Jan. 24, l859.] SEVIN'S JOURNEY IN MEXICO. lOS^ 



road of the two, and tlie country it passes througli is by no means 

 unhealthy, notwithstanding the apparent insalubrity of its situation, 

 but at the time Mr. Sevin was leaving Mazatlan, the usual summer 

 rains had swollen the rivers and it was impassable. He passed 

 through Culiacan, a town of 7500 inhabitants, and the seat of a 

 bishop. It contains many private houses that were beautifully 

 furnished, and belonged to individuals who had enriched them- 

 selves by means of some one or other of the numberless silver- 

 mines of the adjoining Sierra. There are large silver amalgamation 

 works in the place, and a Government mint, whose lessee gave Mr. 

 Sevin a good deal of information. A considerable trade is carried 

 on in the so-called Brazil or Nicaragua wood, which grows abund- 

 antly in the neighbouring Sierra, whence it finds its way to the 

 little harbour of Altata. The inhabitants of Culiacan are of a less 

 mixed race than those of Mazatlan, and the Indians of the sur- 

 rounding country are described as good labourers, whether in the 

 field or in mines. They are of numerous tribes, who all obey one 

 single chief; they go almost naked, and carry bows and aiTows. 

 Mr. Sevin states, that in the mountain-ridges from Mazatlan to 

 the boundaries of .Chihuahua and Sonora, there are numberless 

 works for silver amalgamation. By inquiry at every village he 

 passed through, he invariably heard of some mining operations in 

 the immediate neighbourhood, but all these undertakings are con- 

 ducted on a small scale and in a very desultory manner. The miners 

 can apply but very limited means towards their undertakings, and 

 as soon as a bonanza, or piece of good luck, arrives, they cease to 

 labour and begin gambling. Hence the want of wealth of the 

 inhabitants is no proof of the want of wealth of the country. El 

 Fuerte was more backward than Culiacan ; it was for a while the 

 seat of a provincial Government, but since then has fallen into 

 decay. Extensive fields of maize and sugar-cane in its neighbour- 

 hood attest the natural fertility of the country, and produce large 

 returns to those Mexicans who take the trouble to redeem these 

 lands from their natural state of wildness. 



From El Fuerte Mr. Sevin travelled through Chois to the old 

 mining town of Urique. On his way he ascended the Sierra, and 

 speaks in great admiration of the prospect from its flanks at an 

 elevation of 8000 or 9000 feet. The varied tints of vegetation were 

 peculiarly beautiful ; the flanks of the mountains were embellished 

 with numerous cultivated vallej^s, dotted over with ranchos, and 

 the main chain of the Sierra Madre rose in abrupt cliffs above 

 them. 



A great number of silver-mines have been worked near Urique, 



