114 



MEXICO, CENTRAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



runs from Jlanzanillo, the port of Colima, along a strip of sand on the south side 

 of the Cuyutlan lagoon. This shallow basin is entirely dry during the hot season, 

 and it is now proposed to place it in constant communication with the sea by 

 cutting a canal through the narrow intervening neck of land. The port of 

 Manzanillo, which is developed in the rocky coast immediately to the west of this 

 sandy isthmus, is sjDacious, deep, and well sheltered from all winds except those 

 blowing from the west and south-west. These prevail especially during the rainy 

 season, from May to October, that is to say, the healthy period of the year ; but 

 during the dry season the climate of Manzanillo is much dreaded. Some sixty 

 miles south-east of this plain Kes the little port of Marnata, which, while quite as 



Fig. 45. — Manzanillo 

 Pcale 1 •• 1,110,000. 



I04°P0' 



West or breenwich 



I03°40' 



to25 

 Fathoms. 



Depths. 



50 to 100 

 Fathoms. 



100 to 500 

 Fathoms. 



18 Miles. 



unhealthy, is even more exposed than IManzanillo. The coast salines betweea 

 these two ports occupy during the season from 5,000 to 6,000 native hands. 



The State of Michoacan is one of those regions that have long resisted assimila- 

 tion with the rest of Mexico. The Tarascan nation had never been subdued by the 

 Aztecs, and their chief bore the title of "Booted" in a pre-eminent sense, because, of 

 all native princes, he alone had the right of wearing his boots in the presence of 

 Montezuma. Proud of their ancient liberties, the Tarascans had at first welcomed 

 the Spaniards as mere allies, and three hundred years later, during the war of 

 independence, no other Indian warriors displayed greater valour and steadfastness 

 against the disciplined troops of Europe. It was in the town of Apacingan, in one 

 of the low-lying fluvial valleys converging on the Rio Mexcala, that was held the 



