Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, containing researches relative to the geography of Mexico, the extent of its surface, and its political division into intendancies, &c. &c. By Alexander De Humboldt.

With physical sections and maps, founded on astronomical observations, and trigonometrical and barometrical measurements.

Translated from the original French, by John Black.

Vols. I and II. New-York.

Riley, 1811. 8vo.

FEW travellers have visited the Spanish dominions in America, under circumstances so favourable as Baron Humboldt.

Few, indeed, have availed themselves so successfully of the opportunities they enjoyed; and fewer still can be found who unite in themselves the private fortune, the public patronage, the moral demeanour, the strength of constitution, the intrepidity of spirit, and the accommodating manners, the indefatigable industry, and the general science which so eminently distinguish this individual.

And although the history and dissertations of Clavigero, have disclosed a great body of information concerning Mexico, as may be seen in our vol. 8, p. 282—396, yet a great deal more is presented in the pages of the work now before us: particularly of the modern events, and of the more recent state of things.

We notice, with much satisfaction, a work treating expressly of that section of North America which lies contiguous to the territory of the United States, and extends from the southern and western limits thereof, along the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, almost to the foot of the Peruvian Andes.

It may be considered as a sequel to the description of Caraccas by Mr. Depons, reviewed in our vol. 10, p. 182: to the Essays on the Natural History of Paraguay, by captain d’Azara, noticed in our vol. 9, p. 64: to the History of Chili, by the Abbè Molina, commented on in our vol. 12, p. 257: to the description of the Isthmus of Darien, by Mr. Hill, contained in our vol. 8, p. 128: to the Voyage to Statenland, and several places in the South Sea, by William Moulton, in our vol. 9, p. 51: to the Voyage to Brazil, by Mr. Lindley, and the description of Rio Janeiro, by Mr. Tuckey, in our same vol. p. 195 and 287: to a Voyage to the Caribbee Islands, and the interior provinces of South America, by Dr.

Le Blond, in our vol. 10, p. 65; and to some other tracts and disquisitions, occasionally introduced.

The work opens with a learned introduction concerning the geography of the country.

After which, the subsequent matter is distributed into four books; the first of which treats of the extent and physical aspect of New Spain, with the influence of the inequalities of the soil on the climate, productions, commerce, and military defence.

The second examines the general population, and the different casts or races of the inhabitants.

The third contains a particular statistical survey of the intendancies, or local governments, of which this kingdom is composed, with their respective extent and population.

And the fourth is occupied with an account of the various productions of the soil, and of the precious metals procured from the bowels of the earth by mining.

Although some of the details of Baron H. are rather prolix and tedious, we nevertheless admire the extent and profundity of his research.

And indeed, we could wish that he would give a display equally luminous of every region on the terraqueous globe.

We regret that for the reasons stated in his note of the 27th June, 1804, and printed in our vol. 8, p. 96, this estimable traveller should have been hurried back to Europe, and prevented from viewing that portion of Fredish-America which lies to the northward and eastward of Philadelphia.

The author has enriched geography and geology with views in profile of the country situated between the two oceans which wash the opposite shores of America.

These are additions of great value to the common maps, which give us but bird’s eye views.

His explanation of the vertical section he has delineated of the region between Vera Cruz and Acapulco, is so interesting, that we extract it entire.

“VI. Physical View of the Oriental Declivity of the Table Land of Anahuac.

“The horizontal projections known by the name of geographical maps, give but a very imperfect idea of the inequalities of surface and physiognomy of a country.

The undulations of the surface (mouvemens du terrain,) the form of the mountains, their relative height, and the rapidity of the declivities, can only be completely represented in vertical sections.

A map drawn up on the ingenious plan of M. Clerc, supplies to a certain degree the place of a relievo: and lines drawn on a plane which has but two dimensions may produce the same effect as a model in relievo, if the extent of ground represented is not too 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 above one another.

Their absolute heights are too inconsiderable to have any sensible influence on the climate.

Hence an accurate knowledge of these elevations is much less interesting to the cultivator than to the naturalist; and hence also, in the maps of Europe, the geographers merely indicate the most elevated chains of mountains.

But in the equinoxial region of the new continent, particularly in the kingdoms of New Grenada, Quito, and Mexico, the temperature of the atmosphere, its state of dryness or humidity, the kind of cultivation followed by the inhabitants, all depend on the enormous elevation of the planes which stretch along the ridges of the 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 compelled to recur to methods hitherto unattempted by geographers, because the most simple ideas are usually those which occur the last.

About 328 feet.—Trans.

About 656 feet.

“I have represented whole countries, vast extents 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 detailed in my Essay on Geological Pasigraphy.

As 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 determined deviates considerably from the direction of the 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 these scales, we should be forced either to make the drawings of an immoderate length, or to adopt a scale of elevation so small that the most remarkable inequalities 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 dimensions.

We see that in this case an elevation of 500 metres would not occupy in the drawing more than the space of a millimetre.

But in employing for itinerary distances the scale of elevations exhibited in the plates 6, 7, 8, which is nearly 270 metres to the centimetre, a plate would be requisite of more than 15 metres in length, to represent the extent of country comprised between the meridians of Mexico and Vera Cruz!

Hence from this inequality 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 valleys.

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 indicates the direction in relation to the great circles of the sphere.

About 1640 feet.—Trans.

.03937 of an inch.—ib.

