earth, of the same extent, “so blessed of God,” as these United States. In one thing we have been undeceived; we supposed that the Mexicans are a rich people; that is, possessed abundant stores of the necessaries and luxuries of life. So far from it, that we have been compelled to draw nearly all of our supplies for our armies from the States. There are, doubtless, rich individuals among them, but the mass of the people are miserably poor. They lay up no stores, and have little beyond what is required by their immediate wants. The very abundance of the productions of nature may be one of the causes of this general poverty. As a people, they are sunk in sloth, in vice and ignorance. I speak in general, for there are, no doubt, numerous exceptions. Their opinions of the “Yankees,” as they call us, in contempt and derision, is likely to undergo an entire change. They will entertain a different opinion of us; they will look upon us with fear and respect, and will be as anxious to cultivate a good understanding as they were to insult us and ill treat our citizens. Hereafter, their Government will take a second thought before it countenances the plunder and murder of Americans. Treaties of peace will be respected, and we may venture into the country without danger to person or property, provided we conduct ourselves with propriety. There are many of the geographical features of so vast a country, especially as to its mountains, table lands, and rivers, differing entirely from our portion of the continent. For instance, the character of the table lands beyond Monterey would not be understood without the explanation, that the Mexican mountains are not in regular ranges or ridges like the Alleghanies, with intervening valleys, but present, on the eastern side, the appearance of giant ramparts of naked rock, through which fissures have been made by torrents; while on their summit, a vast plain, six or seven thousand feet above the sea, like a table raised above the floor, stretches out for hundreds of miles, with occasional depressions and peaks piled up to the height of five or six thousand feet more, and covered with perpetual snow. We have no such mountains. The sides of our mountains are nearly all fertile, at least, east of the Mississippi. The precipitous sides of the _Sierra Madre_ are broken through by several rivers, which, in the course of a hundred miles, descend six or seven thousand feet, and in consequence of this, excepting a short distance from their mouths in the Gulf of Mexico, are not fit for navigation. It is along the courses of these rivers, that the passes are found: such as that of the Panuco from Tampico; that of the Tula, near Victoria; that of the San Juan, from Monterey to Saltillo, and the Conchas, towards Chewawa.