MEXICO. 



413 



San Luis Potosi, capital of the State of San Luis Potosi, is one of the most important 

 commercial cities in the country, being the natural depot for the trade of Tampico with the 

 northern and western States, some of which it also supplies with various domestic fabrics. In 

 eluding the suburbs, the population amounts to nearly 50,000. It is well built, and contains 

 several convents, remarkable for their extent, a mint, a college, and numerous churches. 

 Tampico, in the State of Tamaulipas, near the mouth of the river of the same name, is a 

 thriving town, and has considerable foreign commerce. Population, 5,000. The old town of 

 Tampico, on the south side of the river, in the State of Vera Cruz, is in an unhealthy situa- 

 tion. 



Chihuahua, capital of the State of that name, is a large and handsome city, on a branch of 

 the river Norte. Its principal church is one of the most splendid in the Mexican States ; the 

 State house and military academy are also worthy of note. In its neighborhood there are rich 

 silver-mines. According to some travelers. Chihuahua had once a population of 70,000 souls, 

 but it is now very much reduced. The city of Durango, also the capital of a State, and situ- 

 ated in a rich mining-district, contains a mint, a college, and other public buildings. Popula- 

 tion, 22,000.* Santa Fc, the capital of the Territory of New IMexico, is a thriving town, 

 remarkable as the emporium of the over-land trade carried on between the United States and 

 the Mexican States, by caravans. It has about 3,000 inhabitants. 



Upper California contains a few small towns and missions on the coast, but the interior is 

 wholly occupied by independent Indians. Monterey, the principal town, has 2,500 inhabit- 

 ants. The harbor of San Francisco is one of the finest in the world, being safe, capacious, 

 and easy of access. The missions are stations in which the converted Indians are collected 

 under the care of a priest. 



3. Jlgriculture. Although the inhabitants are nourished by the soil, yet agriculture is by no 

 means in a flourishing condition. The variety of soil and climate, however, furnishes a cor- 

 responding diversity of cultivated as well as indigenous vegetation. The temperate regions are 

 favorable to the cereal grasses, and all the culinary vegetables and fruit trees of Europe thrive. 

 The cultivation of sugar-cane, indigo, cotton, vanilla, cocoa, and tobacco, has been success- 

 fully prosecuted. 



4. Commerce and JManufactures. The inhabitants are chiefly devoted to agricultural and 

 mining operations, and the commerce is not extensive. The principal articles of export are 

 gold and silver in bullion, coin, or ornamental work, hides, cochineal, vanilla, jalap, &c. The 

 imports are cotton, woolen, silk and linen goods, quicksilver, which is used in the extraction 

 of silver from the ore, paper, &c. Commerce is principally carried on by foreigners. The 

 cotton and woolen manufactures, formerly considerable, ha^ e declined ; jewelry, and gold and 

 silver ornamental work, leather, soap, and tobacco are the chief productions of manufacturing 

 industry. 



5. Inhabitants. The inhabitants of Mexico are generally divided into 7 distinct races, 

 though there are various definable and indefinable intermixtuies of all these. In the first class 

 are the Europeans. The word European, once meant in Mexico only a Spaniard, as all others 

 were excluded by the colonial policy of Spain. The recent exasperation of parties, however 

 has produced a reaction and driven away most of the natives of Old Spain. The second race 

 consists of the Creoles, or native whites of the European race. In these were found the titled 

 nobility. They have many of them large estates, and, though the most enlightened class, 

 not always people of much intelligence or of very strict morals. The third race comprehends 

 the Mestizos, or the offspring of whites and Indians. They are as numerous almost as tlie 

 Indians. They are nearly white, and have a skin of beautiful delicacy and transparency. Thty 

 are more gentle than the mulattoes. Quarterons are the offspring of a white man and a mulat- 

 to, and the children of a female Quarteron and white man are called Quinterons. The next 

 in descent with a white are considered white. The fourth race is that of the Mulattoes, or 

 the offspring of whites and negroes. They are shrewd and have great volubility. The fifth race 

 is that of the native Indians. The sixth comprehends the African negroes and their descend- 

 ants. The native negroes are a fine race, having the thick lips of the African, but inheriting the 



* This city is infested in a singular manner by scorpi- 

 ons. " They come out of the walls and crevices in May," 

 Bays Pike, '■ and continue for about a furtniglit in siicli 

 numbers, that the inhabitants never walk in their houses 

 after dark without a light, and always shift or examine 

 the bed-olothes, and V^iat the curtains previous to going 



to bed; after which Ihe curtains are secured under the 

 bed. The bite of these scorpions has been known to prove 

 mortal in two hours. But the most extraordinary circuin- 

 stance is, that, by taking them 10 leagues from Durango, 

 they become perfectly harmless, and lose all their veoo- 

 moiis qualities." 



