YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of
Mrs. H.H. Pratt

SELECTIONS FROM
THE WORKS OF THE BARON DE HUMBOLDT,
RELATING TO THE
CLIMATE, INHABITANTS, PRODUCTIONS,
AND MINES
OF
MEXICO.

WITH NOTES
Bi JOHN TAYLOR, Esc
TREASURER TO THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, ETC.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, and GREEN,
PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1824.

PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR,
SHOE-LANE, LONDON.

INTRODUCTION.

1 HE object of this work is to present in a
condensed form some of the information
which is displayed at large in two celebrated
works * of M. le Baron de Humboldt. This
peculiarly gifted traveller, after traversing
countries whose future importance to Europe
his discriminating foresight enabled him to
predict, gave to the world descriptions of
these vast territories, which, while they asto
nish us by the extent of research, and the
varied science they display, are rendered even
more valuable by the accurate truth and the
candid and manly spirit which pervade them.
To those whp may now for the first time be
* Political Essay on the Kingdom of Mexico or New Spain ;
and Geognostical Essay on the Superposition of Rocks.

U INTRODUCTION.
inquiring into Mexican affairs, — whether for
the purpose of engaging their money in any
of the enterprises for working the mines of
that country, or with the more interesting view
of seeking in it a place of residence where
their skill and experience may become useful
in the great plans which are meditated, and
may, at the same time, be made subservient
to their own emolument and advancement, —
it will be most satisfactory to know that the
details which are here laid before them, come
from a person whose authority has never been
questioned, and whose relations are daily
confirmed by many who have since visited
the country.
I received permission to submit to the
Baron de Humboldt some questions rela
tive to the mines, to which he has had the
kindness to return answers the most explicit,
and evincing the most profound knowledge
of the subject. In the earlier part of his life
he had the direction of some important mines
in Germany : it will therefore be the more
satisfactory to those who, like myself, are es
pecially interested in this part of the inquiry,

INTRODUCTION. ill
to know that the information contained in
this volume comes from one on whose judge
ment the most entire reliance may be placed.
I must also add, that these Selections from
his works have been made with his knowledge
and approbation. I am conscious that it is
a liberty I ought not to have taken but from
the consideration that the abridgement may
now be useful to numbers who could not have
availed themselves of the works at large. Va
luable as M. de Humboldt's writings are, he
has never made them a source of profit to
himself, and it may truly be said that public
utility is with him the leading object. Ac
tuated by this disinterested feeling, he has con
stantly refused the most advantageous offers
to engage himself in any concerns connected
with Mexico, that his mind might remain un
biassed by any consideration of personal in
terest. I have said thus much, that those
who are inclined to attach weight to any
statements which I may lay before them,
may know the respectability of my authority
for many things which wear so nattering
an aspect, as to excite a suspicion that they
a 2

IV INTRODUCTION.
have been brought forward to serve a parti
cular purpose.
I have also to acknowledge the liberality
of Messrs. Longman and Co., for permitting
the free use of Mr. Black's translation of
M. de Humboldt's Essai politique, from which
most of the following sheets are compiled.
This has enabled me to lay the work before
the public much sooner than I could other
wise have done. I have adapted the tech
nical language more to the comprehension of
my English mining readers, than that of the
translation would be found to be. In doing
this, constant reference has been made to the
original ; and the figures and measurements
have been reduced to those denominations
which are most in use among us. My own
engagements not leaving me time sufficient for
the task of selection and arrangement, it has
in a great measure fallen upon a friend who
undertook it for me ; and 1 am conscious that
the public will be gainers by this circumstance.
My attention is not now drawn to the mines
of Mexico for the first time : several years
ago I studied some of these very works; which

INTRODUCTION.

I was led to do by the desire of comparing
the lodes or veins in that country with those
which had come under my own observation.
I was then struck with their size or width,
with the great productiveness of particular
parts, with the similarity of many circum
stances with those which miners every where
think favourable symptoms, and above all
with the greatness of the profits under a sy
stem of management of the worst kind. I ob
served that little or no machinery was em
ployed, and that what there was, seemed to
be of the rudest description, that no at
tempt was made to abridge labour, or to save
expense, and that under the old government,
obstacles to improvement of the most formida
ble kind existed. Attempts were indeed some
times made : but when it is considered that
all these were likely to interfere with the pro
fit of Viceroys, or provincial Governors, who,
under the court of Spain, enjoyed the privi
lege of making the people pay at the highest
rate for articles of the greatest necessity,
it is not surprising that these attempts were
istifled and rendered abortive. With the

VI INTRODUCTION..
richest mines in the world, with a splendid
college for instructing miners, and with a
code of laws which pretended to encourage
them, Mexico made no advances in the sci
ence of working its mineral treasures ; while
England, with only metals of inferior value,
without any public institution for instruction
of this sort, and even without books upon the
subject, has within a few years raised the art
of mining to a perfection heretofore unknown,
and has carried it on in spite of difficulties not
to be met with elsewhere.
I long ago formed the opinion which I now
entertain, that if the skill and experience in
mining which we possess, and the use of our
engines, could ever be applied to the mines of
Mexico, the result would be that of extraor
dinary profit.
At that time the Old Government still held
its sway over this interesting country : no
hope, therefore, existed in my mind of ever
seeing the attempt made ; in later years the
country has been struggling with its former
masters, and it now seems likely that, having
emancipated itself from their yoke, it will con-

INTRODUCTION. Vll
solidate a government more adapted to the
wants and interests of the people ; — how far it
may succeed, and with what measure of wis
dom and moderation, I do not pretend to fore
see. A failure in produce, similar to that ex
perienced in the mines of Cornwall 60 or 80
years ago, before the application of the steam-
engine, had already given a considerable check
to the prosperity of the mines ; and in the
year 1810, at the commencement of the civil
commotions in Mexico, they experienced a
fatal blow by the interruption to industry
produced by internal war. The proprietors
no longer received their usual revenues, and
the mines becoming full of water, the whole
country was impoverished, and at the return
of better times the necessary capital for re
newing the works did not exist. This is tne
cause of the application to other countries on
the part of the Mexican proprietor, and the
reason of his willingness to alienate a part of
his interest in a mine for the sake of that as
sistance which he bargains for in return.
The state of affairs is then changed since
M, de Humboldt wrote; and it might be ex-

Vlll INTRODUCTION.
pected that in now laying before the public a
revised Selection from his works, some altera
tion in those parts relating particularly to the
effects of the Government should have been
made : but upon consideration this was not
deemed advisable; the reader will therefore
bear in mind that the descriptions relate to a
former period, and not to the present one.
A writer in one of our newspapers has
commented on the extraordinary spectacle of
a vast country, teeming with the precious
metals, applying to the inhabitants of a
northern island, comparatively barren in na
tive wealth, for assistance in the extraction of
its treasures. It is, indeed, a striking proof
that the richest gifts of nature are useless with
out the industry and intelligence requisite to
bring them into action, and that such indus
try and intelligence are only to be looked for
where property is secure and rational liberty
is enjoyed. I had occasion, again, about the year 181 9>
to consider some circumstances connected with
the Mexican mines, owing to the intention of
a respectable house in London to send out

INTRODUCTION. ix
a steam-engine to be employed in one of them.
A number of interesting papers were then
submitted to me, some of them warranted by
the name of Don Fausto d'Elhuar, formerly
President of the College of Mines at Mexico,
and now resident at Madrid. My opinion of
the benefits to be expected from such under
takings was much confirmed, and I saw a dis
position to favour them on the part of the
resident proprietors. I then advised the ne
cessary measures to be taken : an engine was
constructed and sent out, accompanied by a
miner from Cornwall, Robert Phillips ; and
this was, I believe, the first equipment of the
kind that reached this part of Spanish Ame
rica. Owing to several circumstances, the en
gine was not sent to the mine it was intended
for, and considerable delay occurred before it
reached the place of its ulterior destination ;
but it is now erected in the mine of Concep
tion in the Real Catorce. I had lately a let
ter from Phillips, who was in good health and
spirits; and the undertaking, as far as I can
learn, is likely to be a very successful one.
At the present moment the difficulties I
b

X INTRODUCTION.
have alluded to arising from the policy of the
former Spanish Government are removed, and
it seems probable that the New Government,
whatever form it may assume, will follow the
direction of its own interests and of the wishes
of the people, and will give encouragement to
foreign aid in working the mines. The pro
perty in them, like that of mines in England,
is private ; the contracts are therefore made
with individuals, many of whom have consi
derable influence ; the State only interferes
in taking a duty on the metals when exported,
which has lately been lowered with respect to
silver from 29t per cent, to 6 per cent.
Various commercial establishments from
this country have been made of late in Mexi
co, and English gentlemen are resident there ;
a channel of communication has thus been
opened, through which negotiations with En
gland have been carried on for grants^or shares
in some of the principal mines, and abun
dant capital has been raised to work them with
effect. The first Company seems to have originated
with a proposal from Don Lucas Alaman, a

INTRODUCTION. XI
leading minister in the Mexican Government.
It was first promulgated in Paris, under tho
title of the " Franco-Mexican Company;"
but not succeeding there, it was transferred
hither, and after some time, and some altera
tion in the original plan, is now established
under the name of the United Mexican As
sociation, with a capital of 240,000/. in 600
shares of 40/. each. The object of this Com
pany is said to be principally to purchase ores
and smelt and refine them; it also, according
to the prospectus, meditates the working
mines, but it does not appear to have yet ac
tually engaged any.
I should think the establishment of a Com
pany to purchase ores of the smaller mines,
and to refine them upon a well-conducted
system, a promising undertaking; but as I am
unacquainted with the details of the plan, I
of course refrain from giving any further opi
nion. The Company next established is call
ed the " Anglo-Mexican Association," which
having actually contracted for some of the
b2

Xll INTRODUCTION.
most extensive and productive concerns, has
raised a proportionate capital by a subscrip
tion of one million in 10,000 shares of 100/.
each. This Company has done me the honour
to consult me on its arrangements; it is go
verned by twelve Directors of great respecta*
bility, and the preparations are in consider
able forwardness. The mines undertaken by
this association are principally in the Real of
Guanaxuato, concerning which a great deal
of information will be found in the following
pages. Its situation, north-west of the city of
Mexico, will be seen by a reference to the map.
The great mine of Valenciana is in this
district ; of this M. de Humboldt speaks fre
quently, and ample details as to its produce
and other circumstances will be laid before
the reader. It is situated upon a lode, or vein,
which has been extensively worked, and upon
which the Company has other mines, called
Tepeyac, Rayas, Cuta and Serena; it has also
one which seems to be in another lode, called
La Luz, at no great distance : they are nego
tiating for other mines, which will complete

INTRODUCTION. xill
an undertaking of great magnitude, and ade
quate to warrant a large and effective esta
blishment. Valenciana was a dry mine when M. de
Humboldt was there, and it has thus been car
ried to an extraordinary depth ; it was holed
to Tepeyac, which let down water into it, and
since the troubles in 1810 has been gradually
filling. There is no adit, and the engines
must therefore lift to the surface, where in
all probability the stream will be very useful
in dressing. Tepeyac will be drained at the
same time, and other engines are provided
for the smaller mines.
The modes of dressing and particularly of
crushing the ores are very imperfect; it is
therefore probable, and has indeed been
stated from good authority, that large quan
tities of the former waste lying there, will pay
well for working over. Steam stamping en
gines are constructing for this purpose, and
will probably soon enable the proprietors to
make some returns.
Instead of smelting, the Mexicans have ge
nerally used the process of extracting the sil-

XIV INTRODUCTION.
ver by the use of mercury, which is called
amalgamation: a full description of this mode
will be found, and of the enormous expense
and difficulties attending it. There is good
reason to believe, that by dressing the ores as
clean as possible in the first instance, so as to
effect a considerable reduction of their bulk,
by a better application of fuel either in good
reverberatory furnaces, or in the blast hearths
used in the north of England, the silver ores
may be. smelted with a certain quantity of
lead, and afterwards tested off: dispatch and
economy will thus be promoted without any
serious loss of the precious metals.
The Anglo-Mexican Association has also
contracted for a mine, called Purissima, in
the Real de Catorce before mentioned, which
will be found in the northern part of the map.
This is very near the mine where Robert
Phillips now is, upon which the steam-engine
has been erected.
This district has been very rich, and consi
derable expectations are, probably with justice,
entertained with respect to the future profit.
The third Company is of a more private na-

INTRODUCTION. XV
ture, and is formed of individuals who possess
the largest interest in the mines of this coun
try. As I direct the administration of their af
fairs at home, they have wished me to manage
this undertaking abroad, and to organize the
establishment which will proceed to Mexico
to carry on the works. From among their
numerous valuable agents and connexions
here, I shall not find this a difficult task.
I trust that those who undertake to represent
the respective Companies will do credit to their
choice, and will show that improvements may
be carried into effect without that indiscre
tion or precipitancy which might cause dis
gust and opposition.
This last Company is known by the title of
" The Adventurers in the Mines of Real del
Monte," which is a district about sixty miles
north of the city of Mexico. They have
agreed with the agent of the Count Regla for
his mines on the Biscaina vein and others
connected with it. They also have taken the
mine of Moran from the proprietor, Thomas
Murphy, Esq., who was long resident in
Mexico.

XVI INTRODUCTION.
The Company's agents will proceed directly
to the mines, and engines and proper machi
nery will be immediately prepared to follow
them. The reader will find in the subsequent
pages some notice of the mines of Real del
Monte on the Veta Biscaina, which is the great
lode on which they are worked, Moran is
on the same lode, and this mine is curious as
having been the only one in which pumps
were tried in Mexico. These were worked by
a pressure engine (machine & colonne d'eau)
erected by a German engineer ; it succeeded
in drawing out the water with 9 inch pumps,
6 feet stroke ; and it appears that when it
worked 12 hours out of 24, it kept the water
clear: the stream, however* which supplied
the power was quite insufficient, except in the
rainy season, which lasts in Mexico but
about three months in the year; the machine
was therefore useless, and the mine was
abandoned. The number of mines in Mexico is very
great ; there are many very important ones
besides those engaged by the Companies
now formed, and others not even noticed in

INTRODUCTION. XV11
the following pages, which have been exceed
ingly rich, and may become so again. There
is no natural rivalry in the business of mining
in a district where there is room fpr the exer
tions of all ; the produce is easily disposed of
without injurious competition, and the effect
of. increased production upon prices is so
gradual, that all will participate in its advan
tages before the consequent depression will be
sensibly felt.
No foolish jealousies, therefore, ought to
prevail ; English miners will carry out the
same friendly feelings as exist in their own
country, where mutual assistance is cordially
afforded, and where the improvement design
ed by one is freely exhibited to all. Common
danger is said to be a bond of union ; and the
usual risks and uncertainties of mining are
sufficient in themselves to induce co-opera
tion in order to overcome them.
Many unforeseen difficulties may be found
in a new country, and time, patience, and
discretion may be required to avoid and sur
mount them. New processes or modes o
working should be introduced with caution,
c

XV111 INTRODUCTION.
and prejudices should be respected, rather
than the success of the undertaking should
be endangered by injudicious attempts at
premature alterations. After the value of
an improvement is known and acknowledged,
no objection will be made to its adoption :
there are few cases where proof of this kind
may not be given by small beginnings, and a
gradual progress towards perfection may thus
be made. The advance may be somewhat
slower, but it will be proportionably more
sure. The whole business of mining is expe
rimental ; hardly a shaft is sunk or a level
driven, but it is, as we properly say, for the
purpose of trial. The modes in which such
trials or experiments may be made, may
be various, and there are few but have
something to recommend them, or which do
not deserve some consideration. A skilful
miner knows how to select and combine such
operations, and the most unskilful may be
guided into the right path by temperate ad
vice and judicious example. I would insist
much on this point for the consideration of
such persons as may go from England, be-

INTRODUCTION. XIX
cause I have seen well-devised projects, even
in this country, endangered by hasty and in
discreet measures which encouraged opposi
tion or jealousy.
The Mexican people will eventually be
much benefited by the application and use of
our steam-engines, and probably by some
other improvements we may carry with them.
They invite our assistance in a friendly man
ner, and there is no doubt that the enlight
ened part of the nation will regard us fa
vourably : we ought to do our part to de
serve their confidence and support; a con
nexion may thus be established which may
be beneficial to the present and future ge
nerations of both countries. It is impossible
to calculate to what extent the exchange of
the varied and precious productions of the
Mexican soil and climate, for those furnished
by English industry and capital, may be here
after carried.
A perusal of this little book will show what
advantages Mexico has received from Na
ture, and that, as it is free from the embar
rassments of a slave population, there is a
c2

XX INTRODUCTION.
fair probability that under a liberal and equi
table Government it may rise to a dignity in
the scale of enlightened nations, which its ex
tent, position, and internal wealth entitle it to
hold. One of the principal difficulties in the ap
plication of machinery will arise from the
weight of the parts, and the labour of convey
ing them through the country to the mines
which are at considerable distances from the
coast. The principal roads are mentioned by
M. de Humboldt, and the improvements con
templated, or in part executed ; they are
still, however, in places, very bad for wheel
carriages, and most of the internal commerce
is carried on by the use of mules loaded with
the goods they transport ; a mode which will
be. inapplicable to many articles and to their
conveyance into deep mines. Nothing is more
important to a country than good roads, espe
cially in a country like Mexico, where the
elevation of the table-land will probably pre
clude the use of canals: it may be hoped that,
under more tranquil and prosperous political
circumstances, the Government will attend to

INTRODUCTION. XXI
and devise means for improvements in this
important matter.
The subject for the greatest consideration
with English miners will be that of fuel, both
as it relates to the power to be employed to
drain the mines — for which nothing but steam-
engines can in our present state of knowledge
be contemplated, and as it regards the re
duction of the ores. If it should be found
that the supply of this most essential article
is not too limited, we may indeed pro
mise ourselves considerable success ; and we
may hope to benefit Mexico not only by
our machinery, but by substituting a more
economical mode of extracting the precious
metals. Amalgamation is at present the favourite
process, and as long as fuel is scarce it may
probably remain so ; it may even be difficult
to overcome prejudice in this respect, and ha
zardous to venture on hasty measures to alter
the practice : but I am of opinion, that if
coal in particular, perhaps even turf, which I
am told exists in some parts, can be procured,
— silver, and perhaps gold also, may be ob-

XXU INTRODUCTION.
tained without waste, by the use of means in
finitely less expensive than quicksilver.
Various passages in the work will show not
only the great charge of this material, which,
being hitherto only produced in Spain and
Germany, is of very limited supply; but that
in fact the silver mines of Mexico have been
frequently and most seriously embarrassed
for want of it ; and this is confirmed to me
by recent and authentic information. It will
appear from the tables hereafter given, that
the produce of gold and silver has been re
duced when mercury was scarce, and that on
the contrary the Mexican mines flourished
when it was abundant. To guard against
such variations, I know that it will be neces
sary for each establishment to keep at all
times a large stock of this article at the mines ;
and that thus, besides the risks of plunder
and waste, a greater capital than would
otherwise be required must be provided and
locked up in a distant country.
As notice will be taken of this subject in
the work itself under the proper heads, I shall
content myself with insisting strongly on the

INTRODUCTION. XXU1
necessity of great attention to the operations
of dressing or washing the ores. If fuel be
scarce, or if quicksilver be expensive, it must
be expedient to carry the process of dressing
to the furthest point we can, without losing too
much of the precious metal : — I say without
losing too much, because I know that any
kind of dressing must produce some waste ;
and none but persons who are in possession
of all the facts, and can balance one with an
other, can understand this part of the busi
ness. The Assay Office must be frequently
consulted, and every thing taken into the ac
count. In England we have different modes of
dressing, and they have regulated themselves
by gradual experience according to circum
stances : fuel with us is cheap ; and therefore
with copper ores, where fire will refine the
metal with less waste than any other mode,
we wash but little. In the case of tin ores,
which will bear water without much chance
of loss, and where the purity of the metal
must be obtained by separating it from all
other metallic substances before it goes into

XXIV INTRODUCTION.
the furnace, we clean the ores very accurately.
We are induced to dress our lead ores also well,
because the metal being easily volatilized and
dissipated by strong heats, we endeavour to
free the ores from other more infusible sub
stances. In silver ores we have not much practice,
although in some raised from mines of which
I have the superintendance in Cornwall, I
observe that they bear the water pretty well :
my opinion formed upon my past experience,
therefore, is, that the waste which will una
voidably result from making them very clean,
must be risked under the present circum
stances of the Mexican mines ; and that the
object kept principally in view must be the
reduction of the bulk of the ore to its mi
nimum ; and this, whether amalgamation
be employed or smelting. Silver is inde
structible in the fire, and in a strong heat lead
will attract it from all other mixtures, and be
a faithful carrier to other processes by which
it is easily and expeditiously refined.
The operations of dressing, to be conducted

INTRODUCTION. XXV
properly, must have the aid of peculiar ma
chinery, and the advantage of skilful persons
to direct. The mechanical part of the busi
ness seems to be very rude in Mexico, and
wholly inadequate to perform what is re
quired in a proper manner : our stamping
mills, crushing rollers, and other apparatus
will be of the greatest use, and of general ap
plication ; but these will do but little, unless
directed by competent judgement and expe
rience. The persons proper to manage dress
ing in Mexico, will in my opinion be found
amongst those who are brought up in our tin
mines. Copper and lead ore dressers will
not be attentive enough to minute particu
lars. The prospect of advantage to the capitalists
who embark their money in mining in Mexico
is subject to be clouded by many doubts respect
ing the political circumstances of a new Govern
ment, the difficulty of exercising controul
over establishments to which great discre
tionary powers must be confided at a for
midable distance from home, and the im
pediments likely to arise from the prejudices
d

XXvi INTRODUCTION.
or avarice of the" Mexicans. These, how
ever, though serious risks, may perhaps be
overrated by many ; and I am inclined to
think may be moderated by a prudent se
lection of the agents who are to represent
British interests in Mexico. The proprietors
of the mines there in making their grants,
and the Government in their laws relating to
property of this kind, will consult their own
interest in a faithful and liberal encourage
ment of foreign aid ; and I know of no good
reason to doubt that this will be afforded.
On the part of those to whom the direction
and working of the mines in Mexico are in
trusted, there ought to be unremitting atten
tion to carry on their operations with vigour
and effect, rendering to the proprietors, with
the portion of the profits to which they are
entitled, an example of skilful management
and ah exact observance of the rights of all
parties concerned.
With a good understanding founded on
such a basis, and with discretion on the part
of those who may direct the affairs Of the
Companies at home and abroad, I can see no

INTRODUCTION. xxvii
obstacle to the prosperity of these mines, which
does, not equally present itself in the case of
those in remote counties of England.
If no unforeseen circumstances arise to
disturb the arrangements which are made for
the conduct of the undertakings, and if I am
to look to the mining risk simply, I cannot
come to any other opinion, than that this is
very small, or rather I should say that the ex
pectation of profit is a large one.
The veins are of an unusual width, and have
in many cases been worked on in several
points for a great length, and are proved ex
tensively ; the quantity of ore which has been
raised is enormous ; the quality, though not
(as M. de Humboldt says) in itself rich, be
cause the mass is so great, may yet be deem
ed comparatively so, when reduced in bulk, as
it may be, and when considered with relation
to what English mines produce; the metals
are of the highest value, while the expenses
need no be greater than they would be in the
same place for mines worked in veins inferior
in the quantity or quality of their produce.
These advantages are so great that they
d2

XXV111 INTRODUCTION.
may compensate for many errors and many
difficulties; and if such occur at first, as in
all probability they may, I cannot but in
dulge sanguine expectations that zeal, pa
tience and skill will overcome them, and that
finally the enterprise will be as profitable as
the risks encountered may fairly require it
should be.
I freely admit that I am deeply interested
in the success of these adventures, that I feel
an unusual degree of anxiety for their success,
and that to this end I shall gladly contribute
the utmost exertion of my humble efforts. I
may therefore be considered a partial adviser.
I have endeavoured, however, to leave the
facts as I found them, standing on authority
which has not been questioned. From these,
judicious readers will draw their own conclu
sions. JOHN TAYLOR.

Bedford Row,
) 2th March, 1824.

RECENT MEMORIAL

THE SOVEREIGN CONGRESS

MEXICO.

OINCE the completion of this work, I have been
favoured with the following extract of a memorial
presented to the Government of Mexico at a very
late period, by an enlightened and liberal minister
of that country, Don Lucas Alaman, and which I
have the greatest pleasure in making public. It
is remarkable for the justness of the views it gives
of the means of encouraging their great sources of
national wealth ; and if such principles are acknow
ledged and acted upon, which there is no good
reason to doubt, I will venture to predict that fo
reign capital will be employed with confidence,
and with benefit to the country where it is em
ployed as well as to that which may supply it, the
advantage to each particular Company who may
d3

XXX MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS.
undertake mines, being of course more or less
as they may prudently and skilfully manage their
affairs. J. T.
Exlractfrom the Report of the Minister for Foreign Affairs
and of the Interior to the Sovereign Constituent Con
gress assembled in Mexico, 1st November 1823, (re
ceived by a late arrival from Mexico.)
ARTICLE INDUSTRY.
MINES.
It is a principle admitted by all writers on poli
tical economy, that the most direct encouragement
that can be given to agriculture and to industry, is
to facilitate the consumption of the produce of the
one, and the sale of the manufactures of the other.
If the mines be considered amongst us under this
point of view, it will be found that nothing contri
butes so much as they do to the prosperity of those
essential branches of the public riches. The great
number of people that are occupied in them, the
animals that are employed in the working of the
machinery, and in transporting the ores, the con
sumption that arises therefrom of grain, as well as
of soap, paper, iron, &c, give a powerful impulse
to agriculture, the arts, and to commerce. If
practical illustration be necessary to prove those
facts, which are doubted only by men whose minds
are preoccupied by the paradoxical assertions of
systematic economists, they may be found on a
comparison of the state of our mining provinces,

MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS. XXXI
such as Guanaxuato and Zacatecas, previous to the
year 1810 and at the present period. Abundance
and prosperity then reigned throughout both of
them. The agriculturist found in those famous
reales (districts) a ready and certain market for his
produce ; the smith, the carpenter, the mason, a
constant employment for his industry ; the mer
chant an extensive consumption for the goods which
he introduced ; and the treasures drawn from the
bowels of the earth were distributed throughout and
revivified the most distant provinces in payment for
the soap, wood, salt, magistral, horses and mules,
that were brought from all parts. The nature of
our ores is also a powerful cause of these happy re
sults ; they are generally poor in metal, and most
abundant in quantity, and require for their manu
facture a great quantity of machinery and ingre
dients ; and it may therefore be said that the miner
merely draws forth funds to distribute them freely
among the labourers, merchants and artisans ; and
we must naturally conclude that the prosperity of
these classes depends principally upon the impulse
given to them by the mines, which in our notion
are thus the acting principle of all the other branches
of industry.
From this it is to be inferred that the encou
ragement which is given to the former revolves
indirectly in favour of the latter ; and if it be
intended to animate the one, we must begin by
giving a stimulus to the other. These principles
d4

XXX11 MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS.
occasioned the reduction of duties granted by the
Spanish Cortes, and confirmed by the Provincial
Junta, a reduction that has unexpectedly preserved
the mines at this time, and which may greatly
contribute to re-establish them.
We may flatter ourselves that we shall speedily
see them once more in a flourishing condition.
Several foreign capitalists are ready to invest large
funds in draining and working the principal mines>
which, from the disastrous consequences of the war,
have been overflowed and not regularly worked.
The steam engines, which it is intended to intro
duce, and of which two are now erecting, the one in
Temascaltepec and the other in Real de Catorce,
will powerfully contribute to so important a result.
The former Sovereign Congress, with the intention
of facilitating contracts of supply with opulent fo
reigners, with whom some have already been con
cluded, abolished the laws and articles of the ordi
nance which prohibited them from acquiring pro
perty in mines, although it wisely limited the power
which it granted to them for that purpose to those
mines only which they may supply, without being
able to denounce others, or to attempt to discover
new ones. This measure will be a new stimulus to
the introduction of funds for the supply of this
branch, which it so much needs, and which it can
not procure by other means.
The " Tribunal of Mines," which, according to
the terms of its constitution ought to have been a

MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS. XXXill
bank of supply, by creating for this important ob
ject under its direction, a fund out of the duty of
one rial per mark of silver, cannot at the present
time afford any assistance to the miners, and which
they so imperatively stand in need of, as from causes
which the limits I am obliged to prescribe to this
memorial do not allow me to dilate upon. Such
a fund not only does not exist, but, on the contrary,
this body is loaded with a debt, the interest of
which cannot be paid out of the produce of the
aforesaid duty.
Another of the means of encouragement which
it would be proper to grant to this importantbranch,
so soon as circumstances shall permit, is the esta
blishment of exchange houses, which formerly ex-
isted^ and the creation of new ones on these points
where it may be most expedient. — They facilitate
the activity of the circulation, and thereby the fre
quent employment of the same capital, which may
be said to multiply itself by being repeatedly invested,
thus avoiding the necessity of increasing the num
ber of mint houses, the quantity of which must
greatly augment the expenses of coinage.

ERRATA.
Running title, p. 101, for roads read road.
— —  p. 165, for exported read extracted.
 p. 198, for mines read miners.
Note 1, p. 226, for influence read inference.
Page 228, table, col. 4, for leagues read miles. Col. 5, for league
read mile ; for 695 read 65.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
Kingdom of Mexico — situation — territorial division — fa
vourable position of mining districts — rivers — lakes —
roads  page 1
CHAPTER II.
City of Mexico — situation — population — buildings — sur
rounding country — scientific establishments — progress
of opinion — distribution of property  25
CHAPTER III.
Climate — variety under the same latitude — rains — gene
ral salubrity— fertility of the soil—corn, fruits — cattle
— general improvement in agriculture — influence of
mines on agriculture — habits of Indian cultivators. ... 42
CHAPTER IV.
Population — number and character of native Indians —
comparison between the population of Mexico and that
of the United States — small number of negro slaves —
increase of population — census of 1 794  59

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
Manufactures — powder manufactory — goldsmiths— mint
— interior commerce — foreign commerce — smuggling
— average value of exports and imports  page 75
CHAPTER VI.
Intendancy of Vera Cruz — situation — physical aspect —
climate — productions — road from the capital to Vera
Cruz port — yellow fever  95
CHAPTER VII.
Mineral productions — quantity of gold and silver — copper,
tin, iron, lead, mercury, coal, salt  110
CHAPTER VIII.
Geological description of the mining districts of Mexico 130
CHAPTER IX.
Geological constitution of mines — position and extent of
mineral veins — elevation of mines — comparative wealth
of mines — distance between principal mines — nature pf
ores — mean riches of ores  1 60
CHAPTER X.
Numbe of mines — laws respecting mines — quantity of sil
ver raised — state of mining operations — condition of
mines — smelting — amalgamation  180
CHAPTER XI.
Intendancy of Guanaxuato — situation — extent^cultiva-
tion — population — towns— mining districts — geological
constitution  22S
CHAPTER XII.
Intendancy of Zacatecas — extent — towns — mines — geo
logical structure  250

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII.
Intendancy of San Luis Potosi — extent — climate — terri
torial division — towns — mines — wealth of the mine of
Catorce  page 256
CHAPTER XIV.
Intendancy of Mexico — extent— climate — physical aspect
— roads — principal towns — mines — Real del Monte,
Moran Biscaina, Tasco — state of mining operations —
geological structure  264
CHAPTER XV.
Intendancy of Guadalaxara — extent — climate— agricul-
- tural produce — principal towns — mines  286
CHAPTER XVI.
Intendancy of Valladolid — extent — Volcan de Jorullo —
vegetable productions — earthquakes — volcanoes — po
pulation — principal towns — mines  ;  291
CHAPTER XVII.
Summary recapitulation — physical aspect — climate — ter
ritorial extent — population — agriculture — mines — ma-
factures — commerce — revenue — military defence .... 303

The marginal references of the original to the various works
and documents by which the author confirms his statements,
are omitted in this little work. It is presumed that any one
who wishes to verify a fact which appears to him suspicious,
will not think it too much trouble to consult the original, or
Mr. Black's translation.

SELECTIONS
i
RELATIVE TO

MEXICO.

CHAPTER I.
Kingdom of Mexico — situation — territorial division —
favourable position of mining districts — rivers — lakes —
roads.
Among the colonies subject to the king of Spain,
Mexico occupies the first rank, both on account
of its territorial wealth, and on account of its
favourable position with Europe and Asia. We
speak here merely of the political value of the
country, considering it in its actual state of civili
zation, which is very superior to that of the other
Spanish possessions. Many branches of agricul
ture have undoubtedly attained a higher degree of
perfection in the province of Caraccas than in New
Spain. The fewer mines a colony has, the more is
the industry of the inhabitants turned towaids
the productions of the vegetable kingdom. The
fertility of the soil is greater in the provinces of
Cumana, of New Barcelona, and Venezuela, on
the banks of the lower Orinoco, and in the
northern parts of New Grenada, than in the king-

-S KINGDOM OF MEXICO.
dom of Mexico, of which several regions are
barren, destitute of water, and incapable of vege
tation. But when we consider the greatness of the
population of Mexico, the number and proximity of
its considerable cities, the enormous value of its
metallic produce, and its influence on the commerce
of Europe and Asia; — when we examine the
imperfect state of cultivation observable inthe rest
of Spanish America, we are tempted to justify the
preference which the court of Madrid has long ma
nifested for Mexico above its other colonies.
The denomination of New Spain designates, in
general, the vast extent of country over which the
viceroy of Mexico exercises his power. Using the
word in this sense, we are to consider as northern
and southern limits the parallels of the 38th and
10th degrees of latitude.
The advantages afforded by this vast empire,
from the wealth of its natural productions, the fer
tility of its soil, the facility which a man possesses
there of choosing, with thermometer in hand, in a
space of a few square leagues, the temperature or
climate which he believes the most favourable to
his age, his physical constitution, or to the species
of cultivation to which he is most attached, appear
to be unrivalled. Nothing can exceed the beauty
of those delicious countries, situated half way up
the ascent, in the region of oaks and pines, be
tween 3,000 and 5,000 feet above the level of the
sea; where a perpetual spring reigns, where the

SITUATION. 6
most delicious fruits of the Indies are cultivated
beside those of Europe, and where these enjoy
ments are troubled neither by a multitude of insects,
nor by the fear of the yellow fever (yomito), nor by
the frequency of earthquakes. There does not exist
a region in which man, with less labour, can supply
more abundantly the wants of a numerous family.
In the short statistical account we shall give of
New Spain, we shall confine ourselves to those sub
jects which are interesting considered with relation
to the important science of political economy.
The face of a country, the grouping of its moun
tains, the extent of its plains, the elevation which
determines their temperature; every thing, in a
word, which regards the construction of the earth,
has the most intimate connexion with the progress
of the population and the welfare of its inhabitants.
It is this construction which influences the state of
agriculture, varied according to the variations of
climate, the facility of internal commerce, more or
less favoured by the nature of the ground : lastly,
the military defence, on which depends the external
safety of the colony. These are the only consi
derations which can render geological descriptions
interesting to the statesman, when he calculates
the territorial force and riches of nations.
The Kingdom of New Spain, to which the capital
city and seat of government has given the name of
the Kingdom of Mexico, the most northern part of
all Spanish America, extends from the 16th to the

4 TERRITORIAL DIVISION.
38th degree of north latitude. The length of this
vast region, in the direction of S.S.E. to N.N.W.,
is about 1,800 miles; its greatest breadth lies under
the 30th degree. From the Red River in the
province of Texas, to the island of Tiburon on the
coasts of the intendancy of Sonora, it measures
from east to west 1,100 miles. This space of
seventy-nine degrees equals not only the length of
all Africa, but even much surpasses the breadth
of the Russian empire, which includes about a
hundred and sixty-seven degrees of longitude, un
der a parallel of which the degrees are not more
than half the degrees of the equator.
In its present state New Spain is divided into
twelve intendancies, to which we must add three
other districts, very remote from the capital,
which have preserved the simple denomination of
provinces. These fifteen divisions are,
I. UNDER THE TEMPERATE ZONE, 738,000
square miles, with 677,000 souls, or rather
less than one inhabitant to the square mile.
A. Region of the north, an interior region.
1 . Provincia de Nuevo Mexico, along the
Rio del Norte to the north of the parallel
of 31°.
2. Intendencia de Nueva Biscay a to the
south-west of the Rio del Norte, on the
central table-land which declines rapidly
from Durango towards Chihuahua.

TERRITORIAL division. 5
B. Region of the north-west, in the vici
nity of the Great Ocean.
3. Provincia de la Nueva California, or
north-west coast of North America, pos
sessed by the Spaniards.
4. Provincia de la Antigua California. Its
southern extremity enters the torrid zone.
5. Intendencia de la Sonora, The most
southern part of Cinaloa, in which the
celebrated mines of Copala and Rosario are
situated, also passes the tropic of Cancer.
C. Region of the north-east, adjoining the
Gulf of Mexico.
6. Intendencia de San Luis Potosi. It com
prehends the provinces of Texas, la colonia
de Nuevo Santander and Cohahuila, El
Nuevo Reyno de Leon, and the districts of
Charcas, Altamira, Catorce, and Ramos.
These last districts compose the intendancy
of San Luis properly so called. The
southern part, which extends to the south
of the Barra de Santander and the Real
de Catorce, belongs to the torrid zone.
II. UNDER THE TORRID ZONE, 328,500
square miles, with 5,160,000 souls, or rather
more than 15 inhabitants to the square mile.
D. Central region.
7. Intendencia de Zacatecas, excepting the

o territorial division.
part which extends to the north of the
mines of Fresnillo.
8. Intendencia de Guadalaxara.
9. Intendencia de Guanaxuato.
10. Intendencia de Palladolid.
1 1 . Intendencia de Mexico.
12. Intendencia de la Puebla.
13. Intendencia de Vera Cruz.
E. Region of the south-west.
14. Intendencia de Oaxaca.
15. Intendencia de Merida.
The divisions in this table are founded on the
physical state of the country. We see that nearly
seven eighths of the inhabitants live under the
torrid zone. The population becomes thinner
as we advance towards Durango and Chihuahua.
In this respect New Spain bears a striking analogy
to Hindostan, which in its north parts is bounded
by regions almost uncultivated and uninhabited.
Of five millions who inhabit the equinoctial part
of Mexico, four-fifths live on the ridge of the
Cordillera, or table-landsj whose elevation above
the level of the sea equals that of the passage of
Mount Cenis.
New Spain, considering its provinces according
to their commercial relations, or the situation of
the coasts, is divided into three regions.
I. PROVINCES OF THE INTERIOR, which
do not extend to the ocean.

TERRITORIAL DIVISION. 7
1. Nuevo Mexico.
2. Nueva Biscay a.
3. Zacatecas.
4 . Guanaxuato.
II. MARITIME PROVINCES of the eastern
coast opposite to Europe.
5. San Luis Potosi.
6. Vera Cruz.
7. Merida, or Yucatan.
III. MARITIME PROVINCES of the western
coast opposite to Asia.
8. New California.
9. Old California.
10. Sonora.
1 1 . Guadalaxara.
12. Valladolid.
13. Mexico.
14. Puebla.
15 Oaxaca.
These divisions will one day possess great poli
tical interest, when the cultivation of Mexico shall
be less concentrated on the central table-land or
ridge of the Cordillera, and when the coasts shall
become more populous. The maritime provinces
of the west will send their vessels to Nootka, to
China, and the East Indies. The Sandwich
islands, inhabited by a ferocious but industrious
and enterprising people, appear destined to re-

8 TERRITORIAL DIVISION.
ceive Mexican rather than European colonists.
They afford an important entrepbt to the nations
who carry on commerce in the Great Ocean. The
inhabitants of New Spain and Peru have never yet
been able to profit by their advantageous position
on a coast opposite to Asia and New Holland.
They do not even know the productions of the
South Sea islands. The bread-fruit tree, sugar
cane of Otaheite, — that precious reed, the culti
vation of which has had such a happy influ
ence on West India commerce, — will one day be
received by them from Jamaica, the Havannah,
and Caraccas, and no longer from the adjoining
islands. What efforts have not been made by the
United States of North America, within the last
ten years, to open a communication with the
western coast, with that same coast on which the
Mexicans possess the finest ports, but without acti
vity and without commerce !
According to the ancient division of the country,
the Reyno de Nueva Galicia contained more than
126,000 square miles, and nearly a million of inha
bitants : it included the intendancies of Zacatecas
and Guadalaxara *, as well as a small part of that
of San Luis Potosi. The regions now known by
the denomination of the seven intendancies of
Guanaxuato, Valladolid or Mechoacan, Mexico,
Puebla, Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, and Merida, formed,
* With the exception of the most southern part, which
contains the volcanos of Colima andthe village of Ayotitan.

TERRITORIAL DIVISION. 9
along with a small portion of the intendancy of
San Luis Potosi*, the Reyno de Mexico, properly
so called. This kingdom consequently contained
more than 243,000 square miles, and nearly four
millions and a half of inhabitants.
Another division of New Spain, equally ancient
and less vague, is that which distinguishes New
Spain, properly so called, from the provincias
interims. To the latter belongs all to the north
and north-west of the kingdom of Nueva Galicia,
with the exception of the two Californias ; con
sequently, 1. the small kingdom of Leon ; 2. the
colony of New Santander; 3. Texas; 4. New
Biscay; 5. Sonora; 6. Cohahuila; and 7. New
Mexico. The provincias internas del Vireynato,
which contain 70,326 square miles, are distin
guished from the provincias internas de la Coman-
dancia (of Chihuahua), erected into a capitania
general in 1779, which contain 534,375 square
miles. Of the twelve new intendancies, three are
situated in the provincias internas, Durango,
Sonora, and San Luis Potosi. We must not,
however, forget that the intendant of San Luis
is only under the direct authority of the viceroy
for Leon, Santander, and the districts near his
residence, those of Charcas, Catorce, and Alta-
mira. The governments of Cohahuila and Texas
make also part of the intendancy of San Luis
* The most southern part, through which the river of Pa-
nuco runs. C

10 TERRITORIAL DIVISION.
Potosi ; but they belong directly to the coman-
dancia general de Chihuahua. The following
tables will throw some light ¦ on these very com
plicated territorial divisions.. Let us divide all
New Spain into
A. Provincias sujetas al Virey de Nueva Es-
pana ; 531,927 square miles, with 5,477,900
souls : the ten intendancies of Mexico, Puebla,
Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Merida, Valladolid, Gua
dalaxara, Zacatecas, Guanaxuato, and San
Luis Potosi (without including Cohahuila and
Texas).
The two Californias.
B. Provincias sujetas al Comandante general
de provincias internas, 534,375 square miles,
with 359,200 inhabitants :
The two intendancies of Durango and Sonora;
The province of Nuevo Mexico ;
Cohahuila and Texas.
The whole of New Spain, 1,066,302 square miles,
with 5,837,100 inhabitants.
We have given this brief outline of the territorial
divisions of the whole of this vast empire : but as it
forms, no part of our purpose to extend the views of
our readers beyond those intendancies which are the
seat of the great mining operations, we shall, in
the more detailed description which follows, con
fine ourselves principally within the intendancies
of Guanaxuato, Mexico, Zacatecas, San Luis

ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 11
Potosi, Valladolid, and Guadalaxara. The only
instance in which we shall exceed this boundary,
is in that of Vera Cruz, which is interesting as the
province through which all the riches of the interior
pass to Europe.
The chain of mountains which form the vast
table-land of Mexico, is the same with that which,
under the name of the Andes, runs throughall South
America ; but the construction, I may say the skele
ton (charpente), of this chain varies to the south
and north of the equator. In the southern hemi
sphere, the Cordillera is every where torn and in
terrupted by fissures, like open furrows not filled
with heterogeneous substances. If there are plains
elevated from 10,000 to 12,000 feet, as in the king
dom of Quito, and further north in the province of
losPastos, they are not to be compared in extent with
those of New Spain, and are rather to be considered
as longitudinal valleys bounded by two branches of
the great Cordillera of the Andes : while in Mexico
it is the very ridge of the mountains which forms
the table-land ; and it is the direction of this plain
which designates, as it were, that of the whole chain.
Peru and the kingdom of New Grenada contain
transversal valleys, of which the perpendicular depth
is sometimes near 5,000 feet. The existence of
these valleys prevents the inhabitants from travel
ling except on horseback, a-foot, or carried on the
shoulders of Indians (called cargadores) ; but in the"
kingdom of New Spain carriages roll on to Santa
c 2

12 POSITION OF MINING DISTRICTS.
Fe in the province of New Mexico, for a length of
more than 1,500 miles. On the whole of this road
there were few difficulties for art to surmount.
The table-land of Mexico is in general so little
interrupted by valleys, and its declivity is so gentle,
that as far as the city of Durango, in New Biscay,
420 miles from Mexico, the surface is continually
elevated from 5,600 to 8,900 feet above the level
of the neighbouring ocean. This is equal to the
height of Mount Cenis, St. Gothard, or the Great
St. Bernard.
A remarkable advantage for the progress of na
tional industry arises from the height at which
nature, in New Spain, has deposited the precious
metals. In Peru the most considerable silver
mines, those of Potosi, Pasco, and Chota, are im
mensely elevated, and border upon the region of per
petual snow. In working them, men, provisions,
and cattle, must all be brought from a distance.
Cities situated in plains, where water freezes the
whole year round, and where trees never vegetate,
can hardly be an attractive abode. Nothing can
determine a freeman to abandon the delicious cli
mate of the valleys to insulate himself on the top of
the Andes, except the hope of amassing wealth.
But in Mexico, the richest veins of silver, those of
Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, Tasco, and Real del Monte,
are at moderate elevations of from 5,000 to 6,000
feet. The mines are surrounded with cultivated
fields, towns, and villages ;. the neighbouring sum-

POSITION OF MINING DISTRICTS. 13
mits are crowned with forests ; and every thing fa
cilitates the acquisition of this subterraneous wealth.
None of the plains of New Grenada, Quito, or
Peru exceed 360 square miles. Of difficult access,
and separated from one another by deep valleys,
they are very unfavourable for the transport of goods
and internal commerce. Crowning insulated sum
mits, they appear like islands in the middle of the
aerial ocean. Those who inhabit these frozen plains
remain fixed there, and dread to descend into the
neighbouring regions, where a suffocating heat pre
vails, prejudicial to the primitive inhabitants of the
higher Andes.
In-Mexico, however, the soil assumes a different
aspect. Table-lands of a great extent, but of a sur
face no less uniform, are so approximated to one
another, that they form but a single plain on the
lengthened ridge of the Cordillera: such is the
table-land which runs from 18° to 40° of north
latitude. Its length is equal to the distance from
Lyons to the tropic of Cancer, which traverses the
great African desert. This extraordinary plain ap
pears to decline insensibly towards the north.
Further to the north of the parallel of 19°, near
the celebrated mines of Zimapan and the Doctor,
situated in the intendancy of Mexico, the Cordil
lera takes the name of Sierra Madre ; and then
leaving the eastern part of the kingdom it runs to
the north-west, towards the cities of San Miguel el
Grande and Guanaxuato. To the north of this

14 ROAD FROM MEXICO TO GUANAXUATO.
last city, considered the Potosi of Mexico, the Sierra
Madre becomes of an extraordinary breadth. It
divides immediately into three branches, of which
the most eastern runs in the direction of Charcas
and the Real de Catorce, and loses itself in the
new kingdom of Leon.
In travelling from the capital of Mexico to the
great mines of Guanaxuato, we remain at first for
30 miles in the valley of Tenochtitlan, elevated
7,500 feet above the level of the sea. The level of
this beautiful valley is so uniform, that the village
of Gueguetoque, situated at the foot of the moun
tain of Sincoque, is only 32 feet higher than Mex
ico. The hill of Barientos is merely a promontory
which stretches into the valley. From Guegue
toque we ascend near Botas to Puerto de los Reyes,
and from thence descend into the valley of Tula, which
is 380 feet lower than the valley of Tenochtitlan,
and across which the great canal of evacuation of the
lakes San Christoval and Zumpango passes to the
Rio de Moctezuma and the Gulf of Mexico. To
arrive at the bottom of the valley of Tula, in the
great plain of Queretaro, we must pass the moun
tain of Calpulalpan, whichis scarcely 9000feet above
the level of the sea, and is consequently less elevated
than the city of Quito, though it appears the high
est point of the whole road from Mexico to Chi
huahua. To the north of this mountainous country
begin the vast plains of S. Juan del Rio, Queretaro,
and Zelya, plains covered with villages and con-

RIVERS. 15
siderable cities. Their mean height equals that of
Puy de Dome in Auvergne, and they are near 90
miles in length, extending to the foot of the me
talliferous mountains of Guanaxuato.
In the midst of so many advantages bestowed by
nature upon New Spain, it suffers in general, like
Old Spain, from the want of water and navigable
rivers. In the whole equinoctial part of Mexico there
are only small rivers, the mouths of which are of
considerable size. The narrow form of the con
tinent prevents the collection of a great mass of
water. The rapid declivity of the Cordillera
abounds more properly with torrents than rivers.
Mexico is in the same state with Peru, where the
Andes approach so near to the coast as to occasion
the aridity of the neighbouring plains. Among
the small number of rivers in the southern part
of New Spain, the only ones which may in time
become interesting for internal commerce are, 1 .
The Rio Guasacualco, and the Rio Alvarado, both
to the south-east of Vera Cruz, and adapted for
facilitating the communication with the kingdom
of Guatimala ; 2. The Rio de Moctezuma, which
carries the waters of the lakes and valley of
Tenochtitlan to the Rio de Panuco, and by which,
forgetting that Mexico is elevated above 7,000 feet
above the level of the sea, a navigation has been
projected between the capital and the western
coast; 3. The Rio de Zacatula; 4. The great

16 LAKES — ROADS.
river of Santiago, formed by the junction of the
rivers Lerma and las Laxas, which might carry the
flour of Salamanca, Zelaya, and perhaps the whole
intendancy of Guadalaxara, to the port of San
Bias, or the coast of the Pacific Ocean.
The lakes with which Mexico abounds, the
greater part of which appear annually on the de
cline, are merely the remains of immense basins
of water, which appear to have formerly existed
on the high and extensive plains of the Cordillera.
We shall merely mention the great lake of Chapala
in New Gallicia, of nearly 1,400 square miles,
double the size of the lake of Constance ; the
lakes of the valley of Mexico, which include a
fourth part of its surface; the lake of Patzcuaro,
in the intendancy of Valladolid, one of the most
picturesque situations which I know in either
continent ; and the lakes of Mextitlan and Parras
in New Biscay.
The roads of Mexico are either carried along
the central table-land itself, from Oaxaca to Santa
Fe, or they lead from the table-land towards the
coast. The former serve to carry on a communi
cation between the towns on the ridge of the
mountains, in the coldest and most populous re
gion of the kingdom ; the latter are destined for
foreign commerce, and for the intercourse which
subsists between the interior and the ports of Vera
Cruz and Acapulco : they also facilitate an ex
change between the productions of the mountains

