Читать книгу The History of Spanish America - Sir Richard Henry Bonnycastle - Страница 15

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The great Mexican plain above mentioned, may be said to extend through the whole of New Spain. Carriages traverse a distance of five hundred leagues on it from Mexico to Santa Fé in the north; the whole road being made with little labour, and nearly level. This enormous plain, or table land, as well as several others of less dimensions, forms the ridge of the Cordilleras, which goes by the names of Anahuac, Sierra Madre, Topia, &c. and is of great breadth. On its bosom repose the summits of gigantic mountains, which reach the region of perpetual snow. On the east coast the land is generally flat and swampy; and on the west, the descent of the central chain has four parallel valleys of great depth, which are richly cultivated.

The Cordillera of New Spain is evidently a continuation of the Andes; it traverses the captain-generalship of Guatimala, along its western coast, throwing out arms into the province of Honduras; it then turns eastward, for a short distance, on entering the kingdom of New Spain, and sends an arm into the province of Yucatan; rising afterwards gradually to the north, and occupying the middle of the continent; it then, in the province of Mexico, goes off to the east, where, forming the vast plain of Anahuac, it has its greatest elevation, and is here called Sierra Madre; the Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl, Pico de Orizaba, and Cofre de Perote being either in or on the borders of this province; the Popocatepetl, the highest summit of New Spain is 17,716 feet above the level of the sea.

The Cordillera then passes on to the north-west, and throws out three branches, one into New Leon, one into Guadalaxara, and one to the province of Zacatecas; it then continues northward, being of great breadth, till it passes the kingdom of New Spain, and on the borders assumes the names of Sierra de las Grullas, and Sierra Verde, after which it joins the Blue Mountains, and Stoney Mountains of north-west America. Amongst the lofty masses we have mentioned are some volcanoes, which constitute a magnificent part of the scenery; no less than five existing in the provinces of Mexico, Puebla, and Vera Cruz, some of which are enveloped in perpetual snows.

The sides of this great chain are covered with immense forests of every species of trees, which luxuriate according to their position; the hardy pine and fir occupying the upper, and the tropical productions the lower regions.

In the valleys, on the plains, sides, and at the foot of the chain, are observed beautiful cities, villages, and romantically situated farms, forests, interspersed with rivers, cataracts, and extraordinarily formed rocks. It is here that the painter might mature his taste for the wonderful, the rude, and the majestic features of nature. The soil, adapted to cultivation, is mostly a deep clay, which requires nothing more than irrigation to render it fertile in the extreme. The agricultural objects are principally wheat, maize, cotton, indigo, pimento, sugar, tobacco, the agave and cochineal plant. This applies chiefly to the southern portion, the more northerly being nearly in a state of nature. Sugar, cotton, cocoa and indigo flourish between 19° and 22° of north latitude, and are only abundantly produced at an elevation of from 1900 to 2600 feet; as also European grains at the height of from between 4550 to 9750 feet.

The oaks of Mexico grow to maturity only at from 2600 to 9750 feet of elevation; pines reach, toward the lower term of congelation, to a height of 13,000 feet, and descend on the east coast as low as 6000 feet above the level of the sea.

The banana, the great support of the natives, is found no higher than 4600 in a state of perfection. This fruit forms the principal food of the natives; when gathered green they cut it into slices, and lay them in the sun to dry, and pound it into meal, which they use for the same purposes that flour is generally put to; the fruit is also eaten.

The plantations of the banana are kept up by suckers. The same region which matures the banana, is also favourable to the manioc, which is powdered and made into bread. Of this root there are two kinds, one sweet, the other bitter; the latter is poisonous, unless carefully made into bread by separating the noxious juice. The bread of the manioc is called cassava, and is extremely nutritive; forming, when made up in a particular manner, by being smoked and grated, a substance which resists the attacks of insects, making one of the chief articles of provision on long journeys. They also make of the poisonous juice a sort of soy; but it is sometimes dangerous to use this sauce.

