LETTER FROM NEW MEXICO. 155 
CORRESPONDENCE, 
1.ETTER FROM CHIHUAHUA.— Continued. 
Pueblo, Colorado, May 21, 1883. 
Editor Kansas City Review of Science- and Industry : 
After a very interesting and pleasant visit of thirty-six hours, at Chihuahua, 
we commenced the return trip. Our first halt was made at Albuquerque, New 
Mexico, where we found many old friends from Kansas and Missouri awaiting 
our arrival. Omitting all notice of the warm welcome and hospitable attentions 
received from all sides, we will devote a few lines to mining and industrial matters 
in Bernalillo County, of which Albuquerque is now the- county-seat. Availing 
ourself, as before, of material furnished ready to hand, we extract from the Report 
of Commissioner Chas. S. Howe to the Board of Immigration. 
" History informs us that soon after the conquest of Old Mexico, the Span- 
iards pushed up into this region, conquered it and worked on an extensive scale 
its mines and placers. Ruins of old cities and towns, with their churches, tur- 
reted and loop-holed for defense, are scattered all over the country. Many of 
them are in mountainous regions where the only industry possible was mining. 
They could not have been built for defense, because the cities are large and some 
of them must have contained thousands of people. Numerous ruins of smelters 
are also found, giving indisputable evidence that mines were once worked on a 
large scale. Two hundred years ago the Indians, who had been enslaved and 
forced to work these mines, broke out in rebellion and drove the Spaniards from 
the country. So intense was their hatred toward those places in which they had 
been forced to labor, that they filled up every old mine so that no traces could be 
found of them. A number of years after the Spaniards were allowed to return 
to the country, but only on condition that the mines should never be opened or 
worked. This condition seems to have been faithfully kept, and for many years 
mining was wholly abandoned in the Territory. During the early part of this 
century we hear of some of these old mines being opened and new ones being 
discovered, but they were never worked to any great extent. The Indians were 
hostile, transportation was expensive, and the methods of working ore very 
crude. It is only within a short period that the mines of New Mexico have 
begun to attract attention. 
Bernalillo County contains some of the most valuable of these old Spanish 
mines. Several districts have already been opened and work enough done to 
prove their richness. The greatest variety of minerals abound within the limits 
of the county. Gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, coal, and lime are found in large 