ROADS — MODES OF CONVEYANCE. 17
and the burning plains of the coast. The roads
of the table-land running from the S.S.E. to the
N.N.W., which from the general configuration
of the country we might call longitudinal, are
very easily kept up. We shall not repeat in this
place what we have already stated, relative to the
extent and continuity of the high plains of Ana-
huac, where we find neither fissure nor ravine,
and to the progressive fall of the table-land from
8,200 to 2,600 feet of absolute height. Carriages
may run from Mexico to Santa Fe, in an extent
exceeding the length which the chain of the
Alps would have, if prolonged without interruption
from Geneva to the shores of the Black Sea. In
fact, the central table-land is crossed in all directions
in four-wheel carriages, from the capital to Gua
naxuato, Durango, Chihuahua, Valladolid, Guada
laxara, andPerote; but in the present bad state of
the roads, waggons are not established for the con
veyance of goods. The inhabitants give the prefe
rence to the employment of beasts of burden ; and
thousands of horses and mules in long files (requas)
cover the roads of Mexico. A considerable num
ber of Mestizoes and Indians are employed to
conduct these caravans. Preferring a wandering
life to any sedentary occupation, they pass the
night in the open air, or in sheds, (tambos, or
casas de communidad,) which are constructed in
the middle of the villages for the convenience of
travellers. The mules feed at liberty in the

18 ROADS  FROM THE INTERIOR
savannahs ; but when the great droughts have
parched up the grass, the drivers feed them on
maize either in herb (zacate), or in grain.
The introduction of camels would be exceedingly
useful in Mexico. The table-lands over which the
great roads pass are not sufficiently elevated for the
cold to be prejudicial to these animals ; and they
would suffer less than horses and mules from the
aridity of the soil, and the want of water and pas
turage to which the beasts of burden are exposed to
the north of Guanaxuato, especially in the desert by
which New Biscay is separated from New Mexico.
The roads which lead from the interior table
land to the coasts, and which I call transversal,
are the most difficult, and chiefly deserve the
attention of Government. The roads from Mexico
to Vera Cruz and Acapulco, from Zacatecas to
New Santander, from Guadalaxara to San Bias,
from Valladolid to the port of Colima, and from
Durango to Mazatlan passing by the western
branch of the Sierra Madre, all belong to this class.
The roads by which the capital carries on a com
munication with the ports of Acapulco and Vera
Cruz, are of course the most frequented. The
value of the precious metals, of the agricultural
productions, and of the goods of Europe and Asia
which flow through these two channels, amounts
to the total sum of nearly 14,000,000/. sterling
per annum. These treasures pass along a road
which resembles that of Airolo at the hospital of

TO ACAPULCO AND VERA CRUZ. 19
Saint Gothard. From the village of Vigas to
L'Encero, the road to Vera Cruz is frequently
nothing but a narrow and crooked path, and the
most difficult, perhaps, in all America, with the
exception of that by which the goods of Europe
are transported from Honda to Santa Fe de Bogota,
and from Guayaquil to Quito.
The productions from the Philippine Islands
and Peru, arrive by the road from Mexico to
Acapulco. It is carried along a less rapid slope of
the Cordilleras, than the road leading from the
capital to Vera Cruz. In the European road we
remain, from the valley of Mexico to beyond
Perote, on the central plain, at an elevation of
7,550 feet above the level of the ocean ; and from
that village we descend with extreme rapidity to
the ravine of the Plan del Rio, to the west of
Rinconada. On the other hand, on the road from
Acapulco, which we designate by the name of the
Asiatic Road, the descent begins at a distance of
twenty-four miles frohi Mexico, on the southern
slope of the basaltic mountain of Guarda.
The construction and embellishment of a new
road from Mexico to the port of Vera Cruz has
latterly become the object of the solicitude of
Government. A fortunate rivalry is displayed be
tween the new Council of Commerce established
at Vera Cruz, under the name of Real tribunal del
consulado, and the old Consulado of the capital ;
and the latter is gradually beginning to shake off
d2

20 ROAD FROM MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ.
the inactivity with which it has so long been re
proached. The merchants of Mexico, having
constructed at their expense an excellent causeway
along the heights of Tiangillo and las Crazes,
which separate the basin of Toluca from that of
Mexico, wish the new road of Vera Cruz to pass
through Orizaba; while the merchants of Vera
Cruz who have country-houses at Xalapa, and who
maintain numerous commercial relations with that
town, insist that the new carriage road (camino
carretero) should go by Perote and Xalapa. After
a discussion of several years, the Consulado of Vera
Cruz profited by the arrival of the viceroy, Don
Josef de Yvirigarras, who declared himself in favour
of the road by Xalapa as of the greatest utility, and
who gave the direction of it to M. Garcia Conde,
an active and intelligent engineer.
The old road from Mexico to Xalapa and Vera
Cruz passed along the elevated plains of Apa, with
out touching the great town of Puebla de los An
geles. The indigenous merchandises and produc
tions were then con yed from Mexico to Perote
and Xalapa, by a very circuitous, route. They rec
koned by this road, 130 miles from Mexico to Perote,
and 220 from Mexico to Vera Cruz. At last a new
and veryshort road wasopened by theVenta de Chal-
co, the small chain of porphyritic mountains of Cor
dova, Tesmelucos, and Ocotlan. The advantages of
these more direct communications between the ca
pital, the city of Puebla, and the fortress of Perote,

LIGHT-HOUSE. 21
will be easily discovered by examining an atlas of
New Spain.
The new road from Mexico to Puebla still pos
sesses the inconsiderable difficulty of the passage
of the mountains, which separate the basin of Te
nochtitlan from that of Cholula. The table-land
which extends from the foot of the volcanoes of
Mexico to the mountains of Orizaba and the Cof-
fre, is a level plain, covered with sand, fragments of
pearled rock, and saline efflorescences. The road
from Puebla to Vera Cruz passes through Coco-
singo, Acaxete and Perote. We imagine we are
travelling over a surface levelled by being long co
vered with water. When these plains are heated
by the solar rays, they exhibit at the height of the
passage of Saint Bernard, the same phenomena of
suspension and extraordinary refraction, which we
generally observe only in the neighbourhood of the
ocean. To the activity of the Consulado of Vera Cruz
we owe not only the undertaking of the road of Pe
rote, which in 1803 cost from six to seven thou
sand pounds per mile, but also the amelioration of
the hospitals, and the construction of a beautiful
gyratory light-house, executed at London after the
plan of the celebrated astronomer M. Mendoza
y Rios. This light-house consists of a very ele
vated tower, placed at the extremity of the castle
of San Juan d'Ulua, which, with the lantern, cost
nearly, 20,000/. The lamps, with a current of air,

22 ROAD FROM MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ.
and furnished with reflectors, are fixed on a triangle
which turns by means of clock-work ; so that the
light disappears whenever the machine presents one
of its angles to the entry of the port. At my de
parture from Vera Cruz, the Consulado were occu
pied with two new projects of equal utility, — the
supplying the town with potable water, and the
construction of a mole, which, advancing in the
form of a pier, may resist the shock of the waves.
The magnificent road constructing from Perote
to Vera Cruz will rival those of the Simplon and
Mount Cenis. It is broad, solid, and of a very
gentle fall. They have not followed the track of
the old road, which was narrow and paved with ba
saltic porphyry, and which appears to have been
constructed towards the middle of the eighteenth
century. Rapid ascents have been carefully avoid
ed ; and the charge which is brought against the
engineer, of lengthening the road too much, will
be abandoned when wheel carriages shall be sub
stituted for the carriage of goods on the backs of
mules. The construction of this road will proba
bly cost more than 600,000/. sterling ; but we
hope that so beautiful and useful a work will not
suffer any interruption. It is an object of the
highest importance to those parts of Mexico the
most remote from the capital, and from the port
of Vera Cruz ; for when the road shall be com
pleted, the price of iron, mercury, spirituous liquors,
paper, and all the other commodities of Europe,

ROAD FROM MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ. 23
will experience a sensible fall. The Mexican flour,
which has hitherto been dearer at the Havannah
than the flour of Philadelphia, will be naturally
preferred to the latter ; the exportation of the su
gars and hides of the country will be more consi
derable ; and the transportation of goods on wag
gons will require a much smaller number of mules
and horses than are now employed. These changes
will produce a double effect on subsistence ; and
the scarcities which have hitherto almost periodi
cally desolated Mexico will be more rare ; not only
because the consumption of maize will be less, but
because the agriculturist, stimulated by the hope of
selling his flour at Vera Cruz, will appropriate more
of his land to the cultivation of wheat.
During my stay at Xalapa in the month of Fe
bruary 1804, the new road constructed under the
direction of Don Garcia Conde, had been com
menced on those points which presented the greatest
difficulties ; namely, the ravine called the Plan del
Rio, and the Cuesta del Soldado. It is intended
to place columns of porphyry along the road, for
the purpose of indicating both the distances and
the elevation of the surface above the level of the
ocean. These inscriptions, which are no where to
be met with in Europe, will be particularly in
teresting to a traveller who is climbing the eastern
ascent of the Cordillera ; they will quiet his mind,
by announcing to him that he is approaching that
fortunate and elevated region, in which the scourge

24 ROAD FROM MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ-
of the black vomit, or yellow fever, is no longer to
be dreaded.
The old road of Xalapa leads from Rinconada
eastward, by the old Vera Cruz vulgarly called la
Antigua. After passing below this village the river
of the same name, 650 feet in breadth, we follow
the coast by Punta Gorda and Vergara ; or if the
tide is high, we take the road of la Manga de Clavo,
which does not rejoin the coast till the very port of
Vera Cruz. It would be advantageous to construct
a bridge over the Rio de la Antigua, near la Ven-
tilla, where the bed of the river is only 350 feet in
breadth, by which means the Xalapa road would
be shortened more than 1 8 miles ; and without
touching old Vera Cruz, it would lead immediately
from the Plan del Rio, by the bridge of la Ventilla,
Passo de Ovejas, Cienega de Olocuatla, and Loma
de San Juan, to Vera Cruz. This change is so
much the more desirable, as it is the journey from
Encero to the coast which is the most dangerous
to the health of the inhabitants of the interior of
Mexico, when they descend from the table-land of
Perote and the heights of Xalapa.

25

CHAPTER II.
City of Mexico — situation — population — buildings — sur
rounding country — scientific establishments— progress of
opinion — distribution of property.
The situation of the city of Mexico possesses in
estimable advantages, if we consider it with relation
to its intercourse with the rest of the civilized world.
Placed on an isthmus, washed by the South Sea
and Atlantic Ocean, Mexico appears destined to
possess a powerful influence over the political events
which agitate the two continents. A king of
Spain resident in the capital might transmit his
orders in five weeks to the Peninsula in Europe,
and in six weeks to the Philippine islands in Asia.
This vast empire, under a careful cultivation, would
alone produce all that commerce collects together
from the rest of the globe, — sugar, cochineal,
cacao, cotton, coffee, wheat, hemp, flax, silk, oils,
and wine. It would furnish every metal, without
even the exception of mercury. The finest timber
and an abundance of iron and copper might favour
the progress of Mexican navigation, although thestate
of the coasts and the want of ports oppose obstacles
in this respect which would be difficult to overcome.
Mexico is the most populous city of the new con
tinent. It contains nearly 40,000 inhabitants less
E

26

POPU LATION — SITUATION .

than Madrid ; and as it forms a great square of
which each side is about 9,000 feet, its population
is spread over a great extent of ground. The streets
being very spacious, in general appear rather de
serted. They are the less frequented, as, in a climate
considered cold by the inhabitants of the tropics,
people do not expose themselves so much to the
open air, as in the cities at the foot of the Cordillera.
Hence the latter (ciudades de tierra caliente) uni
formly appear more populous than the cities of the
temperate or cold regions (ciudades de tierra fria).
Adorned with numerous teocallis*, like so many
Mahometan steeples, surrounded with water and
dikes, founded on islands covered with verdure, and
receiying hourly in its streets thousands of boats,
which animated the lake, the ancient Tenochtit
lan, according to the accounts of the first conquerors,
must have resembled some of the eities of Holland,
China, or the Delta of Lower Egypt. The capital,
reconstructed by the Spaniards, exhibits, perhaps, a
less lively, though a more august and majestic ap
pearance. Mexico is undoubtedly one of the finest
cities ever built by Europeans in either hemisphere.
With the exception of Petersburg, Berlin, Philar
delphia, and some parts of Westminster, there does
not exist a city of the same extent which can be
compared to the capital of New Spain — for the
uniform level of the ground on which it stands, for
* Houses of God.

BUILDINGS. 27
the regularity and breadth of the streets, and the
extent of the public places. The architecture is
generally of a very pure style, and there are some
edifices of very beautiful structure. The exterior of
the houses is not loaded with ornaments. Two
sorts of hewn stone, the porous amygdaloid called
tetzontli, and especially a porphyry of vitreous feld-
spath without any quartz, give to the Mexican
buildings an air of solidity, and sometimes even of
magnificence. None of those wooden balconies and
galleries are to be seen, which so much disfigure all
the European cities in both Indies. The balustrades
and gates are all of Biscay iron, ornamented with
bronze ; and the houses, instead of roofs, have ter
races like those in Italy and other southern coun
tries. Mexico has been very much embellished since
the residence of the Abbe" Chappe there in 1769.
The edifice destined to the School of Mines, for
which the richest individuals of the country fur
nished a sum of more than 125,000/. sterling,
would adorn the principal places of Paris or London.
Two great palaces (hotels) were recently constructed
by Mexican artists, pupils of the Academy of Fine
Arts of the capital. One of these palaces, in the
quarter della Traspana, exhibits in the interior of
the court a very beautiful oval peristyle of clustered
columns. The traveller admires a vast circumfe
rence paved with porphyry flags, and inclosed with
an iron railing, richly ornamented with bronze,
E 2

28 BUILDINGS.
containing an equestrian statue of King Charles
the Fourth, placed on a pedestal of Mexican mar
ble, in the midst of the Plaza Major of Mexico,
opposite the cathedral and the viceroy's palace. It
must however be allowed, that, notwithstanding the
progress of the arts within these last thirty years,
it is much less from the grandeur and beauty of
the monuments, than from the breadth and straight-
ness of the streets, and much less from its edifices,
than from its uniform regularity, its extent and
position, that the capital of New Spain attracts the
admiration of Europeans. From a singular con
currence of circumstances, I have seen successively,
within a very short space of time, Lima, Mexico,
Philadelphia, Washington, Paris, Rome, Naples,
and the largest cities of Germany. By comparing
together impressions which follow in rapid succes
sion, we are enabled to rectify any opinion which
we may have too easily adopted. Notwithstanding
these unavoidable comparisons, several of which,
one would think, must have proved disadvan
tageous to the capital of Mexico, it has left in my
mind a recollection of grandeur, which I principally
attribute to the majestic character of its situation
and the surrounding scenery.
Nothing, indeed, can present a more rich and
varied appearance than the valley, when, in a fine
summer morning, under a sky without a cloud, and
of that deep azure which is peculiar to the dry and
rarefied air of high mountains, we transport our-

SURROUNDING COUNTRY. 29
selves to the top of one of the towers of the cathe
dral of Mexico, or ascend the hill of Chapoltepec.
A beautiful vegetation surrounds this hill. Old cy
press trunks, of more than 50 feet in circumference,
raise their naked heads above those of the schinus,
which resemble in their appearance the weeping-
willows of the East. From the centre of this
solitude, the summit of the porphyritical rock of
Chapoltepec, the eye sweeps over a vast plain of
carefully cultivated fields, which extend to the very
feet of the colossal mountains covered with perpe
tual snow. The city appears as if washed by the
waters of the lake of Tezcuco, whose basin, sur
rounded with villages and hamlets, brings to mind
the most beautiful lakes of the mountains of Swit
zerland. Large avenues of elms and poplars lead
in every direction to the capital ; and two aque
ducts, constructed over arches of very great eleva
tion, cross the plain, and exhibit an appearance
equally agreeable and interesting. The magnifi
cent convent of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe ap
pears joined to the mountains of Tepeyacac, among
ravines, which shelter a few date and young yucca
trees. Towards the south, the whole tract between
San Angel, Tacabaya, and San Augustin de las
Cuevas, appears an immense garden of orange,
peach, apple, cherry, and other European fruit-
trees. This beautiful cultivation forms a singular
contrast with the wild appearance of the naked
mountains which inclose the valley, among which

30 MARKET— POLICE- — WATER.
the famous voleanos of La Puebla, Popocatepetl, and
Iztaccihuatl are the most distinguished. The first
of these forms an enormous cone, of which the
crater, continually inflamed and throwing up smoke
and ashesj opens in the midst of eternal snows.
The market of Mexico is richly supplied with
eatables, particularly with roots and fruits of every
sort. It is a most interesting spectacle, which
may be enjoyed every morning at sun-rise, to see
these provisions, and a profusion of flowers, brought
in by Indians in boats descending the canals of
Istacalco and Chalco. The greater part of these
roots are cultivated on the chinampas, called by
the Europeans floating gardens. There are two
sorts of them, of which the one is moveable, and
driven about by the winds, and the other fixed and
attached to the shore. The first alone merit the
denomination of floating gardens, but their number
is daily diminishing.
The city of Mexico is also remarkable for its
excellent police. Most of the streets have very
broad pavements ; and they are clean and well
lighted. These advantages are the fruits of the
activity of the Count de Revillagigedo, who on his
arrival found the capital extremely dirty.
Water is every where to be had in the soil of
Mexico a very short way below the surface, but it
is brackish, like the water of the lake of Tezcuco.
The two aqueducts already mentioned, by which the
city receives fresh water, are monuments of modern

SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISMENTS. 31
construction worthy of the traveller's attention.
The springs of potable water are situated to the
east of the town, one in the insulated hill of Cha
poltepec, and the other in the cerros of Santa Fe,
near the Cordillera which separates the valley of
Tenochtitlan from that of Lerma and Toluca.
The arches of the aqueduct of Chapoltepec occupy
a length of near 1 1,000 feet. The water of Cha
poltepec enters by the southern part of the city,
at the Salto del Agua.
The valley of Tenochtitlan offers to the exami
nation of naturalists two sources of mineral water,
that of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, and that of
the Penon de los Banos. These sources contain
carbonic acid, sulfate of lime and soda, and mu
riate of soda. Baths have been established there
in a manner equally salutary and convenient. The
Indians manufacture their salt near the Penon de
los Banos.
No city of the new continent, without even ex
cepting those of the United States, can display
such great and solid scientific establishments as
the capital of Mexico. I shall content myself here
with naming the School of Mines, directed by the
learned Elhuyar, to which we shall return when we
come to speak of the mines ; the Botanic Garden ;
and the Academy of Painting and Sculpture. This
academy bears the title of Academia de las Nobles
Artes de Mexico.
The revenues of the Academy of Fine Arts at

32 SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISHMENTS.
Mexico amount to above 5,000/. sterling, of which
the Government gives 3.,000/., the body of Mexican
Miners 1,000/., the Consulado, or association of
merchants of the capital, 1,000/. It is impos
sible not to perceive the influence of this establish
ment on the taste of the nation. This influence is
particularly visible in the symmetry of the build
ings, in the perfection with which the hewing of
stone is conducted, and in the ornaments of the
capitals and stucco relievos. What a number of
beautiful edifices are to be seen at Mexico ! nay,
even in provincial towns like Guanaxuato and
Queretaro ! These monuments, which frequently
cost from 40,000/. to 60,000/. sterling, would ap
pear to advantage in the finest streets of Paris,
Berlin, and Petersburg. M. Tolsa, professor of
sculpture at Mexico, has cast an equestrian statue
of King Charles the Fourth, which, with the ex
ception of the Marcus Aurelius at Rome, surpasses
in beauty and purity of style every work of the
kind in Europe. Instruction is communicated
gratis at the Academy of Fine Arts. It is not
confined alone to the drawing of landscapes and
figures ; they have had the good sense to employ
other means for exciting the national industry.
The academy labours successfully to introduce
among the artisans a taste for elegance and beauti
ful forms. Large rooms well lighted by Argand's
lamps, contain every evening some hundreds of
young people, some of whom draw from relievo or

SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISHMENTS. 33
living models, while others copy drawings of furni
ture, chandeliers, or other ornaments in bronze.
In this assemblage (and this is very remarkable in
the midst of a country where the prejudices of the
nobility against the castes are so inveterate) rank,
colour and race are confounded : we see the Indian
and the Mestizo sitting beside the White, and the
son of a poor artisan entering into competition
with the children of the great lords of the country.
It is a consolation to observe, that under every zone
the cultivation of science and art establishes a cer
tain equality among men, and obliterates, for a time
at least, all those petty passions of which the effects
are so prejudicial to social happiness.
Since the close of the reign of Charles the Third,
and under that of Charles the Fourth, the study of
the physical sciences has made great progress, not
only in Mexico, but in general in all the Spanish
colonies. The principles of the new chemistry, which is
known in the Spanish colonies by the equivocal ap
pellation of new philosophy, (nueva filosofia,) are
more diffused in Mexico than in many parts of the
peninsula. A European traveller is surprised to
meet in the interior of the country, on the very
borders of California, with young Mexicans who
reason on the decomposition of water in the pro
cess of amalgamation with free air. The School
of Mines possesses a chemical laboratory ; a geo
logical collection, arranged according to the system

34 SCIENTIFIC ESTABLISHMENTS.
of Werner; a physical cabinet, in which we
not only find the valuable instruments of Rams-
den, Adams, Le Noir, and Louis Berthoud, but
also models executed in the capital, with the
greatest precision, and from the finest wood in the
country. The best mineralogical work in the
Spanish language was printed at Mexico, I mean
the Manual of Oryctognosy, composed by M. del
Rio, according to the principles of the school of
Freyberg, in which the author was formed. The
first Spanish translation of Lavoisier's Elements of
Chemistry was also published at Mexico. I cite
these insulated facts, because they give us the mea
sure of the ardour with which the exact sciences
are beginning to be studied in the capital of New
Spain. This ardour is much greater than that
with which they addict themselves to the study of
languages and ancient literature.
Instruction in mathematics is less carefully at
tended to in the university of Mexico than in the
School of Mines. The pupils of this last establish
ment go further, into analysis ; they are instructed
in the integral and differential calculi. On the
return of peace and free intercourse with Europe,
when astronomical instruments (chronometers, sex
tants, and the repeating circles of Borda) shall be
come more common, young men will be found in
the most remote parts of the kingdom capable of
making observations, and calculating them after the
most recent methods.

PROGRESS OF OPINION. 35
Within these twenty years, the Spanish and
Portuguese settlements of the New Continent have
experienced considerable changes in their moral
and political state ; and the want of education and
knowledge has begun to be felt with the increasing
population and prosperity. The free trade with
neutrals, which the Court of Madrid, yielding to
imperious circumstances, has from time to time
granted to the island of Cuba, the coast of Carac-
cas, the ports of Vera Cruz and Monte Video, has
brought the colonists into contact with the Anglo-
Americans, the French, the English, and the
Danes ; the colonists have formed the most correct
ideas respecting the state of Spain, compared with
the other powers of Europe ; and the American
youth, sacrificing part of their national prejudices,
have formed a marked predilection for those nations
whose cultivation is further advanced than that of
the European Spaniards. In these circumstances,
we are not to be astonished, that the political
movements which have taken place in Europe since
1789, have excited the liveliest interest among a
people who have long been aspiring to rights, the
privation of which is both an obstacle to the public
prosperity, and a source of resentment against the
Mother Country.
Mexico is the country of inequality. No where
does there exist such a fearful difference in the
distribution of fortune, civilization, cultivation of
the soil, and population. The interior of the
F 2

36 DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTY.
country contains four cities, which are not more
than one or two days' journey distant from one anr
other, and possess a population of 35,000, 67,000,
70,000, and 135,000 souls. The central table
land from La Puebla to Mexico, and from thence
to Salamanca and Zelaya, is covered with villages
and hamlets like the most cultivated parts of Lom-
bardy. To the east and west of this narrow strip
succeed tracts of uncultivated ground, on which
we scarcely find above one person to the square
mile. The capital and several other cities have
scientific establishments, which will bear a com
parison with those of Europe. The architecture
of the public and private edifices, the elegance of
the furniture, the equipages, the luxury and dress
of the women, the tone of society, all announce a
refinement to which the nakedness, ignorance, and
vulgarity of the lower people form the most striking
contrast. This immense inequality of fortune does
not only exist among the caste of Whites (Europe
ans or Creoles), it is even discoverable among the
Indians. If, in the present state of things, the caste of
Whites is the only one in which we find any
thing like intellectual cultivation, it is also the
only one which possesses great wealth. This
wealth is unfortunately still more unequally dis
tributed in Mexico than in the capitania general
of Caraccas, the Havannah, and especially Peru.
At Caraccas, the heads of the richest families

DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTY. 37
possess an income of about 8,000/. In the
island of Cuba we find incomes of from 25,000/.
to 30,000/. In these two industrious colonies
agriculture has founded more considerable fortunes
than have been accumulated by the working of the
mines in Peru. At Lima an annual income of
30,000/. is very rare. I know in reality of no
Peruvian family in the possession of a fixed and
sure revenue of 50,000/. But in New Spain there
are individuals who possess no mines, whose in
come amounts to 40,000/. The family of the
Count de la Valenciana, for example, possesses
alone, on the ridge of the Cordillera, a property,
worth more than a million sterling, without in
cluding the mine of Valenciana near Guanaxuato,
which, communibus annis, yields a net revenue of
60,000/. This family, of which the present head,
the young Count de la Valenciaria, is distinguished
for a generous character and a noble desire of in
struction, is divided into only three branches ; and
they possess all together, even in years when the
mine is not very lucrative, a revenue of more than
90,000/. The Count de Regla, whose youngest
son, the Marquis de San Christobal*, distinguished
himself at Paris for his physical and physiological
knowledge, constructed at the Havannah, at his
* M. Terreros (this is the name by which this modest
savant is known in France) preferred for a long time the in
struction which his abode at Paris enabled him to procure, to
the great fortune wlrch he could only enjoy living in Mexico.

38 DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTY.
own expense, of acajou and cedar (cedrella) wood,
two vessels of the line of the largest size, which he
presented to his sovereign. It was the vein of la
Biscaina, near Pachuca, which laid the foundation
of the fortune of the house of Regla. The family
of Fagoaga, well known for its beneficence, in
telligence, and zeal for the public good, exhibits
the example of the greatest wealth which was ever
derived from a mine. A single vein which the
family of the Marquis of Fagoaga possesses in the
district of Sombrerete, left, in five or six months,
all charges deducted, a net profit of upwards of
800,000/. From these data one would suppose there existed
capitals in the Mexican families infinitely greater
than what are really observed. The deceased Count
de la Valenciana, the first of the title, sometimes
drew from his mine alone, in one year, a net
revenue of no less than 250,000/. This annual
income, during the last twenty-five years of his life,
was never below from 80,000/. to 1 25,000/. ; and
yet this extraordinary man, who came without any
fortune to America, and who continued to live
with great simplicity, left behind him at his death,
besides his mine, which is the richest in the world,
in property and capital, only about 400,000/. This
fact, which may be relied on, will not surprise
those who are acquainted with the internal manage
ment of the great Mexican houses. Money rapidly
gained is as rapidly spent. The working of mines

DISTRIBUTION OF PROPERTY. 39
becomes a game, in which they embark with un
bounded passion. The rich proprietors of mines
lavish immense sums on quacks, who engage them
in new undertakings in the most remote provinces.
In a country where the works are conducted on
such an extravagant scale, that the shaft of a mine
frequently requires 80,000/. to pierce, the bad sucr
cess of a rash project may, in a few years, absorb all
that was gained in working the richest veins. We
must add, that from the internal disorder which
prevails in most of the great houses of both Old
and New Spain, the head of a family is not un-
frequently straitened with a revenue of 20,000/.,
though he display no other luxury than that of
numerous yokes of mules.
The mines have undoubtedly been the principal
sources of the great fortunes of Mexico. Many
miners have laid out their wealth in purchasing
land, and have devoted themselves with great zeal
to agriculture. But there is also a considerable
number of powerful families who have never had
the working of any very lucrative mines. Such
are the rich descendants of Cortez, or the Marquis
del Valle. The Duke of Monteleone, a Neapolitan
nobleman, who is now the head of the house of
Cortez, possesses magnificent estates in the province
of Oaxaca, near Toluca, and at Cuernavaca. The
net produce of his rents is now no more than
23,000/., the king having deprived the duke of the
collection of the alcavalas and the duties on tobacco.

40 WEALTH OF PROPRIETORS OF MINES.
The ordinary expenses of the management of his
property amount to more than 5000/. per annum.
Several governors of the marquesado have however
become extremely wealthy. If the descendants of
the great conquistador would only live in Mexico,
their revenue would immediately rise to more than
60,000/. As a further proof of the immense wealth centred
in the hands of a few individuals in New Spain,
which may compete with any thing in Great Britain,
or the European possessions in Hindostan, I must
mention the pecuniary sacrifices annually made by
the body of Miners ( Cuerpo de mineria) for the
improvement of mining. This body, formed by a
union of the proprietors of mines, and represented
by deputies who sit in the Tribunal de Mineria,
advanced in three years, between 1784 and 1787,
more than 160,000/. to individuals who were in
want of the necessary funds to carry on great works.
It is believed in the country that this money has
not been very usefully employed (para habilitar) ;
but its distribution proves the generosity and opu
lence of those who are able to make such donations.
A European reader will be still more astonished
when I inform him of the extraordinary fact, that
the respectable family of Fagoagas lent, a few years
ago, without interest, nearly 150,000/. to a friend,
whose fortune they believed would be permanently
secured by it. This sum was irrevocably lost in an
unsuccessful new mining undertaking. The archi-

WEALTH OF PROPRIETORS OF MINES. 41
tectural works which are carried on in the capital
of Mexico for the embellishment of the city are so
expensive, that, notwithstanding the low rate of
wages, the superb edifice constructed by order of
the Tribunal de Mineria for the School of Mines
will cost at least 125,000/., of which 80,000/.
were in readiness before the foundation was laid.
To hasten the construction, and particularly to
furnish the students immediately with a proper la
boratory for metallic experiments on the amalga
mation of great masses of minerals (beneficio de
patio), the body of Mexican Miners contributed
monthly, in the year 1803 alone, the sum of 2000/.
Such is the facility with which vast projects are exe
cuted in a country where wealth is divided among
a small number of individuals.

42

CHAPTER III.
Climate — variety under the same latitude — rains — gene
ral salubrity— fertility of the soil — corn, fruits — cattle
— general improvement in agriculture — influence of mines
on agriculture — habits of Indian cultivators.
Having traced the physical outline of the country,
and described the inequalities of its surface, we shall
proceed to point out the effect of these inequalities
upon its climate, and to give some account of the
state of cultivation. We shall confine ourselves to
a few general and important facts. Details of na
tural history do not fall within the compass or the
purpose of this work ; but it is impossible to form
an exact idea of the territorial riches of a country
without knowing the form of the mountains, the
height of the great plains of the interior, and the
temperature of the regions in which there are (if
we may so express ourselves) successive strata of
climate. If we take a general view of the whole surface of
the kingdom of Mexico, we shall see that two-thirds
are situated under the temperate, and one under
the torrid zone. The former part contains 738,000
square miles, and includes the Provincias Inter-
nas de la Commendancia-general, a district thinly

CLIMATE. 43
peopled. The latter, containing 324,000 square
miles, enjoys a climate which is cool or tempe
rate, rather than sultry. It is well known that
the climate of a country depends, not only on its
distance from the pole, but also on its elevation
above the level of the sea, proximity to the ocean,
configuration, and many other local circumstances.
The interior of the viceroyalty of Mexico forms
an immense plain, elevated from 6000 to 8200
feet above the level of the sea. The country lying
between the capital of Mexico and the port of
Vera Cruz may be divided into three districts or
zones, the climate of which depends on their ele
vation. The first of these, called by the natives
terras calientes, comprehends all the country on
the coast, nearly the whole intendancy of Vera
Cruz, the southern regions of the intendancies of
Mexico, Valladolid, and La Puebla. It is all flat
country, intersected by inconsiderable hills. The
mean temperature of these plains is about 77° of
Fahrenheit's thermometer, that is to say, 15° or
16° higher than the temperature of Naples. They
produce sugar, indigo, cotton, and bananas, in
abundance, but are extremely unhealthy. They
are liable to great and sudden changes of tempera
ture, and are frequently visited by yellow fever.
The next region, called terras templadas, lies on
the declivity of the Cordilleras, at the height of from
4000 to 5000 feet, and enjoys a perpetual spring.
The temperature is soft and equal, never varying
g 2

44 CLIMATE.
more than 4° or 5° : the mean heat of the whole
year is from 68° to;70°. This region is, however,
extremely liable to fogs from the sea.
The third zone, the terras frias, comprehends
the table-lands, which are elevated more than 7200
feet above the level of the sea. Although they are
known under the name of terras frias, the ther
mometer has very rarely been known to be down to
the freezing point : in the coldest season the mean
heat of the day is from 55° to 60°. In summer the
thermometer in the shade does not rise above 75°.
The general mean temperature of the whole vast
table-land of Mexico is 62°. It is equal to the
temperature of Rome. This is a sufficient proof
that the words hot and cold have no positive value.
The table-lands higher than that of Mexico have a
very rough and disagreeable climate, even to the
feelings of a native of a northern latitude. The
winters are not severe, but there is a total absence
of that transient summer which has a peculiar
beauty in high latitudes.'
These general considerations on the physical di
vision of New Spain are extremely interesting in a
political point of view. In France, and even in
the greatest part of Europe, the cultivation of
the soil depends almost entirely on geographical
latitude ; but in the equinoctial regions of Peru,
New Grenada, and Mexico, the climate, produc
tions, and aspect of the country, are solely
modified by the elevation of the soil above the level

RAINS. 45
of the sea. The influence of geographical position
is absorbed in the effect of this elevation.
There are only two seasons known in the equi
noctial region of Mexico even as far as the 28th de
gree of N. latitude ; the rainy season (estacion de
las aguas), which begins in the month of June or
July, and ends in the month of September or Oc
tober, and the dry season (el estio), which lasts
eight months, from October to the end of May.
The first rains generally commence on the eastern
declivity of the Cordillera. The formation of the
clouds, and the precipitation of the water dissolved
in the air, commence on the coast of Vera Cruz.
These phenomena are accompanied with strong
electrical explosions, which take place successively
at Mexico, Guadalaxara, and on the western coast.
The chemical action is propagated from east to
west in the direction of the trade winds, and the
rains begin fifteen or twenty days sooner at Vera
Cruz than on the central table-land. Sometimes
we see in the mountain, even below 6600 feet of
absolute height, rain mixed with hail (gresil) and
snow in the months of November, December, and
January ; but these rains are very short, and only
last from four to five days ; and, however cold they
may be, they are considered as very beneficial to the
wheat and pasture lands. In Mexico, as in Europe,
the rains are most frequent in the mountainous re
gions, especially in that part of the Cordilleras
which extends from the Pic d'Orizaba by Guanaxuato,

46 RAINS  ARIDITY OF THE SOIL.
Sierra de Pinos, Zacatecas, and Bolanos, to the
mines of Guarisamey and the Rosario.
To the north of 20°, from the 22d to the 30th de
gree of latitude, the rains, which fall only in the
months of June, July, August, and September, are
very unfrequent in the interior of the country.
The aridity of the central plain, the want of trees,
occasioned, perhaps, in a good measure by the length
of time the great valleys have remained covered with
water, obstruct very much the working of the mines.
These disadvantages have augmented since the ar
rival of Europeans in Mexico, who have not only
destroyed without planting, but in draining great
tracts of land have occasioned another more
important evil. Muriate of soda and lime, nitrate
of potash, and other saline substances, cover the
surface of the soil, and spread with a rapidity very
difficult to be explained. Through this abundance
of salt, and these efflorescences, hostile to cultiva
tion, the table-land of Mexico bears a great resem
blance in many places to Thibet and the saline
steppes of central Asia. In the valley of Tenoch
titlan particularly, the sterility and want of vi
gorous vegetation have been sensibly augmenting
since the Spanish conquest; for this valley was
adorned with beautiful verdure when the lake occu
pied more ground, and the clayey soil was washed
by more frequent inundations.
Happily, however, this aridity of soil, of which we
have been indicating the principal physical causes,

general salubrity. 47
is only to be found in the most elevated plains. A
great part of the vast kingdom of New Spain may
be ranked among the most fertile regions of the
earth. The declivity of the Cordillera is exposed
to humid winds and frequent fogs; and the vegeta
tion nourished by these aqueous vapours exhibits an
uncommon beauty and strength. The humidity of
the coasts, assisting the putrefaction of a great mass
of organic substances, gives rise to maladies, to
which Europeans and others not seasoned to the cli
mate are alone exposed ; for under the burning sun
of the tropics the unhealthiness of the air almost
always indicates extraordinary fertility of soil. Thus
at Vera Cruz the quantity of rain in a year amounts
to 63 inches, while in France it scarcely amounts
to 31 inches. Yet with the exception of a few
sea-ports and deep valleys, where the natives suffer
from intermittent fevers, New Spain must be con
sidered as a remarkably healthy country.
In hot but dry climates the human species en
joys a longevity perhaps greater than what we ob
serve in the temperate zones. This is especially
the case whenever the temperature and climate are
very variable. The Europeans who settle in the
equinoctial part of the Spanish colonies at an ad
vanced period of life, generally live and enjoy health
to a great age. At Vera Cruz, in the midst of the
epidemical black vomit, the natives and strangers
seasoned for several years to the climate enjoy the
most perfect health.
In general, the coasts and arid plains of equato-

48 EARTHftUAKES  VOLCANOES  TEMPESTS.
rial America, must be regarded as healthy, notwith
standing the excessive heat of the sun, whose per
pendicular rays are reflected by the soil. Indivi
duals arrived at maturity, particularly those who ap
proach to old age, have little to fear from these re
gions, the unhealthiness of which has been unjus
tifiably exaggerated. The chief mortality is stmong
the children and young people, particularly in those
parts where the climate is at once hot and moist.
The inhabitants of Mexico are less disturbed by
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions than those of
Quito and the provinces of Guatimala and Cumana.
There are only five burning volcanoes in all New
Spain, Orizaba, Popocatepetl, and the mountains
of Tustla, Jorullo, and Colima. Earthquakes, how
ever, are by no means rare on the coast of the Pa
cific Ocean, and in the environs of the capital, but
they never produce such desolating effects as have
been experienced in the more southern provinces.
A very serious inconvenience is common to the
eastern coast, and to the coast washed by the great
ocean falsely called the Pacific Ocean. They are
rendered inaccessible for several months by vio
lent teriipests, which effectually prevent all na
vigation. The north-west winds (losnortes) blow
in the Gulf of Mexico from the autumnal to
the spring equinox. These winds are generally
moderate in the months of September and Oc
tober ; their greatest fury is in the month of
March, and they sometimes last into April. Navi
gators who have long frequented the port of Vera

VARIETY OF CLIMATE. 49
Cruz, know the symptoms which always foretell the
approach of the tempest.
An empire extending from the sixteenth to the
thirty-seventh degree of latitude affords us, from
its geometrical position, all the modifications of
climate to be found on transporting ourselves from
the banks of the Senegal to Spain, or from the Ma
labar coast to the steppes of the Great Bucharia.
This variety of climate is also augmented by the
geological constitution of the country, by the mass
and extraordinary form of the Mexican mountains,
which we have already described. On the ridge
and declivity of the Cordilleras the temperature of
each table-land varies as it is more or less elevated ;
not merely insulated peaks, the summits of which
approach the region of perpetual snow, are covered
with oaks and pines, but whole provinces sponta
neously produce alpine plants ; and the cultivator
inhabiting the torrid zone frequently loses the hopes
of his harvest from the effects of frost or from the
abundance of snow.
Geographical position alone does not determine
the nature of the productions of these fine regions.
The union of several physical causes alluded to
above, gives to a part of the equinoctial regions a
temperature adapted to the cultivation of the wheat
and fruit-trees of Europe. Latitude has small in
fluence on the fertility of a country, where, on the
summit and declivity of the mountains, nature ex
hibits an union of every climate. H

50 FERTILITY OF SOIL.
We may conceive that, in a country like Mexico,
the variety of indigenous productions must be im
mense, and that there hardly exists a plant on the
rest of the globe which is not capable of being cul
tivated in some part of New Spain.
In general, in the equinoctial regions of New
Spain, the soil, climate, physiognomy of vegetables,
all assume the character of the temperate zones.
The riches of the harvests are surprising in lands
carefully cultivated, especially in those which are
watered, or properly separated by different courses
of labour. The most fertile part of the table-land
is that which extends from Queretaro to the town
of Leon. These elevated plains are 90 miles in
length by 20 or 30 in breadth. The wheat har
vest is 35 and 40 for 1, and several great farms can
even reckon on 50 or 60 to 1. I found the same
fertility in the fields which extend from the village
of Santiago to Yurirapundaro in the intendancy of
Valladolid. In the environs of Puebla, Atlisco,
and Zelaya, in a great part of the bishopricks of
Michoacan and Guadalaxara, the produce is from
20 to 30 for 1. A field is considered there as far
from fertile when a fanega* of wheat yields only,
communibus annis, 16 fanegas. At Cholula the
common harvest is from 30 to 40, but it frequently
exceeds from 70 to 80 for 1 . In the valley of Mex-*
ico the maize yields 200 and the wheat 18 or 20.
* About a hundred weight.

CORN  STATE OF AGRICULTURE. 51
In good years the kingdom of New Spain pro
duces much more maize than it can consume. As
the country unites in a small space a great variety
of climates, and as maize rarely succeeds at the
same time in the warm region (tierras calientas)
and on the central table-land in the terras frias,
the interior commerce is greatly animated by the
transport of this grain. Maize compared with Eu
ropean grain has the disadvantage of containing a
smaller quantity of nutritive substance in a greater
volume. This circumstance, and the difficulty of
the roads on the declivities of the mountains, pre
sent obstacles to its exportation, which will be in
a great degree removed by the construction of the
fine causeway from Vera Cruz to Xalapa and Perote.
The Mexican wheat is of the very best quality ;
it may be compared with the finest Andalusian
grain. The grain is very large, white, and nutri
tive, especially in farms where watering is employed.
The interior of New Spain is infinitely produc
tive in nutritive gramina, wherever the industry of
man has corrected the natural dryness of the soil and
the air. No where does the proprietor of a large farm
more frequently feel the necessity of employing en
gineers skilled in surveying ground and in the prin
ciples of hydraulic constructions. At Mexico how
ever, as elsewhere, those arts which please the imagi
nation have been preferred to those which are indis
pensable to the wants of domestic life. They pos
sess architects, who judge scientifically of the beauty
h 2

52 ESCULENT VEGETABLES — FRUIT.
and symmetry of an edifice ; but nothing is still so
rare there, as to find persons capable of construct
ing machines, dikes, and canals. Fortunately, the
feeling of their want has excited the national in
dustry; and a certian sagacity peculiar to all moun
tainous people supplies in some degree the want of
instruction. Mexico is extremely rich in vegetables with nu
tritive roots. The plants which are cultivated in the
highest and coldest part of the Andes and Mexican
Cordilleras are the potatoe, the tropceolum esculen-
tum, and the chenopodium quinoa, the grain of
which is an aliment equally agreeable and healthy.
In New Spain the first of these becomes an object of
cultivation, of so much the greater importance and
extent, as it does not require any great humidity
of soil. The Mexicans, like the Peruvians, can
preserve potatoes for years by exposing them to
the frost and drying them in the sun.
The Mexicans now possess all the garden-stuffs
and fruit-trees of Europe. The central table-land
of New Spain produces in the greatest abundance
cherries, plums, peaches, apricots, figs, grapes, me
lons, apples, and pears. In the environs of Mexico,
the villages of San Augustin de las Cuevas and Ta-
cubaya, the famous garden of the Convent of Car
melites at San Angel, and that of the family of Fa
goaga at Tanepantla, yield in the months of June,
July, and August, an immense quantity of fruit,
for the most part of an exquisite taste, although

CATTLE  HORSES. 53
the trees are in general very ill taken care of. The
traveller is astonished to see in Mexico, Peru, and
New Grenada, the tables of the wealthy inhabitants
loaded at once with the fruits of temperate Europe,
ananas, different species oipassifora and tacsonia,
sapotes, mameis, goyavas, anonas, chilimoyas, and
other valuable productions of the torrid zone.
There is a great abundance of horned cattle all
along the eastern coast of Mexico, especially at the
mouths of the rivers of Alvarado, Guasacualco, and
Panuco, where numerous flocks feed on pastures of
perpetual verdure. Since the middle of the sixteenth
century, the most useful animals of the old con
tinent, oxen, horses, sheep, and hogs, have multiplied
surprisingly in all parts of New Spain, and especi
ally in the vast plains of the Provincias Internas.
The horses of the northern provinces, and par
ticularly those of New Mexico, are as celebrated
for their excellent qualities as the horses of Chili ;
both descend, as it is pretended, from the Arab
race ; they wander wild in herds, in the savannahs
of the Provincias Internas. The exportation of
these horses to Natchez and New Orleans, becomes
every year of greater importance. Many Mexican
families possess in their Hatos de ganado, from
thirty to forty thousand head of horses and oxen.
The mules would be still more numerous, if so
many of them did not perish on the highways from
the excessive fatigues of journeys of several months.
It is reckoned that the commerce of Vera Cruz

54 PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE.
alone, employs annually nearly 70,000 mules.
More than 5,000 are employed for purposes of lux
ury in the carriages of the city of Mexico.
The cultivation of the soil, notwithstanding the
fetters with which it is every where shackled, has
lately made a more considerable progress, on ac
count of the immense capitals laid out in land, by
families enriched either by the commerce of Vera
Cruz and Acapulco, or by the working of the
mines. Those who only know the interior of the Spanish
colonies from the vague and uncertain notions hi
therto published, will have some difficulty in be
lieving that the principal sources of the Mexican
riches are by no means the mines, but an agricul
ture which has been gradually ameliorating since
the end of the last century. Without reflecting on
the immense extent of the country, and especially
the great number of provinces which appear totally
destitute of precious metals, we generally imagine
that all the activity of the Mexican population is
directed to the working of mines.
The best cultivated fields of Mexico, those which
recall to the mind of the traveller the beautiful
plains of France, are those which extend from Sa
lamanca towards Silao, Guanaxuato, and the Villa
de Leon, and which surround the richest mines of
the known world. Wherever metallic veins have
been discovered in the most uncultivated parts of
the Cordilleras, on the insulated and desert table-

INFLUENCE OF MINES ON AGRICULTURE. 56
lands, the working of mines, far from impeding
the cultivation of the soil, as it is generally
imagined, has been singularly favourable to it.
Travelling along the ridge of the Andes, or the
mountainous part of Mexico, we every where see
the most striking examples of the beneficial influ
ence of the mines on agriculture. Were it not for
the establishments formed for the working of the
mines, how many places would have remained de
sert ! how many districts uncultivated in the four
intendancies of Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, San Luis
Potosi, and Durango, between the parallels of 21°
and 25°, where the most considerable metallic
wealth of New Spain is to be found ! If the town
is placed on the arid side or the crest of the Cor
dilleras, the new colonists can only draw from a
distance means for their subsistence, and for the
maintenance of the great number of cattle employed
in drawing off the water, and raising and amalga
mating the mineral produce. Want soon awakens
industry. The soil begins to be cultivated in the
ravines and declivities of the neighbouring moun
tains, wherever the rock is covered with earth,
Farms are established in the neighbourhood of the
mine. The high price of provision, from the com
petition of the purchasers, indemnifies the cultivaT
tor for the privations to which he is exposed from
the hard life of the mountains. Thus from the
hope of gain, and the motives of mutual interest,
—the most powerful bonds of spciety,-r— and with-

56 INFLUENCE OF MINES ON AGRICULTURE.
out any interference on the part of the Government
to promote colonization, a mine which at first
appeared insulated in the midst of wild and desert
mountains, becomes in a short time connected
with the lands which have long been under cultiva
tion. Moreover, this influence of the mines on the pro
gressive cultivation of the country is more durable
than they are themselves. When the veins are ex
hausted, and the subterraneous operations are
abandoned, the population of the canton undoubt
edly diminishes, because the miners emigrate else
where ; but the colonist is retained by his attach
ment for the spot where he received his birth, and
which his fathers cultivated with their hands. The
more lonely the cottage is, the more charms has it
for the inhabitant of the mountains. It is with the
beginning of civilization as with its decline : man
appears to repent of the constraint which he has
imposed on himself by entering into society; and
he loves solitude because it restores to him his for
mer freedom. This desire for solitude is particu
larly manifested by the copper-coloured natives,
whom a long and sad experience has disgusted
with social life, and more especially with the neigh
bourhood of the Whites. Like the Arcadians, the
Aztec people love to inhabit the summits and brows
of the steepest mountains. This peculiar trait in
their disposition contributes very much to extend
population in the mountainous regions of Mexico.

INDIAN CULTIVATORS. 57
What a pleasure is it for the traveller to follow these
peaceful conquests of agriculture, to contemplate
the numerous Indian cottages dispersed in the
wildest ravines, and necks of cultivated ground ad
vancing, into a desert country between naked and
arid roeks !
The Indian cultivator is poor, but he is free. His
state is even greatly preferable to that of the pea
santry in a great part of the north of Europe.
There are neither corvees ..nor villenage in New
Spain ; and the number of slaves is next to nothing.
Sugar is chiefly the produce of free hands. There
the principal objects of agriculture are not the pro
ductions to which European^ luxury has assigned a
variable and arbitrary value, hut cereal gramina,
nutritive roots, and the agave, the vine of the In
dians. The appearance of the country proclaims
to the traveller that the soil nourishes him who
cultivates it, and that the true prosperity of the
Mexican people neither depends on the accidents of
foreign commerce, nor on the unsettled politics of
Europe. We have thus examined the true national wealth
of Mexico ; for the produce of the earth is, in fact,
the sole basis of permanent opulence. It is con
solatory to see that the labour of man, for half a
century, has been more directed towards this fer
tile and inexhaustible source, than towards the
working of mines, of which the wealth has not so
direct an influence on the public prosperity, and
i

58 PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE.
merely changes the nominal -value of the annual
produce of the earth. The territorial impost levied
by the clergy, under the name of tenth, or tithe,
measures the quantity of that produce, and indi
cates with precision the progress of agricultural in
dustry, if we compare the periods, in the intervals
of which the price of commodities has undergone
no sensible variation.
The result of such a comparison made from the
most exact data is, that the total augmentation
has been, in the last ten years, 1,062,500/., or
two-fifths of the total produce. The same data also
indicate the rapidity of the progress of agriculture,
in the intendancies of Mexico, Guadalaxara, Pue
bla, and Valladolid, compared with the provinces
of Oaxaca and New Biscay The tithes have been
nearly doubled in the archbishoprick of Mexico ;
for those which were levied during the ten years an
terior to 1780, were to those levied ten years after
wards in the proportion of 10 to 17. In the in
tendancy of Durango or New Biscay, this augmen
tation has been only in the proportion of 10 to 1 1.

