breadth from Zacatula to the mountains situated to the east of Chilpansingo is 92 leagues. In its northern part, towards the celebrated mines of Zimapan and the Doctor, it is separated by a narrow stripe from the Gulph of Mexico. Near Mextitlan, this stripe is only nine leagues in breadth.

*

More than two-thirds of the intendancy of Mexico are mountainous, in which there are immense plains, elevated from 2000 to 2300 † metres above the level of the ocean. From Chalco to Queretaro are almost uninterrupted plains of fifty leagues in length and eight or ten in breadth. In the neighbourhood of the western coast the climate is burning and very unhealthy. One summit only, the Nevado de Toluca, situated in a fertile plain of 2700 metres in height, enters the region

belongs to the intendancy of San Luis Potosi. Places of note being seldom situated on the very boundaries, we have preferred naming those which are nearest to them. A glance bestowed on my general map of New Spain will serve to justify this mode of indicating the boundaries of the intendancies. +7545 feet. Trans.

*6561 feet. Trans.

# 8857 feet. Trans.

of perpetual snow. Yet the porphyritical summit of this old volcano, whose form bears a strong resemblance to that of Pichincha near Quito, and which appears to have been formerly extremely elevated, is uncovered with snow in the rainy months of September and October. The elevation of the Pico del Fraile, or the highest summit of the Nevado de Toluca, is 4620 metres * (2370 toises). No mountain in this intendancy equals the height of Mount Blanc.

The valley of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, of which I publish a very minute map, is situated in the centre of the Cordillera of Anahuac, on the ridge of the porphyritical and basaltic amygdaloid mountains, which run from the S.S.E. to the N.N.W. This valley is of an oval form. According to my observations, and those of a distinguished mineralogist, M. Don Luis Martin, it contains from the entry of the Rio Tenango into the lake of Chalco, to the foot of the Cerro de

* 15156 feet. Trans.

Sincoque, near the Desague Real of Huehuetoca, 18+ leaguesin length, and from S.Gabriel, near the small town of Tezcuco, to the sources of the Rio de Escapusalco, near Guisquiluca, 12 leagues in breadth *. The territorial extent of the valley is 244 square leagues, of which only 22 square leagues are occupied by the lakes, which is less than a tenth of the whole surface.

The circumference of the valley, reckoning from the crest of the mountains which surround it like a circular wall, is 67 leagues. This crest is most elevated on the south, particularly on the southeast, where the great volcanos of La Puebla, the Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, bound the valley. One of the roads which lead from the valley of

*The maps of the valley of Mexico hitherto published are so false, that in that of M. Mascaro, annually repeated in the almanac of Mexico, the above distances are 25 and 17 instead of 18 and 12 leagues. It is from this map undoubtedly that the archbishop Lorenzana gives the whole valley a cir cumference of more than 90 leagues, while the amount is almost one-third less.

Tenochtitlan to that of Cholula and La Puebla passes even between the two volcanos, by Tlamanalco, Ameca, La Cumbre, and La Cruz del Coreo. The small army of Cortez passed by this road on his first invasion.

Six great roads cross the Cordillera which incloses the valley, of hich the medium height is 3000 metres above the level of the ocean.

*

1.The road from Acapulco to Guchilaque and Cuervaracca by the high summit called la Cruz del Marques †; 2. the road of Toluca by Tianguillo and Lerma, a magnificent causeway, which I could not sufficiently admire, constructed with great art, partly

* 9842 feet. Trans.

It was a military position in the time of the conquest. When the inhabitants of New Spain pronounce the word el Marques, without adding a family name, the name of Hernan Cortes, Marques de el Valle de Oaxaca, is understood. In the same way, el Almirante designates, in Spanish America, Christopher Columbus. This naive manner of expressing themselves proves the respect and admiration which they preserve for the memory of these great men.

over arches; 3. the road of Queretaro, Guanaxuato, and Durango el camino de tierra adentro, which passes by Guautitlan, Huehuetoca, and the Puerto de Reyes, near Bata, through hills scarcely 80 metres above the pavement of the great square (place) of Mexico; 4. the road of Pachuco, which leads to the celebrated mines of Real del Monte, by the Cerro Ventoso, covered with oak, cypress, and rose trees, almost continually in flower; 5. the old road of La Puebla, by S. Bonaventura and the Llanos de Apan; and, 6, the new road of La Puebla by Rio Frio and Tesmelucos, south-east from the Cerro del Telapon, of which the distance from the Sierra Nevada, as well as that from the Sierra Nevada (Iztaccihuatl) to the great volcano (Popocatepetl, served for bases to the trigonometrical operations of MM. Velasquez and Costanzo.

From being long accustomed to hear the capital of Mexico spoken of as a city built in the midst of a lake, and connected with the continent merely by

* 262 feet. Trans.