GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 21 The ores appear to increase in richness on proceeding north; those in the confines of Durango and Sonora are peculiarly rich, lie near the surface, and hold out a promise of wealth superior to any that Mexico has yet produced. Iron is found in great abundance in some districts, but is little worked; copper, tin, lead, zinc, quicksilver, and other valuable mineral productions have been found, but with the exception of copper, little attention is paid to them. The manufactures are in a miserable state, owing to the total want of industry and enterprise on the part of the Mexicans and their jealousy of the success of foreigners, and there is no prospect of any improvement, so long as the factories are prisons, in which those only are operatives who are compelled to work in them as a punishment for crime and insolvency. This lamentable state of things results from the selfish policy of the Spaniards, who prohibited manufactures in order to preserve for themselves a market. The Spaniards are bad mechanicians, and no efforts of foreigners have been able to prevail on the Mexicans to deviate from the routine of their forefathers. In all Mexico, within a few years, there was but one manufacturer of watches and optical instruments; the use of cast iron and tin for culinary utensils is never attempted; and some merchants, who imported a few wheelbarrows for moving the bales of goods at the custom-house in Vera Cruz, could not induce the workmen to avail themselves of such an innovation. THE HE commerce of Mexico labours under serious disadvantages, which would hardly appear from her position on the map. Though both the east and west coasts are washed by the oceans, they are inaccessible during several months of the year; and when this is not the case, they are extremely unhealthy. Up to the beginning of the present century there was no commercial communication between Mexico and any other country except Spain, and that was almost wholly confined to the products of the mines. The ports were opened on the breaking out of the civil war, and the Spanish capitalists retiring to Cuba and Spain, gave place to Americans and British, who have continued to prosecute their enterprises with varied success, according as the rancorous hatred entertained by the natives against all who are more prosperous than themselves permitted or prohibited their speculations. The policy of the government has been constantly to fetter the commerce of the country, fixing the tariff on imports at an exorbitant rate, and instead of improving or keeping in repair any of the roads, they are suffering them to fall into a state of total decay. This is especially the case with the national road, constructed at an enormous expense, by the merchants of Vera Cruz, under the Spaniards, across deserts and precipices to the summit of the upper country. During the war of independence, it was cut up at various points, and the Mexicans have never replaced a stone, filled up a trench, or cut down any of the trees which have been allowed to spring up and grow to a magnificent height in the very middle of the road. The invading army of Americans, in whose nature it is not found to suffer such a state of things as this, did more for this great road in their march over it to the capital, than the government has done since the revolution. "In the upper You country," says M. Chevalier, "nothing would be more easy than to open noble means of communication. The soil is naturally level; and basaltic rocks, particularly adapted for the construction of roads, are found in great abundance. But even where there are roads the Mexicans make little use of them. They carry to a yet more extravagant length the inconceivable predilection of the Spanish race in favour of transporting their goods on the backs of animals. expect to meet with carts and wagons: no such thing; every thing is conveyed on the backs of mules or Indians. Troops of little consumptive donkeys bring into the city in parcels, not much bigger than a man's two fists, the charcoal required for the culinary operations of the inhabitants. The price of every bulky article is thus increased to an enormous degree. The interior districts are as inaccessible as if they were cut off by an enemy's army, and famine fréquently ensues." The laws of the country are said to be mild and just; but if they were the contrary, it would make little difference, as nothing can be more appalling to citizens of well ordered states than the anarchy which has hitherto universally prevailed. The frequent changes in the government have prevented any measures for the restoration of law and order, and the whole country teems with 1obbers. Seldom did a diligence pass between Vera Cruz and Mexico without being stopped and robbed, and sometimes black-mail was levied more than once. The environs of the large cities are all infested with malefactors, who are at all times ready to perform a deed of violence. An English charge d'affaires was lassoed at midday on the Alameda or public walk of Mexico, and ministers have been several times robbed of their private despatches by desperadoes in the service of the government itself. Insurrections have become so common that we are almost able to give regulations for conducting them. "The