CHAPTER VIII.

STATE OF MECHOACAN

BOUNDARIES

OF JORULLO

CONDITION

VOLCANO THEORIES OF HUMBOLDT AND LYELL — PRESENT

HEALTH

RIVERS OF MECHOACAN-CLIMATE DEPARTMENTS -AGRICULTURE-TOWNS-MINES

BOUNDARIES

POPULATION

RIVERS - LAKES

AGRICULTURE

FACTORIES

TOWNS SAN JUAN DE LOS LAGOS-TEPIC

SAN BLAS-MINES ISLANDS -MINING REGION

CHURCH AND SCHOOL

INDIANS -
EDUCATION

TERRITORY OF COLIMA· -EXTENT-CLIMATE

CHARACTER AND HABITS

-BISHOPRIC

PRODUCTIONS-TOWNS.

THE STATE OF MECHOACAN.

THE State of Mechoacan is the old Spanish Intendencia of Vallodolid, and includes a great part of the ancient Indian Kingdom of Mechoacan, or Mechoacan of the Tarascos. It is bounded on the north by Guanajuato, north-easterly of Querétaro, south-easterly by Mexico, westerly by Jalisco, and south-westerly, for a short distance, by the Pacific.

This State lies chiefly on the western slope of the Cordillera, and is cut up by hills and genial vallies. The highest point within its limits is the Peak of Tancitaro, which, in all probability, is an extinct volcano. East of this, and south of the village of Ario, the Volcano of Jorullo burst forth on the night of the 29th of September, 1759.

The great region to which this mountain belongs has been already described in our account of the geological structure of Mexico. The plain of Malpais forms part of an elevated platform, between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, and is bounded by hills composed of basalt, trachyte, and volcanic tuff, clearly indicating that the country had previously, though probably at a remote period, been the theatre of igneous action. From the era of the discovery of the New World to the middle of the last century, the district had remained undisturbed, and the space, now the site of the volcano, which is thirty leagues distant from the nearest sea, was occupied by fertile plains of sugar cane and indigo, and watered by the two brooks, Cuitimba and San Pedro. In the month of June, 1759, hollow sounds of an alarming nature were heard, and earthquakes succeeded each other for two months, until, in September, flames issued from the ground, and fragments of burning rocks were thrown to prodigious heights.

"Six volcanic cones, composed of scoria and fragmentary lava, were formed on the line of a chasm which ran in a direction from N. N. E. to S. S. W. The least of these cones was 300 feet in height, and Jorullo, the central volcano, was elevated 1,600 feet above the level of the plain. It sent forth great streams of basaltic lava, containing included fragments of rocks, and its ejections did not cease till the month of February, 1760.

"Humboldt visited the country more than forty years after this occurrence, and was informed by the Indians, that when they returned, long after the catastrophe, to the plain, they found the ground uninhabitable from the excessive heat. When he himself visited the place, there appeared around the base of the cones, and spreading from them, as from a centre, over an extent of four square miles, a mass of matter of a convex form, about 550 feet high at its junction with the cones, and gradually sloping from them in all directions towards the plain. This mass was still in a heated state, the temperature in the fissures being on the decrease from year to year, but in 1780 it was still sufficient to light a cigar at the depth of a few inches. On this slightly convex protuberance, the slope of which must form an angle of about 6° with the horizon, were

2K

288

THEORIES OF HUMBOLDT AND LYELL.

thousands of flattish conical mounds, from six to nine feet high, which as well as large fissures traversing the plain, acted as fumeroles, giving out clouds of sulphuric acid and hot aqueous vapor. The two small rivers before mentioned disappeared during the erup tion, losing themselves below the eastern extremity of the plain, and reappearing as hot springs at its western limit. Humboldt attributed the convexity of the plain to inflation below; supposing the ground, for four square miles in extent, to have risen in the shape of a bladder to the elevation of 550 feet above the plain in the highest part. But this theory is by no means borne out by the facts described; and it is the more necessary to scrutinize closely the proofs relied on, because the opinion of Humboldt appears to have been received as if founded upon direct observation, and has been made the ground work of other bold and extraordinary theories. Mr. Scrope has suggested that the phenomena may be accounted for far more naturally by supposing that lava flowed simultaneously from the different orifices, and principally from Jorullo, united with a sort of pool or lake. As it poured forth on a surface previously flat, it would, if its liquidity was not very great, remain thickest and deepest near its source, and diminish in bulk from thence towards the limits of the space which it covered. Fresh supplies were probably emitted successively during the course of an eruption which lasted a year; and some of these, resting on those first emitted, might only spread to a small distance from the foot of the cone, where they would necessarily accumulate to a great height.

"The showers, also, of loose and pulverulent matter from the six craters, and principally from Jorullo, would be composed of heavier and more bulky particles near the cones, and would raise the ground at their base, where, mixing with rain, they might have given rise to the stratum of black clay which is described as covering the lava.

