of it to M. Garcia Conde an active and intelli

gent engineer.

The old road from Mexico to Xalapa and Vera Cruz, passed along the elevated plains of Apa, without touching the great town of Puebla -de los Angeles; and this is the road described by the Abbe Chappe in his journey to California, in which that philosopher determined several points by barometrical measurements *. The indigenous merchandizes and productions were then conveyed from Mexico to Perote and Xalapa, by the dike which separates the lakes of Tezcuco and San Christobal; by Totolcingo and Teotihuacan; and by the old field of battle of Otumba, the Inn of Irolo, Apa, Piedras Négras, S. Diego, Hongito, Vireyes and Tepeyacualco. They reckoned by this road, 43 leagues from Mexico to Perote, and 74 from Mexico to Vera Cruz. At that period, and even till 1795, two days were taken to go from the capital to Puebla, making a large circuit towards the north west by Otumba and Irolo, and inclining from thence to the south east by Pozuelos, Tumbacaretas, and San Martin. At last, under the viceroyship of the Marquis de Branciforte, a new and very short road was opened by the Venta de Chalco, the small chain of porphyritic mountains of Cordova, Tesmelucos, and Ocot

* Voyage de Chappe, publié par M. de Cassini, p. 107.

lan. The advantages of these more direct communications between the capital, the city of Puebla, and the fortress of Perote will be easily discovered by examining my atlas of New Spain.

The new road from Mexico to Puebla possesses still the inconsiderable difficulty of the passage of the mountains, which separate the basin of Tenochtitlan from that of Cholula. The table land which extends from the foot of the volcanoes of Mexico to the mountains of Orizaba and the Coffre, is a level plain, and covered with sand, fragments of pearled rock, and saline efflorescences. The road from Puebla to Vera Cruz, passes through Cocosingo, Acaxete and Perote. We imagine we are travelling over a surface levelled from being long covered with water. When these plains are heated by the solar rays, they exhibit, at the height of the passage of Saint Bernard, the same phenomena of suspension and extraordinary refraction, which we generally observe only in the neighbourhood of the ocean.

The magnificent road constructing by order of the consulado of Vera Cruz, from Perote to that city, will rival those of the Simplon and Mount Cenis. It is broad, solid, and of a very gentle fall. They have not followed the tract of the old road, which was narrow and paved with basaltic porphyry, and which ap

pears to have been constructed towards the middle of the eighteenth century. The rapid ascents have been carefully avoided; and the charge which is brought against the engineer, of lengthening too much the road, will be dropt when wheel carriages shall be substituted to the carriage of goods on the backs of mules. The construction of this road will probably cost more than 15 millions of francs *; but we hope that so beautiful and useful a work will not suffer any interruption. It is an object of the highest importance, for those parts of Mexico the most remote from the capital, and the port of Vera Cruz; for when the road shall be completed, the price of iron, mercury, spirituous liquors, paper, and all the other commodities of Europe, will experience a sensible fall in price; the Mexican flour which has hitherto been dearer at the Havannah than the flour of Philadelphia, will be naturally preferred to the latter; the exportation of the sugars and hides of the country will be more considerable; and the transportation of goods on waggons will require a much smaller number of mules and horses than are now employed. These changes will produce a double effect on subsistence; and the scarcities which have almost periodically hitherto desolated Mexico will be more rare, not

* 600,000 Sterling. Trans.

only because the consumption of maize will be less, but because the agriculturist, stimulated by the hope of selling his flour at Vera Cruz, will lay out more of his ground in the cultivation of wheat.

During my stay at Xalapa in the month of February, 1804, the new road constructed under the direction of Don Garcia Conde, had been commenced on those points which presented the greatest difficulties, namely, the ravin called the Plan del Rio, and the Cuesta del Soldado. They intend to place columns of porphyry along the road, for the purpose of indicating both the distances, and the elevation of the surface above the level of the ocean. These inscriptions, which are no where to be met with in Europe, will be particularly interesting to a traveller, who is climbing the eastern ascent of the Cordillera: they will quiet his mind by announcing to him that he is approaching that fortunate and elevated region, in which the scourges of black vomiting, and yellow fever are no longer to be dreaded.

The old road of Xalapa leads from Rinconada eastwards, by the old Vera Cruz vulgarly called la Antigua. After passing below this village, the river of the same name, nearly 200 metres* in breadth, we follow the coast by

* 656 feet. Trans.

Punta Gorda and Vergara, or if the tide is high, we take the road of la Manga de Clavo, which does not rejoin the coast till the very port of Vera Cruz. It would be advantageous to construct a bridge over the Rio de la Antigua, near la Ventilla, where the bed of the river is

* A

only 107 meters in breadth, by which means the Xalapa road would be shortened more than six leagues, and without touching old Vera Cruz, it would lead immediately from the Plan del Rio, by the bridge of la Ventilla, Passo de Ovejas, Cienega de Olocuatla, and Loma de San Juan to Vera Cruz. This change is so much the more desirable, as it is the journey from Encero to the coast, which is the most dangerous to the health of the inhabitants of the interior of Mexico, when they descend from the table land of Perote, and the heights of Xalapa. The suffocating heat which prevails in that arid and naked plain, has a powerful effect on individuals whose nervous system has never been accustomed to such a violent irritation. The heat, added to the fatigues of the journey, disposes the organs more easily to receive the deleterious miasmata of the yellow fever; and the ravages of that pestilential malady, would be greatly diminished therefore by shortening that part of the road which crosses the arid plains of the sea coast.

350 feet. Trans.