Manioc is cultivated by slips, and they have one harvest a-year, the whole process being nearly similar to that of potato planting. Maize occupies the same region, and reaches to maturity at the same elevation as the two former plants. This plant is of the utmost importance to the colonies, and, being indigenous, thrives better here than anywhere. It grows to the height of nine feet, and yields a hundred-and-fifty fold. It succeeds better in the southern provinces than in the northern, and forms a principal article of food to the inhabitants, to the mules employed in the mines, and in conveying goods from one province to another, and to the poultry, &c. When the harvest of maize fails, the unfortunate natives are reduced to the greatest straits. It yields, in the most favourable situations, three crops annually. This maize, or Indian corn, is eaten boiled and roasted, and, when ground, is made into bread. The meal is used for soups, under which form it is principally consumed. The Indians, also, by fermentation, make several intoxicating liquors from this plant, as well as a sort of beer; and, before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Mexicans made sugar of the stalks.

Wheat was first introduced by the Spaniards, and promises to become, with the other European grains, when the great roads are completed, one of the most abundant articles of the commerce of New Spain, as it already enters into competition, at the Havannah, with the flour of the United States; but the means of transport are at present so bad in the interior, that no great quantity is cultivated for exportation. The potato which was introduced by the Europeans thrives very well; for although it originally came from America, it was known only in the southern part at the time of the conquest. The capsicum, or pimento, the tomatas, rice, turnips, cabbages, sallads of all sorts, onions, and every kind of European vegetable are successfully cultivated. The table land produces all sorts of European fruits in great plenty; plums, apricots, figs, cherries, peaches, melons, pears, apples, &c. The vine and olive also flourish equally well, but are not frequently to be seen, on account of the Spanish Government discouraging the culture of these plants, as the commerce of the Peninsula, in oils and wine, would cease, if they were allowed to be reared; the climate of New Spain being more favourable for their production than that of Europe; however they are found in California, and some of the northern provinces, in great abundance. The tropical fruits, of every species, are met with in New Spain, guavas, ananas, sapotes, mameis, &c; and the Europeans appear to take great delight in their gardens. The orange and lemon plants, of almost every species, grow in these delightful regions, where animal food forms the secondary article of human nourishment.

The principal vegetable decoction which supplies the place of the brandies and strong liquors of Europe, is that produced from the agave, or maguey. The natives and Spaniards have large plantations of agave, for the purpose of forming from it their favourite beverage, called pulque, which is procured by wounding the plant at a particular season, from which there flows a ropy liquor, which they collect and ferment. Pulque, from being the great beverage of the Indians, and lower orders of Mexican Spaniards, yields an immense revenue to the government. The sugar cane is successfully cultivated, and sugar already forms one of the principal articles of export. Cotton is also an article of commerce, as is likewise coffee, but neither of them to a great amount. Their cocoa and chocolate have long been famous; the name of the latter being originally Mexican, but the best chocolate comes from Guatimala.

Vanilla, of the finest quality, is imported into Spain from Mexico. Sarsaparilla and jalap, which takes its name from the town of Xalapa, near which it is found, are celebrated articles of its export trade. Of tobacco, it does not grow enough for its own consumption, not owing to the soil, but to its culture being discouraged. The indigo from the Spanish colonies is raised chiefly in Guatimala. Odoriferous, gums, medicinal plants, and drugs; the dying woods, particularly logwood; the valuable woods used in making articles of furniture; are the produce of this Viceroyalty; which is as rich in the productions of the vegetable as of the mineral kingdom. Cochineal, and the plant on which the insect feeds and comes to maturity, are amongst the most singular of its products; they are principally managed by the Indians, who are most skilful in the mode of collecting the harvests of this extraordinary dye.

The animals wild and domestic, are chiefly the horse, mules, of which thousands are employed in carrying goods over the crests of the mountains separating the two oceans, and in drawing the metals from the mines, &c., sheep, goats, and cattle; the cougar, or American tiger; the puma, the tiger-cat, loupcervier, wild-boar, swine, buffalo bison, tapir, marmadillo, and immense tribes of apes and monkeys, with birds of every variety and beauty, amongst which are wild and tame turkeys, ducks, domestic fowls, &c.

The insects are as numerous as singular, and the serpents and reptiles thrive under the vertical sun, and amid the humid exhalations of the low-lands. The alligator is found in its rivers and swamps, and is nearly as formidable as the Egyptian crocodile.

In the northern part of New Spain, horses, cattle, sheep and goats, are found in a state of nature, having multiplied to an extraordinary degree in the wide spread plains and Savannahs.

