STATISTICAL} II. Intendancy of Puebla. The progress of the industry and prosperity of this province has been extremely slow, notwithstanding the active zeal of an intendant equally enlightened and respectable, Don Manuel de Flon, who lately inherited the title of Count de la Cadena. The flour-trade, formerly very flourishing, has suffered much from the enormous price of carriage from the Mexican table-land to the Havannah, and especially from the want of beasts of burden. The commerce which Puebla carried on till 1710 with Peru in hats and delft ware has entirely ceased. But the greatest obstacle to the public prosperity arises from fourfifths of the whole property (fincas) belonging to mortmain proprietors; that is to say, to communities of monks, to chapters, corporations, and hospitals. The intendancy of Puebla has very considerable salt-works near Chila, Xicotlan, and Ocotlan (in the district of Chiautla), as also near Zapotitlan. The beautiful marble, known by the name of Puebla marble, which is preferable to that of Bizaron, and the Real del Doctor, is procured in the quarries of Totamehuacan and Tecali, at two and seven leagues distance from the capital of the intendancy. The carbonate of lime of Tecali is transparent, like the gypsous STATISTICAL II. Intendancy of Puebla. alabaster of Volterra and the Phengites of the ancients. The indigenous of this province speak three languages totally different from one another, the Mexican, Totonac, and Tlapanec. The first is peculiar to the inhabitants of Puebla, Cholula, and Tlascalla; the second to the inhabitants of Zacatlan; and the third is preserved in the environs of Tlapa. The most remarkable towns of the intendancy of Puebla are: La Puebla de los Angeles, the capital of the intendancy, more populous than Lima, Quito, Santa Fe, and Caraccas; and after Mexico, Guanaxuato, and the Havannah, the most considerable city of the Spanish colonies of the new.continent. La Puebla, is one of the small number of American towns founded by European colonists; for in the plain of Acaxete, or Cuitlaxcoapan, on the spot where the capital of the province now stands, there were only in the beginning of the 16th century a few huts inhabited by Indians of Cholula. The privilege of the town of Puebla is dated 28th Sept. 1531. The consumption of # STATISTICAL] II. Intendancy of Puebla. the inhabitants in 1802 amounted to Tlascalli is so much reduced from Cholula, called by Cortez† Churul *7381 feet. Trans. Population. 67,800 3,400 + This great conquistador, with a simplicity of style for which his writings are characterised, draws a curious picture of the old town of Cholula :- "The inhabitants of this city," says he, in his third letter to the Emperor Charles the Fifth, ❝are better clothed than any we have hitherto seen. People in easy circumstances wear cloaks (albornoces) above their dress. These cloaks differ from those of Africa, for they have pockets, though the cut, cloth, and fringes are the same. The environs of the city are very fertile and well cultivated. Almost all the fields may be watered, and the city is much more beautiful than all those in Spain, for it is well fortified, and built on very level ground. I can assure your highness, that from the top of a mosque (mesquita, by which Cortez designates the teocalli) I reckoned more than four hundred towers all of mosques. The number of the STATISTICAL} II. Intendancy of Puebla. tecol, surrounded by beautiful plantations of agave. Atlixco, justly celebrated for the fineness of its climate, great fertility, and the savoury fruits with which it abounds, especially the anona cheremolia, Lin. (chilimoya), and several sorts of passiflores (parchas), produced in the en virons. Tehuacan de las Granadas, the ancient Teohuacan de la Mizteca, one of the most frequented sanctuaries of the Mexicans before the arrival of the Spaniards. Tepeaca or Tepeyacac, belonging to the marquisate of Cortez. It was called in the commencement of the conquest Segura de la Frontera (Cartas de Population. 16,000 inhabitants is so great that there is not an inch of ground uncultivated; and yet in several places the Indians experience the effects of famine, and there are many beggars, who ask alms from the rich in the streets, houses, and marketplace, as is done by the mendicants in Spain and other civilized countries." (Cartas de Cortez, p. 69.) It is curious enough to observe that the Spanish general considers mendicity in the streets as a sign of civilization. He says, "Gente que piden como hay en España y en otras partes que hay gente de razon.” Mines, STATISTICAL ANALYTICAL II. Intendancy of Puebla. Hernan Cortez, p. 155.). In the dis- Huajocingo, or Huexotzinco, former- Whatever may be the depopulation of the intendancy of Puebla, its relative population is still four times greater than that of the kingdom of Sweden, and nearly equal to that of the kingdom of Arragon. The industry of the inhabitants of this province is not much directed to the working of gold and silver mines. Those of Yxtacmaztitlan, Temeztla, and Alatlauquitepic, in the Partido de San Juan de los Llanos, of La Canada, near Tetela de Xonotla, and of San Miguel Tenango, near Zacatlan, are almost abandoned, or at least very remissly worked. |