and constraint. La renta de tabaco of the peninsula, yields a net revenue of six millions of piastres, a revenue arising in a great measure from the sale of the tobacco of the island of Cuba sent to Seville. The magazines of this city sometimes contain stores of 18 or 19 millions of pounds of snuff, the value of which amounts to the exorbitant sum of 200 millions of livres.* The cultivation of indigo, which is very general in the kingdom of Guatimala, and in the province of Caracas, is very much neglected in Mexico. The plantations along the western coast are not even sufficient for the few manufactures of home cotton cloth. Indigo is annually imported from the kingdom of Guatimala, where the total produce of the plantations amounts to the value of 12 millions of livres. This substance, as to which Mr. Beckman has made such learned researches, was known to the Greeks and Romans under the name of indicum. The word anil, which has passed into the Spanish language, is derived from the Arabian word niz or nil. Hernandez, speaking of the Mexican indigo, calls it aniz. The Greeks, in the time of Dioscorides, drew indigo from Gedrozia; and in the 13th century, Marco Polo carefully described the mode of its preparation in Hindostan. Raynal is wrong * 8,334,000l. sterling. Trans. when he maintains that the Europeans introduced the cultivation of that valuable plant into America. Several species of indigofera are peculiar to the New Continent. Ferdinand Columbus, in the life of his father, mentions indigo among the productions of the island of Hayti. Hernandez describes the process by which the natives of Mexico separated the fecula from the juice of the plant, a process different from that now employed. The small cakes of indigo, dried by fire, were called mohuitli or tleuohuilli. The plant was even designated by the name Xiuhquilipitzahuac. Hernandez * proposed to the court, to introduce the cultivation of indigo into the southern part of Spain. I know not if his counsel was followed, but it is certain that indigo was very common in Malta, till towards the end of the 17th century. The species of indigofera, from which indigo is at this day procured in the colonies, are: The indigofera tinctoria, I. anil, I. disperma, and I. argentea, as is proved by the most antient hieroglyphical paintings of the Mexicans; even thirty years after the conquest, the Spaniards, who had not yet found out the materials for making ink, wrote with indigo, as is proved 4 * Hernandez, lib. iv. e. 12. p. 108. Beckmann, 1. c. iv. 474-532. Berthollet, de la Teinture, ii. 37. Clavigero, ii. 189. 1 by the papers preserved in the archives of the Duke de Monteleone, who is the last descendant of the family of Cortez. At Santa Fe, they still write with a juice extracted from the fruits of the Uvilla (Cestrum Tinctorium), and there exists an order of the court, prohibiting the viceroys from using, in their official papers, any other materials than this blue of the Uvilla, because it had been found that it was more indestructible than the best European ink. After carefully examining those vegetables which are of importance to the agriculture and commerce of Mexico, it remains for us to give a rapid view of the productions of the animal kingdom. Although one of these productions in the greatest request, cochineal, belongs originally to New Spain, it is certain, however, that the most interesting productions for the prosperity of the inhabitants have been introduced there from the antient continent. The Mexicans had not endeavoured to reduce to a domestic state the two species of wild oxen, (Bos Americanus and Bos Moschatus) which wander in herds over the plains in the neighbourhood of the Rio del Norte. They were unacquainted with the Llama, which in the Cordillera of the Andes is not found beyond the limits of the Southern Hemisphere. They made no use of the wild sheep of California, nor of the goats of the mountains of Monterey. Among the numerous varieties of dogs + peculiar to Mexico, one alone, the Techichi served for food to the inhabitants. Undoubtedly the want of domestic animals was less felt before the conquest, when every family cultivated but a small extent of ground, and when a great part of the inhabitants lived almost exclusively on vegetables. However the want of these animals compelled a numerous class of the inhabitants, the Tlamama, to labour as beasts of burden, and to pass their lives on the highways. They were loaded with large leathern chests (in Mexican Petlacalli, in Spanish petacas) which contained goods to the weight of 30 or 40 kilogrammes. + Since the middle of the sixteenth century, the most useful animals of the old continent, oxen, horses, sheep, and hogs, have *As to the wild sheep and goats of the mountains of Old and New California, see vol. ii. chap. viii. p. 327. + See my Tableaux de la Nature, t. i. p. 124-127. The Cumanchis, a tribe of the northern provinces, employ dogs in the carriage of tents, like many of the tribes of Siberia. Seé vol. ii. p. 286. The Peruvians of Sausa (Xauxa) and Huanca ate their dogs (runalco), and the Aztecs sold in their markets the flesh of the mute dog techichi, which was castrated for the purpose of fattening. Lorenzana, p. 103. From 66 to 88 lb. avoird. Trans. multiplied surprisingly in all the parts of New Spain, and especially in the vast plains of the Provincias Internas. It would be superfluous to refute here the rash assertion of M. de Buffon, as to the pretended degeneracy of the domestic animals introduced into the New Continent. These ideas were easily propagated, because, while they flattered the vanity of Europeans, they were also connected with brilliant hypotheses, relative to the ancient state of our planet. When facts are carefully examined, naturalists perceive nothing but harmony where this eloquent writer announced discordancy.. There is a great abundance of horned cattle all along the eastern coast of Mexico, pespecially at the mouths of the rivers of Alvarado, Guasacualco, and Panuco, where numerous flocks feed on pastures of perpetual green. However, the capital of Mexico, and the great cities adjoining, draw their animal food from the intendancy of Durango. The natives, like the greatest part of the Asiatic tribes to the east of the Gangest, care very *This refutation is to be found in the excellent work of Mr. Jefferson on Virginia, p. 109. 166. See also Clavigero, t. iv. p. 105. 160.M + For example, in the South-east of Asia, the Chinese, and the inhabitants of Cochinchina. The latter never milk their cows, though the milk is excellent under the Tropics and in the warmest regions of the earth. Travels of |