boldt thinks it scarcely probable, that the edifice is of a date anterior to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Possibly, a further examination may throw some light on its comparative antiquity. It will deserve also to be ascertained, whether the excavation be natural or wholly artificial. The "great pyramid,"" of the existence of which we are somewhat sceptical, claims particular attention; and it will be important to ascertain, what apparent analogy there is between the ruins of Mitla and those of Palenque, and other ancient remains in the kingdom of Guatimala; particularly the cavern of Mixco in the valley of Xilopetec, the entrance to which is stated to have a "Doric portico." An interesting natural curiosity is found at the village of Santa Maria del Tule, three leagues east of Oaxaca, between Santa Lucia and Tlacochiguaya. It is an ancient cypress (cupressus disticha), the trunk of which is still larger than that of the cypress of Atlixco,* measuring nearly 120 feet in circumference. On a minute examination, however, its enormous bulk is found to be composed of three trunks that have grown together. The only port in this intendancy mentioned by Humboldt, is that of Tehuantepec or Teguantepec, situated at the bottom of a creek formed by the ocean between the small villages of San Francisco, San Dionisio, and Santa Maria de la Mar. "This port," says Humboldt, "though impeded by a very dangerous bar, will become one day of great consequence, when navigation in general, and especially the exportation of the indigo of Guatimala, shall become more frequent by the Rio Guasacualco.' As a port, it hardly deserves the name: none but small vessels can pass the bar, and without, they are exposed in an open roadstead. The sands brought down by the river Chima * See vol. i. pp. 236, lapa, increase the bar every year, and the town of Tehuantepec is now four leagues from the sea. But it is at this part of the isthmus, between the bay of Tehuantepec and the port of Guasacualco, that the continent is narrowest, the distance from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean not exceeding 45 leagues.* The isthmus of Tehuantepec comprises, under the parallel of 16° N., the sources of the Guasacualco (or Huasacualco), which discharges itself into the Gulf of Mexico, and those of the Chimalapa, which mingles its waters with the Southern Ocean near the Barra de San Francisco. The approximation of the sources of these two rivers, (which, according to Mr Robinson, are within five leagues of each other,) suggested to the patriotic viceroy, Count de Revillagigedo, the project of a canal to connect the two seas. A fortunate accident, Humboldt informs us, towards the end of the last century, was the means of directing the attention of the Mexican Government to this part of the isthmus. "There was discovered, in 1771, at Vera Cruz, amongst the artillery of the castle of San Juan de Ulua, several pieces of cannon, cast at Manilla. As it was known that, before the year 1767, the Spaniards neither doubled the Cape of Good Hope nor Cape Horn, in their voyage to the Philippine Islands, and that since the first expeditions of Magellan and Loysa, who set out from Spain, all the commerce of Asia was carried on in the Galleon of Acapulco, they could not conceive how these guns had crossed the continent of Mexico on their way from Manilla to the Castle of Ulua. The extreme difficulty of the road from Acapulco to Mexico, and from thence to Xalapa and Vera Cruz, rendered it very improbable that they should come by that way. In the course of their investiga * Mr Robinson states the latitude of Guasacualco loosely at about 18° 30'; that of Tehuantepec at about 16° 36'. tion, they learned both from the chronicle of Tehuantepec written by Father Burgoa, and from the traditions preserved among the inhabitants of the Isthmus of Huasacualco, that these guns were cast at the Island of Luzon, and landed at the Bar of San Francisco; that they had ascended the bay of Santa Theresa, and the Rio Chimalapa; that they had been carried on by the farm of Chivela and the forest of Tarifa to the Rio del Malpasso; and that, after having been again embarked, they descended the Rio Huasacualco, to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. "It was then very reasonably observed, that this road, which had been frequented in the beginning of the conquest, might still become very useful for the opening a direct communication between the two seas. The viceroy, Don Antonio Bucareli, gave orders to two able engineers, Don Augustin Cramer and Don Miguel del Corral, to examine with the greatest minuteness, the country between the bar of