from 10 to 12,000 dollars has been annually derived by one individual. This plant requires little or no water, and, although the parent one withers as the sap is exhausted, a multitude of new suckers spring from the root, and, when transplanted, more of them supply its place. The length of time that must elapse from the first laying down of a plantation till it begins to prove productive, which, as already stated, is from eight to eighteen years, proves a great drawback and discouragement to agriculturists. But, when once a good establishment has been effected and matured, the proprietor is soon amply repaid for his toil, as, henceforward, there is an annual succession of plants to afford a constant supply for the market. A planter, who lays down from 30 to 40,000 plants, is sure, according to Humboldt, to establish the fortune of his children. The same writer thinks that the agave used for distillation is different from that used for pulque, although the produce of both is occasionally subjected to distillation, and the brandy made from them is very intoxicating. It is worthy of remark, that the juice of the agave, before the period of its efflorescence, is very acrid, and is successfully employed as a caustic in the cleansing of wounds; or, if the leaves are bruised and boiled, they produce a balsamic sirup used to cleanse and cure ulcers. The prickles which terminate the leaves served formerly like those of the cactus for pins and nails to the Indians. The Mexican priests pierced their arms and breasts with them in acts of expiation, analogous to those of the Budhists of Hindostan.

If proper attention were bestowed on the distillation of pulque, it would yield an excellent spirit; but many obstacles have been raised against this measure by the rapacity of the Spanish merchants. These gentlemen, at one time, carried their efforts so far as to solicit the government to extirpate the plant altogether, but as the country has passed into more liberal hands, a better order of things may expected to arise, and in the course of some time, the spirit of the maguey may be brought to rival the brandies of Europe. As it is, pulque-brandy forms a considerable branch of the trade of the provinces, through which it is transported in leathern bags on the backs of mules. Whether, however, the use of this liquor, generally speaking, may not be of more injury to the morals of the people than the good it would produce either in an agricultural or a commercial view, is not here a point for discussion; but the ease with which intoxicating liquors are procured by the Indians of New Spain tends much to shorten their lives and demoralize their characters. Rum, spirits from maize, and the root of the jatropha manihot, with pulque, are the favourites. Pulque, when not subjected to distillation, is nutritive on account of its saccharine nature, and hence those who are addicted to

it use little solid food; used moderately it is nourishing and healthy. Among those who inhabit the valley of Mexico, the environs of Puebla and Tlascala, or wherever maguey or agave are extensively cultivated, drunkenness is most predominant. In the city of Mexico, tumbrels are sent round to collect the drunkards of the night who may be found lying in the streets. They are carried to a watch-house in the morning, and an iron ring is closed round their ankles, and in this state they are compelled to cleanse the streets for three days successively, as a punishment for their irregularities*—a policy of proceeding that does credit to the government.

The sugar-cane is also productive; and in Mexico, as well as in some of the other principal districts and towns, sugar-mills and distilleries of rum on a large scale are kept at work. The cultivation of the cane has become a matter of great importance in New Spain. When Humboldt was there, the exportation from Vera Cruz alone was 13,793,750lbs., valued at £312,525, which has since considerably increased. Little is now exported to Peru, as that country produces more than sufficient for its own consumption. Some of the plantations in New Spain are known to yield from 1,103,500, to 1,655,250lbs. of sugar annually. The quantity and quality of the produce have been found to be in proportion to the nature of the soil, and the elevation of the land on which it is cultivated. Such is the fertility in some parts of the torrid zone in America, that it has been estimated that all the sugar consumed in France, say 44,140,000lbs. might be produced on a surface of seven square leagues, an extent, according to Humboldt, not equal to the thirtieth part of the smallest department of France. The chief bulk of the sugar of New Spain is consumed in the country, which has been calculated at 35,000,000lbs. annually. In most of the plantations, rum is distilled from the molasses and the refuse of the mills; and it forms no inconsiderable portion of the beverages of the country. From the molasses of a sugar plantation, 30,000 barrels of coarse rum are made yearly, and the speculation in this kind of trade is found to be lucrative, as the barrel of rum sells in Mexico for 32 dollars, netting, after paying duty and carriage, 24 dollars.

Vines are cultivated in these settlements to great extent, and the wine in some places is not inferior to the best Spanish wine. In the environs of Passo del Norte, the vineyards produre such excellent wines, that they are preferred to those of Paras, in new Biscay, so much celebrated as being the produce of the Vitis Vinifera of Asia,

Humboldt's Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, vol. i. p. 150.

*

planted there by the first settlers. Under the old government, the vine could hardly be included among the territorial riches of Mexico, the quantity being so inconsiderable. But the political changes which have taken place in that country, have given encouragement to the plantation of the vine and the consumption of native produce, unshackled by the prohibitory and tyrannical laws of the mother country. The inhabitants of Mexico and New Spain will soon be enabled to supply not only their home consumption, but that perhaps of the whole of North America; and Mexico may yet serve to that portion of the globe, what France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, have long proved to the rest of Europe.

In so extensive a region as that of New Spain, where the heat is intense and drink in great demand, ice is considered indispensable and an article of great luxury. The right to sell it was a monopoly of the crown, and the poor Indian, who had scaled the summits of the highest mountains to collect this important material, could not dispose of it without paying a duty to the government. Humboldt informs us that a similar monopoly existed in France, to which a stop was put, as the magnitude of the duty produced a rapid diminution in the use of cooling liquors. The sale of snow in New Spain amounted, in 1803, to 26,000 piasters.