The silk-worm is reared in some of the provinces; but as the growing of silk would interfere with the commerce of the East Indian possessions of Spain, this article is not much attended to.

Honey and wax are procured in the greatest plenty, as may reasonably be imagined in a country abounding with aromatic herbs and flowers; wax forms a great article of its home consumption, which is the case in all Catholic countries, where such immense quantities of it are burnt in processions and the churches.

The pearl fisheries of the Californian Gulf, are not at present carried on with much activity, but pearls of great value have been found on its coasts.

In the description of the different provinces of this kingdom, we shall occasionally give more particular relations of the animal and vegetable productions of New Spain.

The gulf of Mexico, the bay of Honduras on the eastern side, the Pacific on the western, with the immense inlet or sea of California, afford to this rich and fertile viceroyalty the favourable opportunities for the most extensive commerce, were it not that it is greatly impeded by the want of numerous roads across the elevated land of the interior; these, however, are gradually opening; and in proportion as the Spaniards exert themselves in forming them, so will the commerce of Mexico increase in value above that of the neighbouring continental states, with whom, at present, it is, for this cause alone, unable to enter into competition. The distance in some parts of New Spain, from ocean to ocean is very inconsiderable; and some rivers which run from opposite sides of the same mountain approach so near, at their sources, to each other, as to offer to an enterprising people every facility for internal navigation; at present, the commerce of these colonies is tardily carried on from the coasts of the Pacific, to those of the Atlantic by means of mules, which travel in cavalcades along the roads crossing the chain, or by Indians carrying burdens on their backs.

The commerce of New Spain centres chiefly at the port of Acapulco in the Pacific, to which the vessels from Manilla bring the productions of the East Indies, which, with the commercial articles of the country itself, are transported over the mountains to Vera Cruz, the Atlantic port, from whence they proceed to the Havannah, and to Europe. We have related what the vegetable and animal kingdoms chiefly furnish towards this trade; it now remains to state the share which the mineral kingdom affords. New Spain is probably richer in productions of this nature than any other country of the world; but for want of the mechanical means which are so extensively employed in raising the metals of Europe, the produce of the Mexican mines, as well as of all those of the New World, is not so great as has been usually imagined, many of the richest veins having been abandoned (after enormous expences and labour employed in opening them), on account of water gaining on the operations of the miners. That useful and surprising instrument the steam-engine, requires to be introduced generally into the mining system of the Americans, before any great accumulations of the precious and useful metals can be had on that continent; then also will the terrible labour of those unfortunate people, who carry on their backs, in baskets, from the depths of these heated caverns, the ores which are there discovered, to the surface, be discontinued; the human race will sensibly increase, and the sterile wastes and thick forests will give way to the arts of agriculture.

The mining stations of gold and silver in New Spain amount to more than 450. They are divided into thirty-seven districts, each governed by a council of the mines. Humboldt supposes that near three thousand actual mines exist in these 450 stations. The principal and most valuable are those of the provinces of Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Guadalaxara, Durango, Sonora, Valladolid, Oaxaca, Puebla, Vera Cruz, and Old California. The veins exist mostly in primitive and transition rocks, and the richest silver veins, which are single, run to an amazing breadth and length; the poorest are those in which the silver is dispersed in small and numerous ramifications. The best and most productive of the silver mines of New Spain, are situated at a height of from 5900 to 9840 feet above the level of the sea, and there are three which supply more than half as much again as all the rest put together; these are the mines of Guanaxuato, Catorce, and Zacatecas. The quantity of silver exported from New Spain to Europe and India, per annum, is about one million six hundred and fifty thousand pounds in weight. After the three above mentioned, the mines of Real del Monte, Tasco, and Zimapan in Mexico; Guarisamez, Batopilas, and Parral in Durango; Bolaños in Guadalaxara; Sombrerete and Fresnillo in Zacatecas and Ramos in San Luis Potosi, are those which afford the greatest quantity of ore.

Gold is generally procured in the sands of torrents by washings. It is produced abundantly in Sonora, where it is found in the alluvious grounds; in the sands of Hiaqui and in Pimeria, where grains of very large size have been discovered. It is also procured from the mines of Oaxaca in veins, as well as in most of the silver mines, mixed with the silver, crystallized, in plates, &c. The produce of gold in New Spain is stated to amount, in the most favourable seasons, to a million of piastres, or 218,333l. sterling; the produce of silver at twenty-two millions of piastres, is 4,812,500l. sterling.

