NORTH AMERICAN DOMINIONS.
SPANISH AMERICA.
PART I.
NORTH AMERICAN DOMINIONS.
ERA OF DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION.
The discovery of the New World, has caused more discussion, arising from interest, curiosity and scientific motives, during a period of nearly three centuries, than any anterior extension of geographical knowledge, in the annals of mankind. Numberless have been the disputes concerning the probable duration, formation and population of that vast continent; as well as on the identity of the individual, who fortuitously opened that immeasurable region and wonderful country to the admiring eyes of his brethren of the eastern hemisphere.
This work professing solely to relate, from authentic documents, what regards that portion of the New World which is claimed by Spain, either by right of conquest or discovery, we shall, consequently, not touch upon any of those indeterminate questions: therefore, whatever may be the notions respecting voyages prior to those of Columbus, having been performed by European navigators, it is universally admitted that Cristoval Colon, or as he is usually called Christopher Columbus, was the first who made the existence of America generally known; accordingly we shall take our dates from the era of his discovery of the western world.
In the year 1492, on the 3d of August, being Friday, Columbus sailed from Spain, in a small vessel called the Santa Maria, having with her two others, and, after meeting with difficulties which no one but a man possessed of the most extraordinary mind could have overcome, he made the land of the New World, at ten o'clock on the night of the 11th of October, in the same year; having himself first observed a light moving about on the shore; although the land itself was not visible until two o'clock, on the morning of Friday the 12th, when it was seen by Roderic de Triana in the ship Pinta: so that an interval of sixty-nine days, passed in the greatest anxiety, elapsed, from the time of quitting the Old to the arrival in sight of the New Hemisphere.
The joy of the Europeans at this discovery, knew no bounds; they lavished encomiums on their leader, whom they had hitherto looked on as a visionary; they solicited his pardon for their infidelity, and pressed him to land: he set his foot on the shore, amid the exultation of his companions, and the prostrations and astonishment of the natives, who regarded their unexpected visitors as a celestial people, and, accordingly, paid them divine honours.
Columbus took formal possession of the land in the name of the King of Spain, hoisting the royal standard, displaying a flag with a large green cross, and naming it San Salvador (The Holy Saviour); but it is now known by the native name Guanahani, and is the Cat Island of the British charts, one of the outermost of the Lucayos or Bahamas Group. He afterward discovered Cuba and St. Domingo, or Hispaniola, where he built a fort out of the timbers of his ship which was cast ashore, and then returned to Spain. This fort was afterwards destroyed, as well as its garrison, by the natives.
His next voyage lasted during the years 1493, 94, 95, when he founded a town in Hispaniola, or St. Domingo, which town he called Isabella. The natives styled this island Hayti (the Land of Mountains); but Columbus chose to name it Hispaniola (little Spain). This town, which Columbus founded about the 10th December, 1493, was the commencement of Spanish enterprize and colonization in the New World, as it was a permanent settlement. Columbus arrived in Europe in 1496, having spent the intermediate time in researches amongst the Caribbean Islands.
The third voyage of Columbus in 1498, was the means of discovering the island of Trinidad, and observing near it the mouth of a large river, he proceeded farther; when, to his astonished view, the continent presented itself. He landed on that part of the South American coast, called Paria, which took place in the month of August in the same year.
A person named Americo Vespucci, a Florentine, accompanied one of the officers of Columbus to the New World, in 1499, (this officer had been with Columbus during the second voyage), when they visited those places which the Admiral had previously explored, and returned to Europe.
Vespucci being a man of some science, published an account of the New Countries, which being the first description that had been given to the world at large, ungrateful Europe has decreed to him the honour of allowing the New World to bear his name; neglecting the genius whose daring imagination had dictated the Discovery, and whose arduous exertion had completed it; he, receiving for his reward, the disgraceful punishment of being conveyed to Spain, in the year 1500, in fetters. An affecting proof of his sense of this indignity is related by his son, who says, “These fetters Columbus ever after kept with him, and on his death-bed, ordered them to be deposited in the grave with his body!”
In 1502, Columbus, having discomfited his enemies, made a fourth voyage, in which he discovered and explored a vast extent of the continent of America; particularly the coast of Honduras, Verapaz, and Veragua, with the harbour of Porto Bello.
Having thus briefly stated the voyage of Columbus, which has been done with the view of fixing the epoch of Spanish colonization in the New World, we shall not enter into the discoveries of parts of the Spanish American colonies by other navigators or adventurers, at present; but reserving these subjects for the particular provincial descriptions, we shall proceed to relate what extent of territory is claimed by the Spanish Crown in North America.
EXTENT AND BOUNDARIES.
In North America, the northern and eastern boundary of the Spanish territory is situated in north latitude 31°, where an ideal line, running through St. Mary's River, separates the United States from the Floridas. The Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and the river Perdido on the west, complete the limit of that division which comprises the tract of territory known by the name of Florida.
The northern and western boundary is much disputed, but according to the best information, it extends from Port St. Francisco on the Pacific Ocean in 37° 48' 30 north latitude, and 122° 36' 45 west longitude, (according to Vancouver); between which and Port Sir Francis Drake, there is a wild country. Port Sir Francis Drake is in about 39° north latitude, and to this port the British claims on the western coast of America extend.
The Spanish government have set up an inadmissible claim to the whole western coast, but, as much doubt has existed on the claims of the two nations, 39° north latitude, has been usually taken as the boundary of Spanish acquisitions in the New World; because they have some settlements in that latitude to the north of the town of Santa FÉ, in New Mexico, as well as because the sources of the Rio Bravo are situated thereabouts. Therefore, commencing from the coast of the Pacific in 39° north latitude, we draw an ideal line from that parallel across the country, until we have passed the province of New Mexico; thence the line bends southward and eastward, until it meets the River Mexicano, or Mermento, which it follows to the Gulf of Mexico; where, in this quarter, the boundaries are again disputed by the government of the United States; who, since Louisiana has been ceded to them, lay claim to the whole country, up to the eastern bank of the Rio Bravo del Norte; the Spaniards, however, do not admit this, and fix their boundaries at the estuary of the Mexicano, or Mermento. A reference to the accompanying map will better explain those disputed limits than any verbal account.
The western barrier of Spanish territory in North America, is the Pacific Ocean; on the south east, the Gulf of Mexico, the Bay of Honduras, and the Caribbean Sea, are the boundaries established by nature; and on the south, a chain of mountains called the Sierro de Canatagua, which run across the extremities of the two provinces of Veragua and Panama, in about 80° 50' west longitude. This chain divides the northern from the southern continent of America, and the country is here known by the geographical name of the Isthmus of Darien.
The extent of these possessions may be computed, by taking 7° north latitude, as the southern extremity, and 39° as the northern, which will give about 1900 miles in length, whilst from the varying form of the country in the Isthmus of Darien, the cutting out of Louisiana, the singular figure of the Floridas, and the immense inlet of the Californian Gulf, it may be computed at about 450 miles in mean breadth.
POLITICAL DIVISIONS.
THIS vast extent of continent, including the two West India islands of Porto Rico, and Cuba, is divided into four great governments. The viceroyalty of New Spain, or Mexico, the Capitania general of Guatimala, and the two Capitanerias Generales of Porto Rico and Cuba, which last includes the Floridas.
TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS.
THE face of the Spanish dominions in the North American Continent, is divided into three great sections; on the east, Florida; in the centre, north and west, New Spain; and on the south, Guitamala; we shall therefore proceed to give a separate description of each division, and its local divisions; commencing on the east with the government of the Floridas.
FLORIDA.
Florida is bounded on the north by the United States, an ideal line, commencing at the centre of the estuary of St. Mary's River, in the Atlantic Ocean, extending thence along the coast of that river, and across the Ekanfanega Swamp up to the junction of the Flint and Apalachicola rivers; thence up the eastern bank of the Apalachicola, until it meets the 31° of north latitude, when it crosses the river, and follows the parallel of 31° to the river Perdido, which separates the Floridas from the United States; on the west, the line follows the river Perdido down into the Mexican Gulf; on the south, the Gulf of Mexico, and on the east, the Atlantic Ocean, complete the boundaries of Florida.
Discovery. The Floridas were originally not restricted to the small tract of country now bearing, that name, but extended over an immense region, which was discovered by Sebastian Cabot, in 1496; they certainly however, had their designation from Juan Ponce de Leon, a Spanish navigator, who landed in Florida from Porto Rico, on Saturday, 2d April, 1512; when the country being in full verdure, and its appearance highly beautiful and picturesque, he gave it the name of Florida, or Fairo.
The British were masters of this country till the termination of the American war; when it was included in the Charter, granted by Charles II. to Carolina, together with Georgia. The English founded their right to Florida on the discoveries of Cabot, who was a Venetian in the English service.
In 1564, the French occupied several parts of this country, but being neglected by their government, the Spaniards, sent out an expedition to dispossess them; in which they succeeded, and such prisoners as were taken, were hung with labels attached to them, bearing the inscription, “Not as Frenchmen, but as Heretics.” However, these unfortunate colonists were revenged soon after by their countryman Dominic de Gourges, an intrepid adventurer, who, having disposed of his property in Gascony, built some vessels, and choosing a band of restless spirits to assist him, sailed for Florida. He defeated the Spaniards at all points, and after acting with the most determined valour, to revenge the treatment of his compatriots, he hung his prisoners, with this sentence attached to their necks, “Not as Spaniards, but as Assassins!” This affair had not the least effect towards resettling the Floridas by the French, who unnoticed by their government, destroyed the fortified places, and left the country.
The settlement by the Spaniards, after much bloodshed, on account of the opposition of the natives, who were of a very warlike disposition, did not finally succeed until the year 1665; when they fortified the capital, Saint Augustine. This place suffered repeated attacks from the neighbouring English colonists in Georgia, and by the buccaneers; in 1702, Colonel More, the governor of Carolina, besieged it with a body of five hundred troops, and seven hundred Indians; the siege lasted three months, but they were forced to raise it, by the arrival of a reinforcement of ships and stores to the garrison.
In 1740, it was again besieged by General Oglethorpe, but he also was forced to retire with some loss; so that the Floridas continued under the domination of Spain, until the year 1763, when they were ceded to Great Britain, in exchange for the Havannah, which Lord Albermarle had taken from Spain.
Whilst the British possessed the country, they first divided it into east and west Florida, separating them from each other, by the great river Apalachicola. East Florida extends much further to the south than West Florida, and is washed by the waters of the Mexican Gulf, in the 25th degree of north latitude; while the southernmost point of West Florida, is only in 29° 30' north latitude.
The figure of East Florida is nearly that of a triangle; the base towards Georgia being an imaginary line, as before described, of more than 160 miles in breadth; the perpendicular being about 350 in length. West Florida has the figure of a parallelogram, and is about 120 miles in length from east to west, and from 40 to 80 in breadth. The river Perdido being its western, and the Apalachicola its eastern limit.
The capital of East Florida is St. Augustin; that of West Florida, Pensacola.
During the struggle of Great Britain with her American colonies in 1781; Spain took forcible possession of Florida, and it was confirmed to that crown by the treaty of peace in 1783.
The climate of the Floridas, is for the most part tolerably good; in the summer it is very hot; the winters cold, and the rivers are frequently frozen during that season. Inland, and on the mountains, the air is very pure and salubrious.
The soil of the Floridas is sandy and barren on the coast; but in the interior, and on the banks of the rivers, very fertile and good; so rich indeed was the land thought to be by the first explorers, and the climate so good, that the voyage of Ponce de Leon was undertaken, in the hopes of conquering, and making his fortune in this part of the New World. A tradition which existed among Caribs had also some weight; they reported that on the southern part of the eastern continent, existed a spring, of which any person, advanced in life, tasting, they would become renovated, and enjoy eternal youth. The Spaniards, ever fond of romance, greedily swallowed the miraculous tale, and undertook voyages to discover this invaluable fountain. Many Indians had embarked from time to time, but as they never returned, they were supposed to be so charmed with the country, and the all-healing water, that they preferred living there, allured by all the bounties of Nature, and the supreme bliss of perpetual youth. Ponce de Leon at last set out; actuated by the motives before mentioned, as well as by these, he explored Florida, and returning with increasing years, and an increase of wisdom, made that country known to the Spanish nation; who however neglected it, until the massacre of the French settlers happened, excepting that in 1539, Ferdinand de Soto, had many actions with the native tribes, who were not however finally quelled until the year 1665. Luke Vasquez de Ayllon, and Pamphilo de Narvaez (the same who had been routed in Mexico by Cortez) made attempts to conquer Florida, and both lost their lives; and the adventurers who accompanied them, as well as those who were with Soto, suffered incredible hardships, after the death of their commanders.
Rice and indigo are the chief productions of West Florida; and in the eastern province the land is so fertile, that the inhabitants have sometimes three crops of Indian corn a year. The interior of this province is very hilly, a chain of mountains traversing it from north to south, the sides of which are covered with forests, and the valleys they form afford the richest pasturage. Oranges and lemons grow without the assistance of cultivation, and are finer than the European fruits of those kinds. Immense trees of the white and red oak, the splendid and beautiful magniola, the cypress, red and white cedar, the crab-oak, mulberry, pine, hickory, &c., are here observed in grand masses, and form the most delightful shades in the heats of summer.
Vines flourish and produce excellent fruit. They have also in these provinces the best sassafras in America, palms, Indian figs, chesnuts, walnuts, peaches, plums, cocoa nuts, and melons, in abundance. Olives, which are indigenous, thrive exceedingly, and are in great plenty. The cabbage tree affords the principal nutriment to the native Indians, and constitutes a food, at once pleasant and wholesome. Flax, hemp, and cotton, are produced in abundance; cochineal forms a valuable article of the exports.
The coasts and rivers furnish fish of every description known in these latitudes. Shell fish are found in the shallows, (which are so numerous along the shores); particularly large and small oysters, of excellent quality; along the southern beach, amber is also occasionally found.
Numerous flocks of sheep and herds of cattle are fed in Florida; swine are had here in great perfection; for as they feed chiefly on the chesnuts and acorns of the forests, their flesh is supposed to have a peculiar delicate flavour. In the woods and desert places, are wild animals of various descriptions, amongst which are the American tiger, the panther, coup cervier, racoon, buffalo, with the fox, hare, rabbit, goat, otter, flying squirrel, opossum, guano, armadillo, &c.; with many species of snakes and serpents.
The bird tribes are very extensive in Florida; among which, the heron, crane, wild-goose, and duck, partridge, pigeon, macaw, hawk, thrush, jay, &c. are a few of the most noted.
The alligator, or American crocodile, frequents the large rivers and lakes; and the tribe of reptiles is also very numerous.
The interior of the Floridas has not been explored by scientific travellers; it is chiefly inhabited by the native Indians, the Europeans confining themselves mostly to the towns. The country in general is not very thickly populated, and requires much exertion to clear the forests, and drain the swamps, which, if done, would render it a salubrious and desirable residence, where the wants of man might be easily satisfied; and where he would rest secure from some of those tremendous convulsions of Nature, which terrify and destroy his fellow-creatures, in most other parts of the Spanish colonies in the western world.
The capital of East Florida, St. Augustine, is situated on the east coast of Florida, in St. Augustine Bay, west longitude 81° 10' and 30° north latitude, and contains a population of about 4000 souls.
This city was founded originally by the Spaniards, in 1586, and fortified in 1665. Sir Francis Drake reduced the fort, and pillaged both it and the town; Captain Davies also, and a body of buccaneers, treated the place in a similar manner afterwards. Also, as has been before stated, the British and Indians attacked it under Colonel More, but were forced to retire, leaving their vessels and stores behind them; in their retreat, they burnt the houses in the neighbourhood, and ravaged the country to a great extent; General Oglethorpe, in 1740, also bombarded the fort, but was obliged to retreat.
The situation of this city, on the coast of the Atlantic, renders it healthy, as it has all the advantage of the sea breezes; it is 316 miles south-west of Charlestown, in South Carolina, 180 miles east of St. Mark's, in East Florida; and 240 miles from the entrance of the gulf or straits of Florida. The figure of the town is an oblong, and it is built at the bottom of an eminence, along the beach.
There are four principal streets, running parallel to each other; these are wide and perfectly straight, and intersected by others of a smaller size, at right angles. The church of St. Augustine, is a well built edifice, and with the monastery, forms the principal ornament of the place. The fortress which protects the town, is called the Castle of St. Juan; it is built of stone, having four bastions, the curtains between which are 180 feet in length, and the rampart is twenty feet in height. The buildings are very good, and the greater part are bomb-proof, and partly casemated; so that this fortification is reckoned strong.
The other most noted towns of East Florida, are St. Mark's, a sea-port, situated on St. Mark's river, near where it falls into Apalachia Bay, 180 miles west of the capital, in 30° 10' north latitude, and 84° 36' west longitude.
Apalachia, is also a sea-port on a bay of the same name, into which the Apalachia river empties itself. In the environs of this town, is a country inhabited by the Apalachia Indians; it is 130 miles east of Pensacola, the capital of West Florida, and 90 miles west of the river del Espiritu Santo, and situated in 29° 48' north latitude, and 84° 28' west longitude.
St. Juan, twelve miles north of St. Mark's.
St. Francisco, fifty-six miles east south-east of St. Mark's.
St. Pedro, forty-four miles east south-east of St. Mark's.
Apalachicola, on the Apalachicola river, 100 miles north-east of Pensacola in West Florida.
Neuvilla, fifty-four miles south south-east of St. Mark's; and—
Talahosochete, an Indian town, 30 miles north of St. Mark's.
In West Florida, the capital, Pensacola, is situated on the west side of Pensacola Bay; this harbour is one of the finest in the Floridas, safe from every wind, and having from seven to eight fathom water, so that vessels drawing 21 feet may enter.
Pensacola, is in 30° 28' north latitude, and 87° 12' west longitude. The city is of an oblong form, about a mile in length and a quarter of a mile in breadth, delightfully placed, and accounted a very healthy place. The entrance into the bay is fortified by a small fort on Rosa Island, and a battery on the opposite shore.
The Spaniards took this town on the 11th of May, 1781.
When it was in the hands of the English, the houses were elegant and spacious; it exported, in skins, furs, logwood, and dyeing stuffs to England, to the amount of 68,000l. annually, and its imports from England were valued at 97,000l. for the same period. The town and forts were not surrendered to the Spanish troops, until the English garrison had made a most determined and protracted resistance. The whole province fell at the same time into their hands, since which, Pensacola has been on the decline.
A river called the Escambia Coenecah runs near the town, and supplies it with water; it falls into the bay, and is navigable for boats for fifty miles, and for sloops for twenty.
The other towns of most importance in West Florida are, St. Josef, or the bay of St. Josef, near Cape St. Blaz, in the Gulf of Mexico, situated in 85° 34' west longitude, and 29° 45' north latitude.
Wells, a sea-port on the west-side of St. Andrew's Bay, and in 30° 25' north latitude, and 85° 50' west longitude, and—
Campbeltown, in Pensacola Bay, is seven miles north north-east of Pensacola.
The rivers of East Florida are chiefly the Apalachicola, which rises in the United States, and as before stated, forms the boundary between the two Floridas; it is a considerable river, and falls into the Mexican Gulf near Cape St. Blaz. The mouth of the Apalachicola is encircled with a number of small islands, named St. George's Isles.
Nassau River; a small stream, which joins the ocean in 81° 42' west longitude, 30° 49' north latitude.
St. Mary's River, famous only for its being a part of the northern boundary between Georgia and Florida; it rises in a small lake in the great Ekanfanoga Swamp, and after a short course, runs into the Atlantic in St. Mary's Bay, in 81° 41' west longitude, and 30° 35' north latitude. The Americans have a town called St. Mary's, on their side of the mouth of the river.
St. John's River, which rises in a swamp in the southern part of East Florida, and after running northerly for a short distance, forms several lakes; the largest of which is Lake George; it then again pursues its course to the northward, and turning to the east, joins the Atlantic in 81° 42' west longitude, and 30° 22' north latitude; its mouth is encumbered with a bar, otherwise it is a broad and fine river, and being situated within ten leagues of the capital is very serviceable.
Apalachia River, or Apalache, a small river which empties itself into the Bay of Apalachia, in the Mexican Gulf, in 84° 28' west longitude, and 29° 43' north latitude.
St. John's River, rises in Ekanfanoga Swamp, and after a winding course of two hundred miles, falls into Apalachia Bay, to the east of Apalachia River. This is said to be the purest of American rivers, receiving in its course no tributary streams, but being fed solely by the springs which exist in its banks; it is two hundred yards broad, and twenty feet deep at the Indian town of Talahosochete in East Florida.
There are a few other rivers in East Florida, the names of which are, the Assilla, St. Mark's river, St. Matheo's river, which falls into Apalachia Bay, the Amajura, the Tampa and the Manatte; the two latter of which fall into the Bay del Espirtu Santo, and the Romano, which falls into Carlos harbour; but of these so little is known, as indeed is the case with respect to every thing relating to the Floridas, that a particular description is impracticable. The latitudes and longitudes of many of the above places and rivers, are variously laid down in the maps, and different accounts are given of them by different authors; so that it is not probable that they are exact; the most correct sources of information have been sought, and as no late observations have been made in the country we have been describing, the reader must unfortunately remain satisfied with the imperfect account we are enabled to give of a colony which belonged within the memory of the present generation to Great Britain, but of which, no British author has given an explicit account.
The rivers of West Florida, are the boundary stream, the Rio Perdido, or Lost River, so called by the Spaniards, because it loses itself for a short distance under ground, and then appears again and empties itself into the Mexican Gulf, in Perdido Bay, which is a large basin, though at its entrance not very wide, yet gradually enlarging till it meets the mouth of the river, which joins it in 87° 26' west longitude, and 30° 26' north latitude, ten leagues east of Mobile Point, and four leagues west of the line of Pensacola. This river stretches to the north-east, and in one place comes within a mile of the Great Lasson, that is to the west of Pensacola harbour.
The Rio Perdido, was formerly the boundary between the French and Spanish dominions, and is now considered by the treaty of 1783, as the limit between Mississippi territory and West Florida. By this treaty, the eastern and southern boundaries of Louisiania were fixed, and thus defined; “south on the Gulf of Mexico, from the Bay of St. Bernard, south-west of the Mississippi River, to the mouth of the Rio Perdido, up the Perdido to its source, and thence, (if it rise not north of the 31° of north latitude,) in a straight line north to that parallel, (31° north latitude,) thence along the southern boundary of the United States, west to the Mississipi, then up this river to its source.” The northern and western boundary of Louisiania will be spoken of under the head of New Mexico.
The St. Andrew's River runs into a bay of the same name in the Gulf of Mexico, in 85° 40' west longitude, and 30° 17' north latitude.
Swamps.—The great swamp of Ekanfanska, called by the natives Ouaquaphenogaw, forms a striking feature of East Florida; through which the boundary of this province runs by an imaginary line. The swamp is half in Georgia and half in Florida; it is 300 miles in circumference, and in the rainy season, bears the appearance of a vast lake, with several large spots of firm land, which may be denominated islands, as they are nearly always surrounded with water; one of these the American tribes call a heavenly dwelling, which is peopled by a peculiarly gifted race, who enjoy all the pleasures and luxuries of the savage life in perfection; whose women are very lovely, and supposed to be the children of the Sun. These people, who are conjectured to exist there, have been said, though with less of the marvellous, to be a tribe of Indians, who in some wars with the Creeks, had been nearly exterminated and fled here for shelter. The islands in the swamp are fertile; in it rises the river St. Mary and some others. There are several large tracts of marshy ground in both the Floridas, which are extremely fertile.
Lakes.—The lakes of Florida are more numerous than large, the principal one is Lake George, or the Great Lake, and Mayaco, a large expanse of water and swampy land, in which, or near which, the river St. John rises. Lake George is formed by the river St. Juan, filling a large valley with its waters; it is about fifteen miles in breadth, adorned with many beautiful and fertile islands, the largest of which is two miles long, commanding an extensive prospect; on this island are the remains of an Indian town of considerable size. The waters of Lake George, are from fifteen to twenty feet deep; the river St. John, forms in its course many other lakes, but none of them so large as are laid down in early maps, which are all, and even those of a later period, miserably defective with respect to Florida, although that country has been long in the possession of Great Britain. Another lake of some extent is laid down in the best maps near Apalachia Bay; but of it little information has been given; what is called Hillsborough River, may with equal propriety be termed a lake; it cuts off a long slip of land parallel to the east coast, reaching from St. Augustine southwards.
Islands.—The islands on the coast of Florida are numerous, but not of any very great consequence. The chief ones are Amelia Island near the north-west boundary of East Florida in the Atlantic; extending from the mouth of the river St. Mary to the mouth of the Nassau River, and on which is a town called Fernandina, with a small fort.
Corne Island, on the coast of West Florida, ten miles long and one broad, in 82° 32' west longitude, and 30° 11' north latitude.
Roebuck Island, near the same coast, in 84° 45' west longitude, 30° 17' north latitude.
St. Anastasia Island, on the east coast of East Florida, eighteen miles in length, and from one to three wide, in 81° 36' west longitude, and 29° 48' north latitude.
Cluster of the Espiritu Santo Islands, in a bay of the same name, on the west coast of East Florida.
Santa Rosa Island, on the south coast of West Florida, thirty-six miles in length, and two wide, in 86° 50' west longitude, and 30° 26' north latitude.
Talbot Island, on the coast of East Florida, eight miles long and two wide, in 84° 42' west longitude, and 30° 26' north latitude; and some others.
Bays.—The bays of Florida are chiefly the following.
Espiritu Santo, or Nassau Bay, in East Florida or the west coast, a large and fine bay full of islands, which reaches from 82° 35' to 83° west longitude, and 27° 45' to 28° 10' north latitude.
Santa Rosa Bay, on the coast of West Florida, in 86° 5' to 86° 32' west longitude, and 30° 33' north latitude.
Pensacola Bay and the Bay of St. Josef, in West Florida.
The great bay Apalachia, Carlos Bay, St. Mary's Bay, and Bay of St. Augustine, in East Florida.
Capes.—The most remarkable capes or headlands are,—
Cape St. Blaz or St. Blas, near the mouth of the Apallachicola River, and situated in 85° 35' west longitude, and 35° 44' north latitude.
Sandy Point, the north part of Santa Rosa Bay in West Florida.
Cape Cross, in 84° 80' west longitude, 46° 25' north latitude, coast of West Florida.
Cape Florida, the most easterly point of East Florida, on the west side of the Gulf or Straits of Florida, in 80° 37' west longitude, 25° 44' north, latitude.
Cape Roman, in 82° 25' west longitude, and 25° 40' north latitude.
Cape Sable, the most southerly point of East Florida, in 81° 49' west longitude, and 24° 57' north latitude, and—
Cape Carnaveral, Punta Larga, and the Promontory in East Florida.
We shall close this account with some circumstances relating to the government, the late events which have taken place on the coast of Florida, and the funds allotted for the support of the administration.
The Floridas are usually included under the government of the Capitania-general of the Havannah, forming, with Cuba, one of the great governments of the Spanish American colonies. So little is known of the subdivisions of this captain-generalship, that it would be futile to attempt an enumeration of them; as errors must inevitably occur, so thus it will be better not to state the uncertain knowledge we possess of them, than to run the risk of misleading the reader.
The insurgents of Spanish America have lately been carrying on some operations in this quarter, and have established themselves in Amelia Island, at a town called Fernandina, where they have built batteries for their defence, and to whose port they carry many of the prizes they make of the Spanish merchant vessels in the West Indian seas. They are principally European adventurers, who have raised a flag in Amelia Island, which they display occasionally in their predatory incursions on the neighbouring continent; on this flag is a green cross, designated by them the green cross of the Floridas; they have hitherto been unsuccessful in their efforts, and have not been assisted by the Colonists. The government of the United States, have lately taken forcible possession of this port.
The expences of the administration of Florida are disbursed from the treasury of Mexico, the situado or annual remittance for this purpose being sent by way of the Havannah to Pensacola, and amounting in general to the sum of 62,700l. sterling. This sum is usually remitted to the intendant or governor of Pensacola.
NEW SPAIN.
The most important of all the kingdoms of Spanish America, is New Spain; therefore, before commencing with a detailed description of its boundaries and situation, we shall give a concise view of those circumstances which are of most importance, with respect to its history, colonization, &c.
Under the title of Viceroy of New Spain, a Spanish officer of the highest rank governs a territory, which, in Europe, would be designated as an empire; for it comprehends a surface extending from the thirty-ninth to the sixteenth degree of north latitude; in its broadest part, occupying 22 degrees of longitude, and is washed by the waters of the Great Pacific on its western, and by those of the Mexican Gulf, or Atlantic Ocean, on its eastern shores; having unknown lands to its north; the republic of the United States of America to its east; and the government of Guatimala, as its southern limit; thus occupying one of the most advantageously situated positions in the political world, whether for the facilities afforded to its commerce, by the vicinity of two oceans, or by its stretching through part of the Torrid and Temperate Zones, affording from the heat of the one, the luxuries of the East, and from the mildness of the other, the necessaries of human existence in the most profuse abundance; here too exist more mines of silver and gold, of copper, tin, &c., than in any other part of America; whilst its western shores afford the pearl muscle, equal, if not superior, to the celebrated produce of Ormus and Ceylon.
That enterprizing and enlightened traveller, M. le Baron de Humboldt, states the population of this viceroyalty of Mexico, or New Spain, to have exceeded, in the year 1806, six millions five hundred thousand souls; and its surface to extend over a space equal to 118,748 square leagues, at twenty-five leagues for each degree.
Discovery, &c.—The person who made the greatest figure in discovering and subjugating this extensive region, was Fernando Cortez, a native of Old Spain, born at a town called Medellin, in Estremadura, about thirteen miles south-east of Merida, in the year 1485, of a noble family whose fortune had declined. He was intended for the law, and studied at Salamanca; but his restless disposition caused him to quit all prospects in this pursuit, and to follow the adventurers of the day in America; he went accordingly to Hispaniola, where he obtained lucrative posts; but, still dissatisfied, quitted the island in 1511, under the command of Velasquez, in an expedition to the island of Cuba. Here he distinguished himself by his bravery, and was chosen to undertake a voyage of discovery to the coasts of Mexico; he spent the greater part of his fortune in equipping his army and fleet; and on the 18th of November 1518, set sail from Cuba, but anchored again, and sailed for the Havannah, to complete his stores; here he suffered much delay and vexation from the jealousy of Velasquez, and having secured the fidelity of his followers, by the promises of immense wealth, and his engaging qualities (for he was a man of the most insinuating address, and of great personal endowments, a robust and soldier-like appearance, and a dauntless mind), he completed by his own exertions, and those of his officers, amongst whom was Pizarro, then a youth, who afterwards rendered himself so famous in Peru, his armament, which consisted of eleven small vessels, containing 617 men, 508 being soldiers, and 109 sailors or workmen, with ample stores of provision.
Cortez once more set sail from Cuba, in the year 1519, on the 10th day of February, and steered for the Isle of Cozumel, on which he landed, and then proceeded to the River Tabasco; where he forced the natives to acknowledge the Spanish king. His standard bore a cross with this motto, “Follow we this sign, for beneath it we shall conquer.” Procuring provisions, a present of gold, some cotton clothing; and 20 female slaves, he sailed to the west, and landed at the place now called St. Juan de Ullua, where he fortified himself, disembarked all his men, horses, and guns, having previously conciliated the natives.
The Emperor of Mexico hearing of the arrival of the Spanish ships at this place, sent two embassadors to meet the strangers, to inquire their intentions, and to offer his assistance in furthering their voyage. They received from Cortez a haughty reply, that “he would confer with no other person than the emperor.” The silly Mexicans, alarmed at the unusual appearance of the troops, the horses, the ships, and the artillery, endeavoured to conciliate the commander by rich presents. The embassadors had painters in their train, who were busily employed in tracing these wonderful objects, during the interviews; and Cortez, observing the circumstance, to give a greater effect to his warlike show, made his troops go through their manoeuvres, and fired his cannon at some trees. The poor Mexicans, astonished at this display, fell with their faces to the earth, being unable to withstand the alarm caused by the report of the guns. They returned to Mexico, and with incredible dispatch, some presents which Cortez had given them, were transported to the capital, a distance of 180 miles; and other messengers returned, accompanied by a train of one hundred Indians, bearing the most costly gifts of silver, gold, &c. An emblem of the sun, in massive gold, and another of the moon, worth 5000l. in silver, were amongst the articles. These magnificent gifts, it was hoped would conciliate the Spaniards, and make them consent to relinquish their idea of marching into the interior; Montezuma, the emperor, declaring he would not permit their staying longer in his dominions; but instead of attempting to eject them, he sent another and more costly present.
The natives however discontinued supplying the troops with provision, and the embassadors of Montezuma left the camp in resentment; the soldiers imagining that they should be attacked, came to open mutiny; but Cortez, by promises, threats and presents, gained their affections, and offered to lead them to the attack of the capital; after having punished the ringleaders, he assembled a council, and laid his warrant before them, telling them he would only be chosen as their leader, by their united consent. This experiment succeeded; they unanimously elected him commander in chief and president of the new Colony, and then formed a corporation to govern the town they were about to found. This they immediately commenced, and called it Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. “The rich City of the true Cross.”
Whilst employed in this work, Cortez received overtures from the Indian town of Zempoalla, to assist him in his enterprise against Montezuma; he accordingly matched thither, and assisted by its inhabitants, founded another settlement, about 100 miles to the northward of Vera Cruz; this was at the Indian town of Quiabaslan. The caciques or chiefs of Zempoalla and Quiabaslan, placed themselves under his protection; and their example was followed by the Totonaques, a powerful and warlike tribe, who inhabited the mountain country.
Whilst engaged in fortifying his new acquisition, and rendering it habitable, a second conspiracy was plotted against him; to counteract this, he proposed two methods, the latter of which was the most extraordinary that ever entered the mind of man. In the first place, he proposed to the council, to send an account of the riches, fertility, &c. of the country, to Don Carlos of Austria, the Spanish monarch, and to request him to ratify their proceedings, and to appoint Cortez, by the sign manual, as they had already done, in the name and on the behalf of His Majesty; this they consented to, and a vessel was dispatched for Spain, with orders not to touch at Cuba, for fear of the intention being thwarted by Velasquez. The second proposal was “To burn the fleet.” This, after great persuasion, and exhausting all his arts, he obtained their consent to do, and it was accordingly performed; thus leaving between five and six hundred men, at the mercy of a powerful and populous empire.
After obtaining this triumph over the adherents of Velasquez, who had no resource but in the capacity of their leader, and in their own courage, marched from Zempoalla, on the 16th of August, 1519, with five hundred soldiers, fifteen horses, and six cannon; the cacique of Zempoalla gave him four hundred warriors and two hundred slaves. The rest of the troops were left as a garrison, to defend Villa Rica. With this force, he entered the state of Tlascala, where he met with great opposition for fourteen days; but after having beaten the Tlascalans at all points, without losing a man, these people made overtures for peace: he accepted their proposals, and they ever after acted as his best allies. He halted twenty days in Tlascala, where he endeavoured, as he had before done at Zempoalla, to convert the natives; but succeeded only in abolishing the immolation of human victims on the altars of their deities. It was by the intervention of a priest, Bartolomeo de Olvedo, his chaplain, whose name deserves to be recorded, that Cortez was restrained from converting the natives by the sword, when he found he could not otherwise attain that object.
He next advanced against the state of Cholula, where he was treacherously received; and to avenge himself, massacred six thousand of the Cholulans. Cholula was only sixty miles march from Mexico. In the course of his advance, he was aided by the rebellious state of the surrounding country; and after a march of some days, saw the capital of the empire from the Chalco mountain. His troops were invigorated at the sight; and beholding such a rich and fertile country, such an immense city, and so beautiful a landscape, they conceived their fortunes to be made, and that their toils would now be soon ended. They marched until they arrived within a very short distance of the entrance to the city; when Montezuma, preceded by a train of a thousand nobles, himself sitting on a chair richly adorned with gold, and borne by men, surrounded with his guards and courtiers, advanced to meet the Spaniards; Cortez dismounting from his horse, saluted the emperor in an humble manner; cloths of cotton were then spread along the road, and Montezuma, quitting his chair of state, walked to meet and salute the Spanish commander; after much ceremony, the emperor conducted the general to a house prepared for the reception of himself and followers. No sooner had Cortez taken possession of his new habitation; than he set to work, and fortified it in the strongest manner he was able. The emperor shortly renewed his visit, accompanied by people bearing rich presents to the troops. It was at this interview, that Cortez learnt, from the unguarded expressions of the Mexican ruler, the reason why he had not been attacked. It appeared, that the Mexicans had traditions and prophecies, that a powerful race would come from the regions towards the East, where their deity, the Sun, rose, and that these people would overturn and chastise their country for the punishment of their sins; in this, Montezuma was a firm believer; and it was from the motive of religion alone, supposing that the Sun would exterminate his people if violence was offered to his children, that the monarch was persuaded to act in the way he did.