About 885 feet.—ib.

.39371 of an inch.—ib.

About 55 feet.—ib.

“Physical maps in vertical projections can only be constructed on knowing, for the points through which the plan of projection passes, the three coordinates of longitude, latitude, and elevation above the level of the ocean; and it is only in uniting barometrical measurements with the results of astronomical observations, that the section of a country can be drawn.

This kind of projection will become more frequent in proportion as travellers shall addict themselves more assiduously to barometrical observations.

But few provinces of Europe at this day offer the necessary materials for constructing views analagous to those published by me of equinoxial America.

“The construction of the sections, plates 6, 7 and 8, are absolutely uniform.

The scales are the same in all the three views; 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 agriculturalists; and it is also useful to engineers employed in constructing roads or canals.

“I have been blamed for not exhibiting in these sections the superposition or situation of the secondary or primitive strata, their inclination or their direction.

I had particular reasons for not indicating these phenomena.

I possess in my 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 measurement of the 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 physical 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 geologist 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 of the 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 7,) in a space of one 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, and endeavoured to improve them, will feel, like myself, that these methods can never unite every advantage.

A map, for instance, overcharged with signs, becomes confused, and loses its principal 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.

39.371 inches.

Trans.

A millimetre contains .03937 of an inch. ib.

“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 Blanca, situated between Perote and las Vigas, are the points in which the intersection of the three planes of projection 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 volcanoes on the east of the valley of Tenochtitlan, the Pic d’Orizaba, and the Cofre 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 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 of the great inequality of the scales of height and distance.

These volcanoes 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 mountains of the 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. 9 and 10.

“That the reader may fix in his mind some important facts of physical geography, we have marked on the two sides of the views, near the scales of elevation, the height of the Chimborazo, and of several mountains of the Alps and Pyrenees; 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 part of the country.

Several of these phenomena are even repeated in all the maps; a repetition analogous to what all the thermometer 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 and the preceding view, and the section of the valley of Tenochtitlan, (plate 8) 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 7 and 8, 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 develop to the geologist the extraordinary conformation of the whole country.

“It may be necessary to observe to those who wish to unite the sections 7 and 8, in cutting the two vertical scales on which the heights of Puy-de-Dôme and Vesuvius are marked, that the planes of projection of these sections intersect each other at right angles, in the centre of the city of Mexico.

The medium direction of the first section, which is itself composed of different planes, is from east to west; the medium direction of the second, the road from Mexico to Acapulco, is from S. S. W. to N. N. W. The prolongation 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 la Navidad. As New Spain swells out singularly in this western direction, it would follow that the descent of the Cordillera, from the valley of Tenochtitlan to the plains of the intendancy of Guadalaxara, would be twice the length of the road from Mexico to Acapulco, sketched in plate 7. The barometrical measurements which I made between Valladolid, Pascuaro, Ario, and Ocambaro, prove, that in tracing this transversal section in the direction of the parallels of 19 or 20 degrees, the central plain would preserve the great elevation of 2,000 metres for more than sixty leagues to the west of the city of Mexico, while, in the direction of the section, No. 7, the plane never reaches this elevation, after leaving the valley of Tenochtitlan towards the S. S. W.

6.560 feet.

Trans.

“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 of the geological constitution of New Spain than the re-union of my two sections, No. 7 and 8. A simple consideration of the true direction of the Cordillera of Anahuac is sufficient to prove what I advance.

The central chain of the mountains runs from the province of Oaxaca to that of Durango, from the S. E. to the N W.; consequently, the plane of projection, to be perpendicular to the longitudinal 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 of the two sections, No. vii. and viii. gives a less imperfect representation 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 announces a longitudinal crest.

There are none of those parallel chains which geologists always admit in their works, and which geographers represent in the most arbitrary manner, in their maps of the two continents, like ranges of elevated dikes.

The Cordillera of Anahuac increases towards the north, from whence the inclined 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 opposite the Great Ocean.

Hence the sections, to be perpendicular to the lines of declivity, cannot be in the same plane of projection.

“VII. 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 Chihuahua, particularly to Santa Fe in New Mexico.

For the table-land of Anahuac, as we shall hereafter prove, preserves towards the north for an extent of more than two hundred leagues more than 2,000 and for an extent of five hundred leagues more than 800 metres of absolute elevation.”

6,560 feet.

Trans.

2,624 feet. ib.

The observing and enterprising traveller does not rest his inquiries here.

He states, with exact method and singular ability the nine projects which have been formed for facilitating intercourse between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and superseding thereby the necessity of hazardous and circuitous voyages through the Straits of Magellan, or around Cape Horn.

The view he presents of these ways and modes of communication are so plain and striking, that we insert the passage in his own words.

“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 Tacoutche-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 elevated in some places 3,520 English feet, or 550 toises above the neighbouring plains.

It separates 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 of the Tacoutche-Tesse to the Salmon River, the mouth of which is to the east of the Princess Royal Islands, in the 52° 23′ of latitude.

Mackenzie rightly observes, that the government which should open this communication between the two oceans, by forming regular establishments in the interior of the country, and at the extremities of the rivers, would get possession of the whole fur trade of North America, from the 48° of latitude to the pole, excepting a part of the coast which has been long included in Russian America.

Canada, from the multitude and course of its rivers, presents facilities for internal commerce similar to those of Oriental Siberia.