Native silver is sometimes found in great masses in the mines of Batopilas, as well as in some others.

The mines of Guanaxuato, of which the most celebrated is the one named Valenciana, are said to produce double the quantity of gold and silver to that of the celebrated Potosi in South America. In this mine the great vein is twenty-two feet in breadth; and, as the chasm is entirely dry, it is easier worked than almost any other American mine. The pits extend to the breadth of 4900 feet, and the lowest is 1640 feet in depth. The undertaking employs upwards of 900 men in carrying the ores to the surface up the stairs on their backs, 1800 workmen in procuring and sorting the ore, with 400 women and children, carrying the minerals to the sorters; the total expences of the materials, workmen, overseers, &c., is above 187,500l. sterling per annum, and the net profit, during the same period, to the proprietors, after deductions of the kingʼs fifth, and all expences, is from 82,500l. to 123,759l. per annum.

The mine of Sombrerete in Zacatecas yielded in one year a profit of above 833,400l. sterling to its proprietor. In San Luis Potosi, the mine of La Purissima Catorce yields annually to its owners a profit of upwards of 43,700l. sterling. The others we have mentioned, as being the richest, yield immense revenues to their holders and to the government.

In these rich mines the miners and labourers contrive occasionally to steal the valuable metals. They, however, undergo a very rigorous search on leaving the pit; nevertheless, like the Indians in the diamond mines of Golconda, they frequently are adroit enough to secrete the ores, notwithstanding many of them go nearly naked. The greater part of the silver is procured by the means of mercury from the ores, smelting being not much used for want of fuel: the quantity of mercury used in the process of amalgamation is estimated at upwards of two millions one hundred pounds troy weight.

Copper, of which the ancient Mexicans made their tools, is found both native and in the mines of Valladolid; as well as in those of New Mexico.

Tin is found in grains and in wood tin in the clayey soil of Guanaxuato and Zacatecas.

The quantity of these metals which is brought to market is very trifling, as they are not much sought after; as is also the case with iron, which exists in various parts of New Spain in great abundance, and under every form. Lead is chiefly found in New Leon, and New Santander; and in Mexico, antimony, zinc, and arsenic. Mercury is procured in Mexico and Guanaxuato, particularly at Chica, Celaya, and Zimapan: but the mines are insufficiently worked, the mercury for amalgamation coming entirely through Spain to the northern colonies of Spanish America. Coal exists in New Mexico; and salt is yielded from the lakes of the Mexican plains; diamonds, topazes, emeralds, and other gems; asphalt, amber, jasper, alabaster, and the magnet, are produced in New Spain. The affairs of the mining interest are directed by a council-general; on this council, which has a president, the thirty-seven districts depend. The mines are wholly the property of individuals; their councils are only erected to judge of the affairs relating to the payment of the duties, and to the general ordering of the undertakings. At Mexico there is a college of mining, where young men are educated by the government, to instruct them in all the branches of science necessary to be attained, in order that the mines may be worked in the best manner. The council-general receives a tithe on all metals, and with this, the salaries of the members, the expences of the college, and advances to undertakers, are paid.

Rivers.—New Spain does not contain such extensive and majestic rivers as are to be found in her sister colonies of the south; nevertheless some of the streams are by no means inconsiderable; the Rio Bravo del Norte, and the Rio Colorado, roll a vast body of water to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The Rio Bravo rises in the Sierra Verde, near the northern boundaries of the kingdom; this noble river, after various intricate windings, and watering a tract of country, inhabited principally by the aborigines, loses itself in the Gulf of Mexico, having performed a course of nearly two thousand miles; which immense length of river is obstructed by cataracts in the mountainous country of the interior, and by bars of sand in the flat and marshy lands towards the sea coast; canoes navigate, however, a surprising distance up the stream. The Rio Colorado rises in the same mountains, and nearly in the same latitude; but on the opposite side to the sources of the Rio del Norte, and running through a country either waste or inhabited only by the Indians, empties itself into the upper extremity of the Gulf of California, by a large estuary, after a course of a thousand miles; canoes navigate this river for three hundred miles from its mouth. The other rivers of New Spain which are of the greatest importance, are the Mexicana, Arighitas, Flores, Trinidad, Colorado de Texas, Medina or San Josef, Magdalena or Rio Guadalupe, the Nueces, the Gila near the Great Colorado, and almost equalling it in length; the Hiaqui, Mayo, Nasas, Rio Grande de St. Jago, Panuco, Zacatula, Yopez, Alvarado, Tula, or Moetesuema, with many others of smaller note, the names of which will be mentioned under the heads of the several provinces in which they are situated.

