TOWNS, PKODUCTIVE INDUSTRY, ETC. 
237 
past are said to have carried their ideas of hospitality and en- 
tertainment to a very singular degree. 
Mr. Moro says: "A singular circumstance, deserving the 
attention of the ethnologist, is the existence of a race of dumb 
people, of which there are numerous families in Jaltipan. How- 
ever strange this may appear, it is nevertheless certain, and the 
Bancho de los Mudos, established a few years since, near the 
lower part of the island of Tacamichapa, owes its designation 
to the fact that the individuals are all dumb who inhabit the 
three or four houses which form this settlement." 
Jaltipan enjoys a great salubrity ; fevers are seldom known 
to occur, and the musquitoes and other annoying insects are 
exceedingly few. There are several stores in the town, and 
some half a dozen well-built houses of stone. The church is a 
rectangular structure, so similar in all respects to those already 
noted, that a particular description would be only useless rep- 
etition. 
Nine miles southwest from Jaltipan is Tesistepeo, built on 
the summit of a broken sandstone ridge, and contains a popu- 
lation of 2200, who are almost entirely Indians. The town is 
supplied with water from wells, sunk in the rock to depths 
varying from 20 to 40 feet. The soil in this vicinity is remark- 
ably fertile, and tobacco, rice, maize, sugar-cane, and ixtle are 
produced in large quantities. The principal manufactures of 
Tesistepec are shoes and cigars. 
The town contains a tolerably well-built church and a primary 
school. Some of the neighboring estates are rich and valuable, 
especially the Hacienda of Almagro, Casas Viejas, and Correct, 
all of which abound with excellent cattle. Almagro alone con- 
tains no less than 16,000 head, with a proportionate number of 
horses and mules. The numerous metallic indications of this 
locality invest it with peculiar interest. 
HmALGO-TiTLAN (so called in honor of the celebrated Mexican 
general, Hidalgo), but more frequently known as Almagres, 
from the banks of red clay in the vicinity, is situated on a verge 
of green and sloping hills on the eastern shore of the Coatzaco- 
alcos, seven and a half miles above the junction of the Brazo 
Mistan, and eighteen miles above Mina-titlan. This puebla, 