Cortez immediately seized the idea, and by his artful conduct was received as a child of the same universal Parent, the Sun, by the emperor and by his people. He spent several successive days in viewing the city, and making his observations; at the same time assuring Montezuma, that he was the embassador of the greatest monarch amongst the children of the Sun; and that his master had sent him with the most friendly designs to his brethren the Mexicans. Having fortified his house, which was surrounded by a stone wall and turrets, and keeping a large body of his men constantly on the alert, he came to the resolute determination of seizing Montezuma in his palace, and confining him in the Spanish quarters. He entered the palace, thirty men waiting outside of the audience hall, whilst Cortez, five officers, and five soldiers, placed themselves in the presence. He addressed Montezuma, and complaining of several things which he affected to dread, he requested the emperor would condescend to live in the Spanish quarters, until the alarm excited by some unusual appearances, had subsided. Montezuma reluctantly consented, and was escorted thither by the men. He was at first treated with all the attention and respect due to a mighty sovereign; but, after a short interval, Cortez, with a soldier bearing fetters, came to his apartment, and told him that his garrison at Villa Rica had been attacked, and that he was the instigator of the insult; that he had ordered the guilty to be executed, and that the emperor himself must feel the weight of his anger. Turning fiercely to the soldier, he commanded him to fetter the legs of Montezuma. The unfortunate monarch and his attendants were sunk in grief and affliction, and Cortez left the room to attend at the execution of the sentence on the culprits. After this was ended, he repaired to the Emperor's chamber, and with his own hands, took off the shackles.
For six months Montezuma remained a prisoner, and Cortez during this time was employed in reconnoitring the country, preparing to build vessels on the lake, and dividing the spoils amongst his soldiers. In attempting to establish the Catholic faith, by throwing down the Mexican idols, he nearly ruined all his schemes, as the whole people were about to rise. At this juncture Montezuma requested he might be liberated, and declared that his power of saving the Spaniards was at an end, as his people would inevitably revenge the insult offered their Gods; he concluded by requesting that the embassy would withdraw from his territories, as he could no longer answer for their safety: previously however to this communication, the Emperor had acknowledged himself a vassal of the Spanish King, and had sent to Cortez his tokens of homage, executed in all the prescribed forms, with a magnificent present, accompanied by others from his subjects. The Spanish commander had therefore good reason for not listening to the request of Montezuma; he replied, that he intended to send to his master the presents, and in time to return himself, but that he must build new ships first.
Whilst these discussions were going on, Velasquez, who had heard of the success of Cortez by the vessel which had touched at Cuba, (contrary to express command), had fitted out a fleet of eighteen vessels, with 800 infantry, eighty horse soldiers, twelve pieces of ordnance, and 120 arquebusiers, or crossbow men. Pamphilo de Narvaez, was appointed commander of the force, with instructions to seize Cortez and his staff, to conquer the empire in the name of Velasquez, and send the general and his officers prisoners to Cuba. Cortez hearing of the arrival of this armament, and that the troops under Narvaez, had marched to Zempoalla, determined to quit Mexico, leaving 150 men to guard Montezuma, and the capital; arriving at Zempoalla, he sent bribes to the officers of Narvaez army, many of whom were seduced, and attacking his enemy in the night with only 250 men, completely defeated him, and was joined by his followers the next day; receiving notice however, soon after the combat, that his little garrison in the capital had been attacked by the Mexicans, he returned to that city with two thousand Tlascalan warriors, who joined him in his march. He entered the city without resistance, but was soon after attacked in his fortress in the most resolute manner, and having made a sally in which he lost twelve men, and sixty wounded, he was forced to retreat; he again sallied, and was wounded in the hand. He then had recourse to the stratagem of placing the Emperor in the view of his enraged subjects. Montezuma endeavoured to pacify them; they listened with attention, but directly he had finished his speech, they again renewed the assault, and the forlorn monarch was wounded by an arrow.
He refused all aid from the Spaniards, and tearing open his wounds, expired, frantic with rage and despair. After the death of the Emperor, Cortez found that he could no longer maintain his position; he according quitted it secretly in the night, and marched for the Tlascalan territories. On viewing his troops after several hot assaults, which they experienced on the march, he is reported to have shed tears. Having recruited the spirits of his followers, and mustering the remainder of his forces, he again bent his course towards the capital, determined to perish or conquer. His infantry amounted to 550 men, his cavalry to 40, and he had 9 pieces of cannon; with this force of Spaniards, there marched 10,000 Indian allies, mostly Tlascalans, and on the 28th of December, 1520, the whole army were in motion exactly six months after the evacuation of Mexico.
He fixed his head-quarters at Tezcuco, on the banks of the lake 20 miles from the capital. In this city, the natives adhered to his cause, and assisted him in building thirteen small ships, which he launched on the lake. At this juncture, four vessels, fitted out by his friends in Hispaniola arrived with two hundred infantry, eight horses, and supplies of arms and ammunition. He therefore immediately attacked the city on the east, west and south. It was defended by Guatimozin, the new Emperor, with undaunted courage, and Cortez himself was once taken prisoner, but fortunately rescued, though wounded in the attempt. His soldiers who fell into the hands of the Mexicans, were immolated with horrid barbarity on the altars of the god of war. His allies, the Indians, now amounted to 150,000, and his vessels kept possession of the lakes Tezcuco and Chalco. This siege continued with vigour for 75 days, and the town capitulated on the 21st August, 1521, when Guatimozin, the Emperor, was taken prisoner; but the Spaniards had ruined three-fourths of the city in their attempts to take it; they had, therefore, a barren triumph. Cortez stained his victory by ordering the Emperor to be put to the torture, in order to make him confess where he had hid his treasure; which, in fact, he had caused to be thrown into the lake. It would be useless to detail the other proceedings of the army in the conquest of the provinces of the Mexican empire; suffice it to say, that they all yielded without much opposition to the Spanish conquerors.
Cortez now projected other discoveries, and named the country he had taken possession of, New Spain; in his views of aggrandizement, he was much impeded by cabal both at home and abroad; even an edict was issued by the King of Spain, to seize his person; this was, however, revoked, and he was appointed Captain-General of New Spain, by the Emperor Charles the Fifth. Other cabals being formed against him, and a fresh order of seizure made out, which was only prevented being put into effect by the death of the commissioner, Ponce de Leon. Cortez, after settling his affairs in the New World, returned to Spain, where his address and manners gained him the affections of Charles, who conferred on him the order of St. Jago, and the title of Marques del Valle de Guaxaca (still held by his descendants) together with the grant of a large district of New Spain. His unabated ardour for discovery caused him to return to the New World, which he did in 1530.
Long previous to this event, the Spanish government determined that he should have only the situation of commander in chief, and hence arose the division of power which afterwards embittered his whole life. An audienza real, or royal audience, was appointed for New Spain; through the hands of this Court, all the civil affairs of the country were administered. Having now, therefore, neither the authority nor the influence he before held, he determined to remove himself from the scene of his disgusts; and accordingly, finding that the plans of discovery which he had prepared and sent people to put in execution, in 1522, had all failed, he determined, in 1536, to undertake them himself, and having fitted out some vessels, he discovered the vast Californian Gulf and part of its shores, when, after enduring incredible hardships, he returned to Mexico; here his distresses were renewed, and once more to obtain justice, he sailed for his native country, where he arrived in 1540; not being able to obtain his wishes, his vexation had so much effect upon his health, that his constitution, robust and vigorous as it had ever been, was unable to withstand the shock, and this extraordinary man quitted this transitory existence on the 2d of December, 1547, in the sixty-second year of his age.
During the absence of Cortez in California, in 1535, after the new kingdom of Spain had been governed by Luis Ponce de Leon, Nuno de Gusman and Ramirez de Fuenleal, a viceroy arrived from the Mother Country; this was the first viceroy of New Spain, and the government has descended from one to another ever since: the enumeration of them would be uninteresting, and tedious; we shall therefore pass them over, with the exception only of mentioning that there have been fifty (up to the year 1808), and that of these only one was an American, the Marquess de Casa Fuerte, who was a native of Peru; a descendant of the unfortunate Montezuma, Don Josef Sarmiento Valladares, Conde de Montezuma governed New Spain from the year 1697 to the year 1701; and of the descendants of that monarch, there are still three branches remaining, all of whom are Spanish nobles. A descendant of Columbus, Don Pedro Nuno Colon, Duke of Veragua, also held the viceroyalty of New Spain for six days, dying, suddenly after he was invested.
It is requisite for the nobleman who is advanced to this dignity to possess a large fortune, or there must be considerable emoluments attached to the vice-regal office sub rosa; for the salary of an American viceroy is only 12,600l. per annum, and with this he has to observe the state of a king; he has his body guards, who precede him whenever he goes out; he is served by pages, and allowed to eat only with the members of his own family, it being too great a condescension in the viceroy, to permit any inferior to sit at the same table with him.
The nobles of New Spain are represented as extremely numerous; the creoles seeking with great avidity after Spanish honours; the government have also ennobled the caciques or heads of the Indian tribes, who are extremely proud of their distinction. It is a singular circumstance, that the descendants of the kings and great chiefs who were in alliance with Montezuma at the time of the conquest, should many of them at present hold the chief authority by consent of the Spaniards over the tribes, which their ancestors governed, and which they now oppress still more than their forefathers did; the caciques being generally very proud, ignorant and vain of their fancied superiority.
In describing the natives of this country, we shall relate the manner in which they have been and are still governed; at present it will be necessary to recur to the political divisions of the territory of New Spain.
POLITICAL AND TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS.
The viceroyalty of New Spain is divided into three provinces and twelve intendancies; which again suffer also some other minute subdivisions, which the enumerations will hereafter be given.
The three provinces and twelve intendancies are as follow:—The province of New Mexico; two provinces of California, or Old and New California. The intendancies of New Biscay, or Durango, Sonora, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, Guadalaxara, Guanaxuato, Valladolid or Mechoacan, Mexico, Puebla or Tlascala, Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, or Guaxaca, and Merida or Yucatan. The civil affairs of these great territories are under the control of two supreme councils, called Audienzas Reales, which govern the districts situated to the north and south of a certain line beginning thirty miles to the northward of the Panuco river, or Rio Tampico, in the Gulf of Mexico, and thence to St. Luis Potosi, along the southern boundary of the intendancy of Zacatecas and west side of the intendancy of the Guanaxuato, through the intendancy of Guadalaxara to Guatlan, a port on the Pacific.
To the north of this line, the audienza of Guadalaxara exerts its authority, and the southern part, till New Spain is bounded by the kingdom of Guatimala, is subject to the audienza of Mexico.
This immense viceroyalty is situated partly in the northern temperate, and partly in the torrid zone; and is politically governed by a viceroy nominated by the Court of Spain, and two captain-generals or comandantes generales, who are in some measure under his authority. These last named governors have authority over,—Sonora, New Biscay, New Mexico, and the two Californias, which comprise the western captain-generalship; and Coaguila, Texas, the colony of New Santander, and New Leon, in the Intendancy of St. Luis Potosi; which comprise the eastern captain-generalship: part of these are, however, only subject to their authority as military commands, and to name those would afford no satisfaction, as the minute subdivisions of the governments of so vast a country are liable to constant changes.
BOUNDARIES.
New Spain is bounded on the north by an imaginary line the 39° of north latitude, reaching to Port San Francisco on the Pacific; the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California bounds it on the west; on the east the United States Territory of Louisiana, the Mexican Gulf and Bay of Honduras; and on the south the kingdom of Guatimala completes its boundaries.
EXTENT.
The extent of this viceroyalty occupies a space equal to 118,478 square leagues, of twenty-five to a degree.
CLIMATE.
The climate of New Spain may be looked upon as the most extraordinary in the world, varying from the tropical heats to the mild and healthful climate of middle Europe, and to the frosts and snows of Siberia; this phenomenon being observable in a journey of a few hours across the ridge of the Cordilleras.
The sea coasts are hot and insalubrious in general; the port of Vera Cruz, on the east, and that of Acapulco, on the west, the two great emporiums of Mexican commerce, being amongst the most unhealthy places in the world. The southern parts of this kingdom, which are not on elevated land, are, during the whole year, subject to excessive heats; even in December the heat exceeding that of the English summer. The plains which extend along the ridges of the Cordillera are in general healthy, and their climate temperate, and the yellow fever extends its ravages only to a small distance from the coast to the interior; as soon as the land begins to rise this pestilence ceases.
The whole province of Mexico is crossed by a vast plain at the height of from 2000 to 2700 yards above the level of the sea; here the inhabitants enjoy a perpetual spring; and, although they live under the Torrid Zone, they occasionally feel a considerable degree of cold in the northern districts. The climate in the interior is so delightful that the natives sleep, with little covering, under the canopy of heaven.
FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY, PRODUCTIONS, &c.
The great Mexican plain above mentioned, may be said to extend through the whole of New Spain. Carriages traverse a distance of five hundred leagues on it from Mexico to Santa FÉ in the north; the whole road being made with little labour, and nearly level. This enormous plain, or table land, as well as several others of less dimensions, forms the ridge of the Cordilleras, which goes by the names of Anahuac, Sierra Madre, Topia, &c. and is of great breadth. On its bosom repose the summits of gigantic mountains, which reach the region of perpetual snow. On the east coast the land is generally flat and swampy; and on the west, the descent of the central chain has four parallel valleys of great depth, which are richly cultivated.
The Cordillera of New Spain is evidently a continuation of the Andes; it traverses the captain-generalship of Guatimala, along its western coast, throwing out arms into the province of Honduras; it then turns eastward, for a short distance, on entering the kingdom of New Spain, and sends an arm into the province of Yucatan; rising afterwards gradually to the north, and occupying the middle of the continent; it then, in the province of Mexico, goes off to the east, where, forming the vast plain of Anahuac, it has its greatest elevation, and is here called Sierra Madre; the Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl, Pico de Orizaba, and Cofre de Perote being either in or on the borders of this province; the Popocatepetl, the highest summit of New Spain is 17,716 feet above the level of the sea.
The Cordillera then passes on to the north-west, and throws out three branches, one into New Leon, one into Guadalaxara, and one to the province of Zacatecas; it then continues northward, being of great breadth, till it passes the kingdom of New Spain, and on the borders assumes the names of Sierra de las Grullas, and Sierra Verde, after which it joins the Blue Mountains, and Stoney Mountains of north-west America. Amongst the lofty masses we have mentioned are some volcanoes, which constitute a magnificent part of the scenery; no less than five existing in the provinces of Mexico, Puebla, and Vera Cruz, some of which are enveloped in perpetual snows.
The sides of this great chain are covered with immense forests of every species of trees, which luxuriate according to their position; the hardy pine and fir occupying the upper, and the tropical productions the lower regions.
In the valleys, on the plains, sides, and at the foot of the chain, are observed beautiful cities, villages, and romantically situated farms, forests, interspersed with rivers, cataracts, and extraordinarily formed rocks. It is here that the painter might mature his taste for the wonderful, the rude, and the majestic features of nature. The soil, adapted to cultivation, is mostly a deep clay, which requires nothing more than irrigation to render it fertile in the extreme. The agricultural objects are principally wheat, maize, cotton, indigo, pimento, sugar, tobacco, the agave and cochineal plant. This applies chiefly to the southern portion, the more northerly being nearly in a state of nature. Sugar, cotton, cocoa and indigo flourish between 19° and 22° of north latitude, and are only abundantly produced at an elevation of from 1900 to 2600 feet; as also European grains at the height of from between 4550 to 9750 feet.
The oaks of Mexico grow to maturity only at from 2600 to 9750 feet of elevation; pines reach, toward the lower term of congelation, to a height of 13,000 feet, and descend on the east coast as low as 6000 feet above the level of the sea.
The banana, the great support of the natives, is found no higher than 4600 in a state of perfection. This fruit forms the principal food of the natives; when gathered green they cut it into slices, and lay them in the sun to dry, and pound it into meal, which they use for the same purposes that flour is generally put to; the fruit is also eaten.
The plantations of the banana are kept up by suckers. The same region which matures the banana, is also favourable to the manioc, which is powdered and made into bread. Of this root there are two kinds, one sweet, the other bitter; the latter is poisonous, unless carefully made into bread by separating the noxious juice. The bread of the manioc is called cassava, and is extremely nutritive; forming, when made up in a particular manner, by being smoked and grated, a substance which resists the attacks of insects, making one of the chief articles of provision on long journeys. They also make of the poisonous juice a sort of soy; but it is sometimes dangerous to use this sauce.
Manioc is cultivated by slips, and they have one harvest a-year, the whole process being nearly similar to that of potato planting. Maize occupies the same region, and reaches to maturity at the same elevation as the two former plants. This plant is of the utmost importance to the colonies, and, being indigenous, thrives better here than anywhere. It grows to the height of nine feet, and yields a hundred-and-fifty fold. It succeeds better in the southern provinces than in the northern, and forms a principal article of food to the inhabitants, to the mules employed in the mines, and in conveying goods from one province to another, and to the poultry, &c. When the harvest of maize fails, the unfortunate natives are reduced to the greatest straits. It yields, in the most favourable situations, three crops annually. This maize, or Indian corn, is eaten boiled and roasted, and, when ground, is made into bread. The meal is used for soups, under which form it is principally consumed. The Indians, also, by fermentation, make several intoxicating liquors from this plant, as well as a sort of beer; and, before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Mexicans made sugar of the stalks.
Wheat was first introduced by the Spaniards, and promises to become, with the other European grains, when the great roads are completed, one of the most abundant articles of the commerce of New Spain, as it already enters into competition, at the Havannah, with the flour of the United States; but the means of transport are at present so bad in the interior, that no great quantity is cultivated for exportation. The potato which was introduced by the Europeans thrives very well; for although it originally came from America, it was known only in the southern part at the time of the conquest. The capsicum, or pimento, the tomatas, rice, turnips, cabbages, sallads of all sorts, onions, and every kind of European vegetable are successfully cultivated. The table land produces all sorts of European fruits in great plenty; plums, apricots, figs, cherries, peaches, melons, pears, apples, &c. The vine and olive also flourish equally well, but are not frequently to be seen, on account of the Spanish Government discouraging the culture of these plants, as the commerce of the Peninsula, in oils and wine, would cease, if they were allowed to be reared; the climate of New Spain being more favourable for their production than that of Europe; however they are found in California, and some of the northern provinces, in great abundance. The tropical fruits, of every species, are met with in New Spain, guavas, ananas, sapotes, mameis, &c; and the Europeans appear to take great delight in their gardens. The orange and lemon plants, of almost every species, grow in these delightful regions, where animal food forms the secondary article of human nourishment.
The principal vegetable decoction which supplies the place of the brandies and strong liquors of Europe, is that produced from the agave, or maguey. The natives and Spaniards have large plantations of agave, for the purpose of forming from it their favourite beverage, called pulque, which is procured by wounding the plant at a particular season, from which there flows a ropy liquor, which they collect and ferment. Pulque, from being the great beverage of the Indians, and lower orders of Mexican Spaniards, yields an immense revenue to the government. The sugar cane is successfully cultivated, and sugar already forms one of the principal articles of export. Cotton is also an article of commerce, as is likewise coffee, but neither of them to a great amount. Their cocoa and chocolate have long been famous; the name of the latter being originally Mexican, but the best chocolate comes from Guatimala.
Vanilla, of the finest quality, is imported into Spain from Mexico. Sarsaparilla and jalap, which takes its name from the town of Xalapa, near which it is found, are celebrated articles of its export trade. Of tobacco, it does not grow enough for its own consumption, not owing to the soil, but to its culture being discouraged. The indigo from the Spanish colonies is raised chiefly in Guatimala. Odoriferous, gums, medicinal plants, and drugs; the dying woods, particularly logwood; the valuable woods used in making articles of furniture; are the produce of this Viceroyalty; which is as rich in the productions of the vegetable as of the mineral kingdom. Cochineal, and the plant on which the insect feeds and comes to maturity, are amongst the most singular of its products; they are principally managed by the Indians, who are most skilful in the mode of collecting the harvests of this extraordinary dye.
The animals wild and domestic, are chiefly the horse, mules, of which thousands are employed in carrying goods over the crests of the mountains separating the two oceans, and in drawing the metals from the mines, &c., sheep, goats, and cattle; the cougar, or American tiger; the puma, the tiger-cat, loupcervier, wild-boar, swine, buffalo bison, tapir, marmadillo, and immense tribes of apes and monkeys, with birds of every variety and beauty, amongst which are wild and tame turkeys, ducks, domestic fowls, &c.
The insects are as numerous as singular, and the serpents and reptiles thrive under the vertical sun, and amid the humid exhalations of the low-lands. The alligator is found in its rivers and swamps, and is nearly as formidable as the Egyptian crocodile.
In the northern part of New Spain, horses, cattle, sheep and goats, are found in a state of nature, having multiplied to an extraordinary degree in the wide spread plains and Savannahs.
The silk-worm is reared in some of the provinces; but as the growing of silk would interfere with the commerce of the East Indian possessions of Spain, this article is not much attended to.
Honey and wax are procured in the greatest plenty, as may reasonably be imagined in a country abounding with aromatic herbs and flowers; wax forms a great article of its home consumption, which is the case in all Catholic countries, where such immense quantities of it are burnt in processions and the churches.
The pearl fisheries of the Californian Gulf, are not at present carried on with much activity, but pearls of great value have been found on its coasts.
In the description of the different provinces of this kingdom, we shall occasionally give more particular relations of the animal and vegetable productions of New Spain.
The gulf of Mexico, the bay of Honduras on the eastern side, the Pacific on the western, with the immense inlet or sea of California, afford to this rich and fertile viceroyalty the favourable opportunities for the most extensive commerce, were it not that it is greatly impeded by the want of numerous roads across the elevated land of the interior; these, however, are gradually opening; and in proportion as the Spaniards exert themselves in forming them, so will the commerce of Mexico increase in value above that of the neighbouring continental states, with whom, at present, it is, for this cause alone, unable to enter into competition. The distance in some parts of New Spain, from ocean to ocean is very inconsiderable; and some rivers which run from opposite sides of the same mountain approach so near, at their sources, to each other, as to offer to an enterprising people every facility for internal navigation; at present, the commerce of these colonies is tardily carried on from the coasts of the Pacific, to those of the Atlantic by means of mules, which travel in cavalcades along the roads crossing the chain, or by Indians carrying burdens on their backs.
The commerce of New Spain centres chiefly at the port of Acapulco in the Pacific, to which the vessels from Manilla bring the productions of the East Indies, which, with the commercial articles of the country itself, are transported over the mountains to Vera Cruz, the Atlantic port, from whence they proceed to the Havannah, and to Europe. We have related what the vegetable and animal kingdoms chiefly furnish towards this trade; it now remains to state the share which the mineral kingdom affords. New Spain is probably richer in productions of this nature than any other country of the world; but for want of the mechanical means which are so extensively employed in raising the metals of Europe, the produce of the Mexican mines, as well as of all those of the New World, is not so great as has been usually imagined, many of the richest veins having been abandoned (after enormous expences and labour employed in opening them), on account of water gaining on the operations of the miners. That useful and surprising instrument the steam-engine, requires to be introduced generally into the mining system of the Americans, before any great accumulations of the precious and useful metals can be had on that continent; then also will the terrible labour of those unfortunate people, who carry on their backs, in baskets, from the depths of these heated caverns, the ores which are there discovered, to the surface, be discontinued; the human race will sensibly increase, and the sterile wastes and thick forests will give way to the arts of agriculture.
The mining stations of gold and silver in New Spain amount to more than 450. They are divided into thirty-seven districts, each governed by a council of the mines. Humboldt supposes that near three thousand actual mines exist in these 450 stations. The principal and most valuable are those of the provinces of Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Guadalaxara, Durango, Sonora, Valladolid, Oaxaca, Puebla, Vera Cruz, and Old California. The veins exist mostly in primitive and transition rocks, and the richest silver veins, which are single, run to an amazing breadth and length; the poorest are those in which the silver is dispersed in small and numerous ramifications. The best and most productive of the silver mines of New Spain, are situated at a height of from 5900 to 9840 feet above the level of the sea, and there are three which supply more than half as much again as all the rest put together; these are the mines of Guanaxuato, Catorce, and Zacatecas. The quantity of silver exported from New Spain to Europe and India, per annum, is about one million six hundred and fifty thousand pounds in weight. After the three above mentioned, the mines of Real del Monte, Tasco, and Zimapan in Mexico; Guarisamez, Batopilas, and Parral in Durango; BolaÑos in Guadalaxara; Sombrerete and Fresnillo in Zacatecas and Ramos in San Luis Potosi, are those which afford the greatest quantity of ore.
Gold is generally procured in the sands of torrents by washings. It is produced abundantly in Sonora, where it is found in the alluvious grounds; in the sands of Hiaqui and in Pimeria, where grains of very large size have been discovered. It is also procured from the mines of Oaxaca in veins, as well as in most of the silver mines, mixed with the silver, crystallized, in plates, &c. The produce of gold in New Spain is stated to amount, in the most favourable seasons, to a million of piastres, or 218,333l. sterling; the produce of silver at twenty-two millions of piastres, is 4,812,500l. sterling.
Native silver is sometimes found in great masses in the mines of Batopilas, as well as in some others.
The mines of Guanaxuato, of which the most celebrated is the one named Valenciana, are said to produce double the quantity of gold and silver to that of the celebrated Potosi in South America. In this mine the great vein is twenty-two feet in breadth; and, as the chasm is entirely dry, it is easier worked than almost any other American mine. The pits extend to the breadth of 4900 feet, and the lowest is 1640 feet in depth. The undertaking employs upwards of 900 men in carrying the ores to the surface up the stairs on their backs, 1800 workmen in procuring and sorting the ore, with 400 women and children, carrying the minerals to the sorters; the total expences of the materials, workmen, overseers, &c., is above 187,500l. sterling per annum, and the net profit, during the same period, to the proprietors, after deductions of the king's fifth, and all expences, is from 82,500l. to 123,759l. per annum.
The mine of Sombrerete in Zacatecas yielded in one year a profit of above 833,400l. sterling to its proprietor. In San Luis Potosi, the mine of La Purissima Catorce yields annually to its owners a profit of upwards of 43,700l. sterling. The others we have mentioned, as being the richest, yield immense revenues to their holders and to the government.
In these rich mines the miners and labourers contrive occasionally to steal the valuable metals. They, however, undergo a very rigorous search on leaving the pit; nevertheless, like the Indians in the diamond mines of Golconda, they frequently are adroit enough to secrete the ores, notwithstanding many of them go nearly naked. The greater part of the silver is procured by the means of mercury from the ores, smelting being not much used for want of fuel: the quantity of mercury used in the process of amalgamation is estimated at upwards of two millions one hundred pounds troy weight.
Copper, of which the ancient Mexicans made their tools, is found both native and in the mines of Valladolid; as well as in those of New Mexico.
Tin is found in grains and in wood tin in the clayey soil of Guanaxuato and Zacatecas.
The quantity of these metals which is brought to market is very trifling, as they are not much sought after; as is also the case with iron, which exists in various parts of New Spain in great abundance, and under every form. Lead is chiefly found in New Leon, and New Santander; and in Mexico, antimony, zinc, and arsenic. Mercury is procured in Mexico and Guanaxuato, particularly at Chica, Celaya, and Zimapan: but the mines are insufficiently worked, the mercury for amalgamation coming entirely through Spain to the northern colonies of Spanish America. Coal exists in New Mexico; and salt is yielded from the lakes of the Mexican plains; diamonds, topazes, emeralds, and other gems; asphalt, amber, jasper, alabaster, and the magnet, are produced in New Spain. The affairs of the mining interest are directed by a council-general; on this council, which has a president, the thirty-seven districts depend. The mines are wholly the property of individuals; their councils are only erected to judge of the affairs relating to the payment of the duties, and to the general ordering of the undertakings. At Mexico there is a college of mining, where young men are educated by the government, to instruct them in all the branches of science necessary to be attained, in order that the mines may be worked in the best manner. The council-general receives a tithe on all metals, and with this, the salaries of the members, the expences of the college, and advances to undertakers, are paid.
Rivers.—New Spain does not contain such extensive and majestic rivers as are to be found in her sister colonies of the south; nevertheless some of the streams are by no means inconsiderable; the Rio Bravo del Norte, and the Rio Colorado, roll a vast body of water to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The Rio Bravo rises in the Sierra Verde, near the northern boundaries of the kingdom; this noble river, after various intricate windings, and watering a tract of country, inhabited principally by the aborigines, loses itself in the Gulf of Mexico, having performed a course of nearly two thousand miles; which immense length of river is obstructed by cataracts in the mountainous country of the interior, and by bars of sand in the flat and marshy lands towards the sea coast; canoes navigate, however, a surprising distance up the stream. The Rio Colorado rises in the same mountains, and nearly in the same latitude; but on the opposite side to the sources of the Rio del Norte, and running through a country either waste or inhabited only by the Indians, empties itself into the upper extremity of the Gulf of California, by a large estuary, after a course of a thousand miles; canoes navigate this river for three hundred miles from its mouth. The other rivers of New Spain which are of the greatest importance, are the Mexicana, Arighitas, Flores, Trinidad, Colorado de Texas, Medina or San Josef, Magdalena or Rio Guadalupe, the Nueces, the Gila near the Great Colorado, and almost equalling it in length; the Hiaqui, Mayo, Nasas, Rio Grande de St. Jago, Panuco, Zacatula, Yopez, Alvarado, Tula, or Moetesuema, with many others of smaller note, the names of which will be mentioned under the heads of the several provinces in which they are situated.
Lakes.—The lakes of New Spain are chiefly the lakes of Mexico, near which the capital is built. Lake Chapala in New Gallicia, a large sheet of water, the dimensions of which have not been accurately obtained; it contains several islands, in one of which, some of the insurgents who had been routed by the Spanish troops, shut themselves up. Also Lake Cayman in New Biscay, in a desert country, called the Bolson de Mapimi, not so large as that of Chapala; and lake Pascuaro near Valladolid. The lakes of this part of the American continent, are neither large nor very numerous; the whole country descending rapidly from the central Cordillera, towards the east and west, throws off the deposits which may commence from the springs, into the form of rivers.
The bays and coasts, cities, towns, &c. will be described in following the provincial relations.
The islands of Spanish North America, are described at the end of the First Part.
Temperature.—In order to give some notion of different regions inhabited by man in this extraordinary country, we shall adduce the temperatures of the coast and of the higher lands.
On the coast and at the foot of the mountains under the tropical sun, the heat is excessive, and the temperature of the air is as great as in the hottest of the West India islands. This is called the hot region; and above it is the temperate region which enjoys a perpetual spring, and a temperature of from 60° to 70° Fahrenheit, at an elevation of from 3930 to 4920 feet above the sea; they are, however subject to thick fogs, as it is the height at which clouds usually float in the atmosphere. Above this and to the height of 7200 feet, is the cold region, where the mean heat is 62° Fahrenheit; beyond which the cold becomes greater and greater till the region of perpetual snow commences, at the height in the 19° and 20° of north latitude of nearly 15,050, above the ocean.
Population.—The extent of the population of New Spain may be said to be about six millions and a half, of which the Indians are conjectured to amount to nearly three millions; the remainder consists of European Spaniards, Creoles, or people of Spanish extraction; Mestizoes, from the Spaniards and Indians; Mulattoes, from whites and negroes; Zambos, from negroes and Indians; negroes, and the aboriginal race, or Indians, which are totally unmixed, and are the descendants of the people who inhabited the country at the conquest. The European Spaniards hold the chief offices, civil, military and ecclesiastical; but the Creoles view with great jealousy this assumption of power, which causes these two casts to look with very little complacency on each other; and as, by the cultivation of their minds, they hold the first rank in the colony, it has been observed by a late Spanish writer, that the struggle which unfortunately exists against the mother country, has been materially favoured by the latter class. Humboldt relates, that the expression of “I am not a Spaniard, I am an American,” had been frequently heard during the time he was on the continent.
The Europeans and Creoles, or whites, are computed to amount to 1,200,000; of whom, about 80,000 are European Spaniards.
The whites in New Spain possess the greatest property, both in the mines and the land; a descendant of Cortez, the Duke of Monteleone, a Neapolitan and non-resident, is amongst the richest who derive no advantage from mining operations; the whites are those who principally cultivate their minds, though instances of scientific attainments are not uncommon in the other classes. New Spain can boast of several learned men of Creolian birth, who have considerably advanced the arts and mathematical sciences in their country; many painters also of considerable talent exist in this portion of the New World. The manners and customs of the whites are nearly the same as those of their European brethren.
The religion is Roman Catholic, and the clergy of New Spain are a mixture of all the casts, excepting the negroes; the beneficed and dignified clergy, being chiefly whites; they consist of an archbishop of Mexico, and eight bishops of Puebla, Guadalaxara, Valladolid. Durango, Monterey, Oaxaca, Sonora, and Yucatan or Merida, with about 14,000 dignitaries, parish priests, missionaries, monks, lay brothers, and servants.
The revenues of the archbishop and bishops amount to about 118,000l., out of which the archbishop has 27,000l., per annum.
The negroes and slaves of New Spain form a very inconsiderable part of the population; of the negroes, there are only about 6000, and many of them are free; of slaves, about 10,000, who are negroes, and the Indians who are taken on the frontiers by the missionaries' troops; these slaves are to be found only at Vera Cruz, Acapulco, and on the coasts; employed in the ports, the culture of sugar, indigo, &c. being almost entirely the work of the free people. The slaves are, with the exception of the Indian prisoners, treated mildly, and gain their freedom by amassing, if they are of an active turn, a small sum which they give to their owner, who is forced to emancipate them; this sum is from sixty to eighty pounds.
The mestizoes, mulattoes, zambos, and people of mixed blood, amount to about 2,400,000. The mestizoes, are represented as a mild and well conducted people, differing in hardly any thing from the whites.
The mulattoes have that revengeful disposition, versatility of conduct and voluble tongue, which they possess in all other quarters of the world.
The aboriginal race form a large section of the Mexican population; their number, as before stated, amounts to about three millions; they inhabit, chiefly the central and southern part of New Spain, and in these regions they are mostly to be found concentrated in towns and villages. Towards the north the Indians are, with the exception of a few, who have been converted by the missionaries, wandering tribes who subsist by the chace, and by the plunder of the Spanish settlers. The military stations are in constant activity against these people, they frequently capture numbers, who are sent to Mexico, as slaves. For the history of the migration of the Mexican race we must refer to the description of the province of Mexico, under which head will be found some interesting details of the principal events which have taken place in respect to these people, up to the period at which they were subjugated by the Spaniards.
The Indians of New Spain are of a copper colour, and in general well made, with very little beard, but long smooth, shining dark hair, prominent cheek bones, and thick lips. Their temperament is melancholic, and their physiognomy indicating a great share of moroseness, strangely intermingled with gentleness. The Mexican Indians generally wear some hair on the upper lip, no doubt in imitation of the Spaniards; they are extremely fond of an intoxicating liquor, made of the juice of the agave, and those who addict themselves to this practice, by taking very little solid food, greatly weaken their constitutions; otherwise they are a robust race, and attain in general a healthy old age. They are in their common demeanour, silent and reserved, and appear to entertain for the Spaniards a constant sort of distrust. In the Indian towns and villages, few whites settle, and they are governed by magistrates, elected from their own tribes, who are represented to be more severe, and fond of punishing their brethren, than the Spaniards themselves. Very few of the Indians who are subject to Spanish power, are in any other situations than those of small cultivators, labourers, or artisans, and are a hard working people when urged by interested motives; otherwise they are idly disposed, as is the case with most people who live in a warm climate; they are however free, and receive for their labour, when employed in the mines or other work, very good wages. They are, in some instances, forced to supply a certain number of labourers for particular operations, but these are always paid.
The women are more lively, and of a less reserved disposition than the men, and are kept by them in a state of much subjection.
Carving on wood, and rough paintings, or rather designs, with the fabrication of pottery and cotton cloths, are the principal arts in which they excel, and they are represented as equalling the Chinese in their taste and ability in imitating objects of European workmanship. Flowers are a part of the household goods of the Mexican Indians; their shops for the display of fruit, &c. in Mexico, being completely lined with the most beautiful productions of the flower garden, in which they take great delight.
The Indian tribes who inhabit the northern part of New Spain, are mostly free from the domination of the Spaniards; they are a warlike people, and are a more noble race than their subjugated brethren, carrying on a constant warfare against the settlers, and only trading with them, when in absolute want of some articles of finery, or nourishment. This trade never takes place personally; the Indian leaves his goods, at a stated place, and the Spaniard takes them, and deposits in return the articles the Indians are known to be in need of; this commerce is said to be carried on with a rectitude of principle highly honourable to both parties.
The whole of the Indians are styled tributary by the Spanish laws, excepting only such as are descended from the ancient kings and nobles of the country; these are called Caciques, who levy the tribute, and are appointed to the magisterial functions in the Indian towns and villages; but are not a jot better informed than their brethren. Many of them have embraced the rigid rules of the monastery, and their daughters are often devoted to the veil; in most of their towns or villages, the curate is an Indian.
At the conquest, these unfortunate people suffered very much, they were used as beasts of burden, in the working of the mines, the erection of buildings, and as slaves, in fact, in every thing where labour was required; their conquerors disdaining to work. They were divided as spoil among the soldiers and the new settlers, particularly the monks; thus they languished for some time under the pressure of this burden, and it was not until the eighteenth century, that these poor people were in some measure freed from slavery. Charles III. abolished the right of possession, which had been granted over the Indians to the Spanish settlers; intendancies were established, to watch over the welfare of the natives, and since that period they have gradually enjoyed a milder form of government, and, comparatively speaking, are very little oppressed.
Many of the Indian families possess considerable wealth from their plantations. M. de Humboldt mentions Indian families at Cholula, where there are no Caciques, who possess from these sources, capitals from 33,000 to 50,000l. sterling; but they live nevertheless very wretched, at least in exterior appearance. The Indian tribute levied on all individuals, amounts to about 9s. each per annum; by paying which, they are exempted from all other taxes; they are, however, looked upon by the law, as a sort of irrational beings, and consequently, great impediments to their advancement in the arts of civilisation, and intermixture with Europeans takes place; they can enter into no contracts above a very small sum, and the whites are forbidden to settle in Indian towns, or to intermarry with that people.
The laws are still more severe with respect to the blacks and their descendants.
