SINALOA. 97 



The State of Sonora possesses on the Colorado river the little port of Lerclo, 

 situated near a cluster of low islands where the Cocopa Indians gather the uniola 

 jmlmeri, an alimentary cereal till recently unknown to botanists. Mucli farther 

 south lies the seaport of Guaymas, so named from an extinct Indian tribe, 

 which was a member of the Pima family. The harbour of Guaymas is one of the 

 best in Mexico, and in a better-peopled and more flourishing district it could 

 not fail to acquire considerable economic importance. But the whole of the 

 seaboard is an arid waste ; not a tree is to be seen, not a drop of water 

 wells up for miles around the port, which is encircled like a flooded crater by bare 

 rocks. The very shrubs growing in the town are rooted in soil brought from 

 the United States, and are irrigated by a brackish water drawn from deep wells. 

 Nevertheless its excellent anchorage attracts to Guaymas an increasing number 

 of vessels, and the place has been recently brought into railway communication 

 with the mining and agricultural district of Hermosillo, as well as through Arizona 

 with the network of United States lines. The Guaymas traders export marine 

 salt and a little guano collected on Patos, or " Duck " Island, an arid rock lying 

 north of the large island of Tihuron, or the ''Shark." To these products may some 

 day be added an anthracite coal of excellent quality, large deposits of which are 

 found in the valley of the upper Mayo river. 



Towards the southern extremity of Sonora lies the mining town of Alamos, or 

 the " Poplars," which, like Hermosillo, has its own mint, where are annually issued 

 from £350,000 to £400,000 worth of coins. Alamos lies just within the basin of 

 the Fuerte river, so named from the old Sinaloan fort of El Fuerte or Montes 

 Claras, which guarded the seaboard from the ]\Iayo and Yaqui Indians, and which 

 has now become a flourishing little town. 



The natural port both of Alamos and El Fuerte is Agiahampo, where are shipped 

 dyewoods and silver ingots and ores, but only by small craft, there being only ten 

 or twelve feet of water on the bar at ebb tide. The old Indian town of Sinaloa, 

 which has given its name to the State of Sinaloa, has for its outport the deep and 

 perfectly-sheltered haven of San Carlos, which communicates with the sea through 

 the strait of Topolobampo, which is accessible to vessels drawing sixteen or 

 eighteen feet. 



Culiacan, present capital of the State of Sinaloa, is one of the old cities of 

 Mexico, In 1531, ten years after the conquest, it had already been founded near 

 Hue-Colhuacan, that is, " Snake Town," one of the stations on the line of the Nahua 

 migrations. At this place the Spaniards organised all their expeditions of disco- 

 very and conquest made in the direction of the north. Culiacan, which lies on the 

 river of like name in a fertile district encircled by hills, is connected by a railway 

 nearly 40 miles long with its port of Altata, on a deep lagoon which is sheltered 

 from the surf by a long strip of sand. All the gold and silver ores of Sinaloa are 

 forwarded through this place, and between 1846 and 1888, the Culiacan mint 

 issued gold and silver specie to the value of £8,200,000. 



In South Sinaloa lies the important city of Mazatlan, the mo. t active seaport 

 on the west coast of Mexico. Its Indian name means " Deer-land," and one of 

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