YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

POLITICAL ESSAY

KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN.

CONTAINING
Researches relative to the Geography of Mexico,
The Extent of its Surface and its political Division into Intendancies,
The physical Aspect of the Country,
The Population, the State of Agriculture and Manufacturing
and Commercial Industry;
The Canals projected between the South Sea and Atlantic Ocean,
The Crown Revenues,
The Quantity of the precious Metals which have flowed from Mexico
into Europe and Asia, since the Discovery of the
New Continent,
And the Military Defence of New Spain.
By ALEXANDER DE HUMBOLDT.

PHYSICAL SECTIONS AND MAPS,
FOUNDED ON ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS, AND TRIGONOMETRICAL
AND BAROMETRICAL MEASUREMENTS.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH
By JOHN BLACK.

VOL. I.
THIRD EDITION.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,
PATF.RNOSTER-ROW. 1822.

London:
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,
New-Street- Square.

PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR.

It is observed by a popular French writer,
Bernardin de St. Pierre, that by far the most
valuable and entertaining part of modern
literature is the department filled up by
travellers. While the knowledge of the
ancients extended merely to a small circle
around them, and even there was far from
accurate, there is hardly a nook in the most
remote corner of the worlci of which we do
not now possess some description, and with
the inhabitants of which we are not more
or less acquainted. We see the human race
before us in every stage of civilization, from
the refinement and enterprize of the inha
bitants of the west of Europe, down to the
a 2

IV PREFACE.
stupid savage of New Holland or the Terra
del Fuego.
The eagerness with which the public
have always received the accounts of tra
vellers has naturally contributed to their
multiplication. It is to be regretted, how
ever, that this eagerness is too frequently
so indiscriminate, that almost nothing is so
very insipid that it will not be devoured in
the shape of travels. Hence the numerous
productions which have appeared of late
without adding any thing to our stock of
information. No individual now who has
left the bounds of our own island, hesitates
a moment about the qualifications neces
sary for his appearance before the public
at his return. His previous education, his
means of access to proper sources of in
formation, and his leisure to acquire it,
are objects of inferior concern. He has
travelled, and that is enough.

PREFACE.

M. de Humboldt belongs to a higher
order of travellers, to whom the public have
of late been very little accustomed. We
must place him beside a Niebuhr, a Pallas,
a Bruce, a Chardin, a Barrow, and a Volney >
and his works will probably be long con
sulted as authorities respecting the coun
tries which he describes. He seems to be
a stranger to few departments of learning
or science ; and his fortune enabled him to
provide himself with every thing which
could most advance his pursuits, and to
make that appearance among persons of
rank and authority necessary to remove the
obstacles in the way of a traveller in every
country, but most of all in a country under
an arbitrary government.
The work of which a translation is here
offered to the public was submitted to a
very severe trial : the sketch of it was freely
communicated to the natives of New Spain,
a 3

VI PREFACE.
and underwent the examination of the
Spanish government. It may be doubted,
however, whether the accuracy and fulness
of information which such a measure has a
tendency to procure might not be coun
terbalanced by seemingly unavoidable dis
advantages. We never talk of our friends
so candidly before their faces as behind
their backs. In the former case we may
say nothing but the truth, but we are sel
dom disposed to say the whole truth. He
must be a very honest traveller indeed who
communicates all the remarks which occur
to him to the people among whom he is
travelling. Even Dr. Johnson, with all his
bluntness, would have hesitated to read his
Tour to the Hebrides to his Scotch land
lords. There is one disadvantage indeed almost
inseparable from the mode in which M. de
Humboldt appears to have been treated in

PREFACE. Vll
the new world. He received so much
attention both from public men and private
individuals during his stay in Mexico, that
he could hardly avoid displaying some
portion of gratitude in return. We ac
cordingly find him exceedingly prone to
give favourable accounts of all the indivi
duals of that country whom he has occasion
to mention. He is profuse in his compli
ments to their learning, science, and their
other good qualities, and nothing ever ap
pears to shade the picture. We may easily
conceive, therefore, that he must have seen
both in individuals and institutions much
more that met with his disapprobation than
he has chosen to communicate.
M. de Humboldt has brought forward a
great mass of information regarding New
Spain, a country of which we before knew
very little indeed. Let the specious para
graphs of our celebrated countryman Ro-
a 4

Vlll PREFACE.

bertson be attentively weighed, and we shall
be astonished to find how little specific
information they sometimes really contain.
The present work, however, furnishes us
-with precise data on a very great variety of
-important subjects. Yet it is to be regretted
that the author could not throw occasionally
more rapidity into his descriptions, and give
-somewhat more condensation to his mate
rials. He is sometimes rather apt to indulge
-in repetition, and to swell his accounts with
circumstances by no means essential to be
told, but which have a necessary tendency
to fatigue the attention of the reader.
This failing is not peculiar to M. de Hum
boldt, but is common to him with too many
authors, and particularly those of his own
country, Germany. Indeed the faculty of
selecting the more important and leading
features of an object is, perhaps, the rarest
and most valuable which any writer can

PREFACE. IX

possess. It is this which communicates
such a charm to the history of Hume, and
arrests so strongly our attention in the tra-*
vels of Volney.
But whatever may be the sentiments of
the translator on this subject, it is not for
him to endeavour to alter his original to
what he conceives a model of perfection.
The public naturally wish to have his in
formation in his own manner, and as nearly
in his own terms as possible. It were well
if even this was tolerably done; but the
rapidity with which translations, like the
present must necessarily be executed will
not admit of that flow and correctness of
style which the leisure of the closet might
produce. When we sit down to the trans
lation of an established classic, we may
patiently endeavour to transfuse the beau
ties and graces ofthe original into our own
language ; but the translation of a work

X PREFACE.
like this, impatiently expected by the pub
lic, must lay claim to a very inferior degree
of merit.
A few notes have been occasionally
thrown in by the translator, which he has
not the vanity to suppose of any great im
portance ; but as they do not in general
occupy much room, and as they served to
amuse him in the course of the work, he
hopes if they do not meet with the reader's
approbation, they will, at least, meet with
his indulgence. In one of them, vol. i.
p. 47., he observes that he has completely
misunderstood the author, a circumstance
certainly not the more justifiable, because
it is by no means unusual with commen
tators. The translator has been at some pains in
ascertaining the value of the different fo
reign measures, weights, and monies, used
by the author, and converting them into

PREFACE. XI
those of our own country. The omission of
this is but too frequent in translations,
though it is essential to any work which
aims at being generally understood. These
conversions, however, appear only in the
notes, the original having undergone no
alteration. The orthography of the names has been
preserved in the translation with few ex
ceptions. The Spanish names of persons
and places have never been touched, but
in a few names of Indian nations, such as
Azteques, Tolteques, &c. the ques has been
converted into cs, the corresponding ter
mination in our own language. Clavigero
uses the same freedom in the Italian, writ
ing these words Aztecchi, Toltecchi, &c
This liberty is perhaps justifiable, though
it miofit not be advisable to go all the
length recommended by Volney, in whose
work on North America we can with diffi-

Xll PREFACE.

culty recognize the names most familiar to
us. Who, for instance, could find out
Washington in Ouachinnetone ? The various
sounds given to the same letters by the
different European nations occasion a good
deal of perplexity. The same name as
sumes quite a distinct appearance in the
works of a French and an English travel
ler. Another source of perplexity peculiar
to the Spaniards and Germans is the indis
criminate use of certain letters. The Spa
niard, for example, confounds the b and
the v ; the g and the z ; ihej, the g, and the
no ; and they write the same word sometimes
with one of these letters and sometimes
with another. It is necessary to give this
caution to the reader, who, were he to meet
with Xuan de Grixalba in one place, and
Juan de Grijalva in another, might not at
first perceive the identity. M. Pinkerton,
who seems to plume himself not a little on

PREFACE. Xlll
his orthography, observes, that the Spanish,
French, and Italian writers, write Mote
zuma ; the English alone Montezuma ; and
he of course must follow the Spanish,
French, and Italian writers. Why the En~
glish are bound to follow the orthography
of these nations it is not so easy to con
ceive, any more than that they should fol
low the English, the proper orthography
being neither Motezuma nor Montezuma,
but Monteuczoma. M. de Humboldt some
times inserts the n and sometimes leaves it
out. A considerable part ofthe Essay on New
Spain has not yet arrived in this country,
but, when it does arrive, , no time will be
lost in communicating it to the public, if
the portion now presented shall meet with
a favourable reception. The most import
ant of the maps and drawings in the part
which we have received appear in the pre-

XIV PREFACE.

sent publication, but on a more economical
scale. Of the maps and physical sections
it is sufficient to say, that they have been
executed under the care of Mr. Lowry,
whose well known taste and skill so justly
entitle him to the public confidence. It
would have been foolish to attempt to imi
tate the magnificence of the original ; but
it will be found that nothing of essential
importance has been omitted. The pub
lishers wished to spare no necessary expense
in the present publication ; but they were
averse from increasing the price of a book
intended for general circulation by an
ostentatious and injudicious splendour.

TO
HIS CATHOLIC MAJESTY
CHARLES IV.
KING OF SPAIN AND THE INDIES.

SlRE, Having enjoyed in the distant
regions subject to your sceptre the protec
tion and kind offices of your Majesty dur
ing a long succession of years, I fulfil only
a sacred duty in laying at the foot of your
throne the homage of my profound and
respectful gratitude.
I had the good fortune to be introduced
to your Majesty in 1779 at Aranjuez. You

XVI DEDICATION.
deigned to applaud the zeal of a private
individual, whom the love of science con
ducted to the banks of the Orinoco and
the summits of the Andes.
It is through the confidence which your
Majesty's favours have inspired in me that
I venture to place your august name at the
head of this work. It contains the descrip
tion of a vast kingdom, the prosperity of
which is dear to your heart.
None of the monarchs who have occu
pied the Castilian throne have contributed'
more liberally than your Majesty to the ob
taining accurate information regarding the
state of that valuable portion of the globe
which in both hemispheres yields obedi
ence to the Spanish laws. The coasts of
America have been surveyed by able astro
nomers with a munificence worthy of so
great a sovereign. Accurate maps of these
coasts, and even minute plans of several

DEDICATION. XV11
military positions, have been published
at the expense of your Majesty : and you
gave orders that there should be annually
published in a Peruvian journal at Lima
a state of the commerce, finances, and
population. There was still wanting a statistical essay
on the kingdom of New Spain. I digested
the great number of materials which I
possessed into a work, of which the first
sketch drew the attention of the viceroy
of Mexico in a manner which redounded
to his honour. I should be happy if I
could flatter myself that my feeble efforts,
under a new form, and more carefully
digested, are not unworthy of being
presented to your Majesty.
They breathe the sentiments of gratitude
which 1 owe to the government who pro
tected me, and to the noble and loyal na
tion who received me, not as a traveller,
vol. i. a

Xviii DEDICATION.
but as a fellow-citizen. How can we dis
please a good king, when we speak to him
of the national interest, of the improve
ment of social institutions, and the eternal
principles on, which the prosperity of na
tions is founded ?
I am, with the greatest respect,
SIRE,
Your Catholic Majesty's very humble
and very obedient servant,
THE BARON DE HUMBOLDT.
Paris, 8th March, 1808.

CONTENTS.

Geographical Introduction  --Vol. i. p. 1.
BOOK I.
General considerations on the extent and physical aspect ofthe
kingdom qfNew Spain. Influence qfihe inequalities of the
soil on the climate, agriculture, commerce, and military de
fence ofthe country.
CHAPTER I.
Extent of the Spanish possessions in America. Comparison
of these possessions with the English colonies, and with
the Asiatic part of the Russian empire. Denominations of
New Spain, and of Anahuac. Boundary of the empire of
the Aztec kings.  Vol. i. p. 5.
CHAPTER II.
Configuration of the coast. — Points where the two seas are
least distant from one another. — General considerations on
the possibility of uniting the South Sea and Atlantic ocean.
— Rivers of Peace and Tacoutche-Tesse. — Sources of the
Rio-Bravo and Rio-Colorado. — Isthmus of Tehuantepec. —
Lake of Nicaragua. — Isthmus of Panama.. — Bay of Cupica.
¦ — Canal of Choco. — Rio-Guallaga. — Gulf of St. George.
 Vol. i. p. 16. CHAPTER III.
Physical aspect of the kingdom of New Spain compared
with that of Europe and South America — Inequalities of
the soil. — Influence of these inequalities on the climate,
cultivation, and military defence of the country. — State of
the coasts.  Vol. i. p. 46.

BOOK II.
General population of New Spain. Division ofthe inhabitants
into casts.

xx CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
General enumeration in 1793. — Progress ofthe population in
the ten following years.— Proportion of births to burials.
 Vol. i. p. 89.
CHAPTER V.
Maladies which periodically arrest the progress of population.
— Small-pox, natural and inoculated. — Cow-pox. — Matla
zahuatl. — Famine. — Health of miners.  Vol. i. p. 111.
CHAPTER VI.
Diversity of casts  Indians orindigenous Americans. — Their
number and their migrations  Diversity of Languages. —
Degree of civilization ofthe Indians.  Vol. i. p. 130.
CHAPTER VII.
Whites, Creoles, and Europeans. — Their civilization. — In
equality of their fortunes. — Negros. — Mixed casts. — Pro
portion between the sexes. — Longevity according to the
difference of races. — Sociability.  Vol. i. p. 204.

BOOK III.
Particular statistical account of the intendancies of which the
kingdom of New Spain is composed. — Their territorial extent
and population. CHAPTER VIII.
Of the political division of the Mexican territory, and the
proportion of the population of the intendancies to their
territorial extent. — Principal cities.  Vol. i. p. 263.

BOOK IV.
State ofthe agriculture of New Spain.— Metallic mines.
CHAPTER IX.
Vegetable productions of the Mexican territory  Progress of
the cultivation ofthe soil. — Influence of the mines on cul
tivation — Plants which contribute to the nourishment of
man. — Vol ii. p. 351.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

In publishing maps of New Spain, differing in
many respects from any which have hitherto
been published, it is incumbent on me to give
some account to astronomers and naturalists of
the materials which I have employed. When an
author makes nothing more than a compilation ;
when he draws from sources not generally known,
and merely collects what is scattered in printed
works or engraved maps, a simple nomenclature
of the articles employed may serve for analysis.
It is otherwise when a map is founded on the
astronomical observations or measurements of an
author himself; when he has hadrecourse to plans
ahd manuscript-notes preserved in archives or
buried in convents. In the latter case, which is
mine, the geographer has a right to demand a
satisfactory exposition of the means employed
for verifying the position of the most important
points. In offering this exposition to the public,
I shall carefully distinguish the results of simple
combinations, from what has been immediately
VOL. I. B

ii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
deduced from astronomical observations, and
geodaaesicai or barometrical measurements made
on the spot. I shall endeavour to give a suc
cinct analysis of the materials which I had at
command, reserving, however, the purely astro
nomical details for the collection of observations
and measurements which I publish conjointly
with M. Oltmanns. In following this course, the
different parts of my work, the statistical account
of Mexico, the historical relation of my journey
in the tropics, and the astronomical volume,
will all serve, I flatter myself, to prove that a de
sire of accuracy and the love of truth have been
my guides during the course of my expedition.
May my feeble labours contribute something to
dispel the darkness which for so many ages has
covered the geography of one of the finest re
gions of the earth !
I. REDUCED MAP OF THE KINGDOM OF
NEW SPAIN.
I drew up this map at the Royal School of Min
ing (Real Seminario de Mineria) in the year 1803,
a short time after my departure from the city of
Mexico, M» d'Elhuyar, director of this school,
had long been collecting facts regarding the posi
tion of the mines of New Spain, and the thirty-
seven districts into which they are divided, under
tlie denomination of Deputaciones de Minas. He

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. iii
was desirous of having a detailed map, on which
the most interesting mines were marked, con
structed for the use ofthe supreme college, called
Tribunal de Mineria. A labour of this nature
was, in fact, very necessary, both for the adminis
tration of the country, and for those who wish to
know its national industry. In vain do we seek
in the greater number of maps published in Eu
rope for the name of the city of Guanaxuato,
which contains 70,000 inhabitants ; or for that
of the celebrated mines of Bolanos, Sombrerete,
Batopilas, and Zimapan. None of the maps
which have hitherto appeared show the position
of the Real de Catorce in the intendancy of San
Luis Potosi, a mine from which there is annually
drawn nearly 20 millions of francs * of silver; and
which from its proximity to the Rio del Norte,
appears already to have tempted the cupidity of
several colonists recently established in Louisi
ana. Having begun to calculate the greater
number of my astronomical observations, that I
might have some fixed points on which others
could be established, and having at my disposal
a considerable number of materials and manu
script-maps, I conceived the idea of extending
the plan which I had at first formed. Instead of
merely inserting in my map the names of three
hundred places known for considerable mining
* 833,400/. sterling. Trans.
B <2

iv GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
undertakings, I proposed to unite together all the
materials which I could procure, and to discuss
the differences of position which these heteroge
neous materials every instant presented. We
ought not to be surprised at the uncertainty which
prevails in the geography of Mexico, when we
consider the fetters which have arrested the pro
gress of civilization, not only in the colonies, but
also in the mother-country ; and especially when
we consider the long peace enjoyed by these
countries since the commencement of the six
teenth century. In Hindostan, the wars with
Hyder Ally and Tippoo Sultan, the continual
marches of armies, and the necessity of seeking
the shortest communication, have singularly con
tributed to augment geographical information.
And yet an accurate acquaintance with Hin
dostan, a country visited by the most active
nations of Europe, does not extend farther back
than thirty or forty years. I ought to have fore
seen, that, notwithstanding the most assiduous
labour during three or four months, I could only
give a very imperfect map of Mexico, compared
with the maps of the most civilized countries of
Europe. This idea, however, did not discourage
me. When I considered the advantages afforded
me by my individual situation, I had to flatter
myself that my work, notwithstanding the im
portant faults which might disfigure it, would
still be preferable to what has yet been offered to
the public on the geography of New Spain.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. v
It will be said, without doubt, that it is yet too
soon to draw up general maps of a vast kingdom
for which exact data are wanting. But, for the
same reason we should, with the exception of the
province of Quito and the United States, publish
no map of the interior of continental America.
For the same reason, also, we should not yet con
struct maps of many parts of Europe, of Spain for
example, or Poland, countries in which, on sur
faces of more than 1600 square leagues, there is
not to be found a single place whose position has
been fixed by astronomical means. It is not yet
fifteen years since, in the centre of Germany
there were hardly twenty places the longitude
of which was determined with certainty to within
a sixth or an eighth part of a degree.
In the part of New Spain situated to the north
of the parallel of 24°, in the provinces called
Internas, (in New Mexico, in the government of
Cohahuila, andin the intendancy of New Biscay,)
the geographer is reduced to form combinations
from the journals of routes. The sea being at a
great distance from the most inhabited part of
these countries, he has no means to connect to
gether places situated in the interior of a vast con
tinent, with points on the coast a little better
known. Hence, beyond the city of Durango,
we wander as it were in a desert, notwithstand
ing the show of manuscript-maps. There are not
more resources to be found than Major Rennel
b 3

vi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
possessed for drawing up maps of the interior of
Africa. It is otherwise in the part of Mexico
contained between the ports of Acapulco and
Vera Cruz, and between the capital of Mexico
and the Real* of Guanaxuato. In this region,
traversed by me from the month of March, 1803,
to the month of February, 1804, a region the
most cultivated and best inhabited of the king
dom, there are to be found a sufficient number of
points of which the position is astronomically
determined. It is to be wished that a traveller,
versed in the practice of observations, and pro
vided with a sextant, or a small repeating circle
of reflection, a chronometer, an achromatic tele
scope, andaportable barometer for measuring the
height of mountains, should travel in three direc
tions over the north of the kingdom of New Spain.
He should direct his course, 1st. from the city of
Guanaxuato to the presidio of Santa Fe, or to the
village of Taos in New Mexico ; 2d. from the
mouth of the Rio del Norte, which pours its waters
into the gulf of Mexico, to the sea of Cortez,
particularly to the junction ofthe Rio Colorado
and the Rio Gila ; and, 3d. from the city of Ma-
zatlan, in the province of Cinaloa, to the city of
Alta Mira, on the left bank ofthe Rio de Panuco.
' The first of these three journies would be the
most important, the easiest to execute, and thatin
* The word Real indicates a place where mines are worked.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. vii
which the chronometer would be exposed to the
smallest changes of temperature. It would be
useful, however, not to rely altogether on the mere
lapse of time, but to employ for determining the
longitudes, the satellites of Jupiter, eclipses, and
especially the distances from the moon to the sun,
means which since the publication of the excellent
tables of Delambre, Zach, and Burg, merit the
highest degree of confidence. In the astronomi-
cal journey from Mexico to Taos, the position
would be verified which I have assigned to St.
Juan del Rio, to Queretaro, Zelaya, Salamanca,
and Guanaxuato ; the longitudes and latitudes
would be determined of S. Luis Potosi, Charcas,
Lacatecas, Fresnillo, and Sombrerete, five places
celebrated for the riches of their mines ; and the
passage would lie through the city of Durango
and the Parral at Chihuahua, the residence ofthe
governor of the Provincias Internas. In fol
lowing the Rio Bravo, the traveller would pass
along by the Passo del Norte, to the capital of
New Mexico, and from thence to the village of
Taos, the most northern point of this province.
The second journey, the most severe of all, and
in which the observer is exposed to a burning cli
mate, would supply fixed points in the new king
dom of Leon, in the province of Cohahuila, in
New Biscay, and in Sonora. The operations
should be directed from the mouth of the Rio
Bravo del Norte, through the episcopal seat of
b 4

viii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
Monterey, to the presidio of Moncloya. Pursu
ing the route by which the Chevalier de Croix,
viceroy of Mexico, arrived in 1778, in the pro
vince of Texas, he would reach Chihuahua to
connect the second journey with the first ; from
Chihuahua he would pass by the military establish
ment (presidio) of S. Buena Ventura, to the city of
Arispe, and from thence, either by the presidio of
Tubac, or by the missions of the Primeria alta,
or across the savannahs inhabited by the Apaches
tontos Indians, to the mouth ofthe Rio Gila.
The third excursion, in which he would traverse
the kingdom from Alta Mira to the port of Ma-
zatlan, would be connected with the first by the
city of Sombrerete ; it would serve, by a wind
ing to the north, to fix the position of the famous
mines of Catorce, of Guarisamey, Rosario, and
Copala. A few days would suffice to determine
the latitude and longitude of every place we have
named. Only the most considerable cities, such
as Zacatecas, S. Luis Potosi, Monterey, Du
rango, Chihuahua, Arispe, and Santa Fe of New
Mexico, would occasion a stay of a few weeks.
The astronomical means here indicated easily af
ford, although the observer should not possess a
very extraordinary ability, a certainty of 20 se
conds* for the latitude, and of a third of a minute
* One of our most celebrated astronomers observes with
truth, that even at this day, since the introduction of repeating

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. ix
in time for the absolute longitude. How many
considerable cities are there in Spain, and in the
most eastern and northern parts of Europe, which
are still far from this accuracy of geographical
position !
The very trifling expense of the execution of
these three journies, above all of the first, would
give a new face to the geography of New Spain.
The positions of Acapulco, of Vera Cruz, and
Mexico, have been repeatedly verified by the
operations of Galiano, of Espinosa and Cevallos,
of Gamaand Ferrer, and by my own. The officers
of the royal marines stationed at the port of San
Bias could in a single excursion fix the important
positions of the mines of Bolaiios and of the city
of Guadalaxara. The astronomical expedition

circles, there are not three places of the earth the latitude
of which is known with the certainty of a second. In 1770,
the latitude of Dresden was nearly three minutes false : that
of the observatory of Berlin was uncertain till 1806, for
nearly 25 seconds. In 1790 before the observations of
Messrs. Barry and Henry, the position of the observatory of
Manheim was false by a minute and 21 seconds of latitude,
and yet Father Christian Mayer had observed with a qua
drant of Bird of 8 feet radius. (Ephemerides de Berlin, 1 784,
p. 158., and 1795, p. 96.) Before the observations of Le
Monnier, we were ignorant of the true latitude of Paris for
nearly 15 seconds. The astronomical journal of M. de Zach
offers examples which serve to prove that an exercised ob
server, provided with a good sextant and an exact artificial
horizon, may find the true latitude of a place to within seven
or eight seconds.

x GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
which the government has entrusted to MM. de
Cevallos and Herera, for surveying the coast of
the gulf of Mexico, will determine the mouth of
the Rio Huasacualco to the south-east of Vera
Cruz. It would be easy for these able astrono
mers, who are provided with superb English in
struments, to ascend this river, to which the pro
ject of a canal of communication between the
Atlantic and South seas has given such celebrity ;
they would determine the breadth of this Mexi
can isthmus, in fixing the position of the port of
Tehuantepec and of the bar of S. Francisco at
the mouth ofthe Rio Chimalapa.
The means which I propose in this memoir
could be easily carried into execution at a small
expense. There does not exist on the globe a
country affording greater advantages for trigono
metrical operations. The great valley of Mexico,
the vast plains of Zelaya and Salamanca, level as
the surface of the waters which appear to have
covered their soil for a long succession of ages ;
these plains, elevated 1700 metres * above the
level of the ocean, and bounded by mountains
visible at great distances, invite the astronomer
to the measurement of several degrees of latitude
towards the northern limits of the torrid zone.
In the intendancy of Durango, in a part of that
of S. Luis Potosi, triangles of an extraordinary
extent might be traced over a surface covered
* About 5570 feet. Trans.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xi
with grasses, and bare of wood ; but to undertake
the trigonometrical survey of the kingdom of
New Spain, to wish to extend delicate operations
over a surface five times larger than France, is
to prevent the government from ever possessing
a general map of its rich dominions, and to en
gage the court of Spain in a brilliant undertak
ing, but an undertaking of too great extent to
be ever carried into complete execution. The
scrupulous accuracy with which the officers of
the Spanish marine examined the smallest sinuo
sities of the coast of South America has been
censured. * This work was undoubtedly both
laborious and expensive ; it appears to me, how
ever, that it is unreasonable to blame those who
presented to his catholic majesty so admirable a
project of hydrographical survey. A marine
chart can never be too minute. The safety of
navigation, the facility of recognizing landing
places, the necessary means of defence against an
enemy who threatens disembarkation, all depend
on the most intimate acquaintance with the coast
and with the bottom of the sea. In the interior
of a country it is sometimes of small consequence
that the position of a city be exactly laid down
to a minute of latitude ; but on the coast, it is of
* One of the most learned geographers of the age, Major
Rennel, observes that the English possess very exact charts of
the anchorages on the coast of Bengal, while there does not
exist any thing like a tolerable chart of the English channel.
(Description of Hindostan, vol. i. Preface.)

xii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
the utmost importance to know the position of a
cape, with all the accuracy which astronomical
means admit of. In a hydrographical chart all
the points should be equally well determined ;
for every one of them may serve as a point of
departure or observation; and there is none
which is not connected with others : while, on
the contrary, the maps which represent the in
terior of a country possess great merit, when
they offer a certain number of places whose
position has been astronomically fixed.
If it is desirable that the Spanish possessions
in the interior of America should not be for some
time surveyed with the same minute accuracy
which has been displayed on the coast ; if in the
actual state of things it would be more useful
merely to execute a provisory undertaking, found-
ed on the use of sextants and chronometers, on
lunar distances, on observations of satellites, and
eclipses, it would be of no less importance to unite
to these purely astronomical means such other
means as are furnished by the nature of the coun
try and the great elevation of its insulated sum
mits. When we know exactly the absolute
height of these summits, whether by means of
the barometer, or by geometrical operations,
angles of altitudes and azimuths taken with the
rising or setting sun may serve to connect these
mountains with points whose latitude and longi
tude have been sufficiently verified. This method

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xiii
furnishes perpendicular bases ; and in estimating
how much we may be deceived in the measure
ment of each base, it is easy to conclude by false
suppositions what influence this error may have
on the astronomical position either of the moun
tain itself, or of the other points which depend
on it. An exact knowledge of the inferior limit
of perpetual snow will often afford the same ad
vantages as the measurement of an insulated sum
mit. This is the method employed by me to
verify the difference of longitude between the
capital of Mexico and the port of Vera Cruz.
Two great volcanoes, that of la Puebla, called
Popocatepetl, and the peak of Orizava, both visi
ble from the platform of the ancient pyramid of
Cholula, serve to connect two places distant from
one another more than 16,000* toises. The
union of two geometrical measurements of the
mountains, of the azimuths and angles of altitudes
calculated by M. Oltmanns, have given the port
of Vera Cruz 0" 11' 32" to the west of Mexico,
while from purely astronomical observations there
results a difference of meridians of 0h 11' 47". In
modifying the former result by several secondary
operations at the pyramid of Cholula, we find
even 0" 11' 41, 3"; so that in this particular
case, on a distance of three degrees, the method
of azimuths was only 7" false in time, t
* About 102,400 feet English. Trans.
f Memoire Astronomique sur la Difference des Meridiens

xiv GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
These same insulated summits, situated in the
midst of a vast plain, offer a still surer method of
determining in a short space of time, to within a
few seconds, the longitude of a great number of
neighbouring places. Luminous signals, pro
duced by the deflagration of a small quantity of
gunpowder may be observed at great distances
by persons provided with proper means for finding
and preserving the true time. Cassini de Thury
and Lacaille were the first who successfully em
ployed this method of luminous signals. M. de
Zach has recently proved by his operations in
Thuringia, that in favourable circumstances it
will furnish in a few minutes positions compara
ble for accuracy to the results of a great number
of observations of satellites or solar eclipses. In
the kingdom of New Spain the signals might be
given at Iztaccihuatl, or Siera Nevada of Mexico ;
on the rock called The Monk, an insulated sum-
mitof the volcano of Toluca, which I reached 29th
September, 1803 ; on la Malriche near Tlasca-
lar ; on the Coffre de Perotte ; and on other
mountains whose summits are accessible, and
which are all elevated more than from three to
four thousand metres* above the level ofthe sea.

entre Mexico et Vera Cruz, par MM. Oltmanns et Hum
boldt. (Zach, Monathliche Correspondenz, Novemb. 1806,
p. 445. 454. 458.)
* From 9840 to 13,120 feet English. Trans.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xv
The Spanish government having with extraor
dinary liberality made the most important sacri
fices for the perfection of nautical astronomy, and
for accurate surveys ofthe coast, we may expect
that its next concern will be the geography of its
vast American dominions, for which the royal
marine would furnish both instruments, and as
tronomers skilled in observations. The school for
mines of Mexico in which mathematics are
studied in a solid manner, spreads over the sur
face of this vast empire a great number of young
men animated with the noblest zeal, and capable
of using the instruments with which they might
be entrusted. It is by analogous means that the
English East India Company have surveyed a
territory whose surface equals that of England
and France united. * We live no longer in times
when governments dread to expose to foreign
nations their territorial wealth in the Indies.
The present king of Spain gave orders to publish,
at the expense of the state, the survey of the
coasts and ports ; without fearing that the most
minute plans ofthe Havannah, of Vera Cruz, and
the mouth of the Rio Plata, should fall into the
hands of the foreign nations whom events have
made enemies of Spain. One ofthe finest maps,
drawn up by the Deposito Hydrografico of
Madrid, contains the most valuable details re
garding the interior of Paraguay ; details foun -
* Rennel's Hindostan, vol. i. p. 17.

xvi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION
ed on the operations of the officers of the royal
marine employed to settle the boundaries be
tween the Portuguese and Spaniards. With the
exception ofthe maps of Egypt and of some parts
of the East Indies, the most accurate work
which exists, of any European continental pos
session out of Europe, is the map ofthe kingdom
of Quito, drawn up by Maldonado. Every thing
proves, that for these fifteen years past the Span
ish government, far from dreading the progress
of geography, has published all the interesting
materials which it possessed on the colonies in
the two Indies.
Having indicated the means, apparently the
most proper, for speedily completing the maps of
the kingdom of New Spain, I shall give a succinct
analysis of the materials employed by me in the
geographical work which I offer to the public.
The general map ofthe kingdom of New Spain
is drawn up, as all the other maps drawn up by
me in the course of my expedition are, according
to the projection of Mercator, with increasing la
titudes. This projection has the advantage of
showing at once the true distance of one place
from another ; it is at the same time the most
agreeable to the navigators who visit the colonies,
and who, in fixing the position of their vessel by
two mountains seen without difficulty, would wish
their survey to correspond with the map. If I had
hadtochooseamongthestereographicprojections,

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xvii
I should have given the preference to Murdoch's,
which deserves to be generally followed. The
scale of my map is 32 millimetres * for every de
gree of the equator. The scale of increasing la
titudes is not founded on the tables of Don Jorge
Juan, but on those which M. de Mendoza calcu
lated for the spheroid,
To give a more suitable form to the map of
Mexico, the scale was only extended from the 15°
to the 41° of north latitude, and from the 96°
to the 117° of longitude. These limits did not
admit of giving in the same map the intendancy
of Merida or the peninsula of Yucatan, which
belongs to the kingdom of New Spain. To in
clude in the map the most eastern point, which is
Cape Catoche, or rather the island Cozumel,
seven additional degrees of longitude are requi
site, which would have forced me to comprize in
the same map a portion ofthe kingdom of Gua
timala, for which I have no data, all Louisiana,
all western Florida, a part of the Tennessee, and
of the Ohio.
It is in vain to seek, in this general map of New
Spain, the Spanish establishments on the north
west coast of America, establishments which are
insulated, and may be considered as colonies de
pendant on the metropolis of Mexico. To exhibit
in the same map the missions of New California
1.25987 In. English. Trans.
VOL. 1. C

xviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
would have required an additional eight degrees
of longitude ; for the most northern point of the
kingdom is the presidio of San Francisco, situated,
according to Vancouver, in 37° 48' 30" of north
latitude, and 124° 27' 4,5" of west longitude.
Hence a map of New Spain, to deserve the name
of a general map, should embrace the immense
countries included within the 89° and 125° of
longitude, and within the 15° and 38° of latitude.
To avoid the inconvenience of representing on a
large scale countries which, in a political view,
possess by no means the same interest, I wished to
compress my labour within narrower bounds. I
drew up, in a much smaller form, a second map,
which not only exhibits in a coup d'ceil all the
territories which depend on the viceroyalty of
Mexico, but which may also be consulted by those
who wish to examine the different communica
tions projected between the Atlantic ocean and the
South sea. The motives which have occasioned
this latter map to be extended to the port of Phi
ladelphia, and even to the mouth of the Rio San
Juan at Choco, will be explained in the sequel
of this work.
Although, according to the principles often
laid down by me, I persist in preferring the new
measures to the old, I have not however added
to my maps the seal e of centesimal degrees. The
Bureau of Longitudes having constantly follow
ed, both in the Knowledge of Times (Connoissance

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xix
des Temps) and in the new Astronomical Tables
lately published, the old manner of computing the
latitudes, a single individual would in vain op
pose the torrent, in publishing latitudes expressed
in centesimal parts. It is to be hoped, however,
that the introduction of the metrical system,
fixed by the arrete of the 13 Brumaire, year IX
will become gradually general. The degrees of
longitude which 1 indicate are computed to the
west of the meridian of the Imperial Observa
tory at Paris. If the great body of the public
were not averse to even the most useful innova
tions, I should have preferred, to the meridian
of Paris, the universal meridian proposed by one
of the first geometricians of the age*, founded
on the movement of the great axis of the solar
ellipsis. This universal meridian is 185° 30' to
the east of Paris, which is 106° 46' 12" of the an
cient sexagesimal division. It passes, conse
quently, by the South Sea, 12' to the east ofthe
isle of Erromanga, which belongs to the archipe
lago ofthe Holy Ghost (du Saint Esprit.) The
introduction of a universal meridian, founded on
nature itself, which would not shock the national
vanity of Europeans, is so much the more to be
desired, that we every day see augmented the
number of first meridians arbitrarily traced on
maps. Spain, for several years back, reckons
* Exposition du System? du Monde, par Laplace, p. 19,
C 2

XX

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

five : Cadiz, the most in use with navigators ;
Carthagena; the new observatory at the isle of
Leon; the college of Nobles at Madrid, intro
duced by the beautiful maps of M. Antillon ; and
the point de la Galera at the island of Trinidad.
To these five meridians might be added other two
which pass through the Spanish possessions, and
have been adopted by a great number of geogra
phers : I mean the meridian of Teneriffe and of
the island of Fer. The latter occasions inevitable
confusion, d' Anville placing it between the town
of Fer and Cape West. So that there are seven
first meridians, without reckoning Toledo, in the
sole dominions of the king of Spain.
I have followed, in the denomination of the
seas which wash the coasts of Mexico, the ideas
proposed by M. Fleurieu in his observations on
•the hydrographical division of the globe ; a work
in which the most enlarged views are united to
a profound historical erudition. . The Spanish
names have often been added to facilitate the
reading of travels written in Spanish.
In drawing up the map of Mexico, I began by
assembling together all the points fixed by astro
nomical observations, from which I formed a view,
which, for the better appreciating the degree of
confidence which the results deserve, indicates the
nature of the observation and the name of the
observer. The number of these points amounts
to 74, of which 50 are situated in the interior of

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxi
the country. Of this latter class there were only
fifteen known before my arrival at Mexico in the
month of April, 1803. It may be useful to dis
cuss some of the thirty-three points whose posi
tion is determined by my own observations, and
which are all comprised between the 16° 50' and
20° 0' of latitude, and the 98° 29' and 103° 12' of
longitude. While we are fixing these positions,
we shall enter into some historical details re
specting the extraordinary errors which have
been propagated to this day in the most recent,
and current maps..
MEXICO..
Several meridian altitudes of the sun and stars.
gave me for the latitude of the capital at the con
vent of St. Augustin *, 9° 25' 45". The longitude
deduced from the eclipses of the satellites of Ju
piter, from the distances from the moon to the
sun, from transference of the time from Aca
pulco, and from a trigonometrical operation for
estimating the difference of meridians between
Mexico and the port of Vera Cruz, is 6" 45' 42",
or 101° 25' 30". I shall observe, once for all, that
I rely on the numbers which result from the very
careful calculations of M. Oltmanns, a distin-
* The great gate of the cathedral church of Mexico is 12"
farther, north, and 10" farther east, than the convent of St.,
Augustin, near which I made my observations.
C O

xxii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
guished geometrician, who calculated all the as
tronomical observations made by me since my
departure from Paris in 1798, to my return to
Bordeaux in 1804. The longitude of Mexico
(6h 45' 28") indicated in the new astronomical
tables published by the Bureau des Longitudes,
is founded on an astronomical memoir which I
presented to the first class of the Institute, the
fourth Pluviose, year XIII, in which the calcu
lations of the moon had not been corrected by
the tables of M. Biirg. A year before I had fixed
on a result which was still nearer to the true lon
gitude ; the medium of my observations printed
at the Havannah was 101° 20' 5".
Three emersions of the first satellite of Jupiter
observed by me give for middle term, by the ta
bles of M. Delambre, the longitude of 6h 45' 30".
Thirty-two distances from the moon to the sun,
calculated by M. Oltmanns, from the newest
lunar tables, give for longitude 6h 45' 54".
The transference of time from Acapulco gives
for the difference of meridians between the port
and the capital of Mexico, 2' 54" in time ; conse
quently, supposing Acapulco 6h 48' 24", the lon
gitude of Mexico would be 6h 45' 29".
Two observations of satellites, the one at Lan
caster in Pensylvania, the other at the Havannah,
both corresponding to the emersion which I ob
served at Mexico, the 2d May, 1803, give in lon
gitude, the one 6h 45' Sol", the other 6h 45' 26''.
10'

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxiii
The longitude of Guanaxuato determined by
lunar distances, and connected by my chrono
meter with that of Mexico, gives for that capital
6h 45' 56".
From the trigonometrical operation, or rather
from my attempt to connect the capital with the
port of Vera Cruz, by means ofthe azimuths and
angles of altitudes, taken on the volcanos of Ori
zaba and Popocatepec (according to the calcula
tions of M. Oltmanns, and supposing Vera Cruz
6h 33' 55"), there results a longitude for Mexico
of 6° 45' 36".
All these results, obtained by ways so various
and independent of one another, confirm the lon
gitude that we assign to the capital of Mexico,
which is more than a degree and a half different
from what has been hitherto adopted j for the
Knowledge of Times places Mexico in 1772, at
106" 1' 0", and again in 1804, at 102° 25' 45".
The chart ofthe gulf of Mexico, published by the
Deposito Hydrografico of Madrid in 1799, gives
103° 1'27" to the capital ; however, before I began
to observe at Mexico, the true longitude was ac
curately enough known by three astronomers
whose labours deserve to be better known, two of
whom were born in Mexico. MM. Velasquez
and Gama, so far back as 1778, had deduced from
their observation of satellites the longitude of 101°
30', but having no corresponding observations,
and calculating after the old tables df Wargentin,
c 4

xxiv GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
they remained uncertain (as they themselves as
sured me) for more than a quarter of a degree.
This curious result is contained in a small pam
phlet printed at Mexico*, very little known in
Europe. Velasquez, director of the supreme
tribunal of mines, fixed the longitude ofthe ca
pital at 10 1° 44' 0", as is proved by valuable
manuscripts preserved by M. Costanzo at Vera
Cruz. In a map of New Spain sketched in 1772,
Velasquez gave to Mexico 278° 9' of longitude,
reckoning from the isle of Fer =101° 51'. He
says in a note to this map, "that before his voy
age to California, in 1768, all Mexico was placed
in the South Sea; that his map is the first which
offers the true position of the capital, and that
he verified it by a great number of observations
at Santa Rosa in California, at Temascaltepec,
and at Guanaxuato," M. Galeano, one of the
most able astronomers of the royal marine,
had also found out the true position of Mexico,
when he traversed the kingdom in 1791 to join
the expedition of Malaspina. It is true that
M. Antillon deduced the longitude of 101° 52'
0", from the observations of Galeano, a result
which still differs from mine 1' 48" in time ; but
I suspect that this difference arises from some
trivial error which may have crept into the calcu-
* Descripcion orthographica universal del ech'pse de sol
del dia 24 de Junto de 1778, dedicada al Sr. Don Joacquin
Velasquez de Leon, por Don Antonio de Leon y Gama, 1778,
p. IV.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxv
lation. With the operations of Gama, Velasquez,
and Galeano, I was totally unacquainted when I
began my operations at Mexico. Moreover the
detail of the observations of Don Dionisio Ga
leano was only communicated to me by M.
Espinosa during the winter of 1804, after my
return to Europe. These observations give a
longitude apparently much more accurate than
the one published by M. Antillon. " I was
ignorant (the learned director of the Deposito
Hydrografico of Madrid writes me) during your
residence in Spain in 1799, of the observations
of our common friend M. de Galeano. They
consist of two emersions of satellites and the
end of a lunar eclipse : they give me 101° 22'
34"=6h 45' 30"." But M. Oltmanns found, on
taking the medium of the three observations,
and comparing the eclipse of the moon at five
different places in Europe, 6" 45' 49". The dif
ference between my observations and those of
the Spanish astronomer, a supposed difference of
nearly half a degree, is consequently reduced to
less than an arc of two minutes. It is satisfac
tory to find so great a harmony among observers,
who, unknown to one another, employed such
different methods. In the very minute maps of
Thomas Jeffereys, published in 1794, Mexico is
situated in 20° 2' of latitude, and 102° 52' 47" of
longitude ; while M. Arrowsmith, in his beautiful
map of the West Indies in four sheets, makes the

xxvi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
longitude of Mexico 102° 8' 0", and the latitude
19° 57', false 32 minutes.
Several Mexican geometricians of the seven
teenth century guessed pretty nearly the true
longitude ofthe capital. Father Diego Rodriguez,
of the order of N. Senora de la Merced, pro
fessor of mathematics at the imperial university
of Mexico, and the astronomer Gabriel Lopez
de Bonilla, adopted 7h 25' for the difference of
meridians between Uranienburg and the capital,
from whence there results the longitude of 101°
37' 45"=6h 46' 29". But Don Carlos de Seguen
za*, the celebrated successor of Rodriguez in the
academical chair, was ignorant in 1681 of the ob
servations on which Bonilla founded this result.
He published a small treatise on the longitude of
the city of Mexico, t He cites in it an observ
ation of a lunar eclipse on the 20th December,
1619, by the engineer Henry Martinez, at Hue
huetoca, to the north-west of Mexico. This
is the same Dutch engineer who undertook the
bold enterprize of the canal called le Desague
de Huehuetoca, of which more will be said here-
* Libra astronomica y filosofica escrita en 1681, por Don
Carlos de Seguenza y Gongora, Catedratico de Matematicas
de la Universidad de Mexico, y impresso en la misma Ciudad
en 1690, §. 386.
\ See the work above cited, §. 382, 385. I owe my ac
quaintance with this very rare book of Seguenza to M. Oteiza,
who was kind enough to recalculate several old observations
of the Mexican astronomers.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxvii
after, The observation of Martinez, comparing
it with that of Ingolstadt, without applying
any modification, would give 6h 32' 16" for the
longitude of Mexico. Compared with Lisbon,
the same eclipse gives 6h 22' 31''. But as Mar
tinez made use of no telescope, Seguenza sup
poses that by an effect of the penumbra, the end
of the eclipse was 15' sooner. There results from
this very arbitrary supposition, Mexico com
pared with Ingolstadt, 6h 46' 40", and Mexico
compared with Lisbon, 6h 37' 31". M. Oltmanns
justly observes, that one of the corresponding
observations must be 9' false ; for the true dif
ference of meridians between Lisbon and Ingol
stadt is only P 22' 16", while the eclipse of the
20th December, 1619, would give lh 13' 0".
Such old and careless observations can give no
certainty ; particularly as the two Mexican geo
metricians above cited, Rodriguez and Seguenza
were not themselves in a condition to obtain
these results. They knew so little of the dif
ference of meridians between Uranienburg, Lis
bon, Ingolstadt, and the isle de Palma, that they
concluded from the data indicated in the Libra
astronomica y flosofca, that Mexico is 283° 38'
to the west of the first meridian of the isle de
Palma, or 96" 40'=6h 26' 40"; a longitude which
differs more than a hundred marine leagues from
the true one, and more than 240 leagues from
what was adopted by the geographer Jean Covens

xxviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
in the middle of the last century. In the Ephe-
merides of Vienna, published by Father Hell,
in 1772, and in the astronomical tables of Berlin
for the year 1776, we find Mexico at 106° 0'.
The idea of this too great western longitude is
very old. M. Oltmanns found it in the observ
ations * of the Jesuit Father Bonaventura Suarez,
who resided at Paraguay, in the city of the holy
martyrs Cosme and Damian. This astronomer
places Mexico 3h 13' t to the west of his ob
servatory, and the latter 3h 52' 23" to the west
of Paris ; from whence results the longitude of
Mexico T 5' 23"=106° 22' 30". The Jesuits of
Puebla also place the capital, in a Mexican map
engraved in 1755, at 19° 10' of latitude, and
113° 0' of longitude, that is to say, 240 leagues
too far west.
The account of Chappe's journey, drawn up by
M. deCassini, gives us no accurate information as
to the position of the capital. Chappe even re
mained there only four days. He made no astro
nomical observations, and those which M. Alzate
communicated to him were not of a nature to
resolve the problem in question. This Mexican
ecclesiastic, whom the academy of Paris named
one of their correspondents, displayed more zeal
than solidity in his researches : he embraced too
many things at once. His acquisitions were very
* Ephemerides astronomies, a Triesneker, 1803.
f Voyage en Californie, 1772, p. 104.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxix
inferior to those of Velasquez and Gama, two of
his countrymen, whose true merit has never been
sufficiently known in Europe. Don Josef Antonio
Alzate, and Ramirez in his map of New Spain,
published at Paris, place Mexico at 104° 9' 0"=
6h 56' 36". M. de Lalande finds, by the transit
of Venus observed in 1769, by Alzate, 6h 50' 1":
M. Pingre finds 6h 49' 43". An eclipse of the
moon, observed in 1769 by Alzate, gives, calcu
lating only the end by the old lunar tables, 6h
37' 1". Cassini deduces from two emersions of
Jupiter's satellites, observed by Alzate in 1770,
and compared with the old tables by a medium,
101° 25' =6h 45' 9".
In a memoir published by Alzate on the geo
graphy of New Spain*, he asserts that the lon
gitude of Mexico, founded on observations of
satellites, is 6" 46' 30".
But in 1786, in a note which accompanies the
plan of the environs of Mexico, drawn up by
Seguenza, and engraved at Mexico, Alzate fixes
the longitude at 100° 30' 0"= 6h 42' 0", adding
that this last result, the surest of all, is founded
on more than twenty-five eclipses of satellites
communicated to the academy of Paris, t
Hence there is consequently a difference of
* Gazetta de Mexico, 1772, No. 95. p. 56.
f Piano de les Arcanias de Mexico por Don Carlos de Se
guenza, reimpreso en 1786, con algunas adicionis de Don
Josef Alzate (en la imprenta de Don Francisco Rangel. )

xxx GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
more than two degrees between the different ob
servations of M. Alzate, without including the
result deduced from the eclipse of the moon of
the 12th December, 1769. It is to be presumed
that the observer was not exact as to the time.
The longitude established by the satellites may
be also too eastern, because the eclipses of the
first satellite have not been separated from those
of the third and fourth.
The false position so long attributed to the ca
pital of New Spain produced a remarkable effect
at the time ofthe sun's eclipse, 21st Feb. 1803.
The eclipse was total, and threw the public into
consternation, because the almanacs of Mexico,
calculated on the supposition of 6h 49'43"oflon-
gitude, had announced it as scarcely visible. The
learned astronomer ofthe Havannah, Don Anto
nio Roberedo, recalculated this eclipse according
to my observations of longitude.* He found
that the eclipse would not have been total if the
longitude of Mexico were farther west than 6"
46' 35", 4= 101° 38' 49"'
The latitude ofthe capital of Mexico remained
for a long period as problemetical as its longitude.
In the time of Cortez the Spanish Pilots fixed it
at 20° 0', as is proved by the map of California,
drawn up by Domingo de Castillo in 1541, and
published in the Mexican edition of Cortez's
* Aurora, or Correopolitico economico de la Havana, 1804,
No. 219, p. 13.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxxi
letters.* This latitude was preserved by d'An
ville and other geographers. Jean Covens, who
increased the longitude of Mexico seven degrees,
gives it also a position too northern by 1° 43'.
The account of Chappe's journey adopts from
Alzate 19° 54' of latitude. Don Vincente Doz,
known for his observations in California, found
by a quadrant 19° 21' 2"t ; but in the year 1778,
Velasquez aad Gama fixed the true position.
Don Jose Espinosa found in February 1790, by
a sextant of eight inches radius, the cathedral
19° 25' 25" of latitude. M. Galeano obtained
in 1791, by larger instruments, 19° 26' 00".

VERA CRUZ.
Latitude, 19° 11' 52". Longitude, 6h 33' 56"
=98° 29' 0". This longitude is deduced from a
stellar eclipse, observed by M. Ferrer, and cal
culated by M. Oltmanns, from three eclipses of
the first satellite, and from the longitude which
my observations assign to the Havannah, and
which has been connected by the transference of
time to Vera Cruz. It is to be observed, that I
indicate the position ofthe most northern part of
* Historia de Nueva Espana escrita por Herman Cortes,
aumentada por el Illustr. Senor Don Francisco Antonio de
Lorenzana. Mexico, 1770, p. 328.
f Gazetta de Mexico, 1772, p. 56.

xxxii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
the city, the observatory of M. Ferrer being the
house of Don. Jose Ignacia de la Torre, which is
30" to the west of the fort of St Juan. d'Ulua.
This longitude is almost the same with what
was found by Don Mariana Isasvirivil, and by
other officers of the Spanish marine. It is only
five minutes en arc farther west than what is in
dicated on the map of the gulf of Mexico, pub
lished in 1799 by the hydrographical board of
Madrid. M. Antillon fixes it at 98° 23' 5" ; the
Knowledge of Times for the year 1808, at 98° 21'
45". Don Thomas Ugarte, commodore (Chef
d'Escadre) in the service of the king of Spain,
connected by the transference of time Vera Cruz
with Porto Rico. He assigns to the first port 98°
39' 45". M. Ferrer deduced in 1 791 and 1792
the longitude of Vera Cruz from sixty series of
distances from the moon to the sun and stars :
he obtained as a middle term, 98° 18' 15". But
it would be exceedingly interesting to publish a
detail of these observations, that they might be
recalculated according to the tables of Biirg.
The same observation applies to the results pub
lished in Vancouver's voyage.
The city of Vera Cruz has shared the same fate
with Mexico and the whole ofthe new continent.
They have been believed 60, nay even 140 leagues
farther distant from Europe than they are in rea
lity. Jean Covens placed Vera Cruz at 104° 45'
0" : Alzate, in his map of new Spain, at 101° 30'.-

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxxiii
M. Bonne * justly complains ofthe want of agree
ment among the astronomical' observations at
Vera Cruz. After a long discussion he fixes on
99° 37'. This is nearly the same longitude which
D'Anville and the French Neptune adopted, and
it is that to which the English astronomers have
long given the preference. The tables of Ha
milton Moore indicate 99° 49' 47"; but Arrow-
smith (map of the Spanish possessions, 1803,)
makes it 98° 40', and nine years before, Mr.
Thomas Jeffreys, geographer to the king of Eng
land, 100° 23' 47".
If formerly the prevailing error was the assign
ing too great western longitudes to the American
ports, the Abbe Chappe fell into the contrary
extreme : he deduced from his chronometer the
longitude of 97° 18' 15". t If this observer, who
possessed more zeal than accuracy, could have
taken the distances from the moon to the sun, he
would have perceived the error of more than a
degree, into which he had been induced by an
excess of confidence in his chronometer.
The oldest astronomical observation at Vera
Cruz (at the chateau St. Juan de Ulua) is un
doubtedly that of the moon's eclipse in 1577.
Comparing the end of that eclipse with a cor
responding observation at Madrid, M. Oltmanns
* Atlas pour l'Ouvrage de l'Abbe Raynal, p. 11.
f Voyage en Californie, p. 102.
VOL. I. D

xxxiv GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
found a difference of meridians of 6h 26', and
consequently the longitude for Vera Cruz of
102° 30'. *
The Abbe Chappe found the latitude 19° 9'
38" t, a position too southern by three minutes.
I examined the small quadrant of Chappe which
remains at Mexico, in the hands of Father Pi-
chardo ; and I am by no means astonished, that,
with so imperfect an instrument, his observations
were so inaccurate. Other geographers formerly
placed Vera Cruz 20' too far to the south. The
map of New Spain of Alzate indicates even a
latitude of 18° 50' 0".

ACAPULCO.
This port, the finest of all those on the coast of
the great ocean, lies according to my observations
(at the house of the contador Don Baltasar Al
varez Ordoiio) in 16° 50' 29" of latitude, and 6"
48' 24" = 102° 6' 0" of longitude. This position
was deduced by M. Oltmanns from twenty-eight
distances taken by me from the moon to the sun.
Those of the 27th March, 1803, calculated ac
cording to the tables of Biirg, gave 6h 48' 32" ;
and those ofthe 28th March 6h 48' 21".
The difference of meridians between Mexico

» Memoires de PAcademie pour l'Anneel726.
t Voyage en Californie, p. 103.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxxv
and Acapulco is, according to my chronometer,
2' 54" of time. Now Mexico having been found
by the medium of my lunar distances 6b 45' 42" of
longitude, there would result for Acapulco, ex
cluding every other species of observation, 6" 48'
48". An uncertainty of 19" of time is very trifling
for the comparison of two longitudes, deduced
from simple distances from the moon to the sun.
I found Acapulco in 1803, by the lunar tables
of Mason, 102° 8' 9".
This position differs very little from what is
indicated by the atlas which accompanies the
voyage of the Spanish navigators to the Straits of
Fuca, and which is 102° 0' 30" of longitude, and
16° 50' 0" of latitude. This atlas is founded on
the operations of the expedition of Malaspina.
However M. Antillon, in an excellent memoir
above cited, gives a result, deduced from the same
operations, which differs more than a third of a
degree. He asserts, that the observations in 1791,
by the astronomers who embarked in the cor
vettes la Descuberta and la Atrevida, fixed Aca
pulco at 102° 21' 0" of longitude ; a result which
appears to me less exact, though more conform
able to the manuscripts left by these navigators
in Mexico. They themselves deduced from eight
series of lunar distances, 102° 26' ; from an, im
mersion of the first satellite, 102" 20' 40"; and
from the transference of time* from Guajaquil,
* This chronometrical longitude of 102° 22' is also found
D 2

xxxvi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
102° 22' 0" ; an admirable, but perhaps merely ap
parent, harmony, on account of the errors of the
old lunar tables. Besides, the longitude, deduced
in 1794 from the operations on board the brigan-
tine Activo, was equally western. This expe
dition examined the coasts of Sonzonate and
Soconusco, and fixed the longitude of Acapulco
at 102° 25' 30" ; though I am completely igno
rant of the nature of the observations on which
this longitude is founded.
A note in the hand-writing of one of the astro
nomers of the expedition of Malaspina, left at
Mexico, bears, that they thought themselves
warranted to deduce, from some eclipses of satel
lites observed, at the same time, at the capital
and Acapulco, a difference of meridians of 2' 21"
in time. In placing, with the new maps of the
Deposito Hydrografico, Acapulco at 1 02° 0', we
should find Mexico 101° 24' 45", which is, to
within about 700 toises, the longitude given by
the medium of all my operations. I should
doubt, however, of the accuracy with which
the distance from the capital to Acapulco
was deduced. It is probably greater than
in the minute plan of the port of Acapulco, drawn up by the
expedition of Malaspina, and copied at the audience of the
pilotage of Lima. It appears, in fact, that the astronomers of
this expedition had at first adopted much more western posi
tions than those afterwards adopted by the Desposito Hydro
grafico of Madrid. The difference for Acapulco is 20', for
Guayaquil 16', for Panama and Realexa 18', en arc.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxxvii
2' 21", though perhaps also somewhat less
than the 2' 54" given by my chronometer, worn out
with five years' travelling, and passing rapidly in
so mountainous a region from the extreme heats
of the coast, to the frost of Guchilaque ; that is
to say, from a temperature of 36° to another of
5° of the centigrade thermometer.
Formerly Acapulco was placed fourdegrees fur
ther to the west in the South sea. Jean Covens and
Corneille Mortier, in their map of the Mexican
archipelago, make the longitude of Acapulco
106° 10' 0". The old maps ofthe depot ofthe ma
rine make it 104° 0'. This longitude became gra
dually more eastern. Bonne, in the geographical
memoir annexed to the work of Raynal, gives
103° 0' : Arrowsmith in 1803 makes it 102° 44'.
The Knowledge ofthe Times (Connoissance des
Temps) for the year 1808, fixes Acapulco very
well in point of longitude (102° 19' 30"), but as
signs it a latitude too southern by 10'. This
error is so much the more striking, as, before the
expedition of Malaspina, this port was placed at
17° 20', or 17° 30', as is proved by the maps of
D' Anville and those of the marine depot. How
ever, Covens make the latitude 16° 7'» while in
1540 the pilot Domingo de Castillo gives it at
17° 25'. In the time of Herman Cortez, the
capital of Mexico was believed to be three degrees l
to the west of Acapulco, almost north to south
with the port de los Angeles. Probably the maps
d 3

xxxviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
which the Mexicans themselves had constructed
of their coasts, and which the emperor Monte
zuma presented to the Spaniards, had an influence
on this position. I have myself remarked among
the hieroglyphic manuscripts in the collection of
Boturini, preserved in the palace ofthe viceroy of
Mexico, a very curious plan ofthe environs ofthe
capital. I should add, that long before the observ
ations of the expedition of Malaspina at Acapul
co, those who were employed in astronomy at
Mexico admitted, as certain, that the capital and
port were in the same meridian.
JOURNEY FROM MEXICO TO ACA
PULCO.
Having fixed the position ofthe three principal
places of the kingdom, let us examine the two
roads which lead from the capital to the South sea,
and to the Atlantic ocean. The first may be
named the Asiatic road, and the other the Euro
pean; as these denominations designate the direc
tion of the maritime commerce of New Spain. I
determined, on these highly frequented roads,
seventeen points either in latitude or longitude.
Village of Mescala. — I found its latitude, by
the culmination of Antares, 17° 56' 4", and the
longitude, by the chronometer, 6h 47' 16", suppos
ing Acapulco 6h 48' 24*. The city of Chilpanzin-
go, from angles taken at Mescala, appears to be
17° 36' of .latitude, and 6h 46' 53" of longitude.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxxix
Venta de Estola, a solitary house in the midst
of a wood near a fine spring. I took several alti
tudes of the sun there : the chronometer gave
6h 46' 56" of longitude.
The village of Tepecuacuilco. — ; Latitude found
by the method of Douwes, uncertain to the ex
tent of nearly 3', 18' 20° 0".
Villageof Tehuilotepec— Longitude, 6" 47' 12".
Double altitudes of the sun gave me 18° 35' 0" ;
but this latitude, determined under unfavour
able circumstances, is uncertain from six to seven
minutes. The position of this place is interest
ing, on account of the proximity of the great
mines of Tasco.
Pont d'lstla, in the great plains of S. Gabriel.
I found it 18° 37' 41" of latitude, and 6" 46' 19"
of longitude.
Village of San Augustin de las Cuesas. — Lon
gitude, 6" 45' 46". Latitude, 19° 18' 37". This
village terminates on the west the great valley of
Mexico. It will be useful, for a minute acquaintance with
the country, to add the distances which the
natives, particularly the muleteers, who travel as
it were in caravans to the great fair of Acapulco,
reckon from one village to another. The true
distance from the capital to the port being known,
and supposing a third more for windings in a road
both straight and of easy access, we shall find the
value of the leagues in use in these countries. This
d 4

xl GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
datum is interesting for geographers, who in re
mote regions must avail themselves of simple
itineraries. It is evident that the people shorten
the leagues as the road becomes more difficult.
However, underequal circumstances we may have
some confidence in the judgments formed by the
muleteers of comparative distances ; they may not
know whether their beasts of burden go two or
three thousand metres * in the space of an hour,
but they learn from long habit if one distance be
the third or fourth or the double of another.
The Mexican muleteers estimate the road from
Acapulco to Mexico at 1 10 leagues. They reckon
from Acapulco to the Passo d'Aguacatillo, four
leagues; el Limon, three leagues; los dos Aroyos,
five; Alto de Camaron, four; laGuaritadelosdos
Caminos, three ; la Moxonera, one-half; Quaxi-
niquilapa, two and a half; Acaguisotla, four;
Masatlan, four ; Chilpansingo, four ; Sampango,
three; Sapilote,four; Venta Vieja, four; Mescala,
four ; Estola, five ; Palula, one and a half; la
tranca del Conexo, one and a half; Cuagolotal,
one ; Tuspa, or Pueblo nuevo, four ; los Amates,
three ; Tepetlalapa, five ; Puente de Istla, four ;
Alpuyeco, six ; Xuchitepeque, two ; Cuernavaca,
two ; S. Maria, three-fourths ; Guchilaque, two
and a half; Sacapisca, two ; la Cruz del Mar
ques, two ; el Guarda, two ; Axusco, two ; San
Auguslin de las Cuevas, three ; Mexico, four. In
* 6561 or 9842 feet English. Trans.

1 GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xli
this itinerary the numbers indicate how many
leagues one place is distant from the one which
immediately precedes it. Other itineraries, which
are distributed to travellers who come by the
South sea, estimate the total distance at 104 or
106 leagues. Now, according to my observ
ations it is in a straight line 151,766 toises.
Adding a quarter for windings, we shall have
189,708 toises, or 1725 toises * for the league of
the country.
JOURNEY FROM MEXICO TO VERA
CRUZ.
I determined on this road thirteen points, either
by purely astronomical means, or by geodesical
operations, particularly by azimuths and angles
of altitudes. M. Oltmanns deduced from my ob
servations the positionof the Venta de Chalco, on
the eastern bank of the great valley of Tenoch
titlan, 19° 16' 8"; that of la Puebla de los Angeles
(near the cathedral) 19° 0' 15" of latitude, and 6h
41' 31"=100° 22' 45" of longitude; of the Venta
de Sotto, 19° 26' 30" ; of the village of Perotte,
near the fortress of the same name, 19° 33' 37" of
latitude, and 6" 38' 15" of longitude ; ofthe vil
lage de las Vigas, 19° 37' 10" ; and finally, the
position of the city of Xalappa, 19° 30' 8" of lati
tude, and 6h 37' 0"= 99° 15' 0" of longitude. Don
Jose Joacquin Ferrer, who, long before me, deter-
* 11040 feet. Trans.

xlii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
mined several points in the environs of Vera Cruz
and Xalappa, found for the last city 19° 31' 10" of
latitude, and 99° 15' 5" of longitude. Both of us
observed near the convent of St. Francis. In this
fertile and cultivated region, four mountains*
three of which are perpetually covered with snow,
deserve the greatest attention. A knowledge of
their exact position serves to connect several in
teresting points. The two volcanoes distinguish
ed by the names of Puebla or Mexico (Popoca
tepetl and Iztacdhuatl) have been connected
with the capital and the pyramid of Cholula. I
found the latitude of Popocatepetl 18°59'47", and
6h 43' 33" 100° 53' 15" of longitude; the lati
tude of Sierra Nevada, or Iztacdhuatl, 19° 10' 0",
and 6h 43' 40" = 100° 55' 0" of longitude. M.
Costanzo deduced from a series of geodesical
operations, 19° 11' 43" for the latitude of Iztac
dhuatl, and 19° 1' 54" for that of Popocatepetl.
The operations of this engineer having been made
by means of a compass, and the magnetic de
clension depending on a great number of small
local causes, we ought to be astonished at the
accuracy ofthe results which have been obtained.
These two colossal mountains, as well as the Pic
d'Orizaba, being visible from the level of the
pyramid of Cholula, I endeavoured very carefully
to determine the position of this ancient monu
ment. I found the latitude of the chapel which
crowns the extremity of the pyramid, 19° 2' 6",
and 6h 42' 14"= 100° 33' SO" of longitude.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xliii
M.Ferrer deduced the position ofthe Coffre de
Perotte from the geodesical operations between
l'Encero and Xalappa, and found 19° 29' 14". I
was able, in spite of the rigour of the season, to
carry instruments on the seventh of February,
1804, to the top of this mountain, which is 384
metres* higher than the Peak of Teneriffe. I
observed there the meridian altitude of the sun,
which gave for l'Alto de los Caxones (43'' en arc
farther north than the summit or Peiia del Coffre)
19° 29' 40" of latitude. The longitude was
found by M. Oltmanns, who employed the angles
taken by me between the Coffre and the Pic
d' Orizaba, 6" 37' 55", which differs but 26" in
time from that fixed by M. Ferrer.
The exact knowledge of the position of the
Pic d'Orizaba is of great importance for naviga
tors on landing at Vera Cruz. The chart of the
gulf of Mexico, published in 1799 by the Depo
sito Hydrografico at Madrid, places this moun
tain a degree too far to the east, at 100° 29' 45"
of longitude. Angles of altitudes and azimuths
taken by me, gave M. Oltmanns 19° 2' 17" of la
titude, and 99° 35' 15"= 6° 38' 21" of longitude .
But long before me the Spanish mariners knew
the true position ofthe Pic d'Orizaba. It would
appear that the error ofthe map ofthe SenoMexi-
cano, which passed into the French inapt, should
? 1260 feet. Trans.
f Carte des Cotes du Golfe du Mexique, d'apres les Ob
servations des Espagnols, An. 9.

xln GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
be attributed to some accidental mistake on the
part of the engraver. It is corrected in the edi
tion of M. Bausa in 1803. The name of the
capital of Mexico is effaced in it, and the Pic
d'Orizaba is placed at 99° 47' 30" of longitude.
M. Ferrer fixes the mountain, as is proved by
manuscripts in my possession, drawn up in 1793,
at 19° 2' 1" of latitude, and 99° 35' 35" of lon
gitude. The same result was also obtained by
M. Isasvirivil, whose great accuracy I had occa
sion to know, having observed along with him
at Lima and Callao in 1802.
It appears astonishing that the most recent map
which we possess of that part of New Spain which
we are analysing, and which bears the name of a
justly esteemed author, should be the falsest of all.
I speak of the large English map, which has for
title, Chart of the West Indies and Spanish Do
minions in North America, by Arrowsmith, pub
lished in June, 1803. From Mexico to Vera Cruz
the names appear to be scattered at random. The
position of the Pic d'Orizaba is indicated in it in
a manner which might prove dangerous to na
vigators. The following table gives the position
of the principal points, such as this map, very
beautiful in other respects, indicates them. I
have added the result of my astronomical observ
ations. The longitudes are reckoned to the east
of Vera Cruz, to avoid introducing into this
comparison the absolute position of this port.

