TOWNS, PEODUCTIVE INDUSTRY, ETC. 
251 
cloth, hides, buckskins, mats, hammocks, &c, bear ample testi- 
mony to their mental superiority over the other settlements of 
the Isthmus. Among the articles raised are maize, indigo, and 
fruits. In addition, considerable valuable wood is annually 
gathered, and the inhabitants export large quantities of tallow 
and gum-arabic. Altogether, and in spite of many severe ob- 
stacles imposed by the government, Juchitan is the most indus- 
trious and thrifty town on the Pacific plains. Its appearance is 
enlivened by bustling shops, and the streets are more or less 
filled with ponderous carts drawn by oxen, and laden either 
with salt from the lagoons, or goods brought from Guatimala. 
Tehuantepec is the second town in the State of Oaxaca in 
point of numbers, manufacturing and commercial importance. 
It is situated eleven miles from the Bay of Ventosa, and about 
the same distance from Salina Cruz. It contains a population 
of about 13,000 inhabitants, mostly Indians, some half-breeds, 
and a few Castilians.* The better class are very aristocratic, the 
half-breeds civil and polite, the poor Indians humble and thank- 
ful for the smallest favor. Tehuantepec boasts of sixteen 
churches, among which is the venerable Parroquia built by Co- 
cijopi, last cacique of the Zapotecos, in the year 1530, when it 
was dedicated to the purposes of Christian worship by the Do- 
minican friars, to w T hom it was left as a legacy by the ill-used 
and dying cacique. This church is an extensive rectangular-build- 
ing, constructed somewhat Saracenic in its style of architecture. 
Its massive walls, arched gateways, and ruined dome, though 
fast crumbling to decay, speak in voiceless eloquence of the 
greatness of a people whose dust is mingled with its own. In 
the western end is a large chapel containing three altars and 
many rich ornaments in silver, with a due proportion of rude 
statuary in wood. A doorway on the left leads to a long corri- 
dor, the walls of which are hung with musty pictures of saints, 
and scenes now long forgotten. Some of the apartments on this 
floor are appropriated for the students of a college established 
in Tehuantepec in 1850, and supported by the funds of the 
* This includes both San Bias and San Sebastian, which are separated from Te- 
huantepec by the river of that name. 
