towards the east, and the vegetation begins to assume a new character of luxuriance. It is a descent of

two hours and a half to the plain of Los Gallos. A short ride (the next day) brought our Traveller to the edge of the mountain of La Contadera, the second descent towards the coast, which is still more steep and difficult than that of Los Gallos. They had now entered the tierra caliente, having passed the dividing line where the inhabitants of the table-land begin to suffer from the heat, and those of the coast to complain of the cold. This day's journey terminated at the village of San Barbara, situated at the extremity of a very extensive plain, in the midst of a grove of evergreens. This place is renowned for its manufacture of stamped leather for saddle covers and leggings. The next day, the travellers descended in succession the mountains of Chamal and Cucharras, by very precipitous tracks, and reached a rancho on the banks of the river Limon. Fording this river, the water of which came up to the saddle-girths, they soon left behind all appearance of luxuriant vegetation, and for six hours passed over a parched and arid plain. In two hours more, after crossing the river Raya de Sargento, they reached the poor village of Orcasitas. A sterile plain, over which they passed for five hours, extends to the miserable rancho of Carizo. Another day's journey of seven hours, still over a plain abandoned to vast herds of cattle, was terminated by bivouacking at the edge of a deep wood. The next day, the thirteenth from San Luis, a seven hours' ride brought them to Altamira. But, "what a place to be called Altamira!" is the Author's exclamation. "The town consists of a few tolerable houses in the square, a church, a collection of thatched cottages, and it commands a view of swamps and lagunes." Both this place and Tampico are unhealthy, with this difference, that here bilious fevers prevail, and there, yellow fever. Tampico (Pueblo Viejo), which may

be considered as the port of the great river Tampico, or Panuco, is about five leagues from the sea, on the margin of a small lake: it is ill built, dirty, and unhealthy, and yet, it is a place of some trade.Here the American Traveller embarked for the Havannah.

INTERIOR EASTERN PROVINCES.

The intendancy of San Luis Potosi, under the viceregal government, comprehended the whole of the north-eastern part of the kingdom, including a surface of 27,800 square leagues, (larger than that of all Spain,) but with a population not exceeding 334,900, or twelve inhabitants to a square league. It had upwards of 230 leagues of coast, an extent equal to the whole line of coast from Genoa to Reggio in Calabria; but the whole of this coast remained without commerce and without activity. The intendant had under his administration, 1. the province of San Luis, extending from the river Panuco to the river Santander; 2. the new kingdom of Leon and the colony of New Santander, in the vice-royalty of Mexico; and 3. the provinces of Cohahuila and Texas, which belonged to the captain-generalship of the east. "But this immense country," says Humboldt, "gifted by nature with the most precious productions, and situated under a serene sky, in the temperate zone towards the borders of the tropic, is, for the most part, a wild desert, still more thinly peopled than the governments of Asiatic Russia." The northern limits of the intendancy are indeterminate. On the north-west, the mountainous tract called the Bolson de Mapimi, including more than 3000 square leagues, is in the possession of wandering and independent Indians, called Apaches, who occasionally make incursions to attack the colo

nists of Cohahuila and Durango.

On the north

east, the provinces of New Santander and Texas border on (the latter, in fact, chiefly consists of) disputed territory.

That part of the coast which extends along the Gulf of Mexico, from the mouth of the great Rio del Norte to the Rio Sabina, is still almost unknown, having never been explored by navigators. According to Humboldt, the eastern coast of Mexico presents everywhere similar obstacles," a want of depth for vessels drawing more than twelve feet and a half, bars at the mouths of the rivers, necks of land, and long islets stretching in a direction parallel to the continent, which prevent all access to the interior basin.* The shores of Santander and Texas, from the twenty-first to the twenty-ninth parallel, are singularly festooned, and present a succession of interior basins (or salt-water lakes) from four to five leagues in breadth, and from forty to fifty in length. Some of them (the laguna de Tamiagua, for example) are completely shut in. Others (as the laguna Madre and the laguna de San Bernardo) communicate by several channels with the ocean. The latter are of great advantage for a coasting trade, as coasting vessels are there secure from the great swells of the ocean." There can be little doubt that these long and narrow islets are, as the learned Traveller conjectures, bars or shoals, which have gradually risen above the mean level of the water; and that the Mexican coast resembles, in this respect,

The harbour at the mouth of the Rio del Norte, however, said to be the best on the coast, has never less than thirteen feet water at its entrance, and as the tide here sometimes rises three feet, it might admit vessels of 400 tons. It is defended from the prevailing storms by the island Malahuitas. The river is navigable forty leagues up, and might be made so, with very little exertion, thirty leagues higher. Such was the statement made by D. Miguel Ramas de Arispe to the Cortes at Cadiz.

the shores of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil.

The port of Tampico, however, although the bar prevents the entry of vessels drawing more than twenty feet water,* would still be preferable, Humboldt thinks, to the dangerous anchorage among the shallows of Vera Cruz; and the climate, though unhealthy, has not hitherto proved so prejudicial to the health of Europeans, or of the inhabitants of the table-land, as the more southern port. A project was at one time entertained for cutting a navigable canal from the capital to Tampico. This would not be impracticable, notwithstanding that the waters of the lake of Tezcuco are upwards of 7500 feet above the sea; but, as it would require at least 200 locks, it would not, in the opinion of this Author, be advisable, land carriage under such circumstances being preferable. It has already been mentioned, that Tampico was one of the four places thought of as a port for the commerce of the capital, instead of Vera Cruz. Were the road rendered more practicable, it might, perhaps, attract a portion of the trade. At present, it is visited chiefly by small vessels from the West Indies, which come here to lay in provisions.

Sotto la Marina, near the bar of the river Santander, in lat 23° 45′ N., would seem to be by far too distant from the capital to answer the purpose of a port for its commerce; and indeed, according to Mr Robinson's description of it, it is less accessible than Tampico. "The mouth of the river Santander,' he says, "is very narrow, and has a bar across it, over which vessels drawing more than six feet water cannot be carried. Near the beach, the country is

The Author of Notes on Mexico says, that the narrow channel admits only vessels of eight feet draught. The bar, in blowing weather, he says, is very dangerous; a heavy sea rolls on it. The road-stead is open, and during the prevalence of north-western gales, no ship can approach the land.

intersected by shallow ponds, extending a long way to the northward. After passing the bar, the river suddenly widens, but afterwards gradually contracts itself towards the town of Sotto la Marina. It is navigable for such vessels as can pass the bar, to within a very short distance of the town, beyond which it is too shallow even for boats. The village (pueblo) of Sotto la Marina stands upon an elevated situation, on the left bank of the river, eighteen leagues from its mouth. The old settlement is but a short distance up the river, on the road to the present village."* Could the port be remedied, however, this place would rise into importance, and would soon attract a large portion of the commerce of San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, and Durango. It was here that Mina disembarked his troops; here too, Iturbidé, by a striking coincidence, landed, to meet a similar fate.†

At present, Humboldt says, the province of New Santander is so desert, that fertile districts of ten or twelve square leagues were sold there in 1802 for ten or twelve francs. Major Pike estimates the population of this province, which extends 500 miles from north to south, and is about 150 in breadth, at 38,000 souls. The whole of the northern part of the intendancy of San Luis, that is to say, Santander, New Leon, Cohahuila, and Texas, are very low regions, with little undulation of surface.

The

soil is covered with secondary and alluvial formations. The climate is unequal, extremely hot in summer, and equally cold in winter, when the north winds prevail.

That which bears the pompous title of the new kingdom of Leon, is not above 250 miles in length;