Page:Mexico (1829) Volumes 1 and 2.djvu/379

 MEXICO. 339 ployed in the cultivation of a space of 4,141 square leagues : the remainder are inhabitants of the towns, either engaged in trade, or living in idleness. Nearly the same results would be given by an enquiry iftto the amount and distribution of the population upon the Western Coast ; and the difficulty of rousing to exertion a society thus constituted, undoubtedly presents a very serious obstacle to any rapid improvement. But still improvements have been found practicable wher- ever proper inducements have been held out for any length of time. The sugar, which formed so important an item in the Exports of Mexico before the Revolution, and amounted, in the years 1802 and 1803 to 1,500,000 dollars annually, was all raised in the Province of Veracruz, by free labour ; the slaves imported during that period having borne no pro- portion to the increase in the produce. The cultivation of Coffee and Tobacco about Cordova, at the present day, is conducted in a similar manner, nor has it been found difficult to procure a sufficient number of la- bourers to extend the quantity of land under cultivation, so as to keep pace with the increasing demand. Of the activity displayed throughout the valley of Cuautla, (which, though not a Maritime province, is Tierra Caliente, and consequently resembles the inland parts of Veracruz in climate,) I have spoken largely in Section III., Book I. ; nor do I find any reason to vary the opinion there expressed, respecting the possibility, and even the probability, of great, though gra- dual improvements. But these cannot be expected to be of spontaneous growth : they require time, they require exertion, they require capital ; and the two last of these again depend, in a great measure, upon the mines, which, by increasing the circulating medium, must give the means, and with the means the inclination to promote those branches of agriculture best calculated to make a fair return for the time and capital employed upon them. Should that increase in the produce of the mines, to which z 2