CHART OF ARROWSMITH.

RESULTS OF ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Latitude.

Longitude.

Latitude.

J Longitude.

Mexico - - - -

19° 57'

3° 38'

Mexico - - - -

19° 25' 45"

2° 56' 30"

Volcano of Mexico

19° 33'

3° 0'

Popocatepec - -

18° 59' 47"

2" 24' 15"

Puebla - - - -

19° 33'

2°25v

Puebla - - - -

19° 0' 15"

1° 53 45"

Mount Orizaba -

20° 3'

1°50'

Pic d'Orizaba - -

19° 2' 17"

1° 6' 15"

Volcano of Tlascala

19° 33'

1° 54'

|

Perotte - - - -

19° 48'

1°37'

Perotte ....

19° 33' 37"

0° 59' 45"

False Orizaba - -

19° 51'

1°12'

!
Xalappa -
19° 36'
1° O
Xalappa - - -
19° 30' 8"
0°46' 0"
Cordoba - - -
19° 15'
1° 6'
Cordoba - - -
1
o
MO
o
>
n >
i— i
zH
Oo
a,o HC25
xlvi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
The errors of latitude are consequently of more
than half a degree. It is difficult to conceive
what is meant to be designed in the map of Ar-
rowsmith by the three mountains named Orizaba,
False Orizaba, and Volcano of Tlascala. They
are all indicated to the north-west of the port of
Vera Cruz, while the true Pic d'Orizaba (and
the Mexicans know but one, called in the Az-
teque language Citlaltepetl) lies to the south-west
of Vera Cruz, between the city of Cordoba and
the villages of San Andres, San Antonio, Hua-
tusco, and St. Jean Coscomatepec. There is
added to the False Orizaba the note "visible to the
eye at 45 leagues distance." Now Citlaltepetl is
the summit which navigators first see in approach
ing the coast of New Spain, consequently it might
be inferred that the learned English geographer
named it False Orizaba. But in this case, the la
titude of this, problematical mountain would be a
degree false, and Orizaba would be seven marine
leagues to the north of the city of Xalappa, while
in reality it is only twelve to the south-south-west.
Or should the Pic d'Orizaba of Arrowsmith be
the Coffre de Perotte ? But the Coffre lies also to
the south-east, and not to the south-west of the
village of Perotte. This fable of two mountains
of the name of Orizaba is to be found also in the
atlas of Thomas Jeffereys, (The West-Indian At
las, London, 1794,) where an attempt is made to
convey minute information as to the road from

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xlvii
Vera Cruz to Mexico. The latitudes are there 36'
false. The difference of longitude between the
the port and the capital is marked 2° 29' in
stead of 3° 38' as in the map of Arrowsmith,
and instead of 2° 56' 30" the result of my astro
nomical observations. It is also very improbable
that the Volcano of Tlascala indicated in this
new English map, is the Sierra de Tlascala,
called in the country Malinche ; for this Sierra
is neither very remarkable for its elevation, nor
very distant from la Puebla. This confusion is
so much the more astonishing, as in 1803 the
excellent observations of Don Jose Joacquin
Ferrer, published in 1798, were known in Lon
don *, as well as the maps drawn up by the
Deposito Hydrografico of Madrid; though even
M. Antillon places it in 1802, in his map of
North America, la Puebla 32' too much to the
south.

* Ephemerides Geographiques de M. de Zach. 1798,
T. II. p. 393. It is from this map that I cite the results ob
tained by M. Ferrer. They sometimes 'differ from those
indicated in the manuscripts, which that excellent and in
defatigable observer had, probably from less careful calcul
ations, drawn up upon the spot, of which I am in possession
of copies. I am bound to make this observation for the
sake of those, who, having procured copies of my works,
may be astonished at finding numbers in them differing from
those now published by me. It is only after calculating
carefully every observation that we can arrive at exact
results.

xlviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

POINTS SITUATED BETWEEN MEXICO,
GUANAXUATO, AND VALLADOLID.
In two excursions which I made, the one to
the mines of Moran and to the porphyretical
summits (organos) of Actopan, the other to
Guanaxuato and to the volcano of Jorullo in the
kingdom of Mechoachan, I determined the posi
tion of ten points, whose longitudes are almost
all founded on the transference of time. These
points have enabled me to give with some accu
racy a great part of the three intendancies of
Mexico, Guanaxuato, and Valladolid. The lon
gitude of the city of Guanaxuato was verified by
distances from the moon to the sun. Its lati
tude, deduced from the observation of « de la
Grue, is 21° 0' 9". Fomachant gave me 21° 0' 28,"
and /3 de la Grue, 21 ° 0' 8." The Jesuits in their
map, engraved at la Puebla in 1755, placed
Guanaxuato at 22° 50' of latitude, and 112° 30'
of longitude, an error of 9° ! M. Velasquez, who
observed the satellites of Jupiter at Guanaxuato,
found this city 1° 48' to the east of Mexico, but
at 20° 45' 0" of latitude, as is proved by his ma
nuscript map of New Spain. This error of lati
tude is so much the more extraordinary, as the
difference in longitude which it indicates is to
within an arc of 1', the same with what results
from my observations.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xlix
Latitude of Toluca by « de la Grue 19° 16' 24",
by Fomahant, 19° 16' 3". I endeavoured as much
as possible constantly to observe the same stars
to diminish any error from the uncertainty of
the declination.
The position of Nevado de Toluca, the latitude
of Patequero, a city situated on the banks ofthe
lake of the same name, of Salamanca, St. Juan
del Rio, and Tisayuca, are founded on imperfect
observations. There are circumstances in which
the method of Douwes gives very inaccurate re
sults ; but in a country presenting so few fixed
points we must often be contented with a simple
approximation. I think I can venture to assert,
that the longitudes of Queretaro, Salamanca, arid
San Juan del Rio, may be confidently relied on.
Even in the valley of Mexico there are several
very important points, the position of which was
determined by Velasquez, the celebrated Mexi
can geometrician ofthe eighteenth century. This
indefatigable man executed in 1773 an extensive
survey along with a trigonometrical operation, to
prove that the waters of thelake of Tezcuco might
be conducted to the canal of Huehuetoca. M.
Oteiza was kind enough to calculate for me the
triangles of Velasquez, of which I possess the
manuscripts. M. Oltmanns went over the same
calculations. He subjected the positions of the
signals to the latitude and longitude which wre
have here adoptedfor the convent of St. Augustin
VOL. i. e

I GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION
in the capital of Mexico. These results of M.
Oltmanns are contained in the table of geographi
cal positions. No doubt can remain as to the
oblique distances; but the want of observations
of azimuths gives a little uncertainty to the re
duction of the perpendiculars or differences in
latitude and longitude. "We shall return to this
subject in the analysis of the map ofthe environs
of Mexico.
The seventeen positions fixed by M. Ferrer in
the environs of Vera Cruz depend on the longi
tude of that port. That longitude having been
supposed by me 10° 45' farther west than the
Spanish astronomer indicates, I have reduced to
the meridian of Paris the longitudes published
by M. Ferrer, adding 8° 47' 15"; for that ob
server calculated the lunar distances, from the
Knowledge of Times, at an epoqua when Cadiz
was believed to lie 8° 36' SO" to the west of
Paris. I have for the same reason changed the
absolute longitudes of Xalappa, the Cofre de
Perotte, and the Pic d'Orizaba. M. Ferrer, for
instance, places the latter at 90° 48' 23" of west
longitude from Cadiz, while from the same me
ridian he fixes Vera Cruz at 89° 41' 45".
OLD AND NEW CALIFORNIA.
PROVINCIAS INTERNAS.
The north-west part of New Spain, the coast
of California, and of what the English call New

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ii
Albion, contain many points determined by the
most exact geodesical and astronomical opera
tions of Quadra, Galeano, and Vancouver. Few
European charts are better established than those
of Western America, from Cape Mendocino to
Queen Charlotte's Straits.
Cortez, after setting on foot two voyages of
discoveryin 1532, under Diego Hurtado de Men-
doza, Diego Becerra,and Hernando de Griscalva>
examined himself in 1533 the coast of California,
and the gulf which has since very justly borne
the name ofthe sea of Cortez.* In 1542 the in
trepid Juan Rodriguez Cobrillo pushed as far
north as 44° of latitude ; the Sandwich Islands
were discovered by Juan Gaetan ; and in 1582
Francisco Gali discovered the north-west coast
of America under 57° 30' of latitude ; so that
long before the intrepid Cook made this part of
the great ocean to be known, which cost him
his fife, the same regions had been visited by
Spanish navigators. But very often the rapid
promulgation of discoveries does not depend upon
him who makes them. Yet the merit of a private
citizen is independent of the false policy of a go
vernment, which from an ignorance of its own
interest would prevent a nation from enjoying
the glory which it has earned. But this subject,
equally delicate and interesting, has been treat
ed with great discernment, in the historical in-
* Gomara Hist. cap. 12.
2e

Iii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
troduction to the voyage of Marchand, and in
the introduction to the account of the Spanish
expeditions undertaken for the discovery of the
Straits of Fuca.
The observation ofthe transit of Venus in 1769,
occasioned the voyage of MM. Chappe, Doz, and
Velasquez, three astronomers, of whom the first
was a Frenchman, the second a Spaniard, and the
third a Mexican, and, what is more, the pupil of
a very intelligent Indian of the village of Xalto-
can. Before, however, the arrival of these as
tronomers in California, the true latitudes of
Cape San Lucas and the mission of St. Rose had
already been found by Don Miguel Costanzo,
at present general of brigade and head of the
corps of engineers. This respectable officer, who
displays the greatest zeal for the geography ofthe
country, found by gnomons and English octants
of a very perfect construction, San Jose to be
23° 2' 0"; and Cape San Lucas, 22° 48' 10".
Till then it was believed, as is proved by the chart
of Alzate, that San Jose lay in 22° 0' of latitude.
The detail of the observations of the Abbe
Chappe does not inspire much confidence. Pro
vided with a large quadrant of three feet radius,
Chappe found the latitude of San Jose by Arc-
turus 23° 4' 1"; by Antares, 23°3'12". The me
dium of all the stellar observations differs from the
result ofthe passages ofthe sun through the meri
dian by 31". There are some of the solar observa
tions which differ from one another 1' 19". M. Cas-

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. liii
sini, however, calls them " very exact and very
accordant."* I cite these examples, not for the
sake of discrediting astronomers who have so
many titles to our esteem, but to prove that a
sextant of five inches radius would have been
more useful to the Abbe Chappe than his qua
drant of three feet radius, difficult both to place
and to verify. Don Vicente Doz placed San
Jose at 23° 5' 15" latitude. The longitude of this
celebrated village in the annals of astronomy was
deduced from the transit of Venus, and from
the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, observed by
Chappe, and compared with the tables of War-
gentin. M. Cassini fixed it by a medium at 7"
28' 10", or 112° 2' 30". Father Hell adopted 7"
37' 57" for San Jose. The longitude which results
from Chappe's observations is 3° 12' farther east
than the one adopted in 1768 in the map of
Alzate. t M. Velasquez too, the Mexican astro
nomer, constructed a small observatory in the
village of St. Anne, where he observed by himself
the transit of Venus, communicating the result
of his observation to M. Chappe and Don Vicente
Doz. This result, published by M. de Cassini,
agrees very well with the manuscript observ
ations which I procured at Mexico, and might
* Voyage en Californie, p. 106.
f Nouvelle Carte de 1'Amerique Septentrionale, dedie"e a
l'Academie Royale des Sciences de Paris par Don Joseph
Antoine de Alzate et Ramiret, 1768.
E 3

liv GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
serve to determine the longitude of St. Anne.
Moreover, M. Velasquez, before the arrival ofthe
Abbe Chappe, knew the enormous error in the
longitude of California; he had observed eclipses
of Jupiter's satellites in 1768 at the mission of
Santa Rosa* ; and he communicated to the Euro-
pean astronomers the true longitude before they
had time to make the slightest observations.
The position of Cape San Lucas, called in Cor-
tez's time Santa de San Jago t, has been determin
ed by the Spanish navigators. I found in manu
scripts t preserved in the archives of the vice-
royalty of Mexico, and compiled by order of the
* Estado de la Geografia de la Nueva Espana y modo de
perfeccionar la por Don Jose Antonio de Alzate (Periodico
de Mexico, Diciembre 1772, No. 7, p. 55.)
f Mapa de California por Domingo de Castillo, 1541.
j M. Aranza, viceroy of Mexico, employed M. Casasola,
lieutenant de frigate of the royal marine, to unite in four ma
nuscripts whatever was connected with the navigations per
formed to the north of California, under the viceroys Buca-
relli, Florez, and Revillagigedo. These works consist, 1st, in
an atlas of twenty -six maps drawn up from the observations of
MM. Perez, Canisarez, Galeano, Anadra, and Malaspina; 2d,
in a large folio volume, entitled, Compendio historico de las
Navegaciones sobre las costas septentrionales de California or-
denado en 1799 en la ciudad de Mexico ; 3d, in the voyage
to the north-west coast of America, performed by Don Juan
Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, commanding the frigates Sta,
Gertrudis, Aranzasa, Princesa, and the goellette Activa, 1792;
and, 4th, in a Riconociemiento de los quatros-Establecimientos
Russos al Norte de la California en 1788, a curious expedition
executed by order of the viceroy Florez, and described by

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lv
Chevalier d'Aranza, that M. Quadra found Cape
St. Lucas 22° 52' of latitude, and 4° 40' to the west
ofthe port of S. Bias, which, in placing S. Bias
with Malaspina in 107° 41' 30", gives 112° 21' 30"
for the most southern cape of California. The
expedition of Malaspina fixed (according to M.
Antillon) Cape S. Lucas at 22° 52' of latitude, and
112° 16' 47" of longitude. This chronometrical
position was also adopted in the atlas which ac
companies the voyage of the Spaniards to the
Straits of Fuca ; it is, however, 17' 15" more
western than that published (on what authority
I know not) in the Knowledge of Times for 1808.
I have adopted a difference of meridian between
San Jose and the Cape of 14' 17" ; but it is to be
observed, that these two points having never been
connected together, but fixed singly byindepend-
ent observations, there may be an error in the
distance. From what I have gathered from those
who have visited these arid desert regions, it
would appear that the difference of longitude is
somewhat greater. In the time of Cortez, Cape
S. Lucas was believed to be 22° of latitude, and
10° 50' to the west of the meridian of Acapulco,
a relative longitude which is correct to within
nearly half a degree.

Don Antonio Bonilla. Part of these valuable materials has
been given to the public in the Relacion del Viage de las Ga-
letas Sutil y Mexicana, published at Madrid in 1802.
E 4

Ivi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
The coast of New California has been explored
with the greatest minuteness by the Spanish ex
pedition of the galleys Sutil and Mexicana in
1792, and the country from 30° of latitude, or
from the mission of S. Domingo, by the expedition
of Vancouver. Malaspina and the unfortunate
La Peyrouse had also made observations at Mon
terey. Though it may be supposed that the di
rection of the coasts and the differences of Ion.
gitudes of several points are perfectly determined,
it is difficult to fix their absolute longitudes ; for
the observations of lunar distances by Vancouver
place the north-west coast of America 28' to the
east of the position in longitude assigned to it by
Cook and Malaspina's expedition. * It would be
very curious to examine the influence ofthe new
lunar tables of Biirg on these observations of the
English navigator. I have given the preference to
the absolute longitude of Monterey, deduced from
the operations of Malaspina, not only because it
is founded on eclipses of stars and satellites, but
particularlybecause the Spanish observations con
nect, as it were, by transference ofthe time, New
California with the old. The corvettes la Discu-
brerta and l'Atrevida, commanded by Don Alex-
andro Malaspina, determined chronometrically
the difference of longitude between Acapulco, S.
Bias, Cape S. Lucas, and Monterey. In adopting
* Voyage de Vancouver autour du monde, T. II. p. 46.
9

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lvii
the more eastern position ofthe latter port, that is
to say, what is given by Vancouver, the geogra
pher is uncertain as to the situation ofthe southern
coast. To avoid this difficulty, I have followed
Malaspina in placing Monterey at 36° 35' 45" of
latitude, and 124° 23' 45" of longitude.* La Pey-
rouse t found the longitude by lunar distances
123° 34' 0", by the chronomoter 124° 3' 0".% Van
couver deduced a longitude of 123° 54' 30" from
1200 distances of the moon from the sun. As
the latter had leisure to survey the situation ofthe
coast with the most scrupulous accuracy, I have
ventured to rely on the difference of longitude in
dicated by him between Monterey and the mis
sions of S. Diego, S. Juan, S. Buenaventura, S.
Barbara, and S. Francisco. In this manner the
positions of all these points have been connected
with that of Monterey. Had I, however, traced
all the north-west coast from the sole observations
of Vancouver, I should have been tempted to ren
der the longitude of Cape S. Lucas more eastern.
It is sufficient to have here indicated the striking
difference which yet subsists, notwithstanding the
great pains bestowed, between the English and
* Analysis de la Carta de Antillon, 1803, p. 50.
f Voyage, T. III. p. 304.
\ M. Triesnecker, in correcting the result obtained by La
Peyrouse, found by means ofthe lunar observations of Green
wich the longitude 1238 42' 12' in place of 123° 34' 0" (Zach.
Corr. T. I. p. 173.)

lviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
Spanish operations. I have reason to believe that
the absolute positions laid down by us for Aca
pulco, S. Bias, and Cape Lucas, are sufficiently
correct, and that the error of + 28' en arc exists
farther to the north. A false supposition in the
diurnal course of a chronometer, and the state of
the old lunar tables of Mayer and Mason, may
have contributed to this error.
After discussing the positions which are founds
ed on astronomical observations by experienced
observers, I pass to those which may be regarded
as doubtful, on account of the imperfection of
the instruments, the want of confidence which
the names of the observers inspire, and of our
ignorance whether the results have not been
drawn from manuscripts inaccurately copied.
What follows is the substance of what I have
been able to collect from these astronomical ob
servations : they must be employed with cau
tion ; but they are valuable for the geography of
a region hitherto so little known.
The Jesuits are entitled to the praise of having
been the first who examined the gulf of California
or the sea of Cortez. Father Kin, formerly pro
fessor of mathematics at Ingoldstadt, and the
declared enemy of the Mexican geometrician
Siguenza, against whom he composed several
writings, arrived in 1701 at the junction of the
great rivers Gila and Colorado. He fixed by an
astronomical ring the latitude of this junction at

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lix
35° 30'. I see from a manuscript map drawn up
in 1541 by Domingo de Castillo, found in the
archives of the family of Cortez, that at this
epoqua two rivers were already known, which
appeared to unite under the latitude of 33° 40',
and were called Rio de Buena, Guia, and Brazo
de Miraflores. Three years before, in 1538,
Father Pedro Nadal found by the meridian alti
tude of the sun, the junction of the Gila and
Colorado, 35° 0'. Fray Marcas de Niza made it
34° 30'- It was undoubtedly on these grounds
that Delisle adopted 34° in his maps : but in a
work printed at Mexico *, recent observations
are cited, made by means of an astronomical
ring by two well instructed fathers of St. Francis,
Fray Juan Diaz, and Fray Pedro Font; observ
ations which agree with one another, and which
would seem to prove that the junctions are much
more southern than has hitherto been believed.
In 1774, Fatber Diaz obtained at the mouth of
the Gila, two days successively, 32° 44'. Father
Font found there, in 1775, 32° 47'. The former
asserts also, that from a simple consideration of
the road followed by him, that is to say, a consi
deration of the rhombs and distances, it is im
possible that the junctions can be at 35 of lati
tude. The positions which Father Font assigned
in 1777 to the missions of Monterey, S. Diego,
and S. Francisco, and which differ but a few mi-
* Cronica Serafca de Queretaro, p. 11, 1792, Prologo.

Ix GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
nutes from the result of Vancouver and Malas-
pina's observations, would seem to testify in fa
vour of the accuracy of his labours, provided
these fathers did not copy the data furnished to
them by their pilots. Besides, it is certain that
a zealous observer may, with very imperfect
means, procure often very satisfactory results.
The latitudes obtained by Bouger in the Rio de
la Magdalena, with a gnomon from seven to
eight feet in height, and employing for a scale
pieces of reeds, differ only from four to five mi
nutes from what I found fifty-nine years after
wards by means of excellent English sextants.
However, Father Font appears to have been less
fortunate with his astronomical ring in fixing the
latitude of the mission of S. Gabriel at 32° 37',
that of S. Antonio de los Robles at 36° 2', and
that of Luis Obispo at 35° 17'. Comparing these
positions with the atlas of Vancouver, I find that
the errors are sometimes 4-1° 11', sometimes — 23'.
It is true the English navigator did not himself
visit these three missions, but he connected them
with the neighbouring coast, the situation of which
he examined. From hence maybe seen how much
we ought to be on our guard against observations
made with astronomical rings. Fray Pedro Font
visited also the site of the ruins called las Casas
grandes; and he found them 33° 30'. This posi
tion, were it exact, would be very important; for
it is the site of an ancient cultivation of the human

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lxi
species. We must not, however, confound this
second abode of the Azteques from which they
passed from Tarahumara to Colhuacan*, with the
Casas grandes, or the third abodeof the Azteques,
situated to the south of the presidio of Yanos, in
the intendancy of New Biscay. I could wish to
know the observations of the Jesuit Father Juan
Hugarte, who discovered, according to M. An
tillon, the errors in the maps of California. He
is even said to have first discovered that this vast
country was a peninsula ; but in the sixteenth
century nobody in Mexico denied this fact, which
was long afterwards doubted in Europe.t
I reckon among the operations somewbat
doubtful, those which were executed by several
Spanish engineer officers in the frequent and la
borious visits which they made to the small forts
situated on the northern frontiers of New Spain.
I procured at Mexico the itineraries of brigadier
Don Pedro de Rivera, drawn up in 1724; those of
Don Nicholas Lafora, who accompanied the Mar
quis de Rubiin his researches, in 1765, as to a line
of defence for the provincias internas; and the ma-
* In the original, de la quelle Us passerent de la Tarahumara
a Colhuacan. Translator.
f In 1539, Francisco de Ulloa, in an expedition undertaken
at the expense of Cortez, explored the gulf of California to
the mouths of the Rio Colorado. The idea of California's
being an island has its date only in the seventeenth century,
(Antillon, Analysis, p. 47, No. 55.).

lxii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
nuscript travels of the engineer Don Manuel Mas-
caro from Mexico to Chihuahua and Arispe.*
These respectable travellers assure us, that they
made observations ofthe meridian altitude ofthe
sun. I know not what instruments they made
use of; and it is to be feared that the manuscripts
which came into my hands are not always exactly
copied ; for having taken the trouble to calculate
the latitudes by the rhombs and distances indi
cated, I found results which coincided very ill with
thelatitudesobserved. MM. Bauza and Antillon
at Madrid made the same observation. I regret
that none of the observations of latitude of the
engineer officers are connected with places whose
position has been determined by M. Ferrer ormy-
self. M. Mascaro indeed observed at Queretaro.
We differ 10' in the latitude of that city; but my

* 1. Derotero del Brigadier Don Pedro de Rivera en la
visita que hizo de los Presidios de las Fronteras de Nueva
Espana en 1724 — 2. Itinerario del mismo autor de Zacatecas
a la Nueva Biscaya. — 3. Itinerario del mismo autor desde el
Presidio del Paso del Norte hasta el de Janos. — 4. Diaria de
Don Nicolas de Lafora en su Viage a las Provincias Internas
en 1766. — 5. Derotero del mismo autor de la villa de Chihua
hua al Presidio del Paso del Norte. — 6. Derotero de Mexico
a Chihuahua por el Yngeniero Don Manuel Mascaro en 1 778.
—7. Derotero del mismo autor desde Chihuahua a Arispe
Mission de Sonora. — 8. Derotero del mismo autor desde
Arispe a Mexico en 1785. The originals of these eight ma
nuscripts are preserved in the archives of the viceroyalty of
Mexico.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lxiii
result being founded on a method analogous to
Douwes', is doubtful to nearly the extent of 2'.
Notwithstanding these uncertainties, the mate
rials of which I have spoken are of great use to
those who would draw up maps of a part ofthe
world so little visited by people of information.
We shall content ourselves with discussing some
of the most important points.
Mr. Jefferson, in his classical work on Virginia,
has discussed the position ofthe Presidio de S. Fe
in New Mexico ; he believes it to lie in 38° 10' of
latitude ; but striking a medium between the di
rect observations of M. Lafora and Fathers Velez
and Escalante, we shall find 36° 12'. MM. Bauza
and Antillon, by a union of ingenious combina
tions, and by connecting S. Fe with the Presidio
de 1' Altar, and this again with the coast of Sonora,
found S. Fe de Nueva Mexico 4° 21' to the west
ofthe capital of Mexico.* The map of M. An
tillon gives five degrees of difference. Without
possessing any knowledge of the labours of these
Spanish geographers, I arrived, by a different way,
at a still greater result. I fixed the longitude of
Durango by a lunar eclipse observed by Doctor
Oteyza; this position agrees with the one adopted
by M. Antillon ; now, supposing the latitude of
Durango 24° 30', and that of Chihuahua, the ca
pital of New Biscay, where M. Mascaro observed
* Analysis de la Carta, p. 44.

lxiv GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION
for a long time, 28° 45', I have thus been able to
estimate the value of the leagues indicated in the
Itinerary of Brigadier Ribera. The distances and
rhombs gave me by graphical construction the
difference ofthe meridians of Durango and Chi
huahua 53', from whence there results a difference
of longitude between Mexico and Santa Fe of 5 ° 48'.
It is natural enough that this difference should ap
pear greater than what is indicated by MM. Bauza
and Antillon, for these estimable geographers
place the capital of Mexico 37' en arc too far to
the west. The position assigned by them to Santa
Fe depends, however, m ore on the longitudes of S.
Bias and Acapulco than on that of Mexico. I
found Santa Fe at 107° 13' of absolute longitude,
M M. Bauza and Antillon at 107° 2'; a longitude
extremely probable, but 5° 28' more eastern than
what is to be found in the map of west Louisiana
published at Philadelphia in 1803. The same
map is nearly four degrees false in the position of
Cape Mendocino, notwithstanding the observ
ations of Vancouver and the Spaniards. On the
other hand, M. Costanzo concluded from, a
great number of combinations, that Santa Fe and
Chihuahua were 4° 57' and Arispe 9° 5' to the
west of Mexico. In all the old manuscript maps
which I have consulted, particularly in those con
structed since the return of M. Velasquez from
California, Durango is placed three degrees to
the east of the Parral and of Chihuahua. Velas-

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lxv
quez reduced this difference of meridians to an
arc of three minutes ; but a graphical method,
founded on itineraries, gives me 50'.
I was equally well pleased to see that on an
other point of the geography of New Spain, my
combinations conducted me to the same result
that had been obtained by the learned astro
nomers of Madrid. My map constructed at
Mexico, the same year in which M. Antillon pub
lished his Analytical Memoir*, indicates, as is
proved by the copies deposited in Mexico, the
difference of meridians of Tampico and Mazat-
lan, (that is to say, the breadth of the kingdom
from the Atlantic ocean to the South Sea) to be
8° 0'. MM. Bausa and Antillon found it 8° 20',
while the map of Lafora gives 17° 45', and that
of the West Indies by Arrowsmith, 9° 1'. In my
map I have connected Tampico with the Bar de
Santander, of which the longitude was observed
by M. Ferrer, supposing, agreeably to the maps
of the marine-depot of Madrid, Tampico 10'
east of the Bar. We shall return in the sequel
to the position of this port.
The latitude of the city of Zacatecas, cele
brated for the great wealth of its mines, was de
termined by the Count de Santiago de la Laguna,
not by astronomical rings, or by gnomons, but
* Analysis de los fundamentos de la Carta de la America
septentrional. VOL. I. F

lxvi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
by means of several quadrants of from three to
four feet radius, constructed in the country itself:
it was found 23° 0\ Don Francisco Xavier de
Zarria concluded, from various gnomical observ
ations, the latitude to be 22° 5' 6". These ob
servations are to be found in a work almost un
known in Europe, the Chronicle published by the
fathers of S. Francis of Queretaro at Mexico.
Zacatecas was formerly believed half a degree
farther north, as is proved by a small Table of
Latitude, published at Mexico, by Don Diego
Guadalaxara, for the use of those desirous of
constructing gnomons. The Count de la La
guna asserts, that he found the longitude of Za
catecas 4° 3' to the west of Mexico ; but this
result is probably very false. After fixing the
position of Guanaxuata by the chronometer, and
by lunar distances, I deduced from rhombs and
estimated itinerary distances a difference of me
ridians of 2° 32'. The calculations of M. Mas-
caro's itinerary give 3° 45'. As to the abso
lute longitude, the count fixes it in a manner
equally erroneous. He pretends to have con
cluded from a corresponding observation of an
eclipse at Bologna, that Zacatecas is 7" 13' 50" to
the west of that city, which would give 7h 13' 59"
of longitude for Zacatecas and consequently
7" 3' 39" (in place of 6h 45' 42") for Mexico. Can
an error have glided into the figures ? Perhaps

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lxvii
the difference of meridians is 7h 30' in place of
7h 50'.
The longitude of Durango should be very
nearly 105° 55'. Don Juan Jose Oteyza, a young
Mexican geometrician, the benefit of whose abi
lities I have often experienced in the course of
my operation, observed there (at 1' Hacienda
del Ojo, 38' to the east of Durango) the termina
tion of an eclipse of the moon, which, com
pared with the old tables of Mayer, gave the
result which we have already indicated. The
author even did not consider it as completely
accurate. M. Friesen concluded from the
rhombs and distances indicated in the itineraries
of Brigadier Rivera and M. Mascaro, that this
longitude was 5° 5' to the east of Mexico, conse
quently 106° 30'. The latitude of Durango ap
pears sufficiently doubtful. Rivera and his com
panion Don Francisco Alvares Bareiro pretend
to have found it, by meridian altitudes ofthe sun,
24° 38'; Lafora, in 1766, 24° 9' ; but we do not
know what instruments these engineers made use
of. If the latitude which the Count de la La
cuna, M. Zarria, and the engineer Mascaro as
sign to the city of Zacatecas is exact, that of Du
rango, deduced from the rhombs and distances,
should be nearly 24° 25'.
There are several places in the northern pro
vinces of New Spain, where the three engineers
already cited made observations successively:
r 2

lxviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
this circumstance gives somewhat more confi
dence in the medium result.
Chihuahua.— Latitude, 29° 11' according to
Rivera, 28° 45' according to Mascaro. Longi
tude deduced from the rhombs and distances,
5° 25' to the west of Mexico.
Santa Fe. — Latitude, 36° 28' by Rivera,
36° 10' by Lafora. Longitude by approximation,
5° 48' in relation to the meridian of Mexico.
Presidio de Janos. — Latitude, 31° 30' by Ri
vera, 30° 50' by Mascaro. Longitude, somewhat
doubtful, 7° 40' to the west of Mexico.
Arispe. — Latitude, 30° 30' by Rivera, 30° 36'
by Mascaro. Longitude by approximation, 9° 53'
(from Mexico).
Geographical combinations founded on itinera
ries give an additional probability to the fol
lowing positions, of which MM. Mascaro and
Rivera determined the latitude. These results,
adopted in my map, agree with what was
obtained by MM. Bausa, and Antillon. We
differ, however, nearly a degree in the absolute
longitude of Arispe, a city situated in the pro
vince of Sonora, as well as in the longitude
of the Passo del Norte, in New Mexico. But
I have to repeat, that a part of these differences
arises from M. Antillon's placing in his map
Mexico, Acapulco, and the mouth of Rio Gila
more to the eastward than I have done.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

lxix

PLACES.

N. latitude.

West.longi- ¦
tude from
Mexico.

Guadalaxara

21° 9'

3° 57'

Real del Rosario -

23° 30'

7° 1'

Presidio del Pasage

25° 28'

4° 8'

Villa del Fuerte -

26° 50'

9° 5'

Real de los Alamos

27° 8'

9° 58'

Presidio de Buenavista

27° 45'

11° 3'

Presidio del Alta -

31° 2'

2° 41'

Passo del Norte

32° 9'

' 5° 38'

On the formation of militia (tropas de militia)
in the kingdom of New Spain, there was drawn
up a map of the province of Oaxaca, in which se
veral places are found marked whose latitude
(according to a remark of the author) had been
observed astronomically. I do not know if these
latitudes are founded on meridian altitudes taken
with gnomons. The map bears the name of M.
Don Pedro de Laguna, lieutenant-colonel in the
service of his Catholic majesty. These eleven
f 3

Ixx GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
points are partly situated on the coast between
the two ports of Acapulco and Tehuantepec,
partly near the coast in the interior ofthe coun
try. Proceeding from west to east we find

PLACES.

LATITUDE.

Ometepec - - -

16° 37'

Xamiltepec - - -

16° 7'

Barra de Manialtepec

15° 47'

Pochutla - - -

15° 50'

Puerto Guatulco

15° 44'

Guiechapa - - -

15° 25'

In la Misteca alta the position has been de
termined of
S. Antonio de las Cues at 18° 3' of latitude.
Teposcolula - - - - 17° 18'.
Nochistlan - - - - 17° 16'.
We may add the village of Acatlan in the in
tendancy of la Puebla at 17° 58', and the city of
Oaxaca at 16° 54' of latitude. These determina
tions, if they have any degree of accuracy, are so
much the more precious, that from la Puebla de

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lxxi
los Angeles to the isthmus of Panama, there was
not hitherto a single point in the interior of the
country whose latitude was astronomically deter
mined. What gives us a certain degree of re
liance on these positions, is the harmony which
prevails between the latitudes assignedin the map
of Don Pedro Laguna and in those of M. An
tillon, to the city of Tehuantepec and to Puerto
Escondido. Hence the Spanish navigators at
present place the former port at 16° 22', and the
latter, which is in the neighbourhood of the vil
lage of Manialtepec, at 15° 50' of latitude.
Hitherto we have discussed positions founded
on astronomical observations, more or less worthy
ofthe geographer's confidence ; there remains for
us to indicate the maps, almost wholly manu
script, which we have employed for the different
ports ofthe general map of New Spain.
As to the bearings and sinuosities of the
western coast washed by the great ocean, from
the port of Acapulco to the mouth of the Rio
Colorado, and to the volcanoes of the Virgins in
California, I have followed the map which ac
companies the account of the voyage of the
Spanish navigators to the Straits of Fuca. This
map, published in 1802 by the marine-depot at
Madrid, is founded on the operations of the cor
vettes of Malaspina ; but thecoast which stretches
to the south-east of Acapulco is still very im-
f 4

Ixxii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
perfectly known. The map of North America by
M. Antillon was consulted in its construction.
There is ground for complaint against the inac
curacy with which the eastern coast of Mexico
to the north of Vera Cruz has been hitherto sur
veyed. The part contained between the mouths
ofthe Rio Bravo del Norte and the Mississipi is
almost as little known as the eastern coast of
Africa between Orange River and Fish-Bay.
The expedition of MM. Cevallos and Herera,
provided with superb astronomical instruments,
is engaged in taking exact plans of those desert
and arid regions. Meanwhile I have followed,
for the detail of the eastern coast, the map * of
the gulf of Mexico, published by order of the
king of Spain in 1799, and retouched in 1803. I
have, however, corrected several points from the
excellent observations of M. Ferrer, already cited.
This able observer, having placed the port of
Vera Cruz 9' 45" less to the west than is done by
me, I have reduced the positions of the places
determined by him in the environs of Vera Cruz
to the longitude resulting from the calculations
of M. Oltmanns. The error of the old maps
consisted especially in the longitude of the Bar
of Santander, which, according to M. Ferrer, is
1° 45' 15" to the west of Vera Cruz, while the
* Carta esferica que comprehende las costas del Seno
Mexicano, construida en el Deposito Hidrografico de Ma
drid, 1799.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii
map of the Deposito admits 1° 23' of difference
of longitude. I have constantly followed the
observations of M. Ferrer, in reducing the longi
tude of Tanuagua on that of Santander.
The territory comprised between the ports of
Acapulco and Vera Cruz, between Mexico, Gua-
naxuata, the valley of Santiago and Valladolid,
between the volcano of Jorullo and the Sierra de
Toluco, is constructed from a great number of
geodesical surveys, taken by me either with a
sextant or the graphometer of Adams. The part
contained between Mexico, Zacatecas, Fresnillo,
Sombrerete, and Durango, is founded on a manu
script-plan which M. Oteyza had the goodness to
construct for me, from materials collected by him
in his journey to Durango. Having marked with
great exactness the rhombs and the distances esti
mated from the pace ofthe mules, his plan merits
undoubtedly some confidence, particularly as the
positions of Guanaxuata and S. Juan de Rio were
corrected by direct observations of my own, inde
pendent of one another. By this means it became
easy to convert time into distance, and to ascer
tain the value of the leagues of the country.
The journals of MM. Rivera, Lafora, and Mas
caro, which we have already cited, were of assist
ance for the provincias internas, particularly for
the routes from Durango to Chihuahua, and from
thence to Santa Fe and Arispe in the province of
Sonora. However, these materials could only be
10

lxxiv GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
employed after long discussions and comparisons
with the data collected by M. Velasquez in his
expedition to California. The routes of Rivera
very often differ a good deal from those of M.
Mascaro; and we are particularly embarrassed as
to the difference of meridians between Mexico and
Zacatecas, or between Santa Fe and Chihuahua,
as we shall afterwards have occasion to explain.
The geography of Sonora has been rectified
by M. Costanzo. This philosopher, as modest as
he is profound, has for thirty years been collect
ing whatever is connected with the geographical
knowledge of this vast kingdom. He is the only
engineer-officer who has addicted himself to dis
cussions on the difference in longitude of the
most distant points from the capital. He has
himself formed very interesting plans, in which
we may perceive how far ingenious combinations
may, to a certain point, supply the want of as
tronomical observations. I render this justice to
M. Costanzo with the more pleasure, as I have
seen many manuscript-maps in Mexico, of which
the scales of longitude and latitude appeared
merely as an accidental ornament.
The following is an enumeration of the maps
and plans consulted by me for the detail of my
map; I think I have brought together everything
of importance which existed up to 1 804.
Carte manuscrite de la Nouvelle Espagne, dres-
see par ordre du Vice-roi Buccarelli, par MM.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lxxv
Costanzo et Mascaro. * It comprehends the im
mense space between the 39° and 42° of latitude,
and extends from Cape Mendocino tothe mouth
of the Mississipi. Much care appears to have
been bestowed on this work, which has served
me for the Moqui, for the environs of the Rio
Nabajoa, and for the route of the Chevalier la
Croix in 1778, from Chihuahua to Cohahuila
and Texas.
Mapa del Azobispado de Mexico, por D6?i Jose
Antonio de Alzate t, a manuscript-map drawn up
in 1768, and revised by the author in 1772, and
which, so far at least as I have examined it, is
very bad. Several mining places are to be found
in it, which are interesting for the mineralogist.
I have made no use of the map of New Spain,
published at Paris in 1765, by M. de Fer, nor of
that of Governor Pownall, published in 1777> nor
even of the map of Siguenza, which the academy
of Paris engraved under the name of Alzate, and
which has been hitherto looked on as the best map
qf Mexico.
Carte generate de la Nouvelle Espagne t from
the 14° to the 27° of latitude, drawn up by M.
* Manuscript-map of New Spain constructed by order of
the Viceroy Buccarelli, by MM. Costanzo and Mascaro.
Trans. f Map of the archbishoprick of Mexico, by Don Joseph
Antonio de Alzate. Trans.
f General map of New Spain.

lxxvi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
Costanzo. This manuscript-map is valuable for
an acquaintance with the coast of Sonora. I con
sulted it also for the part which stretches out from
Acapulco to Tehuantepec.
Carte manuscrite des cotes depuis Acapulco
jusqu' a Sonzonate*, executed by the brigantine
Activo, in 1794.
, Carte manuscrite de toute la Nouvelle Espagne,
dressee par M. Velasquez, en 1772.1 It com
prises the countries situated between the 19° and
34° of- latitude, between the mouth of the Rio
Colorado, and the meridian of Cholula. It was
destined to exhibit the situation of the most re
markable mines of New Spain, particularly those
of Sonora.
Carte manuscrite d'une partie de la Nouvelle
Espagnet, from the parallel of Tehuantepec to
that of Durango, drawn up by order ofthe vice
roy Revellagigedo, by Don Carlos de Urutia.
This is the only map of the country which exhi
bits the division into intendancies, and it has
been very useful to me in this respect.
Mapa de la Provincia de la Compania de Jesus
de Nueva EspanaW, engraved at Mexico in 1765.
* Manuscript-map of the coast from Acapulco to Sonzo
nate. Trans.
t Manuscript-map of the whole of New Spain, drawn up
by M. Velasquez in 1772. Trans.
% Manuscript-map of a part of New Spain. Trans.
II Map ofthe Jesuits' province of New Spain. Trans.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixxvii
Is it by mere accident that this map, so bad in
other respects, places Mexico at 278° 26' of lon
gitude, while the same capital is fixed at 270° of
longitude, in the map which bears the title of
Mapa de distancias de los lugares principales de
Nueva Espana*, engraved by the Jesuits at la
Puebla de los Angeles, in 1755 ?
I found at Rome, Provincia Mexicana apud
Indos ordinis Carmelitarum (ere eta 1588) Romce
1738. Mexico is there placed in 20° 28' of la
titude !
Father Pichardo de San Felipe Neri, a very
well informed ecclesiastic, who possesses the small
quadrant of the Abbe Chappe, was so kind as to
furnish me with two manuscript-maps of New
Spain, the one by Velasquez and the other by
Alzate. They both differ from the map engraved
by the academy of Paris, and are curious, as they
exhibit the situation of several remarkable mining
places. Environs de Mexico ; a map of Siguenza, re
published by Alzate in 1786. Another map of
the valley of Mexico is to be found annually in
the almanack, entitled la Guia de Foresteros (the
Stranger's Guide) ; itfis by M. Mascaro. Neither
these two plans, nor the one published by Lopez
in 1785, exhibit the lakes in their actual situations.
* Map of distances ofthe principal places of New Spain.
Trans.

lxxviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
In the map of Lopez, the degrees of longitude
are marked on the meridian, a strange mistake
for a geographer to the king !
Carte detaillee des environs du Doctor, du Rio
Moctezuma (which receives the waters of the
canal of Huehuetoca), et de Zimapan par M.
Mascaro.* The environs of Durango, of Toluca,
and of Temascaltepec, are to be found carefully
represented in plans constructed by M. Juan
Jose Oteyza.
Carte manuscrite de tout le royaume de la Nou
velle Espagne depuis le 16° au 40° de latitude,
par Don Antonio Forcada y la Plaza, I787.T
This map appears to be ably constructed. Those
who know the localities entertain the same opi
nion of the manuscript-map of the audience of
Guadalaxara, drawn up by M. Forcada in 1790.
Carte du pays compris entre le meridien de
Mexico et celui de Vera Cruz, dressee par Don
Diego Garcia CondeX, lieutenant colonel and
director of highways. This manuscript-map is
founded on the joint observations of M. Costanzo
and M. Garcia Conde. It is a series of triangles
* Minute map of the environs of the Doctor, of the Rio
Moctezuma, and of Zimapan, by M. Mascaro, Trans.
f Manuscript-map of the whole kingdom of New Spain,
by Don Antonio Forcada y la Plaza, 1787. Trans.
\ Map of the country comprised between the meridians of
Mexico and Vera Cruz, constructed hy Don Diego Garcia
Conde. Trans.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lxxix
measured by the graphometer and compass.
This work was executed with great care ; and it
exhibits, above all, a great minuteness in the
part which includes the slope of the Cordillera
from Xalappa and Orizaba to Vera Cruz.
Cartes des routes qiu vont de Mexico a la Puebla,
au nord et au sud de la Sierra Nevada*, drawn
up by order of the viceroy the Marquis de
Branciforte, by Don Miguel de Costanzo.
Plan manuscrit des environs de Vera Cruz, t —
It extends to Perotte, and indicates at the same
time the difference of the roads projected from
Xalappa to Vera Cruz.
Carte manuscrite du terrain contenu entre Vera
Cruz et le Rio Xamappa, 1796. t
Carte manuscrite de la province de Xalappa,
avec les environs detailles de I' Antigua et de la
Nueva Vera Cruz. \\
Carte manuscrite de la province d' Oaxaca et de
toute la cote, depuis Acapulco a Tehuantepec
dressee par Don Pedro de la Laguna. § — This
* Map ofthe roads from Mexico to la Puebla, to the north
and south ofthe Sierra, Nevada. Trans.
f Manuscript-plan of the environs of Vera Cruz. Trans.
\ Manuscript-map of the country between Vera Cruz and
the Rio Xamappa, 1796. Trans.
|| Manuscript-map ofthe province of Xalappa, with a detail
of the environs of Antigua and la Nueva Vera Cruz. Trans.
§ Manuscript-map of the province of Oaxaca and the whole
coast from Acapulco to Tehuantepec, drawn up by Don
Pedro de la Laguna. Trans.

Ixxx GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
map is founded on eleven positions, which are
asserted to have been determined in latitude, by
direct observations. As to the Rio Huasacualco,
celebrated from the project of a canal to unite the
SouthS ea with the Atlantic Ocean, I have as
signed to it the course which I found traced in the
plans of the two engineer-officers, Don Augustin
Cramer, and Don Miguel del Corral. These
plans are preserved in the archives of the vice-
royalty of Mexico.
Mapa anonimo de la Sierra Gorda, dans la pro
vince de Nuevo Santander*, from the 21° to the
29° of latitude, a manuscript-map painted on vel
lum, and ornamented with figures of Indian sa
vages. It is very exact for the environs of Sotto
la Marina and of Camargo.
The course ofthe rivers contained between the
Rio del Norte and the mouth of the Rio Sabino
was copied from a manuscript-map which Ge
neral Wilkinson communicated to me at Wash
ington, on his return from Louisiana.
Mapa de la Nueva Galliziaf; a manuscript-
map constructed in 1794 by M. Pagaza, from
his own fcbservations and the map of M. Forcada.
Carte de la province de Sonora et de la Nouvelle
Biscaye X, dedicated to M. d' Azanza, and con-
* Anonymous map of the Sierra Gorda, in the province of
Nueva Santander. Trans.
\ Map of Nueva Gallizia. Trans.
X Map ofthe province of Sonora and of New Biscay. Trans.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lxxxi
structed at Cadiz, by the engineer Don Juan
de Pagaza. This manuscript-map, four feet in
length, is very minute as to the mountainous
places, where the savage Indians conceal them
selves for excursions and attacks on travellers. It
is also very minute as to the environs ofthe Passo
del Norte, and particularly as to the desert terri
tory called the Bolson de Mapimi.
Carte manuscrite de la Sonora*, from the 27°
to the 36° of latitude, dedicated to Colonel Don
Jose Tienda de Cuervo. The author of this map
appears to have been a German Jesuit, who bad
resided in the Pimeria alta, that is to say, in the
most northern part of the province of Sonora.
Carte manuscrite de la Pimeria alta.i — It ex
tends to the Rio Gila. The famous ruins of the
Casas grandes are placed there at 36° 20' of lati
tude, an error of three degrees !
Mapa de la California, a manuscript-map of
Tathers Francisco Garces and Pedro Font, 1777«
It has also been engraved at Mexico, but with an
error of a diminution of three minutes for all the
latitudes. It is interesting for la Pimeria alta
and the Rio Colorado.
Carta geogrqfica de la Costa occidental de la
California que se discubrio en los anos 1769 y
1775, por Don Francisco de Bodega y Quadra y
* Manuscript-map of Sonora. Trans.
f Manuscript-map of the Pimeria alta.
VOL. I. G

Ixxxii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
Don Jose Canizares, desde los 17 hasta los 58
grados.* — This small map, engraved in 1788
by Manuel Villavicencio at Mexico, is drawn up
on the meridian of S. Bias. It must interest those
who study the history of discoveries in the great
ocean. The gulf qf Cortez appears very much detailed
in the map of California, which accompanies the
Noticia de la California del Padre Fr. Miguel
Venegas, 1757 } but the true position of the mis
sions actually existing in this peninsula is indi
cated in the map subjoined to the life of the Fa
ther Fray Junipero Serra, printed at Mexico in
1787.
Carte manuscrite de la province de la Nouvelle
Biscayet, from the 23° to the 37° of latitude,
drawn up in 1792 by the engineer Don Juan
de Pagaza Urtuttdua, from information obtained
at Chihuahua. This curious work was executed
by order of M. de Nava, captain-general of the
provincias internas. It served me for the whole
intendancy of Durango ; though the environs of
the town of Durango do not appear very ac
curate. Carte manuscrite des frontier es septentrionales
* Geographical map ofthe western coast of California, dis
covered m 1769 and 1775, by Don Francisco de Bodaga y
Quadra and Don Jose Canizares, from the 17° to the 58°-
Trans. f Manuscript-map of the province of New Biscay. Trans.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lxxxiii
de la nouvelle Espagne *, from the 23° to the 37°
of latitude, by the engineer Don Nicolas Lafora.
It develops the plan of defence ofthe Marquis de
Rubi, and served me for verifying the situation of
the small forts named Presidios. I saw a copy of ,
this same map, three metres! in length, in the
archives of the viceroyalty.
Mapa del Nuevo MexicoX, from the 29° to the
42° of latitude. This manuscript-map is very mi
nute with regard to the countries situated under
the parallel of 41°. It contains details as to the
lake des Timpanogos, and the sources of the Rio
Colorado and the Rio del Norte. *
Carte du nouveau Mexique, gravee en 1795, par
Lopez.% I have made no use of it. It appears
exceedingly defective as to the sources ofthe Rio
del Norte. The countries situated between these
sources and those ofthe Missoury are better de
tailed in a Map qf Louisiana published at Phila
delphia in. 1803.
I flatter myself that, notwithstanding great im
perfections, my general map of New Spain has
two essential advantages over all those which
have hitherto appeared. It exhibits the situation
of three hundred and twelve mines, and the new
* Manuscript map of the northern frontiers of New Spain,
Trans. •f Nine feet ten inches English. Trans.
% Map of New Mexico. Trans.
§ Map of New Mexico, engraved in 1795 by Lopez.
Trans.
G 2

lxxxiv GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
division of the country into intendancies : those
mines which have been worked are there indi
cated from a catalogue which the supreme tri
bunal of mines caused to be drawn upon the
spots, through the whole extent of that vast em
pire. I have distinguished by particular signs
the places which are the seats of the Deputa
tions de Minas, and the sites of the mines which
depend on them. The catalogue with which I
was furnished very often marked the rhomb and
the distance from some more considerable town.
These notes I combined with what I found in the
old manuscript-maps, among which those of Ve
lasquez were of the greatest assistance to me.
This labour was equally minute and troublesome.
When any map did not bear the name of the
mine, I placed it simply according to the situation
in the catalogue, reducing the itinerary distances
or leagues of the country into absolute distances
from combinations furnished by analogous cases.
The population of New Spain being concentrated
on the great interior plain of the central chain, it
follows that the map of Mexico is covered very un
equally with names. It must not however be sup
posed that there are districts entirely uninhabited,
wherever the map indicates neither village nor
hamlet. I wished only to enter places whose posi
tion was the same in several manuscript-maps from
which I laboured ; for the most part ofthe Ame
rican maps, executed in Europe, are filled with
9

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lxxxx
names whose existence is unknown in the country
itself. These errors are perpetuated, and it often
becomes extremely difficult to conjecture their
origin. I chose rather to leave a vacant space in
my map than to draw from suspicious sources.
The indication of the chains of mountains
presented difficulties which can only be felt by
those who have been themselves employed in con
structing geographical maps. I preferred hatch
ings (hachures) in orthographical projection, to
the method of representing mountains in profile.
This last, the oldest and most imperfect of all,
occasions a mixture of two sorts of very heteroge
neous projections. Yet I will not dissemble that
this inconvenience is almost balanced by a real
advantage. The old method furnishes signs which
announce vaguely " that the country is hilly, that
there exists mountains in such or suchaprovince."
The more this hieroglyphical language is vague
the less it exposes to error. The method of
hatching, on the contrary, forces the drawer to
say more than he knows, more than it is even
possible to know of the geological constitution of
a vast extent of territory. To look at the last
maps of Asia Minor and Persia, one would be
lieve that learned geologists have ascertained
the relative height, the limits, and direction of
the mountains. We discover there chains which
¦ wind and branch out like rivers ; we are tempt
ed to believe that the Alps and Pyrenees are less
g 3

Ixxxvi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
known than these distant countries. However,
well informed people who have gone through
Persia and Asia Minor assert, that the grouping
of the mountains there differs- entirely from the
form in which they appear in the large map of
Asia, published by Arrowsmith, so often copied
both in France and Germany.
The waters undoubtedly in some sort give the
delineation of the country ; but the courses of
rivers merely indicate the difference of level
which exists in the extent of territory through
which they run. A knowledge of the great
vallies or of the basins ; an examination of the
points where rivers take their rise, are certainly
extremely interesting to a hydrographical en
gineer; but it is a false application of the prin
ciples of hydrography, when geographers at
tempt to determine the chains of mountains in
countries of which they suppose they know the
course of the rivers. They suppose that two
great basins of water can only be separated by
great elevations, or that a considerable river can
only change its direction when a group of moun
tains opposes its course. They forget that fre
quently, either on account of the nature of the
rocks, or on account of the inclination of the
strata, the most elevated levels give rise to no
river, while the sources of the most considerable
rivers are distant from the high chains of moun
tains. Hence the attempts which have been

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixxxvii
hitherto made to construct physical maps from
theoretical ideas have never been very successful.
For the true configuration of the earth is so much
the more difficult to be discovered, as the pela?
gick currents, and the greater number of the ri
vers which have changed the surface ofthe globe,
have totally disappeared. The most perfect ac
quaintance with those which have existed, and
those which actually exist in our days, might in
struct us as to the slope of the vallies, but by no
means as to the absolute height ofthe mountains,
or the position of their chains.
I have traced on my map of New Spain the
direction of the Cordilleras, not from vague sup
positions or hypothetical combinations, but from
a great variety of data furnished by persons who
had visited the Mexican mines. The most ele
vated group of mountains is to be found in the
environs of the capital, under the 19° of latitude.
I examined myself the part of the Cordilleras
of Anahuac, between the parellels of 16° 50'
and 21° 0', for a breadth of more than 140
leagues. It was in this region that I made
the greatest number of barometrical and geo
desical measurements, of which the result served
for my geological sections. The manuscript-
maps of M. Velasquez, and of MM. Costanzo
and Pagaza, were of great use to me for the
northern provinces. M. Velasquez, director ofthe
Tribunal de Mineria, travelled over the greater
g 4

lxxxviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
part of New Spain ; and he traced on the map
which we have already cited the branches ofthe
Sierra Madre de Anahuac, the eastern branch
which runs from Zimapan towards Charcas and
Monterey, in the small kingdom of Leon, and
the western branch which extends from Bolaiios
to the Presidio de Fronteras. The manuscript-
memoirs of M. Sonnenschmidt, a learned Saxon
mineralogist, who visited the mines of Gua
naxuato, Zacatecas, Chihuahua and Catorce,
and the labours of M. del Rio, professor in the
school for mines of Mexico, and of Don Vin-
cente Valencia, residing at Zacatecas, have also
furnished me with very useful information. I
owe much also to the celebrated D'Elhuyar at
Mexico ; M. Chovell at Villalpando ; M. Abad
at Valladolid; M. Anza at Tasco; Colonel
Obregon at Catorce ; and a great number of rich
proprietors of mines and religious missionaries,
who were so good as to take an interest in my
work. Notwithstanding all the pains I took to
be informed as to the direction of the chains of
mountains, I am far from regarding this part of
my work as perfect. Occupied these twenty years
in examining mountains and collecting materials
for a geological atlas, I well know how hazardous
an undertaking it is to trace the mountains on an
extent of territory of 118,000 square leagues.
I could have wished to draw up on a large scale
two maps of New Spain, the one physical, the
other purely geographical ; but I was afraid of

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, lxxxix
rendering the work too voluminous. The hatch
ings which designate the slope and undulation
of the ground, afford at the same time a shade to
the maps overcharged with names. These names
become not unfrequently illegible, when an en
graver attempts to produce a grand effect by the
distribution of chiaro scuro. Hence the geogra
pher who has carefully discussed the astrono
mical position of the places becomes uncertain
whether he ought to preserve distinctness of
character, or render more perceptible the rela
tive height of mountains. One of the most
beautiful maps which was ever published in
France *, the one drawn up in the war-depot in
1804, sufficiently proves how difficult it is to
reconcile two opposite interests, the interest of
the geologist and that of the astronomer. The
fear of giving too great an extent to my work,
and the difficulties attending the publication of
an atlas of which no government defrays the
expense, made me abandon a project which I
had once formed of joining to each section of
territory a physical map in a horizontal pro
jection. * We have discussed in the eighth chapter the extraordi
nary regularity in the position of the Mexican volcanoes. I
am uncertain as to the longitude of the Pic de Tancitaro,
which has been twice surveyed from a distance. I fear some
error has crept in at copying the angles ; but the latitude of
this Pic is sure enough to within about eight minutes.

xc

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

II. MAP OF NEW SPAIN AND THE CONTER
MINOUS COUNTRIES ON THE NORTH
AND EAST.
I have already explained the motives by which
I was induced to curtail my large map of New
Spain within too narrow limits for representing,
on the same plate, the whole extent of the king
dom from New California to the intendancy of
Merida. The second map is destined to remedy
this inconvenience. It shows at once, not only
all the provinces which depend on the viceroy
of Mexico and the two commandants of the
provincias internas, but also the island of Cuba,
whose capital may be considered as the military
port of New Spain, Louisiana, and the Atlantic
part of the United States. This map was drawn
up by M. Poirson, an able engineer of Paris,
from materials furnished to him by M. Oltmanns
and me. It embraces the immense extent com
prehended between the 15° and 42° of latitude,
and the 75° and 130° of longitude. At first I
meant to extend this map to the south as far as
the mouth of the Rio San Juan, for the sake of
indicating different canals, of which the construc
tion was proposed to the court of Madrid, and
which would serve to establish the communica
tion between the two seas, to be discussed in the

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xci
second chapter of this work. But on perceiving
that the peninsula of Yucatan, and the coast of
Monterey, would not be represented with the de
velopement which they deserved, I chose rather
to preserve a larger scale, and to extend my map
no farther south than the gulf of Honduras.
The principal part, that which comprehends
the kingdom of New Spain, is a faithful copy of
my large map, of which I have given an analysis.
The Yucatan was added from the map of the
gulf of Mexico, published by the Deposito Hy
drografico of Madrid. New California was taken
from the atlas which accompanies the account of
the voyage ofthe corvettes Sutil and Mexicana,
and from a memoir of M. Espinosa, printed in
1806, entitled, Memoria sobre las observaciones
astronomicas que han servido de fundamento a las
cartas de la costa N. O. de America, publicadas
por la direccion de trdbajos hidrogrqficos. When
this memoir gave different results from those con
tained in the Relation del viage a Fuca, they were
preferred as founded on more solid bases. * The
* I have placed Monterey in latitude 36° 35' 45", and lon
gitude 124° 12' 23", and Cape S. Lucas in latitude 22° 52' 33",
longitude 1 1 2° 1 4' 30". The longitude of Monterey, which I
have definitively adopted with M. Espinosa, differs less from
that of Vancouver than the result published by M. Antillon.
The difference between the opinion of the Spanish navigator
and that of the English navigator is only an arc of 18', as
already stated. (Here it is of importance to observe, that
the commencement of this geographical introduction, from

xcii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
work of M. Espinosa served me also for the
small group of islands, named by M. Collnett
the archipelago of Revillagigedo, in honour of a
Mexican viceroy.
The islands of San Benedicto, Socorro, Rocca
partida and Santa Rosa, situated between the
18° and 20° of latitude, were discovered by the
Spanish navigators in the commencement of the
"sixteenth century. Hernando de Grixalva dis
covered in 1533 the island of Santa Tomas, now
named Isle del Socorro. In 1542, Ruy Lopez
de Villalobos landed on a small island, to which
he gave the name of la Nublada. He indicated
very well its true distance from the island of
Santa Tomas. This Nublada of Villalobos is
now called San Benedicto. It is not so certain
that the Rocca partida of the same navigator is
the island of Santa Rosa of the modern hydro-
graphers, for the greatest confusion prevails as
to the position of this rock. Juan Gaetan*
places it even two hundred leagues to the west
of the island of Santa Tomas.
This last island is marked at 19° 45' of latitude,
and as a shallow of thirty -six miles in length, on
the map of Domingo de Castillo drawn up in

p. i. to p. xxxiii., was composed at Berlin in the month of
September, 1807, and that the remainder was published in
the spring of 1809.)
* Ramusio, t. i. p. 375. (edition of Venice, 161-3.)

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xciii
1541, and found in the archives of the family of
Cortez at Mexico. Since that time the group of
islands of Revillagigedo has only been thrice
seen ; namely, by the pilot Don Josef Camacho,
in 1779, in a navigation from San Bias to New
California ; by captain Don Alonzo de Torres,
in 1792, in a voyage from Acapulco to San Bias ;
and, lastly, by M. Collnett* in 1793. The ob
servations of these three navigators are extremely
discordant. Yet it would appear that M. Coll
nett has fixed exactly enough the position ofthe
Isle del Socorro, from several series of distances
of the moon from the sun. It is from these
same distances, calculated by Mason's tables, that
the whole group of islands has been thrown too
far east.
As to the countries conterminous with New
Spain, we have used for Louisiana the fine map of
the engineer Lafond ; andfor the United States the
map of Arrowsmith, rectified from the observa
tions of Rittenhouse, Ferrer, and Ellicott. The
positions of New York and Lancaster were dis-
* Collnett's voyage to the South Sea, p-. 107. M. Collnett
finds the latitude of Cape San Lucas 22° 45', and the longi
tude 112° 2C 15". This latitude appears to be nearly seven
minutes false ! The mountain of San Lazaro, whose position
is fixed by M. Collnett at 25° 15' of latitude, and 1 14° 40' 15"
(p. 92. and 94.) is undoubtedly not the same as that which
Ulloa called, in 1539, Cape of San Abad, and which I have
placed (after M. Espinosa) in 24° 47' latitude, and 1 14° 42' 30"
longitude.

xciv GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
cussed by M. Oltmanns in a scientific memoir in
serted in the second volume of my collection of
Astronomical Observations, p. 92. The same
work contains the materials which have served for
the island of Cuba. It would be superfluous to
enter into greater details on a part which is
merely an accessory of this map. Several points
situated in the interior of the island of Cuba, and
on the southern coast, between the ports of Bata
bano and Trinidad, were fixed by the astronomi
cal observations which I made there, in 1801,
before my departure for Carthagena.
III. MAP OF THE VALLEY OF MEXICO, OR,
THE ANCIENT TENOCHTITLAN.
Few countries inspire so varied an interest as the
valley of Tenochtitlan. It is the site of an ancient
civilization of American people. Recollections,
the most affecting, are associated, not only with
the city of Mexico, but with more ancient monu
ments, the pyramids of Teotihuacan, dedicated to
the sun and moon, of which a description will be
given in the third book of this work. Those who
have studied the history of the conquest, delight
to trace the military positions of Cortez, and ofthe
Tlascaltec army. The naturalist contemplates
with interest the immense elevation of the Mexi
can soil, and the extraordinary form of a chain
of porphyritic and basaltic mountains, which sur-

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xcv
round the valley like a circular wall. He per
ceives that the whole valley is as the bottom of a
dried-up lake. The basins of fresh and salt
water which fill the centre of the plain ; and the
five marshes of Zumpango, San Christobal, Tez
cuco, Xochimilco, and Chalco, are to the eye of
the geologist the small remains of a great mass
of water, which formerly covered the whole valley
of Tenochtitlan. The works undertaken for the
preservation of the capital from the danger of
inundations, if they do not offer to the engineer
or hydraulic architect models for imitation, are
at least objects worthy of fixing his attention.*
Notwithstanding the interest which this country
offers in the triple relation of history, geology,
and hydraulic architecture, there exists no map
from the inspection of which any idea can be
conceived of the true form of the valley. The
plan ofthe environs of Mexico, published at Ma
drid by Lopez in 1785, and that of the Guia de
Foresteros de Mexico, are founded on an old plan
of Siguenza, drawn up in the seventeenth century.
These sketches certainly do not merit the name of

* See what I afterwards say on the position of the old city
of Mexico; on the pyramids of Teotihuacan ; on the position
of the lakes ; on the artificial canal (Desague) by which the
waters of the valley are drawn off into the gulf of Mexico, on
the two plains of Cholula and Toluca, of which a part is also
comprised in my map of the valley of Tenochtitlan, chap.
VIII.

xcvi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
topographical maps ; for they neither represent
the actual situation of the capital, nor the state
of the lakes in the time of Montezuma.
The plan of Siguenza, which is only twenty-one
centimetres by sixteen*, is entitled, Mapa de las
aguas que per el circulo de noventa leguas vienen
a la laguna de Tezcuco, delineado por Don Carlos
de Siguenza y Gongora, reimpreso en Mexico con
algitnas adiciones en YjS6,por Don Joseph Alzate.
The scale of latitudes and longitudes attached by
M. Alzate to this plan of Siguenza is defective
in construction to the extent of more than an arc
of three minutes. The absolute longitude ofthe
city, asserted by the learned Mexican to be the
result of twenty-one observations of satellites of
Jupiter, andbelievedbyhimtohavebeen approved
of and verified by the Academy of Sciences at
Paris, is a degree false. This plan of M. Alzate
has been servilely copied by all the geographers
who have attempted to publish maps of the val
ley of Mexico. It gives the direct distance.
a From the summit of the volcano of Popo
catepetl to the village of Tesayuca, situated at
the northern extremity of the valley, an equato
rial arc of 1° 1'. (True distance 0° 53'.)
b From the centre of the city of Mexico to
Huehuetoca, where the canal for the discharge of
thelakescommences,0°32'. (True distance 0° 23'.)
* Eight inches by six. Trans,

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

c From Mexico to Chiconautla, 0° 20'. (True
distance 0° 15'.)
d From tlie rock (Peiiol) de los Banos to Zum
pango, 0° 12'. (True distance 0°21'.)
e From the Peiiol de los Banos to San Christo
bal, 0° 13'. (True distance 0° 8'.)
./From the village of Tehuiloyuca to Tezcuco
0° 29'. (True distance 0" 21'.)
Here are errors of 16,000, even of 20,000 *
metres, in distances which M. Velasquez, in a
geodesical operation in 1773> had measured with
great accuracy, and as to which there does not
remain a doubt of a hundred metres, t And yet
M. Alzate might have availed himself of the tri
angles of Velasquez, as was done by Don Luis
Martin, M. Oltmanns, and myself in construct
ing the map which is inserted in this work. I
made no astronomical observation at Pachuca,
but I did so at the Real de Meran, whose latitude
is greater than that of Pachuca. I found the
latitude of Moran 20° 10' 4", and yet M. Alzate
makes Pachuca 20° 14'. The old city of Tula is
placed in his map too far north by nearly a
quarter of a degree.
The plan of M. Mascaro, published in the Guia
de Mexico (Mapa de las cercanias de Mexico) is
only fourteen centimetres by ten X, consequently
* About twelve miles and a half. Trans.
t About 109 yards. Trans.
\ About five inches and a half by four. Trans.
VOL. I. H

xcviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
it is about twelve times smaller than the one an
nexed to this work. Itmay be considered as a copy
of the plan of Siguenza and Alzate. The north
ern part of the valley has, however, been some
what straitened. The summit of the volcano of
Popocatepetl is distant from Huehuetoca, accord
ing to Father Alzate, 1° 14'; and according to M.
Mascaro 1° 11'. The true distance is 1° 1', which
results from connecting, by the triangles of Ve
lasquez, Huehuetoca with the rock de los Banos,
and this rock, by my astronomical observations,
and by several azimuths, with the volcano of Po
pocatepetl and the pyramid of Cholula.
There exist maps, according to which the
waters of the lakes adjoining the city of Mexico
do not run north-east towards the gulf of Mexico,
as is really the case, but north-west to the South
Sea. This error is to be found along with many
others in the map of North America, published at
London by M. Bower, geographer to the king.
On my arrival at Mexico in the spring of the
year 1800, 1 conceived the project of drawing up
a map ofthe valley of Tenochtitlan. I proposed
to fix my astronomical observations, the limits of
this valley, which has the form of a lengthened
oval. I took besides a great number of angles
of positions, from the tower of the cathedral of
Mexico, the summit of the porphyry hills of
Chapoltepec, and the Penol de los Banos, the
Venta de Chalco, the summit of the mountain
of Chicle, Huehuetoca, and Tissayuca. The

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xcix
position of the two volcanos of la Puebla and the
peak of Axuseo was determined by a particular
hypsometrical method, that is to say, by angles
of latitude and azimuths. Having very little time
to bestow on this work, I could not flatter myself
with bringing together in my map the great
number of small Indian villages, with which the
banks of the lakes are covered. My principal aim
was carefully to ascertain the form ofthe valley,
and to draw up the physical map of a country in
which I had measured a great number of eleva
tions by means of the barometer.
Circumstances of a favourable nature have en
abled me to publish a topographical map from
accurate materials. A respectable character, who,
by a union rarely to be found in any country, pos
sesses with a large fortune a strong love for the
sciences, M. Don Jose Maria Fagoaga, wished to
leave me a precious memorial of his country, in
giving me at my departure from Mexico the
sketch of a plan ofthe valley. On his invitation,
one of my friends, Don Luis Martin, as good a
mineralogist as he is an able engineer, drew up a
map from the geodesical operations carried on at
different times between the city of Mexico andthe
village of Huehuetoca, on account of the canals
of Tezcuco, San Christobal, and Zumpango. M.
Martin joined to these materials a part ofthe sur
veys communicated to him by me, in subjecting
the delineation to the astronomical observations
h 2

c GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
made by me at the extremities of the valley. The
numerous excursions which he had undertaken
from a zeal for geology, enabled him to express,
with a great deal of truth, the form and the re
lative height ofthe mountains which separate the
plain of Mexico from those of Tula, Puebla, and
Cuernavaca. This map, which I owe to the obliging friendship
of M. de Fagoaga, is not, however, the one which
is inserted in this work. On examining and com
paring it carefully, both with the triangulation of
M. Velasquez, the detail of which I possess in an
original manuscript, and with the table of astrono
mical positions ascertained by my observations, I
perceived that the eastern bank of the Lake of Tez
cuco, and the whole northern part of the valley,
required considerable alterations. M. Martin him
self discovered the inaccuracy of his first sketch,
and I engaged M. Oltmanns to reconstruct under
his eye the map of the valley from the materials
which I had collected. Every point was separate
ly discussed; and when several surveys disagreed
with one another, the mean term was adopted.
The following is the chain ofthe triangles mea
sured by M. Velasquez, in 1773, from the rock of
the baths (Periol de los Banos), near the city of
Mexico to the mountain of Sincoque, to the north
of Huehuetoca. The angles were measured with
an excellent English theodolite of ten inches di
ameter, provided with two glasses of twenty-eight
inches in length.

