of the Cordilleras, than the road leading from the capital to Vera Cruz. The slightest glance of the physical sections in the Atlas accompanying this work, will suffice to prove the justice of this assertion. In the European road, as we have already observed ", we remain from the valley of Mexico to beyond Perote, on the central plain, at an elevation of 2300 metrest above the level of the ocean; and from that village we descend with extreme rapidity to the ravin of the Plan del Rio, to the west of Rinconada. On the other hand on the road from Acapulco, which we designate by the name of the Asiatic Road, the descent begins at a distance of eight leagues from Mexico, on the southern slope of the basaltic mountain of Guarda. With the exception of that part which passes through the forest of Guchilaque, it might be easy to render this road fit for carriages without any great expence of labour. It is broad and kept in tolerably good order from Acapulco to the table land of Chilpanzingo; but it becomes narrow and extremely bad in advancing towards the capital, especially from Cuernavaca to Guchilaque, and from thence to the summit of the high mountain called la Cruz del Marques. The difficulties which are the greatest obstacles to

communication, between the capital and the port of Acapulco, arise from the sudden swell of the waters of two rivers, the Papagallo and the Rio de Mescala. These torrents, which in times of drought are not more than 60 metres in breadth”, are from 250 to 800 t in the rainy season. At this period of the great swells, the loads are frequently stopt for seven or eight days on the banks of the Papagallo, which the muleteers dare not attempt to ford. I have still seen the remains of pillars constructed of enormous hewn stones, which the current had carried away before the arches were completed. A project was entertained in 1803, for making a new endeavour to throw a large stone bridge over the Rio Papagallo; and the government destined nearly half a million of francs f for this undertaking, which would have been of so great importance to the commerce of Mexico with the Philippine Islands. The Rio de Mescala, which takes the name of Rio de Zacatula farther to the west, is almost as dangerous as the Papagallo. I passed it on a raft formed according to the old Mexican custom of the dried fruits of the gourd, on which reeds are fastened together; the raft is directed by two Indians,

who support it with the one hand, and swim with the other. * The construction and embellishment of a new road from Mexico to the port of Vera Cruz, have latterly become the object of the solicitude

of government. A fortunate rivalship is dis.

played between the new Council of commerce established at Vera Cruz, under the name of real tribunal del consulado, and the old consu

lado of the capital; and the latter is gradually

beginning to shake off the inactivity with which it has so long been accused. The merchants of Mexico, having constructed at their expence

an excellent causeway along the heights of

Tiangillo and las Cruses, which separate the basin of Toluca from that of Mexico, wish the new road of Vera Cruz to pass through Orizaba; while the merchants of Vera Cruz who have

country houses at Xalapa, and who maintain

numerous commercial relations with that town, insist that the new carriage road (camino carretero) should go by Perote and Xalapa. After a discussion of several years", the consulado of Vera Cruz profited by the arrival of the viceroy, Don Josef de Yvirigarras, who declared himself

in favour of the road by Xalapa as of the great

est utility, and who gave the direction of it to

M. Garcia Conde an active and intelligent engineer. . . . . . . The old road from Mexico to Xalapa and Vera Cruz, passed along the elevated plains of Apa, without touching the great town of Puebla de los Angeles; and this is the road described by the Abbe Chappe in his journey to California, in which that philosopher determined several points by barometrical measurements.” The indigenous merchandizes and productions, were then conveyed from Mexico to Perote and Xalapa, by the dike which separates the lakes of Tezcuco and San Christobal; by Totolcingo and Teotihuacan; and by the old field of battle of Otumba, the Inn of Irolo, Apa, Piedras Negras, S. Diego, Hongito, Vireyes and Tepeyacualco. They reckoned by this road, 43 leagues from Mexico to Perote, and 74 from Mexico to Vera Cruz. At that period, and even till 1795, two days were taken to go from the capital to Puebla, making a large circuit towards the north west by Otumba and Irolo, and inclining from thence to the south east by Pozuelos, Tumbacaretas, and San Martin. At last, under the viceroyship of the Marquis de Branciforte, a new and very short road was opened by the Venta de Chalco, the small chain of porphyritic mountains of Cordova, Tesmelucos, and Ocot.

* Voyage de Chappe, publié par M. de Cassini, p. 107. - t B 4

lan. The advantages of these more direct communications between the capital, the city of Puebla, and the fortress of Perote will be easily discovered by examining my atlas of New Spain. The new road from Mexico to Puebla possesses still the inconsiderable difficulty of the passage of the mountains, which separate the

basin of Tenochtitlan from that of Cholula.

The table land which extends from the foot of the volcanoes of Mexico to the mountains of Orizaba and the Coffre, is a level plain, and covered with sand, fragments of pearled rock, and saline efflorescences. The road from Puebla to Vera Cruz, passes through Cocosingo, Acaxete and Perote. We imagine we are travelling over a surface levelled from being long covered with water. When these plains are heated by the solar rays, they exhibit, at the height of the passage of Saint Bernard, the same phenomena of suspension and extraordinary refraction, which which we generally observe only in the neighbourhood of the ocean. The magnificent road constructing by order of the consulado of Vera Cruz, from Perote to that city, will rival those of the Simplon and Mount Cenis. It is broad, solid, and of a very gentle fall. They have not followed the tract of the old road, which was narrow and paved with basaltic porphyry, and which ap