36 MEXICAN RESOURCES. 



Setentrian, 1S29; Batougachic, 1S39; Santo Domingo, 1S67 ; Guadaloupe, 1S69; 

 Zapuri, 1S73. 



There were, by the calculation of Humboldt, at the opening of this century, five 

 hundred places [reales, or realitos), celebrated for their mines, comprehending 

 nearly five thousand mines {mhias), or separate excavations. The principal reales 

 were: — Guanaxuato, in the Intendency of the same name; Catorce, San Luis 

 Potosi ; Zacatecas, Zacatecas ; Real del Monte, Mexico ; Bolanos, Guadalaxara ; 

 Guarisamey, Durango ; Sombrerete, Zacatecas ; Tasco, Mexico ; Batopilas, Chi- 

 huahua ; Zimiapan, Mexico; Fresnillo, Zacatecas; Jlamos, San Luis Potos] ; 

 Parral, Chihuahua. 



With the increasing prosperity of the mines the reales were converted into 

 pueblos or villages, giving an impulse to agriculture in the surrounding country, 

 and to commerce, many of them finally becoming prosperous cities, which either 

 drove away the Indians, or reduced them to submission and to a civilized life. 

 Such is the history of the foundation of Guanajuato, whose real was established 

 in 1554, obtained the title of town in 1619, and of city the eighth of September, 1741. 



The natural mineral wealth of Guanajuato attracted attention from the very 

 first. The first worked silver vein was that of San Bernabe, which afterwards 

 belonged to the famous mine of La Luz. This vein, we are assured, was discovered 

 by an arriero (muleteer), who travelled between Zacatecas and Mexico. Later, 

 they worked Mellado and Rayas, and in sinking shafts in 1558, discovered the 

 famous Veta Madre, — or Mother Vein, — which, since that epoch, has been at- 

 tacked'at various points, calling into existence the numerous mines of Valenciana, 

 Tepevac, Cata, Santa Anna, Fraustos, Santa Anita, and others, whose riches have 

 attracted the attention of the old continent, even by the vast amount of its argenti- 

 ferous products. Tlie mines have suffered various vicissitudes ; they have fallen 

 away in production since the time when Humboldt published a statement of their 

 almost fabulous yield. Tlie mine of Guadalupe, known as the Cata, has been one 

 of the richest and most famous of those in the district of Guanajuato. At the end 

 of the eighteenth century it belonged tc the heirs of the Marquis of San Clemente. 

 Since the year 1758, it has- been filled with water to such an extent that it could 

 not be worked. If the mine could be effectually drained, it would also be possible 

 to work the mine of San Lorenzo, an old and very rich one; and it is the gen- 

 eral belief that when the tiro principal, — great main shaft, — shall be coriipleted 

 and these mines thoroughly drained, there will soon result such a bonanza as will 

 revive the 'ancient splendors of Guanajuato. 



" We may make," says a competent authority, " three periods in the history 

 of Mexican silver mining : the Aztec period, which terminated at the arrival of the 

 Spaniards, who inaugurated the second, which extended until Mexican independ- 

 ence, with continually increasing products. The Spaniards invented amalgamation 

 by the patio process. Then came above twenty years of confusion, when little was 

 done; but when the Republic had fairly got under way, and the country was, in 

 some measure, open to foreigners, Europe, especially England, in hot haste to take 

 advantage of the opportunity, sent tfver engineers and machinery and great sums 

 of money, much of which was quite wasted, to the hopeless ruin of a great part 

 of the adventurers. The improvements and machinery remained, however, but 

 the mines passed into other hands. Of late years the companies have been doing 

 well, and now export nearly as much silver as during the latter years of the 

 Spanish Government." 



