the unfortunate Emperor Maximilian was shot in 1867. was a full-blooded Indian. The Aztec Indians of Mexico, Puebla, and Vera Cruz are the descendants of the famous race which had formed a highly civilized empire on the plateau of Anahuac long before the Spaniards set foot in the country,

The Creoles, as the pure descendants of whites are called, and most of the Mestizoes and civilized Indians, are Roman Catholics.

Public education, which is by law free and compulsory, is very backward. INDUSTRIES: Silver-mining, cattle-rearing, and agriculture are the leading occupations of the Mexican people.

The silver mines of Mexico were formerly the richest in the world, and they still yield a large proportion of the world's production of silver. Gold, copper, lead, iron, tin, coal, and other minerals are also abundant, as well as beautiful marble and excellent building stone.

Cattle-rearing is the main industry on the great plains in the interior, especi ally in Northern Mexico. There are over 20,000 cattle ranches, and herds of 20,000 to 30,000 head of cattle are common. Mules and horses, goats and sheep, are also very numerous.

Agriculture is even yet, except in a few localities, conducted in an extremely primitive fashion, but the Government is now paying great attention to the development of agricultural enterprise. Maize is the chief cereal crop, but wheat, barley, and rice are also grown. The acreage under cotton, sugar-cane, henequen (a textile plant), coffee, and tobacco is steadily increasing.

Manufacturing is at present almost confined to the weaving of cotton and woollen fabrics for home use, and to the making of saddlery and earthenware.

COMMERCE: The foreign trade of Mexico is carried on chiefly with the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany. Annual value, 45 millions sterling.

The chief exports, in order of value, are henequen (a textile filre), silver, coffee, hides and skins, timber (chiefly mahogany), tobacco, vanilla, ixile (textile fibre), copper, gum, lead, live animals, &c. Annual value, 25 millions sterling.

The principal imports are textile fabrics, metal goods, and machinery, &c.

Annual value 20 millions sterling.

Ports: The principal ports are Vera Cruz, Tampico, Matamoros Puerto Mexico (formerly Coatzacoalcos), Progreso, and Campeachy, on the Mexican Gulf; and Guaymas, Mazatlan, San Bias, Manzanillo, Acapulco, and Saira

Cruz, on the Pacific Coast.

Internal Communications: The roads are bad and scarcely anywhere adapted for carriages. Railways now connect the capital with the chief inland town, and with the ports of Vera Cruz and Tampico on the Gulf Coast, and with necting the city of Mexico with the United States railways cross the Ro San Blas, Manzanillo, and Acapulco on the Pacific Coast. The lines corGrande at three points-at El Paso, Eagle Pass, and at Laredo. An important inter-oceanic railway across the Tehuantepec Peninsula connects the poris

of Puerto Mexico and Salina Cruz. way open for traffic.

There are now over 13,500 miles of rad

GOVERNMENT: Mexico forms a feder 1 republic, under an elective President. The legislative power is vested in Congress, the States has its own constitution, government, and laws. consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate. Each of

a mere record of pronunciamentos and uprisings without end-one revolution 'The history of Mexico, as, unfortunately, of almost all Spanish America, is

after another and military despotism, alternating with periods of perfect anarchy, combining with the influences of an oppressive priesthood to destroy the prosperity of the country. During the last decade, however, the country has been peaceable and has prospered, and the construction of an efficient railway system, connected with that of the United States, has powerfully assisted in developing its vast resources. The annual revenue and expendi The public debt, external and

ture each amount to about 10 millions. internal, is about 25 millions.

DIVISIONS and TOWNS: Mexico is divided into twenty-seven States, two Territories, those of Lower California and Tepic, and the Federal District of Mexico.

The Mexican States are named, in most cases, after the towns which they include, but few of these are of any considerable size. The city of Mexico, which greatly exceeds any other in population, is the capital.

The city of MEXICO (330) stands on the interior tableland, nearly midway between the two oceans, and at an elevation of more than 7,000 feet above their waters. It was already a seat of empire-the capital of the native Aztec monarchy-when Cortez reduced Mexico under the Spanish arms, in the early part of the 16th century. It is now connected by rail with New Orleans, and with Vera Cruz on the Gulf of Mexico, and with the ports of Acapulco, Manzanillo, and San Blas on the Pacific Coast.

Vera Cruz (24) and Acapulco-the one on the Atlantic coast, the other on that of the Pacific-are the chief seaports of Mexico. Vera Cruz occupies an unhealthy situation on the low shore of the Gulf of Mexico. Tampico, further north on the same line of coast, has some share in Mexican commerce, especially in exporting the produce of the mines. Matamoros is an important town on the borders of Texas; it stands on the Rio Grande about 40 miles above its mouth. Acapulco, on the Pacific, possesses one of the finest harbours in the world. Mazatlan, Guaymas, San Blas, Manzanillo, and Tehuantepec, which are also on the Pacific, are rising ports. Three of these Pacific portsAcapulco, Manzanillo, and San Blas-are connected by rail with the capital. Puerto Mexico or Coatzacoalcos, as it was formerly called, and Salina Cruz, are the Atlantic and Pacific ports respectively of the new inter-oceanic railway across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, opened in 1907.

