_San Antonio de los Cues_, in the north, on the route from Orizaba and Vera Cruz to Oaxaca, with a large population, is famous for the remains of some Mexican fortifications, but which are in great dilapidation. There are four mines of silver, which are very valuable, in Oaxaca, and the population of the province, amounts to 534,800. Oaxaca is described as the finest, healthiest and most productive province of New Spain; and its former inhabitants were amongst the most civilized of the people discovered by the Spanish conquerors. It is extremely mountainous, and is divided into two highland districts, called Mixteca and Tzapoteca. The Cordillera, which runs through the province, falls to the oceans on either side; and it is said the mountains are so high, that in one or two points, the Pacific and Atlantic may be observed at the same time, the summits are however not so high as those of Mexico, and their substance differs widely. In Oaxaca, granite and gneiss compose the ridges; whilst in Mexico, basaltes, amygdaloid, porphyry, and grunstein, are the strata which form those tremendous elevations. The most singular monument of the ancient inhabitants of this province is the ruins of Mitla, which was the burial place of the chiefs or kings of the country, and is finely constructed of stone, covered with sculpture; the excavations under the building are very large, and lined with large engraved stones. Six columns of porphyry, sixteen feet in height, of a single piece each, support the roof of a large room, and the whole is in good preservation; many curious paintings having been found amongst the rubbish. These ruins are ten leagues south-east of Oaxaca. The province is celebrated, as part of it forming a grant made to Cortez, for his services, with the title of Marquess. It consists of four towns and 49 villages, and now belongs to the Duke of Monte Leone, a descendant of the conqueror. The rivers of Oaxaca are principally, the Rio Verde, on which Oaxaca stands, which rises in the mountains of Higher Mixteca, and falls into the Pacific; the river Chicometapea, after receiving others, falls into the Pacific, north of the former. The river Chimalapa, on the southern boundary, which falls into the bay of Tecoantepec, and several smaller ones along the coast, all of which proceed from the mountains, water the country, render it fertile, and also fall into the Pacific. _YUCATAN OR THE INTENDANCY OF MERIDA._