Travels in North America Part 20

The city was divided into four _quarters_: this division is still preserved, in the limits a.s.signed to the quarters of St. Paul, St.

Sebastian, St. John, and St. Mary; and the present streets have, for the most part, the same direction as the old ones. But what gives to this city a peculiar and distinctive character is, that it is entirely on the continent, between the extremities of the two lakes of Tezcuco and Chalco. This has been occasioned by the gradual draining of the great lake, and the consequent drying up of the waters around the city. Hence Mexico is now two miles and half from the banks of the former, and five miles and half from those of the latter.

Adorned with numerous _teocallis_, (or temples,) like so many Mahometan steeples, surrounded with water and embankments, founded on islands covered with verdure, and receiving, hourly, in its streets, thousands of boats, which vivified the lake, the ancient Mexico, according to the accounts of the first conquerors, must have resembled some of the cities of Holland, China, or the Delta of Lower Egypt.

As reconstructed by the Spaniards, it exhibits, at the present day, perhaps a less vivid, though a more august and majestic appearance, than the ancient city. With the exception of Petersburg, Berlin, Philadelphia, and some quarters of Westminster, there does not exist a place of the same extent, which can be compared to the capital of New Spain, for the uniform level of the ground on which it stands, for the regularity and breadth of the streets, and the extent of its public places. The architecture is, for the most part, in a pure style; and many of the edifices are of a very beautiful structure. The exterior of the houses is not loaded with ornaments. Two sorts of hewn stone, give to the Mexican buildings an air of solidity, and sometimes even of magnificence. There are none of those wooden balconies and galleries to be seen, which so much disfigure all the European cities in both the Indies. The bal.u.s.trades and gates are all of iron, ornamented with bronze; and the houses, instead of roofs, have terraces, like those in Italy, and other southern countries of the old continent.

Mexico has, of late, received many additional embellishments. An edifice, for the School of Mines, which was built at an expence of more than .120,000 sterling, would adorn the princ.i.p.al places of Paris or London. Two great palaces have been constructed by Mexican artists, pupils of the Academy of Fine Arts. One of these has a beautiful interior, ornamented with columns.

But, notwithstanding the progress of the arts, within the last thirty years, it is much less from the grandeur and beauty of the monuments, than from the breadth and straightness of the streets; and much less from its edifices, than from its uniform regularity, its extent and position, that the capital of New Spain attracts the admiration of Europeans. M. De Humboldt had successively visited, within a very short s.p.a.ce of time, Lima, Mexico, Philadelphia, Washington, Paris, Rome, Naples, and the largest cities of Germany; and notwithstanding unavoidable comparisons, of which several might be supposed disadvantageous to the capital of Mexico, there was left on his mind, a recollection of grandeur, which he princ.i.p.ally attributed to the majestic character of its situation, and the beauty of the surrounding scenery.

In fact, nothing can present a more rich and varied appearance than the _valley of Mexico_, when, in a fine summer morning, a person ascends one of the towers of the cathedral, or the adjacent hill of Chapoltepec. A beautiful vegetation surrounds this hill. From its summit, the eye wanders over a vast plain of richly-cultivated fields, which extend to the very feet of colossal mountains, that are covered with perpetual snow, The city appears as if washed by the waters of the lake of Tezcuco, whose basin, surrounded by villages and hamlets, brings to mind the most beautiful lakes of the mountains of Switzerland. Large avenues of elms and poplars lead, in every direction, to the capital; and two aqueducts, constructed over arches of great elevation, cross the plain, and exhibit an appearance equally agreeable and interesting.

Mexico is remarkable for its excellent police. Most of the _streets_ have broad pavements; and they are clean, and well lighted. Water is, every where, to be had; but it is brackish, like the water of the lake.

There are, however, two _aqueducts_, by which the city receives fresh-water, from distant springs. Some remains of the _dikes_ or _embankments_, are still to be seen: they, at present, form great paved causeys, across marshy ground; and, as they are considerably elevated, they possess the double advantage, of admitting the pa.s.sage of carriages, and restraining the overflowings of the lake. This city has six princ.i.p.al _gates_; and is surrounded by a ditch, but is without walls.

The objects which chiefly attract the attention of strangers, are 1. The _Cathedral_, which is partly in the Gothic style of architecture, and has two towers, ornamented with pilasters and statues, of very beautiful symmetry. 2. The _Treasury_, which adjoins to the palace of the viceroys: from this building, since the beginning of the 16th century, more than 270 millions sterling, in gold and silver coin, have been issued. 3. The _Convents_. 4. The _Hospital_, or rather the two united hospitals, of which one maintains six hundred, and the other eight hundred children and old people. 5. The _Acordada_, a fine edifice, of which the prisons are s.p.a.cious and well aired. 6. The _School of Mines_.