59

CHAPTER IV.
Population — numbers and character of native Indians —
comparison between the population of Mexico and that
of the United States —small number of Negro slaves —
increase of population — census of 1 794.
The Mexican population is composed of the same
elements as the other Spanish colonies. They
reckon seven races : 1 . The individuals born in Eu
rope, vulgarly called Gachupines ; 2. The Spanish
Creoles, or Whites of European extraction born in
America ; 3. the Mestizos, descendants of Whites
and Indians; 4. the Mulattos, descendants of Whites
andNegros; 5. the Zambos, descendants of Negros
and Indians; 6. the Indians, or copper-coloured in
digenous race; and 7. the African Negros. Abs
tracting the subdivisions, there are four castes : the
Whites comprehended under the general name of
Spaniards, the Negros, the Indians, and the men of
mixed extraction from Europeans, Africans, Ameri
can Indians, and Malays ; for from the frequent
communication between Acapulco and the Philip
pine islands, many individuals of Asiatic origin,
both Chinese- and Malays, have settled in New
Spain. A very general prejudice exists in Europe, that
an exceeding small number of the copper-coloured
race, or descendants of the ancient Mexicans, re-
i 2

60 NUMBER OF NATIVE INDIANS.
main at this day. The cruelty of the Europeans
has entirely extirpated the old inhabitants of the
West Indies ; the continent of America, however,
has witnessed no such horrible result. The num
ber of Indians in New Spain exceeds two millions
and a half, including those only who have no
mixture of European or African blood. It is still
more consolatory, that the indigenous population,
far from declining, has been considerably on the
increase for the last fifty years, as is proved by the
registers of capitation or tribute.
The Indians appear to form two-fifths of
the whole population of Mexico. In the four
intendancies of Guanaxuato, Valladolid, Oaxaca,
and La Puebla, this population amounts even to
three-fifths. The census of 1793 gave the fol
lowing result.
Names of intendancies . Total population. Number of Indians.
Guanaxuato . 398,000 . 175,000
Valladolid . . 290,000 . 119,000
Puebla . . . 638,000 . 416,000
Oaxaca . . . 411,000 . 363,000
To give an accurate idea of the indigenous in
habitants of New Spain, it is not enough to paint
them in their present state of degradation and mi
sery ; we must go back to a remote period, when,
governed by its own laws, the nation could display
its native energy ; and we must consult the hiero-

CHARACTER OF MEXICAN INDIANS. 61
glyphical paintings, buildings of hewn stone, and
works of sculpture still in preservation, which though
they attest the infancy of the arts, yet bear a striking
analogy to several monuments of the most civilized
people. The nature of this work does not permit
us to enter into such details, however interesting
they may be, both for the history and the psycho
logical study of our species. We shall merely
point out here a few of the most prominent features
of the immense picture of American indigenous
population. The Indians of New Spain bear a general resem
blance to those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru,
and Brasil. They have the same swarthy and cop
per colour, flat and smooth hair, small beard, squat
body, long eye, with the corner directed up
wards towards the temples, prominent cheek bones,
thick lips, and an expression of gentleness in the
mouth, strongly contrasted with a gloomy and se
vere expression of eye. The American race, after
the hyperborean race, is the least numerous; but it
occupies the greatest space on the globe.
Intellectual cultivation is what contributes the
most to diversify the features. In barbarous na
tions there is rather a physiognomy peculiar to the
tribe or horde, than to any individual. When we
compare our domestic animals with those which
inhabit our forests, we make the same observation.
But an European, when he decides on the strong
resemblance among the copper-coloured races, is

62 CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN INDIAN.
subject to a particular illusion. He is struck with
a complexion so different from our own, and the
uniformity of this complexion conceals for a long
time from him the diversity of individual features.
The new colonist at first can hardly distinguish the
natives, because his eyes are less fixed on the gen
tle, melancholy, or ferocious expression of the
countenance, than on the red coppery colour, and
black coarse hair, so straight and glossy that it
always appears wet.
As to the moral faculties of the Indians, it is
difficult to appreciate them with justice, if we only
consider this long oppressed caste in their present
state of degradation. The better sort of Indians,
among whom a certain degree of intellectual cul
ture might be expected, perished in great numbers,
at the commencement of the Spanish conquest,
the victims of European ferocity. The Christian
fanaticism was particularly directed against the
Aztec priests ; and the Teopixqui, or ministers of
the divinity, and all those who inhabited the Te-
ocalli, or houses of God, who might be considered
as the depositories of the historical, mythological,
and astronomical knowledge of the country, were
exterminated ; the priests observed the meridian
shades in the gnomons, and regulated the calendar.
The monks burned the hieroglyphical paintings, by
which every kind of knowledge was transmitted
from generation to generation. The people, de
prived of these means of instruction, were plunged

ANCIENT CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 63
in an ignorance so much the deeper, as the Mis
sionaries were unskilled in the Mexican languages,
and could substitute few new ideas in the place of
the old. The remaining natives then consisted
only of the most indigent race, poor cultivators,
artisans, avr»ong whom were a great number of
weavers, porters, who were used like beasts of bur
den, and especially of those dregs of the people,
those crowds of beggars, who bore witness to the
imperfection of the social institutions, and the ex
istence of feudal oppression, and who filled, in the
time of Cortez, the streets of all the great cities of
the Mexican empire. How shall we judge, then,
from these miserable remains of a powerful people,
of the degree of cultivation to which it had risen
from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, and of
the intellectual development of which it is sus
ceptible ? If all that remained of the French or
German nation were a few poor agriculturists,
could we read in their features that they belonged
to nations which had produced a Descartes and
Clairaut, a Kepler and a Leibnitz ?
How is it possible to doubt that a part of the
Mexican nation had arrived at a certain degree of
cultivation, when we reflect on the care with which
their hieroglyphical books were composed, and
when we recollect that a citizen of Tlascala, in the
midst of the tumults of war, took advantage of
the facility offered him by our Roman alphabet to
write in his own language five large volumes on the

64 CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN INDIAN.
history of a country of which he deplored the sub
jection ?
In the portrait which we draw of the different
races of men composing the population of New
Spain, we shall merely consider the Mexican
Indian in his actual state. We perceive in him
neither that mobility of sensation, gesture, or fea
ture, nor that activity of mind, for which several
nations of the equinoctial regions of Africa are so
advantageously distinguished. There cannot exist
a more marked contrast than that between the
impetuous vivacity of the Congo Negro, and the
apparent phlegm of the Indian. From a feeling
of this contrast, the Indian women not only prefer
the Negros to the men of their own race, but also
to the Europeans. The Mexican Indian is grave,
melancholy, and silent, so long as he is not under
the influence of intoxicating liquors. This gravity
is peculiarly remarkable in Indian children, who
at the age of four or five display much more in
telligence and maturity than White children. The
Mexican loves to throw a mysterious air over the
most indifferent actions. The most violent pas
sions are never painted in his features ; and there
is something frightful in seeing him pass all at once
from absolute repose to a state of violent and un
restrained agitation. The Peruvian Indian pos
sesses more gentleness of manners ; the energy of
the Mexican degenerates into harshness. : These
differences may have their .origin in the different

CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN INDIAN. 65
religions and different governments of the two
countries in former times. This energy is dis
played particularly by the inhabitants of Tlascala.
In the midst of their present degradation, the de
scendants of the citizens of that republic are still
to be distinguished by a certain haughtiness of
character, inspired by the memory of their former
grandeur. The Americans, like the Hindoos and other
nations who have long groaned under a civil and
military despotism, adhere to their customs, man
ners, and opinions, with extraordinary obstinacy*.
I say opinions ; for the introduction of Christianity
has produced little other effect on the Indians of
* It is of the utmost importance to the prosperity and se
curity of the great undertaking which now occupies so large a
share of the public attention, that all the Officers and Servants
sent out by the Mining Companies of England should observe
the most inviolable respect for the religious opinions and insti
tutions of the natives. The Protestant opinions of Englishmen
are sufficiently obnoxious, without being called into notice by
any injudicious and absurd and fruitless attempts at conversion.
How totally these attempts have failed to produce any thing
but disgust among the Hindoos, to whom the Baron de Hum
boldt here compares the Mexican Indians, is well known to
every calm and well-informed man in our Eastern possessions.
If the utility and policy of agitating such a source of discord,
where we are undisputed masters, may be questioned, we
presume it will be admitted by all but fanatics, that it would be
little short of insanity to do it in a country where our establish
ments will stand in need of the countenance and protection
of all classes. We have pressed this subject the more warmly
K

66 CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN INDIAN.
Mexico than to substitute new ceremonies, the
symbols of a gentle and humane religion, to the
ceremonies of a sanguinary worship. This change
from old to new rites was the effect of constraint,
and not of persuasion, and was produced by
political events alone. In the new continent, as
well as in the old, half-civilized nations were ac
customed to receive from the hands of the con
queror new laws and new divinities ; and the van
quished Indian gods appeared to them to yield to
the gods of the strangers.
Accustomed to a long slavery, as well under the
domination of their own sovereigns as under that
of the first conquerors, the natives of Mexico
patiently suffer the vexations to which they are
frequently exposed from the Whites. They oppose
to them only cunning, veiled under the most
deceitful appearances of apathy and stupidity. As
the Indian can very rarely revenge himself on the
Spaniards, he delights in making common cause
with them for the oppression of his own fellow
citizens. Oppressed for ages, and compelled to a
blind obedience, he wishes to tyrannize in his turn.
The Indian villages are governed by magistrates of
upon our readers, as we know that among many of the inferior
Officers, the motive to the course of action so earnestly depre
cated will be found in peculiar force. However we may respect
the disinterestedness of this motive, we are bound to repeat,
that the safety of our establishments is absolutely dependant
on caution and forbearance on this point.

CHARACTER OF THE MEXICAN INDIAN. 67
the copper-coloured race ; and an Indian alcade
exercises his power with so much the greater
severity, because he is sure of being supported by
the priest or the Spanish subdelegado. Oppression
produces every where the same effects ; it every
where corrupts the morals.
As the Indians almost all of them belong to the
class of peasantry and labourers, it is not easy
to judge of their aptitude for the arts which em
bellish life. I know no race of men who appear
more destitute of imagination. When an Indian
attains' a certain degree of civilization, he displays
a great facility of apprehension, a judicious mind,
a natural logic, and a particular disposition to
subtilize or seize the finest differences in the com
parison of objects. He reasons coolly and me
thodically ; but he never manifests that versatility
of imagination, that glow of sentiment, and that
creative and animating spirit, which characterize the
nations of the south of Europe, and several tribes
of African Negros. I deliver this opinion, however,
with great diffidence. We cannot be too circum
spect, in pronouncing on the moral or intellectual
dispositions of nations from which we are separated
by the multiplied obstacles resulting from a differ
ence in language, and in manners and customs.
The Indians of New Spain, those at least sub
ject to the European domination, generally attain
to a pretty advanced age. As peaceable cultiva
tors, and inhabitants of villages, they are not ex
it 2

68 DRUNKENNESS.
posed to the accidents attending the wandering life
of the hunters and warriors of the Mississippi and
the savannas of the Rio Gila. Accustomed to uni
form nourishment of an almost entirely vegetable
nature, that of their maize and cereal gramina, the
Indians would undoubtedly attain very great longe
vity if their constitutions were not weakened by
drunkenness. Their intoxicating liquors are rum,
a fermentation of maize and the root of the jatro-
pha, and especially the wine of the country, made
of the juice of the agave americana, called pulque.
This last liquor is nutritive, on account of the un-
decomposed sugar which it contains. Many In
dians addicted to pulque take, for a long time,
very little solid nourishment. When used with
moderation it is very salutary, and, by fortifying
the stomach, assists the functions of the gastric
system. The vice of drunkenness is, however, less gene
ral among the Indians than is generally believed.
There are several Indian tribes very sober, whose
fermented beverages are too weak to intoxicate. In
New Spain drunkenness is most common among
the Indians who inhabit the valley of Mexico, and
the environs of Puebla and Tlascala, wherever the
maguey or agave is cultivated on a great scale.
The police in the city of Mexico sends round
tumbrils, to collect the drunkards to be found
stretched out in the streets. These Indians, who
are treated like dead bodies, are carried to the

EXTENT AND POPULATION OF MEXICO. 69
principal guard-house. In the morning an iron
ring is put round their ancles, and they are made
to clear the streets for three days. On letting
them go on the fourth day, they are sure to find
several of them in the course of the week. It is
to be hoped that this evil will diminish, as civiliza
tion advances.
We are tempted to compare together the extent
and population of Mexico, and that of two em
pires with which this fine colony is in relations of
union and of rivalry. Spain is five times smaller
than Mexico. Should no unforeseen misfortunes
occur, we may reckon that in less than a century
the population of New Spain will equal that of the
mother country. The United States of North
America since the cession of Louisiana, and since
they recognise no other boundary than the Rio-
Bravo del Norte, contain 2,160,000 square miles.
Their population is not much greater than that of
Mexico, as we shall see on examining the popula
tion and the area of New Spain.
If the political force of two states depended
solely on the space which they occupy on the globe,
and on the number of their inhabitants ; if the
nature of the soil, the configuration of the coast,
and if the climate, the energy of the nation, and
above all the degree of perfection of its social in
stitutions, were not the principal elements of this
grand dynamical calculation, the kingdom of New

70 SMALL NUMBER OF NEGRO SLAVES.
Spain might now be placed in competition with
the confederation of the American republics.
Both labour under the inconvenience of an un
equally distributed population ; but that of the
United States, though in a soil and climate less
favoured by nature, augments with an infinitely
greater rapidity. Neither does it comprehend,
like the Mexican population, nearly two millions
and a half of aborigines, degraded by the despotism
of their ancient Aztec sovereigns, and by the
vexations of the first conquerors. The kingdom
of New Spain has, however, one decided advantage
over the United States. The number of slaves
there, either of African or of mixed race, is almost
nothing ; an advantage which the European colo
nists have only begun rightly to appreciate since the
tragical events of the revolution of St. Domingo.
The kingdom of New Spain is, of all the Eu
ropean colonies under the torrid zone, that in
which there are the fewest Negros. We may almost
say that there are no slaves. We may go through
the whole city of Mexico without seeing a black
countenance. The service of no house is carried
on by slaves. In this point of view especially,
Mexico presents a singular contrast to the Havan-
nah, Lima, and Caraccas. From exact informa
tion procured by those employed in the enumera
tion of 1793, it appears that in all New Spain there
are not six thousand Negros, and not more than

NEGRO SLAVES — CENSUS OF 1794. 71
nine or ten thousand slaves, of whom the greatest
number belong to the ports of Acapulco and Vera
Cruz, or the warm regions of the coasts (tierras
calient es).
The slaves, who fortunately are in very small
numbers in Mexico, are there, as in all the other
Spanish possessions, somewhat more under the
protection of the laws than the Negros of the other
European colonies. These laws are always inter
preted in favour of liberty. The Government
wishes to see the number of freemen increased.
A slave, who by his industry has procured a little
money, may compel his master to give him his
liberty on paying the moderate sum of 60/. or 80/.
Liberty cannot be refused to a Negro on the pretext
that he cost triple that sum, or that he possesses a
peculiar talent for some lucrative employment.
A slave who has been cruelly treated acquires, on
that account, his freedom by the law, if the judge
do justice to the cause of the oppressed ; but it
may be easily conceived that this beneficent law is
frequently eluded.
Politico-economical investigations have been so
rare in Spain, that it excites no surprise that the
archives of the viceroyalty of Mexico contain no
census of the population before 1794, when the
Count of Viilagegido, one of the wisest and most
active of administrators, had resolution enough to
undertake it. Those who know the difficulty of
obtaining an exact census in the most cultivated

72

CENSUS OF 1794.

countries of Europe, will easily imagine what power
ful obstacles opposed themselves to his researches.
He was indeed unable to terminate his undertaking.
The following is however a statement of the po
pulation of New Spain, from the notices trans
mitted by the intendants and governors of provinces
to the viceroy, previous to the 12th May, 1794 :

Names of the intendancies and governments

POPUI
Of the intends

¦ATION

in which the enumeration was completed
in 1793.

anries and go
vernments.

Of the capitals.

Mexico .....

1,162,886

1 12,926

Puebla

566,443
52,717.
Tlascala
59,177
3,357
Oaxaca
411,366
19,069
Valladolid .
289,314
17,093
Guanaxuato
397,924
32,098
San Luis Potosi
242,280
8,571
Zacatecas . .
118,027
25,495
Durango
122,806
11,027
Sonora
93,396
Nuevo Mexico
30,953
The two Californias
12,666
Yucatan .....
Total population of New Spain
358,261
28,392
deduced from the census of
1793 
3,865,529
In a Report to the King, Count de
Revillagigedo estimated the inten-
,
Inhabitants.
dancy of Guadalaxara at 485,000")
Intendancy of Vera Cruz at 120,000 >
618,000
Province of Cohahuila at 13,000 J
Approximative result of the enume
ration in 1793
4,483,529 i
inhabitants.)
The viceroys who succeeded to the Count de Re
villagigedo have never renewed the enumeration ;
INCREASE OF POPULATION. 73
and since that time the Government has paid very
little attention to statistical researches. Several me
moirs, drawn up by intendants on the actual state
of the country confided to their care, contain ex
actly the same numbers as the table of 1793, as if
the population could have remained the same for
ten years. It is certain, however, that this popula
tion has made the most extraordinary progress.
The augmentation of tithes and of the Indian ca
pitation, and of all the duties on consumption,
the progress of agriculture and civilization, the
aspect of a country covered with newly constructed
houses, announce a rapid increase in every part of
the kingdom.
The only true sign of a real and permanent in
crease of population, is an increase in the means of
subsistence. This increase, this augmentation of
the produce of agriculture, is evident in Mexico ;
and appears even to indicate a much more rapid
progress of population than has been supposed, in
deducing the population of 1803 from the imper
fect census of 1793. In a catholic country, the
ecclesiastical tithes are, as it were, the thermometer
by which we may judge of the state of agriculture ;
and these tithes have doubled in less than 24 years.
In speaking of the progress of the Mexican
population, we must briefly advert to its supposed
increase by the arrival of European colonists, and
to its diminution by the yellow fever or black
vomit. It is sufficient to observe that Europe does
L

74 INCREASE OF POPULATION.
not send more than 800 annually to Mexico.
Political writers have always exaggerated what they
call the depopulation of the old continent by the
new. M. Page, for instance, asserts in his work
on the Commerce of St. Domingo, that the
emigrations from Europe supply annually more than
100,000 individuals to the United States. This
estimate is twenty times higher than the truth ; for
in 1784 and 1792, when the United States re
ceived the greatest number of European colonists,
their number did not exceed 5000. The progress
of population in Mexico and North America is
derived solely from an increase of internal pro
sperity. As for the vomito prieto, it is never felt
but on the coast, nor does it carry off annually
more than from two to three thousand persons.

7o

CHAPTER V.
Manufactures— powder manufactory— goldsmiths — mint —
interior commerce— foreign commerce — smuggling — ave
rage value of exports and imports.
If we consider the small progress of manufactures
in Spain, notwithstanding the numerous encou
ragements which they have received, since the Mi
nistry of the Marquis de la Ensenada, we shall not
be surprised that whatever relates to manufactures
and manufacturing industry is still less advanced in
Mexico. The restless and suspicious policy of the
nations of Europe, the legislation and colonial po
licy of the moderns, which bear very little resem
blance to those of the Phoenicians and Greeks, have
thrown insurmountable obstacles in the way of the
prosperity of their distant possessions.
Notwithstandig all these obstacles, the manu
factures have made some progress in three centu
ries, during which time Biscayans, Catalonians,
Asturians, and Valencians, have settled in the New
World, and carried there the industry of their na
tive provinces. The manufacture of coarse stuffs
can every where be carried on at a low rate, when
raw materials are found in abundance, and when
the price of the goods of Europe and Oriental Asia
is so much increased by carriage. In time of war,
l 2

76 MANUFACTURES.
the want of communication with the mother coun
try, and the regulations prohibiting commerce with
neutrals, have favoured the establishment of manu
factures of calicoes, fine cloth, and whatever is
connected with the refinements of luxury.
The value of the produce of the manufacturing
industry of New Spain is estimated at about
1,600,000/. per annum. From the quantity and
quality of the cotton which the low-lands of New
Spain are so well adapted to produce, native manu
factures of that material appear to hold the first
place in importance. Those of the intendancy of
Puebla furnish annually, in time of peace, for the
interior commerce, a produce to the value of
325,000/. The weavers of cottons of all sorts in
Puebla were computed in 1802 at more than 1200.
In this town, as well as in Mexico, the printing of
calicoes, both those imported from Manilla and
those manufactured in New Spain, has made con
siderable progress within these few years.
The oldest cloth manufactories of Mexico are
those of Tezcuco. They were in great part establish
ed in 1592 by the viceroy Don Louis de Velasco II.,
the son of the celebrated constable of Castille, who
was second viceroy of New Spain. By degrees,
this branch of national industry passed entirely into
the hands of the Indians and Mestizoes. The
value of the cloths and woollen stuffs manufactured
in Queretaro at present amounts to more than
135,000/.

MANUFACTURES. 77
With the exception of a few stuffs of cotton
mixed with silk, the manufacture of silks is at pre
sent next to nothing.
New Spain has no flax or hemp manufactories,
and the manufacture of paper is also unknown in it.
The manufacture of tobacco is a royal right.
The manufacture of hard soap is a considerable
object of commerce at Puebla, Mexico, and Gua
dalaxara. The first of these towns produces nearly
2143 tons per annum ; and in the intendancy of
Guadalaxara, the quantity manufactured is compu
ted at 54,000/. The abundance of soda which
we find almost every where at elevations of 6000
to 8000 feet, in the interior table-land of Mexico,
is highly favourable to this manufacture.
The town of Puebla was formerly celebrated
for its fine manufactories of delft ware (loza) and
hats. We have already observed, that, till the
commencement of the eighteenth century, these
two branches of industry enlivened the commerce
between Acapulco and Peru. At present there is
little or no communication between Puebla and
Lima ; and the delft manufactories have fallen off
so much, on account of the low price of the stone
ware and porcelain of Europe imported at Vera
Cruz, that of 46 manufactories which were still ex
isting in 1793, there were in 1802 only sixteen re
maining of delft ware, and two of glass.
In New Spain, as well as in the greatest number
of countries in Europe, the manufacture of powder

78 POWDER MANUFACTORY.
is a royal monopoly. To form an idea of the enor
mous quantity of powder manufactured and sold in
contraband, we have only to bear in mind, that
notwithstanding the flourishing state of the Mexi
can mines, the King has never sold to the miners
more than 300,000 or 400,0001bs. of powder per
annum ; while a single mine, that of Valenciana,
requires from 150,000 to 160,0001bs. It appears
from the researches I have made, that the quantity
of powder manufactured at the expense of the King,
is, to that sold fraudulently, in the proportion of 1
to 4. As, in the interior of New Spain, the nitrate
of potash and sulphur are every where to be had in
abundance, and the contraband manufacturer can
afford to sell powder to the miner at nine pence
the pound, the Government ought either to dimi
nish the price of the produce of the manufactory,
or to throw the trade in powder entirely open. How
is it possible to prevent fraud in a country of an im
mense extent, in mines at a distance from towns,
and dispersed on the ridge of the Cordilleras, in
the midst of the wildest and most solitary situa
tions ?
The royal manufactory of powder, the only one
in Mexico, is situated near Santa Fe, in the valley
of Mexico, about nine miles from the capital. The
buildings, which are very beautiful, were constructed
in 1780 from the plans of M. Costanzo, the head of
the corps of engineers, in a narrow valley which sup
plies in abundance the necessary water for setting

POWDER MANUFACTORY. 79
hydraulic wheels in motion, and through which the
aqueduct of Santa Fe passes . All the parts of the ma
chines, and chiefly the wheels, are disposed with great
skill. It is to be wished, however, that the sieves
necessary to make the grain, were either moved by
water or by horses. Eighty Mestizo boys, paid at
the rate of 1*. Id. per day, are employed in this
work. Sulphur, which abounds in the volcanoes of
Orizaba and Puebla, in the province of San Luis
near Colima, and especially in the intendancy of
Guadalaxara, where the rivers bring down conside
rable masses of it, mixed with fragments of pumice-
stone, comes perfectly purified from the town of
San Luis Potosi. There were made, in the royal
powder manufactory of Santa Fe in 1801, more
than 786,000 pounds, of which part is exported for
the Havannah. It is to be regretted that this fine
edifice, where in general more than half a million
of pounds of powder are preserved, is not provided
with an electrical conductor. During my stay in
New Spain, there were only two conductors in that
vast country, which were constructed at La Puebla,
by the order of an enlightened administrator, the
Count de la Cadena, notwithstanding the impreca
tions of the Indians, and a parcel of ignorant
monks. We shall conclude the article of the manufac
tures of New Spain with mentioning the working
of gold and the coining of money, which, considered
merely with relation to industry and mechanical

80 GOLDSMITHS  MINT.
improvement, are objects every way worthy of
attention. There are few countries in which a
more considerable number of large pieces of
wrought plate, vases, and church ornaments, are
annually executed than in Mexico. The smallest
towns have gold- and silver-smiths, in whose shops
workmen of all castes, Whites, Mestizoes, and In
dians, are employed. The academy of fine arts,
and the schools for drawing in Mexico and Xalapa,
have very much contributed to diffuse a taste for
beautiful antique forms. Services of plate, to the
value of from six to eight thousand pounds, have
been lately manufactured at Mexico, which for
elegance of workmanship may rival the finest
works of the kind ever executed in the most civi
lized parts of Europe. The quantity of precious
metals which between 1798 and 1802 was convert
ed into plate at Mexico, amounted on an average
to 180 lbs. of gold, and 12,564 lbs. of silver per an
num. The Mint of Mexico, which is the largest and
richest in the whole world, is a building of very
simple architecture, belonging to the palace of the
viceroys. This establishment contains little or
nothing remarkable with respect to the improve
ment of the machinery or chemical processes ;
but it well deserves to engage the attention of tra
vellers, from the order, activity and economy which
prevail in all the operations of coining. This interest
is enhanced by other considerations which are even

MINT. 81
those who do not turn their attention to specula
tions of political administration. In fact, it is im
possible to go over this small building without re
collecting that more than 416,000,000/. sterling,
has issued from it in less than three hundred years,
and without reflecting on the powerful influence of
these treasures on the destinies of the nations of
Europe. The mint of Mexico was established fourteen
years after the destruction of old Tenochtitlan un
der the first viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de
Mendoza, by a royal cedula of the 1 1th May 1535.
The number of workmen employed in this mint
amounts to 350 or 400 ; and the number of ma
chines is so great, that it is possible to coin in the
space of a year, without displaying an extraordinary
activity, more than thirty millions of dollars, that
is to say, nearly three times as much as is gene
rally performed in the sixteen mints which exist
in France.
The works of the mint of Mexico contain ten
rollers (laminoirs), moved by sixty mules, fifty-two
cutters (coupoirs), nine adjusting tables (bancs
d'ajustage), twenty machines for marking the edges
(d creneler), twenty stamping presses (balanciers),
and five mills for amalgamating the washings and
filings called mermas. As one stamping press can
strike in ten hours more than 15,000 dollars, we
are not to be astonished that with so great a num
ber of machines they are able to manufacture daily
from six to eight thousand pounds weight of silver.
M

82 MINT.
The ordinary work, however, does not exceed from
five thousand to five thousand six hundred pounds.
From these data, which are founded on official pa
pers, it appears that the silver produced in all the
mines of Europe together would not suffice to
employ the mint of Mexico more than fifteen
days. The parting house (casa del apartado), in
which is carried on the separation of the gold and
•silver proceeding from the ingots of auriferous
silver, formerly belonged to the family of the Mar
quis de Fagoaga. This important establishment was
only annexed to the Crown in 1779. The building
is very small and very old.
The casa del apartado contains three sorts of
works, which are destined, 1 st, to the manufacture
of glass ; 2nd, to the preparation of nitrous acid ;
and 3rd, to the separation of the gold and
silver. The processes used in these different works,
are as imperfect as the construction of the glass-
work furnaces used for the manufacture of retorts
and the distillation of aqua-fortis.
It is surprising that none of the pupils of the
School of Mines are employed either in the mint or
in the casa del apartado ; and yet these great estar
blishments might expect useful reforms, from avail
ing themselves of mechanical and chemical know
ledge. The mint is also situated in a quarter of
the town where running water might be easily
procured to put in motion hydraulic wheels. The
machinery is yet very far from the perfection which

MANUFACTURES. 83
it has recently attained in England and in France.
The improvements will be the more important, as
the manufacture embraces a prodigious quantity of
gold and silver ; for the dollars coined at Mexico
may be considered as the matter which maintains
the activity of the greatest number of the mints of
Europe. Not only has the working of gold and silver
been improved in Mexico, but very considerable
progress has also been made in other branches of
industry dependent on luxury and wealth. Chan
deliers, and other ornaments of great value, were
recently executed in gilt bronze, for the new ca
thedral of Puebla, the bishop of which possesses an
income of nearly 23, 900/. Although the most elegant
carriages driven through the streets of Mexico and
Santa Fe de Bogota, at from 9,000 to 1 1,000 feet
above the surface of the ocean, come from London,
very handsome ones are also made in New Spain.
The cabinet-makers execute articles of furniture,
remarkable for their form, and for the colour and
polish of the wood, which is procured from the
equinoctial region adjoining the coast, especially
from the forests of Orizaba, San Bias, and Colima.
It is impossible to read without interest in the Ga
zette of Mexico, that even in the provincias inter
nas, for example at Durango, 600 miles north of
the capital, harpsichords and piano-fortes are ma
nufactured. The Indians display indefatigable
patience in the manufacture of small toys, in wood,
m 2

84 MANUFACTURES — COMMERCE.
bone, and wax. In a country where the vegeta
tion affords the most precious productions*, and
where the workman may choose at will the acci
dents of colour and form among the roots, the me
dullary prolongations of the wood, and the kernels
of fruits, these toys of the Indians may one day be
come an important article of exportation for Eu
rope. We know what large sums of money this
species of industry brings to the inhabitants of Nu
remberg, and to the mountaineers of Berchtolsga-
den and the Tyrol, who however can only use in
the manufacture of boxes, spoons, and children's
toys, pine, cherry, and walnut-tree wood. The
Americans of the United States send to the island
of Cuba, and the other West India Islands, large
cargoes of furniture, for which they get the wood
chiefly from the Spanish colonies. This branch of
industry will pass into the hands of the Mexicans,
whenever they shall begin to derive advantage from
the productions of their own soil.
Having given a general view of the state of agri
culture, and of the manufactures, it remains for
us to speak of the exchanges which are carried on
with the interior, the mother country, and with
other parts of the New Continent. We shall not
repeat the just complaints respecting the restrictions
on commerce, and the prohibitory system, which
* Swietenia Cedrela and Caesalpinia wood ; trunks of Des-
manthus and Mimosa, of which the heart is a red approaching
to black.

INTERNAL COMMERCE. 85
serve as a basis to the colonial legislation of Eu
rope. It would be difficult to add to what has
been already said on that subject, at a time when
the great problems of political economy occupy the
mind of every man. Instead of attacking princi
ples, whose falsity and injustice are universally ac
knowledged, we shall confine ourselves to the col
lection of facts, and to the proving of what impor
tance the commercial relations of Mexico with Eu
rope may become, when they shall be freed from the
fetters of an odious monopoly, disadvantageous
even to the mother country.
The internal commerce comprehends both the
carriage of produce and goods into the interior of
the country, and the coasting along the shore of
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This commerce
is not enlivened by an internal navigation on rivers
or artificial canals ; for, like Persia, the greatest
part of New Spain is in want of navigable rivers.
The Rio del Norte, which from its breadth hardly
yields to the Mississippi, flows through regions sus
ceptible of the highest cultivation, but which in their
present state exhibit nothing but a vast desert. This
vast river has no greater influence on the activity
of the inland trade, than the Missouri, the Cassi-
quiare, and the Ucayale, which run through the
savannahs and uninhabited forests of North Ame
rica. In Mexico, between the 1 6th and 23d degrees
of latitude, the part of the country where the popula
tion is most concentrated, the Rio de Santiago alone

86 INTERNAL COMMERCE.
can be rendered navigable at a moderate expense.
The length of its course equals that of the Elbe, and
the Rhone. It fertilizes the table-lands of Ler
ma, Salamanca, and Selaya* and might serve for the
conveyance of flour from the intendancies of Mex
ico and Guanaxuato towards the western coast.'
We are of opinion, that it would be very easy to cut
canals in the valley of Mexico, from the northern
point, the village of Huehuetoca, to the southern
extremity, the small town of Chalco.
The principal objects of the internal commerce
of New Spain are, 1 st, The productions and goods
imported and exported at the two ports of Vera
Cruz and Acapulco ; 2d, The exchange which is
carried on between the different provinces, and
particularly between Mexico Proper and the Pro
vincias Internas; 3d, Several productions of Peru,
Quito, and Guatimala, which are conveyed through
the country to be exported at Vera Cruz for Europe.
Were it not for the great consumption of commo
dities in the mines, the commerce between pro
vinces which enjoy, in a great measure, the same
climate, and which consequently possess the same
productions* could not have any great activity.
The elevation of the soil gives the southern regions
of Mexico, that middle temperature which is neces
sary for the cultivation of European plants. The
same latitude produces the banana, the apple, the
sugar-cane, wheat, the manioc, and the potatoes
The nutritive gramina, which vegetate among the

INTERNAL COMMERCE. 87
ices of Norway and Siberia, cover the Mexican fields
of the torrid zone. Hence, the provinces situated
under the 17th and 20th degree of latitude very sel
dom requirethe flour of New Biscay. The commerce
of maize is of great importance to the provinces of
Guadalaxara, Valladolid, Guanaxuato, Mexico, San
Luis Potosi, Vera Cruz, Puebla, and Oaxaca.
Thousands of mules, arriving every week from
Chihuahua and Durango at Mexico, carry, besides
bars of silver, hides, tallow, some wine of Passo del
Norte, and flour ; and they take in return woollen
cloth of the manufacture of Puebla and Queretaro,
goods from Europe and the Philippine. Islands,
iron, steel, and mercury.
The communications with Europe and Asia
being carried on only from the two ports of Vera
Cruz and Acapulco, all the objects of exportation
and importation necessarily pass through the capital,
which has become through that means the central
point of the interior commerce. Mexico, situated
on the ridge of the Cordilleras, commanding as it
were the two seas, is distant in a straight line from
Vera Cruz 207 miles, from Acapulco 198, from
Oaxaca 237, and 1320 from Santa Fe of New
Mexico. From this position of the capital, the
most frequented roads, and the most important
for commerce, are, 1st, the road from Mexico to
Vera Cruz, by Puebla and Xalapa ; 2d, the road
from Mexico to Acapulco, by Chilpanzingo ; 3d,
the road from Mexico to Guatimala, by Oaxaca ;

88 EXTERNAL COMMERCE  CONTRABAND TRADE.
4th, the road from Mexico to Durango and Santa
Fe of New Mexico, vulgarly called el carnino de
tierra dentro. We may consider the roads which
lead from Mexico, either to San Luis Potosi and
Monterey, or to Valladolid and Guadalaxara, as ra
mifications of the great road of the provincias in
ternas. The state of the external commerce of New Spain
has changed very much within these twelve or fifteen
years. The quantity of foreign goods imported
fraudulently into the east and west coasts of Mex
ico, has increased not in volume but in intrinsic
value. A greater number of vessels are not employed
in the smuggling trade with Jamaica, but the
objects of importation- have changed with the in
crease of luxury and national wealth. Mexico now
requires finer cloths, a greater quantity of muslins,
gauzes, silks, wines, and liquors, than previous to
1791. If on the one hand the increase of luxury
has rendered Mexico within the last fifteen or twenty
years more dependent on Europe and Asia than for
merly, on the other hand the produce of the mines
has considerably increased. According to the ac
counts of the Consulado, the importation of Vera
Cruz, calculating only from the registers of the
customs, amounted before 1791 to 2,335,000/.;
and it now amounts, at an average, to more than
3,070,000/. annually. In the ten years preceding
179 1, the mean produce of the mines of New Spain
amounted to 4,115,000/. per annum, while from

AMOUNT OF IMPORTATION AND EXPORTATION. 89
1791 to 1801 the produce amounted to 5,000,000/.
annually. In this last period the indigenous manu
factures have been exceedingly prosperous ; but at
the same time, as the Indians and people of colour
are better clothed, this progress of the Mexican
manufactures has had no sensible effect on the im
portation of Europe — cloth, Indian cottons, and
other goods of foreign manufacture. The produce
of agriculture has increased in a greater proportion
than the manufacturing industry.
Bringing together into one point of view the data
collected by me respecting the trade of Acapulco
and Vera Cruz, we find that in the beginning of
the nineteenth century,
The importation of foreign goods and produce into
the kingdom of New Spain, including the con
traband on the eastern and western coasts,
amounts to 4,333,000/.
The exportation from New Spain of the produce
of its agriculture and manufacturing industry
amounts to 1,260,000/.
Now the mines produce 5,000,000/., of which
about 1,750,000/. are exported on account of the
King, either for Spain, or the other Spanish colonies :
consequently, if we deduct from the 3,250,000/.
remaining, 3,070,000/. to liquidate the excess of the
importation over the exportation, we find hardly
N

90 NATIONAL WEALTH.
180,000/. The national wealth, or rather the
specie, of Mexico is then annually on the increase.
This calculation, founded on exact data, explains
the reason why the country, whose mines are the
richest and most constant in their produce, does
not possess a great mass of specie, and why the
price of labour still remains very low there. Enor
mous sums are accumulated in the hands of a few
individuals ; but the indigence of the people is very
striking to Europeans who travel through the coun
try and the towns of the interior of Mexico. I am
tempted to believe that of the 19,770,000/. which
are supposed to exist in specie among the thirteen
or fourteen millions of inhabitants of the Spanish
colonies of continental America, 12,000,000/. or
13,000,000/. are to be found in Mexico. Although
the population of this kingdom is not in the propor
tion of one to two to the population of the other
continental colonies, its national wealth is to that of
the other colonies nearly in the proportion of two
to three. The estimate of 13,000,000/. gives
only 2/. 3,y. 4d. per head ; but this sum must
appear too great, when we reflect, that in Spain
1/. 10*. 4d., and in France 31. 0s. 8d., are allowed
for each inhabitant.
If, in consequence of those events, of which we
have examples in the history of every age, the co
lonies had separated from the mother country,
Mexico would have lost 1,933,000/. of specie less
annually, which were partly paid into the royal

NATIONAL WEALTH. 91
treasury of Madrid, and partly, under the improper
denomination of situados, paid into the provincial
treasuries of the Havannah, Porto Rico, Pensacola,
and Manilla. By allowing a free course to the
national industry, by encouraging agriculture and
manufactures, the importation will diminish of it
self; and it will then be easy for the Mexicans to
pay the value of foreign commodities with the pro
ductions of their own soil. The free cultivation of
the vine and the olive on the table-land of New
Spain; the free distillation of spirits from rum,
rice, and the grape ; the exportation of flour fa^-
voured by the making of new roads ; the increase
of plantations of sugar-cane, cotton, and tobacco ;
the working of the iron and mercury mines ; and
the manufacture of steel, will perhaps one day be
come more inexhaustible sources of wealth than
all the veins of gold and silver united. Under
more favourable external circumstances, the balance
of trade may be favourable to New Spain, without
paying the account, which has been opened for
centuries between the two continents, entirely with
Mexican dollars.
In the present state of the trade of Vera Cruz
and Acapulco, the total value of exported agricul
tural produce scarcely equals the value of the sugar
furnished by the island of Cuba, which amounts
to 1,254,000/. But the importation of Mexico,
which we calculate on an average at 4,333,OQ.O/.
annually, is an object of the very highest import-
n 2

92 FOREIGN COMMERCE.
ance for the commercial nations of Europe, who
want an outlet for their manufactures. We shall
call to mind on this occasion, 1 st, That the United
States of North America, whose exportation in 1802
amounted to 15,570,328/., exported in 1791 only
to the value of 4,115,000/. ; 2nd, That England,
at the period of the greatest activity of its trade
with France in 1790, only imported into that
country goods to the value of 1,235,000/. ; and 3rd,
That the exportation from England to Portugal
and Germany in 1790 did not exceed, to the former
country 1,647,000/., and to the latter 2,687,000/.
These data are sufficient to explain, why towards
the end of the last century Great Britain made so
many efforts to procure a share of the trade be
tween the Peninsula and Mexico.
The foreign commerce of New Spain, from the
position of the coasts, is naturally composed of
the commerce of the South Sea and that of the
Atlantic Ocean. The ports on the eastern coast
are Campeche, Huasacualco, Vera Cruz, Tampico,
and Nuevo Santander ; if we may give the name
of ports to roads surrounded with shallows, or
mouths of rivers shut by bars, and presenting a
very slight shelter from the fury of the north winds.
All the endeavours which have been made, since
1524, to discover a safer port than Vera Cruz have
been fruitless. The vast shore which stretches from
Nuevo Santander to the north and north-west is
still very little known ; and we may repeat in our

EXPORTS AND IMPORTS AT VERA CRUZ. 93
days, what Cortez wrote to the Emperor Charles
the Fifth, three years after the taking of Tenoch
titlan, " that the secret of the coast which extends
from the Rio de Panuco to Florida remains to be
discovered." For centuries, almost all the maritime com
merce of New Spain has been concentrated at
Vera Cruz. When we bestow a glance on the
chart of that port, we see that the pilots of Cortez's
squadron were right in comparing the port of Vera
Cruz to a pierced bag. The good anchorage in
the port of Vera Cruz is between the castle of Ulua,
the town, and the sand banks of La Lavandera.
Near the castle we find six fathoms water ; but the
channel by which the port is entered is hardly
four fathoms in depth, and 1260 feet in breadth.
The principal objects of exportation at Vera Cruz
are, gold and silver in ingots, or converted into
coin or wrought plate, cochineal, sugar, flour,
Mexican indigo, salted meat and other eatables,
tanned hides, sarsaparilla, vanilla, jalap, soap,
Campeche wood, and pimento. Their annual
amount, according to the declarations at the Cus
toms, taking an average of several years of peace,
is 4,770,000/. We have not mentioned the indigo
of Guatimala or the cocoa of Guayaquil, which in
time of war are very important articles in the trade
of Vera Cruz, because we wished to confine our
selves to the indigenous productions of New Spain.
The importation of Vera Cruz includes the

94 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS AT VERA CRUZ.
following articles : linen and cotton and woollen
cloth, silks, paper, brandy, cocoa, mercury, iron,
steel, wine, and wax. Their average annual
value is 3,250,000/. — Commercial circulation,
8,020,000/.

95

CHAPTER VI.
Intendancy of Vera Cruz — situation — physical aspect —
climate — productions — road from the capital to Vera
Cruz port — yellowfever.

Extent in
North
Latitude.

Extent in
West
Longitude.

Population in
1803.

Extent of
Surface in
square Miles.

No. of
Inhabitants to
the square
Mile.

From

From

20° 0'
to

99° 0'
to

156,OCO

37,269

4 to 5

21° 15'

101° 5'

Before entering on the subject of the Mines,
which we shall treat in considerable detail, we shall
subjoin to our brief account of the Commerce of
Mexico some description of the Province, through
which lies all communication between the interior
and Europe.
N.B. — The province of VeraCr uz, situated under the
burning sun of the tropics, extends along the Mexi
can Gulf, from the Rio Baraderas (or de los Lagar-
tos) to the great river of Panuco, which rises in the
metalliferous mountains of San Luis Potosi. Hence
this intendancy includes a very considerable part of
the eastern coast of New Spain. Its length, from
the bay of Terminos near the island of Carmen to
the small port of Tampico, is 630 miles, while its
96 CLIMATE — PHYSICAL ASPECT.
breadth is only in general from 70 to 80 miles. It
is bounded on the east by the peninsula of Merida ;
on the west, by the intendancies of Oaxaca, Puebla,
and Mexico ; and on the north, by the colony of
New Santander.
There are few regions in the new continent where
the traveller is more struck with the assemblage of
the most opposite climates All the western part
of the intendancy of Vera Cruz forms the declivity
of the Cordilleras of Anahuac. In the space of a
day, the inhabitants descend from the regions of
eternal snow to the plains in the vicinity of the sea,
where the most suffocating heat prevails. The ad
mirable order with which different tribes of vegeta
bles rise above one another by strata, as it were,
is no where more perceptible than in ascending
from the port of Vera Cruz to the table-land of
Perote. We see there the physiognomy of the
country, the aspect of the sky, the form of plants,
the figures of animals, the manners of the inhabit
ants, and the kin d of cultivation followed by them,
assume a different appearance at every step of our
progress. As we ascend, nature appears gradually less ani
mated, the beauty of the vegetable forms diminishes,
the shoots become less succulent, and the flowers
less coloured. The aspect of the Mexican oak
quiets the alarms of travellers newly landed at Vera
Cruz. Its presence demonstrates to him that he
has left behind him the zone so justly dreaded by
the people of the north, under which the yellow fe-

VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. 97
ver exercises its ravages in New Spain. This lower
range of oaks warns the colonist who inhabits the
central table-land, how far he may descend towards
the coast without dread of the mortal disease the
vomito. Forests of liquid amber, near Xalapa,
show by the freshness of their verdure that this is
the elevation at which the clouds suspended over
the ocean come in contact with the basaltic summits
of the Cordillera. A little higher, near La Blande-
rilla, the nutritive fruit of the banana tree no lon
ger comes to maturity. In this foggy and cold re
gion, therefore, want spurs on the Indian to labour,
and excites his industry. At the height of San
Miguel, pines begin to mingle with the oaks which
are found by the traveller as high as the elevated
plains of Perote, where he beholds the delightful
aspect of fields sown with wheat. About 2000 feet
higher the coldness of the climate will no longer
admit of the vegetation of oaks ; and pines alone
cover the rocks, whose summits enter the zone of
eternal snow. Thus in a few hours the naturalist,
in this miraculous country, ascends the whole scale
of vegetation from the heliconia and the banana
plant, whose glossy leaves swell out into extraordi
nary dimensions, to the stunted parenchyma of the
resinous trees.
The province of Vera Cruz is enriched by nature
with the most precious productions. At the foot
of the Cordillera, in the ever-green forests of Pa-
pantla, Nautla, and S. Andre Tuxtla, grows the
epidendrum vanilla, the odoriferous fruit of which

98 VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS — POPULATION.
is employed for perfuming chocolate. Near the
Indian villages of Colipa and Misantla grows the
beautiful convolvulus jalapce, whose tuberose
root furnishes the jalap, one of the most energetic
and beneficent purgatives. The myrtle (myrtus
pimento), whose grain forms an agreeable spice,
well known in trade by the name of pimienta de Ta
basco, is produced in the forests which extend
towards the river of Baraderas, in the eastern part of
the intendancy of Vera Cruz. The cocoa of Acayu-
can would be in request, if the natives were to ap
ply themselves more assiduously to the cultivation
of cocoa trees. On the eastern and southern decli
vities of the Pic d'Orizaba, in the valleys which ex
tend towards the small town of Cordoba, tobacco
of an excellent quality is cultivated, which yields
an annual revenue to the crown of more than
750,000/. sterling. The similax, the root of which
is the true salsaparilla, grows in the humid and
umbrageous ravines of the Cordillera. The cotton
of the coast of Vera Cruz is celebrated for its fine
ness and whiteness. The sugar-cane yields nearly
as much sugar as in the island of Cuba, and more
than in the plantations of St. Domingo.
This intendancy alone would keep alive the com
merce of the port of Vera Cruz, if the number of
colonists were greater, and if their laziness, the ef
fect of the bounty of nature, and the facility of
providing without effort for the most urgent wants
of life, did not impede the progress of industry.
The old population of Mexico was concentrated in

POPULATION. 99
the interior of the country on the table-land. The
Mexican tribes who came from northern countries,
gave the preference in their migrations to the ridges
of the Cordilleras, because they found on them a
climate analogous to that of their native country.
No doubt, on the first arrival of the Spaniards on
the coast of Chalchihucuecan (Vera Cruz), all the
country from the river of Papaloapan (Alvarado to
Huaxtecapan) was better inhabited and better cul
tivated than it now is. The conquerors, however,
found, as they ascended the table-land, the villages
closer together, the fields divided into smaller
portions, and the people more polished. The Spa
niards, who imagined they founded new cities when
they gave European names to Aztec cities, followed
the traces of the indigenous civilization. They had
very powerful motives for inhabiting the table-land
of Anahuac. They dreaded the heat, and the dis
eases which prevail in the plains. The search after
the precious metals, the cultivation of European
grain and fruit, the analogy of the climate with
that of the Castilles, and other causes, all concurred
to fix them on the ridge of the Cordillera. So long
as the Encomenderos,. abusing the rights which
they derived from the laws, treated the Indians as
serfs, a great number of them were transported
from the regions of the coast to the table-land
in the interior, either to work in the mines, or
merely that they might be near the habitation of
their masters. For two centuries the trade in in
digo, sugar, and cotton was next to nothing. The

100 POPULATION — ROADS.
Whites could by no means be induced to settle in
the plains, where the true Indian climate prevails,
and it appeared that the Europeans came under the
tropics merely to inhabit the temperate zone.
Hitherto the Government has neglected every
means for increasing the population of this desert
coast. From this state of things result a great
want of hands, and a scarcity of provisions, singu
lar enough in a country of such great fertility. The
wages of an ordinary workman at Vera Cruz are
from 4 to 5 shillings per day. A master mason,
and every man who follows a particular trade, gains
from 10 to 16 shillings per day, that is to say, three
times as much as on the central table-land.
Taking our direction from the capital of Mexico
towards the east in the road to Vera Cruz, we must
advance 180 miles, before arriving at a valley the
bottom of which is less than 3000 feet higher than
the level of the sea, and in which, consequently,
oaks cease to grow.
We have already said that the configuration of
the soil in the interior is most favourable for the
transport of goods, for navigation, and even for the
construction of canals. Great difficulties are, however,
opposed by nature to the communication between
the interior of the kingdom and the coast. There
is an enormous difference of level and temperature,
while from Mexico to New Biscay the plain pre
serves an equal elevation, and consequently a
climate rather cold than temperate. From the
capital of Mexico to Vera Cruz, the descent is

ROADS FROM THE CAPITAL — PORT. 101
shorter and more rapid than from the same point
to Acapulco.
Of the 250 miles from the capital to the port
of Vera Cruz, upwards of 160 belong to the great
plain of Anahuac. The rest of the road is a
laborious and continued descent, particularly from
the small fortress of Perote to the city of Xalapa,
and from this site, one of the most beautiful and
picturesque in the known world, to La Rinconada.
It is the difficulty of this descent which raises the
carriage of flour from Mexico to Vera Cruz, and
prevents it to this day from competing in Europe
with the flour of Philadelphia. We have already
mentioned the superb causeway which is construct
ing along this eastern descent of the Cordillera.
This work, due to the great and praiseworthy
activity of the merchants of Vera Cruz, will have
the most decided influence on the prosperity of the
inhabitants of the whole kingdom of New Spain.
The place of thousands of mules will be supplied
by carriages fit to transport merchandise from sea
to sea, which will connect the Asiatic commerce
of Acapulco with the European commerce of Vera
Cruz. The inhabitants of Mexico, discontented with
the port of Vera Cruz, if we may give the name
of port to the most dangerous of all anchorages,
entertain the hope of finding out surer channels foi
the commerce with the mother country. I shall
merely name the mouths of the rivers Alvarado

102 PORT  INTERNAL NAVIGATION.
and Guasacualco to the south of Vera Cruz ; and
to the north of that city the Rio Tampico, and
especially the village of Sotto la Marina, near the
bar of Santander. These four points have long
fixed the attention of the Government ; but even
there, however advantageous in other respects, the
sand-banks prevent the entry of large vessels. These
ports would require to be artificially corrected ; but
it becomes necessary, in the first place, to inquire
if the localities are such as to warrant a belief that
this expensive remedy would be durable in its
effects. It is to be observed, however, that we
still know too little of the coasts of New Santander
and Texas, particularly that part to the north of the
Lake of S. Bernard or Carbonera, to be able to
assert that in the whole of this extent nature pre
sents the same obstacles and the same bars.
While civilization is in its infancy, gigantic
projects are much more attractive than simple ideas
of easier execution. Thus, instead of establishing
a system of small canals for the internal navigation
of the valley, the minds of the inhabitants have
been bewildered, since the time of the viceroy
Count Revillagigedo, with vague speculations on
the possibility of a communication by water be
tween the capital and the port of Tampico. Seeing
the water of the lakes descend by the mountains of
Nochistongo into the Rio de Tula (called also Rio
de Moctezuma), and by the Rio de Panuco into the
Gulf of Mexico, they entertain the hope of opening

INTERNAL NAVIGATION  PORT OF TAMPICO. 103
the same route to the commerce of Vera Cruz.
Goods to the value of more than 4,000,000/. are
annually transported on mules from the Atlantic
coast over the interior table-land, while flour, hides,
and metals descend from the central table-land to
Vera Cruz. The capital is the emporium of this
immense commerce. The road, which, if no
canal is attempted, is to be carried from the coast
to Perote, will cost nearly a million sterling.
Hitherto the air of the port of Tampico has ap
peared not so prejudicial to the health of Europeans,
and the inhabitants of the cold regions of Mexico,
as the climate of Vera Cruz. Although the bar
of Tampico prevents the entry into the port of
vessels drawing more than from 14 to 20 feet water,
it would still be preferable to the dangerous anchor
age among the shallows of Vera Cruz. From these
circumstances a navigation from the capital to Tam
pico would be desirable, whatever expense might be
requisite for the execution of so bold an undertaking.
Expense, however, is not to be feared in a
country where a private individual, the Count de
la Valenciana, dug, in a single mine, three shafts at
an expense of above 350,000/. Nor can we deny
the possibility of carrying a canal into execution
from the valley of Tenochtitlan to Tampico. In
the present state of hydraulic architecture, boats
may be made to pass over elevated chains of moun
tains, wherever nature offers points of separation
which communicate with two principal recipients.

