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
