118 INSECT MANUFACTURES. 



city is richly supplied with corn and fruits of all 

 kinds, at the same time that its environs supply a 

 most favourable site for the culture of the cochi- 

 neal. The air, continually refreshed by easterly 

 breezes in the morning, and westerly in the even- 

 ing, is pure and delicious, like that of a May 

 morning. Indeed, our traveller asserts, that for 

 magnificence of site, beauty of decoration, excel- 

 lence of soil, fine temperature, and abundance of 

 European and American fruits succeeding each 

 other without intermission, nothing is wanting to 

 Guaxaca to make it an enchanting spot, but an 

 active and industrious people, to avail themselves 

 of its natural advantages. 



At Guaxaca de Menonville acted with caution, 

 and did not betray any undue anxiety respecting 

 the cochineals. Yet he provided himself with chests 

 large enough for their conveyance together with the 

 plants on which they fed. Under pretence of 

 buying flowers, he went into a garden where there 

 was a beautiful nopalerie, and while they were 

 making up the bouquet he had ordered, he took 

 the opportunity of observing the arrangement of 



