which delights in rich soil, bright skies, warmth and moisture finds a genial habitat there.
"Ascending the mountains, which are timbered all the way up, you reach the table-land, an immense plain from 5000 to 8000 feet above the level of the sea, and hundreds of miles in breadth. In length it is commensurate with the Empire, and in the lap of its western declivities lies the Tierra Caliente of the Pacific coast. This table-land is the Tierra Templada, or the temperate region of the Empire. Its climates are delightful—a happy mean between heat and cold.
"The surface of this table-land is diversified with hills and dales, with an occasional snow-clad peak, so that in descending to the valleys, one may find, at a difference in level of only a few hundred yards and in the distance of a few miles, the productions and staples of all countries and latitudes, from those of Virginia down to those of the Gulf of Mexico, and thence through the West Indies to the equator or Brazil.
"Immigrants for Mexico, come at what season they may, will always be in time to plant something. But the best season for planting is generally in the spring, and the best time for coming is in the dry season, from October to May, when the new-comer may live in tents, put his seed in the ground, and have time to build and get his family comfortably housed before the rainy season sets in.
"The staples of agriculture are, in Mexico, as diverse as its climates: there is no lack of range and pasture for cattle, horses, and sheep; nay, gentlemen who are from the grazing lands of the Western States, and who have travelled through the Northern part of Mexico, assure me that they have never seen so fine a sheep-country."
The course adopted by Maury, in entering the service of Mexico and attempting to form a colony of Virginians in
