Brief description of the city of Mexico.

Extract from Humboldt’s New Spain.

Mexico has been very much embelliſhed ſince the reſidence of the Abbe Chappe there in 1769.

The edifice deſtined to the ſchool of mines, for which the richeſt individuals of the country furniſhed a ſum of more than three millions francs, would adorn the principal places of Paris or London.

Two great palaces [hotels] were recently conſtructed by Mexican Artiſts, pupils of the academy of Fine Arts of the capital.

One of these palaces, in the quarter dela Traspana, exhibits in the interior of the court a very beautiful oval perystyle, of columns.

The traveller juſtly admires a vaſt circumference paved with porphyry flags, and enclosed with an iron railing, richly ornamented with bronze, containing an equeſtrian ſtatue of King Charles the Fourth, placed on a pedeſtal of Mexican marble, in the midſt of the Plaza Major of Mexico, oppoſite the cathedral and the viceroy’s palace.

However, it muſt be agreed that notwithſtanding the progress of the arts within theſe laſt thirty years, it is much less from the grandeur and beauty of the monuments, than from the breadth and ſtraitness of the ſtreets and much less from its edifices than from its uniform regularity, its extent and poſition, that the capital of New Spain attracts the admiration of Europeans.

From a ſingular occurrence of circumſtances, I have ſeen ſucceſſively, within a very ſhort space of time, Lima, Mexico, Philadelphia, Waſhington, Paris, Rome, Naples, and the largeſt cities of Germany.

By comparing together impreſſions which follow in rapid ſucceſſion, we are enabled to rectify any opinion which we may have too eaſily adopted.

Notwithſtanding ſuch unavoidable compariſons, of which ſeveral, one would think, muſt have proved diſadvantageous to the capital of Mexico, it has left in me a recollection of grandeur which I principally attribute to the majeſtic character of its ſituation and the ſurrounding ſcenery.

124.800l. ſterling See chap. VII.

This coloſſal ſtatue was executed at the expenſe of the Marquis de Branciforte, formerly viceroy of Mexico, brother-inlaw to the Prince of Peace.

It weighs 450 quintals, and was modelled, founded and placed by the ſame artiſt, M. Tolsa, whoſe name deserves a diſtinguiſhed place in the hiſtory of Spaniſh sculpture.

The merits of this man of genius can only be appreciated by thoſe who know the difficulties with which the execution of theſe great works of art are attended even in civilized Europe.

From the plan of the City of Waſhington, and from the magnificence of its capitol, of which I only ſaw a part completed, the Federal City will undoubtedly one day be a much finer city than Mexico.

Philadelphia has alſo the ſame regularity of conſtruction.

The alleys of platanus, acacia, and populous heterophylla, which adorn its ſtreets, almoſt give it a rural beauty.

The vegetation of the banks of the Potomac and Delaware is alſo richer than what we find 2.300 metres (7.500 feet) of elevation on the ridge of the Mexican Cordilleras.

But Waſhington and Philadelphia will always look like European cities.

They will not ſtrike the eyes of the traveller with that peculiar, I may ſay, exotic character, which belongs to Mexico, Santa Fe de Bogata, Quito, and all the tropical capitals, conſtructed at an elevation as high or higher than the paſſage of the great St. Bernard.

In fact, nothing can preſent a more rich and varied appearance than the valley, when, in a fine ſummer morning, the sky without a cloud, and of that deep azure, which is peculiar to the dry and rarified air of high mountains, we transport ourſelves to the top of one of the towers of the cathedral of Mexico, or ascend the hill of Chapoltebec.

A beautiful vegetation ſurrounds this hill.

Old cypress trunks, of more than 15 and 16 metres in circumference, raiſe their naked heads above thoſe of the Schinus, which reſemble in their appearance the weeping willows of the eaſt.

From the centre of this ſolitude, the ſummit of the porphyritical rock of Chapoltebec, the eye sweeps over a vaſt plain of carefully cultivated fields, which extend to the very feet of the coloſſal mountains covered with perpetual snow.

The city appears as if waſhed by the waters of the lake of Tezcuco, whoſe baſin, ſurrounded with villages and hamlets, bring to mind the moſt beautiful lakes of the mountains of Switzerland.

Large avenues of elms and poplars lead in every direction to the capital; and two aqueducts, conſtructed over arches of very great elevation, cross the plain, and exhibit an appearance equally agreeable and intereſting.

Los Ahuahuetes.

Cupressus disticha Lin

49 and 52 feet.

Trans.

The magnificent convent of Nueſtra Senora de Gaudaloupe, appears joined to the mountains of Tepeyacac among ravines, which ſhelter a few date and young yucca trees.

Towards the ſouth the whole tract between San Angel, Tacabaya, and San Auguſtin de las Cuevas, appears an immenſe garden of orange, peach, apple, cherry, and other European fruit trees.

This beautiful cultivation forms a ſingular contrast with the wild appearance of the naked mountains which encloſe the valley, among which the famous volcanoes of La Puebla, Popocatepetl, and Iztaccihuatl are the moſt diſtinguiſhed.

The firſt of theſe forms an enormous cone, of which the crater, continually inflamed and throwing up smoke and aſhes, opens in the midſt of eternal snows.