79i 



MEXICO. 



ished by the emigration of capitalists during the 

 revolution. The whole amount of circulating me- 

 dium, in 1810, is estimated by Mr Ward to have 

 been about 72,000,000 dollars, and the avrniuv 

 annual exports, since 1810, at 13,587,052. Mexico 

 will not probably, at least during the present cen- 

 tury, become a manufacturing country, her mineral 

 and agricultural wealth being sufficient to obtain for 

 her all the necessary articles from other countries. 

 Neither will she be a great maritime power. The 

 Mexican ports on the Atlantic side are most of them 

 insecure, and many of them are mere roadsteads. 

 On the western coast there is, however, a series of 

 magnificent ports, from Acapulco to Guaymas, many 

 of which have never yet been entered. The com- 

 mercial intercourse, on the western side, is much less 

 important than that of the eastern coast, most of the 

 countries with which it can be maintained on the 

 Pacific (Columbia, Peru, Chile, China, and Calcutta), 

 producing nearly the same agricultural articles. 

 Hides, tallow, and wheat are, however, exported in 

 considerable quantities. The returns are so imper- 

 fect, and the state of the country has been so fluc- 

 tuating, that it is not easy to determine any thing 

 with regard to the amount of the exports and imports, 

 for any recent period. 



The Spanish colony of Mexico was, for a long 

 time, divided as follows : 1. the kingdom of Mexico ; 

 2. the kingdom of New Galicia ; 3. the new kingdom 

 of Leon : 4. the colony of New Santander ; 5. the 

 province of Texas; 6. the province of Cohahuila; 

 7. province of New Biscay ; 8. province of Sonora ; 

 9. province of New Mexico ; 10. province of Old 

 and New California. In 1776, a new division was 

 established, into, 1. the viceroyalty of New Spain, 

 consisting of the intendancies of Mexico, Puebla, 

 Veracruz, Oaxaca, Merida or Yucatan, Valladolid, 

 G uadalaxara, Zacatecas, Guanaxuato, S. Luis-Potosi, 

 and the two provinces of Old California and New 

 California ; 2. the internal provinces depending on 

 the viceroyalty (Provincias intemas del Fireynato), 

 comprising the province of the new kingdom of Leon, 

 and the province of New Santander, and, 3. the 

 internal provinces dependent on the governor of 

 Chihuahua (Provincias internas de la commandancia 

 general) consisting of the intendancies of New Biscay, 

 or Durango, and Sonora, and the provinces of Coha- 

 huila, Texas, and New Mexico. This republic is 

 now divided into nineteen states and five territories. 

 The states are, Yucatan, or Merida, Tabasco, Las 

 Chiapas, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Tamaulipas (New San- 

 tander), San Luis-Potosi, New Leon, Cohahuila and 

 Texas, La Puebla, Mexico, Valladolid (Mechoacan), 

 Guadalaxara (Xalisco), Sonora and Cinaloa, Quere- 

 taro, Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua. 

 Old and New California, Colima, Tlascala and New 

 Mexico are territories, their population not being 

 sufficient to enable them to return members to the 

 congress. The first census, which was taken in 

 1793, gave a population of 4,483,529. As the 

 natives suspected the object to be taxation, this 

 number was probably below the truth. Humboldt 

 thinks that it exceeded 5,000,000, and estimated the 

 number, in 1803, at 6,500,000, which agreed very 

 well with the results of the census of 1806. Ward 

 estimates it at about 8,000,000, in 1827. Previous 

 to the expulsion of the Spaniards, in 1829, the popu- 

 lation was composed of Europeans (Chapetones or 

 Gachupines); Creoles, or native whites of pure 

 European descent ; Indians, or the indigenous races ; 

 Mestizoes, or a mixed breed of whites and Indians ; 

 Mulattoes, or descendants of whites and negroes ; 

 Zambos, or Chinos (Chinese), descendants of Negroes 

 and Indians ; and African Negroes. The descen- 

 dants of Mulattoes and whites were called yuarle- 



roons ; and those of a quarteroon and a white, quJa- 

 teruons. These distinctions were fostered by the 

 colonial policy of Spain, for the purpose of keeping 

 up a rivalry of castes ; and the king had tlie privi- 

 lege of conferring the honours of whiteness upon an 

 individual of any colour, by a decree of the Audencia, 

 que se tenga por bianco (that he should be held as a 

 white). The revolution, which divided the popula- 

 tion into Europeans and Americans, has contributed 

 to efface these prejudices. The principal seat of 

 the white population is the table land, towards the 

 centre of which the Indians are likewise numerous. 

 The northern frontier is inhabited chiefly by whites. 

 while the coasts are principally occupied by Mulat- 

 toes and Zambos. The Indians form about two fifths 

 of the whole population, and are divided into a great 

 number of tribes, whose manners, language, degree 

 of civilization, &c., are widely different. Their cos- 

 tumes, of course, vary with the various tribes ; bat 

 the annexed cuts, the first a Mexican priest, the 

 others a male and female native, may be given as 

 specimens of ordinary dress. 



No less than twenty languages, entirely distinct fron 

 each other, are found among them, and of fourtee 

 of them grammars and dictionaries have been coi 

 piled. The Catholic religion is the religion of the 

 state. No other is tolerated. The old ecclesiastical 

 divisions are retained, forming one archbishopric 

 (that of Mexico), and nine bishoprics, comprising 

 1073 parishes. The clergy is composed of about 

 8000 individuals, including 4000 monks and runts, 

 in 206 convents. The clergy are not well educated, 

 and the great mass of the Mexican population is in a 



