Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican/Volume 2/Book 5/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III.
WEST COAST OR PACIFIC STATES.
THE STATE OF OAJACA.
This rich and beautiful State lies, for 118 leagues, along the Pacific Ocean. On the north-west, it is bounded by the State of Puebla, on the north by Vera Cruz, and east by the State of Chiapas and the republic of Central America or Guatemala. It extends from east to west about 115 leagues, and from north to south 322 leagues, containing an area of 5,046 square leagues.
We pass now from the hot and sickly sands and marshes of the eastern coast to a region which has been considered by many writers and travellers as the most delightful in Mexico. Beauty of natural scenery and salubrity of climate, fertility of soil and richness of productions, combine to render Oajaca valuable, not only in a commercial aspect, but as a residence in which it would be agreeable to pass a life time. Nor is this the opinion only of the present inhabitants, for the remains of antiquity still found within the limits of the State, prove it to have been the seat of Indian civilization long before the arrival of the Spaniards. The geological structure of this State is different from that of Puebla and Mexico; and the vegetation is quite as vigorous as that of other prolific regions, without the rankness which produces rapid decomposition and miasma. The rains are generally abundant from May to October.
In our general description of the geological and geographical characteristics of Mexico, we have already shown that the great Cordillera, forming the spine of this continent, divides into two arms after leaving the Isthmus, which connects North and South America. One of these mountain ranges with its high vallies and table lands forms the barrier along the Pacific, while the other spreads out its massive veins throughout the middle and eastern portions of Mexico. Between these formations, the Valley of Oajaca lies embosomed; and from this beautiful and fruitful region, which was bestowed by the Spanish crown upon Cortéz, he obtained his Marquisate del Valle de Oajaca, in which his family still possessed, previous to the revolution, 49 villages, with a population of 17,700 persons.
In these two mountain regions, thus sundered by the valley, have dwelt, from the earliest periods, two Indian races known as the Mixtecas and the Zapotecas; the former of which is characterised by activity, intelligence and industry. Besides these tribes, seventeen others are reckoned still to inhabit Oajaca.
The State is divided into eight departments, which are subdivided into districts or cantons.
1st, The Department of the Centre, with the cantons of Oajaca, Partido del Toranéo, Etla, Tlacolula, and Zimatlan.
2d. Department of Ejutla, with the cantons of Octolan, Miahuatlan, and Pochutla.
3d. Department of Jamiltepec, with the cantons of Jamiltepec and Juquila.
4th. Department of Tehuantepec, with the cantons of Tehuantepec, Quechapa and Lachixila.
5th. Department of Teposcolula, with the cantons of Teposcolula, Tlaxiaco and Nochistlan.
6th. Department of Huajuapam, with the cantons of Huajuapam and Justlahuaca.
7th. Department of Toochila and Villalta, with the cantons of Ixtlan, Yalalag and Chuapam.
8th. The Department of Teutitlan del Camino, with the cantons of Teutitlan and Teutila.
These eight departments and twenty-three cantons,—with nearly 700,000 inhabitants,—contain one city,—the capital, Oajaca;—eight towns; nine hundred and thirteen villages; one hundred and thirty-seven large haciendas; two hundred and thirty-five ranchos; sixty-eight sugar mills or trapiches, and six estancias or cattle estates and grazing farms. Besides these elements of agricultural wealth, Oajaca possesses ten mills, driven by water power, nearly all of which lie in the neighborhood of the capital, and are used chiefly for wheat. Corn is ground or rubbed, for tortillas, on the metate by the Indian women throughout Mexico; and consequently but little of this kind of grain is ever brought to the mills. There are five mines or mineral workings in the State, at Ystepexi, Taléa, Teojomulco, Peñoles, and Las Peras, with ten smelting and amalgamating establishments.
There are nine sea ports, roadsteads and anchorages in Oajaca, the best of which are Tehuantepec, Huatulco, Escondido, Chacahua, and Jamiltepec.
Corn, chile, agave, cotton, coffee, sugar, cacao, vainilla, tobacco, cochineal, wax, honey, and a small quantity of indigo, are the staple productions of this State. Nearly all the fruits which we have already described as growing in the State of Vera Cruz, are produced here abundantly, and of excellent quality.
The State is estimated as containing, on an average of years—
| 44,106 | Horses. | |||
| 18,438 | Mules. | |||
| 10,420 | Asses. | |||
| 171,518 | Neat cattle. | |||
| 213,156 | Sheep. | |||
| 158,009 | Goats. | |||
| 47,947 | Hogs. | |||
| ———— | ||||
| Total, 663,600 head of cattle. | ||||
The worth of which is calculated, in the home market, at $3,332,757.
Gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, iron, rock salt, limestone, gypum, &c., are found in Oajaca. In the thirty-nine years between January, 1787, and March, 1826, the official registers show a product in the State of 4,820 marks of gold, and 544,257 marks of silver; and in the five years from March, 1826, to the end of 1830, 95 marks of gold, and 21,701 of silver. But these sums must not be regarded as perfect indications of the absolute product of Oajaca, inasmuch as its proximity to the sea, and the facilities for smuggling in the lonely districts of the west coast have no doubt enabled the trading community to export a large portion of the real avails of the mines, which, of course, never appear in the authentic registers and returns of the State.
The chief towns and villages of this State are: Oajaca, the capital; Guayapa or Huazapa, Talistaca, Santa Maria del Tule, Tlacochahuaya, Teutitlan del Valle, Tlacolula, Mitla, the ancient Leoba; San Dionisio, Totolapa, San Carlos, Villa de Nejapa, Quijechapa, Quiegolani, Tequisistlan, Villa de Jalapa, Tlapalcatepec, Tehauntepec, San Francisco de la Mar, Petapa, Juchuitan, Niltepec, Yshuatan, Zanatepec, Tepanatepec, Xoro or Xojocatlan, Cuylapa, Zachila, the ancient Teozapotlan; San Bartolomeo de Zapéche, Zimatlan, Villa de Santa Anna, Chilateca, Santa Cruz Mistepec, San Juan Elotepec, Etla, San Juan del Estado, San Pablo Huizo or Guajolotitlan, Ejutla, Ocotlan, Chichicapa, Ayoquesco, Miahuatlan, Pochutla, Santa Cruz de Huatulco, Juchatengo Tonamaca, Jamiltepec, Acatepec, Juquila, Sacatepec, Santa Maria Istapa, Teojomulco, Huajuapan, Justlahuaca, Chicahuastla, Achintla, Teita, Villa de Teposcolula, Talaxiaco, Santa Maria Chimalapa, Yanguitlan, Los Pueblos de Almoloyas, San Miguel Chimalapa Nochistlan, Tilantongo, Xaltepec, Teutitlan del Camino, San Antonio de los Cues, Tecomavaca, Quiotepec, Cuicatlan, San Pedro ChiezapotI, Donomingullo, Coyula, Teutila, Villalta, Zoochila, Zolaga, Quetzaltepec, Totontepec, Chuapan, Chinantla, Istlan.
Ancient Remains in Oajaca.
MITLA.
About ten leagues from the capital, on the road leading to Tehuantepec, are the remains of what antiquarians have styled the sepulchral palaces of Mitla, lying in the midst of a rocky granitic region, and surrounded by sad and sombre scenery. According to tradition, these edifices were erected by the Zapotecs, as palaces and sepulchres for their princes. It is asserted that at the death of members of the royal family, their bodies were laid in the vaults beneath, while the sovereign and his relatives retired to mourn the loss of the departed scion in the chambers above these solemn sepulchres, which were screened from the public eye by dark and silent groves.
Another tradition declares that these edifices were the abodes of a sect of priests, whose duty it was to dwell in seclusion and offer expiatory sacrifices for the royal dead who reposed in the vaults beneath.
The village of Mitla was called Miguitlan, signifying, in the Mexican tongue, a place of sadness; while by the Zapotecs it was named Leoba, or "the tomb."
The palaces or tombs of Mitla, form three edifices, symmetrically arranged in an extremely romantic site; the principal and best preserved edifice has a front of nearly one hundred and fifty feet. A 
RUINS AT MITLA.
stair-way through a dark shaft leads to a subterranean apartment of one hundred feet in length, by thirty in width, whose walls are covered with Grecian ornaments similar to those on the exterior of the edifice, as shown in the plate. These external walls are said to be decorated with labyrinthine figures, formed by a mosaic of small porphyritic stones, and we recognize in them the same designs which are admired in the ancient vases, falsely called Etruscan, and on the frieze of the old temple usually assigned to the god Redicolus, which lies near the grotto of Egeria at Rome.
But the objects which chiefly distinguish the architectural remains of Mitla from all other Mexican antiquities are six porphyritic columns, which support the ceiling of a vast saloon. These singular columns,—almost the only ones found in the New World,—evince the extreme infancy of art;—they have neither bases nor capitals, and are cut in a gradually tapering shape from a solid stone, more than fifteen feet in length.