104 YELLOW FEVER.
It remains for us to speak at the end of this
chapter of the epidemical disease which prevails on
the eastern coast of New Spain, and which during
a great part of the year is an obstacle not only to
European commerce, but also to the interior com
munications between the shore and the table-land
of Anahuac. The port of Vera Cruz is considered as
the principal seat of the yellow fever (vomito prieto
or negro), to which Europeans landing in Mexico
at the period of the great heats frequently fall vic
tims. Some vessels prefer landing at Vera Cruz
in the beginning of winter, when the tempests de los
nortes begin to rage, to exposing themselves in
summer to the effects of the vomito, and to under
going a long quarantine on their return to Europe.
These circumstances have frequently a very sensi
ble influence on the supply of Mexico and the
price of commodities. This destructive scourge
produces still more serious effects on the internal
commerce. The mines are in want of iron, steel,
and mercury, whenever the communication is in
terrupted between Xalapa and Vera Cruz. We
have already seen that the commerce between pro
vince and province is carried on by caravans of
mules ; and the muleteers, as well as the merchants
who inhabit the cold and temperate regions of the
interior of New Spain, are afraid of descending
towards the coast, so long as the vomito prevails
at Vera Cruz.
The farm of VEncero, near Vera Cruz, which I

YELLOW FEVER. 105
found to be 3043 feet above the level of the ocean,
is the highest limit of the vomito. We have al
ready observed that the Mexican oaks descend no
further than that place, being unable to vegetate in
a heat sufficient to develop the germ of the yellow
fever. Individuals born and brought up at Vera
Cruz are not subject to this disease.
The Whites and the Mestizos who inhabit the
interior table-land of Mexico, of which the mean
temperature is 60° and 62° Fahr., and where the
thermometer sometimes falls below the freezing
point, are more liable to contract the vomito, when
they descend from l'Encero to the Plan del Rio,
and from thence to la Antigua and the port of
Vera Cruz, than the Europeans or inhabitants of
the United States, who come by sea. The latter,
passing by degrees into the southern latitudes, are
gradually prepared for the great heats which they
experience on landing ; but the Spanish Mexicans,
on the other hand, suddenly change their climate,
when, in the space of a few hours, they are trans
ported from the temperate region to the torrid
zone. The environs of Vera Cruz are frightfully arid.
On arriving by the Xalapa road, we find near la
Antigua, a few cocoa trees which ornament the
gardens of that village ; and they are the last great
trees to be discovered in the desert. The excessive
heat which prevails in the town is increased by
the hillocks of moving sands (meganos) formed by
the impetuosity of the north winds, and sur-
p

106 CHARACTER OF THE FEVER OF VERA CRUZ.
rounding it on the south and south-west side.
The suffocating heat which prevails in this
parched and naked plain, has a powerful effect
on individuals whose nervous system has never
been accustomed to so violent an irritation. The
heat, added to the fatigues of the journey, dis
poses the organs more easily to receive the delete
rious miasmata of the yellow fever : the ravages of
that pestilential malady will be greatly diminished,
therefore, by shortening that part of the road which
crosses the arid plains of the sea coast.
Persons born at Vera Cruz are not liable to
contract the vomito in their native country ; and
in this respect they possess a great advantage over
the inhabitants of the United States, who suffer
from the insalubrity of their own climate. An
other advantage of the torrid zone is, that the Eu
ropeans, and in general all individuals born in tem
perate climates, are never twice attacked with the
yellow fever.
It is however certain that the vomito, which is
endemical at Vera Cruz, Carthagena, and the Ha-
vannah, is the same disease with the yellow fever,
which since the year 1793 has never ceased to af
flict the inhabitants of the United States.
It is incontestable that the vomito is not conta
gious at Vera Cruz. In most countries, the com
mon people consider many diseases as contagious
which are of a very different character ; but no po
pular opinion in Mexico has ever interdicted the

CAUSES OF FEVER. 107
stranger not seasoned to the climate from approach
ing the beds of those attacked by the vomito. No
fact can be cited to render it probable that the im
mediate contact or breath of the dying person is
dangerous to those not seasoned to the climate, who
may attend on the patient. On the continent of
equinoctial America, the yellow fever is not more
contagious than the intermittent fevers of Europe.
Pringle, Lind, and other distinguished physi
cians, consider our summer and autumnal bilious
affections as the first degree of yellow fever. A fee
ble analogy is also discoverable in the pernicious in
termittent fevers which prevail in Italy. In the low
regions of Mexico, as well as in Europe, the sud
den suppression of perspiration is one of the prin
cipal occasional causes of the gastric or bilious fe
vers. The strangers who frequent Vera Cruz have
greatly exaggerated the dirtiness of the inhabitants.
For some time the police has taken measures for
the preservation of the salubrity of the air ; and
Vera Cruz is at present not so dirty as many of
the towns of the south of Europe ; but these pre
cautions must be continued for some years before
their good effects will be sensibly felt.
An intimate connexion is observed on the coast
of Mexico between the progress of diseases, and the
variations of the temperature of the atmosphere.
Two seasons only are known at Vera Cruz, that of
the tempest of the north (los Nortes) from the
p2

108 SEASON OF GREATEST INSALUBRITY.
autumnal to the spring equinox, and that of the
breezes or south winds (brizas), which blow with
considerable regularity between March and Sep
tember. The month of January is the coldest in
the year, because it is furthest from the two periods
in which the sun passes through the zenith of Vera.
Cruz. The vomito generally begins first to rage in
that town when the mean temperature of the
month reaches 75° Fahr. In December, January,
and February, the heat remains below this limit ;
and accordingly it seldom happens that the yellow
fever does not entirely disappear in that season
when a very sensible cold is frequently felt. The
strong heats begin in the month of March, and
the epidemical scourge begins at the same time.
Although May is warmer than September and
October, it is however- in the two last months
that the vomito commits the greatest ravages ; for
in every epidemic it requires a certain time before
the germ of the disease is developed in all its
energy ; and the rains, which last from the month
of June to the month of September, have an
undoubted influence on the production of the
miasmata which are formed in the environs of
Vera Cruz.
The beginning and the close of the rainy season
are dreaded the most under the tropics, because
an excessive humidity arrests, almost as much as a
great drought, the progress of putrefaction of the
vegetable and animal substances which areaccutnu-

INTERVAL OF PERFECT SALUBRITY 109
lated in marshy situations. More than 90 inches
of rain-water fall annually at Vera Cruz ; and in
the month of July 1803 alone, an accurate ob
server, M. Costanzo, colonel of the corps of
engineers, collected more than 25 inches, which
is only one-third less than the quantity which falls
at London during the whole year.
It is a very remarkable fact, that during the
eight years which preceded 1794, there was not a
single example of vomito, although the concourse
of Europeans and Mexicans from the interior was
extremely great.

110

CHAPTER VII.
Mineral productions — quantity of gold and silver — copper,
tin, iron, lead, mercury, coal, salt.
Having given a brief general view of the soil,
climate and population of the kingdom of Mexico,
it remains for us to exhibit a view of the mineral
productions which for two centuries and a half have
been the object of working the mines of New
Spain. The mountains of the New Continent,
like the mountains of the Old, contain iron, copper,
lead, and a great number of other mineral sub
stances, indispensable to agriculture and the arts.
If the labour of man has, in America, been almost
exclusively directed to the extraction of gold and
silver, it is because the members of a society act
from very different considerations to those which
ought to influence the whole society. Wherever
the soil can produce both indigo and maize, the
former prevails over the latter, although the general
interest requires a preference to be given to those
vegetables which supply nourishment to man, over
those which are merely objects of exchange with
strangers. In the same manner, the mines of iron

MINERAL PRODUCTIONS. Ill
or lead on the ridge of the Cordilleras, notwith
standing their richness, continue to be neglected,
because nearly the whole attention of the colonists
is directed to the veins of gold and silver, even when
they exhibit on trial but small indications of abun
dance. Such is the attraction of those precious
metals, which, by a general convention, have become
the representatives of labour and subsistence.
No doubt the people of Mexico can procure, by
means of foreign commerce, all the articles which
are supplied to them by their own country ; but in
the midst of great wealth in gold and silver, want
is severely felt whenever the commerce with' the
mother country, or with other parts of Europe or
Asia, has suffered any interruption, or whenever
a war throws obstacles in the way of maritime
communication. From five to six hundred thou
sand pounds in piastres are sometimes heaped up
in Mexico, while the manufacturers and miners are
suffering from the want of steel, iron, and mercury,
A few years before my arrival in New Spain, the price
of iron rose from about 16*. the lOOlbs. to 10/.,
and steel from 24*. to 54/. In those times when
there is a total stagnation of foreign commerce,
the industry of the Mexicans is awakened for a
time, and they then begin to manufacture steel,
and to make use of the iron and mercury of the
mountains of America. The nation is then alive
to its true interest, and feels that wealth consists

112 MINERAL PRODUCTIONS.
in the abundance of objects of consumption, in
that of things, and not in the accumulation' of the
sign by which they are represented. During the
last war but one between Spain and America, they
began to work the iron mines of Tecalitan, near
Colima, in the intendancy of Guadalaxara. The
Tribunal de Mineria expended more than 6000/. in
extracting mercury from the veins of San Juan de
la Chica ; but the effects of so praiseworthy a zeal
were only of short duration ; and the peace of
Amiens put an end to undertakings which promised
to give to the labours of miners a direction more
useful to the public prosperity. The maritime
communication was scarcely well opened, when
they again preferred to purchase steel, iron, and
mercury in the markets of Europe.
In proportion as the Mexican population shall
increase, and the inhabitants, from being less de
pendent on Europe, shall begin to turn their
attention to the great variety of useful productions
contained in the. bowels of the earth, the system of
mining will undergo a change. An enlightened
administration will give encouragement to those
labours which are directed to the extraction of
mineral substances of an intrinsic value ; indivi
duals will no longer sacrifice their own interests
and those of the public to inveterate prejudices ;
and they will feel that the working of a mine of
coal, iron, or lead, may become as profitable as

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF MINES. 113
that of a vein of silver. In the present state of
Mexico, the precious metals occupy almost ex
clusively the industry of the. colonists ; and
whenever we employ the word mine (real, real
de minus), unless the contrary is expressly stated,
a gold or silver mine is to be uniformly under
stood. Having been engaged from my earliest youth in
the study of mining, and having myself had the
direction for several years of subterraneous opera
tions in a part of Germany which contains a great
variety of minerals, I was doubly interested in
examining with care the state of the mines and
their management in New Spain. I had occasion
to visit the celebrated mines of Tasco, Pachuca,
and Guanaxuato, in which last place, where the
veins exceed in richness all that has hitherto been
discovered in other parts of the world, I resided
for more than a month ; and I had it in my power
to compare the different methods of mining prac
tised in Mexico, with those which I had observed
in the former year in Peru. Without, however,
entering into discussions of a minute and purely
technical nature, I shall confine myself in this
work to the examination of what is conducive to
general results.
What is the geographical position of the mines
which supply this enormous mass of silver, which
flows annually from the commerce of Vera Cruz
into Europe ? Is this enormous mass of silver the
a

1 14 ftUANTITV OF PRECIOUS METALS.
produce of a great number of scattered undertakings,
or is it to be considered as almost exclusively fur
nished by three or four metallic veins of extraordi
nary wealth and extent ? What is the quantity of
precious metals annually extracted from the mines
of Mexico ? And what proportion does this quantity
bear to the produce of the mines of the whole of
Spanish America ? At how many ounces per 1001b
may we estimate the mean richness of the silver
ore of Mexico ? What proportion is there between
the quantity of ore which undergoes melting, and
that from which gold and silver are extracted by the
process of amalgamation ? What influence has the
price of mercury on the progress of mining, and
what quantity of mercury is lost in the process of
Mexican amalgamation ? Can we know with pre
cision the quantity of precious metals which have
passed, since the conquest of Tenochtitlan, from
New Spain into Europe and Asia ? Is it probable,
considering the present method of working, and the
geological constitution of the country, that the an
nual produce of the mines of Mexico will admit of an
augmentation ? Or shall we conclude, with several
celebrated writers, that the exportation of silver from
America has already attained its maximum? These
are the general questions which we now propose
to discuss. They are connected with the most im
portant problems of political economy.
Long before the arrival of the Spaniards, the na
tives of Mexico, as well as those of Peru, were ac-

&UANT1TY OF PRECIOUS METALS. 115
quainted with the use of several metals. They did
not content themselves with those which were found
in their native state on the surface of the earth, and
particularly in the beds of rivers and the ravines
formed by the torrrents ; they applied themselves to
subterraneous operations in the working of veins ;
they cut galleries and dug pits of communication and
ventilation ; and they had instruments adapted for
cutting the rock. Cortez informs us in the historical
account of his expedition, that gold, silver, copper,
lead, and tin, were publicly sold in the great market
of Tenochtitlan.
We must however refrain from going into the
historical part of this subject ; since, however enter
taining it may be, it would lead us into details
wholly unimportant for our present purpose.
We shall proceed to lay before our readers all
the information concerning the produce of the
mines which a residence in the country and access
to the registers of the mints of Mexico, Lima,
Santa F6, and Popayan, have enabled us to collect.
We believe it will be found more full and exact
than any hitherto published.
The quantity of silver annually extracted from
the mines of New Spain, does not depend so much
on the abundance and intrinsic riches of the ores,
as on the facility with which the miners procure the
mercury necessary for amalgamation. We are not
therefore to be surprised that the number of ounces
of silver converted into piastres, at the mint of
a 2

116 &UANTITY OF SILVER.
Mexico, varies very irregularly. When, from the
effect of a maritime war or from any other accident,
the mercury fails for a year, and the following year it
arrives in abundance, a very considerable produce of
silver succeeds to a very limited fabrication of money.
In Saxony, where the small quantity of mercury
which is wanted for the process of amalgamation,
is procured with sufficient facility, the produce of
the mines of Freiberg is so admirably equal, that
from 1793 to 1799 it was never below 29,8001bs.
troy, and never above 31,3001bs. troy of silver. In
that country, the great droughts, which stop the
working of the hydraulic wheels, and prevent the
water from being drawn off, have the same influence
on the quantity of silver delivered into the mint, as
the scarcity of mercury in America.
From 1777 to 1803, the quantity of silver an
nually extracted from the Mexican ores has almost
constantly been above l,231,0001bs. troy of silver,
and from 1796 to 1799 it was l,662,0001bs. troy;
while from 1800 to 1802 it remained below
1,294, 9001bs. troy. But we cannot by any means
infer fiom these data, that the mining operations
in Mexico have not been so flourishing latterly. In
1801 the gold and silver obtained amounted only
to 3,480,000/. ; while in 1803 the coinage again
amounted, on account of the abundance of mercury,
to 4,865,000/.
Abstracting the influence of accidental causes,
we find that the mines and stream works of New

INCREASED PRODUCE OF MINES. 117
Spain actually produce on an average 4,3221bs. troy
of gold, and 1,543, 8371bs. troy of silver, of which
the mean value amounts altogether to 4,620,000/.
About twenty years ago, this produce was only
from 2,170,000/. to 3,467,000/., and thirty years
ago from 2,380,000/. to 2,400,000/. In the be
ginning of the eighteenth century, the quantity of
gold and silver coined at Mexico was only from
1,085,000/. to 1,200,000/. The enormous in
crease in the produce of the mines observable in
latter years is to be attributed to a great number
of causes, all acting at the same time ; among
which the first place must be assigned to the in
crease of population on the table-land of Mexico,
the progress of knowledge and national industry,
the freedom of trade conceded to America in 1778,
the facility of procuring at a cheaper rate the iron
and steel necessary for the mines, the fall in the
price of mercury, the discovery of the mines of
Catorce and Valenciana, and the establishment of
the Tribunal de Mineria.
The two years in which the produce of gold and
silver attained its maximum, were 1796 and 1797.
In the former there were coined at the mint of
Mexico, 25,644,000 piastres ; and in the latter,
23,080,000 piastres. To judge of the effect pro
duced by the freedom of trade, or rather from the
cessation of the monopoly of the galleons, we have
merely to remember that the value of the gold and
silver coined at Mexico was, from 1766 to 1778,

118 INCREASED PRODUCE OF MINES.
191,589,179 piastres; and from 1779 to 1791,
252,525,412 piastres ; so that from 1778, the in
crease has been more than a fourth part of the total
produce. The mines of New Spain have produced from
1690 to 1800, the enormous sum of 92,229,25b lbs.
troy ; and from 1690 to 1803, gold and silver to the
value of 284,224,924/. sterling.
For a hundred and thirteen years, the produce
of the mines has been constantly on the increase,
if we except the single period frm 1760 to 1767.
This increase becomes manifest, when we compare,
every ten years, the quantity of the precious metals
given in to the mint of Mexico, as is done in the
following tables, of which the one indicates the value
of the gold and silver in pounds sterling, and the
other, the quantity of silver in pounds troy.

PRODUCE OF MINES. 119
Progress of the mining operations of Mexico.
Table I. Gold and Silver.

Period.

Value in pounds sterling

£. s. d.

From 1690 to 1699

9,505,455 18 4

1700

1709

11,208,390 14 0

1710

1719

14,245,189 3 8

1720

1729

18,233,198 1 4

1730

1739

16,614,774 16 8

1740

1749

24,235,258 13 4

1750

1759

27,245,853 14 0

1760

1769

24,446,253 0 0

1770

1779

35,789,374 12 4

1780

1789

41,925,986 14 0

1790

1799

50,067,379 14 0

Total from 1690 to 1799--,=

€276,517,115 6 8

Table II. Silver alone.

Silver.

j

Period.

Troy lbs.
Oz.
From 1690 to 1699
3,194,568
3
1700 1709
3,773,001
10
1710 1719
4,782,511
6
1720 1729
6,166,375
5
1730 1739
6,577,081
2
1740 1749
7,450,180
2
1750 1759
9,135,760
0
1760 1769
8,200,776
3
1770 1779
12,017,963
0
1780 1789
13,616,912
2
1790 1799
16,065,557
6
Total from 1690 to 1799
60,980,685
3
120

PRODUCE OF MINES.

When we distinguish those periods in which the
progress of mining has been most rapid, we find
the following results :

Value of Gold

Periods.

and Silver, for an
average year,
in pounds sterling.

Progressive increase.

gg. s. 6

£. s. d.

1690tol720
1721 1743

1,182,746 10 0>
1,988,516 8 0$

In 27 years 801,666 13 4

1744 1770

2,568,545 8 4

25 433,333 6 8

1771 1782

3,731,848 9 4

19 1,148,333 6 8

1783 1790

4,228,700 17 8

12 498,333 6 8

1791 1803

4,837,261 17 4

10 311,666 13 4

This table, along with the preceding, proves
that the periods during which the wealth of the
mines have most increased, are from 1736 to
1745, from 1777 to 1783, and from 1788 to
1798 ; but the increase in general has been so
little in proportion to the space of time, that the
total produce of the mines was:

£•

s.

d.

866,666
13
4 in
1695
1,733,333
6
8
1726
2,600,000
0
0
1747
3,466,666
13
4
1776
4,333,333
6
8
1788
5,200,000
0
0
1795
from whence it follows that the produce has been
COPPER  TIN — IRON. 121
tripled in fifty-two years, and sextupled in a hun
dred years.
After gold and silver, it remains for us to
speak of the other metals, called common metals,
the working of which, as we have already stated
in the beginning of this chapter, has been very
much neglected. Copper is found in a native
state, and under the forms of vitreous and oxidu-
lated copper, in the mines of Ingaran, a little to the
south of the Volcano of Jorullo, at San Juan
Guetamo, in the intendancy of Valladolid, and in
the province of New Mexico. The Mexican tin
is obtained by means of washing, from the alluvial
soil of the intendancy of Guanaxuato, near
Gigante, San Felipe, Robledal and San Miguel el
Grande, as well as in the intendancy of Zacatecas
between the towns of Xeres and Villa Nueva.
One of the ores of tin most common in Mexico is
the wood tin of the English mineralogists. It
appears that this mineral is originally found in
veins which traverse trap-porphyries ; but the
natives, instead of working these veins, prefer the
extracting of tin from the earth brought down the
ravines. The intendancy of Guanaxuato in 1802
produced nearly 110 tons of copper, and 5 tons
of tin.
The iron mines are more abundant than is gene
rally believed, in the intendancies of Valladolid,
Zacatecas, and Guadalaxara, and especially in the
provincias internas. R

122 LEAD, ZINC, &C.
These mines are only wrought with any degree
of spirit during a period of maritime war, when a
stop is put to the importation of steel and iron
from Europe. The veins of Tecalitan, near
Colima, were successfully wrought ten years ago,
and afterwards abandoned. Ores of compact red
iron-stone have been observed in the intendancy of
San Luis Potosi near Catorce. I saw crystallized
micaceous iron, near the village of Santa Cruz,
east from Celaya, on the fertile table-land extending
from Queretaro to Guanaxuato.
Lead, which is very rare in the north of Asia,
abounds in the mountains of calcareous formation,
contained in the north-east part of New Spain.
The lead mines are not wrought with so much
spirit as might be desired in a country where the
fourth part of all the silver minerals are smelted.
Among the metals of which the use is the
most limited, we have to name zinc, which is
found, under the form of brown and black blende,
in the veins of Ramos, Sombrerete:, Zacatecas,
and Tasco ; antimony, which is common to
Catorce and Los Pozuelos, near Cuencame ; arsenic,
which is found among the minerals of Zimapan,
combined with sulphur, as orpiment. Cobalt, as
far as I know, has never yet been discovered
among the minerals of New Spain ; and manga
nese, which M. Ramirez recently discovered in
the island of Cuba, appears to me in general
much less abundant in Equinoctial America, than

MERCURY. 123
it is in the temperate climates of the Old Conti
nent. Mercury, which is very remote from tin, with
respect to its relative antiquity, or the period of its
formation, is almost as uncommon as it is in every
part of the globe. The inhabitants of New Spain
have for centuries procured the mercury necessary in
the process of amalgamation, partly from Peru and
partly from Europe ; and hence they are accustomed
to consider their country as destitute of this metal.
When however we consider the examinations carried
on under the reign of Charles the Fourth, we must
admit that few countries have, so many indications
of cinnabar, as the table-land of the Cordilleras
from the 19th to the 22d degree of north latitude.
In the intendancies of Guanaxuato and Mexico, we
find it in many places. Sulphuret of mercury has
been also discovered in the intendancy of Vallado
lid ; at Los Pregones near Tasco, in the district of
mines of the Doctor ; and in the valley of Tenoch
titlan to the south of Gassave- in the road from
Mexico to Pachuca. The works carried on for
the discovery of these different mineral repositories
have been so frequently interrupted, and they have
been conducted with so little zeal, and generally
with so little intelligence, that it would be very im
prudent to assert, as has been often done, that the
mercury mines of New Spain are not worth work
ing. It appears, on the contrary, from the interest
ing information which we owe to the labours of
R 2

124 MERCURY.
M Chovel, that the veins of San Juan de laChica, as
well as those of the Rincon del Centeno, and the
Gigante, are very deserving of the attention of the
Mexican miners. Was it to be expected that super
ficial works which were merely begun, should in
the very first years yield a net profit to the share
holders ?
America in its present state is the tributary of
Europe with respect to mercury ; but it is probable
that this dependence will not be of long duration,
if the ties which unite the Colonies with the mother
country remain long loosened, and if civilization is
progressive in America. The spirit of enterprise
and research will increase with the population ;
the more numerous are the inhabitants of the coun
try, the more will they learn to appreciate the na
tural wealth which is contained in the bowels of
their mountains. If they discover no single mine
equal in wealth to the celebrated one of Huancave-
lica, they will work several at once, the united pro
duce of which will render the importation of mer
cury from Spain and Carniola unnecessary. These
changes will be so much the more rapidly effected,
as the Peruvian and Mexican miners shall feel them
selves impeded by the want of the metal necessary
for amalgamation. The mineral depositaries of
New Spain, if examined with care, and worked with
constancy, may one day produce a very considerable
quantity of mercury. The period approaches when
the Spanish Colonies, being more united together,

MERCURY  COAL. 125
will be more attentive to their common interests :
it becomes, therefore, of consequence to observe
the indications of mercury in South America.
Mexico and Peru, instead of receiving this metal
from Europe, will one day, perhaps, be able to
supply the Old world with it.
We may also hope that, in proportion as the in
habitants of the New world shall learn to profit by
the natural wealth of the soil, the improvement of
chemical knowledge will discover processes of amal
gamation by which less mercury is consumed. By
diminishing the consumption of this metal, and in
creasing the produce of the indigenous mines, the
American miners will gradually learn to dispense
with the mercury of Europe and China.
To complete the view of the mineral substances
of New Spain, it remains for us to name coal, salt,
and soda. The coal, of which I saw in the valley of
Bogota beds at 7, 500 feet of elevation above the level
of the sea, in general appears to be very rare in the
Cordilleras. In the kingdom of New Spain it has
only yet been discovered in New Mexico ; it is how
ever probable that it may be found in the secondary
formations which extend to the north and north-west
of the Rio Colorado, as well as in the plains of San
Luis Potosi and Texas. There is already a coal mine
near the sources of the Rio Sabina. In general,
coal and rock salt abound to the west of the Sierra
Verde near the lake of Timpanogos, in Upper Loui
siana, and in those vast northern regions situated

126 COAL  SALT.
between the stony mountains of Mackenzie and
Hudson's Bay.
Deposits of coal abound beyond the tropics in
New Mexico, in the middle of the salt plains of
Moqui and Nabajoa, and to the east of the Rocky
Mountains, as also towards the sources of the Rio
Sabina, in that immense basin covered with se
condary formations, in which flow the Missouri and
the Arkansas.
An able engineer, M. Lafond, whose map throws
much light on these countries, observes, that eight
leagues north from the post of Chichi there are hills
ahounding in coal, from which a subterraneous
noise is heard at a distance like the discharge of ar
tillery. Does this curious phenomenon announce
a disengagement of hydrogen produced by a bed of
coal in a state of inflammation ?
In the whole inhabited part of New Spain, there
is no rock salt like that of Zipaquira in the kingdom
of Santa Fe, or of Wieliczka in Poland. The mu
riate of soda is no where found collected in banks or
masses of considerable volume; it is merely dis
seminated in the argillaceous soil which covers the
ridge of the Cordilleras.
The most abundant salt mine of Mexico is the
lake of the Penon Blanco, in the intendancy of
San Luis Potosi, of which the bottom is a bed of
clay which contains from 12 to 13 percent, of mu
riate of soda. We ought also to observe, that were
it not for the amalgamation of silver ores, the con-

SALT. 127
sumption of salt would be very inconsiderable in
Mexico, because the Indians, who constitute a great
part of the population, have never abandoned the
old custom of seasoning their food with chile or pi
mento instead of salt.

Note A.
In speaking of the common metals which may be found in
Mexico, I think the probability of their value, as an object of
research, is overrated. Not that I doubt that they may be found,
and perhaps in some instances abundantly ; but unless fuel could
be supplied in much larger quantity than at present, it cannot
pay to work them. — For instance, iron and copper require such
a great weight of coal that they cannot be worked to advan
tage without it ; and when we take into account the expense
of transporting and erecting machinery, the fuel required for
merely draining the mines, the rate of wages of the miners of
Mexico, and the charge of carrying the produce to the coast,
we shall see at once, that though all these expenses may be
borne by silver and gold mines, nothing but a great falling off
in the supply from other countries, and a proportionable ad
vance in price, can warrant the application of them to mines of
the inferior metals.
An exception may be made in respect to mercury and lead. —
The former may indeed be reckoned as a precious metal, and
one of which the supply is limited, being only now found in
Spain and Germany : it is also, according to the present prac
tice, essential in Mexico for the extraction of gold and silver
from the ores : and though I am of opinion that, if fuel can be
obtained, it would be better to discontinue the use of mercury,
yet I would strongly recommend M. de Humboldt's remarks to
the attention of persons working mines in Mexico, and that

128
every inquiry and research should be made as to veins likely to
produce quicksilver.
If smelting should ever be extensively practised in Mexico
instead of amalgamation, lead would be the substitute for quick
silver, and a great consumption of it would take place, as in
the process much would be dissipated or destroyed. This de
mand for it on the spot would render it valuable, and it would
be applied in the state of ore. There is also every reason to
think that the lead ores of Mexico may frequently contain silver
in sufficient proportion to make it worth while to work them.
J.T.
Note B.
Coal. — M, de Humboldt mentions this substance in the pre
ceding chapter as having hitherto been found only in New
Mexico, which is far too distant north for the supply of any of
the mines now likely to be worked. It has however been also
found in Peru and Chili, and some late accounts warrant the
belief that it may be yet discovered within reach of the silver
mines. In a letter which I had the honour to receive, containing some
information from M. de Humboldt himself, dated at Paris, on
the 12th Jan. last, (1824,) he tells me, that " he thinks that he
" has insisted too much in his works upon the difficulties of
" supplying fuel for steam engines : That this difficulty is not
" so great in general in Mexico as in Peru, as far as relates to
" wood ; because, in the latter, nature has deposited the mineral
" treasures at such great elevations, that they are found almost
" at the highest limits of all vegetation ; whereas, upon the ta-
" ble-land of Mexico, though wood is not plentiful, yet a good
'' deal is to be found, as at Guanaxuato, from its proximity to
" the Sierra de Santa Rosa : That there are also good woods
" near Real del Monte, at 1* Oyamel, and at Cerro del Sacal."
He also says, " that some coal has been found, but that he
" does not know of any in the domains of Count Regla," which
had been reported to be the case ; and he goes on to observe,
" that the formations of basalt and amygdaloid, which are com-
" mon there, might indicate the presence of Lignite or Bovey
" coal, which would be very useful."

129
This observation of M. de Humboldt has, in some degree,
been confirmed, as there have lately arrived in England some
specimens of a kind of coal from the district he speaks of, which,
though not exactly the same as the one he mentions, is nearly
allied to it, and appears to be what Professor Jameson has
calle&pitch coal. It has the appearance of jet, is found in several
coal-fields in Scotland, in some in England, and in Hungary,
where the minerals generally remarkably resemble those of
Mexico. The letter above mentioned goes on to say, " that he had
" seen secondary formations resting upon the metalliferous por-
" phyries about Actopan andTotonilcos ; so that, geognostically
" speaking, it is possible that true coal might be discovered
" there." Some further remarks on this subject will be found
in the next chapter. — J. T.

130

CHAPTER VIII.
Geological description of the mining districts of Mexico.
When we examine the solid mass of our globe,
we soon perceive that some of the substances,
which descriptive mineralogy has made known to
us separately, are found in constant associations,
and that those associations, which are called com
pound rocks, do not vary, like organized beings,
according to the difference of latitude, or of the
temperature under which they are placed. Geo-
gnosts, who have travelled through the most distant
countries, have not only found, for the most part,
in the two hemispheres, the same simple sub
stances, quartz, feldspar, mica, garnet, and horn
blende ; but they have also observed that mountain-
masses display every where the same rocks ; that is,
the same assemblages of mica, quartz, and feldspar,
in granite ; of mica, quartz, and garnets, in mica-
slate ; and of feldspar and hornblende, in syenite.
If it has sometimes been considered, that a rock
belongs exclusively to a single portion of the globe,
subsequent researches have shown, that it also
occurs in regions the most distant from its first
locality. Thus we are almost led to admit, that
the formation of rocks has been independent of

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS. 131
the diversity of climates, and perhaps anterior to
its existence.* There is an identity even in those
rocks where organized bodies are the most variously
modified. Transition clay-slatef forms far greater masses
in the globe than primitive clay-slate. The latter
is generally subordinate to mica-slate ; as an inde
pendent formation, it is as rare in the Pyrenees
and the Alps, as in the Cordilleras. In South
America, between the parallels of 10° north and
7° south, I saw transition clay-slate only on the
southern declivity of the littoral chain of Vene
zuela, at the entrance of the Llanos of Calaboza.
The basin of the Llanos, the bottom of an ancient
lake covered with secondary formations (red sand
stone, zechstein, and clay-gypsum), is bounded by
a band of intermediary formation of clay-slate,
black limestone, and euphotide, connected with
transition greenstone. Gneiss and mica-slate, be
tween the valleys of Avague and the Villa de Ceura,
constitute only one formation on which clay-slate
reposes in conformable position, in the ravines of
Malpasso and Piedras azules (direction N. 52° E. ;
inclin. 70° towards the N.W.), of which the lower
* Humboldt, Geography of Plants, 1807, p. 115. Idem,
Views of the Cordilleras, vol. i. p. 122.
t The transition clay-slate in Cornwall is called killas, and
indeed the same general term includes primitive clay-slate. This
remark will enable the miners of that county to understand the
description of rocks in the text. — J T.
s2

132 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
beds are green, steatitic, and mixed with horn
blende, and the upper are of a greyish -green and
darkish-blue colour. This clay-slate contains (like
that of Steben, in Franconia, the duchy of Nas
sau, and of Peschels-Miihle in Saxony) beds of
greenstone, sometimes massive, at other times of
a globular structure.
The famous vein of Guanaxuato in New Spain,
which, from 1786 to 1803, has produced yearly,
on an average, 343,000 lbs. troy of silver, also tra
verses transition clay-slate. This rock, in its lower
strata, passes, in the mine of Valenciana, (at the
height of 932 fathoms above the level of the sea,)
to a talcose slate ; and I described it in my Political
Essay as placed on the limit of the primitive and
intermediary formations. A more particular exa
mination of the relations of position which I noted
on the spot, and the comparison of the beds of
syenite and serpentine which have been pierced in
digging the great shaft, with the beds that are
interposed in the transition formations of Saxony,
of the Bochetta of Genoa, and of the Cotentin,
convinced me that the clay-slate of Guanaxuato
belongs to the most ancient intermediary forma
tions. We do not know whether its stratification
be parallel and conformable with that of the granite-
gneiss of Zacatecas, and of Penon bianco, which
probably supports it, the contact of these formations
not having been observed; but almost all the
porphyry-rocks on the great table-land of Mexico

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS. 133
follow the general direction of the chain of moun
tains (N. 40°, 50° W.). This perfect concordance
(gleichfdrmigkeit der lagerung) has been observed
between the primitive gneiss and the transition
clay-slate of Saxony (Friedricks-walde; valleys of
Miiglitz, Seidewitz, and Lockwitz) ; it proves that
the formation of the intermediary series immediate
ly succeeded that of the last beds of the primitive
series. In the Pyrenees, as M. de Charpentier has
observed, the former of these series is found in a
different position (not parallel), sometimes in
transgressive position (iibergreifende lagerung)
with the latter. I shall observe, on this occasion,
that the parallelism between the stratification of
two consecutive formations, or the absence of this
parallelism, does not alone decide the question
whether the two formations are united or not in the
same primitive or secondary series ; it is rather the
sum of these geognostic relations that solves that
problem. The clay-slate of Guanaxuato is very
regularly stratified (direct. N. 46° W.; inclin. 45°
S.W.), and the form of the valleys has no influence
on the direction or inclination of the strata. We
distinguish there three varieties, which may be
considered as three epochas of formation ; a clay-
slate of a silvery lustre, and steatitic, passing to a
talc-slate (talk-schiefer) ; a greenish clay-slate, with
a silky lustre, resembling chlorite slate ; finally, a
black clay-slate, in very thin laminae, surcharged
with carbon, staining the figures like ampelite and
the marly slate of zechstein, but not effervescing

134 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
with acids. I have named these varieties in the
order in which I observed them from below up
wards, in the mine of Valenciana, which is 263
fathoms in perpendicular depth ; but in the mines of
Mellado, Animas, and Rayas, the supercarburetted
clay-slate (hoja de libro) occurs beneath the green
and steatitic variety ; and it is probable, that the
strata which pass to talc-slate, chlorite, and ampe-
lite, alternate several times with each other.
The thickness of this formation of transition
clay-slate, which I found at the mountain of Santa-
Rosa near Los Joares, where the Indians collect
ice in small artificial basins, is more than 3000
feet. It contains in subordinate beds, not only
syenite (like the transition clay-slate of the Coten-
tin), but also, which is very remarkable, serpentine,
and a hornblende-slate that is not greenstone. In
digging in the massive rock, the great shaft of
Valenciana, which has cost nearly 292,000/., the
following strata were found, reckoning downwards
for ninety-four fathoms of depth : an ancient con
glomerate, representing the red sandstone ; black
transition clay-slate, strongly carburetted, in very
thin laminae; clay-slate, blueish -grey, and containing
magnesia; hornblende-slate, greenish-black, a little
mixed with quartz and pyrites, destitute of feldspar,
not passing to greenstone, and altogether similar
to the hornblende-slate (hornblend-schiefer) which
forms beds in primitive gneiss and mica-slate;
green serpentine of uneven fracture and fine grain,
dull, but translucent on the edges, containing much

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS, 135
pyrites, destitute of garnets, and diallage metalloid
(schillerspath) mixed with talc and steatite ; horn
blende-slate ; syenite, or a granular mixture of much
darkish-green hornblende, yellowish quartz, and a
little lamellar and white feldspar. This syenite
splits into very thin layers ; the quartz and feldspar
are so irregularly spread, that they sometimes form
small veins in a paste of hornblende. The syenite
is the largest of these eight interposed beds, of
which the direction and inclination are exactly
parallel to that of the whole rock ; it is more than
180 feet thick; and as I saw in the deepest work
ing of the mine (planes of San Bernardo), at 172
fathoms below the bed of syenite, carburetted clay-
slate occurring again, identical with that in which
new shafts are beginning to be sunk, no doubt can
remain that hornblende-slate alternating twice with
serpentine, and serpentine alternating probably with
syenite, form beds subordinate to the great mass
of clay-slate of Guanaxuato. The connexion
which we have just remarked between hornblende-
rocks and serpentine, is found in other parts of the
globe, in formations of euphotide of different ages ;
for instance, at Heidelberg nearZell in Franconia;
at Keilwig in the northern extremity of Norway; at
Portsoy in Scotland ; and at the island of Cuba,
between Regla and Guanavacoa*.
* The syenite here spoken of will best be understood in
Cornwall, as a species of elvan ; which term, however, more
properly belongs to what is now called porphyry. — J. T.

136 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
I saw no remains of organized bodies, nor beds
of porphyry, grauwacke, nor lydian stone, in the
transition clay-slate of Guanaxuato, which is the
rock richest in silver that has hitherto been found;
but this clay-slate is covered in conformable position
in some places by transition porphyries very regu
larly stratified (los Alamos de la Sierra) ; in some
by greenstone and syenites alternating thousands
of times together (between Esperanca and Coman-
gillas) ; and in others, either by a calcareous con
glomerate or by transition limestone of a blueish-
grey colour, mixed with clay, and fine-grained
(ravine of Acabuca), or by red sandstone (Marfil).
These relations of the clay-slate of Guanaxuato,
with the rocks which it supports, and some of
which (the syenites) appear first as subordinate beds,
suffice to place it among the transition formations ;
above all, they justify this result in the opinion of
those geognosts who are acquainted with the ob
servations which have been recently published on
the intermediary formations of Europe. With
respect to lydian stone, there can be no doubt that
it is contained on some points not yet explored in
the clay-slate of Guanaxuato ; for I found the former
substance frequently imbedded in large fragments
in the ancient conglomerate (red sandstone) which
covers the clay-slate between Valenciana, Marfil,
and Cuevas. Thirty miles to the south of Cuevas,
between Queretaro and la Cuesta de laNoria, in the
middle of a Mexican table-land, a transition clay-

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS. 137
slate appears beneath the porphyry, darkish-gray,
and passing both to siliceous slate (schistoid jasper
kiesel-schiefer) and lydian stone. Many fragments
of this latter substance are found near the Noria
scattered in the fields. The rocks with argentiferous
veins of Zacatecas, and a small part of the veins
of Catorce, according to the report of two well-
informed mineralogists, MM. Sonneschmidt arid
Valencia, also traverse transition clay-slate, which
contains true beds of lydian stone, and which
appears to rest on syenites. This super-position
would prove, according to what has been observed
of the great shaft of Valenciana, that the clay-
slates of Mexico constitute (as at Caucasus and in
the Cotentin) the same formation with the transi
tion syenites and euphotides, and that perhaps they
alternate with the latter rocks.
It is in porphyries and porphyritic greenstones,
that at the north of the equator, in Mexico and in
Hungary, the immensely rich gold and silver mines
have been discovered; for although the metalliferous
rock of Schemnitz (saxum metalliferum of Born)
may perhaps be posterior to the transition lime
stones, containing some indistinct organic remains,
this position, in the opinion of a celebrated geo-
gnost, M. Beudant, is too uncertain to separate for
mations so closely allied as those of New Spain and
Hungary. The syenites with zircons, the transition
granites and porphyries of Norway, which MM,
de Buch and Hausmann have made us acquainted

138 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
with, are not only posterior, (Stromsoe, Krogsko-
ven) to grauwacke and a clay-slate that alternates
with orthoceratite-limestone, but these rocks also
cover (Skeen) immediately a quartzite (quartz/els)
that represents grauwacke, and reposes on a black
limestone destitute of alternating beds of clay-slate.
The property which certain porphyries and por-
phyritic syenites possess of being eminently metal
liferous, ought not, I think, to oppose the union of
the rocks of Mexico, Hungary j Saxony and Norway.
The ores of gold and silver do not form contempo
rary beds, but are veins of extraordinary size. Some
transition porphyries, several of which we should be
tempted to place among trachytes because they con
tain true beds of phonolite with glassy feldspar, par
ticipate in these mineral riches, which, among the
rocks posterior to primitive formations, were long
thought to be found exclusively in carburetted and
micaceous clay-slate, grauwacke, and transition
limestone. There exist in the same regions groups
of porphyries and syenites, very analogous, in their
mineralogical composition and their position, to the
rocks containing the rich mines of Schemnitz or
New Spain, and which, nevertheless, are found en
tirely destitute of metals. This is the case with
almost all the transition porphyries of South Ame
rica. The great workings of Peru, those of Hual-
gayoc or Chota, and Llauricocha or Pasco, are not
in porphyry, but mountain limestone. The famous
Cerro del Potosi, in the republic of Buenos-Ayres,

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS. 139
is composed of clay-slate (transition ?) covered by
porphyries that contain disseminated garnets.
If the great argentiferous and auriferous deposits
which have formed for ages the wealth of Hungary
and Transylvania, are found solely amidst syenites
and porphyritic greenstones, we must not thence
conclude that the case is the same in New Spain.
The Mexican porphyries no doubt offer insulated
examples of immense riches. At Pachuca, the pit of
del Encino alone furnished annually, during a long
time, more than 18,5001bs. troy of silver; in 1726
and 1727, the two workings of La Biscaina and
Xacal gave together 333,0001bs. troy ; that is, al
most twice as much as all Europe and Asiatic
Russia produced in the same interval. These same
porphyries* of Real del Monte, which are connected
by their upper beds with porphyritic trachytes and
pearl-stone, with obsidian of Cerro de las Navajas,
furnished, by the working of the mine of La Biscaina,
to the Count of Regla, from 1762 to 1781, more
than 3,384,000/. These riches, however, are still
inferior to those which are drawn in the same
country from transition formations which are not
porphyritic. The veta negra of Sombrerete, which
traverses a compact limestone containing nodules
of lydian stone, has furnished the example of the
greatest abundance of silver which has been observed
* Porphyry is what is called Elvan in Cornwall, where it
is usually found to run in channels or courses in the killas or
clay-state ; in Mexico it forms larger masses. — J. T.
t2

140 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
in the two hemispheres ; the family of Fagoaga, or of
the Marquis del Apartado, drew from thence in a
few months a neat profit of 870,000/. The produce
of the mine of Valenciana, worked in transition
slate, has been so constant, that to the end of the last
century it never ceased to furnish anually, during
forty years successively, above 222,0001bs. troy of
silver. In general, in the central part of New Spain,
where porphyries are frequent, it is not that rock
which affords the precious metals in the three great
workings of Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, and Catorce.
These three mining districts, which yield the half
of all the Mexican gold and silver, are situated be
tween the 18th and 23d degrees of north latitude.
The miners there work on metalliferous mineral de
posits, almost entirely in intermediary formations
of clay-slate, grauwacke, and alpine limestone; I
say almost entirely, for the famous Veta madre de
Guanaxuato, richer than Potosi, and furnishing till
1804, on an average, a sixth of the silver which
America pours into the circulation of the whole
world, traverses both clay-slate and porphyry. The
mines of Belgrado, San Bruno, and Marisanshez,
opened in the porphyritic part at the south-east of
Valenciana, are but of small importance. Other
workings carried on in the porphyries of Real del
Monte, Moran, Pachuca, and Bolanos, do not now
furnish above 62,0001bs. troy, or a twenty-fifth part
of the silver exported (1803) from the port of Vera
Cruz. I thought it proper here to state these

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS. 141
facts, because the denomination of metalliferous por
phyries which I have often used in my works, might
lead to the error of considering the metallic riches
of the New World as procured in great part from
transition porphyries. The more we advance in
the study of the constitution of the globe in different
climates, the more we are convinced that there
scarcely exists one rock anterior to mountain lime
stone which has not been found in some countries
extremely argentiferous. The phenomenon of these
ancient veins in which our metallic riches are de
posited, (perhaps as the specular iron and muriate
of copper are deposited in modern times in the fis
sures of lava,) is a phenomenon that appears in some
degree independent of the specific nature of rocks.
In advancing to the north towards Sopilote, Mes-
cala, and Tasco, we again lose sight of porphyry.
Primitive granite re-appears, but is soon hid by a
porphyry, the mineralogical composition of which
presents very remarkable characters ; it is blueish-
gray, a little argillaceous by decomposition, and
contains large crystals of whitish-yellow feldspar
(rather lamellar than glassy), pyroxene of nearly a
leek-green, and a little uncrystallized quartz. This
stratified porphyry is covered, towards the south,
with the same conglomerate limestone that abounds
on the table-land of Chilpansingo ; towards the
north (Sopilote, Estola, Mescala) with a grayish
compact limestone traversed by veins of carburet-

142 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
ted lime. The limestone of Estola is not always
spongy or vesicular in its whole mass, like the for
mation of Masatlan, but contains large insulated
caverns like the limestone of Peregrino. Whilst
travelling in those mountains, I had no doubt re
maining, that the rocks of Canada de Sopilote and
of Alto del Peregrino are identical with our alpine
limestone (zechstein) of Europe, which succeeds,
according to the age of its formation, to the red
sandstone, or, when that is wanting, to the transi
tion rocks. Near Mescala, a little north of Sopilote,
rich silver veins, analogous to the veins of Tasco
and Tehuilotepec, traverse the alpine limestone.
The rock in the valley of Sopilote, that covers the
porphyry of the group of Zumpango, exhibits the
same sinuous and contorted beds that are seen at
Achsenberg, on the bank of the lake of Lucerne,
and in other mountains of alpine limestone in
Switzerland. I observed that the upper beds of the
formation of Sopilote and Mescala passed progres
sively to whitish-gray, were destitute of veins of
calcareous spar, and presented a dull, compact, or
conchoidal fracture. They divide, nearly like the
limestone of Pappenheim, into very thin layers. It
seems to be the passage from the alpine to the Jura
limestone, two formations which immediately cover
each other in Switzerland, the Apennines, and se
veral parts of equinoctial America, but which in the
south of Germany are separated from each other

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS. 143
by several interposed formations (by the sandstone
of Nebra, or bunte sandstein, by muschelkalk, and
the white sandstone or quadersandstein) .
Near the village of Sochipala, the mountain lime
stone is covered by gypsum, and between Estola and
Tepecuacuilco, there appears beneath the mountain
limestone (directed sometimes N. 48° E., with in
clination of 40° at the east ; sometimes N. 48° E. ;
with inclination 50° to south-east) a porphyry, as
paragus-green, with a base of compact feldspar, di
vided into very thin strata like that of Achichintla,
and almost destitute of disseminated crystals. This
rock resembles phonolitic porphyry (porphyr-schie-
ftr) of the trachyte formation. In advancing to
wards the mines of Tehuilotepec and Tasco, we find
the same rock covered with a quartzose sandstone
having a cement of argillaceous limestone, and ana
logous to the weiss liegende (lower arenaceous bed
of zechstein) of Thuringia. This quartzose sand
stone again announces the proximity of mountain
limestone; and in fact, on this sandstone and per
haps immediately on porphyry (as at Zumpango,
and the Alto de los Caxones), near the salt lake of
Tuspa, an immense mass of mountain limestone
reposes, often cavernous, and containing some pe
trifactions of trochi and other univalve shells.
This limestone of Tuspa, indubitably posterior to
all the porphyries which I have just described, con
tains beds of specular gypsum, and beds of slaty and
carburetted clay, which we must not confound with

144 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
grauwacke-slate. It is generally blueish-gray, com
pact and crossed by veins of carbonate of lime. In
many places, instead of being cavernous, it passes
to a very compact white formation, analogous to the
limestone of Pappenheim. I was struck with these
variations of texture, which M. de Buch and myself
had also observed in the Apennines (between Fo-
sombrono, Furli, and Fuligno), and which seem to
prove that, where the intermediary members of the
series were not developed, the formations of alpine
and Jura limestone are more closely connected than
is generally admitted. The rich silver veins of
Tasco, which formerly yielded 99,0001bs. troy of
silver annually, traverse both limestone and a clay-
slate that passes to mica-slate ; for, notwithstand
ing the identity of the limestone formations of Tasco
and Mescala, which are both argentiferous, the for
mer of those, wherever it has been pierced in mining
(Cerro de S. Ignacio), has not been found super
posed to porphyry like the limestone of Mescala,
but covering a more ancient rock than porphyry, a
mica-slate (dir. N. 50° E. ; inch 40°— 60°, most
frequently at N. W. sometimes at S. E.) destitute
of garnets, and passing to primitive clay-slate. It
was proper to enter into these details on the forma
tions that succeed porphyries, because it is only in
making known the nature of superposed rocks, that
geognosts can be enabled to decide on the place
which Mexican porphyries ought to occupy in the
order of formations. A sketch of a geognostic ta-

