3rd: The Department of the West, with the district of Ystocomitan, containing 17 parishes; Tonalá, 3 parishes; and Palenque, 4 parishes.
4th: The Department of the North, with the districts of Tila, containing 6 parishes, and Simojoval, 12 parishes.
The chief towns are, Ciudad-Real, or San Cristoval de los Llanos; a fine town with about 6,000 inhabitants, possessing a cathedral church, four convents for monks, and one for nuns, two chapels, and a hospital. The first bishop of Chiapas, who erected the see of that name in 1538, was the renowned Bartoloméo de las Casas, whose fame is so intimately connected with the early history of the country, by his constant and merciful interference in behalf of the Indians.
The other important towns are San Juan Chamúla, containing 4,000 inhabitants; San Bartoloméo de los Llanos, whose 7,000 people are chiefly engaged in the cultivation of cotton, sugar, tobacco and corn; San Domingo Comitlan; San Jacinto Ocozingo, with 3,000 inhabitants who devote themselves to the care of cattle, and cultivate some cacao and corn; Tuxtla, with 5,000 inhabitants who trade in tobacco and cacao; San Domingo Sinacantan, on the borders of Tabasco in the territory of the Zoques, with 2,500 inhabitants who employ themselves in the culture of silk, of which they weave shawls and other similar fabrics, which are esteemed of a good merchantable quality, and are used in the country or adjacent states; Chiapa de los Indios; Tecpatlan; Ostoacan; Teopixca; Acapala; Capanabastla; Izcuintenango; San Fernando Guadalupe; and Simojovél.
Chiapas is represented to be rich in rivers which rise chiefly in the highlands towards the state of Tabasco and debouche into the Mexican Gulf. The Tabasco river or the Rio de Grijalva; the Usumasinta, the Chicsoi or the Santa Isabella;—the Machaquita, San Pedro, Dolores, Yalchitan, Chacamas, Zeldales, Yeixhihujat, Chatlan, and some others;