistus are allowed to termi- nate, without any concern about the ulterior direc- tion taken by the waters which impede the metallic operations. But how is it possible to employ this local measure in the case of a great hydraulical ope- . ration ? During the inundation of Mexico, which lasted five successive years, the wretchedness of the lower orders was singularly increased. Commerce was at a stand, manv houses tumbled down, and others were 86 POLITiCAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. ^^iU^ALYbls^^ ? ^* /^^erations of the desague were carried on with very Httle energy from 1634 to 1637, when the Marquis de Viilena, (Duke d'Escalona,) viceroy, gave the charge oF it to Father Luis Flores, com- missary-general of the order of St. Francis. The activity of this monk is much extolled, under whose administration the system of desiccation was changed £jr the third time. It was definitively resolved to abandon the gallery, [socabon^) to take off the top of the vault, and to make an immense cut through the mountain, [tajo abierto,) of which the old subterra- neous passage was merely to be the water-course. The monks of St. Francis contrived to retain the direction of hydraulical operations. It was so much the easier for them to do this, as at that epoqua*^ the viceroyalty was almost consecutively in the hands of Palafox, a bishop of Puebla, Torres, a bishop of Yucatan, a Count de Banos, who ended his brilliant career by becoming a barefooted Car- melite, and Enriqucz de Ribera, a monk of St. Augustin, archbishop of Mexico. Wearied with the monastical ignorance and delay, a lawyer, the fiscal Martin del Solis, obtained from the court of Madrid, in 1675, the administration of the de- sague. He undertook to finish the cut through the chain of the mountains in two months ; and his un- dertaking succeeded so well, that 80 years were hardly sufficient to repair the mischief which he did in a few days. The fiscal, by advice of the engi- neer Francisco Posuelo de Espinosa, caused more earth to be thrown at one time into the water-course than the shock of the water could carry along. * From 9th June, 1641, to 13th December, 167.". CHAP, viii] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. QQ ^\n\^E™S^^1 I- Tntendancy of Mexico. The passage was stopt up. In 1760 remains of what had fallen in by the imprudence of Solis were still perceptible. The Count de Monclova, vice- roy, very justly thought that the tardiness of the monks of St. Francis was still preferable to the rash activity of the jurisconsult. Father Fray Manuel Cabrera was reinstated in 1687 in his place of super- intendant, [superintendente de la Real obra deldesague de Huehuetoca.) He took his revenge of the fiscal, by publishing a book which bears the strange title of " Truth cleared up and impostures put to flight, by which a powerful and envenomed pen endeavour- ed to prove, in an absurd report, that the work of the desague was completed in 1675."* The subterraneous passage had been opened and walled in a few years. It required two centuries to complete the open cut in a loose earth, and in sec-tions of from 80 to 100 metresf in breadth, and from 40 to 50| in perpendicular depth. The work was neglected in years of drought; but it was renewed with extraordinary energy for a few months after any great swelling or any overflow of the river of Guautitlan. The inundation with which the capital was threatened in 1747, induced the Count de Guemes to think of the desague. But a new delay took place till 1762, when after a very rainy winter there were strong appearances of inun- * Verdad aclarada y dea-vanecidas imfiosturas-, con que lo ardiante y envenenado de una filiima fioderosa en esta J\fucva £a/iana, en un dictamen mal insCruido, cjuiao /lersiiadir averse acabado y fierfeccionao el ano de 1675, la fabrica del Reel D"- sagiie de Sfcxico. t From 262 to 328 feet. Trans. ^From 131 to 16 i feet. 7Vc77.9. VOL. II. ]tr 90 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. ^ analyIis^^I I. Intendancy of Mexkp. dation. There were still at the northern extremity of the subterraneous opening of Martinez 2,310 Mexican varas, or 1,938 metres,* which had never been converted into an open trench, {tajo abierto.) This gallery being too narrow, it frequently happen- ed that the waiters of the valley had not a free pas- sage towards the Salto de Tula. At length, in 1767, under the administration of a Flemish viceroy, the Marquis de Croix, the body of merchants of Mexico, forming the tribunal of the Cojisulado of the capital, undertook to finish the de- sague, provided they were allowed to levy the du- ties of sisa and the duty on wine, as an indemnifica- tion for their advances. The work was estimated by the engineers at six millions of francs.f The consulado executed it at an expense of four millions of francs| ; but in place of completing it in five years, (as had been stipulated,) and in place of giving a breadth of eight metres^ to the water-course, the canal was only completed in 1789 of the old breadth of the gallery of Martinez. Since that period they have been incessantly endeavouring to improve the work by enlarging the cut, and especially by ren- dering the slope more gentle. However, the canal is yet far from being in such a state that fallings in are no more to be apprehended, which are so much the more dtrngerous as lateral erosions increase in the proportion of the obstacles which impede the course of the water. On studying in the archives of Mexico the his- tory of the hydiaulical operations of Nochistongo, we perceive a continual irresolution on the part of the * 6,;536 feet. Trans, f 2oO,OJO/. stcrliiij;. Trans. \ 16G,680/. stcrli-.i;^. Tran.-i. § 26 1-4 foel. Trntis. CHAP, viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 91 ^YnaLYS^S^.^]^- Jntehdancy of Mexico. governors, and a fluctuation of ideas calculated to in- crease the danger instead of removing it. We Und visits made by the viceroy, accompanied by the au- diencia and canons ; papers drawn up by the fiscal and other lawyers ; advices given by the monks ol St. Francis ; an active impetuosity every fifteen or twenty years, when the lakes threatened an overflow ; and a tardiness and culpable indifference whenever the danger was past. Twenty-five millions of livres* were expended, because they never had courage to follow the same plan, and because they kept hesitating for two centuries between the Indian system of dikes and that of canals, between the subterraneous gallery, {socaborty) and the open cut through the mountain, (tajo abierto.) The gallery of Martinez was suffered to be choaked up, because a large and deeper one was wished ; and the cut [tajo) of Nochistongo was neglected to be finished, while they were disputing about the project of a canal of Tezcuco, which was never executed. The desague in its actual state is undoubtedly one of the most gigantic hydraulical operations ever ex- ecuted by man. We look upon it with a species of admiration, particularly when we consider the na- ture of the groulid, and the enormous breadth, depth, and length of the apeiture. If this cut were filled with water to the depth of 10 metres,t the largest vessels of war could pass through the range of mountains Which bound the plain of Mexico to the north-east. The admiration which this Work inspires is mingled, however, with the most afflicting ideas. We call to mind at the sight of the cut of Nochis- * 1,041,7501. sterling. Trarrs. t 32.8 feet. Trans. 92 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. ^^^iSlySs^^] I- tntendancy of Mexico. tongo the number of Indians who perished there, either from the ignorance of the engineers, or the ex- cess of the fatigues to which they were exposed in ages of barbarity and cruelty. We examine if such slow and costly means were necessary to carry off from a valley enclosed in on all sides so inconsiderable a mass of water ; and we regret that so much col- lective strength was not employed in some greater and more useful object ; in opening, for example, not a canal, but a passage through some isthmus which impedes navigation. The project of Henry Martinez was wisely con- ceived, and executed with astonishing rapidity. The nature of the ground and the form of the valley ne- cessarily prescribed such a subterraneous opening. The problem would have been resolved in a com- plete and durable manner ; 1. If the gallery had been commenced in a lower point, that is to say, corre- sponding to the level of the inferior lake ; and, 2. If this gallery had been pierced in an elliptical form, and wholly protected by a solid wall equally elliptically vaulted. The subterraneous passage executed by Martinez contained only 15 square metres* in sec- tion, as we have already observed. To judge of the dimensions necessary for a gallery of this nature, we must know exactly the mass of water carried along by the river of Guautitlan and the lake of Zumpango at their greatest rise. I have found no estimation in the memoirs drawn up by Zepeda, Cabrera, Ve- lasquez, and by M. Castera. But from the re- searches which I have myself made on the spot, in the part of the cut of the mountain [el carte o tajo) called la obra del consulado, it appeared to me that * 161 square feet. Trans, CHAP. VII i] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 93 "^YnaLYS^S^^} ^- Intendar.cy of Mexico. at the period of the ordinary rains the waters afford a section of from eight to ten square metres,* and that this quantity increases in the extraordinary swell- ings of the river Guautilan to 30 or 40t square me- tres. J The Indians assured me, that in this last case, the water course which forms the bottom of the tajo is filled to such a degree, that the ruins of the old vault of Martinez are completely concealed under water. Had the engineers found great difficulties in the execution of an elliptical gallery of more than from four to five metrest) in breadth, it would have been better to have supported the vault by a pillar in the centre, or to have opened two galleries at once, than to have made an open trench. These trenches are only advantageous when the hills are of small elevation and small breadth, and when they contain strata less subject to falling down. To pass a vo- lume of water of a section in general of eight, !| and sometimes from 15 to 20 square metres,^ it has been judged expedient to open a trench, of which the section for considerable distances is from 1,800 to 3,000 square metres.** In its present state the canal of derivation {desague) * From 86 to 107 1-2 square feet. Trans. t From 322 3-5 to 430 1-3 square feet. Trans. \ The engineer Iniesta advanced even, that in the great rises the water ascends to the height of 20 or 25 metres (65 or 82 feet) in the canal near the Bo-ueda Real. But Velas- quez affirms that these estimations are enormously exag- gerated. (Declaracion del Maestro Iniesta, and Informe de i^'elasquez ^holh in manuscript.) § From 13 to 16 feet. Trans. |! 86 square feet. Tram ^From 161 to 2 15 square feet. Trans. **From 19,365 to 32,275 square feet. Trails. 94 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iii. ^^yAL™s!^l^- intendancy of Mexico, of Huehiietoca contains, according to the measure- ments of M. Velasquez,* From the sluice of Vertideros to the ^^^^ '»''»5- Metres, bridge of Huehuetoca - 4,870 or 4,087 From the bridge of Huehuetoca to the skiice of Santa Maria - 2,660 2,232 From the Compuerta de Santa Maria to the sluice of Valderas - 1,400 1,175 From the Compuerta de Valderas to la Boveda Real - - - 3,290 2,761 From la Boveda Real to the remains of the old subterraneous gallery called Techo Basso . . - 650 545 From Techo Basso to the gallery of the viceroys .... 1,270 1,066 From the Canon de los Vireyes to la Bocca de San Gregorio - - 610 512 From the Bocca de San Gregorio to the demolished sluice - - 1,400 1,175 From la Presa demolida to the cas- cade bridge .... 7,950 6,671 From la Puente del Salto to the cas- cade itself (Salto del Rio de Tula) 450 361 Lenjjth of the canal from Verti- v. m. '& dcros to the Salto - - 24,530 or 20,585t In this length of 435 common leagues, the chain of the hills of Nochistongo, (to the east of the Cerro * Infornie y exjiosidon de las o/ieracionrs hechas fiara exa- minar lafiossibilidad del desaguc general de la Laguva de Mexi- co y ctros Jinec a cl conducientcsy 1774, (manuscript memoir, folio 5.) 167,535 feet. Trans. 6 I CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 95 ^YnaiXsJ^^] ^- Ifitendancy of Mexico. de Sincoque,) constituting a fourth part ol It, has been cut to an extraordinar}' depth. At the point where the ridge is highest near the old well of Don Juan Garcia, for more than a length of 800 metres,* the cut in the mountains is from 45 to GO metresf in perpendicular depth. From the one side to the other, the breadth at top is from 85 to 110 J metres.^ The depth of the cut is from 30 to 50 metres, !| for a length of more than 3,500 metres.^[ The water- course is generally only from three to four metres** in breadth; but in a great part of the desague the breadth of the cut is by no means in proportion to its depth, so that the sides in place of having a slope of 40° or 50" are much too rapid, and are perpe- tually falling in. It is in the Obra del Coiisulado where we principally see the enormous accumulations of moveable earth which nature has deposited on the porphyries of the valley of Mexico. I have reckoned, in descending the stair of the viceroys, 25 strata of hardened clay, with as many alternate strata of marl, containing fibrous calcareous balls of a cellular sur- lace. It was in digging the trench of ,the desague that the fossile elephant bones were discovered, of which I have spoken in another work. ft * 2,624 feet. Trans. f From 147 to 196 feet. Trans. \ From 278 to 360 feet. Trans. § To have a clearer idea of the enormous breadth of this trench in the Obra del Consulado, we have only to recollect that the breadth of the Seine at Paris is at Port Bonaparte 102 metres, (334 English feet,) at Pont-Royal 136 metres, (446 feet,) and at the Pont d'Austerlitz, near the botanical garden, 175 metres, (574 feet.) II From 98 to 131 feet. Trans. ^ 1 1,482 feet. Trans. •* From 9.84 to 13.1 feet. Trans. ft In the Rtcueil de mcs Observations de Zoologie et d^AnatO' rnie cojtifiurec. 96 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [eookiit STATISTICAL^ T r, ^ i- TK/r ' ANALYSIS. 5 *• ^ntenciancy of Mexico. On both sides of the cut we sec considerable hills fornied of the rubbish, which are gradually begin- ning to be covered with vegetation. The extraction of the rubbish having been an infinitely laborious and tedious operation, the method of Enrico Martinez was at last resorted to. They raised the level of the water by small sluices, so that the force of the current carried along the rubbish thrown into the water- course. Daring this operation, from 20 to 30 In- dians have sometimes perished at a time. Cords were fastened round them, by which they were kept suspended in the current for the sake of collecting the rubbish into the middle of it ; and it frequently happened that the impetuosity of the stream dashed them against detached masses of rock, which crushed them to death. We have already observed that from the year 1643, the branch of Martinez's canal, directed towards the lake of Zumpango, had filled up, and that by that means (to use the expression of the Mexican engi- neers of the present day) the desague had become sim- ply negative ; that is to say, it prevented the river of Guautitlan to discharge itself into the lake. At the period of the great rises the disadvantages resulting from this state of things were sensibly feh in the city of Mexico. The Rio de Guautitlan, in overflowing, poured part of its water into the basin of Zumpango, which, swelled by the additional confluents of San Mateo and Pachuca, formed a junction with the lake of San Christobal. It would have been very expen- sive to enlarge the bed of the Rio de Guautitlan, to cut its sinuosities, and rectify its course ; and even this remedy would not have wholly removed the danger of inundation. The very wise resolution was therefore adopted at the end of the last century, under CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 97 ^"^'NitySai I- Intcndancy of Mex,co. ihe direction of Don Cosmc dc Micr y Trcspalacio.s, superintend:int- general of the desiiguc, of opening two canals to conduct the water from the lakes of Zumpango and San Christobal to the cut in the moun- tain at Nochistongo. The lirst of these canals was begun in 1796, and the second in 1798. The one is 8,900, and the other 13,000 metres^ in length. The canal of San Christobal joins that of Zumpango to the south-east of Huehuctoca, at 5,000 mctresj distance from its entry into the desague of Martinez. These two works cost more than a million of livrcs.:}; They are water- courses, in which the level of the water is from 8 to 12 metres') lower than the neigh- bouring ground ; and they have the sume defects on a small scale wi:h the great trench of Nochistongo. Their slopes are much too rapid ; in several places they are almost perpendicular. Hence the loose earth falls so frequently in, that it requires from 16,000 to 20,000 francsll annually to keep these two canals of M. Mier in a proper condition. When the viceroys go to inspect {hacer la visita) the de- sague (a two days journey, which formerly brought them in a present of 3,000 double piastres^) they embarked near their palace** from the south bank of the lake of San Christobal, and went even farther * 29,228 and 42,650 feet. Trans. t 16,40^ feet. TravF. \ 41,670/. sterling. Trans. Fi-om 29 to 39 feet. Trans. 11 From 666/. to 833/. sterling;. Trans. . K 656/. sterling. Trans. ** This pretended Pa/acio dc los Vtrcycs, from which there is a magnificent view of the lake of Tezcuco, and the volcano of Popocatepec, covered with eteraal snow, bears more re- 'jemblance to a great farm-house than to a palace. VOL. ir. N 93 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ut. '^ anaSsis^I I- Intendancy of Mexico. than Huehuctoda by water, a distance of seven com- mon leagues. It appears from a manuscript memoir of Don Ig- nacio Castera, present inspector [maestro mayor) of liydraulical operations in the valley of Mexico, that the desague cost, including the repairs of the dikes, {albaradonesi) between 1607 and 1789, the sum of 5,547,670 double piastres. If we add to this enor- mous sum from 6 to 7*00,000 piastres expended in the fifteen following years^ we shall find that the whole of these operations (the cut through the mountains of Nochistongo, the dikes, and the two canals from the upper lakes) have not costless than 3 1 millions of li vres. * T he estimate of the expense of the canal du Midi, of which the length is 238,648 metres,t (not- withstanding the construction of 62 locks, and the magnificent reservoir of St. Ferreol,) was only 4,897,000 francs ;$ but it has cost from 1686 to 1791 the sum of 22,999,000 of francs§ to keep this canal in order. II Resuming what we have been stating relative to the hydraulical operations carried on in the plains of Mexico, we see that the safety of the capital actually depends : 1. On the stone dikes which prevent the water of the lake of Zumpango from flowing over into the lake of San Christobal, and San Christobal from flowing into the lake of Tezcuco ; 2. On the dikes and sluices of Tlahuac and Mexicaltzingo, which prevent the lakes of Chalco and Xochimilco from overflowing ; 3. On the desague of Enrico Mar- thtez, by which the Rio de Guautitlan makes its way * 1,291,770/. sterling. Trans, t 782,966 feet. Trans. % 204,057/. sterling. Trans. § 958,368/. sterling. Trans. \\ Andre'ossvj Histoire du Canal du Midi, p. 289. CHAP. VII..] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 99 ^ ANil™S.''II- Ixtendanry of Mexico. through the mountains into tiie valley of Tula ; and, 4. On tlie two canals of M. Mier, by which the two lakes of Zumpangoand San Christobal may be thrown dry at pleasure. However, all these multiplied means do not secure the capital against inundations proceeding from the north and north-west. Notwithstanding all the ex- pense which has been laid out, the city will continue exposed to very great risks till a canal shall be imme- diately opened from the lake of Tezcuco. The wa- ters of this lake may rise, without those of San Chris- tobal bursting the dike which confines them. The great inundation of Mexico under the reign of Ahu- itzotl was solely occasioned by frequent rains,* and the overflowing of the most southern lakes, Chalco and Xochimilco. The w^ater rose to five or six me- tresf above the level of the streets. In 1763, and the beginning of 1764, the capital was, from a similar cause, in the greatest danger. Inundated in every quarter, it formed an island for several months, with- out a single drop from the Rio de Guautitlan enter- ing the lake of Tezcuco. This overflow was merely occasioned by small confluents from the east, west and south. Water was everywhere seen to spring up, undoubtedly from the hydrostatical pression which it experienced in filtration in the surrounding moim-v * The Indian historians relate, that at this period great masses of water were seen to fall on the declivities of the mountains in the interior of the country, which contained fishes never found but in the rivers of the warm regions, (/j^s- eados de tierra caitente,) a physical phenomenon^ cUfficuU o-f explanation, on account of the elevation of the Mexican ta- ble-land. t 16 and 19 feet. Tr(in4. 100 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book m STATISTICAL ANALYSIS^ 5 ^' -^^^^ to the geodaesi- ( al measurements of M. Velasquez, is 404, and the latter 378 Alexican varas (339 and 317 metres) above the mean level of the lake of Tezcuco. t 104,660 feet. Trans. % 357.108 inches, and 361.464 inches. Trans. § To complete the description of this great hydraulical un- dertaking, we shall here insert the principal results of M. Velasquez's survey. These results, on correcting the error of the refraction, and reducing the apparent to the true level, coincide -well enough with those obtained by Enrico Martinez and Arias, in the commencement of the 17th century; but they prove the erroneousness of the surveys executed in 1764 by Don Yldefonso Yniesta, according to which the drain- ing of the lake of Tezcuco appeared a much more dilRcult problem to resolve than it is in reality. We shall designate by -|- the points Avhich are more elevated, and by — the points which are less elevated than the mean level of the vrater of Tezcuco, in 1773 and 1774, or the signal placed near 102 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book xn- STATISTICAL ^ T r, , r n/r ANALYSIS. 1"^* intejidancy of Mexico. the new canal a fall of only 0"\ 2 in 1,000 metres. The plan of the engineer Martinez was rejected in 1607, purely because it was supposed that a current ought to have a fall of half a metre in the hundred. Alonso de Arias then proved, on the authority of Vi- truvius, (L. VIII. C. 7.) that to convey the water of the lake of Tczcuco into the Rio de Tula, a prodi- gious depth would be requisite for the new canal, and its baiik, :it the distance of 5,'ir5 Mexican varas, south 36° cast irom the lirsl sluice of the Calzada de San Christobal, The channel of the Rio -4 feet, to 19.615=19 feet 8 inches. M. Humboldt observes, vol. I. p. 63. " that the coast of New Spain from the 18" to the 26" of latitude abounds with bars; and vessels which draw more than 32 centimetres (i, e. 12 1-2 inches) of water cannot pass over any of these bars without danger of grounding." How does the bar of Tampi- co, then, which is within these latitudes, admit of vessels drawing 14 and 19 feet water? Trans. 112 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. TATISTICA ANALYSIS. STATISTICAL I j^ j^tendajicy of Mexico. la Valenciana, dug in a single mine* three pits at an expense of eight millions and a half of francs-f Nor can we deny the possibility of carrying a canal into execution from the valley of Tenochtitlan to Tam- pico. In the present state of hydraulical architecture boats may be made to pass over elevated chains of mountains, wherever nature ofters points of separation which communicate with two principal recipients. Many of these points have been indicated by Ge- neral Andreossy in the Vosges and other parts of France. I M. de Piony made a calculation of the time that a boat would take to pass the Alps, if by means of the lakes situated near the hospital of Mount Cenis a communication were established by water between Lans-le-bourg and the valley of Suze, This illustrious engineer proved by his calculation how much in that particular case, land carriage was to be preferred to the tediousness of locks. The in- clined planes, invented by Reynolds, and carried to perfection by Fulton, and the locks of MM. Huldles- ton and Betencourt, tvC^o conceptions equally appli- cable to the system of small canals, have greatly mul- tiplied the means of navigation in mountainous coun- tries. But however great the economy of water and time at which we can arrive, there is a certain maxi- mum of height in the predominant point beyond which water is no longer preferable to land carriage. The water of the lake of Tezcuco, east from the capital of Mexico, is more than 2,276 metres^ ele- vated above the level of the sea, near the port of Tampico ! Two hundred locks would be requisite * Near Guanaxuato. t 354,195/. sterling. > I'mns. \ Andreossy, sur le Canal du Midi. § 7,465 feet. Trann. €HAP. VIII.] KINGDOM' OF NEW SPAIN. \i^ ^^AiSl™^^] '• Jntendancij of Mexico. to carry boats to so enormous a height. If on the Mexican canal the levels were to be distributed, as in the Canal du Midi, the highest point of which (at Naurouse) has only a perpendicular elevation of 189 metres,* the number of locks would amount to 330 or 340. I know nothing of the bed of the Rio de Moctezuma beyond the valley of Tula, (the ancient Tollan,) and I am ignorant of its partial fi^ll from the vicinity of Zimapan and the Doctor. I recollect, however, that in the great rivers of South America, canoes ascend without locks for distances of 180 leagues, against the current, either by towing or row- ing to elevations of 300 metres ;t but notwithstanding this analog/, and that of the great works executed in Europe, I can hardly persuade myself that a naviga- ble canal from the plain of Anahuac to the Atlantic coast is a hydraulical work, the execution of which is anywise advisable. The following are the remarkable towns {ciudades y villas) of the intendancy of Mexico. Mexico, capital of the kingdom of New Population. Spain, height 2,277 metres,^ 137,000 Tezcuco, which formerly possessed very considerable cotton manufactories. They have suffered much, how-ever, in a compe- tition with those of Queretaro, 5,000 Cuyoacan, containing a convent of nuns, founded by Hernan Cortez, in which, ac- cording to his testament, the great captain wished to be interred, *' in whatever part * 620 feet. Trana. t 984 feci. TVatt*. \ 7,470 feet. Trar.r,. VOL. II. P ¥ 114 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi; ^Ynai!ysis.^P- J^ntetidancy of Mexico, of the world he should end his days." We Population, have already stated that this clause of the testament was never fulfilled. Tacuhaya^ west from this capital, con- taining the archbishop's palace and a beau- tiful plantation of European olive trees. Taciiba^ the ancient Tlacopan, capital of a small kingdom of the Tepanecs. Cuernavaca, the ancient Quauhnahuac, on the south declivity of the Cordillera of Guchilaque, in a temperate and deli- cious climate, finely adapted for the culti- vation of the fruit trees of Europe. Height,* 1,655 metres.f Chilpansingo, (Chilpantzinco,) surround- ed with fertile fields of wheat. Elevation, 1,080 metres.J Tasco^ (Tlachco,) containing a beautiful parish church, constructed and endowed towards the middle of the 18th century by Joseph de Laborde, a Frenchman, who * 5,429 feet. Trans. t M- Alzate affirms, in the Literary Gazette, published at Mexico, (1760, p. 220.) that the absolute height of places has very little influence in New Spain on the temperature. He cites as an example the city of Cuernavaca, which, accord- ing to him, is at the same height above the level of the sea ■with the capital of Mexico, and which only owes its delicious climate to its position south of a high chain of mountains. But M. Alzate has fallen into an error of more than 600 me- tres in the elevation of Cuernavaca. Cortez, who changes all the names of the Aztec language, calls this town Coadna- baced, a Mord in which we can with difficulty recognise Quauhnahuac. {Carta de Rclacion al Em/ierador Don Carles^ paragraph 19.) \ 3,542 feet. Trans. CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. H5 STATISTICAL 7 T ,, , /• Tir ; « ANALYSIS. 3 I- Inte7idancy of Mexwo. gained immense wealth in a short time by population, the Mexican mines. Tlie building of this church alone cost this individual more than two millions of francs.* Towards the end of his career, being reduced to great po- verty, he obtained from the archbishop of Mexico permission to sell for his benefit to the metropolitan church of the capital, the magnificent ciistodia set with diamonds, which, in better times, he had offered through devotion to the tabernacle of the parish church of Tasco. Elevation of the city, 783 metres, f Acapulco, (Acapolco,) at the back of a chain of granitical mountains, which, from the reverberation of the radiathig caloric, increase the suffocating heat of the cli- mate. The famous cut in the moun- tain, [abra de San J\'icoias,) near the bay de la Langosta, for the admission of the sea winds, was recently finished. The population of this miserable town, in- habited almost exclusively by people of colour, amounts to 9,000, at the line of the arrival of the Manilla galleon, {JVao de Chi- na.) Its habitual population is only 4,000 Zacatula^ a small sea-port of the South Sea, on the frontiers of the intcndancy of Valladolid, between the ports of Siguanta- nejo and Colima. Lerma^ at the entry of the valley of To- luca, in a marshy ground. * &3,340/. sterling. Trans. + 3,567 feet'. Tram-. IIQ POLITIC At. ESSAY ON THE tsoOK Tti. ^ANALYS?s'^^p- Intendancy of Mexico. Toluca^ (Tolocan,) at the foot of the population, porphyry mountain of San Miguel dc Tu- tucuitlalpilco, in a valley abounding with maize and maguey, (agave.) Height, 2,687 metres.* Pachuca, with Tasco, the oldest mi- ning-place in the kingdom, as the neigh- bouring village, Pachuquillo, is supposed to have been the first christian village founded by the Spaniards. Height, 2,482 metres, t Cadereitay with fine quarries of porphyry of a clay base, [thonporphyr.) San Juan del Rio, surrounded with gar- dens, adorned with vines and anona. Height, 1,978 metres.^ Queretaroy celebrated for the beauty of its edifices, its aqueduct, and cloth manu- factures. Height, 1,940 metres.^ Habi- tual population, 3 5, ©00 This city contains 11,600 Indians, 85 secular ecclesiastics, 181 monks, and 143 nuns. The consumption of Qucretaro amounted, in 1793, || to 13,618 cargas of wheaten flour, 69,445 fanegas of maize, 656 cargas of chile, (capsicum,) 1,770 barrels of brandy, 1,682 beeves, 14,949 sheep, and 8,869 hogs. * 8,813 feet. Tratia. t 8,141 feet. Trans, t 6,489 feet. Trans. % 6,374 feet. Trana. I] JVbtiCta del Doctor Don Juan Jgnacio Brionesj (MS.) C^Ap.viii.} KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. ^17 ANALYSIS. 5 !• Intendancy of New Mexico, The most important mines of this intendancy, con- sidering them only in the relation of their present "iveahh, are : La Feta Biscaina de Real del Monfe^ near Pa- chuca ; Zimapatty el Doctor y and Tehulilotepecy near Tasco, 118 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi; STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Population in 1803. Extent of Surface in square Lea gues . No. of Inhabit- ants to the square League. II. Intendancv of Puebla. ' 813,300 2,696 301 This intendancy, which has only a coast of 26 leagues towards the Great Ocean, extends from the 16" o7' to the 20" 40' of north latitude, and is con- sequently wholly situated in the torrid zone. It is bounded on the north- east by the intendancy of Vera Cruz, on the east by the intendancy of Oaxaca, on the south by the ocean, and on the west by the inten- dancy of Mexico. Its greatest length, from the mouth of the small river Tecoyame to near Mextitlan, is 118 leagues, and its greatest breadth from Techu- acan to Mecameca, is 50 leagues. The greater part of the intendancy of Puebla is tra- versed by the high Cordilleras of Anahuac. Beyond the 18th degree of latitude, the whole country is a plain eminently fertile in wheat, maize, agave, and fruit trees. This plain is from 1,800 to 2,000 me- tres* above the level of the ocean. In this inten- dancy is also the most elevated mountain of all New Spain, the Popocatepetl. This volcano, first mea- sured by me, is continually burning ; but for these several centuries it has thrown nothing up from its crater but smoke and ashes. This mountain is 600 metres"! higher than the most elevated summit of the. « From 5,905 to 6,561 feet. Tra7js. t 1,963 feet. Trar^. CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. ng ANALYsiS^^i ^^- I^^tejidancy of Piiebla. old continent. From the isthmus of Panama to Bee- ring's Straits, which separate Asia from America, wc know only of one mountain, MoJit St. Elie, higher than the great volcano of Pucbla. The population of this intendancy is still more une- qually distributed than that of the intendancy of Mexico. It is concentrated on the plain which ex- tends from the eastern declivity of the JS'evados* to the environs of Perote, especially on the high and beautiful plains between Cholula, La Puebia, and Tlascala. Almost the whole country, from the cen- tral table- land towards San Luis and Ygualapa, near the South Sea coast, is desert, though well adapted for the cultivation of sugar, cotton, and the other precious productions of the tropics. The table-land of La Puebia exhibits remarkable vestiges of ancient Mexican civilization. The forti- fications of Tlaxcallan are of a construction posterior to that of the great pyramid of Cholula, a curious monument, of which I shall give a minute descrip- tion in the historical account of my travels in the in- terior of the new continent. It is sufficient to state here, that this pyramid, on the top of which I made a great number of astronomical observations, consists of four stages ; that in its present state the perpendi- * Tlie words JSfevado and Sierra jVcvada do not mean in Spanish, mountains which from time to time are covered with snow in summer, but summits which enter the region of per- petual snow. I prefer this foreign word to the length of pe- riphrases, or the improper expression of snowy mountains, sometimes used by the academicians sent to Peru. More- over, the word Nevado, when it is joined to the name of a mountain, gives an idea of the minimum of height attributa- ble to its summit. (See Reciieil de mes Observations Antro- 'lomiques, Vol. I. p. 134.) J20 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. ANALYSIS, i ^^' Intendancy of Puebla, cular elevation is only 54 metres,* and the horizon- tal breadth of the base 439 metres ;t that its sides are very exactly in the direction of the meridians and parallels, and that it is constructed (if we may judge from the perforation made a few years ago in the north side) of alternate strata of brick and clay. These data are sufficient for our recognising in the construction of this edifice the same model observed in the form of the pyramids of Teotihuacan, of which we have already spoken. They suffice also to prove the great analogy J between these brick monu- ments erected by the most ancient inhabitants of Ana- huac, the temple of Belus at Babylon, and the pyra- mids of Menschich-Dashour, near Sakhara in Egypt. The platform of the truncated pyramid of Cholula has a surface of 4,200 square metres.^ In the midst of it there is a church dedicated te Nuestra Senora de los Remedies, surrounded with cypress, in which mass is celebrated every morning by an ecclesiastic of Indian extraction, whose habitual abode is the summit of this monument. It is from this platform that we enjoy the delicious and majestic view of the Volcan de la Puebla, the Pic d' Orizaba, and the small Cordillera of Matlacueye,j| which formerly separated the territory of the Cholulans from that of the Tlascaltec republicans. * 177 feet. Trans. t 1,423 feet. Trans. \ Zoego de Obeliscisy p. 380 ; Voyages de Pococke, (edition de jYeufc/iatel,) 1752, torn. i. p. 156 and 167 ; Voyage de De- non, 4to. edit. p. 86. 194. and 237 j Grobert Description des Pyra7nidesy p. 6. and 12. § 45,208 square feet English. Tram. II Called also the Sierra Malinchel, or Dona Maria. Ma- jinche appears to be derived from Mulintzin, a word (I know not why; which is no>v the n^mc of the Holy Virgin. GBAf. viri.} KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 12 1 ^ ANALyIs^"'! II- Intencbncj of Puebla. The pyramid, or teocalli, of Cholula is exactly of the same height as the Tonatiiih Itzaqual of Teoti- huacan, already described ; and it is three metres* higher than the Mycerinus, or the third of the great Egyptian pyramids of the group of Ghize. As to the apparent length of its base, it exceeds that of all the edifices of the same description hitherto found by travellers in the old continent, and is almost the double of the great pyramid known by the name of Cheops. Those who wish to form a clear idea of the great mass of this Mexican monument from a comparison with objects more* generally known, may imagine u square four times the dimensions of the Place Ven- dome, covered with a heap of bricks of twice the ele- vation of the Louvre ! The whole of the interior of the pyramid of Cholula is not, perhaps, composed of brick. These bricks, as was suspected by a cele- brated antiquary at Rome, M. Zoega, probably form merely an incrustation of a heap of stones and lime, like many of the pyramids of Sakhara, visited by Po- cocke, and more recently by M. Grobert.f Yet the road from Puebla to Mecameca, "carried across a part of the first stage of the teocalli, does not agree with this supposition. We know not the ancient height of this extraor- dinary monument. In its present state, the length of its basej is to its perpendicular height as 8 : 1 ; * 9.8 feet. Trans. t See note E. at the end of the work. \ I shall here subjoin the true dimensions of the three great pyramids of Ghize, from the interesting work of M. Grobert. I shall place in adjoining columns the dimensions of the brick pyramidal monuments of Sakhara, in Egypt, and V«L. II. Q 122 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. '^ Yn ^lySs.^^ ] ^^' ^'^^^^dancy of Puehla, w hilc in the three great pyramids of Ghize, this pro- portion is as 1 G-io and 1 7-io to 1', or nearly as 8 to 5. We have already observed that the houses of the sun and moon, or the pyramidal monuments of Teotihuacan north-east from Mexico, are surrounded with a system of small pyramids arranged symmet- rically. M. Grobert has published a very curious drawing of the equally regular disposition of the small pyramids which surround the Cheops and My- of Teotihuacan and Cholula, in Mexico. The numbers are French feet. (A French toot = I 066 English.) Stone pyramids. Cheops Height. Length of Base. 448 728 Ccphren 398 655 Myceri- uus. 162 280 Brick pyramids. Of Five Stages in Egypt, near Sakliara. lOf Four Stages in Mexieo. 150 210 Teotihu- acan. 171 645 Cholula 172 1355 It is curious to observe, 1. That the people of Anahuac have had the intention of giving the height and the double base of the Tonatiuh Itztaqual to the pyramid of Cholula ; and, 2. That the greatest of all the Egyptian pyramids, that of Asy- chiii, of which the base is 800 feet in length, is of brick aiui not of stone. (^Groberl, p. 6.) The cathedral of Strasbourg is eight feet, and the cross of St. Peter, at Rome, 41 feet, lower than the Cheops. There are in Mexico pyramids of several stages, in the forests of Papantla, at a small elevation above the level of the sea, and in the plains of Cholula and Teoti- huacan, at elevations surpassing those of our passes in the Alps. We are astonished to see in regions the most remote tVom one another, and under climates of the greatest diversi- ty, man following the same model in his edifices, in his orna- menis, in his habits, and even in the form of his political insti- luiioiis. CHAP. VIII J KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 12;^ STATISTICAL^ IT j^ , />d // ANALYSIS. 5 li- Intendancij of Puebla. cerinus at Ghizc. The teocalli of Cholula, if it is allowable to compare it with these great Ei^}'ptian monuments, appears to have been constructed on an analogous plan. We still discover on the western side, opposite the cerros of Tccaxete and Zapoteca, two completely prismatical masses. One of these masses now bears the name of Alcosac, or Istenenetl, and the other that of the Cerro de la Cruz. The elevation of the latter, which is constructed en pise, is only 15 metres.* The intendancy of Puebla gratifies the curiosity of the traveller also with one of the most ancient monuments of vegetation. The famous ahahuete,t or cypress of the village of Atlixco, is 23;^*. 3, J or 73 feet in circumference. Measured interiorly, (for its trunk is hollow,) the diameter is 15 feet.§ This cypress of Atli:!«co is, therefore, to within a few feet, of the same thicknessH as the baobab (Adansonia digitata) of the Senegal. The district of the old republic of Tlaxcalla, inha- bited by Indians jealous of their privileges, and very much inclined to civil dissensions, has for a long time formed a particular government. I have indicated il in my general map of New Spain as still belonging to the intendancy of Puebla ; but by a recent change in the financial administration, Tlaxcalla and Guaut- la de las Hamilpas were united to the intendancy of Mexico, and Tlapa and Ygualapa separated from it. * 49 feet. Trans. t Cupressus disticha. Lin. \ 76.4 feet English. Trans. § 16 feet English. Trans. II See as to the antiquity of the vcgetahle species, my mcv moir on the physiognomy of plants, in my Tableaux dr la .\'a- tiire^ lorn. II. p. 108. and 137. 124 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book m ANALYSIS. 3 ^^* Intendancy of Puebla. There were in 1793, in the intendancy of Puebla, without including the four districts of Tlaxcalla, Guautla, Ygualapa, and Tlapa : Indians, Spaniards or whites, Mixed race, Males . Females Males . Females Males . F" males Secular ecclesiastics Monks .... Nuns 187,531 souls. 186,221 25,617 29,363 37,31& 40,590 585 446 427 Result of the total enumeration, 508,098 souls, distributed into 6 cities, 133 parishes, 607 villages, 425 farms, {haciendas^) 886 solitary houses, (ranchos,) and 33 convents, two-thirds of which are for monks. The government of Tlaxcalla contained in 1793 a population of 59,177 souls, whereof 21,849 were male and 21,029 female Indians. The boasted pri- vileges of the citizens of Tlaxcalla are reducible to the three following points: 1. The town is go- verned by a cacique and four Indian alcaldes, who represent the ancient heads of the four quarters, still called Tecnectipac, Ocotelolco, Quiahutztlan, and Tizatlan. These aical des are under the dependance of an Indian governor, who is himself subject to the Spanish intendant ; 2. The whites have no seat in the municipality, in virtue of a royal cedula of the 16th April, 1585 ; and, 3. The cacique, or Indian governor, enjoys the honours of an alferez real. The district of Cholula contained in 1793 a popu- lation of 22,423 souls. The villages amounted to 42, and the farms to 45. Cholula, Tlaxcalla, and QHAP. vin.] KINGDOM OF NEW" S1»A1N. 125 STATISTICAL^ TT r, ; r jj 1 1 \NALYSIS. 