employed to unearth, are endless; some of them too revolting to be described. He works almost naked; but a strict search is instituted before he is allowed to leave the pit, and a careful register is kept of the value of the minerals which he is detected in concealing.

A very specific account is given of the process of amalgamation, as carried on in the mines of New Spain, and by which the far greater portion of the metallic produce is extracted from the ore. No fixed principle is adopted in the selection of minerals to undergo this operation; the same substances being smelted in one district, which in another are managed with mercury. The first part of the process consists in reducing the minerals to an extremely fine powder. This, when duly moistened, is carried into a court paved with flags, where it is ranged in small heaps, and exposed to the open air. The ingredients added to the moistened mass are muriate of soda, lime, sulphates of iron and copper, and mercury, of which latter the consumption is enormous; and to promote the chemical action, by bringing these substances into closer contact, horses and mules are driven round the metallic mud, or barefooted workmen turned in to perambulate in it for days together.

It would lead us too far to enter into the various details which take up the remainder of this chapter. We shall, therefore, merely remark, that the annual produce of the Mexican mines, in gold, is estimated at 4829 lb. troy, in silver, at 1,439,832 lb.; making nearly a moiety of the precious metals extracted from North and South America; that the mint of Mexico is supposed to have furnished, from the discovery of New Spain to the commencement of the nineteenth century, nearly 2082 millions of piastres, or nearly two-fifths of the whole gold and silver, which, during that period, have flowed from the new continent into the old; that three districts of mines, Guanaxuato, Catorce, and Zacatecas, yield nearly half the gold and silver extracted from the mines of New Spain; that the vein of Guanaxuato alone, furnishes at an average, one-sixth of all the silver which America throws into circulation; that the produce of the Mexican mines has been tripled in fifty-two years, and sextupled in a hundred ; and that it admits of a still greater increase, as the country shall become more populous and better informed.

The progress in manufactures, as might be expected from the jealous and monopolizing policy of the mother country, has been but slow. Such principles,' says M. H. as prescribe the rooting up of the vine and olive, are not calculated to favour manufactures. A colony has for ages been only considered as useful to the parent state in so far as it supplied a great quantity of raw materials, and consumed a number of the commodities carried

there. In spite, however, of all obstacles, the spirit of manufacturing industry has here and there contrived to exert itself; and M. Humboldt mentions, in particular, that, of late years, increased attention has been paid to the manufacture of hides, hard soap, woollen cloth, and calicoes. There are also extensive manufactories of gun-powder and tobacco, both of which are royal rights.

In considering the commerce of New Spain, M. Humboldt first notices the condition of the principal roads, and then proceeds to dwell at considerable length on the foreign commerce of the country. This has, for centuries, been chiefly concentrated at Vera Cruz; the principal objects of exportation from which place are enumerated in the following table:

The importation of Vera Cruz includes, among other articles,

the following:

"Linen, woollen, and cotton, cloth, and silks, 2,310,000

From this comparison it appears, that the importation exceeds the exportation by 7,770,000%

While the port of Vera Cruz, notwithstanding its bad anchorage, annually receives between four and five hundred vessels, that of Acapulco, which is one of the finest in the known world, scarcely receives ten. Its commercial activity is almost limited to a Manilla galleon, to the coasting trade with Guatimala, Za

catala, and San Blas, and to four or five vessels dispatched to Guayaquil and Lima. On the oldest and most important branch of its commerce-the exchange of merchandize of the East Indies and China for the precious metals of Mexico-conducted in a single ship, the following particulars are afforded.

"The galleon, which is generally from 12 to 1500 tons, and commanded by an officer of the royal navy, sails from Manilla in the middle of July or beginning of August, when the south-west monsoon is already completely established. Its cargo consists of muslins, printed calicoes, coarse cotton shirts, raw silks, China silk stockings, jewelleries from Canton or Manilla by Chinese artists, spices, and aromatics. The voyage is carried on entirely by the straits of St. Bernardin or Bajadoz, which is the most northern point of the island of Luccoa. It formerly lasted from five to six months; but since the art of navigation has been improved, the passage from Manilla to Acalpulco is only three or four months.-The value of the goods of the galleon ought not by law to exceed the sum of half a million of piastres,* but it generally amounts to a million and a half, or two millions of piastres. Next to the merchants of Lima, the ecclesiastical 'corporations have the greatest share in this lucrative commerce, in which the corporation employs nearly two-thirds of their capitals, which employment of their money is designated by the improper phrase of dar a corresponder. Whenever the news arrive at Mexico, that the galleon has been seen off the coast, the roads of Chilpansingo and Acapulco are covered with travellers; and every merchant hastens to be the first to treat with the supercargoes who arrive from Manilla. In general, a few powerful houses of Mexico, join together for the purpose of purchasing goods; and it has happened that the cargo of goods has been sold before the news of the arrival of the galleon were known at Vera Cruz. This purchase is often made without opening the bales; and although at Acapulco the merchants of Manilla are accused of what is called trampas de la China, or Chinese fraud, it must be allowed that the commerce between the two countries at the distance of three thousand leagues from one another, is carried on perhaps with more honesty, than the trade between some nations of civilized Europe, which have never had any connexion with Chinese merchants."

