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220 being transferred there from Vera Cruz. Before the former date half a dozen commercial houses, established by merchants in the capital, had monopolized the entire trade of the surrounding district, but within a few years afterward goods to the value of thirty millions of pesos changed hands at each fair. This increased circulation of wealth caused people to abandon their simple habits, and to adopt the dress and amusements and most of the vices of the Spaniards in the Old World. In 1794 Jalapa was declared a city and together with Córdoba and Orizaba was a favorite summer resort for the merchants of Vera Cruz.

Orizaba stood on the high road from Mexico to Vera Cruz, being distant about thirty-eight leagues from the latter city and forty-six from the capital. It was situated in a beautiful valley and surrounded with forest-clad mountains, high above which towered the snow-capped volcano of Orizaba. So luxuriant was the surrounding vegetation that a square league of land sufficed for the pasturage of about seven thousand sheep. Here was a halting-place for caravans laden with merchandise, and the point where goods in transit were appraised. In 1777 its population numbered about forty-five hundred, of whom it was estimated that nearly three thousand were of Spanish descent.