3 ^^* ■i'lt'^fXttifii'!/ 0/ Jruchla. Huetxocingo, are the three republics whicli resisted the Mexican yoke for so many centuries, allhoui^h the pernicious aristocracy of their constitution lelt the lower people little more freedom than they would Iiave possessed under the government of the Aztec kings. The progress of the industry and prosperity of this province has been extremely slow, notwithstanding the active zeal of an intendant equally enlightened and respectable, Don Manuel de Flon, who lately inherited the title ©f Count de la Cadena. The flour *trade, formerly very flourishing, has suftbred much from the enormous price of caniage from the Mexi- can table-land to the Havannah, and especially from the want of beasts of burden. The commerce which Puebla carried on till 1710 with Peru in hats and delft ware has entirely ceased. But the greatest ob- stacle to the public prosperity arises from four-fifths of the whole property {Jincas) belonging to mort- main proprietors; that is to say, to communities of monks, to chapters, corporations, and hospitals. The intendancy of Puebla has very considerable salt works near Chila, Xicotlan, and Ocotlan, (in the district of Chiautla,) as also near Zapotitlan. The beautiful marble, known by the name of Puebla mar- ble, which is preferable to that of Bizaron, and the Real del Doctor, is procured in the quarries of To- tamehuacan and Tecali, at two and seven leagues distance from the capital of the intendancy. The carbonate of lime of Tecali is transparent, like the gypsous alabaster of Volterra and the Phcngitcs of the ancients. The indigenous of this province speak three lan- guages totally different from one another, the Mexi- can, Totonac, andTlapanco. The first is peculiar 126 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in ^ ANaSsb'^'' I "• Intcndancy of Puehla. to the inhabitants of Piiebla, Chokila, and Tlascalla ; the second to the inhabitants of Zacatlan ; and the third is preserved in the environs of Tlapa. The most remarkable towns of the intendancy of Puebla are : Population. La Puebla de los Angeles, the capital of the intendancy, more populous than Lima, Quito, Santa Fe, and Caraccas ; and, after Mexico, Guanaxuato, and the Havan- nahj'the most considerable city of the Spa- nish colonies of the new continent. La Puebla is one of the small number of American towns founded by European co- lonists ; for in the plain of Acaxete, or Cuitlaxcoapan, on the spot where the ca- pital of the province now stands, there were only in the beginning of the 16th century a few huts inhabited by Indians of Cholula. The privilege of the town of Puebla is dated 28th Sept. 153 L The consumption of the inhabitants in 1802 amounted to 52,951 cargas (of 300 pounds each) of wbeaten flour, and 36,000 cargas of maize. Height of the ground at the Plaza Mayor 2,196 metres.* 67,800 Tlascalla is so much reduced from its ancient grandeur, that it scarcely contains 3,400 inhabitants, among whom there are not more than 900 Indians of pure extrac- tion. Yet Hernan Cortez found a popu- lation in this place which appeared to him greater than that of Granada. 3,400 *r,381 feet. Trans. 6 * HAP. VIM.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. TATISTICA ANALYSIS, 127 STATISTICAL^ II. Intendancij of Puebla. Pcpul.^iidii. Cholulay called by Cortez* Churultecol, surrounded by beautiful plantations of agave. 16,000 Atiijcco^ justly celebrated for the fine- ness of its climate, great fertility, and the savoury fruits with which it abounds, es- pecially the anona cheremolia, Lin. [Chili- moi/a,) and several sorts of passiflores, {par- c/ias,) produced in the environs. Tehiiacan de las Granadas, the ancient Teohuacan de la Mizteca, one of the most frequented sanctuaries of the Mexicans before the arrival of the Spaniards. Tepeaca^ or Tepeyacac^ belonging to the marquisate of Cortez. It was called in the • This great conquistador, with a simplicity of style for which his writings are characterized, draws a curious picture of the old town of Cholula. — " The inhabitants of this city," says he, in his third letter to the emperor Charles the Fifth, " are better clothed than any we have hitherto seen. People in easy circumstances wear cloaks (a/i5c.r7zoc Fahrenheit.) The passage over these crevices and heaps of scoria, which cover considerable hollows, render the descent into the crater •very dangerous. I shall reserve the detail of my geological reseaixhes relative to the volcano of Jorullo for the historical account of my travels. The atlas accompanying that account will contain three plates: 1. The picturesque view of the new volcano, which is three times higher than the Monte Novo oi Puzzole, sprung up in 1588, almost on the very shore of the Mediterranean ; 2. The vertical section of the Malpays ; S. The geographical map of the plains of Jorullo, drawn up bj means of the sextant, employing tlu; method of perpendicular bases, and angles of altitude. The volcanic productions of this convulsed district are to l)e found in the cabinet of the School of Mines at Berlin. The plants collected in the envi- rons are to be found in tiie herbals deposited by mc in the r^Iuseum of Natural History at Paris. t 1Q90 of Fahrenheit. Tram. CHAP, vni] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 139 ^ANAL™s!^^] I^'- Intemlancij of Valladolid. Ines, the rivers of Cuitamba and San Pedro, of which the limpid waters formerly watered the sugar- cane plantation of Don Andre Pimentel. These streams disappeared in the night of the 29th Septem- ber, 1759; but, at a distance of 2,000 metres*' far- ther Avest, in the tract which was the theatre of the convulsion, two rivers are now seen bursting through the argillaceous vault of the IiornitoSy of the appear- ance of mineral waters, in which the thermometer rises to 52r>,7.t The Indians continue to give them the names of San Pedro and Cuitamba, because in several parts of the Malpays great masses of water are heard to run in a direction from east to west, from the moimtains of Santa Ines towards P Hacienda de la Prcsentacion. Near this habitation there is a brook, which disengages itself from the sulphureous hydrogen. It is more than 7 metres in breadth, ancj is the most abundant hydro-sulphureous spring which I have ever seen. In the opinion of the Indians, these extraordinary transformations which we have been describing, the surface of the earth raised up and burst by the vol- canic fire, and the mountains of scoria and ashes heaped together, are the work of the monks, the greatest, no doubt, which they have ever produced in the two hemispheres ! In the cottage which we oc- cupied in the playas de Joruilo, our Indian host re- lated to us, that, in 1759, Capuchin missionaries came to preach at the plantation of San Pedro, and not having met with a favourable reception, (perhaps not having got so good a dinner as they expected,) they poured out the most horrible and unheard of impre- * 6,561 fp.ft. Travt. + 156o. 3 of Fahrenheit, Trans. 140 POLITICAL ESBAY ON THE [bookiu. ^^ALySs^^] I^- Interidaiicy of ValladoM. cations against the then beautiful and fertile plain, and prophesied that in the first place the plantation would be swallowed up by flames rising out of the earth, and that afterwards the ambient air would cool to such a degree, that the neighbouring mountains would for ever remain covered with snow and ice. The former of these maledictions having already pro- duced such fatal effects, the lower Indians contemplate ill the increasing coolness of the volcano, the sinister presage of a perpetual winter. I have thought proper to relate this vulgar tradition, worthy of figuring in the epic poem of the Jesuit Landivar, because it forms a striking feature in the picture of the manners and prejudices of these remote countries. It proves the active industry of a class of men who too frequently abuse the credulity of the people, and pretend to sus- pend by their influence the immutable laws of na- ture for the sake of founding their empire on the fear of physical evils.* * The monks seem to have acted with no small share of sa- gacity under all the circumstances in which they were placed. It is true, no doubt, as M. de Humboldt observes, that they indulged pretty freely in miracles ; but it is to this that we are chiefly, perhaps, to ascribe the introduction of the religion of benevolence and humanity among them. This religion is not in their hands every thing that we could wish ; still, how- ever, in its worst modification, it must partake something of the divine spirit of its author. Miracles would Feem to be necessary to the foundation and dissemination of every religion, however convincing its evi- dence, especially among barbarous and half civilized nations. It is not by i-easoning or logical subtlety, that such a people, the great mass of whom have neither leisure nor aptitude for it, can be brought to shake themselves free of the religious impressions, of Avhatevcr nature, to which they have been ac- customed from their infancy, and which are interwoven with every feeling and association of their nature. The change CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 141 ^\1?!\L™s'^l IV. Intcndancij of Falladolid. The position of the new VolcLin do Joriillo g^es rise to a very curious geological observation. We already remarked in the third chapter, that in New Spain there is a parallel of great elevations, or a nar- row zone contained bet\^'een the 18° 59' and the ""an only, in general, be effected by the operation of such means as arc calculated to produce astonishment and terror in an uncultivated mind, which will then be disposed to re- f-ign itself blindly to the guidance of the apparently superna- tural agent. However obvious this truth may be, and how- ever much confirmed by all our experience hitherto, those persons whose business it is to carry on at present the disse- mination of religion, have laid aside, certainly very impru- dently, the operation of miracles, a privilege of which it ap- pears the Roman catholics continue to avail themseivus with success, and to the want of which our own bad success ough<: in a great measure to be ascribed. What reasonings, for in- stance, could have convinced so effectually the Betoya nation that the sun is not God but Jire to light us, as the miracle which, in confirmation of his assertion, Padre Gumiila wrought on the arm of the chief Tunucua, by means of a lens? When Tunucua saw his arm roasting and swelling up, he could resist the truth no longer, and with sorrowful voice loudly exclaimed, " Truly, truly, the sun is fire ! Es verdad .' £s verdad I fiiego es el Sol I" The whole passage is welt worth transcribing, as it serves powerfully to illustrate the r.agacity of the missionaries fathers, and the observation oi M. de Humboldt. " Viendo pues que passaban muchos me- ses sin acabar de creer, que el Sol era fuego, me vali dc la mccanica de un Lente 6 Cristal de bastantes grados, y junta toda la gente en la Plaza, cogi la mano del Capitan mas ca- paz, Uamado Tunucua. Preguntclc si el Sol era Dies ? Luego respondio que si. Eutonces, en voz alta, que oyeron todos, dixe : Daij diami obay refolajuy I Theoda futuit ajaduca, may Tnafarra. Quando accobereis de crecrine ? Ya os tengo diche^ que el Sol no os sino fuegoy diciendo y haciendo, intcrpuse el lente entre el Sol, y el brazo del dicho capitan, y al punto el Ijayo Solar le qucmo, y levanto ampolla considerable en cl brazo: clamo luego el con voz amarga, diciendo: Es verdad, Es verdad, fucgocsel Sol." Gumilla, vol. H. p. II. X42 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. ^Ynal™s^^1^^- Intendancyof ValladoM. 19o 12' of latitude, in which all the summits of Anahuac, which rise above the region of perpetual snow, are situated. These summits are either vol- canoes which still continue to burn, or mountains, which, from their form as well as the nature of their rocks, have in all probability formerly contained sub- terraneous fire. As we recede from the coast of the Atlantic, we find in a direction from east to west the Pic d'Orizaba, the two volcanoes of la Puebla, the Nevado de Toluca, the Pic de Tancitaro, and the Volcan de Colima. These great elevations, in place of forming the crest of the Cordillera of Anahuac, and following its direction, which is from the south- east to the north-west, are, on the contrary, placed on a line perpendicular to the axis of the great chain of mountains. It is undoubtedly worthy of obser- vation, that in 1759 the new volcano of Jorullo was formed in the prolongation of that line, on the same parallel \\\\\\ the ancient Mexican volcanoes ! A single glance bestowed on my plan of the envi- rons of Jorullo, will prove that tlie six large masses rose out of the earth, in a line which runs through the plain from the Cerro de las Cuevas to the Picacho del Mortero ; and it is thus also that the bocche nove of Vesuvius are ranged along the prolongation of a rhasai. Do not these analogies entitle us to suppose that ther.e exists in this part of Mexico, at a great depth in the interior of the earth, a chasm in a direc- tion from east to west for a length of 137 leagues, along which the volcanic fire, bursting through the interior crust of the porphyritical rocks, has made its appearance at diftbrent epoquas from the gulf of Mexico to the South Sea ? Does this chasm extend to the small group of islands, called by M. Collnct, the archipelago of Revillagigedo, around which, in the 1 c-HAP.vin.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 143 ^Yn^^LYSI^] ^V- ^ntendancy of ValladoM. same parallel with the Mexican volcanoes, pumice- stone has been seen floating ? Those naturalists who make a distinction between the facts which are offer- ed us by descriptive geology and theoretical reveries on the primitive state of our planet, will forgive us these general observations on the general map of New Spain. Moreover, from the lake of Cuiseo, which is impregnated with muriate of soda, and which ex- hales sulphuretted hydrogen as far as the city of Valla- dolid, for an extent of 40 square leagues, there are a great quantity of hot wells, which generally contain only muriatic acid, without any vestiges of terreous sulfates or metallic salts. Such are the mineral wa- ters of Chucandiro, Cuinche, San Sebastian, and San Juan Tararamco. The extent of the intendancy of Valladolid is one- fifth less than that of Ireland, but its relative popula- tion is twice greater than that of Finland. In this province there are three ciudades, (Valladolid, Tzint- zontzan, and Pascuaro ;) 3 villas^ (Citaquaro, Za- mora, and Charo ;) 263 villages ; 205 parishes ; and 326 farms. The imperfect enumeration of 1793 gave a total population of 289,314 souls, of whom 40,399 were male whites, and 39,081 female whites ; 61,352 male Indians, and 58,016 female Indians; and 1-54 monks, 138 nuns, and 293 individuals of the secular clergy. The Indians who inhabit the province of Vallado- iid form three races of different origin, the Tarascs, celebrated in the sixteenth century for the gentleness of their manners, for their industry in the mechani- cal arts, and for the harmony of their language, abounding in vowels ; the Otomites, a tribe yet very far behind in civilization, who speak a language full of na-sal and guttural aspirations ; and the Chichi- i44 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. ANALYSIS. 1 1^* Intendancy of Valladolid. mecs, who, like the Tlascahecs, the Nahuatlacs, aiid the Aztecs, have preserved the Mexican lan- guage. All the south part of the intcndancy of Val- ladolid is inhabited by Indians. In the villages, the only white figure to be met with is the ciwe^ and he also is frequently an Indian or Mulatto. The bene- fices are so poor there, that the bishop of Mechoacan has the greatest difficulty in procuring ecclesiastics to settle in a country where Spanisli is almost never spoken, and where along the coast of the Great Ocean, the priests, infected by the contagious miasmata of malignant fevers, frequently die before the expira- tion of seven or eight months. The population of the intendancy of Valladolid decreased in the years of scarcity of 1786 and 1790 ; and it would have suifered still more if the respecta- ble bishop, of whom we spoke in the sixth chapter, had not made extraordinary sacrifices for the relief of the Indians. He voluntarily lost in a few months, the sum of 230,000 francs* by purchasing 50,000 fanega^s of maize, which lie sold at a reduced price to keep the sordid avarice of several rich proprietors within bounds, who, during that epoqua of public calami- ties, endeavoured to take advantage of the misery of the people. The most remarkable places of the province of A'^alladolid are the following : PopuJatiojA Valladolid de Mechoacan^ the capital of the intendancy, and seat of a bishop, which enjoys a delicious climate. Its elevation * 9,5847. sterling. Trans. CHA*. vJii] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 145 ^ AN^YS?S^*^] ^^' i^^*^dancy of ValladoM, fopulatwn. above the level of the sea, is 1,950 metres ;* and yet at this moderate height, and under the 19" 42' oikititude, snow has been seen to fall in the streets of Valladolid. This sudden change of atmosphere,! caused, no doubt, by a north wind, is much more re- markable than the snow which fell in the streets of Mexico the night before the Je- suit fathers were carried oft ! The new aque- duct by which the town receives potable water, was constructed at - the expense of the last bishop, Fray Antonio de San Mi- guel, and cost him nearly half a million of francs.J 18,000 Pascuaro^ on the banks of the pictu- resque lake of the same name, opjX)site to the Indian village of Janicho, situated at something less than a league's distance, on a charming little island in the midst of the lake. Pascuaro contains the ashes of a very remarkable man, whose memory, after a lapse of two centuries and a half, is still venerated by the Indians, the famous Vasco de Quiroga, first bishop of Mecho- acan, who died in 1556 at the village of Uruapa. Thiszealousprelate, whomthe indi- genous still call their father, {Tata don Vas- co^ was more successful in his endeavours to protect the unfortunate inhabitants of Mexico than the virtuous bishop of Chiapa, * 6.396 feet. Trans. t See my Geografifns dcs Plantes, p. 1 ^l \ 20,835/. Trans. VOL. II. T i4.(j POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. ^^NAL™s^] IV. Intendancy of Valladolid. Population . Barlholonie cle las Casas. Quiroga became in an especial manner the benefactor of the Tarasc Indians, whose industry he encou- raged. He prescribed one particular branch of commerce to each Indian vil- lage. These useful institutions are' in a great measure preserved to this day. The height of Pascuaro is 2,200 metres.*' 6,000 Tzintzontzan^ or Huitzitzilla, the old ca- pital of the kingdom of Mechoacan, of which we have already spoken. 2,500 The intendancy of Valladolid contains the mines of Zitaquaro, Angangueo, Tlapuxahua, the Real del ^i Oroj andYnguaran. ■§ * 7,2 17 feet. 7>avs.. CHAP.vMi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 147 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Population in 1803. F.xtunt of Surface in square Lfitgucs. No. of Inhnbit-! ants to (he i siiiiare League.; 1 V. Intendancy of Guadalaxara. 630,500 9,612 66 This province, part of the kingdom of Nueva Ga- licia, is almost twice the extent of Portugal, with a population five time^ smaller. It is bounded on the north by the intendancies of Sonora and Durango, on the east by the intendancies of Zacatecas and Guanaxuato, on the south by the jirovince of Valla- dolid, and on the west, for a length of coast of 123 leagues, by the Pacific Ocean. Its greatest breadth is 100 leagues, from the port of San Bias to the town of Lagos, and its greatest length is from south to .north from the Volcan de Colima to San Andres Tule 118 leagues. The intendancy of Guadalaxara is crossed irom east to west by the Rio de Santiago, a considerable river which communicates with the lake of Chapala, and which one day (when civilization shall have aug- mented in these countries) will become interesting for interior navigation from Salamanca and Zelaya to the port of San Bias. All the eastern part of this province is the table- land and western declivity of the Cordilleras of Ana- huac. The maritime regions, csi^ecially those m Inch stretch towards the great bay of Bayonne, are cover- ed with forests, and abound in superb wood for shiji building. But the inliabitants are* exposed to an un- healthy ajid excessively headed tiir. The interior of X48 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [hqok iti ^T(nal™s^^] V. Intendanci^ of Guadakxma. the countiy enjoys a temperate climate, favourable to health. The Volcan de Colima, of which the position has never ) et been determined by astronomical observa- tions, is the most western of the volcanoes of New Spain, which are placed on the same line in the di- rection of one parallel. It frequently throws up ashes and smoke. An enlightened ecclesiastic, who long before my arrival at Mexico had made several very exact barometrical measurements, Doi Ma- nuel Abad, great vicar of the bishopric of Mechoa- can, estimated the elevation of the Volcan de Coli- ma above the level of the sea at 2,800 metres.* " This insulated mountain," observes M. Abad, " appears only of a moderate height when its summit is com- pared with the ground of Zapotilti and Zapotlan, two villages of 2,000 varast of elevation above the level of the coast. It is from the small town of Colima that the volcano appears in all its gi'andeur. It is never covered with snow, but when it falls in the chain of the neighbouring mountains from the effects of the north wind. On the 8th December, 1788, the volcano was covered with snow for almost two thirds of its height ;J but this snow only remained for two months on the northern declivity of the mountain towards Zapotlan. In the beginning of 1791, I iMade the tour of the volcano by Sayula, * 9,185 feet. Trans. t 5,505 fjct. 'Irajif:. ^ Let us suppose that the snow only covered the volcano for the half of its height. Now snow sometimes falls in the western part of New Spain under the latitude of 18»and 2t)n, at 1,600 inctres of elevation, (5,24.8 feet.) These mcteorolo- 5^'Cdl considerations would induce us to assign nearly 3,200 inetics, (10,496 feet.) for t'lic heitjht ef the \'o]ciin de Co- lima. HAP.viji.j KlNODmVl Of MAN ^t'AlN 1-19 ;TATisric.' ANALYSIS. j V . liittnulanry oj Ljuaamaxara. Tuspan, and Coliina, uilhout seeing ihc smallest trace ot bnow on its suimuitb." According to a ni.tnii.-:>c! ipt memoir communicUv. d to the tribunal of the Consul do of Vera Cruz, by the intcndant ot" Guadalaxara, the vahie ci" the ;'.gri- cviltural j)roduce ot" tliis intcndrcncy amounted, in 1802, to 2,599,000 piastres,* (nearly 13 millions of francs,) in which there were computed 1,657,000 fancgas of maize, 45,000 cargas of \\h.cat, 17,000 tercios of cotton, (at 5 piastres the tercio,) and 20,000 pounds of cochineal of Autlan, (at 3 irancs the pound.) The \'alue of the manufacturing industry was estimated at 3,302,200 piastres,! or -16 millions and a half of francs. The province of Guadalaxara contains 2 ciiidades, 6 villas, and 322 villages. The most celebrated mines are those of Bolanos, Asientos de Ibarra, Hos- tiotipaquillo, Copala, and Guichichila near Tepir. The most remarkable towns are : Guadalaxara^ on the left bank of the Rio de Santiago, the residence of the intendant, of the bishop, and the high court of justice, (Audiencia.) Population 19,500 San Blas^ a port, the residence of the Departimi- ento de Marina^ at the mouth of the Rio de Santiago. The otftcial people {ojficiales reales) remain at Te- pic, a small tow'n, of which the climate is not so liot and is more salubrious. Within these ten years the question has been discussed if it would be useful to transfer the dock-yards, magazines, and the whole marine department from San Bias to Acapulco. * = 13,644,750 francs = 568,531/. sterling. -Trans. + — ir,S36,5 50 francs 1= 722.351/. sterliiv^. Trans. 150 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THfc [book iix. STATISTICAL?,^ r, j rn Jl ANALYSIS S ' ^^^-*^''-^'^'^f'y of ijuaaalaxara. This last port wants uood for ship building. The air there is aho equally unlieilthy as at San Bias, but the pi qjected cli'-\n:.^e, by flivoiiring the concentration of the naval force, would give the government a greater facility Sn knowing tlie wants of the marine and the means of supplying them. Compostella, to the soutli of Tepic. To the north- Vi'cst of CompostcHa, as well as in the partidos of Aiitlm, Ahuxcatlaa, and Acaponeta, a tobacco of a superior quality was formerly cultivated. ^^giias Caliejites, a small well-peopled town to the south of the mines de los Asientos de Ibarra. Villa de la Punficacion, to the north-west of the port of Gnallan, iormerly called Santiago de Buena Ksperanza, celebrated from the voyage of discovery, made in 532, by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. iMgos, to the north of the town of Leon, on a plain fertiie m vvheat on the frontiers of the inten- (lancy of Guanaxuato. Colima, i\\v> leagues south from the Volcan de Colima. CMAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NFAV SPAIN, 151 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. VL Intendancy of Zucatecus. Population in 1303. !5:>,30O Kxi.-iit of Siiiliicc ill Ml'inri- Luai^iics. No. (ifliilinbil Hilts to llie s<|Uuru LcagUi-.'f 65 This sing^ularly ill-peopled province is a moun tainoiisand arid tract, exposed to a continual incle mency of climate. It is bounded on the north by the intendancy of Durango, on the cast by the inten- dancy of San Luis Potosi, on the south by the pro- vince of Guanaxuato, and oi> the west by that ot Guadalaxara. Its greatest length is 85 leagues, and its greatest breadth from Sombrerete to the Real dt Ramos, 5 1 leagues. The intendancy of Zacatecas is nearly of the same extent with Switzerland, which it resembles in many geological points of view. The relative population is hardly equal to that of Sweden. The table-land, which forms the centre of the in- tendancy of Zacatecas, and which rises to more than 2,000 metres* in height, is formed of Sienites, a rock on which repose, according to the excellent ob- servations of M. Valcnc'ui^\ strata of primitive schis- tus and schistous chlorites, [chlorith schiefer.) The schistus forms the base of the mountains of gran- wacke and trappish porphyry. North of the town ol * 6,561 feet. Trans. t Don Vicente Valencia, pupil of M. del Rio, and of Ihc School of Mines of Mexico, has written a very interesting do scription of the mines of Zacatecas, (Gazeta dc Mexico, toui. XI. p. 417.^ J 52 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE Ibook ii:. ^ AN ALYsfs^^l ^^' Intcndajicij of Zacatecas. Zacatecas are nine small lakes abounding in muriate, and especially carbonate of soda. * This carbonate, which, from the old Mexican word tequixquiiUy goes by the name of tequesquite, is of great use in the dis- solving of the muriates, and of the sulphurets of sil- ver. M. Garces^ an advocate of Zacatecas, has re- cently fixed the attention of his countrymen on the tequesquite, which is also to be found at Zacualco, between Vailadolid aiid Guadalaxara, in the valley of San Francisco, near San Luis Potosi, at Acusquilco, near the mines of Bolanos, at Chorro near Duran- go, and in five lakes around the town of Chihuahua. The central table-land of Asia is not more rich in soda than Mexico. The most remarkable places of this province are ; Zacatecas^ at present, after Guanaxuato, the most celebrated mining place of New Spain. Its population is at least . - . 33,00() Fresnillo, on the road from Zacatecas to Durango. Sombrerete, the head town, and residence of a Diputacion ,de Mineria. Besides the three places above named, the inten- dancy of Zacatecas contains also interesting metalli- ferous seams near the Sierra de Pinos, Chalchiguitec, San Miguel del Mezquitas, and Mazapil. It was this province, also, which in the mine of the Veta JVfgra de Sombre ret e exhibited an example of the {greatest wealth of any seam yet discovered in the two hemisphercj. * Don Jo&tph Cartes y Eg'uia, del beneficio de los fr.etate's ilc: oroy filata A/exico, 1802, p. 11. and 49. (a work ^\•hi^^i dis- CiiAP. vMi] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 153 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Population in 1803. Extent of Ssurlace in square Leagues. No. of Inhwhit- aiits to itiP sq'iaie Lea;,ue VII. Intcndancy of Oaxaca. 534,800 4,447 120 The name of this province, uhich other geogra- phers less correctly call Guaxaca, is derived from a Mexican name of the city and valley of HuaxyacaCy one of the principal places of the Zapotec country, which was almost as considerable as Teotzapotlan their capital. The intendancy of Oaxaca is one of the most delightful countries in this part of the globe. The beauty and salubrity of the climate, the fertility of the soil, and the richness and variety of its pro- ductions all minister to the prosperity of the inha- bitants ; and this province has accordingly from the remotest periods been the centre of an advanced ci- vilization. It is bounded on the north by tlie intendancy of Vera Cruz, on the east by the kingdom of Guati- mala, on the west by the province of Puebla, and on the south for a length of coast of 11 leagues by the Great Ocean. Its extent exceeds that of Bohemia and Morel via together ; and its absolute population is nine times less ; consequently its relative population is equal to that of European Russia. The mountainous soil of the intendancy of Oaxaca forms a singular contrast with that of the provinces of Puebla, Mexico, and Valladolid. In place of the strata of basaltes, amygdaloid, and porphyry with grlinstein base, which cover the ground of Anahuac from the IS-^ to the 22'' of latitude, we find only granite and gneiss in the mountains of Mixtera and VOL. II. U 154 POLITICAL ESSxVY OK THE [book iu. ANALYSIS. 1 yi^' Intc7tdancy of Oaxaca. Zapoteca. The chain of mountains of trapp forma- tion only recommences to the south-east on the west- ern coast of the kingdom of Guatimala. We know the height of none of these granitical summits of the intendancy of Oaxaca. The inhabitants of this fine country consider the Cerro de Senpualtepec, near Vilaka, from which both seas are visible, as one of the most elevated of these summits. However, this extent of horizon would only indicate a height of 2,350 metres.* It is said that the same spectacle may be enjoyed at la Ginetfa^ on the limits of the bishoprics of Oaxaca and Chiapa, at 12 leagues distance from the port of Tehuantepec, on the great road from Guatimala to Mexico. The vegetation is beautiful and vigorous through- out the v/hole province of Oaxaca, and especially half way down the declivity in the temperate region, in which the rains are very copious from the month of May to the month of October. Ax. the village of Santa Maria del Tule, three leagues east from the capital, between Santa Lucia and Tlacochiguaya, there is an enormous trunc oFcupressus disticha ( sabino) of 36 metresf in circumference. This an- cient tree is consequently larger than the cypress of Atlixco, of which we have already spoken, the dra- gofinier of the Canary Islands, and all the boababs ( Adansoniae) of Africa. But on examining it nar- * The visual horizon of a mountain of 2,350 metres (7,709 feet) of elevation has a diameter of 3'^ 20'. The question has be^n discussed if the two seas could be visible from the summit of the Nevada de Toluca. The visual horizon oi this has 2" 21' or 58 leagues of radius, supposing only an oi'dinary refraction. The two coasts of Mexico nearest to the Nevado, those of Coyuca and Tuspan, are at a distance of 54 and 64 leagues from it. t 118 feet. 7Ya7is. CHAP, vui.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. ^55 STATISTIC AL^,^,T T* 7 rn ANALYSIS. 5 > n. Litmdancy of Oaxaca. rowly, M. Anza observes that what excites the ad- miration of ti-avellers is not a single individual, and that three united tnincs form the famous sabino of Santa iMaria del Tule. The intcndanc}'^ of Oaxaca comprehends two mountainous countries, which from the remotest times \\ ent under the names of Mixteca and Tzapo- teca. These denominations, which remain to this day, indicate a great diversity of origin among the natives. The old Mixtecapan is now divided into upper and lower Mixteca, [Mixteca alta y baxa.) The eastern limit of the former, which adjoins the intendancy of Puebla, runs in a direction from Ti- comabacca, by Quaxiniquilapa, towards the South Sea. It passes between Colotopeque and Tamasu- lapa. The Indians of Mixteca are an active, intelli- gent, and industrious people. If the province of Oaxaca contains no monuments of ancient Aztec architecture equally astonishing from their dimensions as the houses of the gods {teocallis) of Cholula, Papantla, and Teotihuacan, it contains the ruins of edifices more remarkable for their symmetry and the elegance of their ornaments. The walls of the palace of Mitla are decorated with Grecques^ and^labyrinths in mosaic of small porphyry stones. We perceive in them the same design which we admire in the vases falsely called Tuscan, or in the frise of the old temple oi Deus Redicshts^ near the grotto of the nympth Egeria at Rome. I caused part of these American ruins to be engraved, ^vhicl^ were very carefully drawn by Colonel Don Pedro de la Laguna, and by an able architect, Don Luis Mar- tin. If wc are justly struck with the great analogy between the ornaments of the palace of Mitla, and those employed by the Greeks and Romans, we are 156 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. ANALYSIS. 3 ^■^■^* J'^'^icndancij of Oaxaca. not on tbat account to give ourselves lightly up to his- torical hypotheses, on the possibility of the existence of ancient communications between the two conti- nents. We must not lorget, that under almost every zone (as I have elsewhere endeavoured to demonstrate) mankind take a pleasure in a rhythmical repetition of the same forms which constitute the principal cha- racter of all that we call Grecques^^ ^leanders, laby- rinths, and arabesques. The village of Mitla was formerly called Miguit- lan, a word which means in the Mexican language a place of sadness. The Tzapotec Indians call it Lcq- bay which signifies tomb. In fact the palace of Mitl^, the antiquity of which is unknown, was, according to the tradition of the natives, as is also manifest from the distribution of its parts, a palace constructed over the tombs of the kings. It was an edifice to which the sovereign retired for some time on the death oi" a son, a wife, or a mother. Comparing the magni- tude of these tombs with the smallness of the houses which served for abodes to the living, we feel inclined to say, with Diodorus Siculus, (lib. i. c. 51.) that there are nations who erect sumptuous monuments for the dead, because, looking on this life as short and passing, they think it unworthy the trouble of con- structing them for the living. The palace, or rather the tombs of Mitla, form three edifices symmetrically placed in an extremely romantic situation. The principal edifice is in best preservation, and is nearly 40 metrest in length. A * M. Zoega, the most profound connoisseur in Egyptian antiquities, has made the curious observation that the Egyp- tians have never employed this spdcies of ornament. * 131 feet. Tram. fHAP. vni ] KINGDOM OF NF.VV SPAIN. 157 ^YnalyIS^^I VII. htendaimj of Oaxaca. stair formed in a pit leads to a subterraneous apar*^^- ment of 27 metres in lengtli and 8* in bre dth. This gloomy apartment is coAered with the same Grecqiies which ornament the exterior walls of the edifice. But what distinguishes the ruins of Mitla from all the other remains of Mexican architecture, is six por- phyry columns which are placed in the midst of a vast hall and support the ceiling. These columns, almost the only ones found in the new continent, bear strong marks of the infancy of the art. They have neither base nor capitals. A simple contraction of the upper part is only to be remarked. Their total height is five metres ;t but their shaft is of one piece of amphibolous porphyry. Broken down frag- ments, for ages heaped together, conceal more than a third of the height of these columns. On uncovering them M, Martin found their height equal to six dia- meters, or 12 modules. Hence the symmetry would be still lighter than that of the Tuscan order, if the inferior diameter of the columns of Mitla were not in the proportion of 3 : 2 to their upper diameter. The distribution of the apartments in the interior of this singular edifice bears a striking analogy to what has been remarked in the monuments of Upper Egypt, drawn by M. Denon and the sava?is, who compose the institute of Cairo. M. de Laguna found in the ruins of Mitla curious paintings representing warlike trophies and sacrifices. I shall have occa- sion elsewhere (in the historical account of my tra- vels) to return to these remains of ancient civiliza- tion. The intendancy of Oaxaca has alone preserved the cultivation of cochineal, (coccus cacti,) a branch of * 38 feet by 26. Trans. t 16.4 feet. Trans. 158 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. ANALYSIS, i ^^^* I^^i<^J^(icincy of Oaxaca. industry vvhicli it formerly shared with the provinces of Puebla and New Galicia. The family of Hernan Cortez bears the title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca. The property is composed of the four villas del Marquesado and 49 villages, which contain 17,700 inhabitants. The most remarkable places of this province are i Oaxaca^ or Guaxaca, the ancient Hu- Popwia^'on axyacac, called Antequera at the beginning of the conquest. Thiery de Menonville only assigns 6,000 inhabitants to it ; but by the enumeration in 1792 it was found to contain .... 24,000 Tehuantepec or Teguantepeque, a port situated in the bottom of the creek, formed by the ocean between the small villages of San Francisco, San Dionisio, and Santa Maria de la Mar. This port, impeded by a very dangerous bar, will become^one day of great consequence when navigation in general, and espe- cially the transport of the indigo of Guatimala, shall become more* frequent by the Rio Guasacualco. San Antonio de los Cues, a very populous place on the road from Orizaba to Oaxaca, celebrated for the remains of ancient Mexican fortifications. The mines of this intendancy worked with the greatest care arc, Villalta, Zolaga, Yxtepexi, and Totomostla. CHAP.viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 159 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Population in 1803. Extent of Surface in s»iuarc Leitgues. 1 No. ofliilialiil- ants to tilt: square League. VIII. Intendancy of Mericla. 1 465,800 5,977 81 This intendancy, concerning which valuable in- formation has been furnished to us by M. Gilbert,''' comprehends the great peninsula of Yucatan, situated between the bays of Campeche and Honduras. It is at Cape Catoche, fifty -one leagues distant from the calcareous hills of Cape Saint Antony, that Mexico appears before the irruption of the ocean to have been joined to the island of Cuba. The province of Merida is bounded on the south by the kingdom of Guatimala, on the east by the in- tendancy of Vera Cruz, from which it is separated b} the Rio Buraderas, called also the river of Crocodiles, {Lagartos ;) on the west by the English establish- ments which extend from the mouth of the Rio Hondo to the north of the bay of Hanover, opposite the island of Ubero, (Ambergris key.) In this quar- ter Salamanca, or the small fort of San Felipe de Ba- * This enlightened observer went over a great part of the Spanish colonies. He had the misfortune to ]ose in a ship- wreck south from the island of Cuba, among the shallows of the Jardins clu Roi, o? which I determined the astronomical posiiion, the statistical materials collected by him. It is pro- per to observe here, that without knowing the data of which I v.as in possession, Mr. Gilbert, by estimating himself the number of villages and their population, concluded that Yuca- lan contahied, in \S'H, ncarl\* hair'a million cf inhabitants ol all casts and colours. 160 POLITICAL ESSxVY ON THE [book hi- ^ANALYSib^^]^"^- ^ntendancy of Merida. calar^ is the most southern point inhabited by the Spaniards. The peninsula of Yucatan, of which the norf ^rn coast from Cape Catoche, near the island of Contoy, to the Punta de Piedras, (a length of 81 leagues,) fol- lows exactly the direction of the current of rotation^ is a vast plain intersected in its interior from north- west to south-west by a chain of hills of small eleva- tion. The country which extends east from these hills towards the bays of the Ascension and Santo Spirito appears to be the most fertile, and was ear- liest inhabited. The ruins of European edifices discoverable in the island Cosumel, in the midst of a grove of palm trees, indicate that this island, which is nov/ uninhabited, was at the commencement of the conquest peopled by Spanish colonists. Since the settlement of the English between Omo and Rio Hondo, the government, to diminish the contraband trade, concentrated the Spanish and Indian population in the part of the peninsula west from the mountains of Yucatan. Colonists are not permitted to settle on the western coast, ^ on the banks of the Rio Baca- lar and Rio Hondo. All this vast country remains uninhabited, with the exception of the military post {presidio) of Salamanca. The intendancy of Merida is one of the warmest and yet one of the healthiest of equinoxial America. This salubrity ought undoubtedly to be attributed in Yucatan as well as at Coro, Cumana, and the island of Marguerite, to the extreme dryness of the soil and atmosphere. On the whole coast from Cam- peche, or from the mouth of the Rio de San Fran- cisco to Cape Catoche, the na^ igator does not find * Evidently eastern coast. Trcrtn. 1 CHAP, viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SfPAlN. igj ^ANALYS?s'''^lVIII. Intendancy of Merida. a single . spring of fresh water. Near this cape na- ture has repeated the same phenomenon which ap- pears in the island of Cuba in the bay of Xagua, described by me in another place.* On the north - em coast of Yucatan, at the mouth of the Rio La- gartos, 400 metres from the shore, f springs of fresh water spout up from amidst the salt water. These remarkable springs are called the mouths [boccas) de Conil. It is probable, that from some strong hy- drostatical pression, the fresh water, after bursting through the banks of calcarious rock between the clefts of which it has flowed, rises above the level of the salt water. The Indians of this intendancy speak the Maya language, which is extremely guttural, and of which there are four tolerably complete dictionaries by Pedro Beltan, Andres de Avendano, Fray Antonio de Ciudad Real, and Luis de Villalpando. The pe- ninsula of Yucatan was never subject to the Mexi- can or Aztec kings. However, the first conquerors Bemal Diaz, Hernandez de Cordova, and the va- lorous Juan de Grixalva, were struck with the ad- vanced civilization of the inhabitants of this penin- sula. They found houses built of stone cemented with lime, pyramidal edifices (teocallis) which they compared to Moorish mosques, fields enclosed with hedges, and the people clothed, civilized, and very different from the natives of liie island of Cuba/j * In my Tableaux de la Miturc, vol. II. p. 174. and 235. t J,312 feet. Trans. \ Bernal Diaz adjudged the palm of superior civilization to the natives ot Yucatati, because he found " sus ■vtrtfueii^a.f cu- hiertaa." Tuviinos I'js, suys he, fior JioiiibrtH inus de razon que a los Indies de Cuba. Why ? (loraue andavan los de Cuba con »U8 verguen^as de fuera .' Hist. Void. foii<* 2. col. ii. Trans. voi. II. X 152 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book m. ANALYSIS. 