7. The _Botanical Garden_, in one of the courts of the viceroy's palace.

8. The edifices of the _University_ and the _Public Library_, which, however, are very unworthy of so great and ancient an establishment. 9.

The _Academy of Fine Arts_.

Mexico is the see of an archbishop, and contains twenty-three convents for monks, and fifteen for nuns. Its whole population is estimated at one hundred and forty thousand persons.

On the north-side of the city, near the suburbs, is a _public walk_, which forms a large square, having a basin in the middle, and where eight walks terminate.

The _markets_ of Mexico are well supplied with eatables; particularly with roots and fruit. It is an interesting spectacle, which may be enjoyed every morning at sunrise, to see these provisions, and a great quant.i.ty of flowers, brought by Indians, in boats, along the ca.n.a.ls.

Most of the roots are cultivated on what are called _chinampas_, or "floating gardens." These are of two sorts: one moveable, and driven about by the winds, and the other fixed and attached to the sh.o.r.e. The first alone merit the denomination of floating-gardens.

Simple lumps of earth, in lakes or rivers, carried away from the banks, have given rise to the invention of chinampas. The floating-gardens, of which very many were found by the Spaniards, when they first invaded Mexico, and of which many still exist in the lake of Chalco, were rafts formed of reeds, rushes, roots, and branches of underwood. The Indians cover these light and well connected materials with a black mould, which becomes extremely fertile. The chinampas sometimes contain the cottage of the Indian, who acts as guard for a group of floating gardens. When removed from one side of the banks to the other, they are either towed or are pushed with long poles. Every chinampa forms an oblong square about three hundred feet in length, and eighteen or nineteen feet broad.

Narrow ditches, communicating symmetrically between them, separate these squares. The mould fit for cultivation rises about three feet above the surface of the surrounding water. On these chinampas are cultivated beans, peas, pimento, potatoes, artichokes, cauliflowers, and a great variety of other vegetables. Their sides are generally ornamented with flowers, and sometimes with hedges of rose-bushes. The promenade in boats, around the chinampas of the river Istracalco, is one of the most agreeable amus.e.m.e.nts that can be enjoyed in the environs of Mexico. The vegetation is extremely vigorous, on a soil which is continually refreshed with water.

The _Hill of Chapoltepec_, near Mexico, was chosen by the young viceroy Galvez, as the site of a villa for himself and his successors. The castle has been finished externally, but the apartments were not completed when M. de Humboldt was here. This building cost the king of Spain more than .62,000 sterling.

With respect to the two great _lakes_, Tezcuco and Chalco, which are situated in the valley of Mexico, one is of fresh water, and the other salt. They are separated by a narrow range of mountains, which rise in the middle of the plain; and their waters mingle together, in a strait between the hills. On both these lakes there are numerous towns and villages, which carry on their commerce with each other in canoes, without touching the continent.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] From this place, Mr. Pike was conducted, through St. Antonio, in a north-westerly direction, to the territories of the United States; and he terminates the account of his travels at _Natchitoches_, on the southern bank of the Red river.

Twenty-first Day's Instruction.

MEXICO CONCLUDED.

_A Description of some of the most important Places in Mexico._

In an easterly direction from the city of Mexico lies _Tlascala_, a town, which, two hundred years ago, at the time of the Spanish invasion, had a numerous population, and was in a wealthy and flourishing state.

The inhabitants of this place were implacable enemies of the Mexicans, and aided the Spaniards in the conquest of their country. It is now, however, little more than a village, containing about three thousand inhabitants. Some parts of the ancient walls still remain, and are composed of alternate strata of brick and clay.

Six leagues south-west from Tlascala, and in the midst of a delightful valley, watered by a river which runs south-west to the Pacific Ocean, stands _Puebla_, the capital of an intendancy, and the see of a bishop.

It is a large and regularly built manufacturing town, notorious for the profligacy of its inhabitants.

_Cholula_, once a sacred Indian town, to which pilgrimages were frequent, but now a mean village, is not far from Puebla. This place is, at present, remarkable only for a curious monument of antiquity, a pyramid which consists of four stages, and is about one hundred and seventy-seven feet in perpendicular height, and one thousand four hundred and twenty-three feet at the base. Its structure appears to consist of alternate strata of bricks and clay. In the midst of this pyramid there is a church, where ma.s.s is, every morning, celebrated by an ecclesiastic of Indian extraction, whose residence is on the summit.

Eastward of the intendancy of Puebla is that of _Vera Cruz_. This district is enriched with various natural productions, extremely valuable both in a commercial and economical view. The sugar-cane grows here in great luxuriance: chocolate, tobacco, cotton, sarsaparilla, are all abundant; but the indolence of the inhabitants is so great, and all their wants are so easily supplied, by the natural fertility of the soil, that the country does not produce one half of what, under good management, it might be made to produce. The sugar and cotton plantations are chiefly attended to; but the progress made in these is not great.

