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by the papers preserved in the archives of the Duke de Monteleone, who is the last descendant of the family of Cortez. At Santa Fe they still write with a juice extracted from the fruits of the Uvilla (Cestrum Tinctorium), and there exists an order of the court, prohibiting the viceroys from using in their official papers, any other materials than this blue of the Uvilla, because it had been found that it was more indestructible than the best European ink.

After carefully examining those vegetables which are of importance to the agriculture and commerce of Mexico, it remains for us to give a rapid view of the productions of the animal kingdom. Although one of these productions in the greatest request, cochineal, belongs originally to New Spain, it is certain, however, that the most interesting productions for the prosperity of the inhabitants have been introduced there from the antient continent. The Mexicans had not endeavoured to reduce to a domestic state the two species of wild oxen, (Bos Americanus and Bos Moschatus) which wander in herds over the plains in the neighbourhood of the Rio del Norte. They were unacquainted with the Llama, which in the Cordillera of the Andes is not found beyond the limits of the Southern Hemisphere. They made no use of the wild

sheep of California* nor of the goats of the mountains of Monterey. Among the numerous varieties of dogs † peculiar to Mexico, one alone, the Techichi served for food to the inhabitants. Undoubtedly the want of domestic animals was less felt before the conquest, when every family cultivated but a small extent of ground, and when a great part of the inhabitants lived almost exclusively on vegetables. However the want of these animals compelled a numerous class of the inhabitants, the Tlamama, to labour as beasts of burden, and to pass their lives on the highways. They were loaded with large leathern chests (in Mexican Petlacalli, in Spanish petacas) which contained goods to the weight of 30 or 40 kilogrammes .

Since the middle of the sixteenth century, the most useful animals of the old continent, oxen, horses, sheep, and hogs, have

* As to the wild sheep and goats of the mountains of Old and New California, see Vol. ii. Chap. viii. p. 327. See my Tableaux de la Nature, T. i. p. 124-127. The Cumanchis a tribe of the northern provinces employ dogs in the carriage of tents like many of the tribes of Siberia. See Vol. ii. p. 286. The Peruvians of Sausa (Xauxa) and Huanca ate their dogs (runalco) and the Aztecs sold in their markets the flesh of the mute dog techichi, which was castrated for the purpose of fattening. Lorenzana, p. 103.

From 66 to 88 lb. avoird. Trans.

multiplied surprisingly in all the parts of New Spain, and especially in the vast plains of the Provincias Internas. It would be superfluous to refute here* the rash assertion of M. de Buffon, as to the pretended degeneracy of the domestic animals introduced into the New Continent. These ideas were easily propagated, because, while they flattered the vanity of Europeans, they were also connected with brilliant hypotheses, relative to the ancient state of our planet. When facts are carefully examined, naturalists perceive nothing but harmony where this eloquent writer announced discordancy.

There is a great abundance of horned cattle all along the eastern coast of Mexico, especially at the mouths of the rivers of Alvarado, Guasacualco, and Panuco, where numerous flocks feed on pastures of perpetual green. However, the capital of Mexico, and the great cities adjoining, draw their animal food from the intendancy of Durango. The natives, like the greatest part of the Asiatic tribes to the East of the Ganges †, care very

This refutation is to be found in the excellent work of Mr. Jefferson on Virginia, p. 109, 166. See also Clavigero, T. iv. p. 105, 160.

For example, in the South East of Asia, the Chinese, and the inhabitants of Cochinchina. The latter never milk their cows, though the milk is excellent under the Tropics, and in the warmest regions of the Earth. Travels

little for milk, butter and cheese. The latter is in great request among the Casts of mixed extraction, and forms a very considerable branch of exterior commerce. In the statistical table drawn up by the Intendant of Guadalaxara, in 1802, which I have frequently had occasion to cite, the annual value of dressed hides is estimated at 419,000 piastres, and that of tallow and soap at 549,000 piastres. The town of Puebla alone manufactures annually 200,000 arrobas of soap, and 82,000 ox hides; but the exportation of these articles at the Port of Vera Cruz, has hitherto been of very little importance. In 1803, it hardly amounted to the value of 140,000 piastres.

It appears that even in the 16th century before the interior consumption had been augmented by the number and the luxury of the whites, New Spain supplied Europe with more hides than at the present day. Father Acosta *, relates that a fleet which entered Seville in 1587, carried 64,340 Mexican hides. The horses of the northern provinces, and particularly those of New Mexico, are as celebrated for their excellent qualities as the horses of Chili;

of Macartney, Vol. ii. p. 153, and Vol. iv. p. 59. The Greeks and Romans even only learned to make butter from their communication with the Scythians, Thracians, and the Germanic nations. Beckmann, 1. c. B. iii. p. 289. Lib. iv. C. 3.

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both descend, as it is pretended, from the Arab race; and they wander wild in herds, in the Savannahs of the Provincias Internas. The exportation of these horses to Natchez, and New Orleans, becomes every year of greater importance. Many Mexican families possess in their Hatos de ganado, from thirty to forty thousand head of horses and oxen. The mules would be still more numerous, if so many of them did not perish on the highways from the excessive fatigues of journeys of several months. It is reckoned that the commerce of Vera Cruz alone, employs annually nearly 70,000 mules. More than 5000 are employed as an object of luxury in the carriages of the city of Mexico.

The rearing of sheep has been wonderfully neglected in New Spain, as well as in all the Spanish Colonies of America. It is probable that the first sheep introduced in the 16th century, were not of the breed of travelling Merinos, and particularly that they were not of the Leon, Segovian, or Sorian breed. Since that time, no care has been employed in the amelioration of the breed; and yet in the part of Mexico, beyond the tropics, it would be easy to introduce the system of ma

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*Havannah has 2500 Calashes, called Volantes, which require more than 3000 mules. In 1802, the number of horses in Paris was calculated at 35,000.

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