GEOLOGY OF MLNfNG DISTRICTS. 145
ble has its value only inasmuch as we connect the
rock we wish to make known, to those by which it
is immediately succeeded above and below. Mine-
ralogical facts alone may be presented singly ; po
sitive geognosy is a science occupied with the
relation and connexion of facts ; and in describ
ing any one portion of the globe, we ought not to
limit our view, and stop at the study of a particular
bed. Central table-land, valley of Mexico ; tract be
tween Pachuca, Moran, and La Puebla. An
enormous mass of transition porphyry rises to the
mean height of 1200 to 1400 fathoms above the
level of the sea. It is covered in the valley of
Mexico, and at the south towards Cuernavaca and
Guchilaque, with basaltic and cellular amygdaloid
(tetzontli in Mexican); and towards the east and
north-east (between Tlascala andTotonilco) with se
condary formations. The porphyry, probably hid at
first beneath the mountain limestone of Mescala and
then in the Llanos of San Gabriel (near the bridge
of Istla) beneath trachytic conglomerates and a po
rous amygdaloid, is identical with that which re
appears, 45 miles further norths and 800 fathoms
higher, on the banks of the lake of Tezcuco. In
the fine valley of Mexico the porphyritic rock pierces
the cellular amygdaloid in the hills of Chapoltepec,
of Notre Dame de la Guadeloupe, and of Penol de
los Bafios. It exhibits several very remarkable va
rieties.: 1. reddish-gray, a little argillaceous, with-
u

146 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
out distinct stratification, containing crystals of
hornblende, and common feldspar in equal parts
(level dug in the rock of Chapoltepec); 2. black
or darkish-gray (sometimes fissile and spongy) stra
tified by beds from 3 to 4 inches thick, with a basis
of compact feldspar, fracture dull, smooth, or im
perfectly conchoidal, resembling more the fracture
of lydian stone than that of pitchstope, containing
small crystals of glassy feldspar and olive-green
pyroxene, almost destitute of hornblende, and often
covered at their surface by superb masses of reni-
form hyalite, or Muller's glass (Penol de los Banos;
dir. N. 60° W. ; inch 60° N. E.) ; 3. red, earthy,
with a quantity of large crystals of common decom
posed feldspar (salt-works of the lake of Tezcuco,
where the Penol is covered by ancient Aztic sculp
tures) . The porphyry of the valley of Mexico fur
nishes not only springs of pure water, which is con
veyed to the town bylongandmagnificent aqueducts,
but also acidulated thermal waters, some warm, and
others cold. Here are also found (and this is a very
remarkable fact) naphtha and petroleum (promontory
of the sanctuary of Guadeloupe), as in the primitive
mica-slate of the vicinity of Araya and Cumana.
Although this porphyry appears below the porous
amygdaloid, and is seen (Cerro de las Cruces and
Tiangillo, Cuesta de Varientos and Capulalpan,
Cerro Ventoso, and Rio Frio) in all the circular
outline of the basin of Tenochtitlan, (the bottom
of an ancient lake partly dried,) it is only towards

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS. 147
the north-east (Pachuca, Real del Monte, and Mo
ran) that it has been found to be argentiferous.
Several rich veins traverse a mass of porphyry
above 700 feet in thickness, from the mine of San
Pedro, at the summit of Cerro Ventoso (1461 fa
thoms), as far as the bottom of the ancient wells of
Encino (1170 fathoms), in the Real de Pachuca.
This rock, which would have formerly been called
petrosilex, or hornstone-porphyry, is generally
greenish -gray, sometimes prase-green, with a scaly
fracture, and giving fragments with sharp edges.
The paste is probably a compact feldspar, having
a large proportion of silica ; and contains, not
quartz and mica, but crystals of common, feldspar
and hornblende. In general, the latter substance
is not very abundant, and when the porphyry is ar
gillaceous, or merely earthy, we recognise the horn
blende only by spots with striated surfaces, and of
a very dark green. The beds which are argillaceous
and softer (clay porphyry of Moran) appear to be
below the harder and more tenacious beds. Strata
of phonolite (klingstein) are found subordinate to
both ; it is smoke-gray, or leek-green, divided into
tables or plates that are very sonorous. It is not,
however, altogether a porphyry- slate of the trachyte
formation ; for the phonolitic mass does not contain
thin crystals of glassy feldspar, but crystals of gray
ish-white common feldspar, constantly accompanied
With a little hornblende. All these argentiferous
porphyries of Moran and Real del Monte are very re-
u2

148 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
gularly stratified (general direction as in the valley
of Mexico, N. 60° W., inch 50°— 60° at N. E.) :
they are irregularly columnar only in the Organos of
Actopan (Cerro de Mamanchota, summit 1527 fa
thoms) and the Monjas of Totonilco el Chico; if in
deed the rock of Organos, the mass of which is 3000
feet thick, reckoning only the porphyries visible above
the neighbouring plains, is identical with the rock
of Moran. The latter contains fewer crystals of
hornblende ; neither of these rocks is fissile or po
rous, and it is at the foot of the grotesque peaks
of Monjas that the rich veins of Tononilco el Chico
are found. The argentiferous porphyries of Pachuca
and Moran which I have just described, present no
character that should separate them from the transi
tion formation: they are even covered, between
the baths of Totonilco el Grande and the cavern of
Madre deDios, or the pierced rock, by enormous cal
careous masses, and by sandstone and gypsum.
Group of porphyries of Guanaxuato. It is this
group that determines most clearly the relative
age, or, to express myself with more precision, the
maximum of the antiquity of the Mexican porphy
ries ; if indeed those of which we have just indi
cated the positions are of the same formation as
the porphyries of Guanaxuato. The superposition
of those porphyries on rocks belonging to inter
mediary formation is evident. Near the farm of
Noria, and in the Canada de Queretaro, a slaty
olive-green porphyry, containing glassy feldspar in

GEOLOGY OF MINING D1RTRICTS. 149
microscopic crystals, is superposed on a transition
clay-slate with lydian stone. This superposition is
equally certain near Guanaxuato, and particularly
near Santa Rosa de la Sierra. The porphyries of
this district have in general a concordant position
(a parallel direction and inclination) with the strata
of clay-slate. They are eminently metalliferous ;
and the famous vein of Guanaxuato (Veta Madre),
making the same angle with the meridian as the
veins of Zacatecas, Tasco and Moran (N. 50° W.),
has been worked successively on a length of 1 2,000
fathoms, and a thickness of 20 to 25 fathoms. It
has furnished, in 230 years, more than 39,000,000/.,
and traverses both porphyry and transition-slate.
The first of these rocks forms, at theeast of Gua
naxuato, gigantic masses, that have at a distance
the most singular aspect, resembling walls and
bastions. These perpendicular ridges, rising more
than 200 fathoms above the surrounding plains,
bear the name of buffas ; they are destitute of
metals, appear to have been heaved up by elastic
fluids ; and are regarded by the Mexican miners,
who see them placed also at Zacatecas on a very
metalliferous transition clay-slate, as a natural
indication of the riches of those countries. When
we consider the porphyries of La Buffa de Gua
naxuato, and those of the formerly celebrated
mines of Belgrado de San Bruno, la Sierra de
Santa Rosa, and Villalpando, in the same point
of view, we think we perceive in their latest strata,

150 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
passages to rocks which in Europe are generally
placed among trachytes.
In the vicinity of Guanaxuato, porphyries pre
dominate, which have a paste of compact feldspar,
are gray and olive-green, and contain imbedded
lamellar feldspar (not glassy), either in crystals
almost microscopic (Buffa) or in very large crystals
(mines of San Bruno and Tesoro). Decomposed
hornblende, which probably tinges with green the
whole mass of these rocks, is only distinguished
by irregular spots. In ascending towards the
Sierra (Puerto de Santa Rosa, Puerto de Varientos),
the porphyry is often composed of balls with con
centric layers ; its paste becomes darkish-gray,
semi-vitreous (pitchstone-porphyry), and contains
a little crystallized mica and grains of quartz. The
auriferous veins near Villalpando traverse a green
porphyry with a base of phonolite, in which we
perceive only some small and thin crystals of glassy
feldspar. It is difficult to distinguish this rock
from trachytic porphyry-slate ; I have seen it
covered with an earthy yellowish-white porphyry
(mine of Santa Cruz), and with an ancient con
glomerate (mouth of the mine of Villalpando), which
evidently represents the red sandstone, and the
lower beds of which pass to grauwacke.
The porphyries of the equinoctial region of
Mexico contain, although rarely, besides some
disseminated garnets (Izmiquilpan and Xaschi),
sulphuret of mercury (San Juan de la Chica; Cerro

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS. 151
del Fraile, near the Villa of San Felipe ; Gasave,
at the northern extremity of the valley of Mexico),
tin (El Robedal, and la Mesa de los Hernandez),
and alumstone (Real del Monte, according to M.
Sonneschmidt). This latter substance seems to
give to the porphyritic rocks a nearer affinity to real
trachytes ; although in South America (peninsula
of Araya, Cerro del Distiladero and Chupariparu)
I saw a clay- slate which belonged rather to the
primitive than to the intermediary formation, tra
versed by veins, I will not say, of alumstone (alum-
stein), but of native alum, of which the Indians
sell pieces of the size of an inch at the market of
Cumana. The cinnabar of the porphyries of San
Juan de la Chica, the argillaceous beds of Durasno
containing both coal and cinnabar and placed on a
porphyry with much hornblende, are phenomena
well worthy of attention. The geognosts who,
like myself, attach more importance to the position
than to the mineralogical composition of rocks,
will, no doubt, connect the porphyries and clays of
Davasno with the deposites of mercury which the
formation of the red sandstone and porphyry ex
hibits in both hemispheres (duchy de Deuxponts
and Cuenga, between Quito and Loxa). The last
beds of the transition formation are found every
where in close connexion with the most ancient
beds of the secondary formation.
The celebrated silver vein of Bolaiios contains
its greatest riches in an amygdaloid interposed in

152 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
porphyry. In Hungary, England, Scotland, and
even in Germany, rocks of amygdaloid and por
phyry belong to grauwacke, to clay-slate, to transi
tion limestone, to red sandstone, and to coal
sandstone. The metalliferous porphyry of Gua
naxuato simply covers clay-slate, without forming
in it subordinate beds ; but a syenite analogous to
that which occurs in the mine of Valenciana, in
the midst of intermediary clay-slate, alternates
thousands of times, on a surface of more than
twenty square leagues, with transition greenstone,
between the mine of the Esperanza and the village
of Comangillas. In that region the syenitic rock
is destitute of metals, but at Comanja it is argen
tiferous, as it is also in Saxony and in Hungary.
I had the opportunity of observing the formation
of red sandstone in the equinoctial region of the
New Continent, north and south of the equator, in
six different places ; in New Spain (from 1100 to
1300 fathoms high), in the steppes or Llanos of
Venezuela (30 — 50 fathoms), in New Granada
(50 — 1800 fathoms), on the southern table-land of
the province of Quito (1350 — 1600 fathoms), and
in the western valley of the Amazon (200 fathoms).
The schists and transition porphyries of Gua
naxuato (table -land of Anahuac), of which we
have given a detailed description above, are co
vered with a formation of red sandstone. This
formation fills the plains of Celaya, Salamanca,
and Burras (900 fathoms) ; it there supports

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS. 153
limestone very analogous to that of Jura, and
lamellar gypsum. It extends by Canada de Mar
fil to the mountains that surround the town of
Guanaxuato, and appears in insulated spots in
the Sierra de Santa Rosa, near Villalpando (1330
fathoms) . This Mexican sandstone has the most
striking resemblance with the rothe todte liegende
of Mansfeld in Saxony. It contains angular frag
ments of lydian stone, syenite, porphyry, quartz,
and flint (splittriger hornstein). The cement that
unites these fragments is argillo-ferruginous, very
tenacious, yellowish-brown, and often (near the
river of Serena) of a brick-red colour. Beds of
coarse conglomerate, containing fragments two or
three inches in diameter, alternate with a fine
grained conglomerate, sometimes even (Cuevas)
with a sandstone consisting uniformly of grains of
quartz. Coarse conglomerates abound more in
plains and ravines than on the heights. I thought
I perceived in the most ancient beds (mine of
Rayas) a passage from the red sandstone to grau
wacke ; the pieces of imbedded syenite and por
phyry become very small ; their outlines are indi
stinct and appear as if softened into the mass- This
conglomerate (frijolillo de Rayas) must not be
confounded with that of the mine of Animas, which
is whitish-gray, and contains fragments of compact
limestone. In the red sandstone of Guanaxuato, as
well as in that of Eisleben in Saxony, the cement
is often so abundant (road from Guanaxuato to
x

154 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
Rayas and Salgado) that the imbedded fragments
are no longer distinguished. Argillaceous beds,
from three to four inches thick, then alternate with
the coarse conglomerate. The great formation of
red sandstone, superposed on metalliferous clay-
slate, appears in general only when supported by
transition porphyry (Belgrade, Buffa de Guanaxu
ato ) ; but we see it distinctly placed on the latter
rock at Villalpando. I found no petrified shells,
nor any trace of coal or fossil wood in the red
sandstone of Guanaxuato. These combustible
substances occur frequently in other parts of New
Spain, especially in those which are least elevated
above the level of the sea. In the interior of New
Mexico, coal is known not far from the banks of
the Rio del Norte ; other deposites of it probably
are hid in the plains of Nuevo Sant-Ander and the
Texas. At the north of Natchitoches, near the
coal-mine of Chica, subterraneous detonations are
heard from time to time, from an insulated hill,
occasioned perhaps by the inflammation of hydro
gen gas mixed with atmospheric air. Fossil wood
is common in the red sandstone that extends
towards the north-east of the town of Mexico. It
is also found in the immense plains of the inten-
dance of San Luis Potosi, and near the town of
Altamira. The coal of Durasno (between Tierra-
Nueva and San Luis de la Paz) is placed below a
bed of clay containing fossil wood, and over a bed
of sulphuret of mercury which covers the porphyry.

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS. 155
Does it belong to very recent lignites ? or, ought
we not rather to admit that these combustible sub
stances of Durasno, these clays and semi-vitreous
porphyries (pechstein porphyre) , globular and co
vered with mammillated hyalite, porphyries which
in other parts of Mexico (San Juan de la Chica,
Cerro del Fraile near the Villa of San Felipe)
contain deposites of sulphuret of mercury, are
connected with the great formation of red sand
stone? There is no doubt that this formation is
as rich in mercury in the new continent as in the
west of Germany ; it is found there when the por
phyries are wanting (Cuenca, table-land of Quito) ;
and if the union of veins of tin with veins of cin
nabar, in the porphyries of San Felipe, appear at
first to remove porphyritic rocks which abound in
mercury from those of the red sandstone, we must
recollect that transition clay-slate and porphyries
(Hollgrund near Steben, Hartenstein) are also
sometimes stanniferous in Europe.
I place in the suite of coal-sandstones of Gua
naxuato, a formation that is somewhat doubtful,
which I have already described, in my Political
Essay on New Spain, by the name of lozero, or
feldspathic conglomerate ; it is an arenaceous rock,
reddish-white, and sometimes apple-green, which
divides, like sandstone (leuben or waldplatten-
stein of Suhl), in very thin plates (lozas) ; it
•contains grains of quartz, small fragments of clay-
slate, and a quantity of crystals of feldspar partly
x2

156 GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS.
broken and partly entire. These various substances
are connected together in the lozero of Mexico, as
in the rock of porphyritic aspect of Suhl, by an
argillo-ferruginous cement (Canada de Serena, and
almost the whole mountain of that name). It is
probable that the destruction of the porphyry has
had great influence on the formation of the feld-
spathic sandstone of Guanaxuato. The most ex
perienced mineralogist might at first be led to take
it for a porphyry with an argillaceous base, or
for a porphyritic breccia. Around Valenciana
the lozero forms masses of 200 fathoms in thick
ness, and which exceed in elevation the mountains
formed by the intermediary porphyry. Near to
Villalpando a feldspathic conglomerate, with very
small grains, alternates by beds one or two feet
thick, twenty-eight times with slate-clay of a
darkish brown. I saw every where this conglo
merate or lozero reposing on the red sandstone,
and at the south-west declivity of Cerro de Serena,
in descending towards the mine of Rayas, it ap
peared to me sufficiently evident that the lozero
forms a bed in the coarse conglomerate of Marfil.
I doubt, consequently, if this remarkable formation
can belong to trachytic pumice-conglomerates,
as M. Beudant seems to think from its analogy
with some rocks in Hungary. The argillaceous
cement becomes often so abundant that the im
bedded parts are scarcely visible, and the mass
passes to compact clay-stone (thonstein). In this

GEOLOGY OF MINING DISTRICTS. 157
state the lozero furnishes the fine building-stone of
Queretaro, (quarries of Caretas and Guimilpa,)
which is so much esteemed for architecture. I
have seen columns fourteen feet high, and two feet
and a half in diameter, flesh -red, brick- red, or
peach colour. When in contact with the atmo
sphere those fine colours change to gray, probably
by the action of the air on the dendritic manganese
contained in the fissures of the rock. The columns
of Queretaro have a smooth fracture, like that of
the lithographic Jura limestone. With difficulty
we discover in these clay-stones (argilolites) some
very small fragments of clay-slate, quartz, feld
spar, and mica. I will not decide, if the unbroken
crystals of lozero or feldspathic sandstone are de
veloped in the mass itself, or are found there acci
dentally. I shall here confine myself to the ob
servation, that in Europe this red sandstone and
these porphyries are also sometimes characterized
by a local suppression of crystals and imbedded
fragments. The lozero appears to me to be a
formation of superposed sandstone, perhaps even
subordinate to the red sandstone ; and if no rock
entirely similar is found in the ancient continent,
we see, at least, the first germ of this kind of
pseudo-porphyritic structure in the layers of sand
stone with feldspar crystals, broken or entire,
which are sometimes imbedded in the great forma
tion of red sandstone of Mansfeld and Thuringer-
wald.

158
Note 1.
An attentive perusal of the preceding observations on
the geology of those parts of Mexico which contain the richest
mines, will present striking resemblances, in some points, to
what is observed in England. It is only within a few years,
that the coincidence between the position of the most pro
ductive mines of Cornwall, with the junctions of different
rocks has been much noticed. My own attention was first
called to it by the communication of observations made in
different parts of Europe by my friend Mr. Greenough, and
I believe I was afterwards instrumental in calling the attention
of our practical miners to the circumstance. The truth of
the remark is now universally admitted in that district, where
it will appear that our great mines are either near the junction
of the killas (clay-slate) with the granite, or they are in
killas which is intersected by channels of elvan (inclined beds
of porphyry). So prevalent is the opinion now become, that
some of the most intelligent miners would hesitate to recom
mend trials which involve much expense, on lodes or veins
discovered where the different rocks are not thus associated,
or in what has in Cornwall been significantly called a clean
country. Our lead mining districts in England are also to be found
near junctions, either where the coal measures rest on the
limestone, as in North Wales, or where rocks are interstratified,
as in Derbyshire, Yorkshire, or Cumberland and Durham.
We see this theory confirmed in Mexico : in the succeeding
chapter we shall find that at Guanaxuato the richest veins in
the world are in killas, containing beds of syenite, and in por
phyries, which we should call elvan ; and that the best mines
on this extraordinary lode are near the junction of the rocks.
At Sombrerete the lode is in limestone containing lydian
stone, a kind of flinty slate nearly allied to chert, which in
England is found with the limestone near some of our best
lead mines, and is esteemed a favourable circumstance, as it is
also at Ecton mine for copper.
In Zacatecas and Catorce, where the mines have been ex
tremely rich, we find them in intermediary formations of clay-

159
slate, grauwacke and limestone. The veins of Tasco traverse
both limestone and clay-slate.
Real del Monte, Moran and Pachuca, which are nearly
together, and Bolanos which is very distant from them, exhibit
porphyry as the prevalent rock : we observe, however, that it
is stratified with beds which are of the argillaceous kind, and
that strata of phonolite, which is a kind of basalt or whin stone,
occur in them ; and that amygdaloid, another rock of the same
nature, forms junctions at no great distance.
We cannot too much value the industry and accuracy of the
learned author, which have enabled us to compare facts so im
portant, at such a distance from our usual means of informa
tion. J. T.
Note 2."
The lozero of Guanaxuato, which M. Humboldt places in
the suite of coal sandstones, will deserve particular attention
on the part of those who may undertake the mines of that
important district. It does not indeed appear that any coal
has been discovered there ; but as this rock seems to resemble
some of the sandstones which occur among coal formations,
and as fuel for steam-engines and smelting will be an article
of the utmost importance, no effort should be spared for its
discovery, and no exertion should be abandoned while any
chance exists. J. T,

160

CHAPTER IX.
Geological constitution of mines — position and extent of
mineral veins — elevation of mines — comparative wealth
of mines — distance between principal mines — nature of
ores — mean riches of ores.
As the subject of the disposition of the mineral
treasures of Mexico in the bosom of the earth —
the direction, inclination, and character of the
veins, is of primary importance, we shall com
municate the result of some further observations
on those interesting phenomena, together with
some details as to the comparative wealth of the
most celebrated veins.
Those who have studied the geological consti
tution of a mining country of great extent, know
the difficulty of reducing to general ideas the ob
servations made on a great variety of beds and
metalliferous veins. These difficulties are increased
when it happens, as in the mountains of Mexico,
that the veins, the beds, and the masses (stock-
iverke), are scattered in an infinity of mixed rocks
of very different formations. If we possessed an
accurate description of the four or five thousand
veins actually wrought in Mexico, or which have
been wrought within the two last centuries, we

GEOLOGICAL CONSTITUTION OF MINES. 161
should undoubtedly perceive, in the materials and
structure of these veins, analogies indicative of a
simultaneous origin ; we should find that the
matters comprising the veins are partly the same
with those which are exhibited in the veins of
Saxony and Hungary, and on which M. Werner,
the first mineralogist of the age, has thrown so
much light. But we are yet very far from being
acquainted with the metalliferous mountains. , of
Mexico ; and notwithstanding the great number of
observations collected by myself in travelling through
the country in different directions, for a length of
more than 1200 miles, I shall not venture, to
sketch a general view of the Mexican mines, con
sidered under their geological relations ; I shall
content myself with merely indicating the rocks
which yield the greatest part of the wealth of New
Spain .
In the present state of the country, the veins
or lodes are the object of the most considerable
operations; and the ores disposed in beds or in
masses are not frequent. The Mexican lodes are
for the most part found in primitive and transition
rocks, and rarely in the rocks of secondary forma
tion. On taking a general view of the metalliferous
repositories, we find that the Cordilleras of Mexico
contain veins in a great variety of rocks, and that
those rocks, which at present furnish almost the
whole silver annually exported from Vera Cruz, are,
Y

162 GEOLOGICAL CONSTITUTION OF MINES.
primitive slate or killas, grauwacke, and alpine
limestone, intersected by the principal veins of
Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, and Catorce.
The porphyries of Mexico may be considered
for the most part as rocks eminently rich in ores of
gold and silver. The more we study the geological
constitution of the globe on a large scale, the more
we perceive that there is scarcely a rock which has
hot in certain countries been found eminently
metalliferous. The wealth of the veins is for the
most part totally independent of the nature of the
beds which they intersect.
In proportion as the north of Mexico shall be
examined by intelligent geologists, it will be per
ceived that the metallic wealth of Mexico does
not exclusively belong to primitive formations and
transition rocks, but extends also to those of
secondary formation. I know not whether the
lead which is procured in the eastern parts of the
intendancy of San Luis Potosi is found in veins or
beds ; but it appears certain, that the veins of
silver of the Real de Catorce, as well as those of
the Doctor and Xaschi near Zimapan, traverse
alpine limestone ; and this rock rests on pudding-
stone, with siliceous cement, which may be con
sidered as the most ancient of secondary formations.
The alpine limestone, and the jura limestone,
contain the celebrated silver mines of Tasco and
Tehuilotepec, in the intendancy of Mexico ; and
it is in these calcareous rocks that the numerous

ELEVATION OF MINES. 163
veins which in this country have been very early
wrought, display the greatest wealth. Mines in
Europe are usually worked either on a great number
of small veins, or on fewer depositories of minerals
of great size, as at Clausthal, the Harz, and near
Schemnitz in Hungary. The Cordilleras of Mexico
offer frequent examples of these two methods of
operation ; but the districts of mines of the most
constant and considerable wealth, Guanaxuato,
Zacatecas, and the Real del Monte, contain only
one principal vein each (veta madre). The vein
called halsbruckner spath, of which the extent is
6£ feet, and which has been traced for a length of
339 fathoms, is spoken of as a remarkable pheno
menon at Freiberg. The veta madre of Guanaxu
ato, from which there have been extracted, during the
course of the last ten years, nearly 4,000,0001bs.
troy of silver, is of the extent of from 130 to 150
feet, and it is wrought from Santa Isabella and
San Bruno to Buena- Vista, a length of more
than 6944 fathoms.
In the New Continent the metallic wealth is
deposited by nature on the very ridge of the
Cordilleras, and sometimes in situations within a
very small distance from the limit of perpetual
snow. The most celebrated mines in Mexico are
at absolute heights of from 5900 to 9840 feet.
We have mentioned in another place the ad
vantage which, in working the Mexican mines, is
derived from the most important veins being in a
y2

164 COMPARATIVE WEALTH OF MINES.
middle region, where the climate is not unfavour
able to agriculture and vegetation. The large town
of Guanaxuato is placed in a ravine, the bottom of
which is somewhat lower than the level of the lakes
of the valley of Tenochtitlan. We are ignorant
of the absolute heights of Zacatecas and the Real
de Catorce; but these two places are situated on
table-lands seemingly more elevated than the level
of Guanaxuato. However, the temperate climate
of these Mexican towns, which are surrounded
with the richest mines in the world, is a contrast
to the cold and exceedingly disagreeable climate of
Micuipampa, Pasco, Huancavelica, and other Pe
ruvian towns.
The l,544,0001bs. of silver which are annually
sent to Europe and Asia, from the ports of Vera
Cruz and Acapulco, are the produce of a very small
number of mines. The three districts which we
have frequently had occasion to name, Guanaxuato,
Zacatecas, and Catorce, supply more than the half
of that sum. The vein of Guanaxuato alone yields
more than a fourth part of the whole silvero Me
xico, and a sixth part of the produce of all America.
The following is the order in which the richest
mines of New Spain follow one another, arranging
them according to the quantity of money actually
drawn from them :
Guanaxuato, in the Intendancy of the same
name.

QUANTITY OF SILVER EXPORTED, 165
Catorce, in the Intendancy of San Luis Potosi.
Zacatecas, in the Intendancy of the same name.
Real del Monte, in the Intendancy of Mexico.
Bolanos, in the Intendancy of Guadalaxara.
Guarisamey, in the Intendancy of Durango.
Sombrerete, in the Intendancy of Zacatecas.
Tasco, in the Intendancy of Mexico.
Batopilas, in the Intendancy of Durango.
Zimapan, in the Intendancy of Mexico.
Fresnillo, in the Intendancy of Zacatecas.
Ramos, in the Intendancy of San Luis Potosi.
Parral, in the Intendancy of Durango.
The veins of Tasco, Tlapujahua, Sultepeque,
Moran, Pachuca, and Real del Monte, and those
of Sombrerete, Bolanos, Batopilas, and Rosario,
have afforded from time to time immense wealth ;
but their produce has been less uniform than that
of the mines of Guanaxuato, Zacatecas, and
Catorce. The silver extracted in the 37 mining districts
into which the kingdom of Mexico or New Spain
is divided, is deposited in the Provincial Treasuries,
established in the chief places of the Intendancies;
and it is from the receipts of these caxas reales
that we are to judge of the quantity of silver
furnished by the different parts of the country.
The following is an account of the receipts of 1 1
Provincial Treasuries :

166 DISTANCE OF PRINCIPAL MINES.
From 1785 to 1789, there were received in the Caxas
Reales of Silver— lbs. troy.
Guanaxuato  1,500,000
San Luis Potosi (Catorce, Charcas, San Luis
Potosi) - - 910,000
Zacatecas (Zacatecas, Fresnillo, Sierra de Pinos) 730,000
Mexico (Tasco, Zacualpa, Zultepeque) 640,000
Durango (Chihuahua, Parral, G.uarisamey,
Cosiguiriachi) ... 545,000
Rosario (Rosario, Cosala, Copala, Alamos) - 41 0,000
Guadalaxara (Hostotipaquillo, Asientos de
Ybarra) - - - 306,000
Pachuca (Real del Monte, Moran) - 274,000
Bolanos ... - 219,000
Sombrerete - - ... 195,000
Zimapan (Zimapan, Doctor) ... 150,000

Sum for five years, 5,879,000

That part of the Mexican mountains which at
present contains the greatest quantity of silver,
is situated between the parallels of 21 and 24^
degrees. The celebrated mines of Guanaxuato
are distant, in a straight line, from those of San
Luis Potosi, 90 miles only : from San Luis Potosi
to Zacatecas the distance is 1 02 miles ; from
Zacatecas to Catorce 93, and from Catorce to
Durango 222 miles. It is remarkable enough that
this metallic wealth of Mexico and Peru should be
placed at an almost equal distance in the two hemi
spheres from the equator.
The silver supplied by the veins of Mexico is

CHARACTER OF ORES. 167
extracted from a great Variety of ores, which from
the nature of their mixture bear an analogy to
those of Saxony, the Harz, and Hungary. The
greatest quantity of silver annually brought into
circulation, is derived from those ores which the
Saxon miner calls by the name of durre erze, espe
cially from sulphuret of silver (or vitreous silver),
from arsenical (fahlerz) and antimonial gray
copper, from muriate of silver, from prismatic
black silver, and from red silver ore. We do not
name native silver among these ores, because it is
not found in sufficient abundance to admit of any
very considerable part of the total produce of the
mines of Mexico being attributed to it.
Sulphuret of silver and black prismatic silver
are very common in the veins of Guanaxuato and
Zacatecas, as well as in the veta Biscaina of Real
del Monte. The silver extracted from the ore of
Zacatecas exhibits the remarkable peculiarity of
not containing gold. The richest gray copper
(fahlerz) is that of Sierra de Pinos, and the mines
of Ramos. In the latter, the fahlerz is accom
panied with glaserz, with variegated copper ore,
sulphuret of zinc, and vitreous copper, which is only
wrought for the extraction of the silver, without
applying the copper to any use. The antimoniated
gray copper described by Mr. Karsten is found at
Tasco, and in the mine of Rayas, south-east from
Valenciana. The muriate of silver, which is so
seldom found in the veins of Europe, is very

168 CHARACTER OF ORES.
abundant in the mines of Catorce, Fresnillo, and
the Cerro San Pedro, near the town of San Luis
Potosi. That of Fresnillo is frequently of an olive
green, which passes into leek-green. Superb
specimens of this colour have been found in the
mines of Vallorecas, which belong to the district
de los Alamos in the intendancy of Sonora. In the
veins of Catorce, the muriate of silver is accom
panied with molybdate of lead and phosphate of
lead. From the last analysis of Mr. Klaproth, it
appears that the muriate of silver of America is a
pure mixture of silver and muriatic acid, while
that of Europe contains oxide of iron, alumine,
and especially a little sulphuric acid. The red
silver ore constitutes a principal part of the wealth
of Sombrerete, Cosala, and Zolaga, near Villalta,
in the province of Oaxaca. From this ore more
than 425, 000 lbs. troy of silver have been extracted
in the famous mine of la Veta Negra near Som
brerete, in the space of from five to six months.
It is affirmed that the mine which produced this
enormous quantity of metal, the greatest which
was ever yielded by any vein on the same point of
its mass, was not 16 fathoms in length. The true
white silver ore is very rare in Mexico. Its
grayish white variety, very rich in lead, is found,
however, in the intendancy of Sonora, in the veins
of Cosala, where it is accompanied with argen
tiferous galena, red silver, brown blende, quartz,
and sulphate of barytes. This last substance,

CHARACTER OF ORES. 169
which is very uncommon among the lodes of
Mexico, is to be also found at the Real del Doctor,
near Baranca de las Tinajas, and at Sombrerete,
particularly in the mine called Campechana.
Fluor-spar has been only found hitherto in the
veins of Lomo del Toro, near Zimapan, at Bolanos
and Guadalcazar, near Catorce. It is constantly
of a grass green or violet blue colour.
In some parts of New Spain, the operations of
the miner are directed to a mixture of brown oxide
of iron and native silver, disseminated in particles
imperceptible to the naked eye. This ochreous
mixture is the object of considerable operations
at the mines of Angangueo, in the intendancy of
Valladolid, as well as at Yxtepexi, in the province
of Oaxaca. The ores of Angangueo, known by
the name of colorados, have a clayey appearance.
Near the surface, the brown oxide of iron is mixed
with native silver, with sulphuret of silver, and
black prismatic silver (sprodglaserz) , all three in
a state of decomposition. At great depths, the
vein of Angangueo contains only galena and iron
pyrites, yielding but a small quantity of silver.
Hence the blackish pacos, of the mine of Aurora
d'Yxtepexi, which must not be confounded with
the negrillos of Peru, owe their richness rather to
the glaserz, than to the imperceptible filaments
of native dendritic silver. The vein is very unequal
in its produce, sometimes sterile, and sometimes
abundant. The colorados of Catorce, particularly

1/0 NATIVE SILVER.
those of the mine of Conception^ are of a tile-red
colour, and mixed with muriate of silver. In
general it is observed both in Mexico and Peru,
that those oxidated masses of iron which contain
silver, are peculiar to that part of the veins nearest
to the surface of the earth. The pacos of Peru
present to the eye of the geologist a very striking
analogy with the earthy masses called by the
miners in Germany the iron hat (eiserne huih) of
the veins*.
Native silver, which is much less abundant in
America than is generally supposed, has been
found in considerable masses, sometimes weighing
more than 4401bs. avoird., in the mines of Bato
pilas in New Biscay. Native silver is constantly
accompanied by glaserz in the veins of Mexico,
as well as in those of the mountains of Europe.
These very minerals are frequently found united in
the rich mines of Sombrerete, Madrono, Ramos,
Zacatecas, Hapujaha and Sierra de Penos. From
time to time small branches or cylindrical fila
ments of native silver are also discovered in the
celebrated vein of Guanaxuato ; but these masses
have never been so considerable as those which
* The ochreous mixtures here described as common in
Mexico, Peru and Germany, answer so exactly to the gossans
of Cornwall that there is no doubt of their being the same j and
we have at the mines of Wheal Duchy and Wheal St. Vincent
in Calstock in that county, instances of gossan rich in silver,
and similar in most respects to the pacos and colorados above
mentioned. — J. T.

CHARACTER OF SILVER ORES. 171
were formerly drawn from the mine del Encino
near Pachuca and Tasco, where native silver is
sometimes contained in foliated gypsum. At
Sierra de Penos near Zacatecas, this metal is con
stantly accompanied with blue radiated copper
crystallized in small four-sided prisms.
A great part of the silver annually produced in
Europe, is derived from the argentiferous sulphuret
of lead. In Mexico, the greatest part of the veins
contain likewise some argentiferous galena ; but
there are very few mines in which the lead ore is a
particular object of their operations. Among the
latter, we can only include the mines of the
districts of Zimapan, Parral, and San Nicholas de
Croix. I observed that at Guanaxuato, as well as
several other mines in Mexico*, and every where
in Saxony, the varieties of galena contain the more
silver, the finer they are in the grain.
A very considerable quantity of silver is produced
from the smelting of iron pyrites (mundic), of which
New Spain sometimes exhibits several varieties
richer than the glaserz itself. It has been found
in the Real del Monte, on the vein of Biscaina, near
the pit of San Pedro, the ton of which contained
* Among the varieties of galena, particularly rich in silver,
and of very fine grain, may be specified those of the new mine
of Talpan, in the Cerro de las Vegas, belonging to the district
of Hostotipaquillo. This galena, which sometimes passes
into compact antimonial sulphuret of lead, is accompanied with
much copper pyrites and carbonate of lime.
z 2

172 MEAN RICHES OF ORES.
even so much as 450oz. troy of silver. At Som
brerete, the abundance of pyrites disseminated
in the red silver ore, is a great obstacle to the pro
cess of amalgamation.
We have described the ores which produce the
Mexican silver, and itremains for us to examine into.
the mean riches of these minerals, considering them
as all mixed together. It is a very common preju
dice in Europe, that great masses of native silver
are extremely common in Mexico and Peru, and that
in general the mineralized silver ores destined to
amalgamation or smelting, contain more ounces
of silver to the ton, than the poor ores of Saxony
and Hungary. Full of this prejudice, I was doubly
surprised, on my arrival in the Cordilleras, to find
that the number of poor mines greatly surpasses
those of the mines to which in Europe we give the
name of rich. A traveller who visits the famous
mine of Valenciana in Mexico, after having ex
amined the metalliferous repositories of Clausthal,
Freiberg, and Schemnitz, can scarcely conceivehow
a vein, which for a great part of its extent contains
the sulphuret of silver disseminated in the lode in
almost imperceptible particles, can regularly sup
ply 230,000oz. per month, a quantity of silver
equal to the half of what is annually furnished by all
the mines of Saxony. It is no doubt true that blocks
of native silver (papas de platd) of an enormous
weight, have been extracted from the mines of Ba
topilas in Mexico and Guantahajo in Peru ; but

RICHES OF ORES. 173
when we study attentively the history of the princi
pal mines of Europe, we find that the veins of
Kongsberg in Norway, Schneeberg in Saxony, and
the famous metallic repository of Schlangenberg in
Siberia, have produced masses of much more con
siderable bulk. We are not in general to judge
from the size of the blocks, of the wealth of the
mines of different countries. France does not al
together produce more than SOOOlbs. troy of silver
annually ; and yet there are veins in that country
(those of Sainte-Marie-aux- Mines) from which
amorphous masses of native silver have been ex
tracted, of the weight of 661bs. avoird.
It appears that at the period of the formation of
veins in every climate, the distribution of silver
has been very unequal ; sometimes concentrated in
one point, and at other times disseminated in the
lode, and allied with other metals. Sometimes in
the midst of the poorest ores we find very consi
derable masses of native silver; a phenomenon
which appears to depend on a particular operation
of chemical affinities, of whose mode of action
and laws we are completely ignorant. The
silver, instead of being concealed in galena, or in
pyrites in a small degree argentiferous, or of being
distributed throughout all the mass of the vein over
a great extent, is collected into a single mass. In
that case the riches of a point may be considered
as the principal cause of the poverty of the neigh
bouring ores ; and hence we may conceive why the

174 RICHES OF ORES.
richest parts of a vein are found separated from
one another by portions of the lode almost alto
gether destitute of metals.
Although the New Continent, however, has not
hitherto exhibited native silver in such considerable
blocks as the Old, this metal is found more abundantly
in a state of perfect purity in Peru and Mexico, than
in any other quarter of the globe. In laying down
this opinion, I am not considering the native silver
which appears in the form of lamellae, branches, or
cylindrical filaments, in the mines of Guantahajo,
Potosi, and Gualgayoc, or in Batopilas, Zacatecas,
and Ramos. I found my opinion rather on the
enormous abundance of the ores called pacos and
colorados, in which silver is not mineralized, but
dissemimated in such small particles, that they can
only be perceived by means of a microscope*.
The result of the investigations made by Don
Fausto d'Elhuyar, the director general of the mines
of Mexico, and by several members of the superior
council of mines, is, that in uniting together all the
silver minerals annually extracted, it would be found
* The most considerable copper mines of England have
always owed their importance more to the quantity than the
quality of their ores, and experienced men know that it is but
delusive to depend upon rich specimens.
Where profit is, however, to be derived by working mines
which yield their produce in a disseminated state, the value of
good, management, and of the application of machinery, be
comes the more important, and the results have often proved
the most beneficial. — J. T.

RICHES OF ORES. 175
from the mixture, that their mean produce is from
0.0018 to 0.0025 of silver, that is to say, in the
common language of miners, that one hundred
pounds of ore, or 1200 ounces troy, contain
from three to four ounces of silver. This im
portant result is confirmed by the testimony of an
inhabitant of Zacatecas, who had the direction of
considerable metallic operations in several districts
of mines of New Spain, and who has lately published
a very interesting work on the American amal
gamation. M. Garces expressly says, " that the
" great mass of Mexican ores is so poor, that the
" l,878,4001bs. troy of silver annually produced by
" the kingdom in good years, are extracted from
" 500,000 tons of mineral, partly smelted, and
" partly amalgamated." According to these numbers,
the mean riches would only amount to 48 ounces
per ton, a result which differs very much from the
assertion of a traveller, very estimable in other re
spects, who relates that the veins of New Spain are
of such extraordinary wealth, tnat the natives never
think of working them when the minerals contain
less than a third of their weight in silver, or 431bs.
troy per cwt. * As the most erroneous ideas have
* These accounts of the produce of metal from the ores, seem
to imply throughout that the calculation is made on the whole
mass of stuff drawn out of the mines, and not upon what we
should call in England the clean ores. The processesof dressing
or washing in Mexico seem to be so imperfect, that by the im
provements that would naturally be introduced, the ores would
probably be reduced to a very different state ; more rich iu

176 RICHES OF ORES.
been spread through Europe respecting the contents
of the ores of America, I shall proceed to give a
more minute description of the districts of mines
of Guanaxuato, Tasco and Pachuca, which I had
occasion to visit.
At Guanaxuato, the mine of the Count de la
Valenciana produced between the 1st January 1787
and the 11th June 1791, the sum of l,034,5001bs.
troy of silver, which were extracted from 84,368
montones of ores. In the table * containing the ge
neral state of the mine, a monton is estimated at
32 cwt. ; from whence it follows that the mean
riches of the minerals was twenty years ago 102
ounces of silver per ton. Applying the same calcu
lation to the produce of the single year 1791, we
shall find 186 ounces per ton. At this period,
when the mine was in the most flourishing condi
tion, in the total mass of ores there were :
produce, though smaller in quantity. Much advantage may be
expected from attention to this circumstance. — J. T.
* Estado de la mina Valenciana, remitido por mano del Excel-
lentiss. Senor virey de Nueva Espana al Secretario de Estado
Don Antonio Valdes. (Manuscript.) I have followed the num
bers contained in the table drawn up by Don Joseph Quixano,
the administrator of the Valenciana. A monton (a heap of ores
reduced to powder) is reckoned at 35 cwt. at Guanaxuato ; at
30 at the Real del Monte, Pachuca, Zultepeque, and Tasco ;
at Zacatecas and Sombrerete, at 20; at Fresnillo at 18; and
at 15 at Bolanos. As the wealth of the ore is deter
mined from the contents of the monton, the exact knowledge
of the measure is of great importance in metallurgical calcula
tions.

RICHES OF ORES. 177 Oz.
r-irs °f "cn ores Cpolvillos and xabonesj, containing
per ton - - - . 3360
TTihs of r'cn ores (apolvillado) ... 1400
1$^ (rf rich ores f bianco bueno) - - 460
-Pews °f P00r ores Cgranzas, tierras ordinarias, Stc.J 60
The quantity of rich ores was consequently, to
that of the poor ores, nearly in the proportion of
3 to 14. The ores which only contained 60 ounces
per ton, supplied in 1791 (we are always speaking
of the Valenciana mine alone) morethan 1 23,5081bs.
troy of silver ; while there was a sufficient quantity
of rich ores (from 60 to 3,360 ounces per ton)
to yield a produce of more than 247,0001bs. troy.
At present, the mean richness of the whole vein of
Guanaxuato may be estimated at 80 ounces of silver
per ton of ores. The South West part of the vein,
which intersects the mine of Rayas, yields, however,
minerals, of which the contents generally amount
to more than 450 ounces per ton.
In the district of the mines of Pachuca, they di
vide the produce of the vein of Biscaina into three
classes, of which the richness varied in 1803 from
32 to 160 ounces per monton of 30 quintals. The
minerals of the first class, which are the richest, con
tain from 144 to 160; and those of the second class,
from 56 to 80 ounces troy. The poorest ores which
form the third class are only computed at 32
ounces of silver per monton. The result is, that the
good contains 1 00 ounces; the middling 80 ounces ;
and the worst about 50 ounces of silver per ton.
2a

178 RICHES OF ORES.
In the district of mines of Tasco, the minerals
of Tehuilotepec contain in a tarea of four montones
or 5 tons, 151bs. troy of silver; those of Guautla
yield 45 ; their mean wealth is consequently about
50 ounces of silver per ton of minerals.
It is not then, as has been too long believed,
from the intrinsic richness of the ores, but rather
from the great abundance in which they are found
in the bowels of the earth, and the facility with
which they can be wrought, that the mines of Ame
rica are to be distinguished from those of Europe *.
The three districts of mines which we have just al
luded to, furnish alone about 500,0001bs. of silver,
and from the whole of these data we cannot enter
tain a doubt that the mean contents of the Mexican
ores do not amount, as we have already stated, to
more than from 60 to 80 ounces of silver per ton.
Hence these ores, though somewhat richer than
those of Freiberg, contain much less silver than
the ores of Annaberg, Johann-Georgenstadt, Ma-
rienberg, and other districts of the Obergebirge in
Saxony. From 1789 to 1799, there have been
extracted communibus annis from the mines of the
district of Freiberg, 7,838 tons, which have yielded
30,2301bs. troy of silver ; so that the mean contents
* The silver ores of Peru do not in general appear to be
richer than those of Mexico : the contents are estimated not by
the monton, but by the caxon (chest), which contains 24 cargas,
reckoning each carga at ten arrobas or 2501bs. At Potosi, the
mean richness of the minerals is -ffo ; in the mines of Pasco,
1^- ounces per lOOlbs.

MEAN RICHES OF ORES. 179
were 25 ounces per ton of minerals. But in the
mines of the Obergebirge the mean riches have
amounted to 200, and at very fortunate periods even
to 300 ounces per ton.
We have thus taken a general view of the rocks
in which the principal mines of New Spain are
found ; we have examined on what points, in what
latitudes, and at what elevations above the level of
the sea, nature has collected the greatest quantity
of metallic wealth ; and we have indicated the ores
which furnish the immense quantity of silver which
annually flows from the one continent to the other.
It remains for us to afford some details relative to
the most considerable mining operations. We shall
confine ourselves to three of these groups of mines
which we have already described, to the central
group, and those of Tasco and Biscaina. Those
who know the state of mining in Europe will be
struck with the contrast between the great mines of
Mexico, for example, those of the Valenciana, Rayas,
and Tereros, and the mines which are considered
as very rich in Saxony, the Harz, and Hungary.
Could the latter be transported to the midst of the
great works of Guanaxuato, Catorce, or the Real
del Monte, their wealth, and the quantity of their
produce, would appear as insignificant to the inha
bitants of America, as the height of the Pyrenees
compared with the Cordilleras.
2a2

180

CHAPTER X.
Number of mines — laws respecting mines — quantity of sil
ver raised — state of mining operations — condition of
mines — smelting — amalgamation.
The kingdom of Mexico in its present state con
tains nearly 500 places (reales y realitos) cele
brated for the mines in their environs. It is pro
bable that these 500 reales comprehend nearly three
thousand mines (minas), designating by that name
the whole of the subterraneous works which com
municate with one another, by which one or more
metallic depositories are worked. These mines
are divided into 37 districts, over which are placed
the same number of Councils of Mines, called
Diputaciones de Mineria.
In taking a general view of the mineral wealth
of New Spain, far from being struck with the value
of the actual produce, we are astonished that it is
not much more considerable. It is easy to fore
see that this branch of public industry will con
tinue augmenting as the country shall become bet
ter inhabited, as the smaller proprietors shall obtain
greater security for good government and for the
enjoyment of property, and as geological and che
mical knowledge shall become more generally dif
fused. Several obstacles have already been re-

LAWS RESPECTING MINES. 181
moved since the year 1777, or since the establish
ment of the supreme council of mines, which has
the title of Real Tribunal general del importante
cuerpo de Mineria de Nueva Espana, and holds
its sittings in the palace of the Viceroy at Mexi
co. Till that period the proprietors of mines were
not united into a corporation, or the Court of Ma
drid, at least, would not recognise them as an es
tablished body by a constitutional act,
The legislation of the mines was formerly in in
finite confusion, because, at the beginning of the
conquest, under the reign of Charles the Fifth, a
mixture of Spanish, Belgic, and German laws was
introduced into Mexico ; which laws, from the
difference of local circumstances, were inapplicable
to those distant regions. The erection of the su
preme council of mines, the head of which bears a
name celebrated in the annals of chemical science,
was followed by the establishment of the school of
mines, and the compilation of a new code of laws,
published under the title of Ordonanzas de la Mi
neria de Nueva Espana. The council or Tribunal
general is composed of a director, two deputies
from the body of miners, an assessor, two consul-
tors, and a judge, who is head of the juzgado de
alzadas de mineria. On the Tribunal general
depend the thirty-seven councils of provincial mines
or diputaciones de mineria, of which the names
have been already mentioned. The proprietors of
mines (mineros) send their representatives to the

182 TRIBUNAL OF MINES.
provincial councils, andthe two general deputies who
reside at Mexico, are chosen from among the de
puties of the districts. The body of miners of
New Spain has, besides, apoderados, or represen
tative proprietors at Madrid, whose business it is
to treat immediately with the ministry, as to the
interest of the colonies, in whatever respects the
mines. The students of the colegio de mineria,
instructed at the expense of the state, are distri
buted by the Tribunal among the head towns of
the different diputaciones. It cannot be denied
that the representative system followed in the new
organization of the body of Mexican miners, pos
sesses great advantages. It preserves public spirit
in a country where the citizens, scattered over an
immense surface, do not sufficiently feel the com
munity of their interests ; and it gives the supreme
council a facility of collecting considerable sums,
whenever any great or useful undertaking is pro
posed. It is to be desired, however, that the di
rector of the tribunal should possess more influence
on the progress of the operations in the provinces,
and that the proprietors of mines, less jealous of
what they call their liberty, were more enlightened
as to their true interests.
The Supreme Council possesses an income of
more than 40,000/. sterling. The king granted it on
its establishment two thirds of the royal right of sig-
niorage, which amounts to a real de plata, or about
sixpence per troy ounce of silver delivered in to the

TRIBUNAL OF MINES. 183
mint. This revenue is destined for the salaries of the
members of the tribunal, the support of the school of
mines, and to raise a fund for assistance or advances
(avios) to the proprietors of the mines. These ad
vances, as we have already observed, have been
given with more liberality than discernment. A
miner of Pachuca at one time obtained 36,000/. ;
and the share-holders of the mina de agua of Te-
mascaltepec, received 46,400/. ; but this assistance
never produced any results. The tribunal during
the last years of the war of Spain with France and
England, was compelled to make a gratuitous pre
sent to the court of Madrid, of 104,200/., and to
lend it 625,000/. besides, 250,000/. of which have
never been repaid. To support these extraordi
nary expenses, they were compelled to have recourse
to borrowing ; and at present the half of the re
venues of the supreme council of mines is em
ployed in paying the interest of that capital. They
have increased by one half the signorial impost, till
the period of the liquidation of the debts contracted
by the tribunal ; and in place of thirteen grains,
the miners are obliged to pay twenty per ounce of
silver. In this state of things the tribunal can no
longer make advances to the miners, who for want
of funds are frequently unable to carry on useful
undertakings. Great capitals formerly employed
in mining, are now destined to agriculture, and
the proprietors of mines would again require those
establishments (bancos de plata, compahias refac-

184 ftUANTITY OF SILVER RAISED.
cionarias* b de habilitacion y avios) which ad*
vanced to the miners considerable Sums of money
at a large interest.
All the metallic wealth of the Spanish colonies
is in the hands of individuals. The Government
possesses no other mine than that of Huancavelica
in Peru, which has been long abandoned ; it is not
even proprietor of the great levels, as several sove
reigns of Germany are.
From the information given by us in this chap
ter, it is almost unnecessary to agitate the question,
whether the produce of the silver mines of Mexico
has attained its maximum, or whether there is any
probability that it will still augment in the time to
come. We have seen that three mining districts,
those of Guanaxuato, Catorce, and Zacatecas, alone
furnish more than the half of the whole silver of
New Spain, and that nearly one fourth of it is fur
nished by the mine of Guanaxuato. One mine
which has only been known for forty years, that of
Valenciana, has sometimes alone furnished in one
year as much silver as the whole kingdom of Peru.
It is but thirty years since the veins of the Real de
Catorce began to be worked, and yet by the disco
very of these new mines the metallic produce of
Mexico was increased nearly one sixth. If we con
sider the vast extent of ground occupied by the
* Real cedula sobre la compaiiia refaccionaria propuesta por
el Genoves Domingo Reborato,del 12 Marzo 1744. — Don Josef
Bustamente, Informs sobre la habilitacion de los Mineros, 1748.