The mouth of the river Colombia seems to invite Europeans to found a fine colony there; for its banks afford fertile land in abundance, covered 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 as it leaves the coast.

Every geographer who carefully compares Mackenzie’s maps with Vancouver’s will be astonished that the Colombia in descending 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 of the Great Ocean, whose principal 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 Colombia.

He even presumes that the former discharges 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.

2,624 feet. ib.

“In the 50° of latitude, the Nelson River, the Saskashawan and the Missouri, which may be regarded as one of the principal branches of the Mississippi, furnish equal facilities of communication with the Pacific Ocean.

All these rivers take their rise at the foot of the Stony Mountains.

But we have not yet sufficient acquaintance with the nature of the ground through which the communication is proposed to be established, to pronounce upon the utility of these projects.

The journey of Captain Lewis, at the expense of the Anglo-American government, on the Mississippi and the Missouri, 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 Colorado 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 Mexican 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 embouchure 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 Escatante 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 comparable to that opened directly from sea to sea.

“3.

The isthmus of Tehuantepec comprises, under the 16° of latitude, the sources of the Rio Huasacualco, which is discharged into the gulf of Mexico, and the sources of the Rio de Chimalapa.

The waters of this last river mix with those of the 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 Fabrica, after one of its arms, which comes from the mountains de los Mexes, unites with the Rio del Passo.

We shall examine afterwards the possibility of cutting a canal of from six to seven leagues in the forests of Tarifa.

We shall merely observe here, that since 1798, a road has been opened which leads by land from the port of Tehuantepec, to the Embarcadero de la Cruz, (a road completed in 1800,) the Rio Huasacualco forms, in reality, a commercial communication between the oceans.

During the course of the war with the English, the indigo of Guatimala, the most precious of all known indigoes, 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 Bombacho, (at 11° 7′ of latitude,) of Grenada, and of 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 the last 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 of the lake of Nicaragua with the Pacific Ocean.

The commerce carried on by the English on the coast of Mosquitos has greatly contributed to give celebrity to this project of communication 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 environs of the capital of Mexico, there is not a single mountain, a single level, a single city, of which we know the elevation above the level of the sea.

Does there exist an uninterrupted chain of mountains in the provinces of Veragua and Nicaragua?

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 of the lake of Nicaragua?

Would not the isthmus of Papagayo rather present a hilly tract than a continued cordillera?

These are problems whose solution is equally interesting to the statesman and the geographical naturalist?

“There is no spot on the globe so full of volcanoes 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 plan itself?

We ought not to be astonished that we are ignorant of these very important facts; we shall soon see that even the height of the mountains which traverse the isthmus of Panama is not yet known.

Perhaps the communication of the lake of Nicaragua with the Pacific Ocean would be carried on by the lake of Leon, by means of the 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 country flat and covered with mangle trees.”

The city of Leon itself is situated in a savanna.

There is a small river which, passing near 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 furious north-east and east-north-east winds, called Papagayos.

This circumstance is exceedingly inconvenient for navigation.

The port of Tehuantepec, on the isthmus of Guasacualco, is not more favoured by nature; it gives its name to the hurricanes which blow from the northwest, 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 Bilboa, in 1513.

Since this memorable epocha in the history of geographical discoveries, the project of a canal has occupied every mind; and yet at this day, after the lapse of 300 years, there neither exists a survey of the ground, nor an exact determination of the positions of Panama and Porto-bello.

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 chronometrical operations from the isle of Trinidad to Porto-bello, and from Lima to Panama, one position becomes dependent on another.

It would be important to carry the time directly from Panama to Porto-bello, 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, Isasviravill, and Quartara, shall carry their operations to the northern coast.

To form an idea of the uncertainty which still prevails as to the form and breadth of the isthmus, (for example towards Nata,) we have only to compare the maps of Lopez with those of Arrowsmith, and with the more recent ones of the Deposito Hydrografico of Madrid.

The river Chagre, which flows into the sea of the Antilles to the west of Porto-bello, presents, notwithstanding its sinuosities and its rapids, great facility for commerce; its breadth is 120 toises at its mouth, and 20 toises near Cruces, where it begins to be navigable.

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 merchandise is transported 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 of the 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 of the river; that is to say, of the descent of the Rio Chagre above Cruces. On comparing the barometrical survey of Ulloa with that made by myself in the river of Magdalen, we perceive that the elevation of Cruces above the ocean, far from being small, is, on the contrary, very considerable.

The fall of the 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.

1088 feet. Trans.

“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 to 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 towards the South Sea. It is very astonishing that, in crossing the isthmus, neither La Condamine nor Don George Juan and Ulloa had the curiosity to observe their barometer, for the sake of informing us what is the height of the most elevated point on the route to the castle of Chagre at Panama.

These illustrious savans sojourned three months in that interesting region for the commercial 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 that we find the principal Cordillera, or rather a range of hills that may be regarded as a prolongation 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 valleys which allow free course for passage of the rivers.

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.

947 Engliſh feet. Trans.

“There are other points where, according to memoirs drawn up in 1528, 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 Porto-bello to Panama, a two days journey, which goes by the village of Pequeni, and is full of the greatest difficulties.

“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 of the Peloponesus in the place where the Corinthians, by means of particular machines, had established a portage.

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 naturally 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 measurement, that the city of Lima was 91 toises higher than the port of Callao.

