CAMPEACHY, or Campeche, a fortified town of Mexico, formerly in the province of Yucatan, but now the capital of a new state to which it gives its name, is situated on the west side of the peninsula on the shore of the Bay of Campeachy, in 20° 5' N. lat. and 90° 16' W. long. The town is generally well built, though the houses, chiefly of limestone, are for the most part only one story in height. Its public edifices, several of which are substantial structures, comprise a citadel, several churches and convents, a theatre, a museum, a college, a school of navigation, a hospital, and a custom-house. The port, though of considerable extent, and defended by a breakwater 160 feet long, is very shallow, and vessels drawing more than 10 feet have to anchor upwards of a mile from shore. During the Spanish domination Catnpeachy had a monopoly of the imports to Yucatan, and it still maintains a fair amount of commercial activity. There is a large trade in logwood (Palo de Campeche, or Campeachy wood), and considerable quantities of wax, cotton, hides, and cigars are also exported. Shipbuilding is carried on, and salt and marble are obtained in the neighbourhood. In 1872, 24 foreign vessels entered the port, and 317 engaged in the coasting trade; and in the previous year the customs amounted to £29,133,000. A railway is in course of construction to Minatitlan, a distance of 385 miles. The vicinity is interesting for its Indian remains; and the city itself is said to be “built over extensive artificial galleries or catacombs, supposed to have been devoted by the ancient people [Mazas] to sepulchral uses.” See Bancroft’s Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. iv. p. 265. The Spanish town, founded about 1540 near the older Indian settlement, which at the ...