Antiquities, &c.—The ancient monuments of the Mexicans, at present remaining, are chiefly their teocallies or temples of a pyramidal form; these are generally divided into steps or separate platforms with a square top, on which the priests officiated; the greatest and most striking of them, are those of Cholula, Mitla and Papantla, which will be spoken of in describing the provinces.
The Mexican paintings are extremely singular, being on stags skins prepared for the purpose; on paper made of the agave, and on other substances. These people preserved by symbolical paintings, the memory of former events relating to their general and particular history; the colours are extremely bright, and the designs, though rude, are well executed.
Manufactures.—The manufactured articles of New Spain, consist chiefly in cottons, woollens, soap, and soda, plate, coin, powder, cigars, and snuff. The manufacture of tobacco is a royal monopoly, and carried on by the government; the others are principally carried on by individuals, (coin and powder excepted,) who employ the Indians, mulattoes, negroes, &c., and are (in large establishments) allowed a certain number of slaves. There are some trifling manufactories of crockery-ware and glass in the cities near the capital.
The silver and gold taken from the mines, is either wrought into services of plate for the table, for the churches, in ornamental works, or is coined at the royal mint of Mexico, which was established by Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy of Mexico, fourteen years after the conquest; it is estimated that upwards of four hundred and eight millions of money has issued from this mint since that period.
The Indians manufacture beautiful toys of bone, wood, &c. Cabinet-ware and turnery are executed with great skill by the white artisans, the woods they are able to employ being cheap and beautiful; carriages are also made in New Spain, but most of those which are in use in the capital and great cities, by the nobility and gentry of fashion, are the productions of the London workshops.
Commerce.—The commerce of New Spain has been of late years considerably augmented, both by the great additions made to agriculture, and by the formation of good roads from the interior; when these shall become sufficiently finished to admit of the conveyance of merchandise by means of waggons instead of on the backs of horses, mules, and Indians, the commercial relations of New Spain, will embrace the most remote countries of the Old World. The internal traffic consists chiefly in maize, ingots of metal carried from the mines of the capital to be coined or assayed, hides, flour, tallow, woollens, European goods, of which iron and mercury form the most prominent articles; cocoa, chocolate, copper, woods for the cabinet-makers, cottons, wines, tobacco, sugar, rum, pulque, wax, powder for the mines, &c.
The exterior traffic consists in coin, plate, ingots of the precious metals, cochineal, sugar, flour, indigo, provisions, hides, pimento, vanilla, jalap, sarsaparilla, mahogany, logwood, cabinet-woods, soap, cocoa, &c.; these are exported from Vera Cruz and Campeachy. The imports from Europe, are cottons, linens, woollens, silks, paper, brandy, mercury, steel, iron, wines, wax, vinegar, raisins, almonds, olives, oil, saffron, corks, thread, crockery-ware, and cordage, with a variety of minor articles, such as fruits, medicines, toys, &c. The imports from the East Indies, at the port of Acapulco, are calicoes, silks, muslins, cottons, spices, gums, and jewellery, which trade is carried on by armed vessels, under the orders of officers of the Spanish royal navy; New Spain returns to the East Indies, coined silver, iron, cochineal, cocoa, wine, oil, wool and hats.
The imports from the other Spanish American colonies to Acapulco are chiefly in cinchona, or Jesuits bark, Chili, or long-pepper, oil, Chili-wine, copper, sugar and cocoa; for which New Spain returns woollens of her own manufacture, cochineal, tea and some East Indian articles.
The commerce of New Spain has suffered much since the war, from the heavy duties exacted at Vera Cruz, for articles the produce of European soil, manufactured in the mother country, and by the want of encouragement to the introduction of goods manufactured in countries which have carried the arts to a greater height than they have hitherto reached in Spain, as well as to the restrictions put upon the cultivation of tobacco, the olive, and the wine. We shall not examine here the value of the export and import trade of this viceroyalty. It is well known, that the duties do very little more than support the administration, and that having subsidies to make annually to the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico, and to other of the Spanish colonies, Mexico affords very little towards the support of Old Spain. Indeed amongst the whole of the Spanish American colonies, none but the vice-royalties of Peru and Mexico, make any regular remittances of monies to Spain for the assistance of the mother-country; the charges of government swallowing up all the revenues in the others. M. de Humboldt cites the public accounts of the colonies as his vouchers, and states, that the revenue of New Spain may be estimated at upwards of four millions sterling, of which about a million and a quarter are annually remitted to Spain, the remainder being consumed in the subsidies paid to Porto Rico, Cuba, &c., and in the interior administration. An anonymous writer, who styles himself Espagnol amante de su Patria, has lately published a pamphlet in London, in which he shows that the revenue derived by the Spanish government, has very much decreased since the period of M. de Humboldt's travels; although a free trade has been conceded to the island of Cuba, by means of which, the administration of that island has been enabled to meet their expences, and to have a small sum in reserve, without being obliged to have recourse to the Mexican subsidy.
The revenue of New Spain consists in the duties paid on all gold and silver extracted from the mines, on the sale of quicksilver, the coinage, sale of tobacco and powder, duties of entry, and embarkation at the ports, the tribute imposed on the Indians, duty on pulque (the fermented liquor of the agave), sale of indulgences from Rome, tax on the clergy, sale of powder, stamps, sale of snow, which is a royal right, and very productive in the hot regions, where so much cooling liquors are consumed, and some other minor taxes. With the amount of money collected under these heads, the expences of the administration, of the missions to the northern provinces, the fortifications, dockyards, ships of war, the militia and regular troops are paid, together with the subsidies before-mentioned.
The Army of New Spain consists of a regular force raised in the country, of ten thousand men, and more than 20,000 militia. In the present time, the army and navy of New Spain must be considered as a component part of the military force of the Mother country, as she is engaged in reinforcing them, by every means in her power, in order to quell the disturbances which have arisen to such a height in her more southern colonies.
The insurgents have made no decided progress in New Spain; they are seen only in the province of Puebla, or rather in the old province of Tlascala, in small bodies, and in the district of Texas, on the northern part of San Luis Potosi, where they have formed a slight establishment in Galveston Bay.
In Guadalaxara and Valladolid symptoms of disaffection have been shown; but it has been immediately quelled, and the discontented were dispersed by the Spanish troops; the few who could get together taking shelter in an almost inaccessible island of the lake Chapala in Valladolid.
The Indians are said to take no part with the insurgents, nor are the people of the interior at all willing to enter into the struggle; on the contrary, they have formed themselves, in many of the districts, into military bodies for the preservation of the public tranquillity.
It will be seen, on consulting the journals of the present time, that the Government of the United States lays strong claim to that portion of the kingdom of New Spain, east of the bay of St. Bernardo; it having been declared in congress, that Galveston Bay, where the insurgents have been attempting to form settlements, in order to annoy from thence, the coasts of San Luis Potosi and Vera Cruz, is within the limits of the United States. Should this assertion, which is founded on the treaty of 1783, be well grounded, the Spanish government will have no other barrier to oppose to any future aggression of that power, than the great river Bravo del Norte, which will bring the Americans within a very short distance of the capital, and will leave them some of the richest silver mines in the government of San Luis Potosi.
We shall now give a description of the capital of New Spain, as in it the commerce, the wealth, and the power of the country, is, as it were, concentrated.
METROPOLIS OF NEW SPAIN.
Mexico, the capital of the Spanish vice-royalty of New Spain, is situated in 19° 25' 45 north latitude, and 99° 5' 5 west longitude, in a beautiful valley near the banks of the lake Tezcuco. The houses are mostly founded on piles, on account of the marshy nature of the ground, and the town is intersected by numerous canals. The scite of the city is the same as that of the ancient Mexico, which is said to have been so denominated from the god of war of the Mexicans, whose appellation was Mexitli, as he had a temple erected there to his worship. A palace was erected by Cortez, opposite to the scite of the palace of Montezuma. This city is a very fine one, and it is asserted that, with the exception of some parts of Westminster, Petersburgh, Berlin and Philadelphia, there is no city of the same magnitude which bears any comparison with Mexico for its great regularity, the extent of the public buildings and places, the level, and the general architecture. The railings and gates of the houses are of iron, ornamented with bronze, and the roofs of the houses are flat, and formed into terraces. The great breadth and length of its streets is an object of admiration to strangers, but it is said they are nevertheless dirty. The streets are paved and lighted by large reflecting lamps, and generally run in straight lines, from west to east, and from north to south; the footpaths are guarded by little stone-pillars, and a covered sewer runs along the middle of the streets, as in France.
The chief building is the vice-regal palace, built by Fernando Cortez, near the ruins of that of Montezuma; it stands in the central square, near the cathedral, and is a massive stone edifice. The cathedral is a magnificent building, and cost the labour of upwards of ninety years. In it are two images of the Virgin, one of solid gold, weighing fourteen pounds, six ounces, eighteen pennyweights. There are upwards of 100 other churches, which are decorated in the usual glittering style of Catholic countries; the monasteries and convents amount to twenty. Behind the palace of the viceroy stands the mint, where 100 workmen are employed; the bullion being here exchanged for coin, by the proprietors of mines. The cathedral is so rich in plate, and gold, &c. that there is a solid, silver rail round the high altar, and an enormous silver lamp, enriched with gold embossed work, into which lamp, it is said, three persons might enter, and the images of the saints, are mostly solid silver, enriched with jewels and gold. The inhabitants of the better sort are habited generally in silks, their hats having diamond ornaments and gold lace; even the very slaves wear bracelets of gold, silver, and gems.
The shops of Mexico make a profuse display of the most valuable articles, and every thing wears the appearance of great riches, and consequently of great luxury. There are thirteen hospitals, and many charitable buildings; the population is estimated at 137,000 souls, of which 2,500 are Europeans, 65,000 white creoles, 33,000 copper-coloured natives, 26,500 mestizoes, and 10,000 mulattoes.
This great mass of people are abundantly supplied with provisions from the neighbourhood of the city, which is very fertile.
Mexico is not fortified, having merely a ditch round it, without ramparts or walls; there are however six gates for the great communications from the country, together with other smaller ones, for the immediate environs. The extent of this city is four miles from north to south, and three from east to west. There is a great market place, and a sort of bazaar, after the eastern fashion, being a square of shops.
Mexico is plentifully supplied with good water, by means of two aqueducts; the police of the city have guarded against fires by water pipes, and they have lately built ten fountains with cocks, after the manner of the towns in France, &c. They have a regular watch, who take care of the lamps, and guard the streets; besides which, the guard of the city, a species of troops, who are under the orders of a judge, (who has, besides those who act immediately in the city, about ten thousand spread through the kingdom,) patrol the streets constantly, and punish excesses in the most exemplary manner. The municipal body consists of a corrigidor or mayor, twelve regidors or aldermen, and other inferior officers; the alcades, or justices of the peace, sit for the judgment of civil and criminal cases; their judgments, as well as that of the chief judge of the police, are reversible by the Audienza Real, which again refers to the viceroy, whose judgment is final, except in particular cases, which he deems necessary to refer to the king of Spain.
The courts, are the above-named Audienza Real, or royal audience, the chancery, tribunal of accompts, the strangers' court, the court of administrations for persons dying intestate, the tribunal of registers, the tribunal of the inquisition, the royal tribunal of mines, the tribunal of the descendants of Fernando Cortez, the tribunal of the city, &c. Amongst the public offices are the royal mint, chancery, the royal coffers, the house of the Californian missions, the mount of piety, and the chapter and government of the city, which is stiled Illustrious. The city arms are a castle with three towers, an eagle on a tree, with a serpent in its beak, and the Lake Tezcuco at the foot of the tree; supporters, two lions; and crest, an imperial crown. These arms were granted by the Emperor Charles V. whence the city has sometimes the title of Imperial and Illustrious. In 1728, Philip V. granted it all the privileges, &c. of a grandee of Spain, and in 1773 Charles III. granted to the chapter of magistrates of the city, the distinction of pre-eminence over all other tribunals, excepting the royal audience and tribunal of accompts; and the use of uniforms laced with gold. There are thirteen hospitals, and various charitable establishments under their jurisdiction.
The viceroy of New Spain, a grandee of Spain, and of course always a nobleman of high connections and rank, is commander in chief, and president of the government, or in fact, king; and as Mexico is the seat of his government, it will not be improper to give an account of his command, &c. in a description of the city. He is regarded as the chief viceroy of Spanish America, his territory being equal to an European kingdom of large size. The governors of the provinces of his vice-royalty are not however all named by him, this power resting with the court of Spain. His patronage over all the churches makes no inconsiderable part of his power.
The court of the viceroy is formed in the most splendid style; he has body-guards both horse and foot, an immense train of attendants, &c. His salary is not great, but the patronage over lucrative places, monopolies, and the presents he receives, are supposed to render it enormous; as he however is obliged to support the style of a king, the greater part is spent in the payment of his household, equipages, &c.; he is commander in chief, and has under his orders in the kingdom of New Spain, about 10,000 regular troops, and 20,000 militia, making a total of 30,000 men; these are however so dispersed, and ineffective, that he can send no very large force into the field.
Mexico is an archbishopric, and metropolitan see; it is very valuable, as the income is inferior to none but that of the bishopric of Puebla de los Angelos; the archbishop's annual income being 100,000 dollars.
The clergy of Mexico are numerous and wealthy, the chapter of the cathedral containing twenty-six ecclesiastics. The income of the dean is 10,000 dollars, the canons from 7,000 to 9,000, and the sub-canons, from 2,000 to 4,000, and the parish curacies very valuable in general.
The ecclesiastic courts of Mexico are comparatively as numerous as the clergy, the principal one being the Holy Tribunal of the Faith, or as it is better known by the title of “the Inquisition.”
The university of Mexico was founded in 1551, and is called the Royal and Pontifical university of Mexico; it is composed of two hundred and fifty doctors in all the faculties. It is under the government of a rector, who is annually chosen by the preceding rector, and eight of the council chosen by ballot from amongst the doctors and bachelors. It has a chancellor, who is the chief schoolmaster of the city, and who presides at the conferring of degrees. The professors are nominated by a council, consisting of the archbishops, the chief-judge of the royal audience, the chief-inquisitor, the dean of the cathedral, the rector of university, the chancellor, the senior professor of theology and the dean of faculty.
The library of the university is in a bad condition, having been only lately endowed, and is filled chiefly with theological works; it is open to the public.
The college of Santa Maria de Todos los Santos, is the principal college of Spanish America; it was founded in 1682, by the archbishop of Mexico, and has a public library and thirteen professors; it received additional buildings in 1750, and has 400 students.
The college of St. John is the oldest in New Spain; it was endowed for children of Spanish and Indian parents.
The Jesuits had formerly five colleges in Mexico; there are now two only remaining under the direction of the viceroy. Like the colleges of this order in all parts of the world, these buildings are strong, massive and magnificent; the great hall and chapel of one being the most beautiful pieces of architecture in the viceroyalty.
The public schools are numerous, being chiefly conducted by the priests of the several religious orders.
The royal academy of Arts and Sciences has a good establishment of professors of architecture, sculpture, painting, engraving, and mathematics. There has also been lately erected a college of mines, in which young men are instructed in various branches of science, and in every thing that relates to mining.
The botanical garden is another useful institution, lately much enriched.
The patron saint of Mexico is St. Mary of Guadaloupe, who is also the patroness of Spanish America.
The character of the people of Mexico, as given by late travelers, is that of a courteous and charitable people. The polite arts are their chief study, and they boast of their painters. They are great smokers, using cigars even at the theatre, and the ladies all smoke; a part of their ornaments being a gold or silver cigar box suspended by a chain or ribbon, in which they keep their paper cigars; on the chain they wear little pincers to hold the cigar, which, is nearly finished, whilst they light the new one. The manufactory of cigars, a magnificent building, employs near 5000 persons; such is the demand for this article. They are fond of theatrical exhibitions and have a handsome theatre. As in all Catholic countries, religious processions and shows occupy a great part of their attention; amongst the most splendid of these, is the procession of the Corpus Christi, the festival of the anniversary of the conquest of Mexico, and the publication of the bulls of indulgence; which are hailed with eagerness, and looked for with earnestness. The great civil show, is the entrance of a new viceroy, on which occasion, the city is all splendour and joy. The lower people are immoderately fond of a liquor named pulque, and the number of houses for the sale of it have of late become so numerous that the Police allow them only to remain open from ten till four in the day-time, on account of the riots and violence that happens in them; this liquor is allowed to enter the city only by one gate, that of Guadaloupe; and such is the consumption of it by the inhabitants, that the tax on it yields a revenue annually of a million of dollars. The shopkeepers of Mexico issue tokens of copper, iron and wood; and even grains of cacao pass as current in the neighborhood; which arises from there being no bullion currency. The price of bread is regulated three times in the year by the price of grain. There are numbers of sugar mills in this capital, and from there numerous distilleries of rum are kept at work.
Mexico is at present a place of immense commerce, and will become of more importance in a commercial point of view, when the great roads from Vera Cruz, &c. are completed; as the transport of goods will then be easier and less expensive; and the wheat, &c. of the fine plains of Mexico, will find a ready market all over the world.
This city, though on a marshy soil, is in general healthy, and the black vomit or yellow fever is here hardly known; but consumptions, apoplexy, agues, fever, and pleurisy, are not uncommon. The worst disorder to which the inhabitants of Mexico are subject appears to be what they denominate “flato” or “flatus;” the unhappy patients appearing in a state of madness, and have hot and shivering fits as in the ague; convulsions, and hysteric affections also accompany this strange disorder; which has been supposed to arise from the great quantity of spice they use in their food, and from the excessive use of tobacco.
This extraordinary city attracts the notice of Europeans from its curious situation, as well as from the remembrances attached to its name. It is placed on a plain, the height of which above the level of the sea is 6900 feet, near the banks of the lakes Tezcuco and Chalco, which are about ninety miles in circumference; the waters of the latter are salt, of the former fresh; they communicate with each other, and contain only two sorts of fish, one of which is of very peculiar organization. The city at a distance, appears to rise from the waters of the former lake; the banks of which are beautified with the most enchanting village scenery; on the opposite side of the lake, a luxuriant and highly cultivated valley is contrasted with the towering summits of the enormous mountains, emitting flame and smoke, in regions where eternal snow and winter reigns. This extensive plain is covered with flax, hemp, cotton, tobacco, sugar, indigo, &c.; and furnishes the markets of the city with abundance of vegetables, meat, fruits, and poultry, and reaches to the mountains, whose bases repose on its bosom. These mountains are diversified into every form that imagination can present, and are clothed with cedars, shrubs, and plants, and contain in their bowels precious jewels and minerals. The plain extends on all sides of the city and of the Lakes Tezcuco and Chalco; but on the eastern-side of the latter it is not so prolific, owing to the saline exhalations from the waters. On the lower parts of the mountains, farms, country-seats and romantically situated cottages are seen; and the whole plain appears well watered by numerous canals and rivulets. To the north of the town, near the suburbs, is the promenade, or Alameda; it is surrounded by a rivulet, and is in the shape of a large square, with a basin of water and fountain in the middle. From this bason eight walks strike out, each bordered by two rows of trees: there are also several other public walks, but the ground, in the immediate neighbourhood of Mexico, is full of rivulets and canals, and rather swampy.
The cold at Mexico is not great in the winter, as the Lake Tezcuco seldom freezes thicker than a sheet of paper; in the summer it is very hot, but as there are regular showers, which fall in the evening, the air during the summer is much tempered. The rainy season occupies four months, from the middle of May, to the middle of September.
The houses of pilgrimage in the neighbourhood of Mexico are singular; the chief one is the sanctuary of Neustra Senora de los Remedios, on the spot where Cortez retired when he was repulsed.
The sanctuary of Guadalupe has a college, church, &c.
Just without the city is the sanctuary of Neustra Senora de los Angelos, formerly the retreat of an anchorite. The desert of the Carmelites is five leagues from the city, and here, in an inclosure of three miles, the most austere of these monks live in solitary cells.
About half a league from the city is the rock of the warm-baths.
The village of Traspana is also a place of great resort, the air being thought very wholesome and pure. On a hill in the environs, where there was formerly a palace of Montezuma, is the great aqueduct of Chapultepec, which conveys water to the city; it is above 9000 feet in length. The water of this, is however, not so pure as that of the aqueduct of Sante FÉ, which is 30,600 feet in length, and which runs along the Alameda, but is not so beautiful a structure as the former, as the water is not conveyed the whole way over arches.
The surrounding scenery of the metropolis is in all respects highly beautiful and singular; from it are seen the summits of some of the loftiest mountains of North America, and the varied foliage of the cypress, the avenues of elms and poplars, which branch to the city from all quarters, the gardens of oranges and European fruits, the deep verdure of the plain, the golden tint of the ripening corn, and the different shades of the various Mexican plants, conveys, through the medium of a pure and cerulean atmosphere, the utmost delight to the eye of the beholders. The valley in which the city and its neighbourhood rests, is filled with villages and towns, and surrounded with enormous masses reposing on the great plain; two of which, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, are the most remarkable of the group; the first is continually vomiting fire and smoke, though covered with snow. The Pico de Orisaba is also visible, and forms a grand feature of the scene. On the west of the city, the chain is very high and continuous.
The remains of the former city are inconsiderable; some traces of the great dikes yet subsist, as well as of the aqueducts. The temples have been destroyed, but the foundations of the ancient Mexican habitations are numerous in the environs of the city, and prove that it was much larger than it is at present.
The lake has retired a league from the city, so that it is now situated in a marshy soil to the left of the southern extremity of Lake Tezcuco, and between it and Lakes Xochimilco and Chalco. To the north it has two small lakes, one called Lake San Christoval, and the other Lake Zumpango.
The palace of Montezuma stood opposite to where the viceroy's palace now stands, and a palace was erected on the site of Montezuma's, by the descendants of Cortez, as they were obliged to resign the original building of the conqueror to the government; this house still belongs to a descendant of Cortez, who is Marquis del Valle de Oaxaca, and is also Duke de Monte Leone in Naples.
The building in which Cortez was stationed when he first entered the city, still shows some of its remains behind the convent of Santa Teresa.
Of the great temples nothing is to be seen; that dedicated to the god of war was destroyed to make room for the cathedral.
A fine modern equestrian statue in bronze, of one of the Spanish kings, ornaments the great square, which was cast and erected by a Spanish artist residing in the city.
In this city, there are a set of people who resemble, in their general habits, the Italian Lazaroni. They pass the night under the arcades and porches, and work one or two days of the week, to gain enough to enable them to buy sufficient liquor and food. They amount to 30,000, and are designated by the names of Saragates, and Guachinangos; they differ only from the Lazaroni, in not being ferocious, and in never asking alms.
After having given this extended description of the metropolis of New Spain, we shall return to the subject of its division into provinces, &c. These have been before enumerated; we shall therefore commence at the northern boundaries of the viceroyalty, and proceed regularly to the southern limits of North America, on the isthmus of Panama or Darien.
NEW MEXICO.
The most, northerly province of New Spain is New Mexico, which extends from the Spanish boundary in 39° of north latitude, and is terminated by an unknown country, inhabited by the savage tribes, and by ranges of lofty mountains which have been very little explored; on the east, it has unknown countries between it and the United States' territory of Louisiana, from which it is divided by an ideal line; on the west by unknown lands and Indian nations; and on the south by the intendancy of New Biscay; it is 175 leagues in length and 40 in breadth: the limits on the east and west are not, however, very accurately defined. This country has been subdivided into several districts; but as few details of these have ever been published, it is impossible to ascertain their accuracy. Though very extensive, it is but thinly peopled, and that chiefly by the native tribes.
Throughout its whole western extent, the great chain of the Sierra Madre presents itself, running from south to north, and extending nearly the whole length of North America; this chain changes its name after quitting the Spanish territory, and then receives that of the Stony Mountains, Crane Mountains, Azure Mountains, &c. It is supposed, and with great probability, that this immense range is part of the same Cordillera as the Andes; thus forming one continuous ridge from the Tierra del Fuego to the Icy Ocean in the north. It is the great barrier of the west, and interposes its awful front to the whole length of the world.
In New Mexico, the climate is colder, generally speaking, than that of any other part of the Spanish possessions. The summers are warm, but not intensely scorching, the winters cold, and frequently very severe, especially in the higher regions of the mountains; and they are not deluged with those incessant rains that prevail in some other parts of New Spain. This country lies within the temperate zone. The soil is represented as, in some parts, extremely fertile, which appears from the luxuriancy of the pasturages, where the herds of buffaloes and bisons are found; in others, as very arid and barren. The country is, excepting on the Cordillera, agreeably diversified into hill and vale; and the rivers and lakes are well stocked with fish; great quantities of game frequent the mountains; and the forests are stored with wild animals. Many of the writers on this country state, that it is amongst the most agreeable and the most plentiful colonies of America. Under these circumstances, it is wonderful that the Spaniards do not settle it more effectually; their attention has, however, of late years, been so much distracted by the unhappy state of the mother country, and by the struggle of the colonies for independence, that they have not had leisure to extend their views to this desirable land.
The capital of New Mexico is Santa FÉ, which is in 36° 12' north latitude, and 104° 52' 45 west longitude, on a river which falls into the Great Rio del Norte; it was founded in 1682, and is small and placed near the northern limits of the colony; its population is 3,600.
The other towns of most importance are;—Santa Cruz, containing 8900 souls, and Albuquerque 6000 souls; both near the east bank of the great Rio del Norte.
There are enumerated 26 villages and 19 missions in New Mexico.
The Passo del Norte, or Fort, is the most noted of these, and is situated in a country which produces all sorts of fruits and a fine wine; it is on the right bank of the Rio del Norte, 60 leagues south of Santa FÉ.
This country, which was discovered by a missionary in 1581, was finally subdued in 1644, and slightly settled by the missionaries.
The mines are generally of tin; and the total population is about 40,000.
The chief river of this country is the Rio Grande del Norte, (the great northern river,) called also Rio Bravo, rising in the Sierra Verde, beyond the extreme bounds of the province; and after a course of 2000 miles, this noble stream enters the Gulf of Mexico, traversing the whole length of New Mexico, the province of Coaguila, and that of New Santander. In the province of Coaguila it receives the Puerco River, a considerable stream, which rises south of Santa FÉ, the capital.
The Rio Grande is beautifully adorned in New Mexico by woody banks of poplar and oak. It is subject to periodical floods, which begin in April and end in June; the great road from the south to Santa FÉ, runs along the east bank of this river in New Mexico, and crosses it at the Fort del Passo before mentioned, and is so level, that carriages of a light construction are used on it; but the wandering Indians render travelling unsafe in some points. In New Mexico, the Rio del Norte frequently is encrusted, during the winter, with ice thick enough to travel on. This river is fordable for horsemen in the droughts of summer; the streams which join it in New Mexico, are of no moment, the country being in general dry; near the northern part some rivers rise which have been conjectured to be the Red River, and Arkansas of Louisiana; but the geography of the countries to the west and east of New Mexico, remains in a very defective state.
The eastern towns of New Mexico, as well as its villages, are in general thickly peopled, on account of the proximity of the country to tribes of warlike Indians. On the west of the great river Del Norte, the Indians are of a comparatively peaceable character, and are on friendly terms with the natives, of New Mexico.—Of these western tribes—
The Moqui Indians have towns well constructed, after the manner of the ancient Mexicans, for the purposes of defence; and the missionaries who have visited these tribes, say, that although their language is different from that of the ancient Mexicans, yet, from several concurrent circumstances, they appear to be part of the remnant of those people who scattered themselves at Cinaloa, on their march from the north. Their houses exactly resemble those of Casas Grandes, which the Aztecs built on their route near the Rio Gila.
It is the Indians of the east country, from the great river Del Norte, that are so constantly engaged in disputes with the New Mexicans.
Of these, the Cumanches are amongst the most warlike. They have no settled place of abode, but wander about, as the chase, or their inclinations dictate, in the immense extent of country from the rivers Trinidad and Brazos, across the Red River, to the heads of the Arkansas and Missouri, and beyond the Rio Bravo, over the ridge of the Great Cordillera; they have, of course, from this unsettled life, no towns or villages, and are subdivided into many hordes, who have so little communication with each other, as to be often supposed to be distinct tribes. They principally exist by the chase, the flesh of the bison and buffalo being their chief food; this, with some vegetables, which they procure from the tribes and settlements in their vicinity, constitutes nearly the whole of their nourishment. They carry about with them tents made of the skins of these animals, which they form like a bell, large enough to contain a dozen people; but the heads of the tribes and other great persons, have them of a much larger size. The tents are pitched in regular order, in the manner of a town, having streets of communication.
The wild horses which run about the country serve the Cumanches in their predatory excursions; they know well how to ride and manage these animals, and pass nearly all their time on horseback; their tents are removed on horses, and having few other goods to pack up, they perform marches with astonishing quickness, and fall upon the unsuspecting settlers, whom they plunder of every thing, and carry off their children to serve them as slaves; many Spaniards existing in a state of servitude amongst them.
The chase of the buffalo is carried on by them on horseback, and they kill that animal either with arrows or with spears.
In person, the Cumanche Indian is strong and well made, uncommonly neat and clean; the dress of the women is a long loose robe, tied round the waist with a fine girdle; the whole is formed of leather, decorated with paintings in a rude manner: the men wear a close shirt and pantaloons of the same materials.
Their language is totally different from that of the neighbouring Apaches.
They cook their beef with a mixture of wild fruits and herbs, and particularly with a sort of bean which grows on a tree; this mess they season with pepper, which grows abundantly in the country they inhabit; and the food, so prepared, is said to be very good and palatable.
The great extent of uncultivated territory on both sides of New Mexico is subdivided amongst many other Indian tribes; of these, however, a dry detail cannot prove interesting; and so little is accurately known concerning those subdivisions, that errors would unavoidably arise in recapitulating them. The chief of these districts is named Apacheria, from the Indian tribes called Apaches, a warlike and restless race of Americans, who inhabit the country to the west and east of Santa FÉ.
They are denominated, towards the southern part of New Mexico, Apaches Mescaleros; Apaches Llaneros, and Lipanes in the northern part; and Apaches, Chicaraguis, Mimbrenos and Gilenos, on the eastern side. They are a brave, resolute and independent people, extremely attached to their primitive customs, and very jealous of the power of the Spaniards, with whom they are frequently at variance; but this does not proceed to open war, as they stile themselves the allies of Spain. They were subjugated on the first settling of this country, but revolted towards the close of the 17th century, since which time they do not acknowledge subjection to that power.
In referring to what has been before observed concerning the great chain of mountains which pervade this country, it will be necessary to state, that the name Sierra Madre, or Topia, is more strictly applied to that elevated part of this immense ridge, which commences near Guadalajara, and extends 450 miles in a northerly direction into New Mexico; the breadth of all its ridges, or parallel crests, at this part, is sometimes 120 miles, where the chain is called more distinctively by the appellation of Sierra Madre, or Mother Ridge, on account of its great altitude above the other parts: it has, by some writers, been compared with the Cordillera of Peru; and the chasms and precipitous terminations of its sides, are said to exceed any of the most terrific and sublime mountain features of the world; their aspect is terrible, their depths profound, and appear to the wondering traveller, to unite the concave of heaven and the valleys of New Spain, by everlasting walls of adamant.
This part of the chain, and indeed nearly the whole of it, is in general densely covered with forests of the most gloomy appearance, composed principally of pines and oaks. In these impracticable wilds, birds of every description, peculiar to the country, inhabit; and their variegated and beautiful plumage throws a ray of lustre on the sombre scene.
On the summits of some of these mountains snow eternally lodges, and the cold, in consequence, is intense. Many rivers take their rise in the sides and near the tops of this Cordillera, and rush with impetuous force into the valleys below, whence they take their courses to the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. During the rainy season, (from June to September,) and when the upper snows lose their solidity and become fluid, these rivers, and the smaller streams, are turned into torrents, inundating the lowlands; and their devastations, to the distance of 10 or 12 miles, are inconceivable. During this period, when the natives are forced to much manual labour and bodily exertion in the open air, to repress the ravages of the waters, these pests of warm climates, the musquitoes, become intolerable.
Bears, tigers, &c. with various beautiful species of squirrels, inhabit the thick forests on the sides of the Sierra Madre. This ridge is most prolific in silver, each quintal of earth in the mines yielding a mark (two thirds of a pound); but these mines, on account of their distance from Mexico, have many of them been forsaken.
This ridge received its other name of Topia, from the appellation of a tribe of savages who inhabited it, and who were converted to the Catholic faith by the exertions of the Jesuit missionaries in 1590. So little was known of the existence of the Indians in some of the middle parts of this chain, that the inhabitants were not converted till the year 1718.
As before observed, nothing can be accurately advanced with respect to the termination of the continuation of the Topia, or Sierra Madre Cordillera on the north; but it seems, without much doubt, to be continued to an amazing distance towards the north pole, and that the Stony Mountains are certainly a part of it. In the immediate vicinity of the northern boundary of the Spanish territories, the tribe of Indians called the Moquis, are reckoned amongst the inhabitants of its regions; they live under the same parallel as Santa FÉ, the capital of New Mexico, and some distance to the westward of that place; their houses have already been mentioned.
The Sierra Madre sends off a branch in the west part of the province of New Mexico; this ramification, the summits of which are very lofty, is called Gemes, and bears a south-easterly direction; whilst on the eastern side, it throws off another arm, called the ridge of Nahmi; which is, however, of inferior height, and of shorter duration, than that of Gemes.
From the shore of the Pacific to the great Topian ridge, the general distance may be computed at 140 miles; in many places, however, it is greater, and in some, where the continent begins to straighten its bounds, not one half that distance.
The Topian chain takes the name of Sierra de las Grullas, from 38° to 40° north latitude; beyond that to 42° north latitude, it receives the name of Sierra Verde; during its southern course, it bears several distinct names, besides the general one of Sierra Madre.
It is in the Sierra Verde, that the great rivers, Colorado and Del Norte take their rise, and their sources are only separated from each other by the ridge of the mountain.
The great tract of uncultivated country between the Colorado and Gila, is inhabited by tribes of wandering Indians whose names appear on the map. To the south of the Gila is a tract of uncultivated country, inhabited by the Apaches Tontos, and other tribes: it was in this country that two missionaries in 1773, at the distance of three miles from the Gila, discovered the ruins of a Mexican or Aztec city, the houses of which were similar to those that are mentioned in the account of Mexico. These houses were large, and the one most entire, consisted of five rooms three stories high, and in length, was 445 feet by 276 broad, the walls being 3 feet 11 inches in thickness. A wall and towers surrounded the mansion; and the ruins of the city occupied more than a square league; fragments of pottery and domestic utensils were found in all directions; and a canal had conducted the waters of the Gila to the city. This was supposed to be the second station of the Mexicans in their migration from the north; the third is in New Biscay, near Fort Yanos.
The Indians in the environs of these great buildings are more polished than their neighbours, and are in a more social state; from which circumstance, it is conjectured, that they are a remnant of the Aztec nation, who settled here in their journey from the northern countries.
CALIFORNIA.
California is divided into two intendancies. New and Old California.
Old California consists of the peninsula bearing that name. New California reaches from Port San Francisco to the isthmus, or down to the Colorado, and comprises a strip of land along the coast; as, however, neither of these countries are at present of any great importance, we shall not divide them in our account, but describe them both together under the general head of California.
The boundaries of this country are an imaginary line, in the 39th degree of north latitude; on the north, the river Colorado and Indian tribes; and the Vermillion Sea, or Californian Gulf on the east; the Pacific Ocean on the west and south.
The bay of Sir Francis Drake, which runs some distance into the country, is the limit placed by nature between the claims of the British government and that of Spain in North America; and on the south-side of this bay is another, called the bay of St. Francisco, where the Spaniards have a small town and fort; this settlement is in 37° 48' north latitude according to the latest authorities, but some have made it near 39°. The length of California, may be however computed from Sir Francis Drake's harbour, in 39° north latitude, to Cape Lucas, in 22° 55' north latitude, and 109° 52' west longitude; the breadth varies so much, that a reference to the map will give a better idea of it than words.
Fernando Cortez seems to have been the discoverer of this country; he had sent several vessels in pursuit of the desirable object of making the coast of the Pacific known, when Hernando de Grijalva discovered the coast in February 1534; but they were so unsuccessful, that Cortez determined to undertake a voyage himself, which accordingly performing, he discovered the Gulf of California, in the year 1536, after encountering all sorts of misfortunes and perils; it was however neglected, and the form of it remained unknown till long after. In 1540, the viceroy of Mexico sent a vessel to explore it, but nothing was done of consequence; the same attempt was again made, but with like success. In 1578, the English navigator, Sir Francis Drake, explored the western coast of America, from 48° of north latitude, to 37° north latitude, and gave his name to the harbour, in 39° north latitude, which is the boundary of Californian lands. He called the country New Albion, and took possession of it in the name of Queen Elizabeth. In 1595, the Spaniards sent another vessel to explore the coast of California, but this vessel perished in Puerto de los Reyes. They were however determined to prosecute this object, on account of their wish to obtain a harbour for the Manilla galleons on their homeward voyage; the viceroy therefore dispatched Admiral Biscaino, who discovered and explored the harbour and land, to which he gave the name of the Viceroy. This place, Monterey, is in 36° 36' north latitude, and has since become the chief settlement of the Spaniards in California. After a long interval, Spanish missions were sent to this country, and inland discoveries consequently made. In 1684, Father Caino, a Jesuit, discovered that California was actually a peninsula; he came from the east, and crossed the country in the 35th degree of north latitude.
The Jesuits made many exploratory journeys in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and having converted many of the natives, they ruled with absolute sway, and continued in possession of what they gave out as a barren country, till their final expulsion from the territories of Spain. Some doubts having arisen as to their representations of the unfavourable nature of the country, the viceroy appointed Galvez, afterwards the minister of the Indies, to explore it, and from his accounts of the value of its productions, new regulations were ordered; but it has not yet been colonized to any extent. In 1769, ships were sent to build forts at St. Diego harbour, in 32° 39' 30, on the west coast of California, and one at Monterey. This research occupied a whole year, and still nothing of consequence was achieved on the coast, and it was not till 1786, when that unfortunate but great navigator La Perouse, visited the west coast of America, that the whole of the coasts of California were made known.