PROBABLE EFFECTS OF IMPROVED MINING. 185
Cordilleras, and the immense number of mineral
depositories which have never yet been attempted *,
it is very possible that New Spain, under a better
administration, and inhabited by an industrious
people, may alone one day yield, in gold and silver,
the 15,600,000/., at present furnished by the whole
of America. In the space of a hundred years, the
annual produce of the Mexican mines rose from
one to four millions sterling. If Peru does not
exhibit an equal augmentation of wealth, it is be
cause this unfortunate country has not increased
its population, and because, being worse governed
than Mexico," industry found more difficulties to
overcome. Besides, nature has deposited the pre
cious metals in that country at enormous elevations,
in situations where, on account of the very high price
of provisions, the working becomes extremely ex
pensive. The abundance of silver is in general
such in the chain of the Andes, that when we re
flect on the number of mineral depositories which
remain untouched, or which have been very super
ficially wrought, we are tempted to believe, that the
Europeans have as yet scarcely begun to enjoy the
inexhaustible fund of wealth contained in the New
World. When we cast our eyes over the mining
district of Guanaxuato, which, on the small space
of a few thousand square yards, supplies annually
the seventh or eighth part of all the American sil-
* Especially from Bolanos to the Presidio de Fronteras.
2 B

186 PROBABLE EFFECTS OF IMPROVED MINING.
ver, we shall see that the 340,0001bs. troy, which
are annually extracted from the famous veta madre,
are the produce of only two mines, the Valenciana
and that of the Marquis de Rayas, and that more
than four-fifths of this vein have never yet been at
tempted. It is very probable, however, that in
uniting the two mines of Fraustros and Mellado,
and clearing them out, a mine would be found of
equal wealth with that of Valenciana. The opinion
that New Spain produces only perhaps the third part
of the precious metals which it could supply under
happier political circumstancesj has been long en
tertained by all the intelligent persons who inhabit
the principal districts of mines of that country, and
is formally announced in a Memoir presented by the
deputies of the body of miners to the King in 1774,
a production drawn up with great wisdom and know
ledge of local circumstances. Europe would be
inundated with precious metals, if they were to
work at the same time, and with all the means af
forded by the improvements in the art of mining,
the mineral depositories of Bolanos, Batopilas, Som
brerete, Rosario, Pachuca, Moran, Zultepec, Chi
huahua, and so many others which have been long
and justly celebrated. I am aware, that in thus
expressing myself, lam in direct contradiction with
the authors of a great number of works of Political
Economy, in which it is affirmed that the mines of
America are partly exhausted, and partly too deep
to be worked any longer with advantage. It is true,

STATE OF THE ART OF MINING. 1 87
no doubt, that the expenses of the mine of Valen
ciana have doubled in the space of ten years, but
the profits of the proprietors have still remained
the same ; and this increase of expense is much
more to be attributed to the injudicious direction
of the operations than to the depth of the shafts.
When we take a general view of the mining ope
rations of New Spain, and compare them with those
of the mines of Europe, we are surprised at still
finding in its infancy an art which has been prac
tised in America for three centuries, and on which,
according to the vulgar prejudice, the prosperity
of these ultramarine establishments depends.
Since the brilliant period of the reign of Charles
the Fifth, Spanish America has been separated from
Europe, with respect to the communication of dis
coveries useful to society. The imperfect know
ledge which was possessed in the 16th century re
lative to mining and smelting, in Germany, Bis
cay, and the Belgic provinces, rapidly passed into
Mexico and Peru, on the first colonizaion of these
-countries ; but since that period, to the reign of
Charles the Third, the American miners have learn
ed hardly any thing from the Europeans, but the
blasting with powder * those rocks which resist the
effect of tools.
German miners have since been sent, at the ex
pense of the Court, to Mexico, Peru, and the king-
* This art was only introduced into the mines of Europe
towards the year 1613. (Daubuisson, t. i. p. 95.)
2b2

188 STATE OF THE ART OF MINING.
dom of New Granada ; but their knowledge has
been of no utility, because the mines of Mexico
are considered as the property of the individuals,
who direct the operations, without the Government
being allowed to exercise the smallest influence.
We shall not here undertake to detail the de
fects which we believe we have observed in the ad
ministration of the mines of New Spain, but shall
confine ourselves to general considerations, remark
ing whatever appears to us worthy of fixing the at
tention of the European traveller. In the greatest
number of the Mexican mines the operations with
the pointrole, a sort of wedge somewhat resem
bling that called by Cornish miners the gad, which
requires the greatest address on the part of the
workman, are very well executed. The mallet might
indeed be somewhat less heavy ; it is the same
tool which the German miners used in the time of
Charles the Fifth. Small moveable forges are placed
in the interior of the mines, to re-forge the point
of the pointroles when they are unfit for working.
I reckoned 16 of these forges in the mine of Va
lenciana ; and in the district of Guanaxuato the
smallest mines have at least one or two. This ar
rangement is very useful, particularly in mines which
employ as many as 1500 workmen, and in which
there is consequently an immense consumption of
steel. I cannot say much in praise of the method
of blasting with powder. The holes for the recep
tion of cartridges are generally too deep, and the

STATE OF THE ART OF MINING. 189
miners are not sufficiently careful in diminishing the
mass of rock intended to yield to the explosion. A
great waste of powder is consequently occasioned
by these defects. The mine of Valenciana con
sumed *, from 1794 to 1802, powder to the amount
of 150,000/., and the mines of New Spain annually
require from 12 to 14,000 cwt. It is probable that
two-thirds of this quantity is uselessly employed.
The timber-work is very carelessly performed,
though it ought the more to engage the considera
tion of the proprietors, as wood is every year becom
ing more scarce on the table-land of Mexico. The
masonry employed in the shafts and levels f, and
especially the walling with lime, deserves great
praise. The arches are formed with great care, and
in this respect the mines of Guanaxuato may stand
a comparison with whatever is most perfect at Frei
berg and Schemnitz. The shafts, and still more the
galleries or levels, have generally the defect of being
dug of too great dimensions, and of occasioning, by
that means, exorbitant expenses. We find levels at
* In 1799, 13,73 11. sterling ; in 1800, 14,840/. sterling ; in
1801, 16,953Z. sterling; in 1802, 1 7,3 12L sterling. The miner
is paid at Guanaxuato, for a hole of 4 feet 1 1 inches in depth,
ten shillings ; for a hole of 6 feet 3 inches in depth, 7s. 6d. ;
without including powder and tools, which are furnished to him.
In the mine of Valenciana, nearly 600 holes by two men each are
made every 24 hours.
f Especially in the mines of Valenciana, Guanaxuato, and
the Real del Monte.

190 STATE OF THE ART OF MINING.
Valenciana*, executed with the viewof making trial
on a poor vein, of a height of 26 or 29 feet. It is
an erroneous opinion, that this great height facili
tates the renovation of the air ; the ventilation de
pends on the equilibrium and difference of tempera
ture between two neighbouring columns of air. They
believe also, equally without foundation, that, in or
der to discover the nature of a powerful vein, very
large drifts are requisite, as if, in mineral veins of
from six to eight fathoms in width, it were not bet
ter to cut from time to time small cross drifts, for
the purpose of discovering whether the mass of the
vein begins to grow richer. The absurd custom of
cutting every level of such enormous dimensions,
prevents the proprietors from multiplying the means
of trial, so indispensable for the preservation of a
mine and the duration of the works. At Gua
naxuato, the breadth of the oblique shafts dug stair-
wise is from five to six fathoms ; and the perpen
dicular shafts are generally three, four, or five fathoms
in diameter. The enormous quantity of ores ex
tracted from the mines, and the necessity of working
in them the ropes attached to six or eight whims,
necessarily occasion the shafts of Mexico to be made
of greater dimensions than those of Germany ; but
the attempt which has been made at Bolanos to se
parate by beams the ropes of the whims, has suffi
ciently proved that the breadth of the shafts may be
* Canon de la Soledad.

STATE OF THE ART OF MINING. 191
diminished without any danger of the ropes en
tangling in their oscillatory motion. It would in
general be very useful to make use of kibbles instead
of leathern bags suspended by ropes for the extrac
tion of the ores.
The greatest fault observable in the mines of New
Spain, and which renders the working of them ex
tremely expensive, is the want of communication
between the different works. They resemble ill-
constructed buildings, where, to pass from one ad
joining room to another, we must go round the
whole house. The mine of Valenciana is justly
admired on account of its wealth, the magnificence
of its walling, and the facility with which it is entered
by spacious and commodious stairs ; yet it exhibits
only a union of small works irregularly conducted;
they are as it were cul de sacs, and without any lateral
communication. I mention this mine, not because
it is more faulty than the others in the distribution
of its labours, but because we might naturally sup
pose it to be better organized. As subterraneous
geometry had been entirely neglected in Mexico, till
the establishment of the School of Mines, there
is no plan in existence of the works already executed.
Two works in that labyrinth of cross levels and inte
rior winzes, may happen to be very near each other,
without its being possible to perceive it. Hence the
impossibility of introducing, in the actual state of
most of the mines of Mexico, the wheeling by means
of barrows, and an economical disposition of the

192 TENATEROS.
ore plats. A miner brought up in the mines of
Freiberg, and accustomed to see so many ingenious
means of conveyance practised, can hardly conceive
that in the Spanish colonies, where the ores are poor
though very abundant, all the metal which is taken
from the vein is carried on the backs of men. The
Indian tenateros, who may be considered as the
beasts of burden of the mines of Mexico, remain
loaded with a weight of from 250 to 380 pounds
for a space of six hours. In the levels of Valen
ciana and Rayas, they are exposed, as we have al
ready observed in speaking of the health of the mi
ners, to a temperature of from 71° to 77° Fahr. ;
and during this time they ascend and descend several
thousands of steps in shafts of an inclination of 45°.
These tenateros carry the minerals in bags (costales)
made of the thread of the pith. To prevent their
shouldeVs from being hurt, (for the miners are gene
rally naked to the middle) they place a woollen cover
ing (frisida) under this bag. We met in the mines
files of fifty or sixty of these porters, among whom
there are men above sixty, and boys of ten or twelve
years of age. In ascending the stairs they throw
the body forwards, and rest on a staff, which is ge
nerally not more than a foot in length. They walk
in a zigzag direction, because they have found from
long exerience, as they affirm, that their respiration
is less impeded when they traverse obliquely the
current of air which enters the pit from without.
We cannot sufficiently admire the muscular

TENATEROS. 193
strength of the Indian and Mestizo tenateros of
Guanaxuato, especially when we ourselves are op
pressed with fatigue in ascending from the bottom
of the mine of Valenciana, without carrying the
smallest weight. The tenateros cost the proprietors
of Valenciana more than 620/. weekly; and they
reckon that there are three men destined to carry
the ores to the depositaries to one workman
(barenador) who blows up the vein by means of
powder. These enormous expenses of transporta
tion would perhaps be diminished exceedingly, if
the works communicated with each other by winzes,
or by levels adapted for conveyance by wheel-bar
rows or rail-roads, Well contrived operations would
facilitate the extraction of minerals and the circula
tion of air, and would render unnecessary this great
number of tenateros, whose strength might be em
ployed in a manner more advantageous to society,
and less hurtful to the health of the individual.
Winzes communicating from one gallery to another,
and serving for the extraction of ores, might be pro
vided with windlasses to be wrought by men, or
whims to be moved by cattle. For a long time (and
this arrangement undoubtedly deserves the attention
of the European miner) mules have been employed
in the interior of the mines of Mexico. At Rayas
these animals descend every morning without guides
and in the dark, the steps of a shaft of an inclina
tion of from 42° to 46°. The mules distribute them
selves of their own accord in the different places
2 c

194 MACHINERY.
where the machines for drawing water are fixed,
and their step is so sure, that a lame miner was ac
customed several years ago, to enter and leave the
mine on one of their backs. In the district of the
mines of Peregrino, at the Rosa de Castilla, the
mules sleep in subterraneous stables, like the
horses which I saw in the famous rock salt mines of
Wieliczka in Gallicia.
The smelting and amalgamation works of Gua
naxuato and Real del Monte are so placed, that two
navigable levels, with their openings near Marfil and
Omitlan, might serve for the carriage of ores, and
render every sort of draught above this level super
fluous. Besides, the descents from Valenciana to
Guanaxuato, and from Real del Monte to Regla, are
so rapid, that they would admit of the construction
of rail-ways, on which waggons loaded with the ores
destined for amalgamation might be easily rolled
along. We have already spoken of the truly barbarous
custom of drawing off the water from the deepest
mines, not by means of pump apparatus, but by
means of bags attached to ropes which roll on the
cage of a whim. The same bags are used in draw
ing up the water and the ores : they rub against the
walls of the shafts, and it is very expensive to keep
them in repair. At the Real del Monte, for exam
ple, these bags only last seven or eight days ; and
they commonly cost five, and sometimes seven and
eight shillings a piece. A bag full of water, sus-

MACHINERY. 195
pended to the cage of a whim with eight horses,
(malacate doble) weighs 1250 pounds : it is made
of two hides sewed together. The bags used for the
whims called simple, those with four horses (mala-
cates sencillos) are only half the size, and are made
of one hide. In general the construction of the
whims is extremely imperfect ; the bad custom also
prevails of forcing the horses, by which they are
made to go at far too great a speed. I found this
speed at the shafts of San Ramon at Real del
Monte no less than ten feet and a half per second ;
at Guanaxuato in the mine of Valenciana from
thirteen to fourteen feet ; and every where else I
found it more than eight feet. Don Salvado Sein,
Professor of Natural Philosophy at Mexico, has
proved in a very excellent paper on the rotatory mo
tion of machines, that, notwithstanding the extreme
lightness of the Mexican horses, they produce only
the maximum of effect on the whims, when exerting
a force of 175 pounds they walk at a pace of from
five to six feet in the second.
It is to be hoped that pumps, moved either by
horse-engines of a better construction, or by water
wheels, or by pressure engines, will at last be intro
duced in the mines of New Spain If wood and coal,
which has only yet been discovered in New Mexico,
should be found sufficiently abundant for employing
the steam-engine, the use of it would be of great ad
vantage in the inundated mines of Bolanos, as well
as in those of Rayas and Mellado.
2d 2

196 WANT OF PLANS OF MINES.
It is in the draining the mines of water that we
particularly feel the indispensable necessity of having
plans drawn up by subterraneous surveyors (geome-
tres) . Instead of stopping the course of the water,
and bringing it by the shortest road to the shaft
where the machines are placed, they frequently di
rect it to the bottom of the mine, to be afterwards
drawn off at a great expense. In the district of
mines of Guanaxuato nearly two hundred and fifty
workmen perished in the space of a few minutes on
the 14th of June 1780; because, not having measured
the distance between the works of San Ramon and
the old works of Santo Christo de Burgos, they had
imprudently approached this last mine while carry
ing on a drift in that direction. The water of
which the works of Santo Christo were full, flowed
with impetuosity through this new gallery of San
Ramon into the mine of Valenciana. Many of the
workmen perished from the sudden compression of
the air, which, in taking vent, threw to great di
stances pieces of timber, and large masses of rock.
This accident would not have happened, if, in regu
lating the operations, they could have consulted
a plan of the mines.
After the picture which we have just drawn of
the actual state of the mining operations, and of the
bad management which prevails in the mines of
New Spain, we cannot be astonished at seeing works
which for a long time have been most productive,
abandoned whenever theyreach a considerable depth,

EXPENSIVENESS OF MINING OPERATIONS. 197
or whenever the veins appear less abundant in metals.
We have already observed, that in the famous mine
of Valenciana, the annual expenses rose in the
space of fifteen years from 90,000/. to 180,000/.
sterling. Indeed, if there be much water in this
mine, and if it require a number of whims to
draw it off, the profit must, to the proprietors, be
little or nothing. The greater part of the defects
in the management which I have pointed out, have
been long known to a respectable and enlightened
body, the Tribunal de Mineria of Mexico, to the
professors of the School of Mines, and even to
several of the native miners, who, without having
quitted their country, know the imperfection of
the old methods : but we must repeat here, that
changes can only take place very slowly among a
people who are not fond of innovations. It is a
prejudice to imagine, that the wealth of the mines
of New Spain renders unnecessary the intelligence
and the economy which are requisite in other
mines. We must not confound the abundance of
ores with their intrinsic value. The most part of
the ores of Mexico being low in produce, as all
those who do not allow themselves to be dazzled
by false calculations well know, an enormous
quantity of stuff impregnated with metals must be
extracted, in, order to produce l,540,0001bs. troy
of silver. Now it is easy to conceive that in mines
of which the different works are badly disposed,

198 CONDITION OF MINES.
and without any communication with one another,
the expense of extraction must be increased in an
alarming manner, in proportion as the shafts
(pozos) increase in depth, and the levels (canones)
become more extended.
The working of the mines has long been re
garded as one of the principal causes of the de
population of America. It would be difficult to
deny, that at the first epoch of the conquest, and
even in the seventeenth century, many Indians
perished from the excessive labour to which they
were compelled in the mines. They perished
without posterity, as thousands of African slaves
annually perish in the West Indian plantations
from fatigue, want of nourishment and of sleep.
In Peru, at least in the most southern part, the
country is depopulated by the mines, because the
barbarous law of the mita is yet in existence, which
compels the Indians to remove from their homes
into distant provinces, where hands are wanted for
extracting the subterraneous wealth.
In the kingdom of New Spain, at least within
the last thirty or forty years, the labour of the
mines is free ; and there remains no trace of the
mita, though a justly celebrated author* has ad
vanced the contrary. No where do the people
enjoy in greater security the fruit of their labours
* Robertson, History of America, vol. ii. p. 373.

HEALTHINESS OF MINERS. 199
than in the mines of Mexico ; no law forces the
Indian to choose this species of labour, or to prefer
one mine to another ; and when he is displeased
with the proprietor of the mine, he may offer his
services to another master who may pay perhaps
more regularly. These unquestionable facts are
very little known in Europe. The number of per
sons employed in subterraneous operations, who
are divided into several classes (Barenadores,
Faeneros, Tenateros, Bareteros), does not exceed
in the whole kingdom of New Spain 28 or 30,000.
Hence there is not more than -%%-$¦ of the whole po
pulation immediately employed in the mines.
The mortality among the miners of Mexico is
not greater than what is observed among the other
classes. We may easily be convinced of this by
examining the bills of mortality in the different
parishes of Guanaxuato and Zacatecas. This is a
phenomenon, so much the more remarkable, as
the miner in several of these mines is exposed to a
temperature 11° above the mean temperatures of
Jamaica and Pondicherry. I found Fahrenheit's
thermometer at 93° at the bottom of the mine of
Valenciana (en los planes), a perpendicular depth
of 1681 feet, while at the mouth of the pit in the
open air, the same thermometer sinks in winter to
39° or 40°. The Mexican miner is, consequently,
exposed to a change of temperature of more than
54°. This enormous heat of the Valenciana mine
is not the effect of a great number of men and

200 TENATEROS — BARENADORES.
lights collected into a small space; it is much more
owing to local and geological causes.
It is curious to observe how the Mestizoes and
Indians called tenateros, employed in carrying
minerals on their backs, remain for six hours at a
time loaded with a weight of from 225 to 350
pounds, and constantly exposed to a very high
temperature, ascending without intermission eight
or ten times successively, stairs of 1800 steps.
The appearance of these robust and laborious men
would have wrought a change in the opinions of
the Raynals, Pauws, and many other authors, who
have declaimed against the degeneracy of our
species in the torrid zone. In the Mexican mines,
lads of seventeen years of age are able to carry
masses of stone of a hundred pounds weight.
This occupation of tenateros is accounted un
healthy, if they, enter more than three times a week
into the mines. But the labour which rapidly
ruins the most robust constitutions is that of the
barenadores, who blow up the rock with powder.
These men rarely pass the age of 35, if from a
thirst of gain they continue their severe labour for
the whole week. They generally pass no more than
five or six years at this occupation, and then betake
themselves to other employments less injurious to
health. The art of mining is daily improving, and the
pupils of the School of Mines at Mexico gradually
diffuse correct notions respecting the circulation of

HEALTHINESS OF LABOURERS ON THE SURFACE. 201
air in pits and galleries. Machines are beginning
to be introduced, in place of the old method of
carrying minerals and water on men's backs up
stairs of a rapid ascent. In proportion as the
mines of New Spain resemble more and more
those of Europe, the miner's health will be less
injured by the influence of the foul air, and the
excessively prolonged efforts of muscular motion.
From five to six thousand persons are employed
in the amalgamation of the minerals, or the pre
paratory labour. A great number of these indi
viduals pass their lives in walking barefoot over
heaps of brayed metal, moistened and mixed with
muriate of soda, sulphate of iron, and oxide of
mercury, by the contact of the atmospheric air and
the solar rays. It is a remarkable phenomenon to
see these men enjoy the most perfect health. The
physicians who practise in places where there are
mines unanimously assert, that the nervous affec
tions, which might be attributed to the effect of an
absorption of oxide of mercury, very rarely occur.
At Guanaxuato part of the inhabitants drink the
very water in which the amalgamation has been
purified (aqua de lavaderos) without feeling any
injury from it. This fact has often struck Europe
ans not intimately acquainted with the principles
of chemistry. The water is at first of a grayish-
blue colour, and contains in suspension black oxide
of mercury, and small globules of native mercury
and amalgamation of silver. This metallic mixture
2 D

202 CONDITION AND WAGES OF MINERS,
gradually precipitates, and the water becomes
limpid. It can neither dissolve the oxide of mercury
nor the muriate of mercury, which is one of the
most insoluble salts we know. The mules are
very fond of this water, because it contains a
little muriate of soda in solution.
We have already said, that the labour of a miner
is entirely free throughout the kingdom of New
Spain. No Indian or Mestizo can be compelled
to devote himself to the working of mines. It is
absolutely false, though the assertion has been re
peated in works of the greatest estimation, that
the Court of Madrid sends out galley slaves to work
in the gold and silver mines. The mines of
Siberia have been peopled by Russian malefactors,
but in the Spanish colonies this species of punish
ment has been fortunately unknown for centuries.
The Mexican miner is the best paid of all miners ;
he earns at the least from 1/. to 1/. 4*. per week of
six days, while the wages of labourers who work in
the open air, husbandmen for example, are 6*. 3d.
on the central table-land, and 7s. 6d. near the
coast. The miners, tenateros and faeneros, occu
pied in transporting the minerals to the plats
(despachos), frequently gain more than 4*. I Oof.
per day of six hours; Honesty is by no means so
common among the Mexican as among the
German or Swedish miners ; they make use of a
thousand tricks to steal rich specimens of ores.
As they are almost naked, and are searched on

REGULATIONS OF MINES. 203
leaving the mine in the most indecent manner,
they conceal small morsels of native silver, or red
sulphuret and muriate of silver, in their hair, under
their arm-pits, and in their mouths. It is a most
shocking spectacle to see in the large mines of
Mexico, hundreds of workmen, among whom
there are a great number of very respectable men,
all compelled to allow themselves to be searched on
leaving the shaft or level. A register is kept of the
minerals found in the hair, in the mouth, or other
parts of the miners' bodies. In the mine of Va
lenciana at Guanaxuato, the value of these stolen
minerals amounted between 1774 and 1787 to the
sum of 63,000/. sterling.
In the interior of the mines much care is em
ployed in controuling the tenateros, by whom the
ores are carried towards the shaft from the place of
operation. At Valenciana, for example, they
know to within a few pounds the quantity of work
containing ore which daily goes out of the mine.
I say, the work, for the rock is never there an
object of extraction, and is employed to fill up the
vacancies formed by the extraction of the minerals.
At the plats of the great shafts, two chambers are
dug in the wall, in each of which two persons
(despachadores) are seated at a table, with a book
before them containing the names of all the miners
employed in the carriage. Two balances are
suspended before them, near the counter. Each
tenatero loaded with ores presents himself at the
2d 2

204 PREPARATION OF ORES.
counter ; and two persons stationed near the
balances judge of the weight of this load by raising
it lightly up. If the tenatero, who on the road
has had time to estimate his load, believes it lighter
than the despachador, he says nothing, because the
error is advantageous to him ; but on the other
hand, if he believes the weight of the ore he carries
in his bag to be greater than it is estimated, he
demands that it should be weighed, and the weight
which is thus determined is entered in the book of
the despachador. From whatever part of the mine
the tenatero comes, he is paid at the rate of one
real de plata* for a load of 2J cwt., and one real
and a half for a load of 3^ cwt. per journey. There
are some tenateros who perform in one day from
eight to ten journeys, and their pay is regulated
from the book of the despachador. This mode of
reckoning is no doubt highly deserving of praise ;
and we cannot sufficiently admire the celerity, the
order, and the silence with which they thus deter
mine the weight of so many thousand quintals of
ores, which are furnished by veins of 6 or 8 fathoms
in breadth, in a single day.
These ores, which are separated from the sterile
rocks in the mine itself by the master miners
(quebr adores), undergo three sorts of preparation,
viz. at the places for jigging or washing the ores,
where women work; under the stamping mills;
and under the tahonas or arastras. These tahonas
* Sixpence-halfpenny.

PREPARATION OF ORES. 205
are machines in which the work is ground under
very hard stones, which have a rotatory motion,
and weigh upwards of seven or eight cwt. They
are not yet acquainted with washing with the tub
(s^tz w'dsche), nor washing on sleeping tables
(tables dormantes) (liegende-heerde) , or percussion
(stossheerde) . The preparation under the stumps
(?nazos) or in the tahonas, to which I shall give
the name of edge mills, on account of their re
semblance to some oil and snuff mills, differs
according as the ore is destined to be smelted or
amalgamated. The mills properly belong only to
this last process ; however, very rich metallic grains
called polvillos, which have passed through the
trituration of the tahona, are also smelted.
The quantity of silver extracted from the ores
by means of mercury, is in the proportion of 3^
to 1 of that produced by smelting. This propor
tion is taken from the general table formed by the
provincial treasuries, from the different districts of
mines of New Spain. There are, however, some
of those districts, for example those of Sombrerete
and Zimapan, in which the produce from smelting
exceeds that of amalgamation.

206

AMALGAMATION AND SMELTING.

Silver (plata quintada) extracted from the Mines
of New Spain, from the 1st January 1785 to
the 31st December 1789.

Provincial treasuries receiving the fifth.

Silver ex
tracted by
amalgamation.

Mexico . . .
Zacatecas . .
Guanaxuato
San Luis Potosi
Durango . . .
Guadalaxara
Bolanos . . .
Sombrerete . .
Zimapan . . .
Pachuca . . .
Rosario . . .

950,185
1,031,360 1,937,895
1,491,058 536,272405,357
336,355 136,395 1,215
269,536477,134

Total in lbs. troy 7,572,762

Silver ex
traded by
smelting.

104,835173,631
531,138 24,465
388,081 103,615 27,614
184,205
247,002 185,500191,368

2,159,454

In times of peace, amalgamation gains a gra
dual ascendancy over smelting, which is generally
badly managed. As wood is becoming yearly more
scarce on the ridge of the Cordilleras, which is the
most populous part, the diminution of the produce
of smelting is very advantageous to the manufac
tories which require a great consumption of com
bustibles. In time of war the want of mercury
arrests the progress of amalgamation, and compels
the miner to endeavour to improve the process of
smelting. M. Velasquez, the director general of
the mines, supposed even in 1797, before the dis-

AMALGAMATION. 207
covery of the rich mines of Catorce, where there is
scarcely any smelting, that of all the ores of New
Spain two-fifths were smelted, and the other three-
fifths amalgamated.
The limits prescribed by us in the execution of
this work, do not permit us to enter into any detail
of the processes of amalgamation used in Mexico.
It is sufficient to give a general idea of them, to
examine the chemical phenomena which are ex
hibited in the greatest part of these processes, and
to show the difficulties which in the New Continent
oppose the introduction of the method invented
in Germany in 1786, by Born, Ruprecht, and
Gellert. The ancients knew the property which mercury
possesses of combining with gold ; and they made
use of amalgamation in gilding copper, and col
lecting the gold contained in their worn out dresses,
by reducing them to ashes in clay vessels. It ap
pears certain, that before the discovery of America
the German miners used mercury, not only in
washing auriferous earths, but also in extracting
the gold disseminated in veins, both in its native
state, and mixed with iron pyrites, and with the
gray copper ore. But the amalgamation of silver
ores, and the ingenious process now used in the
New World, to which we owe the greater part of
the valuable metals existing in Europe, or which
have flowed from Europe to Asia, go no further
back than the year 1557. It was invented in

208 COLD AMALGAMATION.
Mexico by a miner of Pachuca of the name of
Bartholome de Medina.
Cold amalgamation was found so profitable in
Mexico, that in 1562, five years after the first
discovery of the process of Medina, there were
already 35 works at Zacatecas in which minerals
were treated with mercury, notwithstanding Zaca
tecas is three times further from Pachuca than the
old mines of Tasco, Zultipeque, and Tlapujahua.
The Mexican miners do not appear to follow any
very fixed principle, in the selection of the ores
submitted to smelting or amalgamation ; for we
see them smelt in one district of mines, the same
mineral substances which in another they believe
can only be managed with mercury. The ores
which contain muriate of silver, for example, are
sometimes smelted with carbonate of soda (teques-
quite), and sometimes destined to the processes of
hot and cold amalgamation ; and it is frequently
only the abundance of mercury, and the facility
in procuring it, which determine the miner in the
choice of his method. In general they find it ne
cessary to smelt the very rich meagre ores, those
which contain from 61bs. to 7^1bs. troy of silver per
cwt., argentiferous sulphuret of lead, and the ores
mixed of blende and vitreous copper. On the
other hand, they find it profitable to amalgamate
the pacos or colorados, destitute of metallic lustre;
native, vitreous, red, black, and horn-silver ;
fah lore rich in silver; and all the meagre ores

BREAKING OF ORES. 209
which are disseminated in very small particles in
the gangue.
The ores destined for amalgamation must be
triturated, or reduced to a very fine powder, to
present the greatest possible contact with the mer
cury. This trituration under the arastras or mills,
of which we have already spoken, is of all the
metallurgical operations that which is executed in
the greatest perfection in most of the Mexican
works. In no part of Europe have I ever seen
pulverized ores or powdered schlich so fine, and of
so equal a grain, as in the great haciendas de plata
of Guanaxuato, belonging to Count de la Valen
ciana, Colonel Rul, and Count Perez Galvez.
When the ores are very pyritous, they are burnt
(quemar) in the open air in heaps, on beds of
wood, as at Sombrerete, or in schlich in reverbe
rating furnaces (comalillos) . The latter I found
at Tehuilotepec : they are 38 feet in length,
without chimneys, but managed by two fires, the
flames of which traverse the laboratory. This
chemical preparation of the ores is however very
rare in general ; the size of the fragments of sub
stances to be amalgamated, and the want of combus
tibles on the table-land of New Spain, render the
process equally difficult and expensive.
The dry braying is done by mazos, eight of which
work together, kept in motion by hydraulic wheels
or by mules. The brayed ore (granza) passes
through a hide pierced with holes ; and it is re-
2 E

210 BREAKING OF ORES.
duced to a very fine powder under the arastras or
tahonas, which are called sencillas or de marco,
according as they are furnished with two or four
blocks of porphyry or basalt (piedras voladoras),
which revolve in a circle from 29 to 38 feet in cir
cumference. From 12 to 15 of these arastras, or
mills, are generally ranged in a row under one shed ;
and they are moved by water, or by mules which are
relieved every eight hours. One of these machines
brays in the space of 24 hours, from 660 to 8801bs.
avoirdupois of ores. The moist schlich (lama) which
leaves the arastras, is sometimes washed again in
cisterns (estanques de deslamar), the construction
of which, in the district of niines of Zacatecas, has
been recently carried to perfection by M. Garces.
When the ores are very rich, as in the mine of
Rayas at Guanaxuato, they are only reduced under
the stones of the mills to the size of coarse sand
(xalsonte), and they separate by washing the rich
est metallic grains (polvillos), which are destined
for smelting. This very economical operation is
called apartar polvillos.
I have been assured, that when they are about
to amalgamate silver ores which are very poor in
gold, they pour mercury into the vessel or trough,
on the bottom of which the stones of the arastras
turn : the auriferous amalgamation then goes, on
in proportion as the ore is reduced to powder, the
rotatory motion of the piedras voladeras being fa
vourable to the combination of the metals. I had

AMALGAMATION. 211
no opportunity of seeing this operation, which is
not practised at Guanaxuato. In some great amal
gamation works of New Spain, the arastras are
still unknown ; they are contented with the braying
of the mazos ; and the schlich which comes from
under them is passed through sieves (cedazos and
tolvas). This comminution is very imperfect ; a
powder of an unequal and coarse grain amalga
mates very ill ; and the health of the workmen suf
fers greatly, in a place, where a cloud of metallic
dust is perpetually flying about.
The moistened schlich is carried from the mills
or arastras, into the court of amalgamation (patio
or galerd), which is generally paved with flags.
The flour is ranged in piles (montones) which conr-
tain from 15 to 35 cwt. Forty or fifty of these mon-
tonesioxm a torta, by which name they call a heap of
moistened schlich, which they leave exposed to the
open air, and which is frequently from 60 to 100 feet
in breadth, by 20 to 24 inches in thickness. The
materials used in amalgamation, which process is
generally carried on in a paved court (en patio),
are muriate of soda (sal blanca); sulphate of iron
and copper (magistral), lime, and vegetable ashes.
It is by the contact of these different substances,
namely, moistened ore in powder, mercury, mu
riate of soda, sulphates of iron and copper, and
lime, that the amalgamation of silver, in the pro
cess of cold amalgamation (de patio y por cruto),
takes place. They begin at first by mixing salt
2 e 2

212 AMALGAMATION.
with the metallic powder, and they stir (repassar)
the paste (torta). According to the purity of the
salt used, they give each cwt. of schlich, a quan
tity which varies from two and a half to twenty-
four pounds. They leave the mineral mixed with
salt (metal ensalmorado) for several days, in order
that the latter may dissolve and be equally distri
buted. If the azoguero judges the metals to be
warm (calientes), that is to say in a state of oxida
tion, and naturally charged either with sulphates
of iron and copper which rapidly decompose in the
air, or with muriate of silver, he adds lime to cool
the mass ; and this operation is called curtir los
metales con cal. But they use magistral, if the
schlich appears too cold (frios) ; for example, if it
proceeds from ores which display great metallic
lustre; if it contains sulphate of lead (negrillos
agalenados), or pyrites difficult to decompose in
the humid air ; and this operation is called curtir
con magistral. They attribute to the sulphate of
iron and copper, the property of heating the mass ;
and they only consider it as well prepared, when,
moistened and held in the hand, it causes a sensa
tion of heat. In this case the sulphuric acid, which
is concentrated in the acid sulphate, attracts the
water, and, combining with it, gives out caloric.
We have described two processes of chemical
preparation of minerals, salting (el ensalmorar),
and tanning (curtir) with lime or magistral.
After the interval of some days they begin to

AMALGAMATION. 213
incorporate (incorporar) the mercury with the
metallic powder. The quantity of -mercury is
determined by the quantity of silver which they
think will be drawn from the minerals ; and they
generally employ in the incorporation (en el in-
corporo) six times the quantity of mercury which
the paste contains of silver. They allow from three
to four pounds of mercury for half a pound of silver ;
and with the mercury, or shortly afterwards, they
add to the mass, magistral, according to the na
ture, or (to use the barbarous language of the azo-
gueros) according to the temperature of the mine
rals (segun los grados de frialdad). They allow
from one to seven pounds of magistral to each
pound of mercury ; and if the mercury assumes a
lead colour (color aplomado,) it is a mark that the
paste is working, or that the chemical action has
begun. To favour this action, and to augment
the contact of the substances, they stir the mass
(se da repasso) either by causing about twenty
horses or mules to run round for several hours, or
by setting workmen to tread the schlich, who for
whole days go about barefooted in this metallic
mud. Every day the azoguero examines the state of
the powder ; and he makes the trial (la tentadura)
in a small wooden trough (xicara), that is to say,
he washes a portion of schlich with water, and
judges from the appearance of the mercury and
the amalgam, if the mass is too cold or too warm.
When the mercury takes an ash colour (en lis ce-

214 AM A LGAM ATI ON .
nicienta), when a very fine gray powder is separated
from it which sticks to the fingers, they say the
paste is too hot ; and they cool it by the addition
of lime. But if, on the other hand, the mercury
preserves a metallic lustre, if it remains white, and
covered with a reddish or gilt pellicle (telilla roxiza
o de tornasol morado or en lis dorado) ; if it does
not appear to act upon the mass, the amalgama
tion is then considered to be too cold, and they en
deavour to heat it (calentar) by a mixture of ma
gistral. In this manner during the space of two, three,
and even five months, the paste is balanced be
tween the magistral and the lime, for the effects
are very different according to the temperature of
the atmosphere, the nature of the ores, and the
motion given to the schlich. If they imagine that
the action is too strong, and that the mass is work
ing too much, they allow it to repose : or if they
wish to accelerate the amalgamation, and increase
the heat, they repeat the stirring more frequently,
sometimes employing men, and sometimes mules.
If the amalgamation is formed too quickly, and ap
pears in the form of small globules, called pasillas
or copos, they feed the paste (si ceba la torta)
by again adding mercury with a little magistral,
and sometimes with salt. When from the exte
rior characters the azoguero judges that the mer
cury has united with the whole silver contained in
the ores, and that the paste has yielded (ha rendido),

AMALGAMATION. 215
the metallic muds are thrown into vats of wood or
stone. Small mills provided with sails placed per
pendicularly, turn round in these vats. These ma
chines (tinas de cal y canto), which are particularly
well executed at Guanaxuato, have a resemblance
to those established at Freiberg for washing the re
mains of the amalgamation. The earthy and oxi
dated parts are carried away by the water, while the
amalgam and the mercury remain in the bottom of
the vat. As the force of the current carries away
at the same time some globules of mercury, in the
great works, Indian women are employed in ga
thering this metal from the water used in washing.
They separate the amalgam collected at the bottom
of the tinas del lavadero from the mercury, by
pressing it through sacks ; and they mould it into
pyramids, which they cover with a reversed crucible
in the shape of a bell. The silver is separated from
the mercury by means of distillation. In the pro
cess which I have been describing, they lose in ge
neral from If to If lb. of mercury for each pound
of silver. In the process of amalgamation intro
duced into Saxony by MM. Gellert and Charpen-
tier, the consumption of mercury is -^ per pound
of silver, or eight times less than the proportion
used in Mexico.
We have described the cold amalgamation (por
crudo y de patio), without roasting the ores, and
by exposing them in a court to the open air. Me
dina was only acquainted with the use of salt, and

216 HOT AMALGAMATION.
sulphates of iron and copper ; but in 1586, fifteen
years after his process was introduced into Peru,
Carlos Corso de Leca, a Peruvian miner, discovered
the beneficio de hierro. He advised the mixture of
small plates of iron with the metallic powder, af
firming that by this mixture more then nine-tenths
of the mercury would be saved. This process, as
we shall afterwards see, is founded on the decom
position of the muriate of silver by the iron, and
on the attraction of this metal for the sulphur. It
is now but very little followed by the Mexican azo-
gueros. In 1590, Alonzo Barba proposed the hot
amalgamation in copper vats. This process is
called the beneficio de cazo y cocimiento, which was
proposed by M. Born, 178b. The loss of mercury
is much less by it than in the beneficio por patio,
because the copper of the vessels serves to decom
pose the muriate of silver, while at the same time
the heat favours the operation, either in rendering
the action of the affinities more powerful, or in
giving motion to the liquid mass which enters into
ebullition. This hot amalgamation is used in se
veral of the mines of Mexico, which abound in
horn-silver and colorados. Juan de Ordonez, whose
work has been already quoted, even advised amal
gamation by means of stoves. In 1676, Juan de
Corrosegarra discovered a process which is very
much in use at present, called the beneficio de la
pella de plata; and in which silver already formed
is added to the mercury of the amalgam. It is

AMALGAMATION. 217
said, that this amalgam (pella) favours the extrac
tion of the silver, and that the loss of mercury is
so much less, as the amalgam disseminates itself
with greater difficulty into the mass. A fifth me
thod is the beneficio de la colpa, in which, instead
of an artificial magistral, which contains much
more of the sulphate of copper than of the sulphate
of iron, they use colpa, which is a natural mixture
of acid sulphate of iron and iron oxidated to the
maximum. This beneficio de la colpa, extolled by
Don Lorenzo de la Torre, offers part of the ad
vantages which we have just pointed out in speak
ing of the amalgamation by iron.
Since the practice of amalgamation of silver ores
was introduced into Europe, and since the learned
of every nation met at the metallurgic congress of
Schemnitz*, the confused theory of Barba, and the
Mexican azogueros, has been succeeded by sounder
ideas, better adapted to the present state of che
mistry. It is supposed that the practice of Frei
berg, where a mass of roasted ores is amalgamated
in a very few hours, will be gradually introduced
into the amalgamation of Mexico, where the ores
are generally not roasted, and where they remain
exposed in the open air to the sun and the rain for
several months.
The enormous waste of mercury which we ob
serve in the American process of amalgamation
* Properly Szkleno or Glashutte, near Schemnitz.
2 F

218 AMALGAMATION.
proceeds from several causes which act simulta
neously. If in the process por patio all the silver
extracted were owing to a decomposition of mu
riate of silver by mercury, there would be lost a
quantity of mercury which would be to that of the
silver in the muriate, nearly as 4 : 7- 6 ; for this
ratio is that of the respective oxidations of the two
metals. Another and perhaps the most consider
able part of the mercury is lost, because it remains
disseminated in an immense mass of the moisten
ed powder (schlich) ; and this division of the me
tal is so great, that the most careful washing is not
sufficient to unite the particles concealed in the
residue. A third cause of the loss of the mercury
must be sought for in its contact with the salt wa
ter, in its exposure to the open air and the rays of
the sun for the space of three, four and even five
months. These masses of mercury and schlich,
which contain a great number of heterogeneous
metallic substances, moistened by saline solutions,
are composed of an infinite number of small galva
nic piles, of which the slow but prolonged action
is favourable to the oxidation of the mercury, and
the play of chemical affinities.
It results from these researches, that the use of
fire will sensibly improve the process of amalgama
tion. If the minerals to be treated are only vi
treous silver, iron filings alone would be perhaps
sufficient to lay the silver bare, and separate it from
the sulphur which retards its union with the mer-

AMALGAMATION. 219
cury. But as in all the other silver ores there are,
besides sulphur, different metals combined with the
silver, the simultaneous employment of muriate of
soda, and sulphates of copper and iron, becomes ne
cessary to favour the disengagement of the muriatic
acid, which combines with the copper, iron, anti
mony, lead and silver. The muriates of iron, cop
per, zinc, and arsenic, and even that of lead, remain
dissolved ; and the muriate of silver, which is next
to insoluble, is decomposed by contact with the
mercury. The amalgamation, such as we have described
it, serves to extract all the silver from the ores
which have been treated by mercury, provided the
azoguero be experienced, and thoroughly know the
aspect or external character of the mercury, by
which to judge if the paste is in want of lime or
sulphate of iron. At Guanaxuato, where this ope
ration is best managed, ores are successfully amal
gamated which contain only 15 ounces of silver
per ton. M. Sonneschmidt found only f of an
ounce of silver in the residue of amalgamation
proceeding from ores of which the ton contained
from 700 to 900 ounces of silver. In the works
of Regla, on the other hand, the schlich frequently
undergoes washing before the mercury has ex
tracted all the silver in the paste ; and it is believed
at Mexico, that the father of the present proprietor
of the famous mine of Biscaina threw, with the
refuse, an enormous mass of silver into the river.
2 f2

220 CONSUMPTION OF MERCURY.
After treating of the amalgamation in use in
America, it remains for us to touch upon a very
important problem, that of the quantity of mercury
annually required by the mines of New Spain.
Mexico and Peru depend very much upon the abun
dance and low price of the mercury for the quan
tity of silver which they produce. When the mer
cury fails them, which happens often in periods of
maritime war, the mines are not so briskly worked ;
and the ores accumulate on their hands without
their being able to extract the silver from them.
Rich proprietors, who possess in their magazines
ores to the amount of two or three millions of francs,
are frequently in want of the necessary money to
make head against the daily expenses of their mines.
On the other hand, the more mercury is wanted in
Spanish America, either on account of the flou
rishing state of the mines, or the process of amal
gamation followed there, the more the price of this
metal rises in Europe. The small number of coun
tries which nature has supplied with it, Spain, the
department of Mont-Tonnerre, Carniola, and Tran
sylvania, gain by this rise; but the districts of
silver mines in which the process of amalgamation
is the more desirable, as they are in want of the
necessary combustibles for smelting, feel very dis
advantageous^ the necessity for great importations
of mercury into America.
Mexico consumes annually upwards of 2,000,000
pounds troy of mercury. In 1803, a very useful

CONSUMPTION OF MERCURY. 221
project was formed in Spain of supplying Mexico
for several years, in order that in the unforeseen case
of a war, the amalgamation might not be impeded
by the want of mercury ; but this project (del re-
questo) shared the fate of so many others which
have never been executed. Before 1770, when the
working of mines was far from being so considera
ble as at present, New Spain received no other mer
cury but that of Almaden and Huancavelica. The
German mercury furnished by the Austrian Go
vernment, of which the greatest part is from Idria,
was only introduced into Mexico after the falling
in of the subterraneous works of Huancavelica, at
a time when the mine of Almaden was inundated
in the greatest part of its works, and yielded
a very inconsiderable produce. But in 1800 and
1802, this last mine was again in such a flourish
ing state, that it could alone have furnished more
than 20,000cwt. of mercury per annum, and there
were sufficient grounds to conceive the hope of a
termination of the necessity for recurring to Ger
man mercury, for the supply of Mexico and Peru.
There have been years, when 10 or 12,000cwt. of
this last mentioned mercury have been imported
at Vera Cruz. Upon the whole, from 1762 to 1781,
the amalgamation works of New Spain destroyed
the enormous quantity of 25,124,2001bs. troy, of
which the value in America amounted to more
than 2,400,000/.

222 CONSUMPTION OF MERCURY.
When the price of mercury has progressively
lowered, the working of the mines has gone on
increasing. In 1590, under the Viceroy Don Luis
de Velasco II., a cwt. of mercury was sold in
Mexico for 40/. 10*. But in the 18th century,
the value of this metal had diminished to such a
degree, that in 1750 the court distributed it to
the miners at 17/. 15*. Between 1767 and 1776,
its price was 13/. 9*. per cwt. In 1777, under
the administration of the Minister Galvez, a royal
decree fixed the price of the mercury of Almaden
at 8/. 17*. 6</., and that of Germany at 13/. 13*.
At Guanaxuato, these two sorts of mercury are
increased by the expensive carriage on the backs of
mules, from 8*. 8d. to 10*. \0d. per cwt.
The impartial distribution of mercury (el re-
partimiento del azogue) is of the greatest conse
quence to the prosperity of the mines of New
Spain. Unfortunately, however, the viceroys and
those persons who were about them, under the old
government, were jealous of the right of ad
ministering this branch of the royal revenue. They
knew very well that to distribute mercury, and
especially that of Almaden, which is one third
cheaper than that of Idria, was to concede a fa
vour ; and in the colonies, as every where else, it is
profitable to favour the richest and most powerful
individuals. From this state of things, the poorest
miners, those of Tasco, Temascaltepec, or Copala,

CHINESE MERCURY.

223

could not procure mercury, when the great works
of Guanaxuato and Real del Monte had it in
abundance. The following table* proves the influence of the
price of mercury on its consumption. The dimi
nution of this price, and the freedom of trade
with all the ports of Spain, have jointly contributed
to the progress of mining.

Price of a cwt.

Total consumption

of mercury.

of mercury.

£. s. d.

