y a strong castle.
The town itself is mean and ill-built, but extremely populous.
Earthquakes are here of such frequent occurrence, that the houses are
all very slightly constructed; and the climate, also, is extremely
unhealthy. These circumstances occasion most of the principal merchants
to reside in the adjacent country, at all times except when business
demands their attention in the town.

Several vessels, called "galleons," laden with the precious metals, and
with merchandise of other kinds, are every year sent, from this port, to
Manila, in the Philippine islands; and others return, laden with the
valuable productions of the East Indies. On the arrival of the latter,
the town becomes populous and gay; and is then filled with the
wealthiest merchants of Mexico and Peru. Such, however, is the general
dread of its unhealthiness, that these do not sleep within the walls,
but reside chiefly in tents in its vicinity.

At some distance east of Acapulco, in a beautiful and populous valley,
stands the town of _Guaxaca_ or _Oaxaca_; distinguished by the
magnificence of its situation, the temperature and salubrity of its
climate, the excellence of its soil, and its general majestic
appearance. The streets are wide, straight, and well paved; and the
houses are chiefly built of stone. The churches and monasteries are
numerous, and richly decorated. On one side of the great square is the
town-house, which is constructed with stone of a sea-green colour. The
bishop's palace and the cathedral form two other sides of the same
square: they are surrounded by arcades, as a shelter against both the
sun and the rain. In the suburbs of Guaxaca are gardens, and plantations
of cactus or prickly pear-trees, on which great numbers of cochineal
insects feed. Guaxaca is not only watered by a beautiful river, but is
abundantly supplied, by aqueducts, with pure water from the adjacent
mountains. Its population, including Indians, mulattoes, and negroes,
amounts to about twenty-four thousand persons.

The _intendancy of Yucatan_ forms a peninsula, about a hundred leagues
in length, between the bays of Campeachy and Honduras. A ridge of low
hills extends along it, from south-west to north-east; and, between this
ridge and the _Bay of Campeachy_, the dry and parched soil produces
logwood in great abundance and of excellent quality. For nearly five
months, during the rainy season, the low grounds are partially
inundated: in February the waters