Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/350





State of Mechoacan is the old Spanish Intendencia of Vallodolid, and includes a great part of the ancient Indian Kingdom of Mechoacan, or Mechoacan of the Tarascos. It is bounded on the north by Guanajuato, north-easterly of Querétaro, south-easterly by Mexico, westerly by Jalisco, and south-westerly, for a short distance, by the Pacific.

This State lies chiefly on the western slope of the Cordillera, and is cut up by hills and genial vallies. The highest point within its limits is the Peak of Tancitaro, which, in all probability, is an extinct volcano. East of this, and south of the village of Ario, the Volcano of Jorullo burst forth on the night of the 29th of September, 1759.

The great region to which this mountain belongs has been already described in our account of the geological structure of Mexico. The plain of Malpais forms part of an elevated platform, between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above the level of the sea, and is bounded by hills composed of basalt, trachyte, and volcanic tuff, clearly indicating that the country had previously, though probably at a remote period, been the theatre of igneous action. From the era of the discovery of the New World to the middle of the last century, the district had remained undisturbed, and the space, now the site of the volcano, which is thirty leagues distant from the nearest sea, was occupied by fertile plains of sugar cane and indigo, and watered by the two brooks, Cuitimba and San Pedro. In the month of June, 1759, hollow sounds of an alarming nature were heard, and earthquakes succeeded each other for two months, until, in September, flames issued from the ground, and fragments of burning rocks were thrown to prodigious heights.