The inhabitants of the Old and New Californias, are chiefly the native Indians, the Spanish settlers not forming any considerable body. There are twenty-five missions or subdivisions of these countries, the principal of which are Loretto, St. Domingo, St. Josef of Cape Lucas, and All Saints, El Rosario, St. Fernandez, St. Francisco de Borgia, St. Gertrude, St. Ignacio, La Guadalupe, Santa Rosalia, La Conception, St. Josef, and St. Francisco Xavier. Monterey is the capital and place where the governor lives.
The natives of Old California are computed at about 6000 who live in the villages of the missions; those who live a wandering life are not enumerated, but are supposed not to exceed 4000; of these the greater part are Roman Catholics, having been converted by the missionaries. The natives of New California are computed at 15,600; they are a small race of people, and of an indolent character. Their complexions are dark, and they wear their hair long; the custom of eradicating the beard is prevalent amongst them, though not universally adopted. They are very expert at catching their game, and their principal weapon is the bow. Loretto is the chief town on the east coast. Old California appears not to be so estimable a province as New California, the climate not being so good or the land so fruitful; it abounds, however, with fish and game. The habitations of the natives are as miserable as the wigwams of Northern America, and in some measure resemble them, being constructed of boughs; they however will not alter them, preferring a life of independence to a settled state; they are much attached to the priests, who rule them with the authority of fathers over their children. The women manufacture coarse stuffs, and prepare the food, which is generally the objects of the chase, and corn or maize with pease and beans. They have caciques or chiefs of their own, but their power is very limited; they wear skins made in the forms of cloaks, and the women and men dress nearly alike; the boys go naked, but the young women have girdles round their loins; they all paint their bodies, and scalp their enemies, as the Canadians do, and they sometimes burn their dead with many ceremonies; the priests who settle amongst them are Europeans, who are sent from Mexico.
The women are the best looking, but in general, are not handsome; they are mostly taller than the men, who have low foreheads, projecting cheekbones and hollow eyes, with a large mouth, thick lips, and strong teeth, with bushy, eyebrows; the women are particularly careful to eradicate the hair from their bodies, and pierce their ears for ear-rings; the age of puberty in the women is as early as eleven and twelve, in the boys about thirteen; they are rapid and violent in the expressions of the passions of anger and joy; like other savage nations, they are divided into tribes, which move together from one place to another as fancy or necessity dictate. Their chiefs are chosen from the tallest, the strongest and the most warlike amongst them, and are distinguished by their head-dress. Such as are not under the immediate influence of the missionaries, practise polygamy; but the men hold their women in servitude.
Sore throats, colds, pleurisies and disorders, attendant on a variable climate, are their complaints in the severe seasons; they make use of vegetable decoctions for the cure of these disorders; fevers prevail in summer. The women suffer very little in child-birth, and the attendant in those cases, plunges the new born infant into cold water, the mother bathing soon after, and is then covered up warm near a fire: she performs these ablutions and heatings successively for some time, and the infants are bandaged up in furs and pieces of bark, nearly in the same manner as in Canada. Their religion, previous to the priests coming amongst them, was very similar to that of most savage people, having a faint, idea of the Creator. A chain of mountains runs through the peninsula, the highest of which, called Cerro de la Giganta, is 4920 feet above the level of the sea.
The peninsula, or Old California, is, as we before observed, more barren than the northern province; it is mostly a rocky soil, and seems as if some concussion of nature had disjoined it from Sonora; the climate is hot in the summer, but it is moderated by the sea breezes. Few trees of any consequence are found except on the south; there are some small volcanoes in it, with a ridge of mountains; vines and the Indian fig grow wild; the coast of the gulf is low and marshy, and the pearl fishery is very valuable; the gulf produces all sorts of shell-fish, turtles, oysters, lobsters, &c. Peacocks, bustards, geese, ducks, cranes, vultures, and sea-fowls, are plenty on the coasts; horses, asses, sheep, and goats, have been introduced and thrive very well. In New California the climate is nearly the same as in New Mexico, the western side being superior to the other parts, on account of the neighbourhood of the Pacific; the soil of this province is very prolific. The harvests of maize, barley, wheat, pease, and beans, are comparable to those of Mexico and Chili, corn produces in a seventy-fold proportion, and the soil is favourable for nearly all sorts of fruit trees. The climate is compared by late travellers, to that of the south of France; the forests, that great feature of American scenery, are extensive, and contain cypresses, pine-apple-firs, evergreen oaks, and the western planes and rose trees; on which a singular kind of dew falling in the morning, and covering the leaves, candies, and has the appearance of manna, being as sweet as white sugar. Immense bodies, or plains of salt, are found in the interior, and there are some gold mines.
The animals of the two provinces resemble each other, chiefly consisting of wolves, bears, wild sheep, bisons, buffaloes, rabbits, foxes, wild goats, and an animal peculiar to the country, called taye, as large as a young ox, and resembles the ox in its body, having a head like a deer, with horns as a ram. The great article of Californian commerce consists in the furs of the northern and pearls of the southern province, the pearls equalling in size and beauty those of Ormuz or Ceylon. The languages of the natives are too numerous for description, each tribe having a peculiar one of its own.
The mission of St. Domingo is the most northerly of the New Californian settlements, and borders upon New Albion. This and the other northern missions of California were hastily settled, on account of the Russians having advanced their colonies considerably to the southward, on the north-west coast of America.
The other missions or settlements, which are twenty-five in number, are divided into four districts, the whole under the directions of the governor of Monterey, the captain-general of the province, and of the father president of the Franciscan order of missionaries. In each of these divisions, is a presidio or fort under the command of a lieutenant, with an ensign, serjeant, &c. The most northern fort is St. Francisco, which has under it, the missions of St. Francisco and Santa Clara; the town of St. Josef, and a settlement in the southern part of the bay, or Port Juan Francisco, or Bodega.
The next division is that of Monterey, the capital of the province, under which is the mission of Santa Cruz, at Point AÑa Nueva, established in 1789, and some others; southerly, and easterly from this, are the missions of St. Carlos, St. Antonio, St. Louis, Santa Rosa, and La Purissima.
The ensuing division is that of Santa Barbara, established in 1786, which governs that of Buena Ventura, founded in 1784; south of which is the town of Los Angelos, founded in 1781; this last is under the government of the fort of St. Diego, which is the southernmost of the new settlements.
The climate of the country from Port St. Francisco, in the thirty-eighth degree of north latitude, to the thirtieth, is subject to great drought; the season of the rains is from December to March, after which the summer and autumn is dry; however the dews are heavy, and in some measure supply this want. The air is on the whole healthy, the soil sandy, very capable of improvement, and generally fertile, except in the upper and rocky country; in these, the soil is of course naturally very barren. The Spanish settlers have large flocks of sheep, and much poultry near Santa Barbara. Buena Ventura is abundant in fruit, viz. apples, oranges, peaches, pomegranates, pears, plums, figs, grapes, the plantain, cocoa-nut, banana, sugar-cane and indigo, with the kitchen-garden produce. The towns are in general no larger or better than villages; they contain from 500 to 1000 Spaniards and creoles; some late accounts say, that 20,000 natives have embraced the Catholic religion, but half that number may be judged as the fair proportion in both Californias. Their principal and best fur is the sea-otters, which abound on the northern coast. Many of the natives cultivate corn under the direction of the missionaries, but they refuse to become stationary. The trade in the above-mentioned skins has been monopolized by the Spanish government, and these settlements furnish a yearly supply of about 10,000.
The presidio or fort of St. Francisco was founded in 1776, and has a fine harbour, with a population of 820 souls; it is the most northern fort of the Spanish American dominions, and as such, is worthy or note. M. de Humboldt, gives the population of the villages of the missions of New California, but they are of course liable to constant changes. The missions of Old California are not so thickly inhabited, and several of them are deserted.
The presidio of Monterey, or San Carlos de Monterey, has a population of 700 souls, and was founded in June 1770. This town is in latitude 36° 36', and west longitude 121° 50' 43, at the foot of the chain of Santa Lucia. Monterey is the capital of the Californias, and in it resides the governor. In this settlement the soil is productive, but generally not very good, and the climate fine, though troubled with fogs. Unfortunately, the rains in the rainy season are excessive, and they have dreadful hurricanes and water spouts on the coast. Peltry it the principal article that is sought after.
The European and American fruits have been propagated here by the missionaries, and yield very well; the mezcala is the chief plant, and like the maguay of the south, is the principal article of food of the natives, and at the same time supplies them with drink and raiment. Northward from this settlement there are immense forests of pines and firs. Their trade is with Manilla, in furs, chiefly of the sea-otter, which is of a fine glossy black. The manner of catching this animal is peculiar to the Indians; they pursue it in small canoes, capable of holding one man, in which they go to sea, with a long rope in them, with two hooks; when they see the otters and their young, the Indian advances towards them, the old ones immediately dive, and the Indian catches a young one by the foot; he then paddles off, and the young one, struggling with the pain, soon brings the dam its assistance, who in her turn becomes entangled with the hook, and is killed by blows from the hunter.
The natives massacred some of the settlers at the missionary district of Todos los Santos, at the station of St. Ann. This must have arisen from some oppression, as the Californians, in general, are very submissive and indolent. They are very dexterous at the chase and in fishing; their wigwams are generally two or three together, and the women wear a head dress of rushes, whilst that of their chiefs have feathers; the women have necklaces of little shells in the north, and pearls in the south. The furniture of their hovels consists of a quiver for arrows, two pieces of wood to light their fires, a pipe of clay, a net for seeds, tobacco, a bow and arrows, their lines and hooks for fishing, and a club to kill rabbits. They often pierce the nostril, and wear ornaments in it; seaming their flesh, and painting horribly to inspire their enemies with fear. The women carry all the household goods when they move, and the men the weapons. They have magicians, who act as priests and physicians, and these magi are the great obstacles in the way of converting the natives.
The bay of Monterey is formed by Point AÑo Nueva on the north, and Point Pinos on the south; it is twenty-four miles wide at its entrance, and six in length to the east; the east shore is low and sandy, and the sea runs into the beach with a tremendous noise, that may be heard three miles off.
The Spanish ships which stay at Monterey, anchor in six fathoms water, at two cables length from the shore, and moor to the beach; ships putting in, keep the south shore aboard, and after doubling the south point, or Fir Point (Point Pinos) which stretches to the north, they see the fort, and drop anchor in ten fathoms behind the point, where they are sheltered from the west winds—the south winds blow here very strong off shore. At full and change of the moon it is high water here at half-past one; the tide rises seven feet.
The whales, a species of finner, are numerous in the bay, and La Perouse says, that they came within half pistol-shot of the ship, and occasioned a disagreeable smell. The coasts of this bay are generally covered with fogs, which render it dangerous to approach, otherwise it is not at all hard to enter. Pelicans frequent the sea at a small distance from land, and are a good sign for seamen, never going more than six leagues from shore; pelicans are very common on the coast of California; where they are called Alcatras by the Spaniards. Late travellers who have visited Port Monterey, say, that a better harbour could not be found for ships coming from the west, and that the soil in its neighbourhood is good, though dry; all sorts of grain succeed very well, and the cattle are very fine. The Manilla ships find this a good harbour to recruit in, when driven to the north by contrary winds.
THE INTENDANCY OF SONORA.
Is the next subdivision of New Spain which meets our attention in proceeding to the south. It is bounded on the north by the Rio Colorado, on the east by New Biscay, on the west by the great Californian gulf, and on the south by the intendancy of Guadalaxara. Under the title of Sonora, are comprehended the provinces of Pimeria, Sonora, Hiaqui, and Mayo, or Ostimuri, and Cinaloa. The capital of Sonora is Arispe; and its provinces lie from the Colorado River in the north to Culiacan on the south, following the order above mentioned; we shall begin therefore with Pimeria; and the description of climate, soil, &c., of each subdivision, will best explain the general appearance of the whole of Sonora, or as it is called in modern maps, New Navarre.
PIMERIA.
Pimeria is the most northern district of this extensive division, and is bounded on the north by The Rio Colorado, by New Biscay on the east, by the Californian gulf on the west, and by Sonora on the south.
Pimeria received its name from the Pimas, a tribe of Indians who inhabit this tract of country. It is subdivided into high and low Pimeria, and extends about three hundred miles to the north of Sonora. The climate is cold and moist, and the rains often last a week without intermission in the winter season, and torrents from the mountains during that period descend in all directions.
Pimeria is very little known, being inhabited chiefly by the native tribes, the Spanish colonists frequently deserting it on account of the irruptions of a warlike race of savages, who inhabit the neighbouring country of Apacheria in New Mexico.
The river Colorado is the principal river of the uncolonized country north of Pimeria. This river has been also called Rio Colorado de los Martyres. The course of the Colorado may be computed in a straight line at 200 leagues, or 600 miles, and it is generally from north-east to south-west. It is called Colorado, or coloured, from the water being tinged red by the clay of its banks. This river rises in the Sierra Verde, it is navigable for a considerable distance, and very deep where it is joined by the Rio Gila, which issues from the same mountains in Pimeria, further to the south. This latter river, though broad and large, has no depth, and the country which lies between these streams is a desert of high land, without water or grass. The savages who inhabit the northern side of the Colorado, are termed Cocomaricopas, and are celebrated for their dexterity in swimming the river with a piece of wood in their left hand to support their goods and weapons above the water, and steering with their right, the women carrying their infants on a basket work attached to their bodies. Their side of the river is fertile, and they are an industrious people. The Colorado meets many other rivers which rise in the same chain; the chief of these is the Zaguananas, which rises in those mountains, in about 40° north latitude. There is a large lake near this branch, called Buenara, in 39° north latitude, on the frontier, but of this lake nothing certain is known. The Colorado empties itself by an immense estuary into the northern part of the gulf of California. The Rio Gila is the next river of importance of this country, but both this and the Rio Colorado are north of the actual intendancy of Sonora.
There are several rivers in Pimeria, but so imperfect are the accounts relative to this province, that nothing can be advanced with certainty about them. The Rio Ascension is the chief, on whose banks live a tribe of warlike Indians, named Seris.
Higher Pimeria contains the fort of Ternate and Lower Pimeria, the fort of Buenavista. The province contains much gold in grains, but it is not sought after, owing to many causes, amongst which the incursions of the warlike Indians of the neighbouring country is the principal one.
SONORA.
Sonora is the next province in proceeding southward, but, as in all this part of the New World, its limits are not accurately defined; it is however bounded by Pimeria on the north, the gulf of California and Hiaqui on the west, New Biscay on the east, and Hiaqui on the south. It is about 420 miles in length in a northerly direction, and 380 in breadth, from west to east.
The soil of Sonora is good on the shore of the gulf, and very fertile, but no very extensive forests are found in this province. The climate is good, the air being reckoned very pure; but on the immediate vicinity of the gulf, the air is indeed impregnated with marshy effluvia, and therefore not so conducive to health as in the interior.
The gold and silver mines of Sonora are very numerous, the mines of gold being in the greatest proportion, and in which the chief value of the province consists.
The trade of Sonora consists in the exchange of its natural productions with Mexico, both by land and by means of the gulf of California, as also with New Mexico and New Biscay. Sonora will in all probability become in time a very valuable province, its natural advantages being great.
Sonora is in the diocese of the bishop of Durango.
This country is famed for an excellent breed of horses, for its fine cheeses, and for its cattle, which are superior and numerous. The animals of Sonora are chiefly the deer, the bear, the goat, and an extraordinary species of large lizard, which the natives domesticate, and teach to hunt mice and vermin.
The capital is Arispe, situated near the head of the Hiaqui River, 108° 53' 15 west longitude, and 30° 36' north latitude. This town is celebrated for its hospitality, and for the great quantity of gold used in the table services of the chief families, with a population of 7600 souls.
Sonora is the next town of any importance, its population is 6400.
The principal rivers of Sonora are the Hiaqui or Yaqui, which rises in the Sierra Madre, and falls into the gulf of California, (after watering the district of Hiaqui,) in 28° north latitude, and the Ascension River, which falls into the same gulf in 31°.
HIAQUI, AND MAYO, OR OSTIMURI.
Hiaqui and Mayo are two small districts, situated between Sonora and Cinaloa. The district of Hiaqui is bounded on the north by Sonora, and on the south by Cinaloa, on the west by the Californian gulf, and on the east by the ridge of mountains. Hiaqui is so called from a river of that name, which flows through it from Sonora. It is not a very extensive district, and little is known concerning the climate and productions, though they are nearly the same as those of Sonora.
The Rio Hiaqui is the principal river, a branch of which in the south east, divides that part of Cinaloa which lies on the eastern side of the ridge from Sonora; it also overflows occasionally, and inundates in the rainy seasons part of Sonora and Mayo, rising in a southerly direction in a place called Tauramara, and bending in a north-west course for half its length, it pervades the grand chain of mountains, and then turns off to the south-west, and falls into the Californian gulf, at the village of Huiribis, and forms a good harbour, from which a trade in provisions is carried on to the opposite shore of California. The banks of the Hiaqui are extremely fertile, and produce abundance of maize, beans, pease, and vegetables. The chief town is Riochico, situated fifty leagues north-north-west of Sinaloa.
Mayo is a small district to the south of Hiaqui, and is bounded by that province on the north, on the east by the ridge of mountains, on the south by Sinaloa, and the west by the gulf of California. Of it very little is known with accuracy; it is fertile, aid watered by the river Mayo, from which it receives its name; this river falls into the Californian sea in north latitude 27° 40'.
SINALOA OR CINALOA.
Sinaloa is the most southern province which is comprehended under the intendancy of Sonora; it is bounded by the gulf of California on the west, on the east by New Biscay, or the ridge or Cordillera of Topia, also called Tepecouan, and Sierra Madre, on the north by Mayo, and on the south by Culiacan. This country is about 300 miles in length from the south-east to the north-east, and 120 miles broad.
Sinaloa was discovered by Nunez de Guzman in the year 1552. The climate is good, the air being very pure, the land fertile, and producing abundantly grain, cotton, and fruits.
The rivers are numerous, though small, and well stored with fish.
Sinaloa is chiefly inhabited by Indians, though there are numbers of mining stations established; and the province bids very fair to be well colonized. The natives are a warlike race, and were with great difficulty brought to submit to the dominion of the Spaniards. They have caciques or chiefs, whose authority is however very limited, being confined to heading warlike expeditions. It is chiefly by valour displayed in battle, or hunting, that they obtain this distinction; sometimes indeed the interest of a powerful family elevates one of their number to the caciqueship. They are fond of oratory, and if one of their number displays any great ability in this art, universal acclamations decree him their chieftain. These latter instances are however rare. Laws are unknown.
Their weapons are bows, with poisoned arrows, heavy clubs of wood and shields. These people are more industrious than their Californian neighbours in manufacturing coarse cotton stuffs. Many of the tribes subsist entirely by hunting and fishing, and have no regular residences, neither do they till the ground. In the inland parts these tribes are chiefly found subsisting by the chase; on the sea coast they live by their industry, and by the fishery.
Those in the mountainous regions are reckoned to be in the most perfect state of nature of any of the American Indians, relying solely on their skill in the chase, and on the bounty of nature in her produce of roots, fruits, and plants. During the rainy season, they make a large cap of rushes like a pent-house or umbrella, which they wear on their heads to throw off the water, by which means they keep themselves dry for a considerable time. They construct a sort of rude wigwam of branches, to shield themselves from the scorching rays of the summer sun, and in winter they constantly keep large fires, round which they sleep, eat, and drink, with no other canopy than Heaven. The heat in this country exceeds the cold, and they have little other bad weather, than during the rainy months.
There are many gold and silver mines in the mountainous parts of this district, and in one of these called Yecorato, there was found a piece of gold which weighed 16 marks and upwards, the mark being two-thirds of a pound, or eight ounces. This was sent to Spain and deposited in the royal cabinet of Madrid. The chief mining station is Sivirijoa.
The principal town is Cinaloa, or St. Felipey St. Jago, on the river Cinaloa, in 106° west longitude, and 26° north latitude, 630 miles north-west of Mexico; the stream on which it stands and the Rio del Puerto, form the two principal rivers of this province; they both rise in the Cordillera of Topia, and receiving other streams in their course, enter the southern part of the Californian sea, very near each other, and a little to the northward of Macapule Bay. Cinaloa contains 9500 inhabitants.
The chief place of the whole government of Sonora is the capital.
Arispe, which has the forts of Bacuachi and Bavispe on the south and west.
Hostimuri, the chief place of Mayo and Hiaqui, has many rich mines in its vicinity, with a council of the mines situated at St. Xavier.
Los Alamos is also another station of note for the mines, between the Mayo and Fuerte rivers, with a population of 7900.
The towns of Sonora Proper, and Ostimuri, are three in number, the villages 46, and the missions 46; of these villages, many are mining stations.
Cinaloa contains four towns, Cinaloa, Montes Claros, with 7900 souls; and El Rosario 5600; with 92 villages, numerous distinct farms and missions, and many important mining stations.
INTENDANCY OF NEW BISCAY OR DURANGO.
In quitting Sonora, on the east, we find the province and intendancy of New Biscay or Durango, which is bounded on the north by New Mexico and Indian nations, on the east by a desert country between it and Coaguila, on the west by Sonora, and on the south by Zacatecas and Guadalaxara, or New Gallicia. It is about 100 miles in medial breadth, and 690 in length. The great ridge or Cordillera of Sierra Madre crosses it in its whole length, and the whole country is very mountainous, well watered by small rivers, the climate temperate, the soil fertile, the cattle fine and numerous, and the mountains abounding in ores. This intendancy has a population of 159,000 souls.
The country near New Biscay contains several small marshes, in the islands or firm ground of which the Indians bid defiance to their Spanish neighbours, and are so hostile, that many forts have been built along the country to prevent their incursions.
The capital is Durango, which is the farthest town of any consequence north of Mexico; it is situated on a river which empties itself into a lake, (the river is called Durango or Guadiana).
The population of this city amounts to 12,000. It is the see of a bishop, which is very extensive; in his jurisdiction all the western interior provinces, comprehending those on the east shore of the Californian gulf, are included. It was erected in the year 1620. The tithes of this see are said to have amounted in ten years to 1,080,300 dollars.
A branch of the royal treasury of Mexico is established here for collecting the duties on the mines. The climate in the neighbourhood of this city is mild and healthy, and the country fertile, producing corn, maize and fruit, and pasturing fine cattle. It has three churches and four convents, and is 170 leagues from Mexico, and 298 from Santa FÉ. Durango is elevated 6845 feet above the level of the sea, and the intendant or governor of the province resides here.
The inhabitants of New Biscay are all whites, there being no Indians amongst them; they are a people of robust constitution and good intellectual qualities.
They live in a state of constant warfare with their neighbours the Indians, particularly with the Cumanches, a very warlike race of people, who bear an inveterate hatred to the Spaniards. A tract of desert country to the west, called the Bolson de Mapimi, is inhabited by the Acoclames, the Cocoyames, the Apaches Mezcleros, and Apaches Fardones. It is from this waste that the natives are principally annoyed by the Indians; in it is a large lake called Cayman, and part of another called Parras.
The Rio Conchos is the largest river of New Biscay, which rises in the Sierra Madre, and after taking a southerly course, suddenly turns to the east, and again to the north, and empties itself into the Rio del Norte, at the Fort de las Juntas. New Biscay has six towns and 199 villages, with innumerable stations and farms.
The towns of New Biscay of the greatest note after Durango, are Chihuahua, formerly the residence of the captain-general of all the interior provinces of the upper part of the viceroyalty of New Spain, and now the residence of the captain-general of the western interior provinces, which comprehend New Biscay, New Mexico, Sonora, and the two Californias. The population of Chihuahua is 11,600, and it is surrounded with mining stations, the principal of which is Santa Rosa de Cosiquiriachi, where that part of the Sierra Madre, called De los Metales, has valuable and numerous silver mines; this mining station is peopled by 10,700 souls.
Mapimis, on the south extremity of the desert of Mapimi, is a military port, with 2700 inhabitants.
St. Juan del Rio, south of Lake Parras, 10,200 souls.
Saltillo, situated to the west of Monterey, in New Leon, on a barren dry soil; 6000 people.
Pasquaro, south of Rio de Nasas; 5600.
Batopilas, west of Rio Conchos, 8000, formerly a place of great repute for its mines.
Parral the seat of a council of mines, 5000, and the mining station of Guirisamey, 3800.
The population of this government is concentrated entirely in these towns and in the mining stations, as in New Mexico, the warlike Indians rendering this method of living necessary; even the forts are well peopled, as the settlers choose to live under their protection, in preference to possessing large tracts of land at a distance from any defence.
INTENDANCY OF SAN LUIS POTOSI.
The intendancy of San Luis Potosi, comprises the provinces of Coaguila, New Leon, Texas, and the colonies of New Santander; and forms the western captain-generalship of the interior provinces.
It is bounded on the north by desart countries, inhabited by tribes of wandering Indians; by the Bolson de Mapimi, an unconquered desart on the west, as well as by part of New Biscay and Zacatecas; on the south by the intendancies of Guanaxuato, Mexico, and Vera Cruz. On the east its limits are not defined; by the Spaniards they are considered to reach to the river Mexicano or Mermento, between the sixty-fifth and sixty-sixth degrees of west longitude, but the American congress deny this being the boundary of Louisiana, and extend their claims as far as the bay of St. Bernardo.
This intendancy is computed to have a population of 334,900 souls.
That part of San Luis Potosi which joins Zacatecas, is a mountainous country; in New Leon the land is not high, consequently the summers are hot and the winters cold; the land on the right, between Coaguila and Louisiana, is represented as containing impervious savannahs and enormous desarts. The nearest post of the Americans to New Spain, is Fort Clayborne, on the Red River. In the greater part of this immense territory of San Luis the climate is good, and the air pure and healthy.
The coast which borders the Mexican gulf, is lined with long narrow islands, between which and the continent, are sheets of water denominated lakes. The mouth of the Rio Panuco, and the bar of New Santander, are the only ports of the coast from which vessels trade with the West Indian Islands in provisions. The whole coast has remained very little explored; such parts as have been surveyed, are found to be shut out by sand bars, which prevent large vessels from passing into the harbours, which are otherwise excellent.
The southern parts contain the mines of Catorce, Guadal-Cazar and Charcas, in the mountain districts.
There is a route which the Americans follow from New Orleans, through this intendancy, to Mexico, for the purposes of traffic, which is represented to require ten weeks to perform it, under great perils and hardships.
The great ridge of Anahuac, or plain of New Spain, gradually descends, and loses itself in this intendancy; and on its slope is situated the capital, St. Luis Potosi, where the intendant or governor-general resides; it is a little westward of the source of the Panuco River, and contains a population of 12,000 persons.
COAGUILA.
Coaguila is a province of St. Luis Potosi, lying to the north of New Leon, and sometimes included in that division; it is also called New Estremadura, and in some maps Cuvilla. It is bounded on the north by uncultivated countries, on the east by the provinces of Texas, New Santander, and Leon, on the west by New Biscay, and the Bolson de Mapimi, and on the south by New Biscay. Its extent is 200 leagues from north to south, and 160 from north-west to north-east.
This province is nearly a waste, peopled only by the Indians and some few missions, and if it possesses mineral treasures, they remain to be discovered. The capital is Monclova, situated in the south part, the residence of a military governor. The next town of importance is Castanuela, on the southern borders.
The Rio del Norte pervades this district.
NEW LEON
Is bounded on the north by Coaguila, on the west by Coaguila and New Biscay, on the east by New Santander, on the south by Zacatecas and St. Luis Potosi, or Guasteca. It is a very mountainous country, thinly inhabited and possessing few other mines than those of lead.
The chief town is Monterey, the see of a bishop; there are also several villages and small stations; but although it has been sometimes designated by the high sounding title of the New Kingdom of Leon, it is only a small tract, of which scarcely any thing is known.
NEW SANTANDER AND TEXAS, AND PANUCO, OR POTOSI.
These provinces extend for an immense length along the shores of the Mexican gulf, and commencing at the estuary of the river Mexicano follow the course of that river; Coaguila then bounds them on the north, New Leon on the east, Mexico on the south, and the gulf of Mexico on the west. The Rio Bravo del Norte flows through the centre of these provinces.
Numerous herds of cattle feed in this country, which abounds in fruit, corn, &c. A chain of mountains, from the main ridge, runs through New Santander, and is called the Sierra Gorda; from which the district has sometimes been named; this chain abounds in mines. It was not till 1748, that this district or province was wholly subdued, in which year the capital was built. There is a fine harbour attached to it, which was first observed in 1739.
The richest mines are in Panuco or Potosi, and the chief of these is Catorce, or La Purissima Conception; it was discovered in 1773, and is said to yield annually to the amount of from seven to 800,000l. sterling of silver. Charcas is the next mining station of note, and is in the north of Panuco or Potosi.
The remaining towns of most importance in the intendancy of San Luis Potosi, are New Santander, the capital of the province of that name, with its port of Soto la Marina, which however does not admit vessels that draw more water than six feet.
Linares, in New Leon, between the Rio del Norte, and the Tigre, and—
San Antonio de Bejar, capital of Texas, between the two rivers Nogales and St. Antonio.
The most eastern fort of this intendancy is the Presidio of Nacogdoch, which is 68 leagues from the United States' Fort Clayborne.
The great river of this government is the Rio del Norte, which enters the Mexican gulf in about 25° 40' north latitude, and 97° 20' west longitude. The other rivers of most note are, beginning from the east, the Rio Mexicano, Rio de Sabina, Rio de la Trinidad, Rio Colorado de Texas, Rio St. Antonio, Rio de las Nueces, Rio de Tigre, to the south of the great Rio del Norte, and the Rio Panuco or Tampico; of all of which very little is known.
INTENDANCY OF ZACATECAS.
This intendancy is one of the smallest in New Spain, and is the first of those we are about to describe, which are under the immediate controul of the viceroy.
It is bounded on the north by the intendancy of New Biscay or Durango, on the east by San Luis Potosi, on the west by Guadalaxara, and on the south by Guanaxuato. It is 85 leagues long, and 51 broad in its greatest dimensions.
The population of this province is 153,300.
Zacatecas consists almost entirely of mountain country; so much so, as to have been said greatly to resemble Swisserland. The climate is very variable and inclement, and the soil far from fertile; but all this is compensated by the riches of the mines, which are only inferior to those of Guanaxuato.
Its chief town is Zacatecas, where the great mines are situated. The population of this town, is 33,000; it is a bishop's see, and is 240 miles north-north-east of Mexico.
The next is Sombrerete, the seat of the chief-council of mines; Fresnillo, near the latter, both of which are great mining stations. Sombrerete was formerly the richest of the whole, and there are many other mining stations of great importance in this district, most of which are very populous.
THE INTENDANCY OF GUADALAXARA.
This, with Zacatecas, formed New Gallicia, in the former division of New Spain. It is bounded on the north by Sonora, and New Biscay, on the east by Zacatecas and Guanaxuato, on the west, by the Pacific, and on the south, by Valladolid, or Mechoacan; it is 118 leagues long, and 100 broad. This province is of importance, from being the seat of a royal audience, or supreme court, which, as before observed, governs in civil affairs, more than one-half of New Spain. It was established in the year 1548.
Guadalaxara, contains a population of 630,500 souls, and its eastern side is a part of the declivity of the plain of Anahuac; the western side is mountainous, and covered with extensive forests. On the sea coast, the air is hot and unhealthy, but on the heights, pure and wholesome.
The chief productions of this country are wheat, maize, cotton, and cochineal, all of which are produced in very great abundance. Guadalaxara contains two cities, six towns, and 322 villages; there are five mines of silver of great value, the chief of which is Copala.
The great river of this country is the river Santiago, which crosses it from east to west, communicating with Lake Chapala.
The volcano of Colima is the most striking feature in this province, and is the last of those which lie on the same parallel to the west. Its height is near 10,000 feet above the sea, and its crater continually ejects smoke and ashes. This volcano is isolated from the neighbouring chain.
The Rio Santiago, or Rio Grande, is a noble stream, which rises in the Nevada de Toluca, near Mexico, and after traversing the extremity of Valladolid, or Mechoacan, and Guanaxuato, crosses the province of Guadalaxara, first going through the northern extremity of Lake Chapala; it throws itself into the Pacific, at the point of St. Blas; in Valladolid it bears the name of Rio Lerma.
Lake Chapala is a fine sheet of water of this province, much larger than the Mexican lakes, and has some islands in it; it is about ninety miles long, and thirty broad, but its dimensions are not accurately ascertained.
The great towns of Guadalaxara, are Guadalaxara, where the governor, the bishop, and the officers of the supreme court of the royal audience reside; its population is 19,500 souls. It is placed on the Rio Esquitlan, or Santiago, which flows from Lake Chapala. At the distance of twelve miles from the town, this Great River has a cataract, and is very rapid. The city stands on a plain, in which there are many rivulets, surrounded by mountains, and covered with oaks and pines. Handsome gardens are seen in all directions, which abound with every sort of fruits. There is in estate belonging to the Marquis of Altamira near it, which sends annually to the markets of Mexico, four thousand head of cattle, with numerous flocks of sheep and swine; it also grows great quantities of pimento, maize, &c., of which it has been computed to yield, to the value of 40,000 dollars per annum.
The extent of the city is very great, and the population consists of Spaniards, mulattoes and mestizoes; the native Indians inhabit the suburbs and villages adjacent. The people are celebrated for industry, and they have excellent artisans amongst them; they are a good looking and well made race. The streets are unpaved, and mules are used for their carriages; this city is subjected to tempests of a very violent nature, but snow never lodges there.
Here there is a manufactory of cigars, and the natives make a sort of jars of a fine scented earth, which are in much request.
They have fine aqueduct, many churches, convents, and two colleges, with eight fine squares.
The revenues of the bishopric amount to 2,579,100 dollars annually.
The jurisdiction of the royal audience has been already mentioned in a former part.
The other towns of most importance are—
Colima, six miles south of the volcano of the same name.
Aguas Calientes, near the mines of Asiento de Ibarra.
Compostella, Lagos, and San Blas; the latter of which is a noted sea port, where the marine department is stationed.
San Blas is at the mouth of the river Santiago; here there are magazines, dock yards for the royal navy, and in the vicinity, all sorts of necessary timber for constructing ships; but it is so unhealthy a place, that the officers usually reside in a village near it, where the air is better.
THE INTENDANCY OF GUANAXUATO.
This is one of the small but populous provinces of New Spain, and is situated on the great ridge of the Mexican Cordillera. Its length is fifty-two, and breadth thirty-one leagues. The highest land is the mountain De los Llanitos, 9325 feet above the sea.
The value of this province consists chiefly (although great part of it is very fertile) in its mines. They are the richest of North America, and exceed in produce and value that of Potosi in South America, or indeed, any mines in the world.
The population of this province consists of 517,300 souls, of which, 180,000 are Indians.
The cities of Guanaxuato are three in number, with four towns, thirty-seven villages, and numerous settlements.
Guanaxuato, or Santa FÉ is the capital; it was founded in 1554. It is surrounded closely by the silver mines, six principal ones of which have been enumerated. The height of Guanaxuato is 6836 feet above the sea; some of the mines have their entrance shafts even higher, the one called Valenciana, having its mouth as high as 7856 feet above the level of the ocean.
In the city, and mining villages surrounding it, the population is estimated at 70,600; the other towns of most note are—
Salamanca, at the height of 5762 feet, Silao or Celaya, which has a very fine church, still higher, and Villa de Leon, celebrated for its neighbourhood producing fine maize and corn.
INTENDANCY OF MEXICO.
This province is the most important, though not the most extensive of those which form the viceroyalty of New Spain; its historical relations, its splendid capital, extraordinary and beautiful appearances and situation, give it, independently of its chief place being the metropolis of New Spain, an advantage over the other states of this widely extended region; we shall accordingly enter more at large into its history and description, than what the limits of this work will allow to be allotted to the other provinces.
Mexico is bounded on the north by the intendancy of San Luis Potosi, on the east by the province of Tlascala, or Puebla, and Vera Cruz, on the west by Mechoacan, or Valladolid, and Guanaxuato, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. The government of the royal audience, in the capital, is the richest and most extensive of the three royal audiences established in North America.
Mexico was formerly an empire of no great extent, but numerously peopled, and covered with towns; it was surrounded by several other states, either in alliance with it, or under its dominion. Of these the most noted were the Michuacan, Tlacopan, and the Acolhuacan kingdoms, the Cholollan, Huexotzincan, and Tlaxcallan republics, with several others of inferior note.
The boundaries of the Mexican kingdom were the small state of Quauhtemallan on the south-east; on the east, part of the above states and the Mexican gulf; on the north Huaxtecas, a country inhabited by a tribe of that name; Tlacopan, and a savage tribe, called the Chichemicas, were on the north-west; Michuacan on the west; and on the south and south-west the Pacific. This kingdom was therefore situated between the fourteenth and twenty-first degrees of north latitude, and between the ninety-seventh and the hundred and fifth degrees of west longitude. Of this extent, the most fertile and best cultivated portion was the vale of Anahuac, or of Waters, which embraced a beautiful district, comprised within mountains, the circuit of whose basis occupied 120 miles. From the name of this vale, the whole country received afterwards the appellation of Anahuac, previously to its settlement by the Spaniards, who called it New Spain; which title has since been given to the dominions of Spain, in North America, occupying the whole extent from the northern boundaries, to the kingdom of Guatimala, and often embracing that territory also. In the centre of the vale of Anahuac are the lakes of Tezcuco and Chalco, on whose banks were the cities of Mexico, Acolhuacan, Tlacopan, Tezcuco, and forty others, with innumerable small towns.
