This development awoke to consciousness in the forms of the Nahua and Maya civilizations, the former occupying the northern portion of that tropical table-land which rises to salubrious heights between latitudes 22° and 11°, and the latter the southern portions. Round the opaque lowland edges of this heaven-enlightened interior the mind of man seemed also dark and low, dwarfed by sandy sweeps, or overshadowed by redundant foliage; yet it was not altogether free from the influence of its neighbors, for the people of the tierras calientes bordering this elevation were further removed from savagism than their more northern and southern brethren. The valley of Mexico, the Anáhuac of the Aztecs, was situated between the two principal ranges, the Pacific branch and the Atlantic branch of the Sierra Madre, under which name the great cordillera here presents itself, coming in from the north-west, flattening near the centre, and reuniting before reaching Tehuantepec. Eventually Anáhuac overspreads the whole plateau. Cross the continent on the nineteenth parallel and you will reach the greatest elevation and see the highest mountains in this vicinity. Indeed, from the plain of Puebla, whereabout lay the walled town of Tlascala, you may take in Popocatepetl, Iztaccihuatl, and Orizaba at one view. Within seventy leagues from Vera Cruz inland, through the temperate valley of Orizaba, you may pass from a region of palms to a region of pines. The plains of Tabasco, upon whose border we have already landed and fought our battle, form the north-eastern part of the broad isthmus valley of Tehuantepec. This is bordered on the south by the sierra connecting the elevation of Anáhuac with the table-land of Guatemala, whose western declivity breaks into parallel wooded ridges running due south-west. North of Anáhuac the surface settles into wide plains between short sierras, until monotonous quietude is attained in the prairies of Texas and New Mexico. Crossing the isthmus of Tehuantepec at a diminished altitude the cordillera rises again and stretches out into the broad and lofty ranges of Central America, where the Maya nations made their home.