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CITY OF DURANGO TOWNS MINES. 



Ciudad de Victoria, or, Guadiana. It lies under 24° 25' north lati- 

 tude and 105° 55' West longitude, at an elevation of 6,847 feet 

 above the level of the sea, and sixty-five leagues northwestwardly 

 from Zacatecas. It is in the southern section of the State, and was 

 originally founded, in 1559, by the Viceroy Velasco, as a military 

 post designed for the control of the Chichimecas. Its population 

 at present may be estimated at between thirty and forty thousand. 



This capital, and most of the other noted towns in Durango, owe 

 their existence to the mineral wealth of the neighborhood. Before 

 the mines of Guarisamey were discovered the city of Durango was 

 a mere village, or pueblo ranchero, containing, as late as 1783, no 

 more than eight thousand inhabitants. But the exploration of the 

 mines infused life, activity, and wealth into the population, and the 

 State progressed rapidly as its resources were developed. The fine 

 streets of the capital, its great plaza or square, its theatre, and all 

 its public edifices were erected by Zambrano, who is said to have 

 extracted upwards of thirty millions of dollars from his mines at Gua- 

 risamey and San Dimas. A mint has been established in the city, 

 and, besides this, it possesses factories of cotton, glass and tobacco. 



The towns of Villa del Nombre de Dios, with 7,000 inhabi- 

 tants, San Juan del Rio with 12,000 and Cinco Senores de 

 Nasas, are almost the only ones in the State unconnected with 

 mines. The two first are supported chiefly by the sale of Mescal 

 distilled from the maguey or aloe ; and the last, by the extensive 

 cotton plantations which have been already mentioned. 



Besides these towns there are the Villa Feliz de Tamasula, 

 north-west of Durango on the boundary of Sinaloa ; Pa.pasquiaro 

 with 6,000 inhabitants ; Guarisamey, a mining town, in a deep and 

 warm valley, surrounded with steep mountains near 9,000 feet high, 

 and containing about 4,000 people ; La Villa de Mapimi, north of 

 the Rio Nasas, on the borders of the Bolson de Mapimi, and east 

 of the Cerro de la Cadena, with about 3,000 inhabitants ; Cuen- 

 came ; El Oro ; and many other villages and towns, too numerous 

 and too unimportant for separate notice, but which deserve recol- 

 lection as indicating the tendency of this region to aggregate popu- 

 lation. The State contained in 1833, 250,000 inhabitants, accord- 

 ing to good authority, and it is probable that at present it does not 

 number less than 300,000. 



Durango is rich in mineral deposits. Iron abounds within a 

 quarter of a league of the gates of the capital. The Cerro del Mer- 

 cado is entirely composed of iron ores of two distinct qualities, — 

 crystallized and magnetic, — but almost equally rich, as they contain 



