WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA I3I 



convent, a hospital for the care of the indigent sick, and other 

 churches and shrines. 



370. The town is near the King's Highway from Vera Cruz to 

 Mexico and Puebla. The whole country is well covered with luxuri- 

 ant forests and threaded by streams of sweet and crystal-clear water, 

 very cool and delicious, so that it seems a bit of earthly Paradise ; it 

 is always the same because of its equable climate. In this town's dis- 

 trict there are cattle, mare, horse, and hog ranches, quantities of 

 wild and feathered game, and extensive pastures ; there are oranges, 

 limes, citrons, grapefruit, valuable and highly prized cedar, ebony, 

 and cypress timber, liquidambar and other medicinal roots, gums, 

 cordials, and fruits. 



371. The rivers running into the sea within this jurisdiction are, 

 on the S., the Rio de Alvarado, in 20°, along which at present the 

 Dioceses of Oaxaca and Tlaxcala draw their boundary; that of Rio 

 Medellin, called also Almeria, 5 leagues from Vera Cruz, which rises 

 in the Cordillera in the provinces of the Totonacos and Misantla ; 

 15 leagues to the N. of Vera Cruz, the Rio de Zempoala; 27 leagues 

 N. of this, the Rio de San Pedro y San Pablo ; 20 leagues farther 

 on from this river to the N., the Rio de Tuxpa y Cazones ; the Rio 

 de Tamiagua is 13 leagues N. of that of Cazones y Tuxpa. All these 

 are large rivers full of delicious fish ; as for other smaller streams 

 emptying into the sea, I omit mention of them since they are less 

 important. 



Chapter VII 



Of the Cities of Los Angeles, Tlaxcala and Other Features of 

 the District of the Diocese. 



372. The city of Puebla de Los Angeles was founded by Justice 

 Salmeron by order of Bishop Don Sebastian Ramirez de Fuenleal, 

 President of the Mexico Circuit Court, in the year 1531 on the King's 

 Highway from Vera Cruz to Mexico, in a plain called Cuetlaxcoapa 

 in the district of the city of Cholula and 2 leagues away from it ; it is 

 5 leagues from the city of Tlaxcala, 22 from the City of Mexico, 

 and 60 from the port of Vera Cruz, in full i8°3o' N. It has a cool 

 climate and is wxll supplied with cheap and delicious provisions. It 

 is one of the best and largest cities in New Spain ; it will have 3,000 

 Spanish residents, not to speak of many Indians, Negroes, and mulat- 

 toes of the servant class. The Cathedral was transferred to this city 

 from Tlaxcala in the year 1550; it is one of the largest and finest 

 churches to be found in the Indies, rivaling the largest and finest in 

 Spain, though not completed. When they excavated for the founda- 



