METALS OP THE ANCIENT MEXICANS. 333 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



Mines of New Spain. 



Mining Districts — Metalliferous Veins and Beds — Geological Re- 

 lations of the Ores — Produce of the Mines — Recapitulation. 



The mines of Mexico have of late years engaged the chap.xxvi 

 attention and excited the enterprise of the English in a Mines o7 

 more than ordinary degree. The subject is therefore Mexico. 

 one of mucli interest ; but as later information may be 

 obtained in several works, and esjiecially in Ward's 

 " Mexico in 1827," it is unnecessary to follow our 

 author in all his details. 



Long before the voyage of Columbus, the natives of Native 

 Mexico were acquainted with the uses of several metals, the'meta^I" 

 and had made considerable proficiency in the various 

 operations necessary for obtaining them in a pure state. 

 Cortes, in the historical account of his expedition, states 

 that gold, silver, copper, lead, and tin, were publicly 

 sold in the great market of Tenochtitlan. In all the 

 large towns of Anahuac gold and silver vessels were 

 manufactured, and the foreigners, on their first advance 

 to Tenochtitlan, could not refrain from admiring the 

 ingenuity of the Mexican goldsmiths. The Aztec tribes Le^itJ and 

 extracted lead and tin from the veins of Tlachco, and 

 obtained cinnabar from the mines of Chilapan. From 

 copper, found in the mountains of Zacutollan and Co- 

 huixco, they manufactured their arms, axes, chisels, and 

 other imjjlements. With the use of iron they seem to 

 have been unacquainted ; but they contrived to give 



