TOWNS, PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY, ETC. 
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duty is performed by the soldiers of the National Guard, whose 
quarters command the entrance to the plaza. The cleaning of 
streets, repairs of pavements, &c, is executed by the prisoners 
m the public jail. The trade with Oaxaca consists of cochineal, 
cacao, fish, ca?na?vnes, saddles, shoes, and leather ; with Guati- 
mala (which is confraband, and conducted chiefly by the Juchi- 
tecos), it is mostly manufactured English and French goods, as 
calicoes, linen, muslin, silk and cotton handkerchiefs. 
The coup cPceil from the summit of the Cerro del Tigre is 
pleasing and picturesque in the greatest degree. But age, de- 
cay, war, and a hundred untold calamities have swept away the 
city's greatness, and every thing now wears the gray and grief- 
worn aspect of olden days. The houses are of massive structure, 
like antique fortresses, and of a style that might have rivalled 
those of more classic lands. But where once was wealth, and 
hope, and comfort, the spider now weaves his web. Westward 
the Tehuantepec River is visible, clear, and winding through 
many a league, its banks margined with fields of grain and the 
houses of old aristocratic landholders. Westward, further still, 
is the mountain of Guiengola, with its ruined city, its broken 
arches and crumbling columns. Looking south, lies Yentosa 
and the granite hills of the Morro dividing it from Salina Cruz. 
There are plains here, there, and everywhere, watered by many 
a stream, clothed with luxuriant woods, decked with fields, ripe 
and in blossom, and smiling with an eternal spring-like beauty. 
On the opposite shore is San Sebastian and San Bias, the pictures 
of quietude, ruin, and decay ; and beneath, noisy men, marching 
soldiers, beseeching beggars, ladened mules, braying asses, and 
dark, voluptuous women. But, besides all these, Tehuantepec 
has her public schools, play-grounds, flower-gardens, and places 
of amusement, stores, cabinet shops, shoemakers' shops, and 
workers in silver, brass, iron, and other metals. There are also 
several hotels and posadas for the accommodation of travellers. 
One of the most interesting features near Tehuantepec is 
Mount Guiengola, some five leagues distant in a northwesterly 
direction. This mountain is celebrated for having once been in- 
habited by a very large population, the evidences of which are 
palpable to this day, from the immense heaps of ruins which are 
