VALLADOLID.

This intendancy, at the period of the Spanish conquest, formed part of the independent kingdom of Mechoacan, which extended from the mouth of the river Zacatula to the port of Natividad, and from the mountains of Xala and Colima to the river of Lerma and the lake of Chapala. Its capital was Tzintzontzan, or Huitzitzila, situated on the banks of the lake of Pascuaro. The modern intendancy lies between Guadalaxara and Guanaxuato on the north, Mexico on the east and south-east, and on the west and southwest it is washed by the great Pacific for rather more than 38 leagues of coast. Its greatest length is in a direction S.S.W. and N.N.E., from Zacatula to the basaltic mountain of Palangeo, a distance of 78 leagues. Its extent in square leagues is 3,446; one fifth less than Ireland. Its population in 1803, was 376,400 souls, being 109 to the square league. It contains three places dignified with the name of city, viz. Valladolid, the capital, Pascuaro and Tzintzontzan; three towns, Citaquaro, Zamora, and Charo; 263 villages, 205 parishes, and 326 farms. In the imperfect census of 1793, which gave the total population at less than 290,000, there were reckoned 80,000 Whites, and nearly 120,000 Indians: there were 154 monks, 138 nuns, and 293 secular ecclesiastics.

All the southern part of the intendancy is inhabited exclusively by Indians, the only White to be met with in any of the villages being the curé, and he also is frequently an Indian or a Mulatto. "The benefices are so poor, that the bishop of Mechoacan has the greatest difficulty in procuring ecclesiastics to settle in a country where Spanish is scarcely ever spoken, and where, along the coasts of the Great Ocean, the priests are frequently carried off by malignant fevers engendered by the miasmata, before the expiration of seven

or eight months." It is only to this portion of the intendancy, however, that the character of insalubrity attaches. The greater part of the province, situated on the western declivity of the table-land, intersected with hills and charming valleys, which present the uncommon appearance (under the torrid zone) of extensive and well-watered meadows,-enjoys a mild and temperate climate, and is reckoned peculiarly healthy.

The Indian natives of this province are of three distinct races: the Tarascs, celebrated in the sixteenth century for the gentleness of their manners, their industry in the mechanical arts, and the harmony of their language, which abounds in vowels; the Otomites, a tribe still far behind in civilisation, whose language is full of nasals and gutturals; and the Chichimecs, who speak the Aztec or Mexican language.* The Indians of this province generally, are described by Humboldt as the most industrious of New Spain. They have," he says, "a remarkable talent of cutting out small figures in wood, and dressing them in clothes made of the pith of an aquatic plant, which, being very porous, imbibes the most vivid colours." The annexed plate is copied from a drawing made from two of these Indian figures, which exhibits a strange mixture of the old Indian costume with that introduced by the Spaniards. The learned Traveller gives us no account, however, of the distinctive features and characteristics of the several tribes of Indians found in this province,-an interesting point, which will merit the attention of future travellers.

Valladolid de Mechoacan, so called to distinguish it from Valladolid de Yucatan,) the capital of this intendancy, is an episcopal city, situated in a delicious

*See vol. i. p. 103.

+ Humboldt's Researches, vol. ii. p. 164.

climate, at an elevation of nearly 6,400 feet above the level of the sea; and yet, at this moderate height, and under lat 19° 42′, snow has been seen to fall in the streets, during the prevalence of northerly winds. It contained, in 1803, a population of 18,000 souls. The town-house, the churches, and the convents are described as handsome; the alameda, or public walk, is boasted of for its beauty; and the town is supplied with water by an aqueduct, erected at the expense of Bishop Antonio de San Miguel, towards the end of the last century, and said to have cost 20,0001.