The chief city of the province is _Vera Cruz_; a sea-port, the residence of the governor, and the centre of the Spanish West Indian and American commerce. This city is beautifully and regularly built; but on an arid plain, dest.i.tute of water, and covered with hills of moving sand, that are formed by the north winds, which blow; with impetuosity, every year, from October till April. These hills are incessantly changing their form and situation: they are from twenty to thirty feet in height; and, by the reflection of the sun's rays upon them, and the high temperature which they acquire during the summer months, they contribute much to increase the suffocating heat of the atmosphere.

The houses in Vera Cruz are chiefly built of wood; for no stone whatever is found in the vicinity of the place. The public edifices are constructed of materials obtained from the bottom of the ocean: the stony habitations of a kind of marine animals called madrepores. The town is of great extent; and is surrounded by a wall, and defended by a kind of citadel, which stands on an adjacent rocky island. The harbour is well protected; but the entrance into it is so narrowed by rocks, that only one ship can pa.s.s at a time.

On the annual arrival of the flota, or fleet of merchant-vessels from Old Spain, Vera Cruz is crowded, from all parts of the adjacent country; and a kind of fair is opened, which lasts many weeks. The princ.i.p.al inhabitants are merchants, but very few of them reside wholly in the town; for the heat of the climate, the stagnant water in the vicinity of the place, and the bad quality of the water used for drinking, are the cause of yellow fever and numerous other diseases.

The churches of Vera Cruz are much decorated with silver ornaments. In the dwelling houses, the chief luxury consists of porcelain and other Chinese articles. The whole number of inhabitants is estimated at about thirteen thousand. They are, in general, proud and indolent. The women, few of whom are handsome, live much in retirement.

During the rainy season, the marshes south of the town are haunted by alligators. Sea-fowl of various kinds are here innumerable; and the musquitoes, at certain seasons of the year, are very troublesome.

Earthquakes are not unfrequent. The north winds are so tremendous as often to drive vessels on sh.o.r.e: these gales sometimes load the walls with sand; and so much inconvenience is occasioned by them, that, during their continuance, ladies are excused by the priests from going to ma.s.s.

The richest merchants of this place have country-houses at _Xalapa_, a town, in a romantic situation, about twenty leagues distant. Here they enjoy a cool and agreeable retreat from the arid climate and noxious exhalations of Vera Cruz. In the vicinity of Xalapa, thick forests of styrax, piper, melastomata, and ferns resembling trees, afford the most delightful promenades imaginable.

The intendancy of Vera Cruz contains, within its limits, two colossal summits; one of which, the _volcano of Orizaba_, is of great height, and has its top inclined towards the south-east, by which the crater is visible to a considerable distance. The other summit, the _Coffre de Perote_, according to M. de Humboldt's measurement, is one thousand three hundred feet higher than the Pic of Tenerife. It serves as a land-mark to vessels approaching Vera Cruz. A thick bed of pumice-stone environs this mountain. Nothing at the summit announces a crater; and the currents of lava observable between some adjacent villages, appear to be the effects of an ancient explosion.

The small _volcano of Tuxtla_ is about four leagues from the coast, and near an Indian village, called Saint Jago di Tuxtla. The last eruption of this volcano took place on the 2d of March, 1793; and, during its continuance, the roofs of houses at Oaxaca, Vera Cruz, and Perote, were covered with volcanic ashes. At Perote, fifty-seven leagues distant, the subterraneous noises resembled heavy discharges of artillery.

In the northern part of the intendancy of Vera Cruz, and two leagues from the village of _Papantla_, there is a _pyramidal edifice_ of great antiquity. It is in the midst of a forest; and the Indians, for more than two centuries, succeeded in concealing, from the knowledge of the Spaniards, this object of ancient veneration. It was accidentally discovered, by a party of hunters, about thirty years ago. The materials that have been employed in its construction are immense stones cemented with mortar; and it is remarkable for its general symmetry, for the polish of its stones, and the great regularity of their form. Its base is an exact square, each side being eighty-two feet in length. The perpendicular height is about sixty feet. This monument, like all the Mexican teocallis or temples, is composed of several stages. Six are still distinguishable, and a seventh appears to be concealed by the vegetation, with which the sides are covered. A great stair of fifty-seven steps, conducts to the top, where human victims were formerly sacrificed; and, on each side of the great stair, is a small one. The facing of the stories is adorned with hieroglyphics, in which serpents and alligators, carved in relief, are still discernible. Each story contains a great number of square niches, symmetrically distributed.

On the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and at the distance of about three hundred miles south-west from Vera Cruz, stands _Acapulco_, the great western sea-port of Mexico. This place is the princ.i.p.al emporium for the Indian trade over the Pacific Ocean. The harbour is commodious, capable of containing several hundred ships, and defended by a strong castle.

