francs, or five piastres. Still, as with the Vine, which may bear a 
greater or less quantity of grapes, the produce is apt to vary, and 
cannot be precisely calculated. Instances have, however, been known, 
of a parent bequeathing a plantation of Maguay worth from seventy to 
eighty thousand piastres. 
“The cultivation of the AGave is attended with many real advantages 
above that of Maize, Wheat, or Potatoes, as this sturdy, harsh, and fleshy- 
leaved plant is uninjured by the occasional drought, frost, and excessive 
cold, which prevail in winter on the lofty Cordilleras of Mexico. It 
dies after having flowered, or when the central bunch of leaves is cut 
away, and then a number of suckers spring from the parent root, which 
increase the plant with extraordinary rapidity. One acre of ground 
will contain from twelve to thirteen hundred plants of Maguay, of which 
it may be calculated that one in every thirteen or fourteen is always 
affording the honey. Thus the proprietor who sets from thirty to forty 
thousand Maguays is sure of leaving his family rich; though a man 
must possess patience and resolution to devote himself to cultivatin 
what only becomes productive after an interval of fifteen years. In gi 
soil, the Acave blossoms at the end of five years ; while in poor ground 
nothing can be expected under eighteen years ; and any artificial means 
by which the flowering state is unnaturally accelerated, only destroy 
the plant prematurely, or materially lessen the amount of sap. 
_ “The honey, or juice, is of an agreeably bitter-sweet flavour, and fer- 
ments readily from the sugar and mucilage with which it abounds, this 
process being hastened by the addition of some old and acid pulque, 
This vinous liquor resembles cider, but diffuses a disgusting smell of 
decayed meat, which Europeans have some difficulty in overcoming. 
Those, however, who have accustomed themselves to the beverage, con- 
sider it as strengthening, stomachic, and particularly nutritive, recom- 
mending it, peculiarly, to persons of a very meagre habit ; and I have seen 
many whites, who, totally discontinuing water, beer, and wine, drink 
only the Pulgue, like so many Mexicans. The cause of the fetid smell 
of this liquor is variously attributed to the mode of preparation, the 
manure used for the soil, and the different materials in which the fer- 
mentation is carried on; and I only regret, that I was unable, for want 
of proper apparatus, to ascertain this curious point in vegetable che- 
mistry. By distillation, a most intoxicating spirit is obtained from 
Pulque, which is called Mezxical, or Aguardiente (Fire-water) of Maguay. 
The plant which is preferred for this purpose, appeared to me smaller, 
and its foliage more glaucous than the common kind; but not having 
seen it in blossom, I cannot pronounce it to be specifically distinct. _ 
“ But not only is the Acave the Mexican Vine, but it holds the place 
of Asiatic Hemp and the Egyptian Paper-Reed, (Cyperus Papyrus). 
The antient manuscripts of this country consisted of hieroglyphics, often 
inscribed on a paper made of numerous layers of the Acave leaf, mace- 
‘rated in water, and glued together in the same manner as the pith of 
papyrus and the bark of the Paper Mulberry (Brovussonetia) of the 
Pacific Isles. I brought away many antient specimens of this fabric, 
some as thick as pasteboard, others as thin as fine India paper, which 
are the more interesting, as all the Mexican records hitherto discoy ered 
and still preserved at Rome and in Spain, are inscribed on the skins of 
the Mexican Deer. No thread is so much prized by physicians in 
Europe 
