340 



RECAPITULATION. 



Aspect of tlie 

 country. 



CHAP.XXVI. To conclude our brief account of Humboldt's Political 

 Essay on New Spain, it may be useful to present a few 

 of the more interesting facts in the ibrni of a recapitu- 

 lation. 



Fhyiiicnl Aspect — Along the centre of the country 

 runs a chain of mountains, having a direction from 

 south-east to north-west, and afterwards from south to 

 north. On the ridge or summit of tliis chain are 

 extended vast table-lands or platforms, which gradually 

 decline towards tlie temperate zone, their absolute 

 height within the tropics being from 7545 to 7873 feet. 

 The declivities of the cordilleras are wooded, wliile the 

 central table-land is usually bare. In the equinoctial 

 region the different climates rise as it were one above 

 another from the shore, where the mean temperature is 

 about 78°, to the central plains, where it is about 62°. 



Population. — The whole population is estimated at 

 5,840,000, of which 4,500,000 are Indians, 1,000,000 

 Creoles, and 70,000 European Spaniards. 



Agriculture. — Tlie banana, manioc, maize, wheat, and 

 potatoes, constitute the principal food of the people. 

 The maguey or agave may be considered as the Indian 

 vine. Sugar, cotton, vanilla, cocoa, indigo, tobacco, 

 wax, and cochineal, are plentifully produced. Cattle 

 are abundant on the great savannalis in the interior. 



Mines. — The annual produce in gold is 4289 lb. troy : 

 in silver, 1,4.39,832 lb. ; in all, 23,000,000 of piasters 

 (£5,03], 250), or nearly half the quantity annually 

 extracted from tlie mines of America. The mint of 

 Mexico fiirnisiied from 1090 to 1803 more than 

 1,353,000,0(10 piasters (£295,968,750), and from the 

 discover}- of New Spain to the commencement of the 

 nineteenth century, probably 2,028,000,000 piasters 



Population. 



Agriculture. 



Mines, 



llie niofliiT-coiintrv bpcame inevitable, the coinap;e sunk to five 

 millions; f'ri)ni wliicli it (ell tn three and a liaif; and continued in 

 that .state (iiiii:i^ l}t2|{ and l(i24. In lH2i} the forei^-n capital.s in- 

 vested hei^am to produre some eflert ; hut in lH2*i, the total amount 

 <^(■coina^'■f• in the five minis o( the IMe.vican republic did not exceed 

 7,4«a,;jO(t <|„l!ars, or .£1,583,950 



