242 
TOWNS, PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY, ETC. 
acres, over which the houses are scattered without reference to 
order or regularity ; and the streets are narrow, tortuous, and 
contracted. The inhabitants, who constitute the remnant of the 
old Mije tribe, are generally an idle, worthless set, half civilized, 
and poor amid abundant sources of wealth. Their number is 
about 5200, who cultivate the rich valley and bottom-lands to 
some extent, raising maize, sugar-cane, ixtle, rice, frijoles, and 
plantains. The number of cattle is comparatively small, but 
the inhabitants pride themselves on the possession of their mules, 
which are said to amount to several thousand. The chief object 
of interest at San Juan Guichicovi is its venerable church, which 
is an unfinished stone structure, oblong, with broken arches, 
roofless, and in ruins. Of the date of its foundation nothing is 
now known. On one of the old bells, supported by scaffolding, 
and bearing the insignia of the Order of Santiago, is the follow 
ing inscription : 
PIE PATER DOMINICE ORA PRO NOBIS. 
ROQVE GALLARDO — GOVERN ADOR. 
A 
1767. 
Fray JOSE MARIANO PALANO. 
CURA Y PRESIDENTE. 
Sancte Joannes Baptista ora pro nobis. 
A vulgar tradition exists among the natives of Guichic , v 
with regard to the building of this church, which is said to h 
been erected by Cortes in a single night — who quarried 
stone, and mixed the mortar with the white of eggs. But, as 
the time for its completion was limited to the crow of the co ,k, 
the great conqueror broke his contract, and no hand fcas sir ce 
been raised to undertake what so valiant a man failed to accom- 
plish. 
The veins of iron ore in the immediate vicinity of this place 
are the richest and most extensive known to exist on the Isth- 
mus. Tin is also found some distance beyond, in the Cerro de 
los Mijes. 
The road south from San Juan Guichicovi to the interior 
towns lies through the Hacienda of Santissima, across the Mala- 
tengo and Citune rivers, sometimes passing along precipices of 
