INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 293 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



Description of New Spain or Mexico. 



General Description of New Spain or Mexico — Cordilleras Cli- 

 mates — Mines — Rivers— Lakes — Soil — Volcanoes — Harboups 



Population — Provinces — Valley of Mexico, and Description of 

 the Capital — Inundations, and Works undertaken for the Purpose 

 of preventing them. 



Previous to Humboldt's visit to New Spain, tlie in- cnAP.xxrv. 

 tbi-mation j^ossessed in Europe respecting that interesting p^, ^.: ' 

 and important country was exceedingly meagre and knowiedpe of 

 incorrect. The ignorance of the European conquerors, ^'^"' ^P'""' 

 the indolence of their successors, the narrow policy of 

 the government, and the Avant of scientific enterprise 

 among the Creoles and Spaniards, left it for centuries a 

 region of dim obscurity into which the eye of research 

 was unable to penetrate. So inaccurate were the maps, 

 that even the latitude and longitude of the capital re- 

 mained unfixed, and the inhabitants were thrown into 

 consternation by the occurrence of a total eclipse of the 

 sun on the 21st February 1803 ; the almanacks, calcu- 

 lating from a false indication of the meridian, having 

 announced it as scarcely visible. The determination of 

 the geographical position of many of the more remarkable 

 places, that of the altitude of the volcanic summits and 

 other eminences, together with the vast mass of intelli- 

 gence contained in the Political Essay on New Spain, 

 served to dispel in some measure the darkness ; and 

 since the neriod of Humboldt's visit numerous travellers 