The distribution of the apartments in this extraordinary edifice presents some striking analogies with the monuments of Upper Egypt, described by Denon and the savants who composed the institute at Cairo. Don Pedro de Laguna, who examined them carefully many years ago, discovered on their walls some curious paintings of sacrifices and martial trophies. In order to form an idea of the almost Cyclopean style of architecture, we may remark the extraordinary dimensions of the stones above the entrances to the principal halls. Mr. Glennie states that one of these masses is eighteen feet eight inches long, four feet ten inches broad, and three feet six inches thick. A second is nineteen feet four inches long, four feet ten and a half inches broad, and three feet nine inches thick, whilst a third is nineteen feet six inches long, four feet ten inches broad, and three feet four inches thick. The antiquarian will not fail to observe, that there is some similarity between the exterior of these Oajacan remains and those which have been uncovered and described in Yucatan, by Stephens, during his second expedition. It is not improbable that an intercourse existed between the inhabitants of these districts, prior to the Spanish Conquest. We believe that these architectural remains and nearly all of those in Yucatan, Chiapas and Guatemala, were the abodes and temples of the Indians who dwelt in Mexico and the adjacent countries when Grijalva and Cortez first landed on our continent. The distance from Oajaca, through Chiapas and Tabasco, to Yucatan is not too great to have prevented even a rapid communication from Mitla to Uxmal, or Palenque. The reader will recollect that the realm of Montezuma is alleged to have extended to near the present limits of the Republic of Central America; nor will he forget with what rapidity the well trained Indian couriers of the Emperor passed over the three hundred intervening miles of mountain, plain and valley, between Vera Cruz and the Valley of Mexico, in order to inform their sovereign of the Spaniards' arrival and their leader's determination to visit the Aztec Court. At Cozumel, and elsewhere in Yucatan, the earliest Spanish adventurers were struck by the architecture of the edifices which were inhabited by the Indians. In their letters and narratives they always speak of these "buildings of stone and lime" as indicating civilization. The Indian deities were, at that time, unquestionably, worshipped in them. At Cholula, Tlascala, and Tenochtitlan or Mexico, as well as at Tezcoco,—pyramids, dwellings, palaces, walls, streets, causeways, were all built of stone cemented by mortar, and many of these objects were profusely ornamented. There can be no doubt of these facts, for they were attested at the time by numerous witnesses, while many of the material relics of that age have descended even to the present time, and may still be inspected in the capital of the Republic. Why, then, should we hesitate to believe that a vast chain of civilized, intelligent and affiliated nations, co-existed on the central part of this continent in the sixteenth century, and that the ruined cities, temples and pyramids which are spread from the waters of the Gila as far south as Peru and Chili, and whose wonderful remains are now gradually unearthed by the industry of antiquarians, are the architectural fragments of their national grandeur?
We do not conceive it necessary to throw back the Indian architects into the gloom of antiquity, long anterior to the arrival of the Spaniards. There is a natural yearning in the human mind for the mystery with which a vague, indefinite epoch, surrounds ruins that are accidentally discovered. But this is a poetical sentiment, rather than a fair starting point in archaiological researches; and, in spite of the national vanity which might be gratified by proving that the aboriginal civilization of our continent was as old as that of Egypt, we shall adhere to the belief that Mitla, Palenque, Uxmal and Quemada were inhabited by the builders or their descendants, whilst the thrones of Mexico and Peru were occupied by Montezuma and Atahualpa.
Quiotepec, or Cerro de las Juntas.
In 1844, an examination was made by order of the Governor of Oajaca of the ancient remains situated near the village of Quiotepec, about thirty-two leagues north from the capital of Oajaca. These ruins are found on the Cerro de las Juntas, or Hill of the Union, so called from its vicinity to the junction of the rivers Quiotepec and Salado.
The eminence is covered in almost every direction with remains of military works of a defensive character, calculated to protect the dwellings erected on the hill, and the extensive temple and palace, whose massive ruins still crown the summit. These remains are said to resemble those of Chicocomoc or Quemada, in the State of Zacatécas, which will be fully described in our notice of that portion of Mexico. The similarity consists in the style of the architecture, and the evident mingling of defence and worship. There is no resemblance, however, to the remains found in Yucatan as described by Stephens, Catherwood and Norman, where the designs are all highly ornamental, denoting a higher state of luxury, taste and progress in civilization. The teocalli or temple of Quiotepec and that of Chicocomoc or Quemada are both pyramidal, like most of the Aztec religious structures; but the architectural style, generally, at the former place, is rather more sumptuous than at Quemada.[1]
Besides these remains, there are many others in the State of Oajaca, which are still inadequately known or described, such for instance, as the turmuli and pyramids at Montealban, two leagues south-west from Oajaca;—the relics of many strong-holds;—the turmuli at Zachila;—the ruins at Coyúla and at San Juan de los Cues.
In the museum of the University of Mexico, and in the private collection of the late Ex-Conde del Peñasco, we found some remarkable figures chiselled from a finely grained sand stone, two of which are represented in the succeeding pages. They were found in the State of Oajaca. Their use or their symbolical character have never been accurately detected; but in the last of the two we may observe quite a remarkable resemblance to some of the idols still to be seen in the temples of India. 
FIGURE FROM OAJACA.
FIGURES FROM OAJACA.
- ↑ See Museo Mejicano, vol. 3d, p. 329, for lithographic sketches of the palace and temple, and their monuments. See also vol. 1st of the same work, p. 401; and vol. 3d id., p. 135, for descriptions of Zapotec remains; and vol. 1st id., p. 246, for an imperfect account of military remains, fortifications, &c. &c., near Guiengola, near Tehuantepec