This division of the work closes with a long account of the yellow fever, so prevalent during a great part of the year along the eastern coast, and of which the port of Vera Cruz may be considered the principal seat.

"Thousands of Europeans landing in Mexico at the period of the great heats, fall victims to this cruel epidemic. Some vessels prefer landing at Vera Cruz in the beginning of winter, when the tempests de los nortes begin to rage, to the exposing themselves in summer to

105,000l. sterling.

† 315,000l. or 420,0007. sterling.

lose the greater part of their crew from the effects of the vomito, and to undergo a long quarantine on their return to Europe. These circumstances have frequently a very sensible influence on the supply of Mexico and the price of commodities. The epidemic which prevailed in 1801 and 1802, gave rise to a political question, which was not agitated with the same vivacity in 1762, or in former periods, when the yellow fever committed still more dreadful ravages. Memoirs were presented to the government for the discussion of the problem, whether it would be better to rase the town of Vera Cruz, and compel the inhabitants to settle at Xalapa, or some other point of the Cordillera, or to try some new means of rendering the port more healthy. Two parties have arisen in the country, of which the one desires the destruction, and the other the aggrandizement of Vera Cruz. Although the government appeared for some time to incline to the first of these parties, it is probable that this great process, in which the property of 16,000 individuals, and the fortune of a great number of powerful families, from their wealth, is at stake, will be by turns suspended and renewed without ever coming to a termination. At my passing through Vera Cruz, I saw the cabildo undertake to build a new theatre, while at Mexico the assessor of the viceroy was composing a long informe, to prove the necessity of destroying the town, as being the seat of a pestilential disease."

In the last book, our author discusses the revenue and military defence of New Spain. The total value of the revenue (the increase of which, since the commencement of the eighteenth century, has been prodigious) he estimates at 20 millions of piastres, or 4,200,000l. sterling. A third part of this is sent to Europe to the royal treasury. The sources from which it is chiefly drawn are, the mines-the tobacco manufacture-the alcavalasthe Indian capitation tax-the duty on pulque-the duties on imports and exports-produce arising from the sale of papal indulgences (upwards of 40,000%)-from the stamp duties and from the farms of "cock-fighting" and of "snow." Speaking of thislast, M. Humboldt says, If there were not countries in Europe where a tax is paid on day-light, we might well be surprised to see in America, that the bed of snow which covers the high chain of the Andes, is considered as the property of the king of Spain. The poor Indian, who with danger reaches the summit of the Cordilleras, can neither collect snow, nor sell it to the neighbouring towns, without paying a duty to government.'

The average expense of collecting these taxes is supposed to be about 25 per cent.; and the number of officers employed in this service is immense. The direct appointments of the viceroy do not amount to more than 13,000; but the indirect means he has of amassing wealth, as may be supposed, are limited only by his discretion. Estimating the revenue at 20 millions of piastres, M. Humboldt calculated that, in 1803, ten and a half were

consumed by expenses incurred in the interior of the country; three millions and a half were remitted in specie to other Spanish colonies; and six millions paid into the treasury at Madrid.

The military defence of the country costs annually 40,000,000 of piastres-nearly a fourth of the revenue; although New Spain has scarcely any enemies to encounter but a few warlike tribes of Indians. The troops amount to about 30,000, of which twothirds are militia.

Having occupied so large a space in detailing the principal results of this instructive publication, our concluding remarks must be brief. That a great and important melioration has taken place in the condition of the Spanish colonies, within the last half century, must be evident to the most superficial observer. From the data which this author has laid before us, it is quite clear, that the produce both of agriculture and of the mines, has experienced a very rapid increase, and that many of the grievous prohibitions and exactions, under which the colonists had so long suffered, had been in some instances abolished, and in others permitted to fall into disuse. But while this is undeniable, recent events have but too plainly testified, that the Spanish government was far from having kept pace with the intelligence and spirit of the people, who were still loudly complaining of the continual importation of adventurers-of a commerce suspiciously guarded--and of a taxation burdensome in amount, and odiously exacted. Independently, therefore, of the disorganized state of the mother country, it is highly probable, we conceive, that the colonists would not have been found much longer the submissive creatures they once were. As for the treatment they have experienced from the new government at Cadiz, nothing, to be sure, was ever more calculated to drive a people into confusion and revolt. Accordingly it is to be feared, that much of what M. Humboldt has represented in the work we have been examining, is by this time matter of history; and that New Spain, in particular, instead of exhibiting a scene of progressive prosperity, is at this moment the theatre of a civil contention, to a dreadful degree cruel and destructive,