LXXXIII.

the administration of finances in the two intendencies of BOOK Sonora, and Durango, and in the provinces of New Mexico, Texas, and Cohahuila. With regard to Leon, and New St. Andero, they depended on the commandant no farther than what regarded the military defence.

The present troubles have, in part, overturned these administrative divisions; but it is still indispensable, as we have said, to be acquainted with the former complicated arrangement.

son of the

The following table indicates, in a more particular man- Compariner, the distribution of the population, and the very unequal populaproportion which it bore with the superficial extent of the tien. intendencies, when the total was 5,837,100. Each of the estimates must now be increased in the ratio of 5,837,100 to 8,000,000.

Casting a general glance over the whole surface of Mexi- Distribution by clico, we find that two-thirds of it are situated under the tem- mates. perate, and the remaining third under the torrid zone. The first part comprehends a surface of 82,000 square leagues. It includes the provincias internas; not only those that are subject to the immediate administration of the Viceroy of Mexico, such as the new kingdom of Leon, and the province of New St. Andero; but also those governed by their own general-commandant; for instance, the intendencies of

* 1,511,800, and 476,400, in Humb. Ess. Pol. II. 280. Tr. 138 if Population is 476,400.

BOOK Durango and of Sonora, and the provinces of Cohahuila, LXXXIII. Texas, and New Mexico.* In some places, small portions

Mountains.

of the northern provinces of la Sonora, and of New St. Andero, stretch into the tropic of Cancer ; and, in others, the southern intendencies of Guadalaxara, Zacatecas, and SanLouis de Potosi, extend a little to the north of this boundary. Nevertheless, in consequence of a concourse of various causes, and local circumstances, more than three-fifths of the 39,000 square leagues, situated under the torrid zone, enjoy a cold, or moderate temperature, rather than a burning heat. The whole interior of the Vice-royalty of Mexico, especially the interior of the country comprised under the ancient denominations of Anahuac, and of Mechoacan, and, in all probability, even the whole of New Biscay, form one immense elevated plateau, from 6500 to 8200 feet above the level of the neighbouring seas; while, on the contrary, in Europe, those elevated lands that present the appearance of plains, such as the plateaus of Auvergne, Switzerland, and Spain, never rise higher than from 1300 to 2600 feet above the ocean.

The chain of mountains that form the plateau of Mexico, appears, on the slightest inspection of a geographical map, to be precisely the same which, under the name of the Andes, traverses the whole of southern America. When examined, nevertheless, in a physico-geographical point of view, the structure of this chain differs very much to the south and north of the equator. In the southern hemisphere, the Cordillera is everywhere cleft and interrupted by crevices, that resemble open veins, which could not be filled up by heterogeneous substances. If elevated plains be met with, as in the kingdom of Quito, and the parish of Pastos, they ought rather to be considered as high longitudinal valleys, bounded by two branches of the great Cordillera of the Andes. In Mexico, it is the ridge itself of the mountains that constitutes the plateau. In Peru, the highest peaks approach to form the central summit of the Andes. In Mexico, these same peaks, now become of less

A. de Humboldt, t. I. p. 265.

colossal dimensions, but still from 16,000 feet to 17,700 feet BOOK in height, are either scattered over the plateau, or ranged in LXXXIII. lines, which bear no relation of parallelism to the general direction of the Cordillera. In Peru, and in the kingdom of New Grenada, the number of transverse valleys, of which the perpendicular depth is sometimes 4600 feet, prevent the inhabitants from travelling in any other manner than on horseback, or on foot, or being carried on the backs of the Indians. In the kingdom of New Spain, on the contrary, carriages roll, without obstruction, from the capital of Mexico to Santa-Fé, a distance of above 500 leagues.

plateau.

The length of the table land, comprehended between the Mexican latitudes of 18° and 40°, is equal to the meridional distance of Lyons from the tropic of Cancer, a line which crosses the great desert of Africa. This extraordinary plateau appears insensibly to decline towards the north, especially from the town of Durango, situated in New Biscay, at 140 leagues from Mexico. This slope, contrary to the direction of the rivers, would certainly appear very improbable, if it were not admitted by the learned and judicious traveller, to whom we are indebted for every thing precise, exact, and interesting, respecting these countries. We must take for granted, therefore, that the mountains to the north of Santa-Fé, rise up abruptly to form the very elevated ridges and table land, from which descend the Missouri and its tributary streams.

teau.

