The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-02-09 00:00:00

SOUTH AMERICA.

MEXICO.

Among the important subjects that now arrest the atten-
tion of Europe, there is none that commands more univer-
sal interest than the present political situation of South
America. The vast extent of this great continent, its
natural riches and resources, the mighty change that has
taken place in its political relations, and its unbounded
capabilities for future greatness and unlimited wealth,
naturally give it a commanding interest throughout the
civilized world. Spain was once the mighty mistress of
that immense extent of territory, comprised between the
13. of south latitude, and the 31. 4s. north ; a space
embracing, perhaps, the richest countries in the world,
equalling the length of all Africa, and far surpassing the
breadth of the vast Russian r inpire, which includes about
IGS degrees of longitude under a parallel of which the
degrees are only equal to half of those of the Equator.'
The most northern point of the Spanish colonies,
under the dominion of Ohl Spain, was the mission of
San Francisco, on the coast of New California, about
seven leagues to the north-west of Santa Cruz; their most
southern possession was Fort Maullin, near the small vet-
lag of Carelinapa, on the coast of Chili, opposite to the
northern extremity of the island of Chiloe. The Spanish
power and language was thus spread over an esti nt of
near '2,000 leagues in length. Under the administration of,
Count Florida Blanca, a regular series of posts was
established from Paraguay to the north-west coast ofl
North America; and a Monk, in the distant mission of the'
Guaranis Indians, could thus maintain a correspondence
with the Missionary of New Mexico or the countries bor-
dering on Cape Mendocin, and their letters during the
transmission searc-ly quit the continent. While Spain
held the dominion of this great portion of the New World,
her possessions were divided into nine great governments,
which were nearly independent of each other : of these,
five—the Vice-Royalties of Peru and New Grenada, the
" Canitanias Generales" of Guatimala, Porto Rico, and
the Car:lefts—lay within the torrid zone; the four remain-
ing divisions, comprising the Vice-Royaltiesof Mexico and
Buenos Ayres, the " Catatonia' Generale s" of Chili and
Ilavannah, including the Florida*, were composed of coun-
tries, of which a great part Was without the tropics and in
the temperate zone ; but in the New World this position
does not, as elsewhere, determine the productions of these
fine regions. The union of several physical causes, such as
the immense height of the Cordilleras, their vast masses' and
the elevation of the plains, which Humboldt has calcu-'
lated to lie from two to three thousand metres (between
six and nine thousand feet) above the level of the ocean,
give to a part of these equinoctial regions a temperature
formed for the growth of the wheat and the fruit trees of
Europe. The geographical latitude has little influence on
the productions of a country, where, on the declivities of
its vast mountains, nature exhibits, together, a union of
almost every climate in Sautheru America. The Cordil-
lera of the Andes displays, at immense heights, plains
completely level ; such is that of more than 8,400 feet in
elevation, on which the city of Santa Fe de Bogota is built ;
wheat and potatoes there are abundantly cultivated. Of
the same description is the plain of Caxamer•es, in Peru,
the ancient residence of the unfortunate Atahualpa, which
lies more than 9,000 feet above the level of the sea. The
great plains of Antisana, in the midst of which springs the
volcano that penetrates the region of eternal snow, rise to
the astonishing elevation of more than 13,000 feet above
the level of the ocean : these plains exceed the summit
of the Pic of Tenerife by 1,300 feet and upwards, and
yet are so level that the inhabitants of these countries have
no idea of the extraordinary situation in which nature has
placed them. But the entire plains of New Grenada,
Quito, or Pero, do not exceed 40 square leagues; difficult
of access, and separated from each other by pro- '
found valleys, they present insuperable obstacles to the
' transport of goods or internal commerce; crowning insulated
summits, they form almost " islets," amid an aerial ocean.