5 VIII. Intendancy of Meridcu Many ruins, particularly of sepulchral monuments, (guacas,) are still to be discovered to the east of the small central chain of mountains. Several Indian tribes have preserved their independence in the southern part of this hilly district, vi^hich is almost inaccessible from thick forests and the luxuriance of the vegetation. The province of Merida, like all the countries of the torrid zone, of which the surface does not rise more than 1,300 metres* above the level of the sea, yields only for the sustenance of the hihabitants maize, jatropha, and dioscorea roots, but no Eu- ropean grain. 1 he trees which furnish the famous Campeche wood [hcffmatoxylon campechianum L.) grow in abundance in several districts of this inten- dancy. The cutting [cortes de polo Campeche) takes place annually on the banks of the Rio Champoton, the mouth of which is south from the town of Cam- peche, within four leagues of the small village of Lerma. It is only with an extraordinary permission from the intendant of Merida, who bears the title of governor captain-general^ that the merchant can from time to time cut down Campeche wood to the east of the mountains near the bays of Ascension, Todos los Santos, and El Espirito Santo. In these creeks of the eastern coast, the English carry on an exten- sive and lucrative contraband trade. The Campeche wood, after being cut down, must dry for a year be- fore it can be sent to Vera Cruz, the Havannah, or Cadiz. The quintal of this dried wood {palo de tinta) is sold at Campeche from two piastres, to two pi- astres and a half,t (from 10 f. 50 c. to 12 f. 88 c.) * 4,264 feet. Trans. tFroni 8s. 9(1. to 10s. llrf. Trans. CHAP, vm.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 153 ANALYSIS. } VIII. Lttendancy of Merida, The haemotoxylon, so abundant in Yucatan and the Honduras coast, is also to be found scattered through- out all the forests of equinoxial America, wherever the mean temperature of the air is not below 22°* of the centigrade thermometer. The coast of Paria, in the province of New Andalusia, may one day carry on a considerable trade in Campcche and Brazil {casalpinia) wood, which it produces in great abun- dance. The most remarkable places of the intendancy of Merida are : Merida de Yucatan, the capital, ten Population. leagues in the interior of the country, in an arid plain. The small port of Merida is called Sizal^ to the west of Chaboana, oppo- site a sand bank, nearly twelve leagues in length, 10,000 Campeclie, on the Rio de San Francisco, with a port which is not very secure. Ves- sels are obliged to anchor a good way from the shore. In the Maya language, cam sig- nifies serpent, and peche the little insect, (acarus,) called by the Spaniards garapata, which penetrates the skin and occasions a smart pain. Between Campeche and Me- rida are two very considerable Indian vil- lages called Xampolan and Equetchecan. The exportation of wax of Yucatan is one of the most lucrative branches of trade. The habitual population of the town is - 6,000 Falladolid, a small town, of which the environs produce abundance of cotton of an excellent quality. •71 of Fahrenheit. Trana. Ig4 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ni. ^ANALYSIS^^IVIII. Intendancy of Merida. This cotton, however, brings a poor price, because it has the disadvantage of adhering very much to the grain. They cannot clean it {despepitar, or desmotar) in the country ; and two-thirds of its value is ab- sorbed in freight, on account of the weight of the srairu cHAF. vui.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 16; STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Population in 1803. Extent of Surface in 9«limre Leagues. No. of liihabit- »ufi to ilie S(iuareLe!igue. IX. Intendancy of Vera Cruz. 156,000 4,141 38 This province, situated under the burning sun ot the tropics, extends along the Mexican gulf, irom the Rio Baraderas (or de los Lagartos) to the great river oi" Panuco, which rises in the metalliferous mountains of San Luis Potosi. Hence this intendancy includes a ver)'' considerable part of the eastern coast of New Spain. Its length, from the bay of Terminos near the island of Carmen to the small port of Tampxico, is 210 leagues, while its breadth is only in general from 25 to 28 leagues. It is bounded on the east by the peninsula of Merida ; on the west by the inten- dancies of Oaxaca, Puebla, and Mexico; and on the north by the colony of New Santander. A glance bestowed on tlie 5th and 6th plates ac- companying this work will show the extraordinary conformation of this country, which was formerly comprehended under the denomination of Cuethckt- Ian. There are few regions in the new continent, where the traveller is more struck with the assem- blage of the most opposite climates. All the west, em part of the intendancy of Vera Cruz forms the declivity of the Cordilleras of Anahuac. In the space of a day the inhabitants descend from the regions, of eternal snow to the plains in the vicinity of the sea, where the most suffocating heat prevails. The admirable order with which different tribes of ve- getables rise above one another by strata, as it were^ 165 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. ^ANALYSIS^^]^^' IntendancyofVera Cruz, is nowhere more perceptible than in ascending from the port of Vera Cruz to the table-land of Perote. We see there the physiognomy of the country, the aspect of the sky, the form of plants, the figures of animals, the manners of the inhabitants, and the kind of cultivation followed by them, assume a dif- f; rent appearance at every step of our progress. As we ascend, nature appears gradually less ani- mated, the beauty of the vegetable forms diminishes, the shoots become less succulent, and the flowers less coloured. The aspect of the Mexican oak quiets the alarms of travellers newly landed at Vera Cruz. Its presence demonstrates to him that he has left behind him the zone so justly dreaded by the people of the north, under which the yellow fever exercises its ravages in New Spain. This inferior limit of oaks warns the colonist who inhabits the central table-land how far he may descend towards the coast, without dread of the mortal disease of the vomito. Forests of liquid amber, near Xalapa, an- 'oiounce by the freshness of their verdure that this is the elevation at which the clouds, suspended over the ocean, come in contact with the basaltic summits of the Cordillera. A little higher, near la Banderilla, the nutritive fruit of the banana tree comes no longer to maturity. In this foggy and cold region, therefore, want spurs. on the Indian to labour and excites his in- dustry. At the height of San Miguel pines begin to mingle with the oaks, which are found by the travel- ler as high as the elevated plains of Perote, where he beholds the delightful aspect of fields sown with wheat. Eight hundred metres higher the coldness of the climate will no longer admit of the vegetation of oaks ; and pines alone there cover the rocks, whose summits enter the zone of eternal snow. Thus in a 6 CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. jgy ^Yn^U™^^! IX. Intendancy of Vera Cruz. few hours the naturalist in this miracnlous country as- cends the whole scale of vegetiition from the hdiconia and the banana plant, whose glossy leaves swell out into extraordinary dimensions, to the stunted paren- chyma of the resinous trees ! The province of Vera Cruz is enriched by nature with the most precious productions. At the foot of the Cordillera, in the ever- green forests of Papantla, Nautla, and S. Andre Tuxtla, grows the cpidendrum vanilla, of which the odoriferous frvit is employed for perfuming chocolate. The beautiful convolvu- lus jalapse grows near the Indian villages of Colipa and Misantla, of which the tuberose root furnishes the jalap, one of the most energetic and beneficent purgatives. The myrtle, {niyrtus pimenta,) of which the grain forms an agreeable spice, well known in trade by the name oi pimienta de Tabasco^ is pro- duced in the forests which extend toAvards the river of Baraderas, in the eastern part of the intendancy of Vera Cruz. The cocoa of Acayucan Avould be in request if the natives were to apply themselves more assiduously to the cultivation of cocoa trees. On the eastern and southern declivities of the Pic d'Orizaba, in the valleys which extend towards the small town of Cordoba, tobacco of an excellent quality is culti- vated, which yields an annual revenue to the crown of more than 18 millions of francs.* The similax, of which the root is the true salsaparilla, grows in the humid and umbrageous ravins of the Cordillera. The cotton of the coast of Vera Cruz is celebrated for its fineness and whiteness. The sugar-cane yields nearly as much sugar as in the island of Cuba, and more than in the plantations of St. Domingo. * 750,060/. sterling. 7"ram. 16^ POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. ^YnalyIis^^JI^- Intendancy of Vera Cruz, This intendancy alone would keep alive the com- merce of the port of Vera Cruz, if the number of colonists was greater, and if their laziness, the effect of the bounty of nature, and the facility of providing without effort for the most urgent wants of life, did mot impede the progress of industry. The old population of Mexico w?is concentrated in the in- terior of the country on the table-land. The Mexi- can tribes who came from northern countries, as we ha.ve already e:- plained, gave the preference in their migrations to the ridges of the Cordilleras, because they found on them a climate analogous to that of their native country. No doubt, on the first arrival of the Spaniards on the coast of Chalchiuhcuecan, (| Vera Cruz,) all the country fiom the river of Papa- Boapan (Alvarado to Huaxtecapan) was better inha- bited and better cultivated than it now is. However, the conquerors found, as they ascended the table-land, ths villages closer together, the fields divided into smaller portions, and the people more polished. TIte Spaniards, who imagined they founded new cities when, they gave European names to Aztec cities, followed the traces of the indigenous civilization. They had very powerful motives for inhabiting the table-land of Anahuac. They dreaded the heat and the diseases which prevail in the plains. The search after the precious metals, the cultivation of European grain and fruit, the analogy of the climate with that ©fthe Castiles, and the other causes indicated in the fourth chapter, all concurred to fix them on the ridge ©f tlie Cordillera. So' long as the Encomendcros^ ^busing the rights which they derived from the laws, treated the Indians as serfs, a great number of them were transported from the regions of the coast ta tlie tible-Jand in the interior, either to v/ork in CHAP. VIII ] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 169 STATISTICAL 7 fv r * / P ir n ANALYSIS. 5 ^^' Intendancy of yera Cruz. the mines, or mereh' that ihey might be near the habitation of their masters. For two centuries the trade in indigo, sugar, and cotton, was next to no- thina:. The whiles could bv no means be induced to settle i 1 the plains, where the true Indian cUmate prevails ; and one would say that the Europeans came under the tropica merely to inliabit the tempe- rate zone. Since the great increase in the consumption of sugar, and since the new continent has come to fiir- nish many of the productions formerly procured only in Asia and Africa, the plains (tierras calientes) afford, no doubt, a greater inducement to colonization. Hence, sugar and cotton plantations have been multi- plying in the province of Vera Cruz, especially sinc t- ^ ANALYSIS. 3^-^' ^^itendancy of Vera Cruz. ber of apartments and steps found in the great Egyp- tian labyrinth. The most remarkable cities of this province are : Vera Cruz, the residence of tiie intendant, and the centre of European and West-indian commerce. T!ie ciiy is beautifully and regularly built, and inha- bitcd by nell-informed merchants, active and zeal- ous for the good (^f their countr\^ Tiie interior po- lice has been much improved during these few years. The district in which Vera Cruz is situated was for- merly called Chalchiuhcuecan. The island on which the foitress of San Juan de Ulua was constructed at an enormous expense, (according to vulgar tradition at an expense of 209 millions of francs,*} was visited by Juan de Grixalva, in 1518. He g ve it the name of Ulua, becauoC, having found the remains of two unfortunate victlmst there, and having asked the na- tives why they saci iiiced men, they answered that it was by orders of the kings of Acolhua, or Mexico. The Spaniards, who had Indians of Yucatan for in- terpreters, mistook the answer, and believed Ulua to 'be the name of the island. It is vo similar mistakes that Peru, the coast of Paria, and several other pro- vinces, owe their present names. The city of Vera Cruz is frequendy called Vera Cruz Nueva, to dis- tinguish it from Vera Cruz Vieja, situated near the mouth of the Rio Antigua, considered by all the his- torians as the first colony founded by Cortez. The * 8,334,O00/. sterling-. Trans. t It appears that tliese sacrinces took j)lacc on several of the small islands around the port of 'Vera C'riiz. One of these islands, the dread cl" navigators, still hears the name of Ida de iiacrijicios. 5 CHAP.vui.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. X75 ^Y>?ALYsibVi 1^- Jntendancij of Vera Cruz, falsity of this opinion has been proved by the xVbbe Chivigcro. The eity begun in 1519, and called Fil- /aricu, or hi Vilb lliea de hi Vera Cruz, was situa- ted at three leat2;aes distance ironi Cenipoi;na,the head town of the Totonacs, near the small port of Chia- liuitzla, whieli wc can with diiTiculty recognise in Robertson's work under the name of Quiabislan. Three years afterwards la Villa Rica was deserted, and the Spaniards founded another city to the south, which has preser\ ed the name of Pyhitigua. It is be- lieved in the eountrv that this secorid colony was again abandoned on account of the vomito^ which at that period cut off more than tv*'o-thii ds of the Eu • ropeans who landed in the hot season. The \iceroy. Count de Monterey, who governed Mexico at the ond of the sixteenth century, ordered the founda- tions of the Nueva Vera Cruz, or present city, to be laid opposite the island of Sin Juan d'Uhia, in the district of Chalchiuhcuecan, in the very place where Cortez first landed on the 21st of April, 1519. This third city of Vera Cruz leeeivc-d its privileges of city only under Piiilip III. in 1615. It is situated in an arid plain, destitute of running v/nter, on which the noitli v.inds, \^'hich blow v»-idi imi^etuosity from Oc- tolicr till April, have formed hills of moving sand. Tliese downs {megcuios dc arena) change their forni and situation- every year. They are irom 8 to 12 metres* in height, and contribute very much by the revcrberatiori of the sun's rays, arid the high tempe- 1 atiire which they acquire during the suiUmer months, to increase the suiTocating heat of the air of Vera Cruz. Between the city and the Aroyo Gavilan, in he raidst of the downs, are marshy grounds- covcr- * From 26 to :3 foct. Trans. 3^76 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in, ^[^llVvfls^}^^' Intendancy of Vera Cruz. ed v^ith mangles and other brushwood. The stag- nant water of the Baxio de la Tembladera, and the small lakes of i'Hormiga, el Rancho de la Hortaliza, and Atjona, occasions intermittent fevers among the natives. It is not improbable that it is also not one of the least important among the fatal causes of the vomito prieto, which we shall examine into in the se- quel to this work. All the edifices of \^era Cruz are constructed of materials drawn from the bottom of the ocean, the stony habitation of the madrepores, [piedras de miicara^) for no rock is to be found in the environs of the city. The secondary formations, w^hich repose on the porphyry of I'Encero, and which appear only near Acazonica, a farm of the Jesuits celebrated for lis quarries of beautifully folia- ted gypsum, are covered with sand. Water is found on digging the sandy soil of Vera Cruz at the depth of a metre ;"^- but this water proceeds from the filtra- tion of the marshes formed in the downs. It is rain water, which has been in contact with the roots of ve- getables ; and is of a very bad quality, and only used for washing. The lower people (and the fact is important for the mediccil topography of Vera Cruz) are obliged to have recourse to tlie water of a ditch {zanja) which comes from the meganos, and is •;o me what better than the well watej*, or that of the brook of Tenoya. People in easy circumstances, howe\er, drink rain water collected in cisterns, of which the construction is extremely improper, M"ith the exception of the beautiful cisterns [al<^-ibt's) of the castle of San Juan d'Ulua, of ^vhich the very pure and wholesome water is only distributed to those in - ^'''"'- 204 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ni: ANALYSIS. 3 ^^h Intendancy of Sonora. There has been hitherto no permanent communi- cation between Sonora, New Mexico, and New Cali- fornia, although the court of Madrid has frequently given orders for the formation of presidios and mis- sions between the Rio Gila and the Rio Colorado. The extravagant military expedition of Don Joseph Gaivez did not serve to establish in a permanent man- ner the northern limits of the intendancy of Sonora. Two courageous and enterprising monks, fathers Garces and Font, were able, however, to go by land through the countries inhabited by independent In- dians from the missions of la Pimeria alta to Monte- rey, and even to the port of San Francisco, without crosshig the peninsula of Old California. This bold enterprise, on which the college of the propaganda at ■ Queretaro published an interesting notice, has also furnished new information relative to the ruins of la Casa grande^ considered by the Mexican historians"* as the abode of the Aztecs on their arrival at the Rio Gila towards the end of the twelfth century. Father Francisco Garces, accompanied by Father Font,t who was intrusted with the observations of la- titude, set out from the Presidio d'Horcasitas on the 20lh April, 1773. After a journey of eleven days, * Clavigero, i. p. 159. t Chronica Serajica de el Colegio de Profiagando fcde de Queretaro, fior Fray Domingo Arricivitor, Mexico, \792,toin. ii. p. 396. 426. and 462. This Chronica, which forms a large folio volume of 600 pages, is well deserving of an extract being made from it. It contains very accurate geographical notions as to the Indian tribes inhabiting California, Sonora, the Mocfdi, Nabajoa, and the banks of the Rio Gila. I could not learn what sort of astronomical instrumerits Fatiier Font made use of in his excursions to the Rio Colorado, between \77\ and 1776. lam afraid lost it sliould have been a solar vine. CHAP, viii.l KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 205 ^Y^?AL\'sis'/i ^"- I^'i^^^dancy of Sonora. they arrived at a vast and beautiful plain one league's distance from the southern bank of the Rio Gila. They there discovered the ruins of an ancient x\ztec city, in the midst of which is the editice called la Casa grande. These ruins occupy a spac e of p:round of more than a square league. The Casa grande is exactly laid down according to the four carciinal points, having from north to south 136 metres* in length, and from east to west 84 metresf in breadth. It is constructed of clay, (tapia.) The pisesX '^^^ of an unequal size, but symmetrically placed. The wails are 12 decimetres) in thickness. We perceive that this edifice had three stories and a terrace. The stair was on the outside, and probably of wood. The same kind of construction is still to be found in all the villages of the independent Indians of the Moqui west from New Mexico. We perceive in the Casa grande five apartments, of which each is 8'''. 3 in length, 3"\ 3 in breadth, and S"^. 5 in height. || A wall, interrupted by large towers, surrounds the principal edifice, and appears to have served to de- fend it. Father Garces discovered the vestiges of an artificial canal, which brought the water of the Rio Gila to the town. The whole surrounding plain is covered with broken earthen pitchers and pots, prettily painted in white, red, and blue. W^e also find amidst these fragments of Mexican stone ware * 445 feet. Trans. f 276 feet. Traris. \ Pise has no equivalent, it is believed, in our langnap;e. It signifies the case in which the clay is rammed down in the construction of a clay wall. This mode of building has been adopted on the Duke of Bedford's estate. Trans. § 3 feet 1 1 inches. Trims. II 27.18 feet, 10.82 feet, and 11.48 feet. 'Trans. 206 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. ^ANALYSlS^^j^II- Inteiidancy of Sonora, pieces of obsidian, (itztli,) a very curious phenome- non, because it proves that the Aztecs passed through some unknown northern country which contains this volcanic substance, and that it was not the abundance of obsidian in New S])ain which suggested the idea of razors and arms of itztH. We must not, how- ever, confound the ruins of this city of the Gila, the centre of an ancient civilization of the Ameri- cans, with the Casas gra?ides of New Biscay, situ- ated between the presidio of Yanos and that of San Buenaventura. The latter are pointed out by the in- digenous, on the very vague supposition that the Az- tec nation in their migration from Aztlan to Tula and the valley of Tenochtitlan made three stations ; the first near the lake Teguyo, (to the south of the fabulous city of Quivira, the Mexican Dorado !) the second at the Rio Gila, and the third in the envi- rons of Yanos. The Indians who live in the plains adjoining the Casas grandes of the Rio Gila, and who have never had'the smallest communication with the inhabitants of Sonora, deserve by no means the appellation of Indios bravo,';. Their social civilization forms a sin- gular contrast with the state of the savages who wan- der along the banks of the Missouri and other parts of Canada. Fathers Garces and Font found the In- dians to the south of the Rio Gila clothed and as- sembled together, to the number of two or three thousand, in villages which they call Uturicut and Sutaquisan, where they peaceably cultivate the soil. They saw fields sown with maize, cotton, and i^ourds. The missionaries, in order to bring about the conversion of these Indians, showed them a pic- ture painted on a large piece of cotton cloth, in which u sinner was represented burning in the flames of 5 CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 207 ^^ASMAsit ^] ^^I- If^teiularwy of Sotwra. hell. The picture terrified them ; and they entreat- ed Father Garces not to unrol it any more, nor speak to them of \vhat w ould happen alter death. These Indians are of a gende and sincere character. Father Font explained to them by an interpreter the security which prevailed in the Christian missions, where an Indian alcalde administered justice. The chief of Uturicut replied : " This order of things may be ne- cessary ibr you. We do not steal, and we very sel- dom disagree ; what use have we then for an alcalde among us '?" The civilization to be found among the Indians when we approach the north-west coast of America, from the So"* to the 54o of latitude, is a very striking phenomenon, which cannot but throw some light on the history of the first migrations of the Mexican nations. There are reckoned in the province of Sonoraone city, {ciiidady) Arispe ; two towns, {villas,) viz. So- nora and Hostemuri ; 46 villages, (piiebios,) 15 pa- rishes, [paroquias.,) 43 missions, 20 farms, [hacien- das,] and 25 cottages, {ranchos.) The province of Cinaloa contains five towns, (Cu- liacan, Cinaloa, el Rosario, el Fuerte, and los Ala- mos,) 92 villages, 30 parishes, 14 haciendas, and 450 ranchos. In 1793, the number of tributary Indians in the province of Sonora amounted only to 251, while in the province of Cinaloa they amounted to 1,851. This last province was more anciently peopled than the former. The most remarkable places of the intendancy of Sonora are : Arispe, the residence of the intendant, to the south and west of the presidios of Bacuachi and Bavispe* 208 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi; STATISTICAL ^ vn T * i /• o ANALYSIS. 3 "^^■^' J-ntendancy oj oonora. Persons who accompanied M. Galvez in his expedi- tion to Sonera affirni, that the mission of Ures, near Pitic, would have answered much better than Arispc for the capital of the intendancy. Population, 7,600. Sonora, south from Arispe, and N. E. from the presidio of Horcasitas. Population, 6,400. Hostimuri, a small town well peopled, surround- ed with considerable mines. Culiacan, celebrated in the Mexican history under the name of Hueicolhuacan. The population is es- timated at 10,800. Cinaloa, called also the Fil/a de San Felipe y San- tiago, east from the port of Santa Maria d\iome. Population, 9,500. £1 Rosario, near the rich mines of Copala. Po- pulation, 5,600. Filla del Fuerte, or Montesclaros, to the north of Cinaloa. Population, 7,900. Los Alamos, between the Rio del Fuerte and the Rio Mayo, the residence of a diputacion de Mineria, Population, 7,900. ^ CHAP, vni.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 209 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Population in 1803. Extent of Surface in square Leiigucs. No. of Inhabit- ants to till s(iuare League. XIII. Province of Nuevo Mexico. I 40,200 5,709 7 Several geographers confound New Mexico with the Provincias internas ; and they speak ot it as a country rich in mines, and of v^st extent. The celebrated author of the philosophic history of the European establishments in the two Indies has con- tributed to propagate this error. What he calls the empire of New Mexico is merely a coast inhabited by a few poor colonists. It is a fertile territory, but very thinly inhabited, and destitute, as is universally believed, of metallic wealth, extending along the Rio del Norte, from the 31° to the 3S'^ of north la- titude. This province is from south to north 175 leagues in length, and from east to west from 30 to 50 leagues in breadth ; and its territorial extent, therefore, is much less than people of no great in- formation in geographical matters are apt to snpijose even in that country. The national vanity of the Spaniards loves to magnify the spaces, aiid to re- move, if not in reality, at least in imagination, the limits of the country occupied by them to as great a distance as possible. In the memoirs which I pro- cured on the position of the Mexican mines, the dis- tance from Arispe to the Rosario is estimated at 300, and from Arispe to Copula at 4! marine leagu s, without reflecting that the whole intendancy of So- nera is not 280 marine leagues in length. From the VOL. II. » d 210 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi'. ^^Ynalysl^^IX^"- Province of Nuevo Mexico. same cause, and especially for the sake of concilia- ting the favour of the court, the conquistador es^ the missionary monks, and the first colonists, gave weighty names to small things. We have already described one kingdom, that of Leon, of which the whole population does not equal the number of Fran- ciscan monks in Spain. Sometimes a few collected huts take the pompous title of villa. A cross plant- ed in the forests of Guyana figures on the maps of the missions sent to Madrid and Rome, as a village inhabited by Indians. It is only after living long in the Spanish colonies, and after examining more nar- rowly these fictions of kingdoms, towns, and vil- lages, that the traveller can form a proper scale for the reduction of objects to their just value. The Spanish conquerors shortly after the destruc- tion of the Aztec empire, set on foot solid esta- blishments in the north of Anahuac. The town of Durango was founded under the administration of the second viceroy of New Spain, Velasco el PrimerOy in lo59. It was then a military post against the in- cursions of the Chichimec Indians. Towards the end of the 16th century, the viceroy. Count de Mon- terey, sent the valorous */w<-//z de Onate to New Mexico. It was this general who, after driving off the wandering Indians, peopled the banks of the great Rio del Norte. From the town of Chihuahua a carriage can go to Santa Fe of New Mexico. A sort of caleche is generally used, which the Catalonians call volantes. The road is beautiful and level ; and it passes along the eastern bank of the great ri^^r, {Rio grande,) which is crossed at the Passo del Norte. The banks of the river are extremely picturesque, and are adorn- CHAP, viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 211 ^ ANALYS^S^^l ^^f"- ^fovincc ofNaevo Mexico. ed with beautiful poplars, and other trees peculiar to the temperate zone. It is remarkable enough to see that, after the lapse of two centuries of colonization, the province of New Mexico does not yet join the intendancy of New Biscay. The two pro\'inces are separated by a de- sert, in which travellers are sometimes attacked by the Cumanches Indians. This desert extends from the Passo del Norte towards the town of Albu- querque. Before 1680, in Avhich year there was a general revolt, among the Indians of New Mexico, this extent of uncultivated and uninhabited country was much less considerable than it is now. There were then three villages, San Pascual, Semillette, and Socorro, which were situated between the marsh of the Muerto and the town of Santa Fe. Bishop Tamaron perceived the ruins of them in 1760, and he found apricots growing wild in the fields, an in^ dication of the former cultivation of the country. The two most dangerous points for travellers are, the defile of Robledo, west from the Rio del Norte, op- posite the Sierra de Dona Ana, and the desert of the Muerto, where many whites have been assassinated by wandering Indians. The desert of the Muerto is a plain thirty leagues in length, destitute of water. The whole of this country is in general of an alarming state of aridity ; for the mountains de los Majisos^ situated to the east of the road from Durango to Santa Fe, do not give rise to a single brook. Notwithstanding the mild- ness of the climate, and the progress of industry, a great part of diis country, as well as Old California, and several districts of New Biscay, and die inten- dancy of Guadalaxara, will never admit of any con- siderable population. 212 POLITICAL ESSAY OK THE [book hi; ANALYSIS. 5^111. Province of Nuevo Mexico » New Mexico, although under the same latitude with Syria and central Persia, has a remarkably cold climate. It freezes there in the middle of May. Near S.mta Fe, and a little farther north, (under the parallel of the Morea,) the Rio del Norte is sometimes covered, for a succession of several years, with ice thick enough to admit the passage of horses and car- riages. We are ignorant of the elev;'.tion of the soil of the province of New Mexico ; but I do not be- lieve that, under the 37" of latitude, the bed of the river is more than 7 or 800 metres* of elevation above the level of the ocean. The mountains which bound the valley of the Rio del Norte, and even those at the foot of which the village of Taos is si- tuated, lose their snow towards the beginning of the month of June. The great river of the norths as we have already observv-d, rises in the Sierra Verde, which is the point of separation between the streams which flow into the gulf of Mexico, and those which flow into the South Sea. It has its periodical rises (crecientes) like the Orinoco, the Mississippi, and a great num- ber of rivers of both continents. The waters of the Rio del Norte begin to swell in the month of April ; thev are at their height in the beginning of May ; and they fall towards the end of Juae. The inhabitants can only ford the river on horses of an extraordinary size during the drought of summer, when the strength of the current is greatly diminished. These horses in Peru are called cavallos chimbadores. Seve- ral persons mount at once ; and if the horse takes footing occasionally in swimming, this mode of pass- ing the river is cdWtd. passar elrio a volnpie^ * 2,296 or 3,621 feet. Trana CHAP.viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 213 ^^An:alyIus.^5 ^I"- Province ofNiievo Mexico. The water of the Rio del Norte, like that of the Orinoco, and all the great rivers of South America, is extremely muddy. In New Biscay they consider a small river, called Rio Puerco, {nasty river,) the mouth of which lies south from the to-.vn of Albu- querque, near Valencia, as the cause of tliis pheno- menon ; but M. Tamaron observed that its waters Avere muddy far above Santa Fe and the town of Taos. 'I'he inhabitants of the Passo del Norte have preserved the recollection of a very extraordinary event which took place in 1752. The whole bed of the river became dry all of a sudden for more than thirty leagues above, and twenty leagues below the Passo ; and the water of the river precipitated itself into a newly formed chasm, and only made its reap- pearance near the Presidio de San Eleazario. This loss of the Rio del Norte remained for a considerable time ; the fine plains which surround the Passo, and which are intersected with small canals of irrigation, remained without water ; and the inhabitants dug wells in the sand, with wh-ch the bed of the river was filled. At length, after the lapse of several weeks, the water resumed its ancient course, no doubt be- cause the chasm and the subterraneous conductors had filled up. This phenomenon bears some ana- logy to a fact which I was told by the Indians of Jaen de Bracamorros during my stay at Tomependa. In the beginning of the eiy-hteenth century, the inha- bitants of the village of Puyaya saw, to their great terror and astonishment, the bed of the river Ama- zons completely dried up for several hours. A part of the rocks near the cataract ( pongc) of R ntema had fallen down through an earihouake ; and the waters of the Marugnon had sioy^ in their course till they could get over the dike formed 214 POLITICAL ES-^AY ON THE [book m. TATIST] ANALY; STATISTICAL j XIII. Province of jYuevo Mexico. by the fall. In the northern part of New Mexico, near Taos, and to the north of that city, rivers take their rise which run into the Mississippi. The Rio de Pv^cos is probably the same with the Red River of the Natchitoches, and the Rio Napestla is, perhaps, the same river which, farther east, takes the name of Arkansas. The colonists of this province, known for their great energy of character, live in a state of perpe- tual warfare with the neighbouring Indians. It is on account of this insecurity of the country life, that we find the towns more populoj.13 than we should expect in so desert a country. The situation of the inha- bitants of New Ivlexico bears, in many respects, a great resemblance to that of the jjcople of Europe during the middie ages. So long as insulation ex- poses men to personal danger, we can hope for the establishment of no equilibrium between the popu- lation of towns and that of die country. However, the Indians who live on an intimate footing with the Spanish colonists, are b}^ no means all equally barbarous. Those of the cabt are war- like, and wander about from place to place. If they carry on any commerce with the whites, it is fre- quently without personal intercourse, and according to principles of v/hich some traces are to be found among some of the tribes of Africa. The savages, in their excursions to the north of the Bolson de Ma- pimi, plant along the road between Chihuahua and Santa Fe small crosses, to which they suspend a leathern pocket, w'lih. a piece of stag flesh. At the foot of the cross a buffalo's hide is stretched out. The Indian indicates by these signs that he wishes to cirry on a commerce of baiter with those who adore the cross. He olicrs the christian traveller a hide for 5 CHAP, viii] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 215 tatist: ANALY: ^\nalys?s^^1 ^I"- ^'-ovince of Nuevo Mexico. provisions, of which he docs not fix the quantity. The soldiers of the presidios^ \\ ho understand llic lii- eroglyphical language of the Indians, take away the buffalo hide, and leave some salted flesh at the foot of the cross.* This system of commerce indicates at once an extraordinaiy mixture of good faith and dis- trust. The Indians to the west of the Rio del Norte, be- tween the rivers Gila and Colorado, form a contrast with the wandering and distrustful Indians of the sa- vannas to the east of New Mexico. Father Garces is one of the latest missionaries who, in 1773, visit- ed the country of the Moqid^ watered by the Rio de Yaquesila. He was astonished to find there an In- dian town with two great squares, houses of several ' stories, and streets well laid out, and parallel to one another. Every evening the people assembled toge- ther on the terraces, of which the roofs of the houses are formed. The construction of the edifices of the Moqui is the same with that of the Casas grandes on the banks of the Rio Gila, of which we have already spoken. The Indians u ho inhabit the northern part of New Mexico give also a considerable elevation to their houses, fbr the sake of discovering the ap- proach of their enemies. Every thing in these coun- tries appears to announce traces of the cultivation of the ancient Mexicans. We are informed, even by the Indian traditions, that twenty leagues north from the Moqui, near the mouth of the Rio Zaguananas, the banks of the Nabajoa were the first abode of the Aztecs after their departure from Aztlan. ' On con- sidering the civ ilization which exists on several points of the north-west coast of America, in the Moqui, * Diario del li/mo. Senor Tainaron, (MS.) 21$ POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [bookiii. ^YNAL™s^^i ^I"- Province of JVuevo Mexico, and on the banks of the Gila, we are tempted to be- lieve (and I venture to repeat it here) that at the period of the migration of the Toultecs, the Acolhues, and the Aztecs, several tribes separated from the great mass of the people to establish themselves in these northern regions. However, the language spoken by the Indians of the Moqui, the Yabipais, who wear long beards, and those who inhabit the plains in the vicinity of the Rio Colorado, is essentially different* from the Mexican language. In the 17th century several missionaries of the or- der of St. Francis established themselves among the Indians of the Moqui and Nabajoa, who were massa- cred in the great revolt of the Indians in 1680. I have seen in manuscript maps drawn up before that period, the name of the Prov'mcia del Moqui. The province of New Mexico contains three villas^ (Santa Fe, Santa Cruz de la Canada y Taos, and Al- buquerque y Alameda,) 26 pueblos^ or villages, 3 parroquias^ or parishes, 1 9 missions, and no solitary farm, (ranc/io.) Santa Fe, the capital, to the east of the great Rio del Norte. Population, 3,600. Albuquerque, opposite the village of Atrisco, to the west of the Sierra Obscura. Population, 6,000. Taos, placed in the old maps 62 leagues too far north under the 40" of latitude. Population, 8,900. Passo del jYoi'fe, presidio or military post on the right bank of the Rio del Norte, separated from the town of Santa Fe by an uncultivated coiuitry of more than 60 leagues in length. We nui3t not confound * See the testimony of several missionary monks well versed in the knowledge of the Aztec lan;^uag;e. {Chronica Serafica del Colcii'io de Qn^rffar'i, p. 108.) CUAP. vui] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 217 STATISTICAL 7,- TTT n r \' vr ANALYSIS; i -^^lll• Province oj JSuevo Jicxico, this place, which some manuscript maps in the ar- chives of Mexico consider as a dependance of New Biscay, with the Presidio del A'orte, or de las Juntas^ situated further to the souih, at the moulh of the Rio Conchos. Tra\ellers stop at the Passo del Norte to lay in the necessary provisions for continuing their route to Santa Fe. The environs of the Passo arc L\LYSIS^1X^^'- ^'•ov"'^^ t valuable pearls m the pos.se«i. VOL. ir. r f 226 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [bock m. ANALYSIS. S XIV. Province of Old California. sion of the court of Spain were found in 1615 and 1665, in the expeditions of Juan Yturbi and Bcrnal de Pinadero. During the stay of the visitador Gal- Vi^z in Cahfornia, in 1768 and 1769, a private soldier in the presidio of Loreto, Juan Ocio, was made rich in a short time by pearl fishing on the coast of Ce- ralvo. Since that period the number of pearls of Ca- lifornia brought annually to market is almost reduced to nothing. The Indians and negroes, who follow the severe occupation of divers, are so poorly paid by the whites, that the fishery is considered 'as aban- doned. This branch of industry languishes from the same causes which in South America have raised the price of the Peruvian sheep skins, the caoutchouc, and the febrifugal bark of the quinquina. Although Hernan Cortez spent more than 200,000 ducats of his patrimony* in his Californian expedi- tions; and formal possession of the peninsula was taken by Sebastian Viscaino, who deserves to be placed in the first rank of the navigators of his age ; it was only in 16421 that the Jesuits were able to form solid establishments there. Jealous of their * Upwards of 43,000/. sterling. Patrimony is not the cor- rect expression in this phice, but pro/ieriij. Corlez's patri- mony was never very great; and Bernal Diaz st.-.tes, that what he had was expended on costly presents and prepa- rations for his new-married wife, of whoai he was very fond, before he set out on his celebrated expedition from the island of Cuba. Trans. t It is advanced only a few pacjes before this that the Je- suits commenced their settlements in Old California in 1683 ; and we see a few lines after this that the foundation of Loretoj under the name of Presidio de San Dionibio, was only laid in 1697, and that the Spanish establishments in California be- came only considerabi'j after 1744. Should not, therefore, the 1542 be 1742? Trar^. CHAP, vni] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 227 ^ ARALYS^s^^l^IV. Province of Old Californki. power, they strug-^^lecl successfully against the efforts of the monks of St. Francis, who endeavoured from time to time to introduce themselves among the In- dians. They had still more difficult enemies to ovv r- come, tlic soldiers of the military posts ; for in the extremities of the Spanish possessions of the New Continent, on the limits of European civilization, the legislative and executive powers are distributed in a very strange manner. The poor Indian knows no other master than a corporal or a missionary. In California the Jesuits obtained a complete vic- tory over the soldiery posted in the presidios. The court decided by a cedida real, that all the detach- ment of Loreto, even the captain, should be under the command of the father at the head of the missions. The interesting voyages of three Jesuits, Eusebius Kiihn, Maria Salvatierra, and Juan Uguarte, brought us acquainted with tlie physical situation of the coun- try. The village of Loreto had been already founded, under the name of Presidio de San Dionisio, in 1697. Under the reign of Philip V. especially after the year 1744, the Spanish establishments in California became very considerable. The Jesuits displayed there that commercial industry and that activity to which they are indebted for so many successes, and which have exposed them to so many calumnies in both Indies, in a very few years they built 16 viU lages in the interior of the peninsula. Since their expulsion in 1767, California has been conlided to the Dominican monks of the city of Mexico ; and it appears that they h ive not been so successful in their establishments of Old California, as the Franciscans have been on tl-.e coasls of New California. The natives of the peninsula who do not live in the missions are of all £:>vages, perhaps, the nearest 228 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [booK U3. ANALYSIS. 