40 to 18° N., and from long 98° 15′ to 99° 50′ W. The annual produce he was unable to ascertain, and it is set down as doubtful.

The geological structure of the mountain districts singularly differs from that which is observed in Puebla, Mexico, and Valladolid. In place of the strata of basalt, porphyry, and amygdaloid, which are found from the eighteenth to the twenty-second parallel, the mountains of Mixteca and Zapoteca are composed of granite and gneiss. The elevation of their highest summits is not known; but, from the Cerro de Senpualtepec, near Villalta, which is considered as one of the most elevated, both oceans are visible. This extent of horizon would only indicate, however, Humboldt says, an elevation of 7,700 feet. The same sight may also be obtained at La Ginetta, twelve leagues from the port of Tehuantepec, on the great road from Mexico to Guatimala.

Oaxaca (sometimes written Guaxaca), the provincial capital, built on the site of the ancient Huaxyacac, was called Antequera at the beginning of the conquest. Mr Robinson.describes it as (( the neatest, cleanest, and most regularly built city in the kingdom." "The edifices are constructed with a green stone, which preserves its colour to perpetuity, and gives the city an appearance of freshness, such as we have never seen in any other. The convent of San Francisco, built more than 200 years ago, looks at this day as if it had just come from the hands of the architect. Streams of the purest water flow through all the streets; and in all the squares, are beautiful public fountains. The fruits both of the torrid and the temperate zones are to be seen every day in the market-place. We have seen on one side of the road, trees loaded with oranges, and on the other, fields of wheat. The climate of this city is considered as equal to that of any other in New Spain: the thermometer rarely falls below 63°, nor

ranges higher than 78°. The inhabitants are well made and remarkable for longevity. The women are likewise distinguished for their beauty and vivacity." According to the imperfect census of 1792, the population of this city was 24,000,† but this can be regarded as merely an approximation to the actual number. The territory of the marquisate of Cortes, comprising 4 villas and 49 pueblos, was computed to contain 17,700 inhabitants. Mr Robinson states, that the most populous Indian villages in all Mexico are found in this province, but he furnishes no details.

Along the coast," he adds, "the climate is destructive of health; but the greater part of the province, particularly the mountains of the Misteca, is famed for its pure and salubrious air."

The district of Mixteca, the ancient Mixtecapan, formed, prior to the conquest, a distinct territory, inhabited by a race differing from the Indians of Zapoteca, the south-eastern part of the intendancy. It is divided into Upper (alta) and Lower (baxa) Mixteca. The Indians of this district are described by Humboldt as an "active, intelligent, and industrious peoOn the road from Orizaba to Oaxaca, is the town of San Antonio de los Cues, a very populous place, and celebrated for the remains of ancient Mexican fortifications."

ple."

The district of Zapoteca contains one of the most remarkable monuments of ancient civilisation in all Mexico, "the palace of Mitla;" a name contracted from Miguitlan, which signifies in the Aztec, "place of wo." "This term," says the learned Traveller so

*Robinson's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 152.

† Mr Robinson states that, according to a census taken in 1808, the province contains 600,000 inhabitants; the city, 38,000; and the number of cities, towns, and villages, exceeds 800. "We have visited," he says, "several villages containing 6 and 7000 inhabitants;" yet not one-eighth part of the province is under cultivation.