Lakes.—The lakes of New Spain are chiefly the lakes of Mexico, near which the capital is built. Lake Chapala in New Gallicia, a large sheet of water, the dimensions of which have not been accurately obtained; it contains several islands, in one of which, some of the insurgents who had been routed by the Spanish troops, shut themselves up. Also Lake Cayman in New Biscay, in a desert country, called the Bolson de Mapimi, not so large as that of Chapala; and lake Pascuaro near Valladolid. The lakes of this part of the American continent, are neither large nor very numerous; the whole country descending rapidly from the central Cordillera, towards the east and west, throws off the deposits which may commence from the springs, into the form of rivers.

The bays and coasts, cities, towns, &c. will be described in following the provincial relations.

The islands of Spanish North America, are described at the end of the First Part.

Temperature.—In order to give some notion of different regions inhabited by man in this extraordinary country, we shall adduce the temperatures of the coast and of the higher lands.

On the coast and at the foot of the mountains under the tropical sun, the heat is excessive, and the temperature of the air is as great as in the hottest of the West India islands. This is called the hot region; and above it is the temperate region which enjoys a perpetual spring, and a temperature of from 60° to 70° Fahrenheit, at an elevation of from 3930 to 4920 feet above the sea; they are, however subject to thick fogs, as it is the height at which clouds usually float in the atmosphere. Above this and to the height of 7200 feet, is the cold region, where the mean heat is 62° Fahrenheit; beyond which the cold becomes greater and greater till the region of perpetual snow commences, at the height in the 19° and 20° of north latitude of nearly 15,050, above the ocean.

Population.—The extent of the population of New Spain may be said to be about six millions and a half, of which the Indians are conjectured to amount to nearly three millions; the remainder consists of European Spaniards, Creoles, or people of Spanish extraction; Mestizoes, from the Spaniards and Indians; Mulattoes, from whites and negroes; Zambos, from negroes and Indians; negroes, and the aboriginal race, or Indians, which are totally unmixed, and are the descendants of the people who inhabited the country at the conquest. The European Spaniards hold the chief offices, civil, military and ecclesiastical; but the Creoles view with great jealousy this assumption of power, which causes these two casts to look with very little complacency on each other; and as, by the cultivation of their minds, they hold the first rank in the colony, it has been observed by a late Spanish writer, that the struggle which unfortunately exists against the mother country, has been materially favoured by the latter class. Humboldt relates, that the expression of “I am not a Spaniard, I am an American,” had been frequently heard during the time he was on the continent.

The Europeans and Creoles, or whites, are computed to amount to 1,200,000; of whom, about 80,000 are European Spaniards.

The whites in New Spain possess the greatest property, both in the mines and the land; a descendant of Cortez, the Duke of Monteleone, a Neapolitan and non-resident, is amongst the richest who derive no advantage from mining operations; the whites are those who principally cultivate their minds, though instances of scientific attainments are not uncommon in the other classes. New Spain can boast of several learned men of Creolian birth, who have considerably advanced the arts and mathematical sciences in their country; many painters also of considerable talent exist in this portion of the New World. The manners and customs of the whites are nearly the same as those of their European brethren.

The religion is Roman Catholic, and the clergy of New Spain are a mixture of all the casts, excepting the negroes; the beneficed and dignified clergy, being chiefly whites; they consist of an archbishop of Mexico, and eight bishops of Puebla, Guadalaxara, Valladolid. Durango, Monterey, Oaxaca, Sonora, and Yucatan or Merida, with about 14,000 dignitaries, parish priests, missionaries, monks, lay brothers, and servants.

The revenues of the archbishop and bishops amount to about 118,000l., out of which the archbishop has 27,000l., per annum.

