176 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



and native fruit, vegetables, and garden truck, which they take to 

 the town of San Luis and the mines to sell, [so that for some, it is 

 an agreeable outing and source of supply, and for others a means 

 of enrichment.] 



497. Around the town of San Luis de Potosi, occupied in the 

 operations of the mines, on the cattle ranches, in the charcoal kilns, 

 the bakeries, etc., there are over 1,500 Spaniards, and many Indian 

 villages, all thickly settled because of the good climate and the health- 

 fulness of the region. The district of this town [of San Luis] marks 

 the bound of the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court of Mexico, and 

 the commencement of that of Guadalajara, in New Galicia. 



Chapter XXXII 



Continuing the Description 6i the District of the Diocese of 

 Michoacan. 



498. In the district of this diocese there are large provinces and 

 Indian settlements, and among them many cities and towns inhabited 

 by Spaniards, the majority of which are silver-mining towns. In the 

 N. are those of Guanajuato, 28 leagues from Valladolid, which have 

 yielded great wealth of silver, and still do at present ; the town itself 

 will contain over [500] 300 Spanish residents, with a parish church, 

 Franciscan and Augustinian convents, a [very good] hospital, and 

 other churches and shrines ; the Viceroy appoints an Alcalde Mayor 

 for it. The mines of Tlalpujahua are 15 leagues off: [they have 

 extracted a large amount of silver from them] ; there are many other 

 mines in the district, which I cannot enumerate. 



499. The town of La Concepcion de Celaya was founded by the 

 Viceroy Don Martin Enriquez in the year 1570 on the Zacatecas 

 King's Highway to New Galicia and New Vizcaya, as a frontier 

 post against the Chichimeca Indians. It has a springlike climate and 

 fertile fields with wealth of pastureland, for which reason there are 

 large cattle, sheep, and hog ranches, with good mules and horses ; 

 they harvest abundance of corn, wheat, and other cereals, (Marg. : 

 for which there are large irrigation ditches) ; they raise many kinds 

 of native fruit and all the Spanish ones. The town will contain 400 

 Spanish residents, with a parish church, Franciscan, Augustinian, and 

 Barefoot Carmelite convents, with other hospitals, churches, and 

 shrines ; there are many Indian villages in the district. In this region 

 there are other Spanish settlements with many farms full of cattle, 

 [which I do not enumerate because it would be almost impossible]. 

 Celaya belongs to the Marques de Villamayor, 



