INDIANS OF MECHOACAN.

295

characteristic traits of the American race, together with a strange mixture of the ancient costume with that which was introduced by the Spaniards.

From Valladolid, the ancient kingdom of Mechoacan, the travellers returned to Mexico by the elevated plain of Tolucca, after examining the volcanic mountains in the vicinity. They also visited the celebrated cheiranthostæmon of Cervantes, a tree of which it was at one time supposed there did not exist more than a single specimen.

At that city they remained several months, for the purpose of arranging their botanical and geological collections, calculating the barometrical and trigo

296

OCCUPATIONS OF THE TRAVELLERS.

nometrical measurements which they had made, and sketching the plates of the Geological Atlas which Humboldt proposed to publish. They also assisted in placing a colossal equestrian statue of the king, which had been cast by a native artist. In January, 1804, they left Mexico with the intention of examining the eastern declivity of the cordillera of New-Spain. They also measured the great pyramid of Cholula, an extraordinary monument of the Toltecks, from the summit of which there is a splendid view of the snowy mountains and beautiful plains of Tlascala. It is built of bricks, which seemed to have been dried in the sun, alternating with layers of clay. They then descended to Xalapa, a city placed at an elevation of 4138 feet above the sea, in a delightful climate. The dangerous road which leads from it to Perote, through almost impenetrable forests, was thrice barometrically levelled by Humboldt. Near the latter place is a mountain of basaltic porphyry, remarkable for the singular form of a small rock placed on its summit, and which is named the Coffer of Perote. This elevation commands a very extensive prospect over the plain of Puebla and the eastern slope of the cordilleras of Mexico, which is covered with dense forests. From it they also saw the harbour of Vera Cruz, the castle of St. Juan of Ulloa, and the seacoast.

Before following our travellers across the Atlantic, it may be useful to present a sketch of the valuable observations recorded in Humboldt's Political Essay on the Kingdom of New-Spain, and which are in part the result of his researches in that interesting country.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

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CHAPTER XXIV.

Description of New-Spain or Mexico.

General Description of New-Spain or Mexico-Cordilleras-Climates -Mines-Rivers-Lakes-Soil-Volcanoes-Harbours-PopulationProvinces-Valley of Mexico, and Description of the Capital-Inundations, and Works undertaken for the Purpose of preventing them.

PREVIOUS to Humboldt's visit to New-Spain, the information possessed in Europe respecting that interesting and important country was exceedingly meager and incorrect. The ignorance of the European conquerors, the indolence of their successors, the narrow policy of the government, and the want of scientific enterprise among the creoles and Spaniards, left it for centuries a region of dim obscurity, into which the eye of research was unable to penetrate. So inaccurate were the maps, that even the latitude and longitude of the capital remained unfixed, and the inhabitants were thrown into consternation by the occurrence of a total eclipse of the sun on the 21st February, 1803; the almanacs, calculating from a false indication of the meridian, having announced it as scarcely visible. The determination of the geographical position of many of the more remarkable places, that of the altitude of the volcanic summits and other eminences, together with the vast mass of intelligence contained in the Political Essay on New-Spain, served to dispel in some measure the darkness; and since the period of Humboldt's visit numerous travellers have contributed so materially to our acquaintance with Mexico, that it no longer remains among the least known of those remote countries of the globe over which the power of Europe has extended.

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SPANISH SETTLEMENTS.

Although the independence of the American states has now been confirmed, and their political relations entirely changed since the time our author was there, the aspect of nature continues the same in those extensive regions; and as we have less to do with their history and national circumstances than with the discoveries of the learned traveller, we shall follow, as heretofore, his descriptions of the countries examined by him in the relations in which they then stood.

The Spanish settlements in the New Continent formerly occupied that immense territory comprised between 41° 43′ of south latitude and 37° 48' of north latitude, equalling the whole length of Africa, and exceeding the vast regions possessed by the Russian empire or Great Britain in Asia. They are divided into nine great governments, of which five, viz. the viceroyalties of Peru and New Grenada, the capitanias-generales of Guatimala, Porto Rico, and Caraccas, are entirely intertropical; while the other four, viz. the viceroyalties of Mexico and Buenos Ayres, and the capitanias-generales of Chili and Havana, including the Floridas, are chiefly situated in the temperate zones. Mexico was the most important as well as the most civilized of the whole, and was long considered as such by the court of Madrid.

The name of New-Spain was at first given in 1518 to the province of Yucatan, where the companions of Grijalva were astonished at the civilization of the inhabitants. Cortez employed it to denote the whole empire of Montezuma, though it was subsequently used in various senses. Humboldt designates by it the vast country which has for its northern and southern limits the parallels of 38° and 16°. The length of this region from S.S.E. to N.N. W. is nearly 1678 miles; its greatest breadth 994 miles. The isthmus of Tehuantepec, to the south-east of the port of Vera Cruz, is the narrowest part; the distance from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea being there only 155

GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS OF MEXICO.

299

miles. The question of opening a communication by a canal between the two oceans at this point, the isthmus of Panama, or several others which he mentions, is fully discussed by the author. He discredits the idea that the level of the South Sea is higher than that of the Gulf of Mexico, and imagines that were a rupture of the intervening barrier effected, the current would establish itself in the direction opposite to that usually apprehended.

When a general view is taken of the whole sur face of Mexico, it is seen that one-half is situated within the tropic, while the rest belongs to the temperate zone. This latter portion contains 775,019 square miles. The physical climate of a country does not altogether depend upon its distance from the pole, but also upon its elevation, its proximity to the ocean, and other circumstances; so that of the 645,850 square miles in the torrid zone, more than three-fifths have a cold, or at least temperate atmosphere. The whole interior of Mexico, in fact, constitutes an immense table-land, having an elevation which varies from 6562 to 8202 feet above the level of the sea.

The chain of mountains which forms this vast plain is continuous with the Andes of South America. In the southern hemisphere the cordillera is everywhere broken up by fissures or valleys of small breadth; but in Mexico it is the ridge itself that constitutes the platform. In Peru the most elevated summits form the crest of the Andes, while in the other the prominences are irregularly scattered over the plain, and have no relation of parallelism to the direction of the cordillera. In Peru and New-Grenada there are transverse valleys, having sometimes 4590 feet of perpendicular depth, which entirely prevent the use of carriages; while in New-Spain vehicles are used along an extent of more than 1726 miles. The general height of the table-land of Mexico is equal to that of Mount Cenis, St. Gothard, or the