The chief towns in the interior are Puebla (89), at the foot of Popocatepet!, to the south-east of Mexico, Leon (59), to the north-west of the capital, and Guadalaxara (84), further west, in the valley of the Santiago River; all the three are manufacturing towns of some importance.

Very few among the other cities of Mexico possess any other than local importance. The whole country exhibits a vast decline from its flourishing condition during the 16th and 17th centuries, when the treasures of the New World were poured into Europe from its shores. But it contains abundant indications of former prosperity, shown in the mag nificent architectural decorations of many of its cities, their fine cathedrals, convents, and other structures. There are also in various parts of Mexico, monuments of earlier date which bear testimony to the partial civilization attained by the Indians prior to the Spanish conquest. Many of these monuments bear considerable resemblance to the ruins that ar so numerously strewn over the plains of Western Asia, and, like them, are gazed on wich wonder, not unmixed with awe, by the present degenerate race of natives.

The long and narrow peninsula of California, on the western side of the gulf to which its name is given, forms one of the Territories that are attached to Mexico. The name of Lower California is given to this region, in order to distinguish it from the State of California to the north, of which it is, physically, The entire peninsula is scarcely anything more than an irregular mountain range sloping more or less steeply to the sea on either side.

the continuation.

The Territory has an area of over 60,000 square miles, but the population, consisting chiefly of Spanish and Indian half-castes, does not exceed 40,000. La Paz (2), the capital, lies at the head of a fine natural harbour on the southeastern coast. Loreto, to the north, and San Antonio to the south of La Paz, are silver-mining centres.

YUCATAN, also a peninsula, adjoining the opposite extremity of Mexico, forms one of the Mexican States. It has an area of 30,000 square miles and a population of 300,000, four-fifths of them Indians and Mestizoes. There are enormous ruins of ancient Indian towns at Uxmal and other places-the work of the civilized Maya Indians, whose descendants still speak the old language, and obstinately hold aloof from the white man. It contains the towns of Merida (37) and Campeachy, the former of which is the capital. A railway joins Merida with the port of Progreso and several towns in the interior.

"When Mexico first became known to Europeans, the ruling race was the Aztecs, a people skilled in tilling the soil, in weaving cotton cloth, in working the metals (except iron), and other useful arts. They had schools, a system of writing, a literature, populous cities, and an efficient government. To Mexitli, their god of war, from whom Mexico derived its name, they offered human sacrifices in magnificent ter ples.

"Soon after the discovery of America, Cortez, with about 600 Spaniards, invaded this vast empire, and, notwithstanding an heroic resistance, effected its conquest (1521). For 300 years the government was in the hands of Spanish viceroys, who were almost absolute, and kept the natives in ignorance and wretchedness.

years

afterwards a

"The Mexicans freed themselves from Spanish rule in 1821. Three republic was established. Large tracts of territory were lost in consequence of the Texan revolution (1836) and the war with the United States (1846-48). In 1863, after the invasion of the country by a French army, Mexico was made an empire, and a European prince placed on the throne, but within four years the republic was restored."

CENTRAL AMERICA.

CENTRAL AMERICA includes the narrow tract of country which extends from Mexico to the Isthmus of Panama. This region is washed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean on either side, and no part of it is far removed from one or other of the great oceans.

Central America is bounded by Mexico on the north, the Caribbean Sea on the east, and the Pacific Ocean on the west and south.

The area of this territory is estimated at 176,000 miles, or about three times that of England and Wales. Its breadth varies from 300 miles in the centre to 70 in the south.

Central America, like Mexico, consists of high plateaux in the interior, with low plains adjoining the coast.

The plateaux are inferior in height to those of Mexico, but they are bordered on the western side by high mountains, many of which reach an altitude of

13,000 feet and upwards.

structive.

Several of these mountains are active volcanoes,

and eruptions occur from time to time, while earthquakes are frequent and deThe low plain along the Atlantic Coast is of considerable extent, especially that part of it which is called the Mosquito Coast.

The rivers of Central America are of little importance, except in so far as they afford the means of navigation into the interior, and of thereby effecting a nearer approach to communication between the two oceans.

The River San Juan, which enters the Caribbean Sea below Greytown (or San Juan de Nicaragua), has hence become of some note. It issues from the large Lake of Nicaragua, the western shores of which approach within eleven miles of the Pacific. Steamers navigate the river and lake, and the United States at one time proposed to utilize these in building a sip canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It was finally decided to continue instead the canal begun by M. de Lesseps across the isthmus of Panama. The smaller, but still extensive, Lake of Managua or Leon lies to the north-west of Lake Nicaragua, and discharges a s'ream into it.

