condition in life. The most notable institutions are the Academy of Fine Arts, the Mining, Engineering, and Medical schools, and the Military, Law, Commercial, and Agricultural colleges. In 1886 the various schools and colleges within the city numbered 316, with 712 male and 469 female teachers, and an average daily attendance of 12,775 boys and 10,385 girls, or 23,160 pupils in all. About one-half of these institutions are supported by the Federal and Municipal Governments at an annual expense of $816,840, and the remainder are private en

terprises.

In the line of local transit the city had, in 1886, thirtytwo lines of street railroads, beside eleven others which connected with the outlying towns, and five trunk railroads entered it from different directions.

In its historical phase the city is more interesting than the country, because of its greater antiquity. It stands near the northwestern part of the valley of Mexico, about four miles from the mountains in the direction of the town of Guadaloupe. The appearance of the valley is that of an oval basin surrounded by mountains of every degree of elevation, from the Piñolos, or little rugged promontories, to Popocatepetl, the highest peak in Mexico, covered with perpetual snow. The site of the city was chosen by a barbarian chieftain, who found a lake (Texcoco), in the midst of which was a slight elevation of land or island, large enough to encamp his tribe upon. There he built a town which was preserved through all the wars that ensued with neighboring nations because it was so easily defended. The date of the founding of the town is given as 1325, and it was named Tenochtitlan. At the time of the discovery of the country by the

ENTRANCE TO PALACE, CITY OF MEXICO.

Spaniards, it was a rich, flourishing, populous, and active city, the seat of government and of religion. As previously narrated Cortez landed 1519. For two years he sought the conquest of the city. The Aztecs defended it stubbornly. Cortez besieged it for a period of seventy-five days, but the hosts of Montezuma held out till the invaders had almost entirely destroyed the city. As building after building was razed the fury of the Spaniards increased, and it was only after they had completed one of the most terrible slaughters on record that they gained absolute possession of the once beautiful capital. The building of the present city was begun about 1522, and it was named Mexico from Mexitli, the tutelary divinity of the Aztecs.

The general knowledge of the early condition of the city is derived in large part from native pictures that survived the destruction of Cortez. They contained chronological histories, which had been prepared and preserved with the greatest care. The most celebrated one of all was lost, but Humboldt has given an account of a copy of it. From this table it appears that the Toltecs migrated from a country north of the present city in A. D. 544; that their monarchy was destroyed; that the Aztecs arrived there from Aztlan in 1178; and that they founded Tenochtitlan, the predecessor of the City of Mexico, in 1325. From 1522 onward the history of the city and country has been so interwoven and so essentially identical that the outline of the country, already given, will suffice for a more detailed historical account of the capital. Population, 1889, 300,000.

ERA CRUZ,

the chief

seaport

and commercial city

in Mexico, is situ

ated on the coast of

the Gulf in latitude

19° 11′ 56′′ north,

and longitude 96° 8' 36" west, and is

190 miles south by southeast of the

City of Mexico; population 1889, 24,000. It is built

on a level and arid shore, consisting in the main of sand,

and is inclosed by strong walls provided with heavy redoubts. Its harbor is little more than a roadstead, formed by several shoals which inclose, in a semicircular form, a tract of sea which in many parts offers excellent anchorage. The most secure portion of the harbor is the strait which separates the

SCENE IN THE BAY OF VERA CRUZ, MEXICO.

island of San Juan de Ulloa, on which the celebrated fortress of the same name is built, from the city, and this is less than 700 yards wide and about 1,000 yards long.

The streets are straight, wide and well-paved, and the buildings are constructed chiefly of a porous white coral, which composes the cliffs on the coast. The roofs are flat, covered with cement, and shed rain-water into algibes or tanks, whence it is taken for drinking and general domestic purposes. In 1887 there were sixteen churches, a custom house, several hospitals, a municipal palace, a library, a theatre, modern water-works though the supply of water is considered less healthy than the collected rain-water-and street railroads. The city is lighted by gas, and has improved railroad connection with the City of Mexico by one line, and with Jalapa, the former capital of the state of Vera Cruz, by another.

The progress of Vera Cruz has been most seriously retarded by the prevalence during the summer months of the vomito prieto, a kind of yellow fever, which proves very fatal to foreigners, and drives even the acclimatized business men into the interior during its continuance. The strong winds, which from October to April fill the air with sand and lash the roadstead-waters into mid-ocean fury, are also a great hindrance to the development of the city on account of the danger to shipping

which they produce. They yield some compensation, however, in driving the dreaded fever away. With these drawbacks a vast amount of business is transacted there. Upward of 4,000 vessels from all parts of the world, enter and clear the harbor annually. The imports and exports average about $25,000,000 each in value per annum, of which $2,000,000 are with the United States.

The island on which the castle of San Juan de Ulloa is built was visited for the first time by Europeans under the command of Juan de Grijalva in 1518, and in the following year Cortez landed at the place where the city now stands; but the town founded by him, and called Villa Rica de Vera Cruz, was some miles further north. Three year later that place was abandoned, and another town was built at Antigua, which in turn proved inconvenient. The present city was then established in 1590, but was not incorporated till 1615. The castle and city were held by the Spaniards till 1825; the French took them in 1838; and the Americans, under General Scott, in March, 1847.

OTHER PLACES OF INTEREST, PICTURESQUE AND HISTORIC.

ONTEREY, the capital of the State of Nuevo Leon, is 450 miles. north-northwest of Mexico City, 1,626 feet above sea level, built principally of stone, and is the oldest and most important city in northern Mexico. It is inclosed within the northern cordillera of the Sierra Madre Mountains, and has a climate generally mild, but very changeable. It has a beautiful public square, ornamented by a marble fountain fashioned by native workmen and artistically executed, numbers among its noteworthy public structures a venerable cathedral, two churches-one of which has the reputation of being the handsomest in all Mexico-a government palace, municipal palace, a noble hospital, and a prison, military barracks, and abattoir, and contains a seminary, two colleges, and about fifty public and private schools, all of a high standard and liberally sustained. The manufactures, which constitute the chief pride and wealth of the city, embrace nails, bricks, carriages, morocco, candles, soap, sugar, beer, brandy, cotton, paper, flour, and lumber. A large proportion of its trade, export and import, is with the United States.