very striking, especially if we consider Louisiana and the western territory as the provincias internas of the great confederation of American republics.

I have described the state of the provincias internas as it was when I left Mexico. A considerable change has since taken place in the military government of these vast provinces, of which the surface almost doubles that of the French empire. In 1807, two commandantes generales, brigadier generals (brigadiers) Don Nemesio Salcedo and Don Pedro Grimarest, governed these northern provinces. The following is the present division of the Gobierno militar, which is now no longer in the hands of the governor of Chihuahua alone:

not to be estimated above 100 or 120,000 square leagues. Author.

The author is correct enough in the number of acres which he assigns to the square mile, but he errs in converting the square miles into square leagues. The proportion by which he reduces the square miles into leagues is 144:25, which is equal to 5.76: 1. This proportion corresponds exactly to geographical miles of 60 to the degree. But the English square mile of 640 acres is not a square geographical mile, but a mile of 69.2 to the degree. Hence the proportion to the square league is not 5.76:1, but 7.666: 1. The territory of the United States therefore does n amount to 156,240, but to 117,478 square leagues. Tr

PROVINCIAS INTERNAS DEL REYNO DE NUEVA ESPAÑA.

A. Provincias internas occidentales.

1. Sonora.

2. Durango o Nueva Biscaya.

3. Nuevo Mexico.

4. Californias.

B. Provincias internas orientales.

1. Cohahuila.

2. Texas.

3. Colonia del Nuevo Santander.
4. Nuevo Reyno de Leon.

The new commandantes generales of the internal provinces, as well as the old, are considered as at the head of the administration of finances in the two intendancies of Sonora and Durango, in the province of Nuevo Mexico, and in that part of the intendancy of San Luis Potosi which comprehends Texas and Cohahuila. As to the small kingdom of Leon and New Santander, they are only subject to the commandant in a military point of view.

67,189

423,200

6

Vereynato,)

7814

5193

38,000

nas de la comandancia general)

6702

16,900

New Spain, (extent of the whole Viceroyalty without including

the Kingdom of Guatimala,)

This statistical table proves the imperfection of the territorial division. It appears that in confiding to intendants the administration of police and finances, the object was to divide the Mexican soil on principles analogous to those followed by the French government on the division of the kingdom into generalities. In New Spain every intendancy comprehends several sub-delegations. In the same manner the generalities in France were governed by sub-delegates, who exercised their functions under the orders of the intendant. But in the formation of the Mexican intendancies, little regard has been paid to the extent of territory or the greater or less degree of concentration of the population. This new division indeed took place at a time when the ministers of the colonies, the council of the Indies, and the viceroys, were unfurnished with the necessary materials for so important an undertaking. How is it possible to possess the detail of the administration of a country of which there has never been any map, and regarding which the most simple calculations of political arithmetic have never been attempted?

Comparing the extent of surface of the Mexican intendancies, we find several of them ten, twenty, even thirty times larger than others. The intendancy of San Luis Potosi, for example, is more extensive than all European Spain, while the intendancy of Guanaxuato does not