The town itself is mean and ill-built, but extremely populous.

Earthquakes are here of such frequent occurrence, that the houses are all very slightly constructed; and the climate, also, is extremely unhealthy. These circ.u.mstances occasion most of the princ.i.p.al merchants to reside in the adjacent country, at all times except when business demands their attention in the town.

Several vessels, called "galleons," laden with the precious metals, and with merchandise of other kinds, are every year sent, from this port, to Manila, in the Philippine islands; and others return, laden with the valuable productions of the East Indies. On the arrival of the latter, the town becomes populous and gay; and is then filled with the wealthiest merchants of Mexico and Peru. Such, however, is the general dread of its unhealthiness, that these do not sleep within the walls, but reside chiefly in tents in its vicinity.

At some distance east of Acapulco, in a beautiful and populous valley, stands the town of _Guaxaca_ or _Oaxaca_; distinguished by the magnificence of its situation, the temperature and salubrity of its climate, the excellence of its soil, and its general majestic appearance. The streets are wide, straight, and well paved; and the houses are chiefly built of stone. The churches and monasteries are numerous, and richly decorated. On one side of the great square is the town-house, which is constructed with stone of a sea-green colour. The bishop's palace and the cathedral form two other sides of the same square: they are surrounded by arcades, as a shelter against both the sun and the rain. In the suburbs of Guaxaca are gardens, and plantations of cactus or p.r.i.c.kly pear-trees, on which great numbers of cochineal insects feed. Guaxaca is not only watered by a beautiful river, but is abundantly supplied, by aqueducts, with pure water from the adjacent mountains. Its population, including Indians, mulattoes, and negroes, amounts to about twenty-four thousand persons.

The _intendancy of Yucatan_ forms a peninsula, about a hundred leagues in length, between the bays of Campeachy and Honduras. A ridge of low hills extends along it, from south-west to north-east; and, between this ridge and the _Bay of Campeachy_, the dry and parched soil produces logwood in great abundance and of excellent quality. For nearly five months, during the rainy season, the low grounds are partially inundated: in February the waters are dried up; and, throughout the remainder of the year, there is scarcely any stream to be found. Hence the inhabitants can only be supplied with fresh water by pits and wells.

The eastern coast of Yucatan is so shallow and muddy, that large vessels cannot approach within four leagues of the sh.o.r.e. The chief productions of this peninsula are maize, cotton, indigo, and logwood.

The governor resides at a small inland town called _Merida_, situated on an arid plain, and containing about six thousand inhabitants. The princ.i.p.al sea-port is _Campeachy_, near the north-west extremity of the peninsula. This town has a good dock, and a fort which protects both the place and the harbour. The houses are chiefly built of stone. Campeachy has some cotton manufactories, and a trade in wax and salt; but its chief trade is in logwood.

_Honduras_ is an important province, south of Yucatan. Its climate is superior to that of most other parts of America, within the torrid zone.

With the exception of a few months in the year, it is refreshed by regular sea-breezes. The periodical rains are here excessively heavy.

The dry season is usually comprehended within the months of April, May, and June; and the sun, during this time, is excessively powerful. This province is about three hundred and ninety miles in length, from east to west, and consists of mountains, valleys, and plains, watered by many rivers. Honduras abounds in honey, wax, cotton, corn, fruit, and dyeing woods. It has some gold and silver mines; and its pastures feed great numbers of sheep and cattle. Its vineyards yield grapes twice in the year; but, from indolence and want of cultivation, many parts of it have become desert.

There is a British settlement at a place called _Balize_, near the mouth of a river of the same name. This town is immediately open to the sea; and, though in a low situation, the groups of lofty cocoa-nut trees, and the thickly-interspersed and lively foliage of the tamarind trees, contribute to give a picturesque and pleasing effect to the dwellings of the inhabitants. The number of houses, of all descriptions, is about two hundred; and many of them, particularly such as are the property of the most opulent merchants, are s.p.a.cious, commodious, and well finished.

They are built of wood, and are generally raised eight or ten feet from the ground, on pillars of mahogany. The stores and offices are always on the lower, and the dining and sleeping apartments on the upper story.

Every habitation, likewise, has its upper and lower piazzas, which are indispensably necessary in hot climates. Balize stands at the edge of a swamp many miles in extent, which prevents nearly all intercourse with the interior of the country.

The princ.i.p.al articles at present imported from Europe into Honduras, are linens, printed cottons, muslins of the most costly manufacture, negro clothing, broadcloths, hosiery, hats, shoes, boots, earthen and gla.s.s wares, silver and plated goods, hardware, and cutlery: salted provisions, from Britain or America, are also in continual demand for the food of the slaves.