1762—1766
17 15 0
35750 cwt.
1767—1771
13 9 0
42000
1772—1777
13 9 0
53000
1778—1782
8 17 6
59000
It was known in Mexico in 1782, that China
possesses mercury mines ; and it was imagined
that nearly 15,000 cwt. might be annually drawn
from Canton. The Viceroy Galvez sent thither a
cargo of otter skins by way of exchange for the
mercury ; but this project, wise in itself, was badly
executed. The Chinese mercury obtained from
Canton and Manilla was impure, and contained a
great deal of lead; and its price amounted to 17/.
6*. 8d. the cwt. Even at this price, only a very small
quantity could be procured. Since 1793, this
* Influxo del precio del azogue sobre su consumo, por Don
Antonio del Campo Marin. (MS.)
224 CHINESE MERCURY.
important object has been totally lost sight of; yet
it is deserving of the utmost attention, especially
at a time when the Mexicans experience great diffi
culty in procuring mercury from the Continent of
Europe. From all the researches which I could make, the
whole of Spanish America, namely, Mexico, Peru,
Chili, and the kingdom of Buenos Ayres, (for
elsewhere the process of amalgamation is unknown,)
annually consume more than 25,000 cwt. of mer
cury, the price of which in the Colonies amounts
to more than 250,000/. sterling. M. Heron de
Villefosse, in an interesting table which contains
the quantity of each metal extracted from the
mines over the whole globe, estimates the mercury
annually drawn from those of Europe at 36,000
cwt. From these data we find that mercury is,
after cobalt, the rarest of all metals, and that it is
even twice as rare as tin.
The following table indicates the quantity of
mercury lost in the processes of amalgamation,
used in different districts of mines, to extract the
silver from the ore. A loss (perdida y consumo)
of lOOlbs. of mercury is computed lbs. troy of silver.
In the mines of Guanaxuato, for about - 65
In the mines of the intendancy of Guada
laxara ...... 58

CONSUMPTION OF MERCURY. 225
In the mines of Pachuca, Zacatecas, Som
brerete, Guadiana, Durango, Parral, Zichu,
Tonala, Comanja, Zerralbo, Temextla,
Alchichica, Tepeaca, Zimapan, Cairo and
Tlapa  52
In the mines of Chichiapa, Tetala, Tasco,
Santa Theresa de Leiba y Banos, Ituquaro,
Tehuistla, San Esteban de Albukquerque,
and Chiconasi - - - - - 48
In the mines of Temascal tepee, Ayuteco,
and Chautla de la Sal - - - - 44
In the mines of Zacualpa, San Luis Potosi,
Guautla, Sultepec, and Tlapujahua - 42
The Government regulates the distribution
(repartimiento) of silver, according to these data,
and the quantity of silver annually extracted from
the different districts of mines.
The amalgamation of a hundred weight of ores,
which contain from three and a half to four ounces
of silver, costs in Mexico, including the loss of
mercury, from four to five shillings. M. Sonne-
schmidt calculates the loss of mercury at ten, twelve,
or fourteen ounces for eight ounces of silver ; and
he reckons 8 ounces of mercury consumed (azogue
consumido), and from 3 to 6 ounces lost (azogue
per dido).
From December 1801 till August 1804, Spain
received from its colonies 23,250,094/. in gold
and silver, and 13,725,961/. in agricultural pro-
2 G

226 PRODUCE OF MINES.
duce. From 1788 to 1795 the total importation
was only at an average, from seven to ten millions
sterling per annum.
The produce of the mines of Spanish America
varies a seventh from year to year, or more than
310,0001bs. troy of silver. We have estimated
this produce for the Spanish and Portuguese co
lonies at 17,291 kilogrammes of gold, or 75,217
Castilian marcs, and at 795,581 kilogrammes or
4,460 Castilian marcs of silver, which together are
of the value of 9,400,000/. Europe, Siberia, and
America furnish per annum 57,3681bs. in gold,
and 2,175,0001bs. in silver, or to the value of
10,755,000/. Note 1.
The Baron de Humboldt proves to us in these remarks that
he is well acquainted with practical mining, and that his infor
mation is likely to be most valuable on that account. I would
particularly direct the attention of English Miners to what is
said (page" 189) respecting the great size of the shafts and
levels, particularly of the latter, and to the influence justly
drawn in, the following page, that this has prevented the pro
prietors from making trials which are so indispensable for the
preservation of a mine.
If these works have not been properly carried on, it may be
so much the better for those who are about to commence a new
system of operations. Every miner from Cornwall knows that
. tj>e greater part of the profits on the Mines of that country
have of late arisen from a judicious system of exploring grourid
which had formerly been neglected. It is hoped that experience
so valuable for the eriterprize in question, will be actively and
successfully" applied.
I have seen many Mines in England and Wales to which
M- de Humboldt's remark might have been justly applied, and
which were abandoned for want of the trials he recommends.
The working of these having been resumed of late years and

227
conducted on a better system, they have become very profit
able. The untried ground on the veins between different mines on
the same lode, or the high ground standing, should be accu
rately inspected. There is evidence enough in this chapter that
much is to be done, and that a great probability exists of be
neficial results.
I need hardly say any thing on the mode of drawing the
water or the ores, the improvements with respect to which,
have been considerable in England in the last twenty years.
Every one who is sent to manage mines in Mexico, should of
course understand these improvements well. J. T.
Note 2.
On the mode of dressing the ores we have no very precise
information ; the author praises the trituration or grinding to a
fine powder : this is necessary where amalgamation is used, but
would be less so for smelting. It appears, however, that their
machines only grind from 660 to 880 lbs. in 24 hours. A good
stamping mill with 3 heads would probably do 4 times as much ;
and as 24 heads would be worked by a small steam engine,
such a machine would do the work of between 30 and 40 of
their mills : consequently, ores- that would not pay in the old
method, would give large profits by the new. I have said else
where, that I conceive it to be a great object to dress the ores
as clean as possible, and to reduce the bulk to the smallest pos
sible quantity. This I think must be true, whether amalgama
tion be used, or smelting, with a scarcity of fuel.
It appears that the pyritous ore, or mundic containing silver,
which is often very plentiful, is sometimes; calcined in rever-
beratory furnaces or burning-houses. This operation appears
to be ill performed, and must be attended to. I should think it
an essential process for those ores which are very valuable.
In page 206, we are told that smelting is badly performed.
The improvement of this process, as well as of that of dress
ing, will of course demand great attention. Their importance
may be estimated by their effect on the consumption of quick
silver, the cost of which, as stated in the latter part of the chap
ter, forms one of the most formidable deductions from the pro
fits of the mines. J- T.
2 g 2

228

INTENDANCY OF GUANAXUATO.

CHAPTER XL
Intendancy of Guanaxuato. — Situation — extent — cultiva
tion — population — towns — mining districts — geological
constitution.
We shall now subjoin some more particular details
concerningthe mining districts, and the intendancies
in which they are situate ; taking them in the order
of their comparative wealth and importance.
I. Intendancy of Guanaxuato.

1 Extent in
North
Latitude.

Extent in
West
Longitude.

Population in
1803.

Extent of
Surface in
square
Leagues.

No. of
Inhabitants to
the square
League.

From20° 55'
to
21" 30'

From
102<> 30'
to
103° 45'

517,300

8199

695

This province, wholly situated on the ridge of the
Cordillera of Anahuac, is the most populous in New
Spain. The population is also more equally dis
tributed here than in any of the other provinces.
Its length, from the lake of Chapala to the north
east of San Felipe, is 156 miles, and its .breadth,
from the Villa de Leon to Celaya, 93 miles. Its
territorial extent is nearly the same as that of the

POPULATION. — CULTIVATION. 229
kingdom of Murcia ; and in relative population it
exceeds the kingdom of the Asturias. Its relative
population is even greater than that of the depart
ments of the Hautes-Alpes, Basses-Alpes, Pyre-
nhes Orientales, and the Landes. The most elevated
point of this mountainous country seems to be the
mountain de los Llanitos in the Sierra de Santa
Rosa. I found its height above the level of the sea
9235 feet.
The cultivation of this fine province, part of the
old kingdom of Mechoacan, is almost wholly to be
ascribed to the Europeans, who arrived there in the
16th century, and introduced the first germ of ci
vilization. It was in these northern regions, on the
banks of the Rio de Lerma, formerly called Tololot-
lan, that the engagements took place between the
tribes of hunters and shepherds, called in the his
torians by the vague denominations of Chichimecs,
who belonged to the tribes of the Pames^ Capuces,
Samues, Mayolias, Guamanes, and Guachichiles
Indians. In proportion as the country was abandon
ed by these wandering and warlike nations, the Spa
nish conquerors transplanted to it colonies of Mexi
can or Aztec Indians. For a long time agriculture
made more considerable progress than mining. The
mines, which were of small celebrity at the beginning
of the conquest, were almost wholly abandoned du
ring the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; and
it is not more than thirty or forty years since they

230 TOWNS. POPULATION.
became richer than the mines of Pachuca, Zacate
cas, and Bolanos. Their metallic produce, as we
shall hereafter explain, is nowgr^ater than the pro
duce of Potosi or any other mine in the two con
tinents ever was.
There are in the intendancy of Guanaxuato
3 ciudades (viz. Guanaxuato, Celayo, and Salva-
tierra) ; 4 villas (viz. San Miguel el Grande, Leon,
San Felipe and Salamanca) ; 37 villages or pueblos ;
33 parishes (paroquias) ; 448 farms or haciendas ;
225 individuals of the secular clergy, 170 monks
and 30 nuns ; and in a population of more than
180,000 Indians, 52,000 subject to tribute.
The most remarkable towns of this intendancy
are the following : Population.
Guanaxuato, or Santa Fe de Gonna-
joato. The building of this city was
begun by the Spaniards in 1554. It re
ceived the royal privilege of villa in 1 6 1 9 ;
and that of ciudad the 8th December
1 74 1 . Its present population is :
Within the city (en el casco de la ciu
dad)  41,000
In the mines surrounding the city, of
which the buildings are contiguous, at
Marfil Santa Ana, Santa Rosa, Valen
ciana, Rayas, and Mellado . . 29,600
70,600

TOWNS. HOT-WELLS. 231
Among whom there are 4500 Indians. Height
of the city at the Plaza Mayor near 6836 feet.
Height of Valenciana at the mouth of the new pit
(tiro nuevo) 7586 feet. Height of Rayas at the
mouth of the gallery 7075 feet.
Salamanca, a pretty little town, situated in a
plain which rises insensibly by Temascatio, Burras
and Cuevas, towards Guanaxuato. Height 5762
feet. Celaya. Sumptuous edifices have recently been
constructed at Celaya, Queretaro, and Guanaxuato.
The church of the Carmelites at Celaya has a fine
appearance. It is adorned with Corinthian and
Ionic columns. Height 6018 feet.
Villa de Leon, in a plain eminently fertile in
grain. From this town to San Juan del Rio are
to be seen the finest fields of wheat, barley, and
maize. San Miguel el Grande, celebrated for the indus^
try of its inhabitants, who manufacture cotton
cloth. The hot wells of San Jose de Comangillas are
in this province. They issue from a basaltic open
ing. The temperature of the water, according to
experiments made jointly by myself and Mr. Roxas,
is 205°3 Fahr. thermometer.

232 MINES. MOUNTAINS.
Disputaciones de Mineria, or Districts.
1. Guanaxuato.
Reales, or places surrounded with Mines :
Guanaxuato: Villalpando; Monte de San Nico
las; Santa Rosa; Santa Ana; San Antonio de las
Minas ; Coinanja ; Capulin ; Comanjilla ; Gigante ;
San Luis de la Paz ; San Rafael de los Lobos ;
Durasno ; San Juan de la Chica ; Rincon de Cen-
teno ; San Pedro de los Pozos ; Palmos de Vega ;
San Miguel el Grande ; San Felipe.
The district of Guanaxuato is as remarkable for
its natural wealth as for the gigantic labours of man
in the bowels of the mountains.
In the centre of the intendancy of Guanaxuato
on the ridge of the Cordillera of Anahuac, rises a
group of porphyritic summits known by the name
of the Sierra de Santa Rosa. This group of moun
tains, partly arid, and partly covered with straw
berry trees and evergreen oaks, is surrounded with
fertile and well cultivated fields. To the north of
the Sierra, the Llanos of San Felipe extend as far
as the eye can reach ; and to the south, the plains
of Irapuato and Salamanca exhibit the delightful
spectacle of a rich and populous country. The
Cierro de los Llanitos, and the Puerto de Santa
Rosa, are the most elevated summits of this group

ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 233
of mountains. Their absolute height is from 9000
to 9300; but as the neighbouring plains, which are
part of the great central table-land of Mexico, are
more than 6000 feet above the level of the sea,
these porphyritic summits appear but as inconsider
able hills to the eye of a traveller accustomed to
the striking appearance of the Cordilleras. The
famous vein of Guanaxuato, which has alone, since
the end of the sixteenth century, produced a mass
of silver equal to nearly 58,000,000/., crosses the
southern slope of the Sierra Santa de Rosa.
In going from Salamanca to Burras and Te-
mascatio, we perceive a chain of mountains which,
bounding the plains, stretches from the south-east
to the north-west. The crest of the vein follows
this direction. At the foot of the Sierra, after pass
ing the farm of Xalapita, we discover a narrow
ravine, dangerous to pass at the period of the great
swells, called the Canada de Marfil, which leads
to the town of Guanaxuato. The population of
that town, as we have already observed, is more than
70,000 souls. One is astonished to see in this
wild spot, large and beautiful edifices in the midst
of miserable Indian huts. The house of Colonel
Don Diego Rul, who is one of the proprietors of the
Valenciana mine, would be an ornament to the
finest streets of Paris and Naples. It is fronted
with columns of the Ionic order, and the architec
ture is simple, and remarkable for great purity of
2 H

234 PRODUCE OF THE VEIN OF GUANAXUATO.
style. The erection of this edifice, which is almost
uninhabited, cost more than 33,000/. — a con
siderable sum in a country where the price of labour
and materials is very moderate.
The name of Guanaxuato is scarcely known in
Europe ; yet the riches of the mines of this district
are much greater than those of the metalliferous
depositary of Potosi. The latter was discovered
in 1545 by Diego Hualca an Indian, and has pro
duced, (according to information never yet made
public,) in the space of two hundred and thirty-
three years, 57,068,488 lbs. troy of silver, worth
170,789,344/. sterling. Pounds Sterling. ibs. Troy.
From 1556— 1578.... 10,619,112 or 3,548,328
1579—1736. . . . 132,469,881 — 44,264,213
1737—1789.... 27,700,351 — 9,255,947

170,789,344 57,068,488
The produce of the vein of Guanaxuato is
almost double that of the Cerro de Potosi. There
is actually drawn from this vein (for it alone fur
nishes all the silver of the mines of the district of
Guanaxuato), in average years, about 300,0001bs.
troy of silver, and 1000 lbs. troy of gold.
It is found from official papers, that the district
of mines of Guanaxuato has produced in 38 years
gold and silver to the value of 35,750,000/. ster-

GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.

235

ling, and that from 1786 to 1803, the annual ave
rage produce has been 342,231 lbs. troy of silver,
equal to 1,059,655/. sterling. All the veins of
Hungary and Transylvania together, yield only
55,686 lbs. troy of silver.
Taking four averages of years, of which three
are of ten and one of eight years, we shall have
the following results :

Periods.

1766—1775 1776—17851786—17951796—1803

Value of the total
produce
of gold and
silver ex
tracted from the
mines of
Guanaxuato.

Pounds Sterling.
6,569,442
10,116,786 10,547,910 8,516,325

Silver
for an
average year.

Value of gold and
silver for an aver
age year.

Ibs.Troy. 210,609
324,997345,191 339,273

Pounds Sterling
656,944
1,011,678 1,054,7901,064,521

The rocks known in the district of Guanaxuato,
are clay-slate and chlorite-slate (killas), which are
considered to be of primitive formation.
In sinking the great shaft at the Valenciana mine,
they went through floors of syenite, hornblende-
slate, and true serpentine.
There are resting on some parts of the clay-slate
of this district, porphyry and old sandstone. The
porphyry forms gigantic masses on the surface.
The sandstone occurs at lower elevations, and is a
breccia with an argillaceous cement.
2 h2

236 DIRECTION OF THE VEIN.
This formation serves again as a basis to other
secondary beds, such as limestone and gypsum.
Floors or courses of greenstone are also some
times found in the primitive rocks.
Such is the geological constitution of the coun
try at Guanaxuato. The vein (veta madre) tra
verses clay-slate as well as porphyry ; and in both
of these rocks it has proved very rich in ore. Its
mean direction is h. 84 of the miner's compass* ;
and is nearly the same with that of the veta grande
of Zacatecas, and of the veins of Tasco and Moran,
which are all western veins (spathgdnge). The
inclination of the vein of Guanaxuato is 45 or 48
degrees to the south-west. We have already stated,
that it has been wrought for a length of more than
39,000 feet ; and yet the enormous mass of silver
which it has supplied for the last hundred years, —
sufficient of itself to produce a change in the price
of commodities in Europe, — has been extracted
from that part of the vein alone contained between
the shafts of Esperanza and Santa Anita, an extent
of less than 8500 feet. In this part we find the
mines of Valenciana, Tepayac, Cata, San Lorenzo,
Animas, Mellado, Fraustros, Rayas, and Santa
Anita, which at different periods have enjoyed
great celebrity.
The veta madre of Guanaxuato exhibits the
extraordinary example of a fissure formed accord-
*• Or N. 52" W.

MAGNITUDE OF THE VEIN. 237
ing to the direction and inclination of the strata of
the rock. Towards the south-east from the ravine
of Serena, or from the mines of Belgrado and San
Bruno, which are very fully wrought, to beyond the
mines of Marisan'chez, it runs through porphyritic
mountains ; and towards the north-east, from the
shafts of Guanaxuato to the Cerro de Buena
Vista and the Canada de la Virgen, it traverses
clay-slate (thon schiefer). Its magnitude varies
like that of all the veins of Europe. When not
ramified, it is generally from 40 to 50 feet in
breadth ; sometimes it is even contracted to the
width of 20 inches ; and it is for the most part
found divided into three masses (cuerpos), sepa
rated either by rock (caballos), or by parts of the
gangue almost destitute of metals. In the mine
of Valenciana the veta madre has been found
without ramification, and of the breadth of 22 feet,
from the surface of the ground to the depth of
93 fathoms. At this point it divides into three
branches, and its extent, reckoning from wall
to wall of the entire mass, is from 160 to 200 feet.
Of these three branches of vein, there is in general
but one which is rich in metals ; and sometimes
when all the three join, as at Valenciana near the
pit of San Antonio, at a depth of 164 fathoms the
vein contains immense riches to a width of more
than 80 feet. In the pertintncia de Santa Leo-
cadia, four branches are observable. A branch,
of which the inclination is 65°, separates from the

238 REGION OF GREATEST RICHES.
inferior branch (cuerpo baxo), and cuts the rock of
the wall.
The small ravines into which the valley of Marfil
is divided, appear to have a decided influence on
the richness of the veta madre of Guanaxuato,
which has yielded the most metal where the direc
tion of ravines and the slope of the mountains
(flaqueza del cerro) have been parallel to the
direction and inclination of the vein. When we
stand on the elevation of Mellado, near the shaft
which was sunk in 1558, we observe that the veta
madre is in general most abundant in ores towards
the north-west, towards the mines of Cata and Va
lenciana ; and that to the south-east towards Rayas
and Santa Anita, the produce has been at once
richer, rarer, and more inconstant. Besides, in
this celebrated vein there is a certain middle
region which may be considered as a depositary of
great riches ; for above and below this region, the
ores have yielded an inconsiderable share of silver.
At Valenciana the rich ores have been in the greatest
abundance, between 55 and 186 fathoms in depth
below the mouth of the gallery. This abundance
appeared at Rayas at the surface of the earth ; but
the level of Valenciana is pierced, according to
my measurements, in a plain which is more than
511 feet above the level (galerie d'ecoulement) of
Rayas ; which might lead us to believe that the de
positary of the great wealth of Guanaxuato is found
in this part of the vein, between 6987 and 6199

CONSTITUENT PARTS OF THE VEIN. 239
feet of absolute height above the level of the ocean.
The deepest works of the mine of Rayas (los
planes) have never yet reached the lowest limit of
this middle region ; while the bottom (das tiefste)
of the mine of Valenciana, the level of San
Bernardo, has unfortunately passed this limit more
than 230 feet. Hence the mine of Rayas continues
to furnish extremely rich ores, while at Valenciana
they have endeavoured for some years to supply by
the extraction of a greater quantity of ores the de
ficiency in their intrinsic value.
The mineral substances which constitute the
mass of the vein of Guanaxuato, are common
quartz, amethyst, carbonate of lime, pearl spar,
splintery hornstone, sulphuret of silver, dendritic
native silver, prismatic black silver, deep red silver,
native gold, argentiferous galena, brown blende,
spar iron, and copper and iron pyrites. We ob
serve besides, though much more rarely, crystallized
feldspar (the rhomboidal quartz of the Mexican
mineralogists), calcedony, small masses of spar-
fluor, capillary quartz (haarformiger quartz), gray
copper ore (fahlerz), and columnar carbonate of
lead. The absence of the sulphate of barytes and
muriate of silver distinguishes the formation of
the vein of Guanaxuato from that of Sombrerete,
Catorce, Fresnillo, and Zacatecas. Those miner
alogists who are interested in the study of regular
forms, find a great variety of crystals in the mines
of Guanaxuato, and especially in the red and black

240 WORKING OF MINE. — PRODUCE.
sulphuret of silver, and in the calcareous spar, and
the brown spar.
The abundance of waters which filtrate through
the crevices of the rock and the gangue, vary very
much in the different points of the vein. The
mines of Animas and Valenciana are entirely dry,
though the works of the latter occupy a horizontal
extent of 4920, and a perpendicular depth of 1640
feet. Between these two mines, in which the
miner is incommoded by dust and heat*, lie the
mines of Cata and Tepeyac, which remain inun
dated, because they do not possess sufficient me
chanical force to draw off the water. At Rayas,
it is drawn off in a very expensive manner by means
of whims, worked by mules, placed under ground.
One is astonished to see mines of such considerable
wealth without any adit level, while the neigh
bouring ravines of Cata and Marfil, and the plains
of Tenascatio, which are lower than the bottom of
Valenciana, appear to invite the miners to under
take works which would both serve to draw off the
water, and to transport the ores to the place where
they are smelted and amalgamated.
The Valenciana is almost the sole example of a
mine, which for forty years has never yielded less
to its proprietors than from 80,000/. to 124,000/.
per annum. It appears that the part of the vein
extending from Tepeyac to the north-west, had
* From 71° to 80° Fahr.; the temperature of the exterior
air being 62° Fahr.

DISCOVERY OF THE VALENCIANA MINE. 241
not been much wrought towards the end of the
16th century. From that period the whole tract
remained forsaken till 1760, when a Spaniard who
went over very young to America, began to work
this vein in one of the points which had till that
time been believed destitute of metals (emboras-
cado). M. Obregon (the name of this Spaniard)
was without fortune ; but as he had the reputation
of being a worthy man, he found friends who from
time to time advanced him small sums to carry on
his operations. In 1766, the works were already
44 fathoms in depth, and yet the expenses greatly
surpassed the value of the metallic produce. With a
passion for mining equal to what some men display for
gaming, M. Obregon preferred submitting to every
sort of privation, to the abandoning his undertaking.
In the year 1767 he entered into partnership with
a petty merchant of Rayas, of the name of Otero.
Could he then hope that in the space of a few
years he and his friend would become the richest
individuals in Mexico, perhaps in the whole world ?
In 1768 they began to extract a vei'y considerable
quantity of silver minerals from the mine of Va
lenciana. In proportion as the shafts grew deeper,
they approached that region which we have already
described as the depository of the great metallic
wealth of Guanaxuato. In 1771 they drew from
the pertinencia de Dolores enormous masses of
sulphuret of silver, mixed with native and red
silver. From that period till 1804, when I quitted
2i

242 WEALTH OF THE VALENCIANA FAMILY.
New Spain, the mine of Valenciana has continually
yielded an annual produce of more than 583,380/.
There have been years so productive, that the net
profit of the two proprietors of the mine has
amounted to about 250,000/. sterling.
M. Obregon, better known by the name of
Count de la Valenciana, preserved in the midst of
immense wealth the same simplicity of manners,
and the same frankness of character, for which he
was distinguished previous to his success. When
he began to work the vein of Guanaxuato, above
the ravine of San Xavier, goats were feeding on
the very hill which ten years afterwards was covered
with a town of seven or eight thousand inhabitants.
Since the death of the old Count, and his friend
Don Pedro Luciano Otero, the property of the
mine has been divided among several families*.
I knew at Guanaxuato two younger sons of M.
Otero, each of whom possessed, in ready money, a
capital of 271,835/. sterling, without including
the actual revenue from the mine, which amounted
to more than 16,600/. sterling.
The constancy and equality of the produce of
the mine of Valenciana, is so much the more
surprising, as the abundance of the rich mines has
considerably diminished, and the expenses of the
* The property of Valenciana is divided into twenty-eight
shares, called barres, of which ten belong to the descendants
of the Count de la Valenciana, twelve to the family of Otero,
and two to that of Santana,

MINING OPERATIONS. 243
works have increased in an alarming proportion,
when they have reached a perpendicular depth of
273 fathoms. The piercing and walling of the three
old whim shafts cost the Count de Valenciana nearly
260,000/. sterling, viz.
The square shaft of San Antonio or
tiro viejo, 128 fathoms in perpendicular
depth, and four whims - - 86,000
The square shaft of Santo Christo de
Burgos, 82 fathoms in depth, and two
whims .... 22,000
The hexagonal shaft of Nuestra Senora
de Guadalupe (tiro nuevo) 186 fathoms
in perpendicular depth, and six whims 152,000

Expense of the three shafts 260,000
Within these twelve years they have begun to
dig in the solid rock, in the roof of the vein, a
new whim shaft (tiro general), which will have the
enormous perpendicular depth of 281 fathoms, ter
minating at the actual bottom of the mine, or at
the planes of San Bernardo. This shaft, which
will be in the centre of the works, will considerably
diminish the number of the 980 labourers (tena
teros) employed as beasts of burden to carry the
minerals to the upper places where ore is deposited.
The whim shaft, which will cost more than 2 18,767/.
sterling, is octagonal, and contains 87 feet of cir-
2 i 2

244 EXPENSES OF WORKING.
cumference. Its walling is most beautiful. It is
believed that they will reach the vein in 1815, al
though in the month of September 1 803 the depth
did not exceed 100 fathoms. The piercing of
this shaft is one of the greatest and boldest under
takings to be found in the history of mines. It
may be questioned, however, whether for the sake
of diminishing the expenses of carriage and
draught, it was expedient to recur to a remedy
which is at once slow, expensive, and uncertain.
The expenses of working the mine of Valen
ciana have been on an average annually: Pounds sterling.
From 1787 to 1791 - - - 89,694
From 1794 to 1802 - - 194,708
Although the expenses are doubled, the profits
of the share-holders have remained nearly the same.
The following Table contains an exact state of
the mine for the last nine years.

PERIODS.

1 Total of J
i the 9

/1 794.

1795.

1796.

1797.

1798.

1799.

1800.

1801. 1 1802N

[ years.

Produce of ~»
the sale of
the minerals 1
ofValencia- f
na (pounds
sterling) J

277,775

367,605

285,008

461,162

373,628

343,286

320,868

302,106

266,420

2,997,666

Expenses "*
of working >
(pounds st.) J

173,188

176,760

180,341

190,404

192,992

198,344

211,751

.214,929

204,600

1,743,314

Net profit -\
divided a-
mong the I
sharehold- [
ers (pounds j
sterling) J

104,587

190,845

104,667

270,758

180,636

144,942

1Q9,117

87,177

61,820

1,254,352

w
X
MZwxti
>o SS
oH(r.

J*.
«7T

246 PROFITS AND EXPENSES.
The result of this table is, that the net profit of
the shareholders has been latterly at an average of
139,372/. In 1802 circumstances were extremely
unfavourable. The greater part of the ores were
very poor, and their extraction attended with great
expense ; and besides this, the produce was sold
at very low prices, because the want of mercury im
peded the amalgamation, and all the mines were
incumbered with ores. The year 1803 promised
greater advantages to the proprietors, and they rec
koned on a net profit of more than 109,383/. I saw
them sell weekly at Valenciana, silver ores to the
amount of more than 5,850/., the expenses of which
amounted to 3,683/. At Rayas the profit of the
proprietor was greater, though the produce was less ;
for this mine furnished more than 3,250/. worth of
ores weekly, while the expense of working only
amounted to 866/. This was the effect of the rich
ness of the ores, their concentration in the vein, the
inconsiderable depth of the mine, and consequently
a less expensive draught.
To form an idea of the enormous advances re
quired in working the mine of Valenciana, it is suf
ficient here to mention, that in its present state
there must be laid out annually,
a Tin wages of miners, triers, masons,
136 0001 anc* otner workmen employed in
' X. the mine.
fin powder, tallow, wood, leather,
44,000 -j steel, and other materials neces
sary in mining.

Total expense^!80,000

NUMBER OF WORKMEN. 247
The consumption of powder alone has amounted
to 16,668/., and that of steel to 6,250/. : the num
ber of workmen who labour in the interior of the
mine of Valenciana amounts to 1,800. Adding! ,300
individuals (men, women, and children) who labour
at the whims, in the carriage of ores to the places
where they are tried, we shall find 3, 1 00 individuals
are employed in the different operations of the mine.
The direction of the mine is entrusted to an admi
nistrator with a salary of 2,500/., through whose
hands upwards of 240,000/. annually pass.
This administrator, who is under the controul
of no one, has under his orders an overseer (ober-
steiger, minero), the under overseers (untersteiger,
sottomineros), and nine master miners (mandones).
These head people daily visit the subterraneous
operations, carried by men who have a sort of
saddle fastened on their backs, and who go by the
name of little horses (cavallitos) .
We shall conclude this account of the mine of
Valenciana, with a comparative Table of the state
of this Mexican work, and of that of the celebrated
mine of Himmelsfurst in the district of Freiberg.
I flatter myself that this Table will fix the attention
of those who consider the study of the manage
ment of mines as an important object in political
economy.

248

Comparative Table of the Mines of America and
Europe.

Average year at the
end of the eighteenth
century.

America.
Mine of Valenciana,
the richest of the
Mexican mines.
At the surface, 9280
feet above the level of
the sea.

Europe.
Mine of Himmelsfiirst,
the richest of the Saxon
mines. At the surface, 1638
feet above the level of
the sea.

221,5381bs.troyof", silver I

6,154lbs. troy of sil
ver.

Metallic pro- "I
duce J
^themrne11-68-0^ 250>000z- sterling 9,600Z. sterling.
™lA°L?e< 120,OOOZ. sterling 3,600*. sterling,

share-holders j
The ton of ores'*
contains in sil- > 80 ounces
ver - - J
Number of work
men
Wages of the mi
ners - - - > 1 6,000Z. sterling
Expense of powder < (nearly 1,600
I cwt.)
Quantity of ores
smelted and ^-36,000 tons
amalgamated

rFrom 120 to 140
\ ounces silver.

3,100 Indians and -\
Mestizoes, 1800 J 700 miners, of whom
of whom are in > 550 are in the in-
the interior of the | terior of the mine.
mine J
From 3s. 6d. to 5s.

ls.6d.

\ 1,0801. sterling
j (nearly 270 cwt.)

Veins

Water

J36, [
i

700 tons.

Depth of the mine

A vein frequent
ly divides into
thin branches
of from 150 to
200 feet of I
extent (in clay I
slate) J r Eight cubic feet
No water 1 per minute. Two
L hydraulic wheels.
278 fathoms 178 fathoms.

Five principal
veins, from 60 to
90 feet extent (in
gneiss) .

MEAN CONTENTS OF ORES. 249
They reckoned in 1803, in the whole district of
mines of Guanaxuato, 5000 miners and workmen
employed in picking the ores, in smelting and amal
gamating ; 1 896 arastres, or machines for reducing
the ores into powder; and 14,618 mules destined
to move the whims, and to tread for amalgamation
the pulverized ores mixed with mercury. The aras
tres of the town of Guanaxuato bray, when there
is an abundance of mercury, 568 tons of ores per
day. If we recollect that the produce in silver is
annually from 300,000 to 400, 000 lbs. troy, we shall
find by this datum, that the mean contents of the
ores are extremely small.

2k

250

CHAPTER XII.
Intendancy of Zacatecas — extent — towns — mines — geolo
gical structure.

Extent in

Extent in

Population in
1803.

Extent of

No. of inha

north

west

surface in

bitants to the

latitude.

longitude.

square miles.

square mile.

From

From

22° 20'
to

103° 12'
to

153,300

21,195

7-1-' 3

24° 33'
— — —

105° 9'

This singularly ill-peopled province is a moun
tainous and arid tract, exposed to a continual in
clemency of climate. It is bounded on the north
by the intendancy of Durango, on the east by the
intendancy of San Luis Potosi, on the south by the
province of Guanaxuato, and on the west by that
of Guadalaxara. Its greatest length is 255 miles,
and its greatest breadth, from Sombrerete to the
Real de Ramos, 153 miles.
The intendancy of Zacatecas is nearly of the same
extent with Switzerland, which it resembles in many
geological points of view. The relative population
is hardly equal to that of Sweden.
GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.  TOWNS. 251
The table-land which forms the centre of the
intendancy of Zacatecas, and which rises to more
than 6561 feet in height, is formed of syenites, a
rock on which repose, according to the excellent
observations of M. Valencia, strata of primitive
schistus and schistous chlorites (chlorith-schiefer) .
The schistus forms the base of the mountains of
grauwacke and trappish porphyry. North of the
town of Zacatecas are nine small lakes, abounding
in muriate, and especially carbonate, of soda. This
carbonate, which, from the old Mexican word te-
quixquilit, goes by the name of tequesquite, is of
great use in the dissolving of the muriates and of
the sulphurets of silver. M. Garces, an advocate
of Zacatecas, has recently fixed the attention of his
countrymen on the tequesquite, which is also to
be found at Zacualco, between Valladolid and Gua
dalaxara, in the valley of San Francisco, near San
Luis Potosi, at Acusquilco, near the mines of Bo
lanos, at Chorro near Durango, and in five lakes
round the town of Chihuahua. The central table
land of Asia is not more rich in soda than Mexico.
The most remarkable places of this province are:
Zacatecas, at present, after Guanaxuato, the most
celebrated mining place of New Spain. Its po-
lation is at least 33,000.
Fresnillo, on the road from Zacatecas to Du
rango.
Sombrerete, the head town, and residence of a
Diputacion de Mineria. 2k2

MINES.

Besides the three places above named, the in
tendancy of Zacatecas contains also interesting me
talliferous veins near the Sierra de Pinos, Chalchi-
guitec, San Miguel del Mezquitas, and Mazapil.
It was this province, also, which in the mine of
the Veta Negra de Sombrerete exhibited an ex
ample of the greatest wealth of any vein yet dis
covered in the two hemispheres.
Diputaciones de Mineria, or Districts.
2. Zacatecas.
3. Sombrerete.
4. Fresnillo.
5. Sierra de Pinos.
Reales, or places surrounded by mines :
Zacatecas; Guadalupe de Veta Grande; San
Juan Baptista de Panuco ; La Blanca ; Sombrerete ;
Madrono ; San Pantaleon de la Noria; Fresnillo ;
San Demetrio de los Plateros ; Cerro de Santiago ;
Sierra de Pinos ; la Sauceda Cerro de Santiago ;
Mazapil. The celebrated mines of Zacatecas, called by
Robertson Sacotecas, are, as we have already ob
served, older than the mines of Guanaxuato. They
began to be worked immediately after the veins of
Tasco, Zultepeque, Tlapujahua, and Pachuca. They
are situated on the central table-land of the Cordil
leras, which descends rapidly towards New Biscay,
and towards the basin of the Rio del Norte.

GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. 253
The climate of Zacatecas, as well as that of
Catorce, is much colder than the climate of Gua
naxuato and Mexico. Barometrical measurements
will one day determine whether this difference is
owing to a more northern position, or to the eleva
tion of the mountains.
The nature of the latter has been examined by
two very intelligent mineralogists, MM. Sonnes-
schmidt and Valencia, the one a Saxon and the
other a Mexican. From the whole of their obser
vations it appears, that the district of mines of Za
catecas bears great resemblance in its geological
constitution to that of Guanaxuato. The oldest
rocks which appear at the surface are syenitic;
they are overlaid by clay-slate, which from the beds
of Lydian stone, grauwacke and greenstone which it
contains, has a resemblance to transition clay-slate.
The most part of the veins of Zacatecas are found
in this clay-slate. The veta grande, or principal
vein, has the same direction as the veta madre of
Guanaxuato ; the others are generally in a direc
tion from east to west. A porphyry destitute of
metals, and forming those naked and perpendicular
rocks which the natives call buffas, covers in many
places the clay-slate especially on the side of the
Villa de Xeres, where a mountain rises in the midst
of these porphyritic formations, in the form of a
bell, the basaltic cone of the Campana de Xeres.
The savage aspect of the metalliferous mountains

254 GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE VEIN.
of Zacatecas, forms a singular contrast to the great
wealth of the veins which they contain. This wealth
is displayed — and the fact is very remarkable — not
in the ravines, and where the veins run along the
gentle slope of the mountains, but most frequently
on the most elevated summits, on points where the
surface appears to have been violently torn in the
ancient revolutions of the globe. The mines of
Zacatecas produce yearly, on an average, from 2500
to 3000 bars of silver, at 82^ ounces each*.
The mass of the veins of this district contains a
great variety of minerals, viz : quartz, splintery
hornstone, calcareous spar, alittle sulphate of barytes
and brown spar; prismatic black silver, called in
the country azul acerado; sulphuret of silver,
(azul plomilloso) mixed with native silver ; black
silver, (the silber-schw'drtze of the Germans,
polvorilla of the Mexicans) ; pearl gray, blue,
violet, and leek green muriate of silver (plata
parda azuly verde) at very inconsiderable depths ;
a little red silver (petlangue or rosicler) ; and
native gold, particularly to the south-west of the
town of Zacatecas ; argentiferous sulphuret of lead
(soroche ptomoso relucientey tescatete) ; carbonate
of lead ; black, brown, and yellow sulphuret of zinc,
(estoraque and qjo de vivora) ; copper and iron py
rites (bronze nochistle or dorado, and bronze chino) ;
magnetic oxydulated iron ; blue and green carbo
nate of copper, and sulphuret of antimony. The
*From 219,866 to 263,8391bs. trov.

PRODUCE OF THE MINES. 255
most abundant metals of the celebrated vein called
the veta grande, are prismatic black silver (sprod-
glaserz), sulphuret of silver, or vitreous silver,
mixed with native and black silver.
The intendancy of Zacatecas contains the mines
of Fresnillo and those of Sombrerete. The former
are very feebly wrought, and are situated in an in
sulated group of mountains which rise above the
plains of the central table-land. These plains are
covered with porphyritic formations ; but the me
talliferous group itself is composed of grauwacke.
According to the observation of M. Sonneschmidt,
the rock is traversed there by an innumerable quan
tity of veins, rich in gray and green hornsilver.
The mines of Sombrerete have become cele
brated from the immense riches of the vein of the
veta negra, which in the space of a few months left to
the family of Fagoaga (Marques del Apartado) a net
profit of more than 834,000/. The greater part of
these veins are found in a compact limestone, which,
like that of Sauceda, contains flint-slate arid lydian
stone. The deep red silver is particularly abundant
in this district of mines . It has been seen to form the
whole mass of veins more than three feet in width.
Near Sombrerete the mountains of secondary cal
careous formation rise much above the porphyritic
mountains. The Cerro di Papareton, appears to be
more than 11,000 feet above the level of the sea.

256

CHAPTER XIII.
Intendancy of San Luis Potosi — extent — climate — terri
torial division — towns — mines — wealth of the mine of
Catorce.

Extent in
north
latitude.

Extent in
west
longitude.

Population in
1803.

Extent of
surface in
square miles.

No. of Inha
bitants to the
square mile.

From
22° 1'
to
27° 11'

From
100° 35'
to
103° 20'

334,900

250,389

H

This intendancy comprehends the whole of the
north-east part of the kingdom of New Spain. As
it borders either on desert countries, or countries
inhabited by wandering and independent Indians, we
may say that its northern limits are hardly deter
mined. Of the whole intendancy of San Luis Potosi, only
that part which adjoins the province of Zacatecas,
in which are the rich mines of Charcas, Guadalcazar,
and Catorce, is a cold and mountainous country.
The bishopric of Monterey, which bears the pom
pous title of New Kingdom of Leon, Cohahuila,
Santander, and Texas, are very low regions ; and

TERRITORIAL DIVISIONS. 25?
there is very little undulation of surface in them.
They possess an unequal climate, extremely hot in
summer, and equally cold in winter when the north
winds drive before them columns of cold air from
Canada towards the torrid zone.
The intendancy of San Luis Potosi comprehends
parts of a very heterogeneous nature, the different
denominations of which have given great room for
geographical errors. It is composed of provinces,
of which some belong to the Provincias internas,
and others to the kingdom of New Spain Proper*
Of the former there are two immediately depending
on the commandant of the Provincias internas ;
the two others are considered as Provincias inter
nas del Virey?iato. These complicated and unna^
tural divisions are explained in the following table:
The intendant of San Luis Potosi governs,
A. In Mexico Proper :
The Province of San Luis, which extends from
the Rio de Panuco to the Rio de Santander, and
which comprehends the important mines of Char*
cas, Potosi, Ramos, and Catorce.
B. In the Provincias internas^del Vireynato : '•'-¦
1. The New Kingdom of Leon.
2. The colony of New Santander.
C. In the Provincias internas de la Commandancia
general Oriental :
] . The province of Cohahuila.
2. The province of Texas.
2 l

258 EXTENT — POPULATION.
It follows, from what we have already said on
the latest changes which have taken place in the
organization of the Commandancia general of Chi
huahua, that the intendancy of San Luis now in
cludes, besides the province of Potosi, all which
goes under the denomination of Provincias inter
nas Orientales. A single intendant is consequently
at the head of an administration which includes a
greater surface than all European Spain. But this
immense country, gifted by nature with the most
precious productions, and situated under a serene
sky in the temperate zone, towards the borders of
the tropic, is, for the greatest part, a wild desert,
still more thinly peopled than the governments of
Asiatic Russia. Its position on the eastern limits
of New Spain, the proximity of the United States,
the frequency of communication with the colonists
of Louisiana, and a great number of circumstances
which I shall not endeavour here to develope, will
probably soon favour the progress of civilization and
prosperity in these vast and fertile regions.
The intendancy of San Luis comprehends more
than 690 miles of coast, an extent equal to that
from Genoa to Reggio in Calabria. But all this
coast is without commerce and without activity,
with the exception of a few small vessels, which
come from the West Indies to lay in provisions
either at the Bar of Tampico, near Panuco, or at
the anchorage of New Santander.

towns. 259
The most remarkable places of the intendancy
of San Luis are :
San Luis Potosi, the residence of the inten
dant, situated on the eastern declivity of the table
land of Anahuac, to the west of the sources of the
Rio de Panuca. The habitual population of this
town is 12,000.
Nuevo Santander, capital of the province of the
same name, does not admit the entry of vessel's
drawing more than from eight to ten palmas * of
water. The village of Sotto la Marina, to the
east of Santander, might become of great conse
quence to the trade of this coast, if the port could
be improved. At present the province of Santan
der is so desert, that fertile districts of 90 or 100
square miles were sold there in 1 802 for eight or
ten shillings.
Charcas, or Santa Maria de las Charcas, a very
considerable small town, the seat of a diputacion
de Minas. Catorce, or la Purissima Concepcion de Alamos
de Catorce, ontof the richest mines of New Spain.
The Real de Catorce, however, has only been in
existence since 1773, when Don Sebastian Coro-
nado and Don Bernabe Antonio de Zepeda discover
ed these celebrated veins, which yield annually the
value of more than from 700,000/. to 800,000/.
sterling. * From 5£ to 6.878 feet.
2 l 2

260 MINES.
Monterey, the seat of a bishop, in the small
kingdom of Leon.
Linares, in the same kingdom, between the Rio
Tigre and the great Rio Bravo del Norte.
Monclova, a military post (presidio), capital of
the province of Cohahuila, and residence of a
governor. San Antonio de Begar, capital of the province
of Texas, between the Rio de los Nogales and the
Rio de San Antonio.
- Diputaciones de Mineria, or Districts,
6. Catorce.
7. San Luis Potosi.
8. Charcas.
9. Ojocaliente.
10. San Nicolas de Croix.
Reales, or places surrounded by mines : —
La Purissima Concepcion de Alamos de Catorce
Matehualu ; Cerro del Potosi ; San Martin Berna-
lejo; Sierra Negra; Tule; San Martin; Santa Maria
de las Charcas; Ramos; Ojocaliente; Cerro de San
Pedro; Matanzillas; San Carlos de Vallecilio;
San Antoniode la Yguana; Santiago de lasSabinas ;
Monterey ; Jesus de Rio Blanco ; Las Salinas ;
Bbcca de Leones ; San Nicolas de Croix ; Borbon ;
San Joseph Tamaulipan ; Nuestra Senora de Gua
dalupe de Sihue ; La Purissima Concepcion de Re
viilagegido; El Venado ; L. Tapona; Guadalcazar.

MINES. 261
The mineral repository of Catorce holds at pre
sent the third rank among the mines of New Spain,
classing them according to the quantity of silver
which they produce. It was only discovered in the
year 1778. This discovery, and that of the veins
of Gualgayoc, in Peru, vulgarly called the Veins of
Chota, are the most interesting in the history of
the mines of Spanish America for the last two
centuries. The small town of Catorce, the true
name of which is la Purissima Concepcion de
Alamos de Catorce, is situated on the calcareous
table-land, which declines towards the nuevo reyno
de Leon, and towards the province of New Sant
ander. From the bosom of these mountains of
secondary compact limestone, masses of basalt and
porous amygdaloid rise up as in the Vicentin,
which resemble volcanic productions, and contain
olivine, zeolite, and obsidian. A great number of
veins of small extent, and very variable in their
breadth and direction, traverse the limestone,
which itself covers a transition clay-slate ; and
the latter perhaps is superimposed on the syenitic
rock of the Buffa del Fraile. The greatest num
ber of these veins are western (spathg'dnge) ; and
their inclination is from 25° to 30° towards the
north-east. The minerals which form the lode
are generally found in a state of decomposition.
They are wrought with the mattock, the pickaxe,
and with the gad (pointrole). The consumption
of powder is much less than at Guanaxuato and at

262 PRODUCE OF MINES OF CATORCE.
Zacatecas. These mines possess also the great
advantage of being almost entirely dry, so that
they have no need of costly machines to draw off
the water.
In 1773, Sebastian Caronado and Antonio Lia
nas, two very poor individuals, discovered veins in
a situation now called Cerro de Catorce Viejo, on
the western slope of the Pichaco de la Variga de
Plata. They began to work these veins, which
were poor and inconstant in their produce. .In
1778, Don Barnabe" Antonio de Zepeda, a miner
of the Ojo del Agua de Matchuala, investigated
during three months this group of arid and calca
reous mountains. After attentively examining the
ravines, he was fortunate enough to find the crest
or surface of the veta grande, on which he imme
diately dug the pit of Guadalupe. He drew from
it an immense quantity of muriate of silver, and
colorados mixed with native gold ; and gained in
a. short time more than 108,383/. From that pe
riod, the mines of Catorce were wrought with the
greatest activity. That of Padre Flores alone pro
duced in the first year upwards of 350,000/. ; but
the vein only displayed great riches from 160 to
330 feet of perpendicular depth. The famous mine
of Purissima, belonging to Colonel Obregon, has
scarcely ever ceased since 1788, to yield annually
a net profit of 43,752/. ; and its produce in 1796
amounted to 260,000/, while the expenses of work
ing did not amount to more than 17,300/. The

PRODUCE OF MINES OF CATORCE. 263
vein of Purissima, which is not the same with that
of Padre Flores, sometimes reaches the extraordi
nary extent of 130 feet; and it was worked in 1802 to
the depth of 226 fathoms. Since 1798, the value of
the minerals of Catorce has singularly diminished :
the native silver is now rarely to be seen ; and the
metales colorados, which are an intimate mixture
of muriate of silver, earthy carbonate of lead, and
red ochre, begin to give place to pyritous and cop
pery minerals. The actual produce of these mines
is nearly 262,5261bs. of silver annually.

264

CHAPTER XIV.
Intendancy of Mexico — extent — climate— physical aspect
— roads — principal towns — mines — Real del Monte,
Moran Biscaina, Tasco — state of mining operations — •
geological structure.

Extent in
north

Extent in
west

Population in
1803.

Extent of
surface in

No. of inha
bitants to the

latitude.

longitude.

square miles.

square mile.

From

From

16° 34'
to

100° 12'
to

1,511,800

53,343

28^

21° 57'

103° 25'

The whole of this intendancy is situated under the
torrid zone. It extends from the 16" 34' to the
21° 57' of north latitude. It is bounded on the
north by the intendancy of San Luis Potosi, on the
west by the intendancies of Guanaxuato and Val
ladolid, and on the east by those of Vera Cruz and
La Puebla. It is washed towards the south by the
South Sea, or Great Ocean, for a length of coast
of 246 miles, from Acapulco to Zacatula.
Its greatest length from Zacatula to the mines
PHYSICAL ASPECT. 265
of the Doctor is 408 miles ; and its greatest breadth
from Zacatula to the mountains situated to the east
of Chilpansingo is 276 miles. In its northern part,
towards the celebrated mines of Zimapan and the
Doctor, it is separated by a narrow stripe from the
Gulf of Mexico. Near Mextitlan, this stripe is only
27 miles in breadth.
More than two thirds of the intendancy of Me
xico are mountainous, and contain immense plains,
elevated from 6561 to 7545 feet above the level of
the ocean. From Chalco to Queretaro are almost
uninterrupted plains of 450 miles in length, and
80 or 90 in breadth. In the neighbourhood of
the western coast the climate is burning and very
unhealthy. One summit only, the Nevado de
Toluca, situated in a fertile plain, of 8857 feet
in height, enters the region of perpetual snow.
The elevation of the Pico del Fraile, or the highest
summit of the Nevado de Toluca, is 15,156 feet.
No mountain in this intendancy equals the height
of Mont Blanc.
The valley of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, is situ
ated in the centre of the Cordillera of Anahuac, on
the ridge of the porphyritical and basaltic amygda
loid mountains, which run from the S.S.E. to the
N.N.W. This valley is of an oval form ; it con
tains 55 miles in length, and 37 in breadth. The
territorial extent of the valley is 2,200 square miles,
of which only 198 square miles are occupied by
2 M

266 ROADS.
the lakes, which is less than a tenth of the whole
surface. The circumference of the valley, reckoning from
the crest of the mountains which surround it like
a circular wall, is 201 miles. This crest is most
elevated on the south, particularly on the south
east, where the great volcanos of La Puebla, the
Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, bound the valley.
Six great roads cross the Cordillera which in
closes the valley, of which the medium height is
9842 feet above the level of the ocean: 1. the
road from Acapulco to Guchilaque andCuervaracca,
by the high summit called la Cruz del Marques ;
2. the road of Toluca by Tianguillo and Lerma,
a magnificent causeway, which I could not suffi
ciently admire, constructed with great art, partly
over arches; 3. the road of Queretaro, Guanaxuato
and Durango el camino de tierra adentro, which
passes by Guautitlan, Huehuetoca, and the Puerto
de Reyes, near Bata, through hills scarcely 262 feet
above the pavement of the great square (place) of
Mexico; 4. the road of Pachuco, which leads to
the celebrated mines of Real del Monte, by the
Cerro Ventoso, covered with oak, Cyprus, and
rose trees, almost continually in flower ; 5. the
old road of La Puebla, by S. Bonaventura and the
Llanos de Apan ; and, 6. the new road of La
Puebla by Rio Frio and Tesmelucos, south-east
from the Cerro del Telapon.

