Doc. No. 75. 213 



^"he Spaniards; still, their produce is considerable, but it is impossible to 

 obtain any satisfactory statistics concerning it. A portion of the gold and 

 silver finds its way through Isabel to the Belize; other portions pass out 

 through the ports of Truxillo and Otnoa, in Honduras; and another but 

 smaller part leaches the ports of Nicaragua. 



There is now no mint in Central America, excepting a small one in 

 Costa Rica., which co-ins from $50,000 to $100,000 annually, principally 

 in dollar pieces of gold. These are short of weight, and are not generally 

 current. Their true value is ninety- three cents. Humboldt, in his state- 

 ment of the produce of the respective mining districts of America, has put 

 against that of Guatemala ^' nothing;" but it is certain, from the accounts 

 of Gage and others, as also of the bucaneers, who made a number of profit- 

 able expeditions to the mining districts, that the precious metals were early, 

 produced in considerable abundance. From a report by the master of the 

 old mint, made in 18'25., it appears that, for the fifteen years anterior to 

 1810, gold and silver had been coined to the amount of j|2,193,832, and 

 for the fifteen years posterior to that date to the amount of $3,810,382. 

 This officer remarks that it must not be deduced from hence that this is 

 all our mines have produced in this period, as great quantities of the metal 

 have been manufactured and exported in their native state." He estimates' 

 the actual products of the mines at ten times the amount coined ; which 

 would give upwards of $30,000,000 for the thirty years preceding 1825, 

 This estimate will probahiy bear some deduction. 



Other minerals are abundant. Sulphur may be obtained in great quan- 

 tities^ crude and nearly pure, from the volcanoes ; and nitre is easily pro- 

 cured, as also sulphate of iron. 



Coal; as elsewhere stated, is said to occur, in large beds and of good 

 quality, in the State of San Salvador, near the boundaries of Honduras, 

 and only twenty miles back from the coast of the gulf of Fonseca. {See 

 Appendix.) 



POPULATION OF NICARAGUA^ 



The population of Nicaragua may be estimated at 250,000- The 

 civilized Indians^ and those of Spanish and negro stocks crossed with 

 fthem, constituf^e the mass of the population. The pure individuals of 

 |)ure European stock constitute but a small part of the whole, and are 

 more than equalled in number by those of pure negro blood. The entire 

 population may be divided as follows : 



Whites - 10,000 



Negroes - - - - - 15,000 



Indians - . . . . . 50,000 



Mixed - - - - - - 175,000 



Total - - - - - 250,000 



Most of these live in towns, maey of them going two, four, and six 

 aniles daily to labor in the fields, starting before day and returning at 

 night. The plantations, haciendas," hattos," ^^ ranchos," and 



chacras,," are scattered pretty equally over the country, and are reached 

 iby paths so obscure, as almost Avholly to escape the notice of travellers 

 who^ passing through what appears to be a continual forest fi:om one .town 