The inhabitants of these rigorous plains remain almost
wholly there, and dread the descent into the valleys around
them, where a suffocating beat prevails, dangerous to the
p 1111 l itive tenauta of the higher Andes. Among the colo-
nies, over which enfeebled Spain once exercised the rights
of supremacy, Mexico latterly betel decidedly the first rank,
bah from its territorial wealth and its favourable position
for commerce with both Europe and' Asia. Its actual state
of civilization was much superior to that of the other Spa-
nish possessions. Many branches of agriculture, it is true,
had attained a higher degree of perfection in the province
of Caraccas than in .sew Spain. The fewer mines a
country has, the more the industry of its people is turned
to the cultivation of the soil. The fertility of the latter
unquestionably is greater in the provinces of Cumana, of
New Barcelona, and Venezuela, and more productive on
the banks of the lower Orinoco, and in the northern part
of New Grenade, than in Mexico, several districts of
which are destitute of water, and barren of all vegetation :
hut the plains in that country, unlike those of New
Grenada, Quito, or PCT U, are of a surface that is uni-
form, and so approxitnated to one another, that they
form but a single level in the lengthened ridge of the
Cordillera. Such is the vast plain which runs from
the I pith to the 40th degree of north latitude ; the extent of
which equals, according to Humboldt, the distance from
Lyons, in the South of France, to the Tropic of Cancer,
which crosses the Great African Desert. This extraor-
dinary plain appears, according to the same great traveller,
to decline insensibly towards the north. No measurement
(he states) was ever made in New Spain beyond the city of
Durango ; but all accounts he could collect mentioned that
the ground lowered visibly towards New Mexico and the
sources of the Rio Colerado. In journeying from the city
of Mexico to the great mines of Guanaxnato the traveller
passes for ten leagues through the valley of Tenochtitlan,
which is elevated near 7,500 feet above the level of the
sea. The surface of this beautiful valley is so uniform,
' that the village of Gueguetoque, which lies at the base of
the mountain of Sencoque, is only about 300 feet higher
than Mexico. From that village the traveller ascends, near
notes, to Puerto de los Reyes, and from thence descends
' into die valley of Tula, which is 2251 toises lower than the
valley of Tenochtitlan ; and across which the great
canal of evacuation of the Lakes San Christoval and
Zumpango passes to the Rio de Moctezuma and the
Gulf of Mexico. To arrive at the bottom of the valh y
of Tula, in the great plain of Queretaro, the traveller
must pass the mountain of Calpuialpan, which is only
about 4,e00 feet above the level of the sea, and of course
less elevated than the city of Quito, though it appears the
highest point of the whole road from Mexico to Chihuahua.
To the north of this mountainous country the vast plains
of San Juan de Rio, Queretaro, and Maya, begin. The
plains are filled with villages, and considerable cities.
l'htir mean height, Humboldt states to be equal to " Puy
de Dome," in Auvergne, aced PO • be near thirty leagues in
length, extending to the foot of the mountains of Gus-
t naxuate; for the rest of the way, inunense plains, appear-
' ing like so many basins of old, dried up lakes, follow one
another, and are only separated by hills, which hardly rise
1250 metres, or 1020 feet above the bottom of these basins.
The four plains, or dried up lakes, which surround the
Icapital of Mexico ; the first, the valley of Toluca ; the
second, that of Tenochtitlan ; the third, the valley of
Actopan ; and the fourth, that of Ittla, have all different
degrees of elevation ; they diffir acconlingly, as much in
their climate, and natural capabilities. The first, and least
elevated, is adapted to the cultivation of sugar ; the
second to that of cotton ; the third thr European grain ;
and the fourth, for agave plantations, which are considered
as the vineyards of the Aztec Indians. On the road from
Mexico, towards the east, in the direction of Vera Cruz,
the traveller advances sixty leagues before he arrives at a
valley, of which the bottom is only about 3,000 feet higher
than the level of the sea, and where consequently oaks
cease to grow. In the Acapulco road, descending from
Mexico towards the South Sea, we arrive at the same tem-
. perate regions in less than seventeen leagues. The eastern
descent of die Cordillera is so rapid, that when once the
traveller begins to descend from the great central plain,
the descent continues till he arrives at the eastern coast.
The road from the capital to Acapulco, a distance of 7.43
!leagues, is very different ; the traveller continually ascends
and descends, and changes every hour, from a cold climate
to one of excessive heat; but the road of Acapulco is
formed for carriages: whereas, of 84.5 leagues from
!Mexico to Vera Cruz, a very small portion only belongs to
the great plain of Anahuac. The remainder of the road is
a laborious and continued descent, especially from the small
:fortress of Perote to the city of Xalappa, and from this site,
one of the most beautiful and picturesque in the known
world, to La Rincitiada. It is the difficulty of this descent

which raises the carriage of flour front Mesicoto Vera Cruz,
and prevented its competing in Europe with the flour of Phi-
ladelphia. A fine causeway, however, has been partly con-
structed along the eastern descent of the Cordillera: this
work, which sprung from the energy of the merchants of
Vera Cruz, would have, when completed, a decided in
fluence on the prosperity of the entire of New Spain.
