DISCOVERY OF A LARGE METEORITE IN MEXICO. 421 



and the reverential awe having subsided, and Alverado, like many of his 

 peculiar race, feeling the stern hand of poverty pressing heavily upon 

 him, has expressed a willingness to sell it for a reasonable price. Mr. 

 Ernest Angerstein, a wealthy merchant of this city, has an agent 

 (Mr. Leroy) living at the said modern Casas Grandes for the purpose of 

 purchasing grain, and who has resided there for many years past, from 

 whom I have gathered much information herein stated, although the 

 main facts are widely known throughout the country ; yet, Mr. Leroy 

 having been an eye-witness, has furnished me several items in the 

 minutia. 



" The aforenamed Angerstein, Leroy, and myself have made up the 

 necessary funds to purchase this rare and novel specimen, making it a 

 mutual adventure, and have started a large mercantile wagon capable 

 of carrying 10,000 pounds to transport it to this city. Our intention is 

 to secure it for the admiration of the curious and the lovers of science. 

 We shall have it safely lodged in the consulate within fifteen days from 

 this date. 



"The Apaches are now at war with the Mexican government, but some 

 six years prior to this date they were at peace. This particular locality 

 of the Oasas Grandes, or, I should say, the Sierra Madre, is one of the 

 Apache strongholds, and during the aforenamed period of i^eace the 

 Apaches used to come down out of the mountains every Saturday to the 

 modern Casas Grandes to trade with the Mexicans. They brought nug- 

 gets of gold from the size of a pea to a walnut, and exchanged them for 

 powder, lead, and blankets. They must have known of gold-fields in the 

 mountains similar to those of Antelope Hills herein referred to, and the 

 ancient gold-fields known to the Montezumas. 



" The Sierra Madre herein referred to are with one accord conceded to 

 be by the best informed Mexicans the richest in gold and siver mines of 

 all the mountains in the State of Chihuahua. The natural inquiry will 

 be, Why, then, do not the Mexicans work these mines ? The true reason 

 and answer is, the peculiar form of the mountains, connected with the 

 bravery of the warlike Apache, has heretofore been a complete bar, 

 and prevented the most determined Mexicans from locating and work- 

 ing these mines. Then, again, the Mexicans are a weak and primitive 

 people; for instance, their cart-wheels are cumbersome trucks of wood; 

 the yoke for their oxen is a straight pole, placed across the forehead 

 and lashed to the horns with strips of rawhide ; their plow for tilling the 

 soil is nothing more than a crooked stick of wood. 1 assert it without 

 fear of contradiction, that in all of this Eio Grande Valley in my con- 

 sulate, which is so famous for farming, there are not three iron or steel 

 mold-board plows in use, nor any kind of a plow, except the crooked 

 wooden stick. 



" The Mexicans at the modern Casas Grandes are the bravest of their 

 race, and they have all they can do to maintain themselves in the plain 

 at the foot of the mountains ; they have never been able to maintain 

 themselves up in the mountains for any permanent purpose." 



