/IDfnfng, 17 



A 54-inch engine was erected, and with it they sank to 720 feet 

 "below the Moran adit. At this point water overpowered them. This 

 was in 1838, and Captain John Rule, who had succeeded Captain Tin- 

 dall, put in a 75-inch engine at Dolores, and removed the 54-inch one 

 to Acosta. Captain Rule enjoyed a salary of ^"10,000 per year, and 

 all other payments were in proportion. He struck two bunches of 

 rich ore, one on the Santa Brigida, near Acosta, and the other on La 

 Biscains, near Dolores. From these two and one at Torreros they 

 had produced $10,481,475 at a cost of $15,381,633 or nearly $5,000,000 

 loss in twenty-three years. By 1846 the stock had fallen to $12.50 

 from $8000 a share. 



In 1848, Mr. J. H. Buchan arrived, representing the English stock- 

 holders. He found water in the mines and increasing ; a heavy debt 

 of $5,000,000, bearing a tremendous interest ; no money on hand and 

 no ore. So in October, 1848, by order of the bondholders he turned 

 over the business to a Mexican company the present one composed 

 of Manuel Escandon, Antonio and Nicanor Beistegui, Mr. Mackintosh, 

 and others for the paltry sum of $130,000. The haciendas, stock, and 

 ores on hand were worth millions, but the English company could not 

 dispose of them. 



This was the end of the famous English Real del Monte Company. 

 Their Mexican successors reduced expenses, completed the adit from 

 Omotitlan commenced by the first Conde, which, running 13,500 feet, 

 cut the mines mo deeper and struck immediately the bonanza in the 

 Rosario, which tradition says had previously been discovered and 

 covered up by Captain Rule. 



New Mines, Topia. We have now a great many districts that were 

 not known by the Spaniards and have recently been discovered. No- 

 table among them is the Sierra Mojada district in the State of Coahuila. 

 The State of Durango has, on the west slope of the Sierra Madre 

 mountains, the mining camps of Topia, Sianori, Birimoa, Gusanillas, 

 Canelas, Ventanos, El Pando, Rodeo, and San Fernando ; and with 

 the exception of San Fernando they are close together, a square, one of 

 whose sides is forty miles, would almost cover them all. This section 

 has all the elements to form the basis of a great mining and smelting 

 centre, as is evident by the great deposits of galena in the Topia dis- 

 trict ; in fact, this is the only place on the coast where lead ore is 

 found in abundance ; and smelting, if done at all, must rely on Topia 

 for its supply of lead ores. In no other part of Mexico are lead ores 

 so cheap, because of the fact that to realize on them at all they must 

 be transported on mule-back to Culiacan in the State of Sinaloa, a dis- 

 tance of 106 miles, at a rate of $26.40 silver per ton, and from there 

 by rail to Altata, a distance of thirty-nine miles ; and from Altata by 

 steamer to San Francisco, or to Guaymas, and thence by rail to the 



