APPENDIX.

In the preceding paper I stated that I would give as an appendix some data concerning several subjects treated in the same, and I now append the documents mentioned; the first one being a paper published in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society of New York for March 31, 1894, under the title of "Mexico a Central American State," the second, some itineraries of the principal roads in Mexico, which show the broken surface of that country, and the third and last, a paper on the "Drainage of the Valley of Mexico," published by the Engineering Magazine of New York, Vol. viii., No. 4, for January, 1895.

MEXICO A CENTRAL AMERICAN STATE.

In the chapter of this paper entitled "Location, Boundaries, and Area," I referred, (page 9) to an article under the above heading, which I published in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society of New York of March 31, 1894, and offered to give it in the appendix. That paper is the following:

MEXICO A CENTRAL AMERICAN STATE.'

There is in this city a social gathering of ladies and gentlemen called The Travellers' Club," meeting weekly during the winter of each year, for the purpose of studying a foreign country, on the supposition that its members are then travelling in that particular country, and with that view papers are read referring to the same, and they are illustrated with an exhibition of views and objects manufactured in the country under study, and of everything else that may contribute to impart more or less complete information regarding the place supposed to be visited.

During the winter of 1887-88 Mexico was chosen as the country under study by the club, and for that reason I received at the beginning of the year 1888 an invitation to attend some of its sessions, and to say something about the Republic. I accepted the invitation to attend some session, but stated to the invitation committee that, not having time to prepare a paper, I would only give some general notions on

'This article was published in the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society of New York of March 31, 1894, and it is inserted here without any changes. Although the data contained in this article was published in the years 1887 and 1893, as it refers to the area which has not changed, I have not thought it necessary to revise the same. So far as the Mexican States are concerned, I have later and more accurate data; but the differences are insignificant, and it is not worth while to notice them. As regards the population, the increase has been proportionate; in respect to all the countries mentioned in this article there is no marked change in the general proportions.

Mexico, in a conversational form, and would be glad to answer any question that might be put to me by those attending the meeting who felt the desire to have further information and more details.

Accordingly, the evening of the 16th of January, 1888, I attended the meeting of the club and spoke for about an hour on the geographical position of Mexico, its physical conditions, its natural resources, and other matters connected with the situation of the country, but carefully avoiding to touch any political question, especially of an international character.

With a view to leave a record of what I intended to say, I had with me a stenographer to take down what I would say, and although his notes were not complete, by using them, and those taken by reporters, some extracts of my conversation were prepared and published the next morning.

Speaking of the geographical position of Mexico, I naturally stated, what is a fact, although not generally realized, that while the main portion of the territory of Mexico is located in North America it occupies a considerable portion of Central America, although politically it is considered as wholly situated in North America. On this subject I made the following remarks, taken from the newspapers, but which

were correct:

"The isthmus of Panama divides the New World into two continents, one situated on the northern and the other on the southern hemisphere, but as the position of that isthmus does not correspond with the line of the equator, and lies considerably north of that line, a large portion of South America proper lies in the boreal hemisphere. North America proper is divided by the isthmus of Tehauntepec in two subdivisions-Central America from Panama to Tehauntepec, and North America from Tehauntepec to the North Pole.

"Central America in its present political organization includes the following States: Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, but from a geographical standpoint it has a much larger area, since it begins at the isthmus of Panama and ends at the isthmus of Tehuantepec. Taking this view, Mexico exercises sovereignty over a large portion of Central America, larger still than any single State of the five which are generally considered as the only components of the same, and representing a third of the total territorial area of Central America.

"The Mexican State of Chiapas and a part of Oaxaca, on the Pacific; of Yucatan, Campeche, and Tabasco, and a portion of the State of Vera Cruz on the Gulf of Mexico, are situated in geographical Central America.

"The following résumé of the territorial area and population of the several sections of Central America, taken from the Statesman's Year Book, London, 1887, shows that Mexico is a Central American as well as a North American power:

This shows that 36 per cent. of the total area of Central America belongs to Mexico.

In the foregoing list I omitted to take into account that, besides the States referred to, there are in Central America proper the British Colony of Belize or British Honduras, and that part of the State of Panama, in Colombia, which lies north of the isthmus of Panama.

Taking the area and population of those places from the statistical and geographical data published by the Almanach de Gotha for 1893, and from some official information in possession of Señor Doctor Don Manuel M. de Peralta, Costa Rican Minister to Washington, a gentleman very well versed in Central American affairs, the following results are obtained :

The foregoing table shows that a little more than 32 per cent. of the whole of

Central America, geographically speaking, belongs to Mexico.

When those statements were translated into Spanish and published by Las Novedades, of New York, in its issue of the 18th of January, 1888, they were read by Señor Don Manuel Montufar, Secretary of the Guatemalan Legation in Washington, who, in the absence of the Minister, Señor Don Francisco Lainfiesta, was acting as Chargé d'Affaires, and he considered my statements in this connection as a geographical heresy, and as an evidence of the design of Mexico against the several States of Central America. His alarm was so great that he called the attention of the other representatives of the Central American States in Washington to this incident, in order to point out to them the serious dangers which he foresaw for their respective countries on account of my views, which he considered as more than extraordinary.

Fortunately, one of them, the representative of Costa Rica, Señor Doctor Don Manuel M. de Peralta, had attended the meeting of the Travellers' Club at which I spoke, and, I think, Doctor Don Horacio Guzman, the Nicaraguan Minister, was also present, although I am not sure of this, and both failed to see anything in what I stated in this connection that was not a geographical fact, and that, consequently, it could not be disputed; and therefore this incident, that threatened to assume certain proportions, died in its very cradle.

Señor Montufar showed himself over-sensitive at my remarks when there was not the slightest ground for such feeling. If I had made a geographical mistake in averring that a portion of the territory of Mexico was in Central America, geographically speaking, I would be the only sufferer by my mistake, because I would have been the laughing-stock of everybody, including the school-boy studying geography; and, on the contrary, if I had stated a fact, nobody had reason to complain, and much less to be alarmed.

My object in now mentioning this incident is to show the extreme sensitiveness of some Guatemalan gentlemen in regard to Mexico, which goes so far that they cannot listen sometimes to indisputable facts without umbrage, and without ascribing it to purposes and designs. against their country. Fortunately this incident happened when the long-pending boundary dispute between Mexico and Guatemala had already been settled for several years, as, had it taken place before, when that question was opened, the situation would have been still more embarrassing and unpleasant.

WASHINGTON, December 29, 1893.

M. ROMERO.

MEXICAN PROFILES.

In the chapter on Orography of this paper (page 31) I stated that I would give some profiles of the Mexican surface, which would show in an exact manner the different altitudes from the sea-level to the high plateaus of the country. I have selected for that purpose the principal measurements by railroads built in Mexico, as they naturally followed the easiest ascent and descent, both from the coast to the interior and back to the coast. I will also supplement those measurements with others made for wagon roads to and from important places.