X

Number of the
Triangles.

Names of the Stations.

II.

III.

IV.

I

A.B.C.A BC

Garita de Guadalupe
Garita de Peralvillo
Cumbre del Penol
Garita de Paralvillo
Cumbre del Peiiol
San Miguel de Guadalupe
San Miguel de Guadalupe
Cumbre del Peiiol
Tezcuco ...
Cumbre del Penol
TezcucoCruzes del Cerro de S. Christobal
Tezcuco
Cruzes del Cerro de S. Christobal
Creston de Chiconautla

An

des

observed.

57°

42'

84°

57'

37°

21'

81°

27'

40°

44'

57°

49'

62°

25'

103°

31'

14°

4'

61°

35'

46°

25;

72°

0'

35°

1'

57°

19'

87°

40'

Reduced distances (in Mexican varas-
of which 2.32258 make a toise.)
Note, a toise is equal to 76.7862
inches. Trans.

O w
8>
o >

From A to B
From B to C
From A to C
From A to C
From B to C

- -

4474 6233 7346
4806
7283

From A to C
From B to C

- .

29136 26560

J— i
2;H
o

From A to C
From B to C

- -

20229 24562

O
no H
O 25

From A to C
From B to C
- -
20694 14100
Number ofthe
Triangles.

Names of the Stations.

Angles
observed.

VI.

n

Creston de Chiconautla -
Cruzes del Cerro de S. Christobal
Xaltocan - -

76° 35'
53° 3'
50° 22'

VII.

II

Creston de Chiconautla ...
Cruzes del Cerro de S. Christobal
Hacienda de Santa Iiies - -

59° 47'
76° 8'
44° 5'

VIII.

ii

Cruzes del Cerro de S. Christobal
Hacienda de Santa Iiies ...
Xaltocan ...

23° 5'
80° 46'
76° 9'

IX.

ii

Xaltocan -
Hacienda de Santa Iiies
Zumpango - - -

65° 19'
71° 30'
36° 11'

x.

ii

Zumpango - ....
Hacienda de Santa Iiies ...
Tehuiloyuca ....

49° 34'
74° 46'
55° 40'

Reduced distances (in Mexican varas,
of which 2.32258 make a toise.)
Note, a toise is equal to 76.7862
inches. Trans.

O

o
From A to C
From B to C
From A to C
From B to C
-
-
14631 17809
19677
17513
o Pi> Xt— 1
o>
From A to C
From B to C
-
-
17809 7072
PiOOCO Ho
From A to C
From B to C
"
-
1173810884
From A to C
From B to C
-
-
12718 10033
Number ofthe
Triangles.

Names of the Stations.

XL

XII.

XIII.

XIV.

A. B.C.A.B. C.
A.
B. C.
I A" B. C.

Zumpango
TehuiloyucaSincoque (Cerro de)
Tehuiloyuca SincoqueHacienda de Xalpa
Hacienda de Xalpa
Sincoque
Loma de! Potrero
Loma del Potrero
Sincoque Puente del Salto

Angles

observed.

57°

12'

85°

30'

37°

17'

24°

30'

29°

43'

125°

47'

32°

19'

101°

44'

47°

57'

113°

50'

37°

50'

28°

20'

Reduced distances (in Mexican varas.
of which 2.32258 make a toise.)
Note, a toise is equal to 76.7862
inches. Trans.

From A to C
From B to C

From A to C
From B to C

From A to C
From B to C

From A to C
From B to C

20927 17647

10783 9020

12288 6709

8072

O wo
oPi>S3i— i
o >r<p— i
2JH Pi
Oa
a o H o •z

civ GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
M. Velasquez measured two bases, the one of
37024 Mexican varas in the plain, frequently in
undated, which separates the village of San Chris
tobal, and the hill of Chiconautla; and the other
of 4474 varas on the causeway which leads from
the capital to the sanctuary of S. Miguel de Gua
dalupe. The second base was even measured
twice. In resolving successively the series of tri
angles according to these values, we shall find the
direct distance from the cross ofthe mountain of
San Christobal to the crest (Creston) ofthe Loma
de Chiconautla. One of the bases gives for tins
distance 14099 varas, another gives 14101. The
third triangle and the three last have each an ob
tuse angle, but in these same triangles an error of
a minute in the sharpest angle would but pro
duce a difference of three or four varas on the
length of the sides. Hence this operation is very
valuable for the topography of Tenochtitlan.
Particular signs indicate on my map the posi
tions which are founded on the triangulation of
M. Velasquez, and those which I determined as
tronomically. We have added the results of my
measurements with the barometer, calculated ac
cording to the co-efficient of M. Ramond. To
facilitate the use ofthe map to those who study
the history of the conquest, I have placed the an
cient Mexican names beside the names at present
in use. I have endeavoured to be very exact in
the Azteque orthography, following only Mexi-

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cv
can authors, and not the works of Solis, Robert
son, Raynal, and Pauw, who disfigure the names
of cities and provinces, like those of the kings of
Anahuac.
IV. MAP, EXHIBITING THE POINTS WHERE
COMMUNICATIONS HAVE BEEN PROJECTED
BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN AND SOUTH-
SEA. This map was drawn up for the sake of offer
ing to the eye of the reader in one view the nine
points which present means of communication
between the two oceans. It will serve to explain
what I have said in the second chapter of the
first book. I have represented in nine assembled
sketches the points of separation between the
Ounigigah and the Tacoutche-Tesse, and those
between the Rio Colorado and the Rio del Norte j
the isthmuses of Tehuantepec, Nicaragua, Pa
nama, and Cupica ; the river of Guallaga, and
the gulf of S. George ; and lastly, the ravin from
the Raspadura to the Choco, by which, since
1788, boats have passed from the Pacific to the
Atlantic Ocean. The most interesting sketches
are those ofthe small canal of derivation from the
Raspadura and the isthmus of Tehuantepec. I
have traced the course of the rivers Huasacualco
(Guasacualco) and Chimalapa from materials
which I found in the archives of the viceroyalty
of Mexico, and particularly from the plans of the

cvi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
engineers Don Miguel del Coral and Don Au-
gustin Cramer, whom the viceroy Revillagigedo
sent to the spot. The distances were- rectified
by itineraries very recently drawn up since the
indigo of Guatimala came to pass through the
forest of Tarifa, which is a new road opened to
the commerce of Vera Cruz.
V. PLAN OF THE PORT OF VERA CRUZ.
This work would undoubtedly appear incorn.
plete, if it did not contain the plan of the port
from which all the Mexican wealth flows into
Europe. To this day Vera Cruz is the only port
which can receive European vessels of war. The
plan which I publish is an exact copy of the one
drawn up in 1798 by M. Orta, captain ofthe port
of Vera Cruz. I have diminished the scale by
one half, and added a few notes on the longitude,
winds, atmospheric tides, and on the quantity of
rairi which falls annually. The mere sight of
this plan proves the difficulty of every military
attack against a country, which on its eastern
coast offers no other shelter to vessels than a
dangerous anchorage among shallows.
The double lines drawn on the plan of the port
indicate the direction which vessels intending to
anchor ought to follow. Whenever the pilot dis
covers the edifices of Vera Cruz, he should take
care that the tower of the church of St. Francis

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cvii
cover the tower ofthe cathedral. He will con
tinue this route till the salient angle ofthe bastion
of S. Crispin appear behind the bastion of St.
Peter. He should then tack to the larboard,
placing the prow towards the Isle of Sacrifices.
Buoys (pahs de marca) have been placed on the
shallow of la Gallega near the point of the Sol-
dado, to avoid the two dangerous rocks, called
Laxa de Fuera and de Dentro.

VI. PHYSICAL VIEW OF THE ORIENTAL DE
CLIVITY OF THE TABLE LAND OF ANAHUAC.
The horizontal projections known by the name
of geographical maps, give but a very imperfect
ideaof the inequalities of surface and physiognomy
of a country. The undulations of the surface
(mouvemens du terrain), the form of the moun
tains, their relative height, and the rapidity ofthe
declivities, can only be completely represented in
vertical sections. A map drawn up on the in
genious plan of M. Clerc * supplies to a certain
* This learned geographical engineer, who presides over
topography in the Ecole Polytechnique, possesses in an eminent
manner the talent of representing the figure of a country.
Nobody ever reflected more than he has done on the means
of expressing undulations of surface, and a work which he
means to publish on the construction of maps, and on the
construction of relievos, will form an sera in the history of
topography.

cviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
degree the place of a relievo ; and lines drawn on
a plane which has but two dimensions may pro
duce the same effect as a model in relievo, if the
extent of ground represented is not two great, and
if it is thoroughly known in all its parts. But the
difficulties are almost insurmountable when the
horizontal projection embraces a hilly country
of a surface of several thousand square leagues.
In the most inhabited region of Europe, for
example, in France, Germany, or England, the
plains which are the seat of cultivation are only
elevated, in general, a hundred*, or two hundred
metres t above one another. Their absolute
heights are too inconsiderable to have any sensi
ble influence on the climate. X Hence an accu
rate knowledge of these elevationsis much less in
teresting to the cultivator than to the naturalist ; —
and hence also, in the maps of Europe, the geo
graphers merely indicate the most elevated chains
* About 328 feet. Trans.
f About 656 feet. Trans.
X The interior of Spain presents a very striking exception ;
the soil of the Castiles in the environs of Madrid being six
hundred metres of absolute elevation {about 1960 feet.) See
my memoir on the configuration of the soil of Spain, inserted
in the itinerary of M. Alexandre de Laborde, T. I. p. cxlvii.
cxvi. From the data contained in that memoir, the small
geological map attached to the interesting Rapport sur I'im-
portation des Merinos,par M. Poyferede Cere, 1809, was drawn
up. It is to be regretted, however, that this map was not
drawn up in all its parts according to the same scale of
elevation.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cix
of mountains. But in the equinoxial region of
the new continent, particularly in the kingdoms
of New Grenada, Quito, and Mexico, the tem
perature ofthe atmosphere, its state of dryness or
humidity, the kind of cultivation followed by the
inhabitants, all depend on the enormous eleva
tion of the plains which stretch along the ridges
ofthe Cordilleras. The geological constitution
of these countries is an object equally important
for the statesman and the naturalist ; from
whence it follows that the imperfection of our
graphical methods is much more sensible in a
map of New Spain than in a map of France.
Hence, to give a complete idea of the countries
examined by me, of which the soil possesses so
extraordinary a configuration, I have been com
pelled to recur to methods hitherto unattempted
by geographers, because the most simple ideas
are usually those which occur t;he last.
I have represented whole countries, vast ex
tents of territory in vertical projections, in the
manner in which the section of a mine or canal
is drawn.* The principles on which similar
physical views ought to be constructed are de
tailed in my Essay on geological pasigraphy. As

* The first attempt made by me in this way was the phy
sical map of the river de la Madaleine, engraved, in 1801,
against my will at Madrid. See my Recueil d 'Observations
astronomiques, vol. i. p. 370.

ex GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
the places of which it is important to know the
absolute height are rarely to be found on the
same line, the section is composed of several
planes which differ in their direction, or rather
of one plane which exhibits the average parallel
line of direction on which the perpendiculars fall.
In the last case the distances exhibited by the
physical map differ from the absolute distances,
particularly when the mean direction of the
points whose height and position have been de
termined deviates considerably from the direc
tion ofthe plane of projection.
In sections of whole countries, as in sections
of canals, the scale of distances cannot be equal
to the scale of elevations. If we were to attempt
to give the same magnitude to these scales, we
should be forced either to make the drawings of
an immoderate length, or to adopt a scale of
elevations so small that the most remarkable in
equalities of the soil would become insensible.
I have indicated on the plate by two arrows the
heights which the Chimborazo and the city of
Mexico would have, if the physical view were
subjected to the same standard in all its dimen
sions. We see that in this case an elevation of
500 metres* would not occupy in the drawing
more than the space of a millimetre, t But in
employing for itinerary distances the scale of
* About 1640 feet. Trans.
\ .03937 of an inch. Trans.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION- cxi
elevations exhibited in the plates vi, vn, vm,
which is nearly 270 metres* to the centimetre t,
a plate would be requisite of more than 15
metres X in length, to represent the extent of
country comprised between the meridians of
Mexico and Vera Cruz ! Hence from this in
equality of scales, my physical maps, as well as
the sections of canals and roads, drawn up by
engineers, do not exhibit the true declinations
of the soil, but these declinations, according to
the nature of the projections employed, appear
more rapid in the designs than they are in nature. §
This inconvenience is increased if the plains of a
great elevation are of very small extent, or if they
are separated by deep and narrow vallies. It is
from the proportion which the scales of distance
and elevation bear to one another that the effect
produced by the section of a country principally
depends. I shall not enter here into a minute
discussion of the principles followed by me in this
kind of map. Every graphical method should be
subject to rules, and it appeared to me so much
the more necessary to point out some of these
rules in this place, as the imitations of my views
recently published are arbitrary projections on
planes abounding with curves, of which nothing
* About 885 feet. Trans.
+ .39371 of an inch. Trans.
X About 55 feet. Trans.
§ See my Essai sur la geographic des plantes, p. 53.

cxii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
indicates the direction in relation to the great
circles ofthe sphere.
Physical maps in vertical projections can only
be constructed on knowing, for the points through
which the plan of projection passes, the three co
ordinates of longitude, latitude, and elevation
above the level of the ocean ; and it is only in
uniting barometrical measurements with the re
sults of astronomical observations that the section
of a country can be drawn. This kind of projec
tion will become more frequent in proportion as
travellers shall addict themselves more assiduous
ly to barometrical observations. But few pro
vinces of Europe at this day offer the necessary
materials for constructing views analogous to
those published by me of equinoxial America.
The construction ofthe sections, plates vi,vii,
viii, are absolutely uniform. The scales are the
same in all the three views j the scales of distance
are to those of height nearly as one to twenty-
four. The three maps indicate the nature of
the rocks which compose the surface of the soil.
This knowledge is interesting to agriculturists ;
and it is also useful to engineers1 employed in
constructing roads or canals.
I have been blamed for not exhibiting in these
sections the superposition or situation of the se
condary or primitive strata, their inclination or
their direction. I had particular reasons for not
indicating these phenomena. I possess in my

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cxiii
itineraries all the necessary geological materials
for forming what are usually called mineralogical
maps. A great number of these materials were
published by me in my recent work on the mea
surement ofthe Cordillera of the Andes ; but on
mature examination I adopted the resolution of
separating entirely the geological sections which
display the superposition of rocks from ,the phy
sical views which indicate inequalities of surface.
It is very difficult, I had almost said impossible,
to construct a geological section of an extensive
country, if this section must be subjected to a
scale of elevation. A stratum of gypsum of one
metre* thick is often more interesting to a geo
logist than an enormous mass of amygdaloid or
porphyry ; for the existence of these very slender
strata, and the manner in which they lie,, throw
light on the relative antiquity of formations.
How then shall we trace the section of entire
provinces, if the magnitude ofthe scale is to be
such as to exhibit masses so inconsiderable ? How
shall we indicate in a narrow valley, in that of
Papagayo, for example, (Plate vn.) in a space
of one t. or two millimetres, of breadth, which
the valley occupies in the drawing, the different
formations which repose on one another ? Those
who have reflected on graphical methods, L and
endeavoured to improve them, will feel, like
* 39,371 inches. Trans.
\ A millimetre contains .03937 of an inch. Trans.
VOL. I. I

cxiv GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
myself, that these methods can never unite every
advantage. A map, for instance, overcharged
with signs, becomes confused, and loses its prin
cipal advantage, the power of conveying at once
a great number of relations. The nature of the
rocks and their mutual superposition interest
the geologist much more than the absolute
elevation of formations and thickness of strata.
It is sufficient if a geological section expresses
the general aspect of the country, and it is only
in freeing it from scales of height and distance
that it can indicate luminously the phenomena
of stratification, which it is of importance for
geologists to know.
The physical view of the eastern declivity of
New Spain is composed of three sections, which
I have distinguished by different colours. The
cities of Mexico, and la Puebla de los Angeles,
and the small hamlet of Cruz Blanea, situated
between Perote and las Vigas, are the points in
which the intersection of the three planes of pro
jection is made. I have added the longitude and
latitude of these points, the medium direction of
each section, and its length in French leagues of
twenty-five to the degree.
The two great volcanos on the east ofthe valley
of Tenochtitlan, the Pic d'Orizaba, and the Coffre
de Perote, were placed in the drawing according
to their true longitudes. We have represented
them as they appear when a thick fog covers their

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cxv
base, and when their summits are seen above the
clouds. Notwithstanding the enormous breadth
of these colossal mountains, we have not dared to
represent their whole contours, on account ofthe
great inequality of the scales of height and dis
tance. These volcanos would have disfigured the
view, rising like so many slender columns above
the plain. I have endeavoured to represent very
exactly the strange form, I had almost said the
particular physiognomy, of the four great moun
tains ofthe Cordillera of Anahuac ; and I flatter
myself that those who travelled from Vera Cruz
to Mexico, and who have been struck with the
wonderful aspect of these majestic mountains,
will perceive that the contours are exhibited with
precision in this plate, and in No. ix. and x.
That the reader may fix in his mind some im
portant facts of physical geography, we have
marked on the two sides of the views, near the
scales of elevation, the height ofthe Chimborazo,
andof several mountains ofthe AlpsandPyrenees;
that of the limit of perpetual snows under the
equator, under the parallel of Quito, and the 45°
of latitude ; the middle temperature of the air at
the foot and on the slope of the Cordilleras ; and
lastly, the elevations at which certain Mexican
plants begin to be seen, or cease to vegetate in the
mountainous partof the country. Several of these
phenomena are even repeated in all the maps ; a
repetition analogous to what all the thermometer
i-2

cxvi GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
scales formerly exhibited, which indicated, though
very inaccurately, the maximum and minimum of
temperature observed under such or such a zone.
I believed that these sections, which have some
analogy with the large view in my geography of
Plants, might perhaps contribute to propagate
the study of the natural history of the globe.

VII. PHYSICAL VIEW OF THE WESTERN
DECLIVITY OF THE TABLE-LAND OF
NEW SPAIN.
This andthe preceding view, and the section of
the valley of Tenochtitlan (Plate viii.) are drawn
up all three according to the principles laid down
by me in discussing the section of the eastern slope
of the Cordilleras. I have framed on the same
scale Plates vn. and vni., that they may all be
united at pleasure into one, which will then extend
from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea, and
which will develope to the geologist the extra
ordinary conformation of the whole country.
It may be necessary to observe to those who
wish to unite the sections vn. and viii., in cutting
the two vertical scales on which the heights of
Puy-de-D6me and Vesuvius are marked, that the
planes of proj ection of these sections intersect each
other almost at right angles, in the centre of the
city of Mexico. The medium direction of the
first section, which is itself composed of different
10

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cxv
planes, is from east to west : the medium direc
tion of the second, the road from Mexico to Aca
pulco, is from S.S.W. to N.N. W. The prolonga
tion of the first section would extend nearly
by Pascuaro and Zapotlan, to the Villa de la
Purificacion. This plane prolonged to the west
would terminate on the shores of the South Sea,
between Cape Corrientes, and the port de laNavi-
dad. As New Spain swells out singularly in this
western direction, it would follow that the de
scent of the Cordillera, from the valley of Te
nochtitlan to the plains of the intendancy of
Guadalaxara, would be twice the length of the
road from Mexico to Acapulco, sketched in plate
vn. The barometrical measurements which I
made between Valladolid, Pascuaro, Ario, and
Ocambaro, prove, that in tracing his transversal
section in the direction ofthe parallels of 19 or
20 degrees, the central plain would preserve the
great elevation of 2000 * metres for more than
sixty leagues to the west of the city of Mexico,
while, in the direction of the section, No. vn.,
the plane never reaches this elevation, after leav
ing the valley of Tenochtitlan towards the S.S.W.
Yet a section directed from east to west, from
Vera Cruz to the small port de la Navidad, is far
from giving a juster idea ofthe geological consti
tution of New Spain than the reunion of my two
* 6560 feet. Trans.
i 3

cxviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
sections, No.vn. and vm. A simple consideration
ofthe true direction ofthe Cordillera of Anahuac
is sufficient to prove what I advance. The cen
tral chain of the mountains runs from the pro
vince of Oaxaca to that of Durango, from the
S.E. to the N.W. ; consequently, the plane of
projection, to be perpendicular to the longitudi
nal axis of the Cordillera, should not be placed
parallel to the equator, but drawn from the N.E.
to the S.W. By reflecting on the particular
structure and limits of the group of mountains,
in the neighbourhood of the capital of Mexico,
we shall find that the reunion ofthe two sections,
No. vn. and vm., gives a less imperfect represen
tation of the conformation of the country than
we should be tempted to believe from purely
theoretical ideas. In this mountainous region,
between the 19° and 20° of latitude, nothing an
nounced a longitudinal crest. There are none
of those parallel chains which geologists always
admit in their works, and which geographers re
present in the most arbitrary manner, in their
maps of the two continents, like ranges of ele
vated dikes. The Cordillera of Anahuac in
creases towards the north, from whence the in
clined planes formed by the eastern and western ,
declivities are not parallel to one another in their
middle direction. This direction is almost N.
and S. along the coast of the gulf of Mexico,
while it is S.E. and N.W. in the declivity oppo-

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cxix
site the Great Ocean. Hence the sections^ to
be perpendicular to the lines of declivity, can
not be in the same plane of projection.
VIII. PHYSICAL VIEW OF THE CENTRAL
TABLE-LAND OF NEW SPAIN.
The section of the road leading from Mexico
to the mines of Guanaxuato, the richest of the
known world, was drawn up under my eye at
Mexico, by M. Raphael Davalos*, a pupil of the
school of mines, and a very zealous young man.
This drawing displays to the naturalist the great
elevation of the table-land of Anahuac, which
extends to the north much beyond the torrid
zone. The extraordinary configuration of the
Mexican soil recalls the elevated plains of central
Asia. It would be interesting to continue my
section from Guanaxuato to Durango and Chi
huahua, particularly to Sante Fe in New Mexico.
For the table-land of Anahuac, as we shall here
after prove t, preserves towards the north for an
extent of more than two hundred leagues more
* M. Davalos, as well as M. Juan Jose Rodriguez, a native
ofthe Parral, in the provincias internas, and well informed in
physical science, were so good as to assist me for several
months in the construction of a great number of geological
maps which will be afterwards published. I am pleased to have
an opportunity of giving a public testimony of my gratitude
to gentlemen so distinguished for their talents and application.
f Book I. and book III.
I 4

cxx GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
than 2000*, and for an extent of five hundred
leagues more than 800t metres of absolute eleva
tion.
IX. PICTURESQUE VIEW OF THE VOL
CANOS OF MEXICO OR LA PUEBLA.
This plate and the immediately following one
were destined at first to appear in the physical
atlas, which will accompany the historical account
of my travels in the equinoxial regions. I mean to
unite in that atlas such sketches as will show the
physiognomy of the colossal summits which crown
the ridge of the Cordilleras, and form as it were
their crest. I thought, that these contours, com
pared with those in the excellent itinerary of M.
Ebel, or the beautiful drawings of M. Osterwald,
might prove interesting to the geologists who wish
to study comparatively the Alps of Switzerland,
and the Andes Of Mexico and Peru. Though the
object ofthe work which I now publish is more to
describe the territorial riches than the geological
constitution of New Spain, I have thought proper
to add to the Mexican atlas the picturesque views
No. ix. and x., to serve as a supplement to the
map of the valley (Plate in.), and to give a more
lively idea of the beauty of the situation of the
city of Mexico. These same summits, the Popo
catepetl and the Citlaltepetl, the first of which is
* 6560 feet. Trans. 2624 feet. Trans.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cxxi
visible at Mexico and Cholula, and the second at
Cholula and Vera Cruz, served me to verify the
meridian difference of the city of Mexico and the
port of Vera Cruz by a method very advantage
ous, but hitherto little followed ; that of perpen
dicular bases, azimuths, and angles of altitude *.
The city of Mexico is nearer by one half to the
two Nevados de la Puebla than the cities of Bern
and Milan are to the central chain of the Alps.
This great proximity contributes much to give an
awful and majestic aspect to the Mexican vol
canos. The contours of their summits, covered
with eternal snow, appear so much the more
marked, as the air through which the eye receives
the rays is more rare and transparent. The snow
is of a most extraordinary brilliancy, particularly
when it descends from a sky of which the blue is
always deeper than that of the sky which we see
from our plains of the temperate zone. The ob
server finds himself, in the city of Mexico, in a
stratum of air, whose barometrical pressure is only
585 millimetres t. It is easy to conceive, that the
extinction of light must be very trifling in an at
mosphere so little condensed, and that the summit
of theChimborazo, or the Popocatepetl, seen from
the plains of Riobamba or Mexico, must exhibit
* See above, p. xxiii., and my Recueil d' observations astro-
nomiques, vol. i. p. 373-
X Nearly twenty-three inches. Trans.

cxxii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
more distinct contours than if they were seen at
the same distance from the shores of the ocean.
The Iztacdhuatl and the Popocatepetl, of which
the latter has the conical form peculiar to the Co-
topaxi and the Peak of Orizaba, are called in
distinctly in the country the volcanos of la Puebla
or Mexico, because they are equally well distin
guished from these two cities. I have no doubt
that the Iztacdhuatl, which Cardinal Lorenzana
calls Zihualtepec, is an extinguished volcano; but
no Indian tradition goes back to the time when
this mountain, which in its contours resembles the
volcano of Pichincha, vomited forth fire. The same
observation applies to the Nevado de Toluca. The
Spaniards have been in the habit, from the first
times of the conquest, pf naming every insulated
summit volcan, which enters into the region of
perpetual snow. The words Nevado and Volcan
are frequently confounded : I have even heard at
Quito, the strange expressions Volcande Nieveani
Volcan de Fuego *. The Cotopaxi, for example,
is reputed a f re-volcano, because its perodical
eruptions are known, while the Corazon and the
Chimborazo are called snow-volcanos, because the
natives suppose that the fire is concealed in them.
In the kingdom of Guatimala t, and in the Philip*
¦ » Snow-volcano and fire- volcano. Trans.
X " En Goatemala hay dos volcanos, uno de fuego y otro
de agua." (Lorenzana, in a note to the Letters of Cortes.)

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, cxxiii
pine Islands, they call water-volcano s (volcanes de
agua) those which inundate the surrounding
country. From these examples, we may see that
the word volcan, in Spanish maps, is frequently
used in a sense quite different from what is under
stood by it among the other nations of Europe.
M. Don Luis Martin drew the volcanos of la
Puebla as they appear in a clear day from the
Terrace of the School of Mines — (Seminario Real
de Mineria). A justly celebrated artist, who ho
nours me with a particular friendship, M. Gmelin
of Rome, was obliging enough to retouch the
drawing of M. Martin, and my sketch ofthe Pic
d'Orizaba. The contours were nowise altered,
and I have no doubt that the hand of a great
master will easily be perceived in the distribution
of shade as well as in the effect of the chiaro
scuro. It may be useful to observe, that the volcanos
of la Puebla were drawn in the month of Janu
ary, in a season when the inferior limit of perpe
tual snow almost descended to the height of the
summit of the Peak of Teneriffe, or to 3800 me
tres of absolute elevation*. During my stay at
Mexico, I saw such immense falls of snow in the
mountains, that the two volcanos were almost
united by one band of snow. The maximum t
of elevation of the region of snow, which I found
* About 12460 feet. Trans.
X See booki. cap.ii.

cxxiv GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
in the month of November 1803, was nearly 4560
metres *.
The Sierra Nevada, or Iztacdhuatl, is only a
few metres higher than Mount-Blanc ; but the
Popocatepetl surpasses Mount-Blanc 625 me
tres! in height. Besides the plain which extends
from the city of Mexico to the foot of the vol
canos is itself more elevated than the summit of
Mount d'Or, and the famous passages of the
lesser St. Bernard, Mount Cenis, Simplon, and
the ports of Gavarnie and Cavarere.
It was between these two volcanos of la Puebla
that Cortez passed with his troop and six thou
sand Tlascaltecs, on his first expedition against
the city of Mexico. During this severe march,
the valorous Diego Ordaz, to give the natives a
proof of his courage, attempted to reach the sum
mit of the Popocatepetl. Though he did not suc
ceed in his undertaking J, the emperor Charles
V. gave him permission to enter a volcano in his
coat of arms. I will not now agitate the question
which is so often the subject of dispute at Mexico,
namely, whether Francisco Montaiio, after the
taking of the capital, in 1552, drew the sulphur
employed in the fabrication of powder from the

* 14956 feet. Trans.
+ 2050 feet. Trans.
X Cartas de Cortes, p. 318 and 380; Clavigero, III. p. 68.
and 162.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cxxv
crater of Popocatepetl, or from some lateral cre
vice.

X. PICTURESQUE VIEW OF THE PIC D'ORIZABA.
The Pic d'Orizaba, on the position of which
Mr. Arrowsmith and other geographers have
thrown so much confusion in their maps, is as
celebrated among navigators as the Pic of Tene
riffe, the Silla of Caraccas, the Table Mountain,
or the Pic S. Elie. I have drawn it as it ap
pears in the road from Xalappa to the village of
Oatepec (Huatepeque), near the Barro de San
tiago. From this station nothing is discovered but
the part which is covered with perpetual snow.
The first plane of my drawing is a thick forest of
liquidambar styraciflua, melastomes, strawberry
trees, and pipers. It is very remarkable that the
two largest Mexican volcanos, the Popocatepetl
and the Citlaltepetl, have both the crater inclin
ed to the south-east. We. find in general, that
in the equinoxial region of New Spain the moun
tains decline most rapidly towards the gulf of
Mexico, and that the ridges of rocks are most
frequently directed from the N. W. to the S. E.
For the better distinction of active from extin
guished volcanos, I have ventured to add a small
column of smoke to the drawings of the Pic
d'Orizaba and the great volcano of Puebla,
though I never observed any smoke either from

cxxvi

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

Xalappa or Mexico. M. Bompland and my
self saw a mass of ashes and very dense vapours
issue from the mouth ofthe Popocatepetl on the
24th January, 1804, in the plain of Tetimpa,
near San Nicholas de los Ranchos, where we
made a geodesical survey of the volcano. The
Pic of Orizaba, called also by the Indians
Pojauhtecatl or Zeuctepetl, had its strongest
eruptions between 1545 and 1566.
Eight years before my arrival at Mexico M.
Ferrer measured the Citlaltepetl, in taking angles
of altitude at a great distance from the summit
of the volcano, near l'Encero. He gives it, in a
memoir inserted in the transactions ofthe society
of Philadelphia, the height of 5450 metres*.
My measurement makes it 155 metrest lower.
This measurement was taken in a small plain
near Xalappa, where the angle of elevation of
the summit is only 3° 43' 48". However, not
withstanding the extraordinary constancy of re
fractions in the tropics, and notwithstanding all
the care which I took during the, whole course
of the" expedition, I do not entertain the belief
that I have been able to ascertain the height of
a single American mountain, as accurately as
the height of several mountains of Europe were
ascertained by the geodesical operations of MM.
Tralles, Delambre, Zach, and Oriani. It is with
* 17876 feet. Trans. f 508 feet. Trans.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cxxvii
these delicate operations, as with the chemical
analysis of minerals j they are never executed
with great precision, but when we enjoy com
plete tranquillity, and the leisure which a tra
veller can seldom find in distant climates.

XI. PLAN OF THE PORT OF ACAPULCO.
The commerce of New Spain has but two
openings, the ports of Vera Cruz and Acapulco.
By the former the commerce is carried on with
Europe, the coast of Caraccas, the Havannah,
the United States, and Jamaica. The latter is
the central point of the South Sea and Asiatic
commerce. It receives the vessels which come
from the Philippine Islands, Peru, Guayaquil,
Panama, and the north-west coast of North
America. It would be difficult to find two harbours
which exhibit so great a contrast. The port
of Acapulco appears an immense basin, dug by
the hand of man, while the port of Vera Cruz
does not even deserve the name of road. It is
a disagreeable anchorage among shallows.
The plan which I now give of the port of Aca
pulco was never published, though many copies
of it exist in America. It was taken in 1791, by
the officers embarked with Malaspina, in the
corvettes Descubierta and Atrevida. I suppose
that the drawing was executed in the Deposito

cxxviii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
Hydrografico of Madrid. This drawing agrees
very well with another plan of Malaspina, of more
than a metre* in length, which I examined at
Acapulco while I was there in 1803.
The longitude which I assign to the port of
Acapulco is greater than what is adopted in the
Voyage of la Sutil and Mexicana to the Straits of
Fuca. But according to a posterior memoir in
serted in the almanack of Cadiz, the astrono
mers of the Deposito Hydrografico of Madrid now
adopt a position for Acapulco much more west
ern than mine. It is the same with what my
chronometer gave, on reducing Acapulco to
Mexico, and neglecting the lunar distances ob
served on the 27th and 28th of March, 1808.
M. Espinosa found Acapulco west from Paris,
by transference of time from the portof San Blast,
102° 17' 21" ; by two satellites of Jupiter, observ-
* 39,371 inches. Trans.
X It must be remarked, that the longitude of San Bias is
only founded on two celestial observations, a satellite com
pared with the tables, and a lunar eclipse. The results of
these two observations differ in an arc of 5' 1-5". The memoir
of M. Espinosa affords an instructive example of the extreme
prudence requisite in the use of the chronometer, if the chro-
nometrical longitudes be not verified by other observations
purely celestial. In Malaspina's expedition, four of Arnold's
chronometers gave to port Mulgrave, to within 9', the same
longitude of 142° 38' 57"; and yet it has been proved by
lunar distances that the true longitude is 142° 0' 27". The
four chronometers had all changed their diurnal motion at
the same time.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cxxix
ed simultaneously at Greenwich and Paris,
102° 24' 15* ; and by eight satellites compared
with the corrected tables, 102° 15' 47" ; the mean
term of which is 102° 19' 8", the longitude adopt
ed by M. Antillon in the analysis of the map of
America. There were observed, besides, during
the stay of Malaspina's expedition at Acapulco,
in 1791, two stellar eclipses; for which there
were, however, no corresponding observations in
Europe. Captain Don Juan Tiscar calculated
them from the tables of Biirg. He found Aca
pulco, by the eclipse of the 19th February,
102° 9' 45", and by the eclipse of the 15th April,
102° 35' 45". Distances of the moon from the
sun, taken the 12th February, but calculated by
groups, and without correcting the situation of
the moon by the observation of a passage to the
meridian, gave 102° 24' 37".
Here are a great number of determinations by
very different means ! All of them give a longi
tude somewhat more western than the result of
my own observations, which I adopted before I
had any knowledge ofthe in tert sting memoir of
M. Espinosa. Stellar eclipses are certainly pre
ferable to every other species of observation, if
they are conducted under favourable circum
stances. But the results of the eclipses of the
two stars observed at Acapulco differ from one
another, according to the calculation of M. Tis
car, 26'; and according to M. Oltmanns, in an arc
vol. r. k

cxxx GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
of 5'. The Spanish astronomers admit a very great
error of the tables for the first satellite. They
make it 35" in time ; while M. Oltmanns, on com
paring the tables of Delambre with observations
from the month of January to the month of May,
1791, finds the error of the tables only — 7"> 6
for the immersions, and — 14" for the emersions.
He believes, agreeably to the calculations pub
lished in the second volume of our collection of
astronomical observations, that the true mean
term of the observations of Malaspina's expedi
tion is 102° 14' 30" ; and that by merely allowing
half the value to our observations, we might fix
the longitude of Acapulco at 102° 9' 33" : that
is to say, that it would be three minutes and a
half further west than is indicated in my map.
We ought not to be astonished at these doubts
which remain as to the position of a port of the
South Sea, when we consider that the longitude
of Amsterdam was uncertain till a few years ago,
not for three or four minutes, but the third par);
of a degree.

XII. MAP OF THE DIFFERENT ROUTES
BY WHICH THE PRECIOUS METALS
FLOW FROM ONE CONTINENT INTO
THE OTHER.
The quantity of gold and silver annually sent
by the New Continent into Europe amounts to

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, cxxxi
more than nine-tenths of the produce of the
whole mines in the known world. The Spanish
colonies, for example, furnish annually three mil
lions and a half of marcs of silver*, while in
the whole of the European states, including
Asiatic Russia, the total annual produce of the
mines scarcely exceeds! the sum of three hundred
thousand marcs. X A long stay in Spanish Ame
rica enabled me to procure more exact information
with respect to the metallic wealth of Mexico,
Peru, New Grenada, and the viceroyalty of
Buenos Ayres, than is to be found in the works
of Adam Smith, Robertson, or Raynal. From
thence I might naturally have entered into an
investigation of the accumulation of the precious
metals in the south and south-east of Asia : but
a problem so important as this may constitute the
subject of a particular memoir. I have thought
proper to exhibit here the principal results of my
researches, in a small map sketched at sea in
1804, on my passage from Philadelphia to France.
This map indicates the flux and reflux of the
precious metals. We observe in general that
they move from west to east ; a motion the re-
* 2,370,046 Troy pounds. Trans.
X See, as to the mines of Europe, the excellent statistical
table ofthe produce of mines annexed to the Memoire gene
ral sur les Mines, par M. Heron de Villefosse, p. 240. (Paris,
1809, chez Fr. Schoell.)
X 203,130 pounds Troy. Trans.
K 2

cxxxii GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
verse of that of the ocean, atmosphere, and the
civilization of our species !

XIII. FIGURES REPRESENTING THE SUR
FACE OF NEW SPAIN, AND OF ITS IN
TENDANCIES, THE PROGRESS OF MIN
ING, AND OTHER OBJECTS RELATIVE
TO THE EUROPEAN COLONIES IN THE
TWO INDIES.
The collected figures in this plate serve to ex
plain what is afterwards said* on the extraordi
nary disproportion between the extent of the
colonies and the surface (area) of the European
mother countries. The inequality cf the territo
rial division of New Spain has been rendered sen
sible in representing the intendancies by squares
inscribed above one another. This graphical me
thod is analogous to what M. Playfair first em
ployed in a very ingenious manner, in his commer
cial and political atlas, and in his statistical maps
of Europe. Without attaching much importance
to these sketches, I cannot regard them as mere
trifles foreign to science. It is true the map which
M. Playfair gives of the national debt of England
brings to mind the section ofthe Pic of Teneriffe;
but natural philosophers have long indicated, by
similar figures, the state of the barometer and
* Chap i. and chap. viii.

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, cxxxiii
mean temperature of months. It would be ri
diculous to endeavour to express by curves moral
ideas, the prosperity of nations, or decay of their
literature ; but whatever relates to extent and
quantity may be represented by geometrical
figures ; and statistical projections which speak
to the senses without fatiguing the mind, possess
the advantage of fixing the attention on a great
number of important facts.

K

TABLE
Ofthe Geographical Positions ofthe Kingdom of New Spain, determined by Astronomical Observations.
(The positions marked with an asterisk, are established either by triangulations, or angles of altitude and azimuths.)

Names of Places.

N. Latitude.

Longitude W
In Degrees.

. from Paris.
In Time.

Names of Observers and
Remarks.

INTERIOR OF NEW SPAIN.

Mexico -
19° 2i
45"
101° 25' 30"
6 45' 42"
Humboldt, at the Con
vent of St. Augustin.
S. Augustin de las Cuevas, (village) -
19
18
37
101 27 0
6 45 48
idem.
Cerro de Axusco*, (mountain) -
Venta de Chalco, (farm) -
19 19
15 16
27 8
101 32 45
6 46 11
idem. idem.
Moran, (mine) -
20
10
4
100 46 0
6 43 4
idem.
Actopan, (village) - - - -
20
17
28
101 9 15
6 44 37
idem.
Totonilco el Grande, (village)
20
17
55
100 53 0
6 43 32
idem.
Tisajuca, (village) - - -
—
—
—
101 11 30
6 44 46
idem.
Toluca, (village) -
19
16
19
101 41 45
6 46 47
idem.
Nevado de Toluca -
19
11
33
101 45 38
6 47 2h
idem.
San Juan del Rio, (city) -
—
—
—
102 12 30
6 48 50
idem.
Queretaro, (city) -
20
36
39
102 30 30
6 50 2
idem.
Salamanca, (city) -
20
40
0
103 15 0
6 53 0
idenu
o-A
B.
o w oo Pi>Tlffl i— i
o > t-1I— I
H O anH H- 1
o
Names of Places.

N.

Latitude.

Longitude W. from Paris.
In Degrees. In Time.

Names of Observers and
Remarks.

Guanaxuato, (city) - - -

21°

0'

15'

103°

15' 0"

6t

53'

0"

Humboldt, at the house
of Don Diego Rul.

aw
o

Valladolid, (city)
19
42
0
103
12 15
6
52
49
idem, at the bishop's pa
lace.
oPi
Patzquaro, (city)
—
—
—
103
40 0
6
54
40
idem.
>
103
20 30
6
53
22
idem.
as
Volcan de Jorullo *
—
—
—
103
21 45
6
53
27
idem.
o
Pont d'lstla, (farm) - - -
18
37
41
101
34 45
6
46
19
idem.
>
w
Tehuilotepec, (village)
—
—
—
101
48 0
6
47
12
idem, near the water
f
*-
spout machine.
Tasco, (city) -
18
35
0
101
49 0
6
47
16
idem.
H
Tepecuacuilco, (village)
18
20
0
101
48 0
6
47
12
idem.
O
Puente de Estola, (inn) - - -
—
—
—
101
44 0
6
46
56
idem.
Mescala, (village) -
17
56
4
101
49 0
6
47
16
idem.
cl
Popocatepetl*, (volcano)
18
35
47
100
53 15
6
43
33
idem, summit of the
mountain.
o Hi— i
San Nicolas de los Ranchos, (village)
19
2
0
100
41 0
6
42
44
idem.
O 3
Itztacihuatl *, (mountain)
19
10
0
100
55 0
6
43
40
idem.
Pyramide de Cholula, (ancient monu
ment) -
19
2
6
100
33 30
6
42
14
idem.
a
La Puebla de los Angeles, (city)
19
0
15
100
22 45
6
41
31
idem.
%
Venta de Sotto, (farm)
19
26
30
—
idem.
<
Namps of P1acp9

Longitude W

. from Paris.

Names of Observers and

-^ ' til 11 \- O \_' 1 A. ICl^L J,

N.

Latitude.

In

[Jegrees.

In

Time.

Remarks.

Perotte, (village) -

19°

33'

37"

99°

33':

45"

6* 38'

15"

Humboldt.

Coffre de Perote, (mountain)

19

28

57

99

28

45

6

37

55

idem.

Las Vigas, (village)

19

37

37

idem.
Xalappa, (city) -
19
30
8
99
15
0
6
37
0
idem.
Cerro de Macultepec, (mountain)
19
31
49
99
14./
35
6
36
58
idem.
Pic d'Orizaba*, (volcano)
19
2
17
96
35
15
6
38
21
Humboldt and Ferrer,
summit of the mountain.
El Encero, (farm) ::
19
28
25
99
8
32
6
36
34
Ferrer.
Tezcuco*, (city)
19
30
40
101
11
15
6
44
45
Velasquez.
Zumpango*, (village)
19
46
52
101
24
0
6
45
36
idem.
El Penol*, (hill) -
19
26
4
101
22.
30
6
4.5
30
idem.
Xaltocan*, (village) -
19
42
47
101
21
15
6
45
25
idem.
Tehuiloyuca *, (village)
19
43
17
101
28
5
6
45
54
idem.
Hacienda de Xalpa *, (farm) -
19
47
58
101
29
45
6
45
59
idem.
Cerro de Chiconautla*, (hill)
19
38
39
101
16
0
6
45
4
idem.
San Miguel de Gaudalupe*, (convent)
19
28
48
101
24
45
6
45
39
idem.
Huehuetoca*, (village)
19
48
38
101
32
45
6
46
11
idem.
Garita de Gaudalupe*, (barrier)
19
28
38
101
24
45
6
45
39
idem.
Cerro de Sincoque *, (hill)
19
49
28
101
33
30
6
46
14
idem.
Hacienda de Santa lues*, (farm)
19
42
25
101
24
15
6
45
37
idem.
n
O W
o pi > Xo > HPiOO
do H O as
-^

Longitude W

. from Paris.

Names of Observers and

Names of Places.

N. Latitude.

In Degrees.

In

Time.

Remarks.

Cerro de San Christoval *, (mountain)

19°

35'

5"

101°

21'

30"

6h

45'

26"

Velasquez.

Puente del Salto*, (bridge) -

19

54

30

101

36

0

6

46

24

idem.

EASTERN COAST OF NEW SPAIN.

Campeche, (city) -
19
50
45
92
50
45
6
11
23
Ferrer and Cevallos.
Punta de la Disconocida -
20
49
45
92
44
30
6
10
58
Cevallos and Herrera.
Castillo del Sisal -
21
10
0
92
19
45
6
9
19
idem.
Alacran, (western point) -
22
27
50
92
7
40
6
8
30
idem.
Alacran, (northern extremity)
22
35
15
92
0
45
6
8
3
idem.
Mouth of the Rio de los Lagartos
21
34
0
90
30
15
6
2
1
idem.
Punta S.O. del Puerto
22
21
30
91
58
15
6
7
57
idem.
North point of the Conboy
21
33
30
89
5
0
6
56
20
idem.
South point of the Conboy -
21
28
50
89
4
0
6
56
16
idem.
Baxo del Alerta - - -
21
33
0
89
11
15
6
56
45
idem.
Shallow of Diez Brazas
20
32
10
94
14
5
6
15
56
idem.
Small island to the S. W. ofthe triangle
20
55
50
94
31
52
6
18
n
idem.
Baxo del Obispo - - ?
20
30
14
94
30
23
6
18
n
idem.
Vera Cruz, (port)
19
11
52
98
29
0
6
33
56
Humboldt and Ferrer.
Island of Sacrifices, (centre) ,
19
10
10
98
26
40
6
33
47
Ferrer.
Shallow of the Pajaro
19
10
55
98
26
10
6
33
45
idem.
Isla Verde - -
19
11
16
98
25
26
6
33
42
idem.
Islote Blanquillas, (centre)
19
12
55
98
26
45
6
33
47
idem.
QW
ooPi>
X
>i— i
25•-3Woo
an
H >— <
O21
Names of Places.

N.

Latitude.

Longitude W
In Degrees.

. from Paris.
In Time.

Names of Observers and
Remarks.

Anegada de Fuera, (south point)

19°

12'

12"

98°

24'

35"

6>> 33'

38"

Ferrer.

 , (north point)

19

12

55

98

25

5

6 33

40

idem.

Gallega Shallow ...

19

13

20

98

28

22

6 33

53£

idem.

Punta Gorda - - -

19

14

30

98

31

20

6 34

5

idem.

Mouths of the Rio Antigua

19

18

41

98

37

17

6 34

29

idem.

Bernal Chico -

19

37

45

98

46

5

6 35

4

idem.

Bernal Grande - - - -

19

39

42

98

45

43

6 35

3

idem.

Punta Mari Andrea - - -

19

43

15

98

45

43

6 35

3

idem.

Barra de Tamiagua - - -

21

15

48

—

—

—



—

idem.

Santander, (city) ...

23

45

18

100

32

23

6 42

9i

idem.

Lago de San Fernando, or la Carbonera

24

36

0

100

18

40

6 41

15

idem.

Mouth of the Rio Bravo del Norte -

25

55

0

99

51

10

6 39

25

idem.

WESTERN COAST OP NEW SPAIN.

Acapulco, (port) -
16
50
29
102
6
0
6 48
24
Humboldt, at the gover
.
nor's house.
Western extremity of lasPlayasdeCujuca
17
15
0
103
5
15
6 52
21
Expedition of Malaspina.
Morro Petatlan, (hill) -
17
32
0
103
4S
45
6 55
15
idem.
Port de Selagu, (a little doubtful)
19
6
0
106
53
5
7 7
32
idem.
Cabo Corrientes
20
25
30
107
59
0
7 11
56
idem.
Small island to the N. N. W. of Cape
Corrientes ...
20
45
0
108
7
15
7 ,12
29
idem.
o•A
a o oPi > Xi—io >l-H25H
Pi Oaao i— i
O 25
Names of Paces.

N. Latitude.

Longitude W
Li Degrees.

.from Paris.
In Time.

Names of Observers and
Remarks.

Cerro del Valle, (hill)

21° 1' 30"

109° 35' 0"

7" 18' 20"

Expedition of Malaspina.

lies Marias, (Cape south of the most

eastern) ...
21 16 0
108 37 45
7 14 31
idem.
Mountain of San Juan
21 26 15
107 23 0
7 9 32
idem.
San Bias, (port) -
21 32 48
107 37 45
7 10 31
idem.
Piedra Blanea
21 33 0
107 47 45
7 11 11
idem.
Isle San Juanico ...
21 45 30
109 1 35
7 16 6
idem.
Islote Isabella ...
21 50 30
108 17 5
7 13 8
idem.
Cape San Lucas ...
22 52 23
112 13 15
7 28 53
idem.
Mission de S. Josef, (village)
23 3 25
112 3 25
7 28 14
idem.
Mission de Todos los Santos
23 26 0
112 38 15
7 30 33
idem.
Mountain of San Lazaro
24 47 0
114 41 15
7 38 5
idem.
Mountain to the North of the Abreojos
26 59 30
116 8 15
7 44 33
idem.
Island of Cedars, (south point)
28 2 10
117 43 15
7 50 33
idem.
Isla de San Benito (the highest part)
28 18 22
118 6 15
7 52 25
idem.
Isla Guadalupe, (Cape south)
28 53 0
120 37 15
8 2 29
idem.
Isla de San Bernardo
29 40 40
118 17 15
7 53 9
idem.
Isla de S. Martin or de los Coronados
(the largest and most eastern islot)
32 25 10
119 38 55
7 58 36
idem.
San Diego, (port) ...
32 39 30
119 38 15
7 58 33
Vancouver and Malaspina.
Isla S. Salvador, (south point)
32 43 0
120 50 15
8 3 21
Expedition of Malaspina.
o
H
o aPi>
Xi—i
o >d i— i
25
HOadoI— I
O25
n
Names of Places.

N. Latitude.

Longitude W.

from Paris.

Names of Observers and

In Degrees.

In Time.

Remarks.

Isla San Nicolas, (west cape)

33° 16' 30"

121° 56' 15"

8" 7' 45"

Expedition of Malaspina.

San Juan, (mission) - -

33 29 0

120 13 30

8 0 54

Vancouver and Malaspina.

Isla de Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, (west

cape) 1 - - -
34 0 0
122 51 15
8 11 25
Expedition of Malaspina.
Santa Buenaventura
34 17 0
121 45 30
8 7 2
Vancouver.
Presidio de Santa Barbara, (mission) -
34 26 0
122 5 30
8 8 22
Vancouver and Malaspina.
Expedition of Malaspina.
idem.
Monterey, (Presidio)
Punta del Afto Nuevo
36 36 0
37 9 15
124 11 8
124 42 53
8 16 44J
8 18 51£
Farallones, (rocks)
37 48 10
125 21 15
8 21 25
idem.
San Francisco, (port)
37 48 30
134 57 0
8 19 48
Vancouver and Malaspina.
Expedition of Malaspina.
Cape Mendocino - - -
40 29 0
126 48 45
8 27 15
Nutka, (port) - ...
49 35 13
128 55 15
8 35 41
idem. (This position and
th e preceding arebeyond
the actual bounds of
REVILLAGIGEDO ISLANDS.
Isla de Santa Rosa, (centre)
18 37 0
116 23 45
7 54 33
New Spain.)
Collnet, Camacho, and
Isla del Socorro, (summit of the moun
l
Torres (memoire of M.
tain which is more than 1115 metres
Espinosa.)
idem.
high or 3657 feet)
18 48 0
112 29 15
7 29 57
Rocca Partida
19 4 0
113 25 45
7 33 43
idem.
Isla de San Benedito, (south cape)
19 15 40 "
123 13 45
7 28 55
idem.
o
O w oaPi > X I — I
o > f"
25h3PiOa doH t— i
O 25
POSITIONS LESS CERTAIN.

Names of Places.

Guatulco, (port)
Barra de Manialtepec
Pachutla,) village)
Xamiltepec, (village)
Guiechapa, (village)
Ometepec, (village)
Nochistlan, (village)
Teposcolula San Antonio de los Cues, (village)
Guadalaxara, (city)
Zacatecas, (city)
Real del Rosario, (mine)
Durango, (city)
Presidio del Passage
Villa del Fuerte
Real del los Alamos, (mine)
Presidio de Buenavista
Chihuahua, (city)

N. Latitude.

15° 44' 0"
15 47 0
15 50 0
16 7 0
15 25 0
16 37 0
17 16 0
17 18 0
3 0
9 0
0 0
23 30 0
24 25 0
25 28 0
26 50 0
27 8 0
27 45 0
28 50 0

18
21
23

Longitude W. from Paris.

Names of Observers and

In Degrees.

In Time.

Remarks.

- -

. - -

Pedro de Laguna.
idem. -

_ •

...

idem.

idem.
idem.
idem.idem.

_

. - -

idem.

• - -

.

idem.

105°22' 30"

7h i'3o"

Mascaro and Rivera.

103 55 0

6 55 40

Count de la Laguna.

108 26 30

7 13 46

Mascaro and Rivera.

105 55 0

7 3 40

Oteyza.

105 33 30

7 2 14

Mascaro and Rivera.

110 33 30

7 22 14

idem.

111 23 30

7 25 34

idem.

112 28 30

7 29 45

idem.

106 50 0

7 7 40

Mascaro and Lafora.

o woo Pi>'-dXi— i
o>
d25HPiOa
do H?— t
O25

n y.

Names of Places.

Arispe, (city)
Presidio de Janos
Presidio del Altar - - -
Passo del Norte, (Presidio)
Junction of the Rio Gila and Colorado
Las Casas grandes (near Rio Gila)
Santa Fe, (city) -

N. Latitude.

30° 36' 0"

3132

2 9

32 45 0
33 30 0
36 12 0

Longitude W. from Paris.

In Degrees.

111° 18' 30"
109 5 30
114 6 0
107 3 0

107 13 0

In Time.

7h 25' 14"
7 16 22
7 36 24
7 8 12

7 8 52

Names of Observers and
Remarks.

Mascaro and Rivera.
Mascaro. Mascaro and Rivera.
Mascaro.Fathers Diaz and Font.
Father Font.
Lafora.

Ow oPi>"¦aXl-H
o >di— i
25
HPiOad
oH o
25

TABLE

Of the most remarkable Elevations measured in the Interior of New Spain.
The work published with the title of Nivellement barometrique fait dans les Regions Equinoxiales du Nouveau
Continent, in 1799 — 1804, contains more than two hundred points in the interior of New Spain, of which I
determined the elevation above the level of the sea, either by the barometer, or by trigonometrical methods.
We have merely inserted in the following table the absolute heights of the most remarkable mountains and
cities. The points marked with an asterisk are doubtful. My Recueil d 'observations astronomiques et de mesures
barometriques, edited by M. Oltmanns, may also be consulted, (vol. i. pages 318. to 334.)

Height above the Level of the

Sea, according to the Formula

Names of Places of Observation.

of M. Laplace,

In Metres.

In Toises.

In Eng. Feet.-)-

Volcan de Popocatepetl, volcan grande de Mexico 5 de Puebla

5400

2771

17716

Pic d'Orizaba or Citlaltepetl - - ...

5295

2717

17371

Nevado d'lztaccihuatl, Sierra Nevada of Mexico - -

4786

2456

15700

Nevado de Toluca, at the rock of Frailes - - -

4621

2372

15159

Coffre de Perote, or Nauhcampatepetl .....

4089

2098

13514

Cerro de Axusco, six leagues to the S. S. W. of Mexico ...

3674*

1885*

12052

t This column is added by the translator.

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c

Names of Places of Observation.

Pic de Tancitaro -
El Jacal, summit of the Cerro de las Nabajas '-
Mamanchota, or Organos d'Actopan, N. E. from Mexico
Volcan de Colima ....
Volcan de Jorullo, in the intendancy of Valladolid
Mexico, at the Convent of St. Augustin
Pachuca ...
Moran, mine near the Real del Monte
Real del Monte, mine
Tula, city .
Toluca, city ...
Cuernavaca, city ...
Tasco, city ...
Chilpansingo, city ...
Puebla de los Angeles, city - . [
Perote, town -
Xalapa, city '
Valladolid, city - .

Height above the Level of the

Sea, according to

the Formula

of M. Laplace.

In Metres.

In Toises.

In Eng. Feet.

3200*

1642

10498

3124

1603

10249

2977

1527

9766

2800*

1437

9186

1301

667

4267

2277

1168

7470

2484

1274

8149

2595

1331

8513

2781

1427

9057

2053

1053

6735

2688

1379

8818

1656

849

5433

1784

915

5852

1380

708

4527

2194

1126

7198

2354

1208

7723

1321

678

4333

1952

1001

6404

awooPi>TlX
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25HPiOad
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<o

Names of Places of Observation.

Pazcuaro, city
vtrdetsiahuaca, in rte intendancy of Valladolid
San Juan del Rio, town
Queretaro, city
Celaya, city - -
Salamanca, city
Guanaxuato, city
j Mine de la Valenciana
i Durango, city -  * 

Height above the Level of the Sea,

according to the Formula of M.

Laplace.

In Metres.

In Toises.

In Eng. Feet.

2202

1130

7224

1907

978

6256

2585

1326

8481

1978

1015

6489

1940

995

6364

1835

941

6020

1757

902

5763

2084

1069

6836

2328

1194

7637

2087*

1071

6847

END OF GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

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r.

POLITICAL ESSAY

ON THE

KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN.

I arrived at Mexico by the South Sea in
March, 1803, and resided a year in that vast king
dom. I had recently visited the province of Ca
raccas, the banks of the Oronooko, the Rio
Negro, New Granada, Quito, and the coast of
Peru ; and I could not avoid being struck with
the contrast between the civilization of New
Spain, and the scanty cultivation of those parts
of South America which had fallen under my
notice. This contrast excited me to a particular
study of the statisticks of Mexico, and to an in
vestigation of the causes which have had the
greatest influence on the progress of population
and national industry.
My situation offered me every means for attain-
L 2

2 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE
ing this end. No printed work could furnish me
with materials, but [ had at command a great
number of manuscript-memoirs, of which an ac
tive curiosity had spread copies through the most
remote parts of the Spanish colonies. I com
pared the results of my own researches with
those contained in the official papers which I
had many years been collecting. A short, but
interesting stay, which I made in 1804 at Phila
delphia and Washington, enabled me also to
draw comparisons between the actual state ofthe
United states and that of Peru and Mexico.
Thus my geographical and statistical materials
swelled to too great a bulk to admit of entering
their results in the historical account of my tra
vels. I flattered myself with the hope that a par
ticular work, under the title of Political Essay
on the Kingdom of New Spain might be re
ceived with interest at a time when the new
continent more than ever attracts the attention
of Europeans. Several copies of the first sketch
of this work, which I drew up in Spanish, exist
in Mexico, and in the peninsula. Believing that
it might be useful to those called to the adminis
tration of the colonies, who often, after a long
residence, have no precise idea of the state of
those beautiful and extensive regions, I commu
nicated my manuscript to all who desired to
study it. From these reiterated communica
tions I received many important corrections.

KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 3
Even the Spanish government honoured my re
searches with a particular attention ; and they
have furnished materials for several official pa
pers on the interests of the commerce and manu
facturing industry of the colonies.
The work which I now publish is divided into
six grand sections. The first book consists of
general considerations on the extent and physical
aspect of New Spain . Without entering into any
detail of descriptive natural history, (a detail re
served for other parts of my work,) I have exa
mined the influence of the inequalities of the soil
on the climate, agriculture, commerce, and de
fence of the coasts. The second book treats of
the general population and division ofthe casts.
The third presents a particular statistical view of
the intendancies, their population, and area, cal
culated from the maps drawn up by me from
my astronomical observations. I discuss in the
fourth book the state of agriculture, and of the
metallic mines ; and in the fifth, the progress of
manufactures and commerce. The sixth book
contains researches into the revenues ofthe state,
and the military defence of the country.
Notwithstanding the extreme care which I be
stowed in verifying the results, I have no doubt
of having committed many very serious errors,
which will be pointed out in proportion as my
work shall excite the inhabitants of New Spain
to study the state of their country. I rely, how-
l 3

* POLITICAL ESSAY, &c.
ever, on the indulgence of those who know the
difficulties of researches of this nature, and who
have compared together the statistical tables
which annually appear in the most civilized
countries of Europe.

BOOK I.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE EX
TENT AND PHYSICAL ASPECT OF THE
KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. INFLUENCE
OF THE INEQUALITIES OF THE SOIL ON
THE CLIMATE, AGRICULTURE, COM
MERCE, AND MILITARY DEFENCE OF
THE COUNTRY.