Michuacan, the westerly kingdom, had its capital on a lake, called Pascuaro, with four other cities. Tlacopan lay between Mexico and Michuacan, and its capital was Tezcuco, four miles west of Mexico. Acolhuacan, which was very extensive, as well as the most ancient of the kingdoms, had its capital on the eastern shore of Lake Tezcuco, at about fourteen miles from Mexico; this kingdom was powerful, populous, and contained many cities; it was amongst the most civilized of the territories of Anahuac. Tlaxcallan or Tlascala was on the south of Mexico, and the chief of the republics; it was not large, and its capital was situated seventy miles east of Mexico. The republics of Cholollan and Huexotzinco lay to the south of Tlaxcallan.
The origin of the Mexican nations, or the nations of Anahuac is very obscure, but it is supposed that the Toltecas, who inhabited a country to the north of Mexico were the most ancient inhabitants, of whom any trace could be found; and they had a tradition that they came from the north. A tribe of this nation being banished from the country where they dwelt, journeyed to the southward in search of a favourable spot whereon to fix their residence; it is asserted they commenced their migration in the year 596 A.D., but not finding a place which had charms enough to fix them, for any great length of time, they still kept removing to the south for the space of 104 years, when they came to a spot which pleased them. Here they erected a city, fifty miles eastward of the spot where Mexico the capital was afterwards founded. They rested twenty years in this place, when they again removed and settled forty miles farther west, building another city.
They appear to have been an industrious people, well skilled in many arts, and living under the government of their kings in a peaceable manner; but, unfortunately in the year 1052, suffered from a dearth and want of water, which pervaded their land; and a great part of their people died of famine. Those who remained, dispersed themselves into Guatimala, Mexico, &c. For the space of 100 years the Toltecan country was nearly a desert, very few having been left behind; after this interval the Cachemecas, another race from the north arrived, whose manners were not so cultivated, and their way of living more savage than the Toltecans. They established themselves in a place about six miles from the present city of Mexico, and were governed by kings, who encouraged their people to cultivate the friendship of the poor Toltecans who remained; in return for which they instructed them in all the arts they knew. This monarchy lasted till the year 1520, or nearly five centuries; the Toltecan monarchy having endured nearly four. Some other tribes from the north, of which the Acolhuans, and the Otomies were the principal, entered into alliance with the Cachemecas. After them the Tarascas and the Nahuatlacas, also from the north, settled in Anahuac. The Aztecas, or Mexicans, were the last; they came from a country beyond the gulf of California; this is said to have taken place in the year 1160, when they moved southward, and traces of the buildings they left, are said to exist on the banks of the Rio Colorado, and on the Rio Gila, &c. They stopped for some time at a place in New Biscay, about 250 miles north-north-west of Chihuahua, and there raised some large buildings, from which the place is now called Casas Grandes, which signifies large houses, and is in 29° north latitude. This large building is constructed with three floors, and crowned by a terrace; the lower floor has no door, and the upper is accessible only by a ladder, which is still the manner in which the buildings of New Mexico are constructed. This house, or fort, has been surrounded by a wall, seven feet thick, and in which enormous stones were used; the beams of pine are said still to exist. In the centre is a keep or mound; the whole has had a ditch about it, and earthen pots, jars, &c. with mirrors of the itzli stone, have been dug up in the neighbourhood. On leaving this spot, they crossed the mountains of Taraumara, and rested three years at Culiacan.
When the Aztecas left their native country, they consisted of six tribes, viz. the Mexicans, Tepanecas, Chalcese, Tlahuicas, Tlascans, and Xochimilcans. At Culiacan they constructed the image of the deity Huitzilopochtli, with a throne to carry it on the shoulders of four priests. The Mexicans were deserted by the five other tribes on quitting Culiacan, and journeying with their image, arrived at Tula, the capital which the Toltecans had built, erecting altars at all their resting places on the road. They stayed here, and in the vicinity, twenty years; and in 1216 they came to Zumpanco, a large town in the vale of Anahuac; here they were kindly received, and one of their chief women married Ilhuicatl, the son of the chief; from which marriage the race of Mexican emperors descended. They roamed about the borders of the lake Tezcuco, settling in different places, and at last engaged in wars with the Cachemicas and Acolhuans, and were obliged to take refuge in some islands called Acocolo, in the southern part of the Mexican lakes. Here they existed fifty-two years, in great poverty, and were finally enslaved by the chief of a small state called Colhuacan.
A few years after a war commenced between the Xochimilcans, one of the tribes who had separated from the Mexicans at Caliacan, and the Cholhuans, in which the Mexicans assisted their enslavers, and behaved so valorously as to gain their liberty. Their conduct was however stained by the cruelty they committed in the action, by cutting off their prisoners' ears, and by a human sacrifice, which they made to their divinity after the battle, which consisted of four of the prisoners whom they had reserved. The chief of the Cholhuans commanded them to quit his territory, being disgusted at their barbarity; they moved therefore to a place near the junction of Lakes Chalco and Tezcuco, which place they named Mexicaltzinco; they removed however from this to Iztacalo, nearer the place where Mexico was soon after built. Here they rejoiced for their victory and subsequent liberation, and remained two years, when wandering about, they discovered on an island, in the lake, a sign which their oracles had declared to be the mark of their future resting place; here they accordingly built some miserable huts of reeds, and having taken a Cholhuan prisoner, sacrificed him to their deity, built an altar, and prepared permanently to fix their residence. To this town and island they gave the name of Tenochtitlan, and afterwards building their huts round the altar of Huitzilopochtli or Mexitli, they gave the town the name of Mexico, or the city of Mexitli, their god of war. This took place in the year 1825.
The situation of their new town, chosen solely from the omen, was as uncomfortable and as ill-placed, as they could have found on a small island, in a lake without ground for cultivation, or much space for building. There they lived long in a very wretched manner, till at last, impelled by necessity, they drove stakes and made dykes to the neighbouring islets; by which means they shut out the water, and connected the islands, so as to gain considerable space from the lake. By industry they attained sufficient quantities of materials from the neighbouring settlements to erect their habitations and furnish themselves with necessaries, and constructed floating gardens on the water, with the mud of the lake and branches of trees, on which they raised vegetables, &c. Struggling with great distress and difficulties, they remained unanimous and constant in their exertions for thirteen years, when an old quarrel was renewed amongst themselves, and they divided into two factions, who separated, one remaining on the spot, the other going to an island in the vicinity, which they named Tlatelolco, and which was afterwards united to the other by mounds. The original town was now divided into four quarters, and in the centre was built the temple of Mexitli.
They remained in great barbarism for some time, and sacrificed a daughter of the king of Cholhuacan, whom they had invited into their town, under a specious pretext; on which the king declared war against them, but they were now as powerful as himself. Their government had been hitherto an aristocracy; the nation obeying a council of their great chieftain. At this era they found that a monarchy was best suited to their views, as well because their neighbours had mostly adopted that form of government, as because their territories consisting only of the city, one person was better able to perform the duties of the kingly office than several. They therefore elected Acampatzin for their king and leader, who was descended from the race above mentioned.
This prince took a daughter of Acolmiztli, king of Coatlican, for his consort; their rival brothers, the Tlatelolcos also chose a king, the son of the king of the Tepanecans, and in consequence of their choosing the son of this prince, who had hitherto received tribute from both parties, they endeavoured to instigate him to make war on the Mexicans; he however, only doubled their tribute, and otherwise oppressed them very much, for fifty years; during thirty-seven of which, Acamapitzin governed Mexico. He took another wife, and had by her a son Huitzilihiutl, and by his concubines several children, of whom Itzcoatl was afterwards one of the most renowned.
Acamapitzin governed Mexico with great success, and in his reign buildings of stone were constructed, and canals for the use and ornament of the place were commenced. He died in the year 1389, and after four months Huitzilihiutl his son, succeeded him by the universal choice of the people. He married a daughter of the king of the Tepanecas, as well as another princess; they each brought him sons, and the son of the latter was the famous Montezuma Ilhuicamina. Huitzilihuitl reigned twenty years, and died in 1409, and was succeeded by his brother Chimalpopoca, who, dying by his own hands in prison, to which he was treacherously conveyed by the king of Acolhuacan, was succeeded by Itzcoatl, the son of Acamapitzin, by a slave. In the mean time they were engaged in many disputes with the neighbouring kings and their rivals the Tlatelolcans, who were as rapidly advancing in power as the Mexicans. The first king of the Tlatelolcans died in 1339.
On the ascension of Itzcoatl to the Mexican throne, who was accounted one of the most prudent of their kings, he built temples, &c. subdued some neighbouring provinces, and concluded an alliance with the exiled prince of Acolhuacan, whose father had been killed, and himself supplanted by a neighbouring king. This prince immediately declared war against the usurper, and took several towns. Itzcoatl sent Montezuma, the son of Huitzilihuitl to congratulate him. He was taken prisoner, but escaped by treachery, and got back to Mexico, when Maxtlaton, the usurping king of Acolhuacan, who had been only king of Tepanecas, declared war against Mexico, on account of the Mexicans joining the exiled prince Nezahualcajotl. This terrified the Mexicans, and they demanded their king to make peace, but Montezuma, by his oratory persuaded them to commence hostilities. Montezuma undertook to carry the defiance, and was assailed in his return by some of the enemy, but got back after killing two or three. After this the exiled prince joined his army to the Mexicans, and a furious battle took place. When night approached, the troops of the enemies still increasing, the Mexicans were discouraged, and began to give way; but Montezuma, and the other chiefs, rushing to the front, redeemed the day. Montezuma took the general of the adversaries with his own hand; the next day the battle was renewed, and the Tepanecans totally defeated, and their city taken.
That nation was afterward totally subdued, and became subjected to Itzcoatl; who, after reducing all the provinces which were refractory, replaced Nezahualcajotl on his throne; in these actions Montezuma manifested his usual address and courage. Itzcoatl gave the Tepanecan country to Totoquihuatzin, with the title of king of Tacuba. These kings then formed a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive. The Xochimilcans, fearing that they might be the next objects of Mexican power, declared war, but were defeated, their capital and strong holds being taken by Montezuma. Thus, after twelve years, Mexico rose from its insignificancy, and became more powerful than all the surrounding states, and was no longer tributary. Itzcoatl died in 1436, at an advanced age, and Montezuma was called to the throne; one of the first acts of his reign was to build an immense temple, and he was no sooner placed on the imperial seat, than he was called to a war between the Chalcese and the Tezcucans; which terminated in the defeat of the former, and in this war he obtained the victims to be sacrificed at his coronation, which was the most splendid they had ever witnessed. The king of Tlatelolco having formed a conspiracy against Itzcoatl, and renewing his designs against Montezuma, he deposed him, and put Moquihuix in his place. Two large provinces were also conquered, and added to the Mexican dominions about this period.
He then engaged in a war with the king of the Mixtacas, the Huexotzincas, and Tlascalans, and after meeting with a reverse, he finally succeeded in defeating them, and again enlarged his dominions. In 1457 he undertook the conquest of Euetlachtlan, and sent Moquihuix, king of the Tlatelolcos to subdue it, but hearing that the Cholulans, the Tlascalans and Huexotzincas had joined the enemy, he ordered his army to return; they however disobeyed his command, conquered the enemy, and dispatched an immense number of them to be immolated in the Mexican temples. This so pleased Montezuma, that he forgave them, and married Moquihuix to one of his own relatives.
The Chalcese, who had again rebelled, were again reduced, and the whole of his reign was occupied in augmenting his dominions; so that at his death, in 1464, his territories reached from the gulf of Mexico nearly to the Pacific.
During the reign of Montezuma, Mexico suffered by an inundation; this happened in 1446, when, after a very long continuance of rain, the lake swelled, and overflowing the city, destroyed many houses; to prevent its recurrence, he constructed a dyke of two parallel rows of stakes, filled in with mud and stones; this dyke was nine miles long, and for the future, prevented that evil in a great measure. Six years after this calamity, the maize harvest failed; and, in 1452, after having suffered more or less, from the same cause, for three years, the people were become so reduced, that many sold themselves for slaves, and Montezuma was obliged to open the granaries, and issue edicts that no woman should sell herself for less than 400 ears of wheat, or any man for less than 500. They existed on fish, and were only restored by a plentiful harvest happening in 1454.
On his demise, he was succeeded by Axaycatl, in 1468; which prince, after a great victory, built an immense temple called Coatlan; this was after conquering the natives of the province of Tecoantepec. The Tlatelolcos, in opposition, built another which they called Coaxolotl. This prince was not so fortunate as Montezuma, for many of the districts he conquered, revolted, and the Tlatelolcos became again the enemies of the Mexicans. In 1469 and 1470, the kings of Acolhuacan and Tacuba died, and thus the league was weakened. The Tlatelolcos now declared war, and the king Moquihuix, who had married a sister of Axayacatl, treated her so ill that she informed her brother of the enterprise, by which means he totally defeated the Tlatelolcos, penetrating, in the commencement of the action, into the market place, where he tore out the heart of Moquihuix, who had been taken prisoner; he then united the city to Mexico, which it has ever since made a part of.
Axayacatl then engaged in war with some other states and was wounded, however, he gained a complete victory over the Matlatzincas, and continued to extend his dominions till his death in 1477. He was succeeded by his brother Tizoc, after reigning thirteen years. Tizoc conquered fourteen cities, and after having collected materials to build a larger temple than any of his ancestors, was poisoned by his subjects. This prince married one of his grand-daughters to the king of the Acolhuacans, who also fell in love with her sister Xocotzin, and married her, by whom he had a son named Cacamatzin, who succeeded his father, and was taken prisoner afterwards by the Spaniards.
Ahuitzotl, the brother of Tizoc, succeeded him in 1482, after he had reigned five years. His first care was to finish the temple begun by Tizoc, which he completed in four years. This king was engaged in several wars, and the human sacrifices he caused to be made at the dedication of the new temple, were so enormous, that they are said to have amounted to upwards of 70,000. Another temple was also dedicated in his reign, at which many unfortunate victims were immolated.
The dedication of these temples took place in 1486 and in 1487, when there was a terrible shock of an earthquake felt at Mexico. This monarch's life was spent in war, he extended his dominions as far as Guatimala, 900 miles from his capital. The Mexicans were however defeated in 1476, by the Atlixcans, under the command of a chief of the Huexotzincas.
Ahuitzotl caused a channel or aqueduct to be made from a fountain into the lake, by which the waters were so much increased, that an inundation, followed by a famine, took place.
He died in 1502, after a reign of twenty years. At the period of his death, Mexico was precisely in the same state, with regard to territorial acquisitions, as when the Spaniards arrived. He embellished Mexico by building with a stone which he discovered a quarry of in the neighbourhood, and his death was caused by a contusion on the head, which he received in rushing out of his palace, when the waters of the lake rose, by striking his head against the upper part of the door.
The next sovereign was Montezuma, the second of that name, and the ninth in order; he was called Montezuma Xocotzin, or the younger; who was a priest, and a man of great bravery; and on his election the people particularly valued themselves.
Montezuma's attention was first directed to war, in order to procure victims to be offered to the deities at his coronation, and the unfortunate Atlixcans were the sufferers, who, however, slew numbers of the Mexicans before they were subdued.
The pomp of Montezuma's coronation exceeded that of any preceding emperor, and the people saw with regret, symptoms of a tyrannical and haughty disposition show themselves after this ceremony, which they had before not suspected.
Montezuma changed many of the rules adopted by his predecessors, and particularly favoured his nobles, at the expence of the other classes. His household were entirely composed of people of rank, and he kept a number of women confined in the palace, choosing those for himself and favourites, which he thought the most beautiful; 600 neighbouring chieftains came to congratulate him, and appeared themselves to be in the utmost dread of his vengeance. His attendants cast off their shoes on entering the palace, and he permitted none of them to be sumptuously dressed. On entering the audience hall, they made three obeisances, at each of which they addressed him with a higher title. He was carried in a litter on the shoulders of his nobles, covered with a canopy, and carpets were spread along the streets in which he walked; the kitchen utensils of the finest earthenware, his tablecloths and napkins were never used more than once. His chocolate was prepared in golden vessels, and his state dinners were carried by three or four hundred young nobles, who respectfully retired when they set the dishes down, each dish standing on a chafing dish, and the whole consisting of every variety of the game, fish, fruits and herbs of the country. He pointed out those which he preferred, and the rest were taken into the anti-chamber to the attendant nobility. Four women stood by him the whole time with ewers, and he was surrounded by his counsellors and carvers.
He bathed every day, and changed his dress four times, never putting on the same dress again, they being reserved for his nobles and chief warriors. One whole city he appointed as a place of residence at his expence, for those who were worn out in his service. All his palaces and gardens were very magnificent, and he had palaces in Mexico, appropriated to the kings and foreign nobles, whenever they should choose to reside there; with royal menageries; an aviary that occupied the attention of 300 men and physicians; five hundred turkeys were killed every day for the birds of prey, and the beasts were fed on deer, rabbits, and the entrails of human sacrifices.
This Prince had many parks for hunting; he was the patron of the arts, and had many good qualities; but was bigoted in the extreme; so much so, that he afterwards lost his life and empire by his belief in vain predictions. Montezuma was not so fortunate as his predecessors had been, he indeed conquered a province which had not before been reduced; but in his wars with the Tlascalans, he was unsuccessful. This small republic contained a brave and independent people, and though comparatively in small numbers to the Mexicans, they resisted all their attacks; the Tlascalans fortified their territories, and built a wall six miles in length on the frontier they suspected would be attacked, and they repulsed the Mexicans and their allies in every attempt they made to subdue them.
The resistance of these people to the power of Montezuma created several other rebellions which lasted during the remainder of his reign. In the year 1508, an expedition had been sent against Amatla, a distant region, and the Mexican army, in marching over a mountain, encountered a furious snow storm, in which great numbers perished, and on arriving at Amatla, the remainder were almost all slain. A comet appearing at this time, and the empire suffering under rebellion and other calamities, Montezuma, ever superstitious, was thrown into great alarm; the king of Acolhuacan, Nezahualpilli, who was accounted a learned soothsayer, presaged, that the comet portended a calamity that was about to befal the nation, by the arrival of some strangers. This he was unwilling to believe, and an astrologer, who verified the predictions of his brother king, was slain in his house, which was razed to the ground.
There are many other things related of the foreknowledge the Mexicans had of the arrival of the Spaniards, these may be traced to two sources; the Spanish priests, who have invented most of them since, and to the following; the Spaniards at that time had become very formidable in the West India Islands; settlements had even been attempted on the southern continent, and their uncommon arms and appearance must have been the universal topic of conversation among the natives where they came; many of the savages on the islands had escaped, and it is hardly possible to think, that from the year 1492, when Columbus discovered the American islands, to 1508, the period we are now speaking of, that such a people as the Mexicans would not have heard of these formidable neighbours, and that they would not have formed some idea that it might soon be their turn to be attacked. They, however, went on for some years in the usual manner, and although always dreading the arrival of the unknown people, they continued their internal wars and human sacrifices. The stone, or altar, on which these unfortunate victims had been laid, was found too small, and the emperor ordered one of enormous dimensions to replace it; this was dragged by a multitude of people towards the temple, and in going over a bridge, broke the structure and precipitated the high priest and his attendants into the lake. It was, however, got out by immense labour, and, it is said, upwards of 12,000 victims were sacrificed on it.
This was the period when Mexican splendour was at its height, and Montezuma on the pinnacle of his glory. The Spaniards having well settled themselves in the great islands of Cuba and Hispaniola, turned their attention to explore the continent towards the west. Vasco NuÑez de Balboa first landed on the coast, and from the mountains descried the Pacific; this was, however, near the Isthmus, in the year 1513.
Juan de Grijalva was appointed to command a small expedition for discovery; having four ships and 240 men, he first landed on the island of Cozumel, east of Yucatan, on the 3d of May, 1518, and returned to Cuba without making any attempt to reduce the country, which he called New Spain. Velasquez, the governor, by the accounts he gave, entrusted Cortez with a commission to explore and conquer the newly discovered regions; the manner in which this was effected has been related under the head of New Spain, as well as the cause of the death of Montezuma.
The Mexican empire extended, at this time, 500 leagues from east to west, and 200 from north to south. On the death of Montezuma, his brother Quetlavaca, or Cuitlahuitzin, succeeded him after he had reigned nearly eighteen years; which event happened in June 1520. Quetlavaca gave promise of being an excellent king; he prepared his capital to receive the Spaniards, when he heard they were returning from their last retreat, and caused it to be supplied with stores, and made spears headed with the daggers and swords taken from the Europeans who had fallen, to annoy the Spanish cavalry. He died of the small-pox before he could bring his projects to bear, in July 1520, and was succeeded by his nephew and son-in-law, Guatimozin, who had the misfortune to observe his people, dividing themselves from each other, and instead of aiding him to extirpate the Spaniards, many of them were assisting them to the utmost of their power. He was a man of undaunted courage and great capacity, and defended his city with great resolution; but being at last nearly starved; want, wretchedness, and disease, with the daily advance of the Spaniards and their auxiliaries, induced him to effect his escape, which he sought to do with his family in a canoe, accompanied by many of his faithful subjects; whilst those whom he had left to guard the remnant of his once flourishing capital endeavoured to deceive the Spaniards, in order to favour it. The canoes being large and rowing very swiftly, with other suspicious appearances, attracted the attention of the Spanish vessel, and a brigantine commanded by Garcia Holguin, was ordered to chase by Sandoval, one of Cortez's best officers. On coming up with the canoes the rowers dropped their oars, and the people with lamentations, begged the Spaniards not to fire, as the emperor was there. Garcia eagerly seized such a prize, and the emperor in an undaunted manner gave himself up, earnestly requesting them not to injure his wife and children. Appearing before Cortez, he, in a manly and majestic tone, addressed him, saying, “I have done my duty as a king, sheath your dagger in my body; my life is now useless to myself and my subjects.”
He had, previously, ordered his treasures to be thrown into the lake; and the allies of Cortez, had, during the general bustle, carried off the most valuable of what remained; this exasperated the Spaniards, and the rebellious spirit of his soldiers urged Cortez to a deed which has for ever stained his memory; he directed that Guatimozin and his prime minister should be put to the torture, to make them reveal where the treasure had been deposited. The emperor's favourite or minister, overcome with pain, for they varied the torture in every possible manner, putting them on heated grates with live coals, &c. threw a glance of supplication to Guatimozin, as if he requested leave to explain. The emperor looked at him sternly, and saying, “am I reposing on a bed of roses,” checked all further solicitation. The unfortunate minister, worn out with agony, shortly after breathed his last. Cortez, who was present, ordered the torture to cease, and released the emperor, but only for further indignities; he made him swear allegiance to the crown of Spain, and afterwards, pretending he had planned a revolt, ordered him to be strangled. Thus died Guatimozin, who had reigned about nine months, and finished his imperial career on the 15th of August 1521, the day on which the city was taken.
Here ended the race of Mexican emperors, after a period of 197 years, and 300 years from the emigration of the colony to Mexico.
The memory of the events which happened in Mexican history was retained by means of paintings on cloth of a coarse and awkward appearance, and by historical songs which were handed from generation to generation; we shall not, however, enter into those discussions which have taken place with respect to the probability of many of the circumstances; it is sufficent to say, that they were generally believed by the natives themselves. The Mexicans were assuredly an extraordinary people, and were acquainted with many arts unknown to more civilised nations; they cast metals, made pictures in feather work, dyed their cloths with beautiful and permanent colours, fabricated mirrors of a stone called itzli, as well as razors of the same substance, cut and polished gems, made a strong and lasting cement for their architectural purposes, cultivated their land, and knew the uses of the cochineal insect, which they bred; manufactured cotton cloth and hewed wood into beams, &c. with instruments of copper. Their potters were adroit, and manufactured beautiful articles; above all, they knew the difference between the solar and civil year, and added 13 days to their cycles, or era of 52 years, as intercalary days. They divided their year into 18 months, and gave these months appropriate names from the seasons, agricultural employments, &c. In their pictures, a month was represented by a circle divided into twenty parts or days; for a year, they divided a circle into eighteen parts or figures, and placed the moon in the centre. The era or century of fifty-two years, was similarly represented, and round the circle a serpent was drawn with four folds, to denote the commencement of the four periods of thirteen years each.
Cacao nuts were the monies of the people of Anahuac; and, for large purchases, were made up in bags, each bag passing for a certain sum. (In Mexico, the poor people still make use of these nuts, to purchase articles at market.) Very few remains of the Mexican structures exist; but Cortez asserted, that the great temple of Mexitli, occupied a space, in which five hundred houses might have stood. It appears, that the habitations of the Mexicans were rudely constructed, and ill contrived. The ancient city stood nearly where the present stands; though the waters of the lake have receded, owing to a drain having been formerly cut, to carry off some superabundant water. Its scite was on some islands on the west side of Lake Tezcuco, north of its junction with Lake Chalco, accessible on the west side only, by three large causeways, thirty feet broad, of earth and stone; the lake covering the other sides. It is asserted, that the circumference of the city was ten miles, and that it contained 60,000 houses. It was divided into four quarters, which had four broad roads leading from the four gates of the great temple; a fifth quarter was added, when the city of Tlatelolco was taken, and the city was intersected by canals in every direction.
It contained many temples and palaces, the better kind of which had parapets and balconies; and many had even towers for defence. The largest square was that of Tlatelolco, where the great market was held, large enough to contain 40,000 people; and the city had fountains and reservoirs for fish, with beautiful gardens and terraces. The population was immense, but no just account has been given of it.
The Mexicans were a sanguinary people. The human beings they sacrificed on the altars of their gods were innumerable; they laid the body on the altar, cut the breast open, and took out the panting heart to satisfy their chief deity. The priests practised all sorts of austerities; puncturing their bodies with the spines of aloes, and mangling their flesh; after which they bathed in a sacred pond, which was tinged with the blood of these self-tormentors.
The dress of the Mexicans consisted, in the higher ranks, of fine cotton, dyed in fanciful colours, interwoven with hair and feathers, and painted with curious figures; they wore two or three mantles, one above another, the longest undermost, so that each might be visible. Their shoes were mere sandals of leather, or coarse fibrous cloth, tied with ribbands; the rich people adorning them with precious stones, &c. Their hair was worn long; the women allowed it to fall naturally in tresses; the men tied it up, and adorned it with feathers and jewels. They wore ear-rings, pendants from the upper lip, as well as the nose; necklaces, bracelets on the wrists and arms, and round their legs. Those of the rich were of gold, pearls and gems; the poorer sort wore crystal, amber and shells, and their habits were made of the thread of the mountain-palm or coarse cotton. They used the pulp of a fruit, and a root, for soap, to wash their cotton garments.
Having traced the Mexican people, from the earliest known period of their history, to the conquest by Cortez, it is now time to recur to the actual situation of the country.
The climate of Mexico Proper varies according to the situation of the districts; its sea coast is hot and unhealthy, the plains are temperate and salubrious, and the high land cold and barren. Earthquakes and dreadful thunder storms are common. This province abounds in mountains; their principal summits have been described under the general head of New Spain; four of them are within a short distance of the capital; these mountains abound in ores and fossils, and are in general covered with thick forests, and, in their upper regions, with snow. Some large rivers run from them into the two oceans. They occasionally furnish precious stones and marbles for sculpture, as well as different kinds of stone for building. Mexico is cultivated with the lemon, orange, citron, cocoa, and plantain trees, vanilla, chili, or long-pepper, achiote, cotton, indigo, pimento, wheat, maize, barley, rice, pease, beans, and all sorts of European vegetables and fruits; also the plants useful in forming drugs, resins, gums, oils, as well as for their fruit, flowers, and roots, which are indigenous, have been enumerated as exceeding one thousand.
The trees which afford timber in this province, are of every variety. Tigers, wild cats, or loupcerviers, wolves, bears, foxes, deer, goats, badgers, weazels, polecats, martins, squirrels, rabbits, otters, and rats, are common in the forests, and usual haunts of the respective species. The cojotl, the tlacojotl, and three other species similar to dogs; the wild cat, called ocotochtli; the cajopollin, resembling a mouse; the tozan, a similar animal; the porcupine and ahuitzotl, an amphibious creature; the mitzli, a sort of lion, without long hair; the polutaca, a flying rat; the Mexican hog, the opossum, the armadillo, the tapir, racoons, monkeys, and apes, are amongst the most noted animals of Mexico, and the adjacent regions.
The birds of Mexico are numerous, and celebrated for the variety and splendour of their plumage. Eagles, falcons, hawks, ravens of two or three different kinds, of which one never touches carrion, but subsists on corn; and another which follows the alligator, and destroys her eggs; ducks, geese, swans, herons, quails, divers, king-fishers, pelicans, pheasants, pea-hens, the mocking bird, cardinals, humming bird, &c. &c. It would occupy a volume to describe their peculiarities as well as their number. Mexico has indeed been called the country of birds, celebrated for their song, their beauty, and for their feathers, of which the Mexican pictures were executed, and which had all the softness and brilliancy of oil colours, and were so skilfully done, as to be distinguished only by the touch; they having had the art of flattening them, in such a manner, as to give them an appearance of the finest painting.
The reptiles are numerous; the cayman, or alligator, being nearly as formidable in appearance as the Egyptian crocodile. The serpents in the forests and marshes attain an enormous size, but are rarely found in the inhabited districts. The lizard tribe, from the cayman down to the water lizard, are very numerous. The rattle snake, cenocoatl, or phosphorescent snake, are the most venomous; and there are many harmless snakes, who devour the ants and other insects. Edible frogs, of three species, which attain a great size, are found in Lake Chalco and are eaten at Mexico. The rivers and lakes abound with fish, as do the seas which bound the province. Turtles are a principal article of food; lobsters, and other crustaceous animals also abound; and upwards of one hundred kinds of nutritious fish, have been enumerated as used by the inhabitants. Sharks of great voracity are found on the coasts; and the almost tepid water of the Mexican gulf, seems highly natural for the production of the large aquatic animals. Beautiful shells are collected on the shores, and sponges and lithophytes are produced in great variety. The insect tribe, terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospherical, are more numerous than can be conceived; of these, the scolopendras, ants, scorpions, spiders of great size, are all dreadful and venomous; hornets, wasps, bees, &c. common, and the fire-fly and lanthorn beetle, are singular and innumerable; indeed, the whole continent of America seems to be amply furnished with luminous insects, which are not to be found in Europe. A large fly, which is produced near the Mexican lake, lays innumerable eggs on the flags which border the shores; these eggs are collected by the natives, and made into a sort of paste for sale in the market, where it is eagerly purchased for food, and is said to resemble caviare.
Mosquitoes and venomous gnats occupy the air in clouds, and are extremely tormenting, sometimes causing inflammatory appearances on the bitten parts, which become dangerous. The capital, though on a lake, is however free from these pests, probably owing to the circumambient atmosphere being charged with smoke; the smoke or vapour of wood fires being destructive to these insects. Thus many towns in North America are free from mosquitoes, whilst, if you step across their boundaries, these insects immediately assail you, and it is remarkable, that they are more troublesome to strangers than to the natives. Butterflies of every beautiful and elegant variety are natives of the Mexican forests and fields, and form rich articles in the collections of the virtuosi. A species of locust sometimes destroys the rising vegetables, and great distress is felt from their ravages. A species of the tique or tick is as troublesome as the chigoe, or jigger of the West Indies. Many of the insect tribe, after being reduced to powder, and made into paste, are eaten by the natives, as they were also before the conquest.
The silk-worms of Mexico are in a state of nature; but produce a beautiful and strong cocoon. The cochineal insect forms one of the principal articles of Mexican commerce; and great pains are taken in rearing it.
The mineral productions, are gold, silver, copper, tin, the mines of which are near the capital; lead, iron, quicksilver, sulphur, alum, vitriol, cinnabar, ochre, and a sort of earth, resembling white lead. Asphaltum and amber are found on the coasts.
Among the precious stones and gems of Mexico, are a few diamonds, topazes, emeralds, amethysts, the stone called cats-eye, turquoises, cornelians, &c. Chrystal is also found in the mountains. Jasper, and various marbles, alabaster in particular, and a red stone, called tetzontli, which is porous and light, yet firm, is much used in the capital, where the foundations being marshy, they wish not, in many spots, to overload the piles on which they are erected. The loadstone is found to the north-west of the province; mica is common, and a fine sort was, after being burnt and powdered, used by the Mexicans in their paintings. The itzli stone is the most curious of the productions of the Mexican quarries; it has a glossy appearance, is semi-transparent, and generally of a black colour, though sometimes varying to dark blue and dirty white; it has been assimilated to the obsidian of the ancients, and declared to be the obsidian, or volcanic glass of modern mineralogy. The Mexican artists fabricated it into mirrors, razors, spearheads, knives, lancets, and all sorts of fine tools.
The natives, that is to say, the aborigines or Indians, are well made, above the middle size, with complexions of an olive colour, narrow foreheads, black eyes, firm, regular, and fine teeth, coarse, black shining hair, with very little beard or hair on the trunk, or legs and arms; and it is remarked, that few deformed people are seen amongst them.
The women are fairer than the men, and many of them handsome. These people have generally good health, and are long-lived. Ardent spirits, together with European disorders, have considerably thinned their numbers, and they have much degenerated; the modern Mexican possessing little of the fire and warlike spirit which characterized his ancestors, neither are they so industrious as their forefathers, being of a melancholic temperament, and affecting mystery in all their actions. They are mostly of the Catholic persuasion; their progenitors had an imperfect notion of the Supreme Being, and adored him under the appellation of Teotl; they likewise called him Ipalnemoani, “He by whom we live,” and Tloque Nahuaque, “He who has all in himself.” Of the Creator, they formed no image, and to him no set forms of religious worship were made; they principally directed their prayers to Tlatecolototl, or the wise owl, an evil spirit; they also believed in the metemsychosis, and imagined, that the souls of their heroes went, after death, to the mansions of the Sun; and, after living there four years in happiness, returned under the form of beautiful birds. The souls of their slaves and meaner people, passed into the bodies of animals, in the more abject scale of creation; but souls of those who died by disease, by water, by lightning, and other accidental causes, went with the souls of little children to an Elysium; and those who died by punishment for crimes, &c., to a kind of Tartarus, which they called Mictlan, or the abode of utter darkness. It is said, that their historical pictures related the events of the creation, deluge, confusion of languages, and consequent dispersion of the people; and that this is one proof of the Americans being of the same origin as their brethren of the Old World.
They had thirteen chief deities. The creator; Tezcatlipoca, ever young, and supreme agent under the Invisible Being; the Sun, the Moon, the god of the air; Tlaloc, the god of water, of harvests, and of the household; the god of fire, Centeotl; the goddess of the earth; the god and goddess of hell; the god of night, and Mexitli, the god of war; and the rational owl, or evil god, who was worshipped to avert his wrath. Besides these, they had many inferior deities, who presided over the hunters, fishers, &c. They had also 260 gods, who had each a day of service assigned them; these were probably their heroes.
They were adored under the form of images of clay, wood, stone, gold, silver, or copper, and gems. In their prayers, their faces were turned to the east; and the avenue to the sanctuary, where the image was placed, had its opening to the west. It is said, the temples in Mexico amounted to 2000, and that the idol Huitzilopochtli, or Mexitli, was the most adored; having more sacrifices offered at his altar; and that this image was formed of seeds glued together with human blood. The two high priests, in fact, governed the nation; they were consulted on all occasions, and wore a distinctive habit. They ruled the inferior priests, whose dress consisted of a black mantle, thrown over the head; their hair reaching down to their legs, as they never were shaved. They gave the names to new born children with many ceremonies, and assisted at all nuptials. They also presided on these occasions, and at the funeral ceremonies, placing by the side of the deceased, if he was buried, a jug of water, and pieces of their paper, with gems, and one of the deceased's domestic animals. The bodies of the dead were however generally burnt, and the ashes collected in a pot, which, in the case of people of high rank, were deposited in the temples. The priests had likewise the care of instructing the children, and preceded their armies in war.
The language of the Mexicans bears some similarity to that of the Peruvians; it is expressive and copious; and the great feature of it before the conquest was, that an addition of respect, according to the rank of the person addressed, might be added to each word; the words are many of them of immense length, as in the more northern dialects of the American Indians. It has not the consonants b, d, f, g, r, s;—l, x, t, z, tl, tz, are the most usual; but no word begins with l, though it is the most common liquid of the language. The penultimate syllable of most of the words is long, yet no nasal sound occurs in speaking it; the aspirations are soft; it is also abundant in augmentatives and diminutives; and is as well supplied with verbs as with nouns.
The colleges and university of Mexico admit the natives as freely as the Spaniards and their descendants, and are said to be well conducted, and to find considerable genius for the fine arts, and for some of the higher branches of science manifested in the pupils.
The capital of this province or intendancy, and of the whole of New Spain, has been already described under the head of New Spain; and the province of Mexico is 136 leagues in length, and ninety-two leagues broad; its population has been laid down at 1,511,800 souls; which at once shows its importance.
The great features of this province are the immense plains on the ridge of the Cordillera, elevated from 6561 to 8857 feet above the level of the sea, and forming bases for still higher mountains, whose hoary heads repose on their bosom. These plains are from fifty leagues in length, to ten in breadth.