Huasacualco and the road of Tehuantepec; and he instructed them at the same time to verify whether, as was vaguely supposed, among the small rivers of Ostuta, Chicapa, or Chimalapa, there was none which in any of its branches communicated with the two seas. From the itinerary journals of these two engineers, of whom the former was lieutenant of the castle of Ulua, I drew up my map of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. They found that no river discharged at the same time its waters into the South Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; that the Rio Huasacualco did not take its rise, as the viceroy had been informed, near the town of Tehuantepec; and that, on ascending it beyond the cataract, even as far as the old desembarcadero of Malpasso, they were still more than twenty-six leagues distant from the shores of the South Sea. They observed that a chain of * cc Burgoa, Palestra Hitorical o Cronica de la Villa de Tehuantepec. Mexico, 1674." mountains, of very inconsiderable height, divides the waters between the gulf of Mexico and the gulf of Tehuantepec. This small cordillera stretches from east to west, from the Cerros de los Mixes, formerly inhabited by a wild and warlike tribe* towards the elevated table-land of Portilla de Petapa. The engineer, Cramer, affirms, however, that to the south of the village of Santa Maria de Chimalapa, the mountains form a groupe rather than an uninterrupted chain, and 'that there exists a transversal valley, in which a canal of communication might be cut between the two seas.' This canal, which would unite the Rio de Chimalapa with the Rio del Passo (or Malpasso, would be only six leagues in length. The boats would ascend the Rio Chimalapa, which affords a very easy navigation from Tehuantepec to the village of San Miguel; and from thence, they would pass by the canal projected in the time of Count de Revillagigedo, to the Rio del Passo. This river discharges itself into the Rio de Huasacualco near the Bodegas de la Fabrica; but its navigation is extremely difficult on account of the seven rapids (raudales) which are counted between its source and the mouth of the Rio de Saravia. "It would be of infinite importance again to order this ground to be examined by intelligent engineers, to determine whether, as was believed by M. Cramer, the canal between the two seas can be executed without locks, or without inclined planes, and whether, by blowing up the rocks with powder, the beds of the rivers Passo and Chimalapa can be deepened. The Isthmus is rich in cattle, and would, from its great fertility, supply valuable productions for the commerce of Vera Cruz. The fine plains of Tehuantepec would be susceptible of irrigation from the Rio de Chimala "Cartas de Cortez, p. 372." pa: in their present state, they produce a little indigó and cochineal of a superior quality. "Before setting on foot, in the islands of Cuba and Pinos, the felling of cedar and acajou wood (cedrela odorata and swietenia mahogany), the dock-yards of the Havannah drew their wood for ship-building from the thick forest which covers the northern slope of the Cerros de Petapa and Tarifa. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec was at that time very much frequented, and the ruins of several houses which are still to be seen on the two banks of the river Huasacualco, are to be dated back to that period. The cedar and acajou wood was embarked at the Bodegas de Malpasso. "To avoid the seven rapids of the Rio del Passo, a new port (desembarcadero) was established in 1798, at the mouth of the Rio de ataria: the salt provisions (tasajo) of Tehuantepec, the indigo of Guatemala, anu the cochineal of Oaxaca, were conveyed by this way to Vera Cruz and the Havannah. A road has been opened from Tehuantepec, by Chihuitan, Llano Grande, Santa Maria Petapa, and Guchicovi, to the new port of La Cruz. They reckon this road thirty-four leagues. The productions destined for the Havannah do not descend to the mouth of the Rio Huasacualco, or to the small port of that name, because they are afraid of exposing their canoes to the north winds, during the long passage from the bar of Huasacualco to the port of Vera Cruz. They disembark the goods at the Passo de la Fabrica; and from thence they are conveyed on the backs of mules, by the village of Acayucan to the banks of the river San Juan, where they are again embarked in large canoes, and transported by the bar of Tlacatalpan to the port of Vera Cruz." By this road, which was completed in the year 1800, the river Guasacualco forms a commercial communication, though an imperfect one, between the two oceans. When Spain was at war with Great |