CHAPTER I.
Extent ofthe Spanish Possessions in America. Comparison of
these Possessions with the English Colonies, and with the
Asiatic Part of the Russian Empire. Denominations of
New Spain, and of Anahuac. Boundary ofthe Empire of
the Aztec Kings.
.Before entering on a political view of the king
dom of New Spain, it may be of importance to
bestow a rapid glance on the extent and popu
lation of the Spanish possessions in the two
Americas. We must generalize our ideas, and
consider each colony in its relations with the
neighbouring colonies and with the mother-
country, if we would obtain accurate results, and
assign to the country described the place to
which it is entitled from its territorial wealth.
The Spanish possessions ofthe new continent
occupy the immense extent of territory comprised
l 4

6 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [hook i.
between the 41° 43' of south latitude, and the
37° 48' of north latitude. This space of seventy-
nine degrees equal not only the length of all
Africa, but it even much surpasses the breadth
of the Russian empire, which includes about a
hundred and sixty-seven degrees of longitude,
under a parellel of which the degrees are not
more than half the degrees of the equator.
The most southern point of the new continent
inhabited by the Spaniards is fort Maullin, near
the small village of Carelmapu *, on the coast of
Chili, opposite to the northern extremity of the
island of Chiloe. A road is opening from Valdivia
to this fort of Maullin ; a bold but useful under
taking, as a stormy sea prevents navigators for a
great part of the year from landing on so danger
ous a coast. On the south and south-east of fort
Maullin, in the gulfs of Ancud and Reloncavi,
by which we reach the great lakes of Nahuelhapi
and Todos los Santos, there are no Spanish esta
blishments ; but we meet with them in the islands
near the eastern coast of Chiloe, even in 43° 34'
of south latitude, where the island Caylin (oppo
site the lofty summit of the Corcobado) is inha
bited by several families of Spanish origin.
The most northern point of the Spanish colonies
is the mission of San Francisco, on the coast of
New California, seven leagues to the north-west
* See note A, at the end of the work.

chap, i.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 7
of Santa Cruz. The Spanish language is thus
spread over an extent of more than 1900 leagues
in length. Under the wise administration of
Count Florida Blanea, a regular communication
of posts was established from Paraguay to the
north-west coast of North America ; and a monk
in the mission of the Guaranis Indians can main
tain a correspondence with another missionary
inhabiting New Mexico, or the countries in the
neighbourhood of Cape Mendocin, without their
letters ever passing at any great distance from
the continent of Spanish America.
The dominions ofthe king of Spain in America
exceed iu extent the vast regions possessed by the
Russian empire, or Great Britain, in Asia. I
thought, therefore, that aview of these differences
and ofthe striking disproportion between the area
and the population of the mother-country, com
pared with those ofthe colonies, could hardly fail
to be interesting. To make this disproportion
appear still more palpable, I have formed, accord
ing to exact scales, the drawings in the last plate.
A red parallelogram which serves for the base, re
presents the surface ofthe mother-countries; and
a blue parallelogram which reposes on the base,
indicates the area of the Spanish and English
possessions in America and Asia. These views,
similar to those of M. Playfair, have something
fearful in them, particularly when we fix our eyes
on the grand catastrophe represented in the fourth

8 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [rook i.
figure, of which the memory is still recent among
us. This plate alone should suggest important
considerations to those who superintend the pros
perity and tranquillity ofthe colonies. The dread
of a future evil is undoubtedly in itself a motive
of no great dignity ; but it is a powerful motive
of vigilance and activity for great political bodies
as well as for simple individuals.
The Spanish possessions in America are divided
into nine great governments, which may be re
garded as independent of one another. Of these
nine governments, five, viz. the viceroyalties of
Peru and of New Grenada, the capitanias gene-
rales of Guatimala, of ' Portorico, and of Caraccas,
are wholly comprised in the torrid zone ; the four
other divisions, viz. the viceroyalties of Mexico
and Buenos Ayres, the capitanias generates of
Chili and Havannah, including the Floridas, are
composed of countries of which a great part is
situated without the tropics, that is to say, in the
temperate zone. We shall afterwards see that this
position alone does not determine the nature of
the productions of these fine regions. The union
of several physical causes, such as the great height
of the Cordilleras, their enormous masses, the
number of plains, elevated more than from two
to three thousand metres * above the level of
the ocean,, give to a part of the equinoxial re
gions a temperature adapted to the cultivation
* From 6561 to 9842 feet. Trans.

chap, i.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 9
of the wheat and fruit-trees of Europe. The
geographical latitude has small influence on the
fertility of a country, where, on the ridge and
declivity of the mountains, nature exhibits a
u'nioh of every climate.
Among the colonies subject to the king of
Spain, Mexico occupies at present the first rank,
both on account of its territorial wealth and on
account of its favourable position for commerce
with Europe and Asia. We speak here merely of
the political value of the country, considering it
in its actual state of civilization, which is very
superior to that ofthe other Spanish possessions.
Many branches of agriculture have undoubtedly
attained a higher degree of perfection in the pro
vince of Caraccas than in New Spain. The fewer
mines a colony has the more, the industry ofthe
inhabitants is turned towards the productions of
the vegetable kingdom. The fertility of the soil
is greater in the provinces of Cumana, of New
Barcelona, and Venezuela ; and it is greater on
the banks ofthe lower Orinoco, and in the north
ern part of New Grenada, than in the kingdom
of Mexico, of which several regions are barren,
destitute of water, and incapable of vegetation.
But on considering the greatness ofthe population
of Mexico, the number of considerable cities in
the proximity of one another, the enormous value
of the metallic produce, and its influence on the
commerce of Europe and Asia ; in short, on ex-

in

POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.

amining the imperfect state of cultivation ob
servable in the rest of Spanish America, we are
tempted to justify the preference which the court
of Madrid has long manifested for Mexico above
its other colonies.
The denomination of New Spain designates,
in general, the vast extent of country over which
the viceroy of Mexico exercises his power. Using
the word in this sense, we are to consider as
northern and southern limits the parallels of the
38th and 10th degrees of latitude. But the cap
tain-general of Guatimala, considered as admi
nistrator, depends very little on the viceroy of
New Spain. The kingdom of Guatimala contains,
accordingtoitspolitical division, the governments
of Costa Rica and of Nicaragua. It is conter
minous with the kingdom of New Grenada, to
which Darien and the isthmus of Panama belong.
Whenever in the course of this work we use the
denominations of New Spain and Mexico, we ex
clude the captain-general of Guatimala, a country
extremely fertile, well peopled, compared with
the rest of the Spanish possessions, and so much
the better cultivated as the soil, convulsed by
volcanoes, contains almost no metallic mines. We
consider the intendancies of Merida and Oaxaca
as the most southern, and at the same time the
most eastern parts of New Spain. The confines
which separate Mexico from the kingdom of
Guatimala are washed by the Great Ocean to the

chap, i.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 11
east of the port of Tehuantepec, near la Barra de
Tonala. They terminate on the shore of the
Atlantic, near the bay of Honduras.
The name of New Spain was at first only given
in the year 1518 to the provinceof Yucatan, where
the companions in arms of Grijalva were astonish
ed at the cultivation of the fields and the beauty
of the Indian edifices. Cortez, in his first letter
to the emperor Charles V. in 1520, employs the
denomination of New Spain for the whole empire
of Montezuma. This empire, if we may believe
Solis extended from Panama to New California.
But we learn from the diligent researches of a
Mexican historian, the abbe Clavigero*, that'
Montezuma the sultan of Tenochtitlan had a much
smaller extent of country under his dominion.
His kingdom was bounded towards the eastern
coast by the rivers of Guasacualco and Tuspan, and
towards the western coast by the plains of Soco-
nusco, and the port of Zacatula. On looking into
my general map of New Spain, divided into in
tendancies, it will be found, that, according to
these limits, the empire of Montezuma included
only the intendancies of Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, la
Puebla, Mexico, and Valladolid. . I think its area
may be estimated at 15,000 square leagues.
Towards the beginning of the 16th century, the
* Dissertazione sopra i confini di Anahuac. See Storia
antica del Messico. T. IV. p. 265.

12 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
river of Santiago separated the agricultural nations
of Mexico and Meclwacan from the barbarous
and pastoral hordes called Otomites and Ci-
cimecs. These savages frequently carried their
incursions as far as Tula, a town situated near the
northern bank ofthe valley of Tenochtitlan. They
occupied the plains of Zelaya and Salamanca, now
admired for their fine cultivation, and the multi
tude of farms' scattered over their surface.
Neither should the denomination of Anahuac
be confounded with that of New Spain. Before
the conquest all the country between the 14th
and 21st degrees of latitude was included under
the name of Anahuac. Besides the Aztec em
pire of Montezuma, the small republics of Tlax-
callan and Cholollan, the kingdoms of Tezcuco (or
Acolhoacan) and Mechuacan, which comprised
part of the intendancy of Valladolid, belonged to
the ancient Anahuac.
Even the name Mexico is of Indian origin. It
signifies in the Aztec language the habitation
of the God of war, called' Mexitli or Huitzilo-
pochtli. It appears, however, that before the
year 1530 the city was more commonly called
Tenochtitlan than Mexico. Cortez*, who had
made very little progress in the language of the
country, called the capital, through corruption,
* Historia de Nueva Espana, por Lorenzana (Mexico,
1770, p. l.) 9

chap, i.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 13
Temixtitan. These etymological observations will
not be found too minute in a work which treats
exclusively ofthe kingdom of Mexico. The auda
cious man who overturned the Aztec monarchy
considered this kingdom sufficiently extensive to
advise* Charles V. to unite the title of emperor
of New Spain to that of Roman emperor.
We are tempted to compare together the extent
and population of Mexico, and that of two em
pires with which this fine colony is in relations of
union and rivalry. Spain is five times smaller than
Mexico. Shouldno unforeseen misfortunes occur,
we may reckon that in less than a century the
population of New Spain will equal that of the
mother-country. The United States of North
America since the cession of Louisiana, and since
they recognize no other boundary than the Rio
Bravo del Norte, contain 240,000 square leagues.
Their population is not much greater than that
of Mexico, as we shall afterwards see on ex
amining carefully the population and the area of
New Spain.
If the politicalforce of two states dependedsole-
ly on the space which they occupy on the globe,
* Cortez says, in his first letter, dated from Villa Segura
de la Frontera, the 30th October, 1520: " Las cosas de esta
terra son tantas y tales que Vuestra Alteza se puecte entitular
de nuevo Emperador de ella, y con titulo y non menos merito,
que el de Alemaiia, que por la gracia de Dios, Vuestra Sacra
Magestad possee. (Lorenzana, p. 38.)

14 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
and on the number of their inhabitants -, if the na
ture of the soil, the configuration of the coast; and
if the climate, the energy ofthe nation, and above
all the degree of perfection of its social institutions,
were not the principal elements of* this grand dy
namical calculation, the kingdom of New Spain
might, at present, be placed in opposition to the
confederation of the American republics. Both
labour under the inconvenience of an unequally
distributed population ; but that of the United
States, though in a soil and climate less favoured
by nature, augments with an infinitely greater
rapidity. Neither does it comprehend, like the
Mexican population, nearly two millions and a
half of aborigines. These Indians, degraded by
the despotism of the ancient Aztec sovereigns,
and by the vexations of the first conquerors,
though protected by the Spanish laws, wise and
humane in general, enjoy very little, however, of
this protection, from the great distance of the su
preme authority. The kingdom of New Spain has
one decided advantage over the United States.
The number of slaves there, either Africans or of
mixed race, is almost nothing ; an advantage which
the European colonists have only begun rightly to
appreciate since the tragical events ofthe revolu
tion of St. Domingo. So true it is, that the fear
of physical evils acts more powerfully than moral
considerations on the true interests of society, or
the principles of philanthropy and of justice, so

chap. i. J KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 15
often the theme ofthe parliament, the constituent
assembly, and the works of the philosophers.
The number of African slaves in the United
States amounts to more than a million, and con
stitutes a sixth part df the whole population. The
southern states, whose influence is increased since
the acquisition of Louisiana, very inconsider
ately increase the annual importation of these
negroes. It is not yet in the power of Congress,
nor the chief of the confederation (a magistrate*
whose name is dear to the true friends of huma
nity), to oppose this augmentation, and to spare
by that means much distress to the generations to
come. * The present president, Mr. Thomas Jefferson, author of
the excellent Essay on Virginia.

VOL. I. M

16 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.

CHAPTER II.
Configuration ofthe coast.— Points where the two seas are least
distant from one another — General considerations on the
possibility of uniting the South Sea and Atlantic Ocean. —
Rivers of Peace and Tacoutche-Tesse. — Sources ofthe Rio
Bravo and Rio Colorado. — Isthmus of Tehuantepec. — Lake
of Nicaragua. — Isthmus of Panama. -^Bay of Cupica, —
Canal of Choco. — Rio Guallaga. — Gulf of St. George.
The kingdom of New Spain, the most northern
part of all Spanish America, extendsfrom the 16th
to the 38th degree of latitude. The length of
this vast region, in the direction of S.S.E. to N.N.
W. is nearly 270 myriametres (or 610 common
leagues); its greatest breadth is under the parallel
ofthe 30th degree. From the Red River ofthe
province of Texas (Rio-Colorado) to the isle of
Tiburon, on the coast of the intendancy of So
nora, the breadth from east to west is 1 60 my
riametres (or 364 leagues).
The part of Mexico in which the two oceans,
the Atlantic and the South Sea, approach the
nearest to one another, is unfortunately not that
part which contains the two ports of Acapulco
and Vera Cruz, and the capital of Mexico. There
are, according to my astronomical observations,
from Acapulco to Mexico an oblique distance of

chap, ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 17
2° 40' 19", (or 155,885 toises*); from Mexico to
Vera Cruz 2° 57' 9" (or 158,572 toisest); and
from the port of Acapulco to the port of Vera
Cruz, in a direct line, 4° 10' 7". It is in these
distances that the old maps are most faulty. From
the observations published by M. de Cassini, in
the account ofthe voyage of Chappe, the distance
from Mexico to Vera Cruz appears 5° 10' of
longitude, instead of 2° 57', the real distance
between these two great cities. In adopting for
Vera Cruz the longitude given by Chappe, and
for Acapulco that of the map ofthe Depot drawn
up in 1784, the breadth of the Mexican isthmus
betwixt the two ports would be 175 leagues, 15
leagues beyond the truth.
The isthmus of Tehuantepec, to the S.E. ofthe
port of Vera Cruz, is the point of New Spain in
which the continent is narrowest. From the At
lantic Ocean to the South Sea the distance is 45
leagues. The approximation of the sources of
the rivers Huasacualco and Chimalapa seems to
favour the project of a canal for interior naviga
tion; a project with which the Count of Revilla
gigedo, one of the most zealous viceroys for the
public good, has been for a long time occupied.
When we come to speak of the intendancy of
Oaxaca, we shall return to this object, so important
to all civilized Europe. We must confine our-
• 997,664 feet. Trans. \ 1,014860 feet. Trans.
m2

18 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
selves here to the problem of the communication
between the two seas, in all the generality of which
it is susceptible. We shall present in one view
nine points, several of which are not sufficiently
known in Europe, and all offer a greater or less
probability either of canals or interior river com
munications. At a time when the New Conti-
nent, profiting by the misfortunes and perpetual
dissensions of Europe, advances rapidly towards
civilization ; and when the commerce of China,
and the north-west coast of America, becomes
yearly of greater importance, the subject which
we here summarily discuss is of the greatest in
terest for the balance qf commerce*, and the poli
tical preponderancy of nations.
These nine points, which at different times have
fixed the attention of statesmen and merchants in
the colonies, present very different advantages.
We shall range them according to their geogra
phical position, beginning with the most northern
part of the New Continent, and following the
coasts to the south of the island of Chiloe. It can
only be after having examined all the projects
hitherto formed for the communication ofthe two
seas, that the government can decide which of
* It may be necessary to inform tlie reader, that he is in
debted for this term, at present in some sort of disrepute from
the proscription of political economists, however much the
idea may still haunt tlie wise heads of our commercial men,
to the author and not to me. Trans.

chap, ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 19
them merits the preference. Before this examin
ation, exact materials for which are not yet col
lected, it would be imprudent to cut canals in
the isthmuses of Guasacualco or Panama.
1. Under the 54° 37' of north latitude, in the
parallel of Queen Charlotte's Island, the sources
of the river of Peace, or Ounigigah, approach to
within seven leagues of the sources of the Ta-
coutche Tesse, supposed the same with the river
of Colombia. The first of these rivers discharges
itself into the Northern Ocean, after having
mingled its waters with those of the Slave Lake
and the river Mackenzie. The second river
Colombia, enters the Pacific Ocean near Cape
Disappointment, to the south, of Nootka Sound,
according to the celebrated voyager Vancouver,
under the 46° 19' of latitude. The Cordillera,
or chain of the stony mountains, abounding
in coal, was found by M. Fiedler to be elevat
ed in some places 3520 English feet *, or 550
toises above the neighbouring plains. It - se-
* If it be true that this chain of mountains enters the re
gion of perpetual snow (Mackenzie, vol. iii. p. 331.), their
absolute height should be at least from 1000 to 1100 toises
(from 6400 to 7040 English feet) ; from whence it would
follow, either that the neighbouring plains, on which M.
Fiedler was stationed to establish his measurements, are ele-
. vated from 450 to 550 toises- above the level of the sea, or
that the summits, of which this traveller indicates the height,
are not the most elevated of the chain crossed by Mackenzie.
M 3

20

POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.

parates the sources of the rivers of Peace and
Colombia. According to Mackenzie's account,
who passed this Cordillera in the month of August,
1793, it is practicable enough for carriages, and
the mountains appear of no very great elevation.
To avoid the great winding of the Colombia,
another communication still shorter might be
opened from the sources ofthe Tucoutche Tesse
to the Salmon river, the mouth of which is to the
east of the Princess Royal Islands, in the 52° 26'
of latitude. Mackenzie rightly observes, that the
government which should open this communica
tion between the two oceans, by forming regular
establishments in the interior of the country, and
at the extremities of the rivers, would get posses
sion of the whole fur trade of North America,
from the 48° of latitude to the pole, excepting a
part ofthe coast which has been long included in
Russian America. Canada, from the multitude
and course of its rivers, presents facilities for in
ternal commerce similar to those of Oriental Si
beria. The mouth ofthe river Colombia seems
to invite Europeans to found a fine colony there;
for its banks afford fertile land in abundance, co
vered with superb timber. It must be allowed,
however, that notwithstanding the examination
by Mr. Broughton, we still know but a very small
part of Colombia, which, like the Severn and the
Thames, appears of a disproportionate contraction

chap, ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 21
as it leaves the coast. Every geographer who
carefully compares Mackenzie's maps with Van
couver's, will be astonished at the Colombia in de
scending from these stony mountains, which we
cannot help considering as a prolongation of the
Andes of Mexico, should traverse the chain of
mountains which approach the shore ofthe Great
Ocean, whose principle summits are Mount St.
Helen and Mount Rainier. But M. Malte-Brun
has started important doubts concerning the
identity of the Tacoutche Tesse and the Rio Co
lombia. He even presumes that the former dis
charges itself into the gulf of California* ; a bold
supposition, which would give to the Tacoutche
Tesse a course of an enormous length. It must
be allowed that all that part of the west of North
America is still but very imperfectly known.
In the 50° of latitude, the Nelson riyer, the
Saskashawan, and the Missoury, which may be
regarded as one of the principal branches of the
Mississippi, furnish equal facilities of communi
cation with the Pacific Ocean. All these rivers
take their rise at the foot ofthe Stony Mountains.
But we have not yet sufficient acquaintance with
the nature ofthe ground through which the com-
munciation is proposed to be established, to pro
nounce upon the utility of these projects. The
journey of Captain Lewis, at the expense of the
* Geogr. Mathem. vol. xv. p. 117-
M 4

22 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
Anglo-American government, on the Mississippi
and the Missoury, may throw considerable light
on this interesting problem.
2. Under the 40° of latitude, the sources of
the Rio del Norte, or Rio Bravo, a considerable
river which flows into the gulf of Mexico, are
only separated from the sources of the Rio Co
lorado by a mountainous tract of from twelve to
thirteen leagues of breadth. This tract is the
continuation of the Cordillera of the Cranes,
which stretches towards the Sierra Verde and
the lake of Timpanogos, celebrated in the Mexi
can history. The Rio S. Rafael and the Rio S.
Xavier are the principal sources of the river
Zaguananas, which, with the Rio de Nabajoa,
forms the Rio Colorado: the latter has its em
bouchure in the gulf of California. These regions,
abounding in rock salt, were examined in 1777 by
two travellers full of zeal and intrepidity, monks
of the order of St. Francis, Father Escalante and
Father Antonio Velez. But however interesting
the Rio Zaguananas and the Rio del Norte may
one day become for the internal commerce of
this northern part of New Spain, and however
easy the carriage may be across the mountains,
no communication will ever result from it com
parable to that opened directly from sea to sea.
3. The isthmus of Tehuantepec comprises, un
der the 16° of latitude, the sources of the Rio
Huasacualco, which is discharged into the gulf of

chap, ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 23
Mexico, and the sources ofthe Rio de Chimalapa.
The waters of this last river mix with those ofthe
Pacific Ocean near the Barra de S. Francisco.
I consider here the Rio del Passo as the principal
source of the river Huasacualco, although the
latter only takes its name at the Passo de la Fa-
brica, after one of its arms, which comes from
the mountains de los Mexes, unites with the Rio
del Passo. We shall examine afterwards the pos
sibility of cutting a canal, of from six to seven
leagues, in the forests of Tarifa. We shall merely
observe here, that since, in 1798, a road has been
opened which leads by land from the port of Te
huantepec, to the Embarcadero de la Cruz (a road
completed in 1800) ; the Rio Huasacualco forms,
in reality, a commercial communication between
the two oceans. During the course of the war
with the English, the indigo of Guatimala, the
most precious of all known indigos, came by the
way of this isthmus to the port of Vera Cruz, and
from thence to Europe.
4. The great lake of Nicaragua communicates
not only with the lake of Leon, but also on the
east, by the river of San Juan, with the sea of
the Antilles. The communication with the Pacific
Ocean would be effected in cutting a canal across
the isthmus which separates the lake from the gulf
of Papagayo. On this strait isthmus are to be
found the volcanic and isolated summits of Bom-
bacho (at 11° 7' of latitude), of Grenada, and of

24 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
the Papagayo (at 10° 50' of latitude). The old
maps point out a communication by water as
existing across the isthmus from the lake to the
Great Ocean. Other maps, somewhat newer,
represent a river under the name of Rio Partido,
which gives one of its branches to the Pacific
Ocean, and the other to the lake of Nicaragua ;
but this divided stream does not appear on thelast
maps published by the Spaniards and English.
There are in the archives of Madrid several
French and English memoirs*, on the possibility
of the junction ofthe lake of Nicaragua with the
Pacific Ocean. The commerce carried on by the
English on the coast of Mosquitos has greatly con
tributed to give celebrity to this project of com
munication between the two seas. In none of
the memoirs which have come to my knowledge is
the principal point, the height of the ground in
the isthmus, sufficiently cleared up.
From the Kingdom of New Grenada to the en
virons ofthe capital of Mexico, there is not a sin
gle mountain, a single level, a single city, of which
we know the elevation above the level ofthe sea.
Does there exist an uninterrupted chain of moun
tains in the provinces of Veragua and Nicaragua?
* Memoire sur le passage de la mer du Sud a la mer du
Nord, par M. la Bastide, en 1791. Voyage de Marchand,
vol. i. p. 565. Mapa del Golfo de Mexico por Thomas Lo
pez y Juan de la Cruz, 1755.

KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 25
Has this Cordillera, which is supposed to unite
the Andes of Peru to the mountains of Mexico, its
central chain to the west or the east ofthe lake of
Nicaragua? Would not the isthmus of Papagayo
rather present a hilly tract than a continued cor-
derilla ? These are problems whose solution is
equally interesting to the statesman and the geo
graphical naturalist !
There is no spot on the globe so full of volcanos
as this part of America, from the 11° or 13° of
latitude ; but do not these conical summits form
groups which, separately from one another, rise
from the plain itself? We ought not to be as
tonished that we are ignorant of these very im
portant facts ; we shall soon see that even the
height of the mountains which traverse the isth
mus of Panama is not yet known. Perhaps the
communication ofthe lake of Nicaragua with the
Pacific Ocean could be carried on by the lake of
Leon, by means ofthe river Tosta, which, on the
road from Leon to Realexo, descends from the
volcano of Telica. In fact, the ground appears
there very little elevated. The account of the
voyage of Dampier leads us even to suppose that
there exists no chain of mountains between the
lake of Nicaragua and the South Sea. " The coast
of Nicoya," says this great navigator, " is low,
and covered at full tide. To arrive from Realexo
to Leon, we must go twenty miles across a coun
try, flat and covered with mangle trees." The

26 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
city of Leon itself is situated in a savanna. There
is a small river which, passingnear Realexo, might
facilitate the communication between the latter
port and that of Leon.* From the west bank of
the lake of Nicaragua there are only four marine
leagues to the bottom of the gulf of Papagayo,
and seven to that of Nicoya, which navigators
call la Caldera. Dampier says expressly that the
ground between la Caldera and the lake is a little
hilly, but for the greatest part level and like a
savanna. The coast of Nicaragua is almost inaccessible
in the months of August, September, and October,
on account of the terrible storms and rains ; in
January and February, on account of the fu
rious north-east and east-north-east winds called
Papagayos. This circumstance is exceedingly
inconvenient for navigation. The port of Te
huantepec, on the isthmus of Guasacualco, is not
more favoured by nature ; it gives its name to the
hurricanes which blow from the north-west, and
which frighten vessels from landing at the small
ports of Sabinas and Ventosa.
5. The isthmus of Panama was crossed for the
first time by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, in 1513.
Since this memorable epocha in the history of
geographical discoveries, theproject of a canal has

* Collection of Dampier's and Wafer's voyages, vol. i.
p. 113. 119. 218.

chap, ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 27
occupied every mind ; and yet at this day, after
the lapse of 300 years, there neither exists a sur
vey of the ground, nor an exact determination of
the positions of Panama and Portobello. The
longitude of the first of these two ports has been
found with relation to Carthagena ; the longitude
of the -second has been fixed from Guayaquil.
The operations of Fidalgo and Malaspina are
undoubtedly deserving of very great confidence;
but errors are insensibly multiplied, when by chro-
nometrical operations from the isle of Trinidad
to Portobello, and from Lima to Panama, one
position becomes dependant on another. It
would be important to carry the time directly
from Panama to Portobello, and thus to connect
the operations in the South Sea with those which
the Spanish government has carried on in the
Atlantic Ocean. Perhaps MM. Fidalgo, Tiscar,
and Noguera, may one day advance with their
instruments to the southern coast of the isthmus,
while MM. Colmenares, Irasvirivill, and Quartara,
shall carry their operations* to the northern coast.
To form an idea of the uncertainty which still

* These officers of the Spanish marine were charged with
surveying the northern and western coast of South America.
The expedition of Fidalgo was destined for the coast situated
between the isle of Trinidad send Portobello, the expedition
of Colmenares for the coast of Chili, and the expedition of
Moraleda and Quartara for the part between Guayhaquil and
Realexo.

28 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
prevails as to the form and breadth ofthe isthmus
(for example towards Nata), we have only to
compare the maps of Lopez with those of Arrow-
smith, and with the more recent ones of the De
posito Hydrografico of Madrid. The river Cha-
gre, which flows into the sea of the Antilles to
the west of Portobello, presents, notwithstanding
its sinuosities and its rapids, great facility for com
merce ; its breadth is 120 toises at its mouth, and
20 toises near Cruces, where it begins to be na
vigable. It requires four or five days at present
to ascend the Rio Chagre from its mouth to
Cruces. If the waters are very high the current
must be struggled with for ten or twelve days.
From Cruces to Panama merchandizes are trans
ported on the backs of mules, for a space of five
small leagues. The barometrical heights related
in the travels of Ulloa* lead me to suppose that
there exists in the Rio Chagre, from the sea ofthe
Antilles to the Embarcadero, or Venta de Cruces,
a difference of level of from 35 to 40 toises. This
must appear a very small difference to those who
have ascended the Rio Chagre; they forget that
the force of the current depends as much on a
great accumulation of water near the sources, as
on the general descent ofthe river; that is to say,
of the descent of the Rio Chagre above Cruces.
On comparing the barometrical survey of Ulloa
* Observations Astronomiques d'Ulloa, p. 97.
, 7 !¦'

chap, ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 29
with that made by myself in the river of Mag-
delen, we perceive that the elevation of Cruces
above the ocean, far from being small, is, on
the contrary, very considerable. The fall ofthe
Rio de la Madelena from Honda to the dyke of
Mahates, near Barrancas, is nearly 170 toises* ;
and this distance nevertheless is not, as we might
suppose, four times, but eight times, greater than
that of Cruces at the fort of Chagre.
The engineers in proposing to the Court of
Madrid that the river Chagre should serve for
establishing a communication between the two
oceans, have projected a canal from the venta de
Cruces to Panama. This canal would have <;o
pass through a hilly tract, of the height of which
we are completely ignorant. We only know
that, from Cruces, the ascent is at first rapid, and
that there is then a descent for several hours to
wards the South Sea. It is very astonishing, that
in crossingthe isthmus, neither LaCondamine nor
Don George Juan and Ulloa had the curiosity to
observe their barometer, for the sake of inform
ing us what is the height of the most elevated
point on the route of the castle of Chagre at
Panama. These illustrious savans sojourned three
months in that interesting region for the commer
cial world ; but their stay has added little to the
old observations which we owe to Dampier and
to Wafer. However, it appears beyond a doubt
* 1088 feet. Trans.

30 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
that we find the principal Cordillera, or rather a
range of hills that may be regarded as a pro
longation of the Andes of New Grenada, towards
the South Sea, between Cruces and Panama. It
is from thence that the two oceans are said to be
discernible at the same time, which would only
require an absolute height of 290 metres.*
However, Lionel Wafer complains that he could
not enjoy this interesting spectacle. He assures
us, moreover, that the hills which form the central
chain are separated from one another by vallies
which allow free course for passage of the ri-
vers.t If this last assertion be founded, we might
believe in the possibility of a canal from Cruces
to Panama, of which the navigation would only
be interrupted by a very few locks.
There are other points where, according to me
moirs drawn up in 1 528, the isthmus has been
proposed to be cut, for example, in joining the
sources of the rivers called Caimito and Rio
Grande, with the Rio Trinidad. The eastern part
of the isthmus is the narrowest, but the ground
appears to be also most elevated there. This is at
least what has been "remarked in the frightful road
travelled by the courier from Portobello to Pa-
* 947 English feet. Trans.
X Description pf the isthmus of America, 1729, p. 297.
Near the town of Panama, a little to the north of the port, is
the mountain of L'Ancon, which, according to a geometrical
measurement, is 101 toises (646 feet) in height. Ulloa, vol. i.
p. 101.

chap, u.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 31
nama, a two days' journey, which goes by the vil
lage of Pequeni, and is full ofthe greatest difficul
ties. In every age and climate, of two neighbouring
seas, the one has been considered as more elevated
than the other. Traces of this vulgar opinion are
to be found among the ancients. Strabo relates,
that in his time the gulf of Corinth near Lechaeum
was believed to be above the level of the sea of
Cenchreae. He is of opinion * that it would be
very dangerous to cut the isthmus ofthe Pelopon
nesus in the placewhere the Corinthians, bymeans
of particular machines, had established aportage.
In America, the South Sea is generally supposed
to be higher at the isthmus of Panama than the
Atlantic ocean. After a struggle of several days
against the current of the Rio Chagre, we natu
rally believe the ascent to be greater than the
descent from the hills near Cruces to Panama.
Nothing, in fact, can be more treacherous than
the estimates which we are apt to form of the
difference of level on a long and easy descent.
I could hardly believe my own eyes at Peru,
when I found, by means of a barometrical mea
surement, that the city of Lima was 91 toises t
higher than the port of Callao. An earthquake
must cover entirely the rock of the isle San Lo-
* Strabo, lib. i. ed. Siebenkees, v. i. p. 146. Livius, lib. 42.
cap. 16.
X 582 feet. Trans.
VOL. I. N

32 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
renzo with water before the ocean can reach the
capital of Peru. The idea of a difference of level
between the Atlantic and South Sea has been
combated by Don George Juan, who found the
height ofthe column of mercury the same at the
mouth of the Chagre and at Panama.
The imperfection of the meteorological instru
ments then in use, and the want of every sort of
thermometrical correction of the calculation of
heights, might also give rise to doubts. These
doubts have acquired additional force since the
French engineers, in the expedition to Egypt,
found the Red Sea six toises * higher than the
Mediterranean. Till a geometrical survey be
executed in the isthmus itself, we can only have
recourse to barometrical measurements. Those
made by me at the mouth of the Rio Sinu in the
Atlantic Sea, and on the coast of the South Sea
in Peru, prove, with every allowance for tem
perature, that if there is a difference of level be
tween the two seas, it cannot exceed six or seven
metres t.
When we consider the effect of the current qf
rotation t, which carries the waters from east to
West, and accumulates them towards the coast of
Costa Ricca and Veragua, we are tempted to ad-
* 38 feet. Trans. + 19 or 22 feet. Trans.
X I call current of rotation the general motion from east
to west, observed in the part of the ocean comprised in the
torrid zone.

chap, ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 33
rait, contrary to the received opinion, that the
Atlantic is. a little higher than the South Sea.
Trivial causes of a local nature, such as the con
figuration of the coast, currents and winds (as
in the Straits of Babelmandel), may trouble the
equilibrium which ought necessarily to exist be
tween all the parts of the ocean. As the tides
rise at Portobello to a third part of a metre *,
and at Panama to four or five metres t, the le
vels of the two neighbouring seas ought to vary
with the different establishments of the ports. But
these trivial inequalities, far from obstructing
hydraulical operations, would even be favourable
for sluices.
We cannot doubt that if the isthmus of Pa
nama were once burst by some similar catastrophe
to that which opened the columns of Hercules X,
the current of rotation in place of ascending to
wards the gulf of Mexico, and issuing through
the canal of Bahama, would follow the same pa
rallel from the coast of Paria to the Philippine
islands. The effect of this opening, or new strait,
would extend much beyond the banks of New
foundland, and would either occasion the dis
appearance or diminish the celerity of the Hot-
water river, known by the name of Gulf-stream §,
* 13 inches. Trans. + 13 or 16 feet. Trans.
X Diodorus Siculus, lib. iv. p. 226. lib. xvii. p. 533. edit.
Rhodom. § The Gulf-stream, on which Franklin, and afterwards
N 2

34 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
which, leaving Florida on the north-east, flows in
the 40° of latitude to the east, and especially the
south-east towards the coast of Africa. Such
would be the effects of an inundation analogous
to that of which the memory has been preserved
in the traditions ofthe Samothracians. But shall
we dare to compare the pitiful works of man with
canals cut by nature herself, with straits like the
Hellespont and the Dardanelles!
Strabo * appears inclined to believe that the sea
will one day open the isthmus of Suez. No such
catastrophe can be expected in the isthmus of
Panama, unless enormous volcanic convulsions,
very improbable in the actual state of repose of
our planet, should occasion extraordinary revo
lutions. A tongue of land lengthened out from
east to west, in a direction almost parallel to that
of the current of rotation escapes, as it were, the
shock of the waves. The isthmus of Panama
would be seriously threatened, if it extended from

Williams, have left us such valuable observations, carries ra
pidly the tropical waters to the northern latitudes. It is oc
casioned by the current of rotation which strikes against the
coasts of Veragua and Honduras, and ascending towards the
Gulf of Mexico, between Cape Catoche and Cape St. Antoine,
issues through the canal of Bahama. It is owing to this mo
tion that the vegetable productions ofthe Antilles are carried
to Norway, Ireland, and the Canaries. See the second
volume of my Voyage to the Tropics, chap. i.
* Strabo, ed. Siebenkees, T. I. p. 156.

chap, ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 35
south to north, and was situated between the
port of Carthago and the mouth of the Rio San
Juan, if the narrowest part ofthe new continent
lay between the 10° and the 11° of latitude.
The navigation ofthe river Chagre is difficult,
both on account of its sinuosities and the celerity
ofthe current, frequently from one to two metres
per second. * These sinuosities, however, afford a
counter current, by means of which the small ves
sels, called bongos and chatas, ascend the river,
either with oars, poles, or towing. Were these
sinuosities to be cut, and the old bed of the river
to be dried up, this advantage would cease, and
it would be infinitely difficult to arrive from the
North Sea to Cruces.
From all the information which I could procure
relating to this isthmus, while I remained at Car
thagena and Guayaquil, it appears to me, that the
expectation of a canal of seven metres! in depth,
and from twenty -two to twenty-eight metres X in
breadth, which, like a pass or a strait, should go
from sea to sea, and admit the vessels which sail
from Europe to the East Indies, ought to be
completely abandoned. The elevation of the
ground would force the engineer to have recourse
either to subterraneous galleries, or to tlie system
* From 3.28 to 6.56 feet. Trans.
X 22 feet 1 1 inches. Trans.
X From 72 feet 2 inches, to 91 feet 10 inches. Trans.
N 3

36 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
of sluices; and the merchandizes destined to pass
the isthmus of Panama could only therefore be
transported in flat-bottomed boats unable to'keep
the sea. Entrepots at Panama and Portobello
would be requisite. Every nation which wished
to trade in this way would be dependent on the
masters ofthe isthmus and canal ; and this would
be a very great inconvenience for the vessels de
spatched from Europe. Supposing then that this
canal were cut, the greatest number of these
vessels would probably continue their voyage
round Cape Horn. We see that the passage of
the Sound is still frequented, notwithstanding
the existence ofthe Eyder canal, which connects
the ocean with the Baltic Sea.
It would be otherwise with the productions of
western America, or the goods sent from Europe
to the coast ofthe Pacific Ocean. These goods
would cross the isthmus at less expense, and with
less danger, particularly in time of war, than in
doubling the southern extremity of the new con
tinent. In the present state of things, the carriage
of three quintals on mule-back from Panama to
Portobello costs from three to four piastres (from
12s. 6d. to 16s. 8d.) But the uncultivated state
in which the government allows the isthmus to
remain is such, that the carriage of the copper
of Chili, the quinquina of Peru, and the 60 or
70,000 vanegas of cacao * annually exported
* A vancga weigh,, 110 Castilian pounds..

chap ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 37
by Guayaquil, across this neck of land, requires
many more beasts of burden than can be pro
cured, so that the slow and expensive navigation
round Cape Horn is preferred.
In 1802 and 1803, when the Spanish commerce
was every where harassed by the English cruizers,
a great part of the cacao was carried across the
Kingdom of New Spain, and embarked at Vera
Cruz for Cadiz. They preferred the passage from
Guayaquil to Acapulco, and a land journey of a
hundred leagues from Acapulco to Vera Cruz, to
the danger of a long navigation; by Cape Horn,
and the difficulty of struggling with the current
along the coasts of Peru and Chili. This example
proves, that, if the construction of a canal across
the isthmus of Panama, or that of Guasacualco,
abounds with too many difficulties from the mul
tiplicity of sluices, the commerce of America would
gain the most important advantages from good
causeways, carried from Tehuantepec to the Em-
barcadero de la Cruz, and from Panama to Por
tobello. It is true that in the isthmus, the pas
turage * to this day is very unfavourable to the
nourishment and multiplication of cattle; but it
would be easy, in so fertile a soil, to form savan
nas by cutting down forests, or to cultivate the

* The assertion of Raynal (T. IV. p. 150.) that domestic
animals transported to Portobello lose their fecundity, should
be considered as totally destitute of truth.
N 4

38 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
paspalum purpureum, the milium nigricans, and
particularly the medicago sativa, which grows
abundantly in Peru in the warmest districts. The
introduction of camels would be still a surer
means of diminishing the expense of carriage.
These land ships, as they are called by the orien
tals, hitherto exist only in the province of Carac
cas, and were brought there from the Canary
Islands by the Marquis de Toro.
Moreover, no political consideration should
oppose the progress of population, agriculture,
commerce, and civilization, in the isthmus of Pa
nama. The more this neck of land shall be cul
tivated, the more resistance will it oppose to the
enemies ofthe Spanish government. The events
which took place at Buenos Ayres prove the ad
vantages of a concentrated population in the case
of an invasion. If any enterprising nation wished
to become possessed ofthe isthmus, it could do so
with the greatest ease at present, when good and
numerous fortifications are destitute of arms to
defend them. The unhealthiness ofthe climate,
thoughnowmuch diminished at Portobello, would
alone oppose great obstacles to any military un
dertaking in the isthmus. It is from St. Charles
de Chiloe, and not from Panama, that Peru can
be attacked. It requires from three to five
months to ascend from Panama to Lima. But
the whale and cachalot fishery, which in 1803
drew 60 English vessels to the South Sea, and
10

chap, ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 39
the facilities for the Chinese commerce and the
furs of Nootka Sound, are baits of a very seduc
tive nature. They will draw, sooner or later, the
masters of the ocean to a point of the globe de
stined by nature to change the face of the com
mercial system of nations.
6. To the south-east of Panama, following the
coast ofthe Pacific Ocean, from Cape S. Miguel
to Cape Corientes, we find the small port and bay
of Cupica. The name of this bay has acquired
celebrity in the kingdom of New Grenada, on
account of a new plan of communication between
the two seas. From Cupica, we cross for five or
six marine leagues, a soil quite level and proper
for a canal, which would terminate at the Embar-
cadero of the Rio Naipi. This last river is na
vigable, and flows below the village of Zitara
into the great Rio Atrato, which itself enters the
Atlantic Sea. A very intelligent Biscayan pilot,
M. Gogueneche, was the first who had the merit
of turning the attention of government to the bay
of Cupica, which ought to be for the new conti
nent what Suez was formerly for Asia. M.
Gogueneche proposed to transport the cacao of
Guayaquil, by the Rio Naipi to Carthagena.
The same way offers the advantage of a very
quick communication between Cadiz and Lima.
Instead of despatching couriers by Carthagena,
Santa Fe, and Quito, or by Buenos Ayres and
Mendoza, good quick-sailing packet-boats should

40 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
be sent from Cupica- to Peru. If this plan were
carried into execution, the viceroy of Lima would
have no longer to wait five or six months for the
orders of his court. Besides, the environs of the
Bay of Cupica abounds with excellent timber fit
to be carried to Lima. We might almost say
that the ground between Cupica and the mouth
of the Atrato is the only part of all America in
which the chain ofthe Andes is entirely broken.
7. In the interior of the province of Choco, the
small ravine (Quebrada, de la Raspadura, unites
the neighbouring sources ofthe Rio de Noanama,
called also Rio San Juan, and the small river
Quito, The latter, the Rio Andageda and the
Rio Zitara, form the Rio d' Atrato, which dis
charges itself into the Atlantic Ocean, while the
Rio San Juan flows into the South Sea. A monk
of great activity, cure of the village of Novita,
employed his parishioners to dig a small canal
in the ravine de la Raspadura, by means of which,
when the rains are abundant, canoes loaded with
cacao pass from sea to sea. This interior com
munication has existed since 1788, unknown in
Europe. The small canal of Raspadura unites,
on the coasts of the two oceans, two points 75
leagues distant from one another.
8. In the 10° of south latitude, two or three
days' journey from Lima, we reach the banks of
the Rio Guallaga (or Huallaga), by which wex
may, without doubling Cape Horn, arrive at the

chap, h.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 41
banks of the grand Para in Brazil. The sources
even of the Rio Huanuco* which runs into the
Guallaga, are only four or five leagues distant
from the source ofthe Rio Huaura, which flows
into the Pacific Ocean. The Rio Xauxo, also,
which contributes to form the Apuremac and the
Ucayale, has its rise near the source of the Rio
Rimac. The height of the Cordillera, and the
nature of the ground, render the execution of a
canal impossible ; but the construction of a com
modious road, from the capital of Peru to the Rio
de Huanaco, would facilitate the transport of
goods to Europe. The great rivers Ucayale and
Guallaga would carry in five or six weeks the
productions of Peru to the mouth ofthe Amazons,
and to the neighbouring coasts of Europe, while
a passage of four months is requisite to convey
the same goods to the same point, in doubling
Cape Horn. The cultivation of the fine re
gions situated on the eastern declivity of the
Andes, and the prosperity and wealth of their
inhabitants, depend on a free navigation of the
river of the Amazons. This liberty, denied by
* See the maps given by Father Sobreviola, in the third vo
lume of an excellent literary journal published at Lima, under
the title of Mercurio Peruviana. The work of Skinner, on
Peru, is an extract from this journal, of which some volumes,
unfortunately not the most interesting, have found their way
to London. I deposited the whole work in the king's library,
»t Berlin.

42 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [booki.
the court of Portugal to the Spaniards, might have
been acquired in the sequel to the events which
preceded the peace of 1801.
9. Before the coast of the Patagonians was
sufficiently known, the Gulf of St. George, situat
ed between the 45° and the 47° of south latitude,
was supposed to enter so far into the interior of
the country, as to communicate with the arms of
the sea which interrupt the continuity of the
western coast, that is to say, with the coast op-
posite to the archipelago of Chayamapu. Were
this supposition founded on solid bases, the ves
sels destined from the South Sea might cross
South America 7° to the north of the Straits of
Magellan, and shorten their route more than
700 leagues. In this way, navigators might
avoid the dangers which, notwithstanding the
perfection of nautical science, still accompany
the voyage round Cape Horn and along the
Patagonian coast, from Cape Pilares to the pa
rallel of the Chonos islands. These ideas, in
1790, occupied the attention of the court of
Madrid. M. GilLemos, viceroy of Peru, an up
right and zealous administrator, equipped a small
expedition under the orders of M. Moraleda*, to
* Don Jose de Moraleda y Montero visited the archipela
gos of Chiloe and Chonos, and the western coast of the Pata
gonians, from 1787 down to 1796. Two very interesting
manuscripts, drawn up by M. Moraleda, are to be found in
the archives ofthe viceroyalty of Lima : the title of the one is,

chap, ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 43
examine the southern coast of Chili. I saw the
instructions that he received at Lima, which re
commended to him the greatest secrecy in case
he should be happy enough to discover a commu
nication between the two seas. But M. Moraleda
discovered in 1793, that the Estero de Aysen,
visited before him in 1763 by the Jesuits, fathers
Jose Garcia and Juan Vicuna, was of all the arms
of the sea that in which the waters of the ocean
advance the farthest towards the east. Yet it is
but eight leagues in length, and terminates at
the isle de la Cruz, where it receives a small river,
near a hot spring. Hence the canal of Aysen,
situated in the 45° 28' of latitude, is still 88
leagues distant from the Gulf of St. George.
This gulf was exactly surveyed by the expedi
tion of Malaspina. In the year 1746, a commu
nication was, in the same manner, suspected in
Europe between the bay of St. Julien (latitude
50° 53') and the Great Ocean.
I have sketched in one plate the nine points
which appear to afford means of communication

Viage al Reconocimiento de los Islos de Chiloe,\7S6; the other
comprehends the Reconocimiento del Archipelago de los Chonos
y Costa occidental Patagonica, 1792 — 1796. Curious and in
teresting extracts might be published from these journals,
which contain details regarding the cities de los Cesares and
de l'Arguello, which are said to have been founded in 1554,
and are placed by apocryphal accounts between 42° and 49°
of south latitude.

44 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
between the two oceans, by the junction of neigh
bouring rivers, either by canals or carriage-roads
between the places where the rivers become navi
gable. These sketches are not of equal accuracy,
astronomically considered ; but I wished to save
the reader the labour of seeking in several maps
what may be contained in one ; and it is the duty
of the government which possesses the finest and
most fertile part of the globe to perfect what I
have merely hinted at in this discussion. Two
Spanish engineers, MM. Le Maur, drew up
superb plans of the canal de los Guines, pro
jected for traversing the whole island of Cuba,
from Batabano to the Havannah. A similar sur
vey of the isthmus of Guasacualco, the lake Ni
caragua, ofthe country between Cruces and Pa
nama, and between Cupica and the Rio Naipi,
would direct the statesman in his choice, and
enable him to decide, if it is at Mexico or Darien
that this undertaking should be executed ; an
undertaking calculated to immortalize a govern-
mentoccupied with the true interests of humanity.
The long circumnavigation of South America
would then be less frequent ; and a communica
tion would be opened for the goods which pass
from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea. The
time is past* " when Spain, through a jealous

• M. de Fleurieu, in his learned notes on the Voyage de
Marchand. T. I. p. 569.

chap, ii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 45
policy, refused to other nations a thoroughfare
through the possessions of which she so long kept
the world in ignorance." Those who are at pre
sent at the head of the government are enlight
ened enough to give a favourable reception to the
liberal ideas proposed to them; and the presence
of a stranger is no longer regarded as a danger
for the country.
Should a canal of communication be opened
between the two oceans, the productions of
Nootka Sound and of China will be brought more
than 2000 leagues nearer to Europe and the
United States. Then only can any great changes
be effected in the political state of Eastern Asia,
for this neck of land, the barrier against the waves
of the Atlantic Ocean, has been for many ages
the bulwark of the independence of China and
Japan.

46 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.

CHAPTER III.
Physical aspect ofthe kingdom of New Spain comparedwiththat
of Europe and South America. — Inequalities ofthe soil.—
Influence qf these inequalities on the climate, cultivation, and
military defence ofthe country. — State ofthe coasts.
We have hitherto considered the vast extent and
the boundaries of the kingdom of New Spain.
We have examined its relations with the other
Spanish possessions, and the advantages which
the configuration of its coasts afford for commu
nications between the Atlantic and the South
Seas. Let us now give a physical view ofthe
country ; and consider for a while the inequali
ties of its soil, and the influence of that inequa
lity on the climate, cultivation, and military de
fence of Mexico. We shall merely exhibit ge
neral results. The details of natural history are
foreign to statistics; but we cannot form an
exact idea of the territorial wealth of a state,
without knowing the structure of its mountains,
the height of the great interior plains, and the
temperature proper ^br those regions, in which
the climates succeed, as it were, by strata, one
above another.
When we take a general view ofthe whole sur
face of Mexico we see that one half is situated
under the burning sky of the tropics, and the
other belongs to the temperate zone. The latter

chap, hi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 47
contains 60,000 square leagues, and comprehends
the provincias internas, both those which are
under the immediate administration of the vice
roy of Mexico (for example, the new kingdom of
Leon, and the province of New Santander), and
those governed by a particular commandant-ge
neral. The influence of this commandant ex
tends over the intendancies of Durango and
Sonora, and the provinces of Cohahuila, Texas,
and New Mexico, regions thinly inhabited, which
go all under the designation of provincias internas
de la commendancia general, to distinguish them
from the provincias internas del vireynato.
On the one hand, small portions ofthe northern
provinces of Sonora and New Santander pass the
tropic of Cancer ; and on the other, the southern
intendancies of Guadalaxara, Zacatecas, and S.
Luis de Potosi (particularly the environs of the ce
lebrated mines of Catorce) extend a little to the
north df this limit.* We know, however, that
the physical climate of a country does not altoge
ther depend on its distance from the pole, but
also on its elevation above the level of the sea,
proximity to the ocean, configuration, and a great
number of other local circumstances. Hence, of
* There is an oversight in the original in this place ; for
the fact is literall ;• the reverse. The northern provinces of
Sonora and New Santander stretch as far north as 38°, and
part of the southern intendancies of Guadalaxara, Zacatecas,
and S. Luis de Potosi, lie south ofthe tropic of Cancer. Trans.
VOL. I. O

48 POLITICAL "ESSAY ON THE [book i.
the 50,000 square leagues situated in the torrid
zone, more than three-fifths enjoy rather a cold or
temperate than a burning climate. The whole
interior of the viceroyalty of Mexico, especially
the interior ofthe countries comprized under the
ancient denominations of Anahuac and Mechoa
can, probably even all New Biscay, form an im
mense plain elevated 2000 or 2500 metres*
above the level of the neighbouring seas.
There is scarcely a point on the globe where the
mountains exhibit so extraordinary a construction
as in New Spain. In Europe, Switzerland, Sa
voy, and the Tyrol, are considered very elevated
countries ; but this opinion is merely founded on
the aspect of the groups of a great number of
summits perpetually covered with snow, and dis
posed in parallel chains to the great central chain.
Thus the summits of the Alps rise to 3900 and
even 4700 metres t, while the neighbouring plains
in the canton of Berne are not more than from
from 400 to 600 X feet in height. The former of
these numbers (400), a very moderate elevation,
may be considered as that of the most part of
plains of any considerable extent in Suabia,
Bavaria, and New Silesia, near the sources of the
Wartha and Piliza. In Spain, the two Castilles
are elevated more than 580 metres (300 toises). §
?-6561 and 8201 feet. Trans.
X 12,794 and 15,419 feet. Trans.
X 1312 and 1968 feet. Trans. § 1902 feet. Trans.

chap, iii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 49
The highest level in France is Auvergne, on which
the Mont d'Or, the Cantal, and the Puy deDome
repose. The elevation of this level, according to
the observations of M. de Buch, is 720 metres
(370 toises). * These examples serve to prove
that in general the elevated surfaces of Europe
which exhibit the aspect of plains, are seldom
more than from 400 to 800 metres t (200 to 400
toises) higher than the level of the ocean.
In Africa, perhaps, near the sources of the
Nile+", and in Asia, under the 34° and 37° of
north latitude, there are plains analogous to those
of Mexico ; but the travellers who have visited
Asia have left us completely ignorant of the
elevation of Thibet. The elevation ofthe great
desert of Cobi, to the north-west of China, ex
ceeds, according to Father Duhalde, 1400 me
tres. § Colonel Gordon assured M. Labillardiere,
that from the Cape of Good Hope to the 21° of
south latitude the soil of Africa rose gradually to
2000 metres || of elevation, ^f This fact, as new
as it is curious, has not been confirmed by other
naturalists. The chain of mountains which form the vast
plain of Mexico is the same with what, under the
* 2360 feet. Trans. f From 1312 to 2624 feet. Trans.
X According to Bruce (vol. iii. p. 642, 652, and 712), the
sources of the Nile, in Gogam, are more than 3200 metres
(10,500 feet) higher than the the level ofthe Mediterranean.
§ 5511 feet. Trans. || 6561 feet. Trans.
f Labillardiere, t. i. p. 89.
o 2

SO POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
name ofthe Andes, runs through all South Ame
rica ; but the construction, I may say tlie skele
ton, (Charpente) of this chain varies to the south
and north of the equator. In the southern
hemisphere, the Cordillera is every where torn
and interrupted by crevices like open furrows
not filled with heterogeneous substances. If
there are plains elevated from 2700 to 3000 me
tres* (1400 to 1500 toises), as in the kingdom of
Quito, and farther north in the province of los
Pastos, they are not to be compared in extent
with those of New Spain, and are rather to be
considered as longitudinal vallies bounded by two
branches of the great Cordillera of the Andes :
while in Mexico it is the very ridge of the moun
tains which forms the plain, and it is the direc
tion ofthe plain which designates as it were that
of the whole chain. In Peru, the most elevated
summits constitute the crest of the Andes; but
in Mexico these same summits, less colossal, it is
true, but still from 4900 to 5400 1 metres in height
(2500 to 2770 toises), are either dispersed on the
plain, or ranged in lines which bear no relation
of parallelism with the direction of the Cordillera.
Peru and the kingdom of New Grenada contain
transversal vallies, of which the perpendicular
depth is sometimes 1400J metres. The ex
istence of these vallies prevents the inhabitants
From 10,629 to 11,811 feet. Trans.
X From 16,075 to 17,7 15 feet. Trans. $ 4854 feet. Trans

chap, hi] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 51
from travelling, except on hprseback, a-foot, or
carried on the shoulders of Indians (called carga-
dores); but in the kingdom of New Spain car
riages roll on to Santa Fe in the province of New
Mexico, for a length of more than 1000 kilome
tres or 500 leagues. On the whole of this road
there were few difficulties for art to surmount.
The table-land of Mexico is in general so little
interrupted by vallies, and its declivity is so gen
tle, that as far as the city of Durango, in New Bis
cay, 140 leagues from Mexico, the surface is
continually elevated from 1700 to 2700* metres
above the level ofthe neighbouring ocean. This
is equal to the height of Mount Cenis, St. Go-
thard, or the Great St. Bernard. That I might
examine this geological phenomenon with the at
tention which it deserves, I executed five barome
trical surveys. The first was across the kingdom
of New Spain, from the South Sea to the Mexican
Gulf, from Acapulco to Mexico, and from Mexi
co to Vera Cruz. The second survey extended
from Mexico by Tula, Queretaro, and Sala
manca to Guanaxuato. The third comprehend
ed the intendancy of Valladolid, from Gua
naxuato to the volcano of Jorullo at Pascuaro.
The fourth extended from Valladolid to Toluca,
and from thence to Mexico. Lastly, the fifth in
cluded the environs of Moran and Actopan. The
number of points of which I determined the
* From 5576 to 8856 feet. Trans.
O 3

52 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
height, either barometrically or trigonometri-
cally, amounts to 208 ; and they are all distri
buted over a surface comprehended between the
16° 50' and 21° 0' of north latitude, and the
102° 8' and 98° 28' of west longitude from Paris.
Beyond these limits I know but of one place of
which the length was accurately ascertained,
and that is the city of Durango, elevated, ac
cording to a deduction from a mean barometrical
altitude, 2000* metres above the level of the sea.
Thus the table-land of Mexico preserves its ex
traordinary elevation much farther north than
the tropic of Cancer.
These measurements of heights, with the astro
nomical observations which I made on the same
extent of ground, have enabled me to construct
the physical maps which accompany this work.
They contain a series of vertical sections. I have
endeavoured to represent whole regions by a me
thod which has hitherto been only employed for
mines, or small portions of ground through which
canals are intended to pass. In the statistics of
the kingdom of New Spain, we must confine our
selves to plans likely to attract interest from views
of political economy. The physiognomy of a
country, grouping of mountains, extent of plains,
elevation which determines its temperature ; in
short, whatever constitutes the construction of the
globe, has the most essential influence on the pro-
* 6561 feet. Trans.

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 53
gress of population and welfare of the inhabit
ants. It influences the state of agriculture, which
must vary with the difference of climate, the
means of internal commerce, the communica
tions which depend on the nature of the terri
tory, and the military defence on which the ex
ternal security of the colony depends. In these
relations alone extensive geological views can
interest the statesman, when he calculates the
force and territorial wealth of a nation.
In South America, the Cordillera ofthe Andes
exhibits at immense heights plains completely
level. Such is the plain of 2565 * metres eleva
tion on which the city of Santa Fe de Bogota is
built. Wheat, potatoes, and chenopodium quinoa,
are there carefully cultivated. Such is also the
plain of Caxamarea, in Peru, the ancient resi
dence of the unfortunate Atahualpa, of 2750 1
metres elevation. The great plains of Antisana,
in the middle of which rises the part of the vol
cano which penetrates the region of perpetual
snow, are 4100 X metres higher than the level of
the ocean. These plains exceed in length the
summit of the Pic of Teneriffe by 389 § metres ;
and yet they are so level, that at the aspect of
their natal soil, those who inhabit these countries
have no suspicion of the extraordinary situation
in which nature has placed them. But all the
* 8413 feet. Trans. X 9021 feet. Trans.
X 13,451 feet. Trans. § 1541 feet. Trans.
O 4

54 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
plains of New Grenada, Quito, or Peru, do not
exceed forty square leagues. Of difficult access,
and separated from one another by profound
vallies, they are very unfavourable for the trans
port of goods and internal commerce. Crown
ing insulated summits, they form as it were
islots * in the middle of the aerial ocean. Those
who inhabit these frozen plains remain concen
trated there, and dread to descend into the
neighbouring regions, where a suffocating heat
prevails prejudicial to the primitive inhabitants
ofthe higher Andes.
In Mexico, however, the soil assumes a different
aspect. Plains of a great extent, but of a surface
no less uniform, are so approximated to one an
other, that they form but a single plain on the
lengthened ridge of the Cordillera ; such is
the plain which runs from the 18° to the 40° of
north latitude. Its length is equal to the distance
from Lyons to the tropic of Cancer, which tra
verses the great African desert. This extraordi
nary plain appears to decline insensibly towards
the north. No measurement, as we have already
remarked, was ever made in New Spain beyond
the city of Durango ; but travellers observe that
the ground lowers visibly towards New Mexico,
and towards the sources of the Rio Colorado.
Three sections accompany this essay, one longi
tudinal and directed from south to north : it re-
* Small islands.

chap, m.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 55
presents the ridge of the mountains in their pro
longation towards the Rio Bravo. The two
others are transversal sections from the coast of
the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. All
three show at a glance the difficulty which the
extraordinary configuration of the country op
poses to the transport of productions from the
interior to the commercial cities of the coast.
In travelling from the capital of Mexico to the
great mines of Guanaxuato, we remain at first for
ten leagues in the valley of Tenochtitlan, elevated
2277 * metres above the level of the sea. The
level of this beautiful valley is so uniform, that the
village of Gueguetoque, situated at the foot ofthe
mountain of Sincoque, is only tent metres higher
than Mexico. The hill of Barientos is merely a
promontory which stretches into the valley. From
Gueguetoque we ascend near Botas to Puerto de
los Reyes, and from thence descend into the valley
of Tula, which is 115 metres (222 toises) t lower
than the valley of Tenochtitlan, and across which
thegreatcanal of evacuation ofthe lakes San Chris-
toval and Zumpango passes to the Rio de Mocte
zuma and the Gulf of Mexico. To arrive at the
bottom of the valley of Tula, in the great plain of
Queretaro, we must pass the mountain of Calpu-
* 7468 feet. Trans. X 32-8 feet- Trans.
X Here there is evidently a mistake, for 115 metres do not
correspond to 222 toises; the-value of .the first is 376 feet,
and of the latter 1420 feet. Trans.

56

POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.

lalpan, which is only 1379 metres* (2686 toisest)
above the level ofthe sea, and is consequently less
elevated than the city of Quito, though it ap-
pears the highest point of the whole road from
Mexico to Chihuahua. To the north of this
mountainous country the vast plains of St. Juan
del Rio, Queretaro, and Zelaya begin, plains
covered with villages and considerable cities.
Their mean height equals Puy de Dome in Au-
vergne, and they are near thirty leagues in length,
extending to the foot of the metaliferous moun
tains of Guanaxuato. Those who have travelled
into New Mexico assert that the rest of the way
resembles what I have described and represented
in a particular section. Immense plains, appear
ing like so many basins of old dried-up lakes,
follow one another, and are only separated by
hills which hardly rise 200 or 250 X metres at
most above the bottom of these basins. I shall
exhibit in another work (in the Atlas to the his
torical account of my travels) the section of the
four plains which surround the capital of Mexico.
The first, which comprehends the valley of
Toluca, 2600 § metres (1340 toises) ; the second,
or the valley of Tenochtitlan, 2274 1| metres
* 4522 feet. Trans.
X This number, which does not correspond with the me
tres, should evidently be 686- Trans.
X 656 or 820 feet. Trans.
§ 8529 feet. Trans.
II 7459 feet. Trans.

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 57
(1168 toises); the third, or the valley of Actopan,
1966* metres (1009 toises) ; and the fourth, the
valley of Istla, 981 1 metres (504 toises) of ele
vation. These four basins differ as much in
their climate as in their elevation above the level
of the sea ; each exhibits a different cultivation :
the first, and least elevated, is adapted for the
cultivation of sugar ; the second, cotton ; the
third, for European grain ; and the fourth, for
agava plantations, which may be considered as
the vineyards of the Aztec Indians.
The barometrical survey which I executed from
Mexico to Guanaxuato proves how much the con
figuration of the soil is favourable in New Spain
for the transport of goods, navigation, and even
the construction of canals. It is different in the
transversal sections from the Atlantic to the South
Sea. These sections show the difficulties opposed
by nature to the communication between the in
terior ofthe kingdom and the coast. They every
where exhibit an enormous difference of level and
temperature ; while from Mexico to New Biscay
the plain preserves an equal elevation, and conse
quently a climate rather cold than temperate.
From the capital of Mexico to Vera Cruz, the de
scent is shorterand more rapid than from the same
point to Acapulco. We might almost say, that
the country has a better military defence from na-
* 6447 feet. Trans. f 3247 feet. Trans.

. 8 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
ture against the people of Europe than against the
attack of an Asiatic enemy ; but the constancy of
the trade winds, and the great current of rotation
which never ceases between the tropics, almost
annihilate every political influence which China,
Japan, or Asiatic Russia, in the succession of ages,
might wish to exercise over the new continent.
Taking our direction from the capital of
Mexico towards the east, in the road to Vera Cruz,
we must advance sixty marine leagues before ar
riving at a valley, of which the bottom is less than
1000* metres (500 toises) higher than the level
ofthe sea, and in which, consequently, oaks cease
to grow. In the Acapulco road, descending from
Mexico towards the South Sea, we arrive at the
same temperate regions in less than seventeen
leagues. The eastern declivity of the Cordillera
is so rapid, that when once we begin to descend
from the great central plain, we continue to des
cend till we arrive at the eastern coast.
The western coast is furrowed by four very re
markable longitudinal vallies, so regularly dispos
ed, that those which are nearest the ocean are even
deeper than those more remote from it. Casting
our eyes on the section drawn up by me from
exact measurements, we shall observe, that from
the plain of Tenochtitlan the traveller first de
scends into the valley of Istla, then into that of
* 3280 feet. Trans.