1 XIV. Province of Old California, to what has been called the state of nature. They pass whole days stretched out on their bellies on the sand, when it is heated by the reverberation of the solar rays. Like several tribes of the Orinoco seen by us, they entertain a great horror for clothing. " A monkey dressed up does not appear so ridiculous to the common people in Europe," says Father Vene- gas, " as a man in clothes appears to the Indians of California." Notwithstandhig this state of apparent stupidity, the first missionaries distinguished differ- ent religious sects among the natives. Three divi- nities, who carried on a war of extermination against each other, were objects of terror among tliree of the tribes of California. The Pericues dreaded the power of Niparaya, and the Menquis and the Vehi- ties the power of Wactipuran and Sumongo. I say that these hordes dreaded, not that they adored, in- visible beings ; for the worship of the savage is merely a fit of fear, the sentiment of a secret and re- ligious horror. According to the information which I obtained from the monks who now govern the two Californias, the population of Old California has diminished to such a degree within the last thirty years, that there are not more than from four to five thousand native cultivators {Indios reducidos) in the villages of the missions. The nmnber of these missions is also re- duced to sixteen. Those of Santiago and Guada- lupe remain widiout inhabitants. The small-pox, and another malady which the Europeans would fain persuade themselves that they received from the same continent to which they were the first who carried it, and v>hich exerciiies such ravages in the South Sea islands, are cited as the principal causes of the depopulation of California. It is to be supposed that CHAP, viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 229 ^Yn^^LySs^.^I^I^- Province of Old California. there are others which depend on the nature of the pohtical institutions ; and it is high time that the Mexican government should seriously think of re- moving the obstacles which prevent the prosperit)- of the inhabitants of the peninsula. The number of the sarages scarcely amounts to 4,000. It is ob- served that those who inhabit the north of California are somewhat more gentle and civilized than the na- tives of the southern division. The principal villages of this province arc : Loreto^ presidio and principal place of all the mis- sions of Old California, founded at the end of the 17th centuiy by Father Kiihn, the astronomer of Ingol- btadt. Santa Ana, mission and real de minas, celebrated on account of the astronomical observations of Ve- lasquez. San Joseph, mission in which the Abbe Chappe perished, the victim of his zeal and devotion for the sciences.* * People who have lived a long time in California have as- sured me, that the A'oticm of Father Venegas, against which the enemies of the suppressed order, and even Cardinal Lo- renzana, have raised up doubts, is very accurate, (Cartas de Cortez, p. 327.) There still exist in the archives of Mexico the following mamiscrijitfi not made use of by Father Barcos in his Scoria de California, printed at Rome : 1. Chronica his- iorica de la p.rovincia de Alechoacaii con varian mafias de la California ; 2. Cartas ori^inales del Padre Juan Maria de Salva- lierra; 3. Diario del Capitan Juan Mateo Mangi que accoiii- fiand a los fiadres a/iostolicos Kino u Kafifms, 236 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Population in 1 803. Extent, of Siiilaiie in sqimre Leagues. No. of Tiihi)!)ii. ants to the square League ! XV. Inteiulancy of New California. 15,600 2,125 7 The part of the coast of the Great Ocean which extends from the isthmus of Old California or from the bay of Todos los Santos (south from the port of San Diego) to Cape Mendocino, bears on the Spanish maps the name of New California, (JVueva California. ) It is a long and narrow extent of country in which for these forty years the Mexi- can government has been establishing missions and Xiiilitary posts. No village or farm is to be found north of the port of St. Francis, which is more than 78 leagues distant from Cape Mendocino. The pro- vince of New California in its present state is only 197 leagues in length, and from 9 to 10 in breadth. The city of Mexico is the same distance in a straight line from Philadelphia as from Monterey, which is the chief place of the missions of New California, and of which the latitude is the same to w' ithin a few minutes widi that of Cadiz. We have already taken notice of the journeys of .several monks, who, in the beginning of the last century, in passing by land from the peninsula of Old California to Sonora went on foot round the sea of Cortez. At the time of the expedition of M. Galvcz military detachments came from Loreto to the port of San Diego. . The letter-poGt still ,^ots from this port along the north-west coast to JSr.n Francisco, This last establishment, the most CHAP, viii] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 03 1 ^YmIlySs.^I XV. Intendancy of New California. nortli(jrn of all the Spanish possessions of the New Coiitincnt, is almost under the same parallel*- with tlie small town of Taos in New Mexieo. It is not more than 300 leagues distjint from it ; and though Father Esealante, in his apostolical excursions in 1777, advanced along the western bank of the river Zaguimanas towards the mountains de los Guacaros^ no traveller has vet come from New Mexico to the coast of New California. This fact nmst appear re- markable to those who know, from the history of the conquest of America, the spirit of enterprise and the wonderful courage with which the Spaniards were animated in the 16th century. Hernan Cortez landed for the first time on the coast of Mexico in the dis- trict of Chalchiuhcuecan in 1519, and in the space of four years had already constructed vessels on the coast of the South Sea at Zacatula and Tehuantepec. In 1537 Alvar Nunez Cabeza dc Vaca appeared with two of liis companions worn out with fatigue, naked, and covered with wounds, on the coast of Culiacan, opposite the peniiisula of California. He had landed with Piinfilo Narvaez in Florida, and after two years' excursions, wandering over all Louisiana and the northern part of Mexico, he arrived at the shore of the great ocean in Sonora. This space, which Nunez went over, is almost as great as that of the route followed by CapUiin Lewis from the banks of the Mississippi to Nootka and the mouth of the river Columbia. f When we consider the bold un- dertakings of the first Spaiiish conquerors in Mexico, • See the first chapier of this work. t This wonderful journey of Captain Lewis was under- taken under the auspices of Mr JeHcrson, who by this in-i- port^nt service rendered to science has added new cluims ou the gratitude of the savam of all nations. 232 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. ^^aiSl™^^!^^- Intendancij of New California, Peru, and on the Amazons' river, we are astonish- ed to find that for two centuries the same nation could not find a road by land in New Spain from Taos to the port of Monterey; in New Granada, from Santa Fe to Carthagena, or from Quito to Pa- nama ; and in Guayana, from I'Esmeralda to S. Thomas de 1' Angostura ! From the example of the English maps, several geographers give the name of Nexv Albion to New California. This denomination is founded on the very inaccurate opinion that the navigator Drake first discovered, in 1578, the north-west coast of America between the 38° and 48o of latitude. The celebrated voyage of Sebastian Viscaino is, no doubt, 24 years posterior to the discoveries of Francis Drake ; but Knox* and other historians seem to forget that Cabrillo had alreadv examined in 1542 the coast of New California to the parallel of 43'*, the boundary of his navigation, as we may see from a comparison of the old observations of latitude with those taken in our own days. According to sure historical data, the denomination of New Albion ought to be limited to that part of the coast which extends from the 43" to the 48", or from Cape White of Martin de Agiii- lar to the entrance of Juan de Fuca.-\ Besides, from the missions of the catholic priests to those of the Greek priests, that is to say, from the Spanish vil- lage of San Francisco in New California to the Rus- sian establishments on Cook river at Prince Wil- liam's Bay, and to the islands of Kodiac and Unalas- ka, there are more than a thousand leagues of coast * Knox's Collcciion of Voyages, yoL III. p. 18. t See th'.; learned resewches in tlic introduction of the Viage dclaa Golcras Szitil y Mcjcicanoy 1802, p. xxxiv. xxxvi. Ivii. tuAH. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 033 ^ a1?ALyL^:^^1 ^^' ^''f^'dancy of New Calirorma. inhabitt'd by free men, and stocked with otters and Phocie ! Consequently, the discussions on the ex- tent of the New Albion of Drake, and the pretended rights acquiied by certain European nations from planting small crosses and leaving inscriptions fas- tened to trunks of trees, or the burying of botdes, may be considered as futile. Although the whole shore of New California was carefully examined by the great navigator Sebastian Viscaino, (as is proved by plans drawn up by himself in 1602,) this fine country was only, however, occu- pied by the Spaniards 167 years afterwards. The court of Madrid dreading lest the other maritime powers of Europe should form settlements on the north-west coast of America which might become, dangerous to the Spanish colonics, gave orders to the Chevalier de Croix, the viceroy, and the Visitador GiJvez, to found missions and presidios in the ports ot San Diego and Monterey. For this purpose two packet-boats set out from the port of San Bias, and anchored at San Diego in the month of April, 1763. Another expedition arrived by land through Old California. Since Viscaino, no European had dis- embarked on these distant coasts. The Indians were quite astonished to see men witli clothes, though they knew that farther east there were men whose complexion was not of a coppery colour. There was even found among them several pieces of silver, which had undoubtedly come from New Mexico. The first Spanish colonists suft'ered a great deal from scarcity of provisions and an epidemical disease, the consequence of the bad quality of their food, their fatigues, and the want of shelter. Almost all of them fell sick, and only eight individuals remained on their feet. Amongst these were two respectable VOL. II. G g 234 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book m. STATISTICAL ^ Yir T * .1 ' /• \r r^ r r- ANALYSIS, l-^y ' -Intendmicy of New California. men, Fray Junipero Serra, a monk knovm from his travels, and M. Costanzo, the head of the engineers, in whose praise we have already so often spoken in the course of this work. They were employed in digging graves to receive the bodies of their com- panions. The land expedition was very late in arri- ving with assistance to this unfortunate infant colony. The Indians, to announce the arrival of the Spaniards, placed themselves on casks with their arms out, to show that they had seen whites on horseback. The soil of New California is as well watered and fertile as that of Old California is arid and stony. It is one of the most picturesque countries which can be seen. The climate is much more mild there than^in the same latitude on the eastern coast of the new continent. The sky is foggy, but the frequent fogs, which render it difficult to land on the coast of Monterey and San Francisco, give vigour to vegeta- tion and fertilize the soil, which is covered Avith a black and spongy earth. In the eighteen missions which now exist in New California, wheat, maize, and haricots, (frisoles. ) are cultivated in abundance. E^rley, beans, lentils, and garbanzos^ grow very well in the fields in the greatest part of the province. As the thirty-six monks of St. Francis who govern these missions are ail Europeans, they have carefully introduced into the gardens of the Indians the most* part of the roots and fruit trees cultivated in Spain. The first colonists found, on their arrival there, in 1769, shoots of wild vines in the interior of the coun- try, which yielded very large grapes of a very sour quality. It was, ])erhaps, one of the numerous spe- cies of vitis peculiar to Canada, Louisiana, and New Biscay, which are still very imperfectly known to botanists. The missionaries introduced into Califor- 1HAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 235 ^analSs^^I^V. Intendancy of New California, nia the vine, [vit'is vhuftra,) of which the Greeks and Romans cliftused the cultivation throughout Europe, and which is certainly a stranger to the new continent. Good wine is made in the villages of San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, San Buenaventura, Santa Barbara, Sun Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, and San Jose, and all along the coast, south and north of Monterey, to bej ond the 37°' of latitude. The Eu- ropean oli\ e is successfully cultivated near the canal of Santa Barbara, especially near San Diego, where an oil is made as good as that of the valley of Mexi- co, or the oils of Andalusia. The very cold winds which blow ^vith impetuosity from the north and north-west, sometimes prevent the fruits from ri- pening along the coast ; but the small village of Santa Clara, situated nine leagues from Santa Cruz and shel- tered by a chain of mountains, has better planted orchards and more abundant harvests of fruit than the presidio of Monterey. In this last place, the monks show travellers, with satisfaction, several useful vege- tabk s, the produce of the seeds given by M. Thouin to the unfortunate Laperouse. Of all the missions of New Spain those of the north-west coast exhibit the most rapid and remarkable progress in civilization. The public having taken an interest in the details published by Laperouse, Van- couver, and two recent Spanish navigators, MM. Galiano and Valdes,* on the state of these distant regions, I endeavoured to procure during my stay at Mexico the statistical tables drawn up in 1802 on the very spot (at San Carlos de Monterey) by the present president of the missions of New California, Father * Viage de la Sutii, p. 1 67. 236 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. ^ANALYSIS^^]XV. Intendancy of New California. Firmin Lasuen.* From the comparison which I made of the official papers preserved in the archives of the archbishopric of Mexico, it appears that in 1776 there were only 8 and in 1790 11 villages; while in 1802 the number amounted to 18. The po- pulation of New California, inuluding only the In- dians attached to the soil who have begun to culti- rate their fields, was in 1790, . . 7,748 souls in 1801, . . 13,668 and in 1802, . . 15,562 Thus the number of inhabitants has doubled in 12 years. Since the foundation of these missions, or between 1769 and 1802, there were in all, accord- ing to the parish registers, 33,717 baptisms, 8,009 marriages, and 16,984 deaths. We must not attempt to deduce from these data the proportion between the births and deaths^ because in the number of baptisms the adult Indians {los neofitos) are confounded with the children. The estimation of the produce of the soil, or the harvests, furnishes also the most convincing proofs of the increase of industry and prosperity of New California. In 1791, according to the tables pub- lished by M. Galiano, the Indians sowed in the whole province only ^lAfanegas of wheat, which yielded a harvest of 15^197 Janegas. The cultivation doubled in 1802 ; for the quantity of wheat sown was 2,089 Janegas, and the\\2irvest 33^576 /a?iegas. The following table contains the number of live stock in 1802. Beeves. I Sheep. | Hogs. I Horses. | Mules. 67,782 I 107,172 | 1,040 | 2,187 | 877 * See the extract from these tables in note D. at the end of this work. caAP. vui.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 237 ^^YnalyL^s^^]XV- Intendancy of New California, In 1791 there were only 24,958 heads of blac^c cattle [ganado major) in the whole of the Indian vil- lages. This progress of agriculture, this peaceful con- quest of industry is so much the more interesting, as the natives oi this coast, very diflerent from those ol Nootka and Norfolk bay, were only thirty years ago a wanderinir tribe, subsisting on fishing and hunt- ing, and cultivating no sort of vegetables. 'I'he In- dians of the bay of S. Francisco were equally wretch- ed at that time with the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land. The natives were found somewhat more ad- vanced in civilization in 1769 only in the canal of Santa Barbara. They constructed large houses of a pyramidal form close to one another. They appeared benevolent and hospitable ; and they presented the Spaniards with vases very curiously wrought of stalks of rushes. M. Bonpland possesses several of these vases in his collections, which are covered within with a very thin layer ofasphaltus, that renders them impenetrable to water, or the strong liquors which they may happen to contain. The northern part of California is inhabited by the two nations of the Rumsen and Escelen.* They speak languages totally different from one another, and they form the population of the presidio and the village of Monterey. In the bay of San Francisco the language of the different tribes of the Matalans, Salsen, and Quirotes, are derived from a common root. I have heard several travellers speak of the analogy between the Mexican or Aztec language, and the idioms of the north-west coast of North ♦ Manuscrifit of Father iMKuen. M. de Galiano calls them Rumsieu and Eslen. 238 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in ANALYSIS. 1 ■^^* I^itcndancy of Netv California. America. It appeared to me, however, that they exaggerated the resemblance between these American languages. On examining carefully the vocabula- ries formed at Nootka and Monterey, I was struck ■with the similarity of tone and termination to those of Mexico in several words, as, for example, in the language of the Nootkians ; apquixitl (to embrace,) temextixitl (to kiss,) cocotl (otter,) hitlzitl (to sigh,) tzitzimitz (earth,) and imcoatzimitl (the name of a month.) However, the languages of New California and the island of Quadra differ in general essentially from the Aztec, as may be seen in the cardinal num- bers brought together in the following table. Mexican. Mscelen. Rumsen. JVootka. l.Ce - - Pek - - Enjala Sahuac 2. Ome - Ulhai - - Ultis - - Ada 3. Jei - Julep - Kappes - - Catz3, 4. Nahui - Jamajus - - Ultitzim Nu 5. Macuilli Pamajala Haliizu - - Sutcha 6 Chicuace Pegualanai - Halishakem Nupu 7. Chicome Julajualanai - Kapkaniaishakem Atlipu 8. Chicuei Julepjualanai Ultumaishakem Atlcual 9. Chiucnahui Jamajusjualanai Pakke - - Tzahuacuatl 0. Matlactli Tomoila Tamchaigt - Ayo The Nootka \^fbrds are taken from a manuscript of M. Mozifio, and not from Cook's vocabulary, in which ayo is confounded with haecoo, nu with mo, &c. &.C. Father Lasuen observed that on an extent of 180 leao-ues of the coast of California from San Diesro to San Francisco, no fewer than 17 languages are spoken, which can hardly be considered ^fi dialects of a small number of mother- languages. This assertion will not astonish those who know the curious researches CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 239 ANALYSIS, s ■^^* Intendcincy of New California. of MM. Jefferson, Volney, Barton, Hervas, William de Humboldt, Vater, and Frederic Schlegtl,* on the subject of the American languages. The population of Nc:\v California would have aug- mented still more rapidly if the laws by which the Spanish presidios have been governed for ages were not directly opposite to the true interests of both mo- ther country and coloiiies. By these laws the sol- diers stationed at Monterey are not permitted to live out of their barracks and to settle as colonists. The monks are generally averse to the settlement of colo- nists of the white cast, because being people who rea- son, (gente de razon,t) they do not submit so easily to a blind obedience as the Indians. " It is truly distressing," (says a well informed and enlightened Spanish navigator,!) " that the military who pass a painful and laborious life, cannot in their old age settle in the country and employ themselves in agri- culture. The prohibition of building houses in the neighbourhood of the presidio is contrary to all the dictates of sound policy. If the whites were permitted to employ themselves in the cultivation of the soil and the rearing of cattle, and if the military, by es- tablishing their wives and children in cottages, could prepare an asylum against the indigence to which * See the classical work of M. Schlegel, on the language, philosophy, and poetry of the Hindoos, in which are to be found very enlarged views relative to the mechanism, I "may say the organization, of the languages of the two continents. t In the Indian villages the natives are distinguished from the gcnte de razon. The whites, mulattoes, negroes, and all the casts which are not Indiaiis go under the designation of genie de razon; a humiliating expression for the natives, \yhich had its origin in ages of barbarism. % Jortrnal of Don Dionisis Galiano: 240 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book nj. ^ANALYSIS^^]^^^- Intendancy of New California. they are too irequently exposed in their old age, New California would soon become a flourishing colony, a resting place of the greatest utility for the Spanish navigators who trade between Peru, Mexico, and the Philippine Islands." On removing the obstacles which we have pointed out, the Malouine Islands, the missions of the Rio Negro, and the coasts of San Francisco and Monterey, would soon be peopled with a great number of whites. But what a striking con- trast between the principles of cofonizntion followed by the Spaniards, and those by which Great Britain has created in a few years villages on the eastern coast of New Holland ! The Rumsen and Escelen Indians share with the nations of the Aztec race, and several of the tribes of northern Asia, a strong inclination for warm baths. The temazcalli, still found at Mexico, of which the A^be Clavigero has given an exact representation,* are true vapour baths. The Aztec Indian remains stretched out in a hot oven, of which the flags are continually v/atercd ; but the natives of New Cali- fornia use the bath formerly recommended by the celebrated Franklin, under the name oiivarm air bath. We accordingly find in the missions beside each cot- tage a small vaulted edifice in the form of a temaz- calli. Returning from their labour, the Indians enter the oven, in which a few moments before, the fire has been extinguished ; and they remain there for a quarter of an hour. W "nen they feel themselves co- vered over with perspiration, they plunge into the cold water of a neighbovn^ing stream, or wallow about in the sand. This rapid transition from heat to cold, and the sudden suppression of the cutaneons ti'ans- * CAr^r^rro, II. p. 214. G«AP. vin.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 24 J ^ANALYSls^^lXV. Litendancy of New Qaliform'^- piration which a European would justly dread, causes the most agreeable sensations to ihe savi.ge, who enjoys whatever strongly agitates him or acts with violence on his nervous system.* The Indians who inhabit the villages of New Ca- lifornia have been for some years employed in spin- ning coarse woollen stuff's, Q.;A\t(S. frisadas. But their principal occupation, of which the produce might be- come a very considerable branch of commerce, is the dressing of stag skins. It appears to me that it nrjay not be uninteresting to relate here what I could collect from the manuscript journals of Colonel Cos- tanzo, relative to the animals which live in the moun- tains bet\^•een San Diego and Monterey, and the par- ticular address with which the Indians get possession of the stags. In the Cordillera of small elevation which runs along the coast, as well as in the neighbouring sa- vannas, there are neither buffaloes nor elks ; and on the crest of the mountains which are covered with snow in the month of November, the berendos^ with small chamois horns, of which we have already spoken, feed by themselves. But all the forest and all the plains covered with gramina are filled with flocks of stags of a most gigantic size, the branches of which are round and extremely large. Forty or fifty of them are frequently seen at a time : tht y are of a brown colour, smooth, and without spot. Their branches, of which the seats of the antlers are not flat, are nearly 15 decimetresf (41-2 ieet) in length. It is afiirmed b}' every traveller, that this great stag of * Most readers probaljly know that this trpnsition from hot to cold bathing is piaclised also in Russia. TruriR. t 4 feet 1 1 inches Ens^lish. Tuna. VOL. II. H h 242 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ni, ^ANALYsfs'!^^]^^-^"^^'^^^"'^^^/-^'^^ California' New California ' is one of the most beautiful animals of Spanish America. It probably differs from the wewakish of M. Heame, or the elk of the United States, of which naturalists have very improperly made the two species of fcervus canadensis, and cer- vus strongyloceros.* These stags of New Califor- nia, not to be found in Old California, formerly struck the navigator Sebastian Viscaino, when he put into the port of Monterey on the 15th December, 1602. He asserts "that he saw some, of which the branches were three metres (nearly nine feet) in length." These venados run with extraordinary rapidity, throwing their head back, and supporting theu' branches on their backs. The horses of New Biscay, which are famed for running, are incapable of keeping up with them ; and they only reach them at the mo- ment when the animal, who very seldom drinks, comes to quench his thirst. He is then too heavy to display all the energy of his muscular force, and is easily come up with. The hunter who pursues him gets the better of him by means of a noose, in the same way as they manage wild horses and cattle in the Spanish colonies. The Indians make use, how- ever, of another very ingenious artifice to approach the stags and kill them. They cut off the head of a veiiado, the branches of which are very long ; and they empty the neck, and place it on their own head. Masked in this manner, but armed also with bows and arrows, they conceal themselves in the brush- wood, or among the high and thick herbage. By * There still prevails a good deal of uncertainty as to the specific characters of the great and small stags (venados) of the New Continent. See the interesting researches of M. Cuvicr, contained in his Alemoire snr les os Jbssilcs des rumi- nans. Jnnales du Mustum, An. VI. p. 353, cHAP.viii] KINGDOM* OF NEW SPAIN. 043 ANALYSIS. 5 XV. Intendancy of New California. imitating the motion of a stag when it feeds, they draw round them the flock, which becomes the vic- tim of the deception. This extraordinary hunt was seen by M. Costanzo on the coast of the channel of Santa Barbara ; and it was seen twenty -four years afterwards in the savannas in 'he neighbourhood of !Monterey* by the officers embarked in the galetas Sutil and Mexiama. The enormous stag- branches which Montezuma displayed as objects of curiosity to the companions of Cortez belonged, perhaps, to the venadus of New California. I saw two of them, which were found in the old monument of Xoachi- calco, still preserved in the palace of the viceroy. Notwithstanding the want of interior communication in the fifteenth century, in the kingdom of Anahuac, it would not have been extraordinary if these stags had come from hand to hand from the 35o to the 20*^ of latitude, in the same manner as we see the beautiful piedras de Mahagua of Brazil among the Caribs, near the mouth of the Orinoco. The Spanish and Russian establishments being hitherto the only ones which exist on the north-west coast of America, it may not be useless here to enumerate all the missions of New California which liave been founded up to 1803. This detail is more interesting at this period than ever, as the United States have shown a desire to advance towards the west, towards the shores of the Great Ocean, which, opposite to China, abound with beautiful furs of sea otters. The missions of New California nm from south to north in the order here indicated : San Diego J a village founded in 1769, fifteen * Via^e a Fuca, p. 1^4. 244 POLITTCAr, ESSAY ON tHE liSo'k iir., ANALYSi^^i ^^- ^^^tendancy of New California. leagues distant from the most northern mission of O'liX Guijiorniu. Population in 1802, 1,560. Suh Luis Rey de Francia^ a village founded in 1798,600. SanJuun Capistrafio, a village founded in 1776, 1,000. San Gabriel, a village founded in 1771, 1,050. San Ferjmndo, a village founded in 1797, 600. San Buenaventura, a village founded in 1782^ 950. Santa Barhar-a, a village founded in 1786, 1,100 La Punssima Concepc'on, a village Ibunded in 1787, 1,000. San Luis Obispo, a village founded in 1772, 700% Smi Migitei^iX village founded in 1797, 600. Soledad, a village founded in 1791, 570. San Antonio de Padua, a village founded in 1771> 1,050. San Carlos de Monterey, capital of New Califor- nia, founded in 1770, at ih. loot ol the Cordillera of Santa Lucia, which is covered with oaks, pines, {foliis ternis,) and rose bushes. The village is tvvo leagues distant from the presidio of the same name. It appears that the bay of Monterey had aheady been discovered by Cabrillo on the 15th November, 1542, and that he gave it the name of Bahia de los Finos, on account of the beautiful pines with which the neighbouring mountains are covered. It received its present name sixty years afterwards from Viscaino, in honour of the viceroy of Mexico, Gaspar de Zu- nega Count de Monterey, an active man, to whom we are indebted for considi rable maritime expedi- tions, and who engaged Juan de Onate in the eon- eHAP.vMi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 245 ^ANALYsis^^i^'^V- Intendancy of New California. quest of New Mexico. The coasts in the vicinity ol San Carlos produce the famous aurum meritm (onnier) of Monterey, in request by the inhabitants of Nootka, and which is employed in the trade of otter skins. The population of San Carlos is 700. San Juan Bauiista, a village founded in 1797, 9(50. Santa Cruz, a village founded in 1794, 440. Santa Clara, a village founded in 1777, 1,300. San JosCj a village ibunded in 1797, 630. San Francisco, a village founded in 1776, with a fine port. This port is frequently confounded by geographers with the port of Drake further north, under the 38" 10' of latitude, called by the Spaniards the Puerto de Bodega. Population of San Francis- co, 820. We are ignorant of the number of whites, mesti- zoes and mulattoes, who live in New California, either in the presidios or in the service of the monks of St. Francis. I believe their number ma} be about 1,300; for in the two years of IhOl and 1802, there were in the cast of whites and mixed h\oo& 35 marriages, 182 baptisms, and 82 deaths. It is only on this part of the population that the government can reckon for the defence of the coast, in case oif any military attack by the maritime powers of Eu- rope! 246 POLITICAL ESSAY O^ THE [book m. Recapitulation of the total population of New Spain. Indigenous, or Indians 2,500,000 Whites or C Creoles 1,025,0007 i lOO 000 Spaniards \ Europeans 70,000 3 ' ' African Negroes 6r,100 Casts of mixed blood 1,231,000 Total, 5,837,100 These numbers are only the result of a calcula- tion by approximation. We have judged proper to adopt the sum total already mentioned, vol. i. p. 210.* * The reader Avill perceive on summing up the above table that the amount is only 4,837,100, consequently there is a mil- lion of deficiency somevvhere. M. de Humboldt elsewhere states the Indians at two-fifths of the whole population of New Spain, so they are not underrated here. In the commence- ment of the 7th chapter the author observes that the whites "would occupy the second place, considered only in the rela- tion of number. In the above table, however, they are infe- rior in number to the casts of mixed blood. In the second paragraph of the 7th chapter the author states the amount of the whites at 1,200,000. We are tempted to think that the two first figures of this number ought to change place with one another, which would then make 2,100,000. This would give us the additional million wanting in the above table. However, the author adds that nearly a fourth part of the white population of 1,200,000 inhabit X\\& pro-vincianinternas. Now the whole population of the provincias internas, inclu- ding whatever Indians or other races there may be in them, amounts only to 4-23, 3o0. So that deducting the Indians, &c. this number would approach nearer perhaps to a fourth of 1,200,000 than of 2,100,000. Amidst these difficulties the reader must decide for himself. Tram, CHAP. VIII ] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 247 After this view of the provinces of which the vast empire of Mexico is composed, it remains for us to bestow a rupicl glance on the coast of the Great Ocean, which extends from the port of San Fran- cisco, and from Cape Mendocino to the Russian es- tablishments in Prince William's Sound. The whole of this coast has been visited since the end of the 16th century by Spanish navigators ; but they have only been carefully examined by order of the vicero} s of New Spain since 1774. Numerous expeditions of discovery have followed one another up to 1792. The colony attempted to be established by the Spaniards at Nootka fixed for some time the attention of all the maritime powers of Europe. A few sheds erected on the coast, and a miserable bas- tion defended by swivel guns, and a few cabbages planted within an enclosure, were very near exciting a bloody war between Spain and England ; and it was only by the destruction of the establishment founded at the island of Quadra and of Vancoiwer that Macuina, the Toys or prince of Nootka, was enabled to preserve his independence. Several na- tions of Europe have frequented this latitude since 1786, for the sake of the trade in sea otter skins ; but their rivalry has had the most disadvantageous con- sequences both for themselves and the natives of the countr}\ The price of the skins as they rose on the coast of America fell enormously in China. Cor- ruption of manners has increased among the Indians; and by following the same policy by which the Afri- can coasts have been laid waste, the Europeans en- deavoured to take advantage of the discord among the Tays. Several of the most debauched sailors deserted their ships to settle among the natives of the country. At Nootka, as well as at the Sandwich Islands, the most fearful mixture of primitive bar- barity with the vices of polished P2urope is to be ob- served. It is difficult to conceive that the few spe- ^48 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book im- cies of roots of the old continent transplanted into these fertile regions by voyagers, which figure ui the list of benefits that the Europeans boast oi having bestowed on the inhabitants of the South Sea islands, have proved any thing like a compensation for the real evils which they introduced among them. At the glorious epoqua in the 16th century, when the Spanish nation, favoured by a combination of sin- gular circumstances, freely displayed the resources of their genius and the force of their character, the problem oi ^ passage to the north-west , and a direct road to the East Indies, occupied the minds of the Castilians with the same ardour displayed by some other nations within these thirty or forty years. We do not allude to the ap(jcryphal voyages of Ferrer Mddonado, Juan de Fuca and Bartolome Fonte^ to which for a long time only too much importance was given. The most part of the impostures publish- ed under the. names of these three navigators were destroyed by the laborious and learned discussions of several officers of the Spanish marine.* In place of bringing forward names nearly fal^ulous, and lo- sing ourselves in the uncertainty of hypotheses, we shall confine ourselves to indicate here what is incon- testibly proved by historical documents. The fol- lowing notices partly drawn from the manuscript me- moirs of Don x^ntonio Bonilla and M. Casasola, pre- served in the archives of the viceroyalty of Mexico, present facts which, combined together, deserve the attention of the reader. These notices displaying, as it were, the varying picture of the national actiAity, * Memoir/} of Don Cinaco Cevofla.9. Researches into tlie Archives of Seville^ by Don .iUi^us/in Cran. Historical Intro- duction to the Foyagr of Gaiiano and Faldes, p. xlis. Ivi. and Ixxvi. Ixxxiii. Notwithstanding^ all my inquiries, I coukl never discover in Nev/ Spain a single document in whicli the, pilot F'ura or the adininil Fonte \vprc named. SHAP.viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 049 sometimes excited and sometimes palsied, will even be interesting to those who do not believe that a country inhabited by freemen belongs to the Euro- pean nation who first saw it. The names of Cahillo and Gali are less celebrated than Fuca and Fonte. The true recital of a modest navigator has neither the charm nor the power which accompany deception. Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo vi- sited the coast of New Caliiornia to the 37" 10 , or the Punta del Ano jVuevn, to the north of Monterey. He perished (on the 3d January, 1543) at the island of San Bernardo, near the channel of Santa Barbara.* But Bartolome Ferrelo, his pilot, continued his dis- coveries northwards to the 43° of latitude, when he saw the coast of Cape Blanc called by Vancouver Cape Orford. Francisco Gali, in his voyap:e from Macao to Aca- jpulco, discovered in 1582 the north-west coast of America under the 51^ oO'. He admired, like all those who since his time have visited New Cornwall, the beauty of those colossal mountains, of which the summit is covered with perpetual snow, while their bottom is covered with the most beautiful vegetation. On correctingt the old observations by the new in places of which the identity is ascertained, we find that Gali coasted part of the archipelago of the Prince of Wales, or that of King George. Sir Francis Drake only went as far as the 48^^ of latiiude to the north of Cape Grenviile in New Georgia, Of the two expeditions undertaken by Sebastian "Viscaino in 1596 and 1602, the last only was directed * According to the manuscript preserved in the arcn:'vo general de Indias at Madrid. t These corrections have been al. v.. .,y :.;.o-. ,\\ ■ ,..a.^ ..^ik wherever the latitudes of the oid navigator* are cited, Viagc dela Sutii, p. xxxi. VOL. II. li 250 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE I^ook m. to the coast of New California, Thirty-two maps, drawn up at Mexico by the cosmographer Henry Martinez,* prove that Viscaino surveyed these coasts with more care and more intelligence than was ever done by any pilot before him. The diseases of his crew, the want of provision, and ihe extreme rigour of the season, prevented him, however, from ascending higher than Cape S. Sebastian, siiuated under the 42^ of latitude, a little to the north oi the bay of the Trinity. One vessel of Viscaino's expe- dition, the frigate commanded by Antonio Florez, alone passed Cape Mendocino. This frigate reached the mouth of a river in the 43'^ of latitude, which appears to have been already discovered b) Cabrillo in 1543, and which was believed by Martin de Agui- lar to be the western extremity of the Straits of Anian.f We must not confound this entry or river of Aguilar, which could not be found again in our times, with the mouth of the Rio Columbia (latitude 46° 15') celebrate, d from the voyages of Vancouver, Gray, and Captain Lewis. The brilliant epoqua of the discoveries made an- ciently by the Spaniards on the north-west coast of America ended with Gali and Viscaino. The his- tory of the navigations of the 17th century, and the first half of the 18th, offers us no expedition directed from the coast of Mexico to the immense shore from Cape Mendocino to the confines of eastern Asia. In place of the Spanish the Russian flag was alone seen to float in these latitudes, waving on the vessels com- * The same of whom we have already spoken in the His- tory of the Desaguc Real de Huehuctoca. t Th'^ Straits of Anian, confounded by many geographers with Beeiing's Straits, meant in the 1 6lh century Hudson's Straits. It took its name from one of the two brothers em- barked on board the vessel of Gasper de Cortercal. Sto the learned researches of M. de Flcuri..u in the historical intro- duction to the Foya^e de Alarchand, T. i. p. v. r.HAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 251 manded by two intrepid navigators, Beerlng and Tschincow. At length, after an interruption of nearly 170 years, the court of Madrid again turned its attcniion to the coast of the Great Ocean. But it was not alone the desire of discoveries useful to science which roused the government from its lethargy. It was rather the fear of being attacked in its most northern possessions of New Spain ; it was the dread of seeing European establishments in the neighbourhood of those of California. Of all the Spanish expeditions undertaken between 1774 and 1792 the two last alone bear the true character of expeditions of discovery. They were commanded by oflicers whose labours display an intimate ac- quaintance v.'ith miutical astrononi}'. The names of Alexander Malaspina, Galiano, Espinosa, Valdez, and Vernaci, will ever hold an honourable place in the list of the intelligent and intrepid navi^uvors to whom we owe an exact knowledge of the north-west coast of the new continent. It their predecessors could not give the same pertection to their operations, it was because, setting out from San Bias or Monte- rey, they were unprovided with instruments and the other means furnished by civilized Europe. The first imj)ortant expedition made after the voyage of \''iscaino was that of Juan Perez^ who commanded the corvette Santiago, formerly called la Nueva Galicia. As neither Cook nor Barrino-- ton, nor M. de Fleurieu, appear to have had any knowledge of this important voyage, I shall here extract several facts irom a manuscript journal,* for which I am indebted to the kindness of M. Don Guiilermo Aguine, a member of the audiencia of '^ This journal was kept by two monks, Fniy Juan Crespi, and Fray Tomas de la Pciia, embarked on board the Saniiasro, By these details miy be completed w!