The climate and natural productions of Central America resemble those of Mexico. The coasts are hot and unhealthy, while the elevated interior is comparatively temperate.

There are mines of gold, silver, copper, zinc, as well as other valuable mineral produce, but the real wealth of the country consists in the vegetable productions-valuable cabinet and dye-woods, cotton, coffee, sugar, cochineal, indigo, cocoa, sarsaparilla, tobacco, &c.

The total population of Central America is estimated at about 41⁄2 millions, an average of 25 to the square mile.

Three-fourths of the population of the Central American States are either Indians or Mestizoes. The whites, who are everywhere the ruling race, are almost uniformly of Spanish descent. Many of the Indians speak the Spanish language.

In all these countries, agriculture is in a backward condition and the produce of small amount, compared with the capabilities which they possess. This is in a great measure the result of political insecurity, due to the frequent revolutions.'

Indigo, cochineal, coffee (the last chiefly from Costa Rica), with sugar, hides, and valuable cabinet and dye-woods, &c., are the chief exportable products. The exports to, and imports from, Great Britain--the latter consisting chiefly of cotton goods, metal wares, and machinery-each amount to about a million sterling.

DIVISIONS: Five distinct States-the republics of Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica-and one British colony-British Honduras or Belize-are included within Central America.3 The new Republic of Panama, which geographically may be said to belong to Central America, is described on page 677.

1. Central America has always been prolific in revolutions, and earthquakes are not infrequent; "Thank God, we have had only two earthquakes and three revolutions this year," exclaimed the President of San Salvador on one occasion.

2. The areas of the Central American States com. pared with that of England and Wales is:-British Honduras, one-seventh; Honduras, two-thirds: Guatemala, four-fifths: Nicaragua, five-sixths; and Costa Rica, one-half.

3. "The Spaniards subjugated this region soon after Columbus first visited the coast of Honduras in 1592, and they held it for nearly 30 years. The five States, on establishing their independence in 1825, formed themselves into a Federal Republic, bat the union was soon broken, and since then their progress has been retarded by frequent revolutions and civil strife."

BRITISH HONDURAS.

The Crown Colony of BRITISH HONDURAS or Belize, the only British possession in Central America, is bounded on the north by the Mexican State of Yucatan, on the west and south by Guatemala, and on the east by the Caribbean Sea. It has an area of 7,562 square miles, and a population of about 37,000, the majority of whom are Negroes and Indians.

Physically, British Honduras has a like configuration to that of the adjacent Central American States-flat and swampy along the coast-line; then pine and cohoon ridges; next, primeval forest-land, broken here and there by lofty hils and sometimes considerable savannahs; and, finally, mountain ranges, which run with more or less continuity along the western frontier.

The climate and soil along the coast are adapted for the luxuriant growth of almost every tropical product, and the vast forests teem with an exhaustless wealth of mahogany, cedar, logwood, iron-wood, pine and india-rubber trees, with sarsaparilla and other useful shrubs and plants. Sugar is still largely exported, and there are large coffee plantations, while bananas, plantains, cocoanuts, pine-apples, oranges, mangoes and other fruits are extensively grown. But the cutting of mahogany and logwood is the chief industry, and mahogny, logwood, and bananas are the most important articles of export, principally to Great Britain and the United States. The total exports now amount to over 2 million dollars a year. Capital and a larger supply of labour alone are wanted to develop the great resources of this Colony and make it one of the most valuable of the many "tropical gardens" of England. The capital and centre of trade is the neat and picturesque little town of BELIZE, at the mouth, of

the Belize River.

GUATEMALA.

GUATEMALA, the most northerly of the Central American Republics, has an area of about 48,300 square miles, and a population of about 11⁄2 millions, more than half of whom are pure Indians, the rest being half-castes, with the exception of a few descendants

of Europeans.

The elevated mountain chain which traverses the country from west to east, has several volcanic summits over 13,000 feet in height. Earthquakes are fre quent, and, indeed, the whole of Central America is more or less liable to earth. quakes, which are sometimes of great violence. The country is well-watered and the soil is generally very fertile. The chief products are coffee, sugar, maize, wheat, and rice, but cacao, cotton, tobacco, bananas, and cocoa-nuts are also produced. Farm animals are very numerous, but though gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, and other minerals exist, they are little worked. There is a line cf railway from the Pacific port San José to the capital, NEW GUATEMALA (72), and it is being continued to Puerto Barrio's, a port at the head of the Gulf of Honduras on the Atlantic side. Another line connects Champerico with Quezaltenango. The capital is more populous than any other city in

Central America.

The older city of that name-the former capital of the

State-was abandoned as the seat of government from its liability to earthquakes, as well as from the injury to which it is exposed from the eruptions of

neighbouring volcanoes.