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 59
Mascala, then intp that of Papagallo, and lastly,
into the valley of Peregrine The bottom of these
four basins rise 981, 514, 170, and 158 metres*
(504, 265, 98, and 82 toises) above the level ofthe
ocean. The deepest are also the narrowest. A
curve drawn over the mountains which separate
these vallies, over the Pic of the Marquis (the old
camp of Cortes), the summits of Tasco, Chilpan-
singo, and Posquelitos, would preserve an equally
regular progress. We might even be tempted to
believe that this regularity is conformable to the
type generally folio wed by nature in the construc
tion of mountains ; but the aspect ofthe Andes
of South America will soon destroy these syste
matic delusions. Many geological considerations
prove to us, that at the formation of mountains,
causes apparently very trivial have determined
the accumulation of matter in colossal summits,
sometimes towards the centre, and sometimes on
the edges of the Cordilleras.
Thus the Asiatic road differs very much from
the European. For the space of 7^,5 leagues,
the distance in a straight line from Mexico
to Acapulco, we continually ascend and descend,
and arrive every instant from a cold climate in
regions excessively hot. Yet the road of Acapulco
may be made fit for carriages. On the contrary,
ofthe 84,5 leagues from the capital to the port of
* 3217, 1685, 557, and 518 feet. Trans

60 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THEv [book i.
Vera Cruz, 140 * belong to the great plain of
Anahuac. The rest ofthe road is a laborious and
continued descent, particularly from the small
fortress of Perote to the city of Xalappa, and
from this site, one of the most beautiful and pic
turesque 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. There is actually
at present constructing a superb causeway 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 places of thousands of mules will be supplied
by carriages fit to transport merchandises from
sea to sea, which will connect, as it were, the
Asiatic commerce of Acapulco with the Euro
pean commerce of Vera Cruz.
We have already stated that in the Mexican
provinces situated in the torrid zone, a space of
23,000 square leagues enjoys a cold, rather than
a temperate climate. All this great extent of
country is traversed by the Cordillera of Mexico,
a chain of colossal mountains which may be con
sidered as a prolongation of the Andes of Peru.
* Here is evidently a mistake ; 140 cannot be a part of
84,5. Trans.

chap, iii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 61
Notwithstanding their lowness in Choco, and the
province of Darien, the Andes traverse the isth
mus of Panama, and recover a eonsiderable
height in the kingdom of Guatimala. Sometimes
their crest approaches the Pacific Ocean, at other
times it occupies the centre ofthe country, and
sometimes it approaches the gulf of Mexico. In
the kingdom of Guatimala, for example, thiscrest,
jagged with volcanic cones, runs along the western
coast from the lake of Nicaragua towards the bay
of Tehuantepec ; but in the province of Oaxaca,
between the sources ofthe rivers Chimalapa and
Guasacualco, it occupies the centre ofthe Mexi
can isthmus. From the 184-° to the 21° of lati
tude, in the intendancies of la Puebla and
Mexico, from Misteca to the mines of Zimapan,
the Cordillera stretches from south to north, and
approaches the eastern coast.
In this part of the great plain of Anahuac, be
tween the capital of Mexico, and the small cities
of Xalappa and Cordoba, a groupe of mountains
appears which rivals the most elevated summits of
the new continent. It is enough to name four
of these Colossi* whose heights were unknown
* Excepting the Cofre de Perote, these four measurements
are all geometrical; but the bases being from 11 to 1200
toises elevated above the level of the sea, this first part of the
total height was calculated according to the barometrical for
mula of M.Laplace. The word Popocatepetl is derived from
popocani smoke, and tepetl mountain ; and Iztaccihuatl from

62 < POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
before my expedition ; Popocatepetl, 5400 metres
(or 2771 toises) ; Iztacdhuatl, or the white wo
man, 4786 metres (or 2455 toises) ; Citlaltepetl,
or the Pic d'Orizaba, 5295 metres (or 2717
toises) ; and Nauhcampatepetl, or the Cofre de
Perote, 4089 metres (or 2089 toises).* This
groupe of volcanic mountains bears a strong ana
logy with that ofthe kingdom of Quito. If the
height attributed to Mount St. Eliet be exact, we
may admit that it is only under the 1 9° and 60° of
latitude that mountains in the northern hemi
sphere reach the enormous elevation of 5400
metres above the level ofthe ocean.
Farther to the north ofthe parallel of 19°, near
the celebrated mines of Zimapan and the Doctor,
situated in the intendancy of Mexico, the Cor
dillera takes the name of Sierra Madre ; and then

fzlac white, and ciuatl woman. Citlaltepetl signifies a moun
tain brilliant as a star, from citlaltine star, and tepetl mountain ;
for the Pic d'Orizaba appears at a distance like a star when
it emits fire. Nauhcampatepetl is derived from Nauhcampa,
any thing square. It alludes to the form of the small por-
phyritical rock at the summit ofthe mountain of Perote, which
the Spaniards compare to a coffer (See the Vocabulary ofthe
Aztec Language by Father Alonzo de Molina, published at
Mexico in 1571, p. 63).
* 17,716, 15,700, 17,371, and 13,414 feet. Trans.
+ The Spanish navigatorsfound, in 1791, byprecise means,
its height above the level ofthe sea to be 2793 toises (17,875
English feet), while it is said in the account of the voyage of
La Perouse to be only 1980 toises (12,672 feet).
9

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW -SPAIN. 63
leaving the eastern part of the kingdom it runs to
the north-west, towards the cities of San Miguel
el Grande and Guanaxuato. To the north of
this last city, considered as the Potosi of Mexico,
the Sierra Madre becomes of an extraordinary
breadth. It divides immediately into three
branches, of which the most eastern runs in the
direction of Charcas and the Real de Catorce,
and loses itself in the new kingdom of Leon. The
western branch occupies a part ofthe intendancy
of Guadalaxara. , After passing Bolaiios it sinks
rapidly, and stretches by Culiacan and Arispe,
in the intendancy of Sonora, to the banks of the
Rio Gila. However, it .acquires again a consi
derable degree of height under the 30° of lati
tude in Tarahumara, near the gulf of California,
where it forms the mountains de la Primeria
alta, celebrated for the gold washed down from
them. The third branch of the Sierra Madre,
which may be considered as the central chain of
the Mexican Andes, occupies the whole extent
of the intendancy of Zacatecas. We may follow
it through Durango and the Parral in New Bis
cay, to the Sierra de los Mimbres (situated to
the west of the Rio grande del Norte.) From
thence it traverses New Mexico, and joins the
crane mountains (Montagnes de la Grue) and
the Sierra Verde. This mountainous country, si
tuated under the 40° of latitude, was examined in
1777 by Fathers Escalante and Font. The Rio
VOL. I. P

64 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
Gila rises here, of which the sources are neai
those of the Rio del Norte. It is the crest of
this central branch of the Sierra Madre which
divides the waters between the Pacific and At
lantic Ocean. It was a continuation of this
branch which Fidler and the intrepid Mackenzie
examined under the 50° and 55° of north latitude.
We have thus sketched a view of the Cordil
leras of New Spain. We have remarked that the
coasts alone of this vast kingdom possess a warm
climate adapted for the productions ofthe West
Indies. The intendancy of Vera Cruz, with the
exception of the plain which extends from Pe
rote to the Pic d'Orizaba, Yucatan, the coast of
Oaxaca, the maritime provinces of New San
tander and Texas, the new kingdom of Leon, the
province of Cohahuila, the uncultivated country
called Bolson de Mapimi, the coast of California,
the western part of Sonora, Cinaloa, and NeW
Gallicia, the southern regions of the intendancies
of Valladolid, Mexico, and La Puebla, are low
grounds intersected with very inconsiderable
hills. The mean temperature of these plains, of
those at least situated within the tropics, and
whose elevation above the level of the sea does
not exceed 300 * metres, is from 25° to 26°t of
the centigrade thermometer ; that is to say, from
8° to 9° t greater than the mean heat of Naples.
• 984 feet. Trans. X 77° of Fahrenheit's. Trans.
X From 14° to 16° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 65
These fertile regions, which the natives call
Tierras calientes, produce in abundance sugar, in
digo, cotton, and bananas. But when Europeans,
not seasoned to the climate, remain in these
countries for any time, particularly in populous
cities, they become the abode of the yellow fever,
known by the name of black vomiting, or vomito
prieto. The port of Acapulco, and the vallies of
Papagayo and Peregrino, are among the hottest
and unhealthy places of the earth. On the
eastern coast of New Spain, the great heats are
occasionally interrupted by strata of cold air,
brought by the winds from Hudson's Bay to
wards the parallels of the Havannah and Vera
Cruz. These impetuous winds blow from Oc
tober to March ; they are announced by the ex
traordinary manner in which they disturb the
regular recurrence of the small atmospherical
tides *, or horary variations of the barometer ;
and they frequently cool the air to such a degree,
that at Havannah the centigrade thermometer
descends to 0° t, and at Vera Cruz to 16° X ; a
prodigious fall for countries in the torrid zone.
On the declivity ofthe Cordillera, at the eleva
tion of 12 or 1500 § metres, there reigns perpetu-
* I have explained this phenomenon in the first volume of
my Travels (Physique generate,) p. 92. 94.
f 32° of Fahrenheit. Trans. J 60° of Fahrenheit. Trans.
j From 3936 to 4920 feet. Trans.
v 2

66 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
ally a soft spring temperature, which never varies
more than four or five degrees (seven or nine of
Fahrenheit). The extremes of heat and cold are
there equally unknown. The natives give to this
region the name of Tierras templadas, in which
the mean heat of the whole year is from 20° to
21°.* Such is the fine climate of Xalappa, Tasco,
andChilpansingo, three cities celebrated for their
great salubrity, and the abundance of fruit trees
which grow in their neighbourhood. Unfortu
nately, this mean height of 1300 metres t is the
height to which the clouds ascend above the,
plains adjoining to the sea ; from which circum
stance these temperate regions, situated on the
declivity (for example, the environs of the city
of Xalappa,) are frequently enveloped in thick
fogs. It remains for us to speak of the third zone,
known by the denomination of Tierrasfrias. It
comprehends the plains elevated more than 2200 J
metres above the level of the ocean, of which the
mean temperature is under 17°. § In the capital
of Mexico, the centigrade thermometer has been
known to fall several degrees below the freezing
point ; but this is a very rare phenomenon ; and,
the winters are usally as mild there as at Naples.
In the coldest season, the mean heat Of the day is
* From 68° to 70° of Fahrenheit. Trans.
X 4264 feet. Trans. X 7217 feet. Trans.
§ 62° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 67
from 13° to 14°. * In summer the thermometer
never rises in the shade above 24°. t The mean
temperature of the whole table-land of Mexico is
in general 17° X, which is equal to the tempera
ture of Rome. Yet this same table-land, accord
ing to the classification of the natives, belongs,
as we have already stated, to the Tierras frias;
from which we may see that the expressions, hot
or cold, have no absolute value. At Guayaquil,
under a burning sky, the people of colour com
plain of excessive cold, when the centigrade
thermometer suddenly sinks to 24° §, while it
remains the rest of the day at 30°. ||
But the plains more elevated than the valley
of Mexico, for example, those whose absolute
height exceeds 2500 metres %, possess, within
the tropics, a rude and disagreeable climate,
even to an inhabitant of the north. Such are
the plains of Toluca, and the heights of G uchi-
laque, where, during a great part of the day,
the air never heats to more than 6° or 8°**,
and the olive-tree bears no fruit, though it is
cultivated successfully a few hundred metres
lower in the valley of Mexico.
All these regions called cold enjoy a mean tem
perature of from 11° to 13°tt, equal to that of
* From 55° to 70° of Fahrenheit. Trans.
X 75° of Fahrenheit. Trans. X 62° of Fahrenheit. Trans.
§ 15° of Fahrenheit. Trans. || 86° of Fahrenheit. Trans.
f 8201 feet. Trans. ** 43' or 46° of Fahrenheit. Trans-
XX From 51° to '55° of Fahrenheit. Trans.
v 3

68 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
France and Lombardy. Yet the vegetation is
less vigorous, and the European plants do, not
grow with the same rapidity as in their natal
soil. The winters, at an elevation of 2500
metres, are not extremely rude ; but the sun has
not sufficient power in summer over the rarefied
air of these plains to accelerate the developement
of flowers, and to bring fruits to perfect maturity.
This constant equality, this want of a strong
ephemeral heat, imprints a peculiar character
on the climate of the higher equinoxial regions.
Thus the cultivation of several vegetables suc
ceeds worse on the ridge of the Mexican CordiU
leras than in plains situated to the north of the
tropic, though frequently the mean heat of these
plains is less than that of the plains between the
19° and 22° of latitude.
These general considerations on the physical
division of New Spain are extremely interesting
in a political view. In France, even in the great
est part of Europe, the employment of the soil
depends almost entirely on geographical latitude;
but in the equinoxial regions of Peru, New Gre
nada, and Mexico, the climate, productions, as
pect, I may say physiognomy, ofthe country, are
solely modified by the elevation of the soil above
the level of the sea. The influence of geogra
phical position is absorbed in the effect pf this
elevation. Lines of cultivation similar to those
drawn by Arthur Young and M. Decandolle on

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 69
the horizontal projections of France can only be
indicated on sections of New Spain. Under the
19° and 22° of latitude, sugar, cotton, particularly
cacas and indigo, are only produced abundantly
at an elevation of from 6 to 800* metres, t The
wheat of Europe occupies a zone on the decli
vity of the mountains, which generally com
mences at 1400 metres, and ends at 30001: metres.
The banana-tree (musa paradisiaca), the fruit of
which constitutes the principal nourishment of
all the inhabitants of the tropics, bears almost
no fruit above 1550 metres § ; the oaks of Mexico
grow only between 800 and 3000 metres II ; and
the pines never descend towards the coast of Vera
Cruz farther down than 1850^", nor rise near
the region of perpetual snow to an elevation of
more than 4000** metres. tt
The provinces called internas, situated in the
temperate zone (particularly those included be
tween the 30° and 38° of latitude) enjoy, like the

* From 1968 to 2624 feet. Trans.
X I speak here merely of the general distribution of the
vegetable productions. I shall afterwards specify places
where, favoured by a particular exposure, sugar and cotton
maybe cultivated 1700 metres (5576 feet) above the ocean.
X 4592 and 9842 feet. Trans. § 5084 feet. Trans.
|| Between 2624 and 9842 feet. Trans.
If 6068 feet. Trans. ** 13,123 feet. Trans.
XX The reader may consult the section of the road from
Mexico, to Vera Cruz (plate VI.), and the agricultural scale
in my essay on the geography of plants, p. 139.
P 4

70 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
rest of North America, a climate essentially
different from that of the same parallels in the
Old Continent. A remarkable inequality prevails
between the temperature of the different sea
sons. German winters succeed to Neapolitan
and Sicilian summers. It would be superfluous
to assign here other causes for this phenomenon
than the great breadth of the continent, and its
prolongation towards the north pole. This sub
ject has been discussed by enlightened natural
philosophers, particularly by M. Volney, in his
excellent work on the soil and climate of the
United States, with all the care which it deserves.
I shall merely observe that the difference of tem
perature observable between the same latitudes
of Europe and America, is much less remarkable
in those parts of the New Continent bordering
on the Pacific Ocean than in the eastern parts.
M. Barton has proved, from the state of agricul
ture and the natural distribution of vegetables,
that the Atlantic provinces are much colder
than the extensive plains situated to the west of
the Alleghany mountains.
A remarkable advantage for the progress of
national industry arises from the height at which
nature, in New Spain, has deposited the precious
metals. In Peru, the most considerable silver
mines, those, of Potosi, Pasco, and Chota, are
immensely elevated very near the region of per
petual snow. In working them, men, provisions,

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 71
and cattle, must all be brought from a distance.
Cities situated in plains, where water freezes the
whole year round, and where trees never vege
tate, can hardly be an attractive abode. Nothing
can determine a free-man to abandon the deli
cious climate of the vallies to insulate himself
on the top ofthe Andes, but the hope of amass
ing wealth. But in Mexico, the richest seams
of silver, those of Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, Tasco,
and Real del Monte, are in moderate elevations
of from 1700 to 2000 metres. * The mines are
surrounded with cultivated fields, towns, and vil
lages; the neighbouring summits are crowned
with forests ; and every thing facilitates the ac
quisition of this subterraneous wealth.
In the midst of so many advantages bestowed
by nature on the kingdom of New Spain, it suffers
in general, like Old Spain, from the want of water
and navigable rivers. The great river of the north
(Rio Bravo del Norte) and the Rio Colorado, are
the only rivers worthy of fixing the attention of
travellers, either for the length of their course, or
the mass of water which they pour into the ocean.
The Rio del Norte, from the mountains of the
Sierra Verde (to the east of the lake of Timpan-
ogos) to its mouth in the province of New San-
tandar, has a course of 512 leagues. The course
ofthe Rio Colorado is 250. But these two rivers,
* From 5576 to 6561 feet. Trans.

72 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE Tb°ok i.
situated in the most uncultivated part of the king
dom, can never be interesting for commerce, till
great changes in the social order, and other fa
vourable events, introduce colonization into these
fertile and temperate regions. These changes are
not perhaps very distant. The banks ofthe Ohio
were even in 1797 so thinly inhabited*, that
thirty families could hardly be found in a space
of 130 leagues, while the habitations are now so
multiplied that they are never more than one or
two leagues distant from one another.
In the whole equinoxial part of Mexico there
are only small rivers, the mouths of which are of
considerable size. The narrow form of the con
tinent prevents the collection of a great mass of
water. The rapid declivity of the Cordillera
abounds more properly with torrents than rivers.
Mexico is in the same state with Peru, where the
Andes approach so near to the coast as to occasion
the aridity of the neighbouring plains. Among
the small number of rivers in the southern part
of New Spain, the only ones which may in time
become interesting for interior commerce are, 1.
The Rio Guasacualco, and the Rio Alvarado,
both to the southeast of Vera Cruz, and adapted
for facilitating the communication with the king
dom of Guatimala ; 2. The Rio de Moctezuma,
which carries the waters ofthe lakes and valley of
* Voyage de Michaux a V Quest des Monts Alleghanys, p. 1 15.

chap, m.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 73
Tenochtitlan to the Rio de Panucp, andby which,
forgetting that Mexico is 2277 metres* elevated
above the level of the sea, a navigation has been
projected between the capital and the western
coast ; 3. The Rio de Zacatula ; 4. The great
river of Santiago, formed by the junction of the
rivers Lerma and las Laxas, which might carry
the flour of Salamanca, Zelaya, and perhaps the
whole intendancy of Guadalaxara, to the port of
San Bias, or the coast of the Pacific Ocean.
The lakes with which Mexico abounds, and of
which the most part appear annually on the de
cline, are merely the remains of immense basins
of water, which appear to have formerly existed
on the high and extensive plains ofthe Cordillera.
I shall merely mention in this physical view the
great lake of Chapala in new Gallicia, of nearly
160 square leagues, double the size of the lake of
Constance ; the lakes of the valley of Mexico,
which include a fourth part of its surface ; the
lake of Patzquaro, in the intendancy of Vallado
lid, one of the most picturesque situations which
I know in either continent; and the lakes of
Mextitlan and Parras in New Biscay.
The interior of New Spain, especially a great
part of the high table-land of Anahuac, is destitute
of vegetation ; its arid aspect brings to mind in
some places the plains of the two Castilles. Se-
• 7468 feet. Trans.

74 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
veral causes concur to produce this extraordinary
effect. The evaporation which takes place on
great plains is sensibly increased by the great
elevation of the Mexican Cordillera. On the
other hand, the country is not of sufficient ele
vation for a great number of summits to pene
trate the region of perpetual snow. This region
commences under the equator at 4800 mettes*
(2460 toises), and under the 45° of latitude at
2550 1 metres (1300 toises) above the level of
the sea. In Mexico the eternal snows com
mence, according to my measurements in the 19°
and 20° of latitude, at 4600 X metres (2350 toises)
of elevation. Hence, of six colossal mountains
which nature has ranged in the same line, be
tween the parallels of 19° and 19£°> only four, the
Pic d'Orizaba, Popocatepetl, Iztacdhuatl, and
the Nevado, de Toluca, are covered with perpe
tual snow ; while the two others, the Cofre de
Perote, and the Volcan de Colima, remain un
covered the greatest part of the year. To the
north and south of this parallel qf great elevations,
beyond this singular zone, in which the new Vol
can de Jorullo is also ranged, there are no moun
tains which exhibit the phenomenon of perpetual
snow. These snows, at the period of their minimum,
in the month of September, never descend in the
* 1.5,747 feet. Tram. f 8365 feet. Trans.
% 15,091 feet. Trans.

chap, iii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 75
parallel of Mexico below 4500 metres. * But in
the month of January they fall as low as 3700
metres t : this is the period of their maximum.
The oscillation ofthe limits of perpetual snow is,
consequently, under the latitude of 19°, from one
season to the other 800 metres t ; while under
the ; equator it never exceeds 60 or 70 metres. §
We must not confound these eternal snows with
the snows which in winter accidentally fall in
much lower regions. Even this phenomenon,
like every other in nature, is subject to immut
able laws worthy of the investigation of philoso
phers. This ephemeral snow is never observed
under the equator below 3800 or 3900 metres II ;
but in Mexico, under the latitude of 18° and 22°
it is commonly seen at an elevation of 3000
metres.^" Snow has even been seen in the
streets of the capital of Mexico at 2277**
metres, and 400 metrestt lower in the city of
Valladolid. In general, in the equinoxial regions of New
Spain, the soil, climate, physiognomy of vegeta
bles, all assume the character of the temperate
zones. The proximity of Canada, the great
breadth ofthe New Continent towards the north,
* 14,763 feet. Trans. X 12,138 feet. Trans.
% 2624 feet. Trans. § 196 or 229 feet. Trans.
|| From 12466 to 12794 feet. Trans.
% 9842feet. Trans. ** 7468 feet. Trans.
ft 6156 feet. Trans.

76 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
the mass of snows with which it is covered, oc
casion in the Mexican atmosphere frigorifications
by no means to be expected in these regions.
If the table-land of New Spain is singularly
cold in winter, its temperature is, on the other
hand, much higher in summer than what was
found by the thermometrical observations of
Bouguer and La Condamine in the Andes of
Peru. The great mass ofthe Cordillera of Mex
ico, and the immense extent of its plains, produce
a reverberation of the solar rays, never observed
in mountainous countries of greater inequality.
This heat, and other local causes, produce the
aridity of these fine regions.
To the north of 20°, from the 22° to the 30° of
latitude, the rains which only fall in the months
of June, July, August, and September, are very
unfrequent in the interior of the country. We
have already observed that the great height of
this table-land, and the small barometrical pres*
sure of the rarefied air, accelerate the evapor.
ation. The ascending current or column of warm
air which rises from the plains prevents the clouds
from precipitating in rain to water a land, dry,
saline, and destitute of vegetation. The springs
are rare in mountains composed principally of
porous amygdaloid, and fendilated (fendille) por
phyry. The filtrated water, in place of collect
ing in small subterraneous basins, is lost in the
crevices which old volcanic revolutions have
9

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 77
opened, and only issues forth at the bottom ofthe
Cordillera. It forms a great number of rivers on
the coast, of which the course is very short, on
account of the configuration of the country.
The aridity of the central plain, the want of
trees, occasioned, perhaps, in a good measure by
the length of time the great vallies have remained
covered with water, obstruct very much the
working ofthe mines. These disadvantages have
augmented since the arrival of Europeans in
Mexico, who have not only destroyed without
planting, but in draining great extents of ground
have occasioned another more important evil.
Muriate of soda and lime, nitrate of potash, and*
other saline substances, cover the surface of the
soil, and spread with a rapidity very difficult to
be explained. Through this abundance of salt
and these efflorescences, hostile to cultivation, the
table-land of Mexico bears a great resemblance
in many places to Thibet and the saline steppes
of central Asia. In the valley of Tenochtitlan,
particularly, the sterility and want of vigorous
vegetation have been sensibly augmenting since
the Spanish conquest ; for this valley was adorn
ed with beautiful verdure when the lake occupied
more ground, and the clayey soil was washed by
more frequent inundations.
Happily, however, this aridity of soil, of which
we have been indicating the principal physical
causes, is only to be found in the most elevated

78 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book-i.
plains. A great part of the vast kingdom of
New Spain belongs to the most fertile regions of
the earth. The declivity of the Cordillera is ex
posed to humid winds and frequent fogs ; and the
vegetation nourished with these aqueous vapours
exhibits an uncommon beauty and strength.
The humidity ofthe coasts, assisting the putre
faction of a great mass of organic substances,
gives rise to maladies, to which Europeans and
others not seasoned to the climate are alone ex
posed ; for under the burning sun of the tropics
the unhealthiness of the air almost always in
dicates extraordinary fertility of soil. Thus at
Vera Cruz the quantity of rain in a year amounts
to lm, 62*, while in France it scarely amounts to
0m, 80. t Yet, with the exception of a few sea
ports and deep vallies, where the natives suf
fer from intermittent fevers, New Spain ought
to be considered as a country remarkably salu
brious. The inhabitants of Mexico are less disturbed by
earthquakes and volcanic explosions than the in
habitants of Quito, and the provinces of Guatimala
and Cumana. There are only five burning vol
canoes in all New Spain, Orizaba, Popocatepetl,
and the mountains of Tustla, Jorullo, and Colima.
Earthquakes, however, are by no means rare on
the coast ofthe Pacific Ocean, and in the environs
ofthe capital ; but they never produce such deso-
* 63,780 inches. Trans. f 37,496 inches. Trans.

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 79
lating effects as have been witnessed in the cities
of Lima, Riobamba, Guatimala, and Cumana.
On the 14th September, 1759, a horrible catas
trophe took place : the volcano of Jorullo burst,
and was seen surrounded with an innumerable
multitude of small smokingcones. Subterraneous
noises, so much the more alarming as they were
followed by no phenomenon, were heard at
Guanaxuato in the month of January 1784. All
these phenomena seem to prove, that the country
between the parallels of 18° and 22° contains an
active internal fire, which pierces from time to
time, through the crust of the globe, even at
great distances from the sea shore.
The physical situation of the city of Mexico
possesses inestimable advantages, if we consider it
in the relation of its communication with the rest
of the civilized world. Placed on an isthmus,
washed by the South Sea and Atlantic Ocean,
Mexico appears destined to possess a powerful
influence over the political events which agitate
the two continents. A king of Spain resident in
the capital of Mexico might transmit his orders
in five weeks to the Peninsula in Europe, and in
six weeks to the Philippine islands in Asia. The
vast kingdom of New Spain, under a careful cul
tivation, would alone produce all that commerce
collects together from the restof the globe, sugar,
cochineal, cacao, cotton, coffee, wheat, hemp, flax,
silk, oils, and wine. It would furnish every metal
VOL. I. Q

80

POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.

without even the exception of mercury. Superb
timber and an abundance of iron and copper
would favour the progress of Mexican navigation;
but the state ofthe coasts and the want of ports
from the mouth ofthe Rio Alvarado to the mouth
ofthe Rio Bravo, oppose obstacles in this respect
which would be difficult to overcome.
These obstacles, it is true, do not exist on the
coast ofthe Pacific Ocean. San Frandsco in New
California, San Bias in the intendancy of Gua
dalaxara, near the mouth of the river Santiago,
and especially Acapulco, are magnificent ports.
The last, probably formed by a violent earth
quake, is one of the most admirable basins in the
whole world. In the South Sea there is only Co-
quimbo on the coast of Chili which can be com
pared with Acapulco; yet in winter, during great
hurricanes, the sea becomes very rough in Aca
pulco. Farther south we find the port of Ria-
lexo, in the kingdom of Guatimala, formed, like
Guayaquil, by a large and beautiful river. Son
zonate is very much frequented during the fine
season, but it is merely an open road like Tehu
antepec, and is consequently very dangerous in
winter. When we examine the eastern coast of New
Spain we see that it does not possess the same
advantages as the western coast. We have already
observed, that, properly speaking, it possesses no
port; for Vera Cruz, by which an annual com-

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 81
merce of fifty or. sixty millions of piastres is car
ried on, is merely a bad anchorage between the
shallows of la Caleta, la Gallega, and la Lavan-
dera. The physical cause of this disadvantage is
easily discovered. The coast of Mexico, along
the Mexican gulf, may be considered as a dike
against which the trade winds, and perpetual mo
tion of the waves from east to west, throw up the
sands which the agitated ocean carries along.
This current of rotation runs along South Ame
rica from Cumana to the isthmus of Darien; it as
cends towards Cape Catoche, and after whirling a
long time in the Mexican gulf, issues through the
canal of Florida, and flows towards the banks of
Newfoundland. The sands heaped up by the vor
tices ofthe waters, from the peninsula of Yucatan
to the mouths of the Rio del Norte and the Mis-
sissipi, insensibly contract the basin of the Mex-
can gulf. Geological facts of a very remarkable
nature prove this increase ofthe continent; wesee
the ocean every were retiring. M. Ferrer found
near Sotto la Marina, to the east of the small
townof New Santander, ten leagues in the interior
ofthe country, moving sands filled with sea shells.
I myself observed the same thing in the environs
of Antigua and New Vera Cruz. The rivers
which descend from the Sierra Madre and enter
the Atlantic Ocean have in no small degree con
tributed to increase the sand banks. It is curious
to observe that the eastern coasts of Old and New
q 2

82 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
Spain are equally disadvantageous for navigation.
The coast of New Spain, from the 18° to the 26°
of latitude, abounds with bars ; and vessels which
draw more than 32 centimetres * of water, can
not pass over any of these bars, without danger
of grounding. Yet obstacles like these, so un
favourable for commerce, would at the same time
facilitate the defence of the country against the
ambitious projects of a European conqueror.
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 sufer channels
for the commerce with the mother country. I
shall merely name the mouths of the rivers Alva
rado and Guasacualco to the south of Vera Cruz;
and to the north of that city the Rio Tampico,
and especially the village of Sotto la Marina, near
the bar of Santander. These four points have
long fixed the attention ofthe government ; but
.even there, however advantageous in other re
spects, the sand banks prevent the entry of large
vessels. These ports would require to be artifi
cially corrected ; but it becomes necessary in the
first place to inquire if the localities are such as
to warrant a belief that this expensive remedy
would be durable in its effects. It is to be ob
served, however, that we still know too little of
the coasts of New Santander and Texas, particu-
* 12,598, say 12$ inches.

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 83
larly that part to the north of the Lake of S.
Bernard or Carbonera, to be able to assert that
in the whole of this extent nature presents the
same obstacles and the same bars. Two Spanish
officers of distinguished zeal and astronomical
knowledge, MM. Cevallos and Herrera, have
engaged in this interesting and useful investiga
tion. At present Mexico is in a military de
pendence on the Havannah, which is the only
neighbouring port capable of receiving squa
drons, and the most important point for the de
fence of the eastern coast of New Spain. Ac
cordingly, the government, since the last taking
of the Havannah by the English, has been at
enormous expenses in increasing the fortifica
tions of the place. Sensible of its true interests,
the court of Madrid has wisely laid it down as
a principle, that the dominion of the island of
Cuba is essential for the preservation of New
Spain. A very serious inconvenience is common to
the eastern coast, and to the coast washed by the
Great Ocean, falsely called the Pacific Ocean.
They are rendered inaccessible for several months
by violent tempests, which effectually prevent all
navigation. The north winds (los nortes), which
are north-west winds, blow in the gulf of Mexico
from the autumnal to the spring equinox. These
winds are generally moderate in the months of
September and October: their greatest fury is in
Q 3

S4 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
the month of March ; and they sometimes last
to April. Thdse navigators who have long fre
quented the port of Vera Cruz know the symp
toms Of the coming tempest as a physician knows
ike symptoms of an acute malady. According
to the excellent observations of M. Orta, a great
change in the barometer, and a sudden interrup
tion in the regular recurrence of the horary
variations of that instrument, are the sure fore
runners of the tempest. It is accompanied by
the following phenomena. At first a small land
wind (terral) blows from the west-north-west ;
and to this terral succeeds a breeze, first from
the north-east and then from the south. During
all this time a most suffocating heat prevails ;
and the water dissolved in the air is precipitated
on the brick walls, the pavement, and iron or
wooden balustrades. The summits of the Pic
d'Orizaba and the Cofre de Perote, and the
mountains of Villa Rica, particularly the Sierra
de San Martin, which extends from Tustla to
Guasacualco, appear uncovered with clouds, while
their bases are concealed under a veil of demi-
transparent vapours. These Cordilleras appear
projected on a fine azure ground. In this state
ofthe atmosphere the tempest commences, and
sometimes with such impetuosity, that before
the lapse of a quarter of an hour it would be
dangerous to remain on the mole in the port of
Vera Cruz. All communication between the city

chap, hi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 85
and the castle of S. Juan d'Ulua is thenceforth
interrupted. These north wind hurricanes ge
nerally remain for three or four days, and some
times for ten or twelve. If the north wind change
into a south breeze, the latter is very inconstant,
and it is then probable that the tempest will re
commence ; but if the north veers to east by the
north-east, then the breeze or fine weather is
durable. During winter we may reckon on the
breeze continuing for three or four successive
days, an interval more than sufficient for allow
ing any vessel leaving Vera Cruz to get out to
sea and escape the sand banks adjoining to the
coast. Sometimes even in the months of May,
June, July, and August, very strong hurricanes
are felt in the gulf of Mexico. They are called
nortes de hueso Colorado ; but fortunately they
are not very common. The periods in which
the black vomiting (yellow fever) and tempests
from the north prevail at Vera Cruz do not coin
cide, consequently the European who arrives iu
Mexico, and the Mexican whose affairs compel
him to embark, or to descend from the table
land of New Spain to the coast, have both to
make their election between the danger of na
vigation and a mortal disease.
The western coast of Mexico is of very danger
ous navigation during the months of July and
August, when terrible hurricanes blow from the
o. 4

86 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
south-west. At that time, and even in September
and October, the ports of San Bias and Acapulco
are of very difficult access. Even in the fine
season, from the month of October to the month
of May (verano de la mar del Sur), the tranquil
lity of the Pacific Ocean is interrupted on this
coast by impetuous winds from the north-east
and the north-north-east, known by the names
of papagallo and tehuantepec.
Having myself experienced one of these tem
pests, I shall in another place proceed to examine
whether these purely local winds are the effect of
the neighbouring volcanos, as some navigators
seem to think, or whether they proceed from the
narrowness of the Mexican isthmus. We might
be led to believe that the equilibrium of the at
mosphere being disturbed in the months of Ja
nuary and February on the coast of the Atlantic,
the agitated air flows back with impetuosity to
wards the Great Ocean. According to this sup
position, the Tehuantepec is merely the effect, or
rather the continuation of the north wind of the
Mexican gulf and the brisottes of St. Martha.
It renders the coast of Solinas and la Ventosa
almost as inaccessible as that of Nicaragua and
Guatimala, where violent south-west winds pre
vail during the months of August and September,
known by the name of tapayaguas.
The south-west winds are accompanied with

chap, in.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 87
thunder and excessive rains, while the tehuante
pec and papagallos * exert their violence during
a clear and azure sky. Thus at certain periods
almost all the coasts of New Spain are dangerous
for navigators.
* The papagallos blow particularly from Cape Blanc 'de
Nicoya (latitude 9° 30') to l'Ensenada de S. Catharina (lati
tude 10° 45).

89

BOOK II.

GENERAL POPULATION OF NEW SPAIN. DIVI
SION OF THE INHABITANTS INTO CASTS.

CHAPTER IV.

General enumeration in 1793. Progress ofthe population in
the ten following years. Proportion of births to burials.
The physical view which we have been rapidly
sketching proves, that in Mexico, as elsewhere,
nature has very unequally distributed her bene
fits. But men, unable to appreciate the wisdom
of this distribution, neglect the riches which are
within their reach. Collected together on a
small extent of territory, in the centre of the
kingdom, on the very ridge of the Cordillera,
they have allowed the regions of the greatest fer
tility and the nearest to the coast to remain waste
and uninhabited.
The population of the United States is concen
trated in the Atlantic division, that is to say, the
long and narrow district between the sea and the
Alleghany mountains. In the capitania general
of Caraccas, the only inhabited and well cultivat-

90 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
ed districts are those of the maritime regions : —
in Mexico improvement and civilization are ba
nished into the interior of the country. In this
the Spanish conquerors have merely trod in the
steps of the conquered nations. The Aztecs,
originally from a country to the north of the
Rio Gila, perhaps even emigrants from the most
northern parts of Asia, in their progress towards
the south never quitted the ridge of the Cor
dillera, preferring these cold regions to the ex
cessive heat of the coast.
That part of Anahuac which composed the
kingdom of Montezuma on the arrival of Cortez
did not equal in surface the eighth part of the
present kingdom of New Spain. The kings of
Acolhuacan, Tlacopan, and Michuacan, were in
dependent princes. The great cities of the Az
tecs, and the best cultivated territories, were in
the environs ofthe capital of Mexico, particularly
in the fine valley of Tenochtitlan. This alone
was a sufficient reason to induce the Spaniards
to establish there the centre of their new em
pire ; but they loved also to inhabit plains whose
climate resembled that of their own country,
and where they could cultivate the wheat and
fruit trees of Europe. Indigo, cotton, sugar and
coffee, the four great objects of West Indian
commerce, were to the conquerors of the six
teenth century of very inferior interest ; they
sought after the precious metals only with avi-

chap, iv.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 91
dity, and the search for these metals fixed them
on the ridge of the central mountains of New
Spain. It is equally difficult to estimate with any de
gree of certainty the number of inhabitants of
the kingdom of Montezuma, as to ascertain the
ancient population of Egypt, Persia, Greece, or
Latium. The extensive ruins of towns and vil
lages observed in Mexico under the 18° and 20°
of latitude, undoubtedly prove that the former
population of that part ofthe kingdom was much
greater than the present. This interesting fact is
confirmed by the letters from Cortez to Charles
the Fifth, the memoirs of Bernal Dias, and a
great number of other historical monuments.*
But when we reflect how difficult it is even in
our days to acquire accurate statistical informa
tion, we need not be astonished at the ignorance
in which we are left by the authors of the six
teenth century, as to the ancient population of
the West Indies, Peru, and Mexico. We see in
history on the one hand, conquerors eager to
make the most of the fruit of their exploits ; and
the Bishop of Chapa and a small number of be
nevolent men, on the other, employing, with a
noble ardour, the arms of eloquence against the
cruelty of the first colonists. All parties were
* See the judicious observations of the Abbe Clavigero on
the ancient population of Mexico, directed against Robertson
and Pauw. Storia antica di Messico, t. IV. p. 282.

92 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ir.
equally interested in exaggerating the flourishing
state of the three newly discovered countries.
The fathers of St. Francis boasted of having alone
baptized from the year 1524 to 1540 more than
six millions of Indians, and, what is more, of In
dians who merely inhabited the parts most ad
jacent to the capital.
A striking example may serve to show us how
circumspect we ought to be in yielding implicit
faith in the numbers found in the old descriptions
of America. It has recently been printed*, that
in the enumeration of the inhabitants of Peru,
made by the archbishop of Lima, Fray Geronimo
de Loaysa, in 1551, were found 8,285,000 In
dians. This is an afflicting fact for those who
know that in 1793, on a very exact enumeration
ordered by Gil-Lemos, the viceroy, the Indians
of the present Peru (since the separation of Chili
and Buenos Ayres) did not exceed 600,000 indi
viduals. Here we might be tempted to believe
that 7,600,000 Indians had disappeared from the
face of the globe. Luckily, however, the asser
tion of the Peruvian author is entirely false ; for on
the most careful investigation of the archives of
Lima by Father Cisneros, it has been discovered
that the existence of eight millionsin 1551 restson
no historical document. M. Feyjoo, the author of
* Relacion de la ciudad de Truxillo por el Doctor Fuyjeo,
1763, p. 29. 13

chap, iv.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 93
the statistical account of Truxillo, has even since
declared that this bold assertion was merely
founded on a supposititious calculation, from the
enumeration of so many ruined towns, since the
epoch of the conquest. These ruins appeared to
him demonstrative of an immense population in
Peru at a remote period. It frequently happens,
however, that the examination of an erroneous
opinion leads to some important truth. Father
Cisneros, on rummaging in the archives of the
sixteenth century, discovered that the viceroy
Toledo, very justly regarded as the Spanish le
gislator of Peru, reckoned in 1575, in the ex
amination of the kingdom which he made in per
son from Tumbez to Chuquisagua (which is
nearly the present extent of Peru), only about
a million and a half of Indians.
Nothing in general is more vague than the
judgment which we form ofthe population of a
newly discovered country. The celebrated Cook
estimated the number of inhabitants of Otaheite
at 100,000 ; the protestant missionaries of Great
Britain suppose a population of 49,000 souls;
Captain Wilson reduces it to 16,000 ; and M.
Turnbull has attempted to prove that the real
number of inhabitants does not exceed 5,000. I
cannot allow myself to believe that these differ
ences are the effect of a progressive depopulation.
The maladies with which the civilized nations of

94 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i.
Europe infected these once happy countries must,
no doubt, have caused a depopulation; but it
could never have been so rapid as to carry off in
forty years nineteen-twentieth parts of the in
habitants*. We have already mentioned that the environs
of the capital of Mexico, and perhaps all the
countries under the domination of Montezuma,
were probably much more populous formerly than

* Captain Cook may have somewhat exaggerated the num
ber of inhabitants of Otaheite ; but when we consider that he'
did not form his estimate so much from conjectural circum
stances as from having seen the whole population of the
island, drawn to the coast by the novel appearance of the
strangers, pass, as it were, in review before him, we shall be
perhaps rather inclined to acquiesce in this estimate. We
shall be the more induced to this when we consider how near
soldiers or sailors, accustomed to form rapid estimates of the
numbers of masses of men, often approach to the truth.
Besides Captain Cook was in general extremely sober and
moderate in his judgments.
That the population, then, has declined prodigiously is al
most certain ; and it is no less certain, that whatever pro
duced the physical alteration in the inhabitants related by
Vancouver, must have contributed in no small degree to the
decline. This navigator, as is well known, twice visited the
island. In the first voyage when he accompanied Cook, the
beauty of the inhabitants, particularly the females, was uni
versally remarked ; but in the last voyage, in which were se
veral of those who had been, as well as Vancouver, of the
former, they all agreed that the appearance of the people was
totally changed, and they did not discover a single woman
in the island who was not deformed and ugly. Trans.

chap, iv.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 95
at present*; but this great population was con
centrated in a very small space. We observe
(and the observation is consoling for humanity)
that not only has the number of Indians been on
the increase for the last century, but that the
whole of the vast region which we designate by
the general name of New Spain, is much better
inhabited at present than it was before the arrival
ofthe Europeans. The first of these assertions is
proved by the state of the capitation which we
shall afterwards give ; and the last is founded on
a very simple consideration. In the beginning
ofthe sixteenth century, the Otomites, and other
barbarous people, occupied the countries situ
ated to the north ofthe rivers Panuco and Santia
go ; but since an improved cultivation ofthe soil
and civilization have advanced towards New
Biscay and the provincias internas, the population
has increased there with the rapidity every where
remarked where a nation of shepherds is replaced
by /agricultural colonists, t
Politico-ceconomical investigations, grounded
* Clavigero, Storia antica di Messico, t. I. p. 36.
X The author may be very probably in the right ; yet it is
but an indifferent proof that the population of the whole
kingdom has increased, because, in those places where shep
herds have given place to agriculturists, the population has
been rapidly increasing. By a similar mode of reasoning, it
may be concluded that the population of Britain is on the
decline, because the population ofthe highlands of Scotland,
converted from agriculture to sheep farming, is on the de
cline. Trans.
VOL. I. R

96 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii
on exact numbers, were very unusual in Spain,
even before Campomanes, and the minister Count
Florida Blanea. We are not, then, to be asto
nished that the archives of the viceroyalty of
Mexico contain no enumeration before 1794,
when the count de Revillagigedo, one of the
wisest and most active administrators, had re
solution enough to undertake it. In the oper
ations regarding the pdpulation of Mexico, by
order of the viceroy Pedro Cebrian Count de
Fuenclara, in 1742, the number of families only
was estimated ; and what has been preserved
to us by Villa Seiior is both incomplete and in
accurate. Those who know the difficulties of an
enumeration in the most cultivated countries of
Europe, who know that the economists assign
ed only eighteen millions of inhabitants to all
France, and that it has been even recently dis
puted if the true population of Paris* were
500,000 or 800,000, will easily imagine what
powerful obstacles are to be overcome in a coun
try, where those who are employed are little
skilled in such kind of statistical researches.
Hence the viceroy Revillagigedo was unable to
terminate his undertaking ; and it appears that
the enumeration was not completed in the two
intendancies of Guadalaxara and Vera Cruz,
and inth e small province ofCohahuila
* La population habituelle de cette grande capitale paroit
etre de 547,000 habitans. Peuchct, Stat, de la France, p. 93.

chap, iv.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN.

97

The following is a state ofthe population* of
New Spain, from the notices transmitted by the
intendants and governors of provinces to the
viceroy, previous to the 12th May, 1794 :

Names of the intendancies and governments

POPULATION

in which the enumeration was completed

Of the intend
ancies and go

Of the capitals.

in 1793.

vernments.

Mexico ...

1,162,886

112,926

Puebla

566,443

52,717

Tlascala - - -

59,177

3,357

Oaxaca - - -

411,366

19,069

Valladolid

289,314

17,093

Guanaxuato

397,924

32,098

San Luis Potosi

242,280

8,571

Zacatecas - - -

118,027

, 25,495

Durango -

122,866

11,027

Sonora - -

93,396

Nuevo Mexico

30,953

The two Californias

12,666

Yucatan Total population of New Spain
358,261
28,392
deduced from the enumeration
of 1793
3,865,529
In a report to the king, Count de
Revillagigedo estimated the inten-
Inhabitants.
dancy of Guadalaxara at 485,000")
Intendancy of Vera Cruz at 1 20,000 V
618,000
Province of Cohahuila at 13,000 J
Approximative result of the enu
meration in 1793
4,483,529
inhabitants.
* I publish this state from a copy preserved in the ar
chives of the viceroy. I observed that other copiesjn circu
lation in the country contain different numbers ; for example,
638,771 souls for the intendancy of la Puebla, including the
ancient republic of Tlascala. 11 2
98 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
This result exhibits the minimum of population
admissible at the period. The central govern
ment, particularly the administrations spread over
the interior of the country, soon perceived how
far they were from the end which they had in
view. In the New Continent, as well as in the
Old, every enumeration is considered by the peo
ple as a sinister presage of some financial oper
ation. In the fear of an augmentation of im
posts, every head of a family endeavoured to
diminish the number of individuals of his house,
of which he was to furnish a list. The truth of
this assertion is very easily demonstrable. Be
fore the enumeration of the Count de Revillagi
gedo, the capital of Mexico, for example, was
believed to contain 200,000 inhabitants. This
estimate might be exaggerated ; but the tables
of consumption, the number of births and burials,
and the comparison of these numbers with those
ofthe great cities of Europe, all tended to prove
that the population of Mexico exceeded at least
135,000 souls ; and yet the table printed by or
der ofthe viceroy in 1790 exhibits only 112,926.
In smaller cities, easier to be controlled, the
error was still more considerable. Those also
who followed in detail the dissection of the re
gisters of 1793, judged that the number of inha
bitants who had withdrawn themselves from the
general enumeration could by no means be com
pensated by those, who, wandering about with-

chap, iv.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 99
out any fixed domicile, had been several times
included in it. It was supposed that a sixth or
a seventh part ought at least to be added to the
sum total, and the population of all New Spain
was accordingly estimated at 5,200,000 souls.
The viceroys who succeeded to the Count de
Revillagigedo have never renewed the enumer
ation ; and since that time, the government has
paid very little attention to statistical researches.
Several memoirs drawn up by intendants on the
actual state of the country confided to their care
contain exactly the same numbers as the table of
1793, as if the population could have remained
the same for ten years. It is certain, however,
that this population has made the most extraor
dinary progress. The augmentation of tithes and
of the Indian capitation, and of all the duties
on consumption, the progress of agriculture and
civilization, the aspect of a country covered with
newly-constructed houses, announce a rapid in
crease in every part of the kingdom. How are
we to conceive, then, that social institutions can
'be so defective and a government so iniquitous,
as to pervert the order of nature, and prevent the
progressive multiplication of our species in a
fertile soil and temperate climate ? Happy the
portion of the globe where a peace of three cen
turies has almost effaced the very recollection of
the crimes produced by the fanaticism and insa
tiable avarice of the first conquerors !
it 3

100 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book n.
In order to draw up a table of the population
in 1803, and to exhibit numbers as near to th6
truth as possible, it was necessary to augment the
result ofthe last enumeration : 1. with that part
of the inhabitants omitted to be entered in the
list ; and, 2. with the excess ofthe births above
the burials. I wished rather to adopt a number
below the actual population, than to hazard sup
positions which might appear extravagant. I
have therefore lowered the estimated number of
inhabitants omitted in the general census, and in
place of a sixth adopted a tenth.
As to the progressive augmentation of the po
pulation since 1793 to the epoch of my journey,
I have fixed it from suffident data. Through the
particular kindness with which I was honoured
by a respectable prelate, the present Archbishop
of Mexico *, I was enabled to enter into minute
investigations on the relation between the births
and deaths, according; to the difference of cli-
mates of the central table-land and the regions
adjacent to the coast. Several parish priests
(cures) interested in the solution of so important
a problem as the augmentation or diminution of
our species, engaged in a very laborious under
taking. They communicated to me the number
of baptisms and burials, yearly, from 1752 to
• Don Francisco Xavier de Lizana. I am also indebted
for very important documents to Don Pedro De Fonte, pro-
visor of the archbishopric. See note B, at the end of the
work.

chap, iv.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 101
1802; and from the whole of these minute re
gisters, which I have preserved, it appears that
the proportion ofthe births to the deaths is nearly
as 170 : 100. I shall merely here adduce a few
examples to confirm this assertion ; and they are
so much the more interesting as we have yet no
statistical data on the relation of the deaths to
the births under the torrid zone.
In the Indian village of Singuilucan, eleven
leagues north from the capital, there were, from
1750 to 1801, in all, 1950 deaths, and 4560
births : inde, excess of births 2610.
In the Indian village of Axapuzco, thirteen
leagues north from Mexico, there were, from
the period when this village was separated from
the parish of Otumba, i. e. from 1767 to 1797.
in all, 3511 deaths, and 5528 births; conse
quently excess of the births, 2017-
In the Indian village of Malacatepec, twenty-
eight leagues west from the valley of Tenoch
titlan, there were, between 1752 and 1802, in
all, 13,734 births, and 10,529 deaths. Excess
of births 3205.
In the village of Dolores, from 1756 to 1801,
there were, in all, 24,123 deaths, and 61,258
births ; hence the extraordinary excess of 37,135
births. In the city of Guanaxuato, there were, from
1797 to 1802, 12,666 births, and 6294 deaths ;
or an excess of 6372 births. it 4

102

POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.

In the village of Marfil, near Guanaxuato, there
were, in the same space of time, 3702 births, and
1904 deaths ; or an excess of 1798 births.
In the village of St. Anne, near Guanaxuato,
there were, in five years, 3629 births, and 1857
deaths ; consequently an excess of 1772 births.
At Yguala, a village situated in a very warm
valley near Chilpanzingo, there were, during ten
years, 3373 births, and 2395 deaths ; or an excess
of 978 births.
In the Indian village Colimaya, situated on a
very cold plain, there were, during ten years,
5475 births, and '2602 deaths ; or an excess of
2673 births.
In the jurisdiction of the city of Queretaro,
there were, in 1793, 5064 births in all, and 2678
deaths ; or an excess of 2386 births.
These examples prove that the relation of the
deaths to the births is very different according to
the climate and salubrity ofthe air. It is,

At Dolores

= 100 : 253

Singuilucan

= 100 : 234
Calimaya
= 100 : 202
Guanaxuato
= 100 : 201
Sta. Ana
= 100 : 195
Marfil
= 100 : 194
Queretaro
= 100 : 188
Axapuzco
= 100 : 157
Yguala
= 100 : 140
Malacatepec
= 100 : 134
Panuco
= 100 : 123
chap, iv.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 103
The mean term of these eleven places would
be 100 to 183 ; but the proportion which may be
regarded as suitable for the whole population
appears to me to be 100 : 170. In the United
States of America, it is as 100 : 201.
It appears that on the high plain of the Cordil
lera the excess of births is greater than towards
the coast, or in the very warm regions. What a
difference between the villages of Calimaya and
Yguala ! At Panuco, where the climate is as hot
as at Vera Cruz, although the mortal disease of
black vomiting has never yet been known there,
the number of births from 1793 to 1802 was
1224, and the number of deaths, 988 ; so that we
have here the unfavourable proportion of 100 to
123. Hindostan and South America, particularly
the province of Cumana, the coast of Coro, and the
plains (llanos) of Caraccas, sufficiently prove that
heat alone is not the cause of this great mortality.
In climates very warm and at the same time very
dry, the human species enjoys a longevity perhaps
greater than what we observe in the temperate
zones. This is especially the case whenever the
temperature and climate are excessively vari
able. The Europeans who transport themselves
at an age somewhat advanced into the equi
noxial part of the Spanish colonies attain there,
for the most part, to a great and happy old age.
At Vera Cruz, in the midst of the epidemical
black vomitings, the natives, and strangers sea-

104 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
soned for several years to the climate, enjoy the
most perfect health.
In general, the coasts and arid plains of equato
rial America should be looked upon as healthy,
notwithstanding the excessive heat of the sun,
whose perpendicular rays are reflected by the
soil. Individuals come to maturity, particularly
those who approach to old age, have little to fear
from these regions, of which the unhealthiness
has been unjustifiably exaggerated. The chief
mortality is among the children and young peo
ple, particularly in those parts where the climate
is at once very warm and very humid. Intermit
tent fevers prevail all along the coast from Al
varado to Tamiagua, Tampico, and even to the
plains of New Santander. The western declivity
of the Cordillera of Mexico, and the shores of
the South Sea, from Acapulco to the ports qf
Colima and San Bias, are equally unhealthy. We
may compare this humid, fertile, and unhealthy
territory, to the maritime part of the province of
Caraccas from New Barcelona to Porto Cabello.
Tertian fevers are the scourge of these coun
tries, adorned by nature with the most vigorous
vegetation, and rich in every useful production.
This scourge is so much the more cruel, as the
natives abandon in the most shocking manner
all those who are affected. The children espe
cially fall victims to this neglect of the Indians.
In these hot and humid regions, the mortality is

chap, iv.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 105
so great that the population makes no sensible
progress ; while in the cold regions of New Spain
(and these regions compose the greatest part of
the kingdom) the proportion of the births to
the deaths is as 190 to 100, or even as 200 to
100. The proportion of the births and deaths to the
population is more difficult to estimate than even
the proportion between the births and deaths.
In countries where the laws tolerate only one
religion, and where the priest (cure) draws a
part of his revenues from the baptisms and bu
rials, we may know exactly enough the excess of
the births above the deaths ; but the number
which expresses the relation of the deaths to the
whole population is affected by a part of the un
certainty which envelopes the population itself.
In the town and territory of Queretaro, the po
pulation is reckoned at 70,600. If we divide
this number by 5064 births and 2678 deaths, we
shall find that for every fourteen persons one is
born, and that for every twenty-six one dies.
At Guanaxuato, including the adjacent mines
of St. Anne and Marfil, in a population of 60,100,
there are communibus annis (assuming the mean
term of five years) 3998 births and 2011 deaths.
For every fifteen, then, one is born ; and every
twenty-nine, one dies. The relation of the births
or deaths to the whole population is in Europe
much less favourable to the augmentation of the
species. In Fiance, for example, the births are

106 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
as one to 28-,^, and the deaths as one to 30T^.
This is the precise result deduced by M. Peucket
from the tables of births, marriages, and deaths,
drawn up in the year nine, in 98 departments,
by order of the minister of the interior. Farther
north, in the Prussian monarchy, there were, in
1802, for nine millions of inhabitants, 436,616
births, and 282,109 deaths : hence the births are
one in 20, and the deaths one in 32. But in
Sweden, a country less favoured by nature, ac
cording to the tables of M. Nicander, the most
exact and extensive that were ever drawn up,
the births are one in 30, and the deaths, one
in 39.
It appears, in general, that in the kingdom of
New Spain the proportion of the births to the
population is one in 17, and of the deaths one in
30. We may estimate the present number of
births at nearly 350,000, and the deaths at
200,000. This excess of births, in favourable
circumstances, that is to say, in years without
famine, epidemical small-pox, or matlazahuatl,
the most mortal disease of the Indians, is nearly
150,000. In general, we observe every where
on the globe that the population augments with
a prodigious rapidity in countries still thinly in
habited, with an eminently fertile soil, a soft and
equal temperature, and particularly where there
is a robust race of men incited by nature to
marriage at a very early age.
The parts of Europe in which cultivation only

chap, iv.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 107
commenced in the last half of the past century,
afford very striking examples of this excess of
births. In West Prussia there were, in 1784,
in a population of 560,000 inhabitants, 27,134
births, and 15,669 deaths. These numbers give
the proportion of births to deaths 36 to 20, or
180 : 100, a proportion equally favourable with
that of the Indian villages situated in the cen
tral plain of Mexico. In the Russian empire,
in 1806, the births amounted tol,36l,134, and
the deaths to 818,433. The same causes every
where produce the same effects. The newer the
cultivation of a country is, so much the easier is
subsistence on a soil newly torn up, and conse
quently so much the more rapid the progress of
population. To confirm this thesis, we have
only to cast our eyes over the proportions ofthe
births to the deaths in the following table :
In France .
England* ...
Swreden FinlandRussian empire .
West Prussia
Government of Tobolsk, ac
cording to M. Hermann = 210 : 100
Several places in the table
land of Mexico . = 230 : 100
* Essay on the Principles of Population, by M. Malthus,
one of the most profound works in political economy wliich
has ever appeared.

110 :

100

120 :

100

130 :

100

160 :

100

166 :

100

180 :

100

108 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
United States (state of
New Jersey) . . = 300 : 100
The data which we have taken for the propor
tion of the births to the deaths, and of both to the
whole population, prove that if the order of na
ture were not inverted from time to time by some
extraordinary cause, the population of New
Spain would double every nineteen years.* In
a period of ten years it should have augmented
TVo In the United States we have seen the
population double, since 1784, every twenty or
twenty-three years. The ; curious tables pub
lished by Mr. Samuel Blodget in his Statistical
Manual for the United States of America (1806),
show that in some States this happy cycle is
only thirteen or fourteen years. In France the
population would double in the space of 214
years, if no war or no contagious disease were to
diminish the annual excedent ofthe births. Such
is the difference between countries already very
populous, and those which have yet but a nas
cent industry.
* Let p represent the actual population of a country, n the
proportion of the population to the births, d the proportion of
the deaths to the births, and k the number of years at the end
of which it is wished to estimate the population, we shall have
the state of the population at the epoqua k, expressed by p
(l + n (1 — d))k • so that if we would know in how many
years the population doubles, this number of years k will be
log. 2

expressed by k=

log. (1 + n (I - d) )

chap, iv.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 109
The only true sign of a real and permanent
increase of population is an increase in the means
of subsist ence. This increase, this augment
ation of the produce of agriculture, is evident in
Mexico ; and appears even to indicate a much
more rapid progress of population than has been
supposed, in deducing the population of 1803
from the imperfect enumeration of 1793. In a
catholic country, the ecclesiastical tenths are .
as it were, the thermometer by which, we may
judge of the state of agriculture ; and these
tenths, as we shall afterwards state, have doubled
in less than 24 years.
All these considerations suffice to prove that
in admitting 5,800,000 inhabitants for the king
dom of Mexico at the end of the year 1803, I
have taken a number, which, far from being ex
aggerated, is probably much below the existing
population. No public calamity has afflicted the
country since the enumeration of 1793. If we
add, 1st, a tenth for the individuals not included
in the enumeration, and, 2d, two tenths for the
progress of population in ten years, we suppose
an excess of births which is less by one half than
the result of the parish registers. According to
this supposition, the number of inhabitants would
double every 36 or 40 years. Yet well-informed
persons who have attentively observed the pro
gress of agriculture, increase of villages and
cities, and the augmentation of all the revenues

110 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
ofthe crown depending on the consumption of
commodities, are tempted to belfeve that the
population of Mexico has made a much more
rapid progress. I am far from pronouncing on
so delicate a matter : it is enough for me to have
exhibited a detail of the materials hitherto col
lected, which may lead to accurate results. I
consider it as extremely probable, that the popu
lation of Mexico in 1808 exceeds 6,500,000. In
the Russian empire, of which the political and
moral state bears, in many respects, a strong
analogy to the country we are describing, the
increase of population, from the excess of births,
is much more rapid than what we admit for
Mexico. According to the statistical work of
M. Hermann, the enumeration of 1763 gave
14,726,000 souls. The result of that made in
1783 was nearly 25,677,000 ; and the total popu
lation of Russia in 1805 was estimated at
40,000,000. Yet what obstacles does not na
ture oppose to the progress of population in the
most northern parts of Europe and Asia ! And
what a contrast between the fertility of the
Mexican soil, enriched with the most precious
vegetable productions of the torrid zone, and the
sterility of the plains for more than half the
year buried under ice and snow !

chap, v.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. m

CHAPTER V.
Maladies which periodically arrest the progress qf population.
— Small-pox, natural and inoculated  Cow-pox. — Mat
lazahuatl. — Famine. — Health qf miners.
It remains for us to examine into the physical
causes which almost perodically arrest .the pro
gress of Mexican population. These causes are,
the small-pox, the cruel malady called by the
Indians Matlazahuatl, and especially famine, of
which the effects are felt for a long time.
The small-pox, introduced since 1520, appears
only to exercise its ravages every seventeen or
eighteen years. In the equinoxial regions it
has, like the black vomiting and several other dis
eases, its fixed periods, to which it is very regu
larly subjected. We might say that in these
countries the disposition for certain miasmata is
only renewed in the natives at long intervals; for
though the vessels from Europe frequently in
troduce the germ of the small-pox, it never be
comes epidemical but after very marked inter
vals ; a singular circumstance, which renders the
disease so much the more dangerous for adults.
The small-pox committed terrible ravages in
1763, and especially in 1779, in which year it
carried off in the capital of Mexico alone more
vol. 1. s

02 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
than nine thousand persons. Every evening
tumbrils passed through the streets to receive
the corpses, as at Philadelphia during the yellow
fever. A great part of the Mexican youth was
cut down that year.
The epidemic of 1797 was less destructive,
chiefly owing to the zeal with which inoculation
was propagated in the environs of Mexico, and in
the bishopric of Mechoachan. In the capital of
this bishopric, the city of Valladolid, of 6800 in
dividuals inoculated only 170, or 2J- per cent.,
died ; and we must also observe, that several of
those whoperished were inoculated at atimewhen
they were probably already infected in the natu
ral manner. Fifteen in the hundred died of indi
viduals of all ages, who without being inoculated
were victims ofthe natural small-pox. Several in
dividuals, particularly among the clergy, display
ed at that period a very praiseworthy patriotism,
in arresting the progress of the disease by inocu
lation. I shall merely mention the names of two
enlightened men, M. de Reano, intendant of
Guanaxuato, and Don Manuel Abad, peniten
tiary canon of the cathedral of Valladolid, whose
generous and disinterested views were constantly
directed towards the public good. There were
then inoculated in the kingdom between 50 and
60,000 individuals.
But in the month of January, 1804, the vaccine
inoculation was even introduced at Mexico

chap, v.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 113
through the activity of a respectable citizen,
Don Thomas Murphy, who brought several times
the virus from North America. This introduction
found few obstacles ; the cow-pox appeared un
der the aspect of a very trivial malady ; and the
small-pox inoculation had already accustomed the
Indians to the idea that it might be useful to sub
mit to a temporary evil for the sake of evading a
greater evil. If the vaccine inoculation, or even
the ordinary inoculation, had been known in the
New World in the sixteenth century, several mil
lions of Indians would not have perished victims
to the small-pox, and particularly to the absurd
treatment by which the disease was rendered so
fatal. To this disease the fearful diminution of
the number of Indians in California is to be as
cribed. The ships of war commissioned to carry
the vaccine matter into America and Asia ar
rived at Vera Cruz shortly after my arrival.
Don Antonio Valmis, physician-general of this
expedition, visited Portorico, Cuba, Mexico, and
the Philippine islands ; and his stay at Mexico,
where,nevertheless,the cow-pox was known before
his arrival, contributed singularly to facilitate the
propagation of this salutary preservative. In the
principal cities of the kingdom vaccine commit
tees were formed (juntas centrales), composed of
the most enlightened individuals, who, by vaccin
ating monthly, preserve the miasma from being
lost. It is so much the less liable to be lost, as it
s 2

114 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
exists in the country. M. Valmis discovered it
in the environs of Valladolid, and in the village
of Atlisco, near la Puebla, in the udders of the
Mexican cows. The commission having fulfilled
the beneficent views of the king of Spain, we may
indulge a hope that through the influence of the
clergy, and especially of the religious mission
aries, vaccination will be gradually introduced into
the very interior of the country. The voyage of
M. Valmis will thus remain for ever memorable
in the annals of history. The Indies saw for the
first time those vessels, which were formerly
freighted only with instruments of carnage and
destruction, bearing about the germ of relief and
consolation to distressed and suffering humanity.
The arrival of the armed frigates in which M.
Valmis made the circuit ofthe Atlantic and Pa
cific Oceans gave rise on several coasts to one of
the most simple, and therefore most affecting
ceremonies. The bishops, military governors,
and persons of greatest distinction, repaired to
the shore, where they took in their arms the
children who were to carry the cow-pox to the
indigenous Americans and the Malays of the
Philippine islands, and, followed with public ac
clamations, they laid at the foot of the altar those
precious preservative deposits, returning thanks
to the Supreme Being for having been the wit
nesses of so happy an event. We must have
some knowledge of the ravages occasioned by
3

chap. v. J KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 115
the small-pox in the torrid zone, and especially
among a race of men whose physical constitu
tion seems adverse to cutaneous eruptions, in
order to feel all the importance of M. Jenner's
discovery. It is a much greater blessing for the
equinoxial part of the New Continent than for
the temperate climate of the old.
It may be useful to relate here a fact of some
importance for those who take an interest in the
progress of vaccination. It was unknown at Lima
till the month of November, 1802. At that period
the small-pox prevailed on the coast of the South
Sea. A merchant-vessel, Santo Domingo de la
Calzada, put into Lima in the passage from Spain
to Manilla. An individual had had the good
sense to send by this vessel vaccine matter to the
Philippine islands. They availed themselves of
this opportunity at Lima ; and M. Unanue, pro
fessor of anatomy, and author of an excellent
physiological treatise on the climate of Peru*,
vaccinated several individuals by means of the
matter brought by the merchant-vessel. No
pustule appeared ; and the virus appeared either
altered or too weak. However, M. Unanue
having observed that all the vaccinated indivi-
* This -work, which displays an intimate acquaintance with
the French and English literature, bears the title of Obser
vaciones sobre el clima de Lima y sus influencias en los seres
organizados en especial el hombre, por el Dr. D. Hipolito
Unanue. Lima, 1806. S 3

116 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [bookii.
duals had a very mild small-pox, employed this
variolous, mattef to render, if possible, by the
ordinary inoculation, the disease less fatal. He
thus perceived in an indirect way the effects of
a vaccination supposed to have failed.
It was accidentally discovered in the course of
the same epidemic in 1802, that the beneficient
effect of vaccination had been long known to the
country people among the Peruvian Andes. A
negro-slave had been inoculated for the small-pox
in the house of the Marquis de Valleumbroso,
who showed no symptom ofthe disease. They
were going to repeat tbe inoculation, when the
young man told them that he was certain of never
having the small-pox, because in milking cows
in the Cordillera of the Andes, he had had a sort
of cutaneous eruptions, caused, as the Indian
herdsmen said, by the contact of certain tuber-
cules sometimes found on the udders of cows.
Those who have had this eruption, said the
negro, never take the small-pox. The Africans,
and especially the Indians, display great sagacity
in observing the character, habits, and diseases
of the animals with which they live. We need
not therefore be astonished, that, on the intro
duction of horned cattle into America, the lower
people remarked that the pustules on the udders
of cows communicated to the herdsmen a spe
cies of benignant small-pox, and that those
once infected are secure from the general con-

chap, v.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 117
tagion during the epoch when the disease is
epidemical. The matlazahuatl, a disease peculiar to the
Indian race, seldom appears more than once in
a century. It raged in a particular manner in
1545, 1576, and 1736. It is called a plague by
the Spanish authors. As the latest epidemic took
place at a time when medicine was not consi
dered a science, even in the capital, we have no
exact data as to the matlazahuatl. It bears cer
tainly some analogy to the yellow fever or black
vomiting ; but it never attacks white people,
whether Europeans or descendants from the
natives. The individuals of the race of Cau
casus* do not appear subject to this mortal
typhus ; while, on the other hand, the yellow
fever or black vomiting very seldom attacks the
Mexican Indians. The principal site ofthe vo
mito prieto is the maritime region, of which the
climate is excessively warm and humid ; but the
matlazahuatl carries terror and destruction into
the very interior of the country, to the central
table-land, and the coldest and most arid re
gions of the kingdom.
* Who are the individuals of the race of Caucasus ? The
Europeans. So at least we learn from the context, where
they are opposed to the Mexican Indians. This involves the
theory of the mountains of Asia being the nursery of the Old
Continent. Every one, however, will not so easily be able to
understand Europeans by this denomination. Such attempts
to elevate the style, at the expense of perspicuity, can never
enough be reprobated. Trans.
s 4

