PHYSICAL ASPECT.

265

of the Doctor is 408 miles; and its greatest breadth from Zacatula to the mountains situated to the east of Chilpansingo is 276 miles. In its northern part, towards the celebrated mines of Zimapan and the Doctor, it is separated by a narrow stripe from the Gulf of Mexico. Near Mextitlan, this stripe is only 27 miles in breadth.

More than two thirds of the intendancy of Mexico are mountainous, and contain immense plains, elevated from 6561 to 7545 feet above the level of the ocean. From Chalco to Queretaro are almost uninterrupted plains of 450 miles in length, and 80 or 90 in breadth. In the neighbourhood of the western coast the climate is burning and very unhealthy. One summit only, the Nevado de Toluca, situated in a fertile plain, of 8857 feet in height, enters the region of perpetual snow. The elevation of the Pico del Fraile, or the highest summit of the Nevado de Toluca, is 15,156 feet. No mountain in this intendancy equals the height of Mont Blanc.

The valley of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, is situated in the centre of the Cordillera of Anahuac, on the ridge of the porphyritical and basaltic amygdaloid mountains, which run from the S.S.E. to the N.N.W. This valley is of an oval form; it contains 55 miles in length, and 37 in breadth. The territorial extent of the valley is 2,200 square miles, of which only 198 square miles are occupied by

the lakes, which is less than a tenth of the whole surface.

The circumference of the valley, reckoning from the crest of the mountains which surround it like a circular wall, is 201 miles. This crest is most elevated on the south, particularly on the southeast, where the great volcanos of La Puebla, the Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, bound the valley.

Six great roads cross the Cordillera which incloses the valley, of which the medium height is 9842 feet above the level of the ocean : 1. the road from Acapulco to Guchilaque and Cuervaracca, by the high summit called la Cruz del Marques; 2. the road of Toluca by Tianguillo and Lerma, a magnificent causeway, which I could not sufficiently admire, constructed with great art, partly over arches; 3. the road of Queretaro, Guanaxuato and Durango el camino de tierra adentro, which passes by Guautitlan, Huehuetoca, and the Puerto de Reyes, near Bata, through hills scarcely 262 feet above the pavement of the great square (place) of Mexico; 4. the road of Pachuco, which leads to the celebrated mines of Real del Monte, by the Cerro Ventoso, covered with oak, cyprus, and rose trees, almost continually in flower; 5. the old road of La Puebla, by S. Bonaventura and the Llanos de Apan; and, 6. the new road of La Puebla by Rio Frio and Tesmelucos, south-east from the Cerro del Telapon.

TOWNS-POPULATION.

267

The following are the remarkable towns (ciudades y villas) of the intendancy of Mexico. Mexico, capital of the kingdom of Population. New Spain, height 7470 feet

Tezcuco, which formerly possessed very considerable cotton manufactories. They have suffered much, however, in a competition with those of Queretaro

Cuyoacan, containing a convent of nuns, founded by Hernan Cortez, in which, according to his testament, the great captain wished to be interred, "in whatever part of the world he should end his days." This desire was never fulfilled. Tacubaya, west from this capital, containing the archbishop's palace and a beautiful plantation of European olive

trees.

Tacuba, the ancient Tlacopan, capital of a small kingdom of the Tepanecs. Cuernavacca, the ancient Quauhnahuac, on the southern declivity of the Cordillera of Guchilaque, in a temperate and delicious climate, finely adapted for the cultivation of the fruit-trees of Europe. Height 5429 feet.

Chilpansingo (Chilpantzinco), surrounded with fertile fields of wheat. Elevation 3542 feet.

Tasco (Tlachco), containing a beau

137,000

5,000

tiful parish church, constructed and endowed towards the middle of the 18th century by Joseph de Laborde, a Frenchman, who gained immense wealth in a short time by the Mexican mines. The building of this church alone cost this individual more than 83,000l. Towards the end of his career, being reduced to great poverty, he obtained from the archbishop of Mexico permission to sell for his benefit, to the metropolitan church of the capital, the magnificent custodia set with diamonds, which, in better times, he had devoutly offered to the tabernacle of the parish church of Tasco. Elevation of the city, 2567 feet.

Acapulco (Acapolco), at the back of a chain of granitical mountains, which, from the reverberation of the radiating caloric, increase the suffocating heat of the climate. The famous cut in the mountain (abra de San Nicolas), near the bay de la Langosta, for the admission of the sea winds, was recently finished. The population of this miserable town, inhabited almost exclusively by people of colour, amounts to 9000, at the time of the arrival of the Manilla galleon (Nao de China).-Its habitual population is only

Population.

4,000

TOWNS-POPULATION.

Zacatula, a small sea-port of the South Sea, on the frontiers of the intendancy of Valladolid, between the ports of Siguantanejo and Colima.

Lerma, at the entry of the valley of Toluca, in a marshy ground.

Toluca (Tolocan) at the foot of the porphyry mountain of San Miguel de Tutucuitlalpilco, in a valley abounding with maize and maguey (agave).— Height 8813 feet.

Pachuca, with Tasco, the oldest mining-place in the kingdom, as the neighbouring village Pachuquillo is supposed to have been the first Christian village founded by the Spaniards.---Height 8141 feet.

Cadereita, with fine quarries of porphyry of a clay base (thonporphyr).

San Juan del Rio, surrounded with gardens, adorned with vines and anona. Height 6489 feet.

Queretaro, celebrated for the beauty of its edifices, its aqueduct, and cloth manufactures. Height 6374 feet. Habitual population,

269

Population.

35,000

1

This city contains 11,600 Indians, 85 secular ecclesiastics, 181 monks, and 143 nuns. The consumption of Queretaro amounted in 1793 to 13,618 loads of wheaten flour, 69,445 bushels