Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/334

318 offering as much to excite attention, and recompense curiosity.

The first Mining district that I visited, after my return from Cuautla, was that of Tlălpŭjāhuă, which is situated upon the confines of the State of Valladolid, about 38 leagues, or 95 English miles, from the Capital. The road traverses the mountains that bound the Valley of Mexico to the West, and passes through Tăcŭbāya and Sānta Fē to Lăs Crūcĕs, where the battle between the Insurgents, under Hidalgo, and the Viceregal troops, commanded by Truxillo, was fought in 1810. From this high ridge, (it is 10,882 feet above the level of the sea,) where a number of crosses and piles of stones still mark out the burying-places of the Indians who fell in the action, the descent towards the valley of Toluca commences, which is 785 feet more elevated than that of Mexico. The town of Lerma lies about a league from the foot of the mountains, upon the borders of the lake, from which the Rio Grande de Santiago takes its rise. This river assumes a different name, at first, in almost every village near which it passes, but is the same which, after fertilizing the Băxīŏ, and traversing the extremity of the Lake of Chăpālă, runs through a large portion of the State of Guădălajāră, and finally discharges itself at San Blas into the Pacific. It contains a very considerable body of water, and is not fordable, even during the dry season, within a very few miles from its source.