118 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
Father Torribio, a Franciscan, better known by
his Mexican name of Motolinia, asserts that the
small -pox at its introduction in 1520, by a negro-
slave of Narvaez, carried off the half of the inha
bitants of Mexico. Torquemada advances the
hazardous opinion, that in the two matlazahuatl
epidemics of 1545 and 1576, 800,000 Indians
died in the former and 2,000,000 in the latter.
But when we reflect on the difficulty with which
we can at this day estimate, in the eastern part
of Europe, the number of those who fall victims
to the plague, we shall very reasonably be in- .
clined to doubt if the viceroys Mendoza and Al-
manza, governors of a recently conquered coun
try, were able to procure an enumeration of the
Indians cut off by the matlazahuatl. I do not
accuse the two monkish historians of want of
veracity ; but there is very little probability
that their calculation is founded on exact data.
. A very interesting problem remains to be re
solved. Was the pest, which is said to have de
solated from time to time the Atlantic regions of
the United States before the arrival ofthe Euro
peans, and which the celebrated Rush and his
followers look upon as the principle ofthe yellow
fever, identical with the matlazahuatl of the Mex
ican Indians ? We may hope that this last dis
ease, should it ever re-appear in New Spain, will
be hereafter carefully observed by the physicians.
A third obstacle to the progress of population
in New Spain, and perhaps the most cruel of all,

chap, v.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 119
is famine. The American Indians, like the in
habitants of Hindostan, are contented with the
smallest quantity of aliment on which life can be
supported, and increase in number without a pro
portional increase in the means of subsistence.
Naturally indolent, from their fine climate and
generally fertile soil, they cultivate as much
maize, potatoes, or wheat, as is necessary for
their own subsistence, or at most for the addi
tional consumption of the adjacent towns and
mines. Agriculture, it is true, has made great
progress within the last twenty years ; but the
consumption has also increased in an extraordin
ary manner from the augmentation of population
and an excessive luxury formerly unknown to
the mixed casts, and from the working of a great
number of new seams, which require additional
men, horses, and mules. Few hands, no doubt,
are employed in manufactures in New Spain ;
but a great number are withdrawn from agricul
ture from the necessity of transporting on mules
goods, and the produce of the mines, iron, powder,
and mercury, from the coast to the capital, and
from thence to the mines along the ridge of the
Cordilleras. Thousands of men and animals pass their lives
on the great roads between Vera Cruz and Mex
ico, Mexico and Acapulco, Oaxaca andDurango,
and the cross-roads by which provisions are car
ried to the habitations established in arid and

120 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book h.
uncultivated regions. This class of inhabitants,
called by the economists in their system, sterile
and nonproductive, is consequently more nume
rous in America than might be expected in a
country where manufacturing industry is yet so
little advanced. The want of proportion between
the progress of population and the increase of
food from cultivation renews the afflicting spec
tacle of famine, whenever a great drought or any
other local cause has damaged the crop of maize.
Scarcity of provisions has always been accom
panied in all times, and all parts of the globe,
with epidemical diseases fatal to population.*
The want of nourishment in 1784 gave rise to
asthenical diseases among the most indigent class
of the people. These accumulated calamities
cut off a great number of adults, and a still
greater number of children ; and it was com
puted that in the town and mines of Guanaxuato
more than 8000 individuals perished. A very
remarkable meteorological phenomenon contri
buted principally to the scarcity : the maize, after
*.This position requires qualification. Dr. Smith has, I
believe, well remarked that in years of scarcity there are
perhaps, fewer diseases and deaths than usual, from the di
minished consumption of spirituous liquors by the common
people, one of the most productive sources of disease. The
position will undoubtedly, however, hold with regard to a
Hindoo or Indian population, who in years of plenty, have
no more than merely supports animal life, and to whom,
therefore, any reduction must always prove fatal. Trans.

chap, v.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 121
an extraordinary drought, was nipt by frost on
the night ofthe 28th August; and, what is more
singular, at an elevation of 1800 .metres. * The
number of inhabitants carried off by this fatal
union of famine and disease, throughout the
whole surface of the kingdom, was estimated at
more than 300,000. This number will appear
the less astonishing to us when we consider, that
even in Europe the population is sometimes di
minished by scarcity, more than it is augmented
by the excess of births above the deaths for four
consecutive years. There perished in Saxony,
for example, in 1772, near 66,000 inhabitants ;
while the excess of births above the deaths was
not, communibus annis, from 1764 to 1784, more
than 17,000. t
* 5904 feet. Trans.
X The translator is afraid that this number of 66,000 in
cludes the whole deaths of Saxony in 1772; in which case, the
statement, that the diminution of population from the famine
exceeded the augmentation from the excess of births for four
consecutive years will fall to the ground. Every one knows
that it is impossible to state exactly the number of deaths
from famine in any country, as literally few or none die of
famine, but of diseases occasioned by a defective diet,
which can never be separated in any bill of mortality from
diseases owing to other causes. The nearest approxi
mation, however, is to be found by deducting the average
mortality from the increased mortality in any given year of
scarcity. I think it extremely probable that M. de Hum
boldt has not adopted this method. He elsewhere states
that the adjacent country of Prussia had, in 1802, on a
population of nine millions, 282,109 deaths. If we take

122 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
The effects of famine are common to almost
all the equinoxial regions. In the province of
New Andalusia in South America, I have seen
villages whose inhabitants were forced by famine
to disperse themselves from time to time in the
deserts, to pick up a subsistence from the wild
plants. In vain the missionaries employ their
authority to prevent this dispersion. In the
province de los Pastos, the Indians, when the
potatoes fail, which are their principal nourish
ment, repair sometimes to the most elevated ridge
of the Cordillera to subsist on the juice of the
achupallas, a plant related to the genus pitcarnia.
The Otomacks at Uruana, on the banks of the
Orinoco, swallow, during several months, potters'
earth, to absorb by this load the gastric juice, and
to satisfy, in some sort, the hunger which toi^-
ments them. * In the islands of the South Sea,
in a fertile soil, where nature has lavished all her
blessings, the inhabitants are frequently driven
by famine to devour one another. Under the
torrid zone, where a beneficent hand seems every

Mr. Pinkerton's estimate of the Saxon population, 2,104,000,
say, however, 2,000,000, and assume a mortality for it pro
portionate to that of Prussia, we shall find the number of
deaths 62,869. If, supposing, then, 66,000 the mortality
of 1772, and 62,869 the average mortality, the increase by
famine in 1772 would only be 3311. This is a much more
likely number than the enormous one given by M. de Hum
boldt ; but the fact can easily be ascertained. Trans.
* See my Tableaux dela Nature, T. I. p. 62. 191. and 209.

chap, v.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 123
where to have scattered the germ of abundance,
man, careless and phlegmatic, experiences pe
riodically a want of nourishment which the in
dustry of more civilized nations banishes from the
most sterile regions ofthe north.
The working of the mines has long been re
garded as one of the principal causes ofthe de
population of America. It will be difficult to
call in question, that at the first epoch of the
conquest, and even in the seventeenth century,
many Indians perished from the excessive labour
to which they were compelled in the mines.
They perished without posterity, as thousands
of African slaves annually perish in the West In
dian plantations from fatigue, defective nourish
ment, and want of sleep. In Peru, at least in
.the most southern part, the country is depopu
lated by the mines ; because the barbarous law of
the mita is yet in existence, which compels the
Indians to remove from their homes into distant
provinces, where hands are wanted for extract-
iner the subterraneous wealth. But it is not so
much the labour as the sudden change of climate,
which renders the mita so pernicions to the health
of the Indians. This race of men has not. the
flexibility of organization for which the Euro
peans are so eminently distinguished. The
health of a copper-coloured man suffers infinitely
when he is transported from a warm to a cold
climate, particularly when he is forced to de-

124 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
scend from the elevation of the Cordillera into
those narrow and humid vallies, where all the
miasmata of the neighbouring regions appear to
be deposited.
In the kingdom of New Spain, at least within
the last thirty or forty years, the labour of the
mines is free ; and there remains no trace ofthe
mita, though a justly celebrated author* has ad
vanced the contrary. No where does the lower
people enjoy in greater security the fruit of their
labours than in the mines of Mexico ; no law
forces the Indian to choose this species of labour,
or to prefer one mine to another ; and when he is
displeased with the proprietor ofthe mine, he may
offer his services to another master, who may pay
perhaps more regularly. These unquestionable
facts are very little known in Europe. The num
ber of persons employed in subterraneous opera
tions, who are divided into several classes (Bare-
nadores, Faeneros, Tenateros, Bareteros), does
not exceed in the whole kingdom of New Spain
28 or 30,000. Hence there is not more than
¦^4-s- of the whole population immediately em
ployed in the mines.
The mortality among the miners of Mexico is
not much greater than what is observed among
the other classes. We may easily be convinced
of this by examining the bills of mortality in the
different parishes of Guanaxuato and Zacatecas.
* Robertson, History of America, vol. ii. p. 373.

chap, v.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 125
This is a phenomenon, so much the more re
markable, as the miner in several of these mines
is exposed to a temperature 6° above the mean
temperatures of Jamaica and Pondicherry. * I
found the centigrade thermometer at 34° t at the
bottom of the mine of Valenciana (en los planes),
a perpendicular depth of 513 metres^ ; while at
the mouth of the pit in the open air, the same
thermometer sinks in winter to 4° or 5° § above 0.
The Mexican miner is, consequently, exposed to
a change of temperature of more than 30°. || But
this enormous heat of the Valenciana mine is not
the effect of a great number of men and lights
collected into a small space; it is much more
owing to local and geological causes, which we
shall afterwards examine.
It is curious to observe how the Mestizoes and
Indians employed in carrying minerals on their
back, who go by the name of Tenateros, remain
continually loaded for six hours with a weight of
from 225 to 350 pounds, and constantly exposed
to a very high temperature, ascending eight or
ten times successively, without intermission, stairs
of 1800 steps. The appearance of these robust
and laborious men would have operated a change
in the opinions of the Raynals and Pauws, and a
• Nearly 11° of Fahrenheit. Trans.-
X 93° of Fahrenheit. Trans. X 1681 feet. Trans.
§ 39° or 41° of Fahrenheit. Trans.
[( 54° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

126 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii-
number of other authors, however estimable in
other respects, who have been pleased to declaim
against the degeneracy of our species in the
torrid zone. In the Mexican mines, children
(enfans) of seventeen years of age* are able to
carry masses of stone of a hundred pounds weight.
This occupation of Tenateros is accounted un
healthy, if they enter more than three times a
week into the mines. But the labour which ruins
most rapidly the robustest constitutions is that
of the Barenadores, who blow up the rock with
powder. These men rarely pass the age of 35,
if from a thirst of gain they continue their severe
labour for the whole week. They generally pass
no more than five or six years at this occupation,
and then betake themselves to other employments
less injurious to health.
The art of mining is daily improving ; and the
pupils ofthe school of mines at Mexico gradually
diffuse correct notions respecting the circulation
of air in pits and galleries. Machines are begin-
ningto be introduced in place of the old method of
* I should be inclined to think that the author meant here
to say enfans de sept a dix ans, instead of enfans de dix sept
ans ; for enfant, it is beli,eved, can hardly be applied with
propriety to a youth of 17; and if a full-grown man could
ascend eight or ten times, without intermission, 1800 steps
of a stair with 350 pounds, it certainly could not add to the
evidence of the strength of this race to say, that a young
man of 17 could carry little more than the fourth part of that
weight. Trans.

chap, v.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. "' Iff'
carrying minerals and water on men's backs up
stairs of a rapid ascent. In proportion as the1
mines of New Spain resemble more and more
those of Freiberg, Clausthal, and Schemnitz, the
miner's health will be less injured by the in-
fluence of the Mofettes*, and the excessively
prolonged efforts of muscular motion.
From five to six thousand persons are employ
ed in the amalgamation of the minerals, or the
preparatory labour. A great number of these in
dividuals pass their lives in walking barefooted
over heaps of brayed metal, moistened and mix
ed with muriate of soda, sulphate of iron, and
oxid of mercury, by the contact of the atmo
spheric air and the solar rays. It is a remarkable
phenomenon to see these men enjoy the most
perfect health. The physicians who practise in
places where there are mines, unanimously assert "
that the nervous affections, which might be at- '
tributed to the effect of an absorption of oxid of
mercury, very rarely occur. At Guanaxuato
part of the inhabitants drink the very water in
which the amalgamation has been purified (aqua
de lavaderos) without feeling any injury from it.
This fact has often struck Europeans not inti
mately acquainted with the principles of chemis
try. The water is at first of a greyish-blue '
;. i
* The translator professes his ignorance of the meaning of
this word. ' -
VOL. I. T

120 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
colour, and contains in suspension black oxid of
mercury, and small globules of native mercury
and amalgamation of silver. This metallic mix
ture gradually precipitates, and the water be
comes limpid. It can neither dissolve the oxid
of mercury nor the muriate of mercury, which
is one of the most insoluble salts which we know.
The mules are very fond of this water, because
it contains a little muriate of soda in dissolution.
In speaking ofthe progress ofthe Mexican po
pulation, arid of the causes which retard that pro
gress, I have neither mentioned the arrival of new
European colonists, nor the mortality occasioned
by the black vomiting. We shall discuss these
subjects in the sequel. It is sufficient to observe
here, that the vomito prieto is a scourge which is
never felt but on the coast, and which does not,
throughout the whole kingdom, carry off annually
more than from two to three thousand individuals.
As to Europe, it does not send more than 800 to
Mexico. Political writers have always exagger
ated what they call the depopulation ofthe old
continent by the new. M. Page*, for example,
asserts in his work on the commerce of St. Do
mingo, that the emigrations from Europe supply
annually more than 100,000 individuals to the
United States. This estimate is twenty times
higher than the truth ; for, in 1784 and 1792,
* Vol. H. p. 427.

chap, v.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 129
when the United States received the greatest
number of European colonists, their numberdid
not exceed 5000. * The progress of population
in Mexico and North America is solely derived
from an increase of internal prosperity.
* Samuel Blodget's Economica, 1806, p. 58.

T 2

130 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii

CHAPTER VI.
Diversity of casts. — Indians or indigenous Americans. —
Their number and their migrations. — Diversity qf lan
guages.— Degree qf civilization ofthe Indians.
1 he Mexican population is composed of the
same elements as the other Spanish colonies.
They reckon seven races : 1. The individuals
born in Europe, vulgarly called Gachupines ;
2. the Spanish Creoles, or whites of European
extraction born in America; 3. the Mestizos,
descendants of whites and Indians ; 4. the Mu
lattos, descendants of whites and negros ; 5. the
Zambos, descendants of negros and Indians;
6. the Indians, or copper-coloured indigenous
race ; and 7- the African negros. Abstract
ing the subdivisions there are four casts : the
whites, comprehended under the general name
of Spaniards, the negros, the Indians, ancl the
men of mixed extraction, from Europeans,
Africans, American Indians, and Malays ; for
from the frequent communication between Aca
pulco and the Philippine islands, many indivi
duals of Asiatic origin, both Chinese and Ma
lays, have settled in New Spain.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 131
A very general prejudice exists in Europe that
an exceeding small number of the copper-colour
ed race, or descendants of the ancient Mexicans,
remain at this day. The cruelty of the Euro
peans has entirely extirpated the old inhabitants
of the West Indies. The continent of America,
however, has witnessed no such horrible result.
The number of Indians in New Spain exceeds two
millions and a half, including only those who
have no mixture of European or African blood.
What is still more consolatory, and we repeat it,
is, that the indigenous population, far from de
clining, has been considerably on the increase
for the last fifty years, as is proved by the regis
ters of capitation or tribute.
In general the Indians appear to form two-fifths
of the whole population of Mexico. In the four
intendancies of Guanaxuato, Valladolid, Oaxaca,
and la Puebla, this population amounts even to
three-fifths. The enumeration of 1793 gave the
following result.
Names of intendancies. Total population. Number of Indians.
Guanaxuato - 398,000 - 175,000
Valladolid - 290,000 - 119,000
Puebla - - 638,000 - 416,000
Oaxaca - - 411,000 - 363,000
From this table it appears thatin the intendancy
of Oaxaca, of 100 individuals 88 were Indians.
T 3

132 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE t>°0K »¦
So great a number of indigenous inhabitants un
doubtedly proves the antiquity of the cultivation
of this country. Accordingly, we find near Oax
aca remaining monuments of Mexican architec
ture, which prove a singularly advanced state of
civilization. The Indians, or copper-coloured race, are rare
ly to be found in the north of New Spain, and are
hardly to be met with in the provincias internas.
History gives us several causes for this phenome
non. When the Spaniards made the conquest of
Mexico, they found very few inhabitants in the
countries situated beyond the parallel of 20°.
These provinces were the abode of the Chichi-
mecks and Otomites, two pastoral nations, of
whom thin hordes were scattered over a vast ter
ritory. Agriculture and civilization, as we have
already observed, were concentrated in the plains
south of the river of Santiago, especially between
the valley of Mexico and the province of Oaxaca.
From the 7th to the 13th century, population
seems in general to have continually flowed to
wards the south. From the regions situated to
the north of the Rio Gila issued forth those war
like nations who successively inundated the coun
try of Anahuac. We are ignorant whether that
was their primitive country, or whether they
came originally from Asia or the north-west coast
of America, and traversed the savannas of Na-
bajoa and Moqui, to arrive at the Rio Gila. The
hieroglyphical tables of the Aztecs have trans-

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 133
mitted to us. the memory of the principal epochs
of the great migrations among the Americans.
This migration bears some analogy to that which,
in the fifth century, plunged Europe in a state of
barbarism, of which we yet feel the fatal effects
in many of our social institutions. However,
the people who traversed Mexico left behind
them traces of cultivation and civilization. The
Toultecs appeared, first, in the year 648, the
Chichimecks in 1170, the Nahualtecs in 1178»
the Acolhues and Aztecs in 1 1 96. The Toultecs
introduced the cultivation of maize and cotton ;
they built cities, made roads, and constructed
those great pyramids which are yet admired, and
of which the faces are very accurately laid out.
They knew the use of hieroglyphical paintings ;
they could found metals, and cut the hardest
stones ; and they had a solar year more perfect
than that of the Greeks and Romans. The form
of their government indicated that they were the
descendants of a people who had experiencedgrea,t
vicissitudes in their social state. But where is the
source of that cultivation ? where is the country
from which the Toultecs and Mexicans issued ?
Tradition and historical hieroglyphics name
Huehuetlapallan, Tollan, and Aztlan, as the first
residence of these wandering nations. There are
no remains at this day of any ancient civilization
ofthe human species to thenorth ofthe Rio Gila,
or in the northern regions travelled through by
t 4

134 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
Hearne, Fidler, and Mackenzie. But on the
north-west coast, between Nootka and Cookriver,
especially under the 57° of north latitude, in
Norfolk Bay and Cox Canal, the natives display
a decided taste for hieroglyphical paintings.*
M.Fleurieu, a man of distinguished learning, sup
poses that these people might be the descendants
of some Mexican colony, which, at the period of
the conquest, took refuge in those northern re
gions. This ingenious opinion will appear less
probable if we consider the great distance which
these colonists would have to travel, and reflect
that the Mexican cultivation did not extend be
yond the 20° of latitude. I am rather inclined to
believe, that, on the migration ofthe Toultecs and
Aztecs to the south, some tribes remained on the
coasts of New Norfolk and New Cornwall, while
the rest continued their course southwards. We
can conceive how people, travelling en masse, for
example, the Ostrogoths and Alani, were able
to pass from the Black Sea into Spain ; but how
could we believe that a portion of these people
were able to return from west to east, at an
epoqua when other hordes had already occupied
their first abodes on the banks of the Don or the
Boristhenes ?
* Voyage de Marchand, Tom. I. p. 258. 261. 375. ; Dixon,
p. 332. A harp represented in the hieroglyphical paintings of
the inhabitants ofthe north-west coast of America, is an ob
ject at least as remarkable as the famous harp on the tombs of
the kings of Thebes.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 135
This is not the place to discuss the great pro
blem of the Asiatic origin of the Toultecs or
Aztecs. The general question of the first origin
of the inhabitants of a continent is beyond the
limits prescribed to history ; and is not, perhaps,
even a philosophical question. There undoubt
edly existed other people in Mexico at the time
when the Toultecs arrived there in the course
of their migration, and therefore to assert that
the Toultecs are an Asiatic race is not maintain
ing that all the Americans came originally from
Thibet or oriental Siberia. De Guignes at
tempted to prove by the Chinese annals that
they visited America posterior to 458 ; and Horn,
in his ingenious work De Originibus Americanis,
¦ published in 1699, M. Scherer in his historical
researches respecting the new world, and more
recent writers, have made it appear extremely
probable that old relations existed between Asia
and America.
I have elsewhere advanced* that the Toultecs,
or Aztecs, might be a part of those Hiongnoux,
who, according to the Chinese historians, emi
grated under their leader Punon, and were lost
in the north parts of Siberia. This nation of
warrior-shepherds has more than once changed
the face of oriental Asia, and desolated under
the name of -Huns the finest parts of civilized
Europe. All these conjectures will acquire more
* Tableaux de la Nature, Vol. I. p. 53.

136 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
probability when a marked analogy shall be dis
covered between the languages of Tartary and
those of the new continent ; an analogy, which,
according to the latest researches of M. Barton
Smith, extends only to a very small number of
words. The want of wheat, oats, barley, rye,
and all those nutritive gramina which go under
the general name of cereal, seems to prove, that
if Asiatic tribes passed into America, they must
have descended from pastoral people. We see
in the Old continent that the cultivation of cereal
gramina, and the use of milk, were introduced
as far back as we have any historical records.
The inhabitants ofthe new continent cultivated
no other gramina than maize (Zed). They fed
on no species of milk, though the lamas, alpacas,
and in the north of Mexico and Canada two kinds
of indigenous oxen, would have afforded them
milk in abundance. These are striking contrasts
between the Mongol and American race.
Without losing ourselves in suppositions as to
the first country of the Toultecs and the Aztecs,
and without attempting to fix the geographical
position of those ancient kingdoms of Huehuet
lapallan and Aztlan, we shall confine ourselves
to the accounts of the Spanish historians. The
northern provinces, New Biscay, Sonora, and
New Mexico, were very thinly inhabited in the
l6th century. The natives were hunters and
shepherds ; and they withdrew as the European

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 187
conquerors advanced towards the north. Agri
culture alone attaches man to the soil, and de
velops the love of country. Thus we see that in
the southern part of Anahuac, in the cultivated
region adjacent to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec colo
nists patiently endured the cruel vexations ex
ercised towards them by their conquerors, and
suffered every thing rather than quit the soil
which their fathers had cultivated. But in the
northern provinces, the natives yielded to the
conquerors their uncultivated savannas, which
served for pasturage to the buffaloes. The In
dians took refuge beyond the Rio Gila, towards
the Rio Zaguanas and the mountains de las Grul-
las. The Indian tribes who formerly occupied
the territory of the United States and Canada r
followed the same policy ; and chose rather to !
withdraw, first, behind the Alleghany moun
tains, then behind the Ohio, and lastly behind
the Missourv, to avoid being forced to live
among the Europeans. From the same cause
we find the copper-coloured race neither in the
provincias internas of New Spain, nor in the cul
tivated parts of the United States.
The migrations of the American tribes having
been constantly carried on from north to south,
at least between the sixth and twelfth centuries,
it is certain that the Indian population of New
Spain must be composed of very heterogeneous
elements. In proportion as the population
flowed towards the south, some tribes would stop

138 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
in their progress, and mingle with the tribes
which followed them. The great variety of lan
guages still spoken in the kingdom of Mexico
proves a great variety of races and origin.
The number of these languages exceeds twenty,
of which fourteen have grammars and diction
aries tolerably complete. The following are
their names : the Mexican or Aztec language ;
the Otomite ; the Tarasc ; the Zapotec ; the
Mistec ; the Maye, or Yucatan ; the Totonac ;
the Popolouc; the Matlazing ; the Huastecj
the Mixed; the Caquiquel; the Taraumar; the
Tepehuan ; and the Cora. It appears that the
most part of these languages, far from being dia
lects of the same (as some authors have falsely
advanced), are at least as different from one
another as the Greek and the German, or the
French and Polish. This is the case at least with
the seven languages of New Spain, of which I
possess the vocabularies. The variety of idioms
spoken by the people of the new continent, and
which, without the least exaggeration, may be
stated at some hundreds, offers a very striking
phenomenon, particularly when we compare it
with the few languages spoken in Asia and
Europe. The Mexican language, that of the Aztecs, is
the most widely diffused, and extends at present
from the 37° to the lake of Nicaragua, for a length
of 400 leagues. The Abbe Clavigero* has proved
* Clavigero, T. I. p. 153.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 189
that the Toultecs, the Chichimecks (from whom
the inhabitants of Tlascala are descended), the
Acolhues, and the Nahuatlacs, all spoke the same
language as the Mexicans. This language- is
not so sonorous * but almost as diffused and as
rich as that of the Incas. After the Mexican
or Aztec language, of which there exists eleven
printed grammars, the most general language of
New Spain is that of the Otomites.
I could not fail to interest the reader by a mi
nute description of the manners, character, and
physical and intellectual state of those indige
nous inhabitants of Mexico, which the Spanish
laws designate by the name of Indians. The
general interest displayed in Europe for the re
mains of the primitive population of the new
continent has its origin in a moral cause, which
does honour to humanity. The history of the
conquest of America and Hindostan presents
the picture of an unequal struggle between na
tions far advanced in arts, and others in the
very lowest degree of civilization. The unfor
tunate race of Aztecs escaped from the carnage
appeared destined to annihilation under an op
pression of several centuries. We have difficulty
in believing that nearly two millions and a half
of aborigines could survive such lengthened cala-
* The word Notlazomahuiztespixcatatzin signifies, venerable
priest whom I cherish as my father. The Mexicans use this
word of 27 letters when speaking to the priests (cures).

140 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
mities. The inhabitant s>f Mexico and Peru,
and the Indian of the Ganges, attract in a very
different manner from the Chinese or Japanese
the attention of an observer .endow.ed.__ with
sensibility. Such is the interest which the mis
fortune of a vanquished people inspires, that it
renders us frequently unjust towards the de
scendants of the conquerors.
To give an accurate idea of the indigenous in
habitants of New Spain, it is not enough to paint
them in their actual state of degradation and mi
sery ; we must go back to a remote period, when,
governed by its own laws, the nation could dis
play its proper energy ; and we must consult the
hieroglyphical paintings, buildings of hewn stone,
and works of sculpture still in preservation,
which, though they attest the infancy of the arts,
bear, however, a striking analogy to several
monuments of the most civilized people. These
researches are reserved for the historical account
of our expedition to the tropics. The nature of
this work does not permit us to enter into such
details, however interesting they may be, both
for the history and the psychological study of
our species. We shall merely point out here a
few of the most prominent features of the im
mense picture of American indigenous popula
tion. The Indians of New Spain bear a general re
semblance to those who inhabit Canada, Florida,

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 141
Peru, and Brasil. They have the same swarthy
and copper colour, flat and smooth hair, small
beard, squat body, long eye, with the corner di
rected upwards towards the temples, prominent
cheek-bones, thick lips, and an expression of gen
tleness in the mouth, strongly contrasted with a
gloomy and severe look. The American race,
after the hyperborean race, is the least numerous;
but it occupies the greatest space on the globe.
Over a million and a half of square leagues, from
the Terra del Fuego islands to the river St. Lau
rence and Baring's straits, we are struck at the
first glance with the general resemblance in the
features ofthe inhabitants. We think we perceive
that they all descend from the same stock, not
withstanding the enormous diversity of language
which separates them from one another. How
ever, when we reflect more seriously on this family
likeness, after living longer among the indige
nous Americans, we discover that celebrated
travellers, who could only observe a few in
dividuals on the coasts, have singularly exag
gerated the analogy of form among the Ameri
cans. Intellectual cultivation is what contributes the
most to diversify the features. In barbarous na
tions there is rather a physiognomy peculiar to
the tribe or horde than to any individual. When
we compare our domestic animals with those
which inhabit our forests we make the same ob
servation. But an European, when he decides on

142 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
the great resemblance among the coppercolour-
ed races, is subject to a particular illusion. He is
struck with a complexion so different from our
own, and the uniformity of this complexion con
ceals for a long time from him the diversity of in
dividual features. The new colonist can hardly
at first distinguish the indigenous, because his
eyes are less fixed on the gentle melancholic or
ferocious expression of the countenance than on
the red coppery colour and dark luminous and
coarse and glossy air, so glossy indeed that we
should believe it to be in a constant state of hu-
mectation. In the faithful portrait which an excellent ob
server, M. Volney, has drawn of the Canada In
dians, we undoubtedly recognize the tribes scat
tered in the meadows of the Rio Apure and the
Carony. The same style of feature exists no doubt
in both Americas; but those Europeans who have
sailed on the great rivers Orinoco and Amazons,
and have had occasion to see a great number of
tribes assembled under the monastical hierarchy
in the missions, must have observed that the Ame
rican race contains nationswhosefeatures differ as
essentially from one another, as the numerous va
rieties of the race of Caucasus, the Circassians,
Moors, and Persians, differ from one another.
The tall form ofthe Patagonians, who inhabit the
southern extremity of the new continent, is again
found by us, as it were, among the Caribs who
dwell in the plains from the Delta ofthe Orinoco

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 143
to the sources of the Rio Blanco. What a differ
ence between the' figure, physiognomy, and phy
sical constitution of these Caribs*, who ought
to be accounted one ofthe most robust nations on
the face ofthe earth, and are not to be confounded
with the degenerate Zambos, formerly called Ca
ribs in the island of St Vincent, and the squat
bodies of the Chayma Indians of the province of
Cumana! What a difference of form between the
Indians of Tlascala and the Lipans and Chichi-
mecs of the northern part of Mexico !
The Indians of New Spain have a more swarthy
complexion than the inhabitants of the warm
est climates of South America. This fact is So
much the more remarkable, as in the race of
Caucasus, which may be also called the European
Arab race, the people of the south have not so
fair a skin as those of the north. Though many
of the Asiatic nations who inundated Europe in
the sixth century had a very dark complexion
it appears, however, that the shades of colour ob
servable among the white race are less owing to
their origin or mixture than to the local influ*
ence of the climate. This influence appears to
* The great nation of the Caribs, or Caraibs, who, after
having exterminated the Cabres, conquered a considerable
part of South America, extended in the 16th century from
the equator to the Virgin Islands. The few families who ex
isted in our times in the Caribbee Islands, recently transported
by the English, were a mixture of true Caribs an4 negro*.
VOL. r. U

144 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
have almost no effect On the Americans and ne
gros. These races, in which there is an abund
ant deposition of carburetted hydrogen in the
corpus mucosum or reticulatum of Malpighi, re
sist in a singular manner the impressions of the
ambient air. The negros of the mountains of
Upper Guinea are not less black than those who
live on the coast. There are, no doubt, tribes
of a colour by no means deep among the Indians
of the new continent, whose complexion ap
proaches to that of the Arabs or Moors. We
found the people ofthe Rio Negro swarthier than
those ofthe Lower Orinoco, and yet the banks of
the first of these rivers enjoy a much cooler cli
mate than the more northern regions. In the
forests of Guiana, especially near the sources of
the Orinoco, are several tribes of a whitish com
plexion, the Guaicas, Guajaribs, and Arigues, of
whom several robust individuals, exhibiting no
symptom of the asthenical malady which cha
racterises albinos, have the appearance of true
Mestizoes. Yet these tribes have never mingled
with Europeans, and are surrounded with other
tribes of a dark brown hue. The Indians in the
torrid zone who inhabit the most elevated plains
of the Cordillera of the Andes, and those who
under the 45° of south latitude live by fishing
among the islands of the archipelago of Chonos,
have as coppery a complexion as those who under
a burning climate cultivate bananas in the nar
rowest and deepest vallies of the equinoxial re-

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN.' 145
gion. We must add, that the Indians of the
mountains are clothed, and were so long before
the conquest, while the aborigines who wander
over the plains go quite naked, and are conse
quently always exposed to the perpendicular rays
of the sun. I could never observe that in the
same individual those parts of the body which
were covered were less dark than those in con
tact with a warm and humid air. We every
where perceive that the colour of the American
depends very little on the local position in which
we see him. The Mexicans, as we have already
observed, are more swarthy than the Indians of
Quito and New Grenada, wTho inhabit a climate
completely analogous ; and we even see that the
tribes dispersed to the north of the Rio Gila are
less brown than those in the neighbourhood of
the kingdom of Guatimala. This deep colour
continues to the coast nearest to Asia. But
under the 54° 10' of north latitude, at Cloak-
bay, in the midst of the copper-coloured Indians
with small long eyes, there is a tribe with large
eyes, European features, and a skin less dark
than that of our peasantry. All these facts tend
to prove that, notwithstanding the variety of
climates and elevations inhabited by the different
races of men, nature never deviates from the
model of which she made selection thousands of
years ago.
My observations on the innate colour of the
v 2

146 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book m,
aborigines differ in part from the assertions o_
Michikinakoua, the celebrated chief of the
Miamis, called by the Anglo-Americans Little
Crook-back (Petite-Tortue), who communicated
30 much valuable information to M. Volney. He
asserted " that the children of the Canada In
dians were born as white as Europeans ; that the
adults are darkened by the sun, and the grease
and the juices of herbs with which they rub their
skin ; and that that part of the waist of the fe
males which is perpetually covered is always
white." * I have never seen the Canada nations
of which the chief of the Miamis speaks ; but I
can affirm that in Peru, Quito, on the coast of
Caraccas, the banks of the Orinoco, and in
Mexico, the children are never born white, and
that the Indian Caciques, who enjoy a certain de
gree of ease in their circumstances, and who re
main clothed in the interior of their houses, have
all the parts Of their body (with the exception of
the hollow of their hand and the sole of their foot)
ofthe same brownish^red or coppery colour, t
# Volney, Tableau du climat et du Sol des Etats- Unis,
vol. ii. p. 435.
¦j- This account of Little Crook-back is partly confirmed by
Father Gumilla, who says that the Indians remain white for
several days after they are born, with the exception of a small
spot, acia la parte posterior de la cintura, of an obscure colour.
I have seen and examined that spot, says he, repeatedly. " Al
nacer aquellos ninos son blancos por algunos dias. Nacen los
Indiecillos con una mancha aciala parte posterior de la cintura,
de color obscuro, con viso de entre morado y pardo,.la qual se
va desvaneciendo, al passo que la criaturavaperdiendo el color

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 147
The Mexicans, particularly those of the Aztec
and Otomite race, have more beard than I ever
saw in any other Indians of South America. Al
most all the Indians in the neighbourhood ofthe
capital wear small mustachios_; and this is even
amark ofthe tributary cast. These mustachios,
which modern travellers have also found among
the inhabitants of the north-west coast of Ame
rica, are so much the more curious, as celebrated
naturalists have left the question undetermined,
whether the Americans have naturally no beard
and no hair on the rest of their bodies, or whether
they pluck them carefully out. Without enter
ing here into physiological details, I can affirm
that the Indians who inhabit the torrid zone of
South America have generally some beard; and
that this beard increases when they shave them
selves, of which we have seen examples in the
missions of the capuchins of Caripe, where the
Indian sextons wish to resemble the monks their
masters. But many individuals are born entirely
without beard or hair on their bodies.
M. de Galeano, in the account ofthe last Spa
nish expedition to the Straits of Magellan*, in
forms us, that there are many old men among the
blancho, y adquiriendo el suyo natural. Esta sefia 6 mancha
eacierta, y cosa que tengo vista, y examinada repetidas veces :
su tamano es poco mas, 6 menos del espacio que occupa un
peso d'uro de nueva fabrica." — Gumilla, Orinoco iliustrado,
vol. i. p. 82- Trans.
Viaje al Eslrecho de Magellanes, p. 331.
u 3

148 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
Patagonians with beards, though they are short,
and by no means bushy. On comparing this
assertion with the facts collected by Marchand,
Mears, and especially M. Volney, in the northern
temperate zone, we are tempted to believe that
the Indians have more and more beard in pro
portion to their distance from the equator. How
ever, this apparent want of beard is by no means
peculiar to the American race ; for many hordes
of Eastern Asia, and especially several tribes of
African negros, have so little beard that we
should be almost tempted to deny entirely its ex
istence. The negros of Congo and the Caribs,
two eminently robust races, and frequently of a
colossal stature, prove that to look upon a beard
less chin as a sure sign of the degeneration and
physical weakness of the human species is a
mere physiological dream. We forget that all
which has been observed in the Caucasian race
does not equally apply to the Mongol or Ameri
can race, or to the African negros.
The Indians of New Spain, those at least sub
ject to the European domination, generally
attain a pretty advanced age. Peaceable culti
vators, and collected these six hundred years in
villages, they are not exposed to the accidents of
the wandering life of the hunters and warriors of
the Mississippi and the savannas ofthe Rio Gila.
Accustomed to uniform nourishment of an al
most entirely vegetable nature, that of their
maize and cereal gramina, the Indians would

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 149
undoubtedly attain a very great longevity if
their constitution were not weakened by
drunkenness. Their intoxicating liquors are
rum, a fermentation of maize and the root of the
jatropha, and especially the wine of the country,
made of the juice of the agave americana, called
pulque. This last liquor, of which we shall have
occasion to speak in the following book, is even
nutritive, on account ofthe undecomposed sugar
which it contains. Many Indians addicted to
pulque take for a long time very little solid
nourishment. When taken with moderation it
is very salutary, and by fortifying the stomach,
assists the functions of the gastric system.
The vice of drunkenness is, however, less ge
neral among the Indians than is generally be
lieved. Those Europeans who have travelled to
the east ofthe Alleghany mountains, between the
Ohio and the Missoury, will with difficulty be
lieve that, in the forest of Guiana, and on the
ba^ks ofthe Orinoco, we saw Indians who shew
ed an aversion for the brandy which we made
them taste. There are several Indian tribes,
very sober, whose fermented beverages are too
weak to intoxicate. In New Spain drunkenness
is most common among the Indians who inhabit
the valley of Mexico, and the environs of Puebla
and Tlascala, wherever the maguey or agave are
cultivated on a great scale. The police in the
city of Mexico sends round tumbrils, to collect
u 4

150 .POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [aooxn.
the drunkards to be found stretched out in, the
streets. These Indians, who are treated like dead
bodies, are carried to the principal guard-house*
In the morning an iron ring is put round their
ancles, and they are made to clear the streets for
three days. On letting them go on the fourth
day, they are sure to find several of them in the
course of the week. The excess of liquors is*
also very injurious to the health of the lower
people in the warm countries on the coast which
grow sugar-cane. It is to be hoped that this
evil will diminish, as civilization makes more
progress among a cast of men whose bestiality is
not much different from that of the brutes.
Travellers who merely judge from the phy
siognomy of the Indians are tempted to believe
that it is rare to see old men among theno.. In
fact, without consulting parish-registers, which, in
warm regions are devoured by the termites evevy
twenty or thirty years, it is very difficult to form
any idea of the age of Indians : they them
selves (I allude to the poor labouring, Indian)
are completely ignorant of it. Their head nevec
becomes grey. It is infinitely more rare to find
an Indian than a negro with grey hairs, and the
want of beard gives the former a continual aip
of youth.* The skin of the Indians is also less
* This account differs from that of Ulloa, who. siays ex
pressly that the symptoms of old age among thel»djans are

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 151
subject to wrinkles. It is by no means uncom
mon to see in Mexico, in the temperate zone
half way up the Cordillera, natives, and especially
women, reach a hundred years of age. This old
age is generally comfortable ; for the Mexican
and Peruvian Indians preserve their muscular
strength to the last. While I was at Lima the
Indian Hilario Pari died at the village of Chi-
guata, four leagues distant from the town. of
Arequipa, at the age of 143. He remained united
in marriage for 90 years to an Indian of the
name of Andrea Alea Zar,. who attained the age
of 117- This old Peruvian went, at the age of
130, from three to four leagues daily on foot.
He became blind 13 years before his death, and
left behind him of 12: children but one daughter,
of 77 years of age-

grey hairs and a beard : pero- hay dos senates que manifiestan
quando son de edad muy abanzada : la una las canas,.y la otra
las barbas. The whole passage runs thus, " Son per le general
de larga vida, aunque dificil de averiguar el numero de sus
anos; pero hay dos senales que manifiestan quando sonde edad
muy abanzada ; la unalas canas, y la otra las. barbas: aqjuellas
no empiezcan k parecer hasta que estan en.70.aoos 6; cerca. de
ellas : estas otras hasta que passaade 60, y siempre sonpocas.;
y asi quando se ven del todo encanecidos,. y que las pocas bar
bas le estan, igualmente, se jusga que pasan dje, un. sigjo."
(Noticias Americanas,;p.323.) The. accuracy of UUoa,, and
the opportunities which, he had, of observing every variety of
Indian race,, a*e very universally known. Father Gumilla
gives an account somewhat similar to Ulloa's. Trans.

152 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
The copper-coloured Indians enjoy one great
physical advantage, which is undoubtedly owing
to the great simplicity in which their ancestors
lived for thousands of years. They are subject to
almost no deformity. I never saw a hunchbacked
Indian ; and it is extremely rare to see any of
them who squint, or are lame in the arm or leg.
In the countries where the inhabitants suffer from
the goitre, this affection of the thyroid gland is
never observed among the Indians, and seldom
among the Mestizoes. Martin Salmeron, the
famous Mexican giant, belongs to the last class,
though erroneously said to be an Indian, whose
height is 2.224 metres, or six feet ten inches,
and 2-i lines of Paris.* He is the son of a Mes
tizo, who married an Indian woman of the vil
lage of Chilapa el Grande, near Chilpansingo. t
When we examine savage hunters or warriors
we are tempted to believe that they are all well
made, because those who have any natural de
formity either perish from fatigue or are exposed
by their parents ; but the Mexican and Peruvian
* 87.521 inches, or 7 feet 3J inches. Trans.
X Such is the real size of this giant, the best proportioned
whom I have ever seen. He is an inch taller than the giant
of Torneo, seen at Paris in 1735. The American Gazettes
make Salmeron 7 feet 1 inch of Paris measure. Gazetta
de Guatimala, 1800. Agosto, Annales de Madrid, T. IV.
No. 12. The human species appears to vary from 2 feet
4 inches to 7 feet 8 inches, or from 0 , 757 to 2m,489.
(Schreber Mamm. T. I. p. 27.)

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 153
Indians, those of Quito and New Grenada, are
agriculturists, who can only be compared with the
class of European peasantry. We can have no
doubt then that the absence of natural deformi
ties among them is the effect of their mode of life,
and ofthe constitution peculiar to their race. All
the men of very swarthy complexion, those of
Mongol and American origin, and especially the
negros, participate in the same advantage. We
are inclined to believe that the Arab-European
race possesses a greater flexibility of organization,
and that it is easier modified by a great number
of exterior causes, such as variety of aliments,
climates, and habits, and consequently has a
greater tendency to deviate from its original
model. What we have been stating as to the exterior
form of the indigenous Americans confirms the
accounts of other travellers of the striking ana
logy between the Americans and the Mongol
race. This analogy is particularly evident in the
colour ofthe skin and hair, in the defective beard,
high cheek-bones, and in the direction of the eyes.
We cannot refuse to admit that the human spe
cies does not contain races resembling one an
other more than the Americans, Mongols, Mant-
cheoux, and Malays. But the resemblance of
some features does not constitute an identity of
race. If the hieroglyphical paintings and tradi
tions of the inhabitants of Anahuac, collected by

154 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book n.
the first conquerors, appear to indicate that a
swarm of wandering tribes spread from the north
west towards the south, we must not therefore
conclude that all the Indians ofthe new continent
are of Asiatic origin. In fact, osteology teaches
us that the cranium ofthe American differs essen
tially from that ofthe Mongol : the former exhi-
bitsa facial line, more inclined, though straighter,
than that of the negro ; and there is no race on
the globe in which the frontal bone is more de
pressed backwards, or which has a less project
ing forehead.* The cheek-bones ofthe Ameri
can are almost as prominent as those of the
Mongol ; but the contours are more rounded,
and the angles not so sharp. The under jaw is
* This extraordinary flatness is to be found among nations
to whom the means of producing artificial deformity are to
tally unknown, as is proved by the crania of Mexican Indians,
Peruvians, and Atures, brought over by M. Bonpland and
myself, of which several were deposited in the Museum of
Natural History at Paris. I am inclined to believe that the
barbarous custom which prevails among several hordes of
pressing the heads of children between two boards had its
origin in the idea that beauty consists in such a form of the
frontal bone as to characterise the race in a decided manner.
The negros give the preference to the thickest and most pro
minent lips ; the Calmucks to turned-up noses ; and the
Greeks in the statues of heroes have raised the facial line
from 85° to 100° beyond nature. (Cuvier, Anat. Comparee,
T. II. p. 6.) The Aztecs, who never disfigure the heads of their
children, represent their principal divinities, as their hiero
glyphical manuscripts prove, with a head much more flattened
than any I have ever seen among the Caribs.

chap. vi. J KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 155
larger than the negros, and its branches are
less dispersed than the Mongols. The occipital
bone is less curved (bombe) and the protuber
ances which correspond to the cerebellum, to
which the system of M. Gall attaches great im
portance, are scarcely sensible. Perhaps this
race of copper-coloured men, comprehended un
der the general name of American Indians, is a
mixture of Asiatic tribes and the aborigines of
this vast continent ; and it is not unlikely also
that the figures with enormous acquiline noses,
observed in the hieroglyphical Mexican paint
ings preserved at Vienna, Veletri, and Rome, as
in my historical fragments, indicated the physi
ognomy of some races now extinct. The Cana
dian savages call themselves Metoktheniakes,
born of the sun, without allowing themselves to
be persuaded of the contrary by the black robes*,
a name which they give to the missionaries.
As to the moral faculties of the Indians, it is
difficult to appreciate them with justice, if we only
consider this long oppressed cast in their present
state of degradation. The better sort of Indians,
among whom a certain degree of intellectual cul
ture might be supposed, perished in great part
at the commencement of the Spanish conquest,
the victims of European ferocity. The Christian
fanaticism broke out in a particular manner
against the Aztec priests ; and the Teopixqui, or
* Volnev, T. II. p. 438.

156 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
ministers of the divinity, and all those who in
habited the Teocalli*, or houses of God, who
might be considered as the depositories of the
historical, mythological, and astronomical know
ledge of the country, were exterminated; for the
priests observed the meridian shades in the gno
mons, and regulated the calendar. The monks
burned the hieroglyphical paintings, by which
every kind of knowledge was transmitted from
generation to generation. The people, deprived
of these means of instruction, were plunged in
an ignorance so much the deeper as the mission
aries were unskilled in the Mexican languages,
and could substitute few new ideas in the place of
the old. The Indian women who had preserved
any share of fortune chose rather to ally with the
conquerors than to share the contempt in which
the Indians were held. The Spanish soldiers
were so much the more eager for these alliances,
as very few European women had followed the
army. The remaining natives then consisted
only of the most indigent race, poor cultivators,
artisans, among whom were a great number of
weavers, porters, who were used like beasts
of burden, and especially of those dregs of the
people, those crowds of beggars, who bore wit
ness to the imperfection of the social institutions,
and the existence of feudal oppression, andwho
filled, in the time of Cortez, the streets of all the
* From Teotl, God, 0..j.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM Op NEW SPAIN. 157
great cities of the Mexican empire. How shall
we judge, then, from these miserable remains of
a powerful people, ofthe degree of cultivation to
which it had risen from the twelfth to the six
teenth century, and of the intellectual develope
ment of which it is susceptible ? If all that re
mained of the French or German nation were a
few poor agriculturists, could we read in their
features that they belonged to nations which had
produced a Descartes and Clairaut, a Kepler and
a Leibnitz ?
We observe that even in Europe the lower
people, for whole centuries, make very slow pro
gress in civilization. The peasant of Brittany or
Normandy, and the inhabitant of the north of
Scotland, differ very little at this day from what
they were in the time of Henry the Fourth and
James the First. * When we consider attentively
what is related in the letters of Cortez, the me
moirs of Bernal Diaz, written with admirable nai
vete, and other contemporary historians, as to
the state pf the inhabitants of Mexico, Tezcuco,
* What is here asserted of the highlands of Scotland might
have had more foundation fifty years ago. A barren and
mountainous country must ever oppose great obstacles to
improvement and civilization ; but it is believed that these
obstacles have seldom been more successfully overcome than
in the highlands. Of this abundant proof might be found in
the statistical account of Scotland, did not the high moral
character observable in the highland regiments establish it
beyond a doubt. Trans.

156 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ir;
Cholollan and Tlascala, in the time of Montezuma
the Second, we think we perceive the portrait of
the Indians of our own time. We see the same
nudity in the warm regions, the same form of
dress in the central table-land, and the same
habits in domestic life. How can any great
change take place in the Indians when they are
kept insulated in villages in which the whites
dare not settle, when the difference of language
places an almost unsurmountable barrier between
them and the Europeans, when they are op
pressed by magistrates chosen through political
considerations from their own number, and, in
short, when they can only expect moral and civil
improvement from a man who talks to them of
mysteries, dogmas, and ceremonies, of the end
of which they are ignorant.
I do not mean to discuss here what the Mex
icans were before the Spanish conquest; this
interesting subject has been already entered upon
in the commencement of this chapter. When
we consider that they had an almost exact know
ledge of the duration of the year, that they inter
calated at the end of their great cycle of 104 years
with more accuracy than the Greeks *, Romans,
* M.Laplace discovered in the Mexican intercalation, tot
which I furnished him materials collected by Gama, that the
duration of the tropical year of the Mexicans is almost the
identical duration found by the astronomers of Almamon. For

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 159
and Egyptians, we are tempted to believe that this
progress is not the effect of the intellectual deve
lopment of the Americans themselves, but that
they were indebted for it to their communication
with some very cultivated nations of central Asia.
The Toultecs appeared in New Spain in the 7th
and the Aztecs in the 12th century ; and they
immediately drew up the geographical map of
the country traversed by them, constructed cities,
highways, dikes, canals, and immense pyramids
very accurately designed, of a base of 438* me
tres in length. Their feudal system, their civiland
military hierarchy, were already so complicated,
that we must suppose a long succession of poli
tical events before the establishment of the sin
gular concatenation of authorities of the nobility
and clergy, and before a small portion of the
people, themselves the slaves of the Mexican
sultan, could have subjugated the great mass of
the nation. We have examples of theocratical
forms of government in South America; for such
were those of the Zac t of Bogota (the ancient

this observation of such importance in the history of the
origin of the Aztecs, see Exposition du Systeme du Monde,
troisieme edition, p. 554.
* 1436 feet. Trans.
X The empire of the Zac, which comprehended the king
dom of New Grenada, was founded by Idacanzas or Bochica,
a mysterious personage, who, according to the traditions of
the Mozcas, lived in the temple of the sun at Sogamozo
during 2000 years.
VOL. I. X

160 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
Cundinamarca,) and of the lnca of Peru, two
extensive empires, in which despotism was con
cealed under the appearance of a gentle and pa
triarchal government. But in Mexico, small
colonies, wearied of tyranny, gave themselves re
publican constitutions. Now it is only after long
popular struggles that these free constitutions
can be formed. The existence of republics does
not indicate a very recent civilization. How is
it possible to doubt that a part of the Mexican
nation had arrived at a certain degree of culti
vation, when we reflect on the care with which
their nieroglyphical books* were composed, and
* The Aztec manuscripts are written either on agave
paper, or on stag skins ; they are frequently from 20 to 22
metres (65 to 71 English feet) in length ; and each page con
tains from 7 to 10 Centimetres, or from 100 to 150 square
inches (French) of surface. These manuscripts are folded
here and there in the form of a rhomb, and thin wooden
boards fastened to the extremities form their binding, and
give them a resemblance to our books in quarto. No nation
of the old continent ever made such an extensive use of
hieroglyphical writing ; and in none of them do we see real
books bound in the way I have been describing. We, must
not confound with these books other Aztec paintings, com
posed ofthe same signs, but in the form of tapestries of 63
decimetres, br 60 square feet (French). I have seen some
of them in the archives of the viceroyalty of Mexico ; and I
myself possess fragments of them, which I have caused to be
engraved in the picturesque atlas which accompanies the
historical account of my travels. Author.
The numbers in the above note are totally irreconcileable
with one another. A centimetre _s equal to .36941 of a

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 161
when we recollect that a citizen of Tlascala, in
the midst of the tumults of war, took advantage
ofthe facility offered him by our Roman alphabet
to write in his own language five large volumes
on the history of a country of which he deplored
the subjection?
We shall not here attempt to resolve the pro
blem, however important it may be for history,
whether the Mexicans of the 15th century were
more civilized than the Peruvians, or whether, if
both had been abandoned to themselves, they
would have made more rapid advances towards
intellectual cultivation than they have done under
the domination of the Spanish clergy. Neither
shall we examine whether, notwithstanding the
despotism of the Aztec princes, the improvement
ofthe individual found fewer obstacles in Mexico
than in the empire of the Yncas. In the latter
the legislator wished only to influence the people
en masse ; and by subjecting them to a monastic
obedience, and treating them like machines, he
compelled them to undertake works, the regu-

French inch, consequently 7 and 10 centimetres are only
.9552 and 1.3645 French square inches, and nothing like 100
and 150 square inches. In the same way a decimetre being
only as 3.24835 : 12 of a French foot, 63 decimetres make
5.97 and not 60 square feet French. Some mistake must,
therefore, be either in the metrical or common measures here
assigned, or in both. Trans.
x 2

162 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
larity and magnitude of which astonish us, as
much as the perseverance of those who directed
them. If we analyse the mechanism of this Pe
ruvian theocracy, generally too much exalted in
Europe, we shall find that wherever people are
divided into casts, of which each can only follow
a certain species of labour, and wherever the
inhabitants possess no particular property, and
labour merely for the benefit of the community,
canals, roads, aqueducts, pyramids, and immense
constructions will also be found ; but that the
people preserving for thousands of years the
same appearance of external comfort, make al
most no advances in moral cultivation, which is
the result of individual liberty alone.
In the portrait which we draw of the different
races of men composing the population of New
Spain, we shall merely consider the Mexican
Indian in his actual state. We perceive in him
neither that mobility of sensation, gesture, or fea
ture, nor that activity of mind, for which several
nations of the equinoxial regions of Africa are
so advantageously distinguished. There cannot
exist a more marked contrast than that between
the impetuous vivacity of the Congo negro, and
the apparent phlegm of the Indian. From a feel
ing of this contrast the Indian women not. only
prefer the negroes to the men of their own race,
but also to the Europeans. The Mexican In-

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 163
dian is grave, melancholic, and silent*, so long
as he is not under the influence of intoxicating
liquors. This gravity is particularly remarkable
in Indian children, who at the age of four or
five display much more intelligence and matu
rity than white children. The Mexican loves
to throw a mysterious air over the most indiffer
ent actions. The most violent passions are
never painted in his features ; and there is some
thing frightful in seeing him pass all at once from
absolute repose to a state of violent and unre
strained agitation. The Peruvian Indian pos
sesses more gentleness of manners ; the energy
of the Mexican degenerates into harshness.
These differences may have their origin in the
different religions and different governments
of the two countries in former times. This

* It is difficult to reconcile altogether this account of the
Indian taciturnity with that given by Ulloa in his Noticias
Americanos. He first describes the savage Indians as "largos
en los discursos, repitiendo muchas vezes la misma cosa, y
durarian el dia entero sin anadir nada a lo que dixeron al
principio, si no les procurasse cortar." " En este modo de
perorar con presuncion," he continues, " fundan tambien su
ciencia, y la habilidad con que sobresalen a las otras per-
sonas Europeas con quienes tratan, persuadendose a que los
inducen i_. franquearles lo que desean consugrande eloquen-
cia." This may be thought to apply only to the savage In
dians ; but he adds, " Los Indios reducidos son lo mismo en
sus discursos, largos, cansados, fe importunos hasta el extremo ;
y si el lenguageno fuese distinto, podria creerse que un
Indio del Peru hablaba en el Norte 6 al contrario." (p. 334).
Trans. x 3

164 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
energy is displayed particularly by the inhabit
ants of Tlascala. In the midst of their present de
gradation, the descendants of those republicans
are still to be distinguished by a certain haughti
ness of character, inspired by the memory of
their former grandeur.
The Americans, like the Hindoos and other
nations who have long groaned under a civil and
military despotism, adhere to their customs, man
ners, and opinions, with extraordinary obstinacy.
I say opinions, for the introduction of Christianity
has produced almost no other effect on the Indians
of Mexico than to substitute new ceremonies, the
symbols of a gentle and humane religion, to the
ceremonies of a sanguinary worship. This change
from old to new rites was the effect of constraint
and not of persuasion, and was produced by poli
tical events alone. In the New continent, as well
as in the old, half civilized nations were accus
tomed to receive from the hands ofthe conqueror
new laws and new divinities ; and the vanquished
Indian gods appeared to them to yield to the gods
ofthe strangers. * In such a complicated mytho-
* The Indians appear to have been not at all contented
with their gods, and to have wished only to get well rid of
them at the arrival ofthe Spaniards. Such at least were the
sentiments of the principal Indians in New Spain, if we may
believe Acosta. When an old Indian chief was asked by a
reverend father why they had thrown up their old religion
without either proof or investigation or dispute, and adopted

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 165
logy as that of the Mexicans, it was easy to find
out an affinity between the divinities of Aztlan
and the divinity of the east. Cortez even very
artfully took advantage of a popular tradition, ac
cording to which the Spaniards were merely the
descendants of king Quitzalcoatl, who left Mexico
for countries situated in the east, to carry among
them civilization and laws. The ritual books
composed by the Indians in hieroglyphics at the
beginning of the conquest, of which I possess
several fragments, evidently show that at that
period Christianity was confounded with'the Mex
ican mythology: the Holy Ghost is identified with
the sacred eagle ofthe Aztecs. The missionaries
not only tolerated, they even favoured to a certain
extent, this amalgamation of ideas, by means of
which the Christian worship was more easily in
troduced among the natives. * They persuaded
that of Christ in its place ? " We did not act so inconsider
ately," he replied, " as you seem to imagine, for we were
so wearied and discontented with our gods that we had deli
berated about leaving them in good earnest, and adopting
others" (porque le hago saber, que estavamos 3'a tan cansados
y descontentos, con las co sas que los y dolos nos mandavan,
que aviamos tratado de dexarlos y fcomar otra ley.) Acosta,
p. 357. Trans.
* The missionaries do not seem to have concerned them
selves much about the motives from which the Indians be
came Christians. Their great object was to get as many
baptised as possible, after which all was safe ; and they were
very much concerned when a parting soul could not be
snatched from hell for want of a drop of water in the place at
x 4

166 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
them that the gospel had, in very remote times
been already preached in America ; and they in
the critical moment. (Ay ! no una gota en el rancho, Gu-
milla, II. 21). They were indefatigable in scenting out dying
people, para lograr sus almas. An old woman (anciana) on
the point of death, who, from seeing baptism and death follow
generally so close upon one another, had very naturally as
sociated them in her mind as inseparable, long resisted all
the attempts of a holy father to baptise her. When asked
her reasons, she said it was for fear of death. " O !'' replies
the father, " I want to baptise you to secure you a life that
will never end." (Para assegurarle una vida que no se ac-
cabe.) " If that be the case," cries the old woman, " bap
tise me immediately." (Yo tambien quiero que me bauti-
ces). "I praised God," says Father Gumilla, "on seeing
that nobody likes to die, however troublesome life may be,
and I admired the stubbornness of that heart which could still
flatter itself with such motives ; but I immediately baptized
her" (Luego la bautici). Gumilla, vol. II. p. 25. Nothing
can be more entertaining than the accounts given by the mis
sionaries themselves of the arts and finesse to which they
were compelled to have recourse to gain over those unfor
tunate sons of Adam, para obrar la eterna dicha de aquellos
infelices hijos de Adan. Father Gumilla, in his instructions
to young missionaries, lays them open with more naivete
than prudence, as we might think ; but the father very
piously considered that the end justified the means. It must
be owned that the missionaries displayed great knowledge of
human nature. Not a word of religion for a long time.
Presents and kind offices, and long endeavours to obtain the
Indian's confidence by anticipating his wants, and entering
into his views : but, above all, the acquisition ofthe influence
which their females naturally possessed over them were the
prelude to the grand attack. The females, one of them
observes, have every where a great capacity for piety, and
mustf; be first attended to. This battery was to be concealed.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 167
vestigated its traces in the Aztec ritual, with the
same ardour which the learned, who in our days
engage in the study ofthe Sanscrit, display in dis
cussing the analogy between the Greek mythology
and that of the Ganges and the Barampooter.
These circumstances, which will be detailed in
another work, explain why the Mexican Indians,
notwithstanding the obstinacy with which they
adhere to whatever is derived from their fathers,
have so easily forgotten their ancient rites. Dogma
has not succeeded to dogma, but ceremony to ce
remony. The natives know nothing of religion
but the exterior forms of worship. Fond of
whatever is connected with a prescribed order of
for if the drift was to be perceived in the least, all was lost.
(Todo esta primer a bateria ha de ser occulta de parte del Mis-
sionero ; porque si se aclara, pierde el viage). (Gumilla,
vol. I. p. 355). After giving a summary of the labours and
innumerable shifts of these indefatigable soul-hunters (Ca-
zadores de Almas), overpowered with the retrospect the
missionary feelingly exclaims, "O ! quien podra explicar las
ganas, que tien aquellos Cazadores de Almas, de que se
compongan bien las cosas, y se legue la hora de poder bau-
tizar aquellos innocentes sin peligro !"
One of the greatest difficulties in which the holy fathers
were placed, was how to reject the offer of a female com
panion, which was generally made them, without giving of
fence, al Cacique y a los principales gentiles. When the
father modestly blushed (con lay mayor modestia bien sonro-
seado el rostro), and answered that all his love was in heaven,
it is impossible to tell the fright and consternation it occa
sioned (No sabre decir quanta novedad, y espanto causa esta
o semejante respuesta.) Gumilla, vol. I. p. 356. Trans.

168 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
ceremonies, they find in the Christian religion par
ticular enjoyments, The festivals of the church,
the fireworks with which they are accompanied,
the processions mingled with dances and whimsical
disguises, are a most fertile source of amusement
for the lower Indians. In these festivals the na
tional character is displayed inallits individuality.
Every where the Christian rites have assumed the
shades ofthe country where they have been trans
planted. In the Philippine and Mariana islands
the natives of the Malay race have incorporated
them with the ceremonies which are peculiar to
themselves ; and in the province of Pasto, on the
ridge of the Cordillera of the Andes, I have seen
Indians masked, and adorned with small tinkling
bells, perform savage dances round the altar,
while a monk of St. Francis elevated the host.*

* From this singular description we may discover more
plainly the impolicy with which conversions have been hi
therto attempted in foreign parts by our missionary societies.
Had they sent away instead ofthe anabaptists, methodists, and
presbyterians which they picked up in Sweden, the north of
Germany, both parts of this island, and the Lord knows where,
an equal number of our more volatile catholic brethren in Ire
land, the conversion might already, perhaps, have madeagreat
progress. The people of Otaheite very feelingly exclaimed,
" These missionaries give us still plenty ofthe word of God,
but they give us no more hatchets ;" but they would have been
probably just as well contented with singing, and dancing, and
fireworks. This is a much more economical method of keep
ing these people assembled together, than the distribution of
hatchets. The catholics went better to work. They, too, knew

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 169
Accustomed to a long slavery, aswell under the
domination of their own sovereigns as under that
of the first conquerors, the natives of Mexico pa
tiently suffer the vexations to which they are fre
quently exposed from the whites. They oppose
to them only a cunning, veiled under the most
deceitful appearances of apathy and stupidity. As
the Indian can very rarely revenge himself on the
Spaniards, he delights in making a common cause
with them for the oppression of his own fellow
citizens. Harassed for ages, and compelled to a
blind obedience, he wishes to tyrannize in his
turn. The Indian villages are governed by ma
gistrates ofthe copper-coloured race ; and an In
dian alcalde exercises his power with so much the

the power of this sort of hatchet bribery. " Se debe llevar
avalorios, cuentas de vidrio, cuchillos, anzuelos, y otras bux-
erias, que para los Gentiles son de mucho aprecio." (Gumilla,
I. 349) ; but they knew that this source must soon dry up ;
and the holy fathers set all their natural gallantry to work to
gain over the women, who seem to be equally susceptible in
that quarter, whether savages or civilized, as the men they
were aware would soon follow them. They said kind things
to the women, praised the beauty of their children, took
them up in their arms and caressed them. The women are
very fond of that, says a father, Quando va a ver a los indios
en sus casas, tome en sus brazos alguno de aquellos parvulos,
le accaricie y haga fiestas a su modo : esto apprecian grande-
mente las Indias. How, are we to be astonished then at the
very different results of the endeavours of these two classes
of missionaries ! Trans.

170 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
greater severity, because he is sure of being sup
ported by the priest or the Spanish subdelegado.
Oppression produces every where the same ef
fects, it every where corrupts the morals. *
As the Indians almost all of them belong to the
class of peasantry and low people, it is not so easy
to judge of their aptitude for the arts which em
bellish life. I know no race of men who appear
more destitute of imagination. When an In
dian attains a certain degree of civilization, he
displays a great facility of apprehension, a judi
cious mind, a natural logic, and a particular dispo
sition to subtilize or seize the finest differences in
the comparison of objects. He reasons coolly and
orderly, but he never manifests that versatility of
imagination, that glow of sentiment, and that
creative and animating art which characterize the
nations ofthe south of Europe, and several tribes
of African negros. t I deliver this opinion, how-
* The present state of the world unfortunately affords too
good an illustration of this maxim. The West Indian slave
when he becomes a master is the most cruel of all masters ;
and the life of a negro's cat, or dog, is synonymous there with
a life not worth having. The Greeks, who are much em
ployed in collecting the revenue in Turkey, are infinitely
more persecuting than the Turks. And the Hindoo has his
most grievous calamities to apprehend from his own brethren
armed with foreign authority. Every where cunning and
cruelty spring from tyranny and oppression. Trans.
X What must our brethren of the northern part of this
island, .\ho have attained no .mail reputation for a pragmati-

chap, vi.] KINGDOM Op NEW SPAIN. 171
ever, with great reserve. We ought to be infi
nitely circumspect in pronouncing on the moral
or intellectual dispositions of nations from which
we are separated by the multiplied obstacles
which result from a difference in language and a
difference of manners and customs. A philoso
phical observer finds what has been printed in
the centre of Europe on the national character of
the French, Italians, and Germans, inaccurate.
How, then, should a traveller, after merely land
ing in an island, or remaining only a short time
in a distant country, arrogate to himself the
right of deciding on the different faculties of the
soul, on the preponderance of reason, wit, or
imagination, among nations ?
The music and dancing ofthe natives partake
of this want of gaiety which characterises them.
M. Bonpland and myself observed the same thing
in all South America. Their songs are terrific
and melancholic. The Indian women show more
vivacity than the men ; but they share the usual
misfortunes of the servitude to which the sex is
condemned among nations where civilization is
in its infancy. The women take no share in
cal and metaphysical disposition, and who are so much dis
posed to give metaphysical superiority a precedence over all
the other human faculties, feel, when they find that, most
probably, their future rivals are not to spring up in any ofthe
rival colleges of the south, or even in any of the great Ger
man universities, but among the beardless tribes of the Mexi
can mountains, and the banks ofthe Orinoco ! Trans.