first act is called a pronunciamiento. An officer of any rank, from a general down to a lieutenant, pronounces himself against the established order, or against an institution which displeases him, or against any thing else. He gets together a detachment, a company, or a regiment, as the case may be, and these generally, without more ado, place themselves at his disposal. The second act is called the grito, or outcry, when two or three articles are drawn up to state the motives or objects of the insurrection. If the matter is of some importance the outcry is called a plan. At the third act the insurgents and the partisans of government are opposed to one another, and mutually examine each other's forces. At the fourth act they come to blows; but, according to the improved system lately introduced, the fighting is carried on in a very distant, moderate, and respectful manner. However, one party is declared victor, and the beaten party dispro nounces. The conquerors march to Mexico, and their triumphal entry into the capital constitutes the fifth act of the play; the vanquished, meanwhile, embark at Vera Cruz or Tampico with all the honours of war.' In a country like Mexico, the military is a favourite service from the high pay and privileges of the soldier, and the fact that the army is the only school of promotion to civic rank. The troops and their officers generally have no ideas whatever of honour, and are as faithless and treacherous as they are revengeful. The Roman Catholic is the established religion, but its influence over the white people is far less than has been represented, while the Indians, never thoroughly converted, are relapsing into idolatry. This may be in part owing to the expulsion of the Spanish priests and monks during the revolution, and the substitution in their stead of an order of creoles, of no particular morals. They are required to teach all the people to read and write, but the work is not performed, and the higher branches of learning can hardly be acquired in the country. The number of the population has been variously estimated, the most correct being probably about seven millions. The inhabitants are remarkable for the distinctions which characterize them into classes. Four grades may be enumerated, all of which are more or less rivals of each other. First, there are the pure Spaniards, who once numbered eighty thousand, but do not now exceed twenty-five • Chevalier. GEOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 25 thousand, and as far as politics are concerned, are a degraded class. The second class is the wealthiest and most powerful part of the population, estimated by Chevalier to number one million three hundred thousand, known as creoles, or native whites of European descent. Then come the native Mexicans, or Indians, numbering about three millions eight hundred thousand, and constituting the great body of rural labourers; and lastly, we have the mixed castes, mestizoes, mulattoes, zamboes, quadroons, and quinteroons, exceed. ung in number one million nine hundred thousand. All distinctions. of colour have been done away with, politically, by the revolution. Formerly it was one of the royal prerogatives to admit one of any shade to the exclusive privileges of a white, by decreeing "that he be deemed white." The mulattoes and zamboes reside principally in the low countries, the whites on the table-land. The Indians are divided into many tribes, speaking about twenty different languages. They are still characterized as they were at the time of the conquest, by indolence, gross superstition, and blind submission to their superiors. Their religion appears to be changed more in form than in any thing else, as they seem to look on the processions and ceremonies of the Catholic church with the same unthinking, childish delight that their ancestors viewed the mummeries of their idolatry. They are scattered over the country as labourers, artisans, workmen, or beggars; the latter occupation or profession, as it might be called in Mexico, being as numerously patronized as either of the others. They would seem to be incapable of any high degree of civilization, but are susceptible of great improvement upon their present state. They are classed into two great divisions; the Mansoes, who have a fixed residence, cultivate the land, and maintain amicable relations with the other races; and the Bravoes, who live a wandering life, supported by hunting, avoiding intercourse with other tribes, and frequently at war with them and each other. They principally inhabit the northern states along the river Gila. An independent tribe, called Mayas, inhabits the tract between Yucatan, Tabasco, and Central America. "In the Tierras Calientes," says Chevalier, "and even on the plateau, the natives are content to dwell with their families in a cabin of bamboo trellis-work, so slight as scarcely to hide them froin the stranger's gaze, and to sleep either on mere mats, or at best on beds inade of leaves and brushwood. Their dress consists simply of a pair of drawers or petticoat, and a serape, (a dyed woollen garment,) which serves for a cloak by day, and a counterpane by night. Each has his horse, a sorry beast, which feeds at large in the open country; and a whole family of Indians is amply supplied with food by ba |