ESSAY ON NEW SPAIN. 367 



presents, in six divisions, considerations on the extent 

 and natural appearance of Mexico, on the population, 

 on the manners of the inhabitants, their ancient civiliza- 

 tion, and the political division of their territory. It 

 embraces also the agriculture, the mineral riches, the 

 manufactures, the commerce, the finances, and the mili- 

 tary defence of that vast country. In treating these dif- 

 ferent subjects I have endeavoured to consider them 

 under a general point of view ; I have drawn a parallel 

 not only between New Spain, the other Spanish colonies, 

 and the United States of North America, but also 

 between New Spain and the possessions of the English in 

 Asia ; I have compared the agriculture of the countries 

 situated in the torrid zone with that of the temperate 

 climates ; and I have examined the quantity of colonial 

 produce necessary to Europe in the present state of civi- 

 lization. In tracing the geological description of the 

 richest mining districts in Mexico, I have, in short, 

 given a statement of the mineral produce, the popula- 

 tion, the imports and exports of the whole of Spanish 

 America. I have examined several questions which, for 

 want of precise data, had not hitherto been treated with 

 the attention they demand, such as the influx and reflux 

 of metals, their progressive accumulation in Europe and 

 Asia, and the quantity of gold and silver which, since 

 the discovery of America down to our own times, the 

 Old World 'has received from the New. The geographi- 

 cal introduction at the beginning of this work contains 

 the analysis of the materials which have been employed 

 in the construction of the Mexican Atlas. 



" VII. — Views of the Cordilleras, and monuments of the 

 indigenious nations of the New Continent. This work is 