The negroes and slaves of New Spain form a very inconsiderable part of the population; of the negroes, there are only about 6000, and many of them are free; of slaves, about 10,000, who are negroes, and the Indians who are taken on the frontiers by the missionariesʼ troops; these slaves are to be found only at Vera Cruz, Acapulco, and on the coasts; employed in the ports, the culture of sugar, indigo, &c. being almost entirely the work of the free people. The slaves are, with the exception of the Indian prisoners, treated mildly, and gain their freedom by amassing, if they are of an active turn, a small sum which they give to their owner, who is forced to emancipate them; this sum is from sixty to eighty pounds.

The mestizoes, mulattoes, zambos, and people of mixed blood, amount to about 2,400,000. The mestizoes, are represented as a mild and well conducted people, differing in hardly any thing from the whites.

The mulattoes have that revengeful disposition, versatility of conduct and voluble tongue, which they possess in all other quarters of the world.

The aboriginal race form a large section of the Mexican population; their number, as before stated, amounts to about three millions; they inhabit, chiefly the central and southern part of New Spain, and in these regions they are mostly to be found concentrated in towns and villages. Towards the north the Indians are, with the exception of a few, who have been converted by the missionaries, wandering tribes who subsist by the chace, and by the plunder of the Spanish settlers. The military stations are in constant activity against these people, they frequently capture numbers, who are sent to Mexico, as slaves. For the history of the migration of the Mexican race we must refer to the description of the province of Mexico, under which head will be found some interesting details of the principal events which have taken place in respect to these people, up to the period at which they were subjugated by the Spaniards.

The Indians of New Spain are of a copper colour, and in general well made, with very little beard, but long smooth, shining dark hair, prominent cheek bones, and thick lips. Their temperament is melancholic, and their physiognomy indicating a great share of moroseness, strangely intermingled with gentleness. The Mexican Indians generally wear some hair on the upper lip, no doubt in imitation of the Spaniards; they are extremely fond of an intoxicating liquor, made of the juice of the agave, and those who addict themselves to this practice, by taking very little solid food, greatly weaken their constitutions; otherwise they are a robust race, and attain in general a healthy old age. They are in their common demeanour, silent and reserved, and appear to entertain for the Spaniards a constant sort of distrust. In the Indian towns and villages, few whites settle, and they are governed by magistrates, elected from their own tribes, who are represented to be more severe, and fond of punishing their brethren, than the Spaniards themselves. Very few of the Indians who are subject to Spanish power, are in any other situations than those of small cultivators, labourers, or artisans, and are a hard working people when urged by interested motives; otherwise they are idly disposed, as is the case with most people who live in a warm climate; they are however free, and receive for their labour, when employed in the mines or other work, very good wages. They are, in some instances, forced to supply a certain number of labourers for particular operations, but these are always paid.

The women are more lively, and of a less reserved disposition than the men, and are kept by them in a state of much subjection.

Carving on wood, and rough paintings, or rather designs, with the fabrication of pottery and cotton cloths, are the principal arts in which they excel, and they are represented as equalling the Chinese in their taste and ability in imitating objects of European workmanship. Flowers are a part of the household goods of the Mexican Indians; their shops for the display of fruit, &c. in Mexico, being completely lined with the most beautiful productions of the flower garden, in which they take great delight.

The Indian tribes who inhabit the northern part of New Spain, are mostly free from the domination of the Spaniards; they are a warlike people, and are a more noble race than their subjugated brethren, carrying on a constant warfare against the settlers, and only trading with them, when in absolute want of some articles of finery, or nourishment. This trade never takes place personally; the Indian leaves his goods, at a stated place, and the Spaniard takes them, and deposits in return the articles the Indians are known to be in need of; this commerce is said to be carried on with a rectitude of principle highly honourable to both parties.

The whole of the Indians are styled tributary by the Spanish laws, excepting only such as are descended from the ancient kings and nobles of the country; these are called Caciques, who levy the tribute, and are appointed to the magisterial functions in the Indian towns and villages; but are not a jot better informed than their brethren. Many of them have embraced the rigid rules of the monastery, and their daughters are often devoted to the veil; in most of their towns or villages, the curate is an Indian.