The mountain of Toluca, the highest summit of the intendancy, is covered with snow, whence it is called Nevado de Toluca; the word nevado signifying a mountain which rises above the lowest term of congelation. The highest peak of this volcano is 15,156 feet in height, the plain on which it rests being itself 8857 feet above the level of the sea. The mountains surrounding the vale in which Mexico is situated, are all very high, but reach the greatest elevation on the south, where the intendancy of Puebla begins, in which are two great volcanoes close to the boundaries of Mexico. The Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl roads of communication cross the crest of the Cordillera, enclosing the valley in six directions; one road passes between the last named volcanoes, and consequently, through very sublime scenery, another road, which is not yet finished, leads from Mexico to Vera Cruz, and promises to give great energy to the commerce of the interior countries. Some idea may be formed of the labour and art employed in opening these extraordinary communications, when we find that some of them are carried over summits elevated near 10,000 feet above the sea, at a greater altitude than the lower limit of perpetual snow in central Europe, and at nearly the height of Mont Perdu, the highest peak of the Pyrennean chain.
On the plate of comparative heights of the American Cordilleras which accompanies this work, a glance will suffice to point out these stupendous undertakings.
The lakes of Mexico are fed by small rivers, which rise in the surrounding mountains.
The Lake Tezcuco has retired since the period of the conquest, nearly three miles from the city of Mexico, and the city at present, instead of being enveloped by waters, stands solely on the margin of the strait or channel which connects the lakes with each other. Lake Tezcuco, the sheet of water nearest to the city, is saturated with salts, and hence was called by Cortez, who supposed that it ebbed and flowed, the sea of Anahuac; it is 7468 feet above the ocean, and is only from ten to sixteen feet in depth. In the dry seasons it is so drained by evaporation, that the canoes find great difficulty in navigating it; there is also another cause, which operates to decrease this celebrated lake; a cut has been made through the mountains to throw off the superabundant waters of the two upper lakes of Zumpango and San Christoval, which prevents those lakes from nourishing Tezcuco. Lake Tezcuco, covers a space equal to ten square leagues. A strait or channel connects Tezcuco with the lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco to the south of the city, which are not so broad as Tezcuco, but are more interesting; in Chalco there are several islands of large size, famous for the retreat of the ancient Aztecs. These lakes are of fresh water, and occupy a space of six and a half square leagues; the first-named is the most pure; on their surfaces are the celebrated floating gardens of the Mexicans, which supply the capital with fruits and vegetables. They are formed on rafts of reeds and brush-wood covered with soil, which is constantly watered from the surrounding lake, and the earth, which is strongly impregnated with muriate of soda, becomes by this continual washing, at last very free from salt and fit for vegetation. They are moved from one place to another by men with poles, and some of them contain watch-huts; where the proprietor or his deputy resides to overlook the gardens; pease, beans, chilis, potatoes, artichokes, cabbage, &c. pimento and flowers of all sorts luxuriate on these moving gardens, and afford both pleasure and profit to the inhabitants of the metropolis; many of them have become fixed on the borders of the lake, on account of the general decrease of the waters. The remaining great lakes to the north, are San Christoval and Zumpango; the former has an expanse of three and a half square leagues; the latter of one and a quarter.
There are two mineral springs near Mexico, at which baths have been constructed, and near one of them the earth is so impregnated with salts, that regular salt pans are established for the supply of the capital.
One of the most extraordinary works in the neighbourhood of the capital executed by the Spaniards, is the cut or canal above mentioned, which has been made to carry off the superabundant waters of lake Zumpango. It is carried through a mountain, and cost the labour of fifteen thousand Indians for nearly a year; its length is 21,653 feet, in breadth more than eleven feet, and in depth more than thirteen; it was completed in 1608. Beyond the mountain, this canal is carried on above 28,000 feet to the river Tula, which runs into the gulf of Mexico near Panuco. This canal was undertaken in consequence of the many and dreadful inundations the city had suffered, and it appears, that it may still be visited by this calamity, by the southern lakes being overflowed from the high mountains in their neighborhood. This wonderful gallery was however inefficient; for want of proper arching the earth fell in and closed the passage, and Mexico was inundated for the space of five years. After much discussion and trials of various other means, the subterraneous cut was entirely uncovered, and formed into an open trench; in many parts, upwards of 160 feet deep, and 300 in breadth at top, the old canal serving as the course for the water, and it yet does not answer the purpose, the slope of the banks not being sufficient, and the soil so friable that it is constantly falling. This work was put a stop to in 1789; and cost above one million forty thousand pounds sterling, and is 67,535 feet in length. In digging, fossil bones of the elephant species were discovered.
Many unfortunate Indians perished in this undertaking, which displays an astonishing effect of human industry, but very little science. Canals have since been executed at enormous expence, to conduct the water from the lake Zumpango and St. Christoval to the cut; these, with the repairs, and the great cut itself, cost up to the year 1804, as computed by M. De Humboldt, the sum of 1,291,770l.
It appears, that a new canal is about to be commenced from Lake Tezcuco to the cut just described, which is also to be in part deepened, the waters of Tezcuco being lower than those of Zumpango.
In the vale of Mexico north-east of Lake Tezcuco, are two pyramidal shaped masses, called the temples of San Juan de Teotihuacan, which the Mexicans had built for the worship of the sun and moon. The temple of the sun is 180 feet in height, with a base of 682 feet; the temple of the moon is not so high or so large, their sides nearly correspond to the cardinal points, and around them are lines of smaller pyramids of about thirty feet in height, which branch off in streets from the faces of the pyramids, and were supposed to be dedicated to the stars; of these there are many hundreds. Time has eradicated the exact forms of them all, but though covered with plants, they are still very apparent. To the south of the Nevado de Toluca is another curious monument called Xochicalco, also a pyramid, with its sides to the cardinal points; it is above 500 feet in height, and divided into five stages covered with stone, the whole being surrounded by ditches; on the top are the ruins of a square building, and the stones of the several platforms are covered with figures; it is supposed to have been an Aztec fortress.
The great causeways which led to the ancient Mexico, are now converted into paved roads, but still exhibit all the traces of their wonderful construction.
An extended description of the capital of the intendancy having been given, we shall now briefly describe the most noted towns of the province. Of these, Queretaro, Tacubaya, Cuernavaca, Tascho, Acapulco, Toluca, Zacatula, and Pachuca, are of the greatest note; there are also four mines of much consequence, of which, those of El Doctor and Zimapan, are the most productive.
Queretaro, in 20° 36' 39 north latitude, 100° 9' 15 west longitude, near the east boundary of Guanaxuato, is celebrated for its manufactures of cloth, its superb aqueduct, and the elegance of the buildings; it is situated at the height of 6374 feet above the level of the sea, and contains 35,000 people, of whom 11,600 are Indians; south of this city is a handsome town, called San Juan del Rio, surrounded with beautiful vineyards and gardens.
Tacubaya, celebrated for its olive grounds and the archbishop's palace.
Cuernavaca is in a delightful climate, on the southern edge of the Cordillera.
Tasco or Tascho, has a fine church founded by Laborde, a Frenchman, which cost him more than 83,000l.; he had gained enormous riches by the mines, but was afterwards reduced to poverty.
Acapulco, in 101° 40' 45 west longitude from Greenwich, and 16° 50' 29 north latitude, formerly the most famous sea-port of America, when the galleons came from Manilla with spices, muslin, china, silk, and other Asiatic productions, in return for cocoa, quicksilver, and silver; this trade still subsists, but in a different manner. It was formerly very populous, but is in so unhealthy a situation behind a chain of mountains, which reflect the heat to so great a degree, that the inhabitants made a cut through them to admit the sea breeze. Its population is only four thousand, which is increased on the arrival of the Asian vessels, by people from the interior employed in the trade.
Toluca, at the base of a great mountain, in a fertile valley, producing abundance of maize and the agave, called also by the native name of maguey. This town, though at the foot of a mountain, is elevated 8813 feet above the level of the sea.
Zacatula, the most northern sea port of any consequence in the intendancy of Mexico, on the shores of the Pacific, is situated on the borders of the river Zacatula.
Pachuca is one of the most ancient mines of New Spain, and the village dependent on this town called Pachuquillo, is said to be the first Spanish village that was built in the vale of Anahuac. The height of Pachuca is 8141 feet above the sea.
The rivers of this province are the Rio Tula, which rises near the lakes, and receives several small rivers from the mountains, as well as the superabundant waters of the upper lake; and after a course through the whole north-eastern part of the province, crosses the intendancy of Vera Cruz, and falls into the river Panuco, or Tampico, near the town of Panuco, close to the Mexican gulf.
The great river Santiago also rises in this province, in the Nevado of Toluca, and is called Rio de Lerma, for a considerable length; it has already been described.
The next and last great river of consequence is the Rio Zacatula, which rises in the Cordillera of Anahuac, and discharges itself into the Pacific, at the town of Zacatula, on the confines of the province of Valladolid.
THE INTENDANCY OF VALLADOLID OR MECHOACAN
Is bounded on the north by the river Lerma, or Santiago, and Guanaxuato, east by Mexico, west by Guadalaxara and the Pacific Ocean, and south by Mexico; its length is 78 leagues, its breadth 38.
This country enjoys a salubrious climate, owing to its situation along the western side of the great Cordillera of Mexico; on the coast of the Pacific the air is not so good, and the climate in some parts unhealthy.
Travellers speak with much delight of this province; it presents some charming scenery, and in the valleys surrounded by mountains, it has all the variety of hill, dale, water and forest.
The land in some districts is very high, but no part if the country offers so singular a feature, as the volcanic mountain of Jorullo, which rose from the plains in one night The highest point of Valladolid is the Pico de Tancitaro, and a little to the east of it, is the volcanic production above-mentioned; which, in the midst of the darkness of the night on the 29th of September, 1759, rose from the bosom of the plain.
Previous to this wonderful event, the ground consisted of part of an immensely extended plain between some ranges of mountains. This plain was covered with cultivation, and elevated from 2460 to 2624 feet above the level of the ocean. The sugar cane and indigo were thriving, and the inhabitants of the district, or plantation, which was reckoned as the richest of the kingdom, looked forward with delight to the prospect of the fruits they were to derive from their labour. A confused noise under the surface of the plantation was distinctly heard in June, 1759; to which succeeding alarming earthquakes for a month, the inhabitants fled from the devastation they imagined was about to overwhelm them; but these convulsions ceasing for a time, they thought that the effect was at an end, and returned to their beloved spot. For nearly the whole month of September nothing extraordinary appeared, when on the night of the 28th and near the morning of the 29th, the dreadful rumbling noise again began beneath the plain. The affrighted natives fled to the mountains, and forsook their homes; an immense tract suddenly rose and swelled itself into an enormous convex hill 524 feet in perpendicular height above the plain. This phenomenon continued to vomit fire to an amazing extent; rocks of enormous magnitude were cast up, and two rivers were swallowed into the bosom of the burning entrails of the newly formed hill; the land of the plain was also seen to undulate like the waves of the ocean.
Thousands of small conical mounds, enveloped in basaltes, started up, and studded the hill with their knobs, each of these is a little volcano, occasionally vomiting smoke; amidst them, six large hills, elevated themselves above the main body, from 312 to 1640 feet in height, above the mass of cones.
The highest of these is called Volcano de Xorullo, and is 1695 feet above the level of the old plains; it spouted forth fire, rocks, ashes, &c. and continued to terrify the people till February, 1760. The roofs of houses 48 leagues distance were covered with ashes during this time; since then the mountain has been less furious, and the natives have returned to reside in its vicinity. M. De Humboldt went down into the crater of Xorullo in 1803, and examined the inside minutely; a sulphureous vapour issued from it, and the air was at 139° of Fahrenheit. He mentions that the hill begins to be covered with plants as well as the tumuli about it. The country filled with these volcanillos or brood of little volcanoes is not unaptly styled Malpays; and the air is so warm that in the shade the thermometer stood at 109°. The Indians inhabit this country even amidst these ovens! The two rivers which were swallowed, it is said, may be heard running underneath the ground, and issue from it in the form of heated mineral springs.
The above cited author, in concluding his account of Xorullo, remarks what is in reality a most singular circumstance. The volcanic mountains of central New Spain do not follow the direction of the great Cordillera, which is from the south-east to the north-west, but cross this chain perpendicularly, beginning on the east or Mexican gulf-shore by the great Pico de Orizaba; thence west to the Pacific, the two volcanoes of the Intendancy of La Puebla, the Nevado de Toluca, the Pico de Tancitaro, the volcano of Colima and the new volcano of Xorullo, all lying in a line east and west between 18° 59' and 19° 12' of north latitude. The Pico de Tancitaro is covered with snow, but accurate measurement has been made of it.
The population of Valladolid is 376,400 souls. In it there are three cities, three towns and 263 villages. The Indians or natives exceed 120,000, and are of three tribes, the Otomies, Chichimecs and the Tarascs, inhabiting the whole of the southern part of the province; the Chichimecs retain the ancient Mexican language, and the Otomies their former savageness.
The bishop of Valladolid governs the ecclesiastical affairs of this province; his bishopric is not one of the most valuable of New Spain, and many of the priests are Indians.
Valladolid or Mechoacan, the capital, is delightfully situated on a small river, which discharges itself, into a little lake on the north; it has also another small lake on the east, both famous for fish.
It is a well built large town, and is at the height of 6396 feet above the level of the sea; snow sometimes falls, but the climate is in general excellent. It has a handsome aqueduct, and is the see of a bishop, with a population of 18,000 souls.
The other towns of note are Pasquaro on the banks of the little lake of that name on the west of Mechoacan, which has 6000 people.
Huitzitzilla, a village formerly the capital of the kingdom of Mechoacan, contains 2500 people; there are many other villages and towns, some of which are very large, inhabited chiefly by Indians.
There are five principal mines in Valladolid, and the products of the province are gold, silver, copper, maize, corn, cotton, cacao, gums, sarsaparilla, vanillas, cassia, the root mechoacan, honey, ambergris, balsam, odoriferous gums, &c.
The Indians are famous for their pottery ware, silks and ornamental feather works; they supply the capital with fruit, flowers, vegetables, &c. and possess some beautiful gardens.
Valladolid is famous for an excellent breed of horses and fine cattle; the wild animals are principally the tiger, wild dogs, squirrels and an innumerable tribe of foxes, which are very troublesome to the inhabitants in destroying their fowls, &c.
There are no good ports on the coast of Valladolid, which causes most of the commerce of that province to be carried on by land.
INTENDANCY OF TLASCALA, OR PUEBLA.
Puebla or Tlascala, is the next province to the south of Mexico, and is bounded on the north by Vera Cruz; on the east by Oaxaca, or Guaxaca; on the south by the Pacific, and on the west, by the province of Mexico; and is about 354 miles in length, and from 40 to 150 in breadth.
The soil and productions are nearly the same with Mexico; it is here that the continent begins to narrow very much; and as we approach the southern boundary of North America, it gets continually less and less, until it passes the dividing mountains in Panama, when it again spreads into that immense extent of country, known in geography by the general name of South America.
Tlascala is crossed by the great chain of mountains called Cordillera de Anahuac on the west, which is adorned by cultivation; and on the north, by a range eternally overspread with snow; these are constantly subject to violent hurricanes, terrible tempests and torrents, by which those habitations, situated in their vicinity, are often swept away, and even those which are built on the tops of little rising grounds endangered. Notwithstanding all this, and the dreadful earthquakes to which the country is subject, Tlascala is supposed to be one of the most populous provinces of New Spain. It is so fertile in maize, that it received its name from that produce of the soil; Tlascala signifying the land of bread in the native language.
This province was formerly a kingdom, but afterwards divided into different districts; a chief, or cacique of each district residing at the court of Tlascala, where a council of the whole was held to promulgate laws. They were the enemies of the Mexicans, and maintained themselves against its kings for a length of time, and continued this form of government until the conquest of Mexico by Cortez. The towns and villages are filled with the native Indians. Cortez obtained a grant of this kingdom from Charles VI., and it is consequently exempt from services and duties to the crown of Spain, on account of its having been his ally, in his expedition against the Mexicans; they pay solely a poll-tax to the Spanish king in kind, being a handful of Indian wheat each person, and this has been said to amount to the extraordinary quantity of 13,000 bushels in one year.
The government of the caciques or chiefs was decreed by the inhabitants of the country after the close of some civil wars; thus making many kings to abate the power of one.
The capital of this province was anciently Tlaxcallan, or Tlascala, on the side of a great mountain, and on the banks of a small river which runs into the Pacific. If we are to believe the accounts of the Spanish adventurers when they first saw this city, its inhabitants amounted to 300,000; and it was adorned with a large market-place, sufficient to contain 30,000 people; the market was supplied with hardly ever fewer than 1500 sheep, 4000 head of cattle, and 2000 swine. In the year 1698, Gemelli says, that it was then a village with one church, in which hung the picture of the vessel in which Cortez arrived at Vera Cruz. The Tlascalans offered human sacrifices to their deities, and kept them in cages till their execution. It is situated twenty miles north of Puebla de los Angelos, and now contains only 3400 inhabitants, of whom 900 are of the original tribe.
Puebla de los Angelos, is at present the capital of Tlascala, and one of the few cities entirely built by Spaniards in America; it is situated in 19° 15' north latitude, and 102° 43' west longitude, east-south-east of Mexico, on a small river which runs through the town; the number of good houses is very great. It has a fine cathedral, several churches and monasteries, which are all well built and beautifully decorated. The houses are mostly of stone, very lofty and tasteful, the streets broad and quite straight, crossing each other at right angles, which is a favourite method of building the towns of the Spanish dominions in the New World. The streets are generally very clean, and there is a fine square in the middle of the city, superior to the great square of Mexico, adorned with porticoes or piazzas on three of its sides, and on the fourth, by the great cathedral built of stone, with two lofty towers, and an elegant front of modern architecture. The piazzas are filled with shops for the display of all sorts of goods, which has an exceedingly rich appearance. It is a bishop's see removed from Tlascala, and is reckoned the richest in New Spain. There is a manufacture of fine felts, with a royal mint and glass-house. The valley which adjoins this fine city, is extremely productive in corn and fruits, including all the European sorts. In the neighbourhood are many mineral springs; it contains 67,800 inhabitants, and its height above the level of the sea is 7380 feet.
The highest mountain in New Spain, or indeed in all the known parts of North America, is in this province; as Popocatepetl; more elevated than any summit of Europe, its height being 17,716 feet above the level of the sea; it is constantly in action, throwing out smoke, ashes, and fire; and its figure is that of a truncated cone with a large crater; but no great eruption has hitherto taken place.
Iztaccihuatl is the next greatest elevation of the chain of Puebla, and is situated near the former on the north-west of it, and close to the boundaries of the province of Mexico; this mountain is part of the Sierra Nevada; its height is 15,700 feet above the level of the sea, and it appears to have been an active volcano; and between these two, Cortez and his wondering army passed when he marched to attack the capital; they are both constantly enveloped in snow on their upper peaks.
The whole of Puebla is under the torrid zone; the western part is a mere desert, and the east, from the above named volcano to the borders of Vera Cruz, where there are beautiful plains filled with fields of maize, corn, sugar, cotton, fruit, &c., is the most populous, containing 813,300 souls. It is on this ridge or plain, that the most ancient monuments of the former state of the Mexicans exist, of which the greatest and most astonishing, is the pyramid or temple of Cholula, 177 feet high, with a base of 1420 feet in breadth. It is divided into four stages; on the top the Spaniards have erected a temple to the Virgin, in which mass is constantly performed. This pyramid is built of layers of brick and clay, and has been injured by part of it having been destroyed to form a road, which has, however, shown that it was a place of burial, as in the Egyptian pyramids; the faces of this structure are directed to the four quarters of the globe, and as in the others before-mentioned, vestiges, though not very perfect, are found of smaller pyramids around it. It had an altar on its summit dedicated to the god of the air, who was one of the most ancient Mexican lawgivers, and is represented to have disappeared suddenly, promising to return to resume the reins of government; the Mexicans imagined that Cortez and his Spaniards were the descendants and messengers of this mysterious being.
The view from the summit of this pyramid is very superb; the volcanoes of La Puebla, the Pico de Orizaba, and the stormy summits of the Sierra de Tlascala being distinctly visible from it. It is covered with vegetation, which renders an accurate examination of its superficies impossible.
There are some great salt works in Puebla, and some fine quarries of marble.
Puebla contains six cities and 600 villages.
The Tlascalan part of Puebla has been lately united to Mexico; the chief town Tlascala, being governed by a cacique who is the king's lieutenant, and four Indian judges; and the municipal body is composed entirely of Indians.
Cholula, Tlascala, and Huexotzinco, are famous as having been the three republics which so long resisted the power of the Mexican kings; Tlascala for having been the ally of Cortez, and Cholula, as a holy city.——Three distinct languages are spoken by the Indians; the Mexican being one, which is spoken only by the Indians of the towns of Tlascala, Puebla and Cholula.
The town of most note after the capitals Puebla and Tlascala, is Cholula, which has a population of 16,000 souls. In ancient times this was one of the first of the Mexican cities, containing an immense number of inhabitants, and was deemed the sacred town of the empire; it contained more than 400 temples and places of worship. Cortez was astonished at the sight of this city, and described it with admiration in his letters to the king.
Huexotzinco, now a small place, was formerly the capital of the republic of that name, and a very populous city; as was also—
Atlixco, celebrated for its pure air, and excellent fruits, with many others which the limits of this work forbid us to enumerate.
The great mining undertakings of New Spain are not paid so much attention to in this province as in many others; however, it is not deficient in ores; but the fertility of the soil renders agriculture and other branches of commerce to be the more attended to; and where tillage once takes place in America, the produce of the interior of the earth is not so greatly sought after.
The principal river of the Intendancy of Puebla, is the Rio Yopez, which rises in the mountains near La Puebla, and throws itself into the Pacific just below the boundary of Valladolid; there are also several others on the Pacific coast, but of no material moment.
INTENDANCY OF VERA CRUZ.
This Intendancy lies almost entirely along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, and may consequently be denominated the eastern maritime province of New Spain; it contains, indeed, the most celebrated port in the viceroyalty, from the name of which that of the province is derived.
Vera Cruz lies wholly within the tropics, and its coast is consequently subject to violent heats, which render it unhealthy: but in the interior the high mountains and the declivity of the table land, or plain of the ridge of Anahuac, ameliorates the climate, and renders it suitable for European constitutions.
The length of this province, from the salt water lake of Terminos to the mouth of the great Panuco River, is 210 leagues, and its breadth twenty-six. It is bounded, on the north by San Luis Potosi, or New Santander; on the east by the Gulf of Mexico and Yucatan, or Merida; west by Puebla, Oaxaca, and Mexico; and south by Oaxaca, or Guaxaca, and the kingdom of Guatimala.
Vera Cruz comprehends within its limits the former province of Tabasco.
M. de Humboldt has given a very animated picture of the sensations excited in a traveller when he ascends the acclivity leading from the coast of Vera Cruz, the capital, to the Plain of Perote. Here, he says, nature may be observed in the course of a few hours in all her variety; suffocating heat prevails on the coast; ascending, the air becomes gradually more pure and less heated; the face of the country sensibly changes; the productions of the torrid zone first meet the eye, then those of the temperate, and the eager step of curiosity advancing may place it amid the region of ever during snow and ice. The mountains covered to a certain height above and below with a belt of oaks, of bananas, and trees of the liquid amber, denote that the climate is conducive to health; the hardy pine ascends the higher regions, and becomes more and more stunted in its growth, till it is lost in fields of snow. The majestic features of the volcanoes, the vast expanse of the ocean, the verdure of the forests, and the fall of the cataracts, rushing from the mountains, cause the most wonderful and gratifying variety in the coup d'oeil of this singular province.
The pimento, the vanilla, jalap, cacao, tobacco, sarsaparilla, cotton, indigo, and sugar are amongst the principal productions of Vera Cruz, and in some of which a very lucrative and considerable trade is carried on.
The population of the Intendancy has been estimated at 156,000; part of which is concentrated in the town of Vera Cruz, and in the towns on the table land; and the remainder thinly scattered over the extent of country between the coast and the mountains.
The capital of this province is La Vera Cruz, which is the seat of government, situated in 19° 11' 52 north latitude, and 96° 8' 45 west longitude; with a secure harbour sufficiently large for a great fleet, having from four to ten fathom water; the only danger being from the northerly winds, which are excessively violent, and have sometimes done much damage to the shipping in the port. This harbour swarms with aquatic birds.
The defence of the port is principally Fort St. Juan de Ulua, situated on a small island at the entrance of the channel, strongly fortified, and mounting three hundred pieces of cannon. It was this island that Juan de Grijalva discovered in 1518. This city is neither the Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, nor Vera Cruz el Antigua of the followers of Cortez, both of which were deserted on account of their unhealthiness; it stands on the spot where Cortez first set his foot on the continent, on the 21st of April 1519.
Vera Cruz is the mart for the merchandizes of the East and West India Islands. The situation of the city is bad, on account of the marshy soil and the barren tract round it. It projects in a semicircular form into the sea, and is inclosed with a parapet six feet in height, and three broad at the crest, having a palisade. This rampart has six low bastions or square towers, twelve feet high. Along the shore on the north-west is a redoubt mounted with cannon; and on the south-east is another, to defend the port. The houses of the city are built of stone, and have wooden balconies; the streets being wide, paved, and in good order. The churches are numerous and richly decorated, and the inhabitants are chiefly merchants, very indolent, and very devout Catholics. The great luxury of their houses is porcelain; trade is carried on here to a great extent, and the city is accounted to have seven or eight houses, each worth a million of dollars. The women are not reckoned very handsome, and are kept in great retirement; they are excused from going to mass during the north winds, which are very violent, and load the ramparts with sand from the beach. Processions and religious shows are the principal amusement of the people, who, during the time there are no arrivals, are computed at about 16,000: but this amount is much swelled in the season when the fleet arrives from Spain; at which time there is a fair here and at Xalapa, and lodging is not to be had. The display of riches on this occasion is immense; but since the galleons have been done away with, and the restrictions of the other ports taken off, Vera Cruz, no longer enjoying the monopoly, has dwindled from its former importance; it is, however, still a place of great trade. In the rainy season, the water falls chiefly during the night, and at this period the marshes and bogs on the south are infested with alligators of seven or eight feet in length, but which are said to be innocent. The mosquitoes, during this season, are intolerable, and the country subject to earthquakes, so that these evils, combined with its unhealthy situation, render it no very desirable residence. Commerce, all-powerful commerce, nevertheless, draws man to this abode, and in the middle of swamps, reptiles, venomous insects, tornadoes and earthquakes, he finds enjoyment in its pursuit, and shortens his life to amass a few grains of dust to enrich those, who after he is gone, laugh at him for his pains. The Buccaneers and different powers having taken and sacked this city several times, the Spanish government built small forts along the line of coast near it.
The black vomit, that dreadful malady which so often prevails in this town, has been supposed to be owing, in a great measure, to the want of good water, the richer people contenting themselves with what falls in for all the uses of the kitchen and table; the poorer class living on bad water collected from the ditches. An aqueduct is constructing, though very slowly, and at immense expence, to bring a pure stream to the city.
Old Vera Cruz is also a sea-port near the former city, at the distance of only fifteen miles to the north. Cortez landed here in 1518. It is also situated very unhealthily in a marsh, and on a river which is full of large alligators, said to be strong enough to manage an ox, and to draw him under water. They devour all the dogs which fall in their way.
Xalapa, on the north of Vera Cruz, is the place where almost all the business of the European commerce is transacted. It gives its name to the medicinal root commonly called jalap, but originally spelt Xalap. This town is the see of a bishop, and contains 13,000 inhabitants; it is placed at the foot of a basaltic mountain, and its environs are highly picturesque; but it is sometimes subject to thick fogs for weeks together, during the winter. The merchants of Vera Cruz reside mostly at Xalapa. This town is at the height of 4264 feet above the level of the port of Vera Cruz, and contains an excellent drawing academy for young mechanics; the great road from Mexico to Vera Cruz will pass by it.
Cordova, near the Pico de Orizaba, and Orizaba are famous for being the places where the tobacco for home consumption in New Spain is mostly produced.
To complete the description of this intendancy, there remains only to notice a part of it, which was until very lately a distinct province, the coast of which is still designated the Tabasco shore.
THE PROVINCE OF TABASCO
Occupied the southern portion of the present government of Vera Cruz, and was 100 miles long and 60 miles broad. The soil is not very fertile, neither is the air healthy, as the country is in general flat and marshy, filled with small lagoons or lakes; and as it rains during greater part of the year, the climate is very damp. The coast is subject, from September to March, including both those months, to dreadful storms, the northerly gales prevailing during that period, which renders navigation dangerous and difficult. In February, March and April, the heats prevail, which are insupportable, and accompanied with infinite swarms of mosquitoes and other venomous insects. Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, the inhabitants have good farms, well stocked with cattle, in which their principal traffic consists. To Vera Cruz they also export maize and cocoa nuts, and the Spaniards having brought vines, lemons, oranges and fig-trees here, they are now found in abundance, and thrive very well in most parts of the country. The natives reap from three to four harvests of maize in the year, and have rice, barley, European garden herbs and fruits, as well as those common to America. The cacao tree grows so well in Tabasco, that they formerly paid their tribute to the Mexican emperors in chocolate.
The woods, which are principally of Brazil-wood and cedar, with thickets of bamboos, mangroves, &c. are infested with serpents, tigers, bears and apes; and the rabbit, the deer, the squirrel, &c., find covert and shelter every where.
The marshes and lakes are well stored with fish.
The chief town, and one of the oldest of New Spain, is Tabasco, in 18° 34' north latitude, 93° 36' west longitude, called also Neustra Senora de la Victoria, on account of a great victory which Cortez gained here on his first landing. It stands on an island at the mouth of the Rio Grijalva, which divides itself near the gulf into two arms; the west arm falls into the Rio Tabasco; and the other continues its course till within twelve miles of the ocean, where it again divides, and separates the island on which the city stands, from the continent.
The town is not very extensive, but strongly and well built, and owes its prosperity to a sort of annual fair at Christmas.
The island of Tabasco is about thirty-six miles in length, and seven or eight broad; near it, on the continent, are great plains abounding in cattle, sheep, &c., and a wild animal called the mountain cow, or tapir, which subsists on the moss that accumulates on trees near the great rivers, in marshy situations.
Villa Hermosa and Tlacotalpan, formerly the principal Indian town of Tabasco, are the only remaining towns of note.
The principal river of the Intendancy of Vera Cruz, is the Rio Tabasco, which rises in the mountains of Chiapa, and after a circuitous course, and receiving the Grijalva and other streams, runs into the gulf of Mexico: it is said that some of the largest cabbage and cotton trees, which are known in the New World, grow on the banks of this fine river.
There are some other streams in this country, viz. the Sumasinta, which rises in the mountains of Chiapa, twenty miles south of Sacatulan, and falls into the gulf near the isthmus of Yucatan.
The Rio Tula, under the name of Motesuema, pervades this province in the north, as do the Rio Panuco, or Tampico, the Rio Atopan, and the Rio Antigua, which rise near the volcano of Perote, the Rio Blanco which rises near the Orizaba volcano, the Rio del Passo and Huasacualco, with many others, which all fall into the Mexican gulf, and form large and numerous islands, of which little is known.
The lake, or enclosed bay, of Tamiagua, is an extraordinary large basin, having a long and narrow outlet to the south, parallel with the shore; it contains a large island called De Ramirez, and several others. Lakes, or lagoons, and indentations, are very frequent on this coast, as are islands; but a bar extending all along, and the insalubrity of the climate, prevents the shore from being explored.
The volcanoes of Vera Cruz form the most astonishing feature of its scenery; of these, the highest is the great volcano of Orizaba, visible from Mexico; it is the most elevated mountain of Spanish North America, excepting only Popocatepetl; its form is that of a truncated cone, with a large crater, from which issues fire, smoke and ashes; as it is considerably above the lower period of congelation in these latitudes, its summit is constantly covered with snow. The inferior limit of congelation is very distinctly marked on the Mexican summits; at a distance, it forms so accurate a line on the cones, that it appears the effect of art rather than of nature, and adds greatly to the singularity of the landscape. This volcano is called, in the Mexican dialect, Citlaltepetl, or the Starry Mountain, its fire appearing like a star, when viewed from the capital, and is 17,371 feet above the level of the sea; its cone is a little inclined, at the summit, to the south-east.
The next summit is Nauhcampatepetl, or the Square Mountain, which the Spaniards call Cofre de Perote, from the small square rock on the top.
The Cofre de Perote is 13,414 feet above the level of the sea, and is to the north-east of Orizaba. It is seen at a great distance at sea, being a landmark for the harbour of Vera Cruz. There appears no crater at the top; but from beds of lava, and the whole mountain being surrounded with pumice stones, and other substances attendant on volcanoes, it is evident that it has formerly been one of a tremendous nature.
There is another volcano on the coast, to the south of Tlacotalpan, and in that part of the shore which projects considerably into the Mexican gulf; it is the highest summit of a small chain, called Sierra de St. Martin. The distance is twelve miles from the beach to the volcano, which is called Volcan de Tuxtla, from a small village of the Indians in its vicinity. It is a very powerful volcano, and some dreadful eruptions have lately taken place; the last was not more than twenty years ago, when the houses and streets of Vera Cruz were covered with ashes, and the noise, resembling the firing of cannon, was heard 57 leagues distant.
The height of this volcano has not been ascertained, but it is considerably inferior to those which we have mentioned, as crossing the Cordillera of Anahuac, in a transversal line.
The next objects of curiosity which we have to turn our attention to, in traversing the intendancy of Vera Cruz, are the pyramidical remains of temples, of which that of Papantla has been recently discovered in the bosom of a forest; this building is not of layers of clay and stones, or brick, as those we have described are, but differs from them in all its architectural points; it is composed of enormous stones, cemented together, and well polished and finished, and is only 82 feet in base, with a height of about 160 feet. It has seven different platforms round it, and a square summit. In the middle of one of the faces a large and well-cut stair ascends the whole height. Niches are observed along the sides of each stage, regularly decreasing in number to the top; and the whole is carved in relief with figures.
INTENDANCY OF GUAXACA, OR OAXACA.
This province is bounded on the north by Vera Cruz and Puebla; on the west by Puebla; on the east by Chiapa and Guatimala, and on the south by the Pacific.
This intendancy, the last of the viceroyalty of New Spain, to the south-west, is esteemed one of its most fertile districts, producing excellent chocolate and cochineal, sugar, cotton, rice, plantains, cassia and indigo. The mountainous parts abound in mines of gold, silver, lead and crystal; and many of its rivers have particles of gold in their sands. The inhabitants are, however, not very industrious, and there are but two manufactures of indigo, and five hundred looms in employ for the weaving of cotton. It has also a manufacture, in its chief city, of black wax. Oaxaca may be stiled the western maritime province of New Spain, as it embraces a great extent of coast along the Pacific ocean.
The capital is Oaxaca, in 17° 30' north latitude, at the opening of three large plains, one of which runs as far as Guatimala. This city stands on a river, which runs into the sea, near Vera Cruz, and aqueducts supply it with pure and wholesome water from the mountains on the north-east of the town. The form of Oaxaca is an oblong square, being two miles long, and one and a quarter wide, and surrounded by gardens and plantations of the cactus, which feeds the cochineal insect; and it is at this city that the most abundant gatherings of that valuable insect take place.
The streets are wide, uniform and well paved, and the houses mostly built of stone, two stories high. From a distance, the beautiful spires and numerous houses of stone, give it a magnificent appearance, and nothing seems to be wanting to render it a delightful abode, but superior industry; for the air is clear and healthy, and here reigns a perpetual spring, refreshed by westerly breezes in the evening, and the east winds in the morning. The temperature of the climate causes the fruits of Europe to flourish luxuriantly in the gardens; and thus, with the native trees, they have a constant succession for the luxuries of the table.
The town house is a stone building, in the middle of one of the sides of the great square, and has not been long built; the stone of this edifice is of a green colour, and has a pretty effect; the cathedral and bishop's palace occupy two of the other sides of the square; which is surrounded with arcades. There are many monasteries and churches of handsome architecture, and magnificently ornamented.
The population, including mulattoes, Indians and negroes, which form the greater portions, (the whites not being very numerous) is estimated at 24,000.
The governor of the province resides here, as well as the diocesan. Yet this beautiful city, so delightfully situated, in such a temperate clime, so fruitful a soil, and with such beautiful decorations, is sometimes visited by that tremendous scourge, an earthquake; and has a few years back suffered very much from the effects of one which was felt over all this part of the continent.
The other towns of the greatest importance, in the province of Guaxaca, are Tehuantepec, a sea-port town, situated on the shore of the great bay of Tecoantapeque, at the foot of a mountain, whose summit is a volcano, in 16° 20' north latitude, 95° 1' west longitude, with a population of 2600 families of Indians, and fifty of whites.
Aguatulco, or Guatulco, is a sea-port of Guaxaca, with a large and well frequented harbour, in the Pacific, in 15° 44' north latitude, famed as having been plundered by Sir Francis Drake.
Embarcadero is situated on the western side of the province in a small harbour of the Pacific.
San Pedro, a sea-port 75 miles south of Guaxaca.
San Antonio de los Cues, in the north, on the route from Orizaba and Vera Cruz to Oaxaca, with a large population, is famous for the remains of some Mexican fortifications, but which are in great dilapidation.
There are four mines of silver, which are very valuable, in Oaxaca, and the population of the province, amounts to 534,800.
Oaxaca is described as the finest, healthiest and most productive province of New Spain; and its former inhabitants were amongst the most civilized of the people discovered by the Spanish conquerors. It is extremely mountainous, and is divided into two highland districts, called Mixteca and Tzapoteca. The Cordillera, which runs through the province, falls to the oceans on either side; and it is said the mountains are so high, that in one or two points, the Pacific and Atlantic may be observed at the same time, the summits are however not so high as those of Mexico, and their substance differs widely. In Oaxaca, granite and gneiss compose the ridges; whilst in Mexico, basaltes, amygdaloid, porphyry, and grunstein, are the strata which form those tremendous elevations.
