STATISTICAL VIII. Intendancy of Merida. in the southern part of this hilly district, which is almost inaccessible from thick forests and the luxuriance of the vegetation. The province of Merida, like all the countries of the torrid zone, of which the surface does not rise more than 1300 metres* above the level of the sea, yields only for the sustenance of the inhabitants maize, jatropha, and dioscorea roots, but no European grain. The trees which furnish the famous Campeche wood (hæmatoxylon campechi anum L.) grow in abundance in several districts of this intendancy. The cutting (cortes de palo Campeche) takes place annually on the banks of the Rio Champoton, the mouth of which is south from the town of Campeche, within four leagues of the small village of Lerma. It is only with an extraordinary permission from the intendant of Merida, who bears the title of governor captaingeneral, that the merchant can from time to time cut down Campeche wood to the east of the mountains near the bays of Ascension, Todos los Santos, and El Espirito Santo. In these creeks of the eastern coast the English carry on an extensive and lucrative contraband trade. The Campeche wood, after being cut down, must dry for a year before it can be sent to Vera Cruz, the Havannah, or Cadiz. The quintal of this dried wood (palo * 4264 feet. Trans. STATISTICAL VIII. Intendancy of Merida. ANALYSIS. de tinta) is sold at Campeche for two piastres, to two piastres and a half* (from 10 f. 50 c. to 12 f. 88 c.). The hæmotoxylon, so abundant in Yucatan and the Honduras coast, is also to be found scattered throughout all the forests of equinoxial America, wherever the mean temperature of the air is not below 22° † of the centigrade thermometer. The coast of Paria, in the province of New Andalusia, may one day carry on a considerable trade in Campeche and Brazil (cæsalpinia) wood, which it produces in great abundance. The most remarkable places of the intendancy of Merida are : Merida de Yucatan, the capital, ten leagues in the interior of the country, in an arid plain. The small port of Merida is called Sizal, to the west of Chaboana, opposite a sand bank, nearly twelve leagues in length. Campeche, on the Rio de San Francisco, with a port which is not very secure. Vessels are obliged to anchor a good way from the shore. In the Maya language, cam signifies serpent, and pechethelittle * From 8s. 9d. to 10s. 11d. Trans. Population. 10,000 STATISTICAL VIII. Intendancy of Merida. insect (acarus), called by the Spaniards garapata, which penetrates the skin, and occasions a smart pain. Between Campeche and Merida are two very considerable Indian villages called Xampolan and Equetchecan. The exportation of wax of Yucatan is one of the most lucrative branches of trade. The habitual population of the town is Population, 6,000 Valladolid, a small town, of which the environs produce abundance of cotton of an excellent quality. This cotton, however, brings a poor price, because it has the disadvantage of adhering very much to the grain. They cannot clean it (despepitar, or desmorar) in the country; and two thirds of its value is absorbed in freight, on account of the weight of the grain. THIS province, 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 210 leagues, while its breadth is only in general from 25 to 28 leagues. 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. A glance bestowed on the 5th and 6th plates accompanying this work will show the extraordinary conformation of this country, which was formerly comprehended under the denomination of Cuetlachtlan. 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 STATISTICAL } IX. Intendancy of Vera Cruz. 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 fever exercises its ravages in New Spain. This inferior limit 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 of the vomito. Forests of liquid amber, near Xalapa, announce by the freshness. |