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556 assistance in acquiring information, and introduced me, during my stay, at his own table, to almost every person at all calculated to afford it.

Durango may be considered as the first place in the Mexican territories in which the importance of this most valuable portion of the Republic is duly appreciated. To the inhabitants of the Southern and Central Provinces, every thing north of Zacatecas is a terra incognita; and the traveller is surprised, after passing this Ultima Thule of civilization, (well deserving the appellation in as far as its own merits are concerned,) to find an improvement in the manners and character of the inhabitants, for which, from the prejudices of their countrymen, he is perfectly unprepared. Durango, where this change first becomes visible, may be regarded as the key to the whole of the North, which is peopled by the descendants of a race of settlers from the most industrious provinces of Spain, (Biscay, Navarre, and Catalonia,) who have preserved their blood uncontaminated by any cross with the aborigines; and who, with this purity of descent, (of which they are justly proud,) retain most of the primitive habits and feelings of their forefathers. They have much of the loyalty and generous frankness for which the old Spanish character was formerly celebrated; great natural politeness, and considerable activity both of mind and body, with a spirit of enterprise, which, now that the bonds are removed by which it has hitherto been confined, will, in a very few years, give to the North