. In
addition to the name given by Cortez, that of the capital was extended
to the whole kingdom of New Spain; and since the revolution and the
establishment of independence, the several provinces form separate and
independent states, confederating together and constituting the
nineteen United States of Mexico; viz. Chiapa, Chihuahua, Cohahuila
and Texas, Durango, Guanaxuato, Mexico, Michoachan, New Leon, Oaxaca,
Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Sonora and Cinaloa, Tabasco,
Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Xalisco, Yucatan and Zacatecas. Old and New
California, Colima, New Mexico, and Tlascala, though forming members
of the federation, declined having state governments, on account of
the expense, and are designated territories. The whole republic,
according to Humboldt, occupies a space of 75,830 square leagues, of
twenty to an equinoxial degree; on which there are to be found every
inequality of surface, and every variety of soil and climate, the two
last of which are dependent in most cases on the former.

The republic of Mexico, taken on the grand scale, may be considered as
a succession of small mountain-plains at different heights, separated
by mountains, and increasing in magnitude as the coast recedes on both
the eastern and western sides, until the great centre plain be
reached, which, though much broken by mountain ridges, tends to the
north, maintaining nearly an equal elevation. The snow-capped
mountains of Orizava, and the volcanos of Puebla and Toluca, are among
the most splendid objects in the world. The Mexicans divide the
regions of their country into _Tierras calientes, Tierras templadas_,
and _Tierras frias_, according to the climate. Throughout the whole
country there is a lamentable want of water, and of navigable rivers.
The lakes, too, appear to be yearly decreasing in extent, the
immediate consequence of which is, that the elevated portions of the
interior are nearly stripped of vegetation, and the soil covered with
an efflorescence of carbonate of soda, there called _Tequisquita_,
resembling very closely the plains of the two Castiles, and recalling
to the Eastern traveller the desolate wastes of some parts of Persia.

The effect of elevation on the temperature is most marked, and it is
no uncommon thing to be shivering on one side of the street in the
city of Mexico, and to be literally scorched by the rays of the sun on
the other. Changes are upon record of 55 deg. of Fahrenheit within three
hours,