STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. IX. Intendancy of Vera Cruz. } 6 francs per day. A master mason, and every man who follows a particular trade, gains from 15 to 20 francs per day, that is to say, three times as much as on the central table-land. The intendancy of Vera Cruz contains within its limits two colossal summits, of which the one, the Volcan d'Orizaba, is, after the Popocatepetl, the most elevated mountain of New Spain. The summit of this truncated cone is inclined to the S. E. by which means the crater is visible at a great distance even from the city of Xalapa. The other summit, the Coffre de Perote, according to my measurement, is nearly 400 metres higher than the Pic of Teneriffe †. It serves for signal to the sailors who put in at Vera Cruz. As this eircumstance renders the determination of its astronomical position of great importance, I observed circum-meridian altitudes of the sun on the Coffre itself. A thick bed of pumice-stone environs this porphyritical mountain. Nothing at the summit announces a crater; but the currents of lava observable between the small villages of las Vigas and Hoya appear to be the effects of a very old lateral explosion. The small Volcan de Tuxtla, joining the Sierra de San Martin, is situated four leagues from the coast, S. E. from the * From 4s. 2d. to 5s. Trans. 1312 feet. Trans. STATISTICAL IX. Intendancy of Vera Cruz. ANALYSIS. port of Vera Cruz, near the Indian village of Santiago de Tuxtla. It is consequently out of the line which we before indicated as the parallel of the burning volcanoes of Mexico. Its last eruption, which was very considerable, took place on the 2d March, 1793. The roofs of the houses at Oaxaca, Vera Cruz, and Perote, were then covered with volcanic ashes. At Perote, which is 57 leagues in a straight line distant from the volcano of Tuxtla, the subterraneous noises resembled heavy discharges of artillery. In the northern part of the intendancy of Vera Cruz, west from the mouth of the Rio Tecolutla, at two leagues distance from the great Indian village of Papantla, we meet with a pyramidal edifice of great antiquty. The pyramid of Pa pantla remained unknown to the first conquerors. It is situated in the midst of a thick forest, called Tajin in the Totonac language. The Indians concealed this monument, the object of an ancient * This distance is greater than that from Naples to Rome; and yet Vesuvius is not even heard beyond Gaeta. M. Bon pland and myself heard distinctly the noise of the Cotopaxi on its explosion in 1802, in the South Sea to the west of the island of Puna, 72 leagues distant from the crater. The same volcano was heard in 1744 at Honda and Mompox, on the banks of the river Madelena. See my Geographie des Plantes, page 53. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. IX. Intendancy of Vera Cruz. } veneration, for centuries from the Spaniards; and it was only discovered accidentally by some hunters about thirty years ago. This pyramid of Papantla was visited by M. Dupé *, an observer of great modesty and learning, who has long employed himself in curious researches regarding the idols and architecture of the Mexicans. He examined carefully the cut of the stones of which it is constructed; and he made a drawing of the hieroglyphics with which these enormous stones are covered. It is to be wished that he would publish the description of this interesting mounment. The figure † published in 1788, in the Gazette of Mexico, is extremely imperfect. The pyramid of Papantla is not constructed of bricks or clay mixed with whin stones, and faced with a wall of amygdaloid, like the pyramids of Cholula and Teotihuacan: the only materials employed are immense stones of a porphyritical shape. Mortar is distinguishable in the seams. The edifice, however, is not so remarkable for its size as for its symmetry; the polish of the stones, * Captain in the service of the king of Spain. He possesses the bust in basaltes of a Mexican priestess, which I employed M. Massard to engrave, and which bears great resemblance to the Calanthica of the heads of Isis. See also Monumenti di Architettura Messicana di Pietrg Marquez, Roma, 1904, tab. i. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. IX. Intendancy of Vera Cruz. ·} * On and the great regularity of their cut. The base of the pyramid is an exact square, each side being 25 metres in length. The perpendicular height appears not to be more than from 16 to 20 metrest. This monument, like all the Mexican teocallis, is composed of several stages. Six are still distinguishable, and a seventh appears to be concealed by the vegetation with which the sides of the pyramid are covered. A great stair of 57 steps conducts to the truncated top of the teocalli, where the human victims were sacrificed. each side of the great stair is a small stair. The facing of the stories is adorned with hieroglyphics, in which serpents and crocodiles carved in relievo are discernible. Each story contains a great number of square niches symmetrically distributed. In the first story we reckon 24 on each side, in the second 20, and in the third 16. The number of these niches in the body of the pyramid is 366, and there are 12 in the stair towards the east. The Abbé Marquez supposes that this number of 378 niches has some allusion to a ca→ lendar of the Mexicans; and he even believes that in each of them one of the 20 figures was repeated, which in the hieroglyphical language of the Toultecs served as a symbol for marking * 82 feet, Trans. † From 52 to 65 feet. Trans. STATISTICAL IX. Intendancy of Vera Cruz. ANALYSIS. the days of the common year, and the intercalated days at the end of the cycles, The year being composed of 18 months, of which each had 20 days, there would then be 360 days, to which, agreeably to the Egyptian practice, five comple mentary days were added, called nemontemi. The intercalation took place every 52 years, by adding 13 days to the cycle, which gives 360+5+ 13 378, simple signs, or composed of the days of the civil calendar, which was called compohua.. lilhuitl, or tonalpohualli, to distinguish it from the comilhuitlapohualliztli, or ritual calendar used by the priests for indicating the return of sacrifices. I shall not attempt here to examine the hypothe sis of the Abbé Marquez, which has a resemblance to the astronomical explanations given by a celebrated historian* of the number of apartments and steps found in the great Egyptian labyrinth, The most remarkable cities of this province are: Vera Cruz, the residence of the intendant, and the centre of European and West Indian com. merce, The city is beautifully and regularly built, and inhabited by well-informed merchants, active and zealous for the god of their country, * M. Gattere |