EFFECT OF MINING ON AGRICULTURE. 



85 



Quebradilla, and San Acasio at Zacatecas, and from the Canada 

 which bore his name at Tlalpujahua. The beautiful estates of the 

 Obregones, near Leon, were purchased with the revenues of the 

 mines of La Purisima and Concepcion, at Catorce ; as was also the 

 estate of Malpasso acquired by the Gordoas from the products of 

 of La Luz. The Zambranos, — discoverers of Guarisamey, — 

 owned many of the finest properties in Durango ; while Batopillas 

 gave the Bustamantes the opportunity to purchase a title and to 

 enjoy an immense unencumbered income. 1 



Nevertheless, some of the large fortunes of Mexico were made 

 either by trade or the possession of vast agricultural and cattle es- 

 tates in sections of the country where there were either no mines, 

 or where mining was unprofitable. The Agredas were enriched 

 by commerce, while the descendants of Cortez who received a 

 royal grant of the valley of Oajaca, together with some Spanish 

 merchants in Jalapa and Vera Cruz, derived the chief part of their 

 fortunes from landed estates, cultivated carefully during the period 

 when the Indians were under better agricultural subjection than at 

 present. 



Thus the mines, and the mining districts, by aggregating a large 

 laboring population, in a country in which there were, until re- 

 cently, but few manufactures, and in which the main body of the 

 people engaged either in trades or in tending cattle, became the 

 centre of some of the most active agricultural districts. " The 

 most fertile portions of the table land are the Baxio, which is im- 

 mediately contiguous to Guanajuato, and comprises a portion of 

 Valladolid, Guadalajara, Queretaro, and Guanajuato. The valley 

 of Toluca, and the southern part of the state of Valladolid, both 

 supply the capital and the mining districts of Tlalpujahua, El 

 Oro, Temascaltepec and Angangeo ; — the plains of Pachuca and 

 Appam, which extend on either side to the foot of the mountains 

 upon which the mines of Real del Monte Chico are situated ; — 

 Itzmiquilpan, which owes its existence to Zimapan ; — Aguas 

 Calientes, by which the great mining town of Zacatecas is sup- 

 plied ; — a considerable circle in the vicinity of Sombrerete and 

 Fresnillo ; — the valley of Jarral and the plains about San Luis 

 Potosi, which town again derives its name from the mines of the 

 Cerro de San Pedro, about four leagues from the gates, the sup- 

 posed superiority of which to the celebrated mines of Potosi in 

 Peru gave rise to the appellation of Potosi. A little farther north 

 we find the district of Matehuala, now a thriving town with more 



1 Ward's Mexico in 1827, vol. ii, p. 151. 



