BOOK III. PARTICULAR STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE INTENDANCIES OF WHICH THE KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN IS COMPOSED.-THEIR TERRITORIAL EXTENT AND POPULATION. CHAPTER VIII. Of the political division of the Mexican territory, and the proportion of the population of the intendancies to their territorial extent.-Principal cities. BEFORE giving the table which contains a par ticular statistical account of the intendancies of New Spain, we shall discuss the principles on which the new territorial divisions are founded These divisions are entirely unknown to the most modern geographers; and we here repeat what we have already stated in the introduction to this work, that our general map of New Spain is the only one which contains the limits of the intendancies established since 1776. Mr. Pinkerton, in the second edition of his Modern Geography*, has endeavoured to give a * It is this moment anhounced (Bibliotheque Americaine, 1808, No. 9,) that M. Pinkerton boasts of having availed minute description of the Spanish possessions in North America; and he has contrived to mix several exact notions derived from the Viajero Universal, with the most vague data furnished by the dictionary of M. Alcedo. This author, who believes himself to possess a singular knowledge of the true territorial divisions of New Spain, considers the provinces of Sonora, Cinaloa, and la Pimeria, as parts of New Biscay. He divides what he calls the dominion (domaine) of Mexico into the districts of Neuva Galicia, Panuco, Zacatula, &c. &c. According to this principle we should himself of my manuscripts for his work on Mexico. I communicated, with the frankness natural to me, several manuscript notes to M. Bourgoing, M. Alexander Laborde, and several other savans of equal respectability. I never communicated any thing to M. Pinkerton; and the manner in which he treated me in his Geography, before my return to Europe, was not calculated to produce an intimacy between us. A compiler as inaccurate as he is arrogant, M. Pinkerton, in the style which is peculiar to him, finds every thing which is repugnant to the ideas formed by him in his closet "ridiculous, disgusting, and absurd." Not knowing that the map of La Cruz is drawn up from that of Father Caulin, he will allow no other course to the rivers but what he finds indicated by the former. He pushes his scepticism so far, that if we would believe him, M. Depons, the author of the Voyage a la Terre-Ferme, does not even know the name of the country in which he lived for four years! The notes of the new edition of M. Pinkerton's Geography especially contribute to diffuse the most erroneous ideas in physics and descriptive natural history. say that the three great divisions of Europe are Spain, Languedoc, Catalohia, and the territories of Cadiz and Bordeaux. Before the introduction of the new administration by Count Don Jose de Galvez, minister of the Indies, New Spain contained, 1, El Reyno de Mexico; 2, El Reyno de Nueva Galicia; 3, El Nuevo Reyno de Leon; 4, la colonia del Nuevo Santander; 5, la provincia de Texas; 6, la provincia de Cohahuila; 7, la provincia de Nueva Biscaya; 8, lá provincia de la Sonora ; 9, la provincia de Nuevo Mexico; and 10, Ambas Californias, or las provincias de la vieja y Nueva California. These old divisions are still very frequently used in the country. The limits which separate la Nueva Galicia from el Reyno de Mexico, to which a part of the old kingdom of Mechoacan belongs, are also the line of demarcation between the jurisdiction of the two audiences of Mexico and Guadalaxara. This line, which I was not able to trace on my general map, does not exactly follow the contours of the new intendancies. It begins on the coast of the gulf of Mexico, ten leagues to the north of the Rio de Panuco and the city of Altamira near Bara Ciega, and runs through the intendancy of S. Luis Potosi to the mines of Potosi and Bernalejo; from thence passing along the southern extremity of the intendancy of Zacatecas, and the western limits of the intendancy of Guanaxuato, it traverses the intendancy of Guadalaxara between Zapotlan and Sayula, between Ayotitlan and the Ciudad de la Purificacion, to Guatlan, one of the ports of the South Sea. All north of this line belongs to the audiencia of Guadalaxara; and all south of it to the audiencia of Mexico. In its present state New Spain is divided into twelve intendancies, to which we must add three other districts, very remote from the capital, which have preserved the simple denomination of provinces. These fifteen divisions are, I. UNDER THE TEMPERATE ZONE 82,000 leagues, with 677,000 souls, or eight inhabitants to the square league. A. REGION OF THE NORTH, an interior region. 1. Provincia de Nueco Mexico, along the Rio del Norte to the north of the parallel of 31°. 2. Intendencia de Nueva Biscaya, to the south-west of the Rio del Norte, on the central table-land which declines rapidly from Durango towards Chihuahua. B. REGION OF THE NORTH-WEST, in the vicinity of the Great Ocean, 3. Provincia de la Nueva California, or north-west coast of North America possessed by the Spaniards. 4. Provincia de la antigua California. Its southern extremity enters the torrid zone. 5. Intendencia de la Sonora. The most southern part of Cinaloa, in which the celebrated mines of Copala and Rosario are situated, also passes the tropic of Cancer. C. REGION OF THE NORTH-EAST, adjoining the gulf of Mexico. 6. Intendencia de San Luis Potosi. It comprehends the provinces of Texas, la colonia de Nuevo Santander and Cohahuila, El Nuevo Reyno de Leon, and the districts of Charcas, Altamira, Catorce, and Ramos. These last districts compose the intendancy of San Luis properly so called. southern part, which extends to the south of the Barra de Santander and the Real de Catorce, belongs to the torrid zone. The II. UNDER THE TORRID ZONE, 36,500 square leagues, with 5,160,000 souls, or 141 inhabitants to the square league. D. CENTRAL REGION. 7. Intendencia de Zacatecas, excepting the 8. Intendencia de Guadala.rara. |