# Pictures of life in Mexico/Volume 2/Chapter 25

Contents
CHAPTER XXV.
CITIES AND PROVINCES.
The Valley of Mexico or Tenochtitlan, is of oval form, and is situated in the centre of the Cordillera of Anahuac, on the ridge of the basaltic and porphyritical mountains rising from the south-south-east to the north-northwest. It has five lakes—those of Tezcuco (near which lies the city of Mexico), Chalco, Xochimilco, Zampango, and Xaltocan. Tezcuco, one of the two great lakes, being of salt water.
Six principal roads cross the mountains which enclose this valley—the old road of La Puebla, by the Llanos de Apan and San Bonaventura; that of Pachuco by the Cerro ​Ventoso, to the mines of del Monte through scenes of beautiful vegetation; the way of Toluca by Lerma and Tianguillo—a fine artificial causeway partly raised on arches; that of Queretaro; Guanajuato and Durango by Guantitlan Huehuetoca and Peurto de Reyes; through gently-rising-hills; the road from Acapulco, by the summit La Cruz del Marques; to Guchilaque and Cuernavoca; and the way of La Peubla by Rio Frio and Tesmelucos from the Cerro del Telapon, in connection with that from the Sierra Nevada to the great volcano Popocatepetl.
The old city of Tenochtitlan was divided into four quarters called Xochimilco, Atzacualco Mayotla; and Cuepopan. These divisions are still recognised in the present city of Mexico in the quarters St. Paul St. Sebastian, St. John, and St. Mary; and the streets run much in the same direction as did the ancient ones.
The new city is situated on the same site as the former, between the extremities of the lakes Tezcuco and Xochimilco. The town was of yore separated from the continent by the waters of Tezcuco, communicating with it by dikes and causeways; but those briny streams ​having receded to the distance of nearly 15,000 feet from the centre of the city the intervening ground consists of pretty chinampas and saline marshes dotted with pools of mud and flocks of wild fowl. The citizens at present derive their fresh water by means of canals from the Lake of Xochimilco.
​Puebla is considered the second city of the republic. It is open, cleanly and pleasant: the streets are as well paved as those of the capital; and less crowded with beggars. House rents are one-third, nay, often one-half less than in the chief city. Churches and convents flourish here in great numbers; and the neighbourhood is also celebrated for its productions in glass and earthenware. On the eastern side is a beautiful Alameda, or public walk, planted with rows of fine trees, behind which flows a pretty river, suppling in its course water-power for several manufactories.
The town of Xalapa and its vicinity, constitute the garden of the country. It is most romantically situated, the houses being perched upon the crests of lofty hills, and the streets forming a kind of intervening valleys. So salubrious is the locality, that residents upon low lands adjoining the coast, resort to it as a refuge from the malaria fever, during the hot season. The lovely freshness and greenness prevailing here, is caused by the damp atmosphere driven inland from the sea to rest upon the town; and the dewy, rainbow-like mist, followed immediately by the most dazzling sunshine—reflecting itself a hundredfold from ​the glistening earth and foliage—have together the most superb effect imaginable; and are more striking still from the suddenness and completeness of their changes. The houses in Xalapa are more comfortable and better furnished than in almost any other district of Mexico: the walls and ceilings are often pleasingly decorated, and the apartments, though low, have a cheerful aspect.
The inhabitants number 11,000. The general tone of society is above the average in the country: there are fewer beggars in the streets, the Indian population is not so wretched, and virtue and religion are held in somewhat higher respect. The ladies of Xalapa are celebrated throughout the land for their beauty, in such wild poetry and song as have survived the shock of revolutions, and the degradations of war and superstition. Their features are well shaped, their complexions rosy, and their eyes fine and lustrous; their manners are refined, their dispositions pleasing; and, upon the whole, they furnish as favourable a specimen of the female character as can be found in Mexico.
Perote is a small town on the road from ​Xalapa to Puebla containing between 2,000 and 3,000 inhabitants. The dwellings are chiefly of only one low story, strongly built; and the town is well supplied with fresh water from the elevated grounds beside it. The country around is rugged and hilly, interspersed with dreary moors and hollow chasms; and the people are for the most part, as wild and uncouth as the features of the scenery.
Gueretaro, on the road northwards, is a cotton-manufacturing city, containing 10,000 inhabitants, and celebrated as the birthplace of a numerous family of pronunciamientos. The population are remarkably ignorant, and the place literally swarms with priests and soldiers.
