206 CLIMATE POPULATION PRODUCTIONS TOWNS. 



The chief productions and the indigenous plants are similar to 

 those found in the State of Vera Cruz ; and considerable trade is 

 carried on with the interior — especially with the States of San 

 Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, and Queretaro, — in mules, oxen, horses, 

 honey and wax. The coasting and foreign commerce is conducted 

 principally in the ports of Tampico de Tamaulipas and Matamo- 

 ros. From these places, large quantities of European and North 

 American manufactures, enter the middle and northern States of 

 the republic. Queretaro, San Luis, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Zaca- 

 tecas, Jalisco, Durango, Chihuahua and Sonora are all benefitted 

 by this trade in a greater or less degree ; and the Panuco, Rio 

 Grande and other streams are all availed of partially for this interior 

 trade as far as they are navigable. At Soto la Marina an important 

 smuggling business was long and vigorously carried on. 



The capital of this State is Victoria, formerly Santander, a 

 town of 12,000 inhabitants. Tampico de Tamaulipas, on the 

 northern bank of the Panuco, which enters the Mexican Gulf five 

 miles below the town, is the principal commercial port of the State. 

 Its bar is dangerous and its harbor considered unsafe. Large ves- 

 sels cannot approach the town, which is situated among extensive 

 marshes. It is visited almost every year by the yellow fever ; yet 

 its foreign commerce is extensive and appears to be increasing. 



Soto la Marina is a small village and haven at the mouth of 

 the river Santander, on its left bank. It is composed chiefly of 

 Indian huts, and contains about 3,000 inhabitants. 



Matamoros lies on the right bank of the Rio Grande or Rio 

 Bravo del Norte, at the distance of ten leagues from its mouth. It 

 contains about 10,000 inhabitants, who have become well ac- 

 quainted with the people of the United States during the recent 

 war. The climate of Matamoros is hot and sickly, like that of 

 Tampico or Vera Cruz ; but as the river upon which it lies is per- 

 haps the most important in Mexico, and has proved navigable by 

 steamers for a considerable distance in the interior, it is probable 

 that this place will become the depot of a large and valuable com- 

 merce destined for the supply of the northern States of the Mexican 

 confederacy. By the treaty of 1848, the Rio Grande became the 

 boundary between large portions of the two republics ; and as the 

 intervening country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande is not 

 considered at present attractive for agricultural purposes, it is likely 

 that it will long continue unoccupied and unsettled, thus leaving 

 the whole of our commerce to be conveyed to Matamoros, or to 

 our own neighboring settlements on the opposite shore, for distri- 

 bution throughout the valley of the Rio Grande. 