172 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book it.
the dancing ; but they remain present to offer
fermented draughts to the dancers, prepared by
their own hands.
The Mexicans have preserved a particular re
lish for painting, and for the art of carving in
wood, or stone. We are astonished at what they
are able to execute with a bad knife on the hard
est wood. They are particularly fond of paint
ing images and carving statues of saints. They
have been servilely imitating, for these three hun
dred years, the models which the Europeans im
ported with them at the conquest. This imita
tion is derived from a religious principle of a very
remote origin. In Mexico, as in Hindostan, it
was not allowable in the faithful to change the
figure of their idols in the smallest degree. What
ever made a part of the Aztec or Hindoo ritual
was Subjected to immutable laws. For this rea
son we shall form a very imperfect judgment of
the state of the arts and the natural taste of these
nations, if we merely consider the monstious
figures underwhich theyrepresent their divinities.
The Christian images have preserved in Mexico
a part of that stiffness and that harshness of fea
ture which characterize the hieroglyphical pic
tures of the age of Montezuma. Many Indian
children educated in the college ofthe capital, or
instructed at the academy of painting founded
by the king, have no doubt distinguished them
selves ; but it is much less by their genius than
their application. Without ever leaving the

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 173
beaten track, they display great aptitude in the
exercise of the arts of imitation ; and they dis
play a much greater still for the purely mecha
nical arts. This aptitude cannot fail of becoming
some day very valuable, when the manufactures
shall take their flight to a country where a rege
nerating government remains yet to be created.
The Mexican Indians have preserved the same
taste for flowers which Cortez found in his time.
A nosegay was the most valuable treat which
could be made to the ambassadors who visited
the court of Montezuma. This monarch and
his predecessors had collected a great number of
rare plants in the gardens of Istapalapan. The
famous hand-tree, the cheirostemon *, described
by M. Cervantes, of which for a long time only
a single individual was known of very high an
tiquity, appears to indicate that the kings of
Toluca cultivated also trees strangers to that part
of Mexico. Cortez, in bis letters to the emperor
Charles the Fifth, frequently boasts of the in
dustry which the Mexicans displayed in garden
ing ; and he complains that they did not send
him the seeds of ornamental flowers and useful
* M. Bonpland has given a drawing of it in our Plantes
Equinoxiales, vol. i. p. 75. pi. 24. For some little time past,
roots of the Arbol de las manifas have been in the gardens of
Montpellier and Paris. The cheirostemon is as remarkable
for the form of its corolla, as the Mexican gyrocarpus, which
we have introduced into the European gardens, and of which
the celebrated Jacquin could not discover the flower, is for
the form of its fruits.

174 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
plants which he demanded for his friends of
Seville and Madrid. The taste for flowers un
doubtedly indicates a relish for the beautiful;
and we are astonished at finding it in a nation in
which a sanguinary worship and the frequency
of sacrifices appeared to have extinguished what
ever related to the sensibility of the soul, and
kindness of affection. In the great market-place
of Mexico the native sells no peaches, nor ananas,
nor roots, nor palque (the fermented juice of the
agave,) without having his shop ornamented with
flowers, which are every day renewed. The
Indian merchant appears seated in an intrench-
ment of verdure. A hedge of a metre * in
height, formed of fresh herbs, particularly of
gramina with delicate leaves, surrounds like a
semicircular wall the fruits offered to public sale.
The bottom of a smooth green, is divided by
garlands of flowers which run parallel to one
another. Small nosegays placed symmetrically
between the festoons give this inclosure the ap
pearance of a carpet strewn with flowers. The
European who delights in studying the customs
of the lower people, cannot help being struck
with the care and elegance the natives dis
play in distributing the fruits which they sell in
small cages of very light wood. The sapotilles
(achras,) the mammea, pears, and raisins, occupy
the bottom, while the top is ornamented with
* 3£ feet.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 175
odoriferous flowers. This art of entwining fruits
and flowers • had its origin, perhaps, in that
happy period when, long before the introduction
of inhuman rites, the first inhabitants of Anahuac,
like the Peruvians, offered up to the great spirit
Teotl the first fruits of their harvest.
These scattered features, characteristic of the
natives of Mexico, belong to the Indian peasant,
whose civilization, as we have already stated, is
somewhat akin to that of the Chinese and Japa
nese. I am able only to pourtray still more imper
fectly the manners of the pastoral Indians, whom
the Spaniards include under the denomination of
Indios Bravos, and of whom I have merely seen a
few individuals, broughtto the capital as prisoners
of war. The Mecos (a tribe of the Chichimecs),
the Apaches, the Lipans, are hordes of hunters,
who, in their incursions, for the most part noc
turnal, infest the frontiers of New Biscay, So
nora, and New Mexico. These savages, as well
as those of South America, display more nobi
lity of mind and more force of character than
the agricultural Indians. Some tribes of them
possess even languages of which the mechanism
proves an ancient civilization. They experi
ence great difficulty in learning our European
idioms, while they express themselves in then-
own with great facility. These very Indian
chiefs, whose solemn taciturnity astonishes the
observer, hold discourses for hours when any
vol. i. Y

176

POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.

great interest excites them to break their natural
silence. We observed the same volubility of
tongue in the missions of Spanish Guiana, and
among the Caribs ofthe lower Orinoco, of which
the language is singularly rich and sonorous. *

* Gilij, an Italian missionary, who resided eighteen years
among the nations of the Orinoco, and became master of their"
languages, published three octavo volumes at Rome, in 1780-
1-2, which he entitled Saggio di Storia Americana. In these
volumes there is much information with regard to the Indians,
particularly those of the Orinoco. From the samples which
he gives of their languages, some of them would seem to be
remarkably expressive, as well as sonorous, and form in the
latter respect a singular contrast to those of Mexico. All the
words ofthe Orinochese languages, he says, constantly end in
vowels, and none of these languages are difficult to pronounce.
But though they end in vowels, they have nothing ofthe inar
ticulate appearance ofthe vowel languages ofthe South Seas.
What wilt thou eat to-morrow ? is thus expressed in the Mai-
purese language : Nunaunari ifi pare peccari upie? The fol
lowing will serve to show the expressiveness of the Maipu-
rese language: one who has no father, one who has no
mother, one who has no wife, one who has no children:
Macchivacaneteni, matuteni, maanituteni, maaniteni.
Here are a few vocables from the Tamanac and Maipurese
languages, with the corresponding ones in English.

English.

Tamanac.

Maip.

Earth .

. Noni

. Peni

Heaven .

. Capu

. Eno

Water .

. Tuno

. Veni

Father .

. Papa

. Nape

Sun

. Veju

. Chie

Fire

. Vaplo

. Catti

Bread .

.Ute

. Ussi.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 177
After examining the physical constitution and
intellectual faculties ofthe Indians, it remains for
us to give a rapid survey of their social state. The
history of the lower classes of a people is the rela
tion ofthe events which, in creating at the same
time a great inequality of fortune, enjoyment, and
individual happiness, have gradually placed a part
of the nation under the tutory and control of the
other. We shall seek in vain this relation in the
annals of history.' They transmit to us the me
mory ofthe great political revolutions, wars, con-
Gilij describes the nations of the Orinoco as libidinous,
which sounds rather singularly applied to Indians ; and he
gives a very amusing account of their powers of mimicry, and
the manner in which they counterfeit the language and ges
tures ofthe missionaries, for the purpose of turning them into
ridicule. One would think, almost, that the French nation
had sitten for the following portrait of the Maipurese. " Ge-
neralmente adungue parlando, son gli Orinochesi di genio
allegro; ma sopra ogni altra nazione spiccano i Maipuri per
-'affabilita e l'amorevolezza con cui trattono i forestieri. Quin-
di e l'amore che portan loro gli Europei tutti, che li conoscano.
Non v' ha forse Indiani, che piii si affaciano all umore di og-
nuno. Fanno delle amicizie con tutti, ed appena trovasi in
Orinoco una nazione in cui non siavi qualche Maipure. La-
loro lingua siccome facilissima ad imparare, e divenuta tra gli
Orinochesi una lingua di moda ; e chi poco, chi molto, chi
mediocremente, chi bene, la parlano quasi tutti. I Maipuri
nondimeno (il che toglie loro un gran pregio) sono incostanti,
poco schietti ; e non tanto internamente buoni, quanto per
l'ihnata loro civilta compajono agli altri." Vol. ii. p. 43.
Father Gumilla speaks highly of the state of music among
the tribes of the Orinoco." Trans.
Y 2

178 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
quests, and the other scourges which have afflicted
humanity; but they inform us nothing of the more
or less deplorable lot of the poorest and most nu
merous class of society. The cultivator enjoys
freely, only in a very small part of Europe, the
fruits of his labour ; and we are forced to own that
this civil liberty is not so much the result of an
advanced civilization, as the effect of those violent
crises during which one class or one state has
taken advantage of the dissensions of the other.
The true perfection of social institutions depends
no doubt on information and intellectual cultiva
tion ; bnt the concatenation of the springs which
move a state is such, that in one part ofthe nation
this cultivation may make a very remarkable pro
gress without the situation ofthe lower orders be
coming more improved. Almost the whole north
of Europe confirms this sad experience. There
are countries there where, notwithstanding the
boasted civilization of the higher classes of so
ciety, the peasant still lives in the same degra
dation under which he groaned three or four
centuries ago. We should think higher perhaps of
the situation of the Indians were we to compare
it with that of the peasants of Courland, Russia,
and a great part of the north of Germany.
The Indians whom we see scattered through
out the cities, and spread especially over the
plains of Mexico, whose number (without includ
ing those of mixed blood) amounts to two millions
11

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 179
and a halfi are either descendants of the old pea
santry, or the remains of a few great Indian fa
milies, who, disdaining alliance with the Spanish
conquerors, preferred rather to cultivate with
their hands the fields which were formerly culti
vated for them by their vassals. This diversity
has a sensible influence on the political state of
the natives, and divides them into tributary and
noble or cacique Indians. The latter, by the
Spanish laws, ought to participate in the privi
leges of the Castilian nobility. But in their pre
sent situation this is merely an illusory advan
tage. It is now difficult to distinguish, from their
exterior, the caciques from those Indians whose
ancestors in the time of Montezuma II. consti
tuted the lower cast of the Mexican nation. The
noble, from the simplicity of his dress and mode
of living, and from the aspect of misery which he
loves to exhibit, is easily confounded with the
tributary Indian. The latter shows to the former
a respect which indicates the distance prescribed
by the ancient constitutions of the Aztec hier
archy. The families who enjoy the hereditary
rights of Cacicasgo, far from protecting the tri
butary cast of the natives, more frequently abuse
their power and their influence. Exercising the
magistracy in the Indian villages, they levy the
capitation tax : they not only delight in becom
ing the instruments of the oppressions of the
whites; but they also make use of their power
y 3

180 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
and authority to extort small sums for their own
advantage. Well-informed intendants, who have
bestowed much attention for a long time to the
detail of this Indian administration, assured me
that the oppressions of the caciques bore very
heavy on the tributary Indians. In the same
manner, in many parts of Europe where the Jews
are still deprived of the rights of naturalization,
the rabbins oppress the members ofthe commu
nity confided to them. Moreover, the Aztec
nobility display the same vulgarity of manners,
and the same want of civilization with the lower
Indians. They remain, as it were, in the same
state of insulation ; and examples of native
Mexicans, enjoying the Cacicasgo, following the
sword or the law are infinitely rare. We find
more Indians in ecclesiastical functions, particu
larly in that of parish-priest : the solitude of the
convent appears only to have attractions for the
young Indian girls.
When the Spaniards made the conquest of
Mexico, they found the people in that state of ab
ject submission and poverty which every where
accompanies despotism and feudality. The em
peror, princes, nobility, and clergy (the teopix-
qui), alone possessed the most fertile lands ; the
governors of provinces indulged with impunity in
the most severe exactions ; and the cultivator was
every where degraded. Thehighways, aswe have
already observed, swarmed with mendicants; and
the want of large quadmpeds forced thousands of

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN 181
Indians to perform the functions of beasts of bur
den, and to transport the maize, cotton, hides,
and other commodities, which the more remote
provinces sent by way of tribute to the capital.
The conquest rendered the state of the lower
people still more deplorable. The cultivator was
torn from the soil and dragged to the mountains,
where the working ofthe mines commenced; and
a great number of Indians were obliged to follow
the armies, and to carry, without sufficient nou
rishment or repose, through mountainous woods,
burdens which exceeded their strength. All
Indian property, whether in land or goods, was
conceived to belong to the conqueror. This atro
cious principle was even sanctioned by a law,
which assigns to the Indians a small portion of
ground around the newly-constructed churches.
The court of Spain seeing that the new conti
nent was depopulating very rapidly, took mea
sures, beneficial in appearance, but which the
avarice and cunning of the conquerors (conquis-
tadores) contrived ,to direct against the very
people whom they were intended to relieve. The
system of encomiendas was introduced. The
Indians, whose liberty had in vain been pro
claimed by Queen Isabella, were till then slaves
of the whites, who appropriated them to them
selves indiscriminately. By the establishment
of the encomiendas, slavery assumed a more re
gular form. To terminate the quarrels among
y 4

JS'J POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
the conquistadores, the remains of the conquered
people were shared out; and the Indians, divided
into tribes of several hundreds of families, had
masters named to them in Spain from among the
soldiers who had acquired distinction during the
conquest,, and from among the people ofthe law*,
sent out by the court as a counterpoise to the
usurping power of the generals. A great num
ber of the finest encomiendas were distributed
among the monks ; and religion, which, from its
principles, ought to favour liberty, was itself
degraded in profiting by the servitude of the
people. + This partition of the Indians attached
them to the soil ; and their work became the pro*
perty ofthe encomenderos. The slave frequently
took the family-name of his master. Hence
many Indian families bear Spanish names, with
out their blood having been in the least degree
mingled with the European. The court of Ma
drid imagined that it had bestowed protectors on
the Indians : it only made the evil worse, and
gave a more systematical form to oppression.
* These powerful men frequently bore only the simple
title of licenciados, from the degree which they had taken in
their faculties.
t And yet the priests could not conceive why the people
run off like children from school, as one of them emphatically
has it ! Su ruda ignorancia les haceproceder (aunque viejos)
con las modales proprios ne ninos, y con tan leve motivo,
como un nino se huye de la Escuela, se huye un cacique con
lodos sus vasallos de un Pueblo, y queda solo el missionero :
'al es su incunslancia ! ! Gumilla, vol. i. p, 117. Trans.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 183
Such was the state of the Mexican cultivators
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In
the eighteenth their situation assumed progres
sively a better appearance. The families ofthe
conquistadores are partly extinguished ; and the
encomiendas, considered as fiefs, were not re-dis
tributed. The viceroys, and especially the audi-
encias, watched over the interest of the Indians ;
and their liberty, and, in some provinces, their
ease of circumstances even, have been gradually
augmenting. It was King Charles the Third
especially who, by measures equally wise and
energetic, became the benefactor of the Indians.
He annulled the encomiendas ; and he prohibited
the repartimientos, by which the corregidors
arbitrarily constituted themselves the creditors,
and consequently the masters, of the industry of
the natives, by furnishing them, at extravagant
prices, with horses, mules, and clothes (ropa).
The establishment of intendancies, during the
ministry of the Count de Galvez, was a memor
able epoqua for Indian prosperity. The minute
vexations to which the cultivator was incessantly
exposed from the subaltern Spanish and Indian
magistracy, have singularly diminished under the
active superintendance ofthe intendants ; and the
Indians begin to enjoy advantages which laws,
gentle and humane in general, afforded them,
but of which they were deprived in ages of bar
barity and oppression. The first choice of the

184 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
persons to whom the count confided the important
places of intendant or governor of a province
was extremely fortunate. Among the twelve
who shared the administration of the country in
1804, there was not one whom the public ac
cused of corruption or want of integrity.
Mexico is the country of inequality. No where
does there exist such a fearful difference in the
distribution of fortune, civilization, cultivation of
the soil, and population. The interior of the
country contains four cities, which are not more
than one or two days' journey distant from one
another, and possess a population of 35,000,
67,000, 70,000, and 135,000. The central table
land from la Puebla to Mexico, and from thence
to Salamanca and Zelaya, is covered with villages
and hamlets like the most cultivated parts of Lom-
bardy. To the east and west of this narrow
stripe succeed tracts of uncultivated ground, on
which cannot be found ten or twelve persons to
the square league. The capital and several other
cities have scientific establishments, which will
bear a comparison with those of Europe. The archi
tecture ofthe public and private edifices, the ele
gance of the furniture, the equipages, the luxury
and dress of the women, the tone of society, all
announce a refinement to which the nakedness,
ignorance, and vulgarity ofthe lower people form
the most striking contrast. This immense inequa
lity of fortune does not only exist among the cast

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 185
of whites (Europeans or Creoles), it is even dis
coverable among the Indians.
The Mexican Indians, when we consider them
en masse, offer a picture of extreme misery. Ba
nished into the most barren districts, and indolent
from nature, and more still from their political
situation, the natives live only from handto mouth.
We should seek almost in vain among them fbr
individuals who enjoy any thing like a certain
mediocrity of fortune. Instead, however, of a
comfortable independency, we find a few families
whose fortune appears so much the more colossal,
as we least expect it among the lowest class ofthe
people. In the intendancies of Oaxaca and Val
ladolid, in the valley of Toluca, and especially in
the environs of the great city of la Puebla de los
Angeles, wefind several Indians, who under an ap
pearance of poverty conceal considerable wealth.
When I visited the small city of Cholula, an old
Indian woman was buried there, who left to her
children plantations of maguey (agave) worth
more than 360,000 francs. * These plantations are
the vineyards and sole wealth of the country.
However there are no caciques at Cholula ; and
the Indians there are all tributary, and distinguish
ed for their great sobriety and their gentle and
peaceable manners. The manners of the Cholu-
lans exhibit a singular contrast to those of their
k 15,000/. sterling, Trans.

186 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
neighbours of Tlascala, of whom a great number
pretend to be the descendants ofthe highest titled
nobility, and who increase their poverty by a liti
gious disposition and a restless and turbulent turn
of mind. Among the most wealthy Indian fami
lies at Cholula are the Axcotlan, the Sarmientos
and Romeros; at Guaxocingo, the Sochipiltecatl ;
and especially the Tecuanouegues in the village
de los Reyes. Each of these families possesses a
capital of from 800,000 to 1,000,000 of livres.*
They enjoy, as we have already stated, great con
sideration among the tributary Indians; but they
generally go barefooted, and covered with a Mexi
can tunic of coarse texture and a brown colour,
approaching to black, in the same way as the
very lowest of the Indians are usually dressed.
The Indians are exempted from every sort of
indirect impost. They pay no alcavala ; and the
law allows them full liberty for the sale of their
productions. The supreme council of finances
of Mexico, called the Junta superior de Real
Hacienda, endeavoured from time to time, espe
cially within these last five or six years, to subject
the Indians to the alcavala. We must hope that
the court of Madrid, which in all times has en
deavoured to protect this unfortunate race, will
preserve to them their immunity so long as they
shall continue subject to the direct impost of the
' From 33,336.. to _-l,670£. sterling. Trans.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 187
tributos. This impost is a real capitation tax, paid
by the male Indians between the ages often and
fifty. The tribute is not the same in all the pro
vinces of New Spain ; and it has been diminished
within the last two hundred years. In 1601, the
Indian paid yearly 32 reals of plata of tributo,
and four reals of servicio real, in all nearly 23
francs.* It was gradually reduced in some in
tendancies to 15 and even to fivet francs. X In
the bishopric of Mechoacan, and in the greatest
part of Mexico, the capitation amounts at present
to 11 francs. § Besides, the Indians pay a pa
rochial duty (derechos parroquiales) of 10 francs
for baptism, 20 francs for a certificate of marriage,
and 20 francs for interment. We must also add
to these 62 francs, which the church levies as an
impost on every individual, from 25 to 30 francs
for offerings which are called voluntary, and
which go under the names of cargos de cofradias,
responsos and misaspara sacar animas. ||
* 19s. Id. Trans. f \%s. 6d. and 4s. Id. Trans.
X Compendio de lahistoria de la Real Hacienda de Nueva
Espana, a manuscript-work presented by Don Joacquin
Maniau, in 1793, to the secretary of state Don Diego de
Gardoqui, of which there is a copy in the archives of the
viceroyalty. § 9s. 2d. Trans.
II The Spanish clergy seem to have been perfectly disposed
to make the Indians pay pretty well before hand in earthly
treasure for the heavenly felicity (eterna dicha) they com
municated to them. But what were these trifles when

188 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
If the legislation of Queen Isabella and the
Emperor Charles V. appears to favour the Indians
with regard to imposts, it has deprived them, on
the other hand, of the most important rights en
joyed by the other citizens. In an age when it
was formally discussed if the Indians were ra
tional beings, it was conceived granting them a
benefit to treat them like minors, to put them
under the perpetual tutory of the whites, and to
declare null every act signed by a native of the
copper-coloured race, and every obligation which
he contracted beyond fhe value of 15 francs.
These laws are maintained in full vigour ; and
they place insurmountable barriers between the
Indians and the other casts, with whom all in
tercourse is almost prohibited. Thousands of
inhabitants can enter into no contract which is
binding (no pueden tratary contratar) ; and con
demned to a perpetual minority, they become
a charge to themselves and the state in which they

weighed in the balance with the immensity of the benefits
imported by the catholic arms into these provinces ? " El
feliz tiempo," exclaims the reverend Father Gumila, "para
tantos millones de Indios, como yd, por la Bondad de Dios, se
han salvado, y salvan (aunque infeliz para los que aun estan en
su ciega ignorancia, o ciegamente resisten alaluz evangelica)
empezb desde que las armas catholicas tomaron possession de
las principales provincias de aquellos dos vastos imperios, y
prosiegue hasta ahora, creciendo siempre en todos angulos del
Nuevo mundo la luz de la Santa Fe, para eterna dicha de
aquellos infelices hijos d'Adan." (Vol. i. p. 74.) Trans.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 189
livev I cannot better finish the political view of
the Indians of New Spain than by laying before
the reader an extract from a memoir presented
by the bishop and chapter of Mechoacan* to the
king, in 1799, which breathes the wisest views
and the most liberal ideas.
This respectable bishop t, whom I had the ad
vantage of knowing personally, and who termin
ated his useful and laborious life at the advanced
age of 80, represents to the monarch that in the
actual state of things the moral improvement of
the Indian is impossible, if the obstacles are not
removed which oppose the progress of national
industry. He confirms the principles which he
* Informe del Obispo y Cabildo eclesiastico de Valladolid de
Mechoacan al Rey sobre Jurisdiccion y Ymunidades del Clero
Americano. This report, which 1 possess in manuscript, con.
taining more than ten sheets, was drawn up on the occasion of
the famous Ceduia real of the 25th October, 1795, which
permitted the secular judge to try the delittos enormes of the
clergy. The Sola del crimen, persuaded of their right, treated
the priests with severity, and cast them into the same prisons
with the lowest classes of the people. In this struggle, the
audiencia ranged themselves on the side of the clergy. Dis
putes of jurisdiction are very common in distant countries.
They are pursued with so much the greater keenness, as the
European policy from the first discovery of the new world
has always considered the disunion of casts, of families, and
constituted authorities, the surest means of preserving the
colonies in a dependence on the mother-country.
f Fray Antonio de San Miguel, monk of St. Jerome de
Corvan, native of the Montanas de Santander.

190 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book n.
lays down by several passages from the works of
Montesquieu and Bernardin de St. Pierre. These
citations can hardly fail to surprise us from the
pen of a prelate belonging to the regular clergy,
who passed a part of his life in convents, and who
filled an episcopal chair on the shores ofthe South
Sea. " The population of New Spain," says the
bishop towards the end of his memoir, " is com
posed of three- classes of men, ^whites or Spa
niards, Indians, and castes. I suppose the Spa
niards to compose the tenth part of the whole
mass. In their hands almost all the property and
all the wealth ofthe kingdom are centered. The
Indians and the castes cultivate the soil ; they are
in the service of the better sort of people ; and
they live by the work of their hands. Hence
there results between the Indians and the whites
thatoppositionof interests, andthatmutual hatred,
which universally takes place between those who
possess all and those who possess nothing, be
tween masters and those who live in servitude.
Thus we see, on the one hand, the effects of
envy and discord, deception, theft, and the incli
nation to prejudice the interests ofthe rich ; and
on the other, arrogance, severity, and the desire
of taking every moment advantage of the help
lessness of the Indian. I am not ignorant that
these evils every where spring from a great in
equality of condition. But in America they are
renderedstillmore terrific, because there exists no

Chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 191
intermediate state: we are rich or miserable,
noble or degraded, by the laws or the force of
opinion (infame de derecho y hecho.J
" In fact, the Indians and the races of mixed
blood (castas) are in a state of extreme humilia
tion. The colour peculiar to the Indians, their
ignorance, and especially their poverty, remove
them to an infinite distance from the whites, who
occupy the first rank in the population of New
SfJain. The privileges which the laws seem to
concede to the Indians are of small advantage to
them, perhaps they are rather hurtful. Shut up
in a narrow space of 600 varas (500 metres *) of
radius, assigned by an ancient law to the Indian
villages, the natives may be said to have no indi
vidual property, and are bound to cultivate the
common property (bienes de communidad). This
cultivation is a load so much the more insupport
able to them, as they have now for several years
back lost all hope of ever being able to enjoy the
fruit of their labour. The new arrangement of
intendancies bears, that the natives can receive no
assistance from the funds ofthe communalty with
out a special permission of the Board of Finances
of Mexico (junta superior dela Real Hacienda" J,
(The communal property has been farmed out by
the intendants; and the produce ofthe labour of
the natives is poured into the royal treasury,
* 1640 feet. Trans.
VOL. I. z

192 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book i .
where the officiates reales keep an account, under
special heads, of what they call the property of
each village. I say what they call the property,
for this property is nothing more than a fiction
for these last twenty years. The intendant even
cannot dispose of it in favour of the natives, who
are wearied of demanding assistance from the
communalty funds. The junta de Real Hacienda
demands informes from the fiscal and the asesor
of the viceroy. Whole years pass in accumulat
ing documents, but the Indians remain without
any answer. The money of the caxas de commu-
nidades is so habitually considered as having no
fixed destination, that the intendant of Valladolid
sent in 1798 more than a million of francs * to
Madrid, which had been accumulating for twelve
years. The king was told that it was a gratuitous
and patriotic gift from the Indians of Mechoacan
to the sovereign, to aid in the prosecution ofthe
war against England!)
"The law prohibits the mixture of casts; it
prohibits the whites from taking up their re
sidence in Indian villages; and it prevents the
natives from establishing themselves among the
Spaniards. This state of insulation opposes ob
stacles to civilization. The Indians are govern
ed by themselves; all the subaltern magistrates
are ofthe copper-coloured race. In every village
* 41,6701. sterling. Trans.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 193
we find eight or ten old Indians who live at the
expence of the rest, in the most complete idle
ness, whose authority is founded either on a pre
tended elevation of birth, or on a cunning policy
transmitted from father to son. These chiefs,
generally the only inhabitants of the village who
speak Spanish, have the greatest interest in main
taining their fellow citizens in the most profound
ignorance ; and they contribute the most to per
petuate prejudices, ignorance, and the ancient
barbarity of manners.
" Incapable, from the Indian laws, of entering
into any contract, or running in debt to the ex
tent of more than five piasters, the natives cart
only attain to an amelioration of their lot,, and
enjoy some sort of comfort as common labour
ers, or as artisans. Solorzano, Fraso, and other
Spanish authors, have in vain endeavoured to
investigate the secret cause why the privileges
conceded to the Indians have constantly pro
duced the most unfavourable effects to them. I
am astonished that these celebrated jurisconsults
never conceived that what they call a secret
cause springs from the very nature of these
privileges. They are arms which have never
served for the protection of those which they
were destined to defend, and which the citizens
of the other casts could not fail to employ
against the Indian race. Such a union of de
plorable circumstances has produced in them
z 2

194 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
an indolence of mind, and that state of indiffer
ence and apathy in which man is neither af
fected by hope nor fear.
" The casts, descendants of negro slaves, are
branded with infamy by the law$ and are sub
jected to tribute. This direct impost imprints on
them an indelible stain : they consider it as a mark
of slavery transmissible to the latest generations.
Among the mixed race, among the mestizoes and
mulattoes, there are many families, who, from
their colour, their physiognomy, and their culti
vation, might be confounded with the Spaniards ;
but the law keeps them in a state of degradation
and contempt. Endowed with an energetic and
ardent character, these men of colour live in a
constant state of irritation against the whites;
and we must be astonished that their resentment
does not more frequently dispose them to acts
of vengeance.
" The Indians and the casts are in the hands of
the magistrates of districts (justicias territorialesj,
whose immorality has not a little contributed to
their misery. So long as the alcaldias mayores
subsisted in Mexico, the alcaldes considered them
selves as merchants who had acquired an exclusive
privilege of buying and selling in their provinces,
and who could draw from this privilege, in some
sort or other, from 30,000 to 200,000 piastres,
from 150,000 to 1,000,000 francs *, and, what is
* From 62501. to 41,6701. sterling. Trans.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 195
more, in the short space of five years. These
usurious magistrates compelled the Indians to
purchase, at arbitrary prices, a certain number
of cattle. By this means the natives became their
debtors. Under the pretext of recovering the
capital and usury, the alcalde mayor disposed of
i,ne Indians, the whole year round, as true slaves.
The individual happiness of these unfortunate
wretches was not certainly increased by the sacri
fice of their liberty, for a horse or a mule to work
for their master's profit. But yet in the midst of
this state of things, brought on by abuses, agri
culture and industry were seen to increase.
" On the establishment of intendancies, the
government wished to put an end to the oppres
sions which arose from the repartimientos. In
place of alcaldes mayores, they named Subdele-
gados, subaltern magistrates, to whom every sort
of traffic was prohibited. As no salaries were
assigned to them, or any sort of fixed emolument,
the evil has become worse. The alcaldes mayores
administered justice with impartiality, whenever
their own interests were not concerned. The
subdelegates of the intendants, having no other
revenues but casualties, believed themselves au
thorised to employ illicit means to procure them
selves a comfortable subsistence. Hence the per
petual oppressions and the abuses of authority to
which the poor were subject ; and hence the in
dulgence towards the rich, and the shameful traffic
z o

196 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
of justice. The intendants find the greatest diffi
culties in the choice of the subdelegados, from
whom, in the actual state of things, the Indians
can neither expect support or protection. That
support and that protection they seek from the
clergy ; and hence the constant opposition in
which the clergy and subdelegates usually live.
However the natives place more confidence in
the clergy and magistrates of a superior rank, the
intendants and the oidores, (members of the audi-
encia). Now, Sire, what attachment can the In
dian have to the government, despised and de
graded as he is, and almost without property and
without hope of ameliorating his existence ? He
is merely attached to social life by a tie which
affords him no advantage. Let not your majesty
believe, that the dread of punishment alone is suf
ficient to preserve tranquillity in this country :
there must be other motives, there must be more
powerful motives. If the new legislation which
Spain expects with impatience do not occupy
itself with the situation of the Indians and people
of colour, the influence which the clergy possess
over the hearts of these unfortunate people, how
ever great it may be, will not be sufficient to
contain them in the submission and respect due
to their sovereign.
"Let the odious personal impost of the tributo
be abolished ; and let the infamy (irfamia de
derecho) which unjust laws have attempted to

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 197
stamp on the people of colour be at an end ; let
them be declared capable of filling every civil em
ployment which does not require a special title of
nobility ; let a portion of the demesnes of the
crown (tierras realenguas), wiiich are generally
uncultivated, be granted to the Indians and the
casts ; let an agrarian law be passed for Mexico
similar to that of the Asturias and Galicia, by
which the poor cultivator is permitted to bring in,
under certain conditions, the land which the great
proprietors have left so many ages uncultivated
to the detriment ofthe national industry ; let full
liberty be granted to the Indians, the casts, and
the whites, to settle in villages which at present
belong only to one of these classes; let salaries be
appointed for all judges and all magistrates of dis
tricts: these, Sire, are the six principal points on
which the felicity of the Mexican people depends.
"It appears strange, no doubt, that, in a junc
ture when the finances of the state are in a de
plorable situation, we presume to propose to your
majesty the abolition of the tribute. A very
simple calculation will prove, however, that the
adoption ofthe measures above indicated, and the
conceding to the Indian all the rights of denizens,
will increase considerably instead of diminishing
the revenues of the state (Real Hacienda)." The
bishop supposes 810,000 families of Indians and
men of colour in the whole extent of New Spain.
Several of these families, especially those of mixed
z 4-

198 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
blood, are clothed and enjoy some degree of com
fort. They live nearly in the manner ofthe lower
people of the peninsula ; and their number is a
third of the whole mass. The annual consump
tion of this third part may be estimated at 300
piastres per family.* Reckoning for the other
thirds only 60 1 piastres X, and supposing the In
dians to pay the alcavala of 14 per cent, like the
whites, an annual revenue would be raised of
5,000,000 of piastres §, a much greater revenue
than the quadruple of the present value of the
tributes. We will not guarantee the accuracy of
the numbers on which this calculation is founded;
but a simple sketch may suffice to prove, that on
establishing an equality of duties and imposts
among the different classes of people, not only the
abolition of the capitation would create no deficit
in the crown revenues, but that these revenues
would necessarily increase with the increase of
comfort and prosperity among the natives.
We might have hoped that the administrations
of three enlightened viceroys, animated with the
most noble zeal for the public good, the Marquis
de Croix, the Count de Revillagigedo, and the
* 67/. \<2s.6d.sterl. Trans. f 131. Is. 6d. sterl' Trans.
X It is computed that in the warm region of Mexico, a
day labourer requires annually for himself and family, in
nourishment and clothes, 72 piastres. The luxury is nearly
20 piastres less in the cold region of the country.
§ 1,093,750/. sterling.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 199
Chevalier d'Asanza, would have produced some
happy changes in the political state of the In
dians; but these hopes have been frustrated.
The power of the viceroys has been singularly
diminished of late : they are fettered in all their
measures, not only by the junta of finances (de
Real Hacienda), and by the high court of justice
(Audiencia), but also by the government in the
mother country, which possesses the mania of
wishing to govern in the greatest detail provinces
at the distance of two thousand leagues, the
physical and moral state of which are equally
unknown to them. The philanthropists affirm,
that it is happy for the Indians that they are
neglected in Europe, because sad experience has
proved that the most part ofthe measures adopt
ed for their relief have produced an opposite ef
fect. The lawyers, who detest innovations, and
the Creole proprietors, who frequently find their
interest in keeping the cultivator in degradation
and misery, maintain that we must not interfere
with the natives, because, in granting them more
liberty, the whites would have every thing to fear
from the vindictive spirit and arrogance of the
Indian race. The language is always the same
whenever it is proposed to allow the peasant to
participate in the rights of a free man and a citi
zen. I have heard the same arguments repeated
in Mexico, Peru, and the kingdom of New Gre
nada, which, in several parts of Germany, Po-

200 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book h.
land, Livonia, and Russia, are opposed to the
abolition of slavery among the peasants.
Recent examples ought to teach us how dan
gerous it is to allow the Indians to form a status
in statu, to perpetuate their insulation, barbarity
of manners, misery, and consequently motives of
hatred against the other casts. These very stupid
indolent Indians, who suffer themselves patiently
to be lashed at the church-doors, appear cunning,
active, impetuous, and cruel, whenever they act in
a body in popular disturbances. It may be use
ful to relate a proof of this assertion. The great
revolt in 1781 very nearly deprived the king of
Spain of all the mountainous parts of Peru,' at
the period when Great Britain lost nearly all her
colonies in the continent of America. Jose Ga
briel Condorcanqui, known by the name of the
Inca Tupac- Amaru, appeared at the head of an
Indian army before the walls of Cusco. He was
the son of the cacique of Tongasuca, a village of
the province of Tinta, or rather the son of the
cacique's wife; for it is certain that the pretended
Inca was a mestizoe, and that his true father was
a monk. The Condorcanqui family traces its
origin up to the Inca Sayri-Tupac, who disap
peared in the thick forests to the east of Villca-
pampa and to the Inca Tupac-Amaru, who,
contrary to the orders of Philip the Second, was
decapitated in 1578 under the viceroy Don
Francisco de Toledo.

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 201
Jose Gabriel was carefully educated at Lima;
and he returned to the mountains, after having
in vain solicited from the court of Spain the title
of Marquis d'Oropesa, which belongs to the fa
mily of the Inca Sayri-Tupac. His spirit of
vengeance drove him to excite the highland In
dians, irritated against the corregidor Arriaga,
to insurrection. The people acknowledged him
as a descendant of their true sovereigns, and as
one of the children ofthe sun. The young man
took advantage of the popular enthusiasm which
he had 'excited by the symbols of the ancient
grandeur ofthe empire of Cusco; he frequently
bound round his forehead the imperial fillet ofthe
Incas; and he artfully mingled Christian ideas
with the memorials ofthe worship ofthe sun.
In the commencement of his campaigns he pro
tected ecclesiastics and Americans of all colours.
As he only broke out against Europeans, he
made a party even amongst the Mestizoes and the
Creoles ; but the Indians, distrusting the sincerity
of their new allies, soon began a war of extermi
nation against every one not of their own race.
Jose Gabriel Tupac-Amaru, of whom I possess
letters in which he styles himself Inca of Peru,
was not so cruel as his brother Diego, and espe
cially his Nephew Andres Condorcanqui, who, at
the age of 17, displayed great talents, but a san
guinary character. This insurrection, which
appears to me very little known in Europe, lasted

202 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
nearly two years. I shall give more minute in
formation with regard to it in the historical ac
count of my travels. Tupac- Amaru had made
himself master ofthe provinces of Quispicanchi,
Tinta, Lampa, Azangara, Caravaja, and Chum-
bivilcas, when the Spaniards made him and his
family prisoners* They were all quartered in
the city of Cusco*
The respect with which the pretended Inca had
inspired the natives was so great, that, notwith
standing their fear of the Spaniards, and though
they were surrounded by the soldiers of the vic
torious army, they prostrated themselves at the
sight ofthe last ofthe children ofthe sun, as he
passed along the streets to the place of execu
tion. The brother of Jose Gabriel Condorcan
qui, known by the name of Diego* Christobal
Tupac-Amaru, was executed long after the ter
mination of this revolutionary movement of the
Peruvian Indians. When the chief fell into the
hands of the Spaniards, Diego surrendered him
self voluntarily, to profit by the pardon promised
him in the name of the king. A formal conven
tion was signed between him and the Spanish
general, on the 26th January 1782, at the In
dian village of Siquini, situated in the province
of Tinta. He lived tranquilly in his family, till
through an insidious and distrustful policy he
was arrested on pretext of a new conspiracy.
The horrors exercised by the natives of Peru

chap, vi.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 203
towards the whites in 1781 and 1782 in the
Cordillera of the Andes were repeated in part,
twenty years after, in the trifling insurrections
which took place in the plain of Riobamba. It
is therefore of the greatest importance, even for
the security of the European families established
for ages in the continent of the new world, that
they should interest themselves in the Indians,
and rescue them from their present barbarous,
abject, and miserable condition.

201 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.

CHAPTER VII.
i
Whites, Creoles, and Europeans. — Their civilization. — In
equality qf their fortunes. —Negroes. — Mixed casts. — Pro
portion between the sexes. — Longevity according to the
difference of races.— Sociability.
Amongst the inhabitants of pure origin the
whites would occupy the second place, consider
ing them only in the relation of number. They are
divided into whites born in Europe, and descend
ants of Europeans born in the Spanish colonies of
America or in the Asiatic islands. The former
bear the name of Chapetones or Gachupines, and
the second that of Criollos. The natives ofthe Ca
nary islands, who go under the general denomina
tion of Islenos (islanders), and who are the gerans
ofthe plantations, are considered as Europeans.
The Spanish laws allow the same rights to all
whites; but those who have the execution ofthe
laws endeavour to destroy an equality which
shocks the European pride. The government,
suspicious of the Creoles, bestows the great
places exclusively on the natives of Old Spain.
For some years back they have disposed at
Madrid even of the most trifling employments
in the administration of the customs and the
tobacco revenue. At an epoch when every

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 205
thing tended to a uniform relaxation in the
springs of the state, the system of venality made
an alarming progress. For the most part it was
by no means a suspicious and distrustful policy,
it was pecuniary interest alone which bestowed
all employments on Europeans. The result has
been a jealousy and perpetual hatred between
the Chapetons and the Creoles. The most mi
serable European, without education, and without
intellectual cultivation, thinks himself superior
to the whites born in the new continent. He
knows that, protected by his countrymen, and fa
voured by chances common enough in a country
where fortunes are as rapidly acquired as they are
lost, he may one day reach places to which the
access is almost interdicted to the natives, even to
those of them distinguished for their talents, know
ledge, and moral qualities. The natives prefer the
denomination of Americans to that of Creoles.
Since the peace of Versailles, and, in particular,
since the year 1789, we frequently hear proudly
declared, "I am not a Spaniard, I am an Ameri
can!" words which betray the workings of a long
resentment. In the eye of law every white Creole
is a Spaniard; but the abuse ofthe laws, the false
measures of the colonial government, the example
ofthe United States of America, and the influence
of the opinions of the age, have relaxed the ties
which formerly united more closely the Spanish
Creoles to the European Spaniards. A wise ad-

206 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
ministration "may re-establish harmony, calm
their passions and resentments, and yet preserve
for a long time the union among the members of
one and the same great family scattered over
Europe and America, from the Patagonian coast
to the north of California.
The number of individuals of whom the white
race is composed (Casta de los blancos o de los
Espanoles) amounts, probably, hi all New Spain
to l,200,O00i of whom nearly the fourth part in
habited the provincias internas. In New Biscay,
or in the intendancy of Durango, there is hardly
an individual subject to the tributo. Almost all
the inhabitants of these northern regions pretend
to be of pure European extraction.
In the year 1793 they reckoned :
In the intendancy of Gua
naxuato on a total po- Souls. Spaniards.
pulation of . . 398,000 103,000
Valladolid . . 290,000 80,000
Puebla . . 638,000 63,000
Oaxaca . . 411,000 26,000
Such is the simple result of the enumeration,
making none of the changes requisite from the
imperfection of that operation which we discussed
in the fifth chapter. Consequently, in the four
intendancies adjoining the capital, we find
272,000 whites, either Europeans or descendants
of Europeans, in a total population of 1,737,000
souls. For everyhundred inhabitants, there were

chap, vn.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 207
In the intendancy of Valladolid, . 27 whites.
Guanaxuato 25
Puebla . 9
Oaxaca . 6
These considerable differences show the degree
of civilization to which the anciei\t Mexicans had
attained south from the capital. These southern
regions were always the best inhabitated. In the
north, as we have already several times observed
in the course of this work, the Indian popula
tion was more thinly sown. Agriculture has
only,begun to make any progress there since the
period of the conquest.
It is curious to compare together the number of
whites in the West Indies and in Mexico. The
French part of St. Domingo contained in its hap
piest asra, 1788, on a surface of 1700 square
leagues (25 to the degree) a smaller population
than that ofthe intendancy of la Puebla. Page*
estimates the population of St. Domingo at520,000
inhabitants, among whom there were 40,000
Whites, 28,000 people of colour, and 452,000
* Vol. ii. p. 5. In 1802 there were in the whole island of
St. Domingo only 375,000 inhabitants, whereof 290,000 were
labourers, 47,000 domestics, artisans, and sailors, and 37,000
soldiers. To whaf a degree must the population have dimi
nished within the last six years ! In the island of Barbadoes,
the number of whites is greater than in any of the other
islands ; it amounts to 16,000, on a total population of 80,000.
VOL. I. A A

208 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
slaves. Hence, in St. Domingo, in every 100
souls, eight were white, six free people of colour,
and eighty-six African slaves. Jamaica was com
puted in 1787 to have in every 100 inhabitants,
ten whites, four people of colour, and eighty-six
slaves; and yet this English colony possesses a
smaller population by one-third than the intend
ancy of Oaxaca. Hence, the disproportion be
tween the Europeans or their descendants, and the
casts of Indian or African blood, is still greater
in the southern part of New Spain than in the
French and English sugar Islands. The island
of Cuba, on the contrary, exhibits even at this
day, in the distribution of the races, a very great
and a very consolatory difference. From the
most careful statistical researches which I was
enabled to make during my stay at the Havan
nah, in 1800 and 1804, I found that at the last
of these epochs the total population of the island
of Cuba amounted to 432,000 souls, among
whom there were
A. Freemen . . . 324,000
Whites . . 234,000
People of colour 90,000
B. Slaves . . . 108,000

Total 432,000
or in every 100 inhabitants, fifty-four Creole and
European whites, twenty-one men of colour, and

chap.vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 209
twenty-five slaves. The proportion of freemen
to slaves is there as three to one, while in Ja
maica they are as one to six.
The following table exhibits the proportion of
the other casts to the whites in the different parts
of the new continent. Out of every 100 in
habitants, we reckon
In the United States of North
America . . .83 whites,
Island of Cuba . . .54
Kingdom of New Spain (without
including the provincias in ternas) 1 6
Kingdom of Peru . . 12
Island of Jamaica . . 10
In the capital of Mexico, according to the
enumeration of the Count de Revillagigedo, in
every 100 inhabitants, forty-nine are Spanish
Creoles, two Spaniards born in Europe, twenty-
four Aztec and Otomite Indians, and twenty-
five people of mixed blood. The exact know
ledge of these proportions is of the utmost im
portance to those who have the superintendence
ofthe colonies.
It would be difficult to estimate exactly how
many Europeans there are among the 1,200,000
whites who inhabit New Spain. As in the ca
pital of Mexico itself, where the government
brings together the greatest number of Spaniards,
in a population of more than 135,000 souls, not
more than 2500 individuals are born in Europe,
AA 2

210 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
it is more than probable that the whole kingdom
does not contain more than 70 or 80,000. They
constitute, therefore, only the 70th part of the
whole population, and the proportion of Euro-
. peans to white Creoles is as one to fourteen.
The Spanish laws prohibit all entry into the
American possessions to every European not
born in the peninsula. The words European
and Spaniard are become synonymous in Mexico
and Peru. The inhabitants of the remote pro
vinces have, therefore, a difficulty in conceiving
that there can be Europeans who do not speak
their language; and they consider this ignor
ance as a mark of low extraction, because, every
where around them, all, except the very lowest
class of the people, speak Spanish. Better ac
quainted with the history of the sixteenth cen
tury than with that of our own times, they imagine
that Spain continues to possess a decided prepon
derance over the rest of Europe. To them the
peninsula appears the very centre of European
civilization. It is otherwise with the Americans
ofthe capital. Those of them who are acquaint
ed with the French or English literature fall
easily into a contrary extreme ; and have still a
more unfavourable opinion of the mother coun
try than the French had at a time when com
munication was less frequent between Spain and
the rest of Europe. They prefer strangers from
other countries to the Spaniards ; and they flatter

chap, vn.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 211
themselves with the idea that intellectual culti
vation, has made more rapid progress in the co
lonies than in the peninsula. '
' ' This progress is indeed very remarkable at the
Havanah, Lima, Santa Fe, Quito, Popayan, and
Caraccas. Of all these great cities the Havanah
bears the greatest resemblance to those of Eu
rope in customs, refinements of luxury, and the
tone of society. At Havanah the state of poli
tics, and their influence on commerce, is best un
derstood. However, notwithstanding the efforts
of the patriotic society of the island qf Cuba,
which encourages the sciences with the most ge
nerous zeal, they prosper very slowly in a coun
try where cultivation and the price of colonial
produce engross the whole attention of the in
habitants. The study of the mathematics, che
mistry, mineralogy, and botany, is more general
at Mexico, Santa Fe, and Lima. We every
where observe a great intellectual activity, and
among the youth a wonderful facility of seizing
the principles of science. It is said that this fa
cility is still more remarkable among the inhabit
ants of Quito and Lima than at Mexico and
Santa Fe. The former appear to possess more
versatility of mind and "a more lively imagin
ation; while the Mexicans and the natives of
Santa Fe have the reputation of greater persever
ance in the studies to which they have once ad
dicted themselves. A A 3

212 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
No city ofthe new continent, without even ex-
qepting those of the United States, can display
such great and solid scientific establishments as
the capital of Mexico. I shall content myself
here with naming the School of Mines, directed
by the learned Elhuyar, to which we shall return
when we come to speak of the mines; the Bo
tanic Garden ; and the Academy of Painting and
Sculpture. This academy bears the title of
Academia de los Nobles Artes de Mexico. It owes
its existence to the patriotism of several Mexi
can individuals, and to the protection of the mi
nister Galvez. The government assigned it a
spacious building, in which there is a much finer
and more complete collection of casts than is to
be found in any part of Germany. We are asto
nished on seeing that the Apollo of Belvidere,
the group of Laocoon, and still more colossal
statues, have been conveyed through mountain
ous roads at least as narrow as those of St. Go-
thard; and we are surprised at finding these
masterpieces of antiquity collected together un
der the torrid zone, in a table land higher than
the convent of the great St. Bernard. The col
lection of casts brought to Mexico cost the king
200,000 francs. * The remains of the Mexican
sculpture, those colossal statues of basaltes and
porphyry, which are covered with Aztec hierogly
phics, and bear some relation to the Egyptian and
' 83341. sterling.

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 213
Hiudoo style, ought to be collected together in the
edifice of the academy, or rather in one of the
courts which belong to it. It would be curious
to see these monuments of the first cultivation of
our species, the works of a semibarbarous people
inhabiting the Mexican Andes, placed beside
the beautiful forms produced under the sky of
Greece and Italy.
The revenues of the Academy of Fine Arts at
Mexico amount to 125,000 francs *, of which the
government gives 60,000, the body of Mexican
miners nearly 25,000, the consulado, or associa
tion of merchants of the capital, more than 1500.
It is impossible not to perceive the influence of
this establishment on the taste of the nation.
This influence is particularly visible in the sym
metry of the buildings, in the perfection with
which the hewing of stone is conducted, and in
the ornaments of the capitals and stucco relievos.
What a number of beautiful edifices are to be
seen at Mexico ! nay, even in provincial towns
like Guanaxuato and Queretaro ! These monu
ments, which frequently cost a million and a
million and a half of francs t, would appear to
advantage in the finest streets of Paris, Berlin,
and Petersburg. M. Tolsa, professor of sculp
ture at Mexico, was even able to cast an eques
trian statue of King Charles the Fourth ; a work
which, with the exception of the Marcus Aure-
* 5208/. sterling. Trans.
X 41,670/. and 62,5051. Trans.
A A 4

214 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
lius at Rome, surpasses in beauty and purity of
style every thing which remains in this way in
Europe. Instruction is communicated gratis at
the Academy of Fine Arts. It is not confined
alone to the drawing of landscapes and figures;
they have had the good sense to employ other
means for exciting the national industry. The
academy labours successfully to introduce among
the artisans a taste for elegance and beautiful
forms. Large rooms, well lighted by Argand's
lamps, contain every evening some hundreds of
young people, of whom some draw from relievo
or living models, while others copy drawings of
furniture, chandeliers, or other ornaments in
bronze. In this assemblage (and this is very
remarkable in the midst of a country where the
prejudices of the nobility against the casts are
so inveterate) rank, colour, and race is confound
ed : we see the Indian and the Mestizo sitting
beside the white, and the son of a poor artisan
in emulation with the children of the great lords
of the country. It is a consolation to observe,
that under every zone the cultivation of science
and art establishes a certain equality among
men, and obliterates for a time, at least, all
those petty passions of which the effects are so
prejudicial to social happiness.
Since the close of the reign of Charles the
Third, and under that of Charles the Fourth, the
study ofthe physical sciences has made great pro
gress, not, only in Mexico, but in general in all the

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 215
Spanish colonies. No European government has
sacrificed greater sums to advance the knowledge
of the vegetable kingdom than the Spanish go
vernment. Three botanical expeditions, in Peru,
New Grenada, and New Spain, under the direc
tion of MM. Ruiz and Pavon, Don Jose Celesti-
no Mutis, and MM. Sesse and Mociiio, have cost
the state nearly two millions of francs. * More
over, botanical gardens have been established at
Manilla and the Canaryislands. The commission
destined to draw plans of the canal of los Guines
was also appointed to examine the vegetable pro
ductions of the island of Cuba. All these re
searches, conducted during twenty years in the
most fertile regions of the new continent, have
not only enricned science with more than four
thousand new species of plants, but have also
contributed much to diffuse a taste for natural
history among the inhabitants of the country.
The city of Mexico exhibits a very interesting
botanical garden within the very precincts of
the viceroy's palace. Professor Cervantes gives
annual courses there, which are very well at
tended. This savant possesses, besides his her-
bals, a rich collection of Mexican minerals. M.
Mocino, whom we Just now mentioned as one of
the coadjutors of M. Sesse, and who has pushed
his laborious excursions from the kingdom of
* 83,3401. sterling. Trans.

216 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
Guatimala to the north-west coast or island of
Vancouver and Quadra ; and M. Echeveria, a
painter of plants and animals, whose works will
bear a comparison with the most perfect pro
ductions ofthe kind in Europe, are both of them
natives of New Spain. They had both attained
a distinguished rank among savans and artists
before quitting their country. *
The principles of the new chemistry, which is
known in the Spanish colonies by the equivocal
appellation of new philosophy (nuevafilosqfia), are
more diffused in Mexico than in many parts of
the peninsula. A European traveller cannot un
doubtedly but be surprised to meet in the interior
ofthe country, on the very borders of California,
with young Mexicans who reason on the decom
position of water in the process of amalgamation
with free air. The school of Mines possesses a
chemical laboratory ; a geological collection, ar
ranged according to the system of Werner ; a phy
sical cabinet, in which we not only find the va
luable instruments of Ramsden, Adams, Le Noir,
* The public is only yet put in possession ofthe discove
ries ofthe botanical expedition of Peru and Chili. The great
herbals of M. Sesse, and the immense collection of drawings
of Mexican plants executed under his eye, arrived at Madrid
in 1803. The publication of both the Flora of New Spain
and the Flora of Santa Fe de Bogota is expected with impa
tience. The latter is the fruit of 40 years' researches and
observations by the celebrated Mutis, one of the greatest bo
tanists of the age.

chap, vu.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 217
and Louis Berthoud, but also models executed in
the capital even, with the greatest precision, and
from the. finest wood in the country. The best
mineralogical work in the Spanish language was
printed at Mexico, I mean the Manual of Oryc-
tognosy, composed by M. Del Rio, according to
the principles ofthe school of Freyberg, in which
the author was formed. The first Spanish trans
lation of Lavater's Elements of chemistry was
also published at Mexico. I cite these insulated
facts because they give us the measure of the ar
dour with which the exact sciences are begun to
be studied in the capital of New Spain. This ar
dour is much greater than that with which they
addict themselves to the study of languages and
ancient literature. *

* This is as much as to say that taste is rather at a low
ebb among them, and that imagination is in a somewhat si
milar state ; for wherever taste and imagination flourish, an
admiration for the ancients is seen to prevail. The observa
tion of Humboldt may perhaps receive a much more extensive
application ; and it may peculiarly be applied to the whole of
America. I have seen it asserted that there are whole states
in the union where a classical seminary of any kind is not to
be found. It would be rash to say that the faculties of men
transplanted to America gradually assimilate to those of the
aborigines, who are stated by M. Humboldt to be destitute
of taste, but excellently adapted for science. Should we not
rather say that every age has its favourite study, which it
cultivates almost to the negleet of every other ? At one
time it is all commenting and comparing manuscripts : —
" And A's deposed and B with pomp restored :"

2-18 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
Instruction in mathematics is less carefully at
tended to in the university of Mexico than in the
School of Mines. The pupils of this last establish
ment go farther into analysis; they are instructed
in the integral and differential calculi. On the
return of peace and free intercourse with Europe,
when astronomical instruments (chronometers,
sextants, and the repeating circles of Borda) shall
become more common, young men will be found
in the most remote parts of the kingdom capable
of making observations, and calculating them
after the most recent methods. I have already
indicated in the analysis of my maps the advan
tage which might be drawn by the government
from this extraordinary aptitude in constructing
a map of the country. The taste for astronomy
is very old in Mexico. Three distinguished men,
Velasquez, Gama, and Alzate, did honour to their
country towards the end ofthe last century. All
the three made a great number of astronomical
observations, especially of eclipses of the satellites
of Jupiter. Alzate, the worst informed of them,
was the correspondent ofthe AcademyofSciences

at another, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle divide the
world between them: from that a transition is made to poetry,
and no man can be great without producing an epic poem or
a handsome volume of sonnets; and in the present age almost
every thing but the refuse of talent carefully preserved in the
cells of some fat old university, seems employed, more or
less, in physical science. Trans.

chap, vn.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN.* 219
at Paris. Inaccurate as an observer, and of an
activity frequently impetuous, he gave himself up
to too many objects at a time. We have already
discussed in the geographical introduction the
merits of his astronomical labours. He is entitled
to the real merit, however, of having excited his
countrymen to the study ofthe physical sciences.
The Gazelta de Litteratura, which he published
for a long time at Mexico, contributed singularly
to give encouragement and impulsion to the
Mexican youth.
The most remarkable geometrician produced
by New Spain since the time of Siguenza was
Don Joacquin Velasquez Cardinas y Leon. All
the astronomical and geodesical labours of this
indefatigable savant bear the stamp of the great
est precision. He was born on the 2 1st July,
1732, in the interior of the country, at the farm
of Santiago Acebedocla, near the Indian village
of Tizicapan ; and he had the merit, we may say,
of forming himself. At the age of four he com
municated the small pox to his father, who died
of them. An uncle, parish-priest of Xaltocan,
took care of his education, and placed him under
the instruction of an Indian of the name of Ma
nuel Asentzio ; a man of great natural strength
of mind, and well versed in the knowledge of the
Mexican history and mythology. Velasquez
learned at Xaltocan several Indian languages.
and the use of the hieroglyphical writings of

220 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
the Aztecs. It is to be regretted that he pub
lished nothing on this very interesting branch of
antiquity. Placed at Mexico in the Tridentine
college, he found neither professor, nor books,
nor instruments.*, With the small assistance
which he could obtain, he fortified himself in the
study of the mathematics and the ancient lan
guages. A lucky accident threw into his hands
the works of Newton ancl Bacon. He drew
from the one a taste for astronomy, and from
the other an acquaintance with the true methods
of philosophising. AVhile poor and unable to
find any instrument even in Mexico, he set
himself, with his friend M. Guadalaxara (now
professor of mathematics in the Academy of
Painting), to construct telescopes and quadrants.
He followed at the same time the profession of
advocate, an occupation which in Mexico, as
well as elsewhere, is much more lucrative than
that of looking at the stars. What he gained by
his professional labours was laid out in purchas
ing instruments in England. After being named
professor in the university, he accompanied the
visitador Don Jose de Galvez t in his journey
* From this we may discover that the professors of this
university are not behind those of some others in the praise
worthy custom of considering their chairs as sinecures. Trans.
X The Count de Galvez, before obtaining the ministry of
the Indies, travelled through the northern part of New Spain
with the title of visitador. This name is given to persons

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 221
to Sonora. Sent on a commission to California,
he profited by the serenity ofthe sky in that pe
ninsula to make a great number of astronomical
observations. He first observed there that in
all the maps, for centuries, through an enormous
error of longitude, this part of the new conti
nent had always been marked several degrees
farther west than it really was. When the Abbe
Chappe, more celebrated for his courage and his
zeal for the sciences than for the accuracy of his
labours, arrived in California, he found the Mexi
can astronomer already established there. Ve
lasquez had constructed for himself, in Mimosa
planks, an observatory at St. Anne. Having
already determined the position of this Indian
village, he informed the Abbe Chappe that the
moon's eclipse on the 18th June, 1769, would be
visible in California. The French astronomer
doubted the truth of this assertion, till the eclipse
actually took place. Velasquez by himself made
a very good observation of the transit of Venus

employed by the court to procure information as to the state
of the colonies. Their journey (visita) has generally no other
effect than that of counterbalancing for some time the power
of the viceroys and the audiencias, of receiving an infinity of
memoirs, petitions, and projects, and of signalizing their stay
by the introduction of some new impost. The people expect
the arrival of the visitadores with the same impatience which
they afterwards display for their departure.

222 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
over the disk of the sun on the 3d June, 1769.
He communicated the result, the very morning
ofthe transit, to the Abbe Chappe, and to the Spa
nish astronomers, Don Vicente Doz and Don Sal
vador de Medina. The French traveller was sur
prised at the harmony between the observation of
Velasquez and his own. He was no doubt asto
nished to meet in California with a Mexican, who,
without belonging to any academy, and without
having ever left New Spain, was able to observe
as well as the academicians. In 1773 Velasquez
executed the great geodesical undertaking, of
which we have given some of the results in the
geographical introduction, and to which we shall
again return in speaking of the drain of the lakes
ofthe valley of Mexico. The most essential ser
vice which this indefatigable man rendered to his
country was the establishment of the Tribunal
and the School of Mines, the plans for which he
presented to the court. He finished his laborious
career on the 6th of March, 1786, while first di
rector-general of the Tribunal de Mineria, and
enjoying the title of Alcalde del Corte honorario.
After mentioning the labours of Alzate and
Velasquez, it would be unjust to pass over the
name of Gama, the friend and fellow-labourer of
the latter. Without fortune, and compelled to
support a numerous family by a troublesome and
almost mechanical labour, unknown and neg?

chap, vn.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 223
lected during his life by his fellow-citizens*, who
loaded him with eulogies after his death. Gama
became by his own unassisted efforts an able
and well-informed astronomer. He published
several memoirs on eclipses of the moon, on the
satellites of Jupiter, on the almanac and chro
nology of the ancient Mexicans, and on the cli
mate of New Spain ; all of which announce a
great precision of ideas and accuracy of obser
vation. If I have allowed myself to enter into
these details on the literary merit of three Mexi
can savans, it is merely for the sake of proving
from their example, that the ignorance which
European pride has thought proper to attach to
the Creoles is neither the effect of the climate
nor of a want of moral energy ; but that this ig
norance, where it is still observable, is solely the
effect of the insulation, and the defects in the
social institutions of the colonies. /
If, in the present state of things, the cast of
whites is the only one in which we find almost
exclusively any thing like intellectual cultivation,
it is also the only one which possesses great wealth.
This wealth is unfortunately still more unequally
* The celebrated navigator Alexander Malaspina, during
his stay at Mexico, observed along with Gama. He recom
mended him with much warmth to the court, as is proved by
the official letters of Malaspina, preserved in the archives of
the viceroy.
VOL. I. B B

224 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
distributed in Mexico than in the capitania ge
neral of Caraccas, the Havanah, and especially
Peru. At Caraccas, the heads ofthe richest fami
lies possess a revenue of 200,000 livres.* In the
island of Cuba we find revenues of more than 6
or 700,000 francs, t In these two industrious co
lonies agriculture has founded more considerable
fortunes than has been accumulated by the work
ing of the mines in Peru. At Lima an annual re
venue of 80,000 francs is very uncommon. X I
know in reality of no Peruvian family in the pos
session of a fixed and sure revenue of 130,000
francs § . But in New Spain there are individuals
who possess no mines, whose revenue amounts to
a million of francs. || The family ofthe count de
la Valenciana, for example, possesses alone, on the
ridge of the Cordillera, a property worth more
than 25 millions of francs %, without including the
mine of Valenciana near Guanaxuato, which,
communibus annis, yields a nett revenue of a mil
lion and a half of livres.** This family, of which
the present head, the young Count de Valenciana,
is distinguished for a generous, character and a
noble desire of instruction, is only divided into
* 8334/. sterling. Trans.
X 25,0021. or 29,169/. sterling. Trans.
X 3333/. sterling. Trans. J 54 17/. sterling. Trans.
|| 41,670/. sterling. Trans.
U 1,041,750/. sterling. Trans.
*'* 62,505/. sterling. Trans.

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 225
three branches; and they possess all together, even
in years when the mine is not very lucrative, more
than 2,200,000 francs of revenue.* The Count
de Regla, whose youngest son, the Marquis de
San Christobal t, distinguished himself at Paris
for his physical and physiological knowledge,
constructed at the Havanah, at his own expense,
iii acajou and cedar (cedrellaj wood, two vessels
of the line of the largest size, which he made a
present of to his sovereign. It was the seam of
la Biscaina, near Pachuca, which laid the found
ation of the fortune of the house of Regla. The
family of Fagoaga, well known for its benefi
cence, intelligence, and zeal for the public good,
exhibits the example ofthe greatest wealth which
was ever derived from a mine.' A single seam
which the family of the Marquis of Fagoaga
possesses in the district of Sombrerete left in five
or six months, all charges deducted, a nett profit
of 20 millions of francs. X
From these data one would suppose capitals in
the Mexican families infinitely greater than what
are really observed. The deceased Count de la

* 91,674/. sterling. Trans.
X M. Terreros (this is the name by which this modest sa
vant is known in France) preferred for a long time the in
struction which his abode at Paris enabled him to procure,
to the great fortune which he could only enjoy living in
Mexico. X 833,400/. sterling. Trans.
B B 2

226 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
Valenciana, the first of the title, sometimes drew
from his mine alone, in one year, a nett revenue
of no less than six millions of livres. * This an
nual revenue, during the last twenty-five years of
his life, was never below from two to three mil
lions of livres t; and yet this extraordinary man,
who came without any fortune to America, and
who continued to live with great simplicity, left
only behind him at his death, besides his mine,
which is the richest in the world, ten millions in
property and capital. X This fact, which may be
relied on, will not surprise those who are acquaint
ed with the interior management of the great
Mexican houses. Money rapidly gained is as
rapidly spent. The working of mines becomes a
game in which they embark with unbounded
passion. The rich proprietors of mines lavish im
mense sums on quacks, who engage them in new
undertakings in the most remote provinces. In
a country where the works are conducted on such
an extravagant scale, that the pit of a mine fre
quently requires two millions of francs to pierce,
the bad success of a rash project may absorb in a
few years all that was gained in working the rich
est seams. We must add, that from the internal
disorder which prevails in the greatest part ofthe

* 250,020/. sterling. Trans.
X From 83,340/. to 125,010/. Trans.
X 416,700/. sterling. Trans.

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 227
great houses of both Old and New Spain, the
head of a family is not unfrequently straitened
with a revenue of half a million *, though he dis
play no other luxury than that of numerous
yokes of mules.
The mines have undoubtedly been the principal
sources ofthe great fortunes of Mexico. Many
miners have laid out their wealth in purchasing
land, and have addicted themselves with great
zeal to agriculture. But there is also a consider
able number of very powerful families who have
never had the working of any very lucrative
mines. Such are the rich descendants of Cortez
or the Marquis del Valle. The Duke of Monte-
leon, a Neapolitan lord, who is now the head of
the house of Cortez, possesses superb estates in
the province of Oaxaca, near Toluca, and at
Cuernavaca. The nett produce of his rents is
actually no more than 550,000 francs t, the king
having deprived the duke ofthe collection ofthe
alcavalas and the duties on tobacco. The
ordinary expenses of management amount to
more than 125,000 francs. X However, several
governors of the marquesado have become sin
gularly wealthy. If the descendants of the great
conquistador would only live in Mexico, their
revenue would immediately rise to more than a
million and a half §.
* 20,835/. sterling. Trans. X 22,918/. sterling. Trans.
X 5208/. sterling. Trans. §-62,505/. sterling. Trntis.
B B 3

228 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
To complete the view of the immense wealth
centered in the hands of a few individuals in New
Spain, which may compete, with any thing in
Great Britain, or the European possessions in
Hindostan, I shall add several exact statements
both ofthe revenues ofthe Mexican clergy, and
the pecuniary sacrifices annually made by the
body of miners (cuerpo de mineria) for the im
provement of mining. This last body, formed
by a union of the proprietors of mines, and re
presented by deputies who sit in the Tribunal
de Mineria, advanced in three years, between
1784 and 1787, a sum of four millions of francs*
to individuals who were in want of the necessary
funds to carry on great works. It is believed in
the country that this money has not been very
usefully employed (para habilitar) ; but its dis
tribution proves the generosity and opulence of
those who are able to make such considerable
largesses. A European reader will be still more
astonished when I inform him ofthe extraordi
nary fact, that the respectable family of Fagoagas
lent, a few years ago, without interest, a sum of
more than three millions and a half of francs f
to a friend, whose fortune they were in the be
lief would be made by it in a solid manner j
and this sum was irrevocably lost in an unsuc
cessful new mining undertaking. The archir
* 166,630/. sterling. Trans. f 145,845/.

