ver exercises its ravages in New Spain. This lower range of oaks warns the colonist who inhabits the central table-land, how far he may descend towards the coast without dread of the mortal disease the vomito. Forests of liquid anber, near Xalapa, show by the freshness of their verdure that this is the elevation at which the clouds suspended over the ocean come in contact with the basaltic summits of the Cordillera. A little higher, near La Blanderilla, the nutritive fruit of the banana tree no longer comes to maturity. In this foggy and cold region, therefore, want spurs on the Indian to labour, and excites his industry. At the height of San Miguel, pines begin to mingle with the oaks which are found by the traveller as high as the elevated plains of Perote, where he beholds the delightful aspect of fields sown with wheat. About 2000 feet higher the coldness of the climate will no longer admit of the vegetation of oaks; and pines alone cover the rocks, whose summits enter the zone of eternal snow. Thus in a few hours the naturalist, in this miraculous country, ascends the whole scale of vegetation from the heliconia and the banana plant, whose glossy leaves swell out into extraordinary dimensions, to the stunted parenchyma of the resinous trees.

The province of Vera Cruz is enriched by nature with the most precious productions At the foot of the Cordillera, in the ever-green forests of Papantla, Nautla, and S. Andre Tuxtla, grows the epidendrum vanilla, the odoriferous fruit of which

is employed for perfuming chocolate. Near the Indian villages of Colipa and Misantla grows the beautiful convolvulus jalapa, whose tuberose root furnishes the jalap, one of the most energetic and beneficent purgatives. The myrtle (myrtus pimenta), whose grain forms an agreeable spice, well known in trade by the name of pimienta de Tabasco, is produced in the forests which extend towards the river of Baraderas, in the eastern part of the intendancy of Vera Cruz. The cocoa of Acayucan would be in request, if the natives were to apply themselves more assiduously to the cultivation of cocoa trees. On the eastern and southern declivities of the Pic d'Orizaba, in the valleys which extend towards the small town of Cordoba, tobacco of an excellent quality is cultivated, which yields an annual revenue to the crown of more than 750,000. sterling. The similar, the root of which is the true salsaparilla, grows in the humid and umbrageous ravines of the Cordillera. The cotton of the coast of Vera Cruz is celebrated for its fineness and whiteness. The sugar-cane yields nearly as much sugar as in the island of Cuba, and more than in the plantations of St. Domingo.

This intendancy alone would keep alive the commerce of the port of Vera Cruz, if the number of colonists were greater, and if their laziness, the effect of the bounty of nature, and the facility of providing without effort for the most urgent wants of life, did not impede the progress of industry. The old population of Mexico was concentrated in

the interior of the country on the table-land. The Mexican tribes who came from northern countries, gave the preference in their migrations to the ridges of the Cordilleras, because they found on them a climate analogous to that of their native country. No doubt, on the first arrival of the Spaniards on the coast of Chalchihucuecan (Vera Cruz), all the country from the river of Papaloapan (Alvarado to Huaxtecapan) was better inhabited and better cultivated than it now is. The conquerors, however, found, as they ascended the table-land, the villages closer together, the fields divided into smaller portions, and the people more polished. The Spa niards, who imagined they founded new cities when they gave European names to Aztec cities, followed the traces of the indigenous civilization. They had very powerful motives for inhabiting the table-land of Anahuac. They dreaded the heat, and the diseases which prevail in the plains. The search after the precious metals, the cultivation of European grain and fruit, the analogy of the climate with that of the Castilles, and other causes, all concurred to fix them on the ridge of the Cordillera. So long as the Encomenderos, abusing the rights which they derived from the laws, treated the Indians as serfs, a great number of them were transported from the regions of the coast to the table-land in the interior, either to work in the mines, or merely that they might be near the habitation of their masters. For two centuries the trade in indigo, sugar, and cotton was next to nothing. The

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Whites could by no means be induced to settle in the plains, where the true Indian climate prevails, and it appeared that the Europeans came under the tropics merely to inhabit the temperate zone.

Hitherto the Government has neglected every means for increasing the population of this desert coast. From this state of things result a great want of hands, and a scarcity of provisions, singular enough in a country of such great fertility. The wages of an ordinary workman at Vera Cruz are from 4 to 5 shillings per day. A master mason, and every man who follows a particular trade, gains from 10 to 16 shillings per day, that is to say, three times as much as on the central table-land.

Taking our direction from the capital of Mexico towards the east in the road to Vera Cruz, we must advance 180 miles, before arriving at a valley the bottom of which is less than 3000 feet higher than the level of the sea, and in which, consequently, oaks cease to grow.

We have already said that the configuration of the soil in the interior is most favourable for the transport of goods, for navigation, and even for the construction of canals. Great difficulties are, however, opposed by nature to the communication between the interior of the kingdom and the coast. There is an enormous difference of level and temperature, while from Mexico to New Biscay the plain preserves an equal elevation, and consequently a climate rather cold than temperate. From the capital of Mexico to Vera Cruz, the descent is

shorter and more rapid than from the same point to Acapulco.

Of the 250 miles from the capital to the port of Vera Cruz, upwards of 160 belong to the great plain of Anahuac. The rest of the road is a laborious and continued descent, particularly from the small fortress of Perote to the city of Xalapa, and from this site, one of the most beautiful and picturesque in the known world, to La Rinconada. It is the difficulty of this descent which raises the carriage of flour from Mexico to Vera Cruz, and prevents it to this day from competing in Europe with the flour of Philadelphia. We have already mentioned the superb causeway which is constructing along this eastern descent of the Cordillera. This work, due to the great and praiseworthy activity of the merchants of Vera Cruz, will have the most decided influence on the prosperity of the inhabitants of the whole kingdom of New Spain. The place of thousands of mules will be supplied by carriages fit to transport merchandise from sea to sea, which will connect the Asiatic commerce of Acapulco with the European commerce of Vera Cruz.

The inhabitants of Mexico, discontented with the port of Vera Cruz, if we may give the name of port to the most dangerous of all anchorages, entertain the hope of finding out surer channels for the commerce with the mother country. I shall merely name the mouths of the rivers Alvarado