M E X 
tranfport of merchandile, depend for their fubfiftence on 
the labour of tliel'e rude agriculturifts. Whenever, there¬ 
fore, a great drought or any other caufe has damaged 
a crop of maize, this country exhibits the afflicting fpec- 
tacle of a fcarcity, and of thofe epidemical difeafes which 
never fail to follow in its train ; a linking exemplification 
of the all-powerful operation of induftry, that, while we, 
in the comparatively-barren regions of the north, have 
become almoft llrangers to the exiltence of famine, our 
fellow-creatures are expoled to periodical want under the 
torrid zone, where the germ of abundance feems every¬ 
where fcattered. 
Another advantage over Peru, which is poffeffed by 
Mexico, confills in the treatment of the labourers in the 
mines. In Peru, the Indians are Hill lubject to the bar¬ 
barous law of the mild, which compels them to remove 
from their homes to dillant provinces for the purpole of 
toiling at the extraction of lubterraneous treafure, and 
expofes them to a change of climate highly pernicious to 
conftitutions which appear lefs lifted than the European 
to fupport rapid tranfitions. In New Spain, at lealt dur¬ 
ing the laid half-century, the labour of the mines has be¬ 
come entirely free : no law compels the Indian to follow 
this kind of labour, nor to prefer one mine to another ; 
and, when he happens to be dilpleafed with his mailer, he 
may repair to a different one with the fame freedom which 
is exercifed by a mechanic in Europe. Extenlive as are 
the mines of Mexico, the total number of perfons em¬ 
ployed in them does not exceed 30,000 ; among whom 
the deaths are fcarcely more numerous than among other 
clalfes of the population. The art of mining is in a Hate 
of progreffive improvement, and machinery is gradually 
taking the place of bodily labour. It was the carriage of 
ponderous burdens from the bottom to the mouth of 
mines, which produced the exhaullion of the conltitution 
in a greater degree than the continuance of lubterraneous 
labour, or the amalgamation of the minerals above ground. 
The invellment of capital in mining has'for many ages 
been accounted a hazardous undertaking ; and Humboldt 
gives a llriking piClure of the extenlive gains and Ioffes 
with which it is attended. We are difpofed, however, to 
infer that the working of the old-eltablilhed mines is pro¬ 
ductive of that regular but limited profit, which almolt 
always follows a free competition in trade ; while the re¬ 
volutions of fortune are confined to new lpeculations, 
.undertaken, as lpeculations often are, in a remote and 
unknown territory. 
The backwardnefs of agriculture in Spanilh America 
has been ulualiy attributed to its mines of gold and filver. 
This error Mr. Humboldt luccefsfully refutes. He ad¬ 
mits, that, in lome dillrifis, the people leave their fields 
uncultivated, while they mifpend their time in fearching 
for gold-dull in the beds of rivers. It is alfo true, that, 
where there are no mines, many highly-cultivated trafts 
of country are to be found. But, on the other hand, the 
bell-cultivated dillriCl is the territory extending from 
Salamanca to Guanaxuato and Leon, in the midll of the 
moll productive mines of the world. So far from mining 
being prejudicial to agriculture, no fooner is a mine cl.il'- 
covered and wrought, than cultivation is feen in its neigh¬ 
bourhood : towns and villages are built; provifions are 
•wanted for the workmen, and fubfiftence; for the cattle 
employed in the mine. Whatever the 1 ’urroundingcoun¬ 
try can be made to produce, is railed from it in abun¬ 
dance. A flourilhing agriculture is eftablilhed, which not 
unfrequently furvives the prosperity of the mine to 
which it was indebted for its origin. The hulbandman 
remains and cultivates, his fields, after the miner, who 
had at firft let him to work, is gone to another diltriCl, in 
fearch of a more-abundant or lefs-exhaulled vein. The 
Indians, in particular, who prefer a mountainous fitua- 
tion to living in the plains, ieidom quit the farms they 
have eftablilhed, though the mines are abandoned, which 
■were, perhaps, their original inducement for fettling 
there. 
Vol. XV. No. 10+4. 