\at was published in the- voyage of la Sutil, p. xcii. 252 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. Mexico. Perez and his pilot, Estevan Jose Marti- nez, left the port of San Bias on the 24th Januarj^ 1774. They were ordered to examine all the coast from the port of San Carlos de Monterey to the 60-' of latitude. After touching at Monterey they set sail again on the 7th June, They discovered on the 20th July the island de la Marguerite, (which is the north-west point of Queen Charlotte's Island,) and the strait which separates this island from that of the Prince of Wales. On the 9th August they an- chored, the first of all the European navigators^ in Nootka road, which they called the port of San Lo- renzo ^"^ and which the illustrious Cook four years afterwards called King George^s Sound. They car- ried on barter with the natives, among vrhom they saw iron and copper. They gave them axes and knives for skins and otter furso Perez could not land on account of the rough weather and high seas. His sloop was even on the point of being lost in at- tempting to land ; and the corvette was obliged to cut its cables and to abandon its anchors to get into the open sea. The Indians stole several articles be- longing to M. Perez and his crew; and this circum- stance, related in the journal of Father Crespi, ma)- serve to resolve the famous difficulty attending the European silver spoons found there by Captain Cook in 1778 in the possession of the Indians of Nootka^ The corvette Santiago returned to Monterey on the 27th August, 1774, after a cruize of eight months. In the following year a second expedition set out from San Bias, under the command of Don Bruno Heceta^ Don Juan de Ayala^ and Don Juan de la Bo- dega y Quadra. This voyage, which singularly ad- vanced the discovery of the north-west coast, is known from the journal of the pilot Maurelle, published by M. Barrington, and joined to the instructions of the * The entrada de Ptrez of the Spanish maps. CHAP, vin.] KINGDOxM OF NEW SPAIN. ^53 unfortunate Liipcrousc. Quadra discovered the mouth of the Rio Columbia, called eutrada de Heceta^ the pic of San Jacinto, (Mount Edgecumbe,) near Norfolk Buy, and the fine port ot Bucarcli ^latitude 55« 24') which from the researches of V^an- couver we know to belong to the west coast of the great island of the archipelago of the Prince of Wales. This port is surrounded by seven volcanoes, of which the summits, covered with perpetual snow, throw up flames and ashes. M. Quadra found there a great number of dogs which the Indians use for hunting. I possess two very curious small maps* engraved in 1788, in the city of Mexico, which give the bearings of the coast from the 17" to the 58" of latitude, as they were discovered in the expedition of Quadra, The court of Madrid gave orders in 1776 to the viceroy of Mexico, to prepare a new expedition to examine the coast of America to the 70'' of north latitude. For this purpose two corvettes were built, la Princesa and la Favorita; but this building expe- rienced such delay, that the expedition commanded by Quadra and Don Ignacio Arteap;a, could not set sail from the port of San Bias till the 1 1th February, * Carta geografica de la costa occidental de la California, situada al Norte de la linea sobrc el mar Asiatico que se dis- cubrio en los anos de 1769 y 1775, por el Tetiieiite de N'.ivio, Don Juan Francisco de Bodega y Quadra y por el Aiferez de Fragata, Don Jose Canizares, desdt; los 17 hasta los 58 grades. On this map the coast appears almost withcuit cntradas and without islands. We remark I'enscnada dc Ezcta (Rio Colombia) and I'entrada de Juan Perez, but under the name of the port of San Lorenzo, (Nootka,) seen by the same Pi;i'ez in 1774. Plan del gran puerto de San Francisco discubicrto por Don Jose de Canizares en el mar Asiatico. Vancouver distinguishes the ports of St. Francis, Sir Francis Drake, and Bodega, as three different ports. M. de Fleurieu considers them as identical. Voyage de Marchand, vol. i. p. liv. Quadra believes, as w6 have already observed, that Di'akc anchored at the port de la Bodega. 254 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi- 1 779. During this interval Cook visited the same coctst. Quadra and the pilot Don Francisco Mau- retie carelully examined the port de Bucarcli, the Mont-Sant Elie, and the island de la Magdalena, called by Vancouver Hinchinbrook Island, (latitude 60"^ 25',) situated at the entry of Prince -Wiiiiam's bay and the island of Regla, one of the most sterile islands in Cook river. The expedition returned to San Bias on the 21st November, 1779. I find from a manuscrii;t procured at Mexico, that the schistous rocks in the vicinity of the port of Bucareli in Prince of Wales's Island contain metal hferous seams. Tiie memorable war which gave libert}' to a great part of North America prevented the viceroys of Mexico from pursuing expeditions of discovery to the north of Mendocino. The court of Madrid gave orders to suspend the expeditions so lovig as the hostilities should endure between Spain and England. This interruption continued even long after the peace of Versailles ; and it was iiot till 1788 that two Spanish vessels, the frigate la Princesa and the packet-boat San Carlos^ commanded by Don Esteban Martinez and Don Gonzalo Lopez de Haro, left the port of San Bias with a design of examining the position and state of the Russian establishments on the north-west coast of America. The existence of these establishments, of which it appears that the court of Madrid had no knowledge till after the pub- lication of the third voyage of the illustrious Cook, gave the greatest uneasiness to the Spanish govern- ment. It saw with chag-rin that the fur trade drew _ o numerous English, French, and American vessels towards a coast which, before the return of Lieutenant King to London, had been as little frequented by Europeans as the land of the Nuyts, or that of En- drachr in New Holland. The expedition of Martinez and Haro lasted from the «th March to the 5th December, 178S. These 4 LHAP. vur.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPA^. 255 navigators made the cVirect route from San Bias to the entry oi P-'iiice WiUiam, ealletl by the Russians the gulf TschiigatsJaija. They visited Cook river, the Kiclitak (Rodiak) islands, Sc/iunicigiri, Unima/c, ■and Una/aschka, (Onalaska.) They were very friend- ly treated in tiie different faeiories whicii they found established in Cook river and Unalaschka, and they even reeeived communication of several ma})s drawn up by the Russians of theae latitudes. 1 fouiul in the archives of the viceroyalty of Mexico a large volume in folio, bearing the title of Ixiconocimieuto dc los quatros est able cimicntos Jlus.ws al JK'orte (Ij la Ca/ijbniia, hecho en 1788. The historical accoun: of the voyage of Martinez contained in this manu- script furnishes, hov/ever, very few data relative to the Russian colonies in the new continent. No per- son in the crew understanding a word of the Rus- sian language, they could only make themselves un- derstood by signs. They forgot, before undertaking this distant expedition, to bring an interpreter from Europe. The evil was ^vithout remedy. However, M. Martinez would have had as great difficulty in finding a Russian in the whole extent of Spanish America as Sir George Staunton had to discover u Chinese in England or France. Since the voyages of Cook, Dixon, Portloek, Mears, and Duncan, the Europeans began to consider the port of Nootka as the principal fur market of the north-west coast of North America. This consider- ation induced the court of Madrid to do in ITSU what it could easier have done 15 years sooner, im- mediately after the voyage of Juan Ferez. M. Mar- tinez, who had been visiting the Russian factories, received orders to make a solid establishment at Nootka, and to examine carefully that part of tht coast comprised between the 50' and the 55" of lati- tude, which captain Cook could not survey in the course of his navigation. 256 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. The port of Nootka is on the eastern coast of an island, which, according to the survey in 1791 by MM. Espinosa and Cevallos^ is twenty marine miles in breadth, and which is separated by the channel of Tasis from the great island, now called the island of Quadra and Vancouver. It is therefore equally false to assert that the port of Nootka, called by the natives YucuatU belongs to the great island ol Quadra, as it is inaccurate to say that Cape Horn is the extremity of Terra del Fuego. We cannot conceive by what misconception the illustrious Cook could convert the name of Yucuatl into Nootka:^ this last word being unknown to the natives of the country, and having no analogy to any of the words of their language ex- cepting Noutchi^ which signilics mountain.! * There does not seem to be any difficulty in the matter. It is very easy for any one at all acquninted with the embar- rassment experienced by the ear in catching, and, as it were, disentangling the sounds of a foreign language, to conceive that when the common standard of writing cannot be resorted to, hardly two persons will report the same word alike. In languages even already familiar to us by writing, it requires a' long experience before we can follow the conversation of the natives; what must it therefore be in languages affording no feuch assistance, and of which many of the sounds are new to European ears. Thus Captain Cook and Mr. Anderson, a surgeon in his expedition, hardly agree in the representation of any one word. It would appear, however, from what is said of Captain Cook by Mr. King, that his ear was by no means very accurate in distinguishing sounds. Trans. t Memoire de Don Francisco Mozino. The worthy au- thor was one of the botanists of the expedition of M. Sesse, and remained at Nootka with M. Quadra in 1792. Wishing to procure every possible information with regard to the north- west coast of North America, I made extracts in 1803 from the manuscript of M. Mozino, for which I was indebted to the friendship of professor Cervantes, director of the botanical garden at Mexico. I have since discovered that the same memoir furnished materials to the learned compiler of the Viage dc la SuCil, p. 123. Notwithstanding the accurate in- iovn^aiion which we owe to the English and French iiaviga- CHAP.viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 257 Don Esteban Martinez, commanding the frigate La Princesa, and the packet-boat San Carlos, an- chored in the port of Nootka on the 5th May, 1789. He was received in a very fr.endly manner by the chief Macuiiia, who recollected very well having seen him with M. Perez in 1774, and who even showed the beautiful Monterey shells Which were then presented to him. Macuina, the tays of the island of Yucuatl, has an absolute authority ; he is the Montezuma of these countries ; and his name has become celebrated among all the nations who carry on the sea- otter skin trade. I know not if Macuina yet lives ; but we learned at Mexico in the end of 1803, by letters from Monterey, that more jealous of his independence than the king of the Sandwich Islands, who has declared himself the vassal of England, he was endeavouring to procure fire-arms and powder to protect himself from the insults to which he wss frequently exposed by European navigators. The port of Santa Cruz of Nootka (called Puerto de San Lorenzo by Perez, and Friemlly-covc h\ tors, it would still be interesting to publish the observations of M. Mozino on the manners of the Indians of Nootka. These observations embrace a great number of cur'ous sub- jects, viz. the union of the civil and ecclesiastical power in the persons of the princes or tays; the struggle between Quautz and Matlox, the good and bad principle by which the world is governed ; the origin of the human species at an cpoquu when stags were without horns, birds without wings, and dogs without tails; the Eve of the Nootkians, who lived so- litary in a flovv^ery grove of Yucuatl, when the god Quautz visited her in a fine copper canoe ; the education of the first man, who, as he grew up, past from one small shell to a greater ; the genealogy of the nobility of Nootka, who descend from the oldest son of the man brought up in a shell, while the rest of the people (who even in the other -world have a separate paradise called Pinfiula) dare not trace their origin farther back than to younger branches ; the calendar of the Nootkians, in which the year begins with the summer sol- stice, and is divided into fourteen months of 20 days, and u great number of intercalated days added to the end of several months, See. &c, VOL, II, K k 258 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. Cook) is from seven to eight fathoms in depth.* It is almost shut in on the south- east by small islands, on one of which Martinez erected the battery of San Miguel. The mountains in die interior of the island appear to be composed of thonschiefer^ and other primitive rocks. M. Mozino discovered among them seams of copper and sulphuretted lead. He thought he discovered near a lake at about a quarter of a league's distance from the port the effects of volcanic fire in some porous amygdaloid. The cli- mate of Nootka is so mild, that under a more north- ern latitude than that of Quebec and Paris the small- est streams are not frozen till the month of January. This curious phenomenon confirms the observation of Max:kenzie,t who asserts that the north-west coast of the new continent has a much higher temperature than the eastern coasts of America and Asia situated under the same parallels. The inhabitants of Nootka, like those of the northern coast of Norway, are almost strangers to the noise of thunder. Electrical explo- sions are there exceedingly rare. The hills are co- vered with pine, oak, cypress, rose bushes, vaccinium, and andromedes. The beautiful shrub which bears the name of Linneus was only discovered by the gar- deners in Vancouver's expedition in higher latitudes. John Mears, and a Spanish officer in particular, Don Pedro Alberoni, succeeded at Nootka in the cultiva- tion of all the European vegetables ; but the maize * From nearly 7 1-2 to 3 1-2 futhoir.s English. Trans, ■\ Voyage dc Mackenzie, traduit par Castera, vol. III. p. 339. It is even believed by the Indians in the vicinity of the north- west coast that the winters are becoming milder yearly. This mildness of climate appears to be produced by the north-west v;iiids, which pass over a consider:>ble extent of sea. M. Mackenzie, as well as myself, believes, that the change of climate observable throughout all North America cannot be attributed to petty local causes, to tlie destruction of forest* for exumplti. CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SI*AIN. 259 and wheat, however, never yielded ripe grain. A too great luxuriance of vegetation appears to be the cause of this phenomenon. The true humming- bird has been observed in the islands of Quadra and Vancouver. This important fact in the geography of animals must strike those who are ignorant that Mackenzie saw humming-birds at the sources of the River of Peace under the 54^* 24' of north lati- tude, and that M. Galiano saw them nearly under the same southern parallel in the Straits of Magel- lan. Martinez did not carry his researches beyond the 50" of latitude. Two months after his entry into the port of Nootka he saw the arrival of an English vessel, the Argonaut, commanded by James Collnett, known by his observations at the Galapagos islands. Collnett showed the Spanish navigator the orders which he had received from his government to esta- blish a factory at Nootka, to construct a frigate and a cutter, and to prevent every other p],uropean nation from interfering with the fur trade.* It was in vain Martinez replied, that, long before Cook, Juan Pe- rez had anchored on the same coast. The dispute which arose between the commanders of the Argo- naut and the Princesa was on the point of occasion, ing a rupture between the courts of London and Ma- drid. Martinez, to establish. the priority of his rights made use of a violent and very illegal measure : he arrested Collnett, and sent him l^y San Bias to the city of Mexico. The true proprietor of the Nootka country, the Tays Macuina, declared himself pru- dently for the vanquishing party ; but the viceroy, who deemed it proper to hasten the recall of Marti- * There had been formed in England in 17«5 a Nootka company, under the name of the King George's Sound Com- pany ; and a project was even entertained of forming at Nootka an English colony similar to that of New Holland. 260 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ni. nez, sent out three other armed vessels in the com- mencement of the year 1790 to the north-west coast of America. Don Francisco Elisa and Don Salvador FidalgOy the brother ot the astronomer who surveyed tiie coast of South America* from the mouth of the Dragon to Portobello, commanded this new expedition. M. Fidaigo visited Cook Creek and Prince William's Sound, and he completed the examination of that coast, which was only afterwards examined by the intrepid Vancouver. Under the 60° 54' of latitude, at the northern extremity of Prince William's Sound, M. Fidiiigo was witness of a phenomenon, probably volcanic, of a most extraordinary nature. The In- dians conducted him into a plain covered with snow, where he saw great masses of ice and stone thrown up to prodigious heights in the air with a dreadful noise. Don Francisco Elisa remained at Nootka to enlarge and fortil)' the establishment founded by Mar- tinez in the preceding year. It was not yet known in this part of die world, that by a treaty signed at the Escurial on the 28th October, 1790, Spain had desisted from her pretensions to Nootka and Cox Channel in favour of the court of I^ondon. The frigate Dedaltis, which brought orders to Vancouver to watch over die execution of this treat}^ only ar- rived at the port of Nootka in the month of August, 1792, at an epoqua when Fidaigo was employed in forming a second Spanish establishment to the south- east of the island of Quadra on the continent, at the port of JVnnez Gaona, or Qimiicamet, situated under the 48" 20' of latitude, at the creek of Juan de Fuca. The expedition of Captain Elisa was followed by two others, which, for the impoi'tance of their astro- nomical operations, and the excellence of the instru- * See my Recueil d'Observations Astronomiques, vol. i. liv. i. €UAP. VIII. ] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 261 incuts with \vhich they were provided, uv<\y be com- pared with the expeditions of Cook, Laperouse, and Vancouver. I mean the voyage ot the illustrious JMalaspina, in 1791, and that of Galiano and Fa/des, in 1792. The operations of Malaspina and the officers un- der him, embrace an immense extent of coast from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to Prince William's Sound. But this able navigator is still more cele- brated for his misfortunes than his discoveries. After examining both hemispheres, and escaping all the dangers of the ocean, he had still greater to suffer from his court ; and he dragged out six years in a dungeon, the victim of a political intrigue. He ob- tained his liberty from the French government, and returned to his native country; and he enjoys in soM- tude on the banks of the Arno the profound impres- sions which the contemplations of nature and the study of man under so many different climates have left on a mind of great sensibility, tried in the school of adversity. The labours of Malaspina remain buried in the archives, not because the government dreaded the disclosure of secrets, the concealment of which might be deemed useful, but that the name of this intrepid navigator might be doomed to eternal oblivion. For- tunately, the directors of the Deposito Hydrograjico of Madrid* have communicated to the public the principal results of the astronomical observations of Malaspina's expedition. The charts which have ap- peared at Madrid since 1799, are founded in a great measure on those important results ; but instead of the name of the chief, we merely find the names of the corvettes la Descubierta and PAt7'cvida, which were commanded by Malaspina. * This de/iosito was established by a royal order on the 6th August, 1797. 262 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iii. His expedition,* which set out from Cadiz on the 30th July, 1789, only arrived at the port of Aca- pulco, on the 2d February, 1791. At this period the court of Madrid again turned its attention to a subject which had been under dispute in the begin- ning of the 17th century, the pretended straits by which Lorenzo Ferrer Maldonado passed in 1588 from the Labrador coast to the Great Ocean. A inemoir read by M. Buache at the Academy of Sci- ences revived the hope of the existence of such a passage ; and the corvettes la Descubierta and 1' Atre- vida, received orders to ascend to high latitudes on the north-west coast of America, and to examine all the passages and creeks which interrupt the conti- nuity of the shore between the 53*^ and 60" of latitude. Malaspina, accompanied by the botanists Haenke and Nee, set sail from Acapulco on the 1st May, 1791. After a navigation of three weeks, he reached Cape S. Bartholomew, which had already been ascertained by Quadra in 1775, by Cook in 1778, and in 1786 by Dixon. He surveyed the coast, from the moun- tain of San Jacinto, near Cape Edgecumbe, [Cabo En- gano,) lat. 57° 1' 30" to Montagu Island, opposite the entrance of Prince William's Sound. During the course of this expedition, the length of the pendulum and the inclination and declination of the magnetic needle were determined on several points of the coast. The elevation of S. Elief and Mount Fair- * Extract from a journal kcfit on board the jitrevida, a manuscript preserved in ihc archives of Mexico. Fiag'e dc la Sutil, p. cxiii — cxxiii. Before the expedition in 1789, M. Malaspinii had ah'eady been round the globe in the frigate VAstre^ destined for Muniila. •t The expedition of Malaspina found the height of Mount Elie 5,44! metres, (6507.6 varas,) and the height of Mount Fair-weather 4,489, (5368.3 varas,) consequently the elevation of the former of these mountains is nearly the same as that of Colcpr.xi ; and the elevatioa of the iccuiid is equal to that of CHAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 2G3 weather, (or Cerro de bitcn Tempo ^ which are the principal summits of the Cordillera of New Nor- folk, were very carefully nica^ured. The know- ledge of their height and position may be of great assistance to navigators when they are prevented by unfavourable weather from seeing the sun for whole weeks ; for by seeing tliese pics at a distance of eighty or a himdied miles, they may ascertain the position of their vessel by simple elevations and an- gles of altitude. After a vain attempt to discover the straits men- tioned in the account of the apocryphal voyage of Alaldonado, and after remaining some time at Port Mulgrave, in Beering's Bay, (lat. 59" 34' 20",) Alex- ander Malaspina directed his course southwards. He anchored at the port of Nootka on the 13th August, sounded tlie channels round the island of Yucuatl, and determined by observations purely celestial the positions of Nootka, Monterey, and the island of Guadaloupe, at which the galleon of the Philippines {la Nao de C/i'mci) generally stops, and Cape San Lucas. The corvette I'Atrevida entered Acapulco, and the corvette h Descubierta entered San Bias in the month of October, 1791. A voyage of six months was no doubt by no means sufficient for discovering and surveying an ex- tensive coast with that minute care which we admire in the voyage of Vancouver, which lasted three years. However, the expedition of Malaspina has one particular merit, which consists not only in the number of astronomical observations, but also in the judicious method employed for attaining certain re- sults. The longitude and latitude of four points of Mont-Rose. See vol. i. p. 48. and my Geografihie des Plantety p. 153. Author. The height of the first of tliese mountains is 17,850, and of the second, 14,992 feet English. Trans. 264 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. the coast, Cape San Lucas, Monterey, Nootka, and Port Mulgrave, were ascertained in an absolute manner. The intermediate points were connected with these fixed points by means of four sea- watches of Arnold. This method, employed by the officers of Malaspina's expedition, MM. Espinosa^ CevalloSj and Vernaci^ is much better than the partial correc- tions usually made in chronometrical longitudes by the results of lunar distances. The celebrated Malaspina had scarcely returned to the coast of Mexico, when, discontented with not having seen at a sufficient nearness the extent of coast from the island of Nootka to Cape Mendocino, he engaged Count de Revillagigedo, the viceroy, to pre- pare a new expedition of discovery towards the north-west coast of America. The viceroy, who was of an active and enterprising disposition, yielded with so much the greater facility to this desire, as new in- formation, received from the officers stationed at Nootka, seemed to give probability to the existence of a channel, of which the discovery was attributed to the Greek pilot, Juan de Fuca, in the end of the 16th century. Martinez had indeed, in 1774, per- ceived a very broad opening under the 48° 20' of la- titude. This opening was successively visited by the pilot of the Gertrudis, by Ensign Don Manuel Quimper, who commanded the Bilander la Prin-- cesa Real, and in 1791 by Captain Elisa. They even discovered secure and spacious ports in it. It was to complete this survey that the galeras Sutil2iX\^ Mexicana left Acapulco on the 8th March, 1792, under the command of Don Dionisio Galiano and Don Cayetano Valdcs. These able and experienced astronomers, accom- panied by MM. Salamanca and Vernaci, sailed round the large island which now bears the name of Quadra and Vancouver^ and they employed four months in this laborious and dangerous navigation. After passing the CKAP. VI II.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 265 straits of Fuca and Haro, tliey fell in with, in the channel del Rosario, called by the Enij;lish the Gulf of Georgia, the English navigators Vancouver and BroughtoUy employed in the same researches with themselves. The two expeditions made a mutual and unreserved comnmnicMion of their labours ; they assisted one another in their operations ; and there subsisted among them till the moment of their se- paration, a good intelligence and complete harmony, of which, at another epoqua, an example had not been set by the astronomers on the ridge of the Cordilleras. Galiano, and Valdes, on their return from Nootka to Monterey, a.eain ex unincd the mouth of the As- eencion which Don Bruno Eceta dibcovered on the 17th August, 1775, and which was called the river of Columbia by the celebrated American U'vigator Gray, from the name of the sloop under his com- mand. This examination was of so much the greater importance, as Vancouver, who had already kept very close to this coast, was unable to perceive any entrance from the 45° of latitude to the channel of Fuca ; and as this learned navigator bcgaii then to doubt of the existence of the .Rio de Colombia,* or the Entrada de Eceta. * I have already spoken (vol. I. p. 15.) of the facility which the fertile banks of the Colombia affords to Europeans for the founding a colony, and of the doubts started against the identity of this river and the Tacoutche-Tesse, or Orcgmi of Mackenzie. 1 know not whether this Oregan enters into one of the great salt- water lakes, which, according to the infor- mation afforded by Father Escalante, I have represented under tlte 390 and41o of latitude. 1 do not decide whether or not the Oregan, lik'^- many great rivers of South America, does not force a passage through a chain of elevated mountains, and whether or not its mouth is to be found in one of the creeks between the port de la Bodega and Cape Orford; but I could have wished that a geographer, io -other respects both learned and judicious, had not attempted to rccognisa VOL. II. I. I 266 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in. In 1797 the Spanish government gove orders that the charts drawn up in the course of the expedition «'>r MM. Gahano and Vuldes should be pubUshed, " in order that tiiey might be in the hands of the pub- lic before those of Vancouver." However, the pub- lication did not take place till 1802 ; and geogra- phers now possess the advantage of being able to compare together the charts of Vancouver, those of the Spanish navigators published by the Deposito Hydrografico of Madrid, and the Russian chart pub- lished at Petersburgh hi 1802, in the depot of the maps of the charts of the emperor. This compari- son is so much the more necessary, as the same capes, the same passages, and the same islands, fre- quently bear three or four diiterent names ; and geo- graphical sjmonymy has by that means become as^, confused as the synonymy of cryptogameous plants has become from an analogous cause. At the same epoqua at which the vessels Siitil and Mexicana were employed in examining in the great- est detail, the shore between the parallels of 45" and 51", the Count de Reviliagigedo destined another ex- pedition for higher latitudes. The mouth of the river of Martin de Aqullar had been unsuccessfully sought for in the vicinity of Cape Orford and Cape Gregory. Alexander Malaspina, in place of .the la- the name of Oregan in that of Oilmen, which he believes to designate a river in the map of Mexico, published by Don AiUonio Alzate. {Geografihiti Mathematique^ Physique., et Pc- titique^ vol. xv. p. 116. and 117.) He has confounded the Spa- nish word Origen^ the source or origin of a thing, with the Indian word Origan. The map of Alzate only marks the Rio Colorado, which receives its waters from the Rio Gila. Near the junction we read the following words: Rio Colo- rado 6 del Norte, cuyo origen se igno7-a, of which the origin is unknown. The negligence with which these Spanish words are divided (they have engraved Nortecuio and Seignora) is undoubtedly the cause of this extraordinary mist.ikc. CHAP VI, I.] KINGDOM OF NFAV SPAIN. 2C1 mous channel dc Maldofiado, hiicl only formed open- ings without aitj- oiiLkt. Giiliano and VaU'es had ascertained that the strait of Fuca was merely an ai m of the sea, wliieii si'parates an island of" i-;iorc than 1,700 square ieac;ues,* that oi Quadra and Fa/wouver from the mruntainous coast of New Geori^ia. 'I'lierc; still remained doubts as to the exi^cen.ce of" the straits, of which the discovery was attributed to admiral Fiientes or Fonte, wiiieh was supposed to he under the 53' • of latitude. Cook regretted his want of abiliA'- to examine this part of the continent of New Hanover; and the assertions of Captain Colinett, an able navigator, rendered it extremely prol'J.iblc that the continuit}'- of the coast v»as inten'upted in these /atitudes. To resolve a problem of such importance, the viceroy of New Spiiin ga\ c oiders to Lieutenant Don Jacinto Caamano, commander of the frigate Aranzazu, to examine with tiie crrcatest care the shore from the 5P to the SG"' of north latitude. jNI. Caamano, whom I had the pleasure of seeing at Mexico, set sail from the port of San Bias on the 20th March, 1792 ; and he made a voyage of six months. He carefully surveyed the nordiern part of Queen Charlotte's Island, the southern coast of the Prince of Wales's Island, which he called Isia de Udoa, the islands of Revillagigedo, of Banks, (or de la Calamu dad,) and of Aristizabal, and the great inlet f)f Ivio- nino, the mouth of which is opposite the archipelago of Pitt. The considerable number of Spanish de- nominations preserved by Vancouver in his charts proves that the expeditions, of which v/e h•.l^'e givea a summary account, contributed in no small degree to our knovvledge of a coast, which, from the 45" of * The extent of the i'jland of Quadra and Vavcotivcr, cal- culated according to the maps of Vancouver, is l,r30 square leagues of 25 to tlie sexagcsiinal degree. It is the Lu'gcst island to be found on lliis west co;:si of Amcjica. 268 POLITICAL ESSAY OK THE [book siJ. latitude to Cape Douglas to the east of Cook's Creek, is now more accurately surveyed than the most part of the coasts of Europe. I have confined myself to the bringing together at the end of this chapter all the infornvation which I could procure with regard to the voyages under- taken by the Spaniards, from 1553 to our own times, towards the western coast of New Spain to \lie north of New Caliiornia. The assemblage of thes« mate- rials appeared to me to be necessary in a woi\ em- bracing whatever concerns the political and commer- cial relations of Mexico. The gfecgraphers, who are eager to divide ftie world for the sake of facilitating the study of the'ji: science, distinguish on the north-west coast an En- glish part, a Spanish part, and a Russian part. These divisions have been made without consulting the chiefs of the different tribes who inhabit these coun- tries ! If the puerile ceremonies which the Euro- peans call taking possession, and if astronomical ob- servations made on a recently discovered coast could give rights of property, this portion of the new. con- tinent would be singularly pieced out and divided among the Spaniards, English, Russians, French, and Americans. One small island would sometimes be shared by two or three nations at once, because each might have discovered a different cape of it. The great sinuosity of the coast between the parallels of 55o and 60" embrace the successive discoveries of Gaii, Beering, and Tsehiricow, Quadra, Cook, La- pcrouse, Malaspina, and Vancouver ! No European nation has yet formed a solid esta- blishment on the immense extent of coast from Cape Mendocino to the 59° of latitude. Beyond this limit the Russian factories commence, the most part of which are scattered and distant from one another, like the factories established by European nations for these last three hundred vears on the coast CHAP. VIM.] KINGDOM OF NEW SIWIN. ^209 of Africa. The most part of these small Russian colonics have no communication with one another but by sea ; and the new denominations oi Russian America^ ov Russian possessions in the new continent y ought not to induce i:s to believe that tlie coast of the Basin of Beering, the peninsula Alaska^ or the country of the Tschugatschi, huAc become Russian provinces^ in the sense which wc give to thi^ word speaking of the Spanish provinces of Sonora or Nc\v' Biscay. The western coast of America aflbrds the only example of a shore of 1,900 leagues in length, in- habited by one European jiation. The Spaniards, as we have already indicated in the commencement of •this work,* ha\e formed estai;libhments from fort Maullin in Chili to S. Francis in Ncv/ California. To the north of the parallel of 38" succeed indepen- dent Indian tribes. It is probable that these tiibes will be gradually subdued by the Russian colonists, who, towards the end of the last century, passed over from the eastern extremity of Asia to the con- tinent of America. The progress of these Russian Siberians towards the south ought naturally to be more rapid than that of the Spanish Mexicans towards the north. A people of hunters, accustomed to live in a foggy, and excessively cold climate, fn.d the temperature of the coast of New Cornwall very agreeable ; but this coast appears an uninhabitable countiy, a polar region to colonists from a temperate climate, from the fertile and delicious plains of So- nora and New California. The Spanish government since 1788 has begun to testify uneasiness at the appearance of the Rus- sians on the north-west coast of the ne^v continent. Considering every European nation in the ligh.t of a dangerous neighbour, they examined the situation * See to!. T. p 6. 270 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iii. of the l^nssian factories. The fear ceased on its be- ing- known at Madrid that these factories did not extend eastwards beyond Cook's Inlet. When the emperor Paul, in 1799, declared war against Spain, it was some time in agitation at Mexico to prepare a maritime expedition in the ports of San Bias and Monterey against the Russian colonies in America. If this project had been carried into execution we should have seen at hostilities two nations Avho, oc- cupying the opposite extremities of Europe, approach each other in the other hemisphere on the eastern and western hmits of their vast empires. The interval which separates these limits liecomes progressively smaller ; and it is for the political in- terest of New Spain to know accurately the parallel to which the Russian nation has already advanced towards the east and south. A manuscript which exists in the archives of the viceroyalty of Mexico, already cited by me, gave me only vague and incom- plete notions. It describes the state of the Russian establishments as they were twenty years ago. M. Make Brun, in his universal geography, gives an in- teresting article on the north-west coast of America. He was the first who made known the account of the voyage of Billings,* published by M. SarytscheiVy which is preferable to that of M. Saner. I flatter my- self that I am able to give from very recent data, drawn from an official production, f the position of * Account of the geograjihical and astronomical exfieditioTi,, undertaken for exfilorivg the coast of the Jcy Sea, the land of the Tshutski, and the islands beliDctn Asia and America^ tinder the command ofCajitain Billings, betvjccn the years 1785 and 1794, by Martin Saner, secretary to the exfiedition, Putetchcstnuic Jlola-kafiiiana Sarytsclieiva fio severoivostochnoi tschasti sibiriy Icdoivitatva ?nora, i ivostochnogo okeana, 1804. t Carte dea decouvertesfaitcssncccssivcmcnt/iar des navigO' teurs Eu.ises dans I' Ocean Pacifque, et dans la mer glaciale, ccrrigee d'a/ires les observations astronomi(jues les fdus rccentes 4 CHAP, viu.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 271 the Russian factories, which nre merely collections of slicds and huis, that serve, however, as emporiunjs for the fur trade. On the coast nearest to Asia, along Beering's Straits, between the G7" and 64'' 10' of latitude, under the parallels of Lapland and Iceland, we find a great nunib(;r of huts frequented by the S-iberian hunters. The principal posts, reckoning from noi*th to south, arc, Kigiltach., Legldac/itoky Tuguteii, Nctschich^ Tc/iiuegriun, Chibalec/i^ Tvpar^ Pintepata^ AgulU chan^ Chavaniy and Nugran, near Caps Rodney^ (Cap du Parent.) These habitations of the natives of Russian America are only from thirty to forty leagues distant* from the huts of the Tchoutskis of Asiatic de filusieurs yiavigatciirs ctrangcrs, gravee au dcjioi des Cartes de sa Alajeste I' Kmjiereur de toutes Ics Hussies, en 1802. This beautiful chart, for which I am indebted to the kindness of ^/. de Si. jiignan, is l"i,231 (4.037 feet) in length, and 0"', 722 (2.367 feet) in breadth, and embraces the extent of coast and sea between the 40^^ and 72" of latitude, and the 125" and 224° of west longitude from I'aris. The names are in Rus- sian characters. * As it ir- more than probable that Asiatic and American tribes have crossed the ocean, it may be curious to examine the breadth of the arm of the sea which separates the two continents under the 65" 50' of north latitude. According- to the most recent discoveries by the Russian navigators, America is nearest to Siljeria on a line which crosses Beer- ing's Straits in a direction from the south-east to the north- west, from Prince of IVnlcs's Ca/ie to Cape Tschoukot.^koy. The distance between these two capes is 44', or 18 3-10 leagues of 25 to the degree. The island of Imaglin is almost in the middle of the channel, being one-fifth nearer the Asi- atic cape. However, it is not necessary for our conceiving that Asiatic tribes established on the table-land of Chinese Tartary should pass from the old to the new continent, to have recourse to a transmigration at such liigh latitudes. A chain of small islands in the vicinity of one another, stretches from Corea and Ji pan to the southern cape of the peninsula of Kamtschatka, l)et\vecn the 33o and the 51" of lutilude. The great island of Tchoka, connected with the continent by au immense sand-bunk, (under the 52o of latitude,) facilitates 272 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi. Jlussia. The Straits of Beering, which separates ihtm, is filled with desert islands, of which the most northern is called Imaglin. The north-east extremity of Asia forms a peninsula, which is only connected with the great mass of the continent by a narrow isthmus between the two gulfs of Mitschigmen and Kaltschin. The Asiatic coast which borders the Straits of iicering, is peopled by great numbers of cetaceous mammiferi. On this coast the Tchoutskis, who live in perpetual war with the Americans, have collected together their habitations. Their small vil- lages are called A'ukafiy Tugu/an, and Tschigin, Following the coast of the continent of America from Cape Rodney and Norton Creek to Cape Ma- lowodan, Cape Little-water^ we find no Russian esta- blishment ; but the iwtivcs have a great number of liuts collected together on the shore between the 63'' 20' and 60*' 5' of latitude. The most northern of their habitations are Agihaniach and Chalmiagmi^ and the most southern Kiiynegach and Kuymin, •'omraunication between the mouths of TAmour and the Ku- rile islands. Another archipelago of islands, by which the threat basin of Beeiing is terminated on the south, advances from the peninsula of Alaska 400 leagues towards the west. The most western of the Aleutian islands is only 144 leagues distant from the eastern coast of Kamtschatka, and this dis- tance is also divided into two nearly equal parts, the Beerinp; and Mednoi islands, situated under the 55^ of latitude. This rapid view sufficiently proves that Asiatic tribes might have i',one by means of these islands from one continent to the other nvit/iouf. going higher on the continent, of Aaia than thr. f.aralld of 55o, without turning the sea of Ochotsk to the west, anil without a passage of more than twenty-four or thirty-six hours. The north-west winds which, during a great part of the year blow in these latitudes, favour the na- vigatio.i from Asia to America between the 50'i and 60o of la- titude. It is not wished in tliis note to establish new histo- rical hypotheses, or to discuss those which have been hack- neyed these forty years : we merely wis!) to afford exact no- tions as to the proximity of the two continents. quAP. VIII.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 273 The bay of Bristol, to the north of the peninsula Alit-ska, (orAliaska,) ib called by the Russians ihc guif Kamischezkaia. They in general preserve none of the English names i^iven by Captain Cook, and Cap- tain Vancouver, in their charts, to the north of the 55o of latitude. They choose rather to give no names to the two great islands which contain the Pic Trubizin^ (the Mount Edgecumbe of Vancouver, and Cerrode San Jacinto oi Quadra,) and Ci\\->t:Tschiricqf, (Cape S:.n Bartholonie,) than adopt the denomina- tion of King George'^s Archipelago and Prince of JFales's Arc/iipeLigo. 