TOWNS — POPULATION. 267
The following are the remarkable towns (ciudades
y villas) of the intendancy of Mexico.
Mexico, capital of the kingdom of Popuiation.
New Spain, height 7470 feet 137,000
Tezcuco, which formerly possessed
very considerable cotton manufactories.
They have suffered much, however, in a
competition with those of Queretaro 5,000
Cuyoacan, containing a convent of
nuns, founded by Hernan Cortez, in
which, according to his testament, the
great captain wished to be interred, " in
whatever part of the world he should end
his days." This desire was never fulfilled.
Tacubaya, west from this capital,
containing the archbishop's palace and
a beautiful plantation of European olive-
trees. Tacuba, the ancient Tlacopan, capital
of a small kingdom of the Tepanecs.
Cuernavacca, the ancient Quauhna-
huac, on the southern declivity of the
Cordillera of Guchilaque, in a temperate
and delicious climate, finely adapted for
the cultivation of the fruit-trees of Eu
rope. Height 5429 feet.
Chilpansingo (Chilpantzinco), sur
rounded with fertile fields of wheat.
Elevation 3542 feet.
Tasco (Tlachco), containing a beau-
2 m 2

268 TOWNS — POPULATION.
tiful parish church, constructed and en- ^p"1*"0"-
dowed towards the middle of the 18th
century by Joseph de Laborde, a French
man, who gained immense wealth in a
short time by the Mexican mines. The
building of this church alone cost this
individual more than 83,000/. Towards
the end of his career, being reduced to
great poverty, he obtained from the
archbishop of Mexico permission to sell
for his benefit, to the metropolitan church
of the capital, the magnificent custodia
set with diamonds, which, in better
times, he had devoutly offered to the
tabernacle of the parish church of Tasco.
Elevation of the city, 2567 feet.
Acapulco (Acapolco), at the back of
a chain of granitical mountains, which,
from the reverberation of the radiating
caloric, increase the suffocating heat of
the climate. The famous cut in the
mountain (abra de San Nicolas), near
the bay de la Langosta, for the admis
sion of the sea winds, was recently
finished. The population of this miser
able town, inhabited almost exclusively
by people of colour, amounts to 9000,
at the time of the arrival of the Manilla
galleon (Nao de China). — Its habitual
population is only 4,000

TOWNS — POPULATION. 269
Zacatula, a small sea-port of the p°Pulatl°n-
South Sea, on the frontiers of the inten
dancy of Valladolid, between the ports of
Siguantanejo and Colima.
Lenna, at the entry of the valley of
Toluca, in a marshy ground.
Toluca (Tolocan) at the foot of the
porphyry mountain of San Miguel de
Tutucuitlalpilco, in a valley abounding
with maize and maguey (agave). —
Height 8813 feet.
Pachuca, with Tasco, the oldest mi
ning-place in the kingdom, as the neigh
bouring village Pachuquillo is supposed
to have been the first Christian village
founded by the Spaniards.  Height
8141 feet.
Cadereita, with fine quarries of por
phyry of a clay base (thonporphyr).
San Juan del Rio, surrounded with
gardens, adorned with vines and anona.
Height 6489 feet.
Queretaro, celebrated for the beauty
of its edifices, its aqueduct, and cloth
manufactures. Height 6374 feet. Ha
bitual population, 35,000
This city contains 1 1 ,600 Indians, 85 secular
ecclesiastics, 181 monks, and 143 nuns. The
consumption of Queretaro amounted in 1793 to
13,618 loads of wheaten flour, 69,445 bushels

270 MINES.
of maize, 656 loads of chile (capsicum), 1770
barrels of brandy, 1682 beeves, 14,949 sheep,
and 8869 hogs.
The most important mines of this intendancy,
considering them only in the relation of their
present wealth, are,
La veta Biscaina de Real del Monte, near
Pachuca ; Zimapan, El Doctor, and Tehulilote-
pec, near Tasco.
Diputaciones de Mineria, or Districts :
1 1 . Pachuca.
12. El Doctor.
13. Zimapan.
14. Tasco.
15. Zacualpan.
16. Sultepec.
17. Temascaltepec.
Reales, or places surrounded by Mines :
Pachuca ; Real del Monte ; Moran ; Atolonilco
el Chico ; Atolonilco el Grande ; Zimapan ;
Lomo del Toro ; Las Canas ; San Joseph del
Oro ; Verdozas ; Capula ; Santa Rosa ; El Potosi ;
Las Plomosas ; El Doctor ; Las Alpujarras ; El
Pinal or los Amotes ; Huascazoluya ; San Miguel
del Rio Blanco ; Las Aguas ; Maconi ; San
Christobal ; Cardonal ; Xacala ; Jutchitlan el
Grande ; San Joseph del Obraje Viejo ; Cerro
Blanco ; Cerro del Sotolar ; San Francisco Xichu ;

PACHUCA, REAL DEL MONTE, MORAN. 271
Jesus Maria de la Targea ; Coronilla or la Puris
sima Concepcion de Tetela del Rio ; Tepantitlan ;
San Vicente ; Tasco ; Tehuilotepec ; Coscallan ;
Haucingo, Huautla ; Sochipala ; Tetlilco ; San
Esteban ; Real del Limon ; San Geronimo ; Temas
Caltepec ; Real de Ariba ; La Albarrada ; Yxtapa ;
Ocotepec ; Chalchitepeque ; Zacualpan ; Tecica-
pan ; Chontalpa ; Santa Cruz de Azulaques ;
Saltepec ; Juluapa ; Papaloapa ; Los Ocotes ;
Capulatengo ; Alcozauca ; Totomixtlahuaca.
The mines of Pachuca, Real del Monte and
Moran, are highly celebrated for their antiquity,
their wealth, and their proximity to the capital.
Since the beginning of the 18th century, the vein
of La Biscaina, or Real del Monte has alone been
wrought with activity. The working of the mines
of Moran was resumed only within these few years ;
and the mineral depository of Pachuca, one of the
richest in all America, has been wh oily abandoned
since the terrible fires which took place in the
famous mine del Encino, which alone furnished
more than 19,6891bs. troy weight of silver annu
ally. The wooden work which supported the roof
of the galleries was consumed by fire, and the
greater number of the miners were suffocated
before being able to reach the shafts. A similar
conflagration in 1787 put a stop to the working
of the mines of Bolanos, which were only again
begun to be cleared out in 1792.
The valley of Mexico is separated from the

272 GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE.
basin of Totonilco el Grande, by a chain of por
phyritic mountains, of which the highest summit
is the peak of the Jacal, elevated according to my
measurement with the assistance of the barometer,
10,248 feet above the level of the sea. This por
phyry serves for base to the porous amygdaloid,
which surrounds the lakes of Tezcuco, Zumpango,
and San Christobal. It seems to be of the same
formation with that which, in the road from
Mexico to Acapulco, immediately covers the granite
between Sopilote and Chilpansingo, near the village
of Acaguisotla, and l'Alto <le los Caxones. To
the north-east of the district of Real del Monte,
the porphyry is at first concealed under the colum
nar basalt of the farm of Regla, and further on
in the valley of Totonilco, under beds of secondary
formation. The Alpine limestone of a greyish
blue, in which is the famous cavern of Danto,
called also the pierced mountain, or the Bridge of
the Mother of God*, seems to repose immediately
on the porphyry of Moran. It contains near the
Puerto de la Mesa, veins of galena; and we find
it covered with three other formations of not so old
an origin, which, naming them in the order of their
superposition, are Jura limestone, near the baths
of Totonilco, the slaty limestone of Amojaque,
and a gypsum of secondary formation mixed with
clay. The position of these secondary rocks which
* Puente de la Madre de Dios.

GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. 273
I carefully observed, is so much the more remark
able, as it is the same with that which has been
discovered on the Old Continent, according to the
excellent observations of MM. de Buch and
Freiesleben. The mountains of the district of mines of Real
del Monte, contain beds of porphyry, which, with
respect to their relative antiquity, differ a good
deal from one another. The rock which forms the
roof and the wall of the argentiferous veins, is a
decomposed porphyry, of which the base sometimes
appears clayey and sometimes analogous to splin
tery hornstone. The presence of hornblende is
frequently announced, merely by greenish stains
intermingled with common and vitreous feldspar.
At very great elevations, for example in the beau
tiful forest of oak and pine of Oyamel, we find
porphyries with a base of pearl-stone, containing
obsidian in layers and nodules.
What relation exists between these last beds,
which several distinguished mineralogists consider
as volcanic productions, and the porphyries of
Pachuca, Real del Monte, and Moran, in which
nature has deposited enormous masses of sulphuret
of silver and argentiferous pyrites ? This problem,
which is one of the most difficult in geology, will
only be resolved when a great number of zealous
and intelligent travellers shall have gone over the
Mexican Cordilleras, and carefully studied the
immense variety of porphyries which are destitute
2n

274 REAL DEL MONTE MINES.
of quartz, and which abound both in hornblende
and vitreous feldspar.
The district of mines of Real del Monte does
not display — as at Freiberg in Saxony, Derbyshire in
England, or as in the mountains of Zimapan and
Tasco in New Spain — a great number of rich veins
of small size, on a small tract of ground. It rather
resembles the mountains of the Hartz, and Schem
nitz, in Europe, or those of Guanaxuato and
Potosi, in America, of which the riches are con
tained in a few mineral depositions of very con
siderable dimensions. The four veins of Biscaina,
Rosario, Cabrera, and Encino, run through the
districts of Real del Monte, from Moran and Pa
chuca, at extraordinary distances, without changing
their direction, and almost without coming in
contact with other veins which traverse or derange
them. The veta de la Biscaina, of less considerable
dimensions, but perhaps still richer than the vein
of Guanaxuato, was successfully wrought from the
sixteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth cen
tury. In 1726 and 1727, the two mines of Bis
caina and Xacal still produced together 333,969
ounces of silver. The great quantity of water
which filtrated through the crevices of the porphy
ritic rock, joined to the imperfection of the means
of drawing it off, compelled the miners to abandon,
the works when they were yet only 65 fathoms in
depth. A very enterprising individual, Don Joseph

PRODUCE OF THE MINES. 275
Alexandra Bustamente, was courageous enough to
undertake a level near Moran ; but he died before
completing this great work, which is 7715 feet in
length from its mouth to the point where it crosses
the vein de la Biscaina. The direction of this
vein is hor. 6 ; and its inclination is 85° to the
south: its extent is from 13 to 19 feet. The
direction of the porphyry of this district is generally
hor. 7-8, with an inclination of 60° to the north
east, particularly in the road from Pachuca to Real
del Monte. The level is at first cut through the
solid rock (querschlagsweise) in a direction of hor.
7, towards the west ; but further on it takes its way
over three different veins, hor. 11-12, of which
one alone, the veta de le Soledad*, has furnished a
sufficiency of silver ores to pay all the expenses of
the undertaking. The level was only finished in
1762, by Don Pedro Tereros, the partner of Bus
tamente. The former, known by the title of Count
de Regla as one of the richest men of his age, had
already drawn, in 1774, a net profit of more than
1,041,750/. from the mine of Biscaina. Besides
the two ships of war which he presented to King
Charles the Third, one of them of 120 guns, he
* It is believed that this vein is the same with that which
M. D'Eluyhar began to work in the pit of Cambrera, at
Moran. It appeared to me, however, that the veta de Cabrera
is rather the same with that of Santa Brigida, and that its
principal wealth is to be found in following it towards the
mine of Jesus.
2 n 2

276 MINING OPERATIONS.
lent 208,350/. sterling to the Court of Madrid,
which have never yet been repaid him. He erected
the great works of Regla at an expense of 4 16,700/.
sterling ; and he purchased estates of an immense
extent, and left a fortune to his children, which
has only been equalled in Mexico by that of the
Count de la Valenciana.
The level of Moran traverses the vein of La
Biscaina, in the San Ramon shaft, at a depth of
115 fathoms, below the level of the surface, on
which the whims are placed. The profit of the
proprietor has been annually diminishing since
1774. In place of driving levels for trial,
to discover the vein on a great extent, they con
tinued their sinking to a depth of nearly 53
fathoms below the level. At that depth the
vein preserved its great wealth in sulphuret of
silver mixed with native silver ; but the abundance
of water increased to such a degree that 28 whims,
each of which required more than 40 horses, were
not sufficient to draw it off. In 1783, the weekly
expense amounted to 1875/. After the death of
the old Count de Regla, the works were suspended
till 1791, when they ventured tore-establish all the
whims. The expense of these machines, which
drew up the water not by means of pumps but
by bags suspended by ropes, then amounted to
more than 31,252/. per annum. At length they
reached the deepest point of the mine, which ac
cording to my measurements is only 1064 feet above

MINING OPERATIONS. 277
the level of the lake of Zumpango ; but the ores
which they extracted did not compensate the ex
pense of the process, and the mine was again aban
doned in 1801.
It is surprising that they never thought of sub
stituting for this wretched plan of drawing off the
water by bags, proper pump apparatus put in mo
tion by horse whims, by hydraulic wheels, or by
machines moved by a column of water (colonne
d'eau). A level begun at Pachuca, or lower down
towards Gazave in the valley of Mexico, would
have exhausted the mine of Biscaina at the pit of
San Ramon, for a depth of 202 fathoms. The
same object could be attained at less expense by
following the project of M. D'Elhuyar, in placing
the mouth of a new level near Omitlan, in the road
which leads from Moran to the place of amalga
mation at Regla. This last level, before reaching
12,466 feet in length, would cut the vein of Bis
caina. The very wise plan which the Count de Regla at
present follows is, to leave off the clearing of the
old works, and to investigate the mineral reposi
tory, in points where it has never yet been worked
(in unverfahrenem felde). In studying at Real
del Monte the surface and undulations of the
ground, we observe that the vein of Biscaina has
furnished for three centuries its greatest riches
from a single spot, that is to say, from a natural
hollow (enfoncement) contained between the shafts

278 GEOLOGY OF THE BISCAINA VEIN.
of Dolores, Joya, San Cayetano, Santa Teresa, and
Guadalupe. The shaft from which the greatest
quantity of silver ores has been extracted is that of
Santa Teresa. To the east and west of this central
point the vein is contracted for a distance of more
than 1300 feet. It preserves its primitive direction,
but becomes destitute of metals, and reduced to
an almost imperceptible vein. For a long time it
was believed that the vein of Biscaina was insensibly
lost in the rock ; but they discovered in 1798 very
rich metals, at a distance of more than 1640 feet,
to the east and west of the centre of the old works.
They then sunk the shafts San Ramon and San Pe
dro, and discovered that the vein resumed its
old power, and that an immense field was opened
to new undertakings. When I visited the mines
in the month of May 1803, the San Ramon shaft
was then only 16 fathoms in depth ; and it will be
nearly L31 fathoms to the bottom of the level of
Moran, which is itself still distant 147 feet from
the point which corresponds to the intersection of
the new shaft, and the roof of the level. In its
present state, the mine of the Count de Regla an
nually yields more than from 30,000 to 40,0001bs.
troy of silver.
The vein of Biscaina contains in the points of
the principal mines, milk-quartz, which frequently
passes into splintery hornstone, amethyst, carbonate
of lime, a little sulphate of barytes, sulphuret of
silver mixed with native silver, and sometimes pris-

MORAN MINES. 279
matic black silver (spr'ddglaserz), deep^red silver,
galena, and iron and copper pyrites. The same
silver ores are found near the surface of the ground
in a state of decomposition, and mixed with oxide
of iron, like the pacos of Peru. Near the San
Pedro shaft, the pyrites are sometimes richer in
silver than the sulphuret of silver.
The mines of Moran, formerly of great celebrity,
have been abandoned for 40 years, on account of
the abundance of water which could not be drawn
off. In this district of mines, which is in the vi
cinity of that of Real del Monte, near the mouth
of the great level of Biscaina, there was placed in
1801 a machine a colonne d'eau, of which the cy
linder is 10.23 inches in height, and 6.29 in dia
meter. This machine, the first of the kind ever
constructed in America, is much superior to those
of the mines of Hungary. It was executed agree
ably to the calculations and plans of M. del Rio,
professor of mineralogy in Mexico, who has visited
the most celebrated mines of Europe, and who pos
sesses at once the most solid and the most various
acquirements. The merit of the execution is due to
M. Lachaus6e, a Brabant artist of great talents, who
has also fitted up for the school of mines of Mexico
a very remarkable collection of models, for the use
of students of mechanics and hydrodynamics. It
is to be regretted that this fine machine, in which
the regulator of the suckers is put in motion by a
particular mechanism, was placed in a situation

280 MACHINERY — MINES OF TASCO.
where there is great difficulty in procuring a suffi
ciency of water to keep it going. When I was at
Moran, the pumps could only work three hours a
day. The construction of the machine and the
aqueducts cost 10,937/. sterling: they did not at
first calculate on more than half of the expense,
and they imagined the mass of water to be very
considerable ; but the year in which the water was
measured being exceedingly rainy, it was believed
to be much more abundant than it actually was.
It is to be hoped that the new canal which was
going on in 1803, and which will be 16,404 feet
in length, will remedy this want of water, and that
the vein of Moran (hor. 9^ inclined 84° to the
north-east), will be found as rich at great depths,
as the shareholders of the mine suppose. M. del
Rio, on my arrival in New Spain, had no other view
but that of proving to the Mexican miners the
effect of- machines of this nature, and the possibi
lity of constructing them in the country. This
object has been in part attained ; and it will be
much more evidently attained when such a machine
shall be placed in the mine of Rayas, at Gua
naxuato, in that of the Count de Regla, at Real del
Monte, or in those of Bolanos, where M. Son-
neschmidt counted nearly 4000 horses and mules
employed in moving the whims.
The mines of the district of Tasco, situated on
the western slope of the Cordillera, have lost their
ancient splendour since the end of the last century ;

EVENTFUL LIFE OF LABORDE. 281
for in their present state the veins of Tehuilotepec,
Sochipala, Cerro del Limon, San Estevan, and
Gautla, do not altogether yield more than 36,923 lbs.
troy of silver annually. During the year 1752 and
the ten following years, the mines of Tasco were
wrought with the greatest activity and success.
This activity was owing to the enterprising mind of
Joseph Laborde, a Frenchman, who came into
Mexico very poor, and who in 1743 acquired im
mense wealth in the mine of la Canada of the Real
de Tlapujahua. We have already alluded to the
reverses of fortune several times experienced by
this extraordinary man. After building a church
at Tasco, which cost him 87,507/. sterling, he
was reduced -to the lowest poverty, by the rapid
decline of those very mines from which he had
annually drawn from 130,000 to 200,0001bs. troy of
silver. The archbishop having given him permis
sion to sell a golden sun enriched with diamonds,
with which he had adorned the tabernacle of the
church of Tasco, he withdrew to Zacatecas with
the produce of this sale, which amounted to
22,000/. sterling. The district of mines of Za
catecas was then so entirely neglected, that it
scarcely furnished 33,000 lbs. troy of silver annually
to the mint at Mexico. Laborde undertook to
clear out the famous mine of Quebradilla ; in which
undertaking he lost all his property, without attain
ing his object. With the small capital which re
mained to him, he began to work on the veta
2 o

282 VEINS OF TASCO.
grande, and sunk the pit of La Esperanza ; when
a second time he acquired immense Wealth. The
silver produce of the mine of Zacatecas rose then
to nearly 330,000 lbs. troy per annum ; and though
the abundance of metals did not long continue the
same, he left at his death a fortune of nearly
125,000/. sterling. He compelled his daughter
to enter into a convent, that he might leave his
whole fortune to an only son, who afterwards vo
luntarily embraced the ecclesiastical office. In
Mexico, and every where else in the Spanish pro
vinces, it is extremely rare to see children follow
ing the profession of their fathers ; and we do not
find there, as in Sweden, Germany, and Scotland,
families in which the business of miner is here
ditary. The veins of Tasco and the Real de Tehuilotepec
traverse barren mountains, furrowed by very deep
ravines. The mining districts of Tasco and of the Real
de Tehuilotepec contain a great number of veins,
which, with the exception of the Cerro de la Com-
pafia, are all directed from the north-west to the
south-east, hor. 7 — 9. These veins, like those of
Catorce, traverse both the limestone and the mica
ceous slate which serves for its base ; and they ex
hibit the same metals in both rocks. These me
tals have been much more abundant in the lime
stone. The mines have become extremely poor
since it became necessary to work the veins in the

DISAPPEARANCE OF A SPRING. 283
micaceous slate. A very intelligent and very ac
tive miner, Don Vicente de Anza, wrought the
mines of Tehuilotepec to the depth of 122 fathoms;
and he cut two excellent levels for a length of 3,936
feet ; but unfortunately he found that the same
veins which had furnished considerable riches at
the surface of the earth, were at great depths as
poor in red silver ores, as they were abundant in
galena, pyrites, and yellow blende.
An extraordinary event which happened on the
16th February 1802, completed the ruin of the
miners of this district. The mines of Tehuilotepec,
like those of Guautla, have at all times wanted the
necessary water to put in motion the stamping mills
and other machines which prepare the minerals for
the process of amalgamation. The most abundant
stream used in the works, issued from a cavern in
the limestone rock called the Cueva de San Felipe.
This rivulet was lost in the night between the 16th
and 17th of February ; and five days afterwards a
new spring was found at five leagues distance from
the cavern, near the village of Platanillo. It has
been proved by researches of the greatest interest
for geology, that there exists in this country, be
tween the villages of Chamacasapa, Platanillo, and
Tehuilotepec, in the bosom of calcareous mountains,
a series of caverns and natural galleries, and that
subterraneous rivers, like those of the county of
Derby in England, traverse those galleries, which
communicate with one another.
2 o 2

284 STRUCTURE OF VEINS.
The veins of Tehuilotepec are in general western
(spathg'dnge) ; they are from six to ten feet in
extent, and being separated from the rock by a
list of clayey loam, they form several lateral
branches, which enrich the principal vein where
they fall into it (se trainent). Their structure
has this peculiarity, that the metallic mineral is
rarely disseminated throughout all the lode, but
is collected in a single band, which is sometimes
near the roof, and sometimes near the wall of the
vein. In general, the mineral depositories of Tasco
and Tehuilotepec are extremely variable in their
produce. As to the nature of the mass of which
they are constituted, I perceived four very different
formations of veins : viz.
1. Brown, red, and yellow oxides of iron, in
which native and sulphuretted silver are dissemi
nated in impalpable particles ; cellular brown iron
stone, specular iron, a little galena, and magnetic
iron, and blue carbonate of copper. This forma
tion, analogous to that of the pacos of Fuentestiana,
and Pasco in Peru, is designated at Tehuilotepec,
by the name of tepostel. It is found at small depths
from the surface (in ausgehenden) in the mines of
San Miguel, San Estevan, and La Compana, near
Tasco, as well as at the Cerro de Garganta, near
Mescala. The tepostel is generally not so rich as
the Pasco of Peru ; but is so much the richer at
Tasco, as the oxide of iron is more mixed with
azure of copper : it generally, however, does not

STRUCTURE OF VEINS. 285
contain more than 80 ounces of silver per
ton. 2. Calcareous spar, a little galena, and transpa
rent lamellar gypsum, containing drops of water
with air, and filiform native silver.
3. Light-red silver, brittle vitreous silver (sprdd-
glaserz), much yellow blende, galena, very little
of iron pyrites, calcareous spar, and milk-quartz.
This formation, which is the richest of all, displays
the remarkable phenomenon, that the minerals
the most abundant in silver, form spheroidal balls,
from 3.93 to 4.71 inches in diameter, in which red
silver, mixed with brittle vitreous silver, and native
silver alternate with bands of quartz. These balls,
which have seldom been found but at a depth of
from 50 to 200 feet, are nidulated in a course of
calcareous and brown spar.
4. Much argentiferous galena, which is richer in
silver in proportion as the detached pieces are of
smaller grain ; much yellow blende ; little pyrites,
quartz and calcareous spar, in the mines of Socabon
del Re and de la Marquesa.
All these veins run through a table-land of from
5,550 to 5,910 feet elevation above the level of the
sea, which enjoys a temperate climate very favour
able to the cultivation of the grains of the old con
tinent.

286

CHAPTER XV.
Intendancy of Guadalaxara — extent — climate — agricul
tural produce — principal towns — mines.
V. Intendancy of Guadalaxara.

Extent in
north
latitude.

Extent in
west
longitude.

Population in
1803.

Extent of
surface in
square miles.

No. of inha
bitants to the
square mile.

From
19° 0'
to
23° 12'

From
103° 30'
to
108° 0'

630,500

86,408

<h

This province, part of the kingdom of Nueva Ga-
licia, has almost twice the extent of Portugal, with
a population five times smaller. It is bounded on
the north by the intendancies of Sonora and Du
rango, on the east by those of Zacatecas and Gua
naxuato, on the south by the province of Vallado
lid, and on the west, for a length of coast of 370
miles, by the Pacific Ocean. Its greatest breadth is
300 miles, from the port of San Bias to the town of
Lagos ; and its greatest length is from south to

ASPECT  CLIMATE  VOLCANO. 287
north, from the Volcan de Colima to San Andres
Teal, 354 miles.
The intendancy of Guadalaxara is crossed from
east to west by the Rio de Santiago, a considerable
river which communicates with the lake of Chapala,
and which will one day (in an advanced state of ci
vilization) become interesting for internal naviga^
tion from Salamanca and Zelaya to the port of San
Bias. All the eastern part of this province is the table
land and western declivity of the Cordilleras of An
ahuac. The maritime regions, especially those
which stretch towards the great bay of Bayonne,
are covered with forests, and abound with the finest
wood for ship-building. The inhabitants of these
districts are exposed to an unhealthy and excessively
heated air. The interior of the country enjoys a
temperate climate, favourable to health.
The Volcan de Colima, of which the position
has never yet been determined by astronomical ob
servations, is the most western of the volcanoes of
New Spain which are placed on the same line in
the direction of one parallel. It frequently throws
up ashes and smoke. This insulated mountain ap
pears only of a moderate height when its summit
is compared with the ground of Zapotilti and Za-
potlan, two villages of 5,505 feet elevation above
the level of the coast. It is from the small town
of Colima that the volcano appears in all its gran
deur. It is never covered with snow, but when it

288 PRODUCE  TOWNS.
falls in the chain of the neighbouring mountains
from the effects of the north wind.
According to a manuscript memoir communica
ted to the tribunal of the Consulado of Vera Cruz
'by the intendant of Guadalaxara, the value of the
agricultural produce of this intendancy amounted,
in 1802, to 569,000/. sterling ; in which there were
computed 1,657,000 bushels of maize, 43,000 loads
of wheat, 17,000 tercios of cotton, and 20,000
pounds of cochineal of Autlan. The value of the
manufacturing industry was estimated at 722,350/.
sterling. The province of Guadalaxara contains 2 ciuda
des, 6 villas, and 322 villages. The most celebra
ted mines are those of Bolanos, Asientos de Ibarra,
Hostiotipaquillo, Copala, and Guichichila near
Tepic. The most remarkable towns are :
Guadalaxara, on the left bank of the
Rio de Santiago, the residence of the in
tendant, of the bishop, and the high
court of Justice (Audicenia). — Popula
tion .... 19,600
San Bias, a port, the residence of the Depar-
timiento de Marina, at the mouth of the Rio de
Santiago. The official people (officiales reales)
remain at Tepic, a small town, of which the cli
mate is not so hot and is more salubrious. Within
these ten years the question has been discussed, if
it would be useful to transfer the dock-yards, ma-

TOWNS — MINES. 289
gazines, and the whole marine department from
San Bias to Acapulco. This last port wants wood
for ship-building. The air there is also equally
unhealthy as at San Bias ; but the projected change,
by favouring the concentration of the naval force,
would give the Government a greater facility in
knowing the wants of the marine and the means of
supplying them.
Compostella, to the south of Tepic. To the
north-west of Compostella, as well as in the par-
tidos of Autlan, Ahuxcatlan, and Acaponeta, a to
bacco of a superior quality was formerly cultivated.
Aguas Calientes, a small well-peopled town to
the south of the mines de los Asientos de Ibarra.
Villa de la Purificacion, to the north-west of the
port of Guatlan, formerly called Santiago de Buena
Esperanza, celebrated from the voyage of discovery
made in 1532 by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza.
Lagos, to the north of the town of Leon, on a
plain fertile in wheat on the frontiers of the inten
dancy of Guanaxuato.
Colima, two leagues south from the Volcan de
Colima. Diputaciones de Mineria, or Districts.
18. Bolanos.
19. Asientos de Ibarra.
20. Hostotipaquillo.
Reales, or places surrounded by Mines : —
Bolanos; Xalpa; San Joseph de Guichichila;
Santa Maria de Guadalupe, or de la Yesca ; Asi-
2p

290 MINES.
entos de Ibarra ; San Nicolas de los Angeles ; La
Ballena ; Talpan ; Hostotipaquillo ; Copala ; Gu-
axacatan ; Amaxac ; Limon ; Tepanteria ; loco-
tan ; Tecomatan ; Ahuatacancillo ; Guilotitan ;
Platanarito; Santo Domingo ; luchipila; Mezqui-
tal ; Xalpa; San Joseph Tepostitlan ; Guachinan-
go ; San Nicolas del Roxo ; Amatlan ; Natividad ;
San Joaquin ; Santissima Trinidad de Pozole ;
Tule ; Motage ; Frontal ; Los Aillo-Ezatlannes ;
Possesion ; La Serranilla ; Aquitapilco ; Eliso ;
Chimaltitan ; Santa Fe ; San Rafael ; San Pedro
Analco ; Santa Cruz de las Flores.

291

CHAPTER XVI.
Intendancy of Valladolid — extent — climate — Volcan de
Jorullo — vegetable productions — earthquakes — volcanoes
— population — principal towns — mines.

Extent in
north

Extent in
west

Population in

Extent of
surface in

No. of Inha
bitants to the

latitude.

longitude.

1803.

square miles.

square mile.

From

From

18° IS
to

102° 15'
to

376,400

31,014

12

19° 50'

104° 50'

This intendancy at the period of the Spanish con
quest made a part of the kingdom of Michuacan
(Mechoacan), which extended from the Rio de
Zacatula to the port de la Natividad, and from the
mountains of Xala and Colima to the river of Ler
ma, and the lake of Chapala. The capital of this
kingdom of Michuacan, — which, like the republics
of Tlaxcallan, Huexocingo and Cholollan, was
always independent of the Mexican empire, — was
Tzintzontzan, a town situated on the banks of a
lake singularly picturesque, called the lake of Patz-
quarro. Tzintzontzan, which the Aztec inhabitants
of Tenochtitlan called Huitzitzila, is now only a poor
Indian village, though it still preserves the pom
pous title of city (ciudad).
2 p 2
292 EXTENT — CLIMATE.
The intendancy of Valladolia, vulgarly called in
the country Michuacan, is bounded on the north by
the Rio de Lerma, which further east takes the
name of Rio Grande de Santiago. On the east
and north-east it joins the intendancy of Mexico ;
on the north the intendancy of Guanaxuato; and*
on the west that of Guadalaxara. The greatest
length of the province of Valladolid from the port
of Zacatula to the basaltic mountains of Palangeo,
in a direction from S. S. E. to N. N. E. is 234
miles. It is washed by the South Sea for an extent
of coast of more than 1 14 miles.
Situated on the western declivity of the Cordille
ra of Anahuac, intersected with hills and charming
valleys, which exhibit to the eye of the traveller a
very uncommon appearance under the torrid zone,
that of extensive and well watered meadows, — the
province of Valladolid in general enjoys a mild and
temperate climate, exceedingly conducive to the
health of the inhabitants. It is only when we de
scend the table-land of Ario and approach the coast,
that we find a climate in which the new colonists,
and frequently even the natives, are subject to the
scourge of intermittent and putrid fevers.
The most elevated summit of the intendancy of
Valladolid is the Pic de Tancitaro, to the east of
Tuspan. To the east of the Pic de Tancitaro the
Volcan de Jorullo (Xorullo, or Juruyo) was formed
in the night of the 29th of September 1759. The
great catastrophe in which this mountain rose from

VOLCAN DE JORULLO. 293
the earth, and by which a considerable extent of
ground totally changed its appearance, is perhaps
one of the most extraordinary physical revolutions
in the annals of the history of our planet.
This remarkable phenomenon has remained un
known to the mineralogists and naturalists of Eu
rope, though it took place not more than fifty
years ago, and within six days' journey of the capi
tal of Mexico, descending from the central table
land towards the shores of the South Sea.
A vast plain extends from the hills of Aguasarco,
to near the villages of Teipa and Petatlan, both
equally celebrated for their fine plantations of cot
ton. This plain, between the Picachos del Mor-
tero, the Cerros de las Cuevas, y de Cuiche, is only
from 2,460 to 2,624 feet above the level of the sea.
In the middle of a tract of ground in which porphyry
with a base oigrunstein predominates, basaltic cones
appear, the summits of which are crowned with
evergreen oaks of a laurel and olive foliage, inter
mingled with small palm-trees with flabelliform
leaves. This beautiful vegetation forms a singular
contrast with the aridity of the plain, which was
laid waste by volcanic fire.
Till the middle of the 18th century, fields cul
tivated with sugar-cane and indigo occupied the
extent of ground between the two brooks called
Cuitamba and San Pedro. They were bounded by
basaltic mountains, the structure of which seems to
indicate that all this country at a very remote pe-

294 VOLCAN DE JORULLO.
riod had been several times convulsed by volca
noes. These fields, watered by artificial means, be
longed to the plantation (hacienda) of San Pedro
de Jorullo, one of the greatest and richest of the
country. In the month of June 1759, a subterra
neous noise was heard : hollow noises of a most
alarming nature (bramidos) were accompanied by
frequent earthquakes, which succeeded one another
for from 50 to 60 days, to the great consternation
of the inhabitants of the hacienda. From the be
ginning of September every thing seemed to an
nounce the complete re-establishment of tranquil
lity, when in the night between the 28th and 29th
the horrible subterraneous noise recommenced.
The affrighted Indians fled to the mountains of
Aguasarco. A tract of ground from three to four
square miles in extent, which goes by the name of
Malpays, rose up in the shape of a bladder. The
bounds of this convulsion are still distinguishable
in the fractured strata. The Malpays near its
edges is only 40 feet above the old level of the
plain called the playas de Jorullo ; but the con
vexity of the ground thus thrown up increases pro
gressively towards the centre to an elevation of 524
feet. Those who witnessed this great catastrophe from
the top of Aguasarco assert that flames were seen
to issue forth for an extent of more than half a square
league, that fragments of burning rocks were thrown
up to prodigious heights, and that through a thick

VOLCAN DE JORULLO. 295
cloud of ashes, illumined by the volcanic fire, the
softened surface of the earth was seen to swell up like
an agitated sea. The rivers of Cuitamba and San
Pedro precipitated themselves into the burning
chasms. The decomposition of the water contri
buted to invigorate the flames, which were distin
guishable at the city of Pascuaro, though situated
on a very extensive table-land 4,Q00 feet elevated
above the plains of las playas de Jorullo. Erup
tions of mud, and especially of strata of clay en
veloping balls of decomposed bas^altes in cdncen-
trical layers, appear to indicate tlpat subterraneous
water had no small share in producing this extraor
dinary revolution. Thousands of small cones, from
6 to 10 feet in height, called by the natives ovens
(hornitos), issued forth from the Malpays. Al
though within the last fifteen years, according to
the testimony of the Indians, the heat of these vol
canic ovens has suffered a great diminution, I have
seen the thermometer rise to 202° Fahr. on be
ing plunged into fissures which exhale an aqueous
vapour. Each small cone is a fumorola, from
which a thick vapour ascends to the height of
40 or 50 feet. In many of them a subterraneous
noise is heard, which appears to announce the prox
imity of a fluid in ebullition.
In the midst of the ovens, six large masses ele
vated from 1,300 to 1,600 feet each above the old
level of the plains, sprung up from a chasm, of which
the direction is from N.N.E. to S.S.E. This

296 VOLCAN DE JORULLO.
is the phenomenon of the Montenovo of Naples,
several times repeated in a range of volcanic hills.
The most elevated of these enormous masses, which
bears some resemblance to the puys de l'Auvergne,
is the great Volcan de Jorullo. It is continually
burning, and has thrown up from the north side an
immense quantity of scorified and basaltic lavas
containing fragments of primitive rocks. These
great eruptions of the central volcano continued
till the month of February 1760. In the following
years they became gradually less frequent. The
Indians, frightened at the horrible noises of the
new volcano, abandoned at first all the villages si
tuated within seven or eight leagues distance of the
playas de Jorullo. They became gradually, how
ever, accustomed to this terrific spectacle ; and
having returned to their cottages, they advanced
towards the mountains of Aguasarco and Santa
Ifies, to admire the streams of fire discharged from
an infinity of great and small volcanic apertures.
The roofs of the houses of Queretaro were then co
vered with ashes at a distance of more than 144
miles in a straight line from the scene of the ex
plosion. Although the subterraneous fire now ap
pears far from violent, and the Malpays and the
great volcano begin to be covered with vegetables,
we nevertheless found the ambient air heated to
such a degree by the action of the small ovens (hor-
nitos), that the thermometer at a great distance
from the surface and in the shade, rose as high as

VOLCAN DE JORULLO. 297
109° Fahr. This fact appears to prove that there
is no exaggeration in the accounts of several old
Indians, who affirm that, for many years after the
first eruption, the plains of Jorullo, even at a
great distance from the scene of the explosion,
were uninhabitable from the excessive heat which
prevailed in them.
The traveller is still shown, near the Cerro de
Santa Ines, the rivers of Cuitamba and San Pedro,
the limpid waters of which formerly watered the
sugar-cane plantation of Don Andre* Pimentel.
These streams disappeared in the night of the 29th
September 1759; but at a distance of 6,560 feet
further west, in the tract which was the theatre of
the convulsion, two rivers having the appearance of
mineral waters, in which the thermometer rises
to 1263.8 Fahr., are now seen bursting through the
argillaceous vault of the hornitos. The Indians
continue to give them the names of San Pedro and
Cuitamba, because in several parts of the Malpays
great masses of water are heard to run in a direc
tion from east to west, from the mountains of
Santa Ines towards /' Hacienda de la Presentacion.
Near this habitation there is a brook, which dis
engages itself from the sulphureous hydrogen. It
is more than 2 If feet in breadth, and is the most
abundant hydro-sulphureous spring which I have
ever seen.
In the opinion of the Indians, these extraordi
nary transformations which we have been de-
2a

298 VOLCAN DE JORULLO.
scribing, — the surface of the earth raised up and
burst by the volcanic fire, and the mountains of
scoria and ashes heaped together, — are the work of
the monks; the greatest, no doubt, which they have
ever produced in the two hemispheres ! In the
cottage which we occupied in the play as de Jorullo,
our Indian host related to us, that in 1759, Capu
chin missionaries came to preach at the plantation
of San Pedro, and not having met with a favour
able reception (perhaps not having got so good a
dinner as they expected), they poured out the most
horrible and unheard-of imprecations against the
then beautiful and fertile plain, and prophesied,
that in the first place the plantation would be
swallowed up by flames rising out of the earth, and
that afterwards the ambient air would cool to such
a degree that the neighbouring mountains would
for ever remain covered with snow and ice. The
former of these maledictions having already pro
duced such fatal effects, the lower Indians con
template in the increasing coolness of the volcano
the sinister presage of a perpetual winter. I have
thought proper to relate this vulgar tradition, be
cause it forms a striking feature in the picture of
the manners and prejudices of these remote coun
tries. It proves the active industry of a class of
men who too frequently abuse the credulity of the
people, and pretend to suspend by their influence
the immutable laws of Nature for the sake of found
ing their empire on the fear of physical evils.

EXTENT  POPULATION. 299
The extent of the intendancy of Valladolid is one-
fifth less than that of Ireland ; but its relative po
pulation is twice as large as that of Finland. In
this province there are 3 ciudades (Valladolid,
Tzintzontzan, and Pascuaro) ; 3 villas (Citaquaro,
Zamora, and Charo) ; 263 villages ; 205 parishes ;
and 326 farms. The imperfect enumeration of
1793 gave a total population of 289,314 souls, of
whom 40,399 were male Whites, and 39,081 fe
male Whites; 61,352 male Indians, and 58,016
female Indians; and 154 monks, 138 nuns, and
293 individuals of the secular clergy.
The Indians who inhabit the province of Valla
dolid form three races of different origin ; — the Ta-
rascs, celebrated in the sixteenth century for the
gentleness of their manners, for their industry in
the mechanical arts, and for the harmony of their
language, abounding in vowels ; the Otomites, a
tribe yet very far behind in civilization, who speak
a language full of nasal and guttural aspirations ;
and the Chichimecs, who, like the Tlascaltecs, the
Nahuatlacs, and the Aztecs, have preserved the
Mexican language. All the southern part of the in
tendancy of Valladolid is inhabited by Indians. In
the villages the only White figure to be met with is
the curh, and he also is frequently an Indian or Mu
latto. The benefices are so poor there, that the
bishop of Mechoacan has the greatest difficulty in
procuring ecclesiastics to settle in a country where
Spanish is scarcely ever spoken, and where, along
2 a 2

300 POPULATION  TOWNS.
the coast of the Great Ocean, the priests^ infected
by the contagious miasmata of malignant fevers, fre
quently die before the expiration of seven or eight
months. The population of the intendancy of Valladolid
decreased in the years of scarcity of 1786 and
1790; and it would have suffered still more, if the
respectable bishop of the diocese had not made
extraordinary sacrifices for the relief of the Indians.
He voluntarily lost in a few months the sum of
9,600/. sterling, by purchasing 50,000 bushels of
maize, which he sold at a reduced price, to keep
within bounds the sordid avarice of several rich pro
prietors, who, during that epoch of public cala
mities, endeavoured to take advantage of the mi
sery of the people.
The most remarkable places of the province of
Valladolid are the following :
Valladolid de Mechoacan, the capital
of the intendancy and seat of a bishop,
which enjoys a delicious climate. Its
elevation above the level of the sea is
6,396 feet; and yet at this moderate
height, and under the 19° 42' of lati
tude, snow has been seen to fall in the
streets of Valladolid. This sudden
change of atmosphere, caused, no doubt,
by a north wind, is much more remark
able than the snow which fell in the

TOWNS — POPULATION. 301
streets 'of. Mexico the night before the Population.
Jesuit fathers were carried off! The
new aqueduct by which the town receives
potable water, was constructed at the
expense of the last bishop, Fray Anto
nio de San Miguel, and cost him nearly
21,000/. sterling. 18,000
Pascuaro, on the banks of the pic
turesque lake of the same name, opposite
to the Indian village of Janicho, si
tuated at a distance of two or three
miles, on a charming little island in the
midst of the lake. Pascuaro con
tains the ashes of a very remarkable man,
whose memory, after a lapse of two
centuries and a half, is still venerated
by the Indians, — the famous Vasco de
Quiroga, first bishop of Mechoacan,
who died in 1556 at the village of Uru-
apa. This zealous prelate, whom the
natives still call their father (Tata
don Vasco), was more successful in his
endeavours to protect the unfortunate
inhabitants of Mexico than the virtuous
bishop of Chiapa, Bartholome* de las
Casas. Quiroga became in an especial
manner the benefactor of the Tarasc
Indians, whose industry he encouraged.
He prescribed one particular branch
of commerce to each Indian village.

302 TOWNS — POPULATION  MINES.
These useful institutions are in a great Population-
measure preserved to this day. The
height of Pascuaro is 7,2 1 7 feet. 6,000
Tzintzontzan, or Huitzitzilla, (the old
capital of the kingdom of Mechoacan,)
of which we have already spoken. 2,500
The intendancy of Valladolid contains the mines
of Zitaquaro, Angangueo, Tlapuxahua, the Real
del Oro, and Ynguaran.
Diputaciones de Mineria, or Districts.
33. Angangueo.
34. Inguaran.
35. Zitaquaro.
36. Tlalpujahua.
Reales, or places surrounded by Mines :
Angangueo ; El Oro ; Tlapaxahua ; San Au-
gustin de Ozumatlan ; Zitaquaro ; Istapa ; Los
Santos Reyes ; Santa Rito de Chirangangeo ; El
Zapote ; Chachiltepec ; Sanchiqueo ; La Joya ;
Paquaro ; Xerecuaro ; Curucupaseo ; Sinda ; In
guaran ; San Juan Guetamo ; Ario ; Santa Clara ;
Alvadeliste ; San Nicolas Apupato ; Rio del Oro ;
Axuchitlan ; Santa Maria del Carmen del Som
brero ; Favor ; Chichindaro.

303

CHAPTER XVII.
Summary recapitulation. — physical aspect — climate — ter
ritorial extent — population — agriculture — mines — ma
nufactures — commerce — revenue — military defence.
Summary recapitulation.
Having presented our readers with all the details
which appeared relevant to the purpose of this work,
we will now briefly recapitulate what has been said
concerning the present state of Mexico.
Physical aspect. — In the centre of the country
a long chain of mountains runs first from the
south-east to the north-west, and afterwards beyond
the parallel of 30° from south to north ; vast table
lands stretch out on the ridge of these mountains,
gradually declining towards the temperate zone ;
under the torrid zone their absolute height is from
7,550 to 7,870 feet. The ascent of the Cordil
leras is covered with thick forests, while the cen
tral table-land is almost always arid and destitute
of vegetation. The most elevated summits, many
of which rise beyond the limits of perpetual snow,
are crowned with oak and pine. In the equinoctial
region the different climates rise as it were by strata
one above another : between the 15° and 22° of

304 EXTENT — POPULATION  AGRICULTURE.
latitude, the mean temperature of the shore, which
is humid and unhealthy for individuals born in
cold countries, is from 77° to 80° Fahr. ; and that
of the central table-land, which is celebrated on
account of the great salubrity of the air, is from
60° to 62°. There is a want of rain in the in
terior, and the most populous part of the country
is destitute of navigable rivers.
Territorial extent. — One million sixty-two
thousand square miles, of which two thirds are
under the temperate zone ; the other third, lying
under the torrid zone, from the great elevation of
its table-lands, enjoys generally a temperature
similar to that which is experienced in spring in
Spain and the south of Italy.
Population. — Five millions eight hundred and
forty thousand inhabitants ; whereof two millions
and a half are copper-coloured Indians, one million
Mexican Spaniards, seventy thousand European
Spaniards ; scarcely any Negro slaves. The po
pulation is concentrated on the central table-land.
The clergy alone consists of fourteen thousand in
dividuals. The population of the capital 135,000
souls. Agriculture. — The banana, the manioc, maize,
cerealia, and potatoes, are the foundation of the
nutriment of the people. The cerealia cul-

AGRICULTURE— MINES. 305
tivated under the torrid zone, wherever the surface
rises from 3,900 to 4,300 feet of elevation, produce
twenty-four for one. The maguey (agave) may be
considered as the Indian vine. The cultivation of
sugar-cane has lately made a rapid progress ;
and Vera Cruz annually exports Mexican sugar to
the value of 282,000/. The finest cotton is pro
duced on the western coast. The cultivation
of cocoa and indigo is equally neglected. The
vanilla of the forests of Quilate produces annually
900 millares. Tobacco is carefully cultivated
in the districts of Orizaba and Cordova ; wax
abounds in Yucatan ; the cochineal harvest of
Oaxaca amounts to 880,000 lbs. per annum.
Horned cattle have greatly multiplied in the Pro
vincias internas and on the eastern coast between
Panuco and Huasacualco. The tithes of the
clergy, the value of which points out the increase
of territorial produce, have increased two-fifths
within the last ten years.
Mines. — Annual produce in gold, 4,289lbs.
troy ; in silver, l,439,8321bs. ; in all, to the value
of 5,000,000/. sterling, or nearly the half of the
precious metals annually extracted from the mines
of North and South America. The mint of Mexico
has furnished, from 1690 to 1803, more than
293,150,000/.; and from the discovery of New
Spain to the commencement of the nineteenth cen
tury, probably 878,800,000/., or nearly two fifths of
2 r

306 MINES.
the entire quantity of gold and silver which in that
interval of time has flowed from the New Continent
into the Old. Three districts of mines, Guanaxuato,
Zacatecas,and Catorce, which form a central group
between the 21° and 24° of latitude, yield nearly the
half of all the gold and silver extracted from the
mines of New Spain. The vein of Guanaxuato alone,
richer than the mineral depository of Potosi, fur
nishes at an average 286,000 lbs. troy of silver an
nually, or a sixth of all the silver which America
annually throws into circulation. The single mine
of Valenciana, in which the expense of working
exceeds 180,000/. per annum, has for the last
forty years never ceased to yield annually to the
proprietors a net profit of more than 120,000/.:
this profit has sometimes amounted to 240,000/. ;
and it amounted to 800,000/. in the space of a few
months for the family of Fagoaga at Sombrerete.
The produce of the mines of Mexico has tripled in
fifty-two years, and sextupled in a hundred years ;
and it will admit of greater increase as the country
shall become more populous and industry and in
formation be more diffused. The working of
the mines, far from being hostile to agriculture,
has favoured cultivation in the most uninhabited
regions. The wealth of the Mexican mines con
sists more in the abundance than in the intrinsic
riches of the silver minerals, which amount at
an average only to -0002 (or from 60 to 80 ounces
per ton). The quantity of minerals extracted

MANUFACTURES — COMMERCE — REVENUE. 307
by means of mercury is to that produced by smelting
in the proportion of 3§ to 1 . The process of amal
gamation used is long, and occasions a great waste
of mercury : the consumption for all New Spain
amounts to 1,540,000 lbs. per annum. It is to be
presumed that the Mexican Cordilleras will one
day supply the mercury, iron, copper, and lead,
necessary for internal consumption.
Manufactures. — Value of the annual produce
of manufacturing industry from 1,500,000/., to
1,700,000/. The manufacture of hides, cloth, and
calicoes, has been on the increase since the con
clusion of the last century.
Commerce. — Importation of foreign produce and
goods, 4,400,000/; exportation in agricultural pro
duce and manufactures of New Spain, 1,300,000/.
The mines produce in gold and silver 5,000,000/.,
of which about 1,750,000/. are exported on account
of the king : consequently if we deduct from the
remaining 3,250,000/., 3,034,000/. to pay the
excess of imports over the exports, we find the
specie of Mexico hardly increases 216,000/.
Revenue. — The gross amount of the revenue is
4,400,000/. ; whereof 1,192,000/. from the produce
of the gold and silver mines, 816,000/. from the
tobacco farm, 650,000/. from the alcavalas,
2 R 2

308 MILITARY DEFENCE.
282,000/. from the Indian capitation tax, and
173,000/. from the duty on pulque or fermented
juice of the agave.
Military defence. — It consumes the fourth of
the total revenue. The Mexican army is 30,000
strong, whereof scarcely a third are regular troops,
and more than two thirds militia. The petty war
fare continually carried on with the wandering In
dians in the provincias internas, and the main
tenance of the presidios or military posts, require a
very considerable expense. The state of the
eastern coast and the configuration of the surface
of the country facilitate its defence against any in
vasion attempted by a maritime power.

309

ADDENDA.

Since my return to Europe I have received the
following particulars, which carry on our in
formation on the subjects in question to the
year 1806.
The road from Vera Cruz to Xalapa, and from
thence to Perote, begun in the month of February
1803, has been continued with great activity.
It was executed in 1806, between las Vigas
ind la Rinconada, for a length of 79,228 varas, or
198,601 feet. As the work was executed by a
great number of condemned criminals, an hospital
was established at la Rinconada, capable of receiving
1700 patients. The arches of the bridge of the
Rio de la Antigua, begun near the Ventilla, were
destroyed by the extraordinrry swell which took
place in 1806. The Consulado of Vera Cruz im
mediately constructed new pillars, more solid than
the former and closer to each other. The beautiful
giratory light-house (fanal de la Vera Cruz), of
which I have spoken, was completed in the month
of May 1804. It will require nearly 650/. annually
keep it up.
Notwithstanding the rise in the price of iron, the
working of the mines has been continued with the
same activity as before the commencement of the

310 ADDENDA.
last war. There has been coined at the mint of
Mexico in gold and silver ;
In 1804,— 5,201,687/.; in 1805,-5,885,942/. ;
in 1806,-5,359,471/.
Of the 5,20 1,687/. coined in 1804; 5,094,483/.,
or l,696,4041bs. troy were silver, and 107,187/. or
2,2351bs. troy were gold.
The coinage of the year 1805 has even exceeded
that of 1796. The extraordinary increase of the
public revenue since the commencement of the
eighteenth century, as well as the augmentation
of tithes of which we have already spoken, proves
the progress of population, great commercial
activity, and the increase of national wealth.

THE END.

Printed by Richard Taylor,
Shoo-Lane, Loudon.

0344