Commercial transactions are limited to the supply of retail dealers in the city and country. The principal articles of trade are dry goods, imported from England and France, by the way of the Balize and Havana. The exportation of the products of the country is conducted through the same channel; but owing to the poverty of the soil, and the supineness of the people, it is likewise very circumscribed. On the whole, so far as my personal observation has yet extended, the land presents a barrenness of appearance which offers few of those inducements that have been held out for emigration, either to the husbandman or the mechanic. The agricultural products of Yucatan are numerous. Corn, resembling that of New England, which constitutes one of the principal articles of food, and from which tortillas are prepared, is raised here in great abundance. Also black beans, so well known to travellers by the name of _frejoles_, constitute an agricultural staple of the country. Heniken is cultivated, and prepared for exportation, to a considerable extent. It is known in the United States as “Sisal hemp,” and takes its name from the port whence it is shipped. It is indigenous, and grows upon a rocky and apparently barren soil, to the height of about twelve feet, from a short rough trunk. It is cut at a certain period, and the fibres drawn out and dried, after which it is prepared and put up for the market. Sugar and cotton are raised in some of the eastern districts; but very little attention is paid to their cultivation beyond the small demand for the home consumption. Hats, from the leaf of the palm, are manufactured in the interior in large quantities for exportation, and are shipped at Campeachy. They are known in our market as the “Campeachy hat.” There has been much speculation, to little purpose, respecting the original inhabitants of Yucatan. It is a subject so involved in doubt, that any satisfactory conclusions can scarcely be expected. Waldeck[1] is of opinion that it was settled by different nations, broken off from Tabasco and other states, who particularly used the Maya idiom. He gives further evidence of this fact, from the facial formation observable in sundry of the Indians at Merida, particularly in the women, who resemble, in their physiognomy, the sculptured faces upon the stones at Palenque. The delicately tapered straight leg, small knee joints, and large shoulders, are mentioned as characteristics strongly marking a similarity of descent. The more distant Indians, and especially those of the mountains, have preserved their idioms as well as their ancient customs in a much greater degree—their language being more pure, and their manners more uniform.