18 



MEXICO, CENTEAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



After the long- sleep imposed upon IMexico by the system of absolute monopoly, the 

 labours of Humboldt were a sort of revelation ; he showed what the Spanish colony 

 was capable of at the very time when its emancipation was already at hand. 



The exploration of the country was necessarily interrupted during the revolu- 

 tionary period. But when Mexico at last established its independence, travellers 

 beo-an again to visit this part of the American continent, henceforth declared free 

 to all comers. After the wars Burkart followed in the footsteps of Humboldt, 

 and spent nearly ten years in traversing most of the mineral regions of the 

 republic. 



Burkart's work was continued by other explorers of every nationality, amongst 



rig. 8. — Chief Positions sciemtificallt DEXEEinNED in Mexico. 

 Scale 1 : 30,000,000. 



30° 



Humboldt and his 

 predecessors. 



Other observators 

 down to 1874. 



, 620 Miles. 



them the Americans, Stephens and Catherwood, who carefully studied the re- 

 markable monuments still standing in the southern part of the territory. But the 

 Mexicans themselves also began to take an interest in scientific investigations ; and 

 in 1839, a geographical and statistical bureau was founded in the capital. Thi^s 

 association, which is one of the oldest of the kind in the world, has issued valuable 

 memoirs on nearly every part of the confederacy. It has also prepared the mate- 

 rials for a general map of Mexico on a larger scale than that of Humboldt, which 

 was partly produced in sections, and afterwards as a groundwork for Garcia Cubas' 

 atlas, the first edition of which appeared in 1856. 



Then came the trigonometric survey of the Anahuac Valley under the direction 



