INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 3438 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
Deseription of New Spain or Mexico. 
General Description of New Spain or Mexico—Cordilleras—Cli- 
mates —Mines—Rivers—Lakes—Soil— V olcanoes— Harbours— 
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, the 
information possessed in Europe respecting that in- 
teresting and important country was exceedingly 
meagre and incorrect. ‘The ignorance of the Euro- 
pean conquerors, the indolence of their successors, 
the narrow policy of the government, and the want 
of scientific enterprise among the Creoles and Spa- 
niards, left it for centuries a region of dim obscurity 
into which the eye of research was unable to pene- 
trate. So inaccurate were the maps, that even the 
latitude and longitude of the capital remained un- 
fixed, and the inhabitants were thrown into con- 
sternation by the occurrence of a total eclipse of 
the sun on the 21st February 1803 ; the almanacs, 
calculating from a false indication of the meridian, 
having announced it as scarcely visible. The de- 
termination 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 intelligence contained in the Po- 