An earthquake must cover entirely the rock of the isle San Lorenzo 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 of the column of mercury the same at the mouth of the Chagre and at Panama.

582 feet.—Trans.

“The imperfection of the meteorological instruments 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 temperature, that if there is a difference of level between the two seas, it cannot exceed six or seven metres.

38 feet.—Ib.

19 or 22 feet.—Ib.

“When we consider the effect of the current of rotation, which carries the waters from east to west, and accumulates them towards the coast of Costa Ricca and Veragua, we are tempted to admit, 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 configuration of the coast, currents and winds, (as in the straits of Babelmandel,) may trouble the equilibrium which ought necessarily to exist between all the parts of the ocean.

As the tides rise at Porto-bello to a third part of a metre, and at Panama to four or five metres, the levels 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.

13 inches.—Ib.

13 or 16 feet.—Ib.

“We cannot doubt that if the isthmus of Panama were once burst by some similar catastrophe to that which opened the column of Hercules, the current of rotation in place of ascending towards the gulf of Mexico, and issuing through the canal of Bahama, would follow the same parallel from the coast of Paria to the Philippine islands.

The effect of this opening, or new strait, would extend much beyond the banks of Newfoundland, and would either occasion the disappearance or diminish the celerity of the Hotwater River, known by the name of Gulf Stream, which leaving Florida on the north-east, flows in the 43° 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 of the 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 revolutions.

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 south to north, and was situated between the port of Carthago and the mouth of the Rio San Juan, if the narrowest part of the new continent lay betwen the 10° and the 11° of latitude.

“The navigation of the river Chagre is difficult, both on account of its sinuosities and the celerity of the current, frequently from one to two metres per second.

The sinuosities, however afford a counter current, by means of which the small vessels 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 3.28 to 6.56 feet. Trans.

“From all the information which I could procure relating to this isthmus, while I remained at Carthagena and Guayaquil, it appears to me, that the expectation of a canal of seven metres in depth, and from twenty-two to twentyeight metres 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 the system of sluices; and the merchandise 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 of the isthmus and canal; and this would be a very great inconvenience for the vessels despatched 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 of the Eyder canal, which connects the ocean with the Baltic sea.

22 feet 11 inches.—Trans.

From 72 feet 2 inches, to 91 feet 10 inches.—ib.

“It would be otherwise with the productions of western America, or the goods sent from Europe to the coast of the 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 continent.

In the present state of things the carriage of three quintals on mule-back from Panama to Porto-bello costs from three to four piasters, (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 by Guayaquil, across this neck of land, requires many more beasts of burthen than can be procured, 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 multiplicity of sluices, the commerce of America would gain the most important advantages from good causeways carried from Tehuantepec to the Embarcadero de la Cruz, and from Panama to Porto-bello. It is true that in the isthmus, the pasturage 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 savannas, by cutting down forests, or to cultivate the 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 orientals, hitherto exist only in the province of Caraccas, 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 Panama.

The more this neck of land shall be cultivated, the more resistance will it oppose to the enemies of the Spanish government.

The events which took place at Buenos Ayres prove the advantages of a concentrated population in the case of an invasion.

If any enterprising nation wished to become possessed of the 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 of the climate, though now much diminished at Porto-bello, would alone oppose great obstacles to any military undertaking 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 the facilities for the Chinese commerce and the furs of Nootka Sound, are baits of a very seductive nature.

They will draw, sooner or later, the masters of the ocean to a point of the globe destined by nature to change the face of the commercial system of nations.

“6.

To the south-east of Panama, following the coast of the 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 Embarcadero of the Rio Naipi.

This last river is navigable, 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 continent 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 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 of the Andes is entirely broken.

“7.

In the interior of the province of Choco, the small ravine (Quebrada) de la Raspadura, unites the neighbouring sources of the 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 discharges itself into the Atlantic Ocean, while the Rio San Juan flows into the South Sea.

A monk of great activity, curé 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 communication 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 we may, without doubling Cape Horn, arrive at the 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 of the 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 commodious 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 of the 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 regions situated on the eastern declivity of the Andes, and the prosperity and wealth of their inhabitants, depend on the free navigation of the river of the Amazons.

This liberty, denied by 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, situated 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 opposite to the archipelago of Chayamapu.

Were this supposition founded on solid basis, the vessels destined for 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 parallel of the Chonos islands, These ideas, in 1790, occupied the attention of the court of Madrid. M.

Gil Lemos, viceroy of Peru, an upright and zealous administrator, equipped a small expedition under the orders M. Moraleda, to examine the southern coast of Chili.

I saw the instructions that he received at Lima, which recommended to him the greatest secrecy in case he should be happy enough to discover a communication between the two seas. But M. Moraleda discovered in 1794, 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 expedition of Malaspina.

In the year 1746 a communication 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 between the two oceans, by the junction of neighbouring rivers, either by canals or carriage-roads between the places where the rivers become navigable.

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, projected for traversing the whole island of Cuba, from Batabano to the Havannah.

A similar survey of the isthmus of Guasacualco, the lake Nicaragua, of the country between Cruces and Panama, 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 government occupied with the true interests of humanity.

“The long circumnavigation of South America would then be less frequent; and a communication 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 policy, refused to other nations a thoroughfare through the possessions of which she so long kept the world in ignorance.”

Those who are at present at the head of the government are enlightened 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 2,000 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.”