Of the four plateaus situated round the capital of Mex- Level of ico, the first, which comprehends the valley of Toluca, is the pla8530 feet in height; the second, or the valley of Tenochtitlan, is 7460 feet; the third, or the valley of Actopan, 6553 feet; and the fourth, or the valley of Istla, is elevated 3343 feet. These four basins differ as much from cach other in climate, as in elevation above the level of the ocean. Each of them is adapted to a different species of cultivation. The last, and least elevated, is suitable for the growth of the sugar-cane; the third, for that of cotton; the second, for producing the wheat of Europe; and,

BOOK on the first, there are plantations of the Agaves, which may be considered as the vineyards of the Aztec Indians.

LXXXIII.

Eastern

ern declivity.

If this configuration of the surface singularly favour, in and west the interior of New Spain, the conveyance of merchandise, navigation, and even the construction of canals, nature opposes great difficulties to the communication between the interior of the kingdom and the coast, which, rising from the sea in the form of a rampart, everywhere presents an enormous difference of level, and of temperature. The southern declivity, more especially, is rapid, and of difficult access. In travelling from the capital to Vera-Cruz, it is necessary to proceed sixty nautical leagues before a valley can be met with, of which the bottom is lower than 3281 feet above the level of the sea. Of the eightyfour leagues that are reckoned as far as this port, fifty-six are occupied by the great plateau of Anahuac; the remainder of the road is nothing but one continued and painful descent. It is the difficulty of this descent that renders the conveyance of the flour of Mexico to Vera-Cruz so expensive, and prevents it from rivalling, in Europe, the flour of Philadelphia. In the road of Acapulco, along the great ocean, the traveller reaches the temperate regions in less than a distance of seventeen leagues; after which, he has incessantly to ascend and descend as far as the sea.

Direction of the Cordillera.

The Cordillera of the Andes, which traverses the Isthmus of Darien, at one time approaches the Pacific Ocean, at another, the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico. In the kingdom of Guatimala, the crests of these mountains, bristling with volcanic cones, stretch along the western coast from the lake of Nicaragua as far as the bay of Tehuantepec ; but, in the province of Oaxaca, between the sources of the rivers Chimalapa and Quatarnalco, it occupies the centre of the Mexican isthmus. Between the 184° and 21° of latitude, in the intendencies of la Puebla and Mexico, from Mirteca to the mines of Zimapan, the Cordillera runs due Volcanoes south and north, and approaches the southern coast.

of Mexico.

in this part of the great plateau of Anahuac, between the capital of Mexico and the little towns of Cordova and Xa

BOOK

lapa, that a group of volcanic mountains appear, which rival in elevation the highest peaks of the continent. M. LXXXIII. de Humboldt measured the principal ones. Popoca-Tepetl, that is to say, the Smoking Mountain, called by the Spaniards the great volcano, is 2764 toises, or 17,968 English feet in height; the Iztacci- Huatl, or the White Woman, or the Sierra Nevada of the Spaniards, is 2461 toises, or 16,000 feet; the Citlal-Tepetl, or Starry Mountain, otherwise called the Peak of Orizaba, is 2722 toises, or 17,697 feet; and the Nauhcampa-Tepetl, or Coffre de Perote, is 2097 toises,* or 13,633 English feet.

tion of the

More to the north of the nineteenth parallel, near the Coutinuacelebrated mines of Zimapac and Doctor, situated in the Cordillera. intendencies of Mexico, the Cordillera takes the name of Sierra Madre, in Mexican Tepe-Suenne. Again leaving behind it the eastern part of the kingdom, it runs to the north-west, towards the towns of San-Miguel-el-Grande and Guanaxuato. To the north of this last town, considered as the Potosi of Mexico, the Sierra Madre expands to an extraordinary breadth, and shortly afterwards dividing into three branches, the most eastern one of which proceeds towards Charcas, and Real de Catorce, to lose itself in the new kingdom of Leon, the western branch occupies a part of the intendency of Guadalaxara. From Bolanos it rapidly sinks, and is extended, by Culiacan and Arispe, into the intendency of Sonora, as far as the borders of the Rio-Gila. Under the thirtieth degree of latitude, however, it again acquires a considerable height in Tarahumara, near the Gulf of California, where it begins to form the mountains of Pimeria alta, celebrated for their extensive washings of gold. The third branch of the SierraMadre, which may be looked upon as the central chain of the Mexican Andes, occupies the whole extent of the intendency of Zacatecas. It may be traced through Durango and Parral in New Biscay, as far as the Sierra de Los- Sierra de Mimbres, situated to the west of Rio-Grande-del-Norte ;

* A. de Humboldt, Account of the Equatorial Regions, p. 148. Views and Monuments, p. 233.

Mimbre,