Valladolid is famous for an excellent breed of horses and fine cattle; the wild animals are principally the tiger, wild dogs, squirrels and an innumerable tribe of foxes, which are very troublesome to the inhabitants in destroying their fowls, &c.
There are no good ports on the coast of Valladolid, which causes most of the commerce of that province to be carried on by land.
INTENDANCY OF TLASCALA, OR PUEBLA.
Puebla or Tlascala, is the next province to the south of Mexico, and is bounded on the north by Vera Cruz; on the east by Oaxaca, or Guaxaca; on the south by the Pacific, and on the west, by the province of Mexico; and is about 354 miles in length, and from 40 to 150 in breadth.
The soil and productions are nearly the same with Mexico; it is here that the continent begins to narrow very much; and as we approach the southern boundary of North America, it gets continually less and less, until it passes the dividing mountains in Panama, when it again spreads into that immense extent of country, known in geography by the general name of South America.
Tlascala is crossed by the great chain of mountains called Cordillera de Anahuac on the west, which is adorned by cultivation; and on the north, by a range eternally overspread with snow; these are constantly subject to violent hurricanes, terrible tempests and torrents, by which those habitations, situated in their vicinity, are often swept away, and even those which are built on the tops of little rising grounds endangered. Notwithstanding all this, and the dreadful earthquakes to which the country is subject, Tlascala is supposed to be one of the most populous provinces of New Spain. It is so fertile in maize, that it received its name from that produce of the soil; Tlascala signifying the land of bread in the native language.
This province was formerly a kingdom, but afterwards divided into different districts; a chief, or cacique of each district residing at the court of Tlascala, where a council of the whole was held to promulgate laws. They were the enemies of the Mexicans, and maintained themselves against its kings for a length of time, and continued this form of government until the conquest of Mexico by Cortez. The towns and villages are filled with the native Indians. Cortez obtained a grant of this kingdom from Charles VI., and it is consequently exempt from services and duties to the crown of Spain, on account of its having been his ally, in his expedition against the Mexicans; they pay solely a poll-tax to the Spanish king in kind, being a handful of Indian wheat each person, and this has been said to amount to the extraordinary quantity of 13,000 bushels in one year.
The government of the caciques or chiefs was decreed by the inhabitants of the country after the close of some civil wars; thus making many kings to abate the power of one.
The capital of this province was anciently Tlaxcallan, or Tlascala, on the side of a great mountain, and on the banks of a small river which runs into the Pacific. If we are to believe the accounts of the Spanish adventurers when they first saw this city, its inhabitants amounted to 300,000; and it was adorned with a large market-place, sufficient to contain 30,000 people; the market was supplied with hardly ever fewer than 1500 sheep, 4000 head of cattle, and 2000 swine. In the year 1698, Gemelli says, that it was then a village with one church, in which hung the picture of the vessel in which Cortez arrived at Vera Cruz. The Tlascalans offered human sacrifices to their deities, and kept them in cages till their execution. It is situated twenty miles north of Puebla de los Angelos, and now contains only 3400 inhabitants, of whom 900 are of the original tribe.
Puebla de los Angelos, is at present the capital of Tlascala, and one of the few cities entirely built by Spaniards in America; it is situated in 19° 15ʹ north latitude, and 102° 43ʹ west longitude, east-south-east of Mexico, on a small river which runs through the town; the number of good houses is very great. It has a fine cathedral, several churches and monasteries, which are all well built and beautifully decorated. The houses are mostly of stone, very lofty and tasteful, the streets broad and quite straight, crossing each other at right angles, which is a favourite method of building the towns of the Spanish dominions in the New World. The streets are generally very clean, and there is a fine square in the middle of the city, superior to the great square of Mexico, adorned with porticoes or piazzas on three of its sides, and on the fourth, by the great cathedral built of stone, with two lofty towers, and an elegant front of modern architecture. The piazzas are filled with shops for the display of all sorts of goods, which has an exceedingly rich appearance. It is a bishopʼs see removed from Tlascala, and is reckoned the richest in New Spain. There is a manufacture of fine felts, with a royal mint and glass-house. The valley which adjoins this fine city, is extremely productive in corn and fruits, including all the European sorts. In the neighbourhood are many mineral springs; it contains 67,800 inhabitants, and its height above the level of the sea is 7380 feet.