The

Tzintzontzan, the ancient capital of Mechoacan, though it still retains the title of city, is now only a poor Indian village, containing (in 1803) 2,500 inhabitants. It lies to the south-east of Valladolid, on the northern side of the lake of Pascuaco. city which gives its name to the lake, is situated on the eastern bank, opposite to the Indian village of Janicho, which is built on a charming little island, at less than a league's distance, in the midst of the lake. Bascuaro contains the ashes of the first bishop of Mechoacan, Vasco de Quiroga, a distinguished benefactor of the Tarasc Indians, who died in 1556, at the village of Uruapa. His memory is held in the highest veneration by the natives, who still speak of him as their father (Tata Don Vasco). This city is 7,200 feet above the level of the sea, and contains 6,000 inhabitants.

In the eastern part of this intendancy there are considerable mines: they form four districts; Angangueo (including the rich real del Oro), Tlalpujahua (or Tlapuxahua), Zitaquaro, and Inguaran. They belong to the same groupe as the mines of Themascaltepec; but Humboldt gives no particular account of them.

The most remarkable feature of this intendancy is the volcano of Jorullo (Xorullo, or Juruyo), which

has already been referred to as one of the most tremendous physical revolutions that ever took place on the surface of the globe. It is situated to the east of the Peak of Tancitaro, the most elevated summit in the intendancy, at the distance of more than fortytwo leagues from any other volcano now in action. M. Humboldt, who, with his colleague, M. Bonpland, visited its crater in September 1803, gives the following account of this wonderful phenomenon.

"A vast plain extends from the hills of Aguasarco to near the villages of Teipa and Petatlan, both equally celebrated for their fine plantations of cotton. This plain, between the Picachos del Mortero, the Cerro de las Cuevas, and that of Cuiche, is only from 2,460 to 2,624 feet above the level of the sea.

In the

middle of a tract of ground in which porphyry with a base of grünstein predominates, basaltic cones appear, the summits of which are crowned with evergreen oaks of a laurel and olive foliage, intermingled with small palm-trees with flabelliform leaves. This beautiful vegetation forms a singular contrast with the aridity of the plain, which was laid waste by volcanic fire.

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"Till the middle of the eighteenth century, fields cultivated with sugar-cane and indigo, occupied the extent of ground between the two brooks called Cuitamba and San Pedro. They were bounded by basaltic mountains, of which the structure seems indicate, that all this country at a very remote period had been already several times convulsed by volcanoes. These fields, watered by artificial means, belonged to the plantation (hacienda) of San Pedro de Jorullo, one of the greatest and richest of the country. In the month of June, 1759, a subterraneous noise was heard. Hollow noises of a most alarming nature (bramidos) were accompanied by frequent earthquakes, which succeeded one another for from fifty to sixty days, to the great consternation of the inhabitants

of the hacienda. From the beginning of September, every thing seemed to announce the complete reestablishment of tranquillity, when, in the night between the 28th and 29th, the horrible subterraneous noise recommenced. The affrighted Indians fled to the mountains of Aguasarco. A tract of ground from three to four square miles in extent, which goes by the name of Malpays, rose up in the shape of a bladder. The bounds of this convulsion are still distinguishable in the factured strata. The Malpays, near its edges, is only thirty-nine feet above the old level of the plain called the Playas de Jorullo; but the convexity of the ground thus thrown up, increases progressively towards the centre, to an elevation of 524 feet.

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"Those who witnessed this great catastrophe from the top of Aguasarco, assert that flames were seen to issue forth for an extent of more than half a square league, that fragments of burning rocks were thrown up to prodigious heights, and that, through a thick cloud of ashes, illumined by the volcanic fire, the softened surface of the earth was seen to swell up an agitated sea. The rivers of Cuitamba and San Pedro precipitated themselves into the burning chasms. The decomposition of the water contributed to invigorate the flames, which were distinguishable at the city of Pascuaro, though situated on a very extensive table-land, 4,592 feet elevated above the plains (las playas) of Jorullo. Eruptions of mud, and especially of strata of clay, enveloping balls of decomposed basaltes in concentrical layers, appear to indicate that subterraneous water had no small share in producing this extraordinary revolution. Thousands of small cones, from six feet to nine feet in height, called by the natives, ovens (hornitos), issued forth from the Malpays. Although within the last fifteen years, according to the testimony of the Indians, the heat of these volcanic ovens has suffered a great