CHAPTER VI.

Intendancy of Vera Cruz-situation-physical aspectclimate-productions-road from the capital to Vera

BEFORE entering on the subject of the Mines, which we shall treat in considerable detail, we shall subjoin to our brief account of the Commerce of Mexico some description of the Province, through which lies all communication between the interior and Europe.

N.B. The province of VeraCruz, situated under the burning sun of the tropics, extends along the Mexican Gulf, from the Rio Baraderas (or de los Lagartos) to the great river of Panuco, which rises in the metalliferous mountains of San Luis Potosi. Hence this intendancy includes a very considerable part of the eastern coast of New Spain. Its length, from the bay of Terminos near the island of Carmen to the small port of Tampico, is 630 miles, while its

breadth is only in general from 70 to 80 miles. It is bounded on the east by the peninsula of Merida ; on the west, by the intendancies of Oaxaca, Puebla, and Mexico; and on the north, by the colony of New Santander.

There are few regions in the new continent where the traveller is more struck with the assemblage of the most opposite climates All the western part of the intendancy of Vera Cruz forms the declivity of the Cordilleras of Anahuac. In the space of a day, the inhabitants descend from the regions of eternal snow to the plains in the vicinity of the sea, where the most suffocating heat prevails. The admirable order with which different tribes of vegetables rise above one another by strata, as it were, is no where more perceptible than in ascending from the port of Vera Cruz to the table-land of Perote. We see there the physiognomy of the country, the aspect of the sky, the form of plants, the figures of animals, the manners of the inhabitants, and the kind of cultivation followed by them, assume a different appearance at every step of our progress.

As we ascend, nature appears gradually less animated, the beauty of the vegetable forms diminishes, the shoots become less succulent, and the flowers less coloured. The aspect of the Mexican oak quiets the alarms of travellers newly landed at Vera Cruz. Its presence demonstrates to him that he has left behind him the zone so justly dreaded by the people of the north, under which the yellow fe

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ver exercises its ravages in New Spain. This lower range of oaks warns the colonist who inhabits the central table-land, how far he may descend towards the coast without dread of the mortal disease the vomito. Forests of liquid amber, near Xalapa, show by the freshness of their verdure that this is the elevation at which the clouds suspended over the ocean come in contact with the basaltic summits of the Cordillera. A little higher, near La Blanderilla, the nutritive fruit of the banana tree no longer comes to maturity. In this foggy and cold region, therefore, want spurs on the Indian to labour, and excites his industry. At the height of San Miguel, pines begin to mingle with the oaks which are found by the traveller as high as the elevated plains of Perote, where he beholds the delightful aspect of fields sown with wheat. About 2000 feet higher the coldness of the climate will no longer admit of the vegetation of oaks; and pines alone cover the rocks, whose summits enter the zone of eternal snow. Thus in a few hours the naturalist, in this miraculous country, ascends the whole scale of vegetation from the heliconia and the banana plant, whose glossy leaves swell out into extraordinary dimensions, to the stunted parenchyma of the resinous trees.

The province of Vera Cruz is enriched by nature with the most precious productions. At the foot of the Cordillera, in the ever-green forests of Papantla, Nautla, and S. Andre Tuxtla, grows the epidendrum vanilla, the odoriferous fruit of which

is employed for perfuming chocolate. Near the Indian villages of Colipa and Misantla grows the beautiful convolvulus jalapa, whose tuberose root furnishes the jalap, one of the most energetic and beneficent purgatives. The myrtle (myrtus pimenta), whose grain forms an agreeable spice, well known in trade by the name of pimienta de Tabasco, is produced in the forests which extend towards the river of Baraderas, in the eastern part of the intendancy of Vera Cruz. The cocoa of Acayucan would be in request, if the natives were to apply themselves more assiduously to the cultivation of cocoa trees. On the eastern and southern declivities of the Pic d'Orizaba, in the valleys which extend towards the small town of Cordoba, tobacco of an excellent quality is cultivated, which yields an annual revenue to the crown of more than 759,000. sterling. The similax, the root of which is the true salsaparilla, grows in the humid and umbrageous ravines of the Cordillera. The cotton of the coast of Vera Cruz is celebrated for its fineness and whiteness. The sugar-cane yields nearly as much sugar as in the island of Cuba, and more than in the plantations of St. Domingo.

This intendancy alone would keep alive the commerce of the port of Vera Cruz, if the number of colonists were greater, and if their laziness, the effect of the bounty of nature, and the facility of providing without effort for the most urgent wants of life, did not impede the progress of industry. The old population of Mexico was concentrated in

the interior of the country on the table-land. The Mexican tribes who came from northern countries, gave the preference in their migrations to the ridges of the Cordilleras, because they found on them a climate analogous to that of their native country. No doubt, on the first arrival of the Spaniards on the coast of Chalchihucuecan (Vera Cruz), all the country from the river of Papaloapan (Alvarado to Huaxtecapan) was better inhabited and better cultivated than it now is. The conquerors, however, found, as they ascended the table-land, the villages closer together, the fields divided into smaller portions, and the people more polished. The Spaniards, who imagined they founded new cities when they gave European names to Aztec cities, followed the traces of the indigenous civilization. They had very powerful motives for inhabiting the table-land of Anahuac. They dreaded the heat, and the diseases which prevail in the plains. The search after the precious metals, the cultivation of European grain and fruit, the analogy of the climate with that of the Castilles, and other causes, all concurred to fix them on the ridge of the Cordillera. So long as the Encomenderos, abusing the rights which they derived from the laws, treated the Indians as serfs, a great number of them were transported from the regions of the coast to the table-land in the interior, either to work in the mines, or merely that they might be near the habitation of their masters. For two centuries the trade in indigo, sugar, and cotton was next to nothing. The