Humboldt’s Travels, continued.

In continuation of the review of this important work, we lay before our readers a short quotation, from which they will learn that in ascending from the level of the ocean to great heights in the atmosphere, there is a succession of climates resembling those experienced in passing from the equator towards the poles.

“We have thus sketched a view of the Cordilleras of New Spain.

We have remarked that the coasts alone of this vast kingdom possess a warm climate adapted for the productions of the West Indies.

The intendancy of Vera Cruz, with the exception of the plain which extends from Perote to the Pic d’Orizaba, Yucatan, the coast of Oaxaca, the maratime provinces of New Santander and Texas, the new kingdom of Leon, the province of Cohahuila, the uncultivated country called Bolson de Mapini, 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° of the centigrade thermometer; that is to say, from 8° to 9° greater than the mean heat of Naples.

984 feet. Trans.

77° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

From 14° to 16° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

“These fertile regions, which the natives call Tierras calientes, produce in abundance sugar, indigo, 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 valleys 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 towards the parallels of the Havannah and Vera Cruz. These impetuous winds blow from October to March; they are announced by the extraordinary 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°, and at Vera Cruz to 16°; a prodigious fall for countries in the torrid zone.

32° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

60° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

“On the declivity of the Cordillera, at the elevation of 12 or 1500 metres, there reigns perpetually 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, and Chilpansingo, three cities celebrated for their great salubrity, and the abundance of fruit trees which grow in their neighbourhood.

Unfortunately, this mean height of 1,300 metres is the height to which the clouds ascend above the plains adjoining to the sea; from which circumstance these temperate regions, situated on the declivity, (for example, the environs of the city of Xalappa,) are frequently enveloped in thick fogs.

From 3,936 to 4,920 feet. Trans.

From 68° to 70° of Fahrenheit.

Trans.

4,264 feet.

Trans.

“It remains for us to speak of the third zone, known by the denomination of Tieras frias. It comprehends the plains elevated more than 2,200 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 usually as mild there as at Naples.

In the coldest season, the mean heat of the day is from 13° to 14.

° In summer the thermometer never rises in the shade above 24°.

The mean temperature of the whole table-land of Mexico is in general 17° which is equal to the temperature of Rome.

Yet this same table-land, according 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 complain of excessive cold, when the centigrade thermometer suddenly sinks to 24°, while it remains the rest of the day at 30°.

7,217 feet. Trans.

62° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

From 55° to 70° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

75° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

62° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

75° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

86° of Fahrenheit.

Trans.

“But the plains more elevated than the valley of Mexico, for example, those whose absolute height exceeds 2,500 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 Guchilaque, 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.

8,201 feet. Trans.

43° or 46° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

“All these regions called cold enjoy a mean temperature of from 11° to 13°, equal to that of 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 2,500 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 equinoctial regions.

Thus the cultivation of several vegetables succeeds worse on the ridge of the Mexican Cordilleras 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.”

From 51° to 55° of Fahrenheit. Trans.

Nothing has been a more trite and erroneous subject of vulgar remark than the ignorance of the lazy Dons.

This silly cant has been imitated in our country from the English.

It has been so frequently repeated and so widely propagated, that many of our honest patriots sincerely believe the Spaniards are by a great difference their inferiors.

This is a miserable, and unworthy prejudice.

A moderate inquiry will evince that New Spain, has produced a full proportion of respectable observers and of valuable writings.

And we may say without hesitation, that the Natural history of the American Provinces, subject to Castilian Monarchs, has been more particularly studied, than in the United States. And as to public spirit and patronage, it has been manifested in the endowments of learned institutions, and in the encouragement of scientific men, to an extent of which, no parallel exists in our state of Society.

We copy the author’s description of the liberality and munificence of the government, as well for the purpose of correcting some of the existing mistakes, as with the desire of encouraging our legislatures, associations and wealthy individuals to imitate such noble examples:

“No city of the new continent, without even excepting 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 Botanic 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 Mexican individuals, and to the protection of the minister 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 astonished on seeing that the Apollo of Belvidere, the group of Laocoon, and still more colossal statues, have been conveyed through mountainous roads at least as narrow as those of St. Gothard; and we are surprised at finding these masterpieces of antiquity collected together under the torrid zone, in a table-land higher than the convent of the great St. Bernard.

The collection 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 hieroglyphics, and bear some relation to the Egyptian and Hindoo style, ought to be collected together in the edifice

8334l ſterling.

Trans.

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 association of merchants of the capital, more than 1,500. It is impossible not to perceive the influence of this establishment on the taste of the nation.

This influence is particularly visible in the symmetry 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 monuments, which frequently cost a million and a million and a half of francs, would appear to advantage in the finest streets of Paris, Berlin, and Petersburgh. M. Tolsa, professor of sculpture at Mexico, was even able to cast an equestrian statue of King Charles the Fourth; a work which, with the exception of the Marcus Aurelius 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 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 confounded:

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.

5,208l. ſterling. Trans.

41,670l. and 62,505l. Trans.

“Since the close of the reign of Charles the Third, and under that of Charles the Fourth, the study of the physical sciences has made great progress, not only in Mexico, but in general in all the Spanish colonies.

No European government has sacrificed greater sums to advance the knowledge of the vegetable kingdom than the Spanish government.

Three botanical expeditions in Peru, New Granada, and New Spain, under the direction of MM.