To enter upon a minute detail of the vegetable productions of Mexico would be irrelevant to this work and extend beyond its limits. It is sufficient to observe, that the gardens contain all the fruits of Europe, and the fields are cultivated with various sorts of grain. The food of the people is chiefly composed of banana, manioc, maize, wheat, potatoes, &c. The maguey, or agave, may be considered as the Indian vine, which forms the basis of most of their beverages. In some places a drink is used called pinòle, which is Indian corn baked, ground, and the flour mixed with either milk or water, having a little cinnamon or sugar superadded. Maize is cultivated to the utmost extent, and with a success hardly credible. The majority of the population of New Spain subsisted entirely on the flour of the maize; it is used in various ways, and is eaten boiled or roasted. When made into bread it is very nutritive, and it is often used under the form of a gruel, called by the natives atolle, with which are mixed sugar, honey, and often ground potatoes. Hernandez describes sixteen different sorts of atolle. Maize is sold cheap; even in the capital it is bought for two dollars the fanega of 150lbs. At present, a very palatable kind of beer or fermented liquor is made from this grain, as well as from the stalks denominated pulque demaize (llalli, tlaolli), and which

is composed of a sugary juice or sirup, extracted by pressure from the stalk. This compressed juice was formerly substituted for sugar.* The Mexicans and Peruvians, previous to the arrival of Europeans among them, were in the habit of pressing sugar from the stalks of the maize, and were able to concentrate its juice by evaporation, as well as to prepare the coarse sugar by condensing the sirup. Cortez described to the Emperor Charles V. the Mexican sugar which he saw exposed in the markets for sale, as honey from the stalks of maize and honey from the shrub maguey." The stalks of the maize are so exceedingly sugary, that Humboldt says the Indians suck it as the sugar-cane is sucked by the negroes, and it appears that they were unacquainted with the sugar-cane previous to the landing of the Spaniards.

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The Mexicans domesticate bees for the purpose of obtaining honey. As the insects are naturally prone to construct their cells in the hollows of trees, the inhabitants excavate the trunks in portions of from two to three feet in length, which they close at both ends with clay, and bore a hole in the centre for the egress and ingress of the bees. These receptacles are then suspended on a tree in a horizontal position, and are soon occupied by an industrious colony. The honeycomb is so constructed, that it is unusual to have recourse at any time to the destruction of the inmates; all that is necessary being to remove the stopper, introduce the hand and withdraw the honeysacks, for the Mexican bee forms cells for the reception of the larvæ, distinct from the combs. The hive generally affords two harvests in the season. The honey is of good flavour but thin; it is inferior to that of Europe, and not easily fermented; yet a good description of hydromel is occasionally made of it, and much used in the country.t The maguey is very common in Peru, a country susceptible of cultivation in such parts only as lie adjacent to the rivers, or which can be conveniently irrigated. It makes a good hedge in consequence of the strong prickles on the edge of its leaves, which prevent animals from passing. The Indians build their houses of its flower stalks and cover them with the leaves; the fibres are converted into thread and woven into clothing, while the prickles serve in the place of pins and needles. The juice, when mixed with water, is allowed to ferment, and forms a similar beverage to the Mexican pulque. Its leaves supply the place of soap, for after the clothes are wetted, if they be beaten with a bruised leaf of maguey, a thick white froth is produced,

Ward's Mexico, (1827), 8vo. vol. i. p. 41, passim.

† Beechy's Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, vol. ii. p. 357.

out of which, when the clothes are rinsed, they become perfectly clean : even the flower buds, when boiled or pickled, are delicate eating. Of the two varieties of maguey found in Peru, the leaves of the one are of a deep green, while those of the other are of a beautiful pale green; but the latter is the most useful.

The soil of Peru, though unfavourable to the growth of vegetables, yields crops of potatoes, wheat, and rice, which, with the sugar-cane and vines, are reared chiefly on the banks of ravines where vegetation is extremely rapid. The grapes are highly flavoured but afford indifferent wine: notwithstanding, this article, as well as brandy, has been for many years of some commercial importance. Pisco has long been famous for its manufacture of brandy. Near the city of Conception de Mocha, the vine-yards are numerous and fertile, producing a large supply of wine for home consumption, as well as for the Lima market, the cultivation of the vine not being forbidden here, as it is in Mexico and New Granada. For want of proper vessels a large quantity is either lost or injured; and a wine is made called Muscadel, superior to that of the same name in France, and not inferior to Frontignac. The simple vessels used at this place to ferment and preserve the wine are made of baked clay, having only a wooden cover, and hence their brandy is greatly deteriorated. The vines grow chiefly on espaliers, and are not on detached stems as are the generality of European vines. The wine and other liquors are carried in goats' skins tanned for the purpose. These animals are carefully nurtured for this object, as well as for their fat and for cordwain. A palatable species of red wine with a flavour peculiarly aromatic, and denominated Malle, is here prepared from the berries of a tree of that name. These berries are black and formed in clusters round the slender branches, being about the size of peas. Another beverage called Theka, is made from the fruit of the mague tree, and which somewhat resembles a wild cherry. It grows in the woods in great abundance, and the people make parties to gather it. From the city of Conception, there are exported, at an average, 2,000 jars of wine containing 18 gallons each, chiefly to Lima, where Chili brandy may be had at a very reasonable rate. About Lima, a great portion of the native sugar is employed in making a drink called guarapo, which is the expressed juice of the cane fermented; it is the principal drink of the coloured people, and of which the Indians of the interior purchase great quantities, it being sold very cheap. Europeans consider this an agreeable beverage, and when thirsty or heated, it is preferred by many to every other sort of liquor. The Spanish monarchy, in conjunction with the Pope, prohibited the manufacture of rum among the