INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



297 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



Description of New- Spain or Mexico. 



General Description of New-Spain or Mexico — Cordilleras — Climates 

 — Mines— Rivers— Lakes— Soil— Volcanoes — Harbours— Population- 

 Provinces— Valley of Mexico, and Description of the Capital— Inunda- 

 tions, 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 

 meager and incorrect. The ignorance of the Eu- 

 ropean conquerors, the indolence of their successors, 

 the narrow policy of the government, and the want 

 of scientific enterprise among the Creoles and Span- 

 iards, 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 conster- 

 nation 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 an- 

 nounced it as scarcely visible. The determination 

 of the geographical position of many of the more re- 

 markable places, that of the altitude of the volcanic 

 summits and other eminences, together with the vast 

 mass of intelligence contained in the Political Essay 

 on New-Spain, served to dispel in some measure the 

 darkness ; and since the period of Humboldt's visit 

 numerous travellers have contributed so materially 

 to our acquaintance with Mexico, that it no longer 

 remains among the least known of those remote 

 countries of the globe over which the power of Eu- 

 rope has extended. 



