This page has been validated.
MEXICO IN 1827.
433

and New Orleans a communication by steam-boats is already organised.

On the Western coast, Guădălajāră serves as a depôt to Săn Blās; Cūlĭăcān, Ălămŏs, Cŏsălā, and the other mining towns of Cĭnăloă, with Dŭrāngŏ, (on the Table-land,) to Măzătlān; and the Villa del Fuērtĕ, Arispe, (in Sonora,) Jēsŭs Mărīă, and Chĭhūāhuă, to Gūāymăs, a magnificent harbour in Lat. 28, about the centre of the Gulph of California.

Ăcăpūlcŏ is likewise beginning to be again frequented, as the nearest harbour on the Western coast to the Capital, from which it is only distant ninety leagues.

This sudden extension of the channels of communication has, of course, increased the difficulty of giving any general view of the present amount of the Trade of Mexico, or of analyzing the principal articles of which it consists.

It is, however, generally admitted, that the first effect of the Revolution of 1821, was to cause an immediate and extraordinary decrease in the Imports and Exports, the total amount of which, at

Veracruz, fell, in 1821, to 17,244,569
1822, 14,030,478
1823, 6,259,209

The change becomes still more sensible if applied to the Imports alone.

In 1821, they varied from their average value of 10,364,238 dollars, to 7,245,052 dollars, or about two-thirds.