The most singular monument of the ancient inhabitants of this province is the ruins of Mitla, which was the burial place of the chiefs or kings of the country, and is finely constructed of stone, covered with sculpture; the excavations under the building are very large, and lined with large engraved stones. Six columns of porphyry, sixteen feet in height, of a single piece each, support the roof of a large room, and the whole is in good preservation; many curious paintings having been found amongst the rubbish.
These ruins are ten leagues south-east of Oaxaca.
The province is celebrated, as part of it forming a grant made to Cortez, for his services, with the title of Marquess.
It consists of four towns and 49 villages, and now belongs to the Duke of Monte Leone, a descendant of the conqueror.
The rivers of Oaxaca are principally, the Rio Verde, on which Oaxaca stands, which rises in the mountains of Higher Mixteca, and falls into the Pacific; the river Chicometapea, after receiving others, falls into the Pacific, north of the former.
The river Chimalapa, on the southern boundary, which falls into the bay of Tecoantepec, and several smaller ones along the coast, all of which proceed from the mountains, water the country, render it fertile, and also fall into the Pacific.
YUCATAN OR THE INTENDANCY OF MERIDA.
Yucatan is the most easterly province of the kingdom of New Spain, and is in the form of a peninsula, jutting out into the gulf of Mexico from the main land of the isthmus; it is surrounded on the north-west by the waters of the Mexican gulf; by the bay or gulf of Honduras on the south-east; the province of Vera Cruz bounds it on the south-west, and Vera Paz in Guatimala on the south. Here it is connected with the continent of North America, by an isthmus of about 120 miles in breadth. The English have settlements extending a short distance along the east coast of Yucatan, opposite Ambergris Key.
The soil of this peninsula is very prolific, and when under proper cultivation, produces great crops of corn, maize, indigo and cotton. The climate is hot, their summer beginning in April and finishing in September, but January and February are very warm months, the rest of the winter cooler, and little or no rain falls throughout that season. The north side is the pleasantest, for although very hot, it is refreshed by gentle breezes; on the whole the climate of Yucatan is not an unhealthy one. It produces and sustains vast quantities of cattle, fowls, and bees; honey and wax, are therefore plenty; and its forests afford shelter to various kinds of wild beasts. It has no mines, for which reason it is not much settled by the whites, the chief part of its inhabitants being Indians, who are employed in making salt in Campeachy Bay, and are subject to the Spaniards. On the coasts of Yucatan, large pieces of amber are frequently found. There is a ridge of considerable mountains pervades the whole extent of this province, which extends from the eastern side at Merida to the western extremity of the peninsula; on this range of mountains, the climate is very fine, and it is asserted that the natives live to a great age. On the north side of this chain the land is refreshed with breezes, and contains plenty of springs; but the southern side is in want of good water, ill cultivated and thinly peopled, the settlers being chiefly on the north. In Merida the nights and days are nearly of a length owing to its situation.
In Yucatan there are very few rivers of any consequence, but springs are numerous, especially on the north side, and in digging for their wells, in which they always find water at a little depth, shells are usually found, from which, with the shallowness of the sea near the coast, it has been supposed that the greater part of the peninsula was once submerged. The eastern coast of Yucatan is not inhabited by Spanish colonists, the English alone appearing there, except in the small fort of Bacalar, which has been built to prevent the British from going into the interior. The British logwood cutters find that article in greatest perfection in Campeachy Bay, and in the Bay of Honduras; but it has been said that the logwood of Campeachy is more plentiful, as well as greatly superior to that of Honduras.
Campeachy, or St. Francisco de Campeche, the principal trading town of Yucatan, is situated in 19° 50' 45 north latitude, and 90° 30' west longitude, on the west shore of the Bay of Campeachy, in the gulf of Mexico, in the river St. Francisco. It has some fortifications which command the town and harbour, and has often been plundered and taken by the English and French buccaneers; In 1659 it was taken by the English under Sir Christopher Mims, in 1678 by the Buccaneers, and in 1685 by the pirates of St. Domingo; the last named year they set fire to the town and fortification, and plundered the adjacent country to the distance of fifteen miles; they also burnt 50,000l. worth of logwood, because the governor would not ransom the place for an enormous sum which they demanded. When the Spaniards first took this place, it contained three thousand houses, with many beautiful monuments of the Indian arts. The houses at present are numerous, and well built of stone; the harbour is large, but not deep; and the chief manufacture is cotton cloth, and wax. It used formerly to be the market for logwood till the British landed; when they cut it at Trieste island, 120 miles from Campeachy, near the isthmus. Great quantities of logwood formerly grew all about Campeachy, but the British have nearly monopolized this trade.
The logwood cutting establishments are under the Spanish governor; but by the treaty of peace in 1783, the British were allowed the privilege of cutting it without being molested.
The wood is felled at stated seasons, and in stated places, by permission of the intendant, and is dried for a year previous to exportation. This wood is not confined to Yucatan; it grows in abundance on the coast of South America, near the mouths of the Orinoco. The town of Campeachy contains 6000 people.
The language of the Indians is styled the Maya Tongue; and Yucatan is remarkable for being the scene of the early conquests and discoveries of the Spaniards, who found the natives in a state of comparative civilization; as they had stone houses, temples, and cultivated fields; some monuments of their industry still exist.
The population, including Indians, is 465,800. We have given a description of Campeachy first, on account of its being the principal trading place, and formerly the metropolis. Merida de Yucatan is now the capital and residence of the intendant, who is also called captain-general. Merida is ten leagues from the coast; its port is called Sisal, being in 21° 10' north latitude, 89° 59' 30 west longitude, with a castle and small harbour, having an immense sandbank opposite its entrance. Merida is situated in a plain almost destitute of water; the population amounts to 10,000. This with Campeachy and Valadolid, famous for its cotton plantations, are the most noted places of the country, with the large Indian villages of Zampolan and Equetchecan, between Merida and Campeachy.
GUATIMALA.
Guatimala is a general name for a portion of the territory on the narrow part of the continent, which reaches from Oaxaca and Vera Cruz, southward to Veragua, on the isthmus of Darien. This tract of land is subject to the government of a captain-general, and is called the Capitania General of Guatimala, or as it is sometimes written, Gualtimala. The officer who exercises this command is independent of the viceregal court of Mexico, and is appointed by the king of Spain, consulting the viceroy on important occasions only; in what regards the immediate government of the captain-generalship, he is perfectly independent of any of the viceroys of the New World, acting solely on behalf and in the name of His Catholic Majesty. Of his power and resources, with his emoluments, &c. very little can be said, as this interesting portion of Spanish America has not attracted the serious attention of any contemporary writers.
The territory of Guatimala is subdivided into numerous provinces or districts, of which the following names are given as a list: Soconusco, Suchitepec, Sonsonate, St. Salvador, St. Miguel, Tiguesgalpa, Choluteca, or Keses, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Vera Paz and Chiapa. The first seven of these are denominated Guatimala, in the most modern maps, which is however an error.
The general appearance of the soil, (excepting the neighbourhoods of the volcanoes,) is fertile in the extreme; and Guatimala abundantly produces corn, cochineal, honey, wax, cotton, the sugar-cane, indigo, maize, pimento and chocolate. There are plenty of cattle and sheep in the farming districts. The climate differs greatly, according to the situation of the provinces on the eastern or western coasts; the western side is in general the best and healthiest, as may be observed, throughout the whole of North America. The whole country is mountainous, of which the particular ridges are very little known. In the Guatimala of the maps, that is to say, on the western shore from Guaxaca to Veragua, the country is dreadfully subject to tremendous convulsions of the earth, which has at times involved whole cities in ruin, exterminated complete tribes of people, and reversed the order of peaceful nature. The volcanoes are extremely numerous, and some of them terrific; no less than twenty are known to exist, which are constantly in action. The captain-general is commander of the troops, and Guatimala, the chief city, is the seat of a royal audience, which governs twenty-five districts. This Audienza Real, or Supreme Court of Justice, was first established in 1554.
The capital of this extensive country is Guatimala, which is situated in 14° 28' north latitude, and 92° 40' west longitude. It is built near the Pacific Ocean, on the Rio Vaccas, and has a good harbour. It is the see of an archbishop, which was established in the year 1742, and seat of the Audienza Real, with that of the government of the Capitania General. This renders it a place of nearly as much importance as Mexico, or any other chief city of the Americas. It has an university, and its chief trade consists in chocolate, pitch, and naptha.
When this city was first built, it was founded on the declivity of a mountain, at whose summit was a volcano, in a beautiful valley of three miles in width, and was then called St. Jago. This valley opened to, and fronted the Pacific Ocean, and the town contained about 7000 families.
In the year 1751, this unfortunate city was overwhelmed by an earthquake, and by the matter from the volcano, which is called the Volcan de Guatimala. Notwithstanding this awful calamity, the surviving inhabitants ventured to rebuild their favourite abode; but direful to relate, another and a more tremendous convulsion again destroyed the devoted place in the year 1775. The greater part of the inhabitants were buried in the ruins, and the whole circumstance was one of the most tremendous and calamitous ever known. The city was again rebuilt shortly afterwards, on the spot on which it now stands, which is twenty-five geographical miles to the southward of the Old Town. It is a magnificent place, adorned with churches and monasteries, and an university reckoned one of the best in the empire. The women have been celebrated for their beauty, and the people altogether for their suavity of manners and courteous disposition. The moisture of the climate has been stated as a cause of the beauty and delicacy of the females.
The number of inhabitants in this city has been computed at about 19,000.
GUATIMALA PROPER,
Or the Guatimala of the maps, is a division of the above territory, which is bounded on the north by Vera Paz, Chiapa, Guaxaca and Honduras; on the south, by the Pacific; on the east, by Nicaragua; and on the west, by Guaxaca and the Pacific Ocean. Guatimala or St. Jago de Guatimala is its capital, as well as that of the whole Audience. It is subdivided into the following districts, from the north to the south, along the coast of the Pacific, Soconusco, Suchitepec, Sansonate, St. Salvador, St. Miguel, Tiguesgalpa and Choluteca, or Xeses, each of which we shall separately describe, but in a limited manner, as no information, that can be relied on is to be found with respect to these regions.
Soconusco.—This province is situated in the northern part of Guatimala, and is bounded on the north, by Chiapa; on the east, by Vera Paz; on the south, by the Pacific; and on the west, by Guaxaca and the Pacific.
The air in this district is exceeding hot, and the general state of the climate either rainy or sultry; the rains last from April till September, and violent storms are very frequent. Soconusco is neither a healthy nor a pleasant country, and the soil is not so fertile as in some other parts of Guatimala, the corn and maize not growing so abundantly; but to compensate for this, it produces pimento, indigo, and cacao, in great quantities, and with these articles it carries on a great trade with the other North American colonies of Spain. The Spaniards are not numerous in Soconusco, it being chiefly inhabited by Indians, but the few Spaniards who reside there are very rich. The capital of this province is Soconusco, or Guevetlan, which is situated in 18° 30' north latitude, and 120° 40' west longitude, on a small river which runs into the Pacific Ocean; Soconusco is 460 miles south-east of the city of Mexico.
Suchitepec is a small district to the southward of Soconusco, and whose capital is St. Antonio de Suchitepec, which is situated on a river running into the Pacific, in 14° 44' north latitude, 93° 36' west longitude, and 60 miles west-north-west of Guatimala. Its population amounts to 1480, all Indians of the Suhutil nation.
Sansonate is another small district of Guatimala, to the southward of Suchitepec, having for its capital La Trinidad or Sansonate, situated on the river Sonsonate, at its mouth; this town is a sea-port, and is situated 120 miles south-east of the city of Mexico, with about 2000 inhabitants, of whom 400 are whites. The population of the district is about 40,000 souls, consisting almost entirely of Indians, Mulattoes and Negroes.
St. Salvador is also a small district of Guatimala to the southward of the former, which produces sugar-canes and indigo in great abundance, the soil being very fertile; the capital of this province is Cuzcatlan or St. Salvador, which is situated in 13° 40' north latitude, 89° 20' west longitude, twelve miles from the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and 140 miles east-south-east of Guatimala; it has a little trade, and is the residence of a governor: many maps have absurdly made this town the capital of Spanish North America. Its population is about 5,000 Indians, whites and Castes.
St. Miguel, to the southward of the former, is another small district, having for its capital St. Miguel, which is situated fifty miles east of St. Salvador or Cuzcatlan.
Tiguesgalpa or Tiguazalpa, is also a small district of the same country, situated near the province of Nicaragua, whose capital of the same name is situated on a river which runs into Amapalla Bay; eighty miles north of Leon de Nicaragua, in 13° 50' north latitude, and 87° 36' west longitude.
Choletuca is also another and the last district of that division of the Audience of Guatimala, which is named Guatimala Proper, or Guatimala only in the maps; of all these foregoing divisions little or nothing is known; their climate is very hot, they have rains from April to September, and are bounded from the eastern or Atlantic provinces of Guatimala by a ridge of mountains which are very lofty, and in which there exists numerous dreadful volcanoes. The whole of this country is subject to earthquakes and storms, and although in general very fertile and productive, it has little commerce, there being no mines of any great importance in its whole range; the number of its inhabitants has not been ascertained. Its rivers are not considerable, nor has it any lakes of consequence.
Solola, Quesaltenango, Totanicapan, Escuintla, &c. are the names of other districts in the interior, mostly inhabited by Indians living in missions or villages; but as so little is accurately known concerning this kingdom, it is of no use to merely enumerate titles of districts.
CHIAPA
Is the next province of Guatimala which occurs in tracing the map of that country; it is situated inland, and is bounded on the north by the province of Tabasco; on the south-east, by Vera Paz; south-west by Soconusco, and west by Guaxaca; it is 255 miles in length from west to east, and 300 miles broad at its widest, and ninety at its smallest breadth. It is full of hills and mountains, but has no mines, nor is gold found in its rivers; the Spaniards therefore only value it for its situation, which renders it the key to New Spain, as the river Tabasco, Puerto Real, and its vicinity to Yucatan render it the easiest of access of any part of their dominions. The principal river is the Chiapa, which rises inland, and running to the north through the Indian country of the Quelenes, falls into the Mexican gulf at Tabasco. This river is the great road of the inhabitants of Chiapa; by it they carry on a considerable trade with the adjacent provinces, particularly in cochineal and silk, the Indian women making beautiful handkerchiefs of the latter article, which are eagerly sought by the Spaniards for the European market.
Chiapa abounds with magnificent forests of cedar, cypress, pine, oak, walnut, &c. with trees which yield all sorts of aromatic balsams and gums, copal, &c.; wild cochineal, maize, corn, cacao, and cotton are also extremely productive, and fruits are found here of every kind that is known in these regions. The natives colour the chocolate with a substance called achiotte. This province is famous for its fine cattle, and for a very excellent breed of horses, which are in such request that they often send them to Mexico, 500 miles distant.
Wild beasts are very numerous in its forests, and wild hogs, foxes and rabbits are seen every where in its plains; snakes of a formidable size, said to be twenty feet long, are found in the mountainous parts, also others of a red colour, streaked with black and white, which are tamed by the Indians, who carry them about their persons.
The inhabitants of this country are a well made, fair people, very courteous in their manners and skilled in music and painting, with great knowledge of the mechanical arts.
The chief town of this province is Chiapa or Cuidad Real, or Chiapa de los Espagnoles; it is the see of a bishop, whose revenue is 8000 ducats per annum. It is also the seat of the courts of justice, and is situated in 17° north latitude, and 96° 40' west longitude, in a beautiful plain environed with mountains, at nearly the same distance from the Pacific Ocean as from the gulf of Mexico, and 300 miles to the north of Guatimala. Chiapa Real is neither very populous nor very rich, and it is said that the upper orders of the Spaniards who inhabit it are proud, poor and ignorant to a proverb. The families amount to four hundred in the city, and the Indian families in the suburbs, to about one hundred. The cathedral is an edifice of beautiful appearance and the city has several monasteries. It is governed by a magistrate chosen amongst the burgesses, in consequence of a privilege granted the city by the king of Spain, and its principal commerce consists in cacao, cotton and cochineal.
Chiapa de los Indios, or Chiapa of the Indians, is the next town of rank in this province; this is the largest city which they have in the country, and is situated 36 miles north-west of Chiapa Real, in a valley near the Rio Tabasco.
The town is extensive and opulent, and is filled with Indians who hold a high rank amongst their tribes. It is asserted that this city contains 20,000 people of the native race. The climate is excessively hot during the day-time in this part of the country, but the evenings and nights are cool. There are many monasteries and churches in this town; the first bishop was the celebrated Bartolomeo de las Casas, who struggled so hard for the rights of the Indians, and whose memory is consequently very dear to them. On the river Tabasco the inhabitants amuse themselves in performing naval actions with boats; and all around the town are farms which are plentifully stocked with cattle; in the vicinity there are also some sugar plantations: wheat is sold here from Chiapa Real, and biscuits are made of it, which are bartered by the natives and Spaniards for cotton, wool and other necessaries.
PROVINCE OF VERA-PAZ.
The province of Guatimala next to Chiapa is Vera-Paz; it is bounded on the north by the provinces of Chiapa and Yucatan; on the east, by Honduras and the bay or gulf of Honduras; on the south, by Guatimala; and on the west by the Saine and Chiapa. It is about 120 miles in length, and 74 in extreme breadth. The air in the higher parts of Vera-Paz is healthy; in the low land insalubrious. This district is subject to earthquakes, to nine months of rain, and storms with dreadful thunder and lightning. The mountains which overspread great part of the country, are thickly covered with forests, of which cedars occupy the greatest part. It is not much cultivated, and yields a little corn and fruits. The wild animals of America are very numerous in the extensive woods of Vera-Paz. Its trade consists chiefly in drugs, cotton, cacao, honey, wool, &c.; and from its situation on the gulf of Honduras, might be rendered much more flourishing than it is. The gulf of Dolce or Dulce, a sort of large lake, but which communicates with the sea by means of the gulf of Amatique, lies on the eastern and southern part of Vera-Paz, and seems placed there by nature, to facilitate the commerce of the government of Guatimala.
The chief town of Vera-Paz is Coban, or Vera-Paz, situated in north latitude 15° 50' west longitude, 91° 14'; 600 miles south-east of Mexico, on the Rio Coban which falls into the gulf or lake of Dulce.
THE PROVINCE OF NICARAGUA
Is bounded on the north by Honduras, on the east by the Caribbean sea, on the west by Guatimala and the Pacific, and on the south by Costa Rica.
The climate is, generally speaking, salubrious; the summers are hot, but not unhealthy, and in the winter they have much rain and storms.
It is one of the most woody countries of Spanish North America, and where cultivated, extremely fertile, so much so, as to receive the name of the “Garden of America.” When the Spaniards first discovered it, they called it Paraiso de Mahoma, Mahomet's Paradise, on account of the beauty of the country, and the perfume of the odoriferous plants, with which the soil is covered. Its chief products are flax, hemp, balsams, cotton, sugar, long-pepper, turpentine, liquid amber and Nicaragua-wood, which is a substance used in the dying trade; these, with its silver mines, constitute the chief objects of the labour and traffic of its inhabitants, who carry on a great trade with Panama, &c.
Wheat is not plentiful in Nicaragua, nor is there any great quantity of sheep, but black cattle and hogs are very numerous.
Wild turkeys and parrots occupy, with wild animals, the extensive woods, whilst the sands of some of its rivers furnish gold, which is also found in lumps in this province.
The natives are numerous, and reckoned an industrious and ingenious people, and are particularly skilled in the goldsmith's art.
The capital of the province of Nicaragua is Leon, or Leon de Nicaragua, situated on a lake of fresh water, abounding with fish, which is called by the same name, and communicates with the great lake; this town has a mountain near it with a volcano, which has sometimes caused it to suffer by earthquakes. The town is not very large, containing about 1200 houses, with many convents, and four churches. It is the see of a bishop. Its port is Realexo, which is situated near it, and is a fortified town with a good harbour, which has the same name, and is on the Rio Realejo. The river Realejo is so deep and commodious as to be capable of containing 200 sail of vessels. The town has good fortifications and fine docks for building and repairing ships. It has three churches and an hospital. Realexo is in north latitude 12° 45', 87° 30' west longitude, eighteen miles north-west of Leon. It suffered much from the Buccaneers, as they found it a commodious harbour; the Pacific is shut out by an island which lies across the mouth of the bay, and forms two channels; but the one on the north-west side is the safest and best.
The town of Realexo is unhealthy owing to the marshes and creeks in its neighbourhood; its chief trade consists in cordage, pitch and tar, and in the little commerce it carries on for Leon, of which it is the embarcadero or port.
Nicaragua, or Granada, is another town near the great lake at its south-eastern extremity, in 86° 15' west longitude, 11° 15' north latitude. In the year 1680, this town as well as the capital was sacked by the Buccaneers, it has now a considerable trade in cochineal, hides and sugar, with the neighbouring provinces.
St. Juan is a sea-port thirty miles south-east of Leon, in 12° 10' north latitude, 87° 38' west longitude, and there are some others of little note.
The river St. Juan is the stream which affords an outlet to the lakes of Nicaragua and Leon into the Caribbean sea. Its length is about 100 miles; this river is navigated by boats and canoes carrying tallow and goods to Porto Bello, 240 miles distant, but they are obliged to make three portages which is owing to some obstructions in the course. These carrying places are defended, and at one of them is the Fort St. Juan, called also the Castle of Neustra Senora, on a rock, and very strong; it has thirty-six guns mounted, with a small battery, whose platform is level with the water; and the whole is enclosed on the land side by a ditch and rampart. Its garrison is generally kept up at 100 infantry, sixteen artillery men, with about sixty of the militia, and is provided with batteaux, which row guard every night up and down the stream. Some slaves are allowed for the menial services of the garrison, and this post is supplied with provisions, fowls, garden-stuff, &c. from Granada, distant 180 miles, being usually provisioned for six months. The climate is very unhealthy as it is always raining, and the place requires to be constantly recruited from Guatimala. This port is looked on as the key of the Americas, and with the possession of it and Realejo on the other side of the lake, the Spanish colonies might be paralyzed by the enemy being then master of the ports of both oceans. This river St. Juan has also been proposed as the means of joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; its great length, the necessity for making only two or three cuts to avoid its obstructions, the immense depth of the lakes Nicaragua and Leon, and a short canal of twelve or fourteen miles on the western side, would effect this object; thus rendering an easy and safe communication from the West Indies, the coast of the Spanish main, and the eastern shore of New Spain to the Pacific Ocean. It is to be supposed that the Spaniards would not have neglected an opportunity thus afforded them by nature, had not political reasons suggested the impropriety of the undertaking.
THE PROVINCE OF HONDURAS
Is a large province of the kingdom of Guatimala, and is bounded on the north by the gulf or bay of Honduras, which separates it from the province of Yucatan; on the west by Vera-Paz; on the east by the Caribbean sea; and on the south by the province of Nicaragua. The length of Honduras from east to west is 390 miles, and its breadth from north to south about 150. Honduras was first discovered by Columbus, who landed on the Mosquito shore on Sunday the 14th of August, 1502, and took formal possession of the country.
The climate of this country is good; the air, excepting on the eastern shore, and near the morasses, being pure and wholesome. The soil in most parts is exceeding fertile, abundantly producing corn, vegetables and fruits. They have a three-fold crop of maize in the year, and the vines produce grapes twice in the same period. The pastures are excellent, and the country furnishes all kinds of provisions; but for want of cultivation and settlements, the greater part of it is in a state of nature. It has many good and serviceable small rivers, and is well watered. It has several mountains in its extent, in which are gold and silver mines, and the face of the country is agreeably diversified into valleys, plains and eminences, overspread in most parts with thick forests. Honey, wool, cotton, wax, mahogany and logwood, with other dyeing drugs, are its chief products; the latter forming an immense part of its exports, and from which its chief importance is derived.
The felling of the mahogany trees is performed twice in the year, in Autumn and at Christmas. This is done by slaves, who have one man called a finder, or huntsman, whose business it is to seek for the mahogany trees in the thick woods, and to point them out to the gang. This he does by penetrating the forest, and climbing the tallest trees to discover his object; the mahogany trees generally grow separately, and are much dispersed, so that the labour of procuring this valuable wood is very great; the finder soon discovers them by the deep colour of their leaves, and he selects the place where they are most numerous to call his comrades to work at.
The mahogany tree is cut at the height of ten or twelve feet from the earth; and for this purpose they erect a stage for the feller to stand conveniently on. The trunk is used for tables, and other articles of furniture, which require large planks of this wood; but the branches are reckoned the best parts of the tree, as the grain in them is closer, and the streaks more beautifully varied. The trunks and branches are dragged by the negroes to the nearest river, and there made into rafts, for the purpose of being floated into the sea to the settlements.
The growth of the mahogany tree is very rapid, but not so much so as that of the logwood, which comes to a state fit for use in five years. The slaves who are employed in cutting the logwood and mahogany have been brought either from the United States, or the West India Islands by their owners, and are not in such a degrading state of subjection as their brethren of the last-mentioned places.
Logwood trees are cut in logs of about three feet in length, and sent to Europe in that form, where they afterward undergo many operations, and are principally used by dyers for the finest black and for purple colours.
The Mosquito shore, a tract of country which lies along part of the northern and the eastern shore of Honduras, has been claimed by the British. The English held this country for eighty years, and, abandoned it in 1787 and 1788. The Spaniards call it a part of Honduras, which it really is, and claim it as such. It is an unhealthy, hot country, inhabited chiefly by a race of people called the Mosquito Indians, who are excellent marksmen, and of a warlike disposition. They are employed by the British to strike the manati, or sea-cow, for the sake of the oil it affords, and bear an invincible hatred to the Spaniards, being much attached to the English; as they were so cruelly treated on the conquest of this part of the country by the former people, that they have never forgiven it, and they do not acknowledge any allegiance to them. Their ancestors, after long and exterminating contests with the Spaniards, retreated into the mountains, and there remained till the English took possession of the Mosquito shore.
When the Duke of Albemarle was governor of Jamaica, they put themselves under his protection, and their king had a commission granted him from Great Britain. It is asserted that since that time the new monarch always goes to Jamaica to receive this document; and that the Mosquito Indians, his subjects, refuse to acknowledge his power till he does so. They trade with, and are frequently in the habit of crossing to Jamaica. The Spaniards are said to have no settlements on the Mosquito Shore; which name has been given to this country, partly from the Indians, and from a bank and cluster of islands which lie near it, in 14° 30' north latitude, and 82° 10' west longitude.
The Mosquito Indians were formerly a very powerful and numerous race of people; but the ravages of rum and the small-pox have diminished their numbers very much. They inhabit, however, nearly the whole coast of Honduras; and their most numerous tribe exists near the Cape Gracios Á Dios. This tribe has, however, been the subject of many enquiries and disputes, as they differ in their persons from the other natives, and it is confidently said by many authors that they are the descendants of the slaves of a Guinea ship, which was wrecked near this Cape. They are called the Samboc Mosquitoes. Cape Gracias Á Dios was the place where the British first established themselves in the Honduras territory, upon the banks of a navigable river, where the country is very fertile, and the harbour, formed by an inlet of the sea, is safe and commodious. This happened in 1730. They also fixed a colony about 78 miles from Cape Honduras, the colony at Cape Gracios Á Dios being 162 miles distant. Seeking farther southward, at Bluefields River, 210 miles-from the first colony, they found a fine harbour, an extensive river, and a natural situation for a fort, with spacious, beautiful and fruitful plains.
The bay of Honduras, so celebrated for its trade in logwood and mahogany, is situated between Cape Catoche, the north-eastern most point of the province of Yucatan, and Cape Honduras. The land in the neighbourhood of this bay is inhabited by the Mosquito Indians. The English factories in 1769 amounted to 200 whites, the same number of people of colour, and 900 slaves. They exported to Jamaica, mules, &c. and to Europe, 800,000 feet of mahogany, 10,000 pounds of tortoise-shell, and 200,000 pounds weight of sarsaparilla. This trade was much damped by smuggling: but in the year 1763 Great Britain obtained the privilege of the logwood trade. They have lately discovered that the Campeachy wood of Yucatan, which grows on drier ground, is better, and of a closer grain, than the Honduras wood: but the price of the former had been so long kept up, that the latter trade was the most flourishing. The best mahogany is now cut in Yucatan.
The climate of the Honduras is superior to that of the West Indies; the sea-breezes being regular during the whole of the year, excepting in April, May and June, when the heats of summer prevail; but the mean heat is 30°.
Balize is the chief and only settlement of the British which is worth mentioning, situated at the mouth of a river of the same name, and consists of 200 habitations built of wood, and elevated on pillars. The shops, magazines, or offices, are on the ground-floor, and the habitable parts in the upper. The two floors have each piazzas, to which the people retire, from the heat of their inner apartments. The river on which Balize is situated, is navigable for boats 200 miles up the country, and the wood cutters proceed to that distance, in search of their article. The agriculture of this country has been neglected, on account of the wood trade, though the soil would produce the West Indian commodities of sugar, coffee, or cotton, with rice and Indian corn in great abundance. The British government appoint an officer to the command of this station, who is usually an officer of some rank in the army.
Many of the turtle which are caught here, are exported to England; and the hawks bill (a particular kind) is consumed in the settlement; its shell being an article of the commerce of Honduras. The bay of Honduras is full of shoals, rocks, and islands, which make its navigation dangerous. The fog, which is prevalent during the northerly winds, increases the difficulty, and the currents on the coast are very uncertain.
The introduction of British manufactures has been impeded into the adjacent Spanish settlements by the jealousy of the Spaniards; but it is probable that it may in time become a very valuable station.
The British government grant a convoy in January and July each year to the Honduras traders; and the annual revenue of the settlement is stated at about five thousand pounds.
The Mosquitoes who have fallen under the observation of the British settlers, seem to have no other religion than the adoration of evil spirits; and their conjurers are in fact the priests, the lawyers and the judges. Polygamy is practised; and all domestic offices are performed by the females.
The crown is succeeded to hereditarily, and the king is a despotic monarch. These people are warlike, keeping the other Indian nations and their Spanish neighbours, in complete defiance; they can support hardships and want of food with great heroism; but, as all savages do, when they can indulge, they place no bounds to their excesses. The warriors of this tribe are accounted at fifteen hundred. The mosquitoes annoy these savages, who probably have received their name from these insects being so plentiful on the coast; so much, that at particular seasons, they quit their dwellings, and pass their nights in their canoes.
In Honduras, the rainy season is always accompanied by great flights of swallows, who remain at night at rest on the great savannahs or plains, and at sun-rise rush in a body up into the air, in quest of the flies, their nutriment; at dusk they return, and a traveller has described the noise which this immense body of birds make in their flight, as comparable to that of a waterfall. In the bay, cormorants and pelicans are very numerous, as well as many other sorts of sea-fowl, attracted by the abundance of fish.
The chief towns of the Spanish part of Honduras, are Valladolid, the capital, Truxillo, Gracias Á Dios, and Omoa.
Valladolid, or Comayaguas, is the capital, and is a large and fine town, in 88° 19' west longitude, 14° 30' north latitude, on the banks of a river which falls into Honduras bay. It is said that there are rich silver mines in the vicinity of Valladolid; this city is the residence of the intendant, and the see of a bishop, who is styled Bishop of Honduras.
Truxillo is situated on a hill near the sea, and in Truxillo bay; this sea-port has very often been ravaged by the Dutch and British; it is at present a place of little account, though made, by some writers, the capital; and is in 15° 51' north latitude, and 86° 8' west longitude. Truxillo is ninety miles north of Valladolid.
Gracias Á Dios, is on the bay of Honduras, at the mouth of a small river; and there are said to be some gold mines in its vicinity. It is in 14° 30' north latitude, and 90° 6' west longitude.
Omoa, or St. Francisco de Omoa, is situated in 15° 50' north latitude, 89° 53' west longitude, and is a strongly fortified sea-port. The treasure and valuable commodities of Guatimala are received here to be embarked; and the European trade of the kingdom carried on through this port, which is so important as to be called the key of Honduras.
PROVINCE OF COSTA RICA.
Costa Rica is the most southern province of Guatimala, and is bounded on the north by Nicaragua, east by the Caribbean sea, west by the Pacific, and south by the province of Veragua. It is 150 miles long, and in its widest part about 140 broad. Its name, Costa Rica, “the Rich Coast,” is derived from its valuable gold and silver mines, and a pearl fishery, which formerly existed on its shores. It is a very mountainous country, overspread with thick forests and waste lands; its population is not extensive, and consequently, there is little or no agriculture practised. The native tribes are its principal inhabitants; the Spaniards only occupying some small towns and mining stations; but the natives are not subjugated, and live independent of their Spanish neighbours. Its chief mine is Tisingal, reported to be nearly as rich as Potosi. The commerce of this province consists in cacao, cattle, honey, hides and wax; and in its pearl fishery, with a species of shell-fish, which produces a purple dye. The pearl-muscle and the shell-fish alluded to, are found principally in a small bay, called the Gulf de la Salinas, or Nicoya. This is its principal port on the Pacific shore, while on the Atlantic, the port of Carthago is situated at a great distance from the town of the same name.
Carthago the capital is situated in 9° 5' north latitude, and 83° west longitude, 360 miles west of Panama, the see of a bishop, and the residence of a governor; it is not a place of much importance or any considerable population, having been lately much deserted, though it was formerly one of the first towns in this part of the world.
Nicoya is the next town of any importance; it is situated near the shore of the gulf of the same name, on the western or Pacific coast, in 85° 53' west longitude, and 10° 42' north latitude. The pearl and dye fishery is situated in the bay of Salinas, thirty miles east of Nicoya. The trade of the inhabitants of Nicoya consists in salt, honey, Indian corn, wheat, fowls, and the purple juice of the above mentioned fish, which they export to Panama; and which was first discovered to produce so valuable a substance by the Indian women, who stained their cotton garments with its fluid.
PROVINCE OF VERAGUA.
Veragua, though actually situated in North America, is an integral part of the government or kingdom of Tierra Firma, in South America. The principle of this work being to offer descriptions of the whole of Spanish North America, as it is geographically situated, before entering upon the description of the territorial possessions of the same power in the southern part of that vast continent, we shall accordingly proceed with Veragua, as though it formed a part of Guatimala.
It is bounded on the north, by the Caribbean sea; east by the province of Darien in South America, which is separated from Veragua by the ridge of Canatagua; on the west, by Costa Rica, and on the south, by the Great Pacific ocean. It was first discovered by Columbus, in the year 1503, and this province was granted to him by the Spanish king, as a reward for his services, with the title of duke. He gave the river the appellation of Verdes aguas, which in Spanish is the same as Green Waters, on account of the colour of its waves; this has gradually been corrupted into Veragua, and from this river, the province takes its name. The Spaniards were very long before they could make any permanent settlement in this province, on account of the hostility of the inhabitants. Gaspar d'Espinosa, and Diego de Alvarez, endeavoured to conquer and explore Veragua, but being repulsed in all their attempts by the natives under their sovereign Urraca, they were obliged to form a settlement in the neighbourhood, and fonded the city of Santiago; but here they were assailed by these valiant Indians, and were obliged to strengthen their position in every possible manner to resist their frequent attacks. Veragua is a mountainous, rugged country, covered with vast forests, beautifully interspersed by luxuriant and fertile valleys; the heat of this province is very great, though meliorated by the rains which are constantly falling; thunder storms, accompanied with frightful lightning, occur very frequently, and during these storms, the torrents rush with impetuous and overwhelming force into the vales from the surrounding mountains. The Indians, the principal tribe of whom are called Doraces, live in the forests and mountains, and are only partially converted by the missionaries, who have founded some villages, where they reside with their flocks; this has only been accomplished since the year 1760. The woods abound with monkeys and wild animals; there is one kind of monkey of a delicate form and yellow colour with a white head, and it is said, they never live when removed from their native climate.
The gold and silver mines of Veragua are not much wrought, owing to the rugged nature of the country in which they are situated; the natives being the only means they have to transport the produce over the mountains, which when a mine is worked they do on their backs. The labour and expence attendant on this mode of carrying the ores to be smelted, render the working of the mines, though they are very rich, almost, impracticable.
The capital is Veragua, or St. Jago de Veragua, a handsome town, situated in a moist and warm climate, and surrounded by a small district which produces Indian corn, a root called yucca, of which they make bread, and plantains; cattle and hogs are here also very numerous. The Indians in the vicinity dye their cottons, manufactured by themselves, with the juice of shell-fish found at the bay of Salinas in Costa Rica, and on the coast of Veragua, affording a rich and delicate purple; with this juice, and with gold, which they find in the hills, they carry on a trade with Panama and Guatimala. This city is the residence of a governor, and has fourteen villages under the jurisdiction of its magistrates; there is also a fine hospital founded by the friars; and its inhabitants are partly Spaniards, partly mulattoes.
The next city is Nuestra Senora de Los Remedios, or Puebla Nueva, inhabited by Spaniards and their descendants. Santiago el Angel, or Alangi, is the third city of Veragua, and was founded by Benito Hurtado, governor of Panama. There are also several large villages, inhabited principally by the native Indians.
Veragua is famed as having been the country where the first European colony was attempted to be planted by Columbus, on the continent of America. This happened on the 24th of February, 1503; but after building a fort and constructing some houses, they found themselves unable to resist the attacks of the Indians; and from this, and other circumstances, Columbus resolved to embark the colony; which he accordingly did.
WEST INDIA ISLANDS
BELONGING TO THE CROWN OF SPAIN.
