shipping and become a commercial country. The original emigration to New Spain was not maritime in its character. The Spanish trade was carried on by the mother country in Spanish vessels exclusively, and these ships were not owned by or permitted to become the permanent property of the colonists. The settlers who emigrated retired from the coasts to the interior where their interests either in the soil, cities, or mines, immediately absorbed their attention. It was not to be expected that the Indians, who could scarcely be converted into agriculturists, would engage in the more dangerous life of sailors. The whole industry of the foreign population was thus diverted at once from the sea board, and the consequence was, that notwithstanding the territory of New Spain is bounded on the east and west by the two great oceans of the world, those oceans never became the nurses of a hardy race of mariners whose labors would, in time, have fostered the internal productiveness of their country by creating a commerce. We are not astonished, therefore, to find that the whole marine of Mexico, on the shores of the Gulf, is confined to a petty coasting trade from port to port, and that her sea-going people are rather fishermen than sailors. On the west coast, however, the maritime character of the people has somewhat improved, and a very considerable trade has been carried on by Mexican vessels, in native productions, not only with Central America, Columbia, Peru and Chili, but even with the Sandwich Islands.
The geographical position of Mexico, when considered in connexion with its agricultural riches and metallic wealth, is perhaps the most remarkable in the world. A comparatively narrow strip of land, possessing all the climates of the world, is placed midway between the two great bodies of the northern and southern continents of America, and midway, also, between the continents of Europe and Asia. In its central region it extends only five or six hundred miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific, while, at its southern end, it is swiftly crossed by means of its rivers or by railways, which, it is alleged, may be easily constructed. In the midst of this unrivalled territory, in the lap of the great plateau or