At the conquest, these unfortunate people suffered very much, they were used as beasts of burden, in the working of the mines, the erection of buildings, and as slaves, in fact, in every thing where labour was required; their conquerors disdaining to work. They were divided as spoil among the soldiers and the new settlers, particularly the monks; thus they languished for some time under the pressure of this burden, and it was not until the eighteenth century, that these poor people were in some measure freed from slavery. Charles III. abolished the right of possession, which had been granted over the Indians to the Spanish settlers; intendancies were established, to watch over the welfare of the natives, and since that period they have gradually enjoyed a milder form of government, and, comparatively speaking, are very little oppressed.

Many of the Indian families possess considerable wealth from their plantations. M. de Humboldt mentions Indian families at Cholula, where there are no Caciques, who possess from these sources, capitals from 33,000 to 50,000l. sterling; but they live nevertheless very wretched, at least in exterior appearance. The Indian tribute levied on all individuals, amounts to about 9s. each per annum; by paying which, they are exempted from all other taxes; they are, however, looked upon by the law, as a sort of irrational beings, and consequently, great impediments to their advancement in the arts of civilisation, and intermixture with Europeans takes place; they can enter into no contracts above a very small sum, and the whites are forbidden to settle in Indian towns, or to intermarry with that people.

The laws are still more severe with respect to the blacks and their descendants.

Antiquities, &c.—The ancient monuments of the Mexicans, at present remaining, are chiefly their teocallies or temples of a pyramidal form; these are generally divided into steps or separate platforms with a square top, on which the priests officiated; the greatest and most striking of them, are those of Cholula, Mitla and Papantla, which will be spoken of in describing the provinces.

The Mexican paintings are extremely singular, being on stags skins prepared for the purpose; on paper made of the agave, and on other substances. These people preserved by symbolical paintings, the memory of former events relating to their general and particular history; the colours are extremely bright, and the designs, though rude, are well executed.

Manufactures.—The manufactured articles of New Spain, consist chiefly in cottons, woollens, soap, and soda, plate, coin, powder, cigars, and snuff. The manufacture of tobacco is a royal monopoly, and carried on by the government; the others are principally carried on by individuals, (coin and powder excepted,) who employ the Indians, mulattoes, negroes, &c., and are (in large establishments) allowed a certain number of slaves. There are some trifling manufactories of crockery-ware and glass in the cities near the capital.

The silver and gold taken from the mines, is either wrought into services of plate for the table, for the churches, in ornamental works, or is coined at the royal mint of Mexico, which was established by Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy of Mexico, fourteen years after the conquest; it is estimated that upwards of four hundred and eight millions of money has issued from this mint since that period.

The Indians manufacture beautiful toys of bone, wood, &c. Cabinet-ware and turnery are executed with great skill by the white artisans, the woods they are able to employ being cheap and beautiful; carriages are also made in New Spain, but most of those which are in use in the capital and great cities, by the nobility and gentry of fashion, are the productions of the London workshops.

Commerce.—The commerce of New Spain has been of late years considerably augmented, both by the great additions made to agriculture, and by the formation of good roads from the interior; when these shall become sufficiently finished to admit of the conveyance of merchandise by means of waggons instead of on the backs of horses, mules, and Indians, the commercial relations of New Spain, will embrace the most remote countries of the Old World. The internal traffic consists chiefly in maize, ingots of metal carried from the mines of the capital to be coined or assayed, hides, flour, tallow, woollens, European goods, of which iron and mercury form the most prominent articles; cocoa, chocolate, copper, woods for the cabinet-makers, cottons, wines, tobacco, sugar, rum, pulque, wax, powder for the mines, &c.

The exterior traffic consists in coin, plate, ingots of the precious metals, cochineal, sugar, flour, indigo, provisions, hides, pimento, vanilla, jalap, sarsaparilla, mahogany, logwood, cabinet-woods, soap, cocoa, &c.; these are exported from Vera Cruz and Campeachy. The imports from Europe, are cottons, linens, woollens, silks, paper, brandy, mercury, steel, iron, wines, wax, vinegar, raisins, almonds, olives, oil, saffron, corks, thread, crockery-ware, and cordage, with a variety of minor articles, such as fruits, medicines, toys, &c. The imports from the East Indies, at the port of Acapulco, are calicoes, silks, muslins, cottons, spices, gums, and jewellery, which trade is carried on by armed vessels, under the orders of officers of the Spanish royal navy; New Spain returns to the East Indies, coined silver, iron, cochineal, cocoa, wine, oil, wool and hats.