The places of thousands of mules, the only transport
along that difficult road, will then be supplied by carriages
fitted to transport merchandises from se a to sea, and con-
nect almost the Asiatic cominerce (if again revived) of
1 Acapulco with the European trade of Vera Cruz. The
I commerce of Mexico has now but two outlets—the ports of
Vera Cruz and Acapulco ; by the former, its commerce, I
under the rule of Spain, was carried on with Europe, the
coast of Caracas, the Havanna)), United States, and
Jamaica ; die latter was the central point of the South Sea!
and Asiatic trade, and received the vessels which came
from the Philippine Islands, Peru, Guyaquil, Panama, and
the north-west coast of North America. The two harbours'
are in every way different—the port of Acapulco appears an
immense basin, and as if formed by the industry of man,
That of Vera Cruz, from which an annual commerce of
60 millions of piastres was carried on, scarcely deserves the
name of harbour •, it is a dangerous anchorage among the
shallows of La ('aleta, La Gallega, and La Lavandera. The
`cause of this disadvantage is easily perceived. The coast
of Mexico along the Mexican Gulf is, in fact, a dyke,
against which the trade winds, and perpetual motion of the
waves, from east to west, throw up the sands which the
agitated ocean carries along. This current runs along
South America, from l!umana to the isthmus of Darien;
it ascends towards Cape Catochc, and after mixing with
the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, issues through the ca-
nal of Florida, and flows towards the banks of Newfound-
land. The sands congregated by the agitation of the wa-
ters, from the peninsula of Yucatan to the mouths of the
Rio del Norte and the Mississippi, insensibly contract the ,
basin of the Mexican Gulf. The rivers which descend from
the Sierra Madre. and enter the Atlantic Ocean, have also
contributed in a great degree to increase the sand banks.
Vera Cruz is now almost abandoned, and destroyed by the
fire of the Castle of St. Juan de fl I,
of and the inhabitants ,
of Mexico had long looked for a better harbour and outlet !
for their European commerce ; for that purpose they had
fixed on the mouths of the rivers Alvarado and Guasucuallo, I
to the south of Vera Cruz, and to the north of the city ;
the Rio Tampico, and especially the village of Sotta
La Marina, near the bar of Santander. These four
points had, previous to the Revolution, engaged the'
attention of the Government of Mexico. But these ,
ports would require great labour ; and however advan-
tageous in other respects, the sand-hanks prevent the ,
entry of large vessels : even in Acapulco, in the winter, ,
during great hurricanes, the sea is very rough, and an-
chorage often hazardous. The physical situation of the ,
city of Mexico, Humboldt remarks, possesses inestimable ,
advantages, if considered in the relation of its communica-
tion with the rest of the civilizes' world : placed on an
isthmus, washed by the South Sea and Atlantic Ocean,
Mexico seems destined by the hand of nature to possess a ,
powerful influence over the political events that agitate
both continents. A King of Spain, tl-e great Humboldt ,
remarks, resident in the capital of Mexico, might transmit
his orders in five weeks to the Peninsula in Europe, and
in six weeks to the Philippine Islands in Asia. The vast
kingdom of Mexico, under a wise government and careful ,
cultivation, would of herself produce, from her rich
soil, almost everything that commerce collects toge-
ther
from the most distant shores: among these may
be included sugar, cochineal, cocoa, cotton, coffee, wheat, ,
hemp, flax, silk, oils, and wine. Every metal, including
quicksilver, is had
from its mines. The finest timber, and •
an abundance of iron and copper, would supply the re-
sources for a Mexican marine; but the state of the coasts ,
unfortunately, and the want of ports, from the mouth of ,
the Rio Alvarado to that of the Rio Bravo, p cat t obsta-
cles, in this respect, which are mire than difficult to over-
come. The wealth of individuan in Mexico, previous to
the Revolution, and derived principally from the mines,
was in many instances very great, much greater than either ,
at the Havannah, or in Caraccas or Peru. At Caraccas
(Humboldt states) the heads of the wealthiest families
losiessed a revenue of 900,000 livres ; in the island of ,
:Cuba, individuals had incomes of 6 or 700,000 franca; at
Lima, an annual revenue of 90,000 francs was very uncom-
: but in New Spain (the great traveller adds) there
were individuals, who possessed no mines, and whose
revenue amounted to a million of francs. Ile instances
the family of the Count de la Valenciana, possessing
alone, on the ridge of the Cordillera, a property worth more ;
than twenty-five millions of francs, without including ,
the mine of Valenciana, near Guanoxuato, which, one
year with another, yielded a net revenue of • tnillion
and a half of livres. The Count de Regla (Humboldt i
stake) constructed at the Havannah, at his own expense, in
Aeajon and Cedar-wood, two vessels of the line, of the
largest size, which he made a present of to his Sovereign.