Ruiz and Pavon, Don Jose Celestino Mutis, and MM.

Sesse and Mocino, have cost the state near two millions of francs.

Moreover, botanical gardens have been established at Manilla and the Canary islands.

The commission destined to draw plans of the canal of los Guines, was also appointed to examine the vegetable productions of the island of Cuba.

All these researches, conducted during twenty years in the most fertile regions of the new continent, have not only enriched 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 attended.

This savant possesses, besides his herbals, 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 Guatimala to the northwest 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 productions of the 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.

83,340l. ſterling.

Trans.

“The principles of the new chemistry, which is known in the Spanish colonies by the equivocal appellation of new philosophy, (nueva filosofia,) are more diffused in Mexico than in many parts of the peninsula.

A European traveller cannot undoubtedly but be surprised to meet in the interior of the country, on the very borders of California, with young Mexicans who reason on the decomposition of water in the process of amalgamation with free air.

The School of Mines possesses a chemical laboratory: a geological collection, arranged according to the system of Werner; a physical cabinet, in which we not only find the valuable instruments of Ramsden, Adams, Le Noir, 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 Manuel of Oryctognosy, composed by M. del Rio, according to the principles of the school of Freyberg, in which the author was formed.

The first Spanish translation of Lavoisier’s Elements of Chemistry was also published at Mexico. I cite these insulated facts because they give us the measure of the ardour with which the exact sciences are begun to be studied in the capital of New Spain.

This ardour is much greater than that with which they addict themselves to the study of languages and ancient literature.

“Instruction in mathematics is less carefully attended to in the university of Mexico than in the School of Mines.

The pupils of this last establishment 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 cultivating them after the most recent methods.

I have already indicated in the analysis of my maps the advantage 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 of the 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 of the Academy of Sciences 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 of the physical sciences.

The Gazetta de Litteratura, which he published for a long time at Mexico, contributed singularly to give encouragement and impulsion to the Mexican youth.”

That Intendancy of New Spain which lies contiguous to the territory of the United States, is that of Saint Louis Potosi. It is highly gratifying to acquire correct information of this neighbouring region, about which, we have heretofore known so little.

Its extent and jurisdiction are pourtrayed in Vol. 2. p. 182 and seq.

The natural position and civil arrangement of this vast region are described in a manner too interesting to the Fredish citizen to be passed over.

We therefore insert it, as it forms the tenth article of his statistical analysis.

“This intendancy comprehends the whole of the northeast part of the kingdom of New Spain.

As it borders either on desert countries, or countries inhabited by wandering and independent Indians, we may say that its northern limits are hardly determined.

The mountainous tract called the Bolson de Mapimi includes more than 3,000 square leagues, from which the Apachis sally out to attack the colonists of Cohahuila and New Biscay.

Indented into these two provinces, and bounded on the north by the great Rio del Norte, the Bolson de Mapimi is sometimes considered as a country not conquered by the Spaniards, and sometimes as composing a part of the intendancy of Durango. I have traced the limits of Cohahuila and Texas, near the mouth of the Rio Puerco, and towards the sources of the Rio de San Saba, as I found them indicated in the special maps preserved in the archives of the viceroyalty, and drawn up by engineers in the Spanish service.

But how is it possible to determine territorial limits in immense savannas, where the farms are from 15 to 20 leagues distant from one another, and where almost no trace of cultivation is any where to be found?

“The intendancy of San Luis Potosi comprehends parts of a very heterogeneous nature, the different denominations of which have given great room for geographical errors.

It is composed of provinces, of which some belong to the Provincias internas, and others to the kingdom of New Spain Proper.

Of the former there are two immediately depending on the commandant of the Provincias internas; the two others are considered as Provincias internas del Vireynato.

These complicated and unnatural divisions are explained in the following table:

The intendant of San Luis Potosi governs:

A.

In Mexico Proper:

The Province of San Luis, which extends from the Rio de Panuco to the Rio de Santander, and which comprehends the important mines of Charcas, Potosi, Ramos, and Catorce.

B.

In the Provincias internas del Vireynato:

1. The new kingdom of Leon.

2. The colony of New Santander.

C.

In the Provincias internas de la Comandancia general Oriental.

1. The province of Cohahuila.

2. The province of Texas.

“It follows from what we have already said on the latest changes which have taken place in the organization of the Comandancia general of Chihuahua, that the intendancy of San Luis now includes, besides the province of Potosi, all which goes under the denomination of Provincias internas Orientales.

A single intendant is consequently at the head of an administration which includes a greater surface than all European Spain.

But this immense country, gifted by nature with the most precious productions, and situated under a serene sky in the temperate zone, towards the borders of the tropic, is, for the greatest part, a wild desert, still more thinly peopled than the governments of Asiatic Russia.

Its position on the eastern limits of New Spain, the proximity of the United States, the frequency of communication with the colonists of Louisiana, and a great number of circumstances which I shall not endeavour here to develop, will probably soon favour the progress of civilization and prosperity in these vast and fertile regions.

“The intendancy of San Luis comprehends more than 230 leagues of coast, an extent equal to that from Genoa to Reggio in Calabria.

But all this coast is without commerce and without activity, with the exception of a few small vessels, which come from the West Indies to lay in provisions either at the Bar of Tampico, near Panuco, or at the anchorage of New Santander.