The West India Islands, colonized by Spain, are not numerous. Puerto Rico and Cuba, in the northern group, Margarita and some others on the coast of Caraccas, unimportant in their nature, being mostly mere rocks, compose the whole of the islands in the West Indian seas which are possessed by Spain; of these Puerto Rico and Cuba are the most important; Cuba being the largest as well as one of the most fertile islands belonging to any European power in the American seas.
POLITICAL DIVISIONS.
These islands are divided into three governments; Puerto Rico is a capitaneria generale, as is the island of Cuba, including the adjacent continent of the Floridas; under the title of Captain-General of the Havannah, an officer of high rank governs this island and Florida; his situation being the most important of any of the capitanias generales of Spanish America.
The captain-general of Caraccas governs the island of Margarita and the others on the coast of his province; we shall therefore describe these islands under the head of Caraccas, proceeding at present to the description of Puerto Rico.
PUERTO RICO.
The island of Puerto Rico, is situated in the Caribbean sea and Atlantic ocean, between the island of Hayti or St. Domingo, and the Virgin Islands. It occupies a space between 65° 30' and 67° 45' of west longitude, and between 18° and 18° 35' of north latitude. In shape, it is nearly a parallelogram, its length being about 120 miles by forty in breadth. Columbus discovered this island during his second voyage, in the year 1493. Juan Ponce de Leon, of whom we have spoken in the description of Florida, colonized Puerto Rico, in 1509; when he subjugated the country; the native Indians were at that time very numerous, but have since disappeared.
Puerto Rico is an important island to the Spaniards; its productions are very valuable to their European commerce, and the climate is more healthy and temperate than in the other islands of the Caribbean seas. The mountains of Puerto Rico, are not of any very great altitude, but form a beautiful feature of the landscape, their gently undulating surface composing picturesque and well watered valleys. The rivers are of no size, but agreeably diversify the picture; and being very numerous, are exceedingly useful to the purposes of agriculture. The interior, and part of the seashore to the north, is still covered with the original forests, in which roam large wild dogs; these dogs are the remains of a race brought from Spain, by the first conquerors of the island, to assist in hunting down the natives, who fled for protection to the fastnesses of the interior.
These forests also abound with parrots, pigeons and other birds, peculiar to the West India Islands, as well as with land-crabs, which are as numerous here as in any of the Caribbean Isles; on whose flesh the wild dogs are supposed to subsist.
The natural history of these crabs is highly singular; they are the dread of colonists proceeding to the West Indies; who are told, that should they die of the fevers so prevalent in that region, their bodies will not rest long in the earth to which it is committed; as the land-crabs burrowing to the grave, soon consume them.
At certain seasons of the year, these singular animals, who greatly resemble the sea-crabs in shape and manner of moving, leave the mountains in which they have formed their burrows, and move in immense cavalcades down to the sea-coast, for the purpose of depositing their young in the waters. At this period nothing arrests their progress, as they move continually in the same line; if they meet with a wall, they climb up one side and down the other; and the clattering noise produced by the claws is said to be surprising. After depositing their young, they return to their haunts, in the same order, and are followed by the young crabs, as soon as they attain sufficient strength to perform the journey.
Cattle of superior qualities, originally brought from the mother-country, are fed in this island; poultry are also very cheap and plentiful, and the rivers and sea supply the inhabitants with every variety of fish.
The southern coast is the most healthy as well is the most fertile; producing, for the commerce of the inhabitants, sugar, coffee, cassia, flax, cotton, ginger, and the odoriferous gums used in such great quantity in Roman Catholic countries; these, with hides and tropical fruits, compose the chief articles of their trade with Europe, &c. They have here a fine breed of mules, which are sought after, from the British islands in the neighbourhood.
The northern side, which is comparatively sterile, is supposed to contain in the higher lands, some gold and silver mines; but of the existence or value of these, nothing certain is ascertained.
With all these bounties so lavishly bestowed by the hand of Nature, Puerto Rico is subjected occasionally to a dreadful calamity. In the year 1742, a terrible tornado overturned the labour of years, and destroyed the plantations, which did not recover the shock they received for several years afterwards; these hurricanes occasionally visit the island at present, but none of so calamitous a nature has been experienced since that period. The total population of the island is calculated at 136,000.
The capital of the island, and residence of the governor, is situated on a peninsula on the northern shore. It was founded in 1514, and named Puerto Rico; from whence the whole island has received its appellation; having been called Borriquen by the natives when first discovered.
This town is also called St. Juan de Puerto Rico; and is situated in 18° 29' north latitude, and 66° 0' west longitude; a fort called St. Antonio, protects it on the south-west; and it has also a citadel and other fortifications, with a very good harbour.
Puerto Rico is a bishopric, the bishop residing in the capital.
The amount of its population is not well known, but is very great.
This city has often been attacked; in 1594, by Sir Francis Drake; in 1597, by the Duke of Cumberland, (who took and plundered it and the island,) and again by the British in 1797; who were however as unsuccessful as Sir Francis Drake.
The plantations and small towns of the island are very numerous, but mostly too insignificant for notice. The number of slaves in Puerto Rico is not considerable.
Puerto Rico draws from Mexico for the expences of its administration, the sum of 377,000 piastres annually.
Its defence consists chiefly in the country militia.
It has adhered to the royal cause.
CUBA.
Cuba, the largest as well as the most important of the islands in the West Indian seas, is situated to the south of Florida, between the northernmost point of Yucatan, and the westernmost point of the island of Hayti, or Hispaniola. The western part of Cuba, nearly shuts in with the northern shore of Yucatan and the western coast of East Florida, that immense basin known by the name of the gulf of Mexico; it is strongly suspected that Cape Catoche in Yucatan and the most western headland of Cuba, were formerly united by an isthmus, which has been gradually worn away by the pressure and action of the waters of the Caribbean sea. Should this have actually been the case, the Mexican gulf must have been very shallow, as we find that the passage of the waters of the South Atlantic, impelled by the trade-winds through the strait formed by Cuba and Yucatan, is, although it has considerable breadth, so very forcible, as to send a vast stream or current, with great impetuosity round the gulf and through the straits of Florida, as far as the banks of Newfoundland, and to the northern shores of Europe. This stream is distinguishable in the North Atlantic, by its superior heat to the rest of the waters of that ocean, and by a body of sea-weed which constantly accompanies it. This the author has observed considerably to the east of the great bank of Newfoundland, as well as small land birds, which he cannot imagine could have reached those latitudes by the aid of flight alone. Might they not have been conveyed on the masses of sea-weed (which also envelope wreck and trunks of trees) borne by this upper current from the Mexican gulf?
The extent of Cuba is from 73° 50', to 85° 30' of west longitude from east to west; its form is so curved, that it lies, although narrow, between 23° 20', and 19° 40' north latitude; it is about 700 miles long, but not more than seventy in medial breadth.
Its position gives it the command of the gulf of Mexico, by the Straits of Yucatan and Florida, as well as the navigation of the windward passage and channel of Bahamas. The fine harbour of the Havannah, and some other smaller ports, renders this island, with the before-mentioned advantages, the most important of the West India islands, particularly to Spain, possessing as she does the shores of the Mexican gulf.
The Spanish Government, have accordingly spared no expence in fortifying the Havannah, on which they seem to place their chief dependence for the security of their ultramarine colonies.
Cuba was discovered by Columbus during his first voyage in the year 1492, on Sunday the 28th of October. The natives of San Salvador, the first land he made, called it by its present name, Cuba; Columbus, however, named it after the king or queen of Spain; but it retained this title only for a short time, the native name soon taking precedency of the other. Columbus appears to have made his research in this island, from the reports of the Indians of San Salvador; when he arrived with his ships at the estuary of a large river, the inhabitants imagining some terrible event was about to befall them, fled to the interior; he, however, sent some of his people after them; they fell down astonished at the feet of these men, whom they imagined to be gods, and gave them different articles the produce of the country, amongst which were golden ornaments, made, as they said, in the mountains; and the Europeans imagined they had found the mines of gold and silver they were taught to imagine existed in this quarter of the world.
Columbus visited the greater part of the north coast of the island, in search of the precious metals, but the Spanish adventurers were disappointed in their hopes, gold being found only in very small quantities. They in some measure consoled themselves by the reflection, that the continent, as they imagined Cuba to be, might contain these valuable articles in some other part, and by the certainty, that the part they were now in, was fertile, beautiful and rich in the vegetable productions of nature. The Spaniards imagined that Cuba was a part of an immense continent, till the year 1508, when an officer of the name of Obando, circumnavigated it, and by this means ascertained that it was the largest of the islands hitherto discovered in those seas. The brother of Columbus, in the year 1511, in his capacity of admiral, and governor of Hispaniola, sent Don Jago Velasques with a force of 300 men, to conquer and colonize Cuba, which having performed, Velasquez was appointed governor of the island; his principal town he founded on the southern coast, and called it St. Jago; this situation he chose on account of the largeness and fineness of the harbour; he then built the city of the Havannah, at first of wooden houses, and afterwards with stone.
The climate of Cuba is better than that of any other island in the West Indian seas, excepting Puerto Rico; it is mild and temperate, and they have no winter; the summer heat is moderated by the rains and sea-breezes; the periodical rains lasting during the months of July and August.
The fertility of Cuba is celebrated; spices, among which are pepper and ginger; cassia, manioc, cacao, maize, aloes, mastic, sugar, tobacco, the flavour of which is superior to that of any other part of the world, known in commerce by the name of Havannah, and sold to an enormous amount in cigars, with many other articles the produce of tropical climates, constitute the riches of this fine island. Coffee, though cultivated, is so little attended to in the plantations, that not so much is grown for exportation as might easily be raised. Honey is one of the great articles of the export trade, and is annually produced to a great amount, as wax is also. Cattle, originally from Europe, have multiplied so much in Cuba, that they have become wild, and frequent, in immense droves, the forests and savannahs, or marshy plains; they are hunted for the sake of their hides and tallow, which are exported to a great amount.
The forests also abound with swine, which have multiplied in a similar manner; and the inhabitants possess large stocks of mules, horses, fine black cattle, and sheep, all of which thrive very much.
The woods chiefly consist of timber of valuable qualities, the red cedar, oaks, firs, palms, mahogany, ebony, lignum vitÆ; woods producing gums, aromatic and medicinal, &c.
The rivers and coasts abound with fish, and fine turtles frequent the shallows. The birds of Cuba are principally the parrot, and paroquet, American partridge, turtle-dove, and great varieties of aquatic birds.
In this island there are supposed to exist veins of gold and silver, because the inhabitants procure a small quantity of those metals in the sands of the rivers which descend from the mountains. The great metallic production of Cuba is copper, of which some valuable mines exist in the eastern part of the island, with which a trade is carried on amongst the West India islands, and the ports of the southern continent.
About an hundredth part of the island of Cuba only is supposed to be under a state of cultivation; the inhabitants, consisting of Europeans and their descendants, and negroes; the amount of the former being 338,000, and of the latter 212,000, making a total of 550,000 inhabitants.
A chain of mountains runs the whole length of Cuba, from east to west, following the curvature of the country.
This chain divides the island naturally into two parts; though these mountains do not acquire any very considerable elevation, but give rise to numerous rivers which flow into the ocean on each side, and sometimes, during the rainy season, inundate the low lands.
Cuba, as all the other islands of these seas are, is exposed occasionally to the devastating effects of hurricanes, but on the whole it is more free from these, as well as from disease, than any of the others, and may be looked upon as the healthiest, the most fertile, and the most secure of the West India islands.
Cuba with the Floridas, comprises a capitaneria generale, styled of the Havannah. The officer who holds this command has a very arduous and extensive jurisdiction, during war particularly; he has in the island eighteen subordinate governors, who preside over as many districts, into which Cuba is divided. An intendant superintends the finances and commerce of the island, and is subordinate only to the captain-general. The religious affairs of Cuba are superintended by a bishop, who resides at Havannah, and whose income is considerable.
The revenues of the island of Cuba are said to amount to more than two millions of piastres per annum, but the expences of administration are so great, that it receives from Mexico 1,820,000 piastres during the same period. We have observed more on this head under the article commerce, in the description of New Spain. The military force of Cuba consists chiefly in militia, the amount of which arm is stated to exceed 26,000; most of whom are undisciplined. This island, notwithstanding the immense droves of wild cattle and swine which roam about it, is supplied from the Caraccas with provisions.
Cuba has also adhered to the royal cause.
HAVANNAH.
The capital of this island is that well known town called the Havannah, founded by Velasquez, in the commencement of the sixteenth century, in 23° 12' north latitude, 82° 14' west longitude, on the north coast, opposite to the Floridas.
The harbour is very fine, and capable of containing the largest fleet in safety. This harbour and the town have been fortified as strongly as possible; the Spaniards looking on this port as the key of their North American possessions.
The only fault in this excellent port is, that the entrance is very narrow and difficult; so much so, that during war, vessels have been taken going in; on account of only one being able to pass at a time, the rearmost vessels have fallen into the hands of the pursuing ships, without their comrades being able to assist them. This channel is however so strongly fortified during its whole length, that it would be hazardous in the extreme, for an enemy's fleet to enter. The mouth has a fort on each side; that on the east, is called Moro Castle, on a high rock; which is a triangular work, mounted with forty pieces of heavy cannon, having a battery nearly level with the water at the foot of the rock; that on the west is called Punta, and communicates with the city; this is a square fort, strongly built, and well supplied with artillery.
The city is surrounded with works, mounted with numerous heavy guns. A square citadel is erected, near the center of the town, and is called El Fuerte; this work has also heavy cannon, and on this the Spanish garrison and inhabitants place their chief dependance. The captain-general's palace is in it, and here the treasure is deposited; and the fortifications are said to be commanded by hills in the immediate neighbourhood.
The city contains eleven fine churches; two hospitals, a dock yard, lazaretto, and numerous public buildings; an aqueduct supplies the shipping with water, and turns the saw mills in the dock yard.
The town stands in a plain on the west side of the harbour, and the houses, which are elegant, are mostly of stone. There are several convents; and the great square is a fine ornament of the place. The churches are highly and magnificently ornamented with gold and silver lamps, images, &c. The manners of the inhabitants are said to be more polished than in most of the American cities, and they have societies for the encouragement of the arts and sciences. During the stay of the fleet from Mexico, an immense commerce is carried on, but at this time provisions are very dear; they are in general high in price and difficult to obtain, owing to the indolence of the natives, and the number of persons constantly arriving here for the purposes of commerce from the interior, and the other American ports: all the vessels from the east coast of Spanish America, calling here on their way to Europe.
The importance of this city and harbour, has caused it to be repeatedly attacked; it was taken in 1536, by a French pirate, but ransomed for 700 dollars; it was again taken by the English and by the French and by the Buccaneers; but the most memorable attack was that executed by the British in 1762. Admiral Sir George Pococke, and Lord Albemarle, conducted a fleet and troops to the Havannah, and after a determined resistance of two months and eight days, on the 14th of August, the Moro Castle and place surrendered, as well as a district of 180 miles to the west of the town. The victors captured nine sail of the line; three more were sunk by the Spaniards; two on the stocks were burnt, and a great many merchant vessels, loaded with valuable cargoes, completed the spoil. The valuable merchandize and specie found in the place, was supposed to amount to three millions sterling. Thus, after incredible hardships, efforts of extraordinary valour, and a display of unequalled judgment on the part of the commanders, did this gallant force take this strong fortress; and were recompensed by the applauses of their nation, the paralyzation of the enemy, and an immense booty.
This city was restored to Spain at the peace of 1763; since which period, the Government has been constantly employed in increasing its strength and resources.
The trade of this port is computed to amount, by importations, (the exportations being chiefly in sugar, wax and coffee,) to twenty millions of piastres.
The inhabitants of the Havannah amount to 25,000, whilst the total population of the island of Cuba is estimated to be about 550,000.
The other principal towns of Cuba are St. Jago, Puerto del Principe, Bayamo, Trinidad, Batabano, Santa Cruz, Baracoa, and Cadiz.
St. Jago, was formerly the capital of the island; it is situated in 20° north latitude, and 76° west longitude, 269 leagues from the Havannah. The country about St. de Jago de Cuba, or Cuba, is mountainous, and this part of the island is frequently visited by earthquakes, which are generally of a slight nature. The harbour of Cuba is very good, and extends six miles inland; the entrance to it is similar to that of Havannah, very narrow and long, and defended by a castle called the Moro, and several batteries. Cuba is the see of a bishop, who was formerly the suffragan of that of St. Domingo; the bishop residing at present almost always at Havannah, and the trade of the island being concentrated there, has reduced St. Jago from its former splendour: It is still however a fine town, and well peopled. The women are said to excel in beauty.
Puerto del Principe, or Villa del Principe, is 145 miles north-west of St. Jago, in 21° 17' north latitude, 77° 45' west longitude, and is remarkable for the fertility of the country around it, where large droves of cattle are nourished by the luxuriancy of the pasturage in the savannahs.
Bayamo, or St. Salvador, in 20° 46' north latitude, and 76° 55' west longitude, is situated in the eastern end of Cuba, and on the little river Estero, nearly twenty miles from the ocean. This town gave its name to the Bayamo channel, which runs amongst the land and low rocks, which Columbus called Jardin de la Reyna, or Queen's garden.
Trinidad is in 21° 42' north latitude, and 80° 6' west longitude, on a bay in the south coast. Trinidad is a fine sea-port, but of little consequence.
Batabano is nearly opposite the Pinos Islands, on the south side of the island of Cuba, near a very large bay, fifty miles south-west of the Havannah.
Baracoa is a sea-port, on the north-east shore of the island, with an excellent harbour for vessels of small tonnage; it is situated in 21° 4' north latitude, and 76° 10' west longitude; about seventeen leagues north-east of Cuba, or St. Jago.
Santa Cruz is a large town on the north coast, 30 miles east of the Havannah, and 115 north west of Cadiz.
Cadiz is situated in Cadiz Bay on the north coast of Cuba, 164 miles east of Havannah, and fifty miles north of Espiritu Santo, in 23° 2' north latitude, 79° 55' west longitude, and about ten miles west of Cadiz river.
Round the island of Cuba are several groups of rocks, and one large islet, named Pinos, which is situated near the south coast of Cuba, and separated from it by a channel, sixteen leagues long, and six wide; this island has several good and secure roads, but is uninhabited, except by a few fishermen, who occasionally dwell on its coasts. The only animals on it are goats, but it abounds in pastures and large trees. Pinos is about 42 miles long, and 34 broad, in 21° 38' north latitude, 82° 45' and west longitude.
ISLANDS NEAR THE COASTS
OF NEW SPAIN AND GUATIMALA.
The islands belonging to Spanish North America near its coasts, are numerous, both in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but most of them are either uninhabited or unimportant from their being small. Commencing on the north-east shores of the Intendancy of San Luis Potosi, and proceeding along its maritime borders southward, we meet with very numerous long strips of insulated land, the very names of most of which are unknown; but from their situation, they must be very fertile and will probably soon become of some use; such are the islands in the bays of Galveston, St. Bernardo, at the estuary of the great Rio Bravo del Norte, and on the coast of New Santander; of these the island of St. Luis, which embraces the above-mentioned bays, is one of the largest, with the island of St. Josef, extending from the bay of St. Bernardo to Lake Espiritu Santo, and La Carbonera, reaching from the same lake to the Barra de Santander. On the coasts of the Intendancy of Vera Cruz are the island of Ramirez in the gulf or lake of Tamiagua, a large isle in the centre, and the smaller island of Tore. In the bay of Vera Cruz are the islands of Sacrifices, Juan de Ulua, and others, which are small and sandy.
Juan de Ulua was first visited by Grijalva, in 1518, who gave it the name of Ulua, from having seen the remains of some human sacrifices, which the natives told him they were in the habit of offering here by order of the king of Acolhua. The interpreters who only spoke the language of Yucatan called the Mayo, believed that Acolhua or Ulua was the name of the island. A very strong fortress called the castle of St. Juan d'Ulua now covers nearly the whole rock, in the form of an irregular square, with advanced works towards the sea front; the expense of finishing this fortress is said to have been upwards of eight millions sterling; it contains fine barracks, cisterns, and a newly erected giratory light-house, placed at its eastern extremity, which was built according to the plan of M. Mendoza, the astronomer, who lately died in London. It consists of a high tower, on the top of which is the lantern with the lamps fixed on a triangle, turning by means of clock-work; the lights disappearing alternately, are supplied with a current of air and reflectors. This beautiful building cost about 20,000l. and is worthy of notice, on account of its utility in so dangerous a navigation as the channel of Vera Cruz is at all times.
The island of Sacrifices was so called, from the first discoverers observing the numerous remains of the victims immolated by the Mexican priests.
In the environs of the river Alvarado, several rivers descending from the interior, form numerous islands at their junction with the sea, and farther to the south are the islands of Guascualco at the mouth of the river of the same name and the island of Tabasco on which that town is situated.
Near the boundary of the provinces of Vera Cruz and Merida or Yucatan, in the lake or gulf of Terminos, are the islands of Triste and Port Royal; the former is on the south-west side of the gulf and west of Port Royal, from which it is separated by a narrow channel only. Triste, or as it is sometimes written Trieste, is in north latitude, 18° 20', and is eighteen miles in circumference, containing valuable mahogany and logwood, cut annually by the British. Port Royal is smaller, and is also called Puerto Escondido, having a small harbour, in north latitude 18° 22', west longitude 92° 86'.
In the Intendancy of Merida, the western side has several small islands off its shores; of these the dangerous rocks called the Alacranes, are the chief, the others, such as Arenas, Sisal, &c. are chiefly sand banks above water, most of which are well laid down in the charts of the Mexican gulf.
To the north of Merida, and between Cape Catoche and False Cape, are a group of islands, of which Las Mugeres, or Women's isle, is the most easterly; this isle is called Mohair Key in some maps, owing to the pronunciation of the Spanish word for women having a similar sound.
These islands were explored by the fleet under Cortez, in a storm which drove one of his vessels into their harbours.
On the east of Yucatan is the Island of Cozumel, or Cosumel forty miles long, and from three to ten in breadth, in 19° 40' north-latitude, 85° 51' west longitude; which is very fertile, and abounds in cattle and fowls. It is inhabited by an Indian tribe, and was first explored by Juan de Grijalva, on the thirteenth of April 1518, when he gave it the name of Santa Cruz, because it was discovered on the day of the invention of the Holy Cross. On landing here the natives fled to the woods, but they took two old men in a field of maize, here they found an Indian woman of Jamaica, who had been driven on the coast with her husband and nine men in a storm; the natives had sacrificed all her party to their gods, and she gladly placed herself under the protection of the Spaniards.
The Island of Cozumel was again visited by Fernando Cortez shortly afterwards, in his expedition to Mexico; he reviewed his troops here on shore, and found them to amount to 508, besides 109 seamen. The 508 soldiers were now divided into eleven companies, with ten brass field-pieces, four falconets, thirteen musketeers, thirty-two cross bowmen, and sixteen horses. Cozumel had at that time several temples, one of which was in the shape of a square tower, hollow at top, with four large windows or openings and galleries, in which were many idols; at the foot was a wall with a sort of battlements, and on this was a cross three yards high, drawn with white lime. From these high buildings, and on account of the resemblance of this white mark to a cross, Grijalva named the Island and adjoining coast New Spain. It was here they first saw the pecari or sus tajassu, a sort of hog, with its navel on the back, or rather an open glandular orifice, discharging an oily fetid liquor, which is cut out when the animal is killed, otherwise it would taint the whole carcase.
The Spaniards having heard the word Castellano, repeated by the Indians in the former voyages, Cortez enquired of the Caciques, if any whites existed among them, and learning that there were, he gave large presents to some of them and dispatched them to the neighbouring continent to search for and bring any European who might be there to him; he also sent two ships to Cape Catoche, where the word Castellano had been most frequently heard; in consequence of these exertions, which he doubtless made to gain a knowledge of the interior from the captives, Jeronimo de Aguilar gained his liberty, and went to another Spaniard, Alonzo Guerrero, to obtain his freedom, and to solicit him to accompany him; but Alonzo having married an Indian woman, by whom he had several children, would not return to his countrymen; and Aguilar lost so much time in endeavouring to persuade him, that the ships had already sailed, the appointed time for their stay being only eight days; but one of the ships having sprung a leak, the whole fleet returned to Cozumel a few hours after they had left it. Aguilar now crossed to the island in a canoe, and presented himself to Cortez. He had nearly forgotten his native language, was so dark from the burning climate, and almost naked, that it was with difficulty he was recognised as a Spaniard; he carried a paddle in his hand, and had an old prayer-book in a tattered bundle on his back; on coming before Cortez, he squatted down on his hams after the Indian fashion, and no one discovered that he was the Spaniard they were seeking for. He said at last, that he was a native of Ecija, and had been brought up for the church; but had been wrecked eight years before, in a voyage from Hispaniola to Darien. He and his companions in misfortune tried to reach Cuba in the ship's boat, but were drifted by the currents on this coast, where the Indians made them all slaves.
Most of them had been sacrificed to the idols; others, among whom were two women, were worn out with disease and fatigue, and soon died. Guerrero and himself were the only survivors; Aguilar had been condemned to die, but had escaped to a friendly chief, who had ever since protected him. He knew nothing of the interior, being kept constantly employed in getting wood and water, and in the cultivation of maize. Guerrero had adopted the Indian manners, and had headed them in their attacks on the former navigators. Aguilar was much employed by Cortez in the subsequent conquest of Mexico.
The great temple of Cozumel was served by a priest in a long mantle, who addressed the people from the summit. They burnt incense before the idols, which so enraged Cortez, that he ordered his soldiers to destroy them, and made the Indians build an altar on the top, on which he placed an image of the Holy Virgin; and a crucifix being erected, one of the chaplains said mass, to which the people paid much attention, and as it afterwards appeared, burnt incense before the image and cross.
Cozumel was formerly inhabited by the Spaniards, at the ruins of several buildings, situated in a wood of palm-trees, indicate.
Ambergris Key, or Ubero Island, is the next of any consequence south of Cozumel. It lies in the Bay of Hanover, is seventy miles long, but narrow, and nearly shuts in the mouth of the bay. It is opposite to this island that the British logwood cutters are settled; besides Ambergris Key, there are several smaller islands in Hanover Bay.
The British settlements extend from the mouth of the river Hondo, to the north of Hanover Bay. This bay is in 18° 45' north latitude, and 89° 15' west longitude, where it receives the Rio Hondo.
Turneff Island, lies south of the former; is in 17° 16' north latitude, 88° 20' west longitude; twenty miles in length, and ten in breadth; abounding in cocoa-nut trees, and constantly frequented by the fishermen of the adjacent coasts. This part of the coast, as well as that of Vera Paz, and the gulf of Amatique, is also studded with islets.
On the coast of Honduras, towards the northern part, lie the islands of Utila, Ruatan, and Bonacao, of which Bonacao is supposed to be the Guanaia of Columbus, the first island discovered by him in his fourth voyage. He made his brother Bartholomew land here, who found lapis calaminaris, which some of the sailors supposing to be gold, concealed lumps of for a length of time. He took a canoe full of people on board his ship, which came from the adjacent continent, and obtained information concerning it from them; but the land lying to leeward, he did not attempt to explore it, and therefore held on to the eastward, and discovered Cape Casinas, or Honduras. Bonacao, is about sixty miles in circumference, lying in 16° 30' north latitude, 86° 23' west longitude.
Ruatan or Rattan, in 16° 24' north latitude, and 87° 10' west longitude, is thirty miles long and twelve broad, with a fine harbour. The island is surrounded with shoals; it was settled by the British in 1741, for the purpose of carrying on the logwood trade, but was soon abandoned.
Utila is a small island to the south-west of Ruatan.
The Swan Islands are a group at some distance from the north-coast of Honduras, being chiefly barren rocks. Off Cape Gracias À Dios, are a multitude of islets and shoals.
Misteriosa and Santanilla are at a still greater distance, nearly in the middle of the gulf of Honduras.
Santanilla, consists of two small islands surrounded with rocks, in 17° 20' north latitude, 85° 30' west longitude.
Misteriosa to the north-west of these, seems to be a considerable bank or shoal.
Viciosas is a cluster of very small isles, in 15° 12' north latitude, and 84° 4' west longitude, opposite to the Bay of Carthago.
Cocoa-nut keys and Carrantasca shoals are other small clusters, to the north of Cape Gracias À Dios.
South of Cape Gracias À Dios are several groups of small islands and rocks. Tangulaco, Man of War Keys, Pearl Keys, little Corn Island, Great Corn Island, and a multitude of little islets, line the eastern shore of Honduras.
The Pearl Keys are a groupe of islets near Pearl Key lagoon, on the Mosquito shore, in north latitude 11° 15', west longitude 83° 12'.
St. Andres and Santa Catalina, or Old Providence, lie farther out at sea than the last mentioned.
St Andres or Andero is situated, in 12° 30' north latitude, 81° 40' west longitude, south south-east of Cape Gracias À Dios, and west south-west of Providence Island, which lies 80° 45' west longitude; and 13° 26' north latitude, is eleven miles long and four broad, with a good soil, excellent water, and pleasant climate. It was formerly inhabited, as well as many other small isles in these seas, by the Buccaneers, who fortified it. It is said there are no serpents or venomous reptiles found here, although it is near a continent in which they are so plentiful; at present this isle is uninhabited.
Roncador, Serranilla and Serrana, are to the north-east of the last.
Roncador is in 13° 45' north latitude, and 79° 30' west longitude.
Serranilla Isles, are a cluster of small islands, in north latitude 16° 10', west longitude 80° 10'.
Serrana or Pearl Island, so called from Serrana, a Spanish navigator, who was wrecked on it, is in 14° 5' north latitude, 78° 50' west longitude. All these which lie to the east of Honduras are small.
In the bay or lake of Chiriqui on the coast of Veragua, are several groupes, of which Provision Island and Bocalero are the principal ones.
The whole of the eastern coast of Spanish North America abounds with islets, rocks, shoals and sand-banks, and there are consequently but few good harbours; for although there are many deep bays and gulfs, yet the entrances to them are in general blocked up.
The western coast is in the contrary extreme, vary bold, and with few Islands; in describing these we shall commence on the north off the coasts of New California, where the first are the rocks, called in Spanish the Farallones, in 37° 48' 10 north latitude, and 123° 1' west longitude.
The next are the island of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, in 34° north latitude, and 120° 31' west longitude.
The island of San Nicholas in 33° 16' north latitude, and 119° 30' west longitude.
The island of San Salvador in 32° 43' north latitude, and 118° 30' west longitude.
Island of St. Martin, or de los Coronados, a small groupe in 32° 25' north latitude, and 117° 18' west longitude.
Island of San Bernardo in 29° 40' north latitude, and 115° 56' west longitude.
Island of Guadalupe in 28° 53' north latitude, and 118° 17' west longitude.
This last island is about thirteen miles long, composed of high, rocky and naked mountains with two small islands, one about a mile west south-west and the other two miles south of its southern point. The latitude and longitude are that of its southern cape, the island itself running thirteen miles farther to the north.
The island of San Benito is small and surrounded with shoals; it is mountainous, and its highest part is in 28° 18' north latitude, 115° 46' west longitude.
Island of Cedros in 28° 2' north latitude, and 115° 23' west longitude.
To the south, off the coast of Old California, the islands are not so numerous; there are however, several very small ones in some of the bays, and near the bay of La Magdalena one large one, named La Margarita, of which nothing is known excepting that it is about forty or fifty miles in length, and hilly.
On the east coast of Old California are several small islands, much used in the former pearl fishery; of these, proceeding from Cape St. Lucas to the extremity of the Vermillion Sea, are the islands Cerralbo and del Espiritu Santo, near the Mission de la Paz; islands of San Francisco, and San Jose, with several smaller ones. Island of Santa Cruz, island of Montserrat, and island of Catalina, near Puerto Escondido, and a large island near the coast of the Mission of Loretto; of these Santa Cruz is famous, as having been the abode of Cortez during his expedition to California; he remained on it a considerable time, suffering dreadful hardships, and losing the greater part of his followers by famine and disease. Santa Cruz is in 25° 23' north latitude, and 110° 47' west longitude.
Island of St. Lorenzo opposite Tiburon isle, and the
Island of Santa Ines, or Angel de la Guarda, a fine and extensive tract.
In the estuary of the Gila and Colorado, at the extremity of the gulf, another large island appears, but of it nothing certain is known; descending the gulf of California on the eastern shore, off the province of Sonora, are the islands of Tiburon, Tortuga, Lobos, San Ignacio, and several smaller ones.
Tiburon is the largest of these, and appears to be about sixty miles in length.
Off the shore of the intendancy of Guadalaxara is the islet of Isabella in 21° 50' north latitude, and 105° 56' west longitude.
Islet of Juanico in 21° 45' north latitude, and 107° 41' west longitude.
Piedra Blanca at the mouth of the Rio Grande de Santiago, and in the port of San Blas, in 21° 33' and 105° 17' west longitude.
Las Tres Marias abounding with wood, water, salt-pits and game, which cause them to be frequented by the English and American whalers; the French and English pirates used to winter in them, when they cruised in the South Seas. The south cape of the easternmost island is in 21° 16' north latitude, and 106° 17' west longitude. They were named Islands de la Magdalena, by Diego de Mendoza in 1532, and are occasionally visited by the Spaniards from Saint Blas, for the flax and lignum vitÆ they produce. South of these, and near cape Corrientes, is the islet Isasvirivil in 20° 45' north latitude, and 105° 57' west longitude.
The Revillagigedo islands, which are a considerable distance from the coast, are four in number. Santa Rosa, Socorro, Rocca Partida, and San Benedito; their origin seems to be volcanic, as pumice stones are found in them; Santa Rosa is in 18° 37' north latitude, 114° 3' west longitude. Socorro, the highest summit of which is more than 3657 feet above the sea, is the largest of the group, but not above fifteen or twenty miles broad and long, and is situated in 18° 48' north latitude, 110° 9' west longitude. Rocca Partida is in 19° 4' north latitude, 111° 5' longitude. San Benedito in 19° 18' north latitude, and 110° 53' west longitude.
Socorro was visited by Captain Collnett, on the 20th September, 1793. He afterwards saw other islands of this group.
At Socorro no anchorage could be found near the shore, the coast being exceeding bold and steep, except in a small cove where they had only ten fathoms; which place he judged to be too insecure. On this island, which consists of one very elevated summit and several detached points, that have a singular and picturesque appearance, the crew of his ship procured plenty of wild beans and prickly pears; they also sowed all sorts of garden seeds and some cocoa nuts. Leaving Socorro they went to San Benedito, or San Berto, where they procured the same fruits: they then explored Rocca Partida; its greatest length was fifty or sixty fathoms, its breadth, thirty five, with two separated pinnacles, which are about 120 feet in height, and look exactly like a ship under jury-masts, when seen from afar: its distance from Socorro is about forty-eight miles west. Here they saw a prodigious quantity of fish, but could only catch a few, owing to the multitude of sharks which destroyed their lines. A man reaching over the gun-wale of the boat, one of these ravenous animals attempted to bite his hand off, and they even seized the steering oar at the stern, so that they were obliged to lay it in.
Man of war birds and seals were the only habitants of this dreary rock. They steered from hence to the coast of California, and returned to Socorro on the 25th of November, 1793; after examining the coast they found a small bay on the south, with twenty-five fathoms water and good anchorage; the surface of the island on being explored, appeared to consist of a fine loose cinder, excepting on the north-east, where the ground was more firm. Captain Collnett's crew being very weak, and his ship in a bad state, he staid here only long enough to procure fish and fruit, and before his departure named the group Revillagegido, out of compliment to the Viceroy of that name, who had treated him with kindness whilst a prisoner at Mexico.
These islands were originally discovered by the Spaniards.
The whole coast from hence to Guaxaca and along the shores of the kingdom of Guatimala presents no islands of any consequence until we reach the extremity of Veragua, towards the south, where, between Cape Dulce and Cape Mariato are the isles Zedzones, Mentuosa, Quibo, or Caybo, and Quicaras; the first are merely small barren rocks.
Mentuosa rises to a considerable height, covered with cocoa-nut and other trees, and is about five or six miles in circumference, in 7° 15' north latitude and 82° 40' west longitude. The Quicaras are two islets, one of which is seven miles, the other two or three in length, and about twelve miles south of Caybo; they are also covered with trees.
Caybo, or Quibo, was visited by Lord Anson, in his celebrated circumnavigation of the world, on the 3d of December, 1741; when he came to anchor near Canal Bueno, and staid here until the 12th of the same month.
They found plenty of water and wood. The island is of moderate height, and thickly covered with a forest of cassia, limes, &c. Tigers, monkeys, wolves, and deer, abound, but were all extremely shy. Parrots, parroquets, macaws, hawks and vultures were seen in large flights; guanos, alligators of enormous size, the hawk's-bill and green turtle were found in great numbers, and the shores abounded with sharks, sea snakes, and various sorts of fish. Venemous reptiles were common, amongst which was the dreadful hooded snake. This island was afterwards visited by Captain Collnett, in 1794, who was bitten in the knee by one of these serpents, and continued for a length of time in great danger.
The writer of the voyage of Commodore Anson, speaks with great delight of the beauties of this isle, and mentions a cascade in the north-east part, which surpassed any thing of the kind they had ever observed; it was formed by a river of transparent water, rushing between rocks, over a ledge forty yards wide, and 150 in length, overhung by beautiful tropical plants; a flight of macaws passing over, and hovering about whilst they were observing this fall, added, by the glittering appearance of their beautiful plumage, to the singularity of the scene. The cedar trees were of enormous size, and the place affords, from its good anchorages, every facility to a distressed vessel cruizing in the Pacific.
The coast abounds with whales.
These are the last islands of Spanish North America in the Pacific Ocean; with them we therefore conclude the description of that portion of the trans-atlantic colonies of Spain.
END OF PART THE FIRST.
