Account of expeditions to the sources of the Mississippi, : and through the western parts of Louisiana, to the sources of the Arkansaw, Kans, La Platte, and Pierre Jaun Rivers

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4 APPENDIX TO PART HI: San Andct·, is on the river of that name, about 4·0 miles from the sea, in 23° 4·5' N. latitude and 101° \V. lon~itucle. The king·dom of New Leon is bounded east by New San An­det ·, not·th by Cog-quilla, west by lliscay, and south by St. Louis and Zacataca; its greatest length north and south is 250 miles, width cast and west I 00 miles. Its population may be estimated at 30,000 souls. Its capital, Mont El Hey, is situated on the head waters of Tig-ct· river, which discharg-es itself into the gulf of Mexico. The city of l\1ont EI Hey contains about 11 ,ooo souls, and is the scat of the bishop, Don Dio Prcmiro, who visited the port of Nachitochcs when commanded by captain Turner, of the 2d United States regi­ment of infantry. Jlis episcopal jurisdiction extends over Nuevo San Ander, New Leon, Cogquilla and Texas, and his salary is equal to 3100,000 per annum. Mont El Rey is situated in 26° N. latitude and 102° \ V. longitude. There arc many and rich mines ncar the city of L\lont El Rcy, from whence, I am informed, there arc taken, to be coined, 100 mule-loads of bullion in silver and gold monthly, which may be presumed to be not more than the three-fifths of what is taken from the mines, as there are many persons who prefer !lever getting thci1· metal coined, as then it is not so easily ascer· tained what they arc worth, which is an all-important secret in a des­potic govcmment. The foregoing nine administrations or intendcncias, the king­dom of Leon, and the province of N ucvo San Ander are included in the two audiences of Guadalaxara and Mexico, .anll form, as I believe, the whole political government of the vice-roy of Mexico; hut 1 am not positive whether his jurisdiction does not include the audience of Guatimalia, which lies to the south, and includes the p rovince of th at name, that of Chiap<l, Yucatan, V craqua, Costa llica and ll oncl tH'ac;. An andiencc is the high court of appeals in which the vice-roy presides and has two votes: it is intended as a check l '' l hi!:> power and allthority. The administrations arc gcn·ct·ncd by intendants, who arc of­ficers of hi,rh r,mk, and always Europeans. The longitude given is from the meridian of Paris. In the general view of N ew Spain, I slulll take some notice of the manners, customs, political force, &c. of the vice-royalty; but, as I do not pretend to be correctly informed as to that quarter of the kin~~dom, and there have been so many persons who have given statements on those he:lds, I shall confine my observations principally to the inte rnal provinces tht·ough which I passed, and on which I made my observations. II APPENDIX TO PART III. INTERNAL PROYINCES . NEw MExico lies between 30° 30' and -1·'1.. 0 N. latitu de an<l 104 and 108° \V. lon ~ itucl c , and is the most north e rn p rovi nce of the kingdom of N cw Spain; it extends north-west into an undefi ned boundary, is bounded north and cast by Louisiana, sout h by Biscay and Cogf!uilla, and west by Senora and Califomia. Its l c n ~t h is un­known, its breadth may he 600 miles, but the inhabited part is not more than 400 miles in length ami 50 in breadth, lying· along- the river del Norte, fl'om the 37° to the 3 1° 301 ~.latitude; but in this space there is a desert of more than 250 miles. Air anrl C/imate.-No persons accustomed to reside in the tem­perate climate of 36 and 37 degrees of north latitude in the United States can form any idea of the piercing cold which you experience in that parallel in New Mexico; but the air is serene and unaccom­panied by clamps or fog:>, us it rains but once a yea1·, and some years not at all. It is a mountainous country. The grand dividing ridg-es which separate the w~ters of the rio del Norte from those of Cali­fornia border it on the line of its western limits, and arc covered, in some places, with eternal snows, which give a keenness to the ait· tbat could not be calculated upon nor expected in a temperate zone. Timbe1· and Plains.-The cotton tree is the only tree of this province, except some scrubby pines and cedars a.t the foot of the mountains. The former borders the banks of the rio del N ortc and its tributary streams. All the rest of the country presents to the eye a barren wild of poor land, scarcely to be impl'Ovcd by cul­tm.' e, and appears to be only capable of pt·oducing suff.cicnt subsist­ence for those animals which live on succulent plants and herbage . Minee, Mincntls, and Fossils.-There arc no mines known in the province, except one of copj)et· situated in a mountain on the west side of the rio del Norte, in latitude 340 N. It js worked and produces 20,000 mule-loads of copper annually. It also fumishes that article for the manufactories of nearly all the iutemal pt·o­vinces. It contains gold; but not quite sufficient to p ay for its ex­traction; consequently it has not been pursued. There is, ncar Santa Fe, in some of the mountains, a stratum ()f talc, which is so large and flexible as to render it capable of be­ing subdivided into thin flakes, of which the greater proportion of the houses in Santa. Fe, and all the villa~es to the north, have their window-lio-hts m adr.