"The small conical mounds called hornitos' or little ovens may resemble those five or six small hillocks which existed in 1823 on the Vesuvian lava, and sent forth columns of vapor, having been produced by the disengagement of elastic fluids heaving up small dome-shaped masses of lava. The fissures mentioned by Humboldt as of frequent occurrence, are such as might naturally accompany the consolidation of a thick bed of lava, contracting as it congeals; and the appearance of rivers is the usual result of the occupation of the lower part of the valley or plain by lava, of which there are many beautiful examples in the old lava currents of Auvergne. The heat of the hornitos' is stated to have diminished from the first; and Mr. Bullock, who visited the spot many years after Humboldt,

PRESENT CONDITION

RIVERS OF MECHOACAN.

289

found the temperature of the hot spring very low, a fact which seems clearly to indicate the gradual congelation of a subjacent bed of lava which, from its immense thickness, may have been enabled to retain its heat for half a century. The reader may be reminded, that when we thus suppose the lava near the volcano to have been, together with the ejected ashes, more than 500 feet in depth, we merely assign a thickness which the current of Skaptar Jokul attained in some places in 1783.

"Another argument adduced in the support of the theory of inflation from below, was, the hollow sound made by the steps of a horse upon the plain; which, however, proves nothing more than that the materials of which the convex mass is composed are light and porous. The sound called "rimbombo" by the Italians, is very commonly returned by made ground when sharply struck, and has been observed not only on the sides of Vesuvius and of other volcanic cones where a cavity is below, but also in plains, such as the Campagna di Roma, composed in a great measure of tuff and other porous and volcanic rocks. The reverberation, however, may be assisted by grottoes and caverns, for these may be as numerous in the lavas of Jorullo as in many of those of Etna; but their existence would lend no countenance to the hypothesis of a great arched cavity, four square miles in extent, and in the centre 550 feet high.1

“Mr. Burkhart, a German director of mines, who examined Jorullo in 1827, ascertained that there had been no eruption there since Humboldt's visit in 1803. He went to the bottom of the crater, and observed a slight evolution of sulphurous acid vapors, but the "hornitos" had ceased entirely to give forth steam. During the twenty-four years intervening between his visit and that of Humboldt, vegetation had made great progress on the flanks of the new hills, and the rich soil of the surrounding country was once more covered with luxuriant crops of sugar cane and indigo, and there was an abundant growth of natural underwood on all the uncultivated tracts." 2

The State of Mechoacan is extraordinarily rich in rivers and streams. The Lerma, Balsas, Zitacuaro, Huetamo, Cluran úeco, Marquéz, Aztala, Tlalpujahua, and some smaller streamlets and brooks are found in its vallies; while the lakes and ponds of Cuizco or Aaron, Patzcuaro, Huango, Tanguato, and Huaniqueo afford

'See Screpe on Volcanoes, p. 267.

2 Leonhard and Brown's Neues Jarbuch, 1835, p. 36. See Lyell's Geol., Am Ed., 1 vol., p. 345.

supplies to numerous neighborhoods. The climate of Mechoacan is regular, not liable to extraordinary or sudden changes, and remarkably genial. On the Pacific coast and in its vicinity, as in the other middle and southern States of the Confederacy, agues and intermittent fevers prevail; but the population seems to have increased considerably since the beginning of this century, and even in a larger proportion than in some other parts of Mexico. In 1849, the number of inhabitants was estimated to be not less than 590,000. Three Indian tribes still dwell within its borders: 1st, the Tarascos; 2d, the Otomies; 3d, the Chichimecas. The whole southern half of the State is peopled with Indians.

Mechoacan is divided into 4 departments and 62 municipalities. 1. Department del Norte, with 14 municipalities.

2.

3.

4.

del Oriente, with 15 municipalities.

del Sur, with 11 municipalities.

del Poniente, with 22 municipalities.

These 4 departments contain the three cities of MORELIA, PATZCUARO, and TZINTZOUTZAN;-the three towns of Zitacuaro, Zamora, and Charo;-256 villages, 333 haciendas, and 1,356 ranchos, which are divided among 83 parishes.

The agricultural productions of Mechoacan are similar in character to those of the other Western States of Mexico lying within the same longitude. The best sugar plantations are about 12 leagues from Patzcuaro. At the foot of Jorullo, cotton, indigo, cacao and sugar are planted; and mainoc or cassava, potatoes and yams are sown in genial spots, whilst maiz, wheat, barley and magueys are cultivated in the higher and cooler regions. The finest tropical fruits are raised in the warm portions of the State.

The capital of Mechoacan is Morelia, sometimes called Valladolid, or Valladolid de Mechoacan. Its modern title is derived from the name of the insurgent leader Morelos.

MORELIA lies 6,398 feet above the level of the sea, in latitude 19° 42' North, 103° 12' 15" W. long. from Paris,-between the two streams which water the Valley of Olid. It is a small, but handsome town, possessing some fine churches, and a charming passeo and alameda. The climate is mild and wholesome, but snow falls occasionally during the winter.

PATZCUARO lies on the south-eastern bank of the lake of that name. TZINTZOUTZAN is about 4 leagues from Patzcuaro, in a northerly direction, upon the banks of the same lake. It was once the capital of the ancient Indian Kingdom of Mechoacan, but is now only a