Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/717

Rh area of 3,823 square leagues; on parts of which, maize, frijoles, cotton, rice, tobacco, pepper, and the sugar-cane, are grown, with die-wood, hides, soap, and other articles. But the scarcity of water in the central parts of the Peninsula, where not a stream of any kind is known to exist, and the uncertainty of the rainy season, render the crops very variable; and years frequently occur, in which the poorer classes are driven to seek a subsistence by collecting roots in the woods, when a great mortality ensues in consequence of their exposure to a very deleterious climate.

The population is estimated at one hundred and thirty souls for each square league, or 496,990 in all. The territory is divided into fifteen departments, Băcălār, Cămpēchĕ, Ichmūl, Izămūl, Isla del Carmen, Jequelchakan, Jŭnūcmă, Lerma, Māmă, Mērĭdă, Oxhūzkăb, Sēybă Plāyă, Sŏtūtă, Tĭzĭmīn, and Valladolid. Merida is the capital.

Yŭcătān contains no mines. An active intercourse was formerly carried on with the Havanna, which Yŭcătān supplied with Campeche wood, salt, hides, deer skins, salted meat, and the Jĕnĕquēn, a plant from which a sort of coarse thread (pita) was made, and worked up into sacking, cordage, and hammocks. This trade was cut short by the war; and as few foreigners have been induced to settle in Yŭcătān, the inhabitants have derived but little advantage from the late change of institutions. The receipts of the State, in 1826, amounted to 213,127