Guanajuato is famous for its silver-mines, the working of which was formerly profitable in the extreme; but the better part of the ore has been obtained, and the city is now comparatively deserted in consequence.
Zacatecas is a still more celebrated northern mining town, situated among silver-producing mountains. Its streets are narrow, crooked, and precipitous; churches and religious shows are very numerous, although the lower class ​of residents are very dishonest and barbarous. Frisnillo and Sombrereto are also famed for their valuable silver-mines.
Durango is the principal city in the region of the north: it boasts of a mint is the seat of a bishopric and has a splendid cathedral. The Inquisition had formerly a vast and terrible establishment in this city, the buildings of which frown upon the landscape in all their original sternness. The Alameda—situated beside the "Plaza de los Toros," or bull-ring—is one of the loveliest in Mexico; it is ornamented with plentiful flowers and trees and cooled by a brilliant fountain. Durango is supposed to occupy almost as much ground as the city of Mexico itself; though it contains scarcely more than 20,000 inhabitants. Jesus-Maria and Chihuahua are also considerable localities in the mining districts of northern Mexico.
Santa Fé is the capital of New Mexico distant only fifteen miles from the great Rio del Norte. The town is poorly arranged small, and confined; and its buildings, with the exceptions of the palacio, the custom-house, and the barracks, are even unusually humble and inconvenient. The population of ​the city together with several villages in the suburbs amounts to about 6,000.
Caneles is a mining town in the direction of the Pacific. Its mountains abound in silver ore, but it is of so poor a quality that the shafts have never been extensively worked. An English mercury-mining company, however, have carried on their operations there. The streets of the town are poor and narrow, but the neighbourhood is beautifully verdant with all manner of fruit trees; and the climate is most delightful.
Tamazula is a small town on the same river as Caneles. Culiacan and Cosala are towns of some little importance in the same vicinity. Guadaloupe de Calvo, also, is a city containing about 10,000 people. It was partially built by the English, who established and formerly conducted extensive silver-mines in its neighbourhood. The sash-windows made by the English, may still be seen in the walls of certain habitations in this town.
Cuernavoca is built in the valley of that name, in the tierra caliente; notable for the beauty of the tropical scenery around it, and for the wretchedness of the Indian habitations composing its suburbs. Several stages nearer ​to the Valley of Mexico is Cuautla; the houses of which city are small but cleanly; and the inhabitants good-humoured and lazy. The country adjoining abounds in sugar plantations haciendas and luxuriant forests; and swarms with miserable Indian labourers. Ayotla (near the mountains of Popocatepetl) and Tenango, are two of the concluding stages on the road to Mexico in this direction.
The peninsula of Yucatan is a province of Mexico but its situation is too isolated to be very dependent either commercially or politically upon the republican government. It is bounded by Vera Paz, by Chiapa and by Tabasco. The climate is hot and the ground hard but productive. It furnishes cotton wax, honey, cochineal, and valuable trees; and amber is to be found on the coast. Ancient Indian ruins and other curiosities have been discovered in this region; but few attempts have yet been made to cultivate either the country or the people.
​The province of Chiapa abounds in pine and cypress woods and cedar and walnut trees; others also flourish, from which are derived liquid amber, copal, tacomaca balsams, and aromatic gums. Maize and cochineal also flourish in abundance; together with pigs and beautiful birds, sheep and snakes, gloats and horses, leopards and wild boars. The city of Chiapa contains a cathedral and a monastery: but it has been for many years in a declining state, notwithstanding.
Vera Paz is a rugged and broken, but very fertile region. It is subject to awful tempests of thunder and lightning, winds and earthquakes. Amber, gum-trees, and immense canes, together with fine fruits, may be met with in abundance everywhere; and many wild animals—tigers, bears, serpents, wild-boars, monkeys, porcupines, squirrels and cats, with eagles, sea-crows, bitterns, storks, humming-birds, and parrots, may be observed constantly ranging the wilderness woods, or bounding over the thirsty plains, in every season of the year.
I have thus briefly characterized the principal towns, cities, and provinces, of the Republic. An exceedingly great proportion of ​the latter are still unexplored and uncultivated, and but thinly inhabited at the best:—and any very lengthened description of the former would be tedious—so similar are the main features of many of the smaller places, to those of their larger and more interesting prototypes.