Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/462

442 and lies in the centre of the vast relations which now exist and may be hereafter opened between the old and new worlds. It is bounded on the west and north by Mexico, on the south-east by the province of Veraguas; on the south and south-west by the Pacific, and on the north by the Atlantic. Its figure is nearly triangular, and contains 16,740 square leagues, covering an area greater than that of either Peru or Chile. Its soil is of extraordinary variety as to quality, altitude, temperature and fruitfulness; and it yields, in consequence, all the productions of the frigid, temperate, and torrid zones.

From its lofty mountains, which it is well known are a continuation of the grand Cordillera rising at Cape Horn and passing through Mexico into the centre of North America, flow down many rivers which empty themselves, some into the Atlantic and some into the Pacific ocean.