Indigo and cocoa have been already noticed as important productions of Guatimala. The amount of the indigo prepared was estimated in 1805 at L.600,000 Sterling, and the cocoa exported, after furnishing abundance to the 30,000 fanegas, or near ly 16,000 tons. A considerable quantity of cochi neal is collected; but it is generally inferior to that of Oaxaca, the adjoining province. Sugar is raised sufficient for the domestic consumption, but it will not pay the carriage necessary to convey it to mar ket. Cotton is cultivated to a considerable extent, though but little exported ; and the gins used in se parating the seed from the wool have not yet been generally used, nor have they any presses, by which to reduce the bulk of that article, and render the expence of its transportation more moderate. Hemp and flax are cultivated sufficiently to supply the de mand of the country; but though the soil and cli mate are admirably calculated for those articles, the difficulty of conveyance is an obstacle to their in crease.
The most important place after the capital is San senate, containing a population, including the sur rounding district, of near 40,000 souls; the town itself, however, does not comprehend more than one tenth of the inhabitants, the rest are on the planta tions near it, and consist principally of Indians and mixed casts. St Salvador, a town of about 5000 in habitants, is twelve miles from the Pacific Ocean, by means of which it carries on some coasting trade, principally in sugar. There are some other places denominated towns, but they are rather the chief re sidence of the missionaries employed in converting and regulating the Indians, than well peopled places. Ecclesiastical authority is the principal engine used to keep the untutored Indians in subjection ; they are generally submissive to the priests, and readily supply them with those comforts which the country yields, often to the neglect of their own relatives. Many of the priests are natives of the country, but some are Europeans ; all, however, are obliged to learn the two most prevailing Indian languages, the Poconche, and the Cacchiquel ; for though most of the indigenous inhabitants have been taught some portion of the Castilian tongue, they use it with re luctance, and very rarely in their own separate dis tricts. There is great jealousy between those priests who are natives of the country, and those who ar rive from Europe ; and though the archbishop and the several bishops, in adjusting such differences as arise, should decide with the greatest equity, yet their judgments are received with suspicion, if not with resistance, by the priests of the Indian race.
Notwithstanding the extent of Guatimala and its numerous population, the advantages which Spain derives from its possession are very trifling. The whole of the revenue drawn from the inhabitants, with the tax on the Indians, amounts to scarcely sufficient to pay the salaries of the officers of government. It has little or no direct trade with Europe, and the whole amount of its imports does not exceed L. 450,000 Sterling. Its exports amount to about L. 50,000 more, and being principally to Mexico, the region of silver, the balance is paid in that ar ticle.
During the commotions which have agitated many other parts of the Spanish dominions, Guatimala has been very little disturbed; though decided symptoms of insurrection were manifested at the end of the year 1810 and beginning of 1811. The
intelligence that the French armies were in posses sion of Seville and all Andalusia, spread consterna tion throughout Mexico and Guatimala; in the for mer, an insurrection, of a most formidable nature, had broken out, by which the north-west part of the viceroyalty, and almost the whole coast of the South Sea, was in a state of resistance to the viceroy.
Morelos commanded this force, and had defeated the royalists in a pitched battle, by which the whole of Oaxaca was open to him, from whence he would naturally have held an intercourse with Guatimala.
At that period, symptoms of turbulence were exhi bited in St Salvador by the mulattos of that province. The different mixed casts amounted to 90,000 men ca pable of bearing arms ; the Indians to 65,000. The white population was much more esteemed by the Indians than the mixed Creoles, and though the lat ter addressed them with promises of abolishing the eapitation-tax, and assurances that what they had paid since the imprisonment of Ferdinand should be refunded to them, their adherence to the whites re mained unshaken. At first the mulattos committed some excesses at the instigation of leaders who preached equality and liberty in the style of the French Convention. The whites, however, rallied, • and Don Josef Ayzinena, an officer of considerable coolness and judgment, having opportunely arrived, , they were enabled, without bloodshed, to restore tranquillity. In the province of Nicaragua, symp toms of similar dispositions were discovered at the same period, but the mulattos were a less propor tion of the whole population, and, after various meetings, the different parties agreed to refer all matters in dispute to the bishop, and requested him to exercise the sole authority. As tranquillity was thus restored in the two provinces which were most dreaded, the Captain-General, and the royal au dience, supported by the Cabildo of St Jago, were enabled to raise a force of white men, to overawe the mulattos, and give confidence to the Indians.
As the knowledge of the geography of Spanish America was very imperfect when the Encyclopedia was published, we have deemed it proper to:give the latitudes and longitudes of the most considerable places in Guatimala, according to the most recent authorities.
Amatique, . 15.23.0, , 89. 0.0 Chiapa Real, . 17. 0.0, 93.23.0 Chiapa de los Indios, 17. 5.0, 93.53.0 Valladolid,14.30.0, 88.19.0 Cuzcatlan,13.40.0, 89.20.0 Gracias A Dios, . 14.30.0, 90. 5.0 Granada, . 11.15.0, 86.15.0 St Jago de Guatimala, 1448.0, 92.40.0 Nicoya, . 10.42.0, 85.53.0 Omoa, . 15.50.0, 89.53.0 Realexo, . 12.45.0, 87.30.0 San Salvador, 13.40.0, 89.20.0 Soconusco, . 15.28.0, 94.36.0 Suchitepec, . 14.44.0, 93.36.0 Truxillo,15.51.0, 86. 8.0 Vera Paz, . 15.50.0, 91.14.0 (w. w.)