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Whites could by no means be induced to settle in the plains, where the true Indian climate prevails, and it appeared that the Europeans came under the tropics merely to inhabit the temperate zone.

Hitherto the Government has neglected every means for increasing the population of this desert coast. From this state of things result a great want of hands, and a scarcity of provisions, singular enough in a country of such great fertility. The wages of an ordinary workman at Vera Cruz are from 4 to 5 shillings per day. A master mason, and every man who follows a particular trade, gains from 10 to 16 shillings per day, that is to say, three times as much as on the central table-land.

Taking our direction from the capital of Mexico towards the east in the road to Vera Cruz, we must advance 180 miles, before arriving at a valley the bottom of which is less than 3000 feet higher than the level of the sea, and in which, consequently, oaks cease to grow.

We have already said that the configuration of the soil in the interior is most favourable for the transport of goods, for navigation, and even for the construction of canals. Great difficulties are, however, opposed by nature to the communication between the interior of the kingdom and the coast. There is an enormous difference of level and temperature, while from Mexico to New Biscay the plain preserves an equal elevation, and consequently climate rather cold than temperate. From the capital of Mexico to Vera Cruz, the descent is

a

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shorter and more rapid than from the same point to Acapulco.

Of the 250 miles from the capital to the port of Vera Cruz, upwards of 160 belong to the great plain of Anahuac. The rest of the road is a laborious and continued descent, particularly from the small fortress of Perote to the city of Xalapa, and from this site, one of the most beautiful and picturesque in the known world, to La Rinconada. It is the difficulty of this descent which raises the carriage of flour from Mexico to Vera Cruz, and prevents it to this day from competing in Europe with the flour of Philadelphia. We have already mentioned the superb causeway which is constructing along this eastern descent of the Cordillera. This work, due to the great and praiseworthy activity of the merchants of Vera Cruz, will have the most decided influence on the prosperity of the inhabitants of the whole kingdom of New Spain. The place of thousands of mules will be supplied by carriages fit to transport merchandise from sea to sea, which will connect the Asiatic commerce of Acapulco with the European commerce of Vera Cruz.

The inhabitants of Mexico, discontented with the port of Vera Cruz, if we may give the name of port to the most dangerous of all anchorages, entertain the hope of finding out surer channels for the commerce with the mother country. I shall merely name the mouths of the rivers Alvarado

and Guasacualco to the south of Vera Cruz; and to the north of that city the Rio Tampico, and especially the village of Sotto la Marina, near the bar of Santander. These four points have long fixed the attention of the Government; but even there, however advantageous in other respects, the sand-banks prevent the entry of large vessels. These ports would require to be artificially corrected; but it becomes necessary, in the first place, to inquire if the localities are such as to warrant a belief that this expensive remedy would be durable in its effects. It is to be observed, however, that we still know too little of the coasts of New Santander and Texas, particularly that part to the north of the Lake of S. Bernard or Carbonera, to be able to assert that in the whole of this extent nature presents the same obstacles and the same bars.

While civilization is in its infancy, gigantic projects are much more attractive than simple ideas of easier execution. Thus, instead of establishing a system of small canals for the internal navigation of the valley, the minds of the inhabitants have been bewildered, since the time of the viceroy Count Revillagigedo, with vague speculations on the possibility of a communication by water between the capital and the port of Tampico. Seeing the water of the lakes descend by the mountains of Nochistongo into the Rio de Tula (called also Rio de Moctezuma), and by the Rio de Panuco into the Gulf of Mexico, they entertain the hope of opening

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the same route to the commerce of Vera Cruz. Goods to the value of more than 4,000,000l. are annually transported on mules from the Atlantic coast over the interior table-land, while flour, hides, and metals descend from the central table-land to Vera Cruz. The capital is the emporium of this immense commerce. The road, which, if no canal is attempted, is to be carried from the coast to Perote, will cost nearly a million sterling. Hitherto the air of the port of Tampico has appeared not so prejudicial to the health of Europeans, and the inhabitants of the cold regions of Mexico, as the climate of Vera Cruz. Although the bar of Tampico prevents the entry into the port of vessels drawing more than from 14 to 20 feet water, it would still be preferable to the dangerous anchorage among the shallows of Vera Cruz. From these circumstances a navigation from the capital to Tampico would be desirable, whatever expense might be requisite for the execution of so bold an undertaking.

Expense, however, is not to be feared in a country where a private individual, the Count de la Valenciana, dug, in a single mine, three shafts at an expense of above 350,000l. Nor can we deny the possibility of carrying a canal into execution from the valley of Tenochtitlan to Tampico. In the present state of hydraulic architecture, boats may be made to pass over elevated chains of mountains, wherever nature offers points of separation which communicate with two principal recipients.

It remains for us to speak at the end of this chapter of the epidemical disease which prevails on the eastern coast of New Spain, and which during a great part of the year is an obstacle not only to European commerce, but also to the interior communications between the shore and the table-land of Anahuac. The port of Vera Cruz is considered as the principal seat of the yellow fever (vomito prieto or negro), to which Europeans landing in Mexico at the period of the great heats frequently fall victims. Some vessels prefer landing at Vera Cruz in the beginning of winter, when the tempests de los nortes begin to rage, to exposing themselves in summer to the effects of the vomito, and to undergoing a long quarantine on their return to Europe. These circumstances have frequently a very sensible influence on the supply of Mexico and the price of commodities. This destructive scourge produces still more serious effects on the internal commerce. The mines are in want of iron, steel, and mercury, whenever the communication is interrupted between Xalapa and Vera Cruz. We have already seen that the commerce between province and province is carried on by caravans of mules; and the tuleteers, as well as the merchants who inhabit the cold and temperate regions of the interior of New Spain, are afraid of descending towards the coast, so long as the vomito prevails at Vera Cruz.

The farm of l'Encero, near Vera Cruz, which I

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