ingly, the principal industry is that of sugar and
rum-making, for which industry there exist numerous _haciendas_,
equipped in most cases with modern machinery. The historical and
archaeological associations and remains of the state are of much
interest. Cuernavaca, the picturesque capital, which is the centre of
these, is much of a favourite health resort since it became connected
by railway with the City of Mexico. The Franciscan church carries us
back to 1539, and the palace of Cortes and the gardens of Maximilian
bring into recollection episodes of the history of this romantic region
of the Pacific slope. The climate invites to dalliance, and the varied
landscape--canyon, forest, and stream--open out in their pleasurable
variety as we make our way westward. The small, quaint, Spanish-built
towns with their Indian names, such as Tetecala,[39] Tequezquitengo,
and others, seem to carry us back to the Middle Ages. This latter
village was inundated and lost from the waters employed in the
irrigation of the valleys. The various streams which cross the state
have their outlet to the great Balsas river, which drains the eastern
slope of the Sierra Madre, falling thence into the Pacific Ocean. The
Mexican Central and the Interoceanic Railways connect the chief towns
of Morelos with the City of Mexico, traversing the interesting and
rugged routes of this region.

[Footnote 39: Visited by the Author.]

Puebla is one of the most important of the Mexican states--both in
natural resources and in its general flourishing condition. It occupies
the region south of the great tableland, extending beyond this,
however, both to the Atlantic and Pacific watersheds, its central part
forming the _divortia aquarum_ of the continent in this portion, its
rivers on the west running to the Pacific Ocean and those on the east
to the Gulf of Mexico through the State of Vera Cruz. In the northern
part of this region the mountains form a scattered group, unlike the
Cordilleras of the Sierra Madre of other parts of Mexico. The
topography and scenery are rugged and picturesque. The northern
mountains include the Sierra Nevada, which form the boundary of the
valley of Mexico and the great plateau. Here rise the beautiful
snow-capped peaks which are so prominent a feature of this part of
Mexico--Popocatepetl (17,300 feet), Ixtaccihuatl (15,700 feet),
Malintzin (13,462 feet), and others, on the boundary with the States of
Puebla and Mexico. Orizaba (