Instruction in mathematics is less carefully attended to in the university of Mexico than in the School of Mines. The pupils of this last establishment go farther into analysis; they are instructed in the integral and differential calculi. On the return of peace and free intercourse with Europe, when astronomical instruments (chronometers, sextants, and the repeating circles of Borda) shall become more common, young men will be found in the most remote parts of the kingdom capable of making observations, and calculating them after the most recent methods. I have already indicated in the analysis of my maps the advantage which might be drawn by the government from this extraordinary aptitude in constructing a map of the country. The taste for The taste for astronomy is very old in Mexico. Three distinguished men, Velasquez, Gama, and Alzate, did honour to their country towards the end of the last century. All the three made a great number of astronomical observations, especially of eclipses of the satellites of Jupiter. Alzate, the worst informed of them, was the correspondent of the Academy of Sciences

at another, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle divide the world between them; from that a transition is made to poetry, and no man can be great without producing an epic poem or a handsome volume of sonnets; and in the present age almost every thing but the refuse of talent carefully preserved in the cells of some fat old university, seems employed, more or less, in physical science. Trans.

at Paris. Inaccurate as an observer, and of an activity frequently impetuous, he gave himself up to too many objects at a time. We have already discussed in the geographical introduction the merits of his astronomical labours. He is entitled to the real merit, however, of having excited his countrymen to the study of the physical sciences. The Gazetta de Litteratura, which he published for a long tine at M.xico, contributed singularly to give encouragement and impulsion to the Mexican youth.

The most remarkable geometrician produced by New Spain since the time of Siguenza was Don Joacquin Velasquez Cardinas y Leon. All the a tronomical and geodesical labours of this indefatigable savant bear the stamp of the greatest precision. He was born on the 21st July, 1732, in the interior of the country, at the farm of Santiago Acebedocla, near the Indian village of Tizicapan; and he had the merit, we may say, of forming himself. At the age of four he communicated the small-pox to his father, who died of them. An uncle, parish priest of Xaltocan, took care of his education, and placed him under the instruction of an Indian of the name of Manuel Asentzio; a man of great natural strength of mind, and well versed in the knowledge of the Mexican history and mythology. Velasquez learned at Xaltocan several Indian languages, and the use of the hieroglyphical writings of the Az

tecs.

It is to be regretted that he published nothing on this very interesting branch of antiquity. Placed at Mexico in the Tridentine college, he found neither professor nor books nor instruments*. With the small assistance which he could obtain, he fortified himself in the study of the mathematics and the ancient languages. A lucky accident threw into his hands the works of Newton and Bacon. He drew from the one a taste for astronomy, and from the other an acquaintance with the true methods of philosophising. While poor and unable to find any instrument even in Mexico, he set himself, with his friend M. Guadalasara (now professor of mathematics in the Academy of Painting), to construct telescopes and quadrants. He followed at the same time the profession of advocate, an occupation which at Mexico, as well as elsewhere, is much more lucrative than that of looking at the stars. What he gained by his professional labours was laid out in purchasing instruments in England. After being named pro essor in the university, he accompanied the visitador Don Jose de Galvez† in his journey

* From this we may discover that the professors of this university are not behind those of some others in the praiseworthy custom of considering their chairs as sinecures. Trans.

+ The Count de Galvez, before obtaining the ministry of the Indies, travelled through the northern part of New Spain with the title of visitador. This name is given to persons

to Sonora. Sent on a commission to California, he profited by the serenity of the sky in that peninsula to make a great number of astronomical observations. He first observed there that in all the maps, for centuries, through an enormous error of longitude, this part of the new continent had always been marked several degrees farther west than it really was. When the Abbe Chappe, more celebrated for his courage and his zeal for the sciences than for the accuracy of his labours, arrived in California, he found the Mexican astronomer already established there. Velasquez had constructed for himself in Mimosa planks an observatory at St. Anne. Having already determined the position of this Indian village, he informed the Abbe Chappe that the moon's eclipse on the 18th June, 1769, would be visible in California. The French astronomer doubted the truth of this assertion, till the eclipse actually took place. Velasquez by himself made. a very good observation of the transit of Venus over

employed by the court to procure information as to the state of the colonies. Their journey (visita) has generally no other effect than that of counterbalancing for some time the power of the viceroys and the audiencias, of receiving an infinity of memoirs, petitions, and projects, and of signalizing their stay by the introduction of some new impost. The people expect the arrival of the cisitudores with the same impatience which they afterwards display for their departure.

the disk of the sun on the 3d June, 1769. He communicated the result, the very morning of the transit, to the Abbe Chappe, and to the Spanish astronomers Don Vicente Doz, and Don Salvador de Medina. The French traveller was surprised at the harmony between the observation of Velasquez and his own. He was no doubt astonished to meet in California with a Mexican, who, without belonging to any academy, and without having ever left New Spain, was able to observe as well as the academicians. In 1773 Velasquez executed the great geodesical undertaking, of which we have given some of the results in the geographical introduction, and to which we shall again return in speaking of the drain of the lakes of the valley of Mexico. The most essential service which this indefatigable man rendered to his country was the establishment of the Tribunal and the School of Mines, the plans for which he presented to the court. He finished his laborious career on the 6th March, 1786, while first director-general of the Tribunal de Mineria, and enjoying the title of Alcalde del Corte honorario.

After mentioning the labours of Alzate and Velasquez, it would be unjust to pass over the name of Gama, the friend and fellow labourer of the latter. Without fortune, and compelled to support a numerous family by a troublesome and almost mechanical labour, unknown and neg