184 



MEXICO. 



^"'"- request. The horses of the northern provinces, and 



"V^ particularly of New Mexico, are not less celebrated 



than those of Chili. These animals wander wild in 



the savannahs of the Provincials Iriternas, and numbers 



are exported to Natchez and New Orleans. Many 



Mexican families are said to possess from thirty to forty 



thousand head of horses and oxen. Mules are still 



more numerous. More than 5000 are employed as an 



object of luxury, or in the carriages of the city of 



Mexico ; and the commerce of Vera Cruz alone occu- 



pies annually about 70,000 of these animals, multi- 



tudes of which perish on the highways from the ex- 



cessive fatigues of their journeys. The rearing of 



fliccp has been strangely neglected, although they might 



easily be made to change their climate with the sea- 



sons, without at all interfering with the agriculture of 



the country. It is remarkable that neither the com- 



mon hog, nor the poultry, which are found in all the 



islands of the South Sea, were known to the ancient 



Mexicans. The former have been introduced both 



from Europe and the Philippines, and have multiplied 



amazingly on the central table land. Before the arri- 



val of the Spaniards, some of the more civilized tribes 



reared a few turkeys, pheasants, ducks, and moor- hens 



about their houses ; but now the different varieties of 



hens, particularly those of Mosambique, of which the 



flesh is black, have become common wherever colo- 



nies have settled. The goose is the only species of 



European poultry which is no where to be found in 



Spanish America. 



Suk worms. The rearing of silk-worms was introduced by Cortez 

 soon after the taking of Mexico; and considerable 

 quantities of silk were produced in different provinces. 

 But the injudicious restrictions imposed by the go- 

 vernment on the native manufactures, and the interest 

 which the Philippine company had in the sale of Asia- 

 tic silks to the Mexicans, have almost annihilated this 

 branch of colonial industry. There are several indi- 

 genous caterpillars in New Spain, from which an infe- 

 rior si'.k, called Misteca, is procured, which was an ob- 

 ject of commerce even in the time of Montezuma, and 

 of which handkerchiefs are still manufactured in the 

 intendancy of Oaxaca. Beei are an object of atten- 

 tion in New Spain, chiefly for the sake of their wax, 

 of which so great a quantity is consumed in the Catho- 

 lic worship. One species, peculiar to the New Con- 

 tinent, has no sting, or at least so feeble a weapon as is now 

 to produce no sensible injury ; and from this circum- 

 stance they are known in the Spanish colonies by the 

 Cochineal, name of Angelitos, little angels. The Cochineal insect 

 has been reared in New Spain from the most remote 

 period ; but, in consequence of the vexations to which 

 the natives were exposed in the beginning of the con- 

 quest, this branch of Indian industry became almost 

 entirely neglected, except in the intendancy of Oaxaca. 

 In the rainy seasons, the Indians make their cochineal 

 insects travel to drier regions, by carrying them in 

 baskets covered with palm-leaves. 



^ e P r i nc 'P a l fisheries on the coasts of New Spain, 

 are the whale and pearl fisheries. The western coast 

 of Mexico, especially that part of the great ocean si- 

 tuated between the gulf of Bayonna, the three Mary 

 Islands, and Cape St. Lucas, abounds in spermaceti' 

 whales, or cachalots. Till 1 788, the whale fishers fre- 

 quented the coast of Chili and Peru ; and seldom above 

 a dozen of these vessels doubled Cape Horn annually. 

 But, since the voyage of Colnet to the Gallipagos made 

 known the abundance of cachalots in the great ocean 

 to the north of the equator, more than 60 vessels have 



Bees. 



Fisheries. 



been seen there under the English flag alone. One of Mexico, 

 the large cachalots will yield 125 barrels of spermaceti, "^^iT* 1 ^ 

 eight of which, forming a tun, used to sell in London 

 from 80 to dElOO Sterling ; yet the Spanish Mexicans 

 make no attempt to share in this profitable pursuit. 

 One cause of this neglect may be, that tapers of bees- 

 wax only are permitted to be used in the churches, and 

 spermaceti therefore is not in much request in New 

 Spain ; but it is also certain, that the sloth of the co- 

 lonists prevents them from engaging in so laborious an 

 employment. Pearls are procured in greatest abund- 

 ance between the islands of Cubagua and Coche, and 

 the coast of Cumana, at the mouth of the Rio de la 

 Hacha, in the gulf of Panama, and on the eastern 

 coast of California. 



The ancient Mexicans were acquainted with the Manufac- 

 process of weaving cotton ; and, soon after the con- tu >'es. 

 quest, the manufacture of cloth from the wool of Eu- 

 ropean sheep was introduced into the country. But 

 the Spanish government, though never actually prohi- 

 biting the establishment of manufactures in their co. 

 lonies, have always discouraged those which were sup- 

 posed to interfere with the demands for the same arti- 

 cles from the mother country. Notwithstanding all 

 obstacles, however, many settlers from Spain have 

 carried to the new continent the industry of their na- 

 tive provinces. The manufacture of coarse stuffs can 

 easily be carried on at a low rate, where the raw ma- 

 terials are found in abundance ; and the prohibition of 

 commerce with neutrals, during the late hostilities 

 throughout Europe, favoured greatly the making of 

 calicoes, fine cloths, and other articles of luxury. The Calicoes, 

 oldest cloth manufactures are those of Tezcuco, esta- 

 blished in 1.592, which, by degress, passed entirely in- 

 to the hands of the Indians and Mestizoes of Queretaro 

 and Puebla. In these establishments there is great 

 imperfection in many of the technical processes, par- 

 ticularly in that of dyeing. The workmen are treated 

 in a great measure like slaves, being shut up all the 

 week as in a prison, and flogged unmercifully for the 

 smallest trespass. Though free, they are subjected to 

 this constraint, by being kept continually in debt to 

 their employers, who take care to furnish them with 

 opportunities of spending their gains in drunkenness, 

 and thus acquire a right to confine them at work, as 

 the necessary step for procuring payment. Little silk 

 is now manufactured in New Spain, and only a few 

 stuffs of cotlun, mixed with silk. Neither are there 

 any manufactories of flax, or hemp, or paper. The 

 manufacture of tobacco, which is a royal right, is very Tol >acco. 

 considerable ; and in one great manufactory of segars 

 at Queretaro, 3000 people are employed. The manu- 

 facture of hard soap is a considerable article of com- 

 merce at Puebla, Mexico, and Guadalaxara, and is 

 greatly facilitated by the quantities of soda found in 

 most parts of the table land of New Spain. The town 

 of Puebla was formerly much celebrated for its manu- 

 factories of delf-ware and hats ; but the former article 

 has been much neglected of late years, in consequence 

 of the low price of the stone-ware imported from Eu- 

 rope. The manufacture of ponder is a royal mono- Powder, 

 poly ; but immense quantities, (nearly three-fourths of 

 the whole that is consumed in the country, ) are made 

 and sold in a contraband manner. One of the most 

 extensive of the Mexican manufactures is that of plate ; Plate, 

 and, in the smallest towns there are gold and silver- 

 smiths, in whose shops workmen of all casts are employ- 

 ed. The academy of fine arts in the capital has diffused 

 a taste for beautiful antique forms ; and services of plate 