That part which extends from the mouth of the great Rio del Norte to the Rio Sabina is almost still unknown, and has never been examined by navigators.

It would be of great importance, however, to discover a good port in this northern extremity of the gulf of Mexico.

Unfortunately, the eastern coast of New Spain offers everywhere the same obstacles, a want of depth for vessels drawing more than 38 decimetres of water, bars at the mouths of the rivers, necks of land, and long islots, of which the direction is parallel to that of the continent, and which prevent all access to the interior basin.

The shore of the provinces of Santander and Texas, from the 21° to the 29° of latitude, is singularly festooned, and presents a succession of interior basins, from four to five leagues in breadth, and 40 to 50 in length.

They go by the name of lagunas, or salt water lakes.

Some of them (the Laguna de Tamiagua, for example) are completely shut in.

Others, as the Laguna Madre, and the Laguna de San Bernardo, communicate by several channels with the ocean.

The latter are of great advantage for a coasting trade, as coasting vessels are there secure from the great swells of the ocean.

It would be interesting for geology to examine on the spot if these lagunas have been formed by currents penetrating far into the country by irruptions, or if these long and narrow islots, ranged parallel to the coast, are bars which have gradually risen above the mean level of the waters.

12 Feet 5 6-10 Inches.

“Of the whole intendancy of San Luis Potosi, only that part which adjoins the province of Zacatecas, in which are the rich mines of Charcas, Guadalcazar, and Catorce, is a cold and mountainous country.

The bishopric of Montery, which bears the pompous title of New Kingdom of Leon, Cohahuila, Santander, and Texas, are very low regions; and there is very little undulation of surface in them.

This soil is covered with secondary and alluvial formations.

They possess an unequal climate, extremely hot in summer, and equally cold in winter, when the north winds drive before them columns of cold air from Canada towards the torrid zone.

“Since the cession of Louisiana to the United States, the bounds between the province of Texas and the county

of Natchitoches (a county which is an integral part of the confederation of American republics) have become the subject of a political discussion, equally tedious and unprofitable.

Several members of the Congress of Washington were of opinion that the territory of Louisiana might be extended to the left bank of the Rio bravo del Norte.

According to them, “all the country called by the Mexicans the province of Texas anciently belonged to Louisiana.

Now the United States ought to possess this last province in the whole extent of rights in which it was possessed by France before its cession to Spain; and neither the new denominations introduced by the viceroys of Mexico, nor the progress of population from Texas towards the east, can derogate from the lawful titles of the congress.”

During these debates, the American government did not fail frequently to adduce the establishment that M. de Lasale, a Frenchman, formed about the year 1685 near the bay of St. Bernard, without having appeared to encroach on the rights of the crown of Spain.

“But on examining carefully the general map which I have given of Mexico and the adjacent countries on the east, we shall see that there is still a great way from the bay of St.

Bernard to the mouth of the Rio del Norte.

Hence the Mexicans very justly allege in their favour, that the Spanish population of Texas is of a very old date, and that it was brought, in the early periods of the conquest, by Linares, Revilla and Camargo, from the interior of New Spain; and that M. de Lasale, on disembarking to the west of the Mississippi, found Spaniards at that time among the savages whom he endeavoured to combat.

At present, the intendant of San Luis Potosi considers the Rio Mermentas, or Mexicana, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico to the east of the Rio de Sabina, as the eastern limit of the province of Texas, and consequently of his whole intendancy.

“It may be useful to observe here, that this dispute as to the true boundaries of New Spain can only become of importance when the country, brought into cultivation by the colonists of Louisiana, shall come in contact with the territory inhabited by Mexican colonists; when a village of the province of Texas shall be constructed near a village of the county of the Opeloussas.

Fort Clayborne, situated near the old Spanish mission of the Adayes (Adaes or Adaisses, on the Red River, is the settlement of Louisiana which approaches nearest to the military posts (presidios) of the province of Texas; and yet there are nearly 68 leagues from the presidio of Nacogdoch to Fort Clayborne.

Vast steppes, covered with gramina, serve for common boundaries between the American confederation and the Mexican territory.

All the country to the west of the Mississippi, from the Ox River to the Rio Colorado of Texas is uninhabited.

These steppes, partly marshy, present obstacles very easily overcome.

We may consider them as an arm of the sea which separates adjoining coasts, but which the industry of new colonists will soon penetrate.

In the United States the population of the Atlantic provinces flowed first towards the Ohio and the Tennessee, and then towards Louisiana.

A part of this fluctuating population will soon move farther to the westward.

The very name of Mexican territory will suggest the idea of proximity of mines; and on the banks of the Rio Mermentas the American colonist will already in imagination possess a soil abounding in metallic wealth.

This error, diffused among the lower people, will give rise to new emigrations; and they will only learn very late that the famous mines of Catorce, which are the nearest to Louisiana, are still more than 300 leagues distant from it.

“Several of my Mexican friends have gone the road from New Orleans to the capital of New Spain.

This road, opened by the inhabitants of Louisiana, who come to purchase horses in the provincias internas, is more than 540 leagues in length, and is consequently equal to the distance from Madrid to Warsaw.

This road is said to be very difficult from the want of water and habitations; but it presents by no means the same natural difficulties as must be overcome in the tracks along the ridge of the Cordilleras from Santa Fe in New Granada to Quito, or from Quito to Cusco.