'ihe coast from the gulf Kam.ischezkaia to New Cornwall, is inhia ited by five tribes, who fonv* as many great territorial divisions on the colonir^ 'i Russian America. Their names are Kaniugi, Ke^ nai/zi, Tschugatschi. Ugalaclimiuti, and Koliugi. The most nortiiein part of Alaska, and ihc islaiid of Kodiak, vulgarly called by the Russians j/TzV/z^^/r, though Kightak^ in tile language of the nutiv- s in general meuus only an island, i)CiOiigs lo the Kaniagi division. A great interior lake of. more than 2G leugLiv s in length, and 12 in breadth, comraUMicates by tlie river Igtschiagick with the bay of Bristo.. There are two forts and several factories on the Kodiak Island, (Kadiak,) and the small adjacent islands. The forts established by Schelikoff bear the name ot Karluk and the three Sanctijiers. jM. Miilte Brun snys tliat, according to the latest information, the Kichtak archi- pelago was destined to contain the head place of all the Russian settlements. Sarytschew asserts, that there are a bishop and Russian monastery in the island of Umanak, (Umnak.) 1 do not know whether there has been any similar establishment elsewhere ; for the chart pu;)lished in 1802 indicates no factory cither at Umiiak, Unimak, or Unalaschka. I read, however, at Mexico, in the manuscript journal of Martinez's voy; ere, 1 licit the Spaniards lound several ivUbsian VOL. II. M m 274 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book uv houses, and about a hundred small barks, at the island of Unalaschka in 1788. The natives of the penin- sula Alaska call themselves the jiien of the east^ (Ka- gataya- Koung'ns. ) The Kenayzi inhabit the western coast of Cook creek, or the Gulph Kenayskia. The i?«(/a factory, visited by Vancouver, is situated there under the 61'' 8'. The governor of the island of Kodiak, ^ Greek named Ivanitsch Delareif, assured M. Sauer, that notwithstanding the rigour of the climate, grain would ihi'ive well on the banks of Cook river. He introduced the cultivation of cabbages and potatoes into the gardens at Kodiak. The Tschugatschi occupy the country between the northern extremity of Cook Inlet and the east of Prince William's bay, (Tschugatskaia gulf.) There are several factories and three small forts in this district : Fort Alexander, near the mouth of Port Chatham, and the forts of the Tuk Islands, (Green. Island of Vancouver,) and Tchalca, (Hinchinbrook Island.) The Ugalachmiiiti extend from the gulf of Prince William to the bay of Jakutal, called by Vancouver Beering's bay.* The factory of St. Simon is near Cape Suckling, (Cape Elie of the Russians.) It ap- pears that the central chain of the Cordilleras of New Norfolk is considerably distant from the coast at the Pic of St. Elie ; for the natives informed M. Barrow, who ascended the river Mednaja (copper river) for a length of 500 weist, (120 leagues,) that it would re- * Wc must not confound the bay of Bearing of Vancouver, situated at the foot of Mount St. Elie, with the Beering's baj- ofthe Spanish maps, near Mount Fairwealher(Nevado de Bu- cnticmpo.) Without an accurate acquaintance with geographi- cal synonymy, t'ne Spanish, English, Russian and French v orks on the north-west coast of America arc almost unintelligible ; and it is only by a minute comparison of the maps that thi'=; synoi'^ymy can be li:;ed. CHAP. vHi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 275 quire two clans' journey northwards to reach the high chain of the mountains. The KoUugi inhabit the mountainous country of NewNorlolk, and the northern part of New Cornwall. The Russians mark Bunough bay on tlieir charts, (latitude 5S'' 50 ,) opposite the Revilkigigedo island of Vancouver, (Iski de Gravina of the Spanish maps,) as the most southern and eastern boundaries of the extent of country of which they claim the property. It appears that the great island of the King George archipelago has, in fact, been examined with more care and more minutely by the Russian navigators than by Vancouver. Of this we may easily convince ourselves by comparing attentively the- western coast of this island* especially the environs of Cape Tru- bizin, (Cape Edgecumbe,) and of the port of the Arch- angel St. Michel, in Sitka bay, (the Norfolk Sound of the English, and Tchinkitane bay of Marchand,) on the charts published at Peterslnirgh in the impe- rial depot in 1802, and on the charts of Vancouver. The most southern Russian establishment of this dis- trict of the Koliugi is a small fortress (crapost) in the bay of Jakutal, at the foot of the Cordillera which con- nects Mount Fairweather with Mont St. Elie near Port Mulgrave, under the ^9" 27' of latitude. The proximity of mountains covered with eternal snow, and the great breadth of the continent from the 58o of latitude, render the climate of this coast of New Norfolk, ^nd the country of the Ugalachmiuti, ex- cessively cold and inimical to the progress of vegeta- tion. When the sloops of the expedition of Malaspina penetrated into the interior of the bay of Jakutal as far as the port of Desengano, they found the northern extremity of the port under the 59" of latitude covered in the month of July with a solid mass of ice. We might be inclined to believe that this mass belonged 276 POLTTICAL ESSAY, &c. [book ii^. to a glacier-^ which terminated in high maritime alps; but Mackenzie relates, that on examining the banks of the Slave lake, 250 leagues to the eas, under 61» oi latitude, he found the lake wholly froz<.n over in the month of June. The difference of temperature observable in general on the eastern' and western coast of the new continent, oi which wc have already spoken, i.ppears only to be very sensible to the south of the parallel of 53°, which passes through New Hanovei', and the great island of Queen Char- lotte. There is nearly the same absolute distance from Pctersburgh to the most eatitern Russian factory on the continent ot Amt rica, as from Madrid to the port ol San Francisco in New California. ' The breadth oi the Russian empire embraces under the 60 ■ of lati- tude an extent of country of nearly 2,400 leagues ; but the small fort of the bay of Jakutal is still more than 600 leagues distant frorti the most northern limits of the Mexican possessions. The natives of these northern regions have, for a long time, been crueily harassed by ihe Siberian hunters. Women and children were retained as hostages in the Russian factories. The instructions given by the Empress Catharine to Captain Billings, drawn up by the illus- trious P-llas, breathe the spirit of philanthropy, and the most noble sensibility. The present government is seriously occupied in diminishing the abuses, and repressing the vexations ; but it is difficult to prevent these evils at the extremities of a vast empire ; and the American is docmed to feel every instant his dis- tance from the capitc:!. Moreover, it appears more than probable that btfore the Russians shisll clear the interval vvhicli separates them , from the Spaniards, some other enterprising power will attempt to esta- blish colonies either on the coast of New Georgia, or on die fertile islands in its vicinity. * Vancouver, t. v. p. 67. BOOK IV. STATE OF THE AGRICULTURE OF NEW SPAIN. METALLIC MINES. CHAPTER IX. Vegetable firoductions of the Mexican territory. Proijrea» of (he cultivation of the soil. Influence of the minc.H on cuUi- vaticn. Plants ivhich contribute to the nourishment of man, • We have run over the iminense extent of territor}^ comprehL-nded under the denomination oi New Spain. We have rapidly described the limits of each province, the physical aspect ot the country, its temperature, its natural lertiiity, and the progress of a nascent po- pulation. It is now time to enter more miniittiy into the state of agriculture and territorial wealth of Mexico. An empire extending from the sixteenth to the thirty- seventh degree of latitude aftbrds us from its geometrical position, all the modifications of climate to be found on transporting ourselves from the banks of ihe Senegal to Spain, or from the Malabar coast to the steppes of the great Bucharia. This variety of cli- mate is also augmented by the geological constitution ol the country, by the mass and extraordinary lorm 278 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. of the Mexican mountains, which we ha v'e described in the third chapter. On the ridge and dechvity of the Cordilleras the temperature of each table- kind va- ries as it is more or less elevated ; not merely insulated peaks, of which the summits approach the region of perpetual snow, are co'^'ered with oaks and pines, but whole provinces spontaneously produce alpine plants ; and tlie cultivator inhabiting the torrid zone frequently loses the hopes of his harvest from the eli'ects of frost or the abundance of snow. Such is the admirable distribution of heat on the globe, that in the aerial ocean we meet with colder strata iii proportion as we ascend, while in the depth of the sea the temperature diminishes as we leave the surface of ihe water. In the two elements the same latitude unites, as it were, every climate. At un- equal distances from the surface of the ocean, but in the same vertical plane, we fmd strata of air and strata of vv/;\ter of the same temperature. Hence, under the tropics, on the declivity of the Cordilleras, and in the abyss of the ocean, the plants of Lapland, :is well as the marine animals in the vicin.ity of the pole, lind the degree of heat necessary to their organic deve- lopment. From this order of things, established bv nature, we may conceive that, in a mouiitainous and exten- sive country like Mexico, the variety of indigenous productions must be ivnmense, and that there hardly exists a plant in tlie rest of the globe Vvliich is not capable of being cultivated in some part of New Spain. Notvv'itlistanding the laborious' researches of three dis- tinguished botanists, MM. Sesse, Mocino, and Cer- vantes, employed by the court in examining the ve- getable riches of Mexico, we are far irom }ct being able to flatter ourselves that we knov/ any thing like ail the plants scattered over the insulated svnnmits, or crowded together in the vast forests at the foot of the Cordilleras. If wc still daily discover new herba- 5 OHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. O79 ceoiis species on tlie central lable-land, and even in the vicinity of the city of Mexico, how many arbores- cent plants have never yet been discovered by bo- tanists in the humid and warm rei^ion along the east- ern coast, fionl the province of Tabasco, and the fertile banks of tlic Guasacualco, to Colipa and Pa- pimtla, and along the western coast from the port of ScUi Bkis ;ind Sonora to the pliiins of the province of Oaxaca? Hitherto no species of qmnqu'ma., (cin- chona,) none even of the small group, oi which the stamina are lojificr than the corolla, which form the genus exostenia, has been discovered m the equi- noxial part of New Spain. It is probable, however, that this precious discovery Mill one day be made on the declivifv of the Cordilleras, where arborescent ferns abound, and where the region* of. the true fe- * See my Gc'O^raphie des Pkintesy-p. 61 — 66. and a memoh' publibiicd by me in Geiir.aii, conuauiiig physical observations on tbc diffcrcrA species of cinchona growing- in the two con- tinents, (i\!e/?ioJres de la Socicte d'Histcire A''a:urclle de Berlin^ 18U7, No. 1. and 2.) It is believed at Mexico, that the port- landia Mtxicana discovered by M. Sesse, might serve as a subplitiue ibr the quinquina of Loxa, as is dene in a cenaia degree by the porthmdia hfxandra (Coutarea Aublet)at Cay- enne, the Bonplandia trifoliata Wi!ld. or the cuspare on the banks of the Orinoco, and the swiienia f'-brifiiga Roxb. in the East Indies. It is to be desired that the medicinal virtues of tlie Pinkneya pubens of Michaux (mussaenda bracteolata Bartram) vvliich grows in Georgia, and which has so much analogy with the cinchona, should also be examined. When ■we corisider the properties of the Portlandia, Coutarea, and Boi.plandia genera, or the natural affinity between the true prickly and creeping cinchona discovered at Guayaquil by M. T&h.ila, aiid the pcderia and dunais genera, we perceive that the febrifuge principle of the quinquina is to be found in many other rubiaceous plants. In the same manner the ca- outchouc is not only extracted from the hevca, but also from the urceola elaslita, from the comnnphora iNIadagascarensis, and from a great number of ether plants cf the euphorbean, of the iirtican (ficus cecropi?) of the cucurbitaceousj (cdivic^-) and of the carnpanuhicr^v: '^JrhT'ia') families. 280 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE (book ly. brifuge quinquina with very short stamina and downy corolijE commencLS. We do not propose here to describe the innume- rable variety ol" vegetables with which nature has en- riched tlie vast extent of New Spain, and of which the useful properties will become better known when civilization shall have made farther progress in the country. We mean merely to speak of the different kinds of cultivation which an enlightened govern- ment might introduce with success ; and we shall confine ourselves to an examination of the indigenous productions which at this moment furnish objects of exportation, and which form the principal basis of the Mexican agriculture. Under the tropics, especially in the West Indies, which have become the centre of the commercial ac- tivity of the Europeans, the word agriculture is un- derstood in a very different sense from what it re- ceives in Europe. When we hear at Jamaica or Cuba of the flourishing state of agriculture, this ex- pression does not offer to the imagination the idea of harvests which serve for the nourishment of man, but of ground V.hich produces objects of commercial exchange, and rude materials for manufacturing in- dustiy. Moreover, whatever be the riches or fertility of the country, the valley de los Guines, for exam- ple, to the south-east of the Havannah, one of the most delicious situations of the new world, we see only plains carefully planted with sugar-cane and coHee ; and these plains are watered with the sweat of African slaves ! Rural life loses its charms when it is inseparable from the aspect of the sufferings of our species. But in the interior of Mexico, the word agricul- ture suggests ideas of a less afHicting nature. The [ndiaii cultivator is poor, but he is free. His state is even greatly pieferable to that of the peasantry in a .great ])art of the* 'lorth of ]\un)pe. Ti'jcrc arc nei- cuAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 281 thcr corvees nor villcnage in New Spain ; and the number of slaves is next to nothing. Sugar is chiefly the produce oF free hands. There the prin- cipal objects of agricuhure arc not the productions to \vhich European luxury has assigned a variable and arbitrary value, but cereal gramina, nutritive roots> and the agave, the vine of the Indians. The appear, ance of the country proclaims to the traveller that the soil nourishes him who cultivates it, and that the true prosperity of the Mexican people neither depends on the accidents of foreign commerce, nor on the un- ruly politics of Europe. Those who only know the interior of the Spanish colonies from the vague and uncertain notions hi- therto published will have some difficulty in believing that the principal sources of the Mexican riches are by no means the mines, but an agriculture which has been gradually ameliorating since the end of the last century. Without reflecting on the immense extent of the country, and especially the great number of pro- vinces which appear totally destitute of preciousmetals, we generally imagine that all the activity of the Mexi- can population is directed to the working of mines. Because agriculture has made a very considerable progress in the capitania general of Caraccas, in the kingdom of Guatimala, the island of Cuba, and wherever the mountains are accounted poor in mineral productions, it has been inferred that it is to the work- ing of the mines that we are to attiibute the small care bestowed on the cultivation of the soil in other parts of the Spanish colonies. This reasoning is just when applied to small portions of territory. No doubt, in the provinces of Choco, and Antioquia, and the coast of Barbacoas, the inhabitants are fonder of seeking for the gold washed down in the brooks and ravins than of cultivating a virgin and fertile soil ; and in the beginning of the conquest, the Spaniards who abandoned the peninsula or Canary Islands to VOL. ir. V n ,282 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv^, settle in Peru and Mexico had no other view but the discovery of the precious metals. *' Auri rabida sitis a cultura Hispanos divertit," says a writer of those times, Pedro Martyr,* in his work on the dis- covery of Yucatan and the colonization of the An- tilles. But this reasoning cannot now explain why in countries of three or four times the extent of France agriculture is in a state of languor. The same phy- sical and moral causes which fetter the progress of na- tional industiy in the Spanish colonies have been in- imical to a better cultivation of the soil. It cannot be doubted that under improved social institutions the countries which most abound with mineral pro- ductions will be as well if not better cultivated than those in which no such productions are to be found. But the desire natural to man of simplifying the pauses of every thing has introduced into works of political economy a species of reasoning which is perpetuated, because it flatters the mental indolence of the multitude. The depopulation of Spanish America, the state of neglect in which the most fer- tile lands are found, and the want of manufacturing industry, are attributed to the metallic weaidi, to the abundance of gold ai)d silver ; as, according to the same logic, all the evils of Spain are to be attributed to the discovery of America, or the wandering race of the merinos, or the religious intolerance of the elerg}'- !f * De insulis nuper repertis ct dc moribus incolarum earum. Grynai novus orbis, 1555, p. 511. t If all the evils of Spuiii arc not to ho attributed to the discovery of America, it has been proved bj' an acute politi- cal economist, M. Brougham, that Spain is one of the Euro- pean nations the state of v,-hich is least adapted for coloniza- tion, and in which the national capital and industry could in almost no way be more unprofitably employed. It is no less- true that the merinos are a great obstacle to agricultural im- provement, aiid that the intolerance of the clergy can con- CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. ggj We do not observe that agriculture is more ne- glected than in Peru the province of Cumana or Gua- yana, in which, however, there are no mines worked. In Mexico the best cultivated fields, those which re- call to the mind of the traveller the beautiful plains of France, are those which extend from Salamanca towards Silao, Guanaxuato, and the Villa de Leon, and which surround the richest mines of the known world. Wherever metallic seams have been disco- vered in the most uncultivated part of the Cordille- ras, on the insulated and desert table- lands, the work- ing of mines, far from impeding the cultivation of the soil, has been singularly favourable to it. Tra- velling along the ridge of the Andes, or the moun- tainous part of Mexico, we everywhere see the most striking examples of the beneficial influence of the mines on agriculture. Were it not for the establish- ments formed for the working of the mines, how many places would have remained desert ? how many dis- tricts uncultivated in the four intendancies of Gua- naxuato, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, and Durango, between the parallels of 21'' and 25°, where the most considerable metallic wealth of New Spain is to be found ? If the town is placed on the arid side or the crest of the Cordilleras, the new colonists can only draw from a distance the means of their subsistence and the maintenance of the great number of cattle employ- ed in drawing off the water, and raising and amalgama- ting the mineral produce. Want soon awakens indus- try. The soil begins to be cultivated in the ravins and declivities of the neighbouring mountains wherever the rock is covered with earth. Farms are establish- tribute very Utile to the prosperity of the country. The au- thor does not surely mean to say that they are not among the principal causes of the present state of Spain. That there are other causes in abundance every one at all acquainted with that country will have no difficulty in comprehending. Trans. . 284 POLITICAL ESSAY- ON THE [book ty. cd in the neighbourhood of the mine. The high price of provision, from the competition of the pur- chasers, indemnifies the cultivator for the privations to which he is exposed from the hard Ufe of the moun- tains. Thus from the hope of gain alone, and the anotives of mutual interest, which are the most pow- erful bonds of society, and without any interference on the part of the government in colonization, a mine which at first appeared insulated in the m.idst of wild and desert mountains, becomes in a short time con- nected with the lands which have long been under cul- tivation. Moreover, this influence of the mines on the pro- gressive cultivation of the country is more durable than they are themselves. When the seams are exhausted, and the subterraneous operations are aban- doned, the population of the canton undoubtedly diminishes, because the miners emigrate elsewhere ; but the colonist is retained by his attachment for the spot where he received his birth, and which his fa- thers cultivated with their hands. The more lonely the cottage is, the more.it has charms for the inhabit- ant of the mountains. It is with the beginning of civilizEi^tlon as with its decline : man appears to re- pent of the constraint which he has imposed on him- self by entering into society ; and he loves solitude 'because it restores to him his former freedom. This moral tendency, this desire for solitude, is particularly manifested by the copper- coloured indigenous, whom a long and sad experience has disgusted with social life, and more especially with the neighbour- hood of the whites. Like the Arcadians, the Aztec people love to inhabit the summits and brows of the steepest mountains. This peculiar trait in their dis- position contributes very much to extend population in the mountainous regions of Mexico. What a pleasure it is for the traveller to follow these peaceful conquests of agriculture, and to contemplate the nu- CHAf.ix.] KINGDOM OP NEW SPAIN. 035 mcrous Indian cottages dispersed in the wildest ravins and necks of cultivated j^round advancing into a de- sert countr}' between naked and arid rocks! The plants cultivated in these elevated and solitary regions differ essentially from those cultivated on the plains below, on the declivity and at the foot of the Cordilleras. I could treat of the agriculture of New- Spain, following the great divisions which I have al- ready laid down in sketching the physical view of the Mexican territory ; and I could follow the lines of cultivation traced on my geological sections, of which the elevations have partly been indicated in the third chapter ;* but it is to be observed that these lines of cultivation, like that of the perpetual snows to which they are parallel, sink towards the north, and that the same cerealia, which only ■vegetate abundantly under the latitude of Oaxaca and Mexico at a height of fifteen or sixteen hundred metres, are to be found in the pi'ovincias intenias under the temperate zone in plains of inferior elevation. The height requisite for the dift'erent kinds of cultivation depends, in gene- ral, on the latitude of the places; but such is the flexibility of organization in cultivated plants, that with the assistance of the care of man they frequently break through the limits assigned to them by the naturalist. Under the equator, the meteorological phenomena, such as those of the geography of plants and animals, are subject to law^s which are immutable and easily to be perceived. The climate there is only modi- fied by the height of the place, and the temperature is nearly const;int, notwithstanding the difference of seasons. As we leave the equator, especially be- tween the 15th degree and the tropic, the climate depends on a great number of local circumstances, and varies at the same absolute height, and under * See vol. L p. 50—52, 286 POLITICAL ESSAY- ON THE [book iv. the same geographical latitude. This influence of localities, of Avhich the study is of such importance to the cultivator, is still much more manifest in the northern than in the southern hemisphere. The great breadth of the new continent, the proximity of Canada, the winds which blow from the north, and other causes aheady developed, give the equinoxial region of Mexico and the island of Cuba a particular character. One would say tliat in these regions the temperate zone, the zone of variable climates, in- creases towards the south and passes the tropic of Cancer. It is sufficient here to state that in the en- virons of the Havannah (latitude 23^* 8') the ther- mometer has been seen to ascend to the freezing point at the small elevation of 80 metres* above the level of the ocean, t and that snow has fallen near Vallado- lid (latitude lO"" 42') at an absolute elevation of 1,900 metres,:{: while under the equator this last phenome- non is only observable at the double of the eleva- tion. These considerations prove to us that towards the tropic, where the torrid zone approaches the temperate zone, (I use these improper names from their being consecrated by cuv'om,) tlie plants under cultivation *262 feet. Tra7is. t M. Robredo has seen ice formed in a wooden trough iu the month of January at the village of Ubajos, fifteen rniles south-west from the Havannah, at an absolute elevation of 74 metres, (242 feet.) I myself saw, at Rio Blanco, the centi- grade thermometer on the 4th January, 1801, at eight o'clock in the morning, at 7o, 5' above zero, (45", 5' of Fahrenheit.) During the night an unfortunate negro perished of cold in a prison. However, the mean temperatures of the months of Decemlier and January in the plains of the island of Cuba are 17o and 18o, (62o and 64'> of Fahrenheit.) All these de- terminations were made Avith excellent thenTiometcrs of Nairne. i 6,232 feet. lYcns. -:ap. I-.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 287 are not subject to fixed and invariable heights. Wc might be led to distril)ute them according to the mean temperature of the places in which they vegetate. We observe, in I'act, that in Europe the minimum of the mean temperature which a proper cultivation requires is for the sugar-cane, from 19" to 20" ; for coffee 18"; for the orange 17"; for the olive 13", 5' to 14"; and for the vine yielding wine fit to be drunk from 10" to 11" of the centigrade thermome- ter.* This thermometrical asrricultural scale is accu- rate enough when we embrace the phenomena in their greatest generality. But numerous exceptions occur when we consider countries of which the mean annual heat is the same, while the mean tempera- tures of the months differ very much from one another. It is the unequal division of the heatamonjj^ the different seasons of the year which has the screatest influence on the kind of cultivation proper to such ©r such a latitude, as has been very well proved by M. Decandole.t Several annual plants, especially gramina with farinaceous seed, are \ery little affected by the rigour of winter, but, like fruit trees and the vine, require a considerable heat during summer. In part of Maryland, and especially Virginia, the mean temperature of the year is equal and perhaps even superior to that of Lombardy ; yet the severity of winter will not allow the same vegetables to be there cultivated with which the plains of the Milanese are adorned. In the equinoxial region of Peru or Mexico, rye and especially wheat attain to no maturity in plains of 3,500 or 4,000 metics of elevation, ^I though the mean heat of these alpine regions exceeds • From 600 to 6So ; 64^ ; 62o ; froiTi 56° 3 to 57^ ; and from 500 to 5lo 8 of Fahrenheit. Trana. t Flore frangoisc, troisicme edition, t. II. p. x. X 11.482 and 13,123 feet. Trans. 2^3 POLITICAL ESSAY ON TrfE [book iv that of the parts of Norway and Siberia, in which cerealia are successfully cultivated. But for about 30 days the obliquity of the sphere and the short duration of the nights render the summer heats very considerable in the countries in the vicinity of the pole,* while under the tropics or the table-land of the Cordilleras the thermometer never remains a whole day above ten or twelve centigrade degrees. To avoid mixing ideas of a theoretical nature and hardly susceptible of rigorous accuracy with facts, the certainty of which has been ascertained, we shall neither divide the cultivated plants in New Spain ac- cording to the height of the soil in which they vege- tate most abundantly, nor according to the degrees of mean temperature which they appear to require for their development ; but we shall arrange them in the order of their utility to society. We shall begin with the vegetables' v*^hich form the principal support of the Mexican people ; we shall afterwards treat of the cultivation of the plants which afford materials to manufacturing industry ; and we shall conclude with a description of the vegetable productions which arc the subject of an important commerce with the mo- ther country. The banana is for all the inhabitants of the torpid zone what the cereal gramina, wheat, barle}^ and rye, are for Western Asia and for Europe, and what the numerous varieties of rice are for the countries beyond the Indus, especially for Bengal and China. In the two continents, in the islands throughout the immense extent of the equinoxial seas, wherever the iTiean heat of the year exceeds twenty- four centigrade * At Umea, in Westro-Botnia, (latitude 6So 49',) the ex- tremes of the centigrade thermometer were, in 1801, in sum- mer -j- 350, in winter — 45o 7. M. Acerbi complains much of the great summer heats in th^ most nortl^ern part of Lap- c»A».ix.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 289 degrees,* tlie fruit of the banana is one of the most interesting oI)jects of cultivation for the subsistence of man. The celebrated traveller, George Forster, and other naturalists after him, pretended that this va- Uiable plant did not exist in America before the ar- rival of the Spaniards, but that it was imported from the Canary Islands in th^- beginning of the 16th cen- tury. In tact Oviedo, who, in his Natuial History of the In(!ies, very carefully distinguishes the indige- nous vegetables from those which were introduced there, positively says that the first bananas Were planted in 1516, in the island of St. Domingo, by Thomas de Beriangas, a monk of the order of preach- ing friars.f He affirms, that he himself saw the musa cultivated in Spain, near the town of Armeria, in Granada, and in the convent of Franciscans at the island of la Gran Canaria, where Beriangas procured suckers, which were transported to Hispaniola, and from thence successively to the other islands and to the continent. In support of M. Forster's opinion it may also be stated, that in the first accounts of the voyages of Columbus, Alonzo Negro, Penzon, Vespucci, t and Cortez, there is frequent mention of maize, the papayer, the jatropha manihot, and the agave, but never of the banana. However, the si- lence of these first travellers only proves the little at- tention which they paid to the natural productions of the American soil. Hernandez, who, besides me- dical plants, describes a great number of other Mexi- * 750 of Fahrenheit. Trans. t De filantis esculentis commentatio botanica, 1786, p. 28. Histoire naturelle et generate des Islea et terre ferme de la grande mer oceane, 1556, p. 112 — 114. \ Christophoi-i Columbi navigatio. De gentibus ab Alonzo repertis. De navigatione Pinzoni socij admirantis. Navi- gatio Alberici Vesputij. See Gryncei orbis nov. editiO; 1555, p. 64. 84, 85. 87. 211. VOL. II. O O -290 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv; can vegetables, makes no mention of the musa. Now this botanist lived half a century after Oviedo, and those who consider the musa as foreign to the neW continent cannot doubt that its cultivation was gene- ral in Mexico towards the end of the 16th century, at an epoqua when a crowd of vegetables of less uti- lity to man had already been carried there from Spain, the Canary Islands, and Peru. The silence of au- thors is not a sufficient proof in favour of Mr. Forst- er's opinion. It is, perhaps, with the true country of the bananas as with that of the pear and cherry trees. The pru-^ nus aviu7n, for example, is indigenous in Germany and France, and has existed from the most remote antiquity in our forests, like the robur and tl^e lin- den tree ; while other species of cherry trees, which are considered as varieties, become permanent, and of which the fruits are more savoury than the prunus avium, have come to us through the Romans from Asia Minor,* and particularly from the kingdom of Pontus. In the same manner, under the name of banana, a great number of plants, which differ es- sentially in the form of their fruits, and which, per- haps, constitute true species, are cultivated in the equinoxial regions, and even to the parallel of 33 or 34 degrees. If it is an opinion not yet proved, that all the pear trees which are cultivated descend from the wild pear tree as a common stock, we are still more entitled to doubt whether the great number of constant varieties of the banana descend from the musa troglodytarum, cultivated in the Molucca Islands, which itself, according to Gaertner, is not * Den/ontaines, Histoire des arbres et arbrisseaux gut fieu' vent, etre culttvers sur le sol de la France, 1809, t. II. p. 208. a work which contains very learned and curious researches with respect to the country of useful vegetables, and the ppoquaof their first cultivation in Europe. CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 291 perhaps a musa, but a specks. of tlie genus ravenala of x\danson. The musae, or pisangs, described by Rumphius and Rheede, are not all known in the Spanish colo- nies. Three species, however, are there distinguish- ed, still very imperfectly determined by botanists, the true plutano or arton (musa paradisiaca Lin ?) the camhur'i., (JVl. Sapicntum Lin?) and \h,^ dominico^ (M. regia Rumph *?; 1 have seen a fourth species of very exquisite taste cultivated in Peru, the meiya of the South Sea, which is called in the market of Lima the platano de taiti, because the first roots of it were brought in the frigate Aguila from the island of Ota- heite. Now it is a constant tradition in Mexico and all the continent of South America, that the platano arton and the dominico were cultivated there long before the arrival of the Spaniards, but that the ^wi- neOf a variety of the camburi, as its name proves, came from the coast of Africa. The author, who has most carefully marked the different epoquas at which American agriculture was enriched with fo- reign productions, the Peruvian Garcilasso de la Vega* expressly says, *' that in the time of the In- cas, the maize, quinoa, potatoes, and, in the warm and temperate regions, bananas, constituted the basis of the nourishment of the natives. He describes the musa of the valleys of tlie Antis, and he even distin- guishes the most rare species with small sugary and * Comentarioa Realea de tos Licas, \o\. I. p. 282. The small musky banana, the dominicc^ the fruit of which appeared to me most savoury in the province of Jaen do Bracamorros on the banks of the Amazon and the Chamaya, seems to be the same with the musa maculata of Jacquin, (hortus Schoenbrunnen- sis, tab. 446.) and with the musa regia of Rumphius. The latter species is itself, perhaps, but a variety of the musr. men- saria. There exists, and tlie fact is very curious, in tlie fo- rests of Amboina, a wild banana, of which the fruit is with out grains, the pisanf^ jacki, (Rumph. V. p. 138.) 292 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [bo«k ly, aromatic fruit, the dominicOy from the common or ar- ton banana. Father Acosta also affirms,* though not so positively, that the musa was cultivated by the Americans before the arrival of the Spaniards. " The banana," says he, " is a fruit to be found in all the Indies, though there are people who pretend that it is a native of Ethiopia, and that it came from thence into America." On the banks of the Orinoco, the Cassiquiare, or the Beni, among the mountains dc I'Esmeralda and the sources of the river Carony, in the midst of the thickest forests, wherever we disco- ver Indian tribes who have had no connections with European establishments, we find plantations of ma- nioc and bananas. Father Thomas de Berlangas could not transport from the Canary Islands to St. Domingo any other species but the one which is there cultivated, the cam- buri (caule nigrescente striato fructu minore ovato- elongato,) and not the platano arton or zapalote of the Mexicans, (caule albo-virescente laevi, fructu longiore apicem versus subarcuato acute trigono.) The first of these species only grows in temperate climates, in the Canary Islands, at Tunis, Algiers, and the coast of Malaga. In the valley of Caraccas also, placed under the 10" 30' of latitude, but at 900 metresf of absolute elevation, we find only the camhuri and the dominicoy (caule albo-virescente, fructu minimo obso- lete trigono,) and not the platano arton, of which the fruit only ripens under the influence of a very high temperature. From these numerous proofs we can- not doubt that the banana vvhich several tra\'ellers pretend to have found wild at Amboina, at Gilolo, and the Mariana islands, was cultivated in America long before the arrival of the Spaniards, who merely '* Ilistoria natural dc IrnlUis, 160G, p. :-5C. T 3,952 feet. Tra::s. CHAP. XX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 293 augmented the number of the indigenous species. However, we are not to be astonished that there was no musa seen in the island of St. Domingo before 1516. Like the animals around them, savages gene- rally draw their nourishment from one species of plant. The forests of Guayana afford numerous ex- amples of tribes whose plantations (comwos) contain manihot, arum or dioscorea, and not a single banana. Notwithstanding the great extent of the Mexican table- land, and the height of tlic mountains in the neighbourhood of the coast, the space of which the temperature is favourable for the cultivation of the musa is more than 50,000 square leagues, and in- habited by nearly a million and a half of inhabitants. In the warm and humid Aalleys of the intendancy of Vera Cruz, at the foot of the Cordillera of Orizaba, the fruit of the platano arton sometimes exceeds three decimetres,* and often from twenty to twenty- two centimetresf (from 7 to 8 inches) in length. In these fertile regions, especially in the environs of Acapulco, San Bias, and the Rio Guasacualco, a clus- ter (regime) of bananas contains from 160 to 180 fruits, and weighs from 30 to 40 kilogrammes.| I doubt whether there is another plant on the globe which on so small a space of ground can produce so considerable a mass of nutritive substance. Eight or nine months after the sucker has been planted, the banana commences to develop its clusters ; and the fruit may be collected in the tenth or eleventh month. When the ^talk is cut, we find constantly among the numerous shoots which have put forth roots a sprout {pimpollo) which, having two-thirds of the height of the mother-plant, bears fruit three months later. In this manner a plantation of musa, called in the Spa- * 11.8 inches. Trans. t 7.87 to 8.66 inches. Trans. I From 66 to 88lb. avoird. Trmjs. ^4 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv, nish colonies platanar, is perpetuated without any other care being bestowed by man than to cut the stalks of which the fruit has ripened, and to give the earth once or twice a year a slight dressing by dig- ging round the roots. A spot of ground of a hun- dred square metres* of surface may contain at least from thirty to forty banana plants. In the space of a year, this same ground, reckoning only the weight of a cluster at from 15 to 20 kilogrammes,! yields more than two thousand kilogrammes,^ or four thousand pounds of nutritive substance. What a difference between this produce and that of the cereal gramina in the most fertile parts of Europe ! Wheat, sup- posing it sown and not planted in the Chinese man- ner, and calculating on the basis of a decuple harvest, does not produce on a hundred square metres more than 15 kilogrammes,^ or 30 pounds of grain. In France, for example, the ^emi-hectare^ or legal arpenty of 1,344 1-2 square toises|| of good land is soAvn {a la volee) with 1601b. of grain, and if the land is not so good or absolutely bad with 200 or 220 pounds. The produce varies from 1,000 to 2,500 pounds per acre. The potato, according to M. Tessie, yields in Eu- rope on a hundred square acres of well cultivated and well manured ground, a produce of 45 kilo- grammes,TI or 90 pounds of roots. We reckon from 4 to 6,000 pounds to the legal arpent. The produce of bananas is consequently to that of wheat as 133 : 1, and to that of potatoes as 44 : 1. Those who in Europe have tasted bananas ripened in hot-houses have a difficulty in conceivingthatafruit which, from its great mildness, has some resemblance * 1,076 square feet. Trans. t From 33 to 44lb, avoird. Trans. ■ 4 4,414ib. avoird. Trans. § 33lb. avoircl. 2Vat:s. \\ 54j995 square feet. Trarm. 1 99lb, avoird. Trans. GHAP. «.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 295 to a dried fig can be the prin«"jpal nourishment of many millions of men in both Indies. We seem to forget that in the act of vegetation the same elements form very difilrent chemical mixtures according as they combine or separate. How should we even discover in the lactcous mucilage which the grains ot gramina contain before the ripening of the ear the farinaceous pcrisperma of the cerealia, which nourishes the majority of the nations of the ttmperate zone? In the musa, the formation of the amylaceous matter precedes the epoqua of maturity. We must dis- tinguish between the banana fruit collected when green, and what is allowed to grow yellow on the plant. In the second the sugar is quite formed ; it is mixed with the pulp, and in such abundance that if the sugar-cane was not cultivated in the ba- nana region, we might extract sugar from this fruit to greater advantage than is done in Europe from red beet and the grape. The banana, when gathered green, contains the same nutritive principle which is observed in grain, rice, the tuberose roots, and the sagou, namely, the amylaceous sediment united with a very small portion of vegetable gluten. By knead- ing with water meal of bananas dried in the sun, I could only obtain a few atoms of this ductile and viscous mass, which resides in abundance in the pc- risperma, and especially in the embryo of the cerea- lia. If, on the one hand, the gluten which has so much analogy to animal matter, and which swells with heat, is of great use in the making of bread ; on the other hand, it is not indispensable to render a root or fruit nutritive, M. Proust discovered gluten in beans, apples, and quinces ; but he could not dis- cover any in the meal of potatoes. Gums, for exam- ple, that of the mimosa nilotica, (acacia vera Willd.) which serves for nourishment to several African tribes in their passages through the desert, prove that a vegetable substance may be a nutritive aliment 296 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. without containing either gluten or amylaceous matter. It would be difficult to describe the numerous pre- parations by which the Americans render the fruit of the musa, both be fore and after its maturity, a wholesome and agreeable diet. I have frequently seen in ascending rivers, that the natives, after the greatest fatigues, make a complete dinner on a very small portion of manioc and three bananas [platano arton) of the large kind. In the time of Alexander, if we are to credit the ancients, the philosophers of Hindostan were still more sober. " Arbori nomen palarkable that plants, of which the chemical properties are so ven,' difierent, are yet so. very difficult to distinguish from their exterior cha- racters. Brown, in his Natural History of Jamaica, imagined he found these characters in disstxting the leaves. He calls the sweet juca, sxveet cassava^ ja- tropha foliis palmatis lobis incertis; and the bitterer tart juca, common cassava, jatropha foliis palmatis pcn- tadactylibus. But having examined many planta- tions of manihot, I found that the two species of ja- 302 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. tropha, like all cultivated plants with lobed or pal- mated leaves, vary prodigiously in their aspect. I observed that the natives distinguish the sweet from the poisonous manioc, no: so much from the superior whiteness of the stalk and the reddish colour of the leaves as from the taste of the root, which is not tart or bitter. It is with the cultivated jatropha as with the sweet orange-tree, which botanists cannot distin- guish from the bitter orange-tree, but which, how- ever, according to the beautiful experiments of M. Galesio, is a primitive species, propagated from the .grain, as "v^ell as the bitter orange-tree. Several naturalists, from the example of Doctor Wright, of Jamaica, hare taken the sweet juca for the true jatro- pha janipha of Linnseus, or the jatropha frutescens of Loffling.