THE WAR WITH MEXICO
I
MEXICO AND THE MEXICANS
1800—1845
Mexico, an immense cornucopia, hangs upon the Tropic of Cancer and opens toward the north pole. The distance across its mouth is about the same as that between Bostnn and Omaha, and the line of its western coast would probably reach from New York to Salt Lake City. Nearly twenty states like Ohio could be laid down within its limits, and in 1845 it included also New Mexico, Arizona, Utah. Nevada, California and portions of Colorado and Wyoming.
On its eastern side the ground rises almost imperceptibly from the Gulf of Mexico for a distance varying from ten to one hundred miles, and ascends then into hills that soon become lofty ranges, while on the western coast series of cordilleras tower close to the ocean Between the two mountain systems lies a plateau varying in height from 4000 to 8000 feet. so level—we are told—that one could drive, except where deep gullies make trouble, from the capital of Montezuma to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The country is thus divided into three climatic zones, in one or another of which. it has been said, every plant may be found that grows between the pole and the equator.[1]
Except near the United States the coast lands are tropical or semi-tropical; and the products of the soil, which in many quarters is extraordinarily deep and rich, are those which naturally result from extreme humidity and heat. Next comes an intermediate zone varying in general height from about
- ↑ It will be seen that occasionally the seine “superior figure” is attached to several paragraphs, and that sometimes these reference numbers are not in consecutive order. The reasons will be discovered when the reader consults the notes, which follow the text of each volume.