often cited, 66 seems to have been well chosen for a site so savage and lugubrious, that, according to the testimony of travellers, the warbling of birds is there scarcely ever heard. The Tzapotec Indians call these ruins Leoba or Luiva (burial, or tomb), alluding to the excavations found beneath the walls." This elegant ruin is about ten leagues distant from Oaxaca, on the road to Tehuantepec. It is of unknown antiquity. According to the tradition of the natives, which is confirmed by the distribution of its parts, it was a palace constructed over the tombs of the kings," to which, it is supposed, the monarch retired on the death of a son, a wife, or a brother. "The tombs of Mitla consist of three edifices symmetrically placed in an extremely romantic situation. The principal edifice, which is in the best preservation, is nearly 130 feet in length. A stair, formed in a pit, leads to a subterranean apartment, 88 feet long by 26. This gloomy apartment, as well as the exterior walls of the edifice, is covered with à la grecque and arabesque ornaments. But what distinguishes the ruins of Mitla from all the other remains of Mexican architecture, is, six porphyry columns, which are placed in the midst of a vast hall, and support the ceiling. These columns, almost the only ones found in the New Continent, bear strong marks of the infancy of the art. They have neither base nor capital. Only a simple contraction of the upper part is observable. Their total height is nearly nineteen feet; the shaft of each is of a single piece of porphyry; but broken fragments for ages heaped together, conceal more than a third of the height of these columns." The ceiling which they served to support, was formed of beams of savine wood, three of which are still in good preservation. "The roof consisted of very large slabs."

According to a plan of the palace, drawn by a Mexican artist, Don Luis Martin, there originally existed at Mitla, five separate buildings, disposed

with great regularity. "A very large gate, some vestiges of which are still to be seen, led to a spacious court, 150 feet square. Heaps of earth and remains of subterraneous structures indicate that four small edifices of oblong form surrounded this court. That on the right is in a state of tolerable preservation, and the remains of two columes still exist. In the principal edifice, we distinguish, first, a terrace, raised three or four feet above the level of the court, and surrounding the walls, to which it served at the same time as a base; secondly, a niche formed in the wall, between four and five feet above the level of the hall with pillars. This niche, which is broader than it is high, is supposed to have enclosed an idol. The principal door of the hall is covered with a stone twelve feet long by three. Next, after entering the inner court, is seen the well, or opening of the tomb. A very broad staircase leads to the excavation, which is in the form of a cross, supported by columns. two galleries, which intersect each other at right angles, are each eighty-two feet long by twenty-five. Lastly, three small apartments surround the inner court, and behind the niche is a fourth, with which they have no communication. The different parts of this edifice present very striking inequalities and a want of symmetry. In the interior of the apartments are paintings representing weapons, trophies, and sacrifices. There is no appearance of their having ever had windows."

The

"The arabesques (with which the exterior walls are covered) form a kind of mosaic work, composed of several square stones (of porphyry), placed with much dexterity by the side of each other. The mosaic is

attached to a mass of clay, which appears to fill up the inside of the walls, as is also observed in some Peruvian edifices. The length of these walls on the same line is only about 130 feet; their height

probably never exceeded fifteen or sixteen feet. This edifice, however, though small, might produce some effect by the arrangement of its parts, and the elegant form of its ornaments. Several of the Egyptian temples are of still less considerable dimensions. In the environs of Mitla are remains of a great pyramid, and some other buildings very much resembling these."

"The Greek ornaments of the palace of Mitla present, no doubt," continues M. Humboldt, a striking analogy to those of the vases of lower Italy, and to others which we find spread over the surface of almost the whole of the Old Continent. We perceive in them the same design which we admire in the vases falsely called Tuscan (Etruscan?), or in the frieze of the ancient temple near the grotto of Egeria at Rome." But the perfection of these ornaments, he contends, " is no indication of any great progress of civilisation in the people among whom they are found. M. Krusenstern gives a description of arabesques of great elegance, fixed, by means of tattooing, on the skins of the most savage inhabitants of Washington's Islands."* Without running into hypothesis, however, the ornaments in question, and the whole style of the building, are so little in unison with the character of the Mexican teocallis, that they would seem to justify our referring them to a people of distinct origin. M. Hum

* Pol. Essay, vol. ii. pp. 191-4. Researches, vol. ii. pp. 152-9. The learned Author promises to give a further account of these interesting remains in his personal narrative; but that portion of it relating to New Spain, has never as yet made its appearance. He does not, however, seem to have visited Mitla himself. The drawing given in the Picturesque Atlas, was communicated by Don Luis Martin. The whole of this district merits the particular attention of the future traveller. We should have been glad to give a view of this interesting site, but Humboldt's plate exhibits only some fragments of wall.