* But this last species, which is the jatro- pha caHhagTiensis of Jacquin, differs from it essen- tially by the form of the leaves, (lobis utrinque sinua- tis,) which resemble those of the papayer. I very much doubt whether the jatropha can be transform- ed by culti\ation into the jatropha manihot. It ap- pears equally improbable that the sweet juca is a poi- sonous jatrq^ha, which, by the care of man, or the effect of a '.ong cultivation, has gradually lost the acidity of its juices, The Juca amarga of the Ameri- can fields haj remained the same for centuries, though planted and cultivated like the Juca dulce. Nothing- is more mysterious than this difference of interior organization in cultivated vegetables, of which the exterior forms are nearly the same. Raynalf has advanced that the manioc was trans- planted from Africa to America to serve for the maintenance of the negroes, and that if it existed on the continent before the arrival of the Spaniards, it * Reza til Spanska Loenderna, 1758, p. 309. t Hiatoire Philosofihique, torn. iii. p. 2 \2 — 2 1 4. 4 CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIH. 30,1 \vas not, however, knowii by the natives of the West Indies in the thne of Columbus. I am afraid that tliis celebrated author, who describes, however, accu- rately enough in general objects of natural history,* has confounded the manioc with the ignames ; that is to say, the jatropha with a species of dioscorea. I should wish to know by what authority we can prove that the manioc was cultivated in Guinea from the remotest period. Several travellers have also pretended that the maize grew wild in this part of Africa, and yet it is certain that it was transported there by the Portuguese in the 16th century. Nothing is more difficult to resolve than the problem of the migration of the plants useful to man, especially since communications have become so frequent between all continents. Fernandez deOviedo, who wentin 1515 to the island of Hispaniola, or St. Domingo, and who for more than twenty years inhabited difi'erent parts of the new continent, speaks of the manioc as of a very ancient cultivation, and peculiar to America. If, however, the negro slaves introduced the manioc, Oviedo would himself have seen the commencement of this important branch of tropical agriculture. If he had believed that the jatropha was not indigenous in America, he would have cited the epoqua at which the first maniocs were planted, as he relates in the greatest detail the first introduction of the sugar-cane, the banana of the Canaries, the olive, and the date. Amerigo Vespucci relates in his letter addressed to the Duke of Loraine,t that he saw bread made of manioc on the coast of Paria in 1497. " The na- tives," says this adventurer, hi other respects by no * This character of Raynal by no means agrees with that given by Mr. Edwards, \vho says that the descriptions in Ray- nal are in general no more to be relied on than any descrip- tion in romance. I'rans. t Grynaus, p. 215. 301. P(;LITICAL essay on the [book IV. means accumte in his recital, " know nothing of our corn, and our farinaceous graiiis ; they draw their principal subsistence from a root which they reduce into meal, which some of them call juchay others chambij and others igname." It is easy to discover the word J ucca mjucha. x\s to the word igname, it now means the root of the dioscorea alata, Avhich Columbus*' describes under the name of ages^ and of which we shall afterwards speak. The natives of Spanish Guayana who do not acknowledge the do- minion of the Europeans have cultivated the manioc from the remotest antiquity. Running out of provi- sions in repassing the rapids of the Orinoco, on our return from the Rio Negro we applied to the tribe of Piraoas Indians, who dwell to the east of the Ma3'^pures, and they supplied us with jatropha bread. There can therefore remain no doubt that the manioc is a plant of which the cultivation is of a much earlier date than the arrival of the Europeans and Africans into America. The manioc bread is very nutritive, perhaps on account of the sugar which it contains, and a vis- cous matter which unites the farinaceous molecules of the cassava. This matter appears to have some analogy with the Caoutchouc, which is so common in all the plants of the group of the tithymaloides. They give to the cassava a circular form. The disks, which are called titrtas^ or xauxau in the old lan- guage of liaity, have a diameter of from five to six decimetres, t or three millimetresj: of thickness. The natives, who are much more sober than the whites, generally cat less than half a kilogramme § of manioc per day. The want of gluten mixed with the amy- laceous matter, and the thinness of the bread, render * Grynaua, p. 215. t From 19.685 inches to 23.622 inches. Trans. I .1 IS of an inch. Trans. § About a pound. Tran^. CHAP, ir..} KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 305 it extremely brittle and dillicult of transportation. This inconvenience is particularly lelt in long navi- gations. The fecula of manioc grated, dried, and smoked, is almost inalterable. Insects and worms never attack it, and every traveller knows in equi- Koxial America the advantages of the coiiaque. It is not only the fecula oi^htjuca amarga which serves for nourishment to the Indians, they use also the juice of the root, which in its natural state is an active poison. This juice is decomposed by fire. When kept for a long time in ebullition it loses its poisonous properties gradually as it is skimmed. It is used without danger as a sauce, and I have myself frequently used this brownish juice, which resembles a very nutritive bouillon. At Cayenne* it is thick- ened to make caOiou, which is analogous to the soui/ brought from China, and which serves to season dishes. From time to time ver}'" serious accidents happen when the juice has not been long enough ex- posed to the heat. It is a fact very well known in the islands, that formerly -^ great number of the na- tives of Haiti/ killed themselves voluntarily by the raw juice of the root of the Juca amarga. Oviedo relates, as an eye-witness, that these unhappy wretches, who, like many African tribes, preferred death to in- voluntary labour, united together by fifties to swal- low at once the poisonous juice of the jatropha. This extraordinary contempt of life characterizes the sa- vage in the most remote parts of the globe. Reflecting on the union of accidental circumstances which have determined nations to this or that species of cultivation, ^v•e are astonished to see the Ameri- cans, in the midst of the richness of their country, seek in the poisonous root of a tithymaloid the same amylaceous substance which other nations have found * .4icblet Hist, dcs Plantea de la Gnavne Francdse.^ torn. ii. p. 72. VOL. 1 1. o^q 506 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book tv^ m the family of gramina, in bananas, asparagus, (dio- scorca alata,) aroides, (arum macrorrhizen. Dra- contium polypliillum,) solana, lizerons, (convolvulus batatas, c. chrysorhizus,) narcissi, (taccapinnatifida,) polygonoi, (p. fagopyrum,) urticse, (artocarpus, le- gumens) and arborescent ferns, (cycas circinnalis.) We ask why the savage who discovered the jatropha manihot did not reject a root of the poisonous quali- ties of which a sad experience must have convinced him before he could discover its nutritive proper- ties ? But the cultivation of the Juca duice, of which the juice is not deleterious, preceded perhaps that of the Juca amarga^ from which the manioc is now taken. Perhaps, also, the same people who first ven- tured to feed on the root of the jatropha manihot had formerly cultivated plants analogous to the arum and the dracontium, of which the juice is acrid, without being poisonous. It was easy to remark, that the fecula extracted from the root of an aroid is of a taste so much the more agreeable, as it is carefully washed to deprive it of its milky juice. This very simple consideration would naturally lead to the idea of ex- pressing the fecula, and preparing it in the same man- ner as the manioc. We can conceive that a people who knew how to dulcify the roots of an aroid could undertake to nourish themselves on a plant of the gi'oup of the euphorbia. The transition is easy, though the danger is continually augmenting. In fact, the natives of the Society and Molucca islands, %vho are unacquainted with the jatropha manihot, cultivate the arum macrorrhizon and the tacca pin- natiiida. The root of this last plant requires the biime precaution as the manioc, and yet the tacca bread competes in the market of Banda with the sagou bread. The cultivation of the manioc requires more care than that of the banana. It resembles that of pota- toes, and the harvest takes place only from seven to cuAT.ix.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 3^7 eight months alter the slips ha\e been planted. The people who can plant the jatropha have ahead}' made great advances towards civilization. There are even varieties of tlie manioc, for example, those which are called at Cayenne jnanioc bois blanc, and mimioc mai- pourrl-rouge, of which the roots can only be pulled up at the end of fifteen months. Tiie savasjje of New Zealand would not certainly have the patience to wait for so tardy a harvest. Plantations of jatropha manihot are now found along the coast from the mouth of the river of Gua- sacualco to the liorth of Santander, and from Tehu- antepec to San Bias and Sinaloa, in the low and warm regions of the intendancies of Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Puebla, Mexico, Valladolid, and Guada- laxara. M. Aublet, a judicious botanist, who, hap- pily, has not disdained in his travels to inquire into the agriculture of the tropics, says very jusdy, "that the manioc is one of the finest and most useful pro- ductions of the American soil, and that with this plant tlie inhabitant of the torrid zone could dispense with rice and every sort of wheat, as well as all the roots and fruits which serve as nourishment to the human species." Maize occupies the same region as the banana and the manioc ; but its cultivation is still more import- ant and more extensive, especially than that of the two plants which Ave have been describing. Ad- vancing towards the central table- land we meet with fields of maize all the way from the coast to the val- ley of Toluca, which is more than 2,800 meti-es* above the level of the ocean. The year in which the maize harvest fails is a year of famine and misery for the inhabitants of Mexico. It is no longer doubted among botanists, that maize, or Turkey corn, is a true American grain, ar.d that * 9,18.) feet. Trans. 308 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. the ©Id continent received it from the new. It ap- pears also that the cultivation of this plant in Spain long preceded that of potatoes. Oviedo,* whose first essay on the natural history of the Indies was printed at Toledo in 1525, says that he saw maize cultivated in Andalusia, near the chapel of Atocha, in the environs of Madrid. This assertion is so much the more remarkable as from a passage of Hernandez, (book vii. chap. 40.) we might believe that maize was still unknown in Spain in the time of Philip the Second, towards the end of the 16th cen- tury. On the discovery of America by the Europeans, the zea maize (tluolli in the Aztec language, mahiz in the Haitian, and cara in the Quichua) was culti- vated from the most southern part of Chili to Penn- sylvania. According to a tradition of the Aztec people, the Toultecs, in the 7th century of our aera, were the first who introduced into Mexico the culti- vaiion of maize, cotton, and pimento. It might happen, however, that these difierent branches of agiiculture existed before the Toultecs, and that this nation, the great civilization of which has been cele- brated by all the historians, merely extended them successfully. Hernandez informs us, that the Ota- mites even, who were only a wandering and barba- rous people, planted maize. The cultivation of this grain consequently extended beyond the Rio Grande de Santiago^ formerly called Tololotlan. The maize introduced into the north of Europe suffers from the cold wherever the mean temperature does not reach seven or eight degrees of the centi- grade thermc meter. t We there fpre see rye, and especially barley, vegetate vigorously on the ridge of * Her urn Medicarum j^>''ova Hisfiania Thesaurus^ 1651, lib. vii. c. 40. p. 247. t 44'' or 46" of Fahrenheit. Trans. CHAP. Tx.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 309 the Cordilleras, at heights where, on account of the roughness of the climate, the cultivation of maize would be attended with no success. But on the other hand, the latter descends to the warmest regions of the torrid zone, even to plains Avhere wheat, barley, and rye cannot develop themselves. Hence on the scale of the different kinds of cultivation, the maize, at present, occupies a much greater extent in the equi- noxial part of America than the cerealia of the old continent. The maize, also, of all the grains useful to man, is the one whose farinaceous perisperma has the greatest volume. It is commonly believed that this plant is the only species of grain known by the Americans before the arrival of the PLuropeans. It appears, however, cer- tain enough, that in Chili in the fifteenth century, and even long before, besides the zea maize and the zea curagua, two gramina called magu and tuca were cultivated, of which, according to the Abbe Molina, the first was a species of rye, and the second a spe- cies of barley. The bread of this araucan bread went by the name of covque^ a word which afterwards was applied to the bread made of European corn.* Hernandez even pretends to have found among the In- dians of Mechoacan a species of wheat,! which, ac- cording to his very succinct description, resembles the corn of abundance^ [triticum compositum,) \vhich is believed to be a native of Egypt. Notwithstand- ing every information which I procured during my stay in the intendancy of Valladolid, it was im- possible for me to clear up this important point in the history of cerealia. Nobody there knew any thing of a wheat peculiar to the country, and I suspect that Hernandez gave the nanie of triticum michuacaneme * Molina^ Histoire naturellc du Chili, p. 101. \ Hernandez, p. VII. 43. Clavigero, I. p. 56. note F. 310 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. to some variety of European grain become wild and growing in a \try lertile soil. The fecundity of the tlaoiii, or Mexican maize, is beyond any diiiig'ihat can be imagined in Europe. The plant, favoured by strong heats and much hu- midity, acquires a heigiu of from two to three me- tres.* In the beautiful plains which extend from San Juan del Rio to Queretaro, for example in the lands of the great plantation of I'Esptranza, one fanega of maize produces sometimes eight hundred. Fertile lands yield, communibus annis, from three to four hundred. In the environs of Valladolid a harvest is reckoned bad v/nich yields only the seed 130 or 150 fold. Where the soil is even most sterile it still re- turns from sixty to eighty grains for one. It is be- lieved that we may estimate the produce of maize in general, in the equinoxial region of the kingdom of New Spain, at a hundred and fifty for one. The val- ley of Toluca alone yields annually more than 600,000 fanegasf on an extent of thirty square leagues, of which a great part is cultivated in agave. Between the parallels of 18^ and 22^ the frosts and cold winds render this cultivation by no means lucrative on plains whose height exceeds three thousand metres. J The annual produce of maize in the intendancy of Guadalaxara is, as we have already observed, more than 80 millions of kilogrammes. § Under the temperate zone, between the 33" and 38° of latitude, in New California, for example, maize produces in general only, communibus annis ^ from 70 to * From 6 1-2 to 9 8-10 feet. Trant. t A. fanega weighs four arrobas or a hundred pounds, in some provinces 120 pounds, (from 50 to 60 kilogrammes.) Author. 600,000 fanegas therefore = 66,21O,6O0lbs. Trans. \ 9,842 feet. Trans. % 1 76,562, 400lbs. avoirdupois. Trans. CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 311 80 for one. By comparing the manuscript memoirs of Father Fermin Lasuen, which I possess, with the statistical tal)lcs published in the historical account of the voyage of M. de Cxaliano, I should be enabled to indicate village by village the quantities of maize sown and reaped. I find diat, in 1791, twelve mis- sions of New California* reaped 7,625 fanegas on a piece of ground sown with 96. In 1801, the harvest of 16 missions was 4,661 fanegas, while the quan- tity sown only amounted to 66. Hence, for the former year, the produce was 79, and for the latter, 70 for 1. This coast in general appears better adapted for the cultivation of the cerealia of Europe. However it is proved by the same tables, that in some parts of New California, for example, hi the fields belonging to the villages of San Buenaventura and Capistrano, the maize has frequently yielded from 180 to 200 for one. Although a great quantity of other grain is culti- vated in Mexico, the maize must be considered as the principal food of the people, as also of the most part of the domestic animals. The price of this com- modity modifies that of all the others, of which it is, as it were, the natural measure. When the harvest is poor, either from the want of rain or from premature frost, the famine is general, and produces the most fatal consequences. Fowls, turkeys, and even the larger cattle, equally suffer from it. A traveller who passes through a country in which the maize has been frost bit, finds neither egs; nor poultry, nor arepa bread, nor meal for the atoll'i, which is a nutritive and agreeable soup. The dearth of provisions is espe- cially felt in the environs of the INIexican mines ; in those of Guanaxuato, for example, where fourteen thousand mules, which are necessary in tlie process of amalgamation, annually consume an enormous * Viagc de la Sudl, p. 163. 312 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ly quantity of maize. We have already mentioned the influence which dearths have periodically had on the progress of population in New Spain. The frightful dearth of 17B4 was the consequence of a strong frost, which was left at an epoqua when it was least to be expected in the torrid zone, the 28th August, and at the inconsiderable height of 1,800 metres* above the level of the ocean. Of all the gramina cultivated by man none is so unequal in its produce. This produce varies in the same field according to the changes of humidity and the mean temperature of the year, from 40 to 200 or 300 for one. If the harvest is good, the colonist makes his fortune more rapidly with maize than with wheat ; and we may say that this cultivation partici- pates in both the advantages and disadvantages of the vine. The price of maize varies from two livres ten sous to 25 livres the fanega. The mean price is live livres in the interior of the country ; but it is in- creased so much by the carriage, that during my stay in the intendancy of Guanaxuato, ihejanega cost at Salamanca 9, at Queretaro 12, and at San Luis Po- tosi 22 livres. In a country where there are no ma- gazines, and where the natives merely live from hand to mouth, the people suffer terribly whenever the maize remains for any length of time at two piastres or ten livres the fanega. The natives then feed on unripe fruit, on cactus berries, and on roots. This insufficient food occasions diseases among them ; and it is observed that famines are usually accompanied with a great mortality among the children. In warm and very humid regions the maize will yield from two to three harvests annually ; but gene- rally only one is taken. It is sown from the middle of June till near the end of August. Among the * 5,904 feet. Trans. GMAr. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 3^3 numerous varieties of this gramen there is one of which the eur ripens two months after the grain has been sown. Thi^ precious variety is well known in Hungary, and M. rarnientier has endeavoured to introduce the cultivation of it into France. The Mexicans who inhabit the shores of the South Sea give the preference to another, which Ovideo* af- lirms he saw in his time, in the province 01 Nicara- gua, and which is reaped in between thirty and forty days. I remember also to have observed it near To- mependa, on the banks of the river of the Amazons ; but all these varieties of maize, of which the vegeta- tion is so rapid, appear to be of a less farinaceous grain, and almost as small as the zea curagua of Ciiiii. The utility which the x\mericans draw from maize is too well known for my dwelling on it. The use of rice is not more various in China and the East In- dies. The ear is eaten boiled or roasted. The grain when beat yields a nutritive bread, [arepa,) though not fermented and ill baked, on account of the small quantity of gluten mixed with the amyla- ceous fecula. The meal is employed like gruel in the boullies, which the Mexicans call atoiiiy in which they mix sugar, honey, and sometimes even ground potatoes. The botanist Hernandezf describes six- teen species of atoUis which were made in his time. A chemist would have some difficulty in prepa- ring the innumerable variety of spirituous, acid, or sugary beverages, which the Indians display a particu- lar address in making, by infusing the grain of maize, in which the sugary matter begins to develop itself by gemination. These beverages, generally known by the name of chicha, have some of them a resem- * Lib. VII. c. 1. p. 103. t Lib. Vli.c. 40. p. 244. VOL. II. R r 314 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ir. blance to beer, and others to cider. Under the mo- nastic government of the Incas, it was not permitted in Peru to manufacture intoxicating liquors, especial- ly those which are called Finapu and Sora.* The Mexican despots were less interested in the public and private morals ; and drunkenness was very com- mon among the Indians of the times of the Aztec dynasty. But the Europeans have multiplied the enjoyments of the lower people by the introduction of the sugar-cane. At present in every elevation the Indian has his particular drinks. The plains in the vicinity of the coast furnish him with spirit from the sugar-cane, (guarapo, or aguardiente cle cana,) and the chicha de manioc. The chicha de ?nais abounds on the declivity of the Cordilleras. The central table-land is the country of the Mexican vines, the agave plan- tations, which supply the favourite drink of the na- tives, the pulque de maguey. The Indian in easy circumstances adds to these productions of the Ame- rican soil a liquor still dearer and rarer, grape brandy, [aguardiente de Castilla,') partly furnished by Eu- ropean commerce, and partly distilled in the coun- try. Such are the numerous resources of a people who love intoxicating liquors to excess. Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Mexicans and Peruvians pressed out the juice of the maize- :italk to make sugar from it. They not only con- centrated this juice by evaporation ; they knew also to prepare the rough sugar by cooling the thickened svrup. Cortez, describing to the Emperor Charles V. all the commodities sold in the great market of Tlatelolco, on his entry into Tenochtitlan, expressly names the Mexican sugar. " There is sold," says he, " honey of bees and wax, honei/ from the stalks of maize ^ which are as sweet as sugar-cane, and honey * Garcilasso, lib. VIII. c. 9. (Toiii. I. p. 277.) Acosta, lib. CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 315 from a shrub called by the people maguc}'. The na- tives make sugar of these plains, and this sugar they also sell." The stalk of all the gramina contains su- gary matter, esijeci.iUy near the knots. The quantity of the sugar that maize can furnish in tlie temperate zone api)ears, however, to be very inconsiderable ; but under the tropics its fistulous stalk is so sugary, that I have frequently seen the Indians sucking it as the sugar-cane is sucked by the negroes. In the valley of Toluca, the stalk of the maize is squeezed between cylinders, and then is prepared from its fermented juice a spirituous liquor, called pulque de mains, or tlaoUi^ a liqiror which becomes a very important ob- ject of comnierce. From the statistical tables drawn up in the inten- dancy of Guadalaxara, of which the population is more than half a million of inhabitants, it appears exti'cmely probable that, comnninlhus amiis, the actual produce of maize in all new Spain amounts to more than 17 millions of faneinis, or more than 800 mil- lions of kilogrammes* of weight. This gram will keep in Mexico, in the temperate climates, for three years, in the valley of Toluca and all the levels of which the mean temperature is below 14 centigrade degrees,! for five or six years, especially if the dry stalk is not cut before the ripe grain has been some- what struck with the frost. In good years the kingdom of New Spain produces much more maize than it can consume. As the country unites in a small space a great variety of climates, and as the maize almost never succeeds a^: the same time in the warm region, [tierras calientes.,) and on the central table-land in the tierras frias, the interior commerce is singularly vivified by the trans- * 1,765 l-C millions of pounds avoirdupois. Trann. t 570 of Fahrenheit. 316 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [bookiv. port of this grain. Maize, compared with European grain, has the disadvantage of containing a smaller quantity of nutritive substance in a greater volume. This circumstance, and the difficulty of the roads on the declivities of the mountains, present obstacles to its exportation, which will be more frequent when the construction of the fine causey from Vera Cruz to Xalapa and Perote shall be finished. The islands in general, and especially the island of Cuba, con- sume an enormous quantity of maize. These islands are frequently in want of it, because the interest of their inhabitants is almost exclusively fixed on the cultivation of sugar and coffee ; although it has been long observed by well informed agriculturists, that in the district contained between the Havannal]^ the port of Batabano and Matanzas, fields cultivated with maize by free hands yield a greater net revenue than a sugar plantation, for which enormous advan- ces are necessary in the purchase and maintenance of slaves and the construction of edifices. If it is probable that in Chili formerly, besides maize, there were two other gramina with farinaceous seed sown, which belonged to the same genus as our barley and wheat, it is no less certain that before the arrival of the Spaniards in America none of the ccrealia of the old continent were known there. If wc suppose that all mankind are descended from the same stock, we might be tempted to admit that the Americans, like the Atlantes,* separated from the rest of the human race before the cultivation of wheat on the central plains of Asia. But are we to lose ourselves in fabulous times to explain the ancient communications which appear to have existed be- tween the two continents ? In the time of Herodo- tus all the northern part of Africa presented no other * See the opinion of Diodorus Siculus. Bibl. lib. TIL fiagc Hkodom. 186. CHAp. IX.] KINGDOM OF NFAV SPAIN. 317 ngricultural nations but the Egypiiims and the Car- thaginians.* In the intciior of Asia the tribes of the Mongol race, the Hiong-n\i, the Burattcs, the Kalkas, and the Sifanes, have constantly Hved as wandering shepherds. Now, iF the people of central Asia, or if the Lybians of Africa could have passed into the new continent, neither of them would have introdu- ced the cultivation of cerealia. The want of these gramina then proves nothing cither against the Asia- tic origin of the Americans, or against the possibility of a very recent transmigration. The introduction of European grain having had the most beneficial influence on the prosperity of the natives of Mexico, it becomes interesting to relate at what epoqua this new branch of agriculture com- menced. A negro slave of Cortez found three or four grains of wheat among the rice which served to maintain the Spanish army. These grains were sown, as it appears, before the 3'car 1530. History' has brought down to us the name of a Spanish lady, Maria d'Escobar, the wife of Diego de Chaves, who first carried a few p^rains of wheat into the city of Lima, then called Rimac. The produce of the harvest which she obtained from these grains was distributed for three years among the new colonists so that each farmer received twenty or thirty grains. Garcilasso already complained of the ingratitude of his countrymen, who hardly knew the name of Maria d'Escobar. We are ignorant of the epoqua at which the cultivation of cerealia commenced in Peru, but it is certain that in 1547 wheaten bread was hardly known in the city of Cuzccf At Quito the * Hecrcn uOer Jfrica, p. 41. t Commeiitarioi reales, ix. 24. t. ii. p. 332. " Maria de F.scobar, digna de un gran estado, llfvo el trigo al Peru. Por otro tanto adoraronlos gentiles a Ceren fior Diona, y de eata nmtrona r,o lucieron cntnla los de ir,i tierrn." 318 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. first European grain was sown near the convent of Saint Francis by Fathtr Josse Rixi, a native of Gand, in Flanders. The monks still show there with en- thusiasm the eartliern vase in which the first wheat came from Europe, which they look upon as a pre- cious relic* Why have not every where the names of those been preserved, who, in place of ravaging the earth, have enriched it with plants useful to the human race ?t - The temperate region, especially the climate ^vhen the mean heat of the year does not exceed from 18 to 19 centigrade degrees, J appears most favourable to the cultivation of cerealia, embracing under this denomination only the nutritive gramina known to the ancients, namely, wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye4 In fact, in the equinoxial part of Mexico, the cerealia of Europe are nowhere cultivated in plains of which the elevation is under from 8 to 9 hundred metres; II and we have already observed, that on the declivity of the Cordilleras between Vera Cruz and Acapulco, we .s^enerally see only the commencement of this cultivation at an elevation of 12 or 13 hundred metres.l^ A long experience has proved to the in- habitants of Xalapa that the wheat sown around their * See my Tableaux de la JVature, t. II. p. !66. t Every English reader will recollect the fine passage in Gulliver's Travels on this subject. Trans. I 640 and 66" of Fahrenheit. Trans. § Triticum (vufo?,) spelta (^e«,) hordeum (jcf»c%,) avena (^^uijxo; of Dioscorides, and not the /S^ojuoj of Theophrastus,) and secale (rkifir).) I shall not here examine if wheat and barley were really cultivated by the Romans, and if Theo- phrastus and Pliny knew our secale cereale. Compare Dios- cor. ii. 116. iv. 140. page Saracen. 1261 and 294. with Colu- mella, II. 10. andTheophr. VIIL 1—4. withPlin. II. 126. II From 2,629 to 2,952 feet. Trans. ^ 3,936 and 4,264 feet. Tram. 4 . CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 3iy city vegetates vigorously, but never produces a single ear. It is cultivated because its straw and its succu- lent leaves serve ibr forage [zacatc) to cattle. It is very certain, howc^ver, that in the kingdom of Gua- tiniala, and consequently nearer the equator, grain ripens at smaller elevations than tb.at of the town of Xalapa. A particular exposure, the cool winds which blow in the direction of the north, and other local causes, may modify the influence of the climate. I have seen in the province of Caraccas the finest •harvests of wheat near Victoria (latitude 10" 13') at five or six hundred metres* of absolute elevation ; and it appears that the wheaten fields which surround the Quatro villas in the island of Cuba, (latitude 21° 58',) have still a smaller elevation. At the Isle of France (latitude 20" 10') wheat is cultivated on a soil almost level with the ocean. The F.uropcan colonists have not sufficiently va- ried their experiments to know what is the minimum of height at wliich cercalia grow in the equinoxial region of Mexico. The absolute want of rain daring the summer months is so much the more unfavour- able to the wheat as the heat of the climate is greater. It is true that the droughts and heats are also very considerable in Syria and Egypt ; but this last coun- try, which abounds so much in grain, has a climate which differs essentially from that of the torrid zone, and the soil preserves a certain degree of humidity from the beneficent inundations of the Nile. How- ever, the vegetables, which are of the same kind with our cerealia, grow only wild in temperate cli- mates, and even in those only of the old continent. With the exception of a few gigantic arundinaceous, which are social plants^ the gramina appear in general infinitely rarer in the torrid zone than in the tempe- * 1, CIO or lj968 ftet. Trant. '320 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. rate zone, where they have the ascendancy, as it were, over the other vegetables. We ought not, then, to be astonished that the cerealia, notwithstanding the ^Yt^ii jlexibilitLj of organization attributed to them, and which is common to them with the domestic animals, thrive better on the central table-land of Mexico, in the hilly region, where they find the climate of Rome and Milau, than in the plains in the vicinity of the equinoxial ocean. Were the soil of New Spain watered by more fre- quent rains, it would be one of the most fertile coun- tries cultivated by man in the two hemispheres. The hero,* who, in the midst of a bloody w^ar, had his eyes continually fixed on every branch of national industry, Hernan Cortez, wrote to his sovereign shortly after the siege of Tenochtitlan : "All. the plants of Spain thrive admirably in this land. We shall not proceed here as we have done in the isles, where we have neglected cultivation and destroyed the inhabitants. A sad experience ought to render us more prudent. I beseech your majesty to give orders to the Casade Contratacionoi^'c\i\\. ix] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 325 was furnished by intelligent colonists, who inhabit- ed provinces at a distance from one another. I was induced to be so much the more precise in this ope- ration, as from having been born in a country where grain scarcely produces four or five for one, I was naturall}' more apt than another to be disposed to suspect the exaggerations of agriculturists, exagge- rations which are the same in Mexico, China, and wherever the vanity of the inhabitants v/ishcs to take advantage of the credulity of travellers. I am av.are that on account of the great inequality with which different countries sow, it would have been better to compare the produce of the haivcst with the extent of ground sown up. But the agra- rian measures are so inexact, and there are so lev/ farms in Mexico in which we know with precision. the number of square toises or varas which they contain, that I was obliged to confine myself to tlie simple comparison between the wheat reaped and the wheat sown. The researches to which I applied myself during my stay in Mexico, gave me for result, com- munibus a/inis, the mean produce of all the country at 22 or 25 for 1. Wl.en I returned to Europe I began again to entertain doubts as to the precision of this important result, and I should perhaps have hesitated to publish it, if I had not had it in my power to con- sult on this subject quite recently and in Paris even, a respectable and enlightened person who has inhabit- ed the Spanish colonies these th.irty years, and who applied himself with great success to agriculture. M. Abad, a canon of the metropolitan church of Valla- dolid de Mechoacan, assured me, that from his cal- culations the mean produce of the Alexican wheat far from being below twenty-two grains, is probably from 25 to 30, which, according to the calculations of Lavoisier and Neckar, exceeds from five to six times the mean produce of France. Near Zelaya, the agriculturists ::.howcd mc the 326 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. enormous difference of produce between the lands artificially watered and those which are not. The former, which receive the water of the Rio Grande, distributed by drains into several pools, yield froni 40 to 50 for 1 ; while the latter, which do not enjoy the benefit of irrigation, only yield fifteen or twenty. The same fault prevails here of v/hich airricultuml writers complain in almost every country of Europe, that of employing too much seed, so tliat the grain choaks itself. Were it not for this the produce of the harvests w^ould still appear greater than what we have stated. It may be of use to insert here an' obser\'ation* made near Zelaya by a person worthy of confidence, and very much accustomed to researches of this na- ture. M. Abad took at random, in a fine field of wheat of several acres in extent, foity wheaten plants, {triticum hybemum ;) he put the roots in water to clear them of all earth, and he found that every grain had produced forty, sixty, and even se- venty stalks. The ears were almost all equally well furnidied. The number of grains which they con- tamed was reckoned, and it was found that this num- ber iTcqucntly exceeded a hundred, and even a hun- dred and twenty. The mean term appeared ninety. Some ears even contained a hundred and sLxty grains. What an astonishing example of fertility ! It IS remarked, in general, that wheat divides enor- mously in the Mexican fields, that from a single grain a great number of stalks shoot up, and that each plant has extremely long and bushy roots. The Spanish colonists call this efiect of the vigour of vege- tation el macollar del trigo. ^ To the north of this very fertile district of Zelaya, Salamanca, and Leon, the country is arid in the ex- < * Sobre la frrtilidad de las tierraa en la Xueva Esfiana po^^ Don Mannd Abad y Queifio, (MS. note.) 4 CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAi:^. ^27 treme, without rivers, without springs, and present- ing vast extents of crusts of hiirckned clay, [tepetate^) which tlije cultivators call hard and cold lands, and through which the roots of tlie herbaccQus plants with diiHculty penetrate. These beds of clay, which I also found in the kingdom of Quito, resemble at a distance banks of rock destitute of every sort of vegetation. They belong to the trapphh formation^ and constantly accompany on the ridge of the Andes of Peru and Mexico the basaltes, the griinstein, the amygdaloid, and the amphibolic porphyry. But in other parts of New Spain, in the beautiful valley of Santiago, and to the south of the town of Valladolid, the decomposed basaltes andamygdaloids have form- ed- in the succession of ages a black and very pro- ductive earth. The fertile fields which surround the Alberca of Santias^o brino: to mind tlie basaltic dis- tricts of the Mittelo:ebir2;e of Bohemia. We have already described,"^ when treating of the particular statics of the countrj^, the deserts without water which separate New Biscay from New Mexi- co. All the table-land which extends from Sombre- rete to the Saltillo, and from thence towards la Pun- ta de Lampazos, is a naked and arid plain, in v.'hicli cactus and other prickly plants only vegetate ! The sole vestige of cultivation is on some points, where, as around the town of the Saltillo, the industry of man has procured a little water for the watering of the fields. We have also traced a view of Old Califor- nia,! of which the soil is a rock both destitute of earth and water. All these considerations concur to prove what we have advanced in the preceding book, that on account of its extreme dryness a considerable part of New Spain situated to the north of the tropic is not susceptible of a great population. Hence v.hat a remarkable contrast between the physiognomy of tvvo » Chup. VIII. t Ibid. 328 ' POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. neighbouring countries, between Mexico and the United States of North America ! In the latter, the soil is one vast forest, intersected by a great number of rivers,, which flow into spacious gulfs ; while Mexico presents from east to west a wooded shore, and in its centre an enormous mass of colossal moun- tains, on the ridge of which stretch out plains destitute of wood, and so much the more arid, as the tempe- rature of the ambient air is augmented by the rever- beration of the solar rays. In the north of New Spain, as in Thibet, Persia, and all the mountainous regions, a part of the country will never be adapted for the cultivation of cerealia till a concentrated and highly civilized population shall have vanquished the obstacles opposed by nature to the progress of rural economy. But this aridity, we repeat it, is not ge- neral ; and it is compensated for by the extreme fer- tility observable in the southern countries, even in that part of the provincias internas in the neighbour- hood of rivers, in the basins of the Rio del Norte, the Gila, the Hiaqui, the Mayo, the Culiacan, the Rio del Rosario, the Rio de Conchos, the Rio de Santan- der, the Tigre, and the numerous torrents of the pro- vince of Texas. In the most northern extremity of the kingdom, on the coast of New California, the produce of wheat is from 16 to 17 for 1, taking the mean term among the harvests of eighteen villages for two years. I be- lieve that agriculturists will peruse with pleasure the detail of these harvests in a country situated under the same parallel as Algiers, Tunis, and Palestine, be- tween the 32° 39' and 37^ 48' of latitude. CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 329 000 It (N ^ 4 ■e ^ •* 0© -* N. _ J, vn CO C7> c\ 7=. ^ ■3 00 C^ 00 CO 00 M to 00 •* CO a% »n -* a> »«. w s 1 CO CO t^ «o <0 U1 a 1 •b rj ■* «^ •0 a> »rt M CO c« - »* CtJ 00 n »o n rf* 1^ c ^ v« c* CN c CO 00 o ri o (M CO c-« CO (N CO c* CO Tf '" CN "" (N 30 n — S, CO c-» to CO "O — 00 cy> 'N Tf CO o t^ >o c^ X o» 1 10 i^ ' « "rt M CJ^ 1 1 a> r< 1 . ^ 1 "O Ji tj — CO -^ .