The mineral productions, are gold, silver, copper, tin, the mines of which are near the capital; lead, iron, quicksilver, sulphur, alum, vitriol, cinnabar, ochre, and a sort of earth, resembling white lead. Asphaltum and amber are found on the coasts.
Among the precious stones and gems of Mexico, are a few diamonds, topazes, emeralds, amethysts, the stone called cats-eye, turquoises, cornelians, &c. Chrystal is also found in the mountains. Jasper, and various marbles, alabaster in particular, and a red stone, called tetzontli, which is porous and light, yet firm, is much used in the capital, where the foundations being marshy, they wish not, in many spots, to overload the piles on which they are erected. The loadstone is found to the north-west of the province; mica is common, and a fine sort was, after being burnt and powdered, used by the Mexicans in their paintings. The itzli stone is the most curious of the productions of the Mexican quarries; it has a glossy appearance, is semi-transparent, and generally of a black colour, though sometimes varying to dark blue and dirty white; it has been assimilated to the obsidian of the ancients, and declared to be the obsidian, or volcanic glass of modern mineralogy. The Mexican artists fabricated it into mirrors, razors, spearheads, knives, lancets, and all sorts of fine tools.
The natives, that is to say, the aborigines or Indians, are well made, above the middle size, with complexions of an olive colour, narrow foreheads, black eyes, firm, regular, and fine teeth, coarse, black shining hair, with very little beard or hair on the trunk, or legs and arms; and it is remarked, that few deformed people are seen amongst them.
The women are fairer than the men, and many of them handsome. These people have generally good health, and are long-lived. Ardent spirits, together with European disorders, have considerably thinned their numbers, and they have much degenerated; the modern Mexican possessing little of the fire and warlike spirit which characterized his ancestors, neither are they so industrious as their forefathers, being of a melancholic temperament, and affecting mystery in all their actions. They are mostly of the Catholic persuasion; their progenitors had an imperfect notion of the Supreme Being, and adored him under the appellation of Teotl; they likewise called him Ipalnemoani, “He by whom we live,” and Tloque Nahuaque, “He who has all in himself.” Of the Creator, they formed no image, and to him no set forms of religious worship were made; they principally directed their prayers to Tlatecolototl, or the wise owl, an evil spirit; they also believed in the metemsychosis, and imagined, that the souls of their heroes went, after death, to the mansions of the Sun; and, after living there four years in happiness, returned under the form of beautiful birds. The souls of their slaves and meaner people, passed into the bodies of animals, in the more abject scale of creation; but souls of those who died by disease, by water, by lightning, and other accidental causes, went with the souls of little children to an Elysium; and those who died by punishment for crimes, &c., to a kind of Tartarus, which they called Mictlan, or the abode of utter darkness. It is said, that their historical pictures related the events of the creation, deluge, confusion of languages, and consequent dispersion of the people; and that this is one proof of the Americans being of the same origin as their brethren of the Old World.
They had thirteen chief deities. The creator; Tezcatlipoca, ever young, and supreme agent under the Invisible Being; the Sun, the Moon, the god of the air; Tlaloc, the god of water, of harvests, and of the household; the god of fire, Centeotl; the goddess of the earth; the god and goddess of hell; the god of night, and Mexitli, the god of war; and the rational owl, or evil god, who was worshipped to avert his wrath. Besides these, they had many inferior deities, who presided over the hunters, fishers, &c. They had also 260 gods, who had each a day of service assigned them; these were probably their heroes.
They were adored under the form of images of clay, wood, stone, gold, silver, or copper, and gems. In their prayers, their faces were turned to the east; and the avenue to the sanctuary, where the image was placed, had its opening to the west. It is said, the temples in Mexico amounted to 2000, and that the idol Huitzilopochtli, or Mexitli, was the most adored; having more sacrifices offered at his altar; and that this image was formed of seeds glued together with human blood. The two high priests, in fact, governed the nation; they were consulted on all occasions, and wore a distinctive habit. They ruled the inferior priests, whose dress consisted of a black mantle, thrown over the head; their hair reaching down to their legs, as they never were shaved. They gave the names to new born children with many ceremonies, and assisted at all nuptials. They also presided on these occasions, and at the funeral ceremonies, placing by the side of the deceased, if he was buried, a jug of water, and pieces of their paper, with gems, and one of the deceasedʼs domestic animals. The bodies of the dead were however generally burnt, and the ashes collected in a pot, which, in the case of people of high rank, were deposited in the temples. The priests had likewise the care of instructing the children, and preceded their armies in war.
The language of the Mexicans bears some similarity to that of the Peruvians; it is expressive and copious; and the great feature of it before the conquest was, that an addition of respect, according to the rank of the person addressed, might be added to each word; the words are many of them of immense length, as in the more northern dialects of the American Indians. It has not the consonants b, d, f, g, r, s;—l, x, t, z, tl, tz, are the most usual; but no word begins with l, though it is the most common liquid of the language. The penultimate syllable of most of the words is long, yet no nasal sound occurs in speaking it; the aspirations are soft; it is also abundant in augmentatives and diminutives; and is as well supplied with verbs as with nouns.
The colleges and university of Mexico admit the natives as freely as the Spaniards and their descendants, and are said to be well conducted, and to find considerable genius for the fine arts, and for some of the higher branches of science manifested in the pupils.
The capital of this province or intendancy, and of the whole of New Spain, has been already described under the head of New Spain; and the province of Mexico is 136 leagues in length, and ninety-two leagues broad; its population has been laid down at 1,511,800 souls; which at once shows its importance.
The great features of this province are the immense plains on the ridge of the Cordillera, elevated from 6561 to 8857 feet above the level of the sea, and forming bases for still higher mountains, whose hoary heads repose on their bosom. These plains are from fifty leagues in length, to ten in breadth.