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 229
tectural works which are carried on in the ca
pital of Mexico for the embellishment ofthe city
are so expensive, that notwithstanding the low
rate of wages, the superb edifice constructed by
order of the Tribunal de Mineria for the School
of Mines, will cost at least three millions of
francs*, of which two millions were in readiness
before the foundation was laid. To hasten the
construction, and particularly to furnish the
students immediately with a proper laboratory
for metallic experiments on the amalgamation of
great masses of minerals (beneficio de patio), the
body of Mexican miners contributed monthly,
in the year 1803 alone, the sum of 50,000 livres. t
Such is the facility with which vast projects are
executed in a country where wealth is divided
among a small number of individuals.
This inequality of fortune is still more conspi
cuous among the clergy, of whom a number suf
fer extreme poverty, while others possess reve-
nues which surpass those of many of the sovereign
princes of Germany. The Mexican clergy, less
numerous than is believed in Europe, is only com
posed of ten thousand individuals, the half of
whom are regulars who wear the cowl. If we in
clude lay brothers and sisters, or servants (legos,
donadosy criados de los conventos), all those who.

* 125,010/. sterling. Trans. f 2083/. sterling.
B B 4

>y

230 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book h.
are not in orders, we may estimate the clergy
at 13 or 14,000 individuals. * Now the annual
revenue of the eight Mexican bishops in the fol-

* The number of monks of St. Francis in Spain amounts
to 15,600, more than all the ecclesiastics ofthe kingdom of
Mexico. The clergy in the peninsula exceed 228,000 indi
viduals. For every thousand inhabitants there are 20 eccle
siastics, while in New Spain there are not above two to the
thousand. The folic ving is a specification of the clergy in
several of the intendancies, according to the enumeration in
1793: In the intendancy of f secular ecclesiastics 1 ogi reo.ujars-
La Puebla, 667 \ or clerigos, and J °
Valladolid 293 .. . 298

197
342
1646
Donados, or lay brothers,

Guanaxuato 225
Oaxaca 306
In the cityofMexico550
Including in the enumeration the
the convents of the capital contain more than 2500 indivi
duals. — Author.
The clergy of the peninsula, according to M. de la Borde,
from whom M. de Humboldt elsewhere professes to take his
information regarding Spain, amounts to 147,657 individuals;
and according to M. Townsend, who cites the returns made
to the Spanish government, they amount to 118,625. M. de
la Borde estimates the population of Spain at 11,000,000,
and he states the proportion ofthe clergy to the population as
1 : 69; though "'^'^ = 74,497, say 74J, and not 69.
147,o57
But the estimate of 228,000 clergy, and a corresponding pro
portion of 20 in the thousand, or 1 in 50 to the population, is
in every way much beyond the truth. M. de Humboldt
having found from M. de la Borde that the proportion be
tween the clergy and population in Madrid was 20 : 1000,

chap, vn.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 231
lowing list amounts to a sum total of 2,695,000
francs * :
Revenues of the Archbishop of
t. , . Double
Mexico 130,000 piastres.
Bishop of la Puebla 110,000
Valladolid 100,000
Guadalaxara 90,000
Durango 35,000
Monterey 80,000
Yucatan 20,000
Oaxaca 18,000
Sonora 6,000

539,000 1
The bishop of Sonora, the poorest of them al],
does not draw tithes. He is paid like the bishop

has been led to extend the same proportion over all Spain.
Yet he afterwards, in the Statistical Analysis, states it as a
peculiar merit in M. de la Borde, that he had first proved
that the proportion of Spanish clergy to the population was
less than that of the French clergy to the population before
the revolution, which was 460,078:25,000,000= 1 : 54,444,
say 54/5 (and not 1 : 52, as La Borde calculates;) but a cler
gy of 228,000 in a population of 11 millions would be more
numerous in proportion than that of France before the revo
lution. Trans.
* 112,300/. sterling. Trans.
X This, at the rate of conversion which the author lays
down in a note in the following page, namely five francs five
sous per double piastre, does not amount to the sum of
2,695,000, but 2,829,750 francs = 1 17,915/. Trans.

232 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
of Panama immediately by the king (de Caxas
reales J. His income amounts only to the 20th
part of that of the bishops of Valladolid and Me
choacan; and what is truly distressing in the
diocese of an archbishop whose revenue amounts
to the sum of 650,000 francs *, there are clergy
men of Indian villages whose yearly income does
not exceed five or six hundred francs, t The
bishop and chapter of Valladolid sent, at different
times, to the king, as a voluntary contribution,
particularly during the last war against France,
the sum of 810,000 francs. X The lands of the
Mexican clergy (bienes rakes J do not exceed the
value of 12 or 15 millions of francs § ; but the
j clergy possess immense capitals hypothecated on
j the property of individuals. The whole of these
capitals (capitales de Capellaniasy obraspias,fon-
dos lotales de Communidades religiosas), of which
we shall give a detail in the sequel, amounts to the
sum of 44 millions and a half of double piastres If,
V or 233,625,000 francs. % Cortez, from the very
* 27,085/. sterling. Trans.
X From 20/. to 25/. sterling. Trans.
X 33,752/. sterling. Trans.
§ From 500,040/. to 625,050/. Trans.
|| 13,485,453/. sterling. Trans.
f I have followed the data contained in the Representacion
de los vecinos de Valladolid al Excellentissimo Senor Virey
(dated 24th October, 1805), a manuscript memoir of great
value. I compute in the course of this work the double pi
astre at 5 livres 5 sous. Its intrinsic value is 5 livres 8f sous.

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 233
commencement ofthe conquest, dreaded thegreat
opulence of the clergy in a country where eccle
siastical discipline is difficult to maintain. He
says very frankly in a letter to Charles the Fifth,
" that he beseeches his majesty to send out to the
Indies religieux and not canons, because the
latter display an extravagant luxury, leave great .
wealth to their natural children, and give great
scandal to the newly-converted Indians." This
advice, dictated by the frankness of an old sol
dier, was not followed at Madrid. We have
transcribed this curious passage from a work
published several years ago by a cardinal. * It
is not for us to accuse the conqueror of New
Spain of predilection for the regular clergy, or
antipathy towards the canons.
The rumour spread up and down Europe of
the immensity of the Mexican wealth has given
rise to very exaggerated ideas relative to the
abundance of gold and silver employed in New
Spain in plate, furniture, kitchen utensils, and
harness. A traveller, whose imagination has

We must not confound the pezo, which is sometimes called
pezo sencillo, or commercial piastre, which is a fictitious money,
with the double piastre of America, or te duro, or te pezo
duro. The double piastre contains 20 reals of vellon, or 170
quartos, or 680 maravedis, while the pezo sencillo, which is
equal to 3 livres 15 sous, contains only 15 reals of vellon, or
510 maravedis.
•Archbishop Lorenzana.

234 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
been heated by stories of keys, locks, and hinges
of massy silver, will be very much surprised on
his arrival at Mexico at seeing no more of the
' precious metals employed for domestic uses there
than in Spain, Portugal, and the rest of the south
of Europe; and he will be as much astonished at
seeing in Mexico, Peru, or at Santa Fe, people
of the lowest order barefooted with enormous
silver spurs on, or at finding silver cups and
plates a little more common there than in France
and England. The surprise of the traveller will
cease when he reflects that porcelain is very rare
in these newly-civilized regions, that the na
ture of the roads in, the mountains renders the
carriage of it extremely difficult; and that in a
country of little commercial activity, it is equally
indifferent whether a few hundred piastres be
possessed in specie or in plate. Notwithstand
ing, however, the enormous difference of wealth
between Peru and Mexico, considering merely
the fortunes of the great proprietors, I am in
clined to believe that there is more true comfort
at Lima than at Mexico. The inequality of for
tunes is much less in the former; and if it is very
rare, as we have already observed, to find indivi
duals there who possess a revenue of 50 or 60,000
francs*, we meet however with a great number of
mulatto artisans and free negros, who, by their
industry alone, procure much more than the ne-
* 2083/. or 2500/. sterling. Trans.

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 235
cessaries of life. Capitals of 10 and 15,000 pias
tres * are very common among this class, while
the streets of Mexico swarm with from twenty to
thirty thousand wretches (Saragates, Guachina?u
gos), of whom the greatest number pass the night
sub dio, and stretch themselves out to the sun
during the day with nothing but a flannel cover
ing. These dregs of the people bear much
analogy to the Lazaroni of Naples. Lazy, care
less, and sober like them, the Guachinangos have
nothing, however, ferocious in their character,
and they never ask alms; for if they work one
or two days in the week, they earn as much as
will purchase their pulque, or some of the ducks
with which the Mexican lakes are covered,
which are roasted in their own fat. The fortune
of the Saragates seldom exceeds two or three
reals, while the lower people of Lima, more ad
dicted to luxury and pleasure, and perhaps also
more industrious, frequently spend two or three
piastres in one day. One would say that the
mixture of the European and the negro every
where produces a race of men more active and
more assiduously industrious than the mixture
of the whites with the Mexican Indian.
The kingdom of New Spain is, of all the Eu
ropean colonies under the torrid zone, that in
* If single or commercial piastres, = 1560Z. and 2340/. ster
ling. Trans.

236

POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book it.

which there are the fewest negros. We may al
most say that there are no slaves. We may go
through the whole city of Mexico without seeing
a black countenance. The service of no house is
carried on with slaves. In this point of view es
pecially, Mexico presents a singular contrast to
the Havanah, Lima, and Caraccas. From exact
information procured by those employed in the
enumeration of 1793, it appears that in all New
Spain there are not six thousand negros, and not
more than nine or ten thousand slaves, of whom
the greatest number belong to the ports of Aca
pulco and Vera Cruz, or the warm regions of the
coasts (tierras calientes). The slaves are four
times more numerous in the capitania general
of Caraccas, which does not contain the sixth part
of the population of Mexico. The negros of
Jamaica are to those of New Spain in the propor
tion of 250 to 1 ! In the West India islands, Peru,
and even Caraccas, the progress of agriculture and
industry in general depends on the augmentation
of negros. In the island of Cuba, for example,
where the annual exportation of sugar has risen in
twelve years from 400,000 to 1,000,000 quintals,
between 1792 and 1803 nearly 55,000* slaves
have been introduced. But in Mexico the increase

|| According to the custom-house reports of the Havanah,
of which I possess a copy, the introduction of negros, from
J799 to 1803, was 34,500, of whom 7 per cent, die annually.

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 237
of colonial prosperity is nowise occasioned by a
more active slave trade. It is not above twenty
years since Mexican sugar was known in Europe;
Vera Cruz, at present, exports more than 120,000
quintals; and yet the progress of sugar cultivation
which has taken place in New Spain since the
revolution of St. Domingo has not perceptibly
increased the number of slaves. Of the 74,000
negros annually furnished by Africa to the equi
noxial regions of America and Asia, and which
are worth in the colonies the sum of 111,000,000
francs*, not above 100 land on the coast of
Mexico. By the laws there can be no Indian slaves in
the Spanish colonies; and yet by a singular abuse,
two species of wars very different in appearance
give rise to a state very much like that of the
African slave. The missionary monks of South
America make from time to time incursions into
the countries possessed by peaceable tribes of In
dians, whom they call savages (Indios bravos),
because they have not learned to make the sign
ofthe cross like the equally naked Indians of the
missions (Indios reducidos). In these nocturnal
incursions, dictated by the most culpable fanati
cism, they lay hold of all whom they can surprise,
especially children, women, and old men. They
separate without pity children from their mothers
* 4,625,370/. sterling. Trans.

238 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
lest they should concert together as to the means
of escape. The monk who is chief of this expe
dition distributes the young people among the
Indians of his mission who have the most contri
buted to the success of the Entrados. On the
Orinoco, and on the banks ofthe Portuguese Rio
Negro, these prisoners bear the name of Poitos;
and they are treated like slaves till they are of an
age to marry. The desire of having Poitos, and
making them work for eight°or ten years, induces
the Indians ofthe missions to excite the monks to
these incursions, which the bishops havegenerally
had the good sense to blame, as the means of at
taching odium to religion and its ministers. In
Mexico the prisoners taken in the petty warfare
which is carried on almost without interruption
on the frontiers of the provincias internas experi
ence a much more unhappy fate than the Poitos.
They are generally ofthe nation of the Mecos or
Apaches, and they are dragged to Mexico, where
they languish in the dungeons of a correction-
house (la Corbada). Their ferocity is increased by
solitude and despair. Transported to Vera Cruz
and the island of Cuba, they soon perish, like every
savage Indian removed from the high table-land
into the lower, and consequently hotter regions.
These Mecos prisoners sometimes break from their
dungeons, and commit the most atrocious cruelties
in the surrounding countries. It is high time that
the government interested itself in these unfor-
18

chap, vn.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 239
tunate persons, whose number is small, and their
situation so much the easier to be ameliorated.
It appears that at the commencement of the
conquest there were a great number of these pri
soners of war at Mexico, who were treated as the
slaves ofthe conquerors. I found on this subject
a very remarkable passage in the testament of
Hernan Cortez*, an historical monument wor
thy of being preserved from oblivion. This great
captain, who, during the course of his victories,
especially in his perfidious conduct towards the
unfortunate Montezuma the Second, did not
display much delicacy of conscience t, began to
wards the end of his career to entertain scruples
* Testamento que otorgo el Excellentissimo Senor Don Her
nan Cortez, Conquistador de la Nueva Espana, hecho en Sevilla
el 11 del mes de Octobre, 1547. The original of this very cu
rious document, of which I caused a copy to be taken, exists
in the archives of the house del Estado (of the Marquis del
Valle) situated in the Plaza Mayor of Mexico. I found
also in these archives a memoir drawn up by Cortez, shortly
after the siege of Tenochtitlan, containing instructions re
lative to the making of roads, establishment of inns on the
great roads, and other objects of general police.
j Cortez, in his letters dated from la Ricca villa de Vera
Cruz, describes the city of Tenochtitlan to the emperor
Charles the Fifth as if he were speaking of the wonders of
the capital of el Dorado. After transmitting to him all the
information he could procure regarding the wealth " of the
powerful Lord Montezuma," he assures his sovereign, that
living or dead the Mexican king must fall into his hands.
" Certifique a Vuestra Alteza que lo habria prcso o muerto o
subdito a la Real Corona de Vuestra Magestad." (Lorenzana,
VOL. I. c C

240 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
as to the legitimacy of the titles by which he pos
sessed immense property at Mexico. He or
dered his son to make the most careful inquiries
into the tributes levied by the Mexican lords
who were proprietors of his marquisate before
the arrival of the Spaniards at Vera Cruz ; and
he even wishes that the value of the tributes ex
acted in his name above the imposts formerly
paid should be restored to the natives. Speak
ing of the slaves in the 39th and 41st articles of
his testament, Cortez adds the following me
morable words : " As it is doubtful if a Christian
can conscientiously employ as slaves Indians
who have been made prisoners of war, and as
this point has never been rightly cleared up till
this day, I order my son, Don Martin, and those
of his descendants who shall possess my pro
perty after me, to take every possible informa
tion as to the rights which may be legally exer
cised towards prisoners. The natives, who after
paying me tribute have been forced to yield
personal service, ought to be indemnified, if it
shall be decided in the sequel that these per
sonal services ought not to have been demand
ed." From whom should we have expected de
cisions on such .problematical questions as these,
except from a pope or a council ? We must own
p. 39.) We are to observe that this project was conceived
while the Spanish general was yet on the coast, and had had
no communication with the ambassadors of Montezuma.

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 241
that three centuries later, notwithstanding the
civilization of a more enlightened age, the rich
proprietors in America have less timorous eon-
sciences even on death-bed. In our days, it is
not the devotees but the philosophers who call
in question the justice of slavery ! But the small
influence which the empire of philosophy has
always had induces us to believe that it would
have been better for suffering humanity had
this sort of scepticism still been preserved among
believers. *
However, the slaves, who fortunately are in
very small numbers in Mexico, are there, as in
all the other Spanish possessions, somewhat
more under the protection of the laws than the
negros of the other European colonies. These
laws are always interpreted in favour of liberty.
The government wishes to see the number of
freemen increased. A slave, who by his industry
has procured a little money, may compel his
master to give him his liberty on paying the
moderate sum of 1500 or 2000 livres. t Liberty
cannot be refused to a negro on the pretext that
* Had M. de Humboldt been acquainted with the history
of the endeavours in this country to abolish the slave trade,
he would have found that these endeavours were principally
made by men whom he would call devotees, who acted un
der the influence of religious motives. The sect of quakers
in particular, and this ought to cover a multitude of their ab
surdities, were always staunch enemies to slavery. Trans.
X 62/. or 83/. sterling. Trans.
C C 2

242 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
he cost the triple of the sum, or that he posesses
a particular talent for some lucrative employ
ment. A slave who has been cruelly used ac
quires on that account his freedom by the law, if
the judge do justice to the cause ofthe oppress
ed ; but it may be easily conceived that this be
neficent law must be frequently eluded. I saw,
however, even in Mexico, in the month of July,
1803, an example of two negros to whom the
magistrate, who exercised the functions of al
calde de corte, gave their liberty, because their
mistress, a lady from the islands, had wounded
them all over the body with scissars, pins, and
knives. In the course of this shocking process,
the lady was accused of having, with a key,
knocked out the teeth of the slaves when they
complained of a fluxion in the gums, which pre
vented them from working. The Roman matrons
were not more ingenious in their punishments.
Barbarity is the same in all ages, when men can
indulge their passions without restraint, and when
governments tolerate an order of things contrary
to the laws of nature, and, consequently, to the
welfare of society.
We have enumerated the different races of
men who, at present, constitute the population
of New Spain. On glancing our eyes over the
physical views or sections which we have drawn
up of this country, we see that the greater part
v of a nation of six millions of inhabitants may be
considered as highlanders. On the table-land

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 243
of Anahuac, whose elevation surpasses at least
twice that of the clouds which in summer are
suspended over our heads, are assembled toge
ther copper-coloured men from the north-west
part of North America, Europeans, and a few
negros from the coasts of Bonny, Calabar, and
Melimbo. When we consider that what we now
call Spaniards is a mixture of Alani and other
Tartar hordes with the Visigoths and ancient
inhabitants of Iberia ; when we also consider
the striking analogy between the most part of
the European languages, the Sanscrit, and the
Persic ; and, in short, when we reflect on the
Asiatic origin of the pastoral tribes who have
been pouring into Mexico since the seventh cen
tury, we are almost tempted to believe, that from
one and the same centre, though by roads diame
trically opposite, have issued part of those na
tions, who, wandering about for a long time, and
after making, as it were, the tour of the globe,
meet once more on the ridge of the Mexican
Cordilleras. To complete the table ofthe elements of which
the Mexican population is composed, it remains
for us to point out rapidly the differences of cast
which spring from the mixture of the pure races
with one another. These casts constitute a mass
almost as considerable as the Mexican Indians.
We may estimate the total of the individuals of
mixed blood at nearlyJ2,40O,0OO. From a re-
"c'c 3 "

244 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
finement of vanity, the inhabitants ofthe colonies
have enriched their language with terms for the
finest shades of the colours which result from the
degeneration of the primitive colour. It may be
so much the more useful to explain these deno
minations *, as they have been confounded by
many travellers, and as this confusion frequently
causes no small embarrassment to those who read
Spanish works on the American possessions.
The son of a white (Creole or European,) and
a native of copper-colour, is called Mestizo. His
colour is almost a pure white ; and his skin is of
a particular transparency. The small beard and
small hands and feet, and a certain obliquity of
the eyes, are more frequent indications of the
mixture of Indian blood than the nature of the
hair. If a Mestiza marry a white man, the se
cond generation differs hardly in any thing from
the European race. As very few negros have
been introduced into New Spain, the Mestizos
V probably compose £ of the whole casts. They
are generally accounted of a much more mild
r character than the mulattoes, descended from
whites and negresses, who are distinguished for
the violence of their passions and a singular volu
bility of tongue. The descendants of negros
and Indian women bear at Mexico, Lima, and
even at the Havanah, the strange name of Chino,
Chinese. On the coast of Caraccas, and, as ap-
* Sobre el Clima de Lima, por el Doctor Unanue, p. xlviii.
a work printed in Pern, in 1806.

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 245
pears from the laws, even in New Spain, they
are called zambos. This last denomination is
now principally limited to the descendants of a
negro and a female mulatto, or a negro and a
Chinese female. From these common zambos,
they distinguish the zambos prietos, who descend
from a negro and a female zamba. From the
mixture of a white man with a mulatto comes the
cast of quarterons. When a female quarteron
marries a European or Creole, her son bears the
name of qiunteron. A new alliance with a
white banishes to such a degree the remains of
colour, that the children of a white and female
quinteron are white also. The casts of Indian
or African blood preserve the odour peculiar to
the cutaneous transpiration of those two primi
tive races. The Peruvian Indians, who in the
middle ofthe night distinguish the different races
by their quick sense of smell, have formed three
words to express the odour of the European, the
Indian American, and the negro : they call the
first pezuna, the second posco *, and the third
grajo. Moreover, the mixtures, in which the
colour of the children becomes deeper than that
of their mother, are called salta-atras, or back-
leaps. In a country governed by whites, the families
reputed to have the least mixture of negro or mu
latto blood are also naturally the most honoured.
* Old word of the Qquichua language.
C C 4

246 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
In Spain it is almost a title of nobility to descend
neither from Jews nor Moors. In America, the
greater or less degree of whiteness of skin decides
the rank which man occupies in society. A white
who rides barefooted on horseback thinks he be
longs to the nobility of the country. Colour esta
blishes even a certain equality among men, who,
as is universally the case where civilization is
either little advanced or in a retrograde state, take
a particular pleasure in dwelling on the preroga
tives of race and origin. When a common man
disputes with one of the titled lords of the coun
try, he is frequently heard to say, " Do you think
me not so white as yourself?" This may serve
to characterize the state and source of the actual
aristocracy. It becomes, consequently, a very
interesting business for the public vanity to esti
mate accurately the fractions of European blood
which belong to the different casts. According
to the principles sanctioned by usage, we have
adopted the following proportions :

Casts.

Mixture of blood.

Quarterons Quinterons
Zambo
Zambo prieto .

. i negro a white
. i negro \ white
. f negro \ white.
. \ negro \ white.

It often happens that families suspected of be
ing of mixed blood demand from the high court

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 247
of justice (I'audiencia) to have it declared that
they belong to the whites. These declarations
are not always corroborated by the judgment of
the senses. We see very swarthy mulattoes who
have had the address to get themselves whitened
(this is the vulgar expression). When the colour
of the skin is too repugnant to the judgment de
manded, the petitioner is contented with an ex
pression somewhat problematical. The sentence
then simply bears " that such or such individuals
may consider themselves as whites (que se tengan
por blancos)."
It would be interesting were we enabled to dis
cuss thoroughly the influence of the diversity of
casts in the proportion of the sexes to one an
other. I saw, from the enumeration in 1793, that
in the city of Puebla and at Valladolid there were
among the Indians more men than women, while
among the Spaniards of the white race there were
more women than men. The intendancies of
Guanaxuato and Oaxaca exhibit in all the casts
the same excess of men. * I never could procure
* This hardly makes in favour of John Rheinhold Forster's
theory, embraced with so much ardour by the far-famedvMary
Wollstonecroft in her Rights of Women, that the sex of the
offspring is determined by the side on which the preponder
ance of ardour lies in the sexual intercourse. Hence, says
she ' there are more females than males in the east ; for the
females being deprived of their just share in that intercourse,
have consequently a more than ordinary share of ardour.'
Yet here we see that these beardless Indians, who are cool

248 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
sufficient materials to resolve the problem ofthe
diversity of sexes according to the difference of
races, or according to the heat of the climate or
elevation of the regions which our species inha
bit : — We shall here, therefore, merely content
ourselves with general results. '
In France it has been found by a partial enu
meration made with the greatest care, that in
991,829 souls, the living women are to the men
in the proportion of nine to eight. M. Peuchet*
appears to adopt the proportion of 34 : 33. It
is certain that in France there are more women
than men, and, what is very remarkable, that
there are more males born in the country and in
the south than in the towns and departments
comprehended between the 47th and 52d degree
of latitude.
But in New Spain these arithmetical calcula
tions give a result totally different. The males
are in general more numerous there than the fe
males, as is proved by the following table, drawn
up by me from eight provinces, or a population
of 1,352,000 inhabitants :—

enough in all conscience, and to whom their women prefer
any thing that comes in their way, black or white, beget
more males than females. Trans.
* Statisque elementaire de la France, p. 242.

chap, vn.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN.

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called presidios, in which there are no women. But we shall
250 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
It follows from my calculations, compared with
those made by the ministry of the interior at
Paris, that the males are to the females in the
general population of New Spain in the propor
tion of 100 : 95 ; and in the French empire in
the proportion of 100 : 103. These numbers ap
pear to indicate the true state of things ; for we
cannot conceive why, in the enumeration made
by orders of the Count de Revillagigedo, the
Mexican women should have more interest in
withdrawing themselves than the men. This sus
picion is so much the more improbable, as in the
great cities the proportion between the sexes
appears to differ from that in the country. *

afterwards see, that these presidios in the whole do not con
tain more than three thousand men.
* The Spanish missionaries tell us that among the Indians
it is very common for a mother to kill her female offspring,
from a wish to preserve her child from the misery which
awaits her when grown up. (Gumilla, Vol. II. p. 71.) Gu
milla used to tax the women with their inhumanity in this re
spect, who, for answer, generally told him that they wished
that they had themselves been deprived of life in childhood ;
and he gives, as he says, a faithful report of a speech made to
him one day by one of these women, which occupies two or
three pages. She enumerates the life of hardship which she
had been obliged to lead, carrying her children about while
working during the day, and while her husband was amusing
himself, and grinding his maize and preparing it for his break
fast during the night while he enjoyed himself in sleep. All
this, she says, however, could even be borne with ; but as she
advances in years, the husband takes a young wife, who
11

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 251
It is the aspect of these great cities which has
probably given rise to the false idea generally
prevailing in the colonies, that in warm climates,
and consequently in all the lower regions ofthe
torrid zone, more girls than boys are born. The
few parish registers which I examined gave a di
rectly contrary result. In the capital of Mexico
there were born in five years between 1797 and
1802, In the parishes of Male births. Female births.
the Sagrario - 3705 3603
of Santa Cruz- 1275 1167
At Panuco and Yguala, two places situated in
a very warm and very unhealthy climate, there
was not one register in which the excess was not
on the side of the male births. * In general, the
engrosses his affections, and to whom she and her children
are obliged to become the slaves. The speech displays great
feeling, and is no small credit to female Indian eloquence.
(Id. p. 75 — 77. ) This is the fate of the Indian women in the
Spanish missions ; it was once, no doubt, universal over the
whole country ; and though now, perhaps, somewhat milder
among the Indios reducidos, yet a custom is often kept up
long after the cause of it has ceased. We might account in
this way for the smaller number of females than males among
the Indians ; and what appears to favour this view is, that in
the great cities, where the treatment of the females must be
better from the influence of the whites, and consequently
fewer female children will be murdered, the number of fe
males exceeds that ofthe males. Trans.
* At Panuco, the parish registers give, from 1793 to 1802,

252 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
proportion of male to female births appears to me
in New Spain to be as 100 : 97 ; which indicates
an excess of males somewhat greater than in
France, where for 100 boys there are born 96
girls. *
As to the proportion of the deaths to the dif
ference of sexes, it was impossible for me to
discover the law established by nature. At Pa
nuco, in ten years, there died 479 males for 509
females. At Mexico, there were in one parish,
that of the Sagrario, during five years, 2393 fe
male deaths, and 1951 male. According to these
data, very insufficient it must be allowed, the ex
cess of men in life ought to be still greater than
what it was found. But it appears that in other
countries the male deaths are more frequent than
the female deaths. At Yguala and Colimaya, the
former were to the latter, for ten years, as 1204 :
1191, and 1330 : 1272. M. de Pomelles has al
ready observed, that in France even, the difference
of the sexes is much more sensible in the births
than in the deaths ; there are one-seventeenth

,for 674 male births, 550 female births. At Yguala there were
1738 boys for 1635 girls.
* I need not caution the reader that the proportion of male
and female births is one thing, and that of males and females
in existence another. For instance, M. de Humboldt has
just told us, that the females are to the males in France as
103 : 100, though the female births are to the male as 96 :
100. Trans.

chap, vn.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 253
more males than females born, and the peaceful
state of the country peasants gives only one-
nineteenth more male than female deaths. From
the whole of these data we may conclude that in
Europe as well as the equinoxial regions, who
have enjoyed a long state of tranquillity, we
should find an excess of males, if the sea, the
wars, and dangerous employments peculiar to
our sex did not tend incessantly to diminish
their number.
The population of the great cities is by no
means stable, and does not remain in a state of
equilibrium with respect to the different sexes.
The country-women come into the cities to serve
in houses who want slaves ; and a great number
of men leave them to travel through the country
as muleteers (arrieros), or to fix their abode in
places where there are considerable mines. What
ever be the cause of this disproportion of sexes
in the cities, it is no less certain that such a dis
proportion exists. The following table, which
includes only three cities, exhibits a striking
contrast to the table which we gave of the ge
neral population of-eight Mexican provinces : —

254

POLITICAL ESSAY QN THE [book ii.

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number of Spanish women who quit Europe for Mexico.
chap. vn.J KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 255
In the United States of North America the
enumerations, which include the whole popula
tion, indicate, as in Europe * and Mexico, an ex
cess of males in life. This excess is very unequal
in a country where the emigration of whites, the
introduction of many male slaves, and maritime
commerce, tend incessantly to disturb the order
prescribed by nature. In the states of Ver-
montt, Kentucky, and South Carolina, there
are almost one-tenth more males than females,
while in Pennsylvania and the State of New York
this disproportion does not amount to one
eighteenth. When the kingdom of New Spain shall enjoy
an administration favourable to knowledge, poli
tical arithmetic will there furnish data of infinite
importance both for statistics in general, and for
the physical history of man in particular. How
many problems are to resolve in a mountainous
country which exhibits under the same latitude
the greatest variety of climates, inhabitants of
three or four primitive races, and the mixture of
these races in all the combinations imaginable !
How many researches to make regarding the age
of puberty, the fecundity of the species, the dif
ference of the sexes, and the longevity which is
* Yet he has just stated, that in the French empire the
females in life are to the males as 103 to 100 ! Trans i
X Samuel Blodget, p. 75.
VOL. I. D D

256 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
greater or less according to the elevation and
temperature of the places, according to the va
riety of races, according to the epoch at which
the colonists were transplanted into such or such
a region, and, in short, according to the differ
ence of food in provinces where the banana, the
jatropha, rice, maize, wheat, and potatoes, grow
together in a narrow space.
A traveller cannot give himself up to re
searches which require much time, the interven
tion of the supreme authority, and the concur
rence of a great number of individuals interested
in accomplishing the same end. It is sufiicient
here to have pointed out what remains to be
done when the government shall be disposed to
profit by the happy position in which nature has
placed this extraordinary country.
The operations of 1793, respecting the popula
tion of the capital, offer results which are deserv
ing of a place at the end of this chapter. The
individuals in this part ofthe enumeration, below
and above the age of fifty, were distinguished ac
cording to the difference of cast ; and it was
found that this epoqua was passed :
By 4128 white Creoles in a total population of
50,371
By 539 mulattoes . . 7,094
By 1789 Indians . . 25,603
By 1278 of mixed blood . 19,357

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chap, vn.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 257
So that there have past the age of 50 :
In 100 white Creoles (Spaniards) . 8
Indians . . .6^
Mulattoes . . .7
Individuals of other mixed casts 6
These calculations, while they confirm the ad
mirable uniformity which reigns in all the laws of
nature, seem to indicate that longevity is some
what greater in the races which are best fed, and
in which the epoqua of puberty is later. Of 2335
Europeans who were living in Mexico in 1793,
not fewer than 442 had attained the age of fifty,
which by no means proves that the Americans
have three times less probability of attaining an
advanced age than the Europeans ; for the Eu
ropeans seldom remove to America till they
have come to a mature age.
'After examining the physical and moral state
of the different casts of which the Mexican po
pulation is composed, the reader will no doubt
desire to have a discussion of what is the influ
ence of this mixture of races on the general well-
being of society ; and what is the degree of en
joyment and individual happiness, which, in the
actual state of the country, a man of cultivated
mind can procure amidst such a collision of in
terests, prejudices, and feelings.
We will not speak here of the advantages af
forded by the Spanish colonies from the wealth of
their natural productions, the fertility oftheir soil,
d u 2

258 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
the facility which a man possesses there of choos
ing as he feels inclined, with thermometer in
hand in a space of a few square leagues, the tem
perature or climate which he believes the most
favourable to his age, his physical constitution,
or the species of cultivation to which he is most
attached. We will not retrace the view of those
delicious countries, situated half way up the as
cent, in the region of oaks and pines, between
1,000 and 1,400 metres*, where a perpetual
spring reigns, where the most delicious fruits of
the Indies are cultivated beside those of Europe,
and where these enjoyments are troubled neither
by the multitude of insects, nor the fear of the
yellow fever (vomito), nor the frequency of earth
quakes. We will not discuss in this place if,
without the tropics, there exists a region in which
man, with less labour, can supply more abun
dantly the wants of a numerous family. The
physical prosperity of the colonist does not alone
modify his intellectual and moral existence.
When a European, who has enjoyed all that is
most attractive in the social life of countries the
farthest advanced in civilization, transports him
self into these distant regions of the new conti
nent, he feels oppressed at every step with the in
fluence which the colonial government has for
centuries exercised over the minds ofthe inhabit-
* 3,280 and 4,592 feet. Trans.

chap, vn.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 259
ants. A well-informed man, who merely inte
rests himself in the intellectual developement of
the species, suffers less perhaps than the man who
is endowed with great sensibility. The former
institutes a comparison with the mother country ;
from maritime communication he procures books
and instruments ; he sees with ecstacy the pro
gress which the exact sciences have made in the
great cities of Spanish America ; and the con
templation of nature in all her grandeur, and the
astonishing variety of her productions, indemni
fies his mind for the privations to which his posi
tion condemns him. But the man of sensibility
must seek in the Spanish colonies for every thing
agreeable in life within himself alone. It is in
this way that insolation and solitude have their
attractions for him, if hewishes to enjoy peaceably
the advantages afforded by the excellence of the
climate, the aspect of a never-fading verdure,
and the political calm of the new world. While
I freely give these ideas to the world, I am not
censuring the moral character of the inhabitants
of Mexico or Peru ; nor do I say that the people
of Lima are worse than those of Cadiz. I am
rather inclined to believe, what many other tra
vellers have observed before me, that the Ame
ricans are endowed by nature with a gentleness
of manners rather approaching to effeminacy, as
the energy of several European nations easily
degenerates into harshness. The want of socia-
d d 3

260 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book ii.
bility so universal in the Spanish colonies, and the
hatreds which divide the casts of greatest affinity,
the effects of which shed a bitterness over the life
of the colonists, are solely due to the political
principles by which these regions have been go
verned since the sixteenth century. A govern
ment, aware of the true interests of humanity,
will be able to diffuse information and instruc
tion, and by extinguishing gradually the mon
strous inequality of rights and fortunes, will suc
ceed in augmenting the physical prosperity of
the colonists ; but it will find immense difficul
ties to overcome before rendering the inhabitants
sociable, and teaching them to consider them
selves mutually in the light of fellow-citizens.
Let us not forget that in the United States so
ciety is formed in a very different manner from
what it is in Mexico and the other continental
regions of the Spanish colonies. Penetrating into
the Alleghany mountains, the Europeans found
immense forests, in which a few tribes of hunters
wandered up and down, attached by no tie to an
uncultivated soil. At the approach of the new
colonists, the natives gradually retired towards
the western savannas in the neighbourhood ofthe
Mississippi and the Missoury. In this manner
free men of the same race and the same origin
became the first elements of a new people. " In
North America," says a celebrated statesman, " a
traveller who sets out from a great town where

chap, vii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 261
the social state has attained to perfection, tra
verses successively all degrees of civilization and
industry, which keep diminishing till he arrives
in a few days at the rude and unseemly hut
formed of the trunks of trees newly cut down.
Such a journey is a sort of practical analysis of
the origin of nations and states. We set out
from the most complicated union to arrive at the
most simple elements ; we travel in retrogression
the history of the progress of the human mind ;
and we find in space what is due only to the suc
cession of time." *
In New Spain and Peru, if we except the mis
sions, the colonists nowhere returned to the state
of nature. Fixing themselves in the midst of
agricultural nations, who themselves lived under
governments equally complicated and despotic,
the Europeans took advantage of the preponde-
rancy of their civilization, their cunning, and the
authority they derived from the conquest. This
particular situation, and the mixture of races of
which the interests are diametrically opposite,
became an inexhaustible source of hatred and
disunion. In proportion „as the descendants of
the Europeans became more numerous than
those sent over directly by the mother country,
the white race divided into two parties, of which
the ties of blood cannot heal the resentments.
* M. de Talleyrand, in his Essay on Colonization.
D D 4

262 POLITICAL ESSAY, &c [book ii.
The colonial government from a mistaken policy
wished to take advantage of these dissensions.
The greater the colony, the greater the suspicion
of the administration. According to the ideas
which unfortunately have been adopted for ages,
these distant regions are considered as tributary
to Europe. Authority is there distributed not
in the manner which the public interest requires,
but according as the dread of seeing a too rapid
increase in the prosperity of the inhabitants
seems to dictate. Seeking security in civil dis
sensions, in the balance of power, and in a com
plication of all the springs of the great political
machine, the mother country foments incessantly
the spirit of party and hatred among the casts
and constituted authorities. From this state of
things arises a rancour which disturbs the enjoy
ments of social life.

BOOK III.
PARTICULAR STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE
INTENDANCIES OF WHICH THE KINGDOM OF
NEW SPAIN IS COMPOSED. — THEIR TERRI
TORIAL EXTENT AND POPULATION.

CHAPTER VIII.
Of the political division of the Mexican territory, and the
proportion of the population of the intendancies to their terri
torial extent. — Principal cities.
Jjefore giving the table which contains a par
ticular statistical account of the intendancies of
New Spain, we shall discuss the principles on
which the new territorial divisions are founded.
These divisions are entirely unknown to the most
modern geographers ; and we here repeat what
we have already stated in the introduction to this
work, that our general map of New Spain is the
only one which contains the limits of the inten
dancies established since 1776.
Mr. Pinkerton, in the second edition of his Mo
dern Geography*, has endeavoured to give a
* It is this moment announced (Bibliotheque Americaine,
1808, No. 9.) that M. Pinkerton boasts of having availed

264 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi.
minute description of the Spanish possessions in
North America ; and he has contrived to mix se
veral exact notions derived from the Viajero Uni
versal, with the most vague data furnished by the
dictionary of M. Alcedo. This author, who be
lieves himself to possess a singular knowledge of
the true territorial divisions of New Spain, con
siders the provinces of Sonora, Cinaloa, and la
Pimeria, as parts of New Biscay. He divides what
he calls the dominion (domaine) of Mexico into
the districts of Nueva Galicia, Panuco, Zacatula,
&c. &c. According to this principle we should

himself of my manuscripts for his work on Mexico. I com
municated with the frankness natural to me, several manu
script notes to M. Bourgoing, to M. Alexander Laborde, and
several other savans of equal respectability. I never com
municated any thing to M. Pinkerton ; and the manner in
which he treated me in his Geography before my return to
Europe, was not calculated to produce an intimacy between
us. A compiler as inaccurate as he is arrogant, M. Pinker
ton, in the style which is peculiar to him, finds every thing
which is repugnant to the ideas formed by him in his closet
" ridiculous, disgusting, and absurd." Not knowing that the
map of La Cruz is drawn up from that of Father Caulin, he
will allow no other course to the rivers but what he finds in
dicated by the former. He pushes his scepticism so far, that
if we would believe him, M. Depons, the author of the Voy
age a la Terre-Ferme, does not even know the name of the
country in which he lived for four years ! The notes of the
new edition of M. Pinkerton's Geography especially contri
bute to diffuse the most erroneous ideas in physics and de
scriptive natural history.

chap, vm.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 265
say that the three great divisions of Europe are
Spain, Languedoc, Catalonia, and the territories
of Cadiz and Bordeaux.
Before the introduction of the new administra
tion by Count Don Jose de Galvez, minister of
the Indies, New Spain contained, 1, El Reyno de
Mexico ; 2, El Reyno de Nueva Galicia ; 3, El
Nuevo Reyno de Leon ; 4, la colonia del Nuevo
Santander ; 5, la provincia de Texas ; 6, la pro-
vincia de Cohahuila ; 7> la provincia de Nueva
Biscaya j 8, la provincia de la Sonora ; 9, la pro
vincia de Nuevo Mexico ; and 10, Ambas Cali-
fornias, or las provincias de la Vieja y Nueva Cali
fornia. These old divisions are still very fre
quently used in the country. The limits which
separate la Nueva Galicia from el Reyno de Mex
ico, to which a part of the old kingdom of Me
choacan belongs, are also the line of demarcation
between the jurisdiction ofthe two audiences of
Mexico and Guadalaxara. This line, which I
was not able to trace on my general map does not
exactly follow the contours ofthe new intendan
cies. It begins on the coast ofthe gulf of Mex
ico, ten leagues to the north ofthe Rio de Panuco
and the city of Altamira near Bara Ciega, and
runs through the intendancy of S. Luis Potosi to
the mines of Potosi and Bernalejo ; from thence
passing along the southern extremity of the in
tendancy of Zacatecas, and the western limits of
the intendancy of Guanaxuato, it traverses the in-

266 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi.
tendancy of Guadalaxara between Zapotlan and
Sayula, between Ayotitlan and the Ciudad de la
Purificacion, to Guatlan, one of vthe ports of the
South Sea. All north of this line belongs to the
audiencia of Guadalaxara ; and all south of it
to the audiencia of Mexico.
In its present state New Spain is divided into
twelve intendancies, to which we must add three
other districts, very remote from the capital,
which have preserved the simple denomination
of provinces. These fifteen divisions are,
I. UNDER THE TEMPERATE ZONE, 82,000
leagues, with 677>000 souls, or eight inha
bitants to the square league.
A. Region of the north, an interior region.
1. Provincia de Nuevo Mexico, along the
Rio del Norte to the north ofthe parallel
of 31°.
2. Intendencia de Nueva Biscaya, to the
south-west of the Rio del Norte, on the
central table-land which declines rapidly
from Durango towards Chihuahua.
B. Region of the north-west, in the vici
nity ofthe Great Ocean.
3. Provincia de la Nueva California, or
north-west coast of North America pos
sessed by the Spaniards.
4. Provincia de la Antigua California. Its
southern extremity enters the torrid zone.
5. Intendencia de la Sonora. The most

chap, vm.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 267
southern part of Cinaloa, in which the
celebrated mines of Copala and Rosario are
situated, also passes the tropic of Cancer.
C. Region of the north-east, adjoining the
gulf of Mexico.
6. Intendencia de San Luis Potosi. It com
prehends the provinces of Texas, la colonia
de Nuevo Santander and Cohahuila, El-
Nuevo Reyno de Leon, and the districts of
Charcas, Altamira, Catorce, and Ramos.
Theselast districts composetheintendancy
of San Luis properly so called. The
southern part, which extends to the south
of the Barra de Santander and the Real
de Catorce, belongs to the torrid zone.
II. UNDER THE TORRID ZONE, 36,500
square leagues, with 5,160,000 souls, or
141 inhabitants to the square league*
D. Central region.
7. Intendencia de Zacatecas, excepting the
part which extends to the north of the
mines of Fresnillo.
8. Intendencia de Guadalaxara.
9. Intendencia de Guanaxuato.
10. Intendencia de Valladolid.
11. Intendencia de Mexico.
12. Intendencia de la Puebla.
13. Intendencia de Vera Cruz,
E. Region of the south-west.

268 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iii.
14. Intendencia de Oaxaca.
15. Intendencia de Merida.
The divisions in this table are founded on the
physical state of the country. We see that nearly
seven-eighths of the inhabitants live under the
torrid zone. The population becomes thinner
as we advance towards Durango and Chihuahua.
In this respect New Spain bears a striking ana
logy to Hindostan, which in its north parts is
bounded by regions almost uncultivated and un
inhabited. Of five millions who inhabit the
equinoxial part of Mexico, four-fifths live on the
ridge of the Cordillera, or table-lands, whose ele
vation above the level of the sea equals that of
the passage of Mount Cenis.
New Spain, considering its provinces accord
ing to their commercial relations, or the situation
ofthe coasts, is divided into three regions.
I. PROVINCES OF THE INTERIOR,
which do not extend to the ocean.
1. Nuevo Mexico.
2. Nueva Biscaya.
3. Zacatecas.
4. Guanaxuato.
II. MARITIME PROVINCES, of the
eastern coast opposite to Europe :
5. San Luis Potosi.
6. Vera Cruz.
1. Merida, or Yucatan.

chap, viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 269
III. MARITIME PROVINCES, ofthe west-
ern coast opposite to Asia.
8. New California.
9. Old California.
10. Sonora.
11. Guadalaxara.
12. Valladolid.
13. Mexico.
14. Puebla.
15. Oaxaca.
These divisions will one day possess great poli
tical interest, when the cultivation of Mexico shall
be less concentrated on the central table-land or
ridge of the cordillera, and when the coasts shall
become more populous. The maritime provinces
of the west will send their vessels to Nootka, to
China, and the East Indies. The Sandwich
islands, inhabited by a ferocious, but industrious
and enterprising people, appear more likely des
tined to receive Mexican than European colo
nists. They afford an important stage to the
nations who carry on commerce in the Great
Ocean. The inhabitants of New Spain and
Peru have never yet been able to profit by their
advantageous position on a coast opposite Asia
and New Holland. They do not even know the
productions ofthe South Sea islands. The bread
fruit tree and sugar-cane, of Otaheite, that pre
cious reed, the cultivation of which has had such
a happy influence on West India commerce,

270 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iii.
will one day be received by them from Jamaica,
the Havanah, and Caraccas, and no longer from
the more adjoining islands. What efforts have
not been made by the United States of North
America, within the last ten years, to open a
communication with the western coast, with the
same coast on which the Mexicans possess the
finest ports, but without activity and without
commerce. According to the ancient division of the coun
try, the Reyno de Nueva Galicia contained more
than 14,000 square leagues, and nearly a mil
lion of inhabitants : it included the intendancies
of Zacatecas and Guadalaxara*, as well as a
small part of that of San Luis Potosi. The
regions now known by the denomination of the
seven intendancies of Guanaxuato, Valladolid
or Mechoacan, Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz,
Oaxaca, and Merida, formed, along with a small
portion of the intendancy of San Luis Potosi t,
the Reyno de Mexico, properly so called. This
kingdom consequently contained more than
27,000 square leagues, and nearly four millions
and a half of inhabitants.
Another division of New Spain, equally ancient
and less vague, is that which distinguishes New
Spain, properly so called, from the provincias in-
* With the exception of the most southern part, which
contains the volcano of Colima and the village of Ayotitan.
f The most southern part through which the river of Pa-
uco runs.

chap, viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 271
ternas. To the latter belongs all to the north
and north-west ofthe kingdom of Nueva Galicia,
with the exception of the two Calif brnias ; con
sequently, 1. the small kingdom of Leon ; 2. the
colony of New Santander ; 3. Texas ; 4. New
Biscay ; 5. Sonora ; 6. Cohahuila ; and 7. New
Mexico. The provincias internas del Vireynato,
which contain 7814 square leagues, are distin
guished from the provincias internas de la Coman-
dancia (of Chihuahua), erected into a capitania
general in 1779, which contain 59,375 square
leagues. Of the twelve new intendancies, three
are situated in the provincias internas, Durango,
Sonora, and San Luis Potosi. We must not,
however, forget that the intendant of San Luis
is only under the direct authority of the viceroy
for Leon, Santander, and the districts near his
residence, those of Charcas, Catorce, and Alta-
mira. The governments of Cohahuila and Texas
make also part of the intendancy of San Luis
Potosi, but they belong directly to the coman-
dancia general de Chihuahua. The following
tables will throw some light on these very com
plicated territorial divisions. Let us divide all
New Spain into
A. Provincias stjetas al Virey de Nueva Es
pana; 59,103 square leagues, with 547,790*
souls : the ten intendancies of Mexico, Pue-
* This number ought to be 5,479,095. Trans.
VOL. 1. E E

272 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iji.
bla, Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Merida, Vallado
lid, Guadalaxara, Zacatecas, Guanaxuato,
and San Luis Potosi (without including Co
hahuila and Texas) ;
The two Californias.
B. Provincias sujetas al comandante general de
provincias internas, 59,375 square leagues,
with 359,200 inhabitants :
The two intendancies of Durango and So
nora ;
The province of Nuevo Mexico ;
Cohahuila and Texas.
The whole of New Spain, 118,478 square
leagues, with 5,837,100 inhabitants.
These tables exhibit the surface of the pro
vinces calculated in square leagues of 25 to the
degree, according to the general map accompany
ing this work. The first calculations were made
at Mexico in the end of 1803, by M. Oteyza and
myself. My geographical labours having since
that period attained to greater perfection, M. Olt
manns was so good as to recalculate the whole
territorial surfaces. He executed this operation
with the precision which characterizes whatever
he undertakes, having formed squares of which
the sides did not contain more than three minutes.
The population indicated in my tables is what
may be supposed to have existed in 1803. I have
explained in the 4th chapter (page 97- 110.) the
principles on which the changes were made in the

chap, vm.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 273
numbers obtained by the enumeration of 1793.
I am aware that modern geographers admit only
from two to three millions of inhabitants for
Mexico. In all times the population of Asia has
been exaggerated, and that of the Spanish pos
sessions in America lowered. We forget that
with a fine climate and fertile soil, population
makes rapid advances even in countries the worst
administered j and we also forget that men scat
tered over an immense territory suffer less from
the imperfections of the social state than when
the population is very concentrated.
We are uncertain as to the limits which ought
to be assigned to New Spain to the north and
east. It is not enough that a country has been
run over by a missionary monk, or that a coast
has been seen by a vessel of war, to consider it
as belonging to the Spanish colonies of America.
Cardinal Lorenzana printed at Mexico, even in
1770, that New Spain, through the bishopric of
Durango, bordered perhaps on Tartary and
Greenland ! * We are now too well instructed in
geography to yield ourselves up to such vague
suppositions. A viceroy of Mexico caused the
American colonies ofthe Russians onthepenin-
* " Y aun se ignora si la Nueva Espana por lo mas remot0
de la diocesis de Durango confina con la Tartariay Groelandia
per las Calif ornias con la Tartar ia, y por el Nuevo Mexico con
la Groelandia." Lorenzana, p. 38.
E E 2

274 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iii.
sula of Alaska to be visited from San Bias. The
attention of the Mexican government was for a
long time turned to the north-west coast, espe
cially since the establishment at Nootka, which
the court of Madrid was compelled to abandon
to avoid a war with England. The inhabitants of
the United States carry their civilization towards
the Missoury. They gradually approach the coast
ofthe Great Ocean, to which the fur- trade invites
them. The period approaches when, through the
rapid progress of human cultivation, the bounda
ries of New Spain will join those ofthe Russian
empire, ancl the great confederation of American
republics. At present, however, the Mexican
government extends no farther along the western
coast than the mission of St. Francis, to the south
of Cape Mendocin, and the village of Taos in
New Mexico. The boundaries ofthe intendancy
of San Luis Potosi on the east towards the state
of Louisiana are not very well determined ; the
congress of Washington endeavour to confine
them to the right bank ofthe Rio Bravo del Norte,
while the Spaniards comprehend under the deno
mination of province of Texas, the savannas which
extend to the Rio Mexicano or Mermentas, to
the East of the Rio Sabina.
The following table exhibits the surface and
population of the greatest political associations
of Europe and Asia : it will furnish curious com
parisons with the present state of Mexico : —
9

Great Political Associations in 1808.

and

Russian empire
1 . European part
2. Asiatic part -
The single government of Irkutzk
The single government of Tobolsk
All Europe - - . . ¦
The United States of North America, viz.
1. With Louisiana
2. Without Louisiana * - " . ' .
3. Without Louisiana and the Indian territory (in Georgia
Western Waters)
Hindostan on this side (en-deca) the Ganges f
* The calculations regarding America proceed on an erroneous estimation ofthe square mile. The terri
tory without Louisiana amounts only to 117,478, and not 156,240 square leagues. See this explained in a
note d. 278., bv the translator. Trans. .
+ According to Arrowsmith's beautiful map of India, 1804. (Journal Astronomique de MM. Zach et
Lindenau, 1807, p. 361.) the rest of the data from the classical work of M. Hassel, Statistical View of the
States of Europe, No. I. (1805,) in German.

Square
Leagues of 25
to the Degree.

942,452215,809726,644 350,000
200,000
476,111 260,340 156,240 78,120
162,827

Total
Population.

40,000,000 36,400,000 3,597,000 680,600 72,547
182,599,000 6,800,000 6,715,000
6,655,000

Inhabitants to the
Square
League.

42
169 52 1
383 224385

o K >•a

r—<
Q
Q
O

O
Z
in?a>

to
—i

Great Political Associations in 1808.

English territory, of which the East India Company possesses the
sovereignty . , r * r
Allies and tributaries of the English company " .
Turkish empire in Europe, Asia, and Africa
Austrian monarchy
France, according to M. Peuchet . .
Spain, according to M. Laborde . "
New Spain,
1. With the provincias internas
2. Without the provincias internas . . '.

Square
Leagues of 25
to the Degree.

48,29932,647
136,110 33,258 32,000
25,147

118,378 51,289

Total
Population.

Inhabitants to the
Square
League.

23,806,000 16,900,000
25,330,000 25,588,00035,000,00010,409,000 5,837,1005,413,900

493
518 186
769
1094 413
49
105

to
05

Of< i— i
H>— <
O w
CO CXI> OH aw

ca o
o

chap, vm.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 277
We see from this table, which may suggest
very curious considerations as to the dispropor
tion of European cultivation, that New Spain is
almost four times larger than the French empire,
with a population which till this day is seven
times smaller. The points of analogy in a com
parison of the United States * with Mexico are
* The extent of territory of the United States is very dif
ficult to estimate in square leagues, especially since the ac
quisition of Louisiana, the limits of which may be said to be
very uncertain towards the west and north-west.. According
to M. Hutchins, the old geographer of the congress, and the
author of the beautiful map of the countries situated beyond
the Ohio, the United States contained in 1795 a surface of
640 millions of acres, or (discounting the lakes) 589 millions.
Now 640 acres make a square mile ; consequently (reducing
in the proportion of 144 : 25) the 589 millions of acres are
equivalent to 159,000 square leagues, of 25 to- the degree.
I have followed in the estimation of the territory in the pre
ceding table the manuscript-notes with which 1 was furnished
by a respectable statesman, M. Gallatin, the American trea
surer at Washington. According to these notes, the United
States, without Louisiana, contain 900,000 square miles, or
156,240 square leagues. This number is less by one-ninth
than what is generally adopted by the American geogra
phers ; but this difference proceeds from the more exact
calculations of the surface of the lakes, and the more eastern
position of the Mississippi, determined by the observations
of M. Ellicot. M. Gallatin believes that the error of his
estimation does not exceed 50,000 square miles. The half
of these 156,240 square leagues belongs to the Indians, and.
can only be considered in the light of a country possessed by
allies. I am of opinion that if we only include the regions
in which the whites have already made establishments, and
exclude those which are either desert or inhabited by Indians,
the territory of the United States in place of 260,340 ought
E E 'i>

278 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi.
very striking, especially if 'we consider Louisiana
and the western territory as the provincias in
ternas of the great confederation of American
republics. I have described the state of the provincias in
ternas as it was when I left Mexico. A consider
able change has since taken place in the military
government of these vast provinces, of which the
surface almost doubles that ofthe French empire.
In 1807, two commandantes generates, brigadier
generals (brigadiers) Don Nemesio Salcedo and
Don Pedro Grimarest, governed these northern
provinces. The following is the present division
of the Gobierno militar, which is now no longer in
the hands ofthe governor of Chihuahua alone : —

not to be estimated above 100 or 120,000 square leagues.
Author. The author is correct enough in the number of acres which
he assigns to the square mile, but he errs in converting the
square miles into square leagues. The proportion by which
he reduces the square miles into leagues is 144 : 25, which is
equal to 5.76: 1. This proportion corresponds exactly to
geographical miles of 60 to the degree. But the English
square mile of 640 acres is not a square geographical mile,
but a mile of 69.2 to the degree. Hence the proportion to
the square league is not 5.76 : 1, but 7.666: 1. The territory
ofthe United States therefore does n amount to 156,240,
but to 117,478 square leagues. Tr

chap, vm.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 279
Provincias Internas del Reyno de Nueva
Espana.
A. Provincias internas occidenlales.
1. Sonora.
2. Durango o Nueva Biscaya.
3. Nuevo Mexico.
4. Californias.
B. Provincias internas orientates.
1. Cohahuila.
2. Texas.
3. Colonia del Nuevo Santander.
4f. Nuevo Reyno de Leon.
The new commandantes generales of the inter
nal provinces, as well as the old, are considered
as at the head of the administration of finances
in the two intendancies of Sonora and Durango,
in the province of Nuevo Mexico, and in that
part of the intendancy of San Luis Potosi which
comprehends Texas and Cohahuila. As to the
small kingdom of Leon and New Santander,
they are only subject to the commandant in a
military point of view.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN.

TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS.

New Spain, (extent of the whole Viceroyalty without including
the Kingdom of Guatimala,)

A.

Provincias internas - .
. Immediately subject to the viceroy, (provincias internas del
Vereynato,) -
1. Nuevo Reyno de Leon ...
2. Nuevo Santander -
. Subject to the governor of Chihuahua (provincias inter
nas de la comandancia general)
1. Intendencia de la Nueva Biscaya o Durango
2. Intendencia de la Sonora -
3. Cohahuila -
4. Texas - .
5. Nuevo Mexico -

Surface in
Square Leagues
of 25 to the
Degree.

118,478

67,189
7814 26215193
59,375 16,873
19,143 6702
10,948 5709

Population
reduced to the
Epoqua of 1803.

5,837,100

423,200
64,000 29,000 38,000
359,200 159,700 121,400 16,900
21,00040,200

Number of
Inhabitants
to the Square
League.

49

8
10 76
10 622
7

COo

o

>wCOCO>
OHH W

ac
c

TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS.

New Spain, (extent of the whole Viceroyalty without including
the Kingdom of Guatimala,)

B. New Spain, properly so called, immediately subject to the
viceroy, comprehending los Reynos de Mexico, Mechoa
can y Nueva Galicia, and the two Califomias
1. Intendencia de Mexico -
2. Intendencia de Puebla -
Intendencia de Vera Cruz -
Intendencia de Oaxaca -
Intendencia de Merida, or Yucatan
Intendencia de Valladolid -
Intendencia de Guadalaxara - -
Intendencia de Zacatecas - - -
Intendencia de Guanaxuato -
. Intendencia de San Luis Potosi, (without including New
Santander, Texas, Cohahuila, and the kingdom of Leon,)
Old California, (Antigua California,)

3.
4. 5.
6.7.8. 9.
10.
11.

12. New California, (Nueva California,)

Surface in
Square Leagues
of 25 to the
Degree.

118,478

51,289 5927
2696 4141
4447 5977344696122355 911
23577295
2125

Population
reduced to the
Epoqua of 1803.

5,837,100

5,413,900 1,511,000 813,300 156,000
534,800
465,800 476,400 630,500 153,300
517,300 230,000 9000
15,600

Number of
Inhabitants
to the Square
League.

'49

105

3

255

301

O

38

>n

120 81

HSi

273

66

CO

65

>

568

z;

98

1
7
10
GO
r.
<
o d
282 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi.
This statistical table proves the imperfection of
the territorial division. It appears that in con
fiding to intendants the administration of police
and finances, the object was to divide the Mexi
can soil on principles analogous to those fol
lowed by the French government on the division
of the kingdom into generalities. In New Spain
every intendancy comprehends several sub-de-
legations. In the same manner the generalities
in France were governed by sub-delegates, who
exercised their functions under the orders of the
intendant. But in the formation of the Mexican
intendancies, little regard has been paid to the
extent of territory or the greater or less degree
of concentration of the population. This new
division indeed took place at a time when the
ministers of the colonies, the council of the In
dies, and the viceroys, were unfurnished with
the necessary materials for so important an un
dertaking. How is it possible to possess the de
tail of the administration of a country of which
there has never been any map, and regarding
which the most simple calculations of political
arithmetic have never been attempted ?
Comparing the extent of surface of the Mexi
can intendancies, we find several of them ten,
twenty, even thirty times larger than others.
The intendancy of San Luis Potosi, for example,
is more extensive than all European Spain,
while the intendancv of Guanaxuato does not

chap.viij.J KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 283
exceed in size two or three of the departments
of France. ^The following is an exact table of
the extraordinary disproportion among the se
veral Mexican intendancies in their territorial
extent : we have arranged them in the order of
their extent : —
Intendancy of San Luis Potosi, 27,821 square
leagues.
Sonora, 19,143.
Durango, 16,873.
Guadalaxara, 9,612.
Merida, 5,977.
Mexico, 5,927.
Oaxaca, 4,447.
Vera Cruz, 4,141.
Valladolid, 3,447-
Puebla, 2,696.
Zacatecas, 2,355.
Guanaxuato, 911.
With the exception of the three intendancies
of San Luis Potosi, Sonora, and Durango, of
which each occupies more ground than the whole
empire of Great Britain, the other intendancies
contain a mean surface of three or four thou
sand square leagues. We may compare them
for extent to the kingdom of Naples, or that of
Bohemia. We can conceive that the less popu
lous a country is, the less its administration re
quires small divisions. In France no depart
ment exceeds the extent of 550 square leagues :
the mean extent of the departments is 300. But

284 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book hi.
in European Russia and Mexico the govern
ments and intendancies are ten times more ex
tensive. In France, the heads of departments, the prer
fects watch over the wants of a population which
rarely exceeds 450,000 souls, and which oh an
average we may estimate at 300,000. The
governments into which the Russian empire is
divided, as well as the Mexican intendancies,
comprehend, notwithstanding their very different
states of civilization, a greater number of inhabit
ants. The following table will show the dispro
portion of population among the territorial di
visions of New Spain : it begins with the most
populous intendancy, and ends with the one most
thinly inhabited.
Intendancy of Mexico, 1,511,800 inhabitants.
Puebla, 813,300.
Guadalaxara, 630,500.
Oaxaca, 534,800.
Guanaxuato, 517,300.
Valladolid, 476,400.
Merida, 465,700.
San Luis Potosi, 331,900.
Durango, 159,700.
Vera Cruz, 156,000.
Zacatecas, 153,000.
Sonora, 121,400.
It is in comparing together the tables of the
population of the twelve intendancies, and the

chap, viii.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 285
extent of their surface, that we are particularly
struck with the inequality of the distribution of
the Mexican population, even in the most civi
lized part of the kingdom. The intendancy of
Puebla, which in the second table occupies one
of the first places, is almost at the end of the first
table. Yet no principle ought more to guide
those who chalk out territorial divisions than the
proportion of the population to the extent ex
pressed in square leagues or myriametres. It
is only in states like France, which enjoy the
inestimable felicity of a population almost uni
formly spread over their surface, that divisions
will admit any thing like equality of extent. A
third table exhibits the state of the population,
which may be called relative. To arrive at
numerical results which indicate the proportion
between the number of inhabitants and extent of
inhabited soil, we must divide the absolute popu
lation by the territory of the intendancies. The
following are the results of this operation :
Intendancy of Guanaxuato, 568 inhabitants
to the square league.
Puebla, 301.
Valladolid, 273.
Mexico, 255.
Oaxaca, 120.
Merida, 81.
Guadalaxara, 66.
Zacatecas, 65.

286 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book iii.
Intendancy of Vera Cruz, 38.
San Luis Potosi, 12.
Durango, 10.
Sonora, 6.
This last table proves that in the intendancies
where the cultivation of the soil has made least
progress, the relative population is from 50 to 90
times less than in the old civilized regions adja
cent to the capital. This extraordinary differ
ence in the distribution ofthe population is also
to be found in the north and north-east of Eu
rope. In Lapland we scarcely find one inhabit
ant to the square league, while in other parts of
Sweden, in Gothland, for example, there are
more than 248. In the states subject to the
King of Denmark, the island of Zealand contains
944, and Iceland 11 inhabitants to the square
league. In European Russia, the governments
of Archangel, Olonez, Kalouga, and Moscow,
differ so much in their relative population to the
extent of the territory, that the two former of
these governments contain 6 and 26, and the two
last 842 and 974 souls to th e square league. These
enormous differences indicate that one province
is 160 times better inhabited than another.
In France, where the whole of the population
gives 1094 inhabitants to the square league, the
best peopled departments, those of L'Escaut, Le
Nord, and La Lys, afford a relative population of

chap, vm.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 287
3869, 2786, and 2274. The worst peopled de
partment, that of the Hautes-Alpes, composed
of a part of Old Dauphiny, contains only 471
inhabitants to the square league. Hence the ex
tremes are in France in the relation of 8:1; so
that the intendancy of Mexico, in which the
population is the most concentrated, that of
Guanaxuato, is scarcely so well inhabited as
the worst peopled department of continental
France. *
I natter myself that the three tables which I
have drawn up ofthe extent, absolute population,
and relative population of the intendancies of New
Spain, will sufficiently prove the great imperfec
tion ofthe present territorial division. A country
in which the population is dispersed over a vast
extent, requires that the provincial administration
be restricted to smaller portions of ground than
those of the Mexican intendancies. Whenever
a population is under 100 inhabitants to the
square league, the administration of an intend
ancy or a department should not extend over
* In these comparisons we have neither included the de
partment of le Liamone, formed of the southern part of Cor
sica, and containing only 277 inhabitants to the square league,
nor the department of the Seine. The latter, in appearance,
exhibits a relative population of 26,165 inhabitants. It
would be useless to explain the causes which produce such
an unnatural order of things, in a department of which the
principal place is the capital of a great empire.
VOL. I. F F

288 POLITICAL ESSAY ON THE [book in.
more than 100,000 inhabitants. We may assign
a double or a triple number to regions in which
the population is more concentrated.
It is on this concentration that the degree of
industry, the activity of commerce, and the num
ber of affairs consequently demanding the atten
tion of government, undoubtedly depend. In
this point of view the small intendancy of Guao-
naxuata gives more occupation to an administra
tor than the provinces of Texas, Cohahuila, and
New Mexico, which are six times more extensive.
But on the other hand, how is it possible for an
intendant of San Luis Potosi ever to know the
wants of a province of 28,000 square leagues in
extent ? How can he, even while he devotes him
self with the most patriotic zeal to the duties of
his place, superintend the sub-delegates, and pro
tect the Indian from the oppressions which are
exercised in the villages ?
This point of administrative organization can
not be too carefully discussed. A reforming
government ought, before every other object, to
set about changing the present limits of the in
tendancies. This political change ought to be
founded on the exact knowledge ofthe physical
state, and the state of cultivation ofthe pro
vinces which constitute the kingdom of New
Spain. France, in this point of view, exhibits
an example of perfection worthy of imitation in

chap, vm.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN. 289
the new world. The enlightened men of which
the constituent assembly was composed, proved
at their very outset what importance they at
tached to a good territorial division. This di
vision can only be good when it rests on prin
ciples, which may be considered as so much the
more wise as they are simple and natural.

END OF VOL. I.

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