-^ "^ w^ . s 05 "^ fee c s 00 •* m <0 <0 — "<* • <£> b. 00 I • O) t« 1 1 »o VD N. ee •-• 00 p4 C/3 a o "o a. >^'S- ® c g c o o -a a a, s cs O _ 3 - .. rS !« C5J iS « !:3 c3 c« O .. .-...,. ^ (Ti ^ -f) ■■/: 'li •fi ^Vi ^ 'Xi XT. tr. 'fi 'Ji 'Xi c a (73 Xi VOL. II. Tt 330 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book xv. It appears that the most northern part of this coast is less favourable to the cultivation of wheat than that which extends frorn San Diego to San Miguel, However, in newly cultivated grounds the produce of the soil is more unequal than in lands which have been long under cultivation, though we observe in no part of New Spain that progressive diminution of fertility which is so distressing to new colonists wherever forests have been converted into arable land. Those who have seriously reflected on the riches of the Mexican soil know that by means of a more care- ful cultivation, and without supposing any extraordi- nary labour in the irrigation of the soil, the portion of ground already under cultivation might furnish sub- sisrence for a population eight or ten times more nu- merous. If the fertile plains of Atlixco, C'lolula, and Puebia, do not produce very abundant harvests, the principal cause ought to be sought for in the want of consumers, and in the obstacles opposed by the inequality of the soil to the interior commerce of grain, especially to its carriage towards the Atlantic coast. We shall afterwards return to this interesting subject when we come to treat of the exportation from Vera Cruz. What is actually the produce of the grain harvest in the whole of New S])ain? We can conceive hovf difficult must be the resolution of this problem in n country where the government, since the death of the Count de Revillagigedo, has been very unfavourable to statistical researches. In France, even the estima- tions of Quesnay, Lavoisier, and Arthur Young, vary from forty-five and fifty to seventy-five millions of septiersof 117 kilogrammes m weight.* 1 have * 11,620, 12,911, and 19,366 millions of pounds avoirdupois. Trans. CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 33 ^ no positive data as to tlie quantity of rye and oats reaped in Mexico, but 1 conceive myscll" enabled to calculate approximately the mean produce of wheal. The most sure estimate in Europe is the computed consumption of each individual. This method was successfully employed by MM. Lavoisier and Ar- nould ; but it is a method which cannot be followed in the case of a population composed of very hete- rogeneous elements. The Indian and Mestizo, the inhabitants of the country, are only fed on maize and manioc bread. The white Creoles who live in great cities consume much more wheaten bread than those who habitually live on their farms. The capital, which includes more than 33,000 Indians, requires- annually 19 millions of kilogrammes of flour. This consumption is almost the same as that of the cities of Europe of an equal population ; and if, according to this basis, we were to calculate the consumption of the whole kingdom of New Spain, we should attain to a result which would be five times too high. From these considerations I prefer the method which is founded on partial estimations. The quan- tity of wheat reaped in 1802 in the intendancy of Guadalaxara was, according to the statistical table communicated by the intendant of this province to the chamber of commerce at Vera Cruz, 43,000 cargas, or 645,000 kilogrammes. Now the popula- tion of Guadalaxara is nearly a ninth of the total population. In this part of Mexico there is a great number of Indians who eat maize bread, and there are few populous cities inhabited by whites in easy circumstances. According to the analogy of this partial harvest, the general harvest of New Spain would only be 59 millions of kilogrammes. But if we add 36 millions ol kilogrammes on account of the beneficial influence of the consimiptioii of the 332 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [iiooK iv. cities* of Mexico, Puebla, and Guanaxuato, on the cultivation of the circumjacent districts, and on account of the provincias intemas, of which the inhabitants live almost exclusively on wheaten bread, we find for the whole kingdom nearly ten millions of myriagrammes,t or more than 800,000 setiers. This estimate gives too small a result, because in the above calculation we have not suitably separated the northern provinces from the equinoxial regions. This separation is dictated, however, by the very nature of the population. In the provincias intemas the greatest number of the inhabitants are either white or reputed white ; and they are calculated at 400,000. Supposing their consumption of wheat equal to that of the city of Puebla, we shall find six millions of myriagrammes. * Chap. VIII. Statistical Analysis, vol. II. p. 57. I formed from accurate materials in my possession the follovfing table, in which the consumption in meal is compared with the num- ber ot inhabitants. Cities. Consumption Of meal. Population. Mexico Puebla The Havannah Paris Kilogrammes 19,100,000 7,790,000 5,230,000 76,000,000 137,000 67,300 80,000 547,000 As to the consumption of Paris, see the curious researches of M. Peuchei in his S'atistique Elementaire de la Franc f.^ p, 372. The common people at the Havannah eat a great deal of cassava and arepa. The annual consumption of the Ha- vannah is, on a mean tern^ of four years, 427,018 arrobas or 58.899 ban-iltit^ {Papcl fieriodko de la Hava?ina, 1801, n. 12. p. 46) tUpv.ardsof 220 1-2 millions of pounds avoird, Trari.i. CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM or NEW SPAIN. ^33 We may admit, calculaling according to the annual harvest of the intendancy of Guadalaxara, that in the southern regions of New Spain, of which the mixed population is estimated at 5,437,000, the consump- tion of wheat in the country amounts to 5,800,000 myriagrammes. If we add 3,600,000 myriagram- mes for tlie consumption of the great interior cities of Mexico, Puebla, and Guanaxuato, we shall find the total consumpfion of New Spain above 15 m/il- lions of myriagrammes,* or 1,280,000 setiers of 240 pounds. We might be astonished to find from this calcula- tion that the provincias intenias, of which the popula- tion is only a fourteenth of the whole population, consume more than the third of the harvest of Mexi- co. But we must not forget that in these northern provinces the number of whites is, to the total mass of Spaniards, (Creoles, and Europeans,) as one to three,! and that it is principally this cast by which the wheaten flour is consumed. Of the 800,000 whites who inhabit the equinoxial region of New Spain, nearly 150,000 live in an excessively warm climate in the plains adjacent to the coast, and feed on manioc and bananas. These results, I repeat, are merely simple approximations ; but it appeared to me so much the more interesting to publish them, as, du- ring my stay in Mexico, they already fixed the at- tention of the government. We are sure of exciting the spirit of research when we advance a fact which interests the whole nation, and as to which calcula- tions have never before been ventured. * 331 millions of pounds avoird. Trans. t In a former part of this work the number of whites in the provincias inlcrr.as were stated as nearly a fourth of the whole white inhabitants. See note by the translator, vol. II. p. 246. on the difficulty of accounting for a million in the total estimate of inhabitants in New Spain. 2>an,9, 334 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. In France the whole grain harvest, that is to say, wheat, rye, and barley, was, according to Lavoisier, before the revolution, and consequently at a period when the population of the kingdom amounted to 25 millions of inhabitants, 58 millions of setiers, or 6,786 millions of kilogrammes. Now, according to the authors of the Feuille du Cultivateur, the wheat reaped in France is to the whole mass of grain as 5 : 17. Hence the produce of wheat alone was, pre- vious to 1789, seventeen millions of setiers, which, taking merely absolute quantities, and without con- sidering the populations of the two empires, is nearly 13 times more than the produce of wheat in Mexico. This comparison agrees very well with the bases of my anterior estimation. • For the number of inhabit- ants of New Spain who habitually live on wheaten bread does not exceed 1,300,000 ; and it is well known that the French consume more bread than the Spanish race, especially those who inhabit America. But on account of the extreme fertility of the soil, the fifteen millions of myriagrammes annually pro- duced by New Spain are reaped on an extent of ground four or five times smaller than would be re- quisite for the same harvest in France. We may expect, it is true, as the Mexican population shall increase, that this fertility, which may be called me- dium, and which indicates a total produce of 24 for 1, will decrease. Everywhere men begin with the cultivation of the least arid lands, and the mean pro- duce must naturally diminish when agriculture em- braces a greater extent, and, consequently, a greater variety of ground. But in a vast empire like Mexico this effect can only be very tardy in its manifesta- tion, and the industty of the inhabitants increases with the popuiiiiion and the number of increasing wants. u^iAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 335 Wc shall collect into one table the knowledge which we have acquired as to the mean produce of the cert-alia in the two continents. We are not here adducing examples of an extraordinary fertility ob- servable in a small extent of ground, nor of grain sown according to the Chinese method. The pro- duce would nearly be the same in every zone, if, in choosing our ground, we were to bestow the same •are on cerealia which we bestow on our garden plants. But in treating of agriculture in general, wc speak merely of extensive results, of calculations, in which the total harvest of a country is considered as the multiple of the quantity of wheat sown. It will be found that this multiple, which may be con- sidered as one of the first elements of the prosperity of nations, varies in the following manner : 5 to 6 grains for one, in France, according to Lavoisier and Neckar. We estimate, with M. • Pcuchct, that 4,400,000 arpens sown with wheat yield annually 5,280 millions of pounds, which amounts to 1,173 kilogrammes per hectare.* This is also the mean produce in the north of Germany, Poland, and, according to M. Rlihs, in Sweden. They reckon in France in some remarkably fertile districts of the departments of I'Escaut and le Nord 15 for 1 ; in the good land of Picardy and the isle of France from 8 to 10 for 1 ; and in the lands of less fertility from 4 to 5 for one.f 8 to 10 grains for 1 in Hungary, Croatia, and Sola- Don? getables, as well as the foreign v/ords mingled with languages of a different origin, serve to point out the route by v.-hich a nation has passed from one extre- mity of the continent to the other. These considerations, which I have more fully de- veloped in my Essay on the Geography of Plants, are sufficient to prove how important it is for the history of our species to know with precision how far the primitive dominioTi of certain vegetables extended before the spirit of colonization among the KuroiJcaiis 344 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. collected together the productions of the most dis- tant climates. If the cerealia, if the rice* of the East Indies, were unknown to the first inhabitants of America, on the other hand, maize, the potato, and the quinoa, were neither cultivated in Eastern Asia, nor in the islands of the South Sea. Maize was introduced into Japan by the Chinese, who, ac- cording to the assertion of some authors, ought to have known it from the remotest period.f This as- sertion, if it was founded, would throw light on the ancient communication supposed to have taken place between the inhabitants of the two continents. But where are the monuments which attest that maize was cultivated in Asia before the sixteenth century ? According to the learned researches of Father Gau- biljj it appears even doubtful whether, a thousand years before that period, the Chinese ever visited the western coast of America, as was advanced by a just- ly celebrated historian, M. de Guignes. We persist in believing that the maize was not transported from the table-land of Tartary to that of Mexico, and that it is equally improbable that, before the discovery of America by the Europeans, this precious gramen was transported from the new continent into Asia. The potato presents us with another very curious problem, when we consider it in an historical point of view. It appears certain, as we have already ad- *What is the wild rice of which Mackenzie speaks, a gramen which does not ^row beyond the 50o of latitude, and on which the natives of Canada feed during winter ? Foyagc de Mackenzie^ i. p. 156. t T/mnberg, Flora Jajionica, p, 57. The maize is called in Japanese Sjo KusOy and Too hbbi. ' The word kuso indi- cates a herbaceous plant, and the word too announces an exotic production. \ Astronomical MS. of the Jesuits preserved in the Bureau >ft\s Lonf(irurU>i at Pari's. CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 345 vanced, that this plant, of which the cuhivation has had the greatest influence on the progress of popula- tion in Europe, was not known in Mexico before the annval of the Spaniards. It was cultivated at this epoqua in Chili, Peru, Quito, in the kingdom of New Granada, on all the Cordillera of the Andes, from the 40" of south latitude to the 50° of north latitude. It is supposed by botanists that it grows spontaneously in the mountainous part of Peru. On tlie other hand, the learned who have inquired into the introduction of potatoes into Europe, afiirm that tlie potato was found in V^irginia by the iirst settlers sent there by Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1584. Now how can we conceive that a plant, said to belong ori- ginally to the southern hemisphere, was found under cultivation at the foot of the Alleghany mountains, while it was unknown in Mexico and the mountain- cats and temperate regions of the West Indies ? Is it probable that Peruvian tribes may have penetrated northwards to the banks of the Rapahannoc, in Vir- ginia ; or have potatoes first come from north to south, like the nations who, from the 7th century, have successively appeared on the table-land of Ana- buac ? In either of these hypotheses, how came this cultivation not to be introduced or preserved in Mexi- co ? These are questions which have hitherto beea very little agitated, but which, nevertheless, deserve to fix the attention of the naturalist, who, in em- bracing at one view the influence of man on nature, and the reaction of the physical world on man, ap- pears to read in the distribution of the vegetables the history of the first migrations of our species. I have first to observe, stating here only what facts are to be relied on, that the potato is not indigenous in Peru, and that it is nowhere to be found wild in the part of the Cordilleras situated under the tropics. M. Bonpland and myself herborized on the back and on the declivity of the Andes from the 5*^ north to the VOL. ir. X X 346 J'OLlTiCALliSSAV ON THE [book iv. 12° south ; we informed ourselves from persons who have examined thi; chain of colossal mountains as far as la Paz and Oruro, and we are certain that iu this vast extent of ground no species of solanura with nutritive root vegetates spontaneously. It is true that there are places not very accessible, and very cold, which the natives call Paramos de his Papas, (desert potato-plains;) but these denomina- tions, of whi' h it is difficult to conjecture the origin, by no means indicate that these great elevations pro- duce the plant of v/hich they bear the name. Passing further soutlivvards, beyond the tropic, we find it, according to Molina,* in all the fields of Chili. The natives distinguish the wild potato, of which the tubercles are small and somewhat bitter, from that which has been cultivated for a long series of ages. The first of these plants bears the name of maglia, and the second that of pogny. Another spe- cies of solanum is also cultivated in Chili, which belongs to the same group, with pennated and not prickly leaves, and which has a very swttt root of a cylindrical form. This is the solanum cari, which is still unknown, not only in Europe, but also in Quit© and Mexico. We might ask if these useful plants are truly na- tives of Chili, or if, from the eifect of a long culti- vation, they have become wild there. The same tiuestion has been put to the travellers who have found cerealia growing spontaneously in the moun- tains of India and Caucasus. MM. Ruiz and Pa- von, whose authority is of so great weight, affirm that they found the potato in cultivated grounds, w ridtis, and not in forests, ami on the ridges of the mountains. But we are to observe, that among us the solanum and the different kinds of grain do not * His:. .Yar. dtt Chilis p. 1G2, CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SJ^AIN. 347 propagate of themselves in a clumble manner, when tlic birds transport the grains into nieadcnvs and woods. Wherever these plants appear to become wiid iindtT our eyes, far from multiplying like the crigeron Canadense, the oenotiK ra biennis, and other colonists of the vegetable kingdom, they disappear in a very short space of time. Are r.ot the maglia of Chili, the grain of the banks of the Terek,* and the ^vheat of the mountains [hill xoJieat) ol Boutan, which M. Banksf has recently made know n, more likely to be the primitive type of the solanum and cultivated cerealia '? It is probable that from the mountains of Chili the cultivation of potatoes gradually advanced northwards by Peru and the kingdo^n of Quito to the table-land of Bogota, the ancient Cundinamarca. This is also the course followed by the Incas in their concjuests. We can easily conceive why, long befoie tliC arrival of Manco Capac, in those remote times when the province of Collao and the plains of Tiahuanacu were the centre of the first civilization of mankind, J the migrations of tlie South American nations would rather be from south to north than in an opposite direction. Everywhere in the tvA'o hemispheres the people of the mountains have manifested a desire to approach the equator, or, at least, the torrid zone, which, at great elevations, affords the mildness of climate and the other advantages of the temperate zone. Following the direction of the Cordilleras, either from the banks of the Gila to the centre of Mexico, or from Chili to the beautiful valleys uf Quito, the natives in a cold and foggy climate. The Indian of the warm * Marschall de Biberstcin, sur les bords occid. de la itur Cqa^ pienne, 1798, p. 65 and 105. t BibLBritt. 1809, n. 322. p. 86. \ Pedro Cieca de Leon, c. 105. Gr-.rcib.'sso, ili. \. 548 POLITICAL ESSAY On THE [bock iv. found in the same elevations, and without descending towards the plains, a more vigorous vegetation, less premature frosts, and less abundance of snow. The plains of Tiahuanacu, (iat. 17*^ 10' south,) covered wiih ruins of an august grandeur, and the banks of the lake of Chucuito, a basin which resembles a small interior sea, are the Himala and Thibet of South America. These men under the government of laws, and collected together on a soil of no great fertility, first applied themselves to agriculture. From this remarkable plain, situated between the cities of Cuzco and la Paz, descended numerous and powerful tribes, vAio carried their arms, language, and arts even to the northern hemisphere. 'J'he vegetables, which were the object of the agri- culture of the Andes, must have been carried north- wards in two wa3^s; either by the conquests of the Incas, who were followed by the establishment of Peruvian colonies in the conquered countries, or by the slow but peaceable communications which always take place between neighbouring nations. The sovereigns of Cuzco did not extend their conquests beyond the river of Mayo, (kit. P 34' north,) of which the course is north from the town of Pasto. The potatoes which the Spaniards found under cultivation among the Muysca tribes in the kingdom of the z.tque of Bogota, (Iat. 4" 6' north,) could only have been transported there from Peru by means of the relations which are gradually established even among mountainous tribes separated from one another by deserts covered with snow, or impassable valleys. The Cordilleras, which preserve a formidable height from Chili to the province of Antioquia, fall sudden- ly near the sources of the great Rio Atracto. Choco ar:d Darien present merely a group of hills which, in the Isthmus of Panama, are only a few hundred toises in height. The cultivation of the potato suc- ceeds well in the tropics only on very elevated grounds regions gives the preference to maize, the manioc.. CHAP. IK.] KINGDOM OF KEW Pl'AlN. 34^ and banana. Besides Choco, Dr.ricn, and llie isth- nius, covered willi thick forests, liave always been inhaljitcd by hordes oi' savages and hunters, enemies to eveiT sort of cnltivation. Wc are net, tlierefore, to be astonislied that both pliysical and moral causes Jiave prevented tlie potato iVoni penetrating into Mexico. We know not a single fact by which the history of South America is connected witli that of North America. In New Spain, as we have already several times observed, the flux of nations was from* north to south. A great analogy of man neis and civiliza- tion has been thought to be perceived* between the Toultecs, driven by a pestilence from the table-land of Anahuac in the middle of the 12th century, and the Peruvians under the government of jManco Capac. It might, no doubt, have happened, that people from Aztlan advanced beyond the i.sthmusor gulf of Panama ; but it is very improbable that by migrations from south to north the productions of Peru, Quito, and New Granada, ever passed to Mexico and Canada. From all these considerations it follows that if die colonists sent out by Raleigh really found pota- toes among the Indians of Virginia, we can hardly refuse our assent to the idea that this plant was ori- ginally wild in some country of the northern hemis- phere, as it was in Chili. The interesting researches carried on by MM. Beckman, Banks, and Dryander,f * I have discussed this curious hypothesis of the Chevalier Bnturini in my Memoir on the first inhabitants of America, '^Ueber die Urvbker,) jYt'iie Berlin Monatschrcft^ 1806, p. 205. t Beckmanns Grundsdtze der Teutschen Landrjirtfischaft, 1 805, p. 289. Sir Josefih Banks's attemfit to ascertain the time of the introduction of fiotatocs., 18u8. The potato has been cultivated on a large scale in Lancashire since 1684 ; in Saxony since 1717; in Scotland since 1728; and in Prussia since 1738. jiiithor. It is believed that potatoes have only been cultivated ex- 350 rOLITlCAL ESSAY ON THE [nooK iv.. prove tliat vessels wUich returned from the bay of Albemarle in 1586 first carried potatoes into Ireland, and tliat Thomas Harriot, more celebrate d as a ma- thematician than as a navigator, described thi^ nutri- tive root by the name of openawk. Gerard, in his Herbal., published in 1597, calls it Virginian patatate, or noremhega. We might be tempted to believe that the English colonists received it from Spanish America. Their establishment had been in exist- ence from the month of Julv, 1584. The naviG:ators of those times were not in the liabit of steering straight westv/ardsto reach the coast of North Ameri- ca ; they were still in the practice of following the tract indicated by Columbus, and profiting by the trade winds of the torrid zone. This passage facilitated communication with the West-India islands, which were the centre of the Spanish commerce. Sir Francis Drake, who had been navigating among these islands, and along the coast of Terra Firma, put in at Roanoke,* in Virginia. It appears then natural enough to suppose, that the English them- selves brought potatoes from South America or from Mexico into Virginia. At the time when they were brought from Virginia into P^ngland they were com- mon both in Spain and Italy. Wc are not then to be astonished that a production v/hich had past from one continent to the other could in America pass from the Spanish to the English colonies. The very name by which Harriot describes the potato seems tensively in Scotland since a much later period than 1728. The opinion generally received there is, that the cultiva- tion began with the rebellion in 174S. Trans. * Roanoke and Albemarle, where Armidas and Barlow made their first eslablishmeiit, now belong to the state of North Carolina. As to the colony,of Raleigh, consult MarshaWs Life af Washi7igtonf vol. i. p. 12. CHAP. 12.3 KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 35^ to prove its Virginian origin. Were the savages to have a word lor a toreip,n plant, and would not Har- riot have knov.n the uixme papa ? The plants which are cultivated in the highest and coldest piirt' of the Andes and Mexican Cordilleras are the potato, the tropacolum esculeiitum,* and the chcnopodium quinoa, of which the grain is an aliment equally agreeable and hc-althy. In New Spain the tirst oi these becomes an object of culti- vation, of so much greater importance from its ex- tent, as it does not require any great humidity of soil. The Mexicans, like the Peruvians, can preserve po- tatoes for whole years by exposing them to the frost and drjing them in the sun. The root, when hard- ened and deprived of its water, is called chwiu, from a word of the Quichua language. It would be undoubtedly very useful to iinitate this prepara- tion in Europe, Adhere a commencement of germina- tion frequently desU'oys the winter's provisions ; but- it would be still of greater importance to procure the grain of the potatoes cultivated at Quito and on the plain of Santa Fe. I have seen them of a spherical form of more than three decimetres j- (from twelve to thirteen inches) in diameter, and of a much better taste than any in our continent. We know that cer- tain herbaceous plants which have been long multi- plied from the roots degenerate in the end, especially when the bad custom is followed of cutting the roots into stveral pieces. It has l^ecn proved by expe- rience in several parts of Germany, that, of all the po- tatoes, those which grow from the seed are the most *This new species of nasturtium, akin to the tropaeolun:i peregrinuni, is cuUivatecl in the provinces of Popayan and Pasto on table-lands of three thousand metres of ubso- lute elevation. It will be described in a work to I)e published by M. Bonpland and myself, under the title oi J\'ova genera e: s/iecies filantaruni eqidnoctiaiiujit. t 3 Decin-iCtres = ll.S iuchrs. 352 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. savoury. We may ameliorate the species by col- lecting the seed in its native country, and by choosing on the Cordillera of the Andes the varieties which are most recommendable from their volume and the savour of their roots. We have long possessed in Europe a potato which is known by agricultural writers under the name of red potato of Bedford- shire, and of which the tubercles weigh more than a kilogramme ;* but this variety [conglomerated po- tato) is of an insipid taste, and can almost be apj^lied only to feed cattle, while the popa de bogota, which contains less water, is very farinaceous, contains very little sugar, and is of an extremely agreeable taste. Amongst the great number of useful productions which the migrations of nations and distant naviga- tions have made known, no plant since the discovery of cerealia, that is to .say, from time immemorial, has had so decided an influence on the prosperity of man- kind as the potato. This root, according to the calculations of Sir John Sinclair, can maintain nine individuals per acre of 5,368 square metres.f It has become common in New Zealand, J in Japan, in the island of Java, in the Boutan, and in Bengal, where, according to the testimony of M. Bockford, potatoes are considered as more useful than the bread-fruit tree introduced at Madras. Their cultivation ex- tends from the extremity of Africa to Labrador, Ice- land, and Lapland. It is a very interesting spectacle to see a plant descended from the mountains under *2 2-lOlb. avoii'd. Trans. t It has been already observed that 5,368 square metres == 57,780 square feet, and that an acre = 43,560 square feet. The Scotch acre, which is probably the onfc here used by Sir John Sinclair, is to the English as 10,000 : 7,869, and contains 55,356 square feet. :^John Savage's Account of New Zealand, 1307, p. IS. Tians. CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 353 the equator advance towards the pole, and resist bet- ter than the cereal gramina all the colds of the nortli. We have successively examined the \'cgetable productions which are the basis of the food of the Mexican population, the bcmana., the manioc^ the maize, and the cerea/la ; and we have endeavoured to throw some interest into this subject by comparing the agriculture of the cquinoxial regions uiththatof the temperate climate of Europe, and by connecting the history of the migration of the vegetables with the events which have brought the human race from one part of the globe to the other. Without enter- ing into botanical details, which would be foreign to the principal aim of this work, we shall terminate this chapter by a succinct indication of the other ali- mentary plants which are cultivated in Mexico. A great numberof these plants has been introduced since the 16th century. The inhabitants of western Europe have deposited in America what they had been receiving for two thousand years by their com- munications with the Greeks mid Romans,' by the ir- ruption of the hordes of central Asia, by the con- quests of the Arabs, by the crusades, and by the na- vigations of the Portuguese. All these vegetable treasures accumulated in an extremity of the old continent by the continual flux of nations towards tlie west, and preserved under the happy influence of a perpetualh' increasing civilization, have become al- most at once the inheritance of Mexico and Peru. We see them afterwards augmented by the produc- tions of America, pass farther still to the islands of the South Sea, and to the establishments which a powerful nation has formed on die coast of New Hol- land. In this v/ay the smallest corner of the earth, if it become the domain of European colonists, and especially if it abounds with a great variety of cli- mates, attests the activity which our species has been for centuries displaying. A colony collects in a small VOL. II, y y 354 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [rook iv. space every thing most valuable which wandering man has discovered over the whole surface of the globe. America is extremely rich in vegetables with nu- tritive roots. After the manioc and the papas, or po- tatoes, there are none more useful for the subsistence of the common people than the oca, {oxalis tuberosa,) the batate, and the igname. The first of these pro- ductions only grows in the cold and temperate cli- mates, on the summit and declivity of the Cordilleras; and the two others belong to the warm region of Mexico. The Spanish historians, who have described the discovery of America, confound* the words axes and batates, though the one means a plant of the group of asparagus, and the other a convolvulus. The igname, or dioscorea alata, like the banana, appears proper to all the ecjuinoxial regions of the globe. The account of the voyage of Aloysio Ca- damustof informs us that this root was known by the Arabs. Its American name may even throw some light on a very important fact in the history of geographical discoveries, which never appears hi- therto to have fixed the attention of the learned. Ca- damusto relates, that the king of Portugal sent in 1500 a fleet of 12 vessels round the Cape of Good Hope to Calcutta under the command of Pedro Aiia- res. This admiral, after having seen the Cape Verd Islands, discovered a great unknown land, which he took for a continent. He found there naked men, swarthy, painted red, with very long hair, who pluck- ed out their beards, pierced their chins, slept in ham- mocks, and Avcre entirely ignorant of the use of metals. From these traits we easily recognise the natives of America. But what' renders it extremely * Gomara, libra in. c. 21. t Cadamusli navii^rdio ad terras incopiitas, (GrjMiaeus orb. nov. p. 47.) CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 355 probable that Aliares cither landed on the coast of Paria or on that of Guayana, is, that he said he found in cultivation there a species of millet, (maize,) and a root of which bread is made, and which bears the name of igimme. Vespucci had heard the same word three years before pronounced by the inhabit- ants of the Coast of Paria. The Haitian name of the dioscorea alata is axes or ajes. It is under this de- nomination that Columbus describes the igname in the account of his first voyage ; and it is also that which it had in the times of Garcilasso, Acosta, and Oviedo,* who have very well indicated the charac- ters by which the axes are distinguished from batates. The first roots of the dioscorea were introduced into Portugal in 1596, from the small island of St. Thomas, situated near the ' coast of Africa, almost under the equator. f A vessel which brought slaves to Lisbon had embarked these ignames to serve for food to the negroes in their passage. From similar circumstances several alimentary plants of Guinea have been introduced into the West Indies. They have been carefully propagated for the sake of fur- nishing the slaves with a diet to which they have been accustomed in their native country. It is observed that the melancholy of these unfortunate beings di- minishes sensibly when they discover the plants familiar to them in their infancy. In the warm regions of the Spanish colonies the inhabitants distinguish the axe from the namas of Guinea. The latter came from the coast of Africa to the West Indies, and the name of igname has gradually prevailed there over axe. These two plants are only, perhaps, varieties of the dioscorea alata, al- * Christojihori Columbi navigation c. ixxxix. Comentarios Reales,t.'up.278. Ilistoria natural de Jjidias,Y>- "242. Oviedo, libro vii. c. 3. t Clusii Rariorum Plantarum /fii*;. lib. iv. p. Ixxvii. 35G POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv, though Brown has endeavoured to elevate them to the rank of species, forgetting that the form of the leaves of the ignaynes undergoes a singular change by cultivation. We have nowhere discovered the plant called by Linnaeus d. sativa ;* neither does it exist in the islands of the South Sea, where the root of the d. alata, mixed with the white of cocoa- nuts and the pulp of the banana, is the favourite dish of the Olaheitans. The root of the igname acquires an enormous volume, when it grows in a fertile soil. In the valley of Aragua, in the province of Carac- cas, we have seen it weigh from 25 to 30 kilogra^m- mes.-j- The batatesjgo in' Peru by the name of apichu, and in Mexico by that of camotes^ which is a corruption of the Aztec word cacambticX Several varieties are cultivated with white and yellow roots ; those of Que- retaro, which grow in a climate analogous to that of Andalusia, are the most in request. I doubt very much if these hatates were ever found wild by the Spanish navigators, though it has been advanced by Clusius. I have seen under cultivation in the colo- nies, besides the convolvulus batatas^ the c. platani- folius of Vahl ; and I am inclined to believe that these two plants, the umara of Tahiti [c. chrysorrhizus of SolanderJ) and the c. edulis of Thunberg, which the Portuguese introduced into Japan, are varieties be- * Thunberg, however, affirms, that he saw it cultivated in Japan. There exists a great confusion in the dioscorcan ge- nus, and it is to be desired that a monography of it should be made. We brought with us a great number of new species, ■which are partly described in 'he Shecics P/an?ar?/;7z, publish- ed by M. Willdenow, T. i. P. i. p. 794—796. t From 55 to 66lb. avoird. Trans. \ The cacamotic-ilavo(jvi[oni.i or raxtlallafwn^ -represented in Hernandez.) c. liv. appears to be the convolvulus jalapa. ^Forstcr Plantx Esculcntx, p. 56. CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SI'AIN. 357 come constant, and descend from tiie same species. It would be so much the more interesting to know whether the batates cultivated in Peru, and those which Cook found in Easter Island (lie de Paques) are the same, as from the position of that island and the monuments which have been there discovered, several of the learned have been led to suspect the existence of ancient communications between the Peruvians and the inhabitants of the island discover- ed by Roggcween. Gomara relates that Columbus, after his return to Spain, when he first made his appearance before Queen Isabella, brought her grains of maize, igname roots, and batates. Hence the cultivation of the last of these must have^been already common in the south- ern part of Spain towards the middle of the 16th cen- tury. In 1591 they were even sold in the market of London.* It is generally believed that the celebrated Drake, or Sir John Hawkins, made them known in England, where they were long thought to be endowed with the mysterious properties for which the Greeks recommended the onions of Megara. The cultiva- tion of batates succeeds very well in the south of France. It requires less heat than the igname, which otherwise, on account of the enormous mass of nu- tritive matter furnished by its roots, would be much preferable to the potato, if it could be successfully cultivated in countries of which the mean tempera- ture is under 18 centigrade degrees.f We must also reckon among the useful plants proper to Mexico the caco?nite, or .ocefoxoc/iiti, a species of tigridla, of tv^hich the root yielded a nutri- tive flour to tiie inhabitants of the valley of Mexico; the numerous varieties of love apples, or tomatl, (solanu7}i li/cope?'sicu?n,) which was formerly sown * Cluaius, iij. c. 51. f 64f> of Fahrenheit. Trans. 358 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iv. along with maiz^; the earth -pistachio, or mani^^ (ara- chis hypogea,) of which the root is concealed in the earth, and which appears to have existed in Cochin China t long before the discovery of America ; lastly, the different species of pimento, (capsicum baccatum, c. annimm, and c. frutescens,) called by the Mexicans chilli., and the Peruvians mc/zz/, of which the fruit is as indispensably necessary to the natives as salt to the whites. The Spaniards call pimento chile or axiy (ahi.) The first word is derived from quauh- chilli y the second is a Haitian word that we must not con- found M"ith axe., which, as we have already observed, designates the dioscorea alata. I do not remember to have ever seen cultivated in any part of the Spanish colonies the topinambours [helianthus tuberosus,) which, according to M. Cor- rea, are not even to be found in the Brazils, though in all our works on botany they are said to be na- tives of the country of the Brasilian Topinambas. The chimalatl., or sun with large flowers, (helianthus annuus,) came from Peru to New Spain. It was formerly sown in several parts of Spanish America, not only to extract oil from its seed, but also for the sake of roasting it and making it into a very nutri- tive bread. Rice (oryza sativa) was unknown to the people of the new continent, as mtII as the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands. Whenever the old historians use the expression small Peruvian rice, (arroz pequeno^ they mean the chenopodium quinoa., which 1 found very common . in Peru and the beautiful v;illey of Bogota. The cultivation of rice, introduced by the * The word mani, like the greatest part of those piven bv the Spanish colonists to the plants under cultivation, is taken from the lan'^Udge of Haiti, which is now a dead lan- guage. In Peru the arachis was called inchic. ■\Lo7irciro Flora C:«iu Rome, and Veletri, are on Mexican stag skins. The twrtdd which is obtained from the maguey is known in Europe by the name of pite thread, i\nd it is pr 'lerred by naturalists to every other, because it b less subject to twist. It does not, however, resist so weil as that prepared from the fibres of the phor- mium. The juice {xugo de cocuyzd) which the agave yields when it is still far from the period of efiiorescence is very acrid, and is successfully em- ployed as a caustic in the cleaning of wounds. The prickles which terminate the leaves served formerly, like those of the cactus, for pins and nails to the Indians. The Mexican priests pierced their arms and breasts with them in their acts of expiation ana- logous to those of the buddistsof Hindostan. We may conclude from all that we have related respecting the use of the different parts of the maguey, that next to the maize and potato, this plant is the most useful of all the productions with which nature has supplied the mountaineers of equinoxial Ame- rica. When the fetters which the government has hitherto put on several branches of the national indus- try shall be removed, when the Mexican agriculture shall be no longer restrained by a system of adminis- tration which, v/hile it impoverishes the colonics, does not enrich the mother country, the maguey plantations a\ ill be gradually succeeded by vineyards. The cultivation of the vine will augment with the number of the whites, who consume a great quan- * Sec cbap.vi. vol.i. p. 124. CHAP. IX.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 377 tity of the wines of Spain, France, Madeira and the Canary Islands. But in the present state of things, the vine can hardly be included in the territorial riches of Mexico, the harvest of it being so inconsiderable. The grape of the best quality is that of Zapotitlan, in the intendancy of Oaxaca. There are also vineyards near Dolores and San Luis de la Paz to the north of Guanaxuato, and in the provincias internas near Pan-as, and the Passo del Norte. The wine of the Passo is in great estimation, especially that of the estate of the Marquis de San Miguel, which keeps for a great number of years, although very little care is bestowed on the making of it. They complain in the country that the must of the table-land ferments with difficulty ; and they add arope to the juice of the grape, that is to say, a small quantity of wine in which sugar has been infused, and which by means of dressing has been reduced into a syrup. This process gives to the Mexican wines a flavour of must which they would lose if the making of wine was more studied among them. When in the course of ages the new continent, jealous of its independence, - shall wish to dispense with the productions of the old, the mountainous and temperate parts of Mexico, Guatimala, New Granada, and Caraccas, will sup- ply v/inc to the whole of north America ; and they will riien become to that counti)' what France, Italy, and Spain have long been to the north of Europe. FA"D OF VOL. II. VOL. II. 3 B ly Sir wm^-^ ^.»-.,:f k.