TOPOGRAPHY OF YUCATAN. 



165 



all times, so that vessels drawing thirteen or fourteen feet have to anchor at a 

 distance of five miles from the port. Its trade is consequently limited to cocua- 

 nuts, some timber, sugar, hides, and salt. 



The scarcity of towns, villages, or even hamlets in the neighbourhood of the 

 sea, as shown by the blank spaces on the map of Yucatan, is apt to cause surprise 

 The sparse population on the coastlands is partly explained by the want of shelter 

 on the seaboard, and the presence of insalubrious coast lagoons or marshes, but 

 it is also due to the filibustering expeditions to which the people were exposed 



Fig. 70.— Meeida and North- West Yucatan-. 

 Scale 1 : 1,000,000. 



90-20' 



West of" breenwich 



Ô9°40' 



Lepths 



0to5 

 Faihoras. 



5 Fiitlioms 

 and upwards. 



. 24 Miles. 



during the last two centuries. The English corsairs, landing suddenly in some 

 creek, often penetrated far into the interior, killing the men, carrying off the 

 children, sacking and burning towns and villages. Although these raids have 

 long ceased, no special industries have been developed, while the natural resources 

 of the coastlands have not been sufiicient to attract immigrants from the interior. 

 Hence in this region the population is still mostly concentrated about Merida, 

 where it was also most dense at the time of the conquest. Merida, capital of the 

 State of Yucatan, and formerly of the whole peninsula, stands on the site of 

 the ancient Ho, or Ti-hoô, that is, " City " in a pre-eminent sense. Most of its 



