CHAPTER IV.
PUEBLA—DIVISIONS—PRODUCTIONS—FACTORIES.—RIVER—STREAMS—PUEBLA DE LOS ANGELES—CATHEDRAL—TOWNS—MINES, QUARRIES—MOUNTAINS—POPOCATEPETL—ATLIXCO—OLIVARES—ASCENT OF THE MOUNTAIN—THE CRATER—ELEVATION.—PYRAMID OF CHOLULA—VISIT TO THE PYRAMID CORRECT DIMENSIONS.—TERRITORY OF TLASCALA—HISTORY—POSITION—SIZE—PRODUCTIONS—TOWNS.
THE STATE OF PUEBLA.
Nearly all of this State lies in the torrid zone, occupying a portion of the table land, and stretching westwardly down the slopes of the Sierra Madre to the Pacific Ocean, between the parallels of 16° 17´ and 20° 40´ north latitude. From the mouth of the river Tecoyáme to Mextitlan, it is 126 leagues long, and from Tehuacan to Mecameca, 53 leagues broad. It contains an area of 2,700 square leagues. On the north it is bounded by the State of Queretaro, north-easterly by the State of Vera Cruz, easterly by Oajaca, westwardly by Mexico and south-westwardly, for 28 leagues, by the Pacific Ocean. The last enumeration of inhabitants to which we have access, assigned 954,000 individuals to the State of Puebla, in the year 1832; but the estimate made for the basis of a call of congress in 1842, gave it only 661,902.