I C .0. 305 
Of all the productions which minifter to tile food of 
man in the warm climates of America, the moil uleful 
is the banana, or plantain-tree, (Mufa paradifiaca.) It 
feems to be to the inhabitants of thele regions what rice 
is to the Indian, and corn to the European; and perhaps 
no other plant on the globe can produce, in fo finall a fpace 
of ground, fo confiderable a mats of nutritive fubltance. 
The banana begins to dilplay its clufters eight or nine 
months after the fucker has been planted ; and, in the 
tenth or eleventh month, the fruit is ripe for gathering. 
When the ftalk is cut, a fprout fucceeds to the mother- 
plant, and bears fruit three months later; fo that the 
growth is perpetuated, without any other care than that 
of cutting thofe llalks of which the fruit has ripened, and 
of giving the earth once or twice in a year a (light dreffmg 
around the roots. A lpot of 1000 fquare feet will con¬ 
tain thirty banana-plants, producing in the fpace of a 
year nearly a thoufand pounds weight of nutritious fub¬ 
ltance ; a quantity far exceeding the growth of potatoes, 
and ftill more that of wheat. It has been computed that 
the acre, which in Europe maintains when tinder wheat 
only two individuals, may l’upport between forty and fifty 
under the torrid zone by the culture of the banana. Ac¬ 
cordingly, an European, arriving in that part of the world, 
is {truck with nothing lo much as the fnvalhiefs of the 
fpots under cultivation around a cabin which contains a 
numerous family of Indians. 
Maize occupies the fame region as the banana, but its 
cultivation may be extended over a much wider range of 
climate. It may be raifed either in diltridls as hot as the 
coall of New Spain, or on the fummits of mountains as 
high as the Pyrenees ; its cultivation fullering from the 
cold in thole countries only in which the mean tempera¬ 
ture is under 46 degrees. Such is its amazing fecundity 
in a warm climate, that, even on an indifferent foil, it re¬ 
turns 60 grains for one : 150 for one are hardly .more than 
a middling crop ; and very fertile lands are laid to yield 
even twice as much. Maize being the principal food of 
the people of Mexico, as well as of the domellic animals, 
its price confequently modifies that of moll other kinds 
of provilion ; and a failure in the harvell of maize, whe¬ 
ther from the want of rain or from premature frolt, pro¬ 
duces all the evil of a general fcarcity. In the neighbour¬ 
hood of mines, crowded both with men and with animals 
for the purpofe of draught, a deficiency of the cullomary 
fupply of maize leads to the moll dillreffmg confequences. 
Unfortunately, of all gramina cultivated by man, maize 
appears the moll unequal in its produce ; varying in its 
return in the lame field from 50 to 300 for 1, according 
to the changes of humidity and the temperature of the 
feafon. It is eaten either boiled or roalled, and is ufed 
in as. many various lhapes as the rice of India or China. 
One of the chief objections to the extenlion of the culture 
of maize is its weight, with the confequent difficulty of 
conveyance. The grain is heavier, in proportion to the 
quantity of nutritive fubllance, than our wheat; and, if 
we find in this country of roads and canals that the price 
of grain is materially enhanced by the charge of carriage, 
how much more mult this be the cafe in the rude and diffi¬ 
cult communications of New Spain ? The annual pro¬ 
duce of New Spain in maize is eftimated at 25,500,000 
bulhels. It may be preferved fweet for three years at 
Mexico ; and in colder climates for fix years or feven. 
The Indians prepare a fermented liquor from maize ; and, 
before the arrival of the Spaniards, they extracted fugar 
from its flalks. 
A chief impediment to the regular fertility of the foil 
of New Spain is the infrequency of rain. After we have 
palled the 28th degree of latitude to the fouthward, we 
find only two lealons : the rainy, from June to September 
or October; and the dry, which laffs during the other 
eight months of the year. This long continuance of 
drought compels the inhabitants in many parts to have 
recourie to artificial irrigations. When thefe are com¬ 
pletely eftablilhed, the fertility of the ground is furpriiing, 
4 1 the 