The imports from the other Spanish American colonies to Acapulco are chiefly in cinchona, or Jesuits bark, Chili, or long-pepper, oil, Chili-wine, copper, sugar and cocoa; for which New Spain returns woollens of her own manufacture, cochineal, tea and some East Indian articles.

The commerce of New Spain has suffered much since the war, from the heavy duties exacted at Vera Cruz, for articles the produce of European soil, manufactured in the mother country, and by the want of encouragement to the introduction of goods manufactured in countries which have carried the arts to a greater height than they have hitherto reached in Spain, as well as to the restrictions put upon the cultivation of tobacco, the olive, and the wine. We shall not examine here the value of the export and import trade of this viceroyalty. It is well known, that the duties do very little more than support the administration, and that having subsidies to make annually to the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico, and to other of the Spanish colonies, Mexico affords very little towards the support of Old Spain. Indeed amongst the whole of the Spanish American colonies, none but the vice-royalties of Peru and Mexico, make any regular remittances of monies to Spain for the assistance of the mother-country; the charges of government swallowing up all the revenues in the others. M. de Humboldt cites the public accounts of the colonies as his vouchers, and states, that the revenue of New Spain may be estimated at upwards of four millions sterling, of which about a million and a quarter are annually remitted to Spain, the remainder being consumed in the subsidies paid to Porto Rico, Cuba, &c., and in the interior administration. An anonymous writer, who styles himself Espagnol amante de su Patria, has lately published a pamphlet in London, in which he shows that the revenue derived by the Spanish government, has very much decreased since the period of M. de Humboldtʼs travels; although a free trade has been conceded to the island of Cuba, by means of which, the administration of that island has been enabled to meet their expences, and to have a small sum in reserve, without being obliged to have recourse to the Mexican subsidy.

The revenue of New Spain consists in the duties paid on all gold and silver extracted from the mines, on the sale of quicksilver, the coinage, sale of tobacco and powder, duties of entry, and embarkation at the ports, the tribute imposed on the Indians, duty on pulque (the fermented liquor of the agave), sale of indulgences from Rome, tax on the clergy, sale of powder, stamps, sale of snow, which is a royal right, and very productive in the hot regions, where so much cooling liquors are consumed, and some other minor taxes. With the amount of money collected under these heads, the expences of the administration, of the missions to the northern provinces, the fortifications, dockyards, ships of war, the militia and regular troops are paid, together with the subsidies before-mentioned.

The Army of New Spain consists of a regular force raised in the country, of ten thousand men, and more than 20,000 militia. In the present time, the army and navy of New Spain must be considered as a component part of the military force of the Mother country, as she is engaged in reinforcing them, by every means in her power, in order to quell the disturbances which have arisen to such a height in her more southern colonies.

The insurgents have made no decided progress in New Spain; they are seen only in the province of Puebla, or rather in the old province of Tlascala, in small bodies, and in the district of Texas, on the northern part of San Luis Potosi, where they have formed a slight establishment in Galveston Bay.

In Guadalaxara and Valladolid symptoms of disaffection have been shown; but it has been immediately quelled, and the discontented were dispersed by the Spanish troops; the few who could get together taking shelter in an almost inaccessible island of the lake Chapala in Valladolid.

The Indians are said to take no part with the insurgents, nor are the people of the interior at all willing to enter into the struggle; on the contrary, they have formed themselves, in many of the districts, into military bodies for the preservation of the public tranquillity.

It will be seen, on consulting the journals of the present time, that the Government of the United States lays strong claim to that portion of the kingdom of New Spain, east of the bay of St. Bernardo; it having been declared in congress, that Galveston Bay, where the insurgents have been attempting to form settlements, in order to annoy from thence, the coasts of San Luis Potosi and Vera Cruz, is within the limits of the United States. Should this assertion, which is founded on the treaty of 1783, be well grounded, the Spanish government will have no other barrier to oppose to any future aggression of that power, than the great river Bravo del Norte, which will bring the Americans within a very short distance of the capital, and will leave them some of the richest silver mines in the government of San Luis Potosi.

We shall now give a description of the capital of New Spain, as in it the commerce, the wealth, and the power of the country, is, as it were, concentrated.