It was the mine of La Biscsina, near Pachuca, which laid ,
the immense fortaues of the House of Regla. Another ,
sable family, that of Fagorga, exhibited an instance of
almost unparalleled: wealth, derived from the same source ;
a single seem which that family possessed in the district of
Panbrerete, left, in the short space of five or six m ntbs,
and all charges deducted, a net profit of twenty millions of
francs ; but, independent of the mines, very large fortunes
still exist in Mexico. Many individuals who gained im-
mensely by rich speculations, have purchased vast tractsof
knd, and devoted their wealth to agriculture. There are
also in Mexico (Humboldt states) a number of very powerful
families, who never embarked in the mines. Of this de-
scription are the wealthy descendants of the " Con-
questador" Cones, or the Marquis del Valle. The Duke
of " Monte Leon," a Neapolitan Nobleman, who is the head
of the House of Cortes, possesses magnificent estates in the
province of Oaxaca, near Toluca, and at Cuernavaca. The
net produce of his rents was a few years since actually no
more than .1.50,000 francs. The King having taken from
the Duke the collection of the " Alcavolos" and duties on to-
bacco.' If, however, the descendants of the Great " (long ues-
tador" would live in Mexico, their revenue would rise at once
to more than a million and a half of francs. The wealth
of the Mexican Clergy is also very great; the revenues of
the Archbishop of Mexico, and eight of the Bailsman Bi-
shops—of Puebla, Vallaelohd, Guadalaxara, Durango,
Monterey, Yucatan, °execs, and Sonora, amounted to
339,000 double piastres, or near 120,0001. sterling. Of all
the European colonies uoder the torrid zone, Mexico pos-
seined the fewest Negro slaves, and is the least burdened
with that dangerous curse, " sable slavery ;" in fact, there are
scarce any slaves throughout that fine country. One may
go (I funiboldt states) through the whole city of Mexico,
without meeting a black countenance. In this instance
Mexico presents a striking contrast to the II avannah, Lima,
and the Caraccas. From information procured a few years
since, it appeared that in all Mexico there were not seven
thousand negroes, and not more altogether than ten then-
sand slaves, of whom the majority belonged to the ports of
!impala, and Vera Cruz, or the warm regions of the coast
(Tierra. Calcentes). The slaves were five times as nume-
rous in the province of Caraccas, which did not contain
the sixth part of the population of Mexico. Of 80,000
Negroes calculated to leave been furnished by Africa an-
nually to America, and worth in the colonies near five
millions sterling, not one hundred were stated to have
been landed on the coast of Mexico. Our present limited
space will not permit us to take as enlarged a view of this
important subject as we could wish, but we shall return
to it again. Our information is principally drawn from
the great Humboldt, the ablest and most scientite tea-
yeller who ever devoted himself to the extension of human
knowledge. We have also drawn largely on other sources,
South America now presents so vast a field for enterprise
and comineree—the trade and speculation of on. mer-
chants and capitalists is so much extended into that great
and rising quarter of the globe, that every source of infor-
mation on the subject of its resources, produce, and situa-
tion. ought to be unlocked. IVe have from time to time
dwelt at some length upon this important question ; and
whenever our space or leisure will permit we shall return
to the ziiscussion again.

The last &dykes from Para, we understand, are of a na- I
ture to remove all fears as to the situation of our coun-
trymen in that quarter. The tragical occurrence, of
which an account appeared in our paper of Monday last,
has been fully corroborated by other statetnents. Its
horrible details, as was natural, excited incretht!ity in the
minds of many; but there is now too little reason to doubt
any of them.