287 



coast of the South Sea. In the year 1607, a 

 subterraneous canal was dug 3400 toises long, 

 and 12 feet high, on the north of Mexico, on 

 the other side of the hill of Nochistongo. The 

 viceroy, Marquis of Solinas, passed along half its 

 length on horseback. The open trench (tajo de 

 Huehuetoca) which now leads the waters out of 

 the valley, is 10,600 toises long, of which a con- 

 siderable part is dug in a moveable earth; it 

 has 140 and 180 feet of perpendicular depth, 

 and, towards the upper part, is from 250 to 330 

 feet broad. The expence of these hydraulic 

 works # of the Desague of Mexico, amounted, from 

 the year 1607, to the time when I visited them, 

 in January, 1804, to the sum of 6,200,000 pias- 

 tres. It is little to be apprehended that suffi- 

 cient money would not be collected for opening 

 an oceanic canal, when we recollect that the 

 family of the Count de la Valenciana alone, 

 had the resolution to dig four shafts -J- at Gua- 

 naxuato, which cost altogether more than 

 2,200,000 piastres. Even supposing that during 

 a certain number of years, the annual expence 



* I have given a detailed account of those works, from 

 official manuscript documents, in my Political Essay, vol. ii, 

 110, &c. 



f Tiro Viejo, Santo Christo de Burgos, Tiro de Guadalupe, 

 and Tiro general, their depth is 697, 460, 1061 and 1581 

 feet, (ancient French measure). See Political Essay, vol. iii, 

 p. 190, 



