FAIRS IN MEXICO. 



103 



The exportation of Cochineal is estimated to range from seven 

 hundred thousand to one million of dollars worth ; — and, when 

 we add to these articles, Dye wood, Vainilla, Sarsaparilla, Jalap, 

 Hides, horns, and a small quantity of Pepper, Indigo, and Coffee, 

 together with an occasional invoice of sugar sent from the west 

 coast to Columbia and Peru, we ma}' consider the list of mer- 

 chantable Mexican exports as completely ended. 



In all the Mexican towns and cities, and in many of the large 

 villages there are weekly markets held at which a considerable 

 trade for the neighborhood is carried on; and, in addition to these, 

 there are nine great Fairs at which immense quantities of foreign 

 manufactures are disposed of. These are held at the following 

 places and times : 



1. The Fair at Aguas Calientes — begins on the 20th of Novem- 

 ber and lasts 10 days. 



2. The Fair at Allende in Chihuahua — begins on the 4th of 

 October, and lasts 8 days. 



3. The Fair at Chilapa in Mexico — begins on the 2d of Jan- 

 uary, and lasts 8 days. 



4. The Fair at Chilpanzingo — begins on the 21st of December, 

 and lasts 8 days. 



5. The Fair at Huejutla — begins on the 24th of December, and 

 lasts 4 days. 



6. The Fair at Ciudad Guerrero — begins on the 12th of Decem- 

 ber, and lasts 6 days. 



7. The Fair at Saltillo — begins on the 29th of September, and 

 lasts 8 days. 



8. The Fair at San Juan de los Lagos — begins on the 5th 

 of December, and lasts 8 days. 



9. The Fair at Tenancingo — begins on the 6th of February, 

 and lasts 10 days. 



It will not be considered singular when we recollect the colonial 

 and subsequent revolutionary history of Mexico, that she has not 

 fostered her shipping and become a commercial country. The 

 original emigration to New Spain was not maritime in its charac- 

 ter. The Spanish trade was carried on by the mother country in 

 Spanish vessels exclusively, and these ships were not owned by or 

 permitted to become the permanent property of the colonists. The 

 settlers who emigrated retired from the coasts to the interior where 

 their interests either in the soil, cities, or mines, immediately ab- 

 sorbed their attention. It was not to be expected that the Indians, 