It was by this road of Texas that an intrepid traveller, M. Pagés, captain in the French navy, went in 1767 from Louisiana to Acapulco.

The details which he furnishes relative to the intendancy of San Luis Potosi, and the road from Queretaro to Acapulco, which I travelled thirty years afterwards, display great precision of mind and love of truth; but, unfortunately, this traveller is so incorrect in the orthography of Mexican and Spanish names, that we can with difficulty find out from his descriptions the places through which he passed.

The road from Louisiana to Mexico presents very few obstacles until the Rio del Norte, and we only begin from the Saltillo to ascend towards the table-land of Anahuac.

The declivity of the Cordillera is by no means rapid there; and we can have no doubt, considering the progress of civilization in the new continent, that land communication will become gradually very frequent between the United States and New Spain.

Public coaches will one day roll on from Philadelphia and Washington to Mexico and Acapulco.

“The three counties of the state of Louisiana, or New Orleans, which approach nearest to the desert country considered as the eastern limit of the province of Texas, are, reckoning from south to north, the counties of the Attacappas, of the Opeloussas, and of the Nachitoches.

The latest settlements of Louisiana are on a meridian which is twenty-five leagues east from the mouth of the Rio Mermentas.

The most northern town is Fort Clayborne of Natchitoches, seven leagues east from the old situation of the mission of the Adayes.

To the north-east of Clayborne is the Spanish Lake, in the midst of which there is a great rock covered with stalactites.

Following this lake to the south-south-east, we meet in the extremities of this fine country, brought into cultivation by colonists of French origin, first, with the small village of St. Landry, three leagues to the north of the sources of the Rio Mermentas; then the plantation of S. Martin; and, lastly, New Iberia, on the river Teche, near the canal of Bontet, which leads to the lake of Tase.

As there is no Mexican settlement beyond the eastern bank of the Rio Sabina, it follows that the uninhabited country which separates the villages of Louisiana from the missions of Texas amounts to more than 1,500 square leagues.

The most southern part of these savannas, between the bay of Carcusin and the bay of la Sabina, presents nothing but impassable marshes.

The road from Louisiana to Mexico goes therefore farther to the north, and follows the parallel of the 32d degree.

From Natchez travellers strike to the north of the lake Cataouillou, by Fort Clayborne of Natchitoches; and from thence they pass by the old situation of the Adayes to Chichi, and the fountain of Father Gama.

An able engineer, M. Lafond, whose map throws much light on these countries, observes, that eight leagues north from the post of Chichi there are hills abounding in coal, from which a subterraneous noise is heard at a distance like the discharge of artillery.

Does this curious phenomenon announce a disengagement of hydrogen produced by a bed of coal in a state of inflammation?

From the Adayes the road of Mexico goes by San Antonio de Bejar, Loredo, (on the banks of the Rio grande del Norte,) Saltillo, Charcas, San Luis Potosi, and Queretaro, to the capital of New Spain.

Two months and a half are required to travel over this vast extent of country, in which, from the left bank of the Rio grande del Norte to Natchitoches we continually sleep sub dio.

“The most remarkable places of the intendancy of San Luis are:

“San Luis Potosi, the residence of the intendant, situated on the eastern declivity of the table-land of Anahuac, to the west of the sources of the Rio de Panuca.

The habitual population of this town is 12,000.

“Nuevo Santander, capital of the province of the same name, does not admit the entry of vessels drawing more than from eight to ten palmas of water.

The village of Sotto la Marina, to the east of Santander, might become of great consequence to the trade of this coast could the port be remedied.

At present the province of Santander is so desert, that fertile districts of ten or twelve square leagues were sold there in 1802 for ten or twelve francs.

From 5 1.2 to 6.878 feet. Trans.

“Charcas, or Santa Maria de las Charcas, a very considerable small town, the seat of a diputacion de Minas.

“Catorce, or la Purissima Concepcion de Alamos de Catorce, one of the richest mines of New Spain.

The Real de Catorce, however, has only been in existence since 1773, when Don Sebastian Coronado and Don Bernabe Antonio de Zepeda discovered these celebrated seams, which yield annually the value of more than from 18 to 20 millions of francs.

From 730,460l. to 833,500l. ſterling.

Trans.

“Montery, the seat of a bishop, in the small kingdom of Leon.

“Linares, in the same kingdom, between the Rio Tigre and the great Rio Bravo del Norte.

“Monclova, a military post, (presidio,) capital of the province of Cohahuila, and residence of a governor.

San Antonio de Bejar, capital of the province of Texas, between the Rio de los Nogales and the Rio de San Antonio.”

According to the calculations of this traveller, the total population of New Spain amounts to 5,837,100 persons: of whom 2,500,000 are Indigenes or Indians; 1,100,000 are whites or Spaniards of the European and Creole races; 6,100 African negroes; and 1,231,000 of the mixed blood of Mestizos, Mulattoes, Lamboes, and their varieties.

As these numbers however are not the result of a regular census, they are to be received as approximations only, and as such, liable to considerable uncertainty.

His history of the banana, manioc and maize, in that work are beautiful disquisitions of a botanical and agricultural kind.

And the abundant harvest of wheat which the table-land of Mexico can afford, are matters of important consideration to the political economists of the United States, when they reflect on the quantity of that grain and of the flour prepared from it, which may be exported from Vera Cruz, and Acapulco when these roads shall be improved, and their government amended.