Mexico, must not, however, flatter herself, that the world is humbly on its knees seeking admittance at her portal. Not so. She has too long exhibited the picture of an ill-regulated and quarrelsome household to tempt mankind to become her inmates, notwithstanding the allurements of her beauty. I do not believe that she will ever advance to any degree of greatness, without foreign emigration to her shores; yet, in order to attract an influx of artisans and laborers, ripe from the improved fields and the skillful workshops of the rest of the world, she must prove herself worthy of their advent by the peaceful and prosperous future she promises to secure them.

If Mexico, however, sees fit to pursue a narrow system of exclusion, akin to that under which she suffered while a colony of Spain, I confess that I behold but little prospect for her future. She will want the illustration of example the virtue of emulation. As long as Santa Anna remains at the head of affairs, and is able to retain control over the army by pay or by its attachment to his person, so long will that remarkable genius continue to preserve tranquillity. But it may be the peace of dread,the subordination of fear,-the muteness of slavery. If, in the meantime, he chooses to bring the people gradually to a knowledge of their rights and a habit of self-government, while he destroys, for ever, the disturbers of their peace, he will mingle the patriot's with the hero's wreath, and deserve a high place in the story of this Continent's progress to glory.

But if, on the other hand, he is seduced by the possession of power or only continues to hold it for despotism and plunder;-if the result of his administration is unsuccessful, and those who came into authority under solemn pledges to purify the Government shall prove false to their trust;— if such are to be the only results of so much tumult and warfare, the downfall of Mexico is, 'indeed, close at hand!

The clouds of rebellion which have so long lowered over the country, will descend in showers of blood,—and a war of retribution, or, of castes, as in Guatemala, must end the circle, and give up again the fair territory of Mexico to the forests and its beasts or to be the spoil of some foreign invader.

In every event, her fate must be most interesting to the people of the United States. If peace, and its train of attendant results, are to bless her with success and happiness, our stake and sympathy with her republican system must be great and enduring. If anarchy, and dismemberment of her States ensue, we will be burdened with a dangerous neighbor and annoying enemy. But if foreign occupation be attempted, the bloody war that must ensue, can only be ended by the expulsion of the intruder, and the reëstablishment of republicanism on this Continent.

CONCLUSION.

Ox the 9th of November, 1842, I left the Capital in the diligence, accompanied by Mr. Peyton Southall bearing dispatches to our Government. We had secured the attendance of a strong guard, and found three or four Englishmen in the coach as well accoutred as ourselves.

I was greatly struck with the change that had been effected in every. thing during the last year. The road was in excellent order;-the ruts in the mountain sides had been filled and levelled ;-the inns were re. fitted and neatly kept ;-the villages along the way-side had been cleaned and painted, and scarcely a vestige remained of the misery and desolation that oppressed me on my arrival.

On the 11th, at sunset, we passed through Plan del Rio,-supped at Puente Nacional,-and, at daylight on the 12th, (precisely a year from the date of my arrival,) again reached "La Villa rica de la Vera Cruz.”

After a delay of a day or two we embarked on board the U. S. Steamer Missouri. On the 20th, we reached the southwest pass of the Mississippi, and once more hailed with pleasure our native shores.

I only repeat the sentiment of almost every traveller in the beautiful country I have been describing, when I say,-that no matter how impatient we may be to leave Mexico, yet, when her frontier has been passed, perhaps for ever, there are few who do not long to enjoy once more her cloudless skies, her bountiful soil, and her eternal spring!

23*

THE END.

APPENDIX.

No. 1.

A SUPPLEMENTARY LETTER ON THE SANDWICH ISLANDS, THE CA. LIFORNIAS, AND THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES IN REGARD TO THE ENCROACHMENTS OF ENGLAND.

If there is anything that peculiarly distinguishes the statesmanship of England, it is the prospective wisdom with which its Ministers (while guarding the momentary interests at home,) seek new vents for the labor of its population, and for the surplus of that population, also, when it becomes too crowded within the limits of the British Islands. It is the want of this vigilant policy that peculiarly characterizes our own country. In the midst of a vast territory, with ample room for the expansion of our inhabitants for hundreds of years, we are careless of the future, and we do not look with wariness to those geographical points of vantage around the earth of which England is gradually possessing herself, for the extension and guardianship of her commercial interests. We thus permit a grasping and ambitious rival to monopolize positions which, if they do not directly affect the people of our own generation, cannot fail, especially in the event of war, to injure and annoy our posterity.

We have seen Great Britain add Affghanistan, Scinde, and the Chinese Empire, to her control within the last two years; at the same time fixing her power steadily in Canada, by the suppression of every symptom of rebellious spirit. We have seen her firmly planted within her fortresses at Bermuda, establishing herself at the Balize, and encroaching on Guatemala; we have seen her holding the key of the Mediterranean at Gibraltar, and the power of the Straits at Malta and the Ionian Isles; we find her in the southern Atlantic, at St. Helena, and in the Indian Seas at numberless islands; and we learn that she at last pounced, without warning, on the Hawaiian group, with the same spirit that animated her conquests in China, (although she has since officially disavowed the acts of her officer.) Britain has thus encircled the globe with her power, and in this greedy acquisition of territory, and prudent husbandry of resources, our Statesmen should at least perceive a warning of danger from a bold and ambitious rival, if they do not learn a lesson which, under similar circumstances, they would be studious to emulate.

The temper of our Republic is entirely too much devoted to the interests of the passing day. We writhe under debt, and we rush into repudiation. We suffer under financial distress, and we adopt some palliative expedient that saves us from momentary ruin. We dislike the policy of the hour, and we attribute it exclusively to Executive misrule; and the continual distractions of the whole scheme of our popular government seem but to nourish an unceasing nervousness as to who is to rule, and who to control the national patronage. This spirit is creating a vacillating system, which, in the end, must become nationally characteristic. If

persisted in, it will destroy all stability of purpose and extended aim of statesmanship; and, while it generates a class who are willing to become pliant tools of power in return for official emolument, it will ultimately affect the hopes and the enterprise of all those industrious citizens who are willing to labor and amass wealth by a slow, but safe course of national policy, wisely adopted and steadily pursued.

It was not my purpose, however, to address you a homily on national politics when I commenced this letter; but I thought these remarks altogether proper, as introductory to some account of the character, situation, and resources of the Hawaiian Islands and the Californias, in connection with the observations I design making upon our wide-spread interests in the Pacific, the Indian Seas, and the Western Coast of the Americas, and the encroachments of England.

I will proceed, then, without further preface, to offer some notices of the Sandwich Islands, and afterward of the Californias, showing their great importance, at least, to the trade of our country.

The eight Hawaiian Islands form a volcanic group in the Pacific, lying between 18° 50′ and 22° 20′ N. latitude, and 154° 53′ and 160° 15′ W. longitude, embracing a surface of rather more than six thousand square miles, of which the Island of Hawaii contains about four thousand. The whole population is estimated at one hundred and nine thousand, and although the soil is in many places not of a kindly character, and better adapted to grazing than agriculture, yet, in the upland valleys, there are extensive patches of rich land that may be easily cultivated, and capable of producing two crops of wheat annually. This, however, is all the better for the natives, as the comparative poverty of the earth requires the constant care of the laborer, and is, therefore, more likely to create an industrious class than in more prolific climates.

On the low grounds, coffee, sugar, tobacco, cotton, mulberry and cocoa, may be readily produced; and to these may be added, yams, potatoes, cocoanuts, breadfruit, arrow-root, the kalo, or aurum esculentum; and among fruits, the strawberry, raspberry, ohelo, melons, chirimoyas, limes, oranges, guyavas, pine-apples, grapes, peaches, figs, citrons, tamarinds and kalo. Oil may be easily extracted from the

nut of the kukui tree.

In former times, one of the chief productions of these Islands was sandal-wood, with which the forests abounded. In the year ending in March, 1832, three hundred and ninety-five tuns of this article, valued at seventy-four thousand four hundred and seventy-one dollars, were imported into China from various places. In 1816 it was the chief source of revenue, and became, also, the chief source of the demoralization of this group. In that year, four hundred thousand dollars worth was exported to the Indies, where it was used by the Hindoos in their religious ceremonials, and by the Chinese in various manufactures of articles of luxury and taste. So great, however, was the demand, and so easily satisfied in the forests of the Sandwich Islands, that the natives were tempted by a ready sale to destroy almost every tree; until, under a wiser administration of their interests, they entirely forbade the cutting of the timber. The wood is represented as again beginning to flourish; so that, in the course of a few years, it will be made once more a source of fruitful revenue.

Besides the sandal-wood, a number of other richly-veined woods are found, and are said to be as valuable for articles of furniture, as the choicest products of the Brazilian forests.