Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/90

64 Those of Oăxācă, the Băxīŏ, Văllădŏlīd, and Guădălajāră, were destroyed during the civil war, and the machinery has never been reestablished, so that the most distant provinces are obliged to draw their supplies of sugar from Cūāūtlă; a circumstance, which, of course, limits the consumption exceedingly, by raising the price so as to exclude the poorer classes from the market. The present price of the Arroba of sugar in the Capital, is from three, to three and a half dollars, (twenty-four to twenty-eight reals,) which, taking the dollar as I have done throughout this sketch, at four shillings, and the Arroba at 25lbs., will give something more than sixpence a pound (English money) as the value of sugar in Mexico, within twenty leagues of the place where it is grown. When sent into the interior, the price rises with every twenty leagues, until, in Dŭrāngŏ, the Arroba sells for six and seven dollars, and in Chĭhūāhuă, for nine and ten. This can only be remedied by a more equal cultivation of the cane in those situations, which are more especially favourable to its growth; and there is, perhaps, no Transatlantic speculation that would prove so advantageous as this, if properly conducted.

I was induced, by the proximity of the great sugar estates of Cuĕrnăvācă, and Cūāūtlă, to the Capital, to visit the valley in which they are situated. It lies at the foot